Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
1895 - Wilkes-Barre

Wilkes-Barre, a thriving city of Pennsylvania, the capital of Luzerne co, and one of the most progressive and important of the inland cities of the state, is on the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, at the convergence of not less than 6 railroads, 174 miles from New York by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and Wilkes-Barre & Eastern systems. It is 154 miles by rail N. by W. of Philadelphia. It is situated in the beautiful Wyoming Valley and is surrounded by the most magnificent mountain scenery. Wilkes-Barre contains 36 churches, 3 theatres, 3 national banks and 4 state banks, a trust company, a female semi nary, an academy, a superior public school system (with 19 school-buildings), while at the suburban village of Kingston, on the opposite bank of the river, is the Wyoming Seminary for both sexes, with an average attendance of about 400 students. There are 4 daily and 12 weekly periodicals. As a manufacturing town Wilkes Barre holds an important place, having in 1890, as reported in the United States census, 155 establishments, with an aggregate capital of $3,237,253, giving employment to 3039 hands, and producing goods (chiefly carriages and wagons and the products of flouring- and grist-mills, foundries and machine-shops, lumber- and planing-mills, and wire-works) valued at $4,551,466. The aggregate of wages said was $1,286,095, and the value of material consumed 2,494,809. There are besides large axle-works, lace factories, and silk-mills, while the working of the numerous coal-mines in the vicinity constitutes the most important industry. Many of the leading citizens have inherited or otherwise acquired great wealth, and their mansions occupy the principal avenues of the city. Pop. in 1880, 23,339; in 1890, 37,718; in 1895 (estimated), 50,000.

Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

Visit Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
Discover the people who lived there, the places they visited and the stories they shared.