Juniata County, Pennsylvania: History
Juniata County was historically a part of Cumberland County and later Mifflin County. Juniata County was formed on March 2, 1831, from parts of Mifflin County. It is named after the Juniata River. The word "juniata" itself is a Seneca word that means either "people of the standing stone" or "blue waters". The first boroughs in the county to be settled were Mifflintown and Thompsontown, which were settled in 1790. Port Royal and Mifflin were settled in 1812 and 1848, respectively. The first of these boroughs to be incorporated was Mifflintown, on March 6, 1833, and the last was Thompsontown, on February 7, 1868. However, the first settlers (unauthorized squatters) arrived in the county and were removed from it considerably earlier, by 1750. One of the first warrants for land in the county was issued in 1755. Many of the earliest landowners in Delaware Township were speculators as opposed to settlers. There was an Indian raid in the county in 1755 and 1756, although Fort Bingham and Fort Peterson had been constructed. The Beale family was one of the earliest families to inhabit the county. More settlers arrived in the 1750s and 1760s and the first gristmill on the western side of the Juniata River was built in the county in 1767. A public road was built in the county between Tuscarora Creek and a location near Shade Mountain in 1768. John Hamilton constructed a sawmill and gristmill on Cocolamus Creek in Delaware Township in 1776. The first known physician in the county, Dr. Ezra Doty, settled in Mifflintown in 1791.
The first four townships in what would become Juniata County were formed on October 23, 1754. They were Lack Township, Aire Township, Fannett Township, and Tyrone Township. These early townships had no formal boundaries. By 1913, the original townships had been divided into a total of 13 townships.
The Pennsylvania Canal began serving Juniata County in 1826 and closed in 1900. The Pennsylvania Railroad reached the county in the late 1840s. The Tuscarora Valley Railroad was also in the county until it closed in 1934.
During Hurricane Agnes in 1972, a total of 6374 acres of Juniata County were flooded. 57 families were displaced during this flooding.
Juniata County was the last county in Pennsylvania to develop a modern comprehensive plan. It did, however, construct a comprehensive plan in 1974.
In a 1997 survey, 66.8% of respondents found Juniata County a "very desirable" living place. In a similar survey in 2007, however, only 56.9% of respondents found the county a "very desirable" living place. …