Township Meetings
Township meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 P.M. (or the second Thursday, if Wednesday is a holiday).
Planning Commission Meeting
Planning Commission Meetings are held the fourth Thursday of the month at 7:00 P.M. at the Township Building. November & December’s meeting will take place on the 2nd Thursday of the month. December 11, 2025 will be the last meeting of the year.
About Hartley Township
Hartley Township, Union County PA Hartley Township was named for Thomas Hartley, an absentee landholder (of Berks County and York, PA) who had commanded a Buffalo Valley militia regiment in 1776. Hartley purchased Philip Cole’s land in 1784 and laid out the town of Hartleton. The township was established in 1811 from West Buffalo. In 1857 Lewis Twp. was formed from the eastern section of Hartley Twp.
In 1814, Hartley Twp. had 97 households. Among the early families were: Boop (Boob), Braucher (Browther), Catherman (Coderman), Cook, Corl, Dorman, Frederick, Glover, Hoffman, Galer (Kaler), Heise, Hendricks, Keister (Kester), Kleckner, Klingman, Lincoln, Miller, Reed, Rote, Roush, Royer, Ruhl, Schnure, Shively, Showalter, Smith, Spigelmyer, Stitzer, Voneida, Wise, Weiker, and Zimmerman, many of whose descendants still live in Union County. Most of the early residents of Hartley Township were farmers. There were also ten sawmill operators, three grist millers, six weavers, four whiskey distillers, four leather workers, four shoemakers, several carpenters, blacksmiths and coopers.
Early settlers of note are John Glover and Sophia Duncan Glover who came to Hartley Township from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in 1772. In 1775 Glover is assessed for five acres of farmland, two horses and two cows. During the Great Runaway, the family went back to Virginia, returning to Hartley Twp in 1789. In 1814 John Glover Jr. is assessed for 480 acres of land, a house and barn. Grandson Robert V. Glover was a storekeeper in Hartleton for many years, first cashier and later president of the Mifflinburg Bank. Horace and David Glover were lawyers in Mifflinburg, and served in the state legislature. Descendant Dr. Oliver W.H. Glover served the residents of Laurelton in the early 1900s.
Early Manufacturers In the 1800s, Hartley township had two important manufacturers: the Glen Iron works and the Halfpenny Woolen Mill. The iron works were started in the 1820s by David Beaver, who added an iron forge to his sawmill along Penns Creek. Charles and Clement Brooks of Chester County bought the forge and added a furnace, establishing the Berlin Iron Works. Subsequent owners were John C. Wilson, of Chester County, with Robert B. Green and Nathan Mitchell of Lewisburg, then Chester County investors Levi and Jonathan Rooke and John H. Church. The business saw good times and bad over the next 50 years, with area residents also seeing some years with decent jobs and other times of unemployment. After several attempts to revive the business, in 1923 Church planned a hydro-electric plant to produce R.F. Boop’s “New Perfection Wrench” that would turn a four-inch pipe, and J.W. Shook’s improved nut wrench. The excess electric power generated would provide lighting to Glen Iron and Laurelton homes. The plan never came to fruition.
The Halfpenny Woolen mill was developed by Mark Halfpenny, originally a settler in Washingtonville and Muncy. Halfpenny and his sons had a woolen mill in Millheim before moving to Laurel Park in 1841. Son Mark built the Winfield Woolen Factory on Laurel Run in 1851 (having purchased Leonard Smith’s sawmill operation),
where he also ran a sumac mill and a store. The mills were destroyed by fire in 1866 and Halfpenny relocated to Lewisburg.
Hartleton The town of Hartleton (first called Kesters for early tenant farmer Peter Kester) was located near a spring, on the Bellefonte-Aaronsburg-Mifflinburg Turnpike. Taverns were an important early business, with Hugh Wilson opening the first tavern in 1793. John Thomas opened a store in 1811. In 1813, Hartleton had two storekeepers, two innkeepers, a joiner, shoemaker, leather worker, weaver and wheelwright. By the 1840’s there were three taverns and three stores: Samuel Haupt’s, Robert Glover’s and Shem Spigelmyer’s; and one doctor William Seebold. Hartleton was incorporated as a borough in 1858, with a population of about 300.
The information in this article is excerpted from Snyder’s Union County: A Celebration of History and Lincoln’s “History of Hartley…. and Hartleton” (1994 Heritage Vol. XIV); photos of Hartley Twp. and Hartleton can be found in the newly published Mifflinburg and the West End, all available at the historical society office for research and purchase.
Contact
Hartley Township
1845 State Route 235
P.O. Box 128
Laurelton, PA 17835
P: 570-922-1920
F: 570-922-1928
[email protected]
Hours of Operation
(or by appointment)