A fascinating look at the industrialization of America, through railroad expansion, in the small Ohio town of Alliance. Includes archival photography and images. According to local history, General Robinson, a railroad official from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, named this Ohio town Alliance in 1850. Known for a short time as The Crossing, Robinson believed that Alliance was a better name since the nation's two major railroads intersected here. The name stuck, and in 1854, the communities of W...

The rich heritage of descendants of English, Dutch, and German settlers in the Hunterdon County population centers of Clinton, Flemington, and Lambertville is presented here. Life among the rolling hills of northwest New Jersey and in the three small towns that became centers of that area's population has been faithfully recorded by residents since the Civil War, capturing the rural character of their landscape.

The first settlers came to the Brockport area soon after 1800. Located some twenty miles west of Rochester, the towns of Sweden and Clarkson, the village of Brockport, and a college were organized between 1814 and 1835. The Erie Canal, farm implement manufacturing, and higher education fostered their growth and prosperity in the mid-1800s. At Brockport, the United States became a continental nation, the Industrial Revolution came to agriculture, and popular literature came to American wome...

North Brunswick, a large town spread over 12 square miles, has a rich history extending back to the early 1600s, when its only occupants were members of the Lenni-Lenape tribe. Some of the earliest establishments included the Black Horse Tavern building, which in 1670 was a stagecoach stop, and the Lion Tavern. By 1750, a gristmill operated near where a dam is currently located on Farrington Lake and was later joined by a snuff mill and tannery. From 1775 through 1900, the area was almost ...

The history of York College of Pennsylvania begins shortly after the Revolutionary War. The college traces its lineage directly to three ancestral schools. The foundation was York County Academy, an English classical school chartered in 1787. The academy merged in 1929 with York Collegiate Institute, founded in 1873. Under one roof, both schools survived the Great Depression. In 1941, the charter was amended to allow two years of college-level courses and the institution became York Junior...

Incorporated on February 28, 1774, Ludlow, Massachusetts, was originally a part of Springfield. The origin of the name remains a mystery, though the most probable explanation is that it was named after Roger Ludlow, an early prominent New England citizen who played a great part in building up the town and taking care of its citizens. The Ludlow Manufacturing Company, formed around 1900 by Charles T. Hubbard, helped shape the town by providing housing, a library, schools, playgrounds, and e...

Woodbury possesses a rich heritage that reads like the story of America. Established in 1683 by Quakers seeking religious freedom, the community was occupied for three days by British troops under Gen. Charles Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War. In 1787, Woodbury became the county seat of Gloucester County, and it remains so to this day. It was home to Capt. James Lawrence, who coined the phrase "Don't give up the ship" during the War of 1812. Woodbury features views of the lavish hom...

Like a cherished old family album, this collection of more than two hundred fascinating photographs of Irvington brings to life people, places, and events of a bygone era. Although the Irvington depicted here�from the time of the Civil War to the 1970s�has changed significantly, its memory remains fresh in the minds of past and present residents alike. Culled from the extensive collections of the Irvington Public Library and Irvington Historical Society, this superb assemblage of images wi...

Edison, named for its most famous resident, inventor Thomas Alva Edison, can be called the birthplace of modern life as we know it. It was here at his Menlo Park complex that Thomas Edison created the incandescent electric lightbulb and 300 other inventions, providing residents with not only a place of employment but also a source of national pride. Known as Raritan Township until 1954, Edison was a slow-paced agricultural community until the twentieth century, with farms remaining until t...

This delightful new photographic history of Foxborough presents an affectionate and lively tribute to the town in its heyday. Well-known local historian Jack Authelet has pored through the archives of the Foxborough Historical Commission to select over two hundred vintage images of the town and its people. Combined with an informative text, these outstanding pictures present a revealing social commentary on life in Foxborough from the mid-nineteenth century to the town�s sesquicentennial c...

The Mahanoy area in Schuylkill County is the heart of the anthracite coal region. It is quintessentially defined by hardworking individuals who made their livings around the mining industry, but the area was also the foundation of family fortunes, longstanding business ventures, and political intrigue. Real estate mogul Charles D. Kaier began the mostup-to-date brewery of the day here; early resident John Smith built his lavish fourteen-room mansion for $40,000 in 1908; and the controversi...

Once among the wealthiest communities in the country, Catasauqua was the birthplace of the modern American iron and steel industry. The energy and inventiveness of industrialists such as David Thomas, J.W. Fuller, and Leonard Peckitt spurred the growth and spread the fame of the Iron Borough far beyond the Lehigh Valley. Entrepreneurs and workers flocked to Catasauqua and North Catasauqua. They filled its mansions and row houses, churches and schools, silk mills, saloons, and playing field...