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Mount Union borough

George W. Lukens Counts Mount Union

In May 1880 The Huntingdon Journal printed the list of census enumerators for the county. The enumerator for Mount Union borough and its election district was George W. Lukens. Born in Mifflin County in 1846, he was a Mount Union merchant who, according to Charles Howard Welch's 1909 history of the town, had bought out a grocery in 1869.

His last census page for the borough is dated June 14, 1880. It ends with the words "Here ends Mount Borough" and his signed certificate that the returns had been "duly and truthfully made."

The borough came to 764 people. The Huntingdon Journal printed that figure on August 27, 1880, in a table furnished by J. Simpson Africa, the census supervisor for this district, which showed Mount Union up 229 from 535 in 1870. The federal census report gives the same 764, and so does Africa's own county history, published in 1883.

Welch's history gives a different number: "He took the census of this borough in 1880, at which time the enumeration was 812 inhabitants." That number does not fit the census pages. The borough's pages are fifteen full pages of fifty lines each and a sixteenth that ends at line 32, so they hold no more than 782 names. We do not know where the 812 came from.

Welch also says Lukens served the borough as school director and assessor, and that he had been secretary of the Town Council for 30 years and still held the post when the book appeared. The 1883 county history lists him as council secretary from 1880 to 1882.

Checked against the record. We checked the 764 figure against the newspaper table of August 1880, the federal census report of 1883 and J. Simpson Africa's 1883 county history. Each of them gives 764. We did not find the 812 in the county histories we hold or in any source earlier than Welch's 1909 history. The pages as described hold no more than 782 names, so 812 does not fit them. We did not count every name, so we cannot say how the pages square with 764. Still open: where Welch's 812 came from, and when Lukens died, which we have not found. The 1883 county history dates his council secretaryship to 1880 to 1882, while Welch says he had held the post for thirty years and still held it when his book appeared. We have not reconciled the two accounts.

Sources

  1. The Huntingdon Journal, May 21, 1880, p. 3: list of census enumerators for Huntingdon County
  2. Welch, History of Mount Union, 1909, pp. 671 to 672: George W. Lukens sketch
  3. U.S. census population schedules, June 14, 1880, enumeration district 200, p. 16: last page of Mount Union borough
  4. The Huntingdon Journal, August 27, 1880, p. 3: county census table, Mount Union 535 in 1870 and 764 in 1880
  5. U.S. Census Office, Statistics of the Population of the United States at the Tenth Census, 1883, p. 312: Table III, Mount Union borough
  6. Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, 1883, p. 360: Mount Union population and council secretary
  7. Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, 1883, p. 209: census districts and enumerators of 1880

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

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Photographs from Mount Union borough

Shirley Street at Jefferson Street, downtown Mount Union, February 1990Shirley Street at Jefferson Street, downtown Mount Union, February 1990Jet Lowe, , 1990. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
A swimming pool created by a CCC dam, captioned Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, July 1941, Farm Security Administration photograph.A swimming pool created by a CCC dam, captioned Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, July 1941, Farm Security Administration photograph.Edwin Rosskam, photographer. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF33-005210-M4 (LC-DIG-fsa-8a15977) · Public domain
The corner of Shirley and Jefferson streets in Mount Union, a recent photograph.The corner of Shirley and Jefferson streets in Mount Union, a recent photograph.Wikimedia Commons (CC0) · CC0
East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Company, Roundhouse, State Route 994, West of U.S. Route 522, Rockhill FurnaceEast Broad Top Railroad & Coal Company, Roundhouse, State Route 994, West of U.S. Route 522, Rockhill FurnaceLibrary of Congress · pa3371
Mount Union in T. M. Fowler's bird's-eye view, 1906, the year after the quarantine.Mount Union in T. M. Fowler's bird's-eye view, 1906, the year after the quarantine.Library of Congress Panoramic Maps (T. M. Fowler, 1906) · Public domain
Peduzzi's Soda and LunchPeduzzi's Soda and LunchWikimedia Commons (Smallbones, CC0) · c02

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