Crawford County, Pennsylvania

Crawford County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

Etymology - Origin of County Name

named for Colonel William Crawford, a frontier hero.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Created on March 12, 1800, from part of Allegheny County, and named for Colonel William Crawford, a frontier hero. Meadville, the county seat, was named for its founder, David Mead, and incorporated as a borough on March 29, 1823. On February 15, 1866 it was incorporated as a city.

First settlement occurred in 1788. Three big land companies (the Holland, North American, and Population) sold land to Irish and Scotch-Irish immigrants. Roger Alden from the Holland Company stayed on to found a bank and stimulate road building. Timothy Alden led early Allegheny College, founded 1815, part of the New England influence in the area. Corn and rye grew well from the start, leading to advanced livestock production. The Erie Extension Canal, opened 1844, boosted the economy. Lumber and wood products flourished in the nineteenth century. Following Drake's discovery of oil in Venango County (1859) Crawford had an oil boom centered around Titusville. Later a tool and die industry arose. Talon Zipper Company came into existence about 1900, Channellock was famous for hand tools, and Spirella Corset developed a superior product. Today, thirty-seven percent of the land is farmed. There were Underground Railroad stations in Meadville and Randolph. Author Ida Tarbell, abolitionist John Brown, and Supreme Court Justice Henry Baldwin once lived in Crawford.
 

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