USA > Pennsylvania > Schuylkill County > History of Schuylkill County, Pa. with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 9
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The wheels of time revolve unceasingly in their course, events multiply rapidly, the expectation of to-day be- comes the commonplace reality of to-morrow; and so the period arrived when the "stony solitude " of the wilderness of St. Anthony was to be aroused from its lethargy, and the treasure embedded in its hills utilized in the cause of civilization, commercial and manufactu- ring progress, and the wants of an increasing population. The birth of a great productive industry may be dated from the year 1820, when 365 tons of anthracite were sent to Philadelphia from the head waters of the Lehigh river. From that time the capitalists with their millions
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HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.
and the miners with their implements of toil penetrated the wilderness ; canals and railroads were built, furnish- ing transportation for the " unknown combustible " to the markets on the seaboard ; colliery after colliery was es- tablished; until in the year 1847, Mr. Taylor says, the " surprising amount of three millions of tons of anthra- cite was mined, or an aggregate of nearly nineteen millions of tons within a quarter of a century, and 11,439 vessels cleared from the single port of Philadelphia, loaded with a million and a quarter of tons for the ser- vice of the neighboring States." A quarter of a century later, in the year 1872, the three millions of tons produc- tion which had astonished Mr. Taylor had been increased to nineteen millions of tons annual production, and an aggregate of two hundred and thirty-seven millions of tons in half a century. The development of the coal fields continues with unabated vigor ; the volume of the trade continues to expand ; railroads above and below ground ramify in every direction ; the shriek of the loco- motive and the roll of the cars resound on every hillside and valley ; the green slopes of a thousand hills are blotted with the debris of the coal mines ; the density of the population, the growth of cities and villages, the large domestic trade and commerce, all testify to the great importance and magnitude of an industry in which anthracite sits enthroned.
FIRST SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO USE COAL.
Having made these preliminary observations, we will now turn our attention exclusively to the coal trade of Schuylkill county. The existence of anthracite coal in the southern and middle coal fields must have been known or suspected prior to 1770. In Scull's map, pub- lished in that year, some localities are indicated, espec- ially about the head waters of the Schuylkill, and stretch- ing thence westward to those of the Swatara. The first observation of anthracite coal in Schuylkill county, of which we have particular record, was awarded to Nicho Allen, a lumberman who lived on the Broad mountain. Allen led a vagrant kind of life, and in one of his expe- ditions, in the year 1790, he camped out over night and built a fire among some rocks, under shelter of the trees. During the night he felt an unusual degree of heat upon his extremities, and waking up he observed amid the rocks a mass of glowing fire, he having accidentally ignited the outcrop of a bed of coal. This was his first experience of stone coal. He never profited by his dis- covery, and after having for a considerable time advo- cated the value of anthracite, and of his important service to the region in discovering it, without receiving substan- tial reward, he left the region in disgust, for his native State in New England.
The introduction of anthracite coal into general use as a fuel was attended with great difficulty in Schuylkill county, as well as in the other coal fields. In the year 1795 a blacksmith of the name of Whetstone used it successfully for smithing purposes. In the year 1806 coal was found in cutting the tail-race of the Valley Forge, on the Schuylkill, and was used successfully by
Daniel Berlin, a blacksmith, which led to its general use by the smiths in the neighborhood. Its introduction for household purposes was only accomplished after years of persistent and arduous labor. Its hardness and the difficulty of igniting it, compared with wood, commonly used, involved all the prejudice and opposition to novel appliances usual upon such occasions. The erroneous impression that it required an artificial blast to produce combustion, the superabundance and cheapness of wood throughout the country, the distance from the sea-board and centers of population, and the entire want of trans- portation facilities to market, made its introduction for many years entirely impracticable, except at its places of deposit. Judge Fell first experimented with it in the Wyoming region, using a common wooden grate in his efforts to produce combustion, arguing that if he suc- ceeded in burning up his wooden grate he would then be warranted in making an iron one; which he afterward did, making the grate with his own hands in his nephew's shop. This interesting and successful experiment was made in 1808. The following memorandum was made by the judge at the time :
" February 11th, of Masonry 5808 .- Made the experi- ment of burning the common stone coal of the valley in a grate, in a common fire place in my house, and find it will answer the purpose of fuel, making a clearer and better fire, at less expense, than burning wood in the common way.
" JESSE FELL."
FIRST USE OF COAL IN A ROLLING MILL.
About the year 1800 William Morris, the owner of a large tract of land near Port Carbon, sent a wagon load of coal to Pennsylvania, but was unable to bring it into public notice. Dissatisfied with the result, he sold his lands, and abandoned mining operations.
The first successful attempt to introduce anthracite coal in the Philadelphia market was made in 1812, by Colonel George Shoemaker, subsequently the proprietor and host of the Pennsylvania Hall, in Pottsville, then as now one of the principal hotels in the place. The col- onel loaded nine wagons with coal from his mines at Centreville, near Pottsville, and hauled them to Phila- delphia for a market; but the good people of that city denounced the colonel as a swindler and impostor for attempting to impose " black rocks " upon them for stone coal. The following extract from a report of the Board of Trade of the Schuylkill County Coal Association, drawn up by Samuel Lewis, Esq., is the most authentic account of the enterprise of Colonel Shoemaker that has come down to us:
" In the year 1812 our fellow citizen Colonel Shoe- maker procured a quantity of coal from a shaft sunk on a tract of land he had recently purchased, on the Nor- wegian, and now owned by the North American Coal Company (1833) and known as the Centreville tract. With this he loaded nine wagons and proceeded to Phil- adelphia. Much time was spent by him in endeavoring to introduce it into notice, but all his efforts proved un- availing. Those who deigned to try it declared Colonel
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COAL PRODUCTION.
Shoemaker to be an impostor for attempting to impose stones on them for coal, and were elamorous against him. Not discouraged by the sneers and sarcasms cast upon him he persisted in the undertaking, and at last succeeded in disposing of two loads for the cost of trans- portation, and the remaining seven he gave to persons who promised to try to use it, and lost all the coal and the charges on the seven loads. Messrs. Mellon & Bishop, at the earnest solicitation of Colonel Shoemaker, were induced to make a trial of it in their rolling mill in Dela- ware county; and, finding it to answer fully the character given it by him, noticed its usefulness in the Philadelphia papers.
" At the reading of this report Colonel Shoemaker was present by invitation, who fully confirmed the foregoing statement and furnished some additional information, among which was that he was induced to make the venture of taking the coal to Philadelphia from the suc- cess attending its use at Pottsville, both in the black- smiths' fire and for warming houses; and that he could not believe that so useful an article was intended to always lie in the earth unnoticed and unknown. That when he had induced Mr. Mellon to try the coal in the rolling mill he (Shoemaker) accompanied the coal to the mill, arriving there in the evening. The foreman of the mill pronounced the coal to be stones and not coal, and that he was an impostor in seeking to palm off such stuff on his employer as coal. As a fair trial of it by this man or the men under him could not be expected it was ar- ranged between Shoemaker and Mellon, who was a prac- tical workman, that they would experiment with the coal early next morning, before the workmen came. They ac- cordingly repaired to the mill in the morning, and kindled a fire in one of the furnaces with wood, on which they placed the coal. After it began to ignite Mellon was in- clined to use the poker, against which Shoemaker cau- tioned him. They were shortly afterward called to breakfast, previous to which Colonel Shoemaker had observed the blue blaze of the kindling anthracite just breaking through the body of the coal, and then he knew all was right if it were left alone, and he directed the men left in charge not to use the poker or open the furnace door until their return. When they returned they found the furnace in a perfect glow of white heat. The iron was put in and heated in much less time than usual, and it passed through the rolls with unusual facility, or, in the language of the workmen, like lead. All, employers as well as workmen, were perfectly satis- fied with the experiment, which was tried repeatedly and always with complete success; and, to crown the whole, the surly foreman acknowledged his error, and begged pardon of Colonel Shoemaker for his rudeness the pre- ceding evening."
Thus Colonel Shoemaker had the honor of establish- ing the fact-a fact of incalculable importance-that the " black rocks" of Schuylkill county were combustible, and that as a fuel they were the most valuable in the world. It remained to bring this new combustible into general use for household purposes. This was very gradually accomplished, both because of the abundant supply of wood and of the want of the proper appliances for the combustion of coal. The invention and manu- facture of grates and stoves adapted to the purpose was the first requisite.
depended in a great measure upon the game which abounded in the forest, and upon the sale of lumber, for the supplies required for their necessities and comfort. The lumber cut during the winter was formed into rafts, and sent down in the spring, when the freshets made the river navigable. Before the completion of the Schuyl- kill canal, in 1825, the products of the county were always sent to market by this precarious and unreliable navigation.
SCHUYLKILL NAVIGATION.
In the year 1812 Messrs. White & Hazzard and other individuals made an application to the Legislature of Pennsylvania for an act of incorporation to improve the navigation of the Schuylkill river, upon which occa- sion the senator from Schuylkill county rose in his place and said that there was no coal in Schuylkill county ; there was a kind of black stone that was called coal, but it would not burn. In consequence of this observation the act of incorporation was not granted at that time; but, notwith- standing the opinion of many people that the project of making a canal into the wild, mountainous region of Schuylkill was a chimerical scheme, the charter was granted in 1815, and the work finished sufficiently by the year 1825 to accommodate the coal trade. The origin- ators of the project, with a few exceptions, did not count upon the coal trade to promote the success of the undertaking. They looked forward mainly to the agri- cultural products below the mountains, the lumber of Schuylkill county, and the grain and other products of the counties bordering on the Susquehanna river, for a tonnage that would ultimately afford dividends to the stockholders. A diversion of trade from the north branch of the Susquehanna to the head waters of the Schuylkill was a favorite idea at that time. Stephen Girard had that object in view when he promoted the construction of the Pottsville and Danville Railroad, which was completed to Girardville-a gigantic enter- prise for those days, which only served the purpose of a publie curiosity. Colonel Paxton had the same object in view in his devoted advocacy of the Catawissa Rail- road-a road whose tortuous alignment through formid- able mountain barriers and stilt-like trestling over fright- ful chasms were the terror of all travelers.
The first shipments of coal by canal were made in the year 1822, when 1,480 tons were poled down the line, the tow-path being yet unmade. In an address of the managers in 1817, they predicted that the day would come in the history of the Schuylkill Navigation Com- pany when ten thousand tons of coal per annum would be shipped by canal. So little idea had the most sagacious capitalists of that day of the enormous future growth of the coal trade. In some of the early reports of the pres- idents of the company we meet with statements possess- ing a curious interest. For example, in the report of Cadwalader Evans in reference to the operations of the
At the time of the remarkable adventure of Colonel Shoemaker with his " black rocks " in Philadelphia the year 1821 he says: "There have been completed on the mountainous region of the Schuylkill coal field had been upper section of the river since the report of last year the tunnel and the canals and locks at that time com- only partially explored. Its sparse but hardy population
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HISTORY OF SCHUYLKILL COUNTY.
menced, so that the navigation is now completed from John Pott's, at the coal mines, to within half a mile of Reading." Boats carrying eighteen tons traversed this part of the canal during the fall, and transported "pro- duce of the upper country and large quantities of coal to the neighborhood of Hamburg, where it was deposited, and the coal sold to the country people at and near that place." No toll was charged during the fall, as the company wished "to encourage experiments in this novel kind of navigation."
It appears that the worthy president of the navigation company had no other designation for Pottsville than "John Pott's, at the coal mines." The tunnel referred to was situated above Port Clinton. The excavation of it was regarded as a prodigious undertaking, and it was a great curiosity in its day. Many persons came by stage coach or private conveyance from Philadelphia and other places to see the great tunnel and to witness the spectacle of the passage of boats under and through a mountain. The wonder and admiration with which our ancestors regarded this work-so simple and com- monplace in our day-afford a striking elucidation of the great advancement since then in civil engineering. This tunnel was the first driven in North America. It was commenced about the year 1818, and was completed, as before stated, in 1821. It was originally 450 feet in length, arched 75 feet from each end. It was reduced in length and enlarged from time to time until at length, in 1855-56, it was made a thorough cut.
The capacity of the canal was gradually increased by deepening the channels, and by other improvements, and the tonnage of the boats, which had been only eighteen tons in 1825, reached sixty tons in 1844. In the year 1846 an enlargement and reconstruction of the canal was accomplished, and the tonnage of the boats increased to 180 or 200 tons.
Incorporated without mining or trading privileges, it was the interest of the Schuylkill Navigation Company to invite tonnage from every available source. The ca- nal was designed for a grand avenue for the conveyance of the products of the mine, the field and the forest ; a free navigation to all who chose to participate in its facilities. Entering the southern coal field at its centre, it afforded an outlet for most of its territory. The pro- jectors of this valuable improvement were the pioneers in inland navigation in this country, and to them is due the credit of commencing works of this nature. Their enterprise contributed largely to subdue the wilderness and to unfold the mineral treasure hidden in the wilds of the Schuylkill coal region.
INFLUX OF OPERATORS AND SPECULATORS.
this result. The disappearance of the forests in the vicinity of the large towns, and the consequent apprecia- tion in the price of wood-which in 1825 was already more expensive than coal-crystallized public opinion in favor of the long despised "black diamonds." The su- periority of anthracite over every other description of fuel was at length becoming demonstrated. Its great convenience, and the cheerful, glowing warmth it im- parted, secured a comfort to the domestic fireside that had never been experienced before. Suitable appliances for its combustion were gradually introduced into public and private houses. Manufacturers were beginning to appreciate its superiority to bituminous coal in power and economy. The fact was dimly dawning upon the minds of the people that they were at the portals of a great and wonderful productive industry-an industry of supereminent power and influence-which would amelior- ate the condition of mankind, prove a valuable acces- sory to all mechanical and manufacturing operations, stimulate every branch of trade and commerce, promote the prosperity of and diffuse inestimable benefits upon the country generally. The apathy, the incredulity and the prejudice which had so long dominated the minds of capitalists and consumers were gradually removed, and golden visions of prospective fortunes captivated their imaginations.
A few years after the inauguration of the Schuylkill coal trade (1825), when anthracite was recognized in commerce as a staple article, the Schuylkill coal region became the theatre of a wild spirit of speculation and adventure, somewhat similar to the frenzy which pre- vailed in the oil regions not many years since. There was a rush to Schuylkill county of a promiscuous crowd of capitalists, adventurers and fortune hunters, who were inspired with the delusive phantom of suddenly be- coming millionaires in the new El Dorado. This was the first speculative era (in 1829) of the Schuylkill coal trade. Pottsville, the centre of the movement, overflowed with strangers, for whom there were very limited accommoda- tions and lodgings provided ; a share of a bed was a for- tunate circumstance ; a chair to repose in was a cause for congratulation or envy ; and, inasmuch as strangers had liberty to sleep on the floor, there was a lively com- petition for the softest plank. A few provident travelers, having special regard for their bodily comfort, carried their beds on top of the stage coach, ready for any emer- gency. The mirth their arrival created while unloading at the hotel can be readily imagined. In this assemblage of solid men and convivial spirits there was not wanting a representation of the silk glove gentry, with fast horses and dashing turnouts, who did not fail to astonish the natives. City swells and sporting characters, whose pro- fession and practice it was to stake their fortunes upon the cast of a die, diversified the attractions, and, tradi- tion says, added to the demoralization of the place.
An outlet having been provided by the Schuylkill Navi- gation Company for a regular supply of anthracite coal, public attention was strongly attracted to the southern anthracite coal field. The developments already made The mountains were scarified by pits and trial shafts sunk by enthusiastic prospectors, traces of which yet re- main. Having no knowledge of the geology of the coal in this region being quite convincing as to the extent of the deposits, and its evident advantages in regard to lo- cation and nearness to tide water conduced greatly to formation, they " went it blind," trusting to chance; and
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COAL PRODUCTION.
many of them dug the graves of their sanguine hopes and their small capitals in the vain search for an- thracite.
RAPID GROWTH OF TOWNS AND APPRECIATION OF COAL LANDS.
After such failures the mysterious disappearance of fast teams with their owners, without the formality of paying their bills, was rot an uncommon occurrence. Other and more successful explorers revealed the exist- ence of a great number of veins of coal, extending over a vast stretch of country and abounding with a seemingly inexhaustible quantity of the combustible. These dis- coveries fanned the flame of excitement; lands were bought with avidity; roads were laid out in the forest, mines were opened and railroads projected, and innu- merable town plots decorated the walls of public houses. The demand for houses was so great that the lumber for quite a large number was framed in Philadelphia and sent by canal to the coal region, ready for the joiner. The spectacle was presented of a city coming up the canal in boats-a forest moving to make way for a thriv- ing town. Whole villages along the roadside thus sprung into existence like mushrooms. The opportunities of promising land speculations were almost unexampled, and many fortunes were made by shrewd and enterpris- ing capitalists. Tracts of land that had been offered for sale at twenty-five cents per acre, and others which could have been bought a few years before for the taxes that had been paid on them, advanced a thousand fold. Within a period of six months from the beginning of the speculative movement-which continued with varied ac- tivity for three years, culminating in 1828-29, nearly $5,000,000 had been invested in the coal lands of Schuylkill county; yet so little appreciation had the own- ers of the real value of these lands that some properties which had been sold in 1827 for $500 were again sold in 1829 for $16,000. The Peacock tract, belonging to the New York and Schuylkill Coal Company, bought in 1824 for $9,000, was sold in 1829 for $42,000; a tract of 120 acres on the Broad mountain, sold in 1829 for $12,- ooo, was bought nine months before for $1,400; one- fourth of another tract sold in 1829 for $9,000, the whole tract having been purchased six years before for $190; a tract on the west branch, which brought $700 was sold nine months afterward, in 1829, for $6,000. Another tract, sold for $16,000, was bought nine months before for $1,000. These transactions indicate the ad- vance of the speculative movement, and the entire ignor- ance of the property holders in early times of the intrin- sic value of their lands. It is questionable whether at any time during the excitement lands were sold at more than their real value as an investment, except in those instances where the purchasers incautiously selected barren tracts, or through ignorance crossed the boundary line of the coal field and located in the red shale. Spec- ulators who invested at the comparatively high prices of 1829, with the view of a quick operation, were, many of them, caught two years afterward in the first revulsion of
the coal trade, and, not being able to hold their proper- ties, were obliged to sell them at a sacrifice.
PRIMITIVE MINING AND TRANSPORTATION.
The mining operations in the early days of the coal trade in the Schuylkill region were conducted in the most primitive manner, all the arrangements being rude and simple. The leases embraced a run on the outcrop or strike of the veins of about fifty to one hundred yards, with an allowance of sufficient space on the surface to handle the products of the mines. The plan first adopt- ed was to sink pits on an elevated position, from which the coal was hoisted in buckets, with a common windlass, worked by hand; and when the water became too strong to be hoisted, which occurred at a depth of thirty to forty feet, the pit was abandoned and a new one started from the surface. The yield under this system was very trifling and unsatisfactory, which led to the application of the gin worked by horse power-generally a wheezy or decrepit animal, unfit for other service-and it in- creased the product very much, being considered at the time a great improvement; but as the shaft became deeper the water would increase in volume, and eventu- ally drown out the mine. The operators, although inex- perienced in mining, were intelligent, enterprising and energetic men, who were not content to follow old ruts or beaten tracks. They soon discovered the advantages of opening the veins from the ravines, at the foot of the hills, by drifts. The leases were then made with longer runs, the water was removed by natural drainage, and the pitch of the veins facilitated the mining and loading of the coal. For a short time the coal was taken out of the mine in wheel-barrows, and afterward railroads were laid in the gangways, and the coal hauled out by horse or mule power. l'hese changes effected a great economy in the whole process until the coal was delivered outside of the mine.
The contrivances on the surface for handling the coal were at the beginning of the trade equally rude and simple with those of the mining department. The modern appliances of breakers, machinery and steam engines did not exist at that time. The pick, the ham- mer, the shovel, riddle and wheelbarrow were all the im- plements in use. The removal of the dirt and slate from the coal was all the preparation it was subjected to. The transportation to the wharves or landings on the canal was made in the ordinary road wagons. This was a slow and very expensive operation, the charge for hauling being about twenty-five cents per ton per mile. In the year 1829 the production amounted to 79,973 tons, nearly all of which was hauled in wagons over the common roads of the country. Taking one week for an example- June 19.25th-1,831 tons of coal were hauled through the streets of Pottsville, over roads that had the aspect of rivers of slimy mud. No wonder the introduction of railroads was hailed as a happy deliverance.
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