Pottsville

Pottsville is a city in, and the county seat of, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 14,324 at the 2010 census, and is the principal city of the Pottsville, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies along the west bank of the Schuylkill River, 52mi south of Wilkes Barre. It is located in Pennsylvania's Coal Region.HistoryEarly settlementCharles II granted the land that eventually became Pottsville to William Penn. The grant comprised all lands west and south of the Delaware and the Schuylkill; the site of Pottsville was originally in Chester County. When the legislative Council, on May 10, 1729, enacted the law erecting Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which included all the lands of the Province lying westward of a straight line drawn northeasterly from the headwaters of Octorara Creek (near the southern borders) marked with blazed trees, to the Schuylkill River, then this placed Pottsville in Lancaster County. By enactment of the same Council, approved on March 11, 1752, Berks County was erected; this placed Pottsville within the limits of that county.Pottsville's anthracite coal history began in 1790 when a coal seam was discovered by hunter Necho Allen. Legend has it that Allen fell asleep at the base of the Broad Mountain and woke to the sight of a large fire; his campfire had ignited an outcropping of coal. By 1795 an anthracite-fired finery forge was established on the Schuylkill River.