USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 61
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 61
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In 1830 the company commenced a railroad which connected the Rhume Run mines with the landing about a mile above Mauch Chunk. These mines had been opened a short time before on the northern side of the coal-basin, at a break in the mountain caused by the passage of Rhume Run Creek, which flows into the Nesquehoning. The road was substantially built along the side of the mountain, the rails being set in
! The Quincy ( Massachusetts) Railroad, three miles In length, was made in the fall of 1826. There had previously been a short wooden rail- rond, not plated with iron, at Leiper's stone-quarry, but this was, worn out and not in use when the Manch Chank road was constructed.
665
BOROUGH OF MAUCH CHUNK.
east-iron knees bolted to stone blocks. Coal was brought down on this road by the force of gravity, precisely the same as upon the Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk road, and at the river was discharged down an inclined plane into boats. When the Nes- quehoning Valley Railroad was built the old gravity road was abandoned.
peated. The cars when loaded were drawn to the summit upon a plane similar to that at Mount Pisgah and Mount Jefferson, and thence rolled along the gravity road to Mauch Chunk. This plan of the gravity road over the mountains from the mines to the river and back accomplished all that it was ex- pected to, and was as complete a success from a financial point of view as it was from that of the engineer.
By the spring of 1844 the demand for coal had be- come so great that greater facilities were needed for its transportation from the mines to the river. The | The Mount Pisgah plane was considered at the idea of a back track to convey the empty cars from the river to the mine had been conceived some years before by Josiah White, and was now carried out. To effect this object a plane was constructed from the head of the chutes to the top of Mount Pisgah, about nine hundred feet above the Lehigh. From the plateau to the moun- tain-top is six hundred and sixty-four feet. The length of the plane constructed was two thousand three hundred and twenty- two feet. Up this ascent the cars were drawn by two stationary steam-engines of one hundred and twenty horse-power each, and from thence allowed to run by gravity towards the mines on a track descending at an average grade of fifty feet to the mile, six miles to the foot of Mount Jefferson. From this point they were again raised four hundred and sixty-two feet, upon a plane two thousand and seventy feet in length, and tlience by gravity they run a mile to the town of Summit Hill. The back track was completed and opened in 1845, and in the following year operations were cominenced in Panther Creek Valley. Into this valley the cars descended for their loads of coal by the "switchback," now abandoned, which gave to the whole unique and ingenious system the name by which it still is improperly called. The cars zigzaged down the "switchback," re- versing their motion where the tracks came together in the form of a Y. This was effected by a simple arrangement of self- acting switches. Supposing that the car came down the track represented by the left branch of the Y, it would continne THE HOMESTRETCH ON THE SWITCHBACK. upon the stem by the momentnm it had gained on the steep down-grade of two hundred and twenty-one feet to the mile, but not far, for that portion of the track represented by the stem of the letter had an ascending grade. As soon as the car had come to a stand-still it began to run down the ascent, but the switch having been closed by a spring, instead of running back a little way on the road it had descended, it was directed to the right branch of tlie Y, and so continued its descent until it reached another switch, when the automatie operation was re-
time of its construction as the greatest triumph of engineering in its peculiar line ever known, the height being the greatest overcome by similar means. The machinery of the planes was practically the same as that now in use, which we shall presently describe. The construction of the Nesquchoning Valley Rail- road with a tunnel connecting with the Panther Creek Valley rendered the original gravity road, the back track, and the Switchback useless to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company for the purposes they .
666
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
were designed for and so many years fulfilled ; but, owing to their novelty, they are retained, with the exception of the Switchback, and the gravity circuit of eighteen miles to and from the mines can be made by townspeople or tourists in comfortable passenger- cars, the road now being under lease to the Philadel- phia and Reading Railroad Company.
Ascending to the starting-point at the foot of Mount Pisgah plane (in Upper Mauch Chunk), one may study the mechanism of the cars and cables, and at
MOUNT PISGAH PLANE.
the top the application of the power which lifts the cars with their human loads to the glorious heights where they begin their swift and fascinating journey along the wooded mountain-top towards the scene of Ginter's important discovery in 1791. At the top of Mount Pisgah, in a house with two great chimneys, are the giants which genius has set to work to over- come the ascent of the mountain. They are engines each capable of exerting the power of one hundred and twenty horses. They revolve two iron drums of twenty-eight feet diameter, designed for operating,
by means of two double Swedish iron bands seven and a half inches wide, a safety-ear on each track of the plane. These drums can be revolved together or separately, as circumstances may require, and are as perfectly under the control of the engineer in charge as are the driving-wheels of a locomotive. They are simply intended to wind up and unwind the iron bands alluded to, which are attached to the safety- ears, and pass over rollers between the rails of each track when the machine is in motion. These bands are made of the very best of iron, are almost as strong and flexible as steel, and wind upon the drums as readily, to all appearance, as if composed of leather. They are long enough to reach from the engine-house to the foot of the plane, and, when a passenger- car is moved up one track by a safety-car in its rear, the other safety-car, attached to its band, moves down to take its place in the rear of another passenger-car. This position in the rear of the passenger-car is reached by an ingenious arrangement, which obviates the necessity of detaching it from its connec- tion with the power by which it is controlled. As it reaches the foot of the plane the gauge of its running-gear contracts, it takes a nar- rower track, and descends down a stecper decline into a pit between the rails until out of the way, when the passenger-car moves over and a short distance in advance of it. When all is ready a signal passes from the conductor below to the engineer above; the great drums are set in motion; the band which passes under and between the wheels of the passenger-car becomes taut, and the little safety-car comes slowly out, and is soon pushing up the loaded passenger-car towards the elevated summit. The safety-car looks like a small, solidly-built truck with extra gearing and a strong bumper. It is so called because provided with an iron arm, which extends over a ratchet-rail, upon which the least backward movement would cause it to fall, holding the little train stationary. In all the years that the plane has been in oper- ation not a single person has been injured in going up the mountain.
The so-called "Switchback," or more prop- erly the gravity railroad, was leased by the Philadel- phia and Reading Railroad, and sub-leased by that corporation to Thomas L. Mumford, who is its present manager, and by whom, assisted by his brother, H. J. Mumford, superintendent and passenger agent, it is operated.
Improvements at Mauch Chunk-Appearance of the Settlement .- The land upon which the oldest part of Mauch Chunk was built, that about the mouth of the creek, was surveyed on a warrant issued to William Bell, June 28, 1774, and the return of the
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667
BOROUGH OF MAUCHI CHIUNK.
survey was made Jan. 14, 1798. The traet of fifty- four and three-quarters acres was patented to White, Hazard, and Hauto, Jan. 26, 1820. It was not origi- mally the intention of the company to make the spot the site of the principal town in their territory, but they were compelled by necessity to do so. They thought it best to place the town at Lausanne (mouth of the Nesquehoning), a mile above, but the owner of the land, thinking that the company must accept his terms, made them so high that he defeated his owu purpose. He was offered three-fourths of the pre- posterous priee which he had set upon the property, but refused it, and the company, having then made their highest bid, eeased forever their endeavor to buy. "A Common Observer," in a contribution to the Mauch Chunk Courier in 1830, writes as follows of the relative merits of different sites for an impor- tant town : " Manch Chunk seems by nature designed for a place of business, but as there is not sufficient room, owing to the approach of the mountains to the | Lehigh, for a town of mueh size, the business of the place will most likely be confined pretty much to the shipment of coal. The Landing, or Lausanne, is less eonfined than Maueh Chunk, and it is probable from its location, being at the head of the navigation, and at the commencement of the turnpike leading to the Susquehanna, that it will in a short time become a place of merchandize and produce destined to and for the upper country. . . . But summing up the ad- vantages of either of these places for a flourishing country town, they will not compare with Lehigh- ton."
The improvements made at Mauch Chunk were at first merely those necessary to the business of the company, most rigidly utilitarian in character, and the town gained little attractiveness until it was opened to individual enterprise.
The settlement, when about one year old, was de- ; scribed as follows by George F. A. Hauto: " We have | pany's store-house-was built in 1828, where the
erected about forty buildings for different purposes, | among which is a saw-mill (driven by the river), for the purpose of sawing stuff for the use of the navi- gation ; . . . one other saw-mill (driven by Mauch Chink Creek), a grist-mill, a mill for the saving of labor for the construction of wagons, etc. (also driven by the creek), smitheries (with eight fires), work- shops, dwellings, wharves, cte. We have cut about fifteen thousand saw-logs and cleared four hundred aeres of land."
Nicholas Brink came up from Philadelphia, as company steward, in 1818. His wife, Margaret, was the first woman who came to Mauch Chunk. They brought with them four children,-Henry, William, Nicholas, and Elizabeth. The last named ( Mrs. Jolm Painter, now the only survivor of the family ) was two years old when she came here, and has been longer a resident of the town than any other person. There was born to the Brinks, in 1820, another child, who was named, in honor of the three pioneer proprietors,
Josiah White Erskine Hazard George F. A. Hauto Brink. As this was the first birth at the settlement, it was celebrated by the rough and motley crowd of laborers in quite a demonstrative manner. " The for- est was illuminated with pine torches, plenty of good old and pure whiskey was drank, and the noise and dancing were so great that it seemed as if the very tops of the pines had caught the infection and kept time with it by waving to and fro." This boy, grown to manhood, became an employe of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and at the time of his death, in 1877, was an engineer at the Summit Hill mines.
The house built for Steward Brink and his family was the first dwelling in Mauch Chunk. They lived in a boat upon the river until it was completed, having just such a floating domicile as had White and Hazard and their laborers. The house was erected on the lower bank of the creek, and near the river, not far from where the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company's building now is. The family lived in one end of the structure, and Mr. Brink had his bakery in the other end. Three or four men were employed in the bakery. Mrs. Brink soon after she was settled in the new house had six hundred boarders to take care of, that being about the number engaged on the river im- provement, on the coal road, and in the mills and shops and smitheries. They took their meals and slept in a long building adjoining the dwelling-house.
Other buildings were soon erected, among the first being Josiah White's, now John Leisenring's, in 1822, at a cost of seventeen hundred and forty-five dollars, and the company's store, where Mr. Leisenring's garden now is, to which meals were sent for the mana- gers from Brink's. William Zane's house, afterwards Nathan Patterson's, was built in 1821. Sixteen stone houses on both sides of Broadway, below the " willow tree," were commenced in 1822, and finished in the following year. A two-story stone building-the com- court-house now is, costing four thousand five hun- dred and sixty-two dollars. This was donated to Carbon County upon its organization, and served as a temple of justice until it was burned in the disas- trous fire of 1849. The " Bear Trap" shop, where the wheelwright, James MeCray, labored, had been built in 1822, and some stables for oxen and mules near by. In 1824 the ravine was given a further appearance of being inhabited by the erection of nineteen log buildings above the " Bear-Trap," and in 1825 seven plank houses were built adjoining the stone dwellings of which we have spoken. The Mansion House was begun in 1823 and finished in 1824, and a foundry built the same year. The stone grist-mill which had been eommeneed in 1821 was completed in 1825, and three saw-mills were put in operation on the river about the same time. Prior to this period saw-mills and dwellings had also been built at Lauraytown.
In 1827 the company built their first bridge across the Lehigh (a wooden structure), erected a fire-proof
1
668
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
office where the First National Bank now is, and took a step toward the protection of their other property by purchasing a hand fire-engine, still to be seen in Upper Maueh Chunk, for which, with hose and buckets, they paid six hundred and ninety-six dollars. Thus building went on and improvements were made until the rough mining and lumbering camp became a town.
Still it bore a very crude and rough appearance, and there was nowhere to be seen any attempt at or- nament or the attainment of any comforts beyond the commonest. The stone houses were all alike, -small, thick-walled, with a low sceond story, and they in- variably displayed a door and one window below and two square windows above. The fronts were finished in what is known as the "rough cast" or " pebble dashed" style.
The road and the creek did not oceupy the same relative position that they now do, and the ravine in some places was a deep, mirey marsh, thickly over- grown with brush and covered with a tangle of vines, through which a man could not make his way.
When the channel of the stream was shifted about to suit the people who had sought homes in the narrow gorge, and Broadway laid out as it now is, there still remained the work of raising the roadway to its present level and of covering and confining the ereek in the channel which had been provided for it, and this was not aecomplished until recent years.
The appearance of the town of a half-century ago has been described as follows by James T. Blakslee : "When I landed here the 3d day of April, 1833, there was not a dwelling on either side of Broadway or on Susquehanna Street from William Butler's resi- denee to the Mansion House, the only hotel then in town. There were no dwellings on the south side of Broadway, from the old 'willow-tree' up to where Mr. Wilhelm's house now stands, and very few on either side above. John Fatzinger's foundry and machine- shop was then in operation. There was no Upper or East Mauch Chunk. We had what were then called Northern Liberties and Burlington, the present site of l'ackerton. The canal extended no farther up than the No. I dam and lock here, at the foot of Broadway. The Gravity Railroad was in operation, the mules riding down to haul the return ears to Summit Hill."
Men and manners were as rough as the surround- ings for the most part during the early years of the settlement, and of the colossal work that had been undertaken in the wilderness. A great number of men had been gathered from far and near, from town and country, to build the river dams, to cut timber, prepare roadways, and delve in the mountain for coal. They were men of many nationalities, and usually of rough nature, and when they came together in a frolic their latent animosities or others suddenly engen - dered, often terminated the meeting with a tight. They were not so much given, however, to fighting among themselves as they were to waging war against
the Lehighton laborers, with whom they were fre- quently engaged in sanguinary encounters on their own ground. The scenes enacted and the manner of life generally were about the same as those to be ob- served to-day wherever a large body of men are em- ployed on an extensive work considerably removed from civilized communities. The use of liquor was much more common then than now. Laboring men were commonly supplied with it by their employers. The sturdy Quaker, Josiah White, made no exception to the rule, and the men employed at Mauch Chunk were given their whiskey as regularly as their meals, a man being employed whose sole duty it was to dis- pense it, a "jigger" full at a time, to each. William Speers was the "jigger boss" employed by the com- pany, and it was in recognition of his first name that the allowances came to be generally called "Billy cups."
The following rude verses, an impromptu by the Rev. Mr. Webster, delivered on the occasion of a temperance eclebration on the Fourth of July, 1842, allude to early-day customs, and will be familiar to all old residents :
(Hir,-" John Anderson my Jo.") " When old Manch Chunk was young, J- 1 used to say, A man that labored hard should have Six ' Billy Cups' a day. And so, with an uusparing band, The whiskey flood was flung, And drunkards they were made by scores When old Manch Chuuk was young.
" When old Manch Chunk was young, At noon lhey llew the horn, And, gathering thick, came gangs of men, And so at eve and morn. With grace and promptitude and skill They moistened lip and tongue, And went to work in rain and mind, When old Mauch Chunk was young.
" When old Mauch Chunk was young Lehighton was in prime, And fights and frolics frequently Were hund in olden time. Like short-tailed bulls in fly-time, They at each other sprung, And many n battle There was fought When old Mauch Chunk was young.
" When old Mauch Chunk was young, And Captain Abels prenched, The top notch of intemperance By many a one was reached ; And dark the cloud of sorrow O'er many a dwelling hung, With deep disgrace and poverty, When old Manch Chunk was young.
" When old Manch Chunk was young A treal was no great shinkes Uuless before the company Was set a heap of cakes. And never better cakes were cat, Or better song was sung, Than this which we are laughing at, When old Manch Chunk was young."
1 Josinh White.
0
RESIDENCE OF THE HON. JOHN LEISENRING, MAUGH CHUNK, PA.
669
BOROUGH OF MAUCH CHUNK.
The Town Opened to Individual Enterprise- Sale of Lots .- Until 1831 the property in the settle- ment all belonged to the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- tion Company, and whatever of improvement had been made was solely the work of that corporation. But now the town was to be opened to the enterprise of individuals, and to enter, as was proved subse- quently, upon an era of moderate prosperity based upon several independent causes. When the com- pany decided to put the village property in the mar- ket, they issued, under date of Sept. 19, 1831, the fol- lowing advertisement :
" Persons desirons of locating themselves at Mauch Chunk are in- formed that lots in that town, on both sides of the Lehigh, are now of- fered for sale on advantageons terms, and free from all restrictions. This town is situated in Northampton County, at the present head of the Lehigh navigation (which is adapted to boats of 140 tons burthen), is 46 miles, by the Lehigh Canal, from Easton (which is at the contin- ences of the Delaware Canal to Philadelphia and the Morris Canal to New York), 80 miles by land and 124 miles by canal to Philadelphia, 96 miles by land and 156 miles by canal to New York, and 32 miles by turnpike from the Pennsylvania Canal at Berwick, to which place the navigation will, no doubt, in a few years be extended by the route of the Nesco- peck Valley. Water-powers can be concentrated here to any extent re- quired for manufactures, and the families of the laborers engaged in the coal business (of which This place is the exclusive shipping port) will furnish the necessary number of suitable hands. For terms, apply to Josiah White, acting manager at Mauch Chunk."
The company began to sell lots in 1832. The ear- liest purchasers were E. W. Harland, who took the lot where Yeager's furniture store now is ; Jesse K. Pryor, who bought the lot now oeeupied by W. H. Stroh's store ; Thomas Belford, who beeame the owner of an adjoining lot; John Mears, who, with Cornelius Con- mor, secured the ground on which the American Honse stands ; and Isaae T. Dodson, who bought the lot on which Judge A. G. Brodhead now lives. .
In 1833, Albert Abbott bought the lot next above the present residence of Rev. M. A. Tolman; Isaac Salkeld, the property now owned by W. G. Freyman ; Benjamin R. McConnell, the lot known as "the Packer corner" (where the Lehigh Railroad building stands), giving therefor six hundred dollars; Daniel Bertsch, the three lots now occupied by the Broadway Hotel ; James Broderick, the lot on which Dr. Mayer resides ; Almon Woodworth, the lot on which is Gen. Lilly's residence; Joseph Butler, the lot on which James I. Blakslee now lives ; and William Knowles and John Mears, what is now known as the " Dodson property," where Asa Beers' store is. The Courier noted with pleasure the disposition to buy lots and build houses, and prophesied a bright future for the town.
After the first two years few, if any, lots were sold, until 1836, when John G. Martin, H. B. Hillman, and Henry Mears became purchasers,-the last named of the lot where Carpenter's jewelry store now is, and Mr. Hillman of the lot at present occupied by Rex's store.
The Early Settlers .- In 1822 the population was two hundred and sixty-nine, comprising ninety-three working hands, thirty-five other male adults, forty- I
five female adults, and ninety-six children. Two years later the population had increased to seven hundred and thirty-four, and included ninety-six families. There were one hundred and six male adults, one hundred male boarders, one hundred and forty-two female adults, and two hundred and fifty-two chil- dren. The following persons, most of whom were heads of families, paid taxes on personal property in 1824 :
Mauch Chunk.
Josiah White. Nicholas Brink.
Erskine Hazard.
Samuel Busby.
William Zane.
Broudicay.
John Pryor. John Ruddle.
Solomon Minett. Isaac Salkeld.
Hugh White. Richard Freneh.
Thomas Clark." John Sherry.
John Oliver. David Wasser.
Levi Hugg. John Pinman.
Daniel Welsh. Isaac T. Dodson.
Samuel Lippincott. Hiram Eich.
Benjamin Mears. Robert Clark.
Northern Liberties,
James O'Brian.
Thos. O'Riley.
Corn. Conner.
Southwark.
Jed Trish.
George Arthurton.
Daniel Pratt.
Beur- Trup and Iborr. .
James Bigger.
Joseph Walker.
Jno. Flood. Peter Silvis.
James Spear. John Conner.
Hez. Mitchell. John Enka.
Adam Hoffman. John Knowles.
David Enbody. William Walker.
Jolin Henri. Justice Gould.
Edward Binley. Jacob Wanner.
James McCrea. William Cornelson.
James Watt. Patrick Burns.
James Murray. James Kinsley.
John Lowry.
Lawrence Smothers.
Jacob Wilhelm.
Arch. MeVerker.
Jno. Y. Tutton.
Hackelbernie.
John F. Heebner.
James Lemmon.
John Swank. Abraham Stroh.
George Bobst. David Corey.
In 1826 the population had increased to thirteen hundred and sixty-four and the number of families to two hundred and thirteen. This eensus, however, included all of the eompany's dependencies in Manch Chunk township, the inhabitants at the mines, and the families living on Hackelbernie and Union farms, which had been established to supply the settlements with certain necessaries.
In 1828 two hundred and seventy-two names ap-
670
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
peared upon the assessment-list of Mauch Chunk township, most of whom were in that part of it which now constitutes the borough. The Coal and Naviga- tion Company paid $91.80 of the total tax of $160.44, being assessed on over four thousand acres of land, a grist-mill, three saw-mills, a store-house, tavern, fur- nace, sixteen stone dwellings, sixty-nine log and frame dwellings, forty-two horses, thirty-six oxen, and thirty- six mules.
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