Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Gilberton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Gilberton is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States, four miles (7 km) west by south of Mahanoy City. Its population was 583 at the 2020 census, a decline from the figure of 769 tabulated in 2010. Extensive deposits of anthracite coal are in the region, and coal-mining had been practiced by many of the 4,373 people who lived there in 1900. The coal-mining industry was thriving in 1910, and 5,401 people lived in Gilberton.
Its first post office opened in 1871. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 769 to 579 (-25%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Gilberton, 1907–1916
Passages that mention Gilberton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania ... including a genealogical and biographical record of many families and persons in the county1907 · page 511Read the page →
Read the text
actions in the nerve-wrecking time of war. He entered the tailoring business at Mahanoy City, Pa., where he remained until 1876, after which, with his brother, William C., he was engaged for two years in conducting a butcher shop at Gilberton, this county. They then returned to Mahanoy City, where they were engaged in the same business until 1881, when they located in Frackville and conducted the business under the firm name of Wagner Bros, until 1894, when the firm was reorganized. This association continued until 1898, when
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania1916 · page 238Read the page →
Read the text
hard to find. His first promotion was to the position of fire boss at a colliery at Wiggan, Schuylkill county. Then he became inside foreman at the Boston Run colliery, in 1886, and was later in the same capacity at the Suffolk colliery, to which he was transferred about 1890, residing at Gilberton while employed there. From there he went to the St. Nicholas district, being at the latter when the now famous Maple Hill colliery was opened. It was developed under his immediate management, and its highly profitable exploitation has always been attributed to his foresight and ingenuity. On April i, 1893, Mr. Tasker became
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Gilberton, 1864 to 1938
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (17), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
1938
