White Haven, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s

Work

Sawmills, coal, machines

The most visible work was industrial: ten large sawmills cut about 20,000,000 feet of lumber a year¹ in 1860, while Wyoming Valley anthracite came over the mountains to White Haven⁶. The iron foundry and machine shops¹ added skilled repair and metal work to a town built around moving heavy things.

Law & power

Company and borough

Local government existed because White Haven was incorporated as a borough in 1848¹, but the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company shaped daily life through the canal, railroad, foundry, and water-side property. Its decisions after the 1862 flood² changed the town from canal transfer point to railroad town.

What people feared

Flood on stripped hills

The great danger people remembered was water carrying industry away: a thirty-hour rainstorm in June 1862² drove logs and floodwater through the Lehigh works. The disaster was made worse because forests around the Lehigh and tributaries had been clear-cut².

Home & table

A small crowded borough

White Haven was not a city: in 1860 it had 943 inhabitants³. A rough-log schoolhouse belonged to the earlier settlement, but the later town had a large school building and five churches¹.

Money

Markets, not price lists

The local economy depended on goods leaving town: 20,000,000 feet of lumber a year¹ and anthracite moving through the transfer network. For household costs, the record is thinner: no local price list or wage table for White Haven in the 1860s was found.

Who lived here

Under one thousand

The whole borough counted 481 males and 462 females in 1860³. The opened sources describe the industries better than the inhabitants, so ethnicity, languages, and household composition remain mostly unmeasured here.

Roads & news

From horse mail to rail

The post office dated back to 1835 at the old log store¹, and early mail came once a week on horseback from Wilkes-Barre^1,5. By the 1860s, news and strangers increasingly arrived by rail, because canal met railroad⁵ at White Haven.

In the air

Railroads beat canals

One argument of the decade was practical and fierce: after the company abandoned the upper water route⁴, rival railroad companies fought for right of way through the narrow Lehigh corridor. The remembered episode of gravel cars shoved into the Lehigh⁴ shows how hot that competition became.

Year by year

1. 1860White Haven counted 943 inhabitants in the federal census. here³
2. 1860Ten large sawmills at White Haven were cutting about 20,000,000 feet of lumber a year. here¹
3. 1861The Civil War began after the firing on Fort Sumter, and Pennsylvania towns sent men, supplies, and news attention into the conflict. the country
4. 1862A great Lehigh flood destroyed the upper canal works and forced White Haven’s traffic toward railroads. here²
5. 1863The Battle of Gettysburg was fought in Pennsylvania, making the war a direct state crisis. the country
6. 1865Abraham Lincoln was assassinated after Union victory, news that would have reached White Haven through the railroad and press network. the country
7. 1866The Lehigh Valley Railroad pushed north from White Haven toward Wilkes-Barre to compete for freight. here⁴
8. 1868The Lehigh Boom Company was organized with booms on the river near White Haven. here

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• White Haven was incorporated as a borough in 1848, with borough elections originally held at local houses. inferred¹
• The 1860 federal census counted White Haven at 943 inhabitants, 481 male and 462 female. from the sources³
• The place was named for Josiah White of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company. from the sources^1,5
• White Haven stood on the Luzerne County side of the Lehigh River. from the sources²
• In 1835 the canal works at White Haven included a basin along the river, with a lock and dam at the upper end of town. inferred¹
• Before the 1862 flood, White Haven was the point where the Lehigh Canal began south toward Easton and the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad ran north toward Wilkes-Barre. from the sources⁵
• As late as 1860, White Haven had ten large sawmills cutting about 20,000,000 feet of lumber a year. inferred¹
• A thirty-hour rainstorm in June 1862 sent logs and floodwater down the Lehigh, destroying the upper canal’s dams and locks. from the sources²
• The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad carried Wyoming Valley anthracite over the mountains to White Haven. from the sources⁶
• After the 1862 flood, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company abandoned the upper water route and extended its railroad from White Haven down the former towing path toward Mauch Chunk. from the sources⁴
• The Lehigh Valley Railroad pushed northward from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre in 1866, competing for through freight. from the sources⁴
• A later county history remembered a construction-train clash at White Haven during the railroad rivalry, with a Navigation Company locomotive pushing rival gravel cars into the Lehigh. from the sources⁴
• The Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company built White Haven’s iron foundry and machine shops in 1859. inferred¹
• The foundry and machine-shop works were moved in 1866 or 1867 to a site between the lower end of the basin and the river. inferred¹
• White Haven Water Works began in 1856 under borough auspices by piping water from two springs in the North ward. inferred¹
• Those two spring sources remained enough until 1868, when a company was organized and $7,500 in stock was subscribed for better water facilities. inferred¹
• A later local history says the single old road along the river had become White Haven’s Main Street. inferred¹
• The post office had existed since 1835, originally kept in the old log store at the foot of Susquehanna Street. inferred¹
• In the early settlement period, mail came once a week on horseback from Wilkes-Barre; by the 1860s railroad communication had replaced that older isolation. from the sources^1,5
• The first schoolhouse had been a rough-log building from 1838, but by the later nineteenth-century account White Haven had a large school building and five churches. inferred¹
• White Haven’s nearest early trading points were Wilkes-Barre, Berwick, and Mauch Chunk. inferred¹
• Ox-team hauling from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre and back had once taken three days, to Berwick and back four days, and to Allentown and back six days when roads were passable. inferred¹
• The lumber boom clear-cut forests around the Lehigh and its tributaries for many miles, worsening the flood damage of 1862. from the sources²
• No online source opened here gives a street-by-street description of ordinary houses in White Haven during the 1860s. not known
• No local price list or wage table for White Haven in the 1860s was found in the opened sources. not known

Sources

1. White Haven. PAGenWeb / Luzerne County
2. White Haven, PA: Lumber and Coal and an Engineering Marvel. National Canal Museum, 2021
3. Population of the United States in 1860: Pennsylvania. United States Census Office, 1864
4. History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties, Pa., Part 19. W. W. Munsell & Co. / LDS Genealogy transcription, 1880
5. White Haven - Towns on the D&L. Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor
6. History of Luzerne County. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania

Nearby, about the same time