Pennsylvania State...
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Pennsylvania Counties
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Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
Lawrence County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: New Castle
Year Organized: 1849
Square Miles: 360 |
Court House: 430 Court Street
Government Center
New Castle, PA 16101-3593
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Etymology - Origin of County Name
Named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's first flagship, the
US Brig Lawrence, which had been named for Captain James Lawrence, a naval
hero.
Demographics:
County QuickFacts:
Census Bureau Quick Facts
History
Created March 20, 1849, from parts of
Beaver and Mercer Counties and named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's first
flagship, the US Brig Lawrence, which had been named for Captain James
Lawrence, a naval hero. New Castle, the county seat, was laid out in 1802,
incorporated as a borough on March 25, 1825, and chartered as a city on February
25, 1869. It is not certain whether it was named for Newcastle, England, or New
Castle, Delaware.
This area was formally acquired from Native Americans by the 1784 Treaty of Fort
Stanwix, the "Last Purchase," and migrants from Allegheny County began to settle
in 1793. Newcastle quickly grew to be an industrial center because the county
had limestone quarries, iron ore, and coal. Its stone blast furnaces for making
iron, started in 1838, were located in both Beaver and Mercer Counties, and the
county was created to eliminate that confusing situation. Canals arrived in the
1830s and the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1850. Connection with Youngstown, Ohio
was very important. The 1890s were the "Golden Age of Industry," as Lawrence
became the world's leader in tin plating. Lawrence also produced hardware,
paper, pottery, cement, and linseed oil. There was some oil production. The
industrial complex brought vast numbers of southern and eastern Europeans,
beginning in 1875. The population peaked at 113,000 in 1960, but
deindustrialization became pronounced in the 1970s.
As in Berks County, there was always farming outside the factory areas. Today,
42 percent of the county is farmland. It ranks about midway in value of farm
products among the sixty-seven counties.
Neighboring Counties:
Cities and Towns:
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- Bessemer |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Ellport |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Ellwood City |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Enon Valley |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Little Beaver |
township |
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- Neshannock |
township |
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- New Beaver |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- New Castle
(County
Seat) |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- New Wilmington |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- North Beaver |
township |
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- Plain Grove |
township |
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- Pulaski |
township |
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- S.N.P.J. |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Scott |
township |
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- South New Castle |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Union |
township |
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- Volant |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Wampum |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Wilmington |
township |
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our 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." |
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Penn Foster High School
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