Honesdale, originally known as “Dyberry Forks,” was the terminus of the D&H Canal which ran 108 miles to Rondout, New York. Honesdale was re-named for Philip Hone in 1829, the first president of the D&H Canal Company and former Mayor of New York City. It was used to carry coal from the coal fields to the market in New York City, New York. It was laid out as a village in 1826 when the D&H Canal was created. It was incorporated as a borough on January 28, 1831.
On August 8, 1829, with engineer Horatio Allen at the throttle, a locomotive purchased from England and called the “Stourbridge Lion” became the first locomotive to turn a wheel on a commercial track in the western hemisphere. It ran three miles to Seelyville and returned. A working full-sized model of the Lion was built in 1932 for the Chicago Century of Progress and is currently on display at the Wayne County Historical Society in Honesdale. The Stourbridge Lion was regrettably considered too heavy for further use. D&H transported anthracite coal from mines near Carbondale to New York City via Honesdale and Kingston, NY. Coal was moved by a unique gravity railroad from the mines to Honesdale where it was transferred to barges and transported via a 108-mile canal to Kingston, New York, then shipped by river barges down the Hudson River to New York City.
