Factoryville, PA

Factoryville took its name from a water-powered woolen factory that operated along the South Branch of Tunkhannock Creek in the 1820s. The mill closed quickly, yet the name stayed, and the borough later grew around a post office, churches, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and Keystone Academy. That academy became today's Keystone College, giving the town an unusual higher-education thread for a small Wyoming County borough. Factoryville also produced Christy Mathewson, the Major League Baseball pitcher born here in 1880. Lackawanna Trail schools serve the local area, and the borough's library holds local history. Factoryville's map still follows the creek and old Route 6-11 corridor, with the college connection adding a continuing educational thread. A short-lived mill gave the town its permanent name.