| The mills
turned out rails and the railroads bought them or
transported them to other buyers. Business
increased and the population of the valley
doubled and redoubled until it hit 6,000 in
1856--only four years after the iron company was
founded. The
influx of new workers overflowed the boundaries
of Johnstown Borough. In the next three decades
the valley population skyrocketed to 30,000
people. This brought about the creation of new
boroughs and new villages, all contiguous or near
to each other.
Back
in 1849, when the canal business was at its peak,
Johnstown was joined by a municipal
neighbor--Conemaugh Borough. This borough,
adopting Johnstown's discarded name, was
chartered on March 23, 1849, as the second
municipality in the valley. Then came Millville
Borough on July 16, 1858; Cambria Borough
followed on October 11, 1861; Prospect on
December 9, 1863; Franklin on March 9, 1868; East
Conemaugh on September 10, 1868; Coopersdale,
October 7, 1869; Woodvale, July 4, 1870, and
Grubbtown, August 8, 1882.
|
