Journal captures daily routine of a mining superintendent in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region during the Civil War | 1864

In November 1864, Schuylkill County mine superintendent Gilliard Dock took up his pen and journaled about his daily routine at the coal mine just north of Pine Grove, PA. Dock was active in his journal that fall, writing about politics, the prospects for his mining operation, and the chaotic state of American politics in the fourth year of the Civil War. Read the full story.

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.