Wehrum, Pennsylvania
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Wehrum is an abandoned coal mining company town in Buffington Township,
Indiana County Indiana County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the west central part of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,246. Its county seat is Indiana. Indiana County comprises the Indiana, PA Mi ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, United States, that thrived for a time during the early 20th century. The mine upon which it was entirely dependent closed in 1929, and the last known inhabitants left in 1934. Essentially all that remains of Wehrum today are shadowy remnants of some of the streets and various building foundations hidden in the woods. Wehrum is now one of the
ghost towns A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
included in Pennsylvania's
Ghost Town Trail The Ghost Town Trail is a rail trail in Western Pennsylvania that runs between Black Lick, Indiana County, and Ebensburg, Cambria County. Established in 1991 on the right-of-way of the former Ebensburg and Black Lick Railroad, the trail fo ...
.


History

Wehrum was founded as a non-union company town in 1901 by Judge A. V. Barker and
Warren Delano Warren Lyford DeLano (June 21, 1972 – November 3, 2009) was a bioinformatician and an advocate for the increased adoption of open source practices in the sciences, and especially drug discovery, where advances which save time and resources can al ...
, maternal uncle of
Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
. It was named after Henry Wehrum, general manager of the
Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company The Lackawanna Steel Company was an American steel manufacturing company that existed as an independent company from 1840 to 1922, and as a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel company from 1922 to 1983. Founded by the Scranton family, it was once t ...
. The town was operated by a subsidiary, the Lackawanna Coal & Coke Company. The town plan had six north–south streets, all wide, along with five cross streets and several alleys, and the town consisted of 250 houses, a bank, jail, hotel, company store, post office, school and two churches. In what was perhaps a playful reference to New York City, several of the small town's street names were evocative of lower Manhattan (e.g., "Broadway" and "The Bowery"). In addition to the town site, the company purchased a large amount of coal land from the Blacklick Land and Improvement Company. The Lackawanna No. 4 mine was opened in 1902 at the site, and Lackawanna No. 3 was opened a short distance away at a small settlement known only as Lackawanna No. 3. In 1903, the
Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...
extended passenger service on its Ebensburg & Blacklick Branch from
Vintondale Vintondale is a borough in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 414 as of the 2010 census. History Vintondale was founded by Warren Delano IV ...
past Wehrum. The company invested over $1 million in Wehrum and the town quickly developed. Coal from the Wehrum mines was shipped to
Buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...
, Rochester, and
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. Operations in Wehrum experienced several accidents. In 1904, a gas explosion killed four miners. The coal washer burnt in 1906, leading to decreased activity until the washer was replaced the next year. In 1909, an explosion killed twenty-one miners. The mines were eventually sold to the Bethlehem Mines Corporation in 1922, which unexpectedly closed the mines in 1929. Many of the houses were stripped for lumber, and the mine buildings were sold for scrap. By 1934 only one house, the school, and the jail remained. One of the few remnants of Wehrum is the Sts. Peter and Paul
Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
cemetery, built between 1902 and 1904 on land purchased by Saint
Tikhon of Moscow Tikhon of Moscow (, – ), born Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin (), was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). On 5 November 1917 ( OS) he was selected the 11th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, after a period of about 200 years of the ...
. The church acquired more property in Vintondale, where a new building was constructed in 1907. Records indicate that many of the residents were from Máramaros in the
Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...
. The last burials were in 1927.


Dam

The Wehrum Dam is another remnant of the old mining town. Its remains can still be found deep in the woods leading up the mountain from where the Allegheny Trail passes through the area. The Wehrum Dam had originally been used by the Bethlehem Mines Corporation. This dam was one of six that broke during two rainy days, July 19–20, 1977, contributing to the Johnstown Flood of that year. It is listed as "Unnamed Dam" in some places, but most who live in the area continue to refer to it as the Wehrum Dam, even to this day. The sides of the walls of the old dam still rest among the cliffs of the area, the basin of the former dam now a tangled and overgrown meadow."Pennsylvania Ghost Towns: Uncovering The Hidden Past", pg 114.


Namesake

The town of Wehrum is named after Henry Wehrum, General Manager of Lackawanna Iron and Steel, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Born in France in 1843, Wehrum migrated to the US after the French defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
in 1871. He was instrumental in moving the Lackawanna works to
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
in 1901. He also encouraged the purchase of coal lands in
Cambria Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity) or the early medieval period. After the ...
and Indiana Counties. He died in 1906 at his home in Elmhurst, near Scranton.


See also

*
List of ghost towns in Pennsylvania This is an incomplete list of ghost towns in Pennsylvania. Many of the ghost towns in Pennsylvania are located in Western Pennsylvania, particularly in the Appalachian and Allegheny regions of the Rust Belt. During the late 19th century and ea ...


References

{{authority control Ghost towns in Pennsylvania Populated places established in 1901 Company towns in Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Indiana County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania