# Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s

> A fast-growing anthracite borough where railroads, coal companies, churches, newspapers, and immigrant labor shaped ordinary life.

- Place: Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (41.326, -75.789)
- Years: 1880 to 1889
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/pittston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1880s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Pittston%2C%20Luzerne%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20United%20States&at=41.3259,-75.7894&year=1885

## Looking around

Stand on the east bank and the place turns first toward the Susquehanna, just below the Lackawanna’s mouth[2]. Across the water, two bridges lead to West Pittston[2]. Behind you the borough is tied into three railroad systems[2], with depots and freight houses near Water Street and Broad and Law. Main Street has been made over: an old ravine has been graded into a paved street with substantial buildings[1]. Coal is the scale of everything; Pittston is the seat of Pennsylvania Coal Company operations[2], and nearby collieries, shafts, slopes, breakers, foundries, planing mills, stove works, pottery, gas works, and water works fill the town’s working map. Around the streets are schools, an opera house, banks, a library, and twelve churches[2]. The borough is no isolated village: news comes through the Pittston Gazette and Evening Gazette[3], and trains connect it with Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, New York routes, and Philadelphia.

## Work: Coal sets the day

The strongest fact about work is scale: Pittston was the seat of Pennsylvania Coal Company operations[2], and its coal shipments were counted in millions of tons. Around that sat knitting, foundry, planing, pottery, gas, water, and stove works[2], but coal and rail freight dominated the town’s rhythm.

## Who lived here: Immigration changes the borough

The older Yankee settlement was being remade because coal brought an influx of European nationalities[1]. Local history names Scotch, Welsh, English, Irish, and German residents[1], while the wider county was drawing tens of thousands of European newcomers to the coal fields.

## Faith: Many churches, many calendars

By 1879 Pittston had twelve churches[2], enough for denominational difference to structure Sundays, schooling, marriages, burials, and neighborhood loyalties. The sources opened do not list all twelve congregations for the 1880s, so their exact names are left out here.

## Law & power: Companies and borough officers

Power was partly municipal and partly industrial: Pittston was still a borough[7], while the Pennsylvania Coal Company operated a large proportion of the collieries around Pittston[1]. Borough officers governed streets and policing, but wages, housing near mines, and working risk depended heavily on employers.

## What people feared: Work underground is dangerous

The most ordinary danger was occupational: as across the anthracite counties, mine work exposed men and boys to falls, explosions, flooding, fires, machinery, and bad air. One nearby older Butler working even had abandoned coal and pillars burning[1], though the opened source says the company continued below the fire.

## Home & table: Crowded growth, few interiors

The borough grew from 7,472 people in 1880 to 10,302 in 1890[4][5], so streets, boarding places, and family houses had to absorb rapid change. No opened source gives reliable room layouts or building materials for ordinary miners’ houses in this decade.

## Money: Banks, but missing prices

Money was visible in institutions: Pittston had three banks with $900,000 aggregate capital[2]. Yet the opened sources do not give ordinary Pittston rents, grocery prices, or miner wages for the 1880s.

## Roads & news: Papers, bridges, railroads

News arrived by print and rail: the Pittston Gazette and Evening Gazette[3] were available in the decade. Travel outward was easy for the period because Pittston stood on three railroads[2] and had two bridges to West Pittston[2].

## Year by year

- **1880** (here): Pittston borough counted 7,472 people in the federal census.[4][5]
- **1881** (here): A Pittston freight station on the south side of Water Street was built or replaced.[8]
- **1882** (here): The Evening Gazette appeared in Pittston, adding a daily or evening newspaper presence to the town’s print life.[3]
- **1886** (here): A combination railroad station was built at Broad and Law Streets in Pittston.[8]
- **1886** (the country): The Haymarket bombing and trial in Chicago made labor radicalism and public order national subjects of argument.
- **1888** (the country): The Great Blizzard of March 1888 paralyzed rail and telegraph lines across the Northeast and would have been read about in anthracite Pennsylvania.
- **1889** (nearby): The Johnstown Flood killed thousands in Pennsylvania and became a statewide disaster story.
- **1890** (here): Pittston borough’s population reached 10,302 in the federal census.[4][5]

## What the sources say

- Pittston was a borough in Luzerne County in the 1880s; it did not become a city until 1894. (inferred)[7]
- A 1879 reference placed Pittston on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, just below the mouth of the Lackawanna River. (from the sources)[2]
- The same 1879 reference put Pittston on the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg, Lehigh and Susquehanna, and Lehigh Valley railroads. (from the sources)[2]
- In 1879 Pittston was described as the seat of the Pennsylvania Coal Company’s operations, with coal shipments of 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 tons a year. (from the sources)[2]
- The Pennsylvania Coal Company operated a large proportion of the collieries around Pittston in the early 1880s. (from the sources)[1]
- Coal companies named around Pittston in an 1880 county history included the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, Pittston Coal Company, Grove Brothers at the Columbia mine, Phoenix Coal Company, Tompkins colliery, and Butler Coal Company. (from the sources)[1]
- Pittston Coal Company, organized in 1875, operated the Seneca slope, the Ravine shaft, and the Twins. (from the sources)[1]
- By 1879 Pittston had two bridges to West Pittston, a street railroad, an opera house, three banks with $900,000 aggregate capital, good schools, two weekly newspapers, a public library, and twelve churches. (from the sources)[2]
- Manufacturing named in Pittston in 1879 included a knitting mill, foundry and machine shop, two planing mills, pottery and terra-cotta works, gas works, water works, and extensive stove works. (from the sources)[2]
- A county history said Pittston’s Yankee population had predominated for about sixty years, but coal brought an influx of European nationalities. (from the sources)[1]
- The same county history named Scotch, Welsh, English, Irish, and German residents in Pittston’s nineteenth-century coal-era population. (from the sources)[1]
- Luzerne County history says that from 1870 to 1915 as many as 100,000 European immigrants ended up in Luzerne County coal fields. (from the sources)[6]
- Pittston had a Pittston Gazette run in the 1880s, and the Evening Gazette is listed for 1882 and 1883–1889 as the Pittston Evening Gazette. (from the sources)[3]
- The 1880 federal census reported Pittston borough with 7,472 people, and the 1890 census reported 10,302. (from the sources)[4][5]
- Before later grading, a deep ravine crossed Main Street near the Pennsylvania Coal Company office; by the county history’s account, it had become a paved street with substantial buildings. (from the sources)[1]
- The Pittston and Wilkes-Barre plank road, built in 1851, crossed a ravine by a large trestle near Patterson’s lumber yard before grading replaced the trestle. (from the sources)[1]
- A two-story wooden depot stood on the south side of Water Street in the 1880s, and its freight station was built or replaced in 1881. (from the sources)[8]
- A combination station at Broad and Law Streets was built in 1886. (from the sources)[8]
- A joint Lehigh Valley and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western passenger station at Pittston Junction had been built in 1868 and served Upper Pittston near Main and Union Streets. (from the sources)[8]
- As across the anthracite counties, mine work exposed men and boys to falls of roof, explosions, flooding, fires, machinery, and black damp, though a Pittston accident list for the 1880s was not opened here. (inferred)
- Pennsylvania borough government in the 1880s centered on elected local officers such as burgess, councilmen, justices, and constables; adult male citizenship and property-tax rules shaped voting before later reforms. (inferred)
- No online source opened here gave ordinary Pittston household rents, grocery prices, or miner wages specifically for the 1880s. (not known)
- No detailed online description found here fixes the materials, size, or room layout of ordinary Pittston miners’ houses in the 1880s. (not known)

## Sources

1. History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties, Pa., Part 99. W. W. Munsell & Co.; transcribed at LDS Genealogy, 1880. https://ldsgenealogy.com/PA/books/History-of-Luzerne-Lackawanna-and-Wyoming-counties-Pa-with-illustrations-and-biographical-sketches-of-some-of-their-prominent-men-and-pioneers-part-99.htm
2. The American Cyclopædia: Pittston. D. Appleton and Company; Wikisource transcription, 1879. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_American_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_(1879)/Pittston
3. Newspapers by County: Luzerne County. State Library of Pennsylvania. https://pa-gov.libguides.com/c.php?g=1180939&p=8635000
4. 1880 Census: Statistics of the Population of the United States. United States Census Office, 1880. https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1880a_v1-12.pdf
5. Report on Population of the United States at the Eleventh Census: 1890. United States Census Office, 1890. https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1890a_v1-11.pdf
6. History of Luzerne County. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. https://www.luzernecounty.org/422/History-of-Luzerne-County
7. Pittston City: History, Culture and a Reputation. City of Pittston. https://cdn.website-editor.net/dcb2270579134da18d99448109d32e03/files/uploaded/PittstonPA.pdf
8. Luzerne County Pennsylvania Railroad Stations. West2K. https://www.west2k.com/pastations/luzerne.shtml

## The same place in other decades

- [Pittston Township in the 1840s](https://yorehistory.com/place/pittston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1840s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1880s/md) (12 km)
- [Wyoming or Wilkes-Barre area, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-or-wilkes-barre-area-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (23 km)
- [White Haven, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s](https://yorehistory.com/place/white-haven-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1860s/md) (30 km)
- [Erwinna, Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s](https://yorehistory.com/place/erwinna-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1860s/md) (110 km)
- [Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/bucks-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (124 km)
- [Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/doylestown-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1880s/md) (126 km)
- [Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey in the 1910s](https://yorehistory.com/place/montclair-essex-county-new-jersey/1910s/md) (144 km)

---
Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s", https://yorehistory.com/place/pittston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1880s