Sulphur Spring

As with many communities in northwestern Pennsylvania and elsewhere, they rise and fall with the local economics. Sulphur Spring was no exception. Although there have always been small farms, virgin timber from the forests made great fortunes. First, in the early 1800s, rafting out timber in streams got all that it could, but Sulphur Spring had to wait till the railroad came to the "upstream" parts of the county in the mid-1800s. They brought out timber from as far back in the woods as they could with draft animals. Later, they used smaller steam train engines to take timber from deeper in the woods, like the famous Climax engines from Corry, bringing it out to the sawmills or train depots until all the valuable timber was gone. Then, after the land was clear cut for timber, most of it was not fit for farming, and it was sold to the state for Game Lands in the 1900s. Sulphur Spring saw all these economic events; pioneer farms cut from virgin woods, the growth and decline of the timber business. The small businesses, like the paint factory, which produced goods for a small local market, declined as railroads brought in manufactured goods from elsewhere. Then small farms became uneconomical, and the folks got jobs in the local towns. In this period of over a hundred years, the Sulphur Spring community saw several generations thrive. This book will try to capture the history of that time.