Found on FB: Asa Packer was born on December 29 1805 EDIT-Photos Added Back

[Subdeacon Joe]

EDIT:   It seems that something has changed on FB and links to photos expire after a day or two.  From now on I'll try to save the photos to phone or desktop, then post the photo.

 

 

National Canal Museum

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Asa Packer was born on December 29 1805, in Mystic, Connecticut. His family’s poverty limited his formal education. In 1822, he walked more than 200 miles to a cousin’s home in Pennsylvania to apprentice as a carpenter. Eleven years later and still so poor he travelled by foot, Packer arrived in Mauch Chunk and leased a canalboat from the Lehigh Coal & Navigation (LCN) Company. Income from his first boat season let Packer lease a second boat, then he opened a general store and boatyard and built a fleet of canal boats. In 1837, Packer built some of the massive locks in the LCN’s Upper Grand section, which cemented his fortune and his standing in the community and the anthracite industry.

In 1851, Packer bought controlling interest in a floundering railroad, renamed and built it. By 1855, the Lehigh Valley Railroad (LVRR) connected the coal docks at Mauch Chunk with Easton, and Packer was on his way to becoming the wealthiest man in Pennsylvania.

Though still firmly in charge of the railroad, Packer’s later years were dedicated to philanthropy. Recognizing the need to train American engineers, he founded Lehigh University with a bequest of $500,000 and land; later he donated $400,000 to build the Linderman Library in memory of his daughter. In 1876, he donated land for the Lehigh Valley’s first hospital, St. Luke’s, and endowed it with $300,000. Packer died in Philadelphia on May 17, 1879; generous bequests in his will sustained his support of these and other institutions long afterward. #History #Archives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2 by Subdeacon Joe

[Subdeacon Joe]

Lehigh University.