By Matthew Cumberledge, GCHS Executive Director
Anyone who has researched any area of Greene County, Pennsylvania’s history is likely very familiar with Calldwell’s Illustrated Combination Centennial Atlas of Greene County Pennsylvania that hit thepPress in 1876 to celebrate the nation’s Centennial.
Originally sold by subscription, locals had the option to pay to have their homes and properties featured throughout the pages of the atlas in wonderfully done and beautiful lithographs. Many of the original editions were broken down and individual images cut out of the pages and framed either for sale or display, thus making original copies quite rare. The township maps located throughout the volume show the names of every landowner in Greene County and the number of acres that represented their holdings. The maps also show streams, schools, businesses, churches, cemeteries and a wide array of other data that is of prime interest to historians and genealogical researchers. Also throughout the atlas are vintage 19th century advertisings including a broadside for the “Great Panhandle Route,” a line of railroads that traveled throughout the Ohio Valley. The Atlas also shows the locations of the earliest forms of the Waynesburg and Washington Railroad as it found its way from Waynesburg to the Washington County line.
The latter section of the book contains a business directory of the county, organized by township, that gives an amazing look into what was going on in Greene County on the 100th anniversary of the independence of the United States, and the 80th year since the establishment of Greene County in 1796.
Most viewers have only beheld the black and white reprints of the atlas. While reprints of the atlas are lovely, the atlas is best experienced in a first edition. As opposed the black and white reprints, original copies have dozens upon dozens of wonderful hand colored lithographs of farms, homes, businesses and establishments hailing from every corner of Greene County. Shown here is the map of Gilmore Township, and on the facing page are views from near Carmichaels, Oak Forest and Brave. These are stunningly beautiful.
The specific atlas featured here, part of the Greene County Historical Society collection, is exceptionally special. Not only does it have the original hand colored lithographs – the original owner has inscribed events of local history and their own families history during the late 19th and early 20th centuries throughout the blank pages in the atlas. This specific atlas, and several others can be viewed in the collections of the Greene County Historical Society Museum, and modern reprints are available from Cornerstone Genealogical Society in Waynesburg. The importance of this atlas cannot be underestimated to the serious local historian.