 The dominant Eagle Silk Mill became the largest textile manufacturing building under one roof in the United States.Famous inventor, scientist and entrepreneur Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931), briefly a resident of nearby Sunbury, established the Edison Illuminating Company of Shamokin in the fall of 1882.When the Shamokin power generating station on Independence Street started on September 22, 1883, St. Edward's Roman Catholic Church which was connected, became the first church in the world to be lit by electricity.