Rimersburg Borough Hall, P.O. Box 413, Rimersburg PA 16248.
Phone: 814‑473‑3898.
Beginnings [1]
Rimersburg, Clarion County's third largest town, is located in the southwestern part of the county. Although founded on the site of the old Waterson-Brookville Road, by settlers in the early decade of the nineteenth century, the town itself was not laid out until 1839, when John Rimer with the aid of several land owners laid out the community into building lots to be sold at $6 and $8 each. As an inducement to settlers, the town was to be named after the first man to build a home in the new community. To James Pinks went this honor with the southern part of the town becoming Pinksville with Mr. Pinks as the first postmaster, while the northern end of the community was named Rimersburg after its early settlers. When the town, in 1853, was to be incorporated, the selection of a name itself a story, it became known by its present name, Rimersburg.
In the earliest days, two tanneries, and a grist mill composed the town's industries. In the latter part of the 1850's a furniture establishment, a foundry, a harness shop, and a wagon factory were listed among the town's manufactories, while the earlier industries were on the decline. At the present time only one plant is found in the town, that of Lindenpitz Truck Body Works.
Rimersburg has always played an important part in the county's development, being a stopping place for the Underground Railroad, the site of the old Clarion County Institute founded in 1858, and the center of the coal producing area of the county. During 1938, The Keystone Mining Company alone, produced over 70 per cent of the total coal mined in the county and employed 926 men or 60 percent of the men employed in the county's mining industry in digging over 800,000 tons of the Black Diamonds.
As early as 1835, Rimersburg had a public school system which continually expanded until today the town supports one of the most progressive school systems of the tri-county area. The old Clarion County Institute, a classical academy, was opened in 1858 and continued to serve the county and community's secondary educational needs until 1899 when the building was sold at a public sale. Many of our county tradesmen can point with pride to their early training in this institute.
Rimersburg supports four churches at the present time, the Associate Presbyterian, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, and the Reformed Church, all of which are older than the town and county themselves. Construction is now underway for a Catholic Church on Purity Avenue, to be known as the St. Richards, giving Rimersburg an excellent religious background.
Rimersburg serves a shopping area composed of approximately one-third of the county's inhabitants, and possesses some of the finest stores of the county. Its first store, that of James Pinks, conceded by many to be the first store in the county, was operating as early as 1812. Here calico could be had at 50 cents per yard, coffee at 75 cents a pound, tea at $4 a pound and salt at $5 a bushel. From this humble beginning the town has constantly supplied the mercantile needs for the surrounding area and is at the present time one of the most progressive communities in western Pennsylvania.