USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > Wilkes-Barre (the "Diamond city") Luzerne County, Pennsylvania; its history, its natural resources, its industries, 1769-1906 > Part 6
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FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING "" HISTORY OF WILKES-BAPRE."" COPYRIGHTED.
East side of South Main Street, viewed from near the corner of Public Square, in 1858.
" This borough might be rendered very beauti- ful with very little expense ; but beauty is a con- sideration very little attended to. The streets are not shaded with trees, and the traveler walks exposed to the burning sun. All the public build- ings are in the center of the town, where there is a square, the sides of which lie at an angle of 45° with the streets ; but it is not planted with trees, neither are the public buildings enclosed with any palings, so that they have a very naked appearance, as if they had been placed there because there was no other place for them. Bank [now River] Street affords a fine prospect of the river, and would form a beautiful walk for the ladies and gentlemen of the town, but boys of all ages are permitted to bathe along the street at all times of the day. This town, after a rain, is the most muddy place I ever saw, and, although there are great quantities of gravel and paving-stones [cobbles] along the river, yet the citizens seem perfectly satisfied to wade through the mud from one year's end to another. * * * The same kind of parsimony prevails here as in most of our little towns in New England. The inhabitants have done without a
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NORTH FRANKLIN STREET.
SOUTH MAIN STREET.
bridge for five years -although they have had a law for erecting one all that time-and the reason is simply because they cannot exactly agree upon the spot where it shall stand. Some want it at this street, and some at that, but all want it opposite their own houses." [See page 61, ante.]
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FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-SAPRE " COPYRIGHTED.
HOLLENBACK COAL EXCHANGE BUILDING. Erected in 1889.
The following paragraphs, written in the year 1876 by a gentleman who was born in Wilkes-Barre about 1813, describe briefly certain conditions and cus- toms which existed here in 1826.
"The writer was born in a log house on the Square, near the present Luzerne House [in 1906 the site of the Bennett Building]. One of his earliest recollections was the funeral of Capt. Samuel Bowinan [see page 54, ante], who was gored to death by a bullin June, 1818. * * * The funeral was numerously attended, and the Free Masons" were out in full array. There were neither hearse nor carriages, the coffin being borne on the shoulders of stout men to the old burying-ground [on Market Street, between Washington and Canal]. * * * * All the goods brought here were hauled across the mountains in Conestoga wagons, drawn by six horses. Some articles were brought up the river in arks and Durham boats. We had no prepared coal, except that which the boys used to prepare. Wood was used for cooking pur- poses, and coal only in grates for heating. Houses were lighted with tallow dips, and lan- terns were made of perforated tin and lighted with candles. There were no pavements. Water was derived from wells ; but for washing, rain water was gathered in cisterns or hogs- heads, and in seasons of drought was brought from the river. * ** *
" While the general aspect of the river remains the same, there is considerable change. At the bend of the river there was then quite a heavy growth of timber. There was a sandy beach, much used for seining fish, shad being very abundant in the Susquehanna. They were
· Captain Bowman was one of the original members of Lodge No. 61, F. & A. M., of this city.
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FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY 'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BAPRE .!! COPYRIGHTSO.
WEST SIDE OF PUBLIC SQUARE, IN 1897.
worth from six and a-fourth cents to twelve and a-half cents each. On the bank near Major Conyngham's residence [south-west corner of River and South Streets] could be seen the remains of a fort .* Looking up River Street there were two unsightly store-houses on the river bank-Arndt's, in front of E. P. Darling's, and Hollenback's, nearly in front of Mrs. Fuller's. * * Where the Wyoming Valley Hotel stands was a house occupied by Henry Young, a gun-maker, and a house built by George Chahoon. Two small buildings came next, and then the [George M.] Hollenback building.t Turning up Market Street there were no houses nearer than a little cook-shop, at the corner of the present Faser's Alley. Then came the Sinton mansion (where now stands " Commercial Block ") and Siducy Tracy's house. At Sinton's corner [sce page 66, ante] Jacob and Joseph Sinton carried on business for many years. A field of corn reached to Bowman's corner, and all the west side of Public Square was open. On the cast corner of Public Square and South Main Street stood Joseph Slocum's blacksmith shop ; next was Slocum's brick residence (built in IS07), now ( 1876) the Record of the Times office. Then came the old jail [on East Market Street near Washington], between which and Canal Street there was a single small house.
" Where Music Hall now standst was an old building, in ruins in 1826. Lewis Worrell had a pottery where now is the Einley property .** The C. E. Wright house was built by Isaac A. Chapman in 1824.ff On the south-east corner of Union and River Streets lived Thomas
. One of the redoubts built by Sullivan's army in 1779.
t On its site the present Hollenback Coal Exchange Building was erected in 1SS9.
At the north-east corner of River and Market Streets. Upon its site the Hotel Sterling was erected in 1897. Occupied in part at the present time by the residence of Francis A. Phelps.
At what is now No. 63 North River Street, where the modern residence of Mrs. Pauline Long has stood for some years.
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Ingham ; Mrs. Gorman lived on Union Street, and the next-on the south corner of Union and Franklin-was Mrs. Vernet, wife of a West India merchant. On the north-east corner of Union and Franklin was MIrs. [Peleg] Tracy's boarding-house, and on the north-west corner was the 'old red house,' still standing-but no one seems to know when or by whom it was built. * * * St. Stephen's Episcopal Church was erected in IS22 or '23. It had the first organ in these parts, presented by a Mr. McCoy, and cost $600. The writer was there with the boys and heard the first tune, which was ' Yankee Doodle.'"
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING "H STOPY OF WILKES-BARRE." COPYRIGHTED.
FROW OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " - STORY OF MILKES. BARPE. !! COPYRIGHTED.
ST. STEPHEN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, IN 1850.
MUSIC HALL. Erected in 1870; demolished in 1897.
In 1830 Prof. Benjamin Silliman of Yale College wrote as follows relative to Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley, shortly after he had made an extended visit here :
" An active and intelligent population fills the country. Their buildings and farins bear witness to their industry and skill. Several villages or clusters of houses give variety to the scene, and Wilkesbarre, a regular and well-built borough having 1,oco or 1,200 inhabitants.# with churches, ministers, academy, able teachers and schools, and with many enlightened, moral and cultivated people, furnishes an agreeable resting-place to the traveler. In a word, splendid and beautiful in the scenery of its mountains, rivers, fields and meadows ; rich in the most productive agriculture ; possessed by the still surviving veterans and by the descendants of a high-minded race of men ; full of the most interesting historical associations, and of scenes of warfare, where the precious blood of fathers, husbands and sons so often moistened their own fields, the valley of Wyoming will always remain one of the most attractive regions to every intelligent and patriotic American."
Col. William L. Stone, a well-known author and editor of New York, made his first visit to Wyoming in 1839, and the next year published his "Poetry and History of Wyoming" ( three editions of which were issued up to and including the year 1864). The following brief paragraphs from this work will give an idea of the impressions made upon its author by his observations and experi- ences here.
· " Wyoming is mentioned in almost every book of American history written since the Rev- olution, as the scene of the massacre ; but for the most part that is the only occurrence spoken of-the only fact that has been rescued from the rich mine of its historic lore. The reader of poetry has probably dreamed of Wyoming as an Elysian field, among the groves of which the fair Gertrude was wont to stray while listening to the music of the birds and gathering wild
* According to the census of 1830 the population of the borough was then 1,201.
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flowers ; and the superficial reader of everything has regarded it as a place existing some- where, in which the Indians once tomahawked a number of people.
"The ' Happy Valley,' to which the illustrious author of Rasselas introduces his reader in the opening of that charming fiction, was not much more secluded from the world than is the valley of Wyoming. Situated in the interior of the country, remote from the great thorough- fares of travel, either for business or in the idle chase of pleasure, and walled on every hand by mountains lofty and wild, and over which long and rugged roads must be traveled to reach it, Wyoming is rarely visited, except from stern necessity. And yet the imagination of Johnson has not pictured so lovely a spot in the vale of Amhara as Wyoming."
The following concerning Wyoming was written about the year 1845 by a well-known American author of that period, who, a short time previously, had been a sojourner in our valley.
" Broad flats of meadow-land sweep greenly back from the opposite shores of the Susque- hanna, bounded a mile or two away by mountain ranges, broken with rocky cliffs and great forest trees. These hills, as you look up and down the stream, take a thousand picturesque forms, sometimes crowding towards the river in rugged cliffs, or consolidated in steep precipices, which cast their shadows half across the valley. Again the mountains fall back with a majestic sweep, leaving many a luxuriant corn-field and breezy grove open to the sight, while pretty farm-houses, filled with prosperous life, are scattered everywhere down the valley.
" Between a curve of the river and a picturesque sweep of the mountains lies the town of Wilkes-Barre, a gem among villages, set in a haven of loveliness. * * * Thus Wyoming lies at this day, peacefully cradled in its wild mountains, with the Susquehanna sweeping majestically through its green fields, its slopes clothed with orchards and heavy with grain, bounded by wild precipices and deep ravines in which the great primeval forest trees are still rooted."
The foregoing extracts will give the reader a pretty good idea as to how the borough of Wilkes-Barre appeared to the eyes of outsiders during the first half of its existence. As indicated by the statement of Colonel Stone, previously quoted, Wilkes-Barre continued for many years to be, in some measure, an isolated village, situated as it was "in the interior of the country, remote from the great thoroughfares of travel." The region surrounding it was devoted largely to agriculture, and the surplus products of the farms were marketed principally at Wilkes-Barre. From here they were hauled in sleds or big, canvas-topped wagons over the moun- tains to Easton ; or else shipped in arks down the Susquehanna to Middletown in Dauphin County or to Columbia in- Lancaster County, whence they were con- veyed across the country to Lancaster and Philadelphia. Easton being the most accessible town, however-especially after the construction of the Easton and Wilkes-Barré Turnpike (see page 62) -was for many years the chief market- town for the merchants of Wilkes-Barre and the principal farmers of Wyoming RESIDENCE OF COL. JACOB J. DENNIS. Valley. It was not until 1834 that the
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING "HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE. " COPYRIGHTED.
It stood for many years at the corner of South Main Street and Dennis Alley-the site of the present Simon Long Building.
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FROM USCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING "HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE .. COPYRIGHTED. RESIDENCE AND BANKING-OFFICE OF CHARLES B. DRAKE.
From a photograph taken about 1870. This build- ing stood for some thirty years ou South Main Street, at what is now No. 40.
Wyoming Division of the North Branch Canal was completed, by which Wilkes-Barre was con- nected with the other towns along the Pennsyl- vania system of canals; and it was a number of years later (1843) before the first railroad tapped Wilkes-Barre. Now eight railroads (in addition to the Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Valley Trac- tion Company's lines) convey passengers and freight to and from the town, the old turnpike is scarcely more than a reminder of primitive times and methods, while the canal, here and near by -- long ago abandoned and its ditch filled up with earth- is only a memory.
By an Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature ap- proved May 4, 1871, the borough of Wilkes- Barre was incorporated into a city. The old town had exceeded its limits, and the territory -- a part of the township of Wilkes-Barre-im- mediately adjoining it on three sides, having been built upon, contained a considerable popula- tion. The bounds of the new corporation were established so as to include this contiguous area, as well as to extend to the center of the Susque-
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FROM OSCAR J HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE " COPY ENTES.
IRA M. KIRKENDALL. First Mayor of the City of Wilkes-Barre. June, 1871, to June, 1574.
PHUMUSTARD HARVEY'S FORTHELYS "WEST, DE OF WILKES BARRE ". COPYRIGHTED CHARLES PARRISH. The first President of the City Council. June, 1871, to April, 1874.
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hanna River, and Wilkes-Barre entered upon a new career with an area of 4.14 square miles (exclusive of the river), divided into fifteen wards. (In 1890 a new ward, the Sixteenth, was erected from a portion of the Second Ward, and the city now contains sixteen wards. ) The legislative powers of the corporation were vested in a City Council, composed of fifteen members-one from each ward -- to be elected by the voters of the respective wards. The first, or charter, election of officers for the new municipality was held June 6, 1871, and the can- didates for the office of Mayor were Col. E. B. Harvey (who had been Burgess of the borough in 1865-'66) and Ira M. Kirkendall. The latter was elected by a majority of 974 votes.
By an ordinance passed by the City Council, and approved by the Mayor March 3, 1892, certain boundaries of Wilkes-Barre were changed and extended so as to embrace within the limits of the city the whole bed and the north- westerly bank of the Susquehanna, running the entire length of the city. Therefore, the total area of the city is now 4.858 square miles (3,109.12 acres), exclusive of .896 of a square mile (573.44 acres) within its limits cor- ered by the waters of the Susque- hanna. In August, 1898, by an ordi- nance of the City Council, duly ap- proved, the terms of the general law of the Commonwealth relating to cities of the "third class" were ac- cepted by the city, in lieu of the pro- visions and privileges in and under its original, special charter; and, ipso facto, and the issuing of a new charter by Governor Hastings Sep- tember 22, 1898, Wilkes-Barré be- came in all respects a full-fledged city of the "third class." The legislative authority is now confided to a Select Council and a Common Council, each body being composed of sixteen mem- bers-one representative from each of the sixteen wards of the city.
In 1870-one year before Wilkes- Barré was erected into a city-the borough had a population of 10,174. According to the census of 1890 the city's population was then 37,718, and by the census of 1900 it was 51,721. Considering the rate of in- creased during the twenty years pre- ceding 1900, and the conditions which have prevailed here from that year January, 1879, to January, 1553.
FROM OSCAR & HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES.BARRE IS COPYRIGHTED. HENRY MARTYN HOYT. LL. D. (Born June 8, 1830; died December 1, 1892.)
A learned and an able man, au honored citizen of Wilkes-Barré, a brave soldier in the Civil War, and Governor of Pennsylvania from
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UNITED STATES POST OFFICE. South-west corner of Main and South Streets. Erected in 1892-'03.
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until now, there is no rea- son to doubt that the popu- lation of our city at this time is at least 60,000. But, elbowing the city on all its boundaries, are bor- oughs and hamlets, which, if they should be annexed to the city (as many citi- zens have for a long time advocated) by the enlarg- ing of its limits to only twice their present extent, would increase very mate- rially the population of Wilkes-Barre. Its area, however, would still be less than that of many a well- known, prosperous city whose population is even now outnumbered by that of Wilkes-Barre.
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THE NEW LUZERNE COUNTY COURT HOUSE. (In process of erection. )
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IIĻAEL !!
THE PRESENT LUZERNE COUNTY COURT HOUSE. Its cornerstone was laid August 12, 1856.
According to the 12th United States Census there were, in the year 1900, within a 9-mile circle having Wilkes-Barre's Public Square as its center, two cities, twenty-three boroughs and many hamlets having a total population- including that of Wilkes-Barre-of 177,SS7; within a 20-mile circle having the same center there were four cities, thirty-six boroughs and numerous vil- lages and hamlets having a total population-including Wilkes-Barre-of 384,886. At the same time, within a 150-mile circle, was a population of 11,250,000.
Upon a very careful and conservative calculation it is estimated that at the present time the population within the 9-mile circle is, in round numbers, 185,000; within the 20-mile circle, upwards of 400,000; within the 150-mile circle, in the neighborhood of 13,000,000-being twice as many people as there were throughout the whole.of the United States when Wilkes-Barre was erected into a borough. .
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WILKES-BARRE CITY HALL. .
The population of Luzerne County in 1900. according to the 12th Census. was 257,121-showing an increase of 56,000 in ten years, and being about one-twenty-fourth of the population of the entire State of Pennsylvania. The population of the county is now at least 280,000-being considerably larger than that of each of the following States and Territories: Delaware. Idaho. Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii and New Mexico.
In the center of Public Square stands the Luzerne County Court House, erected in 1856; but a new and handsome Court House-which, when com- pleted, will have cost in the neighborhood of $1,000.000 .- is now being erected at the northern end of the River Common. Not far from its site stands the Luzerne County Prison, an expensive and substantial building of stone and brick erceted in 1869. The City Hall, at the north-east corner of Market and
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MEMORIAL HALL.
LUZERNE COUNTY PRISON.
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BANK
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING "' HISTORY OF WILKES-BAPRE."" COPYRIGHTED.
Celebration by the colored residents of Wilkes-Barre of the ratification of the XVth Amendment to the Constitu- tion of the United States. North Side of Public Square, April 26, 1870.
Washington Streets, is a tasteful and commodious building of brown stone and brick, four and a-half stories in height. Two other buildings which, in a sense, may be classed as "public buildings"-inasmuch as the public is very much interested in them, and as they were largely paid for by public contri- butions -- are the Armory of the 9th Regiment, N. G. P., and Memorial Hall. Both are handsome, substantial and commodious buildings of brick and brown stone ; the first-mentioned having been erected in 1887, and the second in 1891 by the efforts of Conyngham Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. The National Government completed in 1904, at an expense of $150.000 .. at the corner of South Main and South Streets, a large and handsome building for Post Office purposes. (See page 76.)
The schools of Wyoming Valley have for many years been noted for their excellence. (See page 63, ante. ) In Kingston, one mile from Wilkes-Barre's Public Square, is the widely-and well-known Wyoming Seminary, now in the sixty-third year of its life: while in Wilkes-Barre we have the Harry Hilhnan Academy and the Wilkes-Barre Institute (formerly the Wilkes-Barre Female Institute )-one a school for boys and the other a school for girls. These three
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FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BARRE." COPYO ENTED. ARMORY OF THE 9TH REGIMENT, N. G. P.
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING "HISTORY OF A LKES-BARRE .!! COPYRIGHTED.
The " Wyoming Artillerists ", of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, at Forty Fort, July 3, ISTS. In their rear is seen a part of the stockade which was erected on the site of old Forty Fort on the occasion of the commemorative observance of the centennial anniversary of the battle of Wyoming. The gentlemen seated on the ground in front of the "Artiller ists " composed a double-quartet of singers, who took part in the musical exercises at Wyoming Monument on the day above mentioned.
schools are under first-class management, have fine buildings and able teachers, and prepare many boys and girls for entrance to the lead- ing colleges of the country. The Wilkes- Barre Business College is another successful and well-patronized institution of learning which has been established here for a number of years. Mallinckrodt Convent, St. Mary's Convent, and St. Mary's Parochial High School are three very flourishing institutions occupying large and handsome buildings. The two first are for the education of girls and young women, and are conducted, re- spectively, by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Christian Charity and Sisters of Mercy. The third of this group of schools is for the educa- tion of boys and girls belonging to the parish of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church.
FROM OSCAR J. HARVEY'S FORTHCOMING " HISTORY OF WILKES-BAPRE."" COPYRIGHTED.
WILKES-BARRE FEMALE INSTITUTE. Erected on South River Street, near Southi, in IS53-'54: torn down about 1878.
The Public, or Common, Schools of Wilkes-Barre have for years been noted for their excellence. Twenty well-built buildings (some of them handsome structures ) are now occupied by these schools, and, in managing and instruct-
WILKES-BARRE INSTITUTE, IN 1895.
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MALLINCKRODT CONVENT.
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ST. MARY'S CONVENT.
WYOMING SEMINARY, KINGSTON.
ST. MARY'S PAROCHIAL HIGH SCHOOL. (Now in course of erection.)
GRANT STREET SCHOOL.
SOUTH MAIN STREET SCHOOL.
ing the 9,000 and more scholars enrolled therein, a City Superintendent, a Supervisor of Music, a Supervisor of Drawing. and 197 teachers are employed. One of the most valuable adjuncts of the educational institutions proper of Wilkes-Barre is the Osterhout Free Library (having an endowment of $350,000.), which, with its well-selected and up-to-date collection of books, num- bering about 33,000, has been open to the public since January, 1889. Another important and attractive institution located here is The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, founded in 185S. With its large and valuable reference
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HARRY HILLMAN ACADEMY.
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OSTERHOUT FREE LIBRARY.
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THE WYOMING HISTORICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S BUILDING.
"CENTRAL" SCHOOL BUILDING, WASHINGTON STREET.
library, its interesting display of pictures, its extensive and rare exhibits of Indian relies and geological specimens, and its palæontological collections-all open to the public, free, every week-day-it is surpassed by very few institutions of a similar character in this country.
There are sixty-six separate Church organizations, representing thirteen different religious sects or denominations, now in active life in Wilkes-Barré. and each of these organizations, save four, owns its place of worship. Several of the church edifices are surpassed in size, beauty and cost by only a few buildings of like character elsewhere in Pennsylvania. In fact, it is conceded by those competent to judge, that, with the exception of Philadelphia and Pittsburg, there is no town in this State which has so many expensive and beautiful houses of worship-including artistic stained-glass windows, high- grade organs, and other attractive and admirable adornments and fittings-as
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HIGH SCHOOL, CORNER OF EAST UNION AND WASHINGTON STREETS.
شرب الاسف
PINE STREET SCHOOL.
Wilkes-Barré. But, what is more excellent and praiseworthy, is the fact that the various religious organizations of the town carry on, in absolute ainity and con- cord, their work for the uplifting of the people of this community to a higher plane of morality and spirituality. During the course of many years several of the Churches have enjoyed the preaching and teaching of ministers of exceptional ability and learning; some of them men of national reputation in their respect- ive generations. One of these was the Rev. Nicholas Murray, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, 1829-'33, and another was the Rev. Dr. Arch-
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