Several Native American tribes in what is now Columbia County sold much of the land in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Centralia valley, to colonial agents in 1749 for £500. In 1770, during the construction of the Reading Road, which stretched from Reading to Fort Augusta (present-day Sunbury), settlers surveyed and explored the land. A large portion of the Reading Road was developed later as Route 61, the main highway east into and south out of Centralia.
Passages that mention Centralia, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Columbia County, Pennsylvania1883 · page 57Read the page →
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Centralia Borough, in said township of Conyngham, was confirmed after a warm contest, at the February court in A. U. 1866. "The Town of Bloomsburg" was organized by an act of Assembly of March 4, 1870. It embraces all that had been left of the territory of Bloom township at the date of the act. The organization is quasi borough. jVfore than one efi^ort had been previously made to secure a borough charter, but the bad shape of the remaining portion of the townshij) had defeated tlie applications.
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A history of Columbia County, Pennsylvania. From the earliest times.1883 · page 57Read the page →
Read the text
Centralia Borough, in said township of Conyngham, was confirmed after a warm contest, at the February court in A. D. 1866. "The Town of Bloomsburg" was organized by an act of Assembly of March 4, 1870. It embraces all that had been left of the territory of Bloom township at the date of the act. The organization is quasi borough. More than one eif ort had been previously made to secure a borough charter, but the bad shape of the remaining portion of the township had defeated the applications.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Centralia, 1841 to 1971
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (12), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1916
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