In 1859 at Tuckerville Colliery in Schuylkill County, 32-year-old Irish mineworker John Hinch was pulled headfirst into the breaker rollers - an unthinkable death reported in chilling detail by the Miners’ Journal. His story lays bare the daily peril of Coal Region work before safety laws existed. Read the full story.
On an October morning in 1864, six miners entered a Schuylkill County colliery and never returned. Despite a frantic rescue, all were lost—with grieving families left behind. This Civil War–era disaster reveals the peril that stalked Pennsylvania’s coal towns before safety laws and reforms followed. Read the full story.
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 vivid account details an average Saturday night in Pottsville, PA in the 1840s.
Newspaper editor Benjamin Bannan implored the US Army be used to put down labor organization in the Coal Region during the Civil War.
In July 1865, the Pottsville Miners' Journal published a letter from a vehement support of Black voting rights.
Sergeant Isaac Jones described the hellish conditions facing Pennsylvania soldiers at the Battle of Petersburg in June 1864.
On May 21, 1864, newspaper readers across Schuylkill County saw hundreds of names listed of those wounded and killed in combat in Virginia.
The once imposing tower of the Miners' Journal building collapsed in a shower of sparks in October 1892
As the United States spun into a political crisis in January 1861, Schuylkill County's representative wrote home to his constituents about his beliefs.