Anthracite Mining and the Slavic Immigration

Posted by on Jun 6, 2016 in | Comments Off on Anthracite Mining and the Slavic Immigration Those unfamiliar with Pennsylvania’s ethnic geography might be surprised to see a 1918 postcard penned in Russian like this one sent from Hazleton, Luzerne County, which translates as, “Tomorrow we are moving to a different place. Here is the address…. Greetings and kisses.” Following earlier immigration waves of primarily Northern and Western Europeans, the United States experienced an...
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Wayne County: A History Deep and Clear

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Wayne County: A History Deep and Clear The Land of Lakes, it might best be called. Its sweeping verdant valleys and velvety golden meadows harbor dozens of picturesque settlements – and more than a hundred natural and artificial lakes. Its resorts teem with summer colonists – primarily expatriate New Yorkers escap­ing the stifling heat of Manhat­tan in August – and recall a less frenzied era when there seemed to be...
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Historical Sketch of Luzerne County

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Historical Sketch of Luzerne County The Proclamation Line of 1763 was a stopgap devised to give England a chance to gather her forces and to adopt a policy for further expansion of the American colonies along the Atlantic seaboard. The Treaty at Fort Stanwix in 1768 resulted in a pre-revolutionary division of Indian land to establish a boundary between the Indian hunting grounds and the white settlements. The treaty was the last...
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Disaster – Or Murder? – In the Mines

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Disaster – Or Murder? – In the Mines In Winter 1959, after two days of drenching rain and unseasonably high temperatures, the frozen Susquehanna River began surging wildly. A recording station in Wilkes­-Barre, Luzerne County, measured the rise of the water level from 2.1 feet on Tuesday, January 20, to just below the 22-foot flood stage by Friday night. Wary Wilkes-Barre area residents kept a close watch, knowing that the river...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Furnace Folklore The folklore of Cornwall Iron Furnace includes three apocryphal tales: Washing­ton and Lafayette visited; the value of gold extracted at Cornwall was sufficient to pay all mining expenses, all other revenue being pure profit; and stone from the dis­mantled Robert H. Coleman mansion was used in the construction of St. Luke’s Epis­copal Church in Lebanon [“Letters to...
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Born to Organize

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Born to Organize For nearly two decades, from 1944 to 1963, in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley, a center of anthracite mining, Min L. Matheson (1909-1992) and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) were synonymous with notions of “community.” A charitable event? Count on the ILGWU to provide volunteers and raise money. Patients at an area veterans’...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf The King of the Movies: Film Pioneer Siegmund Lubin by Joseph P. Eckhardt Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998. (286 pages, cloth, $55.00) That immigrant Jews exerted a profound impact on the growth of American cinema is well known and has been the subject of considerable scholarship. However, the country’s first Jewish movie mogul, Siegmund “Pop” Lubin (1851-1923) of...
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“Thank God there are only three McCormicks”

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on “Thank God there are only three McCormicks” The McCormick boys arrived at St. Michael’s Home for Boys in July 1939. Art was seventeen, I was fourteen, and Mike was seven – a trio of orphans who would now live with two hundred and fifty hard-knock boys at this Catholic orphanage in Hoban Heights, near Pittston in Luzerne County. Those were hard times, and many boys at St. Mike’s came from rough backgrounds. They came from...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Recommends

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Recommends Searching for George Gordon Meade: The Forgotten Victor of Gettysburg General George Gordon Meade (1815–1872) should be remembered as one of the American Civil War’s most important generals, but he is not. Instead, history has relegated him to minor status. President Abraham Lincoln gave the hot-tempered Meade command of the Union’s dysfunctional Army of the Potomac only three days before he...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Society Newsletter

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Society Newsletter Topics in the Winter 2009 Newsletter: New Deal Post Office Murals Exhibit Opening Signature Series Lecture: The Atom and American Life Calendar for January – March 2009 Dr. G. Terry Madonna: Pennsylvanians and Presidential Elections New Deal Post Office Murals Tour Welcome New PHS Members Environmental Heritage Summit Holiday Marketplace 2008 Annual Appeal 2008-2009  ...
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