The mine with the entrance near Lantzy's Mill in Driscoll [or Driskel] Hollow, was the second opening of Rich Hill Mine. The old, first entrance and the coal tipple where the coal cars loaded was just past the Cemetery as you went south to Hastings. The cinder block houses there were called Slickport and were in Elder Township, not Hastings. All that land belonged to Jacob Seidel and his wife, parents of Julia Seidel who married Adam Miller, the oldest son of Philip Miller and Elizabeth Henges. Adam was born in Germany and came with his mother to Luzerne County--Philip had emigrated there about 1847 or so and she came later. Catherine [m Baltzer Kine] and P. P. [Philip Peter] were born there before the family came to Elder Township. Adam Miller advertised the land for sale in an 1888 ad in the Ebensburg paper. His farm, [formerly Jacob Seidel's, was on that land, but further west of Hastings on Murphy Road] and Francis Nagle and Anna Semelsberger, parents of Bertha Nagle m Peter Kline, later lived there. I don't know who was behind Rich Hill Mine, but they bought the land and built the houses--only company mining houses in Hastings--from Adam Milller. It was the last mine [except maybe Lanark] to stay open. It is very difficult to list the mines as they changed owners and names very often. . Adam [and the Strittmatter Brothers] donated the land for the St. Bernard's Cemetery, and the Miller family later sold the land between Slickport and the cemetery to St. Bernard's. The Miller family ran a slaughter house at the intersection of what is now Miller Street [was Old Rt 36] at the tipple. It burned at some point. The cement block house at that lot now was built by one of the Miller sons--Adam's son. Lots of talk about the building with cement blocks and the windows with glass blocks--new then. The area between the tipple [torn down and the RR torn up, but still black area there where boney dump was] and into Hastings was at times called Millerville, some odd name like Snitzelville and East End. It later became part of Hastings officially. Dr. Rice's first office was about a block above the tipple, but on the other side. I think there is a garage there. There was a general store and a hotel there, and the Grove, the first picnic area and dance pavilion. Across Rt 36 [Miller Road] from Slickport was a garage, torn down now, a gas station that Miles Cronauer, son of Philip NIcholas Cronauer and Mildred Weber, lived upstairs. The Rich Hill Mine extended north [to Lantzy's Mill] and eventually the entrance was there to save time getting the miners to the actual work face. The coal was still hauled to the Slickport entrance and the tipple there loaded the coal cars. This was by the 1950's and we would all see the miners coming home [south] as we walked the other way [north] home from school. Our family mine, Kline's Mine was able to stay open as the Rich Hill let them connect onto it and that provided a second exit and air flow the law demanded to Kline's Mine. The Kline tipple was at the bottom of the hill from the Kline dairy barn and the house, north to Rich Hill. The two houses belonging to the Ashcroft family were next on Rt 36, then the Born farms. When Rich Hill closed, the Kline Mine had to close too. The tipple was torn down and the mine filled in after that. Swedetown was not on Rt 36 or Miller Street. It was across the creek and the tracks, where the road came down from St. Boniface. The name of the original mine there was Sterling # 10, and it was the first big mine. It was also the name of the post office there. Sterling built other mines in Hastings itself, then was bought by someone else. There was some kind of a mill pond there to provide power at first. I don't know if the "Swedes" were there first or the Germans, lots of both plus the later emigrants. If the Swedes were there first, why was their Church and cemetery --now Union Cemetery--located in Hastings. I have some articles Mrs. Gertrude Kline Houck published about Swedetown. I could send. On the other side of the tracks and the Creek. [Names vary, mostly Brubaker Creek--which was the name of the small creek that joined at Lantzy Mills-- or Miller Run.] This mine was called Hastings Fuel, and I am not sure who established it. In 1950 the McGlynns and O'Rourke family, who lived near there on RT 36, ran it. They had the ponies that lived in the mine, and the openig was on the left side of Rt 36 [as you faced north] and went under the Rt 36 and the coal yard was on the right. It was still working about till at least 1960, but not a very big operation. The Boney Pile, slag dump, or whatever you called it for Hastings Fuel and Swedetown was on the right of Rt 36. It still burned in the 1950's and everyone got the slag or red dog, the part that burned, to used on "dirt" roads or lanes. North of that, same side was the school. It was called the Nagle Schol [in 1950 when attended] but was also called the Swedetown School. If the creek flooded, the Swedetown kids couldn't get to school, no bridge. Peter Kline's son, Germaine, by Bertha Nagle--Peter's mother was Elizabeth Miller m to Louis Kline--was a "hero" when he jumped in and saved a kid who was drowning. {article somewhere.] Peter lived on the other side of the boney Pile, along Rt 36. He was a carpenter at the mine. He moved to Akron in the 1930's. His daughter, Mary, was the teacher at Nagle School and later became Sister Mary George, OSB, when she got the younger kids raised. She was either suffering from cerebral palsy [my choice] or polio [might have had both] and one arm was paralyzed. After the family moved to Akron, she lived with Peter's brother, Isadore, the blacksmith in Hastings, and walked 3 miles to the Nagle School. Imagine. No snow plows then. The Slickport kids had to walk there, too. One of those kids became the football coach at Harvard. He attributed his success to Mary Kline. Peter was married three times and had kids from all three marriages, Bertha Warner, four, Bertha Nagle, four, and the last wife, Scotia, was also a three-timer. Her first husband she divorced--she had a son--her second husband had several children, they had four together, then she and Pete had two. From the "Social Notes" in the newspaper, they all got along and everyone visited everyone else. The Hastings Centennial Book has a chapter on mines. I can send it to you and you can copy anything you want from it. As far as I can tell, it is accurate, but not complete. Marilyn Kline Washington -----Original Message----- From: Rainalda Dukeman <[email protected]> To: marilyn <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, Aug 13, 2011 10:55 pm Subject: Name of Hastings Mine Do you know the name of the mine in Suedetown? My Dad worked at the mines there and I believe it was Rich Hill but am checking to be sure. We have gone up to see the "Company Houses" on our trips to Hastings and know the mines there but was questioning if it was part of Rich Hill. Thanks, Rainalda =