Lehigh Coal Mine Company records 0131
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 26, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Manuscripts and Archives PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Lehigh Coal Mine Company records 0131
Table of Contents
Summary Information ...... 3 Historical Note ...... 3 Scope and Content ...... 4 Administrative Information ...... 4 Related Materials ...... 5 Controlled Access Headings ...... 5
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Summary Information
Repository: Manuscripts and Archives Creator: Lehigh Coal Mine Company Title: Lehigh Coal Mine Company records ID: 0131 Date [inclusive]: 1792-1829 Physical Description: 16 item(s) Language of the English . Material: Abstract: Lehigh Coal Mine Company was an unincorporated joint-stock company, established in 1792, with the intention of developing a deposit of anthracite coal discovered by Jacob Weiss (1750-1839) and others at what is now Summit Hill in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. The collection consists of documents relating to land ownership and governance of Lehigh Coal Mine Company.
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Historical Note
The Lehigh Coal Mine Company was formed with the intent to develop a deposit of anthracite coal at what is now Summit Hill in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Coal Mine Company was an unincorporated joint-stock company formed on February 12, 1792, by sixteen persons including Jacob Weiss (1750-1839), John Nicholson (1757-1800), Michael Hillegas (1729-1804), and Godfrey Haga (1745-1825). The company acquired 7,100 acres embracing most of the coal basin between the Lehigh and Little Schuylkill Rivers. Numerous attempts to develop the property failed for lack of capital, poor transportation and undeveloped markets for the coal. Lessees of the property achieved some success during the War of 1812, when imports and coastwise shipments of coal were cut off. This prompted Josiah White (1781-1850) and Erskine Hazard (1789-1865), Philadelphia wire manufacturers, and George F. A. Hauto (1780-1825), a German adventurer, to begin successful development of the mines and the improvement of the Lehigh River in 1818. They leased the Coal Mine Company's property for twenty years at an annual rate of one ear of corn, payable on demand. White, Hazard and Hauto incorporated their enterprise as the Lehigh Coal & Navigation (LC&N) Company in 1822 and secured control of the Lehigh Coal Mine Company in the same year. The last shares could not be purchased until 1839, and on March 23rd of that year the Lehigh Coal Mine Company was liquidated and its lands transferred to the LC&N.
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Scope and Content
The collection consists of documents relating to land ownership and governance of Lehigh Coal Mine Company (LC&N). It includes a copy of the articles of association with the names of the original subscribers, the 1818 lease to White, Hazard and Hauto and papers relating to the lease. Also included are a deed of William Henry and Jacob Weiss to Charles Cist for lots in Lehighton, Pennsylvania (1795), an agreement between James Greenleaf and the North American Land Company (1806) and a letter of Francis Weiss to Josiah White (1826) describing some of John Nicholson's land dealings with his father, Jacob Weiss.
These records became separated from the main body of records which passed to the LC&N.
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Administrative Information
Publication Statement Manuscripts and Archives
PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library
Access Restrictions The collection is open for research.
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Related Materials
Related Materials Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, P.O. Box 1026, Harrisburg, Pa. 17108-1026
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Controlled Access Headings
• Pennsylvania • Coal mines and mining. • Land companies. • Anthracite coal industry • Land speculation • Joint-stock companies • Cist, Charles, 1738-1805 • Weiss, Jacob, 1750-1839 • White, Josiah, 1781-1850 • North American Land Company • Weiss, Francis, 1773-1845 • Nicholson, John, 1757-1800 • Morris, Robert, 1734-1806 • Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company • Henry, William, 1757-1821 • Hazard, Erskine, 1789-1865 • Greenleaf, James, 1765-1843
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