Wehrum, Pennsylvania facts for kids
Wehrum was once a busy coal mining town in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It was a "company town," meaning a town built and owned by a mining company for its workers. Wehrum was active in the early 1900s. The coal mine it depended on closed in 1929, and by 1934, almost everyone had left. Today, you can only find faint traces of its old streets and building foundations hidden in the woods. Wehrum is now known as one of the ghost towns on Pennsylvania's Ghost Town Trail.
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The Story of Wehrum
Wehrum was started in 1901 by Judge A. V. Barker and Warren Delano. Warren Delano was the uncle of future US President Franklin Roosevelt. The town was named after Henry Wehrum, who was a manager at the Lackawanna Steel Company. A part of this company, called the Lackawanna Coal & Coke Company, ran the town.
The town was planned with six wide streets running north to south, plus five cross streets and several smaller alleys. Wehrum had 250 houses, a bank, a jail, a hotel, a company store, a post office, a school, and two churches. Some of its street names, like "Broadway" and "The Bowery," were playful nods to famous streets in New York City.
Building the Mines
The Lackawanna No. 4 mine opened in Wehrum in 1902. Another mine, Lackawanna No. 3, opened nearby. In 1903, the Pennsylvania Railroad extended its passenger train service to pass through Wehrum.
The company spent over a million dollars to build Wehrum, and the town grew quickly. Coal from Wehrum's mines was sent to big cities like Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh.
Challenges and Closure
Wehrum's mines faced some tough times. In 1904, a gas explosion killed four miners. In 1906, the building that cleaned the coal, called a coal washer, burned down. This slowed down mining until a new one was built the next year. In 1909, another explosion tragically killed twenty-one miners.
The mines were sold to the Bethlehem Mines Corporation in 1922. However, this company unexpectedly closed the mines in 1929. After the mines closed, many of the houses were taken apart for their wood. The mine buildings were sold for scrap metal. By 1934, only one house, the school, and the jail were left standing.
The Cemetery
One of the few things left from Wehrum today is the cemetery of the Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church. This cemetery was built between 1902 and 1904. Many people buried there were from a region called Máramaros in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary. The last burials in this cemetery happened in 1927.
The Wehrum Dam
Another remaining part of the old mining town is the Wehrum Dam. You can still find its ruins deep in the woods. This dam was used by the Bethlehem Mines Corporation.
In July 1977, during two very rainy days, this dam was one of six that broke. These dam breaks added to the terrible Johnstown Flood that year. Even though it's sometimes called "Unnamed Dam" on maps, people in the area still call it the Wehrum Dam. The old dam's walls are still there among the cliffs, but the area where the water used to be is now an overgrown meadow.
Who Was Henry Wehrum?
The town of Wehrum was named after Henry Wehrum. He was the General Manager of the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company. Henry Wehrum was born in France in 1843. He moved to the United States in 1871 after France lost the Franco-Prussian War.
He played a big part in moving the Lackawanna company's main operations to Buffalo, New York in 1901. He also encouraged the company to buy land with coal in Pennsylvania. Henry Wehrum passed away in 1906 at his home near Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Images for kids
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Wehrum Cemetery, now hidden in the forest.
See also
In Spanish: Wehrum para niños
