When word came to "Old" Walnut Ridge that the railroad was coming, Col. Willis Miles Ponder moved the entire settlement a few miles, cleared a site for a depot, and platted the new town in 1874. Not long after, Hoxie was formed when Henry and Mary Boas offered a right-of-way for another railroad through their land just south of Walnut Ridge. Born by the railroads, the towns have been joined at the hip ever since. By 1889, there was a mule-drawn streetcar connecting the two towns, replaced ...

Join Ray and Diane Hadley as they retell the history of the communities that make up Jonesboro and Arkansas's Northeast Corner in vintage images. When Union soldiers returned North after the Civil War, they brought home stories of a sparsely populated area with bountiful timber and potential for homes and farms. Over the next 50 years, first by wagon train and then by railroads, settlers came to build not only homes and farms but also thriving communities in the Clay, Greene, and Craighead...

Over 200 never before published photographs are presented in this pictorial history, which spans the early 1800's through the early 1950's. As we approach the end of the century, this new book looks back at over one hundred years of Canandaigua's history, with photographs of the people, places, and events that have defined the proud and vibrant community we know so well today. Readers will be fascinated by the immense changes that have occurred since the early days, but will also draw conn...

Esau Decker walked to southeastern Franklin County from the Shenandoah Valley in 1805. Marking his Ohio property with a walking stick, Decker returned with his Virginia family the following year to discover that the willow cane had taken root and was growing. It is from this same fertile soil that farms, businesses and social groups grew to create the village of Groveport and the thriving farming community with which it is forever intertwined, Madison Township.Groveport and Madison Townshi...

Monticello was founded by the White County commissioners in 1834 on a bluff above the Tippecanoe River. They named it after the mansion ofThomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. It was incorporated as a town in 1862. The county seat grew more rapidly when the railroads cameto town before the Civil War. Then the town grew large enough to become a city in 1909, and a mayor was elected. The area around the city became atourist destination in the 1920s after dams created th...

Wilkes-Barre, located along the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley, is the county seat of Luzerne County. The city was founded in 1769 by John Durkee and was named for John Wilkes and Isaac Barr', both members of the British Parliament and supporters of the Colonists' fight for liberty. The city was incorporated as a borough in 1806 and as a city in 1871. Wilkes-Barre has undergone many changes in its long history, evolving from a farming community into the industrial city it is now. ...

Honesdale, Pennsylvania, nestled in the Pocono Mountains, is known for its picturesque views and colorful people. Named after Philip Hone, mayor of New York City and president of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, the area formerly known as Dyberry Forks was selected as the site to transport anthracite coal from the Wyoming Valley to New York City by gravity railroad and canal. Honesdale is the home of the Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run on commercial tracks in the Western ...

Formed from portions of Wood, Tyler, and Ritchie Counties, Pleasants County was founded in 1851 and was named after Gov. James Pleasants Jr. of Virginia. Residents of Pleasants County fondly recall many of the buildings that no longer exist today, such as the button factory, blacksmith shop, marble factory, and the Quaker State Oil Refinery, all of which are preserved in the photographs that are showcased throughout Images of America: Pleasants County. Taking a step back in time, these pho...

In 1832, John, Walter, and Daniel Pearce, and their brother-in-law, William Smith Wilson, walked west from their homes in Ohio prospecting for land. When they reached the Fox River in the vicinity of modern Oswego, they agreed they had found the place they wanted to settle. The next year, 1833, after selling their Ohio farms, they traveled west by wagon with their families and became the first settlers in Oswego Township. Just two years later, Lewis B. Judson and Levi F. Arnold laid out a ...

Old Town, situated in north-central Maine, sits snugly along the mighty Penobscot River. Taking advantage of the river's vibrant woods and watershed, Old Town would become the country's leading producer of timber in its early history. Penobscot Indian tribes had inhabited the land for more than 6,000 years, but the area's resources were so vast that, by 1836, the first railroad in Maine had established a line from Bangor to Old Town, with many eager to access the town's wealth. Since its s...

Alleghany County was formed in 1822 from parts of Botetourt, Bath, and Monroe Counties. The area was settled in 1746, and by the early part of the 19th century, a number of settlements and large farms were operating locally. Covington, Clifton Forge, Iron Gate, Longdale, Selma, Low Moor, and other small communities developed, and the natural resources in the area led to the establishment of several industrial operations. The railroad came to Selma in 1857, and after the Civil War, the Ches...

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville described the Saginaw Valley as the 'far west' of our growing nation, predicting that its impenetrable forests would soon be felled, and its river would be lined with quays and filled with vessels. Influential settlers soon began to confirm those predictions, including the Trombleys, who arrived in 1831 and built the Trombley House in 1837. Albert Miller platted Portsmouth in 1836'and Lower Saginaw, now known as Bay City, was platted the same year. Throughout...