The Beaver Meadow Railroad
Matthews, Alfred and
Austin N. Hungerford, History of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Everts & Richards
(Lippincott), Philadelphia 1884, p. 605
The Beaver Meadow
Railroad, now known simply as the Beaver Meadow Division of the Lehigh Valley
Railroad, was the first railroad within the limits of Carbon County on which
steam was employed as power, although it was built a number of years after the
gravity road from the Summit Mines to Mauch Chunk.
The Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company was incorporated by act of the
Assembly April 13, 1830, with a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars, and was empowered to build a railroad from the Beaver Meadow Coal
Mines (in what is now Banks township) to the Lehigh River, at or near Mauch Chunk, a distance, by the windings of the Beaver,
Hazel, and Quakake Creeks, and the Lehigh River, of
about twenty miles, and, if deemed expedient, to make a railroad from the mines
to the Little Schuylkill at such place as might be deemed necessary to make
connection with any other road built in that valley. Both of these routes were
examined, and that to and along the Lehigh was found to be preferable by reason
of the greater facility of passing through a country graded by streams of
water, thereby avoiding the necessity of constructing planes and employing
stationary engines; also on account of the advantage of markets for coal on the
Delaware, to which this route led most directly. The original act authorized
the company to extend their road on the Lehigh only to Mauch
Chunk, at the head of the canal. A failure to make satisfactory arrangements
with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company in regard to tolls over their canal
prevented the commencement of active operations during the summer of 1830, and
at the following session of the General Assembly a supplement to the act of
incorporation was passed authorizing an increase of capital to eight hundred thousand
dollars, and an extension of the road from Mauch
Chunk, a distance by the river of forty-six miles. The books for the
subscription to the additional stock were opened at a time when the failure of
coal operations had caused a general discouragement in all enterprises of that
kind, and before the advantages of railroad transportation had been ascertained
by experience. A sufficient sum had been subscribed to have
authorized the undertaking, but the board had been too much influenced
by the general depression to make the effort. The subscriptions were,
therefore, canceled and the principal part of the money repaid to the
subscribers. Since that time experience has more accurately determined the
expense of transporting coal by railroads, as well as that of constructing
them. A new subscription was commenced in November,
1832, and a sufficient amount of stock was taken to assure the board that there
was no longer any reason for apprehending failure. But it was found that the
period limited by law in which the work must be completed had so far elapsed
that it, was deemed inexpedient to progress with the work until an extension of
time was procured. Application being made to the Legislature, an act was passed
Jan. 29, 1833, granting the privilege of four years more in which to finish the
work.
Under the provision of
the act work was commenced on the road. Canvass White was chief' engineer and
A. Pardee assistant. After the road was surveyed, and
while it was being graded, a difficulty arose between the company and the
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company about its location, the managers of the
latter insisting that its grade was too low. This trouble culminated in the
exercise of a little violence at what is called the Oxbow, where stones were
hurled down the bank at the Beaver Meadow Company's laborers. The difficulty
was finally settled, and the grade was changed, the road-bed
being made higher than was at first intended. The road was finished and opened
for transportation in the fall of 1836. The two locomotives put upon the track
were called the "S. D. Ingham" and "Elias Ely." In April,
1837, another - the "Quakake"-was added,
arid in August the "Beaver."
In the mean time, under
authority of an act passed Dec. 22, 1836, extending the time of the company for
building the road as far as Easton to seven years, that work had been
undertaken and the track actually laid to a point opposite Parryville
by the close of 1836.
The freshet of 1841
carried away all of the bridges from Weatherly to Parryville,
and that part of the road below Mauch Chunk was
abandoned, arrangements being made to transfer coal from the Beaver Meadow
Railroad to the boats on the canal at that point. Shipment of coal was resumed
in August, 1841. In 1849, under the presidency of W.
W. Longstreth, the road was relaid
with heavy T-rail, the track having previously consisted of timbers with flat
or strap-rails. In September, 1860, another heavy
flood occurred, which carried away the bridges on Black and Quakake
Creeks, and destroyed the car-shops at Weatherly and Penn Haven. The repairs
necessary could not be made in time to allow the resumption of business in
1850, but the road was again in readiness for operation on the opening of
navigation, in 1851. On the 15th of March, 1853, the
company was authorized by the Legislature to take such steps as were necessary
to avoid the use of inclined planes. Accordingly a piece of road one and
three-quarter miles long, extending from Weatherly in the direction of
Hazelton, was purchased from the llazelton
Coal Company. This was graded in 1854-55, and track being laid in the latter
year, the inclined planes were abandoned on the 14th of August. The grade from
Weatherly along Hazel Creek for one and three quarter miles is one hundred and
forty-five feet to the mile. At about the same time this change was made a second
track was laid along the Lehigh from Penn Haven to Mauch
Chunk.
The Quakake
Valley Railroad was completed Aug. 25, 1858, connecting the Catawissa, Williamsport
and Erie Railroad with the Beaver Meadow Railroad.
The Beaver Meadow became
a carrying road for all of the coal-fields in its
region, and gained rapidly in business. In 1866 it was merged with the Lehigh
Valley Railroad, of which it now formed the Beaver Meadow Division. The presidents
of the road from the first to the time of the merger were S. D. Ingham, __
Budd, Joseph Pearsoll, J. H. Dulless,
__ Rowland, and W. W. Longstreth, the latter holding
the office until 1866. Capt. George Jenkins was superintendent of
transportation; Col. William Lilly, shipping clerk; Morris Hall, treasurer; and
James D. Gallop, roadmaster. A. G. Brodhead was appointed
superintendent in May, 1850, and held the office until the merger, when he was
appointed by the managers of the Lehigh Valley Railroad superintendent of the
division thus added to their line, which office he still holds.
The following is a
statement of tonnage of the Beaver Meadow Railroad from its commencement, in
1837, to July, 1859, from which time to its merger
with the Lehigh Valley, in 1866, its figures cannot be well ascertained:
Year. Tounage.
1837 33,617
1838 54,647
1839 79,971
1840 123,225
1841
(flood) 64,641
1842 108,171
1843 125,456
1844
143,363
1845 149,000
1846 194,380
1847 247,500
1848
266,188
1849
324.048
1850(flood) 155,403
1851 383,748
1852 243,112
1853 278,939
1854
367,093
1855
438,092
1856 552,111
1857 618,793
1858
608,227
1859
746,313
The
Spring Mountain Coal Company prior to 1858 commenced building a road from their
mines to Jeanesville to connect with the Beaver
Meadow Railroad at their mines at Lewiston. In August of the year mentioned,
this road was purchased by the Lehigh Valley management, who extended it to
Yorktown and the German Pennsylvania coal mines, as has heretofore been
related. The Tresckow branch was built later. It
extends a distance of a little more than seven miles, from Silver Creek to Audenreid.
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