Famous people from Juniata County, Pennsylvania?

Question

I live in this beautiful county and am trying to find things of historical signifigance about it.

Answer 1

Famous Graves in Juniata Co., PA

Nancy Culp AKA 'Miss Jane Hathaway' on the 1960s television comedy series "The Beverly Hillbillies."

and others
http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=county&FScountyid=2274

George H. Allaman - hunter, explorer, scout, friend of old-time military leaders, rancher and cattle man, merchant and banker.
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1919ks/a/allamagh.html


J. Horace McFarland (1859-1948) - "Father of the National Park Service," and promoted city planning and zoning to prevent urban sprawl.
http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/BAH/DAM/mg/mg85.htm

Trimmer Family of Decatur
Ancestors to President Richard Nixon -
Anthony Trimmer - born in 1781 in Fermanagh Twp, Juniata, Pennsylvania. His daughter, Margaret, married George Nixon.
http://www.ishipress.com/pafg105.htm#4307

Answer 2

The first thing you should do is Google
"George Fisher McDonald" - with the quotation marks. You'll be amazed at how much you can find from home, in your flannel sarong and T-shirt, with a cat on your lap and three fingers of good bourbon in a mason jar beside you.
(That's how I work, at least.)

Then get dressed and go into the Special Collections / Local History of your county library. There will be shelves of stuff. You might start with one of the "Biographical & Pictorial History of Juniata County". Almost all counties had one; sometimes three or four. B&P Histories were one of Chicago's biggest exports in the last half of the 19th century.

They are 75% fluff and 25% meat - sort of like "Who's Who in American Used Car Dealers" are today, those books where everyone who buys a volume gets included, except the people who bought a copy got a whole page, usually. They won't be senators or generals; you will find well-to-do bankers, farmers, merchants, all proud of what they did. If the volume came out in the 1880's to 1910's, you'll find many of them will devote a paragraph to their Civil War service.