We are here at the seat of government - the Eldred Municipal Building or Town Hall.  Eldred is governed by a three-member Board of Supervisors who have met here since the building opened in 1994.

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Here is a brief, but fairly complete, history of the town.

The first people to live in the area that came to be known as Kunkletown were the Lenape Native Americans.  The first recorded visit by Europeans was in 1742 by a small group of Moravians.  Their destination was not Kunkletown (by the Buckwha), but the Lenape Village of Meniolagomeka (by the Aquashicola).  

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The first European to settle in Kunkletown (by the Buckwha) is said to be Abraham Smith around 1750. He built a grist mill here. Grist is grain separated from its "coat" (chaff) which is ready to be ground into flour or meal (finely ground is called flour, coarsely ground is meal). The milling is done between two large round stone wheels.

 

Abraham Smith's grist mill is believed to have been on Prince's Run (now called Princess Run).

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Around 1752, it was said that "Johannes Kunkle was one of the first settlers to acquire land "over the Blue Mountain". 

In 1779, enough families lived here to cause the building of a log church - St. Matthew's (Union Lutheran Reformed Church).

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Spotty records indicate that Adam & John Kunkle purchased mill property from Henry Youngkin in 1838.  They then transferred the property to their older brother Joseph, who three years earlier married Marie Hawk.  They raised six kids and Joseph spent the rest of his life in Kunkletown.  He may have operated a hotel and at one point he owned a large farm along with the grist mill.

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In 1843, author Isaac D. Rupp visited Kunkletown.  He said it had been founded about 15 years earlier (1828).  He said Kunkletown had seven or eight homes, a tavern, one store, a schoolhouse, a grist mill and a German Reformed Church.

 

In 1851, the community petitioned to have their area declared a new Township (to be carved out of Ross Township - primarily because the population had grown large enough to require a separate township.).  It was approved and the name of Eldred was given (Nathaniel B. Eldred served as a Monroe County judge from 1849 to 1853).

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Joseph Kunkle died in 1867 and was buried in St. Matthew's Cemetery.  It is believed that his grist mill was the one built by Abraham Smith in the late 1760s and that it continued to be in operation until the late 1890s.

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Much of this information is based on original research by Bob Rowland from August 21st, 2004.

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In 1870, there were 931 residents in Eldred.  In the 2010 U.S. Census, there were 2,918 residents, making it the smallest town in Monroe County.

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In the last 25 years, our population has grown by 716 people, our population density has gone from 90 people per square mile to 115.

 

Our physical size has not changed, we remain at 24.5 square miles.

 

Our township road mileage has increased, from 31.15 miles to 34 miles, while the State/County road miles have remained the same at 20.72 miles.

 

Our housing units increased from 946 homes to 1,156.

 

There is some confusion as to whether "we" are Eldred or Kunkletown.  In the early years, the two names were used interchangeably.  Kunkletown (despite the word "town" in its name) was really the only viable village in Eldred.  Smith Gap at best was a hamlet and Fiddletown (as you learned earlier) never really existed as a town or village.

So, if you said Kunkletown, it was the same as saying Eldred.  

People seemed to ignore the fact that no one voted for any Kunkletown officials (there were none) and no one was ever accused of breaking a Kunkletown law (there were none on the books).  All government power lay in Eldred.  And only Eldred had actual legally defined borders and the power to collect taxes.

And herein lies the problem - the lack of defined Kunkletown borders.  

 

Kunkletown at best was a postal zone - it was what you wrote when sending a letter to person in Eldred.  So when the U.S. Post Office decided to use zip codes and couldn't justify a zip code for Eldred alone - the postal zone had to be expanded.

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The zip code actually expanded into another sovereign town - Polk Township to the north and continued all the way up to Jonas.  Kunkletown in the stroke of a pen more than doubled in size and population.  Kunkletown is now not a village nor a place, but a zip code - 18058.

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A final word on this issue - there is no governmental unit in Pennsylvania called a "village".  Villages are like the "tooth fairy" - it is whatever the individual wants it to be - it can start on Molasses Valley Road or Bollinger - it can end on Kunkletown Road or Smith Gap Road - it is up to the person speaking.  So as of today - we should really say we are from Eldred.  And only say Kunkletown as a slip of the tongue, albeit a very sweet slip as it takes us back to a wonderful time in the past that we wish was still here.