Asa Packer
| Asa Packer | |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 13th district |
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In office March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1857 |
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| Preceded by | James Gamble |
| Succeeded by | William H. Dimmick |
| President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad | |
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In office November 1852 – May 17, 1879 |
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| Associate Judge of Carbon County | |
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In office 1843–1844 |
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| Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives | |
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In office 1842–1843 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 29, 1805 Mystic, Connecticut |
| Died | May 17, 1879 (aged 73) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Minerva Blakslee |
| Occupation | Businessman, railroad executive, politician |
Asa Packer (December 29, 1805 – May 17, 1879) was an American businessman who pioneered railroad construction, was active in Pennsylvania politics, and founded Lehigh University. A conservative and religious man, he reflected the image of the typical Connecticut Yankee. His knowledge of construction and engineering was put to good use on behalf of his university. Packer also served two terms in the United States House of Representatives (1853–1857).
Packer was born in Mystic, Connecticut in 1805. There was a long history of persons from Connecticut migrating westward to the many branch valleys of the Susquehanna River and in his turn he became a carpenter's apprentice to his cousin, Edward Packer, at Brooklyn, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, a county on the Pennsylvania-New York border. He also worked seasonally as a carpenter in New York City and later in Springville, in the lower part of the county. It was in Springville where he met his wife, Sarah Minerva Blakslee. Dr. Yates writes of his early life: "Asa and Sarah settled on a farm, and in the winter he went to Tunkhannock on the [Upper] Susquehanna and used his skill in carpentry to build and repair canal boats." This continued for 11 years. In 1833, Packer settled at Mauch Chunk (present day Jim Thorpe), in Carbon County, where he became the owner of a canal boat (carrying coal to Philadelphia). Packer then established the firm of A. & R. W. Packer, which built canal-boats and locks for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, probably the first through shippers to New York.
He urged the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company to adopt a steam railway as a coal carrier, but the project was not then considered feasible. In 1851, the majority of the stock of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad Company (incorporated in 1846), later to become the known as the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company (January 1853), came into his control, and between November 1852 and September 1855 a railway line was built for the company, from Mauch Chunk to Easton. Construction commenced on the Mauch Chunk-Easton line just as Packer's five year charter was to expire. He built railways connecting the main line with coal mines in Luzerne and Schuylkill counties; and he planned and built the extension (completed in 1868) of the line into the Susquehanna Valley and thence into New York state to connect at Waverly with the Erie railway. Among his clerks and associates during this period was future businessman and soldier George Washington Helme.
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