Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of New Bedford yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
New Bedford is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 925 at the 2010 census.
Its first post office opened in 1819. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 925 to 857 (-7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about New Bedford in 1872
Passages that mention New Bedford, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Atlas of the County of Lawrence and the State of Pennsylvania, bound with History of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania1872 · page 99Read the page →
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The congregation of Deer Creek (the name is from a small stream in the vicinity) chose for their future place of meetings and cemetery, a spot which is situated in Pulaski township, Lawrence county, Pa., half a mile north of New Bedford, and about four miles north of Mahoning Church. The village of New Bedford was not laid out until several years subsequently. Deer Creek Church was then literally a church in the wilderness, with no traces of civilization near it except a public highway, which was seldom traveled. The country was the habitation of wild-beasts and birds of prey,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Atlas of the County of Lawrence and the State of Pennsylvania, bound with History of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania1872 · page 101Read the page →
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about twenty rods wide at the State line, and terminated in a point at a distance of two or three miles to the east. The “ Bedford claim’’ included altogether thirty-seven tracts, running into Mercer county, but he only had a part of the thirty-nine tracts in Lawrence county. The town of New Bedford is situated on some of the Bedford land, and was named after the doctor, although another circumstance exists which might possibly have been an additional reason for giving the place the name of New Bedford. Where the public watering-trough now stands was originally a “ bear-wallow.”
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.
By decade
New Bedford, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 the Library of Congress (5), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people 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.
1943
1943
1943
1943