Tioga County, Pennsylvania: History
The county was colonized by people of Yankee stock (colonists from New England and the western part of New York who were descended from the English Puritans of colonial New England). With the opening of a rough wagon road to the source of the Tioga River, New England colonists poured over the Allegheny Mountains. Tioga County resembled upstate New York more than it did eastern Pennsylvania, as its population primarily consisted of colonists from New England. Developers and land speculators laid out roads, established post routes, erected public buildings, and invited people to move there. The original colonists were entirely of New England origins or were Yankees from upstate New York, whose families had recent ancestors in New England, with colonization taking place in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. Tioga County was largely culturally contiguous with New England culture, which was influential across the Northern Tier of the United States through its migrants.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the county received immigrants from Ireland, Germany and eastern Europe, who came to work in the coal mines. A number of them were Roman Catholic, introducing more religious diversity to the area.