A Christmas and New Year message from the editor of the Pottsville Miners’ Journal during the dark days of an economic depression that settled over the United States in the late 1830s.
From the Miners’ Journal, December 28, 1839:
Christmas –
Here we are again in the midst of the holidays – a Christmas past, and a New Year coming.
How fortunate it is that hard times, burst up banks, want et specie, and a general state of need… cannot postpone the Christmas holidays. For the last three days, we haven’t seen a dull face in town – all look as if they had full pockets, and hundreds to their credit in Bank, while a peep might convince that they were in situation of the merry Frenchman…
We see no use in wishing ‘merry Christmas,’ for all are merry already, and as to a ‘happy New Year,’ we feel morally certain that every living inhabitant of our Borough will on Wednesday next be as happy as he can, and a great deal happier.
Then let us be grateful for buoyant spirits, for the recurrence of another season of rejoicing, and for the means of enjoyment which are around us.
Let us show our gratitude by remembering the poor, and evince our perception of the bounties of Providence by sharing them with meritorious poverty. By a warm fire, many of us have laughed and quaffed away our Christmas Eve, let us now bestow a thought on the chilled and houseless child of penury. Let us make his new year ‘happy,’ and by so doing, add to our own enjoyment.
A Happy New Year then to all, and Remember the Poor.
The Coal Region was hit hard economically following the Panic of 1837 and the resulting economic catastrophe. The region did not begin to recover until the late 1840s or even 1850s.
(Illustration: Pottsville in the 1830s – Library of Congress)
Read more about early Coal Region history
An 1835 visit to the mines at Wiconisco Township
An author’s 1840 visit to Schuylkill County focused on natural beauty, growing coal industry
As Pottsville rapidly expanded in the 1820s, it was missing something important: beer
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