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Kingston, Pennsylvania

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A borough of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the North Branch of the Susquehanna river, opposite Wilkes-Barre. Pop. (1900), 3846, of whom, 1039 were foreignborn. Kingston is served by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the Lehigh Valley railways. It is the seat of Wyoming Seminary (1844; co-educational), a well-known secondary school. Anthracite coal is mined here; there are railway repair and machine-shops; and among the borough's manufactures are hosiery, silk goods, underwear and adding machines. Kingston (at first called "Kingstown," from Kings Towne, Rhode Island) was commonly known in its early days as the "Forty Township," because the first permanent settlement was made by forty pioneers from Connecticut, who were sent out by the Susquehanna Company and took possession of the district in its name in 1769. In 1772 the famous "Forty Fort," a stockade fortification, was built here, and in 1777 it was rebuilt, strengthened and enlarged. Here on the 3rd of July 1778 about 400 men and boys met, and under the command of Colonel Zebulon Butler (1731-95) went out to meet a force of about Iioo British troops and Indians, commanded by Major John Butler and Old King (Sayenqueraghte). The Americans were defeated in the engagement that followed, and many of the prisoners taken were massacred or tortured by the Indians. A monument near the site of the fort commemorates the battle and massacre. Kingston was incorporated as a borough in 1857. (See WYOMING VALLEY.)