Hackman, the Man Who Built Two Towns

This is Clinton V. Hackman. Charles H. Welch's history of Mount Union, published in 1909, prints this portrait and captions it “Superintendent Harbison-Walker Brick Plant”.

He did not stay there. The federal survey of Mount Union puts it in one sentence: the third company, Mt. Union Refractories, was organised by two former managers for Harbison-Walker, R. P. M. Davis and Clinton V. Hackman. It was built in 1911 and 1912 on the edge of town along the Juniata and started with eight kilns. During the First World War it built twenty one more.

By November 1916 the Harrisburg Telegraph was naming C. V. Hackman as superintendent of that company, and Davis as its president and general manager. Two men who had worked for Harbison-Walker, running their own plant across town from it.

The company did not keep the name. In 1922 it opened a second plant in Clearfield County and became the U. S. Refractories Company. In 1930 it was merged into North American Refractories, which is the name most people in town still use for that end of the works.

Mount Union Refractories is the company that hired John Nolen to lay out Kistler, the planned town across the river in Mifflin County, for the workers it could not house.

From the record

Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.

About 1870 a charter was granted for the construction of the Stone Creek & McAIevy's Fort railroad, but the panic of 1873 car"e on before anything had been done and the road was never built. Juniata township, erected on November 19, 1856, was originally a part of Huntingdon township, though at the time of its erection its territory was taken from the township of Walker. It is bounded on the northeast by Henderson township; on the southeast by Terrace mountain, which separates it from Union; southwest by Penn. and on the northwest by Walker, the summit of Piney ridge forming the northwestern boundary. One of the early settlers in this township was the father of Captain Samuel Brady, the noted scout and Indian fighter, who located at the mouth of Vineyard creek. William Corbin, Caleb and Amos Folk, William Enyeart and William Dean were likewise early settlers. The township, at the time it was settled, was covered with a heavy growth of valuable timber, but this has nearly all disappeared. Large quantities of lumber, tan-bark and railroad ties have been taken from the township and farming is now the leading occupation. 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.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 191,261 of the scanned text

John Walker and James McCardle located near the foot of the Tuscarora mountain about the same time. During the decade following 1780 the number of settlers increased rapidly. In 1782 George Hudson located about where the borough of Shade Gap is now, built a cabin and began purchasing some squatter claims for 73 which no warrants had been issued. He was soon followed by William Swan, Hugh Robinson, Alexander McIIroy, George Wagner, Andrew Sands, James, Jonathan and Robert Cree, James Hooper, James Morton, William Fleming, Robert and William Marshall and some others. Joshua Morgan, of the Black Log valley is said to have been the first man to drive a team through Shade Gap. Franklin township was erected in March, 1789, from the old town-, ship of Tyrone, and was the first new township to be established after the organization of Huntingdon county. It extends from the Center county line on the northeast to the Little Juniata river on the southwest, and from Warriors Mark township on the northwest to the summit of Tussey's mountain on the southeast. Among the early settlers were Alexander Ewing, Zephaniah Weakland, George Mattem, Jacob Miner, Abraham Sells, Richard Ricketts, James Hunter, James Armitage and the Hendersons.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 185,264 of the scanned text

In 1796, two years after the township was organized, there were fifty-nine land owners on the tax lists. About 1793 a furnace was built by Jacob Isett where the village of Union Furnace now stands, but the dam was washed away soon after and nothing further was done until 1810, when it was rebuilt by Dorsey & Evans. It was a charcoal furnace, with a capacity of thirty-five tons weekly, and continued in operation until 1852. Oneida township was erected on August 20, 1856, from Henderson and West. It is a small township adjoining the borough of Huntingdon, the Juniata river forming its western border. It was named for the Oneida Indians. The Standing Stone creek flows through it from one end to the other, a distance of about ten miles, between the Standing Stone mountain and Warrior's ridge. There are some fine farms in the valley, whose products find a ready market at Huntingdon. Nathan Gorsuch, William Carter, John Stewart, Joshua Kelley, William Wheeler, Jacob White, Elisha Green and Nicholas Decker were the first settlers. While the Pennsylvania canal was under construction a great deal of timber was supplied from what is now Oneida township. The first packet-boat , the Lady of the Lake , that ever plied the waters of the canal was built at William Foster's saw mill.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 195,645 of the scanned text

Checked 2026-09-09 · Historic Mount Union collection

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