Stockton, Captain Robert F.

Notice and Caution is hereby given, that the Two Locomotive Engines called "Ajax" and "Achilles" now offered for Sale by the Sheriff of Luzerne County (PA), under Execution against the Sugar-Loaf Coal Company, are not the Property of the said Company but (subject to the expiration of a Lease to Captain Robert F. Stockton) are owned by the Subscribers. They annex copies of the Assignment, showing their ownership and will proceed against the Sheriff, and all others who shall interfere therewith. James S. Spencer William Trotter, Assignees. [Caption title and partial text]

Philadelphia: R. F. Stockton, December 15, 1842. Folio broadside. 520 x 375 mm. (20 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches). Folded with minor tears to edges. Foxed with some browning to the edges, but the paper quality is sound.

Captain Robert F. Stockton (1795-1866), noted New Jersey military man, politician, and entrepreneur, was involved in many business ventures during his time in and out of public office and the military. He invested in canals, railroads, steam engines and was instrumental in developing John Ericssons's steam powered naval vessel which launched in 1844. This little-known venture with the Sugar Loaf Railroad and Coal Company of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania demonstrates Stockton's business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit.

In 1839 the locomotive engines, the "Ajax" and Achilles" were shipped to Penn Haven on the Lehigh River where they were leased by the Sugar Loaf Coal Company to move anthracite by rail between Beaver Meadow and Parryville. The Sugar Loaf Rail Company was established to move coal overland thus avoiding the use of the Lehigh Canal, which was a monopoly and charged high rates. In 1839 The Sugar Loaf Coal Company moved 561 canal boat loads of anthracite by rail and it seemed to be an unqualified success. In June of 1841 a flood washed out the rail lines between Beaver Meadow and Parryville and the Sugar Loaf Coal Company and its railway went bankrupt.

This broadside issued by Stockton states that with the demise of Sugar Loaf Coal, the locomotive engines "Ajax" and "Achilles" could not be part of the settlement of debts caused by the business failure. These were not assets owned by the company as they were under contract to Stockton, who had assigned them to James S. Spencer and William Trotter at such time as his contract expired. Stockton apparently took the locomotives under contract, leased them to the coal company, and indemnified himself against loss by assigning them to third parties at the end of his contract. Savvy business dealings and an example of Stockton's drive that would demonstrating again and again in both his military and politics careers.

Not cited in OCLC. Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography, V, pp.694-95. See Earl J. Heydinger "Railroads of the Lehigh Valley -- Pennsylvania Railroad Groups", Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 109, pp. 18-29. See also the Walter Kraus's newspaper article "Floods Took Nearly 200 Lives in Jim Thorp Yesteryears" in the Morning Call (Allentown, PA), January 29, 1989. (344). Item #344

Price: $1,750.00