Huntingdon County Information Page

Township · Huntingdon County

Lincoln

5 stories on file, each with its sources. 18.9 square miles of land in the ridge and valley country of central Pennsylvania.

321
Population
2020 Census, P.L. 94-171
18.86 sq mi
Land area
2020 Census gazetteer
2.09 sq mi
Water
2020 Census gazetteer
Township
Type
GEOID 4206143424

Nearby

Straight-line miles between map centers, 2020 Census boundary file

The founding record

LINCOLN, so named in honor of President Abraham Lincoln, was erected Aug. 18,1866. Its territory was taken from the township of Hopewell, which now bounds it on the south. On the northwest it is bounded by Blair County, on the northeast by Penn, and on the southeast by Tod township. It lies between Terrace Mountain on the east and Tussey Mountain on the west, and, as in the case of Hopeweil, it is traversed in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction by nearly parallel ridges and intervening valleys, making the surface quite uneven, except narrow areas along the principal streams. These ridges are Allagrippa, between which and Terrace Mountain runs Raystown Branch of the Juniata, Pine Ridge, Backbone, Warrior, and Mulberry Ridges. Raystown Branch pursues a tortuous course through the township, along the base of Terrace Mountain, and into this empty Coffee "Run, Tatman's Run, and other small streams that rise in and traverse portions of the township. Coffee Run was so named from the Lutheran Church. It is a brick building of plain but circumstance that on one occasion a party of sur20 306 veyors who were camped near the stream spilled in it their coffee. Tatman's Run was named from Joseph Tatman, who was an early settler on it. Agriculture is almost the sole industry of the township. J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 1,984,253 of the scanned text
Lincoln township, named in honor of Abraham Lincoln, the martyred president of the United States, is situated in the southwestern part of the county and was taken from Hopewell on August 18, 1866. It is bounded on the northwest by Blair county; on the northeast by Penn township; on the southeast by Tod, and on the south by Hopewell. The Raystown branch of the Juniata flows northward through the township, its principal tributary being Coffee run. The earliest settlers in that part of Hopewell township now comprising Lincoln were John Pliunmer, Henry Schultz, John Keith, James Entriken and a man named Summers. Tanneries were established at an early date on Coffee run, on the Bedford road, and about a mile north of the present town of Marklesbui^, which is the only borough in the township.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 192,211

Quoted from a work published before 1929 and therefore in the public domain in the United States. Spelling and punctuation are as printed, including nineteenth century spellings of place names. Scanned text carries optical character recognition errors; the character offset is given so the passage can be found and checked in the original.

5 stories

Stories from Lincoln

Terrace Mountain near Huntingdon, Pa
Terrace Mountain near Huntingdon, PaLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. No known restrictions on publication. 2017660277

In September 1873 a Philadelphia stereo card publisher, James Cremer, put Terrace Mountain near Huntingdon on a nine by eighteen centimeter mount and numbered it 234. The Library of Congress record dates the card to that month, names Cremer (1821 to 1893) as both photographer and publisher, and indexes it under the subject headings mountain railroads and railroad tracks, which is as much as the record says about what is in the frame. Beyond the "near Huntingdon" of the title, its place field goes no finer than Huntingdon County, and it does not say which railroad the view shows. The card came to the library in the Marian S. Carson Collection, and the library lists no known restrictions on publication.

The mountain itself is well described in the books that cover the county. White's 1885 geological report says Terrace Mountain and Sideling Hill are the only mountains of their kind in Huntingdon County, a crest of gray Pocono sandstone above a terrace made by the hard red sandstone beds of the Catskill formation, and that this terrace is what gives the mountain its name. White wrote that the two ridges unite in a high point at the Juniata below Huntingdon and that Terrace Mountain then runs southwestward and southward past the west side of Broad Top into Bedford County. He reported that no exact measurement of its height had been made.

White also explained the crooked river at its foot. The Raystown Branch, he wrote, flows along the base of Terrace Mountain through a belt of soft Catskill rock, crossing from side to side and rebounding between ridges of Chemung sandstone on the left and the solid Pocono sandstone of Terrace Mountain on the right, so that 21 miles of air-line distance from the Bedford County line to the Juniata become nearly 50 miles of stream bed. He added that Trough Creek leaves the trough between Sideling Hill and Terrace Mountain through a gap in Terrace Mountain to reach the Raystown Branch. The 1883 county history says Trough Creek rises in Terrace Mountain, and that Forshey's Gap in the mountain took its name from the family of Solomon Forshey of Penn Township.

Cremer's label, pasted on the back of the card, advertised his shop at 18 South Eighth Street.

From James Cremer's Stereoscopic Emporium, 18 South Eighth St., Philad'a. Photo-miniatures in every style. Family groups taken for the stereoscope.Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record, Terrace Mountain near Huntingdon, written data pages, Library of Congress item 2017660277, photographer's label pasted on verso · character 609 of the scanned text
Checked against the record. Checked against the survey's written record before publication; 4 claims it did not support were removed or corrected.

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The Shultz Cemetery marker, Lincoln Township
The Shultz Cemetery marker, Lincoln TownshipShared by Myer Souders

Did you know? The marker for a small family cemetery in Lincoln Township tells of two families who married into each other twice.

Myer Souders sent us this photograph of the Shultz Cemetery marker. It names John Shultz, 1791 to 1851, and his wife Mary (Beaver) Shultz; Henry Shultz, 1762 to 1830, and Salome, his wife, mother of John; and Anthony Beaver, 1761 to 1839, and Susanna (Clapper) Beaver, his wife, mother of Mary. It also names Lawrence Shultz of Indiana, a descendant.

An 1897 biography of Anthony J. Beaver, a grandson of both Henry Shultz and Anthony Beaver, fills in more. Anthony Beaver was born at South Mountain in Franklin County, a cooper and farmer who moved to Blair County and then to Hopewell Township. His son Samuel married Hannah, daughter of Henry Shultz, a farmer of Hopewell, now Lincoln Township, where Henry settled in 1797. Lincoln Township itself was not erected until 1866.

Myer tells us Henry and Anthony are his distant great grandfathers, and John too, five or six times over.

Checked and confirmed. CONFIRMED 2026-10-09 against the sources listed: every factual sentence was tied to a verbatim passage and a script confirmed each passage is in its source. Information shared with us by readers is given as theirs, not as fact: Myer Souders.

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From the county histories, on Lincoln township. The passage below is printed exactly as it appears in 1883, including the spelling of the day and the errors the scanner made. It has not been rewritten, summarised or added to.

Yellow Branch, Sugar Creek, and Haw Run are the principal affluents of Trough Creek in this township. Another stream runs southeasterly along the base of Terrace Mountain, and after uniting with Tatman's Run passes through a gap in this mountain and empties into Raystown Branch in Lincoln township. Three principal highways traverse the eastern part of the township in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction, and another pursues a like course through the valley at the base of Terrace Mountain, in the eastern part, known as Illinois Valley. Another follows the valley of Trough Creek in an easterly and westerly direction, through nearly the middle of the township. East Broad Top Railroad crosses the southeastern corner of the township. Agriculture is almost the sole industry in the township. The farms are in the valleys and on the sides of the ridges and hills by which the township is traversed. ` The soil is fertile, especially in the valleys. The produce raised here formerly found its market at places on the line of the Pennsylvania Canal, but since mining operations became active in this region there has been a demand here for all the surplus produce that could be raised. The township includes no boroughs, but has two villages.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 2,375,475 of the scanned text

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From the county histories, on Lincoln township. The passage below is printed exactly as it appears in 1883, including the spelling of the day and the errors the scanner made. It has not been rewritten, summarised or added to.

Of the original members of this church but one, Nicholas Lynn, of Lincoln township, is now living. Methodist Episcopal Church of Hopewell., The first Methodist preaching in the township of Hopewell was about the year 1857. Among the earliest preachers who came here the names are remembered of Revs. Clever, Graham, Leckey, McKindless, Long, and White.. Others whose names are forgotten occasionally held services here. 292 The first house of worship was a school-house at Rough and Ready Furnace, then the Weaver schoolhouse. Services were held here without the formation of a class or society till 1877, when a church organization was effected, of which the constituent members were Mrs. Elizabeth Myers and her daughters Margaret and Hannah, Mrs. Elizabeth Bussick, John Bullar, Mrs. Emeline Snow, and Thomas Keith. Mr. Keith was the first class-leader, and continues in that position. In 1877 a framed church was erected in Woodcock Valley, half a mile north from Shy Beaver post-office. plain edifice, thirty-eight by thirty feet, and its cost was one thousand dollars.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 1,898,705 of the scanned text
Checked against the record. DATES PUT BACK, and they were this site's own doing rather than the scanner's. The passage below promises to print the record exactly as it appears, and it was doing so apart from one thing: sentences kept losing their year. “In an imposing brick church” for “In 1877 an imposing brick church”, “organized in by Rev. Richard Allen” for “organized in 1816 by”. The cause was a rule meant to strip page numbers where a ru…

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The Raystown Lake country in late fall, photographed 8 November 2014 in Lincoln township
The Raystown Lake country in late fall, photographed 8 November 2014 in Lincoln townshipPhotograph by Ron Shawley, 8 November 2014, from the Panoramio archive. Licensed CC BY 3.0; reused with credit. Raystown lake Region late Fall - panoramio (36).jpg

Ron Shawley photographed the Raystown Lake country in the first week of November 2014 and gave the whole series one caption: Raystown lake Region late Fall. It names no township, and it did not need to - the file carries the coordinates the camera recorded, and the Census places that point in Lincoln township.

Checked against the record. Same series and same caption as the Marklesburg photograph; the coordinates on this one fall in Lincoln township, which is how the two were told apart.

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Where it sits

Alexandria borough: 12 storiesBirmingham borough: 2 storiesBroad Top City borough: 2 storiesCassville borough: 2 storiesCoalmont borough: 2 storiesDudley borough: 2 storiesHuntingdon borough: 36 storiesMapleton borough: 6 storiesMarklesburg borough: 4 storiesMill Creek borough: 4 storiesMount Union borough: 137 storiesOrbisonia borough: 8 storiesPetersburg borough: 3 storiesRockhill borough: 5 storiesSaltillo borough: 5 storiesShade Gap borough: 3 storiesShirleysburg borough: 4 storiesThree Springs borough: 4 storiesBarree township: 6 storiesBrady township: 4 storiesCarbon township: 3 storiesCass township: 2 storiesClay township: 4 storiesCromwell township: 7 storiesDublin township: 5 storiesFranklin township: 10 storiesHenderson township: 6 storiesHopewell township: 5 storiesJackson township: 9 storiesJuniata township: 8 storiesLincoln township: 5 storiesLogan township: 5 storiesMiller township: 4 storiesMorris township: 2 storiesOneida township: 6 storiesPenn township: 4 storiesPorter township: 10 storiesShirley township: 10 storiesSmithfield township: 5 storiesSpringfield township: 5 storiesSpruce Creek township: 7 storiesTell township: 3 storiesTodd township: 5 storiesUnion township: 5 storiesWalker township: 9 storiesWarriors Mark township: 5 storiesWest township: 2 storiesWood township: 13 storiesHuntingdonMount UnionOrbisoniaThree SpringsPetersburgMapletonAlexandriaRockhillBroad Top CitySaltillo
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