This sketch from the collections of Boston College shows the largely forgotten Schuylkill County patch town of Mackeysburg or Meckeysburg.

The village stood west of Heckscherville in Cass Township.

This was the heart of anti-war resistance and labor action among Irish mineworkers during the Civil War era. But the mines around the village never were particular productive.

From the 1881 History of Schuylkill County:

“At Meckeysburg, on land owned by George Meckey, he tunneled to the Mammoth vein, and put a drift down to the Jugular. This colliery has since been leased by General Wynkoop and others, but its production has never been large…

The mining operations in various portions of Cass Township have caused the growth of settlements and villages, which have become known as Meckeysburg, Heckscherville, Coal Castle, Forestville, Woodside, Jonestown, Thomaston, Sheafer’s Hill, Mine Hill Gap, and Delaware Mines.

All of these settlements and villages have been small, comparatively speaking, and none of them are now as well populated as they once were.”

---

Read more about Cass Township during the Civil War

“Revolutionary Disloyalty” – A coal miners’ rebellion in Schuylkill County during the Civil War

Miners’ revolt in Schuylkill County during the Civil War caused headaches for Abraham Lincoln

“Troubles in our Coal Mines” – Editorial about using soldiers to quell labor organizing in the Coal Region | 1863

---