Photographs taken on Memorial Day 1907 in Williamstown, Pennsylvania show a community commemorating its war dead.
“The sweet strains of music were heard” – Memorial Day in Williamstown
“They died for you and me” – Captain John T. Boyle’s 1879 Memorial Day Poem
The veteran of the 96th Pennsylvania read his poem at Memorial Day festivities in Harrisburg on May 29, 1879.
A Civil War officer’s grisly amputation at Spotsylvania Court House on May 10, 1864
Captain Edwin L. Severn lost his right arm at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 10, 1864.
“Incidents of a by-gone age” – A description of life in the Coal Region before the Civil War
Catherine Romberger Myers was born in Porter Township in 1840. She spoke to a reporter in 1931 about growing up in pre-industrial Williams Valley.
The dramatic aftermath of the Lincoln assassination in Schuylkill County
In Pennsylvania's anthracite coal field, reactions to the dramatic events of April 1865 were shockingly mixed.
“Cheering, shouting and rejoicing” – A Pennsylvanian’s experience at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865
Sergeant Henry Keiser's diary reveals a soldier's perspective of the Civil War's dramatic final moments.
“This seems like madness” – An editorial from the aftermath of the 1860 election hits close to home
"We are quarreling with our own prosperity, and about to fly from imaginary evils to greater evils, the extent of which cannot be imagined."
“We want a vigorous prosecution of the war” – Chaplain calls for hard war against Confederacy in 1863
"I pronounce this rebellion wicked," thundered John Chandler Gregg in a speech given in Wiconisco, Pennsylvania.
“This community sustains a great loss” – A fatal mine disaster in Wiconisco Township during the Civil War
On February 7, 1862, a roof collapsed inside the Short Mountain Colliery killing a respected miner and wounding several others.
Williamstown Tunnel – A closer look at a Pennsylvania coal mine in the 1860s
Williamstown Tunnel began shipping coal from Northern Dauphin County in 1866 and became the most prosperous coal mine in the state.
