Last weekend, we joined CHAP (Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania) for a field trip to Eckley Miners’ Village in Weatherly, Pennsylvania. We had never been there, but we are always looking for fun field trips to learn more about Pennsylvania history. While we do love all history, Pennsylvania history is a requirement for homeschooling here, and field trips are a fun way to learn our state history.
When we arrived, we met with other homeschoolers and the point person from CHAP in front of the visitor center. Soon, a guide came out and split the group into two, and our family stayed with the group that was going to start in the visitor center to watch the movie and tour through the displays. After the visitor center, our tour guide took us outside to show us Eckley Miners’ Village.
I want to start by saying how thankful I am that we ended up with the guide we had. I don’t remember his name, but he said that he was nearly 80 years old, and he grew up in the area. He was able to put a personal spin on the story of Eckley.
Just outside of the visitor center, we were greeted by The Church of the Immaculate Conception. Unfortunately, we were not able to tour through this church due to the fact that it is being refurbished. This was the Catholic church in the community, and it primarily served the Irish in Eckley.
One of the big things we learned was that the smaller the house, the lower the station the miner (or laborer) had in the mine. While this isn’t a whole lot different than the way things are today, it seems to be a little more obvious in the mining village structure. Eckley (at least the part that we toured) is laid out in a straight line along a road that is maybe a mile long, so the “pecking order” of housing is condensed in a smaller area and becomes a lot more blatant. This is a double house, and it would have housed families in which the husband was an unskilled laborer. Each side only consisted of three rooms, and I’m not talking bedrooms. The other important thing is that bachelors were not able to rent housing, so families were required to take in boarders. Let me stress this… Families were REQUIRED to take boarders into their three room house. The guide said that there could be 15 or more people living in each side. Can you imagine that???
Here you can see the view down the street. The house with the orange fence around it sustained a fire at some point. Notice the two different housing types between the left front house and the right front house?
The house on the right or one like above added a 1/2 story which translated to a 4th room on each side. Double homes like this were probably rented by more highly skilled workers. Here again, they were required to take in boarders. At least, they had an extra room to house them in. Further down the street, we did see single family dwellings, but they would have only been rented to mine supervisors.
We were able to tour through both sides of the double homes that had four rooms. We were only able to go through the first floor (two rooms) of each side. Here you can see the wood cook stove that was in the kitchen. Of course, there was no electricity in the homes then, and that meant no air conditioning. I don’t know if you have cooked on a wood stove (I have), but it does put out a lot of heat. While this is nice in the winter, it is unbearable in the summer. At some point, summer kitchens were added. The summer kitchen was a separate building out back that would house a “dry” sink and the wood stove. The stove would be dismantled and moved to the summer kitchen in the summer, and then, it would be dismantled and moved back to the house in the winter. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? Also, there were outhouses in the back. We saw a couple of two-seaters. What about water? There was a reservoir of some sort out in the back (hope it wasn’t contaminated by the outhouses…), and the water had to be carried in from there. While I know life had to be bad for the miners, but it sounds like it was also very hard for the miners’ wives.
They had the other room set up as a bedroom. While you see a couple of beds here, there was also a pile of bedding on the floor behind me. I can imagine either the entire family sleeping in this room with some on the floor, or maybe the family had boarders sleeping on the floor in the same room as the family.
Something else to consider when thinking about the miners’ lives is that they were responsible for purchasing their own supplies. That would include things like explosives, picks, and shovels. They also had to purchase EVERYTHING from the company store. Why would this be a big deal? Because the company store charged more for everything than what other stores in the area would have charged. So, the boss who owned the mine and the store paid the miners. The miners in turn had to spend their money at the store, in turn putting the money right back into the owner’s pocket.
There was one common theme that ran throughout the town of Eckley, neglect. Places like Eckley Miners’ Village are so important to preserve because that period in time defined not only Pennsylvania, but it also enticed so many immigrants to come to this country. It really helped to develop our entire culture.
But yet, this example of such a defining point in history is falling apart! We saw several buildings either collapsed or in severe need of repair. Volunteers try to keep things up, but the state doesn’t seem to be able to find the money to do what needs to be done.
It seemed like the better kept houses were the ones who had people living in them. Yes, the state allows people to rent some of the houses, and in turn, the state is in the landlord business. This really didn’t make any sense to me at all, but I suppose that if the houses are kept up better, then it is probably a good thing. However, it doesn’t appear that these homes are kept in the same style as what they were when the mine was still being worked.
Here’s another example of neglect. Breakers were an important part of the coal mining process. It is what broke the coal pieces down to a usable size. From what we were told, there are NO breakers left in the state of Pennsylvania. This is a replica that was built in 1968 by the movie studio for the filming of The Molly Maguires which was filmed in Eckley. The movie studio did a lot of building and renovations in preparation for the movie; however, what was done has been left to crumble, too. It is so sad to see!
This is St. James Protestant Episcopal Church. Well, actually, it is representing that church which was torn down in 1938. This actual building is nearly identical to the church that stood on this site. It was built from almost identical plans as the original church but was in another town. This church was moved to this site in 1974.
We were able to enter this church, and words can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it is! It had a pipe organ that appeared to have a lever that someone would have had to pump in order for the organ to play. The stained glass was really pretty, too. This church was likely where the mine bosses worshipped.
Just up from this church was the doctor’s office. Since this village was established in 1854, you can only imagine the scale of medicine that was practiced here or even the types of illness that were brought here by the immigrants. The doctor treated patients in his office, but he also saw patients in their homes. He would walk around town, and if he saw a card in the window, he knew to stop in.
This was the mine owner’s house. We weren’t able to enter this house, but I can only imagine the comparative opulence that would have existed in this house. The other thing that I noticed is that this building also seems to be taken care of better than the other homes down the street.
We thoroughly enjoyed taking this tour and hope to go back when they have special events later in the year! What type of field trips do you like to take?
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