Editing Kingston, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
===Early history===
In the early 1660s, [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] owed [[William Penn (Royal Navy officer)|Admiral Sir William Penn]] a large sum of money. To settle this debt, he granted Penn's son, [[William Penn|William]], a territory in [[North America]], which later became known as [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]]. However, [[Connecticut Colony|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 in the United States|Native Americans]] to [[Christianity]]. At the time, the valley was inhabited by several Native American tribes (including the [[Susquehannock]] and the [[Lenape|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, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania|Kingston Township]].

By the late 1760s, both Connecticut and Pennsylvania settlers [[Yankee-Pennamite Wars|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, Pennsylvania|Northumberland County]]. However, Connecticut settlers remained determined to create a [[State of Westmoreland|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.<ref name="kingstonpa.org">{{Cite web | url=http://kingstonpa.org/history |title = History – Kingston Borough}}</ref>

===Revolutionary War===
[[File:ChappelWyomingMassacre.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The [[Battle of Wyoming]] by Alonzo Chappel (1858)]]
On June 30, 1778, [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] forces, under the command of Major [[John Butler (Ranger)|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 (American Revolution)|Patriot]] militia assembled at [[Forty Fort]]. On July 3, a column of roughly 375 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 [[Butler's Rangers|Rangers]], with the assistance of about 500 indigenous allies, ambushed the oncoming Americans. In the end, nearly 300  Patriot soldiers from the Wyoming Valley were killed during the [[Battle of Wyoming]], commonly known as the Wyoming Massacre.<ref name="Williams">{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Glenn F. |title=Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois. |date=2005 |publisher=Westholme |location=Yardley, Pennsylvania |url=https://archive.org/details/yearofhangmangeo0000will |url-access=registration}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Williams" /> Most of the inhabitants, however, fled across the [[Pocono Mountains]] to [[Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania|Stroudsburg]] and [[Easton, Pennsylvania|Easton]] or down the [[Susquehanna River]] to [[Sunbury, Pennsylvania|Sunbury]].

===Incorporation===
The community has a rich history in American education. It is said that the first [[State school|public school]] in Pennsylvania was erected in Kingston (in the 1770s).<ref name="pagenweb.org">{{Cite web | url=http://www.pagenweb.org/~luzerne/patk/kingston.htm |title = Kingston, Luzerne Co., Pa}}</ref> 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]].<ref name="kingstonpa.org"/> The first election for the community was held on December 15, 1857. Ruben Jones was elected [[Burgess (title)|burgess]] and [[justice of the peace]]. Some of the first [[town council|council members]] elected included Bestor Payne, Marshall G. Whitney, Reuben Marcy, Thomas Pringle, and Richard Hutching.<ref name="pagenweb.org"/>

In 1923, the [[Kingston Armory]] was built. On September 11, 1950, 33 guardsmen from the [[109th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)|109th Field Artillery Regiment]] were killed in a train accident near [[Coshocton, Ohio]]. In the following days, the dead were moved to the Kingston Armory, where the remains were relinquished to the grief-stricken families.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.koreanwar-educator.org/topics/homefront/p_troop_train.htm |title = Korean War Educator: Home Front - Troop Train Tragedy}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/det.4a07285/ |title = Breaker boys, Woodward Coal Mines, Kingston, Pa|year = 1900}}</ref> 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 [[U.S. President|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.
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| image1= Kingston Corners, Kingston, Pennsylvania (75651).jpg
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| caption1= Kingston in the early 20th century 
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| image2= Kingston High School, Kingston, Pennsylvania (75652).jpg
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| caption2=Kingston High School 
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| image3= Kingston PA Presby PHS296.jpg
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| caption3= Former [[Presbyterian Church]] in Kingston
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| image4= Wyoming Seminary tower LuzCo PA.JPG
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| caption4=The Bell Tower, Wyoming Seminary
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