The George Miller Family: Finding Value in Adversity

Motivation. Ingenuity. Perseverance. Resilience. These character traits are found in all of our “Miner Recollections.” They seem to rise from the coal miner’s desire to “take care of family” in a time when assistance programs were not available for those in need of housing, heat, food, and income. George Miller was born in 1859 and

Hill Farm Mines Explosion

Fayette County, PA. June 16, 1890 A MINE HORROR:  THIRTY-ONE MINERS OR MORE MEET A TERRIBLE FATE. The Explosion One of the Most Disastrous Ever Recorded in the Coke Region’s History. DUNBAR, PA., June 16 – This morning at 11:10 a sullen shivering roar shook the lowly miners’ dwellings on the Hill Farm, in Fayette

A Skidmore Saga

In the movie “The Ten Commandments”, the misty plague of death crept under doorways and through windows of every house not marked by lamb’s blood. In the first half of the 20th century, this deadly mist seeped into coal-mining homes from Barrellville to Westernport, suffocating those who served as husbands, fathers, and sons. Noah M.