Jefferson County, named for then-President Thomas Jefferson, was created in 1804 from a portion of Lycoming County. It was attached to Westmoreland and Indiana Counties until 1830, when it was formally organized. The town of Brookville was named the county seat. The brooks and streams that run throughout the county nourished forests of maple, white oak, and beech trees, and in the early 19th century lumbering became the county’s major industry. Lumber was floated down the Clarion River to the Allegheny River and into Pittsburgh. Ships carrying whiskey sugar and dry goods sailed upriver and fueled Jefferson County’s economy. Large-scale coal mining, assisted by the building of the Pennsylvania Railroad trunk line, began after the Civil War. The impact of labor strife and the falling market for coal took a toll on the industry, but Jefferson County remains the state’s ninth most productive bituminous coal county. Jefferson County is home to some of the most beautiful laurel fields in the state, and the painstakingly restored Victorian mansions in Brookville remind visitors that the lumber and coal industries once made the county wealthy. But today, Jefferson County is known primarily for the weather prognostications of Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s best-known groundhog.