Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania

Schuylkill County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

Etymology - Origin of County Name

named for the Schuylkill River. "Schuylkill" is Dutch for "hidden stream."

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Created on March 1, 1811 from parts of Berks and Northampton Counties and named for the Schuylkill River. "Schuylkill" is Dutch for "hidden stream." Parts of Columbia and Luzerne Counties were added on March 3, 1818. Pottsville, the county seat after December 1, 1851, was incorporated as a borough on February 19, 1828 and became a city in 1910. It was named for the Pott family, early settlers. The original county seat was Orwigsburg.

Germans from Berks County arrived two years before the land was purchased from the Indians in 1749. This was the scene of Indian raids and frontier forts in the French and Indian and Pontiac Wars, and of brief Indian raids during the Revolution. Necho Allen in 1790 discovered that anthracite coal would burn, and Col. George Shoemaker proved in 1812 that it could fire a rolling mill. In 1822 the first shipment of anthracite on the Schuylkill Canal spurred mining. The county has some of both the Southern and Middle anthracite fields. From 1880 to 1940 it was second only to Luzerne in production. In 1842, the Reading Railroad arrived, but the canal carried coal also until 1881. A second generation began mining the northern area using inclined plains. The railroads owned the majority of the mines. Mining technology was first worked out in Schuylkill, also the scene of early mine labor troubles. Pottsville did not develop an anthracite elite comparable to Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and Mauch Chunk, because most of its capital came in from Philadelphia. The coal strikes of 1902 and 1925–1926 destroyed consumer confidence and alternative heating fuels cut into anthracite's market. Despite a World War II revival, the industry collapsed. The population peaked at 235,505 in 1930. Strip mining began shortly after 1900. Bootleg coal operators prevailed between 1930 and 1940 due to the collapse of the old corporations. In the heyday of anthracite production, the county competed with Lackawanna as the state's second-most productive county. In 1990 Schuylkill produced half of Pennsylvania's 3.4 million tons. Other county products have included explosives, textiles, apparel, and shoes. One-fifth of the land is farmed, and the county has a strong position in the production of swine and potatoes.
 

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