Region was shaped by post-Revolutionary history

Native Americans, Revolutionary War veterans and land speculators all played a role in the formation of Mercer County 200 years ago.

Mercer County was one of eight counties created on March 12, 1800 from portions of Allegheny County under a state law known as the great County Act.

The other counties are Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Venango and Warren. The division of northwest Pennsylvania into those various counties marked the culmination of forces that had been gathering since the day in 1681 when William Penn landed on the shores of the Delaware River.

This was the creation of a Commonwealth based on English precepts of society, government and trade and the passing from the scene of the Indian tribes who leave a legacy today of familiar place names: Shenango, Neshannock, Pymatuning.

For it was the signing of a treaty between the Americans and the Ohio Indians in 1795 at Greenville, Ohio that removed the last political obstacles to the settlement of Mercer County. Throughout the 18th century, the Delaware lived in villages at Pymatuning at Big Bend along the Shenango River and at Shenango near modern-day West Middlesex. Gen. William Irvine, a commander of Fort Pitt and early surveyor, reported that Shenango was occupied as late as 1785.

The end of the American Revolution in 1783 was the catalyst for change. The Treaty of Paris left the western borders of the new Republic unclear, but the Americans wanted to replace the British as the dominant power in the Ohio Valley region.

From their posts at Fort Niagara and Fort Detroit, the British had encouraged the Iroquois and Great Lakes tribes to attack American settlements on the Pennsylvania and New York frontier. The United States also owed a debt to the veterans of the Continental Army.

During the Revolution, the soldiers had been paid in continental currency which steadily depreciated or lost value because the young nation lacked a stable monetary system. To ease discontent in the ranks, the Pennsylvania soldiers were issued certificates of depreciation that could be redeemed for public lands in the unsettled northwest region.

But continued British agitation and hostility from the tribes made redemption of the certificates impractical.

American armies marched into the Ohio Country to subdue the tribes, but one force under Gen. Arthur St. Clair suffered a disastrous defeat in 1791.

Gen. Anthony Wayne enjoyed greater success defeating the Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in northwest Ohio in 1794.

The treaty of Greenville followed a year later. In 1796 the British withdrew from Niagara and Detroit.

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