Danville and Pottsville Rail Road Company

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The Danville & Pottsville Railroad Company was incorporated under the laws of Pennsylvania on April 8, 1826, and received letters patent on February 18, 1831. The object was to form a portage between the Schuylkill and upper Susquehanna valleys. Stephen Girard, the Philadelphia merchant who owned 28,500 acres of coal and timber lands along the route was the principal stockholder. Gen. Daniel Montgomery of Danville was the first president. Girard's death on December 26, 1831, retarded the project, but the investment was continued by his executors. In September, 1834, the first section opened from Wadesville on the Mount Carbon Railroad near Pottsville to the eastern edge of the Girard coal lands. As laid out by Moncure Robinson, the railroad required six inclined planes to cross Broad Mountain. In 1837, twenty miles of the Western Division from Sunbury to the coal fields near Shamokin were opened. The intervening section was never completed, and financial conditions led to the abandonment of the Eastern Division in 1838, while the track on the Western Division deteriorated to the point where locomotives could no longer be used. The company assigned its property to trustees in 1842 and became inactive. The Western Division was sold at foreclosure on December 28, 1850, and conveyed to the Philadelphia & Sunbury Railroad Company, eventually becoming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad System. The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad built a line parallel to the old Eastern Division in the 1860s.

From the description of Minute book, 1831-1841. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122568007

Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith A. & G. Ralston (Firm). corporateBody
associatedWith Biddle, Thomas, 1776-1857. person
associatedWith Girard, Stephen, 1750-1831. person
associatedWith Hagley Museum and Library. Regional Economic History Research Center. corporateBody
associatedWith Lea, Isaac, 1792-1886. person
associatedWith Montgomery, Daniel, 1765-1831. person
associatedWith Mount Carbon Railroad Company. corporateBody
associatedWith Newkirk, Matthew, 1794-1868. person
associatedWith Patterson, Burd, 1788-1867. person
associatedWith Philadelphia and Sunbury Railroad Company. corporateBody
associatedWith Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co. corporateBody
associatedWith Rawle, Francis W. 1795-1881. person
associatedWith Robinson, Moncure, 1802-1891. person
associatedWith Shamokin Coal Company. corporateBody
associatedWith Toland, Robert, 1793-1848. person
associatedWith Wood, Samuel R. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Schuylkill County (Pa.)
England
United States
Pennsylvania
Northumberland County (Pa.)
Subject
Anthracite coal industry
Railroads
Technology transfer
Occupation
Activity

Corporate Body

Active 1831

Active 1841

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Ark ID: w61g73pt

SNAC ID: 31557653