The following, fascinating story from the Miners’ Journal of Pottsville was published in October 1845 and describes the scene in the Schuylkill County seat on a bustling weekend evening during the city’s initial boom in the early 19th century.

It describes Pottsville as bustling with miners spending their earnings, busy shops, and crowded streets. Social gatherings at beer houses and benefit balls are common. The town’s lively atmosphere continued late, with markets thriving and occasional disturbances leading to watchmen escorting troublemakers to the lock-up:

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Pottsville is never quiet. Six thousand people engaged in active pursuits cannot carry on their avocations without making a noise. Even on Sunday the streets are not very still, being thronged with the church-goers, who flock into our borough from all parts of the surrounding country.

There is one time in the week, however, when Pottsville is particularly noisy. It is worth any one’s time and trouble to take a stroll through the business part of the town on Saturday night.

The miner having finished his week’s work, comes to town, with his pocket filled, willing to part with a little of his earnings, for the comforts and conveniences of life. The stores drive a brisk trade on Saturday night, clerks are busy, merchants watchful and accommodating, customers in a good humor, and not very hard to please. Even if they were, they might be suited, for the stores of Pottsville are rather hard to beat.

Besides those who come to our Borough on Saturday night on business, there are many others, who are drawn here by the desire to be in a crowd. The streets are full as well as the stores, full of people who seem to have nothing else to do than to keep their hands warm by jamming them in their pockets, and stare at those who are busy.

The approach of Sunday, the day of rest, causes the working man to wear a smiling countenance, and there are few sour looking people to be met in the streets of Pottsville on Saturday night.

Suppose we step into one of the Beer Houses, of which we unfortunately have too many. Around a plain cherry table, we shall find some half dozen or more of sturdy Germans, each with a flagon of beer and a lighted pipe. They laugh at care as they sing their songs of home, and tell the tales of their father-land. These Germans have strong local attachments.

When once settled they dislike to change their residences, and we rarely find them packing up their goods and chattles and exchanging a comfortable home in Pennsylvania for the rough cabins and uncultivated prairies of the West. They associate almost exclusively with each other, and never forget the land of their birth, in that of their adoption.

There is the sound of music and dancing in the Town Hall. We enquire ‘What’s going on?’ and are answered: ‘A Benefit Ball.’ We will explain what is meant by a ‘Benefit Ball.’ It is the custom in this region, among the Irish particularly—if not exclusively—when a man has been sick for a length of time, for a number of his friends to subscribe a dollar each, for a ball, and after paying expenses, to appropriate the profits to their distressed comrade.

The refreshments provided on such occasions for the company are not very expensive, consisting principally of crackers and cheese. These balls generally come off on Saturday night, as the working man is more at leisure then than on any other night in the week. Several occur monthly. Sometimes they are given for the benefit of those who are too poor to send for their families in the old country.

No matter where we go on Saturday night, we shall find the town alive. The market stalls at the corners of the streets, and the butcher shops scattered over the town are doing a good business.

People want a good dinner for Sunday. They can enjoy it better, because they are under no necessity of bolting it half masticated. Women and children are always to be seen in Pottsville, but on this night an unusual number will be met with.

If a person will walk through the town an hour or so after the stores are closed, he will be apt to see one of the watchmen dragging a fellow off to the lock-up. More than one such case usually occurs on Saturday night.

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