Scranton
Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Ebenezer Slocum built his built his first house, and made the first iron here prior to 1800. Its founding, naming, and growth as a city were due to George W. Scranton and associates. Leader in iron and steel for 60 years after its founding, 1840.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Iron-making began on this ground before 1800, when Ebenezer Slocum built the area's first house and forged its first iron. But the settlement's true rise came with George W. Scranton and his associates, whose ironworks after 1840 turned the place into a booming industrial city that bore his name. For six decades Scranton stood among the nation's leaders in iron and steel.
Why it matters
Scranton embodies the American industrial revolution, where a frontier settlement could become a national powerhouse of iron and steel within a single lifetime.
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Related people
- · Ebenezer Slocum
- · George W. Scranton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Scranton
Scranton, PA · est. 1948
Before 1800, Ebenezer Slocum built one of the first homes here and forged the valley's first iron, hinting at the industry to come. The city took its name and its momentum from George W. Scranton and his associates, who from the town's 1840 founding made it a national leader in iron and steel for six decades. What began as a frontier forge grew into one of America's great industrial centers.
Anthracite Mine Disaster
Throop, PA · est. 1994
By 1911 northeastern Pennsylvania's anthracite fields powered the nation, but at a brutal human price. On the morning of April 7, fire broke out at the Pancoast mine in Throop, and seventy-two miners suffocated underground along with a government rescue worker who died trying to save them. The catastrophe pushed the state to act, and that June a new law required that buildings inside coal mines be built of fireproof materials.
William W. Scranton (1917-2013)
Scranton, PA · est. 2016
William W. Scranton belonged to the family whose name the city bears, and he came of age as its anthracite economy was fading. A World War II pilot, he served in Congress and then as governor of Pennsylvania in the 1960s, pushing to modernize the state's industry, highways, schools, and welfare programs. His later roles as a United Nations ambassador and adviser to presidents made him a national figure across decades of public life.
1902 Anthracite Coal Strike
Scranton, PA · est. 2002
In May 1902, roughly 150,000 anthracite miners walked off the job across northeastern Pennsylvania, staying out for six months over union recognition, better pay, and shorter hours. With the nation's coal supply threatened, President Theodore Roosevelt convened the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, which held hearings at the Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton and granted several of the miners' demands in 1903.