Finding Aids

Dowling & Kennedy were railroad contractors. The partnership of Dowling & Kennedy and its predecessor, Reynolds, Dowling & Company, were typical of the many small firms that subcontracted to grade sections of railroad rights of way for large general contractors. This collection contains account books, vouchers, and statements covering the receipt of monies from the general contractor and its expenditure for labor and supplies. There are also timebooks, payrolls, and correspondence.

The Mount Carbon Railroad Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania on April 20, 1829, for the purpose of building a railroad from the Schuylkill Canal at Mount Carbon up Norwegian Creek to the forks and thence to Wadesville on the East Branch and Mount Laffee on the West Branch. The collection consist of thirteen laborers receipts issued for the construction of the railroad in 1829 and 1830 by William R. Hopkins, superintendent.

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871 as the Excelsior Enterprise Company, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals, and coal mines assembled by its predecessor, Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, between 1833 and 1896. The records are a fragmentary group from the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company; its successor, the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company; and its subsidiary, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company. They are primarily registers of employees and wage rates for employees in the Reading, Pennsylvania, repair shops of all three companies.

The Reading Company, chartered in 1871 as the Excelsior Enterprise Company, became the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The Reading Company employment and real estate records comprise a largely incomplete and extremely fragmentary synthetic collection of material related to the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company and its successors. The collection comprises incomplete employment records largely dating from the first half of the twentieth century, records related to the employee pension program and the Relief Association, a small amount of contracts, and deeds and agreements reflecting the company's process of land acquisition following initial main line construction in the 1830s and through to the early twentieth century.