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

> A fast-growing anthracite county where river towns, mines, railroads, churches, newspapers, and courts crowded the Wyoming Valley.

- Place: Wyoming or Wilkes-Barre area, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (41.173, -75.976)
- Years: 1870 to 1879
- Known then as: Luzerne County
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-or-wilkes-barre-area-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Wyoming%20or%20Wilkes-Barre%20area%2C%20Luzerne%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20United%20States&at=41.1730,-75.9760&year=1875

## Looking around

Stand in the Wyoming Valley and the scale is county-wide, not one village: the valley is three to six miles wide[1] and runs between mountain ranges along the North Branch of the Susquehanna[1]. In Wilkes-Barre, the county seat, the river is crossed by a handsome bridge[2], and the city is lighted with gas[2] and supplied by water from nearby streams. Canal traffic still matters because the North Branch division of the Pennsylvania canal[2] passes through, but railroads also connect the city with New York, Philadelphia, and the west. Around the towns, anthracite deposits[2] set the rhythm. In 1875, county coal was estimated at 12,000,000 tons[2], employing upwards of 30,000 men and boys[3]. The public world is visible too: a new county prison[3] stands completed, and Wilkes-Barre has 23 churches[3], schools, banks, newspapers, and manufactories.

## Work: Coal set the clock

The county's visible economy was anthracite: in 1875, an estimated 12,000,000 tons of coal[3] came out of Luzerne County. That work employed upwards of 30,000 men and boys[3], while Wilkes-Barre also had shops making mining engines and machinery[2].

## Faith: Many churches, many calendars

Wilkes-Barre counted 23 churches[2] across Baptist, Congregational, Episcopal, Jewish, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic communities. The religious week was therefore not one calendar but several.

## Law & power: Courts and a new city

Government was close at hand because Wilkes-Barre was the county seat[2]. The new county prison[3] opened in 1870, and after incorporation in 1871 the city had I. M. Kirkendall[3] as its first mayor.

## What people feared: River, ice, and mines

The Susquehanna could turn violent: a spring ice freshet[3] in 1875 damaged both riverbanks and carried away three Pittston bridges. Underground and around the breakers, mine accidents were common enough for state registers to track cause, county, fatality, nationality, job, marital status, and children[7].

## Home & table: Schools and missing houses

Wilkes-Barre had three graded public schools[2], a high school, a female seminary, a colored school, and select schools. But for ordinary dwellings, the record is thinner: no online source opened here gives a street-by-street description for these years.

## Money: Banks and wage envelopes

Coal wages mattered on a county scale: mine workers and boys together were said to receive between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000 per month[3]. Wilkes-Barre also had four national banks[2] and three savings banks.

## Who lived here: A growing valley population

The county's population grew dramatically with anthracite, increasing by more than 70,000 people from 1860 to 1870. In the 1870 census, Wilkes-Barre borough had 10,174 people[4] and the township another 7,090.

## Roads & news: Rail, canal, paper, steamboat

News and strangers came by three railroads[2], by canal, by bridge, and by river craft such as the Hendrick B. Wright[3] and Owego. Wilkes-Barre readers had one daily and four weekly newspapers[2], including two German weeklies.

## Year by year

- **1870** (here): The new Luzerne County prison was completed at a reported cost of $300,000, and its first prisoners entered on August 19.[3]
- **1871** (here): Wilkes-Barre became a city and Wilkes-Barre township was annexed into the city limits.[2][5]
- **1873** (the country): The Panic of 1873 began a national depression that would have pressed on anthracite wages, banks, railroad finance, and household credit.
- **1874** (here): The steamboat Hendrick B. Wright was built to run between Wilkes-Barre and Nanticoke.[3]
- **1875** (nearby): A spring ice freshet on the Susquehanna damaged land and carried away three bridges at Pittston.[3]
- **1876** (the country): The United States Centennial Exposition opened in Philadelphia, a major national event within rail reach and newspaper talk of Luzerne County.
- **1877** (the country): The Great Railroad Strike spread across the United States, making railroad labor, troops, and industrial unrest national news in a rail-connected coal county.

## What the sources say

- Because the requested location is known only closely as Luzerne County, this description treats the Wyoming or Wilkes-Barre area at county and valley scale rather than as a single street or household. (from the sources)[1]
- A county history describes the Wyoming Valley as flat, fertile land along the North Branch of the Susquehanna, three to six miles wide and about twenty-five miles long between two mountain ranges. (from the sources)[1]
- Wilkes-Barre was the county seat and stood on the east bank of the North Branch of the Susquehanna River, about 100 miles north by west of Philadelphia. (from the sources)[2]
- A contemporary encyclopedia described Wilkes-Barre as crossed by a handsome bridge, lighted with gas, and supplied with water from adjacent streams. (from the sources)[2]
- In the 1870s the North Branch division of the Pennsylvania canal passed through Wilkes-Barre. (from the sources)[2]
- Wilkes-Barre communicated with New York, Philadelphia, and the West by the Lehigh and Susquehanna, Lehigh Valley, and Lackawanna and Bloomsburg railroads. (from the sources)[2]
- The same encyclopedia said Wilkes-Barre owed its prosperity to immense anthracite deposits nearby. (from the sources)[2]
- A 1876 Luzerne County chronology estimated that 12,000,000 tons of coal were mined in the county in 1875, more than half of the anthracite region's product. (from the sources)[3]
- The 1876 chronology estimated that mining in and around Luzerne County's mines employed upwards of 30,000 men and boys. (from the sources)[3]
- The same estimate put miners' and mine boys' wages together at between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000 per month. (from the sources)[3]
- The new county prison was completed in 1870 at a reported cost of $300,000, and its first prisoners entered on August 19. (from the sources)[3]
- Wilkes-Barre borough had 10,174 people in the 1870 census, while Wilkes-Barre township had 7,090. (from the sources)[4]
- Wilkes-Barre became a city in 1871, and Wilkes-Barre township was annexed into the city limits. (from the sources)[2][5]
- Wilkes-Barre's first mayor after city incorporation was I. M. Kirkendall. (from the sources)[3]
- In the 1870s Wilkes-Barre had manufactories making cars, locomotives, mining engines and machinery, foundry products, carriages, chairs, miners' tools, organs, beer, rope, pottery, and railroad tools. (from the sources)[2]
- Wilkes-Barre had four national banks with aggregate capital of $1,200,000 and three savings banks with $850,000 capital. (from the sources)[2]
- Wilkes-Barre's principal charitable institutions in the period were the city hospital and the home for friendless children. (from the sources)[2]
- Wilkes-Barre had three graded public schools, a female seminary, a colored school, a high school, and several select schools. (from the sources)[2]
- A contemporary encyclopedia counted 23 Wilkes-Barre churches: Baptist, Congregational, Episcopal, Jewish, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic. (from the sources)[2]
- Wilkes-Barre had one daily and four weekly newspapers, two of the weeklies in German. (from the sources)[2]
- An 1873 newspaper directory listed the weekly Luzerne Union of Wilkes-Barre as Democratic, four pages, $2.50 per year, established in 1852, and with circulation of 1,500. (from the sources)[6]
- A 1875 spring ice freshet on the Susquehanna damaged land on both sides of the river and carried away three bridges at Pittston. (from the sources)[3]
- In 1874 the steamboat Hendrick B. Wright was built to ply between Wilkes-Barre and Nanticoke, and in 1875 the side-wheel steamboat Owego arrived to run between Pittston, Wilkes-Barre, Plymouth, and Nanticoke. (from the sources)[3]
- Pennsylvania State Archives mine accident registers cover anthracite and bituminous mining accidents by mine, operator, date, cause, county, fatality, place underground or aboveground, nationality, job, marital status, and children. (from the sources)[7]
- No online source opened here gives a street-by-street description of ordinary housing in Wyoming village or Wilkes-Barre-area patch settlements during the 1870s. (not known)
- As across the anthracite counties, mine work was dangerous because roofs, gas, blasting, cars, shafts, and machinery could kill or maim workers. (inferred)

## Sources

1. History of Luzerne County. Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. https://www.luzernecounty.org/422/History-of-Luzerne-County
2. Wilkesbarre. The American Cyclopaedia, 1879. https://chestofbooks.com.stason.org/reference/American-Cyclopaedia-12/Wilkesbarre.html
3. The Centennial Chronology of Luzerne County [Pa.] and Its Coal Fields, 1876. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/The_centennial_chronology_of_Luzerne_county_%28Pa.%29_and_its_coal_fields_%28IA_centennialchrono00whyt%29.pdf
4. 1870 Census: Vol. I, Statistics of the Population of the United States, Table III. United States Census Office, 1872. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1870/population/1870a-24.pdf
5. Luzerne County Municipal Incorporation Dates. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. https://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/incorporationdatesformunicipalities/pdfs/luzerne.pdf?catid=40
6. Geo. P. Rowell and Co.’s American Newspaper Directory, 1873. Geo. P. Rowell & Co., 1873. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/gdc/scd0002/0012/00123363747/00123363747.pdf
7. Anthracite Accident Registers Main Interface. Pennsylvania State Archives. https://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r45_MineAccidentRegisters/r45-14AccidentRegistersInterface.htm

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wilkes-barre-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (11 km)
- [Wyoming Borough, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1840s](https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-borough-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1840s/md) (19 km)
- [White Haven, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1860s](https://yorehistory.com/place/white-haven-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1860s/md) (21 km)
- [Pittston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1880s](https://yorehistory.com/place/pittston-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1880s/md) (23 km)
- [Mauch Chunk, Carbon County, Pennsylvania in the 1840s](https://yorehistory.com/place/mauch-chunk-carbon-county-pennsylvania/1840s/md) (39 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) (112 km)
- [Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s](https://yorehistory.com/place/bucks-county-pennsylvania/1870s/md) (118 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, "Wyoming or Wilkes-Barre area, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in the 1870s", https://yorehistory.com/place/wyoming-or-wilkes-barre-area-luzerne-county-pennsylvania/1870s