Shirleysburg borough, Shirley township

Early Shirleysburg: the road, the mill, the tannery and the potteries

In July 1774 the Bedford County court ordered a road opened near Fort Shirley to a width of thirty-three feet. The 1883 county history calls it a bridle road. It began at Silver's Ford on the Juniata River, about a mile above the mouth of Aughwick Creek, crossed the creek north of Fort Shirley and met the wagon road at the Burnt Cabins. The 1996 Historic American Buildings Survey report on the Walker farmstead says the road now known as Route 522 was "originally laid out in 1774." The county history does not say whether the bridle road became the present highway, so that link stays open.

A log mill on Fort Run was built as early as 1800, a short distance above the mill that stood at Shirleysburg when the county history appeared in 1883. David Eby built that later mill in 1844, the old log mill having served until then. James Brewster bought it afterward and sold it to A. Heffner, its owner in 1883.

Thomas McVitty built a small tannery in 1800 on the site that Braun's tannery occupied in 1883. Samuel McVitty was among the owners who followed him. In 1881 L. A. Braun bought it, raised its capacity to eight thousand sides of leather a year and added an eighteen horsepower engine, which the county history says had driven the works ever since.

Rupp's history of 1847 describes Shirleysburg as a post town with "between thirty and forty dwellings, several taverns and stores," and a population of "about 275." The same book lists the borough at 247 among its figures for 1840. The 1996 report says the population had settled at about 300 by 1880 and gives the count for that year as 296. It says the town had four stores, two or three groceries, two taverns, two potteries, a grist mill and a steam tannery.

The county history describes two works in the pottery trade. George W. Hawker started an earthenware works on Main Street in 1866, and his son, D. P. Hawker, carried it on after he died in 1871. The older one began with Samuel Backus, who came to town in 1824 or 1825. Philip Kabis bought that property in 1866, enlarged it and by 1883 was making drain, tile, stoneware and water pipe.

Checked against the record. We read the road order, the mill, the tannery and the pottery works on the page images of the 1883 county history, the 1847 and 1840 figures on the page images of Rupp's book, and the 1880 figures in the 1996 report. Rupp says about 275, and the 1996 report, which lists Rupp among its sources, gives 275 without the "about." What stays open: whether the 1774 bridle road is the present Route 522 rests on the 1996 report alone. That report lists a steam tannery by 1880, while the county history says Braun, who bought the tannery in 1881, added an eighteen horsepower engine, and does not date it. Both may be true, and we have not settled whether the tannery had steam before him. The 296 is the report's figure; we did not open the 1880 census itself. The county history does not count potteries, so its two works may or may not be the report's two.

Sources

Checked 2026-11-01 · Primary sources and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive

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