If there was any debate where Mercer County's county seat would be, John Hoge may have put it to rest.

In May 1804, Hoge donated half of his 400 acres for the town of Mercer on the condition that the town would be the county seat, a Mercer County history said.

Three months before the donation, the first term of the Quarterly Section Court was held outside of Mercer in the home of Joseph Hunter, also according to the county history.

Three years before the land donation, county trustees John Findley, William McMillan and William Mortimer laid out the town of Mercer.

Prior to construction of a courthouse, court business was conducted in a building at the corner of North Diamond and Erie streets -- currently Mellon Bank.

As Mercer was in its early stages of development, roads were making the town a transportation hub. The Old Pittsburgh Road from Pittsburgh to Meadville and Erie was cut through Mercer in 1801. In 1805, residents needed and got a road to Williamson's Mill, near Greenville. In 1815, a road was cut from Mercer to Butler and about the same time, a road took Mercer residents to Youngstown by way of New Bedford.

The roads were important for people living in Mercer as well as people with business at the courthouse. Most goods were transported on horseback, the county history said.

Private enterprise of the town's early settlers preceded the public enterprise of the county seat.

Shortly after he and his brother David Gavin became among the first settlers in 1797, John Gavin opened the first tavern, according to the county history. The Blue Bell was a favorite among travelers, the history said.

Another of the early settlers was John Pew. His descendants would later found Sun Oil Co. elsewhere. Mercer apparently also had a brief stake in the early oil industry. In 1818, Judge Alexander Brown founded an oil mill in town, the county history said.

In 1806, Jacob Mowery and his son founded Mercer's first blacksmith shop.

With government and business flourishing, Mercer needed a newspaper. Jacob Harrington, beginning in 1811, modeled his Western Press after the Pittsburgh Gazette.

The town with a namesake of Revolutionary War hero Gen. Hugh Mercer produced a regiment for another fight with the British in the War of 1812. Capt. John Junkins enlisted 86 to 96 men in the Mercer Blues, also known as the Mercer Light Infantry.

Despite the community develop-ment and the establishment of a county seat in the early 1800s, Mer-cer would not be incorporated as a borough until 40 years later. The state General Assembly incorpo-rated Mercer as a borough on March 28, 1841.