Editing Kingston Township, Pennsylvania (section)

===Shavertown and Trucksville=== 
[[Shavertown, Pennsylvania|Shavertown]] is named for an early settler — Philip Shaver. In 1813, Philip purchased the land that would later become Shavertown from William Trucks, the namesake of [[Trucksville, Pennsylvania|Trucksville]]. That same year, Philip sold the northwest portion of his land to John McClellon. This land would be known as McClellonsville, a small village which was later named [[Dallas, Pennsylvania|Dallas]]. By 1818, Philip still owned nearly one thousand acres of land in the [[Back Mountain, Pennsylvania|Back Mountain]] region.

Philip Shaver was born in 1762 along the Danube River Valley in [[Vienna]], [[Austria]]. He migrated to the United States between 1765 and 1769 with his parents and brothers. Philip Shaver married Mary Ann Wickizer at St. James Lutheran Church (in Greenwich, Warren County, New Jersey, on December 12, 1786). They had 7 children: John Philip, Peter, William G., Elizabeth, James Henry, George, and Asa W. Shaver. Around 1804, Philip and his family arrived in [[Forty Fort, Pennsylvania|Forty Fort]], where they resided until 1810. Philip came to the “[[Back Mountain, Pennsylvania|Back of the Mountain]]” in search of a gigantic species of legendary [[evergreen trees]]. He was forced to carve out a path from a rugged foot trail and among heavily forested lands, now [[PA Route 309|PA 309]]. Philip and his sons constructed a [[sawmill]] in 1815. This first mill was on the north branch of [[Toby Creek]] and located near the Prince of Peace Church on Main Street in Dallas.

In 1816, he donated a piece of land for the first [[school]] in the Back Mountain. The school was a one-room log cabin on the site of the current Back Mountain Memorial Library on Huntsville Road. Philip also set aside land for a public burying ground “on the hill near the pine grove just south of Dallas Village (on the road to Huntsville).” Philip also designated a plot of land for his family's graves, visible from Overbrook Road. In 1826, Philip died after an accident. His left hand was crushed in the [[cider press]] that he and his sons were operating in November 1826. Philip was forced to [[amputate]] his own hand and died of [[blood poisoning]] a few days later on November 7, 1826.