Butler County’s past lives on in more than historical markers and names on tombstones. Many institutions created over a century ago still exist in the county, if in altered forms.

Pioneers began arriving when the future county was opened for settlement in 1795, according to “A Concise History of Butler County 1800-1950” by J. Campbell Brandon.

The early homesteaders, many veterans of the Revolutionary War with grants of land, as well as immigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland, erected log cabins, cleared the forests and began farming.

From the time an act of the Assembly of the Commonwealth on March 12, 1800, created the county from “land north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny River,” according to Brandon, farming was the chief occupation of the county’s inhabitants.

But for many years money matters in the county resembled the Wild West.

According to The “20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa.” edited by James McKee and published in 1909, there were no banks in the county before 1854.

“The merchant, mechanic, doctor and preacher were paid in the product of the farm and they, in turn, were compelled to trade for the things they needed.”

Farmers received scrip from local merchants as change when trading their produce for finished goods. Currency from state banks, which had a disturbing tendency to fail and then vanish, had uncertain value and were looked on with suspicion.

Merchants and farmers would look at bank notes lists published in the local newspapers before accepting a state bank currency as payment, McKee wrote “to see if the note was good and then take a chance on the bank failing before the paper could be presented to the bank of issue for redemption.”

“Gold and silver was the only safe money and hoarded in old socks and in various places around farmhouses,” McKee wrote.

The county commissioners and merchants had to use Pittsburgh banks for their financial needs, a grueling task in the days of bad roads and nonexistent communications.

Clearly, this state of affairs was hampering Butler County’s economy and development, and certain citizens banded together to effect a remedy.

Brandon’s “History” records the first bank organized in Butler County in 1854 was a private bank known as Campbell, Bredin & Co. It was set up by James Campbell and James Bredin, who later to become a judge, with others.

In 1855 Isaac J. Cummings assumed control, and the bank became known as Cummings’ Bank until 1864 when it became the First National Bank in Butler with $50,000 in capital.

Brandon wrote Cummings’ Bank built a three-story brick building at the southwest corner of Main and Jefferson streets in Butler, which was later displaced in 1926 by an eight-story building erected by Butler Savings and Trust Co.

Butler Savings and Trust Co., itself, began as the Butler Savings Bank which was organized on Jan. 29, 1868, whose list of stockholders, Brandon wrote “contained the names of Butler County’s foremost citizens and leaders of business and industry. That list, according the official bank history included James Bredin, William Campbell, H. Julius Kinsler, William Vogeley and John M. Thompson.

The bank was rechartered in 1902, as the Butler Savings and Trust Co. with William Campbell Jr. serving as its first president.

According to the 1927 “History of Butler County,” in 1903 it added a trust department with $200,000 in capital which grew to $500,000 in capital by 1910.

The “History of Butler County” added that inside its main banking room in its building at Main and Jefferson “the wall above the massive safe deposit vaults had the words Solidity, Service and Security.”

McKee’s history noted the bank was mostly associated with the Campbell, Stein and Trout families and “its board of directors were the most conservative businessmen in town and county.”

Other banks were not as successful. McKee’s history noted the First National Bank of Butler began on Jan. 27, 1864, but was closed by bank examiners in 1879. The Producers Bank of Butler County started in May 1873 and even had a branch office in Greece City which was then a booming oil town. But in 1875, a J.W. Irwin appears to have purchased the bank’s stock and joined Butler Savings and Trust Co. as a stockholder.

McKee’s history noted Butler Savings and Trust Co. was “the main support for many of the public improvements of the town,” including the electric lighting system and the Home Natural Gas. Co. It aided in the organization of the Standard Plate Glass Co. and “was instrumental in bringing the Standard Steel Car Co. works to Butler “which inaugurated a new era in the commercial and industrial growth of the town.”

In 1961, according to the bank’s own history it merged with Commonwealth Trust Co. of Pittsburgh to become the Commonwealth Bank and Trust Co.

Three years later, it merged with Union National Bank. In 1991 it renamed itself Integra Bank. In 1996 it changed names once again to National City Bank of Pennsylvania before being acquired by National City Bank in 2006. PNC Bank acquired National City Bank in 2009. PNC Bank continues to have branch offices in Butler County.

With the early inhabitants being mostly farmers, it wasn’t long before they banded together to form agricultural associations.

The 1895 “History of Butler County” noted the Butler County Agricultural and Horticultural Society was founded on March 20, 1853, and staged its first fair on Oct. 13, 1853, in North Washington. A second fair was in North Washington in September 1854. In 1855 and 1856 the society staged fairs in other boroughs before returning to North Washington in 1857. But by then, the history recorded, the society faded as a society at the county seat in Butler “won the battle for precedence.”

According to the fair’s own history, in 1857 the Butler Agricultural and Stock Association was formed to spearhead fair activities, with Judge James Bradin as president.

According to the fair’s history, in 1857, the fair was held on a site near what would become the Pullman-Standard plant. The fair prospered until its activities were stopped by the Civil War between 1861 to 1864.

Eleven years later, the Butler Driving and Fair Association took over, with G.J. Cross stepping in as president. To further the development of the Butler Fair, a 33-acre plot was leased and a half-mile racetrack was built, along what is now Hansen Avenue. In the tradition of county fairs, the association presented exhibitions of livestock and farm products, as well as harness racing featuring well-known drivers and locally owned horses.

The fair purchased additional land in 1888. Under the name of the Butler Agricultural Association, the fair was a successful annual event through 1902. That same year, the Standard Steel Car Co. purchased the fair property, building a plant to manufacture steel railroad cars.

So, according to the fair’s history, after 45 years, the Butler Fair moved to a 60-acre hilltop location.

George A. Shaffner directed the development of the new fairgrounds, complete with cattle sheds, midway, racetrack and grandstand.

By this time, Fair Week in Butler County had become the most colorful annual event in the district. Local merchants in the City of Butler closed their stores at least once a week for a time of summer holiday and homecoming. For the rural areas of the county, the fair meant basket picnics and family reunions, for the youngsters it was an unforgettable week of carnival time.

When World War I broke over the nation, the policies of the Fair Association changed with the changing way of life in America. Automobiles, radio, paved roads and mechanization of farming brought new and different exhibitions and attractions to the fairgrounds.

In 1928, Mr. R.J. Ferguson became the president of the fair, and under his leadership the discouraging years of the Depression were weathered by the Association.

World War II continued the difficulties, but on Aug. 15, 1945, the Butler Fair and a hysterical crowd celebrated the victorious cease fire of V-J Day.

Following this uncertain era, the Association converted into a nonprofit, with A.J. Richards, the son-in-law of Ferguson, as president. By this time, however, the expansion of the Butler area had caught up with the fair.

In 1956, the fair’s property was selected by school authorities as the site for a new ultramodern high school. After considerable confusion and much discouragement, the Butler Fair was reestablished in a new setting on Route 422, eight miles west of Butler and adjacent to Prospect.

Roads were laid out, graded and paved. Buildings were moved from the old location. New, permanent buildings were erected, a new racetrack was constructed and a new fairgrounds came into existence.

The Big Butler Fair, the fair history noted, continues in the old tradition and remains a much anticipated summer activity for Western Pennsylvanians.

Another institution still in existence is the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center which had its origins as the Butler County Poor Farm.

According to “The 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County,” from the formation of the county itself until 1898 “each township and borough was considered a separate poor district and provided for the care of paupers and indigent persons within their respective districts.” But this proved to be unsatisfactory, and the county commissioners submitted a question of building a county home and farm to a vote of the people in the spring election of Feb. 15, 1898.

While “vigorously opposed in some localities,” the history noted “It was carried by a good majority of the county and immediate steps were taken toward purchasing a farm and erecting suitable buildings on it.”

After several sites were considered including ones in Evans City and East Butler, the 200-acre John Doerr farm in Butler Township south of the borough line was purchased at the price of $70 per acre in a resolution passed by the commissioners, after much wrangling, on March 20, 1899.

The Youngstown, Ohio, architectural firm of Owesley and Boucherle were hired to prepare plans and specifications for the county farm’s buildings. George Schenck of Butler was given a $57,722 contract to construct the buildings which were completed in October 1900. The total cost of the buildings and land was put at $132,000.

According to records on file at the Butler County Historical Society, the poor farm had four buildings all connected by covered passages. The administration building was at the center, the west wing held the men’s dormitory, the east wing, the women’s dormitory and a structure housing the kitchen and a chapel was at the rear. A separate building held the boiler room and laundry. The surrounding land was farmed to provide food for the home’s residents.

Joseph Graham of Whitestown was named the home’s superintendent and farmer, and his wife was named matron of the institution.

On Oct. 25, 1900, the first residents, a contingent of the poor from the north parts of the county were received and installed in the new home.

According to a Butler Citizen article of Nov. 1, 1900, “Thirty-eight entered the home out of 500 receiving aid. A crippled youth named Howard Goehring left after obtaining work in a restaurant.”

The article noted all the new residents were given a bath upon entry and their clothes were either washed or burned. There were 17 women, including 102-year-old Nancy Edwards and 21 men including John Williams, 90, of Jackson Township. Williams, the article noted, “a native of Ireland is ill and feeble and his death is momentarily looked for.”

An April 26, 1911, Butler Eagle article told the story of William Howard, “a Pittsburgh railroad man” and his 25-year search for his mother, who placed him in an orphanage when Howard was 2. He learned his mother was an inmate of the county home for seven years and died in May 1910 The reporter noted Howard was shown his mother’s grave on the poor farm’s grounds.

According to a July 9, 1912, Butler Eagle article, “a spectacular fire of unknown origin” burned the county farm’s barn to the ground killing 17 head of cattle and four horses and destroying many pieces of farm equipment.

The poor farm again made the news in 1934 when Fred C. Harold, the farm’s superintendent was accused denying two inmates water and allowing three lay ministers to perform “love orgies” at the property. Harold was exonerated on charges of mistreating inmates.

In 1935 the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph reported Harold was indicted on charges that farm inmates were being buried on the property without religious services in cheap $22.50 coffins.

He was acquitted.

The poor farm was again in the news in 1936 when it was reported that 38 male inmates were lodged in one room under deplorable conditions.

During World War II, county citizens were granted lots at the farm to grow their own victory gardens to aid the war effort.

In 1961 the institution’s name was changed to the Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center after the county staged a contest to pick a new name. In 1964, farm work began to be scaled back at the nursing home and by 1978 farm work ceased.

In May 2014 Investment 360 bought Sunnyview from the county and announced a planned renovation.

At present, the facility has 220 beds and in addition to being a nursing home offers assisted living and independent living options.