Among the most prominent of the pioneers of Scranton was Heinrich Ludvig Christopher von Storch, the founder of the family in America. He witnessed many remarkable changes after his arrival in this state. Then, even the primitive stage coach had not come into common use, and the traveler was obliged to pursue his was either horseback or on foot over prairies and through forests, where now rushes the locomotive on its iron rails through populous cities. From the beginning he identified himself with the interests of the county, feeling that his personal welfare must as a matter of course, be intimately connected with the interests of his community, and he aided by every means in his power the progress of the people.
The father of our subject, Dr. Christian Theodocius von Storch, pastor at Lohman, Mechlenburg, was a son of Dr. John Gustav von Storch, grand duke of Mechlenburg-Schwerin, and councillor and burgomaster of Guestrow, the largest city of Mechlenburg. They were descended from Jan Persson von Storch, a native of Sweden, who was knighted and made a nobleman for services in driving the Danes out of Sweden, having defeated them at different places. Afterward he was given a castle at Salis, Germany, where he established the von Storch family.
Records as to the birth and emigration to America of Heinrich von Storch conflict somewhat. We have it that he was born May 16, 1772, and came to America in 1790, but a paper written by himself or G. N. Lutyen, with whom he crossed the ocean, was discovered recently, yellow by age, and it contains the following: "Henry Ludvig Christopher von Storch was born in Lohman, Mechlenburg-Schwerin, April 29, 1770. He resided at home until his father died in 1784. Then he resided with an uncle for one year, then to Hamburg, where he remained one year and four months, then became a clerk in the store of Anton Weaver of Atona for eight years, when he went back to his native place and bid his relatives a long adieu, and set sail for America in the year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-four, with the family of G. N. Lutyen." It may be acceptable as very probable that the dates contained in the paper are correct.
Landing in Philadelphia, Messrs. von Storch and Lutyen engaged in the fur trade there, and got together a shipload of furs, which they consigned to Europe. The cargo, in which they had invested their all, was never afterward heard of, so that they found themselves short of cash to continue business in that line. They then came to Lackawanna County and settled at Blakely, but after a year Mr. von Storch went to Philadelphia, where, being able to converse in both the English and German languages, he secured an excellent clerkship. However, he returned to Lackawanna and located three hundred acres of land here, comprising the old von Storch farm in Providence. In clearing the place he injured his back, so that manual labor was temporarily impossible. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he clerked in a wholesale store, and at the end of his time they insisted upon him remaining, doubling his salary as an incentive. At the close of the second engagement he started back to Lackawanna Valley, taking a pack of goods which he sold on the way, closing them out before he reached Scranton. He reached the city just in time to save the title to his land, which he had to buy in again. The date of his permanent location on the farm was about 1809, as we learn from his only surviving son, William.
When he bought the land, Mr. von Storch was aware that it contained deposits of coal, for he had seen it cropping out on the banks of the Lackawanna River. He was familiar with stone coal (as it was called) and knew how to burn it. Subsequently he mined the first coal ever taken out here. He was also the first to burn coal in the valley, and it is said that his neighbors were so skeptical regarding it that they were afraid to sit near his grate fire. At one time he took coal on horseback, in a bag, to Philadelphia, and by showing people there how to burn it tried to create an interest in it, but other fuel was so plentiful that he had little success. In addition to improving the farm, he sold goods, first on foot, then horseback. He built his first dwelling, a log house, at a site that is now the southeast side of North Main Avenue. When the country was better settled he built a frame store by the side of his log house, and carried on a general trade, this being probably the first store in Providence. There he did business and cultivated his farm until his death, April 10, 1826. The gravestone, which marks his resting place in the von Storch burying ground, states that he was fifty-five years, eleven months and eleven days old.
March 3, 1810, Mr. von Storch married Hannah Searle, who was born near Stonington, Conn., July 9, 1782. Her father, who was William Searle, and her mother, who had been a Miss Hewitt, moved from Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley at Wilkesbarre, before the Indian war. On the outbreak of the Indian troubles they fled back to Connecticut and lived there a few years until peace was restored, when they again went to Wilkesbarre. They traveled by ox team, the trip requiring six weeks. The first time they came to Pennsylvania Hannah was an infant, and at the time of their second removal she was nine years old. Educated by her parents, she became a very intellectual woman, and after the death of her husband she, with her oldest son, carried on the business. In legal matters she was well informed , and drew up many deeds for early settlers. She was also well posted in local history and imparted to historians much valuable information, for which she never received due acknowledgement. She died May 14, 1862, aged seventy-nine years, ten months and five days. She had a brother, Judge Corrington Searle, a civil engineer and surveyor, who surveyed the state of Ohio into counties and townships, and later in life was chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio; he resided at Zanesville, that state.
Mr. and Mrs. von Storch had seven sons and one daughter, but the latter died young. Of the sons we note the following: Ferdinand died November 2, 1868; Theodore died May 30, 1886; Leopold passed away in Lackawanna County November 4, 1882; Ludvig died, childless, April 12, 1886; William is the only surviving member of the family; Godfrey died in Scranton December 3, 1887; Justus died here October 28, 1890.
(Source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. (1897) Chapman Publishing Co. New York and Chicago.)
Heinrich's children would begin the Von Storch Coal Company in 1857, which operated into the 1960s. The Von Storch Slope, Von Storch Shaft, and Von Storch Breaker and Colliery were all born of his original endeavor.
According to the biography, he and Hannah were buried in the Von Storch Family Cemetery in Providence. It's unclear when their monuments were moved to this location -- it's assumed their bodies would also have been moved.
The father of our subject, Dr. Christian Theodocius von Storch, pastor at Lohman, Mechlenburg, was a son of Dr. John Gustav von Storch, grand duke of Mechlenburg-Schwerin, and councillor and burgomaster of Guestrow, the largest city of Mechlenburg. They were descended from Jan Persson von Storch, a native of Sweden, who was knighted and made a nobleman for services in driving the Danes out of Sweden, having defeated them at different places. Afterward he was given a castle at Salis, Germany, where he established the von Storch family.
Records as to the birth and emigration to America of Heinrich von Storch conflict somewhat. We have it that he was born May 16, 1772, and came to America in 1790, but a paper written by himself or G. N. Lutyen, with whom he crossed the ocean, was discovered recently, yellow by age, and it contains the following: "Henry Ludvig Christopher von Storch was born in Lohman, Mechlenburg-Schwerin, April 29, 1770. He resided at home until his father died in 1784. Then he resided with an uncle for one year, then to Hamburg, where he remained one year and four months, then became a clerk in the store of Anton Weaver of Atona for eight years, when he went back to his native place and bid his relatives a long adieu, and set sail for America in the year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-four, with the family of G. N. Lutyen." It may be acceptable as very probable that the dates contained in the paper are correct.
Landing in Philadelphia, Messrs. von Storch and Lutyen engaged in the fur trade there, and got together a shipload of furs, which they consigned to Europe. The cargo, in which they had invested their all, was never afterward heard of, so that they found themselves short of cash to continue business in that line. They then came to Lackawanna County and settled at Blakely, but after a year Mr. von Storch went to Philadelphia, where, being able to converse in both the English and German languages, he secured an excellent clerkship. However, he returned to Lackawanna and located three hundred acres of land here, comprising the old von Storch farm in Providence. In clearing the place he injured his back, so that manual labor was temporarily impossible. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he clerked in a wholesale store, and at the end of his time they insisted upon him remaining, doubling his salary as an incentive. At the close of the second engagement he started back to Lackawanna Valley, taking a pack of goods which he sold on the way, closing them out before he reached Scranton. He reached the city just in time to save the title to his land, which he had to buy in again. The date of his permanent location on the farm was about 1809, as we learn from his only surviving son, William.
When he bought the land, Mr. von Storch was aware that it contained deposits of coal, for he had seen it cropping out on the banks of the Lackawanna River. He was familiar with stone coal (as it was called) and knew how to burn it. Subsequently he mined the first coal ever taken out here. He was also the first to burn coal in the valley, and it is said that his neighbors were so skeptical regarding it that they were afraid to sit near his grate fire. At one time he took coal on horseback, in a bag, to Philadelphia, and by showing people there how to burn it tried to create an interest in it, but other fuel was so plentiful that he had little success. In addition to improving the farm, he sold goods, first on foot, then horseback. He built his first dwelling, a log house, at a site that is now the southeast side of North Main Avenue. When the country was better settled he built a frame store by the side of his log house, and carried on a general trade, this being probably the first store in Providence. There he did business and cultivated his farm until his death, April 10, 1826. The gravestone, which marks his resting place in the von Storch burying ground, states that he was fifty-five years, eleven months and eleven days old.
March 3, 1810, Mr. von Storch married Hannah Searle, who was born near Stonington, Conn., July 9, 1782. Her father, who was William Searle, and her mother, who had been a Miss Hewitt, moved from Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley at Wilkesbarre, before the Indian war. On the outbreak of the Indian troubles they fled back to Connecticut and lived there a few years until peace was restored, when they again went to Wilkesbarre. They traveled by ox team, the trip requiring six weeks. The first time they came to Pennsylvania Hannah was an infant, and at the time of their second removal she was nine years old. Educated by her parents, she became a very intellectual woman, and after the death of her husband she, with her oldest son, carried on the business. In legal matters she was well informed , and drew up many deeds for early settlers. She was also well posted in local history and imparted to historians much valuable information, for which she never received due acknowledgement. She died May 14, 1862, aged seventy-nine years, ten months and five days. She had a brother, Judge Corrington Searle, a civil engineer and surveyor, who surveyed the state of Ohio into counties and townships, and later in life was chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio; he resided at Zanesville, that state.
Mr. and Mrs. von Storch had seven sons and one daughter, but the latter died young. Of the sons we note the following: Ferdinand died November 2, 1868; Theodore died May 30, 1886; Leopold passed away in Lackawanna County November 4, 1882; Ludvig died, childless, April 12, 1886; William is the only surviving member of the family; Godfrey died in Scranton December 3, 1887; Justus died here October 28, 1890.
(Source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. (1897) Chapman Publishing Co. New York and Chicago.)
Heinrich's children would begin the Von Storch Coal Company in 1857, which operated into the 1960s. The Von Storch Slope, Von Storch Shaft, and Von Storch Breaker and Colliery were all born of his original endeavor.
According to the biography, he and Hannah were buried in the Von Storch Family Cemetery in Providence. It's unclear when their monuments were moved to this location -- it's assumed their bodies would also have been moved.
Among the most prominent of the pioneers of Scranton was Heinrich Ludvig Christopher von Storch, the founder of the family in America. He witnessed many remarkable changes after his arrival in this state. Then, even the primitive stage coach had not come into common use, and the traveler was obliged to pursue his was either horseback or on foot over prairies and through forests, where now rushes the locomotive on its iron rails through populous cities. From the beginning he identified himself with the interests of the county, feeling that his personal welfare must as a matter of course, be intimately connected with the interests of his community, and he aided by every means in his power the progress of the people.
The father of our subject, Dr. Christian Theodocius von Storch, pastor at Lohman, Mechlenburg, was a son of Dr. John Gustav von Storch, grand duke of Mechlenburg-Schwerin, and councillor and burgomaster of Guestrow, the largest city of Mechlenburg. They were descended from Jan Persson von Storch, a native of Sweden, who was knighted and made a nobleman for services in driving the Danes out of Sweden, having defeated them at different places. Afterward he was given a castle at Salis, Germany, where he established the von Storch family.
Records as to the birth and emigration to America of Heinrich von Storch conflict somewhat. We have it that he was born May 16, 1772, and came to America in 1790, but a paper written by himself or G. N. Lutyen, with whom he crossed the ocean, was discovered recently, yellow by age, and it contains the following: "Henry Ludvig Christopher von Storch was born in Lohman, Mechlenburg-Schwerin, April 29, 1770. He resided at home until his father died in 1784. Then he resided with an uncle for one year, then to Hamburg, where he remained one year and four months, then became a clerk in the store of Anton Weaver of Atona for eight years, when he went back to his native place and bid his relatives a long adieu, and set sail for America in the year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-four, with the family of G. N. Lutyen." It may be acceptable as very probable that the dates contained in the paper are correct.
Landing in Philadelphia, Messrs. von Storch and Lutyen engaged in the fur trade there, and got together a shipload of furs, which they consigned to Europe. The cargo, in which they had invested their all, was never afterward heard of, so that they found themselves short of cash to continue business in that line. They then came to Lackawanna County and settled at Blakely, but after a year Mr. von Storch went to Philadelphia, where, being able to converse in both the English and German languages, he secured an excellent clerkship. However, he returned to Lackawanna and located three hundred acres of land here, comprising the old von Storch farm in Providence. In clearing the place he injured his back, so that manual labor was temporarily impossible. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he clerked in a wholesale store, and at the end of his time they insisted upon him remaining, doubling his salary as an incentive. At the close of the second engagement he started back to Lackawanna Valley, taking a pack of goods which he sold on the way, closing them out before he reached Scranton. He reached the city just in time to save the title to his land, which he had to buy in again. The date of his permanent location on the farm was about 1809, as we learn from his only surviving son, William.
When he bought the land, Mr. von Storch was aware that it contained deposits of coal, for he had seen it cropping out on the banks of the Lackawanna River. He was familiar with stone coal (as it was called) and knew how to burn it. Subsequently he mined the first coal ever taken out here. He was also the first to burn coal in the valley, and it is said that his neighbors were so skeptical regarding it that they were afraid to sit near his grate fire. At one time he took coal on horseback, in a bag, to Philadelphia, and by showing people there how to burn it tried to create an interest in it, but other fuel was so plentiful that he had little success. In addition to improving the farm, he sold goods, first on foot, then horseback. He built his first dwelling, a log house, at a site that is now the southeast side of North Main Avenue. When the country was better settled he built a frame store by the side of his log house, and carried on a general trade, this being probably the first store in Providence. There he did business and cultivated his farm until his death, April 10, 1826. The gravestone, which marks his resting place in the von Storch burying ground, states that he was fifty-five years, eleven months and eleven days old.
March 3, 1810, Mr. von Storch married Hannah Searle, who was born near Stonington, Conn., July 9, 1782. Her father, who was William Searle, and her mother, who had been a Miss Hewitt, moved from Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley at Wilkesbarre, before the Indian war. On the outbreak of the Indian troubles they fled back to Connecticut and lived there a few years until peace was restored, when they again went to Wilkesbarre. They traveled by ox team, the trip requiring six weeks. The first time they came to Pennsylvania Hannah was an infant, and at the time of their second removal she was nine years old. Educated by her parents, she became a very intellectual woman, and after the death of her husband she, with her oldest son, carried on the business. In legal matters she was well informed , and drew up many deeds for early settlers. She was also well posted in local history and imparted to historians much valuable information, for which she never received due acknowledgement. She died May 14, 1862, aged seventy-nine years, ten months and five days. She had a brother, Judge Corrington Searle, a civil engineer and surveyor, who surveyed the state of Ohio into counties and townships, and later in life was chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio; he resided at Zanesville, that state.
Mr. and Mrs. von Storch had seven sons and one daughter, but the latter died young. Of the sons we note the following: Ferdinand died November 2, 1868; Theodore died May 30, 1886; Leopold passed away in Lackawanna County November 4, 1882; Ludvig died, childless, April 12, 1886; William is the only surviving member of the family; Godfrey died in Scranton December 3, 1887; Justus died here October 28, 1890.
(Source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. (1897) Chapman Publishing Co. New York and Chicago.)
Heinrich's children would begin the Von Storch Coal Company in 1857, which operated into the 1960s. The Von Storch Slope, Von Storch Shaft, and Von Storch Breaker and Colliery were all born of his original endeavor.
According to the biography, he and Hannah were buried in the Von Storch Family Cemetery in Providence. It's unclear when their monuments were moved to this location -- it's assumed their bodies would also have been moved.
The father of our subject, Dr. Christian Theodocius von Storch, pastor at Lohman, Mechlenburg, was a son of Dr. John Gustav von Storch, grand duke of Mechlenburg-Schwerin, and councillor and burgomaster of Guestrow, the largest city of Mechlenburg. They were descended from Jan Persson von Storch, a native of Sweden, who was knighted and made a nobleman for services in driving the Danes out of Sweden, having defeated them at different places. Afterward he was given a castle at Salis, Germany, where he established the von Storch family.
Records as to the birth and emigration to America of Heinrich von Storch conflict somewhat. We have it that he was born May 16, 1772, and came to America in 1790, but a paper written by himself or G. N. Lutyen, with whom he crossed the ocean, was discovered recently, yellow by age, and it contains the following: "Henry Ludvig Christopher von Storch was born in Lohman, Mechlenburg-Schwerin, April 29, 1770. He resided at home until his father died in 1784. Then he resided with an uncle for one year, then to Hamburg, where he remained one year and four months, then became a clerk in the store of Anton Weaver of Atona for eight years, when he went back to his native place and bid his relatives a long adieu, and set sail for America in the year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-four, with the family of G. N. Lutyen." It may be acceptable as very probable that the dates contained in the paper are correct.
Landing in Philadelphia, Messrs. von Storch and Lutyen engaged in the fur trade there, and got together a shipload of furs, which they consigned to Europe. The cargo, in which they had invested their all, was never afterward heard of, so that they found themselves short of cash to continue business in that line. They then came to Lackawanna County and settled at Blakely, but after a year Mr. von Storch went to Philadelphia, where, being able to converse in both the English and German languages, he secured an excellent clerkship. However, he returned to Lackawanna and located three hundred acres of land here, comprising the old von Storch farm in Providence. In clearing the place he injured his back, so that manual labor was temporarily impossible. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he clerked in a wholesale store, and at the end of his time they insisted upon him remaining, doubling his salary as an incentive. At the close of the second engagement he started back to Lackawanna Valley, taking a pack of goods which he sold on the way, closing them out before he reached Scranton. He reached the city just in time to save the title to his land, which he had to buy in again. The date of his permanent location on the farm was about 1809, as we learn from his only surviving son, William.
When he bought the land, Mr. von Storch was aware that it contained deposits of coal, for he had seen it cropping out on the banks of the Lackawanna River. He was familiar with stone coal (as it was called) and knew how to burn it. Subsequently he mined the first coal ever taken out here. He was also the first to burn coal in the valley, and it is said that his neighbors were so skeptical regarding it that they were afraid to sit near his grate fire. At one time he took coal on horseback, in a bag, to Philadelphia, and by showing people there how to burn it tried to create an interest in it, but other fuel was so plentiful that he had little success. In addition to improving the farm, he sold goods, first on foot, then horseback. He built his first dwelling, a log house, at a site that is now the southeast side of North Main Avenue. When the country was better settled he built a frame store by the side of his log house, and carried on a general trade, this being probably the first store in Providence. There he did business and cultivated his farm until his death, April 10, 1826. The gravestone, which marks his resting place in the von Storch burying ground, states that he was fifty-five years, eleven months and eleven days old.
March 3, 1810, Mr. von Storch married Hannah Searle, who was born near Stonington, Conn., July 9, 1782. Her father, who was William Searle, and her mother, who had been a Miss Hewitt, moved from Connecticut to the Wyoming Valley at Wilkesbarre, before the Indian war. On the outbreak of the Indian troubles they fled back to Connecticut and lived there a few years until peace was restored, when they again went to Wilkesbarre. They traveled by ox team, the trip requiring six weeks. The first time they came to Pennsylvania Hannah was an infant, and at the time of their second removal she was nine years old. Educated by her parents, she became a very intellectual woman, and after the death of her husband she, with her oldest son, carried on the business. In legal matters she was well informed , and drew up many deeds for early settlers. She was also well posted in local history and imparted to historians much valuable information, for which she never received due acknowledgement. She died May 14, 1862, aged seventy-nine years, ten months and five days. She had a brother, Judge Corrington Searle, a civil engineer and surveyor, who surveyed the state of Ohio into counties and townships, and later in life was chief justice of the supreme court of Ohio; he resided at Zanesville, that state.
Mr. and Mrs. von Storch had seven sons and one daughter, but the latter died young. Of the sons we note the following: Ferdinand died November 2, 1868; Theodore died May 30, 1886; Leopold passed away in Lackawanna County November 4, 1882; Ludvig died, childless, April 12, 1886; William is the only surviving member of the family; Godfrey died in Scranton December 3, 1887; Justus died here October 28, 1890.
(Source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. (1897) Chapman Publishing Co. New York and Chicago.)
Heinrich's children would begin the Von Storch Coal Company in 1857, which operated into the 1960s. The Von Storch Slope, Von Storch Shaft, and Von Storch Breaker and Colliery were all born of his original endeavor.
According to the biography, he and Hannah were buried in the Von Storch Family Cemetery in Providence. It's unclear when their monuments were moved to this location -- it's assumed their bodies would also have been moved.
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