Formally the Eagle Colliery, then Herbine Colliery

and later St. Clair Coal Company was constructed in 1826

Rail cars going into mine at St. Clair Coal Co.

April 27, 1938, one of the worst disasters in St. Clair history happened. Approximately 7:30 in the morning, an explosion occurred in Buck Vein No. 9 tunnel at water level 300 feet below the surface.  Men working nearby sounded the alarm and the rescue and subsequent recovery began.  The entrance to No. 9 was blown shut, compelling the mine rescue team to carry the injured and dead through gangways a mile long to an emergency slope off the Mammoth vein.  It was said pillars under the gangway crumbled and releasing gas from old workings causing the explosion.  Eight men were killed and eleven injured in this terrible disaster.

 By lucky chances several men who would have been working in this vein missed this terrible fate. One man was late for work because he overslept and Nicholas Opalenick, John Botto and Ray Weinus were sent to other slopes that morning.  Mr. Opalenick, currently living on North Second, was one of the men who led the mine rescue team.

1938, the colliery employed 500 men with an annual payroll over $600,000.00.  The previous year 635,138 ton of coal was mined in St. Clair.

An addition was added to the breaker in 1943.  Wilmot Engineering Co. of Hazleton constructed a new Hydrator plant.  This increased plant feed capacity to 6,000 ton per 7 hour shift.

February 14, 1948, 2 contract miners were killed on No. 30 slope near No. 10 tunnel.  They were caught under a heavy fall of top while working near a chute. Nicholas Panko age 53, was one of the men who survived the 1938 disaster was killed in this accident.

1949, a long strike lasting several months, idled the colliery..  The strike began over a firing of a contract miner over disciplinary reasons.  Then all U.M.W.A. miners east of the Mississippi went on strike at this time.  St. Clair miners returned to work September 30 of that year.  A picture and story were even published in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

On November 1, 1955 the No. 30 and 40 slope were closed.  Two-hundred and thrity men lost their jobs, 200 inside and 30 outside employees. The breaker and a strip mining operation remained working. In hopes that deep mining would start up again, the pump in the Pine Forest shaft was kept running.

In 1956, Mrs. Harold Smythe becoming president after the death of her husband. In this year 360,589 tons of coal were mined and processed at the breaker.

September 12, 1957, P.R.C.&I denied renewal of the lease held by the Colliery. 

Courtesy of David Jacobson

If you ever wondered why Saint Clair never had natural gas service for heating and cooking, here is the answer. The town Council did not allow the installation of natural gas lines into the town because of their dedication to coal mining. If you wanted or still want a gas stove, you must use the bottled gas.

Local clergy, businessmen, town officials and U.M.W.A officers, submitted requests to keep the breaker running and save the jobs of many men who worked there. Their requests fell on deaf ears.

October 15, 1957, the St. Clair Coal Co. closed its doors.  The last remaining 200 men lost their jobs.  My father, Herman "Chip" Morris, the payroll clerk, wrote an entry in his datebook for November 1, 1977, "St. Clair coal company lost it's lease".

Tearing down of the Saint Clair Coal Company in the early 1960's.  The land is being stripped of the remaining coal and leveled for the  Super Walmart Store to be built later in 2000.

Fatalities 1874

Saturday, April 15, 1899

 George Foster of town, employed at the shaft of the St. Clair Coal Co., was severely scalded on Monday.  He is engaged as pumpman at the bottom of the shaft, and was performing his usual work, when a steam pipe burst scalding him in a painful manner.  His injuries are confined chiefly to his head and arms. The injured man was removed to his home when he was made as comfortable as possible. 

 - Contractor Cressly, who is erecting the breaker of the St. Clair Coal Co. has worked for 75 men who are accustomed to handling edged tools.

 A sad accident.

- Robert Gannon, an employee of the St. Clair Coal Co., was so seriously injured while at work last Saturday evening.  He died while being taken to the Miners Hospital.  The cause of the accident cannot be definitely learned, but is supposed that he fell under the screen and was carried into the machinery.  He was discovered lying in a schute, and was carried into the coal office.  Dr. Morris was summoned and he found the young man’s right leg broken, his arm pulled from the socket and numberless cut and bruises all over the body.  After the wounds were dressed, Gannon was placed in the Colliery ambulance and was driven towards the hospital, but died on the road.  His body was brought to Hock’s undertaking establishment and from there to the home of his mother.  He was 17 years of age.  His father was killed on the railroad several years ago and a brother died at the Pottsville Hospital from injuries received at work.  Funeral took place on Wednesday.  Services were conducted in the P.M. Church by Reverend Bath and interment was made in the Odd Fellows Cemetery.

A recent article from the Schuylkill County Historical Society: "December 30, 1910 St. Clair Coal Co. colliery was sold to Kreft & Co., New York and Brown Brothers, Philadelphia, for $1.5 million."  St. Clair Historians do not recall this transaction, so verifying it as factual is not available.

1933 Harold M. Smythe, son of W.T. Smythe, took control of the Colliery

First suspended monorail system in the United States.  " In this application at Thirty Slope, Inc,. near St. Clair, PA, a six-car train (18 tons, total) hauls coal from the loading chutes in a pitching vein to the slope bottom, a distance of 1,600 ft.  This has been an experimental system, operating since July 1968, in the 4-ft Skidmore vein.  The next installation, locked into an actual production cycle, will be in the thicker Buck Mountain vein (8 to 12 ft) using 25 cars in the train on a  4,600 ft run.  This experimental program only lasted a few years.