Editing Shamokin, Pennsylvania (section)

===19th century===
{{Further|1877 Shamokin uprising}}
Shamokin was founded in 1835 by the coal speculators John C. Boyd and Ziba Bird; it was known as Boyd's Stone-coal Quarry, Boydtown, and New Town.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shamokin |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Shamokin |website=britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=March 20, 2020}}</ref> The discovery in the region of [[anthracite|anthracite coal]] resources, or hard coal, became the basis of much industry. The first recorded coal miners' strike in this region happened in 1842 and became progressively more common afterwards, as company owners called in cavalry units to arrest miners and evict them from their company-owned homes.

Incorporated as a [[Borough (Pennsylvania)|borough]] under the Commonwealth constitution on November 9, 1864, Shamokin became an industrial center in the 19th century, with silk and knitting mills, stocking and shirt factories, wagon shops, ironworks, and brickyards in addition to anthracite coal-mining. The dominant Eagle Silk Mill became the largest textile manufacturing building under one roof in the United States.

Railroad companies such as [[Reading Company|Reading Railroad]] and the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad|Baltimore & Ohio Railroad]] (B&O) bought interests in coal and became major employers in the area, building railroads to ship coal to markets and controlling most jobs. They created profits for their owners by consistently lowering workers' wagers and firing employees, creating widespread poverty and starvation in the town. Workers gradually organized into unions to develop means of bargaining with these powerful companies.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wynn |first=Jake |date=2019-07-24 |title=The Shamokin Uprising – July 25, 1877 |url=https://wynninghistory.com/2019/07/24/the-shamokin-uprising/ |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Jake Wynn - Public Historian |language=en-US}}</ref>

In the [[1877 Shamokin uprising]], railroad workers and miners angered by unexpected cuts in wages begun by the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] (B&O) joined what developed across the East into the [[Great Railroad Strike of 1877]], which began with strikes in neighboring [[Martinsburg, West Virginia]], then others in [[Maryland]], including the headquarters of the B&O at its [[Camden Station|Camden Street Station]] in [[Downtown Baltimore]]. It then spread north and west into Pennsylvania and to [[Pittsburgh]] and other sites in several major industrial cities in Pennsylvania, as well as more cities in the Northeast and as far west as [[St. Louis]] and [[Missouri]]. Over a thousand people participated in the demonstrations in Shamokin, and government- and company-led militias shot and killed over 100 demonstrators. Five strikers were convicted of rioting and jailed for up to eight months for their part in the actions. 20 Irish Catholics were also executed as suspected members of the [[Molly Maguires]] despite lack of strong evidence.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-07-25 |title=130th Anniversary of the 1877 Shamokin Uprising and the Great Railroad Strike |url=https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/130th-anniversary-of-the-1877-shamokin-uprising-an |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=History News Network |language=en}}</ref>

Inventor, scientist and entrepreneur [[Thomas A. Edison]], briefly a resident of nearby Sunbury, established the [[Edison Illuminating Company]] of Shamokin in 1882. When the Shamokin power generating station on Independence Street started on September 22, 1883, [[St. Edward's Catholic Church|St. Edward's Roman Catholic Church]], which was connected, became the world's first church lit by electricity.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hall |first=Garth |title=Thomas Edison, known world-wide as one of the most prolific inventors in history, held 1,097 U |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nungesser/Thomas/ThomasStudio/Edison.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402173237/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nungesser/Thomas/ThomasStudio/Edison.htm |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |access-date=November 27, 2013 |newspaper=The News-Item |publisher=Freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com |location=Shamokin, PA}}</ref> Until 2017, Jones Hardware Company was at the Independence Street site of the former Edison electrical station.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Jones Hardware and Home Center |url=http://www.joneshardware.com/ace.htm |access-date=November 27, 2013 |publisher=Joneshardware.com}}</ref>