The 1967 centennial edition documented more than buildings and industries. It recorded the borough officials, volunteer organizations, public facilities and community responses that kept Mount Union functioning through growth, fire and flood.
The borough’s charter was filed June 6, 1867. George McLaughlin became the first burgess, and the first council began the practical work of streets, taxes and borough administration. The centennial edition reproduced the charter and assembled early burgess and mayor lists.
Features on Mayor Melvin Diven, council, borough equipment, sewage treatment and public planning captured the local government at the centennial. They are a time-specific account of 1967 rather than a description of current borough operations.
The edition contrasted before-and-after photographs of the Municipal Park and showed the recreation area in summer and as an ice-skating destination in winter. The park story belongs to the borough’s larger transition from industry-centered land use to year-round public recreation.
A feature on the Mount Union Housing Authority described efforts to provide improved housing and identified Chestnut Terrace as an early local housing project. The edition also placed the project beside photographs of community recreation, emphasizing a broader program of neighborhood improvement.
The centennial edition called the St. Patrick’s Day flood the borough’s worst disaster. It reported the loss of lights, telephones, railroad service and primary roads as Juniata River water entered the community. The Long Lumber Company was inundated, the country-club property was devastated and the Harbison-Walker dinky bridge across the river was swept away. Schools, churches and other buildings became part of the relief effort.
This history now has its own documented feature connecting the newspaper retrospective with government river records, surviving photographs, industrial consequences, relief work and later flood protection. Explore the Flood of 1936 →
Civic-minded residents met in the old grade-school building to organize a dependable system of fire protection for the fast-growing industrial borough.
The company progressed from hose carts and chemical equipment to motorized apparatus. A 1919 Reo appears in the centennial edition’s photograph of the 1920 company.
Firefighters took on extensive rescue and community-service responsibilities during the St. Patrick’s Day flood.
The Crum Building fire drew assistance from surrounding communities and was remembered as the largest fire in Mount Union history to that date.
The company expanded ambulance, rescue, disaster and diving capabilities while continuing to modernize its apparatus. In 1967 it was raising funds for a new fire hall.
The company purchased the former Huntingdon County Airport property for $300,000, beginning its second life as a site for fire-company benefits and community events. Explore the airport and airfield history →
The edition also recorded the VFW, American Legion, Masons, Elks, women’s clubs, political clubs, fire-company auxiliaries, business organizations and a civic-improvement committee. These listings are preserved as a snapshot of organized community life in 1967; they do not imply that every group remains active today.
The Daily News, viewer pp. 30 and 73