Centre County Overview

Philadelphia land speculator Reuben Haines built the first road into what would become Centre County in 1771. The road extended from the Northumberland bridge on the Susquehanna River into Penns Valley and the approximate location of Spring Mills. A chain of communities began to form along this and other major transportation routes, serving both as stopping points with inns for travelers and as local centers of goods and services for surrounding farmers.

Pressure to improve transportation increased as the iron industry began to flourish. The shipping of iron products to Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Philadelphia was initially done by slow and expensive caravans of pack horses along difficult-to-travel paths, or by water on flat-bottomed boats called arks. Turnpikes were completed in the 1820s and 1830s, and the canal system opened in the 1830s and 40s. The first railroad operation, which began in 1859, brought coal from the Snow Shoe area to fire furnaces, replacing a dwindling supply of wood needed for charcoal.

Thousands of acres of furnace lands that had been cleared for the making of charcoal were converted to agricultural purposes. The well-drained fertile limestone soil of Nittany and Bald Eagle Valley helped ensure the early success of these agricultural efforts. By the middle of the 1800s, area creeks were powering water-driven grist and flour mills, sawmills, woolen mills, tanneries, and providing water for distilleries, breweries, and even axe factories. Villages continued to develop to serve as marketplaces for farmers to sell their produce and purchase needed supplies. Houses were built on long and narrow lots; schools, churches, and in some cases, small cottage industries were added to meet the needs of rural residents.

Centre and neighboring Huntingdon, Blair, and Mifflin Counties became known as the Juniata Iron Region and in turn, became the primary iron producing area of the nation between 1800 and 1850. The success of this enormously significant industry brought wealth and political clout to Centre County and set the stage for its future development. Bellefonte, the county seat, became the most prosperous community between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh in the first half of the 19th century. Between 1850 and 1900 it was home to three Pennsylvania governors, as well as four others with Bellefonte connections, two who became governors of the Commonwealth and two others who served other states.

The iron industry served as the foundation for what would become Centre County's key twentieth century industry – education – with the establishment of Penn State. Farmers of the mid-1800s sought an education program that would closely relate to their agricultural needs – information on how to use new farm machinery and how to apply new scientific techniques.

In 1851 a small group of gentlemen farmers created the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society with two objectives: to hold a Farm Fair every January in Harrisburg and to establish a school for farmers. A local chapter of the Society had already formed in Centre County with a large membership of prominent area businessmen, including James Irvin and Moses Thompson, then owners of Centre Furnace. Irvin and Thompson offered to donate 200 acres of furnace farm land and to join with Andrew Gregg Curtin, Hugh Nelson MacAllister, and other prominent county citizens on a $10,000 note for the school. Despite competition from six other counties. The offer was accepted and Centre County was selected for the location of the new Farmers High School.

This generous offer was also shrewd. Every eastern ironman knew that in mid-1855 the Sault Sainte Marie Canal would be completed and link Lake Superior and Michigan with Lake Erie, bringing Minnesota's rich Mesabi Iron Ore to the new coke, hot-blast furnaces of Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Charcoal iron's day had past. Centre Furnace ceased producing iron in 1858; but its owners had started a new venture of economic consequences that would become the largest educational institution in Pennsylvania.