Dravosburg The area we call Dravosburg was once a virgin forest. Fish and game abounded and Native American Indians found it to their liking. For centuries they used the area to hunt and fish. The coming of large numbers of settlers just after the American Revolution changed that scenario forever. In the late 18th century, after the Indians were forced westward, German and Welsh farmers turned Dravosburg into an agricultural hamlet. After coal was discovered in abundance in the hills above the river flats in the early 19th century, the area again changed drastically. A new influx of settlers arrived to mine the coal buried deep under the hills. Farmers sold their property to coal barons and moved into outlying areas. Dravosburg became a mining town as early as 1835. The coal industry spawned three small settlements, Amity, Dravosburg and Stonesburg, each having their own mine. Soon, these three hamlets grew and merged into one entity called Dravosburg. In the mid-nineteenth century, John F. Dravo, a descendant of French horticulturist, Antoine Dreveau, operated a large coal mine in what we now call Dravosburg. The mine was named appropriately “the Dravo mine.” John’s presence in Dravosburg was short-lived, lasting only 16 years, but the town, due to the presence of this large mine, still bears his name. Just after the Civil War, John Dravo sold his interests to John C. Risher and moved to Beaver County. John’s ancestors were of German descent, having come to America in the early 1700s. John also built boats and barges to haul his product, spawning a boat-building industry in “the Burg.” This enterprise was located just south of the inclined plane which carried his coal to the river. John would mine coal in Dravosburg until his death in 1889. His son-in-law Stephen Crump then took over the business. Around 1900 he sold the remainder of his coal rights to a consortium commonly called “The Coal Combine.” Most of the coal in Dravosburg had been mined by 1915, but another industry, steel production, would soon dwarf the coal industry and become the leading employer in the Monongahela Valley. By 1920 Dravosburg had become a “bedroom community” as its coal mines closed and no large industry operated within its borders. Most residents now commuted to work. In 1903 Dravosburg’s residents sought and gained incorporation as a separate borough. They felt their tax dollars would be better spent on the improvement of their own town, instead of that of Mifflin Township as a whole. Dravosburg built a large school in 1906 and appointed its own teachers. Four churches and a post office were founded very early in the borough’s history and all are active today. Like other small towns in the Monongahela Valley, Dravosburg suffered the loss of part of its tax base when the steel industry downsized. It has yet to completely recover. Materially, hope for revitalization lies in the coming of a four-lane super highway which will bisect the town, but provide access to vacant mill sites where development can occur. Spiritually, the town is still identified as “close-knit” and borough leaders are doing all that is possible to help it stand independently. To read an in-depth account of the borough’s history, a 360 page book, “All About “the Burg” – The Story of Dravosburg, PA,” is available for purchase. The price is $40 plus $5 for shipping and handling. The book is a by-product of Dravosburg’s 2003 Centennial Celebration and was edited by life-long borough resident Jan Burton Catalogna. In addition to the borough’s history, the book also contains approximately fifty family histories, a military section, accounts of borough institutions and scores of pictures of the town’s earlier days up to the present. For inquires on purchasing the Dravosburg book, please e-mail Jan Catalogna at JACAT99@aol or Dick Backus at rbackus22@aol.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 02:50:25 +0000
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