Eckley Brinton Coxe (June 4, 1839 – May 13, 1895) was an American

mining engineer Mining engineering is the extraction of minerals from the ground. It is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, metallurgy, geotechnical engineering and surveying. A mining engineer m ...

coal baron A coal baron is a term colloquially used to describe an entrepreneur who possesses great power or influence through the possession and operation of coal mines. The phenomena exists in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Aust ...

, state senator and philanthropist from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. He was a co-founder of the Coxe Brothers and Company coal mining operation which became the largest producer of

anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highe ...

in the United States at the time. Coxe was instrumental in the formation of

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU), in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, is a private university, private research university. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been mixed ...

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Bethle ...

, which began as a mining school in 1865, and founded the Institute of Miners and Mechanics in 1879. He served as president of the

American Institute of Mining Engineers The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) is a professional association for mining and metallurgy, with over 145,000 members. The association was founded in 1871 by 22 mining engineers in Wilkes-Barre, Penns ...

from 1878 to 1880 and of the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...

from 1893 to 1894. He served as a Democratic member of the

Pennsylvania State Senate The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four-year terms, stagger ...

for the 21st district from 1881 to 1884.

Early life and education

Coxe was born on June 4, 1839, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

to Charles Sidney Coxe (1791–1879) and Anna Maria Brinton (1801–1876). His great-great-grandfather was

Daniel Coxe Daniel Coxe III ( – 19 January 1730) was an English physician and governor of West Jersey from 1687 to 1688 and 1689 to 1692. Biography The Coxe family traced their lineage to a Daniel Coxe who lived in Somersetshire, England, in the 13th ce ...

, his grandfather was

Tench Coxe Tench Coxe (May 22, 1755July 17, 1824) was an American political economist and a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress in 1788–1789. He wrote under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian," and was known to his political enemies as ...

and his cousin was

George B. McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey and as Commanding General of the United States Army from November 1861 to March 186 ...

. Coxe graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1858 with degrees in Chemistry and Physics. He spent six months after graduation in the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

region of Pennsylvania conducting a topographical geology survey of his grandfather's 35,000 acre estate under the supervision of

Benjamin Smith Lyman Benjamin Smith Lyman (11 December 1835 – 30 August 1920) was an American mining engineer, surveyor, and an amateur linguist and anthropologist. He was also a promoter of vegetarianism. Biography Benjamin Smith Lyman was born in Northampton, Ma ...

. In 1860 he traveled to Europe and studied for 2 years at the Ecole des mines in Paris, France and for 1 year at

Freiberg Mining Academy The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (abbreviation: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, TUBAF) is a public university of technology with 3,471 students in the city of Freiberg, Saxony, Germany. The university's focuses are exploration, mining ...

Freiberg, Saxony Freiberg () is a college town, university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the ...

. He spent an additional 2 years studying the mines in England and continental Europe and returned to the United States in 1864. He served during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

on the staff of Major General

George Meade George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815 – November 6, 1872) was an American military officer who served in the United States Army and the Union army as Major General in command of the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War from 1 ...

Career

Eckley Coxe's grandfather, Tench Coxe, had purchased 800,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania and urged his heirs to hold on to the land as he suspected coal would be found in the region. Tench's son, Charles, was able to retain ownership of 35,000 acres and left it to his sons including Eckley. Coal was found in the Coxe owned land and the Coxe Brothers and Company mining company was founded in 1865 with the first mine opened in

Drifton, Pennsylvania Drifton is an unincorporated community located in Hazle Township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, ...

. By the late 1800s, the company was the largest independent producer of

with nearly 4,000 employees, coal shipments in excess of 1.5 million tons and land assets valued at $10 million. The Coxe Brothers & Company organization became the Cross Creek Coal Company led by Coxe, and in 1890 Coxe organized and became president of the Delaware, Susquehanna and Schuylkill Railroad. In 1869, Coxe married Sophia Georgina Fisher. Together they worked to improve the lives of miners by building a fully functional hospital at the mines to help miners injured on the job. He lectured frequently before scientific bodies. He published several technical papers on mining and translated the first volume of

Julius Weisbach Julius Ludwig Weisbach (10 August 1806 – 24 February 1871) was a German mathematician and engineer. He taught at the mining academy (Bergakademie) at Freiberg. He taught surveying, descriptive geometry, and mineral crystal measurement. Life and ...

's "Mechanics of Engineering and Construction of Machines" from German to English in 1872. He was instrumental in the founding of

as a mining school in 1865 and served on its board of trustees until his death. In 1877, his mines were selected by the

Columbia College School of Mines The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; historically Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University, a private research university i ...

for their study program due to the quality of the mines. He founded the Institute for Miners and Mechanics in 1879 in

Freeland, Pennsylvania Freeland is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was originally called Birbeckville, South Heberton, and Freehold. Freeland is south of Wilkes-Barre and northeast of Hazleton. It was incorporated as a borough on Septem ...

. The intent of the school was to teach math, science and English to the men working in the mines. He was strongly anti-union and defeated two powerful unions in one of the longest strikes in the coal industry from September 1887 to March 1888. He was a member of the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

. He was elected as a member in 1870 to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. In 1880 Coxe was one of the original founders of the

. He served as the president of the

from May 1878 to February 1880 and as vice president of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers from April 1880 to November 1881. Coxe was an inventor who was granted over 100 patents. He developed a long steel tape for the measurement of land by surveyors and the traveling grate, which he patented in 1893. He served as a Democratic member of the

for the 21st district from 1881 to 1884. He served as chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1884. He died on May 13, 1895, of pneumonia and was interred at Saint James Episcopal Churchyard in Drifton, Pennsylvania.

Legacy

Eckley Miners' Village in Pennsylvania was named for him in 1857 by his father. The Coxe Hall (1910) at

, originally a mining laboratory, is named after him. Coxe was admitted to the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...

in 2006 for his work on the traveling-grate furnace.

Publications

* Eckley B. Coxe.
A Furnace with Automatic Stoker, Travelling Grate and Variable Blast, Intended Especially for Burning Small Anthracite Coals.
''Transactions of the American Institute of Mining.'' 1895.
Mechanics of Engineering: Theoretical Mechanics, with an Introduction to the Calculus
, D. Van Nostrand Company, New York, 1889.

References

External links

Coxe, Eckley - Lehigh University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coxe, Eckley Brinton 1839 births 1895 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American engineers Engineers from Pennsylvania 19th-century American philanthropists American company founders American mechanical engineers American mining engineers 19th-century American inventors Deaths from pneumonia in Pennsylvania Founders of American schools and colleges Lehigh University people Members of the American Philosophical Society Mines Paris - PSL alumni Politicians from Philadelphia Democratic Party Pennsylvania state senators Philanthropists from Pennsylvania Politicians from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War Presidents of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers University of Pennsylvania alumni 19th-century members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly