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Wayne County - The Early Years

In August of 1749, Indians of the tribes of the Onondaga, Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Tuscorara, Seneca, Shawnee, Delaware and Mohican conveyed to the Proprietary Government for 500 pounds Sterling (approximately $2,500) a strip of land containing what is now ten eastern Pennsylvania counties, including Wayne.

Wayne County, itself, was created on March 21, 1798, from part of Northampton County and originally included Pike County. The County was named for Anthony Wayne, a Major-General in the Revolutionary War.

The area of the original county contained 1,492 square miles with a population of 2,562 in the year 1800.

Courts for Wayne County were first established at Milford, the modern-day seat of Pike County. However, this choice for the seat of government apparently agitated the sparse population since the courts were moved to Wilsonville, a small village along the Wallenpaupack Creek, the following year in 1799. This area is now the location of the PP&L dam on Lake Wallenpaupack.

 Wilsonville was to be the center of county government until suitable land could be located near the Dyberry Forks of the Lackawaxen River-the area of present-day Honesdale. Wilsonville proved unsatisfactory so the courts were again moved in 1802 back to Milford.

Meanwhile trustees accepted from Henry Drinker, a large land owner from Philadelphia, a tract of 999 acres within four miles of the Dyberry Forks to be laid out in town and outlots and conveyed to the Wayne County Commissioners lots for the purpose of erecting a courthouse, jail and offices for safe record-keeping. This area today is the Borough of Bethany, which became the seat of Wayne County in 1805.

Discontent among the people living along the Delaware River below Milford raged because of the long travel distance to Bethany. Pressure from the lower part of the county forced the Legislature in 1814 to set off this section as a new county to be called Pike, with the seat of government at Milford. The County Commissioners fixed Honesdale as the new county seat on May 4, 1841 and the government of Wayne County remains there today.

Coal, Rails, and Canals

Even as early as Wayne County settlers were clearing forests for homesteads and farms, cities to the east were experiencing shortages of wood and fuel. Coal, discovered over the mountains west of Wayne County, would relieve these shortages only if an economical means of transporting the coal to market could be found. The answer: a combined railroad and canal system. Work on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1828. 

In 1823, with the Erie Canal nearing completion, the State of New York approved the Delaware and Hudson Canal on a 108 mile waterway between Honesdale and the Hudson River terminus near present-day Kingston, New York. 

In the meantime, a railroad was constructed to haul the coal from the Carbondale area and Lackawanna Valley over the mountains, designed to descend by gravity over a series of inclined planes to Honesdale. Piles of coal were not uncommon in Honesdale as the coal was hauled there by the Delaware and Hudson's Gravity Railroad then transferred to the company's canal boats. 

Wayne County is known foremost as the birthplace of the American railroad. The first locomotive arriving in Honesdale was the Stourbridge Lion, manufactured in Stourbridge, England, with a painted lion on the front of the boiler. Delivered by canal, it made a short, yet historic trip between Honesdale and Seelyville, engineered by Horatio Allen. The heavy load of the locomotive proved too much for the wooden rails on which it traveled and eventually the 'Lion' was dismantled and used as a stationary engine. 

The Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad and Canal flourished until the end of the 19th Century, supplying
coal to the eastern cities for nearly seventy years.

Lake Wallenpaupack

In 1924, the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company began damning the Wallenpaupack Creek at Wilsonville to harness the waters power to generate electricity. The dam and resultant lake were completed in 1926 and the Wallenpaupack power plant at the end of a three-and-a-half mile long pipeline, was put into service. 

PP&L's decision to dam the creek meant more than sealing off one end of the valley and allowing it to fill with water. First the land was purchased from about 100 owners. Land values at that time were around $20 an acre Farms, barns, homes and other buildings were razed or moved. 

Trees were cut in the 5,700 acre lake bed and 17 miles of roads, along with telephone and telegraph poles were re-routed beyond the 52-mile shoreline. It was also necessary to relocate a cemetery.

Construction of the dam required the power of 2,700 men and took two years to complete at a cost of $1,026,000. Today, PP&L owns acreage around the lake to an elevation of 1,200 feet above sea level. Since the lake elevation is 1,190 feet above sea level at capacity, the power company still owns the extra 10 feet right near the shoreline. The power plant is operated today from a control center in Allentown, 100 miles away and provides extra power during periods of peak demand. 

When the lake was completed, four areas of company-owned land at various locations around the lake were set aside for public access and for camping. These are the Ledgedale, Ironwood Point, Wilsonville, and Caffrey recreation areas. Lake Wallenpaupack's value as an ideal recreation spot has been evident since its construction. Businesses have sprung up, grown, and prospered as the area around the lake has developed into a major recreation and tourist area of eastern Pennsylvania and nearby New York.