e-ReferenceDesk's College and 50 State Learning Resource Guide

Find Online Colleges

Find Campus Colleges

Pennsylvania State...

Pennsylvania

Choose a County

Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Berks, Blair, Bradford, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, Cameron, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Crawford, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Philadelphia, Pike, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Venango, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland, Wyoming, York

Pennsylvania Counties

Click Image to Enlarge

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.

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

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

2 North Main Street, Courthouse Square
County Courthouse
Greensburg, PA 15601-2405

Court House:

County Seat: Greensburg
Year Organized: 1773
Square Miles: 1,023

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for a county in England. Greensburg

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Created on February 26, 1773, from part of Bedford County and named for a county in England. Greensburg, the county seat after 1785, was incorporated as a borough on February 9, 1799 and as a city in 1928. It was named for General Nathanael Greene. The British and Indians burned Hannastown, the original county seat on July 13, 1782.

Ligonier and Bushy Run were posts licensed by the British Army in 1758, along the Forbes Road, before the full county area was acquired by Pennsylvania from the Indians in the New Purchase in 1768. At Bushy Run, in 1763, one of the few field engagements against Indians resulted in a British and colonial victory. Robert Hanna and Arthur St. Clair led the move to erect a Pennsylvania county to thwart the extension of Virginia's political control of the area. Rivalry with Virginia became violent in 1774–1775, but Virginia finally yielded its claim in 1779. This area was also involved in Dunmore's War and in Indian fighting during the Revolution. Hannastown, burnt by Indians in 1782, was not rebuilt because Greensburg was growing rapidly. The county's location on both the Forbes and Braddock Roads was vital to the rise of Pittsburgh. Railroads later followed, using approximately the same routes. Railroad yards grew at Monessen and Latrobe. Greensburg and Ligonier were farm products centers. The Connellsville Coke region, opened in the 1840s, led to the rise of Mount Pleasant and Scottdale. The valuable Pittsburgh Vein bituminous underlay the county. After coke making developed, there were booms in iron, steel, tinplate, aluminum, manufactured metal items, and glass. Silk, wool, paper, and rubber products followed. Natural gas was used by many industries. Ligonier continued to be a center for dairying and flour; auto parts were produced in Mount Pleasant, and tires in Jeannette. Since the 1960s, deindustrialization has been acute in the steel, aluminum, tinplating, and coke sectors. The peak of coal production occurred from 1925 to 1945; the county now is a minor coal producer from surface mines. In 1920 agriculture cash receipts were 11th in the state, and among these grain production was 8th in the state. Grain production was greatly reduced after WWII. In 1989, the county's farms are about 26th in total receipts among Pennsylvania counties, with strong meat, dairying, and mushroom production. Many small farms cover one-fourth of the land, and the county is a leader in eggs, oats, and alfalfa. Today, some steel is still produced and glass and metal products are important, but retail establishments are especially strong. Many residents are Pittsburgh workers.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,036 square miles (2,684 km²), of which, 1,025 square miles (2,656 km²) of it is land and 11 square miles (28 km²) of it (1.05%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Armstrong County (north)
Indiana County (northeast)
Cambria County (east)
Somerset County (southeast)
Fayette County (south)
Washington County (southwest)
Allegheny County (west)
Butler County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Adamsburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Apollo	borough	Incorporated Area
- Arnold	city	Incorporated Area
- Arona	borough	Incorporated Area
- Avonmore	borough	Incorporated Area
- Bell	township
- Bolivar	borough	Incorporated Area
- Cook	township
- Delmont	borough	Incorporated Area
- Derry	borough	Incorporated Area
- Donegal	borough	Incorporated Area
- East Huntingdon	township
- East Vandergrift	borough	Incorporated Area
- Export	borough	Incorporated Area
- Greensburg (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Hempfield	township
- Hunker	borough	Incorporated Area
- Hyde Park	borough	Incorporated Area
- Irwin	borough	Incorporated Area
- Jeannette	city	Incorporated Area
- Larimer	township
- Latrobe	city	Incorporated Area
- Laurel Mountain	borough	Incorporated Area
- Ligonier	borough	Incorporated Area
- Lower Burrell	city	Incorporated Area
- Loyalhanna	township
- Madison	borough	Incorporated Area
- Manor	borough	Incorporated Area
- Monessen	city	Incorporated Area
- Mount Pleasant	borough	Incorporated Area
- Municipality of Murrysville	borough	Incorporated Area
- New Alexandria	borough	Incorporated Area
- New Florence	borough	Incorporated Area
- New Kensington	city	Incorporated Area
- New Stanton	borough	Incorporated Area
- North Belle Vernon	borough	Incorporated Area
- North Huntingdon	township
- North Irwin	borough	Incorporated Area
- Oklahoma	borough	Incorporated Area
- Penn	borough	Incorporated Area
- Salem	township
- Scottdale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Seward	borough	Incorporated Area
- Smithton	borough	Incorporated Area
- South Greensburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- South Huntingdon	township
- Southwest	township
- Southwest Greensburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Sutersville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Trafford	borough	Incorporated Area
- Unity	township
- Upper Burrell	township
- Vandergrift	borough	Incorporated Area
- West Newton	borough	Incorporated Area
- Youngstown	borough	Incorporated Area
- Youngwood	borough	Incorporated Area

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."