Newcomers to the Cove: the Woodbury Sign

By JOSEPH WALK

For the Herald

Last month Nancy and I traveled to Franklin County and drove through a small village named Roxbury. The sign at the edge of town stated this town was named for a town in England. This rang familiar.

As a newcomer, I was curious why a small local Pennsylvania community in the Cove would also be associated with a village in the United Kingdom. Were the original settlers from England?

The southern Morrisons Cove town of Woodbury in Bedford County has a very interesting sign as one enters the borough. It reads:

Woodbury

Named for

Woodbury-England

Founded

1800

I began my research for this article to answer a simple question. Why is Woodbury named for a town in England? But the further I investigated, the more I discovered that is not an easy question to answer. In fact, Woodbury may not even be the town’s “correct” name.

First, some background: The European Woodbury is located in southwestern England. It’s a small village in the county of Devon, about seven miles southeast of the large city of Exeter. It must have been a popular town during the great colonizing exodus because the Woodbury moniker is rather common in the United States. There are nine states that have a municipality named Woodbury — Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Vermont. The New Jersey town of Woodbury claims to have been settled in 1683!

My research confirms that David Holsinger settled in the area we know as Woodbury around 1800 and is thus considered the founder. The surname of Holsinger (a variant of “Holzinger”) is Germanic, not British. So the tie to Woodbury in England doesn’t start with the founder’s heritage.

I couldn’t find anywhere when the town was first called Woodbury or, more importantly, why! In 1834, it was called “Woodberry” according to the book History of Woodbury by John Armour (1977). So is our Woodbury actually named for the town in England? If so, when and why was the name changed from Woodberry to Woodbury? Those questions remain mysteries.

In the book, Waterman’s History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties, Pennsylvania (1884), there is an interesting editorial footnote at the bottom of page 295 in the section devoted to Woodberry Township: “We offer no apology for our spelling of this name. Either Woodberry is correct, or the name has been wrongly spelled for nearly one hundred years. — Ed.” And on page 352, the writer firmly states “Woodberry was incorporated as a borough June 23, 1868.”

Hmmm…good points. If this is true, is Woodbury the correct name of the borough? Woodberry or Woodbury? Ergo, if Woodberry is correct, then it cannot be named for Woodbury in England.

What’s more confusing to a newcomer is four Woodbury township names. Blair County has a Woodbury Township (where Williamsburg is located) and a North Woodbury Township (Martinsburg). Bedford County also has a Woodbury Township (town of Woodbury) plus a South Woodbury Township (New Enterprise). In Blair County, North Woodbury Township is south of Woodbury Township, not north as one expects.

On older maps, Bedford County’s Woodbury Township is listed as Middle Woodbury Township, falling between North Woodbury Township in Blair County and South Woodbury Township in Bedford County. (By the way, some older maps I looked at had the township names as “Woodberry.”) This anomaly is confirmed in both John Armour’s and Waterman’s books. Blair County was carved out of Bedford and Huntingdon Counties in 1846 so this explains the north/middle/south Woodbury (or Woodberry) Township names.

I fear this article, although intended to answer a simple question, has had the opposite effect by bringing more questions to the fore. I cannot answer my own question. I haven’t found a connection between England’s Woodbury and our fine community of the same name. Similarly, when and why did the name change from Woodberry to Woodbury, if indeed it actually has?

Regardless, I love the borough sign.