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Gerald McKerns's Blog (17)
I was born in a company owned house in a coal mining "patch" named St. Nicholas, located in the heart of Pennsylvania's anthracite "coal region". Upon completing high school, I migrated to Reading, Pennsylvania, were I spent nearly thirty years working in a steel mill. Now that I'm retired, I like to bend the ears of anyone who will listen about life growing up in the "coal region". You can take a coal cracker out of the "coal region," but you can't take the "coal region" out of a coal cracker.
Unemployed Miners Start An Illegal Coal Mining Industry
May 31, 2010 by Gerald McKerns
As America turned to alternate fuels, like gas and oil, it brought hard times to the anthracite coal region and as the demand for coal dwindled, it brought more lay-offs in the mining industry.
The proximity of thin seams of coal to the surface, especially in the Schuylkill fiel... read more
The Day the Boys Shut Down the Coal Mine
April 26, 2010 by Gerald McKerns
It was about 1906, when the young lads that worked at the Muskrat Breaker, near Moosic, were willing to shut down the whole mining operation in order to have one of their grievances recognized.
The barbarous methods backfired on Bill, a breaker boss with a wooden leg. Bill had about forty ... read more
Ten Tons of Water Pumped for Every Ton of Coal Mined
April 5, 2010 by Gerald McKerns
Water posed a major danger to the coal miners. Shafts were driven beneath the natural water level, causing downward seepage. Mines were generally graded so that the water would accumulate at the bottom of the shaft were the sump was located. From there it was pumped to the suface by ... read more
A Dangerous Job for a Boy in a Coal Mine
March 14, 2010 by Gerald McKerns
A job a boy might have in the mine, if he had the skills, was a spragger. Only the fastest and most agile boys were picked to be spraggers. Their job was to control the speed of the mine cars as they rolled down the slope. The spragger ran along the side of the cars and jammed sprags (wood... read more
The Anthracite Iron Making Industry in Pennsylvania
February 23, 2010 by Gerald McKerns
In the 1830s, because of the rapid advancement of the new founded railroad companies, a surge in heavy industry was on the up swing in northeastern Pennsylvania. America was developing a large appetite for iron. One major problem caused by this increase in industrial activity was that Amer... read more
The Youngest of the Underground Mine Workers.
February 5, 2010 by Gerald McKerns
After about five or six years working in the breaker, picking slate from the coal, some of these young lads would often go underground as a nipper. The nipper or door tender was the youngest of the boys to enter the mine. They were usally about eleven or twelve years old. Their job wa... read more
The First Train Ride in the Western Hemisphere
January 18, 2010 by Gerald McKerns
In 1828, John B. Jeruis, head of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, sent Horatio Allen, an ambitious twenty-five year old engineer, to England to size up the possibilities of the new iron horses that the Americans were reading about in the newspapers. Greatly impressed by w... read more
Strict discipline enforced in the coal breakers
December 12, 2009 by Gerald McKerns
Manus McHugh was one of the many young lads who lost their life in the anthracite coal breakers. His job was to oil the breaker machinery. One day, close to the noontime lunch break, he was in a hurry so he could go outside and play with the other boys. Rather than taking the time to shut ... read more
An innovative way to transport coal from the mine
October 24, 2009 by Gerald McKerns
In 1822, Abraham Potts built a new conveyance for hauling coal at his Black Valley Mine in Schuylkill County. The contraption attracted a lot of attention because anything that made it possible to bypass the terrible roads in the Schuylkill wilderness was guaranteed to arouse conside... read more
Growing Up in the Anthracite Coal Mines of Pennsylvania
September 28, 2009 by Gerald McKerns
Many of the boys in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania had a short childhood. At the turn of the last century twenty-five percent of the employees, in the anthracite coal industry, were boys. They usually strarted out in the breaker, sometimes as young as six, but normally at eight... read more
