Schuylkill County was created in 1811 from parts of Berks and Northampton counties, and in 1818, land from both Columbia and Luzerne counties was added to the county. Orwigsburg was the original county seat, but in 1831, the seat was moved to Pottsville, which boasted much easier and more efficient railroad and canal connections to all parts of the county.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, George Shoemaker and Necho Allen were among the first to discover anthracite coal– ‘stone coal’ — in the region. Anthracite coal was originally used for smithing purposes. But its larger usage and impact remained uncertain. Shoemaker, desperate to find a way to monetize his stone coal, made a gamble on the ingenuity of the local population: much of the coal was given away. It was hoped that someone –anyone — would find a use for the coal and, consequently, a path to profits. Finally, it was found to be an efficient fuel for the rolling mills of Delaware County and beyond.
The Schuylkill Navigation Company was chartered in 1815 to build a series of navigation improvements in the Schuylkill River. The first shipments of coal by canal were made in the year 1822. Railroads ultimately replaced the canals as the primary means of transporting coal to the markets. Anthracite mining peaked in 1917, and declined throughout the 1960’s, when surface mining began to dominate.