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Local History - Part 7
“COLLIERIES OF THE GIRARDVILLE AREA AND THEIR PATCHES”
By Evelyn Marquardt, June 2001
As the anthracite industry developed in the Girardville area of Butler Township, as many as forty collieries and two breakers were established in a one hundred year span from 1853 to the 1950’s, when most of them closed. They were owned and operated by the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company as were the settlements that grew up in their shadow. To keep their jobs, the miners who lived in these villages or “patches” as they were called, were required to rent houses and purchase from the “company.” The houses were built of wood and all looked alike.
They consisted of two rooms upstairs and two down, bathrooms were “out back” and water had to be heated on the kitchen stove for Saturday baths and Monday washday. Most were unpainted, the exceptions were painted red. By today’s standards company houses would be considered dilapidated and undesirable. It was a
different time; a time when milkmen, bakers, farmers, butchers and doctors came to you. It was safe to leave doors unlocked, day and night, and children played board games, jumped rope, or played jacks and marbles.
Most Girardville patches had their own elementary school house consisting of two or more grades in one room. In 1937-38, the Butler Elementary School was built in Fountain Springs, ending this era. To further their education, students walked to nearby towns. From Homesville, Preston Hill, Wildcat, Connerton, Colorado, Rappahanock and Powder Mill Road they made the approximate one mile trek to Girardville High School.
There was no bus service and “snow days” were unheard of. The patches, for the most part, were self-contained having, not only their own school, but general store and saloon as well. Some had a church and post office.
The first and largest colliery was the Bast, located between Big Mine run and Centralia. It was opened in 1853 by Gideon Bast and Pearson & Davis, it closed September 29, 1934.
In 1862, Colonel James Connor leased ground from the Girard Estate and built a colliery, it later was known as the Hammond. When it closed in 1954, the residents of Connerton were given grants to relocate because of flood waters rising to the surface from underground abandoned mines.
Raven Run had two collieries built on land owned by Girard Estate, the Cuyler and on the east side the Girard Mammoth. In 1870, Raven Run had a one room school on each end of the village. These were later replaced by a two story building on the east end. There was both a Catholic and Protestant church, each served by
Girardville clergymen. In the 1930’s, the families of Raven Run were vacated so the coal could be taken from beneath their dwellings, many moved to nearby towns while others bought land and built new homes on the eastern end of the village.
Homesville (originally Holmesville, a family name) had two collieries, Preston #3 on the north mountain and Preston #4 on the south. The last colliery to operate in Colorado and Rappahanock area was Packer #5, which closed in 1954. Mahanoy Plane prospered due to the East Bear Ridge colliery, the railroad shops and the Mahanoy Plane. Still a fair sized community, it has about one fourth the residents it had in 1940. Often called “the Foot” because it was at the bottom of the plane.
Lost Creek, in West Mahanoy Township, had Packer #2, #3 and #4 collieries. Once having a population of 4,000, there are about 400 residents at this time, mostly retired and/or widowed.
Upper and Lower Shaft, originally William Penn, changed its name to avoid confusion with another area in suburban Philadelphia of the same name. Company houses still exist in this community.
St. Nicholas was declared the center of West Mahanoy Township, being located on the main line of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and was designated the main post office for the area. St. Nicholas took its name from the fact that it began operation on Christmas Day in 1862.
Girardville was part of Butler Township until it was chartered on June 4, 1872, it too had company homes on Mahanoy Avenue and Upper Railroad Street. On the east end of town, on the mountain side above Railroad Street, was Girard Colliery, later known as McTurks, and on the west end was Hunter Tunnel. Although the Tunnel was closer to Ashland, so many Girardville men worked there, it was considered part of Girardville.
Once a community of over 5,000, there is now a population of less than 2000. Once 114 businesses, 38 saloons, 5 drug stores and four or five doctors and dentists at any given time, there is almost no business community of which to speak. In the winter, a miner only saw daylight on Sunday. He went underground before
sunrise and didn’t come up until after sundown. Much of his pay went to the company, since he lived in a company house, bought at a company store and when he was sick he was treated by the company doctor. Boys became slate pickers before their 10th birthday and a mule was considered more valuable than a man. Over the years 35,000 men died in mine accidents.
In 1914, 181 thousand miners produced 91 million tons of coal. In 1917, over 100 million tons of coal were sold. From then to 1953, the sales dropped to 71 million and the number of miners decreased to 51 thousand. By the mid 1950s the majority of collieries closed, the St. Nicholas Central Breaker closed May 5, 1955 and Locust Summit Central suspended operations January 12, 1955. Stripping operations saved the industry from complete collapse.
Today most of the company houses are privately owned but not the mineral rights. At any time homes could be claimed by the coal companies to remove the valuable mineral beneath.