THE NEWSLETTER OF THE HUBER BREAKER PRESERVATION SOCIETY
Volume 2, Number 3 October 2003
Ground-breaking Ceremony For Coal Miners Monument Observed at Nanticoke
Under the leadership of Alma Berlot, assisted by her husband, Al Berlot, and many community leaders, a monument to coal miners is to be erected in Nanticoke. It is a bronze statue of a coal miner, the work of Alan Cottrill of Ohio. The statue, weighing 700 pounds, is nearing completion and should be shipped here soon.
On October 2, 2003, a ground-breaking ceremony was held at the site for the statue, in front of the CVS parking lot at the northwestern entrance to Nanticoke. This is the location of the old Nanticoke High School. The site was donated by the owner of the land, Sam Marranca.
Among those participating in the ceremony were John Toole, Mayor of Nanticoke, Magistrate Donald Whittaker, Gerald Hudak, Vice-President of the Nanticoke Chamber of Commerce, Joseph Keating, mine historian of Plymouth, and John Vengian, promoter of the Coal Miner’s Stamp. Rev. James McGahagan, pastor of Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church in Buttonwood, gave the benediction. Monique Chihorek, branch manager of the Nanticoke CVS, helped coordinate the event.
Loretta Chmura is chairperson of a polka dance fund raiser for the monument, to be held November16, 2003, at the Nanticoke American Legion Post 350. The Anthracite Living History Group, under the leadership of Joe Keating, will mount an anthracite exhibit there that afternoon.
State Funding Authorized for Huber Museum and Park
A bill passed by the Pennsylvania State Senate authorizing funds for the Huber Breaker Anthracite Museum and Park was signed by outgoing Governor Mark Schweiker and now awaits the signature of Governor Ed Rendell, for the release of funds. Governor Rendell has considerable latitude in deciding which projects move forward, reports Leo Kucewicz, Administrative Officer to State Senator Raphael Musto, and the inclusion of the Huber project in the itemized list does not guarantee that funds will be released for it.
It is Senate Bill 1213, now Act 131 of 2002, the Capital Budget Project Itemization Act of 2001-2002, signed into law by Governor Schweiker on October 30, 2002. It contains a $9 million project itemization for development and site improvements for the Huber Breaker Anthracite Museum and Park. Often there are more projects itemized in law than there are available funds. Senator Raphael Musto, HBPS board member, is working to implement the bill’s provisions for the Huber Breaker through the release of the authorized funds.
Members of the HBPS are encouraged to lobby for this critical release of funds and to bring the Huber cause to the attention of their friends and neighbors in the Anthracite Region.
Visitors and newcomers to Wyoming Valley can easily see the Huber Breaker on the skyline, but they cannot know how central this installation was to the anthracite industry unless informed friends of the breaker enlighten them. A developed park would meet this need.
HBPS Applies for Grants from Regional Foundations
The Huber Breaker Preservation Society is now applying to the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor for a grant of $5000 to support development of the proposed Huber Breaker Anthracite Museum and Park.
A grant for the project in the amount of $3000 has been made to the HBPS by the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation.
These grants enable the Society to press forward with improving access to the Huber Breaker, while building community support for the breaker’s preservation.
Riverside Teacher Fosters Interest in Huber Breaker
Shawn Murphy, a fifth grade teacher at Riverside Elementary West School in Taylor, PA, has been teaching his students anthracite history.
In a letter to HBPS, he writes that his own interest in anthracite mining led him to bring it to the classroom. One of his former students, Ryan Cavanaugh, age 13, now in eighth grade, accompanied him on a recent visit to the Huber site. Ryan was thrilled to see a real breaker for the first time. Teacher and student now belong to the HBPS, since Shawn Murphy has taken out memberships for both himself and Ryan (as a Confirmation present).
Activities Shawn has coordinated at the school include writing letters to Congressman Kanjorski, State Senator Bob Mellow, and former Governor Mark Schweiker, persuading them to help save the Huber Breaker. He displayed some of these letters in the school lobby, together with samples of coal and photographs of the Huber.
American Labor Events Scheduled for Scranton
Events honoring American labor are scheduled for October 24-25 in Scranton. At the Scranton Cultural Center on Friday, October 24, there will be a day-long conference, the keynote speakers being Secretary of Labor & Industry, Stephen M. Schmerin, and United Way of Pennsylvania President, Tom Foley. That evening there will be music by Tom Flannery and a play by Maureen McGuigan. On Saturday, October 25, at 2:30 p.m., at the Anthracite Heritage Museum, Richard Stnislaus, Museum Curator, will speak on”The Great Strike of 1902.”
Anthracite Veterans Recall Working in the Mines
Among the miners interviewed by Professor Robert Wolensky at the Shickshinny riverside festival in September 2002 were Bill Hastie, Stosh Gurzynski, Art Perry, and John Mikulski.
Stosh worked at the Wanamie Colliery and remembers how good it felt to get a warm shower in the shift shanty after work. As a laborer, he earned six dollars a day, however long he worked each day. The breaker was then processing 1100 cars of coal a day. The Wanamie breaker is gone now, but the shift shanty and fan house are still standing, as well as some other colliery buildings now used by the Regional Equipment Company. The entrance to the slope mine adjoining the fan house has been filled in, but its location can be determined. Stosh lives in Sheatown, north of Wanamie, where a coal car is on display near Holy Trinity Church.
Art Perry noted that if you cross the Susquehanna River at Shickshinny heading toward Glen Lyon, you come to Mocanaqua, where a large breaker once stood. At the Conyngham Township Building, there are mural-size photographs of mine operations at Mocanaqua.
Art recalls how the water that was used to wash the coal at the breaker would be drained off into a lake. This water was black when it left the washing tub at the breaker, but gradually turned orange, from sulphur brought out of the mine. Thus the creek that ran from the breaker to the lake was black all the work week, but turned orange on Sunday, when the mine was not operating.
John Mikulski worked as a miner in various mines of the area, from 1935 to 1959, years that saw an upsurge of mining during the Second World War and labor negotiations conducted on the national scene under the UMW leadership of John W. Lewis. Anthracite coal faced a continuing struggle to compete with oil and natural gas, but in the 1950’s, the Jersey Central Railroad was still carrying carloads of anthracite from the Huber Breaker to New York City.