1902 Anthracite Coal Strike, Lackawanna and Schuylkill Counties

I hope that whatever holiday (if any) that my readers observed in the past couple of weeks, it was enjoyable and peaceful for you. Someone needs to keep the chocolate bunnies away from me, personally. This was supposed to have gone up last week, but I was dealing with a stomach bug (unrelated to the chocolate, as far as I can tell) and just didn't have the spoons.

This week's quest took a lot of reading, because it was a big deal and covered in two markers at a pretty fair distance from each other. Frequent contributor Kaylee Lindenmuth, of the Shenandoah Sentinel, was the one to send me both of the marker photos used here - she sent the first one last year, when I asked my readers to tell me about your favorite historical markers, and happened to come across the second fairly recently.

Sheppton Mine Disaster and Rescue, Sheppton, Schuylkill County

I really, really don't understand how it is November already. We turn the clocks back in a few days, and vote next week, and it just doesn't seem real. On the other hand, the store where I work has been selling Christmas decorations for the last few weeks already, so you could argue that my sense of time is a bit muddled. (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas stuff all crowds together. It's organized chaos at its most festive.)

But it is most certainly the start of November. If you don't already subscribe, you can find the latest issue of my monthly newsletter by clicking here.

Near the end of October, the bff Andrea and I had a day where we were both completely free, so we hopped in my car and took a very pleasant tour of some of our northern counties, enjoying the fine weather and glorious fall foliage. I don't care what anyone else says, for my money it's hard to beat Pennsylvania for sheer beauty in autumn. Of course, the real objective was to collect markers, and I came home with a very satisfying bundle. So we'll kick off the penultimate month of the year by visiting Schuylkill County, and learning an emotionally complex story of both tragedy and triumph.

John Siney, St. Clair, Schuylkill County

As you're reading this, I've just returned from my first-ever visit to Lititz, in Lancaster County. Spent some time collecting markers and learning about pretzels, so you'll see some of the pictures from the trip in coming months.

For this week's quest, though, we're heading into the coal country. Mining coal in Pennsylvania remains a big part of our history, as we've already had occasion to note in this blog, and this gentleman's story is a significant thread in the tapestry.

Ashland Boys' Association, Ashland, Schuylkill County

Today I'm a bit distracted by the fact that it's my grandfather's birthday. He would have been 91 today, and I miss him a lot. He would, I think, really have loved what I'm doing with this blog; he was fascinated by history (that's probably where I get it) and I'm sure that he would have been bugging me to go on marker-hunting road trips with him. But he's the one who taught me to drive, so in a sense he always goes with me.

Of course, I'm not always the driver. On a recent road trip, my husband Kevin was driving; we missed a turn and were in the process of correcting the course when he asked, "Hey, are we near any of your markers?" We were in a Schuylkill County community called Ashland, and I remembered there was one. Much to my surprise, I turned my head to glance up a side street and there it was. So this week's post is a little bit of serendipity.

Fort Franklin, Andreas, Schuylkill County

The Schuylkill County Historical Society is following this blog on Facebook! I was so excited to learn this that I was determined to get to a marker in that county this month, and here we are.

Here's a fun fact which I didn't know until I started researching today's quest. Pennsylvania has actually, at different points in the 18th century, had two different places named Fort Franklin. One was in Venango County, which I've never visited, so I expect to be tackling that subject in a future post. The other, which is today's subject, was the first of its name and stood in Schuylkill County overlooking a scenic valley.

Little Lithuania USA, Shenandoah, Schuylkill County

It was my hope, for this week's post, that I'd get the chance to drive into Berks County and pick up a couple of markers there. Unfortunately, once again, my plans were upset by the arrival of more snow. I'm starting to run out of my backlog of saved markers, so hopefully the worst of winter is behind us now.

Instead, we'll take another nip back to Schuylkill County. Did you know that Pennsylvania is home to the oldest Lithuanian community in the world outside of Lithuania itself?

Mahanoy Plane, Frackville, Schuylkill County

Happy New Year, friends and readers! I hope that this year, there will be more opportunity for me to get out and about to photograph subjects for this blog. I meanwhile have had some people inquire about being guest photographers - if that's something you'd find interesting, thank you! Please send a message to me at markerquestblog@gmail.com and let me know what you have in mind.

Now, let's head for the coal country.

John O'Hara, Pottsville, Schuylkill County

Before I get started with the latest post, I wanted to offer a small shout-out to the women of the Herstory Club! This internet collective is made up entirely of women of all ages who focus on the study of history, and I was recently welcomed into the ranks. I'm very excited to be in the club and appreciate the kind greetings I've received, so thank you!

November is here and I hope you are all well! At this time last year I was battling what turned out to be pneumonia, but so far I've been much luckier this autumn. The weather hasn't been the most conducive to going out to collect markers, but I've still got some stockpiled from before the lockdown, so we're going to take a trip back to Schuylkill County today to look at one of Pennsylvania's native authors.

The Dorsey Brothers, Shenandoah, Schuylkill County

I admit that I've never been a particular fan of jazz or big band music. I don't ardently dislike it or anything; it just isn't a genre to which I was exposed much when growing up, and as an adult I'm really more of a soft rock kind of person. So while I knew of the existence of the Dorsey Brothers, and was aware that they were pretty big names on the circuit, the name never meant much to me beyond an occasional pop culture reference. And I definitely never knew they were from Pennsylvania.

That changed last fall, when Kevin and I went to Knoebels and I collected some markers along the way. I already told you about Victor Schertzinger, who was born in Mahanoy City; maybe twenty minutes after I photographed his marker, we were passing through the town of Shenandoah and spotted two markers standing side by side in a bank parking lot. What do you know - Shenandoah is the hometown of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

Victor Schertzinger, Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County

Anyone else having trouble remembering what day it is? I will admit that if I didn't have a reminder on my phone to tell me that today was a blog update, I probably would have forgotten. The joke in my house is that April was canceled; it's still March and it will continue to be March for the foreseeable future. By that logic, today is March 53rd.

I hope that you and your loved ones are all safe and healthy. As of this writing, the lockdown is scheduled to end in a little over two weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to go out and collect some new markers, but in the meantime, I've still got my handy backlog. Today we're featuring one that I collected while passing through Mahanoy City on my way to Knoebels last fall; I simply cannot take a trip anywhere without getting at least one of these markers for the blog. I do wonder at times whether anyone notices me hopping out of the car to take the pictures, and what goes through their mind. I always carry some of the blog's business cards, just in case, but so far no one has actually approached to inquire after the nature of my quest.

(To be fair, when I'm playing a video game, people don't usually approach to ask my character what the heck she's doing either. So it fits with the blog's theme.)

Mahanoy City is actually known as the birthplace of cable television. I know there's a marker for that too, so when I spotted this marker from the car, I assumed that's what it was. In my defense, both of these markers are on Centre Street, but at very different locations. Still, I can't be disappointed with what I caught instead.

Pottsville Maroons, Pottsville, Schuylkill County

Today we're going to be looking at a subject that doesn't usually interest me: football. After all, this is Super Bowl weekend coming up! Sure, I cheered as much as anybody else when the Eagles won the 2016 Super Bowl - I live in Eagles Country, after all. And I did spend my final two years of high school as a member of the varsity football team. (No, really, I did. I was the equipment manager.) But in general, I'm not super enthused about the sport. 

However, today's story is one that I find pretty intriguing despite my usual apathy for the topic, because the controversy has endured for nearly a century. Who really won the NFL championship of 1925?

Molly Maguire Executions, Carbon and Schuylkill Counties

This is a new one for the blog - the first cross-county post. Throughout Pennsylvania there are a number of markers which are related - either they contain the same information in two different locations (which is the case today), or they're a series of markers which, when put together, more or less tell a story. It's not going to be easy for me to do some of these; for example, there are several markers related to the various canals that will take me a long time to collect. But this one, which has just two, I can do.

Odd as it probably sounds, given the subject matter, I've been looking forward to writing this post. It contains one of the most interesting and obscure pieces of local apocrypha that we have in the Lehigh Valley region. I only waited as long as I did to do this one because I needed a couple of photos from the other location in the story. Now that I have those, here's how we'll finish out the summer - with the deaths of ten men.

Burd Patterson, Pottsville, Schuylkill County

Today we make the blog's first foray into Schuylkill County (that's "SKOO-kill," for those of you who aren't from around here). My youngest sister Liza took me on a drive around the city of Pottsville, which is not far from where she works; we collected a handful of the markers. There's nothing quite like driving around Pennsylvania in an open-air Jeep, so thank you, baby sis!

Among the findings of that afternoon was a beautiful Federal-style mansion on Mahantongo Street, which more than one sign identified as being the former home of Burd Patterson. He turned out to be a trickier subject than I expected.