Lukens, Edmund T. (Edmund Taylor), 1848-1940

The records consist of a large mass of personal and business manuscripts collected by Edmund T. Lukens. The majority represent various business enterprises started or dominated by the Scranton family, its relations by marriage, and their associates.

George Whitfield Scranton was born on May 11, 1811, the eldest of seven children of Theophilus Scranton of Madison, Connecticut. In 1828, he emigrated to Belvidere, N.J., where he was first employed in a lumber business owned by his uncle, Chapman Warner. His younger brother Selden joined him later, and in 1834 he secured a position at the nearby Oxford Furnace, then operated by Henry, Jordan & Co. In the wake of the financial panic of 1837, Henry, Jordan & Co. sold their lease of the furnace to the Scranton brothers, and in the same year Selden married William Henry's daughter.

William Henry, the former proprietor and a member of the famous Henry family of gunsmiths, was involved in numerous development schemes in northeastern Pennsylvania, but tended to drift from one project to another. He had established the Analomink Forge near Stroudsburg, Pa., in 1828 and leased and rebuilt the derelict Oxford Furnace to supply it in 1831. After cultivating other would-be patrons, he finally induced the Scrantons to invest in land at Slocum's Hollow in the Lackawanna valley, where coal and iron ore deposits were found very close together. The three men purchased the site in 1840 and began to construct a furnace. Smelting with anthracite was still in its infancy, and the furnace was not properly built. A skilled Welsh ironmaster had to be brought in before the first successful blast was achieved on January 18, 1842.

The business was conducted under a series of partnerships: Scrantons, Grant & Co. (1840-1843), Scrantons & Grant (1843-1846), and Scrantons & Platt (1846-1853). The capital for the enterprise was put up by Philipp H. Mattes, an Easton, Pa., banker and from the brothers' first cousins Erastus C. and Joseph Hand Scranton, then operating a successful mercantile business in Augusta, Ga. In 1843, additional funds were secured from the New York merchant John Howland enabling the brothers to expand the works to include a rolling mill and nail factory. Unfortunately the local ore produced an iron too brittle to be made into nails, and after considerable losses the Scrantons decided to switch to railroad rails. They were able to secure large contracts from the New York & Erie Railroad, and William E. Dodge, Anson G. Phelps and other important New York backers of the Erie acquired a large minority interest in the works. The enterprise was formally incorporated as the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company on April 5, 1853. The town was originally named Harrison (for William Henry Harrison) but soon became Scrantonia and finally Scranton.

To render the works more accessible, the charter of the Liggetts Gap Railroad Company, dormant since 1832, was revived. After a change of name to the Lackawanna & Western Railroad, it opened from Scranton to Great Bend on the Erie on October 11, 1851. The Delaware & Cobb's Gap Railroad charter was then obtained to provide a direct route to New York City. The two companies were merged to form the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company on March 11, 1853, and the road opened from Scranton to the Delaware River below the Water Gap on May 27, 1856, whence the Warren Railroad (leased to the DL & W) and the Central Railroad of New Jersey ran to New York harbor. The DL & W began buying its own coal mines around Scranton and soon became the dominant factor in the anthracite coal trade, but because such large resources were required to build it, control passed to Dodge, Phelps and other wealthy New Yorkers.

The Scrantons likewise lost control of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company. George Scranton was twice elected to Congress but died on March 24, 1861, early in his second term. Selden was not a particularly astute manager. Joseph H. Scranton took over the presidency and served until his death on 1872. In 1891, the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company was merged into the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company, and in 1900 the entire works was moved to Buffalo, later becoming part of Bethlehem Steel.

The Scranton family retained ownership of the Oxford Furnace, a less modern and desirable facility, devoted largely to the manufacture of nails and railroad spikes. Charles Scranton, the third brother, operated Oxford as sole proprietor from 1847 to 1849. It was reorganized in 1849 as Charles Scranton & Co. with his two brothers and William E. Dodge as partners. Charles withdrew in 1857, and the firm was restyled G.W. & S.T. Scranton. After George's death, it became S.T. Scranton & Co. until being incorporated as the Oxford Iron Company on November 1, 1863. Selden thereafter devoted most of his time to dealings in area real estate. The company failed in the depression of the 1870s and Benjamin G. Clarke was appointed receiver on September 8, 1878, in the interest of the DL & W, the principal creditor. Selden Scranton also failed and spent the last years of his life on charity extended by his old friends on the DL & W. The Oxford operation was reorganized on December 6, 1882, as the Oxford Iron & Nail Company. It failed again in the next big depression on April 22, 1895. Edmund T. Lukens, then the general manager and Charles Scranton's son-in-law, was appointed receiver. The DL & W purchased the property outright and the receivership was terminated on August 22, 1896. The company struggled on until August 12, 1902, when it was sold to the Empire Steel & Iron Company.

From the description of Scranton family papers, 1829-1940. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122503430