Lake
township, the remaining quarter of the original Cool Spring,
divided in 1850 for many years has been the seat of industry. The
Mercer Iron and Coal Company and individual operators have driven
shafts, and slopes and drifts into its rugged surface and brought out
vast quantities of coal. From the two railroads, various spurs of
tracks have been constructed to reach the mines, and every day the
loaded cars are strung into trains that transport the fuel to the big
industrial centers. In many respects Lake township is the most
picturesque of all the townships, Sandy lake and its surrounding hills
and the broken country about the small streams making a landscape of
unusual attractive ness
Matthias Zahniser, a native of Germany,
came to the southwest corner of this township in the spring of 1796,
and was the leader of a numerous family to this region, members of
which are known and valued citizens in this and other townships of the
county. The year after his arrival, this pioneer planted three apple
trees on his land. Eighty years later two of these were still living in
gnarled and knotted age, having borne fruit for three generations. The
McClures were another pioneer family. Richard McClure put up a sawmill
on the banks of Little run, and the ruins of this pioneer mill stood
for many years near Coulson station, which was located on McClure’s
farm. The only town in this township is Stoneboro.
Source: Twentieth
Century History of Mercer County, 1909, page 155
|
| Transformation of Lake Twp. |
Formed in 1850
from Cool Spring Township |
|
|
