The Warren County Historical Society invites you to celebrate Warren’s Founder’s Day with a special exhibit of artifacts such as antique surveying equipment, early maps, and original explorers’ journals. This year, Founders’ Day coincides with the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War’s beginning when the “shot heard ‘round the world” ignited the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and of special note is the display of a Joseph Warren letter, dated May 12, 1775.

On the night of April 18, 1775, Dr. Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes to raise the alarm that British troops were marching to Concord. Warren himself slipped out of Boston the next morning and led American militia against the Redcoats during the British retreat from Concord to Boston. In the ensuing melee, a musket ball clipped Warren’s hair but left him otherwise unharmed. He would not be as fortunate in his next engagement. Commissioned a major general on June 14, 1775, Warren was killed in action at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775.

Exactly twenty years later, on April 18, 1795, the Pennsylvania legislature passed an act to have lands surveyed and towns organized at the confluence of rivers in the state’s northwest. The spot where the Allegheny River meets Conewango Creek was to be named in honor of Major General Joseph Warren.

To view the exhibit, visit the Warren County Historical Society at 210 Fourth Avenue, Warren, PA. This historic building is open to the public every Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. For more information, please call (814) 723-1795, visit the Warren County Historical Society’s website at www.warrenhistory.org, or like the Warren County Historical Society’s Facebook page.

In addition to the month-long exhibit, tickets for the Founders’ Day Raffle may be purchased through April 17 at the Historical Society. Proceeds will benefit local preservation efforts. Tickets may be purchased at the Historical Society or from any board member. Winners will be drawn at 4:00 PM on April 17, 2025.