Centre County
Bellefonte, Centre County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Formed on Feb. 13, 1800 from Huntingdon, Mifflin, Lycoming and Northumberland counties. Named for its location in the State, and home of The Pennsylvania State University. Five governors of Pennsylvania lived in Bellefonte, county seat laid out in 1795.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Established in 1800 from four surrounding counties, Centre County took its plain, practical name from its position near the geographic middle of Pennsylvania. Bellefonte, its county seat laid out in 1795, became an unusually powerful little town — five Pennsylvania governors called it home. The county is best known today as the home of The Pennsylvania State University.
Why it matters
Home to Penn State — one of the nation's original land-grant universities — Centre County embodies the 19th-century American faith that public higher education could lift ordinary citizens and drive a state's prosperity.
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Nearby & related markers
Andrew G. Curtin
Bellefonte, PA · est. 1950
On this site was born Andrew G. Curtin, Pennsylvania's Civil War governor. Elected in 1861, he steered the state through the conflict, organizing the celebrated Pennsylvania Reserve Corps and championing the soldiers of the Union. His legacy reached beyond the battlefield: he pushed for State Normal Schools to train teachers and secured funding for State Orphan Schools to care for the children of the war dead.
Bellefonte Governors' Memorial
Bellefonte, PA
Bellefonte, a small county seat tucked into the mountains of central Pennsylvania, holds a distinction few American towns can claim: it produced an extraordinary number of state governors. This memorial honors seven men who lived, worked, or were educated here, among them Andrew Gregg Curtin, Pennsylvania's forceful Civil War governor who raised troops for the Union; James A. Beaver, a Civil War veteran who later took the statehouse; and Daniel H. Hastings. Their careers stretch from the crisis of the 1860s into the Gilded Age, when Bellefonte's iron industry and political connections gave it influence far beyond its size.
Presented by Gov. James A. Beaver
Bellefonte, PA
This bronze dedication marks a gift to Bellefonte from one of the borough's most distinguished sons, James A. Beaver. A Union officer who rose to brigadier general and lost a leg to battle wounds in the Civil War, Beaver returned home to practice law and later served as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1887 to 1891. In 1910, near the end of a long public life, he presented this to his community—one of many civic gifts from a man who also helped shepherd the young Pennsylvania State College as a trustee.
General James A. Beaver Memorial
College Township, PA
James A. Beaver was a Civil War officer who rose to become governor of Pennsylvania from 1887 to 1891, but his most lasting mark came through decades of service to the young Pennsylvania State College. As a trustee across two long stretches and as acting president from 1906 to 1908, he helped guide the institution through its formative years, when a modest agricultural school was growing into a full university. The graduating class of 1909 knew him well enough to raise this memorial to a man they called their beloved friend and counselor.