Tower Hill #1 Fayette County Pennsylvania
Life in the Coal Patches of Fayette County Pennsylvania
What is a coal "patch"? Well briefly, patches were small towns built by coal companies near the coal mines. The houses were close to the mines so the men could walk to work. The coal company typical house was called a "double", it was home to two families. Each side consisted of four rooms, a front room, with a kitchen behind it, upstairs two bedrooms, there was a wall front to back dividing the house in half. There usually was a small front porch and a larger back porch. No indoor plumbing; the outhouse was out back. In 1914 a patch house usually rented for $4 per month. Each house had a small yard for a garden and often outdoor ovens for baking bread. Some families had a chicken coop and if they were lucky a cow or pig.
Families tried to be self-sufficient like they were in the "old country". Electricity did not come to the patches until the late 1920's, houses were lit with coal oil or kerosene lamps and few families could afford a telephone. The coal companies established company stores where the patch families could purchase goods they needed to live. The prices in these stores were very high but the miners had no way to travel to other stores to buy so they bought in the company stores. Some stores "carried" the miners bill and would subtract the amount owed to the store from the miner's earnings. Wages were low, 25¢ per hour, often the amout earned did not cover the debt owed, so it was carried to the next payday. Some familes were never able to get out of debt.
The miner's Check Number was his label for many things. It provided a record of his entry into the mine each day, his number was on a tag that was hung on each coal wagon he loaded, so he could be paid by the number of wagons he loaded each day. A visit to the company store required the miner's family to know his Check Number, so goods could be charged against his account.
The lives of the patch families were hard, but they had plenty of love. Families celebrated with joy weddings, births and baptisms. My Aunts recall that their mother said her wedding celebration lasted an entire week. Holidays such as Epiphany, Carnival and Lent, Thanksgiving and Christmas were all celebrated. These familes made their own way in this new land they had come to. To quote Regis M. Mahler, M.D. in his book "Patches of History": We were before television, penicillin, and antibiotics, before radar, fluorescent lights, credit cards and ballpoint pens. For us a chip meant a piece of wood because there were no computers, hardware meant hardware, software wasn't a word.
If you would like to read more about coal mine "patches" I suggest you locate a copy of "Patches of History" The 1920's & 1930's Heyday of Fayette County Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania, by Regis M. Mahler, M.D. printed by Stefano's Printing, Dunbar, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. This book gave me my first true insight into the lives of my father's family.
My research into the beginings of my father's family led me back to Fayette County, Pennsylvania in 1917. On May 17th of this year my Grandfather Charles Trimbath and Grandmother Mary Margaret Buksar were wed at Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church in Republic. During the next 11 years 5 children were born to them, three boys, two girls; George, Joseph, Anna, Paul and Margo. My father Paul was their youngest son. Charlie and Mary first met when her older brothers brought Charlie home from the mines to met their sister. They fell in love and were married.
Mary Margaret Buksar Trimath in about 1915
Charlie Trimbath had come to America just a few years before they met. The stories handed down by the family tell of a sorrowful tale. Charlie's (Karol) father Frank and mother Anna had been in the United States when he was a small boy. His father worked in the mines, one day he was gambling in a bar and was killed during a fight. His widow Anna decided to leave America and return to the "old country" and her family. In Europe rumors of war were spreding and Anna feared that young Charlie would be conscripted into military service. She made arrangements for Charlie to stay by himself at a boarding house they had once lived in, possibly near Keisterville, then she returned to Europe alone. With no family or friends Charlie barley out of childhood went to work in the mines and began to make a new life for himself.
Mary Margaret Buksar must have seemed to be a ray of sunshine in his life. Her family had moved into the Republic area sometime between 1905 and 1910 coming from another coal mining patch, near Connellsville. She was born in Coalbrook, Connellsville in 1896 the 5th child and 2nd girl born to John Steven Buksar and Susanna Hruby.
My trip to Fayette County was a wonderful journey back into the lives of these familes. I was able to see the house where my father and all his siblings were born. I visited the church were my grandparents married, and their children were baptized. I saw the Catholic school my father and his siblings attended and visited the graves of my grandparents and great-grandparents. I want to return to Pennsylvania again soon and bring my children so they can learn about their coal mining roots.
Buksar/Hruby Families
The Fayette County Courthouse in Uniontown was high on my list of places to visit during my trip. There I was able to locate the emigration records of my great grandmother Susanna Hruby Buksar's two brother's John and Martin. Lucky for me they both were naturalized so citizenship records exisit for both of them. It appears that John Hurby was the first to come to America, arriving in 1880. I believe he was the trail blazer for this family, coming first, then writing the others telling them of the opportunities available. From the 1920 census records I found that Susanna Hruby Buksar's husband John Steven arrived in 1882, she arrived in 1889 eight years later, with their first born child John Buksar who was born in 1883.
I also visited the two churches in Connellsville that John and Susanna attended, Immaculate Conception and St. John's Evangelist. The parish secretaries agreed to search their records for the name Buksar and promised to mail their findings to me.
Update: Eureka!, I received a copy of the baptism certificate for John and Susanna's youngest child. On the certificate was listed the birth villages for both John and Susanna, Leskovjan Szepes, Hungary and Markusfalu, Szepes, Hungary. What a find!. I have begun a new web page devoted to these villages for more information please visit: Markusovce, Spis, Slovakia
Trimbath Family
My trip provided a few new clues into the origins of the Trimbath family. My Aunts both recall their father speaking of being a "Rusyn" which fits into the data I have gathered to date. In the 1920 census he indicated his birthplace as Beretski, Austria-Hungary, I believe I have located where this village was located in the extreme southeast Poland. It was once part of the Carpatho-Rusyn Settlement, existing in about 1881, but is no longer in existence. The Carpatho-Rusyns are a small East Slavic ethnic group indigenous to the Carpathian Mountain Region of Eastern Europe. Because their homeland roughly spans the western part of the Carpathian Mountain range, that homeland currently falls within the borders of several European nations. Most of the territory of the Carpatho-Rusyn was, for much of their history, entirely within the borders of Austria-Hungary. Today, Carpatho-Rusyn territory falls within the borders of Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary and Romania.
About 700,000 Americans are of Carpatho-Rusyn descent with the largest concentration of these people (about 50,000) in western Pennsylvania. Their descendants know that they are of Slavic ancestery, but are unsure to which specific ethnic group they belong. Today, they may refer to themselves as Rusyn, Slovak or "Slavish" Ruthenian, Carpatho-Ruthenian, Rusnak, Lemko or Carpatho-Russian. They may belong to Orthodox, Byzantine (Greek) Catholic or even other churches today.
My grandfather sometimes attended St. Mary's Assumption Byzantine Catholic Church in New Salem, my Aunt Ann recalls walking three miles to attend Christmas Mass there. Also, according to my grandfather, his father Frank Trimbath is buried in a cemetery in New Salem. While in Pennsylvania we visited several Byzantine Catholic cemeteries, but unfortunately the older sections were in disrepair with missing or unreadable stones. I plan to try to contact the church and perhaps the diocese to locate records for this church. I am continuing to search for early records of my grandfather's life in Fayette County, he indicated he arrived in 1909, but I don't have the exact date or port, YET! As I locate more data this page will grow, so please check back.
Copyright © 1997 by Lisa Baker - All rights reserved.