[3] Like much of the region, Greensboro can trace its roots back to Native American settlement, to the Mingo tribes of the Northern Iroquois.

What was to later become Greensboro was first known to the Mingo as "Delight", so named in recognition of the rich farmland that stretched along the banks of the Monongahela River.

Due to its advantageous geographic location along the river, it quickly became an early trading center for settlers and travelers heading north to Pittsburgh and to points West.

[5] He also purchased a great deal of land in Fayette County, including what was to become later the town of New Geneva, directly across the river from Greensburgh.

On a trip to Washington, D.C., Gallatin met a group of German glassblowers who were heading to Kentucky to form their own company.

The late 18th-early 19th century New Geneva/Greensboro glassworks proved that quality glass, natural resources, and transportation networks could be effectively harnessed.

Talented artisans and craftsmen, along with the excellent nearby clay banks produced a distinctive blue-gray stoneware which had a large market.

Due to its location at the head of the slack waters of the Monongahela, Greensboro's influence as a commercial and manufacturing center expanded far beyond its small boundaries.

By the 1850s, the slack water system of locks and dams had been developed by the Monongahela Navigation Company[7] (later acquired by the Army Corps of Engineers), allowing for year-round travel from Pittsburgh to the Greensboro area.

This permitted Greensboro to become a shipping point not only for southern Greene County but for parts of what is now northern West Virginia as well.

Its growing industrial, commercial, and transportation significance in the mid-19th century helped transform the town into a social and cultural center.

In the 1880s, Greensboro essentially lost the pottery and clay tile market due to more efficient producers, and with the extension of slack water transportation to Morgantown became a more localized port.

Indeed, the Penn-Pitt neighborhood was originally company housing for miners, as were the nearby Seventh Pool and Poland Mines areas, and countless others, many of which are lost to history today.

History has shown that any growth industry using thousands of underskilled, undereducated immigrant workers provides fertile ground for the lust of greed and opportunism.

Yet this period was not to last, and as the coal seams became tapped out and the processes outdated and replaced with modern mechanical technology, communities like Penn-Pitt and Poland Mines began to fade as their reason for existence ceased.

While coal (followed by healthcare) currently remains the backbone for much of the economy of Greene County, Greensboro and other communities have been migrating away from such dependency and see benefits in non-industrial sources of employment in sectors such as ecotourism, agritourism, and community-supported agriculture (CSAs), as well as fishing, hunting, hiking and boating.

Vance settled in Greensboro in the early 19th century, while still very young, and began a small pottery trade operation with his brother James.

James and William "Leet" Hamilton arrived from New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in 1850 and started a pottery manufacturing company of their own.

The original James Hamilton and Company did not last long, however, and in 1866 was sold to Leet's son Frank and a son-in-law named John Jones.

Eventually competition began to wear away at the profitability of the company, with a devastating fire in 1897 destroying the plant and forcing operations closed.

The glassworkers had left the recently closed Amelung Works of Frederick, Maryland, and were planning on migrating to Mays Landing, Kentucky, to set up a new glass factory.

Following his appointment to the cabinet, Gallatin determined to withdraw from the glass firm and advertised on May 7, 1803, in The Tree of Liberty (a Pittsburgh newspaper), "Sale by Auction...One undivided half of the New Geneva Glassworks, a ferry across the Monongahela River, sundry lots and dwelling houses in the town of Greensboro..

The Germans continued operations at New Geneva until 1807, when they moved the works to present-day glassworks near Greensboro because of the discovery of an outcrop of coal at that place.

Dating back to 1985 which coincidentally was the year of the 1985 Election day floods, the community identified the need to begin documenting their history.

In 1987, Greensboro native Betty Longo began to record, in longhand, the memories of Mary Black Carr, an elderly resident of the community.

In addition, community festivals that display many of the historical artifacts are conducted yearly, and a comprehensive plan is underway with five neighboring municipalities.

The Greensboro Historic District was established in 1995 and is roughly bounded by County, Second, Walnut, Front and Clear streets and the Monongahela River.

The Greensboro Historic District is a defined area of 14 acres (57,000 m2) with a concentration of buildings, structures, and sites that contribute to the significance of the borough in terms of its importance in industry, commerce, architecture, archeology, and transportation.