USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 84
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Grace Lodge, No. 157, I. O. O. F. was organized March 19th, 1846. The charter members were Andrew B. Baum, N. G .; J. C. Rahn, V. G .; W. F. Tyson, Sec .; Michael Seltzer, Ass't Sec., and Christian Berger, Treas. The present officers are: George H. Yager, N. G .; Daniel Samuel, V. G .; Samuel H. Madden, Sec .; Henry Day, Ass't Sec., and Charles N. Body, Treas. The member- ship is 31. This society first met in a brick house stand- ing opposite the old jail. Three years after organization it removed to a house now owned and occupied by Frederick Wilt. Meetings are now held in Odd Fellows' Hall building, owned by the lodge.
Washington Camp Patriotic Order Sons of America was organized in February, 1868. The following are the names of the present officers: P. P., William Mattern; Pres., Samuel Draher; V. P., G. A. Raher; M. of F. and C., G. W. Werner; C., Wesley Koch. Early meetings were held in the court-house; at present the camp meets in Odd Fellow's Hall.
BOOT AND SHOE MANUFACTURE.
The Orwigsburg Shoe Manufacturing Company was organized in 1873, with the following officers: President, Solomon O. Moyer; vice-president, Charles H. Dengler (Pottsville); secretary, John T. Shoener; treasurer, Thomas Hoy.
ORWIGSBURG MANUFACTORIES AND CHURCHES.
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When the company began operations their limited amount of machinery was propelled by foot power. An eight horse power engine is now required to carry on their extensive manufacturing operations. The company turns out 5,000 to 6,000 pairs of boots and shoes per annum, and gives employment to from 90 to 100 hands.
The present officers of the company are: Solomon R. Moyer, president; George F. Kimmel, vice-president; Charles H. Haeseler, secretary; and John C. Beck, trea- surer. James Ecroyd, of Muncy, Lycoming county, William C. Klimert, of Philadelphia, and Thomas Wren, of Pottsville, are directors.
The firm of Bickley & Anthony was formed in 1878, and shortly afterward Mr. Anthony withdrew from the partnership. Mr. Bickley was the sole proprietor of the enterprise till May, 1880, when Messrs. John T. Shoener . and Lewis Kimmel became his partners. After a few months Mr. Kimmel withdrew from the firm on account of ill health, selling his interest to John Bickley. Mr. George H. Bickley, the senior partner, is the practical manager of the business. Mr. Shoener has charge of the finances of the concern. From 20 to 30 hands are employed and 60 to 70 pairs of women's, misses' and children's fine sewed shoes are manufactured daily.
The firm of Albright & Brown began business January Ist, 1880, and manufacture a special line of children's and infants' black and colored shoes, turning out from their factory 100 pairs per diem. When running to the capacity of their factory the firm employ 25 hands.
These industries are the only ones of importance in the borough, which has the usual variety of small me- chanics' shops, and they form the leading business inter- est of the place. The old court-house has been utilized by one of the firms mentioned, and now does service as a factory building.
CHURCH HISTORY.
The Methodist Church of Orwigsburg was organized in 1824, with a membership of 25, of whom the following are remembered: John Hammer, Benjamin Sterner, Jo- seph Zoll, Christopher Wagner and R. Rickert.
The first church edifice was built in 1826. It was of stone and a story and a half high, located at the western end of Independence street, where now is the cemetery of the same church. Before the erection of a house of worship meetings were held in private houses, on several occasions in a hotel, in a school-house, and generally at a later date in the court-house. The first ministers were Revs. John Seibert, John Breidenstein and D. Focht. Revs. S. G. Rhoads, Isaac Hess, John Schell, Daniel Ber ger, Haman, R. Yeager, J. O. Lehr, D. Z. Kemble, S. B. Brown, Thomas Harper, A. Dilabar, G. W. Gross and F. Kecker, among others, have served the church since. The present pastor is Rev. J. R. Hentzel.
The first Sunday-school was organized October 4th, 1838. The first superintendent was Jacob Schnerr; Charles Haeseler was secretary and Samuel Leffler treas urer.
It was first occcpied in 1840. The present member- ship is 80.
St. John's Reformed Church .- The first records of the St. John's Reformed church as a regular organized Christian body, date back to 1831. Prior to that date the Reformed and Lutheran people worshiped in the red church, about a mile and a half below Orwigsburg, on the Pottsville and Reading turnpike. August 28th, 1831, the Reformed and Lutheran people of Orwigsburg and vicinity jointly organized and laid the corner stone of the present building; soon after erected and dedicated as St. John's Reformed and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Orwigsburg.
Revs. F. H. Groll, Jacob William Dechert and the local pastors, Revs. Jacob Mennig and Philip Moyer. were present. The building committee consisted of Messrs. George Body, John Schall, Abraham Augstatt and Isaac Orwig. The constitution, laws and regulations of the church bear the approval of George Wolf, gover- nor, and G. M. Dallas, attorney-general of Pennsylvania. In 1844 the Lutheran congregation withdrew and organ- ized an independent church.
The Lutheran ministers who served in the church while in joint relation were Revs. Mennig, Harpel, Stah- lin, Yeager, Peixote and Geissenheimer.
The Reformed pastors since 1844 have been Revs. Philip Moyer, - Hassinger, John Adam Rubelt, Henry Wagner, D. B. Albright, C. H. Rittenhouse and Henry Leisse, the present pastor. Under his adminis- tration the church, which in its appearance had given sufficient indications of time, was remodeled and rededi- cated. The present membership is 150.
The Sunday-school connected with this church or congregation has had for its superintendents since its organization Dr. A. D. Baum, William M. Bickel, Wil- liam H. Schall, Christian Berger, James Thompson and Samuel H. Madden, the present superintendent.
St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized as an exclusively Lutheran church, January 20th, 1844, from St. John's church. The corner-stone of St. Paul's church was laid June 30th, 1844, and the church was consecrated in the fall of the same year.
The officers of the church at that time were: Elders, Philip Wernert and Daniel Hummel, sen .; deacons, Frederick Freed and John Clouse.
The following persons constituted the building com- mittee: Jacob Deibert, Frederick Freed, Henry Shoe- maker and Peter Hummel. The dedicatory services were conducted by the Rev. Jacob Miller and W. G. Menning, A. B. Gockelen, J. A. Reubelt and A. T. Geiss- enheimer.
Rev. Augustus T. Geissenheimer was the first to serve the congregation, his pastorate extending from 1840 (in- cluding his services in St. John's) to December 31st, 1844. The ministers who subsequently served this con- gregation up to the time when the present incumbent took charge were: Nathan Yeager, 1845-51; George Schaide, 1852; A. Ritter, 1853, 1854; Joel Grim, 1855-
The building of the present church was begun in 1839. 60; William Hoppe, 1861-63; John H. Eberman, 1864,
58
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HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.
1865; J. F. Wicklein, 1866-71. Rev. I. N. S. Erb, the present pastor, entered upon his duties January Ist, 1873.
The original church membership was about 100; that of the Sunday-school was about the same. The first superintendent was F. Lauderbrum, jr. The present
church membership is 150, and the Sunday-school has a membership of 225. The services are conducted alter- nately in the English and German languages.
In the summer of 1874 the church of this congregation was remodeled and renovated at an expense of $1,000, and was rededicated November 22nd following.
PORT CLINTON BOROUGH.
ENHARD RISHEL was granted the land in and around Port Clinton by the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania, January 30th, 1816. The village was laid out in 1829. Part of the land was sold by Mr. Rishel to the rail- road company May 8th, 1829. The first engine, which was manufactured in England, came over the road to Port Clinton in 1832. The borough was in- corporated in 1850. Its limits were extended in 1855. As now bounded, it is one mile square.
The first burgess was Richard Perry.
The first councilmen of Port Clinton were Samuel Boyer, Daniel Eveland, William Province, John Bond and Joseph Perry. The first meeting of the council was held May 13th, 1850.
Port Clinton has for years been quite a thriving place. The leading business has been the shipment of coal from the mines in the vicinity of Tamaqua, brought over the Little Schuylkill Railroad, a distance of twenty miles. The coal schutes and the Schuylkill canal, which passes through the borough, have added much to its activity and prosperity, giving employment to many of its citizens. A forge was erected here about 1855, by George Ege. After a number of years' activity it was converted into a rolling-mill by Calvin B. Bertolette, from Reading, Berks county. Later it passed to the ownership of Robert Inness, of Pottsville, and was managed by him with vary- ing success for eight years, when it was purchased by Mr. McDonald and others at sheriff's sale. This estab- lishment is operated by steam and water power, and at times as many as 100 men have been employed.
During the freshet of 1850 the place was much damaged. Twenty-one houses were swept away, and the railroad bridge was carried off. Thirteen persons were drowned. A grist-mill, which had been erected near the present site of the borough in 1800, by whom is not known, was swept away by this flood.
Port Clinton contains about eighty good and many small dwellings, three stores, two hotels and two churches, with the usual number and variety of small mechanics' shops.
The population of the borough in 1860 was 586; in 1870, 578; in 1880, 686.
There are three schools in the borough, in which three teachers instruct about 150 pupils seven months during the year, at an average cost of eighty-eight cents per month each.
CHURCHES.
The following sketch of the church and Sunday-school interests of Port Clinton was contributed by the venera- ble George Wiggan, a resident of Tamaqua, but long prominently identified with the leading interests of Port Clinton:
"The writer and his wife were members of the late Dr. Boardman's church, Philadelphia. I was appointed by the Little Schuylkill Navigation Railroad and Coal Com- pany as superintendent to oversee the shipping of coal at Port Clinton, succeeding Arthur McGonnigle, and, with my family, I arrived there March 24th, 1840.
"It was a dark spot for Christian work. The Sabbath was openly violated by loading and unloading boats, and the working class was demoralized. There was no church. Religious services were held but once a month, and there was no Sabbath-school, and never had been one. The preaching generally was by a Lutheran min- ister, but sometimes a Methodist brother would pass that way and hold a meeting. That good missionary apostle, Richard Webster, of Mauch Chunk, of the Pres- bytery of Luzerne came later, once a month or oftener, and preached in the school-house situated on a hill west of the town. To get to it we had to pass over the bridge that spans the Little Schuylkill river, carry a light in our lanterns, and hold the candle for the minister while he read the Bible. My wife and I thought we had a duty to perform. Seeing the state of things we concluded to begin at the beginning-that is, with the children. One Sunday morning in April my wife collect- ed four or five little ones in my office, where she taught them the first rudiments of the Christian religion. After this the members increased every Sunday, so much so that we had to hold our little school for Sabbath instruc- tion in the little school-house on the hill. Having en- listed a number of gentlemen and ladies connected with the town and its surroundings in our work, we organized a Sabbath-school in due form June 2nd, 1840, under the name of the Port Clinton Union Sabbath-school, with
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PORT CLINTON SABBATH-SCHOOL-WEST MAHANOY COLLIERIES.
Rev. J. Y. Ashton as superintendent and Major Isaac Myers and Mrs. George Wiggans as manager. The fol- lowing were teachers: George Wiggan, William Beltz, Mrs. Ellen Bond, Mrs. Elizabeth Provins, Miss Rosana Kepner, Miss Salome Ayers, Miss Catharine Schall, Miss Emily Walker, Miss Rebecca Roseberry.
"In 1841 he was elected superintendent. Soon after organizing we had a small library donated to us by the Sabbath-school of Rev. Mr. Boardman's church. In the first year we gathered in 72 children. Jane Bond, after- wards Mrs. Province, was the first young person convert- ed belonging to the school.
" Rev. J. Y. Ashton, now chaplain to the Eastern Peni- tentiary, Philadelphia, was the first Methodist minister who preached regularly in the neighborhood, serving at both Tamaqua and Port Clinton. Later came Rev. W. E. . Schenck, Presbyterian (now secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadelphia), who preached for us several months. Rev. M. Yeager, a Lutheran minister, and Rev. Dr. Richards, of the German Reformed church, Reading, preached occasionally. In 1846 the Methodist Episcopal church began to build a stone house of worship at the north end of the town, on the Centre turnpike. It was finished and dedicated December 13th the same year. Rev. James Neal, of Philadelphia, preached the sermon. Rev. John Shields was pastor.
" The enlargement and improvement of the union Sab- bath-school house took place in 1849, under the care of three trustees representing the following denominations:
Lutherans, Samuel Boyer; German Reformed, Major Isaac Myers; Presbyterian, George Wiggan. The house was burned April 15th, 1867, and the lot was sold by the sheriff to Samuel Boyer. The church has never been re- built.
" June 24th, 1860, a Presbyterian church was organized by a committee of the Presbytery of Luzerne, consisting of Rev. S. F. Colt, Rev. A. N. Lowry, and ruling elders S. N. Russell and Jesse Turner, with the following mem- bers: Joseph Clark, Margaret Clark, William Clark, Mar- garet Clark, James McClain, Catherine McClain, Oliver McClain, William D. Martin, - Martin, Dr. George W. Nice, John S. Rick, Elizabeth Rick, Henry Kinsel, Kinsel, Barbara Frank. The ruling elders were Joseph Clark and John S. Rick; the pastor was Rev. F. F. Kolb, who left in January, 1865. He has had no successor. "A large brick church was begun in 1868 by the Lutheran and German Reformed people, at a cost of $3,096. It was never finished. Jacob Weiklein was the Lutheran pastor and Augustus Herman the German Reformed pas- tor. There are 100 scholars in the Sabbath-school.
" It is a noticable fact that out of 65 boys who at- tended the Port Clinton union Sabbath-school, organized in 1840, 32, when their country was in danger, volun- teered their services for its defense, many of them serv- ing with distinction, some of them in various offices from general down to sergeant; and most of them at this day, with many of the girls, are working in the church and Sabbath-school in various places in the east and west."
WEST MAHANOY TOWNSHIP.
HIS township, erected in 1874 from Mahanoy, contained in 1880 a population of 4,418; all, or nearly all, engaged in mining. With- in its bounds are the villages of Lost Creek, Colorado, William Penn, Rappahannock and Rav- en Run. It has railway stations and post-offices at Lost Creek, Colorado, Shaft and Raven Run. Lost Creek post-office was established in 1871, with George Miller as postmaster.
COLLIERIES OF WEST MAHANOY.
The Cuyler Colliery, at Raven Run, was opened in 1865 by Heaton & Co., who had formerly operated at Girardville. A breaker with a capacity of about three hundred tons daily was built, and afterward en- larged to about five hundred tons. The workings con- sist of a drift extending about one and a half miles on the Buck Mountain vein, and, at a distance of about elev- en hundred feet from the opening, a slope, driven to another drift on the same vein. About sixty breasts are
open. Three stationary and three locomotive engines furnish the motive power and about four hundred and fifty men and boys are employed. The coal is marketed by way of the Lehigh Valley road, and the veins oper- ated are in the Girard Trust lands. The firm who opened the colliery are its present owners; but the mem- ber of the firm who was applied to for information re- fused to furnish it, and the above outline is the best that could be obtained from the outside sources to which the writer was compelled to apply, and can only be regarded as approximately correct.
Girard Mammoth Colliery, at Raven Run, located on the lands granted to the trust of the city of Philadelphia for charitable uses by Stephen Girard, was opened in 1865 by John Johnson, John Donnellson, George Ormrod and others, and operated by them until December, 1879, when the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company became its owners. George Ormrod was the superin- tendent from 1865 to 1877, when Simon Stein, formerly district superintendent of the Minersville district, pur- chased an interest in the colliery and became the super-
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HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.
intendent, acting as such until the sale to the present owners. Jonathan Geddling was outside foreman until 1877, when Charles J. Stein, the present foreman, suc- ceeded him. The inside foremen have been George Wentzel, Richard Johnson, William More, Edward Davis, Thomas Tempest and William Palmer, who is now acting in that capacity.
The slope is 365 yards deep and 1,000 yards from the breaker. A mine locomotive is used for drawing coal out through the water level drifts, and it is then hoisted up a plane by a forty horse power engine and dumped in the breaker, which is propelled by an engine of the same power. The dirt plane engine is similar in size, as is also that attached to the 8-inch pump. The fan is driven by one of one-half the rated power of the others mentioned, and a small engine of five horse power drives a blower in the blacksmith's shop. The capacity of the breaker is six hundred tons, and the production about four hun- dred daily. The veins worked are the Skidmore and Mammoth; the latter not being worked in 1880. The company own forty-two blocks of double tenement houses in connection with the colliery.
PHILADELPHIA COAL COMPANY'S COLLIERIES.
Colorado Colliery, No. 1 .- This colliery is on the north side of the Bear ridge, in the James Paschall, Samuel Scott, and part of the John Brady tracts of the Girard estate, belonging to the city of Philadelphia. The breaker and other outside improvements are about a mile and a quarter east of Girardville, on the Philadel- phia and Reading Railroad. The mines were opened in 1863, by George W. Huntzinger and Jeremiah Seitzinger, by the driving of a tunnel into the Mammoth vein. The mine was worked successfully by this company until 1865, when it was leased to the Philadelphia Coal Com- pany. A slope of 90 yards in length, on a dip of 66°, was sunk from the water level gangway, and from this slope level the present mining is beiag done. In 1874 the Lehigh Valley Coal Company purchased a controlling interest in the lease, and continued the operation of the colliery under the old name of the Philadelphia Coal Company. The Mammoth vein is the seam worked. The Seven-feet vein has been worked for a short distance, but has been abandoned. The coal is prepared in a large double breaker, which has a daily capacity of 150 cars. The colliery has an average annual shipment of over eighty-three thousand tons of coal for the past fifteen years.
Shenandoah Colliery, No. 2 .- This colliery is on the south side of Locust Mountain, in Shenandoah valley, about two miles and a half east from Girardville, and about the same distance west of Shenandoah, on the Joseph Paschall, John Brady and Nathan Beach tracts, on the Girard estate of the city of Philadelphia. The mine was first opened in 1863, by George W. Huntzin- ger and Colonel Frank B. Kaercher, and was worked by them until 1866, when Colonel Kaercher's share was pur- chased by Colonel Henry L. Cake, and the mine was then operated under the name of the Girard Coal Com-
pany. In 1868 this colliery passed into the hands of the Philadelphia Coal Company. In 1874 the Lehigh Valley Coal Company purchased a controlling interest in the lease of the colliery, and continued the mining under the old name of the Philadelphia Coal Company. The Mammoth vein is the only seam worked at present. The Buck Mountain vein was opened at water level, but min- ing has been discontinued in it. The coal is hoisted through a slope 225 yards long, on an average dip of 39°; 150 yards east of this slope there is another, which runs 200 yards below the present working level, on an average dip of 40°; and through this slope the coal from the lower lifts will be hoisted to the surface. The breaker is a double one, with a daily capacity of 125 cars. The breaker is on both the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia and Reading Railroads.
Lehigh Colliery, No. 3 .- This colliery, with its im- provements, is on the south side of Locust mountain, about a mile west of Shenandoah, on lands belonging to the Girard estate, owned by the city of Philadelphia. In 1865 William Williams put a drift into the crop coal of the Mammoth vein, and worked it until 1870, when he sold his interests to the Philadelphia Coal Company. This company put down a slope and built a new breaker. In 1874 the control of this colliery, with that of Nos. I and 2, passed into the hands of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, and the operations were continued under the old name of the Philadelphia Coal Company. The ca- pacity of the breaker is 125 cars per day, and all the coal goes to market over the Lehigh Valley Railroad. James Robbins is inside and William Thickens outside foreman.
Packer Colliery, No. 4 .- This colliery, with its im- provements, is about a mile and a half west of Shenan- doah. The coal is worked by means of a slope 265 yards deep. The first level of Shenandoah colliery, No. 2, is cut by this slope, and besides this level there are two others -the counter gangways and the main. The colliery was opened in 1875 by the Philadelphia Coal Company, and is now worked by the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, un- der the name of the Philadelphia Coal Company. The breaker, which is a large double one, is on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and has a daily capacity of 225 to 250 cars. The large shipments of 1879, averaging for days in succession a thousand tons, and aggregating for the year 248,381 tons, give some idea of the capacity of this colliery. The Mammoth vein was the only seam worked until 1880, when a tunnel was driven to the Primrose, opening that vein and the Holmes. A new inside slope has just been driven to the basin, and the coal from the lower lifts will be worked through this slope.
WILLIAM PENN.
This thriving colliery village owes its origin and pros- perity to the enterprise of the gentlemen forming the William Penn Coal Company, whose extensive works, second in size in the county, are located here. It con- tains a hundred dwelling houses owned by the company, and twenty-five others located on the company's land
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WILLIAM PENN COLLIERY.
and owned by its employes. Besides, there are the office and store buildings of the company, and a neat union
ents he was continually in danger of being murdered by the Mollie Maguires. Early in 1865 some striking church, 40 by 60 feet, in which services are regularly "loaders " were discharged and substitutes hired. held, and which accommodates a Sunday-school of one Thereupon the miners and bosses were anonymously hundred and fifty members. A post-office named Shaft |threatened with death. Lawrence M :Avoy, inside boss, was established in 1880, and the village is furnished with a never failing supply of pure water by the company's pipes from Lost creek.
William Penn Colliery .- Early in 1864 Seyfert Mc- Manus & Co., of Reading, and George Brooke, of Birds- boro, Pa, two of the largest iron manufacturing firms in the Schuylkill valley, and Samuel E. Griscom, an ex- perienced and well known business man of Pottsville, as- sociated themselves as the mining firm of Samuel E. Griscom & Co. Mr. Griscom's partners were to furnish the means and he the necessary business capicity and executive ability. The new firm leased from Jacob Hoff- man, of Reading, about five hundred acres on the Or- chard, Primrose, Holmes, Mammoth and Buck Mountain veins, with the right of mining and of cutting timber for the necessary structures. The land was also claimed by the city of Philadelphia as a part of the Girard estate, and as such leased by the city to Lee, Grant & Patter- son. The region was then covered with a dense forest, tenanted by panthers, bears and deer. The rival lessees both beginning operations on the tract, the Griscom party one night barricaded the mouths of the gangways begun by their opponents, and the latter were denied an injunction restraining Griscom & Co. Negotiations fol- lowed, which resulted in Lee & Co. assigning their lease to Griscom & Co. for a valuable consideration.
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