A Gazetteer Of The State Of Pennsylvania

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

A gazetteer is fundamentally a geographical dictionary that lists names in alphabetical order. Mr. Gordon, an eminent historian in his time, did laborious research of public records and had personal contact with officials of every county in an effort to make this book as complete and accurate as possible. Pennsylvania land record research is often made difficult by the lack of a specific location within a given county. Its not unusual to find the only description of land is the name of a road, mountain, or a creek mentioned in a deed but which cannot be found on a modern map. Many towns and settlements, which existed in previous years either completely disappeared and/or the place names were changed. In these instances, even the best current maps are of no use and earlier century maps are not readily available in most of the United States. For this reason, the value of old gazetteers in locating and identifying our ancestors cannot be overemphasized. Names and locations of all cities, towns, villages, rivers, creeks, mountains, lakes and hamlets that existed in Pennsylvania in 1832, including some of the most unusual places are found in this gazetteer. Once located in this book, in most circumstances, these sites can be correlated in relationship to present day jurisdictions. Statistical tables for each county listing the townships that existed in 1832 as well as population schedules and the number of taxables for each township are included. The last section of the Gazetteer lists all the post offices in the state for that year. A very valuable tool for the genealogist. Enlarged to provide easier reading, this reprint, out-of-print for many years, should be of great value to the genealogist, historian or geographer.