[5] In the early 1660s, King Charles II owed Admiral Sir William Penn a large sum of money.

To settle this debt, he granted Penn's son, William, a territory in North America, which later became known as Pennsylvania.

At the time, the valley was inhabited by several Native American tribes (including the Susquehannock and the Delaware).

In 1768, they met in Hartford, Connecticut, and decided to survey and divide the territory into five townships (each one was five square miles).

Under Pickering's leadership and direction, county elections were held, the courts were established, and a government was formed.

[6] On June 30, 1778, Loyalist forces, under the command of Major John Butler, arrived in the Wyoming Valley to attack the American settlements.

On July 1, Fort Wintermoot at the north end of the valley surrendered without a shot being fired.

Major Butler's Rangers, with the assistance of about 500 indigenous allies, ambushed the oncoming Americans.

Widespread looting and burning of buildings occurred throughout the Wyoming Valley subsequent to the capitulation, but non-combatants were not harmed.

[7] Most of the inhabitants, however, fled across the Pocono Mountains to Stroudsburg and Easton or down the Susquehanna River to Sunbury.

Kingston witnessed a population boom after the construction and operation of the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad.

Some of the first council members elected included Bestor Payne, Marshall G. Whitney, Reuben Marcy, Thomas Pringle, and Richard Hutching.

On September 11, 1950, 33 guardsmen from the 109th Field Artillery Regiment were killed in a train accident near Coshocton, Ohio.

In the following days, the dead were moved to the Kingston Armory, where the remains were relinquished to the grief-stricken families.

The hurricane wreaked havoc on Kingston and neighboring Wilkes-Barre, causing a state of emergency.

The natural disaster earned national attention and a visit from President Richard Nixon, who recruited Wyoming Seminary graduate Frank Carlucci (Nixon's head of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) as a point man to oversee flood recovery efforts.

It is situated on the western bank of the Susquehanna River in the northern half of Luzerne County.

Besides neighboring Wilkes-Barre, Kingston also borders the communities of Edwardsville, Pringle, Luzerne, and Forty Fort.

[12] The surrounding mountains have an influence on the climate (including both precipitation and temperatures), leading to wide variations within a short distance.

[13] The average annual snowfall is 46.2 inches (117 cm) during the winter (in which severe snowstorms are rare).

[15] Kingston straddles the hardiness zone boundary between 6a and 6b, meaning that the average annual absolute minimum temperature is approximately -5 °F.

The police provide full-time protection for its citizens, visitors, businesses, and public property.

[27] In addition to Fleck Hall on the campus of Wyoming Seminary, the Kingston Armory and Market Street Bridge are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.