DuBois City

Clearfield County, Pennsylvania

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DuBois City Hall is located at 16 West Scribner Avenue, DuBois PA 15801.
Phone: 814‑371‑2002.

Beginnings [1]

DuBois was settled in May 1812 when George Shaffer, his wife, and sons came to the area that would become DuBois. He was a farmer.

A portion of the community was first named for John Rumbarger who purchased 250 acres of land in 1865. The first post office was called Rumbarger for two years beginning in 1874. In 1876, it was changed to DuBois and named for the lumberman, John DuBois, who was born in 1809 and died in 1886. He first came to the area in 1842 and two years later began purchasing large tracts of land. At the age of 63, after disposing of his mills in Williamsport, Mr. DuBois came to the wilderness he had visited so many years before. The population at that time was 75.

Mr. DuBois was an inventive genius receiving patents in both the United States and Canada. He invented the log slide, the first one used in the United States. He was the father of mass production, especially in his sawmills. The logs would begin at one end of the mill and would not stop or go backwards until reaching the other end, where the logs were ready for curing as well as shipping. Another innovation was the use of underwater bridge piers.

His nephew, John E. DuBois, also played an important part in the development of the City. He was born in 1861 in New York and came to DuBois in 1893 to work with his uncle who left him the bulk of his estate. The DuBois family had many businesses including the mills, a box factory, and iron works.

DuBois was incorporated in 1881 and became a third class city on June 3, 1916.

  1. Clearfield County Planning Office/Clearfield County GIS Office, Clearfield County Comprehensive Plan: 2006 Update, www.planning.clearfieldcounty.org, accessed February 2008.

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