1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nanticoke

NANTICOKE, a borough of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the North Branch of the Susquehanna river, opposite West Nanticoke, and 8 m. S.W. of Wilkes-Barre. Pop. (1880), 3884; (1890), 10,044; (1900), 12,116, of whom 5055 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 18,877. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the Central of New Jersey railways, and by an interurban electric line. Nanticoke is situated in the anthracite coal region, is surrounded by mines, and its industries consist chiefly in mining and shipping coal; it also has various manufactures, and in 1905 the factory product was valued at $358,091. Nanticoke was laid out in 1793, and was incorporated as a borough in 1874. The name is that of an Algonquian tribe of Indians, conspicuous for their dark complexion, who originally lived in Maryland, were conquered by the Iroquois in 1678 and subsequently scattered; the main body removed to lands along the eastern branch of the Susquehanna, where some of them became merged with the Iroquois, and others removed to the Ohio and became merged with the Delaware.