The following sketches appeared in Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly in 1877. The magazine was extremely popular in the mid-19th century and employed a team of sketch artists to document places and events across the United States and around the world.
Here they are, with some detail, in the order they appeared in the original article:
Heckscherville, Schuylkill County. This was one of the most restive communities during the Civil War. Its residents resisted mine operators and the US Army in their efforts to bring mineworkers to heel. One of the numerous collieries that dotted the landscape near Heckscherville. Though unidentified, it appears that this may be the Mammoth Colliery east of Heckscherville in New Castle Township, Schuylkill County. Avondale, Luzerne County, the site of the deadliest mining disaster in Coal Region history in 1869.
Mine safety advances in the 1870s meant that air holes became commonplace to provide fresh air to mineworkers, and in some cases, ways to escape during a disaster. A small passenger car on the “Gravity Road” above Mauch Chunk, Carbon County. The cylinders inside a mine breaker, where coal was broken and sorted by size. Outside the breaker, where the broken, sorted, sized, and washed coal was loaded aboard train cars for shipment to market. Miners Preparing a Blast A watch boy at the intersection of underground mine workings. Boys held numerous jobs within the mines – driving mules, opening and closing ventilation doors, watching intersections, etc. Miners at work A sketch that it is likely from earlier than 1877. The New York and Schuylkill Coal Company operated the Forestville Colliery in Schuylkill County, just west of Pottsville. This was their company police station, showing some well armed company police. Such corporate military forces dominated the Coal Region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Miners doing blasting to access further coal underground. This was dangerous work in the mid-19th century. A coal miner and his wife on a stroll, but also carrying many items suggesting that they may be moving between company towns. An illustration of a member of the Coal and Iron Police in the Coal Region Loading the mine cars underground and transporting them to the mine entrance and eventually for processing in the breaker
Wynning History 