An interior view from around 1900 of an early wood coal breaker. By 1910, all wood breakers in the coal region had been replaced by steel breakers.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1997:
The Lawrence Colliery was located at Mahanoy Plane on the south side of Mahanoy Creek. The colliery was opened by a slope sunk 285 feet on the North Dip Mammoth Vein by Jacob S. Lawrence, Michael Merkle & Company in 1868. The first shipment of coal was 29,848 tons in 1869.
In 1871-1872, a traveling way for men and a tunnel driven on the first lift of the seven-foot vein were opened.
In 1873, miners sank the second slope parallel with the old slope 350 feet to the first level for a hoisting slope and used the old slope for pumping.
In 1874, the first lift gangway was driven 4,050 feet east to its boundary and the west gangway to the Mahanoy Plane.
In 1875, miners again extended the slope 340 feet to the third level and continued mining the several veins reached by tunneling until 1881, when Mr. Merkle retired from the firm and was succeeded by George Brown. At the same time, Mr. Mongold, a member of the firm, sold his interests to the colliery superintendent, Matthew Beddow. The new firm of Lawrence, Brown & Company continued the colliery and, in 1885, it sank a new slope 1,293 feet on the North Dip Skidmore Vein.
In 1889, its lease was extended to include mining the remaining coal in the basin of the old abandoned Stanton Colliery. Heavy expenses occurring in the removal of water from the Stanton Colliery and the demoralized condition of the coal trade caused Lawrence, Brown & Company to fail in 1892. The firm was succeeded by Moore & Burchell, which operated the colliery to 1894.
In 1894, the landowners formed the Gilbert Coal Company, with Walter Shaeffer, president, and operated the colliery until 1897, when it was leased to the Lawrence Coal Company, which mined it until 1904, when the colliery was abandoned.
In 1914, the Harleigh-Brookwood Coal Company reopened the colliery and sank the seven-foot slope 235 feet to the first and second levels. It operated the colliery in conjunction with the Stanton Colliery until 1916, when the two collieries started to operate as one from the Lawrence Colliery.
Litigation for years by both the Reading Railway Company and the landowners plagued the colliery. The litigation was over the mining being a menace to the Mahanoy Plane and the loss of coal required for maintaining the security of the Mahanoy Plane.
The total shipment from the Lawrence Colliery was 7,284,705 tons as of 1928.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, August 23, 1997. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.