THE HISTORY OF MERCER COUNTY

MERCER county, as defined by act of Assembly, 12th of March, 1800, lies between Crawford on the north and Beaver on the south, on the line dividing Pennsylvania and Ohio. Length, thirty-two miles along the State line, and breadth, eastward, where it is bounded by Venango, twenty-eight miles-the south-east corner jutting on Butler county, the square points of both being cit off to make a fitting adjustment. It was named in honor of General Hugh Mercer, the young surgeon in the army of the Pretender at the battle of Culloden, the companion of Washington in the Braddock campaign, and the indomitable American patriot who died from wounds received at the battle of Princeton, in 1777.

The surface of the county is undulating, but little broken, and peculiarly well watered. It is covered with springs and small streams running into the larger watered. It is covered with springs and small streams running into the larger creeks. The creeks consist of the Big Shenango on the western side, which rises in Crawford county, Nashannock in the center, with heads all over the northern central, and Wolf creek on the eastern side. These streams all run in a southerly direction, and eventually are swallowed up in the Big Beaver, which empties itself into the Ohio river at Rochester. In addition to these there is the Little Shenango, that runs from east to west, across a considerable portion of the northern part of the county, rising five or six miles east of the central line drawn from south to north, that empties itself into the Big Shenango, a little above Greenville, and also Sandy creek, that takes its rise in Crawford county, and running diagonally through the north-east quarter of the county, to the south-east, enters Venango county, and empties itself into the Allegheny river about twelve miles below Franklin. Sandy lake, a sheet of water about a mile and a half long, and a half mile wide, very deep in the center, discharges its surplus water into Sandy creek.

The character of its general surface, the underlying limestone throughout its southern half, the bountiful supply of living water, and richness of soil, when known, were well calculated to invite the enterprising and hardy settler to the task of subduing its forests and making independent homes for themselves, with the hope that it would eventually become the foremost agricultural county in this part of the State. Their anticipations were not disappointed, for it is now not only a great agricultural, but a heavy and prosperous mining and iron county.
Although declared a county, by act of Assembly in 1800, for all practical purposes it constituted a part of Crawford until February, 1804, when the first and second courts were held at the house of Joseph Hunter, situated on Mill creek, on the mill property near Mercer now owned by the Hon. William Stewart, in February and May of that year. The commission of Hon. Jesse Moore, as president judge of the circuit composed of the counties of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, and Erie, was read; also the commissions of Alexander Brown and Alexander Wright as judges for Mercer county. The various commissions of John Findley (who was the eldest son of the historic William Findley that was so prominent in Congress in the support of Thomas Jefferson), as prothonotary, clerk of the courts, etc., was also read; so also, that of William Byers as sheriff, James Braden as coroner, and John W. Hunter as deputy prosecuting attorney. The sheriff and coroner, as well as a board of county commissioners, consisting of Robert Bole, Andrew Denniston, and Thomas Robb, it is presumed were elected in October, 1803.
The attorneys admitted to practice at the first court were John W. Hunter, Joseph Shannon, C. S. Sample, S. B. Foster, A. W. Foster, Ralph Marlin, Edward Work, Patrick Farrelly, William Ayres, Henry Baldwin, and Steel Sample. The tow Fosters, Farrelly, Ayres, Baldwin, and Steel Sample, all afterwards turned out to be men of mark and ability, and forty and fifty years back from this writing it was a rich treat to hear the old men of that day recited the practical jokes, stratagems, and anecdotes of which they were the perpetrators. At the second term of court, held in May, the commission of William Amberson, as an additional judge for Mercer county, was read. This gave three associate judges. The writer of this, who, as a little boy, occasionally dropped into the court house, along between 1814 and 1820, was indelibly impressed with the grand dignity of the president judge. He was a heavy, solemn-looking man, retaining the costume of the old style gentleman-small clothes, shoe-buckles, knee-buckles, bald head, but hair long behind and done up in a cue, and head and hair and collar of the black coat covered with a white powder sprinkled thereon. He has since seen the Supreme Court of the United States in session. The black gowns of the judges sitting in a row, the low colloquial tone in which causes are argued and the quietness enforced, certainly give it a very dignified aspect, but still there was lacking the grand old powdered head and cue that gave Jude Moore the advantage in solemn and imposing dignity.

The first grand jury that assembled in the county consisted of Hugh Hamilton, Joseph McEwen, Thomas Scott, James Waugh, William Welsh, James Denniston, John Alexander, Cyrus Beckwith, Daniel Kelly, William Pangburn, John Grace, Duncan Carmichael, Robert Moore, William Nicholson, John Larimer, Alexander McCracken, James Montgomery, Jacob Loutzenhizer, Alexander Beans, and Joseph Smith, all of whom have long since paid the great debt of nature, but most of whom are yet alive in the generations that have followed and still reside in the county.

The land on which Mercer, the shire town, was located, being very near the center of county, consisted of two hundred acres, presented by John Hoge, of Washington, Pennsylvania, who was the owner of large tracts in the vicinity. The trustees to lay out the town and dispose of the lots were John Findley, William Mortimore, and "Little Billy" McMillan, so designated to distinguish him from a larger man of the same name. It was with the funds arising from the sale of these lots that the first court house, standing in the center of the public square, was built. On the 19th day of May, 1807, John Chambers, John Leech, and William McMillan, the then county commissioners, contracted with Joseph Smith and john McCurdy for the building thereof, for the sum of $7,116. It was a square brick building, two stories high, with wings for the offices. In 1840 there was an addition put to it to get better office accommodations, at a cost of about $2,000, and the whole was burnt to the ground in 186, after which the present beautiful and substantial structure was erected, at the cost of $98,000. The first court house and jail, however, was a log structure on the ground now occupied by the First National Bank, the lower story for a jail being built of squared logs let down flat and dove-tailed at the corners, and the court room above, which was reached by stairs on the outside of the building. Until this construction was ready for prisoners, the county prison was a room in the house of James Braden, which the commissioners rented and fitted up for that purpose.

At this time there were but six townships in the county, to wit: Salem, Pymatuning, Neshannock, Wolf Creek, Cool Spring, and Sandy Creek. In the journal of the county commissioners, at a sitting on July1, 1805, it is entered that R. Bole, A. Denniston, and E. Sankey, contracted with David Watson, Jr., to run the lines of the townships agreeably to a plan or order of the court, at -------cents per mile, and after this the names of Delaware, West Salem, Shenango, Lackawannock, Mahoning, Slippery Rock Sandy Lake, French Creek, and Springfield, were added to the list of townships, and Mercer, in virtue of being the county town, was given a separate existence. With the exception of Slippery Rock and Wolf Creek, which were accommodated to the cut-off corner adjoining Butler county, all townships were now eight miles long from south to north, and seven miles wide. This continued until Hickory was carved out of Shenango and Pymatuning in 1831, since which all the others have been carved up so that there are now (besides losing a fourth of territory to go to the makeup of Lawrence county) no less than thirty-one townships and twelve organized boroughs in the county of Mercer.

The traveled route through north-western Pennsylvania was that established by the French in 1752-water communication up the Allegheny river to the mouth of French creek, then up that stream to Waterford, and from thence by an opened road to Erie. It was this route that was followed by General Washington in 1753, when sent by Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, to demand from the French an explanation of their designs in establishing military posts on the waters of the Ohio. This route left Mercer county entirely to the west, and may explain why settlements in Venango, Crawford, and Erie, which it traveled, preceded those formed in Mercer. There were no settlements made in it until after Wayne's victory over the Indians, and the peace with them that followed in 1795. After this, in the fall of 1795, the surveyors began their labors, followed closely by the first settlers. Benjamin Stokely, who belonged to the first party of surveyors, remained alone when the others returned to their homes, and building himself a little cabin on the banks of the Cool Spring, was the first white man that spent a winter in the country. There was an encampment of two or three hundred Indians close to him, and he and they became very good friends. His youngest son, Bayne Stokely, now occupies the farm on which the father thus commenced the settlement. The wife of John Fell, and the maternal grandmother of the present Judge Trunkey, of Venango county, during lifetime, always claimed to be the first white female that wintered in the county. She was the sister of the late Andrew Campbell, of Greenville, and when a little girl came with her father, who settled on the Shenango, leaving for a time the mother and other members of his family behind until he could prepare a home for them.

Among the first settlers along the Shenango were the grandfathers of the present generations of the Quinbys, Budds, Carnes, Beans, McKnights, McGranahans, Campbells, Hoaglands, Mossmans, Leeches, Fells, Hunters, and Christys. In the Neshannock and Mahoning regions, the Byers, Sankeys, Fishers, Watsons, Chenowiths, and Pearsons made their first settlements. In the center the Stokelys, Zahnisers, Garvins, Alexanders, Findleys, Junkins, Dennistons, McCulloughs, Pews, Rambos, Coulsons, and Hosacks. In the south-east corner the Roses, McMillans, Breakenridges, McCoys, and Courtneys. In the Sandy Lake and French creek region the Gordons, McCrackens, DeFraces, Carnahans, Browns, Carmichaels, Carrols, Kilgores, Riggs, Condits, and McCloskys. In the way of startling adventure, these men were not history makers. Their mission was to open up a wilderness for the use of civilized man, and secure to themselves an posterity comfortable homes. In striving to do this they underwent many privations. It took time to open out fields and get them under cultivation, so that bread could be got without transportation on horse-back from Pittsburgh or the settlements in Washington county, and before they could provide properly for the keeping of their stock over winter. The first stock was only wintered by the felling of maple and linwood trees to enable the cattle to browse on the buds. The forest then afforded them bear meat, venison, and turkey in abundance, but their appetites tired of this as the only food, and "hog and hominy," diversified with mush and milk, was the first change they could hope to make in their diet. Wolves, panthers, and bears were by no means scarce, but as other game was plenty, these animals did not indulge in the more dangerous chase of man. A wolf scalp then brought a premium of eight dollars out of the county treasury, and was a source of profit to quite a number of hunters.

The first newspaper printed in the county was the Western Press, established in Mercer, by Jacob Herrington, in 1811, as a Democratic organ. It is still in existence, and is now published by William S. and E. L. Garvin, the first of whom entered the office as an apprentice in 1819. In addition to which, there is the Dispatch, in Mercer; the Times, Herald, and Eagle, in Sharon; the Advertiser, in Sharpsville; the Advance and Argus, in Greenville; the Sun, in Jamestown; and the News, in Sandy Lake-ten weekly newspapers in all.

In the war of 1812, the people of Mercer county were frequently called upon to give their aid in the defense of Erie, where the fleet of Commodore Perry was being built. On these alarms, which were about as frequent as a vessel of the enemy hove in sight in the lake offing, the whole county would be aroused by runners in a day, and in a very few hours most of the able-bodied male population, whether belonging to a volunteer company or the militia, would be on their march to Erie. On one occasion the news came to Mercer on a Sunday while the Rev. S. Tait was preaching in the court house. The sermon was suspended, the startling news announced from the pulpit, the dismissing benediction given, and immediate preparations for the march commenced. On the next day the military force of the county was well on its way to Erie. At another time the news of a threatened invasion came in the middle of the grain harvest. This made no difference, the response was immediate. It was on this occasion that Mr. John Findley dropped the sickle in his tracks in the wheat field, hastened to his house, and seizing his gun, with such provisions as his wife had at hand to put in his haversack, started on his way to the defense of his country. On his return, six weeks afterwards, the sickle was found by him where it had been dropped. It was on one of these occasions that but a single man was left in the county town-Cunningham Sample, an old lawyer, completely unmanned by age and obesity. It then became the duty of the young boys left at home, among whom was John Davitt, now of Pittsburgh, Walter I. Hunter, and others, to look to the wants of the women and little folks of the community. Wood had to be chopped for their fires, grain milled, potatoes dug, etc., This was the spirit of the Mercer county people in the war of 1812. A rifle volunteered its services for six months under General Harrison, and was at Fort Meigs in the winter of 1813. Their time expiring before the expected siege by the British forces under General Proctor had commenced, on the occasion of the Virginians, under General Leftwick, leaving the fort, they were among the Pennsylvania brigade that re-volunteered to remain until General Harrison was able to relieve them. Afterwards a number of them re-volunteered again and remained to participate in the successful defense against the approaching siege of the enemy.

It took time to get public roads opened through the county, so that packhorses could be done away with and wagons substituted. The first clay turnpike constructed was between Mercer and Meadville, about 1816. This was soon followed by a road from Butler to Mercer. The facilities for marketing the productions of the county were very inadequate. A large portion of the rye raised was turned into whiskey to render it portable, and in the winters this, along with pork, deer skins, and furs, were loaded up in sleds and sent to Erie to barter for fish and salt. The same articles were also sent in a similar manner to Bellefonte to trade for iron, nails, and castings. Groceries and dry goods were principally obtained from Pittsburgh. It was no uncommon thing in those days to trade a bushel of wheat for a pound of coffee. Butter sold at a regular price of six and on-fourth cents per pound. It was about 1816 that the driving of cattle was commenced by Jacob Herrington, and a trade in horses also established. Good milch cows sold for eight and ten dollars, and a horse that would now bring one hundred and seventy-five dollars, could then have been bought at sixty or seventy dollars. This condition continued until 1836, when the construction of the Erie extension of the Pennsylvania canal to Erie, along the valley of the Shenango, on the west side of the county, was commenced, which constituted a new era in the commerce of the county, letting it out of the woods, as it were, and bringing it into connection with Pittsburgh on the south and the lakes on the north. In due time railroads were established and the canal abandoned. The mining of coal in the Shenango valley, and the large iron establishments erected therein, soon drew a large population of consumers, affording the farmers a fair market for their surplus productions; and when Drake discovered a comparatively easy and cheap mode of reaching the petroleum of Venango county, on its eastern side, a fresh impetus was given to the business of Mercer county, for here was a new market created by the rush to the oil regions that was greedy for her agricultural products. There are now four prosperous agricultural societies in the county, to wit: the West Pennsylvania, with large grounds at Mercer; the Shanango Valley, which has beautiful and spacious grounds at Greenville; the mercer County Society, that has fine grounds near Stoneboro, on the shore of Sandy Lake; and the Jamestown Society. There are various farmers clubs, who hold public sessions for the discussion of agricultural questions; and as for Grangers, the county is full of them.
Lawrence county was created in 1849, taking from the original Mercer county a little more than a fourth of her population, and nearly a fourth of her territory. The town of New Castle, which was five years older than that of Mercer; of New Bedford, started in 1813; of Harlansburg, in 1811; of Edinsburg, in 1821; of Wilmington, in 1824; of Hillsburg, in 1825; and of Pulaski, in 1836, were all included in this partition.

Beginning in the south-west corner of the county, on the line of the Erie and Pittsburgh railroad, we first have WEST MIDDLESEX, It has one rolling mill, four furnaces, and a number of manufactories of various kinds. It is an incorporated borough.

WHEATLAND is about three and a half miles north of Middlesex, and was laid out and built up by Wood & Sons, of Pittsburgh, on a property purchased from the heirs of George Schilling, and on which they erected what is said to be the largest railroad mill in the United States, as well as four furnaces. It was incorporated as a borough in 1870.

SHARON is two miles above, and lies directly west of the county town, adjoining the dividing line between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Until 1836 was a small cross-road village-a tavern, a country store, a blacksmith shop, with one or two tailors and as many shoemakers. An appropriation from the State Legislature for the extension of the Pennsylvania canal to Erie, in 1836, induced General Joel B. Curtis, of Mercer, to purchase a tract of coal land in the immediate neighborhood, with a view to a large coal trade with Erie and other places on the lake. The peculiar value of this coal was then unknown, but experiments followed, and it was soon ascertained that it had superior qualities for all iron purposes, and could be successfully used in furnaces without cokeing, getting a metal but little inferior to that produced by the use of charcoal. The building of furnaces in the neighborhood followed-and a strike among the puddlers of Wheeling and Pittsburgh enabled General Curtis to form a combination with many of them to build a rolling mill at Sharon. This led to a further combination with parties that had got hold of the Lake Superior iron ores, by which the interests of both were expected to be advanced; and thus it was that the Lake Superior ores were introduced into the market, the consumption of which has grown up to the stupendous proportions enjoyed at the present time. Sharon is now a thriving city, with a great deal of solid wealth. It has two large iron mills, besides several furnaces and other large manufactories, with a population of near seven thousand. General J. B. Curtis was its real founder, sustained by T. J. Porter, George Boyce, Mathew Murdoch, C. G. Carver, m. C. Trout, and a few others. Porter and Boyce, far advanced in life, are the only ones of the party that are yet living.

SHARPSVILLE which lies about two miles north of Sharon, may be said to have been fathered by the late General Pierce, who purchased the ground on which it stands from Colonel Thomas Scott, the present president of the Pennsylvania railroad company. It has near fifteen hundred inhabitants, seven furnaces, and numerous manufactories. The finest and most costly residence in the county is located here, built by General Pierce a short time before his death. Sharpsville, by the many railroads running into and through it, has peculiar facilities in the way of travel and trade. It is an incorporated borough.

CLARKSVILLE, four miles north of Sharpsville, was laid out in 1832, by William Clark, and is an incorporated borough. It has not grown since the abandonment of the canal, and being more than a mile from the railroad, has not reaped the advantages derived by other towns on its line.
TRANSFER is a little village that has grown up at the point of transfer of freight and passengers between the Erie and Pittsburgh, and Atlantic and Great Western railroads, which for a distance of about three miles run side by side. It is not incorporated, but remains a part of Pymatuning township.
SHENANGO is the next village north of Transfer, at the junction of the Shenango and Allegheny railroad with the Atlantic and Great Western. It is a small town, but is thriving. It is here that the coal and oil brought from Butler county by the Shenango and Allegheny railroad is transferred to the cars of the Atlantic and Great Western, made necessary by the difference in the gauges of the two roads.

GREENVILLE is the second town in population and wealth in the county, and is two miles north of Shanango. It was laid out in 1819 by Thomas Bean and William Scott, on the west side of the Shenango. Numerous additions have been made to it on the east side, where the principal part of the town lies. It was incorporated in 1836, is a beautiful town, and contains an energetic and enterprising people. An excellent water power was utilized in the construction of the canal through this place, which has been employed in driving the machinery of a large flouring mill and various other manufactories. It has two banks, two newspapers, and a rolling mill near town. Population, over three thousand. Thiel College, the principal educational institution in the county, is located here. It is the only Lutheran college west of the mountains in Pennsylvania.

These comprise the towns along the Erie and Pittsburgh railroad, in the Shenango valley, in Mercer county. Following the Franklin Branch of the Lake Shore road south east of Jamestown, HADLEY'S STATION and CLARK'S MILL constitute two thriving villages.

STONEBORO, an incorporated town, standing on the shores of Sandy Lake, was laid out and built up by the railroad and coal company, the mines of which are in the immediate vicinity. It is a flourishing place, with a population of about one thousand. As a summer resort it has no mean claim-a fine hotel, a chalybeate spring, boating on the lake, etc., enable summer guests seeking rest and recuperation to enjoy themselves comfortably. Recently two immense structures have been erected for the storage of ice got off the lake, which is peculiarly clear and firm.

SANDY LAKE is the next and last town on this road in Mercer county. It is but a mile from Stoneboro, on big Sandy creek, where the outlet of the lake enters its waters. It is an incorporated borough, with a population of about eight hundred and fifty. The tract on which it is located was settled by Alexander Brown, who was one of the first associate judges of the county, about the year 1800, and was laid out by his son, Hon. Thomas J. Brown, another associate judge, in 1849. the splendid water power on the creek contributed very much to give it a fair start, and the building of the Franklin branch of the Lake Shore railroad, gave it a further impetus that has since driven it along in the road of prosperity in an eminent degree.

Starting from Shenango, on the line of the Shenango and Allegheny road, eight miles hence, we have first the village of FREDONIA, now seeking incorporation; then five miles further on, OAKLAND, near Mercer; then, five more miles, PARDOE'S STATION, an mining town; then four miles and we reach PINEGROVE-all thriving and prosperous villages. Running across the northern range of townships, to the east of Jamestown, we have the incorporated borough of SHEAKLEYVILLE, founded by George Sheakley, in 1820. This is on the old turnpike between Mercer and Meadville. Population, four hundred. East of this, the village of NEW VERNON, the little borough of NEW LEBANON, and the village of MILLEDGEVILLE. Going south from Sandy Lake, on the eastern side of the county, along the drainage of Wolf creek, are the villages of HENDERSONVILLE, MILLBROOK, PINEGROVE (on the Shenango and Allegheny railroad), and NORTH LIBERTY. Between this latter place and Mercer on the Butler turnpike, is located the villages of LOUDON and BLACKTOWN. On the road from Mercer to Harmony, in Butler county, stands the village of LEESBURG, six miles from the county town. On the road from Mercer to Middlesex, midway, is the village of GREENFIELD, commenced in 1847; and a mile farther on the little borough of BETHEL. The village of CHARLESTON, on the road between Mercer and Sharon; DELAWARE GROVE, on the Greenville road; FAIRVIEW, on the road to Sheakleyville, and JACKSON CENTRE, on the road to Franklin, each about six miles from Mercer, comprise the balance of the villages of the county.

Source: The History of Pennsylvania By William H. Egle, M.D., M.A. Published 1883

Author: WILLIAM S. GARVIN AND SETH HOAGLAND, MERCER

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