During the nineteenth century, northeastern Pennsylvania's anthracite coal mines fueled one of the great mining booms of American history. The people who mined, moved, and sold anthracite coal built an industry that was crucial to the industrialization of the United States. Along the way, they created dynamic and culturally diverse communities that survive today.
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1791 |
Philip Ginter found anthracite while hunting on Sharp Mountain
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1807 |
Abijah Smith & Co. begins shipments of coal on the Susquehanna River
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1808 |
Jesse Fell invented an open air grate that allows easier burning of anthracite, paving the way for its use as a household fuel
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1814 |
Anthracite begins to penetrate the Philadelphia market during its fuel crisis in the War of 1812
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1825 |
Schuylkill Canal opens
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1827 - 1829 |
Building of the Lehigh Canal, a waterway developed by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co.
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1827 |
Switchback or gravity railroad from Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk began to carry coal to the Lehigh Canal
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1828 |
Delaware & Hudson gravity railroad began – one of the first railroads in the nation
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1828 |
Schuylkill Canal extends to Port Carbon and begins to revolutionize the transportation of coal to market
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1829 - 1832 |
Construction of the state-funded North Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal provided a market access route for coal to inland towns and seaport cities
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1831 - 1834 |
Building of the Wyoming Division of the Pennsylvania Canal
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1833 |
Dr. Frederick W. Geissenhainer received a patent for a furnace that burns anthracite successfully as fuel
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1835 |
Burd Patterson devised the slope method for mining anthracite below water level
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1836 |
Geissenhainer's Valley Furnace in Schuylkill County demonstrated his patented anthracite heating process
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1840 |
Lehigh Crane Iron Works launched the first successful commercial anthracite furnace in Catasauqua
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1849 |
Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad links Schuylkill County's anthracite to Philadelphia
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1849 |
Liggett's Gap Railroad incorporated in Scranton. Becomes the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad
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1850 |
Pennsylvania Coal Co. gravity railroad began operations |
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1853 |
Lehigh Valley Railroad formed by Asa Packer
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1860 |
Construction of Packer Mansion, the home of industrialist Asa Packer
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1869 |
Avondale Mine Disaster results in 110 deaths
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1879 |
Terence V. Powderly, originally from Carbondale, heads the Knights of Labor
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1896 |
Twin Shaft Disaster results in 58 deaths and an official state investigation of mine safety |
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1897 |
The Lattimer Massacre occurs when nineteen immigrant mine workers are killed by sheriff's deputies during a strike march from Harwood to Lattimer
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1900 |
Mother Jones marches with mine workers' wives and children
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1902 |
The Anthracite Strike of 1902 occurs, it is among the largest strikes in U.S. history
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1911 |
Anthracite Mine Disaster in Lackawanna County results in more than 70 deaths
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1913 |
Concrete City, a planned community for the employees of the Truesdale Colliery, opened
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1914 |
Employment in the anthracite industry reaches an all-time high of 180,000 workers, about two-thirds of whom are members of the United Mine Workers of America
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1920 |
During the 1920s and 1930s, the anthracite industry begins its long decline
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1933 |
United Anthracite Miners of Pennsylvania forms, led by Thomas Maloney
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1944 |
Min L. Matheson arrives in the Wyoming Valley to organize women garment workers
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1959 |
Knox Mine Disaster results in 12 deaths and an end to deep mining in the Wyoming Valley
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