Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s

Work

Coal shapes the day

The city sits in a county where anthracite production has become enormous¹, and its directory puts miners, firemen, moulders, and laborers inside the street grid. One laborer is listed at No. 4 Diamond Shaft³.

Money

Pay follows coal prices

A cited 1875 scale gave miners $12.60 a week and laborers $10.80⁹ when coal sold at five dollars a ton at tidewater. That kind of sliding wage made distant coal markets part of household life.

Faith

Catholics build in stone

St. Mary’s present church was built in 1870–1872⁷ for a parish founded in 1842. Its scale marks the growing Catholic and immigrant presence in the coal city.

Law & power

County seat and new city

Wilkes-Barre is the county seat^3,4, and in 1871 it becomes a city^4,6. Courts, jail, city officers, tax lists, and police authority are close at hand.

In the air

Labor and suspicion

The decade is full of argument over unions, violence, and mine-company power: the Molly Maguires controversy belongs to these same coal counties¹¹. A hanging at the local jail makes that conflict visible in town.

What people feared

Work, fire, and gallows

Coal work brings bodily risk, and public order is tense enough that Andrew Lenahan is hanged at the Luzerne County Jail in 1877¹². The city also buys its first steam fire engine in 1870⁶.

Who lived here

English and German print

The newspaper directory lists a German-language Democratic weekly⁵ alongside English-language papers. The city’s streets hold miners, laborers, tradesmen, domestics, clerks, and craftsmen in the same directory pages.

Roads & news

Rail and weekly papers

The Lehigh Valley Railroad links Wilkes-Barre to wider rail systems¹, and newspapers carry politics and advertisements. The Record of the Times costs two dollars a year⁵.

Year by year

1. 1870Wilkes-Barre bought its first steam fire engine, the Amoskeag engine named Mechanic. here⁶
2. 1871Wilkes-Barre became an incorporated city after decades as a borough. here^4,6
3. 1872St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception completed the new church begun in 1870. here⁷
4. 1873The Panic of 1873 began a long depression that sharpened wage cuts and labor conflict in the anthracite region. the country¹⁰
5. 1875Luzerne County and the Wyoming Valley produced about half of Pennsylvania’s anthracite. nearby¹
6. 1876The United States marked its centennial with the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, a national event Pennsylvanians could read and talk about. the country
7. 1877Andrew Lenahan was hanged at the Luzerne County Jail on Water Street in a Molly Maguires-related case. here¹²
8. 1877The Great Railroad Strike spread through Pennsylvania and brought deadly clashes and martial law to nearby Scranton. nearby⁸

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Wilkes-Barre was the county seat of Luzerne County in the 1870s. from the sources^3,4
• Wilkes-Barre was incorporated as a city in 1871, after having been a borough since 1806. from the sources^4,6
• One contemporary account of the city’s creation gives its 1870 population as 10,174. from the sources⁴
• By 1875, anthracite coal from the Wyoming Valley and Luzerne County represented about half the anthracite produced in Pennsylvania. from the sources¹
• The Lehigh Valley Railroad reached Wilkes-Barre by 1867 and connected with New York State rail systems in 1869. from the sources¹
• Boyd’s city directory entries for the 1870s place residents and businesses on Main, Market, Washington, River, Canal, Coal, Railroad, Hanover, and other named streets. from the sources³
• The 1870s city directories list Boyd’s Wilkes-Barre directories for 1871–72, 1873–74, and 1875–76, showing a city large enough for regular commercial directories. from the sources²
• The 1871–72 Boyd directory lists Christopher Nolan and Hugh Nolan as miners living near Mead and Market streets. from the sources³
• The 1871–72 Boyd directory lists Henry Kropp as a fireman boarding on Canal near Jackson. from the sources³
• The 1871–72 and 1873–74 Boyd directory entries list John H. Kridler or Kreidler as a moulder boarding near Hanover and River. from the sources³
• The 1875–76 Boyd directory lists Anthony Koch as a laborer living at No. 4 Diamond Shaft. from the sources³
• In 1873, Wilkes-Barre’s Record of the Times was a Republican weekly, four pages, established in 1853, with an annual subscription of two dollars. from the sources⁵
• In 1873, Wilkes-Barre’s Demokratische Wächter was a German-language Democratic weekly with an estimated circulation of 1,440. from the sources⁵
• St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception served Luzerne County’s oldest Roman Catholic parish, founded in 1842, and its present church was built in 1870–1872. from the sources⁷
• Wilkes-Barre bought its first steam fire engine, an Amoskeag named Mechanic, in 1870. from the sources⁶
• As across the anthracite counties, mine work in the 1870s was shaped by wage cuts, stoppages, company power, and union collapse after the Panic of 1873. from the sources¹⁰
• A 1875 anthracite wage scale cited for Luzerne County gave contract miners 87 cents per mine car when coal sold at five dollars a ton at tidewater, with miners at $12.60 a week and laborers at $10.80. inferred⁹
• The Molly Maguires controversy was current in the coal region, and Pennsylvania State Archives notes eight assassinations credited to them between 1874 and 1875 after labor-union decline. from the sources¹¹
• On June 21, 1877, Andrew Lenahan was hanged at the Luzerne County Jail on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre in a Molly Maguires-related case. from the sources¹²
• The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 spread through Pennsylvania, and nearby Scranton was placed under martial law after deadly clashes. from the sources⁸
• No detailed online description found in this search gives ordinary Wilkes-Barre house interiors, rent levels, or room arrangements specifically for the 1870s. not known
• No local online source opened here gives a full school attendance rate for Wilkes-Barre children in the 1870s. not known

Sources

1. History of Luzerne County. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
2. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, City Directories. LDS Genealogy
3. Boyd’s Wilkes-Barre City Directory, 1871–1876 extracts. Luzerne County PAGenWeb
4. History and Directory of Newton and Ransom Townships, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
5. Geo. P. Rowell and Co.’s American Newspaper Directory, 1873. Geo. P. Rowell and Co., 1873
6. History. City of Wilkes-Barre
7. St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception. SAH Archipedia
8. Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Wikipedia
9. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. PolishRoots
10. Collective Bargaining in the Anthracite Coal Industry. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics / FRASER, 1916
11. Molly Maguires. Pennsylvania State Archives
12. Justice By Hanging In 1800s. Times Leader Archive, 2007

Wilkes-Barre in other decades

Nearby, about the same time