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    Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region
    Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region
    Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region
    Ebook115 pages26 minutes

    Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region

    By John Stuart Richards

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    Four distinct anthracite coal fields encompass an area of 1,700 square miles in the northeastern portion of Pennsylvania. Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region is a journey into a world that was once very familiar.


    In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, underground coal mining was at its zenith and the work of miners was more grueling and dangerous than it is today. Faces blackened by coal and helmet lamps lit by fire are no longer parts of the everyday lives of miners in the region. These vintage photographs of collieries, breakers, miners, drivers, and breaker boys illuminate the dark of the anthracite mines. The pictures of miners, roof falls, mules, and equipment deep underground tell the story of the hard lives lived around the hard coal. Above ground, breaker boys toiled in unbearable conditions inside the noisy, vibrating, soot-filled monsters known as coal breakers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 13, 2002
    ISBN9781439611357
    Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region

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      Book preview

      Early Coal Mining in the Anthracite Region - John Stuart Richards

      GLOSSARY

      INTRODUCTION

      This book takes the reader back in time to the early days of anthracite coal mining and to the heyday of Pennsylvania mining, between 1880 and 1930. From Wilkes Barre in the northern coal fields of Pennsylvania to the southern fields near Pottsville, the reader gets a historical view of 19th- and early-20th-century coal mining. The images depict the men and young boys who worked deep inside the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania. They show the blackened faces, the fire lamps burning on the miners’ caps, the young boys working in unbearable conditions, and the different types of equipment used in the mines. The mining conditions are keenly depicted, and the aura that surrounded the men and boys is brought to life by these vivid images of the collieries of northeastern Pennsylvania.

      Anthracite coal was first mined in the northeastern section of Pennsylvania in 1775 on an outcrop of surface coal in the Wilkes Barre area near the Susquehanna River. By the 1790s, coal was discovered in the Schuylkill and Lehigh regions of Pennsylvania. The first anthracite coal company, the Lehigh Coal Mining Company, was formed c. 1820. This company would begin the first processing and shipment of anthracite coal to market.

      In the 1840s, anthracite coal mining became a full-time occupation for thousands of men throughout the anthracite region. The first miners came from England, Wales, and Scotland, bringing with them the knowledge and skills acquired from many years of mining experience. By the 1860s, Pennsylvania anthracite coal mining was a major industry, supplying all of the mined coal for the heating and industrial uses throughout the United States. By 1914, the anthracite region of Pennsylvania employed more than 180,000 workers. Coal production by 1917 exceeded 100 million tons per year (declining to 4.8 million tons per year in the 1990s). Along with this large industry came the fact that safety was needed within the mines. Between 1847 and 1980, more than 121,200 people died in coal mining accidents in the United States. By 1870, close to 15 men were killed in the anthracite mines per million tons of coal mined, bringing forth tough mine safety laws. Even with the advent of mine safety laws, more than 32,000 people have lost their lives in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania since 1870. By 1900, a large majority of ethnic groups—Irish, Slavic, Hungarian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Italian—had settled in the anthracite region to work in the mines.

      The images in this volume depict the daily lives of the miners. They reflect how the career of a miner progressed from being a young breaker boy to driving mules in the mines. Many of the images will bring back memories to the thousands of families whose grandfathers, fathers, uncles, and brothers worked in the anthracite coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania. The photographs also show the process of mining coal, the digging of shafts, the driving of gangways, the working of the breasts, the blasting of the coal seam, and the hoisting and haulage methods. Shown, too, are the wonderful mules who shared the dangers and hardships with the men and boys of the mines. Also, the breakers that once dotted the landscape of northeastern Pennsylvania by the thousands are shown in unique views. The children who worked in the cruel and harsh conditions of these industrial monsters, the coal breakers, are vividly depicted. These images are just small sample portraying what the vast industry of anthracite coal mining was all about. It is the hope of the author that these long-gone historical

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