Schuylkill County: Built on Coal

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Schuylkill County: Built on Coal The history of Schuylkill County is inextricably bound to the story – and drama – of the great anthracite industry in the United States. Despite nearly two centuries of active mining, the county’s 783 square miles still boast the largest accessible reserves of hard coal known in the world. Its lives and lifestyles have been quasi-fictionalized by two of the county’s best...
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A Salute to the Bicentennial of the Keystone State

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Salute to the Bicentennial of the Keystone State The current Bicentennial celebration commemorates not the birth of the United States, but the proclama­tion of thirteen British-American colonies that were “free and independent states” as of July 4, 17.76. When they formed a loose compact in 1761, their articles of confederation declared that “each state retains its sover­eignty, freedom and independence.” The...
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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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Heritage Highlights

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Heritage Highlights Daniel Boone Homestead, Birdsboro First Pennsylvania Regiment Flintlock Shoot, September 11-12, 1993 Architectural Heritage Day, October 17, 1993 Brandywine Battlefield Park, Chadds Ford Annual Battle of Brandywine Reenactment, September 19, 1993 Bushy Run Battlefield, Jeanette Fall Nature Walk and Tour, October 16, 1993 Drake Well Museum, Titusville Fall Gas- up Engine Exhibit and...
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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf J. Horace McFarland: A Thorn for Beauty by Ernest Morrison Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1995 (393 pages, cloth, $19.95) Three-quarters of a century ago, his was a name known throughout the na­tion. To some, he was ordained the “High Priest of the Rose.” To others, he was christened the “Father of the National Park Service.” And to even more, he was...
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A Jewel in the Crown of Old King Coal: Eckley Miners’ Village

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Jewel in the Crown of Old King Coal: Eckley Miners’ Village It survives – somewhat miraculously – as a vestige of Pennsylvania’s coal mining heritage, a link in what was once a chain of little coal communities, or patch towns, that dotted the anthracite region. “Eckley is part of the puzzle, but not a unique part. There were numerous, almost identical, mining patch towns like Eckley,” explains Vance Packard, site...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor A Joyous Occasion The article “Soft Coal’s Soft-Spoken Diplomat” [by Barry P. Michrina, Spring 1997] covered the subject well, but with one exception-the now nonexistent town of Peale. My husband, William C. Lovell, was born there in 1899, as were his three younger sisters. Author Kyle Crichton was also born in Peale, and in his book Total Recoil, published by Doubleday and...
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Executive Director’s Message

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Executive Director’s Message Remembering the twentieth century has become a preoccupation bordering on obsession. As the lists of greatest moments and most important people grows daily, I am equally intrigued not only by what we choose to recall but the way in which we decide to commemorate the past. Over the past one hundred years Pennsylvanians have remembered their history by constructing a stunning array of statues,...
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The UMWA Wins America’s Approval: John Mitchell and the Anthracite Strike of 1902

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The UMWA Wins America’s Approval: John Mitchell and the Anthracite Strike of 1902 Labor leader John Mitchell’s reputation seemed to precede him no matter where he traveled during the summer of 1902. Coal miners throughout northeastern Pennsylvania’s anthracite region referred to the boyish-looking thirty-two-year-old president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) as their beloved “Johnny d’Mitch.” His photograph hung in their homes beside...
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My Day at the Bargaining Table

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on My Day at the Bargaining Table Our family consisted of seven children, my mother, who had emigrated from Italy in 1908, and my father, who was born in Carbondale, Lackawanna County. We lived in a small anthracite (or hard coal) mining town, Old Forge, also in Lackawanna County. Dad began working as a breaker boy in the coal industry when he was fifteen years old. After years of such hard labor, Dad began to try to rectify the...
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