For this first post written in my new residence, I'm going back to the county of my birth, to the hometown of my grandmother and her sisters. Slatington gets its name from the local deposits of slate, which have been used over the years to make many things. In particular, it's been used to make school chalkboards, which is what today's post discusses.
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| The marker is located at the intersection of Main and Factory Streets |
A little history of Slatington, first. It was originally named Kernsville, after its first white occupant, Nicholas Kern. (The Lenni Lenape Native Americans were, of course, the first residents in the area.) Kern arrived from Switzerland in 1737 and, upon establishing his residency in the area, opened a sawmill. Benjamin Franklin himself was one of Kern's customers, purchasing lumber from him to use in the construction of the many forts he established in the region, including Fort Allen. Kern's Mill was later renamed Trucker's Mill because his son William, who took over running the mill after his father's death in 1748, was a friendly guy known colloquially as being a trockener, or joker, by his German neighbors. The mill has its own marker and you can read about it here.
My readers might remember that in my history of Fort Deshler, I mention being descended from George Kern. He's a relation of Nicholas's, but I'm not entirely clear what the relation was - there were (and are) a lot of Kerns, and more than one named George, so the genealogy gets a bit fuzzy. Nicholas had six sons and one daughter, and his descendants are all over Lehigh County today; he also had several brothers who also have descendants in the area.
In 1844, a Welsh immigrant named William Roberts became the first one to discover slate in the area. It quickly became the dominant industry in the community, so much so that Kernsville was renamed, and in 1864 was incorporated as the borough of Slatington. The slate industry also has its own marker and will be covered in a future post. That's right - slate was so important to this little town that it has two separate markers about it!
Manufacture of school slate in the borough began in 1846. As it's described in Manufacturing and Mercantile Resources of the Lehigh Valley, it originally took place "in a small shanty on the creek." This was Trout Creek, the small watershed which runs through Slatington. Within three years, the location was no longer big enough for the operation, so the first factory dedicated to the manufacture of school slates was built in 1849. I can't seem to find any confirmation of who owned it or where precisely it was located, but it was followed by a number of others.
According to The History of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the late 1800s there was "an extensive factory for the manufacture of school-slates" in Slatington, owned by another Welsh immigrant, David Williams. "His factory produces annually one million three hundred thousand school-slate, which find a ready market in the various States of the Union." The book also notes that his factory was built in 1865, but then destroyed by a fire in 1874, "and the present large and substantial structure erected in its place in 1875."
The next record of school slates being made in Slatington comes to us from the History of Lehigh County, which observes that in 1884, E. L. Krauss established a plant for the purpose in the western part of the borough. He remained in business, albeit with frequent management changes, for several years. This became known as the National School Slate Company, and it remained the property of Krauss and his brother Arthur until 1950, when it was sold to Babyak and Jacob Papay. They maintained the company until 1971.
The "Tunnel Quarry" was arguably the most well-known of the sources of slate for the industry. Although formally renamed the Mantel Quarry later, it was equipped with pushcart tracks like those in an old coal mine, and the tunnels stretched under the streets of Slatington. I vaguely remember my grandmother telling me that a lot of the houses in town had doors in their basements by which they could access these tunnels, which might have been how many of the slate workers went to and from their jobs every day. The quarry was closed, and John H. Rudolph constructed a school slate factory in 1898. This factory was located in front of the old quarry entrance, along the local branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Just west of this was the Bachman Brothers Slate Factory, although they don't seem to have focused on school slates in particular the way Rudolph and Williams did. The factories owned by Rudolph and the Bachman brothers ceased operations in 1923, when they were both decimated by a fire. This, interestingly, revealed the long-hidden entrance to the quarry, which today remains a local landmark.
The American market for school slates was pretty much dried up by 1941. The Slatington slate industry transferred itself chiefly to other objects, including toy blackboards and bulletin boards, but they've never forgotten that they were once the "blackboard capital of America." The original factory is long gone, but it may be how Factory Street got its name; the building with the historical marker in its yard is a private residence. But the marker reminds everyone how important the community was to the education of American youth.
This post originally supposed that the building which has the marker in its front yard was the original slate factory. Thanks to everyone who reached out with the correction.
In 1844, a Welsh immigrant named William Roberts became the first one to discover slate in the area. It quickly became the dominant industry in the community, so much so that Kernsville was renamed, and in 1864 was incorporated as the borough of Slatington. The slate industry also has its own marker and will be covered in a future post. That's right - slate was so important to this little town that it has two separate markers about it!
According to The History of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the late 1800s there was "an extensive factory for the manufacture of school-slates" in Slatington, owned by another Welsh immigrant, David Williams. "His factory produces annually one million three hundred thousand school-slate, which find a ready market in the various States of the Union." The book also notes that his factory was built in 1865, but then destroyed by a fire in 1874, "and the present large and substantial structure erected in its place in 1875."
The next record of school slates being made in Slatington comes to us from the History of Lehigh County, which observes that in 1884, E. L. Krauss established a plant for the purpose in the western part of the borough. He remained in business, albeit with frequent management changes, for several years. This became known as the National School Slate Company, and it remained the property of Krauss and his brother Arthur until 1950, when it was sold to Babyak and Jacob Papay. They maintained the company until 1971.
The "Tunnel Quarry" was arguably the most well-known of the sources of slate for the industry. Although formally renamed the Mantel Quarry later, it was equipped with pushcart tracks like those in an old coal mine, and the tunnels stretched under the streets of Slatington. I vaguely remember my grandmother telling me that a lot of the houses in town had doors in their basements by which they could access these tunnels, which might have been how many of the slate workers went to and from their jobs every day. The quarry was closed, and John H. Rudolph constructed a school slate factory in 1898. This factory was located in front of the old quarry entrance, along the local branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Just west of this was the Bachman Brothers Slate Factory, although they don't seem to have focused on school slates in particular the way Rudolph and Williams did. The factories owned by Rudolph and the Bachman brothers ceased operations in 1923, when they were both decimated by a fire. This, interestingly, revealed the long-hidden entrance to the quarry, which today remains a local landmark.
The American market for school slates was pretty much dried up by 1941. The Slatington slate industry transferred itself chiefly to other objects, including toy blackboards and bulletin boards, but they've never forgotten that they were once the "blackboard capital of America." The original factory is long gone, but it may be how Factory Street got its name; the building with the historical marker in its yard is a private residence. But the marker reminds everyone how important the community was to the education of American youth.
This post originally supposed that the building which has the marker in its front yard was the original slate factory. Thanks to everyone who reached out with the correction.
Sources and Further Reading:
Official website of the borough of Slatington
The Northern Lehigh Historical Society
Author unknown. Manufacturing and Mercantile Resources of the Lehigh Valley, Including Historical Sketches of the Prominent Towns: A Descriptive, Industrial and Statistical Review. Progress. Enterprise. Development. Industrial Publishing Company, 1881.
Mathews, Alfred, and Austin N. Hungerford. The History of the Counties of Lehigh & Carbon, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Published 1884 in Philadelphia. Transcribed from the original in 2005 by Jack Sterling.
Rinker, Harry L. "Slatington kept schools in slates." Published April 18, 1993 in the Morning Call.
First School Slate Factory marker at the Historical Marker Database
Slatington at 150 Years: More Stories to Share. Published 2014 by the Slatington 150th Anniversary Committee. (I was privileged to write the section about the William Evans family, from which I descend through my grandmother.)
If you've enjoyed this, please leave a comment!
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
My husband inherited a hanging slate with a chalk tray from the National School Slate Company and I was doing a little research on it before hanging it in our new house. Thanks for making that work easier. Understanding our history and sharing it with others makes us all richer.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your kind message! I'm glad I was able to help you learn a bit more about your husband's tray, and I really appreciate you sharing that with me. :)
DeleteWe formed the Slatington History Preservation Committee several years ago of which I am president. We are planning for a museum and would be most interested in your hanging slate if you would decide to sell or donate it. Judy Snyder - timjudysnyder@yahoo.com.
DeleteI have a toy from national school slate Co. Slatington pa.
ReplyDeleteIt is a little carpender bench with hammer and pegs to hammer in, looks new with box, wish I could add a picture..
Several years ago I found an old child’s school slate at a Goodwill in Sunbury, PA and bought it for my granddaughter who loved to pretend she was Laura Ingalls after I introduced her to the Little House books. I told her that was likely the type of slate Laura would have used when she was in school. I came across the slate the other day and realized it had the name of the company that made it so I decided to look for more information about it to determine how old it might be. I came across your site and really enjoyed reading the history of the town and The National School Slate Company. Thank you for sharing the information about the town and the factory.
ReplyDelete