Shamokin, Pennsylvania
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Shamokin - (; Saponi Algonquian ''Schahamokink'', meaning "place of eels") ( Lenape Indian language: Shahëmokink) is a city in
Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Northumberland County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 91,647. Its county seat is Sunbury, Pennsylvania, Sunb ...
, United States. Surrounded by Coal Township at the western edge of the Anthracite Coal Region in central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Valley, the city was named after a Saponi Indian village, Schahamokink. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 6,942.


History

The first humans to settle Shamokin were probably
Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...
migrants.


18th century

A large population of
Lenape Indians The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...
(also known as Delaware Indians) resettled there in the early 18th century after the Walking Purchase along the eastern border of the colonial
Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...
in the upper northern reaches of the
Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...
in 1737. Canasatego of the Six Nations, enforcing the Walking Purchase on behalf of Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania George Thomas, ordered the Lenape to two places on the
Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...
.


19th century

Shamokin was founded in 1835 by the coal speculators John C. Boyd and Ziba Bird; it was known as Boyd's Stone-coal Quarry, Boydtown, and New Town. The discovery in the region of
anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highe ...
resources, or hard coal, became the basis of much industry. The first recorded coal miners' strike in this region happened in 1842 and became progressively more common afterwards, as company owners called in cavalry units to arrest miners and evict them from their company-owned homes. Incorporated as a
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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 ...
under the Commonwealth constitution on November 9, 1864, Shamokin became an industrial center in the 19th century, with silk and knitting mills, stocking and shirt factories, wagon shops, ironworks, and brickyards in addition to anthracite coal-mining. The dominant Eagle Silk Mill became the largest textile manufacturing building under one roof in the United States. Railroad companies such as
Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and freight transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states from 1924 until its acquisition by Conrail in 1976. Commonly called the Reading Railr ...
and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) bought interests in coal and became major employers in the area, building railroads to ship coal to markets and controlling most jobs. They created profits for their owners by consistently lowering workers' wagers and firing employees, creating widespread poverty and starvation in the town. Workers gradually organized into unions to develop means of bargaining with these powerful companies. In the 1877 Shamokin uprising, railroad workers and miners angered by unexpected cuts in wages begun by the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...
(B&O) joined what developed across the East into the
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. The Great Railroad Strike of 187 ...
, which began with strikes in neighboring
Martinsburg, West Virginia Martinsburg is a city in Berkeley County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. The population was 18,773 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making Martinsburg the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia a ...
, then others in
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
, including the headquarters of the B&O at its Camden Street Station in
Downtown Baltimore Downtown Baltimore is the central business district of the Baltimore, city of Baltimore traditionally bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (Baltimore), Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the west, List of streets in Baltimore#F, Frank ...
. It then spread north and west into Pennsylvania and to
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
and other sites in several major industrial cities in Pennsylvania, as well as more cities in the Northeast and as far west as
St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
and
Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
. Over a thousand people participated in the demonstrations in Shamokin, and government- and company-led militias shot and killed over 100 demonstrators. Five strikers were convicted of rioting and jailed for up to eight months for their part in the actions. 20 Irish Catholics were also executed as suspected members of the
Molly Maguires The Molly Maguires was an Irish people, Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool, and parts of the eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish diaspora, Irish immigrant coal miners i ...
despite lack of strong evidence. Inventor, scientist and entrepreneur Thomas A. Edison, briefly a resident of nearby Sunbury, established the Edison Illuminating Company of Shamokin in 1882. When the Shamokin power generating station on Independence Street started on September 22, 1883, St. Edward's Roman Catholic Church, which was connected, became the world's first church lit by electricity. Until 2017, Jones Hardware Company was at the Independence Street site of the former Edison electrical station.


20th-21st century

In 1905, resident William A. Conway wrote ''Murder at Hickory Ridge'', a
dime novel The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century American popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions. The term ''dime novel'' has been used as a catchall term for several different but related form ...
, hoping to cash in on their popularity. It was a fictionalized account of an unsolved murder in the Shamokin area. His two brothers, Alphonsus E. and John J., printed the book on a press in their garage. They continued their business, starting the Conway Print Shop. With the profits from the novel, the Conways started the Black Diamond Publishing Company in 1905 and founded ''Black Diamond Magazine'' to disseminate news of the
anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...
coal region. They developed a way to print a roll of tickets, planning to market them to the movie theaters being built in the area. To meet a request by the nearby Hazleton Baseball Club, they partnered with merchant Nicholas R. Ludes to make a big purchase of colored paper. Together the Conway brothers and Ludes founded what became the National Ticket Company in Shamokin in 1907. At one time it was the nation's largest ticket manufacturing company. Its first production facility was built in 1911 at the corner of Pearl and Webster Streets. A 1942 fire gutted the plant, although the brick shell still stands. The replacement building at Pearl Street and Ticket Avenue was completed in 1950 and has since served as company headquarters. The business is still owned by descendants of the Conway and Ludes families. In the 21st century National Ticket has developed international customers. Shamokin was formally incorporated as a city on February 21, 1949. Edgewood Park, also known as Indian Park, operated in Shamokin as an increasingly popular amusement park from 1905 through the late 1950s, featuring a roller coaster and other rides and entertainments, and attracting regional crowds. Its included a large pond. Faced with different needs in the 1950s, the Shamokin area school district developed this property for new elementary and high schools. The Victoria Theatre in town was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
maintained by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1985. It was demolished in 1999 and delisted in 2004.


Geography

According to the
U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, 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 U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...
, the city has an area of , all of which is land. Shamokin has two small creeks that divide the town. Carbon Run merges with Shamokin Creek in the north of the town and empties into the
Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...
just south of Shamokin Dam near Sunbury. The city has a warm-summer
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
(''Dfb'') and average monthly temperatures range from in January to in July

The
hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most widely ...
is 6a. It is also home to the world's largest man made culm bank, the Cameron/Glen Burn Colliery Culm Bank.


Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 8,009 people, 3,742 households, and 2,028 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 4,674 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 98.8%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.1%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.1% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 0.0%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.1% from other races, and 0.5% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino people of any race were 0.6% of the population. There were 3,742 households, out of which 24.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.4% were married couples living together, 13.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.8% were non-families. 41.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 22.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.89. In the city, the population had 22.2% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 26.2% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 21.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.6 males. The median income for a household in the city was $20,173, and the median income for a family was $30,038. Males had a median income of $28,261 versus $19,120 for females. The per capita income was $12,354. About 19.3% of families and 60.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.2% of those under age 18 and 21.3% of those age 65 or over.


Education

Shamokin is part of the
Shamokin Area School District Shamokin Area School District is a small, rural public school district located in Coal Township, Pennsylvania, US. The Shamokin Area School District community consists of the city of Shamokin and the townships of Coal, East Cameron and Sham ...
, which includes Shamokin Area High School, along with an elementary, intermediate, and middle school. Local private schools include Our Lady of Lourdes Regional School and Meadowview Christian Academy. Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) has a satellite campus in the Careerlink Building on Arch Street.


In popular culture

* The 2020 drama film '' Never Rarely Sometimes Always'' was filmed in Shamokin. * Featured in the song "We Did the Samba in Shamokin" (1958), conducted by
Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, ...
. The song was sampled as bumper music for
Bob and Ray Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) *Bob (dog), a dog that received the Dickin Medal for bravery in World War II *Bob the ...
's radio show on
WOR (AM) WOR () is a 50,000-watt class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York, New York. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, including '' ...
in the mid-1970s.


Notable people

* Kathryn Burak, novelist * Harry Coveleski (1886–1950), former professional baseball player,
Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...
,
Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...
, and
Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...
*
Stan Coveleski Stanley Anthony Coveleski (born Stanislaus Kowalewski, July 13, 1889 – March 20, 1984) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for four American League (AL) teams between and , primarily the Cleveland Indians ...
(1889–1984), former professional baseball player,
Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...
,
New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
,
Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, they became the Oakland ...
, and Washington Senators * George H. Cram (1838–1872), Union Army colonel in the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
and brevet general in the post-war
Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...
* Jake Daubert, former professional baseball player,
Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brook ...
and
Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...
* Charles K. Eagle (d. 1928), silk merchant * John Grazier (1946–2022), American realist painter * Herbert G. Hopwood (1898–1966),
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
, four star admiral and commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet * Eddie Korbich, Broadway, film and television actor * Mary LeSawyer, operatic soprano * Harry J. Lincoln, early 1900s popular music composer * Michael Luchkovich, first ethnic Ukrainian member of the
House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...
* Fred Rhoads, cartoonist of '' Sad Sack'' * Holden C. Richardson, pioneer in U.S. naval aviation * Ronald L. Thompson, Pennsylvania state legislator * Thomas I. Vanaskie, federal judge on the
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a United States federal court, federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, district courts for the following United Sta ...
* Bud Weiser, Major League Baseball player * William Wood (c. 1861–1908), illusionist and ventriloquist * Joseph Zupicich (1893–1987), crewmember of the steamship RMS ''Carpathia'', which assisted in the rescue operation for the RMS ''Titanic''


References


External links


Website for the City of ShamokinHistoric and modern photos of ShamokinPhotos and historic postcards of Shamokin
Flickr account
Shamokin Area School District
official website
''The News Item''
local newspaper and website for Shamokin and Mount Carmel.

''The Nation,'' Vol. 140, No. 3627, January 9, 1934; p. 46

defunctparks.com {{authority control * Cities in Pennsylvania Populated places established in 1835 Municipalities of the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania Cities in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Coal towns in Pennsylvania