USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > History of the counties of Dauphin and Lebanon : in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania ; biographical and genealogical > Part 91
USA > Pennsylvania > Lebanon County > History of the counties of Dauphin and Lebanon : in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania ; biographical and genealogical > Part 91
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The Home Journal and Citizen Soldier is the title of the paper printed by Isaac R. Diller in 1843. In August, 1845, the name was changed to The Pennsyl- vania Reporter and Home Journal. It was published a short time. It caused quite a sensation by printing in its column- a local story founded on the Parthe- more murder, by that strange erratic genius George Lippard. It was entitled, " Posy, or the Pilgrimage of St. George."
State Capital Gazette, by William Henlock and John B. Bratton, now of Carlisle, commenced July, 1530. and continued until June, 1843, when it ceased for the purpose of uniting with the Pennoglevain Reporter and Keystone, under the title of the Denveratie Union. A file is in the State Library. It was undoubtedly in the front ranks of the so-called country newspapers. It was ably edited, neat in typographical appearance and make-up. This was succeeded by the Union and
Patriot, in the hands of George M. Lauman, then came Richard J. Haldeman, Christopher L. Ward, William II. Miller, John W. Brown, Thomas C. Mar- dowell, O. Barrett, Benjamin F. Meyers, and other prominent editors, politicians or men of fortune.
That the present Patriot might "shed its beam- upon a darkened world," it was necessary to swallow some fifteen ventures, a manifest proof of the enter- prise of the printers and young lawyers of Penn-yl- vania, who supposed the newspaper route was the exact and rapid way to fame and station.
Harrisburg Star, by William J. Sloan, about 1490. It was not a very ereditable sheet in its typography. as the editor was a mere lad, not much of a printer. but with so much ability in another direction that came to be an able departmental surgeon in the United States army. One or two of its issues have been pre- served, but no complete file, except perhaps among the effects of it- " responsible editor."
Hhig State Journal, is-ued in 1850 by John J. Clyde. Sold to Jolin J. Patterson, who subsequently pur- chased the Telegraph, into which this paper wa- merged.
For many years one or two of the weekly paper- issued semi-weekly, and one. a daily, during the -es- sions of the Legislature; but no venture was ma le for the permanent establishment thereof until late in 1850.
The Harrisburg Daily American was commenced Dec. 26. 1450, by George Berguer & Co. Subse- quently it became a part of the Harrisburg Telegraph. It was established as a Whig organ. In the course of time its opposition to the Know-Nothing organization was very decided. A file for several years is in the collection of the State Library.
The Daily Times, 1 53, was a venture of William H. Egle and Theodore F. Scheffer, at the suggestion of a number of prominent citizens. The Morning Herald, by John J. Clyde & Co., was issued the same year. The borough not being able to support three daily papers, the Times was merged into the Hewill. The latter paper was shortly after absorbed, or rather continued by the Daily Telegraph. It may be re- marked that the Telegraph has absorbed almost a- many newspaper ventures as it- contemporary, the Patriot, and its editor- were of the picked men of their political party.
The Daily Borough Item, by George P. Crap it Louis Blanche. It commenced in 1952, a small penny paper, not very prepossessing in appearance. but gave a good resume of local events, and a file of it would be useful for reference. We do not think there is one in existence. On account of its frequent per- sonalities, it failed to receive the general support of the community.
Inily Herald, by Stephen Miller & Co., commenced Dec. 23, 1-53, and after and up to INS in the hand- of Roval, MeReynolds & Whitman, was at last merged in the Harrisburg Telegraph. Mr. Miller was
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CITY OF HARRISBURG.
at the time the paper commenced prothonotary of Dauphin County, afterwards Governor of Minnesota. eighth year. A file of this paper is in the State Library.
The Platform, in 1854, a campaign paper of large , year. circulation, by A. Boyd Hamilton, edited by a full dozen of the friends of Governor Bigler. We do not know where a copy of this publication is to be found. It was the first newspaper that thoroughly carried out the plan of payment in advance. Very many thou- sands of copies were ordered, but as the cash did not cover the order, the paper was not forwarded, and its circulation was limited to those who did pay, about fifteen thousand.
The Harrisburg Daily Record was is-ned by Henry Omit & Co., Jan. 3. 1854, edited by George F. Emer- son. We have not been able to learn whether any file of this paper exists, although some of the company who established it are yet alive.
The Pennsylvania Statesman, established as a cam- paign paper in 1860, by J. M. Cooper. It advocated the election of John C. Breckinridge for President. It was a lively sheet.
The State Guard, a daily, published by Forney & Kauffman, commenced about 1966, and continued for several years. Some of its issue- contain facts of per- manent value, and it is to be hoped a full set of this paper has been preserved.
The State Journal, a daily, published by the State Journal Company, was begun in October, 1870, and continued until November, 1.73, when the office was destroyed. Its chief editor wa. Wein Forney, and was just being established on a paying basis when it met its fate by the burning of Mr. Singerly's printing- office.
The Visitor, a religious paper, in 1824, by Michael W. MeKinley. One or two numbers of its issue satis- fied its editor and publisher.
The Mercury was a daily paper of 1875, by the Mer- cury Company.
The Dawn, a weekly of the same year, by J. Trainor King.
The Temperance Vinilirator, by Gen. F. McFarland: The Scroll- Keeper.
The National Progress.
The Harrisbury Chronicle, by Thomas C. MacDow- ell. These three newspapers were unsuccessful ven- tures, and had a very brief existence.
The Stars and Stripes. Buchanan and Breckenridge campaign paper, 1856, by George F. Weaver, Sr.
The newspaper- published in Dauphin County at present (1883; are :
DAILY .- Harrisburg Telegraph, by the Harrisburg Publishing Company. Twenty-sixth year.
The Harrisburg Patriot, by Patriot Publishing Company. Twenty-fourth year.
The Daily Independent, by E. Z. Wallower. Sixth year.
WEEKLY .- The Item, Steelton, by J. A. Work. Eighth year.
The Middletown Journal, by J. W. Stofer. Twenty-
The Middletown Press, by I. O. Nissley. Second
The Hummelstown Sun, by W. R. Hendricks. Ninth year.
The Millersburg Herald, by J. B. Seal. Eighth year.
Lykens Register, by Samuel M. Fenn. Seventeenth year.
Dauphin County Journal (German), Harrisburg, by Dr. J. R. Hayes, Sixth year.
Harrisburg Saturday Night, by Dr. J. R. Hayes. Fourth year.
Pennsylvania Staats Zeitung, Harrisburg, by the executrix of John G. Ripper, deceased, W. Strobel, editor. Sixteenth year.
Church Advocate, Harrisburg, edited by Rev. C. H. Forney, D.D.
Steelton Reporter, by W. II. H. Sieg. First year.
The Sunday Morning Telegram, published every Sunday morning by the Telegram Company, Harris- burg, in its first year, thus far has been a successful enterprise. John Moore, editor.
In addition to the foregoing are the following pe- riodicale, issued monthly or semi-monthly :
The Conference Neves, organ of the Central Pennsyl- vania Methodist Conference, by Rev. W. M. Fry- -inger.
The Lutheran Chimes, published by Zion Lutheran Fourth Street Church.
Church and Home, published by Market Square Presbyterian Church.
Odd Fellows' Gazette, by T. Morris Chester.
People's Friend, organ of the local temperance movement.
Bulletin, organ of the Y. M. C. Association.
The Itinerant, by A. L. Groff, organ of the U. B. Church. Seventh year.
CHAPTER XII.
The Industries of Harrisburg-The Location of the City and its tittat Natural and Acquired Advantages.
WITH it> many advantages, its close proximity to the iron and coal fields, its water supply, its tran-por- tation facilities, its market- unexcelled in the variety and abundance of fruit, vegetables, meats, fowl, fish. and butter and egg-, Harrisburg -hould be a notable manufacturing centre. At present it lies across the pathway of one of the great transportation lines which binds the East to the West, while the future promises to give it another great trunk line, binding the North, South, East and West. This is no idle prophecy, for as we look at this country and its capa- bilities we see that latitudinally there is a sameness of products, differing only in degree, whilst longitu- dinally the difference is in kind. This being a fact it
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naturally follows that as the country fills up with population the interchange of commodities will in- crease in like proportion. The North will always need the products of the South, while the South, under the operation of climatie influences, eannot advance in manufacturing, and will always need the manufactures of the North. The day is not far dis- tant when the great trunk lines of transportation will traverse the land in all directions, and when it ar- rive- Harrisburg, lying right across the pathway of the national route from Boston and New York in the North to New Orleans and the Gulf in the South, will be as important a centre in that direction a- it is now with the inter-commerce of the country traversing the land from east to west.
This loeality is well off for furnace -ites, and as the demand inereases they will fill up. Coke is gradually supplanting coal in the manufacture of iron, as coal bas supplantedl charcoal, and the probabilities are that the furnaces of the future will all be built to aeeom- modate them to the use of coke. Our furnace sites are on the direct line of the coke's transit from the ovens to the seaboard.
No eity in the United States is better supplied with water, and that water of the purest. The very nature of the Su-quehanna preserves this to us. No stream in the land is freer from impurities. The health, too, of the city, notwithstanding the bad name it received at the hand- of it- neighbor Lancaster during the "removal of the seat of government question" on account of the "mill-dam" troubles, and which it re- tains owing to the keeping up of the same issue, is as good if not better than any river town in the State or Union. Stati-tie- go to prove that the annual death- rate is far less than any city in the United States. With all these advantage- it is not surprising that it ha- been -o greatly prosperous. There is no location equal to it in all the essentials for the establishment of manufacturing industries.
THE HARRISBURG CAR MANUFACTURING COM- PANY .- Among the numerous extensive industrial establishment- whose works have assumed -uch vast proportions as to exert a powerful interest upon the prosperity of the city, the Harrisburg Car Manufac- turing Company's works occupy the leading position. The plant of this company, consisting of two depart- ments, car-works and foundry and machine-works, occupying separate locations, aside from it- promi- nence as the leading industrial establishment of the eity, ranks as the equal of any similar indu-try in the United States in point of capacity and annual output of product, and is one of the largest and most impor- tant industries in our State. The car-works was put in operation in 1853, with a paid-up capital of two thousand five hundred dollars and a productive capacity of nine eight-wheeled cars a week. The original stockholders were Messrs. William Calder, David Fleming, Jacob Halleman, Sr., Elias E. Kin- zer, Thomas H. Wilson, A. O. Heister, W. F. Murray,
Isaac G. MeKinley, all of this city, and William T. Hildrup. a practical car-builder from Worcester, Mass. The company then owned two and one-half acres of ground west of Herr Street, where its present extensive works are located, which had formerly been used as a truck-garden, and the surroundings gave very little promise of the busy population now in- habiting that portion of our city. In 1863, after being in operation ten years, the capital stock of the company was increased to $300,000, which has since been still further increased to $500,000. As early as 1371 the manufacturing capacity of the plant was greater in daily product than the weekly output named at the beginning; the annual product that year amounted to $1,250,000. April 25, 1972, the works were entirely consumed by fire, entailing a los- of several hundred thousand dollars. yet such was the energy of the parties that in the short space of ninety day- the work- were rebuilt with increased size and capacity. The following Angust another fire broke out. entirely destroying the machine-shops, which department was rebuilt and put in operation in the almost incredible short -pace of thirteen and one-half working days ; and notwithstanding the loss of means and time by fire. the production for the year was car- ried to the enormous sum of two million dollar -. The panie of 1873 affected the car-building bu-ine-s probably more than any other branch of business in the country, yet such was the demand for the prod- ucts of this company that the business for the year amounted to over two million dollars. This in brief i- the early history of the car-work - department, and before attempting to review the present extensive works now owned and operated by the company it is necessary to briefly -keteh the origin and history of the foundry and machine-works, located on Alli-on's Hill and operated by the company, inasmuch as from this point to the end of our sketch the two industrie- will be incorporated in summing up the aggregate total of output, number of employé-, and wages paid.
The Harrisburg Foundry and Machine- Works owe- it- existence to Mr. lildrup'- mechanical attainments and executive ability. This gentleman, who has been the general superintendent and business manager of the car-works industry since its foundation, in order to keep their vast number of men employed during a season of depression in the car-building business which occurred about 1865. began the manufacture of agricultural implements and machinists' tool -. This industry was carried on for a few years in the car-works plant, but it was not long until a boom in the car-building business required all the -pace in the works for that purpose. Con-equently the com- pany were obliged to either give up the manufacture of the article- mentioned above or ereet suitable buildings to carry on the industry. They decided to continue the industry, and about 1567 erected the large works now in operation ou Allison's Hill. The buildings comprising this plant were used for car-
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CITY OF HARRISBURG.
building during the time required to build the car- cars, Wickes' patent, for the Merchants' Dispatch Transportation Company, elaborate affairs, that re- quire as much time to construct as six ordinary box- cars. To produce the enormous daily output requires the labor of six hundred and fifty men and boys. The daily consumption of material foots up titty-five thousand feet of lumber, most of which is Southern pine, thirty tons of wheel-, twenty-three tons of bar-, eleven tons of axle-, and seventeen tons of pig-iron. The company do uot forge their own axles, but make all their own wheels, casting one hundred and twenty a day from the best charcoal chilling iron. From year to year improvements have been made in the material used iu manufacturing cars and the machinery necessary to its preparation, so that the work now produced by the company is so near per- fection that it seems almost impossible that a further improvement can be effected in car manufacture. The products of the machine and foundry depart- ment on Allison's Hill consists of a line of heavy castings and machines for rolling-mills and blast- furnaces, compound pumping-engines of any capacity for supplying towns and cities with water, steam- engines and steam-boilers, blast-pipes, gas-tlnes, air- pipes, oil-tanks, tank-cars, wrought-iron draft -- tack>, and -tand-pipes. A specialty of this industry is a line of agricultural machinery, the chief production being the well-known Paxton portable -team-engine for farm use, furnishing the propelling power for thresh- ers, shellers, etc., in a shape that has long been the aim of inventors to consummate. The company manufacture these engines at the rate of one hundred works destroyed by fire. In place of the original two and a half acres of ground, the company now own fifty-eight acres of valuable city land, located as follows : Thirty-three acres north of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad, from Broad to State Streets, upon which the car-works are crected; twenty-two acres on Allison's Hill, where the foundry and machine- works are located ; and three acres opposite the Wis- ter Furnace, where the company's large saw-mill is located. The principal buildings comprising the car- works plant are imposing in their dimensions and architectural appearance, consisting of three con- struction-shops,-one sixty by two hundred and eighty-two feet, one sixty by two hundred feet, and one forty by two hundred and eleven feet in dimen- sions; foundry, sixty-two by two hundred and twenty feet ; machine-shop, sixty-one by one hundred and twenty feet, two stories; blacksmith-shop. forty-five by two hundred and sixty-one feet, containing forty- six forges, five steam-hammers, and an immen-e drop- hammer of two thousand five hundred pounds power ; repair-shop, thirty-eight by one hundred feet ; frame- shop, sixty by two hundred feet. two stories; planing- mill, eighty by one hundred and ten feet : engine- and boiler-house, forty by eighty feet; office, forty by forty-one feet, two storie>; warehouse, twenty -- ix by forty feet, two stories, used for storing car-springs and fine brass casting- ; together with a ho-t of other buildings, which, with a few exceptions, are brick structures, and are all roofed either with slate or tin. The foundry and machine-work- ou Alli-on's Hill are comprised in a series of building-, five of which . and fifty a year. Another specialty is the Paxton are sixty by two hundred feet, and one fifty by two hundred, all two stories. These contain foundry, machine-, boiler-, tank-, and finishing- or setting-np- shops, and the warehouse and counting-room- of the concern. The remaining buildings are one-story structures, adapted to forging, storage of raw mate- rial, and other department -. All the buildings are connected with each other by railway- which form a junction with the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- road. As might be expected, the works are thor- oughly equipped with all the latest improved me- chanical devices and appliances that will tend to facilitate speed and perfection of product. The ma-
grain and fertilizing drill, one of the finest achieve- ments of American ingenuity as an instrument for the cheapening and greater production of land crops. This plant furnishes employment to one hundred men and boys, swelling the total number of employés of the company to eight hundred, whose combined wages aggregate eight thousand dollars a week, and who produce by their labor a class of work that rep- resents in round numbers nearly three million dollars annually. The company have gone to great expense to improve their property, and they have left nothing undone to protect themselves from lo-s by fire, for besides providing their own hose-carriages and fire chinery is of the most powerful and accurate charac- , apparatus, they have at their own expense put down ter, embracing every improvement that ingenuity and skill has been able to devise, the larger portion of which was manufactured in the machine-shop of the company, both from private and standard patterns and specifications. Twelve stationary engines are necessary to propel the acres of machinery through- out the works, ranging in power from small fifteen- horse to monster one hundred and twenty horse-power affairs.
Sixteen thirty-four-feet eight-wheeled box-cars is the present daily productive capacity of the car- works plant, two of which are known as refrigerator
through their lumber-yard seventeen hundred feet of water-pipe, connecting with the city's water-main at State Street. Seven fire-plugs are distributed throughout the lumber-yard, and alongside of each plug is arranged a hose-box containing a supply of fire-hose. Numerous other interesting features might be mentioned in this connection, but want of space will not permit.
In conclusion, personal mention must be made of some of the more prominent parties who have been instrumental in making this the most prominent in- dustrial establishment in the city. and which con-
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HISTORY OF DAUPHIN COUNTY.
duees in a large degree to the general welfare of the was purchased by Mr. McCormick, and after a few fast-increasing business, located near the site of the old one, put it in blast in 1872, and named it Paxton Furnace No. 2. community. The almost unprecedented success of years the McCormicks added another furnace to their this vast enterprise is largely due to Mr. William T. Hildrup, the general superintendent and business manager. The president of the company is Mr. David Fleming, one of the original stockholders, who suc- Paxton Furnace, No. 1, has a forty-three-foot stack, a fourteen-foot bosh, and a capacity of six hundred tons pig-iron per month, while No. 2 has a sixty-foot stack, a fourteen-foot bosh, and capacity the same as No. 1. ceeded the late William Calder. Mr. John Murphy, the general agent of the company, with headquarters at New York, is well and favorably known in railroad circles. The principal office assistants are Messrs. George G. Boyer, chief elerk, and J. Hervey Patton, assistant, with Mr. M. S. Shotwell, inventor of a val- uable car-replacer bearing his name, as inspector and dranghtsman.
THE CHESAPEAKE NAIL-WORKS .- The-e exten- sive works, located near the canal, along the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. in the First Ward of the city, were built in 1366 by Charles L. Bailey & Brother. Of the twelve acres of land owned by the company, seven are covered by tenement-houses and the nail- works. The shops comprise a puddle-mill, nail-plate mill and nail-factory, and a variety of other buildings necessary in connection with works of this kind. The puddle-mill has fourteen puddling-furnace -. squeezer, and one train of rolls. The nail-plate mill has three heating-furnaces, one train of rolls. and shears for cutting nail-plate. In the nail-factory are sixty-six nail-machines, and the machinery throughout is of the latest and most approved pattern, and has a pro- ducing capacity of two hundred and sixty thousand kegs of nails per year, and employ> about three hun- dred men. The present officers are Charles L. Bailey, president ; A. S. Patterson, secretary ; G. M. Mc- Canley, treasurer.
CENTRAL IBON-WORKS .- The old mill was built in 1853 by Charles L. Bailey & Brother, and changed and enlarged in 1879. The new mill was built in 1877-78 and enlarged in losl, and contain- one single and six double puddle-furnaces, one squeezer, five heating-furnaces, and five train-rolls (one muck, one thirty-one-inch and one twenty-five-inch roughing, one Lauth 3-high thirty-one-inch and one Lauth 3- high twenty-five-inch chilled finishing , with shear-, cranes, etc. The product of the works are boiler- plate and tank-iron. The annual capacity of the works is about thirteen thousand net ton-, and employ one hundred and fifty men. The officers are: Presi- dent, Char'e, L. Bailey : Secretary, Abraham S. Pat- terson ; Treasurer, G. M. McCauley.
THE PAXTON FURNACES. - Paxton Furnace, No. 1, was built in 1853 by Messrs. Bryan and Longen- ecker, of Lancaster, and located in the southern suburb of what was then the borough of Harrisburg. This firm condneted the business for a few year-, when they soll their interest to the late Jame- McCormick and Robert J. Ros-, who placed the business in charge of Henry McCormick, and proceeded at once to a vigorous prosecution of the manufacture of pig metal. Mr. Ross subsequently died, when the entire property
EAGLE WORKS .- This establishment was built in 1854, by W. O. Hickok, present owner and operator. on the corner of Canal and North Streets, and in 1-69 was enlarged to its present dimensions, and is oper- ated by steam power. A specialty is made in machine castings, cider-mills, mechanics' tools, ruling ma- chinery, etc. Ninety men are given constant employ- ment, while the products of the works find sale in most every country on the globe.
JACKSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY .- This com- pany was organized in August, 18SI, with a cash cap- ital of fifty thousand dollars, and chartered Septem- ber 19th of the same year. The incorporators were John T. Chambers, James Jenkins, Henry C. Jenkins, James I. Chamberlain, Sarah H. Jackson, and Charles H. Jackson. The works of the company are located on the corner of new Fourth Street and Boyd Alley, and were purchased and enlarged in 1881, and pro- vided with machinery for the manufacture of -toel wheelbarrows, pressed with patent dies, for which the present capacity is sixty steel barrows per day. They also manufacture eoke wagons, mining wagons, mine cars, pig-metal barrows, charging barrows for fur- naces and foundries, also farm wheel-barrows, all of which are pressed from sheet steel. Twenty-five men are employed. The following are the present direc- tors and officers of the company : James I. Chamber- lain, president ; James Jenkins, secretary and treas- urer; Col. W. W. Jennings, Charles H. Jackson, John T. Chambers.
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