Colonel E. A. Irvin founded the town of Irvona sometime in 1882. Settlers who followed were the Lightners, Evans, and Michaels’s families. John Swan laid out the first streets of Irvona, and the town was incorporated as a borough in 1890. In those days, Irvona was rich in clay deposits and lumbering, which consequently led to the development of a refractory and saw mills. The first refractory was built by Hiram Swank and today the plant is now known as TYK Refractories–still a major brick & clay products manufacturer. The Presbyterian Church was the community’s first place of worship established October 29, 1885. Census figures for 1900 had a total of 723 people within the borough limits; 1500 people in 1930, declining to 643 to the year 1998.
Glendale Valley 