A Historical Account the Pocono Region/Pennsylvania
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A HI STORI CAL ACCOUNT THE POCONO REGI ON " PENNSYLVANI A By HENRY PLEASANTS ' f he Histor o Old S t David s Chur h r Au hor o T . c Radno t y f . l E The H istory of The Old Eagle S choo . tc. I LL US TRA TED IPE HLJUDEI Jfli LA WI NSTON WMPANY THE JOHN C . 19 13 I . the rapture of the summer Has set the pulse athrill, ’ And dreams are long of the veery s song ‘ Tis then the listening spirit r Hea s quiet waters flow. And turns its feet from the breathless street To the shores of Pocono . n at At Poco o, Pocono, ’ a a r The b ls m s b eath is sweet. The pines are calling down the wind To hasten tardy feet ; The birches drip their gold ’ And a o er r the e gle keeps, the fo est deeps, f d His vigil. as o ol . 11. are When the woods full of shadows. And firefly lanterns shine ; ’ When the sun s last gleam greets the far beam ’ O er the starlit zenith line ' Tis then the happy voices Are a d fr c lling to an o, r As the owers hail the sunset trail, On the lake at Pocono . I 5 ] The P o c o n o R e g i o n At Pocono. at Pocono. ’ r The balsam s b eath is sweet. The pines are calling down the wind To hasten tardy feet ; The hemlocks breathe their secrets The birches drip their gold ; - t e And camp fires claim, with ongu s of l d. Their votaries. as of o 111. When the heart has lost its quiet Mid the tumult of the throng, And burdens press in the anxious stress Of the endless strife with wrong ' Tis then through the restless spirit r The healing memo ies flow, in r a Of the silent psalm, the vespe c lm , Of the grove at Pocono . At Pocono. at Pocono. ' The balsam s breath is sweet. The pines are calling down the wind To hasten tardy feet : The hemlocks breathe their secrets The b it ches drip their gold in n And the hermit thrush. the eve ing d. ls chanting, as of ol Agnes L. Tierney. I6 ] PREFATORY. OTWITHSTANDING the early settlements in North N r r ar n a and r n an of the St oudsbu g, C bo d le othe poi ts , m y contiguous mountain tracts were covered with the mag nificent r r n a r f Wr p imeval fo est u til fte the close o the Civil a . For a decade or more after that period they were the scene of m the al ost incredible hardships and activities of lumber camps. and these were so generally conducted with extravagance and wastefulness that in their wake appeared miles of waste and barren r territo y. swept from time to time by awful fires and followed by yet r n o more ter ible sce es f desolation. r Within the last two decades, howeve (mainly since the begin ning of the twentieth century), that part of this section of the “ " n n state k own as the Poco o Plateau in Monroe County, in con i r a sequence of ts accessibility, of the pu ity of its atmosphere nd r l fo d r pe haps above al r the peace an rest it offers , has become att ae tive not only to invalids, convalescents and refugees from social n and busi ess cares, but to students of Nature and other exalted “ ” o r subjects as well as t aspi an ts aft er the simple life . It presents indeed many of the climatic conditions and some of the rugged scenery which characterize the celebrated Engadine n n Valley in the Swiss Canto of the Grisons. whose principal tow . r r in r St . Mo itz, has figu ed attractively so many sto ies . r n of It is unde these circumstances that, at the insta ce the r f Historical Committee of the Pocono Lake Preserve, this b ie o historical account f the territory has been prepared . Although but one member of this committee is named as the r r r esponsible autho of the history. the assistance of the othe mem r d t d n r be s, an of heir friends, has been freely given an has bee ve y essential . o r r With n att e npt to enume ate all of these generous assistants. [ 7 ] The P o c o n o R e g i o n w ho have contributed so much to whatev er is of value in this on publicati . a peculiar obligation is acknowledged To Charles P. Keith. Esq whose manuscript notes of ' Chronicles of Pennsylvania. most kindly placed at the author s disposal. were of great value, and whose severe criticisms were of scarcely less value. r . To Hen y S Cattell. Esq . whose valuable monograph on The " Pocono Plateau has greatly aided in the preparation of this more comprehensive review . r . n w n in To F ancis R Baco . hose historical map accompa y g the history is of very unique value . am . m s n To S uel H Tho as. Esq William F. Wickersham. Wat o . M . W Dewees and Egbert S . Cary. whose aid in revising SS has a e r n s v d many blunde s. and w hose frank suggestions of modificatio have been of greatly needed help. f r Dr. To William R . Fisher, George W . Sha er. William A Shafe . r l . Esq . Isaac Stauffe . Frank P. Blakes ee, William Daub, Rev nr r and He y Sang ee. Jerome Scott. Henry Snyder. John Wrick. t . ll r n r r. r n ar a a n of E E Hooke , J . f om whom e ly the ccou ts ece t conditions w ere obtained. I n addition to the aid of all these friends is also gratefully acknowledged the special contributions and assistance of Joseph Elkin R eb um to . a a n, Agnes L Tierney, Jane Alison Page, Thom s Esq . and William Nelson L. West. Esq . , I 8 ] HISTORY. “ ” e u a en s ream e w n mo n a ns the e i na I q iv l t A t b t ee u t i , is d s g “ " Indian deeds Endless Mountains ) and about nine m iles north seems first to hav e b een ’ en applied to the stream running into McMichael s Creek, and th “ “ the same nam e Pocopoco (corrupted from Pochkapochka stream betw een has been applied to the creek emptying into the — “ ld iigh from the northeast in Carbon County 1 1» know n as Big I n order as far as practicable to confine the subject of this w ill be here considered in any detail as has mainly developed hannock ; although even this will require a consideration at some length of the early history of the entire section of Northeast ern Monroe County as distinctly as any part of Pennsylvan ia fur Before the mountains w ere brought forth or ever God had formed the ear h and the wor e en from e er as in to e er as in . t ld. v v l t g v l t g P r w is in his e rt on the terminal rofesso Henry Carv ill . r po I 9 ] The P o c o n o R e g i o n “ The glacial geology of this region is probably of as great interest as that of any other portion of the world ; and the course of the great terminal moraine win in across mo n ains and a e s is as com e e a roof of d g u t v ll y , pl t p " the former e is a co - x tence of ntinental ice sheet as can anywhere b e found . r r he r r So g eat an autho ity as t late Pete Lesley, in his eport s n C a State Geologist, u hesitatingly asserts that the Wind ap, by which access to Monroe County is gained from the south through “ the ne r n a Blue Mountains , is o of the st angest and most i explic ble ' features of the earth s surface . It is unique in its shape n - a d in its situation and that Bake oven Knob, between the Water G “ G . ap and the Wind Gap, is as mysterious as the Wind ap All the difficulties en countered at the Wind Gap meet us "2 in e here an exaggerat d form . e r nr n r Alfr d Mathews, in his histo y of Mo oe Cou ty, fo cibly refers to the fact that The roc s of onroe m s e er be of rofo nd in eres for ere k M u t v p u t t, h Nature has stamped in indelible lines the record of her prehistoric opera tions and here the God of Nature before He gave the decalogue to Moses th fl inscribed upon these tables of stone e at of His Will . While the limits of this historical account warrant only the r f r r an b ie est reference to this sublime featu e of the sub"ect, an impo t t prelude to any later details is the knowledge that over the gray f d r red a cli fs marking the highest Pocono peaks, an ove the sh le formation evident on that great Pocono Plateau which covers nearly s on the whole northern half of the county, were irnpo ed in early ae s of world history those geological form ations which figure so largely in the history of the neighboring coal fields .