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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.

Perry County, Pennsylvania

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

County Seat: New Bloomfield
Year Organized: 1820
Square Miles: 554

Court House:

P.O. Box 37
County Courthouse
New Bloomfield, PA 17068-0037

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named in honor of Oliver Hazard Perry, victor in the Battle of Lake Erie.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Created on March 22, 1820, from part of Cumberland County and named in honor of Oliver Hazard Perry, victor in the Battle of Lake Erie. Bloomfield, the county seat after 1827, bears the name given to the tract of land in the original patent. It is said that it was laid out in the month of June 1822, when clover was in bloom. It was incorporated as a borough on March 14, 1831. The post office name for Bloomfield is New Bloomfield.

The area was a favorite for illegal squatters before Indians yielded the land at the Treaty of Albany in 1754. Sherman's Valley was the scene of Indian attacks in 1755 and 1756. The county was formed in order to eliminate trips to Carlisle. In 1820 Sherman's Valley boasted forty-eight grist and merchant mills, a forge, ten fulling mills, sixty sawmills, eight carding machines, four oil mills, a furnace, two tilted hammers, and a powder mill. Waterpower was king. The Pennsylvania Canal had four locks in Perry; the economies of Duncannon, New Buffalo, Liverpool, and Newport depended on the canal from 1828 to 1901, when it was closed. Perry also had the Juniata Canal from 1828 to 1898. The county made high-quality hickory barrel hoops. Lumbering continues today, serving over a dozen active sawmills. Farms occupy 32 percent of the land. Retail sales have been low in the last two decades due to convenient shopping center beyond the county lines. Home building has been strong since 1970. Almost two-thirds of the resident population work force is employed outside the county.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 556 square miles (1,439 km²), of which, 554 square miles (1,434 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (6 km²) of it (0.40%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Juniata County (north)
Northumberland County (northeast)
Dauphin County (east)
Cumberland County (south)
Franklin County (southwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Blain	borough	Incorporated Area
- Buffalo	township
- Carroll	township
- Duncannon	borough	Incorporated Area
- Greenwood	township
- Howe	township
- Juniata	township
- Landisburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Liverpool	borough	Incorporated Area
- Marysville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Miller	township
- Millerstown	borough	Incorporated Area
- New Bloomfield (County Seat)
- New Buffalo	borough	Incorporated Area
- Newport	borough	Incorporated Area
- Northeast Madison	township
- Rye	township
- Saville	township
- Southwest Madison	township
- Spring	township
- Toboyne	township
- Watts	township
- Wheatfield	township

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."