Jenners, Ralphton, Acosta and Gray were each built shortly after 1900 as company towns by Consolidation Coal, a Rockefeller interest, for its newly opened deep coal mines. Immigrants from Poland, Italy, Russia, Ruthenia, Wales, and Ireland filled the coal towns. The Somerset Coal Strike of 1922–1923 centered in these towns, and nearby Boswell, Jerome and Windber. The strike, which ultimately failed in its goal to unionize miners, drew significant nationwide attention for the hardships suffered by local miners. By the 1960s, the deep mines had closed. The town of Randolph was also a very small coal mining community in Jenner Township, any trace of which is now virtually gone, having been destroyed by highway construction in 1970.