The town`s history goes back to 1817, when John Bender founded it on 50 acres he inherited from his parents.
Bender cleared the land and divided it into building lots, which he sold at a public auction.
Although the town originally was known as Benderstettle in honor of the founder, Bender renamed it Elizabethville in honor of his wife. The town incorporated as a borough in 1893.
The town grew, getting its first post office in 1832, first school in 1835 and first telephone in 1885.
The Elizabethville Water Co. was incorporated in 1889, and the town`s first electric street lights were lighted in 1909.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the whistle on the Mattis flour mill on Railroad Street blew at 11 a.m. each weekday, letting housewives know to put potatoes on the stove for the noon meal. The whistle became known as ``the potato whistle.``