Created on April 1, 1836, from parts of Northampton and Pike Counties and named for President James Monroe. Stroudsburg, the county seat, was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1815, and named for Jacob Stroud, a settler.

     Nicholas DuPui settled at Shawnee in 1729 and used the Old Mine Road to market his wheat in New York. This area saw fighting in the French and Indian War; Fort Penn was on the site that became Stroudsburg. The Brodhead family developed East Stroudsburg. A road to Easton was opened in 1774. Monroe County was created because Easton and Milford were too far away from too many people. After 1856 Monroe grew because it lay on the corridor used by railroads carrying anthracite, although it has no coal of its own. The railroads started a big tourist business for the Delaware Water Gap, and in the 1920s tourism spread deep into the Poconos. Railroad transportation also made competitive Monroe’s farm products, lumber, block ice, and mineral products. Monroe once manufactured steam boilers, textiles, wooden products (barrels, clothespins, etc.), and glass. The railroads declined in the 1930s. Today there is some printing, publishing, trucking, and warehousing, as well as a retailing emphasis. Farms occupy only 7 percent of the area and have not been major producers since the decline of the dairy export market about 1900. The county had mushroomed since the 1960s as a desirable residential area, and home construction is strong.