Historic Mount Union, Pennsylvania

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Historic Mount Union, Pennsylvania Interesting facts, photos and trivia about Mount Union, a borough in Huntingdon County. Historic District was listed on National Register in 1994.

Not officially affiliated with municipal government or any historic organization.

In 1889, William DeFrehn and his sons arrived in Mount Union from Williamsport in Maryland to start a chair factory. A f...
10/03/2026

In 1889, William DeFrehn and his sons arrived in Mount Union from Williamsport in Maryland to start a chair factory. A flood had damaged their establishment back home. They bought the old tannery that R. J. Faust had dismantled and converted it to their factory. Seven sons worked in the business: Robert, William Jr., Edward, Charles, Frank, Augustus, and George.

Thousands of fine quality chairs of various styles were sent from this place to various parts of the country, the 1909 history records. The factory occupied the western edge of town along the Pennsylvania Railroad siding. In February 1892, fire destroyed the building, but they rebuilt. The DeFrehn brothers left for Johnstown in 1898, though others operated the plant afterward.

Did your family sit in one of those chairs? Did they work at the factory? We would like to hear what you remember.

Photo: from Charles H. Welch's History of Mount Union, Shirleysburg and Shirley Township, published 1909. Public domain, via archive.org.

The brick church in this photograph stood on the southeast corner of Shirley and Division Streets for over forty years. ...
10/02/2026

The brick church in this photograph stood on the southeast corner of Shirley and Division Streets for over forty years. Built in 1866 and 1867, it was formally dedicated in November of that year, replacing an older frame church from 1849. The congregation worshiped there until 1908, when a new church building was completed.

The story begins with Rev. Britton E. Collins, who started preaching in Mount Union in 1845. By 1849 the community had built a frame church for $500. The congregation was formally organized with fourteen members on May 2, 1865, and by 1909 it had grown to 360. The brick church that replaced the frame building cost $4,500 and served as the center of community life for decades.

What happened to the brick church after 1908? If you have memories of it, or know what became of the building and the lot, we would love to hear.

Photo: from Charles H. Welch's History of Mount Union, Shirleysburg and Shirley Township, published 1909. Public domain, via archive.org.

Mount Union in 1909 was more worldly than people imagine. Alley Kasan came to America in 1901 and by 1903 opened a groce...
10/01/2026

Mount Union in 1909 was more worldly than people imagine. Alley Kasan came to America in 1901 and by 1903 opened a grocery on West Shirley Street. Ye Hing Song, described in the town's own history book as a laundryman, kept his shop in the Welch building at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Jefferson Street. Both men appear in Charles Welch's 1909 History of Mount Union, Shirleysburg and Shirley Township as businessmen of the community, their livelihoods sketched with the same respect given to carpenters and merchants born here. A grocer from a village near Beirut. A laundryman from China. Neighbors at the corner. Did your family do business with either of them, or know their families?

Photo: Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, Town of Mount Union (HABS PA-5974).

Before the brick works came the tannery. In 1883, when Mount Union's chief industry was A. D. Faust and Sons, they could...
09/30/2026

Before the brick works came the tannery. In 1883, when Mount Union's chief industry was A. D. Faust and Sons, they could process 13,000 hides a year with a crew of 25 men. The tannery had been built in 1859 by Mr. Bare and ran for decades before silica brick would transform the town.

The 1909 photograph shows the Juniata Oak Extract Works, part of that leather era. Workers and buildings stand in it that you might recognize if your family was here then. Among the people who made their way to this valley was Franz Heidel, a German cabinetmaker born beside an old castle in Freidenberg, Baden. In 1865, at 22 years old, he survived an 80-day Atlantic crossing starting from Antwerp. A serious storm almost destroyed the vessel mid-voyage, but Heidel made it through to a new life in America.

Mount Union's boom decade came fast and fierce. The tannery gave way to three brick plants and an explosives factory. The population more than tripled between 1900 and 1910. What drew your family here in those years before the brick?

Photo: from Charles H. Welch's History of Mount Union, Shirleysburg and Shirley Township, published 1909. Public domain, via archive.org.

Mount Union, in numbers: 812 people in 1880. About 1,100 by 1900. More than triple that by 1910.The brick industry came ...
09/29/2026

Mount Union, in numbers: 812 people in 1880. About 1,100 by 1900. More than triple that by 1910.

The brick industry came first. The wages followed. And with the wages came the makeshift and disreputable services and entertainments that followed the money. The town earned a nickname for it: a second S***m and Gomorrah, a reputation that marked the decade when Mount Union built itself and lived rough.

Did your grandparents come during the boom? Tell us who they were, what work they did, and what you remember about those years.

Photo: huntingdoncountyhistory.com

W. W. Fuller was born at Ickesburg in Perry County on November 6, 1837. He entered the Pennsylvania Railroad's service o...
09/28/2026

W. W. Fuller was born at Ickesburg in Perry County on November 6, 1837. He entered the Pennsylvania Railroad's service on March 5, 1865, and by December 1, 1866, was Freight and Passenger Agent at Thompsontown. On April 1, 1876, he accepted the Mount Union agency and held it for thirty years until his pension on December 1, 1906.

Besides his railroad interests, Fuller found time to seek the Muse. He was called the poet of the Juniata Valley and wrote verses including The Eighth Wonder of the World, The Horseshoe Bend, Jack's Narrows, The Youths of Fair Saville, and The Vale of the Juniata. He found much pleasure in singing of the natural phenomena and splendors of the Juniata Valley.

He was a member of the Presbyterian church and a teacher in the Sunday School. He aimed to be an upright citizen in the community.

Did you know his poetry? Does your family remember Fuller's verses?

Photo: from Charles H. Welch's History of Mount Union, Shirleysburg and Shirley Township, published 1909. Public domain, via archive.org.

The storefront of J. E. Everett in Mount Union, photographed around 1910. Two people stand in the central doorway, frame...
09/27/2026

The storefront of J. E. Everett in Mount Union, photographed around 1910. Two people stand in the central doorway, framed between two windows. On the left, the word Groceries. On the right, the word Confectionery. A Mail Pouch crate or sign sits at ground level.

One storefront with two separate names. The couple in the photograph occupy the space between them, the merchants of this arrangement, though we do not know their names. One doorway, one storefront, two different departments under the Everett name.

Who were the two people in this doorway? If you are descended from J. E. Everett, or if this corner belonged to your Mount Union memory, tell us their story. Someone will recognize this storefront and know.

Photo: huntingdoncountyhistory.com

Georgi Vasilev, from the village of Krushoradi in the Lerin district, lived in Mount Union, Pa. This portrait appeared i...
09/26/2026

Georgi Vasilev, from the village of Krushoradi in the Lerin district, lived in Mount Union, Pa. This portrait appeared in Naroden Glas, the Bulgarian language newspaper of America. The newspaper published portraits and advertisements featuring Bulgarian and Macedonian Americans.

Do you descend from the Macedonian or Bulgarian families of Bricktown?

Photo: Naroden Glas, the Bulgarian language newspaper, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The Pennsylvania Railroad's first creosote tie-treating plant stood northeast of Mount Union along the Juniata River, op...
09/25/2026

The Pennsylvania Railroad's first creosote tie-treating plant stood northeast of Mount Union along the Juniata River, opened just before 1909 when this photo was taken. The plant was the PRR's first industry of this kind: treating wooden railroad ties with creosote to preserve them. About seven thousand gallons of creosote were used daily, imported from Europe and stored in Philadelphia before being shipped here. The plant kept about five hundred thousand ties on hand at any given time, treating around two thousand daily. Carl W. Tiffany supervised the operation with approximately fifty men. Many of the men standing in this photograph may be your great grandfathers or great uncles. Do any of you recognize faces in this picture or have family stories from the tie plant?

Photo: from Charles H. Welch's History of Mount Union, Shirleysburg and Shirley Township, published 1909. Public domain, via archive.org.

On August 20, 1905, the electric lights came on for the first time. Scott Dibert, president of the Mount Union Silica Br...
09/24/2026

On August 20, 1905, the electric lights came on for the first time. Scott Dibert, president of the Mount Union Silica Brick Company, had brought electric light to the town through the Mount Union Light and Power Company. The two large dynamos sat in the engine room of the brick works itself, furnishing both day and night current to the streets.

It was a night long to be remembered. The electric lights glowed for the first time on Mount Union's streets. One man, one brick plant, two industries: the same works that burned to make fire brick across America also powered the lamps where families walked at night.

Did your family live here when those lights came on, or do you have stories passed down about the night Mount Union lit up?

Photo: from Charles H. Welch's History of Mount Union, Shirleysburg and Shirley Township, published 1909. Public domain, via archive.org.

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Mount Union, PA
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