History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2, Part 24

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904; Hungerford, Austin N., joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Richards
Number of Pages: 948

USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 24
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 24

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The company owns sixteen locomotives, which are used in conveying ore, coal, limestone, and iron upon their railroads, and from one point to another about the furnaces. The works are very conveniently arranged for the handling of material, and have ex- cellent communication with the markets by means of two railroads and the canal. The works are regarded by iron men as having few, if any, superiors, in regard to the thoroughly substantial plan of their construc- tion, economical arrangement, and perfection of detail, for which eredit is largely due to Mr. Saniuel Thomas, at first superintendent and then president of the company, and his brother, John Thomas, who has occupied the former position for the past sixteen years. In the great work on metallurgy, published in London in 1864 by John Percy, M.D., F.R.S., the Thomas Iron-Works were the only ones in America which were represented, the aceount of them, accompanied by drawings in detail, being furnished by Professor George Brush, of Yale College. These works were selected because of their perfection as the model ones for illustration of iron manufacture in the United States.

duties of assistant superintendent at the Thomas Works, he received injuries by a fall from the top of the hot-blast oven, from which his death ensued on the 10th of November following. Had he lived, his natural ability and large experience would doubtless have made him one of the leading ironmasters of the valley. In 1867, John Thomas was elected to the office of general superintendent, which he has since filled, with Edwin Mickley as assistant. Mr. Mickley entered the employ of the company in October, 1856, and took charge of the mines. He has since continued to superintend this department, and is recognized as one of the most thoroughly practical metallurgists in the State. He has made many improvements at the mines, facilitating the economical handling of the ores, and has been a generally useful and valuable man to the company.

The employes of the Thomas Iron. Works at the furnaces number about three hundred and fifteen, while enough more are kept at work in limestone- quarrying and ore-digging to swell the number to two thousand. At Hokendauqua and elsewhere the men in the employ of the company enjoy many advantages not usually found amid the surroundings of a great manufacturing establishment. The town, of which we have made meution, has been developed entirely through the operation of this industry. Its popula- tion, consisting of nearly a thousand people, is de- pendent upon the Thomas Works. At first the com- pany undertook to sell the lots in the town they plat- ted here, but perceiving that if they did so saloons would be established and various evils ensue, they changed their policy and began building extensively for their employés. The town as a result contains no place where liquor is sold, and the liberality and far- seeing poliey of the management has provided the employés and their families with far better and pleasanter homes than most of them would have es- tablished for themselves. The long lines of neat and substantial houses have ample door-yards, neatly fenced, and they line broad, well-graded, tree-shaded streets. The company has introduced both hard and soft water, -- the former from a fine spring and the latter from the river,-which is conducted by pipes along every street, and constantly flows from syphous on each square, while those who desire can by a very slight expense extend the pipes into their houses, as has been done in many instances,

Since the organization of the Thomas Iron Com- pany a number of changes have taken place among its officials, which we here note. The first president, Peter S. Michler, resigned in 1855, and was succeeded by C. A. Imckenbach, who remained in office until 1864, when he sold his interest and retired from the ! company. Samuel Thomas, who had been the first and only superintendent, was then elected president, and by reelection has held the office to the present, a period of twenty years. In May, 1856, John T. Knight succeeded Carman F. Randolph, the first treasurer and secretary, and has held that office con- tinuously since. For some time after Samuel Thomas' election as president he continued to fill his old office When the town was laid out lots were donated for a church and school-house, which are at present oc- cupied by fine buildings. Towards the establishment of the church the company gave five thousand dollars, and the first school-house was built entirely with its funds. The company has also built a church at its iron-ore mines in New Jersey, and contributed to one at Lock Ridge. At Hokendanqna the second story of a large building is set apart by the company as a stitution of the kind, well supplied with the best of of superintendent, having as assistants at different periods his son David and Valentine W. Weaver. David Thomas, Jr., came to the works as assistant superintendent in the summer of 1860. He had been educated to the iron industry under his father, and had previously been connected with these works, but for three years immediately anterior to the date men- tioned he had been in charge of a furnace, principally owned by the family, at Canal Dover, Ohio. In Sep- ' young men's library and reading-room, -- a model in- tember, 1861, a little over a year after assuming the

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WHITEHALL TOWNSHIP.

reading matter, both in book, magazine, and news- paper form. The company has also built a very neat and tasteful station for the Lehigh Valley Railroad, in which is also conveniently included the post-office. In short, the entire town exhibits the evidences of the liberality of the company, and the considerate regard of its officials for the well-being of those in their em- ploy. The present board of directors is composed of Samuel Thomas, of Catasauqua; B. G. Clark, of New York ; William W. Marsh and David Runkle, of New Jersey ; John T. Knight, Samuel Drake, and Charles Stewart, of Easton.

John Thomas, the son of David and Elizabeth Thomas, of Yniscedwin, South Wales, was born at the latter place, Sept. 29, 1829, and when a lad emigrated with his parents to America, landing in New York on the 5th of June, 1839. He accompanied the family to Pennsylvania, and after a brief residence at Al- lentown became a resident of Catasauqua, Lehigh Co., where his youth was spent. Ilis early advantages of education were obtained at Allentown, after which he beeame a pupil of Nazareth Hall, in Northampton County, where a year was devoted to perfecting hiti- self in the principal English branches. Having com- pleted his studies at the Allentown Academy, he deter- mined to acquire a thorough knowledge of the business of an ironmaster, and with that end in view entered the blacksmith-shops of the Crane Iron-Works. Hav- ing beeome entirely familiar with this department of labor, he entered the machine-shops and furnaces, and thus by his thorough and practical acquaintance with the business fitted himself for the direction of the company's extensive interests. On the retirement of David Thomas from the aetive superintendency of the works, he was succeeded by his son, John, who filled the position with ability and marked suceess until 1867, when, in June of that year, he resigned to aceept the appointment of general superintendent of the Thomas Iron-Works at Hokendanqua. His rela- tions with the officers and employes of the Crane Iron- Works, both in a social and business capacity, were of such a character as to occasion general regret at his departure. Under the efficient management of Mr. Thomas two new furnaces have been built, and a high degree of prosperity has been attained by the Thomas Iron-Works, while the social and moral in- fluence of his presence and that of his family in Ho- . of the business. He aided in the crection of the fur- kendauqua is in a high degree salutary.

he has evineed much zeal in the cause of education. He is in politics a Republican, and more or less active in the loeal issues of the day, but not with a view to personal advancement. Mr. Thomas is in religion a Presbyterian and member of the church at Hoken- dauqua, as are also Mrs. Thomas and five of their children.

Edwin Mickley, the assistant superintendent of the Thomas Iron-Works, is the great-great-grandson of John Jacob Michelet, who was a native of Deux-Ponts, Alsace, and born in 1697. He married Elizabeth Burkhalter, and had five children ; John Jacob, whose birth oeeurred in 1734 and his death in 1809, being the eldest son. He was united in marriage to Susane Miller, who was the mother of five children. The name of John Jacob was perpetuated in their eldest son, born in 1766, who died in 1857. He married Eva Catherine Schreiber, whose children were Jacob, Joseph J., Polly, Sarah, and Anna. Jacob, of this number, and the father of Edwin, was born in 1794, and married to Anna, daughter of Nicholas Kern. Among their eleven children was Edwin, whose birth occurred on the 20th of April, 1830, in Whitehall township, where, on the homestead, his youth, until his sixteenth year, was spent. The two suceeeding years were devoted to study at Kingston, in the Wyoming Valley, after which, on his return, he de- termined upon the development of his mechanical genius by acquiring proficiency in the trade of a master-machinist. With this in view he entered the shops of the Crane Iron-Works, and after an extended experience in its various departments repaired to New York, where the winter of 1854 was spent in the shops of the Globe Works. Meanwhile he assisted Mr. Samnel Thomas in the erection of the Boonton Iron- Works, in Morris County, N. J., and left them in sue- cessful operation. In the spring of 1854, Mr. Mick- ley removed to Fogelsville, and conducted a foundry and machine-shop, having here constructed the first engine used in the zinc-mines of the vicinity. After two and a half years spent in connection with the latter enterprise, in October, 1856, he became asso- viated with the Thomas Fron-Works as superintendent of their mining interests. His capacity and thorough knowledge of mechanics rendered his assistance in- valuable, not less in this than in other departments

naees known as Nos. 3 and 4, and for a period had charge of the company's works. It is but just to

Mr. Thomas was married on the 7th of May, 1855, to Miss Helen, daughter of Hopkin Thomas, of Cat- say that Mr. Mickley has been one of the important asauqua. Their surviving children are David H. (who factors in the success of the Thomas Iron-Works, and I in the prestige they have gained among manufacturers. In direeting his efforts towards the reduction in cost. of production, he has been especially successful, and enabled the company to manufacture iron at cheaper rates and of superior quality. During the late war Mr. Mickley served as first lieutenant of Company B, Thirty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania (ninety days) has charge of the Thomas Iron Company's furnaces at Lock Ridge), Miriam, Bessie 11., Samuel R., Kittie V., and John W. Mr. Thomas is largely identified with other business interests, as director of the Cat- asauqua and Fogelsville Railroad, president for some years of the Catasauqua Manufacturing Company, and director of the Upper Lehigh Coal Company. As director for a long period of the schools of the borough, . Militia, then engaged in defensive operations. Having

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HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

early affiliated with che Whig party in politics, he ditions and with varying degrees of success nutil found the principles of the Republican platform in . 1878. In that year financial difficulties which had harmony with his convictions, though he has never sought official position. He has ever manifested a strong interest in the intellectual as well as the ma- terial growth of Ilokendaugna, and served for twenty years as president of the school board. He is a di- rector, and was one of the chief promoters, of the Ironton Railroad. He is also a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. He is a Presbyterian in his religions faith, member and cider of the Hokendauqua Church of that denomination, and superintendent of the Sabbath-school. Mr. Mick- ley was married in September, 1853, to Miss Matilda, daughter of Solomon Fogel, of Fogelsville. Their children are Anna D., Lillie E. ( Mrs. H. M. Chance, of Philadelphia), Minnie F., and a son, John Jacob. been growing thick about the company for some time became so serious that business was discontinued. The furnaces were blown out in December, and re- mained idle until late in the year 1879, when their operation was resumed by the Coplay Iron Company (Limited), which was incorporated June 18th of that year. This company consists of forty corporators, and has a capital of $200,000. Its officers.are, Presi- dent, E. P. Wilbur ; Secretary and Treasurer, William HI. Ainey ; Superintendent, Valentine W. Weaver; Directors, William II. Ainey, E. P. Wilbur, W. Dod- son, Aaron Balliet, V. W. Weaver, Joseph Laubach, R. M. Gummere, and Dr. John S. Wentz. The out- put of the works is about thirty thousand tons of foundry pig-iron annually.

The Coplay Iron-Works .- In the summer of 1853, Stephen Balliet, Stephen Balliet, Jr., Aaron Balliet, and Benjamin S. Levan became associated together as Stephen Balliet & Co., for the purpose of erecting and operating an iron furnace. Twelve acres of land on the west bank of Coplay Creek ( where the works now are) were purchased of Daniel Schreiber, and the foundation of Furnace No. 1 was laid in the fall of the year, and all was ready for the erection of the stack in the spring of 1851. A block of frame houses for the workmen was also built in the fall of 1853,

and the locality thus began to bear an appearance prophetic of future activity. Stephen Balliet, Sr., died on the 17th of January, 1854, and a reconstrue- tion of the firm became necessary. Joseph Laubach and Lewis A. Buckley were admitted as partners. The company was then incorporated as the Lehigh Valley Iron Company. Joseph Laubach was made president, and Benjamin S. Levan was elected to fill the office of secretary, treasurer, and superintendent. Work was resumed in the spring of 1854, and stack No. 1 was erected, being forty-five feet in height, and of fourteen-foot bosh. The company bought hema- tite ore-beds in Whitehall township, and afterwards others in Long Swamp, Bucks Co., as well as the ' Iron Company, of which he was for thirty years Ogden Magnetic Ore- Mines, in Sussex County, .N. J.

A superintendent's house was created in the fall of 1855.

Furnace No. 2, the dimensions of which were fifty- | him with a costly watch and chain, appropriately five feet in height, sixteen feet bosh, and seven feet tun- , inseribed. Mr. Levan has had little leisure for mat- nel-head, was built in 1862, and about the same time a block of eleven houses was erected. These dwell- ! erat, and now votes the Republican ticket. He is an ings were a combination of brick and frame, and were both substantial and tasteful structures.

In 1867 Furnace No. 3 was built to meet the in- creased demand on the company. This was fifty-five feet high, the bosh was sixteen feet, and the tunnel- head eight feet. From seventy to one hundred men are now employed, and to give their workmen good homes the company put up ten more houses, building this time entirely of brick, on Third Street.

The works were carried on without any further ad-

Benjamin S. Levan is a descendant of a family of Iluguenot blood, who were emigrants to America at an early date. John Le Van, the grandfather of the subject of this biographical sketch, resided in Berks County, where he cultivated a farm successfully. He was united in marriage to Miss Margaretta Kahler, and had children,-Daniel, John, Charles, Peter, and two daughters. Daniel was born in Berks County, and later made Schuylkill County his residence, where his death occurred. He married Miss Hetty Stout, of Berks County, whose children are Lydia, Anna, Elizabeth, Hetty, Sarah, Catherine, Isaac, Ben- jamin S., Joseph, James, and William Augustus. Benjamin S. was born Oct. 26, 1806, in Maiden Creek township, Berks Co., and at an early age removed to Kutstown. His first business experience was obtained in Philadelphia, where for five years he was employed as a grocer's clerk. From thence he removed to Lehigh County, and settled in Ballietsville. He sub- sequently became superintendent of the Lchigh Fur- nace, in Washington township, and in that capacity served the company faithfully for a period of twenty- eight years. Ile then removed to Whitehall town- ship, and erected the furnace of the Lehigh Valley superintendent and general manager. On retiring from this official position the company, as a token of their appreciation of his invaluable services, presented ters of a political nature. He was formerly a Demo- elder of the Reformed Church of Coplay, and was the most liberal contributor to the erection of the church edifice. Mr. Levan is married to Miss Maria, daugh- ter of the late Stephen Balliet, Sr. Their children are Albert (deceased), Stephen (deceased), Francis (de- ceased), Paul, James (deceased), Garret, and Susan (Mrs. Charles I. Rader).

Valentine W. Weaver, of the Coplay Iron-Works, is of an old family of this region. His great-grand- father emigrated from Germany to America, and

Benjamin & Savary 1

APBalliet

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WHITEHALL TOWNSHIP.

settled in Virginia, from whence he removed to the termined to follow an active business career, and erected in Carbon County a charcoal furnace which he successfully operated for twenty years, after which he purchased the homestead at Ballietsville. In con- nection with other partners, he, in 1854, built a fur- nace at Coplay, the ownership of which has since passed into the hands of a company known as the Coplay Iron Company, in which he is a direetor. Mr. Balliet, on Ang. 21, 1845, married Sarah, daughter of John Dengler, of Carbon County. To this union were born eight children, two of whom died in childhood. Those who reached adult years were Francis, Julia (Mrs. Augustus Hollershoff), Ella ( Mrs. A. Hollers- hoff'), Emma (Mrs. O. P. Lampher), Anne ( Mrs. O. E. Holman), and Susan Ida. Mr. Balliet was a second time married on March 6, 1867, to Miss Catharine, daughter of David Housman, of Whitehall township, whose children are Aaron, Ilarvey, and Ada M. Mr. Balliet, while devoting his attention to the man- State of Pennsylvania, and located in Lehigh (then Northampton) County. His son, Valentine, was united in marriage to a Miss Weygandt, and had chil- dren, among whom was Charles, the father of the subject of this biography, born in Northampton County, and married to Catherine Hummel, whose children were three sons and four daughters. Valentine W., of this number, was born Jan. 9, 1826, in Northampton County. A portion of his boyhood was spent in Nor- thumberland County, with such advantages of eduea- tion as were afforded in the neighboring schools. He early began a business carcer as clerk at Berlinsville, Northampton County, and subsequently acted in the same capacity at Milton, Pa., and also at Easton and Catasauqua. At the age of twenty he became an apprentice to the Crane Iron-Works, and having per- feeted himself at the trade of a machinist, speedily consummated an engagement with the same company, as the agent of their mining interests at. Catasauqua . ufacture of iron and the development of iron mines, and the vicinity.

Mr. Weaver remained several years thus employed, and later removed to Hokendanqua as assistant super- intendent of the works of the Thomas Iron Company. .

He afterwards erected the Lock Ridge Furnaces for the Lock Ridge Iron Company, and managed them snecessfully in the interest of the Thomas Iron Con- The Coplay Cement-Works .- In a region not pos- sessing the immense riches of coal and iron which are contained in nature's vast vaults along the Lehigh, pany. On concluding his labors at this point he re- moved to Pine Grove, Cumberland Co., where the latter company had also an extensive property, and ; the great deposit of rock suitable for manufacture remained three years. Ilis services were next in de- mand in connection with the works of the Millers- towu Iron Company. In July, 1879, he removed to Coplay as superintendent of the Coplay Iron Com- pany's Works, where he is at present engaged. In these various fields of labor he has demonstrated his thorough knowledge of all departments of the busi- ness, and contributed largely to the profitable results of the year's labor. Mr. Weaver was married, in 1818, to Miss Mary, daughter of Jacob Mickley, of White- hall township. Their children are William M., James W., Valentine W., Lizzie, Mary (Mrs. H. S. Bachman), Catharine M., and Emily J. Mr. Weaver is a director of the Macungie Iron Company, and interested as a director in the National Banks of Slatington and Catasauqua. JIe is also a director of the Hokendauqua Bridge Company. He is in politics a Republican, but not an aspirant for official position. He is in his religious affiliations a Presbyterian and member of that church, as are also his family.

Aaron Balliet, the grandson of Stephen Balliet and his wife, Magdalena Burkhalter, and son of Stephen Balliet and his wife, Susan Thrie, was boru March 7, 1818, in Whitehall township, Lehigh Co., where his boyhood was passed. The advantages of education in the vicinity of his home being limited, he became a pupil of an excellent school at Milford, N. J., and later in his native State.

has also been interested in farming occupations. He has always been either a Whig or a Republican in politics, and has served as justice of the peace, school director, and in various minor capacities, He is a member of the German Reformed Church of Union- ville, which he aided materially in building.

into cement would have attracted far more attention than it has here, and alone would have sufliced to have made the locality famous. But here the impor- tanec of these rock-beds has been in a large measure dwarfed by the colossal operations in coal upon one side, and iron upon the other. Nevertheless, it was by men engaged in mining the former, and seeking a way of placing it in the market, that the cement rocks were first discovered and their value demon- strated. The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, which operated the mines on Summit Hill and else- where in Carbon County, and after establishing a slack-water navigation, finally constructed a canal along the river, made use of the rock which nature lad placed so conveniently near, about the year 1829. They quarried it on the east side of the river just above Siegfried's bridge, and manufactured from it the cement which they used in building the dams and locks of their canal. The company continued the making of cement until 1872, when the beds were leased to Gen. James Selfridge, who, after enlarging the capacity of the works, carried on business for two or three years, and then discontinued it.

Many years prior to the latter date, however, the cuts made for the track of the Lehigh Valley Rail- road had laid bare along the west side of the river an extensive formation of rock similar to that which had been so long used upon the east side, and possessing

On returning to his home, in 1837, Mr. Balliet de- ! all of the qualities desirable for the manufacture of

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HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the best cements. The value of the deposit thus revealed was soon recognized by Messrs. D. O. Say- lor, Esaias Rehrig, and Adam Woolever, who organ- ized early in 1866 the Coplay Cement Company. They obtained possession of a large amount of desir- able property, and in the spring took measures towards realizing upon their investment. They built two small kilns for burning the stone, and fitted up an old distillery building near Coplay Station for a grinding-mill. They at first utilized the rock in the small knobs and ridges left between the railroad eut and the river, hauling it about one mile to their works. The business, though small, was profitable, and, as soon as it was practicable to do so, the enter- prising proprietors enlarged it. In 1869 they built a frame and stone mill near the small kilns, and then proceeded to erect two additional kilns, which in- creased the capacity of their works to about two hundred and fifty barrels of natural cement per day. In 1870 the company opened a new quarry and a slope in the greater mass of roek west of the railroad cut, from which they are still taking their supply of stone. In 1871 they built an addition to their mill, which largely inercased the effectiveness of their operations.

Up to this time only the ordinary, or what is called the natural cement, had been manufactured, but in 1872, Mr. D. O. Saylor, the president of the eon- pany, discovered a process by which an improved eement could be made, and secured a patent upon it. The product of this process is known as the " Anchor i of having first introduced into this country the manu- Cement." In 1873 the company commenced the manufacture of Portland cement, in which they had reached a most satisfying success after many failures in experiment. This was named for the market "Saylor's Portland Cement." This new mannfacture became very popular and necessitated greater enlarge- ment and improvement of the works, the introduction of new machinery, and the employment of a greater force of hands.

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History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2, Part 24

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904; Hungerford, Austin N., joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Richards Number of Pages: 948

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904; Hungerford, Austin N., joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Richards
Number of Pages: 948