Misc: Old Schuylkill Tales By Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliott, 1906: Part III History of Coal and Canal History of Coal Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Duncan-Eagan. 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. ___________________________________________________________ Part III History of Coal and Canal History of Coal BITUMINOUS coal was discovered in England in eight hundred and fifty-three (853), but it was not mined or used until 1239, when Henry III granted mining privileges to the inhabitants of New Castle. It was soon introduced into London, but encountered opposition from the masses of the people, who imagined it was deleterious to health. They petitioned Parliament to prohibit its consumption in the city, assigning as a reason, that it would endanger the health of the King. Parliament granted the petition of the people, restricting its use. The use of anthracite or "stone coal," as it was called in Pennsylvania, was communicated to the whites by the Indians. Two Indian chiefs, from the Wyoming Valley, visited England in 1710 and witnessed the use of bituminous coal for smithing and domestic purposes. The ignition of the hard or anthracite coal was known to the Indians. The red men in 1766 had some sort of mines in Wyoming. When a coterie, six in number, of Mohicans and Nanticokes visited Philadelphia, in a talk with the Colonial Governor they told of white men who came in a canoe and took away with them from their mines the ore. The whites not only robbed them, but came again with their implements and dug a hole forty feet long and five or six feet deep and worked themine and carried away the product in canoes. They took the coal for blacksmithing purposes. In 1776 two boats were sent from Wyoming on the Susquehanna rive to Harris Ferry (Harrisburg). They carried twenty tons, which were conveyed in wagons to Carlisle, where it was experimented with and used in the U.S. Armory. In the first annual report of the Coal Mining Association of Schuylkill County, formed in 1833 and dissolved in 1845, reference is made to Scull's map of the Province of Pennsylvania, published in 1770. The extract reads as follows: "A coal mark north of the Tuscarora Mountain, or northeast of Reed's, not many miles from the Schuylkill Gap, within the then bounds of Berks County, may be found upon examination, on Scull's map of the Province of Pennsylvania, published in 1770." This was the first coal discovered in Schuylkill County, and is supposed to have been found near the site of New Philadelphia or perhaps a little farther south. In 1791 Phillip Ginther, while hunting, accidentally discovered that anthracite coal would ignite. He made the discovery at what is now Mauch Chunk. It was a year prior to this, in 1790, that Nicho Allen, a hunter, camped out for the night under a ledge of rocks in Schuylkill County. He had built a fire and laid down to sleep, awaking to find the rocks all aflame. Allen lived at the Big Spring on the summit of Broad Mountain. His home was known as the Black Cabin. He afterward removed with his wife to Mt. Carbon. They had no children. He was an Englishman, and afterward migrated to the Eastern States, where he died. The buying of coal lands in Carbon and Luzerne Counties, immediately afater the discovery of coal, gave Phillip Ginther precedence over Nicho Allen as the finder of the black diamonds, and history usually credits Ginther with that discovery. Some authorities, however, state that the discovery of the two hunters was a coincidence or simultaneous almost in date and Allen's name is mentioned with Ginthers. It was not more than five years after the discovery of coal in Schuylkill County, before it was used for smithing purposes. The first coal discovery in Schuylkill County was made in 1790 and the first coal unearthed within the limits of Pottsville was in 1806. Col. Jacob Weiss, of Carbon County, carried samples of the black stones in his saddle bags to Philadelphia, after Ginther's discovery, and was credited with being "a fool for his folly." Old John Weiss, a connection of his, who lived near the site of the Odd Fellows' Cemetery, Pottsville, and drove the stage on the old turnpike road from Sunbury to Reading, often told this story and waxed wroth if anyone dared contradict him or assert that Allen had found coal in Schuylkill County prior to that discovered by Ginther. John Weiss afterward drove team for Jack Temple, of Pottsville. The Weiss family lived for a long time at Orwigsburg. Jacob Weiss, with others, formed a company for the mining of coal, called the Lehigh Coal Mining Company, the first coal mining company in the United States. In 1803 they sent two ark-loads of thirty tons to Philadelphia but found no buyers. The City authorities tried to burn the black stones under the boilers at the water-works but it put the fire out. It was finally used for gravel on the sidewalks. After the discovery, in 1790, by Nicho Allen of coal, a blacksmith, in Schuylkill County, named Whetstone, brought it into notice, in 1795, by using it in his smithery. His success induced several to dig for coal, but they found difficulty in burning it. About 1800, William Morris, who owned a large tract of land near Port Carbon, took a quantity of coal by wagon to Philadelphia. He made every exertion to bring it into notice but failed. In 1806, in cutting the tail race for the Valley furnace, a seam of coal was laid bare. David Berlin, a blacksmith, made a trial of it. His success was complete and it was used continuously ever after, the grate and damper coming into use about the same period. It was about this time that Jesse Fell, Associate Judge of Luzerne County, discovered that it was necessary to create a draft in order to burn the black stones successfully, and he invented the grate. This first grate was used subsequently in the Fell House, corner of Washington and North Streets, Wilkes Barre. When the new hotel was built on the site of the old, the grate was retained and inserted in a fireplace where it may still be seen. John Abijah Smith, of Luzerne, saw this experiment of the grate and took two ark loads of coal to Columbia, but could not sell them. Not discouraged, he took two more and with them a consignment of grates and a small trade resulted. The grates first used for domestic purposes were too small, the heating properties of coal being over estimated; the stove soon followed and the demand for coal increased. In 1812 Col. George Shoemaker procured a quantity of coal from a shaft sunk on a tract of his land on the Norwegian Creek, Schuylkill County, afterward known as the North American mine. He loaded nine wagons with it, and took it to Philadelphia. He sold two of the wagons only by dint of the greatest perseverance. He gave the other seven away and those who had promised to try it, after a trial, denounced him as an impostor for attempting to impose black stones on them for coal. He not only lost the coal, but was out of pocket for the transportation. Jacob Cist, of Wilkes Barre, leased the Mauch Chunk mine in 1813 and sent specimens of the coal to all the principals cities of Europe. A year later he sent an ark down the river, the first to Philadelphia, which it reached in 6 days. The boat broke a hole, which the boatmen stopped up with their clothes. The coal by this time cost fourteen dollars a ton and nobody wanted it. Journeymen were bribed by Cist to use it in blacksmith shops. Bear trap dams were created on the Lehigh river to overcome the difficulty of navigation. The boats were conveyed to the Delaware and Philadelphia until the canal was constructed. Up to 1820 the whole amount of coal sent from Schuylkill and Luzerne Counties did not exceed 2000 tons. In 1844 the amount from Schuylkill alone aggregated 839,934 tons. In 1906 the Reading Company alone has an output of 35,000,000 tons. In 1812 an application was made to the Legislature for a law for the improvement of the Schuylkill river. The coal on its headwaters was held up as an inducement to the Legislature to make the grant, when the Senator from Schuylkill County arose and said: "There is no coal in Schuylkill County, only a lot of worthless black stones they call coal, that will not burn." The first machine for breaking coal was erected on Wolf Creek, near Minersville, by Mr. Bast. The first coal lands were located in the Schuylkill Valley. These tracts were operated by Bolton Curry, Barlow and Evans, Burd Patterson, Geissenheimer and others. There were many valuable coal lands opened up. William Lawton, Blight, Wallace & Co., Porter, Emerick and Edwin Swift owned some that were rich in coal. Joseph Lyons and Jacob Alter owned a large operation. Their success and the great flow of money that came with the investment of large combined capital induced others to try their hand, but not always with the same happy return. Among these were John Rickert and George Rickert, father and uncle of the late Col. Thomas Rickert, of Pottsville, who opened up a small operation near Tuscarora. Andrew Schwalm, a prosperous boat builder and contractor, at Buffalo, was a heavy investor in the "Rabbit Hole" and the three sunk their capital with no returns but their experience, which was dearly bought. The vein they were operating was faulty. The Hammers, too, of Orwigsburg, lost heavily. Doctor McFarland, scientist, opened the first vein, in 1814, at York Farm near Pottsville. In 181 Jacob Reed opened coal land at Minersville. The Wetherill, Cumming and Spohn tracts were considerably valuable; they were located at Flowery Field, Wadesville and North America. Certain sections of Pottsville are undermined. The colliery of Pott & Bannan on Guinea Hill had a slope 400 feet deep. When the Garfield School house was built, an old entrance or manway to this mine was discovered on the ground. Samuel Lewis opened a mine at the foot of Greenwood Hill, which ran under Centre Street near the corner of Mahantongo Street. At one time the old Christopher Loeser building, which was undermined, was supposed to be sinking into these old subterranean passages. These old mine passages ran northwest to the vicinity of Fifth and West Norwegian Streets. The Lawton-Ellet operation and the Black Mine (York Farm) also ran under the town from Mt. Laurel Cemetery, south, to Sharp mountain. The railway down Market Street from this operation was built in 1836. The Salem mine at Col. Young's landing also honeycombed portions of Greenwood Hill. A small coal operation stood at the corner of Centre Street opposite the Gas House. On the west side of the pave- ment the entrance to the sloper may still be seen. It is boarded up and so small that it looks like the mouth to a spring. The Lehigh Valley overhead bridge runs over the spot. After the building of the canal, which ran up to what is now corner of East Norwegian and Coal Streets, the coal from Guinea Hill was run down Second Street in small wooden box cars, and conveyed down to that point, across Centre Street. A blacksmith shop stood near the southeast corner of Second and Market Streets. Andrew Robertson, Esq., remembers when a train of these cars jumped the track and ran into the blacksmith shop. The York Farm, operated by George H. Potts, as late as the later "Fifties sent its coal down Market Street in cars drawn by mules. The first of these cars were very small, and had wooden wheels and no brakes. They were manipulated by men who ran along the side carrying long poles to sprag them with. Later larger cars were used, and Thomas Dornan and Jack Temple, both large owners of horses and mules, were the contractors who furnished the motive power (mules) for conveying the coal through town to the railroad. The first coal from the Delaware was hauled over the tracks by cars drawn by mules to Mt. Carbon, or to the boat landing. Note:--Col. Shoemaker was the father of the late James Shoemaker and Mrs. Charles Clemens and grandfather of George S. Clemens and Frank G. Clemens, of Pottsville. The Shoemaker family lived in the Tumbling Run Valley, subsequently removing to Port Carbon. The Mount Carbon Hotel, built by Jacob Seitzinger and completed in 1826, a small, two-story stone building, afterward torn down and rebuilt by the Mortimer brothers, and known as the Mortimer house, on the corner of West Norwegian and Centre Streets, was kept by Col. Shoemaker. He afterward kept the Pennsylvania Hall, which was erected by him. THE FORMATION OF COAL The geologists would have us believe that coal is wholly derived from vegetation. That wood was but changed from one condition to another but this theory must be sanctioned by the laws of chemistry. The geological epochs show that the temperature of our old planet, the earth, has greatly varied from one period to another. That the primary origin of the elements had much to do with the forces that govern the world at the present time. That the solar atmosphere that surrounds the globe was governed by the refrigeration of the heat, then as now confined to the earth's centre. Chlorific sublimation followed the tendency around the earth's edges to refrigeration and the evaporation of the steam compelled the gases to form new combinations and crystalline arches resulted with the volcanic period. The solidified watery deposits made the ingredients of the soil of vegetation and with the beginning of organic life came the formation of beds of coal and the carboniferous period. Those deeply interested in the subject will find a scientific treatment of the coal period in Leon Lesquereux's "Geological Survey of Pennsylvania; Coal Flora." The fossil plants found by botanists in the form of coal flora are a source of endless delight to scientists. But scarcely one-fourth of these fossil species of vegetation are found in the coal measures. Most of these imprints are found upon slates. The resinous pitchy matter that goes toward the make up of pure coal is not found in these fossils. Sixty-two species of fern and mosses form an interesting class of vegetable fossils. The tree formations, of which the pitch pine is the most important are leading contributions to the coal deposit. During the coal period, marshes supported a rich vegetation that was buried in the bogs, which hardened through the fermentation of the gases and thus through a union of a the laws of chemistry and vegetation bituminous coal was formed. In anthracite coal the woody structures of the trees turned into slate and rocks and through the pressure to which it was subjected, the turpentine, oil, bitumen and resinous tar and juices which it exuded formed the strata of pure coal underneath. To the veins of the bituminous coal basins this article will not refer. The fat bituminous coal of West Virginia, the coal asphalt of New Brunswick, the cannel coal of Kanawha and Breckenridge, the tar coal of North Carolina, the semi-anthracite of Broad Top and Cumberland, all belong to the great coal combination of fuel and heat and steam power producers. But the pure anthracite coal of Schuylkill and portions of other adjacent coal-producing counties over-tops them all. In the anthracite coal basin there are from forty to fifty different veins of coal from one to fifty feet in thickness. In the Wilkes-Barre region the mammoth vein lies within forty feet of the surface,in the Schuylkill basin it is much lower and was sought for 1200 feet below ground in the famous Pottsville shaft sunk under the direction of Franklin B. Gowen and engineered by Col. Henry Pleasants. The anthracite coal regions include three distinct coal fields known as the Northern, the Middle and the Southern coal field or basin. They form part of Carbon, Luzerne, Lehigh and Schuylkill Counties and a minor fraction of a small portion of adjacent territory. The coal scientists agree that the eastern end of the Northern field is being rapidly exhausted. The Middle field, too, will soon be worn out while the western part of the Northern field from Pittston to the western end and the Southern field from Tamaqua to Tremont will yet yield it richest returns and supply coming generations with its inexhaustible resources. To the scientist, a visit to the coal fields of Schuylkill County is full of interest. The fossil remains of vegetables and animals have often been found and specimens of a most perfect and interesting character. Near Mine Hill Gap the remains of a stone forest have been found. It is supposed that at the time of the deluge the mountain was forced apart by the flood and the fossils taken from that vicinity; and geological formations are like the leaves of an instructive treatise on the formation of the periods, and the extent to which the coal traffic has grown from these humble beginnings is a constant source of wonder and congratulation to even those who have been familiar with its inner workings from its inception. POINTS ON COAL In 1887 Charles Miesse, of Pottsville, wrote and compiled a work called "Points on Coal." It contains a full description of how coal was formed and gives the statistics of the anthracite coal business up to that period. Some time since, a French savant wrote a treatise on the same subject, and he copied largely from Mr. Miesse's work. The late P. W. Sheafer, Esq., who had a State reputation as a geologist and was heavily interested in coal operations in the county, said of the book that it would be the authority of the future on the coal in Schuylkill County. Mr. Miesse had met with reverses in business, and his evil genius seemed to pursue him in the publication of his book. Only a few copies were completed when his firm of publishers was burned out, and the manuscript, plates, type and everything were destroyed. "Points on Coal" contains a valuable and interesting paper on "The Anthracite Coal Fields of Pennsylvania," by P. W. Sheafer and read by him before the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Saratoga. The author would delight in reproducing this paper, at this point, but lack of space will not permit. MICHAEL F. MAIZE Michael F. Maize was born near New Berlin, Union County. He entered the ministry of the Evangelical Church when only sixteen years of age and was known through Pennsylvania and Virginia as the "Boy Preacher." He was stationed at Orwigsburg and Pottsville about 1840, but was obliged to retire from the ministry on account of a bronchial affection. He entered the coal business soon after, with E. Hammer and Jonathan Schultz. 'In company with Aug. Miller and Fisher, of Philadelphia, under the firm name of Miller, Maize and Co., they operated collieries near New Philadelphia. With the firm name of A. C. Miller & Co., he built the first houses and opened the first colliery at Shenandoah. Some years afterward and with Levi Miller, of Pine Grove, he managed and built the Stanton Colliery at Maizeville, which town was named for him. He also built and operated the West Shenandoah City Colliery, under the firm name of Maize and Lewis, the latter being his son-in-law, W. H. Lewis, subsequently superintendent of Wm. Penn. At this period came the big strike, the great depression in the coal business and the purchase of the Reading Company of the majority of the best collieries in the region. Mr. Maize pioneered a new enterprise in Virginia and in company with G. W. Palmer and Ex-Governor Bigler, they opened a gypsum mine and mill near Saltville, and also a soft coal mine in Pulaski County, Va. There he contracted a sever cold from exposure, the result of the burning of his office and the house in which they were quartered and from which he barely escaped with his life. He returned to his home ( a handsome residence on Coal Street), where, after a continued illness of four years, he died at the age of seventy-three. He was one of the foremost and most highly respected citizens of Pottsville. Mr. Maize was an optimist by nature. His zeal for his parent church, the Evangelical, and for the cause of religion never abated during his long and active business career. His interest in the church of that name was a direct inspiration to others and the result of his work and influence brought many of the foremost of the early business men of Pottsville into its fold. Mr. Maize was a good collector and his services were in frequent demand to assist struggling churches to gain a foothold. One story told of him was that he was called upon on one occasion to raise $5,000. The congregation was large but the people would not give. On ascending the pulpit, Mr. Maize at once requested that the doors be locked. "You want $5000; I intend to raise it," said Mr. Maize, and the usual methods were resorted to with success. The $5000 was raised. When the amount was announced a voice said, "But you have given nothing, Mr. Maize?" "Well! what ought I to give?" "Five hundred dollars," was the answer. "Very good," said Mr. Maize; "I will give $500, but I charge $500 for my three hours work, time and traveling expenses. You do not expect a man to raise $5000 in ash for nothing, do you?" There was a general laugh all around; the account was square. Such calls were frequent and he was a large giver to his home church and the general cause. QUEER FREAK OF CHILD Mr. Maize was a man of fine social instincts, very companionable and with a keen sense of all-around humor. On one occasion he was preaching a very effective sermon and was approaching the climax with all the fervor he was capable of, when a small child that had escaped her parents and was running about the church caught her head between the upright sticks that supported the cancel railings beneath the pulpit. In vain did she try to extricate herself. Her tongue became swollen and hung out of her mouth, her features were strained, her face purple and the child was in danger of convulsions. Mr. Maize's nerves were already overwrought with his efforts with the sermon, and when the parents came together, and between them, after some effort, released the child, he collapsed entirely and sat down and buried his face in his big red silk handkerchief, not to weep over the short-comings of his flock-but to laugh. He could not control his feelings and always related the above as one of the funniest circumstances he had ever encountered while in the ministry. WM. H. LEWIS William H. Lewis, former Superintendent of Wm. Penn Colliery, a retired prominent coal operator, tells several good stories. The Wm. Penn Colliery was until a recent period owned by a firm of individuals, E. and G. Brooke, of Birdsboro, and others. It was one of the last of a chain of collieries in that basin to go into the hands of the Reading Company. Under the skillful management of Mr. Lewis the Wm. Penn enjoyed a wide reputation as being one of the most productive and skillfully managed collieries in the anthracite coal regions. The coal mined was a white-ash of standard quality. From 1000 to 1200 tons were mined in a day and in its palmiest days 1000 men were employed. Mr. Lewis was one of the best accountants and a skillful manager of men. One of the secrets of his ability to keep his colliery working during strikes and on church and other holidays was that he attempted to mix nationalities and employ men of diversified faiths and different religions. If some were idle for cause, the remainder worked. After some conversation on the coal business and the coal trade now as compared with former years, Mr. Lewis said: "One thing that has always surprised me is the ease with which you people write up the coal trade or indeed anything relating to the coal business; and then again how gullible the readers of such articles are and how readily they swallow whole all such information." The writer estimated that when coal trade news was wrongly given, in nine cases out of ten it was the fault of the person interviewed. Either the facts tendered were too meagre or else the party declined to be quoted or furnish any facts, and the seeker after news was bound and compelled to write something, and the vaporings of his own brain often furnished the substitute. Mr. Lewis said, "I will give you two cases in point." "We had at Wm. Penn a man of some character named John Zweizig. He was a German and came here from Reading. He had been a Berks County school teacher, where he got into some difficulty with the school board through punishing a pupil. He could not work in the mines, but tried laboring and odd jobs and supported his family mainly through a night school. He was an intelligent man. Two of his sons have since become ministers in the Evangelical and Methodist Episcopal churches, the Revs. John and William Zweizig. "Zweizig came to my house one day and asked me to help him write a coal article. He would be paid for it and he needed the money. I pitied the man, and after some reluctance - I was generally too busy to be interrupted in those days - I consented to give him a few facts on the mining and cutting of coal, super-induced by a general knowledge of the methods employed in our own workings and a little knowledge on the geological formation of the coal strata. "I had forgotten all about the matter when one day Mr. Zweizig came to me with a money draft in his hand and in great glee. "He had written the matter up in his great peaked German script hand and sent it to the German Evangelical "Botschafter" or the "Allgemeine Folks Freund," at Cleveland or Cincinnati, I have forgotten which, and signed it "Prof." Zweizig. The title was misleading; no doubt they thought he was a German scientist and he received $100 for the article. "The worst of it was, the Scientific American had it translated, and it made a good article, over the same signature, for its next issue." "Another instance was that of a Welsh miner who live don our Patch. He was a singer and interested in the competitions at the Eisteddfods. He came to me one day and said that one of these festivals was to be held in Wales. There was a prize for $150 offered for the best treatise written on the formation and mining of coal, its production and market. He asked if I would assist him write one. "I told him I had no time, but he, being a careful, studious fellow, I gave him access to my library, and pointed out such geological and other works I thought might be of assistance to him, and being a practical miner, he could supplement the rest from his own knowledge. "Almost a year after he came to me with a letter. He had not gained the great prize, but his essay had received honorable mention, and he was the richer by a minor prize of ten dollars."