The following is quoted from Thomas Murphy's 1928 History of Lackawanna County . 1 (Remember that references to now or today refer to 1928 and do not necessarily reflect life in 2003.)
As originally organized in August, 1849, Madison Township included the borough of Moscow. It is named after President James Madison and was carved out of Covington and Jefferson townships. Before severance of Moscow the township had an area of 28 square miles. Like other parts of the "Beeches," Madison originally was heavily timbered with beech, hemlock nad ash. Much of the land is now cleared and there are many fine farms throughout the township. Several small tributories of the Roaring Brook rise in Madison. Madisonville near the center of the township and where a settlement was made as early as 1830, is the principal village. The township borders on the east on Wayne County. The Drinker Turnpike was built through the Moscow end of the township in 1826. The earliest road, however, appears to have run from what was known as Pole Ridge on the Roaring Brook, about midway between Moscow and Turnersville, to Hartford, Wayne County. This road passes through Madisonville. What was known as the "loaded track" of the Pennsylvania Gravity, now the Erie Railroad, crosses a corner of the township near Oak Run resevoir. The D L & W Railroad right of way which originally traversed the township is in Moscow Borough.
Henry Drinker was the first owner of much of the land in Madison. Richard Edwards and Thomas Beisecker, pioneer residents of the township, built log cabins on their lands in the fall of 1824 and moved in their families the following spring. Nathaniel Carter, Jacob Swartz and John Koon were