History Of The Development of The Coal
Industry In Schuylkill County
pp. 43 -
46
Pioneer Coal Stage.-The birth of the great anthracite coal
industry will bear date from 1820, when three hundred and sixty-five tons of
anthracite were sent to Philadelphia from the headwaters of the Lehigh river.
From that time forward capital has advanced its millions to carry on the coal
trade, whose proportions increase with each succeeding year.
From 1795, when anthracite was first
burned in a smith-shop until 1820, when it was used for fuel in Philadelphia,
was a quarter of a century, during which period it grew slowly into public
favor. In 1808 Judge Jesse Fell first burned it in a grate. Four years later
Col. George Shoemaker, of Pottsville, took nine wagon loads of anthracite to
Philadelphia, where he sold two loads for the cost of their transportation, and
gave the other seven away. He was branded as an impostor, who was trying to
sell black stones for coal. He induced Mellon & Bishop to try his black
rocks in their Delaware county rolling mill, and the test gave anthracite coal
to the world as the best possible fuel to be found. Colonel Shoemaker
accompanied his coal to the rolling mill, where the foreman pronounced the coal
to be stones, and of no account for heating purposes. Early the next morning
Shoemaker and Mellon, who was a practical workman, kindled a fire with wood in
one of the furnaces and placed the coal on the burning wood. They were then
called to breakfast, and on returning they found the furnace in a perfect glow
of white heat. The iron was heated in much less than the usual time, and passed
through the rolls with unusual facility. The test brought an apology from the
foreman, and caused Mellon & Bishop to notice its value and usefulness in
the Philadelphia newspapers.
The first coal shipments by the canal
were made in 1822, when 1,480 tons were poled down the line. Three years later
came a wonderful rush of operators and speculators into the county-men who sought
to win millions in a short time by speculation in the "black
diamonds" that were in constant demand in the great manufacturing cities
of the Atlantic seaboard. Land rose to fabulous prices, and two years later,
when revulsion came, many lost their investments instead of having secured a
fortune.
The early methods of mining were
primitive and crude. The windlass and bucket were used to hoist the coal from
the pit until, at thirty or forty feet, the water drove them out to commence a
new pit. The gin worked by horsepower succeeded the windlass, and in a short
time the pit was abandoned to open the veins at the foot of the hills by
drifts. There the coal was first taken out by wheelbarrows, and successively by
horse and mule power over wooden railways.
The next great trouble encountered was
laborious and expensive transportation from the mouth of the pit or drift to
the canal. The pick, the hammer, the shovel and the riddle were used on the
surface to fit the coal for transportation, and then it was loaded into wagons
and hauled to the canal, often at a cost of twenty-five cents per ton for each
mile. In 1829, 79,973 tons were nearly all hauled in wagons and then the
operators commenced to suggest railroads from the mines to the canal, while in
the same year another event occurred that was important in the history of the
county -- the building of the Union canal to connect the waters of the
Susquehanna and the Schuylkill.
Union Canal -In 1828 it was proposed to make a dam
across. Swatara gap as a reservoir for this canal, that was to connect the
Susquehanna with the Schuylkill; but the citizens along Swatara creek objected,
as it would destroy their rafting, and after various projects had been
discussed it was resolved to construct a canal along that creek, with the
exception of two miles of slackwater near the county line, in what was then the
little dam. Work was commenced in 1828, and during 1829 was prosecuted along
the entire line. The canal was so
far completed on November 30, 1830, that boats passed through it to Pine Grove,
and on December 3rd left that place for Philadelphia. As first constructed the
canal was capable of bearing boats whose capacity was twenty-eight tons, but
when the coal trade increased this great water-way was increased iii size.
Growth of Coal Production -- In 1829 the following five railroads
from the shipping ports to the mines were put under construction:
The Schuylkill Valley Railroad, running
ten miles from Port Carbon to Tuscarora, and having fifteen branches.
The Mill Creek railroad, running four
miles from Port Carbon up the Valley of Mill Creek,
The Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven
railroad, running fifteen miles from Schuylkill Haven to Broad mountain, and
having five miles of branches.
The Mt. Carbon railroad, running seven
miles from Mt. Carbon up the east and west branches of Norwegian creek.
The Little Schuylkill railroad, running
twenty miles from Port Clinton to Tamaqua.
The superstructure of all these roads was
a wooden rail, strapped with flat bar iron, and the motive power was horses.
During 1830 the coal market became
overstocked, and the price declined. The next year was no better, but 1832
brought an increased trade and abundant prosperity, although the boatmen
charged extortionate prices at times for boats. In the last-named year a coal
mining association was formed for the county, and it reported the total capital
invested in the trade at $7,106,000. In 1833 an outcry was made against
incorporated coal companies, and a successful trade in 1834 was followed in the
next year by the boatmen's strike, which terminated in a descent of three
hundred arid fifty of them on Pottsville, where they were routed and their
leaders captured. The year 1836 witnessed high wages, scarcity of boats and a
good price for coal.
In 1837 Col. John M. Crossland took the
first boat load of coal from Pottsville to New York, and established the direct
coal trade with that city. The succeeding year ushered into existence the first
incorporated mining company, against the protest of the people and the veto of
the Governor, which was defeated by the House passing the bill over his head by
the requisite majority. This company was incorporated as the Offerman Mining
Company; but its charter never became operative.
About this time the discovery was made
that iron ore could be smelted by anthracite, and the iron trade received new
impetus, which was dampened in 1839 by a flood and a depression that continued
throughout 1840 In 1841 times were better, but in 1842 a strike among the
miners occurred on Thursday, July 7, which was crushed bloodlessly by the
sheriff with the Orwigsburg and Schuylkill Haven volunteer companies.
The year 1842 witnessed a great change in
the transportation of coal to market when the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
Company entered the field as a rival to the Schuylkill Navigation Company. The
opening of tile Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was celebrated by a public
dinner and ball at Pottsville, on January 11 arid the railroad company
immediately reduced the cost of transportation to $1.11, but the producers
instead of benefiting by this reduction in freight charges foolishly reduced
their coal from twenty-five to fifty cents per ton on board boats at the
landings. The trade became sluggish, wages had fallen to $5.25 per week to
miners and $4.20 to laborers, and the coal producers ordering all wages payable
in "store orders" precipitated the strike of that year among the
miners who demanded cash for their work The Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven
Railroad was the first road in the country put in condition for the passage of
the steam cars of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, and on May 2l,
1842. A train of fifty cars carrying one hundred fifty tons of coal left
Schuykill Haven
At 4 o'clock in the morning and their
contents was discharged into a vessel that set sail from Port Richmond for an
eastern port in the evening of the same day. Thus the railroad superseded the
canal and made possible the full future development of the coal region and the
rapid movement of vast quantities of coal which the canal would have been
unable to have accomplished.
In 1842 efforts were commenced to improve
the methods of breaking coal, which resulted two years later in the huge coal
breakers of the present day. From breaking by hand through iron rod screens
with two-inch meshes, John White introduced wire screens with meshes of various
dimensions to save the consumers all trouble of breaking.
In 1842 the penitentiary breaker was
introduced. It consisted of a perforated cast iron plate through which the coal
was broken by hammers, the coal falling into a hopper from which it passed into
a circular screen worked either by hand, horse-power or by steam. In 1844 the
modern coal breaker, patented by Joseph Batten, of Philadelphia, was introduced
at Gideon Bast's Wolf Creek colliery, and soon came into use throughout the
whole legion.
The breaker consists of two or more cast
iron rollers with projecting teeth that revolve toward each other and through
which the coal passes and is broken into the required sizes. After being broken
it passes into revolving circular screens which separate the different sizes
which drop into a set of schutes or bins, ready to be transferred by the
raising of a gate into the railway cars. The dump schutes above the rollers
always have elevation sufficient to carry the coal by gravity through the
rollers, screens and bins into the cars. The entire breaker and screening
machinery is generally driven by a steam engine of fifteen to forty horsepower.
The next move for the improvement of the
coal trade was the reconstruction of the transporting railroads from the mines
to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, These roads - now called lateral
roads - were all reconstructed by 1845, and were operated, with a few exceptions,
by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. The operators were now saved
the expense of keeping up their own transportation cars, but were dependent on
the railroad company for transportation facilities; and liable to losses by a
shortage of cars and their unfair distribution. On March 10, 1846, the
president of the railroad company met the operators, many landholders and the
wharf-holders of Port Richmond, at convention at Pottsville, to arrange for an
equitable distribution of cars for the ensuing season and to prevent in the
future the complaints of injustice in that direction in the past.
During the four years succeeding 1842 the
Schuylkill Navigation Company learned that it was in changer of losing the bulk
of its coal tonnage and took steps to improve its facilities and enlarge its
capacities of navigation.
These changes were made by the close of
1846. Boats of from one hundred and eighty to one hundred and ninety tons could
be floated on the canal; new docks, new wharves and landings were provided at
the shipping ports, and cars were furnished in which to transport the coal from
the mines to the canal.
There were one hundred and ten operators
and one hundred forty two collieries in the county, and the active competition
of the canal and the railroad company promised increased prosperity to mine
owners and operators.
p. 48
On the 18th and 19th of July, 1850, a great flood swept down
the Schuylkill valley and so suspended navigation that the coal supply was
restricted and the operators were benefited for a time; yet their greatest
prosperity came directly after the second flood that swept down and over the
Schuylkill valley on September 2d. This last flood was the most fearful that
had ever visited the county since its settlement by the whites, and in its
pathway, of ruin lay the wreck of a vast amount of property. It burst Tumbling
run reservoir, forty-two feet in height and covering an area of twenty-eight acres,
with a capacity of 23,000,000 cubic feet of water, and sent its immense volume
into -he raging torrents gathered from a hundred tributary streams.
By this second flood the canal was rendered useless for the
remainder of the year, coal went up in price, and the railroad company could
hardly furnish transportation for the demand of coal.
pp. 168 – 170
On
the Little Schuylkill branch of the Philadelphia and Reading and the Tamaqua
branch of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad, seventeen and one-half miles
from Pottsville, is Tamaqua, which was taken from the territory of Schuylkill
and West Penn townships. In 1799 Berkhard Moser settled on the site of
Tarnaqua, where he built a saw-mill and two years later erected a log house. In
1817 Moser discovered coal, which was successfully mined until 1874, when the
breakers were burned and the mines ruined, at a loss of $1,500,000 to their
owners.
For
twenty-five years after 1799 but few dwellings were erected. The town was laid
out from parts of West Penn and Schuylkill townships in 1829, at which time the
population was about 150. The design was to name it Tuscarora, but some
enterprising person arose too early in the morning for the pioneers and gave
that Indian name to the village four miles west As the waters of the Tamaqua,
rechristened Wabash, the west branch of the Little Schuylkill, passed through
the tract, it was decided to name the infant with the name of the creek,
Tamaqua, which is Indian for ̉running water."
The
town was incorporated in 1832, and improvements of a substantial character in
1846 were commenced which have been continued up to the present time. In 1849
the borough built water-works, and thirty years later commenced to organize
their present well-equipped fire department. In the flood of 1850, over sixty
persons, it is said, were drowned in the borough. Greenwood Roiling Mill was
built in 1865, and Tamaqua Shoe Factory in 1874. The latter lay idle for about
eleven years after 1877, and then the building passed into the hands of the
Tamaqua Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Company, which was started by H. A. Weldy
in 1888, and is now managed by his son Clarence. The factory gives employment
to 45 persons, and the annual output is worth $50,000.
Tamaqua
has two banks. The First National Bank of Tamaqua was incorporated in 1865, and
surrendered its charter as a State banking institution. It was originally
organized as the Anthracite Bank in 1850. The amount of Capital stock paid in
is $100,000. This bank suspended payment October 14, 1878, and resumed just a
month later. This embarrassment occurred in consequence of the failure of
Charles F. Shoener. The bank has always been a paying institution. The surplus
is now $70,000. Its present officers are: E. J. Fry. president, and Wallace Guss,
acting cashier.
The
second bank of Tamaqua is the Tamaqua Banking and Trust Company, which
commenced business in 1865. At the time of organization Daniel Shepp was
elected president, and H. A. Spiese cashier. Its present board of directors
are: Dr. C. H. Drehr, Philip Kolb, W. S. Allabach, David Zehner, H. A. Weldy.
Joseph Mitchell, L F. Fritch, Daniel Shepp and Al. Leopold. H. A. Spiese was
succeeded by Al. Leopold, the present cashier. Capital stock, $78,000; paid-up
stock, $47,000, and reserved stock, $21,000.
The
Tamaqua and Lansford Street Railway Company was organized November 2, 1891, by
F. P. Spicse, Robert Harris, D. D. Phillips. J. R. Coyle and C. W. Eberle. The
officers are: F. P. Spiese. president; A. P. Blakslee, secretary; and P. J.
Ferguson, treasurer.
The
intention of this organization is to construct an electric railway from Tamaqua
to Lansford and Summit Hill. The whole line, when completed, will cover a
distance of about seven miles, and it is intended to employ the very latest improvements
in the equipment and construction of the road, and have all appointments
first-class. The company has an authorized capital of $50,000.
The
Edison Electric Illuminating Company, of Tamaqua, was incorporated July 8,
1885, with an authorized capital of $30,000. It was organized with the
following officers: Henry A. Weldy. president; F. P. Spiese, secretary and
manager; and C. H. WeIdy, treasurer. The directors were: H. A. Weldy, F. P.
Spiese, Dr. C. B. Dreher, Daniel Shepp and Samuel Brode.
The
officers in 1893 were: Daniel Shepp, president; and F. P. Spiese, secretary,
treasurer and manager. The present directors are: Daniel Shepp, F. P. Spiese,
Dr. C. B. Dreher, H. A. Weldy and Samuel Brode.
The
Tamaqua
Legion
was started in 1849 by J. M. & D. C. Reinhart, the name being changed soon
afterwards to the Tamaqua Gazette,
subsequently to the Tamaqua Anthracite Gazette. The paper suspended publication in 1861
for two months, and was then sold to R. L. Leyburn, who changed the name to the
Anthracite Journal.
Captain Leyburn entered the civil war a year later. Messrs. Fry & Jones
assumed proprietorship until he returned.
The
paper was then sold to the Monitor Publishing Company, and published as the Saturday
Courier until it was
sold to Eveland & Shiffert in 1871. In 1872 Mr. Shiffert's interest was
purchased by Robert Harris. The firm later purchased the material of the Anthracite
Monitor, a labor-reform
journal, started in 1871, and which at one time had an immense circulation and
influence. They thus acquired the title to the old Legion, and all the honors of the first
printing establishment Tamaqua ever had.
In
1878 Daniel M. Eveland retired, and Harris & Zeller took charge. Tamaqua
then boasted of two daily papers - the Item, published by Levi Huppert, and the Courier, by Eveland & Harris. They, however,
were short-lived.
In
1881 the Courier
partnership was dissolved, Robert Harris becoming the sole proprietor. The
paper has since been published, up to June, 1893, as a weekly, when Robert
Harris made it semi-weckly. It is a four-page, six- column paper, independent
in politiccs, and has a good circulation.
The
Tamaqua Recorder was founded in May, 1892, by Robert H. Hirsh, the present
editor and proprietor. It is a four-page, seven column weekly, and has a good
local circulation.
pp. 141 – 143
Railroads.-The
first railroad in the State of Pennsylvania was the one built by Abraham Pott,
in Schuylkill county, in 1826. This road was a half-mile in length and ran from
Mr. Pott's coal mine to the mouth of Mill creek.
It
was equipped with wooden rails, and its cars of one and a half tons coal
capacity were drawn by horses, a horse being able to draw thirteen cars.
R.
A. Wilder, who served for many years as chief engineer and superintendent of
the Mine Hill, Railroad thus describes the railroads if the county in 1881
"The railroad system of' Schuylkill
county embraces a network of roads more extensive and intricate than that of
any other region of equal extent in the country. These roads ramify in all
parts of the county where coal is mined, follow the windings of the streams
through the many valleys and ravines, climb the mountains, over plains or by
winding along their sides, or pass under them through tunnels. They enter the
mines, to all parts of which they extend; and it is a well known fact that a
greater number of miles of railroad run beneath the surface than above it in
this county. Like the ramifications of the vascular system of an animal, these
branches unite in a few main lines, which carry to the different markets the
immense amounts of coal that are brought to them from the mines to which the
branches extend.
"What are known as the lateral
railroads of Schuylkill county were first constructed to accommodate the Schuylkill
canal with a coal tonnage from the district south of the Mine hill and east of
the west branch, covering an area of between sixty and seventy square miles.
Previous to the construction of the laterals, the coal openings had been made
in the immediate vicinity of the canal; no one was more than half a mile
distant, and the tracks running to the loading place were no more than
extensions of the mine roads a short distance beyond the mouths of the drifts.
The mine tracks were very primitive. They consisted of notched cross ties
(sleepers) on which a wooden rail, three by four or four by six inches, was
laid and fastened by wooden keys driven in by the side of the rail. The gauge
of the track was made to suit the fancy of the owner; but the average was forty
inches. The mine cars held about a ton of coal and slate, and the wheels were
loose upon the axle, like those of a wagon. There was usually a platform upon
which the coal was dumped for the purpose of separating the impurities before
loading, as breakers had not then been introduced."
The
early lateral roads were: Mine Hill, commenced in 1828; Mill Creek, 1829;
Schuylkill Valley, 1829; Norwegian and Mt. Carbon, 1830, and the Little
Schuylkill.
We
give the following list of railroads of Schuylkill county in the order in which
they were chartered and the years, so far as could be obtained. in which they
were opened:
Union
Canal, 1826, about 1830 to junction; Little Schuylkill, 1828, 1832; Mine Hill
and Schuylkill Haven, 1828, 1831; Schuylkill Valley, 1828, first part of
railroad, 1830; Mill Creek, 1828, partly opened 1829; Mount Carbon, 1829, 1848;
Catawissa, 1831, 1854; Swatara, 1831, about 1840; Philadelphia and Reading,
1838, 1842; Mt. Carbon and Port Carbon, 1842, 1844; Schuylkill and Susquehanna,
1844, 1855 East Mahanoy, 1854, 1863; Lehigh and Mahanoy, 1857, 1865; Mahanoy
and Broad Mountain, 1859, 1860; Nesquehoning Valley, 1861, 1864; Mountain Link,
1859, 1864; The Peoples', 1865, 1872. Girard Railroad to develop Girard coal
lands never fully opened and long since abandoned. It consisted of several
inclined planes and intervening levels. It was laid out from the Schuylkill to
the Susquehanna, and the eastern end constructed, but not much used, as the
whole scheme was an error in transportation.
During
the past twelve years several important railroad facilities have been added to
the previous liberal distribution of tracks to all parts of the county of
Schuylkill.
There
is probably no area in the United States of equal extent containing so many miles
of railroad as are in operation here; and in no other territory is such a vast
tonnage collected for die trunk lines leading to the great commercial marts.
Among
the most important railroads recently constructed in Schuylkill county are the
Pennsylvania, Schuylkill Valley Railroad, and the Schuylkill and Lehigh Valley
Railroad. The former was built and is operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad
Co., and the latter by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co.
The
first named follows the general course of the Schuylkill Valley from
Philadelphia to Pottsville, and thence pushes northward across the Broad
mountain into the middle coal field in the vicinity of Shenandoah, where it
makes connections with other railroads. It also joins the Lehigh and Mahanoy
division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad near Delano, and thence to the upper
Lehigh region, and into the Susquehanna Valley. This line was opened to traffic
about 1886 or 1887. A branch road extends from Pottsville via Fishback to
Minersville and new coal operations of the Lytle Coal Co., west of Minersville.
The
Schuylkill and Lehigh Valley Railroad extends from the Lehigh Valley Railroad
at Lizard Creek junction to Blackwood Collieries, near Tremont, a distance of
forty miles from the Lehigh river, and was opened to traffic in 1890. There is
a branch road from West Wood junction connecting with the Peoples' Railway, and
by it entering the borough of Minersville, and also extending to the York Farm
Collieries near Pottsville. This road connects with the P. & S. V. R. R. at
Schuylkill Haven, and enters Pottsville over that line under a contract.
A
branch of the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad has been extended to the New Boston
Collieries on the Broad mountain, which also connects with the northern
division of the P. & S. V. R. R.P by which the Lehigh Valley Railroad
trains enter Pottsville from the north under contract.
These
railroads are constructed in the most substantial manner, and may, in the near
future, become parts of trunk roads to the north and south in accordance with
projected lines and surveys.
The
Electric Railway System is beginning to furnish means for inter-communication
between the towns of Schuylkill county, which will add greatly to their
convenience of access.
The
lines already constructed and in operation are the Schuylkill Electric Railway,
extending from Yorkville through Pottsville and Palo Alto to Port Carbon, with
branches to Fishback and the Upper Tumbling Run lake, and the Schuylkill
Traction Railway, located in the Mahanoy Valley and furnishing facilities of
travel to the many flourishing mining towns, and coal operations built up in
that important part of the anthracite coal field. Both of these roads are
operated by the trolley system, and appear to possess value as an investment,
which will be greatly increased with growing economics; in the power
department. The wasted energy of fuel is a terrible drain upon the commercial
application of steam, whether applied direct to the movement of machinery and
trains, or through the medium of the generated electric current.
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