page_title: Plymouth Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
section_title: Coal mining
hierarchical_section_title: Plymouth Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania / History / Coal mining
caption_attribution_description: English: A scene from after the Avondale Mine Disaster; "Bringing out the dead". Originally published in the September 25, 1869 issue of Harper's Weekly.
context_page_description: Plymouth Township is located in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,812 at the 2010 census.
context_section_description: About 1806, Abijah Smith came to Plymouth from Derby, Connecticut, intending to mine, ship, and sell coal. Smith and his business partner, Lewis Hepburn, bought a 75-acre plot (called Lots 45 and 46) on the east side of Coal Creek. In the fall of 1807, Smith floated an ark down the Susquehanna River loaded with about fifty tons of anthracite coal; it was shipped to Columbia in Lancaster County. As time progressed, additional coal mines and collieries were constructed throughout the township. Railroads and canals were also constructed to aid in the transportation of coal. Coal mining remained the chief industry in Plymouth Township well into the 20th century.
  The Avondale Mine disaster was a massive fire in Avondale, an unincorporated community in Plymouth Township, on September 6, 1869. It caused the death of 110 workers. It started when the wooden lining of the mine shaft caught fire and ignited the coal breaker built directly overhead.  The shaft was the only entrance and exit to the mine, and the fire trapped and suffocated 108 of the workers (the other two fatalities were rescuers). It was the greatest mine disaster at that point in Pennsylvania history.
  On February 9, 1935, the Glen Alden Coal Company began to dismantle and demolish the Avondale breaker and to close the mine. In 1936, no coal was produced. However, in December 1940, Glen Alden Coal Company resumed mining on a limited scale taking coal to the Lance Breaker to be processed.
caption: Aftermath of the Avondale Mine Disaster
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