Canonsburg, Pennsylvania

Canonsburg is a town in Washington County, Pennsylvania, 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Pittsburgh. Canonsburg was laid out by Colonel John Canon in 1789 and incorporated in 1802.

The town is in a rich coal district, and most of the town's work force once worked in local steel mills or coal mines. Canonsburg's population in 1910, including South Canonsburg, which was annexed in 1911, was 5,588; in 1920 it was 10,632; and in 1940 it was 12,599. The population was 8,992 at the 2010 census.

Interstate 79 and Route 19 pass through the town, as do several railroad lines. The active railroad system in Canonsburg is now The Pittsburgh and Ohio Central Railroad. A trolley used to operate from Washington, Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh through Canonsburg until 1953.

Canonsburg was home to singers Perry Como and Bobby Vinton, Bobby Shawn, Esther "Essie" Scott, the first African-American female to be recognized in Canonsburg's Bi-Centennial Publication, Bill Schmidt, Olympian bronze medalist in the javelin throw in Munich, 1972, the only American to ever medal in that event, and Bishop Theodosius Lazor, Metropolitan Bishop for the Orthodox Church in America. Jonathan Letterman, the "Father of Battlefield Medicine" during the Civil War, was also born in Canonsburg. The town was the birthplace of the members of the vocal group, The Four Coins, popular in the 1950s and 60s.