George Bushar Markle - Millionaire, Banker, and Coal Operator

 

"He had long been known as one of the foremost industrial figures in the State of Pennsylvania. He has been well described as "one of the unique figures of his day and generation, a great executive, a sturdy man of probity and an absolute genius". There were "giants" in those days, and George B. Markle was one of them."

George Bushar Markle not only owned a coal mining company, but he invented and patented several tools used in the mines. Markle along with two other men,  also founded Hazelton's first bank.  Legend has it, he escaped an attempted assassination by the Mollie Maguires.

George Bushar Markle was born July 1 1827,  in Milton Pa, the son of John and Emily Markle.

"George is closely linked with the great Anthracite Coal Region, like Pardee, Hayden, and others who pioneered the way in this line. He came here as a young man, with no other capital than his bare hands, a resolute soil and a clear eye to the coming future of life and its possibilities. In his native village, he had more than the average school facilities at the schools of Steel and Kirpatrick where, as a very young pupil, he received those basic fundamentals which carried him throughout life. After his schooling was completed, he took up surveying and became competent in such an exacting occupation by the time he was 14 years old. George then went to Philadelphia and became an apprentice carpenter, after which he went to Milton, Penna. and entered the saddler's trade with his father-- but this held too meager a future for him and his talents. He was the son of a wealthy man who lost all by the old time endorsing.

In 1848, at the age of 21, earning $50.00 a month, he married and took his young wife to Hazleton, Pa., where he found employment in a store owned by Ario Pardee & Co., Anthracite Coal Operators. In rapid succession, he became bookkeeper and then general manager of the store, after which he became general manager of the collieries.

After nine years of association with the Pardee's firm, he entered the business for himself under the firm name of G. B. Markle & Co., taking over the operations of the Jeddo and Highland Coal lands, the richest in the anthracite region. Thus, at the age of 30, George B. Markle found himself on the threshold of his great career. He threw himself into the new work and carried everything with him. Not only did he succeed, but he found a large fortune in revolutionizing the entire anthracite industry.

One of the first problems that engaged the attention of this young man was the coal breaker, which he found inefficient in design and faulty in operation--making the cost of production high. He now felt he knew what was needed. He evolved a plan for an improved breaker and set about putting it into execution. His carpenters were unable to read the plans but that did not stop him. He proceeded to whittle a miniature breaker out of wood with his pocket-knife. This model was three feet high, perfected in proportions, with every timber in its proper place. When completed and put into operation, the new breaker was a revelation in efficiency and capacity.

The Markle Mansion was located near the intersection of West Broad and Vine Streets. 

From the first Markle breaker came the great forward impulse that extended the industry to its present proportions, and the anthracite industry came into its own. He never had a patent on this breaker and gave it to his children to play with, and got put away with the toys. George B. now turned his attention to new problems, being that of the machinery--the coal crusher, jigs and other machinery, upon which he focused his mechanical genius and improved them greatly. He was known as the Father of the Coal Breaker.

The pumping of the water from the coal mines was still another unsolved problem. The primitive pumps were first operated by horses and then replaced by steam power. Even with the steam power, they were very unsatisfactory, being short-lived and not meeting the demands placed on them. George designed a double four-cylinder bronze pump of enormous capacity, built to last. Once again, he did not get a patent, and the design became common property of the industry.

Personally, as well as industrially, George was recognized as a leader among the anthracite operators of his day. A common expression was, "Whatever George Markle does, we will do." Labor disputes were almost always decided on the Jeddo property.

One of the most obstinate and thorny problems ever placed in the paths of industry was the organization known as the "Mollie Maguires", which terrorized the anthracite region by making guerilla warfare on the mine operators and officials. George B Markle received numerous warnings and threatening letters on his life, to which he turned a deaf ear. On one occasion, however, he found himself in the path of assassins, hired to do the job. Although only average height, his great breadth of shoulders and his massive, bearded face, stern and disguised, suggested something giant-like. He was a man of limitless energy and of unshakeable determination. Four men were waiting for him at the pass in the woods, one of whom was a rough character from the Colleries, who was well-acquainted with the neighborhood and knew the man. This man was to signal the others with a hat, but he warned the other assassins in the ambush to look out for themselves if they missed. When the vehicle came past the ambush, two of them fired, the third holding his gun in readiness, lest the victim only be wounded and make his escape with the aid of those "blacks", the swiftest horses in the county. As the explosions of the two guns were almost simultaneous, the "black horses" reared, the pioneer's hat was knocked from his head, and some of the buckshot riddled the top of the buggy. The desperados waited for the blue powder smoke to move away from their vision. During this time, George tied his horses and, hatless and bleeding from a scalp wound, burst through the woods and smoke, armed and determined. He crashed into the woods and came straight for his would-be murderers, who broke and ran wildly, thinking only of escape. After searching the woods, this indomitable man returned to the road, untied his horses, climbed into the buggy, and resumed his interrupted drive to Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

What manner of man was this who, single-handed, went to chastise a band of armed criminals and did not quit the scene until the would-be murders had fled in terror. This George Bushar Markle was fearless and this act typical of the spirit that had raised him from an obscure youth, without funds or backing, to become the greatest independent operator in the pioneer days of the American Anthracite Coal Regions.

In 1867, George B. turned his attention to a very different problem from any he had previously undertaken to solve. In this field, he had training of previous experience but such was not his native ability. At the close of the Civil War, Hazleton was a small town without any banking facilities. Dissatisfied with this primitive state of affairs, he was determined that Hazleton would have a bank. Consequently, he associated himself with Ario Pardee and W. A. Grier and established the private banking firm of Pardee, Markle and Grier. This bank continued to grow and was continuously operated under the Presidency of descendants of George B. Markle (1975). The last President before the merger was Alvan Markle, Jr., a grandson.

In 1879, George, feeling his great strength beginning to fail, began to withdraw from his active business. In this same year, he went abroad and placed himself in the hands of Dr. Charcot and several other specialists, but all the skill of the foremost physicians of Europe was of no avail. He returned home, put his affair to rights, placed the management of his enterprises in the hands of his son, John, and retired to his home in Hazleton. On August 18, 1888, the great pioneer passed away, being hardly beyond middle age. He had long been known as one of the foremost industrial figures in the State of Pennsylvania. He has been well described as "one of the unique figures of his day and generation, a great executive, a sturdy man of probity and an absolute genius". There were "giants" in those days, and George B. Markle was one of them.

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Markle, and his son George Markle II, are buried in Harmony Cemetery, Milton Pa

"On July 16, 1914 - The remains of George B. Markle jr, Millionaire, Banker, and Coal Operator who died at Hazelton Hospital 1:30 Saturday last were brought to Milton for burial on Tuesday morning and were consigned to the Markle vault in Harmony Cemetery. " 

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Markle Bank & Trust