Sergeant Henry Keiser had escaped serious injury throughout the Civil War. His luck nearly ran out on October 19, 1864.
A Lykens Civil War soldier’s close brush with death at the Battle of Cedar Creek, October 1864

Sergeant Henry Keiser had escaped serious injury throughout the Civil War. His luck nearly ran out on October 19, 1864.
In 1834 and 1835, a scientist named Constantine Samuel Rafinesque traveled widely through Pennsylvania in order to document the geology and biology of the Keystone State. In the spring of 1835, the Turkish-born polymath traveled north from Harrisburg aboard canal boats alongside the Susquehanna River to Millersburg. In his book, A Life of Travels, Rafinesque details … Continue reading An 1835 visit to the mines at Wiconisco Township
In 1837, residents of three Pennsylvania counties filed petitions seeking to form their own county called "Lykens." Their efforts were unsuccessful.
In 1831, a land sale took place at a coffee house in Philadelphia that launched coal mining operations in northern Dauphin County.
In 1910, an epidemic of scarlet fever spun out of control in the Coal Region community of Lykens and left a trail of bodies in its wake.
On the eve of the 1902 Coal Strike, the communities of Lykens and Wiconisco were ripped by tension as residents awaited news.
An introduction to a Wynning History series about the 1902 Coal Strike in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania.
Medical care administered at the emergency hospital in Lykens during the 1918 influenza pandemic was free of charge.
Founded in 1851, the Short Mountain Coal Company grew rapidly during the Civil War in association with the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Budd served during the Civil War and later became a prominent citizen in Dauphin County's largest mining community.