Jeannette is a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
in
Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States. Jeannette was founded in 1888.
The city got its name from one of the original city fathers, who wished to honor his wife, Jeannette McLaughlin, by giving the new town her first name: Jeannette.
The city celebrated its 125th anniversary in July 2013.
The population was 9,654 according to the
2010 census.
Geography
Jeannette is located at (40.328773, -79.613997).
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the city has a total area of .
Demographics
As of the
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
of 2010, there were 9,654 people, 4,630 households, and 2,949 families residing in the city. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...
was 4,414.3 people per square mile (1,706.9/km
2). There were 5,139 housing units at an average density of 2,129.3 per square mile (823.3/km
2). The racial makeup of the city was 77.81%
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, 20.19%
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.08%
Native American, 0.09%
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, 0.04%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...
, 0.20% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 1.60% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
or
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
of any race were 0.50% of the population.
There were 4,630 households, out of which 26.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.3% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.3% were non-families. 32.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 2.89.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 22.1% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 28.4% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 20.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city in 2011 was $31,498. The median income for a family was $37, 038. Males had a median income of $32,413 versus $21,702 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population.
Per capita i ...
for the city was $15,961. About 10.9% of families and 15.0% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, including 21.2% of those under age 18 and 13.2% of those age 65 or over.
Civic life
City government and services
*Jeannette maintains a Police Department, a Fire Department, a Public Library, a Parks and Recreation department, and a department of Public Works.
**''Parks and Recreation'' - this department maintains eight parks which variously include playgrounds, ball fields, and basketball courts (open on a daily basis from dawn until dusk).
**''Waste Management'' - the city operates 2 refuse trucks daily covering residential and commercial accounts, 5 days a week. Commercial accounts are serviced on a pre-set schedule either daily or as needed.
Public safety and living standards
*''Crime'' - Jeannette's crime rate as of 2011 included 196.2 (per 100,000) for burglary, and 505.9 (per 100,000) for theft.
*''Recycling'' - is mandatory in Jeannette.
*''Community Development'' - the city employs a Coordinator and staff to assist residents.
Religious life
In 1943, the city went before the Supreme Court to defend an ordinance that banned distributing religious materials door to door. Several members of the
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
challenged the constitutionality of the law but were defeated in ''
Douglas v. City of Jeannette''.
Education
Jeannette City School District includes McKee Elementary School and Jeannette Junior/Senior High School.
History
Perhaps the oldest historical reference to the area that became Jeannette is the role the area played in the Pontiac War in 1763. The Bushy Run Battlefield marks the spot where Colonel Henry Boquet led the British and American troops to defeat the Indians in a battle on the 5th and 6 August that year. This victory is credited with helping to prevent the capture of Fort Pitt, and it served the purpose of reopening communication and supply lines. Today, this historical landmark is the site of a museum, nature trails, picnic areas, and an annual reenactment of the Battle of Bushy Run.
![McKee Glass-Late-1880s-Jeannette-By-Terry-Perich-John-Howard-](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/McKee_Glass-Late-1880s-Jeannette-By-Terry-Perich-John-Howard-.png)
First incorporated as a borough on June 7, 1889,
["Jeannette hopes to reclaim glory of manufacturing heyday"](_blank)
, Tribune Review, January 28, 2007 Jeannette earned the nickname as "the glass city" in recognition of the numerous glass plants founded in the area, with those factories contributing to the city's original stature as the first large manufacturing town in
Westmoreland County. In fact, the impact of the glass industry was so significant that the city's name actually comes from Jeannette E. Hartupee McKee, the wife of H. Sellers McKee, a local industrialist who cofounded the Chambers and McKee Glass Works and was a member of the elite
South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club
The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was a Pennsylvania corporation which operated an exclusive and secretive retreat at a mountain lake near South Fork, Pennsylvania, for more than fifty extremely wealthy men and their families. The club was ...
of
Johnstown Flood
The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylv ...
fame. Mckee and his partner J.A. Chambers also have the distinction of naming Jeannette's main street, Clay Avenue after their financial backer, Richard W. Clay. On January 1, 1938, Jeannette became a third class city with Attorney John M. OConnell as the first mayor.
[Great Towns in Westmoreland, "Jeannette A Great Town in Westmoreland County"](_blank)
/ref>
At times, there were as many as 7 significant factories operating in the city of Jeannette including some of the most well known in the history of the glass industry. Names like Jeannette Glass; Fort Pitt Glass; the Pittsburgh Lamp, Brass and Glass Company; American-Saint Gobain, Westmoreland Glass; and others all supplied the country with everything from plate glass windows, to bottles, to milk glass, and much more for many decades. Some estimates over the years indicate that Jeannette once produced somewhere between 70 and 85% of the world's glass. Unfortunately, Jeannette's glass industry was one of the early United States industry victims of cheap, foreign competition that made it less expensive to produce glass overseas and today only two glass factories remain in the city.
Jeannette's manufacturing history doesn't end with the glass industry. Today's Elliott Company
Elliott Company designs, manufactures, installs, and services turbo-machinery for Tractor unit, prime movers and rotating machinery. Headquartered in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, Elliott Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japan-based company ...
represents an evolution dating back to 1914 when William Swan Elliott moved his company to Jeannette. The Elliott Company, owned by the Carrier Corporation from 1957 until 1979 and by United Technologies Corporation until a 1987 buyout that returned the company to a privately owned status, only to become an Ebara Corporation
Ebara Corporation is a publicly traded manufacturing company based in Tokyo, Japan which makes environmental and industrial machinery such as pumps and turbines. It is the owner of the Elliott Company in the United States and Sumoto S.r.l. in It ...
subsidiary in 2000, has always had a solid reputation in the dynamo, turbine, and large rotating equipment industry. In 1952, the company produced the first diesel-engine turbocharger
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...
used in a racecar and subsequently built more than 40,000 more of them for other diesel applications. Throughout the 1970s, local residents routinely witnessed a revolving door of trains hauling parts into the plant on North 4th Street and hauling the huge turbine engines back down the tracks. Today, the Elliott Company is the city's largest employer. Jeannette is also the manufacturing home of Jensen Steam Engine Mfg. Co., Inc., which produces small working models of steam engines and turbines. The Jensen shop is only a few blocks from the Elliott plant.
In 2018, the Elliott Company was approved to purchase the former Jeannette Glass site and expand their operations to downtown Jeannette. The facility could become operational by 2020.
The Pennsylvania Rubber Works, which moved to Jeannette from Erie, Pennsylvania, around 1903, was yet another key part of the city's significant industrial base. Not only did this factory become a significant supplier of play balls (basketballs, footballs, tennis balls, etc.) and carpet underlay as part of General Tire in its later years; but the original Pennsylvania Rubber Works provided products for Jeeps
Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Moto ...
and gas masks during World War II.
Notable people
* Steve August, NFL offensive tackle for Seattle Seahawks (1977–84) and Pittsburgh Steelers (1984)
* Karen D. Beyer
Karen D. Beyer (born June 15, 1962) is a U.S. Republican politician and former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives 131st District. She was elected in a special election on July 19, 2005.
Beyer is a graduate of the College of Wil ...
, former State Representative for the 131st district in the Lehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...
* Buster Clarkson, Negro league baseball
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...
player, lived in Jeannette after he retired
* Demetrious Cox, American football player
* Claire Cribbs
Claire Linton Cribbs (August 13, 1912 – September 14, 1985) was an American basketball player and high school coach. He was a two-time All-American at the University of Pittsburgh and won over 400 games as a high school coach in the state of O ...
, two-time All-American basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh (1933–34 and 1934–35)
* Ambrose Battista De Paoli
Ambrose Battista De Paoli (August 19, 1934 – October 10, 2007) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.
Biography
De Paoli was born in Jeannette, Pennsylvania and was ordained a priest ...
, Roman Catholic Archbishop and nuncio
* Frank Fitzsimmons
Frank Edward Fitzsimmons (April 7, 1908 – May 6, 1981) was an American labor leader. He was acting president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1967 to 1971, and president from 1971 to 1981.
Early life
Frank Fitzsimmons was born ...
, president of International Brotherhood of Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the un ...
1967–1981, born in Jeannette
* Mike Getto
Michael J. Getto (September 18, 1905 – August 27, 1960) was a professional football coach in the National Football League for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1942. That season, he coached Brooklyn to a 3–8 record. Prior to his coaching career ...
, All-American football player at the University of Pittsburgh and football coach for the National Football League's Brooklyn Dodgers (1942)
* Monica Lee Gradischek
Monica Lee Gradischek, a 1994 graduate of New York University (NYU) is an American voice actress in animation, commercials, and video games as well as performing arts. Monica starred in the Lifetime Television reality series "Off the Leash" in ...
, voice actress
* Slide Hampton
Locksley Wellington Hampton (April 21, 1932 – November 18, 2021) was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. As his nickname implies, Hampton's main instrument was slide trombone, but he also occasionally played tuba and flugelho ...
, jazz trombonist, born in Jeannette
* Dick Hoak
Richard John Hoak (born December 8, 1939) is an American former football player and coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college for Penn State, and was selected by the Steelers in the seventh round ...
, former Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
running back (1969–70) and running backs coach (1972–2006), born in Jeannette
* Jack G. Merrell, United States Air Force four-star general
* Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Wilton Monroe (October 7, 1911 – May 21, 1973) was an American baritone singer, trumpeter, big band leader, actor, and businessman, who was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for rec ...
, 1940s–1950s bandleader, singer and actor; attended high school in Jeannette
* Marissa Moss
Marissa Moss (born September 29, 1959, Jeannette, Pennsylvania) is an American children's book author.
Work
Moss's work spans the many ages of a child. She started her first career making picture books. ''Amelia's Notebook'' was her first devi ...
, author of more than a dozen children's books who was born in Jeannette and moved to California at age 2
* Neon Swing X-perience
Neon Swing X-perience (NSX) was founded in 1998 by Mike Urick (trumpet/vocalist) near Jeannette, Pennsylvania. Since then, the band has been dedicated to preserving varied forms of "Americana" music - particularly those types inspired or rooted i ...
, swing band
* Terrelle Pryor
Terrelle Pryor Sr. (born June 20, 1989) is a former American football wide receiver and quarterback. Considered the most recruited high school football-basketball athlete in southwestern Pennsylvania since Tom Clements, Pryor was widely regarde ...
, former high school quarterback for Jeannette Jayhawks, starting quarterback for Ohio State Buckeyes
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree ...
, and NFL quarterback and wide receiver
* William A. Shomo, ace fighter pilot and World War II Medal of Honor recipient
* LaMont "ShowBoat" Robinson, former high school basketball player for Jeannette Jayhawks, College Kankakee Community College 1981–82, Central State Univ (1986–87) USBL Knights (1988) Meadowlark Lemon Harlem All-Star, Washington Generals team that plays the Harlem Globetrotters (tour to Russia 1989) (1988-1994) Harlem Road Kings, (1995-2009) Harlem Clowns (2010-Present) Robinson has also been nonmined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018 and 2019. Founder the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in Detroit, Michigan.
References
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Cities in Pennsylvania
Cities in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Populated places established in 1888
Pittsburgh metropolitan area