Medical Caregiving and Identity in Pennsylvania's Anthracite Region, 1880–2000

1. The Anthracite Coal Region

1 The Anthracite Coal Region A drive down or walk along the Avenue in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, provides the traveler with a visual history of both the town and the anthracite region of which it is a part. Five churches—four on one side and one on the other—dominate the west end of the thoroughfare. These churches are fitting monuments to the region’s religious and ethnic diversity: they include a Roman Catholic church built for Polish residents, a Ukrainian Orthodox church, a Roman Catholic church for Italians, a Russian Orthodox church, and a small Methodist church. The differences in faith and nationality that were important factors in establishing these churches also played essential roles in the medical caregiving that was provided in the town and in the region over the course of the twentieth century. As immigrants and their second-generation children embraced American culture and shed their Old World garments and customs, the traditional medical practices of area residents also disappeared and a reliance on American biomedicine became the norm. Although isolated in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, the town of Mount Carmel and the surrounding anthracite coal region have continually been in touch with and in concert with larger national trends. The town’s economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries relied on coal mining by area men and on textile production by the women. These twin activities matched the larger industrial development that characterized life in the United States in the same period. Thus, the region’s economic history reflects larger, national developments. Moreover, the 14 Y medical caregiving and identity immigration that aided and transformed the country had a direct impact on the coal region and its history. Immigrants from eastern and southern Europe journeyed to the United States’ doorstep in hopes of work and a better life. Many of these travelers migrated to cities; others headed for the nation’s rural areas, including the anthracite coal fields of northeastern and central Pennsylvania. Towns such as Mount Carmel were the final destinations for a blend of ethnicities and cultures and were places where diverse languages might be heard, different foods might be consumed, and unique customs might be witnessed. This ethnic diversity was a long-standing quality of Pennsylvania—cultural difference, in fact, was a feature cultivated by William Penn for his magnificent woods. Coal country also witnessed political developments that mirrored national occurrences—namely, politicians and private citizens tried to hold on to power and effect some real and positive change while facing the might of powerful industries that sought to dominate labor and property. Finally, the men, women, and children who lived in the coal region enjoyed the same leisure activities in which most Americans of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries took part. Throughout the United States, class, gender, and age normally separated the events to which spectators and participants flocked; the same trend appeared in the anthracite coal fields. economy and society The region’s economic power was built on the coal mined there—anthracite . Native Americans who lived in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania were the first to understand the significance of anthracite coal as a fuel source. It wasn’t until nearly two centuries after settlement that Europeans began using anthracite to heat smithing forges. By the nineteenth century, advancements in heating technology made anthracite a valuable home heating fuel. With the advent of railroad transportation, anthracite mining and distribution became big businesses in Pennsylvania and along the eastern seaboard. Anthracite possessed great potential as a power source—it drove industry, it heated homes, and it transported goods and peoples across the United States and over the oceans.1 Located about 120 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Mount Carmel is one example of a town fueled by the economic power of anthracite. The town and the coal patches or villages that surrounded it were built upon coal, both geographically and economically. Founded in 1862, Mount Carmel is part of the Western Middle Coal Field. The small villages of Atlas, Green Ridge, and Connorsville, which the reader will visit via this book, were the anthracite coal region Y 15 associated with local collieries. At least sixteen collieries, including Alaska, Reliance, Pennsylvania, and Midvalley, operated there and employed thousands of men and boys.2 Age as well as skill usually determined where one worked in the mines. Boys as young as eight years old served as...