Foxburg History

The first inhabitants of European descent to settle in the area was the Fox family of Philadelphia. These original owners were descendants of George Fox, the founder of the Quaker religion.  His grandsons, Samuel Mickle Fox and George Fox, along with brothers-in-law Joseph Paker Norris and George Roberts, bought what amounted to 6,600 acres in 1796 from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  This area was located between the Clarion and Allegheny Rivers and later was known as the Fox Farm.  It was Samuel’s son, Joseph Mickle Fox, a practicing lawyer, who purchased 1800 acres from his fathers estate after his fathers death.  Joseph had already married Hannah Emlen and was ready settle down  on the property where he had spent many summer vacations during his childhood.

As time went on, the Foxes added to their estate a carriage house, designed by nationally renowned Franklin Heyling Furness in 1876.  A greenhouse was also built and designed during that time by Lord and Burnham, a company known for building public conservatories such as the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.  Both restored structures can be found on the property today.  Stables, barns, an ice house, and even a play house in the form of a log cabin for the Fox children had been part of the Fox farm at one time.  In 1910 the Foxes had built a long, two story dairy barn that formed the letter “H”.  With pink-colored stucco finish and gable style roofs, these “H” barns were historically significant in that they later housed some of the first Guernsey dairy cows in United States.  The Fox farm also had one of the first arboretums in Pennsylvania with every known native species of tree of the commonwealth planted there.

While the rivers allowed for the transportation of raw materials up and down the river with productive iron furnaces sporadically tucked in along the banks, farming and timbering on the estate maintained a steady profit for the Foxes for many  decades.  With the oil rush arriving in the 1860’s, many a prospector became baron in short notice, including the Foxes.  As more people started to settle in the area, Joseph Mickle Fox decided to establish a town on the banks of the Allegheny River of which he named “Foxburg” in 1870. This small village quickly grew with the addition of two rail lines, the north-south travelling Pennsylvania Railroad and the east-west travelling B & O Railroad. It was the Baltimore and Ohio railroad that made the town somewhat of an attraction when a double-decker railroad bridge was built across the Allegheny River at Foxburg with its trains passing over the pedestrian traffic that crossed on the deck below. Though the railroad stopped using this bridge in 1964, it lasted up until 2008 when it was finally demolished and replaced by a single tier, two lane bridge.  The Railroad also incorporated a small engineering marvel in constructing a “switch-back” to help it’s trains navigate the surrounding ridge above Foxburg.  Both rails added to the popularity of Foxburg through transportation and commerce, especially from the 1860’s to the 1880’s when the oil boom swept the area.  Although the bridge and rails are long gone, evidence of their existence can still be seen in the area with a keen eye.

Other Foxburg attractions still grace the area such as the Episcopal Memorial Church of Our Father, The Hannah Memorial Library, and the Foxburg Golf Club – all testaments to the dedication of Fox family to the community.  The Episcopal Church, built by the Fox Family in 1881 and dedicated in 1882, was an architectural design based on a gothic church Hannah Fox had seen during a visit to England.  Like the Fox mansion, all stone used for construction came from surrounding hillside quarries. A painting above the alter depicting the “Angel of the Resurrection” was created by the famed artist, Edwin H. Blashfield. The church courtyard cemetery still contains the burial plots of several Fox family members.