Wyoming, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1820s

Work

Mills and hand trades

The working core is Abram’s Creek: a gristmill¹, a woolen factory¹, and small shops. By 1820 the place has a blacksmith¹, a cabinet-maker¹, a merchant in the old storehouse¹, and a doctor nearby.

Home & table

A partly cleared hamlet

This is not yet a built-up borough; the flat between Shoemaker’s Mills and Wyoming remains dense wilderness as late as 1830¹. Older buildings cluster around Carpenter’s improvements, including a house and the west wing of the later Pollock house¹.

Who lived here

Yankee claims, Pennsylvania county

The valley’s older settlement politics still matter because Pennsylvania had compromised Connecticut-family land titles in 1799⁴. The 1820s community stands in a county growing from 20,027 people in 1820 to 27,379 in 1830².

Law & power

County rule from Wilkes-Barre

New Troy is not a borough in the 1820s; county authority belongs to Luzerne County, created in 1786 after the Connecticut-Pennsylvania conflicts⁴. The county seat is Wilkes-Barre, reached by the old road between Wilkes-Barre and Pittston¹.

Roads & news

Road, river, wagons

The main line of movement is the old Wilkes-Barre-to-Pittston road¹. Wider travel is constrained by geography: Luzerne is rural, mountainous, and hard to enter or leave³, while the Susquehanna is not an easy highway.

In the air

Coal before its boom

People here live after Judge Fell’s 1808 anthracite-burning grate^3,4 but before the canal that makes the northern coal field practical for export. Coal is present in the valley’s future more than in daily transport until the North Branch Canal opens in stages from 1830 to 1834^3,4.

Faith

Church records are missing

The sources opened here do not identify an 1820s church building in the immediate settlement. Schooling is easier to see: a woman taught in an old schoolhouse there in 1802 or 1803¹.

Money

Costs are not preserved

The opened sources show occupations and stores but not local prices for food, rent, tools, or wages. Trade likely runs through the mill, storehouse, and road, but no local account book has been opened here.

Year by year

1. 1820John Jones arrived to work as a blacksmith at the settlement. here¹
2. 1820Thomas J. Halsey, M.D., settled in the vicinity and practiced medicine for several years. here¹
3. 1820Luzerne County counted 20,027 people after Bradford and Susquehanna counties had been separated from it. nearby²
4. 1825The Erie Canal opened in New York, changing talk about canals, markets, and inland transport across the northern states. the country
5. 1826Thomas Borbridge took down the grist and saw mills at Toby’s Creek in nearby Kingston. nearby
6. 1828Andrew Jackson was elected president, a national political turning point that reached even rural Pennsylvania voters and newspaper readers. the country
7. 1829The main part of the later hotel at Carpenter’s old place was built by Allenbach. here¹
8. 1830The flat between Shoemaker’s Mills and Wyoming was still remembered as dense wilderness. here¹

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• The road through the later borough was the old Wilkes-Barre-to-Pittston road, later called the Wyoming road and Wyoming Avenue. from the sources¹
• Benjamin Carpenter settled on Abram’s Creek in 1780 or 1781 and built a gristmill at the lower end of the gorge where the creek breaks through the Kingston mountains. from the sources¹
• Carpenter also built a house still remembered by the 1893 county history and built the west wing of what later became the Pollock house. from the sources¹
• The main part of the later hotel at Carpenter’s old place was built in 1829 by a man named Allenbach. from the sources¹
• The settlement around modern Wyoming was known for years as New Troy, and the mill locality was also known as Shoemaker’s Mills, Carpenter’s Mills, or Carpenter Town. from the sources¹
• A woolen factory stood at Carpenter’s place before later passing through the Anibal and Shoemaker families. from the sources¹
• John Jones came to the place in 1820 and worked as a blacksmith. from the sources¹
• Thomas J. Halsey, M.D., settled in the vicinity in 1820 and practiced medicine there for several years. from the sources¹
• John Gardner, the pioneer cabinet-maker at Carpenter Town, was located there as early as 1820. from the sources¹
• The old storehouse was occupied as early as 1820 by Charles Tuttle, one of the early merchants. from the sources¹
• As late as 1830 the flat between Shoemaker’s Mills and Wyoming was described as a dense wilderness. from the sources¹
• A school was taught in 1802 or 1803 by Mrs. Gordon in an old schoolhouse near the later corner of Laycock’s Wyoming House. from the sources¹
• Luzerne County had 20,027 people in 1820 and 27,379 in 1830, after Bradford and Susquehanna counties had been separated from it. from the sources²
• The Wyoming Valley was described in 1843 as a long, narrow valley lying between mountain chains and noted for agricultural and mineral wealth. from the sources²
• County history describes early Luzerne as rural, mountainous, and hard to enter or leave, with the Susquehanna River a treacherous waterway. from the sources³
• In 1808 Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre demonstrated an iron grate that could maintain an anthracite coal fire, but the northern coal field was not made practical for export until the North Branch Canal opened in stages from 1830 to 1834. from the sources^3,4
• Luzerne County was created in 1786, and a 1799 Pennsylvania statute compromised land titles claimed by Connecticut families after the Yankee-Pennamite conflicts. from the sources⁴
• By 1843, work to erect a monument over the dead of the 1778 Wyoming battle had begun but the structure remained unfinished. from the sources²
• No online source opened here gives a house-by-house description of New Troy or Carpenter Town in the 1820s. not known
• No local price list for food, rent, tools, or wages in 1820s New Troy was found in the sources opened here. not known
• No opened source names an 1820s church building in the immediate settlement that became Wyoming borough. not known

Sources

1. History of Wyoming Borough. PAGenWeb, excerpting H. C. Bradsby’s History of Luzerne County, 1893
2. 1843 Luzerne History. Genealogy Trails, 1843
3. History of Luzerne County. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
4. Luzerne County Incorporation Dates for Municipalities. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Wyoming in other decades

Nearby, about the same time