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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.

Clearfield County, Pennsylvania

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

County Seat: Clearfield
Year Organized: 1804
Square Miles: 1,147

Court House:

230 East Market Street
County Courthouse
Clearfield, PA 16830-2448

Etymology - Origin of County Name

The name alluded to openings or deer fields in its vicinity.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Formed on March 26, 1804,from parts of Huntingdon and Lycoming Counties, and named for Clearfield Creek. The name alluded to openings or deer fields in its vicinity. For many years Clearfield County functioned as part of Centre County, not electing its own commissioners until 1812. It was organized for judicial purposes in 1822. Clearfield, the county seat, was incorporated as a borough on April 21, 1840.

The first settlement was Capt. Edward Rickert's in 1784, on the site of Coalport. The Erie Pike, which ran from Milesburg, Centre County, to Erie County, opened up Clearfield after 1804. The production of logs and cut lumber dominated the economy until 1910, and these, especially white pine and hemlock, were floated down the West Branch of the Susquehanna from 1837 to 1917. In 1920 the population reached 103,236, its all time peak. In 1871 lumber king John Dubois Jr. opened up the northwest of the county with ventures that included a box factory, iron mill, and tannery, but by 1900 all the trees on the Dubois family lands had gone. The McCrory's chain of five-and-dime stores began in the town of Dubois. Low sulfur bituminous coal was mined all over the county until the peak year of 1918. This is still the state's fourth largest bituminous producer; nearly all the coal now comes from strip mines. There is a strong United Mine Workers tradition. Railroads arrived, reaching the county seat, Clearfield, in 1879 and Dubois in 1874. The New York Central and the Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railroads connected with the county to obtain coal, and railroad maintenance shops arose in Dubois. Firebricks and construction bricks are manufactured. In recent decades light metal manufacturing and printing have been mainstays of the economy. The periods of lumbering and mining brought in large numbers of European immigrants, many of whose descendants have remained. There were Underground Railroad stations at Grampian Hills and Burnside Township. Gov. William Bigler started a newspaper in Clearfield and represented the county in the State Senate. Five-and-dime merchant John J. McCrory and musical composers Philip Paul Bliss and George Rosencranz came from this county. Only 8 ½ percent of the area is farmed, and Clearfield ranks between 55th and 60th in cash receipts from agriculture.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,988 square kilometers (1,154 sq mi). 2,972 km2 (1,147 sq mi) of it is land and 17 km2 (7 sq mi) of it (0.56%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Elk County (north)
Cameron County (north)
Clinton County (northeast)
Centre County (east)
Blair County (southeast)
Cambria County (south)
Indiana County (west)
Jefferson County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Beccaria	township
- Bell	township
- Bigler	township
- Bloom	township
- Boggs	township
- Brisbin	borough	Incorporated Area
- Burnside	borough	Incorporated Area
- Chest	township
- Chester Hill	borough	Incorporated Area
- Clearfield (County Seat)	borough	Incorporated Area
- Coalport	borough	Incorporated Area
- Cooper	township
- Curwensville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Dubois	city	Incorporated Area
- Ferguson	township
- Glen Hope	borough	Incorporated Area
- Goshen	township
- Graham	township
- Grampian	borough	Incorporated Area
- Greenwood	township
- Gulich	township
- Houtzdale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Huston	township
- Irvona	borough	Incorporated Area
- Jordan	township
- Karthaus	township
- Lumber City	borough	Incorporated Area
- Mahaffey	borough	Incorporated Area
- New Washington	borough	Incorporated Area
- Osceola Mills	borough	Incorporated Area
- Pine	township
- Ramey	borough	Incorporated Area
- Sandy	township
- Troutville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Union	township
- Wallaceton	borough	Incorporated Area
- Westover	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."