Editing Palo Alto, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
Heavily forested until the mid-1870s, the land which became the community of Palo Alto was the site of a log cabin and wooden blacksmith's shanty earlier in the nineteenth century. As more and more settlers arrived in the region, the [[Philadelphia and Reading Railroad]] and the Schuylkill Navigation Company (later known as the [[Schuylkill Canal]]) opened stops here. In response, the neighboring land was surveyed and plotted out by John G. Hewes between late 1844 and early 1845 to create the town of Palo Alto.<ref name="Schuylkill County pp. 200-203">''History of Schuylkill County, Pa: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers,'' pp. 200-203.</ref>

As more boatmen and other laborers arrived to work on the canal and railroad, mining companies continued to increase their hiring of miners to work deep underground in their anthracite coal collieries that were operating across Schuylkill County, which sparked the opening of stores and other businesses to serve the town's growing population.<ref name="Schuylkill County pp. 200-203"/>

A public school was established sometime during this phase of the community's expansion; it was situated in the town's eastern section.<ref name="Schuylkill County p. 202">''History of Schuylkill County, Pa: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers,'' p. 202.</ref>

Officially incorporated as a borough in 1854, Palo Alto may have been given its name because of "very high timber [that] grew on the mountain above it," according to historians.<ref name="Schuylkill County p. 202"/> According to a borough history, Palo Alto was named for the Battle of Palo Alto, the first major battle of the Mexican-American War near present-day Brownsville, Texas.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

The borough's first elected officials were Burgess Waters S. Chillson, William M. Stellwagon, clerk, and borough council members William Bensinger, Allen Enison, John Griner, Jacob Lime, David Riley, and William Stellwagon. A second public school was then opened in the borough's western section. Both schools were two-room structures with stone exteriors.<ref name="Schuylkill County p. 202"/>

Between 1854 and 1855, William Harris erected and began operating a large rolling mill plant, which produced railroad iron. That plant was subsequently purchased by Benjamin Haywood, who built a second rolling mill in the town in 1863. The two-plant operation was known as the Palo Alto Rolling Mill. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, which was one of the company's major customers, operated a roundhouse and repair facility roughly a mile west of both rolling mills.<ref>''History of Schuylkill County, Pa: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers,'' pp. 110, 200-203.</ref>

By 1856, a stable water system was in place with water supplied by the Pottsville Water Company.<ref name="Schuylkill County p. 202"/>

In 1866, community leaders designed and built a Methodist Episcopal church on Union Street at a cost of thirteen hundred dollars.<ref name="Schuylkill County p. 202"/>

The borough's first post office opened in 1870, but it ceased operations in 1873. Mail service was subsequently provided by a post office branch in Pottsville.<ref name="Schuylkill County p. 202"/>

In 1878, borough leaders built a new, two-story public school in the center of the community. Equipped with mountain spring-supplied water and steam heat, it delivered multiple grades of education in four classrooms while the two older schools focused on providing primary school instruction. Roughly three hundred students were educated annually at this time<ref name="Schuylkill County p. 202"/>