The Great Depression reshaped the anthracite coal towns of Northeastern Pennsylvania in ways still felt today.
In my latest monthly column for RealClear Pennsylvania, I explore how communities like Williamstown and Lykens faced economic collapse when collieries closed and jobs vanished.
Families turned to bootleg mining, local relief efforts, and eventually New Deal programs just to survive.
The story begins in October 1929, when a coal company official in Shamokin confidently promised that the anthracite industry was “due for a comeback.” Hours later, Black Tuesday shattered those hopes and ushered in the worst financial crisis in American history.
What followed was more than a decade of hardship.
Read the full article on RealClear Pennsylvania here
Subscribe to the latest from Jake Wynn – Public Historian
Enter your email below to receive the newest stories.
My grandfather on my mother’s side of the family started working as a breaker boy at the age of 9 and worked in the mines his whole life. The depression years were very hard on his family. My grandfather on my father’s side owned a general store in Miners Mills, part of Wilkes Barre. My grandfather was said to have kept the miners and their families alive by giving them food on credit. Unfortunately most never paid him back. Years later people would say if it wasn’t for your grandfather, our family would have starved.