Salisbury was laid out by Joseph Markley in 1794, with Douglas Baker as the surveyor. Peter Shirer & Martin Weimer built the first house, and Peter Shirer was also the first storekeeper. Peter Shirer & Peter Welfley added more lots to the town about 1814, John Smith added more about 1850, and the Beachy family added even more in 1870. The town, located on the Turkey Foot Road, was organized as a borough in 1862. In 1998, Salisbury was hit by two F3 tornadoes on May 31 and June 2. The May 31 tornado killed one person and injured 15 others and the June 2 tornado intensified into an F4 tornado when it struck Allegany County, Maryland.
As of the census of 2000, there were 878 people, 350 households, and 218 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,203.6 people per square mile. There were 368 housing units at an average density of 923.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the borough was 99.66% White, and 0.34% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.80% of the population. There were 350 households out of which 26.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.7% were married couplesliving together, 8.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. 33.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 21.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.07. In the borough the population was spread out with 23.6% under the age of 18, 5.8% from 18 to 24, 25.9% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 21.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 89.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.8 males. The median income for a household in the borough was $26,875, and the median income for a family was $36,188. Males had a median income of $30,682 versus $17,222 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $12,973. About 10.6% of families and 18.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.7% of those under age 18 and 14.1% of those age 65 or over.
