PACAMBRI-L Archives

From:
Subject: [PACAMBRI] Migration patterns of English and Scots miners.
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:43:04 -0400
References: <24805667.1158104848278.JavaMail.root@mswamui-thinleaf.atl.sa.earthlink.net>
In-Reply-To: <24805667.1158104848278.JavaMail.root@mswamui-thinleaf.atl.sa.earthlink.net>

I don't know of incentives to come to America, but the English and Scots miners were very welcome. Most were experience miners and spoke English, so they got jobs and were promoted to mine boss or foreman. I don't know a any Morrison in Hastings.
Most of the English miners [I traced the Nicholson family for a descendant] seem to have come in the 1880s and 1890s, when the soft coal mines were opening in this area. They had not previously been in the hard coal region.
They might have been coming in response to ads published in England, but I bet if you checked in England, things were bad there about that time. The Nicholson father went to Germany to open mines there, and one son was born in Germany. He must have been a very skilled mine administrator, but he came to America.
A lot of the locals, like the Nicholsons, came first to Morris Mines in Elk County. I have not idea why they would have been there.
More, however, seemed to work first in the mines in Clearfield county along the Centre county line. The Nicholson family had relatives in Phillipsburg [actually Centre county.] Other towns there are Hawk Run, Houtzdale, Brisbin, for example. These mines were either playing out, or the new mines were opening, and a lot of them moved to Cambria County.
The local paper [North Cambria News, Hastings] would always give information and stories about mining events or strikes in those locations.
There were a lot of Scots miners and merchants, as well as English miners. One woman gave me the details of why and some of the Scots [including a relative by marriage]came to Marsteller/Moss Creek.
Some of the local English familes had been in the mines in Jefferson County, too. I think a lot of them worked for Berwind White [not sure of the name exactly] and ended up in Windber, which is Somerset county.
Sometimes the reason they moved [other than mines playing out] was that the same mining company was opening new mines, and invited them to come and be bosses in the new mines.
Please, if you have English miners for ancestors, would you post me where they came from in England [if you know] and where they worked in America? I will try to do the same with the ones I know about.
Marilyn


-----Original Message-----
From:
To:
Sent: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 7:47 PM
Subject: [PACAMBRI] Query??Whalen--Spangler


The Whalen travels to America closly follow my GGrandfathers travels.
Ireland to Durham(1850's) to Spangler (1880's)My GGrandfather was a coal miner
named John MORRISON.Since he was 49 years old when he came to America and had
left his wife and children in England to follow a few years later,I have often
wondered what would have caused him to come here?
Has anyone ever heard of any incentive that may have been offered by American
companys to English miners?



Pat Morrison

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