[7][8] Ebensburg originated in November 1796, when Congregational minister Rees Lloyd led a small party of 20 Welsh people from Philadelphia to the lands that Morgan John Rhees had chosen for his colony.

A nearby settlement by the name of Beula, Pennsylvania had sprouted just to the West of town with its own intentions of becoming the county seat.

Ebensburg was described in the 1940 Pennsylvania guide as being:[10][S]ituated on a rise with streets sloping from its center...founded in the early 1800s by the Reverend Rees Lloyd, a religious dissenter and leader of Welsh immigrants.

Once a popular resort, Ebensburg is now largely dependent on agriculture, though many residents work in neighboring mines.According to the book Cambria County Pioneers (1910), a General William Rudolph Smith, son of William Rudolph Smith, and referred to as "Captain" by residents, lived in the town of Ebensburg, Pennsylvania in the 1840s.

Because of those travelers to the West, an apartment building situated on the corner of Phaney and East High Streets in town was known as "The California House."

It operated for years as an inn and tavern, and housed thousands of travelers heading West to find their fortunes.

He wrote detailed accounts of his journey in the form of letters to his sister, and claimed to have crossed 600 miles of plains alone on his way to California.

Barker lived in a log structure on the North West corner of Locust and High streets.

The fugitive stayed in his house overnight, and was taken a few miles out of Ebensburg the next morning, hidden under a buffalo robe on a sled.

In the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, the 133rd participated in the final charge on Marye's Heights, suffering heavy losses.

Particularly on the second day's fight at Gettysburg, the 11th participated in a counter-assault down the face of Little Round Top into The Wheatfield to drive out Confederates.

The wealthy built grand homes to flank the streets, their lavish carriages rolled down the roads, and local gentleman formed a debate club that met regularly in lounges in the town.

The mountain town, high in the Alleghenies, attracted Pittsburgh socialites who flocked here to escape the dirty, loud and sickly streets of the industrial city.

"[18] This promise of healthy life in the peaks of Ebensburg lured many who could afford so-called "summer cottages" -some were built to a scale akin to mansions.

The first wave of tourism was housed in newly built, prominent hotels in grandiose Victorian style that had been developed across town.

The Maple Park Springs Hotel sat on a hill in the Northwest corner of town, on a tract of land known as "Lloyds Grove."

The Johnstown Democrat wrote of the town around this time "that delightful village" of Ebensburg "In many respects is more attractive than Cresson... and it may be truthfully added that its complement of pretty girls is alone enough to give it enviable fame.

"[18] Residents and visitors' enjoyment was interrupted in 1889 when they heard news that the city of Johnstown to the south was devastated by a deadly flood after an earthen dam had failed.

In February 1915 most of downtown Ebensburg was burned down "by fire which broke out in the pool room of the Mountain House.

[22][23] Impressionist painter Marjorie Acker Phillips, who had a summer home in Ebensburg known as the Ormsby Lodge, is thought to have drawn inspiration from the nearby countryside for many of her paintings.

At the collegiate level, the Pennsylvania Highland Community College has one of their satellite sites about 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the center of town, also off Route 22.

Johnstown, the largest city in Cambria County, is 22 miles (35 km) to the southwest via US 219 and Pennsylvania Route 56.