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 Of
the four counties that make up the Pocono Mountains, Wayne County
was the first to be established and cut from Northampton County.
Wayne
County was
formed on March 21, 1798, named for the Revolutionary War  General
Anthony Wayne. The most famous names in Wayne County
history is Philip Hone, Lyman Lemnitzer
and Christian Dorflinger. Read about
them and lots more about Wayne County
history right here!
 JAMES
WILSON
James Wilson was the owner of the Wallenpaupack
Manor, a 12,150 acre parcel of land between Wayne and Pike counties.
He was one of our founding fathers and one of the largest landowners
in the Pocono region. Here is his story:
James
Wilson (1742-1798) was a great American Statesman. Born and educated
in Scotland,
he moved to New York City
in 1765 at age 23. He studied law and, in 1767, was admitted to
the bar. In 1774 he distributed what was to become an extremely
important manuscript. Wilson
wrote that the British Parliament had absolutely no power over the
colonies. Furthermore, he stated that each colony was a separate
and independent self-governing unit.
Later,
in 1774, Wilson was a delegate to
the First Continental Congress and the next year was elected to
the Second Continental Congress. On July 4, 1776, James Wilson
was one of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence,
which ranks as one of the greatest documents in human history.
Other signers included Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, John Adams
and Ben Franklin.
Wilson
was a strong believer in the election of U.S.
Senators by a direct vote of the people, rather than by the legislatures.
He believed in natural rights, a doctrine maintaining that sovereignty
rests in the individual rather than in government. As a member
of the Continental Congress he attended the Constitutional Convention
of 1787 and was instrumental in writing the Constitution of the
United  States.
On September 17, 1787 James Wilson was one of the 39 men who signed
the Constitution, along with other distinguished statesmen such
as George Washington, Ben Franklin, James Madison and Alexander
Hamilton. Wilson was one of only six men who signed the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
In
1789 James Wilson was appointed by President George Washington to
serve as associate justice on the first Supreme Court of the United
States and served in that capacity until his death in 1798.
In
1793 James Wilson obtained title to the 12,150 acre tract of land
known as the Wallenpaupack Manor from the William Penn estate.
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LAKE WALLENPAUPACK
 The
land on which Lake Wallenpaupack is built dates
back to William Penn. The William Penn Estate transferred the 12,150
acre parcel in 1793 to James Wilson, signer of the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution of the United
States.
At
that time the Wallenpaupack
River was a
beautiful stream with many deep water lagoons combined with whitewater
rapids. The Lenape Indians called the
river Wallenpaupack “the stream of
swift and slow moving waters”.
 With
PP&L’s decision to construct a dam, the initial step
was to purchase over 12,000 acres of property and engineer a 5,700
lake bed. Land was purchased from over 100 land owners at an average
price of $20.00 per acre. Farms, barns, houses and other buildings
were razed. A cemetery was relocated and trees were cut from the
lake bed. Construction began in 1924 with 2,700 men and women working
two years to compete the project. It included at 1,280 foot long
concrete dam 70 feet high. The total cost was just over one million
dollars.
 There
was a wooden pipeline constructed from the dam that used 5 million
board feet of Douglas fir that carried the water 3 ˝ miles downstream
to a generating station. The Wallenpaupack 44,000-kw power plant was constructed simultaneously
with the dam and was put into operation in 1926.
Today,
Lake Wallenpaupack is the gem of
the Poconos with thousands of lakefront
homes and lakefront communities. The lake has 52 miles of shoreline,
has 2 ˝ billion gallons of water and is 13 ˝ miles long.
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 GENERAL
LYMAN LEMNITZER
General
Lyman Lemnitzer was one of the most distinguished
military commanders in American history. He was a graduate of Honesdale
High School in 1917 and
went directly to West Point. In
World War II he was assigned with General Eisenhower and helped
blueprint the invasion of North Africa.
After 40 years of military service he reached the pinnacle of military
leadership when he became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
in 1960. In 1963 he returned to Europe
to become the Supreme  Commander
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In July, 1969 he received
the Distinguished Service Medals from all three services from President
Richard Nixon. At the age of 87 he was awarded the highest civilian
award given in the United States,
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by President Ronald
Reagan. General Lemnitzer died on November 12, 1988 and was buried with full
military honors at Arlington National Cemetary.
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DELAWARE & HUDSON
CANAL 
Prior
to the War of 1812 the United States
imported most of its bituminous coal from England. Our own vast coal reserves
had not yet been discovered although some Pennsylvania Indian tribes
had been known to use the “black stones.” A number of
blacksmiths had also found the “stone coal” to be useful.
In
1814 William and Maurice Wurtz began to
explore the hills of Pennsylvania
and discovered vast Anthracite coal deposits in Scranton
and Carbondale.
The thought of transporting vast amounts of coal to the marketplace
in New York
would be one of the most expensive private ventures in American
history. The project would mean hauling coal over the mountains
by sled and wagon and then loaded onto the canal boats in Honesdale.
Later, the construction of a gravity railroad would be built to
carry the coal through the Lackawanna Valley
to Honesdale. From Honesdale, a canal would need to be built along
the Lackawaxen
River to the Delaware River,
then along the Delaware to Port
Jervis, then across New York via
the Neversink River
to Kingston, New
York, then down the Hudson
to New York City. The project cost was over one
million dollars and was the largest private investment ever made
in America. It was 108 miles long and
needed to be constructed entirely by hand.
The
canal was built in an era when America’s
industrial greatness was just beginning. The project helped New
York City become the greatest manufacturing
city in the world.
 In
1825, a stock company was formed for the purpose of constructing
the canal. Its first President was Philip Hone of New York City. After incorporation,
it was three years later that the canal was completed. The canal
had 22 aqueducts, 137 bridges and 108 locks. At the side of the
river ran a towpath for mules that pulled the boats. Twenty-five
tons was the weight limit for the first canal boats, but later boats
were able to carry from 125 to 150 tons. Coal passed through the
canal for the first time in November 1828. At 1-3 miles per hour
it took 7 to 10 days to make the trip along the canal. In 1848
the D & H Canal Company was the largest private corporation
in America.
By 1859, the D&H Canal
was transporting over 1,300,000 tons of coal annually, as well as
cement, stone, hides, iron, general merchandise and passengers.
As
the 1870’s approached railway lines began carrying more goods
to more markets, while transporting by canal became obsolete. In
1898 the canal was abandoned. Remnants of the towpath can still
be seen along the Lackawaxen in many areas
between Honesdale and the Delaware.
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WASHINGTON IRVING
 In
the summer of 1844, Philip Hone, John Jacob Astor, Washington Irving and other prominent gentlemen took a trip from New York City up the Hudson,
then along the D &
H Canal
to Honesdale. A boat was fitted in a most elegant manner to carry
them. Sleepy Hollow’s Washington Irving described the trip,
“I do not know when I have made a more gratifying excursion
with respect to natural scenery – for many miles the canal
is built along the face of perpendicular precipices rising into
stupendous cliffs, with overhanging forests, or jutting out into
vast promontories, while upon the other side you look down upon
the Delaware, roaring and foaming below you, at the foot of an immense
wall or embankment which supports the canal. Altogether, it is
one of the most daring undertakings I have ever witnessed to carry
an artificial river over rocky mountains,
and up the most savage and almost impracticably defiles. For upward
of ninety miles I went through a constant succession of scenery
that would have been famous had it existed in any part of Europe.”
 After
arriving in Honesdale, Irving
noticed a huge outcropping of rock high on a hill and insisted on
climbing to the top to get a view from the summit. Irving was so impressed with
the vistas that Philip Hone insisted that the ledge be known as
“Irving Cliff.”
 On
the summit of this historic cliff forty five years later a large
summer hotel resort was built. The four story building was erected
in commemoration of the visit of Washington Irving to Honesdale.
The hotel had a capacity of more than two hundred guests, 125 spacious
bedrooms, broad verandas and many other elegant appointments.
The
formal opening of the hotel was to have been on June 22, 1889, but
less than a month prior to its grand opening a massive fire burned
the hotel to the ground. Nothing has ever been built on the site
since that time. Today it is a memorial park overlooking the borough.
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PHILIP HONE
 The
town of Honesdale
was named after one of its most famous businessmen, Philip Hone.
He was named the first President of the Delaware and Hudson Canal
Company in 1825. The company was the first corporation in American
to invest over $1,500,000.00 in a project that would change Honesdale
forever and help start the Industrial Revolution in America.
He
was born in New York City
in 1780 from a family of moderate means. He had little formal schooling
and worked in his brother’s business which was auctioneering
ship cargoes. In 1801 he married Catherine Dunscomb and together they had six children. He retired a
very wealthy
man 20 years later and began traveling around Europe.
He
associated with many leading politicians and leading authors of
his day including Washington
Irving, Samuel Morse, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jacob Astor and Daniel
Webster. Daniel Webster gave credit to Philip for giving “The
Whig Party” its name.
In
1825 he became the mayor of New York City, the office then elected by the
Common Council.
 While
mayor of New York
he was also looking for investments for his accumulated wealth.
He became one of the largest shareholders in the Delaware
and Hudson Canal Company and was named its first president on March
8, 1825. At 45 years of age he was one of the most successful men
in America.
He inspired the confidence of the investing public and the company
stock shot upwards. Under his leadership the company took off and
the canal was started with Hone taking the first shovel of dirt
at Summitsville, New York
on July 13, 1825. By 1826 Hone had other commitments and resigned
as  president.
However, he remained on the Board of Directors for many years and
took great interest in the company.
On
January 20, 1831 the local village was incorporated as a borough
and named it Honesdale. He died in 1851, but left a legacy in New
York City and in Honesdale.
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 CHRISTIAN
DORFLINGER GLASS
Christian
Dorflinger was born in France on March 16, 1828. He was
the oldest of five children and at age 10 was an apprentice learning
the fundamentals of glassmaking by one of the most renowned establishments
in Europe. At 18, he finished
his apprenticeship and came to the United
States, first working with his younger brother
Edward, in a glass factory in Camden, New Jersey
manufacturing druggists’ wares and prescription bottles.
He
opened his own glass factory in Brooklyn, New York
in 1852 making kerosene lamp chimneys. Within 10 years he opened
two more factories including the Greenpoint Flint Glass Works, where he had broadened his line
of merchandise to include all kinds of cut, engraved and plain table
ware. 
On
September 17, 1862, Dorflinger purchased
a 300 acre farm in White Mills, Wayne County, Pennsylvania where
he built a glass factory and concentrated on building the finest
lead crystal in the world. His reputation for excellence in glassmaking
was unsurpassed by any American competitor for over 50 years and
is attested by the many special commissions with which he was entrusted.
Foremost among these was the distinction of supplying the tableware
for eight presidents of the United
States, from Abraham Lincoln to
Woodrow Wilson. All were engraved with the U.S.
coat of arms, each having its own individual pattern. Theodore Roosevelt
was the first president to order highball glasses. Other prominent
customers of Dorflinger Glass included the Smithsonian Institute and the
United States Navy. Some of the wealthiest families in America
also had Dorflinger Glass including the
Vanderbilts, Goulds and Astors. In Europe, the Prince of Wales had fluted tableware
specially designed, and in Cuba
President Mario Menocal had glassware
with the coat of arms for the  Cuban
Republic.
Christian
Dorflinger passed away in 1915 and in
1921 the company ceased operations.
The
property is now known as the Dorflinger-Suydam
Wildlife Sanctuary and includes the Dorflinger
Glass Museum.
The Sanctuary acquired its first piece of Dorflinger glass in September 1981 as a gift from Agnes Houth
Baisden. Her father had worked at the White Mills factory.
Many glass acquisitions have followed. With the generous support
of the community and a donation of 300 pieces of glass from Helen
Barger the museum continues to grow. The trustees named renowned
Dorflinger expert Ray LaTournous
curator of the museum in 1987. Today the Dorflinger Glass Museum
is recognized as having the largest dispay
of Dorflinger glass in the nation.
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STOURBRIDGE LION
 The
Stourbridge Lion was the first steam locomotive to turn a
wheel on railroad tracks in the United States, making the first
run in Honesdale, Pennsylvania on August 8, 1829.
In
1827 the Delaware and Hudson Canal
Company was looking for an alternative to the gravity railroad to
haul its coal from the coal mines in Carbondale
to Honesdale, and then by canal to New
York City. The company thought the answer
may lie in a steam locomotive system and decided to send its deputy
engineer, Horatio Allen, to England in 1828 to investigate.
Horatio
Allen went to Stourbridge,
England
and met a brilliant engineer, John Urpeth
Rastrick. Rastrick
already had a patent for the steam engine in 1814 and Allen decided
to purchase 3 steam engines from Foster, Rastrick
and Company. Among them was the “Stourbridge
Lion” named for the lion’s head that had been painted
on the front boiler. The Lion cost was $2,915.00 and weighed eight
tons.
It
was shipped to Liverpool in February 1829, and two months later
crossed the Atlantic by the “John Jay” (named after the
first Supreme Court Justice of the United
States) and arrived in New York City in May and in Honesdale by July.
The
trial run was to take place on August 8th 1829. Large
crowds assembled in Honesdale to marvel at such an undertaking.
Many did not believe it would work and was convinced the iron Lion
would never run! Horatio Allen took the controls of the Lion as
she hissed down the track and out of site. The crowd’s jeers
turned to amazement as the Stourbridge Lion made American History in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.
After
another trial run it was decided by the company that the wooden
rails would not sustain the heavy usage of the locomotive and the
haulage of coal. The Lion was put into storage in Honesdale and
never ran again.
Today
the Stourbridge Lion is part of the Smithsonian
Institute in Washington, D.C.
and travels around the country on display. The Wayne County Historical
Society has an exact replica of the Stourbridge
Lion on display at their offices at 810
Main Street in Honesdale.
 The
Town of Stourbridge,
England is very
proud to have built “The Lion” knowing the history she
made in America. Unfortunately, the foundry
where The Lion was built is in disrepair and is on the verge of
being torn down. A number of preservationists and historians are
trying to keep the building intact for posterity and future use
as a heritage center.
Dr.
Paul Collins, a local historian in Stourbridge
said “It is a sad indictment that in the U.S.A. they are celebrating the 175th
Anniversary of the first run of The Lion, while the very building
where it was made faces the threat of demolition”. Dr. Collins
also claims the building is the oldest standing foundry in Europe.
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