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History of Cambria County, V.1

CHAPTER III.

ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES--CAMBRIA COUNTY TAKEN FROM SOMER-
SET AND HUNTINGDON--FIRST TOWNSHIPS IN CAMBRIA COUNTY.

     A history is the recorded events of the past, therefore, we will locate the territory within the limits of Cambria county, so that its geographical situation will be clear, and the events which follow may be applied clearly and definitely.
     The capital, or the county seat, for the transaction of the business relating to common affairs and the administration of justice, is Ebensburg, which was located at that place when the county was organized. The converging lines passing through Ebensburg are, one degree forty-five minutes and forty-four seconds (1 45' 44") west from Washington City, and forty degress thirty-four minutes and twenty seconds (40 34' 20") North Latitude. The county is on the western slope of the Allegheny mountains; the eastern boundary line lies along the crest thereof, with Bedford and Blair counties adjoining. It is about thirty-seven miles in length, with Somerset on the south and Clearfield county on the north: the westerly line is about thirty-three miles in length along the Westmoreland and Indiana county lines; its northerly line is about twenty-five miles in length, and the southerly line about twenty-one miles. Its area is 666 square miles, or 426,240 acres.
     "When William Penn laid out the city of Philadelphia and assumed control of the province of Pennsylvania in 1682, he created three counties, namely: Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester. The latter included all the territory west of the other two, and of which Cambria was a part. Lancaster county was created in 1729; York in 1749, and Cumberland in 1750. It will be observed that civilization was moving westward, and in 1771 Bedford county was organized, being taken from Cumberland.
     At the first session of the quarter session's court for Bedford county, on April 16th, 1771, almost its first official act was to create the township of Brothers Valley, the first township ever organized west of the Allegheny mountain. Its boundary lines were all the lands lying between the crest of the Allegheny mountain, the Youghiogheny river and the western foot of


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Created: 29 Jan 2006, Last Updated:
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Lynne Canterbury, Diann Olsen and contributors