Several times a week, in all weather, I drive to Pittsfield State Forest to hike the varied paths there. On my way, I pass over Pecks Road, then Dan Casey Memorial Drive before turning on to Churchill Road. Almost every time, I wonder who Dan Casey was or who was this Churchill? Could it be the Prime Minister of England?
I knew about Peck, since Jabez Peck ran two textile mills on this road, for over 50 years. It turns out Churchill is named after John Churchill, a captain in the Revolutionary War, who bought land for a farm on what is now state forest. Dan Casey was a city councilor who lived up on Hancock Road and loved fishing. He advocated for a causeway to be built over Onota Lake, and when he passed away the council named the road for him.
The Susquehanna River flows from Lake Otsego, New York, to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Near Sunbury, it is joined by the west branch; near Pittston, it is joined by the Lackawanna; north, it forms a triangle at Tioga and is joined by the Chemung. The earliest settlers in the region, known as Wyomink, had been living here for thousands of years, as evidenced by artifacts on display at the Luzerne County Historical Society. For unknown reasons, by 1575, this people disappeared from the area. It is unclear how or why. It wasnât until about the 1650s that the area was populated again. A band of Native Americans from the northeast claimed sovereignty over the area. They were the Iroquois Confederacy, the name given to the confederation or league of five nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayga and Seneca. When English settlers began arriving around the 1660s, they decided they wanted this land.