Fannie A. Couch wrote to Schuylkill County from Tennessee to provide updates about the Freedmen's School she was managing.
“New faces” – An April 1867 letter from the Pottsville Freedmen’s School
A 1919 history of the Short Mountain Coal Company – Wiconisco Township
Founded in 1851, the Short Mountain Coal Company grew rapidly during the Civil War in association with the Pennsylvania Railroad.
This 1864 map of Schuylkill County includes detailed illustrations of mining operations
This map from the Library of Congress collections includes fantastic illustrations of the Coal Region during the Civil War.
“Give all men a chance and fair play” – Frederick Douglass in Pottsville
Frederick Douglass gave two speeches in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in October 1867.
Pottsville teachers resign to head south and open school for freedpeople – February 1867
Fannie Couch and Hannah Streeper prepared to leave Schuylkill County to teach black students in Tennessee in 1867.
“Heroic cause of education” – Pottsville established a “Freedmen’s Relief Association” in 1867
In December 1866, a committee was formed in Pottsville that sought to fund and carry out education for former slaves in the war-torn South.
Captain Richard Budd – Civil War veteran and pioneer of Williamstown
Budd served during the Civil War and later became a prominent citizen in Dauphin County's largest mining community.
“Thoughts for Tomorrow” – Remembering the sacrifice of Schuylkill County’s Civil War soldiers
And a plea to consider what the Confederate battle flag meant to the local soldiers who fought and died in the Civil War.
Henry Keiser’s ‘reminisicences’ of Lykens and Wiconisco before the Civil War
In May 1927, Henry Keiser described the Coal Region towns where he grew up as they looked in the 1850s.
Remembering the Stockton Mine Disaster – December 18, 1869
On December 18, 1869, six people were killed when a mine cave-in swallowed their homes in Luzerne County.
