Rockwood, situated at the junction of the Baltimore & Ohio and the Somerset & Cambria railroads, was laid out by Philip Wolfersberger in 1857. The first house was built in 1856 by P. & D. Wolfersberger and was used as both a store and dwelling. The first hotel was erected by John Poister in 1860, the first blacksmith shop in 1857 by Solomon Bechtel, and the first tannery in 1869 by Henry Werner. The Growall planing mill was built in 1872. The first schoolhouse was erected in 1858 with S. A. Will as the first teacher. The post office was established in 1868 with the first postmaster being F. B. Long. The railroad, the main agent in building up Rockwood, built the depot in 1871.
Among the recent improvements are the Rockwood House, built in 1882 by D.H. Wolfersberger, and the Merchants’ Hotel, a very fine building, erected the same year by Samuel Buckman, a native of Northampton County.
The village was first known as Shaff’s Bridge and named after John Shaff, one of the early settlers of the township. The bridge was built by Samuel Miller in 1843. Later the name Mineral Point was given on account of the minerals found in the vicinity. When the post office was established it was found that there was already a Mineral Point and the name was changed to Rockwood.
Rockwood now contains four general stores, two groceries; four hotels, three blacksmithshops, one tannery, one gristmill, one planing-mill, one tin shop, one shoemaker shop, two carpenter shops, one tailor shop, three churches and one graded school. Two ministers and two physicians are residents of the place.
(Source: History of Bedford, Somerset & Fulton Counties, PA; 1884)
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