Early Settlement in Punxsutawney

Early Settlement in Punxsutawney. . The "Last Purchase” land became Pennsylvania counties. Jefferson County was officially designated in 1806. Rev. David Barclay and his son-in-law John W. Jenks purchased the land about 1818. In 1821 David Barclay recorded the town site with the Court in Indiana County. A feature of the town was the "Public Square.", Lots in the town of Punxsutawney were advertised in The Patriot a Harrisburg Newspaper in 1828. The had four dwelling houses, a stone house, a merchant mill for grinding grain, and a saw mill., Barclay and Jenks donated land for the Findley Street Cemetery. It was outside of the town. This Memorial Day honored Pungutawney's War Veterans. , Three Revolutionary War Veterans, rest here. Capt. Hugh McGee, was the first interred. Other military including Civil War soldiers are interred here. , Mahoning Creek was declared a public highway in 1808 from Canoe Creek to the confluence with the Allegheny River. Inhabitants along banks made the stream navigable enabling the lumber industry in the area. Lumbering was the main source of income in the economy of the Punxsutawney from 1820 to about 1910., Lumbering cleared the land of forest and made it available for farming. Opening of roads between 1830 and 1860 a led to the migration of Germanic immigrants to the Punxsutawney area. They purchased the cleared land and transformed it into productive farms., Farmers, like Henry Brown, made good use of the forest land that had been cleared. His farm near Bells Mills was a model of efficiency. The house he built is still standing. In the 1960s Amish began to locate on farm land in the area and engage in lumbering., German immigrants brough their custom of Candlemas: , "If Candlemas be fair and bright, come winter have another flight. , If Candlemas brings cloud and rain, Winter will not come again.", In 1869, Squire Kuntz recorded in his diary, "This was Gr'd Hog Day , but it seen no Shadow.", In 1850 Punxsutawney had 100 residents and it became a borough with its own election district. , The Public Square in the center of the town hosted the circus and political events. , The town became the economic center for Southern Jefferson County.