Alexandria

The founding record

The first travelers through the county, the pioneers of the eighteenth century, passed the present site of Alexandria, as it was upon the old Indian path, and the land upon which that town stands was taken up upon one of the warrants issued in 1755. Another tract, on the river below Alexandria, was warranted in the same year. In August, 1793, Elizabeth Gemmill had lots laid out upon the former tract, and the town thus founded was given the name we have mentioned. The proprietress acknowledged the plan on the 7th of August, 1798, and had it recorded on the same day. The borough was incorporated April 11th, 1827, and Trimble's addition was recorded July, 1847. Alexandria has Presbyterian, Reformed and Methodist churches, the buildings being of a superior class and comparing favorably with those of almost any other town of the same population. It has also a large brick public school building, erected within recent years, accommodating a number of schools and all the children of the borough. Walker township extends from Piney ridge, which separates it from Juniata township on the southeast, to Tussey's mountain, dividing it from Blair county on the southwest. Its northern boundary is Porter township, and its southwestern Penn. It was named in honor of the Hon. Jonathan Walker, at one time President Judge of the judicial district to which Huntingdon county belonged. Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 582,607 of the scanned text

The borough of Alexandria is situated on the north side of the Frankstown branch of the Juniata river and the HoUidaysburg division of the Pennsylvania railroad, eleven miles by rail west of Huntingdon. It is on the line of the old Indian path and the first land warrant was issued for a tract where the borough now stands in 1755. The town was laid out by Elizabeth Gemmill in August, 1793. Lewis Mytinger opened the first store and was the first postmaster. William Moore and John Walker were the first tavern keepers, and Dr. John A. Buchanan was the first physician. Alexandria became the western terminus of a stage line to Harrisburg in 1808, and after the completion of the Pennsylvania canal it became an important shipping point. It was incorporated by act of the legislature on April 11, 1827, and in July, 1847, Trimble's addition was made to the original plat of one hundred lots. The town has a good public school building, a public library, handsome church edifices of different denominations and in 1910 reported a population of 432, an increase of 26 over the census of 1900. Birmingham, situated on the Little Juniata river and the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad, seven miles west of Huntingdon, was laid out in December, 1797, by John Cadwallader, "for a manufacturing town John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 220,758

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.