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.)
Spring Brook Township challenges Archbald and Carbondale for the honor as the first distinctly Welsh settlement in Lackawanna County. A small group of Welsh farmers took up land and settled on the Ridge in Archbald about 1831. The next year the Welsh invasion of Spring Brook began when Abraham Turner cleared and occupied a tract of land near the center of the township, about three miles from the present Spring Brook Corners. About the same time Barney Carey located in the township. His place was in the present village. In 1833 Morgan Daniels, James Jones, David Davison, Morgan Pugh, Isaac Cary, William Thomas and others, chiefly Welsh, came in, cleared and cultivted farms. These home builders favored the center of the township and along Rattlesnake Creek, probably for the reason tha the land thereabouts offered better opportunity for cultivation. To this day the imprint of these pioneer Welsh farmers is seen in the township and many farms are still in the possession of their descendnats. The Maple Lake section of the township drew its settlers from Germans and Scotch. Yostville, on the extreme east border of the township, was of later development, coming into existence when Yost, Pile & Co built their sawmill in 1870.
Spring Brook, like several other townships in the eastern part of the county, appears to be gradually returning to its primitiveness. The population is declining, due in part to the Spring Brook Water Company buying up much of the land to protect its watershed and the fact that so much of the remaining land is mountainous, good only for timber growing. In 1890 Spring Brook had a population of 756, while in 1920 it was but 450. Lumbering and farming divided the attention of the early settlers in the township. The timber is now all gone and winning a living from the soil is not easy. The streams and springs of the township are the chief source of water supply for the lower Lackawanna and a goodly part of the Wyoming Valley. Several gret storage resevoirs of the Spring Brook Water Company are located in the township.
Originally the northern part of the township was owned by a Doctor Hoosic and the south half by Mr Fisher. H W Drinker owned a tract of about 800 acres at Yostville. Early settlers were content with log houses. The whole section when the pioneer Welsh came in was heavily wooded. It wasn't long until several sawmills were in operation. Henry Yeager built the first on Rattlesnake Creek. A Dolph built and operated another on Spring Brook and so did William Dale and Edward Dolph. Sax & Hessler engaged extensively in lumbering along Spring Brook, building a mill at the mouth of that stream and constructing a railroad from the mill to Moosic. Later when the lumber mill closed down, this railroad came into the possession of George Corey, and was eventually acquired by the water company, who used it principally to carry supplies needed in building its waterworks....p548