Blair County, Pennsylvania, is in the beautiful and far-famed Juniata valley, and lies between the forty-first and forty-second degrees north latitude; and the seventy-eighth and seventy-ninth degrees west longitude from Greenwich, England, or the first and second degrees west longitude from Washington city. As a political division of the State, it is bounded on the north by Centre and Clearfield counties; on the east by Huntingdon county; on the south by Bedford county; and on the west by Cambria county. Of the sixty-seven counties of the State, in order of age, it is the fifty-ninth; in order of alphabetical designation, the seventh; and in population ranks nineteenth. In geographical position Blair county is one of the south central counties of the State, while its geographical center and center of population are not far apart, and both are located in Frankstown township, a few miles north-east of Hollidaysburg. Blair county has an estimated area of five hundred and ten square miles by Small's legislative hand book of 1888, and five hundred and ninety-four square miles, or 380,160 acres, by the second geological survey of Pennsylvania; was named for Hon. John Blair, a worthy man and public-spirited citizen; and is one of the rich mineral counties of Pennsylvania.
Territorial Changes. - The present territory of Blair county was a part of the following counties for the respective times specified:
Chester, from 1682 to May 10, 1729.
Lancaster, May 10, 1729, to January 27, 1750.
Cumberland, January 27, 1750, to March 9, 1771, and under which county, in 1767, was organized as a part of Bedford and Barre townships.
Bedford, March 9, 1771, to September 26, 1787, and under which county, in 1775, was included in Frankstown township.
Huntingdon and Bedford, September 20, 1787, to February 26, 1846, the former including all of Blair, except the territory of North Woodbury and Greenfield townships.
Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair County, Samuel T. Wiley, 1892 |
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| Blair County was erected from parts of Huntingdon and Bedford Counties in 1846.
Above chart made from data in J. Simpson Africa's History of Blair County, 1883 |
| Extinct Iron Furnaces and Forges
A History of Blair County, Pennsylvania Under Editorial Supervision of Tarring S. Davis Lucile Shenk, Associate Editor Harrisburg: National Historical Association, Inc., 1931 |