# Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s

> A new coal city, county seat, rail junction, and immigrant workplace in the Wyoming Valley.

- Place: Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (41.246, -75.881)
- Years: 1870 to 1879
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Wilkes-Barre%2C%20Luzerne%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20United%20States&at=41.2459,-75.8813&year=1875

## Looking around

Stand in the new city and turn toward the river: this is the county seat of Luzerne County[3][4], only lately made a city. The street names in the directory put daily life along Main, Market, Washington, River, Canal, Coal, and Railroad streets[3]. Work presses close to houses: a miner lives near Mead and Market[3], a fireman boards on Canal near Jackson[3], and a moulder boards near Hanover and River[3]. South Washington has Catholic ground and a great new church, for St. Mary’s parish is old and its present church rose in 1870–1872[7]. The wider valley is not quiet countryside now: by 1875 Luzerne County produces about half Pennsylvania’s anthracite[1], and railroads carry coal and immigrants through the valley[1]. A German weekly, Democratic and German-speaking, shares the town with English papers, while the Republican Record of the Times costs two dollars a year[5].

## Work: Coal shapes the day

The city sits in a county where anthracite production has become enormous[1], and its directory puts miners, firemen, moulders, and laborers inside the street grid. One laborer is listed at No. 4 Diamond Shaft[3].

## Money: Pay follows coal prices

A cited 1875 scale gave miners $12.60 a week and laborers $10.80[9] when coal sold at five dollars a ton at tidewater. That kind of sliding wage made distant coal markets part of household life.

## Faith: Catholics build in stone

St. Mary’s present church was built in 1870–1872[7] for a parish founded in 1842. Its scale marks the growing Catholic and immigrant presence in the coal city.

## Law & power: County seat and new city

Wilkes-Barre is the county seat[3][4], and in 1871 it becomes a city[4][6]. Courts, jail, city officers, tax lists, and police authority are close at hand.

## In the air: Labor and suspicion

The decade is full of argument over unions, violence, and mine-company power: the Molly Maguires controversy belongs to these same coal counties[11]. A hanging at the local jail makes that conflict visible in town.

## What people feared: Work, fire, and gallows

Coal work brings bodily risk, and public order is tense enough that Andrew Lenahan is hanged at the Luzerne County Jail in 1877[12]. The city also buys its first steam fire engine in 1870[6].

## Who lived here: English and German print

The newspaper directory lists a German-language Democratic weekly[5] alongside English-language papers. The city’s streets hold miners, laborers, tradesmen, domestics, clerks, and craftsmen in the same directory pages.

## Roads & news: Rail and weekly papers

The Lehigh Valley Railroad links Wilkes-Barre to wider rail systems[1], and newspapers carry politics and advertisements. The Record of the Times costs two dollars a year[5].

## Year by year

- **1870** (here): Wilkes-Barre bought its first steam fire engine, the Amoskeag engine named Mechanic.[6]
- **1871** (here): Wilkes-Barre became an incorporated city after decades as a borough.[4][6]
- **1872** (here): St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception completed the new church begun in 1870.[7]
- **1873** (the country): The Panic of 1873 began a long depression that sharpened wage cuts and labor conflict in the anthracite region.[10]
- **1875** (nearby): Luzerne County and the Wyoming Valley produced about half of Pennsylvania’s anthracite.[1]
- **1876** (the country): The United States marked its centennial with the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, a national event Pennsylvanians could read and talk about.
- **1877** (here): Andrew Lenahan was hanged at the Luzerne County Jail on Water Street in a Molly Maguires-related case.[12]
- **1877** (nearby): The Great Railroad Strike spread through Pennsylvania and brought deadly clashes and martial law to nearby Scranton.[8]

## What the sources say

- Wilkes-Barre was the county seat of Luzerne County in the 1870s. (from the sources)[3][4]
- Wilkes-Barre was incorporated as a city in 1871, after having been a borough since 1806. (from the sources)[4][6]
- One contemporary account of the city’s creation gives its 1870 population as 10,174. (from the sources)[4]
- By 1875, anthracite coal from the Wyoming Valley and Luzerne County represented about half the anthracite produced in Pennsylvania. (from the sources)[1]
- The Lehigh Valley Railroad reached Wilkes-Barre by 1867 and connected with New York State rail systems in 1869. (from the sources)[1]
- Boyd’s city directory entries for the 1870s place residents and businesses on Main, Market, Washington, River, Canal, Coal, Railroad, Hanover, and other named streets. (from the sources)[3]
- The 1870s city directories list Boyd’s Wilkes-Barre directories for 1871–72, 1873–74, and 1875–76, showing a city large enough for regular commercial directories. (from the sources)[2]
- The 1871–72 Boyd directory lists Christopher Nolan and Hugh Nolan as miners living near Mead and Market streets. (from the sources)[3]
- The 1871–72 Boyd directory lists Henry Kropp as a fireman boarding on Canal near Jackson. (from the sources)[3]
- The 1871–72 and 1873–74 Boyd directory entries list John H. Kridler or Kreidler as a moulder boarding near Hanover and River. (from the sources)[3]
- The 1875–76 Boyd directory lists Anthony Koch as a laborer living at No. 4 Diamond Shaft. (from the sources)[3]
- In 1873, Wilkes-Barre’s Record of the Times was a Republican weekly, four pages, established in 1853, with an annual subscription of two dollars. (from the sources)[5]
- In 1873, Wilkes-Barre’s Demokratische Wächter was a German-language Democratic weekly with an estimated circulation of 1,440. (from the sources)[5]
- St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception served Luzerne County’s oldest Roman Catholic parish, founded in 1842, and its present church was built in 1870–1872. (from the sources)[7]
- Wilkes-Barre bought its first steam fire engine, an Amoskeag named Mechanic, in 1870. (from the sources)[6]
- As across the anthracite counties, mine work in the 1870s was shaped by wage cuts, stoppages, company power, and union collapse after the Panic of 1873. (from the sources)[10]
- A 1875 anthracite wage scale cited for Luzerne County gave contract miners 87 cents per mine car when coal sold at five dollars a ton at tidewater, with miners at $12.60 a week and laborers at $10.80. (inferred)[9]
- The Molly Maguires controversy was current in the coal region, and Pennsylvania State Archives notes eight assassinations credited to them between 1874 and 1875 after labor-union decline. (from the sources)[11]
- On June 21, 1877, Andrew Lenahan was hanged at the Luzerne County Jail on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre in a Molly Maguires-related case. (from the sources)[12]
- The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 spread through Pennsylvania, and nearby Scranton was placed under martial law after deadly clashes. (from the sources)[8]
- No detailed online description found in this search gives ordinary Wilkes-Barre house interiors, rent levels, or room arrangements specifically for the 1870s. (not known)
- No local online source opened here gives a full school attendance rate for Wilkes-Barre children in the 1870s. (not known)

## Sources

1. History of Luzerne County. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. https://www.luzernecounty.org/422/History-of-Luzerne-County
2. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, City Directories. LDS Genealogy. https://mail.ldsgenealogy.com/PA/Wilkes-Barre-City-Directories.htm
3. Boyd’s Wilkes-Barre City Directory, 1871–1876 extracts. Luzerne County PAGenWeb. https://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/towns/1871city.htm
4. History and Directory of Newton and Ransom Townships, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/historydirectory00step/historydirectory00step_bw.pdf
5. Geo. P. Rowell and Co.’s American Newspaper Directory, 1873. Geo. P. Rowell and Co., 1873. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/gdc/scd0002/0012/00123363747/00123363747.pdf
6. History. City of Wilkes-Barre. https://www.wilkes-barre.city/339/History
7. St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception. SAH Archipedia. https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-LU22
8. Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877
9. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. PolishRoots. https://www.polishroots.org/Research/History/luzerne_penn?PageId=232
10. Collective Bargaining in the Anthracite Coal Industry. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics / FRASER, 1916. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/collective-bargaining-anthracite-coal-industry-3838/fulltext
11. Molly Maguires. Pennsylvania State Archives. https://www.pa.gov/agencies/phmc/pa-state-archives/research-online/research-guides/molly-maguires
12. Justice By Hanging In 1800s. Times Leader Archive, 2007. https://archive.timesleader.com/article/1137631/justice-by-hanging-in-1800s

## The same place in other decades

- [Wilkes-Barré in the 1790s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1790s/md)
- [Wyoming Valley, Luzerne County in the 1820s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-valley-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1820s/md)
- [Kingston in the 1830s](https://yorehistory.com/place/kingston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1830s/md)
- [Wilkes-Barre in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1880s/md)
- [Wilkes-Barre in the 1900s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1900s/md)
- [Wilkes-Barre in the 1920s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1920s/md)
- [Wilkes-Barre in the 1950s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1950s/md)
- [Wilkes-Barre in the 1980s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1980s/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) (8 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) (11 km)
- [Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/pittston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1880s/md) (12 km)
- [White Haven, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s](https://yorehistory.com/place/white-haven-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1860s/md) (22 km)
- [Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, Pennsylvania in the 1840s](https://yorehistory.com/place/mauch-chunk-carbon-county-pennsylvania/1840s/md) (43 km)
- [Erwinna, Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s](https://yorehistory.com/place/erwinna-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1860s/md) (107 km)
- [Mount Pleasant, Alexandria Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey in the 1840s](https://yorehistory.com/place/mount-pleasant-hunterdon-county-new-jersey/1840s/md) (111 km)
- [Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/bucks-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (120 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, "Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s", https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s