Who are These Anthracite People
The influx of foreigners into the region was but part of an enormous global emigration, the largest the world had witnessed. Emigrants, desperate to escape the famine that had held their families’ captive, left Ireland. Others fled the poverty and hardship of England, Scotland, and Wales. Still more sought relief from the uncomfortable density of overpopulated Germany. By 1900, Eastern and southern Europeans were coming off the immigrant trains into the coal fields. The earliest people soon became the minorities in the teeming patch towns.
Americans occupied the highest echelon of the occupational hierarchy in the industry. Skilled miners, such as the English, Welsh, or Prussians found good jobs with the companies. Those with no experience entered at the lowest positions. It took years to earn a Certificate to become a miner.
“Who are These Anthracite People” by Valerie A. Zehl, PA Heritage Winter 1997
Communities of people helped one another. Children assisted parents, mothers and fathers kept tight control over their progeny and neighbors could usually be counted on in times of need. It was a culture of sharing. Childhood was followed by an early departure from school and entry into mining or silk mill workplaces as soon as possible. Earnings were turned over regularly and routinely to parents, a form of support which continued at least until marriage, but often throughout the course of entire lifetimes.
Girls also got work in cigar mills, clothing factories to sew, dressmaking, and household work. If you were Polish you had a good reputation as houseworkers, in the cities like New York City in the early 1930’s. Boys worked the mines as “nippers,” opening the doors and springing coal cars. Breaker boys, who separated coal from unusable mine rock (slate) in the breakers or collieries, was another job that boys worked at. If your parents had a store, you worked there.
The fact that familial obligations directed wage sharing and entry into work life in the first place was reinforced by the dependence on kin for access to available jobs. This process was especially crucial for those from abroad.
Children worked because they felt a responsibility to their parents that they should help. They wanted to work as soon as they were old enough. Marriage was a family obligation to continue in the families’ footsteps. As adults’ children saw these parents every day and stayed in their childhood communities to care for parents in old age.
Of course, some children rebelled. Families sometimes helped married children get homes, sometimes built homes on back lots, give it to son or son-in-law to take for $1.00 and keep in repair. Men would seek status at home because they did not have it at work. He disciplined his children. But home was the wife’s’ area and so was the family finances.
Sometimes neighbors would raise others children in the event of parent death, or brothers and sisters would take care of siblings.
Parents provided discipline and jobs; children supplemented family income and provided care for elderly parents. Storekeepers offered credit when times were bad, and neighbors continuously assisted each other. While economic conditions provided little or no assistance, the family and community remained stabled forms of support.
“Family and Community in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region 1900-1940” by John E. Bodnay, PA Heritage Summer 1983
Americans occupied the highest echelon of the occupational hierarchy in the industry. Skilled miners, such as the English, Welsh, or Prussians found good jobs with the companies. Those with no experience entered at the lowest positions. It took years to earn a Certificate to become a miner.
“Who are These Anthracite People” by Valerie A. Zehl, PA Heritage Winter 1997
Communities of people helped one another. Children assisted parents, mothers and fathers kept tight control over their progeny and neighbors could usually be counted on in times of need. It was a culture of sharing. Childhood was followed by an early departure from school and entry into mining or silk mill workplaces as soon as possible. Earnings were turned over regularly and routinely to parents, a form of support which continued at least until marriage, but often throughout the course of entire lifetimes.
Girls also got work in cigar mills, clothing factories to sew, dressmaking, and household work. If you were Polish you had a good reputation as houseworkers, in the cities like New York City in the early 1930’s. Boys worked the mines as “nippers,” opening the doors and springing coal cars. Breaker boys, who separated coal from unusable mine rock (slate) in the breakers or collieries, was another job that boys worked at. If your parents had a store, you worked there.
The fact that familial obligations directed wage sharing and entry into work life in the first place was reinforced by the dependence on kin for access to available jobs. This process was especially crucial for those from abroad.
Children worked because they felt a responsibility to their parents that they should help. They wanted to work as soon as they were old enough. Marriage was a family obligation to continue in the families’ footsteps. As adults’ children saw these parents every day and stayed in their childhood communities to care for parents in old age.
Of course, some children rebelled. Families sometimes helped married children get homes, sometimes built homes on back lots, give it to son or son-in-law to take for $1.00 and keep in repair. Men would seek status at home because they did not have it at work. He disciplined his children. But home was the wife’s’ area and so was the family finances.
Sometimes neighbors would raise others children in the event of parent death, or brothers and sisters would take care of siblings.
Parents provided discipline and jobs; children supplemented family income and provided care for elderly parents. Storekeepers offered credit when times were bad, and neighbors continuously assisted each other. While economic conditions provided little or no assistance, the family and community remained stabled forms of support.
“Family and Community in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region 1900-1940” by John E. Bodnay, PA Heritage Summer 1983