Westmoreland County (Pennsylvania, USA)
Westmoreland County, a large county in southwestern Pennsylvania, with an area of 1,036 square miles and a population of over 300,000 in the late 1950s (369,993 in 2000), was organized in 1773. At that time it embraced about one fourth of the state. It was later divided into fourteen additional counties or parts of counties. Mennonite settlers came into this county in the last decade of the 18th century from Bucks, Chester, Berks, Lancaster, Northampton, Bedford, and perhaps other counties. The first-known Mennonite settler was George Mumma, who purchased land near Scottdale in 1794. Other early settlers bore the names of Fox, Overholt, Funk, Welty, Rosenberger, Tintsman, Yothers, Stoner, Fretz, and Loucks. Mennonite settlers had located in the part of Fayette County adjacent to the Scottdale area a few years earlier. A log church was erected at Stonerville, now Alverton, about 1799, and a similar building at Pennsville, Fayette County, which provided places of worship for the fairly large Mennonite community in this area in the first half of the 19th century. These churches were merged into one congregation at Scottdale when that church was built in 1893. Two additional organized congregations have grown out of the Scottdale Church, one at North Scottdale in East Huntingdon Township, about a mile north, and another at Kingview, about a mile east in Fayette County.
Bibliography
Jordan, J. W. History of Westmoreland County, Pa. 1906.
| Author(s) | John L Horst |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Horst, John L. "Westmoreland County (Pennsylvania, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Westmoreland_County_(Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=170473.
APA style
Horst, John L. (1959). Westmoreland County (Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Westmoreland_County_(Pennsylvania,_USA)&oldid=170473.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 935. All rights reserved.
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