Located in the Heckscherville Valley, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania at the
Thomaston Railroad Station. The colliery was opened by a water level tunnel
driven 380 ft. south in the mine hill mountain to the bottom split of the mammoth
vein by Richard Heckscher and Company in 1850 and in 1855 sunk the shaft 250
ft. deep to the top split of the mammoth vein. Heckscher and Company operated
the colliery mining the water level tunnel and shaft workings to 1864 on the
lands of the Forest Improvement Company. The charter of the Forest Improvement
Company, granted in 1839, prohibited the company from entering the business
of mining and operating collieries. But in 1844, this original charter was repealed
by an act of assembly.
On April 29, 1864, Angther
Supplement approved changing the name of the Forest Improvement Company to the
Union Improvement Company and permitted them to mine coal on their lands. After
the name had been changed to the Union Improvement Co. it was discovered that
another coal company with precisely the same name had been incorporated under
the laws of Pennsylvania with offices in Philadelphia. The court detitioned
the Union Improvement Co. to change their name to the New York and Schuylkill
Coal Company: Charles Heckscher, President, on August 5, 1864. When the company
started to operate the colliery and mined it until 1867 when the companies mines
were sold by the sheriff.
In 1867, the colliery was
leased to Thomas Schollenberger who operated the colliery by mining the water
level tunnel and the shaft workings. The tunnel gangway had been driven over
3 miles and the shaft workings completed they were both abondoned in 1871.
In 1870, Thomas Schollenberger
sunk a double track pump slope 840 ft. on the top split of the mammoth vein
and erected a large "bull" pump.
In 1871, he sunk a double
track hoisting slope 840 ft. to the top split vein 2400 ft. west of the pump
slope and connected the two slopes in the "lelar" (middle split) vein
for draining the future workings to the pump slope.
In 1872, the colliery was
purchased by the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. and made many
improvements, including extending tunnels to other veins and developing the
colliery for large production.
In 1890, the P&R C&I
Co. sunk the mine hill slope 300 ft. to the basin of the top split mammoth vein
which was located in the Roghersville Basin 4000 ft. west of the colliery.
In 1893 they sunk the "lelar" pump slope to 700 feet.
The colliery continued to
mine until 1898 when it was abandoned and allowed to fill with water. As the
water rose it was discovered that the water was seeping through the barrier
pillar seperating the Thomaston and Richardson Collieries. Because there was
a danger of flooding the active Richardson workings, the company removed the
water from the entire workings. The colliery reopened in 1899 and mining resumed
in 1905 by extending the slope on the middle split vein 921 feet from the surface.
In 1913, the company started to remove the water in the old abandoned south
dip anchor colliery that was connected in the north dip lelar (middle split)
vein by a tunnel driven across the basin about 1868. After removing the water,
the Thomaston workings were extended on the north dip. The colliery was finally
abandoned March 3, 1933 and allowed to fill with water.
The total shipments of coal from Thomaston Colliery as of 1899 when suspended was 3,317,950 tons.