USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 69
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 69
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
A few years later-about 1821 or 1822-he engaged in the same business on his own account at Blooms- burg, and married Louisa Chapman, a niece and mem- ber of the family of Isaac A. Chapman, one of the earliest pioneers of the Lehigh coal operations.
The mercantile business of that time and locality
.
R.L Fatorl
701
BOROUGH OF MAUCH CHUNK.
was chiefly that of trade or barter of the merchandise usually kept in country stores, for the products of the farm and forest. Part of these products were taken on wagons or sleds to Philadelphia and part were sent to markets down the Susquehanna on the spring and fall freshets in rafts or arks. Goods for the store were brought in wagons or sleds from the city.
The Susquehanna and Lehigh Turnpike, which, under a charter granted in 1804, had been made from : Berwick to Mauch Chunk, was the only avenne of transportation from the Susquehanna Valley, over the mountains, to the valley of the Lehigh, and thenee to the Delaware.
After the commencement of operations by the Le- high Coal and Navigation Company, Mauch Chunk beeame an important market for the produets of the Susquehanna Valley, and a very desirable one, for here eash could be obtained for them in the shape of what was called "Mauch Chunk money,"-that is, checks upon a Philadelphia bank. These the mer- chants of the valley were glad to get, and the traffic with Mauch Chunk made the operations there fa- miliar to Mr. Foster, when about 1826 he disposed of his business at Bloomsburg and removed to Philadel- phia, intending to engage in the wholesale trade in such merchandise as his experience had taught him was needed in the country.
While residing on the Susquehanna various plans for the navigation of that river were subjects much disenssed among progressive men. Among them was the attempt to run a small steamboat, called the "Cadorus," which exploded on its first trial. Mr. Foster was on board, but being a good swimmer and fortunately blown into the water with only slight in- juries, narrowly escaped with his life.
In Philadelphia he accepted temporarily a position in a wholesale house, and while there, through his connection with Isaac A. Chapman, then eivil engi- neer for the Lehigh Company, and residing at Mauch Chunk, Mr. Foster made the acquaintance of Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, and was by them engaged to take charge of the company's large supply-store at the latter place. He removed with his family to Mauch Chunk about 1827. Here he found a very large and substantial stone store-building, filled from garret to cellar with goods which had from time to time been sent by the managers of the company, many of which, owing to their ignoranee of the needs of their employés, were useless and unsalable. These he had packed and returned to the city and replen- ished the stoek with such goods as were wanted.
His management of the store made it very popular, and it soon became the centre of supply, not only for those employed by the company, but also for the | tors and the many now interested in the progress of country from the Susquehanna to the Delaware, which found here a ready market for its products.
The company employed hundreds of men in the construction of its canal from Mauch Chunk to Eas- ton ; its descending navigation from the head-waters
of the Lehigh to Mauch Chunk ; in the construction of the railroad to the mines; in getting out tinber, sawing lumber, building arks, dwelling-houses, and other structures; and at the mines, quarrying and hauling coal ; with other hundreds of horses, mules, and oxen, all of which had to be provided for through the store. Many men were employed in the forests getting out lumber, and at other points at considera- ble distance from Manch Chunk, the centre of opera- tions, where all came for their pay and supplies. The store and offices were kept open on Sundays as well as week-days for their accommodation, and Sun- day was often the busiest day of the week.
To manage such a business, keeping the stock of goods and supplies full, with the facilities for trans- portation then available,-by wagons from a city nearly a hundred miles distant,-required ability, foresight, and energy, which Mr. Foster had and ex- ercised to the entire satisfaction of the company, while the attention which he gave personally and re- quired of his assistants behind the counters to all cus- tomers, made them all his friends and patrons.
Prior to 1831 the company owned all of the land and houses in Mauch Chunk, but about that time concluded to lay out the town in lots and sell them. The plot of that part which had been built upon was so arranged that the dwellings were upon separate lots. The prices asked were fair, the terms of pay- ment easy, and very soon nearly all of the lots-as well those built upon as those vaeant-were disposed of. The company had, however, reserved several pareels which the acting manager, Mr. White, thought might be needed for their own use, among them the corner now oeeupied by the Lehigh Valley Railroad ofliees. The company had also coneluded soon to re- liuquish the mercantile business to private enterprise, and Mr. Foster was very desirons to purchase the corner lot above mentioned for the purpose of erect- ing thereon a store building. His application for it was repeatedly declined; but, to settle the matter finally, by asking for it what he thought a price so high that no purchaser could be found, Mr. White named six hundred dollars as the very lowest figure. Mr. Foster, to the surprise of the manager, imme- diately accepted the offer, and with Messrs. Benjamin Rush MeConnell and James Brodriek, purchased the lot and erected a store upon it.
Previous to this time Mauch Chunk had become widely known, and its coal-mines-then a great nov- elty, its wild and picturesque location, as well as its wonderful railroad, then the only one in the United States-attracted many visitors. Mr. Foster thought the time had come when the patronage of these visi- the coal-trade and of the Lehigh Company, together with the local patronage, would support a newspaper. The business of the company also required a large amount of job printing. Having the assurance of Mr. White that a printing-office would have the
+
702
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
company's patronage, Mr. Foster conferred with his friend, Amos Sisty, then an apprentice (nearly out of his time) to the printer's trade at Berwick, and a young man of superior literary ability, with the re- sult that he paid the master for the remainder of Mr. Sisty's " time," purchased a very complete outfit for a newspaper and job printing-office, and while retain- ing his position as store-keeper for the company, com- meneed, in 1829, the publication of the Lehigh Pioncer and Mauch Chunk Courier, with Amos Sisty as editor. The investment yielded no more income than was necessary to meet current expenses. although the paper was ably edited and will compare favorably, both in matter and typography, with the newspapers of half a century later.
The ability of Mr. Sisty soon attracted the attention of other journalists, and he accepted a more important and lucrative position upon a Baltimore paper. The Pioneer and Courier was, however, published (in later years under the title of the Mauch Chunk Courier) under the several editorial and business management> of Mahlon HI. Sisty and John and William P. I. P'ain- ter, until about the year 1842, when Mr. Foster sold the material of the office to Joseph H. Siewers, who changed the name to the Carbon County Transit. A year or two later, Mr. Siewers sold it to William Reed, when the paper came again under the control of Mr. Foster for a short time, during which the old name was revived; but upon again changing owners, the name was again changed to the Mouch Chunk Gazette, under which name it is now published, fifty-five years after the Lehigh Pioneer and Mauch Chunk Courier first made its appearance.
The "corner store" was erected, supplied with goods, and business commenced about the time that the Beaver Meadow Railroad, from Beaver Meadow to Parryville, and the " Upper Grand Section" of the Lehigh Navigation, from White Haven to Maneh Chunk, were in course of construction. Mr. Foster's abilities as a merchant were again called into action, this store becoming the principal point from which supplies for the army of men employed on these great works were drawn.
There were no such facilities as there are now for proenring such supplies as were needed. It is true, the canal was finished and the store was so constructed that a boat, loaded with goods, could be floated under it and unloaded by wheel and axle, thiongh hatch- ways in the store-floors, which was an advance upon the old plan of hauling goods from the city in wagons; but there were no great packing-houses for the curing of meats; molasses and sugar came in hogsheads. There was no such thing as browned coffee in mar- ket, pepper and spices came in bulk and unground. " To furnish cured meats, droves of cattle and hogs were purchased and slaughtered, and the meats packed in barrels. Flour and potatoes were purchased by the boat-load, and in the fall in quantities sufficient for the demand through the winter.
Many of the points where supplies were needed, along the navigation and railroad in course of con- struction, were accessible only by steep roads down the mountain-sides. To some, roads could not be made, and from the nearest accessible point supplies had to be lowered by ropes. To, reach them sugar and molasses were transferred from hogsheads into barrels or smaller receptaeles. There were no conveniences for brown- ing coffee at the shanties. This the store-keeper had to have done, spices had to be ground and packed and many other things done, to meet the entergeney, all of which was so satisfactorily accomplished at the "corner store" that it became very popular, and a flourishing and profitable trade was the result.
The store was, while under the management of Mr. Foster, at first owned by the firm of McConnell, Foster & Brodrick, then Foster & Brodrick, and finally owned by Asa L. Foster alone.
Mr. Foster removed from Mauch Chunk in 1837 to engage in another enterprise, leaving his mercantile business in charge of one of his salesmen, Robert Q. Butler, to be closed out, and soon after sold the lot and buildings to Asa Packer ; the site now occupied, as before mentioned, by the building erected since Judge Packer's decease, for the accommodation of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company's offices, for which purpose-except the "corner" of the first floor (which is still a stofe), and three rooms of the same floor fronting on Susquehanna Street-it is now used.
Asa L. Foster, by his intimate social relations with Messrs. White, Hazard, and Isaac A. Chapman, dur- ing his connection with the Lehigh Company, when coal, in all of its aspects, from location in the ground I to its use as fuel, was the leading topic of study and conversation, had made himself thoroughly con- versant with its geology and the surface indications of its deposit. Mr. Chapman had also given the sub- ject much study, with the advantage of several years' longer experience in this and other localities.
In his business as a surveyor, some years before he entered the service of the Lehigh company, Mr. Chapman had noticed the surface indications of coal on several tracts of land in the southeastern part of Inzerne County, which, year after year, had been offered for sale for the taxes assessed and unpaid upon them. These lands were of little value as tim- ber lands, being bleak mountain tops, and were en- tirely inaccessible to market, even if they had been covered with timber. The lands which Mr. Chapman believed contained coal were at his suggestion pur- ehased at tax sale by him and Mr. Foster, as partners, some years prior to their becoming residents of Manch Chunk, Mr. Chapman at that time saying to Mr. Foster, "They may never be of any value to us, but, being coal-lands, they may be to our children."
The construction of the slack-water navigation from Manch Chunk to White Haven brought the product of these lands within four miles of an avenue . to market, and in 1835 or 1836, Mr. Foster ( Mr. Chap-
703
BOROUGHI OF MAUCH CIIUNK.
man having died) went to see them. Finding upon them the geologieal formation of coal-lands, as Mr. Chapman had done several years earlier, he made ar- rangements for proving the location and value of the coal strata by shafting, but postponed active opera- tions for a time when he could more conveniently give them his personal attention.
The progress of the proposed navigation stimulated the owners of lands in its vicinity, which had before been considered not worth the taxes, to look after them, and among these were the owners of the origi- nal titles to the lands which Messrs. Chapman and Foster had purchased. This led to much correspond- enee, threats of lawsuits based upon irregularities in the tax sale, and precipitated not only the exami- nation of the lands to ascertain their value, but also the desire to get actual occupancy and possession, which Mr. Foster, in the interests of himself and the heirs of Isaac A. Chapman, found it advisable to do in the winter instead of the following summer, as had been intended.
Procuring the necessary help, he eut a road through the forest from the nearest saw-mill, two and a half miles distant, built a small house or shanty, and com- menced exploring for the coal. Although there was two or three feet of snow upon the ground, the land- marks which he had made during his visit the pre- vious summer enabled him to locate his point of operations, and in a few days the whole Lehigh region was amazed by the news of the discovery of a new coal deposit.
Mr. Foster's observations while in that neighbor- ; hood were not confined to his own land, but, having found the key, he unlocked what is now the great Black Creek coal basin, and obtained knowledge which many men, more ambitious and less serupulous, could have turned greatly to their advantage.
The immediate result of Mr. Foster's discovery was the organization of the Bnek Mountain Coal Com- pany, of which he was appointed superintendent, and in the fall of 1837, having had a log house built on the top of the Buck Mountain, he removed his family there, and for a year or more continued his explora- tions, to ascertain the depth of the basin and the lo- cation of the coal strata, with a view to the best method of working the mines.
A tunnel through the conglomerate to reach the bottom of the basin was finally decided upon, and this, with four miles of railroad, including two in- clined planes and a tunnel, with wharves, etc., for shipping at Rockport, Mr. Foster, with two others as partners, contracted to build, taking a large percent- age of the cost of the work in the bonds of the com- pany. The work was completed and one boat-load of coal shipped in the fall of 1840.
In January, 1841, the Lehigh navigation was de- stroyed by a great flood, and Mr. Foster having ex- hausted his own means in exchange for securities which were now and for several years after of little
market value, and which he was obliged to dispose of at a great sacrifice, became comparatively a poor man.
He remained at Buck Mountain and Roekport for a year or two after the navigation was rebuilt, in the employment of Carey & Long and E. W. Harlan, who had taken the contract to mine and deliver coal into boats, and in the fall of 1844 returned to Mauch Chunk.
Here, for a short time, he edited and published the Manch Chunk Courier, then the only newspaper in Manch Chunk, and afterwards, in partnership with his old salesman of the "corner store," Robert Q. Butler, obtained a contract for driving one of the tunnels in Panther Creek Valley, near Summit Hill, where he remained, in that capacity and as book- keeper and financial manager for Daniel Bertsch, one of the coal contractors, until 1855, when he be- came a partner with Mesers. Sharpe, Leisenring & Co., afterwards Sharpe, Weiss & Co., in the lease and opening of the Council Ridge Colliery, at the eastern end of the great Black Creek coal-basin, and within two miles of the place where twenty years be- fore he had developed the existence of coal in that locality.
It was his knowledge of the resources of this great coal-field, and their confidence in Mr. Foster's judg- ment, that induced these gentlemen to invest all of their means in the venture. It was financially suc- cessful, and although, like many pioneers in great projects, Mr. Foster was at first unfortunate, unlike many of them he lived to participate largely in the fruits of his carly labors and enterprise.
For many years prior to his deccase, Mr. Foster de- servedly enjoyed a reputation second to that of no other man for his great knowledge of the geology of the anthracite coal formation, and for his excellent judgment as to the probable position of the coal strata as to pitch, depth, and axis beneath the surface,- matters of vast importance in fixing the proper loca- tion for openings and deciding upon the best plan for the working of mines. As an expert in such matters, his services were often requested and cheerfully ren- dered, generally without compensation, although, in many instances, requiring many miles of fatiguing travel on foot through forests, often at long distances and for many days' absence from his home.
Asa L. Foster was an eminently progressive man, manifesting at all times much interest in every meas- ure which he believed to be for the welfare of the people, both general and local. He was one of the earliest advocates of the common-school system, at a time when that now popular institution had few friends, and labored earnestly with voice and pen for its adoption.
He was a careful reader, a close reasoner, of great foresight, and an excellent counselor in all matters pertaining to the progress and development of the great mineral and other resources of the Lehigh
-
70-1
HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Valley. In friendly and intimate social relations with their chief projectors, and particularly so with the late IIon. Asa Packer, who, we learn from the cor- respondence between them, often sought Mr. Foster's advice and counsel, and was encouraged in his hours of greatest despondency to renewed efforts to push for- ward his great projects to completion.
Mr. Foster was a sincere Christian, not in profession only, but he carried his faith into, and was guided by, its precepts in all of his social and business rela- tions. Liberal in his charities, kind and sympathetic in his intercourse with high and humble alike, he was one who constantly gained new friends and never made an enemy.
Asa L. Foster died at Wilkesbarre after a short illness, contracted while on a visit to friends there, on the 9th day of January, 1868, in the seventy- first year of his age. An appropriate monument and memorial marks his last earthly resting-place in the cemetery at Mauch Chunk. The borough of Lans- ford, in Carbon County, and the township of Foster, in Luzerne County, also perpetuate his name and memory.
ASA PACKER.
Asa Packer was born in Mystic, Conn., on the 29th of December, 1805. His early education was very limited, being only such as was taught in the primi- tive district schools of those early days. On attaining the age of seventeen, he packed all his worldly pos- sessions, consisting of a few simple articles of clothing, shouldered his small bundle, and started on foot to seek his fortune in the great world. Trudging along the rugged roads of that early time, the plucky boy walked the entire distance in the land of " blue laws and wooden nutmegs" to Brooklyn, Susquehanna Co., l'a. That achievement was a fair index of Mr. Pack- er's future. The boy was father to the man. Once determined npon a course of action, no obstacles de- terred him, no discouragements shook his purpose, no work was too great to be undertaken. After weeks of weary searching, climbing rocky hills and toiling through dusty valleys, through sunshine and rain, hungry, tired, footsore, the lad arrived at the house of his cousin, Mr. Edward Packer, in Brooklyn. Hle was a house carpenter, and under his tutelage young Asa determined to learn that trade. He began work with a will, and with his characteristic thoroughness he became a first-class workman. No man in the country round about could shove a plane truer, or hit a nail on the head with more precision, than young Asa Packer. When the years of his apprenticeship had expired he went to New York and worked a year at his trade. But the life of the city was distasteful to him, and returning to Susquehanna County, he settled in Springville township. There he pursued his trade, and was married on the 23d of January, 1828, to Miss Sarah M. Blakslee, to whom were :
born children,-Lucy Evelyn, Mary H., Robert Asa, and Harry Eldred. The couple soon after settled on a farm, where the young wife proved herself a helpmate indeed. While the husband plowed his field, gathered his crops, or plied his trade at such desnltory work as the neighbors needed, the wife ad- ministered her household affairs with cheerfulness, energy, neatness, and economy, and made their home a model of comfort and happiness. But nature yielded her crops scantily, markets were distant, and the re- turns small. At the end of four years' they found themselves nearly as poor as when they began. Hear- ing that men were wanted to run coal-boats on the Lehigh Canal, which had just been opened, in the winter of 1833, Mr. Packer hitched his horse to a primitive sled and drove to Mauch Chunk, with a view to making arrangements to engage in that work. After effecting a satisfactory engagement he drove home, and remained, closing up his affairs until the opening of navigation. He then returned, walking to Tunkhannock, on the Susquehanna River. There he boarded a raft, rode to Berwick, walked the remaining distance to Mauch Chunk, and became the commander of a canal-boat. Not long after he contracted for an additional boat, and placed it in charge of his brother- in-law. The boating business paid, so much so, that at the end of two years he was able to retire with some capital from the active participation therein, though
retaining an interest. He purchased a store, situated on the banks of the Lchigh, and made his brother-in- law its manager, while he himself established a boat- yard for the construction of canal-boats, his early training as a carpenter standing him in good stead. Prosperity still attended him. In a few years he placed in his stores a stock of goods which cost him twenty-five thousand dollars. He also took extensive contracts for building on the Upper Lehigh, which he finished in 1836, coming out with handsome profits. Mr. Packer was then a rich man for those days. The following year, with his brother, Robert, he took large contraets to build boats at Pottsville, Schuylkill Co., for the direct shipping of coal to New York. He con- tinned in business at this point for three years, at the end of which time the partnership was dissolved, Asa returning to Mauch Chunk, and Robert remaining in Reading. He hext engaged in the mining and ship- ping of coal from the Nesquehoning and other mines. Thenceforward Mr. Packer's career was marked by an unbroken chain of prosperity, the result of his own endeavors. In 1852, unaided and alone, he began the gigantic undertaking of building the Lehigh Valley Railroad. With rare foresight he foresaw the grand results that would accrue therefrom, and with un- flinching courage he undertook the great work. He completed the road in 1855, meanwhile jeopardizing his entire fortune, but eventually overcoming all em- barrassments. While Mr. Packer accumulated vast wealth, he administered it with a liberal and enlight- ened judgment. While benefiting his own family, he
-
----
1
.
Natación
-- 1
H&Packen
705
BOROUGH OF MAUCH CHIUNK.
has benefited liis race, and been a power in the devel- opment of his State and the advancement of civiliza- tion. Mr. Packer, while promoting the material in- terests of society, found it his pleasure to erect during his lifetime a monument which ceaselessly dispenses in the present and will through the long future the various kinds of learning which tend to make men most useful to their fellow-men and centres of respect and affection in their families and in society. He an- tieipated the provisions of his will in founding the Lehigh University, and so liberally endowed it on his death as to make it permanent and self-sustaining. St. Luke's Hospital, Muhlenberg College, St. Mark's Church, and other institutions were also the recipients of his judicious munificence. Mr. Packer was in polities an ardent Demoerat, and received at various times conspicuous honors from his party. He was elected for the sessions of 1841-42 and 1842-43 to the State Legislature, was associate judge of Carbon County in 1843 and 1844, and from 1853 to 1857 rep- resentative in Congress from his district. He was a candidate for gubernatorial honors in 1869, and the year previous prominently mentioned in connection with the Presidency. His death occurred May 17, 1879.
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.