Elite Migration and Urban Growth: the Rise of Wilkes-Barre in the Northern Anthracite Region, 1820-1880

EdwardJ. Davies II UNIVERSITY OF UTAH ELITE MIGRATION AND URBAN GROWTH: THE RISE OF WILKES-BARRE IN THE NORTHERN ANTHRACITE REGION, 1820-1880 HISTORIANS HAVE recently begun to devote considerable at- tention to the study of urban elites. In particular, these scholars have examined elites during the rapid economic growth of early industrial America, and have attempted to gauge the impact of these economic changes on their character. For the most part, the upper class has been studied as an indicator of the fluidity in urban society. The upper class provides an effective means to investigate this issue both because of the elite's visibility and the high socio-economic status of its members in local society. Accordingly, historians have studied the ethnic composition of the elite as well as the class origins of urban leaders to determine to what degree birth or talent has influenced access to a city's upper class.' 1. Richard S. Alcorn, "Leadership and Stability in Mid-Nineteenth Century America: A Case Study of an Illinois Town," Journal of American History, 61 (1974): 685-702; E. Digby Baltzell, Philadelphia Gentlemen (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971); Stuart Blumin, "The Historical Study of Vertical Mobility," Historical Methods Newsletter, 1 (1968): 1-13; Gunther Barth, "Metropolitanism and Urban Elites in the Far West," in The Age of Industrialism in America, ed. Frederic C. Jahner (New York: The Free Press, 1968), pp. 158-87, Clyde and Sally Griffen, Natises and Newcomers: the Ordering of Opportunity in Mid-Nineteenth Century Poughkeepsie (Cambridge, Massa- chusetts: Harvard University Press, 1978), see Chapter 4, "Men at the Top."; Herbert Gutman, "The Reality of Rags to Riches Myth," in Nineteenth Century Cities, eds. Stephan Thernstrom and Richard Sennett (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969), pp. 98-124; Michael Katz, "The Entrepreneurial Class in a Canadian City in the Mid-Nineteenth Century," Journal of Social History, 8 (1975): 1-29; Richard Jensen, "Metropolitan Elites in the Midwest, 1907-1929: A study in Multivariate Collective Biography," in The Rich, the Well Born, and the Powerful, ed. Frederic C. Jaher (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1973), pp. 285-303; Edward Pessen, Riches, Class, and Power Before the Cisil War (Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1973); Michael Weber, Social Change in an Industrial Town (State College, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976). 291 292 EDWARD J. DAVIES II This overriding concern with the openness of urban society has led historians almost to ignore the role of elites in promoting economic development. Members of the elite are key in establishing industry, incorporating banks, and reinvesting profits to diversify the economic base. Equally as important, and certainly less studied, is the impact of elite migration on the rise and fall of urban centers. The migration pattern of urban leaders serves as a good indicator of shifts in population and economic growth as cities compete for the scarce resources of talent and capital. Communities which are unable to hold these resources inevitably stagnate while cities which attract leaders and their capital usually experience vigorous development. Despite its importance this migration and its relationship to urban growth remains virtually unexplored. 2 The purpose of this essay is to examine the success of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in attracting talent and capital and its impact on the city's growth. Located in the northern anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania, Wilkes-Barre became the largest and the dominant city in the region by the 1880s. To a great extent this success was a product of the city's ability to draw in new talent and drain leaders away from competing cities in the region. Wilkes-Barre's ability to attract these critical resources was closely linked with the character of the city and its elite before and during early industrialization. Wilkes-Barre's location on the Susquehanna River (see Map I), combined with an aggressive trading elite, made the community an early commercial center for towns within the Wyoming Valley and along the eastern branch of the Susquehanna River to the north. This trading network was tied to agriculture. Its commerce consisted of hauling and marketing farm produce from the Wyoming Valley and the northern Susquehanna basin throughout eastern Pennsylvania. Within the Valley, the elite was actively involved in organizing and promoting farming. Leading families such as the Conynghams, Hollenbacks, and Lanings built grist and flour mills throughout the Wyoming Valley, formed county agricultural societies and sponsored annual county fairs.3 2. Edward J. Davies, II, "The Urbanizing Region: Leadership and Urban Growth in the Anthracite Coal Regions," (Ph. D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1977); Davies, "Wilkes-Barre, 1870-1920: The Evolution of Urban Leadership During Industrialization," (Seminar paper, University of Pittsburgh, 1972). 3. Ralph Hazeltine, "Victor Piollet: Portrait of a Country Politician," Pennsylvania History, 60 (1973): 1-18; Stewart Pearce, Annals of Luzerne County, 2 ed. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1866), pp. 346-50; W. W. Munsell and Company, History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties, Pennsylvania with Illustrations and 00 0c C j co 3 z o X C V)2S -W t3<C8 ' z .)- V S'gEa CZ X~ IU I X5 a............... z Q) 00 294 EDWARD J. DAVIES II A common heritage aided the Wilkes-Barre elite in its efforts to gain control of the trade in the agricultural regions to the north. The Connecticut Yankees who settled the Wyoming Valley had also pioneered the rural communities in the northern Susquehanna basin. The resulting cultural and institutional commonality reinforced strong economic ties and facilitated reciprocal trade be- tween Wilkes-Barre and these communities. The towns along this branch of the Susquehanna at first shipped only farm goods such as corn, oats, and fertilizer in exchange for agricultural implements and household goods. When mining began in the Wyoming Valley during the 1830s and 1840s, the towns north of Wilkes-Barre, such as Wyalusing, purchased anthracite coal as a home heating fuel. By the 1850s coal operators in Wilkes-Barre were buying large quantities of hemlock lumber needed for construction of mining collieries and housing for a rapidly growing population.4 Mathias Hollenback of Wilkes-Barre helped pioneer this commercial and marketing network. Acting as a middle-man for goods from Philadelphia, he established country stores to sell these items in towns such as Towanda, Wyalusing, Meshoppen, Athens and Braintrim. In addition his stores also operated in southern New York around the Elmira-Owego area and in southeastern Pennsylvania near Harrisburg and Middletown. The trading network became stronger as these agricultural communities became more dependent on the market for a greater variety of goods. The kinship ties be- tween the leading families in Wilkes-Barre, particularly the Hollen- back group, and those in the towns north along the river reinforced these economic and cultural bonds. The commercial and marketing system created a basis for geographic and capital mobility which would channel talent and wealth to Wilkes-Barre.` Biographical Sketches of Some of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers (New York: W. W. Munsell and Company, 1880), pp. 94 6; J. H. Plumb, Histori of Hanover Township, Including Nanticoke, Ashley, and Sugar Notch and also a History of Wyrming Valley (Wilkes- Barre: R. Baller, 1885), pp. 230-33. 4. Hazeltine, "Victor Piollet," pp. 1-15. 5. Hazeltine, "Victor Piollet," pp. 1-18; H. C. Bradsby, ed., History of Bradford, Pennsylvania with Biographical Selections (Chicago: S. B. Nelson and Company, Pub- lishers, 1891), pp. 396-99, 411-13, 418-19, 572-75; The Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century (Philacielphia: Galaxy Publishing Company, 1874), pp. 554-55; Horace C. Hayden, Alfred Hand, and John Jordan, Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, 2 vols. (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1916), 1:353, 357 58; History of Bradford County, Pennsyl- vania (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts and Company, 1878), pp. 448-49; Munsell, History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties, pp. 496-97, 503, 505, 516A-16B. ELITE MIGRATION 295 The case of Wyalusing, a small marketing town, demonstrates the nature of these ties and the manner in which they facilitated the flow of wealth and talent into Wilkes-Barre. In 1801 Mathias Hollen- back sent his nephew, John, to Wyalusing to open a new general store. Hollenback relied on goods shipped north by Mathias from Philadelphia. These stocks formed the basis for commercial activity in the area. Within a short period, the younger Hollenback had become a leading citizen of Wyalusing. He subsequently formed a partnership with Charles F. Wells, son of a prominent local family. By the 1840s Wells would rank as one of the wealthiest men in the Susquehanna County. Wells' marriage to Hollenback's daughter cemented the ties with the main family in Wilkes-Barre. Most of the Wells family eventually moved to Wilkes-Barre where they became prominent economic and political leaders.' Wilkes-Barre's position as the county seat enabled it to become the administrative center for the Luzerne County by the 1820's. Strong legal and political institutions such as the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association and the County courts acted as a powerful magnet for ambitious young throughout the Valley and even in neighboring counties. The large number of resident lawyers an outgrowth of the city's function as county seat-made Wilkes-Barre the center for all legal training in Luzerne County. Young men with aspirations for a career in law were compelled to come to the city for their internship. This insured a steady supply of talented young men from the leading families in the area who sought skills in law.

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