We come from a long line of coal miners in Pennsylvania. Coal mining began in the Pennsylvania colony about 1760 at a place called Coal Hill, across the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh. Coal was extracted and then moved by canoe down the river to Fort Pitt. From these beginnings coal became a big industry through the centuries. Coal mining boomed in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was used to power steam engines, generate electricity and heat buildings. Many of the men in our family mined coal from their arrival in Pennsylvania in the 1700s through about 2014 when cousin, Butch, retired as the last Altman coal miner. We come from a long line of coal miners in Pennsylvania. As a very small child, I remember my dad, George Dickson Altman, coming home with a white hard hat that had a light on it and his face was covered in black grime. I remember his dusty boots and beat-up lunchbox. He work...