Pat,

You mentioned that you can't find Mary Devitt after 1870 and that family legend says that she died in a house fire in the 1870s. Have you had any luck with checking newspapers? A fire, even one not in Pottsville, might have made the Pottsville Republican. Although to comb through all of the issues on film would try anyone's patience, have you tried checking the Zerbey multi-volume history of Schuylkill County? I used to have access to it at Temple University and haven't looked at it for years, but I remember that major events such as fires and mining accidents were often mentioned.