175th Anniversary of Hazel Township

Education

Township’s schools date back to 1850

By MIA LIGHT

brated commencement ceremonies.

According to Gabrio’s report at the end of the June 1900 school year, the first serious The first public schoolhouse in Hazle thought to public education in the township Township was built in 1850 on the northeast began when new coal mines opened, spawncorner of what is now Cedar Street and ing a population surge on the north side of Spruce Alley in the city of Hazleton. the city. Small-framed schoolhouses were Prior to that, public education in the new- built in Milnesville, Jeddo, Harleigh and ly formed township was “conducted in a Ebervale. haphazard manner,” according Joseph B. As time went by and new mines continued Gabrio, who served as Hazle Township to open, the villages of Hollywood, Humschool superintendent at the turn of the 20th boldt and Beaver Brook were created, swellcentury. ing the township population — and the need Gabrio’s remarks are recorded in a for more schools — even further.

115-year-old document — The Report of the In 1863 there were only nine schoolhouses Superintendent of Public Instruction for the in the township; by 1883 there were 40. In Year Ending June 4, 1900 — a digital version 1899 the township built eight more singleof which is searchable online through an room schoolhouses and made plans for six Indiana University of Pennsylvania archive. more, which would bring the total number Gabrio was superintendent of township of township school rooms to 57 with enrollschools during the same time period that ment of about 2,800 students for an average David A. Harman oversaw the schools of of 50 students per room, which was the maxHazleton borough. imum suggested by the state education Hazleton eventually became a city, and the department at that time. township school system eventually dissolved This rapid development invited new methwhen it became part of the Hazleton Area ods in the management of the schools, and School District in 1962. in 1879, P. F. Martin, described as “an old and But in the 112 years between construction tried teacher,” was elected supervising prinof that first schoolhouse and the school discipal of the township school system. trict jointure, the history of public education Following Martin came supervising prinin the township is a story of expansive cipals F.W. Bevan, a former principal of the growth, a landmark high school and celeCatasauqua schools, and B.J. Mooney, who StaffWriter

The Jeanesville School, circa 1930. later worked as an attorney-at-law in WilkesBarre.

In 1885, the state Legislature passed a bill that gave townships with a population of at least 5,000 the authority to elect a school district superintendent. In June of that year, the township board of school directors elected Joel Williams as its first school superintendent. According to Williams’ 1886 report to the governor and state Legislature, the appointment also earned him the title of “first township superintendent in the state.”

Following Williams, township school superintendents included: R.F. Fallon, who held the office from 1887 to 1890; J.H. Jones, who served from 1890 to 1893, and J.J. Mulhall, whose term ran from 1893 to 1899.

High school

The first intimation of a township high school came in 1893 when Superintendent Jones tested the academic aptitude of 22 students and awarded diplomas to the top 11. From that time forward, support for creation of a township high school grew.

The first formal graduation ceremony was held May 23, 1900, at Hazle Hall in the township with 13 young ladies and gentlemen commencing.

“No effort was withheld to make this a memorable event,” Superintendent Gabrio wrote in his annual report to state officials. “The first commencement of the Hazle Township High School will go down in the coming years of its history as a memorable occasion indeed. In fact, it has The Peace Street School as it was in the 1960s. The building would later become made such occasions indispensable in our district.” the Hazle Township Municipal Building.

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Public library

According to historical documents, officials of Hazle Township School District were instrumental in securing passage of the Act of Assembly of May 1, 1907, allowing township and borough school districts that adjoin third-class cities to join in establishing and maintaining free public libraries.

Backed by the new law, the township school district began allocating $800 per year in school tax revenues for contribution to the Hazleton Public Library.

Meanwhile, the township continued to grow. In 1908, new schoolhouses were constructed at Cranberry and Coxeville, and additions were built onto the schoolhouses at Alter Street and Diamond Avenue. New furniture was purchased for the schools at Lattimer and Harleigh.

On June 4, 1908, commencement ceremonies were held at Hazle Park Theater with 19 students graduating.

Annexation

After a year of court battles and public debate, the city of Hazleton took possession of one of the most populated sections of the township on the city’s north side. The annexation added three more wards to the city and took away seven township school buildings, including the high school.

Prior to the annexation, there were about 3,600 students enrolled in township schools.

After the takeover, the township was left with about 2,200 students.

See SchoolS, S3

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Schools (Continued from S2) After the state Legislature passed a law allowing townships that surround a city to acquire land and build school buildings within the city limits, construction of a new township high school began in 1909 at 15th and Church streets in the city.

According to Gabrio’s report for the school year ending June 6, 1910, the cost to construct the new high school of brick with Indiana limestone cornices, trimmings and columns was about $50,000.

Funds to construct the new school were raised through a 5 percent bond issue, which was “sold to one of the leading bankers in Philadelphia,” according to Gabrio’s report.

The doors of the new high school opened Feb. 20, 1911.

That same year, construction of a new two-room school building to replace an old school at Harleigh was completed and plans moved forward to construct a new two-room school at Green View and at Oakdale, where there never was a school before.

For the school term beginning Sept. 9, 1912, a new five-room school was built at Jeddo, a new two-room school was built at Ebervale and a one-room addition and remodeling of the building at Hollars Hill was completed.

Gabrio noted in his annual report, “The corps of teachers for the coming year (1912) will be 67, which is an increase due to enforcement of Child Labor Laws.”

Consolidation

As coal continued its reign as king of the local economy, the Hazle Township School

District continued to flourish.

One of its most famous alumni was Academy Award-winning actor Jack Palance, who was born and raised in the township village of Lattimer. Palance played football, basketball and baseball at Hazle Township High School in the 1930s.

As the anthracite industry began its decline, so did the local population and with it, the number of students enrolled in the area schools.

In 1962, the township and five other school districts — including those in Hazleton, McAdoo, Beaver Meadows, and Kline and Butler townships — consolidated to form the Hazleton Area School District.

According to an article published in the Standard-Speaker on June 27, 1963, township students in grades nine through 12 continued to go to school in the old Church Street high school until the newly created district could find facilities to house them in the secondary schools of Hazleton. The old township high school at 15th and Church was officially re-named the “Hazle Township District of the Hazleton Area Joint School System.”

Between 1966 and 1992, the Hazleton Area School District closed all area high schools except Hazleton, Freeland and West Hazleton.

Hazleton Area opened its new high school at 1601 W. 23rd St. in Hazle Township for the 1992-1993 school year, which resulted in the complete consolidation of all remaining area high schools.

In addition to the district high school, Hazleton Area’s Maple Manor ElementaryMiddle School, Hazle Township Early Learning Center, Career Center and several of the district’s athletic fields are all located within Hazle Township.

School hit by fire

A plaque from the former Hazle Township High School.

On May 30, 1976, fire destroyed the cafeteria-gymnasium annex at the old Hazle Township High School, then named Hazle Junior High School. The 66-year-old school would never reopen its doors to students.

The old high school still stands at 15th and Church streets. The building is now owned by the Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Several old township school buildings still stand, although many have taken on different appearances.

The Peace Street School, at the corner of 23rd and Peace streets, served for years as the township municipal building. It now houses a day-care facility.

Two buildings still stand at Ebervale.

Berger Construction uses the former Japan School. mlight@standardspeaker.com

Thursday, October 30, 2014 HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S03] | 10/28/14

The former Hazle Township High School at 15th and Church streets in Hazleton.

ELLEN F. O’CONNELL/Staff Photographer

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The Drifton Hospital, which opened in 1875, was the first in the area. It closed in 1889. It is seen here as it was in the late 1960s.

Health

By AMANDA CHRISTMAN StaffWriter

The future of medicine in greater Hazleton began in a primitive 12-bed hospital in a Hazle Township village.

The Drifton Hospital was the first of its kind in southern Luzerne County and treated miners exclusively.

David Sosar, Ph.D, a local history buff and professor, imagined the men treated at the hospital, which sat off state Route 940, kept staff busy due to work-related accidents.

Mine explosions occurred on a regular basis and poisonous mine gas was a threat.

Flooding was also a concern, as were trips,

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Hazle hosted area’s first hospital

falls, mules and horses kicking the miners, and loose coal cars crashing into people and breaking bones, or worse, severing limbs.

Sosar said thousands of miners were killed at work in Northeastern Pennsylvania mines and for as many deaths as there were, there were even more injuries.

The amount and type of injuries, he said, reached the point that a home visit from a doctor wasn’t feasible.

The Drifton Hospital gave people with traumatic injuries a place to go. Often times patients were transported there by horsedrawn carriage or cart or by a green and black horse-drawn ambulance, he said.

The sight of the ambulance created worry for townspeople who gathered outside to watch it pass by, hoping their breadwinner wouldn’t be out of work due to injury, or worse yet, dead.

“Every family would sit and hold their breath,” Sosar said, “watching to see who was in the ambulance.”

The hospital was a practical necessity when it was built and looked nothing like a modern facility.

According to Standard-Speaker archives from 1991, mine inspector James E. Roderick described the facility to then-Gov. Henry M. Hoyt: “The hospital consists essentially of two parts, the front building, which contains on the first floor the apothecary’s shop and

S4 Standard-Speaker HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S04] | 10/28/14

operating room for the surgeons, and two parlors or sitting rooms — one being intended for the family of the person in charge of the hospital, the other for the resident physician.”

The sick patients were kept in the back part of the building on the main floor, Roderick told the governor. The hospital was divided into four wards. The largest ward had six beds, one ward had four and two had one bed each.

The building was lighted by gas from mines nearby and heated with steam from boilers at the Drifton No. 1 breaker. Water was provided by an artesian well 500 feet underground.

On Sept. 1, 1882, the hospital admitted its first patient, and in its first 16 months, treated 85 patients. Of those patients, 65 were discharged as cured, four left the hospital in “improved” condition, one was discharged for misconduct while two ran away, according to Roderick.

The Drifton Hospital would have heard a bevy of languages: Italian, Polish, Greek, Romanian, Lithuanian, “you name it,” Sosar said.

“Try to imagine the complexity in the hospital (communicating) with at best, broken English due to the amount of different languages spoken” by miners, he said.

The hospital also would see every medical case that a modern-day emergency room

would and maybe more, Sosar said, because of the primitive times and dangerous conditions miners worked in. The impact of those scenarios to families could be devastating if someone died or was out of work due to injury, he said.

Dirt roads helped people travel through towns and were used to haul the injured to Drifton Hospital from patch towns outside of Drifton.

Those working in Coxe mines in Black Creek Township probably had the worst ride to the hospital when they were injured, Sosar said.

They would travel by horse-drawn carriage, likely in pain, sometimes tremendously so, 11 to 12 miles up a mountain to state Route 93 outside of Hazleton and then another seven miles from Hazleton to Drifton to get to the hospital. Drifton was the closest option, though.

The hospital operated until the Hazleton State Hospital, predecessor to Hazleton General Hospital and now Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton, opened in February 1891 in a more central location — Hazleton. That hospital also served miners exclusively at first.

It was a larger facility with 48 beds and Eckley B. Coxe served as the hospital’s first board president, along with other coal mine owners. Roderick also served on the board.

see Hospital, s5

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

The floorplan of Drifton Hospital as published in a Pennsylvania mine inspector’s report from 1881.

Hospital (Continued from S4) Women and children were excluded from care there until Coxe’s wife gave the state $50,000 to build an addition to the hospital in 1908, allowing wards for women and children.

Today, Drifton Hospital is a home lived in by the Gavinski family.

According to a September 1991 story published in the Standard-Speaker, Robert Gavinski and his family grew up in the rear part of the building and later moved into the front section where his parents lived.

The story also states that Drifton Hospital was founded by coal baron Tench Coxe’s grandsons: Alexander, Brinton, Charles, Henry and Eckley. Sosar, however, believes Sophia Coxe, Eckley’s wife, had a lot more to do with the hospital’s creation than the

men did.

There’s a reason Sophia was called the “Angel of the Coal Fields,” Sosar said.

Throughout history, he said, women have been the conscience of society, but Sophia’s care and concern for the miners who worked for her family was exceptional for that time period.

Sophia throughout her life showed an interest in the well-being of the local mining population, he said, not that the Coxe men had a “deaf ear,” either.

She lived comfortably but also understood that stewardship came with their lifestyle.

“They made it on the sweat and tears of coal miners and they needed to care for them,” Sosar said.

He said his ancestors were among the many families that benefited from the Coxe

As we celebrate our 175th Anniversary ....

Hazle Township would like to thank all the area residents and businesses for helping to make our community what it is today ...

A Great Place to Live,Work & Play!

Also, a special thanks to all our hard~working and dedicated employees!

HAZLE TOWNSHIP 1839-2014 Proud to be Celebrating Our

175th Anniversary

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family. It’s a story entwined in local health care.

Sosar’s aunt, Anna Tarnopolski, lived close to Drifton in another section of Hazle Township. She was completing her chore of chopping wood, as any young girl of 13 years old at the turn of the century would, when a splinter got lodged in her eye. She got an infection that eventually spread to her other eye, causing blindness, he said.

“You could imagine the life a young (blind) girl back then would have had. Sitting in a corner, not doing much,” Sosar said.

But Sophia Coxe saw different.

She sent the girl to an elite school for the blind and then to the University of Pennsylvania to study physiotherapy, the predecessor to physical therapy. There was a condition at Sophia’s request, though, that Tarno-

poloski would return to the area and use her new knowledge to help miners.

Tarnopolski worked at the Hazleton State Hospital and helped her husband, John Tarnopolski, learn the same field, all thanks to Sophia. Years later, Sosar’s brother, Tom, while in high school and college, would go to work with his aunt and uncle and eventually became a physical therapist working in Schuylkill County. It was in the 1970s when Tom began his work and at that point physical therapy was a new field of medicine to Schuylkill County.

In that way, Sosar said, there are probably 20 people in Luzerne, Carbon and Schuylkill counties who entered the physical therapy field because of Sophia. achristman@standardspeaker.com

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Standard-Speaker S5 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

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Congratulating Hazle Township on 175 Years of Success!

S6 Standard-Speaker HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S06] | 10/28/14

Electricity

Harwood generating facility helped power PPL

By SAM GALSKI

Speaker archives.

Thomas Edison came up with the concept, known as “mine-mouth” coal plants, years In the years leading to World War I, the before Drake introduced the idea locally, but Hazle Township village of Harwood housed the direct current produced by Edison’s one of the largest steam electric stations in plants couldn’t be carried very far over 220eastern Pennsylvania. volt, three-line systems. Those types of elecWith the exception of Lehigh Navigation tric plants had to be in the communities they Electric Co.’s power plant that served the served and coal had to be hauled to them Nesquehoning Valley, the Harwood station from the nearest mines. had few rivals in terms of size.

In mine-mouth operations, coal is dug Fed from a neighboring coal company, from the ground and loaded onto a conveyor the Harwood plant was one of the driving belt that runs directly to the power plant. forces behind high-voltage transmission Early pioneers also began alternating curlines that were strung across the coal rent, which allowed power to be carried disregion, according to records maintained by tances at higher voltages.

PPL Electric Utilities.

Those efficiencies, coupled with a demand The plant in Harwood eventually became from a still-growing Hazleton, opened the part a grid that led to the formation of door for competition and consolidations that today’s PPL. eventually formed PPL. PPL’s roots trace to Hazle Township in On July 11, 1906, Drake met with Alfred D. the early 1900s when small electric compa- and Ario Pardee and proposed plans for nies that served Greater Hazleton merged building a generating station at Harwood, as improvements were made in long-disaccording to Standard-Speaker archives. tance power transmission.

One year later, Calvin Pardee officially With communities making the switch organized Harwood Electric Co., according from gas to more economical electric light- to PPL. ing, A.W. Drake in 1906 came up with the The Harwood company was created to sell idea to burn coal in a power station at the power wholesale to surrounding companies. mines and send the power over lines to nearby points, according to Standardsee Harwood, s7 StaffWriter

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Through the years, Hazle’s borders ebb, flow

By KENT JACKSON

In remembrance, two Hazle Township villages were called Sugarloaf and South Sugarloaf and mine works called East Sugarloaf was in Hazle Township has grown and declined the village of Stockton, according to a history through concessions with its neighbors. written in 1880, although those names aren’t The first concession came at the expense of used now.

Connecticut, which claimed title to land in PennSugarloaf also gave up land to create Butler sylvania as far south as Milnesville in what is Township in 1839, Black Creek Township in 1848 now Hazle Township. and Conyngham borough in 1901.

Resolving that claim took skirmishes dubbed Hazle Township next took land from Butler the Pennamite Wars, an act of the Continental Township in 1861, a “History of Luzerne, LackaCongress and agreements of the Pennsylvania wanna and Wyoming Counties, Pa.,” published Legislature through 1799 that let Connecticut in 1880 by W.W. Munsell and Co., states.

Yankees keep land that they owned in the KeyAfter receiving land from neighboring townstone State. ships, Hazle ceded land to Hazleton, the city that When Hazle Township began 40 years later, the township encircles. the land came from Sugarloaf, a township In 1883, Hazleton annexed a residential area formed in 1809. called the Diamond Addition because the DiaStaffWriter

mond Land Co. developed the property.

The Diamond Addition extended north from Diamond Avenue to Seventh Street, west to Peace Street and east to Hayes Street.

On Dec. 12, 1908, more of Hazle Township moved to the city.

The shift included land as far north as 22nd Street, as far west as West Hazleton and land east of Hayes Street to what is now the city line.

A final exchange occurred after area residents chipped in a “mile of dimes” while raising money for CAN DO to buy and develop the Valmont Industrial Park in the late 1950s. West Hazleton annexed most of Valmont, although some of the industrial park remains in Hazle Township. kjackson@standardspeaker.com

cedure for electric utility transmission systems, PPL officials reported.

By 1915, the Harwood plant and Lehigh Navigation’s plant in Hauto were connected by a 10-mile, 66,000-volt transmission line that ran across the Broad Mountain, according to PPL records. Lines were run from Lehigh’s plant to Bethlehem.

As demand for electricity increased between 1917 and 1919, the Harwood plant tripled in size.

The expansion was partly the result of America entering World War I. The iron-making industry, mines, steel mills and cement factories realized electricity would help reduce labor costs.

Harwood continued taking on more companies and properties, having absorbed another 20 before it became one of the eight founding firms that consolidated into Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. on June 4, 1920, according to Standard-Speaker archives.

Archives maintained by PPL lauded the newly established transmission system as “unsurpassed anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains.”

At its start, PP&L served about 78,000 customers between Hazleton and Sunbury and the Allentown-Bethlehem area. Its customer base surpassed 1 million by the early 1990s, as it served a territory larger than Delaware and New Jersey.

Coal, oil and nuclear energy fueled its plants.

Two nuclear reactors at the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Salem Township near Berwick went on line in the early 1980s.

Hazleton resident and PP&L stockholder Alvin Markle unsuccessfully lobbied to locate company headquarters in his hometown, and PP&L set up shop in Allentown in 1928. The firm built a division headquarters on South Poplar Street in Hazleton in 1969.

Thursday, October 30, 2014 HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S07] | 10/28/14

Explore Northeast Pennsylvania Coal Mining Heritage

"Celebrating 160 years of Anthracite Mining History"

Harwood (Continued from S6) With expansion anticipated in the northeast section of Hazleton, the electric company was destined to grow.

Harwood Electric had the luxury of having Harwood Coal Co. as a neighbor. Operations required only one person to oversee boilers and conveyors hauled coal and ashes to and from the plant.

The new electric company also out-priced competitors by offering discounts to customers who agreed to one-, three- and five-year contracts for providing electricity.

Also in 1907, the Harwood company consolidated with Consumers Electric Light and Power Co. and a power company in McAdoo.

Within three years, Harwood Electric completed installation of 7,000 kilowatts of generation at its plant and another 5,000-kilowatt unit was eventually built, PPL records state.

By 1912, Harwood Electric Co. merged with Beaver Meadow Electric Co. and 10 other nonoperating companies.

According to news archives, some of those companies were based in Freeland and in Rahn, Rush, Kline, Black Creek, Butler, Nescopeck, Sugarloaf and Foster townships.

Expansion continued into Carbon and Schuylkill counties and lines were strung to serve parts of Columbia and Northumberland counties.

The growing company developed creative ways to maintain its transmission system. A sleet and ice storm that hit eastern Pennsylvania on Dec. 7, 1914 threatened to cripple Harwood Electric’s transmission system.

Operators at the plant were instructed to increase the electric current on the transmission system, which melted ice accumulations on the lines.

The practice became standard operating pro-

Congratulations Hazle Township on 175 Years of Success!

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Standard-Speaker S7 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Photo shows a passenger rail car manufactured for the Danville, Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre Railroad outside the Delaware Car Works of the Jackson and Sharpe Co. near Wilmington, Del., sometime in the late 1880s or early 1890s.

Transportation When coal was king, rails ruled in Hazle

William GallaGher COlleCTiON

By JILL WHALEN StaffWriter

Getting coal to the market from Hazle Township in the early part of the 19th century wasn’t easy.

After it was mined, it had to be transported to the Penn Haven Junction, east of Weatherly, then moved to river barges for a float on the Lehigh River to Easton.

The expense quickly whittled away at coal companies’ profits, said William “Bill” Gallagher, a Hazle Township supervisor and train enthusiast.

“With the cost of what they were paying for the barges and canal boats, it was easier to form railroads,” he explained.

And with the demand on anthracite increasing, that’s what they did.

In Hazle Township, mine owners like the Pardee, Coxe and Markle families had controlling interests in each of the township’s railroads at some point, “whether it was through the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. or through the Lehigh Valley (Railroad) or through the Pennsylvania (Railroad),” Gallagher said.

In all, Gallagher estimated that the township had “well over” 100 miles of train track, and by the early part of the 1900s, much of the track would be absorbed by the Lehigh Valley Railroad.

“Before that, the coal barons owned the railroads,” Gallagher said.

Congratulations Hazle Township

On Your 175th Anniversary!

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(570) 454-2414

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The township’s first railroad, the Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Co., was chartered April 7, 1830 to transport coal from mines near Beaver Meadows to the Lehigh River.

According to the “History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties” published in 1880, the railroad had just under three miles of rail in the township, and crossed between the villages of Beaver Brook and Jeanesville before leaving the township just east of Jeanesville.

“They call this the grandfather railroad,” said Gallagher, who noted that a section of its roadbed — although just outside of township boundaries near Weatherly — is the oldest, continually used roadbed in the country.

Soon after the Beaver Meadow company was organized, it purchased 200 acres of land for mining, according to information from a Standard-Speaker article written by Weatherly historian John S. Koehler in 1984.

Ario Pardee became the company’s superintendent in 1836, when the first loads of coal from the mines at Leviston, now Junedale, were hauled to the railroad for transport to the Lehigh River near Parryville in Carbon County, according to the article.

The Beaver Meadow railroad continued to expand service to mines on its properties, as other mines began to spring up. When coal was in its heyday, Gallagher said the township had around 30 large breakers, in places such as the villages of Highland, Jeddo, Lat-

timer, Milnesville, Harwood and Cranberry.

“They all had rail service. You’re talking sometimes up to 15 or 18 tracks just to service the breakers,” he said.

There were also smaller family-owned mines and bootleg mines capable of filling one rail car every few days. Anthracite, Gallagher said, was helping to fuel the Industrial Revolution and demand was great.

“You had millions and millions of tons each year — easy 250 (million) to 300 million tons a year,” he explained. “You had all that tonnage and tracks were just everywhere.”

Gallagher noted that a Delaware, Susquehanna and Schuylkill (DS&S) Railroad track ran directly behind the township’s municipal building and connected Drifton and Tomhicken.

The DS&S was established in Drifton by the Coxe family in 1891. The family had been in the mining business for decades by that point, and were adding new collieries in rapid succession, according to the Coxe Family Mining Papers. Railroad owners generally charged inflated shipping fees to independent mining operations like those of the Coxe family, and the business eventually decided to lay its own tracks.

Among the routes was the one behind the township building.

“That was so that (Coxe) could pull his coal out of Tomhicken and bring it back

See TransporTaTion, S9

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Transportation (Continued from S8) here,” Gallagher said of the line.

With the establishment of the DS&S — and not having to rely on other rail lines to transport their coal — the Coxe family became the largest independent anthracite producer in the state. In 1890, it had a 2 million-ton output, and in 1905, it sold its coal operations and railroads to Lehigh Valley Railroad.

While the Lehigh Valley had been buying up smaller railroads for some time, including the Beaver Meadow line, the DS&S purchase was its largest, Gallagher said. The Lehigh Valley had a tangle of tracks around the township and eventually opened what Gallagher called a “huge” rail complex in the village of Ashmore.

“They actually built steam engines there,” he said. “They had a huge roundhouse back there, along with erection shops. They started building engines in the late 1800s — steam engines. Ashmore — when the Lehigh Valley had it in its heyday — probably had about 2,500 employees.”

Other railroads serving the area included the Hazleton Railway Co., which was chartered in 1865 and merged with the Lehigh Valley three years later. It had six miles of track in the township, and ran to the Penn Haven Junction.

The Lehigh Luzerne Railroad was formed through a merger of the Jeddo and Carbon County Railroad with the Lehigh Luzerne Railroad in 1854. When it was constructed, it extended from Jeddo borough to the township villages of Japan, Ebervale, Harleigh, Milnesville and Lattimer. The line was opened to ship coal from Ashmore before the Hazleton Railroad opened the Hazlebrook Tunnel. The Lehigh Luzerne shipped coal over the mountain on a “shoo-fly track,” with a switchback on each side of the mountain, according to “Railroads of the Lehigh Valley” written by Earl J. Heydinger.

“In the Jeddo area, George B. Markle and Co. began operations in 1858. The first train over the Lehigh Luzerne from Eckley passed through the tunnel on Aug. 29, 1859, ending the use of switchbacks,” wrote Heydinger. In 1863, the 9.5-mile track carried more than a half-million tons of anthracite.

Like the Beaver Meadows and DS&S railroads, the Lehigh Luzerne would eventually merge with the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co. So would the Danville, Hazleton & WilkesBarre Co., which was chartered April 18, 1867, and ran from Sugarloaf Township through Hazleton to the Hazle Township village of Stockton.

Gallagher said coal trains weren’t the only trains to use the area’s tracks. There were

passenger trains, and trains carrying merchandise, and in all, about 26 trains passed through Hazleton each day.

“They were fueling the Industrial Revolution,” he said. When the world wars were underway, U.S. Navy ships relied on anthracite for fuel — transported by rail.

Gallagher explained that most of the township villages had passenger stations.

“You could get the train into Hazleton and from there, it would take you to Lehighton,” he said. From there, passengers could transfer to another rail line and make trips to New York City, Philadelphia or Buffalo.

“If you had to go any distance in the 1910s and ’20s, you had to go by train,” he said.

Coal companies also reserved trains to bring their employees to work.

“If you worked in Tomhicken and you lived somewhere else, there were shuttles you could take,” Gallagher said. “They were called mine trains and they were strictly for the miners.”

The Lehigh Valley line also made weekend shuttle runs to festivals at Eurana Park in Weatherly and Hazle Park in Hazle Township, Gallagher said.

The Markle family also owned the WilkesBarre & Hazleton Railway, which linked Hazle Park with Wilkes-Barre. It was the first “third rail” railway in the nation, and trains were powered by electricity.

“There were power plants all around that would provide the power for the third rail,” he said.

Tickets for the passenger trains depended on the distance of the trip, but likely cost 10 or 15 cents.

By the 1960s, demand for passenger service had shrunk, and the coal industry was dying.

Decades earlier — in the 1920s — the federal government ruled that railroad companies weren’t allowed to own mines, and like other railroads in the Northeast, the Lehigh Valley would eventually find itself bankrupt. Its properties were taken over by Conrail in 1976.

Conrail was bought out by Norfolk Southern and CSX. Norfolk Southern serves CAN DO’s Humboldt and Valmont industrial parks, said Kevin O’Donnell, president of CAN DO. O’Donnell said CAN DO owns all the rails inside Humboldt, and keeps tallies of the number of train cars that go through that park each year. In 2013, he said, 4,569 cars were counted.

The trains service 13 companies in Humboldt, industries that manufacture plastics, paper, cardboard, and print materials, or are in the cold storage and food processing businesses.

O’Donnell noted that there was a Lehigh Valley Railroad track that ran toward

Thursday, October 30, 2014 HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S09] | 10/28/14

WILLIAM GALLAGHER COLLECTION

This photo shows the Laurel Junction station which stood in the southern part of Hazle Township near Jeanesville.

Sheppton-Oneida, which could have been used heavily had 1950s exploratory missions for coal in the Humboldt area been successful.

As CAN DO was developing land for Humboldt it added rail lines to the first portion of developed land.

“CAN DO built the first mile or two of rail into the park to serve one or two customers,” he said. “Since that time, nine miles have

been built.”

CAN DO recently decided to sell the track as a way to increase revenue. The Reading and Northern Railroad made an offer, and will take over on Jan. 1, 2017, when CAN DO’s contract with Norfolk Southern is up, O’Donnell said. jwhalen@standardspeaker.com

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Standard-Speaker S9 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Coal kings

Barons built fortunes from Hazle’s buried treasure

By KELLY MONITZ

tions south of Hazleton, and in Cranberry, Sugarloaf, Crystal Ridge, Lattimer, Laurel Hill and Mount Pleasant.

Ario Pardee Sr. and other coal barons built Nearly 14,000 people lived in the “patch fortunes from the anthracite coal deposits towns” around the collieries in Hazle Townburied beneath Hazle Township, where their ship by 1880, according to the History of companies ran mining operations in small Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counvillages throughout the region. ties — more than the current population of These small villages grew with schools, about 10,000. churches, stores, hospitals, hotels and tavDespite success, Pardee lived prudently erns, as the mine operators — hailed as inno- with his first wife, the former Elizabeth vators, Jacobs, who was a relative of Lewis Davengeniuses and port, who built one of the early hotels, Hazleshrewd busiton House, at Broad and Wyoming streets. nessmen — The couple didn’t own a home until 1843. prospered Pardee would later build a grand home through the fronting Broad Street in the block between 1800s.

Church and Laurel streets, which became Hazleton known as Pardee Square. was little The three-story stone mansion with a carmore than a riage house and stables near Green Street village itself took two years to complete and was surwhen a rounded by an ornate, cast iron fence.

21-year-old He shared the home with his second wife, Pardee came Anna Maria Robison. Across the street from Ario Pardee to the area to their home stood the First Presbyterian survey a railroad to carry coal from the new Church, which Pardee helped build with a mines in Beaver Meadows to the Lehigh $2,500 donation.

Canal at Mauch Chunk. The fledgling area The entire congregation raised $800 coal industry depended on railroads and toward the church. waterways to transport the coal from mounDuring the Civil War, Pardee recruited tains of Northeastern Pennsylvania to the and outfitted two companies in the 28th Regilarge Philadelphia market. ment of Pennsylvania Infantry. His sons, Pardee, who grew up on a farm in LebaArio Jr. and Calvin, both fought in the connon Springs, N.Y., advanced quickly and was flict and telegrams about the progress of the placed in charge of the railroad before he war were posted in the company store at turned 25, a family friend said. He worked Broad and Wyoming street, the town’s first for the Hazleton Railroad and Coal Co. as store establish by the Ingram Brothers. superintendent until 1840, when at age 30, he By 1863, Pardee was one of the richest became an independent coal operator. men in the world with a personal income He and partners Robert Miner and Wilestimated at more than $1 million a year. liam Hunt formed Pardee, Miner & Co. Hunt In 1864, Dr. William Cattell, dean of the later left the company and Joseph Gillingfailing Lafayette College of Easton, was ham Fell of Philadelphia, became a partner invited to preach at First Presbyterian and marketed the coal.

Church and stayed with the Pardee family.

“Like other pioneers of American indusTaking advantage of situation, he asked trialization, Pardee, ‘the silent man,’ as Pardee for $20,000 to save the college and the many called him, possessed both vision and coal operator left the room, returning with a organizational genius,” wrote Donald L. note for $20,000 and a check for $600.

Miller and Richard Sharpless in “The KingPardee became friends with Cattel and latdom of Coal,” published in 1985. “He was a er donated $500,000 to build a science center, strong supporter of technical innovations, known as Pardee Hall, and became involved especially those which enhanced hard coal’s in college affairs, serving as chairman of the value as a fuel.” board of trustees.

Soon, Pardee became the largest shipper See Kings, S11 of anthracite in Pennsylvania with operaStaffWriter

S10 Standard-Speaker HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S10] | 10/28/14

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Kings (Continued from S10)

industry was an engineering marvel which drains 25 square miles of old mine workMarkle ings, known as the Jeddo Tunnel.

Pardee also invested and assisted others Markle worked with engineer Thomas S. in business, including George B. Markle, McNair to salvage the flooded Ebervale who married his wife’s sister, Emily Robimines, which had been drained through son. He gave Markle a job at the company pumps after Harleigh mine collapsed and store at his wife’s insistence. Markle moved filled with water. his family into a home next door to the first In 1890, the Jeddo Tunnel Co. was estabhome Pardee built for Anna Maria at Poplar lished with John Markle as chief engineer and Broad streets. and McNair as resident engineer.

Markle, who learned surThey decided to build two tubes, one veying, carpentry and shop- extending three miles from the Butler valley keeping, quickly advanced to Ebervale. The 8-foot-by-8-foot tunnel in the store, and after a few would pass 700 feet beneath Lattimer and 30 years, rose to general super- feet below the Ebervale mine. intendent of all of Pardee’s A second, 1.7-mile tunnel would extend collieries. from the bottom of the Ebervale slope No. 2 “Mr. Markle was a born to the foot of the Jeddo Mammoth vein’s Markle mechanic and here his slope No. 4. genius found full play,” The tunnel was completed in 1895, and wrote H.C. Bradsby in his “History of proved invaluable during the anthracite Luzerne County” in 1893. strike of 1902, when pump operators walked He set about improving equipment at off the job. Markle’s company, which Pardee’s collieries and introduced changes became the Jeddo-Highland Coal Co., conand new inventions. tinued to operate, thanks to the drainage the After working for Pardee for nine years tunnel provided. and learning the business, Markle began his The tunnel continues to function today, own coal company with his brother-in-law’s dumping up to 40 million gallons of acid backing. Partners in the G.B. Markle & Co. mine water a day into the Little Nescopeck firm included William Lilly, Pardee and Fell. Creek in Butler Township and then into the Markle remained senior partner and manBig Nescopeck Creek and later the Susqueager of the company, which opened the Jed- hanna River. do colliery.

Van Wickle Markle recognized problems with breakers used in the 1860s, and came up with a Much of the coal barons’ success could new design, for which he whittled a scaled be attributed to diversifying the holdings, model for mechanics and carpenters to folsuch as Augustus Stout Van low.

Wickle who came from New Structures following this design showed Jersey to manage his up throughout the anthracite region, and father’s mines in Hazleton the wooden model became a toy for his chilafter graduating from dren.

Brown University in 1876.

He patented the “Markle pump,” another He not only headed A.S. of his innovations, but didn’t patent other Van Wickle and Co., but was equipment, such as improved coal crushers president of the Hazleton Van Wickle and jigs, which showed up at other collieries National Bank and Hazlein the area. ton Iron Works, and vice president of PhoeAfter 10 years in the coal business, Marnix Manufacturing Co. of New York, kle founded Hazleton’s first banking house: according to “America’s Successful Men of Pardee, Markle & Grier, which evolved into Affairs: The U.S. At Large 1896.”

Markle Banking and Trust Co. of Hazleton.

Van Wickle, who married Bessie Pardee, The bank built an 11-story building in 1912 Ario Pardee’s daughter, in 1882, had mines at the site of the original bank on West in Hazleton, Milnesville and Coleraine, Broad Street, now Hayden Tower at the Mar- now Beaver Meadows. He also owned railkle Building. roads connecting them.

Markle retired in 1879, after his health By age 40, Van Wickle was next to the began to fail in the mid-1870s, and traveled largest producer of anthracite in the the world.

Lehigh coal fields.

He died at his West Broad Street home in He died two years later after leaning on a 1888, and his son, John, took over G.W. Mar- gun while skeet shooting with his brotherkle Coal Co. two years later. in-law.

John Markle’s contribution to the coal Before he died, Van Wickle commis-

Thursday, October 30, 2014 HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S11] | 10/28/14

sioned grand iron, stone and brick gates at his alma mater. The ceremonial Van Wickle Gates were erected in 1901 and are only opened twice a year — to allow new students to enter and graduates to leave.

Coxe Brothers produced 1.5 million tons of anthracite a year.

Coxe also formed his own 60-mile railroad, the Delaware, Susquehanna & Schuylkill Railroad, refusing to bow down to the railroads and rising transportation Coxe costs. In addition to growing his business, Another philanthropist and innovator Coxe served in the state Senate and as a among the coal barons was Eckley B. Coxe, trustee of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, who formed Coxe Brothers & Co. in Hazle which was founded by Asa Packer, a railTownship in 1865 on land his grandfather, road magnate who built his empire in Tench Coxe, purchased in 1790s after learn- Mauch Chunk, present-day Jim Thorpe. ing of the discovery of coal near presentCoxe also believed in education and day Summit Hill. founded the Mining and Mechanical InstiTench Coxe, a well-known tute in Freeland to educate the children of statesman, author and econ- miners. omist, who served as The school, which was first called the George Washington’s comIndustrial School for Miners and Mechanmissioner of internal reve- ics, started as a night school in Drifton in nue, passed the land onto 1879, and moved to Freeland in 1893. Sophia his son, Charles S. Coxe, Coxe continued to support the school after who became a prominent Coxe her husband’s death in 1895.

Philadelphia judge. Charles The Coxes also established a hospital for leased some of the land, but never sold it, miners in Drifton in 1875 and after the setting the stage for his son to develop it.

State Hospital for Injured Miners of the Eckley Coxe graduated from the Univer- Middle Coal Fields of Pennsylvania opened sity of Pennsylvania in 1858 and spent six in Hazleton in 1891, the family gave $50,000 months surveying his family’s land in the to the state for a new addition. anthracite region.

Sophia Coxe reportedly gave away as He then went to Paris and England to much as 90 percent of her income, paying study mining, before returning to the Unit- for the Coxe addition to the White Haven ed States in 1865, forming the family coal Sanitorium and a new building for the mining business.

Philadelphia Children’s Hospital.

A gifted engineer, Coxe held more than She also set up an endowment for the 70 patents for improvements in the mining Chapin Memorial Home for Aged Blind in industry, as well as hundreds of other patPhiladelphia and paid for corrective surents. gery for crippled children.

His company quickly opened mines in She also donated works from her husEckley, Beaver Meadows, Drifton, Oneida, band’s private technical library to Lehigh Tomhicken, Derringer and Gowen, but its University, where she also funded the Coxe headquarters remained in Drifton, where Mining Engineering Laboratory. he lived with his wife, Sophia.

Nine years after Eckley Coxe’s death, the Coxe built the first iron and steel break- Coxe Brothers holdings were sold to the er in Drifton, where he also opened Lehigh Valley Railroad Co. machine shops to build, repair and improve machinery. So, famed inventor kmonitz@standardspeaker.com Thomas Edison visited the shops in 1891.

Coxe also amassed a collection of technical and scientific books and papers, and his library was kept in a one-story, fire-proof building on the site.

Hazle Township “Here is gathered the finest technical on library on these subjects that are a speciali175 Years ty to Mr. Coxe in the world today,” wrote Bradsby following a visit to the machine of Success shops. “This is saying a good deal but it is simple truth. Over 12,000 volumes and Gary McNealis nearly 5,000 rare manuscripts and pam22nd St. Plaza phlets, mostly in English, French and GerHazleton GaryJMcNealis@allstate.com man, but some old rare books that would (570) 454-1981 set ablaze the eyes of a true bibliomaniac.”

Insurance subject to availability and qualifications.Allstate By 1886, the company controlled about Insurance Company and Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Northbrook, Illinois © 2009 Allstate Insurance Company.

35,000 acres of coal property and by 1890,

Congratulations

Standard-Speaker S11 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Villages Together, they’ve shaped

By KENT JACKSON StaffWriter

Hazle Township consists of villages that grew around coal mines, which began soon after the founding of the township in 1839 in Luzerne County.

The county’s name comes from the Chevalier de la Luzerne, a French ambassador who guaranteed a loan to supply American troops during the Revolutionary War. Hazle Township took its name from the Hazle Swamp or Hazle Creek that flows across the land.

History suggests that a clerk in Harrisburg transposed the “L” and “E” in Hazle and Hazleton, the city that the township encircles.

Both have different spellings than the hazel tree and the hazelnuts that grew along the creek. But Hazleton wasn’t incorporated by the state Legislature until 1851, whereas the area’s first coal company was spelled Hazleton in 1830.

Villages within Hazle Township grew around patches where coal was mined so they sometimes are called patch towns.

Some took the names of the first mine owners. Today a few of the village names evoke memories of tragedies that occurred there, while other names vanished from disuse or disappeared with the towns into the strip mines.

They include: Lattimer — Infamous for a massacre of striking miners shot to death by deputy sheriffs as they marched into the village on Sept.

10, 1897. The killings led to sympathy and political support for labor unions nationally.

Memorial services still are held for the 19 victims at a monument made of coal in their honor on the Lattimer Road.

In 2010, archaeologists from the University of Maryland found bullets and shell casings at the site in a pattern that suggested that deputies shot at the strikers from a firing line.

Pardeesville — Once called Lattimer No. 2, Pardeesville takes the surname of the Ario Pardee, who came to Hazleton to survey a railway into Beaver Meadows and opened his own coal company. His descendants include mine operators, bankers and a Civil War officer. Shortly after the massacre in Lattimer in 1897, a national magazine sent to Pardeesville a reporter, who found unsewered homes hammered together of scraps. Some were small as kennels.

In the century after that, the people of Pardeesville built larger homes, installed sewers and operated a water company, which the Hazleton City Authority took over. Catholics built St. Nazarius Roman Catholic Church, which moved to its current location along Pardeesville Road in 1947 and closed in 2009. The church next became a fitness club.

A building that once housed a dance hall called the Green Lantern still stands, and the Pardeesville Recreation Association that maintains the village’s playground and has hosted a Halloween haunted trail there every October for 17 years.

Strikers on their way to Lattimer Mines were shot by deputy sheriffs in what became

beneath the surface, and 10 people died. Miners removing too much coal from support pillars caused the cave-in. A historical marker for the Stockton Mine Disaster rests where the houses once stood.

Commodore Robert Stockton, a U.S. naval officer, gives his name to the village and to a city in California, where he led American forces during the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848. A voluntary military unit from Jim Thorpe called the Stockton Artillerists organized years before the Mexican-American War, which it fought in as part of the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment.

Stockton village formed in 1850. Other patch towns in Hazle Township also were called Stockton, but distinguished by the numeral of the coal workings or breaker that the homes grew around such as Stockton No. 7.

In Stockton No. 8, a 14-year-old boy, Tim Visgaitis, died when hit by a car while riding his Stockton — When the ground skateboard on the evening of May 7, 1997. The opened above a coal mine on Dec. driver of the car that struck him has never 18, 1869, three homes sunk been identified.

A view of Lattimer Mines on March 9, 1935.

S12 Standard-Speaker HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S12-13] | 10/28/14

Maryland archaeologists returned in 2012 to dig north of Canal Street, which is named for a ditch that carried away water used to wash coal. No buildings remain north of Canal Street, but homes built there survived 120 years into the 1940s and 1950s, the archaeologists found.

The Lattimer Coal Co. began in 1869, and the village had about 1,000 people as of 1880 when Pardee Brothers and Co. ran the mining operation for the owners, the Black Creek Improvement Co. A store, church and tavern have been part of the village. Today, Lattimer has a bed and breakfast and residential homes.

Lattimer also is the hometown of Walter Palahnuik, the Academy Award winner better know by the name that he took when beginning an acting career: Jack Palance.

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

d Hazle’s 175-year history and fueled its growth Civil War Maj. Charles S. Coxe.

Eckley Coxe also gives his name to New Coxeville, a Hazle Township village on the edge of Carbon County, and the village of Coxeville in Banks Township, Carbon County.

A separate village known as Drifton No. 2 was cleared out in the late 1920s and early 1930s when the Jeddo-Highland Co. feared the ground might swallow homes as strip mining operations neared.

Some of the families moved to a new village with the fresh name of Youngstown.

Japan Jeddo — Coal baron George B. Markle named two patch towns after being inspired by the 1853 and 1854 voyages of Commodore Matthew Perry into Yedo Bay that opened Japan to trade with the United States through a treaty in 1856.

The G.B. Markle Co. started Burg ColleCtion/Pennsylvania State Archives producing coal in 1858, and near Hazleton on Sept. 10. 1897, the day some of them might have altered the spelling e known as the Lattimer Massacre. from Yedo to Jeddo because of an employee who was named Jed. Markle’s firm became the JedDrifton — Ground subsiding beneath do-Highland Coal Co. It built operated towerhomes here didn’t kill anyone, but a collapse damaged two homes in Drifton Estates in 2008. ing coal breakers — or processing plants — A home insured against mine subsidence was that Markle invented. By 1880, Japan had 400 residents, a store and a school. demolished, but the other home wasn’t In 1890, Markle’s son, John, and engineer insured and the owners repaired it. The suband one-time Hazleton Burgess Thomas sidence also damaged part of Route 940.

Founded in 1865, Drifton was the site of the McNair, started building the Jeddo Tunnel to drain water from mines throughout the HazleHazleton area’s first hospital, built in 1882 to ton area. The tunnel was considered a marvel treat injured and ailing coal miners by the of engineering when finished in 1895, but now Coxe brothers, who operated the mines. One of the brothers, Eckley B. Coxe, ran machines pollutes the Nescopeck Creek. It is among the shops where workers made and repaired min- largest source of acid mine drainage in the nation, according information presented for a ing equipment. Thomas Alva Edison visited conference at Penn State Hazleton this month.

Drifton to see the shops.

In 1964, Jeddo-Highland Coal Co. sold to The home of Eckley Coxe and his wife, Pagnotti Enterprises, which continues to Sophia, still stands, as does St. Paul’s Episcostrip mine coal in the township. pal Church, which they built in 1860. They The Jeddo Stars Athletic Club once field a established MMI Preparatory School for minbaseball team but still maintains a field and ers and mechanics in Freeland in 1879. clubhouse.

In 1880, Drifton had about 1,000 residents, Meanwhile, a separate Jeddo Borough was one hotel, three churches and an opera house founded in 1871 from parts of Hazle and Fosbuilt by the Coxe Brothers for their employter townships. It is about two miles east of the ees. The town also had a railroad depot and a Stars’ clubhouse. By 1880, Jeddo Borough had Grand Army of the Republic Post named for

Thursday, October 30, 2014 HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S12-13] | 10/28/14

a population of 350, which supported two playgrounds and a boarding house. A dance hall called the Jeddo Casino opened in 1915. Now Jeddo Borough is the smallest municipality in Luzerne County with 98 residents, according to the 2010 Census.

Castle in Wales. The Hazle Township village had 600 people as of 1880, plus two stores, a Sons of Mercy School and two taverns. James McKee was superintendent of the mines operated by McNair and Co., which then employed 70 men underground and 76 above ground.

The Black Creek flooded the mines in 1886, Ashmore — Workers of the Lehigh Valley providing incentive for Markle and McNair to start planning the Jeddo Tunnel.

Railroad formerly repaired locomotives here Later in Harleigh, the Jeddo-Highland Coal in a horseshoe-shaped building called the roundhouse. Later the Beryllium Corp. and its Co. built the towering No. 7 breaker. Also known as the Harleigh breaker, the coal prosuccessors converted the railroad shops into cessing plant survived a fire and remained in facilities for refining ore and fabricating operation until 1996. beryllium into parts for the aerospace and In 1966, the company bought a huge dragdefense industries. Workers who inhaled line shovel to dig coal. The shovel was 200 feet beryllium dust, which scars lungs like asbestall, held 85 cubic yards in its bucket and took tos, qualified for federal payments after a 35 men nine months to assemble. decades-long struggle. After the plant closed Harleigh has had a Post Office since 1872. in 1980, the roundhouse and other buildings were razed, the lagoon and other sites contain- The current post office is in a building where ing hazardous chemicals were capped and the the Jeddo Supply Co. once ran a store in front land was put into a conservation easement for of a baseball field. The village tavern and restaurant is now called Tequila Azteca. the Hazleton rail trail.

Harleigh — The name comes from Harlech

See Villages, S14

The Cranberry breaker, circa 1905.

Standard-Speaker S13 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Villages

(Continued from S13) Ebervale — Had a church, school, coal company store, hotel, post office and a population of 1500 as of 1880, according to W.W. Munsell and Co.’s “History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, Pa.” The Lehigh Valley Rail Road Co. owned the mines, which were then operated by A. Pardee and Co. with Calvin Pardee as superintendent. A.S. Van Wickle also owned the Ebervale mines at one time.

Today, Ebervale is the home of a modern coal processing plant built in 1998. The rectangular building contrasts with the peaked roofs and sloping profile of the coal-processing plants of the previous century such as the Jeddo-Highland No. 7 breaker in Harleigh or Jeddo-Highland No. 5 in Foster Township.

The breaker at Lattimer, circa 1941.

Laurel Hill — Had a population of 350 in 1880 when the Lehigh Valley Railroad owned the coal company, which A. Pardee and Sons operated with Calvin Pardee as superintendent.

Oakdale — G. B. Markle and Co. owned the colliery in this patch town that is between Ebervale and Japan Jeddo.

Beaver Brook — A company store, post office, blacksmith and groceries served 800 people who lived here in 1880 when the mines employed 283 men above and below ground. In the 1880s, a bicycle trail connected Hazleton, Beaver Brook and Audenried when commuters tried two-wheelers as an alternative to walking.

The Apostle of the Coal Fields, Richard Webster, performed services, weddings and funerals in Beaver Brook and 15 other churches that he visited while walking between Jim Thorpe and the Hazleton area each month. He was the first pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Summit Hill, which formed in 1839, the same year as

Photo courtesy of the William GallaGher collection

Hazle Township.

St. Patrick’s Church formed in 1841 in Beaver Brook, but the congregation moved to McAdoo after a mine cave-in damaged the church.

The congregation left behind a cemetery that has graves of about 20 Civil War veterans. Although the last burials occurred by 1901, local veterans cleared brush and started maintaining the cemetery again in 2010.

that cut through the outfield.

The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. owned the ballfield land in 1922, but donated equipment along with permission to construct the field.

Volunteers built the field and earned shares in the Cranberry Athletic Association based on the hours that they worked.

Wood for the clubhouse came from the dismantling of the A. Pardee and Co. Store, and rails from the Humboldt-Sheppton rail line Cranberry — Best known for its ballfield, became posts for the stadium’s fence. built in 1922 for baseball and football. Babe By the time the field was finished, the DiaRuth made a barnstorming stop in Cranber- mond Coal Co. owned the land and sold the ry, as did Walter Johnson and probably Lou field to the Athletic Association, Arthur Gehrig. The field hosted minor league proKrause wrote in 1995 in “A History of West fessional baseball teams through 1950. High Hazleton.” school, Babe Ruth League, Little League conIn 1880, the estate of A.S. and E. Roberts tinued to play on the grounds, which were owned the coal workings that employed 182 dismantled for the construction of Route 924 men, and Cranberry had 500 residents.

Crystal Ridge — A strip mined area became a landfill that the city of Hazleton operated into the 1970s.

A century earlier, the village had 400 residents and a 130 miners, who produced 120,000 tons of coal in 1878. Locals chipped ice from a cave just south of Crystal Ridge to chill their food and drinks in the days before refrigerators and freezers, Arthur Krause wrote.

“Crystal Ridge consisted of four row homes on the east and west sides of the lone dirt road through the town and three families living in the homes to the rear on the west side,” Krause wrote.

Jeanesville — Two miles south of Hazleton on the Carbon County line, the village

see VILLAGES, s15

Hazle Twp Vol. Fire & Rescue Co. “Volunteering Since 1976”

TO HAZLE TWP FOR 175 YEARS! S14 Standard-Speaker HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S14] | 10/28/14

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Villages (Continued from S14) was settled in 1848 and named for Joseph Jeanes of Philadelphia, a coal operator who bought the mine from William Milnes.

Although Milnes developed the mine in what is now Jeanesville, the village named for Milnes is to the northwest across the township where he also mined coal.

In Jeanesville, the coal company built a store in 1854 that also served as a warehouse and sleeping quarters for the store workers.

Later, the family of James Good lived in the home for more than half a century before it was torn down to make way for strip mining.

The Jeanesville mine gained more notoriety after J.C. Haydon and Co. took over. The Philadelphia-born Haydon ran the Jeanesville works, starting in 1864. By 1880, the mine employed 238 men below ground and 173 on the surface by 1880.

On Feb. 4, 1891, however, a pair of miners, Charles Boyle and Patrick Coll, set off dynamite to remove coal from a pillar. The pillar wasn’t as thick as maps showed, and the blast opened a wall of a slope that had filled with water.

As the water surged in, Boyle and Coll escaped, along with William Coyle, whom they warned. Thirteen men drowned or suffocated.

When the water receded after 20 days, a search party found four men alive. Though too weak to walk, the quartet endured by sharing their food and boiling water over a fire started from a gunpowder crate.

Four years later, in 1895, a trolley of the Lehigh Traction Co. crashed while descending the hill into Jeanesville, and three passengers died.

Jeanesville also had an iron works that supplied machinery, pumps and equipment for railroads, coal companies and other industries. The iron works had steam heat, two systems of electric lights and made pumps and hoisting engines when a reporter visited Jeanesville before the presidential election of 1884. More Republicans were organizing on behalf of Presidential candidate James Blaine and Vice Presidential hopeful John Logan than for the eventual winners, Democrats Grover Cleveland and Thomas Hendricks, the reporter found.

The directors of the Jeanesville Iron Works sold the company for $200,000 to the Worthington Pump and Machinery Corp. of Virginia in April 1916. In February of that year, the iron works began making shrapnel as the United States prepared to enter World War I. “The rush of workers to the Jeanesville Iron Works from towns all over the east and the return of miners to the coal fields has increased the population here several thou-

File Photo

The Ebervale crossing in 1930. A booming mine town in the 1880s, Ebervale is one of several patch towns that comprise Hazle Township. sand since January 1,” according to a Hazleton newspaper article on June 3, 1918, that also noted the influx made rental housing scarce.

Milnesville — Settled by William Milnes in 1850, the village had a Methodist church that the company supported, company store, and post office by 1880 when Stout Coal Co. owned the coal works and Charles Kerbaugh supervised 105 underground and 74 above ground.

Milnes sold his operations to Stout for $2,000 in 1864 and departed Pennsylvania to mine soft coal in Virginia.

C.D. Herron kept a hotel in Milnesville, where he moved after being born in Donegal, Ireland.

Today, aircraft depart and land at the Hazleton Regional Airport in Milnesville, which was established in the mid-1950s, Al Roman, who managed the airport for 17 years, said. Although the City of Hazleton owns the airport, the land is within Hazle Township.

Reservoirs built in 1883 and 1885 started sending water from Mount Pleasant to West Hazleton and Hazleton, Krause wrote.

Humboldt — An industrial park grew around a tiny mining village. Humboldt had 450 population residents, a company story and a colliery owned by the Lehigh Valley Railroad where 100 men worked in 1880.

Today, homes remain in the patch town, but CAN DO has developed the Humboldt Industrial Park that now extends along Route 924 from the junction of Interstate 81 east into Schuylkill County.

Hollywood — A walk down Hollywood Boulevard here takes pedestrians from sub-

urban homes to a trailer park instead of along a star-studded sidewalk. But Hazle Township had its Hollywood long before movie makers called Hollywood their home in California. By the founding of Hollywood, California, in 1887, Hollywood, Hazle Township, already had 400 residents and a company store.

The movie industry started making the California town of the same name their headquarters around 1910. The Hollywood Diner in Hazle Township that closed this year featured a sign modeled after the hillside landmark erected in 1923 at California’s Hollywood. kjackson@standardspeaker.com

Mount Pleasant — Mail carriers from Hazleton made deliveries to the 500 residents here by 1880. The coal works employed 144 men by 1880. Pardee and Sons operated the works with Calvin Pardee as superintendent. The estate of C. Koons and others owned the mine workings.

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Standard-Speaker S15 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Sports

Hazle a hotspot for area’s athletics Cranberry hosted ‘The Babe,’‘The Big Train,’‘The Iron Man’ and Galento

By TOM RAGAN StaffWriter

It had the look and feel of a real old-time baseball park. It stood majestically on five acres, just west of Hazleton but clearly in Hazle Township. It was called Cranberry Ball Park, complete with a covered grandstand and a history of famous people who became part of the legend.

Imagine seeing George Herman “Babe” Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter “Big Train” Johnson, Lefty Gomez, Vern Bickford, Danny Litwhiler, Danny Murtaugh, Carl Furillo, or Curt Simmons, to mention a few of the wellknown baseball stars who played there.

Some were on their way up through the minor leagues and others just passing through, trying to make a few bucks on the Photo Courtesy of William GallaGher side.

The 1940 Anthracite League baseball all-star team poses for a photo at Cranberry Cranberry Ball Park was a happening Ball Park. The facility hosted all types of sporting events, including baseball games, place at one time, a place where legends — football games and boxing matches in its 40-year history. young and old — squared off.

“Happy 175th Anniversary Hazle Township ”

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Take Nick Mondero in 1923, a 20-year-old with a fastball that could make batters miss at home plate. He was a young man with dreams of some day making it to the big leagues.

Why not? He stood about 6-feet, 3 inches tall, had a strong arm and wasn’t afraid to bring his best stuff against “The Babe,” the greatest baseball playNick Mondero er at the time and probably the greatest of all time.

What was Ruth doing in Hazle Township?

Why was he playing at Cranberry Ball Park?

see Cranberry, s17

For 113 years, Jeddo Stars the epicenter of area baseball

By TOM RAGAN

members. New members are always welcomed.

A lot has happened in 113 years. The baseName something that has been around at ball field moved. An additional field has been least 100 years and was started by the men added. It changed from a hardball field to a who faced danger every day, worked hard to softball field and back to a hardball field. A feed their families and played hard during new clubhouse was added, as well as a picnic what little recreation time they had. If Jeddo grove and a memorial park for veterans.

Stars Athletic Association was on the short In 1941, the state chartered the organizalist, it is the correct answer. tion as the Jeddo Stars Athletic Association Jeddo Stars Athletic Association has been and finally in 1947 the team was playing in a part of Hazle Township for 113 years, and its present location. it is still going strong — but of course not The Jeddo Stars would perform on the without some ups and downs. field like a well-oiled machine, winning six No one could have imagined when a group straight league pennants and eight post-seaof baseball players from patch towns located son titles. The Stars mowed down local and between Hazleton and Freeland, in places regional teams of the day, teams like the like Swamptown, Middletown, Japan-Jeddo Conyngham Rubes, Hazleton Essos, Eckley and Oakdale, that 113 years later, a club start- Reds plus teams from Pardeesville and Lated for recreation for baseball-loving miners timer Mines. to take their minds off work, would ever surIt wasn’t only local teams; regional teams vive into a new millennium. and even out-of-state teams began challengBut it has. ing the Jeddo Stars.

The club is located just off state Route 940 Anyone familiar with Major League Basebetween Hazleton and Freeland, and still ball in the early 1950s will remember a relief located in Hazle Township. pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies named At one point, the Jeddo Stars boasted of a Jim Konstanty. He was a good reason the membership of 2,000. In 2001, membership “Whiz Kids” made it to the 1950 World Series fell to 300 members, but now in 2014, the club see JeDDO, s23 has 100 voting members and about 800 social StaffWriter

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Cranberry (Continued from S17) Ruth in those days played exhibition games as part of annual barnstorming tours that began at the end of the regular season.

Major league baseball stars of the day would go up against some of the top local talent and made some extra money along the way.

The games generated enough money and drew enough local interest because baseball was king then.

Baseball was a terrific way of forgetting about working in the mines. When big-name stars came to town, everyone dropped what they were doing to attend the game. Especially when “The Bambino,” Babe Ruth, was scheduled to appear at Cranberry Ball Park.

Never mind the fact that Ruth was probably the highest-paid baseball player in the world.

Ruth enjoyed barnstorming and playing exhibition games against everyone and anyone. Local players would challenge him to home-run-hitting contests, which Ruth would win easily. Local players who thought they had good arms would test their best stuff against baseball’s premier home-run hitter. Everyone wanted to be able to say they struck out the great Babe Ruth — after all, if you can strike out “The Babe,” you can probably strike out just about anybody.

Nick Mondero was part of a team called the Anthracite All-Stars, and — depending on who you ask — this seems to be the most accurate account of what happened Oct. 22, 1923, in the aftermath of an exhibition game, chronicled by The New York Times in a very short article. Ruth slammed a home run that went out during batting practice, but otherwise went 0-for-4 during the game played at Cranberry Ball Park.

The Times wrote that it was made a holiday, and the mines and the public schools of all the surrounding towns in the region closed for the afternoon.

Mine workers left their posts in such numbers that work had to be suspended. Babe went hitless against Nick Mondero of Coleraine, who pitched for the Hazleton team. Mondero struck out the home run king twice.

Now, Nick Mondero isn’t around to get his recollection of the game, nor is Babe Ruth.

Finding anyone with a real good account of what actually happened that day is difficult, but Mondero’s son, Harold, now 89, gave his account of the game.

His father, Nick Mondero, had a lively fastball that he believes edged 90 mph.

“Nobody was any better,” Harold said of his father.

Nick Mondero was on the mound that day for the Anthracite All-Stars when Ruth and other pro ballplayers visited Cranberry Park.

Ruth reportedly went 0-for-4 in the seveninning game, but the real action took place

after the game, according to Harold Mondero.

After the game, Ruth faced off against Nick Mondero again. Mondero hurled nine pitches, and Ruth missed the first eight but nailed the ninth over the center field wall at Cranberry Ball Park. Ruth was so impressed at the way his father pitched, Harold Mondero said Ruth recommended Nick Mondero should be signed to a professional contract.

Harold Mondero, of Beaver Meadows, said his father started his pro career with Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1924 and in 1925. Mondero was purchased by Rochester, a minor league club. Nick Mondero moved on to the Chicago Cubs franchise and from 1927 through 1937 he also pitched for a number of other teams in the International League like Toronto, Buffalo and Reading. After ending his career managing in the minor leagues, Mondero attended umpire school.

He did not make it to the major leagues — few players do. The legend of Nick Mondero lives on much like Cranberry Ball Park.

The Standard-Speaker published a supplement on Sept. 6, 1991, and gave the following account of the game at Cranberry Park: When Babe Ruth’s All-Stars played at Cranberry Park against the top players from the Anthracite League, he did not hit a home run until after the game when Nick Mondero threw nine strikes before he connected and sent a liner over the center field fence.

It was the kind of baseball moment in history that would be difficult to forget by a true baseball fan.

In 1922, the Hazleton Mountaineers played in the NewYork-Penn League that eventually became the Eastern League made up of Class B baseball teams. In 1936, they became the Hazleton Red Sox who made the park their home until 1938. In 1949, it was home to the Hazleton Dodgers of the North Atlantic League, a Class D team of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

A local player, Norm Larker, of Beaver Meadows, who once challenged for the best hitting mark in the National League in 1960, played for the Dodger affiliate at Cranberry Park. He also made it to the World Series as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers team in 1959 that beat the Chicago White Sox, 4 games to 2.

Cranberry Ball Park held about 5,000 fans but reports of larger crowds are published for other major events, including football, boxing and wrestling, held there.

Domenico Antonio “Two-Ton” Tony Galento was a guest referee for 12 All-Star Amateur bouts on Aug. 14, 1939, sponsored by the 20th Century Athletic Club at the Cranberry Ball Park. Galento was one of the most colorful boxing figures ever, fighting champions like “The Brown Bomber” Joe

Thursday, October 30, 2014 HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S17] | 10/28/14

A press credential for a night of fights featuring guest referee Tony Galento at Cranberry Ball Park on Aug. 14, 1939.

Photo Courtesy of Greater hazleton historiCal soCiety

Louis and Max Baer. Born in Orange, New Jersey, Galento was known to eat a big bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and drink a half of case of beer before a fight.

He once told reporters before his fight with Louis that he would “moida the bum.” Louis said years later he prolonged the fight to punish Galento but when Galento knocked him down in the fourth round he decided to knock him out because Galento had a powerful left hook. Galento also dabbled in pro wrestling and was an actor. He appeared in the movie classic, “On the Waterfront,” with Marlon Brando and Lee J. Cobb.

Hazleton, West Hazleton, Hazle Township

and McAdoo all played high school football games at Cranberry. A semi-pro football team, the Hazleton Mustangs, held tryouts at the Cranberry Park before it closed in 1965.

The same year it was demolished to make way for a section of highway connecting Humboldt with Hazleton and West Hazleton.

The Cranberry Athletic Association was awarded $38,000 for the portion of the old ballpark taken by the state for construction of the CAN DO Freeway, which cuts through what was once the third base side dugout and infield of the old park. tragan@standardspeaker.com

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Standard-Speaker S17 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

The entrance to Humboldt Industrial Park along Route 924 in Hazle Township.

ERIC CONOVER/Staff Photographer

Industry After coal’s decline, Hazle fueled a CAN DO spirit

By JIM DINO StaffWriter

Philip Ginter was credited with discovering anthracite coal in Summit Hill in 1791.

Hazle Township is actually a collection of small “patch” towns that grew up around coal.

When shaft coal mines closed in the mid1950s, local leaders formed CAN DO to bring industry into the area.

About 3,500 of the 4,000 acres in the Valmont and Humboldt industrial parks are within Hazle Township borders, and represents $360 million — more than 25 percent — of the township’s almost $1.4 billion property tax base.

Each one of the villages had a shaft mine, and many had their own coal breaker.

Perhaps the largest was in Japan, the larg-

est of these little hamlets, that became the home to the workings of the Jeddo-Highland Coal Co. On one side of Japan is Drifton, where mine subsidence in recent years caused a home to be torn down. What is now MMI Preparatory School was started in Drifton in 1879 by the Coxe family as the Industrial School for Miners and Mechanics. The school moved to adjacent Foster Township in 1893 and has been at its present location since 1902.

South and west of Freeland is Stockton, the patch where, in 1869, a subsided mine swallowed a house while the 10 people inside slept. Hazle Brook is right outside Stockton.

Farther to the west is Lattimer. There, on Sept. 10, 1897, 19 unarmed miners were gunned down by the Luzerne County sheriff

The Dessen Drive entrance to the Valmont Industrial Park. Originally located in Hazle Township, much of the industrial park was annexed by neighboring West HazleSee CAN DO, S20 ton borough.

S18 Standard-Speaker HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S18] | 10/28/14

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

175

th

Congratulations Hazle Township on your 175th anniversary

Home to Humboldt Industrial Park, one of the largest industrial parks in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Thursday, October 30, 2014 HZ_STANDSPEAK/ADVERTISING/AD_PAGES [S19] | 10/28/14

Standard-Speaker S19 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

CAN DO

(Continued from S18) and his deputies at the order of the coal company owners, in what is now known as the Lattimer Massacre. The miners had marched from Harwood to protest harsh mining conditions.

On the south side of Hazle Township is Jeanesville, where, on Feb. 4, 1891, water flooded the mine, killing 13 miners. Four were found alive 19 days after the flood.

A sign at the Dessen Drive entrance to the Valmont Industrial Park as it was in the mid-1960s.

New industry

The story of how Hazle Township became a magnet for industry after coal is the same basic story of CAN DO Inc. Although CAN DO brought in the industries, the organization worked with Hazle Township officials on a variety of related projects over the years, like jointly applying for funding for roads and other support to help the industries move into Humboldt.

In many instances, the Hazleton Area Industrial Development Corp., which was manned by Hazle officials, was a vehicle to apply for funds.

“Some of the state grant programs required a government apply for the grant, so we went to Hazle Township,” said CAN DO President Kevin O’Donnell. “Sometimes, the land had to be deeded to Hazle Township,

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or Hazle Township would list itself as the applicant. In one instance, Hazle Township had to be the applicant for a site development grant to improve the railroad in Humboldt Industrial Park. They would do whatever necessary to get the grants and bring in the industry.”

In the mid-1950s, when area shaft mines were closed after two hurricane floods two years apart, the area’s unemployment ran between 25 percent and 30 percent.

A local radiologist, the late Dr. Edgar L. Dessen, wanted to raise money to buy land for the area’s first industrial park.

First, the Dime-A-Week campaign was held, during which those who still had a job would contribute a dime of their pay, or $5.20 for the year, to the effort. Cardboard envelopes designed to slide dimes into were distributed by local banks.

CONGRATULATIONS HAZLE TOWNSHIP ON YOUR CELEBRATION OF 175 YEARS! YOUR YOUR LO LOCAL CAL

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570-454-8767 S20 Standard-Speaker HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S20] | 10/28/14

Then, the Mile of Dimes campaign lined up dimes along Broad Street in Hazleton.

The dimes added up into the thousands, and 835 acres on the western side of Hazleton was purchased for $5,000. The land would become the Valmont Industrial Park, which gets its name for those who contributed money to the effort — the people of the mountain, and the people of the valley.

The land purchase actually preceded the construction of Interstate 81, which cut off 150 of the park’s acres from the rest.

All of the 685 acres left was in Hazle Township, but Frank Fay, the township’s tax collector and political leader, did not believe CAN DO would last. So he encouraged West Hazleton borough to annex 500 acres.

Dessen then said he wanted to raise $500,000 in what was a terrible local economy.

Local bankers said, “You can’t do that.”

Dessen responded, “Yes, I CAN DO it.”

That’s where the organization’s name came from.

It was actually a case where the acronym preceded the name. The late Standard-Speaker editor Dominic Antonelli coined the term “Community Area New Development Organization” to stand for CAN DO. Dessen actually raised $750,000, some of which was used to purchase the original 1,100 acres for the Humboldt Industrial Park from George Chisnell. Like Valmont originally was, all of the parcel was in Hazle Township.

The deal was closed on Dec. 31, 1969, and CAN DO’s first industrial director, the late

Joseph Yenchko, said he had heavy equipment on the land the following Monday morning to begin to clear it.

The southernmost portion of Humboldt was rocky and originally thought unbuildable until later on, when technology and demand combined to make the land developable.

The portion of the land that fronted state Route 924 was abandoned coal land, which was later cleaned up and made a part of the park.

In the first 13 years, Humboldt had only six industries, including the then-innovative coal gasification plant, a U.S. Department of Energy pilot project in which coal briquets were burned, and turned into a gas that was fed to two industries in the park.

But when federal grants to operate the plant expired and not enough customers were hooked on, the plant was closed and later converted into a cogeneration plant.

During the economic boom of the 1980s, Humboldt grew. In 1988, CAN DO set a record by attracting 12 new industries to the area, most of which went to Humboldt.

To make room for all the new industry, CAN DO had to develop more land.

First, the land called Humboldt Southwest was developed. This was the last 300 acres of the original park.

This land originally was supposed to be a buffer between the park industries and a proposed New Jersey Steel plant. That plant, eyed for a 100-acre site behind the buffer, was

See CANDO, S21

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

CAN DO (Continued from S20) going to recycle used steel. But environmental concerns scuttled the project, and the 300 acres was subdivided and sold.

In the early 1990s, PPL held a contest to see which part of its 29-county service area could develop a site for one, large industry, presumably for an automaker. CAN DO developed a 550-acre site that actually spilled into East Union Township, Schuylkill County.

The one large industry was never attracted, so the land was subdivided and made part of Humboldt park, called Humboldt West. Approximately 50 of the 550 acres lie in neighboring East Union Township, Schuylkill County.

Then CAN DO went across Route 924 from the original Humboldt Industrial Park and purchased 700 acres, some of it mine-scarred land which was reclaimed, and it was called Humboldt North. It is the home of the large Auto Zone distribution center, and Coca-Cola purchased a large tract for future development as a bottling plant. Humboldt North reaches the 150 acres cut off from the original Valmont park.

CAN DO then purchased the last 200 acres between the original eastern border of Humboldt park and Interstate 81 after working a land trade with PPL to relocate its driving course.

That land, which became known as Humboldt East, has become the home of Humboldt Station, CAN DO’s first foray into commercial development. It is the home of a Turkey Hill convenience store, Burger King and Sonic fast-food restaurants, and a Residence Inn by Marriott extended-stay hotel.

Land remains for future sit-down restaurants and another hotel.

CAN DO then purchased 300 acres adjacent to Humboldt North, which is called Humboldt Northwest, the development of which is just beginning.

In all, CAN DO has developed Humboldt into a 3,000-acre park with 52 industries that employ 7,000 people.

Combined with Valmont, the two parks make up a 4,000-acre industrial corridor interrupted only by Interstate 81. Approximately 3,450 acres are in Hazle Township.

Needing a second access road to Humboldt park — and a second link to the park from I-81 — CAN DO has proposed extending Route 424 , the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce Beltway, into Humboldt park.

The road, which is being designed but a few years away from construction, will open up another 1,000 acres in the park, which is projected to create another 7,000 jobs.

ERIC CONOVER/Staff Photographer

A new entrance to Humboldt Industrial Park will be built at the intersecton of Interstate 81 and Route 424 in Hazle Township.

At left, the first sign at Valmont Industrial Park listed only four industries.

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Standard-Speaker S21 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Recreation

Hazle Township Community Park a place to relax since 1960

By KENT JACKSON StaffWriter

A thousand or more residents of the Hazleton area spent part of Independence Day 1962 walking along the shores of a new lake.

Lake Irena at Hazle Township Community Park was dedicated that day in honor of Irena Correale, the mother of Frank, Fred and Palmer Correale of Correale Construction Co., who supplied $85,000 in money, labor and materials to build the lake.

Since then, the lake has become the center of the park, which opened in 1960.

Anglers line the shores on the opening day of trout season each year to try catching some of the trout that Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission releases into the water. By winter, fewer anglers remain, but a handful drill through the ice and drop their hooks.

Lake Irena covers 20 acres at normal levels, but the park spreads across 170 acres that take in soccer fields, baseball fields, playgrounds, picnic pavilions and a band shell.

Trails skirt the lake and take hikers, birders, runners, cross-country skiers and mountain bicyclists through woods and meadows.

Visitors can find blueberries in summer and teaberries in winter.

A stone fireplace remains on the west shore, where ice skaters used to get warm on winter evenings. The skating pavilion that Girl Scouts raised money to build has been removed, and skating no longer is permitted.

The Lone Star Boat Co. donated boats when the park formed, but boating and swimming are not allowed at the lake now.

The park is home to the Greater Hazleton Youth Soccer League, which started playing after the fields were built in 1997, as well as Hazle Township’s Little League and Babe Ruth baseball leagues.

Hazleton’s Italian and Latino festivals have been held at the park, along with fundraisers, 5-kilometer runs for charity, classic car shows, school outings, Easter egg hunts, group picnics and A Day at the Park, a cele-

bration hosted by the township’s recreation authority.

People along the lake sometimes see parachutists floating back to Hazleton Regional Airport that is just north of the park.

An Army tank now aims its barrel at the parking lot as a part of a memorial to veterans and veterans of the Vietnam War are honored by a monument, walkway and benches that the class of 1964 from Hazleton High School dedicated this summer.

The Hazle Township Recreation Authority dedicated a plaque in 2007 to Ray Marchetti, a resident who did volunteer work at the park.

A list of volunteers who built and maintained features of the park goes back further than Correale Construction Co. A group of volunteers called the Greater Hazleton Community Park Corp. organized to establish the park in 1959.

They managed the park for five years but retained debts when selling the park in 1965 to the township, which obtained a $40,000 state grant for the purchase. With the sale, the name changed from Community Park to Hazle Township Community Park.

The Pecora family is remembered in the name of Pecora Boulevard that leads to the park. Through a family business, Candid Estates, the Pecoras donated land for the boulevard and made a “substantial contribution” when selling the land for the park, Michael S. Pecora, a West Hazleton realtor, said. An article from 1960 said the land was valued at $75,000, but Candid Estates sold it for $30,000.

In 1960, the Kiwanis Club of Hazleton donated $8,000 and other several service clubs pledged to pay a portion of the mortgage. Citizens and businesses donated $9,063 through a badge drive organized by Bernard Byorek, one of the founders of the Community Park Corp.

Pecora remembers seeing Kiwanis Club members and workers from his uncle’s dairy farm helping to cut trees and clear brush in the park’s early days, when he was a student.

“The Community Park brought out a tre-

S22 Standard-Speaker HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S22] | 10/28/14

ELLEN F. O’CONNELL/Staff Photographer

The vibrant colors of the fall surround a man as he fishes on the pier at Lake Irena at Hazle Township’s Community Park. The lake has been the center of the park since 1962. mendous outpouring of volunteer labor, monetary contributions and other support,” former Standard-Speaker Day Editor Dominic Antonelli said to his successor, Ramon Saul, on Sept. 21, 1988 in a letter that remains in the newspaper’s files.

To help start the park, the Greater Hazleton Jaycees donated four tennis courts, and years later in 1994, the Jaycees helped the township recreation board build a picnic pavilion.

In 1995, the township recreation authority obtained $50,000 in county and state grants to build a children’s playground with slides, swings, covered walkway and towers.

Al Roman recalled when his No. 1 Contracting Co. and the Carpenters Union helped build a fishing pier on Lake Irena.

“We drove 15-inch steel beams right to the rock,” Roman said.

The Pennsylvania Conservation Corps built a pavilion in 2005 at the park.

Hazle Township Supervisor William Gallagher said local Lions Club members donated a picnic pavilion and students from the Hazleton Area Career Center installed benches and picnic tables last year.

Employees from Walmart, Lowe’s and other businesses recently have done work projects at the park, as have students from the Keystone Job Corps Center, Gallagher said.

The Correale family, in addition to building Lake Irena, raised money for other projects such as a nursery at the former St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Correale Stevens, a grandson of Frank Correale, remembers attending the dedication of Correale Stadium for the Hazleton Little League at Ninth and Monges streets in 1957 when retired New York Yankees shortstop Phil “Scooter” Rizzuto attended the ceremony. kjackson@standardspeaker.com

Thursday, October 30, 2014 23:36 | SCHILLINGS

Jeddo

(Continued from S16) against the New York Yankees, only to lose in some close games, as the Yanks swept the series in four games.

The Jeddo Stars baseball team squared off against the Sampson Blue Jackets of Sampson, New York, a team with Konstanty, who would play for the Yankees in the mid-1950s, and big-leaguer Eddie Yost, a solid third baseman for the Washington Senators and later the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels. Sampson would defeat the Stars in home and away games, but the fact that the Stars were playing teams of that caliber showed why they were a respected local baseball team of the day.

Times change. The war ended. Coal was no longer “king” and entertainment was expanding for young men and women. Television and cars were moving front and center, and if people weren’t watching TV they were taking a ride in their new automobiles.

Lifestyles were changing even for small town communities.

Whatever the reason, men began finding other ways to entertain themselves, like softball, and leagues were popping up in the coal region.

The Jeddo Stars in the early 1970s changed to softball and made the field more suitable for that game. A second field was built around 1976, and also around that time, the club added a picnic grove and a memorial park in honor of the 321 World War II veterans from Jeddo.

Softball, like hardball, could not sustain the Jeddo Stars legacy, forcing the team to fold in the late 1980s.

The Jeddo Stars club became a social place with a gathering of memories of the good times when the Stars were a great baseball team. Members aged and died off, and membership continued to fall off into the new millennium.

Dart leagues and a full-service bar became popular for awhile; in fact, any competitive game helped draw new members.

The club has pool tables and darts, but it wasn’t like the old days when some of the old-timers would tell you that finding a chair was difficult.

Guys like Mike Yatsko, a secretary-treasurer for the Jeddo Stars, and Jerry Dancho, who became club president in 2001, found it challenging to bring in more new members, according to previously published accounts.

The Ladies Auxiliary, which once boasted hundreds of members, was gone.

The club has always supported Little League teams and biddy basketball teams and donated to midget football teams.

Through most of the years, baseball fields were maintained despite no games on the

Falatko was a World War II and Korean War veteran and all-around outstanding athlete.

Falatko was a longtime reporter for the Standard-Speaker and covered the north side for many of those years.

He and his longtime friend Ray Saul worked together for decades and thanks to Saul, many of the successes of the Jeddo Stars and the area’s many other great teams are on the record at the Standard-Speaker. Excerpts from Saul’s famous “Speaking of Sports” column were used in writing this story.

Not everything about Jeddo Stars baseball, however, is old news found in newspaper archives. A new era is beginning with an enthusiastic group of young athletic baseball players wearing new Jeddo Star jerseys competing in the Hazleton Hardball League.

The league, which just completed its seventh season, played in 2014 at the newly refurbished Jeddo Stars field thanks to a buy-in from the club and help from some volunteers. The Jeddo Stars have been reborn and are playing baseball — hardball — again in the coal region.

Mark Katchur is player-manager for the Stars and also interim president of the HazleERIC CONOVER/Staff Photographer ton Hardball League, which has grown from The baseball field at the Jeddo Stars complex in Hazle Township is back in use. The five to nine teams since its inaugural season in playing field was entirely rebuilt recently, and now other improvements are planned. 2008.

Last year, the club spent money to return the field to a baseball diamond, and other diamonds. Club members made sure the as a Shipper basketball player. improvements are planned ahead of next grass was mowed and the area kept fairly He ended up playing all four infield posiseason. The Jeddo Stars ballclub, meanclean. tions for Detroit, Boston, Milwaukee and while, just captured the Hazleton Hardball The rich history of the Jeddo Stars is preKansas City, and was an outstanding player League fall season title — the club’s first served by members past and present. Great in the minor leagues. baseball championship in decades. baseball managers like Wes Matchick, Gene A guy who helped him while he played The league and the club’s involvement Zynel, Hal Heidenreich and Joe Marchetti, with the Jeddo Stars was another standout show that men still want to play competitive and players like Tom Stelmock and George athlete named Jake Kislan. Kislan played baseball.

Moskovich will be forever remembered for with the Jeddo Stars but made his mark in Just like the tough, hard-working miners their contributions to Jeddo Stars baseball. softball by realizing a lifelong dream of in 1901, some 113 years ago, Hazle Township And family names through the years that building and managing the Drifton Softball made Stars baseball important such as Complex, which was eventually named after and the Jeddo Stars can never be counted out.

Sarosky, Maranki, Bogansky, Batcha, LapKislan. The Jake Kislan Drifton Softball chak, Malchitsky, Bellas and Antinozzi, plus Complex brought a lot of business to the tragan@standardspeaker.com colorful nicknames like Zip Lazarsky, Porky area with national softball tournaments for Hudock and Lefty Smith, will not be forgotten. men and women. The complex is located in Wes Matchick’s son, Tommy Matchick, Hazle Township and for years was a big was a Hazle Township High School standout draw card to the area. in baseball, football and basketball. He Moskovich hit the first home run at the played on the outstanding Valley Babe Ruth Jeddo Stars field as a player during the 1945Hazle Township on 175 Years of Success!

All-Stars 13- to 15-year-old team that traveled 47 seasons. He also pulled off a rare triple to California in 1959 as one of the tournaplay as a Star. Moskovich made it to the CENTRAL TOOL SUPPLY, INC. ment teams in the national championship. minors with stops at Buffalo, New York, R. 572 CARSON ST., HAZLETON, PA 18201 PHONE: (570) 459-6767 • FAX: (570) 459-5641 At the age of 16, Matchick was playing outMemphis, Tennessee and Ottawa, Canada, EMAIL: SALES@CENTRALTOOLSUPPLY.COM standing baseball with the Jeddo Stars. He falling short of making it with the PhiladelWEB: WWW.CENTRALTOOLSUPPLY.COM made it to the major leagues as a slick fieldphia Athletics in the American League.

METALWORKING & INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES ing infielder for the Detroit Tigers and He was also a member of the Jeddo Stars CUTTING TOOLS • CARBIDE INSERTS • FLUIDS played in the 1968 World Series as a member team that went unbeaten in 22 games in 1947 HAND TOOLS • POWER TOOLS • MEASURING TOOLS of the Tigers team. Matchick was an athlete in the Anthracite League.

WORKHOLDING TOOLS who made not only Jeddo residents proud, Joe Falatko Sr., also known as ‘Ganze,” SAFETY SUPPLIES & MACHINERY but Hazle Township High School proud. He pitched or managed the Eckley Reds and REPRESENTING OVER 170 MANUFACTURES averaged 24 points a game in his senior year Jeddo Stars baseball teams for over 30 years.

Congratulations

Thursday, October 30, 2014 HZ_STANDSPEAK/SPECIAL_SECTION/PAGES [S23] | 10/28/14

Standard-Speaker S23 23:43 | SCHILLINGS