Crawford County, Pennsylvania

Crawford County Education, Geography, and History

Crawford County is a county located in the state of Pennsylvania. Based on the 2010 census, the population was 88,765. Its county seat is Meadville. The county was created on March 12, 1800, from part of Allegheny County and named for Colonel William Crawford.

Crawford County comprises the Meadville, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Erie-Meadville, PA Combined Statistical Area.

Etymology - Origin of Crawford County Name

Named for William Crawford (1732 - 11 June 1782), an American soldier and surveyor who worked as a western land agent for George Washington. Crawford fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. He was tortured and burnt at the stake by American Indians in a notorious incident near the end of the American Revolution.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: CensusBureau Quick Facts

Crawford County History

Created on March 12, 1800, from part of Allegheny County, and named for Colonel William Crawford, a frontier hero. Meadville, the county seat, was named for its founder, David Mead, and incorporated as a borough on March 29, 1823. On February 15, 1866 it was incorporated as a city.

First settlement occurred in 1788. Three big land companies (the Holland, North American, and Population) sold land to Irish and Scotch-Irish immigrants. Roger Alden from the Holland Company stayed on to found a bank and stimulate road building. Timothy Alden led early Allegheny College, founded 1815, part of the New England influence in the area. Corn and rye grew well from the start, leading to advanced livestock production. The Erie Extension Canal, opened 1844, boosted the economy. Lumber and wood products flourished in the nineteenth century. Following Drake's discovery of oil in Venango County (1859) Crawford had an oil boom centered around Titusville. Later a tool and die industry arose. Talon Zipper Company came into existence about 1900, Channellock was famous for hand tools, and Spirella Corset developed a superior product. Today, thirty-seven percent of the land is farmed. There were Underground Railroad stations in Meadville and Randolph. Author Ida Tarbell, abolitionist John Brown, and Supreme Court Justice Henry Baldwin once lived in Crawford.

Geography: Land and Water

As reported by the Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,038 square miles (2,688 km²), of which, 1,013 square miles (2,623 km²) of it is land and 25 square miles (65 km²) of it (2.41%) is water.

Neighboring Counties

Bordering counties are as follows:

• Erie County (north)
• Warren County (east)
• Venango County (southeast)
• Mercer County (south)
• Trumbull County, Ohio (southwest)
• Ashtabula County, Ohio (west)

Education

Colleges and universities

Allegheny College, located in Meadville
University of Pittsburgh at Titusville, a branch campus of the University of Pittsburgh, located in Titusville

Community, junior and technical colleges

Precision Manufacturing Institute (PMI)
Laurel Technical Institute (LTI)

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