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48-652: The Quakake Railroad was chartered on April 25, 1857 to build a connection between the Beaver Meadow Railroad , later the Lehigh Valley Railroad's Hazleton Branch, at Black Creek Junction, where Quakake Creek empties into Black Creek and the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad between its two summit tunnels in Rush Township, Pennsylvania at Lofty Tunnel and Ryan's Tunnel. The CW&E's predecessor,

96-648: A day in comparison with wagon operation of $ 33. By 1834, because of the difficulty in obtaining agreement with the Lehigh Canal on tolls, Allentown was pursued as the road's terminus. In 1836, an agreement on tolls was reached, and twelve miles of rail line were developed from the coal mines to the Lehigh River. The remaining fourteen miles to Weissport were under contract to be developed. Three locomotives from Garrett & Eastwick in Philadelphia were operating on

144-469: A modest pit mine was opened to provide coal for Berwick and Bloomington. The settlement's first dwelling was built in 1804 of logs. The first houses were built along the main thoroughfare, today's Broad Street east of the junction between Berwick St. (the continuation of the turnpike and Rt-93 to Hazelton) and Main St. westwards to Junedale, Tresckow , and Tamaqua . Nathan Beach discovered coal in 1812, and opened

192-620: A quarry in 1813, shipping his coal initially west by wagon to Berwick and Bloomsburg over the Berwick-Nescopeck Toll Bridge. With road improvements, he was able to ship his coal to Lausanne Landing where arks were being built by the Lehigh Coal Mine Company and coal could be transported to Philadelphia. In 1817, stymied by the slow movements of the Schuylkill Canal board of directors , White and Hazard began

240-666: A railroad could be built over 30 miles through mountainous country. The Beaver Meadow Railroad became an operational success, and an inspiration. In 1846, investors began the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company to link New York Harbor at Jersey City via New Jersey to the Susquehanna River and then the great lakes via a line across the Delaware and up the Lehigh Rivers. They were successful, and represented

288-414: A total area of 0.26 square miles (0.67 km ), all of it land. Beaver Meadows began as a recognizable and describable landmar, a meadow where beaver dams dotted the landscape, along a well-known Amerindian Trail, known as the "Warriors' Path" , and later as well-known as the trail used by Moravian Missionaries traveling between Berwick and Bethlehem , then became known as a toll gate/rest stop along

336-468: Is 4 miles (6 km) to the east via Spring Mountain Road, where Beaver Creek ends in confluence with Hazel Creek begetting Black Creek . In 1800, Lausanne was created to provide local government for what is essentially all of present-day Carbon County, Pennsylvania ; the eventual townships of East Penn, Lausanne, Mahoning, Banks, Towamensing, Lower Towamensing and Penn Forest; Pennsylvania townships being

384-426: Is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania . The population was 897 at the 2020 U.S. census . Beaver Meadows is located in northwestern Carbon County at 40°55′42″N 75°54′46″W  /  40.92833°N 75.91278°W  / 40.92833; -75.91278 (40.928438, -75.912787) along Beaver Creek , amidst a historic transportation corridor dating back to Amerindian Trails through the wilderness area known to

432-701: The Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania to use locomotives. When organized the BMRC was authorized to acquire $ 250,000 capital. The BMRC, taking immediate advantage of a charter provision which allowed them to own and work 200 acres of coal land as an incentive for building a railroad from mines to either the Lehigh River or Little Schuylkill then increased its capitalization ceiling to $ 800,000. The Beaver Meadow Mines were discovered in 1812 by Nathan Beach. The land had an unclear title until Judge Barnes, owner of

480-671: The Lehigh Valley Railroad on July 8, 1864, the Beaver Meadow brought to its new owner its first coal lands. The BMRC became known as the Beaver Meadows Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This United States railway company-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania Beaver Meadows is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania , United States. It

528-465: The Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike , a bridle trail and wagon road chartered in 1804 from Jean's Run near the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in the hamlet and township of Lausanne about nine miles south on the other side of Broad Mountain . In the 1790s, a large tract of land was registered in the name of tbdl and a few farm houses dotted the valley until in 1812, anthracite coal

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576-491: The Amerindians as "The Great Swamp". The Great Swamp was part of a vastly greater wilderness once known as “St. Anthony’s Wilderness” and by the Amerindians, the “Towamensing” being an Indian word for “wilderness” — a vast pinewood forest and boggy swamp-plagued valleys watered by springs and mountain creeks such as Quakake Creek, Beaver Creek, Hazel Creek and others from the surrounding mountains. The Amerindians applied

624-675: The Beaver Meadows planners assumptions. In 1830, operating managers Josiah White and Erskine Hazard of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N Co.) opened new mines, now freed of immediate or further improvement needs of the Lehigh Canal or the Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Railroad , in the area of present-day Nesquehoning and building a two-mile funicular railway called the Room Run or Rhume Run Railroad to increase volume shipped by

672-564: The CW&;E, which was then being foreclosed and reorganized as the Catawissa Railroad . The Quakake Railroad went into foreclosure on September 30, 1862, and was reorganized as the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad on October 11. In 1865, a branch was built from Park Place to Mahanoy City . On June 30, 1866 the company was merged into the Lehigh Valley Railroad . Under the Lehigh & Mahanoy,

720-514: The Hazleton Railroad from Weatherly to Hazleton to open up even more coal fields to the company. The Hazleton Railroad ran over BMRC track from Weatherly to Penn Haven a canal wharf. Originally wooden rails, covered with an iron strap, were used, and the locomotives were initially wood-burning. Frequent floods along the Lehigh River notwithstanding, the railroad gained rapid success, as the mines serviced by it were developed. In early 1838, it

768-531: The Hazleton Railroad opened its high-level line of 1852 (after another flood) to Penn Haven, the BMRC decided to eliminate the two inclined planes at Weatherly with legislative assent in 1853. With the purchase of the abandoned Hazleton Railroad line, plane operation ended in 1855. The new section of the Beaver Meadow had a grade of 145 feet to the mile for 1.75 miles, and 135 feet for the next 4,000 feet. The BMRC also built to Honeybrook Mines during 1855-56, thereby gaining all coal production from that mine. By 1863,

816-620: The Lehigh River and down the river on its northern shore beyond Turnhole in present-day Glen Onoko to Parryville between Mauch Chunk in present-day Jim Thorpe , and then to the Blue Mountain Gap. The dual markets of New York City and Philadelphia could be reached via the Lehigh Canal , and the favorable grades were factors in the choice of routes. Legislature authorized ownership of 800 additional acres of coal lands. The BMRC cited Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ’s locomotive "York" costs of $ 16

864-464: The Lehigh Valley Railroad in 1855. The new coal port was located at East Mauch Chunk and was known as "Lousy Bay ." Beaver Meadow had a railroad foundry as well as the machine shops until these facilities were moved to Weatherly in 1849. The difficulty of crossing the planes with locomotives needing repairs was a factor in this decision. By 1849, when the line had 2.5 miles of H-rail, five locomotives and 297 coal cars, it delivered 84,396 tons of coal to

912-635: The Little Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad, graded this route as its Quakake or Lehigh Branch and opened most of it for traffic in 1840. It was the only part of the LS&;S to operate, but was abandoned it after a flood devastated the Beaver Meadow Railroad in January 1841. The Quakake Railroad's charter allowed it to occupy that grade with the consent of the CW&E. Quakake Railroad's construction

960-464: The Mahanoy City Branch was abandoned in 1957, and the line from Delano to Gerhards, Pennsylvania in 1963. The line to Mt. Carmel was cut back to Aristes Junction in 1965, and from there to Raven Run in 1971. The remaining trackage was all abandoned by 1976. Beaver Meadow Railroad The Beaver Meadow Railroad & Coal Company (BMRC) was chartered April 7, 1830, to build a railroad from

1008-477: The Midvalley No. 1 Colliery. In 1892, a three-mile line was built from Montana junction, east of Centralia, to Midvalley Colliery No. 2. These lines were abandoned by 1965 when the fine coal plant at Midvalley closed. The decline of coal mining brought about the piecemeal abandonment of these lines. The Ashland Branch was cut back to Girardville in 1951, and in 1953, from Girardville to Weston Colliery. One mile of

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1056-701: The Quakake Railroad to extend its line westerly into the headwaters of Mahanoy Creek and down the stream or up its branches "as far as may be expedient", and build branches of up to 10 miles to coal mines. Under this authority, the Quakake built an extension in 1860 via Delano to Mount Carmel , where it connected to the Northern Central Railway 's Shamokin Valley and Pottsville Railroad. Another charter supplement on March 21, 1860 allowed it to buy its roadbed from

1104-651: The St. John's settlement in the Nescopeck Creek valley. In 1804, business interests desiring to ship timber to energy-hungry settlements raised money for a wagon road that could support timber sledges in winter snows, and the Lehigh and Susquehanna Turnpike was chartered, which is now closely followed by Pennsylvania Route 93 through the borough from over Broad Mountain at Nesquehoning , leading northwest 4 miles (6 km) to Hazleton and southeast 9 miles (14 km) to U.S. Route 209 in Nesquehoning. Weatherly

1152-549: The affordable fuel to meet the young nation's energy demands, the Erie Canal opening, followed by the news of railroad events in Britain in 1825 began whole chains of events spurring industrial production and railroads. In 1826, Colonel William H. Wilson moved to the town and built a tavern. In 1831 James Lamison became citizen No. 3 and also opened a tavern. By that time the Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company had been formed and

1200-408: The average family size was 3.04. The borough population contained 22.3% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 28.8% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 22.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 100.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.7 males. The median income for a household in the borough was $ 31,058, and

1248-618: The beginning of the Lehigh Valley Railroad , whose oldest parts, the Beaver Meadows Railroad, were absorbed in 1866. As of the U.S. Census Bureau , there were 968 people, 404 households, and 258 families in the borough. The population density was 3752/sqmi (1449/km ). There were 458 housing units at an average density of 1775/sqmi (685/km ). The racial makeup of the borough was 99.38% White , 0.10% Native American , 0.21% Asian , 0.21% from other races , and 0.10% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.24% of

1296-448: The canal at East Mauch Chunk. In 1849, the company had decided to replace the light wooden rails with flat iron bars fastened with t-rails. The work was done during the winter of 1849 and completed by the spring of 1850. The road was in three divisions, Upper, mines to Weatherly, six miles; Middle, Weatherly to Penn Haven, five miles; Lower, Penn Haven to East Mauch Chunk, nine miles, laid with 62 tons of flat bar iron rail. Two years after

1344-516: The company. The two railroads contended for the same space. At one point, both companies put armed men into the field, but an amicable settlement was reached but for a rate dispute to break out. This resulted in a resolve to build the railroad all the way to Easton, but a deal was reached after the railroad reached past Mauch Chunk to Parryville , where auxiliary barge loading facilities were built. The earliest settlement in Banks Township [of 1886]

1392-468: The completed line by 1837, a promise the company kept. On November 5, 1836 the Beaver Meadow Register reported, "The Beaver Meadow Railroad opened … beside some bottles of champagne." One locomotive was hauled over 145-foot-high planes, delivering coal between Beaver Meadow and Weatherly. Mules pulled the empty cars up and down the planes. In the summer of 1836, Pardee and others began utilizing

1440-450: The conflicting claim, purchased Beach's tract. The already established Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company quickly labeled the BMRC a speculative venture which led to friction between the two enterprises. By 1833 the design was finished. The engineers included Ario Pardee , who was later a coal magnate in the Hazleton, Pennsylvania region. The route was set from the Beaver Meadow mines to

1488-449: The improvements making the one-way Lehigh Navigations in 1818, and travel Lehigh River downstream grew steadily safer. By the end of 1820, the new Lehigh Canal , still rough and unfinished, nonetheless enabled a record 365 long-tons to be shipped to Philadelphia . By 1823, steady shipments allowed self-funding and the canal was being re-engineered and a gradual conversion begun into a system with two-way locks; its success in providing

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1536-402: The inclined plane were abandoned prior to completion of the Quakake Railroad, and instead the junction was moved to the south to Quakake Junction, near Tamanend . The full line opened on August 25, 1858 from Black Creek Junction on the Beaver Meadow Railroad west to Quakake Junction on the CW&E, and was at first operated by that railroad. A charter supplement issued on March 22, 1859 allowed

1584-656: The line between Raven Run and Centralia was completed in 1865. In 1866 it was built to Mount Carmel and connected to the Shamokin Valley and Pottsville Railroad owned by the Northern Central Railway. In 1884 the line, which lay low in the valley, was rebuilt higher up on the mountainside by the Lehigh Valley. This avoided flooding from Mine Run. A branch extended from Centralia eastward to the LV's Continental Colliery. It

1632-466: The line extended to Audenreid, had five engine houses and a machine shop. Equipment consisted of nineteen locomotives, two passenger cars, one for baggage and mail, three freight and a thousand four-wheeled coal cars and 300 eight-wheeled coal cars. In delivering 1,595,729 tons of anthracite, the BMRC had operated coal trains 208,573 miles. Passenger and freight trains carrying 21,500 passengers and 15,022 tons of freight traveled 38,500 miles. Merged into

1680-454: The median income for a family was $ 42,500. Males had a median income of $ 30,000 versus $ 20,417 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $ 17,296. About 4.4% of families and 7.6% of the population were below the poverty line , including 6.0% of those under age 18 and 15.6% of those age 65 or over. As of 2013, there were 3.63 miles (5.84 km) of public roads in Beaver Meadows, of which 1.03 miles (1.66 km) were maintained by

1728-413: The mines near Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania , beyond Broad Mountain along Beaver Creek to Penn Haven and along the Lehigh River through present-day Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania to the Lehigh Canal at Parryville, Pennsylvania . The settlement of Beaver Meadows dated to a 1787 land sale to Patrick and Mary Keene, thence to Nathan Beach. Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company was the first railroad in

1776-682: The most rural of organized municipal governments under the commonwealth constitution. In 1826, Mauch Chunk, which is present-day Jim Thorpe , and other townships were split out of Lausanne and the center of that township was moved northwards. In 1843, Banks Township was organized, and incorporated the small settlement of Beaver Meadows within its larger girth. In 1812, the secrets of burning anthracite were mostly yet to be discovered, revealed, and promoted (widely publicized) by Josiah White and Erskine Hazard but blacksmiths were several decades into knowing how to use it as an auxiliary fuel to complement bituminous or charcoal in forge fires, so by 1813

1824-407: The population. There were 404 households, out of which 24.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.0% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.1% were non-families. 33.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and

1872-454: The railway along the surveyed right of way. Strong-armed by LC&N Co., the company got a change in charter and continued downstream along the Lehigh until LC&N Co. blinked and granted acceptable shipping rate terms. In 1835 they contracted for the first wood-burning steam locomotives to operate in Northampton and Carbon counties, which began operations in 1836. They also demonstrated that

1920-552: The term, “Towamensing” to the entire frontier area above Blue Mountain , which while a valued hunting territory was considered less favorable to Indian settlements. Beaver Meadow is at an elevation of 1,598 feet (487 m) above sea level in the valley of Beaver Creek, north of Spring Mountain, part of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians . According to the United States Census Bureau , the borough has

1968-506: The use of an independent leading wheel truck with equalizing lever. Due to this innovation, the Hercules was adapted to operating in the rough Pennsylvania terrain and helped to open much of the United States to railroad construction. In 1840, the BMRC offered to lease its line and its 30- to 60,000-ton annual coal production, and to furnish to the lessee railcars, engines and engineers. This

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2016-482: Was abandoned when the colliery closed in 1954. A branch was built in 1877 from Kohinoor Junction through Girardville to Ashland . A two-mile switchback was built in 1939 from Logan Junction, west of Centralia to the Germantown Colliery. It as used until 1960 when that operation was closed. Two other extensions were built. In 1890, a one-mile line was constructed from Morris Ridge Junction, east of Mt. Carmel to

2064-521: Was discovered in the vicinity of Junedale, a bedroom suburb neighborhood a 1.33 miles (2.14 km) west of Beaver Meadows proper. In 1752, the lands of Carbon County and Beaver Meadows area were part of Northampton County , one of the three original counties of Pennsylvania, a county as big as New Jersey. the 1790s Warrior's Path was widened into a cart road some called the Lausanne-Nescopeck Road as Moravians increased their connections with

2112-479: Was first leased to A. H. VanCleve & Company in 1841, and was operated by that firm until 1846. William Milnes & Company then worked the mines for about a year. The firm of Hamberger & Company then leased them and continued operations until 1850, after which the mines were abandoned until 1881, when they were leased to Coxe Brothers & Company. After the flood of 1841, the BMRC abandoned its track from opposite Mauch Chunk to Parrysville, partly rebuilt by

2160-549: Was made in that portion which was in 1897 set off to form the borough of Beaver Meadow. The township was contained within the territory of Lausanne until January, 1842, when it was separately organized, being named in honor of Judge Banks, then on the bench of Northampton county, of which Carbon formed a part until 1843. The Beaver Meadow Railroad & Coal Company bought 200 acres (81 ha) and subcontracted coal operations to A.H. VanCleve and Co. opening their own mines. By 1833, they began local operations and construction of

2208-460: Was reported that the five Garrett and Eastwick locomotives (owned by the BMRC) were fired exclusively with anthracite. One of these locomotives, the Hercules, had a revolutionary impact on the future development of American railroads. The Hercules was the earliest locomotive to have the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement which for a time became standard for American locomotives. It was the first locomotive to combine

2256-402: Was subscribing stock. It was chartered on April 13, 1830, and the industrial revolution was about to begin using Beaver Meadows as a center. The company laid tracks down the valleys from Beaver and Black Creeks, the tributaries dumped into the Lehigh below and near Penn Haven Junction where the railroad expected to ship to the Lehigh Canal. Room Run Railroad was occupying space assumed free by

2304-538: Was supported by the CW&E, the Beaver Meadow, and the Lehigh Valley Railroads. Its completion allowed coal to be transported from the CW&E to travel over the latter two railroads to New York City . The original LS&S grading used an inclined plane to connect the later CW&E main line, on the mountainside between the two tunnels, with the Quakake Branch in the valley below. However, that plan and

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