"It is truly wonderful that we had no lives lost in our company," wrote Sergeant James Silliman of Pottsville, PA in October 1861. His unit, Company A, 28th Pennsylvania, had fought hard with Confederate soldiers near Harpers Ferry, Virginia on October 16, 1861. Read his letter.
"Cry of foreigner, foreigner..." In the weeks after the Lattimer Massacre, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) responded in print. They deplored the violence and their anti-immigrant rhetoric used to defend the Luzerne County sheriff for murdering 19 unarmed mineworkers. Read their response and their appeal to the nation's workers.
New regiments, new volunteers | The Coal Region rebuilds the Union Army after Bull Run | 1861 After the disaster at Bull Run, the Union's three-year recruiting effort reached deep into the anthracite coal fields. Four new companies were forming at Mauch Chunk, a Hazleton coal operator was outfitting a regiment, and the war that everyone thought would be short was quickly escalating. Read the story.
In the spring of 1933, Rabbi Louis Levitsky of Wilkes-Barre stood before a women’s club and said what much of the world wasn’t ready to hear. Across the Coal Region, Jewish communities were already organizing, writing, and raising money — while the rest of the world looked away. Read my latest for RealClear Pennsylvania.
In 1869, mineworkers gathered in Hazleton, PA and put their grievances in writing - condemning company stores, withheld wages, and employer control over daily life. Their resolutions, printed by a labor newspaper in Philly, reveal how tightly coal companies gripped both work and survival. Read the full story.
“I am Mary Ubaniae, direct me to Hazleton, Pa.” In 1900, a ten-year-old Hungarian girl crossed the Atlantic alone with that tag tied to her dress. Her parents were gone, and relatives in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region were her only destination. A brief newspaper story preserves this remarkable journey. Read the Full Story.
A bleak winter street in Lattimer, Pennsylvania hides a violent truth. This 1898 illustration captures a Coal Region patch town just months after immigrant mineworkers were killed there for demanding fair treatment. Read the Full Story.
In the winter of 1926, a Hazleton, PA reporter went looking for dry Coal Region towns - and found the opposite. Bootleg liquor flowed freely across Carbon, Luzerne, and Schuylkill counties, especially at Christmas. Prohibition barely touched coal country. This new video brings that story to life. Watch the latest video.
Discover how child workers in Harwood, Pennsylvania formed their own union in 1902, challenging exploitative conditions and uniting for fair treatment. This rare glimpse, documented in McClure’s Magazine, reveals the power of young activism during the Coal Strike. Read the full story.
Near Frederick, MD, I stumbled upon Engine No. 85, a 1928 Vulcan Iron Works tank locomotive that once haulted stone and anthracite in the Coal Region until 1964. Now lovingly restored as “Mack,” it steams on excursions - bringing Coal Region history back to life. Read more of the story.