made them another visit, informed them that he had determined to embrace
Christianity, and invited them, in the name of his chief, Packauke, to
settle on land on Beaver River, near his town Kaskaskünk, now New
Castle; this land was to be for the exclusive use of the mission. The
offer was accepted, and on April 17, 1770, they left Oil Creek in
fifteen canoes; in three days they reached Fort Pitt, proceeded down the
Ohio to Beaver River, and ascended that river to the locality given, now
Moravia, passing an Indian village, near present Newport, of women, all
single and pledged never to marry.
When encamped, they sent an embassy, Zeisberger, and Abraham, a native,
to Packauke, who were received by the chief at his own house; he gave
them welcome and pledged protection; they built houses, cleared land,
planted, and prepared for winter. The Indians began to visit them, the
Monseys from Goshgoshünk were the first to cast their lot with the
Christian Indians; Glikkikin soon came and became a Christian force.
Finally the Monseys adopted Zeisberger into their tribe; the ceremony
took place at Kaskaskünk; they invested him with all the rights and
privileges of a Monsey; this proved a complete triumph and was the
source of much good influence among Indians. White settlers began to
come after Wayne’s Treaty of Greenville, in 1795.
NEW CASTLE, county seat, incorporated as a city in 1869, population
44,938, was laid out, at the junction of the Shenango, Neshannock, and
Mahoning Rivers, where they form the Beaver River, in 1798, by John C.
Stewart from New Castle, Delaware. It has natural gas, fine churches,
schools, public buildings, bridges, and many beautiful residences,
including that of Ex-Lieutenant Governor William M. Brown, on the North
Hill. Courthouse, colonial, built in 1852, in spacious grounds, on a
hill in east part of the city. The first Methodist Episcopal Church has
a memorial window to Ira D. Sankey, the singing evangelist, who was born
and lived here; subject, “Ninety and Nine”; maker, Sellars, New York;
also Hofmann’s “Christ” in stained glass. High school, brick, of best
school construction, well lighted; has reproductions on the walls of
fine works of art. The Oak Park Cemetery has some beautiful memorials.
This is one of the manufacturing communities of western Pennsylvania,
which form the greatest industrial district in the world; within a
radius of sixty miles of New Castle, the annual tonnage is over
200,000,000, while the combined annual tonnage in and out of Liverpool,
London, Hamburg, Suez Canal, and New York is 116,000,000. The American
Sheet and Tin Plate Mill is said to be the largest in the world; they
constructed a miniature playground for the only exhibit sent from New
Castle to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915; it showed the kind of
humanitarian work done by the company, and was representative of this
city, where the playground has done a vast amount of good among the
foreign population employed in the immense furnaces; engineering works;
and the great cement plants making 5000 barrels of Portland cement
daily. The United States Steel Corporation, Carnegie Steel Company,
maintains children’s playgrounds, with a moving picture theatre,
average attendance 1800 children daily; The “Rosena” blast furnace yard
is kept like a park in grass, flower beds, and neatness.
Cascade Park has great natural beauty. A part of the beautiful Slippery
Rock is in the southeast of this county. At Mount Jackson is Battery B
Monument in honor of the Round Head Regiment. NEW WILMINGTON, population
8861, has Westminster College, under United Presbyterian administration;
near here was the McKinley blast furnace, owned and operated by
President McKinley’s father. His son worked here as a boy.
LXIII
FULTON COUNTY
Formed April 19, 1850, named for Robert Fulton. The Tuscarora Mountains
rise like a huge barrier on the eastern boundary, with numerous other
ridges and peaks. Streams that flow into the Potomac River are largely
fed by splendid limestone springs. From the Susquehanna to the Ohio
River the scenery cannot be surpassed for picturesque beauty; far
sweeping valleys, rugged mountains, grand forests, form a constantly
changing panorama. It is both beautiful and historic. The Chambersburg
and Pittsburgh Turnpike, built in 1814-15, now the Lincoln Highway, was
first an old Indian trail from Harrisburg, through Fort Louden, Clinton
County, and westward to Bedford, crossing the center of the county.
In the days following Braddock’s defeat in 1755, this region became the
arena in which the red warrior of the forests and the white frontiersman
fought to the death. Not a valley, creek, nor mountain range, site of
modern city or town, but what was the scene of thrilling events, some of
which influence the world for all time. Early settlers were
Scotch-Irish, on the Aughwick, and in the great cove. Chief industries,
iron ore, bituminous coal, and agriculture. Dickey’s Mountain, in the
southeast, is rich in hematite and fossil ores.
MCCONNELLSBURG, county seat; population 689; land granted to William and
Daniel McConnell by
[Illustration: FULTON COUNTY]
warrant in 1762, is in the heart of the great cove; it was laid out in
1786, and in 1830 was one of the most important stopping places on the
old turnpike. Here, from 1827-47 were the Hanover Iron Works, two
furnaces, and two forges, that used hematite ore, mined from Lowry’s
Knob, one mile distant. It is said that no territory of equal extent in
this state is so rich in iron ore as is Fulton County. Fort Littleton in
the north was one of a chain of government forts from the east to Fort
Pitt. BURNT CABINS, on the old state road, was named because of the
burning of the cabins of early settlers near here by the provincial
authorities. It is said that Fulton County contributed more men to the
Civil War, in proportion, than any other county in Pennsylvania.
[Illustration: MONTOUR COUNTY]
LXIV
MONTOUR COUNTY
Formed May 3, 1850; named for Catharine Montour; surface hilly;
traversed by several barren ridges. Muncy Hills lie along the northwest
border, while down the river for miles stretches the Montour Ridge,
furnishing quantities of best iron ore; there is also finest limestone;
and much fertile land, drained by the Chillisquaque and Mahoning creeks.
Chief industries are iron and steel production, and manufactories. Here,
it is said, the first “T” rail was made, in 1844, and the first cannon
in the United States, made of anthracite iron, was cast at the foundry
in 1842.
DANVILLE, county seat; population 6952; was settled in 1790; beautifully
located, it nestles between Bald Top and Blue Hill. Mahoning Creek,
named after a tribe of Indians who peopled this part of the country,
flows through the town, which is built on part of the tract of land
surveyed on warrant of John Penn to John Lukens, Surveyor General of the
United States, dated, January 31, 1769. A bridge built by the state in
1904 is one-quarter mile long and connects Montour with Northumberland
County; at its entrance is River Front Park, laid out in 1912, with
concrete walks, flower beds, and fountain. Market Street Park, center of
town, has an electrically lighted fountain. Memorial Park, a beautiful
knoll, was formerly the burial ground of the Presbyterian Church; in
1908 it was laid out as a park with flower beds, and is kept up by the
council and public-spirited citizens; the Soldiers’ Monument is here,
with two cannon of the Civil War near.
Courthouse, Georgian, built in 1871. Jail built, 1892, architect, J. H.
Brugler, has modern equipment, and for months at a time is empty. Among
the fifteen churches, the most notable in architecture is Christ
Memorial, Protestant Episcopal, fourteenth century, English Gothic;
massive architecture, native limestone of varied tints, with Ohio stone
for the traceried windows. The Thomas Beaver Free Library. Young Men’s
Christian Association with gymnasium and swimming pool; George F.
Geisinger Memorial Hospital; and State Hospital for the Insane,
constructed by S. S. Schultz, M.D., corner-stone laid by Governor Geary
in 1869, are all important buildings, among the best equipped and most
modern in the state. WASHINGTONVILLE is site of Fort Bossley, on the
Chillisquaque Creek.
LXV
SNYDER COUNTY
Formed March 2, 1855, named for Hon. Simon Snyder, Governor of
Pennsylvania, 1808-17; three terms; noted as the first governor to urge
legislation for free public schools; he was the great war governor of
1812; served in the Assembly from 1789-1808, and was speaker of the
House from 1802-08; he lived at Selinsgrove. From end of Northumberland
Bridge, built by Theodore Burr in 1814, on West Branch of the
Susquehanna; the road leading south to Selinsgrove passes Blue Hill,
noted for beautiful scenery. On top was formerly Hotel Shikellimy,
burned in 1895; on one of the rocks overhanging is a natural profile
named for Shikellimy, who sauntered about here. Farther on is a single
arch stone bridge; for half a mile, beginning at this bridge, is a state
road built by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Governor Pennypacker
handled the first shovel of dirt in 1904; it was laid out first by James
F. Linn in 1829, has since been extended.
SELINSGROVE, first settlers, in 1755, were all killed by Indians, laid
out by and named for Anthony Selin in 1827, population 1937; Governor
Snyder mansion, built by himself in 1816, is near center of town,
colonial, massive stone walls, with arched door ten feet high and large
side porch, in well kept grounds. Due west from Selinsgrove, towards
Middleburg, is Susquehanna University, formerly Missionary Institute;
[Illustration: SNYDER COUNTY]
collegiate and theological courses, six large and several small
buildings; main building, Selinsgrove Hall, was built in 1859, Gustavus
Adolphus Hall in 1895, contains collection of forty-two pictures of
Gustavus Adolphus, also brass memorial tablet to the men appointed in
1856, by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Maryland, to organize the
Missionary Institute; the buildings contain portraits of Governor Simon
Snyder, members of the faculty, and other Lutheran clergymen; on the
campus is a granite Celtic cross, marking grave of the founder, Benjamin
Kurtz, D.D., LL.D.; in the old Lutheran Cemetery is grave of Governor
Snyder, Quincy granite monument, surmounted with his bust, life size,
erected by the state in 1885.
Two miles west is SALEM; Row’s Church, log, built, 1780, modernized in
1897. In KREAMER is the old brick hotel used for special sessions of
court before 1855, for cases in immediate neighborhood; a short distance
in the field stands the old block house, erected before 1781, where
white settlers gathered in defense against Indians. One mile farther
west, in 1781, Indians killed five members of the Stock family. Ten
miles west from Selinsgrove is MIDDLEBURG, county seat; 498 feet above
sea level; population 984; laid out in 1800. In Glendale Cemetery is
grave of Hon. George Kreamer, nephew of Governor Snyder, and member of
the Legislature, 1812-13; member of Congress, 1823-27; also grave of
Captain Frederick Evans, member of State Legislature, 1810-11, a
defender of Fort McHenry, Baltimore, where, in 1814, the “Star-Spangled
Banner” was written by Francis Scott Key.
On the banks of Stump’s Run is shaft monument to soldiers and sailors of
this country who fought in the different wars; erected in 1904, by
county commissioners; Soldiers’ Memorial Building, open to the public,
is near the Lutheran Church; it was dedicated 1908; interior lined with
marble, names of all soldiers and sailors of Snyder County are preserved
within its walls, John F. Stetler, architect. Wooden bridge across
Middle Creek, in good repair, is said to have been built in 1808 by John
Aurand. Two miles west of town are the Hassinger Lutheran Churches,
General Council east, present building erected in 1871, third on
original site, first building in 1785; a split occurred, and the General
Synod members built, in 1782, a quarter mile west; present church, in
1915.
Almost due south is PAXTONVILLE, 510 feet above sea level; has wooden
bridge over Middle Creek, built in 1851, John Bilger, builder; and ruins
of Beaver blast furnace, once busiest industry in Middle Creek Valley,
erected by Hon. Ner Middleswarth, the Kern Brothers and John C. Wilson,
1848-56; it was operated until 1866, power secured from a 200-foot head
of water, running over two overshot wheels, one over the other. Westward
is farm of Ner Feese on which gold and silver were discovered.
BEAVERTOWN; population 525; 651 feet; originally Swifttown, named for
John Swift, who had the land patented in 1760; was residence of Hon. Ner
Middleswarth from 1792; he was reëlected thirteen times member of
Legislature, twice speaker of the House--in 1828 and 1836; member of
Congress, 1853-55; his last public service was that of associate judge.
BEAVER SPRINGS, elevation 591 feet, laid out in 1806, early chief
industry, ore mines. Scenic beauty from Shade Mountain, a long ridge,
summit near Beaver Springs, 1672 feet above sea level. MCCLURE, six
miles west, is where folding houses are manufactured; the largest ever
made was produced here, and shipped to South America.
[Illustration: CAMERON COUNTY]
LXVI
CAMERON COUNTY
Formed March 29, 1860; named in honor of Hon. Simon Cameron, state
senator at that time. Situated among the spurs of the Alleghenies,
altitude varies from 794 feet to 2100 feet above sea level. The
Sinnemahoning Creek and its tributaries drain three quarters of the
county into the Susquehanna; along these waters, roads were cut and
towns built for the extensive early lumbering and tanning operations;
primeval forests of hemlock, oak, cherry, elm, and some of the finest
white pine in the state. Beds of coal and fire clay still await
development. Salt spring and a mineral spring of rare medicinal value
are near SIZERVILLE. The county is now largely given up to the
manufacture of high explosives, nitro-gelatine, smokeless powder, gun
cotton, picric acid; in 1915 there was a merger of four powder companies
who created a plant of vast proportions, over one hundred buildings,
extending from the edge of Emporium, for over a mile, along the banks of
Driftwood Creek.
EMPORIUM, county seat; population 3036; incorporated 1861; altitude 1031
feet above sea level; first settled in 1811, as Shippen, name changed
through deference to an old tradition; in 1785, an agent of the Holland
Land Company, owning large territories in Pennsylvania and New York,
removed the bark from a tree where the town now stands, and carved the
word, “Emporium.” A typical mountain town, the streets follow the
winding way of Driftwood Stream, or climb the mountain side where
magnificent views of scenic grandeur await the beholder. Best
architecture, the Episcopal Church, brown stone, English chapel design,
Cram & Ferguson, of Boston, architects, built in 1901; other
denominations have modern brick buildings. The large brick courthouse,
built, 1890, is in a park on the hillside, overlooking the town; in the
grounds is monument to soldiers of the Civil War.
CAMERON, in 1889, one hundred coke ovens, “beehive” design, were built
here to coke the coal in the near-by hills, for the blast furnace at
Emporium; now abandoned, and today mountain wild flowers blossom along
the row of silent hearths. STERLING RUN; in this quaint village belongs
the honor of the first church in the county, Presbyterian, “The Pine
Street Church,” erected in 1826, so-called in consequence of the old
Pine Street Church, Philadelphia, contributing funds to pay the workmen
and buy the windows; the lumber and much of the construction being
donated by the pioneers; built of hewn pine logs, chinked with plaster
of moss and mud, and fastened with hand-wrought nails, this little
chapel endures, while those who shaped it sleep in the little churchyard
at its threshold.
DRIFTWOOD, near the “Crescent,” a half moon shaped mountain forming
sides of the valley for nearly three points of the compass; claims the
first settlement by white man within the county, in 1804; in the center
of the village, facing the Sinnemahoning Creek, is the “Bucktail”
Monument, in memory of Cameron’s sons who fought for the Union, erected
by the state in 1908, inscription, “From this town, on April 27, 1861,
the Cameron, Elk and McKean County Rifles, under leadership of Thomas L.
Kane, afterwards Commanding Officer of the Regiment, later a
Major-General, embarked on four rafts for Harrisburg, where they were
mustered into the service of the State, and formed the nucleus, about
which the Bucktail Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps was
organized; which during its time of service, was almost continuously
attached to the army of the Potomac.”
SINNEMAHONING (Stony-lick), site of an Indian village called “The
Lodge,” the battle ground of Peter Grove, famous Indian fighter, a
picturesquely beautiful spot. Here were born the beautiful Clafflin
sisters, Lady Cook (Tennesee Clafflin), and Mrs. Martin Woodhull
(Victoria Clafflin), now a wealthy philanthropist in England; their
father, Buckman Clafflin, a pioneer, opened the first store in the
county in 1829.
[Illustration: LACKAWANNA COUNTY]
LXVII
LACKAWANNA COUNTY
Formed August 13, 1878; named for the great Lackawanna coal basin; an
Indian word, signifying “The Forks of a Stream.” Chief industry,
anthracite coal mining, confined to the long-depressed trough forming
the Lackawanna Valley and to the mountains bordering it on both sides,
with Bald Mountain, in Lackawanna Range, 2250 feet high, and Big Stoney
among the Moosic Mountains, 2230 feet. Originally settled by Connecticut
people who disputed the right of Pennsylvania to jurisdiction; life and
growth have been the result of the coal-mining industry, which brought
into it large numbers of Welsh, Irish, German, English, and Scotch,
whose descendants dominate the region; latterly have come Polish, Slavs,
Italians, and Lithuanians, a heterogeneous but rapidly assimilating
mining population.
The mining of anthracite coal began at Carbondale in the early twenties;
the old No. 1 plane is marked with monument and tablets; coal was taken
over the Moosic Mountains to Honesdale, Wayne County, by steep inclined
planes, up which the loaded cars were drawn by ropes or cables, and the
empty cars let down; thence by canal to Roundout, on the Hudson; on the
levels, between planes, cars were drawn by horses; later a descending
grade was given to the tracks over which the cars ran by gravity; a
similar gravity railroad near Scranton, carried coal to the Delaware &
Hudson Canal at Hawley, below Honesdale, both now abandoned for steam
roads.
The country northwest has well-cultivated farm lands; that, southeast,
blends with the Pocono Highlands, is wild and picturesque; an almost
unbroken wilderness for thirty miles, excepting along the line of the
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad; on both sides of this road are
good highways; the main road, the whole length of the valley, is
exceptionally fine. The road from Gouldsboro Station was built by Jay
Gould, 1855, when he was interested with Mr. Pratt in a tannery at
Gouldsboro (now Thornhurst).
At Carbondale, crossing Moosic Mountains, is road to Honesdale,
following the line of the old Delaware & Hudson gravity road; at
Dundaff, about five miles north of Carbondale, this road runs along the
edge of Crystal Lake, near are the Twin Knobs of Elk Hill, about 2500
feet high. A point of geologic interest is the Archbald Pot Hole, said
to be largest of the kind in this country; a cylindrical hole twenty
feet deep, by thirty feet wide, eroded in the ice age through the
overlying rocks down to the coal measures.
SCRANTON, county seat, population 137,783; laid out on site of an Indian
village, Muncy Tribe; began as an iron town; iron in large quantities
was found in the hills three miles south of the city, and a suitable
quality of limestone was also supposed to exist there; but the coal
business superseded; the old ore mine, and abandoned road to furnaces at
Scranton, are of historic and picturesque interest.
The courthouse, on Washington Avenue near center of town, stands in a
square of ground, Romanesque, West Mountain stone, built 1881-84,
architect, S. G. Perry. St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church. Wyoming
Avenue near Linden Street, Gothic, West Mountain stone, built 1866-71,
architect, R. M. Upjohn, New York; contains Tiffany mosaic panel, back
of font, “Baptism of Christ,” also Tiffany window in chancel, “The
Ascension.” St. Peter’s Cathedral, at corner of Wyoming Avenue and
Linden, Italian Renaissance, brick, built, 1866, architect, Joel Amsden;
remodeled 1883 by Durand, Philadelphia. Administration Building of the
International Correspondence Schools, Wyoming Avenue between Vine and
Mulberry Streets, Gothic, West Mountain stone, built in 1898; architect,
W. Scott Collins; window by Kenyon Cox, made in 1898, “Science
Instructing Industry.”
The Scranton Public Library (Albright Memorial) is placed as an accent
of beauty, corner of Washington Avenue and Vine Street, French chateau
style, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, after Cluny Museum, Paris;
gray Indiana limestone and brown Madina stone laid in coursed ashlar,
built in 1893; architects, Green & Wicks, Buffalo, New York; contains
portraits of Joseph J. Albright, painted in 1902, artist, Bayard Henry
Tyler; and of John J. Albright, artist, Chartrain, France; stained glass
windows are illustrative of celebrated book bindings in the past; a
marble mosaic floor is in the entrance hall.
Second Presbyterian Church, Jefferson Avenue between Vine and Mulberry
Streets, Romanesque; West, Mountain stone, built 1885; has Tiffany
windows, “Charity” and “Hope.” Madison Avenue Synagogue, near Vine
Street; Byzantine, West Mountain stone, built 1902, architect, George
W. Kramer, New York. First Presbyterian Church, corner of Madison Avenue
and Olive Street, perpendicular Gothic, Indiana limestone; built 1903,
architect, Holden, New York; windows by John La Farge, “The Woman at the
Well”; and by Tiffany, “The Ascension”; Tiffany mosaic, “Pentecost.”
Immanuel Baptist Church, corner of Jefferson Avenue and Mulberry Street,
Gothic, Hummelstown redstone, built 1909, architect, Edward Langley,
Scranton. Elm Park Church, corner of Linden and Jefferson Streets,
Romanesque, West Mountain stone, built 1892, architect, George W.
Kramer.
Lackawanna Railroad Station, Lackawanna and Jefferson Avenues,
Renaissance, Indiana limestone, granite base, built 1909, architects,
Kenneth Murchison, New York, and Edward Langley; has interior finishings
of Grueby tiles; and mosaic mural panels of views along the Lackawanna
Railroad. The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science and Art, in
Nay Aug Park, south end of Milberry Street, given by the late Dr. I. F.
Everhart, and sustained by generous endowment; Renaissance, terra-cotta,
built 1908, architects, Blackwood & Nelson; contains also the Hollister
collection of Indian curios. Much natural beauty centers about the water
supply system of the Scranton Gas and Water Company, which has over ten
miles of fine driveways, including the road to top of Mount Anonymous,
overlooking the lake; and Long Swamp Drive and roads up about Scrub Oak
Mountain.
BOOKS USED AS REFERENCE, AND CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES
American Art Annual F. N. Levy.
Annals J. F. Watson
Automobile Blue Book
Colonial Doorways A. H. Wharton
Early Pietists J. Sachse
Fairmount Park C. S. Keyser
Forges and Furnaces Colonial Dames
Guide Book to Historic Germantown C. F. Jenkins
Hikes for Boy Scouts of America Charles D. Hart
Historic Excursions J. Campbell
History of Pennsylvania Egle
Indian Trails G. P. Donehoo
List of Sites William J. Campbell
Music F. I. Brock
Our Philadelphia J. and E. R. Pennell
Pennsylvania Primer Barr Ferree
Philadelphia Sharf & Westcott
Philadelphia Firsts W. I. Rutter, Jr.
Philadelphia Streets J. Jackson
Population U. S. Census for 1920
Story of Philadelphia L. J. Rhoads
The Keystone Pennypacker
United States Baedeker
Washington’s Itinerary William S. Baker
Many County Histories and Historic Reports.