Founded in 1851, the Short Mountain Coal Company grew rapidly during the Civil War in association with the Pennsylvania Railroad.
A 1919 history of the Short Mountain Coal Company – Wiconisco Township
Henry Keiser’s ‘reminisicences’ of Lykens and Wiconisco before the Civil War
In May 1927, Henry Keiser described the Coal Region towns where he grew up as they looked in the 1850s.
Baseball game settled score between colliery engineers in Williams Valley
In July 1906, engineers from rival coal mines played for bragging rights in northern Dauphin County.
“Wild with joy” – Celebrations marked end of World War I in Williams Valley
In the early morning hours of November 11, 1918, the mining towns of Williams Valley erupted with joy.
The Curious Case of Dr. Charles H. Miller
Dr. Charles H. Miller grew up in Lykenstown, PA in the decade before the Civil War.
An early historian’s description of Lykens and Wiconisco at conclusion of Civil War
Richard Nolen helped build the mining communities of northern Dauphin County. In 1865, he described how much they had changed.
“Wiconisco Marine killed on Saipan” – July 7, 1944
Corporal Raymond Holwig died during the fight for the strategically important Pacific Island in July 1944.
A New York Times correspondent’s 1874 visit to Wiconisco Township
A dispatch to the New York Times from August 1874 details life and work in the thriving Dauphin County mining community.
As Confederates invaded Pennsylvania in 1863, the coal mines of northern Dauphin County were in chaos
When the Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania in June 1863, the coal mines of the Keystone State were left vulnerable.
World War I draftees paraded through Elizabethville in 1918 before marching off to war
On a sunny Saturday in August 1918, more than 150 young men prepared for entry into the U.S. Army at the town park in Elizabethville, PA.
