The discovery of coal

Hazleton's early history is inextricably meshed with the development of the anthracite mining industry.

But how and when did it all begin? Stories about the discovery of coal in the Hazleton area abound.

An early account, appearing in Harper's Weekly in September 1857, said the beginning came along the Lehigh River in 1791. The magazine said a hunter named Philip Ginter was running through the woods to beat an oncoming storm when he came across a large black stone that had been kicked up by a recently fallen tree.

Having heard others talk about the presence of ''stone coal,'' Ginter gave the specimen to Col. Jacob Weiss, who lived near the present site of Jim Thorpe. Weiss sent it off to Philadelphia where a printer named Charles Cist determined that it was anthracite coal and told Weiss to start buying up land. ''As the entire region of the country from the Blue Mountain to the Susquehanna River was an unbroken, savage wilderness, the land had but little value,'' Harper's said.

Weiss joined Cist and Robert Morris, John Nicholson, J. Anthony Morris and others in buying thousands of acres. In 1792, the group formed the Lehigh Coal-mine Company. The firm could find no market for its product in the upstate woodlands, which had an abundance of timber.

Down in Philadelphia, their attempts to sell the coal met with scorn from businessmen who thought the mineral to be ''nothing more nor less than common stones,'' Harpers said. The company, on the verge of dissolution, tried to make a go of it after the state completed navigation improvements on the Lehigh in 1802.

In 1803, six arks carrying 100 tons of coal each made the harrowing trip from Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia where it finally was sold to the city to run a steam-operated water pump. But officials were unable to burn the coal, the remaining stock was scattered around the footpaths and the company was dormant for 17 years.

Coal was discovered near Pottsville in 1810 and blacksmiths began to enjoy some success with the brilliant mineral that drew raves from one Philadelphia chemist who was astonished by its heating power. Meanwhile, a joint stock company was chartered in 1814 to improve navigation on the Schuylkill.

Hazleton's Shaft Colliery

In 1817 Col. George Shoemaker, who owned land around Pottsville, sent eight or 10 wagons of coal to Philadelphia and guaranteed that the ''stones'' would burn. The nail works at Fairmount obtained several tons but just couldn't get the stuff to burn.

Harper's describes a pivotal event that would spur the revival of the Lehigh Coal-mine Company and lead to the development of the anthracite region:

''The proprietor of the Fairmount nail-works, with some of his men, had been engaged uring the whole morning in the vain endeavor to fire up a furnace with the coal. They tried every possible expedientwhich skill and experience in other fuels could suggest. They raked it and they stirred it up, and poked it and blew tremendously upon it with blowers. They persevered in the task – they manipulated it with courage, with desperation – but it appears that all would not do. At length the signal for dinner was given, and utterly sick and tired of the stones, andwith no complimentary epithets, the men shut fast the furnace door, pulled on their coats and proceeded to their meal. ''Returning at the usual time, their consternation may be imagined as they beheld the furnace door red hot, and the fire within seething and roaring like a tempest! They stood before it like men paralyzed and when, after a tme they could summon courage enough to pry open the door, the white glare of the flames was beautiful to behold. Never before had such a fire been seen. ''And from that moment the secret of treating anthracite coal became known – it only required to be let alone.''