The Lemkos of southeast Poland first began migrating to Coal Country in northeast Pennsylvania in the 1870’s in search of a better life. What they often found there was grinding poverty even more difficult than what they experienced back home and the hardened attitudes of the local people who considered them little more than beasts of burden to help carry America’s growing industry on their backs. And most of all, extremely dangerous working conditions in the mines.
Visiting these web sites will help you better understand life in the anthracite (hard coal) region of Pennsylvania in the early part of the 20th century and later.
Coal Patch Days, part 1 (The Ukrainian Weekly, 2/20/11)
http://www.buryk.com/our_patch/docs/coalpatchdayspart1022011.pdf
Coal Patch Days, part 2 (The Ukrainian Weekly, 2/27/11)
http://www.buryk.com/our_patch/docs/coalpatchdayspart2022711.pdf
Nicholas Bervinchak, Coal Country artist (The Ukrainian Weekly, 10/02/11)
http://www.buryk.com/our_patch/docs/nbervinchakukrweekly100211.pdf
Online gallery of the work of Nicholas Bervinchak, the social realist artist and church muralist
