Township · Huntingdon County

Cromwell

2 stories on file, each with its sources. 50.8 square miles of land in the ridge and valley country of central Pennsylvania.

1,475

Population

50.84 sq mi

Land area

Township

Type

The founding record

Cromwell township was taken from the townships of Shirley and Springfield and was organized in January, 1836. It was named for Thomas T. Cromwell, who was one of the early manufacturers of iron in Huntingdon county, and who served two terms in the lower house of the state legislature. On the north it is bounded by Shirley township; on the east by Shade mountain, which separates it from Dublin and Tell townships ; on the south by Clay and Springfield, and on the west by Jack's mountain, which marks the line between it and Cass township. The principal stream is the Aughwick creek, which flows through the township from south to north. One of the first white men to locate in the township was George Irvin, who, as early as 1760, had a log store near where Orbisonia now stands and was engaged in trading with the Indians. The Cluggage family came soon after Irvin and Captain Robert Cluggage served with distinction in the Continental army in the Revolutionary war. Two boroughs , Orbisonia and Rockhill , are located in the township, both on the line of the East Broad Top railway, and there are several small villages. Cromwell township is not without its story of hidden treasure. For many years the rumor has been current that Captain Jack, the eccentric character mentioned in another chapter, was once closely pursued by Indians at a time when he bore a heavy bag of gold and silver. John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 181,736 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

Stories from 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.

What the fact check changed. THE SOURCED PART IS ALMOST WORD FOR WORD RIGHT, which is why the one unsourced sentence stands out so badly. CONFIRMED: Africa 1883 says Cromwell "was erected from 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.'" January 1836, the two parent townships, and the honorific language all check …

Sources

Read the full story, with 3 passages quoted from the county histories →

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.

What the fact check changed. BIRTHPLACE HELD UP, but not from where the original got it. Neither Africa 1883 nor the 1897 Juniata Valley encyclopedia nor the 1909 Historic Huntingdon contains the name Purdue at all. Wikipedia gives Huntingdon County with NO citation on that sentence. Africa 1883 independently places Germany Valley in the south part of Huntingdon County, east of the Aughwick, which is what lets Germany Valley and Huntingdon Count…

Sources

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Where it sits

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