The Blakeslee family has played an important role in Tobyhanna Township ever since the first member, Jacob Blakeslee Sr., arrived here in the very early part of the 19th century. Read More...

The story passed down through the family generations is that three brothers emigrated from Germany in 1754. They were Jacob, David and Dewalt Burger. Two settled in Northampton County and the third in either upper Carbon County or the lower part of Monroe County. Read More...

It is believed that the Ibach family can be traced back to Peter Ibach, born in Germany in 1369. The earliest ancestors who have definitely been linked to the Ibach family in America are Johann Ibach (born circa 1600) and his wife, Mary Luder Petbrand in Germany. Read More...

Another pioneer family in Tobyhanna Township was Eschenbach. Like many others, it had various spellings such as starting with an “a” and ending with “ugh”. For this biographic sketch, we will begin with its American origin in the colony of Pennsylvania. Read More...

This family provides an example of how immigrants from Northern Ireland came to the Unites States and rose in economic and social status. Its family members had some means as they maintained a hardware and plumbing establishment in Westchester County, New York. Read More...

The Henning family arrived in New York on December 26, 1854, aboard the ship “Republic” from Bremen, Germany. The father, Adolph, was listed as age 54 and his occupation as a farmer. His wife, Louisa, was the same age, and the family settled on a farm near Albrightsville in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. Read More...

The Hayes family has played a prominent role in Tobyhanna Township. Its origin can be traced back to England in the 17th century, and the first emigrant came to New England about 1700. Read More...

The beginning of the Kerrick family is shrouded in mystery with the first known person of that name in modern times, and the circumstances of her life. There have been various spellings of the name in different locations. It is possible that it might have been spelled Krywick, while one document talked of an Englishman named Currick and another about Mary Gerrick. Read More...

The McKeen Family played a role in Tobyhanna Township during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. There are several descendants still living in the township. Read More...

Robert Newell is identified by Alfred Matthews in the History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania as one of the first permanent settlers of Tobyhanna Township. Read More...

The history of the Silfies family is a long, colorful and rich one. It occupies more than 200 pages of a family tree, which is constantly being expanded and improved. Read More...

Known as “King of the Poconos,” Ike Stauffer (1834-1881) ran large lumbering operations and saw mills, made clothes pins and shoe pegs, built and operated the Laurel Inn, and a major stockholder in the Pocono Lake Ice Company. Read More...

The Leonard Stoddart family played a prominent part in the history of the extreme northwest corner of Tobyhanna Township, Monroe County, as the family maintained an important tavern and stage coach stop on the Wilkes-Barre-Easton Turnpike for many years in Stoddartsville. Read More...

The Waltz Family were German immigrants settling in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in 1805. Some years later, Walter Ellsworth Waltz followed the logging industry, which brought him and his family to Tobyhanna Township. Read More...

The Wagner family is not only an important part of the history of Tobyhanna Township, but also had a significant impact on both Monroe County and the state of Pennsylvania. George E.Wagner proved that growing Christmas trees in Pennsylvania was a feasible, profitable and beneficial business. He and his son, Sterling Wagner, pioneered the tree nursery and showed this success by their scientific methods.
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John Wildrick (1707-1793), immigrated from Bravaria, Germany, to the United States and settled in New Jersey. He had a son Michael (1753-1840), who fought in the American Revolution. Michael begat Samuel (b.1775) who, in turn, begat Samuel, Jr. The latter is the first Wildrick family member to settle in Pennsylvania. Read More...

A major source of information about much of Monroe County’s history comes from a book written by Alfred Mathews, “The History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania," published in 1886. Among the few pioneers of Tobyhanna Township mentioned in that volume is the Winter family. Read More...