The record · lives that shaped the county

Biographical sketches

A–Z biographical sketches of Schuylkill County figures — coal barons, brewers, labor leaders, jurists, writers, scientists, and the county's Medal of Honor soldiers. Each sketch is anchored to authoritative, deep-linked sources — a verified Wikidata entity where one exists, and, for the Medal of Honor recipients, authoritative per-recipient sources, including the Congressional Medal of Honor Society roster, Hall of Valor, military-history sources, and local memorial records where applicable.

• NA Necho Allen and the Discovery of Anthracite Tavern-keeper and landholder The hunter Schuylkill County credits with discovering anthracite by campfire about 1790 — a story first printed in 1866, and printed then as tradition. The records show a tavern-keeper and landholder on the Broad Mountain.
• Benjamin Bannan (1807–1875) Newspaper editor The Pottsville editor who bought the Miners' Journal in 1829 and ran it for some forty years as the dominant editorial voice of the anthracite coal region — and published, with the engineer S. H. Daddow, the 1866 treatise 'Coal, Iron, and Oil.'
• Gary S. Becker (1930–2014) Criminologist / economist / educator / university teacher Gary S. Becker (1930–2014). Criminologist / economist / educator / university teacher. Born Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Died Chicago.
• Nicholas Biddle (c. 1796–1876) African American orderly to Pottsville's 'First Defenders' who, struck down by a secessionist mob in Baltimore on April 18, 1861, is by tradition the first man to shed blood for the Union — though, barred from mustering in, he was later denied a pension.
• DB Domininkas Boczkauskas (1846–1909) Publisher The Mahanoy City publisher who founded 'Saulė' ('The Sun') in 1888 — the longest-running and highest-circulation Lithuanian newspaper of its era, printed in a coal-town free of the czarist ban on the Lithuanian press.
• Joel T. Boone (1889–1974) United States Navy medical officer St. Clair-born Navy physician who treated wounded Marines under shell and gas fire at Vierzy in 1918, earning the Medal of Honor; later a White House physician and the most-decorated medical officer in U.S. history.
• CB Charles E. Brown (1841–1919) United States Army soldier Schuylkill Haven sergeant of the 50th Pennsylvania who captured the flag of the 47th Virginia at the Weldon Railroad in 1864, earning the Medal of Honor.
• Alexander Campbell (1833–1877) Businessperson Wikidata Q3818144 — Schuylkill Hub biographical anchor for Alexander Campbell (year of birth 1833 per Q3818144 P569; date of death 21 June 1877 per Q3818144 P570).
• WC Walter Ciszek (1904–1984) Jesuit priest The Shenandoah-born Jesuit priest who spent about 23 years in the Soviet Union — some 15 of them in prisons and labor camps — before a 1963 spy exchange brought him home, and who wrote 'With God in Russia' and 'He Leadeth Me.'
• JC John C. Cole (died 1864) Shoemaker A Black shoemaker of Pottsville who enlisted in the United States Colored Troops, was wounded at the Battle of the Crater in July 1864, and died of his wounds days later — one of the county's documented African American Civil War soldiers.
• SD Samuel Harries Daddow (1827–1875) Mining engineer Mining engineer of St. Clair who, with the editor Benjamin Bannan, compiled 'Coal, Iron, and Oil; or, the Practical American Miner' (Pottsville, 1866) — a landmark treatise of anthracite mining engineering.
• Anthony P. Damato (1922–1944) United States Marine Shenandoah-born Marine corporal who smothered an enemy grenade with his body to save two comrades on Eniwetok in 1944, earning a posthumous Medal of Honor; the destroyer USS Damato was named for him.
• Dennis Joseph Dougherty (1865–1951) Catholic bishop / Catholic priest / archbishop / theologian Dennis Joseph Dougherty (1865–1951). Catholic bishop / Catholic priest / archbishop / theologian. Born Ashland, Pennsylvania. Died Philadelphia.
• AF Alexander J. Foley (1866–1910) United States Marine Heckscherville-born Marine sergeant who, under fire near Tientsin, China, in 1900, helped carry a badly wounded officer to safety, earning the Medal of Honor.
• Jacob G. Frick (1825–1902) United States Army officer Colonel of the 129th Pennsylvania Infantry from Pottsville who earned the Medal of Honor for saving his regiment's colors under fire at Fredericksburg (1862) and Chancellorsville (1863).
• JG Jacob Gunther (c. 1844–1871) United States Army cavalry soldier Corporal in the 8th U.S. Cavalry, a Schuylkill County man named on the Pottsville Medal of Honor Memorial, who earned the medal for bravery in the 1868–1869 Arizona scouts and actions.
• GH George W. Harris (1835–1920) United States Army soldier Schuylkill County-born private of the 148th Pennsylvania who wrested an enemy flag from a color-bearer in hand-to-hand fighting at Spotsylvania in 1864, earning the Medal of Honor.
• HH Henry Hill (1843–1908) United States Army soldier Schuylkill County corporal of the 50th Pennsylvania who refused to retreat and held his ground in the Wilderness in 1864, earning the Medal of Honor.
• General George A. Joulwan (born 1939) United States Army general The Pottsville-born retired four-star U.S. Army general who served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) from 1993 to 1997 and as Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Southern Command; a public park in Pottsville is named for him.
• Charles D. Kaier (1837/1839–1899) Brewer The German immigrant who built a Mahanoy City business empire around the Kaier brewery — founding a bottling and wholesale liquor house in 1862 and erecting the brewery in 1883, with an opera house, hotel, bank, and utility interests around them.
• JK John ("Black Jack") Kehoe (1837–1878) Bar owner Wikidata Q113803278 — Schuylkill Hub biographical anchor for John ("Black Jack") Kehoe; named defendant in the Schuylkill County aggravated-assault case Commonwealth vs. John Kehoe et al. (court report published 1876); convicted in an 1877 proceeding for the murder of Frank W. S. Langdon and hanged at Pottsville on 18 December 1878.
• CK Charles H. King Jr. (1925–1991) Civil rights leader Pottsville-born civil-rights leader and author of the 1983 memoir 'Fire in My Bones' who became a nationally known conductor of racial-attitude seminars and president of the Urban Crisis Center in Atlanta.
• Claude A. Lord (1889–1954) Funeral director and Mayor of Pottsville Pottsville funeral director who served four consecutive terms as mayor, from January 1, 1934 to 1950 — the city built its new City Hall during his administration, and the boulevard east of downtown was later named for him.
• HL Henry (Elijah) Lord (1788–1835) Pottsville pioneer settler the 1916 county genealogy calls Elijah — every record of his own lifetime calls him Henry: Heinrich Lord, born September 11, 1788, died March 15, 1835, father of eight children whose five carpenter sons built much of the early town.
• HM Harold O. Messerschmidt (1923–1944) United States Army soldier Grier City-born Army sergeant who fought on alone to the last against an overwhelming German assault near Radden, France, in 1944, earning a posthumous Medal of Honor.
• Patrick H. Monaghan (1843–1917) United States Army soldier Irish-born corporal of the 48th Pennsylvania from Minersville who recaptured a regimental flag at Petersburg in 1864, earning the Medal of Honor.
• John O'Hara (1905–1970) Columnist / film screenwriter / journalist / novelist / prose writer / screenwriter / writer John O'Hara (1905–1970). Columnist / film screenwriter / journalist / novelist / prose writer / screenwriter / writer. Born Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Died Princeton.
• BP Burd Patterson (1788–1867) Ironmaster The early Pottsville developer and ironmaster who built the first successful anthracite-iron furnace (1839–40), promoted the town's 1828 incorporation, and helped plan Ashland and Mahanoy City.
• Henry Pleasants (1833–1880) Journalist / military officer Henry Pleasants (1833–1880). Journalist / military officer. Born Buenos Aires. Died Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
• JP John Pott (1759–1827) Ironmaster The ironmaster who founded Pottsville and gave the town his name — he bought the furnace on the upper Schuylkill in 1806, built the Greenwood furnace, and laid the town out in 1816. Not the John Potts who founded Pottstown.
• RR Robert A. Reid (1842–1929) United States Army soldier Scottish-born private of the 48th Pennsylvania from Pottsville who captured the flag of the 44th Tennessee at Petersburg in 1864, earning the Medal of Honor.
• TR Thomas Robinson (born c. 1833) United States Army soldier Irish-born private of the 81st Pennsylvania who settled at Tamaqua and captured an enemy flag in hand-to-hand fighting at Spotsylvania in 1864, earning the Medal of Honor.
• RR Robert E. Roeder (1917–1944) United States Army officer Summit Station-born Army captain who rallied his company through repeated counterattacks at Mount Battaglia, Italy, in 1944, fighting on after being mortally wounded, and earning a posthumous Medal of Honor.
• JS James M. Seitzinger (1846–1924) United States Army soldier Pottsville private of the 116th Pennsylvania who seized the colors when the bearer fell and carried them in a charge at Cold Harbor in 1864, earning the Medal of Honor.
• John Siney (1831–1880) Labor leader The Irish-born, English-trained labor pioneer of St. Clair who founded the Workingmen's Benevolent Association in 1868 — the first effective anthracite miners' union — and later led the Miners' National Association.
• Jonas Šliūpas (1861–1944) Physician and publicist A leading figure of the Lithuanian national awakening — physician, freethinker, and publicist — who organized the first Lithuanian-American alliance in Shenandoah in 1886 and lived in the coal town around 1888–1892 before a long national career in Lithuania.
• Myer Strouse (1825–1878) Lawyer and U.S. Representative Bavarian-born Pottsville lawyer and two-term Democratic congressman (1863–1867) who served as defense counsel for accused Molly Maguires in the Bloomsburg Rea-murder trials.
• MS Mary Alice Swayze (1845–1925) Physician A Woman's Medical College graduate (1873) who practiced medicine in Schuylkill County for some 37 years — a Pottsville physician, vice-president of the county medical society, and president of the county W.C.T.U.
• Ivan Volansky (1857–1926) Greek Catholic priest The Galician Greek Catholic priest who came to Shenandoah in 1884 and founded St. Michael the Archangel — the first Greek Catholic parish in America — building the first Eastern Catholic church and the first Ruthenian-American newspaper before the married-clergy conflict recalled him in 1889.
• David Yuengling (1808–1877) Businessperson David Yuengling (1808–1877). Businessperson. Born Aldingen. Died Pottsville, Pennsylvania.
• FY Frank D. Yuengling (1876–1963) Frank D. Yuengling (1876–1963). Born Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

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