Plymouth, Pennsylvania, sits on the west side of Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley, wedged between the Susquehanna River and the Shawnee Mountain range. Just below the mountain are hills that surround the town and form a natural amphitheater that separates the town from the rest of the valley. 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. 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, and by the 1850s, coal mining had become the town's primary occupation.

Yankee era (1753–1856)

The Susquehanna Company and early settlement

The Ransom House, which once stood near the corner of Main St. and Coal St., was an example of New England domestic architecture brought to Plymouth by Connecticut settlers.

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, and in 1769, John Durkee and a group of 240 Connecticut settlers created five townships, surveying 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 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, New Jersey, 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 the Wyoming Valley, until April 1799, when Pennsylvania passed the Compromise Act allowing settlers (in those townships which had been created and settled before the Trenton Decree of 1782) to pay a fee in return for certification of their ownership. 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 1864 Schooley Map illustrates the village of Plymouth two years before it was incorporated as a borough.

Large anthracite coal beds lay below Plymouth's surface at various depths. These beds were visible at a few locations 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, and bought land on the east side of the creek, 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."

In 1811, Smith's brother, John Smith, began to mine coal on the west side of the creek. This second mine (often erroneously called 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."^[1]

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."^[2]

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 wooden arks. 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 began to survey the route of a new canal, to be called the North Branch Canal, to run alongside the north branch (the main branch) of the Susquehanna River from Northumberland to the New York border. The work was generally complete by the fall of 1830, and the first load of coal shipped from Wyoming Valley reached Berwick in October.^[3]

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. John 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.^[4] A similar branch, 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.

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 Wadhams Creek entered the river. After the canal was built, the arks began to be replaced by flat-bottomed 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."^[4]

Years of industrial growth (1857–1900)

The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad

The Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad reached Plymouth in 1857, and by June 1860, all 80 miles (130 km) of the railroad, from Scranton to Northumberland, were complete.^[5] 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 railroad's arrival led to the rapid transformation of Plymouth into a major supplier of anthracite coal. Small mining operations 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. 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.

Incorporation of Plymouth Borough

Elijah C. Wadhams was elected Plymouth Borough's first burgess (mayor) in 1866.

What is now Plymouth Borough was originally part of Plymouth Township. Plymouth Borough was incorporated in April 1866. 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, and Elijah C. Wadhams was elected as the borough's first burgess.^[4]

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. 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.

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 Scottish congregation and several new churches for a variety of Welsh congregations.

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.^[6]

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. 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."^[4]

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 the Wyoming Valley. Samuel L. French wrote,

"The miners in the anthracite regions of Schuylkill 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."^[4]

"...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."^[4]

A View of Main Street in Plymouth about 1877.

Polish, Lithuanian, and Slovak 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 Slovak, Lithuanian, and Polish. 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 (Slovak), 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

Plymouth's Central High School was built in 1884 and was destroyed by fire in 1905.

The first Central High School was designed by the architect Frederick J. Amsden,^[7] and 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 Typhoid Epidemic of 1885

The Typhoid Epidemic of 1885 was caused by contamination of the town's water supply. Like the Avondale Mine Disaster of 1869, it aroused the sympathy of the entire nation. The epidemic was eventually traced to a dairy farmer who lived on Mountain Road alongside Coal Creek, the stream that fed the town's water supply. During the Christmas holiday in 1884, he visited his brother, the owner of a cigar store in Philadelphia, and returned home in January ill with typhoid. During his weeks of recuperation, the snow on the ground around his farmhouse became contaminated. At the same time, the water company's reservoirs had become so low, that the company began to pump water, as a substitute source, from the Susquehanna River.^[8]

In late March, the weather began to warm and the snow began to melt, so that the stream and one of its reservoirs (known as the Third Water Dam) became contaminated. Furthermore, because of the melting snow, the reservoir began to fill. Hoping to stop pumping river water, the water company's superintendent lit a fire at the exit pipe of the reservoir, allowing water to flow freely downstream and contaminate the town's water supply.^[8]

By the week of April 12, between 50 and 100 new cases were reported daily. By September, 1,104 cases were recorded (out of a population of just over 8,000), including 713 in April, 261 in May, 83 in June, 31 in July, 15 in August and 1 in September. Taking into account unreported cases, the number was probably much higher.^[8]

Dr. Morris Stroud French was a physician in Philadelphia at the time of the epidemic, one of several sent to Plymouth to set up a temporary hospital in the Central High School building. After the epidemic, French prepared a report of the hospital's activities, listing all the patients who were treated, the ward where they lived, the length and cost of their treatment, and, when applicable, the date of their death. French recorded 1,153 victims, of whom 114 died. He estimated the cost of the epidemic, including the cost of treatment and lost wages, at about $100,000.^[8]

Martin Wilkes and the Polish–Lithuanian Church War

By the time that the 1887 city directory was published, there were three Roman Catholic congregations in Plymouth: "St. Vincent's Catholic Church" (for "English-speaking"—mostly Irish) Catholics, "St. Stephen's Hungarian Catholic Church", (for Slovaks), and "St. Mary's Polish Catholic Church" (for Poles and Lithuanians). St. Mary's congregation was founded in the spring of 1885. The trustees purchased land on Willow Street and built a small wooden church (on the site of the later school building). Although the Poles and Lithuanians spoke different languages, their histories were intertwined, and the Diocese of Scranton assumed the two groups would amicably share the same church and cemetery so long as their parish priest was fluent in both languages. As it turned out, there was animosity between them. In 1889–1890, these feelings were inflamed by an outspoken parishioner named Martin Wilkes, who came to be known in the national press as "the Polish King". Wilkes was born in Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1873. By the time of the 1880 census, he was working as a coal miner, living in West Nanticoke, and by 1889, he had acquired a saloon, gained a small following and proclaimed himself leader of the Poles in Plymouth.

St. Mary's congregation's first priest was Polish. But after he departed, trouble arose when the Diocese of Scranton appointed, not once, but twice, a Lithuanian priest to St. Mary's. The Poles objected on the grounds that their greater number, earlier arrival and greater financial contribution entitled them to preference. The second Lithuanian priest, Father Alexandras Burba, was appointed to St. Mary's on August 22, 1889. Burba spoke Polish and Lithuanian, but was an ardent Lithuanian nationalist; the Polish trustees allowed him to celebrate mass in the church but refused to give him possession of the parsonage. On October 22, Bishop O'Hara arrived from Scranton and sent Father Mack (of the St. Vincent's congregation) to gain access to the parsonage, but when he knocked on the door, he was "met by three guns pointing at him from an upstairs window."^[9]

Next, Father Mack went to the Town Hall and got warrants for the arrest of the rebel faction, after which the police arrested three of them. When the rebels reached the town lock-up (in an effort to rescue the prisoners), they encountered constable Michael Melvin and in the ensuing scuffle broke his leg. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Polanders still hold possession of the priest's house tonight. The Burgess says he will clear every man out tomorrow if he has to make dead men of them all."^[9]

After this episode, Father Burba departed St. Mary's, and the split between the two nationalities became permanent, with the Lithuanians forming their own congregation and building their own church, completed in December 1890.

The electric railway and the Carey Avenue Bridge

The Plymouth Street Railway was incorporated on May 14, 1889, and in 1891 its directors built an electric railway, or trolley line, down the middle of Plymouth's Main Street, running from the east end of the borough to a turn-around at the west end of town. That same year, the line was extended along the north side of Ross Hill to Edwardsville, where transfers could be made to a similar railway that ran across the Market Street Bridge to Wilkes-Barre. When the Plymouth Street Railway was complete, the Wilkes-Barre & Wyoming Valley Traction Co. leased it and operated it along with several other trolley lines. After the Carey Avenue Bridge was completed in the spring of 1895, the Wilkes-Barre & Wyoming Valley Traction Co. built a second railway line across the bridge, providing a second, more direct route to Wilkes-Barre's public square.^[10]

Ultimately, the network included the boroughs and townships of Ashley, Courtdale, Edwardsville, Forty Fort, Hanover, Kingston, Larksville, Miners Mills, Nanticoke, Parsons, Pittston, Plains, Plymouth, Sugar Notch, West Pittston, West Wyoming, Wilkes-Barre, and Wyoming. The trolley cars ran until the 1950s and were an important amenity, making it easier for residents to go to work, to shop, to visit friends and relatives, and to spend time at new amusement parks that sprung up along the lines, including Sans Souci Park, located between Nanticoke and Wilkes-Barre.

The Spanish–American War

In 1898, the Ninth Regiment, a state militia organization founded in 1879 and headquartered in Wilkes-Barre, volunteered to serve in the war with Spain. On April 27, 1898, two days after Spain declared war, the various companies that formed the regiment (including Plymouth's Company I) met at the Wilkes-Barre armory and marched to the Lehigh Valley railroad station. Enthusiasm for the war was at a high point, and it was estimated that 130,000 people gathered to see the troops off. In May, they made camp at Chickamauga Park, Georgia, where in July an outbreak of typhoid occurred with roughly half of the 1,300 troops contracting the disease, from which 29 men died. The war ended on August 12 while the Ninth Regiment was still camped in Georgia, and on September 19 the regiment returned to Wilkes-Barre.^[11] Plymouth's Company I was led by Capt. Harry W. Pierce, First Lieut. Adnah McDaniel, Second Lieut. William F. Powell, First Sergeant George W. Kostenbauder and Quartermaster Sergeant John May. The musicians were John T. Hayward and George N. Van Loon.^[11]

The end of the 19th century

During the last thirty-five years of the 19th century, Plymouth had nearly reached its ultimate state. Virtually all the streets that would ever be created were now in place, and most of the houses, churches and commercial buildings that would ever be built had now been built. Plymouth's coal mines were established and consolidated in the hands of a small number of operators, and its water system, telegraph and telephone service, electrical lines and gas pipes were fully developed. A trolley system connected the residents to all of the neighboring towns and cities. The next three decades would be prosperous ones during which the town's residents would enjoy the bounty of the years of industrial growth. Coal production would grow and the population steadily increase in size and wealth. One of the problems that this increase presented was the need to build sufficient school buildings to accommodate the growing population, and the growing number of families who could now afford to send their children to school, rather than to work in the mines.

Years of prosperity (1901–1929)

The Great Flood of 1902

A view of Main Street, looking east from Center Ave. during the 1902 flood

One of the most destructive floods in the history of the Wyoming Valley occurred on Sunday, March 2, 1902, when the waters of the Susquehanna River rose and flooded a vast developed area. It was the largest flood since the Great Flood of 1865. Eight deaths were reported in Wilkes-Barre.^[12] The temperature suddenly rose, and snow which had covered much of the Susquehanna's watershed melted. At the same time, more than 2 inches (51 mm) of rain fell within a short period. The combined melted snow and rain caused the river to rise rapidly and the ice to break on February 28. All day Saturday, March 1, the river rose, until Sunday when it crested at 31 feet (9.4 m) above the low water mark.^[12]

Wyoming Valley had experienced less extensive flooding a few months earlier, on December 15, 1901, and therefore, residents were more prepared than they might have been. In Plymouth, water covered the streets closest to the river and surrounded or flooded many houses. The railroads were damaged, bridges were swept away and great portions of roadbeds washed out. Wyoming Valley's street car system was paralyzed, and it was a few weeks before cars were run regularly.^[12]

Plymouth recovered quickly from the 1902 flood. On March 6, trains began running on schedule to Scranton on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. And by March 8, the first street car arrived in town from Edwardsville. The West family set up an electric pump on Main Street and began pumping out flooded cellars for the town's businessmen. Capt. Theodore Renshaw went to Peter Shupp's old house on Center Avenue and measured the flood's high-water mark and found it to be at street curb level. Renshaw recalled that the 1865 flood had risen 6 inches (150 mm) above the floor of Shupp's residence, and calculated that the 1865 flood had been 2'-9" higher than the 1902 flood.^[13]

The second Central High School

The architect of the second Central High School was Harry Livingston French. In 1905, when French was awarded the commission to design the new school, he was already well known to the Plymouth school board: French was a native of Plymouth, descended from an old and distinguished family. In 1900, when the school board commissioned him to design alterations to the Franklin Street School, Harry French had been an architect for only a few years. He graduated from Cornell University in 1894, but soon after left for Meeker, Colorado, where his brother practiced medicine. French spent sixteen months in Meeker, returning east in the beginning of 1897. By April 1899, his firm, McCormick & French, had won third place in the design competition for the new Luzerne County Courthouse. For their efforts, they received a prize of $300. However, in 1905, architect F. J. Osterling of Pittsburgh, the winner of the competition, was forced to resign in the middle of construction. He was replaced by McCormick & French.

Plymouth's second Central High School was built after the first school was destroyed by fire in 1905.

Harry French inherited numerous social, business and political connections — his father was Samuel Livingston French, born in Plymouth on September 8, 1839, a great-grandson of Noah Wadhams, Plymouth's illustrious 18th century preacher. Samuel L. French was a veteran of the Civil War, having served in the Union Army from 1861 to 1862. Afterwards, he was a politically active Republican. In 1872, he was elected Register of Wills for Luzerne County, and in 1874, became the first clerk of the Orphans' Court. In 1875, he was elected to the first of several terms as Burgess of Plymouth, and held that office during the great labor troubles of 1877. Samuel L. French was also an amateur historian — he wrote a book about the Army of the Potomac, and in 1915 published Reminiscences of Plymouth, his homage to the antebellum years of his hometown.

In 1880, Samuel L. French became a retail lumber dealer, founding the Plymouth Planing Mill Company, which he ran until 1902. It was this company which built the old Central High School in 1884. The old school, and the new one that replaced it, sat on a bluff overlooking the Parrish Colliery of the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Co. Both school and colliery sat on land that once was part of the Wadhams estate. After the fire, the school board must have engaged McCormick and French immediately, for it was only one month after the fire that the board met to announce that the architects' plans were accepted, plans for a much larger building than the original. On March 23, 1905, the Wilkes-Barre Times reported:

"At a special meeting of the school board held last evening in the office of the secretary, J. A. Opp, held for the purpose of adopting the plans and specifications of the proposed new school building, which is to take the place of the building which was burned down on February 24, it was decided to accept the plans that had been prepared by McCormick and French. The plans are for a building of sixteen rooms, which is twice the size of the old building, and it will be a substantial structure, which will be one of the prettiest buildings in town. The secretary was instructed to advertise for bid, and another meeting will be called on April 12 for the purpose of opening the bids and awarding the contract. A motion was unanimously carried that the sale of bonds be held in the office of the secretary on April 10."

On June 1 that year, the class of "nineteen-five" held its commencement exercises. Fourteen students received their diplomas. Charles H. Kaeufer read an eloquent speech entitled "Memorial of the Central Building".

"Workmen have now removed the last traces of the old school. Whatever will remain of the old building in the future is embedded in the minds and hearts of the boys and girls who have come to maturity during the twenty-one years of its usefulness. The shelter which the building has afforded has resulted in the up-building of character and the implanting of healthy sentiments in the boys and girls of Plymouth. The expenditure has not been in vain. The building has been a fortress against ignorance and superstition. Its memory should be cherished lovingly. Patriotism has been infused, industry fostered, and wickedness condemned. Therefore the influence of the building must be ranked among the permanent possessions of the community."

On the following evening, the Plymouth High School Alumni Association held its fourth annual banquet. Mrs. L. S. Smith, one of the "few surviving members" of the first graduating class (1886), spoke of her memories of the old school, a talk that was followed by a musical presentation and a toast given by the future governor of Pennsylvania, Arthur James.

The summer of 1905 came and went as work began on the new school. On August 18, the Times reported that "sills were laid for the new Central School house yesterday." On August 26, pupils were ordered to report to Rooms 7 and 8 of the Willow St. School. The class of 1906 would spend the entire school year in temporary quarters, for it was not until Labor Day, September 3, 1906, that the new building was dedicated. The Wilkes-Barre Times sent a reporter:

"Plymouth's handsome new High school was dedicated and formally opened to-day with impressive and appropriate exercises amid the cheers of several thousand people. Prior to the exercises at the school there was a grand parade, in which many secret societies from in and out of town took part, together with bands of music ... The parade formed at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets, moved to Davenport, countermarched to Gaylord and thence to the high school where the exercises were held ... "The progress of the public school" was the subject of an eloquent address by J. Q. Creveling, who began by comparing the present school system with that of years gone by when Plymouth and all its institutions were in their infancy. He spoke of the rapid advancement in the education of America's army of children and of the responsibility resting upon the thousands of men and women employed in the work of fitting them to enter upon life's duties."

The event was organized by the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, perhaps a union representing the men who built the building. The O.U.A.M. presented the school with a new flag as well as a bible for each classroom. The new building served as Plymouth's high school for only seven years, for on Labor Day, September 1913, another parade and dedication exercise took place, this time to celebrate the opening of yet another new high school building — this one on Main Street. After 1913, the 1906 Central High School was used to educate children in the lower grades.

The third high school building

Plymouth's 1913 high school building was designed by architect Alfred Freeman. The portion to the far right, fronting Wadhams Street, was added later.

Plymouth's third high school building was dedicated on September 1, 1913, following a large parade through the town. The parade featured the police force, three fire departments, the school directors, school children on floats, various labor unions and several fraternal organizations. At the ceremony, the Central School children sang "March of our Nation", and after the graduates of the class of 1914 raised the flag, the students and audience sang "The Star-Spangled Banner", accompanied by the school's marching band. The chairman of the dedication ceremony was Harold L. Freeman, and the architect of the new building was his brother, New York's Alfred Freeman, a Plymouth native and graduate of Plymouth High School's class of 1892. The building was built by Perkins and Heffernan, and the plumbing work installed by Doyle Brothers, both Plymouth firms.

The building (which was later added onto) had four rooms on the first floor and four on the second floor plus a large study room. The basement was reserved for the cloakrooms, boiler rooms, lavatories and a room for the School Directors.

William B. Cleary, writing in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, noted that "The new school building is located in the central portion of the town, set back sufficiently from the main street to give it an important position and affords an opportunity to make most attractive grounds."

Plymouth's third high school building was converted to an elementary school in July 1979,^[14] and demolished in August 2014. Architectural historian (and former attendee) Michael Lewis commented in The Times Leader newspaper: "As far as architecture is concerned, the high school is neither original nor innovative. It is simply one of those solid, serviceable and beautifully constructed school buildings built a century ago, when it seemed that America could build durable and efficient public buildings effortlessly."

The First World War

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument in 2007

The First World War broke out in 1914, but America remained neutral until it declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. The Selective Service Act of 1917 was passed on May 18, 1917, and by July a lottery was scheduled so that local districts could meet their assigned quotas of men. District 6 (comprising Plymouth and Larksville boroughs) was initially required to furnish 154 men, and many more, men and women, would eventually serve. The war ended when an armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, but "Welcome Home" day in Plymouth was not celebrated until June 30, 1919. That day, a parade formed, with the public school students gathering at Wadhams Street, fraternal lodges on Girard Avenue, soldiers and sailors on Gaylord Avenue, the Polish and Slovak societies on Centre Avenue, and Catholic school children on Eno Street. Participants marched up to the Carey Avenue Bridge and back to Gaylord Avenue where they disbanded.^[15] Burgess George E. Gwilliam declared the day to be "one of rejoicing with a cessation of all labor", and banned all cars and trolleys from the streets. After the parade, all four movie theaters opened their doors to veterans free of charge.^[16]

By the time of the "Welcome Home" parade of 1919, a fundraising drive was underway to erect a monument to the soldiers and sailors who had served in the First World War. A committee was formed, and George T. Brewster (1862–1943), a sculptor from New York, was engaged. Brewster had studied at the Massachusetts State Normal Art School, and in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. Since 1915, he had been busy creating a large number of statues, busts and relief portraits for the Vicksburg National Military Park. For Plymouth, Brewster prepared a design of two life-size figures, a soldier and sailor, mounted atop a granite base. In the contract, the sculptor agreed not to duplicate the design anywhere in Pennsylvania. The unveiling was scheduled for November 11, 1919,^[17] but the work was delayed and funds ran short. The bronze plaque, listing the names of the fallen, was optimistically dated Memorial Day, 1920. The dedication finally took place on November 11, 1920, two years after the war's end. Schools and mines were closed for the day, and afterward a parade formed, said to be Plymouth's largest ever.^[18] The monument still stands and is the principal public work of art in the borough.

The fourth high school building

Plymouth's 1925 high school building was designed by architect Louis Hancock. The third high school, seen at the far right, became the junior high school.

Plymouth's fourth high school building, designed by the Scranton-based architect Louis Hancock,^[19] was completed in 1925 on a site immediately to the west of the third high school (which then became the Junior High School building). The new building cost $203,000 and was dedicated on February 12, 1925. A few weeks before the dedication, a reporter took a tour of the building, writing that:

"After years of anticipation and debate, the new high school represents the achievement of an ideal. It has advanced Plymouth several years ahead of the status formerly held. Allied with the adjacent recreation field, where athletics are carried out, the school is a complete foundry of young manhood and young womanhood, an inspiration to the spirit that has written the name of Plymouth High School upon the top of the roster of public educational institutions."^[20]

Many of the town's residents credited school board member Ward P. Davenport for expediting the construction of the school, for attending to its details and for keeping the costs under control. By the time the school was complete, Davenport was in poor health and retreated to Atlantic City to recuperate.^[21] Davenport's health did not improve, and the December 1925 issue of the school's newspaper, the Shawnee Arrow, made note of his death. By the spring of 1926, the school had been renamed Ward P. Davenport High School, and the stone tablet over the front door with the inscription "Plymouth High School" was replaced with one inscribed with Davenport's name.^[22]

Years of retrenchment (1930–1972)

Plymouth Post Office

In November 1933, funds were allocated for a new post office building in Plymouth. The allocation was expedited by two Plymouth natives, Michael E. Comerford, the movie-theater owner, who happened to be the regional representative of the recently created National Recovery Administration, and Frank C. Walker, Comerford's nephew, a Roosevelt ally and the NRA's executive secretary. Among the sites suggested by the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce was the east half of the old railroad depot, across Main Street from the Plymouth high school, more or less where the new post office was built.^[23] Construction began in January 1935 and the building was dedicated on November 23, 1935.^[24] President Franklin D. Roosevelt was an amateur architect who admired early American architecture, and the new building was designed in the Georgian style that was especially popular at the time. An addition, undistinguished but sympathetic to the original wing, was built in the 1960s.

The post office's most interesting feature is a mural installed in 1938 by the artist Jared Blanford French (1905–1988) entitled "Mealtime, The Early Coal Miners", one of more than 1,200 works of art commissioned by the U.S. Treasury between the years 1934 and 1943 through a program intended to embellish Federal buildings and encourage the arts during the Great Depression.^[25] French's mural and the town's Soldiers and Sailors monument are the two most significant secular public works of art in Plymouth.

Great Flood of 1936

One of the Susquehanna River's most damaging floods occurred in March 1936. In the Wyoming Valley, the flood waters covered approximately 45 square miles (120 km²). Property loss in Plymouth Borough alone was estimated to be about $1,000,000.^[26] A large number of Plymouth residents were left homeless, and many volunteers responded to help with rescue and relief efforts. These were coordinated from headquarters set up in the Town Hall building. The Vine Street and Franklin Street schools were converted to temporary dormitories, and the Central School served as a makeshift hospital. The town's three fire companies patrolled the flooded areas during the inundation, and afterward did duty pumping out flooded cellars.^[26] After the flood waters receded, Atty. Harold L. Freeman and Mrs. John Q. Mask chaired a fund-raising drive to aid families left destitute by the disaster, while Mrs. Ralph Worthington and Mrs. C. C. Groblewski coordinated donations of clothing made by the Red Cross.^[26]

The Diamond Jubilee celebration of 1941

By the 1940s, two rival energy sources, oil and natural gas, competed with anthracite coal, both of which were cheaper to extract and to ship. The anthracite industry received a temporary boost during the Second World War, but by the late 1950s, the industry was all but dead, with the exception of some strip mine operations that continued throughout the 1960s.

In September 1941, seventy-five years after Plymouth was incorporated as a borough, the town began a five-day celebration at Huber Field, including a pageant with the patriotic theme "America on Parade". Like many American towns, Plymouth had an ethnically diverse population, formed largely by the descendants of Irish, Welsh, Polish, Lithuanian and Slovak immigrants. Patriotism had an important place in the school curriculum, and the generation that was coming of age in 1941 had been educated to think of themselves as Americans first and foremost. After the Grand Finale of the pageant, according to the Jubilee's promotional pamphlet, the audience was "requested to join with the cast and with the Shawnee Choral Society in the singing of our National Anthem."

While the townspeople celebrated, war was raging in Europe and Asia. The ninth scene of the pageant, "Democracy Defended", was described in the Jubilee's pamphlet as a...

"... tableau of "Peace," following the [First] World War — a war which we fought to "end war". It is presented as a tribute to the brave men and courageous women who gave their all so that Democracy might survive, and in the hope that America may continue to remain honorably at Peace."

However, two months after the celebration, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew America into war again. Many men and women from Plymouth served in the armed forces during the Second World War.

The writers of the Plymouth Diamond Jubilee pamphlet expressed optimism about the future. In the pageant's tenth scene, "American and Plymouth Today", the Diamond Jubilee Queen, Catherine Oldfield (in later years a Plymouth school teacher known as Catherine Bogdon), delivered her address of welcome "attended by boys and girls, young men and women of Plymouth and vicinity." The scene was described as "symbolic of modern youth, keeping step with the times, moving forward in step with current events. They are the men and women of tomorrow — the destiny of America we love will be in their hands." But owing to the decline of the local economy, many of the young men and women in attendance would have to move elsewhere in order to find work.

The Plymouth Diamond Jubilee celebration of 1941 occurred at an interesting time in the town's history. Still vital, and having survived a decade-long economic depression, the town looked forward to a return to its past prosperity. But unbeknown to the populace, a slow and steady decline would soon begin. Because of the collapse of the anthracite coal industry, the town's population, 15,507 in 1940, would decline to 5,951 by the year 2010.

Plymouth centennial celebration

In 1966, the residents of Plymouth celebrated the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the Borough of Plymouth. The honorary chairman was the burgess, Edward F. Burns, and the general chairman was Angelo Grasso. The festivities began on June 11, 1966, with the Centennial Ball, held at the Gaylord Avenue Armory, during which Sandy Smith was chosen to be Miss Plymouth Centennial. A week of parades and parties culminated on June 18, Pioneer and Homecoming Day, with the Grand Parade. In between, the Centennial Committee presented at Huber Field "In Olde Shawnee", a fifteen-episode spectacle produced by John B. Rogers Productions of Fostoria, Ohio. Many residents, church groups, and civic and fraternal groups participated in the Centennial. During Centennial Week, many women donned old-time costumes from colonial days, and many men grew goatees, moustaches and "mutton-chop" side-burns, which by 1966 had been long out of fashion.

School consolidation 1966–1967

The first Plymouth High School graduating class received their diplomas in 1886, and the last graduating class received theirs in 1966. In the fall of 1966, Plymouth's school system merged with the Edwardsville and Larksville schools to become "Plymouth Area High School", one of three divisions in a consolidated school district called "Wyoming Valley West". In the fall of 1967, the Plymouth Area division combined with the other schools in the district to form a single high school in which freshmen and sophomores attended the Plymouth high school building, and juniors and seniors attended the Kingston high school building. Currently, the Wyoming Valley West High School building is located in Plymouth, just south of the site of the old Central High School, Plymouth's second high school building (built 1906 and demolished in 1980), and just north of Plymouth's third high school building (built 1913 and demolished in 2014) and Plymouth's fourth high school building (built 1925 and demolished in 1979).

Agnes Flood of 1972

Unlike earlier floods in the Wyoming Valley, most of which were caused by spring freshets, the 1972 flood was caused by bizarre and unusual weather patterns, including heavy rainfall that began in mid-April. In May almost 7.93 inches (201 mm) of rain fell, and in June another 7.55 inches (192 mm) fell, so that by late June the Susquehanna watershed was becoming saturated. By Wednesday, June 21, tropical storm Agnes arrived and was hovering over the Susquehanna watershed, dropping up to 12 inches (300 mm) of rain upstream in a single day. All around the valley, signs of trouble loomed: Main Street in Shavertown flooded, Harvey's Lake overflowed, Hunstville Dam was full, a bridge washed out in Towanda. But meanwhile, at Wilkes-Barre the river height was only 13.67 feet (4.17 m) above the low water level. Nevertheless, by 10:00 pm that night the river had quietly risen to 20.98 feet (6.39 m), causing Civil Defense Headquarters in the Luzerne County Courthouse to evacuate. Plymouth residents were ordered to leave their homes by 2:00 am.^[27]

By early morning Thursday, June 22, a widespread evacuation of the valley's flood zone was underway. At 6:00 am, water poured through a dike at Plymouth, and one hour later the river reached a height of 34.62 feet (10.55 m), rapidly approaching the 37-foot (11 m) limit of the valley's dike system. Countless volunteers passed sandbags from hand to hand in a futile effort to raise the dike level and hold back the water, until at 11:00 am, Civil Defense sounded the alarm calling a halt to all efforts on the east side. At 1:00 pm, water came over the dike at Forty Fort, after which work stopped on the west side as well.^[27]

Telephones no longer worked, electricity was no longer available and sewage systems were incapacitated. The absence of refrigeration led to a shortage of food. Martial law went into effect as rescue efforts got underway, and thousands of volunteers descended on the valley to assist with the rescue and then the clean-up. Meanwhile, the water rose higher and higher, finally peaking at 40.60 feet (12.37 m) at 7:00 pm, Saturday, June 24. At its greatest extent the flood was 5 miles (8.0 km) wide and 35 miles (56 km) long. Eventually, the water receded, leaving behind 25,000 homeless residents, and acres of devastation and mud.^[27]

Burgesses (mayors) of Plymouth, Pennsylvania

See also

• Plymouth, Pennsylvania
• Coal mining in Plymouth, Pennsylvania
• Architecture of Plymouth, Pennsylvania
• Shawnee Cemetery, Plymouth, Pennsylvania

References