Jenner Township, Pennsylvania
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Jenner Township is a
township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
in Somerset County,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, United States. The population was 3,703 at the 2020 census. It is part of the
Johnstown, Pennsylvania Johnstown is the largest city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Metropolitan statistical area ...
, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Jenner Township includes the unincorporated communities of
Jenners Jenners was a department store in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on Princes Street. It was Scotland's oldest independent department store until the retail business was acquired by House of Fraser in 2005. It closed in December 2020 and was vacat ...
, Jenner Crossroads, Ralphton, Pilltown, Ferrellton, Acosta, and
Gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...
. Jenner Township completely surrounds the nearby boroughs of Boswell and Jennerstown, each of which has its own government and is not part of the Township.


Geography

It is located approximately at 40.175°N by 79.06°W. According to the
U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...
, the township has a total area of , of which is land and (0.77%) is water. Jenner Township is bordered by Conemaugh Township to the northeast, Quemahoning Township to the southeast, Lincoln Township to the southwest, and Westmoreland County to the northwest.


Demographics

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 4,054 people, 1,598 households, and 1,192 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 1,773 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the township was 99.33%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.05% Native American, 0.10% Asian, 0.12% from other races, and 0.39% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 0.25% of the population. There were 1,598 households, out of which 28.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.6% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 9.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.4% were non-families. 22.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 2.96. In the township the population was spread out, with 22.1% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 27.0% from 25 to 44, 26.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 98.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.6 males. The median income for a household in the township was $32,141, and the median income for a family was $39,341. Males had a median income of $26,163 versus $22,688 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the township was $15,066. About 8.8% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 14.6% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over.


History

Initial hunters and settlers in the territory that includes present-day Jenner Township were
Mingo The Mingo people are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, primarily Seneca and Cayuga, who migrated west from New York to the Ohio Country in the mid-18th century, and their descendants. Some Susquehannock survivors also joined them, a ...
, also known as the Seneca, one of the Six Nations of the
Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
. The land was ceded by the Iroquois Six Nations officially by the
Treaty of Fort Stanwix The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty signed between representatives from the Iroquois and Great Britain (accompanied by negotiators from New Jersey, Virginia and Province of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania) in 1768 at Fort Stanwix. It was negotia ...
of 1768 to Penn family as proprietors of Pennsylvania province. Early European traders crossed Jenner Township as early as 1750, when
Christopher Gist Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was an explorer, surveyor, and frontiersman active in Colonial America. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country (the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and nort ...
documented his brief time there in his travel diary.Cassady, p. 82 Gist is said to have named Quemahoning Creek, which drains much of Jenner Township. The Northern Trail, an established Indian trail, crossed the territory from east to west, intersecting Quemahoning Creek at Kickenapaulin's Town, a rather substantial Indian settlement, the site of which now lies under the waters of the
Quemahoning Reservoir The Quemahoning Reservoir, also known to locals as The Que, is created by the Quemahoning Dam, located on Quemahoning Creek on the border of Quemahoning Township, Pennsylvania, Quemahoning Township, Conemaugh Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvan ...
, just outside the township. In August 1758, the Northern Trail was improved, initially for the British military use, and renamed the Forbes Trail, later known as the Pennsylvania Road, the
Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated Octob ...
, and now
U.S. Route 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of , it is the third-longest U.S. Highway, afte ...
. With the building of the Forbes Road to Fort Ligonier and, later, onward to Fort Pitt, present-day Pittsburgh, European settlement began in earnest. Jenner Township was formed out of the western part of Quemahoning Township in 1811. The township was named in honor of Dr.
Edward Jenner Edward Jenner (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms ''vaccine'' and ''vaccination'' are derived f ...
, discoverer of the smallpox vaccine. Early Jenner Township settlers were primarily German and English speakers engaged in agriculture.
Pennsylvania Dutch The Pennsylvania Dutch (), also referred to as Pennsylvania Germans, are an ethnic group in Pennsylvania in the United States, Ontario in Canada, and other regions of both nations. They largely originate from the Palatinate (region), Palatina ...
was still spoken in rural parts of the township until the 1960s. Some of the first settlers were Robert & Rhoda Smiley in the 1780s. Jenner Crossroads, the township's first substantial European settlement, grew near a grist mill and tavern stop established about 1800 along the Pennsylvania Road. Samuel Steel built a sawmill at Jenner Crossroads in 1817; John Shopwood opened a hotel in 1825, and Samuel Elder opened the first store in 1836. Other early industry in the township included a sawmill on Quemahoning Creek built about 1813 by Moses Fream and a small woolen mill, built in 1817 by William Dalley, enlarged by Owen and William Morgan later into a small settlement known as Morgantown. A Lutheran church was built in the township in 1814, a Methodist Episcopal church in 1827, a Reformed church in 1841, and a United Brethren church in 1849. Jenners, Ralphton, Acosta and Gray were each built shortly after 1900 as company towns by Consolidation Coal, a Rockefeller interest, for its newly opened deep coal mines. Immigrants from Poland, Italy, Russia, Ruthenia, Wales, and Ireland filled the coal towns. The Somerset Coal Strike of 1922–1923 centered in these towns, and nearby Boswell,
Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...
and Windber. The strike, which ultimately failed in its goal to unionize miners, drew significant nationwide attention for the hardships suffered by local miners.For additional detail, see Blankenhorn, Heber. 1924. ''The Strike for Union: A Study of the Non-Union Question in Coal and the Problems of a Democratic Movement.'' New York: H.W. Wilson; Brophy, John. 1964. ''A Miner's Life.'' Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Bussel, Robert. 1999. '' From Harvard to the Ranks of Labor: Powers Hapgood and the American Working Class.'' University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. By the 1960s, the deep mines had closed. The town of Randolph was also a very small coal mining community in Jenner Township, any trace of which is now virtually gone, having been destroyed by highway construction in 1970.
Surface mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in whic ...
and some deep mining of coal continues in the immediate area. Farming, timber harvest and tourism are also mainstays of the local economy. Jenner Township also serves as a bedroom community for the nearby Somerset and Johnstown areas. The Bridge in Jenner Township and Matthew Hair Farm are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.


Notable person

* Joseph Darby, who in 2004 exposed the
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency were accused of a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These abuses ...
in Iraq


References


External links


North Star School District


{{coord, 40, 09, 00, N, 79, 07, 59, W, type:city_region:US-PA_source:GNIS-enwiki, display=title Townships in Somerset County, Pennsylvania
Township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...