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Hazleton

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a city of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 25 m. S. of Wilkes-Barre. Pop. (1890) 11,872; (1900) 1 4 ,2 3 0, of whom 2732 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 25,452. It is served by the Lehigh Valley, the Pennsylvania (for freight), and the Wilkes-Barre & Hazleton (electric) railways. The city is built on a broad tableland on Nescopeck or Buck Mountain, a spur of the Blue Mountains, about 1620 ft. above sea-level. It has a park and a number of handsome residences; and its agreeable climate and picturesque situation make it attractive as a summer resort. The city has a public library. Hazleton is near the centre of one of the richest coal regions (the Lehigh or "Eastern Middle Coal Field") of the state, and its principal industry is the mining and shipping of anthracite coal. It has silk mills, knitting mills, shirt factories, breweries, macaroni factories, lumber and planing mills, important iron works, a casket factory and a large electric power plant. The value of the city's factory products increased from $998,823 in 1900 to $2,185,876 in 1905, or 118.8%, only three other cities in the state having a population of 8000 or more in 1900 showing a greater rate of increase. There is a state hospital here for the treatment of persons injured in mines. Hazleton was settled in 1820, was laid out in 1836, was incorporated as a borough in 1856 and received a city charter in 1891. The local coal industry dates from 1837.