By MIA LIGHT
For the Standard-Speaker
FRACKVILLE — The Frackville Historical Society discovered a wealth of information on the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of Schuylkill County and the coal mines where they earned a living when Reading Anthracite Museum, Pottsville, Curator Frank Blaze spoke at the historical society's monthly meeting.
The society is working to restore the 1811 Frackvile Hose Co. building on East Oak Street with a goal of opening a historical museum in Frackville Borough similar to the Pottsville institution.
Blaze provided society members with a look at the area's many former coal mining operations through a slide presentation based on the vast historical data available at the Reading Anthracite Museum.
The Pottsville museum is actually a historic library, according to Blaze, who has worked to catalog and organize the mining records for over three years; a work that is still in progress.
Blaze's labor of love developed from a desire to honor the coal miners who kept this country alive during both World Wars by mining the anthracite needed for fuel during the wars.
Anthracite was highly valued in war times because it is a smokeless fuel whereas bituminous coal smokes when burned, smoke that would have revealed the location of war ships and troops.
Blaze, an Ashland native living in Lansdale, Bucks County, provided the historical society with a 12-foot long map showing the location of every colliery in a 6-mile stretch from Gilberton's east side to the west end of Mahanoy Plane including the Furnace, Brighton, Draper, Lawrence, Stanton, East Bear Ridge, and Mahanoy Plane operations.
The Pottsville Anthracite Museum is housed in the original 1905 Reading Anthracite Railroad Co. headquarters and has detailed records of every aspect of this area's mining industry including over 4,000 photographs and thousands of journals and catalogs making it a wealth of information of those conducting genealogical research.
Leather-bound journals of company house rent records from 1875 to 1960 can be researched to learn who lived in each company home. Land maps augment the journal records by showing the location of each company home.
''With these records I can identify every company home and tell you who lived in each one,'' Blaze said.
Colliery employee records dating from over 100 years ago provide the personal history of each worker including his place and date of birth, dates and locations of every colliery he worked at and his job description at each site.
The library also houses employee illness and injury records, and death records where researchers can learn every detail of an ancestor's demise.
''A fellow from Locust Dale told me he never knew how his grandfather died. He knew his grandfather was a coal miner but never knew how he died,'' Blaze said, adding that time spent researching the death files revealed the location and cause of death of the Locust Dale man's ancestor, settling decades of wondering.
Blaze said he discovered an interesting aspect of his own grandfather's life recorded in the coal company journals.
''My grandfather tried to organize the first fire company in Locust Dale. There were 78 signatures on the proposal and 79 people living in Locust Dale at that time,'' Blaze said. ''One little old lady was against the fire company saying it would be nothing but a booze hall.''
The objections of that one woman were sufficient to deny the men the opportunity to form a fire company.
The Anthracite Museum maintains old Girard Estate annual reports, land maps, tax records, lease books, and deed books. According to Blaze, even the Schuylkill County Courthouse regularly accesses the museum files to search for property deeds.
The Frackville Historical Society gained first-hand knowledge on the setup and maintenance of a historical library through Blaze's presentation.
''We're working on restoring the old Frackville Fire Co. building and plan to open a library like the one in Pottsville although it won't be as large and will focus on the history of Frackville,'' society president Jean Dellock said.
The Frackville Town Clock replica is now available as an addition to the historic building series offered by the historical society. The town clock, as well as other replicas in the series, is available at the Frackville Library or by contacting a society member.