Located roughly six miles south of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, the history of the borough of Parryville can be traced back to the late eighteenth century, when Peter Frantz arrived on this land in 1780, and became the first man to settle there. Leonard Beltz and Frederick Scheckler then arrived in 1781, and built a stone gristmill adjacent to the Pohopoco Creek. Beltz, a native of Franklin County, had married Elizabeth Boyer, a daughter of Frederick and Susan Boyer. They raised twelve children on the property. Mrs. Beltz lived to be 105 years old.
In 1815, Beltz and Scheckler sold the mill and its related property to Jacob and Peter Stein, who improved the property by building a new hotel there.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Parryville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1922Lehighton sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Parryville.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Parryville, 1913–1918
Passages that mention Parryville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania1913 · page 495Read the page →
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Lafayette Lentz was born of the first marriage, at Lehigh Gap, Carbon county, in 1828. Beginning life as a clerk in a store at Parryville, he subsequently engaged in railroad construction work, being one of the original contractors in the building of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. He also built important stretches of the North Pennsylvania, Easton and Amboy, and Morris and Essex railroads, and was the builder of the
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The railroad was opened for transportation in the fall of 1836, and Parryville was made the shipping point. It so remained imtil 1841, when the memorable freshet carried away all the bridges from Weatherly to the end of the line, and Manch Chnnk became the terminus, below which the road was abandoned.
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History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania1913 · page 158Read the page →
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The railroad was opened for transportation in the fall of 1836, and Parryville was made the shipping point. It so remained until 1841, when the memorable freshet carried away all the bridges from Weatherly to the end of the line, and Maucli Chunk became the terminus, below which the road was abandoned.
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built by the Moravians in 1748, extending from Bethlehem to Gnadenhiitten. It was known in this region as the Fire Line Road, and described a loop over the hills between Parryville and Bowmanstown. From 1756 to 1761, during the time when Fort Allen was garrisoned, it was used as a military road.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Parryville, 1834 to 1922
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2024
2024
2011
2011
