History · Pillow

Pillow’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Pillow. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

1818established
0old images & papers
8recent photos

The story

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Pillow was founded in 1818 in the eastern part of Mifflin Township, Dauphin County by John Snyder, a land developer from Mercer County, as "Snydertown" (Schneiderschteddel). The borough was incorporated as "Uniontown" on April 20, 1864, becoming a separate municipality from the township.

When the town got its first post office in 1847, post offices under the name of "Snydertown" and "Uniontown" already existed. A postal official substituted the name "Pillow" after General Gideon Pillow, who was popular at the time for his victories in the Mexican–American War. Over the next hundred years, the new name slowly took hold, and on November 2, 1965, the residents voted to change the official name of the town to "Pillow".

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/18 · 2025-01-01