Published Sunday, Feb. 14, 1999 Those who were born at the start of this century and who are still alive have probably seen the greatest technological changes in the history of mankind.
At the start of this century there were no airplanes, computers or heart transplants, and the common mode of transportation required a saddle and stirrups.
Although the official end of the century and the millennium isn't until midnight Dec. 31, 2000, most look at the end of this year as the century's last gasp, probably because it means next year will start a century of years that begin with a 2 instead of a 1.
In 1900, the area was emerging as a power of industry. Carnegie Steel built a plant in Farrell which hired workers by the hundreds. It was a sharp contrast to the 19th century in which small blast furnaces dotted the landscape, each employing a dozen or so men.
Agriculture was king in the 19th century in this area but as the clock ticked further into the 20th century, industry became the region's workhorse. By the 1920s, mills and plants were a common site in New Castle, the Shenango Valley and Youngstown and Warren, Ohio, and more were being built as America's hunger for manufactured products knew no bounds.
When the Great Depression hit in the '30s, most industries scaled back. Organized labor began signing new members in droves as workers sought ways to protect their jobs.
Just before and during World War II, industry cranked up again to supply armed forces around the globe.
The heydey for industry here and across the nation was in the post-war era when America found itself the virtual industrial breadbasket of the world.
During the late '40s and well into the '50s, Westinghouse Electric Corp. employed close to 10,000 in Sharon; Sharon Steel Corp., 6,000 in Farrell; and General American Transportation Corp. in Brookfield and Midland-Ross Corp. in Sharon were each close to the 2,000 level. Greenville-Steel Car Co. employed more than 1,000 and Greenville-based Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad came close to that level.
By the '60s, industry began to show its age and employment dropped as technology and foreign competition began to rear its head.
That continued in the '70s and the early '80s saw a crash in the local industries as Westinghouse, Midland-Ross and Chicago Bridge and Iron closed their local plants. Unemployment levels reached double-digit heights not seen since the Depression.
The '90s was a time of rebuilding, regrowth and a new direction for the area as service jobs and smaller manufacturers became the dominant players.
There were other changes locally in the late '80s and '90s as development found new areas.
Growth is now evident in Hermitage and Hempfield, Pine and Springfield townships. All have seen new retail and commercial development, along with Volant and Union Township in Lawrence County.
While agriculture is overlooked, it continues to fuel the local economy. Unlike other parts of the nation where corporate farms are the rule, family-owned farms continue to dominate the area.
Last year ended with a spectacular bang when Mercer County's unemployment rate hit 3.4 percent, the lowest recorded for any month since February 1970, when the rate was 3.3 percent.
More than 4.1 million people visited Prime Outlets at Grove City in 1998 and work has begun on a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Hempfield Township. It will have a supermarket, discount department store, bank, beauty salon and other features.
Shenango Valley Industrial Development Corp. not only announced its plans for developing the Broadway Avenue corridor through Wheatland, Farrell and Sharon, but started work on it. Part of that development includes a new mill for Sharon Tube Co., which when fully operating in 2000 will employ 100 or more.
Late in December, Sharon Steel's successor, Caparo Steel Co. sold to Duferco, which has since renamed the plant Duferco-Farrell Co.
There were casualties, too, as Cooper Energy Reciprocating Services in Grove City said it would lay off 210, or 40 percent of its workforce by spring.
However, it's the past 100 years that dominates this year's Outlook.
With the help of local groups such as the Mercer County and Hermitage historical societies, local senior citizens and businesses and civic leaders, this year's Outlook reviews The 20th Century: Memories of a Lifetime.
