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Lackawanna County, PA
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Created on August 13, 1878 from part of Luzerne County,
was the last county to be created. It was named for the
Lackawanna River, a name meaning “stream that forks.”
Scranton, the county seat, was laid out in 1841,
incorporated as a borough in 1856, and became a city on
April 23, 1866. It was named for the Scranton family,
its founders. The county adopted a home rule charter in
April 1976.
 The
last county created, Lackawanna lies in the area
bitterly disputed with Connecticut settlers in the
Yankee Pennamite Wars and with the Indians who treasured
the Wyoming Valley. Scranton, founded 1840 at Slocum
Hollow, was Wilkes Barre’s rival and as the northern
anthracite field expanded became wealthier. The Scranton
family has been leaders for more than a century. The
Scranton brothers developed anthracite iron smelting
which led to the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, a
major economic factor until it was moved to New York in
1902. The area was a center of labor unrest in 1877 and
in all the major anthracite mine strikes. The coal
industry declined greatly in the late 1920s, revived
during World War II, and fell again in the 1960s. A
small amount of coal is still surface mined. Railroads
once flourished, as the principal means of exporting the
coal. Textiles—silk, succeeded by rayon, followed by
nylon—have been important products. Lumber is still
produced, but Lackawanna is not a significant farming
county; 14 percent of the land is farmland. Unemployment
became a problem for the region after World War II.
William Warren Scranton, banker and politician, was
among the first to plan an economic recovery after the
coal industry collapsed in the 1960s, emphasizing a
diversified business environment. |
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