Partly cloudy skies. Low 57F. Winds light and variable..
Partly cloudy skies. Low 57F. Winds light and variable.
JOHN E. DUBOIS (nephew of John DuBois)
WILLIE G. DUBOIS (Wife of John E. DuBois)
JOHN E. JR. AND RENE DUBOIS (John is the son of John E. DuBois, who founded Treasure Lake)
JOHN E. JR. AND RENE DUBOIS
John DuBois Sawmill employees are seen here in 1890. The sawmill daily average capacity was 128,000 pine and hemlock mixed. Best 10 hour run was 323,000.
JOHN E. DUBOIS (nephew of John DuBois)
WILLIE G. DUBOIS (Wife of John E. DuBois)
JOHN E. JR. AND RENE DUBOIS (John is the son of John E. DuBois, who founded Treasure Lake)
JOHN E. JR. AND RENE DUBOIS
John DuBois Sawmill employees are seen here in 1890. The sawmill daily average capacity was 128,000 pine and hemlock mixed. Best 10 hour run was 323,000.
Editor’s Note: Information courtesy of the DuBois Area Historical Society, Inc.
The history of DuBois traces back to 1812 when George Shaffer became the first permanent inhabitant of what is now DuBois, then an area in the wilderness. John DuBois, who would become the community’s namesake, visited the area around 1842 but did not return to live there until 1872.
The DuBois family traces itself back to the 9th Century in Europe. At that time it was considered a relatively old family; in fact, the house of DuBois is the oldest nobility in the French Empire with a DuBois accompanying William the First in England in his quest to conquer England.
The name DuBois means ‘the woods’’ and it is an appropriate name for later generations settled in the New York area as well as the Pennsylvania frontiers and backwoods. The history of the DuBois family in the U.S. starts with Louie DuBois, a Huguenot born in northern France in 1626. As a result of religious persecution, he brought his family, which included two sons, to the New World in 1660.
They settled around the Hudson River Valley in New York where DuBois and his wife had eight more children. Two generations later John DuBois also had 10 children, the second oldest, John Jr., born in Oswego, N.Y.
The younger John DuBois (1809-1886) started in the lumber business at age 15 borrowing money from his family to buy a thousand acres of land. This led him to the developing and building of a large logging business near Williamsport. Among his lumbering inventions was a log slide and the use of underwater bridge piers. He is also credited with starting mass production in his industry.
All of these ideas would be used when DuBois tired of his lumber, milling, and iron mill operations in the Williamsport area, he started to look for other land to buy.
He came west to Clearfield County for the first time around 1842, meeting George Shaffer. DuBois, now 33 years old, saw the potential for the area, especially for timber. He started to buy up large tracts of land, totaling close to 32,000 acres. Around 1870 he started to sell off his Williamsport holdings, accumulating another large sum of money.
At the age of 63, DuBois started developing his property in Clearfield County. He had returned in 1871 to see George Shaffer, but discovered Shaffer had died and a man named John Rumbarger was living in Shaffer’s home.
Rumbarger, seeing that DuBois was going to be establishing business and bringing in a large potential for different types of work, started to sell off the lots on the land he owned. The decision was fortuitous because the population was soon to swell far above the 16 families who were residents in 1873.
The town grew rapidly and rivalry existed for many years between the coal miners and their families living in Rumbarger and the lumbermen and woodsmen residing on the DuBois side of the community. The village of Rumbarger near what is now Long Avenue and Main Street was soon outdistanced by rapid building on the DuBois side of town. DuBois soon became the name by which the community was known.
When John DuBois died in 1886, his nephew, John E. DuBois Sr., who had apprenticed with his uncle since he was a teenager, took over the running of the entire company. He is credited with establishing a hospital, paving roads and updating the DuBois Ironworks, a machine shop. His son, John E. DuBois, Jr., would later transform the Iron Works into Rockwell Gas Meters which still stands today as Sensus Metering Systems.
Monument Hill, overlooking the Penn State DuBois Campus, has a history stretching back to May 5, 1886, the date of the death of John DuBois.
The “Hill” is a single burial plot, which then looked down upon the DuBois Mansion. It is the resting place of John DuBois and later had a monument spire erected over the grave.
DuBois had requested to be buried on the hill with his face toward the town. The funeral procession was even larger, numbering more than 1,500 people, with nearly 1,000 gathering at the grave site, and 250 people attending the burial service.
Newspaper reports from the time reported the casket was encased in an underground tomb of brick and cement. The interest of the public in the area declined over the years. The monument was rededicated on Nov. 1, 2018, following a rejuvenation project that included clearing the hill, cleaning the granite monument, adding new solar lighting, as well as a new concrete sidewalk around the site, and wrought-iron fencing. It continues to stand as a monument to the man who gave DuBois its name.
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