Greensburg

Greensburg, a borough and the county-seat of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 31 m. E.S.E. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 4202; (1900) 6508 (484 foreign-born); (1910) 5420. It is served by two lines of the Pennsylvania railway. It is an important coal centre, and manufactures engines, iron and brass goods, flour, lumber and bricks. In addition to its public school system, it has several private schools, including St Mary’s Academy and St Joseph’s Academy, both Roman Catholic. About 3 m. N.E. of what is now Greensburg stood the village of Hanna’s Town, settled about 1770 and almost completely destroyed by the Indians on the 13th of July 1782; here what is said to have been the first court held west of the Alleghanies opened on the 6th of April 1773, and the county courts continued to be held here until 1787. Greensburg was settled in 1784-1785, immediately after the opening of the state road, not far from the trail followed by General John Forbes on his march to Fort Duquesne in 1758; it was made the county-seat in 1787, and was incorporated in 1799. In 1905 the boroughs of Ludwick (pop. in 1900, 901), East Greensburg (1050), and South-east Greensburg (620) were merged with Greensburg.

See John N. Boucher’s History of Westmoreland County, Pa. (3 vols., New York, 1906).

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