Cambria Township

CAMBRIA TOWNSHIP

Cambria Township was one of the three original townships created when the county was formed. It included the center of the county and the territory west and north of the center. All or part of ten townships have been formed from the original township area.

Excluding Ebensburg, the first settlement in Cambria Township was that at the presently deserted village of Beulah. The settlement of Beulah was made by a number of Welsh under the direction of Rev. Morgan John Rhys. It has been written many times that Beulah was a thriving village in 1804 when Cambria County was organized. Some historians have written that the decline of Beulab began when Ebensburg was selected as the county seat. It is stated further that the decline was hastened when the Turnpike bypassed the village.

Some writers of the early history of the county state that Beulah had a newspaper and a library. Subsequent research discloses that Beulah was a promotion of Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, a well-known colonial patriot. It has been established that Dr. Rush sent Rev. Morgan John Rhys to Beulah as his agent for the purpose of selling building lots from a tract of land owned by Dr. Rush. It is true that the plan of Beulah was made and filed in the Court House at Somerset but it appears that the village consisted of a few cabins, a church and a cemetery.

A newspaper was published with the Beulah dateline but it was printed in Philadelphia as part of the promotion. It is doubtful that a library was in operation there. Those who were encouraged to come to Beulah found the land rocky and unsuited for cultivation. The settlers experienced many privations and became discouraged.

Rev. Rhys stayed with the venture a short time and moved to the town of Somerset. He became the first prothonotary of Somerset County where he died in 1804. The first permanent settlers in Cambria Township were those Who came with Rev. Rees Lloyd to Ebensburg, one of the most prominent of whom was the Roberts family.

For many years the principal industries of the township were agriculture and lumbering. The town- ship was underlaid with coal but there was no great activity until the development of Colver. Late in 1910 Ebensburg Coal Company broke ground in the northern part of the township for the development of coal. The company was owned by Messrs. J. H. Weaver and B. Dawson Coleman who named the new town Colver, using the first syllable of one name and the last syllable of the other. Colv'er grew to be one of the leading coal producers in the county. The first coal was shipped from Colver in October, 1911.

Revloc, in the western part of the township near the deserted village of Beulah, was opened under the Weaver and Coleman management in 1916. Revloc is the word Colver spelled backwards. The first coal was shipped from Revioc in March 1918.

In 1950 the township population was 5,846.

Township history provided by: Clark Creery

CEMETERIES