Plymouth Pennsylvania Warrant Search

Plymouth, Pennsylvania Plymouth is an incorporated borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States 4 miles (6 km) west of Wilkes Barre, on the Susquehanna River. Prior to its incorporation in 1866, it was part of Plymouth Township, established in 1769 by the Susquehanna Company and claimed by Connecticut based on the charter of that colony. The Pennamite-Yankee War was fought in the environs. It is situated in the rich hard coal fields of Pennsylvania. Coal was first shipped in 1807. In the past, the chief products of its industrial establishments included mining drilling machines, miners' squibs, silk hosiery, and lumber products. In 1890, Plymouth's population was 9,340; in 1900, it was 13,649. In 1910, 16,996 lived here; in 1920, 16,500; and in 1940, 15,507. The population was 6,507 at the 2000 census. Geography Plymouth is located at 41°14′31″N 75°56′53″W / 41.241859°N 75.947997°W / 41.241859; -75.947997.According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.1 km2), of which, 1.1 square miles (2.8 km2) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km2) of it (8.40%) is water. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 6,507 people, 2,794 households, and 1,673 families residing in the borough. The population density was 5,924.2 people per square mile (2,284.0/km2). There were 3,260 housing units at an average density of 2,968.0 per square mile (1,144.3/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 98.43% White, 0.75% African American, 0.15% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.22% from other races, and 0.34% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.80% of the population.There were 2,794 households out of which 26.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.6% were married couples living together, 14.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.1% were non-families. 35.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 3.02.In the borough the population was spread out with 23.2% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 26.9% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, and 20.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 86.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.2 males.The median income for a household in the borough was $27,379, and the median income for a family was $36,060. Males had a median income of $26,111 versus $20,429 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $14,207. About 10.8% of families and 15.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.2% of those under age 18 and 13.4% of those age 65 or over. The Susquehanna Company and Early Settlement The origins of Plymouth (also known as Shawnee and Shawneetown) date back to the creation of the Susquehanna Company in Windham, Connecticut, on June 18, 1753, formed to promote the settlement of certain lands along the Susquehanna in what is now northeastern Pennsylvania. This place, called 'Wyoming,' fell within the bounds of the charter issued in 1662 by Charles II to the Connecticut Colony. It also fell within the bounds of the charter issued by the same king in 1681 to William Penn, thus setting the stage for a conflict between the two colonies.In 1754 at Albany the Susquehanna Company purchased a deed to a tract of land along the Susquehanna River from the Iroquois (Six Nations) who had long held the land by right of conquest. This purchase met with the disapproval of the Pennsylvania proprietors, and with many in Connecticut, but the Susquehanna Company persevered. In 1769, John Durkee and a group of 240 Connecticut settlers created five townships, and surveyed their bounds, naming them Wilkesbarre (later renamed Wilkes-Barre), Nanticoke (later renamed Hanover), Pittstown (later renamed Pittston), Forty (later renamed Kingston) and Plymouth. During the summer of 1770, the settlers began to survey and sub-divide the five townships into lots, and settlement began in earnest in 1772.Armed men loyal to Pennsylvania twice attempted to evict the Connecticut settlers in what are known as the Pennamite-Yankee Wars. Following the American Revolution, and ratification of the Articles of Confederation in 1781, Pennsylvania sued to resolve the conflict with Connecticut. A trial was held at Trenton in 1782 and the conflict resolved in favor of Pennsylvania which was granted full jurisdiction over the Susquehanna Company's lands.Years of uncertainty ensued for the Connecticut settlers in Wyoming Valley, until in April 1799, Pennsylvania passed the Compromise Act allowing settlers (in those townships which had been created and settled before the Trenton Decree of 1782) to prove their chain of title and pay a fee in return for certification of their title. Thus, Plymouth landowners who could establish their chain of title retained ownership of their land, but came under the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania. The process took years, but by 1811 most land claims had been resolved. Today, all ownership of land in Plymouth can be traced back to these certified titles. The Setting Plymouth sits on the west side of the Wyoming Valley, wedged between the Susquehanna River and the Shawnee Mountain range. Just below the mountain are seven hills that surround the town like the hills of Rome, and form a natural amphitheater which separates the town from the rest of the valley. The hills are named Avondale Hill, Curry Hill, Turkey Hill (or Cemetery Hill), Levi's Hill, Welsh Hill, Pierce Hill (or Shonk Hill) and Ross Hill. Eight creeks run between the hills down to the river. These are: Harvey's Creek, Jersey Creek, Coal Creek (formerly Mill Creek or Ransom Creek), Wadham's Creek (formerly Whittlesey's Creek), Brown's Creek (formerly Nesbitt's Creek or Pine Swamp Creek), Shupp's Creek and Toby's Creek. Below the hills, the flat lands are formed in the shape of a frying pan, the pan being the Shawnee flats, once the center of the town's agricultural activities, and the handle being a spit of narrow land extending east from the flats, where the center of town is located. The Smith Coal Mines At the beginning of the 19th century, Plymouth's primary industry was agriculture. However, vast anthracite coal beds lay below the surface at various depths. At a few locations these beds were visible in the form of outcrops, and one such location was a gorge created by Ransom Creek (now Coal Creek) located about a mile upstream from the Susquehanna River. Coal could be seen (and accessed) on both the east side (Turkey Hill) and the west side (Curry Hill) of the creek.Attracted by this outcrop, Abijah Smith came to Plymouth about 1806 from Derby, Connecticut intending to mine, ship and sell coal. In the fall of 1807, Smith floated an ark down the Susquehanna River loaded with about fifty tons of anthracite coal, and shipped it to Columbia, in Lancaster County. The significance of Smith's shipment went unnoticed until 1873, when Hendrick B. Wright, in his Historical Sketches of Plymouth, wrote,'Anthracite coal had been used before 1807, in this valley and elsewhere, in small quantities in furnaces, with an air blast; but the traffic in coal as an article of general use, was commenced by Abijah Smith, of Plymouth.'By 1808, Abijah Smith secured a patent for coal lands on the east side of the creek. In 1811, Smith's brother, John Smith, began to mine coal on the west side of creek. This second mine (often called, erroneously, Plymouth's first coal mine) achieved national fame as a kind of tourist attraction. In 1829, a writer from Wilkes-Barre posted a notice in the Connecticut Mirror, writing, 'among the curiosities of our county (and we have a few) are Smith's Coal Mines, situated in Plymouth township in this county ... it sends a sudden twinge through a fellow, say, to think himself walking under a mountain fifty feet through, with only here and there a pillar to support it ... those who feel desirous of knowing more about this matter, must do as many others have done - go and see for themselves.'Beginning with the fifty tons of coal shipped by Abijah Smith in 1807, Plymouth's and Wyoming Valley's coal industry grew steadily. In 1830, the Baltimore Patriot reported that '... a greater quantity of Anthracite Coal has been sent down the Susquehanna this Spring than in any former season. The Baltimore Company have sent three thousand tons, and from other mines about seven thousand tons were dispatched, making an aggregate of ten thousand tons.' The North Branch Canal As late as the 1840s, whenever high water allowed, coal from Wyoming Valley's coal mines was shipped down the Susquehanna River on barges. But by the end of 1830, canal boats began to replace arks as the preferred method of transporting coal and other goods to market. In 1826, the Pennsylvania Board of Canal Commissioners engaged John Bennett to survey the route of a new canal, to be called the North Branch Canal, to run alongside the north branch of the Susquehanna River from Northumberland to the New York border. In early 1827, Bennet reported that the canal was feasible, and in 1828, the state legislature authorized funds for construction. Charles T. Whippo, who had worked on the construction of the Erie Canal, was engaged to survey the route and supervise construction. The southern portion of the canal, as built, ran for 55-1/2 miles along the west side of the river, from Northumberland to West Nanticoke where a dam at Nanticoke Falls was built to divert water from the river into the canal. The work was generally complete by the fall of 1830. The first load of coal shipped from Wyoming Valley reached Berwick in October.The canal was a boon to Plymouth's coal operators, who in 1830 included John Smith, Freeman Thomas, Henderson Gaylord and Thomas Borbidge, and encouraged others to open mines, such as Jameson Harvey and Jacob Gould. Smith's teamsters led teams of horses deep into his mine, turned the team, loaded the wagon and then drove the team to the river bank to load the coal into canal boats. Gaylord, whose mine was at the base of Welsh Hill, improved on this method and built a gravity railroad that ran along what is now Walnut Street, down what is now Gaylord Avenue, to his wharf on the river. A similar road, called the Swetland Railroad, was built from mines in Poke Hollow down a route which later became Washington Avenue, across Bull Run to another wharf on the river. Freeman Thomas built a railroad from his Grand Tunnel mine to a chutehouse along the river near the entrance to the canal.The early coal mines in Plymouth supported an ancillary industry, boat building. The arks used to transport goods on the river were built in a basin where Wadham's Creek entered the river. After the canal was built, the arks began to be replaced by flat-bottom canal boats, built in the same basin with a distinctive design known as 'Shawnee boats.' Many of the town's young men became boatmen, and were well known along the length of the canal for their distinctive call, 'Shawnee against the World.' George Bedford, writing in 1917, evoked the antebellum charm and character of Plymouth in the 1840s:There was at that time no evidence in sight of coal mining. At several places on the main street there were small clusters of houses, but all else was highly cultivated farm land, extending from well up on the slope of the mountain to the river’s shore ... Taking it all in, there was no more beautiful part of the Wyoming Valley. In the twilight of the summer evenings we were wont to sit at the front of the old home and hear the pleasant and oft recurring sound of the boatman’s horn miles away, wafted across the river and giving signal to the keeper of the outlet lock [at West Nanticoke] to make ready for the passage of boats in and out of the canal. Alas, all is changed! Towering coal breakers and huge culm banks are marked features of the landscape. The canal and its locks, its boats and its boatmen, together with the boatman’s horn, have long since passed away. The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad was incorporated by a charter from the Pennsylvania state legislature on April 5, 1852. The Board of Directors of the railroad included two Plymouth native-sons, Henderson Gaylord and William C. Reynolds. The railroad reached Plymouth by 1857 and by June 1860, all 80 miles (130 km) of the railroad, from Scranton to Northumberland, were complete. In 1873, the line came under the control of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, which was backed by powerful New York financiers, and which operated several collieries along its length, including the Avondale Colliery in Plymouth.The completion of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad connected Plymouth to the nation's growing transportation grid, making it easier and cheaper for mine operators to ship large quantities of coal to distant markets. The railroad's arrival led to the rapid transformation of the small agricultural village into a major supplier of anthracite coal. Small mining operations founded by local residents gave way to large, highly capitalized collieries, capable of reaching coal veins deep underground. These large operations attracted foreign labor, first from the British Isles, and then from Eastern Europe.Industrial growth brought the town prosperity, which in turn brought amenities like a central water system, gas and electrical systems, paved streets, sewers, elaborate school buildings and a trolley system connecting Plymouth's residents to other towns and cities in Wyoming Valley. On the other hand, industrial growth had disadvantages, including strife between labor and management, and wild swings in the economic cycle. The jobs provided by the coal industry came with the constant risk of death or injury and, for those who survived, chronic health problems. The annals of Plymouth's history include a long list of mining fatalities as well as one of the nation's greatest mine disasters. The First National Bank The First National Bank of Plymouth was organized on December 10, 1864, under the National Banking Law of 1863, which authorized banks to handle and distribute national currency. The bank opened its doors for business on February 22, 1865, and was granted Federal Certificate No. 707 in September 1865. The enterprise was started with capital of $100,000.The bank’s earliest directors included the heads of Plymouth’s old Yankee families. Smith, Gaylord, Turner, Reynolds, Davenport and Harvey were represented. Notably absent was the Wadhams family. The directors also included a smattering of more recently arrived men, such as the Philadelphia-born William L. Lance, and the Scotsman, Charles Hutchison. But whatever their family background, all of the directors were involved in the coal business. The bank was formed at a time of transition for the coal industry, when the town’s independent mine operators (most of whom were directors of the bank) were handing over the operation of their mines, either by lease or by sale, to a few large corporations — by 1880, the Kingston Coal Co., the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Co. would control most of Plymouth's coal mines.Initially, the First National Bank’s directors met in the MacFarlane Building (which later became the Stegmaier brewery, which in turn became the Golden Quality ice cream store and factory). In July 1865, the bank moved across the street to the corner of Girard and Main Streets and for the next fifty years operated on that site out of a simple Italianate building which it shared with a separate residence. Incorporation of Plymouth Borough What is now Plymouth Borough was originally a part of Plymouth Township. Plymouth Borough was incorporated in April 1866. According to Samuel L. French, author of Reminiscences of Plymouth, Luzerne County, Penna., '...the present Borough of Plymouth was erected by decree of Honorable John N. Conyngham, President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Luzerne County, on the 23rd day of April, A. D., 1866, upon the recommendation of the Grand Jury...'The incorporators were: John B, Smith, Henderson Gaylord, Peter Shupp, Draper Smith, Josiah M. Eno, Daniel Gardiner, A. R. Matthews, William Jenkins, George P. Richards, S. M. Davenport, Edward Griffith, Lewis Boughton, A. F. Shupp, John J. Shonk, James McAlarney, J. P. Davenport, Eli Bittenbender, David McDonald, C. A. Kuschke, Andrew F. Levi, Querin Krothe, David Madden, John Dodson, Darius Gardiner, John Cobley, William L. Lance, Jr., J. E. Smith, R. N. Smith, John Dennis, David Levi, W. W. Lance, William W. Dietrick, James Hutchison, George Brown, Oliver Davenport, Samuel French, A. Gabriel, Theodore Renshaw, Edward G. Jones, J. L. Nesbitt, J. W. Weston, J. H. Waters, John E. Halleck, E. R. Wolfe, F. E. Spry, C. F. Derby, Anthony Duffy, D. Brown, A. G. Rickard, Thomas P. Macfarlane, William L. Lance, Lewis Gorham, John Jessop, A. S. Davenport, A. Hutchison, Brice S. Blair, John S. Geddis and C. H. Wilson, M.D.'The boundaries of the new borough extended from the line of the No. 11 Lance Coal Breaker on the east to Driscoll Street on the west, about a mile and a half; and from the river on the south to near the foot of the mountain on the north. When first created, the borough was divided into two wards, east and west, the dividing line being Academy Street. Later, these two wards were sub-divided into additional wards. After incorporation, the borough elections were held in the Old Academy where the township elections had previously been held. The first borough election was held in May 1866. Oliver Davenport was judge of the election, and John J. Shonk and Ira Davenport were inspectors. Elijah C. Wadhams was elected as the borough's first Burgess. Welsh, English, Scottish and Irish Immigration In the wake of the arrival of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad in 1857, a large number of immigrants came to Plymouth to work in the coal mines and, as the population grew, it became more diverse. According to the 1860 census, Plymouth Township had 2,393 residents. Of these, 75% were born in Pennsylvania. Among the other 25% a small number were foreign born: 246 in Ireland, 78 in Wales, 53 in England, 49 in Scotland and 37 in Germany.By the time of the 1870 census, the population had grown to 7,736, including 807 born in Ireland, 926 born in Wales and 713 born in England. In addition to these newcomers, there were 138 Scots, 52 Germans, 39 Canadians, 5 French and 1 Norwegian. Moreover, many of the 4,635 Pennsylvania-born residents were the children of these immigrants. By 1870, roughly 75% of the town’s population was either foreign-born, or the children of foreign-born parents.Along with these new immigrants and the rapid increase in the population, came an inevitable change in character of the town from a sleepy agrarian village to a rough and tumble mining town. In the mid-1870s, there were numerous crimes and atrocities (often labor related) attributed to Irish secret societies, collectively known as the Molly Maguires. A few of these incidents occurred in Plymouth, including shootings and anonymous death threats. As an example, on February 10, 1875 the Plymouth Weekly Star published a threatening letter, or “coffin notice,” which included the demand that the recipient leave town or else be killed:A gentleman in the employ of one of our prominent merchants has received the following letter: 'Plymouth, Feby 1, 1875, Mr. ____: youre Days is numbered in Plymouth we will guve you 24 hours to lave and if you don’t lave in that time dath will be youre dom. Leave leav you blackleg ____. No more from me at pres. M. MacGuire.Mr. Barthe, editor of the Star, wrote that “the letter is ornamented with a coffin, skull, cross-bone, pistol & dagger. A reward will be paid to any person introducing the writer of the above.” Samuel L. French, who was Burgess of Plymouth when this letter was published, mentioned the Molly Maguires in his history, Reminiscences of Plymouth, Pa., writing that “one of their number named Dunleavy was mysteriously shot one evening in a saloon on East Main Street, which incident had the effect of putting a quietus on the band in Plymouth.”In addition to quarrels between newly arrived immigrants and the established order, quarrels often arose among the immigrant groups themselves. These were sometimes personal in nature. The Philadelphia Inquirer, on February 25, 1881, reported one such incident between two mineworkers, one Welsh, the other Irish.'In a quarrel between James Kelly, a car runner, and A. D. Williams, a miner, at the Nottingham mine, Plymouth, today, the latter struck Kelly a terrible blow with a heavy piece of wood knocking him senseless. The wounded man was taken home and died in the afternoon. Williams was arrested. The quarrel arose out of the division of cars of which Kelly had charge.'The influx of immigrants from the British Isles led to the construction of several new buildings, including St. Vincent's church for the Roman Catholic congregation, St. Peter's for the Anglicans, the Presbyterian church for a largely Scots' congregation and several new churches for a variety of Welsh congregations. The Avondale Mine Disaster The Avondale Mine Disaster occurred on September 6, 1869, when 108 men and boys died at the Avondale Colliery, located just west of the Plymouth borough line. A fire in the mine shaft, ignited by a ventilating furnace, spread to the breaker which stood over the shaft. The breaker was destroyed by fire, trapping those working in the mine below. All were killed, as were two men who volunteered to enter the mine soon after the fire. One result of the disaster was the enactment in 1870 of a law regulating mining which required employment by the State of mine inspectors, the mapping of all mine works, the creation of two means of egress from every mine, provision for proper ventilation, reporting and investigation of all accidents and the establishment of rules of conduct for employees. 1873 Beers Map The Plymouth, Pa. Beers map is taken from an atlas of Luzerne county cities, towns and townships, prepared by D.G. Beers and published in Philadelphia in 1873. The Beers map provides detailed information about the town as it stood fifteen years after the railroad arrived, eight years after the end of the Civil War, and seven years after Plymouth Borough was created out of Plymouth Township.The map illustrates the division of the town into two wards, east and west of Academy Street. Labor Troubles A bank panic on September 18, 1873 led to a prolonged national depression, and by 1877 there were about three million unemployed, roughly 25 percent of the working population. These circumstances led to the outbreak known as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It was the first nationwide strike, one in which Plymouth played a small but interesting part.The strike began in June 1877 when the Pennsylvania Railroad cut wages by 10 percent. The following month it announced that all eastbound trains from Pittsburgh would be doubled in size without any increase in the size of crews. Railroad workers declared a strike, took control of switches and blocked the movement of trains. Meanwhile, on July 13, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages and on July 16 the Railroad’s firemen and brakemen refused to work. A sympathy strike broke out in Pittsburgh and troops were sent from Philadelphia. When the troops were confronted by strikers, they fired into the crowd, killing twenty and wounding twenty-nine. Workers broke into a gun factory and seized rifles and small arms and exchanged gunfire with the soldiers throughout the night. On July 22, Pennsylvania’s Governor ordered every militia regiment in the state to report for duty. Samuel L. French, Plymouth's Burgess at the time, recalled,'In July, 1877, almost immediately succeeding the peaceful enjoyments incident to the centennial celebration of our national independence, the country was startled at the outbreak of very serious rioting by the railroad employees of Pittsburgh. These outbreaks of lawlessness, like an epidemic of a contagious disease, rapidly spread over near the entire state. Railroad traffic was for a time interrupted, employees being assaulted and engines and cars demolished. Local authorities were utterly unable to cope with the situation.'A national strike was on all over the country. On July 25, a general strike was called in northeastern Pennsylvania on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (the line that ran through Plymouth). The mine workers employed by these railroads (many from Plymouth) struck as well. On August 2, three thousand state militia troops arrived in Wyoming Valley. Samuel L. French wrote,“The miners in the anthracite regions of Schuykill and Luzerne and Lackawanna counties were at the time on strike and soon became infected. A demon like spirit seemed to pervade the masses. In Scranton, Mayor McKune had been violently assaulted, and a posse of the leading citizens had fired upon and killed several of the rioters. A passenger train on the L&B R.R., arriving at Plymouth from Northumberland in the evening was stoned and the train obliged to remain on the siding at the depot. I was Burgess at the time and a committee of representative citizens reported to me, their fears of contemplated incendiarism against certain of the properties located here and connected with mining industries, and requested me to officially invoke protection from the State. I telegraphed the State authorities and soon thereafter a regiment of soldiers was in possession of the town.''...Brigadier General E. W. Matthews, a former school teacher in Plymouth, was in charge of the troops which invaded the town. In front of the engine of the train which carried the troops was placed a gun, and at Nanticoke several companies were disembarked, and as skirmishers, during the night, proceeded up the road, taking into custody every man caught out of doors. Near a hundred of these night prowlers were thus captured, quite a number in Plymouth, some of whom were carried to Scranton, there to give an account of their actions. The troops remained stationed here, and in the locality for several weeks, the staff officers using the stalled railroad cars for their headquarters.' Polish, Lithuanian and Slovakian Immigration By 1880, a new mix was added to the population of Plymouth with the arrival of immigrants from Eastern Europe. These were welcomed by the mining companies because they worked for low wages, and thus undercut the bargaining power of the increasingly organized Irish and Welsh miners. In the 1880 census, only 86 of Plymouth’s residents were born in Poland, 25 in Prussia, 9 in Hungary, 8 in Austria and 2 in Russia. Most likely they were all ethnically Slovakian, Lithuanian and Polish.In 1885, during Plymouth’s great typhoid epidemic, it was implied (incorrectly) in the press that the epidemic was caused by the new immigrants’ unsanitary living conditions. In fact, the disease was caused by contamination of the town’s water supply by the careless behavior of a typhoid-stricken dairy farmer living near the town's water system. Ironically, because some of the immigrants lived at the lower end of town (and therefore happened to live close to the source of the water supply), they suffered disproportionately from the tainted water. As they grew ill, their neighbors took notice and the plague was quickly attributed to them and their crowded quarters. Furthermore, the town fathers were blamed for allowing such lax conditions. In June 1885, a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote:'The situation at Plymouth is about the same as it has been for a week past. The Hungarian settlement in the lower part of the town is reported to be in a wretched condition. The inhabitants of this colony live huddled together in filth, and it has been made known that as many as twenty persons live — eating, sleeping and cooking — in one room. They refuse to make known to the Relief Committee the number of sick among them. Steps will be taken at once to compel them to live in a different way or to leave the town.'The new immigrants were unwilling (or perhaps unable) to cooperate with the Relief Committee: among the list of 1,153 victims treated at the make-shift hospital in the Central High School, prepared by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, no names of Eastern European derivation are listed.Like most immigrants, many of the new arrivals were poor and uneducated and, at first, spoke little or no English. They were referred to in the press as “foreigners” and during the early years of their arrival, were often made to feel unwelcome. Their function as strike-breakers added to their unpopularity. On February 26, 1890, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:'The Poles and Hungarians who live in such numbers in Plymouth and vicinity promise to be speedily cleared out. At different times before several hundred have been shipped away to fill the strikers place at Punxsutawney by the agents of the company who are circulating throughout this region and today 300 more were sent off in a special train. They left on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad at 11 o'clock, many of them accompanied by their wives and children and carrying a most miscellaneous collection of goods with them. Each man was supplied with a bottle of whiskey, a big paper of tobacco, and a ticket to Punxsutawney. Another batch is being raised and will leave Plymouth in a day or two.'While some of the Eastern European immigrants were transitory, many more came to Plymouth and stayed, eventually forming a large and important part of the population. By 1890, Plymouth boasted three Roman Catholic churches with Eastern European congregations, St. Mary's (Polish), St. Stephen's (Slovakian) and St. Casimir's (Lithuanian). By the 1920s, these three groups were said to represent 40% of the town's population. The First Central High School The first Central High School was built in 1884 by Samuel Livingston French and his Plymouth Planing Mill Co. The school saw its first graduating class in 1886, but was destroyed by fire in February 1905. According to the February 24, 1905 edition of the Wilkes-Barre Times:'A serious fire occurred at Plymouth this morning at 12:30, when the Plymouth Central high school was so badly gutted and damaged that it will have to be re-built. The building is located on Shawnee Avenue, only a short distance from the busiest section of that town, it being about 1,300 feet from the Pioneer and Wyoming Valley knitting mills and Shawnee box factory. The fire was discovered at 12:30 and an alarm was rung from Box 26 calling out the entire fire department which quickly responded, but the blaze had gained considerable headway and a sheet of flames could be seen issuing from the top of the building.''The origin is a mystery. The building is heated by steam supplied by the Parrish Coal Company. There was no fire in the building whatsoever ... Ambrose West’s handsome residence, against the building on the west side, and a double block owned and occupied by Daniel R. Davis, against the building on the east side, were in danger, but the firemen confined the blaze within the brick walls of the burning building.''The higher branches were taught in this building and a large class was to graduate this year. There were 400 pupils attending school there under the instructions of eight teachers. The building was used as a hospital in 1885 when the typhoid epidemic visited that town and scores of people died of the ma