Editing Shenandoah, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
The area that ultimately became Shenandoah was first settled by a farmer named Peter Kehley in 1835. Kehley cleared a patch of land at the center of the valley and built a log cabin and maintained his farm for about 20 years in total isolation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shenandoahpahistory.org/history.html|title=The Greater Shenandoah Area Historical Society|work=shenandoahpahistory.org|access-date=31 May 2015}}</ref> He sold his claim to the Philadelphia Land Company, which in anticipation of the opening of coal mines in the area, laid out the town in 1862.<ref name= Munsell>{{Cite book  | last = W.W. Munsell & Co
| title = History of Schuylkill County, Pa
| publisher = W.W. Munsell & Co.
| year = 1881
| page= 377
| location = New York
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fycUAAAAYAAJ&q=History+of+Schuylkill+County+PA.
}}</ref>
[[File:Coal at Girard Park, Shenandoah PA.JPG|thumb|right|Six ton piece of coal at Girard Park.]]
Booming growth occurred during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] years caused by the development and opening of several anthracite coal mines.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} The area was incorporated as a borough in 1866<ref name= Munsell/> and was a famous hotbed of activity during the era of the [[Molly Maguires]] in the 1870s.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}

After the original influx of English, Welsh, Irish, and German immigrants a large influx of people from central, eastern and southern European countries such as Poland, Lithuania, and Italy occurred in the decades before and after the turn of the 20th century. {{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}[[Image:Shenandoah1889.jpg|right|thumb|1889 Panoramic Map of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania]]

The [[Lehigh Valley Railroad]] Station served as the main passenger terminal in Shenandoah, but because of the coal industry, it was not the only railroad to service Shenandoah. The town was also served by the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] and [[Reading Company|Reading Railroad]], making Shenandoah the only borough in Pennsylvania to be served by three railroad companies.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}

In Schuylkill County Court, in January 1902, those interested filed their petition for retail, wholesale, bottling or brewing licenses at the Office of the Clerk of the Court. Shenandoah was represented with bars and breweries. This coal town offered more bars per thousand people than any other location in the world.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

During the Great [[Coal Strike of 1902]] the Pennsylvania National Guard was called into Shenandoah to keep the peace and curb rioting by angry miners.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grossman|first=Johnathan|date=1975|title=The Coal Strike of 1902 – Turning Point in U.S. Policy|url=http://large.stanford.edu/publications/coal/references/grossman/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190206185842/http://large.stanford.edu/publications/coal/references/grossman/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2019-02-06|journal=Monthly Labor Review|volume=98|pages=21|via=U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics}}</ref> The strike would only be resolved after President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] intervened. 

By 1920, the town had a population of nearly 30,000 residents.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}

The community was hard hit by the decline of the anthracite coal industry after World War II and heavy emigration by coal miners occurred in order to find work elsewhere.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}

Shenandoah, the rise and fall of the coal industry, and the dismantling of the [[Molly Maguires]] was one of the subjects examined by George Leighton in his 1939 book ''Five Cities: The Story of Their Youth and Old Age''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Leighton|first= George R. |title=Five Cities: The Story of Their Youth and Old Age|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.155805|location= New York|publisher= Harper & Brothers|year= 1939|doi=10.1002/ncr.4110280620}}</ref>

Shenandoah Valley was featured in the documentary 2012 film "Shenandoah, Pennsylvania" exploring the hate crime murder of Luis Ramirez and the local police attempting to cover it up.