Breaker Boys and Bony Pickers
by Andy McAllister and Jeffrey Gerard
Breaker Boys in Eastern PA
Coal mining practices of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were similar across the country, and the widespread use of child labor was one such thread binding coal communities. A miner might start his career as young as seven years old, especially if his family needed another breadwinner to endure the injury or death of an adult.
Called “Breaker Boys” in the anthracite coal region of Eastern Pennsylvania and “Bony Pickers” in most other areas, these young boys worked in a tipple, where the mine cars were tipped to empty their coal. (Today, the term tipple is generally applied to any surface structure of an underground mine.) Bony Pickers removed rock, slate, and other non-burnable debris from coal as it passed by on a conveyor to the coal breaker. The coal breaker processed the chunks of coal, breaking them into pieces sized according to the coal’s use. Bony Pickers made about sixty cents for a ten-hour day of removing small pieces of rock by hand. They were not allowed to wear gloves, so bloody, worn fingertips were common.
Around age 12, boys would descend into the darkness of the mine working as door tenders (also called nippers or trappers), opening the mine’s doors for mine cars of coal. A couple years later, they could drive the mules that pulled the cars, and they could finally mine the coal in their mid- to late-teens.
For more information about jobs and life in 19th- and 20th-century coalfield communities…
‘Spraggers,’ Sunshine Lamps Now Part of Industry’s Past
by Eileen Mountjoy Cooper
Accepting the Challenge: a Slippery Rock Watershed Coalition Publication
by Stream Restoration, Inc. (2003)
The Bitter Cry of Children
by John Spargo (1906), quoted by ‘History Matters’
November 29th, 2006 at 10:26 am
Thanks for the article about breaker boys. I often forget how hard life must have been for my relatives!!!!
Thanks!!!
July 16th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
My father worked in an anthracite mine in a town called Throop, just outside Scranton, PA. He followed the route as you described, providing another small income (his brother worked as well) for a large family who had lost their Daddy because of a mine related accident. An “outlaw” mule kicked him in the groin, rupturing his appendix, causing his death a few days later. My father would wrap his fingers in wire everyday to protect them from getting cut by the slate, etc. It was a grim life and the bosses were anything but kind. Very interesting to see your article. Thank you.