Pennsylvania State...
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Pennsylvania Counties
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Mercer County, Pennsylvania
Mercer County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Mercer
Year Organized: 1800
Square Miles: 672
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Court House: 5 Diamond Street
County Courthouse
Mercer, PA 16137-0000
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Etymology - Origin of County Name
named for General Hugh Mercer.
Demographics:
County QuickFacts:
Census Bureau Quick Facts
History
It was created on March 12, 1800,
from part of Allegheny County and named for General Hugh Mercer. It was attached
to Crawford County until February 1804 when it was formally organized. Mercer,
the county seat, was laid out in 1803 and incorporated as a borough on March 28,
1814.
Included in the Last Purchase of 1784, the land that became this county was
intended to be Donation Land awarded to compensate Revolutionary veteran
soldiers. Settlers slowly arrived in the 1790s, but the county was created
before there was much population. The towns of Mercer (at first a tavern),
Sharon, Greenville, and Grove City, all began between 1796 and 1798.
Distilleries and grist and sawmills marked the early economy. A canal to the
Allegheny River opened in 1834, and one to Erie in 1844. These stimulated coal
and iron mining. The low quality iron ore soon was abandoned, but Mercer's
famous block coal sold well. Railroads began to arrive in 1864. Using the block
coal, blast furnaces began in 1838, and the Sharon Iron Company began a rolling
mill and foundry in 1851. Iron rails, nails, and bars were the main products
until the industry was jolted by the Panic of 1873. The first steel mill opened
in 1887; the Sharon Steel works in 1896. After World War II, the Army's Camp
Reynolds was turned into an industrial park. Pymatuning Dam in 1934 and Shenango
Dam in 1967 rearranged the county's topography. Sheep and dairy farming persist,
some on it on Amish farms. Farms cover 42 percent of the county, and oats and
sheep are produced in abundance.
Neighboring Counties:
Cities and Towns:
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- Clark |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Deer Creek |
township |
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- Delaware |
township |
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- East Lackawannock |
township |
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- Farrell |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Findley |
township |
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- Fredonia |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- French Creek |
township |
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- Greene |
township |
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- Greenville |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Grove City |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Hempfield |
township |
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- Hermitage |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Jackson Center |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Jamestown |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Lackawannock |
township |
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- Lake |
township |
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- Mercer
(County Seat) |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- New Lebanon |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- New Vernon |
township |
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- Otter Creek |
township |
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- Pine |
township |
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- Pymatuning |
township |
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- Salem |
township |
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- Sandy Creek |
township |
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- Sandy Lake |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Sharon |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Sharpsville |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Sheakleyville |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Shenango |
township |
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- South Pymatuning |
township |
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- Stoneboro |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- West Middlesex |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- West Salem |
township |
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- Wheatland |
borough |
Incorporated Area |
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- Wilmington |
township |
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- Wolf Creek |
township |
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- Worth |
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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