A photograph taken about 1910 of an early wood coal breaker which was covered with corrugated metal panels. Note the wood Philadelphia & Reading Railroad car under the breaker loading overhang.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1997:
The Stanton Colliery was located east of Mahanoy Plane on the north side of the Mahanoy Creek.
The colliery was opened by a slope sunk 393 feet on the South Dip Mammoth Vein by Miller, Hoch & Company in 1870. The first coal shipment of 2,000 tons was made in 1871. The company mined the Mammoth Vein, driving gangways east and west to 1874, when the west gangway was driven into the Bear Ridge Colliery workings.
In 1876, miners sank a new slope 720 feet to the second level, driving a tunnel 320 feet north to the Buck Mountain Vein, and extended the old slope for pumping. Miller, Hoch & Company mined the two veins until 1880. It sank the slope to the third level and extended the pump slope to the same level, 1,035 feet from the surface, when the colliery was sold out by the sheriff. However, it continued mining under an agreement until 1884.
In 1884, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company leased the colliery and operated it until 1889, when it was abandoned and allowed to fill with water.
In 1890, Lawrence & Brown, operating the Lawrence colliery, removed the water and mined the remaining coal until failing in 1892. The colliery continued as a section of the Lawrence Colliery to 1904, when it was abandoned and again allowed to fill with water.
In 1902, the Harleigh, Brookwood Coal Company reopened the workings, sinking a slope on the Buck Mountain Vein to the first level. In 1909, it extended the slope 400 feet to the second and third levels. In 1911, a new gunboat slope was sunk 700 feet on the Buck Mountain Vein to the third level and a tunnel was driven south on the seven-foot vein preparatory to removing the water in the Lawrence and Stanton works.
In 1911, a new slope was sunk 300 feet on the four-foot vein and, in 1912, a slope was sunk 130 feet on the North Dip seven-foot vein.
In 1914, a tunnel was driven from the second-level four-foot slope to the old abandoned Mammoth Vein Slope and a second tunnel, 720 feet in length was driven south across the basin to meet a tunnel driven north from the seven-foot slope. The Skidmore and Buck Mountain slopes were extended to the fourth level.
The company continued mining the Stanton and Lawrence workings until 1916, when the Stanton section was abandoned.
Total shipment of coal from the Stanton Colliery was 2,434,771 tons to 1916.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, December 6, 1997. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.