An undated photograph of a very young coal miner.
The photo, which is from the Schuylkill County Historical Society, was published in the “Looking Back” feature of the Pottsville Republican, March 12, 1977. A better copy of the photo can be obtained from the historical society.
The text is by Joseph M. Hanney, who was the vice president of the society:
THE LITTLEST MINER
One picture can speak a thousand words and this one surely can. Coal was King, and there was a Realm. Who was he? Would he remain forever nameless? Certainly he worked “down-in.” What was his ethnic origin? Was he a door-tender? Mule driver? Had he any chance to go to school, or was he forced to add a meagre wage to a family’s subsistence? His age? Maybe twelve years, or early teens. The mines made old men out of boys before their time. But look at his eyes, his almost compressed lips, this unnamed Little Miner Boy. Surely they speak a thousand words, or yet again tell a thousand stories. There were literally legions of these boys “down-in” and “on-top” in breakers. Can you name this one of them, or read his story in the picture?
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From Newspapers.com.
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