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PACKER, ASA (1805-1879)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 442 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PACKER, See also:ASA (1805-1879) , See also:American capitalist, was See also:born in Mystic, See also:Connecticut, on the 29th of See also:December 1805. In 1822 he became a See also:carpenter's apprentice at See also:Brooklyn, Susquehanna See also:county, See also:Pennsylvania. He worked as a carpenter in New See also:York See also:City for a See also:time and then in Springville, Pennsylvania, but in 1833 settled at Mauch Chunk, in the Lehigh Valley, where he became the owner of a See also:canal-See also:boat (carrying See also:coal to See also:Philadelphia), and then established the See also:firm of A. & R. W. Packer, which built canal-boats and locks for the Lehigh Coal & See also:Navigation See also:Company, probably the first through shippers to New York. He urged upon the Coal & Navigation Company the See also:advantage of a See also:steam railway as a coal See also:carrier, but the project was not then considered feasible. In 1851 the See also:majority of the stock of the See also:Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad Company (incorporated in 1846), which became the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company in See also:January 1853, came into his See also:control, and between See also:November 1852 and See also:September 1855 a railway See also:line was built for the Company, largely by Packer's See also:personal See also:credit, from Mauch Chunk to See also:Easton. He built See also:railways connecting the See also:main line with coal-mines in Luzerne and Schuylkill counties; and he planned and built the See also:extension (completed in 1868) of the line into the Susquehanna Valley and thence into New York See also:state to connect at See also:Waverly with the See also:Erie railway. Packer also took an active See also:part in politics. In 1841 and 1842 he was a member of the Pennsylvania See also:House of Representatives; in 1843-1848 was county See also:judge of See also:Carbon county; in 1853-1857 was a Democratic member of the See also:national House of Representatives; and in 1869 was the Democratic See also:candidate for the governorship of Pennsylvania. In 1865 he gave $500,000 and 6o acres (after-wards increased to 115 acres) in See also:South See also:Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for a technical school for the professions represented in the development of the Lehigh Valley; Lehigh University was chartered in 1866, and its main See also:building, Packer See also:Hall, was completed in 1869; he erected a library building in 1877 as a memorial to his daughter, Mrs See also:Lucy Packer Linderman; and his will bequeathed $I,5o0,000 as an endowment for the university and $500,000 to the university library, and gave the university an See also:interest (nearly one third) in his See also:estate when finally distributed.

He died in Philadelphia on the 17th of May 1879. The Packer Memorial See also:

Church (See also:Protestant Episcopal) on the Lehigh University campus, given by his daughter, Mrs See also:Mary Packer Cummings, was dedicated on the 13th of See also:October 1887.

End of Article: PACKER, ASA (1805-1879)

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