[Robert S. Grumet (2014)] deeds signed between December 20, 1754, and October 27, 1755 (Boyd and Taylor 1930-1971 1:196200; 260-271; 308-314). These sales occurred just as many Delawares, inspired by early French and Indian victories over the LACKAWAXEN (Pike County). Like Lackawack in New York, Heckewelder (1834:359) thought that Lackawaxen came from a Delaware Indian word, lechauwêksink, “the forks of the road, or the parting of the roads; where the roads take off in various directions.” Basing his etymology on the name’s earliest recorded form, Beyond Manhattan, Robert S. Grumet Lechawachsein, Whritenour thinks it more likely that Lackawaxen was originally a Munsee word, (eenda) lxawahkwsiing, “(where) there is a forked tree. . . where there are forked trees.” Today, the name Lackawaxen is most closely identified with the 32-mile-long river whose headwaters rise above Lake Wallenpaupack (see below). The Wallenpaupack Branch of the Lackawaxen River flowed unhindered above the village of Hawley before the most recent enlargement of the dam creating present-day Lake Wallenpaupack completely flooded its lower reaches in 1926. The river’s 22-mile-long West Branch flows south from Honesdale to join with the Wallenpaupack Branch at Hawley to form the main stem of the Lackawaxen River. Running beside the West Branch in the Lehigh Valley was first noted as Menacasy Creek in the 1738 Today, Mahoning Creek is a 17-mile-long eastward-flow- Evans map of the Walking Purchase (in Gipson 1939). Camel’s ing stream that courses through the Mahoning Valley to the place Hump, a mountain at the upper end of the creek, was initially idenwhere it spills into the Lehigh River just below present-day Lehigh- tified as Manakisy Hill on the 1770 William Scull map. Standardton. The name also adorns several roads in the area. Two streams ized as Monocacy by the mid-nineteenth century, the name current named Mahonney Creek and Mahannon Creek flowing into the graces the main stem of the creek, its East Branch, and a number of Upper Schuylkill River just east of Schuylkill Haven probably bear other places in and around the City of Bethlehem. different spellings of the widespread Irish family name unrelated to the Delaware Indian word (see in Pennsylvania in Part 3 below). MOOSIC (Lackawanna and Wayne counties). Whritenour thinks that present-day Moosic sounds like a Munsee word, *moosak, MASTHOPE (Pike and Wayne counties). Heckewelder (1834:360) “elk” (plural) or *(eenda) moosiik, “(where) there are elk.” The thought that the name he spelled Mashope sounded similar to name adorns Moosic Mountain, a 24-mile-long range of hills that Delaware Indian words, maschápe and mashapi, which he trans- forms part of the divide separating the Delaware and Susquehanna lated as “glass beads.” Masthope is currently the name of a creek river valleys. Moosic’s slopes rise an average of 2,000 feet above and a village located at the creek’s mouth in the Town of Lack- sea level to a high point of 2,300 feet at Pocono Plateau. awaxen (see above). Six-mile-long Masthope Creek rises just east The present-day name of Moosic was first mentioned as of the hamlet of Beach Lake in Wayne County. Initial settlements the “large mountain called Moshooetoo mount or hill” that marked made by New Englanders in the area during the 1760s failed. the western boundary of the New England purchase of land west of Local traditions hold that loggers guiding rafts down the the Delaware River made on May 6, 1755 (Boyd and Taylor 1930Delaware used the stretch of quiet water below the small fan of 1971 1:260-271). The same document identified the ridge as part gravel outwash at the mouth of Masthope Creek as a rest stop during of the frontier separating the lands of what were referred to as the the final decades of the eighteenth century. People moving to the “Ninneepaaues” (Lenapes) who signed the deed, and the “Macquas. small community that subsequently grew up at the creek mouth . . otherwise called Mowhawks.” Gordon (1832:309) identified the adopted its name partly in hopes that sales of locally cut logs suit- hill as Moosick Mountain in his gazetteer. Today, the name adorns able for use as masts would bring prosperity. Development, how- Moosic Mountain, the community of Moosic Lakes, and many feaever, only began in earnest after the New York and Erie Railroad tures in the surrounding area. laid tracks on the bridge built across the mouth of Masthope Creek in 1848. The post office that opened at the optimistically named NESQUEHONING (Carbon and Schuylkill counties). HeckDelaware Bridge community on the opposite bank of the river in ewelder (1834:358) translated the name Nesquehoning as a New York in 1849 transferred operations to Masthope in Pennsyl- Delaware Indian word, næskahónink, “at the black lick,” from the vania in 1855 when plans for the span fell through. root word, næskahóni, “black lick or the lick of which the water is The original namesake of