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• Mahanoy City 1916
• Date Night 1936
• 1930's Picnics
• 1913 Booklet
• Christmas 1894

• Christmas 1961
• Winter Scenes
• Centennial Parade
• Record American January 1-7, 1962

• Quasqui Parade
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• March Madness 1922
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Wanted: Photos from 1913 to 1963

 

The Historical Society has started work on the second Images of Mahanoy book. This is to be published by Arcadia with a release date in the spring of 2013. The first Images book covered the years 1863 to 1913 and is still available from the Historical Society at a new reduced price. Please go to the Fund Raising page for more information. We are now in need of your photos from the years 1913 to 1963. If you have photos, please stop in the Historical Society room on any Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday from 12:00 to 3:00 P.M. and we can scan the photo(s) or you can e-mail me on the Contact page and we can make arrangements for your pictures to be sent to us as an e-mail attachment.

 

 

Famous Author Arthur H. Lewis Remembers Mahanoy City

 

The following article appeared in the New York Times Book Review on December 1, 1963, a few months after Mahanoy City had celebrated it's centennial. The editors of the book review asked some of the best selling authors of the previous year to describe what they got out writing successful books besides the monetary gain. Some of the authors who responded were: James A. Michener, Milton S. Eisenhower, Margaret Bourke - White, Betty Friedan and Jessica Mitford. The response of Arthur Lewis, a native of Mahanoy City, appears below. His best selling book of 1963 was The Day They Shook the Plum Tree. Some of his other best sellers are pictured below.

 

 

 

 

Mahanoy City, PA, where I was born in 1906, is a brave little hard-coal borough which had the courage to celebrate its centennial a few months ago. I'm not quite sure what it had to celebrate. They've just about stopped mining anthracite and no new industry has taken its place; the town's population is less than half of what it was 50 years ago; business is awful, and John L. Lewis's pension fund, which barely supports miners who've survived asthma and accidents, is practically depleted.

 

This past May, Zel Snyder, the librarian, asked me if I'd come for the centennial and have lunch with her and the Board of Directors. They rounded up 150 people, all willing to spend $2 I know they could have put to better use, just to say "hello", shake hands with me, and ask for my autograph.

 

My Latin teacher ( with whom I'd been in love through Caesar, Cicero,and Virgil), quite a number of the remaining members of the Class of '23, the star basketball player of the 1922 State Champs, the Chief Burgess, the Editor of the Record American, a banker and plenty of others were there. Zel made a delightful flattering introductory speech. My gift, a desk set carved out of anthracite, topped off the unforgettable hour. " To Art, from his Mahanoy City friends," the inscription reads, I never felt better in my life .

 

You asked me what I was working on now. It's a book about Mahanoy City. Harcourt expects to publish it this coming fall.

 

Note: The book about Mahanoy City was Lament For the Molly McGuires

 

Back of the dust jacket and the title page from Arthur Lewis's 1971 book Copper Beeches. The inscription reads, " For my good friends @ the Mahanoy City Public Library - Arthur Lewis - 12/2/71"

 

 

 

 

 

 

To read more about Arthur H. Lewis click on the following links:

 

A Look Back at a True Crime Writer, Arthur H. Lewis , by Paul Davis

 

Article by Andy Wallace , an Inquirer Staff Writer , at Philly.com Written Shortly After Lewis's Death in 1995

 

Added February 12th: Pictures from The Schuylkill County History Fair held at the Fairlane Village Mall on Saturday, February 11th. Click on the image to view the slide show.

 

 

 

 

Added February 12th: Pictures of a trip to the Buck Mountain Tunnel on February 10th. We went to both the Buck Mountain and Hosensock sides of the tunnel and were lucky to have a train come by just as we were leaving. Look for John Usalis's story about the tunnel in next week's Republican Herald.

 

Added January 28th: Peter Pan Week in Mahanoy City. Full pages of the January 24,1925 edition of the Record American. Click the link below to go to the Peter Pan Week edition on the Record American Project Page.

 

 

 

Link: Peter Pan Week

 

Some Lehigh Valley Railroad scenes: These pictures are courtesy of Dave Orbin. They are taken from glass plates found in the Lehigh Valley Station in Hazleton.Click on the image to enlarge and/or view the slide show.