Pottsville

Seat of Schuylkill County, eastern-central Pennsylvania, USA, situated where the Schuylkill River cuts through Sharp Mountain, 56 km/35 mi northwest of Reading and 146 km/91 mi northwest of Philadelphia; population (1990) 16,600. John Pott settled here in 1806, and later arrivals established iron works; the area was rapidly industrialized with the discovery of nearby coal deposits.

In the 1860s and 1870s Pottsville was a hotbed of activity by the Molly Maguires, a secret miners' labour organization; in 1877 six members were hanged after a trial in the town. Pottstown was the model for Gibbsville in the fiction of John O'Hara, who was born here in 1905.