In 1903 Mary D. Coal Company, which was named after Mary Delores Dodson, the wife of the the president of the company Truman Dodson, began sinking shafts on a lease from the legendary Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company for what would become Mary D Colliery (sometimes spelled Maryd). By 1905, Mary D. was shipping coal from mines entered by shaft, slope portal, and drift portals. Approximately 4500' of cast iron pipe was installed to bring water from the creek to the breaker and boiler house. The breaker partially burned in 1906 and had to be rebuilt. During the next several years, Mary D. Coal Co. continued to make improvements and expansions of the colliery (including building another breaker in 1909). Disaster struck on May 29, 1914 when an intoxicated elevator operator caused the death of six miners in the shaft. In 1923 Hazle Brook Coal Co. became the new operator of Mary D Colliery.
Hazle Brook closed Mary D. in 1932. The breaker was later demolished. However, in the 1950s, Maryd Mining Co. (or Maryd Coal Mining Co.) began stripping coal at Mary D. They built a new breaker there, named the Carbon Breaker, of which the skeletal remains still stood into the early 21st century.
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Coal company houses built by Mary D. Coal Co. in the early 20th century.
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Jones Coal Co. delivers a load of anthracite coal to a Mary D resident. In the background can be seen the side gabled house behind the evergreen trees that was the mine superintendent's house.
Image by Evan Kalish
This structure was once the Mary D company store.
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Besides culm dumps, all that remains of the Mary D mine is this acid mine drainage borehole.
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SOUTHERN ANTHRACITE COALFIELD
Dauphin, Lebanon, Schuylkill, and Carbon Counties
Coal mining at Oak Hill was probably named after the Oak Hill Tract of the Mount Laffee and Oak Hill Estate. Anthracite coal pioneer David W. Brown came to America in 1829 from England.
He and his partner, Mr. Daddow, began mining anthracite coal at this location in the 1830s. Other mines came and went, and from 1882 to 1884 Thomas Wren operated an Oak Hill mine here. In 1889 Leisenring & Co. opened Oak Hill Colliery. (These "patch" houses probably date from that time.) Under the Leisenrings, Oak Hill produced a decent amount of coal from all of the veins, but nothing earth shattering. In 1904 Leisenring stepped aside and Oak Hill Coal Co. became the new operator. Over the next two decades, this firm made many improvements although they struggled with underground drainage at times. Pine Hill Coal Company was listed as the operator in the state records from 1923 until February 1, 1943 and Oak Hill reached its peak production figures. That's the date when Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. took over Oak Hill. By that time, the operation was winding down. Coal production continued through the end of World War II from underground, stripping, and remining of culm banks. Some coal was sent to St. Nicholas Breaker for processing. From 1947 until 1950 state mine records show only the breaker operating and, after that, Oak Hill disappeared from the mine reports altogether. This Oak Hill is not to be confused with another Oak Hill Colliery that was near Scranton.
Pine Knot Colliery
Mary D, Pennsylvania
Kaska, Pennsylvania
Kaska William Colliery was opened up circa 1850. It operated, probably intermittently, with slope portals. By 1870, it was operated by P.D. Luther but was idle. "J. Major" tried to make a go of it in 1872 and shipped a little coal before idling the mine again. Alliance Coal Mining Company announced in 1881 that Kaska William Colliery would be reborn as a shaft mine. A very large amount of groundwater had to be removed through the first half of 1882 and coal began shipping by the end of the year. Also, a new breaker and new fans were installed. The mine was served by the Kaska William Branch of the Schuylkill Valley Branch of Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. Alliance operated Kaska William until 1887, when the mighty Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co. became the new owner and operator. Lehigh ran Kaska William until 1893. In 1894, Lehigh leased Kaska William to Dodson Coal Co., who already had an anthracite coal mine at Morea, Pa.. Beginning in 1899, the name of the operator was changed to Truman M. Dodson Coal Co. A second shaft was sunk in 1904. Alliance Coal Mining Co. (whose office was in Lansford) came back in 1912 and changed the name from Kaska William to Alliance Colliery. And yet operations wound down in the 1910s only to be rebuilt and reopened in 1918 with a new steel and concrete breaker. A new drift portal known as "Northdale" was driven, a new company store was built, and the old company store remodeled into a boarding house. Alliance Colliery was a successful mine for Alliance Coal Mining Co. until 1927. That year Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., who owned the lease, started running the colliery themselves. Big coal production was reported in the early 1930s, and coal stripping started. In 1936, production sharply dropped. Lehigh retreated back to their home area around Lansford and let a few small companies strip mine Alliance / Kaska William and run the breaker in the late 1930s. By 1940, the coal mining party was over at Kaska, Pa., the name of the company village that still exists in the 21st century.
Disasters at Kaska William / Alliance Colliery:
On May 10, 1889, ten coal miners were going up in the shaft elevator at the end of their shift. An empty mine-car was pushed into the shaft from the top, and in the same compartment
the ten men were ascending. The car came in contact with the cage, snapping the rope, dropping it with the ten persons, about two hundred and fifty feet down to the bottom of the shaft, where they were either
crushed to death or drowned in the sump.
Another unfortunate disaster at Kaska William mines occurred when, on May 26, 1898, six men drowned when mining got too close to old flooded workings and water rushed in and flooded the active workings. The force of the water swept away loaded wagons and the mine's timbers as well.
A black powder shot caused a gas explosion on February 22, 1923 resulting in the death of four Kaska William miners. Three other men were burned but survived.
Joliett / Keffers, Pennsylvania
Joliett and Keffers are two separate "patch towns" that are close enough to consider them one village. The earliest mining was Broad Mountain Colliery in the mid-1800s. However, Joliett was the company town for Levi Miller & Company's New Lincoln Colliery, which opened in 1884. (Miller was a veteran of the "Old Lincoln" Colliery nearby. See entry above.) By 1888, New Lincoln's owners were listed as Miller, Groff & Co. In 1890, New Lincoln was listed as abandoned in Pa. mine records, yet was listed as an operation of Graeff, Wilcox, & Co. in 1891. After this time, the history gets murky. It is possible that Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Co. or another company absorbed the coal reserves and their production was reported through another nearby colliery (Lincoln, East Franklin, Tower City). In the 1920s, Hazle Brook Coal Co. opened Westwood Colliery at Joliett. Hazle Brook operated Westwood until 1936, when Westwood Collieries Co. became the operator. In October 1943, Westwood Colliery left and Philadelphia Coal & Iron Co. began strip mining and remining the culm bank. After World War II, smaller operators such as Joliett Coal Co. and Stevens Coal Co. kept the Westwood breaker going until 1954. It was demolished in 1956.
Branchdale, Pennsylvania
Anthracite coal mining at Branchdale, in Reilly Township, dates back to the 1830s when Martin Weaver opened the first mine. However, Branchdale (sometimes spelled Branch Dale) is
best known as home of Otto Colliery. Otto Colliery began production circa 1840. By 1870, Cain, Hacker & Cook were operating Otto Nos. 1 and 2 of Otto Colliery. A gentleman named William Kendrick gave
operating Otto Colliery a try in 1872. In 1873 the mighty Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Co. became the owner and operator of Otto Colliery. No production was reported for 1874, perhaps due to P&R dewatering sections of the mines and improving the infrastructure. Coal was again being shipped from Otto in 1875 and, by 1877, production had tripled. Both red ash coal (easier to ignite) and white ash coal (burns hotter and longer) were produced. The main Otto mines were for a time known as the Red Ash mines. No. 2 was White Ash, and was flooded in the late 1870s and early '80s before being brought back online in 1884. For the rest of the 19th century, Otto reported good coal production numbers except for 1887, when a fire shut the colliery down for part of the year. A new breaker was constructed in 1900. By 1908, there were four slope portals, two drift portals, and one shaft feeding the Otto breaker. Industrial activity continued on for many more years, with coal produced from all of the important anthracite seams such as Holmes, Diamond, Mammoth, Primrose, and Buck Mountain. In 1931, Philadelphia and Reading suspended Otto coal production but continued to operate the breaker (washery). Coal was mined at Otto for the last time in 1932, followed by operating the breaker for one more year. Then nearly a century of Otto Colliery coal production came to an end (until the strippers came in later in the 20th century).
Lansford and Panther Valley area mines
I can hardly do justice to the legendary history of anthracite coal mining between Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe (formerly Mauch Chunk) in this short space. Anthracite mining in this region dates all the way back to 1792. Most of the mines and land became property of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company.
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Here are some of the remaining company houses at Lincoln Colliery. Levi Miller & Co. opened Lincoln Colliery in Tremont Township in 1869. After a few years the mine was idled in 1874. Miller reopened Lincoln around 1877 and it was a successful operation until the boiler house exploded in 1883. Miller moved on to open a new mine a few miles away which would be known as New Lincoln (see Joliet below). Then Lincoln Colliery was, at times, known as Old Lincoln and became an operation of the mighty Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. This firm mined coal at Lincoln until idling it in 1889 to make improvements. When Lincoln reopend in 1890, it started many years of good production and upgrades in the surface and underground facilities. A new breaker was built in 1903. By 1906, some of the gangway portals were two miles long. In the 1910s, a new "washery" was built and the culm banks reprocessed. As late as 1929, hundreds of men worked at Lincoln Colliery (although I don't know where they lived when the patch was so small). Yet, in 1931, Philadelphia and Reading closed Lincoln Colliery.
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A coal heritage display in a front yard in Lincoln. Even though Lincoln Colliery closed in 1931, a company named Lincoln Anthracite Co. operated a breaker at Lincoln in the 1950s (perhaps the one built in the 1910s). Other firms mined coal (surface, underground, culm) at Lincoln off and on into the early 21st century.
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Coal company houses at Good Spring, Pa. Good Spring Colliery was operated by Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. from 1890 until
1931. These sure don't look like Philadelphia & Reading company houses, though, which were usually duplexes. In 1905 there was a mine fire in the Mammoth seam of Good Spring Colliery.
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An old pump house in Good Spring. There used to be a pond next to it, but it has been drained now. Nearby was once the Good Spring railroad depot, also now gone.
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Two Dauphin County communities where the mining of anthracite coal used to be big business: Lykens, Pa. and, in the background Wiconisco, Pa.
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Foundations for long-gone tanks that were part of an anthracite coal briquetting plant at Wiconisco.
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Rausch Creek Coal's Lykens Breaker at the southern edge of the anthracite coal region.
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Two of the remaining coal company houses for Summit Branch Coal Company's Williamstown Colliery at the edge of Williamstown. There are also
a few remaining "patch" houses on Greenfield Street, but these are the last two of what was once a twenty house village.
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This former Greek Byzantine church that once served the Eastern European immigrants in Williamstown is now a residence.
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Tuscarora breaker.
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Culm banks near Pottsville.
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RIE anthracite breaker near Llewllyn, Pa.
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The "patch town" for York Run Colliery is located between Minersville and Pottstown. The first anthracite mining in this neighborhood was in the 1810s for local use. A full blown mine that actually shipped coal was in operation here from 1836 to 1857 and was operated by George Potts. The breaker burned in 1857 and the mine abandoned. Then, in 1889, Lehigh Valley Coal Co. purchased the property and reopened it as York Farm Colliery. Lehigh Valley spent a few years dewatering the old underground workings and making improvements and repairs (new breaker, new fans, etc.). These company houses were probably built at that time. By 1892, production had finally come on line when disaster struck. 15 coal miners died in an explosion in the York Farm mine in July 1892. However, York Farm continued to produce coal throughout the 1890s. The colliery experimented with disposing of culm in abandoned workings instead of culm banks on the surface. It was formally abandoned in February 1899, proving to be one of Lehigh Valley Coal Company's lesser investments. Fortunately, that firm still maintained anthracite collieries in other locations to provide fuel for the parent company - Lehigh Valley Railroad.
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Back yards at the York Farm "patch town." These houses are probably the only surface remnant of the York Farm Colliery.
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Anthracite coal heritage display at Minersville, Pennsylvania.
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Reading Anthracite's New St. Nicholas Breaker.
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Coal moonscape above the New St. Nicholas Breaker.
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A coal screening station near the New St. Nicholas Breaker.
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Crushing and screening station across the road from the New St. Nicholas Breaker.
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Two of the remaining company houses from Oak Hill Colliery. The old Oak Hill strippings and culm banks are behind the houses. This village is
known as Duncott, Pa.
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One of the remaining company houses at Duncott, Pa. still features a few of its original 6 pane windows. The green asbestos siding may have been installed by Philadelphia & Reading when they took over the Oak Hill operation in 1943. The Oak Hill / Duncott patch used to be larger and also once featured a company store.
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House coal tipple near Minersville.
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Huge black culm banks (called slate dumps in the bituminous coal areas) in Schuylkill County.
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Coal conveyor crossing over the road.
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An old Allis-Chalmers coal screen and its reflection.
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Streetscape in Tremont, Pennsylvania.
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The remains of Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company's Pine Knot Colliery
can still be found (as of 2024) in Cass Township of Schuylkill County. The mine operated from 1902 until 1933.
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A few of the remaining Pine Knot Colliery structures. The high windows on the
building on the right could indicate that it was once a bath house. The red brick building on the left
was once the boiler house (power house).
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Other small out buildings probably left over
from Pine Knot Colliery.
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Pine Knot Colliery featured two
shafts. This structure was associated with Shaft No. 2, which wasn't completed until 1909. The breaker cleaned coal
from both shafts, and also for Philadelphia and Reading's nearby Glendower Colliery after its own breaker closed.
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Detail of the textures and colors of the board-and-batten
Supply House, although others have identified this as a train station. Mine maps show the structure in the middle as being the mine's stables, but it certainly
doesn't look like one.
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The houses on the other side of the street are
pure Coal Region.
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And down the creek anthracite coal mining goes
on into the 21st Century.
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Front gabled company houses. In the classic Pennsylvania fashion, one party owns one half of a home and one party the other. This sometimes results in two dissimilar appearing halves.
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There are also these side-gabled company houses that could date back to the 1880s.
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I was told by a Kaska resident that these houses were for foremen and not lower level miners. This town should really be on
the National Register of Historic Places.
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Some more of the foremen's houses. These were probably built in the 1910s when many parts of Kaska William colliery were being upgraded.
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The superintendent's house still exists, but it appears to be uninhabited and overgrown. Note the decorative masonry that was also originally on some or all
of the foremen's homes.
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The building on the right used to be one of Kaska's churches. Part of the "patch" can be seen in the background.
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Note the coal heritage display next to this Kaska house: A statue of a fire boss / miner on a large lump of anthracite coal.
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Management level company houses at Joliett.
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Miners' "patch" houses in Keffers.
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I have not been able to identify this possibly-mining related structure at Keffers.
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Typical front-gabled coal company houses.
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On the left is the former Keffers school. On the right is a former church.
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1902 "Harpers Weekly" image
Otto Colliery Breaker.
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The former Larkins Hotel and current Branchdale post office.
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These company houses were known as New Hill and were probably built by Philadelphia and Reading. Homes on the hill above were for management.
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Former St. Mary Catholic church and rectory. The diocese suppressed this parish early in the 21st century. It is now
a non-denominational place of worship. There was also a Lutheran church located next door at one time.
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Company houses in the lower part of town away from Otto No. 1 breaker.
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Former coal company houses have had many alterations over the years.
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Looking into a part of Branchdale formerly known as Dewartsville.
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This is a remnant of a row of the original company housing for Otto Colliery known as Stone Row. The houses are all made from rubble stone and probably
date back to the mid-1800s.
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A resident of Stone Row was kind enough to show me the coal stove that keeps their cozy 19th century home warm.
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The coal bin for the coal stove. The couple like to order "barley" size coal.
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I have been unable to identify these stone structures at the lower end of the patch, but they have similar rubble stone
walls to Stone Row.
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Mid to late 20th century mining remains.
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Branchdale, Pennsylvania.
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The former Otto No. 2 shaft area has been stripped.
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Image courtesy of Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA
Miners of Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company eating lunch in the "dinner hole" in a mine near Coaldale.
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Former coal company houses in Lansford.
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Lehigh Coal & Navigation also built this development next to Lansford for management. The neighborhood is known as Edgemont, and the homes are of a noticably higher quality than the workers' housing.
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Even larger boss's homes in Edgemont.
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Also in Edgemont, LC&N constructed this clubhouse for their visitors. It was known as the Old Company Club, and functioned in this capacity until the mid-20th century. It was later reopened as a nursing home named Edgemont Lodge. At the time of this photo, it was abandoned.
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The former Lehigh Coal & Navigation foundry. The other structures in the background of the picture were also the company's industrial storage buildings.
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Other former repair shops at Lansford.
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Detail of one of the former Lansford industrial buildings.
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Part of the Lehigh No. 9 mine at Lansford has been preserved as a tourist coal mine. The visitor center and museum are in the former bath house. Too bad the No. 9 breaker
was not preserved.
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A gangway inside the No. 9 mine.
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Farther up Panther Creek can be found the Andrewsville "patch", where the miners of Lehigh No. 6 lived. There was once another "patch town" on the mountain above named Jamestown for the No. 4 colliery. It had been demolished by the 1940s.
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Coaldale, Pennsylvania.
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Former shops of Lehigh Coal & Navigation's No. 8 mine at Coaldale.
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Shown here is the Bull Run "patch" for the workers of Lehigh No. 10.
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Military honor roll at Bull Run.