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To return to Mr. Luckenbach’s transactions, after selling two parcels, each of 4 acres, to Samuel Weatherhill and the Zinc Co., and 35 acres to Asa Packer, for the use of the L.V.R.R. Co., he conveyed the remainder of the farm to Charles W. and Ambrose Rauch, in 1854. That same year, Charles Brodhead bought the Jacobi farm 103 acres, and the recently-acquired lands of the Rauch’s, added his purchases to the town plot, and renamed it Wetherill. The next year he reconveyed to the Rauchs the tract purchased from them.
A “Greater Bethlehem” appears to have been looked forward to as early as 1858, for that year we find even Mr. Brodhead discarding both the town names, Augusta and Wetherill, and designating his lands as in “the southern addition of Bethlehem”. It was about this time that the new town was given its third name, Bethlehem South, by which it was known until after 1865. With Asa Packer as contractor and our late townsman, Robert H. Sayre, as Chief Engineer, the original main line of the Lehigh Valley R.R. — from Mauch Chunk to South Easton — was located and the work of construction begun in 1852. The rails were laid through here east of the bridge the last week in April, 1855; and on June 4 the first locomotive passed through here. On June 11 the first passenger train made the trip between Allentown and South Easton, through transportation was opened to Mauch Chunk September 12, and the first coal train passed through here on September 15. The Company’s first station and office building were opened in the Luckenbach farm house, built in 1849, standing directly east of the Union Station, and still used as an office building by the railroad.
On June 16, 1853, work was commenced on the North Penna. R.R., and on January 1, 1857, was run through over this road from Philadelphia to Freemansburg. On the completion of the long deep cut at Iron Hill, July 8 of the same year, the Freemansburg branch was abandoned and trains were run over the main line of this road to this place as the other terminal of the line. At the junction with the L.V.R.R., immediately west of the entrance to the old bridge, where the old ferry house had stood, this Company built its first station, in 1859, and it was used in common by both railroads until 1867, when the present Union Station was erected, almost on the site of the Crown Inn, at a cost of $25,000. The precise spot occupied by the historic old Inn is now covered in part by the south platform of the Station, and the railroad tracks run directly over the old well of the Inn. The rise of ground, now occupied in part by the Company’s roundhouse and Ritter’s coal yard, was the site of the Inn’s apple orchard, from the fruit of which was made the "Cider Royal" for which the Crown was famous.
This famous old hostelry, the Crown Inn, was a two-story building, constructed of white oak logs, and having a peaked roof, small windows and a low porch with carved pillars. Near-by was a picturesque well-sweep, orchard, and fields. On the walls of the long, low reception room, at the farthest end of which were the bar, powder horns, bullet pouches, gnus, deer antlers, and, in a little 6 by 9 frame, the first license, which was granted in 1746. The railroad company sold the building to David I. Yerkes for $30. Yerkes used the material in the construction of the "Continental hotel”, near the southeast corner of Second and New Streets, and now belonging to the T.C. Caffrey Estate and occupied as a tenement house.
On the opening of the new railroad, Abbott & Cortright, in 1857, established a foundry and machine shop nearby the Union Station, where the plant of the Bethlehem Foundry & Machine Co. is now located.
Though our pioneer industry, the Zinc Works, was in operation as early as 1853, the very rapid growth and prosperity of this community really dates from the opening of the railroad lines. Without the facilities for transportation thus afforded, the greatest of all our industries, The Bethlehem Steel Co., would have been an impossibility. Naturally, the large land owners of the new town were desirous of promoting the value and sale of their holdings by inducing manufacturers to locate their establishments here. Thus, the late Charles Brodhead, about 1854, endeavored, through U.S. Senator Richard Brodhead, father of our Judge Brodhead, to secure the location of a government foundry here. But, though the project was favored by the then Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, it failed to receive favorable Congressional action. Mr. Brodhead then, in 1857, joined with Augustus Wolle, the father of the Bethlehem Steel Co., in the organization of “The Saucona Iron Co.” Mr. Wolle had conceived the idea of locating a blast furnace on Saucon Creek for the manufacture of iron from ore from the nearby "Gangewere Mine”, of which property he had recently become possessed. Having also acquired the Rauchs' portion of the Luckenbach farm, he was persuaded by Mr. Brodhead to erect works on this land rather than on the Saucon, to broaden the scope of his Company, and to change its corporate title to that of "The Bethlehem Rolling Mills & Iron Co.” The original subscribers to the new undertaking were Augustus Wolle, Charles Brodhead, Charles W. Rauch, Ambrose H. Rauch, Charles B. Daniel, and the Moravian Congregation. The financial panic of Buchanan’s Administration halted this project, but, in 1860, the late John Fritz, a noted iron-master of Johnstown, was engaged to superintend the erection and the operation of the new works. On June 14, 1860, the Company organized with Alfred Hunt, President; Augustus Wolle, Asa Packer, John T. Johnston, John Knecht, Edward Roberts, Charles B. Daniel and Charles W. Rauch, Directors; Charles B. Daniel, Secretary and Treasurer. On May 1, 1861, the corporate title of the Company was changed to “The Bethlehem Iron Co.” Seventeen acres of land on either side of the L.V.R.R. having been secured, on July 16, 1861, ground was broken for the first blast furnace. This, however, on account of the Civil War, was not completed and lighted until January 4, 1863. The next day the blast was turned on by Miss Kate Powell, of Philadelphia. The first iron was smelted from a mixture of brown hematite from the Saucon Valley and magnetite from Morris County, N.J. The rolling mill, commenced in the spring of 1861, was finished in the summer of 1863. The first iron was puddled July 27, and the first rails — for the L.V.R.R. — were rolled September 26, of that year. The second furnace was commenced in May, 1864, and completed in March, 1867. The original machine shop was built and equipped in 1865.
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The Lehigh Valley Brass Works were erected in the fall of 1863, by the proprietor, B.E. Lehman, whose father had carried on the business in Bethlehem since 1832. The Brass Works buildings, lying opposite the old L.V.R.R. freight station, are at present occupied by the Bethlehem Foundry & Machine Company.
The New Street Bridge Company was chartered on May 3, 1864, and in June, 1867, the bridge, 1170 feet in length, was completed at a cost of $65,000, and opened as a toll bridge.
The population of our town, which, at the close of 1861, was 947, had increased to about 1,500 by the end of 1863. The population at the time of incorporation is not known, but that the increase in numbers was remarkably rapid may be inferred from the fact that the census returns of 1870 shows a population here of 3,556.
By THOS. GANEY, Borough Secretary
The village of Bethlehem South was incorporated as the Borough of South Bethlehem by an order of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, on August 21, 1865, and in this order it was decreed that the first election in the new borough should be held at the public house of Peter I. Eckert, which stood on Second Street where is now Burkhardt’s Hotel, of which William H. Burkhardt is proprietor. The following is a copy of the petition for the charter of the Borough of South Bethlehem:
To the Honorable, the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, for the County of Northampton:
The petition of the undersigned, inhabitants of the town of Bethlehem South, in said county of Northampton, Respectfully Represents That the said town contains a collection of houses collocated after a regular plan in regard to streets and lanes, and that the petitioners reside within the limits thereof, as hereinafter set forth and described, and the same contains not more than twenty-five hundred and not less than one thousand inhabitants; that they are desirous that said town should be incorporated by the style and title of the Borough of South Bethlehem, according to the following boundaries: Beginning at a point on the bank of the River Lehigh in the line of Lehigh and Northampton counties; thence the following fifteen courses and distances, to wit: North fifty-nine degrees, east six and a half perches to a point; north sixty-eight and a half degrees, east thirty-two and six-tenths perches to a point; north seventy-three degrees, east six and five-tenths perches to a point; south eighty-nine and a half degrees, east five and seven-tenths perches to a point; north eighty-four and a half degrees, east nineteen and seven-tenths perches to a point; north seventy-eight degrees, east twenty and eight-tenths perches to the bridge; south eighty-seven and one-half degrees, east forty-six perches to a point; north eighty-nine and one-quarter degrees, east thirty-nine and eight-tenths perches to a point; south eighty-four degrees, east nineteen and thirty-five hundredths perches to a point; south eighty-seven and one-half degrees, east forty-eight perches to a point; north seventy-one and a half degrees, east fifty-nine perches to an oak tree; south eighty-four degrees, east twenty-six and seven-tenths perches to a birch tree; south eighty-two degrees, east twenty and six-tenths perches to a stump; south eighty and three-quarters degrees, east forty and four-tenths perches to an oak; and south sixty-five degrees, east thirty-five and eight-tenths perches to an oak; thence southeastwardly to a stone in the Hellertown road, said stone being marked on the drafts of land by C.W. and A.H. Rauch to Augustus Wolle, as points number nine, distance not ascertained, but probably some thirty perches; thence by land of Asa Packer, the following seven courses and distances, to wit: South twenty-eight and three-quarters degrees, west four and two-tenths perches to a white oak; south sixty and a quarter degrees, west ——————— and seven-tenths ——— to a chestnut tree; south fifty-five degrees, west one hundred and forty-nine and eight-tenths perches to a stone; south one and seven-tenths perches to a stone; south eighty-seven and a half degrees, west sixty-two and one-tenth perches to a post; south eighty-eight and one-quarter degrees, west forty-five and four-tenths perches to post; and south eighty-eight degrees, west fifty-nine and seven-tenths perches to a post, and the north corner of the said Asa Packer's land; thence westwardly to the Lehigh County line, and north-eastwardly along said line to the point to the place of beginning on the bank of the Lehigh river, a plot or draft whereof accompanies this petition. The petitioners further represent that they are a majority of the freeholders residing within said limits. They pray the court to cause this their application to be laid before the grand jury, after a full investigation shall certify to the court, that the provisions of the Acts of Assembly, in such case made and provided, have been complied with, and that it is expedient to grant the prayer of the petitioners, that the court will confirm said judgment, and that upon compliance with the several conditions required in said Acts of Assembly, the said town of Bethlehem South under the style and title of South Bethlehem, may thenceforth be deemed and incorporated a Borough, by the style and title aforesaid entitled to all the rights and immunities and privileges provided in said act or acts. And they will pray, etc.
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