USA > Pennsylvania > The Wyoming Valley in the nineteenth century > Part 18
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The Germans are about one-tenth of the population of Wilkes-Barre, where most of them reside. In the legal profession Gustav Hahn stands quite alone. In the medical profession they have Drs. Sperling and Wagner. Robert Baur has been in the valley for fifty years and was an editor before his contemporaries in the valley were born. Frederick Theis is President of the Wyoming Valley Trust Company and a successful insurance agent ; largely interested in local industries. Christian Brahl is a retired merchant, highly esteemed by his fellow townsmen. Anthony Voght, George Reichard and the Stegmaier family are well known. Fred Ahlborn, Philip Raeder, Philp Nachbar, Philip Steinhauer and Peter A. Kropp were but lately deceased.
The Scotch are quite numerous in Pittston and fill many important offices. The Mc- Colough, Hutchison, Waddell, Bryden, Dick, Scott and Graham are influential families. The Englishman is also found. There are but few French families. Ralph Lacoe, of Pittston, is a Frenchman, and also Col. J. D. Laciar, who has written the editorial for the
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Scranton Republican for twenty years. These two men are distinguished citizens. Mr. Lacoe presented the Smithstonian Institute with one of the most complete collections of vegetable fosils ever made.
The Poles and Lithuanians are late comers. They are a progressive people and look down on the Hungarians. In a few years they will be an important factor in the political as well as in commercial life. Sylvester Paukztis, of Edwardsville, has in ten years made in the mercantile and other lines of business fifty thousand dollars and a number of his coun- trymen have done as well. The Hungarians are despised by the Poles. They are such a late importation into Europe that we may consider them Asiatics. These nationalties have brought to an end, for the present, strikes and the possibility of any successful attempt of the miner to control the mining interest.
The working man is ceasing to brawl "Down with monopolies," and we rarely hear that false claim made, that the "rich are getting richer and the poor poorer," for it is disproven by thousands of beautiful homes owned by working men that dot our valley, and the fact that only a few of our industries pay large dividends on the capital invested. Socialism has endeavored to strangle prosperity at its birth and all labor reform movements have tended to impoverish the working classes and have stood in the way of general prosperity.
The Jews are not numerous. Most of them are merchants in Wilkes-Barre. The first Jewish resident was Martin Long. The most notable family of that nationality among us is the Long family. There are four prominent Long families. The late Jonas Long and Isaac were brothers. The latter and the sons of the former are the first dry goods merchants in this part of the State. Marx and Simon are brothers and are also prominent merchants. These men were the architects of their fortunes. Other prominent families are the Bur- gunder, Rev. H. Rubin, the first rabbi in Wilkes-Barre; served thirty years and is suc- ceeded by Israel Joseph; Joseph Coons, Abram Strauss, Isaac Livingston, F. Eisner, Henry Ansbacher, Galland, Levi, Hoffheimer and other families. The temple Bna'i B'rith is on South Washington street and their cemetery is in Hanover township.
There are more wealthy people in Wilkes-Barre and vicinity than in any city in the State, with the exception of Pittsburg and Philadelphia. Kingston probably contains more wealth than any town of its size in the country. This county produces more anthracite coal than any county in the world. We mine about one million tons of coal each month and average about one million dollars in wages paid for mining. There are more than one hundred coal openings. The valuation of Wilkes-Barre property is over twenty-five million dollars and the number of registered voters in the city last year was nine thousand, five hundred and eighty-three. There are forty churches in the city. The M. E. Churh property is valued at two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars; the Presbyterian Church property three hundred and ninety-one thousand dollars; the Catho- lic Church property, three hundred and fifty-six thousand dollars; Protestant Episcopal, one hundred and eighteen thousand five hundred dollars; Jewish, twenty-six thousand ; Congregational, twenty-nine thousand ; Baptist, forty-three thousand five hundred ; Lutheran, four hundred and thirty-five thousand ; Reform, eighteen thousand ; Evgangel- ical, fifteen thousand ; the valuation of chuch property in the city is nearly one and a quar- ter million dollars. We have the largest wire rope and axle works in the world. And this valley is the home of many other great industries. Seven great railroads center here and every town and hamlet within fifteen miles is reached by the electric railroad, this system being
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as large, if not the largest, in the world. The city has seventeen handsome school buildings, accommodating sixteen thousand pupils. Wilkes-Barre provides amusements for the popu- lation of the valley. The Grand Opera House and Music Hall between them give nearly forty entertainments every month during the amusement season, and at nearly every en- tertainment the house is crowded. Most of these entertainments aim not only to be highly amusing but are as good as the great mass of people who go to see them can appreciate, while many of them open up to the boy from the mine the world, revealing to him glimpses of society, human nature and the experiences of human life, such as he could not otherwise obtain. There are seven hundred and seventy licenses granted to sell strong drink in the county, and over one hundred in Wilkes-Barre. In the little borough of Edwardsville there are twenty-two saloons and but little accommodation for the entertainment of the traveling public. There is one thing that the moral people of this valley permit that is criminal, and that is to allow whiskey and rum to be sold as a beverage. It is bad enough to have beer and other lighter drinks sold over nearly eight hundred bars, but to let those who keep the groggeries sell strong drink is criminal. Our temperance reformers are trying to get into politics. This will be the next step that will be made, sooner or later, to stop the in- discriminate sale of intoxicants, when practical temperance reforms appear. The valley is the literary center of Northern Pennsylvania. The golden age of our local literature is be- hind us. Our greatest genius was Dr. J. T. Doyle, a man of great and varied talents. Mrs. Doyle is preparing a collection of his poetical writings for publication. In the writer's judgment, Mrs. Verona Coe Holmes, of West Pittston, has written the two most poetical productions of our local literature, i. c. " The Cricket " and " One Night." Theron G. Osborne has produced the greatest quantity of good poetry and W. George Powell is our finest critical writer. Professor Powell has lost his sight and is supposed to be permanently blind. Miss Edith Brower is the only local writer of national reputation.
Several years ago the poets of the valley often met together for an evening. The office of the lawyer-poet, D. M. Jones, was a favorite place to meet. The party usually consisted of Dr. Doyle, D. M. Jones, John S. McGroarty, E. A. Niven, Theron G. Osborne, T. P. Ryder and W. George Powell, the late Will Powell, Fred Williams and the writer, from the West Side. Dr. Doyle would occupy the easy chair and would lead the conversation ; no one who has not listened to the Doctor under such circumstances knows what powers of expression and mental resources he possessed. The hours and conversation would fly. The air would be so thick with poetry, philosophy, wit, nonsense, smoke and mental friction as to nearly obscure Davy's (Mr. Jones) smoky lamp. The muses would be made to dance a breakdown and Pegasus would be driven at a breakneck pace. Will S. Monroe did con- siderable in drawing the attention of the public to the wealth and beauty of our local literature , as also did the Wyoming Magasine, published by the writer. It is well known that the valley has, for a hundred years, been a literary center. Our progenitors wrote un- numbered sonnets, ditties, lyrics, epics, couplets and epilogues, but hardly a line survives. The strong, noble prose writing in Charles Miner's history of the valley and other prose productions of the past proclaim of the merits of our carly writers. The blind sister of Charles Miner was a poet. In the Historical Rooms is a little volume entitled "The Harp of the Beech Woods." The poems were written by a young married woman who lived in the beech woods. She was of a titled family of England. Her marriage displeased her parents and she came with her husband to this country. They built a little cabin, and away from all associations but her husband, nature, her thoughts and a harp, she spent her
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life. The poems in this volume are redolent of the sweet odors of the pine, the pathos and poetry of nature and life. Marie M. Pursel and Juniata Salsbury are well-known writers. Charles D. Linskill published a book of travels and D. M. Jones, Esq., is our poet laureat.
Most of our early writers were bitten with the style of Pope. A lawyer, sea captain, sur- veyor, judge and legislator by the name of Abraham Bradly wrote and published a book that received a warm reception. The ladies of Wilkes-Barre gathered nearly the entire edition and burned them. They thought it had infidel proclivities. The most remarkable thing about this book was its title -- it contained eighty-one words. The work was a phil- osophical retrospect of the universe. Two satires written within a few years made a sensa- tion. The first one was a take-off by Dr. Doyle on a supper given to celebrate the nativity of Moore, a remarkable production. The other was by Hon. H. W. Palmer, entitled "Soxe's Pond," aimed at the cheap demagogy of some local politicians. The sensation created by the publication was all out of proportion to its literary merit or wit. There is no disposition at the present time to produce imaginative literature.
The literature may be languishing, art and oratory discounted, the legitimate drama trodden underfoot, the mind and the eye neglected, but the ear is charmed and the voice cultivated and the love of good music general. Our musical societies and vocalists are our pride. The music genius was Gwilym Gwent, a poor laborer in our mines, who wrote glees that have never been surpassed. The lovers of music are building him a monument. Richard Williams is one of the finest soloists in this country. There is a musical instru- ment in nearly every house in the valley. The Welsh and Germans take the lead. Most of the children of these nationalities are taught the notes before they have learned the alphabet.
Our politics for the last thirty years have been very intoxicating. The Americans are largely Republicans, the Irish Democrats, the Welsh Republicans. The Germans lean to the Democratic party. The Hebrews are about evenly divided. The Huns and Poles an like a foot ball and all are sovereign. In education the European population are in the crescent and their advancement toward the realization of New England ideals has no paral- lel in history. The acquisition of knowledge is raising up a barrier against the enemies of our institutions. Our method of reform is by the brecding out process. We are, by the enforce- ment of wise laws, education and the laws of health, making the repetition of the ignorance and degradation of the present impossible in the future. We have swung out the Cloth of Gold.
The newspaper has, with all its virtues, led us into the vicious habit of disjointed think- ing. The millinery of sensationalism and the supremacy of mediocrity is proving fatal to high aims. Life itself is becoming the high school where men are learning to draw their inspiration. It is not books, but from original contact with men and practical life. Some look upon literary culture and ornamental branches of education as fatal to character and success in life. These intellectual bankrupts need to remember that nature's old sollioquy, "To let the flowers grow between the leaves of life," has not been repealed, and that igno- rance is a species of immorality. If we are moles, life is ragged and monotonous and we are deceived and bullied by it, and fail to see that it is a pageant of beauty, we turn down Matthew Arnold's declaration that "We should know ourselves and the world and the best which has been thought and said." The reason why the Anglo-Saxon has been supreme
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and will continue to be is because he is intellectually superior and the man who cannot see it is a blank. The long head and wide forehead will prevail ; these play the magical wand that wind and unwind our destiny. There is a saying that the country is built up of the brain of an Irishman and the muscle of a German. Surely the Irish people have the faculty to assimilate all that will advance them. Unlike the Welsh, they do not let their language or nationality stand in their way, and consequently they soon blend into the mass. They are born politicians and make successful criminal lawyers. At the Luzerne Bar they represent about fifteen per cent. and in the other professions about the same proportion. Ignorance, viciousness and vulgarity is very rapidly diminishing. We are by natural pro- cesses decreasing ignorance and intemperance. A mastering force or law is at work and all that mars our civilization yields to it. As a mass our ideals are not high. Every day and public life we find rather chilly and not very cleansing. We lack the culture that broadens the understanding and enriches the heart. We practically deny that the sovereign good consists in greatness of soul. We are not proud of our individuality and do not resist the world's attempt to merge us into the mass. The youth is speechless because he has no base of knowledge, and culture aud high standards arc deemed as useless as a field full of daises. We stand condemned for our lack of spiritual aims and the unnecessary- sacrifice we are making to material well being is giving us over to ignorance and vulgarity. Our stock of mediocrity is appalling and so is our standard. Our minds are constantly in a circle with nothing beyond. A little share of personal good and ephemeral objects suffice us. We need a Prometheus to animate our dead hearts and save us from intellectual bankruptcy and some agency to plow our very hearts up: Nevertheless, our streets are crowded with a great army of young men. They are the peers of any generation that has preceded them. They will be actors in the most enlightened period in the history of the world and will wit- ness the greatest advance in mental, moral, social, mechanical lines, and material prosperity of any age. The borough limits are disappearing. The farms are becoming towns. We are fast becoming a great metropolis. All power is becoming so divided that the anarchy of a class, as in the past, or the supremacy of a party or nationality is out of the question. The owner will control his property. The wise and just minority will make the laws; the scoundrel and fool will fall together. There is a law working for righteousness that will prevail and cverything that stands on any other foundation will fall. The one who turns his thoughts to the twentieth century will see the evidence of the coming of something more than material prosperity in the future. We have resembled a glass of beer-all foam and dregs. We are letting the dregs settle and the froth falls of its own weight. I will lay down my pen at this point. I have rambled in a discursive way over the great drama of human life in this valley during this century, with but a glance at a few of the multitude who have preceded us into eternity or are yet acting their part in the drama of life, and under what I have written will write Ipse Dixit.
Kingston, Pa., September 12, 1894.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Without hurry, without rest the century has nearly passed. Not even a memory remains of the great mass of humanity which has preceded us. The dead signify but little to us. Yet their thoughts have become our character and have fashioned our very countenance.
When the Nineteenth Century dawned George Washington had been in his grave but a few days, and Napoleon had just declared himself first Consul of France. John Adams, the Federalist, was President. and Thomas Jefferson, the anti-Federalist, was Vice President.
Momentous events were being launched upon the world and stupendous machinations were being evolved in the mind of that brilliant luminary that was shedding such a dazzling lustre while passing with lightning speed through the political firmament of Europe (Na- poleon), before whose mighty sceptre monarchies and principalities vanished as manikins manipulated under the wand of an accomplished magician.
Every gentleman wore a queue, powdered hair and cocked hat. Buttons were scarce and expensive. The trousers were fastened with pegs or laces. Pork, beef, fish, potatoes and hominy (Indian meal) were the staple diet. There were no manufacturies in the country and every housewife raised her own flax and made her own linen. Crockery plates were objected to because they dulled the knives and the pewter plater and mug were common. A gentleman bowing to a lady always scraped his foot on the ground. The center of popu- lation was Virginia, as it contained a fifth of the population of the country. The laborer worked from sun to sun and was glad to get two shillings. Nearly all manufactured articles were imported from England.
The population of this county was not quite thirteen hundred, and it then included what is now Wyoming, Bradford, Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties. The mail was carried by a man on foot and it came in once a week from one direction and twice a month from two directions. The only postoffice was in Wilkes-Barre.
1807 the coal trade opened by shipping arks down the Susquehanna. 1808 Jesse Fell made an experiment of burning anthracite coal in a grate. During the same year the first brick building was erected in Wilkes-Barre. In that year the Wilkes-Barre Academy was incorporated and Wilkes-Barre became known as the educational centre of Eastern Penn- sylvania and Southern New York. 1809 the old log house and the jail were converted into a school. 1810 the first bank was opened.
The first drama was acted here in the ball-room of the old Red Tavern, on the corner of Main street and Public Square ; it was entitled " The Babes in the Woods." 1812 the church called the Old Ship Zion was completed. 1813 the Wyoming Matross, a volunteer company from Kingston, embarked on a raft from Toby's Eddy for the war. 1814 five com- panies went to the defence of Baltimore, which was threatened by the British.
The first bridge was built over the Susquehanna in 1818, at a cost of $44,000. In 1819 two piers were undermined and two reaches of the bridge were lost. 1824 this bridge was lifted from the piers by a hurricane and deposited on the ice.
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PRINCIPAL EVENTS.
In ISI8 a fire engine was bought by the borough council, in Philadelphia, called the "Neptune."
During 1826 there was a great anti-Mason agitation caused by the alleged abduction of one William Morgan. 1830 the first canal boat came up the canal to Nanticoke. It was the "Wyoming" and was built at Shickshinny by Hon. John Koons. In 1834 the founda- tion of our common school system was laid. 1844 Wyoming Seminary was opened for students. In 1834 the first boat made a round trip by canal between Wilkes-Barre and Easton. 1855 the Lehigh Valley railroad was opened. In 1846 war was declared by our government against Mexico. About half of the men who went from this Valley never returned. There was a great reception given the troops when they reached the Valley after their discharge. E. L. Dana was the captain of the Wyoming Artillerists. .
In 1849 over two thousand rafts floated past Wilkes-Barre. In 1852 a charter was granted for a railroad between Scranton and Bloomsburg. In 1856 the first train ran between Scranton and Kingston on the D., L. & W. R. R.
It was in 1858 the Historical Society was organized with E. L. Dana president. 1850 the Wilkes-Barre Library Association was organized. 1852 the first daily paper was pub- lished in Wilkes-Barre. 1859 the east side of the Square was destroyed by fire. In 1856 an effort was made to have the swamp in Public Square filled up. 1858 the Kingston Coal Company's colliery shipped coal for the first time.
Previous to 1845 every farmer in the Valley raised sheep, or rather, the sheep raised them- selves, for they picked their living. In the winter the farmers fed them straw. 1855 a reaping machine was brought to the Valley.
1853 the corner-stone of the Wyoming Monument was laid with great pomp and cere- mony. 1859 a fire burned the north side of the Square from the Luzerne House to Cahoon's hall.
The first war meeting was held in Wilkes-Barre in 1861, Hon. H. B. Wright presiding. In 1862 the One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment was organized, with E. L. Dana Colonel and George E. Hoyt Major. A reign of terror begun in 1862 by the discovery that an organization of desperadoes known as the Molly Maguires existed in the coal fields, . who proposed to control local politics and corporations by terrorizing the public. During that year this society resisted the draft. Lee invaded this State and Governor Curtin called for fifty thousand men, and in 1863 the Governor issued a proclamation calling out the entire militia of the State. The navigation was destroyed on the Lehigh in 1862 by.a great flood. The L. V. R. R. was opened from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre 1866. During the year 1867 both sides of West Market street was nearly consumed by fire. In 1865 the great flood occurred. It was thirty feet above low water mark. The old his- torians state that the great flood of 1786 was forty feet above low water mark; it does not seem possible.
The Fishing Creek rebellion broke out during 1864. Four companies of infantry and two of cavalry went back to Columbia County to repress the Copperheads and Democrats of that section who had congregated in the gorges of the mountain to resisist the draft.
The Avondale disaster was in 1869. The breaker burned, causing the death of one hundred and eight men and boys. 1871 Wilkes-Barre secured a paid fire department. The great riot at Scranton took place during this year.
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1874. This year the great woman temperance crusade was inaugurated. Many acres of land over the Empire mines cave in and the steamboat Hendrick B. Wright put on the river were events of that year.
In 1877 what is known as the great strike occurred. From 1861 for several years cur- rency became inflated and business acquired an abnormal activity that engendered reckless extravagance. Following these times was a period of reaction and to keep the price of labor up to war-time rates the miners struck and committed many acts of violence which ended in the calling of the United States troops to the Valley.
The Greenback party elected W. H. Stanton, Esq., for additional Law Judge in 1877 ; he resigned. The Wilkes-Barre Hospital was opened 1872.
1883 the steamer Susquehanna blows up on the river in front of the Valley House. The corner stone of the First M. E. church laid.
1885. An epidemic of typhus fever in Plymouth ; 114 died out of the 1, 150 sick.
1887. John Welles Hollenback donates five acres of land for the Hollenback cemetery. Opening of the Ninth Regiment Armory. Laying of the corner stone of Nelson Memorial Hall.
1888. An awful disaster on the Valley railroad at Mud Run, where fifty-five persons were killed outright and many who were hurt died afterward. The electric road began its exist- ence in the valley this year.
1889. Osterhout Free Library opened. Red Nose Mike hanged. An epidemic of small pox in Nanticoke.
1890. August 19 a tornado swept over the valley, killing six persons, injuring thirty- five and causing damage to the amount of two hundred and forty thousand dollars.
1893. F. V. Rockafellow's bank failed.
1894. Nesbitt Science Hall opened. A cave-in at the Gaylord mine and thirteen men killed. The centennial anniversary of Lodge No. 61, F. and A. M., was held in Wilkes- Barre. The first Masonic Lodge in Wyoming Valley was organized when General Sulli- van was in the valley. Then a traveling lodge was formed in the army, (1779), twelve years after the first settlement. Wilkes-Barre had then abont one hundred taxable inhab- itants. The first charter obtained 1794. When General Washington died the members of this lodge wore mouring for three months. Most of the notable men of the valley were Masons. Refreshments were served in the early days, inexpensive, with plenty of strong liquor. Wyoming Seminary observed its bi-centennial.
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