R. F. Ernst, the Man Behind the Camera

For weeks we have been sharing photographs from Charles H. Welch's 1909 history of Mount Union. Now we want to tell you about the photographer who took most of them: R. F. Ernst.

Ernst was born in Goslar, Germany, on New Year's Day 1877. He came to America at eighteen and settled in Houtzdale, Pennsylvania, where he worked in photography with a cousin. After a few years, he returned to Germany and spent three years there. He came back to the United States, settled in Clearfield, and married Jennie Reed in 1902. The couple had a son, Frederick.

In November 1904, Ernst moved his family to Mount Union. Here he was kept busy supplying the town's demand for his photographic work. By the time Welch's history book was published in 1909, Ernst had already made his mark on the town through his images. The book itself credits him: the pictures "have mostly been taken by R. F. Ernst, the Mount Union photographer."

This street view of the Maxwell Hardware corner is one of his photographs. For a century these images have shaped how we understand the town. Every photograph has a photographer. This one gets his name back.

Checked 2026-10-10 · Historic Mount Union collection

← All stories from Mount Union borough