Clearfield County, organized in 1804 and situated in the Allegheny National Forest Region, has a rich, exciting past that is described in great detail in this substantial narrative. The editor has collected information which both history lovers and genealogists will find useful. For a book of this size and scope there is a sense of familiarity that suggests the author was well acquainted with his neighbors and local happenings. Material is organized under general captions like Wars with the Indians, The Revolutionary Period, Early Settlements, and Organization of the County. Local and domestic topics of interest include Lumber and Roads, Bench and Bar, Press, Education, Public Buildings, and Politics. Of particular interest to genealogists are lists with the names of thousands of potential ancestors, soldiers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, merchants and politicians who first inhabited this Pennsylvania wilderness. There is valuable information on the county’s first families including where they lived, whom they married and how many children were born to them. Following this comprehensive overview there are specific chapters on thirty individual townships, among them Beccaria, Bell, Bigler, Covington, Cooper, Decatur, Goshen, Jordan, Sandy and Union. Aldrich concludes with 32 illustrated, biographical sketches of the county’s most prominent citizens including George Rodden Barrett, Hon. John Patton, Dr. Johnson Potter, William M. Shaw, Ellis Irwin and John Du Bois.
Lewis Cass Aldrich
(1887, 2001), 2015, 5½x8½, paper, index, 2 vols., 786 pp.
ISBN: 9780788419706
101-A1970
