Wurts, John S. 1876-1958

John Sparhawk Wurts was born in Carbondale, Pa. on June 18, 1876. He worked as an insurance agent, attorney, real estate agent, investment securities broker, was president of the World Association of Daily Vacation Bible Schools, and was a genealogist. He collected these papers because of his interest in his family's history.

Three Wurts family members, brothers Maurice (1783-1854), William (1788-1858) and John Wurts (1792-1861), were instrumental in the formation of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, the basis of the family fortune. All three were born in Flanders, N.J. After William Wurts discovered anthracite coal at what is now Carbondale, Pa. around 1814, he and Maurice determined to mine and transport it by river to the Philadelphia and New York markets. After securing charters from both the Pennsylvania and New York state legislatures in 1823, construction on the canal from Honesdale, Pa., to Kingston, N.Y. began in 1825 and was completed by 1828. A gravity railroad to transport the coal from the mines to the canal was built in 1829. The STOURBRIDGE LION, the first locomotive operated in the western hemisphere, ran briefly on this railroad in 1829.

...