Kersey is an unincorporated community and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Fox Township, Elk County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 797.

History

The first permanent settlers of the county arrived in 1810 and founded Centreville at the headwaters of Little Toby Creek. Later that year, William Kersey built a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

and/or

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

there, and the settlement was renamed "Kersey", though early sources sometimes refer to it as "Kersey's". At the time, the area was part of Clearfield County, as Elk County had not yet been formed. Early industries in the community were

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

Geography

Kersey is located in northern Fox Township, in south-central Elk County.

Pennsylvania Route 948 Pennsylvania Route 948 (PA 948) is a state highway located in Elk, Forest, and Warren counties in Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at PA 255 in Fox Township. The northern terminus is at PA 666 near Sheffield Township. Route descrip ...

passes through the community, leading east to PA 255 and west to U.S. Route 219, which leads north to Ridgway, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

. 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 Kersey CDP has a total area of , of which , or 0.15%, is water. The CDP includes the community of Dagus, to the west of Kersey proper. The community of Dagus Mines borders the CDP to the south. Kersey sits at an elevation of above sea level, northwest of the

Eastern Continental Divide The Eastern Continental Divide, Eastern Divide or Appalachian Divide is a drainage divide, hydrological divide in eastern North America that separates the easterly Atlantic Seaboard drainage basin, watershed from the westerly Gulf of Mexico wat ...

Demographics

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Pennsylvania Census-designated places in Elk County, Pennsylvania