USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > The Wyoming Valley, upper waters of the Susquehanna, and the Lackawanna coal-region : including views of the natural scenery of northern Pennsylvania : from the Indian occupancy to the year 1875 > Part 17
USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > Susquehanna > The Wyoming Valley, upper waters of the Susquehanna, and the Lackawanna coal-region : including views of the natural scenery of northern Pennsylvania : from the Indian occupancy to the year 1875 > Part 17
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
In the year 17SS, Philip Abbott, who had fled to his home in Windham, Conn, during the troubles in Wyoming, and who subsequently re- turned to the Lackawanna Valley in 1786, erected a log house and a small corn or grist mill on the edge of Roaring Brook, near where the present flour mill stands. In October of the same year, a James Abbott became interested in the property, and in April 1789, Reuben Taylor became a partner. In the spring of 1790, John Howe purchased the entire interest.
Two log houses had now been built, and the place was designated the " Holler," afterward Slocum's Hollow, after Ebenezer and Joseph Slocum, two brothers of the captive girl Frances, described in an anterior chapter. These pioneers had purchased the interest of John Howe. In the fall of 1805, Ebenezer built the old red house now standing on the edge of Roaring Brook, known throughout the valley as the Squire Slocum House. Previous to the erection, however, of this fine aristocratic mansion, in the year 1799, they had built near them a saw.mill, and in the year 1800, after consultation with the famous Dr. Wm. Hooker Smith, who had faith in iron, a forge was constructed, which depended solely upon charcoal for heating, for the day of anthracite was not yet.
The ore, such as was found, was placed in stone furnaces where it was mixed with the proper quantity of charcoal, then melted and separated from the slag. By heating again and being hammered into balls, it was made into a fair iron,
-
:
----
1
LACKAWANNA IRON AND COAL COMPANY.
107
said to be very strong, and worked into any desired shape by their simple trip hammer. The profits it may be seen were decidedly meagre, and in 1828, after a period of twenty-eight years hard work, the first enterprise of the valley in iron ceased.
A
The Slocums still had as a means of subsist- ence for these many years of labor, a saw-mill, two distilleries, and their grist-mill. They had - also added to their fortunes some 1,700 acres, nearly all coal lands situated in the vicinity of Capouse. The year in which the forge stopped, thus dampening the hopes of the young settle- ment, another historic event seemed to transpire which arrested the attention of all the residents from the " Holler " all around to the mountains. The North Branch Canal was commenced at Pittston, and herc was an opportunity to redeem Slocum Hollow, and perhaps awaken the fires in more than one forge, by merely extending the canal up the Lackawanna as far as the Slocums.
Meetings were held, and men are living to- day in Scranton who gave a lifting hand to raise the wind in its favor, but it failed to succeed. Surely the Hollow looked as though it was doomed, but it remained an object of endear- ment to more than one; even Ebenezer Slocum had always prophesied that the Hollow would be a great city some day, and he longed to have only the privilege of seeing it fifty years after he had lain in his grave. But the guardian angel of his tomb has not been unkind to him, and his cherished home has fulfilled for him the grand and final consummation of his long dwelt on visions. If the expectations of the hardy veterans of the forest had been chilled on the canal question, they still had in their minds an idea of a railroad, which was swifter and more adapted to their temperaments. It was but the budding of something to come, and was called the "Drinker Railroad," and while it never came in the manrer and shape originally looked for, still it carried along with its excitement a man by the name of William Henry, who never tired studying over it, and planning its route out somewhere through " Drinker's Beach."
It was this continual traveling and surveying
over a proposed route that taught William Henry that the region contained, under its sur- face, occans of iron ore, and it needed but strong hearts to get it out.
A mecting of the friends of this road was held in Easton, 1836, which Mr. Henry attended, lasting three days. His mind was full of the riches of his famed locality, and in his enthusiasm he related to the gentlemen present the bound- less resources of the country described, and then upon his own confident assertion verified the dream of old-Ebenezer Slocum, that if an iron interest was awakened and once developed in the Lackawanna Valley, a large town would be built, as well as the road. He proposed to erect a blast furnace somewhere on the route above Pittston, and was sanguine of its ultimate suc- cess. The boldness of the scheme staggered them, all but one, whose name has hitherto re- ceived little mention by local writers, but who deserved his share of the glory. Edward Arm- strong, the person referred to, was a gentleman of considerable wealth, who resided on the Hud- son river, and whose financial transactions occa- sionally called him to this locality. He offered himself to Mr. Henry as a partner, leaving the choice of location of the furnace to Mr. Henry's enlarged views, also allowing plenary discretion in the purchase of land after a survey. Mr. Henry proceeded promptly on his mission, and traveled during the summer of 1839, examining various places along the route, and on the very spot which would have gratified the spirit of Ebenczer Slocum, he chose the site for the furnace. Then it was that Col. H. B. Wright and Chester Butler, Esq., two of the leading politicians or the day, announced their readiness to have the canal run up the Lackawanna to where Roaring Brook intersects it, for here was the site selected. Limestone for the works, as they expressed it, could be abundantly shipped. In January, 1840, DIr. Armstrong learned of the final result, and in March, a co-partnership was formed, which purchased 503 acres, and con- templated the erection of three or more blast furnaces. . Some three months after Henry paid $8,000, equal to about $16 per acre, a price which astounded many in those days. The pur-
108
THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
chase money being, or to be paid by Armstrong, the deed was required to be set out in his own nanic. In thirty days from the time of his first payment the bold and generous Armstrong was laid in his grave, and Mr. Henry left at the mercy of the administrator. The indomitable hero left at once for New Jersey, to interview parties who had hitberto wished to embark in an enterprise of this character.
At Oxford Furnace, N. J., he met his son- E'n.law, Mr. Selden 'T'. Scranton, to whom he laid bare the original plan, and its threatened ter- mination by the death of Mr. Armstrong. He beseeched him to come forward, and use his in- fluence upon others to do the same, and assume the position so recently occupied by his partner. That was the year of the famous Harrison cam- paign, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," "Coon-skins," " Log-cabins," and " Hard-cider," and an en- thusiastic meeting was being held at Stanhope, to which Selden T. repaired, where he met his brother Geo. W. and unfolded the scheme. It was determined to accompany Mr. Henry at once to the Lackawanna Valley, and at their outset they met and persuaded Mr. Sandford Grant, ot Belvidere, to follow them in the ex- ploration, and the morning of August 17th, 1840, saw the party fairly under way, and that morning commenced an epoch in the history of Pennsylvania, which is not ended yet in its last- ing influence. The journey occupied two days, coming by way of the Drinker Turnpike, over the barren wastes of the Pocono, and the desti- nation reached, tbe horses were hitched to a tree, where now stands the residence of the late James Archbald, and just above where the fur- nace was afterward located. Qn both banks of the Roaring Brook they discovered in plain sight abundant quantities of ball or kidney ore, lying between two veins of coal.
Roaring Brook and Hyde Park were explored, as well as the surrounding country, and as dreary and bleak as the scenery may have ap- peared to them, their faith was unslaken. The following day August 20th, 1840, titles were executed and Mr. Armstrong's place filled. Tbe Hollow at this date contained five dwelling houses, one school house, one cooper
sbop, one saw mill, and one grist mill. They returned by way of Wilkes-Barre, and discussed the plan of operation. The firm as it now stood was composed of the following persons, viz. : G. W. and S. T. Scranton, S. Grant, and W. Henry. It was thought judicious to make the organization more powerful, consequently Mr. P. H. Mattes was made acquainted with the purchase, and the firm was then announced as Scrantons, Grant & Co. with a capital of $20,000.
The energy of those days was not a wbit behind that of the present time, for considering the habits, hard, long and tedious modes of con- veyances, tbis new company must have entered upon their mission with a will. as the records show that the first day's work was done Sep- tember 12, 1840, by Simon Ward, less than a mouth from the day when they started from their homes in New Jersey. September 20th the foundation of the furnace was commenced.
The great interest which Mr. Henry mani- fested in Harrison's election caused him to attempt to have the name of Slocum Hollow changed to that of Harrison. It failed perma- nently, and finally adopted that of Serantonia, next Scranton, which it is sure to keep while time lasts. Work kept up brisk on the furnace during the winter, and a small store-house, office, and dwelling, all under one roof were erected. This building which was long known as Snyder's, and later as Kressler's Hotel, was finally demolished to make way for extended im- provements in iron operations. The spring of 1841, brought to the embryo city the family of Mr. Grant, and the store of the company was conducted by Mr. Sandford Grant. Mr. Charles F. Mattes, son of the P. H. Mattes before- mentioned, moved here also in April of the same year.
At about this date, a body of iron ore was discovered on the southern slope of the Moosic Mountain, about three miles from the furnace which was purchased, and in order to secure it to the furnace, about four thousand acres had to be purchased. This with the heavy outlay in the furnace and works drew heavy on the young
109
LACKAWANNA IRON AND COAL COMPANY.
company, and subjected them to considerable embarrassment.
In the fall of that year, just one year from the inception of the company, Colonel G. W. Scranton became a resident of the place, and entered at once heartily into the plans of Mr. Henry, just as the furnace was to be put into practical operation. The first attempt to start it was made in September 1841, by Mr. Tem- plin, but the stack was new and wet, so the ex- periment failed. Mr. Clark, of Stanhope, N. J., made the next attempt, and this too was a dis- appointment.
The reader may wish to be made acquainted with the faet that iron was first made with an- thraeite in 1837, and then with but partial sue- cess, and here in 1841, it was being attempted by a new company with the above given results. The next effort after altering the machinery and placing in new heating ovens was made with ap- proved suecess by Mr. John Davis, a Welshman, in December, 1841. The blast commenced January 18th, 1842, and ended February 20th, - having made 75 tons in thsi attempt.
The well meant efforts of the company had not been without its sneers, and more than once the affair was pronounced a Jersey humbug. The apparent success of Davis, altered the music of the grumblers, and joy was promised to Lacka- wanna Valley.
-
Still another difficulty presented itself. To instance : Suppose the company was doing all that could have been manufactured extensively, and the demand was plenty, which was far from being the case-then how eould the manufae- tured produet find an outlet to market. There were but two, one by the way of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. thenee to Honesdale and " on ; while the other was to the North Branch . Canal at Pittston, which eould float it down to Havre-de-Grace, and both were dreary enough in prospeet. Wagon transportation was neces- sary in either case, which compelled a travel of fifteen miles to Carbondale, and seven to Pitts. ton. A great finaneial embarrassment was threatening at that time, too, to engulf the manufacturing interests of the country. It was under these distressing circumstanees that the
first year's product was shipped via Havre-de- Graee to New York and Boston, and at a time, too, when iron was falling rapidly in priee. In this strait new eharaeters appeared on the scene, the brothers E. C. and Joseph H. Scranton, then of Augusta, Ga., who were to the weak eoneern as angels of merey, by advancing funds to help sustain the project.
Still the enterprise was a losing one, and it did not take a keen foresight to eonelude that it would always remain so, if pig-iron alone was to be manufactured. The credit of the company in consequenee eommeneed failing again, and their paper, it is said could hardly be sold at forty per cent. discount. To meet this emergency, the next aid-de-camp to send out into the world was Mr. Selden T. Scranton, who hastened to New York, where, by his eharaeteristie deportment he sueeeeded in obtaining from the very first man he called upon, Mr. John H. Howland, the sum of $20,000, and by his son John who subsequent- ly became a partner therein, additional eapital.
The next scheme was to manufacture the iron into bars and nails, thus giving it inereased value with twenty-five per cent. less tonnage to trans- port to market.
In 1843, the first rolling mill and nail factory were commenced, and in February, 1844, the mill, were completed, and both working to their full capacity a few months afterward. In March, 1844, Mr. S. T. Seranton, who had not removed his home from Oxford Furnace, New Jersey, took up his abode at the new Lackawanna Iron Works, while his brother George exchanged places and returned to New Jersey. The mer- eantile business of the company for the next two years was conducted by Mr. Sandford Grant. In the year 1847, the company commenced mak- ing the T rail, and this event brings the aspect of palmier days for the adventurers. The New York and Erie Railroad was at this time halted at Middletown, where many difficulties sur- rounded them, and English rails were being laid which were eosting the railroad $80 per ton. The Seranton Company thought they could see here an opportunity, which if seized upon, would reap for them fame as well as wealth. In September, 1845, Mr. Joseph HI. Scranton, purchased the
110
THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
entire interest of Mr. Grant, and the following year Mr. J. C. Platt entered as a partner, as- suming the duties made vacant by the with- drawal of Mr. Grant. It was now 1846, and Col. Geo. W. Scranton had returned to reside. It was an eventful year in the history of the company, and one which told in its effects throughout all Northern Pennsylvania. The company had entered into negotiations with the struggling Erie Railroad Company by which they were to furnish 12,000 tons of iron rail, to weigh fifty-six pounds to the yard ; to be made and delivered at the mouth of the Lackawaxen, in Pike county, during the years 1847-8, at $70 and $80 per ton.
This vast undertaking required new machinery and additional outlay, but the never failing en- ergies of the company were equal to the oppres- sive call. Several' wealthy gentlemen, warm friends of the Erie road, loaned to the Messrs. Scranton, on their personal security alone, $100,- 000 to enable them to carry out the contract. Mr. Joseph H. Scranton took up his abode here permanently in 1847.
The company had organized under the gen- eral partnership law, Nov. 16, 1846, Messrs. Joseph H. Scranton, George W. Scranton, Sel- den T. Scranton and J. C. Platt being the gen- eral partners of the firm of Scrantons & Platt, while some wealthy gentlemen of New York were special ones. This added of course to the already replenished funds of the company, and right heartily did the money push its way out into the hands of labor.
One item-two large blast furnaces were put in course of construction, in 1848, as well as a railroad to their ore mines on the mountain, four miles in length. The manufacture of nails in the meantime had ceased, to make way for the greater industries. The whole country was busy and ablaze with the stupendous effort.
Mr. Loder, President of the Erie road at this time, afterwards stated in a public specch at the opening of the Northern Division of the Dela- ware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, that had it not been for the contract, and its prompt ful- filment, the road could not have been opened at the time specified, to Binghamton, as the Erie
railroad must have failed or suspended. To the Scranton Company it was everything, for it was the very opportunity to save themselves as well as the Erie road.
The bringing of the large iron machinery from a distance, carted by mules for sixty or seventy miles over mountains and through forests, many times eight mules to the team, was indeed no pleasant business matter to contemplate.
The mills were completed, and railroad iron was fast being put in readiness for delivery. The first fifteen hundred tons of railroad iron that was made on the 12,000 contract was deliv- ered as per agreement at the mouth of the Lack- awaxen, whence it was taken by canal to Port Jervis, and laid on the road between that place and Otisville.
After that portion of the road was finished, the company having been so long delayed by injunc- tions and other inconveniences, new arrange- ments were consummated by which the rails were delivered by teams, seven thousand tons in amount, to Big Eddy, (Narrowsburg,) Cochec- ton, Equinunk, Stockport, Summit, and Lanes- boro, an average distance of about fifty miles, thus enabling the company to lay the track at all points along the Delaware Division as fast as the grading was ready, and upon the road for one hundred and thirty miles at once, four days ahead of the time appointed, to save the $3,000,- 000 donated by the State of New York, on con- dition that the road should be built on time. It is difficult at the present day to impress upon the reader the disadvantages which would beset such an undertaking through the forests of Northeast- ern Pennsylvania.
A glance at the magnitude of the works of this corporation will well repay the tourist. The sizes . of their blast furnaces may be inferred from the diameter of the boshes, which are respectively 17, two of 18 each, 20 and 23 feet, with a height of fifty to sixty-five feet. Into these furnaces air is forced by four double-acting lever-beam engines. The steam cylinders are fifty-four inches in diameter, and ten feet stroke, the blowing cylinders are ninety inches in diameter with same stroke. The air is forced by this apparatus into the furnaces un-
111
LACKAWANNA IRON AND COAL COMPANY.
der a pressure of five to seven pounds to the square inch, according to necessity. The six huge fly-wheels which regulate the movements of this enormous apparatus weigh some one hundred and fifty tons. Some 65,000 tons of pig metal can now be produced each year. The principal product of the mills is railroad bars, of which 120,000 tons a year are manufactured, be- sides some 3,000 tons of merchant iron. Of the 120,000, 113,000 is pig iron, and 43,000 will be steel, after the latter mills are in operation. The company has 113 puddling furnaces, and 43 heating furnaces.
There is also connected with the corporation a steam saw mill, grist mill, foundry, machine shop, carpenter shop, car and wheelright shop, and brick yard, all used in the prosccution of their business. The Lackawanna Iron & Coal Com- pany was incorporated June 10, 1853.
There still, remains a brighter day for this vast industry for at present its utmost ener- gies are being put forth in the matter of constructing Stecl Works, which will again have a tendency to revolutionize the history of the eity, of which this institution is the veritable parent. One important historic fact remains to be told of the energies of the early founders. This company has the credit of putting up the first stationary steam engine between Carbondale and Wilkes-Barre. It was set up in July, 18+7, and where is the statistican that can number them now ?
As the Steel Works of this company, when completed, are destined to play an important part in the future history of the industries of Scran- ton, a brief sketch of its machinery, capacity, and mode of operation will doubtless be of inter- est to the outside world.
The foundations for this important establish- ment were commenced in the vicinity of the company's rolling mills, on Washington avenue, on the 16th of June, 1874, and the work is yet being carried on under the supervision of W. W. Manness, Esq.
The capacity of the works will be extensive, consisting of a cupola room, forty-four fect span, seventy-one feet long, and forty-ninc feet high to eaves ; a converting room eighty-four feet span,
one hundred and twenty-four feet long, and thir- ty-one feet high ; an engine room, fifty-four feet span, seventy-seven feet long, and sixteen feet high ; a boiler room forty-six feet span, seventy- three feet long, and sixteen feet high to eaves. All these building will be arranged so as to form a rectangle of 124x202 feet.
In the cupola room will be located four cupo- las of seven-and-a-half feet in diameter, four fect in depth of tuyeres, and fifteen feet high to charging doors, each capable of smelting five tons in thirty minutes. Also two six ton ladles, mounted on scales for receiving the molten pig iron from the cupolas and in which it will be weighed before converted into steel; also two reverbatory furnaces for melting the franklinite, the office of which is to impart to the converted product its requisite hardness as well as to re- move impurities. In each end of the cupola room will be a hoisting tower furnished with a hydraulic elevator of six tons capacity, and fifty feet travel. The two five ton converters, (or egg shaped vessels), will be located in the converting room, of eight fect external diameter and fifteen feet high. These will be lined with refractory material ten inches thick at the bottom of the vessel, and will be provided with stout trunions eighteen inches in diameter, and with hydraulie gcar for rotating, mounted on iron frames and columns. The centre of the converters will be ten feet ninc inches above general level. These are, by means of the hydraulic rotating gear, first put in a nearly horizontal position, for receiv- ing the molten pig iron ; next in an upright position while the iron is being converted, and lastly in a reverted position, while discharging the yet hissing steel. Immediately in front of the converters will be situated the easting pit, which will be thirty-eight feet in diameter, and two-and-a-half feet deep, and commanded by a central hydraulic ladle-erane of twelve tons ca- pacity. At its extreme end is mounted a ladle which receives the steel from the converters. This ladle-crane will then be swung over the several ingot-moulds in rotation, when the liquid metal will be tapped from the bottom of the casting-ladle, to avoid the slag becoming mixed with the steel. The steel ingot will then
112
THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
be allowed to solidify, after which it will be weighed and stamped with the number of the charge, and its degree of hardness, and is then ready for blooming and rolling into rails. The size of the ingot depends on the weight of the rail to be produced. It will average twelve inches square and forty-five inches long, and for two thirty- foot rails sixty five pounds per yard.
In the converting-room, four more hydraulic cranes will be located about the casting pit, and the converters, for manipulating the ingots, moulds, ladles, and other accessories. The lining at the bottom of the converters suffer most, of course, during the conversion, and to provide for this unequal wear there will be twelve reserve bottoms, by means of which the process may go on uninterruptedly. Thirty heats of five tons each, or about 150 tons can be turned out every twenty-four hours. These bottoms are prepared in the establishment, being first rammed up with refractory material in a semi-plastic state, and then exposed to a slow and steady heat in large ovens, of which there will be five, each eight fect wide, eight feet high, and sixteen feet long in clear, and all opening in the converting room.
All the hydraulic machiney will be actuated by a hydraulic duplex force pump, having two steam cylinders twenty-inches in diameter, two water cylinders of nine inches in diameter, and twenty-four inch stroke. A somewhat smaller pump will be provided also in case of accident. The water will be forced from these pumps under a pressure of 300 pounds per square inch into a system of pipes which will communicate with the various hydraulic motors throughout the works. First, however, it will pass through
a regulating apparatus, where each pipe will be provided with a balance- valve, a slight motion of which regulates or arrests the powerful cur- rent, which, when liberated, will be capable of raising twelve tons with a speed of one foot per second. These pumps will be located in the engine-room, where will also be two independent horizontal and condensing blowing engines, fifty inches in diameter, and a blowing cylinder fifty- four inches in diameter and five fect stroke. These engines will furnish the blast requisite for the conversion, to the converters at the rate of 9,500 cubic feet per minute, and under a pres- sure of twenty pounds per square inch. The boiler-house will be occupied by a battery of six" boilers of the locomotive typc. Each boiler will have 33 square feet grate surface, 1.504 square feet heating surface, and 112 tubes sixteen feet long and three inches in diameter.
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.