The William A. was owned by the Lehigh Valley Railroad and operated by the Connell Coal Company under William A. Connell. The colliery was located in Connells Patch near the Lackawanna-Luzerne County line. The breaker was an over shaft design with two separate outside shafts and newly constructed around 1890 with a capacity of around 1000 tons per day.

In 1892 new electric pumps capable of moving 216,000 gallons of water in a 24 hour period were installed to replace the steam pumps common at the time.

It was destroyed by fire on February 18, 1895. The breaker had a large supply of unprocessed coal on hand and was quickly rebuilt to resume production.

A 1901 Mine Inspectors report list 384,584 tons of coal mined with 702 workers total.

In 1905 a new steam boiler was installed producing 2100 horsepower. Steam was also being supplied to the Lawrence in Ransom, and Babylon in Duryea.

In 1906 a new haulage tunnel was constructed underground to the Babylon workings and later extended to the No 10 Tunnel at the base of Cambles Ledge. This improve the transport of coal to the breaker. By 1907 all coal from the No 10 Tunnel, Babylon shaft and drift, Lawrence shaft and drifts are conveyed underground to the William A. in this manor.

By 1911 the Lawrence and Babylon mines are idle but are still use for ventilation and emergency exits.

In 1915 the oil burning locomotive used on the No 10 Tunnel run was replaced with an electric mine motor car, using an overhead 400 volt trolley cable.

On January 2, 1918, the William A was again destroyed by fire. Coal is still mined and brought to the surface by the other shafts outside the building and being sent to the Austin, Stevens and Coxey breakers by railroad until arrangements are made to move all coal to the Seneca Breaker in Pittston via the Coxton Yards, this continued past 1945.

Records from 1890 to 1945 show over 10,962,990 tons of coal was produced.