THE WESTON COLLIERY...SHENANDOAH, PA.

I WONDER IF MANY PEOPLE REMEMBER THIS OLD COLLIERY, I FOUND THIS GREAT OLD PAMPHLET ON THE WESTON AT A FLEA MARKET...ENJOY THE PIC'S.

TAG PHOTO'S TO ENLARGE

Daring Rescue at The Lykens Colliery

A Slope Mine

THRILLING RESCUE OF MAN PRECEDES DEATH OF OTHER….LYKENS COLLIERY AUGUST 23, 1912
MINERS ROBERT MATTER AND OSCAR LONG MAKE DARING FOOTBALL TACKLES ON FALLING COMPANION IN THE LYKENS COLLIERY SLOPE.
Strapped to a plank and lowered down almost impassable pitches of the steep slope at the Lykens Colliery, at Lykens, after he had been saved by a human chain, then dragged and pushed through a long steam hole until finally, after four hours work, he was brought to the surface though another slope, was the sensational and decidedly precarious experience of Oliver Kemble, who was perhaps fatally injured Friday afternoon, when a trip of descending cars jumped the track in the slope and a piece of falling timber struck him on the back.
Scarcely had Kemble been taken from the closed mine when David Stence, shift leader, plunged down the same ill fated slope to this death, while surveying the wreck to make plans for cleaning it away. He fell a distance of 75 feet having the life crushed out near the spot where Kemble had been struck by the timber.
It was shortly after noon, when two cars were being lowered down the steep slope and Kemble who is 19 years of age, was standing waiting for the trip, he was employed at un- hitching. The cars left the rails and plunged down the steep incline tearing away timbers until finally blocked up the slope and checked their flight.

Kemble, with Robert Matter and Oscar Long, were working further down the slope when the timber struck the first named and with a cry he commenced to roll down the steep incline to what appeared certain death. Matter made a football tackle of the unconscious form as it went flying past him and, although he was unable to stop the descent , he checked it sufficiently to permit Long to turn make a similar tackle of Matter and the two men clung with a death like grips to save their unconscious companion even at the risk of their own lives.
Just when the strain was becoming to great aid came to them.
The First Aid Corps was rushed to the scene, but it became a problem, how to take the injured man to the surface. The slope was blocked and it seemed as though impossible to lower him down the slope and even there appeared now way out. A plank was secured and the unconscious form strapped securely to it. The Corps then slowly and laboriously and with great risk of their own lives, carried and lowered Kemble down the slope, which at some places pitched 65 degrees.
When this part of the dangerous task was accomplished, they were in a quandary as there was no avenue of exit except through the steam hole, barely large enough to permit a man’s body to pass through. There was not alternative and the plank, with its precious burden bound close to it by stout straps, was pushed and dragged through the small hole until finally the plucky rescuers reached the bottom of the other slope where the injured man and his exhausted rescuers were hoisted to the surface.
Before starting their task of rescue, they thoroughly bandaged and attended to the injured young man, so that the unusual and thrilling experience did not have any bad results. It required four hours of this kind of work to get him from the mine.
Scarcely had the unconscious form been brought from the interior of when David Stence plunged to his death down the same ill-fated place where Kemble had been injured.
Stence was 45 years of age and has a wife and two children. He was shift leader and it was his duty to supervise the work of clearing out the blocked slope. He had hardly started to survey the work when he lost his foothold and fell.
Kemble was brought to the Pottsville Hospital Saturday morning by Amos Minnich, George C. Lauer, William Kemble and Glen Kemble. The first three are members of the Fist Aid Corps and the last two are brothers of the unfortunate young man.
A deep gash was cut on the injured man’s side and he was internally injured. His condition is considered critical.

THE GHOST OF JACOB SMITH……..

THE GHOST OF JACOB SMITH……..
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN NOW BOASTS OF GHOST.
August 29th, 1912

If the statement of a half dozen or more boys, who ages run from 14 to 17 years, can be believed, there is a ghost in Schuylkill Haven. On Monday night last these boys, about eight o’clock, took a walk to what is known in town as “Quarley Point”, situated near the old boat yards. While they were walking along the ghost suddenly confronted them less than 20 yards ahead.



Attired in white, it beckoned them to come nearer, with outstretched arms and a small head it started to advance to greet the boys. However, they needed no invitation to run and the speed attained by them, as they made their way up Canal Street, would have done justice to professional runners. All out of breathe they hastened to their respective homes, where they told their story. The following night the boys with stones in their pockets and armed with stout clubs, wanted to again visit the spot and look for his lord ship of the night, but for some reasons or other they were unable to secure a leader. The ghost has been seen by residents of that section on several occasions and many a child will not venture out at night without being accompanied by their parents.



Inquiry among some of the older residents of Sch. Haven elicited the information that years ago when the boat building business of that town was in its prime, when the town was noted for the industry from one end of the state to the other, and when the chief pursuit of the town was boat building a man by the name of Jacob Smith, about 35 or 40 years of age, was drowned just as a canal boat was being launched. The accident occurred about 15 minutes before the launching, and when the launching took place instead of gliding smoothly into the water of the Schuylkill Canal, went over sideways, and came near filling up with water. The body of Smith was never recovered.
For days following the accident parties made a search for the remains without avail. Superstation among the boat men in those days was nearly as great as it is in some localities today and the drowning of Smith, together with accident to the launching of the boat, caused many workmen to quit their jobs and leave for foreign fields of labor. It is now believed that after these many years nearly a quarter of a century. Smith has come back to haunt those whom people now believe were responsible for his death.

Historical Society of Schuylkill County Coal Tour

On Saturday October 24, 2009 the Historical Society of Schuylkill County sponsored a coal mining regional tour. The sites included the Reading Company's Wadesville Stripping Pit, A tour through Irish Valley, The Pioneer Tunnel, Sorry no pictures for the tunnel. I was giving the tour there and forgot to get the camera out! A fabulous look inside the Girard Breaker, and the SER Cogeneration Plant. All in all it was a great tour to sites you don't normally get to see. Working the Mammoth Vein at the Wadesville Strippings

Schuylkill County Hangings

The Scaffold that hanged 8 men


THE GALLOWS IN SCHUYLKILL COUNTY

In the course of history Schuylkill County has had numerous encounters with the gallows.
Actually the county has executed 16 individuals up to 1911 then the State of Pennsylvania took over all executions . The executions in the county included 9 of the famed Mollie Maguire’s.

The Hangings in Schuylkill County

The first Court House was erected in Schuylkill County in 1815 in the borough of Orwigsburg.
The first jail erected in Schuylkill County was at Orwigsburg, built in 1814 by Jacob, George, and Peter Kutz. It was made of field stone, about thirty two feet square and two stories in height. By a subsequent addition its length was made some seventy feet or eighty feet. It was later converted into a school house.
The first murder date (unknown) was committed by a man named Zimmerman, who killed his daughter with an axe because of a trifling misunderstanding-she refused to make his meals. He was tried and convicted of murder in the first degree. There was to be a public hanging. The gallows was erected at the crossroads (since called gallows hill) north of Orwigsburg, where the Borough Community building now stands. However Zimmerman was not executed as he met his death at the hands of a fellow prisoner who struck hum on the head with a heavy broom.
The second murder in the county was done by a man by the name of James Riggs, who killed a man named Gunder. The crime occurred in August of 1847.Riggs a black man was tried and convicted and was hanged in the Orwigsburg Jail yard. Riggs was the 27th person hung in Pennsylvania to the date of August 13, 1846.
It seems Jimmy Riggs was a victim of circumstances. It is a well known fact that there were plenty f murders committed in Schuylkill County from when it was organized in 1811 and up to the day Riggs was executed on August 13, 1847. But only Jimmy Riggs swung on the gallows in the first 63 years of the counties history.
Unfortunately for Jimmy he was hung for a crime that in every prospect a later day jury would have found his plea for self defense a legitimate. Actually the man he killed was himself a murderer who served a nine year sentence in the Pennsylvania Penitentiary for killing a man in New Philadelphia. He was later pardoned by then Governor David R. Porter.
There is really not a lot of information on the Riggs case, in the August 22, 1846 Weekly Miners Journal an article appeared that described the murder.
It said merely that on the night of Wednesday last a German named Gunder was shot by a Negro named Riggs at Ravendale. It stated that Gunder, a desperate character, had made threats and demonstrations against Riggs, and that the latter shot him in self defense.
Riggs went on trial on March 1, 1847, and in the Saturday edition of the Journal it noted that “The court yesterday was engaged in trying Riggs, a colored man, for shooting a Mr. Gunder a few months since in Norwegian Township. The paper also had a little article about two other murderers neither of whom hung…Dennis Burke, charged with killing Luke Brennan at New Philadelphia, a bill ignored, and Martin Shay, for killing Reese, A true Bill.
BY the time the trial was over on March 7th the defense council for Jimmy Riggs had made the most out his plea of self defense. Apparently Riggs and Gunder had difficulties in regard to a house, just what the difficulties were the newspaper failed to report.
There were threats on both sides, Riggs swore out a warrant for surety against Gunder but couldn’t get anyone to serve it.
Jimmy then said he’s have to defend himself. He returned home, took his gun and went to Gunders House, and found him standing in the door, he placed the gun near his head and shot him dead on the spot in the presence of his wife. So the Journal reported.
Riggs attorneys were James Campbell, Ben Bartholomew, and J.K. Clement, they argued that Gunder’s threats operated on Riggs mind to such an extent that he considered himself justifiable in thus acting in Self defense.
Jimmy Riggs addressed the Judge Luther Kidder and declared he believed his life was in danger and that he acted in self defense. He pointed out the helpless state of his wife and children and hoped that as much time would be allowed him as consistently could be.
Judge Kidder was merciless to Jimmy and immediately sentenced him to death and commented that “Your unfortunate situation excites our deepest sympathy and fills us with unutterable anguish, but you were fatally bent on mischief.”
One day while sitting in the prison two fellow prisoners of Riggs’ overpowered the sheriff when he opened one of the doors and they dashed into the street. Jimmy in cell found that the wall of the prison had broken open and also fled the jail. He almost cheated the gallows. But after a foot chase through the north end of Orwigsburg Riggs was recaptured near the Orwigsburg Fair Grounds and returned to the prison.
Jimmy Riggs also tried to starve himself to death, he then took a mixture of whiskey and blue ink and drank it. Alerted the Sheriff had Doctor S.M.Zulich of Orwigsburg administer a dose of sulphurate zinc which caused Riggs to vomit out the deadly mixture.
On Friday, the 13th of August 1847, Jimmy Riggs went to the gallows that was erected in the jail yard of the Orwigsburg prison. From 3 o’clock in the morning, Jimmy prayed under the guidance of Rev. Hoffmier and Yeager who told him his soul would be saved.
With word of the up coming hanging, crowds gathered in Orwigsburg hoping to get a glimpse of the first execution to be held in Schuylkill County. But, the scaffold was erected so low that it was invisible to anyone on the outside of the prison yard.
At 2:16 p.m., High Sheriff John T. Werner led Jimmy Riggs to the scaffold. The condemned man sat on a chair given to him by Deputy William Garrett and moaned and groaned when Rev. Hoffmeir offered a prayer.
Riggs’ last words were in asking forgiveness for himself and everybody, He said, “Let this be a warning to every person, “he moaned...”Glory to God our redeemer.”
Jimmy then bade farewell to one of his jurors he recognized in the yard. He then clutched the hand of Sheriff Warner until compelled to drop it. The Sheriff adjusted the noose around his neck. Jimmy was left standing on the scaffold by himself, when the trap sprung and he was launched into eternity. Jimmy Riggs was left hanging for 33 minutes when he was cut down and carried to a room in the prison.
Now there is a weird and ghoulish ending to this story. Doctor’s. J. S. Carpenter, S.M. Zulich and W.J. Brown, actually three of the nine doctors on hand as the Journal reported began to perform experiments on the body of Jimmy Riggs. They attached a galvanic battery to the corpse with the intention one would assume to see if they could revive him. But all they got was some occasional contractions of the muscles.
So ended Schuylkill Counties first of 16 hangings .

In 1851 the courthouse was moved to Pottsville and the county jail went along with it. The jail was erected in 1851. The original jail had 38 cells, each cell could hold two prisoners, and the old lighting consisted of kerosene lamps. It cost $70,000 to build. In 1876 the prison was greatly enlarged with a new addition it contained 86 cells besides six dungeons in the cellar, bringing the total capacity up to 124 cells.


Joe Browns Execution
The first man to be executed by hanging in Pottsville was Joe Brown executed on March 21, 1875. 28 years after Jimmy Riggs.


The six man gallows for the Mollies on June 21, 1877




Men who where at the Hanging of the Mollies on June 21, 1877 on the Left is Patsy Collins Body master AOH Palo Alto, 2nd From Left George Byerly Warden Schuylkill Prison, ON the right end is the hangman Snyder , 3rd from the right Cappt. R.J.Linden Pinkeroton.

The next to be executed in the county jail were six of the famed Mollie Maguire’s.
James Boyle, and Hugh McGeehan were led to the scaffold together. They were followed by James Carroll, James Roarity, and finally Thomas Munley and Thomas Duffy, On June 21, 1877.



Next was another Mollie Maguire Dennis Donnelly, on June 11, 1878 followed by Jack “Black Jack “ Kehoe on December 18, 1878 and Martin Bergan on January 16, 1879.


On this scaffold Kehoe, Donnelly, Bergan and others wee execuited. It is just a section of the six man gallows used on the Mollies. The executioner was hidden in the tent behind the scaffold.
The next execution was held on October 23, 1894 when Peter Broski went to the gallows.

Six years later Thomas Brennan would meet his fate on the scaffold on February 15th 1900.

In 1908 eight years after Brennan was executed Schuylkill County will execute two men, on March 26, 1908 Charles Warzel and again on May 26th Felix Radzius were executed by hanging.

The last man to be executed in Schuylkill County prison was Joe Christock who was executed on March 30th , 1911.

Everyone else from Schuylkill County executed would meet their fate by way of electrocution.

Following are some photos of the inside of the prison before its renovation and some actual photo’s of the scaffold used on the Mollie Maguire’s and the section used for all the remaining executions.

For general information the legal responsibilty of executing a person sentenced to death back then lies with the Sheriff of the county. Most of the executioons could be viewed by the genral public if you were “lucky Enough” to get a ticket issued by the Sheriff. Some counties employed proffesional hangman. The man who hanged the Mollies was a man by the name of Snyder, so a photograph of a few men he day of the execution of the Mollies.
All of the executions in Schuylkill County went off with out a major incident, such as the rope breaking. The only incident was the execution of Warzell who fainted on the scaffolld and had to be held up by ropes.
Before the hanging of the six Mollie Maguires Schuylkill County Sheriff went to Philadelphia to get instructions on hanging methods. He was given a length of hemp by Edward H. Fitler, who supplied the rope for executions in the state, but refused to except payment for the rope. Hemp is always used in a hangmans rope, hemp is longer and stronger. It is first beaten and hackled until it is soft and tender and then it is twisted into strands. It is made in four parts. When finished it is perfectly round and smooth. It requires 21 feet to perform an execution properly, the surplus being used in case an accident resulting from a break. The knot is usually tied by the man who manufactures the rope so that the executioner had nothing to do but slip the loop over the prisoners head. With six men to hang the Schuylkill County Sheriff erected a monster of a gallows containing triple traps so that they could all be hung at one time. But in the end he elected to hang then two at a time.


Old Jail and Court House at time of Mollie trials 1877

Inside the Prison wall were executions took place

Inside the Prison the way it looked years ago.

The Prison


Behind this wall the executions took place.

ARMY C-47 CRASHES NEAR TAMAQUA..NOVEMBER 22, 1943

This is a story about C-47 that crashed on the Mt. Between Tuscarora and Tamaqua. Someday I will try and find the location of this crash and get a few photos.

ARMY C-47 AIRCRAFT CRASHES ON SIDE OF HILL
ARMY PLANE FALLS; 7 DEAD, 2 HURT
NOVEMBER 22, 1943
TAMAQUA, PENNSYLVANIA
A TRANSPORT PLANE APPARENTLY TRYING TO LAND IN A STORM, CRASHES LOCUST MOUNTAIN AT TAMAQUA; 2 SOLDIERS ESCAPE ALIVE.


C-47

Hundreds of people watch plane circling the town, they see the flames flare up on the mountain side.

Seven Army fliers were killed and two others were seriously injured at 9:10 o’clock Sunday night when an army C-47 transport crashed into the mountain side west of the northward of Tamaqua, three quarters of a mile beyond the borough limit.
The names of the dead fliers were withheld by Army authorities pending notification of the next of kin and an investigation by a board of Army officers of the Middletown air base.
The two injured men were identified as Corporal Joseph W. Enloe, Emsley , Ala. And Pvt. Charles H. Davis, Greenville SC. Both were said to be in serious condition in the Coaldale State Hospital.
The plane circled over Tamaqua and the Barnesville air field before the accident lending strength to the theory that it was off course. Army officials said it was a “routine” flight. They would not reveal where it came from and where it was going. The two injured men were found a half hour after the crash wandering in a daze near the wreck. They could not explain how they got out of the plane, but believed to have been thrown out when the aircraft. When the lost ship its pilot circling for a landing at the Barnesville airport struck the tops of trees and then plummeted into the rocky ridge that shirts the top of the mountain.
After circling Tamaqua once the big plane moved towards the Barnesville airport, circled it and then came back towards Tamaqua from the west. It again circled Tamaqua and then moved back in the direction of Barnesville when it crashed into the mountainside.


The plane struck a huge boulder weighing several hundred tons, clipped branches from trees and came to rest on the side of the mountain although it apparently missed high tension lines in the neighborhood.
The nose of the plane was consumed by fire and five of the seven bodies were badly burned, probably beyond recognition. The bodies of the other two victims were also badly scorched.
Tamaqua resident who first arrived on the scene said the bodies were burning fiercely. The remains were taken in charge by a Tamaqua undertaker at 6:45 o’clock the morning after the battered plane had been guarded overnight by state police
Hundreds of persons saw the plane circling low over Tamaqua just before the crash and heard shouts from the men aboard. Later they saw the plane drop on the mountain side and flames shoot up after several explosions.
The force of the crash was perhaps best illustrated by the fact that a fragment of the planes tail was hurled 1500 feet away from the ship when it nosed into the mountainside.
The scene is reached only by a narrow muddy roads normally used by coal trucks. Rescue parties proceeded as far possible by automobile and then carried fire fighting equipment by hand. It was necessary to carry the bodies three quarters of a mile to awaiting hearses.
News of the crash attracted wide attention in the county and brought out reports that the plane had circled other communities before it hit the mountainside. It was reported the plane followed Reading Company tracks from Ashland to Girardville, circled back to Ashland and then returned to Shenandoah. Disappearing in the direction of Lake Side.
The plane said to have been on a route from Fort Benning, Ga. To Willow Grove, and about 100 miles off course circled over the town from the east at a low altitude, during the rain storm and its pilot appeared to be heading toward the Barnesville airport for an emergency landing.
Two PP&L linemen Edward Williams and John Malinsky were on a pole making repairs when they saw the plane over town traveling east and then northeast and then northwest towards the airport. A few seconds later the ship crashed and there was an explosion.
Rescue parties from Tamaqua started immediately for the scene. The first man to reach the scene was Oliver Lockwood of Tuscarora, who also saw the plane circle and heard the explosion after the crash. It was he who met the two dazed survivors as he hurried toward the wreckage. He took them to the hospital in his car.
Another man on the scene was Willis Parnell of Tamaqua. When the rescuers reached the plane it had just begun to burn fiercely and Williams braved the flames and possible other explosions to crawl through the wreckage searching for survivors. He located the bodies of three but all appeared to be dead. He was forced from the wreckage by the intense heat before he could locate the others.
The big ship clipped of trees for a distance before it crashed and from the position of the tail it appears the pilot tried to gain altitude when the plane first topped the trees, but was not able to do so.
Oliver C. Gorshall, caretaker of the Barnesville Airport said the plane just managed to clear the crest of the mountain on it flight and then circled back toward Tamaqua.. It crashed on its attempted return.
The location of the crash site is left of the Pottsville-Tamaqua highway into Tamaqua, about a half mile behind the I.O.O.F. Cemetery on the mountain between Tuscarora and Tamaqua.
At the time of the crash there was alight fog which surrounded the top of the mountain.

November 24, 1943
Fliers Killed In Tamaqua Crash.
Four officers and three enlistedmen were killed
Capt. Bernard Cederholm. Indianapolis, Ind.
First Lieut. Paul Anthony Gregory Jr. Marietta Ga.
1st Lt. George Arthur Blanchard Jr. Sand Lake Mich.
2nd Lt. George Jospeh Fritsche , Snyder N.Y.
Tech Sgt. Emmet Woodrow Johnson, Henderson W.Va.
Sgt. Manuel Lorber, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Pvt. Andrew F. Gaydos, Jr. Swissdale Pa.
Two other enlisred men, Corparoal Charles H. Davis, Greenville S.C. and Cpl. Jospeh W. Enloc, Ala. Survived and all were members of the Army Air Force except Gaydos who was an infantryman and a passenger on the plane.