Schuylkill

Schuylkill Haven stands on the upper Schuylkill River, amid the wooded hills of Pennsylvania's anthracite coal country. The river flows south towards Philadelphia and the Delaware, gathering tributaries as it leaves the uplands. Its valley later became an important route by which coal from the mountains could reach the growing towns downstream.

In 1750 John Fincher, a Quaker, received a grant of 225 acres near the river and built a house and barn at a crossing known as Fincher's Ford. In 1815 the Schuylkill Navigation Company was established to improve the river route. Its canal and locks, completed in 1825, connected the coal country with Philadelphia over a route more than a hundred miles long and carried anthracite to the markets along the Delaware.