A new article has been added at Newspaper Abstracts > United States > District of Columbia http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/index.php?action=displaycat&catid=323 Direct link to article: http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?id=34201 Submitted by: Susan Article Title: Washington Post Article Date: May 19 1878 Article Description: Judge Asa Packer Gone Article Text: Judge Asa Packer Gone Philadelphia, May 18. The death of ex-Judge PACKER, whose extreme illness had already been announced, occurred last night at 10 o’clock at his residence in this city. He was in the 74th year of his age, having been born in Groton, Conn., of poor parents. At he age of 17 years, he arrived in Susquehanna county, in this state, with a knapsack on his back. In that undeveloped country he learned the carpenter’s trade and in 1828 he cleared a little land of woods and built a log cabin of his own, similar to those he had built for his neighbors. He married and settled in life, doing odd jobs at his trade for the neighbors, and taking his pay in the services or goods of his customers. In 1833 he moved to Mauch Chunk, then a canal town, where he tuned his trade to account in building a canal-boat to ply between that place and Philadelphia. ASA PACKER was captain and freight and passenger agent for his own boat, and here by slow degrees laid the foundation of his magnific! ent fortune. A few years later he was owner or part owner of other canal boats, and had founded the firm of PACKER Brothers so well known in the valley. This firm built dams and locks and performed feats of engineering that were the wonder of their primitive community. Mr. PACKER bought coal mines and worked them, and was among the first to open the tremendous coal traffic between Schuylkill and New York, and by his own efforts constructed the railroad extending from Phillipsburg, N.J., opposite Easton, Pa., to Wilkes Barre, Pa. In 1855 the Lehigh Valley railroad was completed through his efforts. Towns sprang up, population doubled, and trebled every 10 years, and a network of railroads was woven over the whole region, which was backwoods when ASA PACKER left Groton. In 1853 Mr. PACKER was elected to Congress, as a member of which he served four years with a creditable record, his previous training as country judge and state legislator fitting him for the position. Judge PACKER’s name will be handed down to posterity as the founder of the Lehigh University, to which he gave the land and a fund of $500,000. This has been the largest of his philanthropic projects, but is simply one of many that have been carried into effect during his later years. He was appointed in 1875 Commissioner to the Centennial exhibition. Judge and Mrs. PACKER (still living) celebrated their golden wedding on January 23, 1878, with 1,000 guests at the family mansion in Mauch Chunk. H. E.PACKER, the only son of the judge, lives in Mauch Chunk. The funeral will take place from the family mansion at Mauch Chunk tomorrow afternoon. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ DC-Old-News ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NewspaperAbstracts.com - Finding our ancestors in the news! TM http://www.NewspaperAbstracts.com