SHARON  , a

borough of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Shenango river, about 70 M. by rail N.N.W. of Pittsburg . Pop . (1900) 8916, of whom 18o5 were foreign-born and 113 were negroes; (1910 U.S. census) 15,270 . Sharon is served by the Erie, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the Pennsylvania (Erie and Pittsburg division) railways . Sharon has an excellent public school system, and the F . H . Buhl Club (1903) is a social and educational institution, named in honour of its founder, an iron manufacturer of the borough . The borough has blast furnaces and rolling-mills; and iron and steel products, tin-plate and terne-plate are its principal manufactures . The total value of factory products in 1905 was $4,776,914, being 26'9% more than in 1900 . Sharon and South Sharon (pop. by U.S. census in 1910, 10,190), which was separately incorporated as a borough in 1901, form what is virtually a single industrial community . Sharon was first settled in 1795, but was only a small village when a movement for developing the coal-mines in the vicinity was begun in 1836 . It was incorporated as a borough in 1841 .