Corydon Township

History of Warren County Pennsylvania                    Schenck 1887

               Corydon Township was erected in 1846. Its existence in Warren County was terminated with the building of the Kinzua Dam.

               There was no settlement until 1827. The first settler in town was undoubtedly Philip Tome. He was born in 1782 in Dauphin County, PA, near the site of Harrisburg. His parents were of German extraction. As early as 1816 Philip Tome was living near the present site of Kinzua, but he soon went away and did not return until 1827, when he came to the territory and built a rude shanty for a temporary dwelling place. He came down the river in a canoe. A year before his death in 1855, he wrote and published a book entitled, “Pioneer Life; or Thirty Years a Hunter”, which is filled with his own adventures particularly in hunting elk. He also was for fifteen years interpreter for Cornplanter and Governor Blacksnake, Indian chiefs on the Allegheny River.

               The grading of the B., N. Y. & P. Railroad was begun in 1881, and the road was opened in the following year. Up until that time, there was little growth in the community. The oil excitement and the railroad promoted growth in quick time. Then there were stores, a hotel, and groceries. There was a stave-mill, a pulp company, a spoke factory, a handle factory, a saw mill, a shingle mill, and various other industries.

Courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society