The City of Monongahela vs Elizabeth, Pa. Which is older?

There’s a surprising amount of confusion—and a bit of friendly rivalry—over which community is really “older,” Monongahela or Elizabeth. Dates, definitions (settlement vs. town), and local slogans all point in slightly different directions, which can be frustrating if you just want a clear answer. This blog post looks at the records and the wording behind those claims to explain why the confusion exists and what it actually means to call one town “older” than another.

How Monongahela is “older”

Monongahela traces its origin to April 17, 1769, when tracts at the mouth of Pigeon Creek were purchased under the terms of the 1768 Fort Stanwix treaty. William (and then Joseph) Parkinson and others were settled there by 1769–1770, operating a farm, inn, mill, and later a ferry; the village name “Parkinson’s Ferry” appears officially by 1782, when the post office was established. Lots were first laid out and offered for sale in 1792 under the name Williamsport, and the place was incorporated as a borough in 1833.

How Elizabeth can still be called “older”

Elizabeth Town was founded and laid out as a town in 1787 by Col. Stephen Bayard, his wife Elizabeth Mackay Bayard, and her brother Samuel Mackay. The classic local-history phrase is that Elizabeth is “the oldest town on the Monongahela River above its mouth,” which is a geographically qualified claim—not “oldest settlement in the valley.” In other words, Monongahela is the older settlement (people on the land and a named place from 1769–1770), while Elizabeth is an early, formally platted river town, and its “oldest town” slogan depends on that specific wording and the “above its mouth” qualifier.
So, Monongahela (Parkinson’s Ferry) is older as a settlement, while Elizabeth is older as a formally laid‑out town and, more specifically, as the oldest town on the Monongahela above its mouth.

Why Elizabeth and Monongahela Feel So Different from Other Towns in the Mid Mon Valley

Elizabeth and Monongahela stand out from the other mid–Mon Valley towns—Charleroi, Donora, and Monessen—because they began as rivertowns rather than as planned manufacturing centers. While Charleroi, Donora, and Monessen were laid out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to serve mills, furnaces, and factories, Monongahela (Parkinson’s Ferry) and Elizabeth grew organically from 18th‑century river landings, ferries, and small trading points. They are also both more than a century older than Charleroi, Donora, and Monessen, and that age gap shows in their street plans, building stock, and civic identity. Instead of company-built grid plans and rows of worker housing, you see older, more irregular patterns and a culture that remembers the river first and industry second.

Taken together, Elizabeth and Monongahela help explain why the mid–Mon Valley doesn’t have a single, uniform story. Charleroi, Donora, and Monessen embody the era of big mills and company towns, but Elizabeth and Monongahela preserve an earlier riverfront world of ferries, flatboats, and frontier trade. Their older building fabric, hill-hugging streets, and distinct civic traditions give them a different feel from their industrial neighbors, and that contrast is exactly what makes comparing these towns so revealing—for historians, for residents, and for anyone trying to understand how the Mon Valley became what it is today.

Sources

1. Elizabeth – Allegheny County PAGenWeb. https://www.allegheny.pagenweb.org/Individual_Boroughs/Elizabeth.html
2. Monongahela, Pennsylvania – City of Monongahela. https://www.cityofmonongahela-pa.gov/history
3. History – Elizabeth Borough. https://elizabethpa.net/history/