June is going by entirely too fast. But as an acquaintance of mine recently observed, it always seems to do that for some reason. I've been enjoying the wonderful weather - not something you have seen me post often! The temperatures have been mild and the humidity has been low, so except for my seasonal allergies, this is the kind of weather which is kindest to me.
This week's quest partially takes us back to my grandmother's hometown of Slatington, in northern Lehigh County, to examine the third and final of their historical markers. I already spoke on the subject of Slatington's namesake substance in my post about the First School Slate Factory, but the slate industry itself is more than manufacturing chalkboards. In fact, it has more than one marker, that's how big it was in this region; we're also visiting Bangor in Northampton County.
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| The Lehigh County marker (above) stands at the intersection of Main and Railroad Streets, Slatington. The Northampton County marker (below) is at the intersection of North First and Market Streets, Bangor. |
Our pal Robert was born in Bethesda, in Gwynedd in northern Wales. The son of a minister, he grew up not far from the great slate quarries of the Caernarvon region; he went to Liverpool in England, where he learned geology (and the English language) at the Mechanic's Institute. In 1846 he set sail for America, where he had heard of the great slate deposits in Pennsylvania. There, he became co-owner of the New York Quarry in Heidelberg (now Slatington) with the LaBar brothers, Royal and Nelson. In that same year he married Evaline LaBar, who was a sister of his business partners; he was 19 and she was 24. They would go on to have children, although I'm a little confused as to how many, because the wording of his obituary gives no names but could be interpreted as being either five or six.
Speaking of being confused, Robert's age is also a little fuzzy. His tombstone gives his birth year as 1827, which is why I say he was 19 when he immigrated and married; however, a statue of him in Bangor gives his birth year as 1825. So he might have actually been 21 at the time.
Quarrying slate became immensely profitable, with Slatington eventually naming itself after the industry and becoming known as the school slate capital of the world. Additional quarries were scouted and established in nearby Slatedale, which did the same thing name-wise. The industry churned out many slate products - Slatington was renowned for classroom blackboards, but the stone was also used for gravestones and, most of all, slate roof tiles. Throughout what is known as Pennsylvania's Slate Belt, a house built before 1900 can frequently be identified by its slate roof, because the stone is extremely resistant to the impact of weather.
The men who worked in the slate quarries were colloquially known as 'slaters'. Much like that other industry giant of the day, coal mining, quarries frequently employed immigrants for labor, including Welsh, Cornish, German, and Irish workers; also much like coal mining, quarrying slate was one of the few jobs available to some of these men, who faced terrible prejudice in their new country. A slater's job was difficult and often dangerous. It could be argued that quarrying slate was at least a little safer than mining for coal, since quarries don't require going underground, but not by much; the quarries delved hundreds of feet into the earth, and rockslides were a constant threat. Originally, slate was mined using explosives, but this caused a lot of wasted product so it was phased out in favor of cutting and removing the rock with tools. The slate was then judged by experts, who would split the rock along its grain to determine if its quality was good enough for roof tiles or if it needed to be turned into blackboards or other items. Slaters were frequently paid by the piece, meaning that each slate product they brought to the experts resulted in a larger paycheck, so they were encouraged to do their jobs well and efficiently. Unusable slate, known as slag, would often be simply cast aside in piles.
Robert and the other quarry owners grew extremely wealthy from their growing industry, though some of them lost a lot of money in the Panic of 1857. For Robert's part, he continued to pursue slate quarrying and sales until that little scuffle known as the Civil War broke out, at which time he took a break from his career to enlist in the Union Army. As a private in the 150th New York volunteer company, he participated in the Battle of Gettysburg, and afterward transferred to General Sherman's command, taking part in a few other notable battles before mustering out in 1865.
In 1866 Robert and a few partners purchased property in what today is the community of Bangor, and over the next several years they were able to open a series of profitable slate quarries in the area. The borough was incorporated in 1874 with Robert as its first burgess (mayor); he named it after the town of Bangor in Wales, of which he said this new community reminded him. For the rest of his life, Robert would identify strongly with this new Bangor, regarding its prosperity as his personal concern and being deeply invested in the well-being of the community and its residents. "Mr. Jones," as his obituary states, "was the most far-seeing of all men engaged in the Slate Industry. His intelligence led him to know that Slate was not confined to one spot and his judgment was unerring in developing the fine beds of the blue strata."
As for the industry, it began to wane with the dawn of the 20th century. Asphalt roof tiles began to replace slate, and World War I brought production to a low because so many of the 'slaters' went off to serve in the military. Many of them never came home, and the quarries had to close due to lack of labor. The other major factor was the substance known as hard tack, which is frequently found in slate beds; it's similar to slate, but in the same way that a lizard is similar to a dragon, and it can't be used for much of anything. Finding hard tack means that the quarry's useful slate supply has been, or soon will be, depleted.
Today, very few slate quarries yet remain in the Slate Belt, though it's not unusual to still see occasional piles of slag left from the industry's golden age. The Slate Belt Heritage Center in Bangor, which occupies a former firehouse, is dedicated to keeping the region's history alive and available to those who want to know how slate built part of the Lehigh Valley. It wasn't open at the time I was in Bangor to collect the marker, but they offer many online exhibits, and guided tours are available on weekends. Check out the link in my sources section if you'd like to see more of what they have to offer.
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.
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