Township · Huntingdon County
2 stories on file, each with its sources. 31.5 square miles of land in the ridge and valley country of central Pennsylvania.
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. The township has rich deposits of iron ore, which were first worked about 1795 or 1796, when the Huntingdon furnace was built in the midst of the ore beds and the Pennsylvania furnace in the northern part of the township, near the Center county line. Spruce creek rises in this township and flows almost the entire length of it, emptying into the Little Juniata. The water power of this stream was utilized as early as 1785 to run what was long known as the old Bebault mill. Many years later W. D. & J. D. Isett established the Stockdale Woolen Mills at the mouth of the stream and about a mile farther up J. Q. Adams started an ax factory. Franklinville and Graysville are the principal villages. John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 185,735 of the scanned text
Quoted from a work published before 1929 and therefore in the public domain in the United States. Spelling and punctuation are as printed, including nineteenth century spellings of place names. Scanned text carries optical character recognition errors; the character offset is given so the passage can be found and checked in the original.
2 stories
The Colerain Forge House stands off State Route 45 in Franklin township, and was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey. Federal survey photography carries no copyright, which is why so much of the oldest building record on this site comes from it.
Did you know? The iron works in Franklin Township was not one man's idea. It took three, and each of them brought something different.
The county history says that about the year 1796 a company was formed by Mordecai Massey, Judge John Gloninger of Lebanon, and George Anshutz to put up a furnace called Huntingdon on Warrior's Mark Run. The division of labor is spelled out plainly: Massey owned the land, Gloninger put in the money, and Anshutz brought the skill, "acquired in the manufacture of iron in Europe."
The history also passes along a story it does not vouch for. "It has been said that the company commenced with one horse and a pair of oxen at the old seat."
The first location did not work. It was abandoned after some time and another furnace was built about a mile farther down the run. Martin Dubbs and George Shoenberger came into the company later, which traded as John Gloninger and Company and then as Gloninger, Anshutz and Company.
It ran on charcoal, and it kept running on charcoal until the wood ran short and the works were abandoned in 1870. Nearly three quarters of a century. The county history says it "was conducted with great prudence, and enriched its owners."
Three men, one horse and a pair of oxen, and a furnace that outlasted all of them.
Read the full story, with 3 passages quoted from the county histories →
Where it sits
