 Canasatego of the Six Nations, enforcing the Walking Purchase on behalf of George Thomas, Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania (1738-1747), ordered the Delaware Indians to go to two places on the Susquehanna River.The city of present-day Shamokin lies along Shamokin Creek.Shamokin was founded in 1835 by the coal speculators John C. Boyd and Ziba Bird, it was early known as Boyd's Stone-coal Quarry, Boydtown, and New Town.