First Posted: 5/23/2014
In 1794, Joseph Gardner and Issac Gould operated a gristmill along Gardner’s Creek in a small, unknown area.
Over the years, the community began to develop with coal mining and eventually the Laflin Powder Mills, which manufactured explosives for the coal mines, was opened.
As more job opportunities with the coal mining business began to arise, more homes came into development and more families flocked to the area to build lives. Finally, on Sept. 10, 1889, the small area of factories and coal mines officially became known as Laflin Borough, Pennsylvania.
Laflin will celebrate its 125th anniversary on Monday, May 26, Memorial Day, at 11 a.m. at Creekside Park in the borough.
The celebration includes state Rep. Mike Carroll presenting a plaque to borough council member Glen Gubitose.
Despite the anniversary not being until Sept., mayor Dorothy Yazurlo, who is in her seventh year as mayor, said Memorial Day means a lot to the community, so what better day to celebrate a community milestone than on a community holiday favorite?
“Memorial Day has been a big part of Laflin,” said Yazurlo “We honor our veterans and have a veteran reading, and our idea was to be in the area at Creekside where the playground is so the children can be involved. We feel it involves the whole Laflin family, rather than just have it at the Borough building. That was the council’s decision.”
Creekside Park was dedicated to former Laflin mayor Mary Flesinsky, who passed two years ago. Yazurlo called her “the voice of Laflin.”
When Laflin was first declared a borough in 1889, only 230 people resided in the 1.4 square mile area. Now there are 1,502 residents, including 637 families.
Yazurlo has been a borough resident since moving there in 1967 saying she’s seen the community grow bigger and better with her own eyes.
“There were only two homes in our development when we first moved here, now there are over 600 families in the borough,” said Yazurlo. “We settled here because my husband worked at Tobyhanna and I worked in Wilkes-Barre, so we were right in the middle of both. We knew nothing of the area at that point.” Her husband has since passed away.
Being a borough resident for 47 years, Yazurlo recalls the opening of the public library back in 1972. She was one of 25 women who helped make the building of the library possible.
“One of the things of Laflin I’m most proud of is in the early 1970s we established a library,” said Yazurlo. “We got funding from Wilkes-Barre, we had a trailer we got after the flood of ‘72 and we have a state of the art library. The borough funded the library which I feel is a big part of our community.”
While small, Yazurlo is proud of the borough and the people who inhabit it.
“We have a great police force, an excellent fire department in which the gentlemen have over 30 years experience and volunteer their time there,” said Yazurlo. “We are a community who is very proud of its history, and while we’re still small we consider ourselves a very unique community.”
