Editing Kingston, Pennsylvania (section)

===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>