USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 47
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
In 1874, the company's coal trade having suffered for a number of years from the want of an indepen- dent outlet to tide-water, a perpetual lease was made of the property of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, by which arrangement the Lehigh Rail- road Company came into possession of a line of canal one hundred and two miles long, extending from the terminus of the road at Phillipsburg to Jersey City.
From this time on the affairs of the Lehigh Valley Railroad progressed smoothly and prosperously. There have been comparatively few changes in the policy of its management, but several benefits have been gained as the results of that policy, which, combined, have given the road a prominent place among the railroads of the East, and place it in a position which entitles it to consideration as one of the trunk lines between tide-water and the lakes.
60-4
IIISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Several changes have taken place among the of- fieials of the company in the past dozen or more years. In the latter part of 1870, John P. Cox, the superintendent of the Pennsylvania and New York Canal and Railroad Company (now known simply as a portion of the Lehigh Valley Railroad), died sud- denly, and R. A. Packer was elected to fill the vacancy.
Judge Asa Packer remained president of the Le- high Valley Railroad until his death, in May, 1879. Charles Hartshorne, who had for a long period been vice-president, then acted as president until January, 1880, when he was elected to the office. He was re- elected in 1881, and Harry E. Packer was chosen vice-president. In January, 1883, Mr. Packer was elected president, and Mr. Hartshorne vice-president. Mr. P'acker held the office until his death, early in 1884.
In 1870, Charles C. Longstreth, who had long been treasurer of the company, died, and Lloyd Chamber- lain, formerly seeretary, was then elected to the office. John R. Fanshawe was at the same time chosen see- retary. In July, 1883, William C. Alderson was eleeted treasurer, Mr. Lloyd Chamberlain having died on the 7th of that month.
Following is a list of the officers and directors of the company as they stood at the time the last annual report was made, Jan. 15, 1884: President, Harry E. Packer; Viee-President, Charles Hartshorne; Gen- eral Manager, Elisha P. Wilbur ; Treasurer, William C. Alderson ; Secretary, John R. Fanshawe; General Superintendent, H. Stanley Goodwin ; Dircetors, Charles Hartshorne, William L. Conyngham, Ario Pardee, William A. Ingham, George B. Markle, Rob- ert H. Sayre, James 1. Blakslee, Elisha P. Wilbur, Joseph Patterson, Garrett B. Linderman, John R. Fell, Robert A. Lamberton.
Following is a tabular statement of the tonnage of the Lehigh Valley Railroad from its opening in 1855:
Year.
Tonnage.
1×55 (3 months).
8,482
1856
165,740
1857.
418,235
1858.
171,029
1859
377,651
1865
1,687,462
1866.
2,0.37,714
1867
2,050,156
1868
2,603,102
1869
2,310,170
1870.
3,608,586
1871.
2,889,074
1872
3,850,118
1873
4,144,339
1874
4,150,659
1875.
3,277,571
1876 ..
3,951,513
1877.
.1,862,124
1878
3,446,615
1879
4,361,785
1880.
4,606,115
1881.
5,791,376
1882
6,257,159
1883
6,527,912
Following are statistics concerning this road from the company's last report :
Miles of trackage, main line
Miles of tracknge Pennsylvania and New Jersey Canal and
Railroad Company .... 265.5
Locomotives, both lines .. 356
Passenger-cars. 85
Coal- and other cars. 35,750
Passengers carried
2,027,190
Tons of coal carried ... 7.781,766
Tons of other freight carried.
4,765,702
Gross earnings ..
$12,443,613
Net earnings. 6,877,078
Capital stock ..
27,003,195
Bonded debt ..
25,013,000
Income from investments.
1,079,213
Acres coal-lands owned and controlled 30,000
Biographical sketches of Hon. Asa Packer and others prominently identified with the Lehigh Val- ley Railroad Company will be found in the chapter on Mauch Chunk. That of Mr. Hartshorne is here appended.
Charles Hartshorne, the vice-president of the Le- high Valley Railroad Company, was born at Philadel- phia, Sept. 2, 1829. He is a son of the late Dr. Joseph and Anna Hartshorne, and a descendant in the sev- enth generation from Richard Hartshorne, who settled in New Jersey in 1665, nearly twenty years prior to Penn's settlement on the Delaware. His grandfather, William Ilartshorne, of Alexandria, Va., was treas- urer of the first Internal Improvement Company in this country, of which Gen. Washington was president.
Mr. Hartshorne was educated at Haverford College and at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the latter in the class of '47.
Mr. Hartshorne's carly tendencies were in the line of railroad enterprises, which began to take a strong hold upon the attention of capitalists and of the public about the time of his emergenee from college life into the more practical experiences of business and public affairs. Having embarked in railroad in- terests, Mr. Hartshorne has continued therein to the present time as an active and influential participant in various important transportation movements. In 1857 he became president of the Quakake Railroad Company ; in 1862 he was chosen president of the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad Company ; in 1868 he was elected vice-president of the Lehigh Valley Rail- road Company, and in 1880 was elevated to the presi- deney, but in January, 1883, resumed the position of vice-president to make room for a son of the late Judge Packer, whose estate holds a controlling inter- est in the company. In addition to his important railroad interests, Mr. Hartshorne is connected with a number of commercial organizations, notably the Provident Life and Trust Company and the Western National Bank, in each of which he is a director.
IIe is also officially connected with a number of publie enterprises of an educational and charitable character. Among such may be mentioned Haver- ford College, Bryn Mawr College, and the Pennsyl- vania Hospital, of each of which he is a member of the board of managers.
Although engaged in a number of enterprises of great magnitude, and burdened with a multiplicity of responsible duties, Mr. Hartshorne has found time to indulge in a considerable amount of domestic and
741.5
713,871
1,195,154
1,466,791
Учим Бит
605
PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENT AND INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
foreign travel, having visited Europe in the years 1852, 1868, and 1882.
On the 8th of June, 1859, Mr. Hartshorne was mar- ried to Miss Caroline Cope Yarnall, a daughter of Edward Yarnall and a granddaughter of Thomas P. Cope. As a result of this alliance there have been five children,-two sons and three daughters.
The Beaver Meadow Railroad, now known sim- ply as the Beaver Meadow Division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, was the first railroad within the limits of Carbon County on which steam was em- ployed as power, although it was built a number of years after the gravity road from the Summit Mines to Maueh Chunk. The Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company was incorporated by aet of the Assem- bly April 13, 1830, with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and was empowered to build a railroad from the Beaver Meadow Coal Mines (in what is now Banks township) to the Lehigh River, at or near Mauch Chunk, a distance, by the windings of the Beaver, Hazel, and Quakake Creeks, and the Lehigh River, of about twenty miles, and, if deemed expedient, to make a railroad from the mines to the Little Schuylkill at such place as might be deemed necessary to make connection with any other road built in that valley. Both of these routes were examined, and that to and along the Lehigh was found to be preferable by reason of the greater facility of passing through a country graded by streams of water, thereby avoiding the necessity of constructing planes and employing stationary en- gines ; also on account of the advantage of markets for eoal on the Delaware, to which this route led most directly. The original act anthorized the com- pany to extend their road on the Lehigh only to Mauch Chunk, at the head of the canal. A failure to make satisfactory arrangements with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in regard to tolls over their canal prevented the commencement of active operations during the summer of 1830, and at the following session of the General Assembly a sup- plement to the act of incorporation was passed au- thorizing an increase of capital to eight hundred thousand dollars, and an extension of the road from Mauch Chunk, a distance by the river of forty-six miles. The books for the subscription to the addi- tional stock were opened at a time when the failure of coal operations had caused a general discourage- ment in all enterprises of that kind, and before the advantages of railroad transportation had been ascer- tained by experience. A sufficient sum had been subscribed to have authorized the undertaking, but the board had been too much influenced by the general depression to make the effort. The subscrip- tions were, therefore, canceled and the principal part of the money repaid to the subscribers. Since that time experience has more accurately determined the expense of transporting coal by railroads, as well as that of constructing them. A new subscription was
commeneed in November, 1832, and a sufficient amount of stoek was taken to assure the board that there was no longer any reason for apprehending failure. But it was found that the period limited by law in which the work must be completed had so far elapsed that it was deemed inexpedient to progress with the work until an extension of time was pro- eured. Application being made to the Legislature, an act was passed Jan. 29, 1833, granting the privi- lege of four years more in which to finish the work.1
Under the provision of the act work was com- menced on the road. Canvass White was chief engi- neer and A. Pardce assistant. After the road was surveyed, and while it was being graded, a difficulty arose between the company and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company about its location, the managers of the latter insisting that its grade was too low. This trouble culminated in the exercise of a little violence at what is called the Oxbow, where stones were hurled down the bank at the Beaver Meadow Com- pany's laborers. The difficulty was finally settled, and the grade was changed, the road-bed being made higher than was at first intended. The road was fin- ished and opened for transportation in the fall of . 1836. The two locomotives put upon the track were called the "S. D. Ingham" and "Elias Ely." In April, 1837, another -- the "Quakake"-was added, and in August the "Beaver."
In the mean time, under authority of an act passed Dec. 22, 1836, extending the time of the company for building the road as far as Easton to seven years, that work had been undertaken and the track actually laid to a point opposite Parryville by the close of 1836.
The freshet of 1841 carried away all of the bridges from Weatherly to Parryville, and that part of the road below Mauch Chunk was abandoned, arrange- ments being made to transfer coal from the Beaver Meadow Railroad to the boats on the canal at that point. Shipment of coal was resumed in August, 1841. In 1849, under the presidency of W. W. Longstreth, the road was relaid with heavy T-rail, the track having previously consisted of timbers with flat or strap-rails. In September, 1860, another heavy flood ocenrred, which carried away the bridges on Black and Quakake Creeks, and destroyed the car-shops at Weatherly and Penn Haven. The repairs neces- sary could not be made in time to allow the resump- tion of business in 1850, but the road was again in readiness for operation on the opening of navigation, in 1851. On the 15th of March, 1858, the company was authorized by the Legislature to take such steps as were necessary to avoid the use of inclined planes. Accordingly a piece of road one and three-quarter miles long, extending from Weatherly in the direction of Hazelton, was purchased from the Hazelton Coal Company. This was graded in 1854-55, and track
1 The foregoing facts are taken from a report of the president and managers of the company, signed by S. D. Ingham, and published in Muzard's Register for April, 1833.
606
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
being laid in the latter year, the inelined planes , Valley for a railroad was by the Morris Canal and were abandoned on the 14th of August. The grade | Banking Company, who by a supplement to their from Weatherly along Hazel Creek for one and three- quarter miles is one hundred and forty-five feet to the mile. At about the same time this change was made a second track was laid along the Lehigh from Penn Haven to Mauch Chunk.
The Quakake Valley Railroad was completed Aug. 25, 1858, connecting the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad with the Beaver Meadow Railroad.
The Beaver Meadow became a carrying road for all of the coal-fields in its region, and gained rapidly in business. In 1866 it was merged with the Lehigh Valley Railroad, of which it now formed the Beaver Meadow Division. The presidents of the road from the first to the time of the merger were S. D. Ingham, - Budd, Joseph Pearsoll, J. H. Dulless, -- - Row- land, and W. W. Longstreth, the latter holding the office until 1866. Capt. George Jenkins was super- intendent of transportation ; Col. William Lilly, ship- ping clerk; Morris Hall, treasurer; and James D. Gallop, roadmaster. A. G. Brodhead was appointed superintendent in May, 1850, and held the office until the merger, when he was appointed by the managers of the Lehigh Valley Railroad superintendent of the division thus added to their line, which ofliee he still holds.
.
The following is a statement of tonnage on the Beaver Meadow Railroad from its commencement, in 1837, to July, 1859, from which time to its merger with the Lehigh Valley, in 1866, its figures cannot be ; the following year authorized the company to extend well ascertained :
Year.
Tonnage.
1837
33,617
1838
54,647
1839
79,971
1840
123,225
1811 (flood)
64,641
1812
108,171
1843
125,456.
19.14
143,363
1845
149,000
1846
191,380
1847
247,500
1848
266,188
1849
321,048
1850 (flood )
155,403
1851
383,718
1859
243.012
1855
-158,092
1556
552,111
1.857
618,793
1858
628,227
1859
746,313
The Spring Mountain Coal Company prior to 1858 commenced building a road from their mines to Jeanesville to connect with the Beaver Meadow Rail- road at their mines at Lewiston. In August of the year mentioned, this road was purchased by the Le- high Valley management, who extended it to York- town and the German Pennsylvania coal mines, as has heretofore been related. The Tresekow branch was built later. It extends a distance of a little more than seven miles, from Silver Creek to Audenreid.
The Mahanoy Division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad .- The first operation made in the Quakake
charter were authorized to build a railroad from Black Creek to Quakake Junction, to connect with the Beaver Meadow Railroad. A line was graded about 1837, rails were shipped by canal and slack- water navigation to Parryville, and duly laid. Cars had ouly been run for a short time, when the com- pany failed. The rails were then taken up and shipped to Pottsville, and about 1840 were used in the construction of a branch road along the Norwe- gian Creek (now a part of the Philadelphia and Reading line). About 1854 the old road-bed eame into the possession or control of the Catawissa, Wil- liamsport and Erie Railroad Company, and was then known as the Quakake Branch. On April 25, 1857, an act was passed incorporating the Quakake Valley Railroad Company, and authorizing the construction of a railroad " from a point on the Beaver Meadow Railroad to the junction of Quakake and Black Creeks, in Carbon County, and thence in a west- wardly direction up the Quakake Valley ; thence to connect with the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad, at some point between the Summit Tunnels on the said road, in Rush township, Schuylkill Co." The company was also authorized to buy or lease the " already graded way" of the Quakake Branch of the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad Company, which was done. The rails were relaid, and the road completed Aug. 25, 1858. An aet passed in March of
their road from Rush township, in Schuylkill County, westerly towards the head-waters of Mahanoy Creek. Two or three years later the company became hedged about with financial difficulties, and the road was sold under mortgage to Judge Asa Packer. Under the authority of an aet passed April 8, 1861, the name of the Quakake Valley Railroad was changed to the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad. The Catawissa, Wil- liamsport and Erie Railroad Company also had some claims on this road, and continued for some time to run trains over it. The Lehigh and Mahanoy Rail- road Company extended the road into the Schuylkill, Colutubia, and Northumberland region, and con- tinned to operate it until it was merged with the Le- high Valley Railroad, in 1866. It is now operated as the Mahanoy Division of that road. The tonnage of this road prior to the merger was as follows : 1863, 9036; 1864, 125,159; 1865, 200,437; 1866, 322,229.
There have been two other railroad enterprises in Carbon County, of which it is worth while to make a mere mention, though neither of them were success- ful.
The Schuylkill Haven and Lehigh River Railroad Company was incorporated by act of April 19, 1856, Authority was granted for the construction of a road from the borough of Schuylkill Haven, by way of Orwigsburg and Ringgold, to connect with the Le- high Valley Railroad at or near the month of Lizard
-
!
367,093
-
607
CIVIL HISTORY.
Creek. Work was begun on this line and grading was carried on for two or three miles from Lizard Creek, when the rights of the company were pur- chased by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, who abandoned it.
The Mahoning Railroad Company was ineorpo- rated April 11, 1859, and given power to construet a railroad from Tamaqua to the railroad of the Little Schuylkill Navigation Railroad and Coal Company, and thence by any practicable route through Mahon- ing Valley to any point on the Lehigh Valley Rail- road above the Lehigh Water Gap. Grading was commenced at the Lehigh River, near Lizard Creek, and completed for a distance of two or three miles, . but the more vigorous action of the Nesquehoning Railroad Company gave that line the advantage of priority of construction, and the Mahoning Railroad project was abandoned. The scheme of building a road along the line chosen in 1859 has been talked of in recent years, and may some time be realized.
CHAPTER III.
CIVIL HISTORY.
Organization of the County-Public Buildings-Care of the Poor.
Civil Divisions prior to 1843 .- it will not, we think, prove uninteresting to trace the successive di- visions of the territory included in Carbon County. In 1752, when Northampton County was organized, the territory north of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and thirty-six miles in width east and west, was known as Towamensing District. Thus it will be seen that this region, of which Carbon County is a part, contained in the middle of the eighteenth century so little of civilization that it did not attain to the dignity of being named as a township. There was little need for the machinery of law and civil government within this district, and it is not known to have had any other officers than a constable. In September, 1768, this great section of the wilderness portion of Pennsylvania was divided into Penn and Towamensing townships, between which the boundary line was the Lehigh River. At this time (1768) Northampton County embraced all that part of the State west of the cast line of Berks County (from which Schuylkill was in part formed) to the Susquehanna River, and all east of that stream to the eastern and northern boundaries of the State.'
Penn township embraced in this division all of the lands north of the Blue Ridge and west of the Lehigh River. In 1808 this township was divided into East
Penn, West Penn, and Lausanne townships, of which West Penn went to form a portion of Schuylkill County when it was erected in 1811. The territory now constituting Carbon County was thus, in 1808, composed of East Penn and Lausanne on the west side of the river, and Towamensing on the east.
The northern part of Towamensing was cut off and made a separate township, named Tobyhanna, which, upon the erection of Monroe County, formed a part of it. That portion of this township lying between the Lehigh River and Tobyhanna Creek, in 1842, was set off as Penn Forest township, which in 1843 was de- taehed from Monroe to become a part of the new county of Carbon.
The township of Mauch Chunk was taken chiefly from East Penn in 1827, a narrow strip of territory also being added from Lausanne.
Towamensing was divided into two townships in 1841, the southern division receiving the name of Lower Towamensing, while the northern retained the original appellation.
In 1842 Banks township was formed from a portion of Lausanne, and Mahoning from East Pen.
In 1843, when the county was organized, it em- braeed East Penn, Maneh Chunk, Banks, and Lan- sanne west of the Lehigh, and Lower Towamensing, Towamensing, and Peu Forest east of the river. Since the county was organized the townships set off have been Paeker, in 1847, and Lehigh, in 1875, from Lausanne; Kidder, in 1849, from Penn Forest; and Franklin, in 1851, from Towamensing.
Erection and Organization of Carbon County .- Lehigh County had been set off from Northampton in 1812, and influenced doubtless by that act, the people in the more northern portion of the valley began to agitate the projeet of forming another new county as soon as the close of the war of 1812 had allowed their thoughts to subside from military to civil affairs. In the diary of Isaac A. Chapman, who was in this re- gion during the second war with Great Britain (and is spoken of at length in the chapter on Maneh Chunk Borough), under date of Jan. 24, 1816, occurs this entry : " In the afternoon rode to Lehighton to attend a meeting for considering a new county." This only proves that some, at least, of the people were early awake to the desirability of forming a new county, and implies that Lehighton was then, as ever since, ambitious of becoming a seat of justice. The project was soon dropped, as were several others entered upon at different periods.
Following we present three petitions ? to the Assen- bly (numbered 1, 2, and 3), which show that, as is usually the case where similar measures are proposed, there was considerable diversity of opinion as to how the division should be made, some contending for one line, or combination of lines, and some for another :
2 Petition No. 1 refers to others which had preceded il, but nothing is now known of them, and it is doubtful if any copies are in existence.
1 The great county of Northampton, as above outlined, was lessened by the establishment of Northumberland County in 1772, and the latter was in turn decreased in size by the erection of Inzerne in 1786, and of Schuylkill in 1811.
608
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
PETITION No. 1.
" To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania :
"The l'etition of the Subscribers, Inhabitants of Toamensin and the western part of Chestunt Hill and Ross Townships, in Northampton County, north of the Blue Mountain, respectfully represents,-
" That the great distance of this portion of the County from the seat of justice nt Easton occasions much expense and great inconvenienco to your Petitionors, and this expense and inconvenience is becoming more exponsive with the Increase of Population, business, and improve- mente north of the blue mountain.
" These disadvantages hive heretofore been represented to your Ion. body, and a division of the county so as to remove them has been petitioned for. Your petitioners now trust that these repeated prayers will induce your llon, body to enact n Law that shall divide this county in such a manner as to give to your petitioners the reasonable accomodation of n Seat of Justice north of the mountain. And your Petitioners beg leave most respectfully to propose that the line of such division should begin at the corner of Schuylkill and Northampton County on the top of the Bine Mountain ; thence along the dividing line of said Counties to where it strikes the Northumberland County line; thence along the said line to where it joins the Luzerne County line ; thence along the last-named line to where it strikes the Lehi; thence up the Lehi to the month of Tobyhanna ; thence to Muddy Rnn so as to take in the saw-mill erected thereon ; thence (on a line that shall ineInde the western half of Chestnut Hill and Ross townships) to where the road through Smith's Gap in the Blue Mountain strikes the line of Moore township; thence along the summit of the Bhie Monn- tain to the place of beginning. And your petitioners further pray that the seat of justice for the proposed new County be estabhshed at Le- hiton, the place where the elections for East Penn township are held, which place is for various reasons the most convenient and anituble, and where the County buildings will be erected on the public square in suid Town by the voluntary contribution.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.