Original Article:
For those who were living in Monroe County in 2011, you may well recall the 175th Anniversary of the county date of creation.
The celebration was not as grandiose as that of the Sesquicentennial (150th), but it did have a significant amount of history shared by many local historians.
The following county and township history was provided by Jeffrey L. Wright, Esq.
The history of Monroe County, which was formed on April 1, 1836 from parts of Pike and Northampton Counties, is rich and certainly helps us understand much of the landscape we have today.
The townships that largely compose the eastern end of Monroe County are Smithfield, Middle Smithfield, and Price.
Their history and creation is interesting to follow.
The River School House on River Road in Smithfield Township.
When looking back, you find that Smithfield Township was created in 1748. It was actually part of Bucks County at the time and from 1750 to 1810 it was called Lower Smithfield Township (LST).
An undocumented fact was that it was named for John Smith, an early settler. When Northampton County was formed in 1752, Lower Smithfield was included as part of the new county. When Monroe County was formed (1836), Smithfield Township then became one of the original townships received from Northampton County.
The name Middle Smithfield Township would lead one to think it had been part of the former Lower Smithfield Township. In that thought, you would certainly be correct. It was created in 1794 from the northern portion of LST while it was still part of Northampton County. At the time it was name Middle Smithfield Township (MST) because the land was between what was called Upper Smithfield Township (which also no longer exists) and Lower Smithfield Township.
MST became part of Wayne County when it was formed in 1798 and it became part of Pike County when it was formed in 1814. The township originally ran from the Delaware River to the Lehigh River. But, when Monroe County was formed (1836), MST was one of the original townships to be taken from Pike County. Interestingly, the original township would today take in the current township land, Mount Pocono Borough and parts of Price, Coolbaugh, Paradise and Barrett Townships.
As you would now suspect, Price Township was taken in part from MST and Palmyra Township, which was then part of Pike County. The township was formed in 1830 and named for John Price, who was an early settler. It too was one of the original townships taken from Pike County to create Monroe County. Later, in 1848, a part of Price Township was taken to for Paradise Township and then in 1859 to form Barrett Township. Finally, a part of Price township was taken and added to Coolbaugh Township to increase its size.
In 1815 identified Stroudsburg Borough as the county seat by the state legislature. This was while it was still part of Smithfield Township and Northampton County. When Monroe County was formed, Stroudsburg Borough was the only one taken from Northampton County. The Borough was named for Colonel Jacob Stroud.
Not to be left out, notably, East Stroudsburg was named such as it was east of Stroudsburg. The Borough was actually founded in 1870 when lands from Stroud Township and Smithfield were put together to create the borough.
Far from the rural and remote areas that once were, today these townships and boroughs are a mix of rural, suburban and more urbanized development. The natural beauty of the area, its distance to large metropolitan area and the growth the county has experienced would no doubt befuddle its original settlers. Thinking of today and into the future, no doubt future generations will look back to now and say the same. We are, of course, still a work in progress.
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