# Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1840s

> A small river-and-canal coal place was becoming a village, with mines, churches, and corporate plans pressing into farm country.

- Place: Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (41.326, -75.789)
- Years: 1840 to 1849
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/pittston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1840s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Pittston%2C%20Luzerne%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20United%20States&at=41.3259,-75.7894&year=1845

## Looking around

You stand in Pittston Township, not yet a borough, where the later borough site had only fourteen heads of families in 1828[1][2] but is growing fast. The Susquehanna River[3][7] is the great line of movement, and the North Branch Canal has already reached Pittston[5], tying local coal to Philadelphia. Around the settlement the ground belongs to the Wyoming and Lackawanna anthracite basin[3], where coal beds may be exposed by ravines and streams. Some work is still farm work, for the same acre may employ both farmer and miner[3]. Coal is taken by drift openings into hillsides[3], not only by old surface stripping. A brick Presbyterian church[8][9] stands in the northern part of the village by 1846. Catholic worship is less fixed: priests visit homes in the Wyoming Valley[10] before a Pittston parish exists. Plans and surveys point eastward, where a forty-seven-mile gravity railroad to Hawley[6][7] is being prepared.

## Work: Coal beside farms

The ground offered two kinds of labor: the same acre might employ farmer and miner[3]. Coal was increasingly followed by drift openings into hillsides[3], and company plans were gathering around a forty-seven-mile route from Pittston to Hawley[6][7].

## Faith: Churches still forming

The Presbyterian presence became visible with a brick building completed in 1846[8][9]. Catholic worship was still more scattered, with priests visiting homes in the Wyoming Valley[10] before a Pittston parish was formally established.

## Law & power: Township, not borough

People here lived under township and county government because Pittston was not yet a borough[1][2]. Political power was narrow by modern standards: adult white men were the ordinary electorate.

## In the air: Canal versus railroad

The practical argument of the decade was how coal should reach market: the canal already linked Pittston to Philadelphia[5], while promoters planned the gravity railroad to Hawley[6][7].

## What people feared: Underground work begins

Mining danger was becoming part of local life as coal was worked through narrow underground passages into hillsides[3]. The later street itself had hazards too, remembered as a deep ravine crossing Main Street[2].

## Home & table: Sparse village record

The later borough site had been small within living memory, with fourteen heads of families in 1828[1][2]. For the 1840s, ordinary houses, rents, and food prices are not described in the opened sources.

## Who lived here: County growing, mostly white

The broader county counted 43,810 White residents and 196 Black residents in 1840[4]. A precise Pittston Township population for 1840 was not found, so the local number remains an online gap.

## Roads & news: Canal before newspaper

News and goods moved along the North Branch Canal to Pittston[5] before Pittston had a known local paper. The Gazette at Pittston began in 1850[12], just after the decade.

## Year by year

- **1840** (nearby): Luzerne County recorded 43,810 White residents and 196 Black residents.[4]
- **1842** (here): A Presbyterian congregation serving Pittston was organized.[8][9]
- **1843** (nearby): A county description identified the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys as the principal anthracite basin of Luzerne County.[3]
- **1846** (here): The Presbyterian congregation completed a brick church building in Pittston village.[8][9]
- **1847** (here): Ground was broken for the gravity railroad intended to carry coal from Pittston toward Hawley.[6][7]
- **1848** (the world): Revolutions and uprisings across Europe sent political news and later migrants across the Atlantic.
- **1848** (the country): The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and added vast western territory to the United States.
- **1849** (here): The Pennsylvania Coal Company was incorporated.[1][7]

## What the sources say

- Within the later Pittston borough limits, a county history says there were only fourteen heads of families in 1828. (from the sources)[1][2]
- Pittston was still part of Pittston Township throughout the 1840s; a separate borough government was not organized until 1853. (from the sources)[1][2]
- Pittston lay on the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, at the north end of the Wyoming Valley coal district. (from the sources)[3][7]
- Luzerne County’s recorded population in 1840 was 43,810 White residents and 196 Black residents. (from the sources)[4]
- The North Branch Canal had been extended to Pittston by 1831, connecting Luzerne County coal to the Philadelphia market. (from the sources)[5]
- An 1843 county description placed the principal Luzerne anthracite formation in a trough four to five miles wide and about fifty miles long, under the Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys. (from the sources)[3]
- The same 1843 description said Luzerne coal beds varied from 1 to 30 feet thick. (from the sources)[3]
- The 1843 account called the coal region also one of Pennsylvania’s productive agricultural districts, saying the same acre might employ both agriculturist and miner. (from the sources)[3]
- By the early 1840s, local anthracite was commonly worked by drifting narrow underground passages into hillsides rather than only by stripping surface rock. (from the sources)[3]
- The Pennsylvania Coal Company and related charters planned a gravity railroad about forty-seven miles from Pittston to Hawley on the Lackawaxen route. (from the sources)[6][7]
- Ground was broken for the Pittston-to-Hawley gravity railroad in 1847, practical work increased in 1848, and the line was finished in May 1850. (from the sources)[6][7]
- A Presbyterian congregation serving Pittston was organized in 1842, completed a brick building in the village in summer 1846, and incorporated as the First Presbyterian Church of Pittston on January 22, 1848. (from the sources)[8][9]
- Catholic life in Pittston had roots in the 1840s, when priests visited homes in the Wyoming Valley, but St. John the Evangelist parish was not formally established until 1854. (inferred)[10]
- The first Catholic parish established in Pittston, Mary Help of Christians, dates to 1851 and served Irish immigrants drawn by coal mining jobs. (inferred)[11]
- A county history remembered Main Street before later grading as crossed by a deep ravine near the later Pennsylvania Coal Company office site. (from the sources)[2]
- The Pittston and Wilkes-Barre plank road was built in 1851, just after the decade, and used trestle work near Patterson’s lumber yard to cross a ravine. (from the sources)[2]
- The Pennsylvania Coal Company was incorporated in 1849 and later became one of the largest coal operators in the Pittston region. (from the sources)[1][7]
- Pittston had no known local newspaper in the 1840s; the Gazette at Pittston began in 1850. (from the sources)[12]
- As across Pennsylvania in the 1840s, adult white men were the ordinary electorate; Black men in Pennsylvania had been disfranchised by the state constitution of 1838. (inferred)
- No detailed online description was found of ordinary Pittston houses, house rents, or food prices in the 1840s. (not known)
- No opened source gives a Pittston Township population total specifically for 1840. (not known)

## Sources

1. Early Pittston, Luzerne Co., Pa.. Luzerne County PAGenWeb. https://pagenweb.org/~luzerne/patk/pits.htm
2. History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Selections, Part 79. LDS Genealogy, 1893. https://ldsgenealogy.com/PA/books/History-of-Luzerne-County-Pennsylvania-with-biographical-selections-part-79.htm
3. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania: 1843 Luzerne History. Genealogy Trails, 1843. https://genealogytrails.com/penn/luzerne/1843history.html
4. Baseline Survey Census Research: Luzerne County. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2022. https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/phmc/documents/preservation/survey/documents/LuzerneCensusSheet.pdf
5. Coal. The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/coal/
6. Gravity Railroad. Wayne County Historical Society. https://www.waynehistorypa.com/research/historictopics/gravityrailroad
7. History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania, Part 44. LDS Genealogy, 1886. https://ldsgenealogy.com/PA/books/History-of-Wayne-Pike-and-Monroe-counties-Pennsylvania-part-44.htm
8. History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties, Pa., Part 104. LDS Genealogy, 1880. https://ldsgenealogy.com/PA/books/History-of-Luzerne-Lackawanna-and-Wyoming-counties-Pa-with-illustrations-and-biographical-sketches-of-some-of-their-prominent-men-and-pioneers-part-104.htm
9. History of the Presbytery of Luzerne, State of Pennsylvania, Part 11. LDS Genealogy, 1897. https://ldsgenealogy.com/PA/books/History-of-the-Presbytery-of-Luzerne-state-of-Pennsylvania-part-11.htm
10. The Roman Catholic Parishes of Pittston: St. John the Evangelist Parish. St. John the Evangelist Parish. https://www.stjohnspittston.com/our-parishes/st-john-the-evangelist-parish
11. The Roman Catholic Parishes of Pittston: Our Lady of the Eucharist Pittston. St. John the Evangelist Parish. https://www.stjohnspittston.com/our-parishes/our-lady-of-the-eucharist-pittston
12. 1880 Census: Volume 8, The Newspaper and Periodical Press. United States Census Office, 1884. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1880/vol-08-news-press/1880v8-08.pdf

## The same place in other decades

- [Pittston in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/pittston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1880s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Wyoming Borough, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1840s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-borough-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1840s/md) (4 km)
- [Wyoming, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1820s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1820s/md) (4 km)
- [Wyoming Valley, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1820s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-valley-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1820s/md) (11 km)
- [Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1830s](https://yorehistory.com/place/kingston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1830s/md) (11 km)
- [Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (12 km)
- [Wyoming or Wilkes-Barre area, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-or-wilkes-barre-area-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (23 km)
- [White Haven, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s](https://yorehistory.com/place/white-haven-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1860s/md) (30 km)
- [East Penn Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania in the 1810s](https://yorehistory.com/place/east-penn-township-carbon-county-pennsylvania/1810s/md) (46 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-11 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1840s", https://yorehistory.com/place/pittston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1840s