Two histories available: Nicholson ..the first two hundred years and The Bridge Was Built

Tunkhannock Township incorporated.

Tunkhannock and Great Bend Turnpike was built following an Indian path along Tunkhannock Creek from the Susquehanna River to Marten Creek in Nicholson and thence north to Great Bend.   By 1816, a four horse stage coach, capable of carrying eight passengers, mail and luggage, passed through Nicholson three times a week each way. The section from Nicholson to Great Bend, part of which is still a usable dirt road, as of 2002, can be seen on the west side of Marten Creek from PA. Route 11.

 William Clark came from Plainfield, Connecticut to settle in what is now Clarks Green although it was Abington Township for more than a hundred years.

Abington Baptist Church founded.  Led by Elder John Miller, newly arrived from Connecticut by way of New York and the Susquehanna River, the church served a wide area.   Elder Miller traveled all over Abington Township and across the Susquehanna River into Center Moreland, in the discharge of his pastoral duties. Click here to continue.

Clifford Township incorporated.

Bridgewater Township incorporated.

New Milford Township incorporated.  Many of the earliest settlers entered this region in search of hemlock whose bark was essential for tanning hides.

Harford Township incorporated.

Bristol Budd (sometimes called Sampson) came to Brooklyn where he and his wife joined her father, Prince Perkins.  Bristol Budd was a black man who had served in the Connecticut 2^nd Regiment during the Revolutionary War from 1777 until 1783 and he made his way to northeastern Pennsylvania in the early years of the 1800’s.  He lost his sight in 1814 and in 1820, with the help of some neighbors, he made application for a pension based on his service in the Revolutionary War.  In his affidavit he states:

Lenox Township incorporated.

Gibson Township incorporated.

Waterford Township incorporated.  Renamed Brooklyn Township in 1825.

Springville Township incorporated.

Jackson Township incorporated.

Greenfield Township incorporated.

Philadelphia and Great Bend Turnpike, sometimes called the Drinker Turnpike, is chartered and built, utilizing ancient Indian paths in many places.   Heading north from Philadelphia to Easton and Mount Pocono it continued to Tobyhanna, Moscow, Dunmore, Providence, through Leggett’s Gap to Chinchilla, Clarks Green, Waverly, Fleetville, Harford and Great Bend and from there to New York State. There was regularly scheduled stagecoach traffic and travelers could find hotels about every twenty miles along the turnpike.

Milford and Owego Turnpike made it possible for travelers to go from Milford on the Delaware River (with its access to the Atlantic Ocean via Delaware Bay at Philadelphia) to Owego, New York.  Milford-Owego Pike crossed the Tunkhannnock-Great Bend Pike at Oakley Crossing of Marten Creek in Brooklyn.  This Milford-Owego Turnpike was distinguished by its remarkably straight course through northeast Pennsylvania, crossing stream valleys instead of following their easier contours to achieve its northwestern destination.

Abington and Waterford Turnpike chartered to connect Abington Township in the south with Brooklyn (then Waterford) in the north.  This turnpike came from Clarks Green to Waterford Road through Glenburn, to Dalton, up Main Street to Factoryville to Roberts Hill (now Tunnel Hill) down into Bacontown and the covered bridge over Tunkhannock Creek into Nicholson. The turnpike followed Horton Brook to Pine Grove and Hillsdale, through the middle of Lathrop and on to Brooklyn (Waterford).  It was later extended north to Montrose where travelers could make connections for the Milford and Owego Turnpike.

Herrick Township incorporated.

Dimock Township incorporated.

The Pennsylvania Legislature granted Dr. Andrew Bedford of Abington Center, a charter for the Leggett’s Gap Railroad.  This was one of the earliest charters in the young nation and Dr. Bedford, Thomas Smith and William Clark hired engineers and surveyors, traveled to Harrisburg every five years to renew the charter, and urged their neighbors throughout the northeast to join them in this venture.  It was not until the 1840’s when coal was discovered and appreciated in the Lackawanna valley that they gained the needed allies to create a working railroad.  (See 1849)

Thompson Township incorporated.

Susquehanna County Anti-Slavery and Free Discussion Society formed on April 18 with more than eighty members.  Its objective was to support the total abolishment of slavery in the United States through reason and moral persuasion – education and not violence or other extreme measures.  In 1830 the total population of Susquehanna County was16,858 of whom 71 were black, and ten years later, the total population was 21,292 of whom 97 were black; most whites were unaware of the presence of blacks among them in the county.  The center of the local debate was not whether slavery was right or wrong; all believed that slavery was wrong, but debated the course of action to be taken. Click here to continue.

Madison Academy opened.  The select Academy was named to honor President James Madison who died in June of that year, and was designed to meet the needs for higher education of graduates of the many one-room schoolhouses in the region.  The Academy used the home of Charles Bailey on the east side of the Philadelphia and Great Bend Turnpike as it went through Abington Center and classes were taught by young Horatio Nicholson of Wayne County who had graduated from Franklin Academy in Harford.  Four years later, sixty students were enrolled and the Academy incorporated and set about to raise money for a school building. Click here to continue.

Benton Township incorporated.

Wyoming County set off from Luzerne County.

Clinton Township incorporated.

Lathrop Township incorporated.

Construction began on the Leggett’s Gap Railroad, built especially to carry coal and iron, mined in the Lackawanna Valley, to markets in other parts of the country. The station in Nicholson was begun at this time.  It was the first building, and the largest, on the line, which would eventually carry passengers and freight, as well as coal. Consolidating with the Cobb’s Gap Railroad running through the Pocono Mountains to the Delaware River, the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad was born, soon to expand to the Delaware Lackawanna and Western as it added the run to Buffalo, and thereby, the Great Lakes. Click here to continue.

The steamboat “Tunkhannock” was launched into the Susquehanna River at Tunkhannock with “a little brown bottle broken over her figurehead”. Click here to continue.

Harford Methodist Church built as part of a thriving community of homes and businesses where five turnpikes met.  When it closed in 1937, members were given letters of transfer to the Congregational Church.  When the Methodist church was torn down years later, the bell was installed in the tower of the Congregational Church whose original bell is on the lawn in front of the church.

Ararat Township incorporated.

North Branch Canal, dug beside the east bank of the Susquehanna opened for barge traffic.  Free of the seasonal shallowness of the river, it connected shippers to Wilkes Barre, Harrisburg and Binghamton.  This canal was carried over Tunkhannock Creek by a stone and earthen aqueduct.  Maintaining the proper water level was always a challenge, especially in the summer dry spells.  During times of heavy rains and high water, it was difficult to prevent the earthen canal walls from washing out.  During and following the Civil War, railroads proved their worth in carrying goods across the many miles of the growing nation, and their reliability recommended them to investors and users alike.  The canal sold out to the Lehigh Valley R.R.which filled in some sections of the canal and built beside others in order to open for Tunkhannock regional business in 1868.

Waverly Borough formed from Abington Township.

African Methodist Episcopal Church built in Waverly by escaped slaves.   They had been guided to freedom by the Underground Railroad, a network of citizens opposed to slavery who were willing to feed, shelter, hide and transport and guide slaves in their escape from slave states.  The community of African-Americans in Waverly had been holding Sunday school and worship services in the Schoolhouse on the Turnpike since 1844 and had decided that they had the numbers, the commitment and the means to have their own house of worship.

Glenburn Hotel built across from the dam at Glenburn Pond.  It became a center for Union supporters who erected a Liberty Pole on the green.  Copperheads from Benton and Newton burned the pole and, in a meeting at Fleetville, adopted a resolution to let the South secede and stop the war.  Union supporters from Waverly, Dalton and Glenburn went on record as favoring a fight to the finish to save the Union. 

Temperance House, a hotel, opened on the southwest corner of the intersection of Clinton Street and the Philadelphia and Great Bend Turnpike in Waverly.  Local citizens opposed to intoxicating liquors raised money for the venture.  The majority of Turnpike travelers and drivers did not share their views, and the venture was sold to “parties from abroad” after ten years, and that policy was discontinued.  However, many of the local citizens continued to favor temperance and held regular meetings that were “well attended by our people both old and young, most of whom have signed the pledge.  As a result the temperance sentiment is strong and radical in this community, and keeping a tippling house among us is not looked upon as a very honorable business…The few habitual drinkers among us do the best they can to make the rum business a success, but they fail for lack of capacity.  They can hold but a quart, and would fain drink a gallon.  When they are gone – and they are fading fast – we hope they will have no successors.” (Column in Scranton Republican, November 1872)

 A mountain lion, believed to be the last in Pennsylvania, was shot and killed in Susquehanna County.  It was stuffed and mounted and now stands guard at the Pattee Library at Penn State.  Reputable sources report having sighted mountain lions in this watershed as we start into the third millennium.

Abington Agricultural Society organized and by next year held its first fair.    In 1881the Lackawanna County Agricultural Society organized and held annual fairs in Scranton.  The Lackawanna valley physically separates the agricultural communities that grew up in the Moscow area beyond East Mountain and the Abingtons, beyond West Mountain.  The distances involved made countywide participation in a Fair difficult and the Tunkhannock Creek Watershed farmers, with the farmers in Newton and Ransom, put their energies into a fair closer to home.  To continue, click here.

The Harford Fair began its annual summer celebration of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts.  The fair has grown under the management of the Harford Agricultural Society that owns the 120 acres of high ground, overlooking the valley of Nine Partners’ Creek north of Harford.  The broad fields, dozens of carefully maintained buildings, and their own sewer plant amply accommodate this hugely successful highlight of the summer season.  The two horse barns, Vegetable Hall, Floral Hall, Poultry Hall, Mechanics Hall, 4H Building, Schoolhouse for children’s’ projects display, Exhibition Halls, Dining Hall, Band Shell, smaller pavilions, Memorial Gazebo, large rings for horse shows and contests, and huge bleachers from which to enjoy professional entertainments; all are placed around the grounds to accommodate the80-100 thousands of visitors, and their 6000 cars, who flock to fair week in August of every year. Click here to learn more about the fair.

Overfield Township incorporated.

The US Congress passed the Homestead Act, authored by Galusha Grow of Glenwood in Lenox Township.  It provided that any person over 21, who was the head of a family and a citizen, or an alien who intended to become a citizen, could obtain the title to 160 acres of public land if he lived on the land for five years and improved it, or paid $1.25 an acre instead of the residence requirement.  The sponsors of this bill believed that land was worthless before it was “improved” by man, and that persons who converted unoccupied land into farms should not have to pay for it.  In the 1840’s and 1850’s the homestead movement had become a political issue, entangled with the slavery issue and the settlement of ”slave” or “free” states and was generally opposed by Southern states.  When the South seceded, the passage of a homestead law became inevitable.  From 1862 to 1900 this new law provided farms and new homes for between 400,000 and 600,000 families.

The Harford Soldier’s Orphan School opened on the campus of the recently closed Franklin Academy and University to educate the children of soldiers killed in the Civil War.  With about one hundred children enrolled at opening day, this school made history by being the first boarding school of its kind maintained by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and was also the first of its kind anywhere in the United States. It later expanded to welcome children of living veterans as well and included some as young as five years old; at sixteen the students left to find a job.