-' .aimsimmiMmias, CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Digitized by Microsoft® Cornell University Library F 157C2 B83 olin 3 1924 028 852 428 Digitized by Microsoft® This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation witli Cornell University Libraries, 2007. You may use and print this copy in limited quantity for your personal purposes, but may not distribute or provide access to it (or modified or partial versions of it) for revenue-generating or other commercial purposes. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® 'Si J fin « S 'A Q 1=5 Q f5 K O o P Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA SECOND EDITION Also Containing a Separate Account of the Several Boroughs and Townships in the County With Biographical Sketches BY FRED BRENCKMAN HARRISBURG, PA. : JAMES J. NUNGESSER, PUBLISHER 1918 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Lehigh, I dream that in thy voice I catch a tone of gladness, That yearning love is in thy touch. That thou wouldst soothe my sadness. — Augusta Moore. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® TO MY MOTHER AND TO ALL MY FRIENDS IN CARBON COUNTY I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 111 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. In issuing a second edition of "A History of Carbon County," the author wishes to express his apprecia- tion of the kindness with which the book has been re- ceived by the people throughout the county. There has also been an unexpected demand for it from points beyond the borders of the county, and it has found its way to the shelves of libraries, historical societies, and an occasional individual, from New England to the Middle West. Since only five years have elapsed since the appear- ance of the first edition, and by reason of the fact that the type had been held, very few changes have been made in the book, excepting that there has been some revision of the biographical section. The organization of the Carbon County Historical Society, in 1914, has aroused fresh interest in the county 's past, and has served to quicken the civic pride and local patriotism of our people. It is largely in recognition of this revival of interest in our local history that another edition of this book is being published. Feed Beewckmaw. May, 1918. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® PEEFACE. It is to be regretted that Carbon county, rich in his- torical materials, has no historical society. Intimate contact with representative citizens in all parts of the county has convinced me that such an in- stitution would not only be welcomed but gladly sup- ported by them. There does not appear to be any good reason why the organization and establishment of a society of this nature should be further delayed, and it would afford me great pleasure to do everything within my power to assist in the consummation of this object. Had there been an institution of this description in the county, the time, labor and expense devoted to the preparation of the present work might have been greatly lessened, while the result might have been more satisfactory to me and the public alike. Every effort, however, has been made to gain all the light possible on the subjects treated in the fol- lowing pages, and no pains have been spared to verify and authenticate all that has been here recorded. Much of the matter bearing on the early history of this general region has been drawn from among the mass of books, pamphlets and papers contained in the library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The public libraries of the Lehigh, Wyoming and Lacka- wanna Valleys have also been laid under contribution, as have the files of the newspapers of this and adjoin- ing counties, the court records at Mauch Chunk and at Easton, and the various bureaus and departments of the state government. But equally important with the information derived from these sources is that which I vii Digitized by Microsoft® Vlll PKEFACE. gleaned directly from the people in every section of the county. In view of this fact, I desire hereby publicly to heartily thank all those who in any manner assisted me ia this undertaking. Feed Bebnckman. HuDsoNDALE, Pa., October 5, 1912. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER I. THE INDIANS SUPPLANTED BY THE WHITES. Penn-syl-va-ni-a — what a majestic, awe-inspiring sound the name has ! and how it taxes the imagination, amid the changed conditions of to-day, to enable us to realize that less than three centuries have elapsed since the white man held any possessions among the dusky denizens of the woods within the present confines of this grand commonwealth. According to their own traditions, the various In- dian tribes inhabiting this portion of the country at the time of the coming of the Europeans lived, many centuries ago, towards the setting sun — somewhere in the west of this continent. The Lenni Lenape, mean- ing the original people, and considering themselves an unmixed and unchanging race, determined to mi- grate towards the rising of the sun. After journeying across wide and trackless plains they arrived at the Namasi Sipa (Mississippi) river. Here they met the Mengwe, or Iroquois, also in quest of a new home to the eastward. Anticipating opposition from the AUigewi, a people of gigantic form, living on the east side of the Missis- sippi, they here united their forces. Not many days after their union, and before they advanced, many and mighty battles were fought. At last the AUigewi were overpowered, and to escape extermination they abandoned the country of their fathers to the people of "The New Union," fled far to the southward, and never returned. In dividing the conquered territory, the Iroquois chose the lands in the vicinity of the Great Lakes and 1 Digitized by Microsoft® 2 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. their tributary streams, whUe the Lenape, or Dela- wares, as they were named by the Europeans, took possession of more southern parts, where they lived in peace for many years. The Lenape of the Delaware Valley were divided into three sub-tribes. The Minsi or Minisinks, lived in the moimtainous region above the junction with the Lehigh; the Unami dwelt upon the lands reaching southward from the Lehigh, including the present site of Philadelphia, while still farther south resided the Unalachtigo, whose principal seat was near "Wilming- ton, Delaware. It was with the two latter tribes that Penn made his celebrated treaties. The first had for its token the wolf, the second the turtle, and the third the turkey. The Unami, or "People down the river," were ac- corded the pre-eminence, their symbol meaning the great tortoise upon which the world rested. The Indians were more numerous in the valley of the Delaware than in any other section of Pennsyl- vania ; but no trustworthy estimate of their number in any place or section can be given. Throughout the province they were under the domination of the Iro- quois, the Romans of Indian civilization. The Iroquois proudly styled themselves "The men surpassing all others," and their superiority to the surrounding tribes and nations was the result of union. Five na- tions, the Mohawks, Senecas, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas, formed a confederacy, to which a sixth, the Tuscaroras, was later added. This was the most long- lived and powerful union of which there is any record in Indian history. The principal council fire was at Onondaga, by the lake of that name. There assembled the chiefs, whose decisions concerning war and peace were supreme. Digitized by Microsoft® CONTENTS. I. The Indians Supplanted By The "Whites ... 1 II. Moravians Settle Carbon County 25 III. Gnadenhutten Destroyed In Indian Uprising 34 IV. Belated Measures For Defense Of Frontier 47 V. Captivity Op The Gilbert Family 62 VI. Early Annals Op Anthracite Coal 73 VII. Organization Op The County 87 VIII. Military Affairs 95 IX. Education 109 X. The Mollie Maguires 127 XI. Strikes And Labor Dippicultibs 147 XII. Steam And Electric Railroads 157 XIII. Banks Township, Beaver Meadow Borough, BOWMANSTOWN BOROUGH, EaST MaUCH Chunk Borough, And East Penn Town- ship 167 XIV. East Side Borough, Franklin Township, Kidder Township, Lansford Borough, And Lausanne Township 198 XV. Lehigh Township, Lehighton Borough, And Lower Towamensing Township 228 XVI. Mahoning Township, And Mauch Chunk Borough 254 XVII. Mauch Chunk Township, Packer Township, Palmerton Borough, Parryville Borough, Penn Forest Township, And Summit Hill Borough 288 XVIII. Towamensing Township, Weatherly Bor- ough, And Weissport Borough 334 Biographical Sketches 359 Appendices 597 XI Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 3 In the center of Pennsylvania, at a remote age dwelt the Jnniatas. Before the advent of the white man they were gone, vanquished, it is thought, by the invin- cible Iroquois. Throughout the entire region not a solitary wigwam was seen or war whoop heard. It was a conquered, empty interior, used by the Iroquois as a hunting ground. It is not probable that this immediate region was ever permanently inhabited by any Indian tribes. The large rivers on the east and west afforded greater facili- ties for rapid movements from place to place, while the ease with which food products could be taken from the Delaware and the Susquehanna were prime considera- tions in the minds of the aborigines, who, as rational beings, sought to gratify their wants along the lines of least resistance. The valleys of these rivers also afforded better facilities for the rude agriculture of the Indians than did the generally wild and rugged country lying between. While it is not likely, therefore, that any considerable number of wild Indians ever had a permanent abiding place within the present limits of Carbon county, hunting and scouting parties fre- quently traversed the region. On their way to and fro between the Delaware and the Susquehanna, the red men usually followed the Warriors ' Path, a famous Indian trail along the Lehigh, which was in those days trodden by nations which tread the earth no more. The trail diverged from the river at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek, crossing the Broad mountain and the Laurytown Valley, touching the eastern border of the present borough of Weatherly. From there it pro- ceeded to the Indian Spring, on the line dividing the counties of Carbon and Luzerne, whence it led to a point near the modern village of Drums, in the latter county. Here the Nescopeck Path branched off to the 2 Digitized by Microsoft® 4 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. westward, the Warriors' Path continuing in a direct line northward to the village of the Nanticokes, not far from the site of "Wilkes-Barre. The shores of the Delaware were first visited by European mariners in 1609. During the sum m er of that year, Henry Hudson, the English explorer, having twice previously failed, made a third attempt to find a northwest passage to India and China. His former ventures had been financed by English capitalists ; but he was now in the service of the Dutch. He sailed in a little craft called the Half Moon, a ship of eighty tons burden. On the 28th of August, four months and a half after leaving Holland, he en- tered the Delaware Bay. Soon convinced by the shal- lowness of the water that he had not found the much sought for pathway, he returned, passed the capes, and turned the prow of his vessel northward. The generation which followed Hudson's discovery of the bay witnessed the formation of various com- panies for the purpose of colonizing the country adja- cent to its shores and trading with the inhabitants thereof. For a long period little worthy of note was accom- plished, however. Though chartered to trade with the Indians and to colonize the new world, it seems that the real object of the leaders of some of these enter- prises was a colossal system of piracy on the ships of Spain and Portugal. Actively engaged in commerce, these nations were very successful in robbing the na- tives of Mexico and Peru of their silver treasures. Others, just as greedy, adopted a similar plan of en- riching themselves by relieving the original robbers of their ill-gotten plunder. The first colony on the shores of the Delaware was established by the Dutch in 1623, when they built Fort Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 5 Nassau, a few miles below Philadelphia. The colo- nists grew homesick, and within a year abandoned the fort, going to Manhattan. Thus the first attempt at colonization on the Delaware came to a speedy end. Half a dozen years passed before another attempt was made to locate a colony on its shores. A settlement that was planted by Captain David Pietersen De Vries in 1631, was soon thereafter destroyed by the Indians. De Vries had returned to Holland, leaving a subor- dinate in command. Prior to his departure, a pillar, to which was nailed a piece of tin, whereon was traced the Dutch coat of arms, had been erected. A dusky chief, not knowing the wickedness of taking it away, converted it into tobacco pipes. This angered the Dutch; and the Indians, not knowing how else to ap- pease their wrath, killed the offending chief, and re- turned the unusued portion of the tin. The friends of the murdered chief resolved to be revenged. They attacked the Dutch when they were at work in the fields, totally annihilating them. Before leaving Europe on his second voyage De Vries learned of the destruction of the colony. Eeach- ing the Delaware early in the winter, he beheld the bones of his murdered men among the ruins of the settlement. He wisely refrained from seeking re- venge; with smiles and presents he succeeded in re- gaining the friendship of the Indians, with whom peace was maintained for many years. The government of Sweden, in 1638, established per- manent settlements along the Delaware. Colonel John Printz was appointed governor of New Sweden in 1642. One of Printz 's first acts after his arrival on the Delaware was to select a site for a residence. The place chosen was not far from Chester, on the Island of Tinicum. Here he built a spacious mansion, which Digitized by Microsoft® 6 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. came to be known as Printz 's Hall. The Swedish gov- ernor was a man of prodigious girth, weighing over four hundred pounds, it is said. He bore the reputa- tion of a hard drinker, and was a man of aggressive temperament. The fort which he erected was below the Dutch settlement and controlled the river, causing great annoyance to Dutch vessels, because in passing they were ordered to lower their colors. The Swedes joined with the Dutch in their methods of peace and friendship toward the Indians, and their honesty and kindness were reciprocated by the aborig- ines. The Swedes on the Delaware were subdued by the Dutch in 1655, and brought under the jurisdiction of Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands, who, in his turn, was conquered by the English not long afterwards. "With the falling of the power of the Dutch, English title to the continent was complete from Canada to Florida. England at this time was in the midst of that seeth- ing religious excitement which characterized the middle decades of the seventeenth century. Among the in- finite varieties of sects which sprang into being during this period were the Friends, derisively called Quakers. Led by the indomitable George Fox, the Friends re- fused to conform to the established church of the realm. They would not pay tithes to support a religion which their consciences could not approve. They steadfastly refused to take off their hats before magis- trate, judge, priest, or king. Neither would they obey any law interfering with the liberty of their worship. Certain peculiarities of speech and dress aided to make the members of this sect odious to the dominant forces in England. Next to George Fox, the most conspicu- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 7 ous and influential person in shaping the character and future of the Society of Friends was the venerated founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn. Penn was born in London, England, October 14, 1644, and was a son of Vice Admiral Sir William Penn, of the British Navy. Admiral Penn owned valuable estates in Ireland, and was prominent and influential throughout the United Kingdom. In 1656 he moved his family to his Irish estates, and William pursued his studies at home under a private tutor. When he became fifteen years of age, he went to Oxford, and entered upon a course of study at Christ Church College. It was at this period that he first came under the influence of the preachers of the so- ciety with which his name was later so prominently identified. He was deeply impressed with the sim- plicity and purity of the Friends' form of worship, and he soon came to feel that the established church was too subservient to dogma and the lifeless cere- monies of creed. Taking part in the religious services of the Friends, and withdrawing from the established church, he in- curred the disapproval and censure of the faculty, ul- timately being expelled from college on this account. His father, an ambitious, worldly man, was much in- censed at William's "misconduct," and remonstrated in strong terms; but, finding that his son was firmly intrenched in his religious "fanaticism," he expeUed him from home. Later, the father, who warmly loved his son, relented and sent William to France, in com- pany with some friends of rank and prominence, hop- ing thereby to divert the boy's mind into other chaiv nels of thought. But his sojourn in France, while giving him the politeness and polish of French society, did not wholly eradicate the serious demeanor which Digitized by Microsoft® 8 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. had so greatly displeased his father. In 1666, William was furnished with a letter of introduction to Sir George Lane, then secretary of the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Here he was received with marked attention and became a welcome guest at a court of almost regal splendor. During his residence in Ireland, a mutiny arose among the soldiers of the garrison of Carrickfergus, and William evinced so much coolheaded bravery and good judgment in assisting to quell the mutineers that the duke tendered him a position as captain of in- fantry. It appears that at first Penn was highly flat- tered by this proposal, and seemed disposed to accept ; but after mature consideration, he rejected the offer. Being in the city of Cork soon thereafter, he attended a meeting of Friends, which was conducted by his old pastor, Thomas Loe, formerly of Oxford. Penn was greatly stirred by the discourse, and firmly resolved from that hour to renounce worldly glories and honors, and to devote himself to the service of God and his fel- low-men. But he was soon called to share in the physical sufferings of his friends, being arrested and cast into prison at Cork. While languishing in jail he wrote his first public utterance on the subject of liberty of conscience. Being liberated from prison after a time, he returned to England on the request of his father, and was again subjected to the indignity of being expelled from beneath the paternal roof. From this decision the elder Penn relented only on his death-bed. In 1668 Penn felt himself called to the gospel min- istry, in which he became distinguished, both as a preacher and a writer of religious works. Some of his utterances gave great offense to the clergy of the Church of England, particularly to the Bishop of Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 9 London. This functionary succeeded in securing Penn's imprisonment in the Tower. During his in- carceration, which continued nearly nine months, he wrote, "No Cross, No Crown," one of the imperish- able works of prison literature, together with other productions which have been read in many languages. Penn was thrice arrested and twice imprisoned after his liberation from the Tower, but remained steadfast to the principles of universal toleration, writing and speakiiig in defense of the cause which he advocated with an earnestness and zeal which had be- become characteristic of the man. Penn's affections were now stirred by a young lady named Gulielma Springett. She was herself a Friend, and smiled graciously on her lover. They were mar- ried in the spring of 1672, when Penn was twenty-eight years of age. "Those who knew him only at second hand," says one of his biographers, "imagined that the prisoner of Newgate and the Tower would now subside into the country gentleman, more interested in cultivating his paternal acres than in the progress of an impopular doctrine. Those who reasoned so knew little of Wil- liam Penn, and still less of the lady who had become his wife." After devoting a few months to his new life, Penn resumed his work of writing and preaching. As the persecutions of the Friends did not cease, he was always busy interceding for them and trying to secure for them larger liberties. At best, however, their con- dition was miserable. On the death of his father, Penn came into posses- sion of an ample estate. Among his other inheritances was a claim of sixteen thousand pounds against the king, his father having loaned this sum to the impe- Digitized by Microsoft® 10 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. CTinious monarch. Gradually tlie idea of accepting a province in America in settlement of tMs debt formed itself in Penn's mind. There he might found an asylum for the oppressed of his own sect and of all nations. For a long time he had waited and nothing had been paid. As he pondered over the idea, it grew into clearer and larger form. The experiment, if suc- cessful, would be an enduring witness to the breadth and persistence of the Quaker faith. Some politicians, wiser than their generation, regarded the enterprise as dangerous to the crown and the state. In less than a hundred years, this utterance of mingled fear and prophecy was fulfilled. As the exchequer was nearly empty, Penn's request was finally granted; and the terms of the charter were settled and signed by Charles II on the 4th of March, 1681. The eastern boundary of Penn's province was the Delaware river, beginning twelve miles north of New- castle and extending northward to the forty-third degree of latitude. It extended westward five degrees. The southern boundary was a circle beginning twelve miles north of Newcastle, and continuing at that dis- tance from Newcastle to the beginning of the fortieth degree of north latitude, and thence by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude already mentioned. By a provision of the royal charter, Perm was to pay to the king, his "heirs and successors, two beaver skins, to be delivered to our castle of Windsor on the 1st day of January in every year. ' ' And this tribute was paid by the Penns until 1780. It was also stipulated that a fifth part of all the gold and silver ore found in the province should belong to the crown. Penn first proposed to call the province New "Wales, and afterward Sylvania, because so much of the land was covered with forest. Charles prefixed the word Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. ^ Perm as a compliment to Penn's father. Fearful that the name might be regarded as a piece of vanity, Penn appealed to the king, and offered twenty guineas to the secretary to change it. But Charles insisted and the patent was i&sued in the form which he prescribed. Four weeks after the king had signed the patent, Penn sent his cousin. Colonel William Markham, to take posses- sion of the country, to call a council of nine to assist him in administering the government, to inform the people of his purchase, to settle the boundary between his province and Maryland, to establish courts and to preserve peace. Besides the king's declaration, announcing the grant to Penn and requiring all persons settled in the prov- ince to yield obedience to him as proprietor and gov- ernor, Markham carried a letter from Penn himself, addressed to the people, assuring them of his sincere desire to deal fairly and honestly by them. "I hope you will not be troubled at your change, and the king's choice," said he; "for you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor who comes to make his fortune great. You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious people. ' ' In the autumn three vessels with colonists and three commissioners sailed from England. One of the ves- sels was driven by storms to the "West Indies, and did not reach the Delaware until the following spring. Penn's instructions to his commissioners related chiefly to selecting a place for a "great town," surveying the land, and regulating intercourse with the Indians. He was particularly concerned that it should be a "green country town, which will never be burnt and always wholesome." Digitized by Microsoft® 12 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Meanwhile Penn was deep in work on his frame of government, which was completed and published early in the spring of 1682. This constitution, as it may be termed, was modeled along broad and liberal lines, and was far in advance of any similar document that the world had yet seen. As soon as it was known that Penn had become the owner and governor of an American province, persons in nearly every large town in Great Britain and in many cities of the Ehine and of Holland, desired to purchase land. A German company was organized at Frankfort, and Pastorius purchased fifteen thousand acres in a single tract, and three thousand more within the Lib- erties of the future city. Many purchasers came from Liverpool and still more from London. Having forwarded hi& frame of government to Markham, Penn prepared to follow the first constitutional seedling planted on the banks of the Delaware. August came before the Welcome, a stately bark of three hundred tons, was fitted out to transport him and a hundred fellow passengers to America. The voyage was begun on the first of September. Soon after starting, that dread disease small-pox appeared. At first, the disease was mild, but before the vessel reached mid-ocean nearly every person on board was sick, while many died. Late in October, the voyagers rejoiced to see the low, woody banks of the Delaware, and nine weeks after quitting the shores of England, the Welcome anchored at the port of New Castle. As the ship proceeded up the river, the perfume of the air was like an orchard in full bloom. It was Indian summer, and the trees and shrubs were clothed in gor- geous colors, while many of the birds were arrayed in Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOKY OF CAEBON COUNTY. ^3 bright plumage. All nature appeared to be wearing its richest dress on the coming of the new evangel of peace and liberty. From Newcastle, Penn proceeded to Upland, where Chester now is. Ere long he reached the mouth of Schuylkill, and four miles above this point the prow of the Welcome was turned up Dock creek, which was deep enough to enter, besides having a low, sandy beach, where a landing could easily be effected. Here Penn went ashore. He was on the site selected by his commissioners for the provincial capital. He was everywhere received with demonstrations of joy. Penn met the people as though they were his children, his mild and shining face reflecting the serenity of his spirit and goodness of his heart. Markham and the commissioners had bought land of the Indians before Penn's arrival and the process of settlement was already going on. Plans were now perfected for the building of the proposed city. Its name, form, streets, docks and open spaces were put on paper, very much as the famous ancient cities of the east were planned by their royal builders. Accord- ing to the provisions of this design, Philadelphia was to cover, with its houses, squares and gardens, twelve square miles. Having now fairly started his enterprise, Penn turned his thoughts to the Indians. Putting aside all ceremony, he won their hearts by his confiding and familiar speech. He walked with them in the forests and sat with them on the ground to watch their young men dance. He joined in their feasts, and ate their roasted acorns and hominy. They called him the Great Onas, and were delighted with his companionship. If tradition be true, his most famous meeting with the Indians was at Shackamaxon, or the place of eels. Digitized by Microsoft® 14 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. This was a natural amphitlieatre shaded by a large elm tree, under the graceful branches of which friendly nations had met and smoked the pipe of peace long be- fore the landing of the palefaces on the Delaware. Dense masses of cedar, pine and chestnut spread far away on every side, cut by the noble river, whose crystal waters ran slowly to the sea. The treaty which was there made was not fortified by oaths and seals. On both sides it was ratified with yea ; and unlike most treaties, this was kept. The same year that Penn arrived, twenty-three ves- sels brought from two thousand to three thousand emigrants of various faiths and nationalities into the province, most of them landing at Chester and at Philadelphia. Some of these came in advance of Penn. While building their homes, they dwelt in caves and rude huts, suffering but little from hardship and dis- ease. Even at that early day, the population of Pennsyl- vania was cosmopolitan in character. The lure which accounted for this varied national representation in the beginning of her history was the wealth of liberty and freedom that was extended to all comers. At a later date, the added attraction of the wealth of her forests, fields and mines induced men from every clime to build their homes within her boundaries. Naturally, from the first day of his landing, Penn found plenty to do. Much of his attention was given to the new city rapidly building on the banks of the Delaware. He visited New York and its governor, as a mark of re- spect to his friend, the Duke of York, also going to Baltimore in a vain attempt to adjust a dispute con- cerning the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. He preached in semi-weekly meetings of the Quakers, and served his term as a member of com- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. ]l 5 mittees in their work of organization. Numerous in- dividual claims respecting land and settlers were brought to him for disposition. In addition to the three counties in the lower peninsula (now Delaware), he laid out three more in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Chester and Bucks. All of these stretched almost in- definitely westward. On December 6, he was ready for a meeting of the assembly, when representatives from these six counties were collected to perfect the government. In a brief session of three days, held at Upland, several impor- tant laws were passed, one of which was an act to naturalize the Dutch, Swedes, and other foreigners. Penn's wife being ill, and other considerations de- manding his presence in Europe, he sailed from the province, August 16, 1684, feeling that his "Holy Ex- periment" was now successfully launched. In bidding the red men farewell, he begged them to drink no more fire water, forbade his own people to sell them brandy and arms, and obtained their promise to live in peace and amity with each other and with the white men. At this time about seven thousand settlers were living in the province. Of this number, one-third were in Philadelphia. The government during his absence was carried on by five commissioners, chosen from the provincial council. Upon returning to England, Penn labored unceas- ingly in the cause of freedom and religious toleration. Many persons who had been imprisoned for their opinions were released through his intercession. He had always intended to return to the province, but the course of events led him to defer another voyage from time to time. Being left a widower, he, in January, 1696, married Hannah Callowhill, the daughter of a Digitized by Microsoft® IQ HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. Bristol acquaintance of many years. She afterwards became a prominent figure in the affairs of the colony. During Perm's long absence from the province, affairs did not always run smoothly, friction in the government and dissatisfaction among the settlers finally making his return imperative. He came in 1699, bringing with him his new wife, and fully expecting to spend the remainder of his days on the bank? of the Delaware. During the ensuing two years he was busily engaged in shaping the govern- ment to meet the needs and demands of the rapidly growing population of the province. Penn's first act on assuming the government was to publish a procla- mation against pirates and contraband traders. The robber spirit was rampant on the seas in those days, and the shores and bays of the Delaware were highly favored places for these marauders of the deep, be- cause the government, being dominated by the Friends, was disinclined to use force to capture or repel them. Penn scarcely began to feel settled in the stately mansion which had been built for him during his' ab- sence, when he received news from England requiring his immediate return. Among other things, his ene- mies had introduced a bill in the House of Lords for seizing his province and vesting it in the crown. A& soon as the Indians heard that Onas was to return, they came from all parts of the country to take leave of him. They had a premonition that he would never return to them, and clung more closely to his words because they feared that his children would not treat them in the same kindly way. Events proved that their fears were well founded in both respects. Penn sailed from Philadelphia on the first of November, 1701, landing at Portsmouth six weeks later. During his absence Parliament had tried to get Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 17 hold of his province, and though failing, had succeeded in passing an act requiring the assent of the crown to the appointment of a deputy governor. Penn'E closing years were spent in pecuniary dis- tress. He had expended vast sums of money on Penn- sylvania and on the oppressed of his sect, besides hav- ing neglected his private affairs. To make matters worse, he was shamefully robbed by his steward, Philip Ford, who took advantage of Penn's confidence to ruin him. Several times he narrowly escaped losing title to Pennsylvania as a result of financial difficulties. In 1712 Penn sustained a paralytic stroke, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He passed away at Eushcomb, Buckinghamshire, England, on July 30, 1718, aged seventy-four years. He was the noblest character in America's colonial history, while his name is justly enshrined in the hearts of men as that of the greatest champion of human rights of his time. The widow of Penn became the executrix of his es- tate during the minority of his children, and was for a period the nominal head of the colonial government. While she administered the affairs of the estate with much shrewdness, the patriarchial relation which had subsisted between Penn and his colony was at an end, because the interest which his heirs took in the province was of a mercenary character. Especially noticeable was this change in the treat- ment accorded the Indians in arranging for the pur- chase of their lands. The charter which King Charles gave Penn made him the largest land owner in the world. It gave him a legal title to 47,000,000 acres; and had he been so minded, he might have taken forcible possession of the Digitized by Microsoft® ] 8 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. country. He was honest and broad-minded enough, however, to recognize the fact that while the King per- haps had a legal right to transfer the title to this large domain to him, he had no moral right to do so, the English claim to the territory resting on the flimsy assertion that Henry Hudson, the discoverer of the Delaware bay, although cruising in the service of the Dutch at the time, was born an Englishman. Penn's sense of honor did not permit him to wrest the soil of Pennsylvania by force from the people to whom God and nature had given it, nor to establish his title in blood. He considered the King's charter a& nothing more than a conveyance of the right to preemption, and hj purchases and treaties secured his real title from the aborigines. During Penn's life-time only a small quantity of land along the Delaware had been purchased of the Indians. It was not enough to en- danger their means of subsistence, and if a new claim- ant appeared from time to time, something more was given to satisfy him, and a deed was taken from him. According to tradition, one of Penn's purchases was to include land "as far back as a man could walk in three days. ' ' Penn and several Indians started at the mouth of the Neshaminy creek, not far from Philadelphia, to walk out the purchase. They walked leisurely, after the Indian manner, sitting down occasionally to smoke their pipes, eat biscuit and cheese, and drink wine. After going a day and a half, Penn marked a spruce tree, near the present site of Wrightstown, Bucks county, informing his companions that the distance traversed would give him enough land for his present needs, leaving the remainder to be ascertained at a future day. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 19 This arrangement, while entirely creditable to Penn, who did not show the disposition of the land grabber, eventually proved ruinous to the Indians. The walk was not completed during Penn's life- time, while the settlers attracted to his province kept crowding farther and farther into the Indian country. When the Indians protested to the proprietaries that their lands were being usurped and their hunting grounds despoiled, they were always reminded of the addi- tional land to which the whites were entitled by virtue or the uncompleted walk of William Penn, and the treaty which he had negotiated. Matters were allowed to drag along in this unsatisfactory manner until 1737, when, in response to the dem-xnds of the Indians it was agreed that the walk should be finished, and the boundaries of the purchase definitely defined. While negotiations were being conducted, the proprietaries caused a preliminary or trial walk to be made to ascer- tain how much land could be secured. In order that the longest distance possible might be covered, axe- men were sent ahead to cut a pathway through the forests. The men who had held out best in the trial walk were those selected by the proprietaries to make the decisive effort. Edward Marshall, James Yeates, and Solomon Jennings, all noted for their powers of endurance, were the men called upon to make the walk. Timothy Smith, sherifL of Bucks county, and John Chapman, a surveyor, were engaged to accompany the trio on horseback and to carry provisions and stimu- lants for them. It was arranged that the Indians should send some of their young men along to see that the walk was fairly and honestly made. The starting point was fixed at a large chestnut tree, near the Wrightstown meeting-house, in Bucks county, Digitized by Microsoft® 20 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. and the walkers were promised five pounds in money and five hundred acres in land. Early on the morning of the 19th of September, 1737, the day agreed upon for the walk, Marshall, Yeates, and Jennings, their hands touching the tree, like run- ners about to begin a race, waited for the command to start. As the sun appeared upon the horizon, the signal was given by Sheriff Smith, and the men started. Yeates led the way with a light step; next came Jennings and two Indian walkers, while Marshall came last. He swung a hatchet in his hand and walked with an easy, careless lope. The walkers, stimulated by the promised reward seemed untiring. The party stopped fifteen minutes for lunch with an Indian trader named "Wilson near what is now the northern boundary line of Bucks county, after which the walk was continued. The Lehigh was forded a mile below Bethlehem, and cross- ing the Blue mountains at Smith's Gap, near what is now the southeastern corner of Carbon county, all save Jennings slept at night on the northern slope. He had given out before reaching the Lehigh, and although he succeeded in reaching his home, which was situated near the point where Allentown was started about a quarter of a century later, he never fully recovered his health. Yeates collapsed at the foot of the mountain when the walk was resumed on the morning of the second day. When taken up he was entirely blind ; he died three days later. Marshall, however, held out until noon, when he threw himself at full length upon the ground and grasped a sapling which was' marked as the end of the line. The distance covered during the course of the walk is variously estimated, some placing it as low as fifty- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 21 five miles, while others aver it to have been as high as eighty-six miles. Naturally, the Indians who accom- panied the walkers were disgusted by the performance. One of their number, in speaking about it afterwards, remarked: "No sit down to smoke — no shoot a squir- rel ; but lun, lun, lun all day long. ' ' When the walk had been finished, it still remained to run the line to the Delaware. The Indians main- tained that, starting from the extreme northwesterly point reached by Marshall, the line should be run straight to the Delaware. Instead of this it was slanted northward to such a degree as to take in about twice as much territory as would have been included by the other arrangement. Again, while the walk had been made through Smith's Gap, terminating near the Tobyhanna creek, on the borders of Monroe and Car- bon counties, the arbitrary line was run through Lehigh Gap, ending in what is now Penn Forest town- ship, directly opposite Mauch Chunk. The lines included nearly all the lands within the forks of the Delaware {i. e., between the Delaware and the Lehigh) and practically all the valuable territory south of the Blue Eidge. The Minisink flats, celebrated as hunting grounds of the Indians, were contained in that portion of the pur- chase lying north of the Lehigh, and the aborigines parted with these very reluctantly. They rightly felt that they had been robbed in the whole transaction, flatly refusing to move from the land which was now claimed by the whites, but which they still considered their own. Finally the assistance of the Iroquois was asked to get them out. The Iroquois had long held the Minisinks in bondage as women, a most humiliating condition. Responding to the summons to come and remove their vassals, Canassatego, the spokesman of Digitized by Microsoft® 2*2 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. the Iroquois, thus addressed the despairing Dela- wares: "How came you to take it upon you to sell lands at all? We conquered you; we made women of you. For this land you claim you have been furnished with clothes, meat and drink, and now you want it again, like the children that you are. We charge you to remove instantly; we don't give you liberty to think about it. You are women. Take the advice of a wise man and go at once ! ' ' Notwithstanding their abject condition, the Dela- wares still had a sense of wrong as keen as in the days of their greatness; but from the imperious judgment of the Iroquois there was no appeal. The Minisinks sorrowfully made preparations to go to Wyoming, and feeling that they would never return, burnt their huts to signify their final departure. The message of the Iroquois was effective ; the land was given over to the whites, and one of the most villainous transactions in the early annals of Pennsylvania was consummated. Thomas Penn, one of the sons of William Perm by his' second wife, was a prominent figure in this outrage against the Indians. Such, in brief, is the story of the disgraceful "Walking Purchase." From this time forth, the Delawares cherished an implacable hatred toward those who had robbed them of their birth-right. Years later, when the posture of affairs gave them the longed for opportunity, the Delawares took their re- venge, and the woeful destruction of human life and property which took place on the Blue mountain frontier was the heavy price exacted for the unscrupii- lous conduct of the proprietaries. The Penns acquired title to the major portion of the soil of the province by five great treaties with the Indians. The last and largest purchase made by them Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 23 was consummated in 1768, comprising an irregular belt of land extending from the extreme northeastern to the extreme southwestern part of the province. Usually the lines of these purchases were very vague and ill-defined. All, or nearly all, of the territory now contained within the borders of Carbon county was included in the purchase of 1749, comprising a narrow belt of land running diagonally from Pike to Dauphin county. This purchase was made from the Six Nations, and not from the Delaware occupants of the soil, the price paid being five hundred pounds. As time passed on and as the population grew, it began to be felt that the old system of proprietary ownership was inconsistent with the best interests and happiness of the people. Soon after the breaking out of the Eevolutionary War, this feeling grew to a con- viction. Pennsylvania adopted a constitution in 1776, and soon thereafter a series of acts were passed, vesting the estates of the proprietaries in the commonwealth, and the feudal relation created by the charter of King- Charles was dissolved. This action was taken directly in response to the recommendation of the Continental Congress, which urged all the colonies to form new governments' which should be independent of the Eng- lish crown and foreign proprietaries. At the time the divesting acts were passed, the proprietaries were two grandsons of William Penn, the founder — John, the son of Eichard, and John, the son of Thomas Penn. The state voted them 130,000 pounds by way of com- pensation, which was paid with interest within eight years after the close of the war. Besides this sum, the Penn family received additional compensation in the Digitized by Microsoft® 24 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. form of an annuity of 4,000 pounds from the British, government. Strange as it may seem, this annuity was paid to the descendants of the founder of Pennsylvania until recent years. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER II. MOSAVIANS SETTLE CABBON COUNTY. The Christian society known as the Moravian Brethren had its origin among the religious movements in Bohemia which followed the martyrdom of John Hu£s at the hands of the Council of Constance. Huss was burned at the stake, and his ashes thrown into the Ehine in the year 1415, while the history of the society which was formed by his followers can be traced back to 1457. When Luther appeared, the Moravians numbered about two hundred thousand people; but in the deso- lating wars which followed, they became almost ex- tinct. Standing forth prominently among the leaders of this society was Nicolaus Ludwig, Count Zinzendorf. He was descended from an ancient Austrian family, and was born May 26, 1700, at Dresden. Educated at Halle and at the university of Wittenberg, he had planned to follow the career of a diplomat. Subse- quent to his marriage to the Countess Erdmuth, how- ever, he embraced the faith of the Moravians, and re- solved to devote his life and fortune to the spread of the gospel. In 1722 he offered his persecuted brethren an asylum on his estate. A number came, and thus Herrnhut became the nucleus of a new growth. The original Moravians were Slavonic ; the revival brought in the G-ermans. Unlike many of the sects, the Mora- vians had no distrust of learning, and they formed a cultured, devoted society for the propagation of Chris- tianity at home and abroad. 25 Digitized by Microsoft® 26 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. Persecuted in the old world, they sought an asylum in the new. Count Zinzendorf obtained a grant of land in Georgia, and in 1735 a settlement was begun. Under the leadership of Bishop Nitschmann a church was organized the following year. Ere long war be- tween England and Spain interfered with the work, and the Moravians, refusing to bear arms because to do so was contrary to their religious principles, emi- grated to Philadelphia with George Whitefield, the famous preacher. They bought a domain of five thou- sand acres at the Forks of the Delaware, and began to build a large school house for negro children. The land was purchased by Whitefield, but nomi- nally it belonged to the Countess von Zinzendorf. A question of doctrine soon caused a rupture, and the Moravians were ordered to leave. At this stage of affairs Bishop Nitschmann returned from Europe and purchased Bethlehem, an extensive tract on the Lehigh river, ten miles south of Whitefield 's land, and the colony again began work. Afterwards, Whitefield 's land was also purchased, and called the Barony of Nazareth. On this tract several settlements were or- ganized. The expenses of emigration remaining im- paid, the Brethren united in a semi-communistic as- sociation, Bethlehem forming the center. It was a communism not of goods, but of labor. Each settler was free to choose or reject the plan, while retaining exclusive control of his property. Participants gave time and work, receiving in return the necessaries and comforts of life. This system was called economy, and was admirably adapted to their peculiar wants. It continued for twenty years, sufficing to pay the ex- penses of ordinary emigration, to furnish the colony with daily support, and to maintain a mission among the Indians, besides an extensive itinerary among the Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 27 white settlers from Maine to Georgia. The Moravians were a missionary church. From the beginning they sought to Christianize the Indians; nor were their efforts entirely unavailing. Believers in peace, like the Friends, and making their professions good by daily practices, they gained the confidence of the aborigines by treating them with in- flexible honesty, thus preparing the way for the ac- ceptance of their religious teachings. For many years the Moravians continued their work with vary- ing success. Intemperance and wars between the In- dians and the whites were the chief hindrances. Count Zinzendorf came to Pennsylvania late in 1741, being accompanied by his eldest daughter, Be- nigna. He visited the Brethren's settlement on the Lehigh on December 24, and named it Bethlehem. During the ensuing six months, animated by religious zeal, he traveled through southeastern Pennsylvania, supplying destitute and isolated neighborhoods with the means of grace and education, organized churches, wrote multitudinous theological papers and essays, and preached statedly at Germantown and Philadelphia. In June he again repaired to Bethlehem, and having organized the Moravians there into a congregation, he set off for a tour of exploration into the Indian country, visiting various tribes, and cultivating their friendship and good will. At the close of 1742 he left for Europe, where he died in 1760. The number of Indian converts maintained by the Moravian congregation at Bethlehem kept steadily growing. Augmented by Mohegans from Shekomeko, in the state of Connecticut, and Patehgatgoch, in New York, near the borders of the first named state, their number grew to such proportions that it was found in- convenient to properly care for them all at one place. Digitized by Microsoft® 28 HISTORY OF CABBON COUNTY. Accordingly, in the early part of tlie year 1746, a mission was established near the mouth of the Mahon- ing creek, on the west side of the Lehigh river. The land thus occupied was then contained within the limits of Bucks county, becoming a part of North- ampton when that county was organized in 1752. At a later date it became a part Carbon, and the settle- ment which was there planted was the first that was made by white men in this county. The location was selected by Count Zinzendorf in 1742, when, in com- pany with several friendly Indians, he ascended the Lehigh on his tour of exploration. The land on which the mission was established was purchased in 1745, there being one hundred and ninety-seven acres in the tract. The Moravians named the place Gnadenhiitten, meaning Tents of Grace, or, more literally speaking, Mercy Huts. South Lehighton now occupies the site where the mission stood, and smoke wreaths from the tall chimneys of flourishing industries brood over the peaceful valley where civilization gained its first foot- hold in this immediate region of the state. The first work done here was performed under Martin Mack, a missionary, the white men and the Indians laboring side by side in the enterprise of clearing the ground and erecting the necessary buildings. The improvements were meant to be but temporary, because it was designed from the first to locate the In- dians permanently on the Susquehanna; the project was, however postponed from time to time, and thus the settlement on the Mahoning grew, and became the seat of a most flourishing mission. The farm buildings lay at the foot of the hill, near the creek; on its first ascent were the huts of the Indians, forming a cres- cent ; behind these was an orchard, and on the summit. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 29 the graveyard. The latter was laid out in August, 1746. Jeannette, the wife of Martin Mack, lies buried here, her dust mingling with that of about two score others, both Indian and white, who died at the mission. Each Indian family was allotted a portion of land, and each had its own house. A little log church was built in the valley. On the eighteenth of August, 1746, the Indians and the missionaries held a love feast, partaking of the first fruits of the land and of their labor, while offering thanks to Grod for the blessings that He had bestowed. The sound of song arose from the forest hamlet morn- ing and evening, and the labors of the day were always begun and concluded with prayer. Portions of the Bible were translated into the Mohegan tongue, to be read whenever the congregation was assembled, and devout discourses were delivered every Sunday by the missionaries. The holy sacrament was administered to the congre- gation once every month; this day was known among the Indians as "The Great Day." Christian Eauch and Martin Mack, who first ministered to the spiritual needs of the congregation on the Mahoning were suc- ceeded by others after a comparatively short period, it being the policy of the Moravians to make frequent changes, so that the Indians might not form too strong an attachment for their religious leaders, but learn to place their hope and dependence on God alone. The church built during the first year of the mission was soon too small to accommodate the growing con- gregation, and the missionaries usually preached in the open air, that all might hear. Successive parcels of land were added to the original tract on both sides of the Lehigh, until 1382 acres be- longed to the establishment. Digitized by Microsoft® 30 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. The affairs of the station being promising, Bishop Watteville went to Grnadenhiitten in 1749, and laid the foundation of a new church, which was dedicated by Bishop Cammerhoff on November 14 of that year. There were accessions from Pachgatgoch and Wech- quetank in 1747 and 1748, and from Meniolagomeka in 1754. The last named place lay in Smith's Valley, eight miles west of the Wind Gap, on the north bank of the Aquashicola, in Monroe county. The Moravians conducted a mission here, but it was finally absorbed by that at Gnadenhiitten, the converts being Delawares. The congregation at Gnadenhiitten now numbered several hundred people. During 1754, the land on the Mahoning being impov- erished, the seat of the mission was transferred to the east side of the river, where Weissport now stands. The transfer was made in the month of May. The place was called New Gnadenhiitten. The dwellings were removed from the opposite side of the river, and a new chapel was erected. In the removal of the buildings, the chapel only ex- cepted, the Indians were kindly assisted by the congre- gations at Bethlehem, Nazareth, Christianbrunn, and Guadenthal, who furnished not only workmen and ma- terials, but even contributions of money. The work progressed so rapidly that twenty dwell- ings were ready for occupation early in June, while the foundation stone of the new chapel was laid on the eleventh of that month. Bishop Spangenberg preached a powerful sermon on this occasion. The houses were so placed as to form a street, on one side of which lived the Mohegans, and on the other the Delawares. The Brethren at Bethlehem took the culture of the old land on the Mahoning upon themselves, made a plantation of it for the use of the Indian congregation. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Teedyuscung. Prom a Statue in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 31 and converted the old chapel into a dwelling, both for the use of those who cared for the plantation and for the accommodation of missionaries passing to and fro along the Lehigh. The mission at Gnadenhiitten was connected with that at Bethlehem by a road which was built during the third year of the history of the first named congrega- tion. Among the Indians who came under the influence of the Moravians was Teedyuscung, who was destined to become the last great war king of the Delawares. According to his own statement, he was born about the year 1700, near Trenton, New Jersey. In this neighborhood his ancestors of the Lenape had been seated from time immemorial. Old Captain Harris, a noted Delaware was his father. He was the father of a family of high spirited sons who were not in good repute with their white neighbors. The latter named them, it is true, for men of their own, people, and Teedyuscung they termed "Honest John"; yet they disliked and feared them; for the Harrises were known to be moody and resent- ful, and were heard to speak threatening words as they saw their paternal acres passing out of their hands, and their hunting grounds converted into pas- tures and cultivated fields. These they left with re- luctance, and migrated westward, in company with others of the Turtles or Delawares of the lowlands. Crossing the great river of their nation, they entered the province of Pennsylvania in its forks, that is to say, on the north side of the Lehigh, which river was in earlier times termed the west fork of the Delaware. This was about 1730. Finding no white men here they lived the life which they loved so well until the advent of the Scotch-Irish immigrants, who began to crowd Digitized by Microsoft® 32 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. the Delawares in the forks south of the Blue mountain as early as 1735. Count Zinzendorf 's reconnoisance in 1742 introduced the Moravian missionaries into the homes of the east- ern Delawares ; and from that time they preached the gospel to them on both sides of the mountain. Teedyuscung too heard them, first on the Aquashi- cola and then on the Mahoning. Impressed by the words of the plainly clad preachers from Bethlehem, his religious feelings were stirred, and he sought for admission into Christian fellowship with the Mohegans and Delawares of Gnadenhiitten by baptism. The missionaries hesitated long before they acceded to his request, for they tell us that he was as unstable as water and like a reed shaken before the wind. Hence they granted him a time of probation, and as he reiterated his request at its close, they consented to admit him into their communion. He was baptised by Bishop Cammerhoff in the little chapel on the Mahon- ing in 1750. The estimation in which he was held by the Moravians is indicated by the entry which the Bishop performing the rite made in his record: "March 12. To-day I baptized Tatiuskundt, the chief among sinners." Thus the straight limbed Delaware warrior became a member of the Christian church. But the lessons of the Divine Master whom he had promised to follow proved distasteful to him. Every fibre of his being rebelled against the idea of the renunciation of self, the practice of humility, the forgiveness of injuries, and the return of good for evil. These doctrines did not accord well with the lessons which he had learned in the stern school of nature, in which he had for half a century been an observant pupil. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 33 Hence he ill brooked the restraints imposed upon him in the "Huts of Grace," and resisted the influence of the Good Spirit that sought to dispossess him of the resentment that burned in his soul when he remem- bered how his countrymen were being injured by the whites, and how they had been traduced and were being oppressed by the imperious Iroquois, who had made them their vassals. The Moravians, it is true, treated the Indians justly and fairly ; but these could not atone by their kindness and honesty for the wrongs which other white settlers along the border were daily heaping upon the aborigi- nes against a day of terrible retribution. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER III. GNADENHUTTEN DESTBOYED IN INDIAN UPBISING. The crucial hour in the history of North America was soon to strike. Although there had been no for- mal declaration of war, the English and the French had long been maneuvering in the gigantic game that was being played by the rival nations for supremacy in the New World. The issue of the conflict which was then impending was, after years of sanguinary struggle, determined on the Plains of Abraham, giving to the English tongue and to the institutions of the Germanic race the better part of half a continent for all future time. Appre- ciating the help which might be rendered by the In- dians, the French emissaries, bent on territorial ag- grandizement, made alluring representations to the dusky dwellers of the forest, in which the prospect of recovering their national independence and the homes of their forefathers was flatteringly held oiit. The con- fidence of the Indians in the descendants of the "good Penn, ' ' whose memory they revered, had already been seriously impaired ; and under these circumstances it is not surprising that the designing French were able to secure their allegiance and good will. The Indians along the Susquehanna who were favor- able to the interests of the French looked with much disfavor on the mission of the Moravians at Gnaden- hiitten. Messenger after messenger came down from that region with sinister invitations to the reluctant Delawares and Mohegans at Gnadenhiitten to come up to them and plant at Wyoming. Teedyuscung had already yielded to the persuasions of his untrained 34 Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 35 countrymen from the Minisinks, who had come to the smithy at Gnadenhiitten, bringing with them their un- shod ponies and broken flint locks, preparing for war. They told him that the hour had come to place things in readiness to rise against their oppressors, and they asked him to be their leader and king. This was in the spring of 1754. Abraham Shabash, the first of the patriarchs, also turned his back on the whites, and the two chieftains together prevailed upon seventy of the "brown hearts," as the missionaries termed the In- dians, to remove to Wyoming, there to live neutral, or to array themselves under their standard. Further efforts to induce the rest of the Indians at the mission to imitate the example of these seventy in removing to Wyoming proved unavailing, and this roused the hatred of Teedyuscung and his dissatisfied followers. "Are they not our brethren, and is it not best that they should return to their own people?" was their in- sidious plea. Meanwhile they and others reasoned among them- selves : "If these Moravian Indians continue at Gnad- enhiitten they may thwart us in our plans when the time comes to take up the hatchet ; they may become in- formers, or they may be employed as scouts and run- ners; and even if they hold themselves neutral, their proximity to the settlements will embarrass our move- ments." Foiled in effecting the coveted removal, the chieftain spoke angrily of the Moravians, and the evil report was spread throughout the Indian country that the palefaced preachers from Bethlehem were craftily holding the Indians in bondage. To render the situa- tion of the Moravians still more trying the mission among the aborigines was loudly denounced by that class of white people who profited by degrading and defrauding the Indians. These men published the mis- 4 Digitized by Microsoft® 36 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. sionaries to the world as an association in league with, the savages, in the interests of the French, and as de- serving of being treated as a common enemy. Thus a strong feeling was aroused against the Moravians. In July, 1755, Braddock's army was disastrously routed and almost annihilated on the banks of the Monongahela. His defeat left the whole border of the province deplorably defenseless, and was the signal for a general uprising among the Indians. The Dela- wares of the East met the Delawares of the West in council on the Allegheny and prepared for war. They were especially bitter in their denunciations of the fraud that had been perpetrated by the whites in the walking purchase of 1737. Wherever the white man was settled within this disputed territory, there they resolved to strike him as best they could with the most approved weapons of their savage warfare. And that the blow might be effectually dealt, each warrior chief waS' instructed to kill, scalp, and burn within the pre- cincts of his birth-right, and all simultaneously, from the frontiers down into the heart of the settlements, until the English should sue for peace and promise re- dress. Teedyuscung assembled the Delawares and the allied Shawnese and Mohicans on the Susquehanna, where a plan of campaign was mapped out for the coming autumn and winter. Soon the whole frontier along the line of the Blue mountains, extending from the Delaware to the Sus- quehanna, was bathed in blood. The terrifying sound of the war-hoop, intermingled with the shrieks and groans of the dying, echoed along the border. Sparing neither man, woman nor child, the Indians indiscriminately killed, mutilated and scalped the de- fenseless settlers and their families, while their humble Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBY OP GABBON COUNTY. 37 homes were reduced to ashes. The Indians had their hiding place in the dark recesses of the Great Swamp, later known as the Shades of Death, or the Pine Swamp. Here Teedyuscung gathered together his forces, as the tempest marshals the battalions of its wrath in the bosom of the thunder-cloud, and would suddenly emerge at a time and place least expected, carrying havoc and consternation into the settlements. Occasionally there would be indications of these im- pending ravages that filled the hearts of the settlers with foreboding. Perhaps the distant report of a gun would be heard from the solitary woodland, where there was known to be no white man ; the cattle which had been wandering in the woods would sometimes re- turn home wounded; or an Indian or two would be seen lurking about the skirts of the sombre forests and suddenly disappearing, as the lightning may at times be seen playing silently about the edge of the cloud that gives warning of the approach of the storm. Many of the people, abandoning all their belongings, sought madly to escape, only to be suddenly overtaken in many instances, and mercilessly slain. As winter came on, the border was well-nigh de- populated of white people ; but the Moravians made a covenant together to remain undaunted in the place alloted them by Providence. In so doing they acted unwisely. For on the evening of the twenty-fourth of November, they were suddenly and horribly aroused from their sense of fancied security, the mission-house on the Mahoning being attacked by Indians, burned to the ground, and ten of its inhabitants massacred, while another was carried away a captive. It was in the gloaming, says a Moravian chronicler, and they were about finishing their evening meal when Digitized by Microsoft® 38 HISTORY Off CARBON COUNTY. the furious bai'king of dogs in the farm yard apprised them of the approach of strangers. Joachim Senseman being reminded that the meeting house was not locked hastened thither to secure it. This precaution saved him. The barking of the dogs had been indeed porten- tous ; for soon after there were voices, and then foot- steps were heard without. Martin Nitschmann opened the door to ascertain whose they were. A blinding flash, followed by a terrible roar revealed the hateful countenances of twelve Shawnese, painted for war, and Nitschmann fell to the floor riddled with bullets. Joseph Sturgis was also grazed by two bul- lets. The door standing ajar, the attacking party poiired a random volley into the room, killing or wounding John Lesley, Martin Presser, and John Gat- termeyer. Those who remained retreated preciptately into an adjoining apartment, and from there up the stairway to the loft, closely followed by the Indians, who raised a terrific war-whoop. Susanna Nitschmann was overtaken on the stairs, and pierced by a ball ; reeling backward, she fell into the hands of the enemy. Her piteous cries for help were unavailing; she was bound, gagged, and given to an attendant by her captor to grace his trimnph on his return to his native village. Eight persons reached the attic, immediately barri- cading the trap door at the head of the steps. George Schweigert, a sturdy teamster, successfully resisted the desperate attempts of the assailants to force it with their hatchets and the butts of their guns. Foiled in their efforts' to reach those for whose blood they thirsted, the Indians fired repeated volleys Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY or CAEBON COUNTY. 39 through the floor, and some from without into the roof, in the hope of killing or bringing to terms the unfortu- nate heittgs within. Suddenly the shooting ceased. Deep silence prevailed, while hope revived in the hearts of the survivors. Soon they realized the terrible fate that awaited them. The torch had been applied, and the house was in flames. One of the number went to the window and shouted for help, but the only answer waS' the echo of his wailing cry. Among the fated company in the loft were three helpless and tender women, and it is re- corded that they were long the most composed. Anna Senseman was last seen seated upon a bed with folded hands and upturned face in an attitude of pious resignation. The second wa& a mother with an infant in her arms. Wrapping the child in her apron, she pressed it closely to her bosom and sat in silence; for the flood of feeling and motherly affection that swept through her heart in that moment of peril and supreme anguish rendered her speechless. This waS' Johanna, the wife of Gottlieb Anders, the gardener. At iatervals, above the roar of the flames and the whoops and taunts of the Shawnese, were heard the piteous cries of the affrighted little one. Three of the beleaguered party could now endure the suspense no longer, and chose the desperate alterna- tive of risking their lives in an attempt to escape in preference to that of certain death by the horrors of fire. The first to take the awful leap was Joseph Stur- gis, a youth of seventeen years. Watching his chance at a moment when the vigilance of the sentinel on guard was relaxed, he jumped to the ground, ran for his life and won it. He lived many years thereafter. Susan Partsch followed Sturgis' example, reaching the meeting place without being detected. Here she se- Digitized by Microsoft® 40 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. creted herself for a time, leaving her covert on the approach of the Indians, later in the evening, and mak- ing her way falteringly down the valley toward the Lehigh. George Fabricius, a scholar, was the next to take the desperate leap. He did so with hesitation, having waited until goaded to the attempt by the fierce heat of the burning building. He fell as he reached the ground, but sprang quickly to his feet, probably feeling that he was safe. His hopes were of short duration. Being discovered, he was instantly pierced by two bullets, and sank to the earth. Eushing upon him, the infuriated Indians buried their tomahawks in his unresisting body and scalped him down to the eyes. His mutilated corpse was found the next day in a pool of blood on the spot where he had cruelly met his death. By its side, in mournful vigil, was couched his faith- ful dog. Five of the inmates of the house on the Ma- honing met death in the fire. When the attacking party made its first onslaught Joachim Senseman and George Partsch, who were with- out the house, made a brief reconnoisance of the position, which showed them the folly of any attempt to render assistance. They accordingly resolved to cross the river wthout delay and give the alarm to the inhabitants of New Gnadenhiitten. Their action was probably the means of saving the life of David Zeisberger, perhaps the most noted of all the missionaries of the Moravian church among the Indians. He had reached New Gnadenhiitten from Bethlehem early in the evening, and was preparing to go to the dwelling house on the Mahoning. Martin Mack advised him to wait until morning. He started on his journey, however, the chill autumnal winds sigh- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 41 ing among the fallen leaves as he left his friends and started to cross the river. Shortly afterwards a cry of distress reached the mission house, but the splashing of the water by his horse prevented Zeisberger from hearing it. Mack ran to the Lehigh, where he met Senseman and Partsch, who conveyed to him the fear- ful intelligence of what was taking place at the house on the Mahoning. By this time the missionary had reached the oppo- site side of the river, and his friends called to him to turn back. He heard their voices, and hastened to re- ford the stream. Soon thereafter a pillar of flame rose in the direction of the Mahoning. The loyal Indians at New Gnadenhiitten, upon hear- ing the reports of the guns, and seeing the flames across the river, when informed of the cause, went imme- diately to the missionary in charge, and offered to attack the enemy. But being advised to the contrary, they fled precipitately into the woods. New Gnaden- hiitten was cleared in a few moments. While some who had already retired for the night, had scarce time to dress themselves. Having finished their bloody work on the Mahoning, the Indians proceeded to pillage and burn the remain- ing houses of the doomed settlement. First, the barn and stable, and next the kitchen, the bake house, the Single Brethren's house, the store, the mill, and, finally, the meeting house, until the whole valley was light as day with the glare of the conflagration, athwart which could be seen, in bold relief, the dusky figures of the fiendish Shawnese as they hastened to and fro in the closing scene of this sad tragedy. When their work was done, they gathered about the spring house, where they divided their plunder. They then soaked some bread in milk, feasted with blood-stained hands, and, Digitized by Microsoft® 42 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. loading their spoils on stolen horses, they filed off leisurely in the famous Warriors' Path that led to Wyoming. Their latter movements were observed by Susan Partsch, who has been mentioned as having escaped from the burning house, unperceived by the Indians. She and her husband were happily re-united the next morning, each having thought the other had been killed. Susanna Nitschmann was carried away a captive, and at Wyoming Christian Indian women ministered to her wants, and tried to shield her from a life more terrible than death. Her captors claimed her, dragged her to Tioga, and forced her to share the wigwam of a brutal Indian. The horror of her situation, together with the wound she had received, broke her strength. She spent her days and nights in weeping for half a year, when she was mercifully released from her suf- ferings by death. Thus the innocent Moravians, who had lived and labored for the good of the Indians, were visited with a terrible punishment for the crimes that unscrupulous men had committed against the aborig- ines. After the Indians had retired, the remains of those killed on the Mahoning were carefully collected from the ashes and ruins, and were solemnly interred. A broad marble slab in the graveyard at Lehighton, placed there in 1778, and a small white obelisk on a sandstone base, erected since that date, tell in brief the melancholy story of Gnadenhiitten, and preserve the names of those who fell as victims of the hate of the Indians. At Bethlehem the people had been in an agony of suspense, for all had seen the lurid glare beyond the Blue Eidge, made by the burning buildings, and had Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 43 known that evil news of some kind would be borne to them in a few hours. The unwelcome intelligence was brought to them by David Zeisberger at three 'clock in the morning of the next day, and it was broken to the congregation, which had been summoned to meet in the chapel at five o 'clock, by Bishop Spangenberg. On his way to Beth- lehem, the missionary passed a body of militia, who marched to within five miles of the scene of the mas- sacre; but fearing an ambushment, they did not ven- ture to give pursuit in the dark. Towards night of the day after the tragedy, eight white people and between thirty and forty Indians, men, women and children, who had made their escape from New Gnadenhiitten, arrived at Bethlehem. "With few exceptions, the remaining settlers of the upper end of Northampton county and along the Le- high Valley down to the Irish settlement and below were precipitately pushing southward into the older and larger settlements of Bethlehem and Easton. Naturally, they were filled with the wildest alarm, and many were scantily clad, while all were entirely desti- tute. These unfortunate and panic-stricken people were received with the greatest kindness by the citfzens of the localities to which they fled. The Moravians of Bethlehem kept their wagons plying to and fro between the village and points eight or ten miles up the road, bringing in the women and children, who had become exhausted in their flight and sunk down by the wayside. A few white families still foolishly persisted in re- maining on the border after nearly all of their neigh- bors had fled, and some of these fell easy victims to the strategy and hate of the Indians. Digitized by Microsoft® 44 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNT:? Among the families who dared to remain in their homes after so many dreadful warnings was thar of Frederick Hoeth, living about twelve miles east of New Gnadenhiitten, or what is now Weissport. On the eve- ning of the tenth of December, 1755, their habitation was attacked by a small party of Indians, six of the family killed, and two or three others carried away into captivity, while the house was reduced to ashes. The family was at supper, when a volley was fired through the windows, killing Hoeth, and wounding a woman. The firing continued, and a few of the inmates of the doomed house fled into the open. The invaders at once applied the torch to the dwelling, stables, and an adjoining mill. Mrs. Hoeth sought shelter and security in the bake house, which was also set on fire. When unable longer to endure the resulting heat and smoke, the unfortu- nate woman rushed forth and dashed headlong into the Poho Poko creek, where she died, either by drowning or from the burns she had received. The Indians hor- ribly mutilated her body with knives and tomahawks. Three children were burned to death, while a mature daughter was killed and scalped. Unlike the peace-loving Moravians, who refused to bear arms, even to protect their own lives, the members of the Hoeth family, when attacked, made the best de- fense of which they were capable, and one Indian was killed and another wounded in the affray. Immediately following the massacre of Gnadenhiit- ten, the company of militia that Zeisberger passed on the way repaired to the scene of the murders. This body of troops was commanded by Captain Hay, and was re-inf orced by another company under Colonel An- derson. Captain Wilson, of Bucks county, with a com- pany of sixty or seventy men, also marched northward a Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 45 few days after the massacre. These troops were posted at the deserted village to guard the mills, filled with grain that belonged to the Christian Indians, from being destroyed. They were also expected to protect the few remaining settlers about Gnadenhiitten. A temporary stockade was erected, and all would have been well had the troops been oificered by men experi- enced in the tactics of Indian warfare. But this all- important qualification was lacking, and disaster soon followed. On New Year's Day, in 1756, a number of the garrison fell victims to an Indian stratagem. The soldiers, to vary the monotony of life at the fort, were skating on the ice which covered the Lehigh. While so engaged they caught sight of two Indians farther up the stream, and, thinking that it would be an easy matter to capture or kill them, gave chase. They gained rapidly upon the Indians, who proved to be decoys, skilfully manceuvering to draw them into an ambush. The fort was now some distance behind, and a party of Indians suddenly sprang from a thicket in the rear of the soldiers, cutting off their retreat, and falling upon them with the fury of a whirlwind. The soldiers were taken entirely off their guard, and being outnumbered they were quickly dispatched. This inci- dent had such a depressing effect on the soldiers re- maining in the fort that many of them deserted. The others, thinking themselves incapable of holding the place, withdrew. This was the moment for which the savages had been waiting. Seizing all the portable property that to them seemed of any value, they fired the fort, the mills and the houses in which the Mo- hicans and the Delawares had so peacefully lived for a time, the settlement being totally destroyed in a few hours. Digitized by Microsoft® 46 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. All these and countless similar acts of hostility finally awakened many who had been temporizing or believing that the blow would not fall on them to pre- pare for an efficient defense. There was no further time to be lost, because there was grave danger that this whole portion of the province might fall into the hands of the enemy. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER IV. BELATED MEASURES FOB DEFENSE OF FSONTIES. The defenseless condition in which the border of Pennsylvania was found at the breaking out of the French and Indian War is to be attributed largely to the fact that the policies of the proviace were moulded and directed principally by members of the Society of Friends. They, like the Moravians, were lovers of peace, and it was contrary to their avowed principles to engage in warfare. This being true, it was natural that they did not consider it necessary to prepare for war. Again, the duty of protecting the province devolved solely on the proprietaries, and until this time the government had very little to do with this important function. Aroused at last by the depredations perpetrated by hundreds of scalping parties and the loud complaintsi of the colonists, the assembly reluctantly enacted a militia law. But this encouraged a non-military spirit ; it prescribed no penalty for those who were unwilling to enlist ; the officers were elected by ballot, inadequate means existed for enforcing obedience; the enlistment of persons under twenty-one was forbidden, and like- wise the march of men more than three days' journey from the inhabited parts of the province, or their de- tention in garrison for more than three weeks. The slight value of the law was destroyed by the preamble, which declared that the majority of the as- sembly was opposed to bearing arms, and that a com- pulsory militia law was unconstitutional. The law, however, was designed to encourage and protect volun- teer associations for the public defense. 47 Digitized by Microsoft® 48 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Later, the tardiness and reluctance of the assembly in making provisions for the protection of the settlers spurred the latter to make a formal protest to the English king. A committee was appointed by the privy council to investigate the truth of the charges contained in the protest, with the result that the con- duct of the assembly was condemned. The committee declared that the assembly of Pennsylvania was bound hj the original compact to support the government and protect its subjects ; that the measures enacted for that purpose were inadequate; and that there was no hope for more effective ones so long as a majority of that body consisted of persons whose principles were opposed to military service, although they repre- sented less than one-sixth of the population. For three-quarters of a century the Friends had controlled the legislative destiny of the province, but now it was to pass from them forever. For a lime they continued to send a majority of the members of the assembly, but those who believed in the principle of non-resistance no longer gave the keynote to that body. At the time of the Indian uprising the Blue moun- tain practically marked the limit of actual settlement on the part of the white men. Standing, as it did on the verge of civilization, and forming in itself a natural barrier, it was but in accordance with reason, when the provincial government, late in 1755, with evident re- gret took the defense of the settlers into its own hands, to occupy it and to there stay the further encroach- ments of the enemy. It is well to bear in mind that the bloody work of the Indians was not performed by large bodies or any numbers combined; neither were the tactics of civilized warfare followed. But parties of from three to ten or twenty would creep noiselessly Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 49 past alert and watchful sentries and suddenly fall upon their unsuspecting victims, just as suddenly dis- appearing after their dreadful work had been com- pleted, long before the alarm had been spread, and before the most active troops could overtake them. This required peculiar methods of defense, necessitat- ing the erection of forts not very distant from each other, which would occupy prominent points of ap- proach, and, if possible, be situated on elevated ground, thus furnishing a view of the danger in ad- vance. It was also important that these forts should be convenient of access to the settlers, who might, and constantly did, flee to them for refuge. And last, but by no means least, an abundant supply of water nearby was essential. Upon the occurrence of the first ravages of the In- dians, block houses were erected by the settlers them- selves, or farm houses were used as such, being located where the danger seemed most imminent, and without respect to any general plan. When the provincial government decided to assuma the duty of protecting the settlers, one of the first steps taken was the appointment of two commission- ers, who were expeced to outline a plan of defense, and to supervise its execution. The men chosen for this responsible task were James Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. Under their direction a chain of forts was established along the Blue mountain, reaching from the Susquehanna to the Delaware. The distance be- tween these forts was from ten to fifteen miles, de- pending upon the comparative situation of the promi- nent gaps, which gateways were invariably occupied. Sometimes the chain of defenses ran on the north side of the mountain, then again on the south side. Fre- quently both sides of the mountain were occupied, as Digitized by Microsoft® 50 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. the needs of the population demanded. Sometimes these forts consisted of defenses previously erected by the settlers, which were available for the purpose, and of which the government took possession, whilst others were newly erected. Among the defenses already existing when Hamilton and Franklin began the prosecution of their arduous and necessary undertaking was Fort Lehigh, situated just north of Lehigh Gap, and occupying the present site of Palmerton. Properly speaking it was only a block house, but it commanded an important position, and was for a time garrisoned by the provincial sol- diers. There was also a fort erected on the south side of the Blue mountain at Slatington, these two defenses being but a few miles apart. The most important, however, of all the forts along the Blue mountain, and the first to be erected, was Fort Allen, situated at New Grnadenhiitten, where Weissport now stands. The ex- pediency of fortifying this location was first pointed out by Bishop A. G. Spangeni)erg, then the head of the Moravian congregation at Bethlehem, and a man of practical wisdom. In a letter to the provincial govern- ment, dated November 29, 1755, he gives it as his opinion that the safety of all the settlements lying along the Lehigh and the Delaware, even as far down as Philadelphia, itself, depended on immediately erect- ing a fort at this place. Continuing, he declares : "If the French once come and build there a fort, it will cost as much, if I am not mistaken, as the taking of Crown Point to get it out of their hands; for if they put a garrison in the gaps of the mountains, and make there also a fortification, you cannot come at them at all with any great guns." In closing, he also refers to the property of the Christian Indians remaining there with- out adequate protection, at the same time offering the Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 51 government ten acres of land on which to erect a fort. The erection of a fortification at the point indicated by Bishop Spangenberg was determtaed upon about the middle of December, partly because of the valuable property remaining there after the Moravians had de- serted it, but chiefly because of its central and com- manding location. Hamilton and Franklin had ordered Captain Hay to that point, not alone to guard the property there, but to build the fort. The disastrous developments of the first of January, when the Indians succeeded in scaring off the soldiers under his command, and firing the settlement and the stockade which had been erected, proved conclusively that he was unfit for the duty to which he had been assigned. Occurrences similar to this were taking place at other points throughout Northampton county and along the border. Naturally this did not have a reassuring effect upon the people. Everyone being filled with excitement and terror, it is not to be wondered at if the settlers, under these conditions, made unreasonable demands on the government. To such an extent does this seem to have been done that Governor Morris became somewhat im- patient and discouraged. On January 5, 1756, he writes from Beading to the provincial council at Phila- delphia, saying in part : "The commissioners (Hamilton and Franklin) have done everything that was proper in the county of Northampton ; but the people are not satisfied, nor by what I can learn from the commissioners would they be, unless every man's house were protected by a fort and a company of soldiers, and themselves paid for staying at home and doing nothing. There are in the county three hundred men in the pay of the govern- ment, and yet, from the disposition of the inhabitants, 5 Digitized by Microsoft® 52 HISTOKY OF CAEBON COUNTY. the want of conduct in the officers, and of courage and discipline in the men, I am fearful that the whole coun- try will fall into the enemy's hands." In casting about for a man with the qualifications necessary to bring order and security out of all this chaos and confusion, Governor Morris finally pre- vailed upon Franklin himself to take personal charge of the northwestern frontier, giving him full power to enlist men and to commission officers. He experienced no difficulties in securing volunteers, proving himself a capable recruiting officer. Assembling his forces at Bethlehem, he appointed his son, who had seen service as an officer in the army raised against Canada, as his aide-de-camp. It was the beginning of January, 1756, when Franklin began active operations in the defense of the frontier. He divided the force under him into three divisions. One detachment was sent to the Minisink region with instructions to build a fort for the protection of the upper part of the country; and another was sent to the lower part with similar instructions. With the remainder of the force, Frank- lin determined to go to Grnadenhiitten, where a fort was thought more immediately nece&sary. The Mo- ravians at Bethlehem furnished him with the wagons necessary to transport tools, stores and baggage. All preparations had now been completed to begin the march into the wilderness. Just before leaving Beth- lehem, eleven farmers, who had been driven from their homes by the Indians, appealed to Franklin for fire- arms that they might return to their farms to bring away their cattle, which, in their precipitate flight they had left behind. On January 15, Colonel Franklin, for that was then his title, broke camp at Bethlehem and started his little army on the march to Gnadenhiitten, the distance to Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 53 be covered being thirty-one miles. The force had not proceeded many miles when the rain began falling, and they were thoroughly drenched. On the way, the men were met by one of the eleven farmers already re- ferred to, who conveyed to them the melancholy in- telligence that they had been attacked by Indians, and that all save himself had been killed. The guns with which the farmers had been provided, while not differ- ing from those that were carried by the soldiers, were of the most ordinary sort, and the priming having be- come wet, could not be discharged. Hence the ten men fell easy victims to the Indians, who were better equipped in this respect than the farmers were. But a few miles were traversed the first day, the roads being in poor condition, and the wagons heavy. Franklin was especially concerned for the safety of his men while passing through Lehigh Gap, where he feared the Indians might be lying in wait to attempt an ambuscade. The fate that befell the ten luckless farmers because their weapons proved useless when put to the test, was not calculated to inspire a feeling of security, since he knew that the guns with which his soldiers were armed, being unprotected from the rain, would probably behave in like manner, should the oc- casion to use them at that time arise. The little army passed through the gap unmolested, however, reaching the home of Nicholas Uplinger at nightfall. The force had been augmented by the accession of fifty men under Captain Wayne on the way. The men were quartered for the night in Uplinger 's barn. In the morning the march to Gnadenhiitten was re- sumed, but only a few miles were covered when rain again began to fall. There being no shelter to look forward to at the destination of the march, and the soldiers being unprovided with great coats to protect Digitized by Microsoft® 54 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. them from the elements, it was deemed advisable to face about and return to the quarters of the previous night for shelter. The next day being Sunday, the march was resumed, and New Gnadenhiitten was reached at about two o 'clock in the afternoon. Before dark the camp had been enclosed with a musket-proof breastwork, and with boards which had been ordered sent in advance from a saw-mill which stood where Slatington now is. The following day was so gloomy and foggy that it was determined no work should be done. A temporary defense having been provided, the next duty to be performed was to give proper burial to the bodies of the victims of the massacre at Gnad- enhiitten, these having been but partially interred in the first instance. On Tuesday morning the ground on which the fort was to be erected was decided upon, and the men began work with a will. Seventy axe-men dexterously felled enough trees in several hours for the purpose in hand. The fort was one hundred and twenty-five feet long, and fifty feet wide. First a trench on all four sides was dug to the depth of three feet. Then palisades or timbers eighteen feet in length and about a foot in diameter, being pointed at the top, were placed vertically in the trench until the enclosure was complete, forming what is known as a stockade. Each tree, when cut in lengths made three palisades. When the stockade had been completed, a floor or platform of boards was built all around within at a height of about six feet from the ground, the plan being for the men to stand on this when firing through the loop-holes, which occurred at regular intervals in the walls. As was almost invariably the case in the construc- tion of forts of this nature, a number of block-houses, pierced with loop-holes, were erected within the en- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 55 closed space. These were intended to be occupied as quarters by the soldiers and the refugee settlers. A well sixteen feet deep and four in diameter, walled with stones taken from the river, was dug for the use of the garrison. The fort wa& finished on Saturday morning, less than a week having been required for its erection, notwithstanding that the progress of the work was greatly hindered by rain. The flag was then hoisted, followed by a general discharge of the rifles of the sol- diers, together with two swivel guns, constituting all the artillery of the fort. The cannon were fired for the purpose of overawing the Indians, should there be any close by. The defense was named Fort Allen in honor of Judge William Allen, father of James Allen, who in 1762 laid out AUentown. "This kind of fort," says Franklin in his auto- biography, "however contemptible, is a sufficient de- fense against Indians, who have no cannon. ' ' Considering themselves now securely posted, and having a shelter to flee to, should the occasion de- mand, the men forming the garrison ventured out in parties to scour the surrounding country for Indians. They failed to encounter any; but evidences were not lacking that the wily denizens of the forests had been interested spectators of the activities of the garrison. It being winter, and the weather being inclement, a fire was of course necessary for the comfort of the Indians as they watched the progress of the work at the fort. An ordinary fire, kindled on the surface of the ground, would by its light and smoke have dis- closed their presence at a distance. They, therefore, dug holes of about three feet in diameter in the ground, sinking them to the depth of perhaps four feet. Em- ploying their hatchets they then cut off the charcoal Digitized by Microsoft® 56 HISTOEY Of CARBON COUNTY. from the sides of burnt logs lying in the woods. With these coals they made small fire& in the bottom of the holes, and the soldiers observed among the weeds and grass the prints of their bodies, made by their lying on the ground while their legs and feet dangled over the fire, it being an essential point with an Indian to keep the lower extremities warm. Franklin was compelled to admire the shrewdness of the Indians in thus managing their fires that they might not be discovered, either by their light, flames, sparks, or even smoke. It appeared that their mmiber had not been great, and evidently appreciating the dis- advantage of their situation, did not venture an at- tack. Franklin's next concern was to get the fort well stored with provisions and ammunition. This done, he received a letter from Governor Morris, apprising him of the fact that he had called the As- sembly, and that he desired his presence in Philadel- phia, if the posture of affairs on the frontier was such that he felt warranted in leaving. The other two forts, which the separate detachments of his command had been ordered to build, were now completed, and the settlers of the region feeling reasonably secure in the protection they afforded, he resolved to return to civ- ilization, the more willingly, as he tells us, since Colo- nel Clapham, an officer experienced in Indian warfare, and who was a visitor at. the fort, consented tempora- rily to accept the command. Franklin gave this officer a commission, and, parad- ing the garrison, had it read to them. He assured the soldiers that the Colonel, who was a New Englander, was better qualified, owing to his military experience, to command them than himself. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 57 Delivering a short address of farewell and of exhor- tation, he then took his leave, being accompanied by an armed escort as far as Bethlehem, where he rested a few days to recover from the hardships which he had undergone. Just nineteen days had elapsed since he, with his little army, had broken camp at Bethle- hem for the march into the wilderness ; but during that brief interval a defenseless frontier, which had been almost entirely deserted by the settlers, was converted into a defensible one. This change had been brought about largely through the energies and good sense of one man, whose services- in this respect were later over- shadowed by his more eminent achievements in civil life. Once more the people could breathe freely, though the danger had not fully passed, and it was not until the close of the Eevolutionary War that the peo- ple felt themselves secure from Indian attacks. Fort Allen was garrisoned for five years from the date of its erection, and was occasionally occupied by soldiers after the expiration of that time. Some of the com- panies stationed at the fort during its earlier history, and during the period of greatest danger, served with- out pay, besides furnishing their own arms and am- munition. Later, however, the soldiers who garrisoned the forts along the Blue Eidge were provincial troops, which, almost without exception, were details from the First Battalion, Pennsylvania Eegiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Conrad Weisser, a gallant and energetic officer, who for many years played a promi- nent part in various capacities in the Indian affairs of the province. A marked change had now taken place in the com- position of the assembly of Pennsylvania. In the face of earnest opposition on the part of the Friends, that Digitized by Microsoft® 58 HISTORY OF CAEBON COTJNTT. body had enacted legislation providing for the pay- ment of bounties on Indian scalps. Indians were em- ployed to fight Indians ; and the cruelty of the savage was stimulated by the promise of reward. In response to this cold invitation to murder, a number of scalping parties penetrated the Indian country early ia 1756. One of these bands was from New Jersey, and num- bered one hundred men. Soon after the inauguration of this policy by the province. Governor Morris opened negotiations with the Indians with a view to putting an end to the strife, if possible. In pursuance of this object he issued a proclamation ordering a cessation of hostilities, and recalling the scalping parties. Further efforts finally effected a meeting between the Grovernor and Teedyuscung, the Delaware chief, at Easton, about the middle of July. This was the first appearance in the settlements of Teedyuscung since he had taken up the hatchet against the whites. Ac- companied by about thirty Indians, men, women, and children, he stopped at Fort Allen on his way to the conference. It was on this occasion that he first pro- claimed his kingship. We are told that at this, and succeeding conferences that were held, Teedyuscung stood up as the champion of his people, fearlessly de- manding restitution of their lands, or an equivalent for their irreparable loss, and in addition, the free exercise of the right to select, within the territory in dispute, a permanent home. The chieftain's imposing presence, his earnestness of appeal, and his impassioned oratory, as he plead the cause of the long-injured Lenape, evoked the ad- miration of hi& enemies themselves. He always spoke in the euphonious Delaware, although he was conversant with the white man's Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 59 Speech. It would almost appear from the records of these gatherings, that the whites artfully attempted to evade the points at issue, and to conciliate the indig- nant chieftain with fair speeches and uncertain prom- ises. The hoUowness of the former he boldly exposed, and the latter be scornfully rejected; so that it was soon perceived that the Indian king was as astute and sagacious as he was immovable in the justice of his righteous demands. This conviction forced itself upon hi& hearers, and they yielded to the terms he laid down. In return the Indians were pledged first to release all the white prisoners they held. Having been given presents, the chief departed to arrange for the carrying out of his part of the pro- gram. All his movements, however, were so dilatory as to cause grave suspicion with regard to his sin- cerity of purpose. He loitered about the frontiers, went away, and came back again. Finally, in the early part of August, he re-appeared at Port Allen, where the lieutenant in command kept plying him with rum until he was in no condition to move away, much to the detriment and disgrace of the province. The officer who was in supreme command of the fort at this time was Captain Eeynolds, but he being absent, a subordinate was temporarily in charge. The rum which he supplied to Teedyuscung was em- bezzled from the public stores, and was sold to the chief. When the Delaware king came to the fort he brought with him sixteen deer skins, which he pro- posed sending to Governor Morris as a present, and out of which to make himself a pair of gloves. The lieutenant ridiculed Teedyuscung for this, and told him that one skin would be sujQBcient to make all the gloves that the governor would need. The king re- plied that this was the way the Indian spoke to show Digitized by Microsoft® 60 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. his genero£ity. However, the corrupt lieutenant gam- bled all but one of the skins away from the chief be- fore his departure. It is not surprising to learn that under such a leader a mutiny occurred at the fort before the return of Captain Reynolds. It appears that a number of the soldiers had im- bibed too freely of rum, and grew insubordinate. Christian Weyrick, a corporal, was the chief offender. He had a bodily encounter with his superior officer, and later quarreled with the Indians who were at the fort, threatening to drive them out. Both the corporal and the lieutenant were placed under arrest and lodged in jail at Easton for their mis- conduct. Captain Jacob Arndt was placed in command of the fort soon after this incident. Early in July, 1757, Teedyuscung was again quar- tered at Fort Allen, being enroute between the Sus- quehanna and the Delaware for the purpose of attend- ing another conference with the governor. On this occasion he was accompanied by two hun- dred Indians of all ages and both sexes. Upon his arrival he informed the commandant that he expected to stay five or six days, when he would be joined by about one hundred Senecas. In the Spring of 1758 Teedyuscung removed to Wyoming, where, agreeably to his request and the con- ditions of treaty, a town had been built for him and his followers by the province, in the beautiful valley of the Susquehanna. Thus happily situated after so many vicissitudes, he looked forward to the time when he should be enabled to wipe out the blot which had tarnished the escutcheon of the immemorial Lenape ever since the Six Nations had insidiously made Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. gl women of them, years before. But Ms dreams were destined not to be realized ; for here he was burned to death on the night of the nineteenth of April, 1763, while asleep in his lodge. It is said that the Iroquois were the instigators of this wicked deed, for they hated the man who testified against their arrogant assumption, and who opposed their lust of power. As long as he lived, therefore, he was a standing rebuke to their designing oppression, and although they no longer dreaded his arms, they feared his words, which left their guilty consciences no peace. Hence it was resolved in council that he ought not to live ; and when the news was brought back to Onondaga that the Delaware king was no more, and that the lodges of the warriors had ascended in smoke, the treacherous Si:x Nations exultantly celebrated their triumph in having destroyed an enemy whose brave spirit they had despaired of subduing. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTEE V. CAPTIVITY OF THE GILBERT FAMILY. The memory of the horrors and barbarities which attended the Indian uprising of 1755 lingered long in the minds of the settlers and their families. Notwith- standing that the Blue mountain frontier was rendered as safe as forts and garrisons could make it, only the most obstinate and adventurous of the pioneers re- turned to their clearings after the first violence of the storm had subsided. Even ten years after the massacre of Gnadenhiitten only a handful of white people lived in what is now Carbon county, and almost a generation passed away before the ring of the axe was again heard in the forests, and the curling smoke wreaths ascended from the chimneys of the log cabins of Towamensing, as this whole region was then known. Among those whom the feeling of returning security lured across the Blue Eidge was Benjamin Gilbert, a peaceful Quaker, who, in 1775, located in the Ma- honing Valley, a few miles from the spot where the Moravians had thirty years earlier planted their ill- fated mission. He came from Byberry, near Phila- delphia, and was married to his second wife, who had been the widow of Bryan Peart. Their united families of children made a large household. The Dodsons and a number of other families lived in the same neigh- borhood. Gilbert erected a log dwelling house and barns, a saw and grist mill, and for five years all went well; for the forest supply of timber was abundant, while Mahoning creek ran its strong full course un- checked by ice or drought. The mill-stones whirred cheerily all the year round, and the sharp, grating 62 Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBY OF CARBON COUNTY. 63 mill saw played a joyous accompaniment. In an evil hour this scene of peace, contentment and prosperous toil was rudely broken by the stealthy and savage in- truder. On the morning of April 25, 1780, just a year after General Sullivan's expedition, the family was surprised by a party of eleven Indians, who took them all prisoners. The names and ages of the cap- tives were : Benjamin Grilbert, aged sixty-nine ; Eliza- beth, his wife, fifty-five ; Joseph Gilbert, his son, forty- one; Jesse Gilbert, another son, nineteen; Sarah Gil- bert, wife of Jesse, nineteen; Rebecca Gilbert, a daughter, sixteen; Abner Gilbert, a son, fourteen; Elizabeth Gilbert, a daughter, twelve; Thomas Peart, a son of Benjamin Gilbert's wife, twenty-three; Benja- min Gilbert, a son of John Gilbert, of Philadelphia, eleven; Andrew Harrigar, employed by Gilbert, twenty-six; and Abigail Dodson, aged fourteen. The last named was a daughter of Samuel Dodson, who lived on a farm nearly a mile away. She had come to the mill that morning with a grist. Having securely bound the prisoners, the Indians then proceeded to the dwelling of Benjamin Peart, aboiit half a mile distant. There they made captive the head of the household, who was a young man of twenty-seven, his wife Eliza- beth, aged twenty, and their nine-months-old child. A guard was placed over the prisoners while the Indians employed themselves in plundering their home? and packing up such goods as they chose to carry ofi. When they had secured all that their horses could carry, they loaded the remainder of their booty upon the backs of the distressed prisoners. Having finished their plundering, they began their retreat, first detaching two of their number to fire the buildings of the luckless captives. Digitized by Microsoft® 64 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. From a nearby eminence called Summer Hill, the prisoners had their last view of the spot where they had lived so prosperously and contentedly for five years, and as their glances lingered mournfully on the scene, the falling roofs of the buildings sent showers of sparks toward the heavens. The Indians were led by Eowland Monteur, a half- breed, whose father was a Mohawk, while his mother was a French woman. Five of the band were Senecas. They lost no time in pushing forward into the wilder- ness, evidently fearing pursuit and retribution. The route which they pursued led first to Mauch Chunk. A halt was called near the point where Flagstaff Park now is, and considering themselves comparatively se- cure, the Indians leisurely prepared a hearty meal, which they shared with the prisoners. Moccasin& were then made for the children, after which they resumed their journey. Mauch Chunk creek was crossed and the climb of the hill on the opposite side begun. This the prisoners climbed with difficulty, and they were permitted to rest for a brief period at the foot of Mount Pisgah. The party then pressed on to the Nesquehoning creek, at the foot of the Broad moun- tain, where they halted for an hour. Here they struck the Warriors' Path, leading toward the Susquehanna. As the ascent of the Broad mountain was begun, Ben- jamin Gilbert's wife was greatly discouraged and fatigued, the unevenness and ruggedness of the path rendering the journey exceedingly toilsome. Being threatened with death by the Indians, however, she was compelled to move forward with the rest. After crossing Laurytown Valley, preparations were made to camp for the night. The Indians secured their pris- oners by felling a tree, in which notches were cut at regular intervals. Having placed their legs in these Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 65 notches, a pole the length of the tree was placed on top. Across this, stakes were driven, after the manner of an old-fashioned rail fence, other poles or riders being placed in the crotches of the stakes, effectually confining the prisoners, with their backs to the ground. In addition to this, they tied a strip of rawhide about the neck of each of the captives, fastening one end to a tree. Hemlock branches strewed on the ground took the place of mattresses, while woolen blankets were provided for covers. In this unaccustomed manner the night was passed. Before resuming their march the next morning, the captors separated the prisoners into small companies, placing a particular Indian in command of each com- pany and spreading them to a considerable distance in order to render pursuit as impracticable as possible. Overcome with fatigue, the old people could not move as rapidly as their taskmasters desired, and they were forced to travel far beyond their strength under penalty of being tomahawked. As evening drew near, the parties again met and encamped. A deer having been killed, a fire was kindled, each one roasting pieces of flesh on sharpened sticks. The mode of confinement the second night was the same as before, but the prisoners submitted to it with greater resignation than on the night previous. The next morning again found them early on their way. During the day's journey they passed near Fort Wyoming, situated on the eastern branch of the Susquehanna. The Indians observed every precaution as they ap- proached the garrison. Lest some slight noise might betray their presence, they carefully avoided treading on the twigs that were lying in the path, stepping from one stone to another, and requiring the captives to do likewise. Digitized by Microsoft® 66 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. On the morning of tte fourth day of their captivity, the prisoners were all painted according to the usages of the Indians. Some were painted red and black, others red, and some pure black. Among those to whom the ebony hue was applied was the old man, Benjamin Gilbert. This was a fatal omen, indicating that he was considered of little value and was marked for death. Soon thereafter the Indiana essayed to kill him, but he was saved through the intercessions of his wife. On the fourth of May, Andrew Harrigar succeeded in making his escape. After a perilous jour- ney he returned in safety to civilization, bringing the first detailed news of the whole affair to the settle- ments. The prisoners who remained were treated with greater severity on account of his escape, and were ac- cused of having been privy to the design. For a time the Indians experienced no difficulty in procuring a plentiful supply of food. Deer, turkey, and fish were found in abundance, and at some of the Indian villages which had been deserted on the ap- proach of General Sullivan's army the year before, plenty of turnips and potatoes remained in the ground. The Indians were holding their course toward the Genesee river, and after the hunting grounds of north- ern Pennsylvania were passed, food became very scarce, and some of the prisoners were well nigh fam- ished. In this extremity all were compelled to depend on wild onions and a species of root, somewhat re- sembling the potato, which the Indians called "whop- panies." Benjamin Gilbert failed rapidly on this diet and the Indian who had him in charge, highly irritated at his want of strength, put a rope around his neck, leading him along with it. Fatigue at last overcame him, and he fell to the ground, when the heartless savage pulled so hard on the rope that he was nearly Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 67 choked to death. The Indian seemed determined to kill the aged man, but his life was again spared through the resolute entreaties of his wife. Some of the companies were at times far separated from the others, thus adding additional fear and un- certainty to their miserable lot. On their approach to the country of the Senecas, Eowland Monteur and a number of his Indians went abroad in search of provisions. Eeturning, they brought with them cakes of hominy and Indian corn. The prisoners were then put to work in the hot sun, pounding hominy, which, in their enfeebled condition was a hard task. This was then boiled and prepared for supper. The Indians sat down to eat first; when they had finished their meal, they wiped the spoons on the soles of their moccasins and then gave them to the captives, who were obliged to eat from them or go hungry. Subjected to such conditions, the forlorn band was dragged, goaded and driven over the rugged region of northern Pennsylvania, and through the swamps and rivers of the Genesee country toward an unknown destination. When food was plentiful, no attempt was made to lay by a portion toward the day of scarcity, the Indians being accustomed to gormandize when the opportunity of^red, and to go hungry for a long period without repining when nothing to eat could be found. This mode of life, however, was foreign to their prisoners, which, together with their unaccustomed hardships and sufferings wore them to the bone. On the twenty-third of May, after a fearful and ad- venturous journey of twenty-nine days, the prisoners were brought into an Indian village not far from Fort Niagara. They were now called upon to encounter the 6 Digitized by Microsoft® 68 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. dreadful ordeal of the gauntlet. They had been re- lieved of the heavy loads which they had heretofore been compelled to carry, and, had it not been for the treatment which they knew was in store for them, their situation would have been tolerable. The Indians entered the village whooping in the most frightful manner, and soon the squaws and children began to gather, hurliag clubs and stones at the heads of the defenseless captives as they came, seeking revenge in this manner for friends and relations who had been slain. Two of the women who were on horseback were much bruised by falling from their mounts, which were frightened by the Indians. Elizabeth, the mother, took refuge by the side of a warrior, who, upon observing that she met with some favor on his account, sent her away; she then received several violent blows, and was almost disabled. The blood trickled from their heads in streams, and at the sight of this the Indian women and children redoubled their cries and the fury of their onslaught. The warriors did not take part in this brutal affair, except by looking on and encouraging the demoniacal sport. The hair of the prisoners was close crept, while their clothes, as may easily be imagined, were in rags. The piteous spectacle which they presented at length moved the Indian king to put a stop to further cruelty, telling his people that the punishment which had al- ready been meted out was ' ' sufficient. ' ' These preliminaries having been carried out, as pre- scribed by custom, the prisoners were given something to eat, the women of the party in particular being treated with kindness. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 69 Two English officers from Fort Niagara, Captains Dace and Powell, came to see the prisoners, and in- formed them that they would exercise their good offices to prevent them from suffering any further ahuse. Soon after this a severe trial awaited the captives. Against their tearful and unavailing protests they were separated from each other. Some were given over to the Indians to be adopted, others were hired out by their Indian owners to white families^ and others were sent by way of Lake Ontario down the St. Lawrence river to Montreal as prisoners of war. Among the latter was the venerable Benjamia Gil- bert. He had been greatly indisposed before leaving Fort Niagara, and his distress was increased by a rain which fell on their passage, as they were without any covering. They passed Oswagatchy, an English garrison by the side of the St. Lawrence, but were not permitted to stop here; the rain continuing as they proceeded down the river, they landed on an island in order to secure themselves from the weather, A shelter was made for Benjamin Gilbert, but the rain ceasing to fall after a time, he was again placed in the boat, where he might be more at ease. The aged man was, however, broken in body and mind, and he sank rapidly under the complications of woe and hard- ship. He died on the evening of the eighth of June, 1780, his faithful wife and two children being by his side. In the morning the party passed Fort Coeur de Lac, and waited for a considerable time some distance below while arrangements were being made for the burial of the body of the unfortunate Quaker. The remains were placed in a coffin and hastily iaterred under the wide-spreading branches of an oak, not far from the fort. The boatmen, an unfeeling company of four Frenchmen, would not allow his widow to pay the Digitized by Microsoft® 70 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. last tribute to his memory, and regardless of her piti- able plight, refused to wait. The last nine miles of the journey to Montreal were made by land. The women were allowed to ride in an empty cart, which was on the way to the town. Arriving at Montreal, the prisoners received kiud treatment at the hands of the officers in coromand of the garrison there. A concise account of the privations and sufferings which the family had undergone was taken down and forwarded to General Haldimand at Quebec, who issued orders that those who were held in captivity at Niagara should be released, with particular injunc- tions for every garrison to furnish them with neces- saries on their way down the St. Lawrence to Mon- treal. "To carry out these orders, however, required a great deal of time, and those of the family who had been adopted by the Indians fared miserably before they were released. Joseph Gilbert, in particular, found the Indian man- ner of life disagreeable. The band which held him captive improvidently consumed their stock of pro- visions in indulging their voracious appetites, and a famine ensued. They were obliged to have recourse to herbs and roots, and during a time of especial scarcity they lived upon the carcass of a dead horse which had been found lying in the woods. He finally escaped, but his. strength had been so greatly reduced that he made his way to Fort Niagara with extreme difficulty. After many sore trials and vicissitudes, all of the captives, excepting Benjamin Gilbert and Abigail Dod- son, were happily reunited at Montreal. Leaving there on the twenty-second of August, 1782, tliey reached their old home at Byberry in safety, two years and five Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 71 mouths having elapsed since they had been rudely driven forth into the wilderness by the Indians. In 1785, Thomas Dodson, a cousin of Abigail, deter- mined to go northward into the Indian country to make a search for the missing girl. After many wanderings his diligence and faith were rewarded. He found her in the Genesee Valley with the tribe of Indians by which she had been adopted. It appeared that her return at some time had been anticipated by the Indians, they having decided that if any of her friends ever came for her she should be allowed to go. When Thomas Dodson arrived, the chief of the tribe was absent, and the family of which she was a mem- ber, although loath to part with her, for they had learned to love her, consented, and preparations were made for her departure. A new suit of Indian gar- ments, ornamented with beads, was made for her, and feasts were given in her honor, at which many gath- ered. When all was ready, with many fond farewells, the pair started. The young man had left his horse at a settlement, a few miles away, and upon reaching the place and applying for his property, the man in whose care the horse had been left refused to give him up, except upon the payment of one hundred dollars, Dod- son did not have that much money, and was obliged to leave the horse behind. He succeeded, however, in making arrangements whereby they were taken to To- wanda, and from that point they floated down the Sus- quehanna to Salem in a canoe. There a horse was secured from a man named Nathan Beach, and they proceeded on their way to the Mahoning "Valley, where they arrived in October, 1786. Abigail had been absent from home for five years and six months; she had lived with several different Digitized by Microsoft® 72 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. tribes, and had learned their languages. As she ap- proached the familiar dwelling of her childhood, she went alone to the door. Her mother opened in re- sponse to her knock, and then, turning to the girl's father, said: "Here is a squaw, and a pretty good- looking one, too." Neither of the parents recognized their child, whereupon she exclaimed, "Mother, don't you know me ! ' ' Her rescuer entered the house at this moment, and bewilderment gave place to unbounded joy as the father and mother beheld in the comely squaw their own long-lost daughter. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER VI. EARLY ANNALS OF ANTHRACITE COAL. The Indians who inhabited eastern Pennsylvania knew of the existence of anthracite coal in various localities of that section long before this valuable min- eral, which is now one of our leading natural products, was discovered by the white settlers. That the "black stones," as coal was commonly termed a century ago, were capable of combustion and of generating heat was not known to the aborigiaes. Had they been familiar with the properties of coal and the use to which it may be put, they would have carefully guarded the secret of its presence or loca- tion. To have pursued any other course, as experi- ence had taught them, would have been equivalent to an invitation to have their lands trespassed upon or taken away from them by the whites. Loskiel, the Moravian historian, in speaking of the settlement of Gnadenhiitten, relates that the Indians of the vicinity made their pipe-heads of a soft black stone, which was undoubtedly coal. The Connecticut pioneers of the Wyoming Valley were the first to learn of the existence of coal in that portion of the region, while its presence was early suspected on the headwaters of the Schuylkill. Coal, in the Lehigh region, was discovered on Sharp mountain, where Summit Hill now stands, in the year 1791, by Philip Ginter. This discovery, like so many others which have been fraught with great import to humanity, was purely an accidental one, and it eventually led to a true ap- preciation of the value of the mineral on the part of 73 Digitized by Microsoft® 74 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. the general public, and to its being mined and placed on the market. The element of romance attaches strongly to the story of Ginter and his epoch-making discovery. He was a hunter, and on locating among the rugged mountains of the upper Lehigh, he built a rough cabin in the forest, depending solely on the pro- ceeds of his rifle for the support of himself and family. The game he shot, including bear and deer, he carried to the nearest store and bartered for the other neces- saries of life. On the eventful day of his finding coal, he was mak- ing his way over Sharp moimtain in a despondent frame of mind. The family larder was bare, and his search for game had been entirely unsuccessful. With a drizzling rain beginning to fall, and the shades of night forming about him, he bent his course homeward. Suddenly he stumbled over an object which, by the im- pact of his foot was driven before him; there was enough light remaining for him to distinguish that the object was black, and as it wag traditionary that coal existed in the vicinity, it occurred to him that this might be a portion of that "stone-coal" of which he had so often heard. Taking the specimen with him to his cabin, he carried it the next day to Colonel Jacob Weiss, who lived at what was then known as Fort Allen, now Weissport. Taking a keen interest in the matter, Colonel Weiss immediately took the specimen with him to Philadel- phia, submitting it for inspection to John Nicholson, Michael Hillegas and Charles Cist, the last-named being an intelligent printer, who ascertained its na- ture and properties, authorizing the colonel to satisfy Ginter for his discovery upon his pointing out the exact spot where the coal was found. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOKY OP CARBON COUNTY. 75 Ginter readily agreed to this proposal, accepting in exchange the title to a small tract of land, upon which he afterwards built a mill, and of which he was unhap- pily deprived by the claims of a prior survey. In the beginning of the year 1793, Hillegas, Cist, Weiss and others formed the Lehigh Coal Mine Com- pany, but without being incorporated. They pur- chased from Jacob "Weiss the tract of land upon which Summit Hill is now situated, afterward taking up, under warrants from the commonwealth, about ten thousand acres, embracing most of the coal lands now owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Coal was found in unmistakable quantity at the point of Ginter 's discovery, and all that remained necessary to the most triumphant success was a market and the facilities of transportation. But here was the great difficulty. The public knew nothing about the new fuel; wood was then plentiful and low-priced, while there was a total lack of highways or navigable streams leading to the region. Small quantities of coal were mined, but people were slow to appreciate its value, and it required vigorous exertions to induce them to attempt to use it. Its very appearance was against it, and the majority of persons approached were entirely incredulous as to its being anything else than a stone, incapable of being burned by any inherent qualities it possessed. Not only the coal but the fact that it was coal had to be discovered. Even as late as the year 1812, when it was sought to secure an act authorizing the improvement of the Schuylkill river in order to convey coal to Philadelphia, the representative of Schuylkill county in the state senate declared there was no coal in his district; that there was a kind of black stone that was called coal, but that it would not burn! Digitized by Microsoft® 76 HISTOE"^ OF CARBON COUNTY. The Lehigh Coal Mine Company expended the sum of ten pounds in Pennsylvania currency on the con- struction of a road from the mines to the Lehigh, a distance of nine miles. After many fruitless attempts to get coal to market over this nominal road, and by way of the river, which, in seasons of low water, in its unimproved state, de- fied the floating of a canoe over its rocky bed, and after calling for money from its stockholders until calling was useless, the company became tired of the experi- ment, suffering its property to lie idle for several years. Notwithstanding the inauspicious circumstances which involved the company. Colonel "Weiss deter- mined that the coal should, at least, be introduced to the acquaintance of the public. Filling hie saddle bags from time to time, he rode around among the black- smiths of the lower country, earnestly soliciting them to try it. A few accepted the proffered supplies, using the coal with partial success. In the year 1806, William TurnbuU had an ark con- structed at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek which took to Philadelphia about three hundred bushels of coal. A portion of this cargo wae sold to the managers of the water works, located in Center Square, where the city hall now stands. Upon trial there, it was deemed rather an extinguisher of fire than anything else, was rejected as worthless, and was broken up to be spread on the walks of the surrounding garden in place of gravel. The company, anxious to have its property brought to notice and developed, leased its mine& to different individuals in succession for varying periods of years, finally adding the privilege of taking timber from its lands for the purpose of floating coal to market. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 77 During the war of 1812, bituminous coal became very scarce and high-priced. At this time Jacob Cist, Charles Miner and John Eobinson held the lease of the mines on the Lehigh, and taking advantage of the fa- vorable opportunity offered, made a valiant attempt to bring anthracite into general use in Philadelphia. They succeeded in getting several arks to their des- tination in safety, while others were wrecked upon the rocks which obstructed the channel of the Lehigh. The coal was sold for twenty-one dollars a ton, but even that high price was insufficient to fully defray the cost of mining and transportation. The return of peace found these men in the midst of their enterprise, and with the return of normal condi- tions they were compelled to abandon it becau&e of their inability to compete successfully with the pro- ducers of bituminous coal. Soon after this failure, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, who were engaged in the manufacture of wire at the Falls of Schuylkill, having obtained good re- sults in their experiments with the coal they had pur- chased from Cist, Miner and Eobinson, secured control of the entire property of the Lehigh Coal Mine Com- pany under the terms of a lease for twenty years. George F. A. Hanto joined them in the venture, and was largely depended upon to secure the necessary financial assistance to make the property productive. Under the conditions of the lease, it was stipulated that, after a given time for preparation, they should deliver for their own benefit at least forty thousand bushels of coal annually in Philadelphia and the sur- rounding districts, and should pay, if demanded, one ear of corn as a yearly rental. After these preliminaries, the next step necessary was to procure an act for the improvement of the L&- Digitized by Microsoft® 78 HISTOKY OP CAKBON COUNTY. high river; on this project the various parties previ- ously operating the mines had expended many thou- sands of dollars under successive acts of the legisla- ture. During the month of April, 1818, "White and Hazard surveyed the river from Stoddartsville, above White Haven, to Easton, using instruments which they had borrowed from the Delaware and Schuylkill Canal Company, there being no others to be found in Phila- delphia at that time. Following this, these enterprising pioneers began to solicit stock subscriptions for the purpose of raising the capital needed to carry forward the work they were about to begin. In view of the disastrous termination of all previous attempts to put the property on a paying basis, the project was generally viewed as chimerical, and they encountered many difficulties and discouragements. The leading capitalists of the day were appealed to, among the number being Stephen Grirard, who replied laconically that he formed no partnerships. Joseph Bonaparte, in a reply by letter through his secretary, respectfully declined joining in the enter- prise. One confessed, after being polite enough to listen to the promoters, that he was unable to appreciate their remarks ; another agreed to give them a hearing on the subject for five minutes by the watch. Still another appointed an evening for a conference, but, when called upon, had gone to a party. Finally, some were found who were willing to join in the improvement of the river, but had no faith in the value of the coal. Others were of the opinion that the river improvements would never pay the interest of their cost, while the coal business would prove Digitized by Microsoft® History of caebon county. 79 profitable. This diversity of opinion gave rise to a separation of the two interests. On August 10, 1818, the Lehigh Navigation Com- pany was formed, and two months later the Lehigh Coal Company was organized. Their combined capital stock amounted to two hundred thousand dollars, and White, Hazard and Hanto were the dominant figures in both companies. Hanto was soon found to be an im- postor, however, and after some difficulty, together with a heavy ' pecuniary sacrifice on the part of the other two, he was, during the spring of 1820, elim- inated. Immediately thereafter the two companies were merged, under the title of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. It was not until February 13, 1822, that a charter was secured. The improvement of the Lehigh was begun at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek, during the summer of the year 1818, under the personal supervision of Josiah White. The plan adopted was to contract the channel of the river in the form of a funnel, wherever it was found necessary to raise the water, throwing up the round river-stones into low walls or wing dams, thus providing a regular descending navigation. But it soon became apparent that the carrying out of this plan would not insure sufficient water in seasons of drought to float a loaded ark or boat, and the success of the whole enterprise hung in the balance. In this contingency, Josiah White, who was a man of great resourcefulness and mechanical ingenuity, resorted to the expedient of creating artificial freshets. Dams were constructed in the neighborhood of Mauch Chunk, in which were placed sluice-gates of peculiar design, invented for the purpose by White, and by means of which water could be retained until required for use. When the dam became full and the water Digitized by Microsoft® 80 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. had run over it long enough for the river below to regain its ordinary depth, the sluice-gates were let down, while the boats, which were lying in the pool above, passed down with the artificial flood. In this manner the difficulty was overcome. While the work of improving the river was going forward a wagon road was also being built from Mauch Chunk to the mines at Summit Hill, and the promoters of the undertaking had at their command the largest force of men that had until that time been engaged in a private enterprise in the wilderness of Pennsylvania. The line of this road had been surveyed in 1818 by White and Hazard, and is believed to have been the first ever laid out by an instrument, on the principle of dividing the whole descent into the whole distance, as regularly as the ground would admit of, and having no undulation. A pair of horses could haul from four to six tons of coal upon it with ease. While the descending navigation of the Lehigh was not perfected until 1823, three hundred and sixty-five tons of coal was sent to Philadelphia in 1820. This quantity stocked the market, and was disposed of with great difficulty. The price asked therefor was eight dollars and forty cents a ton. Two years after this the Schuylkill region was opened, while it was not until 1829 that the coal trade of the Wyoming region began. In 1821, one thousand and seventy-three tons were sent down the Lehigh, and in 1824 the quantity shipped by this route reached nine thousand five hundred and forty-one tons. This year marked the turning point in the use of anthracite coal. People were now be- coming accustomed to the new fuel, and prejudice against it was fast dying out. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY or CAEBON COUNTY. gl During 1825, more than twenty-eight thousand tons of coal from the Lehigh reached Philadelphia, and the trade which has since reached such enormous propor- tions was firmly established. The coal at Summit Hill lay close to the surface, being simply quarried in the open until about 1844, when, owing to the dip of the veins, the uncovering became too expensive to be profitably conducted, and was, therefore, abandoned and underground work re- sorted to. The boats used during the early years on the Le- high consisted of square boxes, or arks, from sixteen to eighteen feet wide, and about twenty-five feet long. At first two of these were joined together by means of hinges, to permit of the undulations produced in passing the dams and sluices. As the men became more expert in their work and as the channel was straightened and improved, the number of sections was increased till, finally, their whole length reached one hundred and eighty feet. They were steered with long oar&, like a raft. Boats of this description were used on the Lehigh to the end of the year 1831. During that year more than forty thousand tons of coal passed down the river, which required the building of so many boats that, had they all been joined in one length, they would have extended over a distance of more than thirteen miles. These boats made but one trip, being broken up in Philadelphia, where the planks were sold as lumber, while the iron work was returned to Mauch Chunk by land, a distance of eighty miles. The men employed ia running the boats walked back for several years, when rough wagons were placed on the road for their accommodation by some of the tavern-keepers along the route. Digitized by Microsoft® 82 HISTOEY or CAEBON COUNTY. It soon became evident that the traffic could not be extended as fast as the demand for coal increased while it was necessary to build a new boat for each load of coal that was sent down; besides, the forests of the Laurytown Valley, where most of the lumber came from, were fast disappearing. Under these cir- cumstances, it became apparent that the time had ar- rived for the introduction of slackwater navigation on the Lehigh. Accordingly, in 1827, the building of the Lehigh Canal, extending from Mauch Chunk to Easton, a dis- tance of forty-six miles, was begun. The engineer in charge of the work was Canvass White, who had taken a prominent part in the construction of the Erie Canal across the state of New York. The canal was completed in 1829, costing about eight hundred thousand dollars. During the ensuing quarter of a century, or until the building of the Le- high Valley Eailroad, it commanded all the traffic of the Lehigh region, in the development of which it was a vital factor. In 1838, under the supervision of E. A. Douglass, the canal was extended from Mauch Chunk to White Haven, from which point it was connected with Wilkes-Barre by railroad. From this time forth until 1862, when the upper section of the canal was destroyed by flood, never to be rebuilt, it carried a considerable portion of the out- put of the Wyoming coal field. During the latter part of 1827, the state began the construction of the canal along the Delaware, from Easton to Bristol. Its completion was delayed until 1831, obliging the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany to continue the use of temporary boats, which, owing to their peculiar design, were very expensively moved on the canal, but were the only kind that could Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 83 be used upon the channels of the Delaware, which were still necessarily used to reach Philadelphia. This seri- ously impeded the development of the Lehigh region, and turned the attention of persons desirous of engag- ing in the coal industry to the Schuylkill field, causing Potts'ville to spring up with great rapidity. In this manner the Schuylkill coal trade, thus early, out- stripped that of the Lehigh. During the summer of 1827, a railroad was built from the mines at Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk. With one or two unimportant exceptions, this was the first railroad m the United States. It was nine miles in length, and occupied the route of the old wagon road most of the distance. Summit Hill, lying nearly a thousand feet higher than Mauch Chunk, the cars on the road made this descent by gravity, passing the coal, at their destina- tion to the boats in the river by means of inclined planes and chutes. The whole of this plan was evolved by Josiah White, under whose direction it was con- summated in a period of about four months. The rails were of rolled bar-iron, three-eighths of an inch in thickness and an inch and a half in width, laid upon wooden ties, which were kept in place by means of stone ballast. The loaded cars or wagons, as they were then termed, each having a capacity of approximately one and a half tons, were connected in trains of from six to fourteen, being attended by men who regulated their speed. Turn-outs were provided at intervals and the empty cars were drawn back to the mines by mules. They descended with the trains in specially constructed cars, affording a novel and rather ludicrous spectacle. Thirty minutes was the average time consumed in Digitized by Microsoft® 84 HISTOET OP CABBON COUNTY. making the descent, wMle the weary trip back to the mines required three hours. The cost of transporting coal in this manner was trifling as compared with the old plan, and the saving thus effected benefited producer and consumer alike. In 1830, the Ehume Run Eailroad, operated on the same principle as the other, and carrying the output of the Nesquehoning mines to Mauch Chunk, was begun. By the spring of 1844, the demand for coal had in- creased to such an extent that improved facilities were demanded for its transportation from Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk. The idea of a back track from the river to the mines, which had for years been contem- plated, was now put into execution, under the super- vision of E. A. Douglass. This required a piece of bold engineering. In carrying out the plan, a plane was constructed from the head of the chutes at Mauch Chunk to the summit of Mount Pisgah, about nine hundred feet above the level of the river. Up this ascent the cars were drawn by means of stationary engines, and thence allowed to run by gravity to the foot of Mount Jefferson, six miles distant. From this point they were raised to the top of the mountain, as in the previous instance, traversing the remainder of the distance to Summit Hill by gravity. The back track was completed in 1845. During the succeeding year, active operations were begun in the Panther Creek Valley. The coal produced by these mines was hoisted to Summit Hill on inclined places, similar to those of Mount Pisgah and Mount Jefferson. The use of a Y in the operation of the railroad in this valley gave rise to the term "switch- back," which designation has ever since been applied to the entire system. With the opening of the Nesquehoning Valley Eail- road, the Ehume Eun gravity road was abandoned, Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. §5 while tlie Switchback ceased to be used for coal carry- ing purposes. The latter is still maintained and is operated under lease during the summer months for the accommodation of sightseers. Great as has been the improvement in the facilities of transportation since the begianing of the coal trade, there has been a still greater improvement ia the means and appliances employed in the mining of coal and in its preparation for shipment and use. The large body of coal at Summit Hill, lying near the surface, materially simplified production there during the early days, enabling teams to descend to the quarry for their load. In other localities, less favored, pits were sunk from which coal was hoisted La buckets by means of a com- mon windlass, operated by hand. Usually, at the depth of thirty or forty feet, the water became be- yond control, and the pit was abandoned and another sunk. A little later, the gin, operated by horse power, wa3 introduced for hoisting both coal and water, effecting a decided improvement and correspondingly increas- ing the output. But the pit or shaft was soon abandoned in favor of the drift or tunnel from the foot of hills, thus se- curing gravity drainage, as well as the application of that principle in bringing out the coal. For some years the wheelbarrow was the means of conveyance from the mines. This gave way to the mule and the underground railroad, and the mule has now in many instances been superseded by the electric motor. The function formerly performed by the pick, wedge and hammer in cutting or loosening the coal now de- volves principally upon high explosives. The primi- tive breaker was a sledge in the hands of a brawny workman. Digitized by Microsoft® gg HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. A careful, intelligent supervision under state laws and legally selected officials was inaugurated years ago, and every mine in Pennsylvania is visited at stated intervals by the mine inspectors, whose famili- arity with mining in all its details renders them eli- gible for their important work. In addition to this, mine foremen and superintend- ents are required to undergo an examination as to their competency, and the proficiency of every miner must be legally attested. With all these precautionary measures, many acci- dents occur in this hazardous industry, and a trained hospital corps is employed to render "first aid to the injured. ' ' For purposes of inspection, the state is divided into districts, to each of which one inspector is allotted. Carbon county forms the major portion of the Seven- teenth Anthracite District. Normally this district now produces about four mil- lion tons of coal annually, the largest individual opera- tor being the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, which is credited with approximately three-fourths of the output of the whole district. Since the beginning of the industry, the Lehigh region, which includes the mines of the Hazleton dis- trict, has shipped about three hundred million tons of coal to market. As is well known, practically all the anthracite coal in the United States is confined to an area of five hun- dred square miles in eastern Pennsylvania. The total output of the entire region thus far has been about two billion tons, and, according to the estimates of the Pennsylvania geological survey, at the present rate of production the coal beds will be exhausted in less than one hundred years. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER VII. OBGANIZATION OF THE COVNTY. The great county of Northampton, whicli in the beginning extended westward from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, and northward to the state line of New York, was separated from Bucks, one of the three original counties of Pennsylvania, in 1752. Its territorial extent was nearly equal to that of the neighboring state of New Jersey. Lehigh county was set off from Northampton in 1812; influenced by that act and the hardships under which they labored in being so far removed from Easton, the seat of justice, the people in the more northern portion of the valley began to agitate the project of forming another new county as soon as the termination of the second war with England allowed their thoughts to turn from military to civil affairs. Several abortive attempts were made in this direc- tion, and it was not until March 13, 1843, that the long- desired legislation, providing for the establishment of Carbon county, was secured and approved by the gov- ernor. As then constituted the county contained the town- ships of East Penn, Mahoning, Lausanne, Bankg', Tow- amensing. Lower Towamensing and Penn Forest. All of its territory was taken from Northampton county, excepting Penn Forest, then including Kidder, which was carved from Monroe. The boundaries of the county still remain as established in 1843. John D. Bowman, Thomas Weiss, John Fatzinger, Abram Shortz and Samuel Wolf were the commis- 87 Digitized by Microsoft® g3 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. sioners to -whom Governor Porter assigned the delicate duty of choosing the county seat. Lehighton and Mauch Chunk were rival claimants for the honor, the latter being selected. The commissioners were to a certain extent actuated in their choice by the offer of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to provide a suitable court house and jail at their own expense as a special inducement to the location of the seat of justice at Mauch Chunk. The old stone storehouse of the company, occupying the site of the present court house, served the first of these purposes, while a small structure in the rear was converted into a jail. These buildings and the ground upon which they stood were formally deeded to the county in 1846. In December, 1843, the first session of court was held, Judge N. B. Eldred presiding, and Asa Packer and Jacob Dinkey sitting as associate justices. At this session, twelve lawyers were admitted to the bar of Carbon county. Neither the court house nor the jail were of fire- proof construction, and both were destroyed in the fire which devastated Mauch Chunk during the sum- mer of 1849. Fortunately the county records were saved. The jail was rebuilt during the succeeding year, but it was not until 1854 that the work of replacing the court house was completed. After about a dozen years the former was found to be inadequate, and in 1869 the present prison of the county was begun. The court house finished in 1854 stood until 1893, when it was torn down preparatory to the erection of a more modern temple of justice. Digitized by Microsoft® X. *m r-^' -«*•--. ^v-. .^f*5!Si2^&i:£-: The Old Court House at JIaucii Chunk. Torn Down in 1893. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Carbon County Court PIouse, Mauch Chunk. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 89 Th.e stone for this handsome building, which was completed in 1894 at a cost of about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, was quarried at Eockport. Bonds to the value of seventy-five thousand dollars were issued toward defraying the expense involved in the construction of the building, and these have nearly all been redeemed. Excepting the apportionment of 1873, Carbon has always been associated with the mother county of Northampton in congressional affairs. In 1843 Carbon was made a part of the district which included Northampton, Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties. It so remained until 1861, when Wayne was dropped and Lehigh was added. One year later, however, the original grouping was restored. By the apportionment of 1873, Carbon was linked with Columbia, Montour, Monroe, Pike and portions of Luzerne and the present county of Lackawanna. Since 1887, Carbon, Northampton, Monroe and Pike have constituted what is now termed the Twenty- sixth Congressional District. For years Carbon and Lehigh were associated for legislative purposes. From 1874 to 1888 Carbon county alone was allotted two representatives in the assembly. In the latter year the allotment of the county was reduced to one. Schuylkill, Carbon, Monroe and Pike were consti- tuted one senatorial district in 1843. In 1864, Carbon, Monroe, Pike and Wayne counties formed the district. Ten years later Wayne county was dropped, only to be restored by the apportionment of 1906. Until 1851, judges were appointed by the governor, since which time they have been elected by the people in the manner provided for the election of other county Digitized by Microsoft® 90 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. or district offices. The county was in 1849 judicially linked with Monroe, Wayne and Pike. In 1874, this was changed to Carbon and Monroe, so remaining until 1901, when Carbon was constituted an independent judicial district. TSE MIDSLE COAL FIELD POOR DISTRICT. Prior to the year 1856 indigent people in the county were taken care of by the districts in which they lived, the subjects of public charity being let out for care and protection to the lowest bidder. On April 26, 1855, however, an act was passed by the legislature providing for a house of employment for Carbon county, and authorizing directors of the poor. This law was left to the acceptance or rejection of the people of the county, and, it being feared that the new plan would result in higher taxation, a number of the districts voted negatively on the measure. The election took place on October 9, 1855, and there were majorities in the affirmative from the boroughs of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk and the town- ships and Banks and Lausanne. The districts reject- ing the law preferred to continue to care for their un- fortunate ones in the old way, while the other districts, having accepted the law, proceeded to adopt measures for putting it into execution. Before the close of the year the newly-elected direct- ors took steps to establish the proposed institution at Laurytown, in what is now Lehigh township. The farms of D. J. Labar, John Toomey, and Jacob Cole, aggregating 315 acres, were purchased at a cost of $5,100. Other additions in acreage have been made from time to time. George Kline, J. H. Chapman and E. D. Stiles were elected the first poor directors, while they appointed Jesse K. Pryor as steward and his wife as matron. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 91 Temporary quarters were provided, pendjng tl^e erection of a suitable building. This was completed and occupied during the summer of 1857, the cost being $8,273. There were fifty-four inmates at the institu- tion at that time. David Petrey and wife were appointed steward and matron, respectively, on November 1, 1857, and the af- fairs of the district were apparently well administered, because, while the number housed at the farm had risen to ninety-nine, in 1861, there was a balance in the treasury of $2,656. In 1862, a number of the poor districts of the lower end of Luzerne county signified a desire to unite with the districts in Carbon county which had accepted the law of 1855. After the preliminary steps had been taken, a bill authorizing this union was passed by the legislature, March 25, 1862. The district, as then or- ganized, was composed of the boroughs of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, and the townships of Banks, Mauch Chunk and Lausanne, in Carbon county, and of the borough of Hazleton and the townships of Hazle and Foster, in Luzerne county. Later, the bor- oughs of Jeddo, West Hazleton and Freeland, of Lu- zerne county, were admitted to the district, while in Carbon county the boroughs of Weatherly, Beaver Meadows, Summit Hill and Lansford, and the town- ship of Lehigh have been added, the whole being known as the Middle Coal Field Poor District. Luzerne county had been organized as a poor dis- trict by Act of May 1, 1861, but the districts mentioned effected their union with those of Carbon county before any definite arrangements had been made for the build- ing of a poor house by the Luzerne county authorities. Commissioners were appointed to determinei, the amount that the incoming districts from Luzerne Digitized by Microsoft® 92 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. county should pay the Carbon county district in ad- justing the property proportionately, and the sum of $4,500 was agreed upon. The accession of the Lu- zerne county districts made the building of an addition to the poor house necessary. In the spring of 1871, a hospital, which had been built at a cost of $15,000 was opened for use, and this served the purpose for which it was intended until the erection of the present fine brick structure, which is valued at $40,000. The number of inmates kept at the almshouse often exceeds two hundred, while the district pays for the maintenance of about the same number at various state institutions for the insane. The real estate and per- sonal property owned by the district is valued at about $150,000. Of the seven hundred and eighty acres of land com- prising the farm, three hundred and fifty are under cultivation. The gross value of the produce of the farm averages about $10,000 annually. S. W. Gangwer, the present steward, was appointed in 1902. The feasibility of erecting a building capable of ac- commodating the insane of the district now kept at the almshouse and at the various state institutions has been seriously entertained for some years. During 1910, after much wrangling as to the location of the proposed building, steps preliminary to its erection were taken by the directors; influences hostile to the idea, however, succeeded in halting the execution of the plan for the time being at least. In 1911 Governor Tener approved an act of the leg- islature increasing the number of directors of the dis- trict from three to five and vesting the power of their appointment in the Carbon county court, instead of Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 93 leaving their selection to the direct vote of the people, as was formerly the case. Under the provisions of this act, two of the directors are allotted to Carbon county and three to the Lnzerne portion of the district. This law is looked upon with general disfavor, dis- franchising as it does, the voters of the affected terri- tory, together with other objectionable features. A neat chapel for the use of the inmates of the alms- house was erected by Mrs. Eckley B. Coxe and her sister-in-law. Miss Eebecca Coxe, in 1900. These benevolent women have done much at Laurytown toward mitigating the monotony and hopelessness which, under the most favorable circumstances, are the concomitants of life at an institution of this nature. In addition to the sum expended for the maintenance of those kept at the almshouse, large amounts are annually disbursed by the directors in the form of out- door relief. The divisions of the county not belonging to the Middle Coal Field Poor District are principally agri- cultural sections, having a smaller number of paupers in proportion to population than the boroughs and the mining regions. The number of indigent people they have to support is insignificant, and this, in a measure, explains, why these districts prefer to remain inde- pendent, although in an instance or two their tax rate for poor purposes is as high, or even higher, than that of the Middle Coal Field Poor District. The Carbon County Law Library was established by legislative enactment in 1868. The money arising from certain fines' and penalties imposed by the court is set aside for the maintenance of the library and for the purchase of books for the use of the court and members of the bar. This library, which is under the direction of three resident members of the bar, ap- Digitized by Microsoft® 94 HISTOEY or CAEBON COUNTY. pointed animally by the court, now numbers about two thousand volumes. The Carbon County Bar Association, which is co- eval with the county, is a voluntary organization of resident members of the bar, and has not yet been in- corporated. Until recently applicants for admission to the bar were examined by a committee of this asso- ciation, but this has now become a function of the state. The Carbon County Industrial Society, under the auspices of which the county fair is annually held at Lehighton, is the second organization of this nature in the history of the county. The first was termed the Carbon County Agricultural Society, which was formed during the summer of 1858. This society con- tinued in existence until 1875, holding a fair at Le- highton each year. It then became financially em- barrassed, and its property was sold on the foreclos- ure of a mortgage. This led to the formation of the present society, which was incorporated in June, 1875. The fairs held by this society are attended by increas- ing numbers with each passing year. Drs. J. G. Zern and J. B. Tweedle, both of whom are still living, were among the leading spirits in the or- ganization of the Carbon County Medical Society, in 1879. This association, while not very strong numer- ically, has done much for the advancement of profes- sional knowledge among its members. An aid to progress in religious channels has been the Carbon County Sabbath School Association, which came into being about a decade ago. This society works in harmony with the State Sabbath School As- sociation. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTEE VIII. MILITABY AFFAIES. The military spirit which pervades the American republic seems to have been co-existent with the land- ing of the first settlers on onr shores. With the excep- tion of a few religious organizations' whose creeds were opposed to strife and bloodshed, and the adher- ents of which were frequently subjected to ridicule and censure, the principles of self-defense and na- tional supremacy have ever been dominant. The struggles of the hardy pioneers of this region for self-preservation in the Indian troubles of the early days have already been outlined. But a handful of the most venturesonie had suc- ceeded in gaining a permanent foothold on this side the Blue Ridge prior to the war of Independence. Not a few of the heroes of that conflict later settled within the present limits of Carbon county, however. The best known among these were General Thomas Craig and Colonel Jacob Weiss. As a part of old Northampton county, this section contributed its proportionate share of men in the sec- ond war with England, while in the national emer- gencies which have occurred since that time. Carbon has remained true to the spirit of 1776. Never fal- tering in her patriotism, she has responded to every call with a heartiness and alacrity worthy of her char- acter and fame. The organization of the state militia was effected in early times, and "training day," perhaps more fa- miliarly known as "battalion day," was looked upon 95 Digitized by Microsoft® 96 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. as an event of great importance by our forefathers. But the organization, though in a measure meeting the requirements of that period, was not in harmony with military discipline, and a law was enacted in 1822 re- quiring the ehroUment for military duty of all able- bodied men between the ages of twenty-one and forty- five. Under the provisions of this measure a fine was fixed for non-attendance at "muster" or regularly established drills. Beyond the point of keeping up an enrollment for emergencies, this system was not greatly successful. In 1864, as a necessary war measure, the militia was re-organized in a more systematic manner; the state was divided into twenty military divisions, and companies and regiments were organized, uniformed, armed and equipped for active service as needed. This organization was termed the volunteer militia. Its members were largely required to bear their own expenses, working a serious hardship to many volun- teers. Later enactments provided that the state should pay a portion of the necessary expenses. By the acts of 1870 and 1874 the volunteer militia became the National Guard of Pennsylvania, which General Sheridan once said was the only establish- ment of its kind amounting to anything worth while. The number of districts had now been reduced to ten, each division being placed under the command of a major general. In 1878, these divisions were abolished, the state being constituted a single division of three brigades. Under this law, Carbon county became a part of the territory of the Third Brigade. The Stockton Artillerists, of Mauch Chunk, consti- tuted the first organized military company of Carbon county. The company derived its name from Com- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOET OF CAEBON COUNTY. 97 modore Eobert Field Stockton, builder of the Dela- ware and Earitan Canal, and commander-in-cMef of the naval forces of the United States on the Pacific during the war with Mexico, who was a warm per- sonal friend of Asa Packer. John Leisenring was the first captain of the company, being succeeded by Jo- seph H. Siewers and James Miller, respectively. Upon the declaration of war against Mexico, the company eagerly offered its services, being accepted by Governor Shunk. Prior to the departure of the men, the women of Mauch Chunk, during the space of three days, made them over three hundred shirts, together with other articles of practical use. The sum of fifteen hundred dollars, raised by voluntary subscription, was also pre- sented to them. The long journey from Mauch Chunk to the seat of war was begun the day before Christmas, in 1846. The soldiers, accompanied by a large delegation of citizens in conveyances, first repaired to Tamaqua. Here, much to their disappointment, they were met by the deputy secretary of the commonwealth, who bore an order countermanding their acceptance, with the explanation that the command to which they were to have been attached was already full. Thereupon the men at once resolved to proceed to Philadelphia and offer their services to the President. Going by way of Pottsville, the people of that town gave them a cordial welcome. After remaining in Philadelphia a short time, they were notified of their acceptance. Proceeding from Philadelphia to Baltimore, the men were transported from that point to Cumberland by rail, whence the journey across the AUeghanies to Brownsville was made in stage coaches. From there Digitized by Microsoft® 98 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. they went down the Monongahela to Pittsburgh by boat. On this toilsome and tedious journey the soldiers were accompanied by Asa Packer and William Butler. The former generously footed transportation bills amounting to more than one thousand dollars. No part of this sum was ever refunded to him, nor was there any demand made for it. At Pittsburgh the company, numbering eighty-four men, was mustered into service as a part of the Second Pennsylvania Eegiment. Among the officers of the company who afterwards became prominent were James Miller, the captain, and Eobert Klotz, lieutenant. Embarking for New Orleans, the troops reached there on January 18, 1847, encamping on the field made famous by Jackson and his celebrated riflemen. Every- thing passed off pleasantly for a time; but later the men suffered much from wet and cold, aggravated by unkind treatment from the natives of the locality. The transport ship Ocean bore them on a rough passage to Lobos Island, in the Gulf of Mexico. Being ordered to Vera Cruz, they landed there early in March and were attached to General Patterson's command. On the day subsequent to their arrival, the men received their baptism of fire, with the ther- mometer registering one hundred and nine degrees. Following nearly the same route traveled by Cortez so long before, vastly outnumbered and facing many natural obstacles, the Carbon county men formed a part of the intrepid little army with which General Scott crushed Santa Anna and captured the city of Mexico. At the battle of Chapultepec, Captain Miller was se^ lected by General Quitman to join Major Twiggs, who Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 99 had a separate command of two hundred and forty picked men, constituting the storming party of the division. In the assault which followed, Twiggs was disabled and the command of the party devolved upon Miller, who, though himself wounded, led the remnant of his men into the frowning castle of Chapultepec, the last defense of the city of Mexico. Following the lead of Miller and his lion-hearted company, the conquering army swept resistlessly through the San Cosme and Belen gates, and at nightfall the soldiers of the Union were in the suburbs of the Mexican capital, while the war was virtually over. In the engagement at the National Bridge, Lieuten- ant Klotz was arrested for refusing to obey orders when the command was given to spike cannon and re- treat. The reply which involved him in this difficulty was : " 1 didn't come to Mexico to spike cannon ! ' ' After being reprimanded, he was permitted to join his command the next day at the battle of Cerro Gordo. One of the Carbon county men, Samuel Horn, had served as a drummer-boy under General Scott, then a colonel, at Lundy's Lane, in the second war with England, and they renewed their friendship in Mexico. Twenty-three of the Stockton artillerists found sol- diers' graves in the land beyond the Eio Grande. Others were wounded and some died of disease after returning home. Thus the fortunes of war reduced their ranks to less than half their original number. After nineteen months of service, the survivors of the company returned to Pittsburgh, where they were honorably discharged. TIpoii their arrival in Mauch Chunk, on July 20, 1848, they were tendered a great ovation, having previ- ously enjoyed the hospitality of Easton, Bethlehem, Digitized by Microsoft® 100 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. AUentown and many other places. The sole survivor of this heroic band is Edward Eemmel, who resides at Mauch Chnnk. THE CIVIL WAB. During thei period which intervened between the close of the war with Mexico and the breaking out of the Eebellion, military organizations were formed in various parts of the county. Beaver Meadow and vicinity was represented by the Lafayette Guards, uniformed in the picturesque garb of the soldiers of 1812. At Summit Hill there was a well-drilled and excel- lently equipped company known as the Carbon Guards, first commanded by Captain Wintersteen and later by Captain Connor. They wore the regular light blue roundabout uniform of the United States Army of that time. Mauch Chunk had several companies. The Cleaver Artillerists derived their name from their captain, Oliver O. Cleaver. They, too, wore the regular blue of the United States Army. Subsequently this company was named the Anderson Grays, new xmiforms were adopted, and Eli T. Connor was chosen captain. Patrick F. Sharkey commanded the Hibernian Guards, or the Irish Infantry, uniformed similarly to the Lafayette Guards. Dennis McGee, the lieutenant of this organization, during the war became a captain in the Bucktail Rifles. The German Jaegers had John Glosser for their cap- tain. Adam Rose and Charles Bittner served as lieu- tenants. These were riflemen, having uniforms of dark green. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. IQl Mahoning township and Lehighton had the Scott Eifles, wearing dark bine uniforms, and being com- manded by Christian Freeby. In addition to those which have already been men- tioned, there was a company of cavalrymen, prin- cipally from the Towamensings, commanded by John Craig. It will be seen from this that Carbon county was well prepared to discharge her proportionate share of the duty devolving upon the loyal portion of the nation when the South resolved upon extending and per- petuating the iniquitous institution of human slavery, and lending willing ear to the traitorous and fallacious doctrine of her leaders concerning States ' Eights, took the fateful and momentous step of seceding from the Union. The intelligence that Fort Sumter had been fired upon spread through the country like a flame of fire. Two days after Major Anderson's surrender, Lincoln issued a call for seventy-five thousand volunteers' to serve three months in the overthrow of the movement of secession. The president's proclamation was greeted through- out Carbon county, as in every other loyal section of the country, with one great throe of patriotism. Vol- unteers in squads immediately began to pour into Mauch Chunk, which soon presented the appearance of a military encampment rather than a quiet mart of business. The people threw aside their ordinary vo- cations, thronged the streets and besieged the tele- graph offices for news, while the towering mountains re-echoed the strains of martial music. In the excitement of the moment, when hundreds were ready to follow, they cast about them for a leader. Eli T. Connor, then a young man of twenty-nine, com- Digitized by Microsoft® 102 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. manding the Anderson Grays, wag acknowledged to be the man for the occasion, and to him the masses looked for guidance. Opening a recruiting office, he, in twenty-fours hours, enlisted three full companies of the best young men of the county. On Sunday, April 22, 1861, final preparations were made by the troops for their departure for Harris- burg early the next morning. After parading the streets of the town, they drew up before the American Hotel, where they were pre- sented with a handsome flag, made by the patriotic women of Mauch Chunk. The address of presenta- tion was made from the balcony by Charles Albright, who himself later entered the service and rose to the rank of brigadier general. John D. Bertolette, then a lieutenant, responded in behalf of the men. He subse- quently became a colonel, and was noted for his brave and soldier-like conduct. These three companies were attached to the Sixth Eegiment, commanded by Colonel James Nagel, of Pottsville. They saw service at Harper'? Ferry and on the Upper Potomac. Being discharged at the ex- piration of three months, many of the men re-enlisted for three years, or during the continuance of the war. Three weeks after the departure of the first troops from Carbon county, another company was recruited and sent to Harrisburg. These men were intended for the three months' service, but on reaching their des- tination they were informed that no more troops would be accepted for a shorter term than three years. Sub- scribing to this condition, the company became the first three years' organization to reach the state capital. The company became a part of the famous "Buck- tail Eifles," which command rendered illustrious serv- ices in the Seven Days' battle on the Peninsula, at Bull Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOET OF CAEBON COUNTY. IQS Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and all through the long struggle from the Wilderness to the front of Peters- burg and Eichmond. Pennsylvania's quota under the president's first call was fourteen thousand men. Within ten days from the date of this proclamation, Camp Curtin had been established at Harrisburg, and nearly twenty-six thousand soldiers, fully armed and equipped and in perfect organization, were in the field. These were principally militiamen, who were supplied with arms and accoutrements at their homes, being thoroughly drilled in the military tactics of the day. The crisis having come, the public men of Pennsyl- vania assumed the advance of the most zealous spirits of the nation, urging the government to organize pow- erful armies from among the loyal men who were freely offering their services, and thus crush the rebellion at a single blow. Simon Cameron, of this state, then secretary of war, recommended the raising of an army of five hun- dred thousand men, and the use of every element of strength within the reach of the government, in order to speedily overthrow the power of those who sought to dismember the Union. Thaddeus Stevens was even more aggressive than Cameron, since he advocated the organization of an army of a million men, the liberating of the slaves, and inviting them to fight for their own freedom. Governor Curtin, the greatest of all the war gov- ernors, was not only cordially in harmony with these views, but from first to last grandly supported the cause of the Union and played the part of a loving father toward Pennsylvania's sons in the field. Digitized by Microsoft® 104 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. In honor of these statesmen it must be said that, after many Federal reverses, their policy was at last adopted by the national government. The military spirit pervaded Carbon county from the beginning of the war until its close. Upon the expiration of the three months' campaign this county raised two companies for the Twenty- eighth Eegiment ; four for the Eighty-first ; one for the Sixty-seventh; one for the Fourth Pennsylvania Cav- alry; one for the Eleventh Regiment, and portions of companies for the Eleventh Infantry, the Eleventh Cav- alry, and the Fifty-third Regiment. Besides these, about a company were scattered in various other regi- ments. The Eighty-first Regiment was recruited by James Miller and Eli T. Connor. As has just been shown, it was composed largely of Carbon county men, and its gallantry and hard service earned for it the right to be classed among the best of the "fighting regiments" of the Union army. Miller, who so bravely led the Stockton Artillerists during the Mexican war, was commissioned as its colonel. He fell at the battle of Fair Oaks, the first engagement in which his regiment participated. But the spirit which he had instilled into his men lived after him, and was an important factor in their subsequent excellent conduct. Upon the fall of Miller, Connor was placed in com- mand. He led the regiment through the Seven Days' battle, and died gloriously at Malvern Hill, just a month after the death of Colonel Miller. Beginning with the Peninsular campaign, the Eighty-first Regiment participated in all of the impor- tant battles and campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, and fought under Grant to the fall of Richmond and Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 105 the close of the war. Its exceptional record was earned at the expense of a long list of casualties. Sergeant Obadiah Derr, a member of this regiment, who is still alive at Weatherly, bears the reputation of having received more wounds than any other sol- dier from Carbon county. He was six times severely wounded. When Lee made his first invasion of the North, which was checked at Antietam, a large number of men from this county volunteered for the emergency. Two full companies were also organized here during 1862 for the One Hundred and Thirty-second Eegiment. In the summer of 1863, when the Southern army, flushed with the victories of Fredericksburg and Chan- cellorsville, invaded Pennsylvania, the county sent over four hundred men to help repel the enemy. Dur- ing 1864, over two hundred men volunteered for one year. In addition to this the various subdistricts of the county paid bounties to the amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars to other volunteers. All told. Carbon county furnished over two thou- sand men for the suppression of the Eebellion. This is, indeed, a remarkable showing when it is remem- bered that her total population in 1860 was but a little over twenty-one thousand. Many of the inhabitants, too, were either foreign born, or the children of immi- grants. The German, Irish, Welsh and Scotch na- tionalities predominated. Yet these men were just as loyal, and fought quite as heroically for the preserva- tion of our institutions as did those whose ancestors came over in the Mayflower. To recount the story of their valor in its fulness would be to recount the story of the Civil War. They figured in all the im- portant manoeuvres of the armies, from the pesti- lential swamps of Virginia to the everglades of Digitized by Microsoft® 106 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Florida; on raids and foraging expeditions, on the battle front and the lonely picket line, crossing the "dead-line" at Andersonville, Libby and Bell Isle for prompt relief from lingering death and starvation, vermin and cruel exposure; languishing with shat- tered bodies in hastily improvised field hospitals ; con- tributing their share to the accumulations from the surgeon's knife, or breathing 'their young lives away, far from friends and loved ones, at the isolated spot where the fatal bullet f oimd its mark. A few followed the sea and faced the additional dangers of old ocean. Of the seventy-eight officers from the county, fifteen were killed, one died of disease, while thirty-nine were wounded. Taking officers and men together, five- eighths were killed or wounded. Not only is the record of Carbon county unsurpassed by any section remaining loyal to the Union, whether considering the number of men furnished in propor- tion to voting population, or their bravery and heroism on the field of battle, but the same is true in speaking of the health and endurance of our soldiers. The grand record of casualties among the United States volunteers during the war shows that double the number of men died of disease to those that were killed in battle. In comparison to this the files of the war depart- ment show that three times as many soldiers from this county were killed in action as died of disease. TEE WAR WITH SPAIN. The blowing-up of the battleship Maine in the har- bor of Havana on February 15, 1898, and the result- ing loss of a large proportion of her crew, it was at once felt would make war between the United States and Spain inevitable. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. ^07 Strained relations had existed between the two na- tions for some time previous to this dreadful oc- currence, owing to the attitude of the American people, who sympathized with Cuba, a dependency of Spain, in her strug'gle against the tyranny of the mother coun- try. When the court of inquiry, appointed to ascertain the cause of the catastrophe, reported that the ship had been destroyed by a mine in the harbor, and not by the explosion of her own magazines, it was taken as conclusive evidence that the Spanish authorities were responsible for the horror. This conviction re- sulted in the extinction of Spanish power on the Amer- ican continent. On April 21, Spain dismissed the United States minister, breaking off diplomatic relations, which was practically a declaration of war. President McKinley at once issued a call for one hundred and twenty-five thousand volunteers. The sons of the North and the South, with wonderful unan- imity, promptly responded, and the quotas of the dif- ferent states were filled in a few hours, while thou- sands of disappointed applicants were turned away. Before the land forces could be brought into action, the Spanish fleet in the Pacific was crushed in the most startling and dramatic fashion by the squadron of Commodore Dewey. Carbon county's contribution to the army was made principally under the second call for volunteers, and consisted of about one hundred and twenty-five men. Most of these belonged to the company recruited by Dr. William H. Clewell, of Summit Hill, which was attached to the Ninth Regiment, commanded by Colonel Charles B. Dougherty, of Wilkes-Barre. Robert S. Digitized by Microsoft® 108 HISTOBY OF CARBON COUNTY. Mercur, of the same place, was the captain of the com- pany, while Clewell served as lieutenant. The men were mustered into service in the old ar- mory at Summit Hill, formerly the home of the Carbon Guards, leaving for Camp George H. Thomas, at Chickamauga, on the ninth of July. They were not uniformed or equipped until their arrival in the South. Nearly thirty men from the Panther Creek Valley joined the Eighth Eegiment at Tamaqua, under the command of Colonel Theodore Hoffman. This regi- ment was first stationed at Camp Alger, near Falls Church, Va. But in a war between two nations of such unequal strength and fitness as the United States and Spain there could be but one outcome. After a struggle as brief as it was futile, Spain submitted to her more powerful rival. Thus no opportunity was afforded the men of this region to "flash the maiden sword"; but they displayed their patriotism in responding to the country's call. Nearly all participated in the military parade of the Peace Jubilee at Philadelphia in the latter part of September, joining ranks with a host of veterans of the Civil War. The Ninth Regiment was mustered out of service at Wilkes-Barre on October 29, while the Eighth fol- lowed suit at Camp MacKenzie, Ga., March 7, 1899. A few men from Carbon county took part in sup- pressing the insurrection in the Philippine Islands, which followed American occupation of the archi- pelago. Among the number was Captain William H. Wilhelm, a gallant officer of the regular army, who was killed during the month of June, 1901. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTEE IX. EDUCATION. It is interesting in this age of free schools and gen- eral enlightenment to look back upon the educational facilities of our forefathers, and to consider the hard- ships and difficulties which beset the pathway of the children of the pioneers in their quest of knowledge. Among the old records of the Dutch government on the Delaware is found an account of the labors of Evert Pieterson, who held the office of ' ' schoolmaster, sexton, comforter of the sick and setter of psalms. ' ' He arrived in the colony in April, 1657, and in mid- summer of that year was teaching twenty-five pupils. This was the first educational institution, as nearly as can be ascertained, in what is now Pennsylvania. The Swedes, too, established schools in the earliest years of their settlement on the Delaware. But these schools are merely historical curiosities. The foundations of education in Pennsylvania were laid by William Penn. The original "Frame of Gov- ernment" and the "Great Law," enacted in the first year of the province, provided that "schools shall be established for the education of the young. ' ' Acting upon this provision, a school was opened in Philadelphia by Enoch Flowers, in 1683, each pupil being charged a small sum for tuition. In 1689, the Friends' public grammar school, which afterward be- came the William Penn Charter School, was opened in Philadelphia. It was not a public school, in the mod- ern sense of the term, but resembled the so-called "public schools" of England. It was endowed and 109 Digitized by Microsoft® 110 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. free only to the poor, wMle those in better circum- stances were required to pay reasonable tuition fees. In the early history of the province, the schools with few exceptions were under religious domination. The minister was usually expected to serve also as school- master, while much of the instruction given related to subjects embraced in the catechism of the church. Protestants and Catholics alike adopted this policy, thereby establishing a strong prejudice against any attempt on the part of the civil authorities to usurp their functions in matters pertaining to educaition. However, the number of church schools was inade- quate, and where people lived five or ten miles from a church, or where a variety of religious denominations existed, schools were organized by neighborhoods. The building of a house and the employment of a teacher was usually entrusted to a committee elected by the neighborhood. The money needed was raised by voluntary subscription. These schools after a time outnumbered those sustained by religious bodies, ow- ing to the intermingling of sects and nationalities as the population grew. The provincial school house was generally a rough log cabin, and the spaces between the logs were filled with chips of wood and plastered with mortar. The floors were of earth and sometimes of timber, through which snakes often crawled. Nearly one side of the house was occupied by the immense chimney, and there were several windows with small panes of glass. The furniture consisted of four-legged benches made of logs split in two and hewn to a proper thickness, and stools and tables of the same material and work- manship. The desks were placed against the wall, facing outward, while seats without backs were in the middle of the room for the smaller scholars. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. HI The first regular branch, of instruction was reading, for this was preparatory to learning the catechism and taking part in religious exercises. When writing was first introduced it was confined wholly to boys, as the acquirement was deemed unnecessary for girls. Ink was made of nut-galls bruised, to which was added a proper proportion of water and some rusty nails. Paper was costly, and birch bark was often used as a substitute. Arithmetic was taught, but without the use of books. The "sums" were dictated by the mas- ter and worked out on paper or bark, for blackboards were unknown, and slates and pencils did not come into use until after the Revolution. If the equipment of these schools was rude and primitive, the instruction given was frequently in har- mony with the surroundings. The state, in 1776, took no ground in advance of the church and neighborhood schools when it pro- posed to furnish elementary instruction at low prices. In 1790, however, Timothy Pickering, of Luzerne; "William Findley, of Westmoreland, and others, suc- ceeded in getting the words — 'Hn such manner that the poor shall be taught gratis" — attached to the constitu- tional clause on schools. Magnanimous as the intent of the authors of this provision may have been, it later became apparent that the cause of popular education had not been much advanced by the paternal attitude thus assumed by the state. For several decades the lawmakers of Pennsylvania hoped to be able to secure universal education by simply providing for the gratuitous instruction of the poor, and long continued to make labored efforts to that end. Digitized by Microsoft® ] 12 HISTOET OF CARBON COUNTY. For purposes of classification, the pupils' names were enrolled as "pay" and "pauper" scholars. The law provided that the tuition of the latter class should be paid by the county, whenever the returns of the assessors showed that the parents were unable to bear the expense. But the sense of equality that had been engendered by free institutions was such that all attempts to educate poor children at the public ex- pense, in schools with other children or in schools by themselves, completely failed. The class distinctions that had been broken up in general society could not be preserved in school. Pov- erty could deaden self-respect in few parents to the extent of allowing their children to attend schools where they were certain to be looked down upon as belonging to an inferior class. These schools came to be despised by the rich and shunned by the poor. Then it was that the idea arose of educating all the children in the state, irrespective of their pecuniary condition, at the public expense. To many well-mean- ing people, however, it seemed unreasonable to levy taxes for the schooling of those amply able to pay their own bills. It looked to them like a blow at self-reli- ance and paternal responsibility. To further complicate the situation, it was claimed that there was no constitutional warrant to appro- priate any money except for the poor, and, hence, it was necessary to define the term, thus emphasizing and, to a certain extent, perpetuating the pauper con- ditions. It was not until the supreme court of the state de- cided that the constitution did not prohibit the use of state money for others than the poor that a way was seen to go forward. On this negative decision is built the whole public school system of Pennsylvania. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 113 The need of better and more adequate educational facilities was painfully apparent when the "Pennsyl- vania Society for the Promotion of Public Schools" was organized in Philadelphia in 1827. Eoberts Vaux was the leading spirit in the affairs of this society, which effectively agitated the question at issue, and public meetings and memorials sprang up over the state. This culminated in 1834 in the enactment of a law which provided for the establishment of schools which should be free to all. The most influential champion of this measure was Governor George Wolfe, the son of a German immi- grant, of Northampton county. This, the beginning of the common school system, inaugurated a new era in the progress of universal education in the state. The new law, however, met with strong opposition, even from the friends of the system, who distrusted its methods. But it had a fearless champion in Thad- deus Stevens, with whom Wolfe courageously joined in defense of the system when a desperate but unsuc- cessful attempt was made by the legislature in 1835 to overthrow it. No special effort was at first made to put the new school system in operation. The law was in some re- spects imperfect, and supplementary legislation was necessary to correct its weaknesses. Besides, the question of its adoption or rejection was discretionary with the people of each district, and many rejected it, preferring to go on in the old way. But in 1849 the law was made applicable to every part of the state. The act of 1854 introduced new and important fea- tures, while the main points of the law were left un- changed. It created the office of county superintend- ent of schools, authorized the levying and collection of school taxes, and gave fuller powers generally to Digitized by Microsoft® 114 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. boards of directors. For the first time since the begin- ning of the crusade for free schools, the district officers were clothed with adequate authority to enforce the law. Three years later, the state superintendency of com- mon schools was made a separate office ; before that its duties were performed by the secretary of the com- monwealth. At the same time the normal school law was passed, providing for the establishment under state aid of institutions for the professional preparation of teach- ers. The system of soldiers' orphan schools established in 1864 marked the beginning of a scheme of benevo- lence without a parallel in the history of any other state or nation. Pennsylvania furnished nearly four hundred thou- sand men in the war for the preservation of the Union. It is estimated that fifty thousand of these fell in battle or died in hospitals, while perhaps an equal number returned to their homes greatly disabled with wounds or shattered in health. Many left widows and children in destitute circumstances. The war had not long continued before hundreds of the orphaned or worse than orphaned children of sol- diers were reduced to want and beggary or were com- pelled to find food and shelter in some almshouse or other charitable institution. It was then that the great, patriotic heart of Penn- sylvania was moved and the plan formed by which the children of dead or disabled soldiers were collected, maintained, educated and cared for to the age of six- teen years, and then placed in circumstances giving an opportunity for a fair start in life. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 115 This cliarity, if such it may properly be termed, is said to have been suggested by the necessities of two children who called at the executive mansion at Har- risburg on Thanksgiving Day, in 1863, asking for bread. Governor Curtin met them at the door, and to his kindly questions they answered in their childish way that their father had been killed in battle, and that their mother had since died, while they were en- tirely friendless and alone. The voice of these children was the voice of God, speaking to the noble head of the commonwealth. For two years he had been calling for troops and urging men to the field, and, behold, their little ones had become beggars ! Before the coming of another Thanksgiving day proper provisions had been made for the education and care of thia deserving class among our people. During the period when they were most needed, the state appropriated as high as six hundred thousand dollars annually for the maintenance of these schools, in which, to-day, after nearly fifty years, about six hundred children are still enrolled, a few of the num- ber being from Carbon county. Among the crowning acts to make elementary edu- cation universal in Pennsylvania were the free-text book law of 1893, and the compulsory attendance law of 1895. In the beginning the state appropriated about $100,- 000 a year to the public schools. In 1875, the amount had risen to $1,000,000, while in recent years the an- nual appropriation has reached the enormous sum of $7,500,000. The first school to be opened within the limits of Carbon county was that conducted by the Moravians Digitized by Microsoft® 116 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. In connection witli Gnadenhiitten mission, which occu- pied the present site of Lehighton. The Indians who gathered daily for prayer in the little chapel on the Mahoning were also taught to read and were instructed in the mechanic arts and in the cultivation of the soil. These efforts seemed to be very encouraging at first, but in the course of a few years, the land became impoverished through im- proper treatment, and the seat of the mission was changed to the opposite side of the Lehigh, where "Weissport now stands. The evil fate which befell this settlement in the In- dian uprising of 1755 brought to an abrupt termination the work which had been so disinterestedly undertaken and begun. From this time forth until the coal and lumber interests began to be developed, educational considerations may scarcely be said to have existed in the county. In 1837, a' few lonely cabins dotted the secluded valleys of the Lehigh. "With these exceptions, the whole county was a dreary wilderness. But when the felling of the forests began, and as the demand for anthracite coal increased with a better understand- ing of its nature and the uses to which it might be put, extensive improvements became necessary. Large numbers' of miners, lumbermen, various kinds of me- chanics, clerks, bookkeepers, and common laborers came upon the scene. Both labor and capital secured liberal rewards, and villages and towns sprang up as if by magic. Many different nationalities were brought together here, while a large proportion of them were illiterate. It soon became evident to the proprietors of the mines and lumber mills that the hundreds of children who could neither work in the mines nor in the mills Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 117 were gi'owing up in idleness, with all its attendant vices, and that they would have to be educated, or these sources of wealth would become a curse instead of a blessing to society. Accordingly, schools were provided for some of these children. The results of these experiments were so gratifying that within a few years flourishing schools were found in nearly every lumber camp and mining village in the county. The houses were generally provided by the landowners or the operators, and given free of rent for school pur- poses. The teachers obtained the right to teach in these houses from their legal owners, or from the com- mittees having them in charge. The instructors had entire control of the schools, managing them to suit their own peculiar views or whims. Tuition fees varied from $1.50 to $2.50 per quarter for each pupil. In 1750 an English colony was planted in East Penn township, some of whose descendants are still living in that locality. Refusing to give aid to the German or mixed schools, and being too few in number to main- tain one of their own, they preferred to do entirely without a school until 1817, when they succeeded in es- tablishing an exclusively English institution. A good, substantial stone house was erected near the locality known as Ashfield, and a three months' term was taught by Lawrence Enge, who was the first master pf the school. A certificate given by a later teacher to a pupil read: "This is to certify that the Bearer Hannah Andreas is the head of her class by good at- tention to her book and hereby has gained the good- will of her tutor, Andrew Cronican the 30th of Janu- ary, 1821." In 1820, a board of school trustees was elected at a town meeting held at Summit Hill. It consisted of three members, whose duty it was to provide a house Digitized by Microsoft® 113 HISTOET OF CAEBON COUNTY. for the accommodation of those who wished to send their children to school, and who were willing to pay the tuition fees fixed by the teacher. After making a number of ineffectual attempts to raise money by voluntary subscriptions to build ai school house, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany came to their relief by erecting a building and giving it to the board of trustees, to be held in trust for school purposes. It was furnished with long board benches and desks, a rough board table for the teacher, and an old stove. George Adams was engaged to teach the school. The branches taught were reading, writ- ing and arithmetic. About the same time a school was opened in Mahon- ing on the spot where Gnadenhiitten mission had been established in 1746. The house, which was of logs, was one story high, and was divided into two rooms, one being used for school and the other for church purposes. This building was furnished similarly to that at Summit Hill. The property was owned by the citizens of the place and was controlled by a board of trustees. This school was kept open during the winter season for many years, and some of the pupils who at- tended it were obliged to travel long distances in order to enjoy the advantages it afforded. A school was started at Nesquehoning in 1830, being organized and equipped similarly to those that have already been mentioned. The branches taught were spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic, while the text-books used were Comley's Primer and Spelling Book, Murray's Introduction and English Eeader, and the Bible. Writing in the schools of this period was still done with quill pens, all of which were prepared by the teacher. This was quite a task, particularly so if he Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. HQ chanced to have a dull knife and had many pens to mend. On visiting a school, it was not an unusual thing to hear a half dozen urchins call out, "Master, will you mend my peni" Whether the master's reply would be a pleasant "yes," or a surly "I got no time," de- pended largely upon the humor he was in when the request was made. From 1825 to 1835, schools were established in dif- ferent sections of the county on pretty much the same plan. When it was thought necessary to start a school, a town meeting was called, and three or five persons selected to act as trustees. These held their offices during good behavior, under a sort of civil service reform principle. The duty of the trustees was to raise money by voluntary subscription or contribution, select and purchase sites, superintend the erection of school houses, and hold them in trust for school uses. As it was a difficult matter to raise a large amount of money for such purposes in this manner, the strict- est economy had to be exercised, and sites selected where they could be had for the least money, regard- less of their convenience or adaptability. Consequently they were mostly poorly chosen and out-of-the-way places, hard by a public highway or upon some waste ground that could not well be put to any other profitable use. The trustees did not hire the teachers. All that was necessary for one who wished to become a teacher was to get permission from the trustees to use the house, arrange for pupils and fix a tuition fee. The larger the number of subscribers, the better the returns, of course. But it may easily be imagined that the pro- fession of teaching was not at that time exactly an alluring one from the financial point of view. Digitized by Microsoft® ]^20 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. The most famous among the early schoolmasters of Carbon county was James Nowlins, a native of Ire- land, who, in 1829, began his career as a teacher in Mauch Chunk. The building in which he was destined to achieve his triumphs was one of the worst type of slab houses The furnishings corresponded well with the structure itself, and there were no mottoes or orna- ments to decorate the rough, gloomy walls and cheer the minds of the pupils. Nowlins was a man of fine literary attainments, but was decidedly eccentric, while being a strict disciplin- arian. His school was composed of more than one hun- dred pupils, many of whom came long distances, think- ing it quite a privilege to be permitted to sit under the teachings of so great a master. All the common English branches were taught, and some of the higher ones, top. He would allow no dull scholar to remain in school. When he chanced to get hold of such an unfortunate one, he would tell him at once, "What God has denied you, I cannot give you ; take your books and go home!" The chief instrument for inflicting torture was a short hickory club, with leather thongs fastened to one end. These the professor called his "taws." So deep and lasting were the impressions that he made upon the minds and backs of his pupils with this dread weapon that one of them, recalling his memory, after the lapse of half a century, declared: "While I am telling this, my back itches, and the hairs on my head bristle up like a porcupine's quills, while the ghost of Jimmy Nowlins, with his 'taws' in hand, seems to rise menacingly before me. ' ' But while Nowlins ' methods would to-day be consid- ered unspeakable and doubtless result in summary vengeance being visited upon his head, they were not Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOET OF CAEBON COUNTY. X21 entirely unusual then, and in his case, at least, pro- duced good results. Quite a number of men who became prominent in various fields of endeavor, owed their subsequent suc- cess in large measure to the training they had received in his school. It seems like the irony of fate that Now- lins, who placed so many others on the pathway lead- ing to succe^ss, should himself have died in the poor- house. The early settlers of East Penn and Towamensing were with few exceptions Germans or their descend- ants, members of the Lutheran or the Eeformed church. It was their custom to partition off one room in each of their church buildings for school purposes. And the church organist, however deficient that worthy might be in other branches of learning, was called upon to act as schoolmaster. Almost without exception the German language was taught in these schools. When the free school law was passed, in 1834, there were twenty-eight schools established within the pres- ent limits of Carbon county. They nearly all belonged to the primitive type which has already been described, and their equipment was little in advance of that of colonial times, while the school term was of but three or four months' duration. Wood, of course, was burned to warm the buildings, and this was purchased by the teacher, who added an extra charge to the tui- tion fee therefor. The heating apparatus generally con- sisted of some old cast-off stove, purchased from the scrap-pile of some iron-monger. The houses were either deficient in smoke-flues, or altogether without them; hence the stove pipe had to answer a double purpose. In order to save pipe, it was usually made to pass through the loft floor only, Digitized by Microsoft® 122 HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. not extending through the roof, while the smoke was left to find its way out through the chinks between the logs, or be forced down into the school room. Consequently the school room was frequently filled with smoke, to the great annoyance and discomfort of teacher and pupils. This condition of affairs would sometimes be taken advantage of by the people of the neighborhood, who would bring their meat to the school house to get it smoked. Most of the districts of the county accepted the free school law with gratifying promptness and, in 1843, when the county was • organized, all the townships within its limits had adopted it, and the day of prog- ress was rapidly dawning. Mauch Chunk already had a school house which was considered the equal of almost any other structure of its kind in the state, and her schools were well con- ducted. In 1844, there were three schools in opera- tion at Summit Hill, while Nesquehoning, Eockport, Beaver Meadow and Weatherly all had flourishing schools. The first triennial convention of directors met at Mauch Chunk early in June, 1854, electing J. H. Sie- wers, an experienced educator, to the office of county superintendent. His salary was fixed at $400 per annum, which was not entirely an exceptional case, for there was but one superintendent of schools in the state at that time receiving more than $1,000 a year. Perhaps the principal reason for this niggardliness was that the people did not generally approve of the office, which they considered superfluous, viewing its incumbent in the light of an impertinent, meddlesome loafer. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 123 But Siewers was a warm friend of the public school system. During his term of office he did much to break down whatever prejudices still existed against it, and by visiting the schools, giving advice to teachers, hold- ing public meetings', and addressing the people on the importance of more liberal means of education, achieved grand results. The cause of popular education in Carbon county was also ably championed in the early days by such broad-minded, public-spirited citizens as E. Q. Butler, J. D. Bertolette, Fisher Hazard, N. B. Eeber, Charles Meendsen, Paul Kresge, and others. Thomas L. Foster, a member of the legal profession, followed Siewers as county superintendent. Under his supervision the schools continued to improve. He labored particularly for the improvement of houses, ventilation, furniture, methods of instruction, and better classification of schools. He was succeeded in 1863 by E. F. Hofford, a man of solid worth, who held the office continuously until 1881. During this long period many advances were made. One of his first important acts was to adopt measures to secure a better co-operation of the educa- tional forces of the county, resulting in the permanent organization of the Carbon County Teachers' Insti- tute in the fall of 1864. The annual gatherings of this body have done much toward elevating the teacher's profession and promoting the cause of education in the county. Upon Hofford's retirement, T. M. Balliet, a native of Mahoning township, and a thoroughly capable young man, who has since become one of the recognized lead- ers of his profession in the United States, succeeded to the duties of the office. Digitized by Microsoft® 124 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. At the expiration of six years, he relinquished the position to T. A. Snyder, who served for three succes- sive terms, studied law, and became a member of the bar. A. S. Beisel, who followed him, held the office until 1902, when the present incumbent, James J. Bevan, was elected. The latter has placed particular em- phasis upon the importance of grounding the pupils well in English, and has done everything possible to foster the best interests of education throughout the county. There are now many fine, modem school buildings in Carbon county. Their equipment is up-to-date, and higher standards are being established year after year. There are thirteen high schools in the county, eight of which are situated in the various boroughs; three are classed as township high schools, while the two remaining are supported by the independent districts of Franklin and Packerton, respectively. Banks, Mauch Chunk and Lower Towamensing are the town- ships which have established these schools. The large amount of money appropriated by the state toward the maintenance of the public schools, has aided materially in securing better salaries, while resulting in legislation requiring higher training and efficiency on the part of teachers than formerly. True as this may be generally, there are a number of dis- tricts in the county where the pay of teachers is not higher to-day than that of forty years ago, notwith- standing the aid accorded by the state. The study of agriculture has during recent years been introduced in nearly all of the schools of the rural districts. While the public schools have had such a grand march of progress, there have been no permanently Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 125 successful attempts made to establish private schools, or schools devoted to higher education in the county. Park Seminary, opened at Mauch Chunk in 1832; the Carbon Academy and Normal Association, founded in 1853, first located at Weissport, and later at Le- highton, and Fairview Academy, which had a short- lived career at East Mauch Chunk, were efforts in this direction. Another institution of this nature was the Normal Institute, originally known as Normal Square Select School, located at what is now known as the village of Normal, in Mahoning township. This school was founded about the year 1878 by Professor Thomas M. Balliet. It was housed in a public school building, and was kept open during the seasons of spring and fall. Its primary purpose was to prepare those in attend- ance for admission to the higher institutions of learn- ing ; and a large number of young people of both sexes from the surrounding country availed themselves of its advantages. When weather conditions were favorable, recitations were often conducted after the manner of the ancients, beneath the trees. Most of the students were sturdy farmer boys, not a few of whom laid the foundations of a liberal educa- tion and a larger usefulness in the environment cre- ated by the school. These are now literally scattered from ocean to ocean. After the first few seasons, the school was conducted for the most part by successive students and graduates of Franklin and Marshall College. It was finally closed during the early nineties. The Carbon Academy, later known as the Lehighton Academy, while not a financial success, also served a useful purpose. Digitized by Microsoft® 126 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. In addition to tlie schools which have already been mentioned, flourishing parochial schools are being maintained by the Catholic churches of Mauch Chunk, East Mauch Chunk, Lehighton and Lansford. A school of this description, opened in connection with the Episcopal church of Mauch Chunk, was dis- continued after a time for want of sufficient patronage. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER X. THE MOLLIS MAGUIBES. While Carbon county, by reason of its smaller area and population, contained fewer MoUie Maguires than either of the neighboring counties of Luzerne and Schuylkill, it nevertheless occupies a position of equal importance to these in the popular mind when the memory of the crimes and outrages perpetrated by the members of that dark and blood-stained organization are recalled. It was at Mauch Chunk, after the most fearless and resolute of the law-abiding members of society in the coal regions had begun to despair of ever being able to bring a MoUie Maguire to justice for the commis- sion of crime, that the first conviction and execution of one of this lawless and murderous band took place. It is difficult to secure definite and reliable informa- tion concerning the origin of this organization, the very name of which was a reproach to the civilization of the coal fields for more than a generation. The nucleus of the American contingent came from Ireland, and were closely identified with, if not actual members of, the Ancient Order of Hibernians. It is evident that the men who comprised this company of outlaws were of Irish birth, and that most, if not all of them, came here direct from the green shores of Erin. It appears that the MoUie Maguires were an out- growth of the Ribbonmen, or auxiliaries of that so- ciety. This association was formed in Ireland during the early part of the nineteenth century for the pur- pose of resisting landlords and their agents in the en- 127 Digitized by Microsoft® 128 HISTORY OP CAEBON' COUNTY. forced collection of rentals. As a branch of this so- ciety, and growing out of it, sprang the men known as MoUie Maguires; and the name of their organiza- tion simply arose from the fact that, in the perpetra- tion of their offenses, they originally dressed as women. Generally, too, they ducked or beat their vic- tims, or inflicted some such punishment as infuriated women would be likely to administer. It is quite likely, besides, that at some time or other they had a leader or patroness named Mary, or MoUie Maguire. These men came from intimate contact with the heartless landlords and their unfeeling agents in Ire- land, and they transferred the prejudices which they had a right to entertain against these to the coal operators and their subordinates in authority, the men under whom it was their lot to labor for the means of subsistence. No doubt, in some instances they suffered real wrongs, and were treated with culpable injustice, but it is safe to say that in the majority of cases the griev- ances of which they complained were imaginary rather than real encroachments upon their rights, and of which knavish and designing wretches took advantage in inciting to deeds of violence and outrage. Crimes of the most shocking nature were committed, and the perpetrators permitted, in many instances, to go unpunished through fear of a like fate being visited upon the informer. Dastardly outrages were com- mitted with impunity, and the lives and property of "marked" individuals were in constant jeopardy. Lawlessness and crime had existed in the coal re- gion since 1848, and these early depredations were aft- erwards identified as the work of the MoUie Maguires, since they then employed the same methods of warn- ing their victims as they later did. These warnings Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 129 were crude drawings of coffins, pistols, skulls and cross-bones, and vulgar notes, declaring the demands upon the persons for whom they were intended. They were variously signed, sometimes being given under the name of "One of Mollie's Children," and at other times as "Black Spots" or "Buck Shots" and similar designations. The society received large accessions in membership during the early days of the Civil "War, when there was a great demand for men to take the places of those who had so generously rallied in defense of the nation and its institutions. Among those who re- sponded to this demand from across the seas were the worst classes of the downtrodden population of Europe. It was now becoming apparent that the anthracite coal fields were infested by spirits the most desperate and lawless, and, when in 1862, an enrollment for the purpose of a draft was ordered, the formidable and dangerous character that animated and distinguished these men was made manifest. Assaults, arson and murders were committed, and the officers of the law seemed utterly powerless to ap- prehend or bring to justice the perpetrators of these crimes. Coal operators were ordered to suspend operations until the discontinuance of the draft, while mine foremen and their men were warned, at the peril of their lives, not to overlook this peremptory demand. Murders, incendiarism and open riots became more frequent and bold, and but little attempt was >made in the way of concealing these crimes. It was at first thought that opposition to the enrollments and drafts upon the part of this lawless element had inspired much of the violence and crime that prevailed during the period of the war ; but upon the termination of hos- Digitized by Microsoft® 130 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. tilities, when crime and bloodshed were daily becoming more rampant, the people at last awoke to a realization of the fact that an organization existed among them that was more formidable and dangerous than any avowed and open foe could possibly be. Men were sometimes killed in broad daylight ; some- times in the darkness of night, and invariably by strangers — persons at least unknown to chance spec- tators, or to the parties violently put out of the way. Suspected individuals would be apprehended, but in the end nobody could be found able to identify the criminals. The Mollies ruled the people with a rod of iron. The voice of their dread fraternity was un- heard, but its fiendish work was none the less surely performed. Even the political sentiments of the commonwealth were to some extent moulded by them, and in their par- itcular field they elected or defeated whomsoever they pleased. The men whose capital was locked up in the coal beds were as obedient puppets in their hands, while there was absolutely no security for life and property. This was the state of affairs in the anthracite coal regions in the fall of 1873, when Franklin B. Gowan, then president of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- way Company and of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, made arrangements with Allan Pinkerton, head of the world-famed detective agency of that name, to send a detective into the haunts of the MoUie Maguires, with a view to breaking up their organization, punishing its guilty members and restoring the reign of law and order in that por- tion of the commonwealth. The man who, after mature deliberation, was called upon to perform this arduous and hazardous under- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 131 taking was a young Irishman named James McParlan, who assumed the name of James McKenna. He is still alive, and some years ago was detailed to unravel the mystery surrounding the murder of Governor Steu- nenberg of Idaho, but in that case he was not so suc- cessful as he was in exposing the MoUie Maguires and in bringing them to justice. Prior to his connection with the two great Penn- sylvania corporations, Mr. Gowan had been the district attorney of Schuylkill county, and his duties in that position had brought him frequently in contact with the work of the MoUie Maguires. He was, therefore, able to render valuable assistance in the prosecution of the task which was freighted with such far-reaching consequences to the inhabitants of the coal regions. McParlan was successful, at the end of nearly six months, in establishing himself in the confidence and good-will of the members of the society which he was seeking to overthrow, and was initiated as a member of the order at Shenandoah, Schuylkill county. Not only is much of the credit for the disruption of the Mollies' organization due to McParlan, but we are la:Tgely indebted to him for what knowledge there is of how its inside workings were conducted. As Mc- Parlan learned, it was an oath-bound society, whose members recognized each other by signs and pass- words and were required under dire penalties to carry out the orders of their officers and to execute the man- dates of the body to which they chanced to belong. They were organized in small local societies, termed "bodies," presided over by a president, known as the "body master." All grievances of members were laid before the "body," and it was there determined what measures of redress or vengeance, if any, should be resorted to. When the object of vengeance was merely 10 Digitized by Microsoft® 132 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. to be punished or beaten, the members of the "body" were generally called upon to perform the job. When there was need of greater secrecy, the members of other "bodies," living at a distance, were usually se- cured to carry out the wishes of the society. This was a rule that was nearly always adhered to in cases where murder was intended, making the prov- ing of an alibi, the ever ready weapon of the society in clearing its members when charged with crime, com- paratively an easy matter. McParlan visited the different towns, especially the strongholds of the Mollies, throughout the anthracite region and laid carefully prepared plans for his peril- ous work. He kept in almost daily communication with Mr. Go wan at Philadelphia, who was one of the few that knew him in his true character. The detective exhibited industry, perseverance and determination to a remarkable degree in the midst of surroundings that might well have appalled the stoutest heart. His find- ings were preserved with the greatest secrecy until such time as the whole gruesome story could be laid before the world from the records of the courts. This occurred in due time, and he appeared as the principal witness against a number of murderers who were con- victed on his testimony and that of corroborating wit- nesses. By three years of unremitting industry, dur- ing which time he was compelled to resort to treach- ery, deceit and double dealing, he succeeded in secur- ing many confidences and even the inmost secrets of those whose lives he sought, and ultimately secured at the bar of justice. He assumed to be one of the worst among the class of outlaws with whom he was compelled to associate, but himself always carefully refrained from the actual commission of crime. He accounted for his ability to Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF OABBON COUNTY. 133 live without work by telling various plausible stories, pretending that he was a pensioner of the government and a dealer in counterfeit money, among other things. McParlan was very popular among the Mollies, who seemed to esteem him all the more because he appeared to be a thorough desperado and a polished rogue. As to whether or not he was justified in pursuing the course that he did, let casuists argue and theorists quibble ; there can be no question concerning the recti- tude of his conduct in the minds of practical men, when all of the circumstances under which he labored are recalled. One of McParlan 's co-workers during a part of his stay in the coal regions was Captain Eobert Linden, ostensibly a leader of the coal and iron police, but also a Pinkerton detective. Together they were successful in thwarting many a deep laid scheme for the destruc- tion of life and property. Among the first of the outrages attended by fatal results within the limits of Carbon county, and charged to the MoUie Maguires, was the murder of George K. Smith, at Audenried, on the evening of November 5, 1863. Mr. Smith was a member of the firm of George K. Smith and Company, operating the mines of the New York and Lehigh Coal Company at Yorktown. He had given the enrolling officers a list containing the names of the men employed at the mines operated by the firm of which he was a member, and some of their number had been drafted for service in the army. This circumstance is said to have led to his assassina- tion. He was assailed by a large body of heavily armed men in his own dwelling and was quickly dis- patched in the presence of his terror-stricken family. Digitized by Microsoft® 134 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Although several persons were under the ban of sus- picion, and were supposed to have participated in the affair, it was impossible, until the lapse of many years, to obtain any information as to the absolute guilt of the mistrusted parties. Some of these were then arrested and placed in jail at Mauch Chunk, but were forcibly rescued a short time thereafter, at night, by their associates in the order. Another Carbon county affair which was charged to the account of the Mollies, and which aroused general indignation, was the attack made upon Superintendent Hendrix, of the Buck Mountain Coal Company. He was in his room at the house where he boarded in the village of Clifton, in company with his wife, when, on the evening of June 11, 1869, he was brutally assaulted and beaten to the verge of death. Over two hundred men joined in the attack, sur- rounding the house and taking it by storm. The inter- position of Mrs. Hendrix, who threw herself between her husband and his assailants, taking many kicks and blows that were intended for him, was all that saved him from death. Mr. Hendrix was beaten with black- jacks, pistol butts and clubs, besides receiving two stabs from a knife. After making a fruitless search for another intended victim who boarded with James Harvey, a neighbor of Mr. Hendrix, the band of outlaws then moved in a body to Eckly, a short distance beyond, in Luzerne county. There they proceeded to square some grudge they had against Captain P. F. McGinley. He bore the reputation of being a fearless, resolute man, and armed with a magazine rifle, he awaited their onslaught in a second story room of his home. Breaking in the front door, the Mollies seized the captain's father and used him as a shield while ad- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 135 vancing upstairs to attack the son, the old man plead- ing piteoiisly for his life in the meantime. The captain managed to get in one shot, which, as was subsequently learned, was not without effect, but was soon overpowered and clubbed into insensibility. Years afterwards it was learned that the perpetra- tors of these outrages came principally from Yorktown and Audenried, ten miles away. The unprovoked and cold-blooded murder of Mor- gan Powell, assistant superintendent of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, at Summit Hill, on the evening of December 2, 1871, crowning, as it did, so many previous and similar events, greatly exasperated the law-abiding people of the coal region. The murder was committed at about seven o'clock, on the street, not more than a few paces from the store of Henry Williamson, which place Powell had left only a moment before to go to the office of William Zehner, the general superintendent of the company. It appears that one of a group of three men, who had been seen by various people waiting near the store, drew close to Mr. Powell from the rear, and fired a pistol shot into the left breast of his innocent victim, leaning over the shoulder of Powell to accomplish his deadly purpose. Who it was that had killed him, no one could tell. The three men who had been seen together, and one of whom did the shooting, were all strangers, and easily effected their escape. Patrick Kildea, who was thought to resemble one of their number, was taken into custody and tried for the crime, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. Emboldened by their success in so many previous outrages, the Mollies were becoming reckless, and on the morning of September 3, 1875, enacted a tragedy Digitized by Microsoft® 136 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. that was destined to lead to tlie discovery, conviction and execution of the authors of many deeds of blood. At the time spoken of, John P. JoneS', a mine fore- man at Lansford, spoke what proved to be his eternal farewell to his wife and seven children, and started toward the colliery where he was employed. He fol- lowed a path that led from Storm Hill to the depot in Lansford, and which he had been repeatedly urged not to take, because it was known that he was marked for death by the Mollies. As he proceeded leisurely on his way, probably hav- ing no premonition of impending evil, he was over- taken by two men, who were running as if in a hurry to reach a train which had just arrived at the depot. They halted when close to him, drew their pistols and fired upon the luckless and imsuspecting man with deadly effect. The victim made an attempt to ward off his assail- ants with his tin dinner pail, and as he did so received another bullet from the pistol of one of the murderers. Throwing up his hands, with a cry of mortal agony, he fell upon his face, while two more leaden messengers of death were fired in quick succession into his already bullet-riddled body. This tragic event occurred in broad daylight and in the sight of a crowd of people. The reports of the pistols brought many workmen to the scene. The assassins had been seen retreating rapidly over the hill, and pursuit was soon given. When the hour of noon arrived, their capture had been effected. The men were identified as Michael J. Doyle and Edward Kelly, of Mount Laffa, Schuylkill county; and James Kerrigan, bodymaster of the Tamaqua division of the Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 137 Mollies. All of them were securely placed in jail at Mauch Chiiiik. The men were taken while resting beneath the shade of a tree beside a spring, near Tamaqna. Kelly and Doyle were recognized as having done the shooting, while Kerrigan had accompanied them, but had re- mained at a safe distance while the murder was being executed. No arms were found about their persons, but a little later some officers, while making a search unearthed three pistols and a heavy club, secreted under the trees in the leaves near the spring where the men were taken prisoners. One of these pistols was that known as the "Roarty Pistol," highly prized by the Mollies, and named after its owner, James Eoarty, bodjrmaster of the Coal Dale division of the society. It was termed by them "the lucky pistol" and had been used at the murder of Morgan Powell, Policeman B. F. Yost, of Tamaqua, and others. The arrest of Doyle, Kerrigan and Kelly was a stun- ning blow to the Mollies, who realized that the most desperate exertions would be necessary to save their three comrades from the gallows and their order from exposure and annihilation. A large sum of money was soon raised and the best lawyers to be had were retained to defend the pris- oners. John W. Eyan, Linn Bartholomew, and J. B. Riley, all of the Schuylkill county bar, and E. M. Mulhearn and Daniel Kalbfus, of Mauch Chunk, appeared on behalf of the defense when the prisoners were ar- raigned at the October term of the Carbon county court. To match this array of legal talent, the coal and rail- road companies of this section of the anthracite region, Digitized by Microsoft® 138 , HISTOEY OF GAEBON COUNTS. all of whom were directly and deeply concerned in the outcome of the case, authorized their attorneys to as- sist the district attorney, E. E. Siewers, in the prosecu- tion. Hon. F. W. Hughes, appeared for the Philadel- phia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, General Charles Albright, for the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, and Hon. Allen Craig for the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Company. Kelly, Doyle, and Kerrigan were jointly put on trial, entering the usual plea of "not guilty," and demand- ing a severance, the case going over to the January term of court. In its far-reaching consequences to human life and property, together with the general security and wel- fare of society, this trial may justly be regarded as the most momentous in the annals of the commonwealth. The trial was begun on the eighteenth of January before Judge Samuel S. Dreher. On the twenty-first of January a jury had been obtained, consisting of William Bloss, Jonas Beck, Joel Strohl, Daniel Boyer, Jr., Daniel Eemaly, Abraham Henry, Levi "West, Levi Straub, Henry Long, Peter Cushman, Thomas A. Wil- liams, and Drake H. Liong. Michael Doyle was the first to be placed on trial, and, as was to be expected, the leaders of the Mollies made great efforts to prove that not one of the three men charged with the killing of Jones could possibly have been present when the crime was committed, as they had really been elsewhere at that time. But through the effective work of McParlan and other detectives, their efforts proved abortive and unavailing. McParlan, in particular, rendered great services to the lawyers who represented the commonwealth in this important trial. Mingling freely with the Mollies, and looked upon by the members of the society, as well Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 139 as those outside the organization, as one of their lead- ers, he was admitted to all their councils, even to the consultations of their attorneys. All that he thus learned he secretly but promptly communicated to the other side. The trial had not far progressed before it became evident to the attorneys for the defense, as well as to the assembled Mollies, that they were being betrayed by some one whom they had thus far trusted. McParlan's reputation as a wicked MoUie was so well established, and so cleverly did he play his part, that he was not at first suspected. It was finally thought that the traitor must be one of the prisoners on trial, and suspicion centered upon Kerrigan. He was not slow iu detecting that he was being shunned, and that he was no longer trusted. This change of attitude toward him on the part of his old associates in crime, no doubt, influenced him to a great extent in making up his mind to give state 's evi- dence, and, by so doing, purchase immunity for him- self at the expense of his self-respect and his fellow criminals. He apprised the district attorney of the fact that he wished to see him for the purpose of making a con- fession. After due consideration, he was accepted and placed upon the witness stand. Kerrigan laid bare all the circumstances and details connected with the assassination of John P. Jones, in- forming the court that the deed was committed at the behest of Alexander Campbell, bodymaster of the Sum- mit Hill division of the Mollies. The grievance against Jones was that he had blacklisted some men who were members of the society. Kerrigan's confession having been corroborated, in every important particular, by the evidence of the Digitized by Microsoft® 140 HISTOEY OF CAHBON COUNTY. other witnesses for tlie commonwealth, the jury, on the first of the ensuing February, returned a verdict of "guilty of murder in the first degree." After this, Mrs. Kerrigan, who had interested her- self in trying to secure the release of her husband, said he might hang, and further, that she would not raise her hand to save him. Henceforth he was popularly known as "Jimmy The Squealer," and received, as he, no doubt, merited, the maledictions of all true Mol- lies. During the course of the trial, McParlan made the acquaintance of a man named Durkin, who told him he was ready, in the event of a verdict unfavorable to the Mollies, to blow up the court house, together with the judges, jurymen, attorneys, officials, and innocent spectators, boasting that he had a can of nitrogly- cerine safely hidden away near by for the purpose. McParlan responded by telling the desperado that he would be very foolish to attempt to put such a plot into execution, because he would be almost certain to be captured and strung up by the vigilance committee to the nearest tree. Probably this had the desired effect of frightening the reckless fellow, and he wisely decided to abandon the idea. On the twenty-second of February, the Court sen- tenced Michael Doyle to death. This was noteworthy as the earliest conviction and disposal of a real MoUie Maguire in Pennsylvania, and the news spread rapidly, far and wide, striking terror and dismay into the ranks of the organization. During the progress of the trial the Mollies had been bold and defiant, and many of their principal men were on the spot, expecting as they expected to live, to witness the release of the defend- ant. How shocking the result was to their nerves and Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTY. 141 to their general composure, McParlan was among the first to learn. He afterwards declared that the unforeseen result had come upon the order like an earthquake in a quiet village. The case of Michael Doyle having been disposed of, Edward Kelly was next placed at the bar before Judge Dreher. While his defense was not allowed to go by default, the most strenuous efforts being made on his behalf, he was also found guilty of murder in the first degree. He then made a voluntary confession, clearly showing that he had not been wrongfully charged or convicted, and substantiating all that Kerrigan had said. Kelly explained that he did not ask for mercy nor expect it, but, before dying, desired to purge himself of his crime. From facts brought to light during the trial of Doyle, Alexander Campbell was taken into custody and lodged in jail at Mauch Chunk. Thomas Duffy, James Boyle, Hugh McGeehan, James Carroll and James Roarty were also arrested and placed in the Schuylkill county jail, charged with the murder of Policeman Benjamin F. Yost, of Tamaqua, on the morning of July 6, 1875. The majority of these men were residents of Carbon county. Campbell was arraigned for trial, charged with the murder of John P. Jones, June 20, 1876. It was not claimed, strictly, that he had taken any direct part in the murder, but that he had arranged for others to per- form the deed. One of the jurors sickened and died during the progress of the case, making a new trial necessary. Campbell was eventually found guilty of murder in the first degree as an "accessory before Digitized by Microsoft® 142 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. the fact." His conviction on such grounds contained infinite possibilities for trouble of the gravest kind, from the standpoint of the MoUie Maguires, many of whom, while not murderers, in the popularly accepted sense of the term, were equally as guilty as he. Subsequent to the conclusion of Campbell's trial, a number of his friends within the organization, who had been witnesses in the case, and had perjured them- selves in an effort to secure his release, were arrested on that charge and held for trial. This, again, was a proceeding that appeared to have been wholly unexpected by the Mollies, who had been accustomed to play fast and loose with the truth when- ever the occasion demanded. Meanwhile, the Mollies were not satisfied that all of the evidence upon which their partners in crime were being convicted had been furnished by Kerrigan. Suspicion soon rested upon McParlan, and his as- sassination was decided upon, as a matter of self-pro- tection, revenge, and of general policy. By his native shrewdness and great daring he frustrated a number of well-laid plans that had been made to do away with him. He was also largely indebted for his life to the unwavering loyalty and continued confidence of an old friend in the order, Frank McAndrew, bodymaster of the Shenandoah lodge, to which McParlan belonged. McAndrew generously protected him at the immi- nent peril of his own life, believing him to be inuo- cent of the charge of double-dealing. The time had come, however, for the detective to throw off his dis- guise, because the part which he had so successfully played for three years was no longer possible for him. Accordingly he appeared on the witness stand, and the evidence he there gave resulted in the arrest and Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 143 conviction of numerous criminals who could not other- wise have been reached by the arm of the law. His nature naturally revolted at the idea of facing his late associates in the order in his true colors, and it galled him to be compelled to move about the streets of Mauch Chunk, Pottsville and the other places, where he gave testimony, accompanied by an armed escort. The recital of his experiences when assuming to be a MoUie, his almost miraculous escapes, and the tales of horror which he told have, perhaps, never been equalled in the history of American jurisprudence. At the October term of court at Mauch Chunk, in 1876, the cases of John Donahue, Thomas P. Fisher, Patrick McKenna, and Alexander Campbell, charged with the murder of Morgan Powell at Summit Hill, five years earlier, were called. The men demanded separate trials, and the common- wealth chose first to try John (Yellow Jack) Donahue. It was clearly proven that on the request of Alex- ander Campbell, with a promise of one hundred dollars for the service, Donahue had selected his men at Tus- carora, and, assuming their leadership, had proceeded to Tamaqua, where they met Cornelius McHugh, who conducted them to Summit Hill, where they were joined by Fisher and McKenna. They had then waited for their intended victim near the store of Captain Williamson, where Powell was shot by Donahue. Donahue was convicted and sentenced. At the Jan- uary term of court, in 1877, Campbell, who was already iinder sentence of death for the murder of John P. Jones, and in whose case an appeal had been taken to the Supreme Court, was placed on trial for the murder of Morgan Powell. Being again convicted, he smilingly inquired whether it was proposed that he be hung twice. Digitized by Microsoft® 144 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. McKenna and Fisher were tried together. The former was found guilty of murder in the second de- gree, while the latter was convicted of murder in the first degree. Governor Hartranft having signed their death war- rants, Doyle, Kelly, Campbell, and Donahue were exe- cuted together in June, 1877, by Sheriff Eaudenbush at Mauch Chunk. Campbell stoutly protested his inno- cence to the last, and popular tradition has it that before being dragged to the scaffold, he placed the print of his right hand upon the damp wall of his cell, which was on the first floor of the jail, vowing, as he did so, that it should remain as a sign of his unjust exe- cution. A figure resembling the large hand of a man, with fingers and palm outstretched, is to this day shown to curious visitors at the sombre jail, within this cell, while the story of its origin is retold in hushed, sepulchral tones. On the same day that the four Mollies were executed at Mauch Chunk, six paid the extreme penalty for their crimes at Pottsville. Two accessories before the fact in the killing of Morgan Powell were tried at Mauch Chunk, and con- victed of murder in the second degree. They, with McKenna, were sent to the penitentiary, McKenna for nine years, and the other two for four and five years respectively. A number of the Mollies who had turned state's evi- dence during these trials had furnished information regarding the identity of the murderers of George K. Smith, of Audenried. Most of the guilty parties were fugitives from justice. One of their number, however, James McDaniels, known as the "hairy man," was arrested in Wiscon- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 145 sin, brought to Manch Chunk, tried, convicted and exe- cuted. William Sharp, also accused of complicity in the murder of Smith, was found guilty and hanged, as was Fisher, in whose behalf great but unavailing efforts were made by his counsel and friends for a commutation of sentence. James Kerrigan, "The Squealer," was given his liberty, in consideration of the service he had rendered the state. Kjiowing that his life would be sought by those whom he had betrayed, he mysteriously disap- peared, and it is said that he died a natural death a few years ago in Virginia. The constant strain, worry, and excitement attend- ant, upon the Mollie Maguire trials cost Daniel Kalb- fuss, one of the leading lawyers for the defense, his life. His mind gave way, and he died soon thereafter. During the course of their long career of violence and carnage, the Mollies committed more than one hun- dred murders, not to mention the thousands of lesser crimes and misdemeanors of which they were the au- thors. Smarting under the stigma which the conduct of this band of outlaws had brought upon the fair fame of their honored organization, the national convention of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, held at New York, in 1877, denounced the Mollie Maguires in the mo&t un- measured terms. Their membership in the fraternity was also denied, and with a view to protecting the reputation of the as- sociation, the counties of Carbon, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Columbia, and Northumberland were excluded, for the time being, from participation in the affairs of the order. Digitized by Microsoft® 146 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COTJNTY. The Mollies were also scathingly denounced in addi- tion to being excommunicated, by the leading prelates of the Eoman Catholic Church, and by the Pope him- self. Many persons throughout the coal region who have scarcely passed beyond the bourne of middle age re- member well the reign of the Mollies. But time works great changes within comparatively short periods in our country, and in the broader, better light of to-day, the hates and prejudices engendered during the night- mare that is past are for the most part entirely for- given and forgotten. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER XI. SXmKES AND LABOS DIFFICULTIES. It is to be doubted if any other industry of equal magnitude in the United States has suffered so much from the disputes between capital and labor as the anthracite coal industry. For more than sixty years the conduct of this in- dustry has been characterized by innumerable bicker- ings, suspensions, lockouts and strikes, with their con- comitants of bitter feeling, suffering and pecuniary loss, often accompanied by scenes of violence and bloodshed. It is only within recent years that the warring in- terests have been drawn closer together and that, to a large degree, stability and security have been attained. The first attempt at organizing the miners of the anthracite fields was made under the leadership of John Bates, an Englishman, in 1849. The union then formed sought to improve the conditions of the miners by callLag a strike, which was confined almost wholly to Schuylkill county. In this strike, among the first of a general nature to occur in America, the miners were defeated, and soon after its termination. Bates, who had become an object of suspicion to his fellow work- ers, disappeared, carrying with him the funds of the association. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the union of which he had been the head quickly dis- integrated. From this time forth, petty labor troubles of local importance only continued to crop out in various parts of the region until the Civil War was in progress, when 147 11 Digitized by Microsoft® 148 HISTOEY OP CAKBON COUNTY. the price of coal rose in Philadelphia froin two dollars and seventy-eight cents a ton until it finally com- manded nearly eleven dollars a ton. So many men were needed for military and naval duties that labor became scarce and wages correspondingly higher. It was no uncommon thing during this period of high prices for competent miners to earn five hundred dol- lars a month, and they enjoyed the greatest prosperity in the history of the industry. But when the war ended, labor again rushed into the coal fields, the over-supply bringing wages down from their high former level. Thereupon the miners organized to resist this re- duction, brought about by the law of supply and de- mand; but they failed, although several strikes were declared. Appreciating the necessity of having the workmen knitted together in one strong union in order to cope successfully with the power of organized wealth, the labor leaders of the anthracite region, during the sum- mer of 1868, formed the Workingmen 's Benevolent As- sociation, the first president and controlling spirit of which was John Siney. He was rather a large man, with a determined face and bearing. While being uneducated in the commonly accepted sense of the term, he was, nevertheless, shrewd and able, besides being thoroughly honest and loyal. By his straightforward methods and his direct, simple rhetoric he frequently put Franklin B. Gowan, the brilliant head of the Philadelphia and Beading coal and railway interests, on the defensive. Before many months the Workingmen 's Benevolent Association was strongly intrenched in the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions, virtually controlling the situa- tion in these fields. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 149 The building up of tlie organization was aceom- plished, however, by a confctant succession of local strikes, parleying with operators, temporary resump- tion of work, and further strikes. But, while the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions were tied up hard and fast, the mines of the Wyoming re- gion were being worked day and night, supplying the demand for anthracite. So Siney's men marched across country to Wilkes- Bar re and persuaded the miners there to go on strike. In this they were so far successful that the operators of that section agreed to an eight-hour working day, while those of the lower fields granted a slight increase in wages. During the summer of 1869, the union ordered a gen- eral suspension to enforce the demand for a sliding scale of wages, based upon the varying prices of coal at certain points of shipment and delivery. After months of idleness, the men gained their point, and operations were resumed. Everybody now hoped for a year of peace and work and wages ; but, early in 1870, the Schuylkill operators announced a reduction in wages; the union resisted, and ordered another strike, which was declared off in August as the result of a compromise. About this time, many of the independent operators suffering, from the losses entailed by these conflicts, together with the discriminations and exactions to which they were subjected by the transportation inter- ests, were crushed, and, to save themselves from utter ruin were forced to turn their properties over to the control of a few great corporations, which thereby grew in strength and power. On January 10, 1871, a general strike was ordered, continuing until August, and shutting down practically Digitized by Microsoft® 150 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. every anthracite mine. It was necessary to put troops in the field to suppress rioting and terrorism, and in conflict with them several strikers were killed. The union was utterly defeated, while the men gladly went back to work on terms laid down by their employers. Between the strike of 1871 and that of 1875, there was no general suspension of work, although local troubles were constantly coming up to be discussed, debated, and in some manner adjusted. The conflict of 1875 is generally referred to as the "Long Strike," and with its adverse termination at the end of five months, what remained of the power of the Workingmen's Benevolent Association was com- pletely broken. During the continuance of the great railroad strike of 1877, there was a long period of enforced idleness in the coal regions, owing to the lack of facilities for transportation. This resulted in much want and suf- fering among the miners and their families. For the span of sixty years, from the beginning of the coal trade, in 1820, to 1880, the anthracite industry was dominated almost wholly by native Americans and by the older immigrant nationalities, the Irish, Eng- lish, Germans, Scotch and Welsh. But toward the close of this era, if one with an eye to racial characteristics had stationed himself at some high point overlooking the lower or Schuylkill section, he would have seen trinkling into the valleys the begin- nings of a newer immigration stream, and one that in later years became so large as to be properly termed an inundation. These were the first arrivals of the Slavic and Italian nationalities. Quietly and peaceably they came, and with ever in- creasing numbers, gradually spreading over the whole anthracite region, until, with the lapse of a few dec- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY or CAEBON COUNTY. 151 ades, they had largely supplanted the English speak- ing miners. Their presence soon wrought important and far- reaching effects in every phase of the life of the coal region. Coming at a time when the English-speaking miners were digerganized and to a large extent de- moralized as result of the reverses they had sustained in their efforts to wrest better terms of employment from the operators, the newcomers served to further depress the conditions of labor and to reduce the stand- ards of living. Notwithstanding the apparent hopelessness of the situation that now confronted the miners, the cause of labor was not without its champions, chief among whom were those of Irish nationality. Always the first to resent injustice or oppression, the Irish in the anthracite region, manifesting a total dis- regard of personal consequences, have from the begin- ning been in the forefront of every movement calcu- lated to advance their own interests and those of their fellow-workers. It was in 1884 that the Miners ' and Laborers ' Amal- gamated Association was organized, and three years later its membership amounted to about thirty thou- sand. During these years, too, the organizers of the Ejiights of Labor were actively at work in the anthra- cite region, and in 1887 the two associations became one in membership. A demand was then made for an increase in wages, which was refused by the operators, who also declined to submit the matter to arbitration. This resulted in the declaration of a strike, on Sep- tember 10, 1887, and the closing down of all the mines of the Lehigh region. Digitized by Microsoft® 1^2 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Temporary concessions were, however, made to the miners of the Schuylkill region. Upon the withdrawal of these concessions, on January 1, 1888, they, too, joined in the strike. Meanwhile, the mines' of the Wyoming field, which remained in operation, supplied the demand for coal. During the long, gloomy winter the men on strike fought heroically against want and the power of the operators ; but their fight was fruitless. With the coming of spring, after six months of idle- ness, they were compelled to acknowledge their de- feat and return to work. The adverse result of the conflict sounded the death-knell of the Knights of Labor in this' portion of Pennsylvania. After nine years of comparative peace, unbroken by any general strike, although punctuated with unnum- bered disputes and local difficulties, the strike of 1897 broke out. It began at the coUeries of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, in Banks township, quickly spreading to other portions of the nearby re- gion. An increase in wages and various other conces- sions were demanded. Among the principal strikers now were those classes of foreigners who in previous years had been im- ported to the region by the operators themselves for the express purpose of enabling them to control the labor situation. Marching in large numbers from colliery to colliery, they coaxed or coerced as many workers as possible into joining their ranks. In September, toward the end of the struggle, which was foredoomed to failure from its inception, owing to the lack of organization among the men, a band of marching miners was fired upon at Lattimer by the sheriff of Luzerne county and his deputies. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. I53 More than a score of foreigners were killed, while over forty were wounded. This unfortunate affair led to the calling out of the National Guard, and soon thereafter work Was resumed at the mines. Thus every effort which had been made during the course of a generation to permanently organize the anthracite mine workers and to ameliorate their lot had met with disaster. Each defeat left them a little more hopeless, and the conditions under which they lived and labored grew steadily worse. When, therefore, the region was first visited by the organizers of the United Mine Workers of America, it is little wonder that many miners grown old in the anthracite fields gloomily shook their heads, predicting that the efforts of the organizers would be of no avail. But, in 1900, flushed with a great victory in the bitu- minous fields, and guided by its young and able leader, John Mitchell, this union, which then had a member- ship of but eight thousand in the anthracite region de- clared a general strike. This action, however, was not taken until the failure of every peaceable effort on the part of the men to gain some concessions from the operators. While the union was not numerically strong, most of the miners were in sympathy with the movement which had been inaugurated, and nearly one hundred thou- sand workers responded to its call on the first day of the strike. Within two weeks, fully ninety per cent, of the mine workers in the entire region were idle. Among those who preferred to remain at work were the majority of the employes of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. And, in candor, it must be said that to a large ex- tent they were justified, because they were not being Digitized by Microsoft® 154 HI9T0EY OF CARBON OOUNTY. exploited and oppressed as were the most of their fel- low workers in other portions of the anthracite fields. Their course in remaining at work, however, was not satisfactory to the men who were on strike. During the month of September, with a view to making the tie- up more complete, several thousand miners from the Hazleton district invaded the Panther Creek and Nes- quehoning Valleys by night, in order to be in a posi- tion when morning should come, to dissuade the men from going to their employment. One party, led by "Mother" Jones, a noted agitator, and many other women in carriages, proceeded by way of Tamaqua, while another division crossed the Broad mountain to Nesquehoning. The last named contingent succeeded in closing down the colliery at Nesquehoning for a single day. But the host following "Mother" Jones was met west of Coal- dale by the state soldiery under Colonel O'Neil, and was turned back at the point of the bayonet, bloodshed being narrowly averted. The expedition, therefore, failed of its object. The strike occurring at the height of a presidential campaign, strong political pressure was brought to bear on the operators in favor of a speedy settlement. This influence, together with a growing scarcity of coal and the weight of public opinion, which was on the side of the miners, finally caused the operators to yield, granting an increase in wages of ten per cent., besides agreeing to reduce the price of powder, to pay wages semi-monthly in cash and to adjust some of the other grievances complained of by their employes. Work was resumed on October 29 after an idleness of six weeks. While resulting in a victory for the men, the strike of 1900 did not solve the problem of the proper rela- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 155 tion of labor and capital in the coal fields. It was felt on both sides that the outcome was not conclusive, and preparations were begun for the further struggle which was certain to come. The aggressive policy of the operators was evident from the start. Immediately after the strike, stock- ades were built about many of the mines, depots were established for the storage of coal, and washeries were opened in many places. On the other hand, the men quickly built up a compact and formidable organiza- tion and began the accumulation of a war fund. The settlement which had been reached was guar- anteed to remain effective only until April, 1901. It was then renewed by mutual consent for another year. At the expiration of this period, the miners, through their representatives, the officials of the union, de- manded further concessions in the form of increased wages', the recognition of their union, and a shorter work day, together with the payment for coal by weight wherever practicable. The absolute refusal of all these demands precipi- tated the greatest strike in the annals of American in- dustry, entailing enormous financial losses, perma- nently increasing the price of coal, and inflicting many hardships upon the miners and the general public. On May 15, 1902, at a signal, nearly one hundred and fifty thousand workers dropped their tools, and for more than five months the conflict raged. Both sides fought with unflinching determination, the foreign ele- ment, as in the two previous strikes being particularly unyielding. The operators were led by George F. Baer, while the cause of the miners was again most ably and fairly championed by John Mitchell. Digitized by Microsoft® 156 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Before the restoration of peace, the entire National Guard of Pennsylvania was stationed in the coal fields. The warring forces were finally brought together through the intervention of President Eoosevelt, while the questions at issue were adjusted by the Anthracite Strike Commission, by him appointed. Under the award of this body the miners gained a number of important concessions, and the Anthracite Conciliation Board which is still in existence, and which has amicably disposed of many difficulties be- tween the miners and the operators, was established. In comparison with the chaos and warfare of former years, the anthracite region has enjoyed peace and prosperity since 1902. The award of the strike commission remained oper- ative untU April 1, 1906, and was twice renewed for a period of three years, though not without a temporary suspension of work on each occasion. In 1912, the representatives of the miners and the operators met on the friendliest of terms, and it was apparent that hostility on the part of the latter toward the union had practically died out. Operations at the mines were suspended for nearly two months, however, pending the formation of a new agreement, under the terms of which the union was partially recognized for the first time. The men also received an increase in wages, besides gaining a num- ber of other points for which they had contended. The duration of this agreement is fixed at four years. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER XII. STEAM AND ELECTRIC RAILROADS. The first railroad in Carbon county, and the first of any importance in the United States, was the Switch- back, extending from Mauch Chunk to Summit Hill. iA.s is well known, this was built as a gravity road, and is still in existence. The Beaver Meadow Railroad was the first within the limits of the county employing steam as motive power. It is now a part of the Lehigh Valley system. The Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company was incorporated on April 13, 1830. According to the provisions of its charter, the com- pany was empowered to build a railroad from the Beaver Meadow Mines, in what is now Banks township, to the Lehigh river, at, or near, Mauch Chunk, a dis- tance of about twenty miles. Various difficulties beset the projectors of the enter- prise, chief of which appears to have been their own lack of confidence in the feasibility of the undertaking. It was not until 1833 that a definite start was made. Canvass White, who had been one of the principal engineers in the building of the Erie Canal, and Ario Pardee, later a millionaire coal operator of Hazleton, surveyed the route, which followed the windings of Beaver, Hazle and Quakake creeks to the Lehigh. Trouble with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany concerning tolls on the canal led to the determina- tion on the part of those building the railroad to ex- tend the line to Easton. The tracks had already been 157 Digitized by Microsoft® 158 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. laid as far as Parryville when an agreement was reached. The railroad was opened for transportation in the fall of 1836, and Parryville was made the shipping point. It so remained until 1841, when the memorable freshet carried away all the bridges from Weatherly to the end of the line, and Mauch Chunk became the termi- nus, below which the road was abandoned. Originally wooden rails, covered with an iron strap, were used, and the locomotives were of the wood-burn- ing type. In 1860 another heavy jflood occurred, carrying away a number of bridges, together with the shops of the company at Weatherly and Penn Haven. The road gained rapidly in business, however, as the mines tributary to it were developed, and it grew steadily more prosperous until absorbed by the Lehigh Valley Eailroad in 1866. The Lehigh Valley Eailroad, which was the first to be constructed through the length of the region from which its name is derived, had its inception in the efforts of a few enterprising and far-seeing men in Lehigh and Northampton counties, while being brought to completion and successful operation principally through the labors and determination of Asa Packer, its former president and the architect of its greatness. A charter was secured on April 21, 1846, rmder the name of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susque- hanna Railroad Company. In May of that year the stock of the company was offered for subscription ; but capitalists seemed to have little faith in the project. Although the promoters of the enterprise were active, it was not until August, 1847, that enough stock had been subscribed to warrant a start being made. Five thousand shares had then Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CARBON COUNTY. 159 been taken, on each of which an instalment of five dol- lars had been paid. At the first election of officers, held on October 21, 1847, James M. Porter was chosen as president. Little had been done beyond securing the right of way, when, on April 4, 1851, Asa Packer became a member of the board of managers. This was just sev- enteen days before the charter would have expired by limitation, and soon thereafter a mile of road-bed was graded near AUentown to forestall this embarrass- ment. In the following October Mr. Packer purchased nearly all the stock which had been subscribed and took steps to obtain the additional money required to finish the road, which proved to be a difficult task. He secured the services of Eobert H. Sayre, who had prior to this held a responsible position with the Le- high Coal and Navigation Company, as chief engineer. Li January, 1853, the name of the corporation was changed to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. The line between Easton and AUentown was finished and placed in operation on June 11, 1855. Two trains were run daily between these points from that date, and duriag the month of September the road was com- pleted to Mauch Chunk. In the beginning, all the rolling stock was leased from the Central Eailroad of New Jersey, but before the close of 1855 a passenger locomotive and four coaches were purchased. At the close of three months, re- ceipts from the passenger service were larger than had been anticipated, while the earnings from carrying coal and other freight were kept down from the want of cars. Headquarters were first established at' Mauch Chunk; but in 1856 the main offices were removed to Philadelphia. Digitized by Microsoft® IgO HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. During the next few years a number of advantageous traffic arrangements were made, adding largely to the prosperity of the road. Perhaps the most important of these was that pro- viding for connections with the North Penn Eailroad, opening the way to Philadelphia. Notwithstanding that the company sustained heavy damages as a result of the great freshet of 1862, the career of the road was one of steady growth and ex- pansion, and before the close of the decade it had gained control of connecting roads in the Lehigh and Schuylkill regions and had effected an entrance to the Wyoming Valley, whence the line was extended north- ward to the state line of New York. In 1866, the Lehigh and Mahanoy Eailroad was merged with the Lehigh Valley. This comprised the stretch of road from Black Creek Junction, near Weatherly, to Mt. Carmel, a distance of forty miles. That portion of the line lying in Carbon county, and now a part of the Mahanoy Division of the Lehigh Val- ley Eailroad, was first graded by the Morris Canal and Banking Company, about 1837. The road had scarcely been completed and placed in operation when the com- pany failed, and the rails were taken up and shipped to Pottsville. The Quakake Valley Eailroad, incorpo- rated in 1857, relaid the tracks during the following year, and the road was operated tributary to the Cata- wissa, Williamsport and Erie Eailroad for a time. Its name was changed to the Lehigh and Mahanoy Eail- road in 1861. The Hazleton Eailroad, connecting with the line of the Beaver Meadow company, was acquired in 1868. A branch extending from Lizard Creek Junction to Pottsville was completed in 1890. The Hay's creek "cut-off," extending from Ashmore, near Hazleton, Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 161 to the main line of the Lehigh Valley, below White Haven, was opened to traffic in 1912. Asa Packer remained the president of the company, though not continuously, until his death in 1879. He lived to see the Lehigh Valley become one of the fore- most railroads of the state, more than fulfilling his fondest expectations, and fully compensating him for the trials and discouragements which he encountered in its building and extension. Under subsequent management it was for a period less prosperous, but in recent years its securities have regained favor with investors. The railroad to-day occupies a commanding position among the anthracite coal carriers, and is one of the leading trunk lines between New York and the Great Lakes. The Nesquehoning Valley Eailroad Company, the line of which extends from Nesquehoning Junction, near Mauch Chunk, to Tamanend, Schuylkill county, a distance of nearly seventeen milee, was organized on May 14, 1861. This road was built principally to carry the output of the mines of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany, receiving the traffic which formerly passed over the Switchback Railroad and the gravity road from Nesquehoning to Mauch Chunk. It was subsequently merged with the Lehigh and Susquehanna Eailroad, and is now operated by the Central Eailroad of New Jersey. The immediate cause of the building of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Eailroad was the freshet of 1862, re- sulting in the almost complete destruction of the Le- high Canal between Mauch Chunk and White Haven. It was generally believed that the giving way of the dams on this portion of the canal was largely respon- Digitized by Microsoft® 162 HISTORY OF GAEBON COUNTY. sible for the ravages of the flood farther down the valley, which led to the enactment of legislation against rebuilding them. In lieu of this right the assembly of Pennsylvania granted the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company a charter for a railroad from Mauch Chunk to White Haven, connecting with a road which had previously been built from the latter place to Wilkes-Barre. Later, the company was authorized to build the road to Easton. When completed, this railroad supplanted the canal above Mauch Chunk, while largely reliev- ing its overburdened condition below that point. In 1871, the Lehigh and Susquehanna Eailroad was leased to the Central Eailroad of New Jersey, being still operated by the latter company on this basis. In 1861, a stretch of railroad was built by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company from Hanto to Ta- maqua. This connects with the various collieries of that company in the Panther Creek Valley. With a view to providing an independent outlet for its coal to the eastern markets, this company, in 1912, completed a line of railroad extending from Tamaqua through the Lizard Creek Valley and on to Daniels- ville, Northampton county, connecting there with the Lehigh and New England Eailroad. This latter road is also controlled by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The Chestnut Eidge Eailway, reaching from Palmer- ton to Kunkletown, Monroe county, was built in 1898. It is a little more than ten miles in length, and is now owned by the New Jersey Zinc Company of Pennsyl- vania. The first electric railway in the county was built by the Carbon Transit Company, wTiich was incorporated in 1892. Its line originally extended from Mauch Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 163 Chunk to East Mauch Chunk. In 1901, the road was built to the Flagstaff, and during the following year it was constructed to Lehighton. This company has been several times reorganized, and is now known as the Carbon Street Eailway Company. The Lehigh Traction Company, operating a line which passes through Jeanesville and Audenried on its way between Hazleton and McAdoo, was chartered in 1892. The Tamaqua and Lansf ord street railway originally extended from Summit Hill and Lansf ord to Tamaqua. It was built by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany. In the fall of 1902 the road was opened to Mauch Chunk. It is now conducted by the Eastern Pennsylvania Eailways Company. 12 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® BOROUGHS AND TOWNSHIPS Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER XIII. BANKS TOWNSBIP. The earliest settlement in Banks township was made in that portion which was in 1897 set off to form the borough of Beaver Meadow. The township was con- tained \?^ithin the territory of Lausanne until January, 1842, when it was separately organized, being named in honor of Judge Banks, then on the bench of North- ampton county, of which Carbon formed a part until 1843. The township is about ten miles in length, from east to west, and approximately two miles in width. Its territory comprises the top of the Spring mountain, varying between fourteen and sixteen hundred feet above sea level. Beaver creek has its source near Jeanesville, flowing eastwardly till it reaches Hazle creek, on the verge of Lausanne township. Hazle creek rises in the north- eastern portion of the township and flows southeast- wardly. The two streams meet at Hazle Creek Junc- tion, forming Black creek, which descends the moun- tainside very rapidly on its turbulent way to the Le- high. The principal railroads in the township are the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton divisions of the Lehigh Valley. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey also touch the western portion of the township, while the line of the Lehigh Traction Company passes through Jeanesville, Torktown and Audenried on its way between Hazleton and McAdoo. 167 Digitized by Microsoft® 168 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Banks townsMp owes its settlement and develop- ment wholly to tlie underlying coal deposits, scarcely any of its soil being arable. The mining and shipping of coal being the only in- dustry of importance, the township has a large foreign population. Nathan Beach, of Salem, Snyder county, found coal in the township in 1812. The discovery was made near the point where the Leviston station of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad now stands. A mine or quarry was opened by Beach in 1813 where Cuyle's stripping is now situated. The first coal produced here was hauled in wagons to Berwick and Bloomsburg, where it was used for blacksmithing purposes. As the nature of anthracite became better understood and the demand increased, the product of this mine was hauled over the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike to the landing on the Lehigh, from which point it was shipped to Philadelphia in "arks," commanding eight dollars per ton. Mr. Beach, being called upon to defend the title to his land, in 1829, won the suit, and soon there- after sold five hundred acres to Judge Joseph Barnes, of Philadelphia. The Beaver Meadow Eailroad and Coal Company, soon after its organization, purchased two hundred acres of land, located where coal had been first dis- covered, and these workings became known as the Beaver Meadow Mines. This property was leased to A. H. VanCleve & Company in 1841, and was operated by that firm until 1846. William Milnes & Company then worked the mines for about a year. The firm of Hamberger & Company then leased them and continued operations until 1850, after which the mines were abandoned until 1881, when they were leased to Coxe Brothers & Company. The property is now controlled by the Lehigh Valley Coal Company. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OJB' CARBON COUNTY. 169 Coleraine colliery, now OASTied and operated by the A. S. VanWickle Estate, was the second to be opened in the township. Operations were begun soon after the opening of the Beaver Meadow Railroad. The firm of Eich & Cleaver held the first lease. They were succeeded by Eatclitf e & Johnson, whose rights were purchased in 1862 by "William Carter & Son. After some years, the property was sold to Wil- liam T. Carter, his father, the senior member of the firm, declining to join in the purchase because he be- lieved that most of the available coal had been ex- hausted. William T. Carter died in 1893, and that his faith in Coleraine colliery was not misplaced is attested by the fact that its output during the years of his ownership had made him a multi-millionaire. Upon his death the property was sold to A. S. Van- Wickle for a much larger sum than the elder Carter had considered excessive twenty-five years before. Mr. VanWickle was killed by the accidental dis- charge of a gun he was carrying, in 1898, since which time operations have been carried on in the name of the A. S. VanWickle Instate. Approximately 300,000 tons of coal per year have been produced by this col- liery since 1893. The principal work now, however, consists in "robbing pillars." There are 366 acres in the tract. It is interesting to observe that the coal miner in Banks township, like the proverbial "Star of the Em- pire, ' ' held his way to the westward. Jeanesville, the next place to be opened after Cole- raine, joins the VanWickle tract on the west, while Tresckow and Yorktown, still farther west in the town- ship, were developed in harmony with the rule that has been noted. Digitized by Microsoft® 270 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Coal was discovered in the immediate vicinity of Jeanesville by James D. Gallup, who was associated with the Beaver Meadow Railroad Company. The property was bought from Joseph H. Newbold, by Joseph Jeanes and others, of Philadelphia. The pur- chase price is said to have been $20,000. The original company let the land to William Milnes, in 1847, re- ceiving a royalty of twenty-five cents per ton. The col- liery was soon in operation, and in 1855 the royalty amounted to $40,000. During the time that Mr. Milnes operated the mines about 1,500,000 tons of coal were shipped. In 1864, Mr. Milnes ' lease having expired, the Spring Moimtain Coal Company was organized, securing con- trol of the property. Ten years later the Lehigh Val- ley Coal Company bought out the Spring Mountain company, and the mines, during the ensuing twenty years were operated under lease by J. C. Haydon and Francis Robinson, under the firm name of J. C. Hay- don & Company. Since 1894 the mines have been worked directly, though not continuously, by the Le- high Valley Coal Company. A large and modern breaker, handling the output of several nearby collieries, as well as that of the mines at Jeanesville, was erected in 1909. It is located just across' the line in Luzerne county. It was at the Number 1 slope at Jeanesville, on Feb- ruary 4, 1891, that the memorable mine horror, com- monly known as the "Jeanesville Disaster," occurred. Thirteen men were then drowned, while four others, after having been entombed for twenty days in this prison of rock and water, cut off from all commimica- tion with the outside world, were brought out alive, in- voluntary heroes of this industrial tragedy. The stamina, fortitude, and endurance displayed by these Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 171 men under circumstances the most discouraging, we may well believe, have seldom been equalled in human history. The accident was caused in unexpectedly breaking into an abandoned mine, where a large body of water had accumulated, and it was this merciless element that caused all the havoc and destruction. It was at a little past ten o'clock on the morning of the fatal day that a blast wa& fired in a "breast" or chamber that was being worked by Charles Boyle and Patrick Coll. Coll is said to have fired the shot, al- though it seems that Boyle was looked upon as being in charge of the work, because in after years he was familiarly known as "Boylie Tap-the-Water. " After the echoes of the shot had ceased to reverber- ate in the gloomy caverns of the fated mine, Coll re- turned to the face of the chamber, and, using a bar, began to pry down some loose pieces of coal that were still hanging to the face. While so engaged he noticed that the face seemed to be bulging toward him, as though there was to be a "squeeze" or settling. Not liking the looks of things, he retreated a few paces, calling to Boyle, as he did so, to make for a place of safety. In another instant, to his horror, he saw the whole face bristling out, and with a roar like that of a tornado the flood was upon him. Rushing down the slope with irresistible force the waters, in their mad career, tore out the timbers of the mine, smashed cars into fragments and rolled up the tracks as one would roll up a long strip of carpet. The rush accompany- ing the flood blew out every light save one, that of Harry Gibbon, a driver-boy of about sixteen. Boy- like, he had just previously pulled out the wick of his lamp to an inordinate length so as to create a glare that would outshine that of any of his fellow-workers. Digitized by Microsoft® 172 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. The mingled tide of air and water that swept some of the men to their doom in the depths of the mine carried others on its crest up the slope toward the surface. Among the latter was Harry Gibbon, and many of the survivors attributed their deliverance from death to his light, which had enabled them to avoid being dashed to pieces against obstructions on their thrilling journey up the slope. Some of the men, warned of their danger by the terrible roar of the approaching flood, escaped by quickly jumping into a ventilating shaft, which led perpendicularly to the surface. Through this well-like opening they climbed, hand over hand, and foot over foot to the top, the flesh of their arms and legs being painfully bruised and torn by the sharp edges of the rocks which formed the walls of the shaft. The news of the accident spread rapidly, carrying grief and consternation to many hearts. When composure had in a measure been restored, it was found that seventeen men were missing. It was not thought that any of them would be brought to the surface alive. Such a thing seemed impossible. How- ever, those in authority determined to do all in their power to effect the rescue of anyone who in some manner might have escaped immediate destruction. All the available pumps were worked at top speed day and night in the effort to empty the mine of water as quickly as possible. One by one the bloated bodies of the victims were recovered. At the end of twenty days thirteen had been brought to the surface. The mine was now pumped dry; but four men were still missing. Never dreaming that they might be alive, a rescue party, headed by Superintendent David MacFarlane, was organized on the afternoon of the twenty-third of Feb- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 173 ruary to search for their bodies. Scenes of wild con- fusion and disorder met their gaze on every hand as they penetrated the dark recesses of the mine. Heaps of wreckage and debris, together with giant boulders, weighing from one to ten tons, obstructed their prog- ress. As they were making their way thus laboriously among the ruins, one of the men thought he heard a voice that seemed to proceed from the mouth of one not a member of his party. Feeling somewhat startled but yet uncertain, he ejaculated: "My God, I believe there is a man alive down here!" All paused now, listening intently, and one of the party half-heartedly called, "hello!" "Hello," came the faint reply, and the men were sure that it was not an echo. ' ' Who are youf " was the somewhat tremulous demand that was framed by the lips of the spokesman of the rescue party. "I am Joe Matuskowitz, " was the reply, spoken in broken English. "Wassil Finko, John Tom- askusky, and John Barno are with me. We are not dead, but nearly so." Words of heartfelt encourage- ment were spoken to the four men, and the rescue party was divided, some of the men going to the as- sistance of the helpless and well-nigh famished miners, while others hastened to the surface to secure medical aid and such nourishment and stimulants as were deemed fit to be given to men who had eaten scarcely a bite for nearly twenty days. The four men were lying at the highest point of the chamber, that had been worked by Joe Matuskowitz. They escaped being drowned by reason of the fact that the flood poured down the slope in such volume as to fill it completely, compressing the air in the breasts and gangways, and sweeping on to the depths below in the line of least resistance. As the mine filled up, the air pressure in these confined places was sufficient to keep out' the water. Digitized by Microsoft® 174 HISTORY OJ!" carbon COUNTY. When the accident occurred, these four men, who worked communicating breasts, came together here. All they had with them to eat was a few sandwiches, and after this scant supply of rations had become ex- hausted they were face to face with starvation. The mine was filled with sulphur water, but this, of course, was unfit for drinking purposes. By the rarest chance, however, a blast which had been fired but a few moments before the flood came, opened a fissure in the rocks from which a stream of water, pure, cold and invigorating gushed forth. Of this the men drank during their confinement, and upon this they lived. Under these desperate conditions they passed the maddening and soul-trying period that intervened be- tween the date of the accident and their rescue. The air at first was good, but later it became very un- wholesome, and before the rescuing party could enter the chamber it was necessary to brush out the "black damp" which, like a sinister presence, brooded there. When the intelligence began to be noised about the grief-stricken village that the men had been found alive in the mine, few, indeed, were ready to give credence to the report. So certain was everyone that they were dead that their graves had already been dug, while their coffins were waiting to receive their bodies at the entrance to the slope. As the truth began to dawn upon the people, how- ever, hundreds gathered in awe and reverence at the portals of the mine, and until the last of the survivors was brought to the surface, scenes were there enacted that will live as long as life shall last in the memories of those who witnessed them. It was long past midnight of the twenty-third of February when the work of rescue had been completed. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 175 Then it was tliat sixty-five miners, most of whom had taken part in the rescue, filed in solemn procession be- fore the residence of J. C. Haydon, being dressed in their work clothes and bearing lighted lamps upon their heads. There they sang a hymn of praise with deep feeling and with wonderful effect. All of the four men recovered, thanks to their won- derful vitality and to the tender nursing and expert medical aid they received. Mrs. J. C. Haydon, wife of the senior member of the firm that was then operat- ing the mines at Jeanesville, among others, personally ministered to the men. It was ten days before they were allowed to partake of solid food. Joe Matuskowitz, popularly known as "Big Joe," was the only one of the quartette who declined to re- enter the mines as a means of gaining a livelihood. He has since said that when he descended the mine on the morning of the disaster he weighed two hundred and twenty-five pounds ; but the terrible ordeal through which he passed reduced his weight to seventy-five pounds. He is now a prosperous contractor and builder at Hazleton. The Jeanesville horror was caused by a faulty sur- vey, made by the mining engineers. Tresckow was the next place in Banks township where mining was begun after the opening of the mines at Jeanesville. The German Pennsylvania Coal Com- pany began operations here in 1851. They sank a slope, built a breaker, and erected a tavern, store, and feeveral dwelling houses. After a few years the prop- erty came under the control of Samuel Bonnell, Jr., of New York city. He operated the miaes for two years, and then sold out to the Honey Brook Coal Company, which was incorporated April 23, 1864. Ten years later, the Central Eailroad of New Jersey formed the Digitized by Microsoft® 176 HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, by which the Honey Brook Coal Company was then absorbed. There has been no change in ownership since that time. The coal produced at Tresckow is prepared for shipment at the Audenried breaker of the company. Two slopes are now being worked, and large improvements are promised for the near future. The Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company also has operations at Audenried and at Honey Brook, the breakers being located just across the line in Schuylkill county. The tract of two hundred and two acres on which the Spring Brook colliery of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company is now located originally belonged to Chris- tian Kunkle. N. P. Hosack bougjit the property for $30,000. He failed financially after a few years, and the New York and Lehigh Coal Company secured title to the land, being still the owner. In the summer of 1855 James Taggart secured a lease on the property. He sank the first slope on the Big Vein, and in 1856 shipped the first coal from this point over the Beaver Meadow Kailroad. This slope was drowned out in 1860, remaining idle for four years. A second slope was sunk in 1858, and George K. Smith & Company leased the mines soon thereafter. Mr. Smith was assassinated in 1863. The lease was continued by Thomas Hull, a member of the firm, until 1868, when, becoming embarrassed, he was succeeded by A. L. Mumper & Company. Under this firm a breaker was erected in 1869, which was destroyed by fire of incendiary origin, late in 1876. The loss amounted to $60,000. The structure was rebuilt the following year. Another breaker was built in 1875. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 177 In 1878 a lease for fifteen years was made to Thomas John & Company. Thomas John was killed in a run- away accident in 1880, and the firm was reorganized hy George H. Myers, George John and Thomas Dough- erty, under the title of George H. Myers & Company. At the expiration of this lease the Lehigh Valley Coal Company began to work the mines. The coal produced here is prepared for shipment at Jeanesville. The Beaver Meadow colliery of Coxe Brothers & Company was opened hy the firm of E. B. Ely & Com- pany during the early seventies. John Martyn, Sr., of Beaver Meadow, and the late Edwin E. Enhody, of Mauch Chunk, were the local men interested in this venture. This company built a large breaker, but was not very successful. After a time they closed out their lease to Coxe Brothers & Company, still operating the mines. The original breaker was torn down and has been replaced by a larger and more modern structure. The land is owned by the Lehigh Valley Coal Com- pany. Evans ' colliery, located a short distance from Beaver Meadow, near the Luzerne county line, was opened by the Evans Coal Company, headed by John D. Evans, of Lansford. The breaker was erected in 1889, while the first coal was shipped in 1890. This company was not successful, and for a time the colliery was at a standstill, the breaker having been burned down, evi- dently by an incendiary. In June, 1906, the land was leased by A. S. Van- Wickle for ten years, the coal being prepared for ship- ment at the Coleraine breaker. At the expiration of this lease, operations were again suspended. On October 27, 1906, the Evans Colliery Company, of which W. E. Smith is the general manager, was chartered, and still operates the mines. The tract on Digitized by Microsoft® 178 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. which the colliery is located contains 228 acres of land, and is owned by the heirs of A. H. Eeeder, of Easton. This completes the list of the coal operations of Banks township. Different parties have expended time and treasure in prospecting for coal on the Pen- rose property, farther east in the township than any of the openings that have been noticed, but so far with- out success. In speaking of the towns of this division of the county, it has already been said that they owe their existence entirely to the underlying mineral wealth, and they came into being as the collieries on which they depend were developed. Audenried and Yorktown, adjoining each other, lie in the western portion of the township, and a small section of the former is built across the line into Schuylkill county. Audenried is the namesake of Lewis Audenried, of Philadelphia, while Yorktown is probably so christened in recognition of the company that owns the land on which it is located, — the New York and Lehigh Coal Company. The postoffice at Audenried was opened on October 15, 1860, Samuel Martyn, a brother of John Martyn, Sr., of Beaver Meadow, being the first postmaster. The office was for many years kept in the store of the Honey Brook Coal Company. About the year 1870, the Eev. Daniel Durrelle was sent to this section by the Presbyterian Board of Mis- sions. Through his influence a congregation was gath- ered, and a church was erected in 1872, at Audenried. This church has now no regular pastor. The Methodists of this region were formerly under the charge of ministers from the Conyngham district. The church of this denomination was erected here in 1869. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 179 St. Patrick's Eoman Catholic cliiirch was commenced in 1873, tlie cornerstone being laid in June of that year. It was completed and dedicated two years later, Arch- bishop Wood performing the dedicatory service. The church was torn down about 1898 and removed to McAdoo, Schuylkill county, which is but a short dis- tance from Audenried. The Catholic population of the latter place now worship there. The Welsh Baptists and the Congregationalists wor- shiped together for a few years in the old armory building, and later in the school house. In 1872, the members of the first named denomination built a church at a cost of $2,500. Extensive improvements have since been made. It is now known as an English Baptist church. The Congregational church has no regular pastor. Salem Evangelical Lutheran church was organized in 1891, the leading spirits in the movement being Eev. J. 0. Schlenker, then pastor of Christ church, Hazle- ton, and Eev. George Kunkle, then of Weatherly. The church was erected in 1893, the cornerstone being laid on the twenty-ninth of October. On July 10, 1871, the company which erected Hos- ack Hall was formed. A lot was donated by the New York and Lehigh Coal Company. The building erected thereon, which is still standing, cost $7,500. Tresckow, lying east of Audenried and Yorktown, is the outgrowth of the mining operations commenced there in 1851 by the German Pennsylvania Coal Com- pany. Formerly it was commonly known as Dutch- town. By many it is to-day called Park View. The name of the postoffice, however, is Tresckow. It is a neat village, containing many cozy dwelling houses. The people of the place find employment at the nearby collieries of the various coal companies. The Banks 13 Digitized by Microsoft® 130 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. townsMp high school is located at this point. St. Michael's Roman Catholic church was here erected in 1909. Jeanesville, but a short distance from Tresckow, lies mostly in Luzerne county. The place was named for Joseph Jeanes, of Philadelphia. The village dates back to 1847, when the mines at this place were opened. The town has declined since the Jeanesville iron works were removed to Hazleton in 1902. Coleraine depends wholly on the colliery of that name, owned and operated by the estate of A. S. Van- Wickle. The history of this operation, which has al- ready been given, is the history of the village. The Independent "Welsh Congregational church at this place was one of the first in the region. It was erected in 1848, and the people of that denomination from places so far away as Audenried, Buck Mountain and Hazleton formerly worshiped there. Leviston and Coolstown are hamlets lying close to Coleraine, occupying the site of the old Beaver Meadow mines. The Lehigh Valley Eailroad has a station here. The village known as Coseville, located on the high- way leading from Beaver Meadow to Hazleton, has grown up siace the seventies, when the colliery of Coxe Brothers & Company, upon which it depends, was opened. Following the practice that prevails in most of the coal-producing townships of the region. Banks does not levy any taxes for road purposes, the highways being maintained by the Taxpayers' Association, which means the coal companies. They have found it more econouaical to follow this plan than to pay taxes. There are nineteen graded schools and one high school, housed in six buildings, in the district. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CARBON COUNTY. 181 BEAVES MEADOW BOBOUGE. While being next to the youngest borough in Carbon county, Beaver Meadow nevertheless enjoys the dis- tinction of being the oldest town in the upper end of the county. It is located centrally in Banks township, of which it formed a part prior to its organization as a borough in 1897. A number of citizens, headed by J. M. Stauffer, who was then a prominent resident here, made an effort to secure the incorporation of the town in 1896, but the grand jury acted adversely on their petition, and a charter was not granted until the fol- lowing year. Mr. Stauffer became the first chief bur- gess. Beaver Meadow is maintained by the surrounding coal operations of Coxe Brothers & Company, the mines of the A. S. VanWickle Estate, at Coleraine, a little more than a mile distant, and the workings of the Evans Colliery Company. The town is situated on the Beaver Meadow division of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad, about six miles from Weatherly, and four from Hazleton. It lies approxi- mately fourteen hundred feet above sea level, while Beaver creek flows sluggishly past it, parallel to the railroad tracks. Its name was derived from the cir- cumstance that the smooth and glossy beaver once lived and toiled in the meadows along the creek. The land on which the town is built was warranted in 1787 to Patrick and Mary Keene, and later it came into the possession of Nathan Beach, who sold five hundred acres to Judge Joseph Barnes, of Philadel- phia, in 1830. The Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike ran through the tract, and the principal street of the village, still known as Berwick street, was built on the line of this old highway. The first house was here erected in 1804. Digitized by Microsoft® 182 i HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. It was of logs, and was kept as a tavern. There was a tollgate at the foot of the Spring mountain, kept by a man named Green. On April 10, 1826, William H. Wilson removed, with his family, to the place and became the landlord of the tavern. The next arrival was James Lamison, who built a house which he, in 1831, occupied as a tavern. In 1833 came N. E. Penrose, a member of the family to which United States Senator Boies Penrose, of Pennsylvania, belongs. He became the agent of the property of Judge Barnes, and built the large frame building at the eastern end of the town, later known as the "Cornishmen's Home." Upon its completion it was occupied by William H. Wilson as a tavern. Later it became the property of James Gowan, father of Franklin B. Gowan, who became famous as the able and aggressive president of the Philadelphia and Bead- ing Railway Company and its subsidiary coal and iron company. This building was also for a time used as a store, being owned by William T. Carter and others. It was for many years one of the landmarks of Beaver Meadow, and was finally torn down in 1910. Much of the timber it contained was used in erecting new dwell- ing houses, while some of it was sawed into proper length for ,mine ties. One of the early residents of Beaver Meadow was Henry Brenckman, a native of Germany. He had be- come skilled in the art of brewing beer and had ac- quired the trade of a cooper in the Fatherland. Upon locating in Beaver Meadow he erected a small brewery, probably the first in Carbon county. He personally made the barrels which contained the output of his plant, and kept a tavern. His death occurred in 1860. The early growth and prosperity of Beaver Meadow resulted from the operations of the Beaver Meadow Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP OAEBON COUNTY. 183 Eailroad and Coal Company, the Beaver Meadow Mines, where coal was first produced in Banks town- ship, being situated about a mile west of the town. The railroad to the mines was finished and opened for transportation in the fall of 1836. The machine, blacksmith and car shops of the company were located at Beaver Meadow. The first master mechanic of the shops was Hopkin Thomas, a Welsh immigrant, and one of the pioneer inventors of the Lehigh Valley. Through one of his inventions anthracite coal was first made avail- able a*s fuel for the use of locomotives. He also in- vented and successfully used the chilled cast-iron car wheel, as well as the most improved and successful mine pumps and machinery of the day. Under the supervision of Mr. Thomas, a ten-wheel locomotive, said to have been the first of its kind built in this country, and named the "Nonpareil," was con- structed at Beaver Meadow. The shops were removed to Weatherly in 1842. In 1848, N. E. Penrose erected a foundry here, which he conducted for a short time, then disposing of the property to S. W. and B. W. Hudson. In 1859, B. W. Hudson purchased the interest of his brother and con- tinued the business until 1865. Much of the iron work used in constructing the Mahanoy division of the Le- high Valley Eailroad was turned out from this foundry. After the retirement of B. W. Hudson, the shops passed iato the ownership of the Spring Mountain Coal Company, and were torn down in 1868 and re- moved to Jeanesville. These shops formed the nucleus of the Jeanesville Iron Works, since established at Hazleton, constituting one of the largest industries of that city. Beaver Meadow was already quite a vil- Digitized by Microsoft® IQ^ HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. lage before Hazleton was born, and the people of the last named place once did their trading here. The only coal operation within the borough limits is the Number 4 slope of Coxe Brothers & Company, which was sunli by Jonah Rees, about 1867. It was for a time abandoned, but during the eighties it was sunk to the basin by Coxe Brothers & Company. It is from the foot of this slope that the drainage tunnel through the Spring mountain to Quakake Valley is driven. A postofjfice was established here in 1830, with Wil- liam H. Wilson in charge. The second postmaster was A. G. Brodhead, who, in turn, was succeeded by Mr. Wilson. The present incumbent is Robert Trezise. The first school in the place was kept by Miss Lydia Bidlack, and was opened about the year 1835. A later teacher who served for many years was Thomas Mc- Curly. There are now five graded schools in the town, all being housed in one building. A Presbyterian church was here organized about 1838, largely through the influence of A. H. VanCleve, who was then superintendent of the Beaver Meadow shops. The edifice in which this congregation wor- shiped occupied the site on which the hall of the Pa- triotic Order of Sons of America now stands. The re- moval of the shops to Weatherly affected the congrega- tion, and it declined. The Methodists subsequently conducted services in the church, and upon the erec- tion of a new building by that denomination, in 1874, the adherents of the German Reformed faith found a meeting place in the old edifice for a time. St. Mary's Roman Catholic church was founded in 1841. The original church building stood on the ceme- tery of the parish, a short distance beyond the town on the road to Hazleton. St. Nicholas' church, of Weatherly, and St. Joseph's, of Laurytown, were for- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTY. 185 inerl> missions of this church. During the pastorate of Kev. Francis Brady, the old church was removed to the site of the present building, which was erected during the pastorate of Eev. John J. McEnroe. The cornerstone of the new building was laid in 1904, while the church, which cost about $15,000, was dedicated by the Rt. Eev. Edmund F. Prendergast. Formerly St. Mary's was the only Catholic church in this part of the coal region, and the people of Hazleton, Audenried, Weatherly, Buck Mountain, and other places journeyed hither to worship. St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church was built in 1897. Eev. J. 0. Schlenker, formerly pastor of Christ church, Hazleton, and Eev. D. Gr. Grerberich, of Weath- erly, were the leading spirits in the organization of this congregation. St. Peter's and St. Paul's Greek Catholic chui'ch was erected in 1895, the cornerstone being laid during the month of May. The town is supplied with water by the Citizens' Water Company, organized at about the time of the erection of the borough. Both the Anthracite and the Bell Telephone Com- pany have lines connecting with this place. A rural line connecting with the system of the latter company at Hazleton was built in 1908, Eobert Trezise being the local agent. The streets of the borough were allowed to remain unlighted until 1911, when the Harwood Electric Light and Power Company extended its lines to this point. The town has a fire company, but its equipment is meagre. Thomas Grenfell is the present chief burgess. BOWMANSTOWN BOEOVGB. Bowmanstown, which is a neat and prosperous vil- lage, and which was recently incorporated as a bor- ough, derives its name from John Deter Bowman, who Digitized by Microsoft® 186 , HISTOEY OF CABBON COUNTY. settled here in 1796. He was a grandson of the original settler of that name. In 1808, he built the old stone hotel, which is still occupied and which was a stopping place on the route of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike. The place attained but little significance until the building of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Eailroad, now known as the Central Eailroad of New Jersey, through here. About the year 1855, Henry Bowman uncovered paint ore in the Stony Eidge, near here, and soon there- after began the manufacture of metallic brown paint in its dry state. Later he organized the Poco-Metallic Paint Company, which engaged successfully in the manufacture of this product. This company was suc- ceeded by the Carbon Metallic Paint Company, which is still in existence. Henry Bowman was the father of this industry, being closely followed by Eobert Prince, who in 1858 established the Iron-Ore Metallic Paint Company at Lehigh Gap. In 1879, the plant of the last-named concern was brought to Bowmanstown, where, under the name of the Prince Manufacturing Company, headed by A. C. Prince, the business has since been continued. This company also operates, under lease, the mills of the Carbon Metallic Paint Company. Sand in large quantities is found in the region about Bowmanstown, and the quarrying and shipping of this natural product has been carried on for perhaps fifty years. The first to engage in this business was Jacob Scherer. The vein varies in thickness between twenty and thirty feet, running along the north side of the Stony Eidge. Most of the loose sand has been exhausted, while that which is now being quairied is rock-like in Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 187 texture, and grinding machinery is employed to re- duce it and prepare it for use. About seventy-five men are employed in this industry hereabouts. Another product of the Stony Eidge, which is the treasure-house of this section, is building stone. The stone is a kind of gray granite, for which there is a good demand. The Bowmanstown Silk Company, employing about fifty operatives, was established in 1909, with W. F. Hofford as its president. These are the principal local industries upon which the town depends, but many living here find employment at nearby points. A postofifice, with John Rush in charge, was opened here in 1883. Two rural routes emanating from this office were established in 1904. One runs through East Perm, while the other passes through portions of Towa- mensing and Lower Towamensing townships. The first school in the village was opened in 1844. The original stone building was replaced by a frame structure in 1879. The present handsome two-story brick building, housing all the schools of the town, was erected in 1903, at a cost of $5,000. The Patriotic Order of Sons of America and the Order of Independent Americans both own large and attractive halls which have been recently erected. The congregation of St. John's Evangelical church dates back more than thirty years, when meetings were held in private houses. The present church build- ing was dedicated in 1892. Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church was erected in 1895, previous to which time the Lutheran people wor- shiped in the public school house. Emmanuel's Reformed church was built in 1905, Charles A. Butz being the first pastor. Meetings had previously been held in the Evangelical church. Digitized by Microsoft® 188 HISTORiT or CAEBON COUNTY. In 1856 a German Catholic congregation built a church a short distance from Bowmanstown. This building was destroyed by fire some years ago, after which worship was conducted in the old school house. During the summer of 1911 this building was struck by lightning and was partly demolished, being repaired and re-dedicated during the same season. The only tavern in the place until 1891 was the Bow- manstown Hotel, built in 1808, and kept for many years by John D. Bowman and his descendants. During the latter year, the Center House was opened by Henry Ernst, who conducted it as a temperance house for a time. EAST MAUCE CHUNK BOBOUGH. The principal cause which operated to bring the town of East Mauch Chunk into existence was the scarcity of land available for building purposes in Mauch Chunk proper, of which it originally formed a part. It is situated on the eastern bank of the Lehigh river, opposite to its sister borough, and is a town of homes rather than of industries and business estab- lishments. The locality was known during the early years of its settlement and growth as ' ' The Kettle, ' ' a designa- tion that had a certain degree of appropriateness in view of the great bowl formed by the surrounding mountains. John Burns took up his residence here in 1824, while John Euddle came at a later period. The spot being favorable for the location of a town, affording a large tract of comparatively smooth land, gently sloping towards the river, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, in 1850, laid out about sixty Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Igg acres in lots, whicli were soon disposed of at one hun- dred dollars each. The place grew rapidly, and additions to the original plot were made from time to time. Isaac Bntz was the first merchant in the town; at the expiration of five years he, in 1864, disposed of his business to Elwin Bauer, who, after nearly fifty years still retains it. Others, who later established themselves in various lines of business were, Samuel Kennedy, John Muth, Eobert Bauchspies, John Dick- man and Hoover Brothers. The Centre House, built by Solomon Dreisbach, a native of Northampton county, who came to this local- ity in 1850, was the first hotel. It was kept by him for many years. The wharf of the Beaver Meadow Railroad and the Honeybrook Coal Company was the town's initial in- dustry. After the freshet of 1862, it came under the control of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, being abandoned in 1887. In response to a petition of its people, East Mauch Chunk was incorporated as a borough on January 1, 1854. John Ruddle, who has alreaBy been mentioned as one of the earliest settlers, was chosen as the first chief burgess. The original members of town council were : Jacob S. Wallace, Lucas Ashley, Thomas L. Foster, David Mummey, J. R. Twining and John Beighe. A frame school house, built in the woods, where Fourth and North streets now intersect, was erected in 1851. It was occupied in November of that year. Ellen Thompson was the teacher in charge, while there were twenty pupils in attendance. This was the first school in the town. Mrs. George Barker succeeded Ellen Thompson as teacher. In 1856, another frame Digitized by Microsoft® 190 HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTY. building was erected on the same lot as the first, while still another was opened at the weigh lock. The old building now in use was erected in 1871, when the schools were first regularly graded. E. W. Young was the first principal. In 1900, the present high school building, which is a handsome, well- equipped structure, was built. During the past twenty years, the educational inter- ests of the borough have been under the supervision of P. H. McCabe, a man of practical ideas and general efficiency. The parochial schools of the town were es- tablished under the auspices of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church, in 1874. They were first kept by Sisters of Christian charity, who had been exiled by the Prussian government. The postoffice was here opened in May, 1870, with J. M. Dreisbach, now president of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company, as the postmaster. His deputy was Elwin Bauer, who attended to the duties of the office. Sis churches now supply the means of grace to the people of East Mauch Chunk: St. John's Episcopal church was started as a mis- sion of St. Mark's, of Mauch Chunk. This was during the rectorship of Rev. Peter Eussell. On August 16, 3 867, the cornerstone of the present church edifice was laid by the Rt. Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D.D., Bishop of Pennsylvania. The building was conse- crated on December 23, 1875, by the Rt. Rev. M. A. DeWolfe Howe, D.D., Bishop of Central Pennsylvania. St. John's was organized as an independent parish on October 12, 1891, Rev. A. A. Bresee, now of Lehighton, being the first rector. The rectory was completed two years later. The Methodist Episcopal church was also founded as a mission of that denomination in Mauch Chunk. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 191 General Charles Albright and R. Q. Butler purchased the lot on which, in 1868, a chapel was erected, while Rev. Charles Bickley was appointed as pastor. The chapel, which has since been replaced by a larger and more modern building, was dedicated on the evening of December 16, 1868. A flourishing Sunday school was at once established, constituting one of the principal sources of the congregation's strength. C. A. Rex, the well-known Mauch Chunk merchant, has been the su- perintendent of this school for nearly forty years. St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church was founded in 1871, the first pastor being Rev. G. Frende, who was then stationed at Lehighton. During the following year he was succeeded by Rev. William Heinan, one of the ablest and best-known members of the priesthood in this section of Pennsylvania. He was particularly suc- cessful as a church builder, having been instrumental in the erection of churches in various localities. It was under his leadership that the massive and costly temple in which St. Joseph's congregation now wor- ships was erected in 1897. On September 5, 1878, the Reformed and Lutheran people of the borough organized a union church. Prior to this religious services had been conducted in the public school house at Fourth and North streets at occasional intervals for many years. The cornerstone of the union church was laid in September, 1878. In 1893, the Lutherans purchased the interest of the Re- formed people, since which time the two congregations have been independent of each other. The original building is still in use, although it was remodeled in 1905. After the separation, the Reformed element, under the leadership of Rev. Morgan Peters, now of Palmer- Digitized by Microsoft® 192 I HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. ton, built a new churcli. This was erected during the same year in which the division took place. The Memorial Presbyterian church was the out- growth of a mission started here by the First Presby- terian church of Mauch Chunk. The congregation has been on a self-sustaining basis since February 14, 1903. Its house of worship was erected twenty years previ- ous to that time. Eev. A. J. Wright was the first pas- tor in charge. The church now has an active member- ship of about one hundred and forty. The plant of the Dery Silk Mill constitutes the largest industry of East Mauch Chunk, affording em- ployment to more than four hundred operatives. The mill has been in operation for more than twenty-five years. A. W. Leisenring was prominent among those who secured its establishment. Charles Neast & Company have also operated a large planing mill here for years. The Eagle Brewery was built by Easton capitalists about the time of the Civil War. Since 1879 it has been owned and operated by Pius H. Schweibinz, who re- built and enlarged the original plant. There are several smaller establishments giving em- ployment to labor within the limits of the borough, among the number being a facing mill, located in the Narrows, and owned by the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- tion Company. The power plants of the Mauch Chunk Heat, Power and Electric Light Company and the Carbon Transit Company are also situated in the bor- ough. East Mauch Chunk has two fire companies. The first to be organized was the Onoko Hose Company, the building of which was erected in 1890. This also is the meeting place of town council. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. 193 Edward Armbruster, son of Charles Armbruster, the present burgess of the town, was the leading spirit in the organization of the Fairview Hose Company, in 1907. Both companies have fine buildings and good equipments. The town has been supplied with water by the Mauch Chunk Water Company since the beginning, deriving its light from the Mauch Chunk Heat, Power and Elec- tric Light Company. Since 1892 it has been connected with its sister bor- ough by means of an electric railway, now operated by the Carbon Transit Company. During the same year the Progressive Building and Loan Association was organized. This institution has been a distinct and material benefit to the town. Many of the substantial, and beautiful homes in the place were erected through its agency. Charles Neast is the president of the as- sociation, while Philip Swank is its secretary. Prior to 1906 the town depended for banking facili- ties upon Mauch Chunk. But on the twenty-eighth of November of that year the Citizens' National Bank of East Mauch Chunk was chartered. Quentin Stemler and J. H. Leibenguth have served as president and cashier, respectively, since the opening of the institu- tion, which declared its first dividend in July, 1910. The capital of the bank is fifty thousand dollars. East Mauch Chunk has two burying grounds, that of the Evergreen Cemetery Association, started in 1876, and that of St. Joseph's Catholic church. The first census of the borough, taken in 1860, showed the population to be 833. In 1910, the number had risen to 3,548. The place is divided into three wards, of which the Third is the least populous. East Mauch Chunk is primarily a railroad town, the majority of its people depending directly or indirectly, Digitized by Microsoft® 194 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. on the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central Rail- road of New Jersey. EAST PENN TOWNSHIP. The township of Penn, embracing that portion of the territory of Carbon county lying between the Blue mountain and the western bank of the Lehigh river, together with a part of Schuylkill county, was set off from Towamensing in the year 1768. In 1808, East Penn, West Penn and Lausanne were formed from Penn township. East Penn embraced the present township of Mahoning and the greater part of Mauch Chunk. West Penn became a part of Schuylkill county in 1811. In 1827 the territory of East Penn was reduced by the setting otf of Mauch Chunk township, the major portion of which was taken from this district. Fifteen years later, Mahoning was carved from East Penn, since which time there have been no changes in its boundaries. It is bounded on the north by Mahoning township, on the east by the Lehigh river, on the south by the Blue mountain, which separates it from Lehigh county, and on the west by the Schuylkill. Lizard creek flowing eastwardly through the town- ship to the Lehigh, is the principal stream. The valley drained by this stream is devoted principally to agri- culture, containing many fine farms and comfortable homes. The Lizard Creek branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, which was opened in 1890, and an extension of the Lehigh and New England Railroad completed in 1912, pass through the township. The first settlers of East Penn were English people, bearing the family names of Tipple, PearsoU, Rhoads, Johnson, Meyers, Washburn, Thomas, Custard and Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 195 others. They received the grants for their lands about the year 1750. Subsequent to the Revolution, most of them emi- grated to Canada, being succeeded here by Palatinates with whom the remaining families became intermar- ried, and, in time, by them entirely absorbed. It was formerly believed that the Indian missionary village of Wechquetank, established by the Moravians soon after the destruction of Gnadenhiitten, was situ- ated in the Lizard Creek Valley; but recent research has demonstrated that this village was located in the present township of Polk, Monroe county. The eastern section of the township, especially along the Lehigh, was not permanently settled until after 1800. The western portion was settled by English and Germans, who came in soon after the close of the war of Independence. The locality about Ben Salem church was the center of the settlement. Among the best known of the German pioneers of the township was Conrad Eehrig, whose father came to America at an early day, locating at or near Phila- delphia. Conrad served in the Revolution, after which he married and built his home in the Lizard Creek Valley. He was one of the founders of Ben Salem church, in the graveyard of which repose his remains. His descendants in this portion of the state are quite numerous. The father of the Andreas family in East Perm bore the Christian name of Martin. He emigrated from Alsace, on the Ehine, on board the ship "Leslie," ar- riving in Philadelphia in 1749. He, too, served as a soldier in the Revolution. Jacob and Peter, his sons, jointly purchased and oc- cupied, in 1793, what is now commonly known as the Nimson farm, at Ashfield. Their brother, William, 14 Digitized by Microsoft® 196 HISTOEY OP CAEBON COTJNTT. came to the township in 1807, locating in the western portion. Jacob Dinkey, who in 1810 purchased the property first occupied by Jacob and Peter Andreas, was a na- tive of Whitehall township, Lehigh county. Eemoving to East Penn, he opened a tavern, store and black- smith shop. Upon his farm was built the first school house in the eastern part of the township. He served for many years as a justice of the peace, and was in 1843 elected as one of the first associate judges of Carbon county. Eeuben, one of his six children, succeeded his father in the conduct of the tavern and as justice of the peace. He was the father of Eurana Dinkey, who be- came the wife of Charles M. Schwab, the millionaire steel manufacturer. Her brother, Alva, is the president of the Carnegie Steel Company, and another brother, Charles, is the head of the Edgar Thompson steel works. It appears that Andrew and Charles Steigerwalt were the first representatives of that family in the township. A. B. Nimson came here in 1824 as a school teacher, afterwards taking a prominent part in the political affairs of the county, being thrice elected to the office of register and recorder. Stephen Balliet and Samuel Helffrich, in 1828, erected Perm Forge and Furnace, near the present vil- lage of Ashfield, which was then called Pennsville. The last-named of the partners died in 1830, after which Balliet became the sole owner. In 1837, he es- tablished his home in the locality and, purchasing sev- eral thousand acres of land, started a furnace about three-quarters of a mile farther down the mountain, employing charcoal as fuel. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 19 7 Following the death of Mr. Balliet, in 1854, the fur- nace was successively operated by Solomon Boyer, C. H. Nimson, and John Balliet, a son of Stephen. It was abandoned years ago. Ben Salem Lutheran and Eef ormed church, the first to be organized in the township, was founded about 1790. The first house of worship was of logs, hav- ing galleries on the sides. It was completed in 1797 and stood until the erection of the present brick building, in 1855. In the burial ground adjoining the church sleep many of the forefathers of this region, among the number Eev. Johannes Schwarbach, the first Lutheran pastor of the congregation, who died before the completion of the church. The Lutheran and Eeformed church at Ashfield was erected in 1851, being rebuilt thirty years later. The earliest schools of the township were conducted under the auspices of Ben Salem church, and only the German language was taught. In 1840, the district ac- cepted the free school law. A postoffice was established at Ashfield about 1828, Jacob Dinkey being the first postmaster. After many years it was abandoned, but was re- opened in 1883, with Penrose George in charge. W. A. Balliet is the present postmaster. A rural delivery route, starting at Bowmanstown, passes through the township. Building sand of good quality is found in this dis- trict, and there are now several quarries in operation. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER XIV. EAST SIDE BOBOUGS. East Side borough enjoys tlie distinction of being the smallest incorporated town in Pennsylvania. It was formerly known as East Haven, lying directly op- posite White Haven on the east bank of the Lehigh river. It is bounded on all sides excepting the west by Kidder township, of which it formed a part until Janu- ary 22, 1892, when the borough was incorporated con- formably to a decree of court. The western boundary is marked by the Lehigh. In 1900, the year when its first census was taken, the town had a population of 210. During the succeeding decade, this number was augmented by but ten. There are less than forty voters in the place. Almost without exception the men .of the village are employed as railroaders. The "Wyoming division of the Lehigh Valley road passes through the town, while the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the Central Eailroad of New Jersey is on the opposite bank of the river. The place is pleasantly situated and practically all of the people own the homes which they occupy. A single school is maintained, but there is no church, the inhabitants worshiping at White Haven. In common with White Haven, the borough is noted as a health resort. Sunnyrest Sanatorium, the first private institution to be opened in Pennsylvania for the treatment of tuberculosis, is here located. The free hospital for poor consumptives was opened at White Haven in July, 1901, the location being chosen for its pure, bracing air, its dry soil, and its accessibil- 198 Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OE CAKBON COUNTY. 109 ity. The success of the treatment at the free sana- torium was so gratifying that at once there was a de- mand for a private sanatorium. It was to meet this demand that Sunnyrest Sana- torium was opened by Elwell Stockdale, in November, 1901. Previous to this time Mr. Stockdale had been the superintendent in charge of the free hospital. The institution is situated in an attractive park, among beautiful trees and shrubbery, and consists of an administration building, a central dining hall, cot- tages, bungalows, and tent houses, a nurses ' home and quarters for other employes. A dairy and a poultry farm of more than fifty acres are conducted in connec- tion with the sanatorium. The institution has been successful and prosperous from the start, its prestige drawing patients from all parts of North and South America, and even from the islands of the Pacific ocean. The place has an eleva- tion of twelve hundred feet above sea level. FBANKLIN TOWN SB IP. As Virginia once claimed the proud title, "Mother of the Presidents, ' ' so Franklin township is coming to be known as the "Mother of the Sheriffs" of Carbon county. Certain it is that most of those who have been called to fill this office during a long period of years have come from this division of the county. Originally Franklin township formed a part of old Towamensing, and in 1841, when a division was made, it became a part of Upper Towamensing, or, as it is known to-day, Towamensing. It so remained until the year 1851, when it was separately organized and the new township named "Franklin" by the court. This designation was deemed appropriate because it was on the borders of its territory that Benjamin Digitized by Microsoft® 200 HISTOEY OP GAEBON COUNTY. Franklin erected Fort Allen as a measure of protection for tlie white settlers after the Indian massacre at Gnadenhiitten. The Poho Poco creek, crossing Towamensing town- ship, flows westwardly through Franklin, and at a point southeast of Weissport turns abruptly and runs nearly parallel with the river, its waters mingling with those of the Lehigh at Parryville. The township is uneven, but is well adapted to agricultural pursuits. Many of its people, especially those of East Weissport, Eickertsville and Phifer's Corner are employed in the repair shops of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad at Packer- ton. The old state road leading from Lehighton to Stroudsburg extends through the district. The stretch running from Weissport to Harrity, a distance of about two miles, has recently been rebuilt and placed in excellent condition. About the year 1750 a few families settled withia the present limits of the township, but all removed a few years later when the Indians took the war path and bade fair to exterminate all the whites who re- mained along the border. It appears that the first permanent settlement in Franklin township was made by the Solt family, and their descendants are still to be found in the district. Before the close of the Eevolution, John, David and Daniel Solt lived here. John Arner was of the family who came into this region soon after the war of Independence. The people of that name have now become so numerous that they have formed a family association, holding annual reunions in the township that bring hundreds together from various sections of the country. Jost Dreisbach was also of an old family who came to the township before 1800. At about the same time Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 201 George Walk settled on Saw Mill creek, where he car- ried on lumbering operations for many years. Jacob Houseknecht was a landholder here in 1781, his farm including the present site of the Harrity hotel. In 1826, David Heimbach, Sr., of Lehigh county, pur- chased two tracts of land in what is now Franklin township — one of eighty-six acres from Martin House- knecht, and another of forty-three from Henry Thomas. In 1809, he had built the furnace called "Hampton," in Lehigh county, while, about 1817, he and his son David built a forge on the Aquashicola creek, near Little Gap. The next year after the purchase of this property, or in 1827, the elder Heimbach erected on the present site of Harrity, along the bank of the Poho Poco creek, a furnace which he called "New Hampton." He placed his son, John, in charge of it. John Heimbach re- mained in charge of the furnace until 1834. David Heimbach, the elder, died at his home in Allentown during that year, and his sons, David and John at- tended the funeral. David at the time was the owner of the "Clarissa" forge on the Aquashicola creek. Upon their return to Carbon county, both men were stricken with typhoid fever, of which they died, — one at night and the other on the morning of the next day. In 1836 the property was acquired by William Mil- ler, by whom the name was changed to "Maria," in honor of his wife. The furnace was operated under various owners until January 1, 1859, when it was blown out, its fires never to be rekindled. The ore that was used at this operation was brought up from the iron region on the Lehigh Canal. Digitized by Microsoft® 202 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. James and Daniel Laury, in the year 1849, erected a forge on Pine run, near the point where that stream empties into Poho Poco creek. It was carried on but a few years. The history of the boat yard which the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company conducts at East Weissport dates back to the year 1832, when Lewis Weiss com- menced building boats on the bank of the canal for the Morris Canal and Banking Company and the Le- high Coal and Navigation Company. Practically all the boats used on the Lehigh Canal are built and repaired at this yard. About twenty men are employed, A. T. Koch being the foreman. The fence factory, located at Phifer's Corner, was established by Landon B. Wagner, who still owns and operates it. Formerly he also manufactured stone- ware and pottery, but this branch of the business has been abandoned. The fish hatchery, located on a small tributary of the Poho Poco creek, a short distance from Harrity, was established by Charles Wolters, Sr., of Philadelphia, in 1899. Mr. Wolters has since died, and the place is now owned by his son, Charles Wolters. This is pro- noimced by fish experts to be the most successful hatch- ery in the United States. Its success has largely been due to the intelligent efforts of Henry H. Wert, who superintended the construction of the plant and who has been in continuous charge since that time. East Weissport has two wagon and carriage buUding estab- lishments. The first was started by Stephen Ziegen- fuss in 1890 and is now conducted by his son, John A. Ziegenfuss. The other is that of H. R. Kreidler, es- tablished by him in 1892. The first school in what is now Franklin township was opened in 1822. Anterior to that time the children Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY or CARBON COUNTY. 203 of the district attended a school kept on the site of the Gnadenhiitten mission. The school that was then opened, however, was conducted in the German lan- guage, being taught by Lewis Schnell. The only books used were the primer, the Psalter, and the Bible. In 1827 the school was removed three miles south, to the homestead of Eev. Charles Eickenberg. James Kueimer and John Keifer were among those who taught this school. The first named had a reputation as a good disciplinarian, and is said to have laid espe- cial stress on having the children commit to memory hymns and prayers, which were regularly repeated be- fore recitations. In 1836, Towamensing township accepted the free school law, and as has already been said, Franklin was then a part of Towamensing. The first public school house in Franklin was con- structed of logs that were furnished by Daniel Solt, having been taken from an ancient building that was erected before the Revolution. The second building was located at Weissport. That portion of the town- ship lying along the east bank of the Lehigh Canal gradually outgrew the rest of the district, and in 1890 was organized as the Franklin Independent School Dis- trict. This district has a high school and five graded schools. The township proper has seven school houses, containing eight rooms. Among the villages of Franklin township the first in importance and population is East Weissport, which is only arbitrarily separated from the borough, of "Weissport, and to which its history more properly be- longs. This village has many of the conveniences and improvements of modern life. It has an excellent water supply and is electrically lighted by the plant of Lehighton borough. Digitized by Microsoft® 204 HISTOET OF CAEBON COUNTY. Eickertsville is also situated on the east bank of the Lehigh Canal. The land on which the settlement is lo- cated was formerly owned by Joseph Wintermuth, a brick maker. He sold eight acres, in 1864, to Emanuel Eeinhart, who, in turn, sold most of the land to J. K. Eickert, who made a plot and sold lots that have since been used for building purposes. The principal cause that led to the building up of this place was the character of the ground, it being higher than the land about Weissport, and, therefore, not liable to devastation by flood. Phifer's Corner has grown up in the last quarter of a century. It lies on the line of the state road running from Lehighton to Stroudsburg, being but a short dis- tance east of Weissport. It derives its name from Alexander T. Phifer, who conducted the first store here, and who was instrumental in securing the settle- ment and upbuilding of the place. Most of the homes here are neat and new, and are owned by those who occupy them. Harrity, about a mile farther east on the state road, is the namesake of William F. Harrity, who was a Philadelphia business man and a prominent Demo- cratic leader. It was at this point that the Maria fur- nace was located. There is now a hotel, a store, grist mill and several dwellings in the place. Walksville is in the northeastern part of the town- ship. The Price Paint Company conducted an ochre mill here for a number of years, but it was removed many years ago. At Beltzville, which is now the home of David Beltz, John Bauman years ago erected a hotel, at which the elections for old Towamensing were held. Later, Mr. Beltz conducted a hotel and store here, but he now confines himself to agricultural pursuits. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 205 There are two rural mail routes through, the town- ship, both having been established on September 1, 1903. They start from the Weissport postoffice. Gordon Kresge and Joel H. Boyer have been the car- riers on these routes since the inauguration of the service. The line of the Indian Ridge Rural Telephone Com- pany, connecting with the Bell system at Lehighton, and that of the Consolidated Telephone Company also cover the township. There are at present three Lutheran, four Evan- gelical, and one Reformed church in the district. A union Sunday school is maintained at Walksville. St. Paul 's Evangelical Lutheran congregation at Big Creek was organized in 1841 by Rev. F. W. Meendsen. He was born in Denmark in the year 1780, emigrating to America in 1808. He was an indefatigable worker, and was one of the best known preachers of his church in all Pennsylvania. KIDBER TOWNSHIP. strange as it may seem to-day, Kidder township, which is as undeniably a portion of Pennsylvania as is the land on which Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are built, was for years claimed and actually governed by Connecticut. Under the terms of her charter, given in 1662, and antedating that of William Penn by a score of years, Connecticut claimed a strip of land as wide as herself and extending westward to the Pacific ocean. It was admitted by the claimant that New York presented a barrier; but overleaping this, the strip began at the Delaware river and embraced the whole northern sec- tion of the state. The southern boundary line was formed by the forty-first parallel, which crosses the Digitized by Microsoft® 206 HISTORY OF CABBON COUNTY. state at Stroudsburg, and this line took in all of the present township of Kidder and a small fraction of Penn Forest. With this claim as a foundation, the Susquehanna Company, numbering eight hundred proprietors, was formed to buy of the Indians and settle a large tract of land in northeastern Pennsylvania. In 1753, at the treaty of Albany, eighteen Indian chiefs, representing the Six Nations, gave a deed, con- veying to the New Englanders the desired territory, in exchange for a few inexpensive presents. At that time the governor of Pennsylvania had not acquired any title to this soil from the aborigines. However, in 1768, a treaty was negotiated with the Indians, under the provisions of which the proprie- taries became possessed of the land which had pre- viously been sold to the Susquehanna Company. In 1774 the general assembly of Connecticut passed an act erecting all of the territory to which claim was laid, from the river Delaware to a line fifteen miles west of the Susquehanna, into the county of Westmore- land, attaching to the county of Lichfield. The territory in question comprised about five thou- sand square miles, equal in extent to one-ninth of the whole area of Pennsylvania. The town of Westmore- land, occupying the site of modern Wilkes-Barre, was made the seat of justice for the new county. In accordance with the acf of assembly, the governor of Connecticut issued a proclamation forbidding settle- ment within the limits of the territory in dispute, ex- cept under authority of that colony. This was followed by a similar proclamation from the governor of Pennsylvania, asserting the authority of the proprietaries. Digitized by Microsoft® niSTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 207 Settlers from Connecticut in large numbers were al- ready on the ground and the influx steadily continued. A miniature war followed, which centered around Westmoreland, now Wilkes-Barre. Forts were built and captured; prisoners were taken and held as host- ages, the intruding offenders being placed in jail at Easton. But the Pennsylvanians were worsted in the encounters. Connecticut exercised jurisdiction, and the county of Westmoreland regularly elected representa- tives to the assembly of Connecticut. Finally the Continental Congress prevailed upon the contending parties to cease their efforts till a legal settlement could be effected. The Eevolutionary War interfered with this. At the close of that struggle, the question at issue was wisely submitted to arbitration, and the commission which was appointed to hear the case unanimously decided that the land in dispute belonged to Pennsylvania. Thus ended the struggle which for a generation had been in progress to determine the ownership of this large portion of our domain. Kidder township was organized in 1849 from terri- tory previously embraced in Penn Forest, which formed a part of Monroe county until 1843, the year of the establishment of Carbon county. It was named after Judge Luther Kidder, who was then on the bench. It is bounded on the north and west by the Lehigh river, on the east by the Tobyhanna creek and Monroe county, and on the south by Mud run and the Dilltown creek, which separate it from Penn Forest. Mud pond. Round pond. Grass lake and Lake Har- mony, formerly known as Big pond are situated in the western portion of the township. Black creek. Hays creek and Mud run flow westwardly into the Lehigh. The main line of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad runs Digitized by Microsoft® 208 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. parallel to the river along tlie western border of the township. Dense forests of pine and hemlock formerly flour- ished here ; but the district is now denuded of its heavy timber, and it is one of the most sparsely populated sections of the county. Lumbering operations on an extensive scale were begun in the forties. One of the largest of the early landholders was Mahlon K. Taylor, of Bucks county, who owned over six thousand acres about the mouth of Hickory run, where he had a store and a wharf. About 1845 he sold a portion of his holdings to Israel Day and Samuel Saylor, of Easton, who were promi- nent among the lumbermen of the township for many years. It was at one of the mills of Mahlon K. Taylor & Company, near Saylorsville, that a large dam gave way during a freshet in 1847, resulting in the loss of seven lives. Among the best-known lumbermen along Hickory run were Isaac and Samuel Gould. A settlement, which came to be known as Hickory Eun sprang up about their operations. A postoffice was here established, while a Methodist church and a school house were erected. Saylorsville, another lumber camp on Hickory run, was named for Samuel Saylor, of the firm of Day & Saylor, who owned mills at this place. Leonardsville, which to-day is only a name, grew up about the mills of John Burke, who became the owner of the land in the vicinity about 1850. The place de- rived its name from William Leonard, who was the owner's foreman. Bridgeport dates back to 1856, when Keck, Childs & Company began cutting timber on a tract of several Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 209 thousand acres, purchased from George M. Hollenbeck, who had previously erected a small saw-raill at the mouth of Hays creek. A portion of this tract was soon thereafter sold to Thomas SmuU & Company, who built a large tannery thereon. This plant was greatly enlarged in 186G, giv- ing it a capacity of eighty thousand hides a year. This was then the largest tannery in the country. The vil- lage which was built about this establishment was named Lehigh Tannery. A postoffice was here estab- lished in 1866. The ownership of the tannery changed hands several times, being last operated by I. M. Hol- comb & Company. It was destroyed by j&re in 1875, and the supply of bark in the vicinity having become prac- tically exhausted, it was not rebuilt. The inter-county bridge across the Lehigh at this point was built in 1868, Albrightsville lies about fifteen miles northeast of Mauch Chunk, being situated on the southern border of the township. In 1844 Joseph Serfass built a tavern here, which he kept until 1850. He also started a store in an adjoining building which was kept for many years. The tavern is now kept by Herbert Getz. David Snyder was the first postmaster at Albrightsville. The postmaster now is Emery Getz, who conducts a store just across the line in Penn Forest township. Mud Eun, situated at the junction of the stream of that name with the Lehigh river, is a station on the Lehigh Valley Eailroad. Formerly there were many saw mills along the stream from this point to Albrights- ville. Mud Eun will long be remembered as the scene of one of the most disastrous wrecks Tn the history of railroading, entailing the loss of sixty-six lives, and costing the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Company, on the Digitized by Microsoft® 210 ' HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. line of which the catastrophe occurred, hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement of damage claims. The accident took place on the night of October 10, 1888, and those whose lives were thus suddenly and horribly snuffed out were chiefly residents of the Wy- oming and Lackawanna Valleys. On the day in question the various Catholic temper- ance societies of the Scranton diocese held their annual parade in Hazleton^ and excursion trains carrying thou- sands of people from Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and near- by towns were run over the road by way of Penn Haven Junction to the place of the pageant. Returning, the first train left Hazleton at five o 'clock in the evening, and other sections followed at intervals of ten minutes. The first four trains reached their des- tination in safety, while the fifth halted for a few minutes in obedience to orders at Mud Eun. While this train was standing still on the track near the station, the sixth section, drawn by two locomotives which were in charge of Harry E. Cook, of Wilkes- Barre, and Thomas Major, of East Mauch Chunk, who failed to see any signal of warning until too late, ap- proached at high speed and crashed into the rear end of the forward train with appalling results. The coaches of the stationary train were literally rent asunder by the terrible impact of the collision, while the scene of horror that ensued cannot be de- picted. When the onrushing train came to a stand- still, the pilot and boiler of the locomotive which was leading were heaped with the bodies of the dead and dying. To add to the misery of those who had escaped immediate destruction in the collision fire broke out amid the ruins of the wreck, and some were roasted to death. Fifty-seven people were killed outright, while nine others subsequently died from their injuries, Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 211 and many were maimed for life. Thirty-six of those killed were members of a boys ' drill corps from Avoca, a town which then numbered bnt three hundred fami- lies, and which is situated midway between Wilkes- Barre and Scranton. The accident occurred at about eight o'clock, while the night was intensely dark, ren- dering the rescue of the wounded doubly difficult. Cook and Major, the enginemen of the last section, were nearly crazed by the magnitude of the catas- trophe for which they no doubt feared they would be blamed, and they spent the night in hiding in the woods. An effort was subsequently made to fasten the respon- sibility for the wreck upon them. They were charged with criminal negligence, and were placed on trial at the April term of court in 1889 ; both were acquitted. At the time of the accident, Major was a young man of about thirty-six years; so great was the mental strain under which he labored, however, that when he appeared in court at the opening of the trial, six months later, his hair was white as snow, and he walked with the feeble and tottering step of an old man. Kidder township, in common with other nearby dis- tricts, suffered an irreparable loss in the destruction of its forests by the great fire of 1875. The fire broke out near the mouth of Mud run on the 14th of May, and at first burned but slowly. Eight days later, how- ever, driven by a strong west wind, it swept eastward into Monroe county with ruinous results, destroying not only the major portion of the standing timber in the territory visited by the flames, but reducing to ashes many homes, mills, and other improvements, besides large quantities of logs and sawed lumber. Of the land thus denuded of its timber, which was the principal natural resource of the district, but a small portion has since been improved or placed under cultivation. 15 Digitized by Microsoft® 212 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. Where the forests formerly stood, huckleberries now grow in great profusion, and these are gathered and marketed on a scale of some importance. Numerous small birch and wintergreen distilleries have also grown up, their aggregate output equaling that of any district of similar size in the United States. Game and fish are quite plentiful in the township, the sparse population making it possible for the bear and the deer to live here. In 1903, the Hayes Creek Trout Company was formed by a number of men from Freeland, Pa., and a hatchery was established on the stream of that name, about three miles east of White Haven. The company owns 880 acres of land at this point. Fifty acres of this land is covered with small ponds, and other im- provements connected with the hatchery, while the re- mainder serves as a game preserve. The region about Lake Harmony has in recent years become quite popular as a summer resort. Numerous cottages or bungalows have been erected, principally by people from Mauch Chunk and Allentown, while many, lured by the cool breezes and quietness of the retreat, spend a portion of the heated term of each year as campers on the shores of the lake. The alti- tude of the locality is quite high, and the nights are always cool; the lake itself is over a mile in length, while at some places the water is very deep. It is drained by the Tobyhanna creek. Kidder township has four schools, located respec- tively at Albrightsville, Hickory Eun, Lehigh Tannery, and on Hayes creek, near the trout hatchery. There are three taverns — the American Hotel and the Wer- nett House at Albrightsville, and the Valley House at Lehigh Tannery. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 213 St. Paul's Lutheran church at Albrightsville, was erected in 1882. Missionaries of that denomination preached in this vicinity as early as 1847. The members of the Evangelical church also con- duct services here. lansfo:ed bobouge. Lansf ord, the most populous town in Carbon county, is situated in the heart of the richest anthracite coal district in the world. It is located in the Panther Creek Valley, on the line of Schuylkill county, nearly midway between Mauch Chunk and Tamaqua, and is reached by the Central Eailroad of New Jersey. It bears the middle name of Asa Lansford Foster, who was born in Massachusetts, and who was prominently connected with the development of the mining industry of the Le- high region. He was the leading spirit in the formation of the Buck Mountain Coal Company, and drove one of the first tunnels in the Panther Creek Valley, being one of the foremost authorities on the geology of the coal regions. His death occurred in 1868, in the sev- enty-first year of his age. An appropriate memorial marks his resting place in the cemetery at Mauch Chunk. Lansford had its beginnings in two mining hamlets, known as Ashton and Storm Hill, and grew up as new operations were begun by the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- tion Company, which owns the mines through this val- ley. Storm Hill was so designated because a house built in the vicinity by a man named Peter Fisher blew over in a severe storm. David Williams, a Welshman, who came from Hazle- ton, and who was an expert geologist, planned and supervised the driving of some of the first tunnels in this section. Operations were begun about 1838. Digitized by Microsoft® 214 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. Planes were built from the valley to the mountain top at Summit Hill, whence the coal was transported to Mauch Chunk over the Switchback Railroad. The first coal was carried up these planes in 1846, but it was not until a few years later that the tunnels in the valley produced much coal. The growing importance of the new mines, the build- ing of the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad, early in the sixties, the driving of the tunnel through the mountain between Hanto and this place, furnishing easy access to the outside world, all contributed to the rapid growth of Lansford and operated to draw life away from the parent town of Summit Hill. During 1870-71, the construction and repair shops and the offices of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany were removed from Summit Hill to Lansford, fur- ther emphasizing the tendency alluded to. Land in the beginning was cheap, and lots were then sold for one hundred dollars which to-day, in some in- stances, are valued at more than twenty thousand dol- lars. Some of the early residents of the place, realizing its possibilities and discounting the future, amassed snug fortunes through this tremendous increase in the value of real estate. Those who first located here were principally of the Welsh, Irish and Scotch nationalities; but in later years, as in other towns of the coal regions, representa- tives of the countries of southern Europe have pressed in with increasing numbers. For more than thirty-five years, William D. Zehner, who had his offices here, was the superintendent of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. He retired in 1906, being succeeded by Baird Snyder, Jr., who re- signed early in 1912. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 215 During the early days the stores here were conducted by the company, giving little scope to individual enter- prise in this direction. With the abandonment of the company stores, however, numerous and varied busi- ness establishments sprang up. Among the first to enter the field were : Albert J. Thomas, J. C. Edwards, C. 0. Edwards, A. M. Neumiller, Charles Kline, Eeese Watkins, Howell Evans, John Quinn, D. E. Davis, D. J. Mathew, D. R. Hughes, William Y. Evans, and E. War- ren & Company. Some of these are still among the prominent business men of the town. The postoffice here was established on December 1, 1873, under the name of Ashton, with Thomas W. Wil- liams as postmaster. It was thus designated until early in 1877, when the town was incorporated as a borough and the name changed to Lansf ord. Prior to this Lans- ford formed a part of Mauch Chunk township. The place is divided into three wards, named East, Middle and West, respectively. Since 1897 the postofiice has been in charge of Nathan Tanner, a veteran of the Civil war. This office was designated as a postal savings bank during the summer of 1911. Free delivery of the mail was inaugurated in the fall of 1912. As in other respects, the schools of the town were controlled by the township authorities until 1877. The first school building to be put up under the au- thority of the borough was erected in the Middle ward in 1879. It is still in use, and is known as the "high school" building. Two buildings have since been erected in the East ward, and one in the West ward. The schools were but partially graded until 1878, when L. Huber was appointed to the principalship. He was followed by A. G. C. Smith, now superintendent of the schools of Delaware county. The position of borough Digitized by Microsoft® 23^6 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. superintendent of schools was created in 1903, with A. A. Killian as the incumbent. Two years later he was succeeded by E. E. Kuntz, the present superintendent. Under the requirements of the state department of public instruction, the high school df the place was raised to the first class in 1903. A good library is main- tained in connection with the school, and the physical and chemical departments are fairly well equipped. The parochial schools of St. Michael's (Slovak) Catholic church were opened in 1906. They are at present taught by seven Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Several hundred children are in attendance. The first attempt to light the streets by means of elec- tricity was made directly by the borough, but the serv- ice was unsatisfactory, while the cost was excessive, as is commonly the case under municipal management. On nights when the moon shone, there were no lights at all, while at other times they were turned off at midnight. Yet the cost of each light per year was one hundred and fifty dollars. After some years, the community grew impatient with this state of affairs, and disposed of its plant to the Panther Valley Heat, Power and Electric Light Company for ten thousand dollars. This company was chartered on February 20, 1893, and has since given the town good service at reasonable rates. Under its management incandescent lights were installed in the homes and business establishments of Lansford, and charges were based on the quantity of electricity fur- nished, as indicated by a meter. During the first ten years street lights, which were now kept burning dur- ing the whole of each night, were supplied at the rate of one hundred dollars each by the year. At the ex- piration of this period the price was reduced to ninety- five dollars for each light. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 217 By extending its system to other towns in the Pan- ther Creek Valley, the company has been enabled to give still cheaper service, and is now providing street lights at an annual cost of sixty-five dollars each. George M. Davies is the president of the company. From the beginning Lansford has been supplied with water by the Panther Valley Water Company which is controlled by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The town is protected from fire by the American Fire Company, organized in 1887, but not incorporated until 1894. In 1894 a brick building costing twelve thousand dol- lars was erected by the borough. This is the home of the fire department and the meeting place of town council. The municipality has always been liberal in its sup- port of the fire department, which is well organized and equipped with modern apparatus.- The sewer system has been extended from time to time in keeping with the growth of the town. Much of the revenue required in the making of mu- nicipal improvements has been derived from taxing the underground wealth, a source of income which but few towns have. The mammoth vein here is in some instances three hundred feet thick, while shafts have been sunk to the depth of a thousand feet without reaching the basin, or the bottom of the coal. Among the important factors which have contributed to make Lansford a town of homes have been the build- ing and loan associations, the first of which, in this vicinity, was the Fidelity, of Summit Hill. A number of others have followed, and all have been honestly and successfully managed. Digitized by Microsoft® 218 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. The Panther Valley Building and Loan Association, now performing useful service, was organized in 1903. The Miners' Bank, which had previously existed at Summit Hill, was removed to Lansford in 1880, and was the first monetary institution in the place. The bank failed in 1883. The First National Bank of Lansford was chartered in 1899. Its capital in the beginning was fifty thousand dollars, which was doubled in 1909. The bank now has deposits of over a million dollars, and has a large sur- plus fund. The present building was erected in 1904. A. J. Thomas has been the president of the institution from the start, while W. H. Kohler and C. Fred Kline have served as cashiers. The Citizens' National Bank was chartered in 1903, having a capital of fifty thousand dollars. It did busi- ness in rented quarters until 1909, when a splendid building, costing forty thousand dollars was built and occupied. A surplus of over thirty thousand dollars has been earned by the bank. T. J. Nusbaum and M. A. Whetstone originally served as president and cash- ier, respectively. Andrew Brislin is now the president, while W. J. Davis is cashier. A number of private bankers, dealing principally with foreigners, also do a thriving business, while a dime savings bank has recently been established. The Carbon Telephone Company, having numerous subscribers in Lansford, Summit Hill and Coal Dale, had its inception nearly twenty years ago. Originally it was termed the Summit Hill and Lansford Tele- phone Company. The present company, the stock of which is held locally, was formed in 1899. William Schneider was the first president. The company's lines connect with those of the Consolidated and the American Union telephone companies. Digitized by Microsoft® a o CO z; z z Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 219 The first newspaper to be published here was the Summit Hill and Lansford Record, first issued from Suminit Hill. It had been in existence less than five years, when, in 1880, its owner and editor, the late J. W. Malloy established himself in Lansford. He was one of the best known among Carbon county's news- paper men, and wielded a trenchant pen. His death occurred in 1910, since which time the active manage- ment of the paper has devolved upon William Gormley. It was formerly Democratic, but in recent years it has manifested independent tendencies. It is issued weekly. The Lansford Leader, which is also a weekly, began its career under its present proprietor and editor, Lin- coln Davis, in the spring of 1893. This is an inde- pendent Republican journal. Both papers maintain large job printing establishments. Lansford is connected with the neighboring towns by means of an excellent electric railway system. This road was placed in operation between here and Tamaqua, Schuylkill county, on October 25, 1897. The pioneer hotel man of Lansford was George Evans, who opened the Lansford House. He was the father of Thomas Evans, now conducting that popular hostelry. George H. Holvey built the Mansion House, while the American House was built by John B. Jones. The religious history of Lansford begins with the Welsh Congregational church. This congregation was organized in 1848. The church edifice, built in 1850, was dedicated on Christmas Day. The most in- fluential person in the establishment of the church was David Williams, who has already been refered to in connection with the early development of the mines hereabouts. He was a man of good moral character and organized the first Sunday school in the place. Digitized by Microsoft® 220 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. This preceded the church, of which it was the fore-run- ner, by about ten years. From the beginning, services in this church have been conducted in the Welsh tongue. For nearly a generation there was no other church in the town, and people of other denominations worshipped here or attended services at Summit Hill and elsewhere. The original building, which has several times been remodeled and improved, is still standing. The first regular pastor of the congrega- tion was Eev. William Thomas. Eev. F. Tilo Evans has been stationed here for more than twenty years. The English Congregational church was organized in 1872 in response to the demands of those who wished to hear preaching in the English language, and who had formerly attended the Welsh church. The present building was dedicated in 1881 by Eev. Henry Ward Beecher, the famous Brooklyn divine. Many of the Lansford churches were established as missions by the churches of Summit Hill. First among the number was the First Baptist church, founded about 1872. Its first building stood where the West Ward school house now stands. In 1888 the church was torn down and rebuilt on the present location. Eev. Allen J. Morton was the first pastor. In 1880 Eev. Eobert H. Kline, rector of St. Philip's church at Summit Hill, began holding services here. The mission thus established resulted in the organiza- tion of Trinity Episcopal church, the cornerstone of which was laid on Trinity Sunday, 1896. The building was not consecrated until 1899. Members of the Evangelical Association held serv- ices at this place as early as 1872. A church building put up in 1887 was later sold. The United Evangelical church was built in 1895. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 221 St. Michael's (Slovak) Eoman Catholic congrega- tion was started by Eev. William Heinan, of East Mauch Chunk, in 1891. The building which was then begun was destroyed by fire in 1907. Preparations were at once made by the pastor, Eev. Joseph Kas- parek, and his people to erect a more substantial structure. This new building, costing one-hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was dedicated with pomp and pageantry by Archbishop Edmund F. Prendergast on Thanksgiving Day, 1911. St. John's Greek Catholic congregation was organ- ized in 1892, when a frame building was put up. A large brick edifice erected in 1906 was destroyed by fire three years later. Under Eev. Gabriel Martyak, the pastor in charge, the present magnificent buildiug of buff brick was completed, the corner-stone having been laid in 1910. The first Methodist church here stood in the woods east of the town, later being removed to the site of the present building, which was dedicated in 1890 by Chaplain C. C. McCabe. Emmanuel's Eeformed church was started as a mis- sion of St. Paul 's, of Summit Hill, by Eev. A. P. Horn in 1894. Services were first held in the Lansford Ly- ceum. Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church came into beiug during the same year, belonging to the charge at Sununit Hill, and being organized by Eev. H. D. Sie- bott. The present building was erected in 1895. A Sunday school which was started by Nathan Pat- terson in 1851, and of which Andrew Weir was the first superintendent, was the forerunner of the First Pres- byterian church, organized in 1896. A church building was not put up until 1901, while Eev. Alexander D. Bateman was the first regular pastor. Both the Sun- Digitized by Microsoft® 222 HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. day school and the church have always been self-sup- porting. St. John's (Slovak) Evangelical Lutheran church was started as a mission in 1903, and St. Peter's and St. Paul's Roman Catholic church was begun four years later. St. Ann 's Eoman Catholic church was attended as a mission of St. Joseph's, of Summit Hill, until early in 1909, when St. Ann's was constituted a separate parish, and the present pastor. Rev. H. J. Bowen, appointed. Ground was broken for the new church building in Sep- tember, 1911, while the corner-stone was laid by Arch- bishop Prendergast on Thanksgiving Day, of the same year. The style of the new church, which is not yet completed, is Romanesque. It is built of buff brick, with terra cotta trimmings. Most of the fraternal and beneficial societies com- mon to this portion of the state have been established here. In 1884 the Lansford Beneficial Fund was insti- tuted by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company; any of the employes of the company participate in its benefits if they are so unfortunate as to be injured at their work. The company annually contributes a cer- tain sum to this fund, based on the production of coal ; the men also contribute their just proportion. Hun- dreds of thousands of dollars have been raised and dis- tributed under the rules governing this fund, which in its practical workings has proven to be one of the most worthy institutions. There is, of course, little industrial activity in Lans- ford aside from that connected with the mining and shipping of coal. Several hundred men are employed in the repair shops of the company, and an immense power plant generates electricity sufficient for the needs of the whole Panther Creek Valley. The manu- Digitized by Microsoft® St. Ann's Church, Lanspord. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF GAEBON COUNTY. 223 facture of coal briquettes, composed of a mixture of coal dirt and tar, intended for fuel, has also been be- gun. During recent years tbe town has been benefited by the concentration of the company's offices here, while the opening of the line of the Lehigh and New England Railroad to this point will further improve conditions. The Century Throwing Company, operating a silk mill, located its plant here in 1904. Alexander Mc- Lane has been the local head. In 1906 the Lansford Shirt Factory was opened by Wallace Drumheller and Charles K. Walton. These are the only independent industries of consequence. When the first separate census of the place was taken, in 1880, the population was a little over two thousand. It now amounts to about ten thousand. These figures indicate the healthy growth which the town has had. But there is promise of still greater development, and Lansford looks confidently into the future from her fortunate position over the richest bed of anthracite in the world. LAUSANNE TOWNSHIP. Lausanne township may be likened to a fond and over-indulgent father, who, originally rich in the pos- session of a princely estate, has given away so much of his substance to his children as to be himself re- duced to comparative poverty in his old age. It is now the most sparsely populated township in the county, while its area is but a small fraction of that which it contained in 1808, the year of its organiza- tion. Anterior to that time it was a part of Penn township, which embraced all that portion of North- ampton county lying north of the Blue Eidge and west of the Lehigh river. Digitized by Microsoft® 224 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. In 1808 Penn township was divided into East Penn, West Penn and Lausanne, the last named being the northern part of that portion now in Carbon county. In 1827, a small portion of the southern part of the township was taken off to form Mauch Chunk town- ship. In 1842 another limb was lopped off to form Banks township, while Packer township was carved from the dwindling territory of Lausanne in 1847. In 1863 it was further dismembered by the erection of the borough of Weatherly, while the final slice was taken from it in 1875, when Lehigh township was formed. Lausanne township is bounded on the north by Lu- zerne county, on the east by Lehigh township, on the south by Lehigh and the borough of Weatherly, and on the west by Banks township. It is about six miles in length, and averages nearly two and one-half miles in breadth. It is watered by Laurel and Hazle creeks and by Spruce run. The character of the land is mountain- ous and is but little cultivated. The first permanent settlement of any consequence made within the present limits of the township was made by the Buck Mountain Coal Company, which was chartered June 16, 1836. Samuel L. Shober, Jacob F. Bunting, Benjamin Kug- ler, William Richardson, and Asa Lansf ord Foster, all Philadelphians, excepting the latter, who was from Carbon county, formed the company. Operations were begun three years later, while in the month of November, 1840, the first coal was shipped. The mines were located on the summit of the Spring mountain, while the breaker was erected at Rockport, five miles distant from the mines. A rail- road, connecting the two points, was built, and the loaded cars ran down to Rockport by gravity. Mules were at first employed to haul the empty cars back to the mines; but, in the course of time, these were re- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 225 placed by a four-wheeled, wood-burning locomotive. This locomotive was built at Philadelphia, and was shipped by rail from there to Tamaqua. There it was loaded upon a heavy wagon, owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and hauled through Quakake Valley to Eockport by teams. To secure the wagon from getting beyond control while descending the hills along the route, a cable was fastened to it, and one end was snubbed about a convenient tree. In many in- stances, while paying out slack to allow the wagon to proceed down the hills, the bark was worn from the trees around which the cable was fastened, and years afterwards, encircled by the rings thus formed, they stood as mute reminders of this interesting feat in transportation. The breaker stood on the banks of Laurel creek, while its machinery was driven by an ordinary, twenty- five-foot, overshot water-wheel. With one exception, this was the only breaker in the anthracite region, so far as can be ascertained, that was operated in this manner. The coal was shipped to market from Eock- port on the Lehigh Canal. The flood of 1841 swept away the canal, and it was necessary to suspend operations until it had been re- paired. Eockport remained the shipping point for the com- pany until 1862, when the canal was again destroyed by flood. Following the freshet of that year, the Hazleton Coal Company built a railroad to the mines at Buck Moun- tain, and it was by this route that the coal there pro- duced was thereafter shipped. This road connected with what is now the Lehigh Valley Eailroad, at Hazle Creek Junction, about two miles from Weatherly. Digitized by Microsoft® 226 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. The coal company built a hotel at Buck Mountain in 1843, which was successively kept by William Koons, James McGinty, and William Boyle. A postoffice was established at about the time of the building of the rail- road to the mines. A store, two schoolhouses and an office building were also erected. The coal produced at Buck Mountain was of the very finest grade, and was largely used by the United States Navy during the Civil War, because of its excellent steaming qualities and the almost total absence of smoke attendant upon its use. This rendered vessels supplied with fuel from Buck Mountain less conspicu- ous as targets for an enemy's guns than would other- wise have been the case, also facilitating secrecy in the movements of the ships. Erricson's Monitor, in her crucial battle with the re- doubtable Merrimac, carried Buck Mountain coal in her bunkers. The mines at Buck Mountain were abandoned on November 28, 1883, it being the belief at that time that the supply of available coal had been about exhausted. The property was subsequently purchased by the firm of Coxe, Brothers & Company for the sum of twenty- two thousand dollars, but the mines were allowed to remain idle, and what had previously been a thriving town became a deserted village. The total number of tons of coal shipped from this place from 1841 to the time when operations were sus- pended was three million, four hundred and sixty-five thousand. The company at various times employed from three to six-hundred men. Buck Mountain, in the day of its prosperity, was one of the best villages in the coal fields, and those of its former inhabitants who still remain cherish the mem- ory of the old spot in their hearts. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY or CARBON COUNTY. 227 The Lehigh Valley Coal Company now controls the property at Buck Mountain and preparations are in progress for the resumption of mining there on an important scale. It has developed that the mines there, so far from being exhausted, contain deposits of coal that will last for many years. 16 Digitized by Microsoft® ', CHAPTER XV. LEHIGH TOWNSHIP. A large portion of Lehigh township was originally covered by dense forests of evergreen trees. Its terri- tory was embraced within Lausanne township from 1808 until 1875, when it was organized as a separate division of the county. The Quakake creek, flowing eastwardly through the township, empties into the Lehigh at Penn Haven. Spruce, Laurel and Indian runs form a stream which flows southeastwardly and empties into the Lehigh be- low Eockport. Leslies run rises near the Luzerne county line, and joins the Lehigh at Leslie's Eun Sta- tion, in the northern part of the township. The Broad mountain constitutes the southern portion of the town- ship, while the Laurytown Valley passes between it and the Bald Eidge, which reaches across the township from east to west. A state road, which ran from the Spring Mountain Hotel, in Packer township, through Weatherly, and thence to White Haven, was the first highway of any consequence. The next in importance was the White Haven and Lausanne turnpike which was begun in 1840. The Central Eailroad of New Jersey, formerly the Lehigh and Susquehanna Eailroad, and the Le- high Valley Eailroad follow the Lehigh river along the eastern border of the township, while the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton and the Mahanoy divisions of the Lehigh Valley system run through the township on the banks of Quakake creek, connecting with the main line at Penn Haven Junction. 228 Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CABBON COUNTY. 229 The Moravians at one time owned a tract of timber land where Eockport is now located. The timber on this tract was purchased by the Lehigh Coal and Navi- gation Company in 1824. The company erected several saw-mills and a number of dwellings for laborers at this point. The settlement, which was situated on a high bluff, was called Laurytown. The timber was slid down the mountain side to the mills, and after being sawed was rafted down the Lehigh to Mauch Chunk and other places. The raftsmen returned to the mills on foot, traveling the "Indian Path," which led from Gnadenhiitten to Wyoming. Much of the timber that was cut in this vicinity was used in the construction of canal boats and other improvements incident to the operations of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The Buck Mountain Coal Company began the build- ing of a railroad from Eockport to its mines, about five miles distant, in the fall of 1839. A tunnel, two hun- dred yards in length, from the foot of an inclined plane, through the mountain to the river, was driven by Asa L. Foster. The work of constructing the tunnel and the railroad was completed in 1840, and, in November of that year, the Buck Mountain Coal Company shipped its first boat load of coal to Philadelphia on the Lehigh Canal. Eockport was once popularly known as ' ' Grog Hol- low," which unregenerate designation was applied to the place in consequence of the bibulous proclivities and general carousing of the laborers who were sta- tioned there during the building of the canal in the late thirties. Lumbering operations ceased here a short time prior to the opening of the mines at Buck Moun- tain. Digitized by Microsoft® 230 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY, After the completion of the railroad to the mines, one hundred thousand tons of coal were annually shipped from this point until 1862. The memorable flood of that year washed away the canal, and the coal mined at Buck Mountain was there- after shipped to market by rail. The postoffice at Eockport was established about the year 1830, Samuel "Wolf, who was also a tavern-keeper on the line of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike, being the first postmaster. In 1836 he was succeeded in the postoffice by Asa Packer, who in turn was suc- ceeded by E. Q. Butler, two years later. It was during the term of Mr. Butler that the name of the postoffice was changed from Laurytown to Eockport. The pres- ent postmaster is H. H. Sloat, who has held the office for many years. It was during his administration that the free delivery of mail throughout the township was begun by the government. Samuel "Wolf kept a store at Eockport from 1830 to 1836, when he disposed of the business to Asa and E. "W. Packer, who conducted the establishment until the completion of their canal contract. A. L. Foster also kept this store for a short time. J. Gr. Eadie, now, and for many years past, a resident of Weatherly, kept a store at Eockport from 1866 until 1869. Eockport, while formerly a thriving and prosperous town, is to-day practically a deserted village. For romantic natural scenery, however, the locality cannot easily be surpassed, and it is yearly increasing in favor as a summer resort. Building-stone of excellent qual- ity abounds in this vicinity, the stone for the building of the present court house at Mauch Chunk having been quarried here. A Methodist church was organized at Eockport about 1851. Bishop John H. Vincent, des- tined to achieve international fame as a Sunday school Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Onoko FiiLLS, Glen Onoko. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY or CAEBON COUNTY. 231 worker and as the head of the Chautauqua Scientific and Literary Association, preached in this church when but nineteen years of age. St. Joseph's Roman Catholic church in the Laury- town Valley was organized a year earlier. It is under the jurisdiction of the parish at Weatherly, and during the pastorate of Eev. F. X. Wastl was repaired and improved. A union church was erected at Kockport in 1894 by the members of the Reformed and Lutheran denominations. The property is now owned by the Reformed people, Rev. A. M. Masonheimer being the pastor in charge. Penn Haven was in 1838 made a shipping point by the Hazleton Coal Company. The Beaver Meadow Railroad was used from that year until 1852. A road was built from Hazle Creek Bridge to the mountain top at Penn Haven after the freshet of 1850, and the coal was conveyed to the river by means of two inclined planes twelve hundred feet in length. These were later abandoned. It is at Penn Haven Junction that the Mahanoy and the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton divisions of the Lehigh Valley Railroad diverge from the main line. Glen Onoko, which has for many years been one of the leading attractions in this part of Pennsylvania for pleasure seekers, is situated in Lehigh township. The improvements here were made by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. There are three school houses in the township, one at Penn Haven, another at Roekport, and one near the farm of the Middle Coal Field Poor District. The Roekport Rural Telephone Company was organ- ized in 1910, and its line, traversing the township, con- nects with the Bell system at Weatherly. Digitized by Microsoft® 232 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. LEHIGETON BOBOUGH. Before its incorporation as a borough, Lehighton formed a part of Mahoning township, by which it is bounded on all sides except the east, where the Lehigh river forms the boundary line. The first settlement here was that made by the Moravians in 1746. Gnadenhiitten mission, which was then established, occupying the present site of South Lehighton. This was also the first settlement made by white men in Carbon county, which then belonged to Bucks, one of the three original counties of Pennsyl- vania. How the Moravians came to establish this mission, the success with which their unselfish labors was crowned for nearly a decade, and the tragic fate which befell them when the Indians, smarting from the wrongs and Injustices which had been heaped upon them by the greedy proprietaries of the province and by the unscrupulous portion of the settlers, took the war path in the autumn of 1755 and indiscriminately slew both friend and foe, has already been told in de- tail. Scarcely a trace exists to-day of this ill-fated settlement excepting the graveyard, where repose the remains of the victims of the massacre of Gnaden- hiitten. In 1794, the land on which Lehighton is built was largely owned by Colonel Jacob Weiss, a veteran of the Eevolution, and another man, named William Henry. It appears that thus early it was recognized that a town would some day be built at this point, since Weiss and Henry had a portion of the ground laid out for that purpose. In the center of their plot was the town square, which was reserved for public use. A number of lots were sold in 1794, while other conveyances were Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CABBON COUNTY. 233 made in the year 1800, but it is not definitely estab- lished who these first purchasers were. A bridge was built across the Lehigh in 1804, and a road was then constructed from here to the place where the "Landing Tavern" was later erected, at the foot of the Broad mountain. The Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike Company was incorporated about this time, and the road opened by this company reached from Berwick, on the Susquehanna, to Easton. There was a great deal of travel along this route, and taverns were established at regular intervals. Lehighton became one of the stopping places on this road in 1809, when John Hagenbuch built a tavern on the site now occu- pied by the Exchange Hotel. He came from Sieg- fried's Bridge, then known as Siegfried's Ferry, Northampton county. For many years he continued as the landlord of this tavern, and was succeeded by his son, Eeuben Hagenbuch. Nicholas Fuller opened a tavern near the bridge in 1814, remaining its landlord for a long period. David Heller started a tannery near Hagenbuch 's tavern prior to 1820. John Davis established a store about this time where the residence of the late Joseph Obert now stands. In 1825 Daniel Snyder erected a grist mill at the mouth of Mahoning creek. He conducted the mill for many years. John Koons was his successor, and he sold the property to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- pany. The growth of the town was slow until the building of the Lehigh Canal through this region, in 1828-29. The canal contributed materially to the de- velopment of Lehighton and the surrounding country. The fertile farming districts lying adjacent to the vil- lage were now fast growing in population and impor- tance, and this was an added factor in the upbuilding of the settlement. Digitized by Microsoft® 234 HISTORY OF CAEBON COXTNTY. In 1855, the Lehigh Valley Railroad was completed from Mauch Chunk; to Easton, and early in the sixties the company established its shops and yards at Pack- erton. Many of the employes at this place built their homes in Lehighton. On March 16, 1864, the Lehigh and Susquehanna Eailroad Company, later absorbed by the Central Eailroad Company of New Jersey, was authorized to extend its line from Mauch Chimk to Easton. With the completion of this road Lehighton took another step forward, and on January 2, 1866, the town was organized as a borough, John Lentz becom- ing the first chief burgess. Ten years later, when the census was taken, Lehighton had a population of 1,485. The place has grown steadily since that time, and is now one of the most thriving communities of the Lehigh Valley. One of the leading enterprises of Lehighton is the packing establishment of the Joseph Obert Company. The founder of this industry was Joseph Obert, a na- tive of Germany. He began as a butcher in 1865, soon making himself master of a large business. Li 1875 his plant was destroyed by fire, but was rebuUt and en- larged. Mr. Obert died in 1896, and during the suc- ceeding ten years the enterprise was conducted by his executors. The Joseph Obert Company, of which Charles W. Obert is president, and Henry B. Kennell secretary and treasurer, was then incorporated. The Lehigh Stove and Manufacturing Company, had its inception in 1867. The chief promoter of the enter- prise, and the president of the company for many years, was G. B. Linderman. C. 0. Skeer, Eobert Klotz, William Lilly, W. B. Mack, C. W. Anthony, and A. G. Brodhead were among the early stock-holders of the company. About one hundred men are here em- ployed, and "Lehigh" stoves, ranges, and furnaces find Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 285 their way to many quarters of the world. W. R. But- ler is now the dominant figure in the affairs of the con- cern. Lehighton has in recent years attained prominence in textile manufacturing, the first and largest of the mills now located there being the silk throwing mill of The Baer Company, situated at Bridge and S. Seventh streets. This enterprise was established by Eugene "W. Baer at Paterson, N. J., and was originally conducted under the title of Eugene Baer & Company. In 1898 the plant was removed to Lehighton, where the present four-story brick building had been built by the com- pany. In 1903, Mr. Baer purchased the interest of his father, Jacob F. Baer, and the company was incor- porated as The Baer Company, Eugene W. Baer, being its president and principal stockholder. The two upper floors of the building owned by The Baer -Com- pany are occupied by .the Helvetia Silk Company, the headquarters of which are at Paterson, N. J. The Lehighton Lace Company was incorporated in 1905 with a capital stock of $150,000. P. M. Graul, W. D. Boyer, C. J. Kistler, and M. 0. Kuntz were those most influential in establishlag this industry, which em- ploys about sixty operatives. The president of the company is W. D. Boyer, while P. M. Graul is the gen- eral manager, secretary and treasurer. The plant oc- cupies the site where Daniel Olewine, prominent in the early annals of the town, erected a tannery in 1859. This establishment was destroyed by fire in 1873. The Carbon Silk Mill Company was organized in 1906 by 0. F. Acker, D. A. Eehrig, and P. F. Rehrig. D. A. Rehrig has been the president of this company since its beginning. From seventy-five to one hundred people are here employed, the mill being now operated under lease by P. F. Rehrig and W. B. Lovatt. Digitized by Microsoft® 236 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. A smaller silk throwing mill, recently opened, is that of Howard Dief enderf er. The Lehighton Shirt Factory was established in 1898 by New York capitalists. The Crescent Stove and Manufacturing Company was organized in 1904, Edward E. Walters being its president, and Charles H. Bower the principal stock- holder. The Lehighton Brick Company was formed in 1906 by Ira Seidle and Dallas Bowman. The plant operated by this company is owned by William S. Koch, who built it in 1899. The Carbon Iron Works Company was incorporated in 1911. W. S. Koch is its president. As has already been said, the first hotel to be opened in Lehighton was that of John Hagenbuch, in 1809. This property changed hands four or five times until 1867, when it was purchased by Thomas Mantz, who tore down the old building and erected the present Ex- change Hotel on the site. He is still the owner. The tavern erected by Nicholas Fuller in 1814, near the bridge which crosses the Lehigh on the way to Weiss- port was sold to George Esch in 1855. He removed the original structure and put up the Valley House in its place. This hotel has been conducted by E. W. Clauss since 1891. Jacob Metzgar built the Carbon House in 1842, and opened it as a tavern under the sign of the Eagle. It has had many landlords, and is now owned by the David Ebbert Estate. The Mansion House was built by J. A. Horn in 1879. The present proprietor is A. P. Anthony. The Lehighton postoffice was established on October 1, 1812, John Pryor, Jr., being the first postmaster. Twenty-three others have since served in that capacity. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 237 John Davis who has already been mentioned as the first store-keeper in the town, held the office from 1824 to 1836, when he removed to Easton, where he became the president of the Easton National Bank. His term of service was exceeded only by that of Thomas S. Beck, who held the office for thirteen years, though not successively, and by that of Henry H. Peters, who served from 1871 to 1885. No one knows where the office was first opened ; but most of the postmasters kept it at their places of busi- ness until 1898, when it was located as at present by B. J. Kuntz. In 1903 the only rural route beginning at this office was established. It extends through the Mahoning Valley. This was the first postoffice to be designated as a postal savings bank in the Lehigh Valley, being authorized to receive deposits during the summer of 1911. David McCormick succeeded W. W. Eeber as post- master in March, 1911. A log schoolhouse opened by the Moravians about 1820 was also used for church purposes. The school was controlled by a board of trustees, and was kept during the winter months for many years. A generation after the establishment of this institu- tion, Mahoning township, of which Lehighton then formed a part, accepted the free school system, and other houses were erected for school purposes. One of these was opened on Iron street about 1850. In 1853 another was built on the town square, which was used until 1873. Another was located on Pine street. The present high school building was built in 1873 at a cost of $45,000. For a time all of the schools in the borough were kept here. The First Ward building, a modern brick structure of eight rooms, was put up ia Digitized by Microsoft® 238 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 1896. It cost $30,000. The Third Ward building, the best equipped in the borough, was built in 1902. The high school is an accredited "second grade" institu- tion having a three years' course. The schools of the borough have been under the direction of a supervisory principal since 1908. A parochial school conducted under the auspices of St. Peter's and St. Paul's Koman Catholic church, was established in 1869. About eighty pupils, taught by three Sisters of St. Francis, are in attendance here. Among the institutions of learning not having the support of the general public, was the Carbon Acad- emy, which was first conducted by E. F. Hofford at Weissport. The flood of 1862 carried away the build- ing in which the academy was housed, and during the same year a new building was erected by Hofford in Lehighton. In 1863 he was chosen as superintendent of schools of the county, and some years thereafter, A. S. Christine assumed control of the academy. Pro- fessor Christine died in 1868, and the school was closed, though several unsuccessful attempts were made to re-establish it. Excepting the Moravians, it appears that the Ee- formed and Lutheran people were the first to hold regular church services in this locality. As early as 1800 Eeformed ministers traveled through this region and preached in the old Moravian chapel. The names of Eev. Thomas Pomp, Eev. W. F. Vandersloot, Eev. William Helfrich, and Eev. Charles Becker are found on certificates still in possession of members of the older families. On March 23, 1818, a union congregation, composed of people of the Eeformed and Lutheran denomina- tions, was organized. Services were held in the Mo- ravian chapel. After this building began to fall into Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Zion's Reformed Church, Lehighton. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 239 disrepair, the place of worship was changed to a school- house on South Third street. It was in this building that the first Sunday school in Lehighton was organized. Until 1838 the religious interests of both Lehighton and "Weissport centered in South Lehighton. During the ensuing thirty years the common place of worship was at Weissport. Jacob's Eeformed and Lutheran church was built at the latter place in 1839. This was the mother of the churches of these denominations in Lehighton. Prior to 1870 a union Sunday school had been organ- ized in a small building in the upper park. Later the school was kept in the Iron street schoolhouse. Thomas and William Kemmerer and Frederick Brink- man were the leaders in this movement. This school afforded a rallying place for the Eeformed and Lu- theran people of Lehighton. An effort was made by these people to build a imion church, but it proved abor- tive and separate houses of worship were erected. The congregation of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran church was organized on January 5, 1873, by Eev. D. K. Kepner. The corner stone of the building which was erected was laid on the first of June of that year. Eev. J. H. Kuder has been the pastor of this church since 1882. Zion's Eeformed congregation was organized on April 29, 1893, the meeting for that purpose having been held in the building of the Carbon Academy. All of the charter members were connected with Jacob's church at Weissport prior to the forming of the new congregation. Eev. Abraham Bartholomew was the first pastor, serving the church at Weissport, as well. Services were held in the academy building until 1876, when a church edifice was built. During 1902-03, Digitized by Microsoft® 240 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. under the pastorate of Eev. D. A. Winter, the church was remodeled and enlarged at a ccst of more than $27,000. The Sunday school of this congregation is at present the strongest in the county. George E. Gray has been its superintendent, since 1897. The Presbyterian church of Lehighton had its begin- nings in the efforts of a pious Polish woman, named Fredericka Misca. She came to this country about 1825, and purchased two tracts of land from the Mo- ravians, embracing the site of the old Gnadenhiitten Mission, for which she agreed to pay $500.00. She be- came inspired with the idea of building a new church on the site of the one burned down by the Indians, and accordingly began to solicit money. She made long journeys through the country and visited many cities, selling prints depicting the massacre of Gnadenhiitten, the proposed church, and herself. For a time she lived in this locality. A gentleman named George Douglass, of New York, touched by her devotion and sincerity, generously gave her a sum of money sufficient to take up the mortgage against the property. She thereupon executed to him a trust deed, dated November 1, 1833, making him trustee of all she possessed, and stipula- ting that the avails of the property should be used for the construction of a church at Lehighton for the use of the Presbyterian denomination. The building was begun, the foundation walls and window frames put up, and the necessary lumber hauled on the ground. But from one of her journeys Misca never returned. The fate that befell her is shrouded in mystery; it is thought that she was murdered and robbed. This church was never completed. In 1852 Douglass transferred his trust to a number of prominent citizens of Mauch Chunk. A portion of the property was sold by them, and the proceeds placed Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY or CAEBON COUNTY. 241 at tlie disposal of the Presbyterian churcli at Mauch. Clraiik, the congregation of which was then gathering funds for the erection of a house of worship. In 1870 an act of Assembly was passed enabling the trustees to sell the remainder of the property. The Gnadenhiitten Cemetery Association became the pur- chaser. In 1872 Rev. Jacob Beleville, the Presbyterian pastor at Mauch Chunk conceived the idea of building a church at Lehighton. As early as 1859 missionaries had preached to a small congregation here, meetings being held in the schoolhouse on Iron street. In ac- cordance with Eev. Beleville 's plans, the congregation was reorganized on the 12th of February, 1872, and the Misca fund was transferred to the trustees of the Le- highton congregation. A lot was procured and the corner stone of the church building was laid on the 29th of. May, 1873. It was dedicated on May 7, 1874, Eev. C. Earle preaching the dedicatory sermon. Dur- ing the pastorate of Rev. R. E. Reimer, who served from 1900 to 1905, the church was remodeled and im- proved. Rev. H. A. Smith, D.D., is the present pastor. The people of the Methodist Episcopal denomination began holding meetings in Lehighton about 1840. Serv- ices were occasionally conducted by missionaries, but usually the preachers came from Mauch Chunk. The society was organized in 1865, purchasing the Carbon Academy building, which was used until the erection of the present building in 1883. The church was dedi- cated on the 30th of September of that year. W. B. Durelle was the first regular preacher. St. Peter's and St. Paul's Roman Catholic church was organized in 1869. Rev. G. Frende, who resided in Lehighton and had other churches in charge, was the first pastor. Rev. William Heinan, who later became the minister of St. Joseph's Catholic church at East Digitized by Microsoft® 242 HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. Mauch Chunk, and one of the best known members of the priesthood in this section of the State, succeeded Rev. Frende. This church was rebuilt imder Eev. Francis Eegnery, the present pastor. The corner- stone was laid on October 7, 1906. The church was completed and dedicated on September 1, 1007, being blessed by Bishop E. F. Prendergast, now Archbishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia. It cost $30,000. The Ebenezer Church of the Evangelical Association was organized in 1872. Services were held in various places until 1876, when the present house of worship was completed. The church was dedicated by Bishop Thomas Bowman on the 21st of May of that year. The congregation has had about twenty pastors since that time. The Mennonite Brethren in Christ, who have gained a footing here came into existence in 1882. Eev. Wil- liam Gehman was the founder of the organization. Bethany United Evangelical church is the offspring of Ebenezer Church of the Evangelical Association. The society was formally organized on October 5, 1894, and a year later its house of worship was dedicated by Bishop Rudolph Dubs. Grace Lutheran church was organized on November 29, 1903, Eev. Frank S. Kuntz served as the first pastor. A chapel costing $12,000 was soon erected, being dedi- cated on April 2, 1905. All Saints' Episcopal church, which is a mission of St. Mark's church, of Mauch Chunk, had its beginnings in 1868, when the first public service of this denomina- tion was held in the Carbon Academy building. The present church edifice, one of the most magnificent in the county, was started in 1906, being the gift of Mary Packer Cummings. The corner stone was laid with im- pressive ceremonies on October the 10th of that year Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 243 by Rt. Rev. Ethelbert Talbot, Bishop of Central Penn- sylvania. The consecration sermon was preached by Rt. Rev. Leighton Coleman, Bishop of Delaware, on September 30th, 1907. It was Bishop Coleman, then stationed at Mauch Chunk, who conducted the first Episcopal service in Lehighton. The church, together with the vicarage, cost $50,000. Both are constructed of graystone, quarried at Bowmanstown, while the trimmings are of Wyoming blue stone. Rev. A. A. Bresee has been the vicar from the beginning. The principal burying ground in Lehighton, and the oldest in the county, is the Gnadenhiitten Cemetery, which has already been mentioned as the resting place of the Moravians who were massacred by the Indians on the evening of November 24, 1755. From the year 1820 the grounds were occasionally used as a place of interment by the people of the surrounding country. Fredericka Misca became the owner of the site about 1830. Since 1870 the Gna-denhiitten Cemetery Associa- tion has been the owner. Lehighton 's first newspaper was called the Weekly News, started by O. M. Boyle, in January, 1872. Its publication was suspended in the fall of 1873. The initial issue of the Carbon Advocate bore the date of November 23, 1872. It was established by H. V. Mor- thimer, a veteran journalist. P. M. Graul became the owner of this paper in 1902. It has always been issued weekly, and has supported Democratic prin- ciples. The Lehighton Press began its career on April 21, 1892, having been started by William C. Watson. On November 16, 1896, it passed to the ownership of David McCormick, under whose guidance it has be- come one of the most influential and prosperous weekly journal. s in the Lehigh Valley. Originally it contained 17 Digitized by Microsoft® 244 HISTOES' OF CAEBON COUNTY. four pages of seven columns. It has since doubled its size. The Press is staunchly Republican. The Evening Leader was established by George Morthimer, a son of the founder of the Advocate, on July 19, 1902. It is the only paper in the borough issued daily, and is an exponent of Democratic doc- trines. Lehighton's earliest fire company was organized on August 24, 1874. It had fifty charter members. H. V. Morthimer was chosen president; C. F. Horn, secre- tary, and P. T. Bradley, chief. Morthimer and Horn were the prime movers in the undertaking. The latter is still a member of the company. The borough build- ing is occupied by this organization. With the growth of the town, the need of additional protection against fire became apparent, resulting in the formation of Lehighton Engine Company No. 2. This company was permanently organized at Hoch- berg's Hotel on the evening of February 18, 1904. James I. Blakslee was elected president ; E. W. Moser, vice president, and A. J. Snyder, secretary. Soon thereafter an emergency school house on Third street was leased and remodeled to meet the needs of the organization. For years this company gave Christ- mas entertainments to which the public of the region was admitted, and large sums of money were expended in purchasing gifts for the children. From its incep- tion this company has reflected the progressiveness and liberality which characterizes its president, James I. Blakslee. Under his leadership a new fire house, costing $18,000, was erected during 1910-11. It is one of the model buildings of its kind in Pennsylvania. It is of cement block and pressed brick, being two stories high. The structure was appropriately dedicated on February 21, 1911. The municipality, as such, was not Digitized by Microsoft® o Eh M o 3 o Z t" 2; a o O H M d 2; o S o W Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® % o ill 2 £ g « o o IS o E H H 15 Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 245 asked for financial aid in the undertaking. Besides the fire-fighting apparatus, this building contains a li- brary, gymnasium and every facility for social enter- tainment. In 1910 the company organized its own band, and it has succeeded in taking a prize at every gathering of firemen in which it has participated. Following the establishment of Engine Company No. 2 the Lehighton fire department was organized, giving executive control to a single head in the event of fire. The chief of the department is Harry Trainer. The first building and loan association in the bor- ough was established about 1875, its offspring being the Lehighton Building and Loan Association and Le- highton Building and Loan Association No. 2. Philip Miller was the first president of these institutions. Both associations failed. The Lehigh Valley Building and Loan Association was incorporated on March 9, 1896, and has had a suc- cessful career. Several hundred homes have been wholly or partially built through its agency. George W. Diehl is the president of the association, while Ira E. Seidle is its secretary. The First National Bank of Lehighton was chartered on November 3, 1875, with a capital stock of $50,000. Daniel Olewine was elected president, and W. W. Bow- man, cashier. The institution was located in a portion of the residence of Joseph Obert until 1880, when quar- ters were secured in the old Stoecker building. In 1894 a brick building alongside the present location was oc- cupied. On July 5, 1910, a new structure, costing $40,000, was opened for business. Thomas Kemmerer succeeded Daniel Olewine as president of the bank. He was followed by E. F. Hofford, while John Sea- boldt is now the head of the institution. John T. Sem- Digitized by Microsoft® 246 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. mel followed W. W. Bowman as cashier, and Henry J. Bretney now occupies that position. The Citizens' National Bank was organized on Oc- tober 29, 1902, with a capital stock of $60,000. It was first located in the Leuckel building, near the post- office. Early in 1910, a new building, valued at $45,000, was completed. The capital stock is now $100,000. Hon. C. H. Seidle, Eugene Baer and Henry B. Kennell have been the bank's presidents, while A. S. Beisel and A. F. Smith have filled the position of cashier. The Lehighton "Water Supply Company was char- tered in 1889, Joseph Obert being chosen as its presi- dent. An artesian well was drilled at the head of Seventh street, but the supply obtained from this source was inadequate. A reservoir was then constructed at Long Eun, Franklin township, about three miles from the town. Another reservoir has since been added at this point, besides one on Pine run. The water flows to Lehighton by gravity. This company also supplies Weissport and Union Hill with water. Both Lehighton and Weissport are electrically lighted by a plant which is owned by the first-named borough. It was operated but a short time by the mu- nicipality, when it was leased to James I. Blakslee, under whose direction it has been conducted for about a decade. Lehighton is connected with Mauch Chunk by the line of the Carbon Transit Company. LOWER TOWAMENSING TOWNSHIP. Lower Towamensing ranks second in wealth and third in population among the townships of Carbon county. From present indications it seems destined to excel in both respects in the not distant future. It is Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 247 bounded on tlie north by Franklin and Towamensing townships; on the east by Monroe county; on the south by the Blue mountains and Northampton county, and on the west by the Lehigh river and East Penn township. The Aquashicola creek, which rises in Monroe county, and flows eastwardly along the base of the Blue Eidge, emptying into the Lehigh at the gap of that name, is the principal stream withiu its bound- aries. The surface of the township is diversified, contain- ing a considerable portion of arable land, however. Sand, building stone, paiat-ore and slate are among its natural products. Originally it formed a part of Towamensing town- ship, being separately organized in 1841. The earliest settler within the present limits of Lower Towamensing of whom any record remains was Nicholas Opplinger, who established himself near the mouth of the Aquashicola about the year 1750. The families of Boyer, Bauman, or Bowman, Mehrkem, and Strohl, whose descendants are still in the district, were among the earliest settlers. Conrad Mehrkem was a resident of the township prior to 1763. He lived in its western portion, near the Lehigh. Peter Strohl, the first of that family of which any- thing is definitely knovm, also came here about the same time, taking out a warrant for two hundred and forty-six acres of land, on a portion of which St. John's Lutheran and Eeformed church now stands. John Deter Bowman, the pioneer of the family of that name in America, became possessed of a tract of land in East Penn township in 1760, and he and his descendants prospered in this locality as hunters, trap- Digitized by Microsoft® 248 HISTOKY OF CAEBON COUNTY. pers, lumbermen and farmers. Henry, one of tlie sons of this pioneer, settled near the point where Peter Strohl had earlier established himself. His brother Bernard also lived in the township. About the close of the Revolution, when the Indians no longer menaced, as formerly, settlers came in greater numbers. At this period Jacob and Nich- olas Snyder came into possession of several hun- dred acres of land on the north side of the Aquashi- cola, embracing a mineral spring indicated on Scull's map of Pennsylvania in 1759. They built a saw-mill on the creek, near Lehigh Gap, which remained in operation until recent times. The property was surveyed in 1806, when the spring in question was analyzed by Thomas E. James, of the University of Pennsylvania. His report, substantiated by others, who certified to the healing properties of the waters of the spring, led to the erection of bath houses at this point, while for a short time the place was fre- quented as a health resort. In 1806, George Ziegenfuss, who pursued the voca- tion of a miller, came across the mountains and erected a grist mill where Millport now stands. He spent the remainder of his life at this place, where some of his descendants still remain. During the year 1808, Joseph Bauman purchased thirty acres of land at Lehigh Gap, erecting a stone building, in which he conducted a tavern until 1814, when he disposed of his property to Thomas Craig, in whose possession and that of his descendants it has been retained to the present. The first road to be constructed through this section was that running from Bethlehem to Gnadenhiitten, or modern Lehighton, where a mission was established by the Moravians. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 249 This route had first been traveled by Couat Zinzen- dorf in 1742, in which year he and his party negotiated a treaty with the Indians on the Mahoning. The road was built in 1747, and was used by the Moravians until the destruction of Gnadenhiitten, in the fall of 1755. It was traveled by Benjamin Frank- lin and his little army when they passed through here in January, 1756, on their way to build Fort Allen, and was employed as a military road until 1761. Originally running along the bank of the river, it was in some places changed to higher ground from time to time, in order to secure a better foimdation. It became a part of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike in 1806. Another road, running parallel to the Aquashicola, and extending eastward into Monroe county, was built in 1756. This was a military road, connecting with Fort Norris, one of the defenses erected by the provin- cial government during the first Indian uprising. The religious history of Lower Towamensing begins at an early date. St. John's congregation, which is a union of the Lutheran and Eeformed denominations, was organized on February 12, 1798. At this time the society arranged for the purchase of six acres of land from Michael Strohl, the consideration stipulated being twelve pounds. It was not until a year later that preparations were made for the erection of a church edifice. Nicholas Bachman contracted to do the car- penter work for twenty-five pounds. Hewed logs of pine and oak were used in the construction of the building. The cornerstone was laid on June 12, 1799, Eev. John H. Helfrich representing the Lutheran ele- ment, while Eev. John C. Bill participated on the part of the Eeformed people. Ten years later the building was weather-boarded, prior to which time there had been no heating apparatus installed. This was one of Digitized by Microsoft® 250 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. the first churches built by permanent settlers north of the Blue mountains. The present brick structure was erected in the year 1862. In the graveyard adjoining the church repose the remains of many of the early settlers of the town- ship. In this church, too, the first schools of the dis- trict were conducted, being supported and controlled by the Lutheran and Reformed denominations. But few other schools were opened until 1838, when the township accepted the free school system. About the year 1852, seven stone schoolhouses were erected at various points in the district. A postoffice was established at Lehigh Gap in 1825, with Thomas Craig, Jr., in charge. This was the only postoffice in the township until 1850, when another was established at Little Gap, under Samuel Ziegenfuss. About the year 1819, David Heimbach, an iron- master of Lehigh county, in association with his son David, erected a forge on the Aquashicola, a short distance northeast of Little Gap. Pig iron was brought to this place from Berks county. In 1827, David, the younger, built a furnace near the forge, which he named "Clarissa," in honor of his wife. Ores were brought over the Lehigh Canal from Whitehall, being transported the remaining six miles from Lehigh Gap to the furnace by teams. Anthracite coal was not then considered available as fuel in the manufacture of iron, charcoal being employed, and the object in locating in this out-of-the-way place was to secure a plentiful supply of timber near at hand. During the year 1834, the owners of these iron works died, and the property was subsequently acquired by Joseph J. Albright and others. Albright was an ardent admirer of Henry Clay, rechristening the plant as the "Ashland Iron Works," after the place of na- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEST OF CARBON COUNTY. 251 tivity of tlie Great Pacificator, in Hanover county, Virginia. The works were entirely washed away by the flood of 1841. The furnace was never rebuilt; but a new forge of greater capacity than the old was erected. This was partially destroyed by fire soon thereafter. The plant passed into other hands in 1851, and was finally abandoned in 1860. The village of Millport, which is situated on the Aquashicola, about two miles from its confluence with the Lehigh, grew up about the mill established there in 1806 by George Ziegenfuss. The original mill was destroyed by fire in 1834, being then owned by John Ziegenfuss, a son of the first settler. The property was then sold to his brother, George, who rebuilt the mill, and conducted it until 1845, when Jacob Bowman became the owner. It has passed through many hands, and is now conducted by Charles VanHorn. Prior to 1830, a tannery was started here by a man named MecMe. After several changes of ownership it came into the possession of Reuben Miller, under whom it was thrice destroyed by fire. The last fire occurred in 1874, after which the enterprise was aban- doned. The tall brick stack is still standing. The first store in the place was opened by George Ziegenfuss, who discontinued it after a few years. In 1836, a hotel was built by John A. Ziegenfuss, who kept it for many years. Lewis Groff has been the owner of the property since 1872. The postoffice here, to which the name of Aquashi- cola is applied, was established in 1855, with Thomas Bowman as postmaster. A rural route, running to Kresgeville, Monroe county, by way of Little Gap, and returning by way of Trochsville, was instituted in 1905. Digitized by Microsoft® 252 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Stephen Lentz, about the year 1864, discovered a slate bed at the eastern extremity of the town. Soon thereafter a quarry was opened by the Millport Slate Company, which was succeeded by the Brilliant Black Slate Company. Since 1896, the quarry has been operated in partnership by William Lewis and "Walter Bray. This is the only point where slate is produced in the Lehigh Valley north of the Blue Eidge. A paint factory was established in the lower end of the village by a man named Lawrence, late in the fif- ties. He disposed of the business to A. C. Prince, under whom the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1881. The Evangelical church at this place was erected in 1866. Services had been held in the community by this denomination as early as 1842. A chapel was erected here by the Sunday school of the Evangelical Lutheran church, about 1892. In 1893, George Strohl opened the Farmers ' Hotel in a building formerly occupied as a residence by A. C. Prince. Lehigh Gap was originally a post village on the line of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike. The place is situated at the northern base of the Blue Eidge, just at the point where the Lehigh river begins to steal its way through this great natural barrier. The gap, prominently walled on both sides, forms a sublime object of admiration, and presents to the observant spectator one of the most beautiful prospects in all Pennsylvania. A well known landmark on the mountainside west of the river is a lonely pile of rocks, whimsically called "The Devil's Pulpit," which indignantly suffers but a few blasted pines to shade its sullen brow. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBT OF CABBON COUNTY. 253 The Indians applied the name Buchca-buchka to the gap, which, in the picturesque language of the Dela- wares, signified two mountains butting toward one another, and separated by a stream of water — a water gap. General Thomas Craig, who settled in this romantic spot in 1814, succeeding Joseph Bauman as the land- lord of the Lehigh Gap Inn, was a hero of the French and Indian War, and was the first officer to protect the Continental Congress in its important deliberations. He also served with distinction in the war of Inde- pendence. Descendants of General Craig are still living at Le- high Gap, while in each generation one or more mem- bers of the family have taken a prominent part in the civil or military affairs of the state and nation. About 1830, Thomas Craig, Jr., in partnership with Stephen Hagenbuch, opened a general store here, which supplied the needs of the countryside within a radius of many miles. Colonel John Craig, a son of the founder, continued this business until his death, which occurred a few years ago, and it is still owned by his estate. The old hotel is still standing, but has been kept by lessee landlords since 1851. In 1885, Harry Eutherford and Charles Barkley, under the firm name of Rutherford & Barkley, estab- lished themselves in the manufacture of metallic paiat near here. This industry is now conducted by the Prince Metallic Paint Company. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER XVI. MAHONING TOWNSHIP. Mahoning township, the richest agricultural district of Carbon county, was organized in 1842, its territory being taken from East Penn. The name Mahoning is corrupted from Mahonhanne, which in the tongue of the Delaware Indians, meant a stream flowing near a lick. It is bounded on the north by Mauch Chunk town- ship; on the east by the Lehigh river; on the south by East Penn, and on the west by Schuylkill county. The Mahoning creek, rising in Schuylkill county, and flowing eastwardly into the Lehigh, is the principal stream. The beautiful valley drained by this stream lies between two gently sloping mountains, the sides of which are often dotted almost to their tops with cul- tivated fields. Since the first settlement of the valley, the north- ern, or Mahoning mountain, has been referred to lo cally as the Summer mountain, while that to the south- ward has been called the Winter mountain, from the position of the sun at these seasons of the year. A portion of the present territory of Mahoning town- ship was the first to which any title was obtained by white men in the immediate region north of the Blue Eidge. In 1682, William Penn deeded a tract of five thousand acres to Adrian Vroesen, of Rotterdam, which after several changes of ownership came into possession of Richard Peters, of Philadelphia. He, in 1745, conveyed one hundred and twenty acres of this land near the mouth of the Mahoning to the Moravians 254 Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 255 of Betlilehem, who established G-nadenhiitten mission thereon during the following year. A number of settlers located on other portions of this tract between 1750 and 1775. Most of these were of English birth or parentage. Among the first was George Custard, who is mentioned as having been here at the time of the Massacre of Gnadenhiitten in 1755. He and the few others in the neighborhood are sup- posed to have fled after that event. Benjamin Gilbert, an aged Quaker, and his family- came to the valley of the Mahoning from Byberry, near Philadelphia, in 1775. They built a saw-mill and a grist-mill on the spot where the mill of David A. Kistler now stands. The story of the peace and prosperity which re- warded their industry and thrift during a period of five years, followed by their captivity among the Indians and the destruction of the improvements which they had made, constitutes one of the many pathetic inci- dents in the frontier life of eastern Pennsylvania, and has already been related. Upon the return of the Gilberts from captivity, they took up their abode at Byberry, their former home, disposing of their land here to Captain Joseph Longstreth, who, with Robert McDaniel, replaced the improvements which had been burned by the Indians. Samuel Dodson and family located on land now owned by Ira Troxel at about the same time that the Gilberts came to the region. One of the family, Abi- gail, a girl of fourteen years, was carried off by the Indians with the Gilberts. Samuel Dodson died in 1795, and was buried in the Lizard Creek Valley. Soon thereafter most of his family removed to Shamokin, later going to Hunting- Digitized by Microsoft® 256 HISTORY OF CAEBON COXJNTT. ton townsMp, Luzerne county, where their descendants are numerous. Among those who remained was Isaac T. Dodson, who became a well known citizen of Mauch Chunk. Scarcely any settlements appear to have been made in Mahoning township between the close of the Eevo- lution and the beginning of the nineteenth century. About 1800, however, Andrew Beck, John and Abra- ham Freyman, Peter Musselman and Peter, Henry and John Nothstein joined those who had previously lived here. John Freyman was the grandfather of William G. Freyman, who has for many years been a prominent member of the Carbon county bar. The three Nothsteins who have been mentioned were brothers. Their father, Peter Nothstein, who was a soldier in the war of Independence, spent his declining years with them. His remains are interred in a little private cemetery at Center Square. Henry Nothstein built the first store to be opened at Center Square, and in later years his son, Daniel, was a merchant here; he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Hon. C. H. Seidle. Among those who came to the township prior to 1817 were Abram and Jost Miller and Henry Arner. Most of these settlers came from Lehigh county. Jacob Fenstermacher located at New Mahoning in 1819. He opened a hotel which stood on the site of that now kept by Thomas Beltz. Christian Klotz, a native of Lehigh county, in 1823 built a grist-mill which was later owned by Solomon Hoppes, who rebuilt it in 1848. This is now the prop- erty of F. D. Klingaman. Christian Klotz was the father of Hon. Eobert Klotz, who represented this district in the Forty-sixth Con- gress. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 257 Paul Balliet, who was born in Alsace, Germany, in 1717, and who was one of the first settlers of North Whitehall township, Lehigh county, was the pioneer of the family of that name in this township. Joseph, a son of Leonard Balliet, who had located in West Penn township, Schuylkill county, first established him- self on a farm at Center Square. Later, he purchased the farm of Jacob Feller, near St. John's church. Here his son, Nathan, lived and reared a large family. His son, Francis S. Balliet, now occupies the old home- stead. Before 1825, Thomas Walton opened a store on the farm now owned by Aaron Zimmerman, a short dis- tance east of New Mahoning. He also established a hotel and a blacksmith shop. The store was subse- quently kept by Abraham Hanline, while the hotel was abandoned. Henry Arner, about the year 1820, began the manu- facture of shoes to supply the miners of Summit Hill. He was succeeded by Henry Bretney, who continued the business until 1855. Li 1832, Henry Arner and Abraham Hanline erected a powder mill on the site of the saw-mill now con- ducted by Lewis Zimmerman. Between 1839 and 1841 the mill was twice blown up, and two lives were lost, the venture being abandoned in 1854. Another powder mill started in 1842, and conducted by John Erb, exploded several times with fatal results. The Lehigh Valley Eailroad Company began opera- tions at Packerton in 1862. Prior to that time the lo- cality was known as Burlington, and later as Dolans- burg, after George and John Dolan, who owned most of the land here. The place is situated on the Lehigh river, nearly midway between Mauch Chunk and Le- highton, being named in honor of Asa Packer. Digitized by Microsoft® 258 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. Packerton is the central point of the immense coal traffic of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad, and large shops for the repair of the rolling stock of the company have been built here. All of the coal passing east over the road is weighed and forwarded from this point. Mauch Chnnk was the shipping point of the company until the increase in traffic made it necessary to seek a location affording more room than that place contained. Most of the employes of the shops and yards at Packerton live in the nearby towns. Packerton itself is a neat little village, built on a high bluff overlooking the river. It has no interests aside from those centering in the railroad. Jamestown, adjoining Lehighton on the north, is built on land warranted to Paul Solt, who settled in the locality about the year 1780. It bears the first name of James McDaniel, one of the early settlers. Amos Eie- gel, a former sheriff of Carbon county, and the father of J. A. Eiegel, became possessed of most of the town- site in 1862. He began selling lots in 1874. The place has been principally settled by employes of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad. The first schools in the township, apart from those kept by the Moravians, at what is now Lehighton, were opened about 1825. Isaac Harleman, Samuel Dodson and John Fulton were among the early teachers. Ma- honing accepted the free school law in 1840, or there- abouts, and the township was divided into districts. Packerton, having a high school, was set off as an independent district in 1872. Jamestown also forms a part of this district. The brick school building situated between these places was the gift of Asa Packer. One of the most interesting events in the educational annals of the county was the unveiling, in 1908, of a beautiful tablet in the school house at New Mahoning, Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 259 commemorating the patriotism displayed in the Civil War by those formerly connected with the school. Thirty-six pupils and two teachers of this school vol- unteered in defense of the Union, as the tablet sets forth. The memorial was conceived by J. F. Kressley, one of the survivors. The New Mahoning district, which contained less than fifty voters during the time of the war, contributed sixty-seven men to the service of the nation, a manifestation of loyalty which is be- lieved to be unsurpassed. There are now thirteen schoolhouses maintained in the township, three of which are situated in the inde- pendent district of Packerton. Postoffices were formerly kept at Center Square, New Mahoning and at Pleasant Corner. In the old days, the mail was carried to these post- offices from Lehighton every Saturday, and during the evening of that day the people of the neighborhood wended their way thither for the dual purpose of claim- ing the weekly paper or'the occasional letter, and for social intercourse. Later the mail was delivered twice a week, and, finally every day. On September 1, 1903, the rural delivery system of the government was extended to the township, and the postoffices were abandoned. David Ebberts, who had previously traveled twelve hundred miles a year be- tween his home and the postoffice, was chiefly instru- mental in getting the rural route started. A postoffice is still maintained at Packerton. St. John's Lutheran and Eeformed church, located between New Mahoning and Pleasant Corner, was built in 1850. The present handsome brick structure was erected in 1892. Emmanuel's Evangelical church was built in 1868. 18 Digitized by Microsoft® 260 HI8T0EY OF CARBON COUNTY. A Methodist church at Beaver Run, organized in 1881, has since been abandoned. Christ Eeformed church at Packerton was organized in 1899, while the corner-stone of Zion's Evangelical Lutheran church of the same place, was laid in 1901. The telephone is just beginning to come into general use in the township. Not only does Mahoning township lead every other district in the county in the number of its fertile and productive farms, but it contains more well-kept home- steads than any other rural section. MAUCM CSUNK BOSOUGE. The natural scenery surrounding Mauch Chunk, which is the seat of justice of Carbon county, has been the theme of admiration for many years. Its picturesque and romantic situation in the ' ' Switzerland of America ' ' has justly brought the town a fame which has long since spread beyond our own borders. The place is located at the confluence of Mauch Chunk creek and the Lehigh river, and is almost en- circled by mountains of towering and majestic propor- tions. Mauch Chunk derives its name from the familiar conical formation on the eastern bank of the river, op- posite the town, called by the Indians "MacJik Tschunk," signifying Bear Mountain. Whether this is an upheaval, or the beautifully fashioned result of the action of ice and water through countless ages, is an interesting question for the lovers of geological controversy. One's first view of it is like the lifting of a curtain from a strange and magical picture. Whether seen in summer, robed in green, or in autumn, with its dress Digitized by Microsoft® HUIW .; •,| k: ^l;;^:'!"' ■ ^K •* ■? 3 1, , 1 3 If'^'wi- A i 4 1 m ^^m O^ . 1- ii^ ■'^^9&-'^ . ~ k •-Mlw-- ■•■■:' ---1 .w J ljMWBmI k :,; fc' .)i: ■ 1,1 f;. t^^HhI v^^^ Till Ha : M , Hh ^ ^1 i ;,: ftop--:-: m ¥\^ 1 til V'srfl ■■^■■"..v^>\--^ 1 ¥ ^ ! ■ •-- ■ ..■-,. ■ ;-. J •J 1 ■ ^ ' 1 ■ 1 Bj^^H^l^^^^^^bWc^i; Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 261 transformed into more brilliant hues, this mountain- cone, with its glorious drapery, is the marvel of every beholder. South mountain, from the summit of which, during the hours of the night, the lights of Flagstaff Park seem to mingle with stars, its surface studded with ledges of jutting rocks and strewn with huge boulders, rises precipitately from the western bank of the river to the height of a thousand feet. To the northward looms the peak of Mount Pisgah, somewhat resembling a volcano, which effect is at times heightened by the smoke emitted from the stacks of the power house of the Switchback Eailroad, which stands upon its crest. Between Mount Pisgah and South mountain flows Mauch Chunk creek, which is arched over, while the larger portion of the town nestles in this narrow gorge. There is room for but a single street facing the river. Anterior to the year 1818, the spot where Mauch Chunk now stands was a perfect wilderness, covered with forest trees and underbrush, affording a secure re- treat and covert for the wild animals which had their haunts in this mountainous region. "Where now is heard the cymbal clash of locomotive bells and the richly rumbling bass of the stately cara- vans of commerce and where comfort and refinement dwell, silence then reigned supreme, except when broken by the manifold voices of nature. It had been known for years previous to this date that the nearby mountains contained anthracite coal; but up to the time spoken of, every attempt which had been made to work the mines and convey coal to market had soon proved abortive. Now, however, the burden of the task which had over- whelmed other brave spirits was assumed by Josiah White, Erskine Hazard and George F. A. Hanto, who Digitized by Microsoft® 262 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. secured the lease of the mines at Summit Hill, and who became the founders of the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- tion Company. Their efforts were ultimately crowned with splendid success, and it was in connection with the great enter- prise launched by these men that Mauch Chunk had its beginnings and its subsequent development. The work of improving the channel of the river and constructing a wagon road to the mines, preparatory to shipping coal to market from this point, was begun during the summer of the year already alluded to. The site of the town was selected from the emergency of the circumstances. Had it not been that the owners of the land at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek placed a prohibitive price thereon, hoping that coal might be found beneath its surface, that location would have been chosen. The first improvements made at Mauch Chunk were merely those necessary to the business of the company, and were, of course utilitarian in character. That the region was indeed a wilderness may be gathered from the fact that when operations were be- gun there were but thirteen houses visible from the river north of Lehigh Gap. The workmen, who were under the immediate super- vision of Josiah White himself, were at first quar- tered on scows that were moved down the river as the work progressed. During the first year of the settlement four hundred acres of land were cleared, and about forty buildings of various descriptions were erected. Among these were saw mills, a grist mill, workshops and dwellings. Nicholas Brink, who had previously lived in Phila- delphia, was the company's steward. His wife, Mar- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 263 garet, was the first woman to come to Mauch Chunk. Soon after locating here a son was born to them, and he wa,s named Josiah White Erskine Hazard George F. A. Hanto Brink. This being the first birth to occur in the town, the inhabitants considered the event worthy of public demonstration. "The forest was illuminated with pine torches, plenty of pure old rye whiskey was drunk, and the noise and dancing were so great that it seemed as if the very tops of the pines had caught the infection, and kept time by swaying to and fro." This celebration was participated in by about six- hundred men, the number then engaged in pushing to completion the improvements which had been begun. The only avenue of approach to Mauch Chunk at this time was the line of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike. The road lay along the margin of the river, and, in passing through the "Narrows" below the town, there was room for but a single vehicle at a time. For years it was necessary to take the precaution to send word ahead to a place where such as came from the opposite direction could halt and wait until passed. In making his report, one who had visited the locality for the purpose of examining into the practicability of the projects under way, said : ' ' The making of a good road is utterly impossible, and to give you an idea of the country over which the road is to pass, I need only say that I considered it quite an easement when the wheel of my carriage struck a stump instead of a stone ! ' ' Many viewed with similar feelings of incredulity the proposition that a town should be built where na- ture seemed manifestly to have made it impossible. Digitized by Microsoft® 264 HisTOET or carbon county. But the men who had undertaken this enterprise were of the kind whom obstacles only spur to greater en- deavors, and the work went steadily on. In 1821, Josiah White was joined by his wife and four children, and during the following year a com- fortable house was provided for them. This stood im- mediately in the rear of the spot where the Soldiers' Monument has since been erected, and was surrounded by spacious and well kept grounds. Sixteen stone houses were completed on the lower part of Broadway in 1823. The Mansion House was begun at this time, and was finished in 1824. During this year the ravine was given a further appearance of being inhabited by the erection of nineteen log build- ings above the place where the Town Hall now stands. A stone grist mill was completed in 1825, while three additional saw mills were placed in operation on the river about the same time. In 1827 the company built a wooden bridge across the Lehigh, also putting up a fire-proof office building adjoining the present court house. A two-story stone building, which served as the com- pany's store house, was put up in 1828. It stood on the spot now occupied by the court house, and was donated to the county upon its organization, being its first tem- ple of justice. Men and manners were for the most part as rough as the surroundings during the early period of the settle- ment, as is commonly the case where hardy spirits are engaged in subduing nature, and where the refining influences of home and civilization are lacking. Fights were of common occurrence, although the men were not so much given to quarreling among themselves as they were to waging war against the laborers of Lehighton, with whom they frequently had sanguinary encounters on their own ground. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 265 The habitual use of intoxicating beverages, too, was then approved by custom, and laboring men were sup- plied with liquor by their employers. Josiah White, sturdy Quaker though he was, made no exception to the rule. The men employed at Mauch Chunk were given their whiskey as regularly as their meals, a man being kept on the payroll whose sole duty consisted in dispensing it, a " jiggerful" at a time to each man. William Speers was the "jigger boss," and it was in recognition of his first name that the allowances came to be generally called "Billy cups." Eeference is made to this custom in a song which was once locally popular : "When old Mauch Chunk was young, At noon they blew the horn, And, gathering thick, came gangs of men. And so at eve and morn. With grace and promptitude and skill They moistened lip and tongue. And went to work with right good will, When old Mauch Chunk was young." Prior to 1832, the land about Mauch Chunk and the improvements which had been made upon it were owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The town at that time contained about one hundred and fifty buildings of every description, having a resi- dent population of approximately one thousand people. It had a church, four schools, a newspaper and print- ing office, one hotel, an iron foundry and a car manu- factory, while boat building was also carried on exten- sively. But above all, it was at the head of the Lehigh Canal, and the boats which departed from this point laden Digitized by Microsoft® 266 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. with coal wafted back cargoes of merchandise and freight for a large extent of country. The wild and picturesque location of the town, the many novelties of the nearby coal muies, and the won.- ders of the Switchback Eailroad, which was the first of any importance in the United States, drew many visi- tors to the place. This railroad, following the same route then as at present, carried the product of the miaes to the plateau at the foot of Mt. Pisgah, whence the coal was conveyed by means of inclined planes and chutes to the river below. With its accustomed liberality, the company, in 1832, threw the town open to public enterprise, effect- ing the sale or lease of a large number of lots, and in- augurating an era of individual activity and prosperity. Speaking of the pioneer residents of Mauch Chunk, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard were chronologically and in other respects the first. They were indeed among the princes of pioneers, and their names are in- scribed in imperishable characters on the title page of the almost fabulous history of anthracite coal. John Ruddle, a native of England, came here as an accountant for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany in 1820. He was one of the earliest residents of East Mauch Chunk, where his descendants still live. Isaac Salkeld, accompanied by his family, arrived here from Philadelphia in 1823. He was a general foreman for the company, and superintended the build- ing of the Mansion House, the gravity road to Nesque- honing, and many other improvements. For a time he had charge of the old Mauch Chunk Foundry, one of the first in the state outside of Phila- delphia. His son, Jacob, was for many years promi- nently identified with the life and activities of Mauch Chunk. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 267 George Belford, who was one of tlie company's first employes, in later life became a coal operator and was chosen as the first president of the Manch Chunk Bank. Others who were here as early as 1824, and who left their impress upon the town were: Samuel Lippin- cott, Benjamin Mears, Isaac Dodson, Abiel Abbot and Alexander Lockhart. William Butler, a leading churchman, located in the place in 1826 ; Ezekiel W. Harlan, later a coal operator also came at this time. Asa Lansford Foster, who achieved substantial suc- cess in various fields of endeavor, arrived in the set- tlement in 1827. Joseph H. Chapman came during the ensuing year. He was a man of many activities, but in later life had charge of the coal shipping department of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Daniel Bertsch, prominent among the early coal operators, and in other respects, came here as a black- smith in 1827. John Leisenring, Sr., a native of Lehigh county, with his family, came in 1828 to become the landlord of the Mansion House. Later he was a merchant and general business man. The name of his eldest son, John, is intimately associated with the development of the transportation facilities of the Lehigh Valley; he also became a wealthy coal operator. Another son, A. W. Leisenring, became a leader in the financial affairs of Mauch Chunk. The year 1833 witnessed the coming of one who was destined to become one of the foremost men of his day, Asa Packer. He was accompanied by his brother- in-law, James I. Blakslee. During the same year, Eobert Klotz, a native of the Mahoning Valley, began life as a mule driver on the Digitized by Microsoft® 268 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. towpath at Maucli Chunk. He was later a conspicuous figure in the town, and represented his district in congress. Among the best known of the comparatively early settlers was Colonel John Lentz, a veteran of the war of 1812, and a native of Lehigh county. He was a leader in the movement which resulted in the organ- ization of Carbon county, under which he subsequently held various offices of trust and honor, being also a hotel keeper. His son, Lafayette Lentz, is one of Mauch Chunk's oldest and most respected residents of to-day. Others of subsequent prominence who made Mauch Chunk their home during the first twenty-five years of its existence were: E. A. Douglass and his brother, A. A. Douglass, the former an official of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and the latter a coal operator; A. G. Brodhead, the well known railroad man, and Charles 0. Skeer, a leader in the coal in- dustry and in business and financial affairs. The first mercantile establishment to be opened in Mauch Chunk after the discontinuance of the company store was the famous "corner store," which occupied the site where the Navigation Building now stands. It was originally owned by Asa L. Foster, who had for- merly conducted the company store, Benjamin R. Mc- Connell and James Broderick. This was the principal establishment of its kind be- tween the Susquehanna and the Delaware, and many of the farmers of the first named region disposed of their surplus products here, and the fact that they received cash in exchange, instead of being asked to do business on the basis of barter, which was then the custom in most rural neighborhoods, made the market a very desirable one to them. The store was so con- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF GAEBON COUNTY. 269 structed that boats could be floated beneath it and un- loaded by wheel and axle through hatches in the floors of the building. After a few years, Mr. Foster became the sole owner of the establishment, and in 1837 he sold out to Asa and E. W. Packer. They carried on the business until about the middle of the next decade, being succeeded by Hiram Wolf, Harry Wilbur and David Trehorn, under the title of Wolf, Wilbur and Company. Casper Christman, James Speer, Nathan Fegley and Company and John Kent and Company were among those who early entered into business in the town. John Leisenring, Sr., was a leading merchant from 1840 until his death, which occurred in 1854. The pioneering spirit which distinguished the build- ers of Mauch Chunk was made particularly manifest in the realm of invention. John Wilson, whose trade was that of a tinker, and who was one of the first men to come to the locality, made the first heating stove to burn anthracite coal. It was a plain, round, sheet-iron cylinder, with fire-door, tearing-door, ash pit and a screen under the grate. It also contained a pan to receive the ashes. Wilson, too, is said to have been the maker of the first cook-stove successfully burning hard coal. He was of a humorous disposition, and delighted to be called ' ' John Wulson, the tinker. ' ' Asa L. Foster did a great deal of experimenting in the endeavor to perfect the coal-burning stove, and many of his ideas were utilized by John Mears, a worker in iron and tin, who engaged in the manufac- ture of stoves in the place. The first attempt attended with any considerable suc- cess to utilize anthracite coal in the smelting of iron ore in this country was made at Mauch Chunk. Digitized by Microsoft® 270 HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTY. White and Hazard, the managers of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company began to experiment in this direction in 1825, when they erected a blast furnace, together with a tilt-mill and forge on the site where the Broadway livery and boarding stables now stand. The knowledge they acquired was later turned to good account, but produced no immediate results, the fur- nace being abandoned and another built on adjoining ground, in which charcoal was used. In the fall of 1837, the old furnace was again fitted up and the experiment retried by Henry High, Joseph Baughman, F. C. Lanthrop and Julius Guiteau. The result encouraged them to go on with their work, al- though they were ridiculed by old-fashioned iron mas- ters, who affirmed their readiness to eat all the iron that could be manufactured in this manner. To test the matter more thoroughly, a small furnace was built below the weigh-lock, which was completed during the summer of 1838. After overcoming many difficulties, the furnace was made to produce iron of good quality, but the venture was not financially successful. A few years later, however, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company promoted the building of the first blast furnaces of the Crane Iron Company at Cata- sauqua, where success was achieved from the start. A foundry started by the first-named company near the old furnace on Broadway was sold about 1830 to John Fatzinger. He and Jacob H. Salkeld carried on the establishment for many years. The Mauch Chunk Iron Works, until recently owned by the estate of W. H. Stroh, were opened by Edward Lippincott and Elias Miner in 1845. Formerly a fur- nace was conducted in connection with the plant, but this feature was found unprofitable and was aban- doned. Digitized by Microsoft® o 5 ^ ^ in as Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 271 One of the thriving industries of Mauch Chunk in earlier times was the wire mill established by the Le- high Coal and Navigation Company in 1849. Opera- tions were first carried on in the old grist mill building on Susquehanna street, and later another building was added. All the wire rope used by the company was manufactured here, the process having been evolved by Erskine Hazard. The works were closed in 1872 and the industry transferred to "Wilkes-Barre. The grist mill property referred to occupied the spot where the establishment of the Hooven Mercantile Company is now situated. In 1875, Ario Pardee opened a steam rolling mill on the corner where the Central Hotel has since been built. Alexander Robinson conducted the business. Among the other local industries which are still in existence is the West End Brewery, formerly owned by John E. G. Weysser ; the Mauch Chunk Silk Mills, and the repair shops of the Central Eailroad of New Jersey. Mauch Chunk was incorporated as a borough on January 26, 1850. At that lime the population of the place was about twenty-five hundred, which included the people living in East Mauch Chunk, which was not separated from the older settlement until 1854. Both boroughs were set off from Mauch Chunk township. At the first municipal election Charles 0. Skeer, E. "W. Harlan, Joseph Bullock, Jacob H. Salkeld, Leonard Blakslee and J. E. Twining were elected as councilmen. They chose E. W. Harlan as burgess at their first meeting. Upper Mauch Chunk, constituting the Second Ward of the borough, and occupying a natural terrace over- looking the rest of the town, was laid out for building purposes in 1846. The first settler in this neighbor- Digitized by Microsoft® 272 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. hood was David Pratt, who lived in the vicinity as early as 1823. Elliot Lockhart, Philip Swank, Nathan Tubbs, Joseph Weyhenmeyer and Charles Faga were other early residents. This section of the town has from the beginning been principally a locality of homes. The Lehigh Valley Railroad, which has been a factor of vital importance in the life of Mauch Chunk was placed in operation between here and Easton in the fall of 1855. During the days of its infancy, the head- quarters of the road were located here, and for many years the work of important departments was centered in Mauch Chunk. The same may be said of the Lehigh and Susque- hanna Eailroad, which was built during the next de- cade by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and later leased to the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The interests of the town are now more closely cen- tered in the latter road than the former, since Mauch Chunk is an important division point of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Owing to the height and steepness which character- ize the mountains of the region, and the rapidity with which smaller streams pour their water into the river during periods of heavy rains or melting snows, the valley of the Lehigh is subject to sudden floods, which have at various times resulted in the destruction of many lives and much valuable property. Mauch Chunk has suffered severely in a number of these floods. It has also had one costly fire. The first of these floods was that of June 9, 1841, which was a disastrous one throughout the valley. Sev- eral residents of the town were drowned, among the number, Adam Beers and his family. Quite a number Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 273 of buildings were also washed away, together with the bridge across the Lehigh at the Mansion House. The fire alluded to occurred on July 15, 1849, and the business portion of the place was laid in ashes. About thirty buildings including the court house and jail, were consumed, entailing a loss of one hun- dred thousand dollars. When the flames attacked the jail, the prisoners were set free. The fire taking place during the day time, the county records were saved. The freshet of 1862 was the most memorable event of its kiad in the history of the Lehigh Valley. One hundred and fifty people were drowned, while the prop- erty loss was almost beyond calculation. A heavy and continuous rain, which commenced on the third of Jime, caused a rapid rise in the Lehigh and its tributary streams above Mauch Chunk. On the afternoon of the succeeding day, the force of the flood broke the booms in the vicinity of White Haven, thus casting adrift a large quantity of saw-logs and other timber to pursue an almost resistless course down the river. The dams on the Lehigh Canal were gradually battered down, and the pent up force thus released heightened the intensity of the flood. The water attained its extreme height ia the neigh- borhood of Mauch Chunk at about midnight. At the Mansion House it rose thirty feet above the usual low- water mark, reaching the second story of the building. About half the buildings on the lower portion of Sus- quehanna street were washed away. Six lives were lost in this immediate vicinity during the continuance of the flood, while many thrilling escapes from death were recorded. The most marvellous of these was that of Leonard Teager, who yet lives in Mauch Chunk. He was caught Digitized by Microsoft® 274 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. at his place of business on Susquehanna street by a sudden rise of the flood, and surrounded by wreckage and drift-wood was swept away through the darkness. Near Packerton he succeeded in climbing aboard a floating canal boat upon which he rode over the town of Weissport and on to Parryville. At the latter place he escaped from his perilous position by grasping the limb of a tree overhanging the river, making his way back to land. The canal between Mauch Chunk and White Haven was almost completely demolished by the flood, and was never rebuilt. It required the labor of between two and three thousand men and six hundred horses or mules during more than four months to repair the damages to the canal between Mauch Chunk and Al- lentown. The Lehigh Valley Eailroad Company also sustained heavy losses as a result of the flood. In recent years, Mauch Chunk, in common with other towns in the Lehigh Valley was several times devas- tated by disastrous floods. The first of these occurred on August 24, 1901. On this occasion Mauch Chunk creek, which flows beneath Broadway burst its confines and engulfed Jesse Struthers, Harry Haggerty, William J. Morgan and Patrick Johnson, who were drowned. Another freshet visited the region about the middle of December during the same year, destroying, hun- dreds of thousands of dollars worth of property be- tween Mauch Chunk and Lehigh Gap. On February 28, 1902, a veritable cloud burst raised the Lehigh several feet beyond the point attained in December. The bridge at the Mansion House was washed away by this flood, railroad traffic was par- alyzed for weeks, and the damage to property in all parts of the county was enormous. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 275 Among the institutions and utilities of Mauch Cliunk, the postoffice, established in the year 1819, was the first. For years there were but two mails a week. In 1829, the postal facilities had been so far im- proved that the number of mails arriving at and dis- patched from the town numbered thirty-eight each week. During this year the company controlling the Union line of mail coaches established connections be- tween this place and Philadelphia. Another route, ex- tending from Mauch Chunk to Pottsville, was opened in 1831. Erskine Hazard was the first postmaster, he being succeeded by Josiah White. Many other prominent citizens have held the office since their day. John Leisenring, Sr., who was the incumbent from 1831 imtil 1847, and Mrs. Jane F. Eighter, who was post- mistress from 1860 until 1880, served the longest terms. The free delivery of the mail was instituted in the borough in 1906, and during the following year a postal sub-station was opened in Upper Mauch Chunk. At the same time a rural route, running through Beaver Eun and Bloomingdale Valleys was started. This office was designated as a postal savings bank in 1911. Asa Packer secured the charter for the Mauch Chunk "Water Company in 1849. The source of supply is the valley of Mauch Chunk creek, and the water furnished the town is excellent for its purity and health giving properties. The Upper Mauch Chunk Water Company was or- ganized' in the spring of 1872, the prime movers in the enterprise being E. F. Luckenbach and James Eoss. James I. Blakslee was the leader in the establish- ment of the Mauch Chunk Gas Company. The com- pany was chartered in 1854. Its capital stock now is $45,000, and its president is H. A. Butler. 19 Digitized by Microsoft® 276 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. The Mauch Clmnk Heat, Power, and Electric Light Company was incorporated in 1880. E. B. Leisenriag was the first president, while William 0. Lentz is now the head of the company. The generating plant is run by water power, but a steam equipment is also main- tained for emergency purposes. The pioneer monetary institution of Mauch Chunk was the private bank of Eockwood, Hazard and Com- pany. The bank was established in 1852 with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, and was in existence for five years. The Mauch Chunk State Bank was chartered in 1855, Hiram Wolf being its president, and A. W. Leisenriag, cashier. Its successor was the First National Bank of Mauch Chunk, which was organized in 1863, beginning with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars. Two years later its capital was quadrupled. William Lilly and A. W. Butler originally served as president and cashier, respectively. Early in 1903 this bank was consolidated with the Linderman National Bank, forming the Mauch Chunk National Bank of to-day. This bank is a depositary of the United States and of the State of Pennsylvania. It has a capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and has accumulated a large surplus. M. S. Kemmerer is its president, while Ira G. Boss holds the position of cashier. S. S. Smith is the assistant cashier. The Second National Bank of Mauch Chunk was chartered in 1864, continuing for a period of thirty- eight years. Charles Albright served as president of the institution until his death, in 1880, being succeeded by Thomas L. Poster, who had previously been the cashier. With the expiration of its charter, at the close of the year 1902, this bank was succeeded by the Mauch Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 277 Chunk Trust Company, the only institution of its kind in the county. The capital of the company is one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, and its surplus is equal to half that amount. J. M. Dreisbach, who was the last president of the Second National Bank, has been at the head of the trust company since its organi- zation. His son, George Dreisbach, is its secretary and treasurer. The banking house of G. B. Linderman and Company was established in 1867, conducting business prosper- ously under that title until 1882, when the Linderman National Bank was chartered. As has been shown, this bank was merged with the present national bank. The first newspaper issued here was the Lehigh Pioneer and Mauch Chunk Courier, which was estab- lished by Asa Lansford Foster in 1829. Its editor and publisher was Amos Sisty, who came to this place from Berwick. This was the forerunner of the Mauch Chunk Daily Times and was for years the only newspaper in the Lehigh coal region. It had many owners, and was successively known as the Mauch Chunk Courier, the Carbon County Transit, the Mauch Chunk Gazette, and the Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette. During the Eebellion, its equipment was for a time used by H. V. Morthimer in the publication of the Union Flag. The Mauch Chunk Daily Times was started by 0. B. Sigley in 1883. In 1908 the property was acquired by James J. Boyle, the present editor and proprietor, who also publishes the Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette. Enos Tolen, in 1847, founded the Carbon Democrat, which after many changes and vicissitudes gave birth to the Mauch Chunk Daily News. Joseph Lynn became the owner of this paper in 1870, changing its name to the Mauch Chunk Democrat. In Digitized by Microsoft® 278 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 1878 E. H. Eauch. started a rival paper known as the Carbon County Democrat. After a few years the papers were merged under the name of the former. Mr. Eauch soon acquiring the ownership. He and his son, Lawrence, the present owner of the Mauch Chunk Daily News started that journal in 1893, and under the latter, the Mauch, Chunk Democrat was published until 1911, when it was suspended. The first regularly organized school in Mauch Chunk was opened in 1821 in a log-house owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. It was taught by Margaret Saunders, a native of New Jersey. Two years after this, a second school was opened, which, in later years, was presided over by James Nowlins ' ' The Irish School Master, ' ' who had many eccentricities, and who was one of the most picturesque characters in the early annals of the town. The "Slab School House" was built in 1824, being subsequently lathed and pebble- dashed. In addition to Nowlins, Amos Singley and Joseph H. Siewers were prominent teachers prior to the organization of the borough. In 1840, the "Valley School House" which occupied the site of the present high school building was erected, being then consid- ered as a model of its kind. The pioneer school of Upper Mauch Chunk was established about 1842. The high school of the borough was founded in 1855, being originally located in a building which had for- merly belonged to Park Seminary, a private school, which, after a short career was closed owing to a lack of patronage. The expense of maintaining the high school was at first equally apportioned between the borough and those attending the school. During the winter of 1858, a new schoolhouse was built at the Northern Liberties, just north of the point where the bridge crosses the river to East Mauch Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 279 Cliuiik. This was afterwards known as the "Fort Sumter School." At the time of the Eebellion this little settlement con- tained fourteen homes and two boarding houses, and more than forty-five volunteers went forth from here in defense of the Union. Most of these were of Irish birth or extraction. Strangely enough, the same lo- cality also furnished one soldier for the Confederate army. The first principal of the schools of the borough upon whom supervisory powers were conferred was Laird H. Barber, in 1877. Among those still living who as instructors contrib- uted notably to the success of the schools of Mauch Chunk, is James W. Swank, famous as a penman, now of Washington, D. C. The high school building now in use was completed in 1885, costing nearly forty thousand dollars. In 1905 the Asa Packer School, in Upper Mauch Chunk was dedicated, being furnished, equipped and decorated by Mary Packer Cummings, the daughter of him in whose honor the building is named. She was the most liberal friend of the cause of popular education in the history of the town, regularly contributing several thousand dollars annually toward the maintenance of the schools, besides making many additional contributions. The excellent equipment and the high standard of efficiency of the educational system of the borough has largely been made possible through her generosity. Her death occurred in 1912. The parochial schools conducted by the church of the Immaculate Conception were established in 1884, dur- ing the rectorship of Eev. M. A. Bunce, Digitized by Microsoft® 280 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Mauch Chunk has a very thorough fire-fighting or- ganization consisting of three well equipped and dis- ciplined companies, the nucleus of which was formed in 1833. The oldest of these organizations is Marion Hose Company No. 1, formed in 1853. After a short period the company disbanded, and the citizens of the town did fire duty without organization until 1866, when the company was re-organized. The Phoenix Hose Company had its inception in 1868. After some years this company also disbanded, being re-organized in 1872. In 1874 the Diligent Fire Company of Upper Mauch Chunk was founded. Asa P. Blakslee is the present chief of the fire department of the borough. The oldest hotel in the place is the Mansion House, which was first known as the Mauch Chunk Inn. Va- rious additions have been built to the stone structure which comprised the original building. Edward Kim- ball was the first regularly installed landlord of this famous hostelry, which in the days of its splendor was frequented by the wealth and beauty of America. Formerly, too, it was the anthracite coal exchange, the operators from all parts of the hard coal regions gathering here periodically in the conduct of their busi- ness and for the adjustment of their affairs. Mr. Kimball was succeeded by John Leisenring, Sr., who was a very popular landlord. The building was owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company until 1873, when the title was vested in the Mansion House Hotel Company. It is now the property of D. E. Purcell and William Dods. Cornelius Connor, in 1833, erected the White Swan Hotel on the site now occupied by the American House. This was a frame structure, and was destroyed by the Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 281 fire of 1849, after which event the present building, which has since been enlarged, was put up. One of the landmarks of Maueh Chunk in by-gone days was the Broadway House, which stood on the spot where the building of the Young Men's Christian As- sociation has since been erected. It was surrounded by towering pines, while the great rocks protruding from the ground around its base gave it a wild and picturesque appearance. This hotel was built by Daniel Bertsch in 1833. It was while seated within its hospitable portals, gazing at the terraced gardens on the opposite side of the street, that a traveling man once remarked : ' ' Well, I have seen places before hav- ing eleven-story buildings, but this is the only town with eleven-story gardens that I have ever visited ! ' ' The Central Hotel, which is owned by Peter Schwei- binz, was built in 1889. The first' religious services held in Mauch Chunk, aside from the meetings of the Friends, or Quakers, who were among the earliest settlers, were conducted in the wheel-wright shop of James McCrea at the "Bear Trap," where the opera house now stands. The locality was thus designated by the pioneers of the town, after the waggish remark of one of Josiah White's workmen, who, being questioned by some curious strangers concerning the purpose of an experi- mental contrivance that was being tested in the creek at this point, replied : ' ' We are making a bear trap. ' ' The organization which had its meeting place here was known as a Lord's Day school, of which James Biggers was superintendent. From this source sprang a neat frame church, the pulpit of which was open to all denominations. It eventually became the property of the Methodists, who, in the autumn of 1828, effected Digitized by Microsoft® 282 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. a church organization. William Coder, a local preacher, was the father of this congregation. Origi- nally the church formed a part of a six weeks' circuit, embracing the country between the boundaries indi- cated by the Delaware river, Stroudsburg, the Broad mountain and Pottsville. In 1838 Mauch Chunk be- came for the first time a station. The present build- ing, the third that has been owned by this congrega- tion was dedicated early in 1874 by the late Bishop Simpson. St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal parish, the mother of nearly all the churches of this denomination hi the Lehigh Valley, was organized in May, 1835. The con- gregation had its inception in the year 1829, when Wil- liam H. Sayre, who had come to Mauch Chunk from Columbia county, began its upbuilding. He served as lay reader until a clergyman was called. In 1836 the parish was admitted into union with the Diocese of Pennsylvania, while three years thereafter the Sunday school was organized. The first church edifice was begun in 1840, completed in 1845, and con- secrated in 1852. The present building, which is de- signed with special reference to the surrounding scen- ery and which is one of the most beautiful and impos- ing structures of its kind in Pennsylvania, was begun in 1867, being consecrated two years later. The Packer memorial altar and reredos, a costly work of art, and the crowning feature of the interior of the church, was erected by the family of the late Asa Packer, one of the founders, and for many years a vestryman and warden of St. Mark's. The parish building, adjoining the church, which is a model of its kind, was also built as a memorial to Asa Packer, the donor being his widow, Sarah M. Packer. Digitized by Microsoft® Intepjor St. Mark's Church, IMauch Chunk, Showing Packer ^Memorial Altar and Reredos. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOET OF CAEBON COUNTY. 283 This parish has always taken an active part in diocesan affairs, and has manifested a lively interest in the general work of the church. Various affluent members of the church have left it liberal bequests, and it now is richly endowed. The First Presbyterian church was organized in No- vember, 1835. During that year, Eev. Richard Web- ster, then located at Easton, and engaged in mission- ary work far and near, began preaching here once a month. Nominally he was the founder of the church, and he served as its pastor until 1856. The first church building of the congregation was dedicated in 1837. It was small and was built of stone, being soon outgrown. The present fine building was begun in 1855, and was completed and dedicated four years later. Like St. Mark's, this congregation has had many prominent and wealthy families on its rolls, and they have given freely and largely to the church and its benevolences. The land upon which the first church of the Immacu- late Conception was built was acquired by Eev. Pat- rick J. Hennegan in 1849; the erection of the church building was begun during the following year. The history of Mauch Chunk as an independent parish begins with the pastorate of Eev. P. J. Coffey, who came here in April, 1853. It was during his time that the Asiatic cholera desolated the region. The good priest was assisted in giving the last rites of the church to the victims of this dread scourge by the ven- erable Bishop Neuman, of Philadelphia, the only Amer- ican whose name has yet been invested with the honors of sainthood under the authority of the Catholic church. Digitized by Microsoft® 284 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. The cornerstone of the magnificent new church was laid during the rectorship of the present pastor, Eev. T. J. Larkin, on June 24, 1906; and the building was dedicated on October 4, 1908. The Church of the Sacred Heart at Nesquehoning forms a part of this parish. St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church was organ- ized in 1857 by Rev. E. A. Bauer. Services of this de- nomination were conducted in Mauch Chunk as early as 1835 by Eev. F. "W. Meendson. The first house of worship owned by the congregation was the old stone church which had formerly belonged to the Presby- terians. Its present building in Upper Mauch Chunk was dedicated in 1879. Ebenezer United Evangelical church was built in 1895, the congregation being the offspring of the church of the Evangelical Association, which was founded in Upper Mauch Chunk in 1857. Henry H. Webster, son of the founder of the First Presbyterian church, was the leading spirit in the establishment of the local branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. The present society originated in a Railroad Men's Christian Association which was formed by Mr. Webster in Upper Mauch Chunk in the Spring of 1878. This organization was succeeded by that which is now in existence in 1889. The home of the associa- tion at the time of its dedication, in 1894, was one of the finest in the United States. The building, together with the location, cost nearly seventy thousand dol- lars, which sum was raised by popular subscription. Concert Hall, or the Opera House, owned by the mu- nicipality, and opened in 1882, was built jointly by the borough and a number of public- spirited citizens. It Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP OAEBON COUNTY. 285 stands upon ground formerly occupied by the market house and town hall. The Dimmick Memorial Library, which contains about twelve thousand volumes, was built from a fund bequeathed to the town by Milton M., son of Milo M. Dimmick, a prominent Mauch Chunk lawyer and for- mer congressman, whose name it commemorates. The giver died in 1886, while the library was completed in 1800. The original fund amounted to forty-five thou- sand dollars, which sum, by judicious handling, has now been increased to fifty thousand dollars. Mauch Chunk Lodge, No. 76, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is the oldest among the secret societies of the town. It was instituted in 1842. There are three bodies of the time honored Masonic fraternity in the place. Carbon Lodge, No. 242, was chartered on December 27, 1849. Lilly Chapter, No. 181, Eoyal Arch Masons, was constituted on December 6, 1855, being named in honor of General William Lilly. Packer Commandery, No. 23, Knights Templar, the namesake of E. A. Packer, was instituted Septem- ber 28, 1866. The majority of the best men of the town have been identified with the fraternity, and their in- fluence and stability have rendered it prominent and prosperous. Mauch Chunk Lodge, No. 193, Knights of Pythias, was organized on October 19, 1869. Most of the patriotic and beneficial societies com- mon to the region have also been established here. Chapman Post, No. 61, Grand Army of the Eepublic, was named for Major Lansford F. Chapman, one of the many intrepid officers contributed to the cause of the Union by Carbon county. He was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville. Digitized by Microsoft® 286 HISTORY OF CABBON COUNTY. It was under tlie auspices of Chapman Post that the Carbon County Soldiers' Monument, standing near the court house, was erected. It was dedicated in 1886. General Daniel E. Sickles, one of the heroes of Gettys- burg, was the orator of the occasion. The cemetery in Upper Mauch Chunk was laid out in 1823 by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. It is the only burying ground in the town, and it con- tains the remains of most of the men whose enterprise and influence, together with the lavish gifts of nature, gave to Mauch Chunk a celebrity out of all proportion to her population. The cemetery is graced by several notable examples of memorial architecture. Mauch Chunk and its surroundings hold a perennial charm for tourists and excursionists, who annually visit the locality with increasing numbers. The Switchback Eailway, extending from here to Summit Hill, continues to be one of the chief attractions. It is operated chiefly for the accommodation of sight- seers from May to November of each year. Flagstaff Park, reached by the line of the Carbon Transit Company, has in recent years become a popu- lar resort. The name Flagstaff came into vogue about half a century ago. At that time, upon the very sum- mit of the mountain stood a hemlock tree, in all its stately grandeur, until one day during a severe storm it was struck by lightning, which divested it of its bark and branches, leaving the trunk uninjured. At the opening of the Civil War, a party of young men nailed to this staff a flag bearing the stars and stripes, which here remained until torn to shreds by the bleak storms of winter. During the Franco-Prus- sian War, some sympathizing friends unfurled the Prussian flag from the same staff. But it was destined Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 287 to a sad fate, for on the ensuing night the partisans of the French felled the famous flagstaff to the ground. On July 4, 1898, when the successful conduct of the Spanish-American War was stirring the patriotism of the nation, a cable was strung from the Flagstaff to the summit of Bear mountain, on the opposite side of the Lehigh, from which the largest flag ever swung to the breeze in America was suspended. It was over seventy-five feet long and fifty feet wide. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTEE XVn. MAVCH CHrSK TOWN SHIP. In considei'ing the value of their natural resources, Mauch Chunk stands first among the townships of Car- bon county, while in population it is second only to Banks, which leads by a small margin. Together with the boroughs within its borders, it contains the richest deposits of anthracite coal known to exist in the world. The township was organized in 1827, its territory being taken principally from East Penn, while a small portion was taken from Lausanne, and subsequently a tract of land east of the Lehigh river was added. This addition was equal in size to about one-third of the township as at first constituted. The Nesquehoning creek, forming the northern boundary, flows eastwardly and empties into the Le- high opposite Coalport. The valley drained by this stream lies between the Broad mountain on the north and Locust mountain on the south. The last named forms an angle with Sharp mountain, which extends westwardly into Schuylkill county. Mount Pisgah, on the Lehigh, and Mount Jefferson, near Summit Hill, tower above the summit of this mountain. The Ma- honing mountain lies on the southern border of the township. Between this and Sharp mountain Mauch Chunli creek flows eastwardly into the Lehigh. Be- tween Locust and Sharp mountains is the Panther Creek Valley, where most of the coal in the township is deposited. The Landing tavern, situated at the junction of the Nesquehoning creek and the Lehigh, was the first dot Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOET OF CARBON COUNTY. 289 of civilization to appear upon this wild and moun- taiaoTis tract, so entirely forbidding in appearance, yet containing a vast concealed treasure, which, when found, brought wealth and comfort to thousands. The spot where it stood was known as Lausanne. This tav- ern, erected at an early period in the last century, was the resort of hunters, surveyors, prospectors for coal, raftsmen and the occasional travelers who found their way into the picturesque but desolate valley of the Upper Lehigh. It was built at about the time of the opening of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike, the line of which diverged from the river at this point, fol- lowing a more direct course over the mountains toward Berwick. A man named Abram Klotz is suppposed to have been the first landlord of this famous old tavern. For a time it was kept by John Eothermel, father of the celebrated artist of that name. Another landlord was Isaac A. Chapman, who was appointed postmaster of Lausanne in 1817. The last keeper of the tavern, which was abandoned about 1873, was Jacob Buss. It was the intention of the founders of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to locate their principal town at Lausanne; but the owners of the land there refused to part with it for a fair price, with the result that the present site of Mauch Chunk was chosen. The boroughs of Mauch Chunk, East Mauch Chunk, Summit Hill and Lansford are situated in this town- ship. Nesquehoning is now the only town of any great importance in the district which has not been incor- porated. Excepting that many of its workmen own their own homes, most of the real estate in the town- ship belongs to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany, and the mining and shipping of coal is the pre- ponderating industry. Digitized by Microsoft® 290 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. Nesquehoning is, next to Summit Hill, the oldest of the mining towns of this company. The name is of Indian origin, signifying narrow valley. The coal produced at Nesquehoning was originally carried to Mauch Chunk on the Khume Eun gravity railroad, along the line of the present electric road be- tween the two places. This railroad was built in 1830. For years mules were employed to haul the empty cars back to the mines, being later displaced by a wood- burning locomotive, which was brought across the mountains from Tamaqua by teams. The gravity road was abandoned upon the building of the Nesquehoning Valley Eailroad, since controlled by the Central Eail- road of New Jersey. The first house here was built for Thomas Kelly in 1824. One of the memorable events in the early his- tory of the town was the celebration of the centenary of Washington's birth, in 1832. The people of Lehigh- ton, Mauch Chunk, Lausanne and other places partici- pated in this patriotic function, one of the features of which was a great dinner, given at the home of N. Allen. This locality was at first popularly known as ' ' Hell 's Kitchen," or "the Kitchen." Packer, Harlan & Company held the first lease of the mines at Nesquehoning, which were subsequently operated by various firms. Since 1867, they have been worked directly by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Years ago it was thought that most of the available coal had been exhausted, but later developments proved this view to have been very erroneous, and at the present rate of production there is still sufficient coal remaining unmined in this district to last for an in- definite period. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTT. 291 The first breaker at Nesquehoning was run by water power, and it is believed that with a single exception it was the only one thus operated in the anthracite region. The mines of this section are now drained by a tunnel four and one-half miles in length, extending from Nesquehoning to Coalport, near Mauch Chunk. This tunnel, which cost a fabulous sum, was begun in 1906 and completed early in 1912. It is the purpose of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to ex- tend it westward through the Panther Creek Valley, perhaps as far as Tamaqua. The first school here was started in 1830. There are now two school buildings in the place, one of which accommodates the township high school. Twenty-two schools are maintained throughout the township, and a supervisory principal is employed. A postoffice was established at Nesquehoning in 1838 with Joseph Minehard in charge. It was at first kept at the store of the company operating the colliery. In 1910, the office was raised to the presidential rank. St. Patrick's Eoman Catholic church, the first house of worship to be erected between Mauch Chunk and Tamaqua, was built in 1839, under the leadership of Eev. James Maloney. For some time it was attended by missionaries from Easton, and services were held only a few times each year. About 1848, Eev. Patrick J. Hennegan, a conspicuous figure in the early history of Catholicity in this portion of the coal fields, ap- peared upon the scene. He was at first stationed at Tamaqua, and had a large field of labor. In 1850, he took up his residence at Nesquehoning. The only re- minder of this church is the graveyard which adjoined it, in which lie the remains of many of the first Catho- lics of Mauch Chunk, who worshipped here before the 20 Digitized by Microsoft® 292 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. organization of a church of their faith at that place. The church of the Sacred Heart is the successor of that first named. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1863 by Rev. Henry H. Davis. David Trevarrow was a local preacher of the congregation. The present build- ing was dedicated in 1890, and is a memorial to James Meeds, a former resident of Nesquehoning, who con- tributed liberally towards its erection. The First Baptist church of Summit Hill is the mother of the church of that denomination at Nesque- honing. St. Mary 's Greek Catholic church, a handsome struc- ture costing sixteen thousand dollars, was built in 1910. It is a mission of St. John's church of Lansford. For some years past the town has been furnished with water by the Panther Valley Water Company, and it is lighted by the Panther Valley Electric Light, Heat and Power Company. The Tamaqua and Lansford Street Railway was placed in operation between here and Mauch Chunk in 1903. Nesquehoning Hose Company No. 1 was organized in 1909, and a substantial fire house was built in 1911. The only industry independent of the mines is the plant of the Mauch Chunk Silk Mill Company, built here in 1910. Charles Neast is the president of this company. The mines at Hacklebernie, owned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and situated near Mauch Chunk, were opened in the early days and oper- ated by many different companies. The village that grew up about these workings is named after a town in England. The output of these mines was formerly sent to market over the Switchback Railroad, but the coal is Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 293 now carried underground to the breaker at Nesque- honing. David Pureell and James Breslin, operating ■under the name of the Hacklebernie Coal Company, held the last lease of this property. Hanto, located in the Nesquehoning Valley, across the mountain from Lansford, is the namesake of George F. A. Hanto, who was one of the founders of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. This company is now erecting a mammoth electrical power house at this point, which will cost several millions of dollars. The plant, when completed, wUl transmit electricity to New York, Philadelphia, and other distant cities, the theory being that this can be done more cheaply than to ship the coal required for generating purposes. Coalport is at the head of the Lehigh Canal, where boats take on their cargoes of coal for shipment to Philadelphia and intermediate places. Little Italy, a settlement of recent growth, is sit- uated on Locust mountain, near Nesquehoning. The place is inhabitated exclusively by Italians. Bloomingdale is a small farming community lying between the Sharp and Mahoning mountains, near Summit Hill. PACKES TOWNSHIP. The namesake of Hon. Asa Packer, who was then one of the associate judges on the bench of Carbon county. Packer township was organized in the year 1847. Like Banks and Lehigh townships. Packer was carved from Lausanne. The Broad mountain extends through the entire length of the southern and middle portion of the township, while the Spring mountain lies in the northern part. Between these mountains is Quakake VaUey, extending from east to west Digitized by Microsoft® 294 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. through the township, and containing all the land that is now under cultivation therein. It is watered by the Quakake creek, rising on the Spring mountain, in the western part of Banks township, and flowing east- wardly through Packer and Lehigh townships to Penn Haven, where it empties into the Lehigh river. The Mahanoy division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad runs parallel to Quakake creek through the township. A great deal of coal and other freight from the Schuyl- kill region passes over this branch, and formerly ex- cellent passenger service was maintained; but shortly subsequent to the deal whereby the Philadelphia & Eeading Company for a time secured control of the Lehigh Valley, the passenger service was abandoned. Hudsondale and Gerhards are places within the town- ship where the company maintains sidetracks or yards for the convenience of shippers or receivers of freight. Hudsondale was formerly known as Hartz's Station, so named in honor of Colonel Jacob Hartz, one of the early settlers of this locality, then one of the stopping places on the liae of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turn- pike, running from Berwick to Easton. That portion of this old highway leading from Hud- sondale to Mauch Chunk was allowed to fall into dis- repair and was finally abandoned to travel about 1885. It is now however being rebuilt in a most substan- tial manner, the cost being defrayed jointly by the county and the state. Another road, leading from Weatherly to Tamaqua, also runs through the township. The first settlers of Quakake Valley were Daniel Heil and George Glaze, who came to this section in 1790. They came from beyond the Blue mountain, fol- lowing a road which had been built to a point four Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 295 miles south of Tamaqua. The intervening fifteen miles were covered on a road of their own construction. Mr. Heil located on the farm owned by the late Frank Billig, while the other constructed his log dwell- ing on land now held by J. J. Gerhard. As illustrating the hardships encountered by the pioneers it may be mentioned that Heil carried an old- fashioned feed cutter on his back all the way from Dinkeyville, where he had formerly lived, to his new home. These men built a saw mill, the first in the valley, providing lumber and building material for themselves and the later settlers. Another early settler was Jonathan Winter, who cleared the farm on which Allen Gerhard now lives. Stephen Gerhard, the grandfather of Jonas Ger- hard, who, at the age of ninety, yet lives in the town- ship, was the first of that family to locate in Quakake Valley. He bought and cleared the farm which is to-day occupied by William Eeed. Like most of the other pioneers of this section he came from the region south of the Blue Eidge. Daniel, one of the sons of Stephen Gerhard, became the father of six sons : Benjamin, Jonas, Joel, Daniel, Solomon, and Eeuben. Solomon was the father of J. J. Gerhard, who is now living on the old homestead. The first of the Hinkle family in the township of whom any record remains bore the name of Philip. He originally lived on the place later occupied by John Faust, and now the property of John Bittner. From there he removed to the Bound Head. Col. Jacob Hartz, who has already been mentioned came to the township about 1800. He was a clock- maker, and about 1812 built the Spring Mountain Digitized by Microsoft® 296 ' HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Hotel, occupying the site of the present hotel at Hud- sondale. He kept it until 1820, when he sold out to George Kelchner. Later he purchased several hundred acres of land near the foot of the Broad mountain. There he built the White Swan Hotel, which was kept by him and his descendants for many years. Colonel Hartz was elected sheriff of Northampton county in 1829. He had eight children, namely : Jonas, Susan, Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth, William, Abigail, and Hannah. Jonas became the father of Levi, Peter, George and Abram, the latter, who lives at Weatherly, alone sur- viving. Levi kept the Packer House at Weatherly until his death, which occurred about 1890. Peter spent his entire life in the place of his birth. An interesting story is told of a feat he performed when but a boy of about sixteen years. His father owned a powerful and high spirited black colt, which no amount of hardship seemed able to subdue, being in fact such a horse as was Eienzi, the celebrated charger of General Sheridan. With the idea in mind of curbing his spirit, Peter was ordered by his father to ride the horse to Easton and return, a total distance of one hundred and twenty miles, in a single day, or else kill him. He did as had been commanded, but fared worse than the horse in the endurance test which his compliance made necessary. Peter Hartz was several times elected to the office of county commissioner, and kept the Spring Mountain Hotel for a time. One of his daughters, Mary, the wife of Walter 'Neill, still lives in the district. John Wetzel was a resident of the township as early as 1812. He located on land now owned by the Lehigh Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 297 Valley Coal Company. He was a member of the family which, produced the famous Indian fighters of that name, men whose deeds are enshrined in the pioneer history of the country alongside those of Boone and Crockett. His sons were John, Valentine, David and Aaron. A saw mill, the ruins of which may still be seen, was built by Wetzel on a stream that has since been named Wetzel's run. David Wetzel reared a large family in the old log house which his father built at the foot of the Spring mountain. He was of patriarchial appearance, and in his home, dispensed the kind of hospitality that only the gener- ous, old-fashioned country people could bestow. Much of his substance was spent in proving for coal on lands that he owned on the Spring mountain, and he died with the firm conviction that the treasure he sought existed there, but without having discovered it. Three of his sons, Thomas, Jonas and Amos, remain in the township. John Faust, another patriarchial figure, came to Packer township, then Lausanne, from Schuylkill coun- ty in 1829. He was the father of thirteen children, and his descendants hereabouts are quite numerous. Ephraim Balliet, originally from Luzerne county, in 1839 settled on the farm now occupied by Arthur Bitt- ner. He served for years as a justice of the peace. In 1829 George and Benneville Keim erected a grist mill on the Quakake creek, about two miles above Ger- hards Station. It was purchased by John Faust in 1841, and it was by him removed to its present location near Gerhards Station, in 1849. It is now owned and operated by William S. Dietrich. Samuel W. Hudson came to the township in 1859, purchasing property on which he erected a foundry and machine shop. A saw mill, which had previously Digitized by Microsoft® 298 HISTOEY OP CARBON COUNTY. been owned by William Koons was on the creek. The saw mill was operated by Mr. Hudson for about twenty years, while he conducted the foundry and ma- chine shop until 1881. He also became owner of the stone grist mill which was erected at Hudsondale in 1869. In addition to this he dealt in mine timber on an extensive scale, becoming one of the foremost business men of the county. He died January 17, 1885, and his son, S. B. Hudson, succeeded to the business. The firm of Hoover Brothers, headed by Elijah Hoover, soon after the close of the Eebellion, began the manufacture of powder in the western portion of the township. Having had an explosion or two, they, in 1873, sold out to the Laflin Powder Manufacturing Company, which rebuilt the mills and continued the business until 1878, when another explosion resulted in the removal of the enterprise to the vicinity of Wilkes- Barre. In 1886 the Tide Water Pipe Company erected its pumping station at Hudsondale. This company operates an oil line which originally extended from Eixford, near Bradford, Pa., to Bayonne, N. J., a dis- tance of approximately three hundred and fifty miles. The line has recently been built westward into Illinois. This company was the pioneer in the construction of long distance pipe lines, being driven to try the des- perate experiment through the discrimination prac- ticed in favor of the Standard Oil Company by the rail- roads. The oil, in its crude state, is pumped through a six inch pipe all the way from the oil fields to tide water. Hudsondale was originally the sixth station on the line, the oil being forced from there to Change- water, N. J., a distance of sixty miles. The average quantity of oil pumped per day is eleven thousand bar- rels. H. L. Brenckman is the local superintendent for the company. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 299 M. L. Smith, in 1887, established the Hudsondale Ochre "Works at this place. The product is red ochre, ground exceedingly fine, and is used as a base in the manufacture of certain grades of paint. The main building in which the mill is housed was formerly oc- cupied by the machine shop and foundry of S. W. Hudson. A vein of good ochre, situated about two miles west of the mill, supplies the raw material for this industry. From fifteen to twenty men are em- ployed, while the mill is kept running day and night. M. L. Smith died in 1908, and his brother, J. Eowland Smith, is now superintendent of the concern. The Hazleton Water Company erected a pumping station at Hudsondale in 1897, having purchased a tract of eighty acres of land from S. B. Hudson. The company has two reservoirs at this place, and two large pumps, having a total capacity of four million gallons daily, Torce the water over the Spring moun- tain to Hazleton, a distance of seven miles. The plant is now under the direction of John Scanlon. In 1906 the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Company built a coal storage plant at the foot of the north side of the Broad mountain, about half a mile below Hudsondale. It has a capacity of approximately two hundred and fifty thousand tons, and coal is stored and re-loaded there as is expedient. Another large storage yard of this description was erected by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company on the south side of the Broad mountain, near Hanto, in Packer toAvnship, during 1908. These are all the industries located in the township, the bulk of the population being engaged in agricul- tural pursuits. Most of the farms are reasonably well kept and productive, and Quakake Valley is the leading farming section in the northern part of the county. Digitized by Microsoft® 300 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Scarcely any heavy timber remains in the township, but formerly its forests were the principal dependence of its people. The Broad mountain which is now de- nuded and bare, producing little but huckleberries and scrub oak, was once covered with stately forests of white and yellow pine ; most of this timber was sold in the rough state for use inside the mines. Fires, which have annually been allowed to go unchecked on this mountain, have killed off most of the young timber. Nearly all of the land is classed as being unseated. Much has been spent at various times in proving for coal on the north slope of this mountain, but always without avail. As late as 1850, wild game abounded on the mountain, and Samuel Young, who enlisted for the war with Mexico, killed forty-eight deer there during the fall before his departure with the army. The first school house in the township was built in 1823, near the Spring Mountain Hotel. Eleven years later the church in the western portion of the township was erected, and a part of the building partitioned off for school purposes, being so used until 1868. Subse- quently a school house was built near Krop's Crossing. The three buildings now in use stand on substantially the same sites occupied by the original buildings. Four teachers are employed, while the schools are modern and up-to-date, both as regards equipment and in methods of teaching. The only church in the township is that which has already been referred to as having been built in 1834. It was originally a log structure, and was located on land donated by John Faust. This building was torn down in 1868, when the present edifice was erected. Some years ago this was remodeled and much im- proved. It is known as St. Matthew's Lutheran and German Reformed church. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 301 In 1905 the Bethany Union Sunday School chapel was built at Hudsondale, where a Sabbath school has been maintained for many years. The Spring Mountain House and the White Swan Hotel, both built by Colonel Jacob Hartz, have already been mentioned. The former was destroyed by fire in 1893, being then owned by Patrick Garra, while the other was recently torn down. Garra built a new house on the site of the old, and this is owned by his estate. The place kept by Charles Hinkle on the road to Tamaqua is the only other tavern in the township. A postoffice was established at the store of Samuel "Wolf about the year 1820. Upon his removal from the township the office was transferred to the tavern stand of Jacob Hartz, and the landlords acted as postmasters until about 1858. Soon after the building of the rail- road through the township, Hudsondale became a sta- tion, being so named in honor of S. W. Hudson, who then became the postmaster. Later the postoffice was kept in the telegraph office of the Tide Water Pipe Company. It was abolished in 1903, when a rural de- livery route, starting from Weatherly and covering the inhabited portion of the township, was instituted. The Hudsondale Grange Telephone Company and the Packer Township Telephone Company, both con- necting with the Bell system at Weatherly, furnish ade- quate service to the people of the township. The former was organized in 1910, with J. A. Werner as president, while the latter came into being during the year subsequent. Allen Bittner is its president. PALMEBTON BOROUGH. Palmerton, the youngest borough of Carbon county, and one of the model communities of the state, is of very recent growth. Until the autumn of 1912, when Digitized by Microsoft® 302 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. the town -was incorporated, it formed a part of Lower Towamensing township. It owes its existence and its many excellencies solely to the enterprise of the New Jersey Zinc Company of Pennsylvania, the works of which are located near here. Its name is derived from Stephen S. Palmer, the president of this company. The place is beautifully located near the western bank of the Lehigh within the northern shadows of the majestic Blue Eidge, commanding a view of the wild grandeur of the Lehigh Water Gap. The southern portion of the town borders on the Aquashicola creek. This stream was thus named by the Delaware In- dians, and in their tongue signified the 'place of fishing with hush-nets. Palmerton is on the line of the Central Eailroad of New Jersey, being one hundred and ten miles distant from New York, and eighty-two miles from Philadel- phia. Mauch Chunk lies ten miles to the northward. The first white man to settle on the present town site of Palmerton was Nicholas Opplinger, who in the year 1752 was appointed constable of Towamensing town- ship. It was on the farm of this German that Benjamin Franklin and his little army were quartered in Janu- ary, 1756, while enroute from Bethlehem to New Gnad- enhiitten, now Weissport, where they built Fort Allen. When the Indian troubles of 1755 broke upon the frontier, the settlers of this vicinity erected a block- house, surrounded by a stockade, immediately in the rear of the spot where the First National Bank of Palmerton now stands. The land on which it was built originally belonged to Nathaniel Irish, one of the first residents of Bethlehem, and whose property adjoined that of Opplinger. Digitized by Microsoft® o fc Tj Q H a Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 303 WitMn the enclosure of this fortification, later known as Fort Lehigh, the settlers and their families gathered for protection. Among those who sought the security afforded by; the protecting walls of this little haven of safety was a man named Boyer and his family. Boyer had established his home about a mile and a half east of the fort on land until recently owned by Josiah Arner and James Ziegenfuss, and that still held by George Kunkel. One day, accompanied by his son, Frederick, then a lad of thirteen, and several of his other children, he went from the fort to his farm to attend the crops. The father was ploughing and his son busied himself with hoeing, while the rest of the children were in the house or playing nearby. Suddenly a party of hostile Indians appeared upon the scene, and the father, seeing them, called to Fred- erick to run, and himself endeavored to reach the house. Finding that he could not do so, he ran toward the Aquashicola, being shot through the head as he reached the farther side. Frederick, who had escaped to an adjacent wheat field, was captured and brought back. The Indians then scalped his father in his presence, took the horses from the plow, and making captives of his sisters, started for the Stony Eidge, in the rear of the house. There they were joined by another party of Indians, and uniting their forces, they marched northward to Canada. On the journey the sisters were separated from their brother and were never again heard from. Frederick was held as a prisoner among the French and Indians in Canada for five years. Upon his re- Digitized by Microsoft® 304 . HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. lease he was sent to PMladelpMa, whence he proceeded to his old home to take possession of the farm. Soon after his return he married a daughter of Con- rad Mehrkem, with whom he had four sons and four daughters. He died on October 31, 1832, aged eighty- nine years. His remains lie in St. John's Union Cem- etery. The inscription on his tombstone states that he was born in 1732, and that he was nearly one hundred years of age when he died. This is thought to be a mistake, because it was admitted by his descendants that he was but a lad when captured, and there were no Indian troubles in this region prior to the year 1755, when Braddock was defeated and the Indians were incited to deeds of violence. Frederick Beyer's descendants in the county are still quite numerous. Fort Lehigh, commanding the approach to Lehigh Gap, and being situated at the junction of the road leading to Fort Allen, on the north, and that extending to Fort Norris, on the east, in Monroe county, occu- pied a very important position. It was garrisoned by provincial troops for a number of years, and there were sometimes as high as thirty men stationed there. Nothing definite is known of the close of its history; but it appears to have been abandoned as a station in 1758, when hostilities had almost come to an end, only to be again occupied in 1763, when Pontiac 's war broke out and the Indians began to make incursions into Pennsylvania. The last mention that can be found of it refers to the latter year, at which time Captain Jacob Wetherhold with a company of soldiers was posted here. The incident bringing this intelligence to light is decidedly to the discredit of that officer and the men under his command. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. j 305 During the year 1760, the Moravians established a missionary settlement among the Indians in the pres- ent township of Polk, Monroe county, locating it on the exact spot where Frederick Hoeth and his family were slain in the uprising of 1755. The place was called Wechquetank, and prospered exceedingly for a few years. But when the Indian troubles of 1763 began, there was grave danger of a repetition of the dreadful occurrences of 1755. Not only were the Moravians and their converts disliked by the hostile Indians, but they were also suspected by the settlers and the soldiers, who looked upon their villages as convenient lurking places for the savage foe. Wechquetank had several times been threatened with destruction by the whites, and some of the more pru- dent of the converts had forsaken the mission on ac- count of the two-fold danger which menaced it. Among the number was an Indian named Zachary, his wife and child. During the month of August, 1763, they returned to the village for a brief visit, earnestly trying to per- suade their friends who remained there to leave the locality. A woman named Zippora accompanied them as they started on their return journey to the Susquehanna. They stopped for the night at Fort Lehigh, and were permitted to sleep in the hayloft of a bam near the fort. During the darkness they were rudely aroused from their sense of fancied security when they were sud- denly attacked by the soldiers. Zippora was thrown upon the thrashing floor and killed. Zachary escaped from the building, but was pursued, and, with his wife and little child, put to the sword, Digitized by Microsoft® 306 HISTORY OF CAKBON COUNTY. thougli the mother begged for their lives upon her bended knees. It was deemed best to abandon Wechquetank soon after this event. The place was burned to the ground by the whites during the fall of 1763. The ruins of Fort Lehigh, in the form of a heap of stones, may still be seen on the western bank of a little stream which passes through Palmerton on its way to the Aquashicola. One of the first steps taken by the New Jersey Zinc Company of Pennsylvania in locating its immense manufacturing establishment at Hazard, about a mile north of Palmerton, was the organization of the Pal- mer Land Company. It was wisely decided that the works should be erect- ed at some distance from the point where it was deter- mined to build the town which would be necessary for the accommodation of its employes. Horace Lentz, of Mauch Chunk, was appointed to the agency of this land company, and during the year be- ginning in September, 1897, over four hundred acres were purchased. Most of the land which was thus acquired by the company was under cultivation, while the improve- ments thereon consisted of the necessary farm build- ings. Those from whom the first purchases were made were: John Craig, William George, William H. Gru- ber, John Smith, Smith Brothers, and the estate of Charles Straup. The company's holdings were augmented from time to time by additional purchases, and the present town site now comprises about five hundred acres. The works at Hazard, which give employment to nearly two thousand men, were finished and placed in operation in the fall of 1899. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 307 Over two hundred acres are covered by the plant, which is operated day and night. The finished products of this manufactory are oxide of zinc, spelter, and spiegeleisen. Zinc ore, the raw material from which these are made, is obtained from mines of the New Jersey Zinc Company in Sussex county, New Jersey. Palmerton was planned and plotted during the year 1899. An experienced engineer in the person of Har- rison N. Blunt was now appointed as the agent of the land company. Most of the improvements which have since been made were carried forward under his imme- diate supervision. Delaware avenue, the principal thoroughfare of the town, having a width of ninety feet and extending through the entire property from east to west, was the first laid out. Lehigh, Lafayette, and Columbia ave- nues followed in the order named. After the establishment of the streets, and before the houses were completed, water and sewer systems were installed. A sewage disposal plant, modeled after the system originated by the late Colonel George E. Waring, formerly street commissioner of New York, was also installed. Every precaution was observed to make the new town sanitary and healthful. The result is that Palmerton has the lowest death rate of any community in the Lehigh Valley. Not only did the company wish its employes to live in neat, substantial homes, but it was willing to make it possible for them to own them. Virtually it has acted as a big building and loan association. Under the plan devised in the beginning, and which is still in force, the company requires the applicant for a home to pay ten per cent, of the price of the house 21 Digitized by Microsoft® 308 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. and lot in advance, tlie company then erecting the house according to plans approved by him. After the house is complete and occupied, monthly payments must be made, which are so graduated that in three years and seven months, thirty-five per cent, of the value of the premises shall have been deposited. The purchaser then acquires title to the property, while the company takes a mortgage on the remaining sixty-five per cent., due in five years, and bearing in- terest at the rate of four and four-tenths per cent. In the event of default of payments, the purchaser may under certain specified conditions return the house to the company, and receive back the money he has de- posited, due allowance being made for repairs, re- newals, and the natural depreciation of the property. Should a man die during the continuance of his con- tract, his widow may, if she so wishes, receive back all of the payments made from the beginning on account of the purchase price, together with interest at five per cent. This plan has worked most satisfactorily and suc- cessfully to all concerned. Lots are also sold for cash, or on the iastalment plan. In the latter case, ten per cent, of the value of the lot must be paid in advance, while the remainder is pay- able at monthly intervals, covering a period of two years. Unlike most towns, Palmerton has been developed in obedience to a well defined and intelligent plan. Not only is this noticeable in the plotting and general arrangement of the streets, but it is also true archi- tecturally and in other respects. The houses are all designed under competent direc- tion, while due regard is given both to individual ex- pression and to utility. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® (1h o % o Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 309 Electric lights are furnished at moderate rates, while the Palmerton Telephone Association, which is a sub-licensee company of the Bell system, affords cheap and efficient service in this direction. A little to the westward of the center of the town, and fronting on Delaware avenue is a beautiful public park, nine acres iq extent. This park, with its scheme of ornamentation, was de- signed by Major Barrett, a famous New York land- scape engineer, who died before the completion of the work. Many thousands of dollars have been expended by the company in its maintenance and improvement. One of the beauty spots of Palmerton is that portion known as ' ' The Reservation. ' ' Here, thirteen acres of land have been set aside by the zinc company as a place of residence for the local heads of its various departments. In 1908 the company established a hospital which is open to the public. Three years later, a large addition was built to it. This is the only institution of its kind in Carbon county. It has from the beginning been in charge of Doctor John "W. Luther, and is furnished with X-ray apparatus, laboratories, and full modern equipment. Having made ample provision for the physical and material well-being of its workmen and their families, the company did not stop here. Proceeding on a principle which is frequently ig- nored and lost sight of, it was felt by those in authority that corporation responsibility toward the human beings under their charge warranted the support of an institution that would offer fuller opportunities of life, not only to their employes, but to their wives and chil- dren. Digitized by Microsoft® 310 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Accordingly, in 1907, a sociological department was organized and a neighborhood house established. The children of kindergarten age were provided with playgrounds, amusements, and instruction suited to their understanding. Manual training and general educational facilities were supplied for the larger boys, while classes in domestic science and industrial handiwork were organ- ized for the girls. Beading and lounging rooms for men were fitted up, and, during the winter months, mothers' meetings, de- voted to the general conduct of the home, were held. As the work grew, larger quarters became necessary. A new neighborhood house, opened during the summer of 1911, was erected. This is now the social and civic center of the town. Every facility for carrying on the work which has already been outlined is provided for in this building. It also contains a well selected circulating library; a gymnasium, which can quickly be converted into a small theatre or auditorium; bowling alleys, club rooms, with pool and billiard tables, baths, and the like, the equal of any to be found in the Young Men 's Chris- tian Associations or clubs of the large cities. Miss Florence Hughes, an experienced settlement worker, and a graduate of Pratt Institute, with a corps of trained assistants, has been in charge of the work from the start. Every attempt is made to encourage individual en- terprise, and to those desiring sites for manufacturing, business, or residence purposes, Palmerton offers many attractions and advantages. A large addition to the company's works, situated east of the town, opposite MilliDort, has recently been built, and further extensions are contemplated. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTT. | 311 Palmerton is well supplied with schools, churches, stores, and hotel accommodations. The town grew so rapidly that the problem of pro- viding school accommodations was a difficult one for the township authorities to solve. In 1909, however, a handsome brick building, housing all the schools of Palmerton, as well as the high school of the township, was erected. The high school was established in 1904. The first church to be erected in this immediate vi- cinity was that of the Evangelical Association, built in 1844, largely through the efforts of Jacob Snyder and Jacob Bauman. This was the mother of quite a number of the churches of this denomination in the Lehigh Valley. When the United Evangelical church was organized the old building was abandoned. It is still standing and is put to occasional uses. Trinity United Evangelical church was built in 1896. A union Sunday school chapel was erected by the Re- formed and Lutheran people in 1902. St. John's Protestant Episcopal church was given to the people of the town by Stephen S. Palmer as a memorial to his wife. It is a beautiful edifice, and is constructed of native stone, having been designed by H. J. Hardenbergh, a celebrated New York architect. The church was dedicated in 1906. The Roman Catholic church here was built in 1908. The corner stone of the First Reformed church was laid during the month of January, 1912. Missions have also been established in the town by the Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, and these will no doubt become self-sustaining congregations. The principal hotel of Palmerton is the Horse Head Inn, a splendid hostelry, opened in 1900. Digitized by Microsoft® 312 t HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. The remaining hotels are the Palmerton, Waldorf, Golden Anvil, and that until recently conducted by Cal- vin Nicholas. Palmerton 's post-office was established in 1900. Prior to that date the office was located at Lehigh Gap. During 1911, the postal savings system of the govern- ment was extended to this place. Early in January, 1907, the First National Bank of Palmerton, having a capital stock of $25,000, was or- ganized. D. 0. Straup and Allen Craig have served the institution as president and cashier, respectively, from the beginning. The water supply of the place is obtained from arte- sian wells, situated on the slope of the Blue mountain, south of town. These wells furnish about 400,000 gal- lons every twenty-four hours. During the fall of 1911, the Towamensing Volunteer Fire Company was organized, with Thomas Craig as president. A lot and building were provided by the company, and modern equipment has been installed. The Chestnut Eidge Eailway, extending from this place to KunkeltoAvn, Monroe county, which is ten miles distant, connects at Palmerton with the Central Eail- road of New Jersey. The tracks of this road have been elevated through Palmerton. An independent industry of the town is the silk mill of the Eead and Lovatt Manufacturing Company, es- tablished in 1903. At the first borough election, held in November, 1912, Dr. John W. Luther was chosen to fill the office of chief burgess. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® O 'A 3 a o a" J p4 Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 313 PASBYVILLE BOEOUOH. The borough of Parryville is located on the eastern bank of the Lehigh river and on the line of the Central Eailroad of New Jersey, about half a dozen miles below Mauch Chunk. The first settler here was Peter Frantz, who came to the locality in 1780. Leonard Beltz and Frederick Scheckler took up land in this vicinity in 1781. Soon thereafter Scheckler and Frantz erected a stone grist mill on the banks of Poho Poco creek, which flows into the Lehigh at this point. This property passed into the possession of Peter and Jacob Stein ia 1815. The latter conducted the mill, while the former built a large stone hotel, which was later util- ized as a dwelling house. Upon the organization of the Pine Forest Lumber Company, about 1836, this place was made its head- quarters. The company owned extensive tracts of rich timber land in the northern part of the county and in the southern portion of Luzerne. Its mills were estab- lished on Poho Poco creek, near the river, and the manufacture of lumber, was carried on on a large scale. The president of the company was Daniel Parry, and as the settlement grew up around these mills, the place became known as Parrysville, and later, Parryville. In 1836, the Beaver Meadow Eailroad Company com- pleted its line to the opposite side of the river from this place, and Parryville became the terminus and shipping point. The coal w^s here transferred from the railroad cars to the boats of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. The freshet of 1841, however, swept away the wharves, trestle work, and chutes of the company, together with the roadbed from Parryville to Penn Haven Jimction. The railroad was rebuilt from Penn Digitized by Microsoft® 314 '• niSTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. Haven to Mauch Chunk, but the stretch from the latter place to Parryville was abandoned. From this time forth, Mauch Chunk was the shipping point of the Beaver Meadow Company. New life was injected into the village when, about 1855, Dennis Bauman, his brother Henry, and others, established an anthracite blast furnace here. This fur- nace was run by water power furnished by Poho Poco creek until 1857. More capital being necessary to the proper conduct of the business, a stock company, known as the Carbon Iron Company, was then formed, Dennis Bauman being chosen as its president. The new company made various improvements and in- creased the capacity of the works. The water power of the creek was now no longer adequate, and steam was introduced as the motive power. An additional furnace was erected in 1864, and another in 1869 ; but the revolution which took place in the iron business about this time and the great panic of the seventies, which closed up nearly every iron manufacturing es- tablishment in the Lehigh Valley, worked severe hard- ship to the company. In the year 1876, the property passed into the hands of the Carbon Iron and Pipe Company, and a pipe manufacturing department was added. The experi- ment of making pipe out of iron direct from the cupola was tried at this place, but without success. Large quantities of pipe were, however, turned out in ac- cordance with the established process. The works are now operated by the Carbon Iron and Steel Company, of which M. S. Kemmerer, of Mauch Chunk, is chair- man. This is the only iron furnace in the Lehigh Val- ley lying north of the Blue mountain. It is the only industry in the village. Parryville became an independent school district on March 4, 1867. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 315 It was incorporated as a borough early in the year 1875, Dennis Bauman serving as its first chief bur- gess. The town had 657 inhabitants in 1880. In 1900 the population numbered 723, but during the last de- cade there was a falling off in the number of people living here. The first road passing through this locality was that built by the Moravians in 1748, extending from Bethle- hem to Grnadenhiitten. It was known in this region as the Fire Line Eoad, and described a loop over the hills between Parryville and Bowmanstown. From 1756 to 1761, during the time when Fort Allen was garrisoned, it was used as a military road. At the time of the massacre of Gnadenhiitten, a com- pany of militia from the Irish settlement in Northamp- ton county are said to have come in pursuit of the In- dians as far as the hill overlooking the hollow where Parryville now stands. Fearing to go any farther in the darkness, they are said to have fired down into the bushes, and to have then departed. From this circum- stance the term "Fire Line" is supposed by ^ome to have been derived. Others adhere to the belief that the name had its origin from the fact that the elevated ground traversed by the road in question was em- ployed to build signal fires upon during the Indian war period. The first schoolhouse here was opened about the year 1820. Like most of the other schoolhouses erected through the region at that time, it was of logs. The annual term amounted to but three months. A modern brick structure now houses the three schools of the borough. Public religious services were first conducted at Parryr^ille about the year 1840. Meetings were first held in the schoolhouse, while Methodist ministers also Digitized by Microsoft® 316 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. addressed meetings at occasional intervals in private houses. In 1863 the Methodists built a brick church which was dedicated on the 13th of December of that year by Bishop Scott. The present building of the Eef ormed denomination was erected in 1897, the edifice previously used having been destroyed by fire in 1896. There is also an Evangelical church in the town. The Iron Exchange and the Fairview Inn are the only hotels in the place. The latter was licensed in 1907, having formerly been occupied as a dwelling by Dennis Bauman. It is now the property of his son, Robert Bauman. PENN FOREST TOWNSEIP. Penn Forest township is bounded on the north by Kidder, on the east by Monroe county, on the south by Franklin and Towamensing townships, and on the west by the Lehigh river. Prior to the year 1768 it was a part of that vast district lying north of the Blue Ridge which was known as ' ' Towamensing, " or " the wilder- ness." Being then divided, Towamensing township contained all of Northampton county lying east of the Lehigh, and thirty-six miles north of the Blue Ridge. Following the War of Independence, part of the terri- tory now belonging to Monroe county and that com- prised within the confines of Kidder and Penn Forest townships was set off as Tobyhanna township, which became a part of Monroe county upon its organization in 1836. In 1842 Tobyhanna township was divided, and that portion of territory now contained within the limits of Kidder and Penn Forest townships was named "Penn Forest." When Carbon county was erected, in 1843, Penn Forest township became a part Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 317 thereof, while, in 1849, the northern portion was set off as Kidder township. Muddy run forms the northern boundary of the township, while Drake, Stony, and Bear creeks are the other principal streams. All of these flow eastwardly into the Lehigh. Wild creek flows through the southeastern section. The Pocono mountain traverses the township, and much of its sur- face is wild and rough. Dense forests of pine and hemlock formerly flourished here, and the region is still indefinitely referred to as the ' ' Pine Swamp. ' ' In the early days this swamp, which extends northward into Luzerne county, was known as the "Great Swamp," or the "Shades of Death." It received the latter appellation after the battle of Wyoming, when many of those who had escaped from the clutches of the Indians flew to it for protection, and perished within its gloomy shades. It was in this swamp, too, that Teedyuscung and his warriors had their hiding places during the Indian war of 1755-56. An interesting incident in the early history of Penn Forest township was the capture, here effected, of a detachment of insurgents who had raised the standard of revolt against the Federal Government in what is known as Fries' Eebellion, which took place princi- pally in Bucks and Northampton counties in the fall and winter of 1798-99. This organized opposition to constituted authority has also been variously termed the "Milford Eebellion," the "Hot Water War," and the "House Tax War." Soon after the inauguration of John Adams as President of the United States, on March 4, 1797, a number of laws were passed which were looked upon with great disfavor by many of the people of the country. Among them were the alien and sedition laws, and another known as the house tax law. This last named law was a crude and ill-con- Digitized by Microsoft® 318 ! HISTOBY OF CAEBON COUNTY. sidered measure, and the efforts of the government to enforce it met with particular opposition thoughout eastern Pennsylvania. According to the provisions of the act, assessors were directed to measure, count and register the panes of glass in each and every house, and to make their number and size the basis of a direct tax for government revenue. Opposition to this scheme of taxation first manifested itself in public meetings of protest; later, threats were made, while occasionally those who attempted to enforce the law were assaulted and imprisoned. It appears that the most violent and uncompromising opponent of the law was John Fries, a Philadelphia vendue crier, who also had a taste for soldiering and politics, and who trav- eled about the country in pursuit of his daily occupa- tion. Through his influence the rebellion was actually organized in Lower Milford township, Bucks county, on October 5, 1798, when fifty men attached their sig- natures to an ultimatum declaring open revolt if further efforts were made to enforce the law. There was no response from the government to this declara- tion of war, one of the most peculiar ever issued by any band of insurgents in our annals. One of its features was that every assessor doing his duty, or attempting to do it, should be shot in the legs, taken into custody, and fed on rotten corn. In a short time four hundred men had flocked to the banner of revolt, and, led by Fries, who wore a plume in his hat and carried a sword, this army in jubilant spirits started out in quest of United States assessors who were at- tending to their duties. The army marched northward into Northampton county, its ranks being swelled by additional recruits as it proceeded conqueringly from one neighborhood to another. Scores of citizens who had been arrested and cast into prison for opposing the Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 319 "house tax law" were liberated, while the United States marshals who had taken them into custody were themselves jailed. Upon promising to discontinue their duties, the officers of the law were set free. Nearing Easton, Fries was advised to retrace his steps, being informed that the people of Northampton county were strong enough to resist the enforcement of the obnoxious law without re-enforcements. Fries, however, thirsted for military glory, and refused to return. Moving up the Lehigh Valley, he and his men continued arresting assessors, shooting them in the feet and putting them in barns as prisoners. Beaching the Irish settlement. Fries was confronted by Colonel Thomas Craig, who had fought in the Revolution, and who later came to what is now Carbon county. Colonel Craig was loyal to the government which he had aided in establishing, and he peremptorily ordered the insur- gents to disperse. When they manifested hesitation in complying with the request, the Home Guards, who had seen service in the War of Independence, were ordered to report for action. But before blood was shed, the insurgents had separated, one portion going south and the other making for the Pine Swamp in Penn Forest township, where many of them were captured by a de- tachment of General McPherson's troops on their way from the scene of the Whiskey Eebellion in the western part of the state. One of those taken captive paid the death penalty, — not for the treason of which he was guilty, but for highway robbery, a felony in those days. Fries and those of his followers who remained loyal to him were pursued and taken prisoners in the lower part of Northampton county. The leader of the revolt and his lieutenants were tried in the United States Court at Philadelphia. Fries was found guilty of trea- Digitized by Microsoft® 320 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. son and sentenced to be hanged ; but bis execution was postponed and he was finally pardoned by President Adams. His subordinates were also leniently dealt with. The solitude which reigned in the virgin forests that covered the ground now contained within the limits of Penn Forest township was not disturbed by the sound of the lumberman's axe until about 1835. About this time companies were formed for the pur- pose of removing and manufacturing the timber. Mills were soon erected at available sites on the streams, and around these temporary settlements sprang up. In addition to the dwellings of the laborers, these cen- ters of activity usually contained a store, a tavern and a sehoolhouse. During the years intervening between 1840 and 1860 most of the valuable timber was cut and marketed, although lumbering operations on a large scale were carried on for many years after this date. As time elapsed, fires in the woods destroyed many of the mills and much of the timber. Some of the mills were rebuilt and others not, while the denuded lands were allowed to remain desolate and unproductive. Of the many fires which wrought havoc in the woods of the township, the greatest and most destructive was that which began near the mouth of Mud run on May 14, 1875. The fire burned slowly for eight days, when a strong wind came from the west, and in a few hours mills, houses, sawed lumber and standing trees for miles about were reduced to ruin. The ravages of the flames were not confined to this immediate section, the fire spreading eastward into Monroe county and doing much damage there. This was a great blow to the prosperity of the township, and each decennial census since that time has shown a decrease in its Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 321 population. In 1880 the district had 653 inhabitants, but in 1910 the number had dwindled to 417. Much of the unimproved land now produces large crops of hucHeberries annually, and the gathering and marketing of these berries has become a source of con- siderable income to the people of the district. Among the natural products of the township are building sand and ochre. While the large timber has now practically disap- peared, much mine timber is still being shipped. One of the principal points of interest in the town- ship is the hatchery of the Penn Forest Brook Trout Company, which is situated at the junction of Hell and Wild creeks. This is one of the largest hatcheries of its kind in the world, and was established in 1895 by H. A. Butler and W. A. Leisenring, of Mauch Chunk. The land on which it is situated was purchased from William Sebring. Additional purchases of land were made from time to time, and the entire tract now con- tains several thousand acres. A portion of this has been inclosed as a deer park. The hatchery was for a period under the immediate supervision of Nathan E. BuUer, now Fish Commissioner of Pennsylvania, and regarded as the foremost trout hatcher in the country. The controlling interest in the property has changed hands a number of times since the establishment of the enterprise. About the year 1861 Samuel Donner commenced the distillation of wintergreen here. Many others have en- gaged in this business, as well as the distillation of oil from the birch, since that time. The oldest tavern now in the township is the Stony Creek Hotel, which was opened by Enos Koch, one of the first settlers, and kept by him for about haK a cen- tury. The present owner is J. J. Smith. A new build- Digitized by Microsoft® 322 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. ing, replacing the original, was erected in 1860. About 1838 Frederick Suter opened the Hunters' Hotel on the Pocono mountain, and on the state road leading from Emmetsburg to White Haven. He remained the landlord until 1850, when the place passed into other hands. It was in this hotel that a recruiting officer of the government was shot during the Civil War. The shot was fired from without through a window by a person whose identity has never been discovered. The building is now occupied as a farm house. The Idlewild Hotel, on the road to Mauch Chunk, was first kept by Frank Eckhart, who secured a license for the place about the year 1890. The original build- ing was destroyed by fire, while the present house was built by J. F. Christman who has been succeeded as the landlord by W. H. Bander. The township early accepted the free school law, and in 1844, a year after the organization of Carbon county, three schools were in operation. At present there are only two, one being situated at Meckesville, in the eastern portion of the district, and the other on Drake's creek, in the western end of the township. Christ Lutheran church is the only house of worship in the township. It is located on the road leading from Mauch Chunk to Albrightsville, and was erected in 1883 on land donated by John W. Eeed. SUMMIT HILL BOBOUGB. One of the most far famed spots in eastern Pennsyl- vania is Summit Hill. It was here that the old hunter, Philip Ginter, accidentally found anthracite coal in 1791. The town is about nine miles distant from Mauch Chunk, and is situated near the summit of Sharp mountain at an elevation of more than sixteen hundred feet above sea level. This point of vantage Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBY OF CAEBON COUNTY. , 323 furnislies a commanding view of the surrounding country for many miles, while the air, scented with the fragrance of the verdure of the hills, is pure and in- vigorating. The surface of the soil here is covered with white gravel, lending an appearance of neatness and clean- liness to the streets of the borough not usually found in coal mining communities. This general locality was formerly known as the "Old Mines," because it was here that operations were first begun in the anthracite coal region. It was in 1818 that the Lehigh Coal Mine Company, the forerunner of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, began active operations at Summit Hill, but years elapsed before the settlement thus started pre- sented the appearance of an established town. One of the earliest residents was James Broderick, who came to the locality in 1821, bringing with him his wife, the first woman to make her home in the embryo town. Other early settlers were Patrick Breslin, the grand- father of Andrew Breslin; Eobert and Andrew John- son, and Joseph Gormley, the latter being accompanied by his wife and nine children. In 1826, there were but five houses in the vicinity, while four of these were situated west of the present site of the town. All were constructed of logs, and that of James Lehman, a foreman, was the only one of the five which was two stories in height. The point where coal was first mined or * ' quarried ' ' is a little to the southwest of the built up portion of the borough. Lying south of Eailroad street, and di- rectly in the rear of the Summit Inn is a large bank of clay; this was formed in laying bare the first an- thracite coal produced in commercial quantities in the 22 Digitized by Microsoft® 324 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. world. Here it was that that giant industry, which has been such a potent factor in transforming our civiliza- tion, bringing material comfort and greater happiness to millions, had its birth ! Summit Hill did not begin to present the appearance of an established town until late in the thirties, when the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company built many houses for the use of its employes. It was not until ten years later, however, that lots were sold and individual enterprise was permitted to assert itself. Among the first purchasers of lots were : J. Edward Barnes, Nathan Patterson, D. D. Brodhead, Jacob Minich, Charles Hoffman, James Denton, Merritt Ab- bott, and Daniel Minich. In 1850 Abram Harris bought a lot upon which he erected the Eagle Hotel, which is still standing. Merritt Abbott and Alexander Lockhart in 1851 secured title to a piece of land upon which they built a foundry. This building stood for about twenty years, when it was destroyed by fire, and was never replaced. The development of the mines was naturally followed by the establishment of mer- cantile houses and other places of business, resulting in due time in the growth of a village of fair propor- tions on the mountain top. In the early days of mining in this vicinity, leasing and the giving of contracts was practiced to some ex- tent. Among the prominent contractors were: Asa Packer, Daniel S. Bertsch and Company, E. A. Doug- lass, A. A. Douglass, Holland, Barber and Company, and Belf ord, Sharpe and Company. At one period the mines were leased to the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. Most of these contracts or leases ex- pired in January, 1866, a few continuing a year after that date. With unimportant exceptions, the mines Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 325 have since been worked directly by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. "With the opening of the mines in the Lansford basin, lying in the valley below Summit Hill, two inclined planes were built to carry the coal from the valley to the summit, whence it was conveyed to the Lehigh over the Switchback Eailroad which was constructed from this place to Mauch Chunk in 1827. The first of these planes was placed in operation in 1846. The second connected with the mines at Coal Dale. The building of the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad, which was be- gun in 1861, together with other causes, operated to draw life from the older town on the mountain and bestow it upon the younger rival, Lansford, in the val- ley below. Upon the completion of this railroad, which later was absorbed by the Jersey Central system, coal was no longer shipped by way of Summit Hill. In 1870 the construction and repair shops of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company were removed from Summit Hill to Lansford. The driving of Spring tunnel during the forties marked the beginning of underground mining in this locality. Perhaps the most far famed curiosity of the region, and the principal attraction of Summit Hill, is the Burning Mine, which was discovered to be on fire on February 15, 1859. This mine was opened in 1850. The progress of the fire has been in a westerly direction from the town, and during the half century of its existence it has traversed approximately a mile, consuming millions of tons of coal in its slow but deso- lating march. Repeated efforts have been made to ex- tinguish this devouring under-ground conflagration, and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company has ex- pended vast sums of money in that endeavor. Quite Digitized by Microsoft® 326 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. naturally the first attempt made to quench the fire con- sisted in flooding the mine with water ; but, surprising as it may seem, it was not successful, the heat being so intense as to convert the rock bordering upon the coal into a molten mass, which on cooling, crumbles to pieces. The plan next tried was that of cutting off the vein and boring holes down to the coal in advance of the fire, and then filling these with water, mixed with culm, or coal dirt. This scheme also proved a failure. There being grave danger of the fire eventually spread- ing to the mammoth workings of the Lansford basin, turning the whole Panther Creek Valley into one vast volcano, another heroic effort was made to head it off, and it is hoped that this may be successful. The method last employed was to cut a trench across the vein and to build a solid clay barrier twelve feet wide, reinforced on either side with walls of concrete, within the opening. The execution of this plan, which was conceived by W. A. Lathrop, president of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, involved a great engi- neering feat, while requiring the outlay of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The work was completed in 1910. The origin of this famous fire is not positively known, and the stories that are told concerning its be- ginning are various. According to one account it was started by some boys who were playing on the slope, l3iiilding the fire to warm themselves. In the early days of underground mining, it was a common practice to have a stove burning at the bottom of a ventilating shaft in order to create a draft of air toward the sur- face, and some well informed men hold to the theory that the mine was set on fire by the accidental upsetting of one of these stoves. One of the landmarks of Summit Hill for many years was the old town hall, which also served the pur- Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 327 pose of an armory. It was erected by a stock com- pany, known as the Town Hall Association, which was organized in 1854, principally through the influence of Merritt Abbott and J. J. Wintersteen. Its walls were of stone, and in appearance it resembled a French bas- tile, being flanked in front on either side with towers of solid masonry, each of which contained four long and narrow windows. This building became the home of the Carbon Guards, a military company commanded by Wintersteen. At the breaking out of the Civil War, the Guards went to the front, but so few of the men returned that the organization was disbanded. Later, the building was used as an armory by Company F of the Ninth Eegiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania. About 1890, the hall was purchased by the municipality, and an addition was built to it for purposes of a fire house. The interior of the structure, which stood on the site of the present town hall, was destroyed by fire on ]\Iarch 25, 1908. The stones forming the walls were used in building the foundations of the Citizens' Na- tional Bank of Lansford. Summit Hill formed a part of Mauch Chunk town- ship imtil January 14, 1889, when it was incorporated as a borough. At the first election, which was held in the town hall on the 19th of the ensuing February, Joseph Eichards, a successful business man, now liv- ing at Slatington, was chosen as chief burgess. For years the borough was divided into four wards, but in 1911 it was reduced to three. The postoffice here was established on February 6, 1832, Eichard Hay being the first postmaster. A building housing all the schools of the place was erected in 1875. This, with an addition which was added, is still in use. Close by stands the magnificent Digitized by Microsoft® 328 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. new high school building, one of the finest strnctures of its kind in Pennsylvania. It is admirably adapted for the purpose which it is intended to serve, and was built in 1911 at a cost of ap- proximately ninety thousand dollars. A new town hall, replacing that destroyed by fire was put up in 1908. The ground floor of this building is given over to Diligence Fire Company, No. 1, which was chartered in the fall of 1897. The borough is supplied with water by the Summit Hill Water Company, which was chartered in 1876. The principal source of supply is an artesian well in Bloomingdale Valley, where a pumping station is main- tained. A large storage reservoir is situated on top of the mountain, sixty-five feet above the level of the town. George Kline was the first president of the water company. A modern sewer system, costing $60,000, was but recently built by the borough. Summit Hill has been electrically lighted since 1894, the service being fur- nished by the Panther Creek Valley Heat, Light and Power Company, of Lansford. In 1897, the line of the Tamaqua and Lansford Railway Company, an elec- trical road, since absorbed by the Eastern Pennsyl- vania Railways Company, was built into the town. The principal hotels in the place are the Eagle and the Summit Inn. The former has already been men- tioned as having been built in 1850 by Abram Harris, while the latter has been open for the accommodation of the public since 1908, and is owned by T. E. Davis. In 1873, Daniel Eveland and Robert Harris began the publication of the Weekly Intelligencer, the first local newspaper. It was issued for about two years. During the fall of 1879, J. W. Malloy and P. F. Gildea established the Sutnmit Hill and Lansford Rec- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 329 ord. Gildea retired from the firm in 1880, while Mal- loy removed his printing establishment to Lansf ord in the spring of 1884. The Miners' Bank was organized in 1873, Anthony Snyder being its president, and its capital stock being- fifty thousand dollars. In the fall of 1880 the bank was transferred to Lansf ord; it was closed in 1883, and its affairs were adjusted by assignees. The Homestead Building and Loan Association, which has been remarkably successful from the start, and through the agency of which many of the people of the borough have become the owners of the homes in which they live, was organized in 1893. The assets of the association at the end of its first fiscal year amounted to $18,130.00, while in 1911, at the close of the eighteenth year, the total had reached $387,000.00. Excepting a period of four years, E. E. Scott has been the secretary of the association since the beginning. The Workingmen's Building and Loan Association, which was chartered in 1906, is also in a flourishing condition. The adherents of the Presbyterian denomination appear to have been among the first to take up church work at Summit Hill, and the congregation they formed was one of the pioneer religious organizations of the Lehigh coal field. As early as 1835, Eobert Henry, a Covenanter, organized a Bible class at the boarding house of Alexander McLean, also a Presby- terian. During the following year, James Edgar settled in the community and assumed a prominent part in the weekly assemblages, which partook largely of the nature of prayer meetings. Among the first missionaries here was Eev. Eichard "Webster, for many years thereafter pastor of the Presbyterian church at Mauch Chunk. During the summer of 1836, Eev. Web- Digitized by Microsoft® 330 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. ster induced Andrew TuUy, a young theological student at Princeton to come to Summit Hill to teach school and to organize a Sunday school. The latter was es- tablished in July of that year, and was led for three successive summers by the young student. Later, Gr. W. Smith, of Mauch Chunk, revived the school and served as its superintendent. The church itself was or- ganized on April 19, 1839, and was termed the Presby- terian church of Summit Hill and Tamaqua. It began with twenty-eight members, four of whom resided at Tamaqua and the remainder at Summit Hill. In May, 1844, the congregation became independent of Ta- maqua and was named the First Presbyterian church of Summit Hill, Eev. A. G. Harned becoming the first regular pastor. The congregation worshipped in the school house until 1847, when a church building was erected. This edifice was enlarged and improved in 1872, while the present brick structure replaced it in 1895. The Sunday school, which was the forerunner of this church, has had but two superintendents in over sixty years. J. M. McCready, who succeeded Nathan Patterson as superintendent, has served in that ca- pacity since 1878. Missionaries of the Eoman Catholic church paid oc- casional visits to Summit Hill as early as 1826. Sub- sequent to 1832 the priests stationed at Pottsville and at Tamaqua came here quite frequently. In 1849 the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company donated a piece of land for the erection of a church and for purposes of a burial ground. Under the leadership of Eev. Patrick J. Hennegan the church was built soon there- after. It was named in honor of St. Joseph. Father Hennegan 's name is one of much prominence in the early history of Catholicism in this region, and he ministered to the spiritual wants of his people over a Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 33I large extent of territory. The first resident pastor was Father Manahan, who came in 1852. During the term of service of Eev. James Wynn, late in the seven- ties, a handsome parochial residence was built. The cornerstone of the present church edifice was laid on June 21, 1881. The new church was dedicated on the 10th of December of that year by Et. Eev. J. F. Shana- han. Bishop of Harrisburg. St. Joseph's church is the mother of St. Ann's, of Lansford, and of St. Mary's, at Coaldale. St. Philip's Episcopal church was once commonly known as the "Bell Church," because it was then the only house of worship in this vicinity equipped with a bell. The first baptism recorded in this parish was performed by the Eev. Peter Eussell, September 13, 1845, although a parochial organization was not ef- fected until November, 1849. The cornerstone of the church building was laid on the first Saturday evening of July, 1850, by the Et. Eev. Alonzo Potter, Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. He was assisted by the rector, the Eev. Peter Eussell. In 1882, during the incumbency of Eev. Charles E. Fessenden, the church was remodeled and improved. Like most churches planted in mining towns, St. Philip's has suffered greatly from removals. During its history many prominent coal operators and other influential men have been connected with this little parish. St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church had its be- ginnings about the year 1849. Prior to that time, loyal Lutherans walked from this place to Tamaqua every Sunday to attend services in a church of their own de- nomination. Upon the organization of the congrega- tion here by Eev. Oberfeld, of Tamaqua, services were 'for a time held monthly in the Presbyterian church. Services were also conducted in the old schoolhouse. Digitized by Microsoft® 332 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. In 1865, tlie Eeformed and Lutheran people erected a union church in which both YOi"shipped until 1880, when the Lutherans secured the old German Methodist church, and thereby became independent. For some years the congregation had no regular pastor, and was served by theological students. In 1897, during the pastorate of Eev. H. C. Erbes, the present church was erected. The corner stone was laid on September 5th of that year, while the dedicatory services were held on the 12th of December. The First Baptist church was built in 1852. This was the mother of the churches of that denomination at Nesquehoning and at Lansford. Its membership has been greatly depleted by deaths and removals. St. Paul's Reformed church was organized by Eev. John Eichenbach. He came here from AUentown in 1856, serving the congregation for about twenty-five years. As has already been shown, the Eeformed and Lutheran people of Summit Hill worshipped together until 1880, a union church having been erected in 1865. The Eeformed congregation became the sole owner of this property, upon the withdrawal of the Lutherans. In 1904 a handsome new church was built, and the so- ciety to-day is thriving and prosperous. The members of the Methodist Episcopal church also maintain a flourishing organization here. The various fraternal and beneficial societies are well represented at Summit Hill. The G-rand Army Post, which was organized in 1869, was named in honor of Colonel Eli T. Connor, one of Carbon county's most gallant soldiers in the Civil War. Summit Hill is remarkable for the number of ceme- teries within its borders, there being eight, all told. This is partly accounted for by the fact that it is the place of interment for the people of both Lansford and Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. , 333 Coal Dale, in whicli communities there is no siiitable site for the location of a burying ground. St. Joseph's Catholic church has two cemeteries — one adjoining the church and another to the eastward of the town. The latter was purchased late in the sev- enties. The Presbyterian cemetery was opened at about the time of the establishment of that church, while that of the Grand Army has been in existence since a short time subsequent to the organization of the Post. The other cemeteries are: St. Michael's Roman Catholic, St. John's Greek Catholic, Orthodox Greek, and St. Peter's and St. Paul's Polish cemetery, all of which are of recent date. The romantic interest which naturally attaches to this vicinity, as the place where anthracite coal was first mined — the fascinating story of Ginter's discov- ery, and the wonders of the Burning Mine — annually draws thousands of sightseers and tourists to Summit Hill. The majority of these travel over the Switch- back Eailroad from Mauch Chunk. Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER XVIII. TOWAMENSING TOWNSHIP. Towamensing township is bounded on the north by Penn Forest, on the east by Monroe county, on the south by Lower Towamensing, and on the west by Frantlin township. The Poho Poco, or Big creek, flows eastwardly across the full breadth of the township. Pine run and Wild creek, flowing southwardly, are its priacipal tributaries within the township. The surface of the land is of a rolling nature, and is principally given over to agri- culture. Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian missionary, spent some time in this portion of Carbon county in the year 1742, when he negotiated a treaty with the Indians at the spot on which, a few years later, the mission of G-nadenhiittten was established. This whole section of country was christened by him as "Saint Anthony's Wilderness," and it was so desig- nated on a map published in 1749. The name, however, did not strike a popular chord among the settlers, and, later, the term Towamenstag, meaning a wilderness, was applied to all that section lying north of the Blue Ridge, and was known as Towamensing District. In a petition for the division of the district, ad- dressed to the Northampton county court, dated June 22, 1768, the length of the district is given as thirty-six miles. In response to the prayer of this petition, the Lehigh river was made the dividing line, and the territory west of the river was organized as Penn township, while that on the east retained the name of Towamensing. 334 Digitized by Microsoft® HI8T0EY OF CAEBON COUNTY. | 335 After this division was made, Towamensing town- sliip embraced all of the territory north and east of the Lehigh river, within the confines of the county. Chestnut Hill was taken from Towamensing anterior to the year 1783, as was Tobyhanna, at a later date. In 1836 these two became a part of Monroe county, while in 1841 the lower part of this territory became Penn Forest township, which in 1843 was attached to Carbon county. During 1841 Towamensing was again divided, and Lower Towamensiag was set off. Franklin township was taken from the territory of Towamensing in 1851, since which time there have been no territorial changes. It appears that the first permanent settlement in what is now Towamensing township was made at about the time of the Eevolutionary War. Tradition tells of a family named Abbot, which re- sided on the banks of the Poho Poco creek, and the members of which were cruelly massacred by the In- dians. The luckless victims of the hate and fury of the aborigines were buried in the ground to their knees, while their bodies were stuck full of pine splints, to which the torch was applied, and they were literally roasted alive. There is little record of the old families who settled within the present limits of the township. Among those whose descendants are still in the township, how- ever, were the Strohls, the Eckerts, the Smiths and the members of the Beer family. In 1795, General Thomas Craig purchased the land where Stemlersville is now situated. The old house which he there erected is still standing ; in 1814 he re- moved to Lehigh Gap. Daniel Stemler, of Northamp- ton county, became the owner of the property in 1829. He became possessed of a large tract of land through Digitized by Microsoft® 336 , HISTORY or carbon county. additional purchases. Upon taking possession of the property, Mr. Stemler reopened the tavern which at an earlier date had been kept by a man named Frederick. He built the present brick building in 1852, and con- ducted a tavern therein until his death, which occurred in the year 1871. It is now kept by his son, Nathan Stemler. Daniel Stemler, in 1864, erected the building which has since been used for the purposes of a store. In 1866 it was purchased by Paul Kresge, his son-in- law, who, in turn has been succeeded by his son, Charles H. Kresge. In 1855 a stage and mail route between Lehighton and Brodheadsville, and touching Stemlersville, was established. It was operated until 1911, when it was abandoned. With the establishment of the mail route, a postof!ice was opened, with Daniel Stemler as post- master. The office was successively held after him by William Schoenberger, Robert Laubach, Nathan Stem- ler and Paul Kresge. The postofifice was abolished upon the introduction of the free delivery system throughout the township in 1903. Trochsville, located in the western portion of the township, near the Monroe county line, is the namesake of Captain Lynford Troch, who was once the owner of the land here. The tavern at Trochsville was built by Jacob Eickert about 1854. He kept it for a few years, and then sold it to Captain Troch, who was killed during the Civil War. It is now conducted by Joseph Schaetzel. Lynford Troch opened a store here in 1856, while a postofifice was established, with Troch as postmaster. The office was after a time abandoned, but was later re-established as Carbon postoffice. John Behler served for a time as postmaster, being succeeded by Harrison Kunkel, who also kept the store. His son, Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. ; 337 H. F. Kunkel succeeded Mm as proprietor of the store in 1909, and, a year later, as postmaster. With the ex- tension of ihe rural delivery service to this locality, the office was finally abolished in 1911. The hotel at Seiber lings is kept by J. S. Ettinger. A grove, which has grown popular as a camping place during the summer months, adjoins the hotel. On the road leading from Trochsville to Little Gap, Peter Jones, many years ago, erected a brick house, which he kept as a hotel. The place became known as Jonesville. The hotel was used as a dwelling house after a few years. Jerusalem church, at Trochsville, was erected in the year 1848. The society is union, being composed of members of the Lutheran and German Eeformed churches. The present Lutheran pastor is Eev. H. E. Moyer, while the Eeformed preacher is Eev. F. "W. Smith. H. F. Kunkel is the superintendent of the Sun- day school of this church. A Sunday school is also maintained in the schoolhouse at Stemlersville. This township accepted the free school law in 1841, prior to which there were no schools in the district. The population being scattered, nine schools, with as many teachers, are now necessary. For the same rea- son, Towamensing township has many miles of high- ways to maintain. The farmers of the township market most of their produce at Weissport, Lehighton, and Mauch Chunk, and many of them are up-to-date and prosperous. The Indian Eidge Eural Telephone Company, or- ganized in 1909, furnished local and long-distance serv- ice to many homes in the township. Its line connects •with the Bell system at Lehighton. The line of the Consolidated Telephone Company also crosses the township. Digitized by Microsoft® 338 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. WEATEEBLT BOBOUGH. The borough of Weatherly, which is the largest and most important town in the upper portion of Carbon county, had its beginnings ia the operations of the Beaver Meadow Eailroad Company. Its later growth and development were brought about chiefly through the agency of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, by which the first named corporation was in 1866 ab- sorbed. The place is picturesquely situated between the Broad and Spring mountains on the banks of Hazle creek and on the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton di- vision of the Lehigh Valley system. The distance by rail from this point to Mauch Chunk is about fourteen miles. The incorporated territory of the town com- prises four square miles, and is bounded on the north, east, and southeast by Lehigh township, on the north- west by Lausanne township, and in the west and south- west by Packer township. It is divided into four wards. Formerly the town was called Black Creek, from the color of the water of the stream on which it is situated. Originally the dark color of the water of the creek was due to the fact that dense forests of hemlock grew in the swamps where the stream has its source ; but it is now contaminated with sulphur water from the coal mines lying north of the Spring mountain. In 1848, upon the establishment of the postofSce here, the name of the place was changed to Weatherly, being so christened in honor of David Weatherly, one of the directors of the Beaver Meadow Company, who was a watch and clock maker. He promised to present the place with a town- clock in recognition of the compliment conferred upon him by the bestowal of his name, but failed to redeem the pledge. The warrantee owners of the ground upon which Weatherlv is built were Samuel S. Barber and Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. , 339 Jolin Eomig, Sr. They purchased the land for the valuable timber that stood on it. The first settlement was made on the Eomig tract about 1825, when Benja- min Eomig erected a saw mill and a dwelling on the west side of the creek. The dwelling occupied the site of Elmer Warner's store, while the saw mill stood op- posite the Lehigh Valley depot. Benjamin Eomig moved his family to this place in 1826. The first lum- ber sawed in his mill was for the building of a school- house in what is now known as Hudsondale. Soon after 1830 Eomig erected a large house on the west side of the creek, near the "Eocks," and securing a license, conducted a tavern therein. A portion of the Barber tract was purchased by Asa Packer, and about 1835, John Smith, who was con- spicuous among the early residents, came to the place to supervise the clearing of the land and to take charge of Mr. Packer's interests in the vicinity generally. Under his immediate directions a saw mill was put up about a mile below Black Creek Junction, while a store was opened just across the creek from Eomig 's saw mill. A little later than this William Tubbs opened a tavern on the present site of the Gilbert House. Barring the saw mill, the first attempt at manufac- turing here was made by Samuel Ingham, president of the Beaver Meadow Eailroad Company, and others. They made a certain kind of locks for a time, but the project was soon abandoned. Black Creek could boast of but a few houses until the completion of the Beaver Meadow Eailroad, in the fall of 1836. It was then made the stopping place for the heavy engines and crews of the company. The com- pany at first located its foundry and machine and re- pair shops at Beaver Meadow. To overcome the heavy grade above Weatherly, two inclined planes, each about 23 Digitized by Microsoft® 340 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. half a mile in length, were constructed. Difficulty was experienced in getting the locomotives up these planes to the shops for repairs, and, in 1840, the shops were removed to Weatherly. While this was detrimental to the interests of Beaver Meadow, it gave added impetus to the growth of "Weatherly. The shops were located near the point where the town hall now stands, and were driven by water power. Hopkin Thomas, who became one of the most prominent figures in the indus- trial affairs of the Lehigh Valley, was the master me- chanic in charge. The shops were swept away by the freshet of 1850, being rebuilt the same year. In 1855 a stretch of new railroad was laid from Weatherly to Hazle Creek Junction, a distance of nearly two miles. Upon its completion, the inclined planes were aban- doned. The section of road replacing the planes is still in use, and is known to railroaders as the Weatherly Hill. It has a grade of one hundred and forty-five feet to the mile, and has witnessed many thrilling runaways. With the abandonment of the planes the company moved its shops to the east side of the creek. As the mines were developed and as railroading progressed, the capacity of the shops was increased from time to time, while the town grew and prospered correspond- ingly. Weatherly was a part of Lausanne township until 1863, when it was organized as a borough. At the time of the taking of the census of 1870, it contained 1,076 people. During the succeeding decade, the population was nearly doubled. Philip Hoffecker succeeded Hopkin Thomas as mas- ter mechanic in the machine shops early in the fifties. When the Beaver Meadow Railroad was consolidated with the Lehigh Valley he was retained by the latter company, spending the remainder of his life in its Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 341 service. Under his supervision many of the finest loco- motives in the country were built, his name standing as a synonym for excellence over the whole Lehigh Val-. ley system. Not only did the shop over which he had charge turn out good locomotives, but it also produced good men. Those who served their apprenticeship under him readily found employment elsewhere, and Weatherly to-day takes pardonable pride in the success that many of her sons have achieved in industrial pur- suits in all parts of the country. Mr. Hoffecker died in 1891. Another prominent figure in the town for more than half a century was Daniel Eouse. In 1855 he was placed in charge of the car shops here, and during nearly two generations of service in that capacity, he achieved an enviable reputation for mechanical and executive ability. The car shops were totally destroyed by fire on the morning of July 8, 1880, the work of re- building them being completed the following year. The train crews which carried the coal produced in the Beaver Meadow and Hazleton region to Packerton, the general forwarding point, made Weatherly their stop- ping place for many years. For a long time Samuel Harleman was the dispatcher who had them in charge, and he enjoyed equal popularity with Hoffecker and Eouse. Under the old regime of the Lehigh Valley, "Weath- erly was contented and prosperous. Not only was there a great deal of new work turned out of the shops, but the location of the place made it an advantageous point for general repair work. The number of men em- ployed in the various shops of the company and on the railroad increased steadily until the early nineties, when the total numbered over a thousand. But Weath- erly was too much a town of one industry, and railroad towns are notoriously unstable. In 1894, as a result of Digitized by Microsoft® 342 ' HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. a change in management, all of the work which had until then been done in the machine shops here was transferred to Delano. This proved quite a blow to the prosperity of the place. Five years later, in further- ance of the idea of concentration, the company closed all of its shops here, besides sending most of the train crews to other points. For a time but about twenty-five men in the town remained in the employ of the com- pany, and an air of depression and gloom pervaded the place. It was not long before a large proportion of the houses of the borough stood empty, their former occu- pants being scattered in all directions. But while the workmen found no difficulty in securing employment in other fields and localities, the case was different with the business men of the community. They could not leave without sacrificing their investments, and made the best of a trying situation. It is interesting to note that during the hard times which followed, there was not a single business failure in Weatherly, a favorable commentary on the resourcefulness and financial sol- vency of her merchants and men of affairs. These men set about courageously to secure new industries and to rehabilitate the town. The Weatherly Foundry and Machine Company, controlled almost exclusively by local capital, was soon organized, and its plant put in operation. Among the leading spirits in the launching of this enterprise were Elmer Warner, W. P. Long, J. C. Sendel, J. F. Kressley, E. F. Warner, Fred Berto- lette, and others. This industry grew rapidly, and is now one of the largest concerns of its kind in this por- tion of the state. It employs several hundred men, and its products go to all parts of the world. Elmer War- ner has been the chief stockholder and general manager of the company since its organization in 1899. About the time of the establishment of this industry, the Le- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. , 343 high Valley Eailroad Company reopened its machine shops here, also establishing a frog department in another building which had been abandoned. The ma- chine shop was again closed in 1912. During 1899 the Allen Candy Manufacturing Company, which had been organized two years previously, removed its plant from Allentown to Weatherly. The output of this company has increased from year to year. About fifty people are employed, and the capital stock has been increased from $15,000 to $50,000. A. H. Horlacher has been the dominant figure in the affairs of the company since its incorporation. One of the industries which Weatherly had prior to the abandonment of its railroad shops was its silk mill, owned and operated by the Eead and Lovatt Manufac- turing Company. This mill, which, at the time of its erection, was the largest silk-throwing concern in the world, was completed in the spring of 1888. Jerome C. Eead and J. Walter Lovatt, both of Paterson, N. J., originally owned it in partnership. A large amount of local capital was, and still is, invested in the enterprise, however. It is still among the greatest of its kind in existence, having 50,000 spindles and employing about 400 operatives. Most of these are boys and girls, and many have their homes in nearby towns. Another establishment here of a similar nature is that of the Eoscoe Broad Silk Mill. This is a silk weav- ing mill, employing sixty operatives. The business was started by local capitalists in 1905, under the style and title of the Onoko Silk Manufacturing Company, and the property was leased to the first mentioned com- pany in 1910. Sand in large quantities is found on the eastern verge of the place, and the shipping of this natural Digitized by Microsoft® 344 , HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTY. product to various points has grown to be quite a busi- ness in recent years. Weatherly is one of the very few towns in Pennsyl- vania conducting a municipal lighting plant which gives satisfactory service and is financially successful. The streets and houses have been lighted by electricity since July, 1889. The original outlay for this service on the part of the borough was $16,000. This plant also fur- nishes electrical power to the town. A volunteer fire company was organized in 1893, with W. B. Lovatt as chief. The borough purchased a steamer, while a hook and ladder, together with other necessary equipment, was bought with funds secured through a fair held for that purpose. This company was disrupted, and ceased to exist on September 27, 1897. A new company, known as Citizens' No. 1, was organized soon thereafter, J. C. Sendel being elected as its chief. E. F. Warner is the present head of the department. The membership is limited to sixty-five. The town hall, which is also the home of the fire depart- ment, was erected in 1893. Weatherly was without banking facilities until 1902, the First National Bank having been chartered on the 28th of January of that year. Prior to this date the people of the borough depended on the banks of Hazle- ton and those of Mauch Chunk. The bank began busi- ness with a capital stock of $25,000, being first located in the Horlacher Building. So well did it prosper that on June 30, 1903, a dividend of five per cent, was paid to the share-holders. A handsome new building cost- ing $15,000 was erected by the banlv on Carbon street in 1907. An annual dividend of six per cent, is now regu- larly paid. On March 30, 1911, the capital stock of the institution was increased to $50,000. It has deposits approximating $300,000, while its surplus and undi- Digitized by Microsoft® i4 < z o Eh 55 fX( Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 345 vided profits amount to over $20,000. Elmer Warner has been president of tlie bank since its organization. Its first cashier was Ira W. Barnes, while C. F. Bretney is now serving in that capacity. The majority of the people in Weatherly own their own homes, and nearly two-thirds of the houses in the borough were wholly or partially built with funds ad- vanced by the Anthracite Building and Loan Associa- tion. This institution was organized in 1882. Its first president was A. J. Lauderburn. From the beginning this association has been one of the most carefully and economically managed of its kind, and it has grown in strength and in the confidence of the people from year to year. Its resources now amount to more than $200,- 000. In 1841 the first schoolhouse was here erected, being located on the hill in the eastern portion of the town, near the site of the present building. This served the purpose for which it was intended until 1855, when it was replaced by a new structure two stories high, and about twenty-five by thirty feet in dimensions. This building cost $1,000. In 1869 it was torn down to make way for a building costing $6,000. In 1883 a frame building, which is still in use, was erected in West Weatherly at a cost of $5,500. The building in the east- ern portion of the borough, erected in 1869, and known as the high school building was in 1903 replaced by a magnificent pressed brick structure valued at $75,000, being the gift of Charles M. Schwab, the millionaire steel manufacturer. Mr. Schwab's princely gift came as a graceful tribute to his wife, who spent much of her girlhood in Weatherly. Her maiden name was Eurena Dinkey. The day of the dedication of this building, September 19, 1903, was the most notable one in the history of the borough. Thousands of visitors were in Digitized by Microsoft® 346 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. attendance from far and near and there was a street parade in which many visiting bands, drum corps, civic societies, and a company of regular soldiers, from Fort Hamilton, participated. Mr. Schwab, accompanied by his wife and other members of his family came from New York in a special train to witness the dedication exercises. Twelve teachers and a supervisory princi- pal are employed, while the high school course requires three years for completion. Weatherly is amply provided with hotels. The first license for a tavern in the place was that granted to Benjamin Eomig in 1831. The next hotel to be opened was that of William Tubbs, which stood on the present site of the Gilbert House. The present hotel received its name from Charles Gilbert, who was the landlord from 1843 to 1848. In 1851 the Carbon House was opened by Joseph W. Leadenham. Lawrence Tarleton is the present owner. The "Weatherly Hotel occupies the site where the Packer House stood for many years. The last named building was erected as a dwelling by Aaron Grimes in 1856. It came into the possession of Levi Hartz in 1868, and he conducted it as a hotel until his death, which occurred about 1890. The present building is owned by Henry Schaffer. The Verzi House was built by Joseph Verzi in 1882. Harry Gangwer is the present landlord and owner. Another hotel is that of Abraham Patterson. The first postmaster of Weatherly was E. D. Stiles, who was appointed in 1848. During the incumbency of Thomas Dunn, in 1903, the only rural route starting from this ofiSce was established. This route leads through Packer township. James M. Dreher is the present postmaster. The only newspaper published in the borough is the Herald, which was established by H. V. Morthimer in Digitized by Microsoft® HI8T0EY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 347 1880. It is issued weekly, and has been owned and edited by Percy E. Faust since 1886. A board of trade was organized in 1898, and this body has rendered valuable service to the community. The various fraternal and beneficial societies are well represented here. The Grand Army Post was named in honor of Colonel James Miller, and was or- ganized on August 11, 1882, with forty members. Not many of these remain. A soldiers' monument, which stands on the hill near the Schwab school building, was erected and dedicated in 1906. The borough obtains its water supply from the Weatherly Water Company, which was chartered Jan- uary 24th, 1882. The works were built the same year, and the source of supply at first was Shep's run. In 1883 an additional supply was obtained from Penrose creek. The water works system now consists of stor- age and distributing reservoirs, gravity supply mains, and a high and low distributing system. Penrose creek, which rises in Banks township, is the principal source of supply. A storage reservoir having a capacity of 3,000,000 gallons is situated on this stream. Church services were first held here by the Presby- terian denomination in the year 1838. Eev. Daniel Gas- ton, who resided at Beaver Meadow was the pastor. After 1841, services were usually held in the school house until 1852, when a church building was com- menced. The edifice was dedicated on the 9th of Octo- ber, 1853. The adherents of the Methodist denomina- tion and of several others also worshipped in this build- ing. In 1866 the Methodists erected a building of their own. The father of this church was Eev. Emory T. Swartz, now of Scranton. It was named the Centenary Methodist Episcopal church, because thp year of its Digitized by Microsoft® 348 . HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTY. erection was the centennial of Methodism in the United States. The corner stone of St. Nicholas' Eoman Catholic church was laid on October 25, 1874. The building was completed during the following year. Eev. E. V. Mc- Elhone was the first rector. This church was for many years a mission of St. Mary's church at Beaver Meadow, as was St. Joseph's at Laurytown. In 1902, during the residence here of Eev. F. X. Wastl, St. Nich- olas' was organized as a separate parish. In 1907 the building was enlarged and remodeled. Various other improvements of a substantial nature were made dur- ing the pastorate of Eev. Wastl. Salem's Eeformed church was the next to be built in the borough. The church edifice was erected in 1875, the first pastor being Eev. J. Fuendling. He was suc- ceeded by Eev. M. H. Mishler, who served about four years, when Eev. A. M. Masonheimer, the present pas- tor, was called. Zion's Evangelical Lutheran church was built in 1876. There were but thirty members at the time of or- ganization, and for a time the church had no regular pastor. Its first regular pastor was Eev. Lems Smith, who took charge on October 1st, 1883. Eev. W. Penn Barr accepted the pastorate of this congregation in 1903. During the following year the church building was remodeled at a cost of $7,000. Christ Episcopal church had its beginnings during the eighties. Meetings were first conducted in Oak Hall, where the congregation and Sunday school was organized. Mrs. Emma J. Blakslee Pryor was one of the most influential persons in the establishment of this congregation. In 1888 the present church building was completed. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 349 Bethesda Evangelical churcli was erected in 1890 on land donated by Dr. J. B. Tweedle and Daniel Yeakel. The Holiness Christian Association gained a footing here in 1896, following a series of open air meetings. A house of worship was put up in the same year. One of Weatherly's institutions which is believed to be unique is the town cane, given as a badge of honor by the people of the borough to the oldest male resident of the community. This custom was established in 1907, and its originator was J. F. Kressley, a former chief burgess of the town. The present holder of the cane, and the first to whom the honor has come, is Lewis Flickinger, who was born in Mahoning township, Car- bon county, on December 3, 1818. It is provided that upon the death of the person entitled to possess the cane, it shall become the duty of the chief burgess pub- licly to present it to the oldest man remaining a resi- dent of the borough. The cane is of beautiful work- manship and bears an appropriate inscription. WEISSPOBT BOBOUGS. While Weissport is one of the smaller boroughs of Carbon county, it nevertheless occupies a conspicuous position in the early history of this portion of the state. It is bounded on the north, east and south by Franklin township, to which it formerly belonged, and on the west by the Lehigh river. Like Lehighton, its sister borough on the opposite bank of the Lehigh, Weiss- port was first settled by the Moravian missionaries. A portion of the original tract of land purchased by the Moravians in 1745, and on which Gnadenhiitten mission was established, near the mouth of the Mahoning, in 1746, extended across the river and embraced the north- ern part of the present site of Weissport. Digitized by Microsoft® 350 I HISTOEY OF CAKBON COUNTY. In 1754, the mission was removed from Gnadenkiit- ten to the spot where Weissport now stands, and the place became known as New Gnadenhiitten. While the principal settlement was now located on the eastern bank of the river, its parent on the Mahoning was not entirely deserted. But scarcely had the new community been ushered into being when those remaining at Gnadenhiittten were attacked by Indians and most of their number slain. This occurrence prompted the missionaries and their Mohsgan and Delaware converts, numbering several hundred, to desert New Gnadenhiitten, and flee to Beth- lehem for safety. The Indian massacre took place on the evening of the 24th of November, 1755 ; during the month of January, 1756, Benjamin Franklin built Fort Allen, which stood on the present site of the hotel of that name. A short distance to the rear of the hotel may still be seen the well which was dug under Franklin's supervision. It was within the enclosure of the fort, and supplied the soldiers of the garrison with water. Having served the purpose for which it was erected, Fort Allen was evacuated in January, 1761, and it was not until nearly a quarter of a century afterwards that the permanent settlement of Weissport was begun. The place is named in honor of its founder, Colonel Jacob Weiss, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, who was a native of Philadelphia. Colonel Weiss first visited the locality in 1784, and soon thereafter purchased seven hundred acres of land between what is now Parryville and Long Eun from the Moravians. The land was heavily timbered and his object in making the purchase was to engage in lumber- ing operations. He erected a log house for his own use on the identical site of Franklin's fort, besides building Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 351 a saw mill and a house for the man whom he employed as his sawyer, John Eoth. In 1785, "Weiss brought his family, consisting of his wife, two children, and his mother-in-law, to the new home. At the time of his comiag the Arners, Solts and Hoeths were already settled along the Poho Poco creek, several miles to the eastward, while the Dodsons and a few other families lived in the valley of the Mahoning, on the opposite side of the river. The land was soon denuded of its timber, and in a few years fields were cleared and planted. Colonel Weiss purchased other large tracts in the vicinity, and was engaged in lumbering on an extensive scale for many years. Farming proved rather an unprofitable occupation at first, however, because the soil was rough and barren, while frosts during the growing season, due in large measure to the moisture of the forests, were of com- mon occurrence. On the night of October 6, 1786, Colonel Weiss and his family narrowly escaped being drowned when the Lehigh suddenly and unexpectedly overflowed its banks, spreading all over the flats about the little set- tlement. Near the hour of midnight the family was aroused by the wailing cry, "We are surrounded!" Tears had gone by since last the region had been vis- ited by hostile Indians ; but the first thought suggested by this signal of distress was that a war party had fallen upon them, bent on murder and pillage. As soon as the true nature of the situation was un- derstood, hasty preparations were made to escape to the nearby hills. All of the family excepting Colonel Weiss and his wife were driven to a place of safety in a wagon. The Colonel made his escape on horseback, while his wife was borne to higher ground in an arm chair by some of the men of the settlement. Digitized by Microsoft® 352 HISTORY OF CAEBON COITNTY. Near the river stood a house occupied by a man named Tippey, his wife and two children. They were less fortunate than their neighbors. Their dwelling was swept from its foundations by the fast-rising flood, and was carried away by the current. In this ex- tremity the parents clung protectingly to the children until the house struck a tree, about a mile down the river, when the little ones were washed to destruction. Tippey and his wife caught hold of the limbs of the tree and were rescued in a canoe by one of Colonel Weiss' men, who had been a sailor. This event came to be known as " Tippey 's Flood." About the year 1800, settlers began to pour into the region west of the Lehigh, and this gave rise to agita- tion for the construction of a bridge across the river at Weissport. The bridge was built by Northampton county, of which Carbon then formed a part, ia 1805, the cost of the structure being about $3,000. Follow- ing its erection, the road leading from Bethlehem to Gnadenhiitten, which was built by the Moravians, more than fifty years before this time, was extended to Lausanne, at the mouth of the Nesquehoning creek, a short distance above the point where Mauch Chunk is now situated. In 1808 this road became a part of the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike, connecting Berwick and Easton. The original bridge at Weissport was partially wrecked by the flood of 1841, but, after being repaired, stood until 1862, when it was entirely swept away. It was then rebuilt, and has since been main- tained by the county. In 1827, when the building of the Lehigh Canal was begun, there were but a few houses at Weiss' Mill, as the place was then designated. It was at first planned by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company to locate the canal on the west side of the river ; Colonel Weiss, Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTY. 353 however, offered the company a free right of way throiigh his lands on the opposite bank, and this re- sulted in the canal being built on the east side of the river. Weiss and his sons then made a town plot, pro- viding for lots, streets, and a public square. About forty lots were soon disposed of, being sold on the plan of a lottery for seventy-five dollars each. By this ar- rangement the holder of each ticket was entitled to a lot, the only uncertainty attending its purchase being with reference to its location. The public square, which to-day is one of the chief attractions of the place, was presented to the town by Colonel "Weiss. The building of houses was begun in earnest with the completion of the canal through here in 1829. The tavern now known as the Weissport House was built in that year by Peter Snyder, and oc- cupied by Daniel Heberling, its first landlord. Weiss was now burdened with age and infirmities, and the active control of his affairs devolved upon his sons, Francis and Thomas. The former was a sur- veyor, doing most of the surveying in this region for many years. About 1832, Lewis Weiss, one of the sons of Thomas Weiss, began the building of boats along the canal for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company and for the Morris Canal and Banking Company. In 1836 he opened the first store in Weissport, continuing the business for more than twenty years. Another store was opened by Daniel Heberling, about the center of the town, in 1838. He, too, remained in business for an extended period of time. One of the successful boat builders in the early history of the place was Andrew Graver, who came here from Lehighton in 1836. He retired in 1877. Nathan Snyder opened a boat yard in 1846 which he conducted until 1872. The Digitized by Microsoft® 354 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. rolling mill established by Lewis Weiss in 1855 was one of the leading industries of the town for nearly thirty years. This plant, which had several times been en- larged, was last owned and operated by William Lilly and Company, being closed down in 1883. Weissport has witnessed the establishment of a num- ber of manufacturing enterprises which contributed greatly to the prosperity and up-building of the town, but which, for various reasons have ceased to exist. One of these enterprises was conducted by the Lehigh Valley Emery Wheel Company, which was organized in 1874 with a capital stock of thirty thousand dollars. The industry had flourished in a small way some years prior to the organization of the company. Among its leading spirits were William Lilly, who served as presi- dent of the company until his death, which occurred in 1893; J. G. Zern, W. C. McCormick, L. E. Wills, W. E. Butler, and others. The operations of the company covered a period of about twenty-six years. The Fort Allen Foundry was established by William and C. D. Miner in 1874. It prospered for a time, but has now been closed for many years. About 1890 Fred Horlacher, Charles Wolters and others formed the Carbon County Improvement Com- pany, which conducted a planing mill, facing mill, an artificial ice plant, and an electric light plant, which furnished light for both Weissport and Lehighton. The company failed after a time, and the property passed to the control of a party of Mauch Chunk capi- talists, headed by James I. Blakslee. The flood of 1901 destroyed the buildings of the company and they were not replaced. The silk-throwing mill which is now in operation here was established by A. L. Storms and William G. Miller. Miller has since withdrawn from the partner- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBY OF CAEBON COUNTY. dOD ship, his interest having been purchased by Nathan Everett. This and the Eureka Manufacturing Com- pany, a furniture making concern controlled by J. W. Heller, represent the only industries now situated in the town. Many of Weissport's people are employed in the Packerton shops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Com- pany ; a smaller number work for the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, the line of which passes through the town. Others are employed in the boat yards of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, situated just across the canal in East Weissport ; some follow boating on the canal as an occupation, while a certain number earn the means of a livelihood in the zinc works at Hazard. Owing to its low situation, Weissport has suffered severely from the floods which at various times have destroyed life and property along the Lehigh river- The most disastrous of these floods were those of 1841, 1862, and 1901. In the freshet of 1862 scarcely a house in the place escaped being damaged hj the water. Eighty-nine buildings of all descriptions were then destroyed, while wrecks of bridges, broken canal boats, lumber, saw logs, and debris of every variety covered the site of the town. Four residents of Weissport were drowned in this flood. There were two floods in 1901 — one during the latter part of August, and the other in December. Most of the place was submerged on both occasions, and heavy property losses were sus- tained. The postoffice here was established in 1850, Alex- ander Lentz being the first postmaster. Two rural mail routes having this office for their starting point, and running eastward through Franklin township toward the Monroe county line were instituted in 1903. 23 Digitized by Microsoft® 356 HISTORY OF CAKBON COUNTY. Weisspoi't was incorporated as a borough on June 3, 1867. The population of the place in 1870 was 359. Each decennial census since then has shown some growth, and in 1910 the number had risen to 638. In this connection it should be remembered, too, that the borough line extends only to the canal, much of the town lying east of this in Franklin township. The first schoolhouse in Weissport was erected in 1838, its cost being $400. It stood near the river, and was swept away by the flood of 1841. A small, one- story octagonal stone building was erected in its place. This structure is still standing upon its original site, being now used as the town lock-up. It was used for school purposes until 1865. The old church of the Evangelical Association was also utilized as a school- house from 1853 to 1862, being destroyed by the flood of that year. The present building, accommodating ail the schools of the borough, was built in 1865. Weissport to-day has two hotels. The first to be erected has already been mentioned as having been built by Peter Snyder, and occupied by Daniel Heber- ling, in 1829. It is now conducted by Robert Hongen, being known as the Weissport House. The meetings of town council are held here, the borough having no building of its own. The Fort Allen House was built in 1857 by Edward Weiss, son of Colonel Jacob Weiss. It occupies the site of the old log house which the colonel erected in 1785, and stands within the limits of the stockade for which it was named. One of the interesting buildings of Weissport is Jacob's Reformed church. Before the construction of this edifice, the only church building this congregation has ever owned, the Reformed and Lutheran people worshipped under the trees along the Lehigh river. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 357 This congregation is undoubtedly an outgrowth of the Gnadenhiitten mission, this fact having been attested to by early residents of the place. The church was built in co-operation by the Reformed and Lutheran denominations. The congregations were formally or- ganized under a tree, near the spot where the church now stands, on August 1, 1838, under the leadership of Rev. Cyrus Becker, representing the Reformed ele- ment, and Rev. F. W. Meendsen, an indefatigable worker in the cause of the Lutheran church throughout the Lehigh Valley. At this meeting Jacob Weiss (hence the name Jacob's) presented a lot on which to build the church. In addition to this he gave an acre of ground on the hill to the east of the canal for a burial ground. The Presbyterian denomination was also intended to share in the gift; but the adherents of that faith forfeited their rights by not taking part in the building of the church, which was completed and occupied on Christ- mas Day in 1839. The church was jointly owned until 1893, when the Reformed people bought out the Lu- therans' interest for the sum of $1,300. In the same year the congregation began to remodel the building, which work was finished several years later. The church is one of the few buildings of Weissport which withstood the various floods that have wrought such havoc in the town. The building was not yet finished when, in January, 1839, Colonel Weiss died at the advanced age of nearly eighty-nine years. He was the first to be buried in the cemetery on the hill, where his remains repose. Ebenezer church of the Evangelical Association dates back to the year 1833, when the first services of this denomination were here conducted. The congre- gation was founded in 1835 by Rev. J. M. Saylor and Digitized by Microsoft® 358 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Eev. Jacob Eeigel. A church building was erected on the site of the present school house, and was occupied until 1853, when the present house of worship was begun. Under Eev. Moses Dissinger, in 1870, the church became a regoilar station ; up to this time it was either a mission or a part of a circuit. The congrega- tion was quite prosperous until the division in the As- sociation took place; a majority of its membership then left the mother church and built a new one a short distance across the canal in Franklin township. Since then the church has again been conducted as a mission. St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church was built in 1893, the corner stone having been laid on the 6th of August of that year. The early history of this congre- gation has already been given in connection with that of Jacob's Eeformed church. Weissport is furnished with water by the Lehighton Water Supply Company, while the town is also electri- cally lighted by the plant of its sister borough. The Weissport National Bank, having a capital stock of $25,000, was opened for business on July 1, 1912. Its president is Milton Snyder, while W. H. Straus- burger is the cashier of the institution. Digitized by Microsoft® BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Biographical Sketches Arner, Charles, Carbon county's most prominent hotel man, is a native of Northampton county. His grandfather, Nicholas Arner, who emigrated to this country from Germany, settled in Northampton county. He followed the occupation of a stone mason. His father, who also bore the name of Nicholas, was a farm- er in Bethlehem township, and later in Forks township. The maiden name of Mr. Arner 's mother was Eliza- beth Eckert, who was a native of Northampton county. Charles Arner was born on May 22, 1857. After at- tending the public schools, he matriculated at Trach's Academy, Easton, Pa., where he prepared himself as a teacher. After teaching school for about six years, he entered the mercantile business, which he followed for five years. In 1893, he became the jaroprietor of the Central Hotel, at Easton, later conducting the Franklin House in the same city. Early in 1910 he became the landlord of the American Hotel at Mauch Chunk, which under his management has become one of the best and most popular hostelries in the Lehigh Valley. This hotel is well patronized by business and traveling men, and it is a favorite with the large number of tourists who annually visit Mauch Chunk. Mr. Arner was married in 1878 to Clara Walter, of Northampton county. Their only son, Walter E. Ar- ner, is now located in Newark, N. J. Mrs. Arner died in 1885, and two years later Mr. Arner wedded Lillian, a daughter of Sydenham Stocker, of Northampton county. 359 Digitized by Microsoft® 360 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Mr. Arner is a member of the Lutheran Church and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is a believer in the principles of Eepubli- canism. Arner, William, Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans ' Court of Carbon county, was born at Summit Hill on December 23, 1869. He is one of four sons of Moses and Catherine (Schneider) Arner, both de- ceased. The pioneer of the family in America was Johan Ulrich Arner, who came hither from the Palatinate, Germany, on the ship Mercury, which reached Phila- delphia on May 29, 1735. This early pioneer was born in 1693, being 42 years old when landed in this country. He was accompanied by his wife, Verona, and four chil- dren. Johan Ulrich Arner was one of the founders of Heidelberg church, in 1746, located in the upper part of what is now Lehigh county. The records of Heidel- berg township show that in 1762 he paid a tax of five English pounds. The Arners were among the earliest of the perma- nent settlers of Carbon county, locating along the Big Creek about the time of the Revolution. The descend- ants of these settlers have now become so numerous that they formed a family association, holding annual reunions. William Arner is a product of the Summit Hill high school. For about twenty years he conducted a tailor- ing establishment at Summit Hill, later engaging in the confectionery business. He was elected to the office of Register of Wills in 1915 as the candidate of the Democratic party, with which he has been actively iden- tified. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CABBON COUNTY. 361 On May 15, 1895, Mr. Arner was married to Mary, daughter of Henry Seibott, of PhiladelpMa. The fol- lowing children have been born to them: Eeinhold, Edwin, Henry, Elizabeth, and Ethel. Assmann, Rev. Joseph A., rector of St. Joseph's Eoman Catholic church, of East Mauch Chunk, was born at Grevenstein, Westphalia, Germany, March 14, 1868. He was educated at Paderborn, Germany, and at St. Charles Seminary, Overbrook, Philadelphia. Coming to America in 1886, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1894. He served successively as curate of Holy Trinity church, St. Bonaventure church, and Our Lady Help of Christians, all of Philadelphia. Later he was the rector of St. Vincent's church of Tacony. After serving St. John's church at Haycock, Bucks county, for eighteen months, he was for ten years the rector of the church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, at Minersville, Schuylkill county. Eev. Assmann came to St. Joseph's church in the spring of 1911. During his pastorate the church prop- erty has been improved, and a handsome parochial school building, costing $30,000, has been built. This is one of the most modern school buildings in the coun- ty, housing about three hundred children, being taught by seven Sisters of Christian Charity. Under the effi- cient administration of Eev. Assmann, the devoted pas- tor, St. Joseph 's parish is in a flourishing condition, the parishioners are a strong, moral force in the commu- nity, and the carefully trained children will become the good Christians and the useful citizens of the future. Baer, Eugene W., one of the most conspicuous fig- ures in Carbon county's business and industrial affairs, is the principal stockholder and president of the Baer Digitized by Microsoft® 362 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Company, which operates a large silk mill at Lehigh- ton. He was born at Paterson, New Jersey, September 9, 1868, his parents, Jacob F. and Louise (Blattner) Baer, being natives of Switzerland. Jacob F. Baer was born November 27, 1836, and was educated in the schools of his native country, learning the trade of a silkmaker under the direction of his father, John F. Baer. In 1856, being then twenty years of age, he emigrated to America, hoping to find in the new world better op- portunities for advancement and the achievement of success than the old afforded. He located in New York city, where for a short period he was engaged in the silk business, later taking up his permanent resi- dence at Paterson, New Jersey, where he prospered in his chosen field as a manufacturer of silk, having be- gun in a small way. He suffered heavy financial losses in the panic which followed the failure of Jay Cooke & Company in 1873, and was obliged by force of circumstances to discon- tinue operations. For several years subsequent to this period he served in managerial capacities in a number of large silk mills. The year 1888 found him again engaged in business on his own account, having established the Helvetia Silk Mills, numbered to-day among the lead- ing industrial enterprises of Paterson. Jacob F. Baer was married in 1858, his children being as follows: Frederick A., Ealph, Eugene, Wil- liam A., Lewis C, Anna, Louise and Eose L. Baer. The father died on November 29, 1905. Eugene W. Baer is a product of the public schools, beginning his business career at the age of fourteen as an employe of J. Wakler, a manufacturer of silk Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 363 mill supplies, with whom he remained for two years. Subsequently he spent a year with the firm of Ulrich & Company, engaged in the same line of business, after which he served an apprenticeship of three and a half years with the Eastwood Company, builders of textile machinery. From 1888 until 1896 he was in the employ of his father in the Helvetia Mills in Paterson. It was during this period that Mr. Baer gained the prac- tical experience in the various departments of silk manufacture upon which his success has been built. The mechanical knowledge which he gained during the term of his apprenticeship here stood him in good stead, and being of an inventive turn of mind, he insti- tuted various new processes and devices. He had now come to the point at which every man of force and originality arrives sooner or later. Serving in a subordinate capacity was no longer congenial to him, and he yearned to employ his energies and abil- ities unhampered by the will of a superior. Accord- ingly he formed the firm of Eugene W. Baer & Com- pany, and set up a silk spinning manufactory at Eiver- side, one of the suburbs of Paterson. After the business had been well established, Mr. Baer admitted his father to partnership with himself, and in 1898 the plant was removed to Lehighton, where large and modern buildings had been specially erected. This industry now gives employment to more people than any other in Lehighton. In 1903 Mr. Baer purchased his father's interest in the business and the concern was incorporated under the style and title of The Baer Company, the heads of the various departments in the mill being permitted to become stockholders, while Mr. Baer assumed the presidency of the company. In 1907 a branch mill was Digitized by Microsoft® 364 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. erected at Berwick, Pa., and this has a capacity not much less than the mill at Lehighton. Mr. Baer is also a partner and stockholder in the Helvetia Silk Mills, and is a member of the board of directors. He was chiefly instrumental in the organi- zation of the Citizens ' National Bank of Lehighton, of which institution he was president for several years. He resigned from this position June 23, 1910. In December, 1889, Mr. Baer was united in marriage to Miss Cora B. Tice, daughter of David and Elizabeth Tice. Their children are : Cora E., Genevieve K., Eose L. and Eugene W., twins; Carlos A. and Margie E. Baer. All were born in Paterson excepting Margie, who claims Lehighton as the place of her nativity. Cora and Genevieve are now enrolled as students at the National Park Seminary, a select school for young women, at Washington, D. C. Mr. Baer is an active member and liberal supporter of the Presbyterian church. Balliet, Dr. Calvin J., a Lehighton physician and surgeon, is the son of Nathan and Sarah (Meinhard) Balliet. He is one of the numerous descendants of Paulus Balliet, a native of Alsace, Germany, who was born in the year 1717. Emigrating to America on the ship "Eobert Oliver," Walter Goodman commanding, he landed on September 10, 1738, becoming one of the pioneer settlers of North Whitehall township, Lehigh county. He was a large landowner, and was a well- known inn keeper, being commonly referred to as "Bowl" Balliet, a name which, according to tradi- tion, was conferred upon him by the Lidians, to whom he was accustomed to furnish refreshments from a wooden bowl. Calvin J. Balliet was born in Mahoning township on January 11, 1875. His early training was received in Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 365 the common schools of that district, and at the Normal Institute. Later he attended Palatinate College, Mey- erstown. Pa., and the Polytechnic Institute, of Balti- more. Entering Jefferson Medical College, he was graduated with the class of 1897, after which he took a post-graduate course at the Polyclinic Hospital, Phila- delphia. In the fall of 1897 he located in Lehighton, where he has since practiced his profession, having built up a good practice among the friends and associates of his lifetime. He holds membership in the Carbon County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania Medical Society, the Lehigh Valley Medical Society and the American Med- ical Association. Dr. Balliet was married in 1898 to Meta, daughter of Dennis Nothstein, of Mahoning township. They are the parents of six sons : Herman, Henry, Calvin, Jos- eph, Eobert and Thomas. Balliet, Nathan M., the senior member of the law firm of Balliet & Seidel, of Lehighton, is a representa- tive of one of Carbon county's foremost professional families. Balliet is a name that has been prominent in eastern Pennsylvania since Colonial times. Joseph Balliet, the grandfather of N. M. Balliet, was a farmer in that portion of the Mahoning Valley which was formerly embraced in the territory of Northampton county, but which in 1811 became a part of Schuylkill county. The father of N. M. Balliet also bore the name of Nathan, and he was born in West Penn township, Schuylkill coimty. He was a farmer by occupation. In early life he was married to Sarah Meinhard, who was born at Nesquehoning, but spent her girlhood in the Mahoning Valley. Digitized by Microsoft® 366 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. Their children were: Thomas M., Francis S., Tilgh- man M., Nathan M., Andrew J., David M., Calvin J., Susan, Mary, Hannah, Emma and Amanda. Thomas was for six years the superintendent of schools for Carbon county. Later he was superintend- ent of the schools of Springfield, Massachusetts, while he is now the dean of the school of pedagogy of the University of New York. He bears a national reputa- tion as an educator. Francis is a farmer, and lives on the old homestead. Tilghman is a practising physician in Philadelphia ; he also holds the chair of theraputies at Dartmouth Medical College. Andrew is an attorney at Seattle, Washington, and for a time he held a judi- cial position under the federal government in Alaska. David is a traveling salesman, living at Meyerstown, Pennsylvania. Calvin is a physician at Lehighton, while Susan is the wife of Edwin Hunsinger, of the same place. Mary, Hannah, and Emma remain at home; Amanda is married to Daniel "W. Sittler, Esq., of Mauch Chunk. The father of this family died in 1896. N. M. Balliet was born in Mahoning township. Car- bon county, on October 19, 1861. He acquired his early education in the public schools and at the Nor- mal Institute, located in his native township and founded by his brother. Prof. Thomas M. Balliet. He attended Kutztown State Normal School, and later studied at Franklin and Marshall College, from which he graduated with the class of 1886. Mr. Balliet taught in the public schools for a few years, after which he became an instructor in Greek and Latin at Palatinate College. Accepting a professorship at Ursinus Col- lege, he taught Latin and Eoman literature there for two years, during which time he was also president of the summer school of languages at the same college. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOKY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 367 Forsaking the profession of teaching, he entered the New York Law School, from which he was graduated in 1895. Being admitted to practise in the courts of the state of New York, he maintained an office in New York city for a brief period. In the fall of 1895 Mr. Balliet was admitted to the Carbon county bar, succeeding to the practise of the late Senator William M. Rapsher, and opening an of- fice in Lehighton. In 1896 he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Ira E. Seidel, under the firm name of Balliet & Seidel, and in addition to the office in Lehighton, they maintain a branch at Palmerton. Mr. Balliet is a member of the board of education of Lehighton, while he is connected fraternally with the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Allen- town College for Women, and of the Publication Board of the Reformed Church of the United States. N. M. Balliet was married to Emma L., daughter of Hon. Charles H. Seidel and his wife Kate, of Ma- honing township, on August 6, 1891. Their children are: Charles M., Paul, Nevin, and Katie S. Balliet. Barr, Rev. W. Penn, A.M., pastor of Zion's Evan- gelical Lutheran church at Weatherly, was born at Mauch Chunk, February 16, 1867. He is a grandson of John Barr, who was a prominent business man of Berks county. His father was Francis A. Barr, a merchant tailor, also born in Berks county ; his mother bore the maiden name of Lizzie A. Helffrich, a native of Lehigh county. William Penn Barr is one of a family of ten chil- dren ; when he was four years old his parents removed to Lyons, Berks county, where he received his early education. Later he accompanied the family of his father to the state of Delaware, and after a residence Digitized by Microsoft® 368 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. of five years they established their home at Elizabeth- ville, Dauphin county, Pa. Following the trade of his father, Mr. Barr was for a number of years a merchant tailor, and then a bookkeeper. Entering Muhlenberg College, he graduated in 1896 with the degree of A.B. Three years later he graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, and was honored with the degree of A.M. by Muhlenberg College. Immediately upon his graduation he accepted a call from Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, of Mt. Joy, Pa. After serving this congregation for four years, he assumed the duties of his present pastorate at Weatherly, July 1, 1903. This charge also includes a preaching point at Lowrytown and St. Matthew's church in Packer township ; he preaches at each on al- ternate Sundays in the afternoon. Under Eev. Barr's pastorate the church at Weatherly was enlarged and rebuilt at an outlay of seven thousand dollars. The church in Packer township was also remodeled and greatly improved. The debt so incurred has been liqui- dated in full, while much of the good showing that has been made by the congregations which he serves is due to his qualities of leadership. Rev. Barr was first married to Miss Laura M. Swab, of Elizabethville, Dauphin county, March 25, 1890, several years before he began his career as a student. She died on September 29, 1906, having borne him three children: Bernice E., Margaret V., and Francis A. Barr. Bernice was until recently located at Ches- ter, S. C, where she presided over the organ of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Barr was re-married to Mary A. Koch, of Weatherly, October 25, 1907. She is a daughter of Hugh Koch and his wife Fietta, of McKeansburg, Schuylkill county. Digitized by Microsoft® UlSTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 369 Barrington, Rev. William R., rector of St. Joseph's Eoman Catholic church, of Summit Hill, is one of the ten children of John and Elizabeth (Payne) Barring- ton, natives of Ireland, who emigrated to America in 1846, settling in Philadelphia. Father Barrington acquired his rudimentary train- ing in the public schools, completing his education at La Salle College, Philadelphia, and at St. Charles' Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 30, 1896. After serving various churches in Philadel- phia, he came to Summit Hill from St. Thomas ' church in April, 1910. St. Joseph's church is one of the oldest of the Cath- olic churches in this portion of the coal fields. As early as 1826 missionaries of the Catholic church from Eas- ton, Pottsville, and Tamaqua paid occasional visits to this locality, but it was not until about a quarter of a century later that a church edifice was erected. During the comparatively short pastorate of Father Barrington many improvements have been made to the church and the rectory. Father Barrington has not only been the spiritual leader of his congregation, but he has taken an active and sympathetic interest in the temporal well-being of his people. He has won the warm regard of all classes in Summit Hill. He is a lover of art and is a talented musician. Sauman, Dennis, an honored representative of one of Carbon county's pioneer families, now living in re- tirement at AUentown, was born at Bowmanstown, then a part of Northampton county, on April 10, 1819. The pioneer of his family in America was John Deter Bauman, who is known to have purchased land near the mouth of Lizard creek, in what is now East Penn township, Carbon county, in the year 1760. He was •one of the first settlers of Northampton county north 24 Digitized by Microsoft® 370 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. of the Blue mountains. Not only did he become an extensive land owner in this portion of the county, but he was also a successful hunter and trapper, as were his descendants for several generations. He was the father of four children: Bernhard, Henry, Mary, and Sabilla. Henry settled near the point where St. John's church now stands in Lower Towamensing township, and about two miles north of Lehigh Gap, following farming and lumbering. His family consisted of two sons and two daughters. Occasionally the family was threatened by the Indians, and in one instance the head of the household sent his wife and children to a place near Easton for safety, while he remained alone in the wilderness. The elder son, John D., the father of Dennis Bau- man, was born about the year 1772. In 1796 he settled where Bowmanstown now stands, erecting a dwelling of logs. He became a farmer and lumberman, and, like his predecessors, he spent much time in hunting and trapping. In 1808 he built a large and substantial stone house, and obtaining a license he conducted it as a hotel until the year 1853, the time of his death. The house was on the line of the old turnpike leading from Berwick to Easton, and was a stopping place for trav- elers on that highway. Mr. Bauman served as a commissioner of Carbon county for the term of three years. He was the father of twelve children and was respected and loved by all who knew him. His brother, Henry, settled on a farm a short distance north of Lehigh Gap, on the east bank of the river, where he spent his entire life. He, too, reared a large family, and died at the advanced age of ninety-two years. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 371 Dennis Bauman in early life assisted Ms father in Ms farming and lumbering operations, receiving the educational equipment then afforded by the district schools, and later pursuing a course of study at a boarding school in Bucks county, where he was in at- tendance for two successive winters. Mastering the art of a surveyor, he followed this as his principal occupation for nine years, being appointed also as deputy surveyor of Carbon county by Governor Shunk. In 1849 he was elected to the office of prothonotary, while three years later his conduct of the affairs of the office was given the stamp of public approval in his unanimous re-election. He was next chosen as one of the associate judges of the county, serving in that ca- pacity for five years. About the year 1855 he became a member of the firm of Bauman Brothers and Company, which established and operated an anthracite blast furnace at Parryville. Upon the dissolution of this co-partnership, of which Mr. Bauman was the acting financial member, in 1857, the Carbon Iron Company was organized and incor- porated. He was chosen as its president, and was regu- larly re-elected from year to year until 1876. The great panic which was then in progress closed down most of the iron manufacturing establishments of the Lehigh Valley, and the plant at Parryville proved no exception, the property passing to the Carbon Iron and Pipe Company. After this Mr. Bauman spent most of his time in looking after his private interests. He was one of the founders of the Carbon Metallic Paint Company, which was organized about 1867, serv- ing as a member of its board of directors until 1902, and being the secretary and treasurer of the company during most of that time. He was also one of the or- ganizers of the First National Bank of Lehighton, in Digitized by Microsoft® 372 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 1875, being a member of its board of directors for more than a quarter of a century, and for a time its vice-president. When Parryville was incorporated as a borough, in 1875, Mr. Bauman was honored in being chosen as the first chief burgess of the town, which position he held for several terms, finally declining further re-election, but serving as a member of the borough council for years thereafter. He became a member of the Mauch Chunk lodge of Odd Fellows in 1849, still retaining his membership, and never having joined any other lodge or club. His partner in life was Mary, daughter of Henry Kress, of Northampton county. Four sons and a daughter were born to them. The wife and mother died on March 7, 1904, and in the fall of that year Mr. Bauman took up his residence with a daughter at Al- lentown, where he has since remained. He has been an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a loyal Sunday school supporter since 1858, having filled many offices of honor and trust in these societies. He is indeed a grand old man in the full sense of the term, looking back from the eminence of years with patriarchal serenity upon his long life of probity and usefulness. Berger, Adam, a hotel keeper of East Penn town- ship, and a former member of the board of county auditors, is the son of George and Kate (Kemmerer) Berger. His father was a native of Berks County. Establishing himself in the mercantile business at Ma- hanoy City, he remained there for a few years. Later he followed the occupation of a farmer in Mahoning and East Penn townships. Adam Berger was born in Berks county on November 12, 1861. His early life was spent beneath the paternal roof, while his educational advantages were those sup- Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 373 plied by the public schools. Beaching man's estate, he engaged in farming in Mahoning township, later pur- suing tlie same occupation in East Penn. In 1892 he entered the hotel business in the latter township, where he has since lived, excepting a residence of a few years in Lehighton. He served one term as tax collector of East Penn township, and is now a member of the school board of that district. In 1902, as the nominee of the Democratic party, he was elected to the oifice of county auditor, which he held for three years. At the age of twenty he was married to Priscilla, daughter of Joseph Euch, of East Penn township. Their children are : George V., Emma S., wife of Ed- ward Exner, and Stanley J. Berger. Mr. Berger is identified with the Patriotic Order of Sons of America, the Junior Order of United Amer- ican Mechanics, and the Order of Independent Ameri- cans. Bertolette, Frederick, for many years one of the lead- ing members of the Carbon county bar, and a public- spirited citizen of Mauch Chunk, was born near Potts- town, Montgomery county, April 26, 1851. The family moved to Lewisburg, Union county, when he was quite small. He received his preliminary edu- cation there, and entering Bucknell University, he was graduated from that institution in 1872. Coming to Mauch Chunk, he studied law in the office of his cousin. Colonel John D. Bertolette, who served with distinction in the Eebellion. He was admitted to the bar in 1874. He enjoyed a large practice, being particularly successful as a corporation lawyer. He took a prominent part in the famous Mollie Maguire trials, which gave him a reputation as a criminal law- yer. Later he defended the members of the train crew Digitized by Microsoft® 374 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. who were charged with the Mud Run Disaster, one of the most fatal wrecks in the annals of railroading, and secured their acquittal. Mr. Bertolette was a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and attended all its meetings so long as his health would permit. He never sought public office ; but at the time of his death he was burgess of Mauch Chunk, to which posi- tion he was appointed to fill out the unexpired term of his friend and neighbor, Asa P. Blakslee. Every movement for the improvement and up-build- ing of the town of his adoption always had his cordial cooperation and support. Mr. Bertolette was united in marriage to Louise, daughter of Lafayette Albright, of Lewisburg, in 1875. The following children were born to them : Helen, the wife of Eev. A. C. Dieffenbach, of Hartford, Conn.; Florence, who wedded H. N. Chapin, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Walter, who died in 1914 at the age of thirty- three. Mr. Bertolette departed this life very suddenly at his home on March 10, 1915, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. As a mark of respect to his memory, all business was suspended in Mauch Chunk on the day of his burial. Sevan, James J., who has been superintendent of schools for Carbon county since 1902, is of Welsh parentage, his father, William E. Bevan, having been born in Glamorganshire, Wales, in 1829. At the age of 21 he was united in marriage to Ann Jenkins, at Merthyr Tidvil. Shortly after their marriage the young couple emigrated to the United States, settling near Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pa., where Mr. Bevan became a coal miner. After a short residence there, the family removed to Tresckow, Carbon county. Digitized by Microsoft® <2-^rrtjC4/ 7 /a Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 375 where the father became an influential member of the community and a prominent factor in Banks township politics. In 1873 he was elected to the ofifice of county treasurer. He died in 1884. James J. Bevan was born at Tresckow, January 31, 1861. At the age of fifteen he accompanied his fa- ther's family to Alabama, where the elder Bevan held an executive position about a soft coal mine. During his stay in the south, James was a student at the Shelby Collegiate Institute, located near Birmingham. Returning to the north in 1881, he was for a short time employed as a hoisting engineer at the mines near Tresckow. He then entered West Chester State Nor- mal School, where he pursued a scientific course. Two years after his graduation, this institution conferred the degree of M.S. upon him. During 1882 and 1883, Mr. Bevan occupied the posi- tion of principal of the public schools of Leviston, Banks township, while in 1885 he was elected to the principalship of the schools of Mauch Chunk, in which capacity he served until called to the superintendency of the schools of the county, in 1902. That he has filled this responsible position accept- ably and well is attested by the fact that he is now serving his fourth term, having been thrice re-elected with scarcely any opposition. During his incumbency he has had an eye single to the advancement of the cause of education throughout the county, and he has labored with especial diligence for the uplift of the rural schools. He proceeds on the assumption that the schools in towns and boroughs under his jurisdic- tion, being governed by the principal in charge, do not stand as much in need of supervision and encourage- ment, perhaps, as do the rural schools, often officered by recruits in the educational ranks, who are com- Digitized by Microsoft® 376 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. pelled to overcome the obstacles and difficulties that confront them as best they may, without the guiding care and supervision of a principal. Largely through his influence, agriculture is now being taught in most of the schools of the rural dis- tricts of the county, giving those in attendance a better understanding of their environment and opportunities, and tending toward the solution of the problem which is presented by overcrowding in cities and the conse- quent increase in the cost of living. He also lays spe- cial stress on the importance of thorough training in English, holding that the highest accomplishment a boy or girl can have is to know well the mother tongue. Mr. Bevan is now the president of the Association of County Superintendents of Pennsylvania, and has for years taken an active interest in the work of the State Educational Association. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd PelTows, and is a communicant of the Presbyterian church. In 1889 he was married to Francesca L., daughter of Eeuben Cole, of Northampton county. Mary F. Bevan, a graduate of Bloomsburg State Normal School, is their only child. Bittner, John C, a retired farmer of Packer town- ship, and a veteran of the Civil War, is the son of Martin and Eva (Crat) Bittner, both natives of Ger- many. The family emigrated to this country about 1830, settling in Columbia county. Pa. The father was a carpenter. Eemoving to Cressona, Schuylkill county, the parents both died there. John C. Bittner was born in Columbia county on February 24, 1836. He was about eight years of age when the death of his father occurred, and he grew to maturity on a farm near Orwigsburg, Schuylkill Digitized by Microsoft® HI8T0EY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 377 county. Learning the carpenter trade, he pursued his vocation until 1864. During March of that year he en- listed in Company I, One hundred and eighty-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, attached to the Army of the Potomac. He participated in all the engagements and maneuvers of his regiment from this time forth, including the battle of Cold Harbor, the siege of Petersburg, and the fighting about the Weldon Eailroad, to the fall of Richmond and the close of the war. Returning to civil life he came to Quakake Valley and purchased from John Faust, his father-in-law, the old grist mill now owned by William S. Dietrich, con- ducting the same until 1869, when he disposed of the mill to Henry Gerhard. Mr. Bittner then devoted himself to agricultural pur- suits, acquiring title to the farm on which his father- in-law had settled when he came to Quakake Valley in 1829. He is still the owner of this farm, which is one of the most desirable in the district. On April 7, 1860, he was married to Caroline Faust, and they became the parents of the following children : Charles, deceased; William H., owning a ranch near Louisville, Col. ; Allen D., living on the old homestead and conducting the farm ; Mary, the wife of Joel Lein- inger, of Packer township; Elvin D., a railway mail clerk, located at Harrisburg, Pa.; Ida, the wife of Samuel Behler, of Nuremberg, Schuylkill county; Clara E. and Jere, deceased; Edgar, a mechanical en- gineer in the service of the New Jersey Foundry and Machine Company, of New York; George, deceased; Agnes, who married Allen Gerhard; Milton, a sten- ographer, of Idaho Springs, Col. ; Arthur, operating a farm in Packer township; Jennie, wife of Wallace 0. Gerhard, and Laura, who wedded Truman Musselman. Digitized by Microsoft® 378 HISTOEV OF CABBON COUNTY. William, Allen, Elvin, Jere, Edgar and Milton were all educated at the Valparaiso Normal School, now known as Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, and became school teachers. All of these, excepting Jere, who died at the age of twenty-two, married school teachers. Jennie attended the Polytechnic Institute, of Gil- berts, Monroe county. Pa. She taught school for sev- eral years, and the man whom she married had been a school teacher. Mr. Bittner and his family have been among the leading spirits of St. Matthew's Lutheran and Reform- ed church, and the Sunday school connected therewith, situated on ground originally belonging to the old homestead, while being otherwise influential in the community. During his long residence in Packer town- ship, Mr. Bittner successively filled most of the offices in the gift of the people of that district. Blakslee, Hon. James I., fourth assistant postmaster general, and a prominent Democratic leader, also oper- ating the municipal electric light plant of Lehighton, is of Scotch antecedents, and the family from which he springs has been identified with the interests and activi- ties of Pennsylvania since early in the eighteenth cen- tury. Zopher Blakslee, his great grandfather, was a native of Vermont, but spent the major portion of his life in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. He was a farmer by occupation. One of the ten children of Zopher Blakslee, James I. Blakslee was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsyl- vania, February 10, 1815. About 1833 he removed to Mauch Chunk with his brother-in-law, Asa Packer, and for a time was a boatman on the Lehigh Canal. In 1839 he engaged in the mining and shipping of coal in Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBOX OOt'XTY. 379 SohnylkiU wunty. RetmniBig to Mtnich Chunk after an absence of five yearis, he eiigaged in the ivreparation and shipping of eoal from the Nesquehoning mines, worked under emitraot with the l^ehiich Coal and Nav- igation Company by Mejissrst. Ma pes*. Packer iSc Harlan. Mr. Blakslee asdsteii in the bnihiing of the Lehigh Valley Railroad ami wjxs the wndiiotor of the tirst coal train that ran over the road. In 1S(>;> he was appointed superintendent of the Mahanoy division of this rail- i\>ad, \diieh position he relinqwislied to superintend the vxmstruetion of the Montrose Bailroad in northeastern Pennsylvania. He was elet»ted president of this rail- road in 1S71. In 1S7S he was elect eil a director of the I^high Valley Railroad, and for a time was a member i>f the executive committee of the board. Mr. Blakslee was a trustee of Lehigh Fnvversity. in which position he ably se<.H>udetl the plans of its foun- der. Asa Packer. As the candidate of the Democratic party, he was ele«.»ted to the office of treasurer of Carbon county in 1S5I. He was married in 1S;>S to Caroline Ashley, a native of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania. Their children were: Eugene H., AIoueo P.. Asa P., and Charles A. Blakslee. James I. Blakslee, the father of this family, died in 1901. Alonso P. Blakslee receix'cd his early education in the schools of Mauch Chunk and Bethlehem. Subse- quently he was a student in the military academy at Eagleswooti. Xew Jersey. In lSt>t> he entered the em- v»loy of the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad, which soon thereafter was absorbed by the l^high Valley s>-stem. He remained with the company as the superintendent of the Mahanoy division until ISi^S. when he resigned to become the g^aeral manager of the famous Switch- Digitized by Microsoft® 380 HISTOB\' OF CARBON COUNTY. back Railroad, taking up his residence at Mauch Chunk, where he also engaged in other enterprises. Alonzo P. Blakslee was united in wedlock in 1869 to Elizabeth Bond. Four children were born to them, James I. and Annie K. Blakslee alone surviving. The father died in 1911. James I. Blakslee was born at Mauch Chunk on De- cember 17, 1870. During his first year the family re- moved to Delano, Schuylkill county, where James at- tended the public schools. Subsequently he was a stu- dent at the Bethlehem Preparatory School and at the Cheltham Military Academy, finishing his education at the Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Upon leaving school, Mr. Blakslee became a clerk in the office of the division superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Delano. Later he became a tele- graph operator, and was the station agent for that company at Delano. Entering the service of the Penn- sylvania Railroad at Philadelphia, he soon returned to Delano to become the yardmaster of the Lehigh Valley Railroad at that place. Having previously been commissioned as a second lieutenant in Company E, Eighth Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania, Mr. Blakslee volunteered in that capacity for the war with Spain. During the prog- ress of the war, he was transferred to the regular army as quartermaster and commissary of the reserve hos- pital company, attached to the Second Army Corps. The command to which he belonged was successively stationed at Falls Church and Dunloring, Virginia; Middletown, Pennsylvania, and at Augusta, Georgia. He was mustered out on May 12, 1899. Returning to civil life, Mr. Blakslee took up his resi- dence at Mauch Chunk, and purchased the property of the Carbon County Improvement Company at Weiss- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. 381 port, consisting of various interests and industries. The plant was partially destroyed by fire soon there- after. It had scarcely been rebuilt when it was again destroyed by the destructive flood of 1901. Mr. Blak^ slee then, abandoned the property, and secured a lease on tne electric light plant of the borough of Lehighton, which he is still conducting, furnishing light and power to both Lehighton and Weissport. He made his first excursion into the field of politics at Delano, in 1897, when he was chosen as a delegate to the Schuylkill county Democratic convention, held at Pottsville. He received 109 votes out of 110 votes cast, and had the honor of nominating 0. P. Bechtel for his last term as president judge of the Schuylkill county courts. He was for some years a member of the Schuylkill county Democratic executive committee, and was repeatedly urged to accept the noinination for state senator in his district, but declined. }S.T. Blakslee was elected chairman of the Carbon county Democratic committee in 1905, and is still so serving. He was elected to the legislature in 1906, receiving 925 out of 1,030 votes cast in Lehighton, his home town. As a member of the legislature he played an active part in all the important measures before the House, acquitting himself with credit and ability. He was a member of the Democratic state executive com- mittee for a number of years, and in 1910 was the can- didate of his party for the office of secretary of inter- nal affairs, but was defeated with the rest of the ticket. Together with George W. Guthrie, Vance McCor- mick, A. Mitchell Palmer, and others, he took a promi- nent part in reorganizing the Democratic party in Pennsylvania after the gubernatorial election of 1910, when he was chosen as the secretary of the state com- mittee. Much of his time and energy has since been Digitized by Microsoft® 382 HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. devoted to the work of this position. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Baltimore, which nominated Woodrow Wilson for the presidency. Mr. Blakslee has for years taken an active interest in the work of the Episcopal church, of which he is a member. He has been connected with All Saints church at Lehighton since its organization in 1902. During this time he has also been the superintendent of the Sunday school of this association. He is now a member of the Sunday school commission of the dio- cese of Bethlehem. In 1901 Mr. Blakslee was married to Henrietta W. Bunting, daughter of the late Doctor Thomas C. Bunt- ing and his wife Lizzie, of East Mauch Chunk. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and be- longs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In 1903 he was one of the leading spirits in the organi- zation of Lehighton Engine Company, No. 2, of which he has since been the president. Mr. Blakslee was ap- pointed to the position of fourth assistant postmaster general by President Wilson in 1913, and is still serv- ing. Blakslee, William Wallace, who for nearly half a century was a foremost citizen and successful business man of Weatherly, was born at Springville, Susque- hanna county. Pa., in 1821. He was a son of Zopher Blakslee, and one of a family of sixteen children. Reared and partially educated in the place of his nativity, he remained beneath the paternal roof until his twelfth year, when he determined that the time had come for him to make his own way in the world. Mauch Chunk was then becoming a great coal center, and young Blakslee, like so many other enterprising spirits of that day, was lured thither by the bright prospects opening before the wonderful mountain town on the Digitized by Microsoft® ^^ /3^a^U^C^^^ Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 383 banks of the LeMgh. He made the journey to Mauch Chunk in the fall of 1833 in company with Charles Ash- ley and wife, a sister of Mr. Blakslee's, who brought with them all their worldly possessions, loaded upon a wagon to which three horses were attached. The ambitious boy rode the lead horse the entire distance from Susquehanna county. Arriving at Mauch Chunk the youth found a loyal friend in his brother-in-law, Asa Packer, the bold and sagacious pioneer, who subsequently became a leading individual factor in the development of the Lehigh Val- ley, and whose name became a household word all over eastern Pennsylvania. Mr. Packer took him into his home, and sent him to school. His instructor was the most famous of the early schoolmasters of Carbon county, James Nowlins, and under him he laid the foundations for his life of usefulness and success. During the boating season he was employed as a mule driver on the towpath of the Lehigh Canal. It was in this capacity, one starlight night, that he wit- nessed one of the memorable natural phenomena of the nineteenth century, the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833. At the age of fifteen, having won the confidence of Mr. Packer, he was given a clerical position in a store at Eockport, which was conducted by the firm of which Mr. Packer was the head. He remained with this firm until 1857, being successively located at White Haven, Mauch Chunk and Nesquehoning, having full charge of the store at the latter place for many years. Coming to Weatherly at the expiration of this pe- riod, Mr. Blakslee embarked in business for himself, succeeding Eichard D. Stiles, who was the only mer- chant in the town. This venture proved a gratifying success, and, in addition thereto Mr. Blakslee engaged Digitized by Microsoft® 384 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. in the real estate business and various other enter- prises. He was a leader in the establishment of the Weatherly Water Company, of which he was the pres- ident from the time of its organization until his death, having also been one of the promoters of the Eead and Lovatt silk mill at Weatherly. About the year 1898 the Blakslee Store Company was organized, he being the nominal head. From this time forth he lived in retirement. During his long residence in Weatherly he was hon- ored with most of the offices in the gift of her people, and he was associated with every movement calculated to advance the interests of the town. He was one of the founders of the Episcopal church at Weatherly, which was erected principally through his influence. On April 8, 1849, Mr. Blakslee was united in mar- riage at Mt. Lafee, Schuylkill county, to Miss Tamar Beadle, an estimable English lady of culture and re- finement. From this happy union sprang nine chil- dren, five of whom survive : Mrs. Grant E. Pryor, Mrs. Harry A. Butler, Mrs. Charles W. Keiser, William Wallace, Jr., and EoUin Ashley Blakslee. The father's death occurred on September 26, 1904, the result of a fall he sustained a few weeks previously, and from the shock of which he never rallied. His re- mains repose in Union Cemetery at Weatherly. Mr. Blakslee was prominent in Masonic circles. Blose, Fulton J., a foreman for Swift and Company at Lehighton, and serving his second term as a member of the board of county auditors, was born in Lower Towamensing township, October 12, 1870. He is one of the eight surviving children of Jacob and Salinda (Peters) Blose, both natives of Carbon county, and whose ancestors came to this country from Germany. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 385 His first employment was with the Parryville Iron Works, when he was fifteen years of age. Subsequent- ly he was in the service of the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. During the past fifteen years he has been with Swift and Company at Lehighton, being the foreman of a department. During his residence in Lower Towamensing town- ship, he filled various township offices. He was elected as a member of the board of county auditors on the Democratic ticket in 1911. Four years later he was reelected and was chosen president of the board. Mr. Blose has an interest in the Wentz Company, manufacturers of memorials and tombstones, of Allen- town. He is active in patriotic and fraternal society circles. Blunt, Harrison N., general agent for The Palmer Land Company, came to Palmerton from New York in the fall of 1899, to design and construct the sewers and sewage disposal works for the then proposed vil- lage. Mr. Blunt was at this time associated with the well knowTi firm of engineers of which the late Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., was the senior member. In September, 1900, after completing this work, he entered the services of The Palmer Land Company at Palmerton, as assistant to the general agent. He was soon thereafter promoted to the general agency, which position he still holds. In this capacity he has done much toward making Palmerton the model town that it is, most of the im- provements of a general nature there having been made under his supervision and direction. Bower, Charles W., one of Lehighton 's most public- spirited citizens, an ex-burgess of that borough, and owning a controlling interest in the Crescent Stone and 25 Digitized by Microsoft® 386 HISTOET OF CARBON COUNTY. Manufacturing Company, of whicli lie is secretary and treasury, was born at Leliighton, April 16, 1855. He is the grandson of one of LeMgliton 's pioneer residents, Charles G. Bower, who emigrated from Wurtemberg, Germany, to this country during the early years of the last century. Settling in Lehighton, he worked at his trade as a saddler and was also a farmer. He was the father of ten children, his oldest son being Charles H. Bower, who was successively a farmer, boat builder and contractor. Charles H. Bower was married to Matilda Savitz, of Lehighton, where the couple made their home. Their children were Charles and Sarah, who is the wife of Charles Seifert, of Lehighton, Having received a public school education, Charles W. Bower began life as a clerk in a general store. He was also employed in a clerical capacity by the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Company at Packerton for a time. Entering the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Bower was graduated with the class of 1880. He is also a graduate of the medical school of the University of Vermont. After successfully practicing his profession for sev- eral years, Doctor Bower acquired a taste for some- thing different, and opened a machine shop, which he conducted for about two years. In 1904 he organized the Crescent Store and Manu- facturing Company, becoming its secretary and treas- urer. This concern manufactures cook stoves and ranges which find a market nearly all over the world. The industry employs about thirty men. Doctor Bower has taken quite an active part in municipal affairs, and in addition to having served as chief burgess, he has been secretary of the board of health, of town council, and of the Carbon County In- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 387 dustrial Society, under the auspices of wliich the Car- bon county fair is annually held. He is an adherent of the Kepublican party. Mr. Bower is a member of the Odd Fellows and is prominent in Masonic circles, belonging to Lehighton Lodge, No. 621 ; Packer Commandery, No. 23, K. T., of Mauch Chunk; Philadelphia Consistory, S. P. E. S., and Eajah Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S., of Beading. He was married to Clara Hibbler, a daughter of Ed- mund Hibbler and his wife Susan, of Lehighton, in 1903. They live on South First street, occupying the house in which Doctor Bower was born. Bowman, Maurice, a well known and public spirited citizen of Bowmanstown, was born on October 20, 1858, in the village where he now lives. He is a direct descendant of John Deter (Hans Teter) Bowman, who was one of the first of the sturdy settlers to brave the dangers and hardships of the wilderness which lay un- conquered in what is now Carbon county. He came to Towamensing, as this whole region was then known, about the time of the French and Indian War. Maurice is the fourth son of Henry Bowman, who was one of the twelve children of John Deter Bowman, a grandson of the first settler, who was also thus named. Henry Bowman was born in 3814 in the place which has since been called Bowmanstown. He became a boat builder on the Lehigh Canal, profitably engaging in this pursuit for more than twenty years. About the year 1855, acting upon the suggestion of a man named George Ziegenfuss, he began prospecting for iron ore in the Stony Eidge, where he found a min- eral which, after some experimenting, proved to be bet- ter adapted for the making of paint. Digitized by Microsoft® 388 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. The knowledge gained in these experiments made him the father of an industry which has since grown to important proportions — the manufacture of metallic brown paint. First engaging in this business on his own account, he later organized the Poco Metallic Paint Company, subsequently called the Carbon Me- tallic Paint Company, which is still in existence. Mr. Bowman and a number of his brothers were the princi- pal stockholders of this concern. He was also a well known contractor for many years. After the freshet of 1841, he rebuilt a large portion of the Lehigh Canal between Mauch Chunk and White Haven, while taking part in the building of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad and the Lehigh and Sus- quehanna Railroad. He was the contractor who erect- ed the county prison at Mauch Chunk, and, in his day built numerous houses, churches and bridges, besides mining large quantities of coal and iron ore. As a member of the firm of Bowman Brothers and Company, he was one of the founders of the iron works at Parryville. In later years he became an extensive producer of building and foundry sand. Henry Bowman was united in marriage to Lavina, daughter of Henry Peters, of East Penn township. Carbon county, in 1844. Nine children were born to them. The father died on October 12, 1889. Maurice Bowman was educated in the public schools and at the Carbon Academy, later spending a year as a student of theology at Franklin and Marshall Col- lege. For a time he and his brother, Fulton, engaged with their father in the sand business, and upon the death of the latter, Maurice and Eoger Bowman car- ried on the enterprise until 1892, when Maurice pur- chased the interest of the other and has since conduct- ed the business as sole owner. One of his sand quar- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 389 ries is located at Ashfield, East Penn township, while he operates another at Hazard. He is also a dealer in clay and building stone. Besides his other interests, he is the owner of the water system of Bowmanstown, having supplied the place with this necessity since 1892. The source of supply is a tunnel about one thousand feet long, driven into the Stony Ridge by his father for the Carbon Metallic Paint Company, which formerly secured ore therefrom. The water is characterized by its purity and is rich in health-giving mineral properties. It runs into the town by gravity. Altogether the system is one of the most exceptional and inexpensive to be found anywhere. Mr. Bowman was one of the prime movers in the building of St. John's Evangelical church, of Bow- manstown, dedicated in 1892. He contributed liberally to the project, and has been a local preacher of the denomination for many years. Politically speaking, he is a loyal Prohibitionist, hav- ing served as the county chairman of that party. In 1881 he was wedded to Clara A. Eckert, of Parry- ville. Carbon county. Four children begotten of this union survive. The death of the wife and mother oc- curred ia 1902, and on March 16, 1904, Mr. Bowman was married to Carrie S., daughter of Elijah Heisler, of Orwigsburg, Schuylkill county. Three children have been born to them, one of whom died in infancy. Bowman, Penn, a leading and influential resident of Bowmanstown, is a descendant in the fifth generation of John Deter Bowman, who was one of the first set- tlers of that portion of Northampton county lying north of the Blue Ridge, and now a part of Carbon county. Digitized by Microsoft® 390 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. His father, Josiah Bowman, was the youngest son of John D. Bowman, and was a great grandson of the original settler. Josiah Bowman was born in the old stone hotel at Bowmanstown, builded by his father, and in early life he became the landlord of this hotel. Later he engaged in contracting and lumbering, besides operating two farms. With his brother, Henry, he was one of the pioneers in the manufacture of brown metallic paint, the ore from which this product is made being found in the Stony Eidge, near Bowmanstown. He was also financially interested in the iron works at Parryville, established and originally conducted by the firm of Bowman Brothers and Company. Mr. Bowman chose as his life partner Louisa Berke- meyer, of Heidelberg, Lehigh county. Their children were: Henrietta L., wife of Lewis F. Balliet; Mar- garet, who married Abel Boyer ; Penn, Lillie Q., widow of Harry J. Aaron, and Alton H. Bowman. Two oth- ers died in infancy. Penn Bowman was born at Bowmanstown, May 21, 1864. He attended the public schools and was for several terms a student at Kutztown State Normal School. He is also a graduate of the AUentown Busi- ness College. For a short time after leaving school he was employed as a bookkeeper at AUentown, but in 1889 formed a partnership with E. A. Boyer, starting in the mercantile business at Bowmanstown under the firm name of Boyer and Bowman. Purchasing the in- terest of his partner in 1893, Mr. Bowman conducted the business as sole owner until 1905, when he, in turn, sold out to Mr. Boyer. He then operated a planing mill for several years, and followed the business of a general contractor. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 391 Mr. Bowman is a director of the Citizens' National Bank of Lehighton, being associated in a similar capa- city with the Towamensing Fire Insurance Company. He was one of the organizers of the Lutheran church at Bowmanstown, and has served as superintendent of the Sunday school connected therewith for a number of years. In 1889 he was united in marriage to Agnes M., daughter of Edward Boyer, of Millport, Carbon county. Bowman, Robert, a well-known Lehighton young man, was born there on April 15, 1884, the son of Fran- cis and Amelia (Freeman) Bowman. He is one of the numerous descendants of John Dieter Bowman (or Bauman), a native of Germany, who emigrated to this country in the year 1727, first settling in Philadelphia. He was one of the earliest pioneers north of the Blue Eidge, becoming a large landholder near Lehigh Gap. His grandson, John D., built the first house in Bow- manstown in 1796, and the town is named in his honor. Robert Bowman was graduated from the Lehighton high school with the class of 1902. Entering the serv- ice of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad at Packerton in a clerical capacity, he is now the chief timekeeper of the yard at that place. Taking an active interest in borough affairs, he was elected to town council in Lehighton, being the presi- dent of that body. He is also the vice-president of En- gine Company No. 2. Mr. Bowman was married on December 6, 1906, to Elmira, daughter of Jacob Snyder and his wife, Eme- line, of Towamensing township. Their children are Emma and Arthur. Boyle, James J., editor and owner of the Mauch Chunk Daily Times, the pioneer daily newspaper of Digitized by Microsoft® 392 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. Carbon county, is the son of Daniel and Grace (Han- Ion) Boyle, and was born at Seek, Scbuylkill county, April 4, 1872. His father emigrated to this country from Ireland in 1869. When James was still quite young, his parents re- moved to Old Buck Mountain, Carbon county, where the father was employed as a coal miner, while his son picked slate on the breaker of the colliery and during the winter months attended the public schools. After a residence of fifteen years at this place, the family removed to Beaver Meadow, where Mr. Boyle received the rest of his schooling and worked in and about the mines in various clerical and mechanical capacities. In 1902 he became a reporter on the staff of the Daily Standard, the only morning paper published in Hazleton, continuing in this position for six years. On February 21, 1908, he purchased the journal, together with the job printing business which he now owns. The forerunner of the Times was the Lehigh Pioneer and Courier, first issued on April 2, 1833, and the old- est newspaper in the Lehigh coal region. The paper is clean and reliable, reflecting the personality of its editor and publisher. It is accorded liberal advertis- ing patronage. Mr. Boyle was married to Annie E., daughter of Lawrence Boyce, a mine foreman of Duyrea, Luzerne county, but formerly of Beaver Meadow, June 3, 1903. Boyle, John R., a Summit Hill hotel man, was born there on July 28, 1888. He is the son of Cornelius and Edith (Daubenspeck) Boyle. The father is employed as a stationary engineer by the Lehigh Coal and Navi- gation Company. It was as an engineer for the same company that John began life as a worker at the age of sixteen. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. ;j93 In 1910 he became the landlord of the Summit Inn, which he is still conducting. This hotel is situated close to the spot where Philip Ginter foimd coal in 1791, and the famous burning mine, which is one of the lead- ing attractions of Summit Hill, is not far away. Dur- ing the summer months, many tourists and excursion- ists are entertained at the hotel, which is situated alongside of the station of the Switchback Railroad. Mr. Boyle has made many improvements to the prop- erty during the time he has occupied it. On October 24, 1910, he was married to Johanna, daughter of Jeremiah Geary and his wife Mary, of Scranton. Their children are: James, Cornelius, John B., and Jeremiah. Branch, Ben, junior member of the law firm of Frey- man, Thomas and Branch, was born at Nesquehoning, December 7, 1884. His father, William E. Branch, who has for years been engaged in the mercantile business at Nesquehoning, is of Cornish descent, while his mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary A. Ham- mond, is a native of Wales. Ben graduated from the Nesquehoning high school. As a boy he worked on the breaker during the summer months, later becoming a miner. He taught school for five years. Entering Dickinson Law School, he was graduated with the class of 1910, being admitted to the Carbon county bar in October of the same year. Two years later he entered into partnership with W. G. Freyman and W. G. Thomas, the firm name being Frey- man, Thomas and Branch, maintaining offices at Mauch Chunk and commanding a large general practice. In September, 1914, Mr. Branch was married to Sadie A., daughter of Henry and Sallie Grow, of Le- highton. Their children are named William and John. Digitized by Microsoft® 394 fllSTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. Mr. Branch holds membership in the American Acad- emy of Political and Social Science ; the American So- ciety of International Law; the American Geographic Society; the Carbon County Historical Society; the Sigma Chi Fraternity, and various kindred organiza- tions. He is also one of the leaders of the Republican party in the county. Mr. Branch was commissioned by Governor Brumbaugh to receive Pennsylvania's soldier vote in France in the fall of 1917. Brenckman, Henry L., was born at Hazleton, Pa., on September 15, 1869, the son of Frederick and Su- sannah (Bittner) Brenckman. His paternal grand- father, who also bore the name of Henry, emigrated to the United States from Germany, about 1835, settling at Beaver Meadow, where he conducted a hotel until his death. Frederick Brenckman learned the trade of a car- penter, which he followed all his life, also acquiring a farm at Hudsondale, where he died in 1884 at the age of forty-four years. Henry was but fifteen when he became the bread- winner of a family of six children and a widowed moth- er, and he played the part of both a father and a brother toward his younger brothers and sisters. In 1889 he entered the service of the Tide Water Pipe Company, at Hudsondale, where he is still em- ployed as a stationary engineer. He has been the pres- ident of the Packer township school board for many years, and has always taken great interest in Sunday school work. He has been the teacher of the Bible class of the Hudsondale Sunday school for more than twenty years, having also served as superintendent of this organization for nearly the same period of time. It was under his leadership that the handsome chapel of the school was built. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 395 Formerly he was the Democratic county committee- man for his district, but in 1912 he joined the Progres- sive movement and supported Theodore Eoosevelt for the presidency. On September 1, 1892, Mr. Brenckman was married to Minnie, daughter of Herman Strunk and his wife Ellen, of Hudsondale. Their children are : Raymond, Virginia, Lillian, Herman, Dorothy, Euth, deceased; Esther, Frederick and Louise. Breslin, Andrew, president of the Citizens ' National Bank of Lansford, and one of the foremost contractors and builders in this portion of the state, is a resident of Summit Hill. His grandfather, Patrick Breslin emigrated to this place from County Donegal, Ireland, in 1824, at which time there was not a house on the present site of the town, while there were but two or three dwellings in the locality. He was one of the pioneer miners of an- thracite coal, spending nearly the whole of his active life in the employ of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company as a foreman. His death occurred at Sum- mit Hill in 1865. John F. Breslin, a son of the aforementioned, was born at Summit Hill on September 7, 1845. He was a cabinet maker, later becoming a contractor and build- er. He was married to Ann, daughter of Andrew and Susan Boyle, of Tamaqua, in 1866, who bore him four sons and three daughters. Mr. Breslin served on the side of the Union during the Civil War, and was an active Democrat, being one of the most influential cit- izens of Summit Hill. He died on September 20, 1892. Andrew Breslin, son of John F. Breslin, claims Al- lentown, Lehigh county, as the place of his nativity, his parents having made their home here for a few years. He was born on August 1, 1870, while his boy- Digitized by Microsoft® 396 HISTOEY OF CAEBON COUNTY. hood was passed at Summit Hill, where he attended the public schools. Under his father's instructions he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed until his twenty-first year, when he entered the office of a Philadelphia architect as a student of that profession. The death of his father taking place a year later, he was compelled to forego his ambition in this direction to take charge of the affairs of the deceased, who, in addition to his other interests also conducted an un- dertaking establishment. This portion of the business he turned over to his brother, John J. Breslin, in 1907. Among the more important buildings which Mr. Bres- lin has constructed, the following may be mentioned: The Schwab school building, at Weather ly; the Third Ward school building, at Lehighton; the Greek Cath- olic church, of Nesquehoning ; the Philadelphia Bar- gain Store and the Elks' Building, in Tamaqua; the Citizens ' National Bank, of Lansf ord ; the magnificent new high school building at Summit Hill; the public school building of Coal Dale, and the plant of the Freeland Brewing Company, of Freeland, Luzerne county. He also built the sewer systems of Summit Hill and Coal Dale, among the first of the flush-tank variety in the state, besides the large storage reservoir of the Summit Hill Water Company. He owns and conducts a planing mill at Summit Hill, which is the principal enterprise of an individual nature in the borough. Mr. Breslin was one of the organizers of the Citi- zens' National Bank, of Lansf ord, of which he was elected president in 1909. He was president of the town council for three years, and has served as a mem- ber of the school board. His political allegiance is given to the Democracy, being now a member of the county executive committee of that party. He is a Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 397 member of the Sons of Veterans and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, while being an adherent of the Eoman Catholic church. Mr. Breslin was married on April 3, 1893, to Agnes Daly, daughter of Eugene and Ann Daly, of Mahanoy City, Pa. Their three children are : Annie, Mae, and John F. Breslin. Sreslin, James M., a leading member of the bar of Carbon county, residing at East Mauch Chunk, was born at Tresckow, Banks township, on January 1, 1870. He is the son of Daniel and Ann ( Gallagher) Breslin, both natives of Ireland. His father was born in County Donegal, August 6, 1833. Emigrating to the United States at the age of sixteen, he located at Buck Mountain, spending the whole of his active life as a miner at various operations in the Lehigh district. He was a Democrat, and took an active part in the political affairs of Banks township and of the county at large. Seven of his ten children, all of whom attended the public school at Tresckow, became school teachers. The father died at Beaver Meadow, February 6, 1908. James M. Breslin started life as a slate picker, later working in and about the mines of Banks township. He taught school for ten successive terms, and choos- ing the law as his profession, he became a student in the office of Hon. E. M. Mulhearn, of Mauch Chunk. Being admitted to the bar of Carbon county in October, 1897, he opened an office at Mauch Chunk, soon gaining recognition and building up a good general practice. Mr. Breslin has been particularly successful as a criminal lawyer. He has defended many cases coming under this category, and his record is one of unbroken successes. For three years he served as the legal ad- viser of the county commissioners, having also been Digitized by Microsoft® 398 HISTORY OF CAKBON COUNTY. retained in a similar capacity by the officers of varions districts of the county. During a period of nearly ten years, Mr. Breslin, in association with David Pursell, very successfully oper- ated the old coal mines at Hacklebernie, near Mauch Chunk. On February 14, 1899, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Murphy, a school teacher, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. They have two children: James D. and Eliza- beth, aged nine and seven years, respectively. Mr. Breslin served several terms as a member of the school board of East Mauch Chunk. He is a supporter of the principles advocated by the Democratic party, and a communicant of the Roman Catholic church. Bretney, Clement H., the leading photographer of Lehighton, was born in Mahoning township. Carbon county, on September 18, 1873. He is the son of Thomas J. and Mary (Schaffer) Bretney, both natives of Mahoning township. His father was formerly a railroader, and later owned a local freight and express business in Lehighton, where he now conducts a baking establishment. After leaving the public schools, Clement studied the art of photography as a private pupil under H. Parker Eolfe, of Philadelphia. Subsequently he pursued a general course at the Curtis-Taylor Studio in the same city. Following this he worked with W. D. Eishel, a Lehighton photographer, whose establishment he pur- chased, and whom he succeeded in business, in 1899. This studio was situated on the Bankway, and was oc- cupied by Mr. Bretney for two years, when he built his present place on Second street. Here, by painstaking and artistic work, he has secured a large and con- stantly growing patronage. He is also a dealer in kodaks, and carries a large stock of all kinds of photographic supplies, besides Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 399 doing finishing work for amateurs. He has one of the largest and best equipped establishments of its kind in the Lehigh Valley. Fraternally Mr. Bretney is identified with the Pa- triotic Order of Sons of America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of various Ma- sonic bodies. He attends the United Evangelical church, and is still unmarried. Bretney, Henry J., cashier of the First National Bank of Lehighton, is a son of Clinton Bretney, and was born at New Mahoning, Carbon county, January 12, 1856. His father, in the early fifties, married Amanda Meinhard, a native of Carbon county. The family removed to Lehighton in 1861. Mr. Bretney received his education in the public schools of Lehighton and at the Carbon Academy, which last named institution started many of the young men of the lower end of the county upon successful careers. After leaving school, Mr. Bretney learned the trade of a coach painter, after which he entered the forwarding office of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Com- pany at Packerton, serving in a clerical capacity at this place for nine years. For four years he was employed by the same corporation at Mauch Chunk. On January 1, 1892, he entered the employ of the First National Bank of Lehighton as a bookkeeper, being promoted to the cashiership October 1, 1908. Mr. Bretney has served as borough auditor and as school director, while he has been the borough treas- urer for eighteen years. He was also treasurer of the Lehigh Valley Building and Loan Association for twelve years. He is a charter member of Zion's Re- formed church, of which he is also the treasurer. Mr. Bretney is also a charter member of Lehighton Coun- cil, No. 370, Eoyal Arcanum, having served as secre- Digitized by Microsoft® 400 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. tary of this lodge for a quarter of a century. He also belongs to the Knights of Malta. In 1878 Mr. Bretney was married to Mary A. Trox- ell, daughter of Paul Troxell and his wife Mary, of Egypt, Lehigh county. Their children are: Clara, Charles, Bessie and Florence. Clara is a graduate of East Stroudsburg State Normal School, and has been a teacher in Lehighton for a period of nine years; Charles is cashier of the First National Bank of Weatherly, and was married to Mayme Portz, of Lansford; Bessie is the wife of Eobert E. Ash, of Lehighton, while Florence remains at home. Brobst, Henry J., treasurer of Carbon county, and well-known in railroad circles, was born at Zion's Grove, Schuylkill county, May 9, 1881. He is one of the twelve children of Daniel and Matilda (Van Blar- gen) Brobst. His father, who still lives at Shenan- doah, followed the lumber business the greater part of his life. The ancestors of Mr. Brobst came to this country from Germany, settling in Pennsylvania prior to the Revolution. His great-grandfather, Valentine Brobst, was the private secretary of Stephen Girard, the fore- most merchant of his day on this side of the Atlantic, and the founder of Girard College. John Brobst, the grandfather of Henry, was an early settler of Conyngham Valley, Schuylkill county. He engaged in lumbering on a large scale and reared a family of sixteen children. Henry Brobst began life as a slate picker at the age of twelve years. At fourteen he drove mules in the mines. Then he learned the machinist's trade, which he followed for three years. Upon attaining his ma- jority he came to Lehighton, where he entered the em- ploy of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Company, serving Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 401 successively as a brakeman and a conductor. In 1905 lie sustained an injury wMch incapacitated him for this branch of the service, and he became a signal tower- man, being still so engaged. As the secretary of Lehigh Lodge of the Brotherhood of Eailway Trainmen, he has been a delegate to na- tional conventions of the order in many parts of the country. He has been an active Democrat, and is now a member of the executive committee of that party in the county. For some years he was a member of the school board of Packerton Independent District, his home being at Jamestown. In the fall of 1915 he was elected to the office of county treasurer for the term of four years. Mr. Brobst was married to Bertha Irene, daughter of Willoughby Miller, of Berks county. Their children are Irene and Mattie. Browell, Joseph H., a prominent young business man of Palmerton, is the son of John and Margaret (An- gus) Browell, both natives of Northumberland county, England. They were married in 1872, becoming the parents of five children. In 1880 the family emigrated to America, first settling at Jeddo, Luzerne county. Pa., and later removing to Centralia, Pa. The father was a contract miner and rockman. Joseph H. Browell was born at the old home in Eng- land on January 7, 1876. He graduated from the high school of Centralia, and at the age of fourteen entered a drug store in that town with the object in view of learning the business. Four years later he went to Philadelphia, where he was employed in a similar es- tablishment, being afterwards successively located at South Bethlehem and at East Mauch Chunk. It was while stationed at the last named place that he was 26 Digitized by Microsoft® 402 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. licensed by tlie pharmaceutical examining board of the state. In 1901 Mr. Browell took charge of the drng store of J. M. Hess, at Palmerton, becoming a partner in the enterprise at the end of a year. Subsequently the firm also engaged in the hardware business, and in 1909 Mr. Browell purchased the interest of his partner and became full owner. He was one of the promoters of the First National Bank of Palmerton, of which he has been a director since its organization. Every measure intended for the welfare and upbuilding of Palmerton receives his loyal and constant support. In June, 1903, Mr. Browell was married to Dais;,-, daughter of Luther and Alice La Barre, of East Mauch Chunk. They have two children : Jack and Margaret L. Browell. Butler, Henry A., a representative Mauch Chunk business man, was born at that place on January 3, 1861. His father, Alexander W. Butler, whose birth occurred in 1822, was a native of Susquehanna county. When a boy he came to Mauch Chunk, and by industry and integrity he established himself in the confidence of the community in which he spent the remainder of his life as an honored and influential citizen. For a period of about thirty years he was the cashier of the First National Bank of Mauch Chunk, the predecessor of the Mauch Chunk National Bank of to-day. In early life he was married to Anna, daughter of John Eichards, an ironmaster, of Weymouth, N. J., who was also interested for a time in the operation of the Maria Furnace, in Franklin township. Carbon county. They became the parents of these children William E., Elizabeth, wife of Hon. Laird H. Barber Mary, who married C. A. Braman, of New York city Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 403 Fannie, and Henry Butler. The father died during the year 1888. Henry A. Butler gained his elementary education in the public schools of his native town, graduating from the high school with the class of 1879. Entering Le- high University he completed his course in 1883 with the degree of B.S. For a few years he was employed as a bookkeeper by the Mauch Chunk National Bank, later entering the service of B. F. Barger, a wholesale dealer in lumber and grain, at Mauch Chunk, as a book- keeper and salesman. In 1889 he accepted a position as private secretary to M. S. Kemmerer, for whom he also very successfully managed the Parryville Iron Works until 1905. Since then he has been engaged in business on his own ac- coimt as a wholesale dealer in coal, maintaining an of- fice at Mauch Chunk. He is also interested in a man- agerial way, in a number of coal properties in the South. In association with W. A. Leisenring, Mr. Butler, in 1895, established the Penn Forest Brook Trout Hatch- ery, which soon became famous as the largest of its kind in the world. Mr. Butler was principally instru- mental in the prosperity which attended this enterprise during the ten years he was associated with it. He is the president of the Mauch Chunk Gas Company, and is one of the trustees of the Dimmick Memorial Li- brary. On October 26, 1887, he was married to Nellie L. Blakslee, daughter of W. W. Blakslee, of Weatherly, Pa. Their children are: Marion L., Alexander W., and Edith B. Butler. Marion is a graduate of the Na- tional Cathedral School, of Washington, D. C, while Alexander is a student at Lehigh University. Digitized by Microsoft® 404 HISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. Mr. Butler is a member of St. Mark's Episcopal church, of Mauch Chunk, of which he has been a ves- tryman for more than fifteen years, also being a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity. His home is in East Mauch Chunk. Christian, Harry A., chief of the construction depart- ment of the New Jersey Zinc (of Pa.), of Palmerton, was born at AUentown on January 3, 1875. He is the son of Thomas J. and Sarah (Hawke) Christian. The father was a soldier in the Civil War, participating in most of the important engagements of the Army of the Potomac. He died in 1891. When Harry was nine years of age the family moved to Mauch Chunk. He attended the high school of that town and the East Stroudsburg State Normal School, also pursuing a course in the American Business Col- lege at Allentown. In 1898 Mr. Christian located at Palmerton, entering the service of the New Jersey Zinc Company as a time keeper ; later he was advanced to the position of chief clerk. He studied civil and mechanical engineering in his spare time, and is now in charge of the company's de- partment of construction. Mr. Christian was elected as a member of the town council of Palmerton in 1913. He is also a member of the Palmerton Cooperative Association and various other municipal organizations, together with the Ma- sonic fraternity. He was united in marriage on June 29, 1909, to Mary S., daughter of Eev. F. B. Hahn and his wife Rebecca, of Reading. These children have been born to them: Ruth Bridenbaugh, Louise Hahn, and Mary Susan, who died in infancy. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOKY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 405 Christman, David A., a former jury commissioner of Carbon county, now conducting the Alameda Restau- rant at Lehighton, was born near Kresgeville, Monroe county, December 19, 1866. He is a grandson of John Christman, while his fa- ther was Edward Christman, both natives of Monroe county. His mother bore the maiden name of Chris- tiana Eckhart, being reared near Stemlersville, Carbon county. Mr. Christman is a product of the Slatington high school, having also attended the Polytechnic In- stitute, at Gilberts, Monroe county. He taught school for several years in Lower Towamensing township, after which he was engaged as a produce dealer. In 1893 he came to Weatherly and secured employ- ment in a clerical capacity in the mercantile estab- lishment of Elmer Warner. For six years he was em- ployed as a salesman for 0. J. Saeger, a wholesale fruit and produce dealer, of Lehighton. In 1900 Mr. Christman purchased the Alameda Restaurant, which he has successfully conducted since that time. On December 31, 1887, he was united in marriage to Mary L. Shiner, daughter of John A. Shiner and his wife Fiana, of Slatington. Their children are : Harvey J., Jennie E., William E., Edward H., and Bessie A. Christman. Harvey is employed as a clerk in the First National Bank of Lehighton, while William is a graduate of the Lehighton high school and of the South Bethlehem Business College. Mr. Christman holds membership in the Odd Fel- lows, Knights of Malta, Red Men, and the Eagles. He is also connected with the Germania Saenger Bund, of Lehighton, and with the Rod and Gun Club of that town, besides being associated with Lehigh Fire Com- pany, No. 1. He was elected to the office of jury Digitized by Microsoft® 406 HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. commissioner of Carbon county in 1906. He is now a member of the Lehighton Board of Commerce. Christman, Hiram, operating one of the finest and most productive farms in Towamensing township, is a son of William H. and Lavina (George) Christman. The father was a native of Towamensing township, born in 1834. He followed the vocation of a farmer and was the parent of five children. He died at the age of thirty-one. Hiram Christman was born in Eldred township, Monroe county, February 27, 1856. He attended the public schools until his seventeenth year, while all of his mature life has been spent in agricultural pursuits. In 1883 he purchased sixty-one acres of land in Towa- mensing township, the nucleus of his present farm of two hundred and fifty acres, and proceeded to clear the ground, which was thickly covered with brush. He there built his home, at a distance of about four miles from Trachsville, and has lived there continuously since. As a member of the township school board Mr. Christman has taken an active interest in the cause of popular education, manifesting progressive tendencies. His political allegiance is given to the Eepublican party. At the age of twenty-two he was married to Sarah B. Strohl, a daughter of Joel Strohl, of Towamensing township. Their children are: Harrison A., Emma J., wife of Oliver Koons, of Philadelphia; William H., Cora M., wife of John Bollinger; Eugene E., Martin F., Sallie A., and Mamie M. Christman. Mr. Christman and his family are members of the Lutheran church. Clewell, William H., a Summit Hill physician and surgeon, and postmaster of that town, is descended Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 407 from ancestors who settled in Pennsylvania during Colonial times. The first of his family to come to America was Louisa Frache Clevel, a widow, who was accompanied by her two sons, George Craft and John Franz. The grandparents of these boys were natives of the province of Dauphine, France. They were Huguenots, and upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they fled to Auerbach, in Baden. It was in 1737 that the widow and her sons emigrated thence to Philadelphia. Franz was born in 1720, while George was six years his junior. Being bound out to pay for their passage, then a common practice, the family lived for a time at Oley, Berks county, going from there to Nazareth, North- ampton county. All are buried in the Schoenech Mor- avian cemetery in Northampton, near Nazareth. Franz was the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this memoir. William H., son of Jacob L. and Emma L. (Schmueckle) Clewell, was born at Nazareth on Sep- tember 19, 1869. His father was a cabinet maker, and he gained his early training in the Moravian parochial schools of his native town. In 1881 the family removed to Philadelphia, where he attended the public schools. Learning the drug business he became a registered pharmacist, following his calling for several years in New York city. At the expiration of this period he entered the Medico-Chirurgical College at Philadelphia, from which institution he was graduated in 1896. After practising his profession in Philadelphia for a year, Dr. Clewell came to Summit Hill, where he has since lived, enjoying a large practise. He has long taken a keen interest in military affairs, and during his resi- dence in New York was connected with the militia of Digitized by Microsoft® 408 HISTORY OE^ CARBON COUNTY. that state. During the war with Spain he recruited and organized Company L of the Ninth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, being commissioned as first lieutenant, and serving as such until the company was mustered out. He has since served in various official capacities in the National Guard, and is now a first lieutenant in the Medical Eeserve Corps of the United States Army. His services were of value in the organization of the First Regiment of the P. 0. S. of A. Reserves, of which he is the lieutenant-colonel. Dr. Clewell, who is a Republican, has held various offices in Summit Hill. His appointment as postmaster of the town came in 1906. He is a member of several Masonic bodies, and is a Past Exalted Ruler of the Tamaqua lodge of Elks, also being identified with a number of other fraternal societies, and with the Naval and Military Order of the Spanish-American War. He is affiliated with the Carbon County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania Medical Society, and with the Philadelphia Medical Club. In 1888 he was married to Nellie B., daughter of John E. and Emeline Armour, of Philadelphia. Their only son is Jokp A. Clewell. Cortright, Nathan D., Jr., whose family name has been intimately associated with the anthracite coal industry since the early development of the Lehigh region, is a representative of one of the pioneer fam- ilies of the Wyoming Valley, and of earlj^ appearance in New Netherland. The Cortrights originated in the old town of Kort- ryk, in Flanders, which place is celebrated in history, for not far from its walls was fought the famous "Bat- tle of the Spurs. ' ' There the flower of the French no- bility was overthrown by the Flemish army, largely Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 409 composed of the weavers of Ghent and Surges. After the conflict the victors gathered up from the corpse- strewn field some four thousand golden spurs, hence the name which designates the bloody event. During the early years of the seventeenth century civil wars and persecutions devastated the land, while the village of Kortryk several times changed hands. Among those who left these turbulent scenes for a haven of safety in America, was Sebastian Van Kort- right, who embarked on April 16, 1663, in the ship "Brindle Cow." He brought with him his family, paying for their passage more than two hundred and four florins, the charge being thirty-nine florins for each adult, and half that sum for children of ten years and under. Among his children were two sons, Michael and Jan Bastian. He settled in Harlem, New York, becoming one of the most opulent men of that time and place. From this source sprang Elisha Cortright, the great- grandfather of the subject of this memoir, who was among the first to settle on the rich and inviting soil of the Wyoming Valley. During the trying scenes of the Indian wars and the Eevolution, he shared the hardships and vicissitudes incident to that period. Being incapacitated at the time of the battle of Wy- oming, more commonly known as the "Wyoming Massacre," his brother John served in his stead and was killed. Isaac Cortright, son of the aforementioned, spent his entire lifetime as a farmer on the banks of the beautiful Susquehanna. Among his eight children was Nathan D., the father of N. D. Cortright, Jr. Born in Salem township, Luzerne county, February 11, 1817, he grew to maturity at the place of his birth. At the age of nineteen he came to Beaver Meadow, Carbon Digitized by Microsoft® 410 IlISTOEY OP CAHBOl^ COUNTY. county, and secured a position on the engineering corps of Ario Pardee and J. G. Fell, engaged in the construc- tion of the Beaver Meadow Railroad. Soon thereafter he was appointed as the general shipping and boat agent of the Hazleton Coal Company, of which he later became the superintendent, continuing as such until 1857, when he embarked in the coal business for him- self, living at MaiTch Chunk. He participated in the development of the coal and iron interests of the Lehigh region, and in a more lim- ited sense, extended his activities to the "Wyoming coal fields. For nearly sixty years he lived on the same spot of ground in Mauch Chunk. Although modest and unassuming he was recognized as one of the most useful and public spirited citizens of that place. He chose as his life companion Margaretta L., daughter of Ezekiel W. Harlan. Her parents were of Quaker origin, coming to Mauch Chunk from Chester county in 1826. Mr. Harlan was associated with the late Asa Packer in the operation of the mines at Nes- quehoning and in a number of other enterprises. Nathan D. Cortright, Sr., passed away on October 11, 1902. N. D. Cortright, Jr., the second of a family of six children, was born at Mauch Chunk, on November 24, 1847. Having attended the schools of the place of his nativity, he finished his education at Dickinson Sem- inary, Williamsport, Pa. He then entered his father's office, and in 1873 was taken into partnership with him under the style and title of N. D. Cortright and Son. This relationship was maintained until the death of the elder, since which time Mr. Cortright has conducted the business under the old firm name. He is financially interested in various mining prop- erties, while being a wholesale dealer in coal, and he is Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUXTV. 4] 1 the president of tlie Beaver Run Coal Company, oper- ating a mine at Beaverdale, Pa., which is in the bitu- minous region. He is also a director of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company. Mr. Cortright is a Republican, and served as post- master of Mauch Chunk under the successive adminis- trations of Hayes, Garfield, Arthur and Cleveland. He attends the First Presbyterian church of Mauch Chunk, of which he is one of the trustees. On October 22, 1874, he was married to Margaret S., a daughter of John and Margaret (Connell) Kennedy, of Port Kennedy, Montgomery county, Pa. Their chil- dren are : Charles Homer, who is in business with his father; Frank Barton and Harry Kennedy, who are associated in the coal business in Philadelphia under the name of the Cortright Coal Company, Edgar Maurice, a mining engineer in the west ; Donald Nath- an, connected with the Philadelphia Press, and Mar- garet Kennedy Cortright. Craig, Hon, Allen, who achieved distinction as a lawyer, jurist and legislator, was born at Lehigh Gap, Carbon county, on December 25, 1835. His ancestors, who were of Scotch-Irish extraction, came to America in 1714, locating in Philadelphia, and, in 1728, remov- ing to Northampton county, Pa. General Thomas Craig, his grandfather, served gal- lantly under Arnold in the French and Indian War, and during the Revolution he commanded the Third Pennsylvania Regiment. Upon the declaration of the second war against England, still hale and hearty, he was appointed as a general in the American Army. In civil life he followed the occupation of a farmer. His son. Captain Thomas Craig, the father of Judge Craig, was born in Northampton county in 1772. In 1795 he accompanied his parents on their removal to Digitized by Microsoft® 412 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. Towamensing township, which later became a part of Carbon county. Subsequently he became a dealer in general merchandise at Lehigh Gap, also engaging in the lumber business. In addition to his other interests, he conducted a stage line making regular trips between Easton and Mauch Chunk, being also the owner of the Lehigh Gap Inn, which was a stopping place for travelers on the turnpike leading from Berwick to Easton. His military title was bestowed upon him as com- mander of a troop of horse in the Pennsylvania militia. He also represented his district in the state legislature, and was a leader of thought in his community. His first wife was a Miss Kuntz, who bore him two sons, Thomas and Samuel. Subsequent to her death, he married Catherine Hagenbach. Their five children were : Eliza, John, Allen, William and Eobert. Allen Craig was educated at the old Vandeveer Acad- emy at Easton and at Lafayette College, graduating from the last named institution in 1855. Choosing the law as his profession, he became a student in the of- fice of Hon. M. M. Dimmick, of Mauch Chunk, being admitted to the bar of Carbon county on June 4, 1858. His subsequent career was one of usefulness and honor. In 1859 he was elected as district attorney of Carbon county, which position he filled until 1866. During the latter year he was elected to membership in the state legislature, serving for three successive terms. Higher political honors came to him in 1878, when he was chosen to represent his district in the state senate for the term of four years. In 1879 he formed a partnership with James S. Loose, of Mauch Chunk, and the firm which waS then established became one of the best known in the legal profession of the Lehigh Valley. Judge Craig was Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY or CARBON COUNTY. 413 prominent as a corporation lawyer. He was one of the group of able attorneys who represented the Com- monwealth in the famous Mollie Maguire trials, which resulted in the breaking up of that organization during the seventies. In 1892, as the nominee of the Democratic party, he was elected president judge of the courts of Carbon and Monroe counties, serving until 1901, when Carbon was constituted a separate judicial "district. Hon. Horace Heydt was then appointed to the bench of Car- bon county, while Judge Craig was transferred to the district comprising Monroe and Pike counties. During the following year both were candidates for the judge- ship of Carbon county for the full term of ten years, Judge Craig being defeated in a close contest. During the early years of his tenure on the bench, he was unable to hold court to any great extent in Mauch Chunk, owing to his previous connection as an attorney with much of the litigation of the county. As a judge he was fair and broad-minded. Well versed in the intricacies and technicalities of the law, he was also possessed of a generous fund of common sense, upon which he drew liberally in rendering his deci- sions, with the result that he was seldom reversed by the higher courts. In demeanor he was genial and courteous, which, to- gether with his scholarly attainments, made his com- panionship delightful. A short period of service in a Pennsylvania regiment during the Civil War entitled him to membership in the Grand Army of the Eepublic. He was always a favorite with the old veterans, and few camp-fires or gatherings of that nature were held in Mauch Chunk at which he was not present, lending eloquence and good-fellowship to the success of the occasion. Digitized by Microsoft® 414 HISTOEY OF CARBON COUNTY. He was one of the prime movers in the erection of the Carbon county Soldiers' Monument, dedicated at Mauch Chunk on September 28, 1886. For years he was a director of the First National Bank of Mauch Chunk, being also interested in the gas and water companies of the borough. Judge Craig was married in 1866 to A. Isabel, daughter of Edwin A. and Harriet (Dexter) Douglas. Four children were born to them : Douglas, Henry D., Harriet, and Gay Gordon Craig. The father died on December 31, 1902. Craig, Hector Tyndale, whose forefathers for gen- erations figured conspicuously in the civil and military annals of the commonwealth, is one of the prominent young business men of the lower end of Carbon county. He is associated with his brother, Thomas B. Craig, in the conduct of the mercantile business, and other in- terests established by his father, the late Colonel John Craig, at Lehigh Gap. Born at Lehigh Gap, October 17, 1873, Mr. Craig received his education in the schools of Lower Towa- mensing township, entering the employ of his father at the age of seventeen, and growing up in the business. He is a director of the First National Bank of Sla- tington, and is secretary and treasurer of the Lehigh Water Gap Bridge Company. Mr. Craig is a " companion of the first class ' ' in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and is a member of the various Masonic bodies. He is also identified with the Odd Fellows and the Sons of Veterans. In 1907 he was united in marriage to Annie C, daughter of the late James B. Boeder, who was a teller in the Second National Bank of AUentown. Three children have been born to them: Richard T., Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 415 Euth, and James I. Craig. They reside in the old Craig homestead at Lehigh Gap. Craig, Colonel John. One of Carbon county's most distinguished native sons passed away, when on Octo- ber 22, 1908, full of years, and leaving behind him the record of a life of service and of usefulness, Colonel John Craig, of Lehigh Gap, died. His ancestral his- tory is one of distinction and of honor. From an early epoch in the colonization of Pennsylvania, members of the family have figured prominently in military and civil life, and the record of Colonel Craig is in harmony with that of his forefathers, he having served his coun- try with loyalty and capability upon the field of battle and in the halls of legislation, as well as through the avenues of business activity, leading to the substantial upbuilding and material progress of the state. The pioneer ancestor of the family emigrated hither from Ireland about the close of the seventeenth cen- tury, settling in Philadelphia. Thence, in 1728, Colonel Thomas Craig removed to Northampton county, loca- ting in what was afterwards known as Craig's or the Irish Settlement, this tract of land being the property of William Penn and later that of his son, Thomas Penn. The name of Colonel Thomas Craig appears upon the roll of the Synod of Philadelphia for the first time in 1731, and by it we learn that he occupied the office of elder. As it was in the year 1731 that the Presbyterian church was organized in the settlement, it may reasonably be supposed that he was the original elder. Thomas Craig, son of Colonel Thomas Craig, was but a lad when his father came to Craig's. During his boyhood days he assisted in clearing the land and till- ing the soil, and, after attaining manhood, engaged in farming for himself. Digitized by Microsoft® 416 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. The next in line of descent was Thomas Craig, whose birth occurred in the year 1740. In 1771, at the break- ing out of the Pennamite war, he was appointed to the rank of lieutenant in the Pennsylvania militia, and during the term of his service won a reputation for gallant and heroic conduct. He was an active cham- pion of the colonies from the opening of the Revolu- tionary War, and on January 5, 1776, was commis- sioned captain, being assigned to Colonel St. Clair's Pennsylvania Battalion. After several engagements in the Canadian campaign, he was promoted to the rank of major, September, 1776, and in the summer of the following year became Colonel of the Third Pennsylvania Regiment of the line. He performed meritorious service under the command of Washing- ton in the state of New Jersey, and subsequently par- ticipated in the battles of Brandywine and German- town. In the storming of Fort Durkee, near Wilkes- Barre, in 1771, Captain Craig, grandfather of Colonel John Craig, led the van with an impetuous rush, and gave the first alarm by springing into the midst of the astonished multitude, when he commanded a company under Ogden. He stepped lightly in advance of his men, and speaking in a low tone and in friendly terms to the sentinel, threw him off his guard, knocked him down and entered the fort. Early in the Revolution- ary War he led a company into service under Washing- ton, and rose to the command of a regiment. Not only was he brave, but constitutionally impetuous. He was at Quebec, at the battles of Germantown and of Monmouth, and at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. His intrepid and humane conduct in the storming of Fort Durkee and preserving the prisoners from slaugh- ter won him the esteem of all. Though brave as either, Digitized by Microsoft® IIISTOEY OP CAEBON COUNTY. 417 in his social walk he resembled Mark Anthony rather than Scipio. Having quit the tented field, he sought excitement and pleasure amid the lilacs and roses with the blonde and brunette beauties of old Northampton. On the afternoon of December 12, 1777, the British adjutant-general, who had his headquarters directly opposite, called at the famous old Loxley house, at the corner of Second and Little Dock streets, Phila- delphia, and notified (Mrs.) Lydia Darrah to have fire and candles lighted in a certain room which he had appropriated for a council chamber there. "And be sure, ' ' he added, ' ' that your family are all in bed at an -early hour." The Darrahs were members of the So- ciety of Friends, and William, the husband, was a school teacher. Lydia obeyed instructions, doubtless with her husband's consent and co-operation, and at the appointed hour, admitted the officers, being told by the adjutant that he would call her when they were ready to go. She then withdrew to an upper chamber. Friend though she was, her heart sympathies could not be silenced, and she trembled lest this secret council might bring to her friends and kindred some serious disaster. Slipping off her shoes and gliding noiseless- ly down the stairs, she approached the entrance of the officers' room, and, placing her ear against the door, eagerly listened. At first she could only hear a mur- mur of voices ; then ensued a long conference followed by a deep silence, broken at last by the loud voice of an officer reading an order from General Howe for an attack upon Washington's position at White Marsh, on the evening of December 4. Not waiting to hear more she tremblingly made her way back, and had scarcely closed the door when the adjutant knocked. Pretending not to hear until he had repeated the alarm 27 Digitized by Microsoft® 418 HISTORY OP CAKBON COUNTY. for the third time, she answered the summons, drows- ily rubbing her eyes, as though just aroused from sleep, and let the officers out. It was cold next morning, and there was snow on the ground; but, making the excuse that she needed flour, and could not spare the servant to go for it, Lydia se- cured a pass and set out for Frankford, a distance of five miles. Beaching the mill, and leaving her sack to be filled, she speeded on until near the American lines, when she met Lieutenant-Colonel Craig, a mounted scout, to whom she was well known, and who inquired her errand. As he was at the head of a company, she answered evasively, saying she was in search of her son, who was an officer in the American army. Then she added in a lower tone: "I have something im- portant to say to thee." He at once dismounted and walking slowly beside her, received the startling in- formation gratefully, then assuming a careless air, bade her good-by, when she unceremoniously departed, returning to the mill for her flour and hurrying home. Eesuming her household duties as though nothing unusual had occurred, she waited the outcome, calmly noting the departure of the British soldiers on the evening of December 4; listening to the distant boom- ing of cannon on the morning of the 5th, and three days later witnessing their hasty return to camp, when the generally disturbed surroundings told her that they had been repulsed. Following this reverse, a cloud of suspicion settled on the place, and strict inquisition was made to locate the spy or traitor there. It was whispered that he had been concealed in the Darrah house. The adjutant-general sent for Lydia, and, lock- ing the door, questioned her closely, but without elicit- ing any incriminating evidence. "Thee knows," she said in conclusion, "that we were alone, and that all Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 419 but myself had retired." "Yes, I do know," he re- plied, after a pause. "And you, yourself, were asleep, for I had to rap loudly three times before I could awaken you, and you were almost dreaming when you came to let us out. Still it is quite plain that we were betrayed. Strange! Very strange!" Thus Lydia Darrah's daring deed, tradition tells us, saved Wash- ington's army — perhaps the country — and thus she be- came a heroine in American history. On April 12, 1778, at Valley Forge, Colonel Craig addressed a letter, strongly appealing for clothing for the soldiers, this fact showing their destitute condi- tion in that respect. In the battle of Monmouth his regiment displayed unusual courage, which fact was attributed largely to the coolness and bravery of their leader, who was eminently qualified for the high posi- tion which he occupied. After the close of hostilities, and upon his return to Northampton county, in July, 1783, Colonel Craig was appointed lieutenant. The following year Montgomery county was formed from Philadelphia, and he was appointed associate judge, clerk of courts, and recorder, all of which positions he held until 1789, a period of five years. For several years he was major general of the Seventh Division of Pennsylvania militia. In 1789 he removed to Towa- mensing township, but a few years previous to his death, which occurred in 1832, at the advanced age of ninety-two years, he lived with his daughter, Mrs. Kreamer, at Allentown. His remains were interred in Fairview Cemetery, Allentown. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Dorothy Breinig, bore him six children : Charles, Thomas, Eliza, Mary, Harriet, and William Craig. Thomas Craig, second son of Thomas and Dorothy Craig, was born at Stemlersville, Towamensing town- Digitized by Microsoft® 420 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. ship, Carbon county, in 1796. He attended the com mon schools of the neighborhood, which in that early day were limited to the elementary branches, Wolfe's Academy, and a school in the Irish Settlement for a few months. About 1822 he accompanied his father to Lehigh Gap, Carbon county, where he was the proprie- tor of an hotel in the management of which he achieved a large degree of financial success, and subsequently turned his attention to agricultural pursuits and the lumber business, in both of which enterprises he was successful. He, too, was prominent in public affairs, and in 1828 became captain of what was known as the Troop of Horse in the Pennsylvania militia. Mr. Craig was married twice. His first wife was a Miss Kuntz, who bore him two sons, Thomas and Samuel. His second wife was Catherine Hagenbach, daughter of John Hagenbach, then proprietor of an hotel at' Lehighton. Their children were: Thomas, deceased, who represented his district for four years in the house of representatives, and three years in the senate ; John, mentioned at length hereinafter ; Eliza, who became the wife of General Charles Heckman, an officer in the Mexican and Civil wars, and a resident of German- town ; Hon. Allen, for many years a leading attorney at Mauch Chunk, and the incumbent of the office of dis- trict judge; William, a resident of Nebraska; Eobert, a graduate of West Point Military Academy, and an officer of the regular army. Thomas, the father of these children, died in 1858; his wife, Catherine (Hag- enbach) Craig, died in 1871. Colonel John Craig, second son of Thomas and Cath- erine (Hagenbach) Craig, was born in Lehigh Gap, Carbon county, October 23, 1831. In boyhood he at- tended the schools of the district, and in 1850 went to Easton, where his education was completed at a pri- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 421 ate school conducted by Eev. John Vanderveer. He then became connected with his father in the lumber business, and after the death of the latter, in 1858, devoted some time to the settlement of the estate; he also continued the management of the business. In 1857, at the age of twenty-six, he was elected captain of a cavalry company, which position he held up to the time of the Civil War. He was one of the first vol- unteers in the defense of the government, enlisting April 22, 1861, for three months' service, and was com- missioned captain of Company I, Sixth Eegiment Pennsylvania Infantry, which took part in the military operations in Virginia and Maryland. On August 30, 1861, he re-enlisted, and was commissioned captain of Company N, Twenty-eighth Eegiment Pennsylvania Infantry, which was afterwards merged into Company C, One Hundred and Forty-seventh Eegiment. Among the battles in which he participated were those of An- tietam, Chancellor sville, Gettysburg, Lookout Moun- tain, Missionary Eidge, Einggold, Chattanooga, and the various engagements from Atlanta to the sea under General Sherman, including the battle of Peach Tree Creek. Enlisting as a captain, he was promoted suc- cessively to the rank of major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel. He participated in the grand review in Wash- ington, D. C, and July 15, 1865, was honorably dis- charged from the service of the United States govern- ment in whose behalf he labored long and faithfully during the darkest days of its history. Eesuming the life of a civilian. Colonel Craig formed a partnership with his brother in the general mercan- tile business under the style of J. and W. Craig, at Lehigh Gap, and this business relationship continued imtil 1882, when W. Craig withdrew his interest, after which Colonel Craig became sole proprietor. In Digitized by Microsoft® 422 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. addition to the management of this extensive enter- prise, he was also a dealer in coal, lumber and ferti- lizers. In 1866-67 he contracted for and built four and a half miles of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Eailroad, which was in course of construction at that time. In 1880 he became president of the Carbon Metallic Paint Company, while he was a director of the First National Bank of Slatington from the date of its organization, in 1875, until his death. He was a shrewd and capable business man, and all his transactions were chai'acter- ized by fairness, integrity and justice, which was the secret of the success he attained during his career as a business man. He always took a keen interest in every measure calculated to promote the general well being of the people of his native state and of the coun- try at large, being especially interested along educa- tional lines. He was particularly well versed in the early history of Carbon county and of the whole Lehigh Valley. He was for five years a school director, served for a number of years as postmaster of Lehigh Gap, and from 1884 to 1886 represented his district in the lower house of the state legislature. He affiliated him- self with the Democratic party on attaining his major- ity, and always supported its candidates and the meas- ures it championed. He belonged to the Loyal Legion, Pennsylvania Commandery, at Philadelphia; and Chapman Post, No. 61, Grand Army of the Eepublic, at Mauch Chunk. In the fall of 1866 Colonel Craig was united in mar- riage to Emma Insley, daughter of Philip and Hen- rietta Insley, residents of the Irish Settlement, near Bath, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. The fol- lowing children were the issue of this union : Thomas, Charles, P. Insley, H. Tyndale, Henrietta, wife of T. Griffin; Mary, Allen D., and John D., deceased. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Al^t^^^f-Z'-Z^ .*£5^-0 /^<^. "V Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 423 The body of Colonel Craig lies buried in the old Towamensing Cemetery near Palmerton. Craig, Hon. Thomas B., one of the members of the board of commissioners of Carbon county, is the eldest son of the late Colonel John Craig and his wife, Emma (Insley) Craig. He was born at Lehigh Gap, Carbon county, on April 6, 1867, and received his early educa- tion in the public schools of Lower Towamensing town- ship and in those of the borough of Slatington, Lehigh county. Later he attended Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, Pa. He began his business career in 1885, when, at the age of eighteen years, he entered the mercantile estab- lishment of his father at Lehigh Gap. Under his in- struction he also became a surveyor, and has surveyed much of the land in the locality in which he lives. Colonel Craig becoming ill in the year 1900, Thomas assumed active control of his extensive business inter- ests. In 1908 the father died, and the conduct of the estate was turned over to Thomas and his brother, H. Tyndale Craig, who continue the business under the style of John Craig & Company, being dealers in gen- eral merchandise, coal, flour and feed. Mr. Craig has inherited much of the public spirit dis- played by his ancestors, and has for years been promi- nent in the councils of the Democracy of Carbon coun- ty. He served as secretary of the school board of Lower Towamensing township for six years, and was Democratic county chairman for four years. In 1898 he was elected to membership in the state legislature, serving his constituents with intelligence and fidelity. He was chosen as a county commissioner in 1911, and has on several occasions represented the Democracy of his native county in the state conventions of the party and at the congressional conferences of the district. Digitized by Microsoft® 424 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. Mr. Craig was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Palmerton, of which he is the vice- president and one of the board of directors. He is a member of the Masonic order, belongs to the Odd Fel- lows and to the Sons of Veterans, while being the pres- ident of Palmerton 's newly organized fire department. In September, 1889, Mr. Craig was married to Lil- lie J. Kreamer, youngest daughter of Dr. J. C. Kreamer, of Millport, Carbon county. Davies, George M., for many years prominently connected with the mining industry of the Lehigh coal region, and one of the most public spirited citizens of Lansford, was born in South Wales, January 1, 1848. His parents were Stephen and Sarah (Edwardes) Davies. During his early teens he came to America, locating at Harleigh, Luzerne county. Pa. He began life as a slate picker, later becoming a contract miner. For some years he lived in Hazleton, and at various times employed a large number of men in the oper- ations of that region. In 1883 Mr. Davies came to Lansford, where he achieved his greatest successes, and in the develop- ment and upbuilding of which place he has played a leading part. For nearly twenty-one years he worked the Spring Tunnel mine, the oldest anthracite under- ground operation in the country, for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. He also operated a number of other coUeries for the same company during the twenty-seven years that he followed mining in the Panther Creek Valley. Aside from this, Mr. Davies has been a man of many interests and activities. He was one of the organizers of the Panther Valley Electric Light, Heat and Power Company, of which he has been president for the past twelve years, and was a prime mover in the establish- Digitized by Microsoft® ^M^ /Pi^^l/^.^^ . Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 425 ment of tlie First National Bank of Lansford, being still a director of this institution. He also assisted in the organization of the American Fire Company and the Panther Valley Building and Loan Association. Mr. Davies has figured prominently in the councils of the Eepublican party since becoming a citizen of the county. He is familiarly referred to as the "Little Napoleon" of Carbon county politics, which sobriquet was conferred upon him for his aggressive disposition and his combative abilities. While living in Hazle township, Luzerne county, he was chosen as assessor, being the first Eepublican elected to that office in the history of the township. During his incumbency as chairman of the Carbon county Republican committee, most of the county of- fices were turned over by the Democrats to the Eepub- licans. In 1890 he was the nominee of his party for congress in what was then the Eighth District. Although de- feated, he reduced the usual Democratic majority of eleven thousand to six thousand. He was also an un- successful candidate for the office of associate judge of the county. In 1892 he was elected burgess of Lans- ford, serving for several terms. He has also served as president of town council and the school board of the borough, besides filling a number of other offices. He is a trustee of the Ashland State Hospital and of the East Stroudsburg State Normal School, while being a member of the state commission on mine caves, to which he was appoLnted by Governor Tener. An incident which occurred during the Spanish- American War serves to illustrate Mr. Davies' pa- triotic spirit and his well known liberality. As a re- sult of official red tape and confusion in the War Department, the Fourth Pennsylvania Eegiment found Digitized by Microsoft® 426 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. itself without the means of procuring rations on the eve of its departure from Mt. Gretna for the seat of war. In this emergency, Mr. Davies, who was a visitor at Mt. Gretna, generously volunteered to feed the entire regiment at his own expense. This incident is related by Captain Baird H. Halber- stadt, of Pottsville. In 1870 Mr. Davies was married to Mary J. Hill, of Harleigh, Luzerne county. They have eight surviving children. Fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows, and is prominent in Masonic circles. He is a member of the Episcopal church. Davies, Isaac M., mine inspector of the Seventeenth Anthracite District of Pennsylvania, comprising the county of Carbon and a portion of Schuylkill, is the son of Stephen and Sarah (Edwardes) Davies. His father was an iron refiner of Glamorganshire, Wales. Born at Cwymavon, South Wales, in 1854, Isaac M. Davies crossed the Atlantic to New York at the age of sixteen as a cabin boy on board the Nova Scotia bark Kate, Captain E. J. Murphy commanding Being then in quest of adventure, rather than in search of a permanent home, he sailed for South Amer- ica, having spent some time at Harleigh, Luzerne county. Pa., where his brother, George M. Davies, was located, and at other points in the coal fields. After leading the free life of a plainsman in Uruguay and the Argentine Republic for a period of nearly two years, he returned to his home in Wales, where he worked in the coal mines. Coming to America for a second time, he was accom- panied by his brother, William H. Davies, who is now the division superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 427 Company at Hazleton, Pa. At the age of twenty-five, Mr. Davies went to Australia, where he was engaged as a miner of both gold and coal for nearly a dozen years. Returning to the United States in 1890, after making a complete circle of the globe, he located perm- anently at Lansford, Pa., where he still lives. He became a mine foreman for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and in 1907 attained to the posi- tion which he now holds, being re-elected without op- position in 1911. Mr. Davies is the first resident of Carbon county yet elected to this office. He was one of the organizers of the corps giving first aid to the in- jured in the mines about Lansford, and was one of the original trustees of the Panther Creek Valley Hospital, situated at Coal Dale, Schuylkill county. Mr. Davies is a member of the various Masonic bod- ies, while being connected with the St. David's society, of Lansford, and the Episcopal church. He was married on April 4, 1882, to Sarah, daugh- ter of William Davies, in New South Wales, Australia. She is a native of Blaenavon, South Wales. Five of their eight children, George B., Minnie M., Stephen H., Stella G., and William W., were born in Australia. David E., Isaac E., and Marion were born at Lansford. Minnie is the wife of John Corville, of Wilmington, Del., and Stella is married to Luke Yocum, living at Loag, near Eeading, Pa. Davis, Benjamin F., prominent in union labor circles in the county, and a leading citizen of Nesquehoning, was born there on June 17, 1877. He is one of the twelve children of William and Margaret (Watkins) Davis. The father was born in England, emigrating to America when a young man and becoming a miner. He served for three years as a member of Company Gr., Sixty-first Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Digitized by Microsoft® 428 HISTOEY 01' CAEBON COUNTY. during the Eebellion, participating in most of the im- portant battles of the Army of the Potomac, including Bull Eun, Antietam, and Gettysburg. The mother was born in Wales. Benjamin F. Davis became a slate picker on the Nes- quehoning breaker at the age of twelve. Later he learned the trade of a blacksmith, and followed this oe- cupation for seven years, after which he became a miner and followed this occupation until January, 1915. Mr. Davis has played an active part in the councils of the United Mine Workers since 1902, when the or- ganization first gained a footing in the Panther Creek Valley, being a member of the mine committee of the Nesquehoning local. In 1914 he was appointed as the traveling auditor of District No. 7, U. M. W. of A., and is still so serving. He has taken an interest in the cause of popular edu- cation, having served for three years as a member of the Mauch Chunk township school board. He has long been a member of the P. O. S. of A. Mr. Davis was married on December 23, 1898, to Eena, daughter of Eichard Floyd and his wife Eleanor, of Nesquehoning. They have two sons, Harry and Eobert. Doak, C. Curtis, formerly Eegister of Wills of Car- bon county, and a well-known resident of Mauch Chunk, is one of the four sons of William H. and Ellen (Mc- Connell) Doak. The father was born of German par- entage at Eockport, Carbon county, in 1836. On the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted in Company A, Twenty-eighth Eegiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which was attached to the Army of the Po- tomac, continuing in the service to the close of the con- flict. He was wounded at Gettysburg and was made lieutenant for gallantry in action. After the war Mr. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® ^t^^S^e-c^A^ Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 429 Doak took up his residence at Nesquehoning, where he became an extensive contractor and builder. He died in 1902. Charles Curtis Doak was born at Nesquehoning, De- cember 13, 1873. Starting as a slate picker on the breaker, he later did clerical work for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. After an experience as clerk in a general store in Nesquehoning, he was a traveling salesman for a Philadelphia grocery house. In 1896, Mr. Doak enterted the service of P. H. Schweibinz as manager of the Central Hotel at Mauch Chunk, continuing in this capacity under Joseph Schaef er until 1908, when he was elected to the office of register of wills as the candidate of the Eepublican party. He was reelected in 1911, and is now the man- ager of the Ortlie Brewing Company, of Mauch Chunk. On July 20, 1911, Mr. Doak was united in marriage to Lottie M., daughter of the late O. B. Sigley and his wife, Ellen, of Mauch Chunk. Mr. Sigley was the founder and publisher of the Mauch Chunk Daily Times. Mr. Doak was efficient and popular as an of- fice holder, and he still maintains a large following among men of all parties. He is a member of the P. 0. S. of A., the B. P. O. E. and the various Masonic bodies. Dreisbach, J. M., a foremost representative of the financial interests of Mauch Chunk, and for years prominently identified with the political affairs of the county, was born at Lockport, Northampton county, on January 4, 1847, the son of Solomon and Mary (Mummey) Dreisbach. The pioneer of his family in America was John Jost Dreisbach, who was born in Germany in the year 1721. He sailed for this country from Cowes, England, Sep- tember 20, 1743, on board the ship Lydia, of which Digitized by Microsoft® 430 HISTOEY or CARBON COUNTY. James Abercrombie, of Eotterdam, was master. His death occurred on October 17, 1794. The paternal grandfather, Michael Dreisbach, was born April 1, 1779, and died October 15, 1868. By oc- cupation he was a wheelright, and engaged in farming. His wife bore the maiden name of Susanna Shaffer. Solomon Dreisbach was a native of Lehigh township, Northampton county, the year of his birth being 1822. He departed this life Aug. 14, 1880. He was trained for a mercantile career, but early in life became a boat- builder, also conducting a boatman's stable and store. Eemoving to East Mauch Chunk in 1850, he built the Centre House, the first hotel in that town. His wife was born near Berlinsville, Pa., November 9, 1828, being a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Master) Mum- mey. Six children were born to them: James M., Joseph B., Franklin A., Ellen I., Mary H., the wife of Rev. William C. Shaffer, and Emma J., who married Harry Laurish. James Monroe Dreisbach was but three years of age when his parents removed to East Mauch Chunk. He acquired his early training in the public schools of that borough, later pursuing a business course at Philadel- phia. In 1863 he began life as a clerk in the service of the Hazleton Coal Company at Penn Haven, which was then an important coal-shipping point. Here he formed an acquaintance with General William Lilly, who was at that time in charge of the company's af- fairs at Penn Haven, and a warm friendship sprang up between the two which was only terminated by the death of the elder in 1893. In 1865 Mr. Driesbach became the shipper for Sharpe, Weiss & Company, and for Coxe Brothers and Company, miners and shippers of anthracite coal. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOEY OF CAKBON COUNTY. 431 Shipments were made over the Lehigh Canal from Mauch Chunk. Entering the Second National Bank of Mauch Chunk in the spring of 1867 as a bookkeeper, he was subse- quently promoted to the position of teller. In 1880 he was elected cashier of the bank, while from 1897 until 1901 he served as its vice-president. In the latter year he became president of the institution, serving in that capacity until December 31, 1902, when the charter of the Second National Bank expired by limitation. Mr. Dreisbach was an active participant in the or- ganization of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company, which began business on January 1, 1903, the only institution of its kind in the county. He was chosen its president, still occupying that position. The new institution was to a certain degree an experiment, but under his guid- ance it has steadily grown stronger and more prosper- ous. Since his boyhood Mr. Dreisbach 's life has been characterized by sustained activity and usefulness. He was the receiver appointed to take charge of the af- fairs of the Miners ' Bank of Lansf ord, which failed in 1883, and succeeded in paynig its creditors seventj^- five per cent, of the amount of their claims, notwith- standing that it was at first thought there would be but little left to divide among the depositors of the wrecked institution. Mr. Driesbach is a director of the East Broad Gap Railroad and Coal Company, of G. B. Markle & Co., and other corporations. He is the acting executor of the estate of his former friend. General Lilly, the wealthy coal operator, and was similarly connected with a number of other estates. He has been a close student of political and economic problems, always manifesting a lively interest in pub- Digitized by Microsoft® 432 HISTOKY OF CARBON COUNTY. lie affairs. Politics with Mm has been an avocation rather than a vocation. He was, however, appointed as the first postmaster of East Manch Chunk, having been largely instrumental in the establishment of that postoffice in 1870. He early became identified with the policies and principles of the Eepublican party, be- coming one of its most influential leaders in the county. Eepeatedly serving as the chairman of the county com- mittee, he was also frequently sent as a representative to the state conventions of the party. In 1896 he was a member of the National convention which nominated McKinley for the Presidency at St. Louis, while four years later he was again a delegate to the convention which renominated him at Philadel- phia. He took an active part in securing the legislation constituting Carbon county as a separate judicial dis- trict, in 1901, at which time he also successfully advo- cated the separate establishment of the offices of pro- thonotary and clerk of courts, and of register of wills and recorder of deeds. Mr. Dreisbach is a past master of the Masonic lodge of Mauch Chunk, while being a past grand of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows of that town. He was united in marriage to Emma Wertz, of Cherryville, Northampton county, on November 11, 1869. Their only son, George Dreisbach, is secretary and treasurer of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company. Druckenmiller, Stanley F., a physician and surgeon, of Lansford, is the son of Wilson K. and Mary (Grim) Druckenmiller, of Weatherly. His father is a native of New Tripoli, Lehigh county. Pa. Stanley was born at Weatherly on September 12, 1884. He graduated from the high school of that place with the class of 1901, after which he pursued a gen- Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® T^l^i^ ^/icuu^'C^ Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 433 eral course at the Hazleton Business College. Going to South Bethlehem, Pa., he did clerical work for the Bethlehem Steel Company and the Lehigh Valley Rail- road for four years. In 1906 he entered the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, from which institution he was gradu- ated in 1910. In August, 1911, after having served for a year as interne at St. Luke's Hospital, South Beth- lehem, he opened an office at Lansford, where he is rapidly building up a good practise. He has already established a reputation for skill and ability in his pro- fession. Drumheller, Wallace, a representative of the busi- ness and industrial interests of Lansford, and a mem- ber of the board of county commissioners, was born at Summit Hill on April 1, 1860. He is the son of Nathan and Elizabeth (Heister) Drumheller. His grandfather, George Drumheller, was the first blacksmith employed by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, while his father was for years the master machinist of the same corporation at Lansford. Wallace Drumheller was educated in the common schools and at the Bloomsburg State Normal School. Learning the trade of a machinist under the direction of his father, he later became the foreman of the shop where he served his apprenticeship. In 1891, upon the death of his father, he was appointed as superintend- ent of the various shops of the Lehigh Coal and Navi- gation Company, situated in Lansford. He continued in this position until 1908. In 1906, in association with Charles K. Walton, Mr. Drumheller established the Lansford Shirt Factory, which now employs about one hundred operatives. Formerly he also conducted a large hardware, heating 28 Digitized by Microsoft® 434 HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. and plumbing establishment, which, in 1909, he turned over to his sons, Nathan and George. He has been the manager of the Panther Valley Elec- tric Light, Heat and Power Company since its incep- tion, and is a director of the First National Bank of Lansford. For about fifteen years he was a member of the town council of Lansford, of which he was the president. As the candidate of the Republican party, Mr. Drum- heller was elected to membership on the board of coun- ty commissioners, in 1911. He was married in 1883 to Johanna, daughter of John Griffiths, of Lansford. Ebbert, David, who was a foremost citizen of Le- highton, was born in Heidelberg township, Lehigh county, on December 17, 1842. He was the son of Jacob and Mary (Straub) Ebbert. Educated in the public schools, he was early compelled to make his own way in life. During the spring of 1863 he came to Lehighton, serving in the employ of Thomas Kemerer for several months. At the expiration of this period he estab- lished himself as a dealer in flour, grain and feed, later also entering the livery business, which he successfully carried on until his death. In 1867 he was married to Hannah Hartz, a grand- daughter of Colonel Jacob Hartz, one of Carbon coun- ty's heroes in the war of the Eevolution. Two daugh- ters, Mary S. and Ellen J., were born to them. The former become the wife of Edward H. Brannix, of Philadelphia, while the latter married M. S. Jordan, of Scranton, Pa., residing at Lehighton. Mr. Ebbert was connected with various local indus- tries and enterprises. For years he was director of the First National Bank of Lehighton. His death occurred on April 1, 1905. Digitized by Microsoft® David Ebbeet. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® yij^A^u^ i^^^;^!--. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 435 Edelstein, Julius, a well-known resident of Lansford, is the sou of Francis Edelstein, who was the proprietor of a large landed estate in Hungary, where the subject of this sketch was born on July 15, 1857. His mother bore the maiden name of Bertha Weiss. The family is noted for longevity. Mr. Edelstein 's father lived to be eighty-four, while his paternal grandfather reached the age of 104 years. Julius was educated at the University of Budapest, later pursuing a course in agriculture. Upon the com- pletion of his studies he managed his father's estate, which consisted of 8,000 acres of land and eight vil- lages. Emigrating to America at the age of twenty-three, he spent some months in travel and then settled in Lans- ford. For seven years he was in the employ of the Le- high Coal and Navigation Company, while subsequent- ly he conducted a clothing store for a period of nine years. In 1897 he entered the hotel business, which is his present pursuit. He has also acquired considera- ble real estate. Taking an interest in civic affairs, he lost no time in being naturalized; he has been a staunch member of the Eepublican party ever since he became a voter. In 1880 he was married to Annie Loch, whom he had known in his native land. Their children are : Michael, a member of the town council of Lansford; Helen, formerly a school teacher, and now the wife of John Davis, of Lansford; Eugene, a graduate of Dickinson College and now a law student at the University of Pennsylvania, and Bertha, Francis, and Gizzela, Avho remain at home. Edwards, Philip, a veteran educator and miner, now living at Beaver Meadow, was born in Cornwall, Eng- land, July 19, 1839. At the age of nine, having spent Digitized by Microsoft® 436 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. a few years in the Ludgvan parish school, he already began to earn his own way as a worker about the tin mines of his native country. When twenty years of age, he emigrated to the United States, locating in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where he became a copper miner. Having a thirst for knowledge, he saved enough from his earnings to enable him to pursue a course at Union Seminary, Ypsilanti, Mich. Coming to Pennsylvania in 1866, he taught school for thirteen years in Carbon and Luzerne counties. For a time he was also employed in a clerical capacity in the general offices of Coxe Brothers and Company, at Drifton, Luzerne coimty. While so engaged, he did a useful work in fitting many of the foremen and other employes of this large concern to meet the educational requirements prescribed by the more stringent mining laws which had then been recently enacted. This was accomplished through the agency of a night school which he conducted. Mr. Edwards has held various positions in connec- tion with the mining industry since relinquishing his work as an instructor, but he still takes a lively interest in educational matters. He has held the offices of school director and street commissioner in Beaver Meadow, while he has been the tax collector of the borough since 1906. For more than fifty-six years he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has been a prominent Sunday school worker. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In 1873 Mr. Edwards was united in marriage to S. Ellen, daughter of Daniel McClain, of Beaver Meadow. They are the parents of five surviving children. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 437 Ehle, William H., a tunnel contractor of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company at Lansford, was born there on August 18, 1883. He is the son of Frederick and Katherine (Miller) Ehle, both natives of Germany, but residents of Lansford during the past thirty-five years. The father is on the retired list of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, having formerly been a stable boss in its employ. William became a worker at the age of nine, picking slate on the breaker. Two years later he entered the mines, and was successively a mule driver, a laborer, and a miner, being certified in the latter capacity at the age of eighteen. During the past half dozen years Mr. Ehle has been engaged in driving tunnels, gangways, rock chutes, etc., for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, having from thirty-five to fifty men in his employ. He was married on February 26, 1906, to Miss Mary Schaefer, of Mauch Chunk. The pair have lived in Lansford since their marriage. Mrs. Ehle is noted for her marksmanship, being the only woman wing shooter in Carbon county. She fre- quently makes good scores at shooting tournaments in competition with men, being accompanied by her hus- band on such occasions. They hunt wild game together in the woods, too. She is a member of the Nemours Trap Shooting Club, of Wilmington, Del. Enbody, Hon. Edwin R., who was one of Carbon county's best known and most public spirited citizens, was a descendant of Henry Enbody, his great-grand- father, a native of France, who settled in the Mohawk Valley about the middle of the eighteenth century. His grandfather, David Enbody, who was a pioneer resident of Mauch Chunk, first devoted himself to agri- cultural pursuits near Berwick, on the Susquehanna. Digitized by Microsoft® 438 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. He married Rebecca Turnback, of Sugarloaf Valley, Luzerne county. Their son, Josiah, the father of E. E. Enbody, was born near Berwick, in 1818, being quite young when his parents removed to Mauch Chunk. On reaching man's estate, he became a boat builder on the Lehigh Canal. He served for several years as the chief burgess of Mauch Chunk. His wife bore the maiden name of Tabitha Bayne, being the daughter of John Bayne, an early settler of Mauch Chunk, and an ark runner on the Lehigh. E. E. Enbody was born at Mauch Chunk on October 11, 1844. After mastering the elementary branches of English learning in the public schools, he pursued a course of study at Dickinson Seminary, Williamsport, Pa. At the age of seventeen he entered the employ of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company as a clerk, continuing so for several years. In 1868 he became the chief bookkeeper for W. T. Carter and Company, miners and shippers of coal, at Beaver Meadows. In association with John Martyn and a number of New York capitalists, he had an in- terest in the opening and development of the mines now operated by Coxe Brothers and Company, near Beaver Meadows. For eleven years Mr. Enbody lived at Weatherly, where he was in the service of the Lehigh Valley Eail- road. Eeturning to Mauch Chunk in 1884, he assumed the superintendency to the Mauch Chunk Water Com- pany and the Mauch Chimk Gras Company, occupying the former position the remainder of his life. For years he was active as a labor leader, and asso- ciated with such men as T. V. Powderly and Henry George. During this phase of his career, he had a hand in bringing about the adoption of the Australian ballot system in Pennsylvania. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 439 Mr. Enbody was elected to the office of associate judge of Carbon county by the Democrats in 1899, serving for the term of five years. In 1910 he was chosen to membership in the state legislature. Always interested in religious work, he was an elder of the Presbyterian church of Mauch Chunk for more than twenty years. His marriage to Cornelia D. Brodhead, daughter of the late Hon. A. G. Brodhead, a prominent official of the Lehigh Valley Eailroad at Mauch Chunk, was sol- emnized in 1867. She died on September 15, 1903, leav- ing three children : Albert B., Eichard M. and Josiah W. Enbody. The first named is road foreman of loco- motives for the Central Eailroad of New Jersey at Mauch Chunk, while his brothers are located in New York. Edwin E. Enbody died suddenly at his home on May 21, 1912, having but a short time previously been re- nominated without opposition for his seat in the legis- lature. EsMeman, Dr. Edwin F., a physician and surgeon of Parryville, and treasurer of Carbon county, was born at Seiberlingsville, Lehigh county, on July 30, 1865. Jacob Eshleman, his father, a farmer and black- smith, was a native of Bucks county, while his mother before her marriage, was Sophia Werley. Edwin was one of a family of six children and in early life labored on his father's farm and at the forge. Having prepared himself as a teacher at the Kutztown State Normal School, he taught school for six terms. Entering Jefferson Medical College, he graduated with the class of 1893. During the same year he lo- cated at Parryville, where he has practised his pro- Digitized by Microsoft® 440 HISTORY OP CAEBON COUNTY. fession since that time. He is the only physician in the town, having also built up a large practice in the surrounding country. Doctor Eshleman has been a warm friend of educa- tion, and his previous service as a teacher has well fitted him for the discharge of the duties of a school director, which position he has filled continuously al- most since becoming a resident of Parryville. He has also been the overseer of the poor in the borough for a like period. As the candidate of the Eepublican party, he was elected to the office of county treasurer by a handsome majority in 1911. Fraternally he is allied to the Knights of Malta and to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, while being a mem- ber of the Lutheran church. On October 31, 1891 he was married to Lizzie, daugh- ter of Charles Scheirer, of Mickleys, Lehigh county. Their two children are Gerald and Grace Eshleman. Evans, Thomas E., postmaster of Audenried, is the son of Owen R. and Margaret Rosser Evans, the form- er a native of Wales, and the latter from Schuykill county. The father emigrated to America, unattended and alone at the age of thirteen years. He first located at Cumbola, Schuylkill county, later becoming a mine foreman at New Philadelphia, in the same district. Coming to Tresckow, Carbon county, he held the posi- tion of a mine foreman for the German-Pennsylvania Coal Company for over twenty years. The closing years of his life were spent at Nanticoke, Luzerne county, where he died in 1890, aged 64 years. Thomas Evans was born at Cumbola on March 27, 1864. Four years later his parents removed to Tresc- kow, where he attended school. At the age of fifteen he Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® ^jL\y y J^ f-d^u^Ay^ Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. 441 was given employment in the offices of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company. Subsequently he be- came a stationary engineer, in which capacity he is still employed by this company. He had served both as an auditor and as tax col- lector of Banks township. His appointment as post- master of Audenried was made on March 30, 1^99. On June 10, 1884, he was married to Sarah, daughter of Evan Cann and his wife Rebecca, of Yorktown. Their children are Olive V., Harry, Roy, Lillian and Gordon. Olive is a trained nurse, Harry a machinist, and Roy a plumber. Lillian and Gordon remain at home. Farrar, John K., an Audenried physician and sur- geon, was born at Montreal, Canada, on November 1, 1867. His father. Rev. John Farrar, a minister of the Episcopal church, was a native of England, and grad- uated at Oxford. He was married to Mary King, of Sheffield, England, emigrating to Canada about 1860. The father died in 1905 at the age of sixty-six years. John King Farrar was educated at Geneva College and at the University of Virginia. Entering Jefferson Medical College, he was graduated from that institu- tion in 1891. In September of that year he located at Audenried, becoming the assistant of Dr. W. R. Longshore, to whose practise he succeeded. He is the local physician and surgeon of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company and of C. M. Dodson and Company, miners and shippers of coal, and has a large practise. Faust, Percy E., editor and owner of the Weatherly Herald, the only newspaper published in the upper end of Carbon county, was born on the old Faust home- stead, now the property of John Bittner, in Packer township, March 28, 1868. Digitized by Microsoft® 442 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. His grandfather, John Faust, who came from Schuylkill county in 1829, was one of the early settlers of Packer township. He was born in 1797, and lived to a ripe old age, being endearingly referred to for many years as "Old Daddy" Faust. His wife died in 1864, having borne him thirteen children. One of his sons, Edward, who was born in 1839, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He spent his boyhood in Quakake Valley, and on reach- ing man's estate, was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Ephraim Balliet, of Packer township. The family made their home in Weatherly, where Mr. Faust was for twenty-five years employed as a blacksmith by the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Company. He died in 1897. The future owner of the Herald attended the public schools until his fifteenth year, when the desire to do something practical seized him. Accordingly, he for- sook the founts of learning and worked as a laborer for two years. He then entered the office of the Herald as an apprentice, learning to set type. One year later, being then scarcely eighteen years of age, he attained, through purchase, the ownership of the paper and the job printing business that went with it, beginning his career as a full-fledged newspaper man at an age when most boys are still attending the public schools. The Herald was started in 1880, by H. V. Morthimer, and its early career was one of many changes and vicissitudes. Mr. Faust became its owner in 1886, succeeding Harvey B. Smith, now a Philadelphia news- paper man. Under his direction the Herald has pros- pered and has grown in circulation and in influence from year to year. It is now issued every Friday, and is always a wel- come visitor in the many homes that it reaches. Clean, newsy and reliable, it always reflects a spirit of op- Digitized by Microsoft® HISTOBY OF CARBON COUNTY. 443 timism and good cheer. It has never invaded the pri- vacy of the home, while filth and scandal are carefully excluded from its columns. In 1890 Mr. Faust was married to Eva, daughter of John and Abigail Hoover, of Weatherly. Their do- mestic life has been ideal and happy. Their children are : Eobert, Euth, Eay, Edward, Grace, Burdell, Eliza- beth and Theodore. Two others died in infancy. Mr. Faust has filled various offices of trust in the borough, among the number those of councilman and of school director. For fifteen years he served as bor- ough treasurer, while he has also been secretary of the board of trade since its organization in 1898, and he is the treasurer of the Anthracite Building and Loan Association. He is active in the councils of the Democratic party in the county, while he and his family are members of the Methodist church. Freyman, Ira E., a Weatherly physician, was born at Tannersville, Monroe county, Pa., February 17, 1880. His grandfather, Edward Freyman, whose birth occurred in 1828, is a native of East Penn township. Carbon county, where, for many years, he conducted a farm. He was married to Eebecca Euch, and their only child was Lafayette Freyman, who was born De- cember 26, 1851. Lafayette Freyman was united in marriage to Miss Eebecca Steigerwalt, of West Penn township, Schuyl- kill county. He was a carpenter, and at the age of eighteen entered the employ of the Lehigh Valley Eail- road Company at Packerton. Subsequently he re- moved to Tannersville, where he found employment at his trade. In 1882 the family came to Weatherly, and Mr. Freyman spent all but a few of his remaining years in the service of the Lehigh Valley company. Digitized by Microsoft® 444 HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. For a short period he had charge of his father's farm in East Penn township. He died on October 26, 1908. The children of Lafayette Freyman and his wife were Harvey, Lillian, Ira and Calvin. The two first- named died on the same day of diphtheria ; Calvin was for some years a machinist at the Washington Navy Yard, and is now a veterinary surgeon at Washington. Ira Freyman received his early training in the schools of Weatherly and Lehighton, graduating from the high school of the last named place in 1896. In 1897 he completed the course of study offered by the American Business College, of Allentown, after which he taught school for a number of years. He was em- ployed as a clerk by the Lehigh Valley Eailroad Com- pany at South Bethlehem for a year, and then entered the Medico-Chirurgical College at Philadelphia. While there he was president of the athletic association and of the Phi-Rho Sigma Fraternity. He graduated with the class of 1907. Doctor Freyman served for a year as the assistant of Dr. R. Trnckenmiller, of Freeland, after his gradua- tion, and then opened an office in Weatherly. He has disproved the old adage that a prophet has no honor in his own country, because his already large practice is steadily growing. Mr. Freyman was married to Elva S. Hunter, a daughter of the late J. W. Hunter, of Weatherly, on November 24, 1905. Their only child, Gordon C, was born March 10, 1907. Mr. Freyman is a member of the Reformed church, and belongs to the Knights of Malta and to the Pa- triotic Order Sons of America. Freyman, William G., senior member of the law firm of Freyman, Thomas and Branch, of Mauch Chunk, is frequently referred to as the Nestor of the Carbon Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 445 county bar. He is the son of George and Catherine (Kistler) Freyman, both natives of Pennsylvania. His father was a farmer and carpenter, also conducting a general store. He spent his declining years in Mahon- ing township where he died in 1849. Both Jacob Freyman and John Kistler, the grand- parents of W. G. Freyman, were natives of Northamp- ton county, being descended from German immigrants who came to Pennsylvania at a very early day. W. G. Freyman was born in Mahoning township on July 4, 1838. He received a high school education, and taught school for five terms. During the war of the Rebellion he served as orderly sergeant of Company G, One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Eegiment, Penn- sylvania Volunteer Infantry. At the expiration of his term of service he recruited a company of which he was commissioned lieutenant; but before it was mustered into service, the war closed, and he returned home. Becoming a civil engineer, Mr. Freyman followed that calling for a dozen years, also engaging in mer- chandising. Entering the office of General Charles Albright at Mauch Chunk, in 1871, he began the study of law, being admitted to the bar in 1873. Under the firm name of Albright and Freyman, he became the partner of his former preceptor, which relation was severed by the death of the General, in 1880. This firm participated in the celebrated MoUie Maguire trials. After practising alone for several years, Mr. Frey- man formed a partnership with James Kiefer, now a prominent attorney of Seattle, who had been a student in his office. Upon the retirement of Mr. Kiefer from the firm, at the expiration of five years, Mr. Freyman became associated with Horace Heydt, also a former student of his, imder the name of Freyman and Heydt. Digitized by Microsoft® 446 HISTORY OF OAEBON COUNTY. Later, Eugene O. Nothstein, a nephew of the senior member of the firm was taken into partnership, alter- ing the title to Freyman, Heydt and Nothstein. Mr. Freyman had also been his preceptor. In September, 1901, Mr. Heydt was elevated to the bench of Carbon county. From this time forth until the spring of 1912, when Mr. Nothstein died, the prac- tise of the firm was conducted under the name of Frey- man and Nothstein. Since then, Mr. Freyman has taken William Gr. Thomas and Benjamin Branch into partnership with himself. The practise of the firm, general in character, has embraced a wide range of important cases, and has been more extensive, perhaps, than that of any other in the county. Special attention has been given to questions involving original land titles both in Carbon and adjoining counties. Speaking of Mr. Freyman individually, he has es- tablished a well deserved reputation as a safe and sa- gacious counsellor, and his long experience has made him one of the most reliable lawyers of the Lehigh Valley. In addition to his legal business, he is interested in a number of industrial and other enterprises. He is the vice-president of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company, while being a director of the Prince Manufacturing Company and president of the Carbon Metallic Paint Company. A supporter of the principles advocated by the Eepublican party, he has never sought nor held a political office. In 1865 he was married to Matilda, daughter of George Gilbert, of Mahoning township. They have no surviving children. Gallagher, Thomas, chief burgess of Lansford, a leader in labor circles, and a veteran of the Spanish- American War, is one of the eight children of Thomas Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OP CARBON COUNTY. 447 and Mary (Morgan) Gallagher, both natives of Ire- land. The father emigrated to this country before the Civil War, settling in Newkirk, Schuylkill county, where he was a hoisting engineer. He was acciden- tally killed in the mines in 1906, having attained the age of fifty years. Thomas was born at Newkirk on November 17, 1877. "When he was eight years of age the family moved to Lansford. When he was eleven he became a slate picker on the breaker, later becoming a miner, as he is still engaged. He has been active in the councils of the United Mine Workers of America since 1900, serving for a time as the chairman of the mine committee of his local. He has been a delegate to all the national conventions of the organization since its establishment in the anthracite regions. Mr. Gallagher enlisted as a soldier in Company B, Eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, at the breaking out of the war with Spain, being mustered out after ten months of service. He has been a mem- ber of the school board of the borough ; in 1913 he was elected to the ofiSce of chief burgess for the four-year term. On April 12, 1910, he was united in marriage to Cath- erine, daughter of Neil and Mary Boyle, of Summit Hill. They have two children, Thomas and Mary. Gangwer, Harry L., proprietor of the Verzi House at Weatherly, was born in that town on May 18, 1868. He is the son of Samuel Gangwer, Sr., one of the oldest residents of Weatherly, and the family of which he is a representative has been established in Pennnsylvania for many generations. After leaving school Mr. Gangwer learned the trade of a moulder, which he followed for about nine years in the shops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company Digitized by Microsoft® 448 HISTORY OF CAEBON COUNTY. at Weatherly. Later he pursued his calling at Plain- field and at High Bridge, N. J., and at Lewistown and South Bethlehem, Pa. In 1904 he returned to Weath- erly to take charge of the Verzi House, becoming the owner of the property through purchase in 1910. Mr. Gangwer was united in marriage to Gertrude, a daughter of William Buck, of Weatherly, on February 1, 1894. The pair have three children : Harry L., Ed- ward B., and Fern G. Gangwer. Mr. Gangwer is an enthusiastic hunter and fisher- man, and has been a loyal supporter of the Eepublican party. Garrett, John, a retired miner and leading citizen of Summit Hill, is one of the fourteen children of Wil- liam and Elizabeth (White) Garrett. Both parents were born in England, where the elder Garrett followed the occupation of a farmer. Later he went to Wales to become a miner. John Garrett was born in England, June 23, 1852. He was about four years of age when the family settled in Wales. John went to work in the mines when he was nine years of age. After twenty years of service, he emigrated to xlmerica, locating in Summit Hill, where for thirty- two years he was a contract miner for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Thus at the age of sixty he had seen half a century of active service as a miner, a record which we may well believe has few parallels. Mr. Garrett was one of the organizers of the Home- stead Building and Loan Association, of Summit Hill, a model institution of its kind, of which he has been a director from the start. He was also a prime mover in the establishment of the Dime Bank, of Lansford, of which he is a director. Digitized by Microsoft® HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY. 449 On May 2, 1874, Mr. Garrett was united in marriage to Elizabeth P. Chapel, born in Wales of English par- entage. They had thirteen children, of whom the fol- lowing survive: William, John, James, Benjamin, and Mary J., wife of Eichard Waters. Mrs. Garrett died in 1894, and in December, 1905, Mr. Garrett was married to Miss Elizabeth Edmunds, of Tamaqua. It is but stating the truth to say that no name in Summit Hill is more highly and deservedly honored than that of John Garrett. Garrett, Joseph, formerly a miner, and now a justice of the peace, of Summit Hill, was born at Ehymney, South Wales, July 19, 1862. His father, William Gar- rett, was a native of Willshire, England. His mother bore the maiden name of Elizabeth White, being also a native of England. The family emigrated to Wales, where the father was a coal miner. Joseph was a door tender in the mines at the age of eight. When he was twelve his father sustained an in- jury which incapacitated him, and the son was per- mitted to work as a full-fledged miner to assist in the support of the family. On May 11, 1884, he was united in marriage to Ann, a daughter of Isaac Williams and his wife, Sarah, of Welsh parentage. In 1886 they came to America, settling at Summit Hill, where Mr. Garrett was employed as a miner until 1910. He was then appointed as a justice of the peace by Governor Stuart. In 1911 he was elected to the same office for the full term of six years, in which ca- pacity he is still serving. Mr. and Mrs. Garrett are the parents of the follow- ing children : Mary, wife of Thomas Thomas ; Eliza- beth, wife of Daniel Davis, a member of the Carbon