Quintessential Pennsylvania

  MADISONVILLE - Founded 1849. Named for President James Madison. Madisonville is located in Lackawanna County, east of Scranton. How to Get There:

  Along an active Norfolk Southern Railroad line situated on the east edge of town is the Greenville Railroad Park and Museum, a must-see for railroad buffs and history buffs alike. Traveling along PA 358, it can’t be missed, as a steam switch engine towers beside the street, along with its tender, three cabooses, an ore car and a 1904 patio flat car. The Greenville Railroad Park & Museum was started in 1985 by a group of volunteers interested in preserving and promoting the robust railroad history in Greenville, Pennsylvania. Greenville owes much to the canals and railroads that once kept the town a busy place. Those modes of transportation allowed the borough of Greenville to grow to 10,000 people in 1940. However, with the decline of the railroads and related industries, the population has dropped by about half that amount. Greenville was home to a number of railroad shops. First, the Pittsburgh, Shenango & Lake Erie Railroad began construction of the shops in 1893, but ...

LAIRDSVILLE - Founded 1829. Named for John Laird, pioneer settler. Located on the pleasant Little Muncy Creek on an alluvial flat, Lairdsville is the only village in Franklin Township and has the only post office located in the township. John Laird was the first postmaster of the post office in Lairdsville. How to Get There: Sources and Links: Rootsweb.com - John Laird and the Laird Family Tradition PA-Roots - History of Lycoming County, Lloyd, Chapter 15

ORANGEVILLE - Founded 1780. Named by first settlers, emigrants from Orange County, N.J., for that county. When I first saw this Keystone marker a number of years ago while driving up PA 487 north from Bloomsburg in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, the mention of Orange County, New Jersey caught my eye as a typo. After all, there's no Orange County in New Jersey, but there is an Orange County just over the border in New York State. However, there were settlers to the town that came from both Orange County, New York and Orange, New Jersey (near present day Newark, New Jersey), so there is a back story behind the typo that makes sense. Orangeville was almost named Knobtown or Rickettsville, after early settler Clemuel Ricketts, an Ohio native who came to the area to develop the land around the base of Knob Mountain as a commercial center. The town received the name Orangeville in 1824, due to the many settlers from New York and New Jersey that came to the area. How to Get There: Sources...