William Henry Richmond (1821-1922) was an American coal mine operator. He is reckoned as one of the key actors in the expansion of the Lackawanna Coal Mine district of Scranton, Pennsylvania, during the second half of the 19th Century. Richmond is best remembered today as the namesake of Richmond Memorial Library in Marlborough, Connecticut.
Richmond was born October 23, 1821, at Marlborough, Hartford County, Connecticut. His father, William Wadsworth Richmond, claimed family roots dating back to 11th Century Brittany and an American forefather who was one of the members of Plymouth Colony that launched Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1637. [1] Another of Richmond's ancestors, William Wadsworth, was an immigrant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England in 1632 and a founder of the Colony of Connecticut a few years later. [1]
Richmond's father worked as a blacksmith, with his shop working in conjunction with a Marlborough factory that produced wagons, window blinds, and other fabricated goods. [2] His father later expanded his operation with another Marlborough blacksmith, establishing a foundry under the business name Richmond and Kellogg. [3]
One of five children, [4] Richmond attended public school in Connecticut until the age of 13, at which time he left home to take a job. [1] With the coming of the massive economic crisis known as the Panic of 1837 this decision was soon reversed, however, and the 15-year-old Richmond returned home to work on the home farm and in his father's shop, also re-enrolling in school to continue his studies. [5]
In 1842 Richmond left home again, this time to take a job in a store in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. [1] He remained there for three years before moving to the nearby Northeastern Pennsylvania town of Carbondale, where he opened a store of his own as part of a partnership called Richmond & Robinson. [1] Originally a general merchandise store, the Richmond & Robinson firm brought in some of the first woodworking machinery into the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys and began manufacturing doors, coal cars, and other wooden products in 1851. [1] This new activity proved successful and Richmond bought out his partner to become a sole proprietor in 1853. [1]
A fire in September 1855 destroyed Richmond's store building, but he was able to have it rebuilt by the next year. [1]
Richmond was married in 1847 to Lois Roxanna Morss and together they raised three daughters, all of whom attended and graduated from Vassar College. [1] Two other children died in early childhood. [4]
Richmond began his career as a mine operator in January 1860 when he launched Richmond & Co. in partnership with a former official of the when he opened a coal mine in partnership with a former top official of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. [4] A mine was opened near the neighboring town of Blakely. [1] The enterprise proved successful and in 1861 Richmond sold his Carbondale wood manufacturing operation to concentrate full-time on the coal industry. [1] Richmond & Co. subsequently opened the first coal breaking facility in the area, processing and finishing coal for the market. [1]
Richmond & Co. was absorbed into the Elk Hill Coal and Iron Company in 1863, with Richmond eventually emerging as president, chief stockholder, and general manager of the operation. [1] Coal breaking remained a specialty, and in 1889 construction was begun on a new facility at Dickson City, closer to mining operations. [1] By 1891 Richmond's colliery was able to process and ship 1,000 tons of coal per day. [1] The Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys as a whole saw their total production of anthracite coal explode from barely over 200,000 tons per year in the middle 1840s to about 26,000,000 tons per year in 1897. [1] Richmond became very wealthy in the process.
As the 19th century came to a close, Richmond's Elk Hill Coal and Iron operated two coal mines in Lackawanna County with an annual output of between 400,000 and 500,000 tons per year, a third colliery at Dickson City, and a fourth constructed in 1893 about 5 miles north of Carbondale. [4]
Richmond took pride in the economic role played by him and his peers and felt himself the victim of unfair vilification at the hands of journalists and the public. In a 1903 speech to citizens of the town of his birth, Richmond declared:
"The price of oak and hickory wood used to be $6 to $7 a cord on dock at Middle Haddam, and by the time it was placed before the door of the New Yorker, and sawed and split to proper sizes to use, it cost him $12 or more per cord, and it is counted as taking two cords, or 256 cubic feet, of wood to supply the number of heat units of a ton of anthracite coal. Notwithstanding, now when the people of New York and elsewhere can have a ton of anthracite coal put in their coalbins for $5 or $6, they, through the newspapers, abuse the hardworking coal operators and producers, who expend large amounts of money in opening coal mines, building coal breakers and railroads to produce the coal, and call them by the euphonious name 'Coal Barons.'" [6]
Richmond financed the launch of other business enterprises during his life, including the Crystal Lake Water Company and in 1867 the Carbondale Gas Company. [1] He was also an original stockholder and director of the Third National Bank. [1]
In matters of religion, Richmond was an active member of the Presbyterian Church from 1842. [4] He was treasurer of the Lackawanna Bible Society for three decades and was a member of the American Bible Society. [5]
Politically, Richmond supported the Republican Party until the middle of the 1890s, at which time he switched his allegiance to the Prohibition Party. [4] Richmond was a Prohibition Party candidate for United States Congress in 1904. [5] In 1908 he appeared on the ballot as a Presidential elector on behalf of Prohibition Party nominee Eugene W. Chafin. [7]
In 1874 Richmond moved to a 75-acre farm outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where as a hobby he began raising Jersey cows. [1] He sold the bulk of his herd in 1886, keeping 10 animals for household use. [1] A son-in-law who was an attorney was made a vice president of Elk Valley Coal and Iron, and he and Richmond's daughter and their five children shared Richmond's home during his later years. [4]
Richmond died March 14, 1922, at the age of 101. [5]
Richmond is remembered today as the namesake of Richmond Memorial Library in Marlborough, Connecticut.
Luzerne County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 906 square miles (2,350 km2), of which 890 square miles (2,300 km2) is land and 16 square miles (41 km2) is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 325,594, making it the most populous county in the northeastern part of the state. The county seat and largest city is Wilkes-Barre. Other populous communities include Hazleton, Kingston, Nanticoke, and Pittston. Luzerne County is included in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a total population of 555,426 as of 2017.
Lackawanna County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania and had a population of 215,896 as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is Scranton.
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Carbondale is a city in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. Carbondale is located approximately 15 miles due northeast of the city of Scranton in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The population was 8,828 at the 2020 census.
Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which has a population of 562,037 as of 2020. It is the sixth-largest city in Pennsylvania.
The Lackawanna River is a 42-mile-long (68 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River in Northeastern Pennsylvania. It flows through a region of the northern Pocono Mountains that was once a center of anthracite coal mining in the United States. It starts in north Wayne County, Pennsylvania and ends in east Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in Duryea, Pennsylvania. The lower reaches of the river flow through the urban areas of Scranton, which grew around its banks in the 19th century as an industrial center. Its name comes from a Lenape word meaning "stream that forks".
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad, was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, and by ferry with New York City, a distance of 395 miles (636 km). Incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1853 primarily for the purpose of providing a connection between the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania's Coal Region and the large markets for coal in New York City. The railroad gradually expanded both East and West, eventually linking Buffalo with New York City.
The Coal Region is a region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is known for being home to the largest known deposits of anthracite coal in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons.
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Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and Carbondale. A portion of this region is located in the New York City metropolitan area.
George Whitfield Scranton was an American industrialist and politician, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania from March 4, 1859, until his death in 1861. Moving to Pennsylvania in the late 1830s to establish an iron furnace, he and his brother Selden T. Scranton are considered the founders of the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, named for their family. They and two partners established what became known as the Iron & Coal Company. They developed a method of producing T-rails for constructing railroad track, which previously had been imported from England. The innovation led to a boom in production of track and construction of railroads.
William Henry Stanton was an attorney, editor, politician and judge. He served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district, elected to fill the vacancy when Winthrop Welles Ketcham resigned and serving for three months from December 1876 to early March 1877. He was previously editor of the Scranton Daily Times until 1872.
The Lackawanna Coal Mine is a museum and retired coal mine that is located in McDade Park in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It opened in 1903.
The history of coal mining in the United States starts with the first commercial use in 1701, within the Manakin-Sabot area of Richmond, Virginia. Coal was the dominant power source in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and although in rapid decline it remains a significant source of energy in 2023.
The Avondale Colliery was a coal mine in Plymouth Township, Luzerne County, near Plymouth, Pennsylvania in the small town of Avondale. The mine was considered to be "one of the best and worst" operating in Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley.
The Lackawanna Heritage Valley National and State Heritage Area is a state and federally designated National Heritage Area in northeastern Pennsylvania. It was initially established in 1991 as the first State Heritage Park in Pennsylvania, and was additionally designated a National Heritage Area in 2000. The designations recognize the area's heritage of industry, architecture, history and natural resources, and provide a framework for development and promotion of these features. The Lackawanna Heritage Valley National and State Heritage Area is managed by the Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority, or LHVA.
The Carbondale mine fire was a mine fire in the West Side neighborhood of Carbondale, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The fire, which started in 1946 and was eventually contained by the 1970s, caused at least two fatalities and millions of dollars of property damage.
The Scranton general strike was a widespread work stoppage in 1877 by workers in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which took place as part of the Great Railroad Strike, and was the last in a number of violent outbreaks across Pennsylvania. The strike began on July 23 when railroad workers walked off the job in protest of recent wage cuts, and within three days it grew to include perhaps thousands of workers from a variety of industries.
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