Local History: Chapters XXXIV-XXXV: Davis's 1877 History of Northampton Co, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Susan Walters USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. HTML Table of Contents may be found at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/northampton/davistoc.htm _______________________________________________________________________ HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. ††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††† 85 CHAPTER XXXIV. ANTHRACITE COAL - WATER-WAYS. THE year 1820, marked a most important event in the history of Northampton county. It was the passage of a fleet of boats down the Lehigh, laden with three hundred and sixty-five tons of anthracite coal, shipped by Messrs. White & Hazard, and bound for Philadelphia and it market. This was the first utilization of the river improvements, which had then just been completed by the Lehigh Navigation Company, who had adopted a system of wing-dams and sluice-gates (identical in principle, with the splash-dams of the lumbermen), and had pushed the work so vigorously as to finish it to the required depth of water, from Mauch Chunk to Easton, the previous autumn, just before ice-ribbed winter laid his annual embargo. Some small lots of coal had, years before, been floated down over the rocks, and through the eddies of the Lehigh, more in the way of experiment than otherwise; but this was no experiment, it was the first modest commencement of a regular traffic, capable of being sustained and continued, a traffic destined to be a source of great importance, and almost fabulous wealth to the wild and solitary region of the Lehigh, and to bring forth to the light, from their hiding places beneath the hills of upper Northampton, treasure-, far richer and more inexhaustible than ever were those of the famed Golconda. Away back in the years before the Revolution, there were related traditions of the existence of coal in these mountains, but they were so vague, more as imaginary theories than and indefinite, as to be regarded accounts of actual fact; and it does Dot appear that they ever received enough of serious attention to cause any exploration to be instituted, with a view to the accomplishment of the discovery. So years passed; years in which the bold frontiersmen, the land-hunter, the surveyors, the scouting parties, following the savage no his lair, to retaliate for file destruction of homes and the massacre of loved ones, all passed to and fro, over these, solitary hills and through the wild ravines, never for a moment suspecting the presence of the exhaustless wealth, which lay hidden away beneath their feet, until about the year 1790, when accident revealed the discovery to all humble hunter named Philip Ginter. How he found out the secret, and what was its immediate result, we are told in a letter written by Dr. T. C. James to the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The facts recounted by him, he ascertained during a journey which he made to that region in the year 1804, and here is what be says about it: "In the course of our pilgrimage we reached the summit of the Mauch Chunk mountain, the present site of the mine, or rather quarry, of anthracite coal. At that time there were only to be, seen three or four small pits, which had much the appearance of the commencement of rude wells, into one of which our guide descended with great ease, and threw up some pieces of coal for our examination; after which, whilst we lingered on the spot contemplating the wildness of the scene, honest Philip Ginter amused us with the following narration of the original discovery of this roost valuable of minerals, flow promising, from its general diffusion, so much of wealth and comfort to a great portion of Pennsylvania. "He said, when he first took up his residence in that district of country, he built for himself a rough cabin in the forest, and supported his family by the proceeds of his rifle, being literally a hunter of the backwoods, The game he shot, including bear and deer, he carried to the nearest store, and exchanged for the other necessaries of life. But, at the particular time to which be then alluded, he was without a supply of food for his family, and after hiring out all day with his gun in quest of it, be was returning, towards evening, over the Mauch Chunk mountain, entirely unsuccessful and dispirited, having shot nothing. "A drizzling rain beginning to fall, and the dusky night approaching, he beat his course homeward, considering himself as one of the most forsaken of human beings. As he trod slowly over the ground, his foot stumbled against something which, by the stroke, was driven from him; observing it to be black, to distinguish which there was just light enough remaining, be took it up, and as he had often listened to the tradition, of the country, of the existence of coal in the vicinity, it occurred to him that this, perhaps, might be a portion of that stone coal of which be had heard; he accordingly carefully took it with him to his cabin, and the next day carried it to Colonel Jacob Weiss, residing at what was then known as Fort Allen. "The Colonel, who was alive to the subject, brought the specimen with him to Philadelphia, and submitted it to the inspection of John Nicholson and Michael Hillegas, Esqs., and Charles Cist, an intelligent printer, who ascertained its nature and qualities, and authorized the Colonel to satisfy Ginter for his discovery, upon his pointing out the precise spot where he found the coal. This was done by acceding to Ginter's proposal of getting, through the forms of the patent office, the title for a small tract of land which he supposed had never been taken up, comprising a mill-seat, off which he afterwards built the mill which afforded its he lodging of the preceding night, and which be afterwards was unhappily deprived of by the claim of a prior survey. "Hillegas, Cist, Weiss, and some others, immediately (after about the beginning of the year 1792), formed themselves into what was called the Lehigh Coal Mine Company, but without a charter of incorporation, and took up about eight or ten thousand acres of, till then, unlocated land, including the Munch Chunk mountain, but probably never worked the mine. "It remained in this neglected state, being only used by the blacksmiths and people in the immediate vicinity, until somewhere about the year 1806, when William Turnbull, Esq., had an ark constructed at Lausanne, which brought down two or three hundred bushels. This was sold to the manager of the water-works for the use of the Centre Square steam-engine. It was there tried as an experiment, but ultimately rejected as unmanageable, and its character for the time being, blasted, the further attempts of introducing it to public notice in this way seemed suspended." It will be noticed that the Doctor speaks of the coal being used by the blacksmiths and people in the vicinity until the year 1806, but it may be that he is a little too fast in this statement, and that he should have said attempted to be used, for certain it is that at that time all trials of the coal which were made at other places, resulted in failure. The report made the manager of the water-works at Philadelphia was, that instead of feeding the fire it rather had the effect to extinguish it. And in a trial which was made of it at Nazareth, in 1798 (by the urgent request of that energetic and far-seeing gentleman, Colonel Jacob Weiss), the result was similar. The account of that trial is thus given fly Mr. Henry, in his History of the Lehigh Valley. "In the books of William Henry an entry is made in 1798, having received from Frederick Sheckler 114 bushels of 'stone coal', for which Mr. Sheckler was paid five shillings, per bushel (66 2/3 cents) delivered at Nazareth. This would be about eighteen or twenty dollars per ton. Mr. Henry was then engaged in manufacturing two thousand muskets, contracted with Governor Mifflin, of Pennsylvania. In the course of that business he had employed all excellent blacksmith, residing in Nazareth, named Christian Mickseh. This man was prevailed upon to try to unlike rise of this coal, but, after three or four days trial, offering his fire-place frequently, placing the too-iron 1 higher or lower, and otherwise using every possible means to make it burn, but all to no purpose, become impatient, and, in it passion, threw all the coal he had in his shop into the street, and, in an angry mood, came running to Mr. Henry's house (where the writer then was standing at the front, door, a boy of about nine years of age); he asked, 'Is your father at home?' I said, 'Yes, sir,' Perceiving that something was going wrong, I entered the house to hear his errand. When he saw my father, he thus addressed him: I can do nothing with your 'black stones', and therefore threw them out of my shop into the street; I cant make them burn; if you want any work done with them you may do it yourself; everybody laugh at me for being such a fool as to try to make stones burn, and they say that you must be a fool for bringing them to Nazareth." The association of Weiss, Gist, and Hillegas, which they called the "Lehigh Coal Mine Company," had labored most diligently, but with a disheartening lack of success, to open their mines and render them accessible, and-what was a still harder task-to acquaint the people with the igneous properties of their "black stones," as they were contemptuously called, but their efforts were futile in both directions. Colonel Weiss, in particular was extremely, persistent in his determination to bring it into use, and would fill his saddle-bags with the despised substance, and carry it to every blacksmith within his knowledge, begging them to give it a trial, and it was in this way that Mr. Henry was induced to make the attempt to burn it, as above narrated. He also prevailed on Mr. Michael Seip, at Easton, whose report in the matter was, that the only way in which it could be made to burn, was by grinding or pounding it, fine, and sprinkling it in that form, over his charcoal fire; but, this, he thought, was a most unprofitable operation. 2 The "ark" load of coal-some two hundred and fifty bushels-which Dr. James mention as having been sent to Philadelphia, in 1806, was an experiment which proved so discouraging in its results that it was never repeated. This was the first anthracite which ever floated upon the Lehigh. As the people at Bethlehem, at Easton, and other points along the stream, saw that rectangular box-about 16 x 25 feet in dimension-floating past, with its shining black cargo settling it almost gunwale deep, in the clear waters of the river, could they have dreamed that their grandchildren would ever see twenty thousand tons pass down upon the banks of that same stream in a single day? __________________________________________________________________________ 1. Tuyere. 2. When the question of the improvement of the Schuylkill River was before the Legislature, in 1812, and among the arguments in favor of the project was, that of the large quantities of coal which would eventually meek a market over that water-way, the Senator from Schuylkill county rose in his seat, and asserted that there was no coal there, that what some people had called coal, was only a black stone, which it was impossible to burn! About the first instance, that we find recorded of a successful attempt to burn anthracite coal, was that of White & Hazard, at their wire-mill on the Schuylkill, at the Falls. It occurred some time after 1812. They had been told by M. Joshua Malin that he had at last succeeded in burning, Lehigh coal in his rolling-mill; upon which they at once procured a cart, load, and paid therefore at the rate of one dollar per bushel. This they tried, unsuccessfully, but being unwilling to abandon the attempt they ordered another load, and having labored all night, without any success in raising a "heat," the workmen at last, closed the furnace door with a slam and, in utter disgust, left the mill. One of them however, discovered that he had accidentally left his jacket behind, and on returning to get it, after having been absent about half an hour, he was amazed to find the furnace glowing at a white heat. He at once communicated the astonishing intelligence to his companions, who came back, and recommencing work with a will, heated and rolled several lots of iron before replenishing the fire with more of the black stones, for which they now began to feel a greater degree of respect, finding that it was only necessary to let them alone to produce a fire as hot as could be made from charcoal. 86 The experiment of boating coal to market, over the Lehigh River, was again tried in the summer of 1814, by Charles Miner and William Hillhouse, in partnership. They dispatched their first ark load from Lausanne, on the ninth of August. The dimensions of their ark were sixty-five feet in length, by fourteen feet in width; and the cargo which she took was twenty-four tons. Although she was stove against a ledge in less than a quarter of a mile from the starting point, yet her crew promptly leaped into the water, stripped themselves nearly asked, closed the rent with their clothing, and proceeded on their way. After this disaster, the voyage was propitious, and before dark, they floated in the waters of the Delaware, at Easton, a distance of fifty miles from their point of embarkation. The arks crew were Abiel Abbott, Daniel Blair, John and Joseph Thomas, and Jonathan Mott, with John Rhoads as pilot. From Easton, Rhoads, Abbott, Mott, and John Thomas, returned to Lausanne, and the boat, having taken on board Peter Hawk, as her Delaware pilot, and retaining Joseph Thomas and Daniel Blair as a crew, proceeded on her way the next morning. Having, on the eleventh, reached a point six miles below Trenton, Hawk relinquished his charge to a new pilot, James Gedders, and himself returned to Easton. On Sunday, the fourteenth of August, the craft arrived at Philadelphia at eight o'clock in tile morning, having made the passage in five days. As they had been successful in reaching their destination with the cargo intact, Messrs. Miner & Hillhouse started several other arks from the same landing, but with very discouraging results, as Mr. Miner, himself, relates in these words: "We sent down a considerable number of arks, three out of four of which stove and stink by the way. Heavy, however, as was the loss, it was lessened by the sale, at moderate prices, of the cargoes, as they lay along the shores, or in the bed of the Lehigh, to the smiths of Allentown, Bethlehem, and the country around, who drew them away when the water became low. "We were just learning that our arks were far too large, and the loads too heavy for the stream, and were making preparations to build coal boats to carry eight or ten tons each, that would be connected together when we arrived at Easton. Much had been taught us by experience, but at heavy cost, by the operations of 1814-15. Peace came and found us in the midst of our enterprise. Philadelphia was now opened to foreign commerce, and the coasting trade resumed. Liverpool and Richmond coal came in abundantly, and the hard-kindling anthracite fell to a price far below the cost of shipment. "I need hardly add, the business was abandoned, leaving several hundred tons of coal at the pits mouth, and the most expensive part of the work done, to take out some thousands of tons more." And so it was that after all their discouraging trials and costly experience, the enterprise was abandoned, as it seemed, forever. Mr. Miner, in his communication, says: "this ark was the pioneer, and led off the coal trade by the Lehigh to Philadelphia, now so extensive and important. This effort of ours might be regarded as the acorn from which has sprung the mighty oak of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company." But it does not clearly appear how his claim to that honor can be substantiated, Miller & Hillhouse certainly did not send down the first coal over the Lehigh; that title to precedence could only be given to William Turnbull, whose little cargo of two hundred and fifty bushels went safely through to Philadelphia, eight years, before their first ark made its five-day passage thither, from Lausanne. Nor could they make pretension to the honor of achieving the first success, in bringing coal from mine to market, for, as we have seen, their enterprise resulted in disaster, failure, and abandonment. And this bring us down to our starting-point: the first commencement of the regular and permanent Lehigh coal traffic, inaugurated in the year 1820, by that modest-it might be called insignificant-shipment of three hundred and sixty-five tons, made by White & Hazard, in the name of the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company.1 There are few rivers, the navigation of which has been more the subject of legislation than that of the Lehigh. The river was first declared a public highway on the fourteenth of March, 1761, and an Act, supplementary to this, was passed in 1771. Acts, conferring corporate privileges on the " Lehigh Navigation Company," were passed February 27th, 1798 March 7th, 1810 March 22d, 1814 March 19th, 1816, and March 24th, 1817; but although under these, considerable sums were expended,"2 nothing of importance bad been accomplished towards tile desired end down to the year 1818, Just previous to that time, Messrs. White & Hazard, who, by a mere accident, had learned the great value of the anthracite, finding that a supply could not be easily obtained from the Schuylkill region, nor yet from Miner & Hillhouse-as these last named gentlemen had definitely abandoned their project of mining and transporting it by the river to Philadelphia-and yet being extremely desirous of availing themselves of the advantages of its use, in their wire-mills, on the Schuylkill, resolved themselves, to embark in the enterprise on a more comprehensive scale, provided a favorable lease could be obtained from the old Lehigh Coal Mine Company,3 and a new Act of incorporation, from the Legislature, for the improvement of the river. Thereupon, Josiah White-of White & Hazard-accompanied by Gen. F. A. Haute, Esq., visited the coal mines in Northampton county, and, finding everything there as had been represented, they at once set about negotiating with the Coal Mine Company, in which they were entirely and easily successful; for the stockholders had become entirely dispirited and discouraged, and had at last come to regard their ten thousand-acre tract of coal lands-lying in the very heart of the anthracite region-as being of very little value. So they executed, to Josiah White, G. F. A. Hauto, and Erskine Hazard, a lease of their whole property for a term of twenty years, on the conditions that the lessees should pay a yearly rent of one ear of corn and-after a very liberal time, given for completing the necessary preparations-should annually lay down, in Philadelphia-for their own account and benefit-at least forty thousand bushels of coal. Looking back from the present time, it seems incredible that the associated stockholders should have given away, to White, Hauto & Hazard, a privilege of such enormous value;4 but, at the time, those gentlemen were esteemed objects of pity, more than of envy, for, it was considered as certain that, instead of becoming a source of profit to them, it would prove to be their utter ruin. Having obtained this valuable concession from the Coals Mine Company, they asked of the Legislature that they might be incorporated as a company, having for its object "to improve the navigation of the river Lehigh." They made to that honorable body a very full and particular statement of the manner in which they proposed to render the river navigable, which, they averred, could be accomplished at a comparatively light expense, and would, when completed, prove a model plan for the improvement of other streams in the State. The wise law-makers considered the scheme as wholly visionary, particularly with reference to the Lehigh River, where so many failures had already been made, and there seemed to be a disposition to deny the prayer of the petitioners, out of pure pity, for, by many-indeed by most-of the members, it was, honestly believed that the scheme, if persisted in, must bring inevitable ruin on its projectors. But the abiding faith which White and his associates seemed to feel in the feasibility of their enterprise, appears to have had its effect on the legislators, for finally, in the twentieth of March, 1818, they passed the Act, incorporating the petitioners as the Lehigh Navigation Company, so that now they could proceed to business and demonstrate the soundness of their opinions on the subject of inland navigation. Although the fall in the river, between Mauch Chunk and Easton, was three hundred and sixty-four feet, the corporators believed that the required depth of water could be secured, at all times, by the building of wing-dams and channel-walls, to confine the water to it given width in its passage over the different rapids; and, doubtless, this would have been the case, if their information-obtained from the oldest residents along the river, and upon which they had relied on the basis of their calculations-had proved correct; but this, unfortunately, was not the case. For instance, they had received tile most positive assurances that never, even in times of the most extreme and long-continued drought, had the water been known to recede below a certain mark, which they were shown, upon a rock at the Lausanne landing; notwithstanding which assurance, the water did fall fully twelve inches below that mark, during the very first season in which they were engaged upon the work-the autumn of 1818. There is no doubt that at this time their spirits and hopes fell with the water, but they had put their hands to the plough, and could not look back, and so, like the skillful general who, upon the unforeseen failure of one combination, instantaneously decides on another, these men, when they found that neither wing-dams nor channel-walls would give sufficient depth of water on the riffles, in times of drought as severe as that of the fall of 1818, at once turned their backs. on that plan and adopted a new one, a system of artificial pools and sluice-gates; a principal which, in a rude fashion, is very frequently applied, in the lumber districts, to the " running" of log-, down small streams which, in their natural condition, would Dot furnish sufficient depth of water for the purpose. ________________________________________________________________________ 1.This was the title of the Company at that time, but it was afterwards changed to that The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company." 2.One of these companies had expended thirty thousand dollars, with no beneficial results. 3. An unincorporated stock association, organized in 1792, by Colonel Jacob Weiss, and others. 4. The terms of the lease which Charles Miner and others had obtained from the same company in the year 1813, were equally favorable. Says Mr. Miner: "A lease was obtained, giving us liberty, for ten years, to take what coal we pleased, and to use what lumber we could find and might need, on their tract of ten thousand acres of land, the only consideration exacted, being that we should work the mines, and every year take to the city a small quantity of coal, the coal to remain our own. The extremely favorable terms of the lease to its, will how low the property was then estimated; how difficult a matter it was then deemed to bring the coal to market, and how great were the obstacles to bringing it into common use," But, generous its were the terms of the lease, obtained by Mr. Miner and his partners, it brought them only disaster and, becoming disheartened, they willingly allowed-it to lapse. 87 This method was to construct stone-filled crib dams acres, the river at the necessary points, building in each darn a sluice-gape of sufficient size to pass the coal boats. When the dam had become full, and had overflowed for a sufficient length of time to fill the river below to its natural stage, the sluice gates were thrown open, producing a flood in the river; and on this flood, the boats, passing through the sluice, floated smoothly over the rapids,1 and onward to the next dam, where the same process was repeated. White, Hazard & Haute gave their personal attention to the work, one or more of them being constantly present at the scene of operations, soulleing the depth of water at the different points, superintending the blasting of rocks and the placing of the cribs, doing their own engineering, working with the level, in the fervent heat of the summer sun, and wading the cold stream until the ice of December compelled them to desist. They took their quarters on a boat which had been fitted up for the purpose; and by this means they could be constantly present upon the working ground, tile boat being moved down the, river from time to time, as the Work progressed. Mr. Hauto relates some facts concerning the river improvement, and the other operations connected with their enterprise, which were being prosecuted at that time, in the following letter written by him to a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature: "MAUCH CHUNCK, NORTHAMPTON Co., PA., Dec. 1901, 1819 "You know, I believe, the ground between this and our principal coal mine, and that it would hardly be possible to find a more unfavorable one for the construction of a good road-so much so, that when we determined on making it, many of our friends doubted our being compos mentis. "The perpendicular elevation from the river (at this place where, it ends) to this mine, is one thousand feet; the distance from it to the river upwards of eight, miles. Down it, and following the windings of the mountain, which runs nearly at right angles to the river, we constructed, in about three months, and most part of it in the winter season, a road having a regular declination of two-and-a-half feet in every hundred feet, and which is acknowledged by those who have seen it, net to have (for it., distance" its equal in the confederacy, On it one horse can draw four tons with ease. "This mine, on our arrival, had quite an inconsiderable opening, like a moderate sized stone quarry; since which we have uncovered about two acres of coal land, removing all the earth, dirt, slate, &c, (about twelve feet deep), so as to leave a surface for the whole of that area of nothing but the purest coal, containing millions of bushels. We cut a passage through the rocks, so that now the teams drive right into the mine to load. The mine being situated near the summit of the mountain, we are not troubled with water, and the coal quarries easy. We have worked the stratum about thirty feet deep; how much deeper it is. We do not know; probably Captain Symmes will find the end of it worked by our brethren within, when he gets under Mauch Chunk. At any rate, ocular demonstration proves it to be sufficient for the utmost consumption of centuries to come. The effect of our road has already been that it enables us to sell the coal at the landing here, where we have a large quantity, cheaper than the price our predecessor (Mr. Cist) had to pay for the hauling only. On this road we Dow have a sufficient number of teams to haul several thousand bushels of coal per day. We employ, at present, mostly oxen find large carts, except a few horse wagons, each of which loads nine tons. "We are constructing a steam-wagon, contrived by Mr. Hazard, which will be ready in a week (as a substitute for cattle), to draw our coal. Should we succeed in this experiment, the second one, on a larger scale, will immediately be put on the stocks, and followed by others, so as to have a sufficient number for our spring operations. All the works of the steam- engine, except some rough castings, were made and finished on a spot which was, twelve months ago, a wilderness, and where, within the period of a generation, the Lenape filled the air with their war-whoops. "We have erected about forty buildings for different purposes, amongst which is a saw-mill driven by the river, for the purpose of sawing stuff for the use of the navigation. It has a gang to which twenty-four saws belong, cutting about 20,000 feet per day, on one side, and a circular saw on the other. One other saw-mill, driven by the Mauch Chunk; a grist-mill; a mill for saving labor in the construction of wagons, &c., also driven by the, creek; smitheries, with eight, fires; workshops, dwellings, ship-yard, wharves, &c., &c. We have cut about 15,000 saw-logs, and cleared four hundred acres of land. "On the river, notwithstanding the extreme low water, which prevented our floating the timber used in the construction of our dams, to the spots wanted, we have constructed fifty dams (measuring 38,500 feet, or about seven and a half miles) and thirteen locks. The locks are the invention of Mr. White he found in every respect superior to those flow in use. Should it be desired, I will send you a description of them. Our brave boys worked in the river till the ice drove them out last, week. "Just before the winter set in, we had the satisfaction to ascertain, by taking a couple of our coal boats down loaded as far as our improvements extended (the water being tell niches under the common low water-mark), that the plan of creating artificial freshets in time of extreme low water, which formed the basis of our plan of improvement, is correct, and answers fully our expectations, and would have enabled us, had the river kept open a few days longer, to take all our arks down to the city. To complete the improvements of the lower part of the river will take us, should the season be any way favorable, till some time in June next, when we shall apply for inspection, and commence the upper section of the river. "As everything that relates to internal improvement is viewed with great interest by us, we beg that you will take the trouble to communicate to its, at an early hour, anything in that line which may come, before the Legislature. And as the Delaware-being part of our turnpike to an ultimate market-interest us more particularly, we would thank, you for the earliest information respecting any offer for its improvement." It will be noticed that in this communication, Mr. Hauto speaks of his "steam-wagon," which would be completed and made for use in a week. Probably there are very few people who are aware that locomotives were propelling themselves by the power of steam, and carrying their burdens, along the declivities and among the crags of farther Northampton, at that early-time-more than eight years before the first railroad was loud, in the United State-yet it is evident that such was the fact. Of the fifty darns which he mentions as having been completed, it is clear that thirty-seven were merely wings, built to contract, the Width of the stream upon the rapids, but that thirteen were cross dams, of crib work, extending from shore to shore, and furnished with sluices and gates, under the "artificial pool" system, and, of course, constructed only at those points where the river was wholly unnavigable by other methods. And this is how those indomitable men made their long and persistent fight the relentless obstinacy of Nature; harnessing the wild rebellious river, and forcing it to bear away the treasure which they had wrested "roll, the keeping of file grim old mountain-sentinel, where, he had stood guard over it since the day of chaos. It seems incredible that they were able to accomplish so much in two seasons-1818 and 1819-as-notwithstanding the great delay and vast amount of extra labor involved in the change of plan which was forced on them by the revelation, wrought by file excessive drought of the former year-to make of the rapids, the shoals, and the crooked and intricate channels of the intractable Lehigh, a navigable highway, ready, upon the opening of spring, to faithfully play its part at the birth of that infant enterprise which, during the years that have succeeded, has grown and expanded into the boundless coal-traffic of the Lehigh River valley. The commencement was made under the auspices of the Lehigh Navigation and Coat Company, this having been formed on the twenty-first of April, 1820, by a fusion of the Lehigh Navigation Company and the Lehigh Coal Company. The new company was really the firm of White & Hazard, Mr. Hauto having just withdrawn from their partnership oil account of a misunderstanding, which grew out of his (Hauto's) inability to bring into the concern, the amount of capital which he had promised, at the time of his entering it Is it partner, which consideration had probably been the chief inducement for White & Hazard to receive him in their enterprise at all. ___________________________________________________________________________ 1. This device was employed in the summer of 1779, by Gen. Clinton, in the Indian Campaign. The boats, containing the impedimenta of his division of the army, had grounded in the shoal water of the North Branch of the Susquehanna, and seemed likely to remain there for an indefinite period, when the General conceived the plan of damming the stream at the outlet of Otsego Lake, thereby raising the water, and then, by suddenly demolishing the dam, create an artificial freshet in the river below, and, upon the flush of this "long wave," carry the laden boats safely over the shoals. The plan was carried out by him with entire success, 88 Their first Seasons shipments were just sufficient in amount to give the city of Philadelphia one ton of coal per day for the space of a year. And yet it was well on towards the expiration of tile year before this stock was exhausted. What it commentary on the difficulties which beset the first introduction of anthracite, as Well as oil the marvelous development and growth of the traffic, during the years which have succeeded! At first thought it would seem as if it should have been an easy task to bring the coal into general use, after the process of its ignition was learned; after it became known that the secret was only to kindle, and then let alone, and that this course would produce fires cleaner, brighter, and more intense than could be made from the sooty Virginia or Liverpool coals, but the hard experience of those pioneers in the trade, shows how very far was this from being the fact. Its scions strange, indeed, that they should have persevered as they did, and that they had not abandoned what must have, seemed the hopeless task of breaking down the barriers of prejudice and ignorance, anti bringing people to a knowledge of what would bring convenience, comfort, and profit to themselves, Mr. Miller, in recounting the methods taken by him and his partners to induce the people at least to try the coal, says: "But while we pushed forward our labors at the mine, hauling coal and building arks-we had the greater difficulty to overcome in inducing the public to use our coal, When brought to their doors-much as it was deeded. We published hand-bills in English and German, stating the mode of burning the coal either in grates, smiths fires, or in stoves. Numerous certificates were obtained anti printed from blacksmiths and others, who had successfully used the anthracite. Mr. Cist formed a model of a coal-stove, and got it number cast. Together we went to several houses in the city, and prevailed on the masters to allow us to kindle fires of anthracite in their grates, erected to burn Liverpool coal. We attended at blacksmiths shops, and persuaded some to alter the too-iron, go that they might burn the Lehigh coal; and we were sometimes obliged to bribe the journeymen to make the experiment fairly, so averse were they to learning the use of a new sort of fuel, so different from what they had been accustomed to. Great as were our united exertions, necessity accomplished more for us than our own labors. Charcoal advanced in price, and was difficult to be got. Manufactures were forced to try the experiment of using the anthracite; and every days experience convinced them, and those who witnessed the fires, of the great value of this coal. As one of the pioneer in the great work of introducing the use of anthracite coal into our cities, and upon the seaboard, I cannot but look back with pride and pleasure upon the success which has followed and grown upon our humble exertions, it success, infinitely beyond the utmost stretch of our imaginations," and he closes, with this prediction: "I do not question that, in less than ten years more anthracite coal from the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, will be in extensive use throughout the Genesee country, on the lakes at Detroit, Kingston, York, Montreal, and Quebec." The dams and wing-walls of the Lehigh improvement had been very severely damaged by the ice freshets in the winter and spring of 1820, and it, therefore, became necessary to raise a further sum of twenty thousand dollars for their repair. This was a very difficult task under the circumstances, for it was seen that even the small amount of less than four hundred tons of coal had completely glutted the market, and the general ignorance of the proper manner of its use had raised such it prejudice against it, that it was gravely doubted whether it would be possible ever to introduce it into extensive use, no matter how perfect might be the means for bringing it to market. In this dilemma, only one course, was possible-advances must be made by the managers-and this was accordingly done, and the necessary repairs were made, with the understanding that it Was to be reimbursed out of the funds of the company, when they should be replenished by new subscriptions to the capital stock, which, it was agreed, should be increased under it new organization of the company, which was effected on the first of May, 1821, under the title, of The Lehigh Goal and Navigation Company; this being like its predecessor, The Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company, merely all association, and unincorporated. The increase in the stock was fifty thousand dollars, and this amount was finally, but with greatest difficulty, obtained in subscriptions from new parties, to whom such guaranties were given, as virtually, to amount to a first mortgage on the whole property, and interests of the company. The business of the association was placed in the hands of five managers, of whom three were to remain in Philadelphia and attend to the financial part of its affairs, and the other two were to locate at Mauch Chunk, to superintend the matters pertaining to the mining and navigation. These last-named were styled "acting managers." From this time, the prospects slowly but constantly grew brighter. The three hundred and sixty-five tons, sent down in 1820, was at last disposed of, and one thousand and seventy-three tons were shipped the following year. It now began to be apparent that the prejudice against anthracite was beginning to be surmounted, and that its use would gradually increase, and at last, become general. The stockholders of the company now became anxious for an Act of incorporation, and, on their application to that effect, the Legislature, on the thirteenth of February, 1822, passed such an Act, giving them corporate powers under their old name and title.1 This was the charter under which they have since carried on their vast operations, and achieved their prosperity. Their shipments of coal now increased with astonishing rapidity, and in the year 1825, reached twenty-eight thousand three hundred an ninety three tons. This enormous increase, together with the certainty that it would go on in a still greater ratio in the future, showed the managers of the company that it was time to agitate, among the stockholders, the question of changing their dam and sluice system, on the Lehigh, to that of slack-water; the more particularly as it was morally certain that-in view of their rapidly increasing and unlooked-for prosperity-the Legislature would soon use their power, reserved under the Act of incorporation, to compel the company to furnish and construct a complete slack-water navigation between Stoddartville and Easton, whenever it should appear that the mode first adopted by the undertaken was insufficient for the wants of the country. Besides this, they had found that the necessity they now laid under, of building a new boat for each load of coal sent to market, was a very onerous one, the continuance of which must prevent the extension of the traffic to the point necessary to meet the demand, for by this system none of the boats could be returned to the starting point, there to be reloaded and so used over anti over again, but were broken up and sold for lumber-and very interior lumber at that, wet, battered, and coal-grimed, as it necessarily was. The number of these boats, required for this business, may be imagined from the fact that the fleet, which carried the shipments made in the year 1825, if placed solidly together, end to end, would reach a distance of over nine miles! And this only in the early infancy of the trade. The forests too, whence the supply of lumber was drawn, must soon be exhausted; they already felt the waste most severely; nearly five hundred acres being annually cut off for this purpose, and at the then present rate, of increase of the trade, it would soon require a thousand, perhaps fifteen hundred acres each year, and not even the Great Pine Swamp 2-which had thus far furnished the supplies-could long survive, but would soon disappear under such a drain. Still another very powerful reason for the inauguration of the slack-water (or canal) system, lay in the fact that such a navigation had already been perfected upon the Schuylkill-although the commencement of the coal traffic, on that river, was two or three years later than upon the Lehigh-so that their boats were permanent ones, and could pass up to the coal ports for reloading. This gave the Schuylkill people an advantage in the chance to indefinitely extend their trade, and thus to have their coal become more widely and generally known than that of the Lehigh. Any one of these reasons was sufficient to decide the adoption of the Slackwater navigation, and it was accordingly decided on, for that portion of the river between Mauch Chunk and Easton. The next thing was to make estimates and to determine oil plans and specifications. The tint proposition discussed was the construction of locks, one hundred and thirty feet in length, and. thirty feet wide, which would accommodate vessels carrying one hundred and fifty tons of coal; it being in the contemplation of the managers to make use of steamboats, which could take their cargoes at Mauch Chunk, and deliver them, unbroken, at New York, Albany, or New London. But this would necessitate the construction of it canal and locks of Life same capacity along the Delaware, and application was male to the Legislature for all Act authorizing such improvement of that river, but now arose the obstacle; for the State decided that the work should be done, only on the condition that the estimates of its cost should not exceed a given amount per mile, which amount was far too small to permit the construction of a canal of sufficient size to admit the postage of the steamers, and so tile project was necessarily, but very reluctantly, abandoned. Before the refusal of the Legislature was given, however, a able or so of the canal, below Mauch Chunk, had been completed on the plan, and had proved to be admirably adapted to the proposed object. It was shown that the looks, notwithstanding their extraordinary size, could be filled or emptied in one half the time use occupied in the same process for fine ordinary sized lock. This was on account of the peculiar manner in which the gates were operated, which was, to raise or lower them by hydrostatic pressure from below, on the same principle which had been invented by Mr. White for the sluice-gates, which had been used in the system of artificial pools, adopted in 1818. It was a pity that the false economy of the Legislature should have prevented their adoption through the whole of both the Lehigh and Delaware lines. _________________________________________________________________________ 1. Later Acts, having reference to the corporate privileges of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, were passed April 13th, 1827; April 6th 1830, and April 4th, 1831. 2. This was the "Shades of Death" through which the Wyoming fugitives passed after the massacre of 1778. 89 It had been definitely determined, however, that the Delaware division would be built, and that done other than the cheap plan of narrow locks would be adopted; and so, early in 1827, it was decided to go on with the Lehigh work, and it, was accordingly placed in charge of a most eminent engineer, Mr. Canvass White. After examination, he recommended the construction of a canal, of the size which was then the usual one, suitable for the accommodation of boats, of twenty-five tons burthen, but the acting managers disapproved the plan, for they argued that boats of one hundred, or even one hundred and fifty tons, were far more economical inasmuch as the same number of men could manage these, and the only extra expense would be, the increased first cost of the boat itself, and for an additional horse, to tow them. The larger boats, they said, need never be detained for lack of cargo was the only article to be transported was, cord, and of that there was, and always would be, an inexhaustible supply. For these reasons, they said, the large boats were to be preferred, and by their use would materially reduce the cost, per ton of carrying. Pending a decision, the engineer was directed to estimate the respective cost of the canal at forty and at sixty feet width, each with locks corresponding, to its, size. These estimates being made, showed a very small excess in cost-less than $40,000 -of the sixty, over the forty-foot plan, upon which result the larger was at, once and unanimously adopted, and the dimensions fixed on were sixty feet wide upon the surface, and five feet, in depth; the locks to be one hundred feet long, and twenty-two feet, wide, admitting the passage of boats of one hundred and twenty tons. The work then was commenced in earnest in July, 1827, and was pushed with so much energy that the canal and slack-water navigation was completed and opened for the passage of boats, two years later. Soon after the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company had decided on the dimensions of their improvement, the Canal Commissioners of Pennsylvania, met at Bristol to arrange for the letting of the Delaware division; and, on that occasion, they were petitioned to cause it to be constructed of a size to correspond with the work which was then progressing upon the Lehigh. Most earnest appeals were made to this end, but it was in vain; the commissioners- made answer, that all European experience in the management of canals, tended to show that a boat of twenty-five tons was more economically managed, of proportion to the amount of work performed, than those of any larger size; and they cited instances of canals on which, although they were of capacity sufficient for larger boats, it was seldom that a cargo of more than twenty-five tons was carried; and they concluded, by deciding that, their locks should be half of the width of those on the Lehigh, by which master-stroke of policy, two of the Delaware boats would be enable to pass abreast through the Lehigh Company's locks, thus saving half the time of lockage, but giving to the Lehigh boats no corresponding advantage in passing the locks upon the Delaware division. Even after the completion of the canal and slack-water on the Lehigh-in July 1829-the company were obliged to continue the use of their old style of arks, for the transportation of coal, through the seasons of 1829, 1830, and 1831, for it was not until the fall of the last-named year, that the Delaware division was completed, and during all that interval of time, the old route of the Delaware River, continued to be the only water-way below Easton. These arks, which had so long done the carrying trade on the Lehigh and Delaware, were simply square-ended boxes, usually sixteen by twenty-four Feet but liable, of course, to variation from these dimensions. They were tight, strong, and river-worthy, but very awkward in shape, when used singly. This, however, was not usually done; they were joined together longitudinally to end- by a hinge-like fastening; as in that, manner they could be managed by a less number of men, and when in that shape, they were called "sectional arks." So, if seven of these were thus joined together (as was frequently the case in the coal fleets on the Lehigh) like a train of railway care, the width would be sixteen feet, and the length, one hundred and sixty, eight feet. This train (if the term may be used) passed over the " riffles," and through the rapid waters of the river, adapting itself to the plunges and variations from level, by an undulatory motion, tendered possible by the flexibility of the fastening which joined them together. (Was it not a type of what the marriage tie should be?-yielding, so that the barks may pass smoothly over the rough places, in the stream of life, striking no sunken rocks, and giving no evidence of shock or strain, more than perhaps, occasionally, an angry creak of the coupling-hinge). With the completion of the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania Canal, the days of arks, "Durham" boats, and other classes of drifting river craft were nearly over, although they were, occasionally used for ten or fifteen years longer, but it was like the days of old age, in human life-the period of their glory was past, and all the romance of their employment was gone. To the class, of the free-hearted and fearless men will) navigated these primitive vessels through the exciting dangers of the treacherous river, during the long period of their use, as a means of transportation between the upper river and the city, there can be, no more truthful and appropriate tribute than is contained in the following extract from an eloquent address, pronounced by Hon. A. H. Reeder, on the occasion of the opening of the Belvidere Delaware Railroad: "The well-known river boat, courted its waters, and, in the hands of hardy men before many years had elapsed, were made to surmount the difficulties and dangers of navigation, and carry the daily trade of the settlement through the dangerous and comparatively unknown rapids that thread the stream, to tide. "Those vessels covered the whole period of its history to the construction of our canal, and the peculiar, and well-remembered class of own which the existence of their use called forth, made their mark upon the time in which they lived. Muscular, active, athletic, and enduring beyond belief, faithful and trustworthy to a proverb, sportive and social, yet fearless and ready-handed, they will not soon be forgotten. Always prompt for fun and play, the men who sought their courtesy and offices were sure, to find them, while he who insulted them or wantonly provoked their anger, was sure to learn a lesson that needed no repeating. "For years they transported to your city all our produce and manufacture, frequently carrying passengers, who preferred their craft, to the stagewagon, which, twenty years ago, accomplished in two days, by a shorter route, the trip you have made in a few hours this morning. They carried for us heavy remittances, with it stern honesty worthy of imitation higher places, and without a single instance of defalcation. "Such were the generous-hearted, open-handed river boatmen of the Delaware. But progress came again, and drove from the stage their long oars, and iron-shod poles. As a class, they have passed away, while their feats of progress and daring are fast becoming traditions to challenge the belief of a new generation." From the time when the permanent boats, of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, first entered the narrow locks of the completed Delaware division, the history of their enterprise is written in columns of figures, with the aid of a single word. That word is prosperity. The figures, if given at length, would fill volumes; we only note those which show the increase of the Lehigh coal traffic, during the six lustrums which followed its inauguration in 1820. Tons of coal sent to market through the Lehigh Valley: Year Tons 1820 365 1825 28,393 1830 41,750 1835 131,250 1840 225,318 1845 429,453 1850 690,456 The man whom, as much-perhaps more-than other belonged the credit of establishing, on a firm and enduring basis, the business of mining coal in old Northampton county, and its successful transportation thence, to points of consumption, was JOSIAH WHITE. He was born in the month of March, in the year 1781, at Mount Holly, New, Jersey, where his father (a respectable Quaker) was the proprietor of a fulling-mill. It was, doubtless, this early association, acting on his great natural aptitude for mechanical pursuits, that turned the boat of his mind in that direction and went far towards fitting him to grapple with those difficult questions which he afterwards mastered with such marked success in the various enterprises in which he became engaged during his business career. 90 His fathers death, occurring while he was yet it mere boy, occasioned the removal of his mother from Mount Holly to the city of Philadelphia, where she soon found employment for her son in a hardware store. Whether or not this occupation was congenial to his tastes, does not appear, but its he was thorough-going in everything which he attempted, he applied himself with a will, to this vocation, and the result was that which might have been expected-it thorough mastery of its details, and the entire confidence of his employer. After it few years, he had, by his sobriety and generally excellent habits, laid by a small sum of money, and this, with the credit which the favor of his employer placed within his reach, enabled him, on the latter's retirement, to success to the business; at the same time taking to himself a wife-Miss Catharine Ridgway. The business prospered, and it was but few years before he had accumulated a sufficiency to think of retiring. He soon purchased a small place in the country, at the Falls of the Schuylkill, about five miles from Philadelphia. There was, on this property, a water-power, or rather, a seat for One, for it was as yet wholly in a state of nature. Here was a chance for the exercise of that mechanical and engineering genius with which nature had gifted him, and the pursuit of which was far more congenial to him than the wearying routine of city trade; and so he made a clean sale of his business in Philadelphia, removed to his place at the Falls, and commenced the improvement of its water-power; more with the intention of securing that occupation of mind, which was necessary to his active temperament, than in the expectation of any profit arising from it. Being now a widower, his young wife, having died, childless, only a short time after their marriage, he contracted -it second matrimonial alliance with Miss Elizabeth White, the eldest daughter of Solomon White, Esq., a merchant of Philadelphia, who resided at a place which he called "Rural Hall," in the (then) country, above Eleventh street, and bordering Callowhill and the Ridge Road. On his property, at the Falls, he built a mill for the manufacture of iron wire-a branch of industry probably suggested to his attention by his former connection with the hardware business. This mill was burned down, under a very inadequate insurance, but was soon rebuilt, and again put in operation by himself and two partners, with whom he had associated-Joseph Gillingham and Erskine Hazard. It was at this mill that the capabilities of the anthracite coal were discovered in the singular manner which has already been narrated. The unimproved water-power, which be had bought for an inconsiderable sum, for the sake of the occupation it would afford his mind in its improvement, was afterwards sold by the firm, to the corporation of Philadelphia, for the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for the purpose of supplying the city with water. The result was the building of the Fairmount Water-works. When the project of the navigation of the Lehigh became a prominent one, his mind was at once interested in it, and he resolved to transfer thither all his attention and energies. His partners in the Schuylkill operations, ridiculed the idea, and prophesied nothing but ruin to him, as the probable result. What came of it we have already seen. When the affairs of the Lehigh Company had been firmly established, and the enterprise was no longer a, problem, the solution of which required his presence in the wilds of the coal region, or along the shoals and eddies of the river, he retired from active business, resolved to spend the remainder of his days in the bosom of his family, in the city of Philadelphia. His three sons had died in youth, find now he had left to him his wife, and two daughters. His fortune was ample, and was principally invested in the stock of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. When, in the year 1841, there occurred that memorable flood which swept away the improvements of this company, resulting, as it necessarily did. in great pecuniary of loss to himself, he resolved again to enter the field of business, and direct the reconstruction of that work with which he had been so prominently identified, and in the success of which he felt so deep an interest. He was then sixty years of age, but his strength and resolution rose with the occasion, and he never dispaired nor faltered until be saw the immense damage repaired, and all life affairs of the company again moving along as smoothly and prosperously as before. The production of iron, and the successful smelting of ores, by the use of anthracite coal, had always been a subject which occupied his attention, and when, in 1837, he received, from his nephew, Solomon White Roberts, then traveling in Wales, an account of the success which had been achieved in that direction by George Crane, an iron-master at Yniscedwin, a few miles from Swansea, he at once gave his whole mind to the subject, and, as in his; lexicon there was no such word as fail, he followed the trail which he had struck-if such a figure, of speech may be permitted-until the accomplished result was the formation of the Lehigh Crane, Iron Company, find its incorporation, on the twenty-fourth of February, 1847. 1 On the establishment of this Company's works, they were placed under the management of David Thomas, Esq., and, in ten years after the commencement of their operation, their annual product of pig-iron amounted to forty-one thousand tons. In this, may again be seen exemplified, the foresight of Mr. White, and the leading part which he took in the enterprises which have most signally inured to the prosperity and advancement of the valley of the Lehigh. But the days of his active participation in these enterprises was now over, and his earthly career rapidly drew towards its close he died at his home, in Philadelphia, on the fourteenth of November, 1850, four months before, he had reached the allotted age of man. His years were full of honor, and his death was mourned by all who knew him. It is not thought inappropriate, to introduce here the following short sketch of Charles Miner, Esq., the man who, perhaps, next to Josiah White, was chiefly instrumental in the development of the subterranean wealth of upper Northampton, during the first fifteen years of the present century, It is taken from Stones History of Wyoming. My friend, Charles Miner, is an able man, a native of Norwich, Conn., and emigrated to the valley of the Wyoming, in the year 1799-being then nineteen years old. He first engaged in school teaching. Having a brother a year or two older than himself, who was a practical printer, he invited him to join him, in his sylvan retreat, and establish a newspaper. The brother did so, and the twain conjointly established the Luzerne Federalist. This paper was subsequently superceded by The Gleaner, but under the same editorial conduct-that of Charles Miner. It was through the columns of The Gleaner that Mr. Miner, for it long series of months, instructed and amused the American people by those celebrated essays, of morals and wit, of fact and fancy, and delicate, humor, purporting to come From the Desk of Poor Robert, the Scribe, and which were very generally republished in the newspapers. The Gleaner and its editor became so popular, that the latter was invited to Philadelphia, as associate editor of the Political and Commercial Register, so long and favorably known under the conduct of the late Major Jackson. "Not liking the metropolis is well as he did the country, Mr. Miner soon retired to the pleasant village of Winchester, eighteen miles from Philadelphia, where, in connection with his brother Asher, who had also removed from Wilkesbarre, he established the Village Record-a paper which become as popular for its good taste, find the delicacy of its humor, as the Gleaner had been aforetime. Poor Robert here wrote again under the signature of John Harwood. While a resident of Winchester, Mr. Miner was twice successively elected to Congress, in a double district, as a colleague of Senator Buchanan. "While in Congress, Mr. Miner showed himself, not only a useful, but an able member. In the subject of slavery he took a deep interest, laboring diligently in behalf of those rational measures for its melioration which were doing great good before a different feeling was infused into the minds of many benevolent men, and a different impulse imparted to their action on this subject. "There is another act for which Mr. Miner deserves all praise. It was he who awakened the attention of the country to the silk-growing business. He drew and introduced the first resolution upon the object, and wrote the able report which was introduced by, the late General Stephen Van Rensselaer, as Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, to whom that resolution had been referred." ___________________________________________________________________________ 1 This was the first establishment in America which smelted iron ore by the use of anthracite coal. 91 CHAPTER XXXV. PROGRESS - PACKETS - AND SOME OTHER MATTERS. THE inauguration of the system of travel and transportation through the canals, and the abandonment of the primitive methods of transit by the natural channels of the rivers, with all their pleasurable excitements and dangers, seems to have marked the division line, between the old and the new order of things. Although the men who figured at that time were men of the put age, and many of them have already passed away from earth, yet the system of improvement which then sprung into being, with the mode of life and the habits of thought which came in its train, were the crude beginnings which led up to the present order of things, and as such, were plainly distinct from the primitive methods and habitudes which had preceded them. Immediately upon the completion of the canal and slack-water navigation along the Lehigh River, Northampton county saw a new, and to her, a strange sight- a swift, and sure packet boat pursuing her way through canal and lock, and along the reaches of the river, plying regularly, to and fro, between Easton and Mauch Chunk. The pioneer boat, was the "Swan," which, under command of Captain W E Wells, made her initial trip in July, 1829. Other packets were soon put on, and there was joy among the people who dwelt along the banks, as they saw the boats glide past on their busy voyages. At Mauch Chunk, the Easton packet transferred her passengers to another line which ran thence to White Haven, one of these being the "Washington," Captain Hillman. This manner of traveling found great favor with those who had occasion to avail themselves of its accommodation, and was continued for many years (interrupted only by the great flood of January, 1841, which carried away embankments and locks), nearly, or quite until the advent of the locomotive. About the year 1838, came a recurrence of the mania of speculation, and again it touched Northampton county, more lightly than many other localities. It was called the fever of Morus Multicaulis. It was most, strange that it could have occurred as it did, immediately after the financial crash of 1837, when commerce, trade, and all branches of industry were crippled, when employment could scarcely be had, and when, by many, the necessaries of life were obtained only with great difficulty, yet so it was. The Multicaulis was a silk-producing tree-so called-that is to say it was a mulberry tree, the leaves, of which were the proper food of the silk-worm; and the people had been led on-by the cunning intrigues of speculators, as it afterwards proved-to believe that the production of these trees could be made the source of excessive profit, just as, twenty-five years, before, they had been duped by dealers in mernio sheep. In all the fevered speculation of 1838-39, the honest principal of real production had no place. The actual growing of silk, or even of silk-worms, was never in the least degree entertained. It was the buying and selling of trees, and perhaps remotely-in the minds of the more credulous-the raising of them which was had in view, and to raise the means for entering on the seductive field of speculation, farms were mortgaged, crops, and cattle were sold, and by one facetious writer it was said that old ladies were known to part with their spectacles, and cripples to sell their crutches, The news-papers of the day were filled with the most glowing accounts of sales made (which, indeed, were true, statements, for fiction could hardly surpass the reality in regard to prices paid), and of the almost sure fortunes which were awaiting those who should embark on the treacherous Morean sea. Here is point, an extract from the Philadelphia "Silk Farmer" September, 1839. "It will be seen that the sales of trees, reported in a single week, exceed three hundred thousand, and that prices are continually advancing, in the face of a pressure, severe enough to depress the price of both flour and cotton. The selling season is, moreover, not half gone; yet at least one quarter of all the trees in the country have been sold; some of them two or three times. At this time last year, no one thought of buying trees; but now, before they are half grown, and before the purchaser can tell what size the trees he is buying will attain to, the demand at home, and at the West, is rapidly taking the stock off the grower's hands. "The naked fact is this-the people of this country have become so thoroughly satisfied of the great profit to be realized by growing silk, that the mighty movement in that direction, which is now urging on all classes to embark at it, cannot be repressed until our whole country is luxuriant with mulberry trees; and the day is fast approaching, when, in advertising a farm for sale, it will be as indispensable a recommendation to it, to say that it contains five, ten, or twenty acres of Multicaulis trees, as that it contains as, many meadow or woodland," -and hundreds of similar articles, flaming in the columns of the newspapers, all over the country, added their weekly supply of fuel, to the consuming fury of the speculative fires which had already been kindled. Nor was the mania confined to any one locality. It ranged from the Carolinas to Massachusetts Bay, and to the country bordering the great, lakes. The vicinity of Richmond, Virginia, was of its foci in the south, as was the entire eastern part of New Jersey for the Middle States. In Pennsylvania, the counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Lancaster, and Montgomery, showed rather more than the, average share, of enthusiasm. Pertinent to the matter, is this extract, taken from Hazard's United States Statistical Register. "Annexed is a correct statement of the number, prices, and proceeds Of the Morris Multicaulis, sold September 18th, 1839, at auction, at the Highfield Cocoonery, Germantown, Pa. The trees were sold as they stood in the ground, those under twelve inches to be rejected. Owing to a thin soil and close planting, the sizes of the trees were generally small, and the branches few; the average height, according to an estimate made on the ground, being about two and a half feet. "The, purchaser, were generally from a distance, the largest portion being from Illinois, Missouri, and other Western States. Two hundred and sixty thousand trees were sold at prices varying from seventeen and a half, to thirty-seven and a half cents per tree. the total sale was $81,218.75," Large public sales of trees were made, during the same month, at Columbia, Westchester, and Unionville, Chester county, at about the same figures, as also was the case in New Jersey; while in the south, the price of trees reached one dollar each. One of the dealers in the Multicaulis tree advertised thirty thousand of them for sale, with this easy condition, that:-"twenty-five per cent in cash, will be received on any purchase of one thousand dollars, and upwards and the balance may remain for a term of years, at legal interest, secured by bond and mortgage." Eight thousand dollars profit was realized from the product of a single acre, and a nurseryman named Prince, on Long Island, received seventy-five thousand dollars as the proceeds of his sales. An acre of the trees, in Jersey, opposite Philadelphia, were sold four times over as they stood, without ever being taken from the ground; and during these changes of ownership, their price rose, two hundred per cent., from fifteen hundred to four thousand five hundred dollars and fifteen dollars an ounce was paid for the seed to produce these precious trees. Nursery owners neglected apple, peach, and plum trees, and turned their whole attention to Multicaulis; farmers planted acres, and mechanics and small householders, filled their yards and gardens. The inevitable crash was not long delayed; and it was a mercy to the, country and to the people, that it came soon, for otherwise, the ruin would leave been more wide spread; there would have been no wheat, no corn, no farms even, for the country would have become a vast, forest of Multicaulis and those, who had owned the land would have been bankrupt. Less than a year from the time when the frothy tide was at its highest flood, the subject was summed up, in the Massachusetts Agricultural Report, of 1839, in this way: "In the year 1838, a new chapter in the history of the silk culture was to be unfolded. There is little reason to doubt that at this time a combination of some principal individuals, deeply interested in the Multicaulis in the United States, was formed in order to force the sales Of this tree at high prices. By every species of finesse, and by the grossest imposition, the public pulse was quickened to a rapidity and intensity of circulation almost unparalleled in the history of the excitements, of the human mind. The selling or spurious seed, the disposal of trees under false names-the selling for the Multicaulis that which did not, even belong to the species of the mulberry and especially the getting up extensive auction sales of Multicaulis trees with no other view than that of wholesale imposition on the public, present facts in the history of our community equally remarkable and disgraceful. They are instructive monuments to mark the extremes to which, under the influence of an unbridled avarice, the cunning of some men will proceed, and the credulity of others may be led to these circumstances, the public attention was directed exclusively to the growing of trees. The production of silk did not enter into their calculations. Thousands and thousands of trees were planted, and immense importations of these trees have been made from foreign countries. By the caprices and fluctuations incident to all human affairs, and by no means unexpected in a case of such violent and extravagant speculation, it has happened that the ebb has gone down in proportion to the elevation of the flood. This speculation is at an end, and though all the growers and speculators in Morus Multicaulis, from Florida to Maine, should pump at the bellows together, they are much more likely to blow out the last embers that remain on the hearth, than to flail them into a flame." 92 The game had been played to its close. Some had gained fortunes by it, while thousands had suffered severe loss, and many had been utterly ruined. There occurred however no realizations of great gain, in the county of Northampton, for there were within it no Multicaldis nurseries, no cocooneries as they were called-to which purchasers front other sections flocked, to buy the worthless stock at bewildering prices-as was the case in the lower counties -nor were there tiny instances here of complete ruin resulting from the frenzy which had just run its course. Many losses-some very severe, an all extremely irritating-were experienced by citizens, whose names will be readily recalled by the old inhabitants, but, as has been remarked by a writer on the same subject "it would be an invidious and ungrateful task, to rake open the ashes for the sake of seeing the burnt bones and carcasses of those who perished in the flames." Within three years from the time of the bubbles bursting, the trees, which a short time before had been purchased at such extravagant prices, and planted out, with such tender care, were dug up, or cut away, and thrown contemptuously among brush and rubbish to be given to the flames, that they might no longer claim the ground. Nearly ninety years from the advent of the Multicaldis -as, early as 1750 -there were great numbers of mulberry trees in the neighborhood of Bethlehem; and the Moravians there, were feeding the foliage of these to silkworms. During the year 1762, these worms were removed to Christian Spring, where the mulberry seems also to have abounded; the transfer being superintended by Brother Bader. So that, as regards the legitimate business of actual silk production, Northampton may justly claim precedence of all the other counties of the State.