JOSEPH L. CAKE, president and general manager of the Clear Spring Coal Company, West Pittston. This successful and energetic coal operator was born at Port Republic, N.J., and is a son of Joseph P. and Anna E. (Blackman) Cake, also natives of New Jersey. Our subject, who is the eldest son in a family of three children, was reared in his birthplace, and educated at the Pennington New Jersey Seminary and the Polytechnic Institute, Philadelphia, Pa. In 1866 he came to Pittston in the interests of the West Pittston Coal Company, and remained here two years, when he became identified with the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, with whom he continued ten years, at the end of that period taking a contract with the Bound Brook Railroad Company for the construction of their division. The Work was completed in sixteen months, and Mr. Cake immediately went South, locating in North Carolina, where he was engaged in mining for two years, afterward coming to West Pittston, where, in 1882, with A. McDeWitt, opened up the Clear Spring Coal mines, and Mr. Cake has also recently assumed the management of the Stevens Coal Company. The success of the Clear Spring Coal Company is due largely to the good management and business tact, combined with the large experience of its two principal stockholders. Mr. Cake was united in marriage September 24, 1868, with S. Helena, daughter of Joseph B. Cramer, of Burlington county, N.J., and this union has been blessed with two children, namely: Anna and J. Paul. In political matters our subject is an ardent Republican; socially he is a member of the F. & A.M. The family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Cake is a representative self-made man, having made his own way in the world, and commands the respect and esteem of all with whom he associates, both in a business and social way. He has made West Pittston his home for the last ten years.
History of Luzerne County Pennsylvania
H. C. Bradsby, Editor