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Monroe County, PA
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Created on April 1, 1836, from parts of Northampton and
Pike Counties and named for President James Monroe.
Stroudsburg, the county seat, was incorporated as a
borough on February 6, 1815, and named for Jacob Stroud,
a settler.
 Nicholas
DuPui settled at Shawnee in 1729 and used the Old Mine
Road to market his wheat in New York. This area saw
fighting in the French and Indian War; Fort Penn was on
the site that became Stroudsburg. The Brodhead family
developed East Stroudsburg. A road to Easton was opened
in 1774. Monroe County was created because Easton and
Milford were too far away from too many people. After
1856 Monroe grew because it lay on the corridor used by
railroads carrying anthracite, although it has no coal
of its own. The railroads started a big tourist business
for the Delaware Water Gap, and in the 1920s tourism
spread deep into the Poconos. Railroad transportation
also made competitive Monroe’s farm products, lumber,
block ice, and mineral products. Monroe once
manufactured steam boilers, textiles, wooden products
(barrels, clothespins, etc.), and glass. The railroads
declined in the 1930s. Today there is some printing,
publishing, trucking, and warehousing, as well as a
retailing emphasis. Farms occupy only 7 percent of the
area and have not been major producers since the decline
of the dairy export market about 1900. The county had
mushroomed since the 1960s as a desirable residential
area, and home construction is strong. |
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