Drake's Ferry Before the Bridges

Before every bridge there was a ferry. Drake's Ferry, which flourished in the early 1800s, was the first recorded crossing on the Juniata at Mount Union, established in 1783 as a store and ferry serving travelers heading south toward Baltimore and Harper's Ferry. A canal-era traveler in the 1830s called the scenery there sublime, writing it "is not excelled in any part of Pennsylvania." The ferry was a key stop on one of the busiest roads in early Pennsylvania, and the crossing was so important that in 1848 a charter was granted for the Drake's Ferry and East Broad Top Railroad to connect this route. That railroad was never built. A pioneer stone house by the ferry, home to early settlers, stood until a train wreck destroyed it around 1858 or 1859, just as the railroad age overtook the ferry age. Today the crossing looks different under the stone arches, but the geography that made this spot vital never changed.

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.

Speer and John Dougherty, and was designed by the proprietors as a place of transfer from their contemplated Drake's Ferry and East Broad Top Railroad, for which a charter was granted by the Legislature in 1819, to the Pennsylvania canal. The name, Mount Union, concentrates the physical, geological, commercial, mineral and manufacturing features of a wild and beautiful region. The East Broad Top railroad intersects the Pennsylvania railroad at Mount Union and has added five hundred tons of coal and forty tons of pig-metal daily to the tonnage of the latter. This will be more than doubled when a branch railway of two and a-half miles into the Rocky ridge coal basin and a dozen miles to the iron mines of Fulton county, shall be built. From a letter written by John Dougherty, esq., to Prof. Dewees, of the State Geological Survey, on the 28th day of January, 1875, giving a sketch of the history of Matilda Furnace, opposite Mount Union, in Mifflin county, we take the following extract in relation to the iron ores of the southern part of Huntingdon county, from the Juniata river to Fort Littleton: " In the vicinity of Mount Union, fossil ore yielding 40 per cent, of iron can be mined in slopes of 500 to 700 feet above water level.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 532,034 of the scanned text

Is o steps were ever taken towards the construction of this road. HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON" COUNTY. 155 The ground is now occupied by the East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company. The latter corporation was organized under an act of Assembly of April 16th, 1856. The persons most actively engaged in the organization of the company were Messrs. Fell, assisted in the vicinity of the road by Wm. Leas, Samuel McVitty, Dr. The northern terminus is Mount Union on the Pa. R., then running in a southern direction through or near the following towns or villages in the order named- Shirleysburg, Orbisonia, Three Springs, Saltillo and Cooks Mills, terminating at the Broad Top coal fields at Robertsdale. The first officers of the corporation were, President, Wm. Directors, Edward Roberts, A. Fell, Percival Roberts, Randolph Wood, and C. Secretary, Percival Roberts ; engineer, John B. The latter gentleman was obliged to resign on account of failing health, and was succeeded by A.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 298,782 of the scanned text

The East Broad Top railroad connects with the Pennsylvania railroad at Mount Union and runs south through Shirleysburg, giving the township and outlying region ample transportation facilities. Smithiield is one of the newer townships of the county, having been organized in March, 1886, from Porter, Walker, and Juniata. It lies directly across the Juniata river from Huntingdon borough, the village of Smithfield forming practically a suburb of the county seat. The Huntingdon & Broad Top railroad runs southwest through the township. Springfield township, located in the southern part of the county, was organized in December, 1790, from the townships of Dublin and Shirley. Its original area has been much reduced by the erection of Cromwell in 1836 and Clay in 1845. It is bounded on the north by Cromwell ; on the east by Dublin ; on the south by Fulton county, and on the west by the township of Clay. John Bailey, a Revolutionary soldier, settled on the banks of the Aughwick creek soon after that war. He was soon joined by William Jones, John Robertson and William Ward. Then came a tide of immigration from Maryland, the Browns, Maddens, Ramseys, Lanes, Cutshalls, Wibles, and several other families locating in what is now Springfield township.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 200,880 of the scanned text

Checked 2026-10-09 · Historic Mount Union collection

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