Twist Family of Pittston Pennsylvania

Twist comes to America: 

Josiah Twist came to America to seek new opportunities in 1869. After stepping off the ship in New York harbor, young Josiah son of a Manchester, England family of cotton factory workers, migrated to Parsons. Pennsylvania, a town built on the coalmine industry situated halfway between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. The town’s emergence in the 19th century coincided with the advent of anthracite coal as a primary energy source in the United States. The coal industry created new opportunities for immigrants looking for labor. Railways transported the extracted anthracite coal placed in railway cars, and transported for use as a primary energy source in large urban areas. The combination of coal and iron resources, petroleum and a transportation network made Pennsylvania a leading industrial state in the United States. Josiah first worked in the Hudson Colliery as a laborer in the coalmines. Similar to the experience of his ancestors in English collieries cotton factories, the mining mills were equally harsh, but more dangerous, as the coalmines caused workers to experience “miner’s asthma” or black lung disease. Miners, paid $1.00 a day for buckets of coal, frequently placed safety as secondary to volume of work produced. Coalmine shaft accidents, railcar incidents, and explosions frequented the cause of death of many recorded in many obituaries of the coal mining townships. Typhoid was a second cause of death to many that survived the mines.

The 1870 census report documents when Josiah first arrived to Pennsylvania in 1869, he was a coalmine laborer and boarder at a house owned by an older couple, John and Ava Treffison. Between 1870 and 1880, Josiah met and married his wife Mary Ann Evans, daughter of Daniel and Ann of Welch decent and of coal mine background. The couple began a new life residing in the shadows of the collieries on Railroad Street in the Parsons section of Pittston, Pennsylvania.

Mary Ann and Josiah Twist, the only son of Henry of Manchester, England to carry the Twist name, bore five children, Daniel (b.1877-1953), Margaret (Twist) Chase, (b1878-1943), Minnie (Twist) Jordon, (b1883-aft1920), Henry (b.1880-1938), and Chester (b1884-aft1930).

 While raising his family, Josiah gained experience in the coal mining industry and became a Burgess for the Laflin Powder Mills, and moved from the Parson Township (present day Wilkes Barre to the Laflin Township in greater Pittston, Pennsylvania. While working at the Laflin Powder Works in 1903, the Worchester Daily Spy reported Josiah’s powder mill explosion that shook every house in Laflin caused injury to Josiah’s arms and legs caused by flying debris. The powder mill explosion was the loudest ever heard in the region. All windows were broken and buildings were destroyed by a blast sparked as what was reported as a spark created by a tack. Three coworkers were killed; however, Josiah and another worker, Thomas Haines survived but required hospitalization for injuries caused by flying debris.

Hardship was experinced by his wife May Ann succumbed to a 1898 illness that took her life. The Wilkes-Barre Record reported a complication of diseases overcome Josiah’s wife Mary. Mary’s funeral was elegant, townspeople made a special pillow and wreath in her honor. The close-knit group of coal miners at the Laflin mill all attended the funeral. Included were closed friends and coalmine boss Thomas Nattrass, coworkers George McMine, George Hicks, and Luke Corbett. Mary’s burial is at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Pittston, Pennsylvania. During her life, Mary Ann frequented many family gatherings and comforted the family in time of illness. Josiah later worked as a shute tender and shovel man during his waning years. Josiah lived until at least 73 years old as documented on the 1920 census. He retired to his original house of Railroad Street to live with daughter Minne Jordan. The true legacy of the Twists still remains with the hard labor left by an industry that transformed America in the mid 19th and early 20th century. Today, a street sign erected as Twist Lane in present day Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.