Shickshinny is a borough in
Luzerne County
Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. 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 ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States. The population was 630 at the
2020 census.
The borough is named after
Shickshinny Creek
Shickshinny Creek (historically known as Shickohinna) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Ross Township, Luzerne County, ...
, which runs through the municipality and the surrounding area. According to the book ''Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania'' (by Dr. George P. Donehoo), the community's name likely means "Fine Stream" in a local Native American language. However, according to the Shickshinny Historical Society, the name ''Shickshinny'' means "Five Mountains" in a Native American language. Five mountains — Newport,
Knob, Lee, River, and Rocky — encircle the creek and borough.
History
Early history
![Bird's-eye view from river, Schickshinny, Pa (68645)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Bird%27s-eye_view_from_river%2C_Schickshinny%2C_Pa_%2868645%29.jpg)
In 1782, the families of Austin and Crossley were the first white settlers in Shickshinny. The first permanent settler in the area was Lizzie James .
At this time, Shickshinny was under the jurisdiction of
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
.
["The Founding of the Shickshinny Borough", undated. ''Suburban News'' article posted on the website of the Historical and Preservation Society of the Greater Shickshinny Area] In 1801, Shadrick Austin bought the of land.
Another known settler in the area was William Koons (in the 1850s).
Koons settled one mile outside of Shickshinny (where the Shickshinny Creek Bridge was later erected). The name of the area was changed to
Koonsville (where the post office was later built). In 1773, Nathan Beach, also from Connecticut, settled outside of modern-day Shickshinny. The area was named Beach Haven after him.
A farm, which encompassed nearly the entire current-day borough, was established by
Matthias Hollenback. By this time, it was under the
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
claim. The land was later inherited by his daughter, Cist Hollenback, who married Chester Butler. In 1857, upon C. Hollenbeck's death, the land was divided and sold to the proprietors of the Shickshinny Company:
George W. Search, Lot Search, Nathan Beach Crary, and Nathan Garrison. Walter Garrison bought the corner where the modern-day bank is located. Lot Search held the position of
Luzerne County
Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. 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 ...
treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury o ...
in 1855 and maintained it for two years.
N. Garrison and Andrew J. Eldon built the first store, located outside the old storehouse, in June 1857. But a few months after the store opened, Eldon fled to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
with $3,000 of Garrison's money. It was reported that Eldon was lost in a storm at sea and drowned from the weight of gold in his pockets. The business soon closed and was bought by Nathan B. Crary.
A drug store opened at the same time. It was run and managed by Stephen Bond.
Borough
![Union Street, Shickshinny, Pa (68647)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Union_Street%2C_Shickshinny%2C_Pa_%2868647%29.jpg)
Shickshinny was incorporated as a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
on November 30, 1861. It gained its independence from
Salem Township and
Union Township, the majority (two-thirds) being from Union. The first officers were Burgess and Enke. The council was composed of Search, Koons, Crary, Nicely, and Davenport. G. W. Search became the secretary, while Slippy became supervisor. Second was Burgess, third Knor, fourth Youlls, fifth Bear, sixth Post, seventh Hughes, eighth Hartman, and ninth Bulkley.
Many businesses sprung up in the next decade, including a
flour mill
A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...
(set up by G. W. and Lot Search in 1865), a
foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...
(set up by Jesse Beadle, L. T. Hartman, and Frederick Beach in 1866), and a
planing mill A planing mill is a facility that takes cut and seasoned boards from a sawmill and turns them into finished dimensional lumber. Machines used in the mill include the planer and matcher, the molding machines, and varieties of saws. In the planing mil ...
(set up by Amos Hess in 1874). Two
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
shops were also built and run by Miner Brown and Henry Wagner. The first
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
in the area, ''The Mountain Echo'', was first issued in 1873, established by C. A. Boone and M. E. Walker.
Shickshinny became a central hub for many farmers and businesses. A toll bridge was built in 1865 to
Mocanaqua, the first of three up to 1920. An 1877
turnpike
Turnpike often refers to:
* A type of gate, another word for a turnstile
* In the United States, a toll road
Turnpike may also refer to:
Roads United Kingdom
* A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...
was built along the creek, heading towards
Huntington Mills (modern-day
Route 239).
Coal mining
Shickshinny is located at the lower end of the
Wyoming Valley
The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan are ...
Coal Deposit, near a Red Ash vein that runs across the
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
.
Humphrey Davenport was employed in 1830 to prospect Nathan Beach's land. He soon discovered coal on Rocky Mountain. For the next decade, coal was extracted from the mountain by teams of men.
Finally in 1840, Beach's grandson, Dr. Darwin Crary, invented the first inclined chute, which was used by the coal industry. It sent coal to the canal down the mountain.
Two years later, in 1842, James A. Gordon built a
plane
Plane(s) most often refers to:
* Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft
* Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface
Plane or planes may also refer to:
Biology
* Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant
* Planes (gen ...
for Beach and Crary. It ran for several successful years.
The mines were passed over to Truman H. Clark. In 1865, during the last year of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, John M. Stackhouse and Matthew Wier purchased the mines. Cyrus Stackhouse bought out Wier's stock the following year. Again, in 1869, the mines exchanged hands and were bought by the Paxton Coal Company. The Salem Coal Company was formed four years later. Under their guidance, the mines produced 65,000 tons and employed just short of 200 men and boys.
A nearby mountain — Newport — provided coal as well. It sits on the opposite side of the Susquehanna River and was found to possess superior coal. In 1857, roads and bridges were built to connect the
Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad
The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad (LBR) was an 80-mile (129 km) long 19th century railroad that ran between Scranton and Northumberland in Pennsylvania in the United States. Incorporated in 1852, the railroad began operation in 1856 and ...
, which lay on opposite sides of the river, so as to be able to mine Newport Mountain. Neither the Shickshinny nor Mocanaqua mines are in service today.
Demographics
2000 U.S. Census
According to the
2000 United States Census
The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 ce ...
, Shickshinny had a population of 959 people, who made up 415 households and 241 families. The borough was 99%
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, the remaining 1%
were multiracial or unlisted. The population was approximately 47% male and 53% female, with 21% of the population below the age of 18, and 23% over the age of 65. The median age was 40.
The households occupied 415 of the 478 housing units in the borough, of these 60% were owned and 40% were rented. Out of the 415 households, 30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41% had elders over 65. About 41% of households were
married
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
, 10% had a female householder with no husband, and 42% were non-family households. 37% of householders lived alone, of which 24% were over the age of 65. The average household contained 2.3 people, while the average family contained 3 people.
A sampling of the population shows that the majority of enrolled students, 63%, were in elementary school (K-8), while 27% were in high school (9-12) and 4% in college or graduate school. The remaining were in preschool. 47% of the population, over 25 years of age, had a high school diploma while 32% did not. Out of the remaining population 21% had attended college while 9% had an associate degree or greater.
The median income for a household in the borough was $28,594, while the median family income was $36,333. The male median income was $27,273 compared to the female median income of $21,250.The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population.
Per capita i ...
for the borough was $14,880. About 9% of families and 10% of individuals incomes were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
.
Education
Northwest Area School District
The Northwest Area School District (NASD) is a public school district in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA. The district comprises the boroughs of New Columbus and Shickshinny and the townships of Hunlock, Union, Huntington, and Fairmount, s ...
serves Shickshinny, as well as the borough of New Columbus and the townships of Hunlock, Union, Huntington Mills, and Fairmont. The student body is separated into primary, intermediate, and junior/senior high schools. Northwest Area School District formerly contained three elementary schools. These schools were: Huntington Mills Elementary School, Hunlock Creek Elementary School, and Garrison Elementary School. Garrison Elementary was located in downtown Shickshinny, next to Shickshinny Creek, while Hunlock Creek Elementary and Huntington Mills Elementary were located in their namesake communities. At the end of the 2009–2010 school year, Garrison Elementary was closed.
[Citizens Voice: Northwest Area reroutes buses](_blank)
Retrieved 2010-07-30
Geography
Shickshinny is located at (41.154044, -76.151182)
along
U.S. Route 11
{{Infobox road
, country=USA
, type=US
, route=11
, map={{maplink, frame=yes, plain=yes, frame-align=center, frame-width=290, frame-height=330, type=line, from=U.S. Route 11.map
, map_custom=yes
, map_notes=US 11 in red, US 11E in blue, US 11W in ...
, midway between
Nanticoke Nanticoke may refer to:
* Nanticoke people in Delaware, United States
* Nanticoke language, an Algonquian language
* Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, a state-recognized tribe in New Jersey
Place names Canada
* Nanticoke, Ontario
** Nanticoke Generating S ...
and
Berwick.
It is situated along the western bank of the
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
at the mouth of
Shickshinny Creek
Shickshinny Creek (historically known as Shickohinna) is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately long and flows through Ross Township, Luzerne County, ...
.
Little Shickshinny Creek
Little Shickshinny Creek is a tributary of Shickshinny Creek in Columbia County and Luzerne County, in Pennsylvania, United States. It is , nearly as long as Shickshinny Creek itself. The creek flows through Briar Creek Township, Columbia Count ...
, a tributary of Shickshinny Creek, meets Shickshinny Creek in the borough.
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the borough has a total area of , of which is land and , or 9.34%, is water. Shickshinny's terrain is flat in the east; the elevation increases as you move westward. Shickshinny is made up of homes and businesses; the borough is surrounded by thick
forests
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
.
The
Susquehanna Warrior Trail passes through Shickshinny.
Major roads
US-11
{{Infobox road
, country=USA
, type=US
, route=11
, map={{maplink, frame=yes, plain=yes, frame-align=center, frame-width=290, frame-height=330, type=line, from=U.S. Route 11.map
, map_custom=yes
, map_notes=US 11 in red, US 11E in blue, US 11W in ...
runs through Shickshinny in a south-north direction.
Pennsylvania Route 239
Pennsylvania Route 239 (PA 239) is a state highway located in Luzerne, Columbia and Lycoming Counties in Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at PA 93 in Nescopeck Township. The northern terminus is at PA 42 in North ...
enters Shickshinny in the northwest. It exits the borough in the southeast and crosses over the Susquehanna River (in the direction of
Mocanaqua).
Climate
The
Köppen Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
subtype for this climate is "
Dfb DFB may refer to:
* Deerfield Beach, Florida, a city
* Decafluorobutane, a fluorocarbon gas
* Dem Franchize Boyz, former hip hop group, Atlanta, Georgia
* Dfb, Köppen climate classification for Humid continental climate
* Distributed-feedback las ...
" (Warm Summer Continental Climate).
Gallery
File:Pennsylvania Route 239 bridge over the Susquehanna River.JPG, The PA 239
Pennsylvania Route 239 (PA 239) is a state highway located in Luzerne, Columbia and Lycoming Counties in Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at PA 93 in Nescopeck Township. The northern terminus is at PA 42 in North ...
bridge linking Shickshinny to Mocanaqua
Shickshinny Creek and Garrison Elementary.JPG, Shickshinny Creek
Shickshinny PA Presby.jpg, Presbyterian Church in Shickshinny
Shickshinny, Pennsylvania (8484160092).jpg, Houses in Shickshinny
Shickshinny.jpg, Road in Shickshinny
Notable people
*
Krysten Ritter
Krysten Alyce Ritter (born December 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She came to prominence when she appeared as Jane Margolis in the AMC drama series '' Breaking Bad'' (2009–2010) and its spinoff film '' El Camino'' (2019). She the ...
, actress
*
Carl Sawatski
Carl Ernest Sawatski (November 4, 1927 – November 24, 1991) was an American professional baseball player and executive. In the Major Leagues, he was a catcher for the Chicago Cubs (1948, 1950 and 1953), Chicago White Sox (1954), Milwaukee Brave ...
,
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
player and president of the
Texas League
The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...
(1976 to 1991)
References
[Shickshinny Historical Society](_blank)
Retrieved 2010-05-06
from the Shickshinny Historical Society. Retrieved 2010-06-06
from the Shickshinny Historical Society. Retrieved 2010-06-06
from the Shickshinny Historical Society. Retrieved 2010-06-06
Retrieved 2010-06-07
External links
Shickshinny.org Business Association of the Greater Shickshinny Area
{{authority control
Pennsylvania populated places on the Susquehanna River
Populated places established in 1782
Boroughs in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
1861 establishments in Pennsylvania
1782 establishments in Connecticut
Pennsylvania placenames of Native American origin