An election night murder in Tremont, Pennsylvania | 1864

Main Street in Tremont Pennsylvania Jake Wynn Public Historian Schuylkill County Coal Region history

On Election Night 1864, politics turned deadly in Tremont, PA. After Schuylkill County voters re-elected Congressman Myer Strouse, a band of Irish mineworkers—calling themselves the “Bloody 69th”—paraded through town. Hours later, 25-year-old George W. Thompson was beaten to death. No one was ever tried. This is the Coal Region’s volatile Civil War era—press bias, ethnic tension, and justice denied—told through one forgotten murder. Read the full story.

A Schuylkill County soldier’s photograph | July 1942

Harry Kimmel of Donaldson, PA Schuylkill County soldier in World War II

A photograph of Corporal Harry Kimmel appeared in a July 1942 edition of the West Schuylkill Press-Herald of Tremont, PA. Learn more about the World War II soldier from Donaldson, PA. Read the full story.

A Nazi propaganda magazine from 1945 featured photographs of a Schuylkill County mining operation

A soldier from Schuylkill County was stunned when he found photographs from the Pennsylvania Coal Region in a magazine published in Nazi Germany.