Confluence takes its name from its location, which is at the junction of three streams— the Youghiogheny and Casselman rivers and Laurel Hill creek. It is a growing, prosperous town, and its commerce is constantly increasing in extent and importance. It is the largest shipping point on the Pittsburgh division of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, between Cumberland, Maryland, and Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Its situation at the confluence of three important streams renders it the natural outlet for the business of a wide extent of country. A great deal of timber is brought down the river to this point, whence it is shipped by rail to various markets.
The town was laid out in 1870, under the direction of the Confluence Land Company, an association which purchased from A.N. Tissue, Jacob Sterner and Peter Meyers the land on which Confluence is situated. The town grew rapidly, and in 1873 was incorporated as a borough. In 1883 it contained a population estimated at four hundred and fifty.
The first house within the borough limits was erected by Henry Adams, one of the pioneer settlers. After the town plot had been made, the first house was built by Andrew Bowlin, who still occupies it. The first store was opened by Van Horn & Liston in 1870. The first blacksmith and the first shoemaker came in 1871, and still work here— John Stanton and T.B. Frantz. An establishment for the manufacture of pottery and stoneware was erected by A.G. Black, in 1872. It does a large business.
A. Marshall Ross, son of Gen. M.A. Ross, of Petersburg, has followed the mercantile business from his youth. Since 1870 he has been located at Confluence. Mr. Ross was in Co. E, 133d regt. Penn. Vols., for nine months. Geo. G. Groff , son of John Groff of Brother’s Valley township, built a store at Confluence in 1874, and engaged and is yet in the mercantile business. He is justice of the peace.
Adam R. Humbert is a native of Milford township, where the family were early settlers. In early life he taught school. For thirty years he has worked at carpentry, since 1870 in Confluence. He served in the late war during two terms of enlistment. Mr. Humbert has held nearly all of the borough offices.
Nearly all the charcoal made in Lower Turkeyfoot township is shipped from Confluence station.
Among other early industries of the borough was the tannery built by Joseph Cummins, its present proprietor. A factory for the manufacture of axle grease was erected by a company from Westmoreland county, in 1876, but was operated only about eight months. A stave and heading factory, built by a Pittsburgh company in 1875, was in successful operation about two years.
The schoolhouse, erected in 1871, was used for the borough schools until 1882, when a two- story frame building, 38 x 48 feet, with a seating capacity of two hundred, was erected at a cost of about two thousand dollars.
Confluence now contains seven general stores, one hardware store, one drugstore, three hotels, one tannery, one steam sawmill, two blacksmith- shops, two wagonshops, one shoemaker- shop, one millinershop, two churches, two physicians and one dentist.
(Source: History of Bedford, Somerset & Fulton Counties, PA; 1884)
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