Tom's Anthracite Region History and Genealogy Links
Welcome to my Anthracite Region Page.


The Anthracite Region: Its History, Traditions, and People



Although Schuylkill Haven is technically not a part of the anthracite region, one would be hard pressed to deny its influence to the growing anthracite region of the last century. Thus it was that many of the attitudes and opinions of those a bit further north were also commonly held by people of the southern part of Schuylkill County.

Because of the ethnic evolution of the region, several waves of immigration of mine workers occured historically. The first to arrive were the Welsh people who worked the coal mines of England. They were followed by German miners, although most German immigrants had a tendency to work the farms of Berks, Lehigh, Bucks, Montgomery, Lancaster, Lebanon, and Dauphin Counties in eastern Pennsylvania. The Potato Famine in Ireland was the impetus that drove many Irish to come to America. Many of those immigrants came to the anthracite region and began to work the mines. The Mollie Maguires, linked below, were early champions of the labor reform movement in the United States. Finally a large population of eastern European immigrants came to work the mines of Schuylkill, Carbon, Luzerne, and Lackawanna Counties.


Links

Learn Coalspeak at this amusing website with coal region links which, while not directly affiliated with canals,
did provide the reason for the existence of
the Schuylkill Navigation Company and the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron.

An Excellent Website from a McAdoo Native

Links to Pages About the Molly Maguires and Other Anthracite Region History

Links to Anthracite Region History and Genealogy