f/ru
/ 4-' '
?7 ^13.
'4-S9X
xlH PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA S "*
/
A RECORD OF THE
REMARKABLE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF
THE KEYSTONE STATE,
WITH
SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS EARLY AND ITS LATER
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, ITS EARLY
SETTLERS, AND ITS PROMINENT MEN.
BY
oort
JAMES M. SWANK,
SECRETARY AND GENERAL MANAGER OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION FOR
THIRTY-SIX YEARS, FROM 1872 TO 1908. AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE MANUFAC-
TURE OF IRON IN ALL AGES AND OF OTHER HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS.
Remember the days of old ; consider the years of many generations ; ask thy father
and he will shew thee; thy elders and they will tell thee.— Deuteronomy, xxxii. 7.
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.— Psalms, lxxvii. 5.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
1908.
iitan
lfj«*<
•JP'
*m
DEC 22 190?
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 19QS,
BY JAMES M. SWANK,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Printed by
J. B. Lippincott Co.
The Washington Square Press
Philadelphia.
PREFACE.
This volume contains my final contribution to the industrial history
of our country and particularly of my native State. My long connection
with the work of the American Iron and Steel Association has made me
acquainted with many important facts relating to the industrial develop-
ment of Pennsylvania, including its systems of transportation, which are
not to be found in any of the accepted histories of the State but which
are abundantly worthy of preservation. These I have recorded in the
following pages. In the arrangement of these facts I have conceived it
to be necessary to present first a background of the leading incidents in
the early history of Pennsylvania. In compiling these incidents I have
given prominence to some features of the early history of the province
which in my opinion deserve wider recognition than they have received.
These include the presence of settlers on the Delaware long before the
granting of Penn's charter ; the text of important parts of the charter
itself ; the people who settled Pennsylvania after the granting of the char-
ter, including the large number of redemptioners ; the existence of negro
slavery in Pennsylvania and when and by whom the agitation for its abo-
lition was set on foot ; the text of the act providing for this abolition, a
much overrated measure ; the cause of the estrangement of the peaceful
Delaware Indians ; the physical characteristics of Pennsylvania ; and the
animal life of the province. After the presentation of these and other
features of the early history of Pennsylvania I have passed to the means
of transportation that were employed by the pioneers and by those who
came after them — the early roads, flatboats, keel boats, ferries, bridges,
turnpikes, canals, steamboats, and railroads, and these details are followed
by several chapters which deal with the great productive industries of
the State. Included in these chapters I have given the early history
of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's industrial centre and the world's industrial
wonder. The prominence of Pennsylvania as the leading industrial State
of the Union is presented in connection with some account of the lead-
ing industries of the whole country. A chronological chapter follows
which gives a record of many notable industrial events in the history
of both the State and the country. This chapter really embodies a vast
amount of information the value of which would have justified its pre-
sentation in more elaborate form. The book closes with a number of
chapters that are devoted to biographical sketches of some eniinent
Pennsylvanians, most of whom have been prominently identified with the
history and development of Western Pennsylvania, and some of whom
have not been honored by their fellow citizens as they have deserved.
This volume deals with exact statements. My long familiarity with
the compilation and analysis of industrial statistics has impressed me
with the value of statistical methods in the presentation of historical
facts. Hence in the preparation of this volume my aim has been first
to secure exact information upon such subjects as were deemed worthy
IV PREFACE.
of consideration and next to present this information in a form as con-
densed as possible and always in logical and chronological order. Neces-
sarily at the outset severe limitations had to be placed upon the subjects
to be treated. The book was not intended to be in any sense a history
of Pennsylvania — not even an exhaustive history of its leading industries.
The purpose and scope of the book are fully stated in the title-page.
Such important subjects as the military history of Pennsylvania and the
history of its schools of learning, all of which shed lustre on the whole
history of the State, have been passed over because they were not really
essential to the proof of the proposition that Pennsylvania is a great
industrial and every way progressive State.
In selecting the subjects to be considered in this volume our iron
and steel industries, the greatest of all the manufacturing industries of
the State, have received special attention. In dealing with this subject
I have made free use of my previous historical investigations, particu-
larly as they are recorded in Iron in AH Ages. I have done this not
only because that antiquarian volume is but little known to the pres-
ent generation, making appropriate the reproduction of such of its lead-
ing facts as relate to Pennsylvania, but because some of the historical
facts which it records must necessarily be republished in condensed form
if later details which bring the record of the iron and steel achieve-
ments of the Commonwealth down to the present time are to possess
their full significance.
In "Authorities Consulted" I have given credit to the large num-
ber of historical and statistical publications that have helped me in the
preparation of this volume, quoting freely, with proper credit, from some
and but slightly if at all from others. The treasures of the library of
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and of other Philadelphia libraries
have been generously opened for my examination. I am also indebted
to many friends for letters containing historical data of great value. A
General Index and a Personal Index will assist the reader in his search
for any particular information.
As would naturally be supposed by the reader, the utmost pains
have been taken to prevent the insertion in the following pages of any
errors affecting dates, proper names, or other historical details. If any
such errors should be observed, or any serious omissions of historical
facts, the blame can not be laid to haste in composition. It is simply
impossible in a work which embraces thousands of names and thousands
of dates that every one should be correctly given. In the preparation of
the copy for the book and in the proof-reading I have had the bene-
fit of valuable suggestions and other help from every member of my
clerical staff, an obligation which I cheerfully acknowledge. The tail-
piece illustrations are reproduced from pen and ink sketches by Miss
Anna M. Wirth, all but one being original studies. My thanks are due
to the J. B. Lippincott Company for the excellent manner in which the
book has been printed and bound. j. is. s.
Philadelphia, No. 261 South Fourth Street, October 1, 1908.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
The Life of William Perm. By Samuel M. Janney. 1852.
William Penn. By Augustus C. Buell. 1904.
Life of John Heckewelder. By the Rev. Edward Rondthaler. 1847.
Washington and the West. By Archer Butler Hulbert. 1905.
Washington After the Revolution. By William S. Baker. 1892.
An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of
Colonel James Smith. 1799.
Journal of William Maclay. 1789-1791. 1890.
Memorial of Thomas Potts, Junior. By Mrs. Thomas Potts James. 1874.
Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania. Sherman Day. 1843.
Early History of Western Pennsylvania and the West. I. D. Rupp. 1846.
A Gazetteer of the State of Pennsylvania. By Thomas F. Gordon. 1832.
The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. By John Fiske. 1901.
The Making of Pennsylvania. By Sydney George Fisher. 1896.
Pennsylvania, Colony and Commonwealth. By Sydney George Fisher. 1897.
The Story of the Palatines. By Sanford H. Cobb. 1897.
Two Centuries of Pennsylvania History. By Isaac Sharpless. 1900.
A Quaker Experiment in Government. By Isaac Sharpless. 1902.
Continental Sketches of Distinguished Pennsylvanians. By D. R. B. Nevin.
Pennsylvania Dutch and Other Essays. By Phebe Earle Gibbons. 1882.
The Germans in Colonial Times. By Lucy Forney Bittinger. 1901.
German Religious Life in Colonial Times. By Lucy Forney Bittinger. 1906.
The Huguenot Emigration to America. By Charles W. Baird, D.D. 1885.
Memorials of the Huguenots in America. By Rev. A. Stapleton. 1901.
The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania. By Julius Friedrich Sachse. 1895.
The Fatherland. By Julius Friedrich Sachse. 1897.
German Emigration to America. By Rev. Henry Eyster Jacobs, D.D.,
LL.D. 1898.
German Exodus to England in 1709. By Frank Ried Diffenderffer. 1897.
German Immigration into Pennsylvania. Frank Ried Diffenderffer. 1900.
The Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania. 1899.
The German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania. By Oscar
Kuhns. 1901.
Recollections of Persons and Places in the West. By H. M. Brackenridge.
The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania. By Charles H. Lincoln.
The Old National Road. By Archer Butler Hulbert. 1901.
Historic Highways of America. By Archer Butler Hulbert. 1904.
The Ohio River. By Archer Butler Hulbert. 1906.
History of The People of the United States. By John Bach McMaster.
Pennsylvania. Pioneer and State. By Albert S. Bolles, Ph.D., LL.D. 1899.
Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. By John F. Watson. 1857.
Old Redstone. By Joseph Smith, D.D. 1854.
Pioneer Outline History of Northwestern Pennsylvania. By W. J. Mc-
Knight, M.D. 1905.
History of American Manufactures. By J. Leander Bishop, M.D. 1861.
Iron In All Ages. By James M. Swank. 1892.
VI AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
Pennsylvania, Colonial and Federal. By Howard M. Jenkins. 1903.
Hazard's Gazetteer of Pennsylvania.
History of Pennsylvania. By Robert Proud. 1798.
History of Pennsylvania. By William H. Egle.
Presbyterian Centenary Memorial. Pittsburgh. 1876.
The Moravian Manual. By Rev. E. De Schweinitz. 1859.
A History of Bethlehem, Pa. By Bishop Joseph Mortimer Levering. 1903.
History of Braddock's Expedition. Edited by Winthrop Sargent. 1855.
The Old Northwest. By B. H. Hinsdale, Ph.D. 1898.
American Animals. By Stone and Cram. 1902.
Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. By Samuel N. Rhoads. 1903.
The Olden Time. By Neville B. Craig. 1846.
History of Pittsburgh. By Neville B. Craig. 1851.
The French in the Allegheny Valley. By T. J. Chapman. 1887.
Old Pittsburgh Days. By T. J. Chapman. 1900.
Pennsylvania and the Centennial Exhibition. Official Report. 1878.
Old Westmoreland. By Edgar W. Hassler. 1900.
History of the County of Westmoreland. By George Dallas Albert. 1882.
History of Westmoreland County. By John N. Boucher. 1906.
The Scotch-Irish. By Charles A. Hanna. 1902.
The Scotch-Irish in America. Scotch-Irish Society of America.
History of Somerset County. By William Welfley. 1906.
Diary of David Zeisberger. Edited by Eugene F. Bliss. 1885.
Fort Pitt. By Wm. M. Darlington. 1892.
History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. By W. B. Wilson. 1895.
Fiftieth Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. 1896.
The Monongahela of Old. By James Veech.
Old and New Monongahela. By John S. Van Voorhis, A.M., M.D. 1893.
The Old Pike. A History of the National Road. By T. B. Searight. 1894.
The Oil Regions of Pennsylvania. By William Wright. 1865.
State Book of Pennsylvania. By Thomas H. Burrowes. 1847.
Historical Sketch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 1853.
Canals and Railroads of the United States. By Henry S. Tanner. 1840.
Tunneling. By Henry S. Drinker. 1878.
Transportation Systems in the United States. By J. L. Ringwalt. 1888.
History of American Steam Navigation. By John H. Morrison. 1903.
History of the Lumber Industry of America. By James E. Defebaugh.
History of Fayette County. By Franklin Ellis. 1882.
History of Crawford County. 1888.
History of Bedford, Somerset, and Fulton Counties. 1884.
History of Cambria County. By Henry Wilson Storey. 1907.
History of Bucks County. By William W. H. Davis. 1905.
Cyclopaedia of Indiana and Armstrong Counties. 1891.
Essays and Speeches of Jeremiah S. Black. By Chauncey F. Black. 1886.
Historical and Biographical Sketches. By Samuel W. Pennypacker. 1883.
The Settlement of Germantown. By Samuel W. Pennypacker. 1899.
Year Books of the Pennsylvania Society. By Barr Ferree.
The St. Clair Papers. By William Henry Smith. 1882.
Andrew Carnegie. The Man and His Work. By Barnard Alderson. 1902.
Reports of the United States Geological Survey.
Reports of the United States Census.
And many others.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PACE
1. The Lack of Civic Pride in Pennsylvania 1
2. The Founding of Pennsylvania 11
3. The People Who Settled Pennsylvania 26
4. Redemptioners and Other Bonded Servants 43
5. Negro Slavery in Pennsylvania 54
6. The Delaware Indians , 70
7. Physical Characteristics of Pennsylvania 75
8. Animal Life in Pennsylvania 88
9. Buffaloes in Pennsylvania 96
10. Early Transportation in Pennsylvania 102
11. Early Navigation in Pennsylvania ... 114
12. Early Steamboats in Pennsylvania 124
13. Early Canals in Pennsylvania 130
14. The Building of the Pennsylvania Canal 139
15. The Pennsylvania Canal in Operation '. 149
16. Early Railroads in the United States 156
17. Early Railroads in Pennsylvania 165
18. The Great Industries of Pennsylvania 174
19. The Early Iron Industry of Pennsylvania '. . 185
20. The Manufacture of Iron and Steel Rails 202
21. Cornwall and Other Iron Ores 216
22. Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania 224
23. Industries Developed by Pennsylvanians 229.
24. Industries Created by Pennsylvanians 240
25. Early Chain and Wire Bridges 248
26. The Early History of Pittsburgh 255
27. Chronological Record of Important Events 267
28. The Muhlenberg Family of Pennsylvania 289
29. General Arthur St. Clair 298
30. Albert Gallatin 312
31. A Man of Letters 316
32. Two Men from Somerset 331
33. A Champion of Protection 342
34. Other Noted Western Pennsylvanians 349
B&M*
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER I.
THE LACK OF CIVIC PRIDE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
Pkominent Pennsylvanians have repeatedly and forci-
bly called attention to the lack of civic pride in Pennsyl-
vania, and they have had good reason for their criticism.
It has been truthfully said that we even neglect to claim
for our military heroes the honors that are their due. The
winter at Valley Forge, which marked the supreme crisis
of the Revolution, and the battle of Gettysburg, which de-
termined the fate of the Southern Confederacy, are events
in the history of Pennsylvania to which its people might
point with greater pride than they do. The achievements
of eminent Pennsylvanians in war and in peace are not
taught to the children of the State in their school-books
or commemorated to any considerable extent in monu-
ments, or statues, or bronze tablets, so that the present
generation of Pennsylvanians and succeeding generations
may be reminded of the deeds of these great men and
be inspired to noble deeds themselves. The story of the
founding of Pennsylvania by that great man, William Penn,
is inadequately told in our school histories. The geography
and the history of Pennsylvania are so imperfectly taught
in our schools and colleges that many Pennsylvanians
who are supposed to be liberally educated do not know
how many capitals the State has had or where and when
the important battle of Bushy Run was fought. It is not,
therefore, to be wondered at that a Philadelphia newspa-
per writer not long ago said that York, Pennsylvania, is
farther away from Baltimore than Philadelphia. Yet York
is one of the oldest and one of the most noted cities in
the State. The Continental Congress sat at York for nine
months during the Revolution, from September 30, 1777,
to June 27, 1778, and two signers of the Declaration died
2 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
and are buried there, Philip Livingston, of New York, and
James Smith, of Pennsylvania.
The pioneer settlers of Pennsylvania endured many
hardships and privations, but their sacrifices and services
are not conspicuously recognized in our day. Only in a
mild way do we observe the scriptural injunction: "Re-
member the days of old; consider the years of many
generations ; ask thy father and he will shew thee, thy
elders and they will tell thee." The Chinese and all other
people who worship their ancestors are more to be com-
mended than the people of Pennsylvania who forget the
pioneers who laid the foundations of a great State. In
very few counties in Pennsylvania are there to be found
societies for the preservation of local history or museums
for the preservation of historical relics.
We are all supposed to be patriotic, but patriotism
and civic pride are not convertible terms. To love one's
country and to fight for it if necessary is one thing ; to be
proud of its pioneers, its past history, its great men, its
industrial achievements, its hospitals and other charities,
its schools and churches, and the intellectual and moral
progress of its people is an entirely different thing. Civic
pride also implies a watchful regard for the good name of
the town or city and the State in which we have our home.
New England is noted for its civic pride, and its peo-
ple are deserving of the highest praise for the veneration
they constantly show for the memories of their ancestors.
In its periodical publications, in public addresses, and in
other ways the history of the early settlement of New
England, the part it has played in the development of
the country, and the work of its great men and women
in the learned professions and in the arts are never for-
gotten. New England is thus being constantly advertised
to the outside world and commended to its own people
for what it has done and for what it is. The literary spirit
has always been cultivated in New England and it has
been largely fed by the inspiration of local themes. All
its great writers have found in its history and customs
and traditions attractive and inspiring subjects for their
fertile pens.
THE LACK OF CIVIC PRIDE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 3
The civic pride which is found in the Southern States
is more notable than that of New England. Without
it there could not have been a four years' war for the
dissolution of the Union. The great sacrifices which the
people of the South made in support of the Lost Cause
could not have been possible but for their pride in them-
selves and in their ancestors. Almost as one man they
united in its support. " The first families of Virginia " was
not in its day an empty phrase ; the people who used it
were typical of a large class. It illustrated the sentiment
of intense loyalty to the South and to Southern traditions.
In the old days Virginians were proud to say that their
State was the mother of Presidents. And how proud they
are to-day that General Robert E. Lee was a Virginian !
The neighboring State of Ohio has shown far more civic
pride than Pennsylvania, although, if the history of the
two States be closely studied, it has not one-half as much
to be proud of as Pennsylvania. But see how its people
have developed a State pride that never ceases to honor
the men who were born on its soil!
Abraham Lincoln's ancestors, on both his father's and
his mother's side, were long residents of Pennsylvania,
and the name of one of his kinsmen, also named Abraham
Lincoln, is honorably associated with its history. General
Grant could trace both his paternal and maternal lineage
through the blood of Pennsylvanians ; indeed this blood
was the dominant strain in his veins, his father's mother
having been Rachel Kelly, of Westmoreland county, Penn-
sylvania, and his own mother, Hannah Simpson, having
been born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. And yet
very few Pennsylvanians know anything of the Pennsyl-
vania ancestry of Lincoln and Grant. Both Rachel Kelly
and Hannah Simpson were of Scotch-Irish extraction.
The Muhlenberg family of Pennsylvania is one of the
most distinguished in our country's history; contributing
as many really great men as any other family in any
colony or State, but Pennsylvanians are not so familiar as
they should be with the achievements of these eminent
Pennsylvania Germans.
In the literary history of Pennsylvania we have had
4 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Bayard Taylor, Thomas Buchanan Read, George H. Boker,
Henry Charles Lea, the eminent historian, and other writ-
ers of prominence, but Pennsylvanians do not have that
regard for the productions of these writers that the peo-
ple of New England have for the creations of their own
great writers. We have had our great judges — Wilson,
and Tilghman, and Gibson, and others, but many Pennsyl-
vanians do not know that such men have ever lived. If
they had lived in New England the whole country would
have heard of them. Bunker Hill monument has no coun-
terpart in Pennsylvania, although great deeds were done
on its soil in colonial and Revolutionary days. There is
a statue of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the distinguished Phila-
delphian, in Washington City, but none in Philadelphia.
It was only within the last few years that a creditable
statue of Franklin was erected in Philadelphia, the gift of
a private citizen.
Philadelphia has not erected any monument, or statue,
or tablet to the memory of its great publicists whose
watchful care of its manufacturing and other industrial
interests has greatly contributed to its prosperity as well
as to the prosperity of the whole country. Mathew and
Henry C. Carey, William D. Kelley, and Samuel J. Randall
are especially worthy of being gratefully remembered
by a city which they so faithfully served and so highly
honored. In the same class we may also place Stephen
Colwell, whose great work on The Ways and Means of
Payment and his other publications should cause Phila-
delphians to hold his memory in honored remembrance.
But few Philadelphians know that this man ever lived.
New England would have thought itself honored if all
these men had lived within its borders.
There is a particularly noticeable lack of civic pride
in that part of Pennsylvania which lies west of the back-
bone of the Allegheny mountains and is properly desig-
nated as Western Pennsylvania. This section of the State,
embracing over one-third of its territorial extent, possesses
a history that is rich in great achievements and in great
men, although settled a full century after the eastern
section. Its inhabitants, particularly the descendants of
THE LACK OF CIVIC PRIDE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 5
its early settlers, have good reason to be proud of its
prominent place in the industrial world, proud of its con-
spicuous share in opening to settlement the vast region
lying west of its own boundaries, proud of its patriotic
record, proud of its men of renown who have passed to
the other side and of others whose work is not yet done.
But these citizens of Western Pennsylvania are singularly
backward in claiming for their section the honors to which
it is justly entitled. Their annals are incomplete and dis-
jointed; there is a lamentable lack of interest in histor-
ical subjects in all Western Pennsylvania — a greater lack
than is noticeable in the earlier settled parts of the State.
There is not published to-day within its borders a single
historical magazine or other historical periodical. It has
few public libraries, and those that are worthy of special
mention have been established in recent years through
the liberality of one man, and he is not " native here
and to the manner born." Its schools of learning and its
charities have not been generously endowed by its rich
men, except in one notable instance, in which the munifi-
cence of the public-spirited citizen already referred to has
established and endowed a' scientific school of wide scope
and great usefulness.
Pittsburgh, the second city in Pennsylvania, has no
monument to the great Pitt, after whom it was named,
or to Washington, who visited its site in 1753, when he
wrote in his journal that the point at the junction of the
Allegheny and Monongahela rivers was "extremely well
situated for a fort." Washington's early military experi-
ence was acquired in efforts to prevent the French from
seizing and holding the point between these rivers where
Pittsburgh now stands. There is no memorial stone or
monument to mark the site of Fort Necessity, in Fayette
county, which Washington surrendered to the French in
1754, or to mark the site of Braddock's defeat in 1755,
or to mark the general's grave on the line of his retreat.
Among the few Indian relics in Pennsylvania was a
large flat stone on a farm in Washington county, upon
which had been carved various curious Indian hieroglyph-
ics that had attracted wide attention from Revolutionary
b PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
times. This stone was blown up recently with dynamite
by the owner of the farm to rid himself of the annoyance
caused by so many visitors to the stone. With the frag-
ments he built a smokehouse.
The trouble with Pennsylvania in all its extent, from
the Delaware river to the Ohio border, is traceable to
many causes. In the first place it has a population that
was originally composed of elements that were not homo-
geneous, like that of New England and the Southern
States, which were settled chiefly by people of English
birth, and that were not even as homogeneous as the pio-
neer population of Ohio ; hence a certain absence from the
beginning of what may be termed local pride such as pre-
vails among a people with a common origin. This lack of
homogeneity is illustrated in the glorification of the Scotch-
Irish by Pennsylvanians of Scotch-Irish ancestry and by
the organization of a strong society composed exclusively
of descendants of the early German settlers of Pennsylva-
nia. Notwithstanding many intermarriages these leading
strains of blood in the settlement of Pennsylvania have
not yet been thoroughly mingled, nor are they likely to
be. Then, too, we had the Quaker settlers of English and
Welsh blood, and we have their descendants to-day, all
of whom have kept themselves apart from their Scotch-
Irish and German neighbors to a very large extent. Few
of these, indeed, have lived in any other part of Penn-
sylvania than Philadelphia and the adjacent territory. In
colonial days there were frequent conflicts between the
dominant Quaker element and the German and Scotch-
Irish settlers. They seldom agreed about anything. The
large German and Irish immigration of the last sixty or
seventy years has introduced other elements that have
further emphasized the mixed character of the people of
Penns3'lvania. The German immigrants in this period
have had few points of resemblance to the early German
settlers, while few of the immigrants from Ireland in the
same period have been Scotch-Irish. Nor should it be
forgotten that in the northern and northwestern parts of
the State and in Philadelphia there is a large infusion of
New England blood.
THE LACK OF CIVIC PRIDE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 7
In the last thirty or thirty-five years the lack of homo-
geneity among the people of Pennsylvania has been con-
spicuously and most painfully emphasized in the invasion
of large sections of the State by hordes of Italians, Slavo-
nians, and other immigrants of distinctly lower types than
the original European settlers of Pennsylvania; hence less
and less civic pride, for what do these people know about
the past of Pennsylvania or about its present achieve-
ments ? Most of them do not even speak the English lan-
guage. They are not Pennsylvanians in any sense.
The negro population of Pennsylvania has largely in-
creased since the civil war. This State has a much larger
negro population than any other Northern State — 156,845
in the census year 1900. Philadelphia has a larger negro
population than any other Northern city and a much
larger negro population than any Southern city except
Washington, Baltimore, and New Orleans. This negro in-
vasion has introduced practically a new and largely an
undesirable element into the population of Pennsylvania,
and it has brought its own train of evils and given the
State nothing to be proud of. There are more negro
voters in Pennsylvania than in any other Northern State.
If undesirable foreigners and undesirable negroes can
not be restrained by law from coming into Pennsylvania
an enlightened public sentiment, which is of the essence
of civic pride, should be aroused to the necessity of secur-
ing by some means all possible protection against one of
the greatest evils that now menace the good name and
the material and moral well-being of the Commonwealth
— the debasement of our population. Western Pennsylva-
nia suffers far more from the influx of undesirable immi-
grants and undesirable negroes than Central or Eastern
Pennsylvania. A recent writer points out in the following
sentences a serious defect in the character of one class
of present-day immigrants which has thousands of rep-
resentatives in Pennsylvania. " The weak point in the
Italian temperament is easily found. It is the hot temper
and the thirst for revenge that go with their passionate
natures. That this is a real handicap no one will deny."
The foreign element and the negro element referred to
8 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
afford a wide field for missionary work by the churches
which has heretofore been greatly neglected. The present
situation is simply deplorable. Worthy negroes and wor-
thy foreigners are, of course, always welcome.
Another cause of the trouble with Pennsylvania is
found in the arduous pursuits of many of its people, who
are now and long have been so largely occupied in such
exhausting employments as the mining of coal, the mak-
ing of coke, the manufacture of iron and steel and glass,
the pumping of oil, the building and operating of canals
and railroads, and the cutting down of forests that they
have not, as a rule, felt the impulse to consult the few
authorities which tell of the past and present achieve-
ments of Pennsylvania, even its industrial achievements, a
knowledge of all of which is surely essential to the devel-
opment of civic pride such as Paul felt when he boasted
that he was " a citizen of no mean city."
It may be frankly admitted that the pursuits of a
people have much to do with their mental development,
their tastes, and their ambition. The people of Western
Pennsylvania especially have been so absorbingly devoted
to the development of its natural resources and so keen to
embrace its exceptionally favorable business opportuni-
ties that the less strenuous and more intellectual side of
life, which appeals to the imagination, to the love of art
and music and elevating literature, and which places a
liberal education above mere money-making, has been in
large part neglected. Its people have even neglected to
adequately record the industrial achievements to the ac-
complishment of which they have been so devoted. West-
ern Pennsylvania has little literature that tells the world
what its whole people have done in leading departments
of human effort.
Lastly, the physical conformation of Pennsylvania has
had very much to do with the lack of civic pride among
its people. The Allegheny mountains form a great natu-
ral barrier between the eastern and the western parts of
the State. Over a century elapsed after the first white
settlements were made on the Delaware before there were
any white settlements whatever in the Allegheny and
THE LACK OF CIVIC PRIDE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 9
Monongahela valleys west of the mountains. Social and
business intercourse between these sections before the days
of railroads was infrequent, and nearly all intercourse be-
tween them to-day is a matter of either business or poli-
tics. There is more business and social intercourse be-
tween Philadelphia and New York than between Phila-
delphia and Pittsburgh. When a rich man in Pittsburgh
decides to change his residence to another city he moves
to New York and not to Philadelphia. The interests of
the two sections are not antagonistic but they are not no-
tably identical. Speaking generally they were not settled
.by the same races. There are comparatively few Penn-
sylvania Germans in Western Pennsylvania, and in the
counties along the Delaware and the Schuylkill there are
few descendants of Scotch-Irish. A common pride in the
great names or the great achievements of either section
has certainly not been promoted by the barrier that has
been mentioned. It has been said that " lands intersected
by a narrow frith abhor each other," and mountain bar-
riers, even when scaled by railroads, undoubtedly exer-
cise an unneighborly if not an unfriendly influence. In-
cidentally it may be mentioned that Pennsylvania is a
State of very great territorial extent. Very few of its
citizens have ever visited all of its sixty-seven counties,
or even the half of them.
The people who settled Eastern Pennsylvania, even the
proprietaries who succeeded Penn, did not concern them-
selves very much about the western part of the State.
A Dutch writer, of Amsterdam, once innocently gave ex-
pression to the popular conception of the extent of. Penn-
sylvania which prevailed for many years after its settle-
ment. He said that Pennsylvania embraces "an exten-
sive tract of land, bounded on the east by the Delaware,
on the north by the present New York, on the west by
the Allegheny mountains, and on the south by Maryland."
The lack of civic pride in Pennsylvanians is thus
seen to be due to several influences, each important and
all contributing to a condition which every loyal Penn-
sylvanian must deplore. The time will doubtless come,
although it may be long delayed, when the citizens of
10 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
this great Commonwealth, although justified in boasting
that they are descended from Scotch-Irish, German, Dutch,
Huguenot, English, Welsh, or other ancestry, will also be
proud to say that they are Pennsylvanians and the de-
scendants of Pennsylvanians, and will point to the monu-
ments that have been erected and to other evidences that
they and their fathers have remembered the days of old.
In the meantime, if there are political or other wrongs
to be righted in Pennsylvania and they are permitted to
continue — if our laws for the regulation of the liquor
traffic and the sweatshops and the employment of children
in factories and in and about coal mines are not made
more stringent and more restrictive than they are — the
fault will lie with those who, whatever their boasting,
still lack the true civic pride that maketh a great people
and, next to righteousness, exalteth a nation.
In the following chapters an attempt will be made to
show that Pennsylvania is entitled to greater honor than
she has yet received from her own citizens, and in the
facts that we shall present particular attention will be
paid to Western Pennsylvania, whose history has hereto-
fore been greatly neglected, especially its industrial his-
tory. First, however, the leading facts which relate to
the early settlement of the province will be presented.
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 11
CHAPTER II.
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The charter of the province of Pennsylvania was
granted to William Penn in March, 1681, in consideration
of a debt of £16,000 due by the king, Charles the Second,
to his father at the time of the latter's death in 1670. Sir
William Penn, the father, had been an admiral of distinc-
tion in the British navy and was a warm personal friend
of the king. The son, therefore, in reality paid nothing for
his province except the payments he made to the Indians.
When Penn received his charter from Charles the Sec-
ond, and in October of the following year sailed up the
Delaware in the good ship Welcome, he was not the first
person to attempt the establishment of a colony of Euro-
peans within the limits of the present Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. " Brave men were living before Agamem-
non." The way had been prepared for Penn's "holy ex-
periment" by the Swedish and Dutch settlers on both the
east and the west banks of the Delaware, and even by
other Englishmen, the Swedes preceding Penn with actual
settlements by about forty-three years, (1638,) the Dutch,
after their victory over the Swedes, by about twenty-six
years, (1655,) and the Duke of York's settlers at Upland
and elsewhere by about seventeen years, (1664). The
Dutch were the first Europeans to explore the Delaware,
but they made no permanent settlements on its west bank
until after the coming of the Swedes. A few Finns came
with the Swedes. When Penn came there were Swedish
settlements on the Delaware above and below the mouth
of the Schuylkill and on the Schuylkill itself, and up
the Schuylkill and lower down the Delaware there were
a few Dutch settlements, while across the Delaware in
West Jersey and on the west side of the river above and
below the site of the future Philadelphia there were a few
English settlements. All these predecessors of Penn estab-
lished and with few exceptions maintained friendly rela-
12 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
tions with the Indians on both banks of the Delaware, so
that, when Penn came with his colonists and his peaceful
intentions, it was easy for him to secure the good will of
these primitive people. Penn was, therefore, in no sense a
pioneer in the settlement of his province, nor did he have
to contend with hostile Indians, as many of the pioneers
in other colonies, and also the early settlers in the interior
of Pennsylvania in after years, had to do. He is entitled
to unending praise for the great and wise work that he
did in founding an empire on the principles of civil and
religious liberty, which were not so generally recognized in
that day as they are now, but the Swedes, the Finns, the
Dutch, and the Duke of York's settlers were here long
before the granting of the famous charter.
Delaware bay was visited by Henry Hudson, then in
the service of the Dutch East India Company, in 1609,
and in 1610 it was visited by Captain Samuel Argall,
commanding an English vessel, who gave it and the river
the name of Delaware in honor of Lord de la Warr, the
governor and captain-general of Virginia. The Indians
had various names for the Delaware river. The Schuylkill
river is supposed to have been discovered in 1616 by Cap-
tain Cornelius Hendricksen, in command of a Dutch vessel,
the Onrust. Hendricksen is said to have named the river
Schuylkill, which means hidden stream, the story being
that, in sailing up the Delaware, he did not notice the
mouth of the Schuylkill, as it was hidden by the over-
hanging foliage, but he observed it on his return. The
Delaware Indians called it Ganshowehanne, meaning wav-
ing stream.
In 1623 or 1624 Captain Cornelius Jacobson Mey, com-
manding a vessel owned by Amsterdam merchants, and
who had previously visited Delaware bay, sailed up the
Delaware and founded Fort Nassau in New Jersey, nearly
opposite Philadelphia, as a trading post with the Indians.
The fort stood for nearly thirty years, when it was aban-
doned. This was the first settlement of white persons on
the Delaware of which there is authentic information,
but it was not in Pennsylvania or in the territory now
embraced in the State of Delaware. In 1643 the Swedes
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 13
built Fort Elfsborg, in West Jersey, near the site of the
present town of Salem, but the fort was abandoned about
two years after it was built, the Dutch resenting the pres-
ence of the Swedes in New Jersey.
In 1631 the Dutch, under David Pietersen DeVries,
founded a settlement which they called Swanandael, on
the west side of Delaware bay, at a point near where the
town of Lewes, in Sussex county, Delaware, is now locat-
ed. This settlement lasted for about one year, when all
the inhabitants, about thirty in number, were massacred
by the Indians. Trading by the Dutch with the Indians
on the Delaware continued, however, without serious dis-
turbance or interruption until 1638, in which year a small
colony, under the auspices of Queen Christina, of Sweden,
sailed up the Delaware in two ships, commanded by Peter
Minuet, with the express purpose of founding a permanent
settlement on the west side of the river. This settlement
was successfully established at Fort Christina, now Wil-
mington. Quarrels more or less serious between the Dutch
and the Swedes for the control of the trade of the Dela-
ware and the territory on both sides of the river followed
this settlement. In the meantime many Swedes and Finns
re-enforced the parent Swedish colony and established
other settlements, the principal new settlement being at
Tinicum, below the present Philadelphia. This was the first
settlement of Europeans within the limits of Pennsylvania.
It was founded in 1643. The Swedes, who called their new
country New Sweden, had no serious quarrels with the
Indians, nor had the Dutch on the Delaware after the mas-
sacre at Swanandael, although the Swedish policy in deal-
ing with the Indians was always more distinctly peaceable
than that of the Dutch. The Swedes were mostly farmers
and they invariably bought their lands from the Indians.
The Dutch on the Delaware were chiefly traders in beaver
skins and other furs and were never so numerous as the
Swedes. As traders they did not hesitate to pay the In-
dians for their furs with brandy and other liquors, which
caused most of the troubles that the settlers experienced
in dealing with them. The Delaware Indians, otherwise
known as the Lenni Lenape, occupied the land on both
14 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
sides of the Delaware and were known as River Indians,
but west of them, on the headwaters of Chesapeake bay,
were the warlike Susquehannocks, or Minquas, who did
not live on terms of amity with the Delawares. All the
domestic animals, the cereals, and garden vegetables were
brought by the Swedes and Dutch to the Delaware.
In 1655 the Dutch were successful in establishing
their supremacy over the Swedes, but they permitted the
Swedes to remain. Nine years later the whole Delaware
country, following the surrender of New York by the
Dutch to the English, passed under the control of the
Duke of York, who maintained his rule over the territory
west of the Delaware, with the exception of about one
year, until the coming of Penn. When Penn came in 1682
he first landed at New Castle and a day or two after at
Upland, now Chester, the former being the capital of the
Duke of York's possessions on the Delaware. Upland
was the Swedish capital. The Dutch capital was at Fort
Amstel, now Newcastle.
The number of settlers on the west side of the Dela-
ware at the time of Penn's acquisition of his province can
only be conjectured. It has been estimated that the total
number of settlers of all nationalities on the west side
in 1664, when the Duke of York's rule on the Delaware
succeeded that of the Dutch, may have amounted to two
thousand men, women, and children, most of whom were
Swedes. This was seventeen years before the granting of
Penn's charter, so that, as both Swedes and English con-
tinued to increase in numbers, it is a fair presumption
that the population in 1681 may have amounted to three
thousand, although Janney thinks that the population in
this year on the west side of the Delaware was "about
two thousand souls, consisting mostly of Swedes and Eng-
lish." Most of these settlers were good people and in every
way worthy material with which to lay the foundations of
a great commonwealth. Swedish names are to be found
to-day among the leading families of Eastern Pennsylva-
nia, and some Pennsylvania families of English origin boast
of their descent from ancestors who settled on the Dela-
ware before Penn received his charter. One of the signers
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 15
of the Declaration of Independence, John Morton, was de-
scended from a Swedish settler on the Delaware. Colonel
Robert Anderson, who was in command of Fort Sumter
at the outbreak of our civil war, was the descendant of
another Swedish settler. There are many streets in Phila-
delphia which bear Swedish names.
We now come to the grant of the province of Penn-
sylvania to William Penn by Charles the Second and will
quote literally from that document, which is dated March
4, 1681. The preamble reads as follows : " Charles the
Second, by the Grace of God King of England, Scotland,
France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. To all to
whome these presents shall come Greeting. Whereas our
Trustie and well beloved Subject, William Penn, Esquire,
sonn and heire of Sir William Penn, deceased, out of a
commendable desire to enlarge our English Empire and
promote such usefull comodities as may bee of benefit to
us and our Dominions, as alsoe to reduce the Savage
Natives by gentle and just manners to the love of civill
Societie and Christian Religion, hath humbley besought
leave of us to transport an ample colonie unto a certaine
Countrey hereinafter described in the parts of America not
yet cultivated and planted. And hath likewise humbley
besought our Roy all majestie to give, grant, and confirme
all the said countrey with certaine privileges and Juris-
diccons requisite for the good Government and safetie of
the said Countrey and Colonie to him and his heirs for-
ever."
Then follows the grant in great detail, the material
parts of which we copy in this paragraph. The territory
conveyed to Penn by the king embraced, in the exact
words of the charter, "all that tract or parte of land in
America, with all the Islands therein conteyned, as the
same is bounded on the East by Delaware River from
twelve miles distance Northwarde of New Castle Towne
unto the three and fortieth degree of Northern latitude if
the said River doth extend soe farre Northwards ; but if
the said River shall not extend soe farre Northwarde then
by the said River soe farr as it doth extend, and from the
head of the said River the Easterne bounds are to bee de-
16 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
termined by a meridian line to be drawn from the head of
the said River unto the said three and fortieth degree, the
said lands to extend Westwards five degrees in longitude,
to bee computed from the said Eastern Bounds, and the
said lands to bee bounded on the North by the beginning
of the three and fortieth degree of Northern latitude, and
on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance
from New Castle Northwards, and Westwards unto the be-
ginning of the fortieth degree of Northern latitude ; and
then by a straight line Westwards to the limitt of Longi-
tude above mentioned, . . . And him the said William
Penn, his heirs and assignes, Wee Doe, by this our Royall
Charter, for us, our heirs and successors, make, create and
constitute the true and absolute proprietaries of the
Countrey aforesaid, and of all other the premises, saving
always to us, our heirs and successors, the faith and alle-
giance of the said William Penn, his heirs and assignes,
and of all other, the proprietaries, tenants and Inhabitants
that are or shall be within the Territories and precincts
aforesaid ; and saving alsoe unto us, our heirs and Succes-
sors, the Sovreignity of the aforesaid Countrey, To Have,
hold, possesse and enjoy the said tract of Land, Countrey,
Isles, Inletts and other the premises, unto the said Will-
iam Penn, his heirs and assignes, to the only proper use
and behoofe of the said William Penn, his heires and as-
signes forever. . . . And of our further grace certaine
knowledge and meere mocon, wee have thought fitt to
Erect, and wee doe hereby Erect the aforesaid Country
and Islands into a province and Seigniorie, and doe call
itt Pensilvania, and soe from henceforth wee will have itt
called."
It is a somewhat remarkable fact that the boundaries
of the province of Pennsylvania as above defined, not-
withstanding many territorial controversies with other col-
onies, correspond almost exactly with the present bound-
aries of Pennsylvania, the Erie triangle constituting al-
most the only variation, and this bit of territory was ac-
quired after the close of the Revolution.
The following provision of the charter, appointing
William Penn the commanding general of any army to be
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 17
raised and employed in his province, and authorizing him
to "make war as well by sea as by land," is of special in-
terest when Penn's peaceable and nonresistant convictions
are considered: "And because in soe remote a Countrey,
and scituate neare many Barbarous Nations, the incur-
sions as well of the savages themselves, as of other ene-
mies, pirates and Robbers, may pbably be feared. There-
fore, Wee have given and for us, our heires and succes-
sors, Doe give power by these presents unto the said Will-
iam Penn, his heires and assignes, by themselves or their
Captaines or other their officers to levy, muster, and traine
all sorts of men, of what condicon, or whatsoever borne, in
said pvince of Pensylvania, for the time being, and to
make warr and pursue the enemies and Robbers afore-
said, as well by Sea as by Land, yea, even without the
Limits of the said pvince, and by God's assistance to
vanquish and take them, and being taken to put them to
death by law of Warr, or to save them att theire pleasure,
and to doe all and every other act and thing which to
the charge and office of a Captaine generall of an Army
belongeth, or hath accustomed to belong, as fully and
ffreely as any Captaine Generall of an Army hath ever
had the same."
The charter having been granted Penn made immedi-
ate preparations to secure settlers for his province and to
develop its resources. The Free Society of Traders was
organized to promote both these objects ; pamphlets were
prepared by his own hand and widely circulated either as
a whole or in part in Holland, Germany, and France, as
well as in England and Wales, presenting the advantages
of his province as a home for all who were dissatisfied
with their surroundings ; an elaborate "frame of govern-
ment" for the province was also prepared by his own
hand ; and in a general way his time was busily occupied
for a year and a half in the work of perfecting all the de-
tails that were necessary to insure to his " holy experi-
ment" a good start and ultimate prosperity. In June,
1681, Penn's cousin, William Markham, reached New York
on his way to Pennsylvania as Penn's commissioner to
establish his authority in the province, which was done at
2
18 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Upland on August 3 of that year, Upland remaining the
capital of the province until it was superseded the next
year by Philadelphia. Other commissioners soon followed
Markham. In the same year several vessels left England
for Pennsylvania, bringing many settlers. The additional
commissioners were surveyors.
In the spring of 1682 Markham and the other com-
missioners selected the territory now embraced in the cen-
tral part of Philadelphia as the site of the future capital
and commercial city, and during the spring and summer
Markham obtained titles from the Indians to large tracts
of territory both within and outside the limits of Philadel-
phia, extending into the present counties of Bucks, Ches-
ter, and Montgomery. A survey of the city into streets,
alleys, lots, and reservations from the Delaware to the
Schuylkill and from Vine street to South street was un-
dertaken, but this survey was not completed until 1683.
In the meantime Penn arrived in the province in October,
1682, as has been stated, his ship, the Welcome, bringing
about seventy colonists. Other ships came in the same
year, both before and after Penn's arrival, bringing hun-
dreds of English and Welsh settlers. In all twenty-three
vessels arrived in the province in 1681 and 1682. Many
other vessels followed in 1683, adding largely to the popu-
lation of the province. Nearly all the immigrants in the
first three years were English and Welsh, and the most
of them were Friends, or Quakers. A large majority were
English. In August, 1683, Penn wrote a letter to the Free
Society of Traders in which he said : " The planted part
of the province is cast into six counties, Philadelphia,
Buckingham, Chester, Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, con-
taining about four thousand souls. . . . Two General
Assemblies have been held." In the same letter he said
that Philadelphia then contained "about fourscore houses
and cottages." In a letter written in the same year to the
Duke of Ormonde, probably late in the year, Penn said :
"Our town of Philadelphia is situated between two navi-
gable rivers, having from 4 to 10 fathoms of water, about
150 houses up in one year, and 400 country settlements."
In 1684 the population of the province is estimated to
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 19
have amounted to seven thousand men, women, and
children, one-third of whom lived in Philadelphia.
On December 4, 1682, the first General Assembly for
the province convened at Upland, in accordance with
Penn's " frame of government." Penn himself was pres-
ent. He had previously changed the name of Upland to
Chester, so naming it after Chester in England. The As-
sembly passed an act uniting with Pennsylvania the three
counties afterwards embraced in the State of Delaware.
The three Pennsylvania counties and the three Delaware
counties were organized and their boundaries determined
at the same session of the Assembly. In March, 1683, the
Assembly first met in Philadelphia, which thereafter re-
mained the capital of the province. It is interesting to
note that the term General Assembly, which is the pres-
ent name of the legislative branch of the government of
Pennsylvania, appears in Penn's " frame of government"
and probably originated with him.
Philadelphia received its name from Penn, who se-
lected it before he left England and even before its exact
location was determined. In a letter written by him in
1684 he apostrophizes the new city as follows : " And thou,
Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named
before thou wast born." Its meaning, brotherly love, was
particularly appropriate in view of Penn's religious views.
Philadelphia is the name of a city in Asia Minor and is
mentioned in the third chapter of the Revelation of St.
John the Divine. It may be that Penn, in choosing the
name Philadelphia, had also in mind the sentiment ex-
pressed in the eighth verse of the chapter referred to :
" Behold, I have set before thee an open door." After
Penn's arrival he purchased from three Swedish brothers,
named Swenson, several hundred acres of land at the
junction of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, embracing
the settlement known as Wicaco, and he made other pur-
chases of land both from the Swedes and the Indians.
In August, 1684, Penn returned to England. He had
resided in Pennsylvania for nearly two years. He did not
revisit his province until December, 1699, again remaining
almost two years, until October, 1701, when he returned
20 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
to England, never again to see the shores of the Dela-
ware. After the latter year the immigration of English
and Welsh Friends virtually ceased.
Penn obtained his title to the territory now compris-
ing the State of Delaware from the Duke of York in 1682
and not from his charter. The consideration which Penn
agreed to pay to the Duke of York, afterwards James the
Second, was only nominal. The three counties into which
this territory was divided were granted a separate legis-
lature by Penn in 1703, but they were otherwise subject
to the control of the authorities of Pennsylvania until
1776, when they were organized into an independent State.
William Penn and the Duke of York were warm friends.
Philadelphia and the surrounding country grew rapidly
after Penn had come into personal touch with his province
and in the years immediately following his first visit. Law
and order were at once established through the " frame of
government" which he had prepared. Hundreds of houses
were built and hundreds of farms were opened. Roads in
the neighborhood of Philadelphia took the place of bridle
paths. Wagonmakers, plowmakers, blacksmiths, carpen-
ters, and other mechanics were kept busy from year to
year. Mills for grinding grain and sawing lumber were
built. Other industries followed the primitive industries
that the Swedes and other early settlers had established.
Ships were built and trade with the mother country and
with other colonies and the West Indies was soon in ac-
tive operation. Many of the early Philadelphians were ex-
perienced merchants. Peace with the Indians was main-
tained because Penn always insisted that they be fairly
treated and that their lands be paid for. There was
a continuous stream of immigration, English and Welsh
Friends, or Quakers, largely predominating in the early
years, as has been stated, but Episcopalians from England
soon came in large numbers, as well as representatives of
other sects and nationalities to be mentioned hereafter.
The Swedes continued to form an important element
in the population of the colony. In 1700 the Swedish Lu-
therans built the celebrated "Old Swedes" church at Wi-
caco, in the southern part of Philadelphia, which is still
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 21
standing in good repair and in use. Before the coming
of Penn many Swedes had settled in the present Mont-
gomery county. In 1701 a colony of Swedes from the
Delaware settled in Berks county and before 1720 they
built a church at Douglass ville. There is to-day an "Old
Swedes" church at Norristown and there are other "Old
Swedes" churches still standing in Delaware.
Referring again to the building of ships in Pennsyl-
vania the following extract from Colonel Buell's biography
of William Penn claims for him a new honor : "More than
a hundred houses were built in Philadelphia during the
summer of 1683 and Penn had a small ship built for the
account of the Free Society of Traders. She was called
the Amity. This was the beginning of shipbuilding in
Philadelphia, an art in which the city has excelled from
that day to this. It is interesting to note that, though
the Amity's hull and spars were new and built of Ameri-
can timber, her ironwork, standing rigging, and much of
the running rigging were taken from an old brig of the
same name which had brought over a load of emigrants
the previous fall and was then condemned and broken
up at Chester, having nearly foundered on the voyage.
No sea-going vessel was built in Massachusetts until four-
teen years after the landing of the Pilgrims. But Penn
built a ship in Philadelphia within three years from the
signing of his charter."
When Penn returned to his province in 1699, after an
absence of fifteen years, during which period he passed
through many tribulations on its account, he found it in
a prosperous condition from almost every point of view.
Its population at this time numbered about twenty thou-
sand. The "holy experiment," although it was destined
to give its author still further trouble of a serious nature
which need not be dwelt upon, was now an assured success.
The population of Pennsylvania at the time of William
Penn's death in 1718 is estimated to have amounted to
forty thousand, of whom one-half were Quakers and one-
fourth of the whole number lived in Philadelphia.
William Penn was born in London on October 14,
1644, and died at Ruscombe on July 30, 1718, aged almost
22 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
74 years. For many years before his death he was greatly
distressed in mind and body. We need not devote further
space to the connection of this great man with the up-
building of a great commonwealth. No people ever had
a wiser leader or one whose influence for good has been
more widely diffused or more generally recognized.
We presume that there are but few persons who do
not believe that Pennsylvania was so named by William
Penn, and named, too, after himself. Not only are both
of these suppositions incorrect but the origin of the name
is involved in some obscurity. Day says : " By the king's
order, much against Penn's inclination, the new province
was to be called Pennsylvania, in honor of the services of
his illustrious father." Hazard quotes from official records
to show that, when the privy council of Charles the Sec-
ond submitted to him the draft of the charter of the prov-
ince, " there being a blank left for the name their lordships
agree to leave the nomination of it to the king." Janney
gives the full title of the privy council as the " Committee
of the Privy Council for the Affairs of Trade and Planta-
tions." The day after the charter was granted to Penn he
wrote a letter to his friend, Robert Turner, in which he
gave the particulars of the naming of his province. The
essential parts of that letter we quote verbatim as follows :
" Thine I have and for my business here know that,
after many waitings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes in
council, this day my country was confirmed to me under
the great seal of England, with large powers and privile-
ges, by the name of Pennsylvania, a name the king would
give it in honour of my father. I chose New Wales, being
as this, a pretty hilly country ; but Penn being Welsh for
a head, as Penmanmoire, in Wales, and Penrith, in Cum-
berland, and Penn, in Buckinghamshire, the highest land
in England, called this Pennsylvania, which is the high
or head woodlands ; for I proposed, when the secretary, a
Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Sylvania,
and they added Penn to it ; and though I much opposed it,
and went to the king to have it struck out and altered, he
said it was past, and would take it upon him; nor could
twenty guineas move the under-secretary to vary the
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 23
name; for I feared lest it should be looked on as vanity
in me, and not as a respect in the king, as it truly was,
to my father, whom he often mentions with praise."
At first sight the reader will probably conclude that
to the king do we owe the whole of the name of Pennsyl-
vania, but a second look will convince him that we are
indebted to Penn for the Sylvania portion of it. So much
seems to be clear and unquestionable. But it is not so
clear from whom came the prefix Penn. Penn, having at
first stated with much positiveness that "the king would
give" to the province "the name of Pennsylvania," and
having subsequently stated that he proposed Sylvania, we
naturally hesitate to receive the remainder of his state-
ment without a careful analysis of its meaning. Failing
to obtain the adoption of the name New Wales, Penn,
as we have seen, proposed Sylvania, and immediately
afterwards remarks that "they added Penn to it." To
whom does the term "they" refer? There are three con-
siderations which point to the secretary and his assistants
as the persons meant. First, if Penn had meant the king it
is to >be presumed that he would have said so; second, the
term is plural, not singular; third, Penn offered to pay
the under-secretary to omit the prefix, which Penn would
hardly have done if the king had ordered it to be in-
serted. So far the evidence points from the king. But
Penn straightway proceeds to give evidence on the other
side as follows : " for I feared lest it should be looked on
as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the king, as it
truly was, to my father."
And this is the history of the naming of Pennsylvania.
That the king's privy council, in submitting to His Majesty
the draft of the charter of the province, left to him the
selection of a name therefor Hazard expressly states and
proves before giving the Turner letter, but that the king
exercised the privilege is not proved from that letter or
from anything else that has been written. And yet, that
the king was determined that the name of the province
should be Pennsylvania is shown conclusively by the
exact words of the charter, in which the king says that
"wee doe hereby . . . call itt Pensilvania, and soe from
24 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
henceforth wee will have itt called." Perm's fear that the
name of Pennsylvania would be attributed to a desire on
his part to perpetuate his own name in that of his prov-
ince has been realized in the popular opinion of the day.
There was ample precedent for the use by Penn of the
name New Wales. The impulse to prefix the word "new"
to the names of provinces and towns was a strong one
with the founders of empire on this continent. There were
New France, New England, New Netherlands, New Am-
sterdam, New York, New Jersey, and New Sweden. Why
not New Wales !
In the early days of its history Pennsylvania was fre-
quently referred to in written and printed documents as
Pennsylvania, Pennsilvania, and Pensilvania, even the char-
ter to Penn spelling the name in different ways. In 1698
Gabriel Thomas printed in London An Historical and Ge-
ographical Account of the Province and Country of Pensil-
vania and of West Jersey in America. This spelling is
found in Reynier Jansen's Abstract or Abridgment of the
Laws, etc., printed in Philadelphia in 1701. As late as
1714 the title page of the laws of Pennsylvania, printed
by Andrew Bradford in Philadelphia in that year, reads
as follows : The Laws of the Province of Pennsilvania, col-
lected into One Volumn, by Order of the Governor, etc.
A few years after he had founded Philadelphia Penn
proposed to make "a second settlement" in his province
upon a scale somewhat similar to the plan of Philadelphia
itself. This scheme Penn made public in England in 1690
in a formal prospectus, a fac simile of which has been pub-
lished by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, entitled
" Some Proposals for a Second Settlement in the Province
of Pennsylvania, " from which we quote as follows :
" It is now my purpose to make another settlement,
upon the river of Susquehannagh, that runs into the Bay
of Chesapeake, and bears about fifty miles west from the
River Delaware, as appears by the common maps of the
English Dominion in America. There I design to lay out
a plat for the building of another city, in the most con-
venient place for the communication with the former plan-
tations on the East ; which by land is as good as done
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA. 25
already, a way being laid out between the two rivers very
exactly and conveniently at least three years ago ; and
which will not be hard to do by water, by the benefit of
the River Scoalkill ; for a branch of that river lies near
a branch that runs into Susquehannagh river, and is the
common course of the Indians with their skins and furs
into our parts, and to the Provinces of East and West
Jersey and New York, from the west and northwest parts
of the continent from whence they bring them. . . .
" To conclude, that which particularly recommends this
settlement is the known goodness of the soyle, and scit-
uation of the land, which is high and not mountainous ;
also the pleasantness and largeness of the river, being
clear and not rapid and broader than the Thames at Lon-
don-bridge, many miles above the place designed for this
settlement ; and runs (as we are told by the Indians) quite
through the Province, into which many fair rivers empty
themselves. The sorts of timber that grow there are
chiefly oake, ash, chesnut, walnut, cedar, and poplar. The
native fruits are pawpaws, grapes, mulberys, chesnuts, and
several sorts of walnuts. There are likewise great quanti-
ties of deer, and especially elks, which are much bigger
than our red deer, and use that river in herds. And fish
there is of divers sorts and very large and good and in
great plenty."
The scheme of founding a second Philadelphia on the
Susquehanna appears to have never taken shape. But
Penn's prospectus shows that as early as 1690 all fear of
trouble with the Indians between the Delaware and the
Susquehanna had been dispelled, if it had ever seriously
existed, and that some progress had been made at that
time toward the extension of white settlements to the
Susquehanna. His description of the Susquehanna region,
its trees, animals, etc., is also valuable. It is also an in-
teresting fact that three years before the prospectus was
issued, as early as 1687, a "way" had been "laid out" be-
tween the Delaware and the Susquehanna rivers. This
" way " was undoubtedly the road up the west bank of the
Schuylkill to the mouth of French creek and thence to the
Susquehanna at or near the mouth of Conestoga creek.
26 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER III.
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA.
The settlement of Pennsylvania under Penn's charter
could not be confined to emigrants from England and
Wales, nor did Penn wish that it should be so confined, or
that it should be limited to people of his own faith. On
the contrary he encouraged all the discontented of Great
Britain and of Continental countries to help him to settle
his province : all were welcome. Next to his own coun-
trymen and to members of the Society of Friends espe-
cially he caused the attractions which Pennsylvania pre-
sented to be widely known in the Rhine countries, where
civil and religious persecution was active, cruel, and re-
lentless, and where poverty was most pinching and op-
pressive. His name and his liberal views upon all ques-
tions of religion and of civil government were well known
in these countries before he received his charter. His
mother was Margaret Jasper, a native of Holland, the
daughter of John Jasper, an English merchant living in
Rotterdam. In 1671 and again in 1677 Penn had visited
Holland and Germany to preach the Friends' doctrines,
which in some respects did not differ widely from the re-
ligious views of the Mennonites in those countries and in
Switzerland and in other respects fully agreed with them,
so much so that the Mennonites after their removal to
Pennsylvania were very often called German Quakers.
Before either of Penn's visits, however, there were in both
Holland and Germany a few adherents of the Friends'
doctrines as they were taught by George Fox and others.
After the charter for Pennsylvania had been granted it
was therefore only natural that many of the impoverished
and oppressed people of the Rhine countries, Holland, Ger-
many, France, and Switzerland, should turn their thoughts
to this province as a refuge from all their troubles. Many
of these came in the early years after Penn had received
his charter and many thousands came afterwards.
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA. 27
The first emigrants from the Continent who accepted
Penn's invitation were led by Francis Daniel Pastorius, a
well born and highly educated native of Sommerhausen,
Germany, who was born in 1651 and became a lawyer of
distinction and an enthusiast in promoting the welfare
of his countrymen whose religious views he shared. In a
general sense he was a Pietist, a term which, broadly in-
terpreted, designated all those German Protestants who did
not believe in dogmas or formal modes of worship. His
parents were Lutherans. As a Pietist he fraternized with
the Mennonites. After coming to Pennsylvania he affiliat-
ed with the Friends, as did also many Mennonites. The
Mennonites were a numerous sect, found in Holland, the
Rhine provinces of Germany, and Switzerland, their name
being derived from Menno Simons, a Catholic priest, a na-
tive of Holland, who had abandoned his church and had
become the leader of the reformed Anabaptists. He was
born in Friesland, Holland, in 1505 and died in 1561.
Pastorius, anxious to emigrate to a land where civil and
religious liberty prevailed, was easily induced to become
the agent of some enterprising Germans who had purchas-
ed from William Penn many thousand acres of land in
the vicinity of Philadelphia. He arrived in Philadelphia
in August, 1683, while Penn was still here and personally
directing the affairs of his province, and was a few weeks
afterwards followed by thirteen Mennonite families, em-
bracing thirty-three persons, from Crefeld, a German town
on the border of Holland, some of whom were Germans
while others were Hollanders. On the land acquired from
Penn by these Crefelders and others Pastorius founded
Germantown on October 24, 1683, and he gave it its name.
The original settlers were soon followed by other Mennon-
ites, mostly farmers, some of whom were Germans, oth-
ers Hollanders, and others Swiss. In 1702 a settlement of
Mennonites was made on Skippack creek, in what is now
Montgomery county, but in the meantime many Mennon-
ites and others had opened farms nearer to Germantown.
The first settlers of Germantown, including the Cre-
felders, were mostly weavers, and they at once began the
manufacture of woolen and linen fabrics. Gabriel Thomas
28 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
says that Germantown linen was "such as no person of
quality need be ashamed to wear." Other mechanical in-
dustries were added as the immigrant population increas-
ed. Germantown soon became known as a manufacturing
town. It was the first distinctively manufacturing town
in Pennsylvania. One of its early industries was the
knitting of hosiery, an industry which survives to-day.
On March 7, 1684, Pastorius wrote from Philadelphia
as follows : " Here and there towns are being built. Be-
side our own one. by name Franckfurt, about half an hour
from here, is beginning to be started, where also a mill
and glass factory are built. Not far from there, namely,
two hours from here, lies our Germantown, where already
forty-two people live in twelve homes, who are for the
most part linen weavers and not much given to agriculture."
Among the early industries established at Germantown
or in its immediate vicinity was the manufacture of paper.
Some time before 1690 Willem Rittinghuysen, a Mennonite
minister, built a paper mill on a small tributary of the
Wissahickon, which Bishop says was the first paper mill in
the colonies. Rittinghuysen was a native of Guelderland,
a province of Holland. About 1688 he emigrated to Ger-
mantown from Arnheim on the Rhine, the capital of Guel-
derland. For generations the family had been engaged in
the manufacture of paper. After the industry on the Wis-
sahickon had been established by Willem Rittinghuysen
it continued to be carried on in the same locality by his
descendants for many generations. His great-grandson,
David Rittenhouse, the astronomer, and the leading Ameri-
can scientist in the colonial and Revolutionary periods,
eminent also for his services to the cause of the colonists
during the Revolution, was born at Germantown on April
8, 1732, and died in Philadelphia on June 26, 1796. On
April 14, 1792, Rittenhouse was appointed by President
Washington the first director of the United States Mint.
There is a street in Germantown called Rittenhouse
street, and one of the aristocratic sections of Philadelphia
is called Rittenhouse square.
Pastorius became the schoolmaster, lawyer, and general
adviser of the Germantown settlers, and until his death,
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA. 29
which occurred in 1719, he exerted great influence among
them and among other Pennsylvania pioneers long after
Germantown had become the centre of a large immigration
of Germans and others. He was a justice of the peace
and a member of the General Assembly. He is worthy
of remembrance as the leader among the German settlers
of Penn's province, and also because of the nobility of his
character and his many scholarly and other accomplish-
ments. He was master of several languages and wrote
much on various subjects. His pen was freely used in
commending Pennsylvania to his countrymen and to oth-
ers in the Rhine provinces, and many of these, especially
Mennonites, came to Pennsylvania through his representa-
tions. In the early history of Pennsylvania Pastorius was
undoubtedly, next to William Penn, the most influential
and the most accomplished of all the emigrants who came
from any country. His name is eminently worthy of be-
ing associated by all Pennsylvanians with that of William
Penn himself. Penn said of him that he was "sober, up-
right, wise, and pious — a man everywhere esteemed and of
unspotted name." That the two men were close friends is
made plain in the following extract from a letter written
by Pastorius in March, 1684, in which he gives us a beau-
tiful picture of the great Quaker. He says : " My pen (al-
though it is from an eagle, which a so-called savage recent-
ly brought into my house,) is much too weak to express
the lofty merits of this Christian, for such he is indeed.
He invited me very often to his table, also to walk and
ride in his always elevating society ; and when I was last
away from here for eight days, to bring victuals from New
Castle, and he had not seen me for that length of time, he
came himself to my little house and requested that I should
still come two or three times to his home as his guest. He
was very fond of the Germans and once said openly in my
presence to his councillors and attendants : ' The Germans
I am very fond of and wish that you should love them
also,' although I never at any other time heard a similar
command from him ; but these pleased me the more be-
cause they entirely conform to the command of God (vid.
1 John 3 : 23). I can now say no more than that Will.
30 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Penn is a man who honors God, and is by Him honored
in return, who loves good, and is by all good men rightly
loved, etc. I do not doubt that others will yet come here
and learn by experience that my pen has not written
enough in this direction."
The Mennonites who settled Germantown were not the
first of their faith who came to the Delaware. Historians
tell us that about 1662 twenty-five Mennonites from Hol-
land, under the leadership of Peter Cornelius Plockhoy, es-
tablished a small colony on the west side of the Delaware,
at a place called Hoornkill, on or near the site of the un-
fortunate Swanandael, and that in 1664 these " defenseless
Christians" were dispersed by the Duke of York's soldiers,
their subsequent fate, except that of their leader, being
unknown*. Plockhoy and his wife, long years afterwards,
found their way in their old age to Germantown, where
they were tenderly cared for until they died.
Nor were the Crefelders who founded Germantown the
first Germans to settle on the Delaware. In the same let-
ter from which we have already quoted Pastorius says :
" In regard to the inhabitants I can do no better than
divide them into the natural and the cultivated. . . .
Concerning these first cultivated foreigners I will say no
more now than that among them are found some Germans
who have already been in this country twenty years, and
so have become, as it were, naturalized, namely, people
from Schleswig, Brandenburg, Holstein, Switzerland, etc."
Following the Mennonite settlement of Germantown in
1683 came members of the long established German Re-
formed and Lutheran denominations, who were chiefly Ger-
mans from the Palatinate, where religious persecution and
the horrors of devastating war had long prevailed. At first
only a few of each denomination came, some of whom set-
tled in Germantown but the most of whom settled in the
Schuylkill valley and in the Delaware valley above Phila-
delphia, but their numbers steadily increased, and soon
after 1700 many thousands of each sect and of Mennonites
had settled in Bucks, Montgomery, Lehigh, Northampton,
and Berks counties. The Mennonites entered the Cones-
toga valley in Lancaster county in 1709. It has been esti-
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA. 31
mated that in 1731 there were 17,000 Lutherans in Penn-
sylvania and 15,000 German Reformed. No trustworthy
estimate of the number of other so-called German sects
in Pennsylvania at that time is available.
Accompanying some of the colonists above mentioned
were many French Huguenots, largely from the provinces
of Alsace and Lorraine, who had been driven from their
country by religious persecution, culminating in the Revo-
cation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. At the time of their
immigration to Pennsylvania these Huguenots came from
the Palatinate and adjoining Rhine countries, including
Switzerland, in which countries they had originally found
refuge. Because of this association with these Protestant
neighbors the Huguenots were usually identified and con-
founded with them. All these emigrants generally settled
together when they came to Pennsylvania, the principal
exceptions being in the Oley valley, in Berks county, and
in the Pequea valley, in Lancaster county, in which almost
exclusively Huguenot settlements were made, the former
in 1712 and the latter, under the leadership of Madame
Ferree, in 1710 and 1712. There is an Alsace township,
adjoining Oley township, in Berks county.
In the decades immediately succeeding the settlement
of Germantown members of other Continental sects of
numerically minor importance than the Mennonites, Ger-
man Reformed, and Lutherans came to Pennsylvania and
settled in the Schuylkill and Delaware valleys and at
Germantown and in its neighborhood. One of the most
numerous of these minor sects was known as the Dunk-
ards, who came to Pennsylvania in considerable numbers
in 1719 and afterwards, coming first to Germantown, where
many remained, others going into the valleys above men-
tioned. Twenty Dunkard families arrived in Philadelphia
in the fall of 1719 and others soon followed. This sect
was formed at Schwarzenau, in Westphalia, Germany, in
1708, by Alexander Mack, and virtually all his followers
came to Pennsylvania, the entire body that remained in
Germany coming with him in 1729, in which year he
settled in Germantown, where he died in 1735. When the
first Dunkards came in 1719 they were accompanied by
32 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Rev. Peter Becker, their pastor. The Dunkard immigrants
fraternized readily with their Mennonite neighbors, as
there were many points of substantial agreement between
the two sects. All the Dunkards seem to have been Ger-
mans, which can not be said of the Mennonites, who came
from Holland and Switzerland as well as from Germany.
Few Roman Catholics came until after the Revolution.
The Schwenkfelders were a small sect of Protestants,
originating in Silesia, in the eastern part of Prussia, and
were the followers of Casper Schwenkfeld, a Silesian noble-
man. Religious persecution drove to Pennsylvania all the
Schwenkfelders who survived its cruelties. They landed at
Philadelphia in 1734 and settled in the Perkiomen valley,
in Montgomery county. Governor John F. Hartranft was
descended from a Schwenkfelder immigrant. There are
now about two thousand Schwenkfelders in Pennsylvania.
A recent writer says: "Montgomery county, the lower
end of Berks, and the southern corner of Lehigh contain
the only Schwenkfelders in the world." There is now
a Schwenkfelder church in Philadelphia, with more than
one hundred members. In all there are six churches and
eight ministers of this faith in Pennsylvania.
Following the Schwenkfelders came the Moravians, a
much more numerous sect, a small body of whom, eleven
persons in all, after a short residence in Georgia, came
from Saxony to Nazareth, in the Upper Delaware valley,
in 1740. They were followed in 1741 by a few others of
their faith under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf, a
Saxon nobleman and Moravian bishop, who had given
the Moravians, on his estate at Herrnhut in Saxony, an
asylum from persecution in their own country, Moravia.
Their principal settlement in Pennsylvania was at Bethle-
hem, which was founded in 1741. In that year there were
120 Moravians in Pennsylvania. In the next year fifty-six
came and in the following year one hundred more came.
In 1747 a Moravian settlement was made at Lititz, in Lan-
caster county. The Moravians were followers of John Hus,
who was burnt at the stake in 1415. They were originally
Slavs, but in the changes that came to their sect in Europe
and in this country other nationalities were incorporated.
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA. 33
Historians so frequently refer to the Palatinate as the
home of many immigrants to Pennsylvania that the read-
er will be interested in the following historical account of
this part of Germany, which we find in Johnson's Cyclo-
paedia : " The Palatinate, formerly a political division and
independent State of Germany, consisted of two separate
territories, respectively called the Upper Palatinate, now
forming the northern part of the kingdom of Bavaria, and
the Lower Palatinate, situated on both sides of the Rhine,
and now forming the southern part of Rhenish Prussia,
the northern part of the grand duchy of Baden, and the
province of Bavaria, called Rhenish Bavaria. From the
eleventh century these two territories belonged together
and formed a hereditary monarchy, their ruler being one
of the electors of the German Empire, but in 1648, by
the treaty of Westphalia, they were separated, the Upper
Palatinate falling to Bavaria while the Lower Palatinate
continued a possession of the original dynasty. At the
Peace of Luneville in 1801 the Lower Palatinate ceased to
exist as an independent State, its territory being divided
between Hesse-Darmstadt, Baden, and France, and the
only alteration which the Congress of Vienna made in this
arrangement in 1815 consisted in transferring to Bavaria
that part of the Palatinate which France had occupied."
The Scotch-Irish formed a numerous class of the early
settlers of Pennsylvania. They were the descendants of
Scotch farmers and of other Scotchmen who had been in-
vited at the beginning of the seventeenth century to settle
on confiscated lands in the province of Ulster in the north
of Ireland, this invitation being a result of political and
religious differences between the British Crown and the
Catholic inhabitants of Ireland. They were not Irish in
any sense but simply transplanted Scotch. Virtually all
these Scotch settlers in Ireland were Presbyterians. At
the end of a hundred years, however, the descendants of
these Scotch settlers became dissatisfied with the exac-
tions of the British Government and rapacious landlords
and then began a stream of emigration from Ulster to
the British colonies in America, particularly to Penn-
sylvania which lasted until long after the middle of the
3
34 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
eighteenth century, and which has had a great influence
upon the character of the whole people of our country.
One of the first of these emigrant Ulstermen was the Rev.
Francis Makemie, a Presbyterian minister, who came to
Maryland and Virginia several years before the close of
the seventeenth century. In 1698 he preached in the
first Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. In 1706 he was
the moderator of the first Presbytery of the Presbyterian
Church in this country, which met in Philadelphia in that
year. He died in Virginia in 1708.
In 1906 a native Scotchman, the Rev. John Watson,
author of Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush and other well-
known books, came to this country and delivered a series
of lectures in aid of a fund to provide a monument over
the neglected grave of Mr. Makemie in Virginia. While
engaged in this work Dr. Watson himself died at Mount
Pleasant, Iowa, in May, 1907.
Before 1700 Presbyterians from the north of Ireland
began to settle in the three lower counties of the Penn-
sylvania of that day but which now constitute the State
of Delaware, landing at Lewes and New Castle, while oth-
ers came to Philadelphia. Some of these first Scotch-Irish
Presbyterian settlers soon found their way into Chester
county, then including the present county of Delaware, and
into Bucks and Montgomery counties. We do not hear
of any large immigration of Scotch-Irish to Pennsylvania
until 1710, about which year large numbers began to ar-
rive, and there was no cessation in this tide of immigra-
tion for many years, in some years 5,000 coming annu-
ally and in other years many more coming. Between 1720
and 1730 eighteen Presbyterian congregations were organ-
ized in Pennsylvania. At the beginning of this decade
Scotch-Irish settlements were made in Lancaster county
and commenced in York county, and in the next decade
they were commenced in the Cumberland valley. There
was a great wave of Scotch-Irish immigration to Pennsyl-
vania in the years immediately preceding the Revolution.
Many Scotch Presbyterians also came directly to Pennsyl-
vania from Scotland, and naturally, because of a common
origin and like religious belief, they at once became iden-
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA. 35
tified with their Scotch-Irish brethren and were themselves
usually known as Scotch-Irish.
Historians have given us estimates of the population of
Pennsylvania at various periods prior to the taking of the
first United States census in 1790. In previous references
that have been made in this chapter or in the preceding
chapter to the population of the province we have used
figures that have seemed most entitled to belief. In 1747
Governor Thomas wrote to the Bishop of Exeter that it
then amounted to 200,000, of whom three-fifths were Ger-
mans, but he probably overestimated the Germans. In
1763 the total population was estimated at about 280,000.
Estimates of the white population of Pennsylvania at the
breaking out of the Revolution, not including Delaware,
vary from 300,000 to 341,000. The larger estimate was
obtained by the Continental Congress in 1776 in a general
inquiry that was made by it into the population of each
of the colonies. The white population of Pennsylvania
in 1775, as reported by Governor Penn to Lord Dart-
mouth, under date of January 30 of that year, amounted
to 300,000. This total falls considerably below the 341,000
above mentioned for the following year. Of the total white
population at the beginning of the Revolution Hanna es-
timates that 100,000 were Scotch-Irish and Diffenderffer
says that 100,000 were Germans, in which classification he
probably includes not only Germans and Swiss but also
Dutch and Huguenots. Accepting the estimate of the
Continental Congress as being substantially correct there
would remain of the total white population of Pennsylva-
nia in 1776 about 140,000, divided between the English
and other Quakers, English Episcopalians, Swedes, and
representatives of other nationalities.
The inquiry that was made by the Continental Congress
in 1776 showed that, having reference only to the white
population, Massachusetts was then the most populous of
all the colonies, with a population of 352,000, including
Maine, and that Pennsylvania came next, with 341,000, not
including Delaware, which was credited with 37,000 ; Vir-
ginia was third, with 300,000, including Kentucky; and
New York fourth, with 238,000, including Vermont. In the
36
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
census of 1790 the total population of Pennsylvania, includ-
ing negroes, is given as amounting to 434,373 ; Massachu-
setts, 378,787 ; New York, 340,120 ; and Virginia, 747,610.
Virginia's large negro population in 1790 accounts for its
prominent position at that time, when it was the first of
all the States in total population, Pennsylvania coming
next. North Carolina was the third State in population in
1790, with a total of 393,751, due again to its large negro
population, Massachusetts and New York following in the
order mentioned. Vermont had been admitted into the
Union in 1791 when the census of 1790 was taken. In the
following table is given the total population of Pennsyl-
vania at each of the census periods from 1790 to 1900.
Years.
Population.
Years.
Population.
Years.
Population.
1790
1800
1810
1820
434,373
602,365
810,091
1,049,458
1830
1840
1850
1860
1,348,233
1,724,033
2,311,786
2,906,215
1870
1880
1890
1900
3,521,951
4,282,891
5,258,014
6,302,115
Pennsylvania would have shown a larger population
in the decades immediately prior to the Revolution if all
who settled within its borders had been satisfied with their
opportunities and environment. Many Germans, however,
pushed on through the Cumberland valley into Maryland
and the Shenandoah valley in Virginia, while a considera-
ble number of Scotch-Irish and some Quakers also moved
from Pennsylvania to Maryland and other Southern States.
Daniel Boone was born in Berks county. John Lincoln,
the great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from
Berks county to Virginia about 1750. He was a Quaker.
The mother of Abraham Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, was de-
scended from a Berks county family which emigrated first
to Virginia and afterwards to Kentucky. Just after the
Revolution many of the first settlers in Southwestern
Pennsylvania moved to Kentucky, and soon after the be-
ginning of the nineteenth century there was a large' emi-
gration of Pennsylvanians to Ohio.
In this chapter and in the preceding chapter we have
brought together in chronological order and in sufficient
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA. 37
detail the leading facts which establish the mixed and
heterogeneous character of the early settlers of Pennsyl-
vania. No other colony had anything like such a varied
population. Nearly all the nations of Northern and West-
ern Europe contributed to the peopling of Penn's province,
even far-away Finns coming to the Delaware with the
Swedes. The Swedes, Finns, and Dutch, from the north-
ern section of the Continent, were followed by a few Ger-
mans and by English settlers under the Duke of York's
rule, and these by the English and Welsh Quakers under
Penn's leadership, while afterwards came large numbers of
Germans, Swiss, Dutch, and French Huguenots from the
Rhine provinces and Scotch-Irish from the north of Ire-
land, with other Englishmen and a few Scotchmen. The
Quaker element in the population of Pennsylvania was
largely outnumbered in a few decades by the other ele-
ments, although Quaker influence in the government of
the province continued to be dominant for a still longer
period, far along toward the breaking out of the Revolu-
tion, but most of the time with the Scotch-Irish and some-
times the Germans in opposition. It was the opposition
of these elements that finally broke the Quaker power.
It must be said, however, that, notwithstanding the lack
of homogeneity among the early settlers of Pennsylvania,
the influence of the Quaker element impressed upon the
laws and institutions of the province essentially English
ideas and precedents, as well as loyalty to the British
Crown. This loyalty was weakened and finally shattered,
as we know, by events which led up to the Revolution,
but this was not done by the Quakers but by the Scotch-
Irish and Germans, without whose leadership and aggres-
siveness Pennsylvania would not have voted for independ-
ence. Down to the Revolution Pennsylvania was essen-
tially an English colony in its laws, literature, religious
tendencies, political ties, and business connections, as were
all the other colonies, even New York yielding to English
influence at an early day in its colonial history. But
Pennsylvania Dutch was largely spoken in Pennsylvania.
Prior to the Revolution Pennsylvania was most for-
tunate in securing a population possessing so many di-
38 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
verse and excellent characteristics. The English Quakers
brought with them marked commercial instincts, and it
was mainly due to their enterprise that Philadelphia soon
became a centre of trade and commerce as well as a great
city. In later years these commercial instincts led them
to establish mining and manufacturing enterprises, but
still near to Philadelphia. They also engaged largely in
farming, but those who became farmers kept close to the
Delaware. The Welsh Quakers were nearly all farmers,
who at first did not venture very far into the interior.
They occupied a large tract of land in Montgomery and
Chester counties, called the Welsh Tract, but afterwards
they made settlements up the Schuylkill. The Germans,
the Dutch, the Swiss, and the Huguenots, if we except the
settlement at Germantown, at first settled in the fertile
valleys of Eastern Pennsylvania, chiefly as farmers, after-
wards moving farther inland. Philadelphia possessed few
attractions for them. In a little while they built their
own towns — Easton, Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, York,
Lebanon, and others. While not neglecting other pursuits
in which they have been successful these people and their
descendants have made the best farmers the world has
ever known, and we owe to their love of the soil and their
skill as husbandmen much of the prosperity that Pennsyl-
vania has always enjoyed. Speaking particularly of the
Germans, the Dutch, and the Swiss who helped to settle
Pennsylvania, as a class their industry, honesty, love of
home, and respect for authority have been notable char-
acteristics, and these characteristics have been transmitted
to their descendants. The Huguenots were in every way
a superior people. The Moravian settlers at Bethlehem,
Nazareth, and Lititz, a majority of whom were also farm-
ers, early established excellent schools, and these schools
exist to-day. Possessed of a missionary spirit they under-
took the task of converting to Christianity their Indian
neighbors and other Indians, and their efforts in this di-
rection were for a time largely successful but the final
outcome was disheartening. No better people have ever
lived in Pennsylvania than the Moravians. It is an in-
teresting fact that about fifty years ago a large number
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA. 39
of Moravians emigrated from Germany to Wayne and
Pike counties in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania,
where they and their descendants have been profitably
engaged in the agricultural and other development of
that somewhat neglected region.
The Scotch-Irish immigrants are the last that we need
to notice. Filled with the spirit of adventure and fearless
of consequences they early pushed into the interior of the
province, beyond the settlements of the other immigrants
we have mentioned, partly because land there was more
easily acquired, even if they had sometimes to take it
without the formality of securing title from either the In-
dians or the proprietaries of the province. They were the
main factors in the settlement of the Cumberland, Juni-
ata, and Susquehanna valleys — true pioneers, who could
not be turned back by frontier hardships and privations or
dismayed by the attacks of hostile Indians. At first farm-
ers almost exclusively they soon illustrated their aptness
for trade, the mechanic arts, and the learned professions.
They founded all the leading towns in Central Pennsylva-
nia, and before the Revolution they had scaled the Alle-
ghenies and joined with Marylanders and Virginians in the
settlement of Southwestern Pennsylvania. In a short time
they became the leading element in the settlement of that
part of Pennsylvania, and their influence in shaping the
development of that section has always been controlling.
It is worthy of mention that the Mennonites, Dunkards,
and Moravians of Pennsylvania are steadily increasing in
numbers, as are also the more numerous German Reform-
ed and Lutherans. The so-called German element in the
population of Pennsylvania is not, therefore, at all likely
to be lost sight of in the future history of the Common-
wealth. In its past history this element has not permitted
itself to be overlooked. It has not only been active and
enterprising in the development of the industrial resources
of the State but it has been active in shaping its political
affairs. Of the twenty-five Governors of Pennsylvania
who have been elected under the Constitutions of 1790,
1838, and 1873 eight were Germans — Snyder, Hiester,
Shulze, Wolf, Ritner, Shunk, Bigler, and Hartranft, while
40 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Beaver is of mixed Huguenot and German extraction and
Pennypacker is descended from a Holland ancestor.
Careful students of Pennsylvania history must always
regret that the Swiss, Dutch, Huguenot, and Moravian ele-
ments in its population have not received more general
recognition. Their identity has been almost entirely lost
because of their intimate association with the more nu-
merous German settlers. They not only settled in close
contact with the Germans, but most of them before com-
ing to Pennsylvania, owing to the persecutions which had
brought them together, had acquired a knowledge of the
Platt-Deutsch dialect, which was largely the mother tongue
of the Palatines and the Swiss Mennonites. Living in the
same communities, intermarrying, and speaking the same
language as the Germans it was natural that they should
themselves be known as Pennsylvania Germans. They
were as a rule absorbed by them, although there are to-
day whole communities of so-called Pennsylvania Germans
which are not German in their origin but Swiss. As an
illustration of the absorption of the Swiss, Dutch, Hugue-
nots, and Moravians in the great Pennsylvania German
family a late distinguished Pennsylvania jurist was popu-
larly supposed to have been a German and he married
the daughter of another prominent Pennsylvanian who was
also regarded in his lifetime as a German, but both men
were of Huguenot extraction. A careful study of this
subject will show that a very large number of the people
who are called Pennsylvania Germans are not Germans in
their origin but Swiss, Dutch, Moravians, and Huguenots.
A large number of the Mennonites in Pennsylvania are
descendants of Swiss immigrants. The Swedish element in
the population of Pennsylvania, which was at first a con-
siderable factor, is now rarely distinguishable in any way.
Welsh ancestry is easily distinguished by family names.
Pennsylvania has always had a large and intelligent Welsh
population additional to its Welsh Quakers. A large num-
ber of Welsh immigrants settled in Cambria county soon
after the Revolution, and their descendants are very nu-
merous in that county to-day. The iron industry has in
more recent years brought many Welsh immigrants to
THE PEOPLE WHO SETTLED PENNSYLVANIA. 41
Pennsylvania, and so also has our great coal industry.
Huguenot ancestry can occasionally be distinguished by
family names, but unfortunately many Huguenot names
have been either Anglicized or Germanized. This is also
true of some Holland names.
The name, Pennsylvania Dutch, has long been used as
a synonym for Pennsylvania Germans. Historically inac-
curate as is the latter term in embracing large numbers
of Pennsylvanians who are not of German origin, it is far
more accurate than to designate Germans, Moravians, Hu-
guenots, and Swiss as Pennsylvania Dutch. The latter is
now and long has been a serious misnomer, although when
originally applied it may have been proper enough. Not
only were emigrants from Holland among the earliest
settlers on the Delaware but many other Hollanders ac-
cepted Penn's invitation and helped to found Germantown
and settle the Schuylkill valley. It was entirely correct,
therefore, to call them Dutch, as the natives of Holland,
or the Netherlands, have always been called. That this
name should have been applied to their German neighbors
in Pennsylvania was probably due in large part to the
universal use at that day of the term Deutsch as designat-
ing the people of Germany, the Germans themselves so
using it. To them the name of their country was Deutsch-
land, not Germany, and Germans to-day, when speaking
their own language, call their country Deutschland. The
official name of the German Empire is Deutsches Reich.
There are to-day in Germany two large and influential
trade organizations which are styled respectively Verein
Deutscher Eisenhuttenleute and Verein Deutscher Eisen und
Stahlindustrieller. Some native Germans, as already men-
tioned, speak Piatt- Deutsch, that is, Low German. Most of
the Palatines who came to Pennsylvania in large numbers
and came early spoke Platt-Deutsch, and here again we
find a reason for the use of the word Dutch. A Pennsyl-
vania German in our day, when familiarly addressing
another of his class, calls him Deutscher.
It appears, therefore, that, while the term Pennsylva-
nia Dutch is now a misnomer, it was not so originally and
had ample reason for its existence. In our country we
42 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
now invariably hear of Germany and not of Deutschland.
But "use doth breed a habit in a man," and we shall
probably hear of the Pennsylvania Dutch for many years
to come. We shall certainly hear the Pennsylvania Dutch
dialect spoken in many Pennsylvania counties. There are
to-day hundreds of communities in Pennsylvania in which
this dialect is habitually spoken to the exclusion of Eng-
lish. It is really a corruption of the original Piatt- Deutsch,
as it contains many English words and some words of
French and other origin. Very little Pennsylvania Dutch
literature is now published, although a generation or
two ago some notable publications in Pennsylvania were
printed in this dialect, and a few columns in country
newspapers are still so printed. The pamphlet laws of
Pennsylvania were once printed in German for the use
of justices of the peace and other officials whose mother
tongue was Pennsylvania Dutch. The people called Penn-
sylvania Dutch and the dialect they speak are not, how-
ever, confined to Pennsylvania. This State has sent many
thousands of its Mennonites and Dunkards to Maryland,
Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa, and they have taken
their South German dialect with them and held on to it.
REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS. 43
CHAPTER IV.
REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS.
There were two classes of white bonded servants
who came to Pennsylvania and other colonies, and to
Pennsylvania down to the first decades of the nineteenth
century, — redemptioners and indentured servants. The
first class, by far the most numerous, was chiefly com-
posed of Protestant emigrants from Germany and other
European countries who were glad to escape from religi-
ous persecution or unfavorable social conditions but who
were too poor to pay their passage across the ocean, and
hence agreed with the masters of the vessels in which they
sailed or with speculators, sometimes called Newlanders,
that their personal services were to be sold at the end of
the voyage for such periods as would yield sufficient sums
to pay the cost of their passage, usually from three to five
years for adults, and children for longer periods — often
until they were twenty-one years old. The other class,
never numerous, was composed of men and women who
emigrated from the British Isles and the Continent un-
der conditions which were the same in effect if not in de-
tail as those which applied to the redemptioners, the dif-
ference being that those belonging to the indentured class
obligated themselves before sailing to serve employers in
the colonies for specified periods, these employers or their
agents paying the cost of passage of these servants. Dif-
fenderffer and other historians make little distinction be-
tween these two classes of indentured or bonded servants.
The laws of Pennsylvania recognized both conditions of
servitude and imposed penalties for violation of contracts,
either by servants or by their masters. Washington pur-
chased the services of redemptioners.
Diffenderffer has found no mention of redemptioners
in Pennsylvania statistics relating to servants, but this
class was given this name in cotemporaneous literature
as well as colloquially. A few years ago a distinguished
44 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Representative in Congress from Pennsylvania, in deliver-
ing a eulogy in the House upon the life and public servi-
ces of another distinguished Representative from the same
State who had recently died, referred to his colleague as
the son of a redemptioner. Pennsylvania received more
redemptioners than any other colony because Penn had
made special efforts to attract attention to his province,
and because his promise of both ciyil and religious liberty
strongly appealed to those who possessed neither the one
nor the other. As Germany, Switzerland, and France were
torn with religious and political dissensions it naturally
happened that these countries sent many redemptioners
to Pennsylvania, as did also England, Scotland, and Ire-
land. They were called redemptioners because, after they
had been sold into temporary slavery, they could regain,
or redeem, their freedom with money contributed by their
friends or accumulated by their own efforts. The selling
of immigrants to pay the. cost of their passage came to
an end in Pennsylvania about 1831.
It is probably true that a majority of the immigrants
who came to Pennsylvania in colonial days as redemp-
tioners and indentured servants were farmers or farm la-
borers, who soon aided materially to make this province
the leader in agriculture among all the colonies, but it is
worthy of special notice that many others of these classes
were skilled workmen in the various handicrafts of that
time. This fact is made plain by the following advertise-
ments which are reproduced by Diffenderffer from Phila-
delphia newspapers, with many others of similar character.
They also prove that many redemptioners came from Eng-
land, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as from the Continent.
From The American Weekly Mercury, November 7, 1728 :
"Just arrived from London, in the ship Borden, William
Harbert, Commander, a parcel of young likely men-servants,
consisting of Husbandmen, Joyners, Shoemakers, Weavers,
Smiths, Brick-makers, Bricklayers, Sawyers, Taylers, Stay-
makers, Butchers, Chair-makers, and several other trades,
and are to be sold very reasonable either for ready money,
wheat Bread, or Flour, by Edward Hoone, in Philadel-
phia." From The American Weekly Mercury, February 18,
REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS. 45
1729 : " Lately arrived from London, a parcel of very likely
English Servants, men and women, several of the men
Tradesmen ; to be sold reasonable and Time allowed for
payment. By Charles Read of Philadelphia, or Capt. John
Ball, on board his ship, at Anthony Milkinson's Wharf."
From The American Weekly Mercury, May 22, 1729 : "There
is just arrived from Scotland a parcel of choice Scotch
Servants ; Taylors, Weavers; Shoemakers, and ploughmen,
some for five and others for seven years : Imported by
James Coults, they are on board a sloop lying opposite to
the Market Street Wharf, where there is a boat constantly
attending to carry any one on board that wants to see
them." From The American Weekly Mercury, May 22,
1729 : " Just arrived from London in the ship Providence,
Capt. Jonathan Clarke, a parcel of very likely servants,
most Tradesmen, to be sold on reasonable Terms ; the ship
now lies at Mr. Lawrence's Wharf, where either the Master
or the said Lawrence are to be spoke with."
From The Pennsylvania Berichte, Philadelphia, August
16, 1756 : "A ship having arrived from Ireland with serv-
ants, some artisans, those interested can call on Thomas
Gardens, at Mr. Parnell's wharf, or on the Captain, Na-
thanael Ambler, on the ship. They are Irish." From The
Pennsylvania Staatsbote, November 9, 1764 : " To-day the
ship Boston, Captain Mathew Carr, arrived from Rotter-
dam, with several hundred Germans. Among them are all
kinds of mechanics, day laborers, and young people, men
as well as women, and boys and girls. All those who de-
sire to procure such servants are requested to call on David
Rundle, on Front Street." From The Pennsylvania Staats-
bote, January 18, 1774 : " There are still 50 or 60 German
persons newly arrived from Germany. They can be found
with the widow Kriderin, at the sign of the Golden Swan.
Among them are two Schoolmasters, Mechanics, Farmers,
also young children as well as boys and girls. They are
desirous of serving for their passage money."
In the New England Magazine for October, 1896, Lewis
R. Harley gives the following illustrations of the sale of re-
demptioners in Pennsylvania, even in Revolutionary times.
" Many of the Philadelphia papers contained advertise-
46 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
merits like the following : 'Just arrived in the ship Sally
from Amsterdam a number of German men, women, and
children redemptioners. Their times will be disposed of on
reasonable terms by the Captain on board, lying near Race
Street wharf.' One in the Pennsylvania Messenger, April
4, 1776, offers for sale: 'A young girl and maid servant,
strong and healthy ; no fault. She is not qualified for the
service now demanded. Five years to serve.' The same
paper, on January 18, 1777, contains the following notice :
'Germans — we are now offering fifty Germans just ar-
rived— to be seen at the Golden Swan, kept by the wid-
ow Kreider. The lot includes schoolmasters, artisans, peas-
ants, boys and girls of various ages, all to serve for pay-
ment of passage.' As late as September, 1786, the follow-
ing advertisement appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette: 'To
be sold. (For ready money only.) A German woman serv-
ant. She has near three years to serve, is well qualified
for all household work ; would recommend her to her own
country people particularly, as her present master has
found great inconvenience from his not being acquainted
with their manners, customs, and language. For further
particulars inquire at Mr. Ormsby's in Pittsburg.'"
The Philadelphia newspapers of the colonial period
published rewards for the apprehension of many redemp-
tioners and other bonded servants who had left the serv-
ice of their masters without leave. As an illustration of
another class of advertisements of that day we copy the
following from Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet, published at
Philadelphia on July 8, 1776, and containing the text of
the Declaration of Independence : " June 17, 1776. Now
in the gaol of Newcastle the following runaway servants,
viz. John Jacob Plowman, who confesses himself to be an
indented servant to a certain James Porter, but can not
tell where his master lives, as he talks the German dia-
lect. John Langley, about nineteen years of age, who says
he belongs to Nathan Shephard, of Cumberland county,
West Jersey. Their masters are requested to come and
take them away in three weeks from the date hereof, oth-
erwise they will be discharged according to law. Thomas
Clark, Gaoler."
REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS. 47
Schoolmasters frequently came over as redemptioners.
In the New England Magazine for June, 1903, Annie Net-
tleton Bourne mentions that the Reverend John Christo-
pher Kunze writes from Philadelphia on May 16, 1773, of
a student who had been at the University of Halle and
who wanted to start a Latin school in the city. This
young man, Herr Leps, said to Mr. Kunze : " If I could
only raise twenty pounds I would buy the first German
student who lands here and owes for his passage, put him
in my upper room and begin my Latin school, teaching
myself and having the servant teach, and so from the fees
get my money back."
Colonel R. A. Brock, the accomplished Virginia anti-
quarian, says that many of the early schoolmasters of the
Virginia colony were indentured servants in the families
of the planters, which is additional evidence to that already
presented to show that many of the immigrants in colo-
nial times who could not pay their passage were above the
rank of farm servants. He also says that an act was passed
by the British Parliament in 1663 under which the " Moss
Troopers of Cumberland and Northumberland," Cromwell-
ian soldiers, were sent to Virginia, where they gave trouble
to the authorities. Other writers submit abundant proofs
that the British Government in colonial days sent large
numbers of convicts and other objectionable persons to the
colonies, notwithstanding repeated protests in legal enact-
ments by Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Bolles
says of Pennsylvania: "As early as 1682 the Provincial
Council took steps to prevent the importation of vaga-
bonds and felons, the dregs of the British population who
were cast by Great Britain on her colonies without the
least regard for their feelings."
As has already been stated Washington purchased the
services of redemptioners. In his diary, under the date of
June 4, 1786, appears the following entry : " Received from
on board the brig Ann, from Ireland, two Servant Men for
whom I had agreed yesterday — viz. — Thomas Ryan a shoe-
maker, and Caven Bon — a Taylor, Redemptioners for 3
years Service by Indenture if they could not pay, each,
the sum of £12 Sterling which sums I agreed to pay."
48 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Most of the redemptioners who came to Pennsylvania
in colonial times were Germans from the Rhine provinces
and Switzerland ; the others were Huguenots and natives
of the British Isles. The Germans from the Palatinate and
other Rhine provinces who came to Pennsylvania before
the great German exodus in 1717 were, as a rule, able to
pay the cost of their passage and provide homes for their
families. About 1717 began the immigration of Palatine
and other redemptioners. At this period the great ma-
jority of the immigrants from the Rhine provinces had
been much impoverished by the wars and persecutions of
that bloody period and had lost everything but their faith.
Diffenderffer, who has made a more thorough study of this
subject than any other writer, says that in The American
Weekly Mercury for September 1, 1720, he had found the
earliest record of any ships carrying Palatines. The Mer-
cury was the first newspaper to be published in Pennsyl-
vania and it did not appear until 1719. On the above
date it said: "On the 30 (arrived) the ship Laurel, John
Coppel, from Liverpool and Cork, .with 240 odd Palatinate
Passengers come here to settle." These passengers are not
mentioned as redemptioners. The same author also says
that "the first public notice of the redemptioner traffic"
that had come under his notice he had found in an adver-
tisement published in the Mercury in 1722, as follows :
" Thomas Denham to his good country friends adviseth :
That he has some likely servants to dispose of. One hun-
dred Palatines for five years, at £10 a head." After this
year many thousands of redemptioners from the Rhine
countries and from Great Britain came to Pennsylvania,
"great floods of Palatines" coming in some years. After
the Revolution their number greatly declined. The total
number of redemptioners who came to Pennsylvania is not
a matter of record but it was very large.
In the days when redemptioners and other immigrants
came to Pennsylvania and other colonies it required great
courage to attempt a long voyage, even under the most
favorable circumstances, and many who had been tempt-
ed to leave the wretched conditions from which they had
been promised relief bitterly regretted the step they had
REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS. 49
taken. Herded together like cattle in unsanitary ships,
which were devoid of every comfort and were often com-
manded by rapacious captains, whose cruelty to their help-
less victims was equaled only by that of the owners of
African slavers ; with insufficient food, often of the mean-
est quality ; they became an easy prey to malignant dis-
eases and during the long weary voyages many died and
were buried at sea. It is amazing that the oppressed
people of those days should have possessed the courage to
brave the hardships and privations of a long voyage, at
the end of which many of them were to voluntarily enter
into a state of bondage like that of negro slavery itself.
The lot of all these in the land of their birth must have
been hard indeed to drive them to a new country under
such unfavorable and distressing conditions as those we
have briefly described and in the frail ships of that day.
Hessian prisoners of war, captured by the Continental
army, were sold into slavery for specified periods by au-
thority of the Continental Congress. For this disposition
of prisoners Congress followed the example of England,
which had sold many Scotch, Irish, and even rebellious
English prisoners, who were sent to the colonies and there
resold. Many of the Hessian prisoners were disposed of in
Pennsylvania, as the following details will show.
After Elizabeth furnace, in Lancaster county, came
into the possession of Robert Coleman in 1776 he cast shot
and shells and cannon for the Continental army. On No-
vember 16, 1782, appears the following entry to the credit
of Congress in one of Mr. Coleman's account books : " By
cash, being the value of forty-two German prisoners of war,
at £30 each, £1,260 ;" and on June 14, 1783, the follow-
ing: "By cash, being the value of twenty-eight German
prisoners of war, at £30 each, £840." In a foot-note to
these credits Mr. Coleman certifies "on honour" that the
above seventy prisoners were all that were ever secured
by him, one of whom being returned is to be deducted
when he produces the proper voucher. Rupp, in his
history of Lancaster county, mentions that in 1843 he vis-
ited one of the Hessian "mercenaries" who was disposed
of in this manner at the close of the war for the sum of
4
50 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
), for the term of three years, to Captain Jacob Zim-
merman, of that county.
There is additional proof of the sale of Hessian prison-
ers of war by the Continental Congress. Charming forge,
in Berks county, which was built in 1749, was bought in
1774 by George Ege. About 1777 Mr. Ege purchased from
Congress the services of thirty-four Hessian prisoners, for
the purpose of cutting a channel through a bed of rock to
supply with water power a slitting mill which he had pre-
viously erected. This noted mill-race was one hundred
yards long, from twelve to twenty feet deep, and about
twenty feet wide. It was cut through a mass of solid
slate rock as smoothly as if done with a broadaxe. It
was in use until 1887, one hundred and ten years.
Diffenderffer has observed that the German population
of Pennsylvania was largely increased by the addition of
almost five thousand German (Hessian) soldiers, who de-
serted from the British army at the close of the Revolution
and remained in the State and "scattered among their
countrymen throughout Pennsylvania." The opprobrious
name of "Hessian mercenaries" has preserved to the pres-
ent time the infamy of George the Third in hiring from
more infamous German princes about 30,000 of their poor
subjects to make war upon his own countrymen in the
American colonies. The enslaved Germans who were hired
to the British king were in no sense to blame, but rather
to be greatly pitied for the part they unwillingly played
in our Revolutionary struggle. That many of them con-
cluded to remain in Pennsylvania and settle among their
countrymen is of itself sufficient evidence of their own love
of liberty and of their detestation of the conduct of the
princes by whom they had been held in bondage. Diffen-
derffer says that the exact number of the Germans who
were sent to America as soldiers of George the Third was
29,867, of whom 17,313 returned to Europe in the autumn
of 1783, leaving 12,554 who did not return, divided as fol-
lows : killed and died of wounds, 1,200 ; died of illness and
accidents, 6,354 ; deserted, 5,000, of whom nearly all set-
tled in Pennsylvania. They were called Hessians because
they came from the Hessian States of Germany.
REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS. 51
A letter from Mr. Diffenderffer gives us the following
additional details : " The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel sent
in all 16,992 men, more than one-half of the entire num-
ber that came over. The Landgrave made the best bar-
gain with England of all the German Princes. He got
£7 4s.4^d. for every man and an annual subsidy of £108,-
281 5s., the same to be continued for one year after the
return of the soldiers. In addition he insisted on being
paid an old claim arising out of the Seven Years War,
but which England had disallowed up to that time ; it
amounted to £41,820 14s. 5d. He was the worst of the lot."
Imprisonment for debt was another form of slavery
which prevailed in Pennsylvania until 1842, when it was
abolished. It was, of course, a relic of barbarism, but the
student of history can not overlook the fact that it ex-
isted in Pennsylvania until the first half of the nineteenth
century was nearing its close, as did also the barbarous
punishment of solitary confinement for criminals as Dick-
ens found it in 1842 in the eastern penitentiary of Penn-
sylvania and described it in his American Notes. In 1705
an act of the General Assembly was passed which provid-
ed for the sale of debtors into slavery for specified periods.
This act was not repealed until March 20, 1810, one hun-
dred and five years after its passage. Under this act, says
Bolles, " if a debtor had no estate he was compelled to
make satisfaction by a period of service, not exceeding
seven years if he were single and under the age of fifty-
three or five years if he were married and under the age
of forty-six." Convicted criminals were also sold into tem-
porary slavery. Bolles gives one instance of the operation
of this law : " On one occasion a man in Lancaster county
stole £14 7s. He received twenty-one lashes and was then
sold for £16 to a farmer for a term of six years."
There was another class of white servants in Pennsyl-
vania in colonial days and long afterwards which deserves
mention. These were servants indentured to learn trades
or to render personal service. They were correctly called
servants, because they were not their own masters dur-
ing the terms of their apprenticeship and could be appre-
hended if they ran away. In proportion to the total pop-
52 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
ulation of the province their numbers were very large.
The long periods for which some of these servants were
indentured is surprising.
It was a common occurrence, sanctioned by law, for
the original purchasers of the services of the redemption-
ers and of other indentured servants to sell the unexpired
time of these servants to others. We give a few examples
of these transfers of ownership, which we copy from a
very long " account of servants bound and assigned be-
fore James Hamilton, Mayor of Philadelphia," in 1745, to
be found in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Bi-
ography for 1907. " Elizabeth Hoy assignes Mary Parker
to William Morris of the County of Chester for the re-
mainder of her time two years and a half from Nov. 29th,
1745 — Consideration £8. Edward Cathrall assigns Adam
Stoles his servant to Hugh Roberts of Phila. for the re-
mainder of his time for thirteen years from Feb. 12th,
1738. Consideration £20 : customary dues. George Okill
assigns Margaret Hackabuck to Thomas Lacey, of New
Jersey, for the remainder of her time eight years from
Nov. 3rd, 1743. Consideration £14: customary dues.
Abigail Petro assigns Mary Murray to William White of
Kent Co. for the remainder of her time, four years from
April 10th, 1745. Consideration £13 : customary dues."
The same "account of servants bound and assigned"
from which we have above quoted contains these illus-
trations of the apprenticeship system in colonial days :
" Phillis Harwood, in consideration of £2:3:8 paid
Joseph Scull and sundry other small sums of money paid
for her use and at her request by Allmer Grevile, indents
herself a servant to said Grevile for four years from this
date, customary dues. William Musgrove, Jr., by consent
of his father Wm. Musgrove, indents himself a servant to
Aylmer Grevile, of Phila., for five years from this date ;
is to be taught to read, write, and cypher, and at the end
of his time is to have five pounds in money and a new
suit of clothes. Jonathan Hurst, Jr., by consent of his
mother Anne Hutchins, indents himself apprentice to
James Gottier, of Phila., cooper, for eight years from this
date, to have six months day schooling and six months
REDEMPTIONERS AND OTHER BONDED SERVANTS. 53
evening schooling to learn to read, write, and cipher, to
be taught the trade of cooper, and at the end of his time
to have two suits of apparel, one of which is to be new.
John Warner, son of John Warner, with consent of his
father, indents himself apprentice to John Peel, mariner,
for six years from April 29th, 1746, to be taught the art
or mystery of a mariner, and at the end of his time to
have two suits of apparel, one whereof to be new. Maria
Rody, with consent of her mother-in-law, Catherine Rody,
and in consideration of £7, paid said Catharine by Nicho-
las Crone of Bucks county, indents herself servant to said
Nicholas for seven years and a half from this date, to
have customary dues. Nathaniel Falkner indents himself
apprentice to Joseph Rivers, of Phila., mariner, for seven
years from this date, to be taught the art of navigation,
and at the end of the time to have one new suit of ap-
parel. James Kelly, with the consent of his father Ed-
ward Kelly, indents himself apprentice to Joseph Saull of
Phila., chairmaker, for eight years and seven months from
May 21st, 1746, to be taught the trade of a chairmaker
and spinning-wheel maker, and to read, write, and cipher."
It is very apparent from a survey of all the facts
that have been presented in this chapter that the re-
demptioners and others in Penn's province who were born
to poverty were not as free men and women as colonial
traditions would lead us to believe, nor did they possess
the ordinary comforts of life as poor people do in our
day. Whatever may be said of the ideal life of our co-
lonial ancestors it was very far from being an illustra-
tion of the proposition that "all men are created equal."
/
' - .14/ C «fc^S.»-
54 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER V.
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA.
Penn obtained the charter for his province in 1681,
and in 1682 the three counties of Kent, Newcastle, and
Sussex, now forming the State of Delaware, were formally
united to Pennsylvania, and this union lasted until the
Revolution. In 1664 there were negro slaves at New Am-
stel, now Newcastle, Delaware, New Amstel being a Dutch
settlement about ten years old at that time. In that year
the Duke of York's men, under the command of Sir Rob-
ert Carr, after the conquest of New Amsterdam, compel-
led the Dutch of New Amstel to surrender, and "the cows,
oxen, horses, and sheep of the settlers were seized," says
Jenkins. The same authority adds : "More important
than the quadrupeds were a number of negro slaves, who
also fell prize to the Englishmen. There were some sixty
or seventy of these. They had reached Manhattan in the
Gideon, a slave ship, with over two hundred more, just be-
fore the arrival of the English fleet, and barely escaped
capture there, Peter Alrich having hurried them across the
North river and thence overland to New Amstel. They
were now divided among the captors, and Carr promptly
traded some to Maryland. In his report a few days after
the capture he says : ' I have already sent into Maryland
some Neegars which did belong to ye late Governor at his
plantation above, for beefe, pork, corne, and salt, and for
some other small conveniences which this place affordeth
not.'"
That negroes were enslaved in Penn's province, not
including Delaware, before Penn visited it is shown in the
following extract from a letter from James Claypoole, of
England, in 1681, to a friend in Pennsylvania : " I have
a great drawing on my mind to remove with my family
thither, so that I am given up, if the Lord clears my way,
to be gone next spring. Advise me in thy next what I
might have two negroes for, that might be fit for cutting
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 55
down trees, building, ploughing, or any sort of labor that
is required in the first planting of a country." The follow-
ing provision in the constitution of the Free Society of
Traders, which was organized by Penn in England for trad-
ing purposes before his departure for his province in 1682,
and of which company he was a member, furnishes proof
that Penn himself gave his approval to negro slavery :
" Black servants to be free at fourteen years end on giving
to the society two-thirds of what they can produce on land
allotted to them by the society, with stocks and tools ; if
they agree not to this to be servants till they do." Penn
himself owned a few slaves who were employed on his es-
tate at Pennsbury, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. It should
not, however, be inferred that Penn was at any time an
advocate of negro slavery. There is no evidence that he
was. So far as he assented to and participated in the
buying and selling of negro slaves in his province he sim-
ply followed the custom of the times. There were negro
slaves in the West Indies and in all the British colonies
on the mainland before the granting of Penn's charter.
Before his return to England, after his second visit .to
Pennsylvania, Penn wrote his will, dated at " Newcastle on
Delaware," October 30, 1701. From this document, which
was superseded by a later will, we take the following ex-
tract, which shows that Penn intended at that time not
only to free his slaves at his death but also to provide for
the support of one of these slaves and the children of that
slave. The will says : "I give to my Servts, John and
Mary Sach . . [indistinct] three hundred acres between
them, and my blacks their freedom, as under my hand
already ; and to ould Sam 100 acres, to be his children's
after he and wife are dead, forever, on common rent of
one bushel of wheat yearly forever."
After Penn's death in 1718 his widow, Hannah Penn,
writing from London in 1720 to her cousin Rebecca Black-
fan, thus referred to negro slaves on Penn's estate of Penns-
bury, Rebecca Blackfan then living at Pennsbury : " The
young Blacks must be disposed of to prevent their increas-
ing Charge. I have offer'd my Daughter Aubrey one, but
she does not care for any. I would however have ye like-
56 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
lyest Boy reserv'd and bred to reading & sobriety as in-
tending him for my Self or one of my Children ; about wch
I design to write to J. Logan, for if Sue proves a good In-
dustrious Servant & Sober I would have her ye more ten-
derly us'd in ye disposal of her Children." The daughter
Aubrey above mentioned was Letitia Penn, who was mar-
ried to William Aubrey.
In Penn's last will, executed in 1712, he does not free
the slaves he then owned, but the following extract from
a letter addressed by James Logan to Hannah Penn, dated
Philadelphia, the 11th day of 3d month, 1721, shows that
Logan, probably in answer to the letter which Hannah
Penn said above she intended to write to him, regarded as
binding the provision in the will of 1701 in which Penn
gave freedom to "my blacks:" " Honored Mistress: The
Proprietor in a will left me at his departure hence gave
all his negroes their freedom ; but this is entirely private ;
however there are very few left. Sam died soon after
your departure hence and his brother James very lately.
Chevalier, by a written order from his master, had his lib-
erty several years ago, so that there are none left but Sue,
whom Letitia claims or did claim as given to her when
she went to England, but how rightfully I know not. These
things you can best discuss. She has several children.
There are, besides, two old negroes, quite worn, that re-
mained of three that I recovered near eighteen years ago
of E. Gibbs' Estate, of New Castle Co." There can be no
doubt that Penn's wishes as expressed in his will of 1701,
which is the one referred to by Logan, were strictly com-
plied with.
After Penn visited Pennsylvania in 1682 and the im-
migration of English Quakers and others rapidly increased
it appears that negro slavery in the province also rapidly
increased, so much so that, in 1688, according to Sharpless,
the " German Quakers" of Germantown memorialized the
Yearly Meeting in a paper still in existence against " buy-
ing and keeping of negroes," and in 1696 the same "Ger-
man Quakers" advised against "bringing in any more ne-
groes." Other protests against negro slavery were made
at other Quaker meetings. Sharpless also says that "many
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 57
wealthy Friends were slaveholders, and many saw no
evil in the established system." Nevertheless, he says, the
Yearly Meeting " could not be brought to a definite posi-
tion" until 1758, when it declared that Friends should set
negro slaves at liberty and "make a. Christian provision
for them." Many slaves owned by Friends were accord-
ingly liberated but others were kept in bondage. In 1774
a further protest against slavery was made by the Friends,
and in 1776 it was declared at the Yearly Meeting that all
negroes held in slavery by the Friends should be set at
liberty. Meanwhile attempts were made by others as well
as Quakers to secure the abolition of slavery in Penn-
sylvania, but all failed until 1780, when an act of the Gen-
eral Assembly to accomplish its gradual abolition became
a law.
During the entire colonial period of Pennsylvania ne-
gro slavery was recognized as a part of the social order
of the times, as it was in all the other colonies, but there
were not at any time many negro slaves in Pennsylvania,
only a few thousand, and these were generally well treat-
ed, although the laws relating to all servants, both white
and black, dealt with the latter with particular severity.
Diffenderffer quotes an act of the General Assembly which
was passed in 1700, " for the better regulation of serv-
ants," which provided, among other things, certain pen-
alties to be imposed upon servants who should embezzle
their masters' or owners' goods, and then adds : " and if
the Servant be a black he or she shall be severely whipt
in the most Publick Place of the Township where the Of-
fence was committed." The advertising columns of the
provincial newspapers of Pennsylvania contain many offers
of rewards for the apprehension of runaway slaves, show-
ing that the negroes were not always satisfied with their
condition. These newspapers also contain many adver-
tisements of negroes for sale. Two of these, published
about 1760, we copy below from McMaster, one of which
shows that the slave trade existed in Pennsylvania at
that time. We quote literally. One reads: " Lately im-
ported from Antigua and to be Sold by Edward Jones in
Isaac Norris's Alley, A Parcel of Likely Negro Women &
58 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Girls from thirteen to one and twenty Years of age, and
have all had the Small-Pox." The other reads : " To Be
Sold, Two very likely Negroe Boys. Enquire of Capt.
Benjamin Christian at his House in Arch-Street."
Philadelphia had its "slave market." It was located
at the southwest corner of Front and Market streets. Wat-
son says of it : "The original building was erected in 1702.
It was first used as a coffee-house in 1754 by William Brad-
ford, the famous provincial printer. There was a covered
shed connected with it, vendues of all kinds were regu-
larly held, and often auctions of negro slaves, men, women,
and children, were held there."
Pittsburgh also had negro slaves who would sometimes
run away and others who were sometimes offered for sale.
Chapman writes: "In turning over the files of the old
newspapers, for example the old Gazette, right here in Pitts-
burgh, it is startling to come across repeated advertise-
ments in regard to slaves, where they seem to have been
as common as the advertisements of stray horses and mer-
chantable oxen. Indeed in one of them Colonel Gibson,
at Fort Pitt, offers to take in payment for a certain negro
woman, who is described as an 'excellent cook/ produce
or cattle of any kind. And Mr. Thomas Girty's 'negro fel-
low' Jack figures more than once in the columns of the
old newspaper as a runaway for whose apprehension a re-
ward will be paid." As the Gazette was not founded until
1786 the occurrences noted above could not have happen-
ed until after that year. The negroes referred to were
held in bondage, notwithstanding the act of 1780 for the
gradual abolition of slavery. It continued in slavery
those who were then slaves, as will now be seen.
An act of the General Assembly, approved by Govern-
or Snyder on February 28, 1810, provided that the laws
of Pennsylvania from 1700 to 1810 should be compiled
and published in four volumes. This compilation was
made and published and is known to the legal profession
as "Smith's Laws." From the first volume of these laws
we take the following liberal extracts from "an act for the
gradual abolition of slavery," passed March 1, 1780, before
the struggle with Great Britain for national independ-
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 59
ence had come to an end, but when the end which came
a few years later was foreseen by the colonies or at least
confidently hoped for. They embrace the eloquent pre-
amble to the act, written by Judge George Bryan, which
breathes a spirit of Christian fellowship that should have
had wider recognition than it received at that day. Seven
years after the passage of the act referred to the Constitu-
tion of the United States permitted slavery to continue
and legalized the slave trade until 1808, when it was to be
abolished. Few legislative enactments contain sentiments
so lofty or reasons for their existence so eloquent as the
preamble to this act, which we give in full as follows :
" When we contemplate our abhorrence of that condi-
tion to which the arms and tyranny of Great-Britain* were
exerted to reduce us, when we look back on the variety of
dangers to which we have been exposed, and how miracu-
lously our wants in many instances have been supplied,
and our deliverances wrought, when even hope and human
fortitude have become unequal to the conflict, we are un-
avoidably led to a serious and grateful sense of the mani-
fold blessings which we have undeservedly received from
the hand of that Being from whom every good and per-
fect gift cometh. Impressed with these ideas we conceive
that it is our duty, and we rejoice that it is in our power,
to extend a portion of that freedom to others which hath
been extended to us, and release from that state of thral-
dom to which we ourselves were tyrannically doomed, and
from which we have now every prospect of being deliv-
ered. It is not for us to inquire why, in the creation of
mankind, the inhabitants of the several parts of the earth
were distinguished by a difference in feature and complex-
ion. It is sufficient to know that all are the work of an
Almighty hand. We find, in the distribution of the hu-
man species, that the most fertile as well as the most bar-
ren parts of the earth are inhabited by men of complex-
ions different from ours and from each other ; from whence
we may reasonably, as well as religiously, infer that He
who placed them in their various situations hath extended
equally his care and protection to all, and that it becom-
eth not us to counteract his mercies. We esteem it a pe-
60 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
culiar blessing granted to us that we are enabled this day
to add one more step to universal civilization by remov-
ing, as much as possible, the sorrows of those who have
lived in undeserved bondage, and from which, by the as-
sumed authority of the kings of Great-Britain, no effectual
legal relief could be obtained. Weaned by a long course
of experience from those narrow prejudices and partialities
we had imbibed we find our hearts enlarged with kindness
and benevolence towards men of all conditions and na-
tions ; and we conceive ourselves at this particular period
extraordinarily called upon, by the blessings which we have
received, to manifest the sincerity of our profession and to
give a substantial proof of our gratitude.
"And whereas the condition of those persons who have
heretofore been denominated Negro and Mulatto slaves has
been attended with circumstances which not only deprived
them of the common blessings that they were by nature
entitled to but has cast them into the deepest afflictions,
by an unnatural separation and sale of husband and wife
from each other and from their children, an injury the
greatness of which can only be conceived by supposing that
we were in the same unhappy case. In justice, therefore,
to persons so unhappily circumstanced, and who, having
no prospect before them whereon they may rest their sor-
rows and their hopes, have no reasonable inducement to
render their service to society, which they otherwise might,
and also in grateful commemoration of our own happy de-
liverance from that state of unconditional submission to
which we were doomed by the tyranny of Britain,
" Be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted, That all per-
sons, as well Negroes and Mulattoes as others, who shall
be born within this State from and after the passing of
this act, shall not be deemed and considered as servants
for life, or slaves ; and that all servitude for life, or slav-
ery of children, in consequence of the slavery of their
mothers, in the case of all children born within this State
from and after the passing of this act as aforesaid, shall
be, and hereby is, utterly taken away, extinguished, and
for ever abolished." These provisions affected only chil-
dren to be born after the passage of the act.
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 61
Following the above provisions in the act were others
beginning with the stereotyped phrase, " provided always,
and be it further enacted," which is so often at variance
with the hopes inspired by the first part of legal enact-
ments. It was so in this case. The first addendum pro-
vided "that every negro and mulatto child, born within
this State after the passing of the act as aforesaid, (who
would, in case this act had not been made, have been born
a servant for years or life, or a slave,) shall be deemed to
be, and shall be, by virtue of this act, the servant of such
person, or his or her assigns, who would in such case have
been entitled to the service of such child, until such child
shall attain unto the age of twenty-eight years."
No provision was made in the act for the freedom of
those who were slaves at the time of its adoption, and it
was expressly provided that the children of slave parents
who were born after the passage of the act should them-
selves be slaves until they had attained the age of twenty-
eight years. This provision reflects no credit upon those
who voted for it, nor is the whole act in harmony with
its preamble. It will readily be seen that the act, instead
of abolishing slavery, provided for its long continuance.
To repeat : The slave fathers and mothers were not to be
freed at all, and children who were slaves at the passage of
the act were also to remain slaves for life, while children
unborn were to be slaves until they reached the age of
twenty-eight years. Other provisions of the act refer to
the duties of masters to their slaves, the apprehension and
punishment of runaway slaves, the registering of slaves,
etc. The emancipation of slaves by their masters was
permitted, but this privilege had previously existed.
Negro slaves were employed as laborers at early iron
works in Pennsylvania. The following notice of the work-
men employed in making iron in Pennsylvania prior to
the Revolution is taken from Acrelius's History of New
Sweden, written about 1756. " The workmen are partly
English and partly Irish, with some few Germans. The
laborers are generally composed partly of negroes, (slaves,)
partly of servants from Germany or Ireland bought for a
term of years. A good negro is bought for from £30 to
62 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
£40 sterling, which is equal to 1,500 or 2,000 of our dol-
lars, koppar mynt. Their clothing may amount to 75 dol-
lars, koppar mynt, their food, 325 ditto — very little, indeed,
for the year. The negroes are better treated in Pennsylva-
nia than anywhere else in America. A white servant costs
350 dollars, koppar mynt, and his food is estimated at 325
dollars more, of the same coinage." By the phrase "serv-
ants from Germany or Ireland" Acrelius meant redemp-
tioners, who have been considered in the preceding chapter.
At Green Lane forge, on Perkiomen creek, in Mont-
gomery county, built in 1733, the workmen employed were
at one time chiefly negro slaves. At Martic forge, built in
1755, negro slaves were employed from the beginning in
hammering iron, and negroes continued to be the principal
workmen at this forge down to the abandonment of active
operations in 1883. A long row of stone houses was occu-
pied by the negro workmen. A furnace called Martic was
connected with Martic forge, and in 1769 the furnace and
forge, with the land and other property appertaining to
them, were advertised for sale by the sheriff. Included in
the advertisement were "two slaves, one a Mulattoe Man,
a good forge man, the other a Negro man," both owned
by the company which had been operating the furnace and
forge. In 1780 negro slaves were employed at Durham fur-
nace, five of whom escaped in that year to the British lines.
Although there were slaves in Pennsylvania after the
passage of the act of 1780 and down to 1840, as will soon
be shown, a period of sixty years, they are not often re-
ferred to in the newspapers published during that period
except when they ran away or were to be sold. As they
gradually died off there would be fewer of them to give
anybody trouble or to experience a change of masters.
A letter dated "Bedford county, Pennsylvania, July 18,
1829," written by Thomas B. McElwee, a farmer, and pub-
lished in The American Farmer, of Baltimore, in that year,
says: "We have no slaves nor do we boast of an exemp-
tion from that which it would be degradation to be sub-
ject to. Such a miserable thing as a slave and such an
arrogant thing as the master of a slave are unknown to
us. We are all free as the pure unfettered mountain air
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 63
we breathe, and we intend to continue so. Nevertheless,
some wretched creatures who have escaped from their
masters in the neighboring States occasionally seek refuge
here, but they are habitually dishonest and lazy."
In Boucher's History of Westmoreland County it is
stated that Judge John Moore, of that county, who died in
1811, "set free the older of his colored servants and allow-
ed the younger ones to serve an apprenticeship with any
of his children they might choose," showing that negro
slavery existed in Pennsylvania long after the beginning of
the nineteenth century. Two of these "colored servants"
were still slaves in the Moore family until after 1825.
Negro slaves were frequently advertised for sale in the
Pittsburgh newspapers, or as having run away, down to
about 1820. Boucher says that negro slaves were often
sold at public outcry in the streets of Greensburg. There
was a regular auction-block on the court-house square, and
from it the negroes were "knocked down" to the highest
bidder. Sheriff Perry sold a number of slaves who had
been seized for debt, selling them from this auction-block.
As late as 1817 George Armstrong, Greensburg's first bur-
gess, auctioned off a negro girl who belonged to a client of
his. Boucher also says that white men and women, known
as redemptioners, were also sold from the auction-block
in Greensburg. He says that the last sale of this kind of
which there is any record occurred on March 5, 1819.
In 1901 the Blairsville (Indiana county) Enterprise re-
ceived from Mrs. Kate Cunningham the original of the
following additional reminder of negro slavery in Western
Pennsylvania, which we copy verbatim : " For the sum of
Two hundred and fifty dollars to me in hand paid by
George Anshutz commission merchant of Pittsburgh I do
hereby sell and transfer my black boy Bob to him the said
George his heirs and assigns for six years from the first
day of January eighteen hundred and thirteen at the ex-
piration of which time the said Bob is hereby declared to
be a free man. In witness whereof I hereunto set my hand
and seal at Pittsburgh Dec. 25th, 1812. A. Boggs. Witness,
Christian Latshaw. Bob was born with Coll. Cook, of
Pensvalley Center County formerly Mifflin and Recorded
64
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
in Mifflin County. He was sold by Coll. Cook to Doct.
Davis, of Bellefonte, by Doct. Davis' Exors to Roland Cur-
tin, and by Roland Curtin to me A. Boggs. He is now
about eighteen years of age. A. Boggs."
Mr. Boggs was a pioneer saltmaker in the Conemaugh
and Kiskiminitas valleys and George Anshutz was a pio-
neer ironmaker at Pittsburgh and Laughlinstown and also
in Huntingdon county. Roland Curtin was the father of
Governor Andrew G. Curtin. The "boy" referred to by
Mr. Boggs was the child of negro parents who remained
slaves after 1780, and he himself could become free only
after he had reached the age of 28 years, unless manumit-
ted. Four years of his legal term of servitude were there-
fore remitted by Mr. Boggs. He was probably born in 1794.
In the following table we have compiled from the Com-
pendium of the Ninth Census (1870) the statistics of the
number of negro slaves in each of the thirteen original
States as ascertained at the taking of the first census in
1790 and at each succeeding census down to 1840, after
which year we find no mention of slaves in Pennsylvania.
States.
1790.
1800.
1810.
1820.
1830.
1840.
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Connecticut .
Rhode Island
New York . . .
New Jersey . .
Pennsylvania
Delaware ....
Maryland . . .
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
158
0
2,764
948
21,324
11,423
3,737
8,887
103,036
292,627
100,572
107,094
29,264
0
951
380
20,903
12,422
1,706
6,153
105,635
345,796
133,296
146,151
59,406
0
0
310
108
15,017
10,851
795
4,177
111,502
392,516
168,824
196,365
105,218
0
0
97
48
10,088
7,557
211
4,509
107,397
425,148
204,917
258,475
149,656
3
1
25
17
75
2,254
403
3,292
102,994
469,757
245,601
315,401
217,531
1
0
17
5
4
674
64
2,605
89,737
448,987
245,817
327,038
280,944
Massachusetts, which does not report any slaves at any
of the above mentioned periods, except one slave in 1830,
which exception we can not understand, was nevertheless a
slaveholding colony and State down to 1780, when the bill
of rights of her constitution of that year indirectly abol-
ished slavery, but it was not until 1783 that this provision
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA.
65
was enforced. The large number of slaves in New York
and New Jersey will attract attention, while the compara-
tively small number in Pennsylvania confirms the state-
ment heretofore made that this State never held many
slaves, although there have always been many free negroes
within its borders. The "lower counties" of Delaware
became a slave State. Unlike Massachusetts and perhaps
some other colonies Pennsylvania did not enslave Indians,
except in one instance, noted by Bolles, when some Tusca-
rora Indians were brought from North Carolina into Penn-
sylvania as slaves, and it never sold Indians into slavery
outside its boundaries, as Massachusetts did. In 1705 the
General Assembly of Pennsylvania, with the Tuscarora in-
cident before it, passed an act prohibiting the importation
of Indian slaves from other colonies. Nor did Pennsylva-
nia encourage the slave trade or engage in it to anything
like the extent that Massachusetts and Rhode Island did.
The following table gives the negro population of the
United States in 1900 in cities having at least ten thou-
sand negroes, according to the census of that year.
Cities.
Negroes.
Cities.
Negroes.
Washington, D. C
86,702
79,258
77,714
62,613
60,666
49,910
39,139
35,727
35,516
32,230
31,522
30,150
30,044
28,090
20,230
18,487
Kansas City, Mo
17 567
Baltimore, Md
Montgomery, Ala
Mobile, Ala
17,229
17,045
Philadelphia, Pa
Pittsburgh, Pa
17,040
New York, N.Y
Birmingham, Ala
16,575
16,236
Memphis, Term
Jacksonville, Fla
Louisville, Ky
Indianapolis, Ind
15,931
Atlanta, Ga
14,694
St. Louis, Mo
14,608
Richmond, Va
Cincinnati, Ohio
14,482
13,122
Charleston, S. C
11 591
Nashville, Tenn
Macon, Ga
11,550
Petersburg, Va
10,751
Norfolk, Va
Wilmington, N. C
Lexington, Ky
10,407
10,130
Augusta, Ga
The total negro population of the United States in
the census year 1900 was 8,840,789, of which large num-
ber there were 156,845 in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh contained more than one-half of the total num-
5
66 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
ber in Pennsylvania, and a large part of the remainder
were in the suburbs of these cities. The total negro popu-
lation of Allegheny county in 1900 was 27,753. Since the
census of 1900 the negro population of Western Pennsyl-
vania has greatly increased, as has also that of Philadel-
phia. In 1900 Philadelphia had 62,613 negroes.
The claim has been frequently made that the first
protest that was made in this country against negro sla-
very originated with the Friends, or Quakers. This claim
will bear examination. The clearest and also the latest
account of this really important matter is contained in
Pennypacker's Settlement of Germantown, published by the
Pennsylvania German Society in 1899. Pennypacker says :
" On the 18th day of April, 1688, Gerhard Hendricks,
Dirck Op den Graeff, Francis Daniel Pastorius, and Abra-
ham Op den Graeff sent to the Friends Meeting the first
public protest ever made on this continent against the
holding of slaves. The protest is as follows :
'"This is to ye Monthly Meeting held at Rigert Wor-
rells. These are the reasons why we are against the traf-
fick of mens-body as followeth : Is there any that would
be done or handled at this manner ? viz. to be sold or
made a slave for all the time of his life ? . . . Now
what is this better done as Turcks doe ? yea rather is it
worse for them, wch say they are Christians, for we hear
that ye most part of such Negers are brought heither
against their will & consent, and that many of them are
stollen. Now tho' they are black, we can not conceive
there is more liberty to have them slaves, as it is to have
other white ones. There is a saying, that we shall doe
to all men licke as we will be done our selves : macking
no difference of what generation, descent, or Colour they
are. And those who steal or robb men, and those who
buy or purchase them, are they not all alicke ? . . .In
Europe there are many oppressed for Conscience sacke;
and here there are those oppressed wch are of a black
Colour. . . Oh ! doe consider well this things, you who
doe it, if you would be done at this manner ? and if it is
done according Christianity ? you surpass Holland & Ger-
many in this thing. This macks an ill report in all those
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 67
Countries of Europe, where they hear off, that ye Quack-
ers doe here handel men Licke they handel there ye Cat-
tle ; and for that reason some have no mind or inclina-
tion to come hither. . . . And we who profess that it
is not lawfull to steal must lickewise avoid to purchase
such things as are stolen, but rather help to stop this
robbing and stealing if possibel and such men ought to be
delivred out of ye hands of ye Robbers and set free as
well as in Europe. Then is Pensilvania to have a good
report, in stead it hath now a bad one for this sacke in
other Countries. Especially whereas ye Europeans are de-
sirous to know in what manner ye Quackers doe rule in
their Province & most of them doe loock upon us with an
envious eye. But if this is done well, what shall we say is
don evil ? . . . This was is from our meeting at Ger-
mantown hold ye 18 of the 2 month 1688 to be delivred to
the monthly meeting at Richard Warrels.' "
Here follow literally the signatures, according to Penny-
packer : "'gerret hendericks. derick op de graeff. Francis
daniell Pastorius. Abraham op den graef."'
Following the text of the above protest Pennypacker
adds the following information, which shows the fate of
the effort of Pastorius and his three friends to put a check
to slavery and the slave trade in Pennsylvania : " The
Friends at Germantown, through William Kite, have re^-
cently had a fac simile copy of this protest made. Care
has been taken to give it here exactly as it is in the orig-
inal, as to language, orthography, and punctuation. The
disposition which was made of it appears from these notes
from the Friends' records :
"'At our monthly meeting at Dublin ye 30 2 mo. 1688,
we having inspected ye matter above mentioned & con-
sidered it we finde it so weighty that we think it not Ex-
pedient for us to meddle with it here, but do Rather comitt
it to ye consideration of ye Quarterly meeting, ye tennor
of it being nearly Related to ye truth. On behalf of ye
monthly meeting, signed, pr. Jo. Hart.' ' This above men-
tioned was Read in our Quarterly meeting at Philadelphia
the 4 of ye 4 mo. '88, and was from thence recommended
to the Yearly Meeting, and the above-said Derick and the
68 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
other two mentioned therein, to present the same to ye
above-said meeting, it being a thing of too great a weight
for this meeting to determine. Signed by order of ye
Meeting, Anthony Morris.'" Penny packer continues:
"At the yearly meeting held at Burlington the 5 day
of 7 mo. 1688. 'A paper being here presented by some
German Friends Concerning the Lawfulness and Unlawful-
ness of buying and Keeping of Negroes, It was adjudged
not to be so proper for this Meeting to give a Positive
Judgment in the case, It having so General a Relation
to many other Parts, and, therefore, at present they for-
bear it."'
Referring directly to the protest Pennypacker says :
" The handwriting of the original appears to be that of
Pastorius. An effort has been made to take from the
Quakers the credit of this important document, but the
evidence that those who sent and those who received it
regarded each other as being members of the same relig-
ious society seems to me conclusive."
It will be observed that the signers of the above pro-
test were not English Quakers. All were doubtless known
as German Quakers. Three of them were Hollanders and
one was a German — the two Op den Graeffs, Gerhard
Hendricks, and Pastorius. All but Pastorius were origi-
nally Mennonites. It will be further observed that the
protest was not favorably received by any of the meetings
of English Friends to which it was submitted. To claim
credit for the Friends for making the first protest against
slavery, if by that phrase is meant the English Quakers,
is therefore wholly inaccurate. The credit belongs to the
three Hollanders and the one German above mentioned,
of whom three were Mennonites before they were Quakers.
That many of the English Quakers of Pennsylvania were
slaveholders has already been shown in this chapter ; and
it has also been shown that the frequent efforts that were
made at the Yearly Meetings of Friends to secure a decla-
ration that Friends should not hold slaves were unsuccess-
ful until 1758 — seventy years after the Germantown pro-
test ; and it has been further shown that it was not until
1776 that the Yearly Meeting declared that all negroes
NEGRO SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA. 69
held in slavery by Friends should be set at liberty. Eng-
lish Quakers, therefore, as a class did not oppose slavery
but permitted it among their own membership, even if
they did not distinctly approve it. The credit of the first
protest in this country against slavery rightfully belongs
to Pastorius and his friends, and this protest was made
against the practice of the English Quakers themselves
in buying and holding slaves. It was written when the
English and Welsh Quakers formed a large part of the
population of the province, probably a majority.
In his Settlement of Germantown Penny packer copies
an incident from the journal of John Woolman in 1758
which illustrates the aversion of the Mennonites to negro
slavery : "A friend gave me some account of a religious
society among the Dutch, called Mennonists, and amongst
other things related a passage in substance as follows-:
One of the Mennonists having acquaintance with a man
of another society at a considerable distance, and being
with his wagon on business near the house of his said ac-
quaintance, and night coming on, he had thoughts of put-
ting up with him, but passing by his fields, and observing
the distressed appearance of his slaves, he kindled a fire
in the woods hard by and lay there that night. His said
acquaintance hearing where he had lodged, and afterwards
meeting the Mennonist, told him of it, adding he should
have been heartily welcome at his house, and from their
acquaintance in former times wondered at his conduct in
that case. The Mennonist replied, 'Ever since I lodged by
thy field I have wanted an opportunity to speak with thee.
I had intended to come to thy house for entertainment,
but seeing thy slaves at their work, and observing the
manner of their dress, I had no liking to come and partake
with thee.' He then admonished him to use them with
more humanity, and added: 'As I lay by the fire that
night I thought that, as I was a man of substance, thou
wouldst have received me freely, but if I had been as
poor as one of thy slaves, and had no power to help my-
self, I should have received from thy hand no kinder
usage than they.'" To which we may add that there is
no evidence that a Mennonite ever owned a negro slave.
70 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER VI.
THE DELAWARE INDIANS.
It does not fall within the scope of this volume to
consider in detail the relations of the early settlers of
Pennsylvania to the native inhabitants of the province
or to attempt any description of the Indians themselves.
This has been done by the historians of Pennsylvania, and
the record they have written is full of massacres, burned
homes, and proofs of bad faith on both sides. Away from
the Delaware the pioneers in the settlement of Pennsylva-
nia were in almost constant conflict with the Indians from
about 1750 until after the close of the Revolutionary war.
Having mentioned, however, in previous chapters the
friendship of the Delawares for the first settlers of Penn-
sylvania, and particularly for William Penn, it is proper
that the sequel of these pleasant relations should be given.
It forms a disgraceful chapter in our provincial history.
William Penn's policy of dealing fairly with the In-
dians was not followed by his sons. Hannah Penn had
managed the affairs of the province with great shrewd-
ness and ability after 1712, during Penn's long illness, and
after his death until her own death in 1727, when she
was succeeded in the proprietorship by her three sons,
John, Thomas, and Richard Penn. It was during their
proprietorship that an event occurred in 1737 that could
not have happened in the lifetime of William Penn, and
which has gone into history as "the walking purchase."
The historians, particularly Fisher and Sharpless, deal with
this episode with great frankness and with much severity.
Fisher describes it as follows :
'"The walking purchase' purported to be a confirma-
tion of an old deed made in 1686, and provided for a fine
starting at Wrightstown, a few miles back from the Dela-
ware, and a little way above Trenton, and running north-
west about parallel with the Delaware as far as a man
could walk in a day and a half. At the end of the walk
THE DELAWARE INDIANS. 71
a line was to be drawn to the Delaware, and the land be-
tween these lines and the river was 'the walking purchase.'
Long before the walk was to be made the proprietors
prepared the ground by having the line of walk surveyed
and the trees marked so that the walkers should go in as
straight a line as possible and lose no time. On the day
appointed the walkers, in charge of the sheriff, started
promptly at sunrise and were accompanied by men with
horses carrying their provisions and blankets, also by
some who went as mere spectators and. by some Indians
who went as representatives of their nation and to see
fair play. The men selected to do the walking were the
strongest and most active woodsmen that could be found.
The Indians soon complained that they could not keep
up with them and repeatedly called to them not to run.
Finally, toward the end of the first day, being unable to
stop the running, the Indians retired and left the white
men to conduct the walk as they pleased. It had been
generally understood by the Indians that 'the walking
purchase' extended only to the Lehigh river, and it was
their opinion that a walk of a day and a half would reach
only that far. But the walkers passed beyond the river
on the first day. They traveled for twelve hours by the
sheriff's watch, and when at twilight he suddenly gave the
signal that the time was up Edward Marshall, one of the
walkers, fell against a tree, to which he clung for sup-
port, saying that a few rods more would have finished
him. The next half day the walkers reached a point thirty
miles beyond the Lehigh, and, when the line was drawn
from this point to the river, instead of taking it directly
to the river, it was slanted upward for a long distance so
as to include the whole of the valuable Minisink country.
That this 'walking purchase' was a fraud on the Indians
no one has ever doubted. It sank deep into the Indian
heart and was never forgotten. As they never forgot the
kindness and justice of Penn so they never forgot this
treachery of his sons, and in a few years the mutilated
bodies and scalps of hundreds of women and children
throughout the whole Pennsylvania frontier told the tale
of wrong. ...
72 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
" The alienation of the Indians was of course largely
the inevitable result of the ambitious designs of France
and of the progress of our own race, which is very apt to
crush inferior people in its course, but a great deal of the
blame rests with Thomas Penn, who was in the province
at the time of ' the walking purchase' and directly respon-
sible for it. He was also, through his agents, responsible
for the grasping Albany deed of 1754, which sent pretty
much all the Pennsylvania Indians over to the French."
Sharpless uses equally plain words of denunciation of
Thomas Penn's conduct in connection with "the walking
purchase." He says: "In a treaty in 1728 James Logan
said that William Penn never allowed lands to be settled
till purchased of the Indians. Ten years before he had
shown to their chiefs deeds covering all the lands from
Duck creek, in Delaware, to the ' Forks of the Delaware,'
between the Delaware and Lehigh rivers where Easton
now stands, and extending back along the 'Leehoy hills'
to the Susquehanna. The Indians admitted this and con-
firmed the deeds, but objected to the settlers crowding
into the fertile lands within the forks occupied by the
Minisink tribe of the Delaware Indians. Logan accordingly
forbade any surveying in the Minisink country. White
settlers, however, were not restrained, and the Indians be-
came still more uneasy. A tract of 10,000 acres sold by
the Penns to be taken up anywhere in the unoccupied
lands of the province was chosen here and opened for set-
tlement. A lottery was established by the proprietors,
the successful tickets calling for amounts of land down to
200 acres, and many of these were assigned in the forks,
without Indian consent.
" In order to secure undisputed possession and drive
out the Delawares, who it must be remembered had al-
ways been more than friendly, a despicable artifice was re-
sorted to, which will always disgrace the name of Thomas
Penn. . . . The route was surveyed, underbrush clear-
ed away, horses stationed to convey the walkers across
the rivers, two athletic young men trained for the pur-
pose, and conveyances provided for their baggage and
provisions. Indians attended at the beginning, but after
THE DELAWARE INDIANS. 73
repeatedly calling to the men to walk, not run, retired in
disgust. Far from stopping at the Leehoy hills they cov-
ered about sixty miles and extended the line thirty miles
beyond the Lehigh river. Then, to crown the infamy, in-
stead of running the northern line by any reasonable
course they slanted it to the northeast and included all
the Minisink country. It was a gross travesty on the origi-
nal purchase, an outrageous fraud on the Indians, which
they very properly refused to submit to. They remained
in their ancestral homes and sent notice they would resist
removal by force. There unfortunately seems to be no
doubt of the iniquity of the transaction. There is the tes-
timony of at least two witnesses to the walk. It appears
to have been a common subject of remark. Indifferent
men treated it as sharp practice, and honest men were
ashamed." But, says Sharpless, " the outrage did not
stop here." The proprietaries, having determined to eject
the Delaware Indians from the lands included in "the
walking purchase," " applied to the Six Nations, who
claimed all the Pennsylvania Indians as their subjects,"
with the result that the peaceful and the greatly injured
Delawares were driven by the Iroquois from their homes
along the Delaware river to Wyoming, Shamokin, and
other interior places. In a little while they became im-
placable enemies of the white settlers, and with the torch
and the tomahawk wreaked their vengeance upon the race
that had not only supplanted them but had treated them
with flagrant injustice and base ingratitude. This was the
end of Penn's peaceful policy toward the Delawares.
On July 7, 1764, it was thought to be necessary for the
professedly Christian government of Pennsylvania, repre-
sented by John Penn as governor, a grandson of William
Penn, to issue a proclamation offering the following boun-
ties for the capture, or scalp, in proof of the death, of an
Indian : for every male above the age of ten years cap-
tured, $150; scalped, being killed, $134; and for every
female Indian enemy, and every male under the age of
ten years, captured, $130 ; for every female above the age
of ten years scalped, being killed, $50." (See Gordon's
History of Pennsylvania.)
74 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Until after "the walking purchase" there was never
any serious trouble between the settlers on the Delaware
and any Indian tribe, except the massacre at Swanandael,
which seems not to have been the work of the Delawares.
In 1728 there was some trouble in the Schuylkill valley
with a small band of Shawnese, but no lives were lost on
either side. Penny packer, in the Pennsylvania Magazine
of History and Biography for January, 1907, after describ-
ing the affair, says : " Altogether five of the settlers and
several of the Indians had been wounded more or less
seriously, but notwithstanding the wild rumors none were
killed. It is interesting as the only engagement with the
savages which ever occurred in the vicinity of Philadel-
phia."
Driven to Western Pennsylvania by influences that
they could not resist, the Delawares and the Shawnese
were almost constantly at war with the whites until both
tribes and other Indians were driven out of Pennsylvania.
Practically all the Indians disappeared from Pennsylva-
nia after the treaty of Fort Stanwix in October, 1784, by
which the Iroquois surrendered to Pennsylvania all the
northwestern part of the State. Incursions of Indians in-
to the settled parts of Western Pennsylvania continued,
however, for several years. The burning of Hannastown,
the county-seat of Westmoreland county, had occurred in
1782. In the same county Mrs. Massey Harbison and her
three children were captured by the Indians in 1792 and
two of the children were massacred. In 1794 Captain
Andrew Sharp, of Indiana county, was shot and killed by
"seven Indians" while descending the Kiskiminitas river
in a boat with his family and others. In the same year
James Dickson was fired upon by Indians while hunt-
ing his cows in Crawford county and seriously wounded.
Half-breed Indians and some of full blood who were peace-
ably disposed were permitted to remain in Warren county,
on the Allegheny river, just below the New York State
line. Mr. Rhoads says: "Of the existing Indians which
represent the ancient occupants or claimants of Central
Pennsylvania there were 98 Senecas and Onondagas living
in 1890 on the Cornplanter Reservation in Warren county."
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 75
CHAPTER VII.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PENNSYLVANIA.
In Caesar's Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul, with
which all historical students are familiar, it is stated that
" the whole country of Gaul is divided into three parts,"
and that these parts are separated only by boundaries
which are formed by rivers. Pennsylvania is also divided
into three parts, which may be described as the east-
ern, central, and western sections. Their boundaries are
strongly marked and they are distinctly defined in every
good map of the State. They are more marked and im-
pressive than the boundaries which divided Gaul into three
parts. It is of interest to add that these sections were
occupied by white settlers at three different periods and
in the order above mentioned. The eastern part extends
from the Delaware river to the eastern branch and the
main stem of the Susquehanna river ; the central part ex-
tends westward from the Susquehanna to the summit of
the Alleghenies at Cresson and corresponding points ; and
the western part extends from the crest of the Alleghenies
to the western limits of the State. Bedford and Altoona,
at the eastern base of the Alleghenies, are in the central
division of Pennsylvania as we have above described it.
An examination of a good map of Pennsylvania will
show that the State forms almost an exact parallelogram,
touching the waters of the Delaware on its eastern bound-
ary and extending to Ohio and West Virginia on the west
and to Lake Erie on the northwest, with straight lines
forming its northern and southern and western bounda-
ries ; that throughout nearly its whole extent it is trav-
ersed by numerous mountain ranges of the Appalachian
system, all having the same general direction from north-
east to southwest ; that it is remarkably well watered by
large rivers and their mountain tributaries ; that it has
very few lakes, most of which are but little larger than
ponds ; and that between its mountain ranges are many
76 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
valleys of considerable extent, the most noted being the
Schuylkill, Wyoming, Chester, Lebanon, Cumberland, Ju-
niata, Ligonier, Monongahela, Allegheny, Shenango, and
Ohio valleys. Many of the mountain ranges of Pennsyl-
vania lead up to extensive and fertile plateaus upon
which may be found well-tilled farms and attractive and
prosperous towns and villages.
In natural resources Pennsylvania is the richest State
in the Union. It is a great agricultural State as well as
the leading producer of anthracite and bituminous coal,
natural gas, and other natural products. A large part of
the State is underlaid with limestone, and its influence
upon the fertility of the soil was recognized by the early
settlers. It was long the principal producer of iron ore.
Most of our country is rich in magnificent scenery
of hill and dale, mountain and valley, forest and lake and
river, but nowhere is there to be found a greater or more
pleasing variety of scenery than in Pennsylvania. Espe-
cially may this be said in those seasons of the year when
the primeval forests which have not been seriously invad-
ed by the woodman's axe and the lumberman's saw-mill
present to the eye long stretches of the densest and green-
est foliage. And, then, if we keep away from the smoke
of the mill and the factory and the coke oven, there will
be added the necessary accompaniment of all beautiful
scenery, a clear sky overhead, which William Penn found
in 1683 and described in a letter written in that year to
the Duke of Ormonde, to which we will presently refer.
Pennsylvania has hundreds of scenes of varied beauty
that would well repay a visit from any American or Eu-
ropean tourist — some rugged and grand, others quiet and
restful, but all supremely beautiful, especially in the sum-
mer and autumn seasons of the year. The wonder is that
the lines of railroad which run through the most pictur-
esque sections of the State are not more patronized by
American tourists in these seasons than they are. Many
of our tourists go to Europe knowing very little of the
unsurpassed scenery of their own country. And yet, when
American men and women of intelligence and artistic
taste have the good judgment to travel through any part
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 77
of our country for the purpose of studying and enjoying
its scenery, they never fail to praise it. A ride from
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh over the Pennsylvania Rail-
road, or from Philadelphia to Harrisburg by way of the
Schuylkill and Lebanon valleys, or up the Delaware val-
ley, or through the historic Wyoming valley, will reveal
many extensive prospects of graceful woodland alternat-
ing with cultivated fields and broad meadows as level
almost as a western prairie, with constant glimpses of
mountain ridges, and frequently of quiet streams to em-
phasize the fact that no landscape is perfect without a
lake, or river, or even a rivulet. The scenery above re-
ferred to is typical of that of the whole State — placid
beauty on the one hand, rugged grandeur on the other.
The journal of Rufus Putnam, who traveled with some
friends from his home in Connecticut to Marietta, Ohio, in
1794 and 1795, describes in glowing terms the scenery of
the Allegheny mountains in Southwestern Pennsylvania as
he admiringly beheld it in December, 1794, while crossing
these mountains from Somerset county to Bedford county.
He says that from the top of a high mountain he looked
down into a vast valley, the whole constituting "a most
delightful landscape," which he describes, and then adds :
"In short, the one comprehensive view was the most pic-
turesque that my eyes ever beheld." The valley referred
to was the upper part of the Juniata valley, threaded by
the Raystown branch of the "Blue Juniata."
In the letter from William Penn to the Duke of Or-
monde, written in 1683, to which we have already referred,
Penn describes as follows the surface of Pennsylvania that
he had seen, the crops that the land would produce, the cli-
mate, and the flora and fauna with which he had become
acquainted. We quote from Notes and Queries. He says :
" I thank God I am safely arrived in the province that
the providence of God and bounty of the king hath made
myne, and which the credit, prudence, and industry of the
people concerned with me must render considerable. I was
received by the ancient inhabitants with much kindness
and respect and the rest brought it with them. There
may be about four thousand soules in all. I speak, I think,
78 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
within compass. We expect an increase from France, Hol-
land, and Germany, as well as our native country.
" The land is generally good, well water'd, and not so
thick of wood as imagin'd ; there are also many open
places that have been old Indian fields. The trees that
grow here are the mulberry, white and red, walnut, black,
gray, and hickery, poplar, cedar, Cyprus, chestnut, ash,
sassafras, gum, pine, spruce, oake, black, white, red, Span-
ish chestnut, and swamp, which has a leaf like a willow
and is most lasting. The food the woods yield is your
elks, deer, raccoons, beaver, rabbits, turkeys, pheasants,
heath-birds, pigeons, and partredges, innumerably ; we need
no setting dogs to ketch ; they run by droves into the
house in cold weather. Our rivers have also plenty of ex-
cellent fish and water fowl, as sturgeon, rock, shad, herring,
catfish or flatheads, sheepsheads, roach, and perch, and
trout in inland streames ; of fowls, the swan, white, gray,
and black goose, and brands, the best duck and teal I ever
ate, and the snipe and the curlue with the snow-bird are
also excellent.
" The aire is sweet and cleare, which makes a sereen
and steady sky, as in the more southern parts of France.
Our summers and winters are commonly once in three
years in extreames ; but the winters seldom last above
ten weeks and rarely begin till the latter end of Decem-
ber ; the days are above two hours longer and the sun
much hotter here than with you, which makes some rec-
ompense for the sharp nights of the winter season, as
well as the woods that make cheap and great fires. We
have of grain wheat, maize, rye, barley, oats, several excel-
lent sorts of beans and peas, pumpkins, water and musk-
melons, all English roots and garden stuff, good fruit
and excellent cider ; the peach we have in divers kinds,
and very good, and in great abundance. The vine (of
severall sorts and the sign with us of rich land) is very
fruitful, and tho not so sweet as some I have eaten in
Europe yet it makes a good wine, and the worst good
vinegar. I have observed three sorts, the great grape that
has green, red, and black, all ripe on the same tree, the
muskedell, and black little grape which is the best, and
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 79
may be improved to an excellent wine. These are spon-
taneous. Of cattle we have the horse, not very hand-
some, but good. Cow cattle and hogs in much plenty,
and sheep increase apace."
In the same year, 1683, Penn wrote a letter to the
Free Society of Traders, dated 16th of 8th month, to be
found in Watson's Annals, in which he describes the cli-
mate, field and garden products, beasts, birds, fishes, etc.,
of Pennsylvania in terms similar to those used in his let-
ter to the Duke of Ormonde. In both letters the impres-
sion is clearly conveyed that the part of Pennsylvania
lying along the Delaware was very far from being an
uninhabited wilderness in 1683.
Penn's favorable opinion of the climate of his province
has. not been confirmed by the experience of those who
have come after him and who have seen more of Pennsyl-
vania than he had become familiar with in 1683. The cli-
mate of Philadelphia and the adjacent territory, of which
he formed favorable impressions, is, however, much mild-
er than that of the mountain sections of the State. A
glance at the map will show that Philadelphia is not only
remote from the mountains but that it is farther south
than Wheeling, which was formerly known as a Southern
city, within slave territory. The climate of Pennsylvania
taken as a whole is really very changeable and in the win-
ter months is severe and trying to delicate constitutions,
although, as has been stated, its summers and autumns
are delightful, except, of course, when the conjunction of
high temperature and excessive humidity in the summer
months creates great discomfort, especially in the large
cities. In Philadelphia, with a population of a million and
a half, the combination of high temperature and great hu-
midity is most oppressive and the cause of great suffering.
The autumn in Pennsylvania is usually pleasant, even in
November, when we have Indian summer, but spring is
often delayed until May. The division of the year into
seasons in our almanacs is not correct for Pennsylvania or
for some other parts of our country. March is not usually
in this State a spring month, but a winter month, and
April is proverbially capricious and often wintry. And
80 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
yet, so changeable and uncertain is the climate of Penn-
sylvania that in March, 1907, the temperature in Phila-
delphia rose to 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, while
on the 14th of June of the same year snow fell in con-
siderable quantities in several of its mountain counties.
Colonel Buell comments as follows on Penn's favorable
opinion of the climate of Pennsylvania: " This would not
be recognized as the climate of Philadelphia and its neigh-
borhood at the beginning of the twentieth century. There
is probably no locality on earth where the deforestation of
the surrounding country has so banefully affected the cli-
mate as the tidewater estuary of the Delaware. And these
malign conditions seem to culminate at the confluence of
the Delaware and Schuylkill. In Penn's time the south
winds blew over a primeval forest that covered all South
Jersey. The great trees absorbed the humidity which the
gulf stream spreads all along its wake, and the southerly
and southeasterly breezes reached Philadelphia with all
their miasma sucked out of them. Now they blow over
half-tide lagoons, back-water creeks, and marshes fetid
with rotting vegetation and morbific with malarial germs ;
or they sift through hot sand barrens, supporting a scrub
growth of leafless and half-burned second-crop pine or old
fields exhausted by slovenly tillage, baked by a blazing
sun or steamed by hot humidity, and covered with a scant
shrubbery of dwarf bushes and enfeebled briers wherever
the sand-drifts will let shrubs grow. The result is a cli-
mate— or rather the total absence of one — that in summer
amounts to a vast gridiron for the broiling of mankind,
while the so-called spring and autumn are likely to exhibit
three changes of season in forty-eight hours. The alleged
winter is divided into about three parts slush and one
part blizzard. This is as different from the climate Penn
describes as darkness differs from light, and it is all due
to deforestation."
Colonel BuelFs last phrase is too sweeping. There is
another cause than deforestation for the excessive hu-
midity of the climate of Philadelphia. In summer some
of the deadly humidity of that city and its neighborhood
is certainly due to the proximity of the Delaware and
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 81
Schuylkill rivers, from the surface of which a vast amount
of moisture is lifted into the atmosphere by the sun's hot
rays. The sea breezes never reach Philadelphia.
Penn's cousin, Markham, writing home to England in
December, 1681, describing Pennsylvania, says : "It is a
fine country if it were not so overgrown with woods, and
very healthy. Here people live to be over 100 years of
age." Nearly all of Pennsylvania when it was first set-
tled by white men was covered with forests. To-day it
may still be said of it that it is a heavily wooded sec-
tion. Most of its mountain ranges are covered with trees,
and centuries must elapse before it would be possible to
entirely denude these ranges. Throughout the State trees
are, indeed, everywhere to be seen. Its authorities are
wisely preserving great stretches of native forest which
have been purchased expressly that they may not pass
into the hands of the destructive lumberman.
The Appalachian system, which embraces all the east-
ern mountains of the United States from Northern Maine
to Alabama, attains its greatest width in Pennsylvania,
and that part of it lying in this State has always pos-
sessed great interest for geologists. J. D. Whitney says
that in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland "the system
has its greatest width and most intricate and interesting
topographical features," and that " it is not until Penn-
sylvania is reached that, this part of the system becomes
of importance." Of the topography of the Pennsylvania
division of the system H. D. Rogers says: "It is a com-
plex chain of long, narrow, very level mountain ridges,
separated by long, narrow, parallel valleys. These ridges
sometimes end abruptly in swelling knobs and sometimes
taper off in long slender points. Their slopes are singu-
larly uniform, being in many cases unvaried by ravine or
gully for many miles; in other instances they are trench-
ed at equal intervals with great regularity. Their crests
are for the most part sharp, and they preserve an extraor-
dinarily equable elevation, being only here and there in-
terrupted by notches or gaps, which sometimes descend
to the water-level so as to give passage to the rivers. In
many- instances two narrow, contiguous parallel mountain
6
82 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
crests unite at their extremities and inclose a narrow,
oval valley, which with its sharp mountain sides bears
not unfrequently a marked resemblance to a long, slender,
sharp-pointed canoe." J.P.Lesley says: "Nowhere else
on the known earth is its counterpart for the richness
and definiteness of geographical detail. It is the very
home of the picturesque in science as in scenery. Its
landscapes on the Susquehanna, on the Juniata, and Po-
tomac are unrivaled of their kind in the world. Equally
beautiful to the artist is a faithful representation of their
symmetrical, compound, and complicated curves upon a
map."
Although Pennsylvania is a mountainous State, with
the Appalachian system passing through all of the three
divisions already mentioned, it is not noted for such tow-
ering elevations as characterize many other States. In
the western part of North Carolina and in the eastern
part of Tennessee are to be found the highest peaks of the
Appalachian system, many of which are more than twice
as high as the highest peaks in Pennsylvania. Much high-
er peaks than are found in Pennsylvania are also to be
found in the Green mountains of Vermont, the White
mountains of New Hampshire, the extreme northwestern
corner of Massachusetts, and in the Adirondacks of New
York. Mount Katahdin, in Maine, is also higher than any
peak in Pennsylvania. A few years ago it was believed
that the highest point in this State was Big Bald Knob,
on the line between Somerset and Bedford counties, about
fifteen and a half miles northwest from the town of Bed-
ford, its elevation above tidewater being 3,000.7 feet. It
has since been determined by the United States Geolog-
ical Survey that there is at least one point in the Alleghe-
nies in Pennsylvania that is somewhat higher than Big
Bald Knob. Blue Knob, in the extreme northern part of
Bedford county, is reported by the Survey to be 3,136
feet high. The highest elevations in Pennsylvania which
are occupied by towns or settlements are rarely 2,000
feet above tidewater. Somerset is 2,250 feet; Cresson and
Ebensburg each 2,022 feet; Gallitzin, 2,165 feet; Berlin,
2,163 feet ; and Pocahontas, in the southeastern part of
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 83
Somerset county, is 2,660 feet. Chestnut ridge, in West-
moreland and Fayette counties, is said by Professor Les-
ley to be "the last mountain the traveler, going west, sees
this side of the Rocky mountains." Before the traveler
reaches the western boundary of Pennsylvania he will see
many very high foothills of the Alleghenies, Laurel hill,
west of Johnstown, as well as Chestnut ridge, rising to a
great height. In the Youghiogheny valley, southeast of
Pittsburgh, are very high mountain ridges.
Of the rivers of Pennsylvania it is sufficient to quote
the following description : " The Susquehanna, a river of
great length, rises far northward, in New York, and takes
a devious course through Pennsylvania into Chesapeake
bay. The Juniata flows eastward into the Susquehanna,
through a region of great beauty. The point where the
Delaware breaks through the Blue ridge, known as the
Water Gap, is famed for its bold scenery. The river rush-
es through a deep gorge between perpendicular cliffs more
than a thousand feet high. The Delaware forms the east-
ern boundary of the State and receives the Schuylkill
at Philadelphia. In the west the Allegheny river, flowing
from the north, and the Monongahela, from the south,
unite to form the Ohio, thus opening navigation to the
Mississippi." The writer might have added that the Le-
high, as a tributary of the Delaware, the Kiskiminitas
and the Clarion, as tributaries of the Allegheny, and the
Youghiogheny, as a tributary of the Monongahela, are also
important streams. Few Pennsylvania rivers are naviga-
ble for any considerable distance without artificial aid.
None of the lakes of Pennsylvania are large, nor, as
has been said, are there many of them. They are most
numerous in the northern part of the State. Conneaut
lake, in Crawford county, is the most important. It is a
beautiful sheet of water, about four miles long by about
two miles wide. There are two other small lakes in the
same county. Probably the next most important lake is
Promised Land lake, in Pike county, which is several
miles in circumference and a mile or two wide. There are
a number of other lakes in Pike county and in Wayne
county, which adjoins Pike, that rival in scenic beauty the
84 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
famous lakes of Switzerland and Scotland. Harvey's lake,
in Luzerne county, is about one and a half miles long by
about half a mile wide. As is well known, only a small
part of the coast line of Lake Erie, five or six miles long,
was included in the original boundaries of Pennsylvania.
It was not until 1792 that the triangular piece of land
which embraces the present coast line of Pennsylvania
on Lake Erie was acquired from the United States for the
sum of $151,640.25. The Indian title to the triangle had
been purchased by Pennsylvania from Cornplanter and
other chiefs of the Six Nations in 1789 for $6,000. The
triangle embraces 202,187 acres.
Henry Gannett, the geographer of the United States
Geological Survey, advises us that revised measurements
and computations show that the total area of Pennsyl-
vania amounts to 45,126 square miles, of which 44,832
miles represent the land surface and 294 miles the water
surface. Many other States, both old and new, exceed
Pennsylvania in area. We are also advised by Mr. Gan-
nett that the extreme length of Pennsylvania from its
western boundary at the West Virginia line to the most
easterly bend in the Delaware river is 305 miles, and that
its width from Mason and Dixon's line northward to the
southern boundary of New York is 157 miles.
It is worthy of note that Western Pennsylvania, be-
ginning at the summit of the Alleghenies in Cambria,
Somerset, and Bedford counties, is really in the Ohio
valley. All its streams flow westward, and their waters,
after uniting to form the Ohio river at Pittsburgh, even-
tually reach the Gulf of Mexico.
As incidental to the physical characteristics of Penn-
sylvania its population may be again referred to. The
census of 1900 gives the population of Pennsylvania in
that year as amounting to 6,302,115, which was only
exceeded by that of New York, with a population of
7,268,894. The population of Pennsylvania in 1908 is
certainly above 7,500,000. Of this total considerably over
1,000,000 are foreign born.
In connection with the general subject of this chapter
we append a list of the sixty-seven counties of Pennsyl-
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 85
vania, with the date of their formation by the General
Assembly. This list has been verified for this chapter by
the Hon. Henry Houck, Secretary of the Department of
Internal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
1. Adams, January 22, 1800, formed from a part of York.
2. Allegheny, September 24, 1788, formed from a part of Westmoreland
and Washington.
3. Armstrong, March 12, 1800, formed from a part of Allegheny, West-
moreland, and Lycoming.
4. Beaver, March 12, 1800, formed from a part of Allegheny and Wash-
ington.
5. Bedford, March 9, 1771, formed from a part of Cumberland.
6. Berks, March 11, 1752, formed from a part of Philadelphia, Chester,
and Lancaster.
7. Blair, February 26, 1846, formed from a part of Huntingdon and Bedford.
8. Bradford, February 21, 1810, formed from a part of Luzerne and Ly-
coming. Previous to March 24, 1812, this county was called Ontario,
but its name was changed to Bradford on that day.
9. Bucks, one of the original counties of the Province. This county was
one of the three original counties established in 1682 at the first set-
tlement of the Province, the other two being Philadelphia and Chester.
Bucks county was first called Buckingham, and it was so styled by
William Penn in a letter to the Free Society of Traders, written on
August 6, 1683, to be found in Janney's Life of William Penn.
10. Butler, March 12, 1800, formed from a part of Allegheny.
11. Cambria, March 26, 1804, formed from a part of Huntingdon, Somer-
set, and Bedford.
12. Cameron, March 29, 1860, formed from a part of Clinton, Elk, McKean,
and Potter.
13. Carbon, March 13, 1843, formed from a part of Northampton and Monroe.
14. Centre, February 13, 1800, formed from a part of Mifflin, Northumber-
land, Lycoming, and Huntingdon.
15. Chester, one of the original counties established at the first settlement
of the Province.
16. Clarion, March 11, 1839, formed from a part of Venango and Armstrong.
17. Clearfield, March 26, 1804, formed from a part of Lycoming, Hunting-
don, and Northumberland.
18. Clinton, June 21, 1839, formed from a part of Lycoming and Centre.
19. Columbia, March 22, 1813, formed from a part of Northumberland.
20. Crawford, March 12, 1800, formed from a part of Allegheny.
21. Cumberland, January 27, 1750, formed from a part of Lancaster.
22. Dauphin, March 4, 1785, formed from a part of Lancaster.
23. Delaware, September 26, 1789, formed from a part of Chester.
24. Elk, April 18, 1843 formed from a part of Jefferson, Clearfield, and
McKean.
25. Erie, March 12, 1800, formed from a part of Allegheny.
26. Fayette, September 26, 1783, formed from a part of Westmoreland.
27. Forest, April 11, 1848, formed from a part of Jefferson and Venango.
Part of Venango added by act approved October 31, 1866.
28. Franklin, September 9, 1784, formed from a part of Cumberland.
29. Fulton, April 19, 1850, formed from a part of Bedford.
86 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
30. Greene, February 9, 1796, formed from a part of Washington.
31. Huntingdon, September 20, 1787, formed from a part of Bedford.
32. Indiana, March 30, 1803, formed from a part of Westmoreland and
Lycoming.
33. Jefferson, March 26, 1804, formed from a part of Lycoming.
34. Juniata, March 2, 1831, formed from a part of Mifflin.
35. Lackawanna, August 21, 1878, formed from a part of Luzerne.
36. Lancaster, May 10, 1729, formed from a part of Chester.
37. Lawrence, March 20, 1849, formed from a part of Beaver and Mercer.
38. Lebanon, February 16, 1813, formed from a part of Dauphin and Lan-
caster.
39. Lehigh, March 6, 1812, formed from a part of Northampton.
40. Luzerne, September 25, 1786, formed from a part of Northumberland.
41. Lycoming, April 13, 1795, formed from a part of Northumberland.
42. McKean, March 26, 1804, formed from a part of Lycoming.
43. Mercer, March 12, 1800, formed from a part of Allegheny.
44. Mifflin, September 19, 1789, formed from a part of Cumberland and
Northumberland .
45. Monroe, April 1, 1836, formed from a part of Northampton and Pike.
46. Montgomery, September 10, 1784, formed from a part of Philadelphia.
47. Montour, May 3, 1850, formed from a part of Columbia.
48. Northampton, March 11, 1752, formed from a part of Bucks.
49. Northumberland, March 21, 1772, formed from parts of Lancaster,
Cumberland, Berks, Bedford, and Northampton.
50. Perry, March 22, 1820, formed from a part of Cumberland.
51. Philadelphia, one of the three original counties established at the first
settlement of the Province.
52. Pike, March 26, 1814, formed from a part of Wayne.
53. Potter, March 26, 1804, formed from a part of Lycoming.
54. Schuylkill, March 1, 1811, formed from a part of Berks and Northamp-
ton.
55. Snyder, March 2, 1855, formed from a part of Union.
56. Somerset, April 17, 1795, formed from a part of Bedford.
57. Sullivan, March 15, 1847, formed from a part of Lycoming.
58. Susquehanna, February 21, 1810, formed from a part of Luzerne.
59. Tioga, March 26, 1804, formed from a part of Lycoming.
60. Union, March 22, 1813, formed from a part of Northumberland.
61. Venango, March 12, 1800, formed from a part of Allegheny and Ly-
coming.
62. Warren, March 12, 1800, formed from a part of Allegheny and Lycoming.
63. Wayne, March 21, 1798, formed from a part of Northampton.
64. Washington, March 28, 1781, formed from a part of Westmoreland.
65. Westmoreland, February 26, 1773, formed from a part of Bedford, and
in 1785 part of the purchase of 1784 was added thereto.
66. Wyoming, April 4, 1842, formed from a part of Luzerne.
67. York, August 19, 1749, formed from a part of Lancaster.
Down to 1800 Lycoming county embraced a large part
of Northern and Northwestern Pennsylvania, after which
year it became the parent of many counties. At an ear-
lier day Cumberland was the mother of many counties
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 87
in Central and Western Pennsylvania. Bedford has also
been the mother of many counties. It will be seen that
the original name of Bucks county was Buckingham, and
that the original name of Bradford county was Ontario,
but why it should have been called Ontario is a mystery.
The names of the counties of Pennsylvania have been
felicitously chosen. They are all euphonious and nearly
all are appropriate. Many of them are properly of Eng-
lish derivation. Others are constant reminders of the
services of distinguished soldiers and statesmen of Penn-
sylvania and the whole country, and particularly in the
Revolutionary period. Many are of Indian origin. Not
one is borrowed from Greece or Rome. It is noteworthy
that only one county, Snyder, has a distinctively German
name. Only one, Schuylkill, suggests the Dutch element
in the population of Pennsylvania. One, Cambria, is a
reminder of the Welsh element. In addition to Fayette
county, named after the marquis, two other counties are
of French origin, Dauphin and Luzerne. Montour is of
mixed Indian and French origin, receiving its name from
Catherine Montour, a half-breed. Beaver and Elk coun-
ties preserve the names of two of the native animals of
Pennsylvania. Fulton county is a reminder that the in-
vention of the steamboat was perfected by a Pennsylvanian.
Huntingdon county preserves the name of an English lady,
the Countess of Huntingdon, who was a benefactor of the
University of Pennsylvania. Two counties, Philadelphia
and Lebanon, have Bible names. Columbia, Centre, Car-
bon, and Forest counties need no explanation. The whole
list of the counties contains only beautiful names.
Pennsylvania is also fortunate in having beautiful In-
dian names for most of its rivers — Lehigh, Lackawanna,
Susquehanna, Juniata, Conestoga, Conemaugh, Loyalhanna,
Catawissa, Youghiogheny, Monongahela, Allegheny, Kiski-
minitas, Ohio, and many others. The names of the rivers
of the State are not only euphonious but they wisely
preserve the memory of the Indians who lived upon their
banks. Indian names have also been given to many Penn-
sylvania towns and cities — Hokendauqua, Catasauqua,
Kittanning, Allegheny, Aliquippa, Monongahela, and others.
88 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER VIII.
ANIMAL LIFE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
Neither the Indians nor their predecessors, that mys-
terious people the Mound Builders, were the first inhabit-
ants of Pennsylvania. The beasts of the forest, the birds,
the wild fowl, and the fish in the streams were here before
these primitive people and they were important factors in
the settlement of Penn's province, because they helped
materially to furnish food for the first settlers while they
were building their homes and opening their farms. The
flesh of most of the wild animals that were found in the
forests of Pennsylvania, the turkeys and other wild fowl,
and the fish were really essential to the very life of the
settlers. Penn and other writers in the pioneer age of
Pennsylvania repeatedly called attention in their letters
to the animal life of the province as an attraction worthy
to be mentioned in connection with its fruitful soil and
its magnificent forests. They dwelt upon the abundance of
elks, deer, bears, squirrels, rabbits, and other animals that
were fit for food, and of turkeys and other wild fowl
and of all kinds of fish. Wild fruits and nuts also added
their stores to the general stock of native food supplies.
Plums, grapes, pawpaws, haws, and berries were to be
found in many places, while the black and white walnut,
the chestnut, and the hickory yielded nutritious nuts in
profusion. Indian corn could be grown the first season
from seed that was readily obtained from the friendly
Delawares. The early settlers and the frontiersmen after
them could not want for food to supply their needs. A
study of the animal and vegetable fife of the colonies will
show that no other colony was as rich as Pennsylvania in
indigenous life-supporting products of the forest and river.
Dismissing the native vegetable products of Pennsylvania
there are some details of its native animal life that are
worthy of attention.
Penn mentions the elk in his enumeration of the native
ANIMAL LIFE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 89
animals of Pennsylvania, particularly indicating its pres-
ence in the Susquehanna valley. This noble representa-
tive of the deer family in Pennsylvania seems, however,
to have been most numerous in the northern and north-
western sections of the province. One of the northwestern
counties of Pennsylvania is called Elk county. Hundreds
of elks have been killed in this county and in adjoining
counties. There is an Elk run in Tioga county, and there
are Elk townships in Tioga and Warren counties and an
Elklick township in Somerset county. Elk licks were
numerous in Western and Northwestern Pennsylvania in
the early days of the province. In Stone and Cram's
American Animals (1902) it is said that "in the Eastern
States the elk seems to have lingered longest in the wilds
of Central Pennsylvania, and men are still living who can
remember the killing of the last elk of their several locali-
ties about fifty years ago." Another authority says that
"the last elk in Potter county was killed in 1856." Mc-
Knight says that the last elk killed in Pennsylvania was
shot in 1864 "near the Clarion river" by Jim Jacobs, an
Indian, but another antiquarian says that the year was
1867. Rhoads says that in the years 1831 to 1837 Seth I.
Nelson, a hunter, killed 22 elks in Clinton, Potter, Tioga,
and Lycoming counties. The moose does not seem to
have inhabited Pennsylvania at any time.
The common varieties of the deer family were found
by the early settlers in every part of Pennsylvania, and
deer are still found in all the wild and unsettled parts of
the State. As they are protected by the laws in certain
seasons of the year they would increase rapidly but for
the license given to hunters to destroy them in other sea-
sons, not for food, as was necessary and justifiable in the
early days, but to gratify a senseless desire to kill these
beautiful creatures. One thousand deer were killed in
Pennsylvania in 1904. Some of our deerslayers appear to
be actuated entirely by no other motive than that which
leads an Englishman of a certain class to say to his guest :
"This is a fine day ; let us go out and kill something."
It is not at all likely, however, that deer will become
extinct in Pennsylvania, as at least three parks for their
90 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
preservation have been established by public-spirited citi-
zens— one in Monroe county, one in Carbon county, and
one in Centre county. There are probably others.
While the skins of the deer were largely used by the
Pennsylvania pioneers for clothing and for other purposes,
as they had been by the Indians, many fur-bearing ani-
mals were found in every part of the province and their
skins contributed to the comfort of these pioneers — bears,
beavers, otters, raccoons, opossums, weasels, minks, squir-
rels, muskrats, and others. The furs of some of these
animals also formed from the first important articles of
trade with the Indians and with foreign countries. Brown
and black bears were found in considerable numbers in
the mountain districts of Pennsylvania, and the beavers
appear to have been active on the streams in every part
of the province. The trade in beaver skins formed the
most important part of the fur trade of the colonists. The
otter, with its fine fur, was more rare than the beaver,
but the other and smaller fur-bearing animals were every-
where. Every one of the animals mentioned is still to be
found in Pennsylvania. Both brown and black bears are
killed every year. The otter still fingers in some of the
streams in the northern part of the State. It could be
found in Pike county only a few years ago, and otters
were numerous in Monroe county ten or fifteen years ago.
There is at least one colony of beavers in the northeast-
ern part of Pennsylvania. A lone beaver was seen by W.
C. McHenry in September, 1899, swimming on the Beaver
Dam branch of the South Fork of the Conemaugh river
in Cambria county. Squirrels are abundant, and the
other animals mentioned are very far from being extinct.
Otters were still found on some of the streams of
Southwestern Pennsylvania not many years ago. We
have received a circumstantial account of their presence
on Redstone creek, which empties into the Monongahela
just below Brownsville. A letter from George W. Kelley,
of Grindstone, Fayette county, to Dr. J. S. Van Voorhis,
of Bellevernon, in the same county, dated September 4,
1905, the original of which is lying before us, gives the
following details : " With reference to the otters that I
ANIMAL LIFE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 91
killed on Redstone creek I will give you exact data of each
as I killed them. February 15, 1873, I shot the first one
near the old Parkhill mill, and on March 5 shot the sec-
ond one at the same place. On March 3, 1879, 1 shot the
third one in Cook's dam, two miles above. On January
25, 1881, I shot the fourth one near the Parkhill mill — a
large one that weighed 25 pounds. On March 6, 1881, I
shot a very large one, weighing over 30 pounds. Its hide,
after being stretched, measured 5 feet 2\ inches from tip
to tip. On February 27, 1883, I shot the sixth otter.
Otters have been known in the Monongahela and Youghi-
ogheny valleys for a number of years. At the present
time there are otters in Dunlap's creek, but none in Red-
stone creek, as there are no fish left in that stream."
Dunlap's creek empties into the Monongahela about one
mile above the mouth of Redstone.
The colony of beavers in Pennsylvania above referred
to, and the only one of which we have any knowledge,
was in existence in 1903 near Stroudsburg, in Monroe
county, on the farm of Judge James Edinger. The judge
had carefully protected the colony from all molestation.
The New York Tribune for July 5,1903, says that " Judge
Edinger had a law passed at the last session of the Penn-
sylvania Legislature for the protection of the beavers.
The law provides a fine of $100 or imprisonment for one
hundred days for each beaver killed with a gun or caught
with a trap, or for having one of the animals in posses-
sion, dead or alive." The Monroe county colony is not
numerous. It had only recently made its appearance and
had built a dam near the site of a beaver dam that was
built over a hundred years ago. A letter from Judge
Edinger in September, 1907, says that " the beavers are
still here and have done considerable cutting this fall."
The early settlers of Pennsylvania found many animals
in the forests that were troublesome neighbors and others
that were really to be dreaded. Some of these animals,
including the bears, have already been mentioned, and to
these may be added foxes, panthers, wild cats, and wolves,
all of which, except possibly panthers, are still to be found
in some of the thinly settled sections of the State. The
92 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
newspapers of Pennsylvania contain frequent references
to encounters with bears and wild cats, especially in the
winter season. In 1903 Joseph Hoffman, who lived near
Hazleton, in Luzerne county, killed one of two wolves,
and in 1908 another wolf was killed near Hazleton. In
1897 "a mammoth gray wolf" was caught in a steel trap
in Somerset county by an old man, Jonathan Queer. In
January, 1908, "a large timber wolf" was killed in Greene
county. In March, 1904, the commissioners of Cambria
county paid bounties on fifty-two pairs of foxes' ears
which had been cut from foxes captured in that county
during the first seventeen days of that month. In August,
1907, it was stated that Henry Stock, a hunter in Rush
township, Dauphin county, had killed sixty-five foxes and
fifty-six minks between May 5 and July 31. The wood-
chuck, or groundhog, is still here, and the porcupine, or
hedgehog, is occasionally seen. One of these latter was
killed near Geistown, in Cambria county, in 1903. A pan-
ther was shot in the northern part of Somerset county
about 1865. It was a huge, tiger-like animal, which had
carried off bodily a full-grown sheep from a pen in which
it had been confined. A male and female panther were
killed in Clinton county in 1871.
The feathered inhabitants of Pennsylvania when the
white settlers first came to the Delaware were not only
found in great variety but in great numbers. We can not
learn that any of the species or varieties which were then
represented in the forests or lowlands of Pennsylvania or
on the bosom of its rivers have entirely disappeared, not
even excepting the wild pigeons. Occasional specimens
of that noblest of all American birds, the wild turkey,
are still to be found in Pennsylvania. In October, 1904,
" boys living near New Baltimore, at the foot of the Alle-
gheny mountains, located twenty wild turkeys and shot
seventeen." In November of the same year a dispatch
from Williamsport said that "wild turkeys are plentiful
in Lycoming county, and sportsmen have been bagging
them daily since the opening of the season." A wild
gobbler was killed in Bedford county in the same year.
In October, 1906, a dispatch from Connellsville said that
ANIMAL LIFE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 93
"the first wild turkey killed in this section this season
was brought down on Savage mountain last evening. The
bird was a 194 pound gobbler." The eagle is occasionally
seen in Pennsylvania, but it is still rarer than the wild
turkey. Pheasants and partridges, wild ducks and wild
geese, swans and loons, herons, and crows and hawks and
owls are still with us. A large blue heron was captured
in Tioga county a few years ago. A swan was shot near
Wilmore, in Cambria county, about five years ago.
Wild pigeons were very numerous when Penn first
visited his province. Janney quotes the following account
of them : " The wild pigeons came in such numbers that
the air was sometimes darkened by their flight, and fly-
ing low those that had no other means to take them some-
times supplied themselves by throwing at them as they
flew and salting up what they could not eat ; they served
them for bread and meat in one. They were thus sup-
plied, at times, for the first two or three years, by which
time they had raised sufficient out of the ground by their
own labor." Proud says that the wild pigeons were
knocked down with long poles in the hands of men and
boys. Wollenweber gives a humorous account of the com-
motion caused in Berks county about the middle of the
last century by an immense flock of wild pigeons. The
pigeons created "a dreadful noise" just before daylight
which greatly excited the fears of the superstitious, who
believed that a great calamity was impending.
Wild pigeons have repeatedly blackened the skies of
Pennsylvania within the memory of persons now living.
They appeared in Cambria county on January 1, 1876.
The Johnstown Tribune for Monday, January 3, of that
year, said: "On Saturday there were immense flocks of
wild pigeons flying over town, but yesterday it seemed
as if all the birds of this kind at present in existence
throughout the entire country were engaged in gyrating
around overhead. One flock was declared to be at least
three miles in length by half a mile wide. To-day the wild
birds were again on the wing, and a perfect fusillade was
kept up for a time on neighboring hills." On January 4
the same paper said : " There were a number of flocks
94 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
of wild pigeons on the wing again this morning, and a
great many local sportsmen ascended neighboring hills for
the purpose of securing a mess of the birds. These pigeons
are in excellent condition, and while the craws of some
are filled with rice there are many others which have been
luxuriating on beech nuts." On January 31 the Tribune
further said : " Near the farm of Mr. Reynolds, along
toward the headwaters of the South Fork, there is what
is called a 'pigeon roost,' which means that an immense
flock of wild pigeons has located in that place ; and
although all fly away during the daytime for food and
water yet they return early in the evening. Stout limbs
on some of the trees were actually broken off by the weight
of the birds, which pile one on top of another until it would
seem that a pyramid of pigeons had been erected from a
point where the first branches project clear to the very
top." In the fall of 1878 wild pigeons again appeared in
the southern part of Cambria county, but they were not
so numerous as in 1876.
Wild honey was one of the food supplies of the early
settlers of Pennsylvania. The bees, which were originally
swarms from hives that had been imported, would deposit
their honey in hollow trees, which, when found, would be
secured by the settlers by cutting down the trees. Until
the present day "bee trees" in the mountains of Penn-
sylvania have yielded vast stores of wild honey. In 1903
a bee tree was cut down in Clearfield county which con-
tained 200 pounds of honey. The combs in this tree are
said to have been eight feet long. Another bee tree in
Western Pennsylvania yielded 94 pounds of honey in 1906.
The magnificent sugar maples of that section of the State
soon supplied the pioneers with maple sugar, which be-
came an important article of commerce for transportation
to the eastern part of the State a hundred years ago.
The fish of Pennsylvania which were found in such
abundance in colonial days are rapidly disappearing, ow-
ing more to the pollution of the streams than to the
work of the fishermen. In most of the streams of the
State fish in appreciable numbers are no longer to be
found, but in the first half of the last century they were
ANIMAL LIFE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 95
filled with the choicest of fish. In the Susquehanna and
Juniata rivers shad were caught in the spring of the year
in large numbers. They are still caught in these streams
and in the Delaware, a few shad having been taken in
the Juniata in 1907. Trout were once caught in every
part of the State. West of the Alleghenies pike were
found in all the large streams, some of them attaining a
weight of 20 and 25 and even 30 pounds. In the Cono-
quenessing creek, in Butler county, about 1880, United
States Marshal Stephen P. Stone, of Beaver, caught a pike
which weighed 23 pounds. Catfish, black bass, perch,
suckers, and mullets were found in the streams of Penn-
sylvania and are still caught. Herring are still taken
in the Delaware. In the Ohio river below Pittsburgh cat-
fish, sturgeon, and some other fish of large size are less
numerous than formerly. Eels are still found in the Sus-
quehanna and Juniata rivers and in some other streams
east of the Alleghenies. In the streams west of the Alle-
ghenies in Pennsylvania few eels have ever been found.
Successful efforts are being made to replenish the streams
of Pennsylvania with bass and other fish.
As relevant to the industrial history of Pennsylvania
the foregoing summary of the native food products which
contributed to the support of the Indians and afterwards
to the support of the early settlers and of the pioneers
who pushed into the central and western parts of the
province, and also such mention as we have made of
the fur-bearing animals, properly find a place in this
volume. In the next chapter the most interesting of all
the animals of provincial Pennsylvania will be considered.
96 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER IX.
BUFFALOES IN PENNSYLVANIA.
It is a curious fact that the existence of the buffalo
in Pennsylvania in colonial times or at any time before
the coming of the white settlers can not be proved by
any evidence based on the preservation of buffalo skulls
or whole skeletons which have been found within the
borders of the State. They are not to be seen anywhere.
Professor Spencer F. Baird has mentioned the existence of
fossil remains found near Carlisle which he says may have
been buffalo bones. Other authorities definitely record the
finding of buffalo bones in Pennsylvania. In Rhoads's
Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey (1903) he men-
tions buffalo bones which have been found in Pennsylva-
nia and are preserved at the Academy of Natural Sciences
in Philadelphia. Other proofs that the buffalo once ex-
isted in this State are abundant.
Early French explorers in the region south of the
Great Lakes mention the presence of "wild bulls," "wild
beeves," and "vast herds of wild cattle" in the territory
they visited, and some of these buffaloes were seen on the
southern shore of Lake Erie, which would include Penn-
sylvania. Vaudreuil, describing this lake in 1718, says :
"There is no need of fasting on either side of this lake;
deer are to be found there in great abundance ; buffaloes
are found on the south but not on the north side." Colo-
nel James Smith was captured by the Indians in Penn-
sylvania in 1755, when a boy, and taken to Ohio, where
he remained a captive until 1759. Forty years after his
release he published a circumstantial account of his cap-
tivity, which is an American classic. In this account Colo-
nel Smith frequently mentions buffaloes as forming part
of the staple diet of the Indians with whom he lived in
the eastern part of Ohio. He killed one himself. In 1770
Washington visited what is now known as West Virginia,
and in the journal of his trip he speaks of receiving from
BUFFALOES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 97
"an old acquaintance," Kyashuta, "a quarter of very fine
buffalo." He also mentions a buffalo path, "the tracks of
which we saw." On November 2, recording his explora-
tion of the Great Kanawha river, he writes: " Killed five
buffaloes and wounded some others, three deer, &c. This
country abounds in buffaloes." He says of a creek near
which he encamped that "on this creek are many buffa-
loes, according to the Indians' account." In 1784 Wash-
ington paid a visit to Western Maryland, Western Penn-
sylvania, and what is now West Virginia, and in his diary
of that journey he refers to buffalo paths and salt licks
frequented by buffaloes in the vicinity of Morgantown,
which is only a few miles south of the Pennsylvania line.
When a young man, soon after the close of the Revo-
lution, Albert Gallatin was engaged in land explorations
in the western part of Virginia. In an article on the In-
dians and their means of subsistence, contributed by Mr.
Gallatin in 1848 to the Transactions of the American Eth-
nological Society, that eminent man, referring to buffaloes,
says : " The name of Buffalo creek, between Pittsburgh
and Wheeling, proves that they had spread thus far east-
wardly when that country was first visited by the Anglo-
American. In my time (1784-1785) they were abundant
on the southern side of the Ohio, between the Great and
the Little Kanawha. I have during eight months lived
principally on their flesh." He also says of the buffa-
loes that "they had at a former period penetrated east
of the Allegheny mountains."
Dr. Bausman, in his History of Beaver County, Pennsyl-
vania, quotes Colonel Brodhead as writing to Washington
in 1780 that he is "sending hunters to the Little Ke-
nawha to kill buffaloes," and in Craig's History of Pitts-
burgh we read that Colonel Brodhead, in a letter to Rev.
D. Zeisberger, under date of December 2, 1780. "proposes
that he should send fifteen or twenty best hunters to
Little Kenhawa, to kill buffalo, elks, and bears, to be
salted down in canoes made for that purpose." Dr. Baus-
man also quotes this passage from Schoolcraft : " There
was added for all the region west of the Alleghenies the
bison of the West (Bos Americanus), the prominent object
7
98 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
and glory of the chase for the tribes of these latitudes."
The common name of bison is buffalo.
In General Peter Muhlenberg's journal of his trip to
the Falls of Ohio in 1784 he writes, under date of April
5, that the boat on which he had taken passage on the
Ohio river "came to shore on the Indian side," the Ohio
side, where "a hunting party turned out and killed one
buffalo and one deer, but both very poor." On the 6th
the general writes that his boat again landed "on the In-
dian shore" and adds that "we killed three buffaloes but
found them too poor to eat, so that we determined to kill
no more." He further says that "the winter must have
been very severe here and hard for the game, as we have
this day found several deer, one bear, and four buffaloes
dead in the woods which seem to have perished through
want." This is the latest reference to the presence of buf-
faloes in Ohio that we have seen.
The foregoing quotations justify beyond all doubt the
inference that the buffalo was an inhabitant at least of
Western Pennsylvania. It is not to be presumed that it
would frequent the territory immediately west and south
of Pennsylvania and not cross over the boundary lines.
That buffaloes frequented the salt springs in North-
western Pennsylvania is shown in the following extract
from a letter written by the English traveler, Thomas
Ashe, at Erie, in April, 1806. He says: "An old man,
one of the first settlers in this country, built his log house
on the borders of a salt spring. He informed me that
for the first several seasons the buffaloes paid him their
visits regularly." He supposed that there were no less than
10,000 in the neighborhood of the spring. Ashe further
says that in the first and second years this old man, with
some companions, killed 600 or 700 of these noble crea-
tures for the sake of their skins. He also says that buf-
falo bones had been found in large quantities on Buffalo
creek, but he does not locate the creek. Fort Le Bceuf,
(Waterford,) in Erie county, Pennsylvania, established by
the French about 1754, meant Buffalo Fort.
In his valuable monograph on The Extermination of
the American Bison William T. Hornaday says that in the
BUFFALOES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 99
region between the Allegheny river and the west branch
of the Susquehanna " there were at one time thousands
of buffaloes." In support of this opinion he quotes from
Professor J. A. Allen's American Bisons and from other
monographs by the same author.
Professor Allen refers to Buffalo creek, " which emp-
ties into the eastern end of Lake Erie," and to other
evidences that buffaloes "once existed in Western New
York." Hornaday adds that "from the eastern end of
Lake Erie the boundary of the bison's habitat extends
south into Western Pennsylvania to a marsh called Buf-
falo swamp on a map published by Peter Kalm in 1771."
He quotes Allen as saying of this swamp that it "is indi-
cated as situated . . . near the heads of the Licking
and Toby's creeks, apparently the streams now called
Oil creek and Clarion creek." It was in this locality that
"there were at one time thousands of buffaloes."
It is a reasonable inference that many places in Penn-
sylvania were not given buffalo names merely through ca-
price. Buffalo Mills and mountain in Bedford county, Buf-
falo mountain and valley in Union county, Buffalo creeks
in Washington, Perry, Union, and other counties, and Buf-
falo townships in several counties in Central and Western
Pennsylvania are prima facie evidence that buffaloes had
once frequented the localities to which their name had
been given. There is a tradition that the last buffalo in
Bedford county was killed at Buffalo Mills. Rhoads says
that there are sure proofs of the existence of the buffalo
along the Casselman river in Somerset county. The last
buffalo in Pennsylvania was probably killed in Union
county about 1790, as will presently be shown.
Some of the buffalo localities referred to above are in
Central Pennsylvania, east of the Alleghenies. In Professor
Hornaday's map illustrating his monograph he indicates
that the range of the buffalo in Pennsylvania extended
as far east as Harrisburg. Neither William Penn nor any
other early writer mentions the buffalo in Eastern Penn-
sylvania, although Gabriel Thomas in 1698 says that the
buffalo was found in the province. Hulbert often men-
tions buffalo paths in Central and Western Pennsylvania.
100 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Professor Allen carries far to the eastward his investi-
gations of the presence of the buffalo in Pennsylvania
and finds proofs of its existence in Union county in the
Susquehanna valley. He quotes from a letter written on
March 14, 1876, by Professor Loomis, of the University
of Lewisburg, to Professor Hamlin, in which letter Loomis
copies as follows from a letter received by him from J.
Wolfe : " Since seeing you this morning I have had a
conversation with Dr. Beck, and he informs me that buf-
faloes, at an early day, were very abundant in this valley,
and that the valley received its name from that circum-
stance. The doctor received his information from Colonel
John Kelly, who was a prominent and early settler in
this valley. Kelly told the doctor that he shot the last
one that was seen in the valley. Kelly received his infor-
mation of the abundance of buffaloes from an old Indian
named Logan, friendly to the whites, and who remained
among the whites after the Indians were driven away."
On March 30, 1876, Professor Loomis wrote again to
Professor Hamlin, from which letter Allen quotes as fol-
lows: "I sought an interview with Dr. Beck. The Colo-
nel Kelly referred to was a soldier and an officer in the
Revolutionary war. . . . (He died in 1832, aged 88
years.) He owned a farm about five miles from Lewis-
burg, in Kelly township, which was named after him.
About 1790-1800 Colonel Kelly was out with his gun on
the McClister farm, (which joined that of Colonel Kelly,)
and just at evening saw and shot a buffalo. His dog was
young and at so late an hour he did not allow it to pursue.
The next morning he went to hunt his game but did not
find it. Nearly a week later word was brought him that
it had been found dead, some mile or two away. He
found the information correct but the animal had been
considerably torn and eaten by wolves. He regarded the
animal as a stray one and had never heard of any in the
valley at a later day. Dr. Beck had the account from
Colonel Kelly about three months before his death. The
colonel repeated the statement of the friendly Indian,
Logan, who said that buffaloes had been very abundant.
He, Dr. Beck, had the same statement from Michael
BUFFALOES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 101
Grove, also one of the first settlers in the valley. . . I
was more particular than I should ordinarily have been
because this is about the last stage when reliable tradi-
tion can be had." Allen says : "This, of course, affords
satisfactory proof of the former existence of the buffalo
in the region of Lewisburg, which forms the most easterly
point to which the buffalo has been positively traced."
The valley referred to by Dr. Beck near the top of the
preceding page was Buffalo valley, in Union county.
In Watson's Annals, published in 1857, it is stated
that "the latest notice of buffaloes nearest to our region
of country is mentioned in 1730, when a gentleman from
the Shenandoah, Virginia, saw there a buffalo killed of
1,000 pounds, and several others came in a drove at the
same time." As the Shenandoah valley is an extension
of the Cumberland valley in Pennsylvania it is easily to
be inferred that if buffaloes would come into one valley
they would naturally invade the other. Hence it is alto-
gether probable that the bones found by Professor Baird
near Carlisle were what he supposed them to be, Carlisle
being in the Cumberland valley.
The foregoing summary of facts relating to the buffalo
abundantly proves its existence in Central Pennsylvania
as well as in Western Pennsylvania down to a period
cotemporaneous with the close of the Revolutionary war.
102 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER X.
EARLY TRANSPORTATION IN PENNSYLVANIA.
The opening of means of communication between the
different parts of Pennsylvania in the early days of its
settlement was slow and often difficult. In the lowlands
along the Delaware bridle paths followed the lines of In-
dian trails, while canoes, skiffs, and small boats were used
on the streams and rivers. Afterwards wagon roads were
cut through the forests to meet neighborhood wants, al-
though for many years carts and sleds were more gener-
ally used on these roads than wagons. When they could
not be forded streams and rivers were crossed by canoes,
skiffs, and rafts, and later by ferries. A ferry over the
Schuylkill at Market street, Philadelphia, was in operation
in 1685. In time some of the roads were extended so that
communication could be opened with the more or less
remote parts of Pennsylvania and to connect with other
roads leading to New York, Baltimore, and other places of
importance, but there was no noteworthy movement to
improve the condition of the roads for a hundred years.
Ferries were established over the principal streams as the
country was opened to settlement. Harris's ferry, which
crossed the Susquehanna where Harrisburg now stands,
and Wright's ferry, which crossed the same stream at
Wrightsville, were established about 1735. One of the ear-
liest ferries in Western Pennsylvania was Devore's ferry,
on the Monongahela river, where Monongahela City now
stands, which was established about 1770. The Belle Ver-
non ferry, on the Monongahela, was established between
1767 and 1769. Ferries at Pittsburgh date from 1779.
Bridges were not built over any of the large rivers of
Pennsylvania until about the beginning of the last decade
of the eighteenth century and in the next two decades, fer-
ries having been mainly relied on previous to this period,
and, of course, were continued as necessity required. The
first bridge over the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, at Market
EARLY TRANSPORTATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 103
street, was commenced in 1800 and it was opened for use
in 1805. The second bridge over the Schuylkill, at Callow-
hill street, was completed in 1812. The first bridge over
the Monongahela at Pittsburgh was the Smithfield street
bridge, built in 1818, and the first bridge over the Alle-
gheny at Pittsburgh was the St. Clair street bridge, com-
pleted in 1820. Ringwalt quotes from a report on roads
and bridges, which was read in the Senate of Pennsylvania
in 1822, the following dates of the incorporation of some of
the early bridge companies : " Bridge over the Susquehan-
na, four miles below Wrightsville, 1793 ; over the Delaware,
at Easton, 1795 ; over the Lehigh, near Bethlehem, 1797 ;
over the Delaware, at Trenton, 1798." A notable bridge
over the Conemaugh, at Blairsville, was completed in 1821.
It was a single-arch Wernwag bridge, 300 feet long.
For many years after wagon roads were opened in
Eastern Pennsylvania bridle paths were in use in the
central and western parts of the State, and along these
paths the pioneers made their way on horseback and on
foot and the necessaries of life were transported on pack-
horses. Rupp, writing in 1848, says that "sixty or sev-
enty years ago five hundred pack-horses had been at one
time in Carlisle, going thence to Shippensburg, Fort Lou-
don, and farther westward, loaded with merchandise, also
salt, iron, etc." Day says that " Mercersburg, in Franklin
county, was in early days an important point for trade
with Indians and settlers on the western frontier. It was
no uncommon event to see there 50 or 100 pack-horses in
a row, taking on their loads of salt, iron, and other com-
modities for the Monongahela country." A pack-horse train
has been described as follows: "A train of pack-horses
consisted of from five to a dozen and even more, tethered
by a hitching rope one behind the other. The master of
the train rode before or followed after the horses and di-
rected their movements by his voice. About fifteen miles
per day were traveled in this manner, and each horse car-
ried about 200 pounds' burden. The harness consisted of a
pack-saddle and a halter, and the lead horse often had, in
addition, a circling band of iron over his withers attached
to the saddle and to which were hung several bells, whose
104 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
tinkling in a way relieved the monotony of the journey
and kept the horses from going astray."
The pack-horse required the use of a pack-saddle. It
is thus described by a writer in a Pittsburgh newspaper
on early transportation in Western Pennsylvania: "It was
made of four pieces of wood, two being notched, the notch-
es fitting along the horse's back, with the front part rest-
ing upon the animal's withers. The other two were flat
pieces about the length and breadth of a lap shingle, per-
haps eighteen inches by five inches. They extended along
the sides and were fastened to the ends of the notched
pieces. Upon these saddles were placed all kinds of mer-
chandise. Bars of iron were bent in the middle and hung
across ; large creels of wicker-work, containing babies, bed-
clothing, and farm implements, as well as kegs of powder,
caddies of spice, bags of salt, sacks of charcoal, and boxes
of glass, were thus carried over the mountains. Shop-
keepers from Pittsburgh went to Philadelphia in squads of
eight or ten to lay in their yearly supply of goods and
brought them to this city in this manner."
In 1792 the turnpike era in the history of Pennsyl-
vania had its beginning, when the construction of the
Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike was undertaken by
a company. It was finished between the two cities in
1794, a distance of 62 miles, at a cost of $465,000, con-
tributed entirely by stockholders in the company, a great
financial achievement for that day. This turnpike was the
first to be built in the United States. It gave a great im-
petus to western travel through Pennsylvania, as it was
almost immediately followed by other turnpikes and by
the improvement of old roads — all leading to Pittsburgh.
Before its construction travelers from New England, New
York, and New Jersey for the West through Pennsylvania
passed through Easton and Reading to the Susquehanna,
which they usually crossed at Harris's ferry.
Soon after the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike
was built over a hundred other turnpikes were projected in
Pennsylvania and many were built, the first three decades
of the nineteenth century being prolific of turnpikes. Most
of these enterprises were of only local interest, connecting
EARLY TRANSPORTATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 105
towns that were not far apart, usually county-seats, but
others were longer and of commercial importance. The
junction of two or more of these turnpikes afforded con-
tinuous turnpike communication between widely separated
commercial centres. Turnpike roads connected Philadel-
phia with Pittsburgh by two distinct routes, which were
generally known as the Northern and Southern turnpikes,
although each route embraced more than one turnpike.
Nearly all the turnpike companies were aided by State
appropriations. The Lancaster Turnpike was not so aided.
The Conestoga wagons and Conestoga horses of the
German and Swiss farmers of Eastern Pennsylvania were
famous before the building of the Lancaster Turnpike and
its western connections, but after this turnpike was built
they became objects of interest as far west as Pittsburgh.
In 1789 Dr. Benjamin Rush described the Conestoga wag-
on and its horses in the following words: "A large strong
wagon, (the ship of inland commerce,) covered with a lin-
en cloth, is an essential part of the furniture of a German
farm. In this wagon, drawn by four or five horses of a
peculiar breed, they convey to market, over the roughest
roads, 2,000 and 3,000 pounds' weight of the produce of
their farms. In the months of September and October
it is no uncommon thing, on the Lancaster and Reading
roads, to meet in one day fifty or one hundred of these
wagons on their way to Philadelphia, most of which be-
long to German farmers." Many Conestoga wagons and
horses came from Lancaster county, which in Dr. Rush's
day embraced a large part of Lebanon county. After-
wards they greatly increased in number and formed an
important factor in the internal commerce of Pennsyl-
vania down to almost the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury, when the canals and railroads of the State rendered
their further use on a large scale unnecessary. It has
been authoritatively stated that as early as 1790 ten
thousand Conestoga wagons were needed for the traffic
of Philadelphia.
Between 1830 and 1840 the era of turnpike building
culminated. The people of Pennsylvania were then look-
ing to canals and railroads for means of communication.
106 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
In the next ten or fifteen years plank roads became popu-
lar as substitutes for turnpikes for short distances and
many were built, but their popularity soon waned. Town-
ship roads without solid stone foundations are still too
much in evidence in Pennsylvania, although it is now the
policy of the State to aid in the improvement of these
roads substantially after the style of the best turnpikes.
Many of the old turnpikes are still maintained in excellent
condition, as are also many of the early roads.
" Dear roads that wind around the hill,
Here to a church and there to a mill,
And wind and wind as old roads will."
In colonial days the two most notable roads in Penn-
sylvania were built for military purposes — Braddock's
Road, following a noted Indian path, Nemacolin's, built
in 1755, and Forbes's Road, built in 1758, both crossing
the Allegheny mountains and penetrating the wilderness of
Western Pennsylvania. Braddock's Road began at Cum-
berland, Maryland, and entered Pennsylvania in Somerset
county, and Forbes's Road began at Bedford, Pennsylva-
nia. Both roads had Fort Du Quesne as their objective
point, and both were built nearly the whole way to that
place. After the direct objects for which they were built
— the transportation of troops — had been accomplished
these roads served a useful purpose in enabling thousands
of pioneers to cross the Alleghenies into the western part
of Pennsylvania and the Ohio valley, Forbes's Road be-
ing, however, much more used by the pioneers than Brad-
dock's, although the latter was the main highway for emi-
grants from Virginia and Maryland. Forbes's Road was
also used for military purposes in Colonel Bouquet's expe-
dition against the Indian uprising under Pontiac in 1763,
and during the Revolution it was the direct route from the
East to Fort Pitt. Hulbert says that " for thirty years
after it was built it was the main highway across the
mountains." After the Revolution, in 1785, Pennsylvania
began the work of improving Forbes's Road and also the
road leading from Carlisle to Bedford, and this work was
carried on for several years. The distance from Carlisle
EARLY TRANSPORTATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 107
to Pittsburgh by this route was 197 miles. This road was
generally known as the State Road, and for many years
it was more traveled than any other road in Pennsylvania.
During the second and succeeding decades of the nine-
teenth century turnpikes took its place.
Hulbert quotes from the correspondence in 1758 be-
tween General Forbes, Sir John St. Clair, and Colonel Bou-
quet sufficient testimony to settle the long disputed loca-
tion of Kickenapawling's town, Kickenapawling being an
Indian chief. This correspondence proves conclusively that
this much discussed place was in Somerset county, on the
line of Forbes's Road and not far distant from the present
town of Jenner Cross Roads — about five miles west of the
crossing of Quemahoning creek. The reader will find the
correspondence in Hulbert's Historic Highways, volume 5.
Post's second journal, which has been relied upon to es-
tablish the identity of Kickenapawling's town with Johns-
town, shows that Post was never near Johnstown.
At a later day, immediately after the close of the Rev-
olution, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, by act of
March 29, 1787, directed that commissioners should be ap-
pointed to survey a highway over the Allegheny moun-
tains between the waters of the Frankstown branch of the
Juniata river and the Conemaugh river. By the same act
the commissioners, having surveyed the proposed road,
were further directed to trace the course of another road,
beginning at the termination of the first mentioned road,
and leading along "the left bank of the Conemaugh" to
that point " where the river began to be navigable at all
seasons." Down to this time communication between the
Juniata and the Conemaugh valleys had been maintained
by bridle paths. The commissioners were appointed, and
on December 18, 1787, their report of the survey they had
made was confirmed by the Council of the Commonwealth,
the Constitution of 1776 being still in force. On Septem-
ber 25, 1788, the opening of both roads was contracted
for by Robert Galbraith, then the prothonotary of Bedford
county. The contract was for the whole length of road
from Frankstown, now in Blair county, to the point where
the Conemaugh " began to be navigable at all seasons."
108 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
This point was seventy miles east of Pittsburgh by water.
On January 4, 1790, Mr. Galbraith wrote to the Council
that, agreeably to contract, he had opened the road from
Frankstown to the mouth of Blacklick creek. The Black-
lick enters the Conemaugh from the north, a short dis-
tance below Blairsville, in Indiana county. At its mouth
there once stood a small town called Newport. A ferry
connected Newport with the opposite shore of the Cone-
maugh in Westmoreland county. The Frankstown Road
was subsequently, about 1791, extended by way of this
ferry to Pittsburgh, and its name is retained in Franks-
town avenue of that city. It crossed the Alleghenies
through Blair's Gap in Blair county and through the cen-
tral part of Cambria county near Ebensburg, thence pass-
ing near or through Armagh in Indiana county and north
of Blairsville to its terminus at the mouth of Blacklick
creek. This was the original Frankstown Road, and, like
Braddock's and Forbes's roads, it was a thoroughfare con-
necting the eastern and western parts of Pennsylvania.
It was succeeded early in the nineteenth century by the
so-called Northern Turnpike, which was otherwise known
as the Huntingdon Turnpike.
There was, however, another Frankstown Road, taking
its name from the fact that its eastern terminus was
also at Frankstown. This road was authorized by an act
of the General Assembly dated April 10, 1792, which pro-
vided for the opening of a road from Poplar run, in the
present county of Blair, "to Conemaugh at the mouth of
Stony creek and from thence to the northwest side of the
Chestnut ridge, at or near Thomas Trimble's." This road
was made promptly, at least as far west as the mouth of
the Stony creek at Johnstown, beginning at Frankstown
and passing through the southern parts of Blair and Cam-
bria counties. It is marked on Howell's map of 1792 and
on Morse's map of 1796. It is still in use between Johns-
town and Blair county and is known as the Frankstown
Road. The most important service of this road was in the
transportation of merchandise, chiefly iron from the Juni-
ata valley, to Johnstown, at which point flatboat naviga-
tion to Pittsburgh began. There is no accessible record of
EARLY TRANSPORTATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 109
its having ever been extended from Johnstown to Thomas
Trimble's, "to the northwest side of the Chestnut ridge,"
but it was certainly built from Johnstown westward into
the Ligonier valley some time after 1799.
In the history of Salem church, in Derry township,
Westmoreland county, prepared by John Barnett, one of
its early elders, occurs the following account of an inci-
dent that could not have happened in our day : " It is said
that during the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Lee (1813 to 1819)
Esquire Kinkaid, on his way to church, saw an emigrant
traveling on the old Frankstown Road. He went on to
church and consulted with Squire Barnett. They conclud-
ed that such a violation of the Sabbath law ought not to
be permitted, and mounting their horses they overtook
the man on Donnelly's (now Beatty's) hill and made him
rest according to God's commandments." Beatty's hill is
several miles northeast of Greensburg. The Frankstown
Road referred to was a continuation of the Blacklick line.
A road of national importance, usually styled the Na-
tional Road but sometimes the Cumberland Road, was un-
dertaken by the Government of the United States in 1806
with the patriotic object of opening a highway between
the East and the West and thus aiding in more strongly
cementing these two sections of our country. The road
was planned to pass westward from Cumberland through
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to a point on the
Ohio river, afterwards fixed at Wheeling, and thence into
Ohio and eventually farther west, thus realizing the early
dream of Washington, who had for many years before his
death advocated a closer union of the East and the West
through the creation of transportation facilities between
these sections. Work on the construction of this road was
commenced at Cumberland in 1811, and the road was fin-
ished to Wheeling and opened to the public in 1818, a dis-
tance of 112 miles, of which 24| miles were in Maryland,
75^ were in Pennsylvania, and 12 were in Virginia, now
West Virginia. It was 40 feet wide at its narrowest point
and 80 feet at its widest. The road in Pennsylvania pass-
ed through Somerset, Fayette, Westmoreland, and Wash-
ington counties. After 1818 it was extended into Ohio,
110 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Indiana, and Illinois. Until after 1850 it was a much
used thoroughfare, both for passengers and freight, and it
accomplished all the desirable results which had originally
been claimed for it. After 1850 its use, which had gradu-
ally been yielding to the competition of the canals and
railroads, and also to the competition of steamboat navi-
gation on the Ohio, rapidly declined, except for local pur-
poses, and for these purposes parts of it, especially in
Pennsylvania, are still kept in good condition, although
no longer under the care of the United States. The in-
fluence of the National Road in the development of the
country west of the Alleghenies has been very great.
Joseph W. Hunter, State Highway Commissioner for
Pennsylvania, says in his report for 1906 that the Na-
tional Road in the counties of Fayette and Washington,
which had been under the care of the State since 1835,
was placed Under the care of the State Highway Depart-
ment by act of April 10, 1905, and the sum of $100,000
was appropriated for its improvement. Tolls were abol-
ished by the act, and all the toll houses, except two, had
been sold and removed beyond the line of the road. Ten
miles of the road, five miles in each of the counties of
Fayette and Washington, were to be reconstructed at once.
In the early days the cost of transportation between
the eastern and western parts of Pennsylvania by bridle
paths, pioneer wagon roads, and turnpikes was a serious
matter. " The good old times" were accompanied by great
drawbacks and this was one of them. In Washington's
diary of his trip to Western Pennsylvania in 1784 he says,
speaking of Pennsylvania : " There are in that State at
least 100,000 souls west of the Laurel hill who are groaning
under the inconvenience of a long land transportation."
In 1784 the freight rate from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh
on pack-horses, then the only method of long distance
transportation that was in use, was 12^ cents per pound,
while in 1786 a rate of $10.50 per hundredweight (112
pounds) was charged for the same distance. In 1784 it
cost $249 to carry a ton of merchandise from Philadelphia
to Erie on pack-horses; in 1789 it cost $3 to carry a hun-
dred pounds of merchandise from Hagerstown, Maryland,
EARLY TRANSPORTATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. Ill
over the Allegheny mountains to Brownsville, Pennsylva-
nia; and in 1793 it cost $75 a ton to carry bars of iron
from Centre county, Pennsylvania, to Pittsburgh. All the
roads were uniformly bad. In 1803 the charge for hauling
most articles of merchandise from Baltimore to Pittsburgh
was $4.50 per hundred pounds and from Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh the charge was $5.
It is recorded that an immigrant from Alexandria, Vir-
ginia, to the Monongahela valley soon after the Revolution
paid $5.33 a hundredweight for hauling " women and
goods" between the two localities over Braddock's Road.
In 1817 it still cost $100 to move a ton of freight
from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvania Rail-
road Company now performs the same service for a few
dollars. About 1890 an old gentleman who had been a
merchant wrote to George B. Roberts, then president of
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, as follows : " Before
any canal was made I shipped 800 barrels of flour one
winter from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia by wagon, the
freight on which was $2,400, being $3 per barrel. That
was called back loading, (Conestoga wagons, six horses,
and bells.) My first load of goods, 60 years past, cost $4
per 100 pounds from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Hav-
ing handled Uncle Sam's mail bags for over 61 years
consecutively I have taken two bushels of oats, or four
pounds of butter, or five dozen of eggs, or two bushels
of potatoes, for a letter that came 400 or more miles."
Those were the days when it was not required that post-
age should be prepaid and when the rates were high.
After communication between Philadelphia and Pitts-
burgh had been opened by way of roads and turnpikes,
so that wagons and other vehicles could pass over them
with reasonable speed, lines of stage coaches were estab-
lished for the conveyance of passengers and for carrying
the mails between the two cities and intermediate points.
Ringwalt says : "For many years two great lines of coach-
es were run between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Start-
ing daily, the three hundred and fifty odd miles between
the two cities were passed over in about three days, that
is, if the roads were in very good condition, but more
112 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
time was usually required. Every twelve miles a change
of horses was made, and quickly. No time was lost and
no rest was given the traveler. The fare on the coach
from city to city varied somewhat, as did the condition
the roads were in, or as the rival lines cut the closest on
prices. A through-pass ticket from Pittsburgh to Phila-
delphia was all the way from $14 to $20, which in those
days meant more than the same sum does now. There
were special rates to emigrants, but they were brought
west in large covered wagons, and not on the regular
coaches. For twenty-five years emigrant travel formed a
big portion of the business along the turnpike. It was
mostly from Baltimore, thousands of emigrants landing
there, and engaging passage to the West through compa-
nies engaged in that business alone." Egle says that in
August, 1804, the first through line of coaches from Phila-
delphia to Pittsburgh was established.
Ringwalt further says : " The stage coach feature of the
old turnpike is something with such a dash and liveliness
about the very thought of it that it awakens our interest.
It was truly the life of the turnpike. Dashing along at a
gallop the four horses attached to the coach formed quite
a marked contrast to the slow-plodding teams drawing the
big wagons. Then there was something of more than ordi-
nary interest about the coach itself and the passengers as
well." Another writer says : " The driver invariably carried
a horn with a very highly pitched tone, which he winded
at the brow of the last hill to signalize his approach."
After the National Road and the turnpikes had been
built in Pennsylvania a large business was done for many
years, and until about the middle of the last century, in
driving cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs from the interior
and western parts of Pennsylvania, and even from Ohio,
to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other eastern markets.
The clouds of dust raised by the drovers, the long lines
of Conestoga wagons, and the less frequent but more
showy stage coaches united to make the thoroughfares
of that day real arteries of commerce, which should not
be lightly considered in comparison with the more ex-
peditious transportation facilities of the present day.
EARLY TRANSPORTATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 113
William H. Speicher, a resident of Stoyestown, Som-
erset county, writes of the old stage houses as follows :
" Stoyestown had several of them. Here passengers se-
cured a hasty meal while a change of horses was made,
and the present generation can not realize the commotion
that was caused by the arrival and departure of half a
dozen stages of rival lines with horns blowing, streamers
flying, and horses on the full run. Sometimes as many as
thirty stages stopped at one of these hotels in a single day.
Most of them were drawn by four horses, but in climbing
the mountains six were frequently used. For the accom-
modation of wagons and drovers the road houses, with
large wagon yards, averaged one for every two miles along
the road. These were built especially for the purpose and
consisted principally of a large kitchen, dining-room, and
very large bar-room, the latter also serving as a lodging
room for the wagoners and drovers. Six and eight-horse
teams were usually accompanied by two men, and all of
them carried their own bedding, which was spread out on
the bar-room floor before a huge log fire in the chimney
place in the winter."
The drover was "the man on horseback" of his day.
He was a person of consequence. But he has departed.
And the old stage drivers and wagoners ! To-day they are
scarcely to be found, "most of them having thrown down
the reins and put up for the night."
114 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XL
EARLY NAVIGATION IN PENNSYLVANIA.
In the early history of Pennsylvania, as of other colo-
nies, the streams played an important part in opening the
wilderness to settlement and in promoting intercourse be-
tween the pioneers. Afterwards when canals were intro-
duced the rivers were often slackwatered as part of a ca-
nal system. The Indians set the pioneers the example of
utilizing the streams for transportation purposes, but the
Indians did not build bridges or establish ferries. Long
before there were roads of any kind in Pennsylvania the
Indian paths were supplemented by the Indian canoe,
the latter sometimes made of birch bark but more fre-
quently hollowed out of the trunk of a pine tree. But,
however made, the Indian canoe was everywhere in use
in the navigation of rivers when the white people came
to Pennsylvania. Ringwalt says that "the canoe was to
nearly all the tribes what the horse was to the Arab."
Some of the Indian canoes would carry freight weighing
two and three tons. Even larger canoes were sometimes
built. After the advent of the whites canoes were in fre-
quent use by the Indians in carrying furs to a market,
and by both whites and Indians in transporting the goods
of the Indian traders. The settlers made free use of them.
The first settlers in time substituted skiffs for canoes,
and when the streams were wide enough and deep enough
and large quantities of agricultural products and other
merchandise were to be moved they built rafts, flatboats,
Durham boats, and keel boats. Durham boats were so
called only in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, and keel
boats are associated with the early history of navigation
in the western part. These boats were of similar if not
of identical construction. Durham boats as well as flat-
boats were used on the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susque-
hanna rivers for many years. Keel boats were in use on
the Ohio at Pittsburgh as early as 1792 and at Johnstown
EARLY NAVIGATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 115
as early as 1816. Under the general term of flatboats we
include barges and all forms of flat-bottomed boats that
were in use in pioneer times. Boats of this class were
wholly used in descending streams of considerable size,
including the Ohio, and at the end of their journey were
sold for the lumber that was in them. Hulbert says that
"the flatboat was the important craft of the era of emi-
gration, the friend of the pioneer. The flatboat of average
size was a roofed craft about 40 feet long, 12 feet wide,
and 8 feet deep. It was square and flat-bottomed and
was managed by six oars." Keel boats were used in both
ascending and descending the rivers. They had rounded
sides and slightly rounded bottoms, the hull being sub-
stantially like that of a canal boat. As they were an im-
portant feature of early transportation on the Ohio river,
and in the streams tributary to the Ohio itself, further
mention of their construction and operation will not be
out of place. We remember seeing many keel boats on
the Allegheny river about 1840.
Hulbert says : " The keel boat heralded a new era in
internal development, an era of internal communication
never known before in the Central West. As a craft it is
almost forgotten to-day. Our oldest citizens can barely
remember the last years of its reign. It was a long, nar-
row craft, pointed at both prow and stern. On each side
were provided what were known as running boards, ex-
tending from end to end. The space between, the body
of the boat, was enclosed and roofed over with boards or
shingles. A keel boat would carry from twenty to forty
tons of freight, well protected from the weather ; it re-
quired from six to ten men, in addition to the captain,
who was usually the steersman, to propel it up stream.
Each man was provided with a pole to which was affixed
a heavy socket. The crew, being divided equally on each
side of the boat, 'set' their poles at the head of the boat;
then bringing the end of the pole to the shoulder, with
bodies bent, they walked slowly along the running boards
to the stern, returning quickly, at the command of the
captain, to the head for a new 'set.' In ascending rapids
the greatest effort of the whole crew was required, so that
116 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
only one at a time could 'shift' his pole. This ascending
of rapids was attended with great danger, especially if the
channel was rocky."
Hulbert continues : " The narrowness of the keel boat,
it will be noted, permitted it to ply far up the larger trib-
utaries of the Ohio and a considerable way up its smaller
tributaries — territory which the barge and flatboat could
never reach. It is probable, therefore, that the keel boat
brought much territory into touch with the world that
otherwise was never reached save by the heavy freighter
and the pack-saddle ; indeed it is probable that this was
the greatest service of the keel boat — to reach the rich
interior settlements and carry their imports and exports.
. . . Take, for instance, the salt industry, which in the
day of the keel boat was one of the most important in-
dustries, if not the most important, in the Central West.
Salt springs and licks were found at some distance from
the main artery of travel, the Ohio, and it was the keel
boat, more enduring than the canoe, and of lighter
weight and draught and of lesser width than the barge,
which did the greater part of the salt distribution, return-
ing usually with loads of flour. . . . The keel boat was
the only craft of burden that could ascend many of our
streams to the carrying-place. . . . The keel boat may
be considered, therefore, the first up-stream boat of bur-
den which plied the Ohio and its tributaries."
Mention of the salt industry suggests the great num-
ber of salt works which lined the banks of the lower Cone-
maugh and the Kiskiminitas rivers in the first half of the
last century and for some years afterwards. There were
also a few salt works on the Allegheny below the mouth
of the Kiskiminitas. Before the completion of the Penn-
sylvania Canal from Pittsburgh to Blairsville in 1829 the
salt from these works was taken in barrels to Pittsburgh
in keel boats for local consumption or for shipment down
the Ohio. Sometimes the keel boats themselves were
taken to points near Pittsburgh and poled or floated back.
The building of all kinds of flat-bottomed boats and
of keel boats was an important industry of Western Penn-
sylvania and elsewhere in the Ohio valley in early days.
EARLY NAVIGATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 117
The Navigator, of Pittsburgh, said in 1806 that " flat and
keel boats may be procured at New Geneva, Brownsville,
Williamsport, Elizabethtown, and McKeesport on the Mo-
nongahela, and perhaps at several places on the Youghio-
gheny. " As early as 1788 the boatyards at most of the
places above mentioned were in active operation. Pitts-
burgh did not build boats of any kind until about 1800.
Boats were certainly built on the Youghiogheny at
Connellsville and Robbstown, now West Newton, as early
as 1788. In 1793 Zachariah Connell laid out the town of
Connellsville, " because it was here that emigrants and
travelers to the West, of whom there were already great
numbers in transit, coming over the road from Bedford
by way of Turkey Foot, reached a boatable point on the
Youghiogheny river. Here, for several years, boats had
been built by emigrants and others to take their mer-
chandise and other movables down by water carriage."
In his charter of the town Mr. Connell stipulated that
"the space left opposite the ferry and fronting on said
river shall be and continue free for the use of the inhabit-
ants of said town and for travelers who may erect thereon
temporary boatyards, or may from time to time occupy
the same or any part thereof for making any vessel or
other conveniences for the purpose of conveying their
property to or from said town." One use of " the space
left opposite the ferry" was the parking in it of the wag-
ons of emigrants while their boats were being built.
The early settlers of Western Pennsylvania who had
agricultural produce or other products to dispose of were
for many years badly in need of near-by markets. Grain
and flour, bacon and some other products, would not bear
transportation to the East ; hence rye was converted into
whisky, and the excise tax on whisky, a most unwise and
unjust tax, led to the Whisky Insurrection of 1794. Furs
could be taken to Chambersburg and Winchester in ex-
change for salt and iron. Ginseng, maple sugar, and
beeswax were other local products that would bear trans-
portation to eastern markets. With the increase of popu-
lation west of the Alleghenies after the Revolution, in-
cluding settlements on the Ohio below Pittsburgh and
118 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Wheeling, a market for the surplus products of Western
Pennsylvania was gradually opened, and use was found
for keel boats and flat-bottomed boats. The Spaniards
were at this time in possession of the Lower Mississippi
valley, including the city of New Orleans, and as they
were not generally engaged in productive industries they
needed the agricultural products of Western Pennsylvania.
In Collins's History of Kentucky it is stated that Cap-
tain Jacob Yoder took the first flatboat down the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans in 1782. Collins
says : " The late Capt. Jos. Pierce, of Cincinnati, Ohio, had
erected over the remains of his old friend Capt. Jacob
Yoder an iron tablet (the first cast west of the Alleghe-
nies) thus inscribed: 'Jacob Yoder was born at Reading,
Pennsylvania, August 11, 1758, and was a soldier of the
Revolutionary army in 1777 and 1778. He emigrated to
the West in 1780, and in May, 1782, from Fort Redstone,
on the Monongahela river, in the first flatboat that ever
descended the Mississippi river, he landed in New Orleans
with a cargoe of produce. He died April 7, 1832, at his
farm in Spencer county, Kentucky, and lies here interred
beneath this tablet.'" Fort Redstone is the name that
was first given to Brownsville.
Dr. Joseph Smith, in his history of Old Redstone,
(1854,) gives us the following account of the trade with
New Orleans in the early days : " New Orleans furnished
a good market for all the flour, bacon, and whisky which
the upper country could furnish. The trade to New Or-
leans, like every other enterprise of the day, was attended
with great hardship and hazard. The right bank of the
Ohio, for hundreds of miles, was alive with hostile Indians.
The voyage was performed in flatboats and occupied from
four to six months. Several neighbors united their means
in building the boat and in getting up the voyage, some
giving their labor and others furnishing materials. Each
put on board his own produce at his own risk, and one
of the owners always accompanied the boat as captain
and supercargo. A boat of ordinary size required about
six hands, each of whom generally received about $60 a
trip on his arrival at New Orleans. They returned either
EARLY NAVIGATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 119
by sea to Baltimore, when they would be within 300 miles
of home, or more generally through the wilderness, a dis-
tance of 2,000 miles. A large number of these boatmen
were brought together in New Orleans. Their journey
home could not be made in small parties, as they carried
large quantities of specie, and the road was infested by
robbers. The boatmen who preferred returning through
the wilderness organized and selected their officers. These
companies sometimes numbered several hundred, and a
great proportion of them were armed. They were provided
with mules to carry the specie and provisions, and some
spare ones for the sick. Those who were able purchased
mules or Indian ponies for their use, but few could afford
to ride."
While the trade in flatboats with New Orleans was
hazardous it was important and valuable. It continued
for many years after the advent of the steamboat on the
Ohio in 1811. Before that year the shipments of produce
from Western Pennsylvania farms to the settlements in
the western part of Virginia and in Ohio, Indiana, and
Kentucky, and of other merchandise, some of which had
been brought over the Alleghenies on pack-horses, had
steadily increased. Then, too, the current of emigration
to "the West" itself created a demand for keel boats and
the various forms of flat-bottomed boats. In the spring
of 1788 the New England colonists who founded Marietta,
Ohio, after passing laboriously over the bad roads of Penn-
sylvania, came to Robbstown, now West Newton, on the
Youghiogheny, and built a number of boats on which
they completed their journey to the mouth of the Mus-
kingum, where the new town was to be located. On April
3, 1788, the first of these boats, the May Flower, arrived at
Pittsburgh, and on April 7 it reached the site of the fu-
ture Marietta. Other emigrants at that period took pas-
sage on boats built on the Youghiogheny, but Brownsville,
on the Monongahela, was the principal point of departure
for "the West," and here the most boats were built.
In a later chapter some mention will be made of the
shipments to the western markets of bar iron and iron
castings from the pioneer iron works of Western Penn-
120 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
sylvania. All the trade in these articles was carried on
in keel boats and flatboats. This trade began before the
end of the eighteenth century. Early in the next century
there developed a market for Pittsburgh coal in the towns
down the Ohio, and here again was created a demand for
flatboats which increased from year to year. Boats with
flat bottoms are in use to-day for carrying coal down
the Ohio. Harris's Directory of Pittsburgh for 1837 says
that " the first shipment of coal from Pittsburgh appears
to have been made in 1803 by a French company of
merchants under the firm name of John Tarascon Bros,
and James Burthoud, who during that year built the ship
Louisiana, of 350 tons' burden, and 'sent her out ballast-
ed with stone coal, which was sold at Philadelphia for
37^ cents per bushel.'" The first shipment of coal from
the Upper Monongahela valley down the Ohio appears to
have taken place about 1817. It was made in flatboats.
The presence of bituminous coal in the hills surround-
ing Pittsburgh and at other points in Western Pennsyl-
vania was known to the pioneers. Perhaps the earliest
mention of its existence was by Colonel James Burd, a
British officer on duty in what is now Fayette county.
On September 22, 1759, he wrote in his journal : " The
camp moved two miles to Coal run. This run is entirely
paved in the bottom with fine stone coal, and the hill on
the south of it is a rock of the finest coal I ever saw. I
burned about a bushel of it on my fire." The Coal run
referred to was apparently about two miles distant from
the present town of Brownsville. On October 4, 1770,
Washington, while in Fayette county on his way to that
part of Virginia which fronts on the Ohio, wrote in his
journal: "At Captain Crawford's all day. We went to see
a coal mine not far from his house, on the banks of the
river. The coal seemed to be of the very best kind, burn-
ing freely, and abundance of it." The place named as
" Captain Crawford's " occupied the site of the present
town of New Haven, opposite Connellsville, and was then
known as Stewart's Crossing. Coal had been discovered
at Pittsburgh probably about 1758, when Fort Du Quesne
fell into the hands of General Forbes. J. S. Wall, of Mo-
EARLY NAVIGATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 121
nongahela City, in the introduction to his report on the
coal mines of the Monongahela region for the Second Geo-
logical Survey of Pennsylvania, submitted in 1884, says :
" It appears that coal was mined from Coal hill and used
by the British army at Fort Pitt while that place was in
command of Colonel Bouquet soon after its evacuation by
the French." In 1766 the Rev. Charles Beatty, who vis-
ited the fort in that year, wrote that the garrison was
then " supplied with coals " from Coal hill.
In time it became necessary to improve with locks
and dams the navigation of the Monongahela river as a
thoroughfare for passengers seeking a connection with the
National Road at Brownsville or destined for points be-
tween Pittsburgh and Brownsville, but more particularly
to facilitate the shipment of coal from the Monongahela
valley. This improvement was undertaken by the Mo-
nongahela Navigation Company, which obtained a charter
from the Legislature of Pennsylvania on March 31, 1836,
Congress having refused to improve the navigation of the
river. The charter authorized the company to establish
slackwater navigation from Pittsburgh to the Virginia line
and farther if Virginia would give permission. The com-
pany was organized on February 10, 1837, and work was
commenced in that year. In 1838 the State subscribed
$25,000 to the stock of the company and in 1840 it sub-
scribed $100,000 additional. In 1843 all this stock was
sold to the company. On November 13, 1844, the Mo-
nongahela river was successfully slackwatered from Pitts-
burgh to Brownsville, a distance of 55^ miles. The slack-
water was subsequently continued to New Geneva, about
85 miles from Pittsburgh, and afterwards to Morgantown,
in West Virginia, 102 miles from Pittsburgh. In 1897 the
Monongahela Navigation Company disposed of all its in-
terest in the locks and dams to the United States Gov-
ernment, which has since made their use free to the public.
Through Senator Quay's influence the act of Congress
which provided for this change became a law over Presi-
dent Cleveland's veto on June 3, 1896.
The improvement of the Monongahela river above re-
ferred to at once gave a great impetus to the coal trade
122 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
of the Monongahela valley, and this trade has increased
from year to year. Packets for the conveyance of passen-
gers still run regularly from Pittsburgh to Morgantown.
The improvement of the Youghiogheny river from its
junction with the Monongahela at McKeesport to West
Newton, a distance of 18^ miles, embracing two locks and
two dams, was completed by the Youghiogheny Slackwa-
ter Company in 1851, and this improvement contributed
to the opening of many coal mines in the Youghiogheny
valley. But the enterprise itself was not a permanent
success. In 1861 the dams were washed out by high wa-
ter and ice and in 1866 they were again destroyed, soon
after which disaster the enterprise was abandoned. While
this slackwater improvement was in operation packet
boats regularly carried passengers from West Newton to
Pittsburgh, occupying about twelve hours in making the
daily trip either way. The boats were equipped with
sleeping berths, and trips were made at night as well as
in daylight. In the early part of the last century, until
about 1820, an immense amount of freight was shipped
in keel boats from West Newton.
Leaving the Monongahela and Youghiogheny valleys,
which supply much the larger part of what is commer-
cially known as Pittsburgh coal, while the Youghiogheny
valley supplies most of the celebrated Connellsville coke,
the Allegheny valley invites our attention. The coal of
this valley has never been an important factor in the
coal trade of Western Pennsylvania, unless recent develop-
ments in some western counties whose waters drain into
the Allegheny may be so considered. The Allegheny was
never notably a coal-carrying river. In all the valleys
mentioned the railroads have now absorbed a large part
of their coal tonnage, while almost all the Connellsville
coke tonnage passes over them. The Allegheny valley
has, however, been a large contributor to the prosperity
of Western Pennsylvania through its large production of
pig iron, which sought a market at Pittsburgh in the first
half of the last century, and through its still larger pro-
duction of lumber, much of which has found a market at
points west of Pittsburgh on the Ohio river. Shipments
EARLY NAVIGATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. 123
of pig iron were made in French creek boats or on rafts.
Shipments of lumber were made chiefly in rafts. From
1859 until 1870 the Allegheny river was also an impor-
tant channel for the transportation of petroleum from the
newly developed fields of Northwestern Pennsylvania, and
much of this traffic fell to the steamboats. About 1865
the railroads also began to carry petroleum.. In the early
days keel boats carried both freight and passengers to
and from the settlements on the Allegheny river and its
tributaries. Small steamboats shared in this trade soon
after the beginning of the steamboat era and until after
the beginning of the railroad era.
Until in very recent years no attempt had been made
to improve the navigation of the Allegheny river. The
United States Government has now undertaken the im-
portant work of improving by dams and locks the navi-
gation of both the Ohio and the Allegheny rivers, which
we need not describe in detail, but from which improve-
ments it is expected that the transportation of coal, lum-
ber, agricultural products, and other freight on the Alle-
gheny will greatly increase.
The business of boatbuilding at Pittsburgh grew rap-
idly after 1800. In addition to keel boats and flatboats
Pittsburgh built many vessels for ocean service. Chapman
says : " The number of barges, flatboats, and similar craft
runs far up into the thousands. In the year 1801 Taras-
con Brothers & Co. built the Amity, a schooner of 150
tons, which was sent with a cargo of flour to St. Thomas,
in the West Indies. In the same year they built the
schooner Pittsburgh, of 250 tons, which was dispatched
with a similar cargo to Philadelphia, and thence to Bor-
deaux, in France. These first ventures in sea-going ves-
sels were speedily followed by others. One of these, the
brig Ann Jane, built in 1803, was one of the fastest sail-
ing vessels of the day, and was run for some time as a
packet between New York and New Orleans." Another
of the sea-going vessels that was built at Pittsburgh was
the ship Louisiana, which is elsewhere referred to in this
chapter. The building of steamboats at Pittsburgh had
its beginning in 1811.
124 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XII.
EARLY STEAMBOATS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
The era of steamboat navigation in this country
dates from August 17, 1807, one hundred years ago, when
Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, made its successful
trial trip on the Hudson river. But Fulton was not the
inventor of the steamboat ; he simply perfected, with the
assistance of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, the me-
chanical ideas of others. John Fitch is worthy of being
especially remembered for his unrewarded labors in ap-
plying steam power to the navigation of vessels before
Fulton attempted the solution of the same problem. The
success of the Clermont soon made steam navigation pos-
sible on all the principal rivers of this country.
Robert Fulton was born in Lancaster county, Penn-
sylvania, in 1765 and died in New York City in 1815.
John Fitch was a native of Connecticut, born in 1743 and
dying in Kentucky in 1798. Both men died young.
The introduction of steamboats on the Ohio river and
its tributaries followed the general use of keel boats and
the various forms of flat-bottomed boats. The first steam-
boat to trouble the waters of the Ohio, or of any western
river, was the New Orleans, which was built and launch-
ed at Pittsburgh in 1811. Chapman says that " it was
built on the right bank of the Monongahela, a short dis-
tance below the mouth of Sook's run. Anthony Beelen's
foundry was near. The freight warehouse of the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad now occupies the spot." Its cost
was about $38,000. The New Orleans was mechanically
and financially a success. The story of its career has often
been told. At once other steamboats were built to ply
on the Ohio and the Mississippi and their tributaries, and
Pittsburgh became a great centre of steamboat building
as well as of steamboat navigation.
In Hulbert's great work, The Ohio River, (1906,) we
find the following account of the way in which the first
EARLY STEAMBOATS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 125
steamboat on the Ohio river came to be built : " The
steamer Clermont sailed on the Hudson river, to the won-
der of all eyes, in 1807. Fulton was quick to take com-
plete advantage of his triumph and immediately began
to secure monopoly rights and supply other rivers with
his boats. The Ohio, with its tremendous possibilities
commercially, early attracted his attention. In December,
1810, the Ohio Steamboat Navigation Company was in-
corporated by Daniel D. Tompkins, Robert R. Livingston,
DeWitt Clinton, Robert Fulton, and Nicholas J. Roosevelt.
The company was to operate steamers on the western wa-
ters under the Fulton-Livingston patents. The last nam-
ed incorporator, Nicholas J. Roosevelt, a brother of Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt's grandfather, seems to have
been the chief promoter of the Ohio branch of Fulton's
great business. The boat had a keel 138 feet long and its
total burden was 300 tons : it was launched in March,
1811, and in the following October set sail for the South
amid the applause of infant Pittsburgh."
Steamboats of light draft were in use on the Allegheny
and Monongahela rivers soon after their introduction on
the Ohio, making irregular trips in carrying both freight
and passengers whenever the depth of water would per-
mit, but not supplanting either the keel boat or the flat-
boat. The steamboat, indeed, by facilitating the ship-
ment of coal down the Ohio, through the introduction
and general use of steam towboats, really increased the
demand for flatboats, barges, and broadhorns, as coal-car-
rying vessels have been variously called. The first steam-
boat that was built in the Monongahela valley is said to
have been the Enterprise, built at Bridgeport in 1814. Mor-
rison says that the Enterprise was "a stern- wheel boat of
80 feet in length and 29 feet beam." He gives a full his-
tory of this vessel. The Enterprise was the first steamboat
which made the round trip from Pittsburgh to New Or-
leans. This was in 1814 and 1815. Chapman says that
"on December 1, 1814, the Enterprise left Pittsburgh for
New Orleans with a cargo of cannon and guns for Jack-
son's army."
On February 28, 1828, the steamboat Wm. Duncan, of
126 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
eighty tons' capacity, ascended the Allegheny river to
Franklin. In March, 1830, a small steamboat called the
Allegheny was launched at Pittsburgh and on April 18 she
arrived at Franklin and proceeded up the river to Warren.
This vessel made seven trips up the Allegheny river in
that year, at one time ascending as far as Olean, in New
York. The Allegheny was equipped with two stern wheels.
Most of the early steamboats were " side-wheelers."
Chapman writes of steamboat building at Pittsburgh
in the following words : " Pittsburgh has lost some of the
industries for which it was once famous. The first of these
is steamboat building. This was a business once largely
carried on here. The New Orleans was followed by the
Comet, built in 1812-13, and the Vesuvius and the Aetna,
built in 1813-14. The number of vessels built increased
with wonderful rapidity from year to year until the record
year 1857, in which 141 were built. In other years both
before and after this date the vessels built fell little short
of this maximum. The total number was more than 3,000.
After the year 1865 the number built each year fell off
rapidly, although many were still built until the year
1888, in which but two were built. In later years only
an occasional steamboat has been built here. The prime
cause of the decline of steamboat building and steamboat
navigation is found in the lines of railroad that now lie
along the banks of every navigable river in the country."
The first iron steamboat to be built in the United
States was the little steamer Codorus, designed by Cap-
tain John Elgar, of York, Pennsylvania, a machinist and
inventor, acting for a York and Baltimore company. It
was built in 1825 at the machine shops of Webb, Davis &
Gardner, of York, the same firm which, in 1832, built The
York, the first locomotive in the country to successfully
use anthracite coal. The Codorus received its name from
Codorus creek, on which York is built. A cotemporary
description of the Codorus mentions the following details :
"A boat of sheet iron, intended for a passage-boat from
Columbia, on the Susquehanna, to Northumberland, is
constructing at York, in this State. The following is an
account of the boat and of the steam-engine by which it
EARLY STEAMBOATS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 127
is to be propelled : The boat has 60 feet keel, 9 feet beam,
and is 3 feet high ; she is composed entirely of sheet iron,
riveted with iron rivets, and the ribs, which are one foot
apart, are strips of sheet iron, which, by their peculiar
form, are supposed to possess thrice the strength of the
same weight of iron in the square or flat form. The whole
weight of iron in the boat, when she shall be finished, will
be 3,400 lbs. ; that of the wood work, decks, cabin, &c,
will be 2,600 lbs. ; being together three tons. The steam-
engine, the boiler included, will weigh two tons ; making
the whole weight of the boat and engine but five tons.
She will draw, when launched, but five inches, and every
additional ton which may be put on board of her will sink
her one inch in the water. The engine is nearly complet-
ed. The whole cost of the boat and engine will be 3,000
dollars." It has been erroneously stated that this vessel
was built in England and put together at York.
In George R. ProwelFs History of York County it is
stated that the Codorus was launched in November, 1825,
and at once steamed up to Harrisburg with a party of
one hundred persons on board, with Captain John Elgar
as commander. Subsequently it made a number of trips
between York Haven and Harrisburg, and at least one
trip to Bloomsburg, Wilkesbarre, and as far north as the
New York State fine. It was a great success. Two other
steamboats were built at York by the same company for
use on the Susquehanna — the Susquehanna, whose boiler
exploded, and the Pioneer, which was "too heavy."
Morrison says of the Codorus : " There is no record left
whether this vessel was fitted with side wheels or a stern
wheel. They used wood as fuel in the boiler." The same
high authority gives us the later history of this vessel as
follows : " The boat remained on the Susquehanna river
about two years without any permanent employment ;
it was then taken to Baltimore, Maryland, and the last
record left of the vessel appears that in January, 1829,
she was sent to North Carolina to run between Newberne
and Beaufort. A Baltimore paper in April, 1830, publish-
ed under the heading of 'The First Iron Steamboat :' 'We
have two or three times during the past year endeavored
128 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
to set history right in regard to the place at which the
first iron steamboat was built in America. The steam-
boat Codorus was the first iron steamboat built in the
United States, as has been repeatedly stated in this and
other papers. ... It was built at York, the hull alto-
gether of iron. . . The Codorus was afterwards brought
to this city, where after remaining some time was taken
farther south to ply on some small river.' The iron was
of domestic manufacture."
From Morrison we glean the following details. In 1834
we hear of a steamboat on the Savannah river, Georgia,
that had been constructed in England with an iron hull
and put together at Savannah in that year. This vessel
was in every way a success. It was called the John Ran-
dolph. It was soon followed by several other iron-hull
vessels that were built in England and put together in
this country for use on southern rivers. In 1835 an iron-
hull vessel was built at Poughkeepsie, New York, intend-
ed to be used on the Erie Canal, but this vessel was not
a success because of defects in its construction. Its trial
trip was made on the canal in October, 1835. Morrison
continues : " There were also built in 1836, in the western
part of New York, three or four iron-hull canal boats, or
barges, as an opposition line of packet boats on the Erie
Canal between Rochester and Buffalo. In the next year
several iron canal boats were built for transportation
companies for freighting on the Pennsylvania State canals,
across the Allegheny mountains to Pittsburgh, connecting
the Delaware and Ohio rivers. Some of these vessels were
made in several distinct sections, so that when they ar-
rived at the junction of the railroad and canal they could
be readily hoisted with their merchandise to a freight car,
transported across the mountains, and again placed in the
canal." This is an imperfect description of the boats.
These last circumstantial statements by Mr. Morrison
explain the reference in a subsequent chapter of this vol-
ume to the "Reliance Transportation Company's Line of
Portable Iron Boats" which were in use on the Pennsyl-
vania Canal in 1839. J. King McLanahan tells us that
these boats were built at Coalport, on the Kiskiminitas,
EARLY STEAMBOATS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 129
by Samuel M. Kier. The hulls were covered with sheet
iron over an eighth of an inch thick, which was doubtless
made at Pittsburgh. The hatches were also made of iron.
Morrison further says : "As to iron hull steamboats
on the western rivers the first built in the United States
was named United States, constructed by the West Point
Foundry, at New York, in 1838, for service on Lake Pont-
chartrain and canal at New Orleans, Louisiana. This was
a double-hull boat, 110 by 26 by 3.6 feet, with a paddle
wheel in the space between the hulls. The first single
iron hull built in the United States was the Valley Forge,
built by Robinson & Minis, steam engine builders, at
Pittsburgh, and completed in December, 1839." The same
author says that the Zulia River Navigation Company, of
New York, contracted with the James Rees & Sons Com-
pany, of Pittsburgh, in June, 1880, for a steel-hull stern-
wheel steamboat named Venezuela, to open navigation on
the Zulia river in Venezuela. The hull was 120 by 24 by
3 feet deep. Mr. Morrison says that " this was the first
steam vessel built in the United States to have steel an-
gles and floors." He further says that "this vessel may be
said to be the first all-steel vessel built in this country."
From another source we learn the following details of
the Valley Forge : When this vessel was built it was said
that she was the first iron vessel "of any considerable
size" that had been built in this country. Her dimen-
sions were as follows : length on deck, 160 feet ; length of
keel, 140 feet; breadth of beam, 25 feet 4 inches; depth
of hold, 6 feet.
It was not until after the close of our civil war that
the building of iron vessels, either for ocean voyage or for
inland navigation, became an important industry in this
country. In the fiscal year 1868, the first for which there
is any official record of iron shipbuilding in the United
States, the whole tonnage of iron vessels built was only
2,801 tons. In the calendar year 1907 there were launched
in this country 157 iron and steel vessels, whose total
tonnage amounted to 436,183 tons. Of the 157 iron and
steel vessels built in that year 65 were built at ports on
the great lakes, their tonnage amounting to 286,266 tons.
9
130 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XIII.
EARLY CANALS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
We now come to the building of canals in Pennsyl-
vania, including the improvement of natural waterways.
Canals were known to the ancients. Historians mention
the existence in remote ages of canals for transportation
and for irrigation. They are not mentioned in either the
Old or the New Testament, but there is abundant proof
that they were in existence in Old Testament days. Both
Egypt and Assyria possessed irrigation canals centuries be-
fore the Christian era. Canals for transportation purposes
were built by the Romans in the zenith of their power.
They built canals in France and in England. China built
its great canal, about a thousand miles long, but which
is mainly an improvement of natural waterways, in the
early centuries of the Christian era, and there were other
canals in China before that period. Venice has been fa-
mous for its canals since the fifth century. From the
twelfth to the fifteenth century many canals were built in
the Netherlands. A canal in England, uniting the Trent
and the Witham rivers, was built in the twelfth century.
There are many canals to-day in England and on the
Continent, the most notable of which is a canal in Russia,
1,434 miles long, connecting St. Petersburg with the Cas-
pian Sea, which was commenced by Peter the Great in
1700. This canal is, however, largely an improvement of
river navigation. France particularly is intersected with
canals leading in every direction ; Germany also has many
important canals. On the Continent the tendency is now
strongly toward the extension of canals for general trans-
portation purposes. The Aztecs built canals in Mexico.
The subject of canal transportation and the improve-
ment of river navigation received considerable attention
in the colonies before the Revolution, but with a single
exception there is no authentic record of the construc-
tion of a canal in this country until after the treaty of
EARLY CANALS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 131
peace. Ringwalt says that " the first canal constructed
within the present limits of the United States was, ac-
cording to some accounts, a short line built by Lieuten-
ant-Governor Colder, in Orange county, New York, in 1750,
for transporting stone." The first definite action concern-
ing a survey for a canal for general transportation purposes
in any of the colonies of which we can find any mention
was taken in Pennsylvania several years before the Revo-
lution. In 1762 a "remonstrance" from sundry merchants
of Philadelphia was presented to the General Assembly,
praying that "proper persons" might be appointed "to
view and inspect a water passage up the west branch of
the River Susquehanna, as from thence, it is thought, the
portage is but short to a navigable branch of the River
Ohio," so that, in the words of the "remonstrance," "the
Indian commerce of the province, a most important branch
of the trade thereof," might " be greatly increased." No
action was taken by the Assembly to promote the wishes
of the Philadelphia merchants, the petition being laid aside
for further consideration. In 1769 a petition was present-
ed to the Assembly praying that the Juniata river might
be made navigable, so that "a tract of country, near
eighty miles in extent, would have cheap and easy com-
munication opened into the Susquehanna, and by this
means be connected with Philadelphia." This petition
also produced no immediate results. In neither of these
petitions was a canal mentioned, but it would have been
essential to the realization of either of the schemes pro-
posed.
On April 21, 1769, the American Philosophical Society
published an appeal " to the merchants and others of
Philadelphia," saying that the society " have had sundry
proposals before them for opening a canal between the
navigable waters of the Delaware and Chesapeake bays,"
and recommending that a "necessary survey" of a route
for the proposed canal be made, to which appeal a com-
mittee of the merchants replied that "the design was
highly approved, and a subscription was immediately be-
gun, which already amounted to £140." This route was
not surveyed until 1791. The canal was not commenced
132 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
until 1804 and it was not completed until 1829. In 1613
Captain Samuel Argall wrote to England that he hoped to
make a cut between Chesapeake bay and the Delaware.
On August 16, 1771, a report of the Philosophical So-
ciety said: "Whereas, this Society, desirous to promote
the inland navigation of this province, at a considerable
expense made several surveys, being informed that there
is a probability of joining the navigation of the Susque-
hanna and the Schuylkill by a canal between the Quitta-
pahilla branch of the Swatara and the Tulpehocken, and
as the Assembly were pleased to appoint a committee for
examining the place aforesaid, among others, the Society
do therefore appoint Mr. Lukens, the Surveyor General, to
attend the said committee and give all the assistance in
his power. His expenses will be defrayed by several pub-
lic-spirited persons." This canal was subsequently built,
as will presently appear. It was called the Union Canal.
The author of An Historical Account of the Rise, Prog-
ress, and Present State of the Canal Navigation in Penn-
sylvania, published in 1795, referring to events occurring
in 1793, clearly indicates in the following extract that
about 1769 a survey of a canal route to unite the Schuyl-
kill and Susquehanna rivers had been made. " The sum-
mit level of middle ground between the headwaters of
Quittapahilla, near Lebanon, and those of Tulpehocken,
near Myerstown, (a distance of four miles and a half,) had
been examined and leveled about twenty-five years ago
by a committee appointed by the American Philosophical
Society, viz : William Smith, D.D., then Provost of the
College of Philadelphia, John Lukens, Esquire, Surveyor
General of the Province (now State) of Pennsylvania,
and John Sellers. The same ground was afterwards ex-
amined and leveled under legislative sanction by sundry
skillful persons, and among others by the celebrated phi-
losopher and mechanic, David Rittenhouse, Esquire, L.L.D.,
and his brother Benjamin Rittenhouse, Timothy Matlack,
John Adlum, Esquires, and others, all agreeing in the re-
sults of their work respecting the proper tract of the canal
for a junction of the Schuylkill and Susquehanna; — ex-
tending their prospects still further to the great plan now
EARLY CANALS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 133
in operation, viz : the junction of the tidewaters of the
Delaware with the Ohio and western lakes."
These circumstantial statements indicate that the first
survey referred to for a canal to unite the Schuylkill and
Susquehanna rivers was made about 1769, under the aus-
pices of the American Philosophical Society, and that sub-
sequently another survey was made " under legislative
sanction" by David Rittenhouse and others. The date of
the last survey is uncertain. We can not find any proof
of the correctness of a statement that has been frequently
made that David Rittenhouse and Dr. William Smith sur-
veyed a route for a canal between the Schuylkill and Sus-
quehanna rivers as early as 1762.
Henry S. Tanner, in his Description of the Canals and
Railroads of the United States, (1840,) says that "applica-
tion was made to the Provincial Legislature for authority
to open a water communication between the Schuylkill
and the Susquehanna rivers, and in the year 1762 a sur-
vey with a view to this object was effected, by which its
practicability was satisfactorily demonstrated." Tanner
gives no further particulars of the alleged " survey," but
other writers, without submitting any proof, say that it
was made by David Rittenhouse and Dr. William Smith
in 1762. We think that this early date is an error.
In the " Proposals for a Second Settlement" on the
Susquehanna river, issued by William Penn in 1690, and
from which we have already quoted, Penn says that a
"way" by land had been "laid out" between the Dela-
ware and the Susquehanna rivers " at least three years
ago," and that communication between this proposed set-
tlement and the settlements already made on the Dela-
ware would "not be hard to do by water by the benefit
of the river Scoalkill, for a branch of that river lies near
a branch that runs into the Susquehanna river and is the
common course of the Indians with their skins and furs
into our parts." In these words Penn certainly indicates
French creek and Conestoga creek as the branches which
could be utilized in uniting the Susquehanna and Schuyl-
kill rivers. His "way" was undoubtedly a road from the
mouth of French creek to a point near the mouth of the
134 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Conestoga. H. Frank Eshleman, of Lancaster, has made
this matter clear. To Penn belongs the credit of first sug-
gesting, as early as 1690, the project of continuous water
transportation from the Delaware to the Susquehanna,
but he did not specifically suggest the building of a canal.
In 1772 Benjamin Franklin, who was then represent-
ing the colonies at the British Court, wrote a long letter
to Samuel Rhoads, afterwards the Mayor of Philadelphia,
which Ringwalt prints in full, recommending the building
of canals in our country and giving the experience of
England in canal construction. He said: " Rivers are un-
governable things, especially in hilly countries. Canals are
quiet and very manageable."
Without quoting further from old records the forego-
ing summary shows how greatly interested before the
Revolutionary period were the people of Pennsylvania in
the improvement of its waterways and in the building of
canals. Nothing of a practical character was, however,
accomplished before the Revolution, owing mainly to the
financial difficulties that were encountered.
It has been claimed that the first canal that was un-
dertaken and completed in the United States was built to
overcome obstructions to the navigation of the Connecti-
cut river at South Hadley Falls and at Turner's Falls at
Montague, in Western Massachusetts. It was projected
in 1792 by a company, commenced in 1793, and finished
about 1796. This canal was about five miles long. It is
also claimed that the next canal to be completed was built
by a company between 1792 and 1797 around the rapids
of the Mohawk river in New York, to improve its naviga-
tion, as in the case of the pioneer canal in Massachusetts.
This canal was six miles long. These short canals were
of only local importance.
The above claims of priority in canal building must
be read in connection with other canal enterprises which
are mentioned in detail by Ringwalt, and which, omitting
the reference already made to the early canal in Orange
county, New York, we condense as follows : " Probably
the first charter under which active operations were pros-
ecuted was granted by an act incorporating the James
EARLY CANALS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 135
River Company, which was passed by the Legislature of
Virginia on January 5, 1785, for the purpose of improving
the navigation of the James river. The company con-
structed a canal around the Falls of James river, extend-
ing from the city of Richmond to Westham, a distance of
about seven miles, and improved the bed of the river by
sluices as high up as Buchanan. Other canals include
the following : A charter was granted on June 25, 1792, to
'The Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Merri-
mac River' in Massachusetts, and this company opened
a line in 1797, about one and one-half miles long, which
provided a channel around Pawtucket Falls, leading into
the Concord river, and thence into the Merrimac river at
Chelmsford. The Middlesex Canal Company was chartered
in 1792. Active operations on this work were commenced
in 1795. The Carondelet Canal was built in Louisiana
about 1794, partly as a drainage canal for the city of New
Orleans. It was constructed by Governor Carondelet, and
the citizens contributed a large force of slaves to aid him.
A canal was built in South Carolina in 1802 which con-
nected Charleston harbor with the Santee river. It was
twenty-two miles long and cost $720,000."
We now come to the canals which were actually built
in Pennsylvania after the storm and stress of the Revolu-
tion had come to an end. The earliest mention we have
found of a completed canal in Pennsylvania relates to the
Conewago Canal, in York county, which was authorized
by the Legislature on April 10, 1793, to be constructed
by the Conewago Canal Company. This canal was com-
pleted in 1797. It was only one and a fourth miles long
and was built to overcome an obstruction in the Susque-
hanna river caused by the Conewago Falls.
One of the first improvements in river transportation
to be undertaken in Pennsylvania was the slackwater im-
provement of the Conestoga Lock and Dam Navigation
Company, which company was chartered by the Legisla-
ture on March 17, 1806, to improve the navigation of Con-
estoga creek between Lancaster and Safe Harbor, on the
Susquehanna, a distance of eighteen miles. This improve-
ment was completed by another company several years
136 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
afterwards, but it is worthy of mention as one of the first
canal enterprises that was undertaken in Pennsylvania.
The first State to undertake any comprehensive canal
project was undoubtedly Pennsylvania. Before the Massa-
chusetts and New York enterprises were undertaken the
Legislature of Pennsylvania chartered the Schuylkill and
Susquehanna Navigation Company to connect the waters
of the Schuylkill and Susquehanna rivers by canal and
slackwater navigation, the exact date of the act being
September 29, 1791. On April 10, 1792, the Legislature
also incorporated the Delaware and Schuylkill Navigation
Company to build a canal from Norristown to Philadel-
phia. It was proposed to have the first named company
build a canal from Middletown, at the mouth of the Swa-
tara river, where it empties into the Susquehanna river,
to Reading, in Berks county, and thence by canal and
slackwater to Norristown, where it would unite with the
canal of the second named company, thus giving continu-
ous water communication between Philadelphia and the
interior of the State. Robert Morris was the president of
both these companies. Gordon, in his Gazetteer, published
in 1832, gives the further history of these enterprises as
follows : "About fifteen miles of the most difficult parts
of the two works, comprising much rock excavation, heavy
embankments, extensive deep cuttings, and several locks
of bricks, were nearly completed when, after an expendi-
ture of $440,000, the works were suspended by reason of
the pecuniary embarrassments of the stockholders of the
companies. The suspension of these works, and subse-
quently of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, discour-
aged every similar work which was projected for many
years afterwards." Gordon continues : " In the year 1811
the two companies, composed chiefly of the same stock-
holders, were united under the title of the Union Canal
Company. A large part of new stock was indispensable
to the success of the company, which they were authoriz-
ed to create by act of 29th March, 1819, and for payment
of interest thereon the avails of a lottery granted by the
last preceding act were pledged. By act of 26th March,
1821, the Commonwealth guaranteed the interest and also
EARLY CANALS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 137
granted to the company a monopoly of lotteries. Thus
sustained the managers resumed their operations in 1821.
The line of the canal was relocated, the dimensions chang-
ed, and it was rendered navigable in 1827."
As completed the Union Canal extended only from
Middletown, on the Susquehanna, to a point on the
Schuylkill a short distance below Reading, a distance of
nearly 90 miles, including about ten miles of branches.
At Reading the Union Canal connected with the works
of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, which was char-
tered on March 8, 1815, to build a canal from Philadel-
phia to Pottsville, in Schuylkill county, utilizing wherever
possible slack water navigation on the Schuylkill river.
This canal, which is still in use from Philadelphia to Port
Clinton, in Schuylkill county, about fifteen miles below
Pottsville, was completed and opened for business between
Philadelphia and Mount Carbon, a suburb of Pottsville,
in 1825. In 1828 the canal was extended from Pottsville
to Port Carbon, a distance of about two miles. As finally
completed there were 58 miles of canal and 50 miles
of slack water, making a total length of 108 miles. This
enterprise was undertaken because of the failure of pre-
vious attempts to improve the navigation of the Schuyl-
kill river, as described above. The whole line of the canal
was leased to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Com-
pany in 1870. Since that year its coal and other trade
has been almost entirely transferred to this company. In
1826 and 1827 the packet boat Planet made regular trips
between Philadelphia and Reading, the fare being $2.50.
During the first two decades of the nineteenth century
many canal enterprises were undertaken in many States,
including others in Pennsylvania additional to those above
mentioned. The most important of these enterprises was
the celebrated Erie Canal in New York, to connect Lake
Erie with the Atlantic Ocean by way of Albany and the
Hudson river, the canal terminating at Albany. The first
ground was broken for this work at Rome, on July 4,
1817, and the canal was formally opened from Buffalo to
Albany, a distance of 352 miles, on November 4, 1825.
The inception and subsequent completion of this really
138 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
great work gave a great impetus to canal building in
other States, especially in Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
In addition to the reasons which called for the estab-
lishment of closer commercial connections between the dif-
ferent parts of Pennsylvania its citizens could not afford
to yield to New York the trade of the Great West through
its Erie Canal without making an effort to secure a part
of this trade. Leading citizens had long urged the neces-
sity of more convenient means of communication between
the Delaware and the western parts of the State than were
afforded by roads and turnpikes. The project of uniting
the Delaware with Lake Erie by a system of canals and
river navigation was considered by the General Assembly
as early as 1769, and was embodied in 1811 in the char-
ter of the Union Canal Company already mentioned. Oth-
er early projects contemplated the opening of communi-
cation by water as far as possible between the Delaware
and the Ohio at Pittsburgh. But none of these schemes
assumed tangible form until about the time of the com-
pletion of the Erie Canal in 1825. Even if practicable in
all cases they could not have been realized by individual
effort; the State would have had to undertake them.
THE BUILDING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL. 139
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BUILDING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL.
On February 10, 1824, a committee of the Pennsylva-
nia Legislature, to which had been referred the subject of
improving the transportation facilities between the eastern
and western parts of the State, recommended that a sur-
vey be made of a route "along the valleys of the Susque-
hanna, Juniata, Conemaugh, Kiskiminitas, and Allegheny
rivers, with a view to a continuous canal from Philadel-
phia to Pittsburgh." On March 27, 1824, an act was passed
authorizing three commissioners to "explore a route for a
canal from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh by the waters of the
Juniata and Conemaugh rivers, and by the west branch of
the Susquehanna and Sinnemahoning with the waters of
the Allegheny, and also a route from a point on the Schuyl-
kill river in the county of Schuylkill, thence by Mahanoy
creek, the river Susquehanna, the Moshannon or Clearfield
and Blacklick creeks, the Conemaugh, the Kiskiminitas,
and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh." These commissioners
recommended the adoption of a canal route from Harris-
burg to Pittsburgh by way of the Susquehanna, Juniata,
and Conemaugh rivers, with a tunnel through the Alle-
gheny mountains to be four miles long. On April 11, 1825,
another act was passed providing for the appointment of
five commissioners, who were authorized to explore and
report upon two proposed routes of canal communication
between the eastern and western parts of the State, and
upon three less comprehensive and really local routes.
Only the first two of these routes need be described.
One of these was " from Philadelphia through Chester
and Lancaster counties, and thence by the west branch of
the Susquehanna and the waters thereof to the Allegheny
and Pittsburgh, also from the Allegheny to Lake Erie,"
and the other route was "from Philadelphia by the Juni-
ata to Pittsburgh and thence to Lake Erie." On Febru-
ary 25, 1826, an act was passed providing for the com-
140 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
mencement of a canal " from the river Swatara, at or near
Middletown," by the Juniata route, and from Pittsburgh
eastward to the mouth of the Kiskiminitas, the work to
be styled the Pennsylvania Canal. Three hundred thou-
sand dollars were appropriated for the beginning of the
work. On July 4, 1826, the first ground was broken for
the canal near Harrisburg. The canal commissioners, now
increased to nine in number, had decided that work on the
canal westward should begin at Middletown, at the mouth
of the Swatara river, to which point, as previously ex-
plained, canal and slackwater communication eastward to
Philadelphia had been made or was about to be made
by way of the Union Canal and the Schuylkill river. As
finally determined by the act of March 4, 1828, the canal
was to be continued eastward to Columbia, on the Susque-
hanna. It was also determined by the same act that con-
nection from Columbia with Philadelphia should be made
by railroad and not by canal, and also that a railroad was
necessary from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown instead of a
tunnel. Thus originated the most important public im-
provement ever undertaken by Pennsylvania — a more ex-
pensive enterprise than the Erie Canal and relatively more
difficult than the Panama Canal of our day.
The Pennsylvania Canal, as its courses and distances
were finally decided upon and established by the joint ac-
tion of the Legislature, the canal commissioners, and the
engineers, embraced a main line of combined canal and
railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, with numerous
canal branches, all the branches from the main line run-
ning northward, and also embracing other canals which
did not directly connect with the main line. Beginning at
Philadelphia the various divisions of the main' line may
be briefly summarized as follows : The Columbia Railroad,
81 miles long, connecting Philadelphia with Columbia, hav-
ing two inclined planes, one at Philadelphia and one at
Columbia; the eastern division of the canal, 47 miles long,
extending from Columbia along the Susquehanna river to
Duncan's Island, at the mouth of the Juniata; the Juniata
division, 132 miles long, extending from Duncan's Island
to Hollidaysburg ; the Allegheny Portage Railroad, 36.44
THE BUILDING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL. 141
miles long, crossing the Allegheny mountains, having ten
inclined planes, and connecting Hollidaysburg with Johns-
town, five ascending from Hollidaysburg to the Allegheny
summit and five descending to Johnstown ; and the west-
ern division, 104 miles long, extending from Johnstown
along the Conemaugh, Kiskiminitas, and Allegheny rivers
to Pittsburgh. The total length of the main line of the
canal and connecting railroads was 400.44 miles. Work
on the main line was prosecuted with vigor from its com-
mencement and soon afterwards on some of its branches.
The branches of the Pennsylvania Canal, and the ca-
nals which were not directly connected with the main line
but were part of the Pennsylvania Canal system, were as
follows : The Susquehanna division, 42 miles long, com-
mencing at Duncan's Island and extending along the
Susquehanna river to Northumberland ; the West Branch
division, 76 miles long, extending from Northumberland
along the west branch of the Susquehanna through Will-
iamsport, Jersey Shore, and Lock Haven, to Farrandsville,
in Clinton county ; the North Branch division, 167.2 miles
long, commencing at Northumberland and extending along
the north branch of the Susquehanna through Berwick,
Nanticoke, and other towns to the New York State line
near Elmira, where it connected with the New York sys-
tem of canals through the Junction Canal; the Delaware
division, 60 miles long, extending from Bristol along the
Delaware river to Easton, where it connected with the
canal of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company ; the
Beaver division, 30.75 miles long, beginning at the mouth
of the Beaver river, at Beaver, on the Ohio, 28 miles be-
low Pittsburgh, and extending to New Castle ; the Erie
Extension, 105.50 miles long, extending from New Castle
to Erie. There was also a branch of the main line, the
Wiconisco Canal, 12J miles long, commenced in 1838, ex-
tending from Duncan's Island along the Susquehanna to
Wiconisco, where it connected with the Lykens Valley
Railroad. There were various feeders of the canals, ag-
gregating 13 miles in length, which need not be mentioned
in detail. The entire length of canals and railroads form-
ing the Pennsylvania Canal system was 907.39 miles, of
142 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
which 789.95 miles were canal and 117.44 miles were rail-
road, all undertaken and built at the expense of the State.
In 1834 the canal commissioners announced that 600
miles of canal and 120 miles of railroad were finished and
that the main line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh was
open for business. A single track of the Portage Railroad
had been completed on November 26, 1833. On April 16,
1834, the whole line was opened, the Columbia Railroad,
which formed the last link, having been finished on that
day. The Beaver division was opened for business on May
28, 1834, and the North Branch division on July 4, 1834.
Other branches were opened at later periods. Some of
them, indeed, were not undertaken until after the main
line had been some time in operation. The whole time
consumed in the construction of the main line was about
eight years, the same number of years as were occupied
in the construction of the Erie Canal.
The Erie Canal, 352 miles long, was not only nearly
fifty miles shorter than the main line of the Pennsylvania
Canal and its railroad connections, in all about 400 miles
long, but its builders encountered fewer engineering diffi-
culties than those which confronted the builders of the
Pennsylvania system of canals and railroads, while its
cost of construction was very much less. The Erie Canal
passed through a territory free from any serious moun-
tain elevations to be overcome by locks or otherwise, but
the engineers of the Pennsylvania Canal were compelled to
overcome by inclined planes and a railroad the almost in-
surmountable obstruction of the Allegheny mountains be-
tween Hollidaysburg and Johnstown and to abandon the
project of building a canal through the elevated country
between Philadelphia and Columbia and substitute a rail-
road. Ringwalt gives a diagram showing the elevation of
the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany and another show-
ing the elevation of the Pennsylvania Canal and its con-
necting railroads from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. He
says : "In constructing the Erie Canal the rise and fall
along the entire line was only 692 feet. In adopting on
the Pennsylvania main line system the Portage Railroad
as a device for overcoming the elevation of the Allegheny
THE BUILDING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL. 143
mountains there was an ascent from Johnstown, west of
the mountains, to the summit of 1,171.58 feet in 26.59
miles, and on the eastern side of the mountains a descent
from the summit to Hollidaysburg of 1,398.71 feet in 10.10
miles. In other words, the Pennsylvania main line sys-
tem, by the aid of the Portage Railroad, undertook to
overcome, in a distance of 36.69 miles, about twice the
elevation that it was necessary to overcome, by locks,
along the entire length of the Erie Canal." Of the ten
inclined planes on the Portage Railroad the longest was
3,116.92 feet long, with a rise of 307.60 feet, and the short-
est was 1,480.25 feet long, with a rise of 130.50 feet. To
which we add the length and elevation of the two inclined
planes on the Columbia Railroad, as follows : The plane
at Belmont, near Philadelphia, was 2,805 feet long, with a
rise of 187 feet, and the plane at Columbia was 1,800 feet
long, with a fall of 90 feet.
The work of building the Columbia Railroad was com-
menced in 1829 and completed in 1834, but about twenty
miles of the eastern end of the road were opened for traf-
fic in September, 1832. Work on the construction of the
Portage Railroad was commenced on April 12, 1831, and
on March 18, 1834, when navigation on the canal opened,
the road was opened for use as a public highway.
Horses and locomotives were used on both railroads.
The first locomotive used on the Portage Railroad was
built in Boston in 1834 and named Boston. Solomon W.
Roberts says that" it was a light engine, with one pair
of driving wheels, which were made of wood, with iron
hubs and tires/" The fuel used was wood. On the Co-
lumbia Railroad two locomotives, built in Philadelphia by
Matthew W. Baldwin in 1834, were in use in that year,
when the road was opened. The Pittsburgh Gazette for
Monday, November 25, 1833, referring to the completion
of the Portage Railroad, contains the following reference
to the first railroad car that was used on that road: "We
are informed that a railroad car, made after the most ap-
proved models and the designs of the chief engineer, has
been constructed in this city, and that it was forwarded,
on Saturday evening, by the canal line, to Johnstown,
144 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
where it will arrive this evening. It is supposed that this
is the first railroad car ever constructed west of the Alle-
gheny mountain." The first car passed over the Portage
Railroad, from Johnstown to Hollidaysburg, on Tuesday,
November 26, 1833. This was probably the car above re-
ferred to. Presumably it was a passenger car.
In 1852 the Commonwealth commenced the construc-
tion of a new Portage Railroad, to avoid the inclined
planes, parts of the old road to be utilized and a tunnel
at the summit of the Alleghenies to be built. Soon after
this work was completed the main line of the canal was
sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1857. Sto-
rey says that the New Portage was finished in the fall of
1855 and was operated only in 1856 and to August, 1857.
The Portage Railroad over the Alleghenies was regard-
ed at the time of its completion and long afterwards as
an engineering wonder and justly so. No engineering un-
dertaking anywhere up to that time had been more diffi-
cult and none had been more successfully accomplished.
Other difficult feats of engineering skill characterized the
work of building the Pennsylvania Canal and its railroad
connections, but the difficulties overcome in building the
Portage Railroad surpassed them all. As already stated,
there were ten inclined planes on this railroad, five on
the eastern slope of the Alleghenies and five on the west-
ern slope. The first railroad tunnel that was built in the
United States formed a part of the Portage Railroad.
Solomon W. Roberts, one of the engineers who located the
road, has left this record of the tunnel in an address which
he read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on
April 8, 1878. He said : "At the staple bend of the Cone-
maugh, four miles from Johnstown, a tunnel was made
through a spur of the Allegheny, near which the stream
makes a bend of two miles and a half. The length of the
tunnel was 901 feet, and it was 20 feet wide and 19 feet
high within the arch, 150 feet at each end being arched
with cut stone. Its cost was about $37,500. This was the
first railroad tunnel in the United States. Inclined plane
No. 1, being the plane nearest to Johnstown, was located
at the western end of the tunnel."
THE BUILDING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL. 145
Mr. Roberts says: "In 1838 there was published in
London a book called A Sketch of the Civil Engineering of
North America, by David Stevenson, a civil engineer. The
author was a son of the distinguished engineer of the
Bell Rock lighthouse. In his sixth chapter, when speak-
ing of the Portage Railroad, he says that 'America now
numbers among its many wonderful artificial lines of com-
munication a mountain railway, which, in boldness of de-
sign and difficulty of execution, I can compare to no mod-
ern work I have ever seen, excepting perhaps the passes
of the Simplon, and Mont Cenis in Sardinia ; but even
these remarkable passes, viewed as engineering works, did
not strike me as being more wonderful than the Alleghe-
ny Railway in the United States.' " Mr. Roberts also says
that "Michel Chevalier, the distinguished French engineer
and political economist, visited the railroad and gave a
description of it in his book on the public works of the
United States which was published in Paris in 1840."
As already stated, the main line of the Pennsylvania
Canal with its connecting railroads was opened for busi-
ness throughout its entire length in the spring of 1834, the
branches being opened at later dates. Important and val-
uable as these improvements were, in the aid they gave
to the development of the material resources of Pennsyl-
vania and in bringing into closer relations the whole. peo-
ple of the Commonwealth, it is painful to record the fact
that the operation of the main line and its more important
branches virtually came to an end within thirty years
after it began. This ever to be regretted termination of
a great and useful enterprise was due primarily to the in-
efficient and sometimes corrupt management of the entire
system and next to the competition of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, the building of which was authorized by an act
of the Legislature dated April 13, 1846, and which was
completed to Pittsburgh on December 10, 1852. On Au-
gust 1, 1857, the State sold the whole of the main line to
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for $7,500,000, which
soon abandoned the greater part of the canal.
In his History of Cambria County Storey says that
Ephraim Stitt, of Blairsville, was probably the last cap-
10
146 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
tain to bring through freight from Pittsburgh to Johns-
town. He brought a cargo consigned to the Cambria Iron
Company in 1859. About December 1, 1860, the Monon-
gahela, of which George Rutledge was captain, brought a
cargo of salt and grain from Livermore to Johnstown,
and this was probably the last boat to bring a load of
merchandise to the latter place. There were no lock-ten-
ders at this time. On May 1, 1863, says Mr. Storey, the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company abandoned the canal
between Johnstown and Blairsville.
Horses and mules constituted the only power that was
used in moving the boats on the Pennsylvania Canal. An
experiment in the use of steam power was made on the
western division from Pittsburgh to Johnstown with un-
satisfactory results. A few years ago we received the
following circumstantial account of this experiment from
the Honorable Cyrus L. Pershing, who was in early life a
resident of Johnstown. "A steamboat once made a round
trip from Pittsburgh to Johnstown. This steamboat had
been used as a ferry-boat, propelled by horse power, on
the Monongahela river at Pittsburgh. The machinery was
taken from a mill or manufacturing establishment, (not
heavy, of course,) in Pittsburgh. The boat stopped at
towns along the route, was tied up at night, and in the
daytime was compelled to make very slow progress to
avoid washing away the banks of the canal. Two weeks
were consumed in reaching Johnstown, where, for some
days, the boat lay in the slip on the upper side of the old
brick warehouse. Captain Carothers was the commander.
He was afterwards a member of a wholesale grocery firm
on Liberty street, Pittsburgh. This experiment settled in
the negative the practicability of using steam on the Penn-
sylvania Canal." Judge Pershing thought that the event
he minutely describes occurred in all probability in 1834.
This date is confirmed by Storey, who says that an ac-
count of the experiment appeared in the Ebensburg Sky
in 1834. The judge says that the boat was named Adaline.
Reference has already been made to the first railroad
tunnel that was built in the United States, four miles from
Johnstown, forming part of the Portage Railroad. On the
THE BUILDING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL. 147
western division of the Pennsylvania Canal, at a place then
and now called Tunnelton, in Indiana county, about half
way between Johnstown and Pittsburgh, a tunnel was
built between 1827 and 1829 through one of the foothills
of the Alleghenies. This tunnel connected with an aqueduct
over the Conemaugh river, at that point a stream of con-
siderable width, and the whole effect of the united tunnel
and aqueduct was most impressive. Drinker, in his great
work on Tunneling, says that the first canal tunnel in the
United States was built at Auburn, in Schuylkill county,
Pennsylvania, by the Schuylkill Navigation Company, be-
tween 1818 and 1821, and that the second canal tunnel
in the United States was built near Lebanon, in Leba-
non county, Pennsylvania, between 1824 and 1826, by the
Union Canal Company. The tunnel at Tunnelton, above
mentioned, was the third canal tunnel that was built in
the United States. A tunnel through Grant's Hill at
Pittsburgh, completed between 1827 and 1830, and form-
ing part of the Pennsylvania Canal, was the fourth. It
appears, therefore, that the first railroad tunnel and the
first four canal tunnels in the United States were built
in Pennsylvania.
In addition to the Pennsylvania Canal, including its
branches and other connections, other canals were built in
Pennsylvania in the first half of the nineteenth century,
some of which have been mentioned. Of others not here-
tofore described the most important is the canal of the
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, completed in 1829
and extending from Mauch Chunk to -Easton. Gordon
says of this enterprise : " The Legislature, early aware of
the importance of the navigation of the Lehigh, passed
an act for its improvement in 1771, and others in 1791,
1794, 1798, 1810, 1814, and 1816." But no work of con-
sequence was done under any of these acts until 1818,
in August of which year the Lehigh Navigation Com-
pany commenced the improvement of the Lehigh river.
In 1820 the Lehigh Navigation Company and the Lehigh
Coal Company were consolidated as the Lehigh Coal and
Navigation Company, and in this year Lehigh coal was
sent to Philadelphia by means of the improvement that
148 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
had been made in the navigation of the Lehigh river, but
the canal was not completed until 1829, as stated above.
The sale of the main line of the Pennsylvania Canal
to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1857 was soon
followed by the abandonment of nearly all the main
line, as has already been mentioned, and by the abandon-
ment or sale of such parts of the entire Pennsylvania
Canal system as had not been previously abandoned or
sold. In 1858 the Susquehanna, West Branch, and North
Branch divisions were sold to the Sunbury and Erie Rail-
road Company, which soon sold them to other companies,
the net result being that in a short time large parts of
these divisions were abandoned. In 1858 the Delaware
division was also sold to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad
Company, which sold it in the same year to the Dela-
ware Division Canal Company. On August 1, 1843, the
Erie Extension had been sold to the Erie Canal Com-
pany, and on January 1, 1845, the Beaver division had
been sold to the same company. In 1870 and 1871 this
company ceased to operate both divisions, and in 1871
the whole canal from Beaver to Erie was abandoned.
The Union Canal was abandoned in 1884. The Bald Eagle
Canal was abandoned in 1885.
We need not further note in detail the decline of
canal navigation in Pennsylvania. Only about one-third
as many miles of canal are now actively or nominally in
operation as were in active operation before the comple-
tion of the Pennsylvania Railroad from Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh in 1852. In 1840 there were about 1,000 miles
of canal in Pennsylvania. In 1900 it was officially stated
that there were then only four canals in operation in this
State — the Delaware Division Canal, 60 miles long, extend-
ing from Bristol to Easton ; the canal of the Lehigh Coal
and Navigation Company, 48 miles long, extending from
Coalport, near Mauch Chunk, to Easton ; the canal of the
Pennsylvania Canal Company, 144 miles long, extending
from Nanticoke to Columbia ; and the canal of the Schuyl-
kill Navigation Company, 89.88 miles long, extending from
Port Clinton to Philadelphia. The total mileage was 341.88
miles, but the larger part was only nominally operated.
THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL IN OPERATION. 149
CHAPTER XV.
THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL IN OPERATION.
The system of internal improvements, known as the
main line of the Pennsylvania Canal, which connected the
Delaware river with the Ohio river and Philadelphia with
Pittsburgh, and which has been described in the preceding
chapter, was undertaken in 1826 by the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania and completed in 1834. As already stated,
it was opened for freight and passenger traffic through-
out its entire length early in the latter year, long before
the Pennsylvania Railroad was projected or more than
dreamed of. This main line embraced a railroad from
Philadelphia to Columbia, 81 miles, a canal from Colum-
bia to Hollidaysburg, 179 miles, a railroad from Hollidays-
burg to Johnstown, 36.44 miles, and a canal from Johns-
town to Pittsburgh, 104 miles, making a total length of
400.44 miles from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Upon the
completion of important divisions of the main line, and
particularly after the completion of the whole line, many
transportation companies for the conveyance of freight
and passengers were organized, with principal offices and
warehouses at Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and branch
offices and other warehouses at Columbia, Hollidaysburg,
and Johnstown.
Through the courtesy of Frank L. Neall, of Philadel-
phia, a gentleman of antiquarian tastes, we have had an
opportunity to examine several hundred bills of lading,
freight receipts, etc., issued by the transportation compa-
nies and forwarding merchants that were engaged in busi-
ness on the main line of the canal between 1836 and
1850. These papers were written with quill pens in ink
that invariably holds its color well, and they are usually
embellished with wood cuts which represent in a crude
way the boats and cars and locomotives of that period.
The printing business was not then one of the fine arts, as
it is to-day. Cars and locomotives are at first represented
150 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
with only four wheels, but in later years locomotives are
shown with six wheels. Valuable information is contained
in these papers concerning the character of the freight
that was shipped in those days, the rates of freight, and
the time that was required to carry it from one point to
another ; also giving the names of the transportation com-
panies and their facilities for hauling freight.
First, of the transportation companies. We quote from
these old documents the names of the following companies
which had offices and warehouses in both Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh, with the year or years in which they are
first mentioned ; also in some instances the names of their
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh agents. The spelling we give
is exactly as we find it. In some instances, as will be ob-
served, the same company is described by more than one
title. 1836 — Reliance Transportation Company ; 1837 —
Western Transportation Company, D. Leech & Co.'s Line;
1838 — the same company, Leech & Co.'s Line ; 1837 — Un-
ion Transportation Company, Rail Road Line ; 1837 — John
Dougherty, Agent for Reliance Transportation Line; 1839
— John Dougherty, Agt., Reliance Transportation Com-
pany's Line of Portable Iron Boats ; 1837 — The Despatch
Transportation Line ; 1837 — The Despatch Transportation
Company, John White & Co. ; 1838 — James O'Connor &
Co.'s Portable Car Body Line, to Pittsburgh ; also Pitts-
burg Transportation Line, Rail Road Line of Portable Car
Bodies, James O'Connor & Co. ; 1840 — James M. Davis &
Co., Reliance Portable Boat Line ; 1841 — Mechanics In-
dependent Line ; 1846 — Binghams' Line, and Binghams'
Transportation Line ; proprietors, William Bingham, Thom-
as Bingham, Jacob Dock, and W. A. Stratton ; 1846 —
Craig, Bellas & Co., Citizens' Portable Boat Line; 1840,
1846, and 1849 — Reliance Portable Boat Line, James M.
Davis & Co., Philadelphia, and John McFaden & Co.,
Pittsburgh ; 1841 — The Pennsylvania and Ohio Transpor-
tation Rail Road Line, James Steel & Co. ; 1849 — Penn-
sylvania and Ohio Transportation Line to Pittsburgh, via
Rail Roads and Canal, and Pennsylvania and Ohio Trans-
portation Co. ; 1846 and 1850 — Union Transportation Rail
Road Line for Pittsburg.
THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL IN OPERATION. 151
In addition to the above details gleaned from Mr.
Neall's papers we add that Leech's Line, Binghams' Line,
the Pennsylvania and Ohio Line, and the Union Line were
the leading transportation companies on the main line of
the Pennsylvania Canal throughout its whole history. The
Pittsburgh agents of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Line
were Clark & Thaw — Thomas Clark and William Thaw;
of Leech's Line, George Black; of the Union Line, Henry
Graff ; and of Binghams' Line, William Bingham. These
and other lines, which strictly speaking were freight car-
riers, also carried passengers, chiefly immigrants going to
the Great West. Other companies, called " packet lines,"
were exclusively devoted to the carrying of passengers.
The freight that was shipped from Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh over the Pennsylvania Canal, as described in
these old papers of Mr. Neall, was largely composed of
queens ware, earthenware, hardware, glassware, and dry
goods. There can be no doubt that most of these articles
were imported. We note one shipment of axes. Other
articles shipped will be mentioned in another paragraph.
The mention of crates and casks of queensware is of fre-
quent occurrence, crates predominating. When emptied
of their contents these foreign-made crates were often
used in those days in winter by farmers and others as
improvised sleigh bodies, placed on sled runners that may
have been used for hauling wood, and sometimes placed
on light runners called " Yankee jumpers."
In 1837 D. Leech & Co. promised to deliver packages
of merchandise from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh "in fif-
teen days, Sundays excepted." In 1838 James O'Connor
& Co.'s Portable Car Body Line advertised what would be
called in our day a fast freight service in boats carrying
fifteen tons, through to Pittsburgh in five days, but its
boats carrying thirty tons would require eight days. In
1839 a freight receipt issued by John Dougherty stipulated
that the merchandise receipted for was to be delivered at
Pittsburgh " within twelve days, Sundays and unavoida-
ble delays excepted," but in 1846 James M. Davis & Co.
agreed to deliver freight at Pittsburgh in eight days, with
the same reservations, and in 1849 D. Leech & Co. had no
152 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
better schedule to offer, while in the same year the Penn-
sylvania and Ohio Line retained the twelve days' provis-
ion in its freight receipts. In 1850 James M. Davis & Co.
increased their time to Pittsburgh to ten days. In 1846
Binghams' Line promised to deliver at Philadelphia freight
shipped at Pittsburgh "within fifteen days, Sundays ex-
cepted." Eight days was about the shortest time that
would ordinarily be required to deliver freight between
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It is not probable that
James O'Connor & Co. ever carried freight from Philadel-
phia to Pittsburgh in five days. They may have done
this in six days. The name of this company was changed
in the forties to Taafe & O'Connor.
The rates of freight on the Pennsylvania Canal from
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh were much higher in the early
years of the canal's existence than were afterwards charg-
ed, and yet all these rates were very high as compared
with the railroad rates with which the present business
world is familiar. In 1837 the through rate on dry goods,
drugs, queensware in crates, leather, hides, shoes, wool,
fruits, etc., was $2.35 per 100 pounds ; on hardware, dye-
stuffs, paints, etc., it was $2.10 ; on hats, bonnets, etc.,
$3.60; on coffee and groceries, $1.85; on furniture, $3.60;
on carriages, $4.10; on fish, $1.20; and on queensware
in casks, $2.85. In 1839 there were some slight reduc-
tions in the rates, dry goods, etc., paying $2.25 per 100
pounds ; groceries, tin in boxes, etc., $1.65 ; hardware,
queensware, etc., $2 ; and carriages, $3.75. Herring paid
$2.25 per barrel and mackerel $2.50. A few rates were
advanced in this year. In 1849 the rates had been much
reduced below those of 1839, dry goods, bonnets, shoes,
hats, etc., being charged only 90 cents per 100 pounds ;
muslins in bales and burlaps, 80 cents ; queensware and
codfish, 60 cents ; tin and copper in sheets, 60 cents ; cof-
fee, 50 cents ; groceries, sheet iron, hoop iron and nails,
hardware, machinery, etc., 70 cents ; mackerel, shad, and
pickled herring per barrel, $1.25, and dry herring, $1.12|.
These rates probably ruled for several years after 1849.
In 1846 the rate on glassware from Pittsburgh to Philadel-
phia by Binghams' Line was 83 cents per 100 pounds.
THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL IN OPERATION. 153
The wood cuts which are prominent features of the
old papers we have referred to, and which were intended
to illustrate the methods of transportation employed by
the various companies mentioned, tell a story of their own
that is very interesting. Not only are the primitive loco-
motives and freight cars illustrated with a fair degree of
accuracy, but, of greater interest, the extraordinary means
that were then employed to carry freight between Phila-
delphia and Pittsburgh are fully shown. As has already
been stated, the main line of the Pennsylvania Canal in-
cluded two railroads, which aggregated in length over one-
fourth of the entire line. Most of the transportation com-
panies used both cars and boats, necessitating the hand-
ling of all freight when transferred from cars to boats or
from boats to cars. From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, or
vice versa, this trans-shipment occurred three times, at Co-
lumbia, Hollidaysburg, and Johnstown. But there were
two transportation methods employed in carrying freight
from one end of the main line to the other end without
breaking bulk at any point.
The boats used by James O'Connor & Co. were hulls
only, except that there was a cabin at the stern of each
boat, the hulls being built of dimensions adapted to the
reception of a fixed number of cars, or car bodies, which
could be transferred from their trucks by windlasses that
would lift them into the boats. In the same way the cars
could be lifted out of the boats and placed upon trucks.
The car-boats, as these boats were called, were abandoned
before 1850. The other method referred to dispensed with
cars entirely and embraced portable boats, divided into
either three or four sections, each with the necessary bulk-
heads, and each being but little longer than an ordinary
freight car of that day and of practically the same width.
When in the water these sections would be united by ap-
propriate side fastenings, making a complete boat, the bow
and stern sections being rounded as in other boats. When
taken from the water they were detached and deftly mov-
ed over trucks which had been run into the water upon
a slightly inclined railroad track that was connected with
the railroad over which the boat was to pass, a stationary
154 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
engine pulling out the sections. When the boat would
come to the end of its railroad journey it would be run
into the water on its trucks and put together as we have
described. The trucks were curved to fit the rounded bot-
toms of the boats. Several companies used these portable
boats, which were continued in use long after 1850.
Reference has been made to the packet boats on the
Pennsylvania Canal which were used exclusively for car-
rying passengers. In his American Notes Charles Dickens
describes his experience in 1842 on one of these packets,
which was not always satisfactory, but he gives us these
pleasing pictures of the scenery along the t line of the
canal : " The exquisite beauty of the opening day, when
light came gleaming off from everything ; the lazy mo-
tion of the boat, when one lay idly on the deck, looking
through, rather than at, the deep blue sky ; the gliding
on at night, so noiselessly, past frowning hills, sullen with
dark trees, and sometimes angry in one red burning spot
high up where unseen men lay crouching round a fire ;
the shining out of the bright stars, undisturbed by noise
of wheels or steam or any sound than the liquid rippling
of the water as the boat went on ; all these were pure
delights. . . . Sometimes, at night, the way wound
through some lonely gorge, like a mountain pass in Scot-
land, shining and coldly glittering in the light of the moon,
and so closed in by high steep hills all round that there
seemed to be no egress save through the narrower path
by which we had come, until one rugged hillside seemed
to open, and, shutting out the moonlight as we passed
into its gloomy throat, wrapped our new course in shade
and darkness." A Pennsylvania historian once wrote as
follows of the scenery along the canal in its palmy days :
" The entire region through which the canal passed was
one of enchantment. The beautiful rivers, then uncontami-
nated by the refuse of large towns, the wooded hillsides,
then almost untouched by the axe of the lumberman,
the smiling villages, at long distances apart, must have
brought to the traveler, as he passed by them, one long
happy dream of contentment."
Packet boats on the western division of the canal,
THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL IN OPERATION. 155
from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, quit running between
these places in August, 1851, but made regular trips from
Lockport to Pittsburgh in 1852.
Among the old papers referred to we find two receipts
issued by the " Pennsylvania Rail Road Co., Craig & Bel-
las, Agents, Broad Street, Philadelphia," dated respect-
ively October 12, 1850, and November 6, 1850, the first
for goods shipped to Newport, Pennsylvania, and the
other for goods shipped to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The
Pennsylvania Railroad Company was chartered in 1846
to build a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, railroad
connections already existing between Philadelphia and
Harrisburg, but work on the construction of the road did
not begin until 1847, and it was not until 1850 that the
road was completed to Duncansville, so that the two
receipts above referred to were among the earliest issued
in the name of the company. In 1857 the main line was
purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and in
a few years such portions of the line as were not ab-
sorbed by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of its road-
bed were either neglected or actually abandoned. The
division of the canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh was
abandoned in 1864, and the larger part of the divisions
from Columbia to Hollidaysburg in more recent years,
although little used throughout their entire length for
many preceding years. To-day the sites of large sections
of the canal proper and of its basins, feeders, wharves,
aqueducts, and bridges, and also of the connecting rail-
roads, are hard to find even by old men who remember
all of them, while the present generation scarcely realizes
that there ever was a Pennsylvania Canal.
faiii I'lfin ;fv/'''i','i;!'7IT!r,7'f/,,'!ffl^:,r!,i11 •'■•!!ii/!!i-fri|'ifriM":,j,|,,.1j,,; .,ri (if/ wi/: ; .( 1 1 -.,,./)
156 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XVI.
EARLY RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Short railways for hauling coal, but of primitive con-
struction and operated by hand power or horse power,
were in use in England as early as the middle of the sev-
enteenth century. The first railroad in the world for the
transportation of both freight and passengers, the Stock-
ton and Darlington Railway, in England, was opened to
the public in 1825, this event occurring on September 27.
It was primarily intended to carry only freight, nor was
the use of locomotives in moving trains on this road at
first contemplated. Authority to use " locomotive engines "
was granted by Parliament in 1823. This road was form-
ally opened with one of Stephenson's locomotives, and
in one month afterwards passengers were regularly car-
ried in a single coach. Horse power was, however, gen-
erally employed for several years, and during this period
few passengers were carried. This road had four inclined
planes, with stationary engines. It was not until the Liver-
pool and Manchester Railway, also in England, was opened
to the public on September 15, 1830, that the carrying of
passengers by rail and the use of steam power in moving
trains became recognized features of railroad practice.
Stephenson's Rocket was successfully tested on this road
in October, 1829.
In Railway Problems, written by J. S. Jeans and pub-
lished in London in 1887, these facts are stated : " Many
towns petitioned against having railways brought near
them and demanded that railways and canals alike should
be kept several miles from their borders. The vested in-
terests of stage-coach proprietors and carriers offered a
strenuous opposition to the new system. The medical fac-
ulty were pressed into the service of the opposition, with
direful forebodings as to the "physical evils that would fol-
low from traveling at the rate of thirty to forty miles an
hour. Canal proprietors urged that they had already pro-
EARLY RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. 157
vided all the facilities necessary for heavy traffic, and that
it would be grossly unjust to them to allow a rival interest
to step in and deprive them of the fruits of their efforts
and expenditure. In some cases railway companies were
forbidden to use 'any locomotive or movable engines'
without the consent of the owners and occupiers of lands
through which their line passed. Many wiseacres pro-
nounced that the system would, after all, prove a failure,
and the Quarterly Review of March, 1825, remarked oracu-
larly that 'as to those persons who speculate on making
railways general throughout the kingdom, and superseding
all the canals, all the wagons, mail and stage coaches, post-
chaises, and, in short, every other mode of conveyance by
land and by water, we deem them, and their visionary
schemes, unworthy of notice.' "
In a speech in the House of Commons in opposition to
the granting of a charter to the Liverpool and Manches-
ter Railway Company Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin said : " I
would not consent to see the widow's premises and straw-
berry beds invaded. Railroad trains would take many
hours to perform the journey between Liverpool and Man-
chester, and in the event the scheme succeeds what, I
would like to ask, what was to be done for all those who
had advanced money in making and repairing turnpike
roads ? What with those who still wished to travel in
their own or hired carriages, after the fashion of their fore-
fathers ? What was to become of the coachmakers, har-
nessmakers, coachmasters and coachmen, innkeepers, horse
breeders, and horse dealers ? Was the House aware of the
smoke and the noise, the hiss and whirl, which locomotive
engines, passing at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour,
would occasion ? Neither the cattle plowing in the fields,
nor grazing in the meadows, would view them without dis-
may. Iron would be raised in price one hundred per cent.,
or more probably exhausted altogether. It would be the
greatest nuisance, the most complete disturber of quiet
and comfort in all parts of the kingdom, that the inge-
nuity of man could invent."
Between 1825 and 1830 the policy of introducing rail-
roads in the United States for the transportation of both
158 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
freight and passengers received a great deal of attention.
It was decided to give them a trial. A few short lines of
railroad for hauling stone and other heavy products had
previously been built in this country. None of them were
intended to carry passengers. One of these was built on
Beacon Hill, Boston, by Silas Whitney, in 1807 ; another
by Thomas Leiper, in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in
1809 ; and another at Bear Creek furnace, in Armstrong
county, Pennsylvania, in 1818. The tracks of these roads
were composed of wooden rails, and at least the Beacon
Hill road used wooden wheels with iron axles. Other short
railroads for similar service soon followed, but the wooden
rails were strapped with flat iron bars. In 1828 the con-
struction of our first passenger railroad, the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, was commenced, and in 1830 fifteen miles
of this road were opened for both freight and passenger
traffic, horse power being used. Other railroads in this
country for the transportation of both freight and pas-
sengers were partly if not wholly completed in 1830 and
1831. Locomotives of American construction were intro-
duced on American railroads in these and immediately
succeeding years, but most of the early railroads in this
country were originally operated with horse power.
During the early discussion of the feasibility of intro-
ducing railroads in this country for general transportation
purposes many curious opinions of a favorable as well as
an unfavorable character were expressed, some of which
may well be preserved. One writer in referring to that
period says : " It was admitted that for novelty and speed
a railroad might be preferable to stage coaches and canal
boats, but it was contended that for a long journey or for
a man traveling with a family a canal was better. It was
pointed out that on a canal boat passengers could eat their
meals, walk about and write a letter, whereas in a railway
carriage these things were then impossible. In a canal
boat, too, the passengers were as safe as at home, whereas
in a railway car nobody could tell what might happen."
In their annual report to the Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania in December, 1831, the canal commissioners said :
" While the board avow themselves favorable to railroads
EARLY RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. 159
where it is impracticable to construct canals, or under
some peculiar circumstances, they can not forbear ex-
pressing their opinion that the advocates of railroads gen-
erally have overrated their comparative value. The board
believe that, notwithstanding all the improvements that
have been made in railroads and locomotives, it will be
found that canals are from two to two and a half times
better than railroads for the purposes required of them
by Pennsylvania."
In July, 1855, while we were publishing the Johnstown
Tribune, there was placed in our hands a copy of the
Greensburg Gazette, dated March 25, 1825. Mr. Frederick
J. Cope, a gentleman of more than ordinary intelligence,
was then the editor and publisher of the Gazette. In the
copy of the Gazette referred to Mr. Cope gave prominence
to a discussion of the new method of transporting all kinds
of freight and also passengers by railroad, with steam pow-
er applied through stationary engines or by locomotives.
First there is presented a wood-cut illustration of "a sec-
tion of a railroad, with a view of a locomotive, having in
tow three transportation wagons," copied from a com-
munication in the Baltimore American, together with an
explanation of the method of operating the road with the
aid of the locomotive. The following is the explanation
in the American. We quote it exactly as it was printed.
"Believing that a diagram of a railway, together with
the steam and other wagons upon it, would tend to render
the subject more easily understood I have caused one to
be engraved. It will be observed, in referring to this dia-
gram inserted above, that the steam engine has six wheels,
four of which, the two foremost and two hindmost, have
grooves to fit the rail like those of the wagons intended to
carry merchandise and rest upon the smooth rail, and that
the two middle, which are cog wheels, play into the cogs
of the rail, which are somewhat nearer to the surface of
the earth than the smooth edge. The four wheels which
run upon the smooth surface support the whole weight of
the steam engine. Of course the middle or cog wheels are
not pressed upon, and being put into motion by the ma-
chinery of the engine serve to propel the wagons in the
160 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
same manner as the wheels of the steam boats act. By
the loco-motive engine fifty tons of goods may be conveyed
by a ten-horse-power engine, on a level road, at the rate
of six miles an hour, and lighter weights at a proportioned
increase of speed. Carriages at the rate of twelve or four-
teen miles per hour. For canals it is necessary to have a
dead level, but not so for railroads ; an engine will work
goods over an elevation of one-eighth of an inch to the yard.
Where the ascent or descent is rapid, and can not be coun-
teracted by cutting or embankments, recourse must be
had to permanent engines and inclined planes, just as re-
course is had to locks for canals, but here again the rail-
road system has the advantage ; the inclined plane causes
no delay, while locking creates a great deal."
That such crude engineering and mechanical notions
should have existed in 1825 is only another proof of the
truth of the hackneyed remark that far more scientific and
mechanical progress was made in the nineteenth century
than in all preceding centuries. In a few years after 1825
all the theories and estimates of the writer in the Balti-
more American were completely discredited.
Notwithstanding the favorable opinion of the writer in
the American the editor of the Gazette was skeptical. He
commented on the cut and the explanation as follows :
"We have prepared and placed on the first page of our
paper an engraving representing a loco-motive engine, hav-
ing in tow three transportation wagons, accompanied by
an explanation from another paper. It would be impos-
sible, we think, to bring the steam wagon into successful
operation between the East and the West. It requires too
many stationary engines to propel the wagons over our
numerous hills. It would be necessary to have half a
dozen in sight of this town, for we are situated on a hill
and surrounded by them on all sides."
It is only a little more than eighty years since these
remarkable opinions were expressed by the editor of the
Gazette. The " steam wagon" has done very good work
between the East and the West for more than sixty years
and without the assistance of stationary engines anywhere
near Greensburg. The "numerous hills" of Westmoreland
EARLY RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. 161
county, referred to by the editor of the Gazette, did not
offer as serious obstacles to the building of a railroad as
real mountains in our country did elsewhere, but all these
obstacles were soon overcome. If stationary engines were
at first used on some lines of railroad in this country,
particularly on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, they were
abandoned many years ago.
The following details of the first American railroad
that was built for the conveyance of both freight and
passengers we glean from Poor's Manual of the Railroads
of the United States and from the records of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Company. Prior to the completion of
the first section of the road of this company all the rail-
roads in the United States that had been in operation
were built to haul coal or other heavy materials.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company was char-
tered by the Maryland Legislature on February 28, 1827,
and by the Virginia Legislature on March 8, 1827. By
the charter its capital stock was fixed at $5,000,000, with
the right to organize on the subscription of one-fifth that
amount. It was provided in the charter that the road was
to be built from Baltimore to a point on the Ohio river
not lower than the mouth of the Little Kanawha, where
Parkersburg stands. Its terminus on the Ohio was sub-
sequently fixed at Wheeling. As there existed a probabil-
ity that the road would be extended to Pittsburgh the
Pennsylvania Legislature " confirmed" the charter of the
company on February 22, 1828. In April, 1827, the re-
quired subscription having been obtained, the company
was organized and the surveys of the road were at once
undertaken. On the 4th of July, 1828, the line having
been finally located to Point of Rocks, the construction of
the road was commenced with considerable ceremony, the
venerable Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, laying the " cor-
ner stone." In 1829 the track was finished to Vinegar
Hill, a distance of about seven miles, and "cars were put
upon it for the accommodation of the officers and to grat-
ify the curious by a ride." The progress of construction
of the road from Baltimore to Wheeling is shown in the
following statement, which has been officially verified.
11
162
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
From
Baltimore
Ellicott's Mills
Frederick
Point of Rocks
Harper's Ferry
Opposite Hancock.
Cumberland
Piedmont
Fairmont
To
Ellicott's Mills ....
Frederick
Point of Rocks. . . .
Harper's Ferry . . .
Opposite Hancock.
Cumberland
Piedmont
Fairmont
Wheeling
Length
in miles.
15.00
44.30
10.90
12.50
41.30
55.20
28.10
96.00
77.70
Date of opening.
May 24,
Dec. 1,
April 1,
Dec. 1,
June 1,
Nov. 5,
July 21,
June 22,
Jan. 1,
1830,
1831*
1832
1834
1842
1842
1851
1852
1853
Frederick is situated on a branch three and a half
miles from the main line of the road, which accounts for
an increase in the table in its total length from 377.40
miles, as given in Poor's Manual for 1904, to 381 miles.
The Washington branch was opened from Relay to Bla-
densburg on July 20, 1834, and to Washington on August
25, 1834. It will be noticed that a quarter of a century
elapsed before the road was opened from Baltimore to
Wheeling in 1853.
The first section of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
after its opening to Ellicott's Mills was operated by horse
power. On August 30, 1830, a small locomotive, built at
Baltimore by Peter Cooper, was successfully experimented
with on this section as a substitute for horse power, Mr.
Cooper being his own engineer. Soon afterwards other
and more powerful locomotives were introduced.
The Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad Company
was chartered on April 2, 1837, by the Legislature of
Pennsylvania. On April 18, 1853, the charter was amend-
ed so as to authorize the extension of the road to Cumber-
land, Maryland, to which place it was opened from Pitts-
burgh in June, 1871. This road, now forming the Pitts-
burgh division of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was
leased on December 13, 1875, to the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company for fifty years from January 1, 1876,
the lease to be renewable in perpetuity.
The section of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Rail-
road between Connellsville and West Newton was opened
for traffic on September 13, 1855. The road between
Connellsville and Turtle Creek was opened on January 14,
EARLY RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES. 163
1857, and the entire line from Connellsville to Pittsburgh
was opened on October 10, 1861.
In 1907 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company-
owned, operated, or controlled 4,525.51 miles of main track.
In 1826 the New York Legislature granted a charter
for the construction of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad,
for the carriage of freight and passengers from Albany
to Schenectady, a distance of seventeen miles. Work on
this road, however, was not commenced until August, 1830.
It was opened for traffic on September 12, 1831. The
next passenger railroad enterprise that was chartered in
the United States was the Charleston and Hamburg Rail-
road in South Carolina, which was chartered on December
19, 1827. Six miles of this road were completed in 1829,
but they were not opened to the public until December
6, 1830, when a locomotive was placed on its track. The
road was completed in September, 1833, a distance of 135
miles. At that time it was the longest continuous line of
railroad in the world.
It will be seen that the first passenger railroad in the
United States that was opened to the public was a Mary-
land enterprise and that the second was a South Carolina
enterprise. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was the
third passenger railroad to be opened for travel in the
United States.
The Camden and Amboy Railroad was chartered in
1830 and construction was commenced in 1831. Its total
length was sixty-one miles, thirty-four of which, between
Bordentown and South Amboy, were opened for travel in
December, 1832, and the remainder, between Bordentown
and Camden, in 1834. The Allegheny Portage Railroad
and the Columbia Railroad, both in Pennsylvania, which
have been already noticed, were other early railroads in
this country. They were opened in the spring of 1834.
The first locomotive to run upon an American railroad
was the Stourbridge Lion, which was built in England.
It was first used at Honesdale, Pennsylvania, on August
8, 1829, on the coal railroad of the Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company. W. Hasell Wilson says that the locomo-
tive John Bull, built by Stephenson & Co., of England,
164
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
to the order of Robert L. Stevens, president of the Cam-
den and Amboy Railroad Company, was shipped from
Newcastle in June, 1831, and placed upon the Camden
and Amboy Railroad in August of the same year. Mr.
Wilson further says that the first passenger train on
this railroad that was regularly hauled by steam power
was drawn by the John Bull between Bordentown and
South Amboy in September, 1833, the time occupied for
the thirty-four miles being about three hours.
The first American locomotive that was built for actual
service was the Best Friend of Charleston, which was built
at the West Point Foundry, in New York City, for the
Charleston and Hamburg Railroad in South Carolina, and
was successfully used on that road in December, 1830.
Phineas Davis, of York, Pennsylvania, invented and
built the first locomotive that successfully used anthra-
cite coal. In George R. Prowell's History of York County
he says that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
offered on January 4, 1831, a prize of $3,500 to the in-
ventor and manufacturer of a locomotive of American
manufacture that would burn coal or coke and consume
its own smoke, and that Mr. Davis built in 1832 at the
York Foundry and Machine Shop, of which he was half
owner, a locomotive which met all these requirements.
He called it The York. It used anthracite coal and was
a great success. Others followed in the same year.
EARLY RAILROADS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 165
CHAPTER XVII.
EARLY RAILROADS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
Pennsylvania is the foremost State in the Union in
the attention it has given to the building of railroads, and
all things considered it is also the foremost in the results
that have been attained. It is exceeded in railroad mile-
age by only two States, Illinois and Texas, but each of
these States has a much greater area in square miles than
Pennsylvania, each of them has fewer miles of double
track than Pennsylvania, and in each of them, both prai-
rie States, railroad construction has been very much less
difficult from an engineering standpoint, and therefore
less expensive, than in Pennsylvania. The following table
shows the length of steam railroads which had been built
in the three States named at the close of 1907. It also
shows the area in square miles of each of the States
mentioned, exact figures having been furnished for this
chapter by the Government geographer, Henry Gannett.
States.
Miles of Kailroad Built.
Area in Square Miles.
Texas
12,877.27
12,201.73
11,309.31
265 896
Illinois
56 665
Pennsylvania
45126
The States which approach nearest to Pennsylvania in
railroad mileage are Iowa, with 9,889.12 miles; Ohio, with
9,284.95 miles; Kansas, with 8,907.98 miles; Michigan, with
8,610.75 miles; and New York, with 8,371.63 miles. With
the exception of Ohio each of these States has a larger
area in square miles than Pennsylvania, and all of them
are less mountainous, only New York approaching it in
this physical characteristic. Nor have gifts of public
lands helped Pennsylvania to build its railroads. If we
consider also the enterprise of Pennsylvania in extending
its railroad connections to other States its pre-eminence
as a railroad State becomes even more manifest.
166 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Pennsylvania is gridironed with railroads. A map of
the State will show railroads radiating from its commer-
cial centres in every direction — roads running east and
west, north and south, northeast and northwest, southeast
and southwest, penetrating every one of the sixty-seven
counties in the State except Fulton county, which will
soon have its first railroad. A volume would be required
to give even a brief history of all these roads. Only a
few facts relating to the early and the leading railroads
of Pennsylvania will be presented in this chapter.
In the preceding chapter mention has been made of
two short pioneer railroads in Pennsylvania — one in Dela-
ware county, built in 1809, and the other in Armstrong
county, built in 1818, the first, about a mile long, to haul
stone from a quarry, and the other, also a short road, to
haul the raw materials for a blast furnace. These were
unimportant enterprises. Both roads had wooden rails.
The first railroad in Pennsylvania of real importance
was the Mauch Chunk Railroad, in Carbon county, nine
miles long, with four miles of sidings, built in 1827 to con-
nect the coal mines of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation
Company with the Lehigh river. Solomon W. Roberts
says of this road : "It was laid mostly on the turnpike,
and the wooden rails were strapped with common mer-
chant bar iron. The holes for the spikes were drilled by
hand." The next railroad in Pennsylvania was the Car-
bondale and Honesdale Railroad, commenced in 1826 and
completed in 1829, built by the Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company to connect the company's coal mines at
Carbondale with its canal at Honesdale. It was sixteen
and a quarter miles long. Its wooden rails were strapped
with iron bars. Both railroads were coal roads. Neither
of these roads was intended to haul general freight or to
carry passengers.
In the decade beginning with 1830 a great impetus
was given to the building of railroads in Pennsylvania.
Several companies were incorporated in that year to build
these roads, including the Philadelphia, Germantown, and
Norristown Railroad, of which five miles were completed
in 1832. Other railroad companies were incorporated in
EARLY RAILROADS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 167
1832 and 1833, including the Philadelphia and Reading
Railroad Company, the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad
Company, and the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy,
and Lancaster Railroad Company. In 1834 the Columbia
Railroad and the Allegheny Portage Railroad, both State
enterprises connected with the Pennsylvania Canal, were
opened for business. In 1836 the following roads, built
by incorporated companies, had been completed : Mauch
Chunk, 9 miles ; West Chester, 9 miles ; Room Run, 5|
miles ; Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown, 21
miles ; Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven, 20 miles ; Mount
Carbon, 7 miles ; Lykens Valley, 16^ miles ; Little Schuyl-
kill, 21| miles ; Schuylkill Valley, 10 miles ; Mill Creek, 4
miles ; Pine Grove, 4 miles ; Carbondale, 161 miles ; Phila-
delphia and Trenton, 26£ miles ; Beaver Meadow, 26J
miles : total, 196i miles. Other railroads were in course
of construction in 1836, including the Philadelphia and
Reading, the Philadelphia and Wilmington, the Harrisburg
and Chambersburg, the Williamsport and Elmira, and the
Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy, and Lancaster.
From a history of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail-
road— now the Philadelphia and Reading Railway — by
Charles' E. Smith, once its president, we take the follow-
ing interesting details of the early history of this road,
which was the first of all the existing great railroad en-
terprises in Pennsylvania.
" The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company
was chartered on April 4, 1833, Ho build a road from the
borough of Reading to a point in or near Philadelphia
(58 miles), or on the line of the Philadelphia and Colum-
bia Railroad (now the Pennsylvania Railroad), or of the
Philadelphia and Norristown Railroad (41 miles).' The
company was organized in 1834, Elihu Chauncey being
elected president and Moncure Robinson appointed chief
engineer. The board wished to build the road from Read-
ing to Norristown, 41 miles, as the cheapest plan, and use
the Norristown Railroad thence to Philadelphia, 17 miles.
Mr. Robinson opposed this vigorously. . • . . His idea
was finally adopted, by building the road to Belmont and
using the Columbia Railroad, then belonging to the State
168 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
of Pennsylvania, for three and a half miles into Philadel-
phia, for its passengers and general merchandise, while at
the same time building a branch from the Falls of Schuyl-
kill for five and a half miles to Port Richmond on the
Delaware river, for coal intended for shipment coastwise.
" The original charter of the company gave the right
to build a railroad only from Philadelphia to Reading,
58 miles, while the total distance to Pottsville and the
coal region is 93 miles. The Little Schuylkill Navigation,
Railroad, and Coal Company was chartered in 1826 to
build a canal or railroad from Tamaqua to the Schuylkill
Canal at Port Clinton, a distance of 20 miles, and by a
supplement to its charter, passed in 1829, it was authorized
to extend its railroad to Reading, 20 miles farther. This
privilege it agreed to relinquish to the Reading. This ar-
rangement was subsequently authorized and approved by
an act of the Legislature in 1837, thus extending the right
of the Reading to build to Port Clinton, 78 miles from
Philadelphia. In March, 1838, the company was author-
ized to extend its road to Mount Carbon, 14 miles farther,
making 92 miles from Philadelphia. The remaining mile
needed to reach Pottsville was obtained by the merger
and consolidation of the Mount Carbon Railroad Com-
pany, April 10, 1872.
" On January 13, 1842, the road was finished and a
single track opened to Mount Carbon, one mile below
Pottsville. On May 17, 1842, the branch from the Falls
of Schuylkill to the coal wharves at Port Richmond was
opened and the coal traffic was begun in earnest." In
1844 the second track of the road was laid.
Mr. Smith continues : " In June, 1851, that portion of
the road, some three and a half miles, lying between Bel-
mont and Broad and Vine streets, Philadelphia, belong-
ing to the State of Pennsylvania, and hitherto used by
the Reading for its passenger and merchandise traffic,
was purchased from the State, giving the company access
to the city on its own rails. In 1858 the Lebanon Valley
Railroad, from Reading to Harrisburg, fifty-four miles,
was completed and merged with the Reading. In July,
1869, Franklin B. Gowen was chosen president of the
EARLY RAILROADS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 169
Reading on the resignation of Charles E. Smith. The
company then began to purchase coal lands and soon
after to mine coal."
The circumstances attending the purchase by the
Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company in 1851 of
that part of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad ex-
tending from Philadelphia to the inclined plane at Bel-
mont are given in detail in an official report of the com-
pany, as follows : " From the depot at Broad and Vine
streets the road ran out Pennsylvania avenue and across
the Columbia bridge, from the western end of which an
inclined plane, with stationary engine, was used to over-
come the ascent from the bank of the Schuylkill to the
ridge of hills beyond. On October 15, 1850, the inclined
plane was abandoned, and that portion of the road ex-
tending from the foot of the plane to Broad street was
purchased from the State by the Philadelphia and Read-
ing Railroad Company. . . . Thus it was that the
latter obtained its first entrance to Philadelphia proper,
and the fact is adverted to here, showing how an impor-
tant section of the old State Road became the property
of the Reading Railroad, while the remainder of that his-
toric line passed to the Pennsylvania Railroad by pur-
chase seven years later." The price paid by the Philadel-
phia and Reading Railroad Company for the property it
purchased from the State was $243,200. The State aban-
doned the use of the Belmont plane and its approach-
es in 1850 because it had built a short line from West
Philadelphia to a point on the Philadelphia and Colum-
bia Railroad near the present town of Ardmore, which
avoided the inclined plane.
The official report of the engineers of the Philadel-
phia and Reading Railroad Company, dated September
19, 1838, states that the first part of the Reading Rail-
road to be completed extended from Reading to Norris-
town, and that it was opened for the conveyance of pas-
sengers on July 16, 1838. The engineers' report, dated
December 10, 1839, states that the railroad between Phila-
delphia and Reading was opened for business on Decem-
ber 5, 1839, and that on that date the company's engine,
170 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
the Gowan & Marx, drew the first train between the
points named, leaving Reading with 80 cars, conveying
1,635 barrels of flour, 73 1 tons of blooms, 6 tons of coal,
" 2 hhds. of whisky and other articles," and 60 persons.
The total weight of the train, exclusive of engine and ten-
der, was 368 tons.
The foregoing details sufficiently cover the history of
the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in its early days.
To-day the Reading system is one of the most compre-
hensive railroad systems in the country. Starting at Phil-
adelphia it first reaches out for the anthracite coal trade
and other trade of Northeastern Pennsylvania and then
extends its lines into New Jersey, with New York City
connections, and with connections to Buffalo and other
points in the State of New York and west of Buffalo.
In 1907 it owned or controlled 2,136.88 miles of main
track. Among the important lines which it controls is the
Central Railroad of New Jersey, which gives it New York
City connections, and which embraces 648.44 miles of main
track. It also owns other railroad lines in New Jersey.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was chartered
on April 13, 1846, to build a railroad from Harrisburg to
Pittsburgh, with branches to Erie, Blairsville, Uniontown,
and other places, and with a capital of $7,500,000. It is
a coincidence that this company was chartered to build a
railroad from Harrisburg westward and not from Phila-
delphia, and that it was originally planned to build the
Pennsylvania Canal westward from the vicinity of Har-
risburg and not from Philadelphia, although both enter-
prises were, intended to connect Philadelphia with Pitts-
burgh. As originally planned, however, these connections
were to be made by means of transportation facilities
already established — the Pennsylvania Canal to connect
with the Union Canal and the improved navigation of the
Schuylkill river and the Pennsylvania Railroad to connect
with the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy, and Lan-
caster Railroad and the Philadelphia and Columbia Rail-
road. The construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad was
commenced in July, 1847, so that the road is to-day only
about sixty years old. The workmen employed in build-
EARLY RAILROADS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 171
ing the road were chiefly Irish, and their daily wages sel-
dom exceeded seventy-five cents.
On September 16, 1850, the Pennsylvania Railroad was
completed from Harrisburg to Duncansville, a distance
of 137 miles, at which latter place it connected with the
Allegheny Portage Railroad, whose tracks were used in
crossing the Allegheny mountains to a point a few miles
east of Johnstown, from which point westward its own
tracks were again used. The road was opened to Pitts-
burgh on December 10, 1852, about five and a half years
after its construction was undertaken. The mountain di-
vision of the road, from Altoona to the Portage viaduct,
including the celebrated horseshoe bend and the long tun-
nel at Gallitzin, was completed on February 15, 1854, this
division avoiding the use of inclined planes, although the
grades were heavy. Like the Portage Railroad itself the
building of this division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was
a remarkable feat of engineering skill.
On April 21, 1849, the Pennsylvania Railroad Com-
pany leased the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy, and
Lancaster Railroad, 3*4.49 miles long, for twenty years, and
on December 29, 1860, this lease was continued for 999
years. This road was one of the earliest railroads in Penn-
sylvania. It was chartered on June 9, 1832, and was
opened for business in 1838. With the lease of this road
and the purchase in 1857 of the State railroads above
mentioned and described in a previous chapter the Penn-
sylvania Railroad Company obtained control of an un-
broken line of railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh,
now styled the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The Sunbury and Erie Railroad, 289.67 miles long,
from Sunbury to Erie, with many important connections
to-day, was leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company
for 999 years from January 1, 1862. A controlling inter-
est in the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Rail-
road was acquired in 1881. The Northern Central Rail-
way, extending 460.39 miles, including branches and con-
nections, from Baltimore through Pennsylvania to Lake
Ontario, New York ; the Cumberland Valley Railroad, ex-
tending from Harrisburg to Powell's Bend, on the Poto-
172 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
mac river, in Maryland ; the Allegheny Valley Railway,
from Pittsburgh to Oil City, with branches and connec-
tions to Buffalo and other points ; the West Penn division,
extending from Bolivar to Allegheny ; and the Schuylkill
division, extending from Philadelphia to Pottsville — all
these are important branches of the Pennsylvania system
which mainly lie in Pennsylvania and which are either
owned or controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad Com-
pany. Other branches might also be mentioned.
The Pennsylvania system extends into many States,
its most important subsidiary interest west of Pittsburgh
being the Pennsylvania Company, which operates the
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway. It owns a
controlling interest in other important railroad lines in
States west of Pennsylvania, including the "Panhandle"
and Vandalia lines ; it is the lessee of the United Rail-
roads of New Jersey, giving it access to New York City ;
it controls railroads to Atlantic City, Cape May, and other
seaside resorts ; and it has important Southern connections.
In 1907 the Pennsylvania system owned and operated
or controlled the operation of 11,175.74 miles of main
track, (including a few miles of ferries and canals,) of
which total 6,078.17 miles are east of Pittsburgh and
Erie and 5,097.57 miles are west of these cities.
In 1907 the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company owned
304.60 miles of main track in Pennsylvania and operated
in all 1,440.22 miles, extending from Jersey City to Phil-
lipsburg, New Jersey, thence to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania,
and thence to Buffalo, New York, with branches. This
road was originally a consolidation of several short an-
thracite coal roads. The Lehigh Valley Railroad not only
penetrates a rich part of Northern Pennsylvania but it is
a most important agent in carrying to market the product
of the anthracite coal mines of the State. It is the third
of the great railroad systems of Pennsylvania.
A historical fact that should not be overlooked is the
opposition to the building of railroads which was some-
times encountered in Pennsylvania. Many of the farmers
along the line of the Columbia Railroad were opposed to
its construction because they believed that it would in-
EARLY RAILROADS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 173
terfere with the sale of horses, oats, and other farm prod-
ucts which were needed in the operation of the Lancas-
ter Turnpike, and which also gave employment to many
of them as wagoners. For similar reasons farmers were
opposed to the building of the Harrisburg, Portsmouth,
Mount Joy, and Lancaster Railroad. When the project of
building a railroad from Harrisburg to Reading through
the Lebanon valley was proposed many of the farmers of
the valley opposed it for the reason that it would seri-
ously check the demand for their horses and the grain to
feed them and also interfere with their business as wag-
oners. They also objected to the building of the road
because the counties through which it passed would be
called upon to furnish financial aid, and for this reason
they feared that their taxes would be increased. So it
happened that the Lebanon Valley Railroad, the building
of which was authorized by an act of the Legislature on
April 1, 1836, was actually not undertaken until 1853, a
lapse of seventeen years. It was finished in 1858, on Jan-
uary 18 of which year the whole road was opened.
Pennsylvania may well be proud of its great railroad
systems. They have contributed greatly to the develop-
ment of its natural resources and to the upbuilding of all
its productive industries. They and all other Pennsylva-
nia railroads well deserve the continued good will of all
Pennsylvanians. Recent legislation directly affecting the
railroads of this State has been conspicuously unapprecia-
tive and most ungracious in view of the great benefits
which these railroads have conferred upon all our people.
174
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
We now come to the consideration of the great indus-
tries of Pennsylvania which have made its name famous
in every civilized country. A general survey of these
industries will be given in this chapter in the light of
recent authentic statistics. Historical details of leading
Pennsylvania industries will be given in other chapters.
Pennsylvania has long been noted as the leader of all
the States in the mining of coal, the manufacture of coke,
and the production of iron and steel. Its leadership in
these great industries in 1905 is shown in the following
table, which gives its percentage of the total production
of coal and coke and of leading forms of iron and steel in
the whole country in that year of industrial activity.
Production of Coal, Coke, Iron Ore, and
Iron and Steel in 1905.
Coal, all kinds gross tons.
Coke net tons . .
Iron ore gross tons.
Pig iron gross tons.
Steel ingots, castings, etc. . . gross tons.
All kinds of rails gross tons.
Other rolled iron and steel, gross tons.
Production
in United
States.
350,645,210
32,231,129
42,526,133
22,992,380
20,023,947
3,375,929
13,464,086
Production
in Penn-
sylvania.
175,065,613
20,573,736
808,717
10,579,127
11,040,423
1,115,841
7,802,449
Pennsyl-
vania's per-
centage.
49.9
63.8
1.9
46.0
55.1
33.0
57.9
Contrary to common belief Pennsylvania has not been
a large producer of iron ore since the ores of the Lake
Superior region came into general use about 1880 in the
manufacture of Bessemer pig iron. Its small production
in 1905 is included in the table. And yet Pennsylvania
was first of all the States in the mining of iron ore down
to the census year 1880, when it produced 1,951,496
gross tons. In the census year 1870 it produced 978,113
tons, or over 32 per cent, of the total production of
the country in that year. In 1889 it fell to the third
place, in 1904 to the ninth place, and in 1905 it occupied
THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 175
the sixth place among the iron-ore producing States. In
1906 it occupied the fifth place. Its production of iron
ore in 1905 was 808,717 tons and in 1906 it was 949,429
tons. In 1904 its percentage of the total production was
1.4, in 1905 it was 1.9, and in 1906 it was 1.99.
It is not necessary to comment on the prominence of
Pennsylvania as a producer of iron and steel except to
call attention to its extraordinary percentages of the to-
tal production in 1905 as they are shown in the table —
pig iron, 46.0 per cent.; all kinds of steel, 55.1 per cent.;
all kinds of rails, 33.0 per cent.; all other forms of rolled
iron and steel, 57.9 per cent. Of the production of coal
in Pennsylvania in 1905 69,339,152 gross tons were an-
thracite and 105,726,461 tons were bituminous ; the total
was 175,065,613 tons, or 49.9 per cent, of the country's
production. Of the total production of coke in. the same
year 63.8 per cent, was made in Pennsylvania. In 1906
the whole country produced 369,783,284 gross tons of
coal, of which Pennsylvania produced 179,085,372 tons,
or 48.4 per cent. In 1906 the country's total production
of coke was 36,401,217 net tons, of which Pennsylvania
produced 23,060,511 tons, or 63.3 per cent. Nearly all the
bituminous coal and coke produced in Pennsylvania is to
be credited to Western Pennsylvania. Practically all the
anthracite coal produced in the United States is mined
in Eastern Pennsylvania.
The statistics of another leading industry of Pennsyl-
vania, the silk industry, for the census year 1900 and the
census year 1904 will surprise the average reader. In both
years Pennsylvania occupied the second place among the
States in the manufacture of silk products, New Jersey
being first in rank. Pennsylvania made great progress in
the development of this industry in the decade between
1890 and 1900 and also from 1900 to 1904. In the census
year 1904, which was virtually the calendar year, all the
States had $109,556,621 invested in the manufacture of
silk and employed 79,601 persons as wage earners, exclu-
sive of clerks, etc., paying the wage earners $26,767,943
in wages. In the same year the silk industry of Pennsyl-
vania had $31,312,386 of capital invested and employed
176 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
26,915 wage earners, who were paid $6,972,852. In the
census year 1900 Pennsylvania had 121 establishments en-
gaged exclusively in the manufacture of silk, and in the
census year 1904 it had 168 establishments. Since 1904
Pennsylvania has made still further progress in the silk
industry, which has been extended into many counties.
It is one of its new industries and it illustrates the won-
derfully varied character of its manufacturing enterprises.
This industry and some others have been overshadowed
in the industrial statistics of Pennsylvania by the greater
prominence of its coal and coke and iron and steel indus-
tries, but, as will be seen from the figures given, it deserves
wider recognition than it has received. To-day Pennsyl-
vania is probably the first among the silk-manufacturing
States. While the value of the silk products of New Jer-
sey increased from $39,966,662 in the census year 1900
to $42,862,907 in the census year 1904, the value of the
silk products of Pennsylvania increased in the same period
from $31,072,926 to $39,333,520. The silk industry had
scarcely a beginning in Pennsylvania until after 1880, al-
though it existed in a small way at Economy, in Beaver
county, the home of the Harmony Society, as early as 1828.
In the census year 1890 Pennsylvania ranked first in
the aggregate production of woolen and worsted goods,
carpets and rugs other than rag, and other woolen prod-
ucts, all grouped in census statistics as "wool manufac-
ture, all branches." These products were valued in Penn-
sylvania in 1890 at $72,393,182, against $67,599,321, the
value of the same products in Massachusetts in the same
year. In the census year 1900 the position of these two
leading States was reversed, the products of Massachusetts
being valued at $81,041,537 and those of Pennsylvania
at $71,878,503. In the manufacture of carpets and rugs
other than rag Pennsylvania has long been first of all the
States, Philadelphia and its suburbs being noted as the
principal seat of this industry in the United States and
as the leading carpet centre of all countries. In the cen-
sus year 1900 Pennsylvania employed over three-eighths
of the capital invested in the whole country in the manu-
facture of these special products and produced nearly
THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 177
one-half of their total value. The total value of the car-
pets and rugs that were made in Pennsylvania in that
year was $23, 113,058.
In the manufacture of cotton goods Pennsylvania is
less prominent than in the manufacture of the other tex-
tile products previously enumerated. About sixty years
ago the city of Allegheny, adjoining Pittsburgh, had six
factories for the manufacture of some of the coarser forms
of cotton goods, but these factories have long been silent
or converted to other uses. The cotton was brought up
the Ohio river from the lower Mississippi. In the cen-
sus year 1900 Massachusetts was first in the value of cot-
ton products, South Carolina second, North Carolina third,
Rhode Island fourth, and Pennsylvania fifth, New Hamp-
shire coming next to Pennsylvania, each State producing
as follows : Massachusetts, $111,125,175; South Carolina,
),723,919; North Carolina, $28,372,798; Rhode Island,
>,435,675; Pennsylvania, $25,447,697; and New Hamp-
shire, $22,998,249. The production of Georgia in the same
year was valued at $18,544,910. In the total value of all
textiles produced in the census year 1900 Massachusetts
was first and Pennsylvania second.
Pennsylvania has always been prominent among the
States as a producer of lumber. When first settled and
for many years afterwards it possessed extensive forests
in every direction, and large and small streams furnished
then and have since furnished abundant water power for
its saw mills. It owes its very name to the vastness of
its forests, and it is one of the best watered States in the
Union. An excellent summary of its achievements as a
lumber producer was prepared in 1906 by James E. Defe-
baugh, editor of the American Lumberman, of Chicago, and
the author of a History of the Lumber Industry of America.
From this summary we select the following details :
"From a lumber standpoint Pennsylvania is perhaps
the most wonderful State in the Union. In points of
maintained production and of variety of output it stands
close to the head of all the States. Back as far as 1850
Pennsylvania was credited with 2,894 lumbering estab-
lishments, being exceeded in that particular only by New
12
178 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
York. In 1860 it had passed New York and stood at the
head in number of establishments, which position it easily
maintained thereafter. In the amount of capital invested
Pennsylvania was the leader in 1860, although in 1900
Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin exceeded it. In the
value of the lumber produced Pennsylvania occupied sec-
ond place in 1850, first place in 1860, second place in 1870
and 1880, third place in 1890, and fourth place in 1900.
Pennsylvania's first prominence as a lumber producer
rested upon white pine. The headwaters of the Allegheny
and the Susquehanna floated out white pine logs and lum-
ber by the hundreds of millions of feet, so that Pennsyl-
vania white pine was known not only on the Atlantic sea-
board but all along the course of the Ohio and the lower
Mississippi as far as New Orleans. In addition the cherry
was the finest that ever grew, while oak of several varie-
ties, maple, poplar, and other woods abounded. It was
not until the white pine was nearly exhausted that hem-
lock received much attention. The decade from 1880 to
1890 saw the rise of this wood to prominence. Since 1900
the product has probably been declining. In the census
year 1900 Pennsylvania was fourth among the States in
volume of production, producing 2,321,284,000 feet of lum-
ber, of which 1,558,188,000 feet were hemlock, 221,047,000
feet white pine, 44,614,000 feet chestnut, 342,268,000 feet
oak, and 49,650,000 feet maple, the other woods specifi-
cally reported being yellow pine, spruce, ash, birch, Cot-
tonwood, elm, gum, hickory, basswood, poplar, and black
walnut."
Another of the great industries of Pennsylvania, and
one of its oldest industries, is the manufacture of leather.
Pennsylvania early gave this industry special attention,
partly because it soon became the leading agricultural and
cattle-raising colony and partly because there was no scar-
city of oak and other trees which would yield tannic acid.
In the nineteenth century the invasion of the hemlock
forests in the northern and western parts of the State
furnished in hemlock bark a suitable and very abundant
material for tanning hides, the cattle-raising industry of
the State meanwhile supplying an increasingly large num-
THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 179
ber of hides. In the early part of that century the manu-
facture of leather, especially the heavier and coarser forms,
became a great Pennsylvania industry, supplying not only
its own wants for leather but furnishing large quantities
of leather and leather products to other States and con-
siderable quantities for exportation to foreign countries.
Pennsylvania has never, however, approached the promi-
nence of New England in the manufacture of boots and
shoes. Because of its abundant supply of hemlock bark
the tanners of Pennsylvania began in the last century to
supplement the home supply of hides with hides obtained
in other States and with large importations of foreign
hides. It has also long been a manufacturer of morocco
leather, made from imported goatskins tanned with sumac
leaves. The importation of hides and skins in large quan-
tities continues to-day. Nearly $32,000,000 worth of goat-
skins were imported into the United States in the fiscal
year 1906, of which British India alone sent us nearly
$11,000,000 worth. In the same year our importations of
hides exceeded $50,000,000. Even in the mountain sec-
tions of Pennsylvania South American and other imported
hides are tanned into leather. It has paid to bring these
hides to the hemlock bark. Many hides thus tanned are
again shipped to markets outside of Pennsylvania.
The prominence of Pennsylvania as a leather producer
is shown in the statistics for the census year 1900. In
that year the whole country had 1,306 establishments en-
gaged in the manufacture of leather, of which 254 were
found in Pennsylvania; the capital invested in the whole
country was $173,977,421, and in Pennsylvania it was
$57,320,227 ; the number of wage earners, exclusive of
officials, clerks, etc., in the whole country was 52,109, and
in Pennsylvania it was 13,396 ; the wages paid to the
whole number of wage earners was $22,591,091, and to
those employed in Pennsylvania it was $5,457,518 ; the
value of the whole country's leather products was $204,-
038,127, and the value of the leather products of Pennsyl-
vania was $55,615,009. It will be seen that in the census
year mentioned about one-third of the capital invested
in the manufacture of leather in the United States was
180 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
invested in Pennsylvania, that more than one-fourth of
the wage earners employed in this industry in the whole
country were employed in this State, and that of the to-
tal value of the leather manufactured Pennsylvania's share
was much more than one-fourth. The three States which
come next to Pennsylvania in the manufacture of leather
are Massachusetts, New York, and Wisconsin, in the order
mentioned, but in the value of leather produced in the
census year 1900 each of the above mentioned States fell
more than fifty per cent, below the figures for Pennsylva-
nia. Pennsylvania is not only the leading leather-produc-
ing State but it is in no danger of losing that distinction.
The growing scarcity of hemlock bark is being met by the
substitution of a new form of tannic acid which is ob-
tained from a tree found in South America.
Another of the leading industries of Pennsylvania is
the manufacture of glass, in which it leads every other
State and in which it has long been the leader. It was
established long before the Revolution. In the census
year 1904 the total capital invested in this industry in
the whole country was $89,389,151; the number of wage
earners employed, not including officials, clerks, etc., was
63,969 ; and the total amount paid to wage earners was
$37,288,148. In the same year the capital invested in this
industry in Pennsylvania was $40,612,180, and the num-
ber of wage earners, exclusive of officials, etc., was 20,794,
whose wages amounted to $12,518,440. The total value
of the glass produced in 1904 was $79,607,998, of which
Pennsylvania produced $27,671,693. The plate glass in-
dustry especially has made great progress in the United
States in late years, but greater progress in Pennsylvania
than in all other States combined. In the census year
1900 there were 8 plate glass establishments in Pennsyl-
vania, 3 in Indiana, 1 in Ohio, and 1 in Missouri, and in
the census year 1904 there were 11 plate glass establish-
ments in Pennsylvania, 2 in Indiana, 1 in Michigan, 2 in
Missouri, and 1 in Ohio.
In the manufacture of chemicals Pennsylvania is only
exceeded by New York. In the whole country the value
of the chemical products in the census year 1900 was
THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 181
$62,676,730, of which New York contributed $15,994,366
and Pennsylvania $13,034,384. In the manufacture of
paper Pennsylvania was the pioneer of all the colonies.
By the census of 1900 it was fourth among the States in
the aggregate value of all paper produced, but it was
second in the value of some leading paper products.
The production of petroleum in this country in the
calendar year 1905 was greater than in any previous year,
but Pennsylvania had long lost its leadership in this in-
dustry. The total output of crude petroleum in that year
was 134,717,580 barrels, which exceeded by 17,636,620 bar-
rels the production of 117,080,960 barrels in 1904. The
production of petroleum in the United States more than
doubled in the six years from 1900 to 1905. A table pub-
lished by the United States Geological Survey, showing
the rank of the States in the production of petroleum, is
full of surprises. Of the total production in 1904 Califor-
nia produced 25.33 per cent. ; Texas, 19 per cent. ; Ohio,
16.13 per cent.; West Virginia, 10.80 per cent.; Indiana,
9.69 per cent. ; Pennsylvania, 9.50 per cent. ; Kansas, 3.63
per cent. ; and Louisiana, 2.51 per cent. Of the total pro-
duction in 1905 California produced 24.81 per cent. ; Tex-
as, 20.89 per cent. ; Ohio, 12.13 per cent. ; Kansas, Indian
Territory, and Oklahoma combined, 8.92 per cent. ; West
Virginia, 8.59 per cent. ; Indiana, 8.14 per cent. ; Pennsyl-
vania, 7.75 per cent.; and Louisiana, 6.61 per cent. The
other oil-bearing States and Territories produced only
small quantities in 1904 and 1905. In the early years of
the petroleum industry, beginning statistically with 1859,
Pennsylvania was the only State that produced petroleum
in large quantities, and until 1895, when it was passed by
Ohio, it led all the States in production, but in 1905 it
produced less than one-twelfth of the total production,
virtually all in Western Pennsylvania.
The production of natural gas in the calendar year
1905 amounted approximately in value to $41,562,855,
which was an increase of $3,066,095 over the value of the
gas produced in 1904. The production of Pennsylvania in
1905 was valued at $19,197,336, or over 46 per cent, of
the total value, West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana coming
182 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
next in rank in the order mentioned. The total produc-
tion in 1905 was greater than that of any previous year.
Pennsylvania was the first State to use natural gas in large
quantities. It maintained a yearly increase in production
in the nine years immediately preceding 1906, the pro-
duction in 1905 being valued at more than three times
that of 1897. All the natural gas that is produced in
Pennsylvania is obtained in the northern and western parts
of the State. It has not been found in the eastern part.
Pennsylvania is first of all the States in the production
of Portland cement, which is rapidly becoming one of the
country's great industries. In the calendar year 1904
Pennsylvania produced 11,496,099 barrels, while the whole
country produced 26,505,881 barrels. The share of Penn-
sylvania was over 43 per cent, of the total production.
In 1907 the whole country produced 48,785,390 barrels,
of which Pennsylvania produced 20,393,965 barrels, or
nearly 42 per cent, of the total production. It is first of
all the States in the production of roofing slate and lime-
stone. Pennsylvania is also first of all the States in the
production of fire brick and tiles, Ohio being second. In
the manufacture of pottery, however, which is also a clay
product, Pennsylvania is greatly exceeded by Ohio and
New Jersey and in a less degree by New York, while it is
closely followed by West Virginia.
In other manufactured products Pennsylvania is pre-
eminent among all the States and is even distinguished.
It was the first State to establish works for the exclusive
manufacture of locomotives and its Baldwin Locomotive
Works are the largest in the world. It builds more rail-
road cars than any other State and it was the first to en-
gage in the manufacture of steel cars, now a great national
industry. Its Disston saws are of worldwide reputation.
In iron and steel shipbuilding Pennsylvania has been the
pioneer, and its Roach and Cramp shipyards have won for
it many honors. Pennsylvania is also the only State that
makes armor plate. But for the enterprise of Pennsylva-
nia steel manufacturers this important industry would
not have had an existence in our country to-day.
Agriculture, the leading industry of our country, is
THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 183
also the leading industry of Pennsylvania. The value of
the agricultural products of the United States is annually
many times greater than the combined value of all our
mineral products and all our iron and steel products, and
the number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits is
greater than that of persons engaged in all our manufac-
turing and mechanical industries. Our corn crop is an-
nually of far greater value than any of our manufactured
products. Our cotton crop, which, by the way, still con-
tinues to be our leading export product, is of far greater
value every year than all the coal we mine and coke we
make. As an agricultural State Pennsylvania has long
been noted for the great variety of its products. Its cli-
mate and soil permit the production in large quantities of
many crops that other States either do not produce at all
or produce in only small quantities. Many States exceed
it in the production of wheat, corn, oats, and live stock,
but it is prominent in the production of other crops and
farm products. Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, is the
leading tobacco-growing county in the United States, and
Washington county, Pennsylvania, is the leading wool-
producing county in all the States east of the Rocky
mountains. The annual value of the farm products of Lan-
caster county is greater than that of any other county in
the Union. Pennsylvania is exceeded only by New York
in the value of hay and potatoes produced and it is next
to Wisconsin in the production of rye. It is first in the
production of buckwheat. It is second in the value of
dairy products. It produces all the fruits and all the vege-
tables that grow anywhere north of the cotton-growing
States and east of the Rocky mountains. It runs a close
race with New York for leadership in the production of
apples and it is. first of all the cherry-producing States.
It is the third State in the total value of all fruits pro-
duced, California being first and New York second.
The above references illustrate the variety and value
of the agricultural products of Pennsylvania. These
products would alone make it a State of great wealth,
but, combined with its anthracite and bituminous coal, its
coke, petroleum, lumber, and natural gas, and its long list
184 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
of manufacturing industries, it is easily the leading State
in the aggregate value of its industrial products.
To sum up important particulars : Pennsylvania is to-
day first of all the States in the production of iron and
steel, coal and coke, and carpets and rugs, and probably
first of all in the manufacture of silk. In 1900 it was
second in the manufacture of woolen products and in
the total value of all textile products, fourth in the pro-
duction of lumber and all kinds of paper, and second in
the production of chemicals. It has long been first in the
production of leather and in the manufacture of glass.
It has lost its early leadership in the production of pe-
troleum, but it is first in the production of natural gas.
It is first in the production of Portland cement and in
the manufacture of fire brick and tiles, and it is fourth in
the manufacture of pottery. It leads all the States in the
production of roofing slate and limestone and in the
manufacture of locomotives, railroad cars, and saws, and
it is the only State that makes armor plate. It is now
third in iron and steel shipbuilding, not including Gov-
ernment vessels, Michigan being first and Ohio second.
In the annual value of many farm products it is either
first or closely follows other States.
Pennsylvania is a small producer of zinc, which is
found near Bethlehem. Lead was at one time produced at
a mine near Phoenixville and smelted in the neighborhood.
Copper also has been found and smelted in the vicinity of
Phoenixville. The only nickel mine in the United States
that has been profitably worked is in Lancaster county.
In the first half of the nineteenth century Pennsylvania
was one of the leading States in the manufacture of salt.
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 185
CHAPTER XIX.
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The first settlers of Pennsylvania set up small fur-
naces and forges soon after they had provided themselves
with saw mills and grist mills. Iron ore was abundant,
the forests supplied charcoal for fuel, and the streams fur-
nished all the power that was needed. Mill seats were ob-
jects of great interest in the settlement of a new country.
In 1716 the first iron works were established in Penn-
sylvania. This event is described in one of Jonathan Dick-
inson's letters, written in 1717, and quoted by Mrs. James
in her Memorial of Thomas Potts, Junior : " This last sum-
mer one Thomas Rutter, a smith, who lives not far from
Germantown, hath removed farther up in the country and
of his own strength hath set upon making iron, and we
have accounts of others that are going on with iron works."
Rutter's enterprise was a bloomary forge, which was prob-
ably called Pool forge. It was located on Manatawny
creek and about three miles above Pottstown. Iron was
made directly from the ore, as in an ancient Catalan forge.
In the Philadelphia Weekly Mercury for November 1, 1720,
Thomas Fare, a Welshman, is said to have run away from
"the forge at Manatawny." He was probably a redemp-
tioner. Another Pool forge is known to have existed far-
ther up the stream, probably built after the first one was
abandoned. This Pool forge was attacked by a small
band of Shawnese Indians in 1728, who were repulsed.
Mrs. James says that Rutter was an English Quaker
who was a resident of Philadelphia in 1685 and who re-
moved in 1714 from Germantown "forty miles up the
Schuylkill, in order to work the iron mines of the Mana-
tawny region." She gives a verbatim copy of the original
patent of William Penn to Thomas Rutter for 300 acres of
land "on Manatawny creek," dated February 12, 1714-15.
The following obituary notice in the Pennsylvania Gazette,
published at Philadelphia, dated March 5 to March 13,
186 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
1729-30, ought to be conclusive proof of the priority of
Thomas Rutter's enterprise : " Philadelphia, March 13. On
Sunday night last died here Thomas Rutter, Senior, of a
short illness. He was the first that erected an iron work
in Pennsylvania." In his will he is styled a blacksmith.
In Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania mention
is made of Samuel Nutt, an English Quaker, who built a
forge called Coventry in the northern part of Chester
county which "went into operation about the year 1720."
This also was a Catalan forge. Nutt probably made iron
at Coventry forge in 1718. Bishop refers to a letter writ-
ten by Dickinson in July, 1718, stating that "the expecta-
tions from the iron works forty miles up Schuylkill are
very great." In April, 1719, Dickinson again wrote: "Our
iron promises well. What hath been sent over to England
hath been greatly approved. Our smiths work up all they
make, and it is as good as the best Swedish iron." Dick-
inson probably referred to Nutt's and Rutter's forges.
The next iron enterprise in Pennsylvania was undoubt-
edly Colebrookdale furnace, which was built about 1720
by a company of which Thomas Rutter was the principal
member. It was located on Ironstone creek, in Colebrook-
dale township, Berks county, about eight miles north of
Pottstown. This furnace supplied Pool forge with pig iron,
and in course of time other forges, one of which was Pine
forge, built on the Manatawny about 1740. A stove-plate
cast at this furnace in 1763 was exhibited at the Phila-
delphia Exhibition of 1876. In 1731 pig iron sold at
Colebrookdale furnace "in large quantities" at £5 10s. per
ton, Pennsylvania currency, a pound being equal to $2.66.
Soon after Nutt had built Coventry forge he built a fur-
nace on French creek, called "Redding," about 1720. It
is probable that this was the second furnace in the State.
Durham furnace, on Durham creek, about one and a
half miles above its entrance into the Delaware river in
the extreme northern part of Bucks county, was built in
1727 by a company of fourteen persons. At the Philadel-
phia Exhibition the keystone of Durham furnace, bearing
date 1727, was an interesting feature.
In 1728 there were four furnaces in blast in Pennsyl-
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 187
vania, one of which was certainly Colebrookdale ; another
was Durham. The other furnaces were probably Sir Will-
iam Keith's, on Christiana creek, in the present State of
Delaware, and Nutt's Reading furnace, on French creek.
In November, 1728, James Logan shipped three tons of
Durham pig iron to England. In 1728-9 Pennsylvania
sent 274 tons of pig iron to the mother country. Other
furnaces and forges in Eastern Pennsylvania followed in
rapid succession those already mentioned. As has been
stated the early forges made iron directly from the ore,
but after furnaces were built pig iron was generally used
at the forges. The furnaces were required to produce both
pig iron and castings, the latter consisting of stoves, pots,
kettles, andirons, smoothing-irons, clock-weights, and simi-
lar articles. In his History of New Sweden Israel Acrelius,
who lived in this country from 1750 to 1756, says : "Penn-
sylvania in regard to its iron works is the most advanced
of all the American colonies. " About 1750 the manufac-
ture of cemented steel was commenced in Chester county.
Bishop says that in 1786 there were seventeen fur-
naces, forges, and slitting-mills within thirty-nine miles of
Lancaster. About 1789 there were fourteen furnaces and
thirty-four forges in operation in Pennsylvania, according
to a list published by Mrs. James. In 1791 the number of
furnaces had increased to sixteen and of forges to thirty-
seven. In 1796 the slitting and rolling mills were said to
roll 1,500 tons per annum. At this time there were many
furnaces and forges in the Schuylkill valley. The coun-
ties on the west side of the Susquehanna river contained
many active iron enterprises soon after the close of the
Revolution, some of which had been established before
the struggle for independence began. In 1838 there were
102 furnaces, forges, and rolling mills in existence within
a radius of fifty-two miles of Lancaster.
Martic forge, on Pequea creek, near the present village
of Coleman ville, in Lancaster county, was built in 1755
and was last in operation in 1883. During the Revolution
round iron was drawn under the hammer at this forge and
bored out for musket barrels at a boring mill, in a very
retired spot, on a small stream far off from any public
188 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
road, doubtless with a view to prevent discovery by the
enemy. The Continental Congress established and main-
tained an armory at Carlisle, where muskets, swords, and
"wrought iron cannon of great strength" were manufac-
tured. In 1776, and throughout the war, anthracite coal
was taken in arks from the Wyoming mines above Wilkes-
barre down the Susquehanna to the Carlisle armory. Dur-
ing the Revolution cannon and cannon balls were cast at
many Pennsylvania furnaces. In his biographical sketch
of David Rittenhouse in Harper's Magazine for May, 1882,
Samuel W. Pennypacker says that at the beginning of
the Revolution the leaden weights which were attached to
Rittenhouse's clocks "were now needed for bullets," and
it was ordered by the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety
that Rittenhouse and Owen Biddle, both of Philadelphia,
"should prepare moulds for the casting of clock-weights
and send them to some iron furnace and order a sufficient
number to be immediately made for the purpose of ex-
changing them with the inhabitants of this city for their
leaden cloc^-weights."
The bar iron and castings made in the Schuylkill val-
ley during the eighteenth century were taken down the
river to Philadelphia in boats, which were poled back
to their starting points. These were doubtless Durham
boats, so called because they were first used in carrying
iron from Durham furnace by way of the Delaware river
to Philadelphia.
The first blast furnace in the Juniata valley was Bed-
ford furnace, on Black Log creek, built in 1787 or 1788
on the site of the present town of Orbisonia, in Hunting-
don county, by the Bedford Company, composed of Ed-
ward Ridgely, Thomas Cromwell, and George Ashman. It
made from eight to ten tons of pig iron a week. Lytle,
in his History of Huntingdon County, says that it was
built mostly of wood and was five feet wide at the bosh
and either fifteen or seventeen feet high. A forge was
subsequently built on Little Aughwick creek, four miles
southwest of the furnace, by the same company, which
supplied the neighborhood with horseshoe iron, wagon tire,
harrow teeth, etc. Large stoves and other utensils were
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 189
cast at Bedford furnace. At the Philadelphia Exhibition
there was a stove-plate which was cast at this furnace in
1792. On September 10, 1793, Thomas Cromwell, for the
company, advertised in the Pittsburgh Gazette castings
and bar iron for sale at Bedford furnace. The first Ameri-
can-made bar iron ever taken to Pittsburgh is said to
have been made at Bedford forge. " In the forge the pig
iron of the furnace was hammered out into bars about
six or eight feet long, and these were bent into the shape
of the letter U and turned over the backs of horses and
thus transported over the Alleghenies to Pittsburgh," the
first part of the way by bridle paths.
Bedford furnace was certainly in operation before 1790,
as on the 2d day of March of that year Hugh Needy en-
tered into an agreement with the company to deliver
twenty-eight ten-gallon kettles and seven Dutch ovens,
the whole weighing 12 cwt., 3 qrs., and 21 lbs., to Daniel
Depue, "on or near the Monongahela river, near Devor's
ferry, in eight days ensuing the date hereof." Devore's
ferry was on the Monongahela river where Monongahela
City is situated. It was probably established as early
as 1770. The articles which are above mentioned were
carried on pack-horses. The forge appears to have been
built in 1791, as is shown by an itemized account of iron
made by the company from "the time the forge started"
in that year until October 12, 1796, the product in these
six years being 497 tons, 8 cwt., 2 qrs., and 26 lbs.
Bar iron and castings from Bedford furnace and other
iron works in the Juniata valley were taken down the Ju-
niata river in arks, many of them descending to as low a
point as Middletown, on the Susquehanna, whence the iron
was hauled to Philadelphia. Much of the iron of the Ju-
niata valley was also sent to Baltimore in arks down the
Susquehanna river.
Centre furnace, located on Spring creek, in Centre
county, was the second furnace erected in the Juniata val-
ley or near its boundaries. It was built in the summer of
1791 by Colonel John Patton and Colonel Samuel Miles,
both Revolutionary officers. The first forge in Centre
county was Rock forge, on Spring creek, built in 1793 by
190 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
General Philip Benner, who subsequently established other
iron enterprises in Centre county.
In 1832 there were in operation in Huntingdon coun-
ty, which then embraced a part of Blair county, eight fur-
naces, ten forges, and one rolling and slitting mill. Each
of the furnaces yielded from 1,200 to 1,600 tons of iron
annually. In the same year an incomplete list enumerated
eight furnaces and as many forges in Centre county. In
1850 there were in these two counties and in Blair county
(formed out of Huntingdon and Bedford in 1846) and
Mifflin county forty-eight furnaces, forty-two forges, and
eight rolling mills.
Much of the iron made in the Juniata valley during
the palmy days of its iron industry was sold at Pittsburgh,
first in the form of castings, afterwards in both pigs and
bars, and finally chiefly in the form of blooms. Before the
completion of the Pennsylvania Canal and the Portage
Railroad bar iron from Centre county was at first carried
on the backs of horses to the Clarion river and was then
floated on flatboats and arks to Pittsburgh. Pig iron and
bar iron from Huntingdon county were hauled over the
Frankstown Road to Johnstown and floated to Pittsburgh
by way of the Conemaugh river. Subsequently blooms
were hauled to Pittsburgh from Huntingdon county by
wagon. "Dorsey's iron from Barree forge" was for sale
at Pittsburgh in October, 1805, by Thomas Cromwell. In
April, 1807, at Pittsburgh, E. Denny advertised "barr iron
for sale, from Huntingdon and Centre counties, at a re-
duced price." Juniata iron was long noted throughout the
country for its excellence.
Before the Pennsylvania Canal was completed in 1834
the hauling of Juniata blooms to Pittsburgh had been for
some years an important business. In the Blairsville Rec-
ord for January 31, 1828, Mulhollan & McAnulty adver-
tise for teams to haul blooms from the Sligo iron works,
in Huntingdon county, to Blairsville, offering $15 per ton.
This hauling was done over the Huntingdon, or Northern,
Turnpike, which had been built only a few years before
and which passed through Huntingdon, Hollidaysburg,
Ebensburg, and Blairsville to Pittsburgh. Soon after the
THE EAELY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 191
canal was finished and the Portage Railroad from Holli-
daysburg to Johnstown was completed, the latter in 1834,
the shipment of Juniata blooms to Pittsburgh greatly in-
creased. The canal was finished to Blairsville in 1829.
Cemented steel was made at Caledonia, near Bedford,
a few years before the close of the eighteenth century,
by William McDermett, a native of Scotland. His daugh-
ter Josephine was married in 1820 to David R. Porter,
afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania for two terms.
The first iron manufactured in Pennsylvania west of
the Alleghenies was made in Fayette county by John
Hayden early in 1790 "in a smith's fire." "It was about
as big as a harrow-tooth." The first furnace in Western
Pennsylvania was, however, built by Turnbull & Marmie,
of Philadelphia, on Jacob's creek, between Fayette and
Westmoreland counties, on the Fayette county side of the
creek, a few miles above its entrance into the Youghio-
gheny river. It was first blown in on November 1, 1790,
and produced a superior quality of metal both for cast-
ings and bar iron, some of it having been tried the same
day in a forge which the proprietors had erected at the
same place. The furnace and forge were called the Alli-
ance iron works. Craig, in his History of Pittsburgh, gives
an extract from a letter written by Major Craig, deputy
quartermaster general and military storekeeper at Fort
Pitt, to General Knox, dated January 12, 1792, as follows :
" As there is no six-pound shot here I have taken the
liberty to engage four hundred at Turnbull & Marmie's
furnace, which is now in blast."
Union furnace, at Dunbar, on Dunbar creek, four miles
south of Connellsville, in Fayette county, was built by
Isaac Meason in 1790 and put in blast in March, 1791.
It was succeeded in 1793 by a larger furnace of the same
name, built near the same site by Isaac Meason, John
Gibson, and Moses Dillon. An advertisement in the Pitts-
burgh Gazette, dated April 10, 1794, mentions that Meason,
Dillon & Co. have for sale "a supply of well-assorted cast-
ings, which they will sell for cash at the reduced price of
£35 per ton" — $93.33 in Pennsylvania currency. There
was a forge connected with this furnace, called Union
192 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
forge. In 1804 a large order for kettles, to be used on the
sugar plantations of Louisiana, was filled at Union furnace,
which was a famous furnace in its day.
In 1792 John Hayden and John Nicholson built a
bloomary forge on George's creek, a few miles south of
Uniontown, and in 1797 John Hayden built Fairfield fur-
nace, also on George's creek. John and Andrew Oliphant
and Nathaniel Breading bought an interest in this furnace
in 1798 and in a few years the Oliphants became its sole
owners. Fairchance furnace, on George's creek, six miles
south of Uniontown, was built in 1804 by John Hayden
and bought by J. & A. Oliphant about 1805. It was kept
in operation until 1887. The Oliphants built Sylvan forges
on George's creek, below Fairfield and Fairchance furnaces.
While the Oliphants operated Fairfield furnace they cast
a quantity of shot which was used by General Jackson's
artillery in the battle of New Orleans, on January 8, 1815.
Rolling and slitting mills, for the manufacture of sheet
iron and nail rods, were established west of the Alleghe-
nies after the first furnace and forge were built in 1790.
Prior to 1794 Jeremiah Pears built a forge at Plumsock,
in Menallen township, Fayette county, which was the
forerunner of a rolling and slitting mill built by Mr. Pears
at the same place before 1804. In 1805 the rolling and
slitting mill and the remainder of Mr. Pears's property
were sold by the sheriff. This was probably the first
rolling and slitting mill west of the Alleghenies. In 1811
there were three such mills in Fayette county, one of
which, on the right bank of the Youghiogheny river, be-
low Connellsville, was built by John Gibson in 1805. An-
other was on Cheat river, just over the Pennsylvania line
in the present State of West Virginia, on the road from
Uniontown to Morgantown. It was owned by Jackson
& Updegraff. This enterprise embraced a furnace, forge,
rolling mill, slitting mill, and nail factory.
All the rolling and slitting mills of that day and of
many preceding days neither puddled pig iron nor rolled
bar iron, but rolled only sheet iron and nail plates from
blooms hammered under a tilt-hammer. Plain rolls were
used. The nail plates were slit into nail rods by a series
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OP PENNSYLVANIA. 193
of revolving disks. The sheet iron was used for various
purposes, including the making of salt pans.
In 1805 there were five furnaces and six forges in
Fayette county. In 1811 the county had ten furnaces, one
air furnace, eight forges, three rolling and slitting mills,
one steel furnace, and five trip-hammers. At a later date
there were twenty furnaces in this county. For many
years Pittsburgh and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys
were largely supplied by it with all kinds of castings and
with hammered bar iron. In 1849 only four of its fur-
naces were in blast. Connellsville was a prominent ship-
ping point for Fayette county iron.
The steel furnace above referred to as existing in 1811
was at Bridgeport, adjoining Brownsville, was owned by
Truman & Co., and made cemented steel. It was known
as the Brownsville steel factory. In 1811 Truman & Co.
advertised that they had for sale "several tons of steel of
their own converting, which they will sell at the factory
for cash, at 12 dollars per cwt."
The first nail factory west of the Alleghenies was built
at Brownsville, about 1795, by Jacob Bowman, at which
wrought nails were made by hand in one shop and cut
nails were made by machines in another.
The first rolling mill erected in the United States to
puddle iron and roll iron bars was built in 1816 and 1817
on Redstone creek, about midway between Connellsville
and Brownsville, at a place called Middletown, but better
known as Plumsock, in Fayette county, on the site of
Jeremiah Pears's enterprise which has previously been
mentioned. The rolling mill was undertaken by Isaac
Meason, owner of Union furnace, who then had forges at
Plumsock. This mill was built "for making bars of all
sizes and hoops for cutting into nails." F. H. Oliphant
says that "the iron was refined by blast and then puddled.
It was kept in operation up to 1824, the latter part of the
time by Mr. Palmer." Isaac Meason, who did so much to
develop the iron resources of Fayette county, was a native
of Virginia. He died in 1819.
In the manufacture of iron Westmoreland county
speedily followed Fayette county. Westmoreland furnace,
13
194 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
on a branch of Loyalhanna creek, near Laughlinstown,
in Ligonier valley, was built in 1794 by Christopher Lob-
ingier & Brother. In 1798 the furnace was sold to John
Probst, who operated it for about four years. On the 1st
of August, 1795, George Anshutz, manager of Westmore-
land furnace, advertised stoves and castings for sale. We
have a stove-plate that was cast at Westmoreland furnace
in 1800 by John Probst and is so marked in raised letters.
General Arthur St. Clair built Hermitage furnace, on
Mill creek, two miles northeast of Ligonier, about 1803.
It was managed for its owner by James Hamilton and
made stoves and other castings. It was in blast in 1806.
General St. Clair died a very poor man in 1818, aged 82
years, and was buried at Greensburg. The following ad-
vertisement appeared on November 21, 1806, in The Farm-
ers Register, printed at Greensburg by John M. Snowden.
It had for its caption " Hermitage Furnace in Blast,"
and was signed by Henry Weaver & Son and dated at
Greensburg, on September 12, 1806. It read as follows :
" The subscribers, being appointed agents by Gen. A. St.
Clair for the sale of his castings generally, and for the
borough of Greensburg exclusively, give notice that they
will contract with any person or persons for the delivery
of castings and stoves, for any number of tons, on good
terms. Samples of the castings and stoves to be seen at
their store in Greensburg any time after the 20th instant."
Several other furnaces and a few forges were built in
Westmoreland county soon after the early furnaces above
mentioned. One of the forges was Kingston forge, erected
in 1811 on Loyalhanna creek by Alexander Johnston &
Co., and going into operation in 1812. Alexander Johns-
ton was the father of Governor William F. Johnston. He
was born in Ireland in July, 1773, and died in July, 1872,
aged 99 years. The owners of the early furnaces in West-
moreland county, besides supplying local wants, shipped
pig iron and castings by boats or arks on the Youghio-
gheny and other streams to Pittsburgh, some of the cast-
ings finding their way to Cincinnati and Louisville and
even to New Orleans. Subsequently they shipped pig iron
by canal to Pittsburgh.
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 195
Shade furnace, in Somerset county, was built in 1807
or 1808 and was the first iron enterprise in that county.
It stood on Shade creek, and was built by Gerehart &
Reynolds. About 1818 the furnace was sold to Richards,
Earl & Co., who operated it down to about 1830. In 1820
they built a forge, called Shade, below the furnace. In
1849 it made 30 tons of bars. We have seen a stove that
was cast at Shade furnace in 1818. About 1811 Joseph
Vickroy and Conrad Piper built Mary Ann forge, on Stony
creek, about five miles below Shade furnace. Pig iron to
supply this forge was sometimes packed on horseback
from Bedford county, the horses taking salt from the Con-
emaugh salt works and bar iron as a return load. Other
furnaces and a few forges were built in Somerset county
at an early day but they have all disappeared. Bar iron
was shipped to Pittsburgh from Shade and Mary Ann
forges by flatboat on the Stony creek and the Conemaugh
river. Pig iron was also hauled to Johnstown from Shade
furnace for shipment by flatboat and afterwards by canal
to Pittsburgh.
About 1809 John Holliday built Cambria forge on the
north bank of the Stony creek at Johnstown. About 1811
it was removed to a site on the Conemaugh at Johnstown
and was abandoned about 1822. It was used to hammer
bar iron out of Juniata pig iron and blooms. In 1817
Thomas Burrell, the proprietor, offered wood-cutters " fifty
cents per cord for chopping two thousand cords of wood
at Cambria forge, Johnstown." About 1810 the second
iron enterprise at Johnstown was established by Robert
Pierson. It was a small nail factory. About 200 pounds
of nails, valued at $30, were made at Johnstown in the
census year 1810, doubtless by Mr. Pierson. Cambria
county has been noted as an iron centre since its first fur-
nace, Cambria, was built by George S. King and others in
1842, on Laurel run, near Johnstown. It was followed in
the next six years by five other charcoal furnaces, all of
which have been abandoned. The extensive works of the
Cambria Steel Company, at Johnstown, were commenced
in 1853 by the Cambria Iron Company.
The first iron enterprise in Indiana county was Indiana
196 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
forge, on Findley's run, near the Conemaugh, built about
1837 by Henry and John Noble, who also built Indiana
furnace as early as 1840. Both the furnace and forge were
running in the last-named year. A few other furnaces
were soon built in this county, but all the pioneer Indiana
furnaces and its solitary forge have long been abandoned.
A furnace named Mary Ann was built at an early day
in Greene county. It was located on Ten-mile creek, op-
posite Clarksville. It was probably built about 1800. It
was abandoned early in the nineteenth century. Gordon,
in his Gazetteer, (1832,) says that "there were formerly
in operation on Ten-mile creek a forge and furnace, but
they have been long idle and are falling to decay."
A blast furnace was built at Beaver Falls, in Beaver
county, then called Brighton, on the west side of Beaver
river, in 1802, by Hoopes, Townsend & Co., and blown in
in 1804. A forge was connected with it from the begin-
ning and it was in operation in 1806. Both the furnace
and the forge were in operation in 1816. The whole en-
terprise was abandoned about 1826. The ore used at the
furnace was picked out of gravel banks in the neighbor-
hood in very small lumps. There was another early fur-
nace in this county, named Bassenheim, built in 1814 by
Detmar Basse, who operated it until 1818, when he sold
it to Daniel Beltzhoover and others. This furnace was
located on the Conoquenessing creek, about a mile west
of the Butler county line. It was abandoned about 1824.
In February, 1818, $12 per ton were paid for hauling pig
iron over a bad road from this furnace to Pittsburgh,
30 miles distant. Mr. Basse's homestead, "Bassenheim,"
stood on the hillside near Zelienople, in Butler county.
Zelienople was so named after Mr. Basse's daughter Zelie,
who became the wife of Philip Passavant and the mother
of the noted philanthropist, Rev. William A. Passavant.
In 1828 Robert Townsend & Co. built at Fallston, in
Beaver county, a mill for the manufacture of iron wire
which is still in operation. About 1852 the manufacture
of rivets was added and in 1887 the manufacture of wire
nails was commenced. In the meantime the Harmony
Society promoted the establishment of various iron and
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 197
steel enterprises at Beaver Falls, which has been one of
the leading iron and steel centres of Pennsylvania.
Prior to 1846 there were a few furnaces in the She-
nango valley, all using charcoal. In 1806 the geographer
Joseph Scott says that "a forge and furnace are now
nearly erected" at New Castle. About 1810 there was a
forge on Neshannock creek, "midway between Pearson's
flour mill and Harvey's paper mill," for the manufacture
of bar iron from the ore.
The first furnace in the once important ironmaking
district composed of Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Venango,
and other northwestern counties was Bear Creek, in Arm-
strong county, built in 1818 to use coke, with steam pow-
er, and its first blast was with this fuel, but charcoal was
soon substituted. The furnace was abandoned long before
1850 but was running in 1832, in which year Gordon says
that it was owned by Henry Baldwin and was reputed
to be the largest furnace in the United States, having
made forty tons of iron in a week.
Slippery Rock furnace, in Butler county, and Clarion
furnace, in Clarion county, were built in 1828. Allegheny
furnace, at Kittanning, in Armstrong county, and Venango
furnace, on Oil creek, in Venango county, were built in
1830. From 1830 to 1855 this section of the State pro-
duced large quantities of charcoal pig iron. In 1850 there
were 11 furnaces in Armstrong county, 6 in Butler, 28 in
Clarion, and 18 in Venango : 63 in all. In 1858 there were
18 in Armstrong, 6 in Butler, 27 in Clarion, and 24 in
Venango : 75 in all. All were charcoal furnaces, except
four coke furnaces at Brady's Bend. Many of these fur-
naces had, however, been abandoned at the latter date,
and every one has since been abandoned. Most of them
were built to supply the Pittsburgh rolling mills and
foundries with pig iron. The Great Western iron works,
at Brady's Bend, embracing a rolling mill and four fur-
naces to use coke, were built in 1840 and 1841. The
furnaces were finally blown out in 1873 and the rolling
mill was abandoned in the same year. It was built to
roll bar iron but it afterwards rolled iron rails.
Erie charcoal furnace, at Erie, was built in 1842 and
198 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
abandoned in 1849. It used bog ore. Liberty furnace, on
the north side of French creek, in Crawford county, was
built in 1842 and abandoned in 1849.
The iron manufactured in the Allegheny valley was
taken down the Allegheny river to Pittsburgh on keel
boats, arks, and rafts, the business of transporting it by
water being very extensive down to about 1855. Corn-
planter Indians, from Warren county, were among the
raftsmen of those days.
George Anshutz, the pioneer in the manufacture of
iron in Allegheny county, was an Alsatian by birth, Alsace
at the time being a part of France. He was born on No-
vember 28, 1753, and died at Pittsburgh on February 28,
1837, aged over 83 years. In 1789 he emigrated to the
United States and soon afterwards located at Shady Side,
in the present East End of Pittsburgh, where he built a
small furnace, probably completing it in 1792. In 1794
it was abandoned. It had been expected that iron ore
could be obtained in the vicinity but the neighborhood
produced little else than red shale. Recourse was next
had to a deposit of iron ore on Roaring run, an affluent of
the Kiskiminitas, in the southeastern corner of Armstrong
county, from which supplies were received in arks on the
Allegheny river. Some ore was also brought by wagon
from the vicinity of Fort Ligonier and Laughlinstown, in
Westmoreland county. Mr. Anshutz's furnace was built
on a stream called Two-mile run, on the bank of which
Colonel Jonas Roup had previously at an early period
erected a grist and saw mill. The enterprise was largely
devoted to the casting of stoves and grates.
The first iron foundry at Pittsburgh was established in
1805 by Joseph McClurg on the northeast corner of Smith-
field street and Fifth avenue. Joseph Smith and John
Gormly were associated with Mr. McClurg in this enter-
prise. They retired, however, before 1807. The enterprise
was styled the Pittsburgh Foundry. On February 12,
1806, Joseph McClurg advertised in the Commonwealth
that "the Pittsburgh Foundry is now complete." In 1812
it supplied the Government with cannon, howitzers, shells,
and balls. Commodore Perry's fleet on Lake Erie and
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 199
General Jackson's army at New Orleans received their
supplies of these articles in part from this foundry. In
1813 there were two iron foundries in Pittsburgh, Mc-
Clurg's and Anthony Beelen's, and one cemented steel
furnace, owned by Tuper & McCowan. In the following
year there were two additional foundries in Pittsburgh.
Mr. Beelen's foundry was put in operation in November,
1810. Like George Anshutz he was a native of France.
There were three nail factories at Pittsburgh in 1807,
Porter's, Sturgeon's, and Stewart's, "which make about 40
tons of nails yearly." In 1810 about 200 tons of cut and
wrought nails were made at Pittsburgh. In the same year
the manufacture of shovels, hatchets, augers, and similar
articles was extensively carried on at Pittsburgh.
The first rolling mill at Pittsburgh was built by Chris-
topher Cowan, at the corner of Penn street and Cecil's
alley, in 1811 and 1812. This mill had no puddling fur-
naces, nor was it built to roll bar iron. It was intended
to and did manufacture sheet iron, nail and spike rods,
shovels, spades, chains, hatchets, hammers, etc. It em-
braced a rolling mill, slitting mill, and tilt-hammer, "all
under the same roof."
The Union rolling mill was the second mill that was
built at Pittsburgh. It was located on the north side of
the Monongahela river, was built in 1819, and was acci-
dentally blown up and permanently dismantled in 1829,
the machinery being taken to Covington, Kentucky. This
mill had four puddling furnaces, the first in Pittsburgh.
It was also the first to roll bar iron. It was built by
Baldwin, Robinson, McNickle & Beltzhoover.
Other rolling mills at Pittsburgh and in its vicinity
soon followed. At Etna, on Pine creek, Belknap, Bean
& Butler manufactured scythes and sickles with water
power as early as 1820, but in 1824 steam power was in-
troduced and blooms were rolled. A rolling mill on Grant's
Hill was built in 1821 by William B. Hayes and David
Adams, near where the court-house now stands. Water
for the generation of steam at this mill had to be hauled
from the Monongahela river. The Juniata iron works
were built on the south side of the Allegheny river in 1824
200 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
by Dr. Peter Shoenberger. Sligo rolling mill was built on
the south side of the Monongahela in 1825 by Robert T.
Stewart and John Lyon. The Dowlais works, in Kensing-
ton, were built in 1825 by George Lewis and Reuben Leonard.
The condition of the iron industry of Pittsburgh at the
close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century is sum-
med up in Cramer's Magazine Almanac for 1826 : " The
manufactures of Pittsburgh, particularly in the article of
iron, begin to assume a very interesting aspect. Not less
than five rolling mills are now in operation, and a sixth
will soon be ready, for the various manufactures of iron.
Four of the mills are capable of making iron from the
pig, besides rolling, slitting, and cutting into nails."
In 1829 Allegheny county had eight rolling mills, us-
ing 6,000 tons of blooms and 1,500 tons of pig iron. In
the same year there were nine foundries which consumed
3,500 tons of pig iron. In 1828 the iron rolled amounted
to 3,291 tons, in 1829 to 6,217 tons, and in 1830 to 9,282
tons. It is said that in 1830 one hundred steam engines
were built in Pittsburgh. In 1831 there were two steel
cementation furnaces at Pittsburgh. In 1836 there were
nine rolling mills in operation and eighteen foundries, en-
gine factories, and machine shops.
In 1856 there were at Pittsburgh and in Allegheny
county twenty-five rolling mills and thirty-three foundries
but not one blast furnace. Clinton furnace, on the south
side of the Monongahela, in Pittsburgh, built in 1859 by
Graff, Bennett & Co., was the first furnace built in Alle-
gheny county after the abandonment in 1794 of George
Anshutz's furnace at Shady Side. It was built to use
coke made from Pittsburgh coal, but Connellsville coke was
soon substituted. Clinton furnace was followed in 1861 by
the two Eliza furnaces of Laughlin & Co. and soon after-
wards by others, all to use Connellsville coke.
Allegheny county made cemented, or blister, steel at
an early day. In 1860 Hussey, Wells & Co. established
at Pittsburgh the manufacture of crucible steel on a firm
basis, and in 1862 Park, Brother & Co. successfully estab-
lished at Pittsburgh crucible steel works also on a firm
foundation. The first Bessemer steel works in Allegheny
THE EARLY IRON INDUSTRY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 201
county were completed by Andrew Carnegie and his
associates at Braddock late in 1875. The manufacture of
open-hearth steel in Allegheny county, also by Mr. Car-
negie and his associates, soon followed.
In 1906 there were 47 blast furnaces in Allegheny
county and 67 rolling mills and steel works. In 1906, as
in other preceding years, this county produced more pig
iron and rolled more iron and steel than the remainder of
Pennsylvania, and it rolled almost as much iron and steel
as the production of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. In the
year mentioned it made over 22 per cent, of the country's
total production of pig iron, over 30 per cent, of its total
production of steel, and over 29 per cent, of its total pro-
duction of rolled iron and steel.
The pre-eminence of Pennsylvania as an iron and steel
producing State is largely due to the extraordinary activ-
ity of the iron and steel industries of Allegheny county
since about 1825. Even before this year the towns and
cities in the Ohio valley were mainly supplied by Pitts-
burgh merchants and manufacturers with bar iron, nails,
pots, kettles, plow irons, and other iron and steel wares.
In the early days Pittsburgh rolling mills were mainly
supplied with blooms from the Juniata valley and with pig
iron from nearer localities, but large quantities of blooms
were also brought to Pittsburgh from Ohio, Kentucky,
and Tennessee.
The details above given of the early iron history of
Pennsylvania relate almost entirely to the manufacture
of iron with charcoal as fuel, no other fuel having been
successfully used in American blast furnaces until about
1840, and but little use of any other fuel having been made
before that time in any other branches of the American
iron industry. The charcoal iron industry of Pennsylvania
is now virtually dead. Nearly all of its charcoal furnaces
and bloomaries and all of its primitive charcoal forges
have been abandoned. In 1905 only five charcoal furnaces
were left in the whole State, and not one of these was
in Western Pennsylvania. In 1906 one of these furnaces
was dismantled. The total production of charcoal pig
iron in Pennsylvania in that year was only 2,663 tons.
202 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XX.
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL RAILS.
This country leads all other countries in the produc-
tion of iron and steel. This prominence in the manufac-
ture of these products is only in part due to the bounty
of nature in providing liberal supplies of the raw materi-
als that are needed; it is largely the result of friendly
and patriotic Congressional legislation, first in adopting in
1850 and in subsequently continuing the policy of liberal
grants of public lands to railroad companies, and second
in more firmly establishing in 1861 the protective tariff
policy, which has since been effectively maintained with
but brief interruptions. Through the operation of the pro-
tective policy the home market has been largely preserved
for the home producers of iron and steel, and through the
operation of the land-grant system, supplemented by the
homestead policy, which policy first became effective in
1862, during the civil war, thousands of miles of railroad
have been built in the Western States and Territories that
would not otherwise have been built. With the building
of these roads and of other roads in the Eastern, Middle,
and Southern States the consumption of iron and steel
and of other manufactured products has been greatly en-
larged, the population of all sections of the country has
been rapidly increased, vast mineral resources have been
discovered and developed, and the whole country has been
phenomenally enriched. Thousands of new farms have
been opened, our agricultural products have been many
times multiplied, and both home and foreign markets for
the sale of our surplus crops and of all other products of
the farm, the forest, the fishery, the mine, and the factory
have been quickly and cheaply reached.
Many of these railroads could not have been built if
our protective tariff policy had not built up our iron-rail
industry in the third quarter of the nineteenth century
and our steel-rail industry in the fourth quarter. Until
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL RAILS. 203
we began to make our own iron rails and afterwards our
own steel rails foreign manufacturers charged us excessive
prices for such rails as we could afford to buy. Both of
the rail industries mentioned had at the first to struggle
for their very existence against active foreign competition,
the early tariff duties on iron rails and afterwards on
steel rails not being sufficiently protective, but in the end
the control of the home market was gained, the produc-
tion of rails increased enormously, and the prices of both
iron and steel rails to railroad companies were greatly re-
duced. Before we began to make our own steel rails Eng-
lish manufacturers charged us more than three times as
much per ton for the steel rails we bought from them as
American manufacturers have since charged for millions of
tons. These millions of tons of steel rails have been sold
at lower prices than were previously charged for iron rails.
In an argument presented to the Ways and Means Com-
mittee of the House of Representatives, at Washington, on
February 3, 1880, Mr. H. V. Poor gave the price of steel
rails in British ports in 1863 as 369 shillings per ton, or
$89.79. Ten years later, in 1873, the price of British steel
rails in British ports was 350 shillings per ton, or $85.15.
Ten years later, in 1883, the average price of steel rails in
this country was $37.75 per ton, and since that year mill-
ions of tons of steel rails have been made and sold in this
country at less than $28 per ton, which price exactly cor-
responds with the amount of the duty on steel rails that
was imposed in the Schenck tariff of 1870, a duty which
firmly established the steel-rail industry in our country.
The resisting and wearing qualities of a steel rail be-
ing much superior to those of an iron rail it is capable
of supporting a much heavier weight of cars and locomo-
tives, a much heavier tonnage of freight, and many more
passengers, and it permits trains to be moved at a greater
rate of speed. The carrying capacity of our railroads has
been increased many times by the use of steel rails, and
the cost of operating them per ton of freight carried or
per passenger has been greatly decreased. The life of a
steel rail being many times greater than that of an iron
rail, notwithstanding the greater service it is called upon
204 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
to perform, it can easily be seen that the cost to our
railroad companies for renewals of track must be many
times less than if iron rails were still used and sold
even at the low price now paid for steel rails.
In ten years after we began the manufacture of steel
rails in commercial quantities, which was in 1867, the
charge for carrying a bushel of wheat by railroad from
Chicago to New York was reduced from 44.2 cents a bushel
to 20.3 cents, and it has since been further reduced to
8.47 cents. In 1860, using only iron rails, the charge for
moving a ton of freight one mile on the New York Central
Railroad was 2.065 cents ; in 1870, after we had commenced
to use steel rails, the charge was reduced to 1.884 cents;
in 1880, when steel rails were in more general use, the
charge was further reduced to 8.79 mills; and in 1901 it
was still further reduced to 7.4 mills. In the decade from
1870 to 1880 the charge for transporting a barrel of flour
from Chicago to New York by rail fell from $1.60 to 86
cents. In 1903 the freight rate on flour over the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad system in carload lots from Chicago to
New York was 36 cents per barrel.
In The Story of a Grain of Wheat, by William C. Ed-
gar, of Minneapolis, the indebtedness of the farmers of our
country to the railroads is frankly acknowledged in terms
that corroborate all that has been above stated. He says :
" While the agriculturists of the United States have
sowed and reaped, and its millers have advanced with the
progress of wheat-growing, both would have been unable to
attain the strong position they now occupy in the world's
markets had it not been for the co-operation of the inland
and ocean carriers. It must be admitted that the great
expansion of the railways of the country and the steady
reduction in freight rates, accomplished by an increase of
facilities for moving the traffic economically, have been
the great factors in the upbuilding of the export trade in
wheat and flour. The people of no other wheat-growing
nation have been favored by as low rates of freight as the
Americans. The railroad of the West extended its rails
into promising fields as soon as, and more often before,
their freight-producing capacity was known.
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL RAILS. 205
" In 1871, when the true quality of spring wheat was
discovered, the railroads in the United States operated
44,600 miles ; in 1897 181,000 miles were in operation.
The reduction in the rate of freight per ton per mile has
more than kept pace with the increase in mileage ; in 1859-
60 the average rate was three cents per ton per mile ;
in 1896-97 it was four-fifths of a cent. On one railway,
the Chesapeake and Ohio, the average freight rate per ton
per mile in 1862 was seven cents ; in 1897 it was two-
fifths of a cent. From 1858 to 1862 the average all-rail
rate on a bushel of wheat from Chicago to New York was
38f cents ; from 1863 to 1867 it was 31f cents ; during
the next five years it fell to 27T9o cents, again declining to
21| cents in 1873-77; in 1882 the average for the preced-
ing five years was 16ro- cents ; this was reduced during the
ensuing term to 14f cents ; from 1888 to 1892 it was 14 \
cents ; and for the five years ending with 1897 it was 12|
cents." Mr. Edgar's all-rail statistics end with 1897.
In the manufacture of iron rails Western Pennsylvania
was prominent in the early days of American railroads.
At Brady's Bend, on the Allegheny river, in Armstrong
county, the Great Western iron works, including four
furnaces and a rolling mill, were commenced in 1840 by
the Great Western Iron Company, composed of Philander
Raymond and others. The rolling mill was built in 1841
to roll bar iron but it afterwards rolled iron rails, which
were at first only flat bars, with holes for spikes counter-
sunk in the upper surface, and in 1846 and afterwards it
rolled T rails. In 1856 it made 7,533 tons of rails. This
was one of the first mills in the country to roll T rails,
our first rails of this pattern having been rolled in 1844
at the Mount Savage rolling mill, in Maryland. The
Brady's Bend mill continued to make rails until after the
close of the civil war. In October, 1873, it ceased opera-
tions. Shipments of rails were made by way of the Alle-
gheny river. In 1849 the Great Western Iron Company
failed and the Brady's Bend Iron Company took its place.
The mill and the furnaces have long been abandoned and
have gone to decay. In the Railway Age, of Chicago, for
April 3, 1903, there appeared the following interesting
206 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
reminiscence of the Brady's Bend enterprise, contributed
by Mr. G. W. P. Atkinson.
" The Allegheny Valley Railway in 1865 operated only
44 miles from Pittsburgh to Kittanning. It is now part
of the Pennsylvania system. At that time steamers ran
up the Allegheny river from Pittsburgh to Franklin when
there was water enough. There was a rail mill at Brady's
Bend in 1865, with which the writer was connected, and
which during the war made a great deal of railroad iron.
William B. Ogden, Chicago's first mayor, was president of
it and the writer had charge of its sales. If the river was
not navigable for steamers we had to take the stage from
the Kittanning end of the Allegheny Valley Railway to
Brady's Bend, and a tough ride it was. The writer and
William B. Ogden made the trip several times together.
Rails were shipped by river in barges to Pittsburgh or
Cincinnati. In the fall of 1865 the writer shipped 2,000
tons of rails for the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad
(which was run by the Government during the war) from
the Brady's Bend mill in barges down the Allegheny and
the Ohio rivers and up the Cumberland river to Nashville.
It took about six weeks to reach Nashville. As one passes
East Brady Station to-day on the Allegheny Valley Rail-
way the tall stack of the rolling mill is visible on the op-
posite side of the river, all that is left of the once busy
town of Brady's Bend, with 3,000 people." The stack re-
ferred to by Mr. Atkinson was torn down in 1903.
In 1853 the Cambria iron works were built at Johns-
town, by the Cambria Iron Company, expressly to roll T
rails, George S. King being the originator of the enterprise.
He and Dr. Peter Shoenberger owned four charcoal fur-
naces and thousands of acres of mineral lands near Johns-
town. Within a year the works were making iron rails.
It is recorded by the Johnstown Tribune that on Thurs-
day, July 27, 1854, the Cambria Iron Company " made a
fair and satisfactory trial of the entire machinery of the
rolling mill" and that "it worked admirably." It added
that "four large T rails were rolled and pronounced per-
fect by competent judges." Four charcoal and four coke
furnaces were connected with these works. In 1856, under
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL RAILS. 207
new management, the mill rolled 13,206 tons of rails, and
its annual rail production was afterwards increased. For
almost twenty-nine years, beginning with 1855, Daniel J.
Morrell, who died in 1885, was the successful general man-
ager of these works. In 1871, through his persistent ad-
vocacy of steel rails, their manufacture by the Bessemer
process was added to that of iron rails, in which branch
of the steel industry these works have ever since been
prominent. The Bessemer plant made its first blow on
July 10, 1871, and its first steel rail was rolled on July 12,
1871. John Fritz, the distinguished engineer, is entitled
to the credit of having made the manufacture of iron rails
at these works a conspicuous success, accomplished chiefly
through his introduction of three-high rolls in 1857, more
or less trouble having previously been experienced in the
use of two-high rolls. His brother, George Fritz, also dis-
tinguished as an engineer, successfully superintended the
introduction at the same works of the Bessemer process
and the manufacture of Bessemer steel rails. In 1898 the
works were leased to the Cambria Steel Company, which
now operates them.
In an address at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the
Franklin Institute, at Philadelphia, on October 4, 1899,
John Fritz graphically described the first use of three-
high rolls in the manufacture of iron rails at the Cambria
iron works. From this account we take the following
statements, which have historic value beyond their local
interest — beyond even their interest for students of Penn-
sylvania's great iron and steel industries. Mr. Fritz said :
"The year 1857 is a memorable period in the history
of the manufacture of iron. Up to this time all the rails
were rolled on a two-high train, the pile being passed back
over the top roll, which was a great waste of time and loss
of heat. When the flanges once began to crack, which
was one of the serious troubles, being all the time rolled in
one direction, the difficulty was greatly aggravated. The
result was that when an imperfection occurred in the flange
with each pass through the rolls the trouble increased, and
to such an extent that it was a common occurrence for
the flange to tear off the whole length of the rail and wind
208 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
around the roll, forming what in rolling-mill parlance was
called a collar, which very generally ended in breaking
some part of the train and often the roll. . . . During
all this time I was giving the subject much considera-
tion and had fully made up my mind that, if a three-high
mill could be made to work, the difficulty could all be
overcome. I besides had made up my mind that this was
the only true way to roll iron. I was now prepared to
suggest the building of a three-high mill, which I did. . .
" At length the mill was completed, and on the 3d
day of July, 1857, the old mill was shut down for the last
time. The starting of the new mill on that day was the
crucial period. There were no invitations sent out. As
the heaters were opposed to the new kind of a mill we
did not want them about at the start. We, however, se-
cured one of the most reasonable of them to heat the piles
for a trial. We had kept the furnace hot for several days
as a blind. Everything being ready we charged six piles.
About ten o'clock in the morning the first pile was drawn
out of the furnace and went through the rolls without
a hitch, making a perfect rail. You can judge what my
feelings were as I looked upon that perfect and first rail
ever made on a three-high train."
On the day after this "first rail ever made on a three-
high train" was rolled the mill of the Cambria iron works
was burned down. After describing that event and the
rebuilding of the mill in four weeks Mr. Fritz continues :
" In four weeks from that time the mill was running and
made 30,000 tons of rails without a hitch or break of
any kind, thus making the Cambria Iron Company a great
financial success, and giving them a rail plant far in ad-
vance of any other plant in the world. This position they
held, unquestioned, for both quality and quantity, until the
revolutionary invention of Sir Henry Bessemer came into
general use."
In 1865 the Superior Iron Company built the Superior
rolling mill, at Manchester, below Allegheny City, to make
iron rails. Connected with this mill were two coke fur-
naces, built in 1863. The company operated the works
until September, 1867, when they were leased by Springer
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL RAILS. 209
Harbaugh. On January 1, 1870, Harbaugh, Mathias &
Owens took possession as owners, and on August 1, 1874,
they failed, when the manufacture of rails at these works
was discontinued. The works themselves have long been
abandoned. A few other iron rail mills in Western Penn-
sylvania, most of which were equipped for the manufac-
ture only of mine rails and other light rails, need not
be mentioned. Of these mills those which made rails of
heavy sections never at any time produced any considera-
ble tonnage. Some were mechanical failures ; others were
financial failures. It is a noteworthy fact that Allegheny
county, with all its enterprise in the manufacture of iron
and steel, did not begin to make rails of heavy sections
until the Superior rolling mill was built in 1865. Iron
rails are not now made anywhere in Pennsylvania, except
a very few tons of light rails for lumber and mine roads.
The Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel,
which gives us the steel rail, dates from 1855, in which
year Henry Bessemer, of England, obtained his first pat-
ent for this process. Other patents followed in 1856, but
the important invention was not perfected until 1857, in
which year Robert Forester Mushet, also of England, add-
ed his essential spiegeleisen improvement., In 1856 Mr.
Bessemer obtained patents in this country for his inven-
tion, but he was immediately confronted by a claim of
priority of invention preferred by William Kelly, of Ed-
dyville, Kentucky, but a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylva-
nia, which was eventually approved by the Commissioner
of Patents. Inconsequential experiments were made with
Mr. Kelly's process at the Cambria iron works in 1857
and 1858, but in September, 1864, steel was successfully
made by his process at experimental works which were
erected at Wyandotte, Michigan, by the Kelly Pneumatic
Process Company. Success, however, was attained only by
the use of the Mushet improvement, the control of which
for this country the company had secured. In February,
1865, the firm of Winslow, Griswold & Holley was suc-
cessful at Troy, New York, in making steel by the Besse-
mer process with the Mushet improvement, the firm hav-
ing obtained the control for this country of the Bessemer
14
210 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
patents but not of the indispensable Mushet improvement.
In 1866 the ownership of all the above patents was con-
solidated, and soon afterwards the manufacture of Besse-
mer steel in this country in commercial quantities was
commenced. At first and for many years afterwards rails
only were made from Bessemer steel, and to-day nearly
all the rails that are in use in this country were made of
this steel. In recent years, however, we have commenced
to make rails of open-hearth steel in large quantities.
Steel rails have almost entirely supplanted iron rails
on American railroads. Poor's Manual of the Railroads of
the United States contains a statement which shows the
number of miles of steam railroad track, exclusive of ele-
vated city passenger railway tracks, that were laid with
iron and steel rails respectively in each year from 1880 to
1907. In 1880 81,967 miles were laid with iron rails and
33,680 miles, or 29.1 per cent., were laid with steel rails.
In 1907 9,319.88 miles were laid with iron rails and 314,-
713.50 miles, or 97.1 per cent., were laid with steel rails,
the total being 324,033.38 miles. In both years side
tracks, double tracks, etc., are included. The length of the
steam railroads completed and in operation in the United
States at the close of 1907, not including side tracks, sec-
ond tracks, etc., and excluding all elevated city passenger
railways, was 228,128.10 miles. The Manual, in giving the
mileage of steam railroads in 1907 as aggregating 324,033.-
38 miles, states that 224,382.19 miles were single track and
99,651.19 miles were second track, sidings, etc. At the end
of 1906 there were 36,932 additional miles of street and
suburban railway lines in the United States. Of this mile-
age 36,212 miles were operated by electricity.
Much of the progress of this country in the manufac-
ture of Bessemer steel rails has been due to the enterprise
displayed by Andrew Carnegie at the Edgar Thomson
steel works, at Braddock, east of Pittsburgh, the site of
Braddock's defeat in 1755, the construction of which was
undertaken in 1873 by Carnegie, McCandless & Co. and
completed in 1875 by the Edgar Thomson Steel Com-
pany, Limited. In both companies Mr. Carnegie was the
leading spirit and stockholder, and his brother, Thomas
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL RAILS. 211
M. Carnegie, who died in 1886, was also a stockholder.
The works were built expressly to make Bessemer steel
rails. They made their first blow on August 26, 1875, and
rolled their first steel rail on September 1, 1875. At first
only a Bessemer plant and a rolling mill were built, but
in 1879 the erection of large blast furnaces was commenc-
ed. Until these furnaces were built the Edgar Thomson
steel plant was largely supplied with pig iron from the
two near-by Lucy furnaces, built respectively in 1872 and
1877, and owned by the Carnegie brothers and others.
From year to year Mr. Carnegie steadily increased the
capacity of the Edgar Thomson works and thus cheapen-
ed the cost of producing rails, at the same time increasing
his financial interest in the ownership of the works. From
the first he had unbounded faith in the future of the steel
rail ; he knew that its general substitution for the iron rail
on American railroads was sure to come at an early day.
He foresaw this evolution and fully prepared for it when
experienced manufacturers and even many railroad offi-
cials continued to praise the iron rail. Hence, while oth-
ers were timid or neglectful of their opportunities, he in-
troduced at the Edgar Thomson works from time to time
the latest and most economical methods of manufacture ;
the blast furnaces at these works were the best in the
country, the Bessemer converters were the largest, and the
rail mill was the swiftest ; so that, when an extraordinary
demand for steel rails would come, as it often did come,
he was fully prepared to meet it and at a lower cost than
that of his competitors. He had business foresight in an
eminent degree ; he had unfaltering courage ; and more
than all his cotemporaries he believed in tearing out and
making a scrap heap of even modern machinery when bet-
ter machinery could be found. The best engineering tal-
ent in the country was engaged to bring the Edgar Thom-
son works up to the highest possible state of efficiency.
These characteristics were again illustrated when Mr.
Carnegie and his partners in the firm of Carnegie Broth-
ers & Co. obtained full control of the Homestead steel
works in 1883, and again in 1890 when Carnegie Broth-
ers & Co., then operating the Edgar Thomson works, sue-
212 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
ceeded to the ownership of the Duquesne steel works, with
the result that steel in other forms than rails has been
greatly cheapened to all consumers. This lowering of steel
prices was accomplished through the use of the best me-
chanical appliances and the production of the largest pos-
sible tonnage. At the Edgar Thomson works Mr. Carnegie
set the pace for a large annual tonnage of steel rails, and
this policy was also applied to the production of pig iron
and other products. His American competitors were soon
compelled to abandon their conservative ideas and to
enlarge the capacity and increase the efficiency of their
works. And he has compelled Europe to revise in a large
measure its metallurgical practice and also to cheapen its
prices for all steel products. It has freely copied the de-
vices and processes which his engineers, with his encour-
agement, had introduced or perfected. Of the engineers re-
ferred to Mr. Carnegie's first superintendent at the Edgar
Thomson works, Captain William R. Jones, whose tragic
death occurred in 1889, is entitled to special mention.
To these engineers and to his "young partners" Mr. Car-
negie has always acknowledged that he was under great
obligations.
Mr. Carnegie's distinguished and remarkable career as
an iron and steel manufacturer, which conspicuously be-
gan on the threshold of the fourth quarter of the nine-
teenth century, when the Edgar Thomson works were first
put in operation, although he had previously been identi-
fied with our iron industry, may be said to have ended
immediately after the close of the nineteenth century, in
February, 1901, when he transferred to the United States
Steel Corporation the ownership of all the iron and steel
properties and auxiliary enterprises in which he held a
controlling proprietary interest. Soon afterwards, in 1902,
he was chosen president of the Iron and Steel Institute,
whose membership is not restricted by political or geo-
graphical lines but which has its home in Great Britain,
and he presided over its deliberations at the spring and
autumn sessions of 1903, at London and Barrow respec-
tively, on each occasion delivering an address. He also
presided at the spring session of the Institute at London
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL RAILS. 213
in 1904 and at the autumn meeting in New York in the
same year. No higher honor can be conferred upon any-
iron and steel manufacturer, wherever his home may be,
than to be elected to the presidency of the Iron and Steel
Institute. Mr. Carnegie is the only American who has re-
ceived this honor.
The great success of the Edgar Thomson steel works
and of other Bessemer plants in the United States led to
the erection in Allegheny county of two competing steel
works, already noticed : the Homestead steel works, which
were completed and put in operation in 1881, and the Du-
quesne steel works, which were undertaken in 1886 and
put in operation in 1889. Both these works were built
to make Bessemer steel and its products, but, while the
Homestead works were erected to make miscellaneous
products, including rails, the Duquesne works were built
to make rails and billets. The Homestead works rolled,
their first steel rail on August 9, 1881, and the Duquesne
works rolled their first steel rail in March, 1889. Down
to their absorption by Carnegie Brothers & Co. in 1883
the Homestead works rolled about 125,000 tons of rails,
and down to their absorption by Carnegie Brothers & Co.
in 1890 the Duquesne works rolled in all about the same
number of tons, all, or nearly all, of the rails rolled by
both works being of heavy sections. Since the changes in
ownership above noted these works have not made many
rails. The Homestead works have not made any rails
since 1894 and the Duquesne works have not made any
rails since 1897. The Homestead works were built by the
Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Company and the Duquesne
works by the Allegheny Bessemer Steel Company. Both
companies were composed of Pittsburgh capitalists.
The prominence of Western Pennsylvania in the manu-
facture of steel rails to-day is best shown by a reference to
the statistical record. In 1906 the whole country made
3,791,459 tons of Bessemer steel rails, and of this large
production Western Pennsylvania made 1,105,941 tons, or
over 29 per cent, of the country's total production. This
large tonnage was almost entirely rolled at the Edgar
Thomson and the Cambria works, operated respectively
214
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
by the Carnegie Steel Company and by the Cambria Steel
Company.
The first 30-foot rails that were rolled in this country
were rolled at the Cambria iron works in 1855. These
were iron rails and were perfectly made, but there being
no demand for them they were used in the company's
tracks. In 1876 these works rolled the largest aggregate
tonnage of rails that had been rolled in one year by one
mill in this country up to that time. Their production of
rails in that year was 92,627 tons, of which 42,538 tons
were iron rails and 50,089 tons were steel rails.
The first 60-foot rails that were rolled in this country
were rolled at the Edgar Thomson steel works in the fall
of 1875 and were made of steel. At the Centennial Exhi-
bition at Philadelphia in 1876 the Edgar Thomson Steel
Company exhibited a steel rail which at that time was the
longest rail that had ever been rolled. It was 120 feet
long and weighed 62 pounds to the yard.
When the Edgar Thomson steel works were built they
embraced two five-ton Bessemer converters. Their equip-
ment to-day includes four fifteen-ton converters. The fol-
lowing table gives the annual production of Bessemer
steel rails by these works from 1875 to 1907. This table
presents the most remarkable record in the manufacture
of iron and steel that has ever been printed. In thirty-
three years these works produced 11,122,189 tons of rails.
Years.
Gross tons.
Years.
Gross tons.
Years.
Gross tons.
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883 .
1884
1885
5,853
32,226
48,826
64,505
76,044
100,095
151,507
143,561
154,892
144,090
126,656
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
173,001
192,999
148,293
277,401
332,942
264,469
330,511
230,336
220,337
324,778
300,770
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
477,363
561,757
604,343
626,831
708,113
709,906
734,859
550,945
720,562
826,582
756,830
The mechanical genius and the tireless energy of the
American people lie, of course, at the foundation of all
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL RAILS. 215
our industrial achievements. In the development of our
iron and steel industries the possession of all the neces-
sary raw materials of manufacture gave opportunity for
the employment of these national traits. The rapid growth
of the country in population created an active demand
for iron and steel for ordinary domestic and mechanical
purposes, but the stimulus given to the building of rail-
roads after 1850, and particularly after our protective
tariff policy was firmly established, gave to the manufac-
ture of these products its greatest opportunity. More
than one-half of all the iron and steel that has been pro-
duced in this country has gone into the construction and
equipment of our railroads. We have to-day more miles
of railroad than the whole of Europe and more than
two-fifths of all the railroad mileage of the world.
Steel rails have been made and are still made at other
works in Pennsylvania than those that have been de-
scribed in this chapter. Virtually all are in Eastern Penn-
sylvania and are well known. It will be remembered that
one of the objects of this volume is the presentation of
industrial information relating to Western Pennsylvania
that has not heretofore been widely known.
Reference has been made in this chapter to the con-
solidation in this country in 1866 of the ownership of
the various patents which covered the Bessemer, Kelly,
and Mushet inventions relating to the manufacture of
pneumatic steel, now universally known as Bessemer steel.
The credit of accomplishing this important result is due
mainly to the tact and good judgment of Daniel J. Mor-
rell, one of the owners of the Kelly and Mushet patents.
This is also the proper place to mention that the im-
portant invention, in 1877, of Sidney Gilchrist Thomas
and Percy C. Gilchrist, two London chemists, which made
possible the manufacture of basic steel, either by the Bes-
semer process or by the open-hearth process, was intro-
duced in this country through the enterprise of Andrew
Carnegie, who purchased the control of the Thomas-Gil-
christ patents for the United States in 1879, subsequently
transferring this control to the Bessemer Steel Company,
Limited, which owned the consolidated Bessemer patents.
216 . PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXI.
CORNWALL AND OTHER IRON ORES.
In the early part of its history Pennsylvania owed
much of the activity of its iron trade to its possession of
the wonderful Cornwall iron ore deposits, and in its later
history it owes the pre-eminence of its iron and steel
industries largely to the nearness of Lake Superior ores
and to its possession of Connellsville coking coal. A brief
history of the development of the Cornwall mines and of
the opening of the Lake Superior mines, and of the first
shipments from these last mentioned mines, will be given
in this chapter, accompanied by complete statistics of the
shipments from all these mines down to the close of 1907.
The Cornwall ore hills, which comprise three moun-
tains of magnetic iron ore near Lebanon, Pennsylvania,
were conveyed by John Penn, Thomas Penn, and Richard
Penn, proprietors-in-chief of the province of Pennsylvania
and the counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex on the
Delaware, by their warrant dated London, May 8, 1732,
to Joseph Turner, of Philadelphia. Turner assigned the
entire tract to William Allen on April 5, 1734, and on the
28th and 29th of November, 1737, Allen assigned the tract
to Peter Grubb, to whom a patent was issued on Au-
gust 2, 1745. Peter Grubb built Cornwall furnace in 1742.
He died intestate about 1754, and his estate descended
to his sons, Curtis and Peter Grubb, Curtis receiving two-
thirds under the intestate law of that day and Peter one-
third. Both sons were colonels in the Revolution. On
June 28, 1783, Curtis conveyed a one-sixth interest to Pe-
ter Grubb, Jr., his son. By articles of agreement, dated
September 26, 1785, Peter Grubb, Jr., grandson of the first
Peter Grubb and son of Curtis Grubb, sold to Robert Cole-
man his share of the Cornwall ore hills, Cornwall furnace,
and appurtenances, reserving the right for a sufficient
quantity of ore for one furnace, which right is held and
exercised to-day by the proprietors of Robesonia furnace,
CORNWALL AND OTHER IRON ORES. 217
in Berks county. The deed for the share sold to Robert
Coleman, signed by Peter Grubb, Jr., and his wife Mary,
is dated May 9, 1786. After that year Robert Coleman,
through successive purchases from the Grubbs, acquired
four additional sixths of the property originally conveyed
by the Penns to Joseph Turner. At Robert Coleman's
death in 1825 his estate was devised to his four sons.
We need not give the further connection of either the
Coleman or the Grubb family with the Cornwall ore
hills after the death of Robert Coleman. A detailed ac-
count will be found in the annual report of the Geological
Survey of Pennsylvania for 1885. The interest of these
families in the ownership of the Cornwall mines is now
comparatively small. A few years ago the Pennsylvania
Steel Company purchased from the heirs of G. Dawson
Coleman a controlling interest in the Cornwall iron ore
mines. Neither the Coleman nor the Grubb family limit-
ed its operations to the Cornwall "ore banks and mine
hills," but each engaged in the manufacture of iron.
John Grubb, the father of Peter Grubb, 1st, who built
Cornwall furnace, was a native of Cornwall, in England,
whence he emigrated to this country in 1692, landing at
Grubb's Landing, on the Delaware, near Wilmington. Peter
Grubb, his son, was born at Grubb's Landing. A tradition
in his family says that he built a furnace in 1735 about
half a mile from the site of Cornwall furnace. But this
supposed furnace was probably a bloomary, which may be
regarded as Mr. Grubb's first iron enterprise. The earliest
record evidence of his connection with the iron industry
in Lancaster county is contained in "ye leace" of Corn-
wall ore lands in 1739 by Peter Grubb to Samuel Grubb
and Joseph Taylor. In this lease Peter Grubb is styled
an "ironmaster," and it says that he "intends to build an
iron furnace" on land adjacent to that leased to Samuel
Grubb and Joseph Taylor. That furnace was undoubtedly
Cornwall furnace, built in 1742.
In Israel Acrelius's History of New Sweden, written
about 1756, appears the following statement : " Cornwall,
or Grubb's ironworks, in Lancaster county. The mine is
rich and abundant, forty feet deep, commencing two feet
218 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
under the earth's surface. The ore is somewhat mixed
with sulphur and copper. Peter Grubb was its discoverer."
Robert Coleman was born near Castle Fin, Ireland, on
November 4, 1748. In 1764 he came to Pennsylvania,
and after filling various clerical positions became a clerk
for James Old, first at Quittapahilla forge, near Lebanon,
and afterwards at Reading furnace, on French creek.
About the end of 1773 Mr. Coleman rented Salford
forge, near Norristown, where he remained three years.
His grandson, G. Dawson Coleman, had in his possession
many years ago a document of rare interest, illustrative
of Revolutionary experience at Salford forge. It is in-
dorsed : " Robert Coleman's memorial, presented August
26th, 1776, asking permission for his clerk and three forge-
men to be exempted from marching with the army to
Amboy." It represented that the memorialist was an offi-
cer in Colonel Potts's battalion and was then on his march
to Amboy ; that he had rented a forge for three years at a
rental of "two hundred a year," the lease of which would
expire in three months ; and that the " principal part"
of his workmen were Associators, who, if obliged to march
with the militia, would cause him great loss and entirely
prevent him from working up his stock in hand. The re-
quest of Mr. Coleman was granted the same day by the
Council of Safety, to which body it was addressed.
In one of his numerous contributions to Pennsylvania
history Dr. F. R. Diffenderffer says that "on October 30,
1777, Colonel Grubb notified the Council of Safety that
his furnace was in blast for the purpose of casting salt
pans, but he could not proceed because his manager,
founder, carpenter, and colliers were absent with the mi-
litia. They were ordered to be released forthwith."
For more than a quarter of a century Robert Coleman
was the most prominent ironmaster in Pennsylvania. His
descendants and those of Peter Grubb are still identified
with the manufacture of iron, and the Cornwall ore hills
are still relied upon to furnish large quantities of iron
ore for furnaces in Eastern Pennsylvania. Prior to the
development of the Lake Superior iron ore region the
Cornwall mines were annually the most productive group
CORNWALL AND OTHER IRON ORES.
219
of all the iron ore mines in this country, and this dis-
tinction they held for several years after Lake Superior
ores came into general use.
The following table shows the production of iron ore,
in gross tons, by the Cornwall ore mines from their first
opening in 1740 to January 1, 1908. Down to the year last
mentioned these mines had produced more iron ore than
any other single iron ore property in the United States,
including the most productive of the Lake Superior mines.
Periods.
Tons.
From 1740 to 1790, three furnaces, each 2,000 tons yearly, about
From 1790 to 1848, six furnaces, each 2,000 tons yearly, about. .
From April 1, 1848, to January 1, 1853
From January 1, 1853, to February 1, 1864, (date of formation of
Cornwall Ore Bank Company,) the shipments amounted to
300,000
700,000
173,190
1,351,717
From February 1, 1864, to the end of 1907 the shipments were as follows
Years.
Gross tons.
Years.
Gross tons.
Years.
Gross tons.
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873 . ,
1874
1875
1876
1877
165,915
114,802
216,659
202,755
165,843
173,428
174,407
176,054
193,317
166,782
112,429
98,924
137,901
171,588
179,299
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
268,488
231,172
249,050
309,680
363,143
412,319
508,864
688,054
667,210
722,917
769,020
686,302
663,755
634,714
439,705
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
371,710
614,598
463,059
419,878
584,342
763,152
558,713
747,012
594,177
401,469
174,331
617,060
763,788
704,004
1878
Grand total
20,366,696
In the above statistics the word production is strictly
applicable only down to 1853, but for that year and for
all subsequent years the figures represent shipments only.
For all practical purposes, however, production and ship-
ments may be regarded as convertible terms, as in a se-
ries of years production and shipments would be equalized.
The existence of iron ore on the southern border of
Lake Superior was known to white traders with the In-
220 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
dians as early as 1830, but the first discovery by white
men of the iron ore of this region was made on the 16th
of September, 1844, near the eastern end of Teal lake, in
Michigan, by William A. Burt, a deputy surveyor of the
United States Government. In June, 1845, the Jackson
Mining Company was organized at Jackson, Michigan,
for the purpose of exploring the mineral districts of the
southern shore of Lake Superior, and later in the summer
of that year this company secured possession of the since
celebrated Jackson iron mountain in the Marquette dis-
trict, near the place of Mr. Burt's discovery. Iron ore is
still taken from the Jackson mine.
The first shipment of iron ore from the Marquette dis-
trict of the Lake Superior region, the first district to be
developed, occurred in 1850, in which year A. L. Craw-
ford, of New Castle, Pennsylvania, took to that place
about ten tons of Jackson ore, a part of which was con-
verted into blooms and these blooms were rolled into bar
iron. Mr. Crawford's shipment of iron ore was hauled
around the Sault Ste. Marie on a strap railroad about one
and a quarter miles long. Shipments from this district for
commercial purposes did not begin until 1853, when about
70 tons were used in two blast furnaces in Mercer county,
Pennsylvania. The next Lake Superior iron ore district
to be developed was the Menominee district, from which
the first shipments were made in 1877, aggregating 10,405
tons. In 1884 the first shipments were made from the
Vermilion district, aggregating 62,124 tons. Next followed
the development of the Gogebic district, from which the
first shipments were also made in 1884, aggregating 1,022
tons. In 1892 the development of the Mesabi district be-
gan. Shipments in that year amounted to 4,245 tons.
In 1853 a few tons of Jackson ore were shipped to the
World's Fair at New York. On June 18, 1855, the first
steamer passed through the Sault Ste. Marie Canal from
the lower lakes to Lake Superior. The vessel was the
side-wheel steamer Illinois. The steamer Baltimore passed
down on the same day and was the first steamer to make
a continuous trip in the opposite direction. The editor of
the Marine Review, Ralph D. Williams, says that the first
CORNWALL AND OTHER IRON ORES.
221
shipment of iron ore through the Sault Canal was made
on the brig Columbia on August 17, 1855, and consisted
of 132 tons, shipped by the Cleveland Iron Mining Com-
pany and consigned to itself. He further says that all
the ore that left Lake Superior that year, amounting to
1,449 tons, was shipped by the same company.
In the following table the shipments of iron ore from
the Lake Superior iron ore region are given from the be-
ginning of shipments in 1853 and 1854 to the end of 1907.
The word shipments is not synonymous with production.
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota comprise the Lake
Superior iron ore region, and strictly speaking include
only the Marquette, Menominee, Gogebic, Vermilion, and
Mesabi iron ore districts, which are near the great lake.
The figures for 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, and 1907 include
the shipments from the Iron Ridge mine in the southern
part of Wisconsin. Shipments from the Baraboo district,
which is also in the southern part of Wisconsin, are in-
cluded in the figures for 1904, 1905, 1906, and 1907.
Years.
Gross tons.
Years.
Gross tons.
Years.
Gross tons.
1853-54 . . .
3,000
1872
900,901
1890
9,012,379
1855
1,449
1873
1,162,458
1891
7,062,233
1856
36,343
1874
919,557
1892
9,069,556
1857
25,646
1875
891,257
1893
6,060,492
1858
15,876
1876
992,764
1894
7,748,932
1859
68,832
1877
1,015,087
1895
10,438,268
1860
114,401
1878
1,111,110
1896
9,916,035
1861
49,909
1879
1,375,691
1897
12,469,638
1862
124,169
1880
1,908,745
1898
14,024,673
1863
203,055
1881
2,306,505
1899
18,251,804
1864
243,127
1882
2,965,412
1900
19,059,393
1865
236,208
1883
2,353,288
1901
20,593,537
1866
278,796
1884
2,518,692
1902
27,571,121
1867
473,567
1885
2,466,372
1903
24,289,878
1868
491,449
1886
3,568,022
1904
21,822,839
1869
617,444
1887
4,730,577
1905
34,353,456
1870
830,940
1888
5,063,693
1906
38,523,439
1871
779,607
1889
7,292,754
1907 ., ,
42,245,070
The grand total of the shipments of iron ore from the
Lake Superior region down to the close of 1907 amounted
to 380,649,446 gross tons — a stupendous aggregate.
222 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
The iron ores of Missouri received at one time a great
deal of attention from iron and steel manufacturers at
Pittsburgh and at other points in the Ohio valley, but
more than thirty years ago they were overshadowed in
importance by the iron ores of Lake Superior. The best
known Missouri mines are located at Iron Mountain and
Pilot Knob. The former were operated as early as 1845
and the latter as early as 1847. Iron Mountain has pro-
duced over 3,000,000 tons of ore and Pilot Knob has pro-
duced over 1,000,000 tons. In 1872 there were mined and
shipped from Iron Mountain alone 269,480 tons. A large
part of the shipments from Iron Mountain and Pilot
Knob was taken forty years ago to points on the Ohio
river. The receipts of Missouri ore at St. Louis in 1873,
largely for shipment to other localities, amounted to 349,-
357 tons. Of the total receipts in that year 113,327 tons
were shipped by river and 63,717 tons by rail. In those
days Pittsburgh was the leading purchaser of Missouri
ores, her blast furnaces and rolling mills taking 35,440
tons in 1871, 68,420 tons in 1872, and 113,069 tons in 1873.
The production of iron ore by all the mines of Missouri
in the census year 1870 amounted to 159,680 tons, in the
census year 1880 to 344,819 tons, and in the calendar year
1889 to 265,718 tons. The production has since declined.
In 1905 it amounted to 113,012 tons, but in some previous
years it had fallen considerably below 100,000 tons an-
nually. In 1907 the shipments amounted to 104,815 tons.
In late years shipments of southern pig iron to north-
ern and western markets have constituted a leading fea-
ture of the home iron trade, but only a little more than
thirty years ago these shipments were almost unknown
and southern men were looking to the North for a mar-
ket for their ores. In 1872, 1873, and 1874 considerable
quantities of iron ore from Tennessee, Alabama, and Geor-
gia were shipped to furnaces in Indiana and Ohio. The
trade began in 1872, reached its culmination in 1873, and
came to an end in 1874. In 1873 George H. Hull, of Louis-
ville, shipped to the North about 25,000 tons of Alabama
and brown hematite iron ore mined on the Selma, Rome,
and Dalton Railroad, and about the same number of tons
CORNWALL AND OTHER IRON ORES. 223
of red fossiliferous iron ore mined near Birmingham. A
considerable part of these ores was shipped to Brazil,
Knightsville, Terre Haute, and Harmony in Indiana, and
to Mingo Junction and Steubenville in Ohio. These ores
when delivered cost from $7.75 to $9.25 per ton, and two
tons of ore were required to make one ton of pig iron.
Fifty years ago Lake Champlain iron ores were very
popular for fettling in puddling furnaces as far west as
Pittsburgh, but their use for this purpose is now confined
to eastern rolling mills. From June to December of 1872
20,580 tons of these ores were received at Pittsburgh.
Soon after that year Missouri and Lake Superior ores su-
perseded Lake Champlain ores at Pittsburgh for the pur-
pose mentioned.
The following details were given to us by the late
Jacob Reese : " I sold more than 10,000 tons of Champlain
ore for fettling in Pittsburgh in 1856 and 1857, and it
was in use in Pittsburgh many years prior to my sales. In
1856 I bought from the Cleveland Iron Mining Company
the first cargo of 800 tons of Lake Superior iron ore that
they had brought to Cleveland. I shipped the ore to
Pittsburgh and sold it for fettling, and from 1856 to 1860
I sold over 50,000 tons of that ore for that purpose."
In a subsequent chapter credit will be claimed for
Pennsylvania capital and enterprise in the development
of the iron ores of Cuba. Two companies, both controlled
entirely by Pennsylvania capital, are now operating the
iron ore mines of Cuba — the Juragua Iron Company and
the Spanish-American Iron Company. The total ship-
ments by all companies from Cuba to all countries
from the opening of the mines in 1884 to the close of
1907 were as follows, in gross tons : the Juragua Iron
Company, Limited, and the Juragua Iron Company, 4,-
565,491 tons ; the Sigua Iron Company, 20,438 tons ; the
Spanish-American Iron Company, 4,018,494 tons ; and the
Cuban Steel Ore Company, 41,241 tons : total since 1884,
8,645,664 tons. Nearly all of this total was shipped to
the United States. The mines of the Sigua Iron Com-
pany and the Cuban Steel Ore Company were abandoned
several years ago.
224
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXII.
COAL AND COKE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
The history of the development of the anthracite and
bituminous coal industries of Pennsylvania has been so
fully presented in various publications that it need not be
here repeated, but some of the recent features of this de-
velopment are important and will be presented in this
chapter. (See Iron in All Ages, pages 467 to 478.)
It has been shown in a previous chapter that in 1905
Pennsylvania produced 49.9 per cent, of all the coal that
was mined in the United States. Of this large percentage
the anthracite production of the year supplied approxi-
mately 19.77 per cent, and the bituminous production sup-
plied about 30.15 per cent. These proportions were ma-
terially altered in 1906, the anthracite production largely
decreasing and the bituminous production largely in-
creasing. In 1907 anthracite production again increased.
The production of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania in
1905 by counties is given in the following table by Hon.
Edward W. Parker, statistician in charge, division of min-
ing and mineral resources of the United States Geological
Survey. The production in 1906 was 63,645,010 gross tons.
Counties— 1905.
Gross tons.
Counties— 1905.
Gross tons.
Susquehanna
607,273
17,525,995
26,216,518
2,193,229
15,779,415
Sullivan
Northumberland
Total
1,097,944
Luzerne
Schuylkill
274,167
4,920,098
724,513
69,339,152
Of the above total production of anthracite coal in
Pennsylvania in 1905 there were shipped to market 61,-
654,432 tons, sold to the local trade and to employes
1,402,644 tons, and used at mines for steam and heat 6,282,-
076 tons : total, 69,339,152 tons. The first shipments of
anthracite coal for which exact statistics are available
were made from the Lehigh region in 1820, when they
COAL AND COKE IN PENNSYLVANIA.
225
amounted to 365 tons. The production in 1905 was the
largest that had been recorded down to that year.
The production of bituminous coal in Pennsylvania in
1905 and 1906 by counties is given in the following table
in net tons of 2,000 pounds, for which we are also indebted
to Mr. Parker. The net ton of 2,000 pounds is in univer-
sal use in the coal trade in Western Pennsylvania and the
West, while throughout the East all coal, both bitumi-
nous and anthracite, is sold by the gross ton. The pro-
duction of bituminous coal in Pennsylvania in 1905 was
118,413,637 net tons and in 1906 it was 129,293,206 tons.
The table specifies the coal made into coke at the mines;
coal consumed in making coke elsewhere is not indicated.
Counties — Net tons.
Production
in 1905.
Made into coke
at mines in 1905
Production
in 1906.
Made into coke
at mines in 1906
Allegheny
Armstrong ....
Beaver
Bedford
Blair . . „
Butler
Cambria
Centre
Clarion
Clearfield ..;...
Elk
Fayette
Huntingdon . . .
Indiana
Jefferson
Lawrence
Mercer ,
Somerset ,
Tioga
Washington
Westmoreland . .
Other counties * .
13,662,610
2,497,314
82,676
752,715
348,749
550,589
12,600,891
810,441
714,478
7,248,305
1,249,337
24,250,989
559,039
4,477,431
6,393,985
267,470
707,964
6,412,672
706,723
10,609,051
22,998,726
511,482
6,844
213,811
67,918
1,292,574
225,491
77,328
16,112,687
303,083
1,310,108
81,075
67,183
8,125,022
43,158
16,823,027
2,574,758
81,531
734,855
402,438
803,499
12,439,152
895,434
719,548
5,944,745
944,367
27,044,451
630,155
4,657,457
5,160,195
257,716
842,648
6,674,191
826,925
12,714,405
27,573,420
548,289
8,594
155,611
78,619
1,205,491
1,002
252,414
57,334
18,608,461
226,089
1,165,598
41,307
188,871
9,006,467
30,336
* Cameron, Clinton, Greene, and Lycoming. Also include small mines.
There are sixty-seven counties in Pennsylvania, and
of these counties twenty-five produced bituminous coal in
1905 and 1906. Westmoreland and Fayette are the leading
bituminous coal-producing counties, due largely to the suit-
ability of the coal mined in their borders for conversion
15
226 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
into Connellsville^coke. These coking-coal counties will
long maintain their present leadership as coal producers.
Allegheny, Washington, and Cambria counties come next
in the production of coal. Without reference to the sta-
tistical record few persons would suppose that Allegheny
county, the great iron and steel centre of the world, is one
of the greatest coal-producing counties of the country, its
output in 1906 amounting to nearly 17,000,000 net tons.
Nor would they suppose that Cambria county, in which
the works of the Cambria Steel Company are located, is
also a leading coal-producing county. This prominence
by Cambria county has been attained within the last few
years. Washington county has greatly added to its coal
record from year to year. Jefferson county has also
come to the front as a coal-producer within recent years,
while Somerset county has started upon a coal-producing
career that has already eclipsed that of Jefferson county.
Clearfield has long been active as a producer of bitumi-
nous coal. In Indiana and Armstrong counties a start
has recently been made in the development of their bitu-
minous deposits which has produced substantial results.
The earliest statistical mention of the production of
bituminous coal in Pennsylvania is in the census of 1840,
when it was reported to have amounted to 464,826 net
tons. The census of 1860 reported 2,690,786 net tons.
In 1907 the whole country produced 352,540,830 gross
tons, of which Pennsylvania's share was 134,215,569 tons.
The same high authority from which we have obtained
the coal statistics of Pennsylvania for 1905 and 1906 does
not separate the coke production of the State by coun-
ties but only by districts, the principal districts being the
Connellsville in Westmoreland and Fayette counties and
the Lower Connellsville in Fayette county, south of the
Connellsville district proper. The Connellsville district is
the most productive coke district in the world. In addi-
tion to the Connellsville and Lower Connellsville districts
there is another but comparatively unimportant district
in Westmoreland county, which is known as the Upper
Connellsville district, and which " lies north of a point a
short distance south of the town of Latrobe."
COAL AND COKE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 227
The beginning of the manufacture of Connellsville coke
dates commercially from the winter of 1841 and 1842,
when two beehive ovens were built on the farm of John
Taylor, on the Youghiogheny river, a few miles below
Connellsville. The product of these ovens was shipped to
Cincinnati in 1842 and there sold with much difficulty.
The production of coke in Pennsylvania in the census
year 1880 was 2,317,149 net tons, made from 3,608,095
net tons of coal. In the whole country the production
of coke in the same census year was 2,752,475 net tons,
made from 4,360,110 net tons of coal.
The total production of coke in Pennsylvania in 1905
was 20,573,736 net tons, of which 11,365,077 tons were
made in the Connellsville district proper, 3,871,310 tons in
the Lower Connellsville district, and 755,946 tons in the
Upper Connellsville district : total for the three districts,
15,992,333 net tons. The total production by the whole
country in 1905 was 32,231,129 tons, nearly one-half of
which, or 49.6 per cent., was Connellsville coke.
The total production of coke in Pennsylvania in 1906
was 23,060,511 net tons, of which 12,057,840 tons were
made in the Connellsville district proper, 5,188,135 tons in
the Lower Connellsville district, and 1,011,229 tons in the
Upper Connellsville district: total for the three districts,
18,257,204 net tons. The total production by the whole
country in 1906 was 36,401,217 net tons. The production
of all the Connellsville districts in 1906 was a little more
than one-half of the country's total production of coke in
that year, or over 50.1 per cent. The total production of
coke in 1907 was 40,779,564 net tons, of which Pennsyl-
vania produced 26,513,214 tons, or over 65 per cent.
Western Pennsylvania, in which nearly all the bitu-
minous coal of the State is mined, is our great bitumi-
nous " black district." In the quantity of coal it annually
produces it is now far in advance of the great anthracite
coal region in Eastern Pennsylvania. It embraces a much
larger area than its anthracite rival, and the develop-
ments of the near future may somewhat widen this area.
The area of anthracite development in Pennsylvania is
already defined. In all the leading counties of Western
228 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Pennsylvania there has recently existed the greatest min-
ing activity. In nearly all the counties included in the
table investors and mining engineers have lately been
busily engaged in locating and securing title to valuable
coal territory that had previously been wholly undevel-
oped and neglected. Some of these acquisitions have al-
ready been developed, while others will be held as invest-
ments or to supplement fields that are now being work-
ed out. The traveler on any of the railroads through
the counties referred to will be amazed at the activity in
the production of coal that is observable on every hand,
accompanied in many localities by equal activity in the
manufacture of coke.
But over all this activity — over all this "black dis-
trict"— there hangs a black cloud other than that which
the coal itself makes when it is converted into coke or is
consumed by locomotives and the manufacturing enter-
prises that it has created. A very large proportion of the
population of Western Pennsylvania which is engaged in
mining coal and in making coke is composed of undesir-
able foreign elements, and with these are associated many
undesirable negroes who have been brought from the
Southern States. So numerous and oftentimes so lawless
are these foreign and negro laborers that the character
of whole communities has been radically changed within
the last ten or fifteen years. Indiana and Somerset coun-
ties, for instance, have been largely transformed by these
laborers from peaceful agricultural districts into unat-
tractive centres of coal-mining and coke-making activity
in which dissipation and lawlessness constantly prevail.
The Black Hand is not fully held in check by the State
constabulary, a police force that was established solely for
the purpose of keeping the lawless foreign element under
control. The courts in many counties are kept busy try-
ing Black Hand and other foreign-born lawbreakers. The
prosperity that has brought into Western Pennsylvania the
elements that we have referred to is very far from being
an unmixed blessing. Similar labor conditions have long
existed in the anthracite region. The principal offenders of
foreign birth in Western Pennsylvania are Italians.
INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 229
CHAPTER XXIII.
INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED BY PENNSYLVANIANS.
Prior to 1835 coke had been used in a small way in
forges in Pennsylvania and as a mixture with charcoal in
a few blast furnaces. In that year William Firmstone, a
native of England, succeeded in making good forge pig
iron for one month at the end of a blast at Mary Ann
furnace, in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, with coke
from Broad Top coal. This pig iron was taken to a forge
three miles distant and made into blooms. In 1837 F. H.
Oliphant made at Fairchance furnace, near Uniontown, in
Fayette county, Pennsylvania, a quantity of coke pig iron
exceeding 20 tons and probably exceeding 100 tons.
These two experiments marked the beginning of the
coke industry in this country in supplying a desirable
fuel in the manufacture of pig iron. Our first continu-
ous use of coke in the blast furnace was accomplished
at Lonaconing furnace, in Western Maryland, in 1838 or
1839. In June, 1839, this furnace, which was built by the
George's Creek Company, was making about 70 tons per
week of good foundry iron. Other furnaces, particularly
in Western Pennsylvania, soon afterwards used coke, but
its use as a furnace fuel did not come rapidly into favor.
For many years after 1840 anthracite coal was the favor-
ite blast furnace fuel next to charcoal. It was not until
after 1850 that the use of coke began to exert an appre-
ciable influence in the manufacture of pig iron. In 1849
there was not one coke furnace in blast in Pennsylvania.
In 1856 there were twenty-one furnaces in Pennsylvania,
all in the western part of the State, and three in Mary-
land which were using coke or were adapted to its use.
After 1856 the use of coke in the blast furnace increased
in Pennsylvania and was extended to other States, but it
was not until 1869 that the country made more pig iron
with coke than with charcoal, and not until 1875 that it
made more than with anthracite. In 1907 more than 98
230 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
per cent, of the country's total production of pig iron
was made with coke, either by itself or in combination
with anthracite or raw bituminous coal. Pennsylvania
produces more coke than all the other States combined.
After many unsuccessful experiments with anthracite
coal in the blast furnace, and a few moderately successful
experiments, the use of this fuel in the manufacture of
pig iron was made entirely successful in 1840 by David
Thomas, who on the 3d day of July of that year blew in
the first furnace of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, at
Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, with the new fuel. Water pow-
er from the Lehigh river was used in blowing the furnace.
On July 4 its first cast of pig iron was made. Other
furnaces soon began to use anthracite coal, and in a few
years the manufacture of anthracite pig iron became an
important branch of the iron industry of Pennsylvania
and adjoining States. In 1855 more pig iron was made
with anthracite coal than with charcoal. About 1840 the
use of anthracite coal in the puddling and heating fur-
naces of rolling mills in Eastern Pennsylvania and in some
other States became general. It had previously been used
in the generation of steam. Anthracite coal is but little
used in the blast furnace in this country to-day, and the
most of what is used is mixed with coke. In 1907 the
total quantity of pig iron made with anthracite coal alone
amounted to only 36,268 tons, all of which was made in
the Lehigh valley.
The use of raw bituminous coal, or uncoked coal, in
the blast furnace, which is now virtually abandoned, has
been chiefly confined to the Shenango and Mahoning val-
leys in Pennsylvania and Ohio respectively, in which a
very hard bituminous coal, known as splint coal, or block
coal, is found, and which is not a good coking coal. The
use of this coal in its raw state in the blast furnace dates
from 1845, when Clay furnace, in Mercer county, Penn-
sylvania, was successfully operated with it for some time.
In the same year Mahoning furnace, in Mahoning county,
Ohio, was built to use this fuel. In 1856 six furnaces in
Pennsylvania and thirteen in Ohio were using it, their
production in that year being 25,073 gross tons. Some
INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 231
progress was afterwards made in the use of the same
coal in the Hocking valley in Ohio, and also in Clay
county and neighboring counties in Indiana, but since
1880 its use has gradually declined, until to-day when
used in making pig iron it is always mixed with coke.
In 1890 the total production with this mixture was over
300,000 tons; in 1907 it was about 100,000 tons.
The first use of Lake Superior iron ore in a blast fur-
nace in this country occurred in 1853 at Sharpsville fur-
nace, in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, owned by David
and John Park Agnew, and in the same year it was used
at Clay furnace, in the same county, owned by the Sharon
Iron Company, at both furnaces successfully. Block coal
was used exclusively at both furnaces. After 1856 other
furnaces in Pennsylvania and in other States began the
use of Lake Superior ore.
The first use anywhere of Cuban iron ore was in 1884
at furnaces in Eastern Pennsylvania owned by the Beth-
lehem Iron Company and the Pennsylvania Steel Com-
pany, which companies had jointly undertaken through
the Juragua Iron Company, Limited, the development of
the iron ore deposits of Cuba. This development has
since been continued on a large scale by this company
and by other companies, as is shown on page 223.
The manufacture of steel by the old-time method of
cementation never attained a position of much prominence
in this country, while the manufacture of crucible steel
made but slow progress down to about 1860. Up to this
time the country's main reliance for steel was upon Eng-
lish manufacturers. The manufacture of crucible steel of
the best quality was established on a firm basis when
Hussey, Wells & Co. and Park, Brother & Co., of Pitts-
burgh, and Gregory & Co., of Jersey City, in the years
1860, 1862, and 1863, respectively, succeeded in making it
as a regular product. Dr. Curtis G. Hussey, of Pittsburgh,
is entitled to the credit of having established this in-
dustry in our country on a solid foundation, the firm of
which he was the head having successfully, for the first
time in our history, made crucible steel of the best
quality as a regular product in 1860. Of the country's
232 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
total production of 131,234 tons of crucible steel in 1907
Pennsylvania made 87,556 tons, and almost 57 per cent,
of this large proportion was made in Allegheny county.
The manufacture of Bessemer steel in this country
was commenced in an experimental way at Wyandotte,
Michigan, in 1864, and again at Troy, New York, in 1865.
The steel made at Wyandotte was made by the Kelly
Pneumatic Process Company, which was largely composed
of Pennsylvanians — William Kelly, James Park, Jr., and
William M. Lyon, of Pittsburgh, and Daniel J. Morrell, of
Johnstown. In May, 1867, the Pennsylvania Steel Com-
pany made at its Steelton works the first Bessemer steel
that was made in Pennsylvania. In 1867 the whole coun-
try made 2,679 tons of Bessemer steel and 2,277 tons of
Bessemer steel rails. The first steel rails produced in the
United States in commercial quantities were rolled by the
Cambria Iron Company, at Johnstown, in August, 1867,
from ingots made at the works of the Pennsylvania Steel
Company. Pennsylvania has been by far the most active
of all the States in the development of the Bessemer
steel industry. The country's total production of Besse-
mer steel in 1906 was 12,275,830 tons, of which Penn-
sylvania made 39.3 per cent. In 1905 it made over 41
per cent. Of the total production of Bessemer steel rails
in 1905 Pennsylvania's share was 34.3 per cent., and in
1906 it was 34.2 per cent.
The manufacture of steel by the Siemens-Martin, or
open-hearth, process was introduced into this country in
1868 by Cooper, Hewitt & Co., at the works of the New
Jersey Steel and Iron Company, at Trenton. This enter-
prise was not a commercial success. Open-hearth steel
was first made in Pennsylvania by Singer, Nimick & Co.,
at Pittsburgh, in 1871 or 1872, and its manufacture was
commercially successful. In August, 1875, there were
thirteen establishments in this country which were then
making open-hearth steel or were prepared to make it,
and of these five were located in Pennsylvania, of which
three were in Pittsburgh. The country's total production
of open-hearth steel in 1875 was, however, only 8,080
tons, and ten years afterwards it was only 133,376 tons,
INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 233
but in 1895 it was 1,137,182 tons and in 1905 it was
8,971,376 tons. Of the total production in 1905 Pennsyl-
vania's share was 6,471,818 tons, or over 72 per cent. The
production of Allegheny county in 1905 was 3,410,482
tons, or over 38 per cent, of the total production. The
total production of open-hearth steel in 1907 was 11,-
549,736 tons, of which Pennsylvania made 7,868,353 tons.
Allegheny county's production was 3,883,014 tons.
On May 24, 1884, the Pennsylvania Steel Company
made the first basic Bessemer steel that was made in this
country. It was of excellent quality but its production
was not continued. No basic Bessemer steel has been
made in the United States since 1897, when about 69,000
tons of ingots were produced at Troy, New York, by the
Troy Steel Company.
The manufacture of basic open-hearth steel was com-
menced in this country in 1886 by the Otis Iron and Steel
Company, at Cleveland, Ohio, which operated one furnace
experimentally on basic steel for about ten weeks, when
its further manufacture was discontinued. The manufac-
ture of basic open-hearth steel in this country as a reg-
ular commercial product dates, however, from 1888, on
the 30th of March of which year basic open-hearth steel
was produced at the Homestead steel works of Carnegie,
Phipps & Co., Limited, at Homestead, near Pittsburgh. In
1907 the whole country's production of basic open-hearth
steel amounted to 10,279,315 tons.
In 1897 Samuel T. Wellman wrote from Cleveland to
the New York Railroad Gazette as follows : "The first ba-
sic open-hearth steel made in this country was made at
the works of the Otis Steel Company, of this city, under
the immediate supervision of Mr. George W. Goetz. One
furnace was started on January 19, 1886, with a mag-
nesite bottom, the magnesite being imported from Aus-
tria in the fall of 1885. This furnace was kept at work
making basic steel until April 6, 1886, making in all some-
thing over 1,000 tons of ingots. Just about that time the
company became very hard pressed for steel to fill their
orders and they decided to stop the manufacture of basic
steel, as it was experimental."
234 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Pennsylvania was the first among the States to de-
velop the petroleum industry, and for many years after
the beginning of this development it possessed a virtual
monopoly of the production of petroleum. The petroleum
industry has added greatly to the prosperity and wealth
of Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania has produced
most of the petroleum that has been found in this State.
Stowell's Petroleum Reporter for August, 1876, says :
" The earliest mention of the existence of petroleum in
the United States is probably that contained in a letter
of July 8, 1627, written by the French missionary, Jo-
seph Delaroche, and published in Sagard's Histoire du
Canada. The locality mentioned is supposed to be near
the present town of Cuba, Allegany county, New York.
On a map published about 1760 there appear near the
site of this town the words Fontaine de Bitume. The ear-
liest mention of petroleum in Pennsylvania appears to be
by Charlevoix in his journal of May, 1721, who speaks on
the authority of Captain de Joncaire of the existence of a
fountain at the head of a branch of the Ohio (Allegheny),
'the water of which is like oil and has the taste of iron,'
and was used 'to appease all manner of pain.' On a map
published in 1755 the word 'petroleum' appears near the
mouth of the present Oil creek on the Allegheny river."
In Appleton's Cyclopaedia Professor Peckham says :
" The occurrence of petroleum about the headwaters of
the Allegheny river in New York and Pennsylvania was
known to the early settlers. The Indians collected it on
the shores of Seneca lake and it was sold as medicine by
the name of Seneca or Genesee oil."
Rev. David Zeisberger, the Moravian apostle to the
Indians, in his journal written in 1769, makes mention of
oil, or petroleum, in what is now Forest county, Pennsyl-
vania. He says : " It is used medicinally for toothache,
rheumatism, etc. Sometimes it is taken internally. It is of
a brown color and burns well and can be used in lamps."
Some of the early salt wells of the Kanawha valley in
West Virginia produced petroleum as well as salt. The
earliest mention we have found of petroleum in these
wells is in 1806 ; another reference is in 1829. As early as
INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 235
1836 from 50 to 100 barrels of petroleum were annually
collected in the Kanawha valley and sold as a medicine.
Petroleum was discovered in a salt well in Ohio in
1814. A salt well on Duck creek discharged petroleum
in that year. Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of Marietta, in a contri-
bution to the American Journal of Science in 1826 con-
cerning the Ohio borings for salt water, says : " They
have sunk two wells, which are now more than 400 feet
in depth ; one of them affords a very strong and pure
water. The other discharges such vast quantities of petro-
leum, and besides is subject to such tremendous explosions
of gas as to force out all the water and afford nothing
but gas for several days, that they make but little or no
salt. Nevertheless the petroleum is beginning to be in
demand for lamps in workshops and manufactories."
In Johnson's Cyclopaedia Professor Chandler says that
" in 1829 a flowing oil well was accidentally obtained in
Burkesville, Kentucky, and for two or three weeks the oil
flowed over the surface of Cumberland river, and becom-
ing ignited caused some apprehension of a general confla-
gration. "
These details show the existence of petroleum in New
York in 1627 ; in Pennsylvania in 1721 ; in the Kanawha
valley as early as 1806 ; in Ohio in 1814 ; and in Ken-
tucky in 1829. But petroleum did not become a com-
mercial product until 1859, in which year Edwin L. Drake,
a native of Greenville, New York, bored an oil well on
Oil creek, at Titusville, Pennsylvania. On August 31, 1859,
the production of petroleum in a commercial sense began
at this well, which yielded about twenty-five barrels a day
by pumping. Other wells were at once bored in Pennsyl-
vania, New York, West Virginia, Ohio, and other States.
Samuel M. Kier, of Pittsburgh, was the first person to
demonstrate the practicability of refining petroleum. This
was done by him in 1850. He had previously collected
petroleum from the salt wells near Tarentum, on the Al-
legheny river, and bottled it as a medicine. In the year
mentioned he erected a small refinery in Pittsburgh and
this enterprise was entirely successful.
As petroleum was often found in the wells that had
236 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
been bored for salt so natural gas was often found in
wells that had been bored for petroleum. Sometimes all
of these products were found in the same well. Natural
gas and petroleum are, however, allied products. The ex-
istence of natural gas west of the Alleghenies has long
been known. Its presence in the Kanawha valley is men-
tioned by Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia. Soon after
1840 gas was found in many salt wells in this valley and
it was used for both heating and illuminating purposes.
As early as 1821 natural gas was used at Fredonia, New
York, to light houses and other buildings. But natural
gas was not brought into general use anywhere in this
country until many years after Colonel Drake's success
in boring for petroleum at Titusville in 1859. At first,
when found in boring for oil, it was usually allowed to
escape into the atmosphere, but subsequently its great
value caused it to be directed into pipes. The first gas
well in the celebrated Murrysville district in Westmore-
land county, Pennsylvania, was bored in 1878 expressly
for gas, but for five years the immense product of this
well was allowed to go to waste because it could not be
controlled. In the decade between 1870 and 1880 natu-
ral gas began to be freely used in Western Pennsylvania
and adjoining States for heating residences and for light-
ing streets, but it was not until after 1880 that it received
much attention as a fuel in manufacturing establishments.
Soon after this year its use for this purpose was greatly
extended. Pittsburgh did not begin the general use of
natural gas in its iron and steel works until 1883, when
the Murrysville gas was first used. In November, 1907,
the whole number of rolling mills and steel works in the
United States which used natural gas was 137, of which
53 were in Allegheny county and 37 were in other parts
of Western Pennsylvania.
At the Siberian rolling mill of Rogers & Burchfield, at
Leechburg, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, natural gas,
taken from a well 1,200 feet deep, was first used as fuel in
the manufacture of iron. In the fall of 1874 it was stated
that during the preceding six months this gas had fur-
nished all the fuel required for puddling, heating, and
INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 237
making steam at these works. Soon after 1874 the firm
of Spang, Chalfant & Co., owners of the Etna rolling mill,
in Allegheny county, introduced natural gas in its works.
In Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, written in 1781-82,
we find the following interesting account of a burning
spring, which was without doubt supplied with natural
gas : " In the low grounds of the Great Kanhaway, 7
miles above the mouth of Elk river, and 67 above that
of the Kanhaway itself, is a hole in the earth of the ca-
pacity of 30 or 40 gallons, from which issues constantly
a bituminous vapor in so strong a current as to give the
sand above the orifice the motion which it has in a boil-
ing spring. On presenting a lighted candle or torch within
18 inches of the hole it flames up in a column of 18 inches
in diameter and four or five feet height, which sometimes
burns out in 20 minutes, and at other times has been
known to continue three days and then has been still left
burning. The flame is unsteady, of the density of that of
burning spirits, and smells like burning pit coal. Water
sometimes collects in the basin, which is remarkably cold,
and is kept in ebullition by the vapor issuing through
it. . . This, with the circumjacent lands, is the property
of his Excellency General Washington and of General
Lewis ; there is a similar one on Sandy river. " In Wash-
ington's will, written in 1799, he refers to the burning
spring in an inventory of his lands on the Great Kana-
wha as follows: " Burning Spring, 125 acres. The tract of
which the 125 acres is a moiety was taken up by General
Andrew Lewis and myself on account of a bituminous
spring which it contains, of so inflammable a nature as
to burn as freely as spirits, and is as nearly difficult to
extinguish."
Pennsylvania is to-day and has always been the larg-
est consumer of natural gas of all the States, the most of
which it has itself produced. In 1906 the whole country
produced natural gas of the estimated value of $46,873,-
932, of which the product of Pennsylvania was valued at
$18,558,245, West Virginia coming next with $13,735,343.
A large part of the annual product of West Virginia is
consumed in Pennsylvania.
238 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Pennsylvania has lost its supremacy in the production
of petroleum, as has been shown in the chapter relating
to the great industries of Pennsylvania. It has also lost
its early prominence in the manufacture of salt, also an
industry of Western Pennsylvania. Major S. S. Jamison,
of Saltsburg, Indiana county, who died in 1887 in his
80th year, says in his reminiscences : "In the early days,
say from 1800 up to 1812, all the iron, salt, etc., to sup-
ply the wants of the people of this county was brought
from the East on pack-horses. In the fall of the year
they would start east, each man with three horses and
pack-saddles loaded with linen, cloth, flax, etc., and return
with iron and salt. The latter was purchased at McCon-
nellsburg, Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown, Maryland, and
the former at different places."
Egle's History of Pennsylvania contains the following
account of the discovery of salt in Western Pennsylva-
nia : "About the year 1812 or 1813 an old lady named
Deemer discovered an oozing of salt water at low-water
mark on the Indiana side of the Conemaugh river, about
two miles above the present site of Saltsburg. Prompted
by curiosity she gathered some of the water to use for
cooking purposes, and with a portion of it made mush,
which she found to be quite palatable. About the year
1813 William Johnson, an enterprising young man from
Franklin county, commenced boring a well at the spot
where Mrs. Deemer made the discovery, and at the depth
of 287 feet found an abundance of salt water. The salt
sold at $5 per bushel, retail, but as the wells multiplied
the price came down to $4. Seven wells along the river
on the Westmoreland side were all put down prior to
1820 and 1822 ; and from that date till 1830 the group of
hills on both sides of the river was like a great beehive."
In the sketch from which the above extract is taken
21 salt works, embracing 24 wells, are enumerated as hav-
ing once been in operation on the Conemaugh river, in
Westmoreland and Indiana counties, all of which works,
except three, had been abandoned in 1876. The manu-
facture of salt was actively carried on in Westmoreland,
Indiana, Armstrong, and Erie counties in 1820. In 1826
INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 239
there were 35 salt works on the Conemaugh and Kiski-
minitas rivers, 3 on the Allegheny, and others in progress
elsewhere. In 1840 Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette,
and McKean counties manufactured salt in addition to
the counties named above, except Erie, which had then
dropped out of the business. The salt industry in Penn-
sylvania reached its culmination in 1860. Since 1889 it
has been confined to one works in Allegheny City. It
may be classed among the lost industries of Pennsylvania.
In 1811 salt works were erected on Sinnemahoning
creek, probably in the present county of Cameron. A
handbill announced in 1811 that "considerable quan-
tities of salt have been already manufactured." In 1820
John Mitchell, of Bellefonte, bored a salt well in Karthaus
township, Clearfield county, and made considerable quan-
tities of salt for several years. Salt has been found in
Susquehanna, Tioga, Cambria, and a few other counties.
Prior to 1796 all the salt used in Western Pennsyl-
vania was imported and packed or hauled from eastern
cities. In that year General James O'Hara, of Pittsburgh,
opened communication with the Onondaga salt works in
New York, and he continued to supply Pittsburgh and
Western Pennsylvania with salt down to the discovery of
salt in the Conemaugh valley. But until Western Penn-
sylvania began to make its own salt much of the salt
used by the pioneers was obtained in eastern markets.
The charter for at least one of the early turnpikes lead-
ing to Pittsburgh stipulated that west-bound wagons haul-
ing salt should not be subject to the payment of toll.
In the first half of the nineteenth century Juniata iron,
Pittsburgh coal, iron, and glass, Conemaugh salt, and Alle-
gheny lumber were important factors in the development
of Western Pennsylvania, aided by favorable transporta-
tion facilities, but in the second half of that century Juni-
ata iron and Conemaugh salt virtually disappeared from
the markets and in their place there was developed the
petroleum trade, the widespread use of natural gas, and
the general substitution of steel for iron. To-day West-
ern Pennsylvania is noted for its immense production of
pig iron and steel, bituminous coal, and coke.
240 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXIV.
INDUSTRIES CREATED BY PENNSYLVANIANS.
Although successful experiments in the manufacture
of tinplates had been made in this country before 1890
most of them had been abandoned because tariff duties
were too low. The manufacture of tinplates and terne
plates was not established until the tariff of 1890 increas-
ed the duty on both these products from one cent to two
and two-tenths cents per pound. The new duty did not
take effect, however, until July 1, 1891, but our manufac-
turers a year before confidently looked for only favora-
ble results. Pennsylvania early took advantage of the new
tariff legislation in supplying the country's general mar-
ket with tinplates and terne plates ; indeed this legislation
could not have been secured at the time it was enacted,
if ever, but for the work of Pennsylvanians in creating
a public sentiment in its favor. The United States Iron
and Tin Plate Company, of Allegheny county, was the first
to engage in the manufacture of tinplates in 1890. Early
in that year, anticipating the passage of the bill enacting
the new duty, this company, led by one of its members,
Mr. W. C. Cronemeyer, who had been active in advocating
the new duty, commenced the manufacture of tinplates
of the best quality from sheets of its own make, and be-
fore the year closed the company had manufactured and
sold about fifty tons of tinplates. This company contin-
ued to manufacture tinplates of a superior quality as a
regular product. In the same year and in the following
year other companies in Pennsylvania actively engaged
in the manufacture of tinplates and terne plates. In the
census year 1904 the whole country produced 387,289
tons of tinplates, valued at $28,429,971, of which Pennsyl-
vania produced 234,333 tons, valued at $16,547,120, and in
the same year the country produced 70,919 tons of terne
plates, valued at $6,119,572, of which Pennsylvania pro-
duced 26,202 tons, valued at $2,381,277. No later census
INDUSTRIES CREATED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 241
statistics are available at this time, but it is certain that
Pennsylvania's leadership in the production of both tin-
plates and terne plates has been greatly strengthened in
the intervening years.
The manufacture in this country of armor plate and
other heavy forgings for naval vessels is exclusively con-
fined to Pennsylvania. Down to 1904 there had been es-
tablished only two armor plate works, one at South Beth-
lehem and the other at Homestead, the first by the Beth-
lehem Iron Company and the other by the firm of Car-
negie, Phipps & Co., Limited, afterwards the Carnegie
Steel Company, but in the year mentioned the Midvale
Steel Company, of Philadelphia, began the manufacture of
armor plate. The conception of the project to establish
the Bethlehem armor plant, the pioneer plant, originated
with Joseph Wharton, the leading stockholder in the Beth-
lehem Iron Company, the builder and successful manager
of the plant being John Fritz, the chief engineer and gen-
eral superintendent of all the company's works. The first
contract for armor with the Bethlehem Iron Company
was made by the Navy Department on June 1, 1887, and
the first contract for armor with Carnegie, Phipps & Co.
was made by the Department on November 20, 1890. The
armor plate industry of this country, both in magnitude
and in the character of its products, embodies the highest
achievements of American metallurgical skill, and we owe
it all to the enterprise and skill of Pennsylvanians. The
American navy would have made but a sorry display in
our recent war with Spain if the demand for armor for
the "new navy" had not been fully met by the Bethle-
hem and the Carnegie companies.
Spelter, as crude metallic zinc is called, had never
before 1859 been produced in the United States upon such
conditions as to encourage the hope that its manufacture
would become a staple industry. In 1856 the Lehigh Zinc
Company, of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, built a spel-
ter furnace of the Silesian type at its zinc mine near Frie-
densville, four miles south of Bethlehem, but this furnace
did not yield any zinc. Samuel Wetherill, the patentee of
valuable improvements in the manufacture of zinc oxide,
16
242 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
also experimented at South Bethlehem in the production
of metallic zinc and produced a small quantity as early
as 1858, but, although he persevered for about two years,
and made in all about fifty tons of excellent spelter, the
cost of production was too high and his enterprise was
abandoned. The first sheet zinc made in this country was
rolled by Alan Wood & Sons, of Philadelphia, from an
ingot of Mr. WetherilPs spelter. In 1859 Joseph Wharton,
of Philadelphia, built for the Lehigh Zinc Company, with
which he had been associated since 1851 as stockholder
and afterwards as manager, a Belgian spelter furnace of
about 45 retorts, which he operated with the aid of sev-
eral workmen imported for the purpose. The fuel used
was Pennsylvania anthracite, and the ore was obtained
from the Lehigh Zinc Company's mine near Friedensville.
The spelter produced amounted to 34,063 pounds. This
successful enterprise of Mr. Wharton was the beginning of
the manufacture of metallic zinc in this country as a com-
mercial product. Immediately after this successful experi-
ment Mr. Wharton built at his own risk at the works of
the Lehigh Zinc Company a complete spelter plant of 16
Belgian furnaces, which he operated for his own account
under lease from the company with absolutely unbroken
success until 1863, when he retired from the business.
Mr. Wharton is also entitled to credit as the pioneer
in the manufacture of refined nickel. In 1864 he purchas-
ed the abandoned Gap nickel mine in Lancaster county,
Pennsylvania, and from its ores made metallic nickel and
nickel-copper alloy at works he had erected at Camden,
New Jersey. In 1876 he produced pure malleable nickel
which he made into various useful articles, being the first
person in the world to accomplish this result. For many
years he was the only producer of refined nickel in this
country, his Gap mine, although now virtually exhausted,
being for a quarter of a century the only nickel mine in
operation on the American continent. Practically all the
nickel that is now made in the United States is obtained
from nickel matte produced in Canada. Mr. Wharton's en-
terprise gave to the Government a cheap supply of nickel
that was essential to its nickel coinage, and he gave to
INDUSTRIES CREATED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 243
the whole country an abundant supply of a metal then
much needed for making German silver as well as for
coinage, and which is now imperatively needed in much
larger quantities for making the nickel steel so largely
used for armor plates, gun forgings, etc.
An enterprising Pennsylvanian, Dr. Curtis G. Hussey,
of Pittsburgh, who is referred to in a preceding chapter,
was the first person to develop the rich copper deposits of
the Lake Superior region and afterwards to produce ingots
of copper from the ore and sheets of copper from ingots.
We condense from the Magazine of Western History for
1892 the following circumstantial account of Dr. Hussey's
enterprise. It says : " Dr. C. G. Hussey, of Pittsburgh, was
the pioneer in opening the first copper mine on Lake Su-
perior and also in the erection of the first works for smelt-
ing Lake Superior copper, and he built the first copper
mill west of the Alleghenies. In 1843 he sent John Hays
into the far-away region to see what discoveries he could
make. During his exploring tour Mr. Hays purchased for
Dr. Hussey a one-sixth interest in the first three permits
ever granted by the United States for mining in that
region. They had been taken out originally by Messrs.
Talmage and Raymond, of New York, and Mr. Ansley,
of Dubuque, Iowa, each one-third. Thomas M. Howe, of
Pittsburgh, afterwards a member of Congress, purchased
a part of this one-sixth interest. Later in 1843 other pur-
chases were made by Dr. Hussey and his friends, giving
them a controlling interest. The permits covered three
miles square, the first being located at Copper Harbor,
the second at Eagle River, and the third some three miles
west of the second, but, being off the copper belt, was
never worked.
" In the winter of 1843-4 the Pittsburgh and Boston
Mining Company was organized, and in the spring of 1844
it sent Mr. Hays into its newly acquired territory, accom-
panied by a competent geologist and a small party of
miners, who prosecuted mining at Copper Harbor until
autumn. Dr. Hussey made his own first visit to that re-
gion in July to September of the same year. He landed
at Copper Harbor. The next year further explorations
244 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
were made and mining operations were transferred from
Copper Harbor to Eagle River, where a wonderfully rich
vein of mass copper was discovered and which soon be-
came known as the Cliff mine. The Pittsburgh and Bos-
ton Mining Company thus opened the first mine in the
copper region, and it was the first to demonstrate that the
metal could be procured in paying quantities. This mine,
the famous Cliff, cost its owners, in assessments, $110,000
and paid them in dividends $2,280,000 before it gave out.
A large proportion of the copper in the Cliff mine was
found in huge masses. The transfers at Sault Ste. Marie
were slow, laborious, and expensive until the opening of
the great Soo Canal in June, 1855.
" The first president of the company, upon its organi-
zation in 1844, was the Rev. Charles Avery, of Pittsburgh,
who retained the office until his death on January 17,
1858. Dr. Hussey was then elected to the position and
held it until the final winding up. The Hon. Thomas M.
Howe was the secretary and treasurer until his death on
July 20, 1877. Active mining operations ceased in 1870,
the property was all disposed of within the next few years,
and the affairs of the company were entirely closed up by
a final distribution of assets in 1879.
" Much difficulty was at first experienced in securing
the smelting of such large masses of copper, none of the
existing copper furnaces in the country being adapted to
work of this character. It occurred to Dr. Hussey that a
furnace could be built with a movable top, and this proved
to be a simple solution of the whole difficulty. In 1848
he erected a reverberatory furnace at Pittsburgh. The
cover was lifted to one side, the masses were hoisted by a
crane and let down into their bed upon the bottom, the
cover was replaced, and the thing was done. The first
ingots cast were in every respect as good as those now
made. The next thing to be done was to erect a mill to
roll the ingots into sheets, and a mill for this purpose was
built at Pittsburgh in 1849 and 1850, and on July 1, 1850,
copper rolling was commenced. In both the enterprises
at Pittsburgh Mr. Howe was Dr. Hussey's partner, the firm
name being C. G. Hussey & Co."
INDUSTRIES CREATED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 245
In Mr. Williams's biographical sketch of Peter White,
(1907,) which gives an account of the important part taken
by John Hays in the development of the Lake Superior
copper region, the specific statement is made that Mr.
Hays discovered the Cliff mine on November 18, 1844.
One of the newest and most interesting industries of
this country is the manufacture of aluminum, a metal
used in the production of domestic and other articles, ma-
chinery included, which combine lightness with strength ;
as an alloy with steel and other metals ; and also for the
transmission of electric currents as a substitute for cop-
per. Fifty years ago aluminum was a chemical curiosity.
Soon afterwards small quantities were produced in Europe
for commercial purposes by various processes, but the
production abroad did not enter largely into the arts until
after the manufacture of aluminum on a large scale was
developed in the United States through the invention in
1886 of the electrolytic process by Charles M. Hall, a na-
tive of Thompson, Geauga county, Ohio. This process is
now in universal use and it is exclusively used in this
country. In a report of the United States Geological Sur-
vey for 1892 the statement was made that " practically
all the pure aluminum which has been made in the United
States has been made in accordance with the electrolytic
process covered by Hall's patents." Mr. Hall's process has
so reduced the cost of aluminum that the metal is now
in common use. The production in the United States in
1883, before Mr. Hall's invention, was only 83 pounds, a
purely laboratory product, but in 1903 it amounted to
7,500,000 pounds. In 1906 the consumption of alumi-
num in the United States was 14,910,000 pounds and in
1907 it was 17,211,000 pounds.
In August, 1888, the Pittsburgh Reduction Company
was organized solely to manufacture aluminum under Mr.
Hall's patents, and works for this purpose were built in
that year at Pittsburgh and put in operation in November.
The name of the company has been changed to the
Aluminum Company of America. It is the only com-
pany in the United States that is engaged in the manu-
facture of aluminum. The works at Pittsburgh were lo-
246 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
cated on Smallman street, between 32d and 33d streets.
In 1890 these works were greatly enlarged and in the fol-
lowing year they were moved to New Kensington, a sub-
urb of Pittsburgh, and were again enlarged in 1893. They
are still in active operation. This plant was still further
enlarged in 1907. Other works now operated by the
company are located at Niagara Falls, at Massena in St.
Lawrence county, New York, and at Shawinigan Falls in
the Province of Quebec. The first works at Niagara Falls
were started in 1895 and in 1896 they were enlarged and
new works were built.
Alumina made from Greenland cryolite was at first used
by the Pittsburgh Reduction Company in the manufacture
of aluminum, but very soon bauxite from Alabama and
Georgia was substituted and its use has produced the best
results. The bauxite is to-day purified at works at East
St. Louis, Illinois, owned by the Aluminum Company of
America, and thence taken to the various manufacturing
plants of the company and converted into pig aluminum.
In 1896 the manufacture of pig aluminum at New Ken-
sington was abandoned. The works at that place have
since been devoted to converting pig aluminum into more
or less finished forms.
The first president of the Pittsburgh Reduction Com-
pany was the widely-known Pittsburgh engineer, Captain
Alfred E. Hunt, who remained its president until his death
in 1899. The original capital subscribed was Pittsburgh
capital and the business was entirely a Pittsburgh enter-
prise. Mr. Hall went to Pittsburgh in 1888, when the
company was organized, and he has been identified with
it ever since, at present as vice president. Since Captain
Hunt's death R. B. Mellon, the well-known banker of Pitts-
burgh, has been president of the company, and Arthur V.
Davis, its secretary and general manager, has been its
active executive head. The original capital was $20,000,
but the present capital is $3,800,000.
When first put on the market aluminum was used only
in the manufacture of optical instruments, dental plates,
and similar light articles. In 1890 the manufacture of
aluminum cooking utensils was commenced. One of the
INDUSTRIES CREATED BY PENNSYLVANIANS. 247
earlier uses of aluminum was as an alloy in the manufac-
ture of steel, aluminum being added to the extent of
one-tenth of one per cent., or less, to remove the dissolved
gases and make the steel solid both for castings and for
steel plates. It is so used to-day.
Prior to Mr. Hall's invention in 1886 the price of im-
ported aluminum in our markets was not less than $15
per pound. In 1888, when the works of the Pittsburgh
Reduction Company were started, the price of imported
aluminum dropped to $4 per pound. A short time pre-
viously the price had been $7 and $8 per pound. The
Pittsburgh Reduction Company soon reduced the price of
aluminum to $2 per pound, and in 1893 the price ranged
from 65 to 75 cents per pound. In the early part of 1907
it was 36 cents and early in 1908 it was 33 cents.
The establishment of the aluminum industry in this
country twenty years ago by the Pittsburgh Reduction
Company has not only given to our country a new and
useful industry, but, as has been shown above, it has
greatly reduced the price of aluminum to consumers, again
illustrating the truth which has been so often emphasized
that prices of manufactured products always fall when we
cease to be dependent on foreigners for their supply. The
manufacture of aluminum is to-day one of the impor-
tant and necessary industries of this country, and for its
existence we are indebted first to Charles M. Hall, the
inventor of the electrolytic process, next to the engineer-
ing skill and executive ability of Captain Alfred E. Hunt,
and lastly to the good management of Arthur V. Davis.
248 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXV.
EARLY CHAIN AND WIRE BRIDGES.
Western Pennsylvania is entitled to the honor of
having introduced the chain suspension bridge into our
country, and at a time when it was largely an unsettled
frontier part of the State. A chain bridge across Jacob's
creek, which forms part of the boundary between Fayette
and Westmoreland counties, was described in The Fanners
Register, of Greensburg, Westmoreland county, on May 22,
1802, as follows, under the caption, "Iron Bridge."
The bridge which Judge Finley (near this place) had undertaken to
erect across Jacob's creek, at the expense of Fayette and Westmoreland
counties, near Judge Mason's, on the great road leading from TJniontown
to Greensburg, is now completed. Its construction is on principles entire-
ly new, and is perhaps the only one of the kind in the world. It is solely
supported by two iron chains, extended over four piers, 14 feet higher than
the bridge, fastened in the ground at the ends, describing a curve line,
touching the level of the bridge in the centre. The first tier of joists are
hung to the chains by iron pendants or stirrups of different lengths, so as
to form a level of the whole. The bridge is of 70 feet span and 13 feet
wide ; the chains are of an inch square bar, in links from five to ten feet
long ; but so that there is a joint where each pendant must bear. The
projector has made many experiments to ascertain the real strength of iron,
and asserts that an inch square bar of tolerable iron in this position will
bear between 30 and 40 tons ; and, of course, less than one-eighth part of
the iron employed in this bridge would be sufficient to bear the net weight
thereof, being about 12 or 13 tons.
Mr. Finley embarked in this business at his own risque and engaged
that the work would endure at least 50 years, (except what should be nec-
essary for repairs of flooring,) for the moderate sum of 600 dollars. He
farther observes that a bridge of the same width and 280 feet span would
be about 50 tons weight ; the chains double as strong as the foregoing. The
whole of the iron required would then amount to six tons, and say the
smith work to half its value. The piers 46 feet eight inches high. These
chains so placed would support 240 tons ; deduct its own weight of tim-
ber, and so much of the iron as falls between the piers, say 53 tons ; re-
mainder, 237 tons. Should any startle at the expense let them be informed
of the bridge at the falls of the Potomack, which is but of 140 feet span,
and is said to have cost at least 50,000 dollars, and materials entirely of
timber, and therefore subjected to but a temporary duration.
Mr. Finley was an associate judge of Fayette county.
He died in 1828. The chain bridge over Jacob's creek
was built by him in 1801 and it was the first of its kind
EARLY CHAIN AND WIRE BRIDGES. 249
in this country, but it was not the first in the world.
Chain bridges are said to have been used at an early day
in China. Charles Bender says that in 1734 " the army
of the Palatinate of Saxony, in Germany, built a chain
bridge across the Oder river, near Glory witz, in Prussia."
In Johnson's Cyclopaedia it is stated that " in 1741 the
first European chain bridge was built in England across
the Tees. It was a rude work, attracting no attention
at the time, and not until 1814 did English engineers ap-
ply themselves to their construction." In the meantime
Judge Finley built the Jacob's creek bridge and it was
followed by 'others in this country which were built on
his plans. In 1808 James Finley, as stated by Thomas
Pope, took out a patent for a "patent chain bridge."
In the Port Folio for June, 1810, printed in Philadelphia,
there is a description of several chain bridges which had
been built in this country at that time on Judge Finley's
plans, one the Jacob's creek bridge, another at the Falls
of Schuylkill above Philadelphia, another at Cumber-
land, Maryland, another over the Potomac above George-
town, Maryland, replacing the wooden bridge above re-
ferred to, another over the Brandywine at Wilmington,
Delaware, another at Brownsville, Fayette county, Penn-
sylvania, and another near the same place. Still another
chain bridge, over the Merrimac, at Newburyport, Massa-
chusetts, was built in 1810, making eight in all. In 1811
several other chain bridges are mentioned, one of which
was over the Neshaminy, in Bucks county, Pennsylvania,
and another over the Lehigh at Easton. At a later date
a chain bridge was built over the Lehigh at Lehigh Gap.
This bridge is still standing.
The chain bridge across the Tees, which was built in
1741, remained in use over 80 years. Like the Jacob's
creek bridge its span was 70 feet. It was a foot-bridge.
In April, 1811, there was printed at Uniontown, Penn-
sylvania, by William Campbell, A Description of the Chain
Bridge, invented by Judge Finley, of Fayette county, Penn-
sylvania, with Data and Remarks, etc., in which Judge
Finley claims that he built the bridge over Jacob's creek
in 1801 " on a contract with Fayette and Westmoreland
250 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
counties for the consideration of $600," and that "the
exclusive right was secured by patent in the year 1808."
He says : " There are eight of these bridges erected now,"
which he describes substantially as mentioned above in
the Port Folio.
The chain bridge above Georgetown was swept away
by a freshet probably in 1839 and has since been replaced
by various structures of other designs, but the name,
"chain bridge," is still retained. It became famous dur-
ing our civil war. The Jacob's creek chain bridge broke
down under the weight of a six-horse team about 1825
but was repaired and again used. This bridge was torn
down several years ago and an iron truss bridge was
erected in its stead.
The chain bridge over the Merrimac at Newburyport
is still standing and in use. It was built in 1810. A let-
ter from A. K. Mosley, civil engineer, informs us that it is
"substantially intact as originally constructed." In the
New England Magazine for January, 1905, there appears
an illustration of this bridge, drawn by Mr. Mosley. In
1900 or 1901 it was partly rebuilt by the Roeblings.
Chain suspension bridges have been built in recent
years. At Budapest there are now two chain suspension
bridges over the Danube, one of which, with a main span
of 931 feet, has only recently been completed. There is a
chain bridge over the River Dnieper, at Kieff, in Russia.
In this country a notable chain bridge was built over the
Monongahela at Pittsburgh as late as 1876, and is still in
use as originally built. It is known as the Point Bridge.
It has a span 800 feet long. The links of the chains
which support this bridge are 2 inches thick, 8 inches
wide, and from 20 to 25 feet long.
Wire suspension bridges are of more modern origin
than chain bridges and are in general use, especially in
the United States. A small wire suspension bridge was
built over the Schuylkill at Philadelphia in 1816 by White
& Hazard with wire made at their wire works at the
Falls of Schuylkill. This bridge was used only for foot
passengers. Charles Ellet, Jr., a distinguished American
engineer, born at Penn's Manor, in Bucks county, Penn-
EARLY CHAIN AND WIRE BRIDGES. 251
sylvania, in 1810, is credited with the introduction in this
country of wire bridges of general utility. In 1842 he
built a wire cable suspension bridge over the Schuylkill
at Fairmount, which was the first noteworthy wire sus-
pension bridge in this country. General J. G. Barnard
says that " he shares with Roebling the honor of being
a pioneer of wire suspension bridges." The earliest Euro-
pean wire suspension bridge of which we have found any
mention is the bridge at Fribourg, in Switzerland, which
was completed in 1834. This bridge has a span of 870
feet and is suspended at a height of 167 feet above the
water. It is supported on cables of iron wire. Wire rope
was in use in the Hartz mines, in Germany, in 1831. It
can be Justly claimed that the wire suspension bridge as
we see it to-day is to all intents and purposes the work
of American engineers.
John Augustus Roebling will always be regarded as
the greatest of all American bridge engineers. If he did
not absolutely invent the wire suspension bridge he was
certainly its most earnest and intelligent advocate and
its most skillful builder. The Brooklyn Bridge, which he
planned but which after his death was built by his illus-
trious son, Washington A. Roebling, is not his only monu-
ment. The Niagara and other wire suspension bridges
which were built after his plans and under his direction
need not be referred to in detail in these pages, but they
may well contain a brief notice of the man himself.
Mr. Roebling was a native of Miihlhausen, Prussia, in
which city he was born on June 12, 1806. After the or-
dinary high school course he attended the mathematical
institute of the celebrated Dr. Unger, at Erfurt, in Ger-
many, for two years. Then he went to the Royal Uni-
versity at Berlin and graduated with high honors after a
three years' course, mostly in engineering branches, fol-
lowed by a special course in architecture. After spending
two years in Westphalia as an engineer in the govern-
ment service he concluded to emigrate to this country,
and in 1829 or 1830 he led a small colony of Germans
to Western Pennsylvania and founded the town of Sax-
onburg, in Butler county. He soon found employment as
252 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
an engineer in various canal and railroad enterprises.
At Saxonburg he established the first wire-rope works in
the United States, borrowing the money to pay for the
wire, for which he was charged 21 cents a pound. His
first wire rope was made on a rope-walk, not on a ma-
chine. Mr. Roebling was induced to engage in the man-
ufacture of wire rope as a substitute for hempen ropes on
the inclined planes of the Portage Railroad, to which epi-
sode in his life we will presently refer. The details which
follow have been given to us by Washington A. Roebling.
The success of the Portage Railroad alterations led to similar im-
provements by my father on the Morris Canal in New Jersey, where 22 in-
clined planes were adapted to the use of wire rope, very large ones at that,
being 2\ inches in diameter. These were followed later on by the intro-
duction of wire rope on the planes of the Delaware and Hudson Canal
Company and the Pennsylvania Coal Company. The general use of wire
rope was a matter of very slow growth.
The manufacture of wire rope gave my father a thorough knowledge
of the strength and qualities of iron wire and its various capabilities.
When, therefore, in the year 1844 it became necessary to rebuild the wooden
arch aqueduct of the Pennsylvania Canal across the Allegheny river at
Pittsburgh he made the startling proposition of replacing it by a wire
suspension aqueduct. This called forth a storm of violent opposition. He
finally obtained a contract to build the aqueduct in the short space of six
months in the winter season. This comprised removal of the old structure,
rebuilding five piers in a rapid stream, building two new anchorages, spin-
ning a pair of long cables, and suspending the wooden trunk. It was com-
pleted in time. He cleared $3,500, which was afterwards lost by the fail-
ure of a bank where it was deposited.
In 1846 my father built the Monongahela Suspension Bridge at Pitts-
burgh without any assistant. Next followed four suspension aqueducts on
the line of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, all winter work, lasting three
seasons. In 1849 an injury to his left arm made his left hand practically
useless. With this handicap he accomplished some of his greatest works.
With all this external activity he still found time, or made time, to attend
to his wire-rope business, which he removed from Saxonburg to Trenton
in 1849 and much enlarged by adding a wire-drawing department and a
rolling mill, all constructed on his own plans. The Niagara Railway Sus-
pension Bridge, now replaced by a double-track steel arch, was opened to
travel in 1854, over fifty years ago. All the designing, calculating, draft-
ing, and superintending was done by Mr. Roebling personally.
At the Allegheny Bridge at Pittsburgh I was my father's only assist-
ant, having just left college, but he did all the designing and vital parts of
the work. On the Cincinnati Bridge I was again his principal assistant,
the close of the civil war giving me liberty to take the position. Here
again he did all the designing and superintending, the bridge being built
by day's work. As regards the Brooklyn Bridge I can say that he made
the original designs, with perhaps a little assistance from myself and Mr.
Hildenbrand. In the construction of the bridge the design was, however,
EARLY CHAIN AND WIRE BRIDGES. 253
considerably modified, and might perhaps have been changed to even more
advantage. This is inevitable where conditions are rapidly changing and
demands are constantly increasing. My father died from an accident on
July 22, 1869, before actual work was begun, and it remained for me to
make it an accomplished fact by fourteen years of hard work.
The building of the wire aqueduct over the Allegheny-
river at Pittsburgh by Mr. Roebling, "the designer and
contractor," as stated by the American Rail Road Journal
in 1845, was contracted for by the city of Pittsburgh,
under an agreement with the State authorities. The
Journal makes this prophetic statement : " This system,
for the first time successfully carried out on the Pitts-
burgh aqueduct, may hereafter be applied with the hap-
piest results to railroad bridges, which have to resist the
powerful weight and great vibrations which result from
the passage of heavy locomotives and trains of cars."
The contract price for the aqueduct was $62,000.
The Hon. James Potts, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
was for many years, beginning with 1839, the collector of
tolls on the Pennsylvania Canal and Portage Railroad,
his office being located at Johnstown, where the western
division of the canal ended and the railroad commenced,
the latter terminating at Hollidaysburg. It had ten in-
clined planes, operated by stationary engines. On the
9th of September, 1886, the "old boatmen" on the west-
ern division of the canal held a reunion at Nineveh, near
Johnstown, at which Judge Potts delivered an address,
of which the following incident in the life of John A.
Roebling formed a part. Judge Potts was a native of
Butler county and had long known Mr. Roebling.
The late John A. Roebling, one of the most distinguished civil engi-
neers and scientists of his day, conceived the idea of spanning the largest
rivers with bridges supported by wire cables. To that end he directed the
labor of his life. He established a wire rope works on a small scale at Sax-
onburg, in Butler county, and by special grace he got permission from the
Canal Board in 1842 or 1843 to put a wire cable on Plane No. 3. It was
put on in the fall of the year. The manufacturer of the hempen ropes
in Pittsburgh, backed by a powerful political and interested influence,
endeavored to prevent the introduction of the wire cable. The superintend-
ent and employes on the road partook of that opposition. If the wire
cable was a success it would supersede the profitable hempen-rope indus-
try. The cable, however, was put on the plane, and in a few days one of
the attaches cut the cable in two. Mr. Roebling found his cable stretched
on the plane — condemned. He came to the collector's office and asked
254 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
an interview with me in the parlor. He stated with the tears of grief, if
not of agony, that he was a ruined man. The labor of his life, the hope of
his fame and fortune, were lost forever. His cable was condemned by the
great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It was condemned, not because
it was worthless, but because it would supersede the hempen rope. "Can
not you do something for me?" he asked. " Why, Mr. Roebling, I would
do anything in the world for you, but what can I do ?" " You have influ-
ence with the Canal Board, and, perhaps, you can get me another oppor-
tunity to test my cable."
Just at that moment there was a rap at the door, and, in answer to
the call, who stepped in but John B. Butler, the President of the Board
of Canal Commissioners, and, after the usual salutation, I said to Mr. Roeb-
ling, " Just state your case to Mr. Butler. " Mr. Roebling stated his case
in very few words, for he was a man of few words. Mr. Butler listened
attentively until he got through, when he said : " Roebling, have you con-
fidence in your cable ?" The answer was, "I have, sir." "Then," said Mr.
Butler, "I now appoint you superintendent of Plane No. 3, with the credit
of the Commonwealth for all the material you may need ; superintendent
of the depots at Johnstown and Hollidaysburg for all the machinery you
may want ; the appointment of all such mechanics and laborers as you
may require in the reconstruction of the plane — all this at the expense of
the Commonwealth. You will commence immediately after the close of
navigation and have everything necessary for the spring business. You
will superintend the plane yourself for the first month, and if your cable
is a success we will put it on all the planes on the road, and this is all I
can do for you." Mr. Roebling did not burst forth in the usual laudation
of thanks, of God bless you and prosper you, etc.; but this time, with tears
of joy rolling down his cheeks, his only reply was, "God is good!" I shall
never forget the reply. He gave thanks to that Source from whom all
blessings flow. He left with a joyful heart and greatly encouraged. The
plane was reconstructed, ready for the spring business. The cable worked
like a charm.
During that summer wire cables were put on all the planes. By these
planes Mr. Roebling had an opportunity of testing the flexibility and
strength of his cables. The heavy weight of cars and section boats on
those cables gave them a fair test of strength and durability. I mention
this fact to show that the planes on the Portage Railroad were the means
of the wonderful enterprise of wire-cable bridges, for Mr. Roebling fre-
quently told me since that, had it not been for the interview in my par-
lor and the authority he got there to reconstruct a plane to establish and
test the virtue of his wire cable, he never would have attempted it again,
being condemned by the Commonwealth. So the old Portage is entitled
to the credit of all these great wire bridges, notably the Brooklyn Bridge.
It was in Western Pennsylvania that the first chain
suspension bridge in this country was built, and Judge
Finley, who built it, introduced it in other parts of the
country. It was also in Western Pennsylvania that the
first wire-rope factory in the country was established by
John A. Roebling, who also, more than any other man,
promoted the building of wire suspension bridges.
THE EAKLY HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH. 255
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH.
The prominence which Pittsburgh has attained as the
centre of the iron and steel, bituminous coal, and glass
industries of our country, and as the centre of the world's
iron and steel industries, naturally leads to a condensed
account in this volume of its early history and of the no-
table part which Washington bore in shaping that history.
The dates and other details that we shall give have been
verified from trustworthy sources.
The selection of the forks of the Ohio, formed by the
junction of the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers,
as a suitable place for the erection of a fort was made in
1753 by George Washington for the mutual benefit of the
Ohio Company and the colony of Virginia, which latter
Washington directly and officially represented. This se-
lection was made at a time when Virginia claimed juris-
diction over Western Pennsylvania, and when this claim
received entirely too little consideration from the pro-
vincial authorities of Pennsylvania. The Ohio Company
was composed chiefly of Virginians, and of this company
both Lawrence and Augustine Washington, half brothers
of George Washington, were members. The company was
organized to engage in trade with the Indians west of
the Alleghenies and to secure valuable grants of land. It
received the encouragement and support of the English
and Virginia authorities because the territory it expected
to occupy was claimed as a part of Virginia. In Novem-
ber of the year above mentioned Washington visited the
forks of the Ohio while serving as a commissioner from
Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, to the French comman-
dant in Northwestern Pennsylvania, the French at that
time claiming jurisdiction over the Ohio and Mississippi
valleys and having established military posts at Presqu'
Isle (Erie) and at Le Bceuf, (Waterford.) The object of
Washington's visit to the French commandant was to
256 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
protest against French encroachments upon Virginia ter-
ritory. Washington met the commanding officer at Fort
Le Bceuf but his visit was fruitless. On his way to this
officer Washington, as he says in his journal, " spent some
time in viewing the rivers [Monongahela and Allegheny]
and the land in the fork, which I think extremely well
situated for a fort." The Ohio Company had previously
selected a site for a fort on the left bank of the Ohio,
two miles below the junction of the Allegheny and the
Monongahela rivers, at a place now known as McKees
Rocks, but Washington condemned this selection for rea-
sons which are mentioned in his journal. The Ohio Com-
pany and the Virginia authorities approved his choice.
Judge Veech describes the Ohio Company as follows :
" The Ohio Company was an association formed in Vir-
ginia, about the year 1748, under a royal grant. Hitherto
the French and Pennsylvanians had enjoyed the trade
with the Indians north of the Ohio and around its head
waters. The purpose of this company was to divert this
trade southward, by the Potomac route, and to settle the
country around the head of the Ohio with English colo-
nists from Virginia and Maryland. To this end the king
granted to the company 500,000 acres of land west of the
mountains, ' to be taken chiefly on the south side of the
Ohio, between the Monongahela and Kenhawa, but with
privilege to take part of the quantity north of the Ohio,
. . . upon condition that the company should, within
seven years, seat one hundred families on the lands, build
a fort, and maintain a garrison, to protect the settlement.'"
In February, 1754, by direction of the Governor of
Virginia, a company of Virginia militia, commanded by
Captain William Trent, undertook the erection of a fort
in the forks, in aid of the plans of the Ohio Company and
to establish the jurisdiction of Virginia, but from this work
the militia were driven away in April by a large body of
French and Indians. The French immediately began and
completed the erection of a fort at the same place, which
they called Fort Du Quesne, in honor of the Governor-Gen-
eral of New France, the Marquis Du Quesne de Menneville.
The fort was situated on the Monongahela, in the forks.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH. 257
In the month of April, 1754, Washington was sent
by Governor Dinwiddie with a small force of Virginians,
which was subsequently increased, to the support of the
Virginia militia under Captain Trent, but before reaching
Western Pennsylvania he learned that the half-completed
fort at the forks of the Ohio had fallen into the hands of
the French. Washington pushed on toward the mouth of
Redstone creek on the Monongahela river, where he could
establish a base of operations against the French and
there await reinforcements. A strong force of French and
Indians was promptly dispatched from Fort Du Quesne
against Washington's small command, intercepting him
before he reached his destination. The battle of Great
Meadows, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, about seven-
ty-five miles southeast of Fort Du Quesne, was fought on
July 3, 1754, and was followed by Washington's surren-
der of Fort Necessity about midnight of the same day,
his first and only surrender, and by the abandonment
of the expedition. At daybreak of July 4 Washington,
with his demoralized command, marched out of Fort Ne-
cessity toward Will's creek, Maryland, his original base of
operations. In 1767 Washington bought a tract of 234
acres in Fayette county which included Great Meadows,
and he owned this tract at his death in 1799.
These events mark the beginning of the final struggle
between the French and the English for the control of the
country west of the Alleghenies.
An ineffectual attempt was made in 1755 by a force
of British regulars and provincial troops to drive the
French from Fort Du Quesne, which resulted in the defeat
of General Braddock near the site of the present Edgar
Thomson steel works. Three years afterwards, on No-
vember 25, 1758, Fort Du Quesne fell into the hands of the
British and their provincial allies under General Forbes,
the French blowing up the fort and disappearing, some
of them pushing off in their boats down the Ohio and
up the Allegheny, while others marched overland to Erie,
then known as Presqu' Isle.
Washington was present at Braddock's defeat, as is
well known, but he was also present when Fort Du Quesne
17
258 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
fell into the hands of General Forbes in 1758, which is
not so well known. In December, 1758, a new fort was
built at the forks, and in 1759 and 1760 the construction
of a more formidable fortification was commenced and
practically completed by General Stanwix, the new fort
being named Fort Pitt. This fort was entirely completed
by Colonel Bouquet in 1761, who added in 1764 a block-
house, or redoubt, which is still standing. The fort was
named in honor of William Pitt, the great Earl of Chat-
ham, then the British Secretary of State. It was situated
on the Monongahela, above the site of Fort Du Quesne.
It has been a mooted question when Pittsburgh was
first so called and when Fort Pitt received its name. In
his Old Pittsburgh Days Chapman says : " Pittsburgh was
so called from the first ; for on November 26, 1758, the
very day next following the occupation by the English,
we find General Forbes dating a letter at Pittsburgh.
(See Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, vol. viii ; p. 232.)
Colonel Mercer, in July and September, 1759, dates from
Pittsburgh, but makes no mention of Fort Pitt. General
Stanwix, on December 8, 1759, dates from 'Camp at Pitts-
burgh/ and speaks of 'the works here,' but does not men-
tion Fort Pitt. Finally, in a letter bearing date Decem-
ber 24, 1759, Stanwix mentions 'Fort Pitt' in the body
of his letter, (Pennsylvania Archives, vol. iii ; p. 696,) and
this is the first mention of the fort by that name. So
that not until more than twelve months after the taking
of Fort Du Quesne do we hear any mention of Fort Pitt,
and then the work afterwards to be known by that name
had been carried well on toward completion. Hence it
seems clear that the temporary fortification built in the
winter of 1758 was known simply as the fort at Pitts-
burgh, or, as Stanwix termed it, the 'camp at Pittsburgh.'"
To which we may add that in December, 1758, Chris-
tian Frederick Post mentions Pittsburgh several times in
his second journal but does not once mention Fort Pitt,
The settlement at the forks was, however, generally known
as Fort Pitt until after the Revolution.
The letter which was written by General Forbes on
November 26, 1758, and above referred to by Mr. Chap-
THE EARLY HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH. 259
man, was addressed to Governor William Denny, at Phila-
delphia, and acquainted the Governor with the fact that
Fort Du Quesne had fallen into his hands. The letter is
dated at "Pittsburg." It does not, however, give any inti-
mation that General Forbes had himself given Pittsburgh
its name. In a letter from General Forbes to William
Pitt on November 27, 1758, the general dates his letter at
" Pittsbourgh." After telling of his victory over the French
and of his own illness he says : " I have used the freedom
of giving your name to Fort Du Quesne, as I hope it was
in some measure the being actuated by your spirits that
now makes us masters of the place. Nor could I help
using the same freedom in the naming of two other forts
that I built, (plans of which I send you,) the one Fort
Ligonier and the other Bedford. I hope the name fathers
will take them under their protection, in which case these
dreary deserts will soon be the richest and most fertile
of lands possessed by the British in No. America." This
letter may be found in the Correspondence of William Pitt,
edited by Gertrude Selwyn Kimball, under the auspices of
the National Society of Colonial Dames of America, and
published by the Macmillan Company in 1906. It is of in-
terest to add that Colonel Bouquet signed the minutes of
a conference with the Delaware Indians " at Pitts-Bourgh,
December 4, 1758." Also that in February, 1759, an Indian
council was held at Philadelphia at which the Indians
invariably referred to Pittsburgh and not to Fort Pitt.
Bancroft says that Pittsburgh was so named by General
Forbes on the day that Fort Du Quesne fell into the hands
of the English, on November 25, 1758.
General John Forbes, who drove the French out of
Western Pennsylvania and who gave to Pittsburgh its
name, was born in Scotland in 1710 and died on March
11, 1759, in Philadelphia, where he was buried in the
churchyard of Christ church, less than four months after
he had compelled the French to abandon Fort Du Quesne.
In 1763 the conspiracy of the Western Indians under
the leadership of Pontiac was formed and a fierce border
war ensued, during which Fort Pitt was for many weeks
besieged by a large body of Indians and successfully de-
260 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
fended by the garrison under command of Captain Ecuyer,
a native of Switzerland. While the siege was in progress
Colonel Bouquet, also a native of Switzerland, command-
ing the British and provincial forces in Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Virginia, and whose headquarters were in
Philadelphia, moved from Carlisle to the relief of Fort
Pitt with about five hundred men in his command. In
August the Indians temporarily abandoned the siege of
Fort Pitt and attacked Colonel Bouquet's command at
Bushy Run, in Westmoreland county, about twenty-five
miles east of Pittsburgh, but after an engagement of two
days were defeated, with severe loss on both sides. This
defeat resulted in raising the siege of Fort Pitt. Suffi-
cient importance has never been attached to the battle
of Bushy Pom. It was one of the most sanguinary and
eventful engagements between the whites and the Indians
that was ever fought.
In 1772 Fort Pitt was abandoned by the British and
its garrison was withdrawn by General Thomas Gage, the
commander of the British forces in America. The fort
was subsequently occupied by Continental troops during
the Revolution. For some years after the Revolution Fort
Pitt was occupied by United States troops for protection
against the Indians, but by 1791 it had been entirely
abandoned and a large part was torn down in the fall of
that year. Late in the same ye&r orders were issued to
Major Isaac Craig to build a new fortification at Pitts-
burgh, and this structure, situated on the left bank of the
Allegheny river, about a quarter of a mile above Fort
Pitt, and which was called Fort Fayette, was finished and
occupied by a garrison in 1792. This fort was used in
that year in the initial operations of General Wayne's
expedition against the Ohio Indians, and it continued to
be occupied by a garrison for several years afterwards,
forming one of the frontier forts that were maintained to
overawe the Indians. Thomas Ashe, an English traveler,
says that a garrison was maintained at Fort Fayette when
he visited Pittsburgh in October, 1806. The Allegheny
Arsenal, at Pittsburgh, was completed in 1814 and Fort
Fayette was abandoned about that time.
THE EAKLY HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH. 261
Returning to Fort Pitt, it is stated in Craig's History
of Pittsburgh, in a description of the fort as it existed
about 1796 to 1800, that "the ramparts of Fort Pitt were
still standing, and a portion of the officers' quarters, a
substantial brick building, was used as a malt house."
From 1803 to 1806 the Methodists of Pittsburgh were
accustomed to hold religious services "in a room of old
Fort Pitt," which is supposed to have formed a part of
"the officers' quarters" mentioned by Craig. The city of
Pittsburgh occupies in part the site of Fort Du Quesne,
the French fortification, of Fort Pitt, its British successor,
and of Fort Fayette, built by the United States.
As early as 1758 settlers began to gather about Fort
Pitt, most of them Indian traders, and in 1760 there were
149 men, women, and children outside the fort. In 1764
lots and streets in the immediate vicinity of the fort, oc-
cupying four squares, were laid out. Chapman says: "In
1764, immediately after the siege, Colonel John Campbell
laid out that part of Pittsburgh which is bounded by
Water street and Second avenue and Ferry and Market
streets, comprising four squares. Colonel Campbell's name
is of frequent occurrence in the transactions in this lo-
cality at that period. Under what authority or instruc-
tions he proceeded in laying out the town we do not know,
but no doubt his work was fully authorized, as in the
subsequent survey and plan of the town it was recognized
and adopted." In 1769 the Manor of Pittsburgh was
surveyed and reserved by the Penns, the proprietaries of
the province. In 1770 Washington visited Pittsburgh
while on his way to the Kanawha valley, in the present
State of West Virginia. In his journal Washington says :
" We lodged in what is called the town, distant about
three hundred yards from the fort, at one Semple's, who
keeps a very good house of public entertainment. The
houses, which are built of logs, and ranged in streets, are
on the Monongahela, and I suppose may be about twenty
in number and inhabited by Indian traders." In the siege
of Fort Pitt, in 1763, the houses which had then been
built outside the fort were all burned. Washington de-
scribes Fort Pitt as follows: "The fort is built on the
262 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
point near the rivers Allegheny and Monongahela, but not
so near the pitch of it as Fort Du Quesne stood. The
garrison consists of two companies of Royal Irish, com-
manded by Capt. Edmondson." In 1783, after the treaty
of peace, the proprietaries decided to sell the lands within
the Manor of Pittsburgh, the first sale being made in Jan-
uary, 1784. In that year the town of Pittsburgh was
surveyed into streets, alleys, and lots, and sales of lots
were rapidly made. Writing in his journal under date of
December 24, 1784, Arthur Lee, a Virginian, says : " Pitts-
burgh is inhabited almost entirely by Scots and Irish, who
live in paltry log houses and are as dirty as in the north
of Ireland or even in Scotland." In 1786 Pittsburgh is
said to have contained thirty-six log houses, one stone
house, one frame house, and five small stores. The town
had grown but little since Washington's visit in 1770.
Even after 1786 it had a very slow growth.
Down to 1779 Virginia attempted to exercise juris-
diction over that portion of Southwestern Pennsylvania
which is now embraced in Allegheny, Washington, West-
moreland, Fayette, and adjoining counties, but in that
year commissioners from Virginia and from Pennsylvania
agreed to the boundaries between the two States which
have since been observed, and in 1780 the agreement was
formally ratified by the Legislature of each State. Under
the Virginia claim the settlement at Fort Pitt was em-
braced within the boundaries of Augusta county, Virginia,
Staunton being then as now its county-seat. Under the
Pennsylvania claim and down to 1788 Pittsburgh was
included within the limits of Westmoreland county, its
county-seat being at first Hannastown and afterwards
Greensburg, but in that year Allegheny county was or-
ganized and Pittsburgh became the county-seat.
On April 22, 1794, an act of the Pennsylvania Legis-
lature was passed incorporating the town of Pittsburgh
into a borough. In 1796 Pittsburgh had a population of
1,395 and in 1800 the population was only 1,565. In
1810 it had increased to 4,768. On March 18, 1816, the
borough of Pittsburgh was erected into a city. In 1830
the population was 12,568, in 1840 it was 21,115, and in
THE EARLY HISTORY OP PITTSBURGH. 263
1850 it was 46,601. In 1845 occurred the great fire at
Pittsburgh, which destroyed over one thousand dwellings,
warehouses, stores, and other buildings, the loss amount-
ing to about six million dollars.
In 1787 the town of Allegheny, opposite Pittsburgh,
was " laid out by the order of the sovereign authority of
Pennsylvania," with the intention of making it the coun-
ty-seat of Allegheny county, but this intention was soon
abandoned. Allegheny became a borough in 1828 and it
was incorporated as a city in 1840. In 1907 it was
consolidated with Pittsburgh and lost its municipal inde-
pendence.
The proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania were
fully aware as early as 1769 of the existence of coal at
Pittsburgh. In 1784, the year in which Pittsburgh was
surveyed into building lots, the privilege of mining coal
in the "great seam" opposite the town was sold by the
Penns at the rate of £30 for each mining lot, extending
back to the centre of the hill. This event may be regard-
ed as forming the beginning of the coal trade of Pitts-
burgh. In a few years the supply of the towns on the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers with Pittsburgh coal became
an established business.
Down to 1845 all the coal that was shipped westward
from Pittsburgh was floated down the Ohio in flat-bot-
tomed boats with the spring and fall freshets, each hold-
ing about 15,000 bushels of coal. The boats were usually
lashed in pairs and were sold and broken up when their
destination was reached. In 1845 steam tow-boats were
introduced, which towed coal barges down the river and
brought them back empty. About 1845 Pittsburgh coal
began to be used in Philadelphia, transportation being by
way of the Pennsylvania Canal in section-boats, which
carried the coal from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia without
breaking bulk.
In 1786 the Pittsburgh Gazette, the first newspaper
published west of the Allegheny mountains, was estab-
lished at Pittsburgh. The first glass works at Pittsburgh
were established in 1797, in which year Craig & O'Hara
began the manufacture of window glass on a small scale.
264 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
The first steamboat on the western' rivers was built
at Pittsburgh in 1811 and named the New Orleans, but
prior to this year many sailing vessels had been built at
Pittsburgh for ocean service. The great iron and steel
industries of Pittsburgh are described in sufficient de-
tail in earlier chapters of this volume.
In a previous chapter allusion has been made to the
decadence within comparatively recent years of the busi-
ness of building steamboats at Pittsburgh. Other indus-
tries which once added to the activity of Pittsburgh and
helped to make it prosperous have also declined in im-
portance. Chapman says of the glass industry of Pitts-
burgh that it has rapidly declined since 1886. He says :
"There is still some glass made in Pittsburgh, but it is no
longer a characteristic industry of the city. The great
centres of this industry have been removed from the city
limits and are now at Ford City on the Allegheny river,
at Jeannette in Westmoreland county, and at Glassport
on the Monongahela river." He says that "ropemaking
has ceased as an industry of Pittsburgh" and that "the
business of manufacturing cotton goods continued down
to a comparatively recent date, but now no enterprise of
the kind is carried on in the Pittsburgh district." He
adds that "the business was at one time one of the lead-
ing industries of the Pittsburgh district." In 1848 there
were six cotton mills in this district, all in Allegheny City,
making sheeting, ticking, cotton yarn, and cordage. All
these mills have been torn down for many years or con-
verted to other uses. Pittsburgh was long foremost in the
manufacture of cut nails, but now it makes none. Nev-
ertheless, notwithstanding the decline or total disappear-
ance of some of its once prominent industries, Pittsburgh
as an industrial centre is without a rival in this or any
other country. The basis of its industrial pre-eminence
to-day is its marvelous steel industry.
Some account of the growth in population of Phila-
delphia and Pittsburgh, the two largest cities in Pennsyl-
vania, may properly close this chapter.
The census gives the population of Philadelphia in
1900 as amounting to 1,293,697, an increase of 23.56 per
THE EARLY HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH.
265
cent, over 1890, and the population of Pittsburgh as 321,-
616, an increase of 34.78 per cent, over 1890. Pittsburgh
newspapers say that numerous contiguous suburbs ought
to be included in a Greater Pittsburgh, and that, if they
were so included, the population of the city to-day would
closely approximate three quarters of a million. On No-
vember 18, 1907, the Supreme Court of the United States
decided that the act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, unit-
ing Allegheny City to Pittsburgh, was constitutional. By
this decision the population of Pittsburgh at the close of
1907 was probably 550,000. Philadelphia long ago ab-
sorbed virtually all its nearby suburbs — all that are in
Philadelphia county. The consolidation took place in 1854.
In the following comprehensive table we have made a
comparison of the growth in population of Philadelphia
county and Allegheny county in the hundred and ten years
from 1790 to 1900, the boundaries of Philadelphia county
being coterminous with those of the city of Philadelphia,
while Allegheny county embraces the city of Pittsburgh.
The figures for the eleven decades are as follows :
Population of
Per cent.
Population
Per cent.
Years.
Philadelphia
of
Years.
of
of
county.
increase.
Allegheny county.
increase.
1790
54,391
1790...
10,309
1800
81,009
48.93
1800...
15,087
46.34
1810
111,210
37.28
1810...
25,317
67.80
1820
137,097
23.27
1820...
34,921
37.93
1830
188,797
37.71
1830...
50,552
44.76
1840
258,037
36.67
1840...
81,235
60.69
1850
408,762
58.41
1850...
138,290
70.23
1860
565,529
38.35
1860...
178,831
29.31
1870
674,022
19.18
1870...
262,204
46.62
1880
847,170
25.68
1880...
355,869
35.72
1890
1,046,964
23.58
1890...
551,959
55.10
1900
1,293,697
23.56
1900. . .
775,058
40.41
In 1790 the population of Allegheny county was less
than one-fifth that of Philadelphia county, but in 1890 it
was more than one-half as large as that of Philadelphia
county, being 52.72 per cent, as large, and in 1900 it was
nearly 60 per cent, as large. In the eleven decennial
periods the average decennial increase of the population
of Philadelphia county was 33.87 per cent., while that of
266 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Allegheny county was 48.62 per cent. Four times in 110
years Allegheny county increased its population more
than 50 per cent, in ten years, but Philadelphia county
did this only once. In the last four decades ending with
1900 the progress of Philadelphia county in population
has been very slow judged by percentages, while the per-
centage of increase in the population of Allegheny county
has been very rapid, particularly in the decade from 1880
to 1890. The latter's progress in the decade ending with
1900 was, however, notably less than in the preceding
decade, judging again by percentages. The absolute in-
crease of population in Philadelphia county in the dec-
ade ending with 1900 was 246,733, and that of Allegheny
county in the same decade was 223,099.
Pittsburgh owes its early business prominence and
prosperity to its location at the head of navigation on
the Ohio river, and much of its present prominence is
due to the large shipments of coal which annually pass
down this river. About sixty years ago railroads began
to supersede the Ohio for transportation purposes. At
first railroad trains entered and departed from Pittsburgh
without inconvenience, as all railroad traffic was light as
compared with that of recent years. But with the increase
in traffic and the increase of railroad lines and railroad
tracks great inconvenience has been experienced in the
prompt handling of railroad freight, so that, to avoid
the congestion, many iron and steel and other manu-
facturing enterprises which owe their existence to Pitts-
burgh capital are located miles away from Pittsburgh.
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 267
CHAPTER XXVII.
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS.
We present herewith a chronological record of lead-
ing events in the development of the iron, steel, coal, and
other industries of the United States, and particularly of
Pennsylvania, from colonial times down to the present
time ; also of the beginning of canal and railroad building
in Pennsylvania and in the United States ; also of early
iron and steel shipbuilding and of some notable iron and
steel bridges built in the United States ; also of many other
events and achievements that are more or less closely as-
sociated with the industrial development of Pennsylvania.
1619 — In this year the Virginia Company sent to Vir-
ginia a number of persons who were skilled in the manu-
facture of iron to "set up three iron works" in the colony.
The works were located in that year on Falling creek.
1620 — In this year, as stated by Beverley in his His-
tory of Virginia, " an iron work at Falling creek in James
river" was set up, " where they made proof of good iron
oar." In this and the following year the enterprise lan-
guished. On March 22, 1622, the works were destroyed
by the Indians and all the workmen were massacred.
1627 — Petroleum was first noticed this year in New
York ; in Pennsylvania in 1721.
1642 — In this year "The Company of Undertakers for
the Iron Works " in the province of Massachusetts Bay,
consisting of eleven English gentlemen, was organized with
a capital of £1,000.
1643 — In his History of Lynn (1844) Alonzo Lewis
says that in 1643 " Mr. John Winthrop, Jr., came from
England with workmen and stock to the amount of one
thousand pounds for commencing the work. A foundry
was erected on the western bank of Saugus river," at
Lynn. This foundry was a small blast furnace, completed
in 1645. It was the first successful iron enterprise in the
thirteen colonies. Bog ore was used. For a hundred years
268 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
after its settlement in 1620 Massachusetts was the chief
seat of the iron industry on this continent.
1645 — A small iron pot, holding about a quart, which
is still preserved at Lynn, was cast at the Lynn foundry
in 1645. It was the first iron article made in America.
1664 — In this year we read of negro slaves in Dela-
ware, which afterwards became a part of Pennsylvania.
1679 — In the Statistics of Coal, by Richard Cowling
Taylor, published in 1848, it is stated that the earliest
historic mention of coal in this country is by the French
Jesuit missionary, Father Hennepin, who saw traces of
coal on the Illinois river in 1679. In his journal he
marks the site of a "cole mine" above Fort Crevecceur.
1681 — Charter of Pennsylvania granted on March 4.
1682 — In an account of the province of East Jersey,
published by the proprietors in 1682, it is stated that
" there is already a smelting furnace and forge set up in
this colony, where is made good iron, which is of great
benefit to the country." This enterprise was located at
Tinton Falls, in Monmouth county, New Jersey. Other
authorities definitely establish the fact that the Shrews-
bury works, as they were called, were established before
1676. They were the first iron works in New Jersey.
1683 — The first sea-going vessel built in Pennsylvania
was the Amity, built by William Penn at Philadelphia in
this year for the Free Society of Traders. In the same
year Penn wrote : " Some vessels have been built here and
many boats."
1683 — In this year the first glass factory in Pennsyl-
vania was established at Philadelphia. In August, 1683,
Penn wrote that "the saw mill for timber and the place
of the glass-house are conveniently posted for water-car-
riage." In March, 1684, Pastorius wrote that "a mill and
glass factory are built" at "Franckfurt," now a part of
Philadelphia. Both writers probably referred to the same
glass factory.
1685 — A ferry over the Schuylkill at Market street,
Philadelphia, was in operation in this year.
1690 — The first paper mill in the colonies was estab-
lished before this year on a tributary of the Wissahickon,
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 269
near Germantown, by Willem Rittinghuysen, the great-
grandfather of David Rittenhouse.
1692 — In 1692 we find the first mention of iron hav-
ing been made in Pennsylvania. It is contained in a met-
rical composition entitled A Short Description of Pennsyl-
vania, by Richard Frame, which was printed and sold by
William Bradford, in Philadelphia, in 1692. Frame says
that at " a certain place about some forty pound" of iron
had then been made. This was an experimental enterprise.
1703 — Abraham Lincoln's paternal ancestry was identi-
fied with the manufacture of iron in Massachusetts. The
head of the American branch of his father's family, Sam-
uel Lincoln, emigrated in 1637 from Norwich, England, to
Massachusetts. Mordecai Lincoln, son of Samuel, born at
Hingham on June 14, 1657, followed the trade of a black-
smith at Hull, from which place he removed to Scituate,
where "he built a spacious house and was a large con-
tributor toward the erection of the iron works at Bound
Brook" in 1703. These works made wrought iron directly
from the ore. Mordecai Lincoln had two sons who set-
tled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, Mordecai, Jr., and
Abraham. Mordecai, Jr., was the great-great-grandfather
of Abraham Lincoln.
1710 — The first slitting mill in the colonies for slitting
nail rods is said by tradition to have been erected at Mil-
ton, in Norfolk county, Massachusetts, as early as 1710.
Nails were made by blacksmiths and others from these
nail rods, sometimes on small anvils in chimney corners.
1716 — After the failure of the enterprise on Falling
creek no successful effort was made to revive the iron in-
dustry in Virginia until after the beginning of the succeed-
ing century, when Governor Alexander Spotswood and his
associates built a furnace in Spottsylvania county, about
ten miles northwest of Fredericksburg, in 1715 or 1716.
It was soon followed by other furnaces in Virginia.
1716 — The first iron works in Maryland were probably
erected in Cecil county, at the head of Chesapeake bay.
A bloomary at North East, on North East river, erected a
short time previous to 1716, probably formed the pioneer
iron enterprise in this colony.
270 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
1716 — Pool forge, on Manatawny creek, in Berks coun-
ty, Pennsylvania, was built in 1716 by Thomas Rutter,
and was the first iron enterprise in Pennsylvania of which
any record has been preserved. Mrs. James, in her Me-
morial of Thomas Potts, Junior, says that Rutter was an
English Quaker and a resident of Philadelphia in 1685.
1717 — The exportation of bar iron from the American
colonies began in this year, when 2 tons were sent to
England from the British West India islands of Nevis and
St. Christopher, but which had evidently been taken there
from one of the Atlantic coast colonies.
1719 — In this year the first newspaper in Pennsylva-
nia was established at Philadelphia by Andrew Bradford.
It was entitled The American Weekly Mercury.
1722 — In 1722 Joseph Farmer, an ironmaster, of Eng-
land, and his associates, afterwards known as the Prin-
cipio Company, commenced the erection of a furnace on
Talbot's manor, in Cecil county, near the mouth of Prin-
cipio creek, in Maryland, which was finished in 1724 and
followed by a forge which was completed in 1725, both
works being built and afterwards operated for the com-
pany by John England. This company afterwards owned
many furnaces in Maryland and Virginia.
1722 — Sir William Keith established a forge for the
manufacture of bar iron on Christiana creek, in Dela-
ware. It was probably built between 1722 and 1726. It
was soon followed by Abbington furnace, built about 1727.
1728 — In this year James Logan wrote that "there are
four furnaces in blast in the colony" of Pennsylvania.
Colebrookdale and Durham were two of these furnaces.
1728 — Scrivenor says that in 1728-29 there were im-
ported into England from " Carolina" one ton and one
cwt. of pig iron, and that in 1734 there were imported
two qrs. and twelve lbs. of bar iron. These dates fix the
erection of iron works in North Carolina as early as 1728.
Hoes made in Virginia and "Carolina" were sold in New
York long before the Revolution.
1728 — Connecticut was probably the first of the colo-
nies to make steel. In 1728 Samuel Higley, of Simsbury,
and Joseph Dewey, of Hebron, in Hartford county, repre-
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 271
sented to the Legislature that the first-named had, "with
great pains and cost, found out and obtained a curious
art, by which to convert, change, or transmute common
iron into good steel, sufficient for any use, and was the
first that ever performed such an operation in America."
1732 — Augustine Washington, the father of George
Washington, was engaged in 1732 in making pig iron at
Accokeek furnace, in Stafford county, Virginia, about fif-
teen miles from Fredericksburg, when his famous son was
born. This furnace had been built by the Principio Com-
pany as early as 1726, on land owned by Augustine
Washington, aggregating about 1,600 acres, and contain-
ing iron ore, Mr. Washington becoming the owner of one-
sixth of the furnace property in consideration of the
transfer of his land to the company.
1732 — Cornwall iron ore hills first mentioned.
1734 — As early as 1734 a bloomary forge was built at
Lime Rock, in Litchfield county, Connecticut, by Thomas
Lamb, which produced from 500 to 700 pounds of iron per
day. A blast furnace was afterwards added to this forge.
1735 — In this year Samuel Waldo erected a furnace
and foundry on the Pawtuxet river, in Rhode Island,
which were afterwards known as Hope furnace.
1740 — The first iron works in New York were "set
up" a short time prior to 1740 on Ancram creek, in Co-
lumbia county, about fourteen miles east of the Hudson
river, by Philip Livingston, the father of Philip the signer
of the Declaration of Independence.
1750 — The iron industry of New Hampshire probably
dates from about 1750, when several bog-ore bloomaries
were in existence on Lamper Eel river but were soon dis-
continued. About the time of the Revolution there were
a few other bloomaries in operation in New Hampshire.
1750 — In 1750 it was officially reported that there was
then in Massachusetts "one furnace for making steel."
1750 — The first canal constructed in the United States
was a short line in Orange county, New York, built by
Lieutenant-Governor Colder in 1750 for transporting stone.
1750 — The Virginia coal mines were probably the first
that were worked in America. Bituminous mines were
272 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
opened and operated on the James river, in Chesterfield
county, probably about 1750. In July, 1766, in the Vir-
ginia Gazette, Samuel Duval advertised coal for sale at
Rockett's, a lower landing of Richmond, at 12d. per bushel,
11 equal to Newcastle coal." In 1789 Virginia coal sold in
Philadelphia at Is. 6d. per bushel.
1755 — In this year occurred General Braddock's defeat.
1758 — The French were driven from Western Pennsyl-
vania in this year by General John Forbes, when Fort
Du Quesne, at Pittsburgh, fell into his hands.
1758 — Coal was observed at Pittsburgh as early as 1758.
1763 — The battle of Bushy Run was fought this year.
1766 — Anthracite coal was discovered in the Wyoming
valley as early as 1766. It is claimed that in 1768 or 1769
two settlers in the valley, being two brothers named Gore,
from Connecticut, blacksmiths, were the first persons in
this country to use anthracite coal, using it in a forge fire.
1770 — In this year the American colonies exported
6,017 tons of pig iron, valued at $145,628 ; 2,463 tons of
bar iron, valued at $178,891; 2 tons of castings, valued at
$158 ; and 8 tons of wrought iron, valued at $810.
1773 — The first iron works in South Carolina were
erected by Mr. Buffington in 1773 but they were destroy-
ed by the Tories during the Revolution. Other iron en-
terprises were undertaken in this State after the Revolu-
tion. In the census year 1840 there were four active fur-
naces in South Carolina and nine bloomaries, forges, and
rolling mills. In 1856 South Carolina had eight furnaces
and in the same year it had three small rolling mills. All
these enterprises have long been abandoned.
1775 — About this year a few bloomaries were erected
in Maine and Vermont. A few furnaces were afterwards
erected in these States and many bloomaries in Vermont.
All have disappeared.
1777 — Arnold's History of the State of Rhode Island
says: "It is said that the first cold cut nail in the world
was made in 1777 by Jeremiah Wilkinson, of Cumberland."
1780 — In this year an act of the General Assembly of
Pennsylvania was passed which provided for the gradual
abolition of negro slavery in that State.
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 273
1781 — Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia mentions a
"burning spring" in West Virginia, owned by General
Washington and Andrew Lewis. This was natural gas.
1790 — Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport, Massachusetts,
invented about 1790 his nail-cutting machine.
1790 — A bloomary was built in 1790 at Embreeville,
in Washington county, Tennessee, and another at Eliza-
bethton, on Doe river, in Carter county, Tennessee, about
1795. Wagner's bloomary, on Roane creek, in Johnson
county, was built in this year, and a bloomary was also
erected on Camp creek, in Greene county, in 1797.
1791 — The first iron enterprise in Kentucky was Bour-
bon furnace, often called Slate furnace, which was built
in 1791 on Slate creek, a branch of Licking river, in Bath
county, and about two miles southeast of Owingsville.
1792 — Lancaster Turnpike built, first in this country.
1792 — A small blast furnace was built in this year by
George Anshutz, a native of Alsace, on Two-mile run, now
Shady Side, in Pittsburgh. In 1794 it was abandoned for
want of ore. It made grates and other small castings.
1800 — The first permanent bridge over the Schuylkill
at Philadelphia, at Market street, was commenced in 1800
and opened to traffic in January, 1805.
1800 — In this year the seat of government of Penn-
sylvania was moved from Philadelphia to Lancaster, and
in 1812 it was removed from Lancaster to Harrisburg.
1800 — About 1800 the celebrated Champlain iron ore
district in New York was developed, and many Catalan
forges, as well as furnaces and a few rolling mills, were
soon afterwards built. The forges were true Catalan forges
but of an improved type. As late as 1883 there were 27
of these forges, with 171 fires. All are now abandoned.
1801 — The first chain bridge in the United States was
built this year over Jacob's creek in Western Pennsylva-
nia by Judge James Finley, of Fayette county.
1802 — Catalan forges, or bloomaries, were built in
Northern New Jersey long before the Revolution. Many
forges were blown by the trompe, or water-blast. In
1795 Morse mentions thirty forges in Morris county, New
Jersey, and in 1802 a memorial to Congress says that
18
274 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
there were then in New Jersey 150 of these forges. There
are now no Catalan forges left in that State.
1803 — The beginning of the iron industry in Ohio
dates from 1803, in which year its first furnace, Hopewell,
was commenced by Daniel Eaton. It was finished in 1804.
It stood on the west side of Yellow creek, about one and a
quarter miles above its junction with the Mahoning river.
1807 — The first railroads in the United States, begin-
ning with this year, were built to haul gravel, stone, coal,
and other heavy materials, and were all short roads.
1807 — Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, made
its successful trial trip on the Hudson on August 17.
1808 — Anthracite coal first used in a grate by Judge
Jesse Fell, at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, in this year.
1810 — The census statistics for 1810, published in 1814,
gave the production of cast iron in the census year as
amounting to 53,908 gross tons, which included pig iron.
1810 — The production of steel in the United States in
the census year 1810 amounted to 917 tons.
1810 — In 1810 there was a bloomary in Warren coun-
ty, a forge in Elbert county, and a nailery in Chatham
county, Georgia. Two of these were built about 1790.
1810 — On June 27, 1810, Clemens Rentgen, a native of
the Palatinate, in Germany, obtained a patent from the
United States Government for " rolling iron round, for
ship bolts and other uses," which invention was put to
practical use at Mr. Rentgen's Pikeland works, in Chester
county, Pennsylvania, in 1812 and 1813, in which years
he rolled round iron, some of which was for the navy.
1811 — The first steamboat "on the western waters"
was built at Pittsburgh and called the New Orleans.
1812 — The first rolling mill at Pittsburgh was built in
1811 and 1812 by Christopher Cowan, a Scotch-Irishman,
and called the Pittsburgh rolling mill. This mill had no
puddling furnaces. Its products were sheet iron, nail and
spike rods, shovels, chains, hatchets, hammers, etc.
1812 — Salt was first discovered on the Conemaugh in
Western Pennsylvania in this year or 1813.
1816 — Wire fences were in limited use in the neighbor-
hood of Philadelphia as far back as 1816. The wire used
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 275
was manufactured by White & Hazard at their wire
works at the Falls of Schuylkill.
1816 — In his History of Philadelphia (1884) Thompson
Westcott says that the first wire suspension bridge in the
United States, if not in the world, was thrown across the
Schuylkill river, near the Falls of Schuylkill, by White &
Hazard. Its use was restricted to foot passengers.
1816 — The first rolling mill erected in the United
States to puddle iron and roll iron bars was built by
Isaac Meason in 1816 and 1817 at Plumsock, on Redstone
creek, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania.
1816 — The once celebrated iron district in Iron and St.
Francois counties, Missouri, which embraces Iron Mountain
and Pilot Knob, appears to have contained the first iron
enterprise in this State, which embraced a furnace and
forge on Stout's creek, in Iron county, built in 1815 or 1816.
1816 — About 1810 Isaac Pennock built Brandywine
rolling mill, at Coatesville, Pennsylvania, which was pur-
chased from him about 1816 by Dr. Charles Lukens. The
first boiler plates made in the United States were rolled
at this mill by Dr. Lukens prior to his death in 1825.
1818 — The oldest furnace in Alabama mentioned by
Professor J. P. Lesley was built about 1818 a few miles
west of Russellville, in Franklin county, and abandoned in
1827. A furnace was built at Polksville, in Calhoun county,
in 1843, and Shelby furnace, at Shelby, was built in 1848.
1818 — In this year the construction of the first canal
tunnel in the United States was undertaken at Auburn,
Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, by the Schuylkill Navi-
gation Company. It was finished in 1821.
1825 — The first iron steamboat built in this country
was the Codorus, built at York, Pennsylvania, in 1825.
1825 — The first bar iron rolled in New England was
rolled at the Boston iron works, in Boston, in 1825.
1827— On February 28, 1827, the Maryland Legislature
granted a charter for the construction of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, the first railroad in the United States
to be 'built for the conveyance of passengers as well as
freight. Its construction was commenced on July 4, 1828.
The road was not opened to Wheeling until January, 1853.
276 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
1829 — Steam power was not used on any American
railroad until 1829. Horse power had previously been used
and was used for many years afterwards.
1829 — The first locomotive to run upon an American
railroad was the Stourbridge Lion. It was first used at
Honesdale, in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, on August 8,
1829, on the coal railroad of the Delaware and Hudson
Canal Company. It was built in England.
1830 — The T rail was invented in this year by Robert
L. Stevens, the president and engineer of the Camden and
South Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company, and
T rails were rolled in Wales in 1830 on Mr. Stevens's
order and laid down on a part of his road in 1831.
1830 — The first locomotive built in the United States
and used on a railroad was the Tom Thumb, which was
built by Peter Cooper at Baltimore and successfully ex-
perimented with on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in
August, 1830. Mr. Cooper was his own engineer. Strictly
speaking the Tom Thumb was only a working model.
1830 — The first American locomotive that was built
for actual service was the Best Friend of Charleston, which
was built at the West Point Foundry, in New York City,
for the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad and was suc-
cessfully put in use on that road in December, 1830.
1830 — In 1830 only 23 miles of railroad were in opera-
tion in the United States ; in 1840 there were 2,818 miles ;
in 1850 there were 9,021 miles ; in 1860 there were 30,626
miles ; in 1870 there were 52,922 miles ; in 1880 there were
93,262 miles; in 1890 there were 166,703 miles; in 1900
there were 194,262 miles; and in 1907 there were 228,128
miles. These figures do not include double tracks, sid-
ings, etc.; only the length of the main track.
1832 — Crucible steel of the best quality was first made
in the United States in this year in commercial quantities
at Cincinnati by Dr. William Garrard and his brother,
John H. Garrard, entirely from American materials. Their
works were called the Cincinnati steel works.
1832 — In Brown's History of the First Locomotives in
America it is stated that "the first charter for what are
termed city passenger or horse railroads was obtained in
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 277
the city of New York and known as the New York and
Harlem, and this was the first road of the kind ever con-
structed, and was opened in 1832. No other road of the
kind was completed till 1852, when the Sixth Avenue was
opened to the public."
1833— The first railroad tunnel in the United States,
four miles east of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, forming part
of the Portage Railroad, was completed in 1833 and was
first used on November 26 of that year.
1833 — In this year the Philadelphia and. Reading Rail-
road Company was chartered. It was opened to Mount
Carbon, one mile below Pottsville, on January 13, 1842.
1834 — In this year the main line of the Pennsylvania
Canal, connecting Philadelphia with Pittsburgh, was open-
ed for traffic throughout its entire length. The building
of the canal was commenced in 1826.
1834 — The first practical application of the hot-blast
to the manufacture of pig iron in this country was made
at Oxford furnace, in New Jersey, in 1834, by William
Henry, the manager. The fuel used was charcoal.
1834 — Bituminous coal in Alabama was first observed
in this year by Dr. Alexander Jones, of Mobile.
1835 — The first puddling done in New England was at
Boston, on the mill-dam, by Lyman, Ralston & Co.
1835 — The first successful use of coke in the blast fur-
nace in the United States was accomplished by William
Firmstone, at Mary Ann furnace, in Huntingdon county,
Pennsylvania, in 1835.
1835 — The- machine-made horseshoe was patented by
Henry Burden, of Troy, New York, in 1835. Other horse-
shoe patents were issued to him in 1843, 1857, and 1862.
Mr. Burden was also the inventor of the hook-headed
spike and of the Burden rotary squeezer, the latter in 1840.
1838 — Baldwin Locomotive Works exported one loco-
motive to Cuba, their first shipment to a foreign country.
1839 — In 1839 a small charcoal furnace was built four
miles northwest of Elizabethtown, in Hardin county, Illi-
nois. This is the first blast furnace in Illinois of which
there is any record.
1839— On October 19, 1839, Pioneer furnace, at Potts-
278 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
ville, Pennsylvania, built by William Lyman, of Boston,
and others, under the auspices of Burd Patterson, of
Pottsville, was successfully blown in with anthracite coal
by Benjamin Perry and ran for about three months,
making about 28 tons of foundry iron a week. This was
the first use of anthracite coal in the blast furnace in this
country that was attended with a fair degree of success.
1840— On July 3, 1840, the first furnace of the Lehigh
Crane Iron Company, at Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, was
successfully blown in by David Thomas, who had super-
intended its construction. Its first cast was made on
July 4. From the first this furnace produced 50 tons a
week of good foundry iron. This was the first of all the
early anthracite furnaces that was completely successful.
1840 — Indiana possessed a small charcoal iron industry
before 1840. The census mentions a furnace in that year
in Jefferson county, one in Parke, one in Vigo, one in Ver-
milion, and three in Wayne county, the total product be-
ing 810 tons of "cast iron." A forge in Fulton county,
producing 20 tons of " bar iron," is also mentioned. Bog
ore was used.
1840 — In 1840 the census reported that 601 tons of
"cast iron" had that year been produced in 15 "furnaces"
in Southern Michigan. Some of these "furnaces" were
undoubtedly foundries, which obtained pig iron from Ohio
and other neighboring States ; others used bog ore.
1840— The census of 1840 mentions a furnace in "Mil-
waukee town," Wisconsin, which produced three tons of
iron in that year. This was probably a foundry. In 1859
Lesley mentions three charcoal furnaces in Wisconsin.
1841 — In the winter of this year and 1842 Connells-
ville coke was first made in commercial quantities a few
miles below Connellsville on the Youghiogheny river.
1842— Wire cable suspension bridge over the Schuyl-
kill at Philadelphia was built by Charles Ellet, Jr.
1843 — The development of the Lake Superior copper
region was undertaken this year under the auspices of
Dr. Curtis G. Hussey, of Pittsburgh.
1844 — The first discovery by white men of iron ore
in the Lake Superior region was made on the 16th of Sep-
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 279
tember, 1844, near the eastern end of Teal lake, in North-
ern Michigan, by William A. Burt, a deputy surveyor of
the General Government. In June, 1845, the Jackson Min-
ing Company was organized at Jackson, Michigan, and
in the same year it secured possession of the celebrated
Jackson iron mountain. In 1853 a few tons of Jackson
ore were shipped to the World's Fair at New York.
1844— On April 24, 1844, Hon. Edward Joy Morris,
a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, declared that
"not a ton of T rail has yet been made in this country."
1844 — The manufacture of heavy iron rails in this
country was commenced early in 1844 at the Mount Sav-
age rolling mill, in Allegany county, Maryland, which was
built in 1843 especially to roll these rails. The first rail
rolled at this mill was an inverted U rail. U rails were
in use in the sidings of the Cumberland and Pennsyl-
vania Railroad as late as 1869. We have a short piece.
1844 — In this year iron T rails weighing 50 pounds
to the yard were rolled at the Mount Savage rolling mill,
in Maryland, for the railroad leading from Fall River to
Boston. They were ordered by Colonel Borden, of Fall
River, and were the first T rails rolled in the United States.
1845 — A wire suspension aqueduct over the Allegheny
at Pittsburgh was built this year by John A. Roebling —
his first use of wire rope for aqueducts or bridges.
1845 — The Montour rolling mill, at Danville, Pennsyl-
vania, was built in 1845 expressly to roll T rails.
1845 — Splint coal, or block coal, was used in a blast
furnace in the fall of 1845 by Himrod & Vincent, of Mer-
cer county, Pennsylvania, in their Clay furnace. It had
been previously successfully experimented with.
1846 — The first furnace in Ohio to use splint coal, or
block coal, in its raw state was built expressly for this
purpose at Lowell, in Mahoning county, by Wilkeson,
Wilkes & Co., and successfully blown in by them on the
8th of August, 1846.
1846 — The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was char-
tered to build a railroad from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.
1849 — The production of iron rails in this country in
1849 was 21,712 gross tons, and in 1872, the year of larg-
280 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
est production, it was 808,866 tons. In 1904 the produc-
tion had dwindled to 871 tons and in 1906 to 15 tons.
1850 — The first shipment of iron ore from the Lake
Superior region was made in 1850 and consisted of about
ten tons, "which was taken away by Mr. A. L. Craw-
ford, of New Castle, Pennsylvania." A part of this ore
was reduced to blooms and rolled into bar iron. It was
hauled around Sault Ste. Marie on a strap railroad.
1850 — Petroleum was first refined in this year by
Samuel M. Kier, of Pittsburgh.
1852 — On December 10, 1852, the Pennsylvania Rail-
road was completed from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, con-
nections being made with State railroads.
1852 — The first wire nails manufactured in the United
States were made in 1851 or 1852 at New York by Will-
iam Hassall. All the wire nails made by Mr. Hassall were
made from iron or brass wire and were of small sizes, es-
cutcheon and upholsterer's nails being specialties.
1853 — The first use of Lake Superior ore in a blast
furnace occurred in Pennsylvania in 1853, when about
70 tons, brought from Erie by canal, were used in the
Sharpsville and Clay furnaces, in Mercer county.
1854 — It is stated by the American Cyclopaedia that
Peter Cooper "was the first to roll wrought iron beams
for fire-proof buildings," at Trenton, N. J., in 1854. They
were 7 inches deep, weighed about 81 pounds per yard,
and were known as deck beams. They were used in Har-
per Brothers' and the Cooper Union buildings, New York,
and also on the Camden and Amboy Railroad as rails.
1855 — In this year the production of pig iron with
anthracite coal exceeded that made with charcoal.
1855 — On March 6 the American Iron Association, now
the American Iron and Steel Association, was organized
at Philadelphia. In 1864 the present name was adopted.
1855 — The first 30-foot iron rails rolled in this country
were rolled at the Cambria iron works, at Johnstown, in
1855. There was no demand for them. The first 30-foot
iron rails rolled in this country on order were rolled at the
Montour rolling mill, at Danville, Pennsylvania, in Janu-
ary, 1859, for the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company.
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 281
1857 — The iron industry at Chicago dates from 1857,
when Captain E. B. Ward, of Detroit, built the Chicago
rolling mill, "just outside of the city," to reroll iron rails.
1857 — The main line of the Pennsylvania Canal, from
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, was sold this year to the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company for $7,500,000.
1858 — The first pig iron produced in the Lake Superi-
or region was made in 1858 by Stephen R. Gay in a small
furnace on Dead river, three miles northwest of Marquette.
1859 — Clinton furnace, built in 1859 by Graff, Bennett
& Co., at Pittsburgh, and blown in on the last Monday of
October, was the first furnace built in Allegheny county
after the Anshutz furnace at Shady Side was abandoned.
1859 — Metallic zinc first made successfully in this
country by Joseph Wharton, at South Bethlehem.
1860 — The production of pig iron in the United States
in 1860 was 821,223 tons and that of steel was 11,838 tons.
1860 — As late as 1860 there were about two hundred
Catalan forges, or bloomaries, south of the Ohio and the
Potomac rivers, which made bar iron under the hammer
directly from the ore. At the close of the nineteenth
century only one of these bloomaries survived and it has
since been abandoned.
1862 — The Phoenix wrought-iron column, or wrought-
steel column, is the invention of Samuel J. Reeves, of
Philadelphia, in this year.
1864 — In September, 1864, William F. Durfee, acting
for the Kelly Pneumatic Process Company, succeeded at
experimental works at Wyandotte, Michigan, in making
the first pneumatic, or Bessemer, steel in this country.
1865 — The control in this country of Mr. Bessemer's
steel patents was obtained in 1864 by John F. Winslow,
John A. Griswold, and Alexander L. Holley, all of Troy,
New York. In February, 1865, Mr. Holley was successful
at Troy in producing Bessemer steel at experimental
works which he had constructed for his company in 1864.
1865— The first Bessemer steel rails made in the Unit-
ed States were rolled in May of this year at the Chicago
rolling mill, in Chicago, from blooms made by William F.
Durfee at Wyandotte.
282 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
1866 — The first elevated city passenger railroad ever
built was the Greenwich street railroad in New York,
which was commenced in 1866 and has been in successful
operation since 1872. It is now known as the Ninth Ave-
nue Elevated Railway. The next project of this charac-
ter was the Gilbert elevated railroad, in New York, for
the construction of which a charter was granted in 1872.
1867 — The first Siemens gas furnace that was regularly
introduced into this country for any purpose was built
by John A. Griswold & Co., at Troy, New York, and used
as a heating furnace in their rolling mill, the license hav-
ing been granted on the 18th of September, 1867.
1868 — The first open-hearth furnace introduced into
this country for the manufacture of steel by the Siemens-
Martin process was built in 1868 by Frederick J. Slade for
Cooper, Hewitt & Co., at Trenton, New Jersey.
1868— In 1867 or 1868 John Player, of England, in-
troduced his iron hot-blast stove into the United States.
Mr. Player personally superintended the erection of the
first of his stoves in this country at the furnace of J. B.
Moorhead & Co., at West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
1869 — In this year pig iron made with bituminous coal
and coke first exceeded that made with charcoal.
1869— On May 10, 1869, the Union and Central Pa-
cific Railroads were joined at Promontory Point, Utah,
completing the first railroad line across the continent.
1869 — The first successful application in this country
of the Siemens regenerative gas furnace to the puddling
of iron was made under the direction of William F. Dur-
fee at the rolling mill of the American Silver Steel Com-
pany, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1869.
1873 — The first Transatlantic iron steamships to at-
tract attention which were built in this country were the
four vessels of the American Steamship Company's line,
the Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, built of
Pennsylvania iron at Philadelphia in 1871, 1872, and 1873,
by W. Cramp & Sons. They were each 355 feet long and
their carrying capacity was 3,100 tons each.
1873 — The first considerable importation of iron ore
into this country occurred in 1873, when about 46,000
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 283
tons were imported, the most of which came from Canada.
In 1902 we imported 1,165,470 tons of iron ore, of which
Cuba sent 696,375 tons. In 1907 we imported 1,229,168
tons, of which 657,133 tons came from Cuba. Our first
imports of iron ore from Cuba took place in 1884.
1874 — At the Siberian rolling mill of Rogers & Burch-
field, at Leechburg, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania,
natural gas, taken from a well 1,200 feet deep, was first
used in 1874 in the manufacture of iron. For six months
of this year natural gas furnished all the fuel required by
this mill for puddling, heating, and making steam.
1874 — The two-story bridge across the Mississippi at
St. Louis was formally opened on the 4th of July of this
year. It was built by the Keystone Bridge Company, of
Pittsburgh, active operations having been commenced on
March 19, 1868. Its centre arch is 520 feet long, and
there are two other arches each 502 feet long. These
arches are composed of tubes made of American steel.
1874 — The Girard avenue bridge over the Schuylkill
at Philadelphia was also opened to the public on July 4,
1874. It was built entirely of iron in fourteen months
by Clarke, Reeves & Co., of Phcenixville. This bridge is
1,000 feet long, 100 feet wide, and is composed of five
spans. When built it was the widest bridge in the world.
1874— In 1874 John Roach & Son launched for the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company, at their shipyard at
Chester, Pennsylvania, two iron steamships, the City of
Peking and the City of Tokio, twin vessels in all respects.
They were each 423 feet long and had a carrying capac-
ity of 5,000 tons each.
1875 — The production of pig iron made with bitumi-
nous coal and coke exceeded that made with anthracite.
1875 — The first 60-foot rails rolled in this country
were rolled by the Edgar Thomson Steel Company, at its
works near Pittsburgh, in 1875, and were of steel.
1875 — The Whitwell fire-brick hot-blast stove, the in-
vention of Thomas Whitwell, of England, was first used
in this country at Rising Fawn furnace, in Dade county,
Georgia, on June 18, 1875. Its next application was at
Cedar Point furnace, at Port Henry, in Essex county, New
284 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
York, on August 12, 1875. The stoves at Cedar Point
furnace were built before those at Rising Fawn furnace.
1875 — The first wire nails that were made of steel
wire in this country were made at Covington, Kentucky,
in 1875, by Father Goebel, the pastor of St. Augustine's
Catholic Church in that city, who imported a wire-nail
machine from Germany. Father Goebel in the same year
formed the Kentucky Wire Nail Works and ordered two
more machines, he being president of the company.
1876 — At the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in
1876, the Edgar Thomson Steel Company exhibited a steel
rail which at that time was the longest steel rail that had
ever been rolled. It was 120 feet long and weighed 62
pounds to the yard.
1876 — Malleable nickel was first made in the world in
this year by Joseph Wharton from Pennsylvania nickel ore.
1877 — The first set of Siemens-Cowper-Cochrane fire-
brick hot-blast stoves built in this country was erected
at one of the Crown Point furnaces, in Essex county,
New York, in 1877 ; but the first set of these stoves in
any part of America was erected at Londonderry, Nova
Scotia, by the Steel Company of Canada, Limited, in 1876.
1878 — The world's production of pig iron in 1878 was
estimated by the compiler of this chronological record to
have amounted to 14,118,000 gross tons, and the world's
production of steel in the same year was estimated to
have amounted to 3,021,000 tons.
1880 — The first elevated railroad constructed in this
country in connection with a regular freight and passen-
ger railroad was undertaken by the Pennsylvania Rail-
road Company in 1880 and finished in 1881. It consti-
tutes an extension of the main line of the Pennsylvania
Railroad to the heart of the city of Philadelphia and is
about a mile long. It was opened for freight purposes on
April 25, 1881, and for passengers on December 5, 1881.
1883 — The first steel suspension bridge over the East
river, connecting New York with Brooklyn, was project-
ed in 1865 but its construction was not actually under-
taken until 1869. Its engineer was John A. Roebling, who
died in this year and was succeeded by his son, Washing-
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 285
ton A. Roebling. The bridge was completed and formally
opened on May 24, 1883. The total length of the bridge
and its approaches is 5,989 feet. The length of the main
span is 1,595 feet. The wire cables for the bridge were
made of crucible steel and some open-hearth steel, all of
American manufacture.
1884 — The first basic steel made in the United States
was produced experimentally at Steelton, Pennsylvania,
by the Pennsylvania Steel Company, on May 24, 1884, in
a Bessemer converter. The steel was of excellent quality.
1884 — In 1884 there were still in existence in this
country four slitting mills, which were used spasmodic-
ally in the conversion of plate iron into nail rods.
1886 — Basic open-hearth steel was first made in this
country by the Otis Iron and Steel Company, of Cleve-
land. One furnace was started on January 19, 1886.
1887 — The first contract for American-made armor was
made by the Navy Department with the Bethlehem Iron
Company on June 1, 1887, and was for two battleships
and four monitors, and called for 6,700 tons of plain steel
armor, oil-tempered and annealed, at an average price of
$536 per ton. But the first armor actually made under
this contract was not made by this company until 1890.
1888 — The manufacture of aluminum in this country
was successfully established at Pittsburgh in this year by
the Pittsburgh Reduction Company.
1888 — The beginning of the continuous manufacture of
basic steel in this country as a commercial product dates
from 1888, on the 30th of March of which year basic
open-hearth steel was produced at the Homestead steel
works of Carnegie, Phipps & Co., Limited.
1890 — The tinplate industry established in this country.
1890 — In this year the United States for the first time
made more pig iron than Great Britain. This leadership
was steadily maintained until 1894, when it was lost, but
in 1895 it was regained. In 1896 it was again lost, but it
was again regained in 1897 and has since been maintained.
1890 — The world's production of pig iron in this year
is given in Iron in All Ages as 26,968,468 tons, and its
production of steel in the same year as 12,151,255 tons.
286 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
The percentage of pig iron produced by this country in
that year was 34.1 and its percentage of steel was 35.2.
1896— The Helton Forge of W. J. Pasley, at Crumpler,
Ashe county, North Carolina, was the last Catalan forge
in the South to make charcoal iron bars direct from the
ore. It made its last blooms in 1896.
1897 — Two miles below Niagara Falls the Pennsylva-
nia Steel Company, of Steelton, erected in 1897 a double-
deck steel arch bridge over the Niagara river, the central
arch of which is 550 feet long. This bridge and the one
mentioned below are among the world's great bridges.
1897— In 1897 the A. and P. Roberts Company, of
Philadelphia, erected a steel arch bridge over the Niagara
river, just below the Falls. The length of the main arch
span is 840 feet, and there are two approach spans of 210
feet and 190 feet respectively. The height of the bridge
above the water line is 185 feet. It is 46 feet wide.
1897 — First pressed steel car was built by the Schoen
Pressed Steel Company, at Allegheny, Pa., in this year.
1899 — In this year the British Government ordered
a steel railroad bridge of American design and construc-
tion, consisting of seven spans of 150 feet each, to be
built across the Atbara river in the Soudan country,
south of Egypt. The contract for the construction and
erection of the bridge was awarded to the A. and P.
Roberts Company, of Philadelphia, which rolled and fitted
the steel for the bridge at its Pencoyd works. In his re-
port upon the bridge in the following April Lord Cromer
said : "An English firm offered to deliver the work in six
and a half months at a cost of £10,490. The American
firm's tender was £6,500 for delivery in forty-two days."
The bridge was delivered to a British vessel at New
York within the time mentioned in the contract. It was
erected over the Atbara river by an erecting crew from
the works of the A. and P. Roberts Company.
1899 — In this year the Pennsylvania Steel Company
built and erected for about $700,000 a steel viaduct
2,260 feet long and 320 feet high spanning the Gokteik
Gorge, in Burma, British India, eighty miles east of Man-
dalay. The steel viaduct crosses the Chungzoune river,
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 287
which disappears into a natural tunnel just above the
viaduct, the foundations of which rest partly on a natu-
ral bridge formed by this tunnel. Farther down the riv-
er again comes to the surface. The height from the
river to the column foundations is 500 feet. The viaduct
above this rises to a height of 320 feet. The bridge was
erected by a crew from the Pennsylvania Steel Com-
pany's works at Steelton for the Burma Railroad Com-
pany. The contract was secured in competition with
English bridgebuilders.
1900 — Poor's Manual reports that in 1900 there were
257,853 miles of steam railroad track in the United States,
including second, third, and fourth tracks, sidings, etc.,
and not including elevated railroads or electric roads. The
same authority reports that in 1907 there were 324,033.38
miles, of which 224,382.19 miles were single track and
99,651.19 miles were second, third, and fourth tracks, sid-
ings, etc. Of the total 314,713.50 miles were laid with
steel rails and 9,319.88 miles were laid with iron rails.
1900 — In this year the United States for the first time
made more open-hearth steel than Great Britain.
1901 — The Standish iron works, at Standish, Clinton
county, New York, were the last works in the North to
make charcoal blooms by the Catalan process direct from
the ore. They were built in 1895, were last active in 1901,
and were recently abandoned.
1903 — The world's production of pig iron in 1903 we
have estimated to have amounted to 46,368,000 tons. Of
this total estimated production the United States made
18,009,252 tons, or 38.84 per cent.
1903 — We have estimated the world's production of
steel in 1903 to have amounted to 35,846,000 tons, of which
the United States made 14,534,978 tons, or 40.55 per cent.
1905 — A steel cantilever bridge, under consxruction in
this year over the St. Lawrence river at Quebec, and to
be finished in 1909, was intended to be the most remark-
able structure of its kind in the world. The weight of
this bridge was to be about 35,000 tons. Its total length
was to be 3,300 feet. The central span of 1,800 feet was
to cross the entire St. Lawrence river at a height of 150
288 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
feet above high water and was to be the longest span in
the world, the next longest span being that of the Forth
Bridge in Scotland, which is 1,710 feet long. The height
of the cantilever towers was 360 feet above the river.
The Phoenix Bridge Company, of Phoenixville, Pennsylva-
nia, received the contract for building the bridge. On
Thursday, August 29, 1907, the bridge collapsed, about 80
workmen losing their lives. It was the south half that
fell, all that had been erected. The abutments and piers
of the bridge were not affected by the collapse. A Royal
Commission of Inquiry was appointed by the Canadian
Government, and on March 9, 1908, this committee pre-
sented to the House of Commons an elaborate report,
placing the blame for the collapse of the bridge upon the
engineers who designed and approved the plan of its con-
struction, but exonerating the Phoenix Bridge Company
from all blame.
1906 — In this year the world's production of iron ore
amounted to about 125,760,000 tons, of which the Unit-
ed States produced 47,749,728 tons, or 37.97 per cent.;
the production of coal and lignite was 1,003,100,000 tons,
of which the United States mined 369,783,284 tons, or
over 36.86 per cent.; the production of pig iron was 58,-
650,000 tons, of which the United States made 25,307,-
191 tons, or 43.15 per cent.; and the production of steel
ingots and castings was 51,060,000 tons, of which this
country made 23,398,136 tons, or over 45.82 per cent.
1907— In 1890 this country imported 329,435 tons of
tinplates and terne plates ; in 1907 it imported 57,773 tons.
1908 — In 1908 the Pennsylvania Steel Company rolled
grooved guard steel rails weighing 151 pounds to the yard.
THE MUHLENBERG FAMILY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 289
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE MUHLENBERG FAMILY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The remainder of this volume will be devoted to
sketches of some distinguished Pennsylvanians, nearly-
all of them Western Pennsylvanians. In this chapter we
give a brief history of a family of Pennsylvania Germans
which has contributed to our country as many men of
prominence and distinction as any other family in any
part of the United States, the justly celebrated Adams
and Field families of Massachusetts not excepted.
(1.) The Rev. Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, D. D., the
most eminent among the founders of the Lutheran Church
in this country, and who is affectionately known as the
Patriarch by those who have always regarded him as its
real founder, was born at Eimbeck, in Hanover, Germany,
on September 6, 1711. Liberally educated in German
universities and subsequently ordained as a Lutheran
minister he arrived in Philadelphia on November 25, 1742,
to labor among the German Lutherans who had recently
come to this country in large numbers. He died at his
home at The Trappe, in Montgomery county, Pennsylva-
nia, on October 7, 1787. He was an active minister of the
Lutheran Church during the whole of his residence of
forty-five years in his adopted country, in which position,
as well as by reason of his exalted character and high
intellectual attainments, he exercised great influence in the
councils of his church and in shaping the public opinion
of his day. For several years he preached in Philadelphia,
but for the greater part of his active life he preached reg-
ularly at The Trappe. Dr. Muhlenberg possessed execu-
tive ability of a high order. He was an ardent friend of
colonial independence, and because of his devotion to the
patriotic cause he was subjected to much persecution and
endured many privations during the Revolutionary war.
There is still standing at The Trappe, and in good
condition, a stone church which was built in 1743 when
19
290 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Dr. Muhlenberg was the pastor of the Lutheran congre-
gation at that place. He laid its corner-stone. Near the
end of his life the degree of doctor of divinity was con-
ferred upon this eminent and scholarly man by the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania. He was the master of three
languages, English, German, and Dutch, which he spoke
fluently, and he could also read Latin, Hebrew, Greek,
French, Bohemian, and Swedish. His remains rest in the
well-kept graveyard attached to the old stone church at
The Trappe. There is a Muhlenberg township in Berks
county which was so named in his honor.
Dr. Muhlenberg married on April 22, 1745, Anna Ma-
ria, a daughter of Conrad Weiser, of Berks county, the
noted representative of the provincial government in its
dealings with the Indians. The doctor was the father of
three gifted sons, all of whom became Lutheran ministers.
These sons were John Peter Gabriel, Frederick Augustus
Conrad, and Gotthilf Henry Ernestus Muhlenberg. All
these sons attained honorable distinction. Like their fa-
ther they were not only Lutheran ministers but they were
also public-spirited citizens of commanding influence.
(2.) John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was born at The
Trappe on October 1, 1746. He and his two younger
brothers, hereafter to be mentioned, were educated in part
at the University of Halle, in Germany. In 1772 he be-
came the pastor of a Lutheran congregation at Wood-
stock, Virginia, situated in a settlement of Germans in the
Shenandoah valley, most of whom had emigrated from
Pennsylvania. He also ministered to other Lutheran con-
gregations in this valley. In 1774 he was chosen a mem-
ber of the Virginia House of Burgesses. At the outbreak
of the Revolution in 1775 he was requested by Washing-
ton, with whom he had become personally acquainted, to
accept a colonel's commission in the Virginia Line, and
this invitation he accepted. Addressing his congregation
after services one Sunday he is reported to have said :
" There is a time for all things — a time to preach and a
time to pray, but there is also a time to fight, and that
time has now come," following this remark by throwing
back his clerical robe and exposing a colonel's uniform
THE MUHLENBERG FAMILY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 291
and reading his colonel's commission. At the door of the
church he ordered the drums to beat for recruits and many
members of his congregation and other Germans in the
valley promptly enlisted. Nearly 300 men of the churches
in the valley enlisted that day under Colonel Muhlenberg's
banner. They formed part of the 8th Virginia Regiment,
which was afterwards known as "the German Regiment."
With Colonel Muhlenberg at its head the regiment march-
ed to the relief of Charleston, South Carolina, and took
part in the battle of Sullivan's Island.
Peter Muhlenberg participated with credit in many
other important engagements of the Revolution. In 1777
he was commissioned a brigadier general and at the close
of the war he retired from the army as a major general.
He was at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony
Point, Yorktown, and other places where his valor and
skill were tested, and he was with his men at Valley Forge
in the winter of 1777. He was a fast friend of Washing-
ton during the " Conway cabal." Returning after the war
to Pennsylvania, which was afterwards his home, he was
in 1785 chosen vice president of the supreme executive
council of that State, Benjamin Franklin being its presi-
dent, and he was re-elected in 1786 and 1787. He was a
member of the House of Representatives of the First and
Third Congresses. In 1796 he was a Presidential elector.
In 1798 he was elected a Representative in the Sixth Con-
gress, serving from March 4, 1799, to March 3, 1801. On
February 18, 1801, he was chosen a United States Sena-
tor, but soon after taking his seat he resigned this office
that he might accept the position of supervisor of the
revenue for the district of Pennsylvania, an important of-
fice in that day, tendered to him by President Jefferson,
to whose political fortunes he was attached. In 1802 he
was appointed collector of customs for the port of Phila-
delphia. He died on October 1, 1807, and was buried at
The Trappe beside his illustrious father. Two of his
sons reflected honor on the family name after his
death. Peter was a major in the regular army during our
second war with Great Britain, and Francis Swaine was
a Representative from Ohio in the Twentieth Congress.
292 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
General Muhlenberg's statue is one of the two contrib-
uted by Pennsylvania to Statuary Hall in the Capitol of
the United States, the other being that of Robert Fulton,
Muhlenberg representing the German element in the
population of Pennsylvania and Fulton representing the
Scotch-Irish element.
In Henry A. Muhlenberg's Life of Major General Peter
Muhlenberg (1849) it is stated that " in Trumbull's paint-
ing of the capitulation of Yorktown, in the rotunda of the
Capitol, General Muhlenberg's is the second figure from
the left and is said to be an excellent likeness." An oil
portrait of the general that will arrest attention will be
found among the portraits of Revolutionary worthies in
Independence Hall in Philadelphia. A county in Ken-
tucky was named Muhlenberg in his honor.
(3.) Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, the sec-
ond of the three sons mentioned, was born at The Trappe
on January 1, 1750. Entering the Lutheran ministry his
talent for public affairs soon asserted itself. Like his fa-
ther and his brother Peter he was an ardent advocate of
colonial independence. He was a member of the Conti-
nental Congress from Pennsylvania in 1779 and 1780. In
1780 he was elected a member of the General Assembly of
Pennsylvania and was Speaker of that body in 1781 and
1782. In 1787 he was a delegate to the Pennsylvania con-
vention which was called to consider the Constitution of
1787, which it ratified. He was also Speaker of that body.
He was a member of the House of Representatives in the
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Congresses under the new
Constitution and during the whole of Washington's Ad-
ministration, and was Speaker of the House in the First
Congress and again in the Third Congress. In 1783 he was
elected a member of the Council of Censors which was
provided for under the first Constitution of Pennsylvania,
adopted in 1776. In 1793 he was the unsuccessful Feder-
alist candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania, receiving
10,706 votes, against 18,590 votes cast for Thomas Mifflin,
the Democratic candidate. In 1796 he was again the
Federalist candidate for Governor but was overwhelm-
ingly defeated by Mifflin, the vote being 1,011 for Muh-
THE MUHLENBERG FAMILY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 293
lenberg and 30,020 for Mifflin. It is evident that in the
campaign of 1796 Muhlenberg was only nominally a
candidate. He died at Lancaster on June 5, 1801.
(4.) Gotthilf Henry Ernestus Muhlenberg, the youngest
of the three brothers, was born at The Trappe on Novem-
ber 17, 1753, and entered the Lutheran ministry at an
early age. He was afterwards pastor of the Lutheran
church at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for thirty-five years,
from 1780 until his death in that city on May 23, 1815.
He was a profound theologian and an accomplished
scholar, scientific subjects absorbing his attention as far
as his pastoral duties would permit. He was noted for
his interest in botany, in which branch of natural history
he became an authority. He was styled "the American
Linnaeus." He carried on an extensive correspondence
with European naturalists and was a prolific writer for
the public press on scientific subjects. He was a member
of the American Philosophical Society and of other scien-
tific societies in America and Europe. During the Revo-
lution he was an active friend of the patriotic cause.
(5.) Henry Augustus Philip Muhlenberg, D. D., son of
Gotthilf, was born at Lancaster on May 13, 1782, and
like other members of the family entered the Lutheran
ministry. He was the pastor of Trinity Lutheran church
at Reading, Pennsylvania, from 1802 to 1827, when, also
like others of his family, he exchanged the pulpit for po-
litical office. There are few families in this country which
are fitted for public life by natural endowment from gen-
eration to generation and the Muhlenberg family was of
this exceptional type, although all its members that have
been mentioned, and others yet to be mentioned, were
educated for the Christian ministry and entered upon pas-
toral duties. Henry Augustus Philip was elected a Dem-
ocratic Representative in Congress in 1828 and served
continuously in the House by re-election from December,
1829, to February, 1838, when he resigned to become the
first United States Minister to Austria, to which posi-
tion he had been appointed by President Van Buren, and
which office he resigned in December, 1840. Before ac-
cepting the Austrian mission Mr. Muhlenberg had declined
294 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
successively the Secretaryship of the Navy and the mis-
sion to St. Petersburg which had been offered to him by
Mr. Van Buren. In 1835 he headed one of two wings of
the Democratic party in Pennsylvania as its candidate for
Governor but was defeated. In 1844 he was the candidate
of the united Democratic party for Governor and would
probably have been elected if he had lived until the votes
were counted, but he died at Reading on August 11 of
that year. His place on the ticket was taken by Francis
R. Shunk, who was elected Governor in that year and
was re-elected in 1847.
Henry Augustus Philip Muhlenberg was twice married,
both wives being daughters of Governor Joseph Hiester, a
distinguished soldier of the Revolution, who, after a long
service in Congress, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania
by the Federalist party in 1820, serving three years.
Henry Augustus Muhlenberg, a son of the above-men-
tioned Muhlenberg, born at Reading in 1823, was elected
a member of the General Assembly in 1849 and a Repre^
sentative in Congress in 1852, but died in 1854 soon after
taking his seat. He was a lawyer. In 1849 he published
a Life of Major General Peter Muhlenberg which contains
much Revolutionary history that is both rare and valu-
able. A son of this gentleman, also named Henry A. Muh-
lenberg, and also a member of the bar, died at Reading on
May 14, 1906. He was at one time an unsuccessful Re-
publican candidate for Congress in a Democratic district.
(6.) Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, D. D., LL. D., son
of Frederick Augustus Hall Muhlenberg, M. D., and grand-
son of Gotthilf, was born in Lancaster on August 25, 1818,
and became a Lutheran minister in early life. He was dis-
tinguished as a scholar and as a college professor. He was
professor of languages in Franklin College, at Lancaster,
from 1839 to 1850, and of the Greek language and litera-
ture in Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, from 1850 to
1867. In the latter year he was chosen the first president
of Muhlenberg College, at Allentown, which position he
filled until 1876, when he resigned to accept the Greek
chair in the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania,
holding this position until 1888. In 1891 he accepted the
THE MUHLENBERG FAMILY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 295
presidency of Thiel College, at Greenville, Mercer county,
at the urgent request of the friends of the college, a Lu-
theran institution, resigning this position after several
years' service. He died at Reading on March 21,1901. Dr.
Muhlenberg was especially distinguished for his thorough
knowledge of the Greek language and literature. He was
a voluminous writer on educational and other subjects.
(7.) Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg, D. D., son of
Henry William Muhlenberg and grandson of Frederick
Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, was born in Philadelphia
on September 16, 1796, and died in New York on April 8,
1877. This scion of the Muhlenberg house did not adhere
to the Lutheran faith but became a clergyman of the Prot-
estant Episcopal Church. From 1817 to 1821 he was as-
sistant rector of Christ church, Philadelphia, under Bishop
White, and soon afterwards entered upon ministerial work
in New York. He became an eminent churchman. He was
noted for his zeal and success in educational and char-
itable work within the bounds of the Episcopal Church
and also for his literary attainments. He is especially re-
membered as the author of several notable hymns, includ-
ing " I Would Not Live Alway," " Like Noah's Weary
Dove," and " Shout the Glad Tidings !"
(8.) The Patriarch Muhlenberg was not only the father
of three gifted sons but he was also the father of four
daughters of superior intelligence, two of whom married
Lutheran ministers. The first of these daughters, named
Eve Elizabeth, was married to Rev. Christopher Emanuel
Shulze and became the mother of another Lutheran min-
ister, John Andrew Melchior Shulze, who was born in
Berks county on July 19, 1775. After following his sacred
calling for a few years the Muhlenberg blood that was in
his veins led him into the field of political activity, and
after filling acceptably a number of minor elective posi-
tions he was chosen Governor of Pennsylvania in 1823
and again in 1826, serving in all six years. He was one of
the most popular Governors Pennsylvania has ever had.
At his second election to the Governorship he was virtu-
ally without opposition, only a few votes being polled
against him. He died on November 18, 1852, at Lancaster.
296 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
The details above presented may be summarized as
follows : Dr. Muhlenberg, the founder of the Muhlenberg
family, brought order out of disorder in the Lutheran
Church of this country, and by his individual exertions
established its influence and authority upon firm founda-
tions. His two oldest sons, Peter and Frederick, were
Representatives in Congress when Washington was Presi-
dent, Peter having previously served with honor as one
of Washington's generals during the whole period of the
Revolutionary war and Frederick having previously served
in the Continental Congress. Peter was afterwards elected
a United States Senator from Pennsylvania. Frederick
was the Speaker of the House during the First and Third
Congresses. He was twice the unsuccessful candidate of
the Federalist party for Governor of Pennsylvania. Dr.
Muhlenberg's third son, Gotthilf, was a naturalist of world-
wide reputation. Gotthilf's son, Henry Augustus Philip,
was a prominent leader of the Democratic party, long a
Representative in Congress, Minister to Austria, and twice
the Democratic candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania.
Henry Augustus, son of Henry Augustus Philip, was a
Representative in Congress. Gotthilf's grandson, Frederick
Augustus, was distinguished as a college professor and
college president. William Augustus, the grandson of the
first Speaker of the House of Representatives, was a prom-
inent Episcopal clergyman, especially noted as a writer
of hymns that are sung in all our churches. John An-
drew Shulze, a grandson of the Patriarch through one of
his daughters, was twice elected Governor of Pennsylvania.
The second daughter of Dr. Muhlenberg, Margaretta
Henrietta, married Rev. John Christopher Kunze, D. D.,
a native of Germany, who emigrated to this country in
1770. In 1784 he became the pastor of Christ church,
(Lutheran,) in New York, which position he filled until his
death in 1807. Dr. Kunze was a very learned man. The
third daughter, Mary Catharine, married Francis Swaine,
a politician of note in his day and brigadier general of the
State militia in 1805. The fourth daughter, Maria Salome,
married Matthias Richards, who was a Representative in
Congress for two terms, from 1807 to 1811, and held
THE MUHLENBERG FAMILY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 297
other public offices. One of her sons, Rev. John William
Richards, D. D., born in 1803 and dying in 1854, entered
the Lutheran ministry. His son, Rev. Matthias Henry
Richards, D. D., born in 1841 and dying in 1898, was
eminent as a scholar and as a Lutheran minister and
as a writer. He was for many years professor of the
English language and literature in Muhlenberg College.
Another son of John William Richards, Henry Melchior
Muhlenberg Richards, born in 1848, saw active service in
the Union army during the civil war, graduated at the
United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1869, and
served with distinction in the navy until 1875, when he
resigned. In 1898 he was the executive officer of the
United States ship Supply in the Spanish war. He is a
liberal contributor to Pennsylvania German literature.
Such is the brief record of the distinguished founder
of the Muhlenberg family in this country and of his most
noted descendants, many of whom have also achieved dis-
tinction and accomplished results worthy of lasting remem-
brance by all Pennsylvanians. Nearly all were ministers
of the Gospel, and nearly all were public-spirited citizens
whose talents fitted them for public life. Nearly all were
gifted with literary tastes and nearly all were accomplish-
ed scholars. Two of the sons of the founder were promi-
nently identified with the Revolutionary cause and were
conspicuous in the organization of the Government which
was created by the Constitution of 1787. As we stated at
the beginning, no State in the Union can boast of a family
which has contributed to our country a larger number of
eminent men than this family of Pennsylvania Germans.
298 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXIX.
GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.
The most distinguished of all the military heroes of
Western Pennsylvania and one of the most distinguished of
the whole country in the times that tried men's souls was
Major General Arthur St. Clair, of Westmoreland county.
Arthur St. Clair was born at Thurso, Scotland, on
March 23, 1736, according to a communication from the
historian, George Dallas Albert, which was published in
the Greensburg Democrat in March, 1898, after the publi-
cation of his History of Westmoreland County. General St.
Clair died on August 31, 1818. The year of his birth has
always been given in the cyclopaedias and elsewhere as
1734, with the month and the day of the month omitted.
Sir Thomas St. Clair, a noted genealogical authority in
England, insists that St. Clair was born in 1734.
Young St. Clair was educated at the University of
Edinburgh and afterwards was a student of medicine.
Tiring of his medical studies he abandoned them in a
little more than a year and in 1757 he entered the British
army as an ensign. In 1758 he crossed the Atlantic in
Admiral Boscawen's fleet and in the same year served
under General Amherst at the siege and capture of Louis-
burg. In 1759 he served under General Wolfe at the cap-
ture of Quebec. In this year he was commissioned a lieu-
tenant. In 1760 he married Phoebe Bayard, of Boston, a
daughter of Balthazar Bayard and Mary Bowdoin, both
of Huguenot descent. On both her father's and mother's
side she was of distinguished lineage. In 1762 Lieuten-
ant St. Clair resigned his commission in the army and in
1764 he is said to have come to Pennsylvania.
In Smith's Life and Public Services of Arthur St. Clair
we find the first definite reference to St. Clair's presence
in Pennsylvania. He is there said to have established his
residence in Pennsylvania, first at Bedford in 1764 and
afterwards in Ligonier valley. After 1764 there is a hia-
GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 299
tus of several years in Smith's account. The narrative
proceeds : " On the 5th of April, 1770, he was appointed
surveyor for the district of Cumberland, which then em-
braced the western part of the State." (The county of
Cumberland is meant.) Smith continues: "A month later
the offices of justice of the court of quarter sessions and
common pleas, and member of the proprietaries', or Gov-
ernor's, Council for Cumberland county was conferred up-
on him. When Bedford county was erected in 1771 the
Governor made St. Clair a justice of the peace, a recorder
of deeds, clerk of the orphan's court, and prothonotary
of the court of common pleas for that county. The same
year St. Clair, in connection with Moses Maclean, ran a
meridian line, nine and a half miles west of the meridian
of Pittsburgh. In 1773 Westmoreland was erected from
Bedford, when Governor Penn sent St. Clair appointments
corresponding with those held by him for Bedford."
Smith does not explain the inducements which led St.
Clair to locate at Bedford in 1764, but John N: Boucher,
in his recently published History of Westmoreland County,
throws some light on this subject and also upon the move-
ments of St. Clair in immediately succeeding years. He
says : " Shortly after his marriage he removed to Bedford,
Pennsylvania, having become acquainted with the Penns,
who were then proprietaries of the province. As agent for
them he looked after their possessions in the western part
of the province and took up lands for himself. In 1767
He was appointed commander of Fort Ligonier, which posi-
tion he filled for over two years. After the opening of the
land office in 1769 he was closely identified with the for-
mation of new counties and in the sale and settlement of
western lands. His brother-in-law, Captain Bayard, also
came here, and together they took up large tracts of land
in the southwestern part of the county. In these old
boundaries he is sometimes designated as Lieutenant and
sometimes as Captain St. Clair."
Albert says that in May, 1770, Arthur St. Clair and
others whose names are mentioned "were among the jus-
tices of the peace appointed for that portion of Cumber-
land county west of Laurel Hill," which indicates that
300 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
St. Clair was a resident of Ligonier valley at that time.
The Proceedings of the Governor and Executive Council of
the province say that on November 23, 1771, a special
commission was appointed to hold a court of oyer and
terminer at Bedford to try Lieutenant Robert Hamilton,
of His Majesty's 18th Regiment of Foot, who was charged
with the murder in Bedford county of Lieutenant Tracy,
of the same regiment. This commission was composed of
the " three eldest justices of the peace" in Bedford coun-
ty, John Frazer, Bernard Docherty, and Arthur St. Clair.
Ligonier valley was then in Bedford county.
Just when St. Clair removed his residence from Bed-
ford to Ligonier valley does not appear. His home was
probably at Ligonier. Albert gives a list of the lands ac-
quired by him in Westmoreland county between 1767
and 1793, which list was obtained from the records of
the land office. It embraces in all 8,270 acres. In addition
Albert shows that St. Clair had obtained title to 2,611
acres in other western counties in Pennsylvania, 2,000 of
which were in Crawford, Erie, and Lawrence counties.
The latter were presented to St. Clair by the State of
Pennsylvania after the Revolution. Other lands were lo-
cated in Somerset county. Albert also says that a land
warrant issued to St. Clair on November 23, 1773, for 592
acres in Ligonier township, Westmoreland county, mentions
that he was "commandant at the post of Fort Ligonier
in April, 1769." He also quotes (page 38) from a permit
in St. Clair's handwriting given to Frederick Rhorer " by
Arthur St. Clair, late Lieut, in his Majesty's Sixtieth Reg.
of foot, having the care of his Majesty's fort at Ligonier,"
granting to Rhorer the use of "a certain Piece of Land
in the neighborhood of Fort Ligonier," the permit being
"given under my hand at Ligonier this 11th day of April,
1767," the signature of "Ar. St. Clair" following.
As has been stated, Westmoreland county was estab-
lished in 1773. On April 6 of that year its first court was
held at Hannastown. Albert gives a copy of St. Clair's
commission as prothonotary of the county, issued on Feb-
ruary 27, 1773, by Richard Penn, Lieutenant Governor of
the province. He served as prothonotary of this first
GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 301
court and continued to fill the office until 1775, when he
resigned to take part in the stirring events of that year.
In the controversy between Pennsylvania and Virginia
over the western and southwestern boundaries of Penn-
sylvania St. Clair was not only the fast friend of the
Pennsylvania proprietaries but he displayed great activity
in protecting their interests. Early in 1774, when John
Connolly, the agent of Lord Dunmore, Governor of Vir-
ginia, took possession of Fort Pitt, which had been aban-
doned by the British Government because of the difficul-
ties then pending between the colonies and the mother
country, and issued a proclamation calling on the people
to sustain him, St. Clair, one of the justices of the peace
of Westmoreland county, issued a warrant and had him
arrested and confined in the jail at Hannastown, then the
county-seat of Westmoreland county, from which he was
released upon entering bail for his appearance at court.
Connolly afterwards gave further trouble, which the his-
torians of Pennsylvania have fully described.
We next hear of St. Clair after the battle of Lexing-
ton, which occurred on April 19, 1775. Two meetings of
the citizens of Western Pennsylvania were held in May
of that year to protest against British oppression of the
colonies. One meeting was held at Pittsburgh and the
other at Hannastown. Both meetings were well attended.
It is certain that St. Clair attended the Hannastown
meeting. At both meetings resolutions were unanimously
adopted which expressed sympathy with the people of
Massachusetts in their opposition to the oppressive meas-
ures of the British Government and also promised aid in
resisting further oppression of any of the colonies. The
exact text of the Hannastown resolutions has been tran-
scribed for these pages by Dr. C. H. Lincoln, of Washing-
ton, from Peter Force's American Archives, (4th series, vol.
2, pages 615 and 616,) and is literally as follows.
Meeting of the Inhabitants op Westmoreland, Pennsylvania.
At a general meeting of the inhabitants of the County of Westmore-
land, held at Hanna's Town the 16th day of May, 1775, for taking into
consideration the very alarming situation of this Country, occasioned by
the dispute with Great Britain:
Resolved unanimously, That the Parliament of Great Britain, by several
302 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
late Acts, have declared the inhabitants of the Massachusetts-Bay to be in
rebellion, and the Ministry, by endeavouring to enforce those Acts, have
attempted to reduce the said inhabitants to a more wretched state of slav-
ery than ever before existed in any state or country. Not content with
violating their constitutional and chartered privileges, they would strip
them of the rights of humanity, exposing lives to the wanton and unpunish-
able sport of a licentious soldiery, and depriving them of the very means
of subsistence.
Resolved unanimously, That there is no reason to doubt but the same
system of tyranny and oppression will (should it meet with success in the
Massachusetts- Bay) be extended to every other part of America : it is there-
fore become the indispensable duty of every American, of every man who
has any publick virtue or love for his Country, or any bowels for posterity,
by every means which God has put in his power, to resist and oppose the
execution of it ; that for us we will be ready to oppose it with our lives and
fortunes. And the better to enable us to accomplish it we will immediately
form ourselves into a military body, to consist of Companies to be made up
out of the several Townships under the following Association, which is de-
clared to be the Association of Westmoreland County :
Possessed with the most unshaken loyalty and fidelity to His Majesty,
King George the Third, whom we acknowledge to be our lawful and rightful
King, and who we wish may long be the beloved Sovereign of a free and
happy people throughout the whole British Empire ; we declare to the
world that we do not mean by this Association to deviate from that loyalty
which we hold it our bounden duty to observe ; but, animated with the
love of liberty, it is no less our duty to maintain and defend our just rights
(which, with sorrow, we have seen of late wantonly violated in many in-
stances by a wicked Ministry and a corrupted Parliament) and transmit
them entire to our posterity, for which purpose we do agree and associate
ourselves together :
1st. To arm and form ourselves into a Regiment or Regiments, and
choose officers to command us in such proportion as shall be thought
necessary.
2d. We will, with alacrity, endeavour to make ourselves masters of the
manual exercise, and such evolutions as may be necessary to enable us to
act in a body with concert; and to that end we will meet at such times and
places as shall be appointed either for the Companies or the Regiment, by
the officers commanding each when chosen.
3d. That should our Country be invaded by a foreign enemy, or should
Troops be sent from Great Britain to enforce the late arbitrary Acts of its
Parliament, we will cheerfully submit to military discipline, and to the ut-
most of our power resist and oppose them, or either of them, and will coin-
cide with any plan that may be formed for the defense of America in gen-
eral, or Pennsylvania in particular.
4th. That we do not wish or desire any innovation, but only that
things may be restored to and go on in the same way as before the era of
the Stamp Act, when Boston grew great, and America was happy. As a
proof of this disposition we will quietly submit to the laws by which we
have been accustomed to be governed before that period, and will, in our
several or associate capacities, be ready when called on to assist the civil
magistrate in carrying the same into execution.
5th. That when the British Parliament shall have repealed their late
obnoxious Statutes, and shall recede from their claim to tax us, and make
GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 303
laws for us in every instance, or when some general plan of union and rec-
onciliation has been formed and accepted by America, this our Association
shall be dissolved ; but till then it shall remain in full force ; and to the ob-
servation of it we bind ourselves by every thing dear and sacred amongst
men. No licensed murder ! no famine introduced by law !
Resolved, That on Wednesday, the twenty-fourth instant, the Town-
ship meet to accede to the said Association, and choose their officers.
In a letter from St. Clair to Joseph Shippen, Jr., dated
at Ligonier, on May 18, 1775, St. Clair says : "Yesterday
we had a county meeting and have come to resolutions
to awe and discipline, and have formed an Association,
which I suppose you will soon see in the papers. God
grant that an end may be put to any necessity for such
a proceedings. I doubt their utility and am almost as
much afraid of success in this contest as being van-
quished." A letter from St. Clair to Governor John Penn
is dated at Ligonier, on May 25, 1775, and in part reads
as follows : " We have nothing but musters and commit-
tees all over the country, and everything seems to be
running into the wildest confusion. If some conciliating
plan is not adopted by the Congress America has seen her
golden days ; they may return, but will be preceded by
scenes of horror. An Association is formed in this county
for defense of American liberty. I got a clause added by
which they bind themselves to assist the civil magistrates
in the execution of the laws they have been accustomed
to be governed by."
It will be noticed that St. Clair's letter to Joseph Ship-
pen is dated on May 18, and that he says that the Han-
nastown resolutions were adopted " yesterday, " the 17th,
whereas it is said in the American Archives that the Han-
nastown meeting occurred on May 16. The date given by
St. Clair may have been a slip of his pen.
The extracts from St. Clair's letters show that he was
not in sympathy with the spirit of some parts of the Han-
nastown declaration. Like many other opponents of Brit-
ish oppression at that time he doubtless hoped that the
British Government could be induced to change its policy
in dealing with the colonies. In this hope he was soon to
be undeceived, when he promptly and manfully took his
stand with the advocates of colonial independence. Then
304 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
began his remarkable career, to use his own phrase, "for
defense of American liberty."
Soon after the meeting at Hannastown active meas-
ures were taken throughout that small part of Western
Pennsylvania which was then partly settled to organize
the able-bodied men into military companies. In this
work of preparation St. Clair took an active part. At the
same time the Continental Congress, in session at Phila-
delphia, resolved to raise an army to defend the colonies
against British aggression, and of this army Washington
was appointed commander-in-chief. Pennsylvania was
called upon for its quota of troops, 4,300, and afterwards
during the same year for four additional regiments. On
January 3, 1776, St. Clair was chosen colonel of the Sec-
ond Pennsylvania Regiment and was soon ordered to take
part with his regiment in the disastrous expedition to
Canada which was commanded by General John Sulli-
van. In this campaign St. Clair acquitted himself with
great credit in aiding to save Sullivan's whole army from
capture after the disastrous affair at Three Rivers. For
this service he was appointed in August of this year a
brigadier general, joining the main army under Wash-
ington, who was then retreating across New Jersey before
General Howe. Albert says that St. Clair " fought under
the eyes of the commander-in-chief in the closing battles
of this campaign, at White Plains, at Trenton, and at
Princeton," and adds that this campaign made St. Clair
a major general. Boucher says that St. Clair suggested to
Washington the movement which brought on the bat-
tle of Princeton. On February 19, 1777, he was commis-
sioned a major general. In March of the same year he
was detailed by Washington as adjutant general of the
army for a short time.
In 1777 St. Clair was in command at Ticonderoga,
from which position he was compelled to withdraw but
was acquitted of all blame by a court martial ; he partici-
pated in the battle of Brandywine in the same year as
a volunteer aide to Washington and had a horse shot from
under him ; and he was at Valley Forge during the ter-
rible winter that followed. Johnson's Cyclopcedia epito-
GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 305
mizes the remainder of his services during the Revolution
as follows : He assisted Sullivan in 1779 in fitting out his
expedition against the Six Nations ; he was a member
of the court martial which tried Major Andre; he was
a commissioner to treat with the British at Amboy in
March, 1780 ; in August of that year he was assigned to
the command of La Fayette's corps of light infantry
during the latter's absence ; in October of the same year
he was assigned to the command of West Point ; he took
a conspicuous part in the suppression of the mutiny in
the Pennsylvania Line in January, 1781 ; he distinguished
himself in the Southern campaign which terminated at
Yorktown ; and he subsequently served with distinction in
the Southern campaign under Greene. Albert says that
St. Clair was also intrusted by Washington with the ar-
duous duty of organizing the levies of Pennsylvania and
New Jersey and sending them to the field. He appears
to have possessed McClellan's talent for organizing troops.
It is a fact of great significance that throughout the
whole period of the Revolutionary war St. Clair possessed
the confidence of Washington in an eminent degree, who
frequently honored him with important appointments.
The war over St. Clair retired to private life. When
he entered the army he had removed his family to Potts-
town, then in Philadelphia county but now in Mont-
gomery county. In 1783 he was elected a member of
the Council of Censors of Pennsylvania for the county of
Philadelphia, his colleague being Frederick A. Muhlenberg.
General Wayne was a member of the Council from Ches-
ter county. On January 2, 1784, the Council appointed a
committee of five to report upon those articles of the
Constitution of 1776 which were defective and required
amendment, and of this committee St. Clair was a mem-
ber. The work done by this committee was arduous and
thorough and paved the way for the Constitution of 1790.
In the votes upon the report of the committee Muhlen-
berg, Wayne, and St. Clair always voted together.
In 1785 St. Clair was elected a member of the Conti-
nental (Confederate) Congress and in 1787 he was chosen
its president, the position once held by John Hancock.
20
306 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
On July 13, 1787, the Congress over which he presided
enacted the celebrated "ordinance for the government of
the territory of the United States northwest of the river
Ohio." This ordinance provided that "there shall be
appointed, from time to time, by Congress, a Governor,
whose commission shall continue in force for the term
of three years, unless sooner revoked by Congress. " The
Congress over which St. Clair presided appointed him the
first Governor of the Northwest Territory, and on July
9, 1788, he arrived at Marietta, which had been designated
as the capital of the Territory. St. Clair held his com-
mission as Governor until 1802, a period of more than
fourteen years, when, being a Federalist of strong convic-
tions and outspoken in his expression of them, he was re-
moved by President Jefferson. The notification of his re-
moval was written by James Madison, Secretary of State,
on November 22, 1802. In a few months thereafter the
State of Ohio was organized. St. Clair's incumbency of
the office of Governor therefore embraced practically the
whole period of Ohio's territorial existence. He gave to
Cincinnati its beautiful name, and Hamilton county, in
which the city is situated, was also named by him in
honor of Alexander Hamilton.
Not having lost his citizenship in Pennsylvania St.
Clair was supported for Governor by the Federalists of
that State in the election of 1790. The supporters of
General Mifflin were, however, overwhelmingly successful.
In 1791 Governor St. Clair was appointed commander-
in-chief of the army and ordered to proceed against the
Miami and other Indians who had defeated General Har-
mar the year before. On November 4 St. Clair was him-
self defeated. Referring to the movements of St. Clair's
army Boucher says : "Shortly after they left Fort Jefferson
one of the militia regiments deserted bodily. Washington
Irving, in speaking of these militia, says that they were
picked and recruited from the worst element in Ohio.
Enervated by debauchery, idleness, drunkenness, and by
every species of vice it was impossible to make them
competent for the arduous duties of Indian warfare. They
were without discipline and their officers were not accus-
GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 307
tomed to being under a commander. They were useless
in a campaign, yet St. Clair thought it would disband his
army or at least greatly impair its usefulness to allow
them to desert at will, so he weakened his forces greatly
by sending the First Regiment of Regulars in pursuit of
the deserters. His army then numbered about fourteen
hundred, with perhaps three hundred militia."
St. Clair's conduct during the engagement was in ev-
ery way creditable. Those who would know the details
of this action will find them fully set forth in St. Clair's
official report, which he sent to President Washington
under date of October 6, 1791, and which the President
transmitted to Congress on December 12, 1791. The text
of this remarkable report will be found in the Early His-
tory of Western Pennsylvania and of the West, by "a gen-
tleman of the bar," (I. D. Rupp,) printed in 1846. A com-
mittee of Congress exonerated St. Clair of all blame for
the defeat of his army, its report being as follows : " The
committee conceive it but justice to the commander-in-
chief to say that in their opinion the failure of the late
expedition can in no respect be imputed to his conduct
either at any time before or during the action, but that,
as his conduct in all the preparatory arrangements was
marked with peculiar ability and zeal, so his conduct dur-
ing the action furnishes strong testimonies of his coolness
and integrity."
Generals can not always win victories. Oftentimes,
too, the result of a battle appears to turn upon accident
rather than upon skill or valor. The decisive battle of
Waterloo is a familiar illustration. In our own country
Forbes's movement against Fort Du Quesne was seriously
imperiled by the defeat of his advanced detachment under
Colonel Grant. Bouquet narrowly escaped at Bushy Run
the fate of St. Clair. Washington was compelled to sur-
render to the French and Indians at Great Meadows,
and he was repeatedly defeated during the Revolutionary
struggle. McDowell lost the first Bull Run battle, Burn-
side failed at Fredericksburg, and Hooker failed at Chan-
cellors ville, although these generals were all good soldiers.
General Grant met with a signal defeat on the first day
308 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
at Pittsburg Landing and afterwards at Cold Harbor, and
Sherman failed at Kenesaw Mountain. Lee lost the battle
of Antietam and his star set at Gettysburg. St. Clair was
defeated because he was opposed by about 2,500 Indians
and because his undisciplined militia became demoralized
at the first fire. He was not defeated because of any lack
of generalship or personal bravery in himself. Wayne
afterwards defeated the Ohio Indians because he had
under his command a larger force than St. Clair and be-
cause this force had been thoroughly trained for its work
before it moved into the Indian country.
Returning to Ligonier valley in 1802 or 1803 St. Clair
established his family in a new home he had built at The
Hermitage, about one and a half miles north of Ligonier.
In the latter year he built at this place a furnace for the
manufacture of iron from the ores that were found in the
vicinity, the product of the furnace being chiefly stoves
and other castings. This furnace was in blast in 1806.
In 1808 St. Clair's debts pressed him to the wall and he
was sold out by the sheriff, not even his household goods
escaping the sheriff's hammer. Boucher says that "the
most lamentable feature of his embarrassment is that his
debts were nearly all contracted in the interests of the
Republic, and should have been paid by the State or the
nation and not by St. Clair." In a memorial to the Gen-
eral Assembly of Pennsylvania St. Clair himself said that
he had freely used his own means in supplying the forts
and blockhouses of Westmoreland county with arms and
ammunition at the outbreak of the Revolution. While
Governor of the Northwest Territory he again used his
own means to meet the obligations of Indian treaties. In
the sale of his real estate at the beginning of the Revolu-
tion he lost heavily through the depreciation of Continen-
tal currency. Lands that he had sold for £2,000, payable
in installments, yielded only £100. Albert says that when
he entered the army he left to his neighbors for their use
a flouring mill that he had built on Mill creek and that
when he returned after the war it was a pile of rubbish.
But the saddest part of St. Clair's financial failure is
told by Albert in these words : " When, in the darkest
GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 309
days of the Revolution, Washington, seeing his army melt-
ing away like snow, appealed to him to save to him the
Pennsylvania Line, the flower of the army, St. Clair im-
mediately responded by advancing the money for recruit-
ing and for bounty, and by St. Clair's and Col. William
Butler's individual exertions and influence their object
was accomplished. To part of this claim the Govern-
ment afterwards pleaded the statute of limitations. . .
When the army for the campaign of 1791 had collected
together, and it was found that the sum authorized by
Congress for the purpose was too small for the exigencies
of the project, he personally guaranteed to the quarter-
master-general, James O'Hara, the repayment of a large
sum in order that the army might be victualed and sup-
plied. When he presented his account in 1799 for pay-
ment he was informed by the Secretary of the Treasury
that there 'were no moneys appropriated by the Legisla-
ture to pay such further disbursements.' On this subject
St. Clair says that he became personally liable to the con-
tractor, O'Hara, to whom he gave his bond for $7,042,
on the express promise of the Secretary of the Treasury
that it should be repaid with interest. This bond remain-
ing unpaid suit was brought and judgment was obtained
against St. Clair by his own confession for $10,632.17,
debt and interest. Upon this judgment execution was
from time to time issued, and upon it the entire remain-
ing part of all his real estate was sold. James O'Hara,
by his lawyer, bought all the property."
Boucher continues the pitiful story of St. Clair's dis-
tress as follows : " The Assembly of Pennsylvania pen-
sioned him, and in 1817, a year before his death, increased
the pension to $50 per month. Congress the same year
granted him $60 per month and dated it back a year.
There being no law to forbid it this was attached by his
creditors before it left the hands of the Treasurer, and St.
Clair never received one cent of it. Soon after the sale of
his property he was turned out of house and home. Dan-
iel St. Clair, his son, owned a tract of land on the Chest-
nut ridge, above the Four Mile run, and to this the old
man and his family removed. Broken with the storms of
310 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
more than three-score years and ten, saddened by the
memories of the past, and denied by ingratitude what was
justly due him from his State and nation, he quietly
awaited the last roll call. To secure bread for his family
he entertained travelers, though his house was but little
more than a four-roomed log cabin. "
Albert preserves the following description of General
St. Clair in his old age, written by Elisha Whittlesey, who
once represented the Ashtabula district in Congress, con-
tained in a letter which he wrote to Senator Richard
Brodhead on May 16, 1856 : " In 1815 three persons and
myself performed a journey from Ohio to Connecticut on
horseback in the month of May. Having understood that
General St. Clair kept a small tavern on the ridge east of
Greensburg I proposed that we stop at his house and
spend the night. He had no grain for our horses, and
after spending an hour with him in the most agreeable
and interesting conversation respecting his early knowl-
edge of the Northwestern Territory we took our leave of
him with deep regret. I never was in the presence of a
man that caused me to feel the same degree of venera-
tion and esteem. He wore a citizen's dress of black of the
Revolution ; his hair was clubbed and powdered. When
we entered he arose with dignity and received us most
courteously. His dwelling was a common double log
house of the western country that a neighborhood would
roll up in an afternoon. Chestnut ridge was bleak and
barren. There lived the friend and confidant of Washing-
ton, the ex-Governor of the fairest portion of creation. It
was in the neighborhood, if not in view, of a large estate
at Ligonier that he owned at the commencement of the
Revolution, and which, as I have sometimes understood,
was sacrificed to promote the success of the Revolution.
Poverty did not cause him to lose self-respect, and were
he now living his personal appearance would command
universal admiration."
Neither Western Pennsylvania nor the whole State of
Pennsylvania has honored the memory of this great man
as it deserves to be honored. It is painful to reflect that
two successive Governors of Pennsylvania have in recent
GENERAL ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 311
years vetoed bills of the General Assembly appropriating
a small sum of money to pay for a suitable monument
in his honor. The humble and fast decaying sandstone
monument over his remains in an abandoned graveyard
at Greensburg, erected by the Masonic Fraternity, bears
this stinging inscription : " The earthly remains of Major
General Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath this hum-
ble monument, which is erected to supply the place of a
nobler one due from his country." The remains of the
general's wife lie beside him in a wholly neglected grave.
She died on September 18, 1818, surviving her husband
only nineteen days. Westmoreland county is not wholly
free from blame for neglecting to do what the State and
the whole country should have done.
When the citizens of Bloody Run, in Bedford county,
properly thought that the name of their town should be
changed they looked not to the history of Pennsylvania for
a new name but to Massachusetts, and they now live in
Everett. When it seemed to be necessary to change the
one-hundred-year-old name of Nineveh, in Westmoreland
county, some person or persons having authority turned
to New York for a name and called the little town Sew-
ard. When the Pennsylvania Railroad was built through
Westmoreland county there was a modest hamlet on the
line of the road called St. Clair, so named in honor of Gen-
eral St. Clair, whose home had been not many miles away.
But the name of this town has been erased from the
map and dropped from the railroad time table.
, w*
* J&m
1 JW
•*■<
,. t
tM^ M*( *•' ^
312 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXX.
ALBERT GALLATIN, STATESMAN.
Albert Gallatin, who was born in Geneva, Swit-
zerland, on January 29, 1761, and died at Astoria, Long
Island, on August 12, 1849, ranks foremost among all the
statesmen of Western Pennsylvania in the length and va-
riety of his public services and in the honors that were
conferred upon him. Coining to our country in 1780 he
settled in 1784 on George's creek, Fayette county, where
he met Washington in September of that year. In 1786
he bought a farm of 400 acres at Friendship Hill, near
New Geneva, on the Monongahela, in the same county, on
which he resided, when not absent on official duties, for
about forty-two years, until 1828.
Soon after coming to Pennsylvania Gallatin became an
active participant in the political movements of the time,
identifying himself with the party of Thomas Jefferson, of
which he soon became a leader. He was a delegate from
Fayette county to the Constitutional Convention of 1790.
This convention was composed of very able men and Gal-
latin took a prominent part in its deliberations. He suc-
cessfully opposed the insertion of the word "white" as a
prefix to "freeman" in defining the elective franchise. In
1790, 1791, and 1792 he was elected a member of the Gen-
eral Assembly. In 1793, when not thirty-three years old,
he was elected a member of the United States Senate, in
which he served from December 2, 1793, to February 28,
1794, when he was declared ineligible because he had not
been a citizen of the United States for the period of nine
years as was required by the Constitution. He was suc-
ceeded in the Sehatorship by James Ross, of Pittsburgh, a
Federalist. Gallatin actively opposed the Whisky Insur-
rection of 1794, although at first sympathizing with the
peaceable opposition to the excise tax on whisky. In that
year he was again chosen a member of the General As-
sembly from Fayette county. In December, 1795, he took
ALBERT GALLATIN. 313
his seat as a member of the House of Representatives of
the Fourth Congress, having been elected by a most com-
plimentary vote in 1794 from the district of Allegheny
and Washington, in which he did not reside. This was
a great honor. In the House he at once took high rank.
He was three times re-elected a Representative in Con-
gress, in 1796, 1798, and 1800, from the same district as
that above mentioned, Greene county having been added
to Allegheny and Washington in 1796. He became the
leader of his party in the House.
From 1801 to 1814 Mr. Gallatin was Secretary of the
Treasury under Jefferson and Madison, holding this posi-
tion, with honor to himself and credit to the country, for a
longer period than any other person has held it from the
foundation of the Government. While Secretary of the
Treasury he was the ardent and influential friend of the
National Road, from Cumberland to the West. He was,
indeed, the author of the scheme for building the road.
In a speech in the House on January 27, 1829, Andrew
Stewart said: "Mr. Gallatin was the very first man that
ever suggested the plan for making the Cumberland
Road." In a letter which Gallatin himself wrote to David
Acheson, of Washington, Pennsylvania, on September 1,
1808, he said that he had "with much difficulty obtained
the creation of a fund for opening a great western road
and the act pointing out its general direction." In 1809
President Madison offered Gallatin the portfolio of the
State Department, which he declined, preferring to remain
at the head of the Treasury Department.
In 1813, while still Secretary of the Treasury, Gallatin
was appointed by Madison one of three commissioners to
Russia, the Emperor Alexander having offered his services
in promoting the restoration of peace between Great Brit-
ain and the United States. Negotiations to this end fail-
ing, Gallatin was appointed in the following year one of
five commissioners to treat directly with Great Britain,
and these commissioners signed the Treaty of Ghent in
December, 1814. It is claimed by his biographers that
his was the master hand in the preparation of the treaty.
In February, 1814, Gallatin ceased to be Secretary of the
314 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Treasury. In 1815 he was appointed United States Min-
ister to France, and this position he held until 1823, when
he returned to the United States and to Friendship Hill.
In 1824 William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasury
under Monroe, was nominated for the Presidency by many
members of the Republican party of that day and Galla-
tin was their choice for the Vice Presidency. After some
hesitation, in a letter written from his home in Fayette
county, he finally declined to be a candidate. In May,
1825, Governor Shulze offered Gallatin the position of ca-
nal commissioner, which he declined. In the same month
he received La Fayette in an address of welcome at
Uniontown, and a day or two afterwards escorted him
to Friendship Hill, where La Fayette remained over night.
In May, 1826, President Adams appointed Mr. Gallatin
United States Minister to Great Britain, and this position
he accepted. His special mission to Great Britain having
been accomplished he returned to this country in Novem-
ber, 1827., although the President earnestly desired him to
remain. In 1828 he removed his residence to New York
City, where he continued to reside until his death. With
this removal his active connection with public affairs vir-
tually ended, although in 1828 and 1829, at the instance
of President Adams, he devoted much time and his great
ability to an exhaustive study of our troubles with Great
Britain concerning the Northeastern boundary, and this
subject he again carefully investigated in 1840, when he
published "an elaborate dissertation upon it, in which
he treated it historically, geographically, argumentatively,
and diplomatically," his work contributing materially to
the final adjustment of the controversy in the celebrated
Webster and Ashburton treaty of 1842. Subsequently he
published a pamphlet on the " Oregon Question" which
commanded public attention.
In 1831 Gallatin was chosen president of the National
Bank, of New York, and this position he retained until
1839, passing with great credit through the most trying
financial crisis in our history. He was succeeded in the
presidency by his son, James Gallatin. During the re-
mainder of his life Gallatin was active in many fields of
ALBERT GALLATIN. 315
usefulness. In 1842 he founded the American Ethnolog-
ical Society. In 1843 he was chosen president of the New
York Historical Society. In 1844 he presided at a mass
meeting in New York to protest against the annexation
of Texas as slave territory, and in 1847 he discussed the
whole subject of the annexation of Texas in a pamphlet
entitled " Peace with Mexico." He had always held "the
pen of a ready writer." In the early years of his life, as
also in the closing part of his career, he made valuable
contributions to the discussion of financial and scientific
questions. When he died in 1849 he was far advanced
in his 89th year.
Gallatin early showed commendable enterprise in en-
couraging the establishment of manufacturing industries
at his new home in Western Pennsylvania. In 1796 or
1797 he established at New Geneva one of the first works
west of the Alleghenies, if not the first, for the manufac-
ture of window glass. The Geneva works continued in op-
eration for many years. In 1799 or 1800 Gallatin estab-
lished at New Geneva, in company with Melchor Baker, a
practical gunsmith, a factory for making muskets, broad-
swords, etc., which also continued in operation for several
years, and which at one time employed between fifty and
one hundred workmen. After these works had been in op-
eration for about two years Gallatin withdrew from the
partnership, his duties as Secretary of the Treasury not
permitting him to give the enterprise further attention.
Nearly all the public services of Gallatin were rendered
to his adopted country while he was a citizen of Western
Pennsylvania, and these services were of an exalted char-
acter. Western Pennsylvania soon recognized his great
ability, and the distinction it conferred upon him brought
him the nation's recognition. The whole State of Pennsyl-
vania may well be proud of his achievements and of his
unswerving devotion to the best interests of his country.
He was not always right, as in his opposition to our pro-
tective tariff policy, but even in this opposition we are
told by Judge Veech that, although " his free trade pro-
clivities were fixed, yet he did not obtrude them in his
State papers." He believed in a revenue tariff.
316 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXXI.
A MAN OF LETTERS.
Andrew Carnegie, the most enterprising, most cour-
ageous, and most successful of all American manufactur-
ers, was born at Dunfermline, in the Lowlands of Scot-
land, on November 25, 1835, and came with his father's
family to Pittsburgh in 1848. His father was a weaver.
No writer upon historical subjects can dwell upon
the remarkable industrial development of Pennsylvania,
or upon its greatness in any respect, and not have his
attention arrested by the industrial achievements of An-
drew Carnegie in the decades that are gone and by the
great good that he has done with the wealth that his
own genius, and not Fortune's wheel, has placed in his
hands. Down to April 1, 1908, his philanthropic gifts
had amounted to a total of $150,000,000. Mr. Carnegie's
life has been mainly passed in Western Pennsylvania. It
was there that his great work as an industrial leader
was done. The whole world has long known of his phe-
nomenal success as a creative business man and of his
work as the greatest of all philanthropists ; it knows of
the libraries and technical schools that he has estab-
lished and of his generous contributions to other schools
of learning ; and again it knows of him as a publicist
who is familiar with economic and financial questions
and who can discuss them from the rostrum or in the
printed page. But one of his accomplishments it knows
only imperfectly. Mr. Carnegie is a man of letters. He
is not only a builder of libraries but he is familiar with
the contents of books, and he is himself a ready and an
industrious writer upon many subjects.
In the Youth's Companion for April 23, 1896, Mr.
Carnegie has told the story of his childhood and boyhood
and his early career as a business man — how he was
first a " bobbin boy " in a cotton factory in Allegheny
City at $1.20 a week, going to work in the morning
A MAN OF LETTERS. 317
when it was still dark and returning home late in the
evening after dark ; how next he " fired " a boiler in the
cellar of a bobbin factory in the same city and also
" ran " the engine ; and how, when he was fourteen years
old, he became a telegraph messenger in Pittsburgh at
$3 a week, soon becoming an expert telegraph operator.
The remainder of Mr. Carnegie's story for boys tells of
his steady progress toward financial independence.
The telegraph boy had not graduated from a high
school or even a grammar school ; he had not dreamed
of ever attending an academy or a college ; but he had
quick perceptions and a love of good books. In those
days there were no public libraries in Pittsburgh or Alle-
gheny City to which ambitious boys could have access,
but Mr. Carnegie has acknowledged his great indebtedness
to Colonel Anderson, of the latter city, who opened his
collection of a few hundred books to poor boys. Mr.
Carnegie's ready command of the English language and
his full vocabulary in after years can be traced not to
the training of schools but to his telegraphic experience,
to the reading of good books, and to contact with bright
men, added to a fine literary sense which came to him
by inheritance. If " poets are born, not made," so also
are the writers of good prose.
Mr. Carnegie's biographer, Mr. Barnard Alderson, says
that Mr. Carnegie has written five books, in addition to
a large number of magazine articles. If these magazine
articles were bound together they would make probably
four more books of large size. Those that Mr. Alderson
has mentioned are Round the World, (1879,) Our Coaching
Trip, (1882,) Triumphant Democracy, (1886,) The Gospel of
Wealth, (1900,) and The Empire of Business, (1902.) As a
man is known by the company he keeps so an author
may be studied in the books he has written. We propose,
therefore, to make some extracts from the books men-
tioned and from the magazine articles that will illustrate
Mr. Carnegie's literary tastes and embody his opinions
on some important subjects, and also from another book,
More Busy Days, also a book of opinions, which was in-
tended for circulation only in Great Britain.
318 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Mr. Carnegie's Round the World is in the form of a
journal of his trip around the world, with one compan-
ion, beginning in October, 1878, and ending in May of the
following year. The trip commenced at Pittsburgh and
encircled the globe by way of San Francisco, the Pacific
ocean, China, Japan, India, Egypt, Italy, France, Eng-
land, and the Atlantic ocean, and occupied eight months.
The book records Mr. Carnegie's impressions of the coun-
tries and the people he visited, and contains many de-
scriptive and philosophic passages of great interest to
those who are debarred the pleasure of going away from
home "far countries for to see." Mr. Carnegie's vessel
steamed up Tokio bay in November and landed at Yo-
kohama, where his narrative really begins. He was im-
pressed by the magnificent bay, the glorious sky over-
head, and a sight of the great Japanese mountain, Fusi-
yama, the whole forming a combination of scenic gran-
deur that is seldom if ever equaled. He writes : " The
sail up this bay is never to be forgotten. The sun set as
we entered, and then came such a sky as Italy can not
rival. Fusiyama itself shone forth under its rays, its very
summit clear, more than 14,000 feet above us." In India
Mr. Carnegie visited the Taj Mahal and other wonders,
which he describes with enthusiasm. Wherever he went
in the Orient his attention was particularly directed to
the economic and social conditions of the people he vis-
ited. The whole volume forms an entertaining and in-
structive book of travels, for the most part among orien-
tal people who were little understood at the time it was
written, thirty years ago. Bayard Taylor has not written
anything better in his books of foreign travel.
Triumphant Democracy is a philosophical discussion
and a glowing eulogy of the political institutions of the
United States, accompanied from beginning to end by a
mass of historical and statistical information concerning
the leading occupations of the people of the United States,
the natural resources of the country, and such compre-
hensive subjects as education, literature, art, music, rail-
roads, foreign relations, pauperism and crime, etc. Much
has been said in praise of James Bryce's American Com-
A MAN OF LETTERS. 319
monwealth, and justly so, but in Triumphant Democracy
we have a work that deserves to rank with that of the
great Englishman. The other books mentioned by Mr.
Alderson, Our Coaching Trip, The Gospel of Wealth, and
The Empire of Business, illustrate Mr. Carnegie's versatility,
his love of nature, his shrewd business sense, his freedom
from cant, and his charity in all things. The Gospel of
Wealth comprises a series of essays and addresses which
deal with some of the serious problems of life and were
intended mainly for the benefit of young men. The Em-
pire of Business was republished in German, French, and
Italian, and was largely circulated.
Before taking up More Busy Days we turn to some
of Mr. Carnegie's contributions to magazine literature
which were published in The North American Review for
1898 and 1899, and were respectively entitled "The Part-
ing of the Ways" and "Americanism versus Imperialism."
Before the Spanish war had come to an end in Au-
gust, 1898, when a preliminary treaty of peace, or proto-
col, was signed at Washington, the question arose what
disposition was to be made of the Philippine Islands. The
protocol was signed on Friday, August 12, and on Satur-
day, August 13, Manila was bombarded and surrendered,
word of the suspension of hostilities not having reached
Admiral Dewey and General Merritt. The battle of New
Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, in ignorance of
the fact that a treaty of peace between the United States
and Great Britain had previously been signed at Ghent.
So it was at Manila ; Spain had already admitted defeat.
Two parties were at once formed in this country, one the
Administration party, which favored the acquisition of the
Philippines, and the other, composed of both Republicans
and Democrats, and known as the Anti-Imperialists, which
opposed acquisition. Mr. Carnegie promptly identified
himself with the latter party. In the end the Administra-
tion policy prevailed and we annexed the islands, paying
$20,000,000 for them to Spain. Some of Mr. Carnegie's
arguments against annexation may well be reproduced,
to illustrate his controversial style as well as to present
his reasons for opposing the policy of the Administration.
320 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
In "The Parting of the Ways," published in August,
1898, Mr. Carnegie begins his argument as follows : " Twice
only have the American people been called upon to de-
cide a question of such vital import as that now before
them. Is the Republic, the apostle of triumphant de-
mocracy, of the rule of the people, to abandon her po-
litical creed and endeavor to establish in other lands the
rule of the foreigner over the people — triumphant des-
potism ? Is the Republic to remain one homogeneous
whole, one united people, or to become a scattered and
disjointed aggregate of widely separated and alien races ?
Is she to continue the task of developing her vast conti-
nent until it holds a population as great as that of Eu-
rope, all Americans, or to abandon that destiny to an-
nex, and to attempt to govern, other far distant parts of
the world as outlying possessions which can never be in-
tegral parts of the Republic ? Is she to exchange internal
growth and advancement for the development of external
possessions which can never be really hers in any fuller
sense than India is British or Cochin-China is French ? "
All these questions Mr. Carnegie proceeded to answer
with an array of facts and deductions that should have
carried conviction to the minds of those who were then
in control of the Government at Washington, but the an-
nexation spirit prevailed, as already stated. Early in 1899
Mr. Carnegie continued his protest against annexation in
two installments in the Review. In the course of his ar-
gument he said :
"I write upon the eve of the birthday of the greatest
public man of the century, perhaps of all the centuries
if his strange history be considered — Abraham Lincoln.
Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson may have become
back numbers, as we have been often told, for, as men of
the past century, they could not know our destiny ; but
here is a man of our own time whom many of us were
privileged to know. Are his teachings to be discarded
for those of any now living who were his cotemporaries ?
Listen to him : ' No man is good enough to govern an-
other without that man's consent. I say this is the lead-
ing principle, the sheet-anchor, of American republican-
A MAN OF LETTERS. 321
ism.' It is not fashionable for the hour to urge that the
'consent of the governed' is all-important; but it will be
fashionable again one of these days. It seems as if Lin-
coln were inspired to say the needful word for this hour
of strange subversion of all we have hitherto held dear
in our political life. Our 'duty' to bear the 'white man's
burden ' is to-day's refrain, but Lincoln tells us : ' When
the white man governs himself that is self-government ;
but when he governs himself and also governs another
man that is more than self-government, that is despot-
ism.' Lincoln knew nothing of the new 'duty' and new
'destiny,' or whether it is 'duty' which makes 'destiny'
or ' destiny ' which makes ' duty ; ' but he knew the old
doctrines of republicanism well.
"One other lesson from the Great American: 'Our
reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted
in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty
as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere. Those
who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves,
and under a just God can not long retain it.' Are these
broad, liberty-loving, and noble liberty-giving principles
of Americanism, as proclaimed by President Lincoln, to
be discarded for the narrow, liberty-denying, race-subject-
ing, Imperialism of President McKinley when the next
appeal is made to the American people ? We have never
for one moment doubted the answer, for they have never
failed to decide great issues wisely nor to uphold Ameri-
can ideals. Never had this nation greater cause to extol
Abraham Lincoln than upon this the ninetieth anniver-
sary of his birth, and never till to-day had it cause to
lament that a successor to the Presidential chair should
attempt to subvert his teachings."
This severe criticism of President McKinley was de-
served. It will be the judgment of calm and dispassion-
ate history that a strong man in the Presidential office
at that time — a man like Thomas B. Reed — would have
heeded the patriotic and wise advice of Mr. Carnegie and
others and permitted the people of the Philippines to
work out their own destiny. Without hunting for trouble
in dealing with an alien Asiatic race, six thousand miles
21
322 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
from our Pacific coast, we had at home trouble enough
of our own with ten millions of negroes. Our "duty" to
these negroes we were sadly neglecting then and are neg-
lecting to-day. We are now paying the price of Philip-
pine annexation in the great cost of governing the Fili-
pinos, including the lives of our soldiers lost in subduing
them and in keeping them, subdued. We now maintain
an army of about 15,000 soldiers in the Philippines. The
injustice and folly of attempting at the point of the bay-
onet to coerce the people of the Philippine Islands to
accept our standards of civilization Mr. Carnegie forcibly
illustrates in the following additional extracts from his
articles in The North American Review, appearing in 1899.
"One of the great satisfactions in traveling around the
world is in learning that God has made all people happy
in their own homes. We find no people in any part
of the world desirous of exchanging their lot with any
other. Upon our journey to the North Cape we stopped
in the Arctic Circle to visit a camp of Laplanders in the
interior. A guide is provided with instructions to keep
in the rear of the hindmost of the party going and re-
turning, to guard against any being left behind. Return-
ing from the camp I walked with this guide, who spoke
English and had traveled the world round in his earlier
years as a sailor, and was proud to speak of his know-
ing New York, Boston, New Orleans, and other ports of
ours. Reaching the edge of the fjord, and looking down
upon it, we saw a hamlet upon the opposite side and one
two-story house under construction, with a grass-plot sur-
rounding it, a house so much larger than any of the ad-
jacent huts that it betokened great wealth. Our guide
explained that a man had made a great fortune. He was
their 'multi-millionaire,' and his fortune was reported to
reach no less a figure than 30,000 kroner, ($7,500,) and
he had returned to his native place of Tromso to build
this 'palace' and spend his days there. Strange prefer-
ence for a night six months long ! But it was home. I
asked the guide which place in all the world he would
select if ever he made such a fortune — with a lingering
hope that he would name some place in our own favored
A MAN OF LETTERS. 323
land. How could he help it ! But his face beamed with
pleasure at the idea of ever being rich, and he said finally :
'Ah, there is no place like Tromso !'
" Traveling in Southern India one day I was taken
into the country to see tapioca roots gathered and ground
for use. Our guide explained to these people that we
were from a country so far away, and so different from
theirs, that the waters were sometimes made solid by the
extreme cold and we could walk upon them ; that some-
times it was so intensely cold that the rain was frozen
into particles and lay on the earth so deep that people
could not walk through it ; and that three and four layers
of heavy clothes had to be worn. This happy people, as
our guide told us, wondered why we stayed there, why
we did not come and enjoy life in their favored clime.
"It is just so with the Philippines to-day. It is as-
tonishing how much all human beings the world round
are alike in their essentials. These people love their homes
and their country, their wives and children, as we do,
and they have their pleasures."
More Busy Days is the last of a series of three pub-
lications which have been compiled to preserve the lead-
ing incidents attending the presentation by Mr. Carnegie
of libraries to Scotch, Irish, and English communities, or
to commemorate other public functions in Great Britain
in which he has participated. These publications were
compiled from reports in the daily newspapers. The first,
A Busy Week, appeared in 1899, the second, Three Busy
Weeks, in 1902, and the third, More Busy Days, in 1903,
the series covering twenty-one functions. At many places
Mr. Carnegie was received with princely honors. More
Busy Days contains reports of ceremonies in which Mr.
Carnegie participated at Dingwall, Tain, Kilmarnock, and
Govan, in Scotland ; at Waterford, Limerick, and Cork,
in Ireland ; and at Barrow, in England. At Govan, at
Mrs. John Elder's request, Mr. Carnegie formally opened
the Elder free library, which was presented to the people
of that place by Mrs. Elder as a memorial to her hus-
band, the late eminent shipbuilder of Govan. At Tain
he was received in its town hall, which he had helped to
324 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
improve, and at which place a free library was then in
course of erection at his expense. At Barrow he pre-
sided over the meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute.
At the other places mentioned he presented libraries.
At Dingwall Mr. Carnegie's well-known optimism was
expressed in these words: "Amid all the ills of life, the
poverty and want, the wars which devastate, men still
killing each other like wild beasts, as I stand here to-
day in old Dingwall the proof comes that humanity has
within itself a power or instinct which leads it slowly
but surely upward to more improved conditions — that
man moves upward and looks upward as the sunflower
turns its face to the sun. The masses of the people read
books which were before beyond their reach. They have
comforts which, to-day the necessaries of life, were once
the luxuries of the noble ; sectarian bitterness — the wars
of one religious sect with another, the most cruel in all
history we might almost say, have passed away."
The mission of the free library is set forth by Mr. Car-
negie in his address at Tain, and in this address he also
praises an adjunct of the free library which should espe-
cially be found in connection with it in country towns
and small cities. He said: "I have become deeply inter-
ested in the question of a small hall connected with the
library in districts which are not supplied with an inde-
pendent hall like this. These halls are proving of the
greatest service in a direction which I think highly bene-
ficial. My experience is that there is in every community
a great fund of latent talent which only needs the right
touch from the right man or woman to blossom into
fruit. I wish there were in every village or town of Scot-
land a dramatic club, and, of course, instrumental and
choral societies, which would give performances at suitable
times for the benefit of the people at nominal prices."
At Limerick Mr. Carnegie again dwelt upon the mis-
sion of the free library. He said: "There are librarians
and librarians. My experience has revealed this to me
most clearly. In one city the free library is a tremen-
dous power for good, reaches all classes, and is the last
institution the city would lose. In another its success
A MAN OF LETTERS. 325
is moderate ; it exists and does its part, but without
soul ; it is not a living force and power for good in the
one as in the other, and this is owing to the different
kind of librarian. I trust you have a librarian here
whose heart is in his work, and who does not think that
his task is fulfilled as long as there is a poor family in
Limerick which is not using the library more or less, and
who not only gives out the books asked for but sug-
gests the books his readers should take." At Cork Mr.
Carnegie returned to the work of the librarian. He said :
" The whole duty of the librarian is not performed when
he sees that the applicants receive the books they ask
for. There is a much higher task than this that he can
perform. He can lead the people to read the books they
ought to read."
In his addresses in Protestant Scotland and Catholic
Ireland Mr. Carnegie did not hesitate to express his views
on religious subjects. At Dingwall he said : " Your Prov-
ost has kindly asked me to say just one word, which I
have great pleasure in doing. I speak this word under
the influence of the Hundredth Psalm, impressively sung,
which takes me back to other days as it can take no one
who has not been brought up to hear it when a child.
I speak a word in sympathy with the spirit of the prayer,
in which you were told truly that the Christian religion
is founded upon sacrifice. Therefore, when we lay the cor-
ner-stone of a free library, I say what Luther said when
he nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of Augsburg
Cathedral : ' If this thing be of men it will fail, but if it
be of God it must stand.'" At Dingwall he also said:
"More and more men are drawn to realize that it is not
what a man believes, for who can help his beliefs ? but
what a man does ; not what brand of theology he adopts,
but what his religion is as translated into life." At Kil-
marnock he said: "I would rather take good deeds, an
honorable life, and the esteem of friends as my passport
to heaven than I would take any doctrines or dogmas
in the world." At Limerick he said: "One of the surest
proofs of progress in the world is the increased friendli-
ness between the various sects of the one great religion,
326
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Christianity. In the United States this has progressed so
far that one scarcely inquires what sect another belongs
to, or what views another has upon theology."
Mr. Carnegie's admiration of the character of the
Scotch Reformer, John Knox, he freely expressed at Kil-
marnock. It is a fine tribute from one who is not a
Presbyterian. He said : " No one that reads the history
of Scotland will ever, or could ever, underrate the tremen-
dous service which John Knox has rendered to Scotland.
He helped us to establish the most precious of the rights
and privileges, of the religious ideas, by which men can
be moved — the right of private judgment. But the in-
valuable services of John Knox were not confined to that
domain, vital as it is. He declared that he would not
rest until there was a public school for the education of
the people in every parish in Scotland. Now, the man
who did that work, who labored for that end, could never
be aught but one of the commanding figures in the first
rank of Scotland's benefactors. But John Knox did not
stop at schools. When he had established the right of
private judgment there came from it the Presbyterian
Church, and the greatest tribute I can pay to the Pres-
byterian Church — and I am not one who believes in any
particular kind of theology but a great deal in religion
— the greatest tribute I can pay to the Presbyterian
Church is that it has remained the church of the people,
as democratic as Scotland itself, and has made Scotland
what it is."
At Cork Mr. Carnegie laid the memorial-stone of a
public library which he was helping to build. At an im-
posing ceremonial the freedom of the city was conferred
upon him. In replying to a complimentary address by
the Lord Mayor Mr. Carnegie spoke at some length, and
in his remarks he used a Shakespearian quotation which,
while conveying the most delicate of compliments, showed
not only his ability to think clearly on the spur of the
moment but also his familiarity with classical literature.
He said: "How shall I find words, my Lord Mayor, to
thank you and your people of Cork for the great honor
they have just conferred ? I shall not attempt it. You
A MAN OF LETTERS. 327
remember when Hamlet says, 'Good, my lord, will you
see the players well bestowed ?' and Polonius replies, 'My
lord, I will use them according to their desert.' Hamlet
then says, 'Odd's bodikins, man, much better. Use every
man after his desert and who shall 'scape whipping ? Use
them after your own honor and dignity.' Cork has not
treated me after my deserts, but after her own honor and
dignity."
Mr. Carnegie's loyalty to his friends is a well-known
characteristic. Edwin M. Stanton was one of his early
friends. Afterwards Mr. Carnegie bore official relations to
Mr. Stanton. At Gambier, Ohio, on April 26, 1906, Colo-
nel John J. McCook, of New York, presented to Kenyon
College an oil portrait of Mr. Stanton, who had been a
student at this college. Mr. Carnegie was present and de-
livered a eulogy upon the life and character of Mr. Stan-
ton, at the same time making formal announcement of
his creation of an endowment of the Edwin M. Stanton
chair of political economy at Kenyon College. In his
eulogy, which was an elaborate review of Mr. Stanton's
career, Mr. Carnegie dwelt particularly upon the patriotic
service which his distinguished subject had rendered to
his country in the days of its supreme peril. Mr. Car-
negie said of his early acquaintance with Mr. Stanton,
who was a native of Steuben ville, that " he removed to
Pittsburgh in 1847, and it was there in his early prime
that I, as telegraph messenger boy, had the pleasure of
seeing him frequently, proud to get his nod of recognition
as I sometimes stopped him on the street or entered his
office to deliver a message."
In the course of his tribute to his early friend Mr.
Carnegie says : "On the 13th of January, 1862, without
consultation with Mr. Stanton, Lincoln nominated him as
Secretary of War." Mr. Carnegie bears this testimony to
Mr. Stanton's business methods and to his heart quali-
ties : "Much was said of Stanton's rude treatment of
those having business with him. I witnessed his recep-
tion of the committee from New York City, which, fear-
ing consequences, visited Washington to urge a postpone-
ment of the draft. That was delightfully short. No time
328 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
lost. If there was to be rebellion in New York the sooner
the Government met and crushed it the better. 'No
postponement' was Stanton's reply. His inherent kind-
ness may be judged by his first act. It was to send a
commission to Richmond to look after prisoners at the
expense of the Government. Ten days later came his or-
der that prisoners of war should receive their usual pay."
Further along in his narrative of Stanton's inesti-
mable services to his country Mr. Carnegie says : "It
was not long before Grant was called to Washington by
Secretary Stanton and placed at the head of the army.
He dined with me at Pittsburgh when he passed west-
ward, and told me that he was to become Lieutenant
General with his headquarters at Washington. General
Thomas being then the popular idol I said to him: 'I
suppose you will place Thomas in command of the West.'
'No,' he said, 'Sherman is the man for chief command.
Thomas would be the first man to say so.' Sherman did,
indeed, prove that Grant knew his man." Concerning
President Johnson's intention to remove Stanton from
his position as Secretary of War Mr. Carnegie quotes this
sentence from General Grant's letter to the President :
"In conclusion, allow me to say, as a friend, desiring
peace and quiet, the welfare of the whole country, North
and South, that it is, in my opinion, more than the loyal
people of this country will quietly submit to, to see the
very man of all others in whom they have expressed
confidence removed." Stanton refused to resign at that
time but after a long controversy he retired.
Mr. Carnegie continues as follows : " Soon afterwards
he was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court by Presi-
dent Grant. Resolutions of thanks were passed by both
houses and many were the tributes offered to this re-
markable man who had given six years of his life and
undermined his health in his country's service. Before
entering the Cabinet he had amassed considerable means
by his profession, but this was exhausted. Beyond his
modest residence in Washington he left nothing. Dis-
pensing hundreds of millions yearly he lived without os-
tentation and he died poor. Offers of gifts and private
A MAN OF LETTERS. 329
subscriptions by those who knew his wants were uni-
formly rejected. On the morning of the 24th of Decem-
ber, 1869, he breathed his last." We may add that the
Senate confirmed Stanton's appointment to the Supreme
Court, but he never took his seat, dying four days after
his nomination was confirmed. The great War Secretary
was literally worn out. He had given his life for his coun-
try. He was born at Steubenville on December 19, 1814.
We have quoted sufficiently from Mr. Carnegie's
writings and public addresses to show the literary bent
of his mind and his facility in the use of good English
words and phrases. Up to this time he has established
over seventeen hundred libraries, mainly because he be-
lieves in the elevating influence of good books and stately
library buildings, but partly also because he is himself a
lover of books and has found time in an otherwise busy
career to indulge his own literary tastes. He will con-
tinue to establish many libraries every year. Mr. Carnegie
will be regarded by historians as one of the most dis-
tinguished of all Americans, and this distinction he has
earned partly because he is conspicuously a man of letters
as well as a many-sided man of affairs.
In the first paragraph of this chapter we have refer-
red to Mr. Carnegie as the most successful of all Ameri-
can manufacturers. But he was an experienced railroad
man before he was a manufacturer. His telegraphic ap-
prenticeship led to his employment by Thomas A. Scott,
superintendent of the western division of the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad, (Pittsburgh to Altoona,) as his chief tele-
graph operator, which position he held for several years,
during which time he gained an intimate knowledge of
railroad management. Mr. Scott was appointed superin-
tendent of this division on December 1, 1852, and held
this office for five years, until December 31, 1857. On
January 1, 1858, he was appointed general superintendent
of the whole road, Joseph D. Potts succeeding Mr. Scott
in charge of the western division and Mr. Carnegie con-
tinuing in the position he had held under Mr. Scott. On
November 30, 1859, Mr. Potts retired, and on December 1
of the same year Mr. Carnegie succeeded him as superin-
330 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
tendent of the western division. Mr. Carnegie was then
just 24 years old. For more than five years, until March
31, 1865, he served as superintendent, when he was suc-
ceeded by Robert Pitcairn. Mr. Carnegie's term of serv-
ice embraced virtually the whole period of the civil war.
How arduous and important were his duties in connec-
tion with the forwarding of troops and supplies for the
Government during this long and distressing period can
easily be imagined. When he retired from the office of
superintendent in 1865 he had spent twelve years in the
service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
After the breaking out of the war in 1861 Mr. Scott
was called to Washington as Assistant Secretary of , War,
Simon Cameron being Secretary, but, before this call upon
Mr. Scott was made, Mr. Carnegie, upon the recommenda-
tion of Mr. Scott, was appointed assistant general mana-
ger of military telegraph lines, serving at Washington in
this capacity from April 23, 1861, to September 1, 1861,
when he resumed his railroad duties. Like his chief, Mr.
Scott, he had rendered valuable service in aiding the
Government to meet the first shocks of the great struggle.
We add these details of Mr. Carnegie's railroad and
telegraphic experience because they have been too much
obscured by his phenomenal success as an iron and steel
manufacturer ; indeed few persons know anything about
his telegraphic or his railroad experience in early life.
TWO MEN FROM SOMERSET. 331
CHAPTER XXXII.
TWO MEN FROM SOMERSET.
As is well known, most of the towns and cities of
Pennsylvania were built upon its principal water courses,
their founders having regard to the facilities for transpor-
tation which were thus afforded before the days of canals
and railroads or even good roads of any kind. Exceptions
to this rule are found in those towns which were built a
century or more ago upon the roads and turnpikes that
connected the eastern and western parts of the State,
these roads and turnpikes usually occupying high ground
and following the most direct routes. Bellefonte, Ebens-
burg, Somerset, Indiana, Greensburg, Uniontown, and
Washington conspicuously owe their existence to roads
and not to rivers. It is an interesting fact that towns so
located, away from all the large cities but happening to
be county-seats, have produced some of the brightest men
of Pennsylvania. Members of the bar in these hill towns
have been noted for their ability ; their politicians have
forged to the front ; and the average intelligence of all
their inhabitants has been of a high order. In this chap-
ter the reader's attention will be called to the record of
two men from Somerset, both natives of that county —
Dr. William Elder and Judge Jeremiah S. Black, notable
men of whom Western Pennsylvania may well be proud.
Both were large men and of commanding presence. Nei-
ther of these men received a college education ; both were
virtually self-educated. In addition to their other attain-
ments both were accomplished writers and have left their
impress upon the literature of their native State.
Dr. William Gore Elder, a native of the North of Ire-
land, was the first physician to locate in the town of Som-
erset. This was about 1795. His son, William Elder, was
born in Somerset on July 23, 1806, and died in Wash-
ington City on April 5, 1885. He passed his boyhood in
Somerset and on a farm owned by his father. His only
332 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
opportunity for mental culture was afforded by associa-
tion with his father, the range of a fair private library,
and the training of the ordinary country school. When
about twenty years old he began the study of medicine
with Dr. Deane, of Chambersburg, and after some delay he
entered upon the practice of his profession, first at Cham-
bersburg and afterwards in the Juniata valley. Dr. Elder
was a graduate of Jefferson Medical College. But his liter-
ary instincts, his talent for public speaking, and his inter-
est in the political questions of the day soon led him into
other fields. These influences eventually made him a law-
yer, although he always had a strong love for the medi-
cal profession and he never entirely relinquished its prac-
tice. In 1838 he made many able speeches in support of
the Whig and Anti-Masonic ticket in Pennsylvania. The
warmth of the welcome extended to him in Pittsburgh
induced him in that year to establish himself in that city
in the practice of medicine. So forcible and effective was
his oratory, and so popular did he become, that he was
elected recorder of deeds for Allegheny county in Octo-
ber, 1839, by a vote that was exceedingly complimentary.
Dr. Elder was admitted to the bar at Bedford on August
24, 1842, on motion of Hon. Job Mann, and in the same
year he began the practice of his new profession at Pitts-
burgh, in which city he remained until after the great
fire in 1845, when he removed to Philadelphia, which was
ever afterwards his home.
Before he located at Pittsburgh and during his resi-
dence in that city, and after his removal to Philadelphia,
Dr. Elder ardently espoused the anti-slavery cause, and
his eloquent voice in opposition to negro slavery and to
its extension was heard from many platforms. He was
identified with the Liberty party of 1844, the Free Soil
party of 1848, and the Republican party of 1855 and
subsequent years. In Philadelphia he first found conge-
nial work for his pen in editing two anti-slavery papers,
The Liberty Herald in 1847 and The Republic in 1848, at
the same time in both years, as in previous years, speak-
ing frequently from the stump. He continued his edito-
rial work for many years after 1848. His pen found con-
TWO MEN FROM SOMERSET. 333
stant and congenial exercise in the preparation of arti-
cles, signed " Senior," for The National Era, of Wash-
ington City, in which he treated calmly and philosophic-
ally the questions of the day. For this journal he pre-
pared much editorial matter for a number of years, and
occasionally served as its acting editor for considerable
periods. He had gradually taken a lively interest in other
public questions than the slavery question, writing fre-
quently for the editorial columns of the New York Trib-
une and for some Philadelphia papers. After the estab-
lishment of the Philadelphia Press by John W. Forney
in 1857 he contributed regularly to the editorial columns
of that paper, his subjects taking a wide range but em-
bracing chiefly financial and economic questions, includ-
ing the advocacy of a protective tariff. During this pe-
riod Dr. Elder and Henry C. Carey became warm friends.
When the civil war began in 1861 Secretary Chase sent
for Dr. Elder to help him to solve the great problem of
paying the national debt, and he remained an official of
the Treasury Department until 1866, when he resigned.
In 1873 he returned to his work in the Department, re-
maining until his death in 1885.
In 1860 Dr. Elder prepared for the Philadelphia Press
a series of articles in explanation of the protective policy
which were considered of sufficient importance to justify
their publication in pamphlet form with the title of "The
Doctrine and Policy of Protection." In June, 1863, at
the request of the Union League of Philadelphia, he wrote
a pamphlet entitled "Debt and Resources of the United
States and the Effect of Secession upon the Trade and
Industry of the Loyal States." This was the first work
of the kind that undertook to demonstrate that the
country could meet all the drain of the civil war and re-
tain its solvency. The argument was triumphantly con-
vincing. Large numbers of the pamphlet were soon cir-
culated to help the sale of Government bonds. It was
translated into several languages and produced a strong
impression in European countries. Another pamphlet
from his pen was published in 1865, entitled " How Our
National Debt Can be Paid," and this was followed in a
334 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
month by still another pamphlet styled " The Western
States: their Pursuits and Policy." In 1870 he published
a pamphlet under the title of " The American Farmers'
Market at Home and Abroad," bearing immediately up-
on the practical needs of the hour. After his return to
the Treasury Department in 1873 Dr. Elder, in the line of
his official duties, published many other pamphlets under
such titles as "The Panic and Pressure of 1873," "The
Causes of the Crisis," "The Growth and Reduction of
Debt," and similar subjects that he was well able to dis-
cuss. In those days pamphlet publications were largely
relied on to educate the people and influence public opin-
ion, recalling the pamphlet literature of the Revolution.
David A.Wells published "Our Burden and Our Strength"
in pamphlet form in 1864. Henry C. Carey wrote many
pamphlets, as did also his father, Mathew Carey.
But Dr. Elder's literary activity was not confined to
newspaper work or the preparation of pamphlets. The
amount of literary work that came from his pen, all of
good quality and of great variety, is really marvelous.
His first ambitious literary venture to which we can as-
sign an exact date was a contribution to Putnam's Maga-
zine in 1854, entitled " General Ogle — a Character," which
described in graphic and attractive style, and with strik-
ing analytical power, one of the strong men of the Alle-
ghenies in the early part of the last century. This sketch
at once attracted wide attention among literary men.
In the same year Dr. Elder published a volume of mis-
cellaneous essays and sketches entitled Periscopics, and
in 1855 what was really a second edition of this book
appeared, but with a new name : it was entitled The
Enchanted Beauty, and Other Tales, Essays, and Sketches,
forty-six in all, including "General Ogle." Just when the
"tales, essays, and sketches" composing these volumes
were written does not appear, or where any of them, ex-
cept "General Ogle," were previously published, if at all.
Many of the essays are profoundly philosophical ; the
sketches deal with every-day life and its manifold lessons ;
of the tales " Elizabeth Barton" ranks with the best work
of American story writers.
TWO MEN PROM SOMERSET. 335
In 1871 Dr. Elder published his great economic work,
Questions of the Day : Economic and Social, which volume
caused him to take rank at once with Alexander Ham-
ilton, Henry C. Carey, and Stephen Colwell, the great
American economic writers. Like them he claimed credit
for the protective policy as one of the leading causes of
national prosperity. The book covered almost the whole
field of economic inquiry — wealth, wages, money, compe-
tition and co-operation, protection and free trade, etc.
It was a valuable contribution to the economic litera-
ture of that day or of any day. Its chapters deal with
the underlying principles of an advanced social system,
and the facts he presented are as pertinent now as they
were then. In 1882, three years before his death, Dr.
Elder published another comprehensive work which he
entitled Conversations on the Principal Subjects of Political
Economy. As its name indicates, this volume was in-
tended especially for the use of students — teacher, pupil,
and disputant, as dramatis persona, asking and answering
questions. The range of topics discussed in this volume
was wider than in its predecessor. The two books are
properly complements of each other, and were probably
intended to be. It is a pity that both are not more
widely used as text-books in our colleges and universities
instead of the writings of J. Stuart Mill and other English
economists with free trade convictions. One of the great
economic writers of the country Dr. Elder was par excel-
lence the political economist of Western Pennsylvania.
Dr. Elder had an analytical and logical mind and he
also possessed a fine talent for descriptive writing. Fancy
and imagination were also present in a marked degree in
his mental endowments. His conversational powers were
remarkable. He had a genius for statistics, which is a
rare trait in combination with the story-telling faculty
and with oratorical gifts. Of his oratory the present gen-
eration knows almost nothing, because it is now about
fifty years since his voice was heard pleading for the ne-
gro slave or advocating many policies in which his heart
and brain were enlisted, the protective policy included.
Probably the most notable of his eloquent appeals was
336 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
made in behalf of Hungarian liberty at the banquet that
took place in Musical Fund Hall, in Philadelphia, in honor
of the Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth, on December 26,
1851. His speech was not reported, except very briefly,
as was the custom of that day, but the Public Ledger of
the following day said that " Dr. Elder made a powerful
and eloquent speech," to which Kossuth, "who was called
for by a spontaneous cheer," happily replied. Recollec-
tions of this incident of the banquet still survive in the
memories of a few old Philadelphians.
Dr. Elder married early in life Sarah Maclean, a
daughter of Moses Maclean, a leading lawyer of Gettysburg.
Her mother was a grand-daughter of Hugh Alexander,
who represented Cumberland county in the Convention of
1776 which framed the first Constitution of Pennsylvania.
Jeremiah Sullivan Black, who will always be referred
to as Judge Black, was born on a farm in Stony Creek
township, Somerset county, on January 10, 1810, and died
at York, Pennsylvania, on August 19, 1883. His grand-
father, James Black, came from the North of Ireland and
settled on a .farm in Somerset county in colonial days.
Judge Black's father, Henry Black, was a man of promi-
nence, a member of the General Assembly, a Whig Rep-
resentative in Congress, and for twenty years an associ-
ate judge of Somerset county. Judge Black's mother was
Mary Sullivan, and her mother was Barbara Bowser, "a
person of pure German blood," so that Judge Black, like
many other Pennsylvanians, was of mixed Scotch-Irish
and German lineage.
Judge Black was known as a hard student from early
boyhood, when he first attended a country school. At
the age of sixteen years his school education had been
completed at an academy in Brownsville. For some time
afterwards he pursued his classical and other studies on
the farm. He had an astonishing memory. He mastered
Latin as if it were his mother tongue. At seventeen he
entered the office of Chauncey Forward, in Somerset, as a
student of law. He was fortunate in his choice of a pre-
ceptor. Mr. Forward, like his brother, Walter Forward,
of Pittsburgh, who was Secretary of the Treasury under
TWO MEN FROM SOMERSET. 337
President Tyler, was a great lawyer. Judge Black once
said of Chauncey Forward and Charles Ogle, who were
cotemporaries at the Somerset bar : "I have never, in
my relations with the men of great reputation in this
country, met the superior, nor can I now name the peer,
of either of these men as lawyers." Mr. Forward was the
Democratic leader of Somerset county and Mr. Ogle the
Whig leader. Both men represented their Congressional
district in the House of Representatives, although of oppo-
site politics. Judge Black early identified himself with
the Democratic party, although his father was a Whig.
In 1831 Jeremiah S. Black was admitted to the bar
and in a short time thereafter he was appointed deputy
attorney general of the Commonwealth for Somerset
county. Mr. Forward having been a member of Congress
for several years he soon shared his legal business with
his bright student, who at once entered upon a large prac-
tice. So thoroughly had the young lawyer mastered the
science of the law and so rapidly did he rise in his profes-
sion that his services were soon in demand in the neigh-
boring counties. He had made his mark. In 1842, when
only thirty-two years old, he was appointed by Governor
Porter president judge of the sixteenth judicial district
of Pennsylvania. In 1851, when forty-one years old, his
reputation as a wise judge had been so firmly established
that he was nominated by the Democratic State Conven-
tion as a candidate for a seat on the Supreme Bench and
was elected, four other judges being chosen at the same
time, the legislation of 1850 having made membership in
the Supreme Court an elective office. His son, Chauncey
F. Black, says : " In the lottery which determined the
matter for that first bench of judges chosen by the peo-
ple at the polls Judge Black drew the short term and be-
came chief justice. In 1854, his term as chief justice hav-
ing expired, he was elected an associate justice by a very
large majority, although the head of his ticket, the Demo-
cratic candidate for Governor, was defeated." From his
position on the Supreme Bench he was called by Presi-
dent Buchanan in March, 1857, to be a member of his
Cabinet as Attorney General. This position he filled with
22
338 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
great ability until the winter of 1860-61, when he suc-
ceeded Lewis Cass as Secretary of State and Edwin M.
Stanton took his place as Attorney General.
It does not fall within the scope of this volume to
consider the grave questions leading to or growing out of
the civil war, and we therefore pass over Judge Black's
connection with any of these questions. In March, 1861,
with the beginning of Abraham Lincoln's Administration,
he retired to private life. He was now fifty-one years old.
He soon changed his residence from Somerset to York.
For a short time he was the official reporter of the opin-
ions of the Supreme Court of the United States, from
which position he withdrew to engage in the active prac-
tice of his profession, much the larger part of which was
before the Supreme Court. During the next twenty years
he was employed in many important cases. He was one
of the counsel of President Johnson in the impeachment
proceedings of 1868, and one of the counsel of Samuel J.
Tilden in the proceedings before the Electoral Commission
in 1877. He was a delegate-at-large to the Convention of
1873 for revising the Constitution of Pennsylvania.
Judge Black was not only a great lawyer and one of
the many great judges of Pennsylvania, worthy to rank
with Wilson, Tilghman, and Gibson, but he was also one
of the most accomplished literary men that the whole
country has produced. His essays, letters, and speeches,
which are embodied in a stout volume that was com-
piled by his son and published soon after his father's
death, should be read by every lover of good English
writing for their literary style alone, if for no other rea-
son. His judicial opinions are said by lawyers to possess
exceptional merit for their clearness of statement. Judge
Black excelled in the ability to make a plain statement,
whether orally or in writing. His style was first of all
logical, as became a lawyer and a judge, but it was espe-
cially remarkable for the great learning which it exhib-
ited without ostentation, for its wealth of pertinent illus-
trations, and for its graceful and elegant diction. To
quote a sentence from his eulogy of Judge Gibson, " the
whole round of English literature was familiar to him."
TWO MEN FROM SOMERSET. 339
He never used the wrong word. His eulogy on the life
and character of Andrew Jackson, delivered at Bedford
on July 28, 1845, very early in his career, attracted wide
attention, and from that day his reputation as a writer
of the purest and most vigorous English was firmly es-
tablished, at least in Pennsylvania. No finer tribute to his
marvelous style could be conceived than is contained in
the following analysis of its characteristics by that emi-
nent lawyer, David Paul Brown, which may be found in
The Forum, or Forty Years at the Philadelphia Bar:
" The style of Judge Black's composition is unlike any
other with which we are acquainted. It is fluent, senten-
tious, argumentative, facetious, and sarcastic. It is, to our
mind, a beautiful style, and the wonder is where he should
have formed it. There certainly could have been no temp-
tation within the ordinary jurisdiction of a county court
to lead to so much perfection in composition ; nor could
his opportunities while at the bar account for his literary
excellence ; nor had he the advantages that Franklin and
many others enjoyed in a printing office, which in itself,
with a bright pupil, is the best of schools. Where, then,
did he obtain it ? He obtained it where Shakespeare,
and Johnson, and Chatterton, and Burns obtained theirs —
from the force of innate genius, by which opportunities of
knowledge are not only improved but created."
The following extract from Judge Black's eulogy of
Chief Justice Gibson's literary style will give the reader a
fair illustration of his own style: "His written language
was a transcript of his mind. It gave the world the
very form and pressure of his thoughts. It was accu-
rate, because he knew the exact boundaries of the prin-
ciples he discussed. His mental vision took in the whole
outline and all the details of the case, and with a bold
and steady hand he painted what he saw. His words
were always precisely adapted to the subject. He said
neither more nor less than just the thing he ought. He
had one faculty of a great poet — that of expressing a
thought in language which could never afterwards be
paraphrased. When a legal principle passed through his
hands he sent it forth clothed in a dress which fitted it
340 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
so exactly that nobody ever presumed to give it any
other. Almost universally the syllabus of his opinion is
a sentence from itself, and the most heedless student, in
looking over Wharton's Digest, can select the cases in
which Gibson delivered the judgment as readily as he
would pick out gold coin from among coppers. For this
reason it is that, though he was the least voluminous
writer of the court, the citations from him at the bar are
more numerous than from all the rest put together."
Judge Black's controversies were mainly with prom-
inent men of his day on political questions — Stephen A.
Douglas, Judge E. R. Hoar, Henry Wilson, General Garfield,
and others. He attacked their statements concerning mat-
ters of fact and he condemned political acts and policies
which he thought deserved rebuke, while he eagerly ac-
cepted the gage of battle when there was sufficient provo-
cation. His defense of the character of Edwin M. Stan-
ton against statements made by Henry Wilson contains
this example of his sarcastic style: "Your attacks upon
Buchanan, Toucey, and Thompson might be safely passed
in silence, but the character of Stanton must utterly per-
ish if it be not defended against your praise." His open
letter to General Garfield contains probably the most
scathing criticism of New England Puritanism that has
ever been written. His controversy with Robert G. Inger-
soll in The North American Review will be remembered.
In 1836, when he was about twenty-six years old,
Judge Black married Mary Forward, the oldest daughter
of Chauncey Forward. One son, who is now dead, sur-
vived him, Chauncey F. Black, at one time Lieutenant
Governor of Pennsylvania and afterwards the unsuccess-
ful candidate of the Democratic party for Governor.
Somerset county has produced other prominent men
than Dr. Elder and Judge Black. Two of these we have
incidentally mentioned — Chauncey Forward and Charles
Ogle. Other members of the Ogle family have been dis-
tinguished as lawyers or politicians, sometimes as both.
Norman B. Ream, one of the country's leading capitalists
and a director of the United States Steel Corporation, was
TWO MEN FROM SOMERSET. 341
born in Somerset county in 1844. George F. Baer, who
is now the president of the Philadelphia and Reading
Railway Company, was born in Somerset county in 1842.
Cyrus Elder, a lawyer, and a writer of poetry and fiction
and also on economic subjects, was born in Somerset in
1833. Few counties in Pennsylvania have produced as
many notable men as Somerset county, which is situated
on the summit of the Allegheny mountains. In the early
days it was far away from commercial, political, educa-
tional, and financial centres. Its principal town, Somerset,
has even now a population of less than three thousand.
Judge Henry M. Brackenridge practiced law in Som-
erset for a short time between 1808 and 1810, but the
young lawyer emigrated to the West within a year. The
distinguished Judge Moses Hampton was at one time a
member of the Somerset bar and was prothonotary of
Somerset county when Joseph Ritner was Governor, a po-
sition which he resigned in 1838 to remove to Pittsburgh.
During the Administration of Martin Van Buren Jo-
seph Williams, a native of Westmoreland county, who had
practiced law in Somerset, was appointed a United States
Judge for the Territory of Iowa, and at the same time
William B. Conway, then editing The Mountaineer, at
Ebensburg, in the adjoining county of Cambria, was ap-
pointed Secretary of the Territory — illustrating the point
already made that the hill towns of Pennsylvania have
produced many men of wide reputation. Williams was
appointed in 1838, reappointed in 1842, and again in
1846. He died at Fort Scott, Kansas, in 1871. In 1830
he was appointed register of wills and recorder of deeds
for Somerset county. Conway died at Davenport, Iowa,
while in office, in December, 1839.
342 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
A CHAMPION OF PROTECTION.
United States Senator Quay died at his home in
Beaver, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, May 28, 1904, and
was buried on Tuesday, May 31, in the Beaver Cemetery.
In a nearby cemetery, in the neighboring town of Roch-
ester, there rest the remains of another citizen of Beaver
county, General Abner Lacock, who was a United States
Senator from 1813 to 1819 and had previously been a
member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania and
a Representative in Congress from 1811 to 1813. This
chapter relates almost entirely to Senator Quay's inesti-
mable services in behalf of the industries of our country.
Matthew Stanley Quay was born at Dillsburg, York
county, Pennsylvania, on September 30, 1833. At the time
of his death he was not 71 years old. A pathetic interest
attaches to some remarks which he made a little more than
three years before his death, in which he seems to have
contemplated the early termination of his earthly career.
On May 14, 1901, after his third election to the Senate,
his political friends honored him with a banquet at Phila-
delphia, at which he delivered an address. He said: "At
three score years and ten the world grows lonely. Through
wildernesses almost desolate the stream of life glides
darkly toward the eternal gulf. The associations of early
existence are gone. Its objects are gained or lost or fad-
ed in importance, and there is a disconnection with ideas
once clamped about the reason and dissolution of feelings
once melting the heart. Occasions like the present stand
in pleasant relief — green patches on the sandy delta — and
are especially attractive and welcome. My political race
is run. It is not to be understood that God's sword is
drawn immediately against my life, nor that my seat in
the Senate is to be prematurely vacated, but that, with
the subscription of my official oath on the 18th of Janu-
ary, my connection with the serious labors and responsi-
A CHAMPION OF PROTECTION. 343
bilities of active politics ceased. I have many friends to
remember; I have no enemies to punish. In this regard
I put aside the past." Senator Quay had "no enemies to
punish/' although his political power was then very great.
Another United States Senator once exhibited the same
spirit of Christian charity. Benton and Calhoun were bitter
enemies, but when Calhoun died Benton refused to criti-
cise anything that his great rival had done. He said :
" When God puts his hand on a man I take mine off."
Senator Quay did not live to serve out the term for
which he had been elected, dying at three score years and
ten. In the spirit of the address from which we have just
quoted almost the last request he made before his death
was that the inscription, Implora Pacem, (pray for peace,)
should be placed on his tombstone. This has been done.
To the above brief account of the deceased Senator's
personal history we add his impressive record while a
United States Senator, and also as chairman of the Re-
publican National Committee, in advocating and defend-
ing the policy of protection for our home industries. We
ask attention to this record. As it is a part of our in-
dustrial history the people of Pennsylvania should know
it and remember it, although Senator Quay's tariff work
was for the benefit of the people of all the States.
In December, 1887, a crisis in the industrial history of
the country was precipitated by the annual message of
President Cleveland, in which he advocated a revision of
the tariff on lines favorable to the policy of free trade ; in
other words, he recommended at great length a reduction
of duties. In the following month of January Mr. Mills
introduced in the House a bill embodying Mr. Cleve-
land's recommendations, and in July of that year, 1888,
this bill passed the House by a vote of 162 yeas to 149
nays, the Democrats having control of that body. The
Senate, being Republican, declined to consider the Mills
bill, and subsequently, on January 22, 1889, passed a sub-
stitute for it by a vote of 32 yeas to 30 nays — a close
vote. The House never considered the substitute. In
June, 1888, a few weeks before the passage of the Mills
bill through the House, Mr. Cleveland was nominated at
344 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
St. Louis for re-election upon a platform specifically in-
dorsing the Mills bill, and in the same month General
Harrison was nominated for the Presidency by the Re-
publicans at Chicago upon a platform in which the Mills
bill was denounced by name. The issue between protec-
tion and free trade was thus fairly drawn.
Soon after the nomination of General Harrison for the
Presidency in June, 1888, Senator Quay, who had entered
the Senate in March, 1887, and whose reputation as a
wise political manager had preceded him, was made chair-
man of the Republican National Committee. The task set
for him was the election of General Harrison and a Re-
publican House of Representatives. He accomplished both
these objects. The country rang with his praises. Every-
body conceded that without his wise leadership the bat-
tle for protection would have been lost, for New York,
the pivotal State, was carried for Harrison by only 13,-
000 plurality. If Mr. Cleveland and a Democratic House
had been elected the Mills bill would have been indorsed
and tariff agitation on free trade lines would have con-
tinued. Mr. Cleveland had already practically destroyed
the protectionist sentiment in his own party, and Samuel
J. Randall, the leader of the small band of Protectionist
Democrats in the House, was on his deathbed. But Har-
rison's election, made possible by Quay's generalship, put
an end for four years to all free trade hopes. As a logical
sequence of the Republican success in 1888 the House of
Representatives, when it met in December, 1889, under-
took the revision of the tariff of 1883 on the lines of the
Senate substitute for the Mills bill. This revision became
a law on October 1, 1890, and is known as the McKinley
tariff. This tariff was mainly a reproduction of the Sen-
ate bill of January 22, 1889.
An important service was rendered by Senator Quay
in connection with the enactment of the McKinley tariff
bill. The bill was jeopardized in the Senate by the Fed-
eral Elections bill, the so-called " Force bill," which many
Republican Senators were determined to pass and which
Democratic Senators, who were in the minority, were de-
termined to defeat by obstructive tactics, or, in other
A CHAMPION OF PROTECTION. 345
words, by talking the bill to death. If this scheme of the
Democrats had been carried out they would not only have
succeeded in defeating the " Force bill" but they would
also have prevented the passage of the McKinley tariff
bill through the Senate, as the time consumed in killing
the " Force bill" would have prevented the consideration
of the McKinley bill. Senator Quay had the skill and
address to rescue the McKinley bill from this serious di-
lemma by securing the adoption of an order of business
which gave it the right of way over the "Force bill."
Thenceforward the McKinley bill had plain sailing.
Senator Quay's part in securing the defeat of the
original Wilson tariff bill in 1894 and the substitution of
higher rates of duty for hundreds of its practically free
trade provisions can not be overlooked by the impartial
historian. It was of inestimable value to the country.
Both branches of Congress were now Democratic. The
Senator did not need to convince Senator Gorman, Sena-
tor Brice, and four or five other Democratic Senators of
the destructive character of the Wilson bill, but it was vi-
tally necessary that about thirty other Democratic Sena-
tors should be convinced that, if they did not vote to give
at least partial protection to the industries which had
been so seriously threatened by the Wilson bill, the bill
could never become a law ; with the assistance of other
Republicans he would deal with it as the Democrats had
proposed to deal with the "Force bill." This threat,
which was carried out by the delivery of the Senator's
obstructive speech, occupying twelve days in April, May,
and June, 1894, had the effect that was desired. The tar-
iff bill, which became a law on August 28, 1894, was not
the original Wilson bill at all. Many of its worst fea-
tures had been eliminated, and for this result Senator
Quay received at the time the highest praise from his
Senatorial colleagues.
In the Bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Asso-
ciation for August 1, 1897, we thus referred to Senator
Quay's part in the passage of the Dingley tariff bill of
that year, the third important tariff measure with which
he was prominently identified while a member of the Sen-
346 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
ate : "It only remains for us to express the thanks of our
iron and steel manufacturers to the Republican members
of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Sen-
ate Committee on Finance for the patient consideration
they have given to the tariff interests of our iron and
steel industries. Nor do we forget the valuable aid which
was freely and intelligently given by Senator Quay, of
Pennsylvania, first, in counseling a wise policy of modera-
tion by our iron and steel manufacturers, and, second, in
carefully guarding every needed iron and steel provision
while the bill was under consideration in the Senate. In
this latest service Senator Quay has fitly crowned his
great achievement when the Wilson tariff bill was shorn
of many of its worst features through his efforts."
With this record before us of unflinching devotion to
the best interests of his country it will be seen at a glance
how great is the debt of gratitude that all our people owe
to the memory of the distinguished Pennsylvania Senator
whose remains now rest in Beaver Cemetery.
When Senator Quay died numerous eulogies upon his
life and public services were pronounced in the Senate
and House by leading men of both branches. The list of
Senators who spoke in praise of their deceased colleague
is a particularly notable one. The tributes of affection
and appreciation from Senator John W. Daniel, of Vir-
ginia, and Senator John T. Morgan, of Alabama, both of
whom were politically opposed to Senator Quay, are
worthy of more than a passing thought.
Senator Daniel said : " He was a strong man, of
many fine faculties and traits of character. He had the
capacity for engaging and attaching to himself disinter-
ested friends — a quality which bespeaks the fiber of the
man more than words. He hated shams. Hypocrisy he
despised. His opinions as a rule were boldly declared.
His positions were resolutely maintained. His enemies
he defied ; his friends he cherished. He was without
ostentation and of little vanity, but he had great pride
and great courage. His ambition was to do things rather
than to say things, but whatever he said he said well.
Concentrative in his purposes and constructive in his
A CHAMPION OF PROTECTION. 347
plans he paid great attention to the great questions that
came to this body for consideration, and he engaged but
little in minor controversies. He focused his energies on
decisive points. He was a fighter when a fight was on,
but he was not disputatious, intermeddlesome, or pug-
nacious. Whenever he spoke he showed comprehensive
grasp of his subject in all of its relations. He was a
thoroughly informed and well-read man, but without lit-
erary pretensions or affectations. He exerted large influ-
ence as a Senator, not only upon his party but as well
upon his colleagues without regard to political affiliation.
This influence was due to his genial disposition, to his
manly character, to his common sense, and to the clear-
ness and wide range of his vision."
Senator Morgan said : "In speaking of Matthew Stan-
ley Quay if I was moved by the affection of long and
intimate friendship I could not give him higher praise
than to say that he performed the duty of an American
Senator during a long service with faithful devotion and
with such ability as has left on the records of the Sen-
ate most valuable proofs of efficient service to the coun-
try. It may be truthfully said that no important matter
escaped his attention and his careful examination, and
no public danger was presented that could escape his
alert detection or drive him from his post of duty. I
do not recall an instance in which he was not an impor-
tant party to the settlement of contentions that con-
cerned the welfare of the country, and I never knew him
to attempt anything except the honorable reconciliation
of those who were rash, angry, or obstinate in their con-
tentions. I have in mind some notable instances when
his courage and forbearance and his genius for reconcili-
ation saved measures and men from disastrous conse-
quences. In his character of Senator and friend he was
true and blameless, and has won for himself a fame that
will grow greater and better as time advances."
Senator Daniel followed his tribute to the personal
qualities and public services of Senator Quay with a re-
markable eulogy of Pennsylvania, Senator Quay's native
State, of which he himself once said in a public address :
348
PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
"I am proud that there is not a drop of blood in my
veins that is not Pennsylvania blood two centuries old."
Senator Daniel said of Quay and Pennsylvania :
" His genius was typical of that of his people. His
public career reflects the characteristics of the great
middle State of Pennsylvania. It is a State where agri-
culture, mining, manufacturing, commerce, learning, and
science have advanced as nearly abreast of each other
as in any place upon the earth's surface. The commu-
nity is thrifty, prosperous, and progressive through the
combination of diversified resources, abounding energies,
and steadfast purpose. The evenness of its development
in multitudinous departments of enterprise has imparted
to the massive structure stamina and proportion. The-
people of Pennsylvania present a rare picture of indus-
trial activity and of domestic peace and reposeful power.
At the base of their history is the stirring and sturdy
blood of the colonial pioneers, toned, as it were, with
the peaceful mood of Penn and the practical wisdom of
Franklin. Through all the gradations of their progress
the American spirit has pervaded their atmosphere.
Schools of fanaticism and hotbeds of anarchy find no
congenial resort in such communities."
OTHER NOTED WESTERN PENNSYLVANIANS. 349
CHAPTER XXXIV.
OTHER NOTED WESTERN PENNSYLVANIANS.
The limits of this volume preclude even brief sum-
maries of the careers of other eminent Western Pennsyl-
vanians than those already mentioned. The list of all
these who are worthy of extended biographical notice
is a very long one. It includes United States Senators
James Ross, Abner Lacock, Walter Lowrie, William Wil-
kins, (also Secretary of War under President Tyler,)
James G. Blaine, one of the greatest of all native-born
Pennsylvanians, and Edgar Cowan ; Judges Henry Bald-
win, Walter Forward, (also Secretary of the Treasury
under President Tyler,) Charles Shaler, Moses Hampton,
Wilson McCandless, Walter H. Lowrie, Cyrus L. Pershing,
Daniel Agnew, and many others ; John Moore, the first
president judge of Westmoreland county ; Henry D.
Foster, the eminent lawyer ; Andrew Stewart, the earnest
and unyielding champion of a protective tariff ; John Co-
vode, the able and popular Westmoreland Congressman ;
Governor John W. Geary ; the astronomer, John A. Brash-
ear ; Ida M. Tarbell, Lucy Forney Bittinger, Margaretta
Wade Deland, Jane Grey Swisshelm, T. J. Chapman, James
Veech, Neville B. Craig, Isaac Craig, Wm. M. Darlington,
Wm. G. Johnston, and other literary men and women,
including Judges Hugh H. Brackenridge and his son,
Henry M. Brackenridge ; the philanthropists, Rev. William
A. Passavant, D. D., and Felix R. Brunot ; Stephen C.
Foster, the composer, whose "Old Folks at Home" and
other folk songs can never be forgotten ; the mathema-
tician, Joseph Stockton, whose Western Calculator the
boys of seventy years ago will well remember ; and many
others, including eminent divines and educators, editors,
artists, and great engineers. Edwin M. Stanton practiced
law in Pittsburgh in 1847 and for about ten years after-
wards. Three generations of Ewings have furnished the
courts of Fayette county with president judges — father,
350 PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
son, and grandson. The Lowrie family has produced at
least eight men of distinction in the law, statesmanship,
and theology. " There were giants in those days." Ap-
preciative mention of all these leading Western Pennsyl-
vanians — what they have done and wherein they have
honored their State and the generations to which they
have respectively belonged — we are compelled to leave to
others who may some day think it worth while to compile
a second volume descriptive of Progressive Pennsylvania.
The reader will notice in the above list of promi-
nent Western Pennsylvanians that about one-half of the
persons mentioned have not had middle names. It was
a common custom of our forefathers to give their sons
only one name, a custom which is now generally ignored.
Our first five Presidents were plain George Washing-
ton, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and
James Monroe. Of the succeeding Presidents thirteen
have had no middle name. They were Andrew Jackson,
Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Millard
Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lin-
coln, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Har-
rison, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. We
have had twenty-five Presidents and eighteen of these
have had no middle name. Other great men of the Re-
public have had no middle name — Patrick Henry, Benja-
min Franklin, James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Hancock,
Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Elbridge Gerry, Robert
Morris, John Jay, John Marshall, Peyton Randolph, Timo-
thy Pickering, George Clinton, Anthony Wayne, Horatio
Gates, Nathanael Greene, Albert Gallatin, Horace Binney,
William Wirt, Silas Wright, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster,
Lewis Cass, John Bell, Edward Everett, Thomas Corwin,
Thomas Ewing, George Bancroft, Caleb Cushing, Horace
Greeley, Schuyler Colfax, Charles Sumner,. Simon Came-
ron, John Sherman, Hannibal Hamlin, and many others.
Most of the early Governors of Pennsylvania had no
middle name — Thomas Mifflin, Thomas McKean, Simon
Snyder, William Findlay, Joseph Hiester, George Wolf,
Joseph Ritner, William Bigler, and James Pollock.
Much has been said in praise of the enterprise,
OTHER NOTED WESTERN PENNSYLVANIANS. 351
courage, intelligence, and aggressive leadership of the
Scotch-Irish element in the population of Western Penn-
sylvania. The Scotch-Irish are a masterful race, wher-
ever found. But, while largely dominating and giving
tone and character to the early settlement and subse-
quent history of Western Pennsylvania, they are not en-
titled to all the credit they have received. The people
of that part of Pennsylvania have been from the first
a really composite people. Virginia and Maryland fur-
nished to that section nearly all its first settlers ; the
French established no permanent settlements. Next came
the Scotch-Irish in considerable numbers, with an occa-
sional family direct from Scotland, and a few English,
Celtic Irish, Welsh, and Huguenots, and then came many
Pennsylvania Germans and other Germans. Afterwards
came men from New York and New England, espe-
cially to the northwestern section. All these strains of
blood were represented in the settlement of Western
Pennsylvania in its first hundred years, and to these
have since been added very many latter-day Germans
and representatives of other nationalities. So that, while
it is true that the Scotch-Irish element has been and
still is the dominating element in that section of Penn-
sylvania, it has been greatly strengthened by the admix-
ture of the other elements that have been mentioned.
A curious illustration of the correctness of this state-
ment is found in the fact that three of the noted judges
and public men of Pittsburgh in the early part of the
last century, namely, Henry Baldwin, Walter Forward,
and Charles Shaler, were all natives of Connecticut.
GENERAL INDEX.
Not including the names of individuals or firms or names mentioned in the Chrono-
logical Chapter, but including the names of companies.
A. Page
Agriculture in Pennsylvania 182, 183
Allegheny Bessemer Steel Company. .. 213
Allegheny bridge at Pittsburgh . . 252, 253
Allegheny City laid out in 1787 263
Allegheny County organized in 1788. . 262
Allegheny County, population of . . 265, 266
Allegheny Portage Railroad 140-146
Allegheny river, early navigation of 122, 123
Aluminum, manufacture of, in Pa. .245-247
Amity, the first Pennsylvania ship. . . 21
Appalachian System 81-83
Apprenticeship system, colonial 52, 53
Armor plate, manufacture of, in Pa. . 241
B.
Baldwin Locomotive Works 182
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. . 124, 161-164
Bedford Company 188
Bessemer process for making steel 209, 210
Bessemer Steel Company, Limited.... 215
Bessemer steel, first basic, in Pa 233
Bessemer steel, manufacture of . . . 232, 233
Bethlehem Iron Company 231, 241
Bethlehem, Moravian settlement at. . . 32
Boatbuilding at Pittsburgh 123
Boundaries of Pennsylvania. ... 15, 16, 75
Braddock's defeat 257
Braddock's Road 106
Brady's Bend Iron Company 205
Bridge, chain, first, in England 249
Bridge, chain, first, in U. S . . 248-250, 254
Bridges, early, in Pennsylvania. . . 102, 103
Bridges, wire suspension, in U. S. 250-254
Bridle paths in Pennsylvania.. 102, 103, 107
Brownsville, early shipping port. . . 119-121
Buffaloes in Pennsylvania 96-101
Bushy Run, battle of 1, 260, 307
Cambria Iron Co . . 146, 195, 206, 208, 232
Cambria Iron Works, when built 195
Cambria Steel Co 195, 207, 214, 226
Camden and Amboy Railroad... 163, 164
Canal boats built of iron in 1836. . . . 128
Canal, first, in the United States . .131, 134
Canal transportation in the U. S. . 130-138
Canal tunnel, first, in the U. S 147
Canals in Pennsylvania 130-138
Carbondale and Honesdale Railroad. . 166
Carnegie Steel Company 214, 241
Carondelet Canal, building of 135
Charcoal iron industry of Pa 201
Charleston and Hamburg Railroad... 163
Chemicals, manufacture of, in Pa. .180, 181
Page
Cleveland Iron Mining Company. .221, 223
Coal, anthracite 224, 225, 227, 228
Coal, bituminous, in Pa. . . 120, 121, 224-228
Coal, raw bituminous, use of 230, 231
Coal trade of Pittsburgh, beginning of 263
Coke industry, beginning of, in Pa. . . 229
Coke, production of, in Pennsylvania.. 227
Columbia Railroad, building of . . . 140, 143
Conestoga Lock and Dam Nav. Co 135
Conestoga wagons described 105
Conewago Canal, building of 135
Connellsville coke, manufacture of . . . . 227
Connellsville, early shipping port 117
Copper, first mill at Pittsburgh. . 243, 244
Copper, Lake Superior, development of 243
Cornwall iron ore hills 216-219
Cotton goods, manufacture of, in Pa.. 177
Crefeld settlers of Germantown 27-30
Crucible steel, manufacture of, in Pa. 231
Cuban iron ores 223
Cuban Steel Ore Company 223
Cumberland Road, building of 109, 110, 313
D.
Delaware and Hudson Canal. .163, 166, 252
Delaware and Schuylkill Nav. Co 136
Delaware Division Canal Company. . . 148
Delaware Indians 13, 14, 70-74
Delaware river and bay, when named 12
Despatch Transportation Company. . . 150
Drovers in Pennsylvania 112, 113
Dunkards in Pennsylvania 31, 32, 42
Duquesne Steel Works, when built. . . 213
Durham boats in Pennsylvania 114
Dutch East India Company 12
Dutch settlers in Pa.. .11-14, 37, 38, 40, 41
E.
Edgar Thomson Steel Co., Lim. . 210, 214
Edgar Thomson Steel Works built in
1873-1875 210
Edgar Thomson Steel Works, remark-
able rail record of 214
English settlers in Pa 18, 37, 351
Erie Canal, building of. .. 137, 138, 142, 143
F.
Ferries in Pennsylvania 102
Finn's in Pennsylvania 11, 12, 37
First emigrants from the Continent. . . 27
Flatboats in Pennsylvania 115-123
Forbes's Road, building of 106, 107
Fort Amstel, Dutch capital in Delaware 14
Fort Christina, Swedish settlement 13
354
GENERAL INDEX.
Page
Fort Du Quesne 25G-259, 261, 262
Fort Elfsborg, Swedish settlement.. . . 13
Fort Fayette, when built 260, 261
Fort Nassau in New Jersey 12
Fort Necessity, surrender of 5, 257 |
Fort Pitt abandoned by the British.. 260
Fort Pitt, when named 258, 259
Frankstown Road, building of... . 107-109
Free Society of Traders 17, 21, 79, 85
Freight rates, early, in Pa 110, 111
French and English, struggle between 257
General Assembly of Pa 19, 309, 342
George's Creek Company 229
German Reformed in Pa 30, 31, 39
German settlers in Pa 6, 9, 40, 351
Germans, Penn's love for 29
Germantown, first settlers of 27-32
Glass, manufacture of, in Pennsylvania 180
Great Meadows, battle of 257
Great Western Iron Company 205
Hannastown, burning of, in 1782 74
Hannastown, resolutions of 1775. . 301-303
Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy,
and Lancaster Railroad Company. . 167
Hessian prisoners, sale of, in Pa. . . 49-51
Hessian soldiers in the Revolution... 50
Homestead Steel Works, when built.. 213
Huguenots, French, in Pennsylvania 31, 35
37, 38, 40, 41, 351
Imprisonment for debt in Pa 51
Indians in Pennsylvania.... 12-14,70-74
Iron ore, first use of Cuban 231
Iron ore, first use of Lake Superior. . 231
Iron ore in Pa 174, 175, 216-219
Iron works, early, in Pa 185-201
Italians in Pennsylvania 7, 228
J. and K.
Jackson Mining Company 220
James River Company 134, 135
Juragua Iron Company 223, 231
Keel boats in Pennsylvania 114-123
Kelly Pneumatic Process Co 209, 232
L.
Lake Champlain iron ores 223
Lake Superior iron ores 219-221, 223
Leather, manufacture of, in Pa. . . 178-180
Lehigh Coal and Nav. Co. 141, 147, 148, 166
Lehigh Coal Company 147
Lehigh Crane Iron Company 230
Lehigh Navigation Company 147
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. ... 172
Lehigh Zinc Company 241, 242
Little Schuylkill Navigation, Railroad,
and Coal Company 168
Liverpool and Manchester Railway Co. 157
Locomotives, first, in the U. S. . . . 162-164
Locomotives, manufacture of, in Pa. . . 182
Lumber, production of, in Pa. . . . 177, 178
Lutherans in Pennsylvania 31, 39
M. Page
Mauch Chunk Railroad 166
Mennonites in Pennsylvania.. 26, 27, 29-32
40, 42, 68, 69
Middlesex Canal Company 135
Midvale Steel Company , . 241
Missouri iron ores 222
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad Co 163
Monongahela Navigation Company . . . 121
Moravians in Pennsylvania 32, 38-41
Mount Carbon Railroad Company. . . . 168
N.
National Road, building of. . 109-112, 313
Natural gas, general use of 236
Natural gas, production of, in Pa. 181, 182
Negro slavery, act abolishing 58-61
Negro slavery in Pennsylvania .... 54-69
Negro slavery, protest against 56, 57, 66-69
Negro slaves at Pa. iron works. . . . 61, 62
Negro slaves in Pa. down to 1840. . 62-65
Negro slaves owned by Penn 55, 56
Negro slaves, statistics of 64, 65
Negroes in cities of the U.S.... 7, 65, 66
Negroes in Pennsylvania in 1900. . 65, 66
New England, civic pride in 2
New Jersey Steel and Iron Company 232
New Orleans, early trade with. . . 118, 119
New Wales, name proposed for Pa. 22-24
Nickel, manufacture of, in Pa. . . . 242, 243
Ohio, civic pride in 3
Ohio Company 255, 256
Ohio Steamship Navigation Company 125
Open-hearth steel in United States 232, 233
Otis Iron and Steel Company 233
Pack-saddle described 104
Palatinate described 33
Paper, when first made in Pa 28
Penn's charter in 1681... 11, 12, 14-17, 20
Pennsylvania and Ohio Transp. Co.. . 150
Pennsylvania Canal, building of. . 139-148
Pennsylvania Canal Company 148
Pennsylvania Canal, freight rates on . . 152
Pennsylvania Canal in operation . . 149-155
Pennsylvania Canal packet boats.. 154, 155
Pennsylvania Canal, portable iron
boats described. 128, 129
Pennsylvania Canal, sale of 145
Pennsylvania Canal, section boats and
carboats described 153, 154
Pennsylvania Canal, transportation
companies on 150, 151
Pennsylvania, climate of 77-81
Pennsylvania Coal Company 252
Pennsylvania, counties of 84-87
Pennsylvania divided into three parts 75
Pennsylvania Dutch, origin of name 41, 42
Pennsylvania, early navigation in. .114-123
Pennsylvania, few Indian relics in. . . 5, 0
Pennsylvania first to develop petrole-
um industry 234
Pennsylvania, lack of civic pride in.. 1-10
Pennsylvania largest consumer of nat-
ural gas 237
GENERAL INDEX.
355
Page
Pennsylvania, history of naming of. 22-24
Pennsylvania, length and breadth of. . 84
Pennsylvania, mixed population of .. . 37
Pennsylvania, native animals of . . . . 88-95
Pennsylvania, native products of 88
Pennsylvania, natural resources of 76
Pennsylvania overgrown with woods. . 81
Pennsylvania, Penn's description of. .77-79
Pennsylvania, population of province. . . 35
Pennsylvania, population of State.. 36,84
Pennsylvania Railroad HI, 144-146
148, 149, 155, 169-172
Pennsylvania, rivers and lakes of. . 83, 84
Pennsylvania, scenery of 76, 77
Pennsylvania Steel Company 217, 231-233
Petroleum discovered in Ohio 235
Petroleum, earliest mention of 234
Petroleum in Kentucky 235
Petroleum in New York 234, 235
Petroleum, production of 181
Philadelphia and Allegheny counties,
growth of, in population 265, 266
Philadelphia and Reading R.R. 137, 167-170
Philadelphia and Reading Ry. Co. 167, 341
Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad Co. 167
Philadelphia, Ger., and Nor. Railroad. . . 166
Philadelphia named by Penn 19
Philadelphia, settlement of 19, 20
Philadelphia slave market 58
Philosophical Society, report of 132
Physical conformation of Pa 8,9
Pitt, Wm., no monument at Pittsburgh 5
Pittsburgh and Boston Mining Co. 243, 244
Pittsburgh and Connellsville R. R 162
Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Company. . 213
Pittsburgh, first blast furnace in 1792. 198
Pittsburgh, first glass works at 263
Pittsburgh, first iron foundry in 1805. 198
Pittsburgh, first rolling mil] in 1811-12. 199
Pittsburgh, first steamboat in 1811.124, 264
Pittsburgh Gazette, first newspaper
west of Allegheny mountains 263
Pittsburgh had negro slaves 58
Pittsburgh incorporated as a borough 262
Pittsburgh, Manor of 261, 262
Pittsburgh, second furnace in 1859.. 200
Pittsburgh, when named 258
Portland cement, production of, in Pa. 182
Presbvterians in Pennsvlvania ; . . 34
Protective tariff 202, 203, 333, 343-346, 349
R.
Railroad, first passenger, in the U.S.. 158
Railroad, first passenger, in the world . 156
Railroad, mileage of, in Pennsylvania. 165
Railroads, early criticism of, in Eng-
land " 156, 157
Railroads, early criticism of, in the
United States 158-161
Railroads, early, in Pennsylvania . 165-173
Railroads, opposition to building 172, 173
Rails, manufacture of, in Pa 202-215
Redemptioners in Pennsylvania. . . . 43-53
Redemptioners, Washington bought 43, 47
Rees (James) & Sons Company 129
Reliance Transportation Company 128, 150
s- Page
Salt, discovery of, in Western Pa 238
Salt industry of Pa 116, 238, 239
Schuylkill and Susquehanna Nav. Co. 136
Schuylkill Nav. Company. . . 137, 147, 148
Schwenkfelders in Pennsylvania 32
Scotch-Irish in Pa. . 6, 9, 10, 33-37, 39, 351
Second settlement in Pa 24, 25, 133
Servants, bonded white, in Pa 43-53
Sharon Iron Company 231
Shawnese Indians 74
Ships, ocean, built at Pittsburgh. . 120, 123
Sigua Iron Company 223
Silk industry of Pennsylvania... 175, 176
Southern iron ores 222, 223
Southern States, civic pride in 3
Spanish-American Iron Company 223
Spelter, manufacture of, in Pa. . . 241, 242
Stage coaches in Pennsylvania... Ill, 112
Stage houses in Pennsylvania 113
State Road in Pennsylvania 106, 107
Steamboat building, decline of 126
Steamboats, early use of, in Pa. . . 124, 125
Steamboats, first built in W. Pa. 124-126
Steamboat, first iron, in U. S 126-129
Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company 148
Superior Iron Company 208
Susquehannock Indians 14
Swanandael, Dutch settlement at 13
Swedish Lutherans 20, 21
Swedish settlers in Pennsylvania. . . 11-15
19, 20, 21, 37, 40
Swiss settlers in Pennsylvania. . 37, 38, 40
Tinicum, Swedish settlement at 13
Tinplates and terne plates 240, 241
Troy Steel Company 233
Tunnel, first railroad, in the U. S. . . . 144
Tunnels, first canal, in the U. S 147
Turnpikes, early, in Pennsylvania 104-107
Union Canal Company 136-138, 147
Union Transportation Company 150
Upland, Swedish capital 14, 18, 19
United States Iron and Tinplate Co . . 240
United States Steel Corporation. . 212, 340
W.
Walking purchase, the 70-73
Welsh settlers in Pa. . 6, 18, 20, 38, 40, 351
Western Indians, conspiracy of. . 259, 260
Western Pa. in the Ohio valley 84
Western Transportation Company. . . . 150
West Newton an early shipping port. 117
Whisky insurrection of 1794 117
Wicaco, Swedish settlement at 19
Wire rope, first works, in Pa 252
Woolen goods, production of, in Pa. . 176
Y.
Youghiogheny Slackwater Company.. 122
Z.
Zinc, Pennsylvania a small producer. . 184
PERSONAL INDEX.
Not including names mentioned in the Chronological Chapter on pages 267-288 or
names of companies in the General Index, but including firm names.
A. Page
Acheson, David 313
Acrelius, Israel 61, 62, 187, 217
Adams, David 199
Adams Family 289
Adams, John Quincy 314
Adlum, John 132
Agnew, Judge Daniel 349
Agnew, David 231
Agnew, John Park 231
Albert, George Dallas 298, 300, 304, 305, 308
Alderson, Barnard 317, 319
Alexander, Hugh 336
Allen, Professor J. A 99-101
Allen, William 216
Alrich, Peter 54
American Ethnological Society 315
American Philosophical Society 131-133, 293
Amherst, General 298
Anderson, Colonel Robert 15
Anshutz, George 63, 64, 194, 198-200
Ansley, Mr 243
Argall, Captain Samuel 12, 132
Ashe, Thomas 98, 260
Ashman, George 188
Atkinson, G. W. P 206
Avery, Rev. Charles 244
B.
Baer, George F 341
Baird, Professor Spencer F 96, 101
Baker, Melchor 315
Baldwin, Judge Henry 197, 349, 351
Baldwin, Matthew W 143
Baldwin, Robinson, McNickle & Beltz-
hoover 199
Bancroft, George 259, 350
Barnard, General J. G 251
Barnett, John 109
Basse", Detmar 196
Bausman, Rev. Joseph H 97
Beatty, Rev. Charles 121
Beaver, General James A 40
Beck, Dr 100, 101
Becker, Rev. Peter 32
Beelen, Anthony 124, 199
Belknap, Bean & Butler 199
Beltzhoover, Daniel 196
Bender, Charles 249
Benner, General Philip 190
Benton, Thomas H 343
Bessemer, Sir Henry. 208, 209, 215
Biddle, Owen 188
Bigler, Governor William 39, 350
Bingham, Thomas and William.. . 150, 151
Bishop, J. Leander (historian). .28, 186, 187
Page
Bittinger, Lucy Forney. 349
Black, Chauncey F 337, 340
Black, George 151
Black, Henry and James 336
Black, Judge Jeremiah S 331, 336-340
Blackfan, Rebecca 55
Blaine, James G 349
Boggs, Andrew 63, 64
Boker, George H 4
Bolles, Albert S. (historian) 47, 51
Boone, Daniel 36
Boscawen, Admiral 298
Boucher, John N. 63, 299, 304, 306, 308, 309
Bouquet, Colonel Henry 106, 107, 121
258-260, 307
Bourne, Annie Nettleton 47
Bowman, Jacob 193
Brackenridge, Judge Henry M. . . . 341, 349
Brackenridge, Judge Hugh H 349
Braddock, General Edward 5, 257
Bradford, Andrew 24
Bradford, William 58
Brashear, John A 349
Breading, Nathaniel 192
Brice, Calvin S 345
Brock, Colonel R. A 47
Brodhead, Colonel Daniel 97
Brodhead, Richard 310
Brown, David Paul 339
Brunot, Felix R 349
Bryan, Judge George 59
Bryce, James 318
Buchanan, James 337, 340, 350
Buell, Augustus C. (historian) 21, 80
Burd, Colonel James 120
Burrell, Thomas 195
Burt, William A 220
Butler, John B 254
Butler, Colonel William 309
C.
Calhoun, John C 343
Cameron, Simon 330, 350
Campbell, Colonel John 261
Campbell, William 249
Carey, Henry C 4, 333-335
Carey, Mathew 4, 334
Carnegie, Andrew 201, 210-213, 215, 316-330
Carnegie, Brothers & Co 211, 213
Carnegie, McCandless & Co 210
Carnegie, Phipps & Co., Limited.. 233, 241
Carnegie, Thomas M 211
Carondelet, Governor 135
Carothers, Captain 146
Carr, Sir Robert 54
PERSONAL INDEX.
357
Carroll, Charles (of Carrollton) 161
Cass, General Lewis 338, 350
Chandler, Professor Charles F 235
Chapman, T. J. (historian) .... 58, 123-126
258, 261, 264, 349
Charles the Second 11, 15, 22
Charlevoix, (explorer) 234
Chase, Salmon P.. 333
Chauncey, Elihu 167
Chevalier, Michel 145
Clark & Thaw 151
Clark, Thomas 151
Claypoole, James 54
Cleveland, Grover 121, 343, 344, 350
Clinton, DeWitt 125
Coffin, Admiral Sir Isaac 157
Colder, Lieutenant-Governor 131
Coleman, George Dawson 217, 218
Coleman, Robert 49, 216-218
Collins, (historian) 118
Colwell, Stephen 4, 335
Connell, Zachariah 117
Connolly, John 301
Conway, William B 341
Cooper, Hewitt & Co 232
Cooper, Peter 162
Cope, Frederick J 159
Covode, John 349
Cowan, Christopher 199
Cowan, Edgar 349
Craig & Bellas 155
Craig & O'Hara 263
Craig, Bellas & Co 150
Craig, Isaac (antiquarian) 349
Craig, Major Isaac 191, 260
Craig, Neville B 97, 191, 261, 349
Cram, William Everitt 89
Cramer's Magazine Almanac 200
Crawford, A. L 220
Crawford, Captain 120
Crawford, William H 314
Cromwell, Thomas 188-190
Cronemeyer, W. C 240
Curtin, Governor Andrew G 64
Curtin, Roland 64
D.
Daniel, John W 346-348
Darlington, Wm. M 349
Davis, Arthur V 246, 247
Davis (James M.) & Co 150-152
Davis, Phineas 164
Day, Sherman (historian) 22, 103, 186
Defebaugh, James E. (historian) 177
Deland, Margaretta Wade 349
Delaroche, Joseph 234
De la Warr, Lord 12
Denny, E 190
Denny, Governor William 259
Depue, Daniel 189
DeVries, David Pietersen 13
Dewey, Admiral George 319
Dickens, Charles 51, 154
Dickinson, Jonathan 185, 186
Diffenderffer, Frank Ried.... 35, 43, 44, 48
50, 51, 57, 218
Dillon, Moses 191
Dinwiddie, Governor 255, 257
Dock, Jacob 150
Drake, Edwin L 235, 236
Drinker, Henry S 147
Docherty, Bernard 300
Dougherty, John 150, 151
Douglas, Stephen A 340
Dunmore, Lord 301
Du Quesne, Marquis 256
E.
Ecuyer, Captain Simeon 260
Edgar, William C 204, 205
Edinger, Judge James 91
Edmondson, Captain 262
Ege, George 50
Elder Cyrus 341
Elder, Dr. William 331-336, 340
Elder, Dr. William Gore 331
Egle, Dr. William H. (historian). . 112, 238
Elgar, Captain John 126, 127
Ellet, Jr., Charles 250
Eshleman, H. Frank 134
Ewings, of Fayette county 349
F.
Ferree, Madame 31
Field Family 289
Finley, Judge James 248, 249, 254
Firmstone, William 229
Fisher, Sydney George (historian) .... 70
Fitch, John 124
Forbes, General John 107, 120, 257-259, 307
Force, Peter 301
Forney, John W 333
Forward, Chauncey 336, 337, 340
Forward, Judge Walter 336, 349, 351
Foster, Henry D 349
Foster, Stephen C 349
Fox, George 26
Franklin, Benjamin 4, 134, 291
320, 339, 348, 350
Franklin Institute 207
Frazer, John 300
Fritz, George 207
Fritz, John 207, 208, 241
Fulton, Robert 87, 124, 125, 292
G.
Gage, General Thomas 260
Galbraith, Robert 107, 108
Gallatin, Albert 97, 312-315, 350
Gannett, Henry (geographer) 84, 165
Garfield, General James A 340
Geary, General John W 349
George the Third 50, 302
Gerehart & Reynolds 195
Gibson, Colonel John 58
Gibson, John 191, 192
Gibson, Judge John Bannister. .4, 338-340
Gilchrist, Percy C 215
Goetz, George W 233
Gordon, Thomas F...73, 136, 147, 196, 197
Gorman, A. P 345
Gormly, John 198
Gowen, Franklin B 168
Graeff, Abraham Op den 66-68
Graeff, Dirck Op den 06-68
358
PERSONAL INDEX.
Page
Graff, Bennett & Co 200
Graff, Henry 151
Grant, General U. S 3, 307, 328
Greene, General Nathanael 305, 350
Gregory & Co 231
Grubb Family 210-218
H.
Hall, Charles M 245-247
Hamilton, Alexander 306, 335, 350
Hamilton. James (Mayor of Phila.). ■ . 52
Hamlin, Professor 100
Hampton, Judge Moses 341, 349
Hancock, John 305, 350
Hanks, Nancy 30
Hanna, Charles A. (historian) 35
Harbaugh, Mathias & Owens 209
Harbaugh, Springer 209
Harley, Lewis R 45
Harmar, General Josiah 300
Harris's Directory of Pittsburgh 120
Harrison, Benjamin 344, 350
Hartranft, General John F 32, 39
Hayden, John 191, 192
Hayes, William B 199
Hays, John 243, 245
Hazard, Samuel (historian) 22, 23
Hendricks, Gerhard 00-G8
Hendricksen, Captain Cornelius 12
Hiester, Governor Joseph .... 39, 294, 350
Hildenbrand, Mr 252
Hildreth, Dr. S. P. 235
Historical Society of Pennsylvania . . . 144
Hoar, Judge E. R 340
Holliday, John 195
Hoopes, Townsend & Co 190
Hornaday, William T 98, 99
Houck, Hon. Henry 85
Howe, Thomas M 243, 244
Howe, General William 304
Hudson, Henry 12
Hulbert, Archer Butler 99, 100
107, 115, 116, 124
Hull, George H 222
Hunt, Captain Alfred E 246, 247
Hunter, Joseph W 110
Huntingdon, Countess of 87
Hus, John 32
Hussey, Dr. Curtis G 231, 243, 244
Hussey (C. G.) & Co 244
Hussey, Wells & Co 200, 231
I.
Ingersoll, Robert G 340
Irving, Washington 300
J.
Jackson, Andrew ,. 192, 199, 339, 350
Jackson & Updegraff 192
James, Mrs. T. P. (historian) 185, 187
Jamison, Major S. S 238
Janney, Samuel M 14, 22, 85, 93
Jansen, Reynier 24
Jasper, John and Margaret 20
Jeans, James Stephen 156
Jefferson, Thomas 236, 237, 291
300, 312, 313, 320, 350
Jenkins, Howard M. (historian) 54
Page
Johnson, Andrew 328, 338, 350
Johnson, William 238
Johnston (Alexander) & Co 194
Johnston, Governor William F 194
Johnston, William G 349
Joncaire, Captain de ; 234
Jones, Captain William R 212
K.
Kalm, Peter 99
Keith, Sir William 187
Kelley, George W 90
Kelley, William D 4
Kelly, Colonel John 100
Kelly, Rachel 3
Kelly, William 209, 215, 232
Kickenapawling, (Indian chief) 107
Kier, Samuel M 129, 235
Kimball, Gertrude Selwyn . 259
King, George S 195, 206
Knox, General Henry 191
Knox, John 326
Kossuth, Louis 336
Kunze, Rev. John Christopher 47, 296
Kyashuta, (Indian chief) 97
Lacock, General Abner 342, 349
La Fayette, Marquis de 305, 314
Laughlin & Co 200
Lea, Henry Charles 4
Lee, Arthur 262
Lee, General Robert E, 3, 308
Leech & Co 150, 151
Leiper, Thomas 158
Lenni Lenape. . . . : 13
Leonard, Reuben 200
Lesley, J. Peter 82, 83
Lewis, General Andrew 237
Lewis, George 200
Lincoln, Abraham 3, 36, 320
321, 327, 338, 350
Lincoln, Dr. Charles H 301
Lincoln, John 36
Livingston, Philip 2
Livingston, Robert R 124, 125
Lobingier (Christopher) & Brother. . . . 194
Logan, James 56. 72, 187
Loomis, Professor 100
Lowrie Family 349, 350
Lukens, John (Surveyor General) 132
Luther, Martin 325
Lyon, William M 232
Lytle, Milton S. (historian) 188
M.
McCandless, Judge Wilson 394
McClellan, General George B 305
McClurg, Joseph 198, 199
McCook, Colonel John J 327
McDermett, William 191
McElwee, Thomas B 62
McFaden (John) & Co 150
McKinley, William 321, 350
McKnight, Dr. W. J 89
MeLanahan, J. King 128
McMaster, John Bach (historian) 57
Mack, Alexander 31
PERSONAL INDEX.
359
Page
Maclean, Moses 299, 336
Madison, James 306, 313, 350
Makemie, Rev; Francis 34
Mann, Job 332
Markham, William 17, 18, 81
Marshall, Edward 71
Matlack, Timothy 132
Meason, Dillon &. Co 191
Meason, Isaac 191, 193, 248
Mellon, R. B 246
Mercer, Colonel Hugh 258
Merritt, General Wesley 319
Mey, Captain Cornelius Jacobson 12
Mifflin, Governor Thomas 292, 293, 306, 350
Miles, Colonel Samuel 189
Mill, J. Stuart 335
Mills, Roger Q 343
Minuet, Peter • 13
Mitchell, John 239
Monroe, James 314, 350
Montour, Catherine 87
Moore, Judge John 63, 349
Morgan, John T 346, 347
Morrell, Daniel J 207, 215, 232
Morris, Anthony 68
Morris, Robert 136, 350
Morrison, J. H. (historian) 125, 127-129
Morton, John 15
Mosley, A. K 250
Muhlenberg Family. ... 3, 98, 289-297, 305
Mulhollan & McAnulty 190
Mushet, Robert Forester 209, 210, 215
N.
Neall, Frank L 149, 151
Needy, Hugh 189
Nemacolin, (Indian chief) 106
New York Historical Society 315
Nicholson, John 192
Noble, Henry and John 196
Nutt, Samuel 186, 187
O.
O'Conndr (James) & Co 150-153
Ogden, William B 206
Ogle, General Alexander 334
Ogle, Charles 337, 340
Ogle Family 340
O'Hara, General James 239, 309
Oliphant, F. H 193, 229
Oliphant, John and Andrew 192
Ormonde, Duke of 18, 76, 77, 79
P.
Park, Brother & Co 200, 231
Park, Jr., James 232
Parker, Edward W 224, 225
Passavant, Philip 196
Passavant, Rev. William A 196, 349
Pastorius, Francis Daniel ..... 27-30, 66-69
Patton, Colonel John 189
Pears, Jeremiah 192, 193
Peckham, Professor Stephen F 234
Penn, Hannah 55, 56, 70
Penn, Governor John 35, 73, 299, 303
Penn, John, Thomas, and Richard (sons
of William) 70-72, 216, 217, 261
Penn, Letitia (Aubrey) 55, 56
Page
Penn, Richard (Lieutenant-Governor). . 300
Penn, William 1, 9, 11, 12, 14-27, 29
30, 37, 44, 53-56, 70-73, 76, 77, 79-81, 85
88, 93, 99, 133, 134, 185, 348
Penn, Admiral Sir William 11, 15
Pennypacker, Governor Samuel W . . . . 40
66-69, 74, 188
Perry, Commodore Oliver Hazard .... 198
Pershing, Judge Cyrus L 146, 349
Pierson, Robert 195
Piper, Conrad 195
Pitcairn, Robert 330
Pitt, Sir William 5, 258, 259
Plockhoy, Peter Cornelius 30
Pontiac, (Indian chief) 100, 259
Poor, H. V 203
Pope, Thomas 249
Porter, Governor David R 191, 337
Post, Christian Frederick 107, 258
Potts, Colonel 218
Potts, Judge James 253
Potts, Joseph D 329
Potts, Jr., Thomas 185
Probst, John 194
Proud, Robert (historian) 93
Prowell, George R. (historian) . . . 127, 164
Putnam, General Rufus 77
Quay, Matthew Stanley 121, 342-348
Randall, Samuel J 4, 344
Raymond, Philander 205
Read, Thomas Buchanan 4
Ream, Norman B 340
Reed, Thomas B 321
Reese, Jacob 223
Rhoads, Samuel (Mayor of Phila.). . . . 134
Rhoads, Samuel N 74, 89, 96, 99
Rhorer, Frederick 300
Richards, Earl & Co 195
Richards Family 297
Richards, Matthias 296
Ridgely, Edward. . . : 188
Ringwalt, J. L 103, 111, 112
114, 131, 134, 142
Ritner, Governor Joseph ...... 39, 341, 350
Rittenhouse, Benjamin 132
Rittenhouse, David 28, 132, 133, 188
Rittinghuysen, Willem 28
Roberts, George B Ill
Roberts, Solomon W 143-145, 166
Robinson & Minis 129
Robinson, Moncure 167
Roebling, John Augustus 251-254
Roebling, Washington A 251, 252
Rogers & Burchfield 236
Rogers, H. D 81
Roosevelt, Nicholas J 125
Roosevelt, Theodore 125, 350
Ross, James 312, 349
Roup, Colonel Jonas 198
Rupp, Israel Daniel (historian) 49, 103, 307
Rush, Dr. Benjamin 4, 105
Rutledge, George 146
Rutter, Thomas 185, 186
360
PERSONAL INDEX.
S. Page
Sagard, (French historian) 234
St. Clair, General Arthur 194, 298-311
St. Clair, Daniel 309
St. Clair, Sir John 107
Schoolcraft, Henry R. (historian) 97
Schwenkfeld, Casper 32
Scott, Joseph (geographer) 197
Scott, Thomas A 329, 330
Sellers, John 132
Shaler, Judge Charles 349, 351
Sharpless, Isaac (historian). . .50, 70, 72, 73
Sherman, General William T 308, 328
Shippen, Jr., Joseph 303
Shoenberger, Dr. Peter 200, 206
Shulze, Rev. Christopher E 295
Shulze, Governor John A. 39, 295, 29G, 314
Shunk, Governor Francis R 39, 294
Simons, Menno 27
Simpson, Hannah 3
Singer, Nimick & Co 232
Smith, Charles E 107-169
Smith, Colonel James 90
Smith, James 2
Smith, Dr. Joseph (historian) 118
Smith, Joseph 198
Smith, Dr. William 132, 133
Smith, William Henry (historian) 298, 299
Snowden, John M 194
Snyder, Governor Simon 39, 58, 350
Spang, Chalfant & Co 237
Speicher, William H 113
Stanton, Edwin M. . 327-329 338, 340, 349
Stanwix, General John 258
Steel (James) & Co 150
Stephenson & Co 163
Stephenson, George 156
Stevens, Robert L 164
Stevenson, David 145
Stewart, Andrew 313, 349
Stitt, Ephraim 145
Stockton, Rev. Joseph 349
Stone, Witmer 89
Storey, H. W. (historian) 145, 140
Stowell, (historian) 234
Stratton, W. A ' 150
Sullivan, General John 304, 305
Swaine, Francis 290
Swisshelm, Jane Grey 349
T.
Taafe & O'Connor 152
Talmage & Raymond 243
Tanner, Henry S. (historian) 133
Tarascon Brothers and Burthoud.... 120
Tarascon Brothers & Co 123
Tarbell, Ida M 349
Taylor, Bayard 4, 318
Taylor, Joseph 217
Thaw, William 151
Thomas, David 230
Thomas, Gabriel (historian) 24, 27, 99
Thomas, Sir George (Colonial Governor) 35
Thomas, General George H 328
Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist 215
Thompson, Jacob 340
Tilden, Samuel J 338
Page
Tilghman, Judge William 4, 338
Tompkins, Daniel D 125
Toucey, Isaac 340
Townsend (Robert) & Co 196
Trent, Captain William 256, 257
Trimble, Thomas 108, 109
Truman & Co 193
Trumbull, John (artist) 292
Tuper & McCowan 199
Turnbull & Marmie 191
Turner, Joseph 210, 217
Turner, Robert 22, 23
Tyler, John 337, 349, 350
Van Buren, Martin 293, 294, 341, 350
.Van Voorhis, Dr. J. S 90
Veech, Judge James 250, 315, 349
Vickroy, Joseph 195
W.
Wall, J. S. (geologist) 120
Warrels or Worrells, Richard GO, 07
Washington, Augustine and Lawrence 255
Washington, George. . . 5, 43, 47, 96, 97, 109
110, 120, 237, 255, 256, 257, 201, 202
290, 291, 292, 296, 304, 305, 307, 309
310, 312, 320, 350
Watson, Rev. Dr. John 34
Watson, John F. (historian) 79, 101
Wayne, General Anthony 260
305, 308, 350
Weaver (Henry) & Son 194
Webb, Davis & Gardner 126
Weiser, Conrad 290
Wellman, Samuel T 233
Wells, David A 334
Wetherill, Samuel 241, 242
Wharton, Joseph 241, 242
White & Hazard 250
White, Bishop 295
White (John) & Co 150
White, Peter 245
Whitney, J. D 81
Whitney, Silas 158
Whittlesey, Elisha 310
Wilkins, Judge William 349
Williams, Joseph 341
Williams, Ralph D 220, 245
Wilson, Henry 340
Wilson, Judge James 4, 338
Wilson, W. Hasell 163, 164
Winslow, Griswold & Holley 209
Wolf, Governor George 39, 350
Wolfe, General James 298
Wollenweber, Louis August (historian) 93
Wood (Alan) & Sons 242
Woolman, John 69
Y.
Yoder, Captain Jacob 118
York, James, Duke of 11, 12, 14
20, 30, 37, 54
Zeisberger, Rev. David 97, 234
Zinzendorf, Count Nicholas Louis 32
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11