Abijah Smith & Company
Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Established 1807 by Abijah Smith, who had bought 75 acres here on Ransom Creek and was later joined by his brother John. Their shipments of coal by ark down the Susquehanna, begun in 1807, continued for 20 years. This company was, in 1818, the first to extract Pennsylvania coal by powder blasting. In the same family almost 70 years, it was considered the first commercially successful U.S. anthracite firm.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1807 Abijah Smith bought 75 acres along Ransom Creek and, with his brother John, began floating anthracite coal down the Susquehanna River on flat-bottomed arks—a trade they sustained for two decades. In 1818 the firm became the first to blast Pennsylvania coal loose with gunpowder, a leap in mining technique. Kept in the family for nearly seventy years, Abijah Smith & Company is remembered as the first commercially successful anthracite business in the United States.
Why it matters
The Smiths helped launch the anthracite coal industry that would fuel America's Industrial Revolution and transform northeastern Pennsylvania.
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Related people
- · Abijah Smith
- · John Smith
Related events
- · Beginnings of the anthracite coal trade
Themes & tags
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