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Mercer County, PA
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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. |
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