The Eckley Oral History Project

A. (?)

Eva Sulhusky Nipsy (?) - 12:00 pm. 8/(?)/(?)

She doesn't remember the holes well.

She remembers the boys used (?) nipsies. She thinks they didn't have notches.

She played it at about 6-12 years old from 1906- 1912.

Used to ( draw, lined through) play with her mothern how mary people.

You (?) it out of the circle - you got / crack at it. Then, you (?) (it, is scribbled out) it out to where it landed - and you got 3 points. Then the other girls tried to get more points. She thinks when you ( two words are lined through)decided a stopped whoever had the most points won the game. [(?) she grew up + went to work she didn't play it anymore.

The game usually went on till " our mothers needed us for something, or the kids started to argue about something".

(Nipsy were, words lined through) Nipsy was played in the road : there were no cars up + down in those days + seldom did wagons come by.

(Two words crossed out in left margin) After got done with chores after school ( something crossed out) if it was light enough, we'd (?) her girl friends woud play - also, on Sundays, which was held as a day of rest + prayer + play(underlined).

times played( left margin)

Mrs. Eva Sulkusky age:71 3:30 - 4:30 pm born: 1901 3/(?)/72 house #113

huckle berries-

Used to pick for $ money, but not eat, because (underlined) pick so much. Had to pick, it was hard (scibble) raising 9 children. ( 6 brother - 1 dies at 5yr. when he was (?) he is oldest ( word under oldest lined through) child.) ( 2 sisters).

Married 1918 at 17 years. Had 6 girls, 1 boy.

United Mine Workers JMW strike - 6 months In 1922 or 24, she thinks. Had to pick berries to support her own family. After strike settled, (?) worked ( something scribbled out) 1-2 days a week, little work to be done in mines. Another strike after that followed, - 7 months - left (family, lined through) families with little money. Picked berries to sell at 2( cents symbol) / per qt.

Her + husband could pick, on each trip into woods, (?) buckets [ 1 bucket = 10 qt.]

Snakes in woods - no one got hurt as far as she remembers - no one got bitten.

Remembers 1 time she (?) [ with bucket on back - tied around in front.] back from berry picking.

Was a spring accross path. She was in back of her party's on (?) side ( 15 ft. away) ( crossed out letter) saw a (?) snake with big

(?) Eva 2 (?) mouth wide open. Got very scared. (?) at berry picking: Used to go 3 miles into woods Down to 3rd Spring. ((?) is still there, 1st + 2nd spring destroyed by strippings.) PathUsed to walk the RR bark - Mr. Tony Sulhosky + Mrs Sulhosky +( word crossed out) (?) Marshlik, used to kill snakes (word crossed out ) that they saw on the side. Today nothing but "thickness"- No huckleberries. Woods not bonned out so brush is (??) in old days, boys would set fire to the brush, deliberately, to get good berry bush area. (?), Woods are thick Berries, they like to grow when (??) burned. On 1st year get no berries, 2nd year ( words crossed out) + after get more + more huckle berries. Snakes(underlined) - rattlers, copperheads. Copper heads are "quick" snakes * Note fact that boys used to set fire to piled mounds of brush in woods to get rid of woods so berries would grow + they could pick them for supplement to family income.

Mrs. Sulkusky 3. [ ?/?/72 ]

In regard to her Huckleberry cake(underlined): Did Not (bake, lined through) cook berries when sell them. Used huckleberry pie, but not huckleberry cake. Mrs. [Perrone?] baked one day, + said huckleberry cake was good. Found, or got receipe from somebody. [ She works (word crossed out) For Dr. [G??] baking [?] for a while - 8 yrs selling of berries ( all underlined).

Sell to huckleberry men - Mrs. Zosak used to buy them, as [?] to man in Beaver Meadow. She sell to him, who sold to others. [?????]too, buy cheap. Made dye from them when shipped out of Eckley. [??] a kind of berry with little pit. Berry man - Came around with horse + wagon. Then, with trucks. Wagons: open box style - like buy express wagon. Huckleberry men [??]. " The [??] men" used to call him.

After "[??] men" stopped coming, [ don't know why] Mr. Reece of the Company Store used to buy + sell them out of town, when shipped out to different places.

( word lined out) Still [??] man that buys huckleberries, from Hazleton.

(Ziresky = maiden name of Mrs. Eve Sitkosky) nicknames is Eckley When growing up, everybody in town had nickname - Mr.( Sulkeihy?) = " Spongy." John Washko = " Zipky" (Tzipky") (?) Sulkosky = " 7 tacks + a hammer " Always had hammer + tacts (?) " Tony" Her own nickname - people used to call her " Eva Peeva" - and she hated it. Jo (her brother) = "Meow" [Because he liked cats.] Charly ( her brother) = " Sally" [ couldn't think of reason.] (?) (her brother)= " Yoyany" [Yoynny] Peter ( her bro) = " rotzy" (Li lly?) her brother) = ( doesn't remember) House style - Anthony ( Sull by?) / house (Burronels?) /(Deneo ?) house (Hooper?) Office (slave's house, before) Annie Maloney / Emory ( Vihalais ?) house Zanelli house Mung Maloney house Bracket from Anthony to Mung and arrow from Hooper Office to below, All these had kitchen originally (huill?) on by Company, these companyhomes Had kitchen (ons?) when first built. One reason: All have room on top of kitchen, while others don't have that. Age of houseChurch built 1861 Doesn't know when + (ho e?) houses built.

Mrs. (?)

Eva: Only Lithuanian in Eckley now. Catechism was tught in Freeland. Was taught catechism. Lithuanian afternoon, on Sunday. Pol in morning. St. (?) - 1st Church of Freeland. All kind people. (?) Freeland. (?) underlined - Though I discovred huckleberry cure was not a traditional old recipe here, I made use of oppurtunity to ash of her huckleberry picking (?)

Tape 16-1, page 12

AV: Six feet. by hand?

JS: When the Molly Maguires was here, and I give them that jumper and some of the tools, and I thought they were gonna give 'em back when they were done, but they did, like hell. They kept everything. And I heard donw below, the party that give them some things, they paid them for it. Well, I says, why do they come around for something.

Mrs. Solkusky: Well, why did you about it?

JS: Well, I thought everybody was like myself, they'd do the right thing. I give them a big wash-copper-boiler, you know, that the women used to boil clothes in one time. A big copper one. And then I give them these water bottles that you used to take down in the mines, you know--coffee or water or whatever you like to drink. They were copper.

So, and there's now, [batch?], sometimes, this Hooper asked me have I got any more of them. I said I give you them! He said, Well, didn't I give them back to you? You did not! I said. You gave me nothin' back, I said. I said you had the coffee bottles, and I says I gave you a big wash boiler, a copper one, and everything, I said. I gave you some tools, I said. I gave you some jumpers. I gave you that this half [woden?] hammer, you know, that you jumper with. And I says I gave you a couple more difficult things, I says. Well, I don't know what you'd do with them.

AV: Oh, Gee!

Mrs. Solkusky: He must have put them some place and some guys just walkin' around lookin' at things, just picked it up. Isn't that right, Angie?

AV: Oh, I don't know. Maybe those Paramount people ran off with it?

Mrs. S: That's right.

JS: Well, I know where you's were. I guess you should go down by the tunnel, down Buck Mountain, where the water comes out. And you's went off the highway and you's turned in on the dirt road, left. And then back there was a wash and the things where

Tape 16-1, page 14

back to Number Ten. From Number Ten then, I went up to Number Two up there where our family was. I worked in that slope for quite a while. Then they shut that down--well. they shut Number Ten. then they shut that down, then we went down to Buck Mountain. I worked there. I don't know how many years, there. Then they shut that down and they transferred us into the Owl Hole. And there was seniority rights, you know. The oldest man on the job, he had the preference of gettin' a job there. And who they didn't need, they laid off. They laid them off. And we went down the Owl Hole. Well, then they shut that down. But coal, oh my God! There's more coal in the mines yet than what they took out! Since ever they were minin' it.

AV: Really! Is there?

JS: Yeah! And there's coal yet that they don't know how far it goes, down here in Number Two mine. There was a place there, they had an inside slope. They had an engine there and they used to hoist them down below inside of the mines down. Well then they come down and they flattened off and they went through a tunnel, well it was about like from here, that tunnel, down to the stairway they have down there now, about that long. I guess about that long, maybe, if not a little longer. And then they got into the coal back there again. And that went in, out to Number One and out in all directions they have. So, down there, they had two pumps that used to pump. Well then, on the right there, they was a track goin' in and that one, oh it was a long distance in there. So they tried there--Andrew was bossin' then yet--and he got men there, they were company work, by the hour, you know. And they're drivin' down straight--because there were coal, you know. They wanted to see how far that coal goes down. Well they went down thirty five feet, down straight, like a well , you know. just tubin' to see how far that coal goin' to go. They couldn't, they didn't find no bottom rock yet. And he says, well that's enough. We know what's there, that there's a lot of coal there. and he says if they need to get it, he says, they'll get it sometime. And the water used to sip in there you know. Well, then the men would go out to work in the mornings, they had to bail

Tape 16-1, page 15

that water out with buckets! Well, it took time, you know, and he said, Ah, he said, that's too much work for nothin', he says. And he said we know that there's lots there. So there is a lot of coal down below, but they don't know how far it's gonna go down.

AV: Goodness!

JS: Well, down here in Number Seven, Butler, he took a cut of rock and dirt off, well the cut I would say would be about like, like from here to our mailbox out there. And then wide, pretty wide. And he though that--he was on the bottom rock with the shovel at that time--and he thought that's all the coal, that they see is there. And that was about, oh, about, oh thirty some, fourty feet, high, you know. So they stripped that all off, the dirt and everything, and he was loadin' that. And when he got of reach a litlle bit, and he moved up with the shovel, that rock goes right down like that. To the bottom, you know. Just right straight down. So he started, when he took all this top coal off and he started to dip out of there, he was dippin' for seven months, coal out of there! So they had a big, big long cable on that rope, you know. And, it was too short. They run out of cable. So thay spliced another big one on, and they kept on diggin' at that down in there. Everytime you couldn't see because water got in already. And every time they flopped that dipper down in there, and the dipper used to hold I think it was five ton or somethin'.

And they was dippin' for several months out of there, and they run out of that cable, and quit. The coal, they didn't get to the bottom yet where it ended. Well, that, that , he didn't strip no more. All the way down to the Owl Hole he could have went. But he wanted more pay for takin' that rock and all off, and Jedda Highland wouldn't give it to him, so he pulled out. He said he can't take that out for the price he took the first one. It's worht more money then that. So he quit. So that's all standin' there yet. But these guys, if they go-

Tape 16-1, page 20

JS: I hope it don't rain any more. Gee, them poor people have enough, the way that [Watch?] have hit pretty hand. See that Wyoming Valley, all that valley goin' down you know from Wilkes-Barre down through that way, that's all gettin' it down there. Into Harrisburg, and all the way down in through there.

AV: Do you think a lot of this water is draining off into the mines around here?

JS: Well, they have mines drowned that way, yeah. Yeah. Them mines will be all drownded. Everything.

AV: What was that time, they say, that the mines around here were flooded?

JS: Flooded?

AV: Yeah.

JS: That's when you get bigger rains, you know, the water breaks in some places. See, some places, they mine and they come under it where the roof ain't very strong, and it's mostly all clay, you know, it ain't no good rock. And they mine too much and too wide around there, and first thing it breaks in , that's when they called it a flood in the mine. Look out, boy! Run for your life! That river broke in a mine down Wilkes-Barre.

AV: Yeah?

JS: Yeah. And it caught I don't know how many men in there then.

Mrs. S: There were thirteen men they lost.

AV: When did that happen?

Mrs. S: It was a couple years ago now...

JS: No, not too long, a few years back. Oh, they tried to block it. They were runnin' these big in, you know, to stop that water goin' down in the mine. And hay, bales of hay, and what-not, they were dumplin' sic in that hole down by the river where it was goin' down in the mines, and they couldn't stop it. So, I don't know what the hell is they done afterward, did they let it that way or what they done, I don't know.

AV: Did that ever happen in the mines here?