News

November 9, 2009

Larksville marking its 100th

Meet-and-greet featuring borough’s coal mining heritage is first of several celebratory events planned.

JANINE UNGVARSKY Times Leader Correspondent

LARKSVILLE -- It was once a part of Plymouth Township, known as Blindtown, the most populated municipality in Luzerne County and home to five collieries.

On Tuesday, Larksville Borough will add another page to its history when it officially turns 100.

Larksville’s year-long centennial celebration began Sunday with meet-and-greets with council members and centennial committee members held in the borough building and American Legion Hall, both on East State Street.

“This is our first event to let the town know we’re ready to celebrate and get the word out of the events we have planned,” said committee chairman Jeff Williams.

Plans include a sports memorabilia show on Dec. 5 and a pancake breakfast in January. Residents can look forward to more events next summer, Williams said, such as a boroughwide yard sale and ice cream social.

The borough will celebrate big in June with a carnival, car show and chicken barbecue, he said.

“There’s a lot of heritage here,” Williams said. “We want people to come out and learn more about our history and show respect for the people who went ahead of us.”

History spilled out of a number of longtime residents at the meet-and-greet. Karen Chabala explained documents from the borough’s past, including pictures, mine pay stubs and tax bills.

“It’s amazing to find all these different things,” said Chabala. “You don’t really put it all together until you work on something like this.”

Chabala and Williams hope residents will take the time to mine the history of their own families and take part in one of the next centennial projects, creating Christmas ornaments to represent each year of Larksville’s history. Through Nov. 25, residents can sign up to create an ornament for a specific year.

“We’re looking for something to commemorate each year to decorate the community tree,” Williams said.

With some of the borough’s youngest citizens — the Junior Girl Scouts of Troop 2689 and the Brownies of Troop 2599 — serving as hostesses, centennial committee member Pete Kotis shared knowledge of mining lore such as how miners had to use double-pointed axes so they wouldn’t have to stop to sharpen them.

Joe Gimble took a moment from portraying a coal miner to share some of Larksville’s’ history.

“During (World War II) there were 1,000 people working in the Hudson Coal Mine six days a week,” he said, “and some worked there until the mine closed in ’65. In 1945 we had a state champion football team at Larksville High School,” he said, noting that the borough also had visits from boxer Joe Louis and baseball great Babe Ruth.

Some residents recalled the sadder things, like the many miners who lost their lives in the ground under the borough and the day in 1962 when the high school burned to the ground.

“The fire started at 4 p.m., and it took until midnight to get it under control,” said former fireman Richard Evans, who said he was 14 when the school at the site of the current State Street Elementary burned. “The fire chief was in Pittston at the time and he could see the fire from there. That was some fire. I still remember it.”

At the American Legion, Dena Sims, Louise Pellam and Marilyn Wheeler waved to passing motorists and greeted visitors dressed in clothing Sims made to replicate what miners’ wives might have worn in 1909.

“We want the town to realize Larksville has so much to offer,” said Sims. “Larksville was built on the mines and we want to get everyone together to celebrate our history.”

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