Mapleton borough

Mapleton's Great Tannery

Did you know? Mapleton once had a tannery that the borough's 1966 centennial history calls one of the most extensive in the state.

Two brothers from Lancaster County, A. H. and G. M. Bauman, built it near the site of Buck's Service Station and the highway underpass, as the booklet put it in 1966. When is less certain: the booklet's text says the early 1860s, while a photo caption in the same booklet says the late 1860s or early 1870s. Africa's 1883 county history places A. H. Bauman at Mapleton Depot in 1859, helping manage a Lancaster firm's store and land, and says that after he retired from that post he and his brother George M. built the tannery.

W. H. Rex, one of the borough's leading citizens, was chosen as superintendent. In 1883 the tannery employed 50 men. A Huntingdon Globe item of February 8 that year, listing the works that gave steady employment in Mapleton, put the tannery first with 50, ahead of the stone quarries, the sand companies and the railroad.

Huge wagons piled high with bark, drawn by six mules or horses, were a common sight in the borough. The oak bark was ground and converted into tannin for use in the tanning process.

In 1879 the business was sold to L. A. Robinson, with Rex staying on as superintendent and tanner, and it ran until the flood of 1889 destroyed it. The Juniata White Sand Plant was later built on the site of the old tannery, in the heart of the borough.

Checked and confirmed. CONFIRMED 2026-10-30 against the sources listed: every factual sentence was tied to a verbatim passage and a script confirmed each passage is in its source. Where sources disagreed on a number, the number was left out.

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