Shirleysburg

The founding record

Shirleysburg was incorporated as a borough on April 3, 1837, with John Lutz as the first chief burgess. The completion of the East Broad Top railroad through the place in 1873 gave a new impetus to business and for a time the population showed considerable increase. Rival towns then offered better inducements for the investment of capital and for the last half a century Shirleysburg has barely held its own. In 1910 the population was 256, a slight decrease under that of 1900. Three Springs, a station on the East Broad Top railroad in the southern part of the county, was laid out in the spring of 1843 and was first called Scottsville, for General Winfield Scott. A postoffice was soon after established there under that name. Richard Ashman and William White were the first merchants. George D. Hudson built . the first hotel, in the kitchen of which was taught the first school. Dr. Robert Baird was the first physician. John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 235,619 of the scanned text

Industries, Mills, and Manufactories of Shirleysburg., EARTHENWARE- WORKS, located on west side of Main Street, in the borough of Shirleysburg, was established in 1866 by George W. Hawker, who, with his son, D. P. Hawker, conducted the manufacture of all kinds of earthenware till April, 1871, when Mr. Hawker, Sr., died, leaving the business to his son, who is still engaged in the manufacture of pottery goods, and is also a large dealer in Ohio stoneware. Mr. Hawker's establishment is also located on the Ross tract. May 31, 1762, it was patented to Robert Coleman, Esq., subsequently purchased by John Cooper, and by him sold June 20, 1820, to Walter B. Hudson, and by Hudson to Clark, and in April, 1866, by James Clark and Mary I. Clark to G. W. and D. P. Hawker. DRAIN, TILE, AND TERRA-COTTA WORKS., Samvel Backus came to this town in 1824 or 1825, and established the pottery and earthenware business in the building next south of what is known as the " Mansion House," where he remained till 1839 or 1840, when he built the south end of what is now Phil Kabis' tile works, and removed to that place. He subsequently sold to Brewster, who continued the business for a few years, with Mr. Lutz as foreman.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 2,213,854

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.