I always like logging onto your site. My father and three brothers were coal miners in the Pittston region. I worked as an outside laborer in the tipple of a mine. In 1943, I left the mine to go into the US Navy. When I returned after the war. I worked in strippings.

Pittston was the greatest town in anthracite mining and had plenty of accidents. The last being the Knox mine disaster in 1959. I wrote a book about coal mining in Pittston, including most of the major disasters. I also have a great collection of coal mine pictures, including the Knox Mine Disaster.

I hope more people with coal mine connections log in your site,

Thank you
Jim Bussacco bing1124.1@netzero.com

I see you are from Scranton. I am from Pittston. I put together a booklet on the Throop (Pancoast) mine disaster. I included a few Scranton Mine accidents. If interested the booklet sells for $12. I will pay postage.
Jim Bussacco
1124 Main St.
Pittston Pa email bing1124.1@netzero.com

Hazleton is in east central PA, near Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Wilkes Barre and Scranton. Upstate, as my grandparents called it. They were from Welsh coal miner stock and were born near/in Hazleton. These are hard, anthracite coal mines that had been worked heavily since the first railroads went through in the 1840s.

Found some online. They even have 1888. Try here:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~paluzern/mines.htm

Try newspaperarchive.com. What was your great-grandfather's name?

I don't think they are available online, but the Pennsylvania Archives has microfilm of old PA mine accident records http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/Coal%20Resources.htm

I'm pretty sure the coal region county historical society libraries have them too.

My great grandfather was killed in a mining accident at Highland #2 colliery in Luzerne Co. PA on 2/13/1888. Would anyone know how I could get a newspaper article/obit/any info available on this accident????

My grandfather worked in the mines in the Hazleton area also, he kept journals, the year 1946 he speaks about working in tunnel 26 and such....hard life.

Great photo...my grandfather was too a Lithuanian immigrant and worked in the mines in Scranton Pa. I cherish the stories my mom told me of her father during that time. I once took a tour of the Lackawanna Mines..it was an experience I will never forget. My hats off to our forefathers!

The Eckley Mining Village is located near Hazelton and Freeland PA. It is an interesting village and informative as well. Some of the homes are still lived in but when the occupants die the homes belong to the village. Well worth a visit. There are some names available and the museum and churches are very good.

Dot

My great-grandfather and great-uncle worked as coal miners in Hazleton, PA. Both were born in Kohanovce, Slovakia. Great-grandfather, George Remeta, immigrated around 1892. How would I find which mine he might have worked in? I keep thinking I might be looking at a picture of him and never know it! Also, does anyone know if payroll records or employee records exist?

My step-grandfather was also a miner in Western PA in the period 1910-1920?? I don't know if it was Hazelton. His name was Dominick Demark or Demarco. He and my grandmother and my father came from Canada, but my father and grandmother were originally from Chaleroi, Belgium.

Greetings from another NE PA native. My great-grandfather, great-uncles and grandfather all worked in the coal mines of northern Schuylkill County. Other relatives worked in the factories, foundries and mills in the area. This part of the country was also the birthplace of the American labor movement and I am proud to say I'm a union member.

My mother told me that we had an ancestor who was killed at one of the Southwestern PA coal mines in the early 20th century. Where might I find a list of those who lost their lives in the PA coal mines long ago? Please contact me at pje6431@hotmail.com. Thanks.

My Mother was born and raised in Plymouth, moving away in 1936-37. Her Father, and other relatives were miners. I'd like to hear from others with similiar backgrounds from the area. I still drive thru Plymouth a couple times a year. bb1300@aol.com

Although no one in my family was a miner, I am from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvcania and grew up with the consciousness of coal. I recall vivdly being a very small girl in the early 50s and hearing every morning on the radio the announcements of which mines wouild be working, and which, idle. Presumably, if the mine didn't work, you didn't get paid. Mining was the only economy of the area, and when the mines finally closed, the Wyoming Valley -- probably never ever a real boomtown, certainly never for the miners--sank into depression from which it has never recovered.

Our house was heated with coal; the truck would come periodically and empty its load into the chute. I would take the dark, hard crystals that had spilled in the driveway and try to draw on the sidewalk with them. As the 60s and 70s wore on, obituaries in the paper were filled with notices of old, and not so old, men who had succombed to anthracosis--black lung--the miner's scourge.

The men in the mines were taken ruthless adventage of by mine owners, who exploited them and offered them shacks to live in which, even into the 60s, had no indoor plumbing. I would like to recognize all of the souls who worked so hard for so little, many of whom met their deaths deep underground. Benetah those smudged faces were proud and hardy men.

My grandfather and great grandfather were coal miners in NE Pa (Plymouth, near Wilkes-Barre, which is of course near Hazleton). They were of Irish descent, and lived very hard lives. My great-grandfather lived in a home owned by the coal company, as did most of his time, and died in a mine collapse in 1895. His son lived into his late forties, and succumbed to 'black lung'. Fortunately, the family line continued and are all living much healthier and longer lives, some of them still in the NE Pa region.

I had too a grandfather and others in my great grandfamily who were miners here in Frameries - Borinage - Belgium.
Some of them and many other coworkers and friends died in the many coal mines installed in Borinage in the 19th and half part of the 20th century.
They worked hard and live wasn't very pleasant everyday.
A link to the last mine in Borinage closed in 1961, now a museum.
http://www.pass.be/index.jsp
Other links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frameries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borinage
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borinage
http://www.google.be/search?hl=fr&q=borinage+mines&btnG=Rechercher&meta=

My great grandfather. grandfather, and great uncles were all coalminers in western Pa. One great uncle was killed in a cave in in 1927. Back then mining was done with picks and shovels and work was sporadic at best.

Hazleton, PA is in the "hard coal" or anthracite region of PA mining country. I grew up in Windber, in southwestern PA, in the "soft coal", or bituminous region. My uncle worked in the mine. I remember the "strike breakers" going to work, and more than that, I remember the BIG men with BIG guns who prevented anyone from interfering. I was about 5 or 6 yrs old. I still have a dear friend who lives there. (We are octogenarians). Has anyone else noticed the 3 or 4 very young men, boys really, in the picture?

My great-grandfathers both worked as coal miners in northeast PA, not sure if it was Hazleton or another town though. One was from Poland and the other was from Romania.

My grandfather came from Poland and also worked in the mines in Hazleton, PA. I seem to remember the family saying it was the highest point in Pennsylvania. I had relatives who lived both in Freeland and Highland not far from Hazleton. - Chris

I too had a grandfather and greatgrandfather from Hazleton who were coalminers. They came from Czechoslovakia around 1910. I still make trips from CT to PA to visit family there.

I just happened to stumble onto this site and boy, the memories are flooding! My grandfather and greatgrandfather were both minors from Hazleton. Both are long gone but I still travel from Connecticut to Hazleton on a regular basis to visit family there. We have 5 generations going there.

Great photo! Where is Hazleton?? My Gr. Granpa and Granpa were from "Six Mile Run". Also miners. don't think they are in your photo, but really looked. Gayle

[The caption says Hazleton is in Pennsylvania (as opposed to Hazelton, in West Virginia). Google Maps shows it near Scranton. - Dave]

My great-grandfather (a Lithuanian immigrant) was also a coal miner in the Hazleton area right around dthis same time frame. I'd love to know more about the people in the picture, or at least your great-grandfather.