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History · Cooke Township

24% of Cooke Township’s homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Pine Grove Furnace. Below: maps from 1919 on and the census since 2000.

1on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Cooke Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Cooke Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19195 editions of the USGS map, 1919 to 1977. Watch Cooke Township change.Old housesHalf of Cooke Township’s homes were built before 1959.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cooke Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cooke Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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On the map

Cooke Township on the map, 1919 to 1977

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cooke Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Cooke Township on the 1919 USGS mapCooke Township on the 1945 USGS mapCooke Township on the 1952 USGS mapCooke Township on the 1969 USGS mapCooke Township on the 1977 USGS map1919Newville sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cooke Township.

The story

How Cooke Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Cooke Township.

Read it all →

Jay Cooke was among the investors who in 1864 purchased the South Mountain Iron Company at Pine Grove Furnace, a charcoal-fired iron operation dating to 1764. The specific reason that Cooke Township was created in 1872 out of previously existing Penn Township (established 1860) is unclear. Jay Cooke lost the company in the Panic of 1873, but bought back a major portion of it four years later with a group of investors as the South Mountain Mining and Iron Company. He was still a co-owner at the time of his death. According to the biography by Oberholtzer (who Cooke and his family assisted), Jay Cooke visited Pine Grove Furnace repeatedly. Cooke fished for trout there—he was an avid outdoorsman throughout his life—and he annually brought gifts such as pocket knives and scissors to the small school established there for the workers' children. Cooke Township continues to this day as a very…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Cooke Township, 1878 to 1943

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1878Post officeThe Pine Grove Furnace post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1919On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1943Post officeThe Pine Grove Furnace post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the National Register

1 historic place in Cooke Township

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
7
each building in a district counts
first listed
1977
Pine Grove Furnace
Pine Grove Furnace
Sites

Architectural styles listings

Italianate1
Georgian1
Germanic1
Foursquare1
Pine Grove FurnaceItalianate

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Cooke Township, census by census

010020020002020Peak: 202

Between 117 and 202 people in every census since 2000.

3 censuses, 2000–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cooke Township’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Cooke Township

Nobody well known was born in Cooke Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Deborah L. BirxAmerican physician and diplomat · b. 1956
John Armstrong Jr.American politician · b. 1758
John BiglerGovernor of California · b. 1805
Billy OwensAmerican basketball player · b. 1969
Rachel WallAmerican pirate; last woman hanged in the state… · b. 1760
William WilkinsUnited States federal judge · b. 1779
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and places now gone

Another post office, Pine Grove Furnace, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Pine Grove Furnace
Gone or out of use
Tomstown Dolomite Quarrymine

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

South Newton TownshipIts storyBPenn TownshipIts storyC+Dickinson TownshipIts storyC+

Questions about Cooke Township’s history

What is on the National Register in Cooke Township?

One place: the Pine Grove Furnace (listed 1977).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.