Shamokin

Shamokin, a borough of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on Shamokin Creek, about 45 m. (73 m. by rail) N. by E. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1900) 18,202, of whom 2703 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 19,588. Shamokin is served by the Philadelphia & Reading, the Northern Central, and two interurban railways. There are two parks. The mining and shipping of anthracite coal and the manufacture of silk goods and of hosiery and knit goods are the borough's principal industries, but it has, also, foundries and machine shops, and manufactories of powder, powder-kegs, shirts, overalls, hooks and eyes, brick, flour and dressed lumber. The total value of its factory product in 1905 was $1,443,915. The borough was named from Shamokin Creek; the name is probably a mutilation of a Delaware Indian word meaning "full of eels." The Indian village named Shamokin was on the site of the present Sunbury, Pa. Shamokin was formed in 1852 by the union of two villages, Groveville and Mary Ann. It was incorporated as a borough in 1864.