The town of Salisbury was laid out by Joseph Markley in 1794. Douglas Baker was the surveyor. The first house was built by Peter Shirer and Martin Weimer. About 1814, Peter Shirer and Peter Welfley bought fifty acres of land and laid off an addition to the Markley plat. All that part of the town lying north of the middle alley on the Markley plat belongs to this addition. About 1850 John Smith bought land of the Shirer heirs, and laid out an addition on the west end of Union street. This addition was for many years known as Jerusalem. In 1870 J.W. and A.P. Beachy laid out an addition to the south of the Markley survey, and upon it a number of buildings have since been erected.
Peter Shirer kept the first store in the place on the lot now owned by Michael Hay, Esq. The first pottery in the southern part of the county was established at Salisbury, by Peter Welfley. The first hotel was kept by John Welsh, prior to 1800. Adam Glotfelty was the first blacksmith.
John Smith, a native of Dauphin county, settled in Salisbury in 1833. He is a cooper by trade, but followed the mercantile business in this place for nineteen years. His son, Michael F., now a merchant in Salisbury, has followed the same business a number of years, and has been engaged in the grocery trade here since 1881. In 1870 he was census enumerator of the township and borough.
Oliver W. Boyer, a native of Maryland, came to Salisbury in 1843, and has since followed the business of a carpenter. In 1862 he was an enrolling officer of the seventy- third district. In 1875 he was elected county commissioner by the republicans. Mr. Boyer also served one term as justice of the peace in this borough. His son, Lloyd C. Boyer, has been engaged in blacksmithing in Salisbury since 1869.
Arthur McKinley was born in Hancock, Maryland, in 1809. He came to Salisbury in 1844, and engaged in harnessmaking, which occupation he still follows. Mr. McKinley was appointed postmaster in 1870, but resigned in 1872 in favor of his son Stephen R., who is the present postmaster. Mr. McKinley has served as superintendent of the Union sabbath school for twenty- eight years.
Salisbury grew but little until after the railroad was built. It was incorporated as a borough in 1862. In 1870 its population was only two hundred and ninety- one. In 1883 the estimated population of the borough was eight hundred. The business of the place is represented by the following summary: Five general stores, one drugstore, one hardware- store, one shoestore, two harness- shops, one tinshop, one foundry, one gunsmith, two blacksmith-shops, one carriageshop, one planing- mill, two livery- stables, three hotels. Salisbury also supports a graded school, three churches and two physicians.
The first and only bank in this town was started in 1871, by Silas C. Keim and Jacob D. Livengood, under the firm name Keim & Livengood. The business was closed up in 1878.
(Source: History of Bedford, Somerset & Fulton Counties, PA; 1884)
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