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Sullivan County, PA
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Created on March 15, 1847 from part of Lycoming County
and named for Senator Charles C. Sullivan, Butler
District, who took an active part in procuring passage
of the bill. Laporte, the county seat, was laid out in
1850 and incorporated as a borough in 1853. It was named
for John La Porte, surveyor general of Pennsylvania from
1845 to 1851.
 The
area was included in the New Purchase from the Indians
in 1768, but Connecticut settlers who had been ousted
from the Wyoming Valley entered and had to be run off by
Pennsylvania agents. Pennsylvania settlers were
themselves pushed out by the Indian and Tory attacks of
1778–1780. The Genesee Road from New York opened up the
area, and in 1794 a French refugee founded Dushore. A
woolen industry was productive from 1802 until about
1900. Lumber and the related leather tanning industry
were most productive from 1850 to 1900. Coal was
discovered and mined by the Sullivan and State Line
Railroad after 1871. Eagles Mere became a famous tourist
resort in the late nineteenth century. The population
peaked at 12,134 in 1900. Today tourism and some lumber
and leather production survives. Farms cover 11 percent
of the land but agricultural receipts rank low among the
sixty-seven counties. State game lands and forest lands
are extensive. |
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