Shenandoah

Shenandoah, a borough of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 40 m. N.N.W. of Reading. Pop. (1910, census), 25,774. Among the foreign-born the Lithuanians and Poles predominate - in 1910 a Lithuanian and a Polish paper were published here. Shenandoah is served by the Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley and the Philadelphia & Reading railways. The borough has a public library. The United Greek Catholic Church (Ruthenian Rite) here is said to be the first of this sect in the United States; it was organized as St Michael's Parish in 1885, the first building was erected in 1886, and a new building was completed in 1909. Shenandoah is situated in the eastern part of the middle basin of the great anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania, and the mining and shipping of coal are its chief industries. A log house was built on the site of the present Shenandoah as early as 1835, but there was no further development until 1862, when the first colliery was opened. The borough was incorporated in 1866.