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Beaver County lost one third of its territory and a half dozen townships in 1849, when Lawrence County was formed from Beaver and Mercer.
New Castle, a thriving canal town at the fork of the Beaver and industrial rival to the lower Beaver Valley, was selected as the seat of the new county. Lawrence County, Pennsylvania's 62nd, was named for Perry's flagship on Lake Erie. The original Beaver/Mercer boundary is reflected in the street sign alongside the Lawrence County Courthouse -- it's on County Line Street.
The new county line was drawn through Beaver County without regard for existing township lines. North Beaver Township, one of the six original townships from 1800, and three others, Wayne, Shenango, and Slippery Rock, were wholly within the new county. In addition, parts of four townships were excised by the new boundary.
It is interesting to review what happened to them. Most of Little Beaver Township was included in the new county. The narrow strip south of the line was annexed to Darlington Township, which had been formed from Little Beaver only two years earlier.
A township named Big Beaver remained in both counties until recently. Today we find New Beaver Borough in Lawrence County and Big Beaver Borough (since January 1, 1960) in Beaver County.
That part of North Sewickley Township north of the new boundary was annexed to Wayne Township. Ellwood City an Ellport occupy much of this land today.
Franklin Township was formed in 1850 from that part of Perry Township remaining in Beaver County and the part of Marion Township north of Connoquenessing Creek.
From a historian's point of view, Beaver County lost more than land. We lost a claim to parts of two canals other than the Beaver Division. We lost three stone blast furnaces, several villages and numerous county schools and churches. Colorful place names like Hardscrabble and Irish Ripple are no longer in Beaver County. And we lost the site of McConnell's Mill (built later in 1872) and the incomparable natural beauty of the Slippery Rock gorge.