Meadville
Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Founded in 1788 by David Mead and other settlers from the Wyoming region. In 1800 made county seat. First direct primary in U.S. held here in 1842. Making of hookless fasteners was pioneered here.
The Story
In 1788, David Mead and a small band of settlers pushed west from Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley to plant a settlement on French Creek, in country only recently opened to American pioneers. The town they founded grew quickly enough to become the seat of Crawford County by 1800, and it went on to leave two very different marks on the nation: in 1842 it staged what is remembered as the first direct primary election in the United States, and decades later it became a cradle of the 'hookless fastener' — the humble zipper — turning a frontier outpost into an unlikely engine of American invention.
Why it matters
Meadville threads together three strands of the American story — frontier settlement, democratic experimentation, and industrial ingenuity — showing how a small inland town could both widen the practice of self-government and help clothe the modern world.
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Related people
- · David Mead
Related events
- · First direct primary election in the United States (1842)
- · Pioneering manufacture of the hookless fastener (zipper)
Themes & tags
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