Centre County, Pennsylvania: History
The land of the future Centre County was first recorded by James Potter in 1764. Potter reached the top of Nittany Mountain and "seeing the prairies and noble forest beneath him, cried out to his attendant, 'By heavens, Thompson, I have discovered an empire!'" Centre County was created on February 13, 1800 by Act 2092 of the Pennsylvania Legislature from parts of Huntingdon, Lycoming, Mifflin, and Northumberland counties. The act said that its inhabitants "labour under great hardships, by reason of their great distance from the present seats of justice, and the public offices" of their current counties. Its population was 4,112. Centre was among ten new counties carved from the existing twenty-six in early 1800. The county was named after the Centre Furnace.