Bios: Asa Packer, Founder of the Lehigh Valley Railroad: Carbon County File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Dan Wilson. dan.wilson@asu.edu USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. ASA PACKER Founder of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Asa Packer was the builder of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the founder of Lehigh University, and one of Pennsylvania's foremost men of affairs. He was equally known for the dominating influence that he exerted in the development and growth of the Lehigh Valley, for his liberal public benefactions, and for those rare personal attributes that won for him the love and good will of his fellowmen. He was born of humble but worthy parentage at Mystic, Connecticut, on December 29, 1805, and his early education was obtained in the district schools of the day. While the education he received might be considered as inadequate preparation for the many duties and demands of the distinguished position that he attained in life, the disadvantage under which he labored was more than counterbalanced by his native abilities and his strong, virile character. As a youth of seventeen he set out on foot carrying all his personal possessions on his back, for the home of his cousin Edward Packer, who lived in Brooklyn, Susquehanna County, PA.. Once there, the ambitious boy determined to learn the carpenter's trade under the direction of his cousin. Applying himself to his work with enthusiasm and characteristic thoroughness, he soon became a skilled mechanic. Following completion of his apprenticeship, young Asa Packer went to New York, where he followed his trade for a year. The city held no fascinations for him, however, and he returned to Susquehanna county, locating in Springville township. There he pursued his vocation. Asa Packer married Sarah M. Blakslee, on January 23, 1828, and they soon settled on a farm. However, farming proved difficult, crops were scant, the markets were distant, and after four years they found themselves scarcely any better off than when they began. During the winter of 1833, Asa learned that there was a demand for boatmen on the Lehigh Canal, so he drove through the winter snow in a primitive sled to Mauch Chunk, and there made arrangements to engage in this work on the opening of navigation in the spring. He then returned home to settle his affairs. In the spring of 1834, he walked to Tunkhannock where he boarded a raft and floated down the Susquehanna to Berwick, covering the remainder of the distance to Mauch Chunk on foot. He at once became the commander of a canal boat, and soon gained control of an additional vessel, which he placed in charge of his brother-in-law, James I. Blakslee. During the summer he brought his family to Mauch Chunk. So well did he prosper that after two years he retired from active service as a boatman, but retained an interest in the enterprise. He then purchased the large mercantile establishment of E. W. Kimball, which stood on the site later occupied by the Navigation Building at Mauch Chunk. There he installed Mr. Blakslee as manager, while he himself established a boat yard and engaged in the building of canal boats. His training as a carpenter proved quite useful. He took large contracts for the construction of locks on the upper section of the Lehigh Canal, extending from Mauch Chunk to White Haven, and these he completed with handsome profits in 1839. The following year, in association with his brother Robert Packer, he began to build canal boats at Pottsville. The partnership was dissolved at the end of three years after which he turned his attention to the mining and shipping of coal. Mr. Packer operated the anthracite mines at Nesquehoning, carrying the output to market in his own boats from Mauch Chunk. Since coming to Mauch Chunk, his efforts had been crowned with success and he had amassed a comfortable fortune. Then, in 1852, he began the greatest undertaking of his career - the building of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He had long foreseen the immense possibilities of such an enterprise, and after 1852 he devoted years of exhausting labor toward its accomplishment, often beset by seemingly insurmountable difficulties and discouraging situations. Following the financial revolution of 1857, hehad extreme difficulty in financing his operations, but he was determined, and even in the darkest hours of his financial troubles he predicted that the Lehigh Valley Railroad would one day be the most successful railroad enterprise in the state. He lived to see the fulfillment of even his highest hopes. For fully a quarter of a century this road stood first among the railroads of Pennsylvania in point of credit, while enjoying the highest measure of prosperity. Despite the many responsibilities of his busy life, Mr. Packer somehow found time to participate actively in politics, although political honors were thrust upon him rather than sought by him. In 1841 he was elected to the State Legislature, serving for two successive terms. Upon the organization of Carbon county, in 1843, he was appointed by the governor to the office of associate judge, which he filled for five years. He was elected to congress in 1852, and re-elected two years later. In the Democratic national convention of 1868, he was honored with the unanimous vote of the Pennsylvania delegation for the nomination for the Presidency. The following year, without seeing or desiring it, he was given the Democratic nomination for governor, although he was defeated by Governor Geary, who was then a candidate for re-election. The narrow majority returned for Geary in the state with 4,596 votes, led the supporters of Mr. Packer to declare that the election had been carried by fraudulent means, but a contest was narrowly averted. Judge Packer, as he was familiarly known in Carbon county, was a man of excellent presence, with a finely chiseled face that rarely expressed emotion, and he was very quiet and unassuming in conversation. Prosperity is the true touchstone of the heart, and it must be said of Asa Packer that he was not spoiled by the possession of great wealth. He and his devoted wife always retained the simple tastes of their early life. She continued to the end of her days to knit her stockings, to fashion many of her own garments, and it was with difficulty that she could be persuaded to ride in her own carriage. They both loved the quiet of their home and were sternly severe to ostentatious display. He had no taste for society, and all formal social duties were extremely irksome to him. Being of a generous nature however, he was the benefactor to countless persons, and his support was always so modestly bestowed that the knowledge of them seldom reached the general public. As one of the wealthiest men of his time in Pennsylvania, he contributed considerably to educational, charitable and religious institutions. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, he defrayed the cost of transporting the troops from Carbon County to the front. During the Civil War, when Pennsylvania was invaded, many of the men in the employ of the Lehigh Valley Railroad volunteered for the emergency, receiving full pay during the period of their absence. He was then almost the sole owner of the railroad at this time. One of the favorite objects of his benevolence was St. Luke's Hospital, of South Bethlehem. In addition to the large sums that he gave to this institution during his life, he left it a bequest of $300,000 upon his death. To St. Mark's church of Mauch Chunk, where he was a warden and vestryman for forty-four years, he left the sum of $30,000. Since he had been deprived of the advantages of a liberal education in his youth, he was interested in providing young people of the state with opportunities that he had been denied. As a result, he established Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, which has become a foremost seat of scientific and technical education. In 1865 Judge Packer purchased fifty-six acres of land at South Bethlehem for the purpose, and gave a sum of $500,000 besides.Ten years later he added fifty-two acres to the University tract, at which time he also erected a fine library in memory of his daughter, Mrs. Lucy Packer Linderman. This proved to be his last personal undertaking in connection with the institution, his death taking place a few years afterwards. Under the provisions of his will, he left a permanent endowment of $1,500,000 for general maintenance, and $500,000 for library purposes. His total contributions to the university amounted to about $3,000,000, and that institution will receive one-third of his estate when it is finally distributed. A beautiful edifice, adorning the spacious grounds of Lehigh University, is the Packer Memorial Church, erected in 1886 by Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings, a daughter of Judge Packer. Mr. Packer was a member of the Masonic fraternity, while Packer Commandery, No. 33, Knights Templar, of Mauch Chunk, was named in honor of his son, Robert Asa. His death occurred on May 17, 1879, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. His widow passed away three years later, and the remains of both repose in the Mauch Chunk Cemetery. Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings, who was their sole surviving child, died in the autumn of 1912. During her life-time she contributed generously to various worthy causes, and she left many large bequests to Mauch Chunk and its institutions, besides lavishing her benefactions in numerous other directions. In recognition of her liberality and public spirit, the people of Mauch Chunk and of East Mauch Chunk set aside the third Thursday of May of each year, to be observed as a holiday, and to be known as Mary Packer Cummings Day. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ROBERT ASA PACKER elder son of Asa Packer Packer Robert Asa, the elder of the two sons of Asa Packer, was born at Mauch Chunk on November 19, 1842. He received a fair English education, and began life as a member of a corps of engineers, engaged in locating and constructing that portion of the Lehigh Valley Railroad extending from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre. Beginning his career as a railway executive in the capacity of superintendent of the Wyoming Division of this railroad, he spent practically the whole of his mature life in directing the affairs of various railway lines belonging to the Lehigh Valley system. For a time he was the superintendent of the Pennsylvania and New York Canal and Railroad Company, of which he became the president in 1881. At the commencement of this connection he removed to Towanda, and later to Sayre, Pa., where he resided permanently. He was the president of the Geneva, Ithaca and Sayre Railroad, the Lehigh Valley Railway Company, running from the Pennsylvania state line to Buffalo, and of the Lehigh Valley Transportation Company, owning a line of steamers plying between Buffalo and Chicago. Mr. Packer was also a member of the board of directors of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, chairman of its executive committee, a trustee of Lehigh University, and one of the trustees of the estate of his father. In 1883 he was appointed managing director of the Southern Central Railroad. He was in politics a Democrat, and while he was repeatcdly urged to accept nominations for public office, he uniformly declined all honors of this nature, contenting himself with championing the cause of others who advocated the principles of his party. Possessed of a fine personality and many excellent traits of character, he had hosts of loyal friends. He took pleasure in doing all in his power to build up and beautify the town of Sayre, and he was no less identified with the educational and religious improvement of the place of his adoption than with its material advancement. His companion in life was Emily, the only daughter of Hon. Victor Piollet. Mr. Packer's death occurred at his winter home near Jacksonville, Florida., on February 20, 1883. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- HARRY ELDRED PACKER younger son of Asa Packer Packer. Harry Eldred, the younger son of Asa and Sarah M. (Blakslee) Packer, was born on June 4, 1850, at Mauch Chunk. Educated at Lehigh University, which was founded and so liberally endowed by his father, he early became prominently identified with the coal and transportation interests of the Lehigh Valley. In 1879, he was elected a director of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and prior to that served as superintendent of the New Jersey division of that road. Elevated by successive steps, he was elected to the presidency of the company in 1883. Generous and public-spirited, he manifested great loyalty and attachment toward the place of his nativity, contributing liberally in various ways to the betterment and prosperity of Mauch Chunk. He was an active and influential Democrat, and his popularity with all classes of citizens throughout the county led to his being chosen without opposition, in 1881, to the office of associate judge. He succeeded his father as a vestryman of St. Markšs Parish. On August 29, 1872, he was married to Mary Augusta, daughter of Alexander Lockhart, a pioneer resident of Mauch Chunk. Mr. Packer's untimely death, on February 1, 1884, in the thirty-fourth year of his age was the source of deep regret to all who knew him. His widow died at Pekin, China, during the spring of 1911, while making a tour of the world. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Reference Brenckman, Fred (1913) HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA, pp. 421-433. Harrisburg, PA: James J. Hungesser, publisher.