Cromwell township, Orbisonia borough
Cromwell Township 1836
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.
From the record
Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.
The boroughs of Saltillo and Three Springs are located in this township and there are a few villages of minor importance. The East Broad Top railroad crosses the northern portion, passing through Saltillo and Three Springs. 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. The first iron furnace west of the Susquehanna river was built here by Colonel Cromwell and George Ashman in 1785. 72 HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY The Rockhill furnace began operations in 1831.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
It had a capacity of about thirteen tons per week. The ores used were of the fossil variety, from which the metal was the most easily extracted, and were smelted with charcoal. The firm by which this furnace was built consisted of Edward Ridgley, Thomas Cromwell and George Ashman. They were known as the " Bedford Company," and were the owners of many thousands of acres of land. Other firms have succeeded them and other furnaces have been erected upon the same property and in its vicinity. The latter have been six in number, including the new mammoth works of the Rockhill Coal and Iron Company. The history of all of them will be given in the sketch of Cromwell township. The next establishment, in order of date, was for the conHISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY. Iv3 version of pig-metal into wrought-iron. It was built on the Little Juniata, nine miles west of Huntingdon, by Edward Bartholomew and Greenberry Dorsey, in 1794, and was called " Barree Forge." This property also embraced extensive tracts of land, through which the Pennsylvania Railroad now passes. A furnace has been built near the forge. In 1795 or '96, George Anshutz and John Gloninger erected Huntingdon Furnace, in Franklin township, three miles from the mouth of Spruce creek. Yielding large profits, the owners invested them in other iron works in adjoining counties and in several forges on Spruce creek. The furnace is now owned by G. & J. Shoenberger, but has not been in blast for some years.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 215,037 of the scanned text
Geographical, Descriptive, and N atural Features., Cromwell is one of the interior townships of thesouth part of Huntingdon County, and 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," and is bounded on the northeast by Shirley, southeast by Tell and Dublin, south west by Springfield and Clay, and on the northwest by Cass and Shirley townships. Its southeast line, running along the summit of Shade Mountain, is nearly nine miles in length. To the northwest, and nearly parallel with Shade Mountain, is Black Log Mountain, running the entire length of the township. Sandy Ridge, quite an elevation, lies nearly north from Orbisonia. Saddle Back Ridge is a range of mountains or ridges, lying nearly north and south, between Orbisonia borough and Aughwick Creek. From Aughwick Creek to Jack's Mountain, which forms the boundary line between this and Cass townHISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. ship, are several ridges, knolls, and hills, the largest of which is Coaling Ridge, in the southerly part of the township. , s The principal stream is Aughwick Creek, which flows through the township from south to north.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 1,635,955 of the scanned text
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 out. The queued post was clearly written off this passage. ONE CLAIM CUT: "a practice rarely documented in Pennsylvania's township records." NO SOURCE. It is a scope claim about statewide practice, resting on nothing, and it is doing all the work in the post. Cut. AND HERE IS THE TELL, AGAIN: THE QUEUE HOLDS TWO COPIES OF THIS POST AND THEY DISAGREE. This one asserts "a practice rarely documented." The other (fact_id 7810fb684a3c9e94) says "a practice BELIEVED TO BE rarely documented." Same claim, one hedged and one not, both unpublished. Whoever generated these could not decide how confident to sound, which is itself evidence there was never a source. Second duplicate-disagreement pair found today after Jackson Berkey. ONE CLAIM TIGHTENED: "an early settler who arrived around 1785." Africa does not say Cromwell arrived in 1785. It says that in the fall of 1785 he and George Ashman "began to take warrants for vacant lands in the valleys in the vicinity of Orbisonia." Taking up land warrants is not the same as arriving. The post now says what the source says. WHAT THE ORIGINAL MISSED ENTIRELY, and it is the whole reason the man got a township: Bedford Furnace. Africa calls it "the first iron-smelting establishment west of the Susquehanna" and the 1897 encyclopedia independently calls it "the first furnace west of the Susquehanna river." Two independent published sources for the superlative, which is the bar. The September 10, 1798 Pittsburgh Gazette advertisement is Africa's own citation of a contemporary newspaper. NOT USED: Africa also records a claim that "the first bar-iron made in this country that found its way to the market of that city was produced at this forge," but he writes it as "it has been claimed that," and a hedge that heavy on a superlative that large does not belong in a post. Left out rather than repeated with the hedge. NOT USED: no death date for Thomas Cromwell was found in any corpus book, so the post says only that he was already gone, which is what the 1836 naming language establishes.
Sources
- History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania, Cromwell Township, J. Simpson Africa / Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia (1883)
- History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania, iron manufacture chapter (Bedford Furnace), J. Simpson Africa / Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia (1883)
- Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, sketch of Col. George Ashman, J. M. Runk & Co., Chambersburg, Pa. (1897)
Checked 2026-08-01 · County history, independently fact checked