Students at MMI Preparatory School honored their school’s founder, Eckley Brinton Coxe, and his wife, Sophia Georgianna Coxe, during a program at the school and graveside service recently.

The senior class traveled to the grounds of St. James Episcopal Church in Drifton, where they held a wreath-laying ceremony at the grave sites of Mr. and Mrs. Coxe, more than 120 years after Eckley Coxe’s death.

MMI also welcomed back young alumni from the last four graduating years to visit with faculty, staff and students. MMI Head of School Justin Kleinheider said, “I am pleased that even in these unique times, we can celebrate our history showing our school and local community how we carry on the vision of the Coxes to prepare students for life. More than 142 years later, we still live the mission of providing a rigorous education to and building character in area students.”

The lives of Eckley and Sophia Coxe provide an interesting history of the early coal-mining days and history of the Hazleton area. Upon Eckley Coxe’s death from pneumonia on the morning of May 13, 1895, The New York Times extolled Coxe as a man of high moral character who refused even the appearance of impropriety, one of the largest individual coal operators in the country, and a friend to many throughout the region who mourned his passing, including the employees who labored in his mines.

Coxe was born June 4, 1839, in Philadelphia and came from a distinguished family that had been in the United States since before the American Revolution. He bought land in several Pennsylvania counties, mainly Luzerne, which contained large deposits of coal. The lands were expanded by his son, Charles S. Coxe, who was, at one time, a judge in the District Court of Philadelphia.

Hoping to become a mining engineer, he studied chemistry and physics; however, he learned the basics of mining by spending time in his family’s coalfields.

He established Coxe Brothers & Co. to combine control of the coal lands. Soon, his firm controlled more than 35,000 acres of coalfields and increased coal production.

His interest turned to the technical education being given to young people. His concern produced the Mining and Mechanical Institute - today’s MMI Preparatory School. This institution, founded in 1879, was chartered in 1894 as an all-boys’ school to teach the sons of miners. Today, it is a co-educational college preparatory school serving students in grades six through 12.

His wife, Sophia Georgianna (Fisher) Coxe, was known as the “Angel of the Anthracite.”

Sophia distributed food and medicine to needy miners and their families and established a hospital in Drifton. She helped found St. James Episcopal Church in 1884 and taught Sunday school there for 40 years.

Even though Eckley and Sophia had no children, she traveled each Christmas to New York City, where she selected dolls, sleds and other toys for the children of the village.

She gave a large donation to the newly established Hazleton State Hospital and employed a staff of nurses to visit the miners’ homes in Drifton.

Upon her husband’s death, Sophia was given his entire income; however, she spent only 10% on necessities for herself and donated the rest to charity.

In memory of her husband, Sophia Coxe built and equipped the Eckley B. Coxe Memorial Mining Laboratory at Lehigh University, Bethlehem. She also provided a building for MMI - the school’s former gymnasium.