From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1997:
Located north of Tower City in the Williams Valley, the Brookside Colliery was originally operated as two distinct individual collieries. The East Brookside was named the Tower Colliery and the other was the West Brookside Colliery.
The Tower or East Brookside Colliery was originally opened by a slope 450 feet in length on the North Dip Lykens Valley vein by E. D. Savage and James Savage, Evans and Althouse in 1868 and operated by them until 1873, when it was purchased by Repplier, Gordon & Company, which operated it for a short time until 1874, when it was abandoned.
The total shipment of coal from Tower Colliery was 101,550 tons.
In 1892, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company reopened the colliery and operated it in conjunction with the West Brookside Colliery.
The West Brookside Colliery was originally opened by a slope sunk 442 feet on the North Dip Lykens Valley No. 5 vein by Williams, Jones, Savage and W. B. Kaufman in 1868. They operated it until 1872, when it was purchased by Repplier & Company and operated until 1873.
in 1873, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company came in possession through the purchase of the Munson and Williams lands and operated both collieries as the Brookside Colliery. It extended the No. 1 Slope to a length of 1,170 feet in length in 1878. By 1879, the surface openings consisted of one tunnel and three slopes and on the inside workings were six planes and seven main gangways. The total production from 1875 to 1879 was 1,382,083 tons – the largest production of coal by any colliery in America or Europe.
Two breakers were used to prepare the coal and on April 25, 1885, one breaker was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt in just 94 days. This was the first time in which iron was used extensively in breaker construction.
In 1888, a slope was sunk on the “White” Lykens Valley No. 4 vein and in 1894, the East Brookside Slope was sunk 2,374 feet on the Lykens Valley No. 5 vein to the basin.
In 1895, a new slope was sunk on the Lykens Valley No. 4 vein directly over the No. 3 slope to 2,175 feet in length and a tender slope was sunk on the same vein at East Brookside. By 1898, the No. 3 slope was worked out and the pumps removed on February 15, 1898.
In 1890, the head frame for the sinking of the Brookside Shaft was installed. By 1905, the shaft was completed and reached a depth of 1,864 feet.
On August 2, 1913, a disastrous explosion occurred at East Brookside and 20 lives were lost.
In 1914, a new breaker was completed and the old East Brookside Breaker was abandoned.
The Brookside Colliery was closed August 26, 1938. The total shipments of coal to 1931 were 19,011,169.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, May 31. 1997 to June 1, 1997.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.