Slovenian Marriages As Reported In
The Forest City News
Forest City, Pennsylvania
Background and INDEX
Copyright © 1996, Slovenian Genealogy Society and FEEFHS, all rights
reserved
First Posted: 3 October 1996
A Compilation of Slovenian Marriages As Reported In
The Forest City News
Forest City, Pennsylvania
Edited by Albert Peterlin
Marriages Compiled by Barbara Puchnick
Formatted by Mary Lou Davison
Digitized by Alan-Jon Zupan
For
The Slovenian Genealogy Society
52 Old Farm Road
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania 17011-2604
Background Forest City is the southeastern most community in Susquehanna
County.
A sister city,
Vandling, is situated just to the south in Lackawanna County. Another, Browndale, lies to
the east in
Wayne County.
William Pentecost founded Forest City in 1864. He moved from the nearby town of
Prompton in Wayne County in order to conduct a lumbering business. The town was first
known as
Forest Mills or Pentecost after it's founder.
By 1865, the population increased to 50. A Post Office was established in 1879 under the
name Pentecost. By
1886, both the Railway Station and the Post Office used the name Forest City. Editor, J.M.
Brown, published the
first edition of The Forest City News, a weekly newspaper, on December 8, 1887.
The towns population swelled to 2319 in 1890, to 4279 in 1900, and to 5749 in 1910.
The increase was
almost completely accounted for by immigrants from Europe who were attracted to the
area to move into
the newly opened anthracite mines. By 1920, the local population reached a high of
6004. A lengthy coal
mine strike in 1925 knelled the beginning of the end of the coal based economy. The
population began a
slow but steady decline that finally leveled out in the early 1960s.
The tide of immigrants in the area began in 1847 when the Irish arrived following the
Potato famine. With
the discovery of hard coal, immigrant miners arrived to fill the need. Wales supplied the
majority of miners
until 1890. After 1890, the miners came mostly from Yugoslavia, Poland, Lithuania,
Czechoslovakia, and
Italy.
Slovenia is now the northern most Republic of Yugoslavia. From 1890 to 1920, Slovenians
migrated in the
thousands. By 1893, there were enough Slovenians in the Forest City area for the
establishment of a fraternal
organization, St. Joseph's Lodge. By 1904, with the Slovenian population reaching 300
adults, St. Joseph's
Church was built. Prior to 1904, the Slovenian population worshipped at St. Rose's
Church in Carbondale
and then at St. Agnes' or St. Anthony's in Forest City. St. Joseph's Parish is still active
today.
The Forest City News has been an active participant in the lives of the people of
Forest City throughout
the entire period of strong ethnic growth in the Forest City area. John Kameen the current
owner, has graciously
allowed Barbara Puchnick to scan all past issues to collect information on the Slovenian
population. She has
helped compile an every name index of the Slovenian people that includes birth,
marriages, and death. As
an adjunct, she collected a rather complete compilation of marriage announcements. It is
these marriage
announcements that have been indexed in this publication. Mary Lou Davison has spent
many hours putting
the information in a useable format and has spent even more hours alphabetizing the
data.
Marriages 1908-1986
as listed in the Forest City News, Forest City, Pennsylvania
collected by
Barbara Puchnick
INDEX of Slovenian MARRIAGES extracted from The Forest City
News
0 - 0 - 0
Slovenia Cross-Index
Ethnic, Religious and National Index
Location (Address) Index
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