Huntingdon County
Huntingdon, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Formed on September 20, 1787 out of Bedford County. Named for the Countess of Huntingdon to honor her support of the University of Pennsylvania. Huntingdon, the county seat, incorporated 1796. County noted for fertile land, iron, timber, water power, roads.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
When Pennsylvania carved Huntingdon County out of frontier Bedford County in 1787, the young commonwealth was still ratifying the new federal Constitution. The county took its name from Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, an English patron whose gifts helped the fledgling University of Pennsylvania — a nod to the transatlantic ties that still shaped early American learning. Its valleys of fertile ground, iron ore, timber, and rushing water power drew settlers who would turn the region into a working landscape of farms and forges.
Why it matters
The county's naming links a rural corner of central Pennsylvania to the founding-era growth of American higher education and the iron industry that powered the early republic.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Huntingdon County was formed in 1787 out of Bedford County, in a moment charged with national significance: this was the very year the framers drafted the new federal Constitution, and the states were beginning the debate over whether to adopt it. On the Pennsylvania frontier, ordinary life carried on — land was surveyed, counties organized, towns platted — even as the shape of the whole nation was being decided.
The county lies in the ridge-and-valley country of central Pennsylvania, a landscape of fertile bottomlands threaded between wooded mountains and fast-running water. The marker rightly points to those natural gifts: good soil, iron ore, timber, and water power. In the early republic, that combination was a recipe for a working landscape of farms and forges.
Its county seat, Huntingdon, incorporated in 1796, grew up as the civic anchor of this developing region — a place where the agricultural and industrial promise of the valleys could be organized into settled community life.
People & events
The county's name carries an unusual transatlantic story. It honors Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, an English noblewoman remembered for her generosity toward good causes. The marker credits her support of the University of Pennsylvania — a reminder that even after independence, American learning still leaned on ties and patrons across the Atlantic.
Choosing to name a Pennsylvania frontier county for an English countess was a graceful acknowledgment of that support. It linked a rugged, developing region to the world of transatlantic philanthropy and to one of the young country's important centers of higher education.
Beyond that naming, the county's story is written less in famous people than in the work of the land. Iron ore drew forges and furnaces; timber and water power ran mills; fertile ground fed the farms; and roads tied it all together. These were the everyday enterprises that turned frontier acreage into a productive, connected community.
Its place in the American story
Huntingdon County connects a rural corner of Pennsylvania to two founding-era currents in American life: the growth of higher education and the rise of the iron industry. Its name reaches back to the support of the University of Pennsylvania, tying this frontier county to the institutions that were educating the leaders of the new republic.
Its resources tie it to the other great story of the age — American industry. Iron was foundational to the young nation's development, and regions blessed with ore, timber, and water power became early engines of that growth. Counties like this one, with forges tucked among the ridges, helped build the material foundation of the country.
Together, learning and iron make Huntingdon County a small but telling example of how the early United States grew in two directions at once: cultivating its mind and building its muscle, often in the same modest places.
If you visit
Give yourself time to read the landscape here, because the land is the main character. As you travel the valleys between the ridges, notice the fertile ground, the timbered slopes, and the streams that once powered mills — the very assets the marker lists are still written across the countryside.
Use the town of Huntingdon, incorporated in 1796, as your base. As the county seat, it gathers the region's history into one walkable place and makes an easy starting point for exploring the surrounding valleys.
And carry the county's name with you as a small marvel: a stretch of central Pennsylvania christened for an English countess whose generosity touched an early American university. It's the kind of unexpected transatlantic thread that turns a quiet drive through farm and forge country into a richer story than you expected.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hastings UMWA - District 2 Labor Chautauquas
Hastings, PA · est. 2007
From 1924 to 1926, the United Mine Workers of America brought traveling "Labor Chautauquas"—programs of education and entertainment—to the bituminous coal towns of western Pennsylvania, and Hastings drew the largest crowds in 1925. Under District 2 president John Brophy, these gatherings featured nationally known speakers alongside local performers. They won national press attention and admiration from Progressive-era reformers.
David R. Porter
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David R. Porter made his home in this house while building a career that carried him from the iron furnaces of central Pennsylvania to the governor's chair, which he held from 1839 to 1845. Affectionately called "our own Davy R.," he embodied the era when ironmasters were both industrialists and political leaders. His son Horace, born here in 1837, went on to distinction as a soldier and diplomat.
Martin G. Brumbaugh
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Born near this spot in 1862, Martin G. Brumbaugh rose to become one of Pennsylvania's most influential educators before entering public life. He twice served as president of Juniata College and led the state as governor from 1915 to 1919, the years America was drawn into World War I. He rests in Valley View Cemetery in the same countryside where he began.
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