BLOOMSBURG

town, seat (1846) of Columbia county, east-central Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Susquehanna River and Fishing Creek, 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Wilkes-Barre. Susquehanna (Susquehannock) peoples inhabited the area when settlers began arriving in the mid-18th century. The settlement was laid out in 1802 by Ludwig Eyer and was originally known as Eyersburg and Eyertown. In 1870 it was merged with Bloom township and became the town of Bloomsburg; it thus gained the distinction of being the only incorporated town in the state (all other incorporated communities are boroughs or cities). During the American Civil War, Union troops vainly searched the town for an alleged confederacy of draft evaders who had reputedly built a fort in Fishing Creek valley. In the 1870s Bloomsburg was the scene of one of the murder trials that ended a siege of violence in Pennsylvania coalfields carried out by the Molly Maguires, a society of Irish-American miners seeking improved working conditions. The town's industries consist of textiles, plastics, architectural aluminum, book binding, and processed foods. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1839. Pop. (1990) 12,439; (1998 est.) 12,495.