Cromwell

Did you know? Cromwell Township is named for a man who was already dead when they named it, and who had put up the first iron furnace west of the Susquehanna.

The county history says the township was erected out of Shirley and Springfield townships in January 1836, and named "in honour of Col. Thomas Cromwell, deceased, who was an early settler and a distinguished and hospitable citizen."

Here is what he had done. In the fall of 1785, Cromwell and George Ashman began taking warrants for vacant land in the valleys around Orbisonia. Together with Edward Ridgely they built Bedford Furnace, which the 1883 county history calls the first iron-smelting establishment west of the Susquehanna. The 1897 Juniata Valley encyclopedia records the same thing separately.

On the tenth of September, 1798, Cromwell advertised in the Pittsburgh Gazette that castings and bar iron were for sale at the Bedford Furnace. Iron out of this county, going to market over the mountains.

By the time the county history was written, the author noted there remained "scarcely a trace" of where that pioneer furnace had stood.

They put his name on the township after he was gone.

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Did you know? The man Purdue University is named for was born in Huntingdon County, and he had to quit school at twelve.

John Purdue was born October 31, 1802 in Germany Valley, near Shirleysburg. Purdue's own university archives describe the family plainly: his father Charles worked at a nearby iron foundry, and "the family endured extreme poverty." John was the only son among ten children. He started at a local school at eight and dropped out at twelve to work as a hired hand and help support the family.

In the early 1820s the Purdues moved to Adelphi, Ohio. He taught in a one room schoolhouse, then started selling crops and livestock for his neighbors on commission, then opened a store, then moved to Lafayette, Indiana and kept going. Bank director. Newspaper owner. Railroad organizer.

In 1869, when Indiana was looking to establish its land grant college, he put up $150,000. Among his conditions was that the college carry his name.

Classes started in the fall of 1874. The first commencement was June 16, 1875, and there was exactly one graduate, John Bradford Harper. Purdue gave the address. He died September 12, 1876 and is buried on the campus.

A boy who had to leave school at twelve in Germany Valley put his name on a university.

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U.S. Route 522 running north through Cromwell township, photographed in May 2024 between Starr Farm and Covered Bridge Road.

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