Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Luzerne County is a home rule county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 325,594, making it the most populous county in the northeastern part of the state. The county seat and most populous city is Wilkes-Barre. Other populous communities include Hazleton, Kingston, Nanticoke, and Pittston. Luzerne County is included in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a total population of 555,426 as of 2017. The county is part of the Northeast region of the commonwealth.
On September 25, 1786, Luzerne County was formed from part of Northumberland County. It was named after Chevalier de la Luzerne, a French soldier and diplomat during the 18th century. When it was founded, Luzerne County occupied a large portion of Northeastern Pennsylvania. From 1810 to 1878, it was divided into several smaller counties. The counties of Bradford, Lackawanna, Susquehanna, and Wyoming were all formed from parts of Luzerne County.
The county gained prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries as an active anthracite coal mining region, drawing a large portion of its labor force from European immigrants. At its peak in 1930, the county's population was 445,109. Many factories and coal mines closed by the early 21st century. Like most regions in the Rust Belt, Luzerne County witnessed population loss and urban decay. However, in recent years, the economy has grown moderately; warehousing has replaced manufacturing as the main industry.
History
The Luzerne County Historical Society maintains the storehouse for the collective memory of Luzerne County and its environs. It records and interprets the history, traditions, events, people, and cultures that have directed and molded life within the region.18th century
Long an area occupied by indigenous peoples, by the 1700s the Wyoming Valley was inhabited by several Native American tribes including the Susquehannock, who spoke an Iroquoian language, and the Delaware, who spoke an Algonquian language. In the mid-18th century, Connecticut settlers of primarily English ancestry ventured into the valley. These were the first recorded Europeans in the region. Some came as missionaries to the Native American peoples, while others came to farm the fertile land near the Susquehanna River. Ultimately, the violence of the French and Indian War drove these Connecticut settlers away.The British colonies of Pennsylvania and Connecticut both claimed the Wyoming Valley as their own. King Charles II of England had granted the land to the Connecticut Colony in 1662, but also to William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, in 1681. In 1769, Yankee settlers from Connecticut returned to the valley and founded the town of Wilkes-Barre. However, they were not alone. Pennsylvanian settlers were also in the region.
Armed bands of Pennamites harassed the Connecticut settlers in what is known as the Pennamite-Yankee Wars. While the land dispute continued, a much larger conflict began. In 1775, the Thirteen Colonies began a war of independence against Great Britain. Residents of both Pennsylvania and Connecticut were largely loyal to the Patriot cause, which supported the American Revolution and independence.
On June 30, 1778, Loyalist forces, under the command of Major John Butler, arrived in the Wyoming Valley to attack the rebel American settlements. On July 1, Fort Wintermoot at the north end of the valley surrendered without a shot being fired. The next morning the smaller Fort Jenkins surrendered. Both forts were later burned to the ground.
The Patriot militia assembled at Forty Fort. On July 3, a column of roughly 360 men, including a company of soldiers from the Continental Army, marched from the fort under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Zebulon Butler and Colonel Nathan Denison. Butler's Rangers, with the assistance of about 500 Native American allies, mostly Seneca, ambushed the approaching Americans. In the end, 302 American soldiers were killed during the Battle of Wyoming. Today, in the Borough of Wyoming, a monument marks the gravesite of the victims from the battle.
The next day, Colonel Denison surrendered Forty Fort along with several other posts. Widespread looting and burning of buildings occurred throughout the Wyoming Valley subsequent to this capitulation, but non-combatants were not harmed. Most of the inhabitants, however, fled across the Pocono Mountains to Stroudsburg and Easton, or down the Susquehanna River to Sunbury.
In September 1778, American Colonel Thomas Hartley took partial revenge for the Wyoming defeat. He and his 200 soldiers burned a number of villages in Delaware along the Susquehanna River. The following year, Major General John Sullivan would lead several thousand men in a scorched-earth campaign against the Iroquois nations in central and western New York.
Two years later, in September 1780, reports of Iroquois and Loyalist activity in the region resulted in a detachment of 41 Patriot militia from Northampton County being sent to investigate. The detachment made it as far north as present-day Conyngham when they were ambushed by a party of Seneca and Loyalists. Ten men were killed in what is now known as the Sugarloaf Massacre.
Post-Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War ended three years later with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Great Britain finally recognized the sovereignty of the United States of America. The land dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut continued after the war. Connecticut established its own county in the Wyoming Valley. However, Pennsylvania insisted that they owned the land. The Congress of the Confederation was asked to resolve the matter. With the Trenton Decree, on December 30, 1782, the confederation government officially decided that the region belonged to Pennsylvania; the Wyoming Valley became part of Northumberland County.Pennsylvania ruled that the Connecticut settlers, also known as the Yankees, were not citizens of the Commonwealth. They could not vote and were ordered to give up their property claims. In May 1784, armed men from Pennsylvania force-marched the Connecticut settlers away from the valley. By November, the Yankees returned with a greater force. They captured and destroyed Fort Dickinson in Wilkes-Barre. With that victory, a new state was proposed. The new state was to be named Westmoreland.
To ensure that they didn't lose the land, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania worked out a compromise with the Connecticut settlers. The Yankee settlers would be allowed to become citizens of Pennsylvania and their property claims would be restored. As part of the compromise, Pennsylvania would establish a new county in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Yankees agreed to the terms.
On September 25, 1786, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a resolution that created Luzerne County. It was formed from a section of Northumberland County and named after Chevalier de la Luzerne, a French soldier and diplomat to the American rebels and new government of the independent USA during the late 18th century. Wilkes-Barre was designated as the seat of government for the new territory. This resolution ended the idea of creating a new state. When it was founded, Luzerne County occupied a large portion of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The future counties of Bradford, Lackawanna, Susquehanna, and Wyoming were all part of the original Luzerne County.
In the following years, elections were held, the courts were established, a courthouse was constructed, and a government was formed. In 1787, Lord Butler was elected the first sheriff of Luzerne County. A board of commissioners was also assembled to manage the county government. Some of the first county commissioners included Jesse Fell, Alexander Johnson, John Phillips, John Jenkins, and Thomas Wright.
The population of the new county grew rapidly with new migrants. In 1790, fewer than 2,000 people resided within the Wyoming Valley. By 1800, the number of residents increased to nearly 13,000.
19th century
The county gained prominence in the 19th century as an active anthracite coal mining region. In 1791, German immigrant Philip Ginder stumbled across anthracite near Summit Hill. This resulted in the creation of the Lehigh Coal Mine Company. The company had a slow start because of the difficulty in igniting anthracite coal and the inability to transfer it to urban markets. In 1807, Brothers Abijah and John Smith were the first to successfully transport anthracite down the Susquehanna River on an ark. In 1808, Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre discovered a solution to ignite anthracite with the usage of an iron grate; it allowed for the coal to light and burn easier. This invention increased the popularity of anthracite as a fuel source. This led to the expansion of the coal industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Throughout the 1800s, canals and railroads were constructed to aid in the mining and transportation of coal.As the mining industry grew, a large region north of the Wyoming Valley, close to the Pennsylvania border with New York state, sought independence from Luzerne County. On February 21, 1810, the counties of Bradford, originally called Ontario, and Susquehanna were created from parts of Luzerne County. The two counties were officially formed in 1812. Thirty years later, on April 4, 1842, Wyoming County, the region in and around present-day Tunkhannock, was also formed from a section of Luzerne County.
The County of Luzerne witnessed a population boom as a result of the growing coal mining industry. Carbondale, with a population of nearly 5,000 residents, was incorporated as a city on March 15, 1851. Scranton, with a population of nearly 35,000, was incorporated as a city on April 23, 1866. And Wilkes-Barre, with a population of just over 10,000, was incorporated as a city in 1871. By 1875, anthracite coal from Luzerne County alone represented half the anthracite produced in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Since 1839, the people in and around the cities of Scranton and Carbondale sought independence from Luzerne County. Wilkes-Barre was determined to preserve the integrity of the county; it did not want to lose its assets in the region. Decades later, in the 1870s, residents of the proposed territory were allowed to vote for independent status. Voters favored a new county by a proportion of 6 to 1, with Scranton residents providing considerable support. Lackawanna County was finally created from a portion of Luzerne County in 1878.
Even through Luzerne County lost a vital region, its boroughs and townships continued to grow. Hazleton and Pittston were both incorporated as cities due to their expanding populations. Thousands of European immigrants poured into Luzerne County due to the booming coal industry. The growing population quickly attracted the attention of factory owners in New York City and Philadelphia. Dozens of factories throughout Luzerne County were established to take advantage of the ever-increasing pool of available labor.
With an increasing population and the build-up of industry in the region, tragedies became more frequent in the second half of the 19th century. Sixteen people were killed – largely in factories – when a devastating F3 tornado struck Wilkes-Barre on August 19, 1890. It was the deadliest tornado in the county's history. The region's first significant mining disaster occurred on September 6, 1869, when a massive fire at the Avondale Colliery in Plymouth Township killed 110 people. Another consequential mining accident occurred on June 28, 1896, when the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston City caved-in and killed 58 miners.
Towards the end of the 19th century, labor unrest and union activity intensified in the region. Miners protested poor working conditions and unfair pay. This revved up tensions throughout the county. One of the most notable and deadly confrontations occurred on September 10, 1897. Luzerne County Sheriff James Martin formed a posse and fired on a group of unarmed striking miners in what is now known as the Lattimer massacre. Roughly nineteen people were killed and dozens more were wounded. Luzerne is infamous for being the last county whose sheriff legally formed a posse to restore order in a time of civil unrest.