Delaware gazette and state journal., 1902-10-23
"A :. : Hair~Vigor
- EHO ~ Your gray hair shows you
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OWNERS OF THE COAL LANDS.

OWNERS Uf ] Hi GUAl LANDS.
Originally, some of the anthracite
coal fields came to their owners by
royal. grant, and some by purchase
form tho Indians. At that time they
were not known to contain coal, or the
value Of coal as fuel was not recognized.
The Indians received $40, 600 altogether
for Luzerne county. 1t is of interest to
INQUIRE who are the persons in that
county from whom the New York
Democratic platform would take the
mines by right of eminent domain.
Most of the owners in the times of the
Wyoming massacre were simple settlers:
but they, after tine Revolution. mostly
sold their lands at S100 an acre, or
even $50 and $40, as soon as coal was
discovered, and went farther west
where they could buy better farms at
half the price. Those who bought the
coal lands at that price soon found
that coal was of no value unless trans
ported to market; SO companies, or
aggregations of capital had to be
| arranged to dig mines and build rail-
roads. The Pennsylvania Coal Co.
! mot the T.. r. RI bought lands 80
years ago at from s75 to $500 an acre I;
later the price rose to $1,000, when i'm
proyements had been made.
Ario Pardee, one of the pioneers,
was an engineer, .mineralogist, and
hotanist. He had been poor farmer q
son in Lebanon Springs, N. Y. After
4 leaving the district schools and having
had some supplementary instruction
from the village minister, at 20 years
Of age he applied for place as civil
4 = no nR1a IL Rar 70 v
Canal Co. He was presently sent tC
Beaver Meadow, near Hazleton (whert
the Pardee mines now arel TO lay out {
railroad. He saw the country, wen
home to his family, came back, and q
his own initiative laid out anothe
railroad, got men with money in
terested, and in 1870 was an operate
of coal mines. He was known il
Hazleton as 1.-THE silent man" and TO
so years went back and forth from
his house to his office working in
dustriously. "My life," be wrote jus
before his death. ''has been one o
active work., He left $500, GOO t
Lafayette College His descendant
carried on the business.
About 1755 the lands granted b
Queen Anne in the lower region TO tn
Coxes were inherited by Tench Coke
who was good deal of geologist an
economist. He saw the value of th
coal in his paternal acres, but merel
wrote pamphlets about it. His dc
scendants developed them. The las
, one, Eckley Coke, was man of fin
. character, took the part of the ric
against the poor when the cause wa
Just, and in his will remembered a
| his workmen and made provision TO
I them.
j G. B. Markle, whose sons are th
largest independent operators left, can
! to the region with bare hands and n
capital. - His home was Milton, Pa.
5 bis father saddler. At IA he learne
surveying; then he learned carpente
i ing in Philadelphia, but after fallin
from trestle went home and learne
. to be saddler from his father. Abol
{ 1867, when he was 20, he got emplo,
5 ment in the Pardees' store, near VIII;
t is now Drifton. In nine years he W;
o superintendent of the Pardee collierie
: He introduced Improvements especial
/ in machinery THE Markle pump
9 celebrated), and he designed tt
r "breaker'' which is everywhere in us
. In nine more years he was able
a form a partnership and start minir
< for himself. John Markle, one of IL
n strongest spirits among the operate
a in the present conflict, is his SOL
d Being OF active disposition, he pr
4 ferred to run the mines left to him on
: his brother, rather than lease the
0 and go in for the pleasures of the riol
Q as some Of his friends, also sons
t mine owners, did. He settled in Il
e Jeddo valley, lived among his mel
t seldom took vacations, and the yall'
never knew trouble-eyerything W
d arbitrated-until two years ago Mitche
g came and induced the men to brea
/, their contract always to arbitrate di