The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-13


 the Falls of Schuylkill, that the people of Philadelphia began to awake to the idea that there might be some virtue in the black 'stones," after all, and they then began to improve the navi- gation of the Lehigh and Schuylkill. In ISIS the Lehigh Navigation company and the Lehigh Coal company Were or ganized and combined to form the Le- high Coal and Navigation company and in 1920 this company shipped S65 tons of coal to Philadelphia by artificial nav igation of the Lehigh. In 1921 and 1922 the quantities were much increased, and the trade from the Lehigh permanently established Two or three years later the Schuylkin trade began.
 But while all this was going on, the members of the live Yankee firm of Ab- ijah Smith & Co. were energetically in- troducing their Plymouth coal. The Smquehanna, a much larger stream, could be much more successfully navi- gated than the Lehigh or Schuylkill and by this natural highway arks were ship ped to Columbia, Baltimore and other river points. They accompanied their ventures, and took with them tools, grates and Workmen skilled in setting them up. They put these grates in pr- vate houses and other places, and taught the people how to burn the coal. They extended the territory by reship- Iping, at Havre-de-Grace, Md, in coast ing vessels, so that in 1912, the same year that White & Hazard were exper- imenting with the coal at their wire mills in Philadelphia, Smith & Co. were making regular shipments to New York city and supplying permanent trade there.
 In Historical Sketches of Plymouth" by H. B. Wright, from which many of | the above facts are gleaned, we find the following letter and account cur rent of Price & Waterbury, which in this connection is a very interesting paper, illustrating, as it does, not only the indomitable energy of this pioneer | firm in the anthracite coal business, but also the condition and amount of the anthracite trade of the great city of New York at that early date. | The early coal trade along the Lehigh and Schuyll1ill undoubtedly owes much of it's success and rapid growth, subse- quent to 1920, to the successful efforts NcetA pers. They were the educators and the first successful firm in the market, and those who followed reaped largely the reward of their energy.
 As above stated, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company in 1920 shipped 365 tons of coal down the Lehigh and Dela- ware to Philadelphia, which sold for $840 per ton. In 1921 and 1922 the quan- titles were much increased, and the pub- lie, having finally learned its good quail
 ties, the demand, and consequently the trade, continued to grow rapidly.
 Most of the coal supplied by this com pany was taken for years from the fa- nous Summit Mine or Quarry on the mountain top several miles from Mauch Chauk, where the mammoth bed is about fifty feet thick, with very light covering.
 I The trade of the Schuylkill region : may be reckoned as having it's begin ming in 1925, after the completion of the water navigation to Philadelphia by the sehuylkill Navigation company. Tolls were first taken on this Improvement in 1918, amounting to $233, none of it, 1 however, for coal In 1925 the tolls amounted to $15,775, of which s97O0 was for coal, and during the subsequent years, owing to its proximity to Phila- delphia, and to the fact that navigation was open to any one that would pay the tolls, the trade from this region took rapid strides, and soon outstripped the i other anthracite fields. so that in 1S42 the total shipment to date for the s5'cliuylkilI was in excess of the aggre- gate shipments for all the other fields combined An idea of the trade at the latter date may be gleaned from the statement that Upwards of four mill lion dollars had been invested in six ty-five miles of incorporated railroads, forty miles of individual railroads, fif- ty miles of underground railroad, two thousand railroads cars, fifteen hun dred mine cars, seventeen collieries be- low water level, one hundred collieries above water level, eight hundred and fifty canal boats, nine hundred boat horses, etc, etc. in the Schuylloill re- gion.''
 In 1914 and 1915 Maurice and John | Wertz began mining at Carbondale. In 1923 and '25 the Delaware and Hudson Canal company was incorporated and in 1923 began shipping coal from Car- bondale, in the Upper Lackawanna re- zion, by gravity railroad and canal. The demand for anthracite rapidly in creased, and other canals were built and existing ones extended, and till the de- nand outstripped the capacity of the canals to transport After the inven- tion of the locomotive railroads were extended to the anthracite region, and gradually absorbed most of the busi- ness of transporting coal; the canals proving too slow and not able to stand the railroad competition, fell into dis use and are being abandoned.
 1.-THE PRESENT.
 | To-day the anthracite coal trade has increased from fifty-five tons in 1907 to the enormous annual quantity of over 100000 tons produced, and over 42,- 000S00 tons shipped from about 400 col lieries, employing about 140000 men.
 Funeral Of A. Fl. Chadbourne.
 The funeral of Albert H. Chadbourne was held from his late residence, S9 Union street, yesterday afternoon and