California 
 
 ,egional 
 
 acility
 
 (/
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 The Journal of Josiah White is published, as 
 giving in detail the circumstances which led to the 
 introduction of Canal Navigation and the use of 
 Anthracite Coal in Pennsylvania. 
 
 Through the courtesy of Messrs. George Foster 
 White and Daniel S. White, great nephews of Josiah 
 White, owners of the original manuscript, one hun- 
 dred copies have been printed for private distribution, 
 
 of which this is No. 
 
 Presented to 
 
 by The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. 
 
 Date
 
 J. White's History 
 
 Untill about the age of 13, I had thought that Play, such 
 as school boys had, was the business which gave the greatest 
 enjoyment, & I dreaded the period when I should arive at 
 manhood, as I felt I should then be ashamed to play ; believing 
 play was for boys & something of a usefull character would 
 be the leading object of man. during my 14 th year, I for the 
 first saw the utility of Education & felt a pleasure for the first 
 of my life in Learning, previous to this year I did not believe 
 Education of much value. My schoolmaster, instead of 
 impressing on his Schollers the advantage, Said to them, here 
 is the Rod, pointing to it & you know your lessons to be got, 
 & you get one or the other. 
 
 About the age of 15 I went apprentis to Ja s Hutton in 1397 
 Philadelphia to lern the Hardware business, for the purpose ( S hd be 
 of lerning a business that was to give me a living. My 
 Mother was invited to Philadelphia (we then lived in Mount- 
 holly New Jersey) to attend the Marriage of My Aunt Hannah 
 Pryor, with Daniel Drinker & she took me along for the 
 purpose of getting me apprenticed to some business in Philad 3 . 
 My aunt Rebecca Redman join'd my mother & self, to hunt a 
 place for me. My aunt prefered a Taylor, or a merchant 
 taylor, for me. My mother, urged no trade in particular, But 
 had allways inculcated in her children a dislike to Store 
 keeping as encourigeing, Pride & Idleness & Rather tending 
 
 5
 
 to a cunning, craftiness, that she was fearfull would be a disad- 
 vantage to us. We called on all the friends we heard might 
 want Boys. I prefered a mechanical Trade, a joiner or Car- 
 penter as I was fond of tools. 
 
 We called (among others) on Daniel Trotter & John 
 Webb, Cabinetmakers, the former did not want & the Latter 
 said he could not take more Boys. Flour was dear, & he could 
 not afford to keep more. 
 
 We called on Wm. Ashby & Benj n . Ferguson- Taylors, 
 who were then doing a thriving business, but neither wanted 
 Boys ; and after nearly a day's walk over town, We Returned 
 hopeless of finding a place. On mentioning the next day to 
 my Unkle Dan 1 Drinker, he said; a freind of his wanted a 
 Boy, at the Hardware Business!! I knew nothing about this 
 business, never having heard of such a business, but Rather 
 than miss of a place, at once concluded to go to My Unkles 
 friend. 
 
 On passing up 2nd St by Trotters Alley, It occured to 
 me that I was Rather quick, in entertaing a new business 
 & that it might not answer the purpose ; I intended, by going 
 an apprentes that is to make a living, & if it did not I would 
 stay at Home ; I immediately asked Unkle, if it was a business, 
 I could make a living & money at, after I was of age ; & if it 
 was a Respectable business, & if the Freind was a well dis- 
 posed Man ! To which my Unkle Replied to all the questions 
 affirmitively & then informed me that it was the same busi- 
 ness he had followed. I at once concluded, that as my unkle 
 had made his money by it, & He was Represented as Ritch, it 
 was enquiry en. & I would (as I thought I would) like any 
 Business that answered my purpose, of gaining a living in an 
 honest way. I accordingly proceeded with my Unkle about 
 200 yards further to His Freind, James Hutton, No. 53 
 Market St. who kept a small Hardware store & who engaged 
 
 6
 
 me at once, & I promised to come to him in about 2 or 4 
 weeks. He agreed to find Board g & Wash* & pay me 20 
 dollars a year. I was then about 15 years old. 
 
 My Master prooved to be a kind well disposed man, but 
 a Lazy one, & left most of his business to me after I had been 
 with him i or 2 years. Our practice was to mark the sterling 
 cost, on the goods, & each article Required a calculation to give 
 the price, wich was 150 166^ 175 & 200 p. C* advance, & say 
 10 p. C* on the latter for Retail, so that when my Master sold, 
 I had to be at his elbow to calculate the price. 
 
 I also kept his books after two years & also Blacked his 
 shoes ! & my mistress told me if I did not help the Girl bring 
 her buckets & tubs of water from the River to wash with, 
 my cloths should not be washed. I did not go often for 
 Water & in about 3 or 4 years objected to blacking my 
 Masters shoes. I allways set at 2nd table with the kitchen 
 Girls, after being a month or 2 in the City, untill nigh of age. 
 My Master had a high notion of the shipping business, as it 
 gave so little labour, & would often send small adventures. 
 Finally George Pennock & Gideon Hillwell & himself bought 
 a quantity of Tryash Coffee & ship' d it to Hamburg, & Recip- 
 rocally endorsed eachothers paper to pay for it. On this my 
 Master made 500 a 600, which was so handsome a profit & 
 not a weeks labour that it increased his allready too idle 
 habits. He was now in debt, & concluded he would make 
 more money by Building Houses, & supply Hardware to Car- 
 penters & take his pay in work on his houses & by sell g 
 them get his money. However the more he Built the more 
 he got in Debt & the More His Carpenters got in debt to him. 
 
 He was perswarded to set up a Bakery, & his Baker made 
 him beleive with a little money he could make say 15 a 20 p C* 
 profit & he would do all the labour. He thus expected the 
 Cream, to himself, but this turned out Skim milk also.
 
 By the time I was near 20 years old, I thought I had 
 better lern another trade, as this small business I was lerning 
 I thought not en, But this project was soon stopt by my 
 Master asking me $500 for my last year, which I thought I 
 could not afford to pay. Its true I was not bound nor had 
 I ever agreed positively to stay. He had once asked me, if 
 I was satisfied to stay & should wish to know in 2 a 3 weeks. 
 But he never asked me further, & I never told Him, I however 
 stay'd this implyed I was satisfied & I then felt this impli- 
 cation, plenty strong to bind me, so I staid as a measure of 
 duty, which conclusion no doubt was of after use to me, as 
 it tended to keep my habits settled. 
 
 I believed my Master was loosing money some 2 years 
 before I was 21 & pressed on him the propriety of taking 
 Stock to accertan his Real situation. He had some 3 years 
 before took stock & found he had made about $3000 a year 
 & I asked him what he thought he was worth. He said about 
 $10,000. After freequent pressing him he agreed to take stock, 
 but as I had expected, I had to take it essentially myself 
 (owing to his idle habits. I found his Means Reduced to 
 about $1,000. when I told him the Result he said he must 
 double his diligence 
 
 His wife who untill then kept me at a distance, & not per- 
 mitting me to eat with them, now asked me what I would 
 advise. I advised their going on a farm, as he J.H. was 
 brought up to that & was not active en for keep* Store. He 
 however continued his Hardware business, & by being more 
 industerous, improved his Estate. 
 
 Joseph Dilworth kept a Hardware Store N. 29 Market 
 St. off d me his Stock for sale, as he had failed and was selling 
 out. 
 
 He said he failure was owing to his losses in a large 
 quantity of Sour Wine, which he said he bought for say 16% 
 
 8
 
 cents, & as he thought himself smarter than common men, he 
 had concluded, he could find a man, less fool! than himself 
 that would give him 17 cents which would allow him a hand- 
 some gain, but He said he found himself the greatest fool, & 
 it broke Him! I was then about 20^/2 years old & bought the 
 old stock for the sake of getting a good stand for business, 
 which was then verry difficult to get. I was of age 3 mo 4, 
 1802 & agreed to take the Stock & Store N. 29 Market St on 
 the 5 th of 3 rd month 1802, Intending not to loose a day untill 
 I had made as much as I thought en which was $40,000, pro- 
 vided I had attained that amount before I was 30 years old. 
 Intending If I was successfull, to then put say $20,000, on 
 interest to accumulate as I expected 8 times in 36 years, & 
 live on the other $20,000, in such way as I chose. I then 
 prepcsd buy g a farm for say 10 or 12,000, & have the farm & 
 8 or $10,000 on interest to make me as nearly independent of 
 all necessary business, & calls from all quarters as in the 
 nature of things & will of Providence I could be. 
 
 My aim was to loose no time untill I had made en & 
 then to have the Balance of the time a Good providence alotted 
 me, appropriated in such a way as would give me the most 
 comfort, the Balance of my Life, & be a good example to 
 others to go & do likewise, and thus proove to the World that 
 I could make Wise Resolutions & also keep to them. 
 
 About 1 8 months before I was 21, I was sent alone to 
 Marden Creek by my Master to take account of a stock of 
 store goods he had there in partnership with Levi Pilkington, 
 this was about 70 miles from Phil 3 . & the first time I had been 
 over 40 miles from home 
 
 Before I was 21, I prevailed on my Mother to allow me 
 to sell my patrimony, so as to be Ready to go into Trade 
 immediately on my being of age so as to loose no time. For
 
 I well knew at this time, I should go but once through the 
 world ! & a day lost was not to be Regained. 
 
 I sold most of my Estate to be paid me in time for my 
 business, & when necessary my Mother went security for my 
 performing my agreements when of Legal age. My Estate 
 amounted to between $5000 to $6000, all of which I was care- 
 full to confirm early after ariveing of age 
 
 The old Stock was about $1,000, & I ordered from Eng- 
 land about $5000, to come in the spring I was of age. But 
 before the first goods came in in the spring I had to order 
 goods from England for Fall, which I did to am 1 of say $4,000 
 & thus I was fairly with all my caution on the Sea of Credit. 
 
 My first years business made me about $3,000, which 
 however, I lost the whole of by bad debts. After this year I 
 lost but little, & about my 28th. year I sold out my goods to 
 my Brother Joseph White & Sam 1 Lippincott. Having by 
 this time attained the amount of property I had promised 
 myself as being en. 
 
 I knew my propensity for tools & ingenuity was great, & 
 as acquiring property to my limit was as I determined expe- 
 dient, I gave up promptly all gratification of my nature, in 
 mechanicks of all kinds, for fear it would grew on me to the 
 prejudice of my business, & being fully perswarded that the 
 most agreeable way of getting along with any business, I 
 deemed necessary, was to lay down or aside all things that 
 clog'd this business, and make it a strong point to endeavour 
 to like whatever business I judged was necessary to me & then 
 to quit it in to to. 
 
 I now having obtained the am* of property up to my early 
 desire, & had lost no time, & being within the period fixed, I 
 concluded that I would be able to present at least one case to 
 the World of a man see* his way aforehand, & come out a 
 strictly moral & I hoped a Religious minded man. No morn- 
 
 10
 
 ing, me thought, ever opened more clear, than It now pre- 
 sented, of having passed through One of my great Clamactrix 
 of life, & Realized by my industry & integrity, my best antici- 
 pations!! I now thought I had so much experience to stand 
 on, & that with this experience, & not, an abateing feeling to 
 do aught but what was strictly Right in the eye of my Maker 
 or my fellow man, I thought if any man ever had good hopes 
 to Rely on, for a peacefull, pleasant & moderate Progress to & 
 end of the balance of his Life, I then had!! In fine I fully 
 though my days work of toil & labour was over & gone by 
 for ever! & that I now for the Remainder of my Life had to 
 expect a full share of peace with God & man, & I fain hoped 
 to be usefull to the latter, in person & in means & dutifull to 
 the former, so as to step from a peacefull journey through this 
 world, to the one that never ends, in the way, that would be 
 pleasing to him who keeps his mantions allways Ready for 
 all those who do his Fathers will. 
 
 during the two years I was out of business I took a tour 
 to Georgia by Sea & Returned by Land. I was invited by 
 Barrack Gibbons to go with him to see his River Plantation 
 near Savanna He had just Returned from a tour to the North 
 (now n th month) & his slaves now first seen him after his 
 Return, & they Received him as kind as if he was a near 
 friend ! 
 
 I concluded on the whole, the Slave owners, had some- 
 thing to gratify their pride by their contrast with ther slave, 
 but that their comforts were much fewer than those citizens 
 in the north of the same wealth. & that the northern Labour 
 was cheaper -than the southern, which cost as I estimated an 
 average of $40 each a year, considering the large portion of 
 useless persons, & indiferent labourers, & the small amount 
 of labour done by the best hand, & all were to be supported, 
 & in the Large cities, & some places in the Country they had 
 
 ii
 
 to padrole the towns & Country, every night for fear of a 
 Rising of the Blacks. 100 Blacks on the average turns out but 
 about Yz or 33 prime hands, the others are too young or too 
 old, lazy or wicked or sick. 
 
 I kept generally engaged at making & contriving matters 
 & things I thought usefull to myself or others. I allow'd 
 myself to spend $500, a year in these gratifications. 
 
 I looked out for a good farm with a small water power 
 on to aid me in my ingenious notions, & the farm for my 
 living as before mentioned. I wished to live entirely inde- 
 pendent on my farm, intended to plant sugar maple to make 
 my sugar &c to carry out a more complete independence I 
 felt 2 ambitious, & I thought it was but Right to now pursue 
 a plan of business & Life, that would be a pattern for others, 
 as giving the greatest Comfort possible, in this Life & prove 
 by our exemplary Conduct, that we was allways Ready to 
 step from the life, that I had lived well in, to the other which 
 never ends in an acceptable state. 
 
 Two years (about) now elapsed by the spring of 1810 
 since I had declined business. A water power was offered 
 for sale by Robert Kennedy, of all the power of the River 
 Schuylkill at the falls, the fall ^A or 4 ft & a Right to put 
 a Lock which was to pay fifty cents a boat on each for 
 passing it say 3 or 4 acres on East side & say 7 or 8 acres 
 & old Tavern house on West side of the Bridge & adjoining it. 
 
 It occured to me that this might be a Providental case, 
 & also carrying out my old plan. 
 
 Here was an improvement to be made by Dams & Locks 
 & Resulting in a large water power, nearest to Philad 3 . But 
 it would take Money & perseverence & injenuity to carry 
 it through, & if I succeeded, it would lead to a similar 
 improvement in the interior of Penns a . which would be of 
 great public good. While the water power & the Falls would 
 
 12
 
 make it a profitable investment to me & fully as well as to 
 invest my capital elsewhere. 
 
 But where was the person to undertake it. No Dam had 
 ever been put in Schuyl 1 . or any other stream in this Country so 
 large as Schuylkill!! Neither had Locks ever succeed* 1 in 
 Penns a . except 2 at York Haven Susq a . 
 
 The Schuylkill & Susq a & the Union Canal had fail d & 
 was given up!! 
 
 In fact no public improovement by navigation Had yet 
 succeeded in Penns* so as to pay any divident ! ! The City of 
 Philad a was supplied with Schuylkill water by steam power, 
 as there was no faith in a water power from the Schuylkill, 
 as it was believed there was no security in any Dams on so 
 large a stream standing. 
 
 under all these circumstances I thought perhaps I had 
 been favoured with complete success in my business for the 
 verry purpose of enabeling me to do this great work, & that 
 I now was blessed with the means & ability of body & mind 
 to carry it out, as I thought. And that while I was carrying 
 out so much good for the public, I wouuld not impair my 
 Estate, or that it would increase as fast as if I done no 
 business and allowed the interest to accumulate. 
 
 Here was a choice between applys my means & my 
 talents, in a way of singular use to My fellow being & not 
 impair my Estate, & not as I thought envolve me in pleage 
 or trouble, & thus myself & others would be benefited, & 
 especially & I believed I had discovered the true plan of Mak- 
 ing Dams secure by the manner of laying the stone or mate- 
 rial on it instead of against it. 
 
 on the other hand I could Rent out my money on inter- 
 est, do nothing for others but pass down the hill of life with- 
 out good or harm to others, & allso be free from care & 
 
 13
 
 trouble Here was the two Alternatives openly before my 
 mind for some weeks before I made up my mind. 
 
 I finally concluded that I would be more likely to be 
 happy in this world, & in the other also; if I took the course 
 that would be usefull to others, in all my undertakings & not 
 to eat my bread alone & in idleness. 
 
 In consequence of this Resolution I bought the Falls of 
 S c buy 1 kill for its water power & gave $14,000 for it in the 
 Spring of 1810. I had not been in possession of it 12 months, 
 before I discovered I had jumped out of the frying pan into 
 the fire. 
 
 I had supposed I could make the improvement necessary 
 to make it productive, soon, & perfect it within my fortune! 
 but I soon discovered my error & instead of the man of 
 Leisure, to Secure myself from Ruin, I must leave all my 
 mechanical amusements & strip & turn into the Ruffest & 
 most exposed part of the business, & in cold weather up to 
 my Brest in water, to Raise stone out of the channel, & in 
 truth I had to say to my Workmen come boys, in the place 
 of as I had expected after I had made my fortune, to say, 
 go boys! 
 
 Wether my decission to purchase the Falls was a correct 
 or an incorrect course, I must leave. I certainly endeavoured 
 to feel for the best direction, & do not think I was mooved by 
 any Caprice, or carelessness, in the conclusion! I supposed 
 I was doing all for the best, & that in the purchase I was 
 carry* out my original Resolutions of complete independence. 
 
 But having got into the Dilemma, I got into a sea of 
 trouble & disappointment, from which I was entirely unable 
 to extricate myself with any propriety for about 7 years. 
 
 Some of my nearest friends during this trying period 
 advised me to give up the works & property, but this would 
 be at a total loss of the property, for if I sacrafised it to get
 
 myself out of the difficulties It would be seen as a property 
 equally difficult to manage to others; so that I could not 
 expect others to buy it, when I who knew all about it, thought 
 fit to forsake it: so that I could expect to get comparatively 
 nothing for it, & the consequence to me would be a total loss 
 of it, (which in a year or two embraced nearly or quite my 
 whole Estate) & also a total Loss of my character as a man 
 of decernment & stability too. And it Resulted that I never 
 had a fair opportunity to sell a part, or the whole of it that 
 I did not embrace!! 
 
 The Winter of 1812-13, I petitioned the Ledgeslature for 
 self and Co. to Improve Schuylkill by Slackwater Navigation, 
 & informed the members of coal up Schuylkill, which Gen- 
 eral Porter affirmed to me he had lived there & knew there 
 was plenty, I told member of it. But Fred k Fraily Senator 
 from Orwickbs deny'd, said there was a black stone there but 
 it would not burn. I gave the Ledgeslature the draft of a bill 
 which E. Hazard Father wrote for me, & which was the 
 Bacis of the Bill they passed for the Public in 1814, 1815. 
 
 during the 7 years from the 4 mo 1810 to the i or 2 mo 
 1818, all my efforts to emprove my Estate here so as to make 
 it productive, in the shape of Renting it, independent of my 
 holding an interest in the Rental, by being a party in the 
 business, proved futile. What it produced was what my 
 business connections made it produce. There was a prejudice 
 against the property as a mere Rental Estate, so that the 
 more I Rented the more I increased my business in it. The 
 difficulty of Renting arose from its liability to frequent Back 
 water stop g the Mills; I try 6 to get the City to buy it to get 
 a Water Power for Raising their water in the place of steam 
 Power, without avail. I sold 7/16 my Interes to Joseph Gil- 
 lingham, but this did not lesson my interest there, it only 
 
 15
 
 enabled me & him to improove the whole power by which 
 I still hoped to creep out by degrees. 
 
 I not only invested here all my Estate but the terrible 
 fire which happened 4 mo i 1815 caught in the small mill 
 which I had sold J. Gillingham we believe from the friction of 
 the Mill Gudgeon, or some of the machinery about Midnight 
 & burnt down both mills, this loss together with loss in our 
 business, obliged me to begin borrowing money, to Rebuild 
 & keep things mov* on, again, by this course I became a 
 debtor for borrowed money for about $20,000 by the time I 
 closed my business here. 
 
 This seemed to be more of an apprentiship for something 
 else, than a Regular business to live by, for alltho we suc- 
 ceeded in mak* wire & wrought Rolled Nails & essentially 
 succeeded in every branch of business we undertook, so far as 
 perfect the articles, we made a wire Bridge at the falls 410 ft 
 span, wire fences &c &c yet none proved profitable. If I had 
 a job in the water works, Requiring lowater, I usually had 
 high water! & most things went against me, to prepare me, 
 seemingly, to endure the worst!! 
 
 If I could have, like Jacob, in serving his 7 years seen 
 the Result, I should like him enjoy d the troubles & disap- 
 pointments as the terms of purchase of the Boon! But I 
 saw it not, and when I discovered I one day should fall, 
 unless I could get from this place, I & J.G. made the strongest 
 efforts in our power to deal with Philad*. to supply their 
 Fair Mount Water. I examined the shores down to Gallow- 
 hill St Bridge & across the River in several places, one where 
 the Dam now is, & the other nearly opposite Prats House, & 
 then we off d to City Councils to supply them with 3,000,000 
 Gallons of water every 24 hours for 20 years for $25,000 a 
 year & then 3,000,000 Gal every 24 hours at $3,000 a year for 
 ever. Provided they would issue City Certificats to make the 
 
 16
 
 improv* on acct of this Annuity & also they to give us their 
 Engines & fixtures at fair Mount & all the City property there 
 & shore below the bridge so that we should have Room to 
 use our Surplus Water, below the Dam. by this Surpluss 
 water we expected to make our Estate whole (supposed it 
 would bring us 25 or 30,000 Doll 3 a year & what we got of 
 the City would enable us to make the whole improvement, & 
 erect the mills for Renting, or perfect the sites so as to be 
 able to Rent them. And with the further provision that the 
 Schuylkill Navigation C. would authorse us to come down, 
 to any place above Callowhill St bridge, where we thought 
 proper to make our Dam &c. 
 
 The Councils of the City appointed a Committee of 3 to 
 meet with us viz W m Rush, Miller & Moore. Rushes objec- 
 tions was the uncertainty & interruption of this Power like 
 all other water power he said it would be liable to freshets &c, 
 at which time the City might be burnt down. 
 
 I answered this, by taking the Com 6 to a spike I had drove 
 in the wharf next below the bridge perhaps a year ago, which 
 I gave the history of for a long time, & thus proovs by my 
 Records as I had expected, that this place was hardly liable 
 to freshets, & that a 5 ft fresh over the Dam at the Falls was 
 not over 5 inches here, owing to the Water being so deep & 
 wide (25 ft deep) a small acceleration of the water by a small 
 Rise with this great depth would take off all freshets, but still 
 they professed to be not Satisfied & after a discussion for sev- 
 eral months it was given up, perhaps owing to the Schuylkill 
 C declineing to let us moove our Dam ; Unless we would take 
 $100,000 of their stock at par, which we were unable to do. 
 
 We closed our vew of dealing with the City in the II th 
 Month 1817, & my situation at the Falls looked to me like 
 inevitable Ruin of my whole Estate unless I could get away 
 from it & into some other business. We desired the Schuyl- 
 
 17
 
 Proposed 
 temporary 
 Impt 
 to Schl 
 
 Scbuylkill Co. 
 Refuse a less toll 
 than $12 ton 
 
 Offer sc. bu 
 
 My fears 
 
 of Ruin 
 
 Gillm wont 
 lend his horse 
 
 Hautos first 
 intoduction 
 
 kill Nav" Board to allow us to make some temporary improve- 
 ment of the Sch 1 & use it at a toll of 5 cents a bu $1.20 a 
 ton, to this they objected & informed us that a discount of 
 15 or 25 p C* less than the cost on a Turnpike was all we 
 ought to expect from them & all they should grant & as a 
 Turnpike cost 15 or 16 cts a ton a Mile this would leave 12 
 cents a ton a Mile & the distance from the Coal mines to the 
 Falls being say 100 miles would make the cost of coal freight 
 $12 a ton, entirely discouraged me from any further effort to 
 use the Schuylkill Navig. 
 
 I told them that, adhereing to such terms would distroy 
 the usefullness of their Navig". & would drive the trade in 
 coal to the Lehigh, where I had lernt there was perhaps more 
 than in Schuylkill, & once there or that River improved they 
 might agree to 5 c a bu, but that would not give them the 
 trade, they spurned at my offer of 5 c a bu & laughed at our 
 pretended Rivalship from Lehigh, & thus ended our last inter- 
 course with them on the subject of using their navigation. I 
 felt much in the dark for what course to take seeing as I 
 plainly did, nothing but Ruin by staying at the Falls. 
 
 I proposed to Jos Gillingham to loan me his Horse to 
 visit the Lehigh to examine it & the mines (for I had none & 
 felt the loss of the money the hireing one would cost) but Jos 
 G Refused, so that I concluded, If anything favourable 
 Resulted, I would keep him clear of it 
 
 I had made enquiry into the ownership & condition of the 
 Lehigh mines & Lehigh River & determined to visit it to see if 
 any thing could be done with them. Geo. F. A. Hauto, was 
 in the practice of occationally visiting us at the falls, to talk 
 about mashinery &c & I told him of my intention to visit the 
 Lehigh for inspection, he s d he had a notion of going up 
 Schuylkill to see their mines, & might as well go up Lehigh, 
 as he would have Company. 
 
 18
 
 Wm Brigs my Stone Mason, also wanted a Ride some- 
 where & He also concluded to go with us; so we 3 went on 
 Horseback & got to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 1817. We 
 staid at Klutz at Lawsane, & Jno Hogenback at Lehighton as 
 the places nearest to the mines where we could board, while First vis * 
 
 to Lehigb 
 
 visiting them, which took about one week, being one Eleven 
 miles off & the other 12 miles off. 
 
 The plan I concluded on was the plan we subsequently 
 adopted, which was to in first place smoothen the old Road 
 of 9 miles which the old Co had raised io to make to get some 
 coal down, to make a noise in Phil 3 . & on succeeding to Raise 
 money afterwards, to make a Road of a Grade which would 
 do for a Rail Road ultimately if we succeeded in sells coal, 
 with an uninterrupted declivity. And improve the River by Plan of Channel 
 contracting the channel funnel fasion to bring the whole flow 
 of the water at each of the falls, to as narrow a compas, as the 
 law we could get would allow, by throwing up the Round 
 River stones into low walls, not higher than we wanted to 
 Raise the water, thus - . _ 
 
 & if we had not water sufficient for the Required depth of 15 
 
 or 1 8 inches in by the natural flow to make Artificial Freshets 
 
 to seecure any deffitiences, that is by ponding up the water 
 
 say as many acres as we could get, & letting it off periodically 
 
 say once in 3 days, I supposed we could gather en water, to 
 
 ensure our Required depth & thus have a Regular decending 
 
 Navigation, the plan of Locks & gates for letting out the 
 
 freshet in a proper manner I took for granted I could devise, 
 
 if found necessary & so left that part for the present. On 
 
 Returning Home It was concluded that Myself G F A Hauto 
 
 & Erskine Hazard would Join in the enterprise. I was to OUT 3 
 
 find plan, & Hauto the money through his friends & Erskine first agreeing 
 
 19
 
 the Skribe & a good mechanic & excellent councellor. Hoto 
 assured us the larger the plan the easier it would be for him 
 to Raise the money, through his Ritch Friends. 
 
 Our speculation was for to procure the Property of the 
 Mines & River, which with our plan should support itself!! 
 especially as neither of us had any money we could then com- 
 
 Procure Lease mand ! ! ! We 3 at once set about to get a lease of 20 years on 
 of Coal Lands the Lehigh Mine QO Coal lands of IO>OOO acres { or One Ear 
 
 of corn a year, if demanded & from & after 3 years to send to 
 
 Philad 3 . at least 40,000 bu of Anthracite coal pr year on our 
 
 own account, so as to be sure of introducing this coal into 
 
 market, by which means they would hope to make their mines 
 
 valuable, for thus far they had prooved valueless to the Lehigh 
 
 ow abortion Coal Mine C. After several efforts to get out coal They had 
 
 nines & River in about lgo g let R ow i an< j & Butland have gratuously coal, on 
 
 Room Run & Iron ore & Timber for boats for a number of 
 years but they were discouraged without tryal, & in 1812 or 
 14 leased to J. Cist & Chas Miner & Robinson of Wilkesbarre ; 
 for 10 years conditioned for their taking out 10,000 bu a y r , 
 they took out 2 or 3 ark load part of which they got to Philad 3 . 
 & Myself & White & Hazard for the factory at the falls in 
 1816 bought it principally at 75 cts a bu. but this price did not 
 pay them on account of the badness of the navigation &c & 
 they abandoned it before we got our Lease. They paid $4 a 
 ton for hailing it from the mines to the Landing, at Mauch 
 Chunk, & the Road was so bad the Carter fail d (by our 
 improvements this cost is reduced to 20 ct a ton) 
 Failure* at I ought to have mentioned that the Lehigh Coal Mine C. 
 
 Mines & River had ^^ tQ ^ begt Qf the j r means to open & WQr k t h e MinCS 
 
 & get the River Improved & had got a Lottery on which its 
 said they Raised $10,000, to aid in improv* the River, for 
 which there had been 5 Laws obtained, but all their efforts 
 fail'd & the River abandoned, and it was not untill the 
 
 20
 
 Lehigh Coal Mine C., 2 distinct Individual contracts & 
 Leases had failed in working the Mines & said 5 failures in 
 improoving the River & denouncing it as impracticable to 
 improove, that We came forward to improove it, on its own 
 mere merits without $1000. Capital at our Command!!! So 
 that all old claims on the River & Coal Mines was Cleared 
 off by abandonments. 
 
 We soon obtain'd the lease as mentioned which took us Our 
 
 on Lehigh 
 
 say 2 or 3 weeks to perfect, & during this time our Erskine 
 Hazard wrote up the Law on the principles mentioned, & then 
 we 3 posted to Harrisb 8 to get it, in which we Succeeded on the 
 20 March 1818. Jos Gillingham & none of our friends (except* 
 those connected with us) knew what we was about. 
 
 On the 4 th month 1818 Erskine & Myself Leveled the 
 River from Stodartsvill to Easton. the Ice had not all dis- 
 appeared. No House between Lausane & Stoddertsvile we 
 lay out in the woods 6 nights. We borrowed the Levels of 
 Benj n R. Morgan, who had Retained them as the Relics of the 
 Union Canal C. We knew of no other Level in Philad 3 & 
 if there had been, we would have been too poor to buy it. 
 
 Previous to going on Lehigh to Level it, Erskine & self Gave Power of 
 gave a Power of Attorney to Isaac Salkeld our foreman at Atty to J Ssdkd 
 the Falls to attend to our Whole business there, so as to 
 have nothing there to draw off our whole attention from 
 Lehigh. Erskine & self had set up all night to settle our 
 Business for the Falls of Sch 1 , & then went down to the Stage 
 office to proceed to Stodartsvill to level the Lehigh when we 
 found the Stage had gone about Half hour, which detained us 
 another week, but greatly to our advantage, as the weather 
 got milder & made it saffer & pleasanter to lodge out in the 
 woods which we had to do for 6 nights while leveling the 
 River. 
 
 21
 
 Pirt Sucpttion We got our Mines, our Law & our Survey or levels of 
 
 of Hauto 
 
 the Lehigh all effected before we knew Hauto had deceived us. 
 The facility of Hotos imposing on us was increased from the 
 necessity of keeping our business quiet untill effected & we 
 then found him useless in Raising money & in fact that he 
 increased our embarrassment in Raising it, for those who knew 
 him, were fearfull of trusting us, for being connected with him. 
 We bought from Doct r Weston widdow the Tract up M 
 Chunk Creek, necessary for us to enable us to make as we 
 Supposed an unbroken plain from the Large coal bed to the 
 River of 2 feet decend to 100 feet in length, but on bringing 
 down the plain we discovered that the Fall in M Chunk Creek 
 was too great for 2^ miles of the lower end. J.W. & E.H. 
 therfore was obliged to make a variation in the plain from 
 a foot to about 4*4 ft in the 100 ft. The Plain of the Road 
 is about as follows viz 
 
 tf/2 miles 2 ft to 100 ft 
 
 % " 1.6 in " 
 / _ 
 
 74 I - 
 
 2^ 2% tO ^/z 100 ft 
 
 Yt into the mine on a decending plane of 6 in to 2 feet 
 
 J W & E H found the Settlers in M Chunk Valley Hos- 
 pitable, being 2 Settlers one at a place Since called Sodom & 
 the other Gomorrow, at the first place J. W. & E. H. were 
 accomodated with the Liberty to Sleep on their blankets on 
 the kitchen floor & the Good Host made up an exellent fire, 
 our bread perhaps was a little novelty in the Valley. Our 
 Hosts family had nigh eat it all up by morning. However 
 on the whole we had a good nights Rest & the folks were 
 friendly & clever. 
 
 22
 
 The next night then we slept at Gomorrow, in the Saw 
 Mill loft here there was a shew of some panes or parts of 
 pains of glass in the window, however on the whole the 
 Room was well ventilated. 
 
 The 3rd day, brings down the levels, was a day of diffi- 
 culty, as we then discovered that the bottom of Mauch Chunk 
 Valley was too high, to continue our 2 feet plane further, after 
 making a number of fruitless efforts to suit ourselves we gave 
 it up for a few days, & Return'd again & finished it where it 
 is now made, the ground was so cov d with under brush & so 
 stoney for 2^2 miles of the lower end of M Chunk that we 
 generally allow'd ourselves half a day to go it. 
 
 Concluded on the outlines for a Lehigh Navigation & 6th Month. 
 Coal C. the substance was, a Capital of 50,000. to be Sub- 
 scribed by individuals, for which those subscribers were to 
 enjoy all that was made up to 25% on their Capital & we all 
 the Residue, we to get $1000 ea for conducting all the business 
 & to have the sole management. 
 
 after the outlines of the C. was agreed we Printed a 
 pamphlet entitled a Compendius Vew of the Lehigh & the Coal 
 interest &c & set about getting Subscriptions. In this we 
 were led to expect no difficulty as Hauto had agreed to get 
 as much as we wanted &c &c, we found however he did not 
 call on the monied characters he had proposed in the onset, as 
 he avoided conversation about those characters & proposed 
 his going to New York J. W. & E. H. apply d to some of 
 them for his character & then found Suffitient Reason for 
 his not calling on them, as they new him better than we. 
 
 It must be Recollected that up to this time the sucess of 
 our enterprise in our opinion depended on privacy & expedi- 
 tion, by this course of things the whole business was thus far 
 Secured before we got to know our man. 
 
 23
 
 J W & E H called on & wrote our terms to most of our 
 monied men in Philad*. among them was Stephen Girard & 
 Jacob Ridgeway &c &c. 
 
 We went up to Burdentown, & sought an interview with 
 Jos Buonaparte. We Sent him a letter noting the outlines 
 of our Vews, & asked a conference. The Count through his 
 Secretary gave us a Respectfull Reply by a note, but declined 
 joining us. 
 
 Sam 1 Archer, on an application to him agreed to give us 
 a hearing on the subject for 5 minutes by the watch. 
 
 Stephen Girard said he formed no partnerships. 
 
 Wm Abbett admitted our Representations to be plausable, 
 after taking about a week to consider of it s d that Jos Gilling- 
 ham & others had a poor opinion of it. 
 
 Joshua Longstreth, appointed an evening for us to explain 
 the subject to him. In the evening we call d to see him but he 
 was gone next door to a party to have sone fun (magnanimus 
 interest thought I & worthy the man). 
 
 Sam 1 Spackman, appointed 5 or 6 P. M. to call on him at 
 his office. We attended & entered into our explanations, he 
 was call'd off by a visitor, he propos'd call* on J W 3 days 
 after but he never call d . 
 
 Samuel Lippincott, we explained our project, which he 
 Readily understood & approved of, but his funds were locked 
 up so that he could not change them, which he appeared to 
 Regret. 
 
 Benj n Stille, was polite en to allow of some general 
 Remarks, but said he was unable to appretiate them. 
 
 John Stille, s d politely, how do do Sirs, how do you come 
 on with the Lehigh, & before we could give him an answer, 
 he proceeded to Read his news paper, & alltho we bid him, 
 good afternoon, he was so mutch engaged at Reading the chit, 
 
 24
 
 chat, occurrences of the day, that he had no time to bid us g <* o 
 good night. |! 
 
 Jacob Ridgway, had no opinion of navigation Stocks in % " 
 
 n * 2, 
 
 this country, said he was going to vew his Western Lands &c, g | o 
 
 * ^ *i 
 
 he could put out his money on better security &c upon the ,g c t? 
 
 whole we conceived he treated the project & ourselves with g. g. 
 
 much Contempt. i 3 
 
 John Friese, says he has no money at his command. s. < 3 
 
 of C ! ^ 
 
 Cha s Roberts, admits fully the theory of our minutio, but $ g" 
 
 & < 
 
 is fully convinced, that in the aggregate Girrards fortune *-. g 
 
 would not be addequate & strenuously advises us to sell out ". y s 
 
 if possible, for any thing we can get, & if we can get nothing, 3. . 
 
 be sure to give up the whole thing, or we will certainly Ruin g f 3 1 
 
 ourselves. ? 2. g 5 
 
 * S of 
 
 Reuben Haines, call'd on him at his Home & found with J" jf- 
 
 n -5 
 
 him a dozen of his friends, Philosiphers Doctors &c he said I ^ 5' 
 he had no money, he had Stocks in sutch works which prooved s o 
 
 sr C 2- 
 
 total loss, & should not think of taking any of ours, he excused a s g. 
 himself on ace 1 of his friends, & forthwith had his Cows & ^ 
 Bulls brought up to shew his friends, on their good appearance S ". * 
 
 <* E" 2 
 
 he elogised about half an hour (without naming a single good 
 property save their appearance, & that they came from 
 Abroad, hence verify^ the character of children "that any sf 3 3 
 
 ** C r* 
 
 home is better than their own", from thence he went to dig- ? " g" 
 ging fish worms, evidence here, thinks I, of the Mind of a <. | 
 Man or a Boy. c. 
 
 * o n 
 
 Sam 1 Mifflin, says that Schuylkill without any thing sub- ss | 
 scribed, would be worth more than Lehigh, with our improve- ^ 
 
 "2. a- 
 
 ments made, that after we get to the Delaware we can get no 
 
 further. !: 
 
 3- " 
 Ab m Hiliard, he s d our calculation looked well on paper $ ~ 
 
 we had better do it ourselves, but the publick where like I 
 
 C 
 
 sheep, they mooved by giving them time, in a flock together. 
 
 25
 
 JW. told him we ment merely to inform our friends of the 
 subject, that we were not asking favours, that if any favour 
 was in the case, we conceived we we were yielding it to 
 them as they never had such an offering before & not likely 
 would again &c on the whole I considered him merely sport- 
 ing on my Remarks &c &c. 
 
 John Rogers, Hoped we would do well, he would allways 
 be glad to hear of our prospering, in all our undertakings, 
 he did not pretend to know anything about such business, he 
 did not see how we could Raise the $50,000 &c &c 
 
 The above is a sample of the manner we were Rec d on 
 explaining our Project, & asks a subscription to a subject that 
 we were persuaded the day would come that would verify 
 our allegations & the imbicility of those who felt wise in 
 opposing them. (The paper is worn off here and the last 
 word is assumed. 
 
 Nath" Sellars & family Subscrd $10,000 to the Stock, 
 finding a difficulty in getting more on the faith of our declar- 
 ations, we proposed that N. Sellars & his friend Sam 1 Gibson 
 should explore our Property which was agreed to, & we had 
 every Reason to believe that he would give a favourable 
 Report of the Good Land & in that case our stock would 
 instantly fill, in this however we were disappointed, the 
 Report was unfavourable ; it was their opinion fr their Report 
 the Road could only be made with a capital like Girards, 
 the River was a more feasable property, on the whole they 
 abandoned the concern. We accordingly surrendered their 
 Subscription, we offered to chainge our compy to a Navigation 
 C. only, & to make several very imporant alterations in the 
 terms, but to no purpose, (we have lernt since, they had 
 been aprised of the character of Hoto which was their Reason 
 for break* off from us. 
 
 26
 
 Hauto done nothing in New York, & proposed going to e mo 7mo & 
 
 to 8mo 5-1818 
 
 Baltimore, (any wheres but among our Ritch Philad a where 
 he had agreed to Raise the cash) 
 
 endeavs to get subscriptions to the Lehigh Naviga- 
 tion C. & finally John Stoddart, who was then a leading 
 man among the Mound characters, being esteemed Luckey 
 and to never mis'd in his Speculations, carried a strong 
 influence with his actions, he being of an open and accessable 
 habit, gave us frequent oppertunites with him, & his large 
 Estates at the head of our Navigation authorized our beseag- 
 ing him, which we did frequently. 
 
 Jacob Shoemaker got information of the thing & he hav* 8 mo 
 formerly an intention of forming a C. for a similar purpose up 
 Lehigh, was prepared for the impulse we agreed to meet at 
 the Life insurance Co. office on the subject, when for 20 shares 
 of stock he agreed to give us his weight & influence to get 
 our Stock subscribed, this was in the morn'g before their 
 office hours, when J Stoddart arived, between the information 
 from us & the influence of J Shoemaker, he agreed to take 
 $5000 absolutely & about $5000 more on conditions of our 
 Releivs him from the latter if he Required it. Condy Regued 
 took also about same' am 1 . & also Ja s S Spencer. The Bal 
 of the Stock was then fill'd in about 24 hours, & our Rever- 
 tionary interest valued at 100,000 Doll 8 by the Stockholders, 
 who pres'd us to make a Stock of it at that valuation. isis 
 
 Bought a Horse for $100 & a small Dearbourn waggon a 
 for $65, in which we Rode up to Laussain, but being Rather 
 light it broke down twice before we arived, this was how- 
 ever the only light carriage we or the C. had untill the summer 
 of 1822, when it was so farr Reduced by good service, that we 
 sold it for the sum of $5. 
 
 J W arived at Laussain, & boarded at the Tavern kept by 8 mo 
 Ab m Clutz Wm Zain had been up about i mo before, getting 
 out boat stuff &c 
 
 a?
 
 8 mo Began our Work in the River with 13 hands at the 
 
 mouth of Nesquehoning Creek, this Creek being the dividing 
 point between the 2 Grand sections, viz. 
 
 9 mo Had Riged 2 scows 30 to 35 feet long by about 14 ft wide for 
 
 Lodging & Eating Room of our hands about 70 
 
 in number 
 i scow about 30 ft long 14 wide for Managers 
 
 Countshouse Store House & their dwelling, 
 i D " 25 ft long for Kitchen & Bake House 
 
 These 4 scows or boats were Rais'd i story say 6 ft & a cov d 
 with board Roofs. 
 
 In those boats we plased all our Hands, Stores Tools & 
 Equipage & call'd the fleet Whitestown on Lehigh, (except'g 
 2 or 4 horses in the service for hailing wood &c for the Oven 
 & Kitchen) and as it was our desighn to make the River 
 navigable with small wing dams & channel walls, a Single 
 Rift would not keep 100 hands perhaps more than i to 6 days, 
 so that as we finished the work at one place we mooved down 
 with our Floating Town to the vicinity of the next Job &c. we 
 continued all Hands of us living in our floating Town untill 
 we were Froze up in the Ice. Our Hands wasted our pro- 
 visions, which subjected them to a general Reprimand, when 
 those who were uncontious of being guilty asked our consent 
 to making a cob Law to aid us in checking that & numerous 
 other impositions, among these Ordinances where the foils 
 
 "Any Hand that took more Victuals on his plate than he 
 coul Eat, was t be cobed, he was also to be cobed for 
 Running or going any way uncivel to his meals. 
 
 For any hand going into the Kitch without due 
 liberty, & centinal was placed at the door as a guard 
 to the cook &c &c. 
 
 28
 
 While we boarded at Laussane, the Hands on First day 
 (being a day of leisure) as usual must needs kill time with 
 sport, as usual, a number of them got drunk & then quarrel'd, 
 drove the Landlord out of his House broke his Windows &c 
 &c Hauto untill then allways when he Rode out on Hors- 
 back had a pr of hosslers & Pistols on the saddle & shew'd a 
 very Milatary defence, but on this occation was wise en to 
 keep those weapins out of sight. 
 
 The improvements Runs through a Wilderness country 
 the Hands came from all nations & Strangers to us. We con- 
 cluded it most prudent to go Clad, in similar Garbs with our 
 Hands. Each of us got a complete suit of Buckskin Cloths 
 (Roundabout, vest coat, & Trou & having no fixt (being a 
 moveable town) Habitation kept on hand but little cash & 
 to our hands we agreed on taking them to pay allways in. 
 checks, which we directed the Banks not to pay unless Sign'd 
 by at least two of us, (either two) so that if any of our wild 
 hands caught either of us alone in the Wilds he had no induce- 
 ment to waylay us, for money we were known to have none & 
 Checks Required the Signature of two of the Managers. 
 
 The Managers never met with any molestation from the 
 Hands, but when they were out in the country where they 
 was unknown in their usual attire, they were vew'd Sometimes 
 as Suspitious persons. 
 
 1810 
 
 JW. & G F A H. Set off from the floating town in a 10 mo 
 small boat, for the City to form a Coal Company. We 
 examined the River Lehigh & Delaware to tide. 
 
 At Yardlyville we arived in our Box Boat perhaps 6 ft 
 wide & 10 or 12 ft long i foot deep, we took our valices to 
 the Tavern. Hautos was old but a very shewy looks O ne, & 
 he carried in his hand a New Portfolio, (Red Morocca Cover), 
 which look'd too fine to belong to such appearences in Dress 
 as we made & perhaps not shaved for 3 or 4 days, our looks 
 
 29
 
 in our Regular dress now was any thing but like that of Gen- 
 tlemen, we had business 2 miles in the country & left our Box 
 boat tyed at the shore & our Valices &c in the bar & set off 
 this 2 miles. On our Return, our boat was taken to Jersey to 
 detain us & they examined Hotos Valice expecting to detect in 
 it some Robery, but find g nothing, & we scolding them, for 
 their impudence, we got off but not without strong suspitions 
 we were Robbers. 
 
 I then & since did not censure those people for Sus- 
 pecting us, because of Hotos making a display of his finery, 
 while he affected to be so perfectly independent & care- 
 less. Our dress was our usual M Chunk dress, Cap, Saylors 
 Roundabout, vest & pants, & Redflanel shirt, all of course 
 material, a dress that so effectualy disguised us, that we 
 seldom if ever was Recognized by our friends in Philad 3 . 
 unless we made ourselves known, so that I came home to the 
 City & Returned incog. 
 
 Henry, Josiah White, Geo Frederick Augustus Hauto 
 Erskine Hazard Brink, was the first male born at Mauch 
 Chunk. 
 
 The first shew of fine arts in Sundry paintings was 
 exposed to Vew, for 12 c ea in our Wheelwright shop at M 
 Chunk in ii mo 1823. 
 
 The first Preaching at a Public Meeting at Mauch Chunk 
 was by Henry Clark a Baptist Minister in the Wheelwright 
 Shop at M Chunk 3 mo 12, 1823. 
 
 Our first proposual was for a "Lehigh Navigation & Coal 
 Mine C." " 
 
 Capital Stock 200,000 divided in 200 shares. 
 
 White Hauto & Hazard each Reserve 50 shares for which 
 they assighn to the C. all their interest in in the Law & Lease 
 of the Coal lands. 
 
 30
 
 The 50 shares Remaining shall be invested in the Navi- 
 gation & Coal Mines & business connected therewith. 
 
 White H & H. pledge their 150 shares to the C. for the Our First Propo8al 
 whole nett profits of the C. be exclusively appropriated to 
 them untill they Receve 18 p C* pr annum on the amount of 
 their subscription. 
 
 When the nett profits exceed $9,000 or 18 p Ct the surplus 
 to be divided equally on the shares of White H & H untill 
 they Receive 18 p C* interest p* an m . 
 
 And when the profits exceed $36,000 pr an m the profits to 
 be divided equally on all the shares. 
 
 White H & H to manage & personally superintend the 
 business untill the navig n is completed & the Coal business 
 Reduced to a system for which each of them to Receive $1000 
 pr an The C may associate a person with W H & H. at 
 $1000 compensation, a Majority of the Managers govern the 
 affairs of the 6>. 
 
 Should $50,000 be insuffitient, additional shares shall be 
 created, subject to the same Regulations as the 50 shares now 
 subscribed for. 
 
 W H & H & the subscribers shall be at liberty to Sub- 
 scribe the additional stock in the proportion to the original 
 shares they may hold. 
 
 If any of the subscribers decline advancing their propor- 
 tion to the New Stock, White H & H engage to make up the 
 defitiency. 
 
 Each share entitled to one vote. 
 
 Dividents of the nett profits (Reserving a contingent fund 
 to meet contingenes of the C) shall be made Semiannually. 
 
 On the above terms David Sellars & family Subscribed 
 $10,000 & a few other Subscriptions was made, but to Satisfy 
 all parties & to ensure the Stock filling up, It was proposed 
 that David Sellars & Samuel Gibson, should go up Lehigh & 
 
 31
 
 D. Sellars ft Gibson 
 unfavorable Report 
 
 Effect 
 of Report 
 
 First proposals for 
 a Navign Co. only 
 
 to the Coal Mines to examine the whole & Report, their Vews 
 of the whole affair, & in yth month 1818, they according 
 Visited the property & made a boat & floated down the 
 Lehigh & I believe the Delaware River also, so as to enable 
 them to make a thorough Report. 
 
 They Reported the Coal Mines inexhaustible but that the 
 country was so Ruff between the River and the Mines, that 
 they found it an easement to Run over Stumps to avoid 
 Stones ! 
 
 That their Estimate of cost of improoving the River 
 was within our Estimate. 
 
 This Report so completely alarmed the first subscribers, 
 that we gave up their Subscription, & Nath n Sellars Recom- 
 mended that we seperate the Navigation from the Coal & 
 make 2 Seperate C os . which alltho contrary to our notions of 
 Right we Submitted to, for the sake of starting the work 
 under his Recommendation, for he felt a freedom to Recom- 
 mend the Navig n on our plan. 
 
 We accordingly issued proposuals for our Navigation, 
 (without the Mines) viz 
 
 Capital Stock 1000 Shares of 50$ each 
 
 J White Hauto & Hazard assighn to in trust 
 
 for the C. all the benefits derived from the Navig" of the 
 River Lehigh granted to them their heirs & assigns viz the 
 whole profits derived from the navigation in each year, shall 
 belong to the Stockholders unless they exceed 25 p C* & when- 
 ever the profits exceeds 25 p C* in any one year, the excess 
 above 25 p C 1 shall belong in equal proportions to J White 
 Hoto & Hazard their heirs & assigns. 
 
 The Legal tolls composing the Revenue of the Navig n 
 shall never be Reduced without the express approbation in 
 writing of the sd J White H & H their heirs & assigns. 
 
 33
 
 J White Hoto & H, or the Survivors of them shall manage 
 and direct the business, untill the Navig n be completed, for 
 which they each shall Receive $1000 an^, the C. may if they 
 deem necessary appoint one to the 3 Managers to be asso- 
 ciated with W H & H who shall have the same authority & 
 devote the same attention & have the same salary as the other 
 Managers. 
 
 A majority of the Managers shall govern the affairs of 
 the C. after the Navig n is completed, be business to be con- 
 ducted by Six Managers, the C. to appoint 3 & W. H. & H. 
 each appoint one. 
 
 At Meetings of the Stockholders each share shall be 
 entitled to one vote, & the Interests of W H & H their Heirs 
 & assigns may be Represented by a number of votes for each 
 of them, equal to i/3rd the votes of the Stockholders. 
 
 This stock was taken in about 2 weeks, mainly under the Navign 
 Influence of David Sellars, Condy Raguet, John Stoddard & Stock taken 
 Jacob Shoemaker, & on or about the 18 of the 8 month 1818 
 we arived at Lausane & commenced opperations. We bought 
 a Horse & Dearbourn for $140 or 160, in which we went up. 
 
 We laid in stock of Camp furniture for perhaps 200 or 
 300 Hands, Composed of Sheet Iron Camp Kettles, Tin Cups, 
 pewter dishes, Iron tinn d spoons, & knives & forks, as the 
 Roads were bad, that all would be light & nothinf break & 
 cost little. 
 
 We made scow boats & covered them in for our lodging 
 & boarding, to pass down the River from Laussane, as we 
 made pur wings & channels, so that we allways had our 
 Home, at our work. 
 
 33
 
 At this time there was occupied at Laussane 
 Between Laussane & Lehighton 6 miles (none at 
 
 M Chunk) Fogleman & Soults, 
 Lehighton perhaps 
 Weissport Weisses 
 At Big Creek mouth 
 
 Jn D Bowman Henry B & Kelkners to Gap 
 At Gap 
 
 Hous 
 2 
 
 2 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 '7 
 
 of these there was 3 stone, 6 Frame 8 Log Houses & distance 
 13 miles. 
 
 discover a Rout We proceeded on with the Channels to about the 10 
 
 Creek for a Road Month & got down as low as Mauch Chunk & a number of 
 our freinds had been to see us, & the attention & economy 
 of our progress in the channels & we had examined the line for 
 a Road down Mauch Chunk Creek, which was so covered 
 with naked stone &c that no path was made along the Creek 
 & we had not lernt it was passable before we examined it our- 
 selves, & then was able to shew its advantages in a verry 
 unexpected manner, for previously the difficulty was con- 
 sidered verry great to get a good Road to M. Chunk. 
 
 W. H. & H. bought the M Chunk track on which, we 
 could make this Road, & 2 or 3 Coal Tracks which lay in & 
 adjoining the C. Coal tracts & all the land, not on s d tracts 
 for 2 miles on each side of Lehigh adjoin* M Chunk, to ensure 
 us the entire monopoly, & not to be interfered with after we 
 had opened the country. 
 
 In the io th . Month J White & Hauto went to Philadel- 
 phia to form the Coal C. so as to have the whole affair 
 posted up. 
 
 buy interfer- 
 ing track 
 
 Go to 
 
 Phila 
 to form 
 Coal Co 
 
 34
 
 Our friends were greedy to take the Stock in the Coal C. Coal Co. 
 
 easy 
 
 & we gave 20 p r C* to the Stockholders in place of 25 p r C* as formed 
 in the Navig n & in other Respects essentially the same. 
 
 We made a Stock of $100,000 & a Subscription of $55,000 
 as soon as our Conditions were written out. We Intending 
 to Join the 2 C os . the first good opportunity. 
 
 We proceeded to make our Turnpike of Sy 2 miles as pro- begin 
 
 our graded 
 
 posed, with a constant decent of 75 ft to too ft to the mile to Road 
 within 4 miles of M C. & then 50 to 75 ft a mile untill the level 
 struck Mauch Chunk Creek & then down the bottom of the 
 valley, about 100 or 150 ft a mile to the landing at Mauch 
 Chunk. No doubt this was the first uninterrupted decending 
 grade of 8 miles in America if not in world, embracing the 
 principle of never Rising. 
 
 In the Managers ist Report dated Mauch Chunk 12 mo lst R p rt { 
 
 Managers 
 
 31. 1818, they state that from the 19 Aug* to 19 Nov they 
 estimate they laid in the River 13,000 ft in length of Wall & 
 containing upwards of 16,000 ft of Stone, overcoming the 
 worst of the navigation in the lower Section & made it navi- 
 gable in all seasons of common low water, & they expect to 
 have it so far finished next season as to begin to collect tolls. 
 & from the progress made by the Coal C. a large business 
 may be expected in the River, as soon as the lower Section is 
 finished. 
 
 That of the 15,000 Doll 8 Rec d they have expended viz 
 for wages, 3,8 12.54 
 
 For accomodations, tools, provisions, 
 
 Lumber &c, 7,755-26 
 
 Salaries of Managers, 1,500. 
 
 Cash on hand, 1,932.20 
 
 $15,000.00 
 
 In 1819, was a year of great perplexity but finally Crowned 
 with Success. 
 
 35
 
 Discover 
 we have 
 not water 
 eno. 
 
 Discover 
 the plan 
 of Bear Trap 
 Lock 
 
 Our Camp 
 boats gone 
 
 New 
 plan of 
 encampg 
 
 We early this season discovered that the natural flow 
 of water in Lehigh, was insufficient to give us 1 8 in depth of 
 water & 20 ft in width as Required by Law. by the water sub- 
 siding much below the mark we had made, on the best inform- 
 ation we were able to procure from those on the River who 
 professed to know all about it. & we had but one great experi- 
 ment to make to give us water, by artificial freshets, & if we 
 fail'd in this our whole work must be exploded & abandoned. 
 
 I devoted myself for several weeks, especially to form a 
 plan of a Sluice that would answer us, to be cheap made, & be 
 safe in all stages of the water, & in which I providentally 
 Succeeded in producing the Lock or Sluice, called the "Bear 
 Trap", a name the Workman gave it, while we were experi- 
 menting with it, on M Chunk Creek above the head of lower 
 Broadway, to elude the enquiry of persons, who teased them 
 with wanting to know what we were making &c. &c. 
 
 We put up about 12 of these Locks & Dams this year, & 
 completely prooved them, so as to determine they would 
 answer our purpose. I took out a Patent for this Lock 12 mo 
 1819. 
 
 Our boats we used last summer & fall for ourselves & 
 hands & whole camp, with mooved down as our work pro- 
 gressed having gone off with the Winters Ice & freshets, we 
 changed our plan by procuring ^ in boards 15 or 16 ft long 
 which we battened together & broke joints, Making a Battow 
 about 6 ft wide by their length, of these we put as many 
 together of Tent form as would accommodate 40 to 60 hands, 
 being the number we alotted to erect a Bear trap lock & Dam 
 in 40 to 60 days, & when the Job was done they, the hands took 
 them down, (4 men to a battow) & made a Raft of them to 
 carry down their camp equipage, in this way, we could 
 Reerect accomodations for a comp? of hands of 40 to 60 in 
 about one hour, handy to their work on the River Shore as 
 
 36
 
 well as save a Team to cart the furniture &c. Our improve- 
 ments this year extended to the Lehigh Gap. As we lived 
 with the Hands 200 or 300, nearly all of whom were entire 
 strangers to us, we adopted the plan of Dress, most befitting 
 our Hands, viz Red flannel shirts, Round about over coats & 
 Caps & strong shoes with holes cut in the toe to let out the 
 water, as our work was generally in the water 7 to 8 months 
 in the year, & my portion of it to lay out the Walls & Chan- 
 nels in the River by piles of Stone as marks &c. The first 
 2 or 3 years we had no fether Bed or matras on our Work, 
 the Managers as well as all Hand slept in Bunks, of unplained 
 pine Boards, & Blankets, some had Straw & others the plain 
 board, to sleep on. I left my Gold watch chain at home & care to avoid 
 substituted it with a leather shoe string And to prevent or per 
 discourage attacks on us for money, we paid our hands in 
 i- 2- 3 & 5 Dollar printed checks on Allentown Bank mainly 
 that being the nearest to our work. & these checks was 
 sighned by 2 of us to prevent their one of us by himself & 
 coercing us to sighn checks. So that our Clothing of coarse 
 Cloth or Buckskin tanned in oil to allow our going in the 
 water and dry on us &c. presented no object for attack, & 
 nothing valuable was seen about us & we professed to carry 
 no money about us & we never was personally molested. 
 
 I was in the water in Summer perhaps as much as out of Exposure in 
 it for about 3 seasons & my cloths dried on my back, except 
 they were wet in the evens & then I put dry cloths on. After 
 going in the water I kep up my circulation by walking about 
 my business &c &c & never took cold but once & then after 
 wading across Lehigh & Returning on a very warm day, I 
 was tired set down in the cool shade to Rest & this gave me a 
 severe cold which settled in my face which nearly overcome 
 me, & was laid up several weeks. 
 
 37
 
 $50000 
 eno on 
 original plan 
 
 Water failing 
 
 1819 
 
 Buy Lumber- 
 Land &c 
 
 Why Have eno 
 Lumber 
 
 We believe from our Experience that the $50,000 sub- 
 scribed for the Navigation would have been suffitient to have 
 made a Channel Navigation as at first intended, & which we 
 should have adhered to. If our water had been Suffitient 
 without artifitial freshets, as we were tought to believe it 
 was ample by the most informed persons we met on the 
 Lehigh. 
 
 But the water failing we were Required to Resort to 
 Dams &c for artifitial freshets, & to make a more perfect 
 job in a future year for our Coal we made a Dam at the 
 Slates & 37 miles below M Chunk which alone cost about 
 $40,000. 
 
 This year 1819 we fully prooved by our Artifitial Navig n 
 the ability to make a Regular Navigation, by which we could 
 send coal en to market & send it Regular to proove wether 
 the market would take such a quantity as would justify a 
 better than a mere descending navigation by Slack water 
 Canals, Locks &c. or wether we so limited in Sales as to con- 
 fine us allways to the present Decending navigation, & to 
 meet this Contingincy we bought on a Credit of several years 
 (for we had no money to spare excepting what we could spare 
 out of our saleries of $2,000 a y r to each for Managing both 
 Coal & Navigation C 08 .) 
 
 Our plan was & which we effected, was to buy en 
 Lumber land (say about acres) to answer our purpose 
 
 forever, for a decending navigation, if the market would not 
 take much Coal, & all was yet to be tryed, & if the market 
 took a large quantity of coal, as we hoped it would & that. 
 it would increase gradually, alltho this might take all our 
 Lumber in time, it would last untill we could made the 
 accending navig n & then we should not Require it, or much 
 of it. So that wether we Succeed d or not in sell* coal largely, 
 we thus provided an full supply of Lumber- for a failure 
 
 38
 
 in the supply of Lumber, would have been as fatal to us, as a 
 failure in the Coal mines. 
 
 In the purchase of these Lands however, I Run the prin- My 
 cipal Risque, for my partners Had no means, one E.H. lost 
 all the Estate his Father gave him at the falls, & Hauto Hoto an 
 
 , imposter 
 
 prooved an imposter & never had anything, that we heard of 
 
 (to Rely on). My Property was at the Falls of Schuylkill, 
 
 which might or might not sell. The City I knew needed it 
 
 to Raise water to Fair Mount, to supply it with Schuylkill 
 
 water in the place of their Expensive Steam Engines, & they 
 
 had Refused to buy of us & the Navigation C. had Refused 
 
 to let us moove our Dam to supply the City with water. I 
 
 could do no more than to Inform the Public, of the great inform the Public of 
 
 value & savings of this Water Power of mine & J. Gil m at b^wauf Power* 
 
 the falls of Schuylkill, & the Great loss they sustained by not 
 procuring it, & let the Public Rest under the burthen of their 
 Condition. 
 
 I wrote a number of pieces & answered them on this 
 subject. I gave a History of the Cost to the City allReady 
 of supply^ them with water making it amount to up to 8 mo 
 1818 $1,388,665 which the Aurora published & Poulson 
 Refused. 
 
 & one time coming to the City to see my family there fell 
 a shower (in a dry time) of about one inch in depth, which 
 was verry Refreshing to the Citizens, I took advantage of it 
 & Published the next day that the City by Resorting to the 
 Water Power at the Falls could make an Artifitial Shower all te n them 
 over the City Streets, every day, if the Choose by Resorting a r t 
 to this cheap & abundant power &c &c. 
 
 And by Deed of 7 April 1819 the Councils of the City 
 bought my & J. G. property at the Falls, for $150,000, of Se u Falu 
 which g/i6th was mine & 7/16 J Gillinghams, & with this to Phila 
 I was able to pay off all my Debts & en left to make me 
 
 39
 
 Saved 
 myself 
 
 in tale 
 
 Reflection! 
 
 Success 
 of our 
 Plans 
 
 whole, together with a moderate salary for the 7 years labour 
 there. & J Gillingham also saved himself & a few thousand 
 Dollars profit. 
 
 Had I Realized this sale of the Falls of Schuylkill before 
 I had made my engagements up the Lehigh I have no doubt, 
 nothing however promising there could have induced me to 
 begin & prossicute that Work. I would then as I did when 
 I quit the Hardware business in 1808, felt that I had en of 
 this Worlds goods, & would have felt it my place to have 
 enjoy d it free from all necessarily Personal labour in the most 
 discreet manner under a kind Providence that he would allow 
 me to do. I then was blessed with a beloved Wife & Children 
 & should now have felt having escaped a Sea of trouble, by 
 getting through with my scrape at the Falls, & that I had 
 exposed myself en, to now enjoy life with thankfulness with 
 my family, in the most Rational way Kind Providence would 
 permit me, & permit us to do. But Providence ordered it 
 otherwise, as I was completely engrafted in the great & 
 extensive engagements on the Lehigh long say about a year 
 before, I sold at the Falls, & Here the Plans & Most of their 
 practical carrying out was Mine, as well as all the monied 
 Responsibility, which was considerable in the purchase of 
 lands &c. exceeding $23,000. The Scribbing &c Erskine & the 
 perverse & Hiprocrital impositions was Hautos, instead of 
 the Capital he was to Raise. Hence it would be Ruenous to 
 my engagements here as well as injurious to the interest of 
 those who had Confided in us by their subscription. So as to 
 have made it dishonorable in me to leave the concern, untill 
 it was completed agreeable to expectations, or as near as 
 we were able to make them. 
 
 Late in the Fall of this year 1819 we had the Satisfaction 
 to practically proove our System of Artifitial freshets would 
 completely answer. But here again we had to encounter 
 
 40
 
 another Dilemma as by the close of this year, we had disbursed 
 the whole of our Capital Stock of $105,000, & a number of our Through 
 Dams were not covered in & the Locks not Sufficiently pro- capital 
 tected against the Ice freshets of Winter for want of Hands 
 en, and as ours was the first effort in Penns a to employ so 
 great a number of Hands in a Wilderness, it was impossible 
 to tell how we could succeed in getting hands, untill we made 
 the tryal, & to not put up en of our work to proove its prin- 
 ciple this fall would have been fatal against getting any more 
 capital to finish it, to do this we had to spread our work over 
 a sufficient line for the experiment & Risque, the early part 
 of winter being mild en to perfectly enclose or cover the 
 work, against Ice freshets. 
 
 Notwithstanding we had spent all our Capital, It would 
 have been Ruenous, to have broken up & disbanded all our 
 Hands & this would have confirmed the Public in what they 
 had predicted of another failure in us!! We therefore kept 
 as few Hands through the winter of 1819-20 as we could well . 
 
 I supply Hands 
 
 do with & I supplied the necessary funds, through winter & durin g winter 
 untill we got another subscription, & the public knew nothing 
 of our pecuniary difficulties. 
 
 The work being tried & fully answering our expectations, 1820 
 as the cap stone to giving us an ample Supply of water, with- 
 out which our work would have been a total failure, elevated 
 Hauto so much that He concluded on a visit to Harrisburg, 
 
 rioto goes 
 
 to evince to our Ledgeslature, how well they had hit it, in to Hamsbg 
 giving 71 miles of the River Lehigh & a fall of our 1200 feet 
 in fee simple to him & his companions for improovement in 
 which there had been so many futile attempts before us. 
 
 He equiped himself in our Regular Court suit, viz a com- 
 plete suit of Leather (Buckskin, tann'd in oil) say Round 
 about, vest, & pataloons: Red flannel shirt a large Fox skin 
 Cap, with the foxtail sticking out behind, & with much per-
 
 swartion he gave out taking a large pair of Fishermans Boots, 
 thus equip'd (on a Good Horse) he vow'd himself the leader 
 of the 3 great "Lehigh putzers" & as he had made the mem- 
 bers when we got the Law 2 winters before believe that He 
 was worth $500,000 in his German Estate, he now was carry* 
 out the proof of it, by the Successfull prossecution of our great 
 work. His strange appearance brought out the children in 
 crowds after him as he passed some of the towns calling 
 him the "Bellsnakle" to get clear of these & still more excite 
 their wonder He Rode up to a Cake house & bough out the 
 whole stock of cakes & came out & Sew'd them as the farmer 
 sews grain among the children When they all exclaimed it 
 was the "Good Bellsnakle." This was Hotos tack & glory 
 perfectly & he could shew himself out to the Dutch Ledges- 
 lature & to children to excite wonder perhaps as well as 
 any man. 
 
 But for any practicable use to our Great work he was not 
 
 only of no use but of great disuse, as he helped the cause 
 
 nothing except to injure our Credit, which was exceedingly 
 
 ticklish, especially at this time. His carousal & foolish dis- 
 
 ice Freshet plays at Harrisburg was however of short duration. An Ice 
 
 & Dams freshet soon came & carr* 1 off 6 of our Small Dams & locks 
 
 &c break 
 
 that had not been covered in, in the preceding fall. 
 
 But this great Calamity, as appear'd to the Public & espe- 
 cially to Hauto, frightened him exceedingly, but it confirmed 
 most completely the other 2 Managers, that the principle we 
 had adopted for making Dams & Locks secure against Water 
 & Ice freshets was a perfect one, & that it was now in our 
 power to make Dams & Locks in the Lehigh entirely safe. 
 & which loss was of much more value to us, than the winters 
 passing over without harm, to our works. Nothing went off 
 that was covered in, and the bottom logs 18 in to 24 in di* 
 which extended 6 or 10 ft below the dams to Receive a lower 
 
 42
 
 slope, mostly broke or was worn off by the Ice pich* on them. 
 But what was of most value, this calamity enabled us to get 
 Rid of Hauto, which If we could not effect I had made up my 
 mind to leave the concern, however much I should loose by 
 this course. I was with my family in Philad a . at the time, 
 Erskine only was on the Lehigh, & he informed Hoto & 
 myself of the disaster. I went up at once, & as I passed up 
 from the Lehi Gap to which our Dams &c had extended, I 
 examined & noted down all the Damages &c &c, so that I had i examine 
 all posted up when I got to M Chunk or Northern liberties, 
 there being no house at M Chunk, & we Resolved to make 
 use of the Disaster to dispose of Hoto. He at once Returned Hoto 
 from Harrisburg, & on ariving at M Chunk, instead of 
 examening the work to see what Damage was done, He 
 moped about as one in great distress, for about a week & did 
 not to my knowledge examine a single breach 
 
 After giving him a weeks time to examine the work & 
 breaches for himself, I told him, that as we was out of money, 
 & so much of our works destroy" 1 , we should not be able to 
 procure more money, while He continued connected in the 
 C. And proposed He should at once go to Germany & pro- i propose 
 cure the needfull credentials, to satisfy us he was not impost 
 on us by his declaring to us he had an Estate there of 300,000 
 to 500,000, which he could controul by going there. I proposed 
 he should at once leave the Board (or I would) go to Germany 
 & make this proof. We 2 would take care of the Lehigh &c 
 in his absence without Charge to him & on his Return with 
 the proofs Satisfactory to us, we would not ask him to put 
 any of it in the Lehigh. he might then Resume his present 
 position in the Board & the public would also see with us 
 that he was an Honest & honerable Man, & all would be well. 
 
 He declined going pleading he would never go as a 
 Poor man. I concluded at once as I had fear'd so much before 
 
 43
 
 that he was an imposter. I asked him how he could impose 
 himself so on me with a young family, his Reply was he had 
 a Right to do the best he could for his own interest, or words 
 to this purport. We were perhaps a day making a bargain. 
 I proposed going out & give him up the concern, He Replied 
 I cant manage it & you must, finally I told him_we would 
 give him l / 2 cent a bushell on all the coal sent to market by 
 buy the present Lehigh Coal Co. & $3000 cash for the whole of his 
 
 ou t claim on it, & the property we had bought together; & if he 
 
 did not comply at once I would give judgment & sell us all 
 out for the amount I was then in advance for the Compy for 
 the Winters expenses, this brought him to, & we made a 
 written agreement accordingly on the 7 march 1820. 
 
 Thus we got clear of a man, who by an extraordinary 
 course of action had imposed on us, as well as most of his 
 His acquaintance. He was a litterary man, understood 6 lan- 
 
 guages with talents for intreague, so much that he entirely got 
 the blind side of us, Had excellent conversational Powers, 
 could make out his tales as he went along without any truth. 
 He appeared like a plain plodding industrious man & fond of 
 mechanics, E. Hazards family had known him a number of 
 years. He imposed on John & Cha 8 Wistar of Germantown 
 $6000, which he borrowed of them, to carry on a great sulphor 
 business at the Virginia Coal Mines, by his good address, & 
 fool'd it all away in Germantown &c without, makeing any 
 effort to begin those works. 
 
 He had the nack of keeping in the good graces of many 
 of our wealthy families in Phil 3 , from whom he also borrowed 
 money. 
 
 He had the power of ingratiating himself so much, that 
 he lived years with M. Ritter in Germantown without 
 paying his board. 
 
 44
 
 Abeel Abbott who had the charge of Running our first 
 Boats down Lehigh, on Returning by Germantown, put up 
 at Ritters, & on the Landady find g they were from M Chunk 
 asked if they knew Hauto, & finds it was he that was engaged 
 in those works, s d she allways thought Hauto was an honest 
 man & would pay her for his boarding wen able that he had 
 boarded with her a great while & had not paid her. This 
 alarmed Abeel & C. as they had been made believe by Hoto, 
 that he was the great Capitalist for carrys O n the Lehigh, who 
 they now found had not cleared his own teeth. 
 
 This adventure like to have broke us up, but as we all- 
 ways paid on demand all claims on us they continued with us, 
 but concluded to be prudent & kept their accounts cosely 
 paid up. 
 
 Hauto had got so much in the practice of stateing as facts, 
 without Relation to truth, that, he discovered an impossibility 
 to tell the Truth! & if he was sent out on business along the 
 River had the prudence of taking a favourite Irishman with 
 him to Report for him the facts, as he could not Rely on 
 himself. 
 
 Of all our troubles, Hoto was the heaviest load we then 
 carried. I am thus particular not to injure the character of 
 a fellow, man, now no more, as some appoligy is due for asso- 
 ciating with such a character, as he turned out to be, for untill 
 he got into us with our Law &c, he appeared to us just the 
 man we could desire for our novel enterprise. Hauto cost the 
 C. about $40,000, the n or 12000 acres of coal lands about 25 
 to 30,000. 
 
 The whole of Hautos claims has since been bought by the 
 Lehigh C.&N.C . who have also bought the Fee simple in all 
 the Old C os . Coal lands by buying out their stock. Efforts 
 
 Our next great job was to Raise more money as we had 
 spent all the C os . Capital, but here was a difficulty, as the 
 
 45
 
 Managers 
 Censured 
 
 Offer 
 to loan 
 $10.000 
 
 the 2 Cos 
 amalga- 
 mated 
 
 New 
 sub- 
 scriptions 
 
 1820 
 
 First 
 Coal 
 Goes to 
 Market 
 
 work in, to, to, was experimental & thus far the Capital was 
 gone, that, was to have completed it, & nearly i/srd of all our 
 Dams broken by the Ice freshet, prooving thus far, that we 
 were taking the same Road to Ruin of all our predecessors. 
 
 As I have mentioned we had formed 2, Companies, viz a 
 Navigation & a Coal C. & both C. censured us their Man- 
 agers for spending their Money Wastefully. The Navigation 
 C. charged us for spending it wastefully by spending it so 
 fast, by hurrying it, to accomodate the Coal C. And the 
 latter C. complained because the Navigation was not then 
 entirely finished, so as to send down their coal &c. &c. 
 
 Most of the Stockholders in one were Stockholders of the 
 other C. & we found they took sides, with the stock their 
 interest preponderated, if it was only 200 or 300$. 
 
 One influential Stockholder said he would be one of 10 
 to Subscribe $10,000 to finish the work & proove the value 
 of the Coal &c if the C. would mortgage, to them the whole 
 of their property. But few join d him & not en. 
 
 It was finally concluded to amalgamate the 2 C os . which 
 was done 21 April 1820, on the express condition that $20,000 
 of the Stock should be subscribed to & the new Stock called 
 "the Lehigh Navigation & Coal C." 
 
 This small increase of stock was with Difficulty obtained 
 & not untill $12,000, of it was taken by White & Hazard. 
 More than $6000 of it I had advanced to carry us through the 
 winter. 
 
 This year, 1820, the Dams & Locks were Repaired & the 
 first anthracite Coal sent to market by Our Artifitial Navi- 
 gation, & the whole quantity sent this year was 364 tons & 
 this prooved more than en for family suppliy in Philad*. & 
 the C. was in debt to the Rollen Mills &c for taking of this 
 Stock alltho the C. never asked more that $8.40 a gross ton 
 whereas the previous C. to ours asked as much as they could 
 
 46
 
 get for it, & they got $21, a ton, the consequence was the 
 Public would not put up furnaces to burn it at such extravi- Difficulty 
 gant price, as $21. This seemed to confirm the doubtfull in 
 the beginning, who admitted we had plenty of Coal, but that 
 the prejudice of the Community, would be against its family 
 use, & which apprehension seemed now to be confirmed. 
 
 during this season of 1820 we again got through the funds 
 of the C. again & I loaned the C. for all deficeines untill 
 further Stock was subscribed, & which was not till the i st 
 May following. 
 
 The difficulties to sell more Stock seemed to increase. 
 Our capital had been enlarged up to $125,000, the Citizens of 
 P a . did not incline to favour the introduction of our Coal in 
 families, & many of our stock holders said our money was all 
 threwn away, for, if we finally made the River navigable & 
 works safe & which they much doubted, the community would 
 not burn our Coal, & it was not believed that all the other 
 articles using the navigation would be & a new difficulty on New 
 the River had presented, at the place call'd the Slates, where d 
 Slate Ridges Run across the River, where It was 400 or 
 more feet in width with a general level top except^ full of 
 small breakes throu the Ledges. Over which we had carried 
 our Channels. But it was found the wing walls being so 
 lengthy through the slate Ridge they would not hold water 
 en in the channels so that the cheapest improvement was in 
 the opinion of the Managers a Large Dam, which they esti- 
 mated could not be completed for less than $20,000. 
 
 The difficulty of Raising a further subscription was so 18 2i 
 great as not to be effected before i May 1821, & then under 
 the foils extraordinary circumstances that $50,000 more was 
 subscribed, viz. New 
 
 All the old subscribers agreed that the subscription to the ^""P 4 
 
 ion of 
 
 $50,000 which was called new stock should in future draw fso.ooo 
 
 47
 
 all the income or profit of the C. untill they got 3 p C* semi- 
 
 anual divident & then the balance of the profit went to the old 
 
 stockholders untill they also Rec d the same, and the stock to 
 
 3 stocki allways continue this way untill there was a profit en to pay 
 
 graded all a 3 p C' semianual divident & thence the stocks to be equal 
 
 &c &c 
 
 The stock subscribed as above mentioned was $125,000. 
 White & Hazard, contended that their Revertionary Interest 
 was worth fully this sum. It was in the following Items, 
 viz: 
 
 i They had all the profits from Tolls & Coal exceed 8 20 
 PC'. 
 
 2nd. They had all the Water power under the Law as they 
 only gave the ist 20 p C* of tolls &c to the C. 
 
 3 They Had the Whole of the Lumber Land which was as 
 necessary to the C. as the coal, for without this Lumber, the 
 Coal could not be got to market & it took for the arks at least 
 500 ft board measure for ea Ton of coal. 
 
 4 White & Hazard owned all of M Chunk Track not neces- 
 sary to the Navig". 
 
 All the Kettle track i l A miles along the River Shore oppo- 
 site Mauch Chunk. 
 
 The Track which the Hotel is on. 
 
 500 acres Coal land, up Room Run, "Elizabeth Weiss," 
 50 " Do in Painter Creek Valley & lower 
 
 Saw Mill, 
 
 400 " Dunn & Weinder track, 
 
 About Half of the old Coal Mine Shares which J. White 
 bought, & could have bought nearly the whole stock. 
 
 White & Hazard proposed to put all this in at what it 
 cost them to the Stock of the C. at the same as the Stock of 
 the C. had been in advance for viz $125,000 The C s d it was 
 worth nothing, as the whole was a failure. I Reply'd it would 
 
 48
 
 be a failure if no more was subscribed, but if they succeeded 
 then ours would be of equal value to theirs. However I told 
 them, we wanted nothing more than it was worth & if they 
 would make our Stock 150,000 instead of 125,000, we would 
 agree to let them Receive the first 3 p C* semianual divident 
 & then we Receive up to 3 p C* & when all got 3 p C 1 , all 
 should be equal from that time. & in this way it was fixt & 
 our whole Interest amalgamated & invested in the Revertion- 
 ary stock of the 3rd. grade & this Stock was equalized in 
 1826. 
 
 And in addition White & Hazard gave a bonus of their whitc * H 
 
 give 
 
 Revertionary Stock of $10,000 to the new subscribers. $10000 
 
 On obtaining this subscription the Slate dam was immedi- 
 ately commenced, but before it was entirely finished a large * 
 
 Dam 
 freshet occured & carried part of it away. 
 
 It was believed at the close of this year that as our Work 
 was still an experiment, both as to effecting the navigation & 
 making it permanent & that the market for take coal suffitient 
 to endemniy us for our disbursemens was still doubtfull, 
 for alltho we ship d down this year 1073 tons, still the con- 2d Year 
 sumption in families in P a . &c was insufficient to take this ^ ped 
 small quantity but the balance we sold to factores. 1073 ton * 
 
 Therefore the Managers was of the unanimous opinion 
 that more money could not be Raised for the C. as all the 
 C os . property was pledged to the last subscription of the 
 $50,000 & the C. had no new security to offer unless they 
 obtained a charter of incorporation, so as to Risque no more 
 than the stock any individual might subscribe. 
 
 The C. obtained a charter of incorporation i3th. Feb. 1822 
 
 Co gets a 
 l822. Charter 
 
 In the years 1822-23 we perfected our decending navi- 1322-23 Co 
 gation in the Lehigh & Contributed about 4 or 5000 Doll 9 , to 
 improve the channel of the Delaware River. 
 
 49
 
 Necessity 
 of Channels 
 to the 
 Pine Forrest 
 
 at 
 
 Difficulties 
 
 About this time we contrived the present plan of Scales 
 with the Dish Resting on 4 knife edge fulcrums & compound 
 Lever of knife edge fulcrum for weighing our Coal waggons, 
 the old plan being much too tedious, this plan of Scales has 
 since obtained general use, from small scales up to weighing 
 Loaded Boats. 
 
 Inasmuch as by our decending navigation we got but one 
 trip out of our boats when they where knocked up & con- 
 verted again into Lumber after discharging their Coal in 
 Philad*. we found it was impossible to continue our Coal 
 business even in the then small way, unless we, clear* 1 out and 
 contracted the channel as high up the River as the Pine 
 Forrests, which was about 14 miles above Nesquhoning Creek 
 (16 miles above M Chunk) 
 
 This however was no small job for it was to be effected 
 over Rapids that had formerly been abandoned, as a work 
 impossible to accomplish; in this 14 miles there was a fall 
 or Rise in the River exceeding 300 ft. & the Rocky bottom 
 was peculiarly hard & difficult, & so forbidding was the 
 shore that Horses had never been got down to this section of 
 the River except in two places. & to supply our Hands in the 
 channel, it was necessary to begin at the up r end and work 
 downwards & send provisions & supplies to our Hands by 
 a Road about 18 miles Round to the mouth of Laurel Run & 
 then put it on a box boat & go down the chan 8 to the work 
 men. 
 
 No Raft had ever before our channel was done Passed 
 down the River from above the Nesquhoning, & from Nes- 
 quho* down before our channel was made it was only navig- 
 able for Rafts, in time of High freshets. 
 
 The Managers attempted to get plank for their boats 
 down from the Forrest to M Chunk before the channels were
 
 made, but the tryal prooved that the plank wore out or got 
 broke against the Rocks before they got down to MChunk. 
 
 Their next Resort was to throw in saw Logs singly in 
 the Forrest, drive them down in high freshet by push* them 
 off the Rocks when they got fast, but it frequently happened 
 when they got a large quantity within a small distance of 
 MChunk, a high freshet would occur & sweep the greater 
 part down the River beyond our controul, in fact we lost so 
 much Logs & Lumber by freshets that, when the C. were 
 about settling Damages for their Canal The owners of places 
 where this stuff of the C drifted demanded Damaged 4 fold 
 the value of their Land because of the value of our drift stuff 
 & on a Reference to one of those cases, our man swore that 
 the Plaintif in question had supported his whole family by 
 the Drift lumber on his land (about i or 2 acres) & had money 
 over their support. 
 
 In the years 1822 & 1823, besides finish* the channel below Make 
 M.Chunk we made the channels up to the Pine forrest. 
 
 In 10 July 1823 our decending navigation on the lower 
 Grand Section was Reported completed according to Law 
 & the Commission appointed by the Govenor to make the 
 examination in Sept r 17 1823 the Governor issued his war- 
 rant to take toll according to Law. 
 
 No toll was charged by the C untill the year 1827, being NO toil 
 3*^ years, that the C. was authorized to charge toll, without Charged 
 charging one cent. The Beaver Meadow Coal alltho a Rival 
 was admitted & did pass considerable quantities down in 
 1825 & 1826, without a charge of one cent of toll, and all the 
 Pine forrest above MChunk would have been Locked up from 
 public use to this hour, had not the River been improved & up 
 to this hour the C. have not charged one cent of toll on 
 the up sec" alltho the public has had the Regular use of 
 it for Nine years, being a distance of about 14 miles. 
 
 Si
 
 1823 
 
 1824 
 
 Philada 
 Managers 
 object to sendg 
 over 3.000 tons 
 but we sent 
 9S41 tons 
 
 ft saved 
 the Co 
 
 In the year 1823 there was 5,823 tons of Coal sent down 
 the Lehigh & about 1000 tons of it was left on hand & unsold 
 in the follow 8 spring, & there still continued a disinclination 
 to use it much in families & folks in passing by our Coal wharf 
 constantly told us we had over stocked the market. 
 
 Early in the summer of 1824 the Managers f m Philad* 
 visited M Chunk when a meeting was held to consider how 
 much Coal the C would be safe in send 8 to Philad 3 when the 
 Managers f m Philad* were unanimous in the opinion that 2 to 
 3000 tons was en to send down, which with the stock on hand 
 at the close of the past Spring would be an ample supply? 
 they therefore desired the Acting Managers at MChunk to 
 limit their business to that quantity; in this however the 
 MChunk Managers dif d in opinion but they were permitted to 
 have their own way ; & they sent down this year the enormous 
 quantity as was then supposed of 9,541 tons, which large stock 
 produced no inconsiderable alarm among the parties inter- 
 ested in Philad*. it became proverbial this quantity would not 
 half be sold. This however turned out the most fortunate 
 occurrence, to our C & to the future prospects of the Anthra- 
 cite coal business, for the public now seeing so large a stock 
 on hand our price a uniform one of 8.40 Dolls a Gross 
 ton, began more generally to inquire about it, as a domestic 
 article that the supply of it seemed to be now ample, & likely 
 to be continued as a full supply, for small stocks had been left 
 on hand in the spring for the 2 preceding years, & now the 
 stock was deemed extremely large, being 3 times the quantity 
 supposed to have ever been sold in Philad*. of the Bituminous 
 Coal in one year. Stove makers & Grate sellers now, (the 
 Winter of 1824 & 25) for the first began to boast of having 
 preferable Patterns of Grates & Stoves for burning Anthracite 
 Coal. Some patriotic Ladies also began their sample fires of 
 Anthracite Coal: among them the Widow Guest in Sansom
 
 S* stood the most conspicuous, and of the Grate Sellers Jacob 
 F. Walters took quite a leading part & several others not 
 recollected. 
 
 This Winter 1824 & 25, may be considered the turning 1324 
 point in the use of Anthracite Coal, & made the C. begin to 
 think the Coal business would grow fast enough to Require 
 making an ascending Navigation, but here again was a diffi- 
 culty, there were several grade of preferences in the stock & 
 which required a 3 per cent dividend out of the net profits of 
 the C on all the grades to produce an equality which the 
 present business was not sufficient for. 
 
 The C sent to market 28,393 tons & the Schuylkill began 1925 
 & sent 7,143 tons. It was not till January 1826 that this desir- me 
 able event of equalizing the Stock took place. In 1826 the Co. 
 sent 31,280 tons of Coal to market. 
 
 In 1827 the C made their Rail Road of 9 miles in length 1827 
 it being the first Rail Road (exceeding a mile in length,) ever 
 made in Penns 3 . They began this Road in January & finished 
 it so as to regularly pass down Coal in May following. This 
 year, the C. sent to market 32,074 tons, the Road being 
 decending for 8 miles to M. C. The mules, which drew the 
 Coal Cars up grade, Rode down grade, & thus performed daily 
 trips of 40 miles. 
 
 In 1827 the balance of the stock was subscribed viz 
 500,000 dolls, but not without the greatest difficulty. The 
 Books were open one week or more for that purpose, a general 
 expose of the Coal business, present & prospective was given 
 by the C os engineers & subscription was headed by one of the 
 Managers (JWhite) for 50,000 dolls. & by several others for 
 large amounts, & notwithstanding it was strongly appre- 
 hended, & by many discreet folks predicted it would not sell, 
 we however succeeded but not without the greatest exertions 
 on the part of the Managers &c. 
 
 53
 
 In the Spring of 1827 it was finally concluded we were 
 strong enough to begin & prosecute the ascending Navigat n . 
 for the prosecution of that great undertaking the C. employ'd 
 Canvass White Esq. as the principal Engineer, he having 
 established a practical character for that profession equal to 
 any in our country; our next difficult point to decide, was the 
 size of the Navigation, whether it should be for boats carrying 
 a burthen of 25 tons, or for a greater burthen. Most of the 
 Engineers who had written on the subject in England & 
 America, recommended the 25 ton Navigation, & the Acting 
 Managers White & Hazard at M. Chunk, contended for a 
 Navigation sufficient for boats of 130 to 150 tons burthen: 
 they contended that as the Lehigh & Delaware afforded a 
 plenty of water for a Navigation of the largest class, it would 
 be Suicide to permanently deprive the C. & the public of the 
 very best application of all the means Nature had afforded 
 them as a debt due their C. & also due the Public; & par- 
 ticularly so, as our C. had Coal enough to supply the U. 
 States; & in our case as Coal would be, by far the greatest 
 article carried on the Canal, untill we connected with Susq a , 
 so that no boat need ever descend to Philad* with less than a 
 full load, let the burthen be ever so great ; for any balance of 
 a load could be made in Coal, without materially detaining the 
 boat to procure her lading, & that a large Boat would require 
 but the same Crew, as a small boat & consequently every ton 
 transported on the Canal, throughout time, might be carried 
 cheaper for this arrangement. The debate was carried on for 
 nearly one day & finally decided as has been since carried into 
 effect, by making the Locks conform to the size of the Dela- 
 ware & Chesapeake Canal, 22 ft wide, 100 ft long, & 5 ft depth 
 of water, & the width of Canal at bottom is 45 feet. 
 
 The Lehigh Canal was begun under the care of Canvass 
 White about midsummer 1827 & in the Fall of the same year 
 
 54
 
 the Delaware division of the Penns a . Canal was also begun; so 
 that it was but reasonable to suppose those respective works 
 would be finished on or about the same time & thus one would 
 aid the other, the Lehigh Canal & Locks are double the size 
 of the Delaware Canal & Lockage, more than twice as great 
 say as 360 ft is to 166 ft Lockage. 
 
 The Delaware Canal is however 60 miles long, & the 
 Lehigh, to Mauch Chunk 46 miles in length. The Lehigh 
 Canal was opened for Navigation on the 26 th . day of June, 
 1829; and the Delaware Canal is not yet navigable (Feb y . 
 1832), hence the Lehigh C. and the Public have been 
 deprived of the use of the Lehigh Canal, & the Delaware 
 Canal 2^ years, to the great loss of all parties, but more 
 particularly heavy on the Lehigh C. 
 
 The Commissioners appointed in due course by the Gov- 
 ernor, 26 th . June 1829, made their examinations of the works 
 on the Lehigh; & reported them complete according to Law, 
 as high as M Chunk July 3 rd . 1829 And on 8 th . July 1829 the 
 Governor granted authority to charge Tolls according to Law. 
 And on the 20 th . August 1829, the Managers decided on a 
 Tariff of Tolls to be paid on the Lehigh, to commence on the 
 24 th . of the same m. 
 
 This rate of Tolls where of course copied after those on 
 the Schuylkill, as that was the only C. in the State, in receipt 
 of Tolls on Canal Navigation, & intended to be the same as 
 theirs, & giving the Public the advantage of a larger Canal, 
 excepting in the article of Anthracite Coal, which article, then 
 interested no one, as none were sending coal but ourselves, 
 on account of the great land carriage our back neighbours 
 were subject to: & moreover this could be revised at any 
 time, when the Legislature made a Law, barring the State 
 from taking advantage of the reduction in the event of their 
 purchasing the Navigation, or rescinding their right to pur- 
 
 55
 
 chase. Thus far the C. has received no dividend, since they 
 made their Canal, & their stock could have been bought ever 
 since the Canal was made, from 90 to 105 p r c* for 100 paid, 
 so that if the C". had great advantages, citizens who wished 
 to possess them, & go into the Coal trade, have had the 
 opportunity to buy the Stock at more than 25 p r c t less than it 
 cost the Stockholders. The original Stockholders have lost 
 in the interest account upwards of 40 p r c*, after deducting the 
 dividends, and the last subscribers have lost 18 p* c 1 as no 
 dividend has been made the last 3 years, owing to the expense 
 of making our Canal, & to the procrastinated finish of the 
 Delaware Canal. 
 
 effect of The C. spent in their improvements & current Coal busi- 
 
 prlndpies ness upwards of 1,700,000 Doll 8 , at M. Chunk, before they had 
 
 any contention with any one to cause a resort to a Court of 
 Justice, which they presume will be admitted, as testimony 
 of a strong kind, that they have been both liberal & peaceable, 
 in the management of their extensive concerns. The C. have 
 up to this date (Feb. 1832) disbursed at M. Chunk, in their 
 improving, & current Coal business, exceeding the sum of 
 $3% millions, which was circulated in their own County of 
 Northampton, & the Counties adjoining, which large sum was 
 paid mainly for Hands, wages & provisions: & consequently 
 the whole country has been benefited. The current disburs 8 
 on coal this year (1832) is expected to exceed $300,000, nearly 
 all which is diffused through Northampton & the adjoining 
 counties. The business is greatly on the increase, & all this 
 work in a barren country. There are now 526 subscribers 
 to the Co 8 . Stock & Loan, & allowing 6 persons to each makes 
 3156 souls directly interested in the affairs of the Company. 
 These are all or mostly all American citizens, composed of 
 Rich & Poor, the Widdows & the Orphans, & added to these 
 is upwards of 500 workmen, in the daily employment of the 
 
 56
 
 C. throughout the season of business, & this year (1832) is 
 but the beginning of a navigation by Canal to tide; their 
 business is expected to increase several fold, & so the employ- 
 ment for Hands. 
 
 Say Loan & Stockholders & families to be 3.156 souls, 
 
 at M Chunk &c 1,500 
 
 4.656 
 The money the above spends supports an 
 
 equal number 4,656 
 
 Total souls now supported by the works of the C 9,312 
 
 The C have always declared they were in the pursuit of 
 a practical work, & which it is presumed their History fully 
 proves. They feel they have fulfilled the conditions of their 
 Law in Good faith, & that on the whole they have performed 
 their duty, which if not the most arduous of the kind in 
 the History of their country, it has been enough so, & that as 
 the Pioneer, in introducing one of the greatest staples Penns a 
 can boast of (Anthracite Coal,) making the best Canal as well 
 as the first Rail Road in the State, & introduced into usefulness 
 the cheap plan of making a navigation by artificial freshets. 
 In the upper Sec n 2 dams are made to supply an artificial fresh 
 a distance of 12 miles, & a fall of 336 ft, that they are entitled 
 at least to the equal protection of Law, in common with their 
 fellow citizens, & they dont think it their interest, or the 
 public interest, for them or for any to have more, even if 
 common honesty would bear out another course, but which 
 they very much doubt, (these last Remarks are made as a 
 disposition in our Legislature at this time 1832 was evinced 
 to encourage the Beaver Meadow C. & other interests in the 
 2nd Coal Region to persecute us, & break us down if in their 
 power) 
 
 57
 
 As the artifitial freshet Navig" is now abandoned & sub- 
 stituted by a Canal & Slackwater, It is due to give the char- 
 acter of that Navig". 
 
 The River had 12 small dams & Bear trap Locks of 3 to 
 6 ft high from M Chunk to the Lehigh Water Gap, say n 
 miles & 9 miles below at the Slates a large dam & Bear trap 
 lock 130 ft long 30 ft wide, made for a lift lock & 17 miles 
 below the Slates another Dam 6 or 7 ft high & accend* lock 
 like that at the Slates. 
 
 i man got on the front Coal ark at MChunk & Rode down 
 to the 2nd Lock then got off & had time to let down the gate 
 (tak* % to i minute) & then got on the foward boat again, 
 by this time there would be suffitient water, passed through 
 the Lock & the water above beginning to fall, they then 
 passed through to the next Lock when the same Lock tender 
 got off and let the lock down as before & then got on the ark 
 again, &c &c down through the 12 Locks to the Gap, & let this 
 last Remain down untill the pond Run down & then walked 
 back in the afternoon putting u all the Locks, so as to hold 
 water for the freshet the next day. 
 
 The opperation of this was that the water in one pond 
 made suffitient for to fill the channel to the other & so on to 
 the Gap, & the accumulation of the 12 ponds here carried the 
 fleet of 6 to 9 Boats or nests of arks down to the Slates, the 
 pond here being i mile long, which together with the water 
 from the 12 locks above carried the arks &c down to the 37 
 mile dam 17 miles below the slates & this would take them 
 to & down the Delaware, & give 4 inches fresh on the 
 Delaware 
 
 We have sent safely as many sections, as would make 190 
 to 200 ft in length. The average Boat say 140 or 150 ft long, 
 1 6 ft wide & sunk 14 or 16 in sections 16 to 25 ft long each 
 
 58
 
 & the whole Boat under charge of 2 front & hind ore & 3 
 Hands carr 4 70 or 120 tons. 
 
 In the 3 last years of using these boats, we avaraged 
 make in the whole of each season of 10 or 12 consecutive 
 miles of these boats, all made entirely from the Tree every 
 year, can* about 40,000 tons of coal a year 
 
 Our Lumber however held out as we had contemplated 
 untill we finished the accending navig n a Sett of hands would 
 make a single section in ^ hour, & 7 or 8 Boats of 5 to 7 Sec" 
 e a was a days work, the boards was plained by water & Plank 
 jointed by water at Laurel Run & by crank & man power at 
 M Chunk, the plank corked by ^ in Sqr White Pine Strips 
 put corner ways into the grooves to fit in the plank & the bal- 
 ance of corking was large Rushes brought from below Phil*. 
 & swngled tow for which we gave i c* a Ib. 
 
 The Boats were knocked to p 8 in Phil 8 & Lumber, sold, 
 & the Iron sent Back by team, costing us $15 to $1754 freight, 
 a ton 80 miles, this for the 80 miles is say 16 cents a Ton a 
 mile. Our Coal is now sent MC to Bristol 106 miles Includ* 
 toll & Freight for 1.24 cents a ton equal to i 17/100 cents a 
 ton a mile. Cist & Minor in 1816 p d $4 a ton Hallg Coal to 
 MC we now pay by Back track 15 cts a ton. 
 
 The Boatmen took their boats to Philad* & Walked back 
 mostly at first of latter years, they hired teams on the way to 
 bring them back faster. 
 
 On the 19 June 1838 the Accending Navig n on the Up* 
 Sec n of 5 ft water was completed & past inspection & C 
 authorized to take tolls &c &c. 
 
 The Decending Navigation f m Stodartsville to Wrights 
 Creek 12 21/100 miles being the extreme end of our limits 
 Reported by Com 8 as finished 27 Oct r 1837 & *he Goven r 
 authorized tolls on the same 2, Nov 1837. 
 
 59
 
 in 1840, the Rail Road from White Haven to Wilksb e was 
 completed (20 miles) so as to be passible & our Engines on 
 all the Planes, & we intended to put all in opperation in 1841, 
 but the flood on the Lehigh of 7 @ 8 Jan* 1841, overflow'd all 
 our work from Mudd Run to Easton & caused damages which 
 cost about $500,000 to Repair & increase its strength to be 
 secure against a similar flood, put off the final completn of this 
 Rail Road untill 1846. 
 
 The Back Track to our Mines by gravity, as I had sud- 
 gested many years ago, when we was consid* the best plan of 
 our Rail Road in 1826, was put in practical operation this 
 Spring 1846, together with my plan of the Safety Cars &c & 
 our mules on this Road of 8 miles all discharged. 
 
 The Iron Bands which I sudgested & made many experi- 
 ments on, answer well & 8 mo 1846, I now consider all the 
 great leading parts of the works of the C essentially com- 
 pleted & all prooven to answer well. 
 
 The Locks on the Lehigh of 3 times the ordinary hight, 
 pleagued us much to get engineers to take charge of building 
 them, a model of which I made & sent to our C office, to con- 
 vince our Board of the necessity of making them in that way, 
 owing to the Great Lockage on the Up r See" of Lehigh The 
 Lockage M Chunk to White Haven is 600 ft nearly, & distance 
 25 miles. 
 
 The ordinary Lift of Lock being 8 ft would give 75 locks, 
 this at 6 minutes passing a lock for 150 locks going both ways 
 is 15 Hours or nearly iy 2 days. Whereas by having the high 
 lift & about i /3d of the Locks we save a day to each boat in 
 mak g the trip allowing only 100 boats pass* a day of 200 days 
 at $3. valu of a boat & crew a day is $60,000 a year saved & 
 as it now is, a Boat makes a trip up, or down, in less than one 
 day, & the C. save 2/3rd of the Lock Tenders equal to $6,000 
 a year. One of our Locks is 30 ft lift & fills or emptes in less 
 
 60
 
 than 3 minutes. On applys to Engineers to carry out this plan, 
 they one & all objected ; some one plea, & some another, untill 
 I came to E. A. Douglass, our present Superintendent & 
 Engineer, & he on my nameing the plan to him agreed to it, 
 at once, & at once I employ d him. 
 
 One of the Engineers, E. M. I applied to, being more 
 candid perhaps than the others, told me he must be candid & 
 say, his objections to our employment, was, that he did not 
 think our plan of High lifts would answer! & advised us not 
 to make so great an experiment! I Reply 3 to him, that our 
 object in applying to him, was to do the work, & not to give 
 us a plan ! that we were too old in this kind of business to look 
 to our young folks for plans ! ! 
 
 The truth is, if we had adopted the old plan of Locks of 
 low lift, the work when done, would be too tedious in passing 
 the locks to be of any value, to our C or to the Public ; & as 
 it now is made, it is the cheapest Navig n of our two grand 
 sections to use, & much the least in cost of annual Repair. 
 And we have now lived to see the day that the public & 
 Engineers is as much opposed to small Canals & Small Locks 
 as they were at the beginning of our Canal, Opposed to Large 
 Canals & Locks. & the Rival Canals (Schuylkill & others) are 
 make their Canal & Locks over again to get them Large, so as 
 to meet our Rivalship & that of RailRoad. 
 
 It has been frequently said of latter years, that the Dela- 
 ware Canal was made for the accomodation of our Coal from 
 Lehigh &c & that we were consequently under great obliga- 
 tion to the State for making it &c & that they made the Locks 
 ii ft wide for our accomodation, whereas we wished them 22 
 ft the same dimentions as our own, but if they would not 
 make them of our size, as the alternative we advised them of 
 half our width, so that 2 boats going through our Lock at a 
 time, one of them would fit theirs & go one at a time. 
 
 61
 
 But our vew was not to Canal along the Delaware, but 
 to make channels & Slack Water, which is shown by this 
 Dft & Petition, which we got sighned & sent to Harrisburg in 
 the years 1823-24 & used all our influence to get a Law 
 passed accordingly. 
 
 With this plan we supposed it might take 6 to 12 locks 
 on the Delaware & the Rest mere channels. We expected to 
 get 4 ft water in lowest time & 5 at other times. & that it 
 would carry Steam or boats of 150 tons & for which we had 
 made 4 locks in advance on the Lehigh 30 ft wide & 130 ft 
 long so as to have a steam boat navig" of 150 tons burthen to 
 Mauch Chunk. Had we succeeded with this plan in 1824, 
 There can be little doubt the Lehigh would have sent $4 of 
 all the Anthracite Coal sent to tide, for many years to come & 
 more than probable forever & now been entirely out of Debt. 
 As we should have drawn the Coal Trade from Tuscarora & 
 perhaps from Pottsville as Potts ville via M Chunk to N York 
 is 202 miles & by Schuylkill to NYork it is 23 & Schuy 1 
 Navig n 25 tons & ours 150 tons. All of the 2nd. Coal Region 
 up Lehigh & all from Wilksb* & Wyoming Region. 
 
 62
 
 DELAWARE NAVIGATION 
 
 The above is a sketch of the plan proposed for the 
 improvement of the River Delaware, by the Lehigh Coal and 
 Navigation Company. 
 
 No. i Represents the kind of improvement to be adopted 
 at all the falls where the water can be made three feet deep 
 by means of wing dams (or by sinking the bottom of the 
 river) to confine it in an open channel, without making it too 
 rapid for a boat to ascend by the power of a steam engine 
 All such channels to be improved by the Company and kept in 
 repair at their expense and to be used by the public FREE 
 OF TOLL. 
 
 No. 2 Is an example of the improvement of a fall; where 
 the water would be too rapid for the ascent of a steam boat 
 by the power of her engines. In all such cases, a Lock, 
 thirty feet wide and one hundred and thirty feet long, 
 would be made at one of the shores, and all boats, 
 &c. using the Lock, either in ascending or descending 
 would be subject to toll. But at these places the present 
 channels would be left uninterrupted and free for the passage 
 of boats without toll. The work to be conducted in such a 
 manner that the use of the river by boats and rafts, on the 
 present plan, shall not be interrupted during any stage of its 
 progress. Opening can be left in the wings near the shore 
 to admit the upward passage of the Durham boats. 
 
 NOTE. The above plan guarantees the continuance 
 forever of a free open channel, improved and kept in repair 
 at the expense of the Company, except the channels in the 
 same fall with the lock, which will be left open as they now 
 
 63
 
 are. It also guarantees forever against any obstructions to 
 the usual running of the fish up the river No part of the 
 improvement overflows or injures private property. The mills 
 at present erected on the river will be secured in their titles, 
 and finally the river will be made capable of transporting a 
 greater amount of tonnage than any canal now in existence. 
 
 From the inspection of the map of Pennsylvania, it will 
 be evident that the improvement of the Delaware must be a 
 matter of deep interest to nearly one half of the population 
 of this State and of New York, as Canals, to connect it 
 with the Susquehanna and with the New- York grand canal 
 at the Seneca river are quite practicable, and this route would 
 have the advantage of being the shortest and of affording, 
 upon arrival at Easton, the choice of the two best markets 
 in the Country that of Philadelphia, by the Delaware and 
 that of New- York by the Jersey Canal. 
 
 The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, have pro- 
 posed this plan, and are desirous it should be adopted, either 
 by the state on its own account, or by a new incorporation, or 
 if neither of these are willing to undertake the task, they ask 
 the liberty of doing it themselves. If the state would under- 
 take it, and make the LOCKS FREE, the Lehigh Company 
 would contribute handsomely to the work. 
 
 Presented 1823-24. 
 
 To the Honorable, the Senate & House of Represen- 
 tatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
 
 THE PETITION of the subscribers, citizens of Pennsyl- 
 vania residing in the county of 
 
 Respectfully she<weth, 
 
 THAT we live in an age when the spirit for Inland Navi- 
 gation is so general throughout our Country, that if advantage 
 is not taken by our own State or its Citizens, in connecting 
 
 64
 
 districts, naturally favourable for making an Artificial Navi- 
 gation, those districts become in a greater or less degree 
 insulated or locked up from a market by more enterprising 
 neighbours, and perhaps no State is more favoured by nature 
 for an interior navigation than our own, and no part more 
 interesting to the public to be improved than the river Dela- 
 ware. 
 
 Your Petitioners therefore respectfully request, that a 
 law may be passed for making an ascending and descending 
 navigation on the river Delaware, from Tide to Easton, for 
 the account of, and benefit of the state, or permit the Lehigh 
 Coal and Navigation Company to make that improvement, on 
 the plan they have proposed and which is annexed hereto. 
 And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c. 
 
 The Law for Improving the Delaware by Canal, was 
 brought by Col 1 Erie of Easton, who was then a Senator. We 
 believed brought about to oppose our C procuring the Law 
 for make the River a Slackwater navigation, as that Borrough 
 was allways opposed to us. 
 
 The State began their work in the Fall of 1828 & we had 
 begun the Lehigh Canal in the spring of the same year, ours 
 was finished & in use in the fall of 1829. But the Delaware 
 Canal not till 3 years after. The Contractors on the Dela- 
 ware, was permitted to fill up the Canal to bottom with bad 
 material & when Reported to be finished, would not hold 
 water. It was then put under my charge to make it a good 
 job, which I was only able to effect by overhalling a large 
 part of it. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest personal exposure I ever underwent, 
 was in a few days after hearing of the Sweeping Flood on the 
 Lehigh which occurred on the 7 @ 8 Jan? 1841. I being then 
 60 years of age, less about 2 months, though in good health. 
 I had then lived in the city for about 9 or 10 years, & experi- 
 enced but little bodily exercise, during this time together with 
 
 65
 
 age having weakened & stiffened my mussels, the exer- 
 cise I had on going on foot, up the banks of the Canal to 
 examine the inroads of the flood (with E. A. Douglass our 
 Engineer) in snow & slush about 6 to 9 inches deep, from 
 South Easton to the Lehigh Gap a distance of say 34 miles in 
 2 days, which nearly exhausted me. I felt it my duty to do 
 all I could, & I gave up my strength freely. I was shocked & 
 mortified, at the prostration of our Work Instead of our 
 Improvement, being at the top of the neighboring ones, it 
 now was at the bottom, together with the wide spread Ruin 
 to many who had more of their Estate in it than they could 
 bear without great suff g , had the effect to not make the con- 
 tinuance of my Life desirable, so far as any thing in this world 
 was concerned as now all my labours of body & mind seemed 
 a total failure. I expected nothing but the finger of scorn 
 from all, Its true I felt no conviction of meriting this, as I 
 thought I had throughout done, all I was able to do & at all 
 times. But, as Results gives the Character to the Act, to my 
 fellow beings, & they now goaded by losses of which I had 
 been the principle Instrument, to leading them into, they 
 would naturally encourage a hardness against me, & contempt. 
 The great flood of Jan* 1841, put us on our Back again, 
 & seemed to call up the last of our energies for this Great 
 Work, at a time or in the year that we supposed we should 
 have the whole of our work if not entirely perfected, in Profit- 
 able Opperation throughout. In addition to the new demand 
 for Money for our great Repairs & fortifying our work against 
 any similar disaster, we had several $100,000 to pay of Loan 
 due this corns Spring, & the Public beginning to conclude our 
 Work was so far destroy'd that we should be unable to Repair 
 it again & consequently be abandoned. 
 
 66
 
 We found ourselves in the extraordinary dilemma, for 
 
 providing for Repairing our Work, 
 for providing money or some means of satisfy* Loans due 
 
 this year 
 & for protecting the Stock & Loan holders in general 
 
 against a sacrafice of their property & thus loose all, 
 We had nearly 1400 loan holders 
 & perhaps 400 or 600 stock holders 
 
 making the whole stock at this time $1,503,550 
 
 & the whole loan 4,011,503.32 
 
 total stock & loan (1841) $55 15.053-32 
 
 The whole "of this might be sacrafised by a Debt due of 
 $100,000, & over $300,000 was due in the spring. 
 
 To get through our Difficulties we executed a Mortgage 
 Loan, secured on our Property in Phil a & the Coal Mines &c 
 not to exceed $1,000,000 pble at 6 p C 1 int* quarterly, & pble 
 in 10 years. 
 
 We proposed to all the loans corns due this year to Rein- 
 vest in the Mortgage loan, & to the Stock & Loan Holders to 
 subscribe in Money to this Loan. 
 
 I subscribed to this Loan in Money first $20,000 
 
 & afterward Do 10,000 
 
 $30,000 
 $20,000 of this I had to borrow on mortgage 
 
 But of the certificats fall* due some would not subscribe 
 & about 60 or 70,000 was carried to Judgment, of which I paid 
 off & took the C os Judg* over $7,000 other Managers took 
 together Do say 16,000 Doll* more. 
 
 And I went security for stay of execution i year about 
 $27,000 
 
 67
 
 The C had hard work to keep off Judg* a year, & time 
 en to execute a general Mortgage for which they got a Law 
 to effect, in 1841. but finally they accomplished, the entire 
 Security of their whole property, for 27 years, by putting a 
 Mortgage on their whole property every wheres, conditioned 
 for the payment of all their Creditors within s d 27 years. 
 
 And I hope, within half of s d 27 years all their Creditors 
 will be paid, provided we have no Revolution in mean while & 
 that there continu a Reasonable prosperity. 
 
 This year 1846 we hope to bring down from 
 
 our own mines over 300,000 tons, 
 
 & from mines above as a toll on 250,000 " 
 
 & we have put tunnels under contract at the old Mines & 
 Room Run which in 2 or 3 years will we believe be able to 
 send annually to market 1,000,000 tons Coal a y r and if the 
 market takes this Coal, with an expected addition from the 
 2nd & 3rd Coal Region above us of 6 to 800,000 tons we I 
 trust will not be many years paying all our debts, great as 
 they now appear to be & surely are. The C has now paid up 
 all my Judg* & my securities, for them, & this season she 
 expects to pay all Judgments against them, as well as essen- 
 tially all prefered claims. & now 8 mo 1846, verry little of 
 the C* business now lays on me, which is generally brought 
 to a state of maturity, that does not now, & I hope never will 
 Require much more of my service. And could I now for the 
 short Remainder of this life devote my mind to my Maker for 
 the benefit of my own soul as constant as that I have hitherto 
 devoted it to business to get me out of my difficulties, & 
 secure my fellow men who had intrusted me & our C. with 
 their property, Happy, thrice happy, would my lot be, for 
 then I should be in close communion with him, who has gone 
 to prepare mantions for me, to dwell with him in, to the 
 
 68
 
 endless ages of all Eternity. Ah happy should I be to take 
 the council of him who said, Seek & ye shall find, pray without 
 ceasing & in every thing give God thanks & thus love all his 
 creation through him that Loved me, & gave the sacrafice of 
 his Body for me & for all 
 
 The state of Engineering was barely known in Penns* 
 when I began my career in 1810, at the Falls of Schuylkill. 
 Our Country had been since the Revolution, to this time, 
 under the sway & influence of Merchantile opperations, as the 
 only avenue to fortune. Mashinests, was not known here, & 
 perhaps no mechanic among us competent to turn a Metal 
 joint water tight 
 
 So difficult was it to get Mechanics even of the indifferent 
 kind we had, that our large steam Engine at Fair Mount cost 
 the city $80,000, (low pressure) 
 
 Oliver Evans afterwards agreed with the Councils to 
 make one of High pressure for about J^rd this price, which 
 was considered allmost presumptions. 
 
 Since then in 1840, The Lehigh C. bought several for 
 their planes, & one of them 140 horse power, (greater power 
 than the one at Fair Mount) for about i/yth the cost of the 
 fair mount one. 
 
 No Locks or Canals had been made in Pennsylvania, that 
 were in use, except 2 locks at York Haven Susq* & the 
 adjoining 2 miles of Canal, & no Dam had been built over a 
 Stream in Penns* greater than the Brandywine (Delaware 
 State) 
 
 Freight or carriage in our State cost 15 to 20 cents a ton 
 a mile- & now 1846 it is Reduced to i 1/16 cent a ton a mile 
 on the Lehigh & Delaware Canal (includ 8 toll.) 
 
 It was perhaps under these peculiar circumstances of a 
 lack of Mechanics & paucity of Public Improvements, which 
 did not become conspicuous for 10 or 15 years after I began 
 
 69
 
 my public life, that I am indebted to for the number & char- 
 acter of my discoveries. I seemed indeed to have got into a 
 field, of business, apparently untryed in this Country! & the 
 calls on me & our C for the saving of labour, in our immence 
 outlays, seemed to make mine & our necessities the parent 
 of our inventions. 
 
 Many of the following may have been invented by others 
 before me (but of which I knew nothing) & they nevertheless 
 are true inventions of mine. 
 
 My Inventions are as follows 
 
 i Rollen Nails; with 4 wheels working together & indented 
 to suit the nail &c. 
 
 2 Cast Iron plates to draw wire, the holes cast on a pin to 
 
 make them hard. 
 
 3 Mashine, for washing Wire, by water power as a substitute 
 
 for manual power. 
 
 4 Sheet Iron Boats 
 
 5 Wire Fences 
 
 6 " Bridges 
 
 7 drilling stone by water power (I drill d the Blocks for Room 
 
 Run Rail Road) 
 
 8 The plan of erecting Dams, wherin the head of Water lays 
 
 On & not against the Dam say 3 or more Base to one 
 Rise & cover the top in strong, as on the Lehigh. 
 
 9 Bear Trap Lock, to make artifitial freshet navigation, as 
 
 on the Lehigh. 
 
 10 The high lift locks on Lehigh & manner of feed. 
 
 11 The Safety Car, for inclined plans, to colapse & go into 
 
 the pit, & save an extra track up the plans. 
 ia Propellers, to extend power to a distance. 
 
 (Erskine Hazard & E. A. Douglass invented the Fric- 
 tion Carrier & Qualifying Wheels, of the fidlers at M 
 
 70
 
 Chunk & . A. Douglass invented to Hold fasts, to 
 prevent Runaways. My plan of friction Rollers were 
 cogged Roller for going up a plane) 
 
 13 Ridding the Mules from the Mines, 8 Miles, by which 
 
 their daily work was 40 miles, being Double distance. 
 
 14 The Back track, as at M Chunk, to save the Mules on this 
 
 8 miles alltogether. 
 
 15 Greasing the Car wheels, through a spunge by which 
 
 means the oil falls by drops & is allways Clean. 
 1 6, Raising the Road Waggons 3 to 6 tons ea of Coal by 
 Horse to tilt them into a shute & thence Run over a 
 Skreen to load our boats. 
 
 17 I propose this plan driven by Steam power to Raise & 
 
 tilt our Coal boats, into sea vessels to save time & at 
 about i/io the present expense 
 
 1 8 Scales, on Compound Levers & knife Edge fulcrum, put 
 
 ours up at M Chunk in 1821 to 22. This scale is now in 
 general use, from the Counter to the Weigh Lock in 
 Canals. 
 
 19 Plan for multiplying the Capacity of a Canal 4 fould, 
 
 more or less, By lengthening the Locks, as proposed to 
 Gov r Porter 3 mo 5, 1842 for the State Canals. 
 
 20 The system of Slack Water Navigation, in the place of 
 
 Canals, for our Rivers, proposed it for Schuylkill to our 
 Ledgeslature in 1812, 13. 
 
 21 Grooving plank & Planeing Boards by Water Power, for 
 
 our Coal arks. 
 
 22 Balance Lock, by which most of the water is saved, in 
 
 passing boats, & verry great increase of dispatch, in 
 passing the boat through it. 
 
 23, Iron Bands in place of Rope or Chain for Planes the 
 Drum Requiring to be 1000 times the diameter of the 
 band, to prevent, the staple getting a sett.
 
 34 The Plan of Making a Channel & Lock Navigation for 
 Steam boats on the Delaware, River, proposed in 1823 
 
 25 The Plan of Channel Navigation with, & without, Arti- 
 
 fitial freshets in the Lehigh, which we carried out prac- 
 tically & Regularly for 8 or 9 years & by which we 
 introuced Anthracite Coal into Philad* &c, 4 years 
 before the Schuylkill Canal C alltho we obtained our 
 Law 3 years after that C. 12 miles of this kind of 
 navig" is yet Retained on the upper Lehigh from 
 Stoddartsville to White Haven pool. 
 
 26 Water Break, effected by a cylinder & Dble stroke piston 
 
 urged against water, to threw it through a valve that is 
 under Regulation to give it all the Resistance Required 
 & usse the same water allway. this I attached to the 
 wheel of a coal car to prevent all accelerated velocity 
 when I proposed making the* Rail Road at Mauch 
 Chunk, & applicable to any position Requiring great 
 brake, viz 
 
 The Top is a pipe connected with each 
 end of the cylinder with a valve in center 
 for Regulation, this plan is adopted on 
 the Penn* Portage Rail Road & on the Lehigh Planes 
 near Wilks barra 
 
 27 Plan & principle of High Dams & High lift Locks as intro- 
 
 duced on the upper section of Lehigh, about Y* the 
 height of these, was deemed the greatest practical 
 hight before 
 
 Attached is a copy of "A History of the Lehigh Coal and 
 Navigation Company" published in 1840, on which is written 
 
 This pamphlet (History) I have appended to mine, as 
 giving so far as it Runs my History, wrote out Ruff (first) 
 
 by my self & finished by E. Hazard. 
 
 J. WHITE. 
 
 72
 
 NOTE. The following, which is part of another memor- 
 andum, is included, as showing more in detail the financial 
 situation of Josiah White, which led him to undertake the 
 lease of the lands of the Lehigh Coal Mine Company and the 
 improvement of the Lehigh River. 
 
 I went out of business about the year 1808 & in 1810 I 
 bo* the Falls of Sch 1 & by about 1813 I had got through my 
 money about $55,000 in the Improovement, at the Falls & 
 Required more, when I call'd on Jos. Gillingham who had 
 now got in to good circumstances, & proposed to him to loan 
 me his note, for me to Raise money on, at Bank, which he 
 unhesitatingly did, & it seemed to give him pleasure that he 
 now was able to pay his debt to me. 
 
 Some time after the above accomodation to me, I sold 
 Jos Gill m my little mill at the Falls (I think for $12,000) which 
 was a further accomodation to me, but wether he bought it 
 for my accomodation or his own profit I leave. 
 
 After this he bought the balance maks 7/9* of all my 
 interest at the falls, (includ g the small mill), which was a 
 further accomodation to me, but I suppose his bargain was to 
 meet his own interest, as I had done & he to advance the 
 money for its improvement on interest for my half. 
 
 After this he joined me & Erskine Hazard in the "Whites- 
 town Manufacturing C which also was a further accomoda- 
 tion to me, as he found the money d capital for our business. 
 
 We all lost on the Factory, which was his Risque as well 
 as ours & as we found great difficulty in letting our water 
 powers on the West side of the Falls, from the backwater 
 from Ice & tide & the Whitestown Manufacturing C. 
 prooving to be a loosing concern, I became alarmed, that I 
 should ultimately become a bankrupt. 
 
 *This ia an error, it should be 7/16. 
 
 73
 
 If our power would let at our prices, on the west side of 
 Sch 1 , It would have produced as I then estimated, for the 
 whole power of the falls the interest of $250,000, or $15,000 a 
 yr of which 9/16 was mine, & then I would have declined all 
 Manufacturing business & Relied on my Income, as I had 
 originally intended when I first engaged at the Falls. But 
 the power to much extent, would not Rent, & I my Debt at 
 the Bank of Germantown amounted to about $20,000. I 
 became greatly alarmed. 
 
 In ii mo 1817 I proposed to the Schuylkill Navig" C to 
 make temporary improvement, so as to get coal down in one 
 year! & to agree to charge toll not to exceed 5 cts a bu = 1.40 
 cts a ton! but they hooted at the idea of less than en to 
 Reduce the cost of transportation to y* or ^rd the Cost by 
 Carting on the Turnpike say to about 30 cts a bu or $8.40 a 
 ton, & declined the temporary navig n altogether. 
 
 I then proposed they should authorize us to moove our 
 Dam to any place above Fair Mount bridge so that we could 
 get the supply 8 of the City with Water Power to Raise its 
 Water into their Reserva at Fair Mount, which they also 
 declined. 
 
 Nothing but Ruin, seemed to present to me, unless I could 
 leave the Falls & support my family elsewhere, I was then 
 in my Prime of life (37 yrs old). 
 
 I made diligent iquiry about the Coal on the Lehigh, & 
 the C which owned it to the amount of about 10,000 acres, 
 and it occured to me that I could make such a moove in that 
 Coal & Navig n of the Lehigh & thus get out of my difficulties. 
 
 I proposed this to Jos Gillingham, but he discouraged it. 
 finally I concluded to go on the ground to examine the River 
 & the Coal to judge if any thing could be done. & on the 23 
 or 24 of 12 mo 1817 I concluded to Start for its examination. 
 And as I felt too poor to hire a horse, if I could borrow one, 
 
 74
 
 not having one of my own, I applied to Jos Gillingham to loan 
 me his Horse, which he declined doing saying the Roads were 
 so Ruff his horse would not stand it, & further tried to dis- 
 courage my going. 
 
 I concluded that the Horse could stand the journey as 
 well as myself, & if I was willing to expose myself, & he not 
 willing to expose his Horse, that all future connection was at 
 an end with him, in Relation to the Lehigh project, & if I 
 found prospects there desireable I would not let him know 
 anything about it. 
 
 Things then looked so promising that myself G F a Hauto 
 & E Hazard obtained a lease for the 10,000 acres coal land for 
 20 y 8 for an Ear of Corn p r year if demanded & got the Law 
 for improve the Lehigh by 2 mo 18, 1818, & all without JG 
 knowing anything about it. 
 
 75
 
 
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