'

ut of that compai”, the ndost ola, di e Ming Engineer were assi ned to Mr. We and upon the acxs on of Mr. Picksea Gerral Superintenden y of the company's January, 1861, Mr. Weston was apport Superintendent of the Coal Departmeer p place, weh pos log be hold mu'il Aord, when in core of the largely im business of the company, and the extent of c. try over which its property and roads are less it became a cessly to separate the Real Efrom the Mini 1. Department.

In the year 1817, the sparsely settled region. along the Lackawanna river had become aroused to the importance of improving the navigation of that stream, and a company was incorporated at that time for this purpose, but nothing more in a material manner ever took tangible shape. Henry W. Drinker, then a landed proprietor in the district commonly known as the "Beech Woods," or Drinker's Beach," who died October 13th, 1866, was a man of more than ordinary perception and culture. Even at this early day his mind was active in contemplating different projects by which an outlet to the more extensively settled regions of Easton, New Jersey and New York could be reached, and to this end, in 1819, he explored the mountains and valleys from the Susquehanna at Pittston to the Delaware Water Gap, with a view of connecting the two points by a railroad to be operated by hydraulic power where nature favored, and by horses in more isolated sections.

He was one of the four original master minds of the wilderness at that day, the three besides being William and Maurice Wurts, already noticed the chapter on the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company; and Thomas Meredith, of whom more hereafter. The interests of Drinker's Beech were uppermost in Mr. Drinker's mind, though the contemplated line would pass through the Slocum Hollow settlement

The original estate of the Drinker's numbered

-MONTAIGNE, vol. 1, chap. xxi.

some twenty-five thousand acres of unseated land, now embraced by the counties of Wayne, Pike and Luzerne. During the year 1787, Henry Drinker, Sr., of Philadelphia, father of the two sons, Henry W and Richard Drinker, purchased from the State these acres, and in the following year an effort was made by the two latter to develop the tract by opening a highway through it. For a lack of means it failed for a time, but four years later, John Delong, of Stroudsburg, with a force of men cut a wagon road to these possessions.

The road cut by Delong, for lack of constant travel soon grew to underbrush, but it established a course, and the present eastern outlet is often called the Drinker Road, although the line of direction is not exactly parallel. In 1831, the father and two sons, visited Stoddardsville, a small village on the Lehigh, which owed its origin to one John Stoddard, an alien, from Philadelphia, who commenced lumber operations there. As it promised for the future to become somewhat of a business centre, the Drinkers next determined to open a road in that direction.

The first clearing in Drinker's settlement was made in 1815, where a log house was erected, on nearly the same location that supported the later, and more finished Drinker residence. In 1816 a road was surveyed and opened which has also been known as the Drinker Road, extending from the Wilkes-Barre and Easton Turnpike, at

a point about a half mile above Stoddardsville, to the north and south road, near the Wallenpaupack bridge, a distance of thirty miles.

The Court Records of 1818, of the Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Wilkes-Barre, make mention as follows: "In honor of Brigadier"In honor of BrigadierGeneral Covington, who gallantly fell at the battle of Williamsburg, in Upper Canada, the Court called this township Covington." This township embraces the Drinker possession, and H. W. Drinker being an intimate friend of General Covington, this name was given to the new township at his suggestion.

As early as 1826, Mr. H. W. Drinker obtained a charter for a railroad, the object of which was to connect the Susquehanna river at Pittston with the Delaware at the Water Gap, the course to be up the Lackawanna from the former point, to Roaring Brook, which would take in Slocum Hollow, thence up the latter stream to Lake Henry, crossing the headsprings of the Lehigh, down the Pocono and the Analomink to the Gap. This evidently, would open a market, but the project was delayed, and not till eleven years afterward did the contemplated route have a practical survey.

In April, 1826, Mr. Drinker obtained an act of incorporation of the "Susquehanna and Delaware Canal and Railroad Company." The charter implied either a railroad operated up the planes by water, or a canal a portion of the way. The original report displays at length, that horses were contemplated as the motive power between the planes; toll houses were to be established along the line, and collectors appointed; drivers or conductors, of "such wagon, carriage, or conveyance, boat or raft, were to give the collectors notice of their approach to said toll-houses by blowing a trumpet or horn."

Henry W. Drinker, William Henry, David Scott, Jacob D. Stroud, Daniel Stroud, James N. Porter, A. E. Brown, S. Stokes, and John Coolbaugh, were the commissioners.

This crude plan for transportation never culminated to even partial construction, but it kept alive a germ of thought, which two such men as Drinker and Henry, above named, would not allow to droop. A subscription was accordingly

started in 1830, by which a few hundred dollars was obtained; with this limited fund they were enabled to employ Major Ephraim Beach, a civil engineer, to run a preliminary survey over the intervening country. The present line of the Southern Division of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western road is, in the main, much the same as that run by Beach.

In the Commissioners' Report of the route, 1832, it was stated that "iron in bars, pig, and castings, would be sent from the borders of the Delaware in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and that limestone in great quantities would be transported from the same district and burned in the coal region, where fuel would be abundant and cheap'

What was known as the Meredith Railroad, was a contemporaneous project. Thomas Meredith, the projector conceived the idea of the route leading from the mouth of Leggett's creek in Providence to Great Bend on the Susquehanna, forty-seven and a half miles above, called the Lackawannock and Susquehanna Railroad. It was surveyed by James Seymour, four years after the granting of its charter. It has also been extensively known as the Leggett's Gap Road, and the route chosen was about identical with that of the present Northern Division of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, leading from the city of Scranton through the Gap to Great Bend, and now continuing on to Binghamton. Neither road was ever expected to carry passengers; such an idea in those days had not entered the brains of these pioneers. Hollister writes:

"The report of the Commissioners, presenting the subject in its most attractive light, failed to excite the attention it desired. Men reputed as reliable looked upon the scheme as unworthy of serious notice. Those who had achieved an indifferent livelihood by the shot-gun or the plow, saw no propriety in favoring a plan whose fulfillment promised no protection to game or greater product to the field."

In the spring of 1832, the Company was organized, a sufficient amount of stock having been subscribed, by which Henry W. Drinker was elected President, John Jordan, jr., Secretary,