On 16 June 1785, a warrant was granted to Henry Huffman (variously, Hoffman) for two hundred acres "in Morrison Cove on Meadow Run." A survey was returned on 13 August 1801, and the tract, named 'Gooseberry Hill,' was patented by Huffman on 14 August 1801. Henry Huffman was a merchant residing in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania at the time. The Meadow Run mentioned in the warrant index referred to the Meadow Branch of Yellow Creek, which is the stream that flows southward in the valley to the west of the present-day Woodbury Borough. It fills the mill pond and in days past, supplied the water to power the grist mill. A tract of four acres and one hundred and forty-two perches was soon thereafter sold to Mathias and Mary Brothers. They, in turn, sold the tract of a little over four acres to David Holsinger on 07 October 1801 for the sum of sixty-four dollars. The tract David Holsinger purchased from Mathias Brothers bordered on lands of John Kergher and Joshua Compston. An indenture was made out on 23 April 1806 by which David Holsinger purchased a tract of one hundred and fifteen perches from John Kergher. The piece of land had been part of a tract named 'Parnassus,' which was originally warranted by Leonard Kline on 24 March 1789. The survey was returned on 27 December 1797 and the tract was patented by John Stowder on 29 December 1797. John Stowder and his wife, Barbara, sold the tract on 27 April 1799 to John Kergher. David Holsinger paid fifty dollars for this second tract adjoining the one purchased from Mathias Brothers. Then on 26 March 1808, David Holsinger purchased a tract of ninety-four and three-quarter acres and thirty-two perches from Joshua Compston and his wife Eve. For this third and largest tract, David Holsinger paid twelve hundred and thirty-four dollars. This third piece of land was part of the tract that Henry Huffman warranted and patented under the name of 'Gooseberry Hill' in August 1801. Huffman had sold this tract to Mathias Brothers, who in turn, sold it to Joshua Compston on 07 October 1801.
David Holsinger is claimed to have built a log gristmill in the vicinity of the town that would eventually become Woodbury soon after he purchased the tracts of land.
To the north of the present borough of Woodbury, a man by the name of Bassler is believed to have had a combination grist and saw mill in operation in 1812.
The two gristmills induced other people to establish their homes nearby.
On the third Tuesday in April 1776, a petition was submitted to the Bedford County Court of General Quarter Sessions for "a publick Road leading from the House of Robert Elliot at the Snake Spring in the Township of Colerain aforesaid to the Gap in the Dividing Ridge between Croyle's & Morris's Cove, and from thence to David Woolrey's Mill in Morris's Cove and from thence to the Gap in Dunnings Mountain known by the name of Frankstown Gap . . ."
Roads generally used mills as salient points along their routes since it was to and from the mills that people needed to travel the most. The grist mills provided the flour and other ground meal that was needed for life sustaining nourishment. The saw mills provided the cut lumber which the settlers needed to build their houses. And has been noted elsewhere, unlike today in which people go to taverns for the express purpose of getting drunk, during the 1700's and early 1800's, taverns and inns provided respite to travelers in the form of food and drink that wasn't disease laden and a place to sleep overnight while their horses were refreshed.
With the cutting of the road through the Cove, more taverns sprang up along it. William Davis obtained a license to maintain a tavern "where he dwells in Wood Berry Township about two miles above Snider's Mill" in 1793 and again in 1796. Also in 1796, Henry Markley obtained a tavern license "where he dwells in Wood Berry Township on the Great Road through Morrisons Cove to Franks Town." George Shaw obtained a tavern license in April 1798 for his house along the road "from Bedford through Morrisons Cove to Huntingdon."
The limestone rich soil found throughout the Morrisons Cove was an inducement for many of the earliest Swiss and Germans who came looking for land on which to settle and farm. The geology of the Cove was also an inducement for the great Nineteenth Century Industrialists to establish furnaces and forges. The furnace was where the iron was smelted out of the iron ore bearing rocks. Slaked lime from limestone was added to the furnace and worked as a flux to help the iron to separate from impurities. Charcoal was used to heat the iron ore bearing rocks and limestone to the point where the iron 'melted' out of the rock. That heat needed to be very high; it was raised by the addition of oxygen. A source of water, a fast and steady flowing creek or river, provided the power to operate bellows which blew on the burning charcoal and helped it reach the high temperatures needed.
When an ironmaster built a furnace, he often had to build a company town nearby in which his employees could live close to the ironworks to be available at all times. The young town of Woodberry provided a ready-made company town. Peter Shoenberger engaged John King and Henry Swope to build a furnace in the vicinity of the town of Woodberry circa 1826/27. Neither King nor Swope appear on any tax assessment returns for the region prior to their association with the furnace. The three formed a corporation named King, Swope & Co. Although Peter Shoenberger's name was not included in the company's name, he owned fifty percent interest in the furnace. It would be named the Elizabeth Furnace according to Dr. Shoenberger's custom of naming many of his ironworks after his daughters.
The construction of Elizabeth Furnace was completed, and the furnace began operating in 1827. It was 'in blast' between 1827 and 1843. The furnace's location was along the west bank of Yellow Creek to the southwest of the town of Woodbury. The west end of Mill Street travels down a slight grade to the grist mill. Just to the west side of the mill, the road crosses over Yellow Creek as it leaves the mill pond. To the south of the road, a field stretches along the base of a low ridge. The furnace stood on the field against the low ridge with that ridge functioning as a natural means to access the top, or mouth, of the furnace. The raw materials (i.e. the iron ore bearing rock and the limestone flux) would be hauled up the ridge and dumped into the mouth of the furnace. The furnace produced roughly forty tons of iron each week.
Dr. Samuel H. Smith moved to the town in 1834. He was noted fifty years later as saying that when he arrived at the town "there were then but three good buildings in the town. These were the log store and dwelling belonging to the furnace company; the stone house on the west side of the street just north of Burns' saddlery shop, where Peter Diltz then resided; and the hotel, kept by David Puterbaugh, afterward engaged in the iron business at Hopewell. The remaining buildings of the town were shanties and dilapidated buildings occupied by workmen." Those workmen would have been employees at the Elizabeth Furnace.
A group of twenty-two residents petitioned the court for the incorporation of the town on the 20th of January 1868. The growing town of Woodberry was incorporated into a borough on 23 June 1868.
