John C. Boyd
John C. Boyd, the founder of Shamokin, was born in West Fallowfield township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1793, youngest son of John and Mary (Cowen) Boyd; the former was a soldier in the Continental Army during the Revolution, brigadier general in the State militia, and member of the legislature. He was reared to agricultural pursuits, but left the farm to enter the office of his brother, a broker in Philadelphia, for whom he subsequently traveled as agent and collector. In 1820 he married Hannah, daughter of General Daniel Montgomery, of Danville, and shortly afterward removed to that place, where he opened a store. In 1824 he relinquished merchandising and located at the “Boyd farm,” two miles above Danville on the opposite side of the river. There he built a grist mill and mansion house, and purchased adjoining land until he owned nearly a thousand acres. In the midst of his extensive agricultural operations he was also connected with various enterprises designed to promote the development of the internal resources of the State, notably the Danville and Pottsville Railroad Company and the Susquehanna Canal Company, in both of which he was a corporate member. His early mining operations and the circumstances under which he laid out the original town plat of Shamokin have been detailed in the preceding portion of this chapter. He was also largely interested in the old Shamokin furnace, and experienced serious financial loss by the failure of that enterprise.
The remaining years of his life were spent in an arduous struggle to retrieve his fortunes, and he had about reached a point where his embarrassments would have terminated, when his death occurred, August 18, 1850. Seven children survived him: Mary L., who married William Neal, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania; D. Montgomery; H. Eliza; James; J. Alexander; Christiana J., who married Colonel William M. McClure, and Joseph C. Kimber Cleaver, the distinguished engineer by whom Shamokin was laid out, was a native of Roaring Creek township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 17th of October, 1814. He began his career as an engineer during the construction of the Danville and Pottsville railroad, located at Shamokin shortly after the town was laid out, and was a member of the firm of Fagely, Cleaver & Company until 1844. During this period he was also connected with the Mount Carbon railroad, constructed a map of the Middle anthracite coal field from personal surveys, and located the route for a railroad from Shamokin to Pottsville. He was principally engaged in professional work in Schuylkill county from 1844 to 1S50, and in the latter year laid out Trevorton. He was chief engineer in the survey and construction of what is now known as the Herndon branch of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad, and was subsequently connected in a similar capacity with the Philadelphia and Sunbury railroad; he also performed a large amount of very important engineering work at the various collieries of the Shamokin Coal field. In politics he was closely identified with the Native American party, of which he was the candidate for Governor, surveyor general, and canal commissioner of Pennsylvania, member of Congress, etc. The suggestion of the Atlantic cable was originally due to him, and a variety of ingenious and useful inventions also emanated from his fertile brain. He died on the 10th of October, 1858.
Ziba Bird
Ziba Bird was born in Warren county. New Jersey, a son of James Bird, who immigrated to Rush township. There he engaged in farming on Little Roaring creek and was so occupied when he formed the acquaintance of John C. Boyd, who induced him to take charge of his mining operations at Shamokin. He was thus one of the earliest residents of that town. He erected the first buildings that occupied the sites of the National and Vanderbilt Hotels, two double houses on the south side of Commerce street between Franklin and Pearl, and probably others. When the town began to decline after its first period of prosperity he returned to his farm, and afterward removed to Red Point, on the Susquehanna river below Danville, where he died. Mr. Bird was three times married, and was the father of nineteen children.
Joseph Snyder
Joseph Snyder, the pioneer hotel keeper of Shamokin, settled in Rush township, Northumberland county, in 1818, and engaged in farming, but subsequently became proprietor of a hotel at Paxinos, whence he removed to Shamokin in July, 1835, as described in the letter previously quoted in this chapter. The “large two-story dwelling house” referred to by the writer stood upon the present site of the Hotel Vanderbilt and has been partly incorporated in that structure: here John B. Snyder, the first white child born at Shamokin and oldest native resident of the town, was born on the 3rd of April, 1836. Having met with but little encouragement Mr. Snyder resumed business at Paxinos, whence he again returned to Shamokin, but relinquished hotel Hamosome years. He was born in New Jersey, October 10, 1796, and died at Shamokin, February 1, 1867.
Benjamin McClow
Benjamin McClow was born near Bear Gap. Northumberland county, June 25, 1812, son of Joseph and Mary (Campbell) McClow. He was brought up in the vicinity of Elysburg and learned the trade of carpenter. In 1835 he came to Shamokin and was employed at his trade until the following year, when he took charge of a saw mill on Coal run. In the spring of 1838 he erected his present residence at the corner of Pearl and Commerce streets, and brought his family thither in June of that year. Here he has resided almost continuously ever since.
Jacob Mowry
Jacob Mowry came to Shamokn in 1830 and took up his residence in a small log house of which the site is now covered by the refuse from the Cameron colliery. In the spring of 1838 he built the first house in the lower part of Shamokin, and engaged in business as a butcher. During the years 1830 to 1837, he was principally employed in exploring the surrounding region and locating the outcrops of the coal veins of this basin. It was he who “drove” the first drifts in Buck Ridge, now known as Big Mountain, and also the first drifts in the ridge opposite the old furnace. Subsequently he engaged in hotel keeping, farming, etc. Mr. Mowry was twice married, and was the father of nineteen children. He died on the 9th of April, 1875, in the seventy-third year of his age.
Jonas L. Gilger
Jonas L. Gilger arrived at Shamokin on the 20th of March, 1838, and is one of the oldest residents of the borough. During the first three years after he came here he was employed as a journeyman carpenter by George Martz, under whom he worked on the construction of the furnace, railroad shops, the first blocks of miners’ houses, etc. He then engaged in business individually, and was for some years a builder and contractor on an extensive scale. He built the first Methodist and Lutheran churches, and was associated with Stephen Bittenbender in the construction of the First Presbyterian church. He was elected burgess in 1800, serving one term, and served as school director fourteen years.
William & Reuben Fagely (Uncle William & Uncle Reuben)
William and Reuben Fagely were born in Shamokin township, Northumberland county, the former, January 5th, 1806, the latter, July 25, 1814. Upon arriving at the age of manhood “William engaged in merchandising at Snufftown, whence he removed to Paxinos where Reuben was associated in the business. In April, 1838, they located at Shamokin, and in 1839 opened one of the first stores in that town. They entered the coal business in 1841 ; their early operations were confined to the Gap (now Cameron) mines, but they subsequently operated the collieries at Green Ridge, Locust Gap, Luke Fidler, and the Gap, while Reuben was also interested in the Big Mountain mines. From 1842 to 1852 they leased the Danville and Pottsville railroad between Shamokin and Sunbury and operated it by horse-power; during this period the laboring classes of Shamokin were employed almost entirely by them, and their enterprises alone prevented the depopulation of the town. They enjoyed in an exceptional degree the good-will of their employees, among whom and in the community generally they were familiarly known as “Uncle William” and “Uncle Reuben.” In addition to their mining operations they also established extensive coal yards at Baltimore, Maryland, and made large shipments to that city; they were well known railroad contractors, and constructed portions of the Philadelphia and Reading and Northern Central railways. William was the first postmaster of Shamokin, serving from 1838 to 1844, and Reuben was burgess two terms, 1868-69. Both died at Shamokin, William, February I7, 1874, and Ruben, February 21, 1880.
Stephen Bittenbender
Stephen Bittenbender came to Shamokin in 1838 through the influence of Patrick Reilly, master mechanic of the Danville and Pottsville railroad, who had formed his acquaintance at Tamaqua; there he was engaged in business on an extensive scale as a builder and contractor, and it was with the purpose of placing the construction of the turntables and other terminal facilities at Shamokin in competent hands that Mr. Reilly induced him to locate at Shamokin. He also found lucrative employment in manufacturing cars, and built many of the first houses at Shamokin, including the first Catholic and Presbyterian churches. In 1851 he purchased the Shamokin foundry and in 1855 the machine shop and car shop; he conducted this establishment sixteen years, employing a large number of men. He was one of the organizers of the Shamokin Bank in 1857; from 1804 to 1871 he operated the Burnside Colliery: in 1865 he put down cast-iron water-pipes through a portion of the borough, and when the Shamokin Water Company was organized he was one of its charter members. He died at Shamokin on the 19th of February, 1885. in the seventieth year of his age.
Samuel John
Samuel John was born in Ralpho township, Northumberland county, February 27, 1807. After reaching manhood he engaged in farming, surveying, and conveyancing, and also operated the old forge below Shamokin. In April, 1839, he located at that town and engaged in merchandising: in this pursuit he continued twenty-five years, and during a large part of this period operated large general stores at Shamokin. Mt. Carmel, and Mt. Comfort. He was appointed postmaster at Shamokin in 1844 and served two years. In the various railroad enterprises which were so largely instrumental in the early development of the Shamokin coal field he was actively concerned. Shortly after locating at Shamokin he entered the coal business by operating what was then known as Buck Ridge Colliery. In 1863 he leased Green Ridge colliery (to which he gave the name of Green Mountain), and his operations at this point were quite successful. In 1860 he established the Shamokin Register. the second newspaper of the town, of which he was proprietor, editor, and publisher. He was also cashier of the Shamokin Bank and a director in the Shamokin Banking Company. His death occurred on the 23rd of Julv, 1877.
Solomoa Martz
Solomoa Martz was born in Upper Augusta township, Northumberland county, March 22, 1818. At the age of eighteen he entered the employ of the Messrs. Fagely, his uncles, as clerk in their store at Mauch Chunk. There he remained sixteen mouths, and then entered the store of William and Reuben Fagely at Shamokin in a similar capacity. He continued with them one year, and next found employment with Solomon Fagely, proprietor of a hotel at Mt. Carmel. About this time a stage line was established between Shamokin and Mt. Carmel, and he was appointed driver and mail carrier, subsequently serving in a similar capacity on the line between Pottsville and Northumberland. Of those who were connected with this method of transportation in central Pennsylvania at that period he is now the last living representative. After leaving the stage line he served as supervisor of Coal township two years and engaged in hauling coal from Shamokin to Sunbury under contract with William and Reuben Fagely seven years. He then located at his present residence in Shamokin township, and has now reached an advanced age.
Peter Boughner
Peter Boughner, a native of Snydertown, Northumberland county, was born on the 23d of January, 1816. He learned the trade of carpenter under his father, after which he located at Shamokin in the employ of the railroad company. In 1850 he was placed in charge of the construction and grading of the streets of Trevorton. When the Shamokin Valley and Pottsville (now the Shamokin division of the Northern Central) railroad was extended from Shamokin to Mt. Carmel he, in connection with John Dunkelberger, laid the rails between those points under contract. Boughner & Gilger built the first breaker at Luke Fidler colliery and Cleaver & Boughner the first two at Locust Gap. Mr. Boughner now lives a retired life upon his farm in Ralpho township.
Judge William L. Helfenstein
Judge William L. Helfenstein, whose connection with the development of the Shamokin coal field was probably more intimate than that of any other individual, was born at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1801, and educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Having accompanied his parents to Dayton, Ohio, he entered the legal profession at that place, and served as judge of the court of common pleas from 1835 to 1842. He was subsequently located at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois, in the practice of his profession, but came East in 1840 and was the principal promotor of the company that formed Trevorton in the following year. He subsequently organized a number of coal companies, among which were the Zerbe Run, Mahanoy Improvement, Carbon Run, Big Mountain, Green Ridge. Locust Gap, and Locust Summit; he was also the leading spirit in the construction of the railroad from Trevorton to the Susquehanna river, in the purchase of the Danville and Pottsville railroad, the organization of the Philadelphia and Sunbury Railroad Company, the rehabilitation of the line from Sunbury to Shamokin, and its extension to Mt. Carmel. He was a member of the company that laid out Mt. Carmel and proprietor of the towns of West Shamokin, Helfenstein, and Gowen City. He was largely interested in nearly all the most valuable coal lands between Mt. Carmel and Trevorton, and was one of the first to appreciate their immense value. He resided at Shamokin and Trevorton until 1860, when he removed to Pottsville and thence in 1872 to New York. His death occurred at Durango, Mexico, in March, 1884.
John B. Douty
John B. Douty came to Shamokin in 1852. He was born near Lambertville. New Jersey, May 30, 1812, and at the age of ten years removed to Rush township, Northumberland county, with his parents, who located at Pottsville in 1826. There his father at once became the owner of a line of live boats on the Schuylkill canal, and John B. was placed in charge of one of them. He continued at boating until 1842, when he entered the coal trade at the East Delaware mines. Several years later he went to the West Delaware mines, where he remained until the failure of the company in 1851, by which he lost the accumulations of years of toil. He came to Shamokin comparatively poor, and engaged in mining at the Gap (now Cameron) colliery on a small scale as a member of the firm of Kase, Douty & Reed. In 1856 he joined Dr. J. J. John and Joseph Bird, and the firm of Bird, Douty & John leased the Big Mountain colliery, which, after various vicissitudes, was finely made a successful enterprise. In 1859 Mr. Douty withdrew and took charge of the Henry Clay colliery, which became a highly remunerative property under his management. He subsequently opened the Brady colliery and operated it several years: in 1878 Douty & Baumgardner began working the Ben Franklin colliery, in which Mr. Douty was interested until his death, November 15, 1874.