Plymouth, Pennsylvania, sits on the west side of Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley, wedged between the Susquehanna River and the Shawnee Mountain range. Just below the mountain are hills that surround the town and form a natural amphitheater that separates the town from the rest of the valley. Below the hills, the flat lands are formed in the shape of a frying pan, the pan being the Shawnee flats, once the center of the town's agricultural activities, and the handle being a spit of narrow land extending east from the flats, where the center of town is located. At the beginning of the 19th century, Plymouth's primary industry was agriculture. However, vast anthracite coal beds lay below the surface at various depths, and by the 1850s, coal mining had become the town's primary occupation.
Yankee era (1753–1856)
The Susquehanna Company and early settlement
The origins of Plymouth (also known as Shawnee and Shawneetown) date back to the creation of the Susquehanna Company in Windham, Connecticut, on June 18, 1753, formed to promote the settlement of certain lands along the Susquehanna in what is now northeastern Pennsylvania. This place, called "Wyoming", fell within the bounds of the charter issued in 1662 by Charles II to the Connecticut Colony. It also fell within the bounds of the charter issued by the same king in 1681 to William Penn, thus setting the stage for a conflict between the two colonies.
In 1754 at Albany, the Susquehanna Company purchased a deed to a tract of land along the Susquehanna River from the Iroquois (Six Nations) who had long held the land by right of conquest, and in 1769, John Durkee and a group of 240 Connecticut settlers created five townships, surveying their bounds, naming them Wilkesbarre (later renamed Wilkes-Barre), Nanticoke (later renamed Hanover), Pittstown (later renamed Pittston), Forty (later renamed Kingston) and Plymouth. During the summer of 1770, the settlers began to sub-divide the five townships into lots, and settlement began in earnest in 1772.
Armed men loyal to Pennsylvania twice attempted to evict the Connecticut settlers in what are known as the Pennamite–Yankee Wars. Following the American Revolution and ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1781, Pennsylvania sued to resolve the conflict with Connecticut. A trial was held at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1782, and the conflict resolved in favor of Pennsylvania, which was granted full jurisdiction over the Susquehanna Company's lands.
Years of uncertainty ensued for the Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley, until April 1799, when Pennsylvania passed the Compromise Act allowing settlers (in those townships which had been created and settled before the Trenton Decree of 1782) to pay a fee in return for certification of their ownership. Thus, Plymouth landowners who could establish their chain of title retained ownership of their land, but came under the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania. The process took years, but by 1811 most land claims had been resolved. Today, all ownership of land in Plymouth can be traced back to these certified titles.
Large anthracite coal beds lay below Plymouth's surface at various depths. These beds were visible at a few locations in the form of outcrops, and one such location was a gorge created by Ransom Creek (now Coal Creek) located about a mile upstream from the Susquehanna River. Coal could be seen (and accessed) on both the east side (Turkey Hill) and the west side (Curry Hill) of the creek. Attracted by this outcrop, Abijah Smith came to Plymouth about 1806 from Derby, Connecticut, and bought land on the east side of the creek, intending to mine, ship and sell coal. In the fall of 1807, Smith floated an ark down the Susquehanna River loaded with about fifty tons of anthracite coal, and shipped it to Columbia in Lancaster County. The significance of Smith's shipment went unnoticed until 1873, when Hendrick B. Wright, in his Historical Sketches of Plymouth, wrote, "anthracite coal had been used before 1807, in this valley and elsewhere, in small quantities in furnaces, with an air blast; but the traffic in coal as an article of general use, was commenced by Abijah Smith, of Plymouth."
In 1811, Smith's brother, John Smith, began to mine coal on the west side of the creek. This second mine (often erroneously called Plymouth's first coal mine) achieved national fame as a kind of tourist attraction. In 1829, a writer from Wilkes-Barre posted a notice in the Connecticut Mirror, writing, "among the curiosities of our county (and we have a few) are Smith's Coal Mines, situated in Plymouth township in this county...it sends a sudden twinge through a fellow, say, to think himself walking under a mountain fifty feet through, with only here and there a pillar to support it...those who feel desirous of knowing more about this matter, must do as many others have done – go and see for themselves."Connecticut Mirror, September 5, 1829.
Wyoming Valley's coal industry grew steadily. In 1830, the Baltimore Patriot reported that "a greater quantity of Anthracite Coal has been sent down the Susquehanna this Spring than in any former season. The Baltimore Company have sent three thousand tons, and from other mines about seven thousand tons were dispatched, making an aggregate of ten thousand tons."Baltimore Patriot, May 12, 1830.
The North Branch Canal
As late as the 1840s, whenever high water allowed, coal from Wyoming Valley's coal mines was shipped down the Susquehanna River on wooden arks. But by the end of 1830, canal boats began to replace arks as the preferred method of transporting coal and other goods to market. In 1826, the Pennsylvania Board of Canal Commissioners began to survey the route of a new canal, to be called the North Branch Canal, to run alongside the north branch (the main branch) of the Susquehanna River from Northumberland to the New York border. The work was generally complete by the fall of 1830, and the first load of coal shipped from Wyoming Valley reached Berwick in October.F. Charles Petrillo, Anthracite and Slackwater, The North Branch Canal 1828–1901 (Easton, Pennsylvania: Harmony Press, 1986).
The canal was a boon to Plymouth's coal operators, who in 1830 included John Smith, Freeman Thomas, Henderson Gaylord and Thomas Borbidge, and encouraged others to open mines, such as Jameson Harvey and Jacob Gould. John Smith's teamsters led teams of horses deep into his mine, turned the team, loaded the wagon and then drove the team to the river bank to load the coal into canal boats. Gaylord, whose mine was at the base of Welsh Hill, improved on this method and built a gravity railroad that ran along what is now Walnut Street, down what is now Gaylord Avenue, to his wharf on the river.Samuel Livingston French, Reminiscences of Plymouth, Luzerne County, Penna. (New York: Lotus Press, 1915). A similar branch, called the Swetland Railroad, was built from mines in Poke Hollow down a route which later became Washington Avenue, across Bull Run to another wharf on the river.
The early coal mines in Plymouth supported an ancillary industry, boat building. The arks used to transport goods on the river were built in a basin where Wadhams Creek entered the river. After the canal was built, the arks began to be replaced by flat-bottomed canal boats, built in the same basin with a distinctive design, known as "Shawnee boats." Many of the town's young men became boatmen and were well known along the length of the canal for their distinctive call, "Shawnee against the World."
Years of industrial growth (1857–1900)
The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad
The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad reached Plymouth in 1857, and by June 1860, all of the railroad, from Scranton to Northumberland, were complete.Henry V. Poor, History of the Railroads and Canals of the United States of America (New York: John H. Schultz & Co., 1860). In 1873, the line came under the control of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which was backed by powerful New York financiers, and which operated several collieries along its length, including the Avondale Colliery in Plymouth.
The railroad's arrival led to the rapid transformation of Plymouth into a major supplier of anthracite coal. Small mining operations gave way to large, highly capitalized collieries, capable of reaching coal veins deep underground. These large operations attracted foreign labor, first from the British Isles, and then from Eastern Europe. The jobs provided by the coal industry came with the constant risk of death or injury and, for those who survived, chronic health problems. The annals of Plymouth's history include a long list of mining fatalities as well as one of the nation's greatest mine disasters.
Incorporation of Plymouth Borough
What is now Plymouth Borough was originally part of Plymouth Township. Plymouth Borough was incorporated in April 1866. The boundaries of the new borough extended from the line of the No. 11 Lance Coal Breaker on the east to Driscoll Street on the west, about a mile and a half; and from the river on the south to near the foot of the mountain on the north. When first created, the borough was divided into two wards, east and west, the dividing line being Academy Street. Later, these two wards were sub-divided into additional wards. After incorporation, the borough elections were held in the Old Academy where the township elections had previously been held. The first borough election was held in May 1866, and Elijah C. Wadhams was elected as the borough's first burgess.
Welsh, English, Scottish, and Irish immigration
In the wake of the arrival of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad in 1857, a large number of immigrants came to Plymouth to work in the coal mines and, as the population grew, it became more diverse. According to the 1860 census, Plymouth Township had 2,393 residents. By the time of the 1870 census, the population had grown to 7,736, including 807 born in Ireland, 926 born in Wales, and 713 born in England. In addition to these newcomers, there were 138 Scots, 52 Germans, 39 Canadians, 5 French, and 1 Norwegian. Moreover, many of the 4,635 Pennsylvania-born residents were the children of these immigrants. By 1870, roughly 75% of the town's population was either foreign-born, or the children of foreign-born parents.
The influx of immigrants from the British Isles led to the construction of several new buildings, including St. Vincent's church for the Roman Catholic congregation, St. Peter's for the Anglicans, the Presbyterian church for a largely Scottish congregation and several new churches for a variety of Welsh congregations.
Avondale mine disaster
The Avondale Mine Disaster occurred on September 6, 1869, when 108 men and boys died at the Avondale Colliery, located just west of the Plymouth borough line. A fire in the mine shaft, ignited by a ventilating furnace, spread to the breaker which stood over the shaft. The breaker was destroyed by fire, trapping those working in the mine below. All were killed, as were two men who volunteered to enter the mine soon after the fire. One result of the disaster was the enactment in 1870 of a law regulating mining which required employment by the State of mine inspectors, the mapping of all mine works, the creation of two means of egress from every mine, provision for proper ventilation, reporting and investigation of all accidents and the establishment of rules of conduct for employees.Mines and Minerals, a Mining and Metallurgical Journal, April 1907.
Labor troubles
A bank panic on September 18, 1873, led to a prolonged national depression, and by 1877 there were about three million unemployed, roughly 25 percent of the working population. These circumstances led to the outbreak known as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It was the first nationwide strike, one in which Plymouth played a small but interesting part. Samuel L. French, Plymouth's burgess at the time, recalled,