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Bradford County, PA
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Created on February 21, 1810, from parts of Luzerne and
Lycoming Counties and named Oneida County for the lake
of the same name. On March 24, 1812 it was formally
renamed for William Bradford, second Attorney General of
the United States. Towanda, the county seat, was
incorporated as a borough on March 5, 1828 and named for
Towanda Creek.
 After
the Revolution, veterans of the Sullivan expedition
against the Indians and Dutch immigrants from New York
settled the area. French refugees flourished at Azilium
from 1793 to 1804. The county was part of the area
plagued by disputes over land claims based on settlement
by people from Connecticut. Englishman Robert Barclay
began coal mining in 1812, which buttressed the economy
and spawned a canal and a railroad. As Barclay’s mines
were closing, a lumber boom began, and it flourished
until about 1930. Dairy farming is presently the
backbone of the economy; the county has many small
farms. These cover 46 percent of the land. Athens,
Towanda, and Canton were Underground Railroad stations,
and David Wilmot struggled against slavery in Congress
with his many Wilmot Provisos. The myth of the French
Queen Marie Antoinette’s plan to flee to French Azilium
has provided local color. Also, the history of the
misdeeds of members of a family named Pool once gave
rise to a theory that they had a genetic criminal
makeup. This was musician Stephen Foster’s home. |
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