Part 26

From 1830, rapid improvements were made in methods of mining and transporting coal. First breaker in this county was erected by Gideon Bast on Wolf Creek, near Minersville. The St. Clair shaft was sunk in 1845, by Alfred Lawton, to Primrose vein, 122 feet; in 1851, E. W. McGinness continued the depth of shaft to the Mammoth vein, 438 feet. At Wadesville a shaft was sunk 619½ feet. A shaft located by General Henry Pleasants is deepest coal shaft in the United States, 1584 feet. The collieries of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal Company are the most extensive. Property in Schuylkill and Columbia counties 18,333 acres, one third coal, devised by Stephen Girard to the City of Philadelphia in trust, comprises some of the most valuable tracts in the anthracite region; Girard was largely instrumental in building the Schuylkill Canal to Philadelphia, connecting with this was a railroad and a series of gravity planes between Girardville and Mount Carbon, head of the canal; the Girard Railroad, opened in 1834, was one of the greatest engineering feats of the time, attracting international comment; much of the masonry is still to be seen.

In 1690, William Penn called attention to the feasibility of passage by water between the Susquehanna River and Tulpehocken Creek, a branch of the Schuylkill; in 1762 David Rittenhouse and Dr. William Smith surveyed a route for a canal, to connect waters of the Susquehanna and Schuylkill, via Swatara and Tulpehocken Creeks; and actually traced a line between the Delaware and Ohio Rivers at Fort Pitt, thence to Erie. The Union Canal connecting the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Rivers was completed in 1826 by the Schuylkill Navigation Company; they did great work in their day; years of greatest prosperity were from 1835-41.

In 1800, Reese & Thomas located an iron furnace on the site of Pottsville. In 1807 Greenwood furnace and forge were erected by John Pott. In 1839, Pioneer furnace at Pottsville, under Burd Patterson, was blown in with anthracite coal, by Benjamin Perry, and ran for about three months, among the first to use successfully anthracite coal in the blast furnace in United States. POTTSVILLE, county seat, 1395 feet above sea; population 21,876, laid out in 1816, has not one level street; flights of steps are frequently used to get to various heights; fine views from every point. A commission for city planning has lately been appointed.

Courthouse erected in 1892, architect, Mr. Taylor, stands on a hill in a terraced square, has portraits of judges; in the old courthouse, to the rear, now torn down, the Mollie Maguires were tried and convicted in 1876. Soldiers’ Monument erected in 1891 is in Garfield Square, on a pedestal are names of battles fought by Schuylkill County men in Civil War; the Washington Artillery and National Light Infantry of Pottsville, 246 men, were part of the 530 Pennsylvanians

who first arrived at our national Capital for its defense in 1861; Schuylkill County sent 13,000 volunteers; there are also soldiers’ monuments at Port Carbon, St. Clair, and Mahanoy City. A statue of John Pott is in the playground of Center Street public school, formerly a cemetery.

Pennsylvania, the coal-producing state of the Union, has every reason to be grateful to Henry Clay for advocating a protective tariff on her principal product; Pottsville’s enthusiasm culminated in the Henry Clay Monument, completed in 1855, soon after his death, west of South Center Street, an iron Doric column, surmounted by an iron statue of Henry Clay, after the painting by P. F. Rothermel, “Senate of 1850”; first colossal iron casting of its kind made in the United States; from sidewalk to top of statue, 205 feet. Pottsville Cemetery contains grave of Joseph Elison, member of Greely Arctic expedition, who died at Port Haven, Greenland, in 1884, soon after being rescued by the late Rear Admiral Schley; a diary, kept until his hands were frozen stiff, will soon be published by the Pottsville Historical Society. Parks in Schuylkill County are, “Lakeside,” above Mahony City; “Marlin,” near Pottsville; “Manilla,” east of Tamaqua; “Woodland,” between Ashland and Girardville; “Washington,” between Ashland and Locust Dale; they are combinations of formal gardening with natural beauty; “Tumbling Run Dam,” near Pottsville, is beautiful in its setting. SHENANDOAH, population 24,726, contains a mixed mining population; twenty-six languages and dialects are spoken here.

XLVI

LEHIGH COUNTY

Formed March 6, 1812; named for Lehigh River, from an Indian name, Lechauwekink (where there are forks); Indian trails forked in various directions below Bethlehem. The Blue Mountains are north and the Lehigh Hills south, containing large deposits of slate and cement. Chief industries, agriculture and manufacturing.

ALLENTOWN, county seat, at junction of Jordan and Little Lehigh Creeks; population 73,502; was settled in 1751 by Chief Justice William Allen, a friend of the Penns; is entered from the south by, it is said, the largest concrete bridge in the world, erected by a trolley company, 2650 feet long and 120 feet high; built in 1913. The city has an abundant supply of pure water, pumped direct from the spring to the residences; daily flow, 12,000,000 gallons. Courthouse, colonial, with cupola, Fifth and Hamilton Streets. First Presbyterian Church, North Fifth Street, near Hamilton, Renaissance. Jail, North Fourth Street, near Linden, feudal architecture, with tower 100 feet high, brown sandstone. Architect G. A. Aschbach.

Allen Park, Fourth and Walnut Streets, contains “Trout Hall,” stone, built, 1770, by James Allen, son of the founder, which will be occupied by the Lehigh County Historical Society; West Park and River Park are also in Allentown; west of the city is Dorney’s Park, along Cedar Creek. In Center Square is the Soldiers’ Monument to the men of Lehigh County in the Civil War; on the pedestal are bronze bas-reliefs depicting scenes of war and reconciliation, and medallion busts of Generals Meade, McClellan, Hancock, and Hartranft. United States post office, at the corner of Sixth and Turner Streets, classic, built in 1906; brick and Indiana limestone; architect, George B. Page, Philadelphia. Several fine churches of brick or stone show Italian and Gothic architecture. The Zion Reformed, Gothic, stone, built, 1840, Hamilton Street between Sixth and Seventh, is notable for having sheltered the Liberty Bell and the Christ Church bells, during British occupation of Philadelphia, in 1777; marked by tablet, placed by the Liberty Bell Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. The Rhoads House, 107-109 North Seventh Street, built, 1762, by a Revolutionary patriot, is the oldest building in the city.

MUHLENBERG COLLEGE with preparatory school, is beautifully located at Twenty-sixth and Chew Streets, on campus of seventy-two acres; the buildings, brick and stone, were built from 1903 to 1915; administration building, English Renaissance, architects, Ruhl & Lange; contains portraits, including one of Dr. Muhlenberg, by Gilbert Stuart; the late Peter A. Gross, in 1914, provided by will for the founding of an art school in Muhlenberg College, and an art museum in Allentown. Allentown College for Women, Walnut Street between Thirtieth and Thirty-first Streets, classic; and the new high school, North Seventeenth Street, classic Ionic, are fine buildings. At Seventeenth and Chew Streets are the State Hospital,

Georgian; brick and Indiana limestone; and the Nurses’ Home, memorial to Judge Edward Harvey; said to be the best equipped for the purpose in the United States, architects, Ruhl & Lange.

Road from Rittersville to Bethlehem passes Central Park, overlooking Lehigh River, and the historic Geissinger farm, where Solomon Jennings settled in 1736; he was a participant in the Indian Walk of 1737. BETHLEHEM (see Northampton County). State road from Allentown to Slatington passes through WERNERSVILLE, near where Lynford Lardner built, in 1740, a hunting lodge, “Grouse Hall,” and where the Jordan Reformed Church was founded in 1752, present stone building erected, 1808. Through GUTHSVILLE, Guth homestead still standing, built, 1745, through SIEGERSVILLE, on left is Colonel H. C. Trexler’s game preserve of 2000 acres, containing buffalo, elk, deer, and trout hatchery. To SCHNECKSVILLE, former home of Professor Rudy, founder of the Rudy School, Paris, in 1865, an International Association of Professors; he was a Fellow of the French Academy. Here is Land Spring Park.

The next village, NEFFS, has an ancient graveyard, burial place of many Revolutionary patriots. Then to SLATINGTON, heart of the slate region. A chain bridge built over the Lehigh River in 1826 leads to LEHIGH GAP. Another state road from Allentown goes through CATASAUQUA; here, in 1914, was celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the successful uniting of the state’s two chief resources, the use of ANTHRACITE COAL in the IRON FURNACES, by David Thomas from Wales. Coke has since replaced anthracite, but the furnaces and the general method are much as Thomas left them; these were the mother furnaces of the Bethlehem Steel Works, Cambria Iron Works, Thomas Iron Works at Hockendauqua, and the stupendous development of the iron trade in this country. A private art collection owned by D. G. Dery, Esq., comprises an important collection of paintings, statuary, bronzes, ivories, Chinese porcelains, and jades. Continue on state road through Mickley’s to EGYPT. Union Church, Lutheran and Reformed, founded, 1734, in log church; present brick building erected, 1785. Near by is Deshler’s Fort, built, 1760, and the Troxell-Steckel House, stone, built, 1756. A mile north is tablet, placed by Lehigh County Historical Society, marking place where occurred the last Indian massacre in this county, of three families in 1763.

XLVII

LEBANON COUNTY

Formed February 16, 1813; Scriptural name, from the cedar trees covering the range of mountains on northern boundary, “Cedars of Lebanon”; settled by Germans in the east, by the Scotch-Irish in the west. Leading industries, agriculture, iron, tobacco. Three solid hills of rich, magnetic iron ore have been worked for over 170 years, and still seem inexhaustible; they require no mining, simply to be quarried; down to the present these mines have produced more iron ore than any other single iron ore property in the United States. In 1737, Peter Grubb became sole owner of these ore hills; he built Hopewell forge on Hammer Creek, and the large blast furnace was named for Cornwall, his ancestral home in England. The property was inherited by his two sons, who were colonels in the Revolutionary War; cannon balls and stoves were cast here for the Continental Army. In 1798, Robert Coleman purchased five-sixths of these ore banks; they were near the old road between Harris Ferry and Philadelphia, known as the Berks and Dauphin Road. Later his grandsons, Robert and G. Dawson Coleman, built furnaces on the Union Canal, then the great means of transportation; by that time charcoal furnaces were going out.

The construction and operation of the Union Canal through this county, connecting the Schuylkill River at Reading with the Susquehanna at Middletown, was a

momentous event, with its tunnel 767 feet long, first in the United States. Extract: “Lebanon, June 15, 1827. Last Monday evening, June 11th, the citizens of this town and vicinity had the privilege of seeing the first boat, the _Alpha_ from Tulpehocken, come up the Union Canal and remain at North Lebanon for the night; the next morning it continued its journey westward and passed through the tunnel; this was the first boat to pass through a tract of ground upon which corn and potatoes were being grown.”

County seat, LEBANON, population 24,643, on the William Penn Highway; settled in 1750. Streets run north and south, east and west. Courthouse, at the corner of Eighth and Cumberland Streets, colonial, brick. United States post office, classic, with Doric columns. A historic inn, the St. Eitz, built in 1752, was occupied by George Washington. Hill Church, colonial, brick; in the yard is a monument to Rev. John Casper Stoever, first Lutheran minister in Lebanon County, in 1733. St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Gothic, stone, built without a nail, has three memorial windows, “The Nativity,” by Lamb; others made in England; also fine collection of altar cloths, chasubles, and credence cloth made abroad, in filet, of fifteenth century design. Soldiers and sailors’ monument in Monument Park; tall, fluted column with Ionic capital. Lebanon Historical Society has collections of local interest. ANNVILLE is seat of Lebanon Valley College, founded by the United Brethren in 1865; a school of high grade under supervision of that church.

MT. GRETNA, a camp ground of 1000 or more acres, 1000 feet above sea level, was purchased by the state for mobilization of the state’s National Guard. It will accommodate 20,000 men, and has been used for this purpose since 1885. The War Department considers Mt. Gretna an ideal military camp, sanitary and well drained. SCHAEFFERSTOWN, one of the earliest and most historic places in this county, laid out in 1744, had the first waterworks system in the United States, in 1753. Franklin House built in 1750; in the cellar there is a remarkable series of carved arches; it served as a place of refuge from Indians. Fountain Hill Park is here. MYERSTOWN is the seat of Albright College. FREDERICKSBURG has the Lick Monument, erected, in 1881, by James Lick, in memory of his grandfather’s services at Valley Forge, and of John Lick, founder of Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, California.

XLVIII

UNION COUNTY

Formed March 22, 1813, named for the Union; chiefly agricultural, is divided by spurs of the Alleghenies, known as White Deer, Nittany, Buffalo, Paddy’s, and Jack’s mountains, into three valleys; the center, Buffalo Valley, is one of the garden spots in Pennsylvania, formerly home of many Amish and Dunkards, good farmers and citizens.

LEWISBURG, county seat, laid out in 1785; population 3204; named for Ludwig (Lewis) Doerr, who purchased the land from Richard Peters of Philadelphia. A rare specimen of conveyancing is deed, lot 51, in plan of Lewisburg, tracing title from the Creator, down through Adam and Eve, to one Flavel Roan, recorded at Sunbury, in deed book F, 1793. Finely located at mouth of Buffalo Creek, West Branch of the Susquehanna, on the great Indian path from Sunbury to Muncy, now main highway from Harrisburg to Williamsport, and on line of turnpikes leading from Erie through Waterford, Meadville, and Franklin to Susquehanna River. Seat of Bucknell University, incorporated in 1846, co-ed, with courses in arts, science, philosophy, and engineering; the Library and Museum have the Jeremiah Gernerd collection of Indian relics, open to the public; from the top of the astronomical observatory is a fine view. In Lewisburg Cemetery is the grave of Colonel John Kelly, distinguished in Indian warfare and the Revolution; he died in 1832; his

monument, with military emblems, was erected in 1835, sculptor, W. Hubbard; also the grave of Mary, widow of Captain John Brady, the great Indian fighter, who was massacred by Indians and buried near where he fell, in Lycoming County.

One mile west of Lewisburg, from the top of Smoketown Hill, is a fine view of Buffalo Valley across the Susquehanna to Muncy Hills and North Mountain. Historic places, site of Shikellimy’s old town, a wooded crest opposite Milton, four miles north of Lewisburg; he was chief of the Oneidas, and father of Logan the Mingo chief, place now called Oak Heights. DRIESBACH, five miles west of Lewisburg, German Reformed and Lutheran Church, first log building built, 1788, on site of present brick church; in burial ground is the grave and monument to Samuel Maclay, born, 1741, brother of William Maclay; inscription, “Samuel Maclay, United States Senator 1803-09, Surveyor, Farmer, Soldier, Legislator, Statesman. Erected by State of Pennsylvania, 1908.” Buffalo X Roads, Presbyterian Church, first built, 1775, present brick building about 1846.

MIFFLINBURG, the neatest town you ever saw, with uniform curbing and walks, population 1744, in heart of Buffalo Valley (named for Governor Mifflin); ten miles west of Lewisburg, laid out 1792, by Elias Youngman. NEW BERLIN, laid out, 1792, by George Long, delightfully situated on north bank of Penn’s Creek; first county seat; at one time home of Union Seminary, Central Pennsylvania College.

XLIX

COLUMBIA COUNTY

Formed March 22, 1813, name explains itself: is in Appalachian Mountain belt; surface quite broken, with wonderfully beautiful drives. The Catawissa Railroad, noted for its remarkable trestle bridges, first one at Mainville, runs through this county, crossing the Susquehanna River at Rupert. Arable land, mostly red shale and limestone, with deposits of iron ore at Bloomsburg, and the anthracite coal basin at Centralia. Chief industries, manufacturing; the carpet mill here is said to be the second largest in the United States. Earliest historical bands of Indians, in this county, were the Shawnees and Delawares, vassals to the Six Nations; Wyoming Path, their route of travel for hunting or war, left Muncy on the West Branch, ran up Glade Run, through a gap to Fishing Creek and on to Luzerne County, through Nescopec Gap, and up North Branch to Wyoming.

BLOOMSBURG, population 7819, laid out in 1802 by Ludwig Eyre, on a bluff on Fishing Creek, became county seat in 1846. In 1772, the Shawnee Indians had a village between the mouth of the creek and the town. James McClure located his farm near the same point in 1781; a fort was erected there, built by Major Moses VanCampen, now marked, from which he led scouting parties. In 1779, VanCampen, as quartermaster, accompanied General Sullivan’s expedition against Indian towns on the Genessee. There is much discussion here about city planning. The town lies due north and south, named streets; east and west numbered; Second Street being the main street, and also forms part of state highway leading from Harrisburg to Wilkes-Barre. Courthouse on Main Street, Renaissance; contains, it is said, “a very beautiful piece of tapestry.” Jail, stone, feudal architecture. Soldiers and Sailors’ Monument at the intersection of Main and Market Streets, erected in 1908.

The Methodist Church, Gothic, stone, has a Tiffany window, “Christ Blessing Little Children”; other churches that may be mentioned for architecture are St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal and First Presbyterian, both Gothic; St. Matthew’s, Evangelical Lutheran, Trinity Reformed, and St. Columba’s Roman Catholic, colonial. In 1869, this was made the educational center of northeast Pennsylvania, with the State Normal School, corner-stone laid by Governor Geary in 1868. Normal auditorium, colonial; and other extensive buildings. CATAWISSA, originally a Quaker settlement; scenery fine and picturesque; was laid out in 1787 by William Hughes from Berks County; has an old Friends’ meeting house. John Hanch was one of the first to build an iron furnace here on the Catawissa in 1816; earlier the Piscatawese or Gangawese (Kenhawas) had wigwams here. Fort Jenkins, near mouth of Briar Creek, on the Susquehanna, was attacked and burned by Indians, 1779-80; a house is now on the site of the fort. BERWICK was settled by Evan Owen in 1783. Here in 1826 the steamboat _Susquehanna_ blew up while ascending the Nescopec Falls. Also ground was broken here for the North Branch Canal.

L

PIKE COUNTY

Formed March 26, 1814, named for General Zebulon Pike, killed in Canada, 1813. When the chronicler takes up his pen to write of the glories of Pike County in works of art, architecture, and monuments to the departed “Great,” in peace or war, he is somewhat appalled at the dearth of them; the landmarks are what God made, softened and beautified by time.

MILFORD, county seat, population 768, was laid out by John Biddis, 1793, in squares, after pattern of Philadelphia; it rests high above the Delaware River, overlooking a valley of myriad hues that have made the town notable for its quaint, umbrageous beauty and repose. Pioneer settlers were substantial people whose descendants still reside here. It is a popular resort for trout fishing in the spring, vacationists in the summer, and for deer and bird hunting in the fall. Courthouse, brick, French design, built in 1873, in center of town, facing the public square; two mortars from the Civil War are in the front lawn; opposite is the jail, built in 1815 as courthouse and jail, made of native boulders carefully selected for shades and tints; some are opalescent and show brilliantly in certain lights; a wooden trout, five foot long, pointing the way of the wind, is as old as the building.

Forestry building, probably handsomest village structure of its kind in the United States, erected in 1900 by the late James Wallace Pinchot, Normandy

design; native stone; architects, Hunt & Hunt; in niches are busts of Washington and Franklin; mortised in alternately are bas-reliefs of F. A. Michaux, 1746-1802, author of “Flora Boreali Americana”; General Lafayette in 1777; and Bernard Palissy, 1506-89, potter, and writer on botany and forestry; sculptor, J. F. Weir. The Homestead Library, formerly home of Cyrille Pinchot, pure colonial, is in center of town; to the rear is Normandie Cottage, an architectural gem, replica of a peasant’s home cottage.

Gray Towers, the Pinchot estate, native stone, reproduction of a baronial castle in the Scottish Highlands, crowns the hill about 1000 feet above Milford; the old Scotch garden, with high stone wall, is of rare beauty; Yale School of Forestry is on the Pinchot estate, within echo of the Sawkill Falls. Monument to Tom Quick, the avenger of the Delaware, is on his birthplace; he killed ninety-nine Indians to avenge the death of his father, who was the first settler in Milford, in 1733. The principal denominations are represented in the churches. Old inns are, the Crissman House, built, 1810; the Sawkill House, 1823, southern colonial; the Dimmick House, 1828, Horace Greeley stopped here in 1840 and later; one of his fondest hopes was the coöperative, community of interest settlement, known as the “Sylvania Society,” which he, with others, organized in 1842 at Greeley; founded on the “Sacredness of toil,” but the young men, sons of affluent parents, who had been sent there by New Yorkers who bought stock, did not know how to work, nor did they wish to learn, and so they deserted.

The Bluff House on the banks of the Delaware, built, 1876, commands a fine view; lawn of Milford Inn is planted with rare shrubs and trees from all parts of the world; the Hermitage has three unique bronze sundials, sculptor, Louis F. Ragot; the one depicting Father Time with upraised reaper, is beautiful. The Hermit’s Glen, so a legend goes, is where an old French hermit of profound knowledge and benevolence found the water of life after a world-wide search; these waters now flow into the lake through two bronze masques; two cement giants hold up the dam that feeds the lake. Wells Glen lies along the Sawkill Brook; rhododendrons, wood flowers, and giant hemlocks make it beautiful. Childs Park, back of DINGMAN’S FERRY, given in perpetuity for use of the public by Mrs. G. W. Childs, is a rugged mountain stretch, woodland and meadow; cataracts and deep pools are in the trout stream that comes through it.