Schuylkill County (, ; Pennsylvania Dutch: Schulkill Kaundi) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 143,049. The county seat is Pottsville. The county is part of the Northeast Pennsylvania region of the state.
The county is part of the Pottsville micropolitan statistical area, and borders eight counties: Berks and Lebanon counties to its south, Dauphin and Northumberland counties to its west, Columbia and Luzerne counties to its north, and Carbon and Lehigh counties to its east. The county is approximately west of Allentown, the state's third-largest city, and northwest of Philadelphia, the state's largest city.
The county was created on March 1, 1811, from parts of Berks and Northampton countiesThe History of Schuylkill County Pa. with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, New York: W.W. Munsell and Co., 1881, p. 74 and named for the Schuylkill River, which originates in the county. On March 3, 1818, additional territory in its northeast was added from Columbia and Luzerne counties.
History 18th century
The lands that constitute present-day Schuylkill County were acquired by William Penn's proprietors in a treaty executed August 22, 1749, with representatives of the Six Nations and the Delaware, Shamokin, and Shawnee tribes, who received 500 pounds in "lawful money of Pennsylvania". The acquired territory described included all of Schuylkill County except the northern part of Union Township, which was included in the purchase of 1768.DAVIES, JOSEPH H. (CHAIRMAN), ENGLE CHARLES H., YOUNG, ELWOOD M., Area History: A Centennial History - Mahanoy City, (1963), p.9
In 1744, an early mill was built in the county by John Finscher, but it later burned down.
In 1754, present-day Schuylkill, Berks, Dauphin, Lebanon, and Lehigh counties were settled by German immigrants. The earliest settlers in southeastern Schuylkill County, which was then part of Northampton County, were primarily Moravian Palatines from the Saxony region of Germany.
In 1755, the first log church was built in the county. Native American massacres were commonplace in Schuylkill County between 1755 and 1765. Warrant for tracts of land in the vicinity of McKeansburg were established as early as 1750.Old Schuylkill Tales: A History of Interesting Events, Traditions and Ella Zerbey Elliott - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved on August 15, 2013.
In 1790, anthracite, a highly efficient form of coal then known as stone coal, was discovered near present-day Pottsville by Necho Allen.
In 1795, a blacksmith based in Schuylkill County known as Whetstone resolved the question of how to use anthracite successfully for blacksmithing purposes. In 1806, additional sources of coal were found as the tailrace was cut on the Schuylkill River. Daniel Berlin, another blacksmith, used it successfully, and blacksmiths in the county and surrounding Coal Region ultimately adopted its use, which represented a core industry, fuel source, and employment sector in the county throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.Day, Sherman, History of Schuylkill County (1843)
19th century
Schuylkill County was created via an Act of Assembly on March 1, 1811, from portions of Berks and Northampton counties.The Legislation was signed by Governor Simon Snyder on March 18. See, History of Schuylkill County, Munsell, 1881, p.74 More land was added to the county in 1818, from Columbia and Luzerne counties. At the time of its creation, the county had a population of about 6,000.Dives, Pomeroy & Stewart, The History of Schulykill County in Honor of the County's Centenary (1911)
Orwigsburg was the first organized community in Schuylkill County. During the county's early years, there was an attempt to make McKeansburg the county seat; Orwigsburg was also a contender. Orwigsburg was selected as the county seat because it was deemed to be better suited for industries. Beginning in 1831, support for moving the county seat to Pottsville began gaining traction. In 1846, the state legislature passed an Act that was approved by Governor Francis R. Shunk on March 13, submitting the question to the voters. The change was desired principally because the railroad and canal connections with Orwigsburg were problematic while Pottsville had facilities and was within easy access from all parts of the county.
In 1812, George Shoemaker and Necho Allen discovered stone coal at Centerville in Schuylkill County, and personally delivered some of it to Philadelphia. He gave away most of the coal, intending to encourage individuals to find ways to use it. Most of the experiments failed, and Shoemaker was nearly run out of town and called an imposter but Mellon and Bishop of Delaware County successfully used it in their rolling mill. When other rolling mills also adopted the use of coal as fuel, a large industrial market and demand developed.Watson, J.F., Annals of Philadelphia, being a collection of memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the city and its inhabitants, Philadelphia: Cary and Hart (1830)
The Schuylkill Navigation Company was chartered in 1815 to build a series of navigation improvements in the Schuylkill River during a period when the much larger Erie Canal along the Mohawk River in New York state had already been developed and was well ahead of other key canals fueling the American Industrial Revolution, including the Delaware and Hudson, the Lehigh, the Chesapeake and Ohio, Delaware and Raritan, and Morris canals. The originators of the project did not count upon the coal trade to promote the success of the undertaking. They looked forward mainly to transporting the agricultural products being produced below the mountains, the lumber of Schuylkill County, and the grain and other products of the counties between the Susquehanna and Schuylkill rivers.
In 1822, in the first shipment of coal on the line, 1,480 tons of coal were transported from present-day Schuylkill County.Munsell, W., History of Schuylkill County, New York: Macnamara, 1881
With a regular supply of anthracite coal ensured, the southern anthracite coal field in Schuylkill County attracted speculators and fortune hunters. They were inspired by dreams of becoming millionaires. This was the first speculative era of the Schuylkill coal trade. Pottsville became the center of the movement. The more successful explorers revealed numerous veins of coal, extending over a vast stretch of county and with a seemingly inexhaustible quantity of coal. These discoveries brought excitement and speculation; lands were bought and sold; roads were laid out in the forest, mines were opened and railroads projected, and innumerable town plots planned. The demand for houses was so great that the lumber for many was framed in Philadelphia and sent by canal to the burgeoning coal region.
At this stage, coal mining firms were predominantly small and family owned. The residents and entrepreneurs of the Schuylkill region opposed the entry here of incorporated coal companies. In these years, coal mining operations in the Schuylkill region were conducted with economy, and relatively little capital was required. As the workings were all above the water level, no machinery was required for water drainage or for hoisting coal to the surface. Coal breakers and other expensive fixtures and appliances for the preparation of coal had not then been introduced. Numerous operators produced from five to six thousand tons for market annually, which was then considered a respectable business, who had never committed thousands of dollars to their enterprises, including their first land purchases of coal mines. Coal land could be bought and mines opened for less capital than the purchase and stocking of a decent farm, and coal mines could be worked for less capital than that required to establish a line of stagecoaches or transportation wagons.
Railroads ultimately replaced the canals as the primary means of transporting coal to markets. Mining was taken over by major corporate business, especially after the Civil War. As a result, the Middle Coal Field was developed in the 1860s and the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad created a subsidiary, Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, to buy or lease, and develop the expanding industrial coal trade. Consumption of coal along the Schuylkill above Philadelphia in 1839 was 30,290 tons when Pottsville, the first anthracite furnace in the United States, became operational. By 1849, consumption had increased to 239,290 tons, to 554,774 tons in 1859, and to 1,787,205 tons in 1873.
The numerous jobs in the mining industry comprised a catalyst for mass immigration to Schuylkill County from the British Isles and Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. As mines became more numerous (by 1846 there were 110 operators in the region and 142 collieries in Schuylkill County) and more complex (in 1846 there were 35 collieries below water level), mechanical breakers, steam locomotive, it became more labor-intensive both for accomplishing mining tasks and supporting mining's peripheral industries. Such industries included manufacturing of explosives, metal screens, pump components, piping, and timber for support. This led to an influx of population into Schuylkill and other anthracite counties to fill these jobs.
Beginning with the Irish immigration in the 1840s, which was fueled by the Great Famine and followed the end of the Civil War, immigrants from Eastern Europe, including Poles, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Slovaks, Rusyns, Ukrainians, and Belarusians (which were usually known as Ruthenians), often from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, settled in Schuylkill County and labored in the county coal mines. By the 1880s and 1890s, thousands of Italians immigrated to the county in pursuit of mining jobs.
20th century
The anthracite mining industry peaked in production in 1917 and subsequently declined with the exception of periods during World War I and World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s, underground mining operations closed in Schuylkill County and throughout the Coal Region and surface mining became predominate.Pennsylvania Abstract, 1975 and Annual Coal Report 2016, USEIA (November 2017)
On November 5, 1934, the eve of the 1934 United States elections, a parade marched through Kelayres in Kline Township. A crowd of Democratic Party supporters walked toward the home of Republican Party leader Joseph Bruno. Frustration with Bruno family's control of the school board and other local offices had been growing for years. Shots were fired from the Bruno home and yard located at Fourth and Centre Streets. Several people were killed and more than 20 marchers were injured.King of the Mountain: The Bruno Family Story, Bruce Boyd author, 2016, Ingram Press p. 167
Year Production Net (Tons) Number of Employees 1950 44,076,703 72,624 1955 26,204,554 33,523 1960 18,817,441 19,051 1965 14,865,955 11,132 2016 1,500,000 952
In 2016, Schuylkill County had six underground mines and 25 surface mines operating, producing 62,000 tons and 833,000 tons of coal, respectively.Annual Coal Report 2016, USEIA, US Energy Information Administration (November 2017) In 2024, Schuylkill County had four underground mines and 17 surface mines operating, producing 52,000 and 1,624,000 tons of coal, respectivelyAnnual Coal Report 2023, USEIA, US Energy Information Administration (November 2024). Operators today are re-mining areas of anthracite that were previously mined. It is estimated that 98 percent of the anthracite produced is from existing mines.Elizabeth Skrapits, Citizens' Voice: "Anthracite mining remains vital in northeast Pa.", Pocono Record, June 12, 2015
Business and industry Farming history