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 35
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 35
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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
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THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY.
farming life, which did not suit him; he there- fore took it to pieces and modeled it to his own ideal. After that the orders came from all quarters of this region, and he made plow-shares of gnarled knots of trees for a score of years or more.
WYOMING.
This lovely little village is situated on the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad, twelve miles from Scranton, three from Pittston, and six from Wilkes-Barre, and enjoys the historic eelebrity of having the battle field of Wyoming on one side, and the monument, erected in honor of the patriot dead, on the other side, within its limits. It contains about one hundred and ninety to two hundred dwellings.
A splendid Terra Cotta work has recently been added to the industries of the town by Nathan Van Horn, which is turning out some of the finest ware of the kind manufactured in the country. A Joint Stock Company have recently put up a building, 40x150 feet, and are filling it with machinery for the manufacture of shovels of a superior kind.
The village is at present largely moved by a spirit of enterprise, and will soon take a fore- most rank among the towns of the valley. The Luzerne Agricultural Society has held its Fairs in this place for the past sixteen years, and its success has been largely owing to the efforts of her people, in taking charge of its exhibitions, and furnishing materials for display. It has for many years distanced all competition in its dis- plays of fruit and garden vegetables. Its straw- berry erop has attracted the attention of epi- eures in that favorite fruit. The Wyoming Horticultural Society has done much towards effecting these favorable results. The population of the village is about one thousand. No place in the valley has produced and turned out more publie men who have been an honor to them- selves and the place they represent than Wyo- ming. The list would be too large to give in our limited space, or we should be tempted to give it.
WILKES-BARRE.
The oldest and most historical point of the Wyoming Valley, is the present city of Wilkes- Barre. The name is derived from the union of the names of John Wilkes and Colonel Barre, distinguished advocates for liberty and the rights of the colonies. Everything pertaining to the prominent points of its early history. may be found in the early chapters. as Wilkes Barre was the hub of this region. Its population in 1850 was 2,723; in 1860, 4,253; in 1870, 17,264. Its growth since the last census has been rapid, and exceedingly healthful in the nature of the elements, which have added to its population. Many competent judges estimate the number of inhabitants at present from 25,000 to 30,000. The tendency to manufacturing industries is the most cheering of any part of the Wyoming Coal Fields. In its aggregate of individual wealth, it exceeds any city or town in Northern Penn- sylvania, though in its capacity for vast enter- prises and future development it may be consid- ered an open question as to whether Scranton or Wilkes- Barre is the leading center. The strong. est and, for this date, the most plausible theory is that Scranton will be the Metropolis of the North. If manufacturing industries could have inducements sufficient to warrant them locating at Scranton, there would be no doubts to be ex- pressed on the question ; as it is, the current is strong and rapid in the other direction. It is a painful duty on our part as a recorder of events, residing in a city which has held sway for time past to acknowledge these facts, but the duty of a historian compels him to act candidly in the premises. It does not require a keen observa- tion to trace this lamentable state of affairs to direct sources.
Wilkes-Barre Borough was incorporated in 1806. In 1772 Colonel John Darkce laid the town out in eight squares, comprising two hun- dred acres, with a diamond in the centre, upon which stands at present the Court House. The squares were subsequently divided into sixteen parallelograms, by the formation of Franklin' and Washington streets.
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CITIES AND TOWNS.
The leading families are nearly all direct de- scendants of the pioneers of Wyoming Valley, and are cultured to an enviable degree. Space will not allow all family details, but a few of the familiar names may be cited as exhibiting the social status of the city. Here is the Ross family, historical as descended from Gen. Wm. Ross ; the Hollenbacks, tracing with pride to the old Colonel, of whom every household in Northern Pennsylvania has heard; the Butlers, from General Lord Butler; the Dorrance fam- ily, from Colonel Benjamin Dorrance; the Pet- tebones, from Noah Pettebone, an old hero in the early struggles; the Myers family ; Shoe- maker family ; the Denisons, from Colonel Na- than Denison; the Sweetlands, M'Kerachans, and Careys; the Ransom and Jenkins families ; Inmans, Ives and Abbotts ; Blackmans and Starks ; the Harding and Dana descendants, now prominent in local history ; Beach, Jameson, Perkins, Searle and Gore; Young, Durkee, Sill, Fitch, Atherton, Harvey, Pierce, Gere, Gaylord, Miner, and a long line of others too numerous tò mention.
The law business of Wilkes-Barre is immense in its variety and magnitude. More business is transacted in the Courts of Wilkes-Barre each year than in the whole State of Rhode Island, with all their Courts combined. The town has always been noted for the proficiency of its Bar and legal learning. Some of the brightest legal lights of Pennsylvania history have sprung from Wilkes-Barre. Here Hon. Timothy Pickering beld a county office. Hon. Garrick Mallery is one of her men: The biographies of some of her eminent representative men may be found in other pages. Her legislators have always been chosen from the ranks of able men. Ketcham, Shoemaker, Denison and others have figured in - national history.
To make a proper exhibit of the historical past would require a volume in itself, which at some future day the author intends to give to the public.
THE CITY OF SCRANTON.
In the chapter on the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, much that pertains to the rise and progress of this, the third city of the State, was given in chronological order. A few facts, bearing generally upon minor details, will be considered as matters of history, inasmuch as old landmarks which once attested events have now totally disappeared.
After the pioneers of the iron and coal indus- try had planted themselves in Slocum Hollow, there arose near the works a rude row of houses on either side of a street stretching from near the Adams Avenue M. E. Church at present, to the entrance of the tunnel below the railroad track, which was designated by the early settlers " Petticoat Alley." One of the buildings now standing near the Company Store on Lackawanna Avenue, will indicate the first principles of Scranton architecture. It is said that the name was devised from the appearance of the women, who, living in close proximity to each other. were often seen in a flock engaged at household duties in the open air, all having a striking and uniform resemblance, in that they wore home- made petticoats, and only a thin cotton garment from the waist to the neck. Many of our pre- sent citizens were born in that historical row, and a chapter of more length than can be afford- ed here, would adduce facts of an interesting nature were they set forth upon record.
The first brick building of any importance in the city, was the boldest attempt of the valley- the erection of the Wyoming House. The spirit of the Iron and Coal Company exhibited its daring and its faith in the future of the young city, when in 1850 it planted in the forest the largest hotel outside of the great cities of that day. During the same year Messrs. Grant, Champin and Chase erected a brick structure on the corner opposite, now used as a wholesale clothing store by Messrs. Cramer & Go !. lsmith. About the same time the corner below, now known as the Coyne House, was finished by Mr. Lewis. The next building in the block was the
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one which to day is the lowest in the row, occu- pied by Jonas Lauer as a clothing store. Before these had been built Dr. Throop had erected a small house in the pines, on the location recently occupied by Kent's market. Where Doud's hardware store now stands, there commenced a row of one story frame houses, extending up nearly to the residence of Colonel George W. Scranton, now occupied by his son-in-law, Mr. G. A. Fuller.
Amsden's correr was put up one year after the Wyoming House was built. The Presbyte- rian Church was finished about the same time. The freight depot stood down in the yard, in rear of where Hunt's hardware store now stands, and the passenger house a trifle northwest, about in the rear of the present Hitchcock & Coursen's crockery establishment. The first drug store was built by Dr. Throop, on the ground now occupied by the tobacco house of Messrs. Clark & Snover. The year following the erection of the Wyoming House, the people were astonished at the daring of Mr. Simon Jones, in penetrat- ing the forest and erecting the first house on Penn Avenue, corner of Spruce street. On Sundays the neighbors went in a body to see the far-off residence, buried in a thick foliage. Mr. Dotterer, of the D. L & W., was the pioneer of Mifflin Avenue, and the assistance of the com- munity was called to "right fire" in the woods to save his house.
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The road then run to Providence by way of the Presbyterian Church, diagonally to the pre- sent Forest House stables, across the lower out. let of the swamp, and the early settlers declare that for a chorus of frogs this locality could eclipse the world in vocal vigor and weird sub- limity. Penn Avenue was cut from the forest after Lackawanna. The stumps were visible in the middle of the street for years, and on the unbuilt sites they still stand, defiant monitors of the past. The developing of the hill known as Sanderson's, is detailed in the biographical sketch of that public spirited citizen.
The mapping of the city has already been noticed, but it is singular, and to be deplorcd, that the Iron and Coal Company establishing a city, the bone and sinew of which should ulti-
mately be hard working men, should neglect so important a feature at the start, as the formation of a park or publie ground where the toiling masses could occasionally catch a glimpse of nature's verdure in this black and uninviting region. They had land enough at their disposal ; the swamp locality was the least promising part of the whole valley, and seems likely to remain so at the present exorbitant and almost extor- tionate rates demanded for it; the inducements to the erection of more tasty residences sur- rounding the public enclosure would have been enhanced, and they would have earned a lasting gratitude for all time to come. While this sub- ject is in point, it may be well to notice that near the city can be found a spot, which has invited the attention of the thinking men of this region, and bids fair, some future day, to become a popular resort. Thus far, the spirit of speculation only has ruled the city. Instead of parks which the city needs to give recreation to the toiling masses, we have swamp lots at $1,000 each, where a foundation cannot be had for the same amount of money, suitable for substantial buildings. Green Ridge offers to the pedestrian the real salubrious country air, but already that quarter is fast being seized upon for suburban villas and cottages. The attention of our peo- ple is tending to the outside limits and nearest attractive spots. There can be no doubt but that within a few years Scranton will have its resorts for amusement, within a few minutes drive from her main thoroughfares. No better place can be found in Northern Pennsylvania than the primeval forest around Moosic Lake. The following sketch, by the pen of another, describes it :
Six miles from Scranton in a bee-line, and ten by carrlage way, on the apex of the Moosic mountain, which draws its rocky chain between the waters of the Delaware and the Lackawanna, with only here and there a link broken by a stream two hundred feet above tide-water, lies the prettiest sheet of water found in Pennsylvania, known among the pio- neers as Cobb's Mountain Pond, now christened as Moosic Lake. Few know of its beauties, because they are not famil- iar to the routine tourist. It lies in a wild, out-of-the-way p'ace, on the top of the mountain instead of at its base. Its beauty is thus rendered more sparkling and inspiring. Un- like most of the inland lakes that gather their waters from highland rills and glens, this lake has no inlet, but is fed by an interminable line of springs, which can be seen in a hundred places through the water boiling with snow-white sand, and
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breathing pure oxygen from the depths below. The entire lake embraces some two hundred and fifty acres, and it seems to be one immense spring folded upon these wooded heights, either to give them a picturesque expression, or to be better able to swiftly irrigate the low-lands it animates. The forest is upon every side, and the foliage of the pine and the oak unite their lyrical strains, and form the daily chorus of the lake. No axe, or plow, or clearing, or cabin, has cowered away the robin's nest from the forest that not only touches the shore, but stretches its green and mellow drapery away as far as the eye can discern. The lake is constricted near the middle, forming a shape resembling the figure eight, with that portion near the outlet a tritle larger in its dimensions. Upon one side of the pond the waters are so shallow that the tourist can wade hundreds of feet toward its center, over white sand, without even wetting the knee, while the northern side sends its bank down almost perpendicular for a great distance. In the centre of this waveless sheet there exists a perceptible movement of the water or mimic maelstrom, able to swing around a log-canoe. The outlet is concealed by a curtain of foliage and rank water-grasses, and the water retires from the lake as modestly as the timid and half-reluctant maid bids adieu to her own homestead. It is more than possible that upon the border of the lake, where nothing can be seen at present but water, sand, forest and sky, and perchance a doe snuffing for a foe, and nothing can be heard but the flutter of the white water lilies anchored near the shore, a hotel or a mountain air-palace may spring up ere long to greet the tour- ists who are turning their attention Scrantonward to find that diversity of scenery, and purity of air, especially vouchsafed to this pre-eminently sanative and salubrious region. Hon. George Sanderson, who visited and examined this lake a few years ago with a party of gentlemen, estimated that a good hotel could be erected here for $3,000, and that $2,000 more would build a fine road from it to the turnpike at Cobb's, in Jefferson, a distance of one and a half miles, from whence a wagon road runs through Cobb's Gap to Scranton.
The outlet of this lake furnishes the head-waters of the Wallenpaupack, and it is down this weaving stream, some thirty miles on the line of the Pennsylvania Coal Road at Hawley, that the famed Paupack Fallsare seen. Moosic Lake is really the father of these Falls. During a drouth other trib- utaries fail, while the lake sends down a uniform volume of water the year around. Some forty years ago the outlet of the lake was lowered two feet to get a supply of water for the mill-ponds, ten miles down the stream. This left a margin of white gravel and sand around it, which would, by the removal of a few loose stones, make a most romantic drive. Pickerel of a vast length inhabit it, but they can only be secured by the skilful fisherman. Sun-fish and perch are abundant.
When the Wurts Brothers were making a preliminary sur- vey from their three coal-beds in Providence and Carbondale to the Hudson, in 1820-4, they contemplated the use of this pond as the first reservoir, because of its altitude and capacity. The idea, however, was afterwards abandoned. Small hunt- ing and fishing parties from the valley encamp every summer around the lake, and beguile away a week delightfully, sub- sisting in the meantime principally on the trophies of the rod and the gun.
Mr. Edward Dolph is now the owner of the greater portion of it. Quarter of a mile east ot Moosic Lake is found another sheet of water of about forty acres, so hidden from view by oak and spruce, that it cannot be seen until the very edge is reached. Its waters are cold, deep and transparent to a re- markable degree. It is circular in form, lonely and primitive in the character of its surroundings, and with such a charm of utter silence thrown around it, by the height and isolation of its location, as to make it an object of interest worthy of a
visit. Few people have ever looked upon it. No track, or path, or road, leads to it. No canoe has ever floated over it since the wigwam dwellers drew off their barks and left a lake without a name. Like its greater neighbor it is supplied by subterranean springs, and sends quite a rivulet into the Wallenpaupack. The maps of the county have thus far omit- ted the mentiou of this pond, and perhaps not a dozen citizens of Scranton have ever visited it, even if they know of its existence. A few days every summer, spent arcund these highland lakes, would make life more enjoyable and prolonged. Let parties from Scranton or elsewhere, in search of health, recreation, game, a bracing and invigorating kind of air that inspires digestion and a pleasant intoxication ; or those who wish to lounge in dream-land for a time, let them seek these mountain lakes with their tents and camp utensils, and thus find recre- ation and new life.
The importance of Scranton as the centre of the Northern Coal Field, may be estimated by a survey of the following recapitulated table from the report of the Eastern District of the Wyo- ming Coal Fields for 1874, by Mine Inspector Blewitt. This report includes Lackawanna Val- ley alone, with the exception of a small portion of Wyoming Valley, which comes in under the jurisdiction of Mr. Blewitt :
The total number of accidents, 158-one accident to every 40,239 tons of coal mined. Total number of deaths. 69-one death to every 92, 143 tons of coal mined. There were 89 acci- dents-one accident to every 71,437 tons of coal mined. There were 38 widows-one widow to every 167,313 tons of coal mined ; 112 orphans-one orphan te every 56,767 tons of ccal mined. There are 62 shafts, 35 slopes, 73 tunnels, So breakers. and Io schutes and screens ; 203 miles of gangways or head- ways, and 18315 miles of airways ; 1081/3 miles of T iron rail- road in the mines, and 407g miles T iron railroad outside ; 1232 6 miles of strap iron railroad in the mines, and 151 g miles of strap iron railroad outside , 5 583 men and boys working out- side, 10,974 men and boys working inside; total, 15.557 meu and boys working in and about the mines ; 2,006 mules and horses working in and about the mines ; Io mines ventilated by steam exhausts. 52 by furnaces, 27 by natural means, 21 by fans, and 2 by waterfalls.
MACHINERY. There are 145 hoisting engines, aggregate horse-power- 6,498 .. 7₺ pumping .. -- 3.755
60 engines in the mines, " -- 1,623
.. 72 breaker engines
-- 3,oSo
20 fan
- 954
Total _____ 368 engines. Aggregate horse-power ________ 12,119
The iron interests of this region require some attention in these pages. Bog-iron-ore - (hy- drous peroxide of iron )-was first dug and work- ed by the Slocums, as detailed in the chapter on the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company. Icis found in the neighborhood of the city at differ- ent points and in other localities, principally around Olyphant and Shickshinny. The ore is a hematite, but usually contains more ciay and earth in mixture with it. It is found in wet
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meadows, bogs and swamps along the base of the mountains. The umbral, or red shale formation of the upper part of Stafford Meadow Brook in Scranton, includes a layer or several layers of a peculiar variety of protoxide of iron ore, such as was formerly smelted in Slocum Hollow. As exposed in the mines formerly worked by the company, the ore lies imbedded in a true fire clay or soft elay shale, the average thickness of which is about six feet, while the ore for the most part is in two layers or courses, the lower one a continuous band some eighteen inches thick, and the upper a layer of flat balls or cakes twelve inches or less in vertieal diameter. The vast industries which call iron-ore into requisi- tion here, now ship from other beds which they own in this and other States.
Another of the main industries of this eoal region, which centre at Seranton, is the manu- facture of gunpowder. Unlike the soft and bituminous coals, which are eut with the piek, every ton of the millions of anthracite from these fields must be torn from the roek-bound bed by blasting with powder, the large consump- tion of which, even in the early days of mining, induced the erection of mills for its manufacture at different places in the valley.
Small stamper mills were put in operation near Carbondale, Dunmore, Spring Brook, Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, and on the Wapwal lopen Creek, as mines were opened along the valley. Whether the capital of the projeetors was impaired by frequent disasters of any nature, or an inferior product placed them at a disad- vantage with other manufactures, it has come to pass that now the demand is almost entirely sup- plied by two sources, the Moosic Powder Com- pany and Du Pont & Co.
The Moosic Mills are situated upon Spring Brook, at Moosie Station, on the Lehigh and Susquehanna branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and about six miles below Seranton. They are beautifully located among the hem- locks, maples and wide spreading beeehes which shade the valley of Spring Brook, where it de- bouches into the Lackawanna, and are consid- ered model mills for their purpose. A " Stam- per Mill" was built upon this spot twenty five
or thirty years ago by George Danier. In 1855 his saltpetre brokers, W. G. Rayner & Co., took the mills and run them until 1866, when having inereased their productive capacity during the war to 40,000 kegs per annum, and being able to realize some profit from the then high prices, they disposed of them to the firm of Laflins, Boies & Turek, members of the old powder- making firm of Ulster County, New York.
Under this administration the works were rapidly improved and enlarged, and in 1869 were merged with those of the Moosie Powder Com- pany, near Jermyn, which had been built in 1863-4 by the New York Smith & Rand Pow- der Company, many of the principal coal oper- ators contributing capital for the purpose of establishing upon a sure and reliable basis, and in a convenient locality, a manufacture so essen- tial to the economical transaction of their busi- ness.
The difficulty and expense of obtaining pow- der in emergencies like that of the recent war of the rebellion, impressed upon the minds of the shrewd men who have the management of these great mining properties, the importance of seeuring a local supply equal to any possible demand. Mr. H. M. Boies, the President of the Company since its consolidation, was formerly the managing partner in the firm of Laflins, Boies & Turck, and is himself a thoroughly practical manufacturer, capable of conducting any of the manufactories requisite to the fabri- eation. Under his administration the capacity of the Spring Brook or Moosic Mills, as they are now named, has been inereased to six hun- dred and fifty kegs a day, making a total of 300,000 kegs a year, which is about the esti- mated consumption of the Wyoming Coal Fields.
He is the patentec of an excellent device for the prevention of those accidents in the mines, which occur from che careless handling of pow- der while making the cartridge for blasting. It consists of packing the powder in long paper tubes, which may be divided into cartridges of any desired length without exposing the con- tents to danger, either from the moisture of the mine or the spark of the miner's lamp, and seems destined to come into general use, making
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a great saving to the miner, as well as avoiding the dangers of explosions which now kill and maim an average of thirty five men per annum.
The Moosic Company has about 8500,000 in- vested in their business, and require between twenty five and thirty separate mills in their Moosic yard for conducting the various processes through which the ingredients of powder pass before it is fitted for use. The buildings are connected with a neatly graded railroad, upon which the powder is moved from place to place, as each operation is finished. In this way heavy and terrible explosions are avoided. Indeed, there has been only one man killed at these mills in five years.
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