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Pike County, PA
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Created on March 26, 1814, from part of Wayne County and
named for General Zebulon Pike. Milford, the county
seat, was incorporated as a borough on December 25,
1874, and probably named for Milford Haven in Wales.
 Originally
a remote section of Bucks County, the land that became
Pike was first settled about 1700. Purchases from the
Indians in 1749 and 1768 legitimized settlement, and an
agreement with Connecticut in 1786 confirmed
Pennsylvania’s authority. Violence with Native Americans
lasted through the Revolution. Milford was settled in
1796 and just kept growing. Millwrights and ferry
masters were early settlers. Canals, beginning in 1827,
made Pike a connecting point with New York, and an
aqueduct was built to carry canal boats over the
Delaware. Railroads arrived in 1848, and lumber was
rafted out to Easton and Trenton. A tanning industry
once flourished, and bluestone quarries were productive.
The population grew with the lumbering industry, but by
1914 the stands of trees were exhausted. Few stayed on.
Although rural, Pike is not a significant farming area.
The summer tourist population, a feature for over a
century, is often ten times the permanent population.
Farms occupy only 1½ percent of the land. Many national
leaders spent creative periods secluded in Pike: Charles
Peirce, Dan Beard, Grover Cleveland, William Howard
Taft, Thomas Edison, Zane Grey, and Horace Greeley, for
example. |
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