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 22
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 22
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
At that period, the preference for anthracite coal was steadily gaining over all other kinds of fuel for all domestic purposes, its superiority in cheapness and effect in generating steam, was beginning to be understood, both in New York and Pennsylvania, and it warranted the belief that, ere long, it would become the most
13
138
THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
favored article for the same purpose in steam- boats. To the present age, it may be of interest to state, that the managers were highly elated in announcing in 1828 :
"That a steam-engine of one hundred horse- power, had worked twenty four hours with three tons of anthracite coal; that another, of eighty horse-power, consumes one chaldron and a half during the working hours of each day, and other smaller engines in proportion ; with the addi- tional advantage of dispensing with the firemen and laborers usually employed with other fuel, the engineer alone, being adequate to all the service of supplying fuel, and attending these engines that work during the day only."
Now that the State loan had been obtained, authorizing contracts were let for completing the canal from the narrows of Lackawaxen to the forks of the Dyberry. Here it was determined to stop the canal, and from thence to construct a railroad to the coal mines, a distance of fifteen miles, nearly. This termination of the canal was seven miles short of that which was suggested in the original plan.
A turnpike road had been constructed from Carbondale (the coal mines), to the Milford and Owego turnpike, and another from the head of the canal, to intersect this turnpike, six miles lower down. Over this road, coal was hauled by common teams to the head of the canal, at two dollars and twenty-five cents per ton, on sledges, and at two dollars and seventy-five cents per ton on wheels.
Carbondale, as a place of deposit for the west, it was prophesied, would become a village of some importance. The railroad terminating there would furnish a conveyance to and from the canal, cheaper by nine-tenths than by com- mon teams. The road, too, which connected the main turnpike with the canal, would always be beneficial in furnishing an easy communication between the country and the canal. and being accepted as a public road, would be kept in repair at the public expense.
The construction and use of railroads was new in our country. Only one, of a few miles length, had been tested by a winter's cold. and another was a temporary and imperfect work. Differ- ences of opinion existed among the engineers in England in various particulars, but all agreed in
their great superiority over turnpike roads, and in their near approach to canals in respect to cheapness and facility of transportation. Under these circumstances, it was deemed advisable to submit the chief engineer's plans to the exami- nation of Judge Wright and Professor Renwick, not from any distrust of the capacity or skill of the chief engineer, but from an adherence to that system of caution which hitherto had been observed in all the measures which the pioneers of this great enterprise had taken in hand.
With the sanction of such high authority, the company proceeded in executing the work of building a road and its appendages, under a firm conviction that it would serve as a model for future works of the kind in this country. The construction of the railroad at that early day was of timber, so arrayed as to ensure durabi- lity (!) with rolled iron plates, securely fastened to the timber rails with screws. Upon a com- parison of the cost of the iron plates in this country, with their cost in Europe and expense of delivery here, it was determined to import them ; and Horatio Allen, Esq , an engineer, well qualified for the service, was engaged. He sailed for Liverpool to procure and superintend the manufacture of the plates, to procure the locomotive engines, and obtain information of the latest improvements in works of the same kind in England. Superior accuracy in forming the plates, a fact admitted by the oldest manu- facturers in this country, and of great impor- tance in avoiding friction and giving steadiness to the motion of the carriages, and an estimated saving in the cost of about eighteen thousand dollars, offered inducements to sending to Eng- land for the plates.
By reference to Chapter xvii, of this work, page 76, will be gathered the facts in detail con- cerning Mr. Allen's trip to Europe, and his sub- sequent purchase of the first locomotive engine ever placed upon a railroad track on the Ameri- can continent.
In the year 1830, while the company was pushing to the utmost its endeavors, the senti- ment of the people, or rather, a portion of the inhabitants of Northeastern Pennsylvania, changed to an alarm. It was feared that the
139
DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL COMPANY.
Delaware & Hudson Canal Company would even- tually become a gigantic tyranny, and ruin per- sonal interests in that section of the State through which its arms were stretching. To counteract this growth of a fancied property despotism, indignation meetings were held, and in that year there appeared a pamphlet, ad- dressed to the people, the title page of which read as follows :
MONOPOLY IS TYRANNY!
OR 'AN APPEAL
TO THE
PEOPLE AND LEGISLATURE
FROM THE
OPPRESSION OF THE
DELAWARE & HUDSON CANAL CO.
DUNDAFF, SUSQUEHANNA. COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
- PRINTED BY S. HAMILTON, 1830.
The questionable appeal starts out with the following prelude :
" It becomes a painful but imperious duty, to appeal to the people, from the oppression and monopoly of a powerful foreign company, which threatens to absorb all our most valuable rights, privileges, and trade, to the destruction of some classes in society, and to the injury of all."
Here follows an elaborate description and de- dining of a monopoly, in which the author quotes history from the commencement of the 17th Century, when the English East India Company obtained their first charter, and endeavored to exclude all adventurers from the India tradc. It quotes the celebrated case of Sands, in 1664, wherein the Lord Chief Justice Pollfexen, proved that that company was a monopoly : that all monopolies were contrary to the Stat. 21, James I., which declares them to be against the common law, to Magna Charta, and to divers other statutes, which enact that all letters patent and commands, to the contrary of the freedom of commerce, shall be void; and it
further states that as late as 1815 even Parlia- ment was compelled to listen to the reiterated remonstrances of the people.
Having explained the character of monopoly, its pernicious tendency, and its hostility to natural and chartered rights, it proceeds to show the origin of the Delaware & Hud- son Canal Company-the principle upon which it was founded, and the spirit that had influenced its councils and operations to this time.
Here is given in detail each successive step of progress from the advent of Maurice Wurts and some of his intimate friends who had purchased sundry tracts of coal land at, and in the then village of Carbondale. The acts of the Legisla- tures of the States of New York and Pennsyl- vania were commented on, and construed in a distorted and selfish manner. The statistics which had been given to the public by the officers of the corporation were severely criticised, and in the total twenty-eight pages, the most caustic strictures are applied to the management of the company, concluding with the following :
" Let the people engaged in the river trade, whose property has been destroyed-nay, whose very lives have been jeopardised in passing the dams in the Delaware and Lackawaxen-reply. By excluding individuals from the railroad, and thereby monopolizing the coal trade of the whole Lackawanna Valley-as well as by other acts already referred to, it has manifestly inflicted deep wounds upon the general prosperity of the country, and 'abused the privileges' granted in its charter.
" Will these abuses be tamely submitted to by the people ? Will they remain careless specta- tors of the misery and ruin brought on innocent individuals, by the daring violation of chartered rights ? Can they continue silent under the constant encroachments and oppression of a powerful foreign company, whose chains will soon be rivited upon them ? For the honor and welfare of the community, we trust not. Let them instantly and fearlessly unite in petition- ing the Legislature for the appointment of com- petent engineers to examine whether any of the works or improvements on the Delaware and Lackawaxen. have rendered the channel of those rivers less safe and convenient than they were, in their natural state; that the engineers should proceed immediately on this duty, and report to the present session of the Legislature. Let them also apply for the appointment of a com- mittce with powerto send for persons and papers;
-
1
140
THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
and to enquire whether the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company have not misused or abused the privileged granted them. Such a petition, the Legislature of this State would never reject."
As will be seen by the foregoing, it was the purpose of this circular to create a powerful feeling on the part of the people, just before the Legislature would assemble, and thereby control the action of the Representatives; but it failed to accomplish its desired mission.
The company went into the next session of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and convinced that body that they were honestly endeavoring to develop the great resources of the northeastern section of the State, and proof abundant was submitted that the funds of the company had been totally expended to that end. The depre- ciated finances attested this too plainly, and sympathy was begotten for the enterprise as one that had wrought great works, and which must in time to come prove to be a great blessing to the wilderness of the section in which it was located. Time has confirmed this opinion, and the populous cities and towns along its route are the flattering evidences of its faithfulness to the trust committed to this vast industry.
The report for the year 1832, was made by a new president-John Wurts-giving in outline the action of the year previous. Owing to the depressed state of the credit of the company, it was found necessary to apply once more to the State of New York for aid, which was granted to the amount of $300,000 for seven years, thus making a total of $800,000 received from that source. In applying the last loan to the extin- guishment of the debts and liabilities of the company there still remained a balance of $75,500 against it, thus showing that the mam- moth undertaking was being placed in readiness to fulfil its destiny.
Coal had by this time been more thoroughly experimented with, and indications pointed to a growing demand. In generating steam, parti- cularly, it was found to have decided advan- tages ; and in connection with these efforts, to increase the consuniption on shore, the manage- ment was not insensible to the importance of in- ducing the use of coal in steamboats. In this
(though attended with more difficulty), con- siderable progress had been made; at three of the ferries on the East, and one on the North River, Lackawanna coal had been for some time used in their boats, with entire success. During the summer of 1831, it was also used with ad- vantage in larger steamboats belonging to the port of New York, and it was understood that the example of these boats would be followed in the spring by others that had been altering their machinery during the winter. Although what had been done was considered rather as an ex- periment, and susceptible of much improvement, yet the attention of those interested in steam navigation had been drawn to the subject in such a way as to warrant the conclusion that Anthra- cite coal, would, ere long, become the common fuel for steamboats.
As a general result, a large portion of the Lackawanna coal vended during that year was consumed in manufacturing establishments also, and for these purposes, it had deservedly acquired a reputation that would thereafter insure for it a large market among this numer- ous class of consumers, while it was steadily advancing in public favor as a fuel for the house grate. Under these circumstances, the com- pany could with confidence dismiss all apprehen- sion as to a market for the coal.
From the spring of 1830 to the spring of 1831, the total consumption of Anthracite coal was 127,000 tons. From the spring of 1831 to that of 1832, the total consumption was 228,000 and the market would have borne 20,000 to 30,000 more. It was deemed most prudent to err on the side of caution, and to permit the supply rather to fall short of the demand than to exceed it. To this principally, and not to the want of capacity in the works of the company for a larger business, is to be attributed the in- adequate stock of the Lackawanna coal during that season. Of the above total consumption, this company did not furnish all of it.
During the following year, 1832, commencing on the 2d of April, and continuing until the 25th day of December, 90,000 tons of coal, and upwards of 3,000,000 feet of lumber, passed over the railroad, beside a considerable amount of
1
DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL COMPANY.
141
merchandize passing to the interior. Owing to a want of miners in the early part of the season, coal could not be supplied to the extent of the capacity of the road. The amount of business, however, exceeded that upon any other railroad during the same period in the United States, and abundantly demonstrated its efficiency, as well as the sound practical views and scientific accuracy of the principles upon which it was constructed.
Mine roads were opened during this year, and the mines placed in a condition to supply with facility, the stock required for future use. The quality of the coal continued to improve as the mines were penetrated. Alterations, improve- ments and repairs were made in the railroad so as to increase its capacity to the delivery of 700 tons per day.
The year of 1834 was a losing one to the com- pany ; it had been one of extraordinary embar- rasment and difficulty in almost every branch of business. The general derangement of the cur- reney, which commenced in the fall of 1833, and the consequent paralysis of every species of domestie trade and industry, continuing until late in the year 1834, exercised a pernicious in- fluence on the property of the company. In- flueneed, it was presumed by the gloomy and discouraging prospects which presented them- selves in the fall of 1833, manufacturers, and others, were deterred from sending for all the coal which they had contracted to take from the company, at the close of navigation for that year ; the company was therefore left with a greater stoek on hand than was contemplated when it was brought to tide water ; and owing to the mild character of the winter which followed, this unexpectedly large stock had been slightly diminished when the eanal opened in the spring of 1834.
, Nor was the above the whole extent of the evil to the company. The best market for its coal was among the manufacturers ; and the same causes which prevented some of them from taking the coal which they had eontracted to re- ceive in the fall of 1833, prevented then gener- ally from consuming their usual quantity during the year 1834. The general or miscellaneous
trade on the canal suffered under the influence of the same causes. The mines by this time were in a state of preparation for the production of 150,000 tons during the season.
In the year 1835, trial was made with Dr. Nott's Boiler with Lackawanna coal, a's will ap- pear from the following paragraph, taken from the Journal of Commerce of the 18th of March of that year :
"STEAM BY ANTHRACITE COAL .- The new steanı ferry-boat Essex. to ply between New York and Jersey City, has been fitted up with Dr. Nott's Patent Tubular Anthracite Coal Boilers.
* *
*
"On Monday the boat was brought down from the ship yard, and, with a party of gentle- men on board, made an excursion of forty or fifty miles upon the Hudson and in the bay, using Lackawanna coal. The success was com- plete, and we believe satisfied all on board that the desideratum of generating steam by Anthra- eite coal has at length been attained. The Essex will soon be regularly employed on the ferry, where all who feel au interest in the improve- ments of the day, can easily examine for them- selves."
A contract was entered into between the com- pany and Messrs. H. Nott & Co., of New York, by which these gentlemen agreed to run a steam passage boat on the North River, using Lacka- wanna coal under Dr. Nott's boiler, and with a speed equal to that of any other boat on the river.
It will thus be seen, that this company is really the pioneer in the great effort to force an- thracite coal upon the waters of navigation. They had adopted every expedient to bring this article of fuel before the publie, and to win the confidence of favor were compelled to pay the Messrs. Nott for using the coal, in order to establish its superiority.
Up to, and through the years 1837-38, the strain upon the company had been severely felt. The former year, was one of extraordinary, and perhaps unparalleled, difficulty and embarrass- ment. Very few, if any, branches of business had escaped the consequences of a general de- rangement of the currency and eredit of the country, the avenues of trade and commerce had been obstructed, production, labor, and industry almost entirely paralyzed, and business generally
142
THIE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
brought down to a supply of the more absolute wants of life.
It was not to be supposed that this company, with interests so diversified and extensive, would be entirely exempt from the influence of causes so powerful and comprehensive. It felt them ; the market for coal had been thereby much abridged, especially among manufacturers, who usually purchased largely, and when the demand did exist, the prostration of credit and confidence interposed almost insuperable obsta- cles in the way of effecting sales only.
In this connection, it may also be observed that the year had sustained an unusually heavy charge for repairs and superintendence of the canal. This had arisen mainly from three causes : First, extraordinary injuries sustained in the spring by the breaking up of the ice in the Delaware and Lackawaxen rivers. Second, the repairs, to a great extent of wood work con- nected with locks, aqueducts, waste-weirs, bridges, &c., which, from age, had become so decayed as to require renewal. Third, the con- tinued high price of provisions, notwithstanding the general depression of business, and the des- titute condition of many of the laboring classes.
A reaction and general revival of trade did not take place as early as was anticipated ; very little, if any, improvement took place until the fall of 1838; the Lackawanna coal stood un- rivaled, among all the anthracites, as fuel for generating steam ; in that branch of consump- tion alone, the company had a large and rapidly increasing market, which, in connection with its demand for other purposes, placed the com- pany in a position of safety as regarded compe- tition with other coal.
The coal trade in all other parts of the United States was yet in its infancy. The consumption of anthracite coal, however, had increased in ten years from less than 10,000 tons to about 800,000 annually. Some idea of what it was destined to reach, was formed at that time by the fact, that in a report of the Committee of the House of Commons, the annual consumption of coal in Great Britain was estimated at twenty- two millions seven hundred thousand tons ; and it was supposed that the increasing demand for
coal in the iron furnaces, and for steam carriages would probably soon raise the quantity of coal, annually consumed, to thirty millions of tons. The quantity of coal burning in the furnaces of one house only (Messrs. Guest, of Myrther Tydvil, Glamorganshire, Wales), was 870 tons per day, or 300,000 tons yearly. This fact was cheering for the prospective of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, as the manufacture of domestic iron was being extensively introduced in different sections of the country.
It was not until the year 1840, that views of growing prosperity began to manifest themselves. The company had been able to supply all the demand upon it during that year, with a consid- erable quantity on hand to meet early and in- creased consumption in 1841, at an advanced price. The statement of the year's business ex- hibited a profit of eleven per cent on the capital stock of the company, clear of all charges.
For nine years this corporation almost single handed, had regarded as an object of primary importance to introduce anthracite coal into use in steamboats, and this attempt had been pur- sued with unceasing effort. They were now re- garded as having been crowned with success, and it was a happy circumstance for the company, that Lackawanna coal was found to be more peculiarly adapted to that extensive branch of consumption than any of the other kinds.
The making of iron with anthracite coal was no longer regarded as an experiment, even in this country ; but, on the contrary, it was assum- ing the form of a regular, systematic and exten- sive business, and was destined soon to produce an entire revolution in this important branch of the domestic industry of the country. The combined and powerful operation of the two causes above, was sufficient to affect the relation of supply and demand, and consequent value of anthracite coal.
The year of 1841 exhibited a clear profit of over 21 per cent. arising from the regular busi- ness of the company, on its capital, which amounted to $1,922,000. The average price of coal sold had not exceeded $5.50 per ton. During the following year, like every other branch of business in the country, the coal trade
DELAWARE AND HUDSON CANAL COMPANY.
143
was very much depressed throughout the whole year. The bonds of the company were all paid - in the year 1843, after which no debt stood against it except the State loan. In 1844 coal sold at low prices, and the demand greatly ex- ceeded the ability to supply.
In 1845 the business on the canal and rail- road was brisk, 276,000 tons having been ship- ped from Honesdalc, about 10,000 of which failed to reach tide water, having been arrested in its progress by ice in the canal.
Fifteen years experience in the system of mining adopted, without those serious casualties to which such business is subject, had caused great confidence in its security. But an unfor- tunate event occurred during the winter of 1843-44, by which sixteen lives were lost. The roof of a portion of the mines from the coal had been excavated, suddenly settled, and in so doing closed two of the main roads, leading to other parts of the works. These roads were supposed to be amply guarded against the effects of such an occurrence.
Some days previous, the mine, in the lan- guage of the miners, began to " work"; that is, the occasional cracking of the roof over where - the men worked denoted the danger of a fall. Such was the force of it when it occurred, that all the lights in the mines were extinguished in an instant, while the workmen and horses, which were entering or retiring from the black mouth of the cavern, were blown from it as leaves are swept by the gale. The following description of what ensued is taken from Hollister :
1
" The men who were at work in their narrow chambers farther in the mine, heard the loud death summons. and felt the crash of the earth- quaked elements, as they were buried alive and crushed in the strong black teeth of the coal slate. One of the assistant superintendents of the mines, Mr. Alexander Bryden, was on the outside at the time the low deep thundering of the rocks within came upon his ear. He hast- cned in to ascertain the cause of the disaster or the extent of the fall. Penetrating one of the dark galleries a short distance he was met by three miners, who informed him that the mines had broken, killing and wounding many, and that they had just left behind them about twenty men, who were probably slain by the crushing slate. Although urged by the retreating men
to turn back and save his own life as there was no hope of reseuing their companions from death, the determined Scotchman pushed along the gloomy passage, amid the loosened and hiss- ing rock, which, like the sword of the ancient tyrant, hung over his head. He reached the edge of the fall; earth and coal lay in vast masses around him, and here and there a body becoming detached from the parent roof, came down with sullen echo, into the Egyptian dark- ness of the mines. Bryden inured to danger from his youth, was not deterred. The dim light from his lamp revealed no passage, save a small opening made by the huge slabs, falling in such a manner by the side of the floor of the gallery as to form an angle. Through this aper- ture he crept upon his hands and knees; as he proceeded he found it so narrow that he was barely able to force himself along by lying pros- trate upon his abdomen. About one mile from the mouth of the mines he reached the " head- ing," or the end of the chamber, where he found the twenty imprisoned miners uninjured, and in- closed in one fallen, black, solid body of coal ! One mile of wall between them and the outer world ! The brave Scotchman, whose lips whitened not until now, wept like a child, as he found among the number his own son! The boy had the genius of his father. When one of the three retreating fugitives who had escaped from the mine proposed, as they left, to take away the horse confined here with the workmen, young Bryden, who feared the torture of starva- tion in that foodless cell, replied. ' Leave him here ; we shall need him !' Bryden was upon the point of leading out his men when he learn- ed that another lay helplessly wounded, still farther beyond this point, in the most dangerous part of the fall. On he continued his perilous mission until he entered the lonely chamber. A feeble cry came from the miner, who was aroused from his bed of slate by the glimmer of the approaching light, revealed a picture of the miner's life too familiar with the men who face danger in these cleft battle-grounds. Almost covered by the fallen strata, he lay half delirious with agony, blackened with coal-dirt. and limbs gashed and fractured with rock. Lifting the wounded man upon his shoulder, Bryden retraced his steps ; for rods he bore him along, with the broken, flaccid arms of the miner dangling at his side. When the rock was too low to permit this, he first crawled along the cavern himself, drawing his companion carefully after him. Through perils which none can appreciate who have not strode along the gloomy galleries of a coal mine, he bore him full one inile before he reached the living world The fall extended over an area of about forty acres, and although neither effort nor expense were withheld by the
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.