Look Back: Father of Wilkes-Barre mayor became first in 1853 to operate engine in coal mine

In the area of today’s Blackman Street, Wilkes-Barre Township Boulevard and Interstate 81 in Wilkes-Barre Township, the Lehigh & Susquehanna Coal Co. had several coal fields that incorporated the Blackman Mine and the Franklin Mine in the mid-1850s.

History was made in one of those mines.

John Hart, who immigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1848, became the first operator of an engine to haul coal from any coal mine in the Wyoming Valley in 1853.

Hart’s life as a coal mine laborer turned engineer is outlined in his obituary published in the Wilkes-Barre Record on Dec. 6 1910. Hart was 85 when he died at his home of nearly 50 years that once stood at Hazle and Blackman streets in Wilkes-Barre, where today stands a small gasoline service station.

Educated in common schools, Hart first joined his father, Patrick Hart, as a farmer in the County of Sligo, Ireland, before he crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

“On June 1, 1848, Mr. Hart landed in New York City, but wasted no time there, starting at once for Wilkes-Barre by way of Easton. Travel at that time was accomplished by stage coach and was slow and laborious work. It took many days to travel over the mountains, but when he once reached Wilkes-Barre, he settled here and had every since made it his home,” the Wilkes-Barre Record reported Dec. 6, 1910.

Mechanically inclined, Hart became fascinated as coal mines began the slow transition of incorporating machines to replace donkeys and oxen hauling coal.

“He thought it a good plan to learn all the details of the business from the very lowest step and so accepted a position as a laborer in the coal fields of the Lehigh & Susquehanna Coal Co.,” Hart’s obituary reads.

As machines were introduced into coal mines, Hart studied the method of running an engine to such good effect that in 1853, he was given charge of the first engine that was ever operated in the Wyoming Valley to haul the coal out of the mines.

Hart’s continued to self-educate himself to the point Alexander McLean, a minor contractor and shipper of coal to larger markets, promoted him to stationary engineer at the Blackman mine.

Hart worked at the Blackman Mine until 1865 before moving to the Empire Mine and the Stanton Mine of the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Col, until April 11, 1902, when he retired.

“During the 37 years he presided over the stationary engines at the Blackman, Empire and Stanton mines, he never met with an accident,” Hart’s obituary reads.

Hart purchased the property at Hazle and Blackman streets in 1863, where he built a “comfortable residence” with his wife, the former Mary MacDonald, along with their seven children.

One of their children, Daniel L. Hart, was mayor of Wilkes-Barre from 1920 to 1933.

Hart was buried next to his wife, who died in 1909, in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Hanover Township.