POTTSVILLE  , a

borough and the county-seat of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., at Schuylkill Gap through Sharp Mountain on the Schuylkill river, about 90 m . N.W. of Philadelphia . Pop . (1910 census) 20,236 . It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by the Eastern Pennsylvania railway company to the borough of Minersville (pop., 1910, 7240), about 41M . N.N.E., and to the other boroughs in the immediate neighbourhood, for which Pottsville is a business and shipping centre . It is picturesquely situated in the famous Schuylkill coalfield and on the old Schuylkill canal and Tumbling Run, and has a considerable number of summer visitors . There are large repair shops of the Pennsylvania and of the Philadelphia & Reading railways at Pottsville . In 1905 the total value of the factory products was $5,805,788 . The first settlers here, a single family, were massacred by the Indians in August 178o; a second settlement was established about 1795, and an iron furnace was erected a few years later . In 1804 this furnace was purchased by John Pott (1759–1827), the founder of the borough; in 1807 coal was discovered; in 1816 the town was laid out; in 1828 it was incorporated as a borough; and in 1851 the borough became the county-seat . In 1854–1877 Pottsville was a centre of the Molly Maguire disturbances, and here a number of the leaders were tried and convicted in 1876–1877 .

In 1908 the borough of Yorkville (pop., 1900, 1125) was annexed to Pottsville .