Familypedia
Advertisement
This article is based on the corresponding article in another wiki. For Familypedia purposes, it requires significantly more historical detail on phases of this location's development. The ideal article for a place will give the reader a feel for what it was like to live at that location at the time their relatives were alive there. Also desirable are links to organizations that may be repositories of genealogical information..
Please help to improve this page yourself if you can.


Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
Stairs at the Lawrence County Courthouse
Lawrence County Courthouse
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lawrence County
Location in the state of Pennsylvania
Map of the U.S
Pennsylvania's location in the U.S.
Founded March 20, 1849
Named for USS Lawrence
Seat New Castle
Largest city New Castle
Area
 - Total
 - Land
 - Water

363 sq mi (940 km²)
358 sq mi (927 km²)
4.5 sq mi (12 km²), 1.3%
Population
 - (2020)
 - Density

86,070
246/sq mi (95/km²)
Congressional district 16th
Time zone Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website www.co.lawrence.pa.us

Lawrence County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,070.[1] The county seat is New Castle.[2]

Lawrence County makes up the entire New Castle, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the larger Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-WV-OH Combined Statistical Area.

History[]

Lawrence County was created on March 20, 1849, from parts of Beaver and Mercer counties due to the rapid growth of New Castle, which was primarily in Mercer County but was rapidly expanding into Beaver County. The former borders between Beaver and Mercer Counties are still evident in Lawrence County today, as the northern borders of North Beaver Township, Shenango Township, and Slippery Rock Township with (respectively) the southern borders of Mahoning Township, Hickory Township, and Scott Township make up the former boundaries between Beaver and Mercer Counties. In addition, County Line Road in New Castle where the Lawrence County Courthouse is located also marks the former boundaries.

The county was named after the flagship of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the USS Lawrence, which was disabled in the 10 September 1813 Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The ship's complement included local raw recruits. That niagara-class brig (more correctly: snow) was itself a namesake, of Perry's friend and naval officer James Lawrence, who died during the War of 1812.[3]

Geography[]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 363 square miles (940 km2), of which 358 square miles (930 km2) is land and 4.5 square miles (12 km2) (1.3%) is water.[4] Major waterways are the Shenango River, Neshannock Creek and the Mahoning River which form the Beaver River. Also, the Slippery Rock Creek and Connoquenessing Creak empty into the Beaver River. It has a humid continental climate (Dfa/Dfb) and average monthly temperatures in New Castle range from 27.7 °F in January to 72.2 °F in July. [1]

Adjacent counties[]

Demographics[]

Historical populations
Census Pop.
1850 21,079
1860 22,999 9.1%
1870 27,298 18.7%
1880 33,312 22.0%
1890 37,517 12.6%
1900 57,042 52.0%
1910 70,032 22.8%
1920 85,545 22.2%
1930 97,258 13.7%
1940 96,877 −0.4%
1950 105,120 8.5%
1960 112,965 7.5%
1970 107,374 −4.9%
1980 107,150 −0.2%
1990 96,246 −10.2%
2000 94,639 −1.7%
2010 91,108 −3.7%
[5]

As of the 2000 census[6] there were 94,643 people, 37,091 households, and 25,889 families residing in the county. The population density was 263 people per square mile (101/km2). There were 39,635 housing units at an average density of 110 per square mile (42/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 94.98% White, 3.61% Black or African American, 0.10% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.19% from other races, and 0.84% from two or more races. 0.56% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 34.2% English or Welsh, 14.6% were of Italian, 12.4% American, 9.0% German, 8.1% Irish, and 6.8% Scotch-Irish, 2.5% Polish, and 1.9% African ancestry.

There were 37,091 households, out of which 28.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.50% were married couples living together, 11.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.20% were non-families. 27.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.10% under the age of 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 25.70% from 25 to 44, 23.60% from 45 to 64, and 19.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.90 males.

Micropolitan Statistical Area[]

2013 Pittsburgh Metro Area SMALL

Map of the Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV Combined Statistical Area (CSA)

The United States Office of Management and Budget[7] has designated Lawrence County as the New Castle, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2010 U.S. Census[8] the micropolitan area ranked 3rd most populous in the State of Pennsylvania and the 48th most populous in the United States with a population of 91,108. Lawrence County is also a part of the Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, PA-OH-WV Combined Statistical Area (CSA), which combines the population of Lawrence, as well as the Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Indiana, Washington and Westmoreland county areas in Pennsylvania. In West Virginia the counties included are Brooke and Hancock. And in Ohio, Jefferson County. The Combined Statistical Area ranked 4th in the State of Pennsylvania and 20th most populous in the United States with a population of 2,660,727.

Government and politics[]

United States presidential election results for Lawrence County, Pennsylvania[9]
Year Republican Democratic Third party
No.  % No.  % No.  %
2020 29,597 64.08% 15,978 34.59% 612 1.33%
2016 25,428 61.90% 14,009 34.11% 1,639 3.99%
2012 21,047 53.71% 17,513 44.69% 629 1.61%
2008 21,851 51.60% 19,711 46.54% 787 1.86%
2004 21,938 50.50% 21,387 49.23% 117 0.27%
2000 18,060 45.56% 20,593 51.95% 987 2.49%
1996 13,088 36.10% 18,993 52.38% 4,178 11.52%
1992 12,359 30.00% 20,830 50.55% 8,014 19.45%
1988 15,829 41.76% 21,884 57.74% 191 0.50%
1984 19,277 44.43% 23,981 55.27% 128 0.30%
1980 18,404 45.77% 19,506 48.51% 2,303 5.73%
1976 18,546 43.49% 23,337 54.73% 757 1.78%
1972 23,712 56.06% 17,595 41.60% 990 2.34%
1968 18,360 42.60% 21,027 48.78% 3,716 8.62%
1964 15,998 35.39% 29,092 64.35% 117 0.26%
1960 23,646 49.20% 24,309 50.58% 109 0.23%
1956 25,037 55.61% 19,923 44.25% 65 0.14%
1952 23,319 52.12% 21,164 47.31% 255 0.57%
1948 17,186 52.72% 14,632 44.88% 781 2.40%
1944 18,886 51.57% 17,331 47.33% 403 1.10%
1940 19,361 50.41% 18,814 48.99% 230 0.60%
1936 15,458 40.58% 21,994 57.74% 638 1.67%
1932 13,064 55.10% 9,390 39.61% 1,255 5.29%
1928 20,012 74.95% 6,417 24.03% 273 1.02%
1924 12,533 64.58% 1,880 9.69% 4,993 25.73%
1920 9,448 64.38% 2,720 18.53% 2,508 17.09%
1916 5,134 49.44% 3,966 38.19% 1,285 12.37%
1912 2,128 21.62% 1,976 20.07% 5,741 58.31%
1908 5,350 54.06% 2,656 26.84% 1,890 19.10%
1904 7,634 66.35% 1,894 16.46% 1,978 17.19%
1900 6,343 61.39% 2,754 26.66% 1,235 11.95%
1896 6,228 65.13% 3,013 31.51% 321 3.36%
1892 4,385 60.10% 2,336 32.02% 575 7.88%
1888 4,342 62.56% 2,113 30.44% 486 7.00%
1884 4,322 62.49% 2,148 31.06% 446 6.45%
1880 4,360 65.39% 2,047 30.70% 261 3.91%



As of February 21, 2022, there are 55,823 registered voters in Lawrence County.[10]




Circle frame

Chart of Voter Registration

  Republican (47.43%)
  Democratic (40.43%)
  Independent (8.18%)
  Third Party (3.97%)
  • Republican: 26,478 (47.43%)
  • Democratic : 22,567 (40.43%)
  • Independent: 4,564 (8.18%)
  • Third Party: 2,214 (3.97%)










County commissioners[]

  • Morgan Boyd, Chairman, Republican
  • Dan Vogler, Republican
  • Loretta Spielvogel, Democrat

Other county officials[]

  • Clerk of Courts and Prothonotary, Jodi Esoldo, Democrat
  • Controller, David Gettings, Republican
  • District Attorney, Joshua Lamancusa, Democrat
  • Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds, Janet Kalajainen, Democrat
  • Sheriff, Perry Quahliero, Democrat
  • Treasurer, Richard Rapone, Democrat
  • Coroner, Richard Johnson, Democrat

State House of Representatives[11][]

  • Christopher Sainato, Democrat, 9th district
  • Aaron Bernstine, Republican, 10th district
  • Parke Wentling, Republican, 17th district

State Senators[11][]

  • Elder Vogel, Republican, 47th district

United States House of Representatives[]

  • Mike Kelly, Republican, 16th district

United States Senate[]

  • Pat Toomey, Republican
  • Bob Casey, Jr., Democrat

Education[]

Colleges[]

Public school districts[]

  • Blackhawk School District (part)
  • Ellwood City Area School District (part)
  • Laurel School District
  • Mohawk Area School District
  • Neshannock Township School District
  • New Castle Area School District
  • Shenango School District
  • Union Area School District
  • Wilmington Area School District (part)

Tech schools[]

  • Lawrence County Career Technology Center - New Castle
  • New Castle School of Trades - New Castle

Private schools[]

  • Apple Grove School - New Wilmington
  • Cherry Hill School - New Wilmington
  • Cotton School - New Wilmington
  • Ellwood City Children's Center, Inc.
  • Faith Country Chapel Preschool and Kindergarten - New Castle
  • Fayette School - Volant
  • Hillside Parochial School - New Wilmington
  • Indian Run School - New Wilmington
  • J R Wilson School - New Wilmington
  • Ligo School - New Wilmington
  • Little Beaver Parochial School - Enon Valley
  • Lusk School - Volant
  • Meadow Lark School - New Wilmington
  • New Castle Christian Academy - New Castle
  • Parents Preschool Ellwood City
  • Shepherd School - Volant
  • St Vitus Catholic School - New Castle
  • Thorn Hill School - Volant
  • Westminster Preschool - New Wilmington

Per data provided at Pennsylvania EdNA

Libraries[]

  • Ellwood City Area Public Library
  • F D Campbell Memorial Library - Bessemer
  • Lawrence County Federated Library System - New Castle
  • New Castle Public Library

Transportation[]

Airports[]

  • New Castle Municipal Airport

Public transit[]

  • New Castle Area Transit Authority

Major roads and highways[]

  • Template:Jct/2
  • I-79 I-79
  • I-376 I-376
  • US 19 US 19
  • US 224 US 224
  • US 422 US 422
  • No imageBusiness plateNo image
    US 422 US 422 Bus.
  • PA-18 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 18]]
  • PA-65 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 65]]
  • PA-108 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 108]]
  • PA-158 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 158]]
  • PA-168 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 168]]
  • PA-208 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 208]]
  • PA-288 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 288]]
  • PA-317 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 317]]
  • PA-351 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 351]]
  • PA-388 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 388]]
  • PA-488 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 488]]
  • PA-551 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 551]]
  • PA-956 [[Template:Infobox road/PA/link PA|PA 956]]

Recreation[]

Parks[]

  • Cascade Park (New Castle)
  • Ewing Park (Ellwood City)
  • Gaston Park (New Castle)
  • McConnells Mill State Park (Slippery Rock Twp)
  • Pearson Park (Neshannock Twp)
  • West Park Nature Center (Union Twp)
  • Marti Park
  • New Wilmington Borough Park

State Game Lands[]

  • SGL 148 (New Beaver)
  • SGL 150 (Pulaski Twp)
  • SGL 151 (Washington Twp)
  • SGL 178 (Neshannock Twp)
  • SGL 216 (Scott Twp)

Trails[]

Municipalities[]

Map of Lawrence County Pennsylvania With Municipal and Township Labels

Map of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania with Municipal Labels showing Cities and Boroughs (red), Townships (white), and Census-designated places (blue).

Under Pennsylvania law, there are four types of incorporated municipalities: cities, boroughs, townships, and, in at most two cases, towns. The following cities, boroughs and townships are located in Lawrence County:

City[]

Boroughs[]

  • Bessemer
  • Ellport
  • Ellwood City (partly in Beaver County)
  • Enon Valley
  • New Beaver
  • New Wilmington
  • S.N.P.J.
  • South New Castle
  • Volant
  • Wampum

Townships[]

  • Hickory
  • Little Beaver
  • Mahoning
  • Neshannock
  • North Beaver
  • Perry
  • Plain Grove
  • Pulaski
  • Scott
  • Shenango
  • Slippery Rock
  • Taylor
  • Union
  • Washington
  • Wayne
  • Wilmington

Census-designated places[]

Census-designated places are geographical areas designated by the U.S. Census Bureau for the purposes of compiling demographic data. They are not actual jurisdictions under Pennsylvania law. Other unincorporated communities, such as villages, may be listed here as well.

  • Chewton
  • Frizzleburg
  • New Bedford
  • New Castle Northwest
  • Oakland
  • Oakwood
  • West Pittsburg

Unincorporated communities[]

Various unincorporated communities that lie within and are part of official municipalities.

  • Altman
  • Castlewood
  • Cottage Grove
  • Coverts
  • Duckrun
  • Eastbrook
  • Edinburg
  • Energy
  • Gibsondale
  • Grant City
  • Harbor
  • Harlansburg
  • Hillsville
  • Joyce
  • McCaslin
  • Moravia
  • Mount Jackson
  • Pulaski
  • Rockville
  • Rose Point
  • Skidmore
  • Sunset Valley
  • Villa Maria
  • Walmo
  • Wiegletown
  • Wurtemberg

Former community[]

  • Big Beaver Borough- became a borough on March 7, 1958. Until that date it was known as Big Beaver Township which was formed in 1802 when South Beaver Township was divided. In 1849 when Lawrence County was created, the new county line split Big Beaver leaving a township of that name in each county. Big Beaver in Lawrence County is now known as New Beaver Borough.[12]

Population ranking[]

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2010 census of Lawrence County.[13]

county seat

Rank City/Town/etc. Municipal type Population (2010 Census)
1 New Castle City 23,273
2 Ellwood City (partially in Beaver County) Borough 7,921
3 New Wilmington Borough 2,466
4 Oakwood CDP 2,270
5 Oakland CDP 1,569
6 New Beaver Borough 1,502
7 New Castle Northwest CDP 1,413
8 Ellport Borough 1,180
9 Bessemer Borough 1,111
10 New Bedford CDP 925
11 West Pittsburg CDP 808
12 Wampum Borough 717
13 South New Castle Borough 709
14 Frizzleburg CDP 602
15 Chewton CDP 488
16 Enon Valley Borough 306
17 Volant Borough 168
18 S.N.P.J. Borough 19

See also[]

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania
  • Jordan Brown case

References[]

  1. ^ "State & County QuickFacts". United States Census Bureau. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42/42073.html. 
  2. ^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/FindACounty.aspx. 
  3. ^ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 182. https://books.google.com/books?id=9V1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA182. 
  4. ^ "2010 Census Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. August 22, 2012. http://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/counties_list_42.txt. 
  5. ^ "Census 2020". https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/lawrencecountypennsylvania/PST045219. 
  6. ^ "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov. 
  7. ^ "Office of Management and Budget". https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb. 
  8. ^ "2010 U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade.2010.html. 
  9. ^ Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS. 
  10. ^ "Voter registration statistics by county". November 2, 2021. https://www.dos.pa.gov/VotingElections/OtherServicesEvents/VotingElectionStatistics/Documents/currentvotestats.xls. . Dos.state.pa.us. Retrieved on February 23, 2022.
  11. ^ a b Center, Legislativate Data Processing. "Find Your Legislator" (in en). http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/county_list.cfm?CNTYLIST=Lawrence. 
  12. ^ "Welcome To Big Beaver Borough - Big Beaver Borough". http://bigbeaverborough.org/home/. 
  13. ^ CNMP, US Census Bureau. "U.S. Census Bureau". https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade.2010.html. 

External links[]

Commons-logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Coordinates: 40°59′N 80°20′W / 40.99, -80.33


This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
Advertisement