The Rosalind Steamboat at Lake Carey

In the late eighteenth- century railroad and trolley companies created picnic grounds and amusement parks to encourage passenger traffic on their transportation lines. Regional examples were the Lehigh Valley Railroad Picnic Ground at Harvey's Lake (which evolved into Hanson's Amusement Park) and Mountain Park built by the Central Railroad of New Jersey in a mountainous area outside of Wilkes-Barre.

The Northern Electric trolley line built a dance hall and amusement park at Lake Winola. Sans Souci Park in Hanover Township, below Wilkes-Barre, and Fernbrook Park in Dallas, were also trolley-built parks.

While these parks were built by railroads and trolley companies, they were generally leased to private operators or corporate investors which actually equipped and operated the parks or more often sub-leased concession rights, including installation of amusement rides, to third parties. In time, the corporate interests which owned the parks would sell the parks to their lessees or to other purchasers.

As early as August 1895 the 27.3-mile Montrose Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad served Lake Carey along the railroad's route from Montrose to Tunkhannock. In early 1904 the railroad stated it planned to establish a picnic ground at Lake Carey.

Lake Carey is a 182-acre lake with a maximum depth of 35 feet in Wyoming County. The south end of the lake drains into a basin known as the Flow Pond which has a surface area of 71 acres. When combined Lake Carey has a surface area of 233 acres.

It is often claimed that Lake Carey is the second largest natural lake in Pennsylvania. But Conneaut Lake in Crawford County has a surface area of 929 acres with a mean depth of 24 feet and its greatest depth is 75 feet. Harvey's Lake has a surface area of 621.5 acres, a mean depth of 36 feet and a maximum depth of 102 feet, although other sources give the depth, more or less, two or three feet of that number. Because of its depth Harvey's Lake is recognized as the largest natural lake by volume in the State, while Conneaut Lake is the largest natural lake by surface area.

There is no study of Lake Carey's volume compared to Lake Conneaut. It is more likely that Lake Carey is the third largest natural lake by surface area in Pennsylvania.

The planned Lehigh Valley Railroad Picnic Ground was located along the west shore of Lake Carey at the intersection of Shore Drive and Marina Drive.

 

Redington Corporations

In anticipation of leasing the Lake Carey picnic ground from the Lehigh Valley Railroad, a group of investors in early June 1904 incorporated two corporations to operate at the new park.

One corporation was titled the Lake Carey Land and Improvement Company designed to operate the picnic ground and to purchase and sell lots at the lake. The acquisition of plots at the lake besides the planned picnic ground was wise and later sustained a future owner of the company. The second corporation was titled the Lake Carey Boat Company. Its purpose was originally to build and operate steamboats for public carriage on the lake, but in fact it would only operate one large steamboat at Lake Carey.

Four investors from the Wyoming Valley created the two corporations. The principal investor was John A. Redington (1864-1941). Redington was born in County Mayo, Ireland, and came to the United States in 1883. He initially operated a restaurant in the lumber town of White Haven, before moving to Wilkes-Barre in 1892. He built a four-story hotel at the corner of E. Market Street and N. Pennsylvania Ave., near the Lehigh Valley Railroad station. In 1905 he opened the seven-story Redington Hotel on an opposite corner directly across from the railroad station.

From 1901 to 1905 Redington also managed the famous Oneonta Hotel (1898-1919) at Harvey's Lake. Then in March 1906 the Lehigh Valley Railroad leased its picnic ground at Harvey's Lake to Redington. With other partners, Redington managed the park until October 1923. The park later became Hanson's Amusement Park.

Redington's other three partners at Lake Carey were Miles Shepherd, James S. Monk, both from Kingston, and Reuban L. Shaver, from Harvey's Lake. Miles Shepherd (1834-1911) was one of Wyoming Valley's foremost builders and contractors, best known for constructing many of the area's most elegant homes for the elite as well as large commercial structures. James S. Monks (1860-1926) was also a building contractor known for the impressive Luzerne County Gas and Electric building, once located on Wyoming Avenue, Kingston. A sportsman, Monks promoted horse-racing in the Valley and helped create the Wilkes-Barre Baseball Club.

The final partner was Reuban L. Shaver. In October 1896 he married Lydia Anderson of Harvey's Lake, the sister of George M. Anderson, a captain of the steamboat line at Harvey's Lake. He held different roles in the operation of the Harvey's Lake steamboats including serving in 1899- 1900 as pilot of the Rosalind, launched at the lake in 1893. In March 1901, Shaver claimed he had caught over 150 lake trout at the lake during the previous winter. Later in life he lived in Dallas where he was employed for twenty years by the American Stores chain.

 

The Picnic Ground

1904-1905

There is surprisingly little available information about the Lehigh Valley Railroad Picnic Ground at Lake Carey. In early May 1904 a news account stated 50 men were clearing the ground for the opening of the picnic ground season.

The opening of the new Lehigh Valley Railroad picnic Ground in 1904 was surprisingly routine. The Lehigh Valley Railroad began operating Sunday excursions in late June 1904 to the Lake Carey Picnic Ground from Wilkes-Barre. The special train left the Diamond City at 8:00 a.m. and the return train left Lake Carey at 6:30 p.m. The fare was 60 cents per adult and 30 cents each for children. These excursions ran periodically through September. Church picnics were the norm for the Lake Carey Picnic Ground. St. Mary's Catholic Church, Pittston, had an excursion of 900 people to the lake in mid-June. Two Baptist churches in Pittston held a joint excursion on July 21, just as the grounds were completed. The Montrose Presbyterian church had a large excursion to the Picnic Ground on August 2. In late August an attempt was made to arrest some picnickers who were selling beer without a license at the park. Other picnickers grabbed the arrest warrant from the constable and tore it up and demanded that the constable leave the park. No further action was attempted by the authorities.

In January 1905 an account stated R. L. Shaver would be the superintendent of the picnic ground and improvements and new attractions were planned for the 1905 season. In August 1905 an account then stated Reuben L. Shaver was now the manager of the Lake Carey Land and Improvement Company and boasted of his previous eleven years of experience steam boating at Harvey's Lake. In !905, Redington's land company leased the 3-story, 250-guest Hotel Ferncliff at Lake Carey for the season. It was owned by W. L. Raeder, Wilkes-Barre, and Bradley Lewis, Tunkhannock. In May 1906 the hotel, now leased by a partnership, Kerstetter and Jenkins, was totally lost in a fire.

No detailed account appears to be available describing the Lake Carey Picnic Ground. But several photographers served the lake in this period. Among the best was a photo postcard photographer, William J. Harris, who produced many prized photographs of the picnic ground. W. J. Harris (1868-1940) was born in England and came to the United States with his parents in 1870. The family settled in Wilkes-Barre where the father, John, was a gardener. By 1887 W. J. Harris was a professional photographer. The family moved to West Pittston in 1892, and Harris had a studio at 5 N. Main Street in Pittston for a few years.

Harris became an itinerant photographer who specialized in city and lake scenes. The photo post card craze hit the country, and from 1905-1915 Harris produced numerous views of Pittston, West Pittston, Wilkes-Barre, Harvey's Lake, Lake Carey, and Lake Winola. He also photographed the Finger Lakes in New York State and Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey. His Harvey's Lake views record the lake's pre-WWI era, when steamboats and grand hotels served 100,000 visitors during the summer season.

Harris spent his later life in St. Augustine, Fl. He was the curator of the St. Augustine Historical Society before his death in 1940.

The photo postcard work of Harris at Lake Carey includes general scenes of the lake circa 1905 and also several wonderful views of the steamboat Rosalind both at her dock at the picnic ground and operational on the lake. Other Lake Carey views include a miniature railroad at the picnic ground and a merry-go-round under a huge tent. Another photo captures "The Midway" with small gaming or amusement stands on both sides including a shooting gallery. A Ferris Wheel is in another photograph and a dance pavilion is shown along the lake shore.

The picnic ground seemingly had no swimming beach. But in 1905 E. W. Stark operated a bath house and swimming area elsewhere at Lake Carey. In late July 1905, 30 to 40 bathing suits were stolen one night from the Stark bath house.

The Lake Carey picnic ground anticipated a successful season in 1905 and had a newspaper ad in early May 1905 seeking bookings for the park by social societies and Sunday Schools. But interested groups had to book dates with the inconvenient Lehigh Valley Railroad ticket office at 69 Public Square in Wilkes-Barre.

There were train excursions to Lake Carey as early as April 1905. On June 17 the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen had a large excursion from Pittston to the lake. On July 1 St. Mary's Catholic Church in Pittston ran two excursions on the same day to Lake Carey. The largest excursion of the year was on August 9 when the Pittston Merchants Protective Association ran 22 packed rail cars to the lake, which left downtown Pittston practically closed for the day.

The balance of the 1905 season was equally busy at Lake Carey until early September, in part due to the earlier arrival of the Rosalind steamboat.

During the 1905 season concessions were leased to Jacob Hyman who failed to pay the Lake Carey land company the required rent for the summer season. In May 1906 the land company acquired Hyman's amusement devices via a sheriff sale against Hyman.

 

Lake Carey's Steamboats

 

A. Early Steamboats

News accounts of Lake Carey's early steamboat history are quite limited. In the summer of 1895, there were three steamboats operating on the Lake. They were the Tunkhannock, the Empress of the Lake, and the City Charter. The Tunkhannock was seemingly the earliest and the least known. It was likely the Tunkhannock, owned by a Mr. Reese of Pittston, which sunk at Lake Carey on August 29, 1895. In July 1896 Abe Rosengrant of Lake Carey and John Rees, Kingston, raised it with the intent of rebuilding it for operation on the lake. Whether it was made operable again is not known. The City Charter was originally operated by Capt. William Bond in 1889-1895 at Harvey's Lake. Bond took it to Lake Carey in 1896. The Empress of the Lake was operated by Asa Stevens. Asa and his wife, Elizabeth Harris Stevens, lived in a house at the lake which was later remodeled into the Spring Grove House, once a famous hotel at Lake Carey.

By 1900 only the Empress of the Lake was operating on Lake Carey.

 

B. The Rosalind

The Lake Carey Boat Company was created by the Redington group to operate the steamboat Rosalind built in 1893 by the Lake Transit Company, which was created in late 1892 to operate a series of large steamboats at Harvey's Lake. The Rosalind was built at Harvey's Lake by the W. R. Osborn company based at Peekskill, N.Y., along the Hudson River.

The Rosalind was 60-feet long and 14-feet wide. It was built with white oak, hard pine and white cedar. It had a three and one-half foot draft and carried 75 to 100 passengers. It had a 40 inch four-bladed propeller and its maximum speed was 11 miles an hour. It carried only one lifeboat, but it also had a number of crude life preservers. It was launched at Harvey's Lake on May 9, 1893. It went into service on May 20 at 10 cents a ride.

By 1904 the Lake Transit Company was operating the Rosalind, Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, and Natoma steamboats at Harvey's Lake and was planning to build the Acoma for the 1905 season. The Acoma would be the last steamboat built at Harvey's Lake for passenger service.

Before the launch of the Acoma on June 29, 1905, the Lake Transit Company sold the Rosalind in May 1905 to the Lake Carey Boat Company. The Rosalind was lifted up and on to three gondola cars from the Lehigh Valley Railroad at the Alderson section at Harvey's Lake and was shipped to Pittston where the cars were re-routed on the Lehigh Valley railroad to Tunkhannock and Lake Carey. The trip required the railroad to close all eastbound traffic between Pittston and Tunkhannock. The boat was too wide to safely permit rail traffic to pass on the opposite track while the Rosalind was on route.

Although never clearly stated, it is likely Reuben L. Shaver was the captain-pilot who operated the Rosalind on Lake Carey.

Despite a successful 1905 season at Lake Carey, the enterprise collapsed at the end of the season. Its principal supporter, John A. Redington, decided to lease the Lehigh Valley Picnic Ground at Harvey's Lake which he would operate until 1923. His partners at Lake Carey, Monks and Shepherd, who were never active at Lake Carey anyway, returned to their building construction firms in the Valley. Reuben L. Shaver would remain as general manager of the Lake Carey Land and Improvement Company, even under new ownership, as late as 1934 before he relocated to Dallas to work for the American Stores chain.

The Redington companies at Lake Carey abandoned the picnic ground and the amusement features were sold at a sheriff sale on May 24, 1906, to the Lake Carey Land and Improvement Company due to unpaid rent due by the amusement concession owners to the Lake Carey land company.

The Lake Carey picnic ground and the Rosalind lay idle for three years. On January 6, 1909, personal property of the Lake Carey land company, left abandoned on the grounds, including the merry-go-round, were sold at another sheriff sale to satisfy debts owed by the Lake Carey land company.

 

John J. Kilcoyne

In mid-April 1909 the two Redington companies were sold to John J. Kilcoyne (1876-1949). The sale included the companies' land holdings and the park, the Rosalind, and the picnic ground structures still in place. Kilcoyne was born in England and was formerly a hotel owner in Wilkes-Barre. He was well-known as a baseball player in the city and as an ardent outdoor sportsman.

Kilcoyne planned to completely rebuild the Lake Carey Picnic Ground. He also sought to build a baseball field and a race track which apparently did not happen. The Lehigh Valley Railroad was also going to rebuild its trackage from Tunkhannock to Lake Carey to carry larger excursions.

For 1910 Kilcoyne was leasing concessions to operate the park's various amusements including a bathhouse, restaurant, and arcade which were new features along with a new Ferris Wheel. The improved branch rail line was also in place for the opening on Decoration Day.

By the opening day, Kilcoyne had engaged a small concert band to play nightly for the full season. He also was offering balloon ascensions and free camp sites with tent and equipment rentals. It is unclear if Kilcoyne operated the Rosalind in 1910, although it is likely the park now rented row boats to the public. Kilcoyne sought to offer the sale of liquor at the park but he was stopped by a court injunction brought by opposition cottagers which the court signaled it would extend into the 1911 season. The last function in 1910 at the park was likely the Valentine family reunion on August 31, 1910.

But there would not be a 1911 season at the park. On November 16, 1910, Sheriff N. A. Doty went the park to claim any personal property owned by Kilcoyne to pay court costs due by him in the liquor injunction case. Doty was informed Kilcoyne had left the lake some time earlier to visit Honduras. Doty returned to the park on November 18 to seize containers of a suspected poisonous substance used to brew intoxicants which were illegally sold at the park during the summer.

In short, Kilcoyne abandoned the park and the park never reopened. Kilcoyne became a realtor for 40 years at Lake Carey, largely selling lots from holdings of the Lake Carey Land and Improvement Company. He also was an investment bond dealer spreading his time between Lake Carey and his office in the Miners National Bank building in Wilkes-Barre. He died at Lake Carey in October 1949.

While Kilcoyne in 1909 also became the owner of the Lake Carey Boat Company, this commercial interest was completely abandoned. The Rosalind remained at the park site and slowly sank into the mud along the shore. Its remains are still there.

 

Postscript

In August 1979 Nat Stevens and his 10-year-old son Chris became aware of the sunken Rosalind near their dock on the west end of Lake Carey.

They snorkeled out to the wreck which was six feet under the surface. They were able to locate the propeller and hooked a 50 to 75- foot cable to it. A vehicle pulled the propeller and a portion of its shaft out of the lake. In the process the shaft broke in half. This half remains on the lake bed along with the boat's rotted hull and bottom section. A rusted engine was also in view in 1979, but a plan to retrieve it later apparently was not accomplished.

The propeller and its partial shaft were left on display on the shore for some time, but later disappeared.

 

Copyright October 2024 F. Charles Petrillo