Editing Jenkins Township, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
===Settlement===
Isaac Gould and Joseph Gardner were the first permanent settlers in modern-day Jenkins Township. The first important settlement in the territory was Joseph Gardner's [[gristmill]] in 1794 (on [[Gardner Creek (Mill Creek tributary)|Gardner's Creek]]). The first schoolhouse was built in the early 1810s. Jenkins Township was formed from a section of [[Pittston Township, Pennsylvania|Pittston Township]] on June 24, 1852.<ref name="Jenkins Township">{{Cite web | url=http://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/patk/jenkinstwp.htm | title=Jenkins Township }}</ref> It was named after Col. John Jenkins<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historyofluzerne00brad History of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Selections], by Bradsby, Henry C., ed, 1893, Publisher: Chicago, S. B. Nelson, page [https://archive.org/stream/historyofluzerne00brad#page/588/mode/2up 589]</ref> (who settled the area with his family in 1769).<ref>Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889, Vol III: Grinnell - Lockwood, page 426</ref> He served as an officer in the [[American Revolutionary War|American Revolution]] (1775-1782), and as a Representative of Luzerne County in the [[Pennsylvania Legislature]] (elected in 1797).<ref>News Article: LEDGER-PHILADELPHIA, Thu November 27, 1924 "Pennsylvanians - Past and Present: Colonel John Jenkins, Officer of the Revolution" By F. A. Godcharles</ref>

===Coal mining===
{{main|Knox Mine Disaster}} 
[[Logging]] and [[farming]] were the first major employers in the region, but due to the abundance of [[anthracite coal]] under the township, the [[coal mining]] industry quickly expanded. [[Port Griffith, Pennsylvania|Port Griffith]] was named in honor of one of the original stockholders of the Pennsylvania Coal Company. Other villages in the township (e.g., Port Blanchard, [[Inkerman, Pennsylvania|Inkerman]], and Sebastopol) also played an important role in the mining industry.<ref name="Jenkins Township"/> On January 22, 1959, the [[Knox Mine Disaster]] in Port Griffith, Jenkins Township, claimed the lives of 12 people and essentially shut down the mining industry in [[Northeastern Pennsylvania]].<ref name=um>{{cite web |url=http://www.undergroundminers.com/knox.html |title=Knox Mine Disaster |date=2005 |access-date=December 29, 2016 |author=Chris Murley |archive-date=December 30, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161230160002/http://www.undergroundminers.com/knox.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Contemporary history===
The coal companies left behind a scarred landscape (e.g., [[Spoil tip|culm banks]]) when they pulled out of the region. Today, Jenkins Township's economy is composed of an expanding [[warehouse|warehousing]] industry. 
 
On September 25, 1982, [[George Banks (spree killer)|George Banks]] killed thirteen people in a [[shooting]] [[Spree killer|rampage]] in Jenkins Township and [[Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania|Wilkes-Barre City]].<ref>{{cite news | last =Robbins | first =William  | title =Gunman Kills 13 in a Pennsylvania Rampage | newspaper =[[The New York Times]] | date =September 26, 1982 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/26/world/gunman-kills-13-in-a-pennsylvania-rampage.html | access-date =March 3, 2018 }}</ref>