HZ_STANDSPEAK/PAGES [A05] | 10/17/13
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Friday, October 18, 2013
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Standard~Speaker
A5
Revisiting the popular Standard-Speaker feature of two decades ago, we celebrate with pride the spirit of ...
Towns
Shenandoah
The borough of Shenandoah as it appeared in an 1889 lithograph.
Where one name fits all By MIA LIGHT StaffWriter
Shenandoah has been described in many different ways over the years. During its heyday in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Shenandoah was called “The Only Wild West Town in the East” for the rough-and-tumble attitude of its residents. It was also know as “The City of Churches” for the many houses of worship located within its borders, and “Little New York” for the town’s diverse ethnic population. Today, 100 years later, Shenandoah’s population remains ethnically diverse with many of its long-time residents the descendants of European and Eastern European anthracite coal-mining immigrants, and the newest members of the community, immigrants from Latin America.
Where it all began
Sometime between 1820 and 1835, a farmer named Peter Kehley cleared a patch of land at the base of the Locust Mountain in northern Schuylkill County and built a log cabin there. Kehley lived in the cabin and farmed the land for about 25 years until he discovered anthracite coal underground. He sold his land to the Philadelphia Land Co. for a small sum in 1850. About 30 years later, on Jan. 16, 1866, the little hamlet named Shenandoah was incorporated as a borough. The name “Shenandoah” comes from a Native American word, but its exact meaning has become cloudy over time. Some
say it’s derived from a word that means “river through the spruce trees.” Another translation means, “river in the high mountains.” There is also a Native American legend in which the word translates as “daughter of the stars.”
Coal boom
Anthracite coal was a valuable American commodity in the 1800s. But its value skyrocketed with the start of the Civil War in 1861. One year after the start of the war, the first colliery opened in Shenandoah — the Shenandoah City Colliery. The richest deposit of anthracite in all known fields was located in the Shenandoah area. The Mammoth Vein — the largest known anthracite vein in the field — runs directly under the town. Anthracite coal was black gold during the Civil War and in Shenandoah, where mining operations were working at full hilt, king coal fueled the town’s economy as well as its population, both of which expanded dramatically with the rapid influx of immigrant miners. King coal and the mining operations that extracted it from the earth, along with supporting industries such as railroads and retail markets, fueled Shenandoah’s robust economy, providing abundant employment opportunities for the community’s rising population. The first significant growth in Shenandoah’s immigrant population came with the arrival of English mine owners and mine bosses along with Welsh mine
workers, who were followed by German and Irish laborers. In the 1870s, the Irish were the predominant immigrant group in the community. Before the decade was over, immigrants from Lithuania, Poland, the Ukraine and Slovakia began to flood the town. As each swell of immigrants came to the borough, they established their own churches so they could worship in their native language. They also established parochial schools so their children could learn English along with their own native customs. By the 1930s, Shenandoah had 22 nationalities, 22 churches and a synagogue. From 1915 through the mid1920s, Shenandoah’s population was more than 30,000, which earned the community a listing in “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” as the most congested square mile in the United States, not excluding Chinatown in New York or San Francisco.
Newspapers
There were eight newspapers in Shenandoah — The Herald, which began publishing in 1870; The Sunday Morning News and The Weekly Advocate, both of which began in 1893; The News Budget and the Anthracite Labor News, both of which started in 1903; The Daily Times, which began in 1905, and a Lithuanian weekly newspaper and a Polish weekly.
Small business
At the turn of the 20th century, Shenandoah had three breweries and more than 165 taverns, which gave the town more barrooms per
Shenandoah at a glance
■ The forested region that became Shenandoah borough was settled in 1820 and incorporated as a borough in 1866. The borough celebrates its 147th birthday this year. ■ As of 2012, Shenandoah’s population was 5,071 people. ■ The word “Shenandoah” comes from the AlgonquianWakashian tribe of Native Americans. Its meaning is thought to be “daughter of the stars” or “spruce-lined stream.” ■ Anthracite mining once made Shenandoah the most populated community in America for its geographic size, with nearly 30,000 inhabitants in the late 1920s.
■ Shenandoah is known as “The Kielbasi Capital of East Coast.” So popular is this eastern European specialty that each summer the borough hosts an annual Kielbasy Festival. Three of the region’s top-selling kielbasy shops — the Capital Food Store, Lucky’s Kielbasi Shop and Kowalonek Kielbasi Shop — are located in Shenandoah. Around the holidays, people come from across the region to buy traditional Shenandoah kielbasy. Often, the line of people waiting to get inside the kielbasy shops stretches a street block long or more. ■ Shenandoah is the birthplace of Mary Twardzik, whose son, Ted, used her original recipe for a potato-stuffed pasta pocket to launch the nationally known Mrs. T’s Pierogies. The business is still owned and operated by the Twardzik family, and its main pierogy-production facility is still located in Shenandoah.
1,000 people than any other location in the world. There were three breweries located in Shenandoah, including the Home Brewing Co., which was located on North Main Street; the J. Tunnah Brewing Co., which operated from 1878 to 1880, and the town’s most famous brewery, the Columbia Brewery, which was located on South Ferguson Street. Shenandoah’s bustling popula-
tion made the community a fine place for small businesses to thrive. According to historical records, there were more than 600 businesses operating in Shenandoah in the 1920s, including more than 160 neighborhood markets that sold groceries, meats and produce. Also, there were three dentists, six bakeries, 11 druggists and 12
See HISTORY, A8
The borough of Shenandoah as it appears today in a photo taken from the West Mahanoy Township Municipal Building in Shenandoah Heights on a ridge overlooking the borough.