Mount Pleasant Glass Museum celebrates three glass companies from Mount Pleasant: Bryce, Lenox, and L.E. Smith. Among our treasures are the first headlight lenses made for the Model T and blown and cut crystal glassware used in the White House from the 1920s to the present day.
Mt. Pleasant
There was probably a small village on the present site of Mount Pleasant before the Revolutionary War. Court records indicate Michael Smith erected a house there and was licensed to keep a public inn in 1793.
Andrew McCready laid out the town on land he purchased from Nathaniel Marshall on August 28, 1797. The village had about 34 log houses, and a brick house was built only in 1810.
The town was on one of the main thoroughfares between the East and the West. The old road, known as the Glade, was built by the state and was the main highway from Somerset to West Newton and then to Pittsburgh.
Mt. Pleasant was incorporated on February 7, 1828. The first election was held in the house of Robert Hitchman. That first election occurred in May 1828 when Abraham Shallenberger was elected Chief Burgess, and Jesse Lippincott, Assistant Burgess. Council members elected were: Jacob Rubert, Rev. Samuel Wakefield, Robert Hitchman, Jacob Kern, and John Hosler. David Fullwood was elected Secretary, and John Hitchman, Treasurer.
Mount Pleasant has no definite origin except that it was called that because of its pleasant and commanding location. However, as early as 1774, the Redstone Presbytery organized the Mount Pleasant Church, which was located about 2 miles from the present town. It is probable that the town took its name from this historic old church.
