FORMED September 20, 1787; named by Provost William Smith, of the University of Pennsylvania, in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, a benefactress of the University; lies within the central mountainous region, being drained by the Juniata. Many fine farms are on the rich soil of the river flats. Juniata iron early became famous, and numerous iron works were erected; the old Bedford Furnace was near Orbisonia. Abundance, variety, and value of the ores; rich and convenient deposits of limestone; contiguity of the Broad Top, Allegheny and Cumberland coal fields, combine to indicate the importance of this country. Other industries are coal-mining, lumber, agriculture, and manufactories. Large water-power dams of the Pennsylvania Central, and Raystown Water Power Companies generate electric light and power.

Huntingdon, county seat; population 7051, largest town on the Juniata. The first white visitors to this region were traders, in traffic with Indians, exchanging goods for furs and skins. On incursions, made before the middle of the eighteenth century, they found a tribe, a branch of the Six Nations, located on the now southeast portion of this borough, their wigwams circling around a pillar of stone, 14 feet high and 6 inches square, covered with hieroglyphics supposed to be a record of their history and achievements. This tribe, besides hunting and fishing, had cleared land and cultivated corn. This stone was regarded with great veneration by the natives; here they had assembled for centuries to hold their grand councils; its conspicuous position and appearance led the white visitors to name the locality, “Standing Stone,” it stood above Second Street, on or near 208 Allegheny Street. Conrad Weiser, in 1748, and John Harris, in 1754, in accounts of their journeys to the Ohio River, both describe this stone.

The Proprietaries of this province, ever mindful of the rights of the Indians, would not grant lands, nor permit settlements to be made until the Indian title had been purchased; at a treaty held in Albany, in 1754, the Six Nations, consisting of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras, executed a deed to the Proprietaries for a large portion of the province, including the whole valley of the Juniata; soon after, the resident tribe migrated, and, it is supposed, carried the stone with them. The seal of the borough has, as its central figure, a Standing Stone. A second stone was erected by the settlers; and in 1896 a third, at Penn and Third Streets; as a memorial of the ancient standing stone of the Indians. Fort Standing Stone was built here at an early date; site about intersection of Penn and Second Streets, it was stockaded and provided with barracks, blockhouses, and magazines constructed of heavy hewn timber, and was the place of many important incidents during troublesome times following the defeat of General Braddock in 1755, and until peace was made with Great Britain in 1783.

Provost William Smith, D.D., obtained the land in 1766 from George Croghan, and numerous other tracts in the vicinity, and in 1767 caused the town of Huntingdon to be laid out, now on the William Penn Highway; the proprietor donating plots of ground for a public school, cemetery, and to each of six prominent religious denominations. About 1797 a post office was established here, and John Cadwallader was appointed postmaster; a weekly mail was carried between Harrisburg and Huntingdon. The most important public buildings, architecturally, are Juniata College, nine buildings, erected 1878-1916; the older buildings are colonial; Library, Gothic, red brick with terra-cotta trimmings, built, 1907; contains memorial windows; the Church of the Brethren on the college campus, Gothic; McGee sandstone; erected, 1910; members of this sect settled in this county in 1775; and the J. C. Blair Memorial Hospital, Spanish mission style, light buff brick and Indiana limestone trimmings, on a commanding position overlooking the town. E. L. Tilton, New York, architect, also of the College Library and Church of the Brethren.

Among the places of historic interest in the county are Fort Shirley, built, 1755, on bluff near site of Indian town of Aughwick, now Shirleysburg. McAlevey’s Fort, at the head of Standing Stone Creek Valley, named for Captain William McAlevey, afterwards general in the Revolutionary War. Warm Springs, five miles northeast of Huntingdon, known, in 1775, as a resort for invalids. Pulpit Rocks on the Warriors Ridge, on the old pike between Huntingdon and Alexandria. And Jack’s Narrows, where the Juniata River cuts through Jack’s Mountain, west of Mount Union. The Pennsylvania Canal extended through this county from Shaver’s Aqueduct, below Mount Union, to line of Blair County, above Water Street; here in Indian times canoes came to receive supplies of lead. Two miles east is Alexandria, laid out, 1793; in 1800 the turnpike was completed to Alexandria, and stage service to Harrisburg began; fare charged travelers was six cents a mile; this town was the shipping point of grain for the rich Hart’s Log and Shaver’s Creek valleys.

XIX
ALLEGHENY COUNTY

FORMED September 24, 1788; named from Delaware Indian word signifying “Fair Water.” Surface undulating, many elevations being precipitous. Is the center of one of the richest bituminous coal and natural gas districts in the world. Oil fields lie mainly in basins of Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. Staple manufactures are iron, steel and glass. The history of Allegheny County presents a greater variety of startling incidents than almost any other portion of the state. Mound builders were primeval inhabitants, site of ancient fortifications are on Chartier’s Creek, eight miles from Pittsburgh, county seat, second city in size in the state, on site of Shannopin’s Town, chief of about twenty families of Delawares; he attended councils with the Governor; his name is signed on several state archives. By it ran the main Indian path from east to west.

Washington first came to “The Forks,” in 1753, on way to Fort Le Boeuf. The French possessed it as Fort Duquesne 1754-58, when it was conquered by General Forbes; General Stanwix erected a stockade and named it Fort Pitt, for the British premier. In 1764, Colonel Bouquet built a redoubt on site of the Fort; old brick blockhouse is still standing, Penn Avenue near Second Street. First town of Pittsburgh built near the Fort in 1760, inhabitants enjoyed

Allegheny County