Organized in 1850 from parts of Clover and Ringgold townships, Beaver grew into one of Jefferson County’s strongest German farming communities, centered on Beaver Run, Langville, Pansy, Heathville, and nearby neighborhoods.
Tip: Add village names like Heathville, Pansy, Langville, Pleasantville, or New Salem plus key surnames (Reitz, Shaffer, McAninch, Nolf, Holt, Mottern) to catch earlier references.
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When searching, combine Beaver Twp. or Beaver Township with Heathville, Pansy, Ohl, Langville, or Pleasantville, plus nearby Ringgold and Clover references for pre-1850 residents.
Strategy: If your ancestor is near Beaver Run, Little Sandy, or Red Bank Creek before 1850, check Clover and Ringgold township lists and maps, plus Clarion County for records just across the western township line.
Beaver Township, Jefferson County’s twentieth township, was set off in 1850 from portions of Clover and Ringgold and named for Beaver Run, the principal stream that crosses the township east to west into Red Bank Creek at Heathville ⓘ. Clover borders Beaver on the north; Rose and Oliver lie to the east; Ringgold to the south (across Little Sandy); and Clarion County along the western side where Red Bank forms part of the line.
The central and eastern parts of Beaver are high rolling uplands cut by numerous small ravines. County histories describe summits four hundred feet or more above Red Bank Creek, giving the township a mix of hill farms, wooded slopes, and creek-bottom lands.
The main coal resource in Beaver is the Brookville seam, identified in the histories as the only seam of workable thickness, averaging about four and a half feet and running thicker in some local openings such as the Hetrick property ⓘ. Higher coals (Freeport, Kittanning, Clarion) were considered of little practical value here.
Limestone is more important. The Freeport upper limestone caps the highest knobs and appears in thick beds near Worthville. Ferriferous limestone outcrops on farms of the Boyer, Updegraff, Brocius, Lang, Reitz, and other families, where it was quarried and burned for lime. Buhrstone iron ore was noted at several points but not fully developed.
County tradition credits Hulett and Eunice (Eunice) Smith as among the earliest permanent settlers in what became Beaver Township. Coming from Connecticut about 1816, they made a long wagon journey into what was then heavily timbered country. Mr. Smith later moved to Brookville, where he died in 1879, remembered as a veteran of the War of 1812; Mrs. Smith died at their longtime home south of Troy in 1869 ⓘ.
A larger wave arrived around 1834 from Dauphin and eastern Pennsylvania counties, including families named Philliber, Sowers, Bierly, McAninch, Mentear, Nolf/Nulf, Gearhart, Reitz, and Hetrick. The Holt family followed about 1837–38. Histories credit Henry Nolf and Hance Robinson with some of the earliest clearings and improvements, and note that descendants of these settlers were still among the township’s most active citizens in the late 1800s.
The first schoolhouse and an early church were built in the late 1830s on or near the Mentear and Phil(l)iber farms. The earliest graveyard is recorded on the Holt farm, where the parents of J. and S. Philliber were among the first burials.
Mill and store records provide excellent waypoints for tracing Beaver families. The histories name Hance Robinson as the builder of the first gristmill at Heathville, and either he or his brother William Robinson as running the first store there. Henry Nolf built the earliest sawmill at Heathville; other sawmills followed under Hance Robinson, Conrad Nolf, and Aaron Fuller, who had a sawmill at the mouth of Beaver Run by 1830.
About 1835, the firm of McKennan & White of Indiana County opened a lumbering operation and store at what became Langville, with Adam Bausman as clerk and James Maize as general manager. Later in the 1850s, John Lang built a substantial woolen factory at Langville that county histories describe as the only manufacturer of its kind in the township, with Nicholas McQuiston operating a gristmill nearby on Little Sandy.
By the 1880s, business centers included stores operated by Shaffer & Reitz at Pansy, E. M. Ohl at Pleasantville, and C. L. Guthrie at Heathville, along with blacksmith shops kept by Jonathan Horner and George Myers (Heathville) and Jonathan Buzzard (Pansy).
Scott emphasizes that Beaver Township was largely settled by “hardy, honest Germans” whose main focus was agriculture and stock-raising. Farms owned by families such as Jones, Shaffer, Thomas, Glantz, Benjamin, Brocius/Brosius, Sowers, and Mottern are singled out as especially well improved and productive, with orchards, fields, and herds that made Beaver one of the county’s best farming districts.
Historical summary adapted from Scott (1888), Beaver Township chapter (pp. 644–647), with emphasis on genealogically useful details: surnames, mills, businesses, and local place names.
Scott’s township sketch highlights a cluster of families whose farms, stores, and offices make them especially visible in census, tax, and deed records:
Use township officer lists, store advertisements, and land descriptions in deeds and mortgages to connect these families with specific tracts, mills, and businesses across Beaver’s villages.
These short profiles highlight Beaver’s key communities. Use them with maps, deeds, and post-office data to interpret census entries that give a village or P.O. name instead of "Beaver Township."
Village on Red Bank Creek near the mouth of Beaver Run. Early gristmill and store sites are linked to Hance Robinson, with later businesses including the store of C. L. Guthrie. A post office named Heathville served the surrounding farms and hills.
Look for Robinson, Nolf, Shaffer, Reitz, Horner, Myers and other families in Heathville-area records.
Lumber and industrial center on Little Sandy Creek. Mid-1830s operations by McKennan & White opened a store and lumber works here, and by the 1850s John Lang had established a large woolen factory and Nicholas McQuiston a gristmill.
Appears in deeds, tax lists, and business notices; watch for Lang, McQuiston, Bausman, Maize and related lines.
Rural service points tied to Beaver’s farming districts. Pansy hosted the store of Shaffer & Reitz, a blacksmith shop run by Jonathan Buzzard, and a post office. Pleasantville is associated with merchant E. M. Ohl and nearby church and school sites.
Check these names when a resident’s address appears simply as “Pansy,” “Pleasantville,” or a P.O. name in obituaries.
Belleview connects closely with the Reitz brothers’ partnership in merchandising, lumbering, and farming from the 1860s onward. Surrounding farm neighborhoods include holdings of the Jones, Shaffer, Thomas, Glantz, Benjamin, Brocius/Brosius, Sowers, Mottern, and related families.
Use land descriptions plus township tax lists to associate these surnames with specific tracts and school districts.
Township histories note an early graveyard on the Holt farm and multiple churchyard burial grounds. Use the county cemetery page for exact locations, alternate names, and transcription links.
The first schoolhouse in Beaver Township dates to the late 1830s on the Mentear or nearby Ferguson farm. By the mid-1880s the township supported seven schools, with five-month terms, two male and five female teachers, and an average attendance in the low hundreds according to county reports.
School records — including board minutes, tax levies, and attendance registers — can identify guardians, neighbors, and migration out of the township as children leave the rolls.
Early preaching and congregations clustered on the Phil(l)iber farm and at later churches that each maintained adjoining cemeteries. By the late 19th century, township histories list six churches in Beaver, reflecting strong participation in local congregations among German farming families.
Look for anniversary booklets, membership rolls, and sacramental registers naming families such as Reitz, Shaffer, McAninch, Sowers, Brocius/Brosius, Holt, Mottern, and neighbors.
Check both Jefferson and neighboring Clarion and Armstrong county church records, especially where circuits crossed county lines or clergy served multiple congregations from a central point.
By the late 19th century, Beaver Township supported post offices at Heathville, Patton's Station, Pansy, and Ohl. These P.O. names often appear in obituaries, directories, and census schedules instead of "Beaver," so treat them as key search terms.
Use this locality snapshot together with historic atlases, county maps, and modern GIS to place Beaver Township families in specific neighborhoods such as Heathville, Pansy, Langville, Pleasantville, Belleview, and farm districts along Beaver Run and Little Sandy.
Scott’s 1888 sketch includes useful quantitative snapshots you can use to understand growth and compare Beaver to other townships:
Use these figures to contextualize your families: a growing taxable base, rising school enrollments, and investment in livestock all signal a stable farming community that generated ample records.
Use historic atlases and land records to locate farms along Beaver Run, Little Sandy, and Red Bank Creek and to trace properties owned by families such as Reitz, Shaffer, McAninch, Nolf, Holt, Mottern.
Cross-check Beaver Township burials across USGenWeb transcriptions, Find A Grave, and FamilySearch, especially for families tied to Holt farm burials and churchyard cemeteries.
Township officers, road viewers, and tax collectors from Beaver appear in county dockets and assessment records. Look for names such as Jacox, Smith, Moore, Imhoof, Brocius, McAninch, Fayrweather, Gumbert, Sowers, Raybuck, Fenstamaker in minutes and election returns.
Regional newspapers (Punxsutawney, Brookville, Clarion, New Bethlehem) covered Beaver Township farm news, accidents, obituaries, and veterans’ activities. War of 1812 and Civil War service is noted for several early settlers, including Thomas Holt and others.