Individuals who look into their family history may find that their ancestors were laborers in the quarries or for the railroad. Many families in this area came from similar backgrounds, especially during the time when the railroad was such a large employer in the area.
When individuals travel route 453 from Tyrone to Huntingdon, they will notice the Birmingham Bridge, which spans the Little Juniata River, leading to the Irish Flats. In its heyday, the flats boasted several houses, a store and a railroad station. But how did Irish Flats come to be? The name suggests it was settled by the Irish, but history isn’t so clear.
The single span, Through Pratt Truss bridge leading to the Irish Flats was built in 1898. According to the inscription in the east abutment, the bridge was built by M. H. Stebbins, contractor; C. H. Reimard, inspector and J. A. Patterson, civil engineer. The bridge spans approximately 140 feet across the Little Juniata and rests on sandstone abutments.
At 15 feet wide, the bridge currently serves one residence. Above the bridge, decorative panels contain clover-leaf cutouts which adorn the lateral bracing. The Birmingham Bridge has been listed as a historical site since the Through Pratt Truss bridge has become a rare site, as many are being replaced with newer, more modern bridges.
Crossing the bridge will lead one to the Irish Flats, which is currently home to one family. However, at one time it was a bustling town.
The Cambria Steel Company, out of Johnstown, set up operation in the area of Irish Flats, mining several limestone quarries and shipping the product back to Johnstown. With the Steel Company came a company town. There were about 25 houses to accommodate employees, but a large number of the workers lived in their own homes nearby. There was also a store and homes for the superintendent and clerk.
The quarries were first opened by A.G. Morris and the superintendent in the late 1800s was P. L. Wolfe. At one time the flats were known as West Birmingham, since residents received their mail at the nearby Birmingham post office.
Irish Flats was also home to a train station. The first surveys through the county were made in the summer of 1847. Plans for the Pennsylvania Railroad continued through 1848 and 1849. Finally, on Thursday, June 6, 1850 the first train of cars arrived at Huntingdon.
The railroad brought many jobs to the area, but who were these workers? Some were those who lived in the area, but an excerpt from “Huntingdon County in the State of Pennsylvania” by Milton Scott Lytle mentioned the workers, “In the neighborhood of Birmingham, there were a number of riots among the laborers on the (rail)road in 1849. The Irish workmen were divided into several parties known as ‘far-downers’, ‘Corkonians’, etc., each determined to drive the others from the lines.”
The different parties of Irish workmen was based on the regions where the individuals had lived in Ireland. The groups did not see eye to eye, even in their homeland.
At the time of the construction of the railroad, the Irish were facing problems of their own in Ireland. A great starvation was spreading throughout the land. Families were forced to leave their homes when the potato crop failed. Between 1845 and 1855, over 150,000 Irish men, women and children left their homeland and traveled across the ocean to make a new life in America.
A flood in 1936 took out all of the housing across the bridge, except the superintendent’s and clerk’s homes. Today, only the clerk’s house still stands to remind passersby of a prior time.
So did the Irish Flats get its name from Irish men and women who settled there? Probably. Was the bridge, with its clover cut-outs, a symbol of those who lived beyond it? Maybe. It was a time when the Irish were flooding into America, in need of jobs and a new life for their families. But looking back at census records, they weren’t the only ones making their living through the railroad. Records also show immigrants from Italy, Austria and Germany.
But either way, the Irish Flats were an important part of the area’s heritage. Ask anyone who was around at the time when the Irish Flats were full of activity and they will probably have a story to share about the area or the people who resided there.
