WHEN COAL WAS KING

Presented by Elizabeth Rodenz.

Coal was king during the Industrial Age. The steel mills needed it to stoke the furnaces, the railcars ran on it, and homes were heated with it. This presentation will trace the history of coal mining, life in the coal patches, unionization, and explosions that occurred in western Pennsylvania.

Elizabeth will provide insight as to why the miners’ efforts to live a life without poverty and suffering were pushed back again and again.  She will speak to the strikes throughout the state, especially the 1910 strike in Westmoreland County, and what converged to push back unionization.

Elizabeth has never forgotten her parents’ stories about life in a coal-mining patch. They tugged at her heart and reached deep within. She has traveled many roads, but she has never forgotten her parents’ stories.  That time in her life helped shape her life and prepared her for her for the many roads she has traveled. She did not live a fairy tale life, but Elizabeth believes it was the life she was meant to live. Josephine: A Woman of Indomitable Spirit, is the story she was destined to write.