Waynesburg, the county seat of Greene County, is 27 miles north of Morgantown, just over the Mason-Dixon Line, which is seven miles north of our house. This was the twelfth and last county I had scheduled for the year from July 2022 to June 2023. A temple member, a doctor who worked with black lung patients, has a farm there, and he told me recently he's involved with the Greene County Democrats, and we know gay people who live there. Still, from what I saw of this county, it's all about coal mining (dying out) and fracking (still going strong). I saw lots of heavily tattooed young men, people who stopped me on the street, suspicious that I was taking pictures of historic places, and unrepentant Trump acolytes, with F**k Biden banners and lawn signs saying "Still My President" with a picture of The Former Guy. My overall impression is that it's more stereotypically West Virginia than West Virginia.
I visited the small towns of Waynesburg (3,987), Jefferson (253), Rice's Landing (426), Carmichaels (434), and Greensboro (267), all in the central and eastern parts of the county. That's five of the six boroughs (cities in Pennsylvania) in the county. The total population in 2020 was 35,924 divided among twenty townships. The census says the county is 91% White.
Waynesburg is a pretty town with a historic district, Waynesburg University, and a blocks-long park between downtown and the university.
East of Waynesburg is Greene Hills Farm, from 1861, now Greene County Historic Museum. The house had several additions, and for a time was the county poor house. I took a tour, and enjoyed spending time with the museum docents.
The John Rex Farm, from 1874, is in Jefferson Township, near the town of Jefferson.
Rice's Landing is a pretty, very small town on the Monongahela River. It's mostly below a cliff on the river.
Carmichael has Greene Academy, a stone building built as a church and a brick building attached to it from 1820. There is also a covered bridge from 1889 connecting two neighborhoods.
