Leisenring/Wentz family anthracite coal companies.

This section of the Penn Virginia Corporation archive contains the records of a group of anthracite coal mining and related companies founded by John Leisenring (1819-1884), his son-in-law Dr. John Shriver Wentz, and their descendants, who were also the founders of Penn Virginia.

John Leisenring, a Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, civil and mining engineer, began forming a series of anthracite coal mining partnerships and companies in 1854. He was joined in these ventures by his sons-in-law, John S. Wentz and Mahlon S. Kemmerer, as well as other family members and close associates. These operations were scattered across the Eastern and Western Middle Anthracite Coal Fields. Each mine was operated by a separate firm, and each firm was launched with the profits of its predecessor whenever an advantageous site could be bought or leased. The firms were kept independent, so that the failure of one would not drag down the others, a pattern common among independent operators in the anthracite industry. Collectively, the Leisenring/Wentz companies ranked among the top fifteen anthracite producers.

...