GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY NOTES 7 
floors and so many rooms and passages that one might 
get lost. The Reading railroad trains used to stop to 
allow the passengers a glimpse of it and its garden. ‘There 
is a release from the heirs, after the death of Samuel 
Baird, in 1820, recorded at the West Chester Court 
House, to allow their mother to remain at Stowe during 
her lifetime.”? This mansion, of such great repute in its 
day, was erected originally by a Frenchman, and after- 
ward came into the possession of Samuel Baird by pur- 
chase from John Potts, his wife’s uncle, as previously 
mentioned. 
* ** * * * ** * * * * 7% * * * * * * 
At the close of the Revolutionary War Thomas Potts 
of Pottsgrove and Coventry foundry, having stopped for 
water at the west branch of Norwegian Creek, noticed 
in the stream some black stones.?. His family for three 
generations had been engaged in industries connected 
with mining and smelting iron ore, and he was well 
instructed in the metallurgy of his time. He recognized 
the black substance as coal, though unlike the English 
coal then in use. When he returned home he carried 
with him a package of the new mineral and tested its 
quality in one of his own forges. Being satisfied he had 
found what was of great value in his business, he pur- 
chased a large tract of land and formed a company, 
associated with him in the purchase, among whom Samuel 
Baird is mentioned. 
In March, 1784, a resolution was passed appointing 
twenty-two commissioners to parcel out the land, of which 
2 Anthracite was recognized by several persons independently 
about the same time, in Pennsylvania, and the claim to the first 
discovery is disputed. 
