[Letter] 1856 December 20, Washington [to] [Horace Binney] / Asa Packer.

For more information on the Packer family and their involvement with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Lehigh University, see also the Asa Packer Mansion Museum (http://asapackermansionmuseum.homestead.com/).

Packer states that when last in Philadelphia he saw Mr. White who "promised me that he would call on Mr. EA Packer and see if they could not settle it..." If it cannot be settled, Packer says that he would like to see it brought to trial quickly. He also states that he send the Agricultural report and will try to procure the Mechanical one as well. Asa Packer was a captain of industry who built the Lehigh Valley Railroad and controlled a coal-mining empire in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. He also founded Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA in 1865. Born from humble beginnings, Packer became the third-wealthiest man in the United States, beginning his career in the canal industry and then branching out to railroads. He was a member of the Pennsylvania State legislature and a served two terms in Congress; he vied unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency as well as for the governorship of Pennsylvania. He died in 1879 after a fall in his Philadelphia office.