History

Mifflin Township is rich with historical facts! It was named after the first  Elected Governor of Pennsylvania, Governor Thomas Mifflin (1744 to1800). Mifflin  Township was one of the seven original townships, when the county was carved out  of Washington and Westmoreland Counties on December 16, 1788. Mifflin Township came with the purchase of 1784 from Virginia, while land  south of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers was acquired in 1768 from  Maryland. Mifflin Township at that time was in Yohogania County Virginia. The courthouse was about one-quarter mile north of the Elrama Power Plant.

Here, Washington later engaged in military operations from Fort Necessity at  Braddock’s Field (Braddock).

Mifflin Township’s original boundaries began at the mouth of Streets Run (Six  Mile Ferry), up the Monongahela River to the line of Washington County and by  that said line to the line of Saint Clair Township. Streets Run was at Hays (now  the 31st Ward of the City of Pittsburgh). It covered more than twelve miles  along the river.

Mifflin Township included Hays, West Homestead, Munhall, Whitaker, Duquesne,  Dravosburg, Lincoln Place, Jefferson Hills, Pleasant Hills and part of Baldwin.  A series of annexations and secessions reduced it to 14.35 square miles.

In 1938, the Township Commissioners went to Harrisburg and were influential  in getting the passage of Act #333 of the 1941 Session of the General Assembly, engaging Mifflin Township to incorporate as a Borough. It was the first time an  entire township became a borough. Mifflin Township ceased to exist as of January  3, 1944 – after 156 years. West Mifflin was incorporated as a borough January 3, 1944.

West Mifflin Borough’s perimeter is somewhat irregular. The shape is elongated, resembling an hourglass with the narrowest portion at the approximate center squeezed between Pittsburgh and Dravosburg. Due to the fact that there is  a Mifflin County in central Pennsylvania and a town named Mifflin in Juniata  County, the prefix “West” was added to our new Borough.

To learn more about our local history visit the Mifflin Township Historical  Society.