The Early Beginning of Foxburg

Samuel Mickle Fox (1761-1801) of Philadelphia, Pa, ventured into land speculation with his brother-in-law, Joseph Parker Norris, and friend George Roberts by purchasing land from the Commonwealth circa 1790. Their land purchase included tracts in Western Pennsylvania along the Allegheny River and Toby’s Creek (what is now the Clarion River).

Samuel Fox’s son Joseph Mickle Fox purchased these land tracts from his late father’s estate in 1816 and established a home here ten years later. The home was built at the confluence of the Allegheny and Clarion Rivers. It would be considered a seasonal home for the succeeding Fox generations for over one hundred forty years.

The home on the hill above the Allegheny and Clarion Rivers became known as the Fox Mansion. It was used by the family as a seasonal residence until after the passing of Joseph Mickle Fox. Upon his death, his son Samuel Mickle Fox inherited all of his father’s land in Western Pennsylvania, along with the Fox Mansion.

Samuel Mickle Fox and his wife, Hannah, came to Western Pennsylvania from an area north of Philadelphia, Pa, where Samuel was practicing law. Together, they made Foxburg and the Mansion into a more permanent home, though they continued to maintain ties and to visit Philadelphia to conduct business and attend family affairs.

Upon Samuel’s death, his son, Samuel Mickle Fox, and his wife, Mary Rodman Fox, moved to Foxburg to assist Samuel’s mother, Hannah, in managing what had become the family oil, gas, and dairy business.

From Mary Rodman Fox’s journals and letters to and from family members, many details of her family’s life in Foxburg and Philadelphia have been traced. It was Mary Rodman Fox and her children Joseph, Sarah, and Hannah, who in 1881, built the Memorial Church of Our Father (Episcopal) as a memorial to Samuel Fox (Mary’s husband) and her son William, who died in 1880.

It was Joseph M. Fox, Mary and Samuel Fox’s son, who brought golf to Foxburg in 1887, and in 1909, Joseph and his sister Hannah built the Foxburg Free Library in memory of their mother, Mary Rodman Fox.