Governor Mifflin's First Coal Fire

It is truly astonishing, that the inexhaustible beds--mines of

anthracite coal, lying along the Schuylkill river and ridges, valleys

and mountains, from old Berks county to the mountains of Shamokin, were

not found out and applied to domestic uses, fully fifty years before

they were! Coal has been exhumed from the earth, and burned in forges

and grates in Europe, from time immemorial, we think, yet we distinctly

rememb r when a few canal boats only were engaged in transporting from

the few mines that were open and worked along the Schuylkill--the

comparatively few tons of anthracite coal consumed in Philadelphia, not

sent away. As far back as 1820, we believe, there was but little if any

coal shipped to Philadelphia, from the Schuylkill mines at all.



Our venerable friend, the still vivacious and clear-headed Col. Davis,

of Delaware, gave us, a few years ago, a rather amusing account of the

first successful attempt of a very distinguished old gentleman, Gov.

Mifflin, to ignite a pile of stone coal. The date of the transaction,

more's the pity, has escaped us, but the facts of the case are something

after this fashion.



Gov. Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, lived and owned a fine estate in Mifflin

county, and in which county was discovered from time to time, any

quantity of black rock, as the farmers commonly called the then unknown

anthracite. Of course, the old governor knew something about stone coal,

and had a slight inkling of its character. At hours of leisure, the

governor was in the habit of experimenting upon the black rocks by

subjecting them to wood fire upon his hearths; but the hard, almost

flint-like anthracite of that region resisted, with most obdurate

pertinacity, the oft-repeated attempts of the governor to set it on

fire. It finally became a joke among the neighboring Pennsylvania Dutch

farmers, and others of the vicinity, that Gov. Mifflin was studying out

a theory to set his hills and fields on fire, and burn out the obnoxious

black rock and boulders. But, despite the jibes and jokes of his

dogmatical friends, the old governor stuck to his experiments, and the

result produced, as most generally it does through perseverance and

practice, a new and useful fact, or principle.



One cold and wintry day, Gov. Mifflin was cosily perched up in his

easy-chair, before the great roaring, blazing hickory fire, overhauling

ponderous state documents, and deeply engrossed in the affairs of the

people, when his eye caught the outline of a big black rock boulder upon

the mantle-piece before him--it was a beautiful specimen of variegated

anthracite, with all the hues of the rainbow beaming from its lacquered

angles. The governor thought "a heap" of this specimen of the black

rock, but dropping all the documents and State papers pell-mell upon the

floor, he seized the piece of anthracite, and placing it carefully upon

the blazing cross-sticks of the fire, in the most absorbed manner

watched the operation. To his great delight the black rock was soon red

hot--he called for his servant man, a sable son of Africa, or some down

South Congo--



"Isaac."



"Yes, sah, I'se heah, sah."



"Isaac, run out to the carriage-house, and get a piece of that black

rock."



"Yes, sah, I'se gone."



In a twinkling the negro had obtained a huge lump of the anthracite, and

handing it over to the governor, it was placed in a favorable position

alongside of the first lump, and the governor's eyes fairly danced

polkas as he witnessed the fact of the two pieces of black rock

assuming a red hot complexion.



"Isaac!" again exclaimed the governor.



"Yes, sah."



"Run out--get another lump."





"Yes, sah."



A third lump was added to the fire; the company in the governor's

private parlor was augmented by the appearance of the governor's lady

and other portions of the family, who, seeing Isaac lugging in the

rocks, came to the conclusion that the governor was going "clean crazy"

over his experiments. It was in vain Mrs. Mifflin and the daughters

tried to suspend the functions of the "chief magistrate," over the

roaring fire.



"Go away, women; what do you know about mineralogy, igniting anthracite?

Go way; close the doors; I've got the rocks on fire--I'll make them

laugh t'other side of their mouths, at my black rock fires!"



In the midst of the excitement, as the governor was perspiring and

exulting over his fiery operation, a carriage drove up, and two

gentlemen alighted, and desired an immediate audience with Gov. Mifflin;

but so deeply engaged was the governor, that he refused the strangers an

audience, and while directing Isaac to tell the strangers that they must

"come to-morrow," and while he continued to pile on more black rocks,

brought in by Isaac, in rushed the strangers.



"Good day, governor; you must excuse us, but our business admits of no

delay."



"Can't help it, can't help you--see how it blazes, see how it burns!"

cried the abstracted or mentally and physically absorbed governor.



"But, governor, the man may be hanged, if--"



"Let him be hanged--hurra! See how it burns; call in the neighbors; let

them see my black rock fire. I knew I'd surprise them!"



"But, governor, will you please delay this--"



"Delay? No, not for the President of the United States. I've been trying

this experiment for eight years. I've now succeeded--see, see how it

burns! Run, Isaac, over to Dr. ----'s, tell him to come, stop in at Mr.

S----'s, tell Mr. H---- to come, come everybody--I've got the black

rocks in a blaze!" And clapping on his hat, out ran the governor through

the storm, down to the village, like a madman, leaving the strangers and

part of his household as spectators of his fiery experiments. Just as

the governor cleared his own door, a pedler wagon "drove up," and the

pedler, seeing the governor starting out in such double quick time,

hailed him.



"Hel-lo! Sa-a-a-y, yeou heold on--yeou the guv'ner?"



"Clear out!" roared the chief magistrate.



"Shain't deu nothin' of the sort, no how!" says the pedler, dismounting

from his wagon, and making his appearance at the front door, where he

encountered the two rather astonished strangers--legal gentlemen of some

eminence, from Harrisburg, with a petition for the respite of execution.



"Halloo! which o' yeou be the guv'ner?" says the pedler.



"Neither of us," replied the gentlemen; "that was the governor you spoke

to as you drove up."



"Yeou dun't say so! Wall, he was pesky mad about som'-thin'. What on

airth ails the ole feller?"



"Can't say," was the response; "but here he comes again."



"Now, now come in, come in and see for yourselves," cried the excited

Governor of the great Key Stone State; "there's a roaring fire of

burning, blazing, black rock, anthracite coal!"



But, alas! the cross sticks having given away in the interim, and the

coal being thrown down upon the ashes and stone hearth,--was all out!



"Wall," says our migratory Yankee, who followed the crowd into the

house, "I guess I know what yeou be at, guv'ner, but I'll tell yeou

naow, yeou can't begin to keep that darn'd hard stuff burning, 'less

yeou fix it up in a grate, like, gin it air, and an almighty draught;

yeou see, guv'ner, I've been making experiments a darn'd long while with

it!"



The laugh of the governor's friends subsided as the pedler went into a

practical theory on burning stone coal; the respite was

signed--hospitalities of the mansion extended to all present, and in

course of a few days, our Yankee and the governor rigged up a grate, and

soon settled the question--will our black rocks burn?