Coal Miners Memorial

Pennsylvania was endowed with anthracite coal, a fuel with the highest percentage of fixed carbon, in coal fields covering about 600 square miles from Susquehanna and Wayne Counties north of Scranton southwesterly to near Harrisburg. Hard coal was known in the Wilkes-Barre area by 1768, and by 1918 output reached 88,647,250 gross tons. Coal mining brought harsh and dangerous labor, with boys as young as 15 working in the mines and breaker boys from 8 to 14 entering early in the morning and leaving after dark after about 10 to 12 hours in darkness. In the last century, mining depended on the energy of men and beasts, and miners faced dust, water holes, ventilation, illumination, explosives, long hours, and lives spent largely in darkness. The Pennsylvania anthracite region also endured repeated strikes and work stoppages, including a 172-day stoppage from April to September 1922 and a 176-day strike from September 1925 to February 1926, during which men received no financial help. The region suffered many deadly disasters, including the Avondale shaft fire at Plymouth on September 6, 1869, in which 110 men died; the Baltimore Tunnel powder explosion in Wilkes-Barre Township on June 5, 1919, which killed 94; the Twin Shaft mine squeeze at Pittston on June 28, 1896, which killed 58; and numerous other explosions, cave-ins, fires, floods, runaway cars, and falls that killed miners across places such as Ashley, Nanticoke, Hazelton, Pittston, Plymouth, Wilkes-Barre, Mocanaqua, Plains, Edwardsville, and Port Griffith. These losses and hardships were borne by fathers, brothers, uncles, nephews, friends, and all who labored and suffered in the anthracite mines.

Plymouth, Pennsylvania · United States