Frackville, Pennsylvania, located at the crossroads to Schuylkill County in the heart of the Coal Region, was founded by Samuel Haupt and Daniel Frack. The borough of Frackville was settled in 1854 and chartered in 1876.The discovery and mining of coal north of Broad Mountain attracted and necessarily caused the settlement of a large population close to the base of operations. At Frackville, the coal product of the valley was collected and hoisted over the plane to the mountain by costly and powerful machinery. About 10,000 tons passed in that way daily over the weighmaster's scales at Frackville. The population in 1880 was 1,727. The borough was mostly inhabited by officials of the mines and railroads, and miners and their families.
Daniel Frack, one of the original settlers, first settled in St. Clair in 1833. He operated a hotel business and accumulated a considerable property during his residence there. While the coal developments of the mahanoy valley were yet in their infancy, and the business prospects of the locality were too uncertain to warrant investments, Mr. Frack with keen foresight purchased a tract of 166 acres at what was then called Girard Place and moved his family there in 1852, opening a hotel. In 1861, he laid off a part of his land in town lots which were rapidly disposed of and added largely to the development of the village.
Samuel Haupt, a native of Columbia County and one of the pioneers of Pottsville, having settled there in 1825, purchased a farm in 1854, and subsequently laid off a part of it into a town plot with broad avenues. It went by the name of the "Mountain City Property," constituting a very desirable portion of the borough. Prior to Mr. Haupt's purchase, the Mountain City estate was owned by James C. Stephens. The borough comprised 366 acres.
The borough government was established by a charter granted April 10th, 1876 and on May 25th of that year the first charter election was held, resulting in the choice of D.P. Haupt as chief burgess, and Henry Parton, A. Bone, Reuben Wagner, Robert McNealy, William E. Deisher, and H.C. Wagner as councilmen. H. Widenhold was the first town clerk. The first school house was erected in 1862 on a lot donated by Mr. Haupt. The railway played an important role for travelers who wished to make a "short cut" between the county seat and any point north of the mountain, as it connected by a line of stages established and operated by D.P. Haupt, with the railways at Mahoney Plane and Shenandoah.
Excerpts from History of Schuylkill County 1881, Frackville Borough, W.W. Munsell
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