THE WYOMING VALLEY.
The first authentic account we find of the practical use of anthracite coal is in 1768-69, when it appears to have been first used by two blacksmiths from Connecticut, by the name of Gore, who had settled in the Wyoming Valley. This was the first successful and practical application of stone coal, or anthracite, in this country, and inaugurated its use by the smiths of that region generally. Judge Obadiah Gore, one of the brothers alluded to, subsequently stated the fact as set forth to Judge Jesse Fell, of Wilkes barre, who in turn communicated the interesting data to Silliman's Journal and Hazard's Register. We state this particularly, since there has been some doubt as to the priority of development in the several regions.
The discovery of coal in the Wyoming Valley must have been soon after its settlement by the "Yankees" in 1762. The coal crops out in so many places among the rocks of the valley, and in such conspicuous locali ties, that the early settlers could not avoid seeing it; and as many of them were intelligent men, and some of them undoubtedly familiar with the bituminous coals of the mother-country, it is not at all surprising or strange that the first practical development should have been in this region.
The difficulty of igniting anthracite, or of burning it without an arti ficial blast, prevented its use generally in the place of wood; while the cheapness and abundance of this as a fuel were adequate to the wants of the times, and there was no inducement for the introduction of mineral coal.
The ironsmith—or "blacksmith," as we call him—has ever been the pioneer among the useful minerals of the earth, as he has been our master mechanic from time immemorial; and he, as usual, was quick to appreciate the value of anthracite.
From the time of Obadiah Gore's first experiment in 1768-69, the coal trade of Wyoming has been steadily growing,—imperceptibly at first, but advancing subsequently with rapid strides. In 1776, or at the commence ment of the Revolutionary War, coal was taken in arks from the Wyoming mines down the Susquehanna to the Government arsenal at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and this was continued during the war.
The coal was mined, or rather quarried, at the locality now known as the Baltimore or Hollenback mines, above Wilkesbarre, and from the old " Smith Mine," in the vicinity of Plymouth.
The trade in arks on the Susquehanna seems to have been continued after the war, until the completion of the North Branch Canal, but ex clusively for the use of smiths or forges. It was not until 1808 that stone coal or anthracite was first used in grates for domestic or other purposes than the smithery.
The late Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkesbarre appears to have been the first of whom we have any authentic record who used this coal successfully in the common grate or for domestic purposes.
"He believed that our coal could be burned in grates. He judged, cor rectly, that the natural draft occasioned by a fire would be sufficient if the coal were only placed in a proper position. It is rational to believe that these were his views ; for his first experiment, known to his descendants now in town, was made with a wooden grate, very much in the form of those now in use. It is amusing now to think of burning coal in a wooden grate ; but his logic and economy were based on sound principles. He reflected, no doubt, that if he could make his fire burn so freely as to destroy his wooden grate he could then well afford to make one of iron, and could do so without fear of loss or disappointment.
"We know not the result of this first experiment, or any of the particu lars; but the inference is reasonable that he succeeded, for his next experi ment was more public. One of his daughters, the wife of Col. J. J. Dennis, lately deceased, told me that she well remembered the circum stances attending it. The judge was a practical man, and something of a mechanic. She recollected his going into the blacksmith-shop of his nephew, Edward Fell, and of his working with him most of the day fashioning an iron grate.