Editing Beaver Meadows, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
===18th century===
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",<ref name=BR>{{cite book|ref={{harvid|Brenckman|History of Carbon County}}|title=HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA ''Also Containing a Separate Account of the Several Boroughs and Townships in the County''|date=1884|author=Fred Brenckman, Official Commonwealth Historian|edition=2nd (1913)|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcarbonc00inbren|publisher=J. Nungesser, Harrisburg PA - Archive.org project 1913 ed., pdf e-reprint|pages=<!-- ca. or before, p.-271 -627-->}}</ref> and later as well-known as the trail used by Moravian Missionaries traveling between [[Berwick, PA|Berwick]] and [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania|Bethlehem]], then became known as a toll gate/rest stop along 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 (Pennsylvania)|township]] of [[Lausanne Landing|Lausanne]] about nine miles south on the other side of [[Broad Mountain (Lehigh Valley)|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 was discovered in the vicinity of Junedale,<ref name=BR/> a bedroom suburb neighborhood a {{convert|1.33|mi}}<ref>Ruler tool measurement, [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Beaver+Meadows,+PA/@40.9265909,-75.9152242,15.92z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x89c5bb557bf40011:0xf8a9824cb359e0!2sMcAdoo,+PA+18237!3b1!8m2!3d40.9015796!4d-75.9913141!3m4!1s0x89c5a5770cfe094b:0x99e2fc40247a99ed!8m2!3d40.9281374!4d-75.9146261 GoogleMaps]</ref> west of Beaver Meadows proper.

In 1752, the lands of Carbon County and Beaver Meadows area were part of [[Northampton County, Pennsylvania|Northampton County]], one of the three original counties of Pennsylvania, a county as big as New Jersey.<ref name=BM>Hazleton, PA Plain Speaker, 3 September 3, 1937 ''History of Beaver Meadow, Carbon Co., Pa'' [http://himedo.net/TheHopkinThomasProject/TimeLine/BeaverMeadows/TownshipHistories/HazletonPlainSpeaker.htm Speaker Timeline]</ref> the 1790s Warrior's Path was widened into a cart road some called the Lausanne-Nescopeck Road as Moravians increased their connections with 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 (Lehigh Valley)|Broad Mountain]] at [[Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania|Nesquehoning]], leading northwest {{Convert|4|mi|0}} to [[Hazleton, Pennsylvania|Hazleton]] and southeast {{convert|9|mi|0}} to [[U.S. Route 209]] in Nesquehoning. [[Weatherly, Pennsylvania|Weatherly]] is {{convert|4|mi|0}} to the east via Spring Mountain Road, where Beaver Creek ends in confluence with [[Hazel Creek (Lehigh River)|Hazel Creek]] begetting [[Black Creek (Lehigh River)|Black Creek]].

===19th century===
In 1800, [[Lausanne Township, Pennsylvania|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 township]]s being the most rural of organized municipal governments under the commonwealth constitution.

In 1826, Mauch Chunk, which is present-day [[Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania|Jim Thorpe]], and other townships were split out of Lausanne and the center of that township was moved northwards. In 1843, [[Banks Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania|Banks Township]] was organized, and incorporated the small settlement of Beaver Meadows within its larger girth.<ref name=BM/>

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 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, Pennsylvania|Tresckow]], and [[Tamaqua, Pennsylvania|Tamaqua]].

Nathan Beach discovered [[coal]] in 1812, and opened a quarry in 1813,<ref name=BM/> 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 [[ark (river boat)|ark]]s 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 the improvements making the one-way [[Lehigh River|Lehigh]] [[Canal|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 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.<ref>See for example, the [[Main Line of Public Works]] with ambitions to link Philadelphia by canal to Pittsburgh and Lake Erie.</ref>

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.<ref name=BM/> By that time the [[Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company]] had been formed and 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 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, Pennsylvania|Nesquehoning]] and building a two-mile [[funicular railway]] called the Room Run or Rhume Run Railroad to increase volume shipped by 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, Pennsylvania|Parryville]], where auxiliary barge loading facilities were built.

{{blockquote|The earliest settlement in Banks Township [of 1886] 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 Landing|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.
|author=Brenckman|publication=''History of Carbon County'', Chapter XIII. 1884, 1913 ed.}}

The Beaver Meadow Railroad & Coal Company bought {{convert|200|acres}} and subcontracted [[coal]] operations to A.H. VanCleve and Co., opening their own mines.

By 1833, they began local operations and construction of 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.<ref name=BR/> 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 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, New Jersey|Jersey City]] via [[New Jersey]] to the [[Susquehanna River]] and then the great lakes via a line across the [[Delaware River|Delaware]] and up the [[Lehigh River|Lehigh]] Rivers. They were successful, and represented the beginning of the [[Lehigh Valley Railroad]], whose oldest parts, the Beaver Meadows Railroad, were absorbed in 1866.