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Pennsylvania Counties

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Pennsylvania Counties

There are sixty-seven counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States of America. The city of Philadelphia is coterminous with Philadelphia County, and governmental functions have been consolidated since 1854.

Bedford County, Pennsylvania

Bedford County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Bedford
Year Organized: 1771
Square Miles: 1,015

Court House:

PO Box 166
County Courthouse
Bedford, PA 15522-0166

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for Fort Bedford, a French and Indian War era British military fortification located near the present site of Bedford, Pennsylvania. The fort was a star shaped log fortress erected in the summer of 1758. It in turn had been named in 1759 for the Duke of Bedford.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Created on March 9, 1771, from part of Cumberland County. It was named for Fort Bedford that in turn had been named in 1759 for the Duke of Bedford. Bedford, the county seat, on the site of Fort Bedford, was incorporated as a borough on March 13, 1795.

First entered by Virginians in 1728, the site that became Bedford Village was a connecting point along several Indian trails and settler paths. Its location continued to lie along Pennsylvania's main East-West route until the opening of the Pennsylvania Railroad (1846); the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the 1940s placed it again on a main route. The original settlers included a large group of German descent. Rye, used often for whiskey, was the major crop until 1860, after which general farming prevailed. Dairy production flourished after 1930. One-third of the land is currently farmed. Bedford was President Washington's headquarters during the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion, and U. S. Supreme Court justices planned their proslavery Dred Scott case decision at Bedford Springs Hotel. Bedford Springs was also President Buchanan's summer residence.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,017 square miles (2,635 km²), of which, 1,015 square miles (2,628 km²) of it is land and 3 square miles (7 km²) of it (0.28%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Blair County (north)
Huntingdon County (northeast)
Fulton County (east)
Allegany County, Maryland (southwest)
Somerset County (west)
Cambria County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Bedford (County Seat)	borough	Incorporated Area
- Cumberland Valley	township
- East Providence	township
- East St. Clair	township
- Everett	borough	Incorporated Area
- Hopewell	borough	Incorporated Area
- Hyndman	borough	Incorporated Area
- Juniata	township
- Kimmel	township
- King	township
- Mann	township
- Manns Choice	borough	Incorporated Area
- Napier	township
- New Paris	borough	Incorporated Area
- Pavia	township
- Rainsburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Saxton	borough	Incorporated Area
- Schellsburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Snake Spring	township
- South Woodbury	township
- St. Clairsville	borough	Incorporated Area
- West Providence	township
- West St. Clair	township
- Wood	township
- Woodbury	borough	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."