MEADVILLE, a city of the United States, county seat of Crawford county, Pennsylvania, on the left bank of French Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany river, and at the junction of the Franklin branch with the main line of the New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio Railroad, 102 miles from Salamanca. It is a well-built town, maintains a large trade with the oil regions, and has railway and other machine works, glass works, woollen mills, and paper mills. The Meadville theological school was established by the Unitarians in 1844; and Allegheny College, opened in 1816 as a Presbyterian Church institution, has been carried on since 1833 by the Methodist Episcopal Church. Meadville was founded by General David Mead as a fortified post in 1789. In 1816 it had only 400 inhabitants; but the number was 3702 in 1860, 7103 in 1870, and 8860 in 1880.