Josiah White

Josiah White and Erskine Hazard-founding partners of the Lehigh Coal Company, the Lehigh Navigation Company, the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, the Lehigh Canal, the Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad, the Ashley Planes, the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad.

Josiah White (1781–1850) was an industrialist, mill owner, and early pioneer in the advancement of mining, shipping, and delivery of anthracite coal for manufacturing and domestic heating in everyday life in response to the energy crises in the early 19th century. Along with his partner, Erskine Hazard, he also helped found numerous companies, most either mining operations or transportation enterprises opened to establish a better transportation infrastructure for transport of this coal, people, and other industrial material needs such as ores, timber, and finished goods in the Greater Delaware Valley, the Lehigh Valley and Wyoming Valley regions.

Lehigh Coal Company and Lehigh Navigation Company

Main article: Lehigh Coal Company

Thus helping to establish the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, along with co-founder Erskine Hazard.^[1][2]  

Places on the NRoHP

A number of his works, including several separated sections of the Lehigh Canal are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).^[3]

NRHP-listed works of Josiah White include:

• Carbon County Section of the Lehigh Canal, along Lehigh River Weissport and vicinity, NRHP-listed^[3]
• Lehigh Canal, Lehigh Gap to S Walnutport boundary Walnutport, Pennsylvania, NRHP-listed^[3]
• Lehigh Canal: Eastern Section Glendon and Abbott Street Industrial Sites, Lehigh River from Hopeville to confluence of Lehigh and Delaware Rivers, Easton, Pennsylvania, NRHP-listed^[3]
• Lehigh Canal; Allentown to Hopeville Section, along Lehigh River, Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, NRHP-listed^[3]
• Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill Switchback Railroad, between Ludlow St. in Summit Hill and F.A.P. 209 in Jim Thorpe, NRHP-listed^[3]

 

Notes

 

See also

• Canvass White - Engineer hired to assist creating the Grand Lehigh Canal under the Main Line of Public Works, 1837 revision, putting in the Upper Lehigh Canal, the Ashley Planes and the connecting railroad between Mountain Top, PA to White Haven, PA and the upper canal head.
• Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company
• Lehigh Canal
• Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad
• Ashley Planes
• Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad

 

References

• Fred Brenckman (1913). HISTORY OF CARBON COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA. J. Nungesser, Harrisburg, PA (Project Gutenberg e-reprint).
• Annie Bohlin. "The History Of The Ashley Planes 1843 – 1948" (PDF).
• Alfred Mathews & Ausin N. Hungerford (1884). The History of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Ancestry.com, Transcribed from the original in April 2004 by Shirley Kuntz.
• Frank Whelan (1986-06-08). "Ex-executive Recalls Decline And Fall Of Lehigh Coal And Navigation Co.". The Morning Call, June 08, 1986. Lehigh Coal and Navigation controlled 8,000 acres of coal lands running from Jim Thorpe to Tamaqua, 14 miles away. This comprised the entire eastern end of the southern anthracite field.

Footnotes

1. "Josiah White". Mauchchunkmuseum.com. 1998-01-27. Retrieved 2012-02-21.
2. "Delaware Canal". Canals.org. Retrieved 2012-02-21.
3. Staff (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.