Asa Packer - Early Life

Early Life

Packer was born in Mystic, Connecticut in 1805. He became a carpenter's apprentice to his cousin, Edward Packer, at Brooklyn, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. He also worked as a carpenter in New York City and in Springville, Pennsylvania. In 1833, Packer settled at Mauch Chunk (present day Jim Thorpe), in Carbon County, where he became the owner of a canal boat (carrying coal to Philadelphia). Packer then established the firm of A. & R. W. Packer, which built canal-boats and locks for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, probably the first through shippers to New York.

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