Editing Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
[[File:SchuylkillHavenAerial.jpg|thumb|Aerial photograph of Schuylkill Haven and surrounding areas in June 2023]]
Before Europeans settled the land that is present-day Schuylkill Haven, the area was occupied by the [[Lenape]] Indian tribe, who were known as the Delaware Indians by the [[British colonization of the Americas|British]].

The earliest European settlers arrived in the area of present-day Schuylkill Haven in the 1730s. They traveled north of [[Blue Mountain (Pennsylvania)|Blue Mountain]] at the present-day [[Berks County, Pennsylvania|Berks]]-[[Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania|Schuylkill County]] line at that time.

The first settler in Schuylkill Haven was John Fincher, a [[Quakers|Quaker]] from [[Chester County, Pennsylvania]], who received a land grant of {{convert|225|acre|km2}} on March 5, 1750, the day Schuylkill Haven considers its unofficial founding. Fincher constructed a house and barn near the [[Schuylkill River]], and called his small settlement "Fincher's Ford."

The second known settler of Schuylkill Haven was Martin Dreibelbis, a [[Germans|German]] who arrived in the Spring of 1775. Martin Dreibelbis constructed a house, saw mill, distillery, and a grist mill on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River.  He later built a log house near present-day Main Street, giving Dreibelbis the title as Schuylkill Haven's "first resident". Dreibelbis willed his original plot of the town to his son, Jacob.  Another son, Daniel, received an area east of the original plot, and a third son, George, received an area known as "Seven Stars", located north of Schuylkill Haven on the Schuylkill River.

The original plot of Schuylkill Haven shows that the borough stretched from the Schuylkill River on the west to present-day Main Street on the north, then known as Front Street, to Saint Peter Street on the east, then known as Jacob Street, and Liberty Street on the south. Present-day Columbia Street was initially the main residential district.<ref>Schuylkill Haven 225th Anniversary Book (1975), pp. 10-12</ref>