Early history In the early 1660s,
King Charles II owed
Admiral Sir William Penn a large sum of money. To settle this debt, he granted Penn's son,
William, a territory in
North America, which later became known as
Pennsylvania. However,
Connecticut also claimed a portion of this land.
Count Zinzendorf was one of the first people to take an interest in the
Wyoming Valley. In 1742, he came to the region to convert the
Native Americans to
Christianity. At the time, the valley was inhabited by several Native American tribes (including the
Susquehannock and the
Delaware). His reports led a group of Connecticut settlers to form the Connecticut Susquehanna Company. This company bought the land from the natives. In 1768, they met in
Hartford, Connecticut, and decided to survey and divide the territory into five townships (each one was five square miles). The plan was to sell and divide each township among forty settlers. The first forty pioneers took possession of
Kingston Township. By the late 1760s, both Connecticut and Pennsylvania settlers
fought over this territory. The conflict was eventually settled in the 1780s. The disputed land was granted to Pennsylvania. The location of modern-day Kingston became part of
Northumberland County. However, Connecticut settlers remained determined to create a
new state in
northeastern Pennsylvania.
Timothy Pickering was sent to the region to politically examine the situation. This led to the Pennsylvania Assembly passing a resolution which created Luzerne County. This ended the idea of creating a new state. Luzerne County was created from part of Northumberland County. Under Pickering's leadership and direction, county elections were held, the courts were established, and a government was formed.
Revolutionary War by Alonzo Chappel (1858) On June 30, 1778,
Loyalist forces, under the command of Major
John Butler, arrived in the Wyoming Valley to attack the American settlements. On July 1, Fort Wintermoot at the north end of the valley surrendered without a shot being fired. The next morning the smaller Fort Jenkins surrendered. Both forts were later burned to the ground. Meanwhile, the
Patriot militia assembled at
Forty Fort. On July 3, a column of roughly 360 men including a company of soldiers in the
Continental Army marched from the fort under the command of Lieutenant Colonel
Zebulon Butler and Colonel Nathan Denison. Major Butler's
Rangers, with the assistance of 464
Iroquois warriors, ambushed the oncoming Americans. In the end, 302 American soldiers from the Wyoming Valley were killed during the
Battle of Wyoming, commonly known as the Wyoming Massacre. The next day Colonel Denison surrendered Forty Fort along with several other posts. Widespread looting and burning of buildings occurred throughout the Wyoming Valley subsequent to the capitulation, but non-combatants were not harmed. The borough is also home to the Upper School of
Wyoming Seminary, a prestigious
college preparatory school founded in 1844. During the first year, it enrolled 31 students (17 boys and 14 girls). Today, Wyoming Seminary's historic campus hosts roughly 450 students. Kingston witnessed a population boom after the construction and operation of the
Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad. It was incorporated as a borough on November 23, 1857. The borough is named after
Kingston, Rhode Island. Coal mining was a chief industry in and around Kingston prior to the
Knox Mine Disaster. The 1959 tragedy essentially shut down the mining industry in and around the borough. In June 1972, Kingston was devastated by the flooding of
Hurricane Agnes. The hurricane wreaked havoc on Kingston and neighboring Wilkes-Barre, causing a state of emergency. The natural disaster earned national attention and a visit from
President Richard Nixon, who recruited Wyoming Seminary graduate
Frank Carlucci (a Nixon administration official in the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) as a point man to oversee flood recovery efforts. After the flood, Kingston adopted a
home rule charter. It became effective in January 1976. ==Geography==