POTTSVILLE, a borough and the county-seat of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., at Schuylkill Gap through Sharp Mountain on the Schuylkill river, about 90 m. N.W. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1910 census) 20,236. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by the Eastern Pennsylvania railway company to the borough of Minersville (pop., 1910, 7240), about 4½ m. N.N.E., and to the other boroughs in the immediate neighbourhood, for which Pottsville is a business and shipping centre. It is picturesquely situated in the famous Schuylkill coalfield and on the old Schuylkill canal and Tumbling Run, and has a considerable number of summer visitors. There are large repair shops of the Pennsylvania and of the Philadelphia & Reading railways at Pottsville. In 1905 the total value of the factory products was $5,805,788.
The first settlers here, a single family, were massacred by the Indians in August 1780; a second settlement was established about 1795, and an iron furnace was erected a few years later. In 1804 this furnace was purchased by John Pott (1759-1827), the founder of the borough; in 1807 coal was discovered; in 1816 the town was laid out; in 1828 it was incorporated as a borough; and in 1851 the borough became the county-seat. In 1854-1877 Pottsville was a centre of the Molly Maguire disturbances, and here a number of the leaders were tried and convicted in 1876-1877. In 1908 the borough of Yorkville (pop., 1900, 1125) was annexed to Pottsville.