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Pennsylvania Counties

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Pennsylvania Counties

There are sixty-seven counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States of America. The city of Philadelphia is coterminous with Philadelphia County, and governmental functions have been consolidated since 1854.

Indiana County, Pennsylvania

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

County Seat: Indiana
Year Organized: 1803
Square Miles: 830

Court House:

825 Philadelphia Street, 2nd Floor
County Courthouse
Indiana, PA 15701-3907

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Probably named for the Territory of Indiana.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Created on March 30, 1803 from parts of Westmoreland and Lycoming Counties and probably named for the Territory of Indiana. It was attached to Westmoreland County until 1806. Indiana, the county seat, was laid out in 1805 and incorporated as a borough on March 11, 1816.

The southern region was acquired from Indians at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 (the "New Purchase"), the northern region by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1784 (the "Last Purchase"). First permanent settlement was about 1765. Blairsville arose in 1818 and was a turnpike and canal center. The Pennsylvania Railroad arrived in 1851. Salt production was the first industry. Iron furnaces were unsuccessful. Timber cutting flourished from the 1840s to about 1890 when the trees were depleted. A coal mining boom began in 1900 and dominated the economy until 1924, boosting the population to nearly 80,000. Coal mining revived in the 1970s; Indiana is the state's fifth highest bituminous producer, three-quarters of which is subsurface mined. Dairy farming and Christmas tree sales buttress the economy today; 31 percent of the land is farmed. The legendary Cherry Tree Joe McCreery and the actor Jimmy Stewart are cherished local myths. Governor John S. Fisher, a Republican, was a county native.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 834 square miles (2,161 km²), of which, 829 square miles (2,148 km²) of it is land and 5 square miles (13 km²) of it (0.60%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Jefferson County (north)
Clearfield County (northeast)
Cambria County (southeast)
Westmoreland County (south)
Armstrong County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Armagh	borough	Incorporated Area
- Banks	township
- Black Lick	township
- Blairsville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Brush Valley	township
- Buffington	township
- Burrell	township
- Canoe	township
- Center	township
- Cherry Tree	borough	Incorporated Area
- Cherryhill	township
- Clymer	borough	Incorporated Area
- Creekside	borough	Incorporated Area
- East Mahoning	township
- East Wheatfield	township
- Ernest	borough	Incorporated Area
- Glen Campbell	borough	Incorporated Area
- Grant	township
- Green	township
- Homer City	borough	Incorporated Area
- Indiana (County Seat)	borough	Incorporated Area
- Marion Center	borough	Incorporated Area
- McIntyre	township
- North Mahoning	township
- Pine	township
- Plumville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Rayne	township
- Robinson	township
- Saltsburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Shelocta	borough	Incorporated Area
- Smicksburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- South Mahoning	township
- West Lebanon	township
- West Mahoning	township
- West Wheatfield	township
- Young	township

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."