In 1854, a new mine and coal patch town of Eckley was created in southern Luzerne County wilderness.
Continue readingOnly five years later, the enterprise had proven so profitable that the town included 130 houses, a sawmill, a hotel, a company store, several shops and three churches.
Coal Patch, Take Two: The Preservation of Eckley Miners’ Village
The demand for anthracite coal kept growing through the 1840s and 1850s. Coal operators looked for new lands for mines.
Bridget Large and her family were living in Tuscarora. Her sons worked as miners and laborers in a mine. By 1850, Tuscarora had several mining operations, and had grown to a population of 400.
Patrick Gallagher was also in Tuscarora.
Bridget Large and her seven children arrived in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in 1844. They settled in the town of Tuscarora.
Bridget Large and her seven children arrived in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in 1844.
Bridget and her seven children left Castlecomer and Ireland in 1844. They probably sailed from Dublin or Cork.
Lady Anne Wandesforde Butler, Countess of Ormonde, had been the owner of Wandesforde estate and Castlecomer House since the death of her father in 1784.
Continue readingI think Thomas Large worked in the coal mines. Let’s make the case.
The Wandesforde Estate was smack in the middle of the Castlecomer coal fields. Coal provided Castlecomer’s wealth from the mid-1600s until the mid-1900s.
The Wandesforde family were gentry in Yorkshire, England, where they held an estate called Kirklington Manor.
In 1637, Lord Christopher Wandesforde was granted land in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Successive generations of the Wandesforde family controlled this estate until the 1950s.
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Patrick Gallagher left Ireland for Pennsylvania around 1850. There he met and married Ellen Large.
Ellen had immigrated too. She and her siblings and mother left Ireland in 1844.
Whereas our Gallaghers hailed from County Donegal, our Large grandparents were from County Kilkenny.
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Family Nibbles 