My Genealogy Hound

THE LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD throughout the United States has an established reputation for its thoroughness, of equipment and the courtesy of its officials. To it, more than to any other agency, is due the development of the Lehigh Valley during the past fifty years, and it has been an invaluable factor in the progress of the Keystone State. It passes through a portion of our country rich in history, romance and scenic beauty, whose geological strata attract to it the geologist; whose mines have added materially to the national wealth; whose forges and furnaces support millions of the human family; whose universities and colleges are second to none, and whose lakes and rivers, with their attractions of boating, swimming and fishing, draw hither many over whom its material resources might have no influence.

An act of the Legislature, approved April 21, 1846, and projected by Hon. Asa Packer, rendered possible the materialization of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The charter bears date of September 20, 1847, and at a meeting of the Board of Managers held in Easton October 21, James M. Porter was elected to the Presidency. On the 7th of January, 1853, the name and style of the Delaware, Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad Company was changed to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, with all the rights, privileges and immunities of the former corporation. Though beset with difficulties and forced to meet many seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the officers of the company pushed forward, until the tracks were laid and the road in running order. Its success was then assured, and though it has met with occasional reverses, yet dividends have been declared and employes have been paid regularly. In 1865 the Wilkes Barre extension was projected from White Haven to Wilkes Barre. Steel rails began to displace those of iron and were reported to be immeasurably superior.

In 1866 the Lehigh & Mahanoy Railroad, from Black Creek Junction to Mt. Carmel, was absorbed. A controlling interest was also purchased in the North Branch Canal, extending from Wilkes Barre to the New York state line, a distance of over one hundred miles. Previous to this a charter had been secured changing the company’s title to the Pennsylvania & New York Canal and Railroad Company, with authority to build a railroad on either bank of the canal its entire length, and during 1866 this interest was purchased by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company.

The increased advantages accruing, and additional facilities demanded for transportation, made it necessary to further increase the capital stock of the road, and the new stock was eagerly sought after and speedily taken. Additional acquirements of coal land were made by the purchase of fifty-eight hundred acres, known as the Delano Lands. By a previous purchase ten new collieries, a machine-shop, engine house and dwellings, known as Delano, also became the property of the company. The telegraph facilities were gradually increased, and many other improvements made from time to time. The equipment of the road is ample and of the most modern style, affording its patrons every convenience consistent with railroad service. The management never hesitates to increase the facilities in new depots whenever required, and the depots at all stations of prominence are now buildings of elegance, containing all modern conveniences, while those at the more important stations are models of architectural beauty and artistic in decoration. The coaches are heated by steam, and are substantially decorated; the palace-car and sleeper accommodations are of the latest and most thoroughly equipped Pullman service. The gondola pattern has supplanted all others in cars of that class used in the coal traffic. The tracks and beds are superior in all points. The hard stone and slag ballast assures solidity and firmness, while the dust, which is an invariable concomitant of tracks laid on dirt and cinders, is unknown on this line. The steel rails guarantee a smoothness not possible on iron rails, and, indeed, in every respect, the Lehigh Valley Railroad is one in which its officials, and the traveling public as well, may take great pleasure and pride. Its long and honorable history, extending over the latter half of the nineteenth century, is a record to which every friend of progress may point with pride, and there is every reason to believe its extent and usefulness will increase with time.