1872 first national bank of Hantingdon old checksHuntingdon is the county seat of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. It is located along the Juniata River, approximately 32 miles east of Altoona and 92 miles west of Harrisburg. In 1768, Rev. Dr. William Smith began selling lots on the Standing Stone Tract along the Juniata, land he had recently acquired. The tract's two prior owners had not attempted to lay out a town, so Dr. Smith is considered the founder. Huntingdon sits at the site where Standing Stone Creek flows into the Juniata River. It was once a port on the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Canal.With a population of 7,093 at the 2010 census, Huntingdon is the largest population center near Raystown Lake, a winding, 28-mile-long recreational and flood-control reservoir managed by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. The borough is located on the main line of the Norfolk Southern (formerly Pennsylvania) Railroad, in an agricultural and outdoor recreational region with extensive forests and scattered deposits of ganister rock, coal, fire clay, and limestone. Historically, the region surrounding Huntingdon was dotted with iron furnaces and forges, consuming limestone, iron ore and wood (for charcoal production) throughout the 19th century. Dairy farms dominate the local agriculture. Huntingdon is home to Juniata College, a private liberal arts college originally known as Brethren's Normal School as it was founded by members of the Church of the Brethren in 1876.Huntingdon had three National Banks chartered during the Bank Note Era, and all three of those banks issued National Bank Notes.