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of Yager mountain. The Indian word for Nescopeck signified deep black water. The stream rises in Denison township and is twenty-eight miles in length. Along its shores is the beautiful Sugar Loaf valley, which gets its name from the coneshaped mountain standing nearly in the center of the valley.

Passing along the southern and southeastern line of the county the watershed turns its drainage toward the Lehigh river. Wright's creek runs south toward White Haven, principally through Denison township. Then is the more important stream, Bear creek, with its many branches spreading like the limbs of a tree nearly all over the township of that name. Shades creek drains the "swamp" in Buck township and falls into the Lehigh a few miles above Bear creek. Many of these streams have their sources in the numerous lakes and ponds that abound, while others start from springs. All have clear cold water, many affording excel

lent water power.

The largest body of fresh water in the State is Harvey's lake near the north line of the county in Lake township. This is now finely improved and is a noted summer resort, growing in fame with each successive season.

The Mountains in these range also run from northeast to southwest in their general trend, some in the lower part of the county running nearly due east and west, as the Bucks mountains that pass entirely through the county. Passing north from Bucks mountains is the valley of Nescopeck creek, that extends from the west line of the county to White Haven and branches at Yager mountain and runs through Bear Creek township. Then is the Nescopeck range. Then is the valley of the Wapwallopen, and passing this going north brings us to the Wyoming mountains, spurs of which follow down the east side of the river to Nescopeck borough. Passing northeast to nearly opposite Wilkes-Barre is Bald mountain and Moosic mountain, which are merely different names for the same ranges. From Shickshinny to Nanticoke along the river on the east side are Lee mountains. The ranges of mountains on the west of the river, commencing in the southwest of the county and following in the direction of the river to Pittston and are broken through there by the river and continue their general course through Lackawanna county, are known by several local names. In the extreme southwest is Huntington mountain, then the Shickshinny, the Kingston, the Capouse. Running across the northwest corner of the county are the North mountains, a range that turns the waters north and south on its respective sides.

The general face of the country is broken and mountainous, with, however, many rich and beautiful valleys, among others the world-famed Wyoming valley, one of the large and certainly one of the richest in the world, equally immortal in war and in peace. These were beautiful and coveted lands to the eye of beast, savage and civilized man, as prolific in sustaining life as they were lovely on their face. The Indians following the game gathered here and in time civilization and savagery warred and killed for their possession and in the brief century, with the confines of the county being ever contracted by the erection of new counties, there are here 201, 203 inhabitants. More people added to the county in ten years than there are in one of the States of the Union. There are sixty-seven counties in the State, with a total population of 5,258,014. Of the eight counties showing more than fifty per cent. increase in the decade just past is Luzerne, which, with no large city in its border, in 1880 already had far more than the average county's population-133,065, or, in other words, the exact per cent. of increase in ten years was 51.21. The marked feature of the increase in Luzerne is more manifest when we bear in mind that the State's increase has largely been in urban population, while in this county it is the rural population that has added the marked increase. This is significant, vastly so, because the healthy conditions of society are not in the rapid growth of cities and the gradual decrease of farm and village life, but in the reverse. The smiling fields and the pure free air are the conditions evolving better lives, stronger men and women-morally, mentally and physically. Thus

nature and man's energies have happily joined hands here and made Luzerne county one of the highly favored spots of earth.

Harvey's Lake is 1,000 feet above the level of the Susquehanna, situated in Lake township, twelve miles northwest of Wilkes Barre. It is an immense spring of pure cold water, with a beautiful clean sand and gravel bottom, and varies in depth from five to 200 feet. It was first discovered by Benjamin Harvey, who settled upon its outlet prior to the Revolutionary war. It was surveyed in 1794, when covered with ice, by Christopher Hurlbert, who found it extended over an area of 1,285 acres, a little more than two square miles. It is the largest body of fresh water in Pennsylvania, and furnishes an abundant supply of fish, which, owing to the purity of the water, are of superior quality. The first canoe ever launched upon the bosom of this lake, by a white man, was made in Wyoming valley, in 1800, by Andrew Bennett. It was shod with hickory saplings, and was drawn over the mountain by horses, and used in fishing and hunting.

Beaver Lake, in Buck township is one mile in length and a half mile in breadth. It is the source of Pond creek, which flows into the Lehigh.

Triangle Pond, in Wright township, has an area of 150 acres, and is one of the sources of the Little Wapwallopen creek.

Long and Round Ponds, in Slocum township, are also sources of the Little Wapwallopen, and abound in fish. The former is about a mile long by a half mile wide; the latter is smaller. Their depth is from twenty-five to fifty feet.

Three Cornered Pond, in Lehman township, is a handsome body of clear water, and constitutes one of the sources of Hunlock creek.

North and South Ponds, in Ross townships, the former covering 250 acres, and the latter about 150, discharge their waters through Hunlock creek.

Mud Pond, in Fairmount township, empties into the Huntington creek, which also receives the waters of Long pond, in Sullivan county, near the Luzerne county line. At this latter point, on the summit of the North mountain, is 2,636 feet above the level of the sea.

In

In 1777, when this was Westmoreland county, Conn., and its wide territory included what is now Luzerne, Wyoming, Susquehanna, Bradford, and a portion of Wayne county, there were, all told, 1,922 souls. Sixteen years after that, 1790, in the same territory, except the part of Wayne county above, there was a population of 4,904; or one to each square mile. In 1800 there were 12,838, showing an average annual increase of 793. In 1810 there were 18,109, a slight average decrease. 1820, with Bradford and Susquehanna counties taken off, there were 20,027 inhabitants, and in 1830, 27,304; in 1840, 44,006; in 1850 (Wyoming taken off) the population of Luzerne county was 56,072. [At that time Wyoming county had 10,653 people.] The following table exhibits the classified population of Luzerne for the years 1850 and 1860:

The following table exhibits the classified population of Luzerne for the years 1850 and 1860:

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The official figures for the census years 1880 and 1890 show the following in detail:

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Forty Fort borough.

1,031

478

Foster township, including Eckley, Highland and Sandy Run

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Hanover township..

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Hazel township, including Ebervale, Hollywood, Lattimer and

Milnesville villages.

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Ebervale village.

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Going over the detailed official reports of the population of the divisions of the county, it is striking, even as early as 1860, how much more rapidly the coal-bearing sections increased over the other portions of the county. The vast coal interests at that time were only fairly begun to develop. Since then the rapid increase of population, still centering in the vicinity of the mines, has kept pace with the enormous growth of the coal output, and yet there is no great city in the county. Indeed until the last few months Wilkes-Barre was the only organized city in Luzerne county, and that contained less than 40,000 of the 201,000 inhabitants of the county. Hazleton is just now made a legal city, with only a population of about 12,000. Therefore, it is plain that the increase of population here, the past century, from a little more than 4,000 to more than 200,000, with the territory reduced by the counties of Wyoming and Lackawanna recently taken off, in addition to Bradford and Susquehanna, that were extracted in the early part of the century, shows a growth of rural population unequaled in any county in the United States.

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LOCALITIES WHOSE POSTOFFICE DIFFERS FROM THE NAMES BY WHICH THEY ARE GENERALLY

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Postoffice.

Ashley

.New Columbus

Conyngham
Harding
.Eckley
.Pittston

Sweet Valley
..Hazleton
Hazleton
.Huntsville
Harding
Gowen
.Hazleton
White Haven
Wilkes-Barre

Nanticoke ...Eckley Wilkes-Barre

Peely .Pittston

Mountain Top

Harding

Rock Glenn

Rock Glenn

..Gowen Harding Rittenhouse

..Jeddo

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