История города Тамаква: от основания до упадка угольной промышленности.

the Native American leader
According to property records, Moser had a partner named Houser, and together they owned 2,000 acres which Moser homesteaded. Moser built a log house at the base of Dutch Hill in 1801 for Mrs. Catherine Moser, who was the first adult to die and receive burial there on February 15, 1822 followed later in April that year by John Kershner.

The first tavern in Tamaqua was opened around 1807 in Berkhard Moser's house by the widow of John Kershner and her son in law, Isaac Bennett. In 1827, the Little Schuylkill Company, aspiring to draw the center of population to Dutch Hill, built the first stone building and hotel in Tamaqua. The house was converted into a dwelling thirty years afterward. In 1832, James Taggart, one of the pioneers in Panther Creek Valley, came to Tamaqua and opened a hotel. Michael Beard took possession in 1846. Between 1845 and 1847, the United States Hotel was built by the Little Schuylkill Company and was first kept by Joseph Haughawout. In 1850, the Washington House, on Pine Street, was built, and the American and Mansion on Centre Street at a later period.

In 1853, Tamaqua had a public library and debating clubs discussed current events in the first town hall or schoolhouse as early as 1845. In 1856, the Tamaqua Lyceum was organized; it held weekly sessions in the south ward school building. Matthew Newkirk of Philadelphia contributed 1,500 books to it, which passed into the hands of the Perseverance Fire Company when the society later disbanded. No records of the first organization remain. The principal citizens were members. On November 26, 1876, a group of men formed the Presbyterian Social and Literary Institute.

The first graveyard was laid out in 1831 on Dutch Hill. The Catholic and Methodist burying grounds were laid out about 1837. The 30 acre Odd Fellows' cemetery, which opened in 1865 and is overseen by Harmony Lodge of Odd Fellows, is located at the western end of Broad Street. It is one of only two elaborate Victorian garden cemeteries in Schuylkill County. Zion's cemetery was opened in 1876.

Tamaqua remained a thriving community throughout the heyday of coal production in the United States through the early 20th century. Certain sections of the borough, such as Dutch Hill and the South Ward, had a reputation for "toughness." Those sections were also densely populated by immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. However, in the 1950s, as coal mining began tapering off, Tamaqua and other Coal Region communities built on anthracite began declining. In 1955. Hurricane Diane caused tremendous damage to Tamaqua's railroad yards, and they never fully recovered. In 1971, the borough annexed neighboring Rahn Township and its Owl Creek section, home to the world's first fish hatchery. In 1945, John E. Morgan established a knitwear manufacturing industry in Hometown, two miles north of Tamaqua. The company, Morgan Knitting Mills, Inc., grew into the second largest employer in the area behind Atlas Powder Company. In the mid 1950s, Morgan, working from a design developed by his wife, Anna Hoban Morgan, patented the widely known thermal underwear product lines. Since Morgan's death in 2000, the Morgan Trust has donated money to various causes in the Tamaqua area and established the John & Dorothy Morgan Cancer Center at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest in Allentown. Dial telephone service arrived in Tamaqua on August 6, 1961. The borough uses area codes 570 and 272. Operators who worked the 12 position switchboard on the top floor of the Tamaqua National Bank at West Broad and Berwick Streets were transferred to Bell Telephone toll centers in either Hazleton or Pottsville. The 55 block Tamaqua Historic District, Anthracite Bank Building, George Ormrod House, and Tamaqua station have each been named to the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2007, the borough of Tamaqua passed an unprecedented law giving ecosystems legal rights. The ordinance establishes that the municipal government or any Tamaqua resident can file a lawsuit on behalf of the local ecosystem. Other townships, such as Rush, followed suit and passed their own laws.

Tamaqua is located in a valley basin at (40.798600, −75.966498) in Pennsylvania's southern Coal Region section of the Appalachian Mountains in the Schuylkill River drainage basin. Tamaqua's valley is located at the western end of the Pocono Mountains on the edge of the neighboring Lehigh River watershed. Tamaqua's terrain is typical of many mid size Ridge and Valley Appalachians with low lands and flat towns with business, rail transport, and industries in its lower valley locations and residential dwellings on the higher elevated slopes above. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 10.0 square miles (26 km2), of which 9.8 square miles (25 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0 km2) (1.31%) is water. Three streams pass through Tamaqua: The Little Schuylkill River runs through Tamaqua from the north through the gap separating the folds of Sharp Mountain on the west and Nesquehoning Mountain. Panther Creek flows southwest from Lansford, five miles away, and joins the Little Schuylkill River in Tamaqua. Wabash Creek joins the Little Schuylkill from the west. In the Tamaqua area, coal mining was a vital economic activity throughout the 20th century, but more recent diminished use of coal as a power plant fuel and the demise of steam powered traction, coal has since experienced a decline. Tamaqua also gained recognition as a railroad center. In 1885, the Edison Illuminating Company in Tamaqua furnished the town with the nation's second incandescent municipal lighting system, a feat accomplished by the innovation of Thomas Edison. The nearest city to Tamaqua is Hazleton, which is 12.5 miles north. Tamaqua is 15 mile (24 km) east of Pottsville, 14 mile (23 km) southwest of Jim Thorpe, approximately 60 mile (97 km) south of Scranton, approximately 95 mile (153 km) northwest of Philadelphia, and approximately 100 mile (161 km) southwest of New York City. Tamaqua's average elevation is 870 feet (265 m) above sea level, but elevations can reach up to 1000 feet (305 m) above sea level. The borough has a warm summer humid continental climate (Dfb) and the hardiness zone is 6a. Average monthly temperatures range from 26.0 °F in January to 71.0 °F in July.

The main highway in Tamaqua is Pennsylvania Route 309, which connects it with Allentown and Philadelphia to its south and Hazleton and Wilkes Barre to its north, where it continues as PA Route 29 to the New York state line. Route 309 serves as a truck bypass for Interstate 476 since many placarded trucks are not allowed in the Lehigh Tunnel and as a route of choice for access to the region's operating coal mines and industrial parks. A second highway in the borough, U. S. Route 209, runs along Panther Creek and intersects with Route 309 in the borough. Route 209 runs for approximately 212 miles from Millersburg in Dauphin County to Ulster in Ulster County, New York. U. S. 209 also connects Tamaqua to nearby municipalities, including the Schuylkill County seat at Pottsville in the west and both Jim Thorpe and Lehighton to the east. Other highways near Tamaqua include Pennsylvania Route 54, Pennsylvania Route 443, Pennsylvania Route 895, and Pennsylvania Route 902, most of which connect the Tamaqua area to the Poconos, the Lehigh Valley, and South Central Pennsylvania. In addition, Interstates 81, 80, 476, and 78 are near the town. Bus service is provided by Schuylkill Transportation System, Route 45 (Pottsville McAdoo), and Fullington Trailways (intercity).

Until the late 1960s, Tamaqua was a hub for two major railroads, the Reading Railroad (RDG) and Lehigh and New England Railroad (LNE). A large rail yard existed in the southern part of town that extended through downtown with, at one point, eight tracks passing by the passenger station. An engine house, turntable, and car shop were located across the street from the passenger station in what is now the St. Luke's Medical Center parking lot. The collapse of the anthracite coal industry in the early 1960s, the Penn Central merger, and Hurricane Agnes in 1972 all led to the railroad's demise. Today, all that remains is a single track line through town operated by the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad. Tamaqua has a small rail yard, but its switching and geography makes it an important junction with tracks along both the Little Schuylkill River and others penetrating near the west flowing Panther Creek and north into Hazleton. The town once hosted trackage of the Reading Railroad and the Lehigh Valley and New England Railroads.

In the fiction writings of John O'Hara, a short story writer born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, he references Tamaqua as "Taqua."