Misc: Blue Book Of Schuylkill County By Mrs. Ella Zerbey Elliott: Pottsville Erected 438-445 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Faith Gibson. 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. __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ Page 438 Pottsville Erected __________________________________________________________________________ that ran along Coal Street and over the Bull's Head road to Minersville and thence to Sunbury. THE SWATARA ROAD At court, held November 6, 1811 in Reading, before Judge Porter, viewers reported that they had laid out a public road in pursuance of an order from court, through the lands of Thomas Lightfoot, John Reed, Jacob Faust Phillip Klauser, Martin Dreibelbis, to Mathias Bechtold's, on the old Sunbury road, through the Swatara Gap, a distance of fourteen miles, to the "Great Road." The first report was made August, 1811. The viewers were: George Raush, Jacob Dreher, Daniel Bensinger, William Green and George Orwig (all from the vicinity of McKeansburg). They received seventy-five cents, each per day for the work, which was afterward increased to one dollar.-(Court house records.) THE FIRST TURNPIKE ROAD In America was chartered, April 9, 1792. It was sixty-two miles in length and extended from Philadelphia to Lancaster. The Germantown and Perkiomen road, of twenty-five miles, and the Perkiomen and Reading road, of twenty-nine miles followed. The Centre Turnpike, of seventy-five miles, was chartered and incorporated March 25, 1805. It connected Reading with the Susquehanna at Sunbury. Its course ran through Pottsville on what is now Centre Street out to where the Odd Fellows' and Catholic cemeteries are located, and thence to Sunbury. Centre Street was then vast marsh and the lowest points, from Mauch Chunk Street to the gas house, were filled in with logs and stones, the first "Corduroy Road" in this vicinity. EARLY STAGES John Coleman ran stages once a week from Reading to Sunbury and back, carrying the mail. On June 27, 1829, a __________________________________________________________________________ Page 439 Pottsville Erected __________________________________________________________________________ daily mail commenced running between Philadelphia and Pottsville. So great was the traffic that soon after it started three wagons were required to convey the passengers and in 1830 there were three stage lines competing for the traffic, the "Clover," the "Reside," and the "Coleman." The time for leaving Pottsville was two o'clock in the morning and the time of arrival in Philadelphia was eight P. M. of the same day. THE SCHUYLKILL CANAL March 8, 1815, an Act was passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature incorporating the Schuylkill Navigation Company. The work was divided into two sections extending from Philadelphia to Reading and from that city to Mill Creek, Schuylkill County. The distance was 108 2-3 miles and the canal was completed and open to navigation, 1821. In 1825 the port at Mt. Carbon was doing a large business in the shipment of lumber and merchandise. FIRST RAILWAYS IN AMERICA At the close of 1826 there were only two railroads in America with the following mileage: Leiper, tram road, at the stone quarries, Crum Creek, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, mileage, one mile. Quincy, tram road, Quincy, Mass., mileage, three miles. April 8, 1826, the Danville, Northumberland County, and Pottsville, Schuylkill County, railroad was incorporated. This road passed through many misfortunes and finally became insolvent in 1842, and was sold at sheriff's sale, January 16, 1851. In 1826 Abraham Heebner, of Port Carbon, built a railway one half mile in length to connect his mines with the Schuylkill Canal. MT. CARBON RAILWAY An Act to incorporate the Mount Carbon Railway Company passed the Legislature 1829. The Mine Hill Railroad __________________________________________________________________________ Page 440 Pottsville Erected __________________________________________________________________________ was chartered March 24, 1828, and was built to the canal landing, Schuylkill Haven, October 8, 1831. The main line extended from Schuylkill Haven to Locust Gap. It was leased to the Reading Company May 12, 1864. The Schuylkill Valley railway was built to the coal landing, Port Carbon 1830. The Mt. Carbon railway extended from Mt. Carbon to Mt. Laffee and Wadesville. Horses and mules were first used. When engines were adopted the roads using them reserved the right to return to horses if the locomotives did not prove practicable. These cars for the carrying of coal and freight only, did not run faster than three or four miles an hour. Ground was broken, 1835, for the Philadelphia and Reading railway, from Mt. Carbon to Philadelphia: In 1827 a dissension arose as to the name of the new borough, Pottsville, incorporated 1828. Mt. Carbon wanted to be the main city and wanted the name of the combined settlements to be called Lewisport. January 1, 1842, the first trip of ninety-one miles, from Mt. Carbon to Fairmount, was made over the Reading railway and consumed eight hours. The cars were miniature affairs and the engines were small, and as compared with the trains of the present day, they looked like toy engines and cars. FIRST DISCOVERY OF COAL The Norway and Pinegrove tracts, in Norwegian and Manheim Townships, were surveyed, 1766. William3 Scull (Nicholas2, Nicholas1 Scull) was of the third generation of surveyors of that name. His father, Nicholas2 Scull, had surveyed other tracts in this township, and his grandfather, Nicholas1 Scull, was Surveyor General of Pennsylvania. In 1769 William Scull and William Maclay were employed to fix the boundary lines between Berks and Northampton County, and near where Ashland now stands they noticed the existence of coal. The map of his grand- __________________________________________________________________________ Page 441 Pottsville Erected __________________________________________________________________________ father, Nicholas1 Scull, published 1759, contained "coal points.", (Nicholas1 Scull died 1761), which no doubt familiarized him with the situation. On Scull's map, published 1770, one of these "coal points" is made at "Schuylkill Gap" (Tuscarora Mountain). This was the first discovery of coal in Schuylkill County. To two Indian chiefs from the Wyoming Valley, who visited England in 1710, and their tribes, is attributed the first discovery of "stone" or anthracite coal. They took with them to the mother country a bag of the black stones, which were experimented with for smithing purposes. The red men had rude species of mines in that valley and in 1766, six of their number, from the Mohicans and Nanticokes, visited Philadelphia and told the Colonial Governor how white men came and took away from them, ore and the product of their mines. The whites made a hole forty feet long and five or six feet deep and carried away the coal in their canoes, using it for blacksmithing. About 1790 and 1791, Nicho Allen, who lived at Big Spring on the summit of Broad Mountain, and Phillip Ginther, of Lehigh County, and one Tomlinson, of Northumberland County, all three, discovered coal, through the uprooting of trees, and as the legend goes, ignited it to warm themselves by it while out hunting. In cutting a tail race for the Valley Furnace, in 1806, coal was discovered near Pottsville. About 1800 William Morris took a load of it from near Mill Creek to Philadelphia. (Richard, Samuel, George and John Rickert were early pioneers in the coal business.) George Rickert and George Shoemaker loaded wagons with the black stuff and hauled them to the same destination. FIRST SETTLERS OF NORWEGIAN TOWNSHIP In Manheim Township, about 1768, on the site of the Seven Stars Hotel (Minnich Genealogy) lived Conrad __________________________________________________________________________ Page 442 Pottsville Erected __________________________________________________________________________ Minnich; Henry Strauch lived on the other side of the river. Others were engaged in lumbering and other enterprises between there and the site of Pottsville, but lived elsewhere. John Reed and wife, Hannah, lived between Conrad Minnich's and Neyman's (on the site of the Pottsville Hospital), in the dense forest. To Neyman, the wood sawyer for Balzar Gehr, may be accredited the honor of being the first settler of Pottsville. On April 7, 1795, Jacob Zoll, innkeeper of Reading, purchased a tract of land in Orwigsburg, part of which was subsequently used as a tannery by his descendants. In 1796 Zoll removed to the site of the Greenwood furnace (Orchard, Pottsville), where he established a small forge. The Indians so harassed him, and his wife dying of malaria, he became discouraged and returned to Orwigsburg, selling his effects to Lewis Reese of Reading, and Isaac Thomas, who owned tracts of land1 on the north side of "Schneid" Berg, 1796-'99. Joseph Zoll was born in the log cabin attached to the forge and next to the Neyman children was the first white child born in this vicinity. He was frequently heard remark (he died at Orwigsburg at the age of ninety-seven) that "Pottsville, should have been called "Zollville" and not "Buttsville2." The Greenwood furnace stood on the corner of what is now Coal and Mauch Chunk Streets, the Valley furnace was located between these and New Philadelphia. When Isaac Thomas, Lewis Reese and Lewis Morris, who also owned land here and came, after the foregoing, enlarged and rebuilt the Zoll forge they sent workmen here to dig a race and build a dam. Among them was John Reed, mentioned _________________ (Note 1-James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, an owner of coal lands in Norwegian Twp., was interested with Reese and Thomas, his name appearing on a deed in possession of Jacob Spannuth, of Pottsville, Pa.) (Note 2-Pottsville, too, it is asserted, was named for William Potts, of Pottstown, owner of coal lands, and not for John Pott (Putt), who came long after Potts.) __________________________________________________________________________ Page 443 Pottsville Erected __________________________________________________________________________ above, who removed from the forest to near the site of the Pottsville Hospital, where Jeremiah Reed was born, December 19, 1800. In 1804 John Pott bought from Lewis Reese, Isaac Thomas and Sarah Morris, the furnace and ground upon which the settlement had been made (for there were other settlers living here, at that date, who worked at the forge and grist mill, Stein's Mill). Lewis Reese had no children; Isaac Thomas had several, one of whom, Isaac Thomas, lived in a log cabin at the forks of the Schuylkill and Norwegian Creek, which he named "Norway," and from this the Norway and Norwegian tracts and subsequently the townships were named. The purchase of John Pott also included the ground of the Minnich, Zoll, Mayfield, Wilson, Moorfield and Physic tracts of land in Norwegian Township. WHEN POTTSVILLE WAS BUILT On April 27, 1808, Lewis Reese sold to John Pott, two hundred and twenty-seven acres of land, which covers the old site of Pottsville, and a straggling row of houses was built, 1806-'08, to accommodate the workmen. The town was laid out in 1816, to which subsequent additions were made, but Pottsville was not regularly incorporated as a Borough until 1828. John Pott removed here in 1810. He died October 23, 1827. John White, in 1829, President of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, built the Kleinert mansion and the block of houses opposite, afterward included in the Mansion House block, Mt. Carbon. In 1818 Henry Donnelly built a log house where Penn Hall now stands. There was one house in the town plot, 1816, Schwoyer's, near corner of Railroad and Union Streets, when the town was laid out. Others followed, in 1818, George Dengler built a two story hotel on the site of the Allan House; a log house was put up by John Pott on the corner where the Episcopal church stands; William Casserly erected one on the corner opposite, occu- __________________________________________________________________________ Page 444 Pottsville Erected __________________________________________________________________________ pied now by Miller's; an oil mill and distillery was established on the northwest corner of East Norwegian and Railroad Streets by John Pott, Jr.; Joseph Blockley built a log house where the Reading telegraph office and N. C. Morrison's store now stand, and the Cheney's built a log house on the site of Centennial Hall; the log school house was built corner of Centre and Race Streets, and others followed until 1824, when there was a straggling row along Centre Street, and other houses began to be erected on the three intersecting main- streets until the town was incorporated, March 11, 1828. 1829-Ten houses were erected on Coal Street, ten on Mahantongo, called Clinton Row, on site of the late Academy. 1830 the present Miners' Bank was erected and ten small frame houses on Coal Street, where the Pennsylvania Railroad watchbox now stands, near Callowhill (East Arch Street); the two stone houses, Fifth and Mahantongo Streets and "Pleasant Row," between Sixth and Seventh, Mahantongo Street. Jacob Alter was a prominent builder engaged on the above. John C. Offerman, above referred to, who lived and kept store where the D., P. & S.'s store now stands, corner Centre and Mahantongo Streets, built the ten known as the small stone houses known as the "Hospital" (owing to the upper part of them having been used as such during an epidemic of smallpox and for a short time subsequently.) John Shippen, James Beatty and James Carpenter built three brick residences where the P. & R. Company building now stands, Mahantongo, near Second Street, and E. Fister, John Ruch and A. K. Whitner followed with the three stone houses in the square above Third and Mahantongo Streets. Job Rich and the father of Ben Erdman (who died in 1913 at the age of 97), came to Pottsville in 1824. Dr. James Carpenter came 1829. Hugh Carlin, 1832. John C. Offerman was an early progressive citizen. He was a one armed man but did much for the advancement of the borough. __________________________________________________________________________ Page 445 Pottsville Erected __________________________________________________________________________ Other progressive citizens who came later from 1828 to 1850 were: Samuel Heffner, the Gillinghams, Mardis, P. W. Sheaffer, Decatur Nice, Christopher Loeser, Charles Witman, Judge E. 0. Parry (N. H.), Charlemagne Tower (N. Y.), Dr. Chichester, Charles Frailey, Samuel Lewis, George Halberstadt, M. D., Lebbeus Whitney, Thomas Walker, the Taylors, Ruchs, Hills, Mills, George M. Cumming, Francis B. Nichols, John Crosland, Benjamin Heywood, G. W. Snyder, the Bocams, Thomas Hopkins, C. M. Baber, Samuel Sillyman, Charles M. Atkins, the Fosters (Mass.), John Shippen, Bosbyshells, Hiram Parker, James Beatty, Robert Woodside, Yardleys, Charles Hill, Nathan Wetzel, Woolisons, Lords, Emanuel Hause, Samuel Griscom, Jacob Ulmer, and others of more recent date.