cuddles17981
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- Schuylkill County,PA
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A few weeks ago two of my nieces asked me to chaprone each of their field trips . I'll start with the Eckley Patch Villiage visit. Eckley is one of the hundreds of company mining towns or "patches" built in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania during the nineteenth century. Before the 1850s Eckley was not a mining town, but a rural, forested community called Shingletown. It was located on land owned by the Tench Coxe Estate. The inhabitants took advantage of the surrounding woodlands and made shingles to be sold in White Haven and Hazleton. These goods were traded for the necessities of life, such as “whiskey, port, and tobacco”.
In 1854, the mining firm of Sharpe, Leisenring and Company, later known as Sharpe, Weiss and Company, leased land from the Tench Coxe Estate of Philadelphia and began work on the Council Ridge Colliery and the village of Eckley. The village, built near the colliery where the coal was mined and processed, provided housing for the miners and their families. Its stores, schools, and churches supplied the economic, educational, and religious needs of the villagers. By owning the village, the company had greater control over the lives of their workers.
After 1875, when the Sharpe, Weiss lease expired, the Coxe family either operated the colliery themselves or leased it to other coal companies. During this period many changes took place. To Eckley came a succession of immigrant groups seeking economic opportunities and religious or political freedom. English, Welsh, and German miners were supplanted by the Irish immigrants and then by southern and eastern Europeans. These groups formed an ethnic mosaic typical of the anthracite region.
Strip mining gradually replaced underground mining. Steam shovels stripped away the land around Eckley as well as part of the village. The work force at the colliery and the population of Eckley gradually declined. From a population that numbered over one thousand in 1870, only few villagers remain.
During the liquidation of the Tench Coxe Estate, Eckley was sold to coal company owner George Huss. The village was separated from the mining operation in 1969 when the Huss Coal Company sold Eckley to the Anthracite Historical Site Museum, Inc., a group of Hazleton area businessmen. They deeded it to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1971 to be administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The old Council Ridge Colliery is gone, but its village survives. Eckley preserves a way of life which dominated the anthracite region for over 140 years.The Molly Maguires a 1970 film was filmed in Eckley in 1968. The town was so unchanged from its 1870s appearance that the only major alteration needed for filming was to remove television antennas and install underground electric.
The wooden "coal breaker" featured heavily in the film was built as a prop. It received little or no maintenance over the years and, even though it has been called a tinderbox, it still stands today — almost 40 years later.
The filming of the movie resulted in the town's being saved from demolition, and it was afterward turned into a mining museum under the control of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Eckley's self-imposed nickname is "the ugliest town in America." Im working on posting the pics.. Their are still around 15 residents that won't leave.
In 1854, the mining firm of Sharpe, Leisenring and Company, later known as Sharpe, Weiss and Company, leased land from the Tench Coxe Estate of Philadelphia and began work on the Council Ridge Colliery and the village of Eckley. The village, built near the colliery where the coal was mined and processed, provided housing for the miners and their families. Its stores, schools, and churches supplied the economic, educational, and religious needs of the villagers. By owning the village, the company had greater control over the lives of their workers.
After 1875, when the Sharpe, Weiss lease expired, the Coxe family either operated the colliery themselves or leased it to other coal companies. During this period many changes took place. To Eckley came a succession of immigrant groups seeking economic opportunities and religious or political freedom. English, Welsh, and German miners were supplanted by the Irish immigrants and then by southern and eastern Europeans. These groups formed an ethnic mosaic typical of the anthracite region.
Strip mining gradually replaced underground mining. Steam shovels stripped away the land around Eckley as well as part of the village. The work force at the colliery and the population of Eckley gradually declined. From a population that numbered over one thousand in 1870, only few villagers remain.
During the liquidation of the Tench Coxe Estate, Eckley was sold to coal company owner George Huss. The village was separated from the mining operation in 1969 when the Huss Coal Company sold Eckley to the Anthracite Historical Site Museum, Inc., a group of Hazleton area businessmen. They deeded it to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1971 to be administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The old Council Ridge Colliery is gone, but its village survives. Eckley preserves a way of life which dominated the anthracite region for over 140 years.The Molly Maguires a 1970 film was filmed in Eckley in 1968. The town was so unchanged from its 1870s appearance that the only major alteration needed for filming was to remove television antennas and install underground electric.
The wooden "coal breaker" featured heavily in the film was built as a prop. It received little or no maintenance over the years and, even though it has been called a tinderbox, it still stands today — almost 40 years later.
The filming of the movie resulted in the town's being saved from demolition, and it was afterward turned into a mining museum under the control of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Eckley's self-imposed nickname is "the ugliest town in America." Im working on posting the pics.. Their are still around 15 residents that won't leave.
ANyone
