In April 2018, we published a post about the response to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 in Schuylkill County.

Since then, research has continued and we recently stumbled across this excerpt from an article in the Pottsville Miners’ Journal from May 27, 1865. The article deplored acts of violence that were occurring across Schuylkill County as the Civil War drew to a close. This particular act of violence occurred in Lorberry, a patch town in the mountains northwest of Pine Grove.

A few days after President Lincoln had been assassinated, three miners who were in an Irish groggery at Lorberry, and expressed sorrow that the act had been committed, were beaten terribly. One was supposed to be dead, and was dragged into an adjoining piece of woods, and his body covered with stones to hide it. Complaint was made before a justice of the peace, and a warrant issued for the arrest of the perpetrators, but no constable could be found courageous enough to make an arrest. The scoundrels who perpetrate these lawless acts, make threats freely and openly in regard to the treatment which may be expected by anyone who attempts to arrest them.

This is one of the most violent responses in the Coal Region recorded at the time. This region of western Schuylkill County became known during the Civil War as a hotbed of support for anti-war insurgents known as “Copperheads.”

Featured Image: The Lincoln Assassination, April 14, 1865 (Ford’s Theatre)

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