History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 19

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell
Number of Pages: 604

USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 19

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Houses of entertainment, or taverns, were kept along

ANCIENT TAVERNS AND STAGES-THE RAILROAD SYSTEM.

this road. One of these was at the top of Broad moun- A portion of the road in this county is still kept up as tain and another near the top of Mine hill. These were a turnpike. stopping places for teams as they came along from Sun- As stated elsewhere, a stage ran between Philadelphia and Sunbury, passing through this county, as early as ISIT or 1812. It does not appear that travel by this method increased rapidly, for in 1826 only weekly trips were made by a stage which carried the mail. As travel bury, and it was often true that lines of these wagons two or three miles in length would in the early part of the day be seen moving toward Philadelphia over this road. These wagons were mostly heavy vehicles, covered with canvas and drawn by four, five or six horses. From increased after that time tri-weekly trips came to two to two and a-half tons was an ordinary load for a be made, and at length the experiment of a daily stage team of this kind. The wagoners or teamsters carried was tried but was soon abandoned. It was promptly resumed, however, and so rapidly did travel increase that in 1829 three daily lines ran through the county. the grain for their horses, which were fed in feed boxes or troughs carried for the purpose. They also carried their own provisions, mattresses or beds on which to sleep, sometimes under the covers of their wagons while their teams rested and refreshed themselves at their feed-boxes, which were fastened on the tongues of their wagons. In that way they made the trip with their loads of produce, and returned loaded with merchandise.

The main business of the taverns along this turnpike was the sale of whiskey and the entertainment of those who traveled on horseback. Many of these carried their own provisions and grain for their horses in their capacious saddlebags. On the floors of the bar-rooms in these primitive hotels many teamsters would spread their mattresses and sleep, after having cared for their teams and spent a jolly evening. Sometimes the beds of these lodgers were spread so thickly that standing room could not be found among them.

The first tavern of this kind on the top of Broad mountain was kept by Nicho Allen. He came here from Lake Champlain to work as a lumberman, and built his shanty at this point. When the turnpike was commenced he built a log house and boarded the hands that worked on it, and afrerward, when travel began on the road, he kept such a hotel as the customs of the people required. He and his wife were almost invariably known as Uncle and Aunt. He used to relate that the only time he ever fired a gun Aunt almost compelled him to do so at a flock of wild turkeys that were scratching for what the team- sters' horses had left. The recoil of the gun and his fright sent him sprawling on the floor, while the turkeys cried Quit ! Quit ! and took flight. After a time he was succeeded in the tavern by Mr. Eckbrod and he by a Mr. Lumison.

The tavern near the top of Mine hill was built by John Boyer and first kept by his son-in-law, William Yoe. After his death it was kept by John Fetterman, and afterward by Mr. Bachman, George Kauffman, Colonel Shoemaker and others.

After the completion of the canal and slackwater navi- gation along the Schuylkill river this road below the head of that navigation was but little used for freight- ing, but between that point and the Susquehanna an active and increasing business was carried on till rail- road communication was established.

During the years 1828, 1829 and 1830 the road paid off a debt of about $15,000 and declared dividends equal to nine per cent. on its stock ;- a degree of pros- perity not then surpassed by any turnpike in the State.

Within two years from that time several new lines were established between this county and other points, and facilities for travel by stage were increased over the old routes. This continued till the introduction of pas- senger cars on railroads and the rapid multiplication of these roads. The old stage coach, the arrival of which with its mail and eight or ten passengers was once watched with so much interest, is no longer seen, and is only remembered by a few who are rapidly passing away.

CHAPTER XI.

THE RAILROAD SYSTEM OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.

HE railroad system of Schuylkill county em- braces a network of roads more extensive and intricate than that of any other region of equal extent in the country. These roads ramify in all parts of the county where coal is mined, follow the windings of the streams through the many valleys and ravines, climb the moun- tains, over planes or by winding along their sides, or pass under them through tunnels. They enter the mines, to all parts of which they extend; and it is a well known fact that a greater number of miles of railroad run be- neath the surface than above it in this county. Like the ramifications of the vascular system of an animal, these branches unite in a few main lines, which carry to the different markets the immense amounts of coal that are brought to them from the mines to which the branches extend.

The development of the railroad system in this county has kept even pace with the growth of the mining inter- est. As elsewhere stated, the Schuylkill navigation was projected with the view, mainly, of affording an out- let for the lumber which had before been taken to market from this region in rafts, and a means of transportation, in connection with the Center turnpike, of the commerce between the Susquehanna region and Philadelphia. The coal trade was then in its infancy; and the most sanguine did not dream of the growth which it was to acquire, or look forward to the time when it would constitute more than a considerable item in the business of the naviga-

HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.

tion. A few of the projectors foresaw an increasing trade; and in 1817 the managers, in an address, stated that probably "coal might one day be carried along the Schuylkill to the amount of ten thousand tons per an- num;" but, in the absence of any prevision of the impor- tance which the coal trade has since assumed, many prudent men looked on the scheme as a visionary project, that would be beneficial to a few speculators and stock gamblers, but not a permanent source of advantage to the public, or of wealth to the stockholders.

For a few years after the completion of the naviga- tion the coal which was carried over it was brought to the boats in wagons by teams. In 1827 a railway nine miles in length was built, to connect some coal mines with the Lehigh navigation at Mauch Chunk. It has been stated by many historians that this was the first railroad in Pennsylvania, and the second in the United States; but such is not the fact. In 1826 Abraham Pott, now living at Port Carbon, built the pioneer railroad in the state. This road was half a mile in length, from his mine to the head of navigation at the month of Mill creek. It had wooden rails, and the cars running on it carried each 172 tons of coal. It proved a success; and after it had been in operation some two years the place was visited by some of the managers of the Schuylkill navigation to see the new method of carriage. Mr. P. had thirteen cars loaded, ready to take to the canal. When they saw him fasten a single horse to the fore. most car, they asked him if he proposed to "draw a ton and a half with one horse." When they saw this one animal easily move the train of thirteen cars, with about twenty tons, to the canal, their astonishment was great. Mr. Pott told them that in ten years they would see coal taken from these mines to Philadelphia in cars over a railroad. They replied that if he came to the city they would find a place for him in an insane asylum, for he was certainly crazy. Eleven years saw the fulfillment of the prediction. It may be remarked here that the cars which Mr. Pott used were unloaded through the bottom, instead of by dumping, and that the wheels were fixed on the axles. He was the originator of both these plans, which have since been almost universally adopted.

As soon as the practicability of railroads for transport- ing coal from the mines to the navigation came to be demonstrated such roads began to spring into existence. After the completion of the Schuylkill navigation other navigation companies were chartered, for the utilization of the waters of other streams, but supplementary acts authorized railroads instead of these navigations, and nothing was done under the original charters. In 1826 the first act authorizing the construction of a railroad in this county was passed. This was followed in 1828 and 1829 by others, and in the latter year portions of several were in operation. These roads were operated by horses or mules, and by the conditions of their charters were highways, over which the cars and freight of any one might be taken, on the payment of the tolls, which were platform upon which the coal was dumped for the pur- prescribed or limited by the charters. In 1833 two loco- motives, named the Comet and the Spitfire, were placed

on the Little Schuylkill Railroad, and afterward locomo- tives came into use on other roads. On roads where motive power was used the law prescribed regulations for the tolls on freight drawn by the locomotives of the company or individuals. It was not at first the design of the people through their representatives to grant to these railroad companies privileges of exclusive transportation on their roads, but these companies have come to exercise and even claim that privilege, without the sanction of legislative enactments.

Of the reciprocal influence upon each other of the coal and railroad interests in this county it is hardly neces- sary to speak; for it is evident to every one that neither could have been developed, to its present extent, without the other. It is also unnecessary to allude to the com- bination of these interests, and to the effect of such com- bination on the prosperity of the county; for these sub- jects are before the people here in a practical form. During many years there has been in this county a grow- ing tendency toward the combination or concentration of capital in important branches of trade and industry, and the smothering of healthful competition.

The following history of one of the most important roads in this county, by one whose relation to it gave him a thorough knowledge of everything pertaining to it, will, at the same time, illustrate the development of the railroad system here, the experiences which the builders of railroads have encountered, and the improvements which have been made since the first rude and somewhat awkward structures were built. Comparatively little will be said of other roads that would not be a repetition of portions of this history. Nearly all the roads in the county have, by purchase, lease or otherwise, been ab- sorbed by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com- pany.

MINE HILL RAILROAD. BY R. A. WILDER.

What are known as the lateral railroads of Schuylkill county were first constructed to accommodate the Schuylkill canal with a coal tonnage from the district south of the Mine hill and east of the west branch, covering an area of between sixty and seventy square miles. Previous to the construction of the laterals, the coal openings had been made in the immediate vicinity of the canal; no one was more than half a mile distant, and the tracks running to the loading place were no more than an extension of the mine roads a short distance beyond the mouths of the drifts. The mine tracks were very primitive. They consisted of notched cross ties (sleepers) on which a wooden rail, three by four or four by six inches, was laid and fastened by wooden keys driven in by the side of the rail. The gauge of the track was made to suit the fancy of the owner, but the average was forty inches. The mine cars held about a ton of coal and slate, and the wheels were loose upon the axle, like those of a wagon. There was usually a pose of separating the impurities before loading, as breakers had not then been introduced. The pure coal

MINE HILL AND SCHUYLKILL HAVEN RAILROAD.

went into the boats as it came from the mines; large and small sizes were intermingled, and the consumer in that day had to break it to suit himself. Could that method have been continued through the intervening years, a hundred millions of dollars would have been shared by the land owner, the miner and transporter.

The Mill Creek Railroad, extending from Port Carbon to the vicinity of St. Clair, was commenced in 1829. It had a forty-inch single track and was built much like the mine tracks just described.

The Schuylkill Valley Railroad was also commenced the same year, and finished in 1830. This line runs from Port Carbon to Tuscarora-ten miles-and was at first a double forty-inch track, costing about $6,000 per mile.

The Norwegian and Mt. Carbon Railroad was built about the same time and extended from navigation at Mt. Carbon to the several coal mines northwest of Pottsville. This road had a common gauge of 567/2 inches and was built in a more substantial manner than either of the first-named lines. The first three miles were double track, and the balance single track so arranged as to ac- commodate a large traffic.

The Little Schuylkill Railroad, extending from Port Clinton to Tamaqua-twenty-two miles-was built sub- sequently to most of the others and is mentioned in this connection only because it formed a part of the lateral system of the county. It had a gauge of 5612 inches.

The most important of all the laterals is the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven Railroad, which extends from Schuylkill Haven to the coal fields north and south of the Broad mountain, and enters by short branches every ravine of the mountains and other suitable places for lo- cating a colliery. It was first projected by a few land- owners who were desirous of developing their properties and obtaining revenues therefrom. The original charter was approved by J. Andrew Schulze, governor of Penn- sylvania, on the 24th day of March, 1828. Several amendments and supplements have been made since to meet the expanding trade and provide facilities for mov- ing the tonnage, that grew year by year.

terested in the completion of the work, but a large amount of money was still needed, and capitalists were invited to make up the requisite sum on the security of a mortgage upon the road. With the funds thus obtained the road was finished, and in April, 1831, the first ccal passed over it. The cost of the line at this time was $185,783.02, of which $68,450 was stock and $117,333 was borrowed money. Of course this amount was far beyond all estimates of the projectors of the work and such engineers as laid out the line. In the eight months following April, 1831, seventeen thousand five hundred and fifty-nine tons of coal were transported over the road, which was esteemed a good beginning; and one sanguine gentleman predicted the time when as much as a hundred thousand tons would be carried, and was laughed at as a visionary. More than two millions per annum have since been carried as an earnest of his prophecy.

The engineers of that period had little knowledge of railway construction, and it was well they had not, for few of the early lines would have been built. An esti- mate of $50,000 per mile would have scared the capitalists more than an attempted burglary. Such estimates as they did make were wide of the mark, and consequently the construction proceeded by degrees, and funds were obtained in the same way, and each succeeding effort encouraged to more vigor, till finally the line would be opened to traffic and rosy reports circulated then as now to induce investment in the stock or loans.

The line followed the sinuous valley of the west branch, and as near grade as possible: consequently it was altogether a succession of curves of small radii, simple and compound, with few connecting tangents. The bridges were frequent, and consisted of untrussed stringers placed four or five feet above the water. The railroad track was made by laying cross-ties four feet apart, and placing in the notched ends an oak rail, three by seven inches, on which was spiked a strap of iron about fifteen feet long, and one and a-half inches wide by three-eighths thick, which was designed for the wear- [ing surface. The locomotive had not then entered into the dreams of those builders, and horsepower was em- ployed to haul the cars. The road soon reached the highest expectations of the owners, and in the second year the tonnage equaled 65,420 tons. All doubts van- ished, and a dividend of seven per cent. was declared from the surplus after paying interest and all indebted- ness. All the loans that could be converted were changed to stock. The capital was increased to $200,000 by an act passed in January, 1831, and all the indebtedness was allowed to take the form of stock. The year 1833 was also very prosperous, and the tonnage increased to seventy-seven thousand tons, which served to increase the sanguine views of the owners to a greater extent than ever before. But the following year brought great commercial embarrassment and heavy losses to nearly every department of trade, and as a consequence the traffic of the Mine Hill Railroad was reduced to 42,616

The company was organized on the 21st of May, 1828. The amount of stock subscribed was only $13,000, on which ten per cent. was paid into the treasury. With this small sum of $13,000 the company began the con- struction of a road that ultimately covered, like a net- work, more than one hundred square miles of the anthracite coal fields. The treasury was empty before the prelimin- ary work had been accomplished, and then efforts were made to obtain subscriptions to the whole capital stock of $25,000. The managers took it individually, but soon found it to be entirely inadequate to the undertaking, and then resorted to the plan that has wrecked so many enterprises and individuals in this country; they endorsed the notes of the company and were obliged to protect then individually when they fell due. This condition could not continue, and the managers availed themselves of the power conveyed in the charter to increase the capital stock to $100,000, by a vote of the stockholders; a part of this additional stock was taken by parties in- | tons, the income from which was barely sufficient to pay

HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.

interest on its debt, leaving nothing for dividends. The recovery from depression was rapid, and the traffic was increased again in 1835 to 66,000 tons, and in 1836 to over 107,000 tons. This increase indicated a healthy demand for coal, and many land owners and operators desired extensions of the road to the lands where their interests centered, but the company had no capital for that purpose. To remedy this an act was approved the 29th of March, 1836, authorizing an increase of capi- tal to $400,000 ; at the same time power was given to put locomotives on the road, but the comp:my did not use this privilege till about ten years later.

The policy of the company was one of progress, keep- ing pace with the gradually increasing demands of an expanding market and the efforts of the land owners and operators to meet it. After constructing branches to most of the available points south of the Broad mountain and west of Pottsville, as far as Tremont and Mt. Eagle, they were asked to extend their main line across the formidable barrier of the Broad mountain into the Middle coal field. The effort to do this had once before been made in the partial construction of the Girard Railroad on a very bad system of inclined planes, which proved an absolute failure and was abandoned altogether.

Just previous to the time the application for what has long been known as the " Ashland Extension" was made, several important changes had taken place in the man- agement, and in the mode of working the road. The increase in tonnage from 1844 to 1847 made it necessary to substitute locomotives for horse power, so as to de- crease the great number of trains, that then obstructed the road. A firmer and better track was found necessary also, and a general modification of the line took place for the reception of steam engines. This consisted mainly of stronger and wider bridges, planting the double tracks farther apart to make room for the passing of trains with broader coal cars and locomotives, and in substituting heavier rails to support the greater weight upon the wheels and increased speed.

The Tremont extension was finished in 1847; and in May, 1848, a much more extensive project was under- taken by the company. Many land owners in the Middle coal field had petitioned the company to open their coal field to the eastern market by continuing their main line up the west branch and across the Broad mountain, at a point about 1,520 feet above tide at Philadelphia. The surveys were commenced on the 25th of May, 1848, at the summit between Rattling run and Dyer's run.

S. W. Roberts, Esq., of Philadelphia, was chief en- gineer, and R. A. Wilder principal assistant. Soon after the beginning of the work Mr. Roberts was ap- pointed chief engineer of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad (now Pittsburg and Fort Wayne), and left the field work in charge of the principal assistant. The sur- veys covered the region between the Schuylkill and the water sheds of the Susquehanna a few miles below Shamokin, where connection was made with the old Sun- bury and Pottsville Railroad, which was the western por- tion of the Girard Railroad before referred to. The

crest lines were about ten miles in length on the Broad mountain. At that time the whole region was densely wooded, and, with the exception of a few farm houses here and there, miles apart, uninhabited. The work of the surveying parties was exceedingly laborious on ac- count of the long distances walked morning and evening to and from the lines. It was necessary to finish the surveys within a specified time required by the terms of the supplement to the charter, so that the company could determine the question of accepting, or not, the provisions of the act. The preliminary work for an ac- curate topographical map had consumed much of the time, and the final location had to be pushed in a man- ner very exhausting to the party. An approximate esti- mate of the cost showed that the authorized capital was inadequate, and the company concluded not to accept the supplement.

This line had two inclined planes on the north of the mountain to hoist the loaded cars by stationary machines. The ascending grades to the summit along the southern slope were an average of eighty-four feet to the mile. This line followed the underlying strata of the coal meas- ures, and consequently avoided the danger of the cavings on the coal seams which have given so much trouble on the line built a few years later and which is now being operated.

At the close of these surveys Mr. Wilder was appointed resident engineer, and immediately began surveys of the main line for the purpose of straightening it wherever practicable. In this way much of the old line was re- built and improved in every respect. The standard width between the tracks was made six feet, which has since been very generally adopted on all lines of railway hav- ing a double track. On the first of January, 1849, Mr. Wilder became superintendent of the road, and later in the same year he took entire charge of the machinery and transportation (in addition to his former duties) with the title of chief engineer and superintendent. Between 1849 and 1852 many improvements were made in the old tracks, and the Swatara and Middle creek branches were built. At the session of the Legislature of 1852 an act was passed which again authorized the construction of the Ashland extension, with an increase of capital not ex- ceeding $500,000. At that period of time the Legisla- ture was exceedingly jealous of corporate bodies, and rarely gave sufficient capital to pay the cost of the work authorized to be done.

Edward F. Gay was appointed engineer of construction, and in April, 1852, began a resurvey of the line located in 1848. Unfortunately for the company his desire to reduce the former estimates of cost induced him to in- crease the grades to ninety-three feet per mile in order to diminish the distance to the summit, which brought his line on the outcrop of the veins of coal in the vicinity of Glen Carbon for a long distance. The result has been disastrous in the extreme. Frequent falls of the surface have taken place at various points, causing interruptions to the traffic, and entailing heavy expenditure for repairs, litigation, and re-location of the road. The line was

BRANCH RAILROADS TO COAL MINES.

opened on the 16th of September, 1864, by passing an engine and train of coal cars, with one small passenger car attached, from Cressona to the terminus at Big Mine Run. The machines for hoisting and lowering cars at the inclined planes were not ready, and the descent was made down these steep inclines by the use of brakes on the cars, and iron shoes placed under the wheels of the tender and fastened by chains to the frame of the loco- motive. The vertical descent of the two planes is seven hundred and twenty feet, but the train was taken down without accident. The return was made by separating the train and hauling single cars up the planes with mules. The opening of the road in this imperfect man- ner was rendered necessary by the requirements of the charter, which limited the period for finishing the line.

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History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 19

Author: Publication date: 1881 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell Number of Pages: 604

Author:
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell
Number of Pages: 604