Formed February 9, 1796; named for General Nathanael Greene. Surface, fertile valleys, hills, and rolling uplands, making a region of natural beauty, well watered from the tributaries of the Monongahela River and Wheeling Creek. There are still a number of covered wooden bridges throughout the county, from fifty to a hundred years old, a very old double bridge crosses Ten Mile Creek, one mile east of Waynesburg; formerly an old forge and furnace were on this creek. Many Indian village sites that were occupied long before the advent of the whites are here; their age is indicated by large old trees growing on their mounds; three distinct forms of ancient burial are found here, showing that three waves of population swept over this land before the coming of the Europeans; the two principal Indian mounds now in the county, are at Crows Mills. Two great Indian trails crossed the southern part of the state, the Warrior Branch passing through this county to the Ohio River. A chain of forts crossed Greene Co., ending at Fort Zane, now Wheeling; three are especially well known--Fort Ryserson and Block House at western end of county; Fort Jackson west of Waynesburg; and Fort Garard on Whitely Creek; seven miles west of GREENSBORO, the birthplace of Robert J. Burdette, and his eminent sister Mary G. Burdette. [Illustration: GREENE COUNTY] The earliest glass works were established by Albert Gallatin, on the Monongahela in 1785; they were the forerunner of the vast business at Pittsburgh and vicinity. First settlers were Scotch-Irish. Chief industries, agriculture and the mining of bituminous coal; the Pittsburgh vein of rich depth and highest coking value, and three other veins, almost as rich, namely, the Waynesburg, Freeport, and Mapletown. Oil and gas production is very valuable, there are a number of gas-pumping stations within the county. The Philadelphia Gas Company has one at Brave, said to be the largest in the world; near Brave is JOLLYTOWN, with a monument to Jesse Taylor, first Greene County soldier to fall in the Civil War. County seat, WAYNESBURG, population 3332; laid out in 1796; named for General Anthony Wayne, who with his troops proved most successful in ridding this section of the Indians. A chain of parks with formal gardening goes through the center of the town, divided by streets; in the center of one is the Soldiers’ Monument; erected in 1899; Waynesburg College, empowered by the Legislature to confer honorary degrees, faces College Park; portrait of Dr. A. B. Miller, a former president, is in Alumni Hall. Courthouse, colonial, with cupola, surmounted by wooden statue of General Greene; was erected in 1852; brick, painted gray, has six lofty Corinthian columns supporting the front porch. Jail on same ground.