Union

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

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Smith Valley Road running east through Birdvale, a village in Union township that the photographer notes is also called Birdville. The shot was taken in August 2024 between Boutwell Lane and Birdvale Road.

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From the county histories, on Union township. The passage below is printed exactly as it appears in 1913, including the spelling of the day and the errors the scanner made. It has not been rewritten, summarised or added to.

Walter Hudson built a log mill on Trough creek some time between and 1800. the first in the township. Paradise furnace and Eagle foundry were both located in this township, but they ceased operations long since. Union township was taken from Hopewell in June, 1791. Before the erection of Cass and Tod townships it included nearly all of the Trough creek valley, extending from the Juniata river on the north to the Broad Top mountain on the south, and from Jack's mountain on the east to Terrace mountain on the west. Settlements were made some years before the township was organized. The borough of Mapleton is located in this township and there are a few small villages within its limits.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 204,559 of the scanned text

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From the county histories, on Union 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.

In February, 1855, he married Anna P., daughter of Levi Smith, of Union township, Huntingdon Co., and after his marriage made his home in Union township, and followed his trade a little more than a year, building meanwhile several dwelling-houses and Stony Point Methodist Protestant Church. In the fall of he located at Mapleton, and opened a cabinet-shop. At that time Mapleton contained just four families. Robert McCarl's is the only one of the four now in Mapleton. Mr. Swope carried on the business of carpentering and cabinet-making at Mapleton till 1871, and put up about all the houses erected in the village during that time. In he bought out the small store of David L. Smith in Mapleton, materially increased the business, and in sold it to Samuel Hatfield, so that he might devote closer attention to the business of lumbering. In April, 1879, Hatfield retiring from the store, Swope resumed trade, pushed it more briskly than ever, and Aug. 10, 1882, sold to Phillips & Son, the firm now in possession. In the spring of he embarked in stone-quarrying, and to that and lumbering now gives his attention. He has in his employ from thirty to fifty men on an average. He has had six children, of whom four are living.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 2,421,332 of the scanned text

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From the county histories, on Union township. The passage below is printed exactly as it appears in 1876, including the spelling of the day and the errors the scanner made. It has not been rewritten, summarised or added to.

A year or two before her birth, her father, Richard Chilcott, moved to and settled upon the farm now owned by James C. Wright, in Union township, then and for some years afterwards farther north than any other improvement in the valley. Among the earliest settlers were the Lilleys, Lucketts, Fitzsimmons, Corbins, Drennans, Brownings, Caldwells, Deans, Bomgartners, Curfmans, McClains, Chilcotts, Greenlands, Stevers and Robinsons. When these pioneers were endeavoring to make the country habitable, they sometimes exchanged farms or improvements, and in such cases it was customary for the parties to the transanction to exchange also all movable property, each leaving his household goods, cattle and agricultural implements upon the place from which he removed, and retaining none of his former possessions but his wife and children. This was done to avoid the expense and trouble of conveying them to the new home, through a region without roads, and without the vehicles which would have been necessary for their transportation.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 609,463 of the scanned text

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