Boys as young as 8, working dawn to dusk... This photograph shows the breaker boys of the Williamstown Colliery — children who sorted coal from rock with their bare hands amid deafening machinery and clouds of dust. Some were barely old enough for school. Read the story.
In June 1859, the coal miners of Wiconisco Township put down their tools over eight cents a car. It's the earliest documented strike from these collieries — and it didn't end well for the men who walked out. Read the story.
In April 1862, Salmon P. Chase boarded a special train to tour the coal mines of Wiconisco Township with the recently disgraced Simon Cameron. Washington took notice. Within a year, the mines they visited together would be at the center of a corruption scandal involving Cameron and Henry Thomas. Read the full story.
In this photograph taken just after the Civil War, two miners stand at the entrance to the Lykens Valley Drift at Bear Gap near Wiconisco, PA. Opened in 1831, the tunnel once stretched miles into Big Lick Mountain. Within a generation, new technology would push mining far deeper underground. Read the Full Story.
Ten days after Antietam, a young soldier from Wiconisco Township, PA sat down to put it into words for his father back home. Private Joseph Workman of the 96th Pennsylvania had just walked the battlefield days earlier. "I saw an awful sight," he wrote. "We had to move away from there on account of the stink." His letter, recently digitized by the Library of Congress, provides insights into what he witnessed at the Battle of South Mountain as well. Read the full story.
“I had three miles to walk every morning to get to my work.” In the fall of 1831, coal mining in northern Dauphin County began with a single stone mason and a long walk into the wilderness at Bear Gap. What started as one small job would grow into an industry that employed thousands of people. Read the Full Story.
This 1862 illustration captures the coal mines at Bear Gap during the Civil War, showing how industry, railroads, and labor shaped northern Dauphin County at a pivotal moment. For me, it brings a familiar landscape back to life as it once was. Read the full story.
This 1860s photograph captures mining operations at Bear Gap, where men, mules, and machines pulled anthracite from deep underground. It’ offers a look at how coal shaped daily life in Wiconisco Township during the Civil War era. Read the full story.
From Bear Gap to the Mahanoy Valley, Peter W. Sheafer's mining surveys shaped where mines were sunk and towns were built. Read the Full Story.
Major Joseph Anthony, an Irish immigrant and revered Civil War veteran, survived grievous wounds at Chancellorsville only to succumb to their effects in 1885. After the war, he helped shape anthracite mining in Williamstown, Pennsylvania, earning lasting admiration for his bravery and leadership. Read the full story and a moving obituary for this Civil War veteran.