Helvetia, Pennsylvania facts for kids

Helvetia was a special kind of town called a company town. It was located in Brady Township, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. A company town is a place where a company builds homes, stores, and other facilities for its workers.

Helvetia was a mining town, meaning it was built around a coal mine. The mine was very important and produced a lot of coal for many years. The town existed from 1891 to 1947. During that time, schools, churches, and stores were built for the families of the miners. Even today, some people still live in Helvetia.

The town had three main owners over its history. First, a man named Adrian Iselin built the town and started the mine around 1890–1891. Then, from 1896 to 1947, a company called R&P (which stands for Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal Company) owned and managed Helvetia. In 1947, the R&P company sold all its company towns, including Helvetia. The mine itself closed for good in 1954.

Did you know? Helvetia is an old name for the country of Switzerland.

How Helvetia Began

What made people want to build a town here? There was a huge layer of coal, about six feet thick, hidden just below the ground. This coal was under farms and forests in Brady Township.

In the late 1880s and early 1890s, a New York banker named Adrian Iselin secretly bought a lot of land and mineral rights in this area. He bought about 7,000 to 8,000 acres! The Helvetia Mine was owned only by Iselin and worked separately from the R&P company until 1896. That's when it became part of the R&P's other properties. So, Adrian Iselin was the person who really started Helvetia as a company town.

Between 1891 and 1896, Iselin and the R&P company worked together on things like how much miners were paid, how much it cost to transport coal, and how the mining and coke-making operations worked at Helvetia.

Getting Around and Building the Town

The mine used a special train line called the Mahoning Valley Railroad. This short track, about one and three-quarter miles long, was built by Adrian Iselin. It connected to the main BR&P train network at a place called Stanley. The R&P company often used the BR&P line for special trips for their officials to Helvetia. However, it's unlikely that regular miners traveled by train, except for new workers who were brought to the mine from cities on the East Coast.

It was hard for common miners to travel to Helvetia until about 1906. That's when Stanley and then Helvetia were connected to a streetcar system. This system linked Helvetia to nearby towns like DuBois and Sykesville. Cars didn't make much difference for Helvetia families until the 1920s, when they became more affordable. So, in the early years, people living in Helvetia mostly depended on the mining company for services.

Adrian Iselin started building the coal plant, offices, homes for workers, the company store, and other town buildings in late 1890. He really wanted to start producing coal quickly. Records show the mine was working by early 1891 and producing a lot of coal by 1892.

Mine Facilities and Coke Ovens

Construction of the power plant began in March 1891, and the town's water system started in September of that year. By 1892, the mine's industrial area had grown a lot. It included a blacksmith shop (where metal tools were made and repaired), a main office building, a steam saw and shingle mill (for cutting wood), the powerhouse with its machines, and the tipple (a structure for loading coal). A weigh office and scale were added in 1895 to measure the coal.

Coke ovens were also built around 1892. Coke is a fuel made from coal, used in making steel. Local newspapers mentioned that work on the coke ovens was progressing in June 1892. They said Helvetia would soon be "sending her light heavenward," meaning the fires from the ovens would be visible, just like in other mining towns.

Homes for Miners

Iselin also made sure there were places for his employees to live as the coal mining started. The construction of the company town began almost right away. Records show that people started paying rent for homes in Helvetia in February 1891.

Most of Helvetia's homes and many of the town's facilities were built between 1890 and 1896 under Iselin's direction. He oversaw the building of 62 "double houses" for miners (meaning each building had two separate homes) and 10 "single houses." This made a total of 134 living units. By May 1892, 41 double-block houses and 10 single houses were finished.

There were also two special houses listed separately: one for the mine's engineer and one for the superintendent (the person in charge). Iselin also had a brick house built for the mine manager, which was known as the Haskal Mansion. By 1893, 15 more double houses were added, bringing the total number of miner's homes to 56.

See also

In Spanish: Helvetia (Pensilvania) para niños