Created on March 12, 1800, from part of Allegheny County and named for General Richard Butler. It was attached to Allegheny County until 1803. Butler, the county seat, was laid out in 1803, incorporated as a borough on February 26, 1817, and as a second-class city on 7, 1918.

     Made up of Donation and Depreciation lands that were intended to compensate Revolutionary War veterans, Butler was the scene of many disputes over land titles in its early years. Detmar Basse’s Zelienople and John A. Roebling’s Saxonburg were early manufacturing centers.

     The utopian Harmony Society resided here from 1804 to 1814. Butler was an Underground Railroad station. An oil boom occurred briefly during the mid-1860s, followed by natural gas production. Bituminous coal mining later developed and is still strong. By World War II, the county was making railroad cars, military vehicles, rolled steel, glass, and gasoline. Defying the decline of industry and population that western Pennsylvania has seen since the 1960s, Butler goes right on producing light metal, rubber, printed, and optical items. The value added to the economy by Butler County’s manufacturing increased by 50 percent between 1987 and 1992. Farming continues to be financially successful. The population growth is associated with Pittsburgh’s residential population exodus.