The speculative tendencies that had induced John C. Boyd to purchase the Shamokin tract also caused him to dispose of parts of it, and thus an interest (but of what nature does not appear) passed about the year 1880 into the hands of Jacob Graeff, of Reading. It was with him that the idea of laying out a town originated. In 1830 he had a part of the land surveyed and one street was opened through the brush, but beyond this the attempt was not followed by any immediate or definite results. It was reserved for Mr. Boyd to found the town on a permanent basis.
In 1834 the Danville and Pottsville railroad between Sunbury and the gap was placed under construction; it was the prospect of railroad facilities for the transportation of coal and of increase in population naturally incident to the establishment of railroad facilities that decided Mr. Boyd in making a second attempt to found a town. The plat was accordingly surveyed on the 1st of March, 1835, by Kimber Cleaver, an engineer on the Danville and Pottsville railroad, assisted by Ziba Bird, who was then operating a saw mill at Locust Gap, and his son, Joseph Bird, afterward a prominent citizen of Shamokin and Northumberland, who carried the chain. The street cut out by Graeff was still distinguishable.
The part laid out included the Major tract; it received the name of Marion, but a town in the West having that designation had recently proven a failure, and in his quest for a more propitious title Mr. Boyd wisely selected Shamokin. This was probably suggested by the creek. It is an Indian word, and signifies “Eel Creek” or “Eel Pond.” At the earliest period in the history of this region to which authentic information relates, the name was applied to an Indian town at the site of Sunbury. From this circumstance, in all probability, it attained a wide popular significance as the unofficial designation of the purchase of 1768. In 1789 it was substituted for Ralpho as the name of an extensive township including the eastern part of the present territory of the county, and shortly after the opening of the Centre turnpike became a post office designation as applied to the hamlet of Snufftown, now Paxinos. Although the choice of Mr. Boyd doubtless commanded considerable respect, it was not at once accepted in popular usage, and not until 1840, when the name of Coal post office was changed to Shamokin, was it finally and permanently engrafted upon the place.
The lower part of the Clark tract was platted as a town by McCarty, Davis, Warner, and Jordan about the time that Boyd laid out Marion. It received the name of Groveville, in honor of Mrs. William McCarty, nee Grove, but both places were more generally known as Newtown for some time.
In order from the west, the principal streets of the borough extending north and south are First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Market, Seventh, Eighth, Grant, Marshall, Orange, Liberty, Washington, Rock, Shamokin, Franklin, Pearl, Vine, Cherry, and Lombard. In order from the north, the principal streets extending east and west are James, Kase, Packer, Cameron, Dewart, Sunbury, Commerce, Independence, Shakespeare, Spurzheim. Clay, Webster, Race, Chestnut, Spruce, Pine, Mulberry, Willow, Walnut, Arch, Church, Elm, Spruce, Pine, State, and Montgomery. Lincoln Street extends from Market to Spurzheim parallel with Shamokin creek, which was turned into its present channel on the 20th of September, 1872.
The principal additions to the original town plats within the borough limits are the Cameron addition, on the north, Baumgardner’s and Graeber’s, on the east, and Cruikshank’s, on the southeast, while Springfield adjoins on the east, Uniontown on the northwest. West Shamokin on the west, and the Bellas addition on the south.
The Cherry family was early represented in this locality, and is said to have suffered in the Indian depredations of the Revolutionary period. The name of James Cherry appears as a taxable in Shamokin township in 1788; he was probably the first settler, and cleared land at Luke Fidler, Springfield, and elsewhere, residing at a house subsequently known as Irich’s. By the division of the Clark tract in 1803 John Cherry was assigned the lower or western portion. Joseph Cherry settled on the plat near Eagle Run brewery, where vestiges of his improvements were visible long after his residence there had terminated. Prior to the war of 1812 Abraham Cherry built a saw mill on Shamokin creek opposite the Cameron colliery, and near it stood an old dwelling house, for many years a landmark in this section. Another member of this family had a distillery on the hill east of Shamokin.
The Tomlinsons, Solomon Dunkelberger, and William Ducher were also among the early settlers at the site of Shamokin. Of the Tomlinsons but little is definitely known, and that is not to their credit. Solomon Dunkel berger built the first house upon the present site of the borough; it was a log structure, and was situated where the brick residence of Benjamin F. Lake now stands. William Ducher is said to have been murdered; in 1824 the Brady tract was described as ‘”bounded by lands of Benjamin Campbell, late Benjamin Tomlinson, on which there is a stone coal quarry; a small part of the land is cleared, on which is erected a small log dwelling, occupied by the widow of the late William Ducher, deceased.”
On the same day that Cleaver began to survey the town plat, Ziba Bird had the lumber for a house hauled from his saw mill at Locust Gap, and at once inaugurated building operations. Parts of the framework had already been put together and the remainder was sawed and mortised ready for use. Alexander Caldwell was one of the teamsters. The house was set on joists in the ground, and had no stone foundation. It was commenced on the 1st of March, and had so far approached completion as to be occupied as a dwelling on the 5th of April. It occupied part of the site of the National Hotel, corner of Shamokin and Commerce streets, and forms the front part of that structure. Mr. Bird then began the erection of another house on the opposite side of Commerce street; after its completion he moved into it, and finished the first by the addition of a cellar and foundation walls. The following letter, published in a Philadelphia paper and unearthed by Dr. J. J. John, conveys a fairly accurate idea of the appearance and extent of the place at that time: —
Shamokin P. O., July 9, 1835
I have just returned from a short ride of six miles to the termination of the graded part of the western section of the— allow me to call it “Girard railroad”— being accompanied by the assistant engineer, Mr. Totten, to whose polite attentions I am much indebted for much of the pleasure of the trip through the mountains. The road from this point (which is on the Shamokin creek, thirteen miles east of Sunbury) passes up the creek, principally through an almost uninhabited country— the population, at least, is very sparse. Some three or four miles up we came into the Shamokin coal region, by the mines of which the country below, as far as Sunbury, is supplied, and from which, when the road is completed, large quantities will be sent to the Susquehanna river for exportation. On arriving at Mr. Boyd’s mines, near the terminus of the graded part of the road and amidst the solitary mountains, we were gratified to see a large two-story dwelling house, a large store, barn, and other out-houses erected and nearly completed in a neat and handsome style. But if our surprise was great at observing such buildings in such a place, judge what it must have been when, on our return, we met five or six wagons loaded with furniture, women, children, cats, dogs, and chickens, and accompanied by cows, calves, sheep, and pigs, wending their way up the railroad to these very buildings, where, Daddy informed us, he was about to open a tavern. From whence his guests were to come I could not, for the life of me, conceive, at least until the road should be completed to his place and the mines should be worked. The next building erected, I suppose, will be a blacksmith shop, when the place will have all the attributes of a town in a new country, and will be entitled to a post office.
In 1836 there were five families at Shamokin. Ziba Bird and Joseph Snyder resided at the Boyd town plat, and Dr. Robert Phillips, James Porter, and Jacob Mowry at the lower part of the town.