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SOME ACCOUNT OF ITS EARLY AND ITS LATER
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, ITS EARLY
SETTLERS, AND ITS PROMINENT MEN.

BY

JAMES M. SWANK,

SECRETARY AND GENERAL MANAGER OF THE AMERICAN IRON AND STEEL ASSOCIATION FOR
THIRTY-SIX YEARS, FROM 1872 to 1908. AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE MANUFAC-
TURE OF IRON IN ALL AGES AND OF OTHER HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS.

Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask thy father
and he will shew thee; thy elders and they will tell thee.-Deuteronomy, xxxii. 7.
I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.-Psalms, lxxvii. 5.

PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.

1908.

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1908,

BY JAMES M. SWANK,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Printed by
J. B. Lippincott Co.

The Washington Square Press,

Philadelphia.

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PREFACE.

THIS volume contains my final contribution to the industrial history of our country and particularly of my native State. My long connection with the work of the American Iron and Steel Association has made me acquainted with many important facts relating to the industrial development of Pennsylvania, including its systems of transportation, which are not to be found in any of the accepted histories of the State but which are abundantly worthy of preservation. These I have recorded in the following pages. In the arrangement of these facts I have conceived it to be necessary to present first a background of the leading incidents in the early history of Pennsylvania. In compiling these incidents I have given prominence to some features of the early history of the province which in my opinion deserve wider recognition than they have received. These include the presence of settlers on the Delaware long before the granting of Penn's charter; the text of important parts of the charter itself; the people who settled Pennsylvania after the granting of the charter, including the large number of redemptioners; the existence of negro slavery in Pennsylvania and when and by whom the agitation for its abolition was set on foot; the text of the act providing for this abolition, a much overrated measure; the cause of the estrangement of the peaceful Delaware Indians; the physical characteristics of Pennsylvania; and the animal life of the province. After the presentation of these and other features of the early history of Pennsylvania I have passed to the means of transportation that were employed by the pioneers and by those who came after them-the early roads, flatboats, keel boats, ferries, bridges, turnpikes, canals, steamboats, and railroads, and these details are followed by several chapters which deal with the great productive industries of the State. Included in these chapters I have given the early history of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's industrial centre and the world's industrial wonder. The prominence of Pennsylvania as the leading industrial State of the Union is presented in connection with some account of the leading industries of the whole country. A chronological chapter follows which gives a record of many notable industrial events in the history of both the State and the country. This chapter really embodies a vast amount of information the value of which would have justified its presentation in more elaborate form. The book closes with a number of chapters that are devoted to biographical sketches of some eminent Pennsylvanians, most of whom have been prominently identified with the history and development of Western Pennsylvania, and some of whom have not been honored by their fellow citizens as they have deserved.

This volume deals with exact statements. My long familiarity with the compilation and analysis of industrial statistics has impressed me with the value of statistical methods in the presentation of historical facts. Hence in the preparation of this volume my aim has been first to secure exact information upon such subjects as were deemed worthy

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