In April 2022, Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA) applied to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) for a Historical Marker recognizing The President Pumping Engine. In December 2022, this application was approved, one of 36 across the Commonwealth. These new markers, selected from 91 applications, were added to the more than 2500 familiar blue signs with gold lettering along city streets and country roads and highways throughout Pennsylvania. Since 1946 PHMC’s Historical Markers have chronicled the people, places, and events that have affected the lives of Pennsylvanians over the centuries. The signs feature subjects such as Native Americans and early settlers, government and politics, athletes, entertainers, artists, struggles for freedom and equality, factories and businesses, and many other noteworthy topics. The standard for recognition requires that the nominee (site or person) had both a substantial connection to the state and a significant impact on its times at a statewide or broader level. Local or regional historical significance on its own is not qualifying. The application process includes validation through extensive primary and secondary documentation. As one of two Historical Markers approved in the Lehigh Valley during this cycle, achieving this recognition was an important milestone in our overall efforts to memorialize the story and preserve the existing physical features of The President Pumping Engine.
Dedication Ceremony - at the National Museum of Industrial History
The Dedication Ceremony, which is a key element in the overall process, commenced at 11:00 AM at the National Museum of Industrial History (NMIH), Bethlehem on November 20, 2024. Shortly after the museum opening, the Antebellum Marine Band (Gettysburg), began playing late 19th century music in the museum’s foyer space. At 12:30 PM, the formal presentation ceremony commenced. Following an introduction by Andria Zaia, the Executive Director of NMIH, PHMC Commissioner William Lewis greeted the audience. Following Commissioner Lewis’ remarks, Steven DeWeerth, Dean of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Lehigh University, delivered a short talk highlighting the important contribution of The President Pumping Engine to technological advancement and the many intersections, spanning three centuries, connecting Lehigh University and the former zinc mine property where the engine was once located. Mark Connar, community advocate and historian, followed this with an overview of the Friedensville Mines and The President Pumping Engine. An hour was reserved for guests to tour the museum and during this time the scale model of The President Pumping Engine was operated on compressed air. This 1:38 scale model was built by Anthony (Tony) Mount of Bampton, Devon, United Kingdom over a period of four years and generously donated by Tony in 2022. The scale model is the centerpiece of a display in the museum’s main hallway. At 2:15PM buses left the museum to go to site where the engine was located for the Historical Marker unveiling (about 4 miles away) in Friedensville, Upper Saucon Township.
Dedication Ceremony - at the President Engine House location
The President Pumping Engine was named for “the chief magistrate of our Country”, who at that time was Ulysses S. Grant. One of Grant’s close associates attended the dedication service on January 19th, 1872, but President Grant was not present. For the Historical Marker dedication, we “redid” the original dedication ceremony with a reenactor (Robert Fahringer) representing the president of the Lehigh Zinc Company, Benjamin Webster, delivering the same remarks that were reported to have been made during the dedication ceremony in 1872:
This is the engine which is destined to become famous as is the house that Jack built; this is the engine whose cylinder is one hundred and ten inches, and whose piston rod is ten inches, in diameter, with a ten-foot stroke; this is the engine that can work ‘comfortably’, as we are told, at twelve strokes per minute, and yet not the least ‘fussy’; the engine, each of its walking beams weighs 48,000 pounds; twenty-six of whose pieces weigh each upwards of seven tons, and whose entire weight, including girders, is 1,310,300 pounds; the engine that can lift 52,800,000 pounds, or 26400 tons, one foot high in one minute of time, with the majestic ease and consciousness of power with which an elephant lifts a straw; the engine that can raise 12,000 gallons of water per minute, from a depth of three hundred feet, which works, day and night, without rest, and whose influence is a mighty one towards transforming the subterranean haunts of Kobalt and gnome, where, from times Silurian, these spirits have sported undisturbed in the ice-cold sea, that noiselessly washes the shores of their crystal kingdom.
From the inception of this engine, in 1868, this work has been sustained by our Board of Directors with unfaltering determination and courage. At the dedication they requested that public acknowledgment be made to our chief engineer, John West, for the skill with which he planned the whole, and the fidelity with which he executed it from the lowest foundation stone to the chimney coping.
[Above abridged from the original dedication remarks]
In this “historical fiction redo” President Grant was able to attend, and a President Grant reenactor (Ken Serfass) gave an appropriate speech. Once President Grant delivered his remarks, President Webster of the Lehigh Zinc Company returned to the podium and made the following declaration (which closely follows what was reported to have been said at the time):
“Mr. West, put on the steam and start the engine! I now christen the engine “The President” in honor of the chief magistrate of our country and as a fitting name for an engine which is chief of all engines in power.”
With the above instruction, the cover on the Historical Marker was dramatically removed by John West, the engine’s designer and chief engineer of the Lehigh Zinc Company (played by NMIH historian Mike Piersa), and the sign revealed to much applause.