What's on this page:
- >>> Newest site updates <<<
- New book about Buck
Mountain: This,
Their Friendship’s Monument: How finding an 1800s autograph album led
to a quest for a lost town and its people in the anthracite coal fields
of Pennsylvania, by Melanie Akren-Dickson
- 20th anniversary of this Freeland history website
- Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society (NEPGS) MOVING
TO WILKES BARRE
- Freeland's Roman Catholic churches' records have been
digitized by NEPGS
- Freeland Tribune
newspapers (1889-1903) available online at the Library of Congress
- Thesis about Ralph Pecora's Tailor Shop
- Links to past Featured Photos
>>> Newest site updates
<<<
January 16, 2021
Index now available for Melanie
Akren-Dickson book on Buck Mountain people [scroll to bottom of
that
page]. Correction posted about Yannes Opera House to the Opera houses
page.
New Page added: Two
early-20th-century young Irish people to identify.
January 3, 2021
New featured photos about Freeland in 1886 added to home page. Links
page updated.
Valerie Bedard photos moved from home page to these pages:
Gallery of student class photos
page;
FHS class of 1920 page;
Freeland Men's Chorus page;;
Benjamin F. Davis page;
Jeddo Highland Coal Company
page;
Images of coal breakers
page;
Bible schools and
classes page.
January 1, 2021
New information about the cannon added to the Soldiers Monument
and Cannon at Freeland Cemetery page.
December 31, 2020
Ben Abboud photo mat signage added to Photography
page.
New pages:
Soldiers Monument
and Cannon at Freeland Cemetery
Girls' Loyalty Club
Girls' Loyalty Club in the
News
November 28, 2020
Salmon Iron Works page
updated with additional information.
November 21, 2020
New page:
Salmon Iron Works
November 14, 2020
New page:
Freeland Police Department, 1932 Annual Ball - program booklet
November 9, 2020
A 1926 insurance policy for miners working underground for the
Jeddo-Highland Coal Company was added to the Mines
page. A paragraph about the cycling path between Freeland and Sandy
Run was added to the Bicycling and
Associated Wheelmen page, along with an 1891 Birkbeck's ad
illustrated with a picture of male and female cyclists.
New pages:
Individual listings from the 1895 Barry's
directory
November 1, 2020
Added a paragraph about Billy Kummer to the Penn State League
(Basketball) page. Information from Bill Feissner and Ed Merrick on
Kye's Cigars and a mystery from Melanie Akren-Dickson added to Billiards page; Kye's also
added to Cigars, cigarettes and tobacco
page.
New pages:
Continuation School
in Freeland
Jeddo Supply Company Store
Jeddo Casino
Bowling
October 30, 2020
New page on the Penn State League
(Basketball). Additions to the Buck
Mountain page under Nearby towns.
October 17, 2020
New page on Bicycling and the Associated
Wheelmen. Additions to the Print Resources
page. Buck Mountain page begun under
Nearby Towns.
New book about Buck
Mountain, 2020
This,
Their Friendship’s Monument: How finding an 1800s autograph album led
to a quest for a lost town and its people in the anthracite coal fields
of Pennsylvania, by Melanie Akren-Dickson
Melanie Akren-Dickson has written a book about her
great-great-great-aunt Mary Boyd of Buck Mountain’s autograph album.
Found among her grandmother’s effects, the album was signed by 80+
people between 1881 and 1896, when Mary Boyd was age 23-37. Signers
included coal miners, schoolteachers, Civil War veterans, even
daughters of a Philadelphia magnate of industry, and many familiar
names from the region. The album led Melanie to spend years researching
the signers and the long-gone village of Buck Mountain. Through family
documents and interviews, online resources, public records and other
sources she found at least several pieces of information for most of
the signers. The book is well illustrated and gives an intriguing view
of the lives that intersected in this little autograph album – one of
many compelling features of the book being that it documents women of
the time as well as men. The main text is 311 pages, with another 64
pages of bibliography and notes. Very highly recommended, especially
for those interested in the history of the region. Available on Amazon
in both paperback (8.5x11”) and kindle.
Pages shown below are poor
reproductions from my scanner, showing shadows etc. that do not appear
in the actual book, which was very well-produced. Here are the
entries for Sarah (Boner) McMahon and Hugh A. Shovlin. Images
reproduced with
permission of the author.


Celebrating 20 years of this website
When
I started this website 20 years ago, it was a simple thing with maybe a
dozen or so pages, no pictures. It was just part of my personal
website. I remember just being excited to share online the names of
people and businesses listed in some early directories (found at the
Hazleton public library on microfilm), along with a list of businesses
that my brother Steve and I had put together during a road trip as we
tried to come up with the names of every business we could remember
from the 1950s and 1960s. That was the site. Here's what it looked
like:

A year later I upgraded the site (still no pictures, though). In the
late 1990s I had found Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of Freeland in
microfilm at Carnegie Mellon, where I work, and I was ASTOUNDED that
there were old maps of Freeland that actually showed every building,
with their addresses. Not only that, a few of them also labeled most of
the businesses by type of business (Hdwr., Sal., Confect., etc.). How
completely amazing that these existed! I remember printing them out
section by section on regular typing paper and taping them together,
then taking those to Charlie Stumpf and Charlie Reczkowski to share
with them (imagine them spread out sheet by sheet on the Corner Store's
butcher table in the back room). So exciting!!! Sometime in the early
2000s I purchased digital copies, and my paper copies are now at the
Freeland Historical Society. Anyway, here's what the September 2000
site upgrade looked like:

Later it stopped being just part of my personal website and became its
own thing, with pictures and sections and the various features it has
today. I'm so happy that this site continues to be a good way to share
photos and information with anyone who has an interest. Many people
have found references to their relatives here, and sent me images and
information to
share with others. Thank you to everyone who has contributed photos and
information to the site (with special thanks to Ed Merrick and Charlie
Gallagher), and to everyone who visits it. If you have something you
would like to share online about Freeland area history, please consider
sharing it here. And if you have some items relating to Freeland area
history that you would like to have saved/kept, please consider giving
them to the Freeland Historial Society. Thank you!!!
Freeland's past/present Roman Catholic churches' records now
digitized by NEPGS
NEPGS HAS MOVED TO WILKES BARRE.
NEPGS headquarters located at:
Angeline Elizabeth Kirby Memorial Health Center, Annex II
57 North Franklin St.
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701
Hours: Wednesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Phone: 570-829-1765
The Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society, Inc. (NEPGS)
in partnership with the Diocese of Scranton is digitizing parish
records in eleven Pennsylvania counties, including Luzerne.
The project, which began in May 2016, reached a milestone in
January 2017 with 100 parishes completed.
Freeland's Roman Catholic parish records are all digitized, including:
Immaculate Conception/Freeland Catholic Community, Immaculate
Conception Church - Eckley, St. Ann Church in both Woodside and
Freeland, St. Anthony Church, St. Casimir Church and St. John
Nepomucene Church.
It's important to know that NEPGS has a strict privacy policy
for public access to the Catholic records:
- Sacramental Records relating to events 70 or more years old
shall be accessible to members and patrons of NEPGS, consistent with
NEPGS Library Policies.
- Sacramental Records relating to events less than 70 years
old shall be sequestered and shall not be available to be accessed by
members or patrons of NEPGS until such time as the record become 70
years old.
- NEPGS removes from the accessible records, all references
to adoptions which occurred after January 1, 1926, which is the
effective date when civil adoption records were sealed in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
- The church records are only available on the NEPGS in-house
network. The records are not available online.
NEPGS is an all-volunteer 501c3
nonprofit organization and is open to the public.
When you visit the society, volunteer staff can answer
questions about the use of the Digital Collections.
For those who are unable to visit in person, research services
are available at reasonable rates. Memberships are also available.
Note for visitors: Non-members are required to pay a
$15.00 day pass prior to admission. An enhanced day pass for $25 also
provides access to the NEPGS library. All members/patrons are required
to sign the NEPGS Library Policy. Cameras and flash drives are
prohibited.
Please check out https://nepgs.com
for the latest information.
Freeland Tribune 1889-1903
now
online.
There are now about 14 years' worth of Freeland Tribune newspapers
(1889-1903) available online at the Library of Congress Chronicling
America site. This represents 3 of the 14 reels of microfilm that
were made from 35 years' worth of early Freeland newspapers owned by
MMI Preparatory School. The microfilm for all of them is available for
consultation at the Hazleton Area Public Library, and now part of it is
also accessible online. Yay! Many thanks to the Hazleton Area Public
Library, MMI Preparatory School, Penn State, and to all of those who
contributed funds and those who have been otherwise involved in making
this project a reality.
Thesis about Ralph Pecora's
Tailor Shop
All of our featured photos have been wonderful, and this
month
we've got something extra special. Emily Pecora has recently completed
a Masters Thesis about the tailoring business of Ralph Pecora, Sr.,
which stood on Freeland's Centre Street from the early 1900s until
Ralph's death in 1959. While the thesis will be of particular
interest to those who knew Ralph or other members of the Pecora family,
it should have a larger appeal to all Freelanders and
ex-Freelanders. It can be downloaded in full here (see below).
Emily is the great granddaughter of Ralph Pecora, Sr.
and
the
granddaughter of Amelia Pecora. She welcomes comments or corrections
and is particularly interested in any additional reminisces or
information about Ralph and his family. She can be contacted at emily.pecora@gmail.com.
The
Tailor of Freeland: Everyday Life, Labor, and Community in a
Pennsylvania Town, by Emily Pecora
Clicking these links will open Adobe PDF files of
Emily's
thesis. If you don't have Adobe Reader on your computer you can
download it for free at www.adobe.com.
Preface,
illustrations, table of contents - (PDF file size = 1 MB)
Chapter 1 - (PDF file size = 3.1 MB)
Chapter 2 - (PDF file size = 5.1 MB)
Chapter 3 - (PDF file size = 4.7 MB)
Here are links to three pages containing previously posted
photos and information from the Featured Photos section of the
home page: earliest postings, more recent ones, and the most recent ones.
They are credited to the sources. Some of these have also been
integrated into other parts of the site, while others are still waiting
for that. Meanwhile, these past Featured Photos are always available
via these links.
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