Iselin, in Young Twp., was the second major company town established by the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company. Lucius Robinson, president of the R&P, formed another subsidiary company, the Pittsburgh Gas Coal Company, and purchased 6,000 acres in the area in November 1902. The Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway extended its railway in 1903, employing 675 men under subcontractors King, Clement, and Shoemaker. Coal mining began at this point, even before the new company town was built. Two drift mines were open by August 1903.
The contractor that built the town was the Hyde-Murphy Company, and it had twelve houses completed by September. The town was named after Adrian Iselin, the chief investor in the R&PC&I. The rail line was complete in 1904, and the mines continued to expand. Soon there was a 39-room hotel, a company store, theater, churches, and a school. In the initial months, forty-two men were employed at the mines. By 1910, 1,700 were working at Iselin. Many of these were immigrants, as Indiana County could not furnish adequate local labor for such a large enterprise.
At its peak, Iselin had more than 200 homes. A decline set in by the early 1910s; in 1914, employment had dropped to 900 men. The mine had its own powerhouse until 1914, when service was provided from the central R&PC&I power plant at Lucerne. By 1930, operations were being conducted through another subsidiary company, the Helvetia Coal Mining Company. In that year 282 men were employed in Iselin No. 1 and No. 2 mines. Over the next few years, the mines were only open intermittently, and in 1934 they were permanently shut down.
Many of the workers relocated to Coal Run, where R&P still had active mines. Passenger service on the railroad ended soon afterward. The houses were sold off by the company in 1947 and are now privately owned. Circa 2012 there was a surface coal mine at Iselin, which has now been reclaimed in accordance with 21st-century mine reclamation regulations.
