A Brief History of New Bethlehem

In the early to middle years of the 1800's, pioneer settlers began forming towns and villages in what is now Southern Clarion and Northern Armstrong Counties, land once inhabited by the Seneca Indians.  The early settlers were mostly of Scotch, Irish and German nationalities.  Among the early 1800's settlers was Henry (Gum) Nolf, Jr. who became one of the active citizens, operating a saw mill, a grist mill and the first store.   The village on the North side of the Red Bank Creek was first known as Gumtown or Bethlehem, sometimes as the Christmas Village on the Seneca Trail,  and then, when a Post Office was established in 1840,  as New Bethlehem, to distinguish it from the eastern Pennsylvania town of the same name.  In 1833, the village consisted of four buildings: a log home of Christian Himes built in 1808, and a frame house, a stable and a saw mill (1815) belonging to Henry Nolf.   A grist mill was also built by Nolf in 1830.   New Bethlehem later became an early population and business center.  In March 1853, the town of New Bethlehem was incorporated as a Pennsylvania municipality in the form of a borough with a Burgess serving as mayor and a town council directing the borough government.  As late as 1855, it was said of New Bethlehem that it was "a small hamlet but its population was composed of peace-loving Christian people." 

Lumbering was the first industry.  Later, vast quantities of coal, iron, limestone, clay, gas and oil were mined from the surrounding hills.  Clarion County was once nicknamed "Iron County" because of the furnaces built there. One of the largest lumber mills that was built along the Red Bank Creek was erected by C.E. Andrews about the time of the Civil War.  Distilleries existed in New Bethlehem from 1840 to 1848, in 1860 through 1865, and then again not until the New Bethlehem Brewing Company, which was housed in the building where Smuckers of PA, Inc. is now located.  Around the time of prohibition the company was sold and the machinery shipped to Japan.  H.B. DeViney Company thereafter purchased the building and later sold it to Smuckers.  Church members Charles P. Leach, Sr. and Robert Mateer, Jr. were among the local businessmen and investors who secured a government contract for the company to make peanut butter toward the end of World War II.

The Allegheny Valley railroad was built in 1873.  The station was located near the present location of the First United Bank on Wood Street and the Keck Building on Arch Street near the Firehall.    There was also a rare private rail stop at the Andrews Estate property at 318 Penn Street on the side where the municipal parking lot is now located.  George Arblaster established the first pottery business, Pioneer Pottery, in the vicinity of Liberty and Penn Streets in New Bethlehem in 1875 which continued until it was destroyed by fire in 1902.  A cigar factory was opened in 1898 and employed 36 people.  New Bethlehem also had a Window Glass Company which was completed in 1900 and was located between East Penn Street and the Penn Central Railroad in what was known as the Allebach Addition. 

 A "pay" school was organized in New Bethlehem in 1828.  An early one room frame building was built to educate the town's residents in about 1848.  A more modern building was built in 1893 where the Presbyterian Church parking lot is now, eventually becoming the New Bethlehem High School.  It became Redbank Valley High School in 1950 when the Redbank Valley School Jointure was established.  The "new" high school located along Redbank Creek was completed in about 1958 and the old building was thereafter demolished. 

In the early 1800's, there was a pressing need for houses of worship where early residents could practice their religious beliefs.  During that period four Christian churches had their local beginnings - three Protestant and one Roman Catholic.  The first record of any religious services in New Bethlehem was in 1818 when the "Church of Red Bank" came into existence and appears on the Roll of Erie Presbytery. It may have been only a preaching location for the Rev. Robert McGarrah, Pastor of the Licking and New Rehoboth Churches.   A Union Sunday School was organized on July 13, 1845, and met in the log house of Mr. Philip Huffman.