Richard Nolen helped build the mining communities of northern Dauphin County. In 1865, he described how much they had changed.
An early historian’s description of Lykens and Wiconisco at conclusion of Civil War
“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.
“Incidents of a by-gone age” – A description of life in the Coal Region before the Civil War
Catherine Romberger Myers was born in Porter Township in 1840. She spoke to a reporter in 1931 about growing up in pre-industrial Williams Valley.
“Cheering, shouting and rejoicing” – A Pennsylvanian’s experience at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865
Sergeant Henry Keiser's diary reveals a soldier's perspective of the Civil War's dramatic final moments.
“Baseball fever” – Williams Valley’s 1906 season featured pro players, violent fans
In 1906, a small valley in Pennsylvania's Coal Region caught a case of baseball fever. The towns were never the same again.
After the First World War, miners in Williams Valley faced an uncertain future
A newspaper correspondent details life in Lykens and Wiconisco in the months after the end of the Great War.
“We want a vigorous prosecution of the war” – Chaplain calls for hard war against Confederacy in 1863
"I pronounce this rebellion wicked," thundered John Chandler Gregg in a speech given in Wiconisco, Pennsylvania.
