Topolski, Walter
(Aug. 26, 1874 - Feb. 28, 1961)If Walter Topolski were reincarnated and tread in the same footsteps as he did when he was on earth, he wouldn't find St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, where he married Alice Stovinski in 1898, or Our Mother of Consolation Catholic Church, where a Requiem Mass was celebrated upon his death. Now, owing to a shortage of priests and parishioners, St. Joseph's is closed and Our Mother of Consolation is known as Divine Redeemer Catholic Church. They are indistinguishable from their Polish roots.
Walter Topolski, who came from Poland in 1894, did his part to raise his family in Mount Carmel. He was one of the organizers of Our Mother of Consolation Catholic Church in 1904 and worked in the coal mines for 39 years. His wife, with whom he had three sons - Edward, Victor, and Joseph - died in February 1932 in Diamondtown, across the viaduct from MOC, in a shoddily built house, and was buried in the parish cemetery.
Reliance Colliery, opened in 1867 when Mount Carmel had a little more than 1,289 persons, was the last mine where Topolski worked. When he retired February 24, 1933, Reliance Colliery had a rock bank as large as the sacred mountain in Palestine after which Mount Carmel was named. From its top one could see virtually every house in Mount Carmel - the houses close together like sardines in a can and the church steeples hovering over them. The streets were laid out fairly well, and half of the houses, though well kept, lacked bathrooms. The Topolski house in Diamondtown, valued at $1,000 in 1930, was in the neighborhood of a brewery. When Reliance Colliery shut down, it threw more than 500 employees out of work. It produced 409,736 tons of coal in 1930.
From: Edward Pinkowski (2009)