Editing Asa Packer (section)

==Early career==
[[File:Linderman Library 1896.jpg|thumb|[[Lehigh University]]'s first library, constructed at the cost of $100,000 by Packer as a memorial to his daughter, Lucy Packer Linderman]]
[[File:Packer Memorial Church 1896.jpg|thumb|[[Packer Memorial Church]] at [[Lehigh University]], erected by Mary Packer Cummings in memory of her family]]
[[File:Asa Packer statue at Lehigh University.jpg|thumb|Asa Packer statue at Lehigh University]]
Packer and his wife settled on a farm. In the winter months, he went to [[Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania]] on the [[Susquehanna River]] and used his skill in carpentry to build and repair canal boats. This continued for 11 years.{{sfn|Yates|1983|p=9}} In 1833, Packer settled in Mauch Chunk in present-day [[Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania]], where he became the owner of a canal boat, which transported [[anthracite]] coal from Pennsylvania's [[Coal Region]] to [[Philadelphia]]. He then established A. & R. W. Packer, a firm that built canal boats and locks for the [[Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Packer, Asa|volume=20|pages=441–442}}</ref>

=== Railroad ===
Packer urged the [[Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company]] to adopt a steam railway as a coal carrier, but the project was not then considered feasible.{{sfn|Yates|1983|p=13}} In 1851, he became the major stockholder of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad Company, which became the [[Lehigh Valley Railroad]] in January 1853, and they built a railway line from Mauch Chunk to [[Easton, Pennsylvania|Easton]] between November 1852 and September 1855.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/lvrr100.htm|title=Lehigh Valley Railroad}}</ref> Construction commenced on the Mauch Chunk-Easton line just as Packer's five year charter was to expire.{{sfn|Yates|1983|p=13}} He built railways connecting the main line with coal mines in [[Luzerne County, Pennsylvania|Luzerne]] and [[Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania|Schuylkill]] counties, and he planned and built the extension of the line into the [[Susquehanna Valley]] and thence into [[New York (state)|New York state]] to connect at [[Waverly, Tioga County, New York|Waverly]] with the [[Erie Railroad]].<ref name="EB1911"/> Among his clerks and associates during this period was future businessman and soldier [[George Washington Helme]].