page_title: Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Canonsburg, Pennsylvania / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, as laid out by John Canon.
context_page_description: Canonsburg is a borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, 18 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Canonsburg was laid out by Colonel John Canon in 1789 and incorporated in 1802. The population was 8,992 at the 2010 census.
  The town is in a rich coal district, and most of the town's work force once worked in local steel mills or coal mines. Interstate 79 and U.S. Route 19 pass through the town, as does the Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad. A trolley used to operate from Washington, Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh through the borough until 1953.
  The town is home to Sarris Candies and All-Clad Metalcrafters, makers of cookware and other bonded metals. It is adjacent to the Southpointe office park located in Cecil Township, which has a number of large corporate tenants. Yenko Chevrolet, one of largest and most notorious custom muscle car shops of the late 1960s and early 1970s, was also located in Canonsburg. Canonsburg is home to the Pittsburgh Cougars junior hockey league team.
  The second-largest Fourth of July parade in the state of Pennsylvania, second only to Philadelphia, is held in Canonsburg.
context_section_description: The exact date of the first settlement near the current site of Canonsburg is unclear. Colonel John Canon, a common miller who also served as justice of the Virginia courts at Fort Dunmore (better known as Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh), purchased some land from the state of Virginia around Chartiers Creek, sometime before May 1780. The state had claimed what is now southwestern Pennsylvania in a dispute that would not finally be settled until later in the decade. In 1781 Pennsylvania carved Washington County out of Westmoreland County, and the county seat was established at Washington. The notes of the first session of the Washington County Court during that year indicate a call for a road from Canon's mill to Pittsburgh. The road to Pittsburgh, called Pitt Street, remains in part today as an archaic and indirect route to the city. The first surviving plat of the town is from April 15, 1788. Lots were sold around Canon's property, and the emerging town took the name of Canonsburg shortly thereafter.
  Many of the participants in the Whiskey Rebellion of July 1794 were residents of present-day Washington County, which includes Canonsburg. Some of the insurrectionists are believed to have gathered in the town's Black Horse Tavern. However, records do not indicate whether any Canonsburg residents participated in any of the violent acts which occurred during the rebellion.
  The town was the site of the first institution of higher learning west of the Allegheny Mountains, Jefferson College. Founded in 1802, it was the eleventh such institution in the United States. The Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Kappa Psi fraternities were both founded at Jefferson College.  Phi Gamma Delta, of whom President Calvin Coolidge was a member, was founded in 1848.  Phi Kappa Psi, of whom President Woodrow Wilson and over 100 U.S. Congressmen claim membership, was founded in 1852. The school would go on to become Washington & Jefferson College in nearby Washington.
  For generations, Jefferson College financially supported Canonsburg by accounting for much of its income. However, in 1868, the college was moved to nearby Washington, leaving behind empty college rooming and boarding houses, known as the "forts".  Canonsburg's largest financial draw having left, it would take the introduction of the railroad system to return the city to its former glory.  The railroad system, on its way from Mansfield (Carnegie) to Washington (See: Chartiers Branch), was fully operational, as scheduled, on May 18, 1871.  The first scheduled train departed from the Washington depot carrying "borough authorities, the committee of arrangement and reception, as well as Rankin’s Cornet Band and a number of…prominent citizens who had been invited to join the excursion." They traveled to Mansfield, where they waited for the special to arrive from Pittsburgh.  The special had 12 coaches pulled by two locomotives and was filled with a large number of dignitaries, most especially the mayors of Pittsburgh and Allegheny.  The special then made it down the newly laid tracks, passing stations full of spectators to cheer on the train.  Canonsburg had a large crowd of supporters, and many people climbed aboard the train to ride along to Washington.  There, led by Pittsburgh's Great Western Band, the crowd marched to Town Hall for a round of speeches.  The Washington Reporter editor pronounced the day "a grand success."
  In 1911, South Canonsburg was annexed.
  In 1903 the Washington and Canonsburg Railway Company linked the two towns with a trolley line. The company was bought by the Philadelphia Company in 1906, later becoming part of the Pittsburgh Railway Company, linking through to Pittsburgh as part of their interurban service in 1909. The line closed on August 29, 1953, with the last three trolley cars travelling south through Canonsburg to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in 1954 shortly before the track was removed.
  The Canonsburg Armory, Hawthorne School and Roberts House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
caption: Original plots, as laid by Colonel John Canon.
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