Travels in the Interior of North America Part 5

In some places the wood is thicker, in others the sides of the mountains had been quite cleared, and were covered with young shoots and some higher trees; small streams, here called runs, flow in the defiles and valleys; the bridges of beams over which were, for the most part, so rotten, [pg. 46] and in such bad condition, that horses and carriages could not pa.s.s without danger. We saw no human beings or dwellings on this road, nor any animals except some small birds and frogs. After this rather monotonous journey, we were glad to descend into the Nescopeck Valley, and reached it, at the mill of one Bug, of German descent, where we refreshed ourselves with milk and brandy. The Nescopeck Creek, a pretty considerable stream, which turns several mills, flows through this beautiful wooded valley. This district belongs to Sugarloaf towns.h.i.+p, in Lucerne county.

After we had watered our horses, and the miller had questioned us about his native Germany, we crossed the bridge over the stream, ascended the mountain on the other side, and reached an inn on the summit, from which it is eighteen miles to Wilkesbarre. Proceeding from this place, we crossed the valley of the little Nescopeck Creek, which is covered with lofty trees, then pa.s.sed the little Black Creek, and afterwards came to a high mountain wall, with a beautiful wood of various forest trees, which the inhabitants, who are mostly of German origin, call the Bocksberg. German is everywhere spoken here.

From the mill, the way leads through a thick underwood of shrub-like oaks, with a few higher trees, and we soon reached the high road from Berwick, in the Susquehannah Valley, along which we proceeded to Mauch Chunk, where two stage-coaches pa.s.s daily.

We took this road, and soon came to an inn, kept by a German named Anders, who likewise had a saw-mill. The host had, a short time before, caught an old she-bear in a trap, and in the three following days her three cubs, which he sold to travellers pa.s.sing that way. The point where we now were is called the Hasel Swamp; and, proceeding onwards, we pa.s.sed Pismire Hill, where rattlesnakes are said to abound. We observed, too late, a very large animal of this kind dead in the road, one of the wheels of our carriage having crushed the head of the snake, which was otherwise in a good state of preservation. My driver laid it in a natural position by the road-side, and I have no doubt that it was again knocked on the head by some other traveller.

The marshy tract through which the Beaver Creek flows, is called Beaver Meadow, and is covered with willow bushes. It is probable that beavers may have formerly been numerous here, at least the place is quite suited to them; but those harmless animals have been long since extirpated. We came next to a considerable eminence, called Spring Mountain, which we ascended, and then rapidly descended, always through a thick forest, where we observed, on both sides of the way, the Grauwacke formation. On reaching the bottom of Spring Mountain we entered a wide valley, both the steep sides and bottom of which are covered with thick woods, only thinned a little round the habitations.

In the middle of the valley, directly before us, six or seven buildings, in a broad street, formed the village of Lausanne, five or six hundred paces below which the Quackack Brook flows through the valley. A Jew keeps here a public-house and shop, where we met likewise with newspapers.

[pg. 47] Beyond Lausanne is a high mountain, called Broad Mountain, up which the road is carried in an oblique direction. Trees and shrubs form everywhere a very thick but ruined forest, in which there is scarcely any serviceable timber. The view back over the extensive and wild valley of Lausanne was extremely interesting. One can hardly fancy this sublime and rude country without its aboriginal red inhabitants. The wide and hollow valley is everywhere covered with dense forests; and the little village of Lausanne is scarcely to be seen amidst the dark green foliage. On the Broad Mountain we find again the same formation of conglomerate, which I have before mentioned; the beds of coal are at a small distance. On the side which we descended the wood is more beautiful, the trees taller than on the edge of the mountain; oaks, chestnuts, and other trees, were very vigorous and luxuriant. Several planters have formed detached settlements here, among whom an Irishman was pointed out to us, who had lately been arrested on an accusation of murder, but had been since set at liberty.

The Neskihone or Neskihoning Valley, into which we now descended, is wide, and enclosed by very high, far-extending walls of rock, everywhere covered with thick woods, in which some small cultivated patches are here and there seen. Along the right, or southern wall, an iron railroad has been laid down, which forms a communication between one of the coal mines of the Mauch Chunk Company, on the Rumrun Creek, and Mauch Chunk. It runs down into the valley of the Lehigh, which it follows to the last-named place. The appearance of the valley is very wild and picturesque; the Neskihone, which you pa.s.s at a saw-mill, flows at the bottom of it, and then turns to the left into the beautiful valley of the Lehigh, into which the Neskihone empties itself. The Lehigh comes on the left hand, out of a deep, extremely wild mountain valley, or dark glen, the entrance to which is entirely concealed by lofty, steep wooded mountains. Its gla.s.sy surface s.h.i.+nes, half hid by tall shady oaks, beeches, and chestnuts; and the whole is one of the most interesting scenes that I met with in Pennsylvania.

The road from this place to the Lehigh Valley is agreeably shaded by high trees, and on the banks of the river there are several dwelling-houses and inns. In a quarter of an hour we reached Mauch Chunk, now celebrated as the central point of the Lehigh coal district.

FOOTNOTES:

[38] The Lehigh Navigation Company, chartered August 10, 1818, was consolidated in 1820 with the Lehigh Coal Company, and since 1821 has been known as the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. Temporary navigation of the Lehigh River being opened by 1820, coal was floated down to the Delaware and thence to Philadelphia, where the scows were broken up. In 1827 the company began the construction of a ca.n.a.l which by 1829 was completed between Mauch Chunk and Easton. A line to White Haven was opened (1835), and to Stoddartsville (1838). In 1827 there was opened the Mauch Chunk (gravity) Railroad, the second of its kind in the United States, being in 1828 extended to Room Run and the Beaver Meadow region; in 1840 the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad was completed by the same company. In July, 1825, the Morris Ca.n.a.l and Banking Company, under a charter of the preceding year, commenced work on a twenty-mile ca.n.a.l between the Delaware and Newark, New Jersey, and completed it in 1831. Later the ca.n.a.l was extended to Jersey City, a distance of eleven miles.--ED.

[39] When found by Europeans, the Delaware Indians were living in detached bands along the Delaware River. A tribe of the Algonquian family, they comprised three powerful clans--the Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf--see Post's _Journals_ in our volume i, p. 220, note 57. By 1753 a portion of the tribe had migrated to the Ohio, and by 1786 all had settled west of the Allegheny Mountains. They had aided Pontiac in his attack upon Fort Pitt, and allied themselves with the English during the Revolutionary War. Defeated, they established themselves along the banks of the Huron River in Ohio and in Canada. Neutral during the War of 1812-15, they sold their lands to the United States and occupied a reservation along White River, in Indiana. By subsequent treaties the Delaware were removed to Missouri, Kansas, and Texas; and in 1867 they were incorporated among the Cherokee, and stationed with the latter in Indian Territory.--ED.

[40] Copious springs issuing from the white sand.--MAXIMILIAN.

[41] The names of all these rivers, streams, and many places, are, for the most part, harmonious with many vowels, and are derived from the ancient Delaware or Lenni-lappe language. _Tobihanna_ means alder brook. See Duponceau, in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. iv. part iii. page 351, on the names from the Delaware languages still current in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia.--MAXIMILIAN.

[42] See Plate 4, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.

[43] The wood of this shrub is extremely solid and hard.--MAXIMILIAN.

[44] See p. 107, for ill.u.s.tration of bear-trap.--ED.

[45] Wilkes-Barre, seat of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and eighteen miles southwest of Scranton, was laid out in 1769 and named jointly for John Wilkes and Colonel Barre, members of the British parliament.

The town is near the famous "mammoth vein," of anthracite coal, nineteen million tons of which were mined in the vicinity of Wilkes-Barre in 1900. The census report for that year exhibited a population of 51,721.--ED.

[46] The Susquehanna and Tide Water Ca.n.a.l Company was a consolidation of the Susquehanna Ca.n.a.l Company of Pennsylvania, and the Tide Water Ca.n.a.l Company of Maryland. It was encouraged by both states, Maryland lending it credit to the amount of a million dollars. It was opened in 1840. See Henry V. Poor, _History of the Railroads and Ca.n.a.ls of the United States_ (New York, 1860), p. 552.

In 1840 the total mileage of ca.n.a.ls in Pennsylvania was twelve hundred and eighty; of which four hundred and thirty-two were owned by private companies; the total mileage of railroads in the same year was seven hundred and ninety-five. See Henry F. Walling and O. W. Gray, _New Topographical Atlas of the State of Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, 1872), p. 30.--ED.

[47] The executive council of Philadelphia presented General William Ross with a costly sword for his "gallant services of July 4, 1788,"

in rescuing Colonel Pickering from kidnappers. Ross was later made general of the militia, and in 1812 elected to the state senate from the district of Northumberland and Luzerne; he died (1842) at the age of eighty-two.--ED.

[48] Tomaqua lies in the coal district at the end of the little Schuylkill Valley, near Tuscarora. In this country the discovery of the coal has caused agriculture to be neglected, and thousands of people are said to have been ruined by unsuccessful speculations.--MAXIMILIAN.

CHAPTER V

DESCRIPTION OF MAUCH CHUNK AND ITS COAL MINES--JOURNEY THROUGH THE LEHIGH VALLEY TO BETHLEHEM, AND LAST RESIDENCE IN THAT TOWN, FROM AUGUST 31ST TO SEPTEMBER 16TH

Mauch Chunk--The Coal Mines--Lehighton--Mahoning Creek and Valley--Gnadenhutten, a destroyed Colony of the Moravian Brethren--Weissport--Lehigh Gap--The Devil's Pulpit--Berlin--Crytersville--Howard Town--Schoner's Town--Last Residence in Bethlehem.

Mauch Chunk is a village of about 200 houses, in the deep and narrow Lehigh Valley. The houses form almost one row only, and a small street in the lateral valley of the Mauch Chunk stream. This place has sprung up since the discovery of the very rich coal mines in the vicinity.

The Lehigh Company employs from 800 to 1000 workmen, and supplies the whole surrounding country with the very fine coals obtained here.

Several iron railroads, leading to the works, have already been made, ca.n.a.ls dug to export the coals in numerous barges, great works erected, a large and capital inn established in the valley of the Lehigh, and mills of various kinds built; and travellers ought by no means to neglect this highly interesting spot. This deep and wild valley, which is enclosed on every side by wooded mountains from 800 to 1000 feet high, has become, within a few years, a scene of action and profitable industry, which will soon render this spot one of the most remarkable in Pennsylvania. The princ.i.p.al work, to which an iron railroad has been made, lies on a considerable eminence, nine miles from Mauch Chunk. On the 31st of August, we visited this interesting spot.

As the railroad runs up along the declivity, it has been necessary to cut it obliquely; it is, therefore, narrow, with only one line; and places, at certain intervals, to allow two carriages to pa.s.s. For the convenience of travellers who wish to see the works, a stage-coach has been established, which is drawn up by two horses. Our company a.s.sembled at the inn, and ascended, by a steep path, from the town, to the iron railroad, which runs a little above the village. The [pg. 49]

railroad stages are light carriages, with four low wheels, and seats for eight persons; they are covered at top, and open at the sides. The wheels are of iron, and have a groove, which fits into the rail, and runs upon it. The driver sits in front, and has a long tin horn, which he blows, to announce his approach to such as may be coming in the opposite direction; in the other hand he holds, in the descent, the machine with which the carriage is stopped when necessary. This contrivance consists of a pole, at the lower end of which there is a stuffed leather cus.h.i.+on, which, by moving the pole, is brought close to the wheels, and by its friction checks the rapidity of the motion.

As a train of coal-wagons was expected, we slackened our pace. The two stages were fastened together, and though both were quite full of pa.s.sengers, a couple of horses drew them up with great ease. We had not proceeded far, when we heard the rolling of a train of coal-wagons. It was interesting to see the black train advance, and dart by us with the rapidity of an arrow. These are built of strong beams and planks; each contains two tons of coals, and forty-five wagons go at the same time, which carry 90 tons; they run five times a day, thus 450 tons, or 25,200 bushels, are brought down to Mauch Chunk daily. Every fifteen wagons are fastened together by strong iron bands, and in the middle of this train is a man who holds a chain in his hand, by means of which he can check the rapidity of the motion, or even stop it entirely. Four or five hundred paces behind the first column comes the second, and then, at an equal distance, the third, and after these, seven wagons, in each of which there are four mules, with provender, and a bridge for them to get in and out. Their heads are turned to the front, and they eat quietly, as they descend. These mules are to draw up the empty coal wagons.

It was interesting to see the thundering column approach us, and then hasten by. As soon as it had pa.s.sed, our horses trotted up the mountain, which could not be attempted, except on an iron railroad.

The road runs along the rocky wall, always through a forest, where single settlers have here and there built their little wooden dwellings. Cattle were feeding in the neighbourhood, whose bells we heard in the woods. The valley at our left hand was very wild and romantic. Both the high mountain and the valley below, in which the Mauch Chunk flows, are clothed with a forest of fir and other timber, and wild vines twine about the bushes by the road-side. The number of miles is marked on white boards nailed to the trees. When we reached the top we came to an inn, which had a small park with Virginian deer.

The fawns of these deer were still spotted a little at the end of August.

As soon as our company had rested a little, and taken some refreshment, as it was very hot, we got again into our carriage, and proceeded, this time without horses, to the coal mines, about ten minutes from our inn, to which the railroad declines a little. You reach these interesting works by a deep section of the upper stratum of sandstone, and then enter the pits, which may be 300 paces long, 150 wide, and 30 feet deep; quite open at top, having been gradually sunk to that depth. 112 men were at work in and about these mines, and 130 mules were employed [pg. 50] in conveying the coals, which stand out, s.h.i.+ning, and with a beautiful play of colours; in some places they are of better quality than in others. They are detached partly with iron crows, partly by gunpowder, broken into pieces with pickaxes, and loaded in the wagons. From one part of the mine to another there are little railroads, on which boxes with four wheels run like what is called the dog (_hund_), in our German mines, in which refuse and rubbish are removed. In this manner high heaps of rubbish have arisen about the pits, which extend further and further into the valley. In some parts of the works there are impressions of antediluvian plants, of which we found some interesting specimens. The labour of seeking, in a stooping att.i.tude, was particularly disagreeable on this day, which was hotter than any that preceded it.

When we returned from the works to our inn, the thermometer, at twelve o'clock, and in the house, was at 96; to which we must add that the mine is 1,460 feet above the level of the sea. There was not a breath of air stirring, and everybody found the heat extremely oppressive.

To return to Mauch Chunk we again got into our carriage, but had now no need of horses; the driver shoved the carriage a few steps, leaped into his seat, and we immediately proceeded faster than a horse could gallop. We had travelled the greater part of the way in seventeen minutes, when we were obliged to halt, in order to let a train of wagons, returning, pa.s.s us, which detained us about twenty minutes; we then proceeded with the rapidity of an arrow, and travelled the whole distance of eight miles in thirty-two minutes. When we had reached the bottom we hastened to see the place where the wagons are unloaded.

At the end of the iron railroad is a building on the eminence, in which there is a large windla.s.s, with an endless rope, which with one part lowers a loaded coal wagon, on an obliquely inclined iron railroad, down the mountain, while the other part draws up an empty wagon from below. The distance from the windla.s.s to the place on the iron railway, where the wagons deposit the coals in a large shed, is above 700 feet.[49] The mechanism of all these works is well worth seeing, and the whole establishment extremely interesting. Mr. White, one of the princ.i.p.al members of the Lehigh Company, is a man of much and varied knowledge, and particularly well acquainted with machinery.[50] He has erected a saw-mill on the Lehigh, the construction of which is very ingenious. A single workman is able to saw 4,000 square feet of deal in twelve hours. The Company requires six such saw-mills in the Mauch Chunk, to saw the wood that it wants, because the coal barges are sent down the ca.n.a.l and the Delaware, and sold at Philadelphia as planks.

The road from Mauch Chunk through the Lehigh Valley, which we took, on the 31st of August, in the evening, is agreeable and diversified. A violent thunder-storm had pa.s.sed over the valley, and had poured down torrents of rain, the traces of which were everywhere visible. We proceeded along the right bank of the river, in a rather sandy road, shaded by old trees. On [pg. 51] our right hand we had at first the steep wooded mountain, where _Rubus odoratus_ and other beautiful plants grew amongst rude rocks. The mountains then recede, and fields, meadows, and detached dwellings, succeed.

We came to Lehighton, where the sign of the inn was conspicuous afar off.[51] Lehighton is situated at no great distance from the opening of the Mahoning Valley, from which the Mahoning stream flows. This valley is wooded, has many settlements, and is well known from the destruction of Gnadenhutten, a small establishment, founded there by the Moravian Brethren. Some Delaware Indians, instigated, it is said, by neighbouring colonists, who were hostile to the Brethren, attacked the settlement, which they burnt, and killed eleven persons. Only four of the fifteen who composed the little colony escaped.[52] Mr. Bodmer, who followed us from Wilkesbarre, visited the spot. He found among the bushes the tomb-stone which covers the remains of the victims, and made a drawing of it. The following is the inscription:--

TO THE MEMORY OF GOTTLIEB AND CHRISTINA ANDERS, WITH THEIR CHILD JOHANNA; MARTIN AND SUSANNAH NITSCHMANN; ANN CATHARINE SENSEMANN; LEONHARD GATTERMEYER; CHRISTIAN FABRICIUS, CLERK; GEORGE SCHWEIGERT; JOHN FREDERIC LESLY; AND MARTIN PRESSER; WHO LIVED HERE AT GNADENHuTTEN, UNTO THE LORD, AND LOST THEIR LIVES IN A SURPRISE FROM INDIAN WARRIORS, NOVEMBER 24TH, 1755.

"_Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints._"

PSALM CXVI. 15.

1788, AND. W. BOVER, PHILADELPHIA.

On the lands at Gnadenhutten, which still belong to the Brethren, several farmers reside, among whom there is a singular female of no ordinary education, and, as it is said, of high rank, [pg. 52] whose real name is not known. She is said to have come from Germany, it is supposed from the princ.i.p.ality of Lippe. Her sole employment is agriculture; she performs all manual labour herself, milks her cows, to which she has given names, and which she has tamed. She has rented a piece of land from the Brethren, which Mr. Von Schweinitz, as director of the council, let to her.

Near the issue of the Mahoning, or Mahony Valley, a wooden bridge has been built, in a picturesque situation, over the Lehigh. It is surrounded on all sides by fine lofty trees, and on the right hand the wooded eminences of the Mahony Valley overlook it. From this place we came to a level, open part of the valley, where a few scattered dwellings bear the name of Weissport.[53] A man named Weiss proposed to build a town here, and had collected the names of many subscribers, but the town consists, at present, of only four detached houses.

Night set in, and the moon showed us, in the Blue Mountains before us, a deep cleft, called the Lehigh, or Lecha Gap, where that river pa.s.ses through the mountain chain. At the Gap we halted at an isolated, but very good inn, kept by a man named Craig, son of the General of that name. He spoke both English and German, and we were very well accommodated in his house.

On the 1st of September we visited the Lehigh Gap, the mountains on the north side of which are low, rocky, and wooded. A projecting portion is called the Devil's Rock. Near the buildings there are great heaps of limestone thrown up, which is obtained from a mountain in the Mahony Valley. The lime is of bad quality, but serves very well for mortar. It contains a number of small bivalve sh.e.l.ls. About eight o'clock we left the Lehigh Gap, and took the road to Bethlehem, where we arrived at noon, having pa.s.sed through Berlin, Cryterville, Howard Town, and Schoner's Town.

Our baggage, which we had so long expected from Boston, arrived at length on the 4th of September, and as Mr. Bodmer rejoined us on the 10th, I should have thought of proceeding on our journey, did not the traveller often depend on accidents, which render it impossible to fix anything for certain. Mr. Bodmer, desiring to finish a drawing that he had begun, undertook a second visit to the Delaware Gap, and on this occasion was severely wounded by the bursting of his fowling-piece, which compelled us again to defer our departure. On our hunting excursions, we now saw the country in its autumnal dress. Night frosts had already set in, and the mornings were foggy, till the sun had risen pretty high, when a hot day followed. Most of the birds of pa.s.sage were gone; no swallows were to be seen, and the wild pigeons pa.s.sed by in large flocks. On a walk to Allentown,[54] the capital of Lehigh County, which has 1,700 inhabitants, three churches, and a court-house, six miles from Bethlehem, we found, in the Lehigh Valley, several flocks of birds ready to depart. The blue birds (_Sylvia sialis_) were a.s.sembled, twenty together. The yellow woodp.e.c.k.e.r and the nuthatch were hovering about the gardens and fields, where [pg. 53]

numbers were collected together. The plants that were in blossom in the fields and hedges were chiefly of the cla.s.s _Syngenesia_.

The accounts of the progress of the cholera, which we daily received, were not favourable. In New York and Philadelphia, and more especially at Baltimore, the disorder was extremely dangerous; it had also spread in the country about the great lakes, and on Hudson's River, and had extended from Detroit to the Mississippi and Ohio. It seemed impossible to avoid it; I therefore chose the route down the Ohio, intending to make the Mississippi, in the following spring, the basis of our excursions into the Western wilds or the Indian country. We took leave of our friends at Bethlehem, and set out in the first instance for Pittsburg.

FOOTNOTES:

[49] See Plate 5, in accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.