The History of Forest City, PA
Forest City, Pennsylvania: Northern Gateway to the Anthracite
A Rotary Club Memorial to Anthracite Coal Miners and Their Families “Our Coal Miners and their Family Life Remembered"
By Bill Feddock
"Labor as wide as the earth has its summit in Heaven. "--so read a motto of the United Mine Workers in 1899.
From the 1860's to 1935, “black diamond" mining was the chief industry in Forest City, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding anthracite area.
Since anthracite hard coal veins ended at the north end of Forest City, and Forest City was the first coal supplier in line, the truckers and rails hauling coal to New England dubbed Forest City the "Northern Gateway to the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Fields."
On September 3rd, 1995, at the unveiling of the superb Coal Miners Memorial on South Main Street, thousands gathered to participate. Most of them with close ties and connections with coal miners and coal mining families. I heard the 1996 District Governor of Rotary International Mr. Joe Nadzak ask the audience, "do you think this was a good place to erect the memorial?" I heard no reply.
But let me assure you, my Forest City friends and neighbors, this very spot (whether one knew it or not) is positively the most correct place to erect this outstanding Miners Memorial. For as I stand here directly in front of it facing East, my mind's eye and a l0 year old boy's memory, this is what I see.
At the very spot of Harry Newak's Beer Place is where the large 40 ft. high Lokie Barn stood. That is where the two Hillside Coal Company Lokies (known as the puffer bellie steam engines) were housed, maintained and repaired. (At one time there were 3 lokies.) They were always coked over for the night, behind the two enormous closed doors, the steam boilers slowly puffing and breathing, just coasting, and the smell of live steam permeated the surrounding area. It had a special smell that always intrigued me. Early in the morning they would leave the Barn one at a time, bells clanging and as soon as they cleared the huge doors, a powerful shrill whistle burst forth in fair warning. The loud sound of this whistle exceeded that of the large locomotives on the D&H and O&W.
Just behind the Barn, on what is now the Browndale main road, and to the left of the remaining rock pile and just behind Allan Hornbeck's garage, loomed the tall trestle from ground level to some 80 feet high to the top of the big Hillside Coal Company Breaker. This was the very center of all of the local coal mining activity.
The railroad yard covered all of the area of the present post office, behind the post office and Harry's Beer Place and Turkey Hill and its parking lot, all the way back to behind Hornbeck's Garage.
The tracks then ran a double row all the way past Two Guys Restaurant (now Elegantes), over the steep lower end of Maxey Street hill (which was not there until recently) then behind John Kikulak's old homestead and in a straight line directly up to No. 2 shaft which was located directly behind Mayor Frank and Peggy Brager's property on South Hudson Street. (You can still follow the track bed.)
The post office was then non-existent. In its place was a 40 ft. wide alley-way along side of the former Fire Department Bowling Alley (no longer there). The bowling alley had four side windows side by side facing south. These windows became the miners' pay windows each Friday. The miners would line up by the hundreds in single file in front of each window. They were paid in cash in a small brown envelope and were handed a receipt called a "Due-Bill." As they received their pay they passed through the alleyway and back out on Main Street right there in front of us.
For about an hour before the paymaster's window opened, most all of the women, mothers, wives and sweethearts of the miners, dressed in their "come as you are" clothing, long cotton dresses, aprons, babushkas, hair curlers or whatever, and some all dolled up for the occasion, gathered on Main Street in front of the now Forest City Fire Company garage doors, and waited patiently, often giggling and laughing, and some as stern as nails. As their miner husband, son or boyfriend came out of the alley-way, they would one by one loop their arm thru his or hold his hand and promptly lead and march him straight home.
It was somewhat comical, but there was a method to their madness. There were 32 beer joints in Forest City back then (with gambling tables in the rear of each). Most every miner ran up a bar bill all through the work week (drinking whiskey, beer and Harke-Vino).
If the women managed to get him past all of these and directly home, they were fortunate, and working things out together, they managed to save money and provided a proper living and future for themselves and their children. Those whose husbands, friends or relatives were left to their own devices, ended up in the beer joints, had a great night drinking and gambling and more than once went home completely broke.
I know of many personal experiences along these lines, I know what it was to be in a home with no pay days. Rugged enough with small pay days. Horrible without any.
In addition to the beer joints, vendors from all over would fill the alleyway, high pressuring the miners into buying their wares. These included things of all sorts along with sideshow type attractions. One fellow I remember had dancing black bears. Another sold snake oil. He· had a large deep wood box of about 30-40 snakes at the bottom to intrigue you. snake oil, he said, will cure anything. He wore a pair of black leather western boots. He would open a bottle of snake oil, extend his leg and drop one drop of oil on the boot right over the little toe. The oil promptly soaked in. Then he said, "You see you can cure a corn on your toe without even removing your boot!"
Another hawker sold hair combs. He had a small table and a hammer. He would clout the comb right down on the teeth. "See there how strong that comb is!" My father bought one. It lasted about a week.
The Italian organ grinder turning the handle provided music, and he had a monkey which picked up all the thrown coins in a little tin cup, climbed quickly up to the organ grinder's shoulder and dumped the coins in his shirt pocket. Immediately he danced back to the ground searching for more. And so on and on it went, carnival style, for hours until dark each pay day.
Gus Zahora, my friend Kenneth's father, built and lived in what is now the home of Michael and Gladys Gursky on the little hilltop just to the left of this Miner's Memorial. (Popular Mike Gursky worked for years at Eichholzer and Co., passed away only recently.) Gus Zahora was the Master Mechanic of the entire Coal Co. Breaker. He was highly respected for his expertise and quiet manner. Gus gained the reputation of knowing every nut and bolt in the breaker. He also predicted that one day there would be grass growing on this site.
Just behind Gus's home up on Delaware Street next to our house lived Guy Carpenter. Guy was the chief pump runner at No. 2 shaft. He was the man who finally shut down the pumps that allowed the mines to flood.
Kids used to hop the loaded coal car trips right up from Two Guys Restaurant (Elegantes). The big. boys would kick off as much coal as they could. Then all of the kids, boys and girls would scramble as quickly as they could pick the coal and scramble up the bank and home, hoping not to get caught.
Ben McCusker was the Master Mechanic at No. 2 shaft. His skills are history. Ben had painted marks on the 2 inch diameter, over 1100 feet long steel pulley cables which lowered men and raised the coal cars from the 1100 foot deep shaft at No. 2. He was renowned for his ability to stop the cables exactly on the mark every time, hundreds of times each day. Ben kept No. 2 shaft and steam machinery operations in tip-top efficiency for many years.
And of course, just about everyone knows that over 100 years ago, the Erie Coal Company needed to create a permanent water supply to maintain all of their steam-powered engines. Everything ran on steam and heavy leather belts at that time. So they made Lake Erie just over the top of the hill behind us. (You may recall we just succeeded in preserving Lake Erie for the 21st century.)
The coal companies of the First District of the Department of Mines Comprised Susquehanna, Wayne, Sullivan and Lackawanna Counties. Benjamin Maxey was the Mine Inspector.
The First District collieries were The Hillside Coal and Iron Co., Forest City Colliery, No. 2 Shaft, Clifford and Gray Slope, Northwest Colliery, Elk Brook Coal Co. (Later Ruben Coal Co.), Richmondale, and J.W. Kirby and Son Stillwater Colliery.
Over a period of 48 years, the Pennsylvania Department of Mines counted over 6,028,658 employees; 20,611 fatalities; 9,651,244,151 tons of coal produced one fatality for every 128,638 tons of coal mined. Fatalities per 1,000,000 tons produced was 7.77. (Info from the 1918 Report of Department of Mines of Pennsylvania, a hardbound book in my library.) (Many other statistics available.)
Mining jobs included mine foreman, assistant mine foreman, fire boss, machine miners, motormen and assistants, trackmen, bratticemen, timbermen, rockmen, pumpmen, pipe-men, electricians, door tenders, brakemen, miners, laborers, blasters, lokkie keeper and helper, machinists, grip man, rope rider, footmen, barnmen, night boss, poteman, carpenter, loaders, engineers, contractors, loader boss, bottommen, starter, machine helpers, switchmen, chargemen, and headmen. And there were some others.
We lived near and played on these very same lawns when we attended No. 2 School right behind the monument for 8 years. (Later to become the William Penn Apartments.) Our front school window's view was the entire coal colliery operations.
My gang of the "Delaware Knights" in the 1920s and 1930s rigged up a "One basket" basketball court on the front of the Lokie Barn, now Harry's Beer Place, and inside the high board fence. There we played basketball on the ash covered ground until the 9 o'clock curfew whistle blew every night. We played there because it was the only place we could find with a light.
Alongside the breaker (just off the Browndale Road behind Kost Tire Co.) was a breaker water supply pond about 100 feet in diameter and about 25 feet deep. Each winter when it froze over from October until April, it was the south end of towns kids skating rink. Beginning right after school, some 50 or more kids would gather to skate. When it snowed, we took turns clearing it off. Each group as they arrived were handed a shovel or a broom and made to take their tum clearing off snow before they were allowed to skate.
The pond was a perfect spot. The Coal Company kept it fully lighted all night. Many young couples got acquainted there. It was great friendship and lots of fun. And there is much, much more that could be told from just standing right here on this spot in front of the wonderful new asset to this Memorial Park area and to the bronze monument preserving the heritage of Greater Forest City Area miners. Every miner and laborer would be pleased with this recognition. You bet this is the right spot for it!
From the 1860's to 1935, “black diamond" mining was the chief industry in Forest City, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding anthracite area.
Since anthracite hard coal veins ended at the north end of Forest City, and Forest City was the first coal supplier in line, the truckers and rails hauling coal to New England dubbed Forest City the "Northern Gateway to the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Fields."
On September 3rd, 1995, at the unveiling of the superb Coal Miners Memorial on South Main Street, thousands gathered to participate. Most of them with close ties and connections with coal miners and coal mining families. I heard the 1996 District Governor of Rotary International Mr. Joe Nadzak ask the audience, "do you think this was a good place to erect the memorial?" I heard no reply.
But let me assure you, my Forest City friends and neighbors, this very spot (whether one knew it or not) is positively the most correct place to erect this outstanding Miners Memorial. For as I stand here directly in front of it facing East, my mind's eye and a l0 year old boy's memory, this is what I see.
At the very spot of Harry Newak's Beer Place is where the large 40 ft. high Lokie Barn stood. That is where the two Hillside Coal Company Lokies (known as the puffer bellie steam engines) were housed, maintained and repaired. (At one time there were 3 lokies.) They were always coked over for the night, behind the two enormous closed doors, the steam boilers slowly puffing and breathing, just coasting, and the smell of live steam permeated the surrounding area. It had a special smell that always intrigued me. Early in the morning they would leave the Barn one at a time, bells clanging and as soon as they cleared the huge doors, a powerful shrill whistle burst forth in fair warning. The loud sound of this whistle exceeded that of the large locomotives on the D&H and O&W.
Just behind the Barn, on what is now the Browndale main road, and to the left of the remaining rock pile and just behind Allan Hornbeck's garage, loomed the tall trestle from ground level to some 80 feet high to the top of the big Hillside Coal Company Breaker. This was the very center of all of the local coal mining activity.
The railroad yard covered all of the area of the present post office, behind the post office and Harry's Beer Place and Turkey Hill and its parking lot, all the way back to behind Hornbeck's Garage.
The tracks then ran a double row all the way past Two Guys Restaurant (now Elegantes), over the steep lower end of Maxey Street hill (which was not there until recently) then behind John Kikulak's old homestead and in a straight line directly up to No. 2 shaft which was located directly behind Mayor Frank and Peggy Brager's property on South Hudson Street. (You can still follow the track bed.)
The post office was then non-existent. In its place was a 40 ft. wide alley-way along side of the former Fire Department Bowling Alley (no longer there). The bowling alley had four side windows side by side facing south. These windows became the miners' pay windows each Friday. The miners would line up by the hundreds in single file in front of each window. They were paid in cash in a small brown envelope and were handed a receipt called a "Due-Bill." As they received their pay they passed through the alleyway and back out on Main Street right there in front of us.
For about an hour before the paymaster's window opened, most all of the women, mothers, wives and sweethearts of the miners, dressed in their "come as you are" clothing, long cotton dresses, aprons, babushkas, hair curlers or whatever, and some all dolled up for the occasion, gathered on Main Street in front of the now Forest City Fire Company garage doors, and waited patiently, often giggling and laughing, and some as stern as nails. As their miner husband, son or boyfriend came out of the alley-way, they would one by one loop their arm thru his or hold his hand and promptly lead and march him straight home.
It was somewhat comical, but there was a method to their madness. There were 32 beer joints in Forest City back then (with gambling tables in the rear of each). Most every miner ran up a bar bill all through the work week (drinking whiskey, beer and Harke-Vino).
If the women managed to get him past all of these and directly home, they were fortunate, and working things out together, they managed to save money and provided a proper living and future for themselves and their children. Those whose husbands, friends or relatives were left to their own devices, ended up in the beer joints, had a great night drinking and gambling and more than once went home completely broke.
I know of many personal experiences along these lines, I know what it was to be in a home with no pay days. Rugged enough with small pay days. Horrible without any.
In addition to the beer joints, vendors from all over would fill the alleyway, high pressuring the miners into buying their wares. These included things of all sorts along with sideshow type attractions. One fellow I remember had dancing black bears. Another sold snake oil. He· had a large deep wood box of about 30-40 snakes at the bottom to intrigue you. snake oil, he said, will cure anything. He wore a pair of black leather western boots. He would open a bottle of snake oil, extend his leg and drop one drop of oil on the boot right over the little toe. The oil promptly soaked in. Then he said, "You see you can cure a corn on your toe without even removing your boot!"
Another hawker sold hair combs. He had a small table and a hammer. He would clout the comb right down on the teeth. "See there how strong that comb is!" My father bought one. It lasted about a week.
The Italian organ grinder turning the handle provided music, and he had a monkey which picked up all the thrown coins in a little tin cup, climbed quickly up to the organ grinder's shoulder and dumped the coins in his shirt pocket. Immediately he danced back to the ground searching for more. And so on and on it went, carnival style, for hours until dark each pay day.
Gus Zahora, my friend Kenneth's father, built and lived in what is now the home of Michael and Gladys Gursky on the little hilltop just to the left of this Miner's Memorial. (Popular Mike Gursky worked for years at Eichholzer and Co., passed away only recently.) Gus Zahora was the Master Mechanic of the entire Coal Co. Breaker. He was highly respected for his expertise and quiet manner. Gus gained the reputation of knowing every nut and bolt in the breaker. He also predicted that one day there would be grass growing on this site.
Just behind Gus's home up on Delaware Street next to our house lived Guy Carpenter. Guy was the chief pump runner at No. 2 shaft. He was the man who finally shut down the pumps that allowed the mines to flood.
Kids used to hop the loaded coal car trips right up from Two Guys Restaurant (Elegantes). The big. boys would kick off as much coal as they could. Then all of the kids, boys and girls would scramble as quickly as they could pick the coal and scramble up the bank and home, hoping not to get caught.
Ben McCusker was the Master Mechanic at No. 2 shaft. His skills are history. Ben had painted marks on the 2 inch diameter, over 1100 feet long steel pulley cables which lowered men and raised the coal cars from the 1100 foot deep shaft at No. 2. He was renowned for his ability to stop the cables exactly on the mark every time, hundreds of times each day. Ben kept No. 2 shaft and steam machinery operations in tip-top efficiency for many years.
And of course, just about everyone knows that over 100 years ago, the Erie Coal Company needed to create a permanent water supply to maintain all of their steam-powered engines. Everything ran on steam and heavy leather belts at that time. So they made Lake Erie just over the top of the hill behind us. (You may recall we just succeeded in preserving Lake Erie for the 21st century.)
The coal companies of the First District of the Department of Mines Comprised Susquehanna, Wayne, Sullivan and Lackawanna Counties. Benjamin Maxey was the Mine Inspector.
The First District collieries were The Hillside Coal and Iron Co., Forest City Colliery, No. 2 Shaft, Clifford and Gray Slope, Northwest Colliery, Elk Brook Coal Co. (Later Ruben Coal Co.), Richmondale, and J.W. Kirby and Son Stillwater Colliery.
Over a period of 48 years, the Pennsylvania Department of Mines counted over 6,028,658 employees; 20,611 fatalities; 9,651,244,151 tons of coal produced one fatality for every 128,638 tons of coal mined. Fatalities per 1,000,000 tons produced was 7.77. (Info from the 1918 Report of Department of Mines of Pennsylvania, a hardbound book in my library.) (Many other statistics available.)
Mining jobs included mine foreman, assistant mine foreman, fire boss, machine miners, motormen and assistants, trackmen, bratticemen, timbermen, rockmen, pumpmen, pipe-men, electricians, door tenders, brakemen, miners, laborers, blasters, lokkie keeper and helper, machinists, grip man, rope rider, footmen, barnmen, night boss, poteman, carpenter, loaders, engineers, contractors, loader boss, bottommen, starter, machine helpers, switchmen, chargemen, and headmen. And there were some others.
We lived near and played on these very same lawns when we attended No. 2 School right behind the monument for 8 years. (Later to become the William Penn Apartments.) Our front school window's view was the entire coal colliery operations.
My gang of the "Delaware Knights" in the 1920s and 1930s rigged up a "One basket" basketball court on the front of the Lokie Barn, now Harry's Beer Place, and inside the high board fence. There we played basketball on the ash covered ground until the 9 o'clock curfew whistle blew every night. We played there because it was the only place we could find with a light.
Alongside the breaker (just off the Browndale Road behind Kost Tire Co.) was a breaker water supply pond about 100 feet in diameter and about 25 feet deep. Each winter when it froze over from October until April, it was the south end of towns kids skating rink. Beginning right after school, some 50 or more kids would gather to skate. When it snowed, we took turns clearing it off. Each group as they arrived were handed a shovel or a broom and made to take their tum clearing off snow before they were allowed to skate.
The pond was a perfect spot. The Coal Company kept it fully lighted all night. Many young couples got acquainted there. It was great friendship and lots of fun. And there is much, much more that could be told from just standing right here on this spot in front of the wonderful new asset to this Memorial Park area and to the bronze monument preserving the heritage of Greater Forest City Area miners. Every miner and laborer would be pleased with this recognition. You bet this is the right spot for it!