New Castle

Historic city in New Castle County, northern Delaware, on the Delaware River, 8 km/5 mi south of Wilmington; population (1990) 4,800.

Founded as Fort Casimir in 1651 by the governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, the city was captured by the Swedes in 1654, recovered by the Dutch a year later, and claimed by William Penn in 1682. An early Dutch capital, it was the seat of the Lower Counties in the period 1704-76. New Castle has a town green laid out by Stuyvesant, and is home to Wilmington College (founded 1967). Industries here produce rayon, steel, paint, and drugs.

New Castle

City and seat of Henry County, east-central Indiana, on the Big Blue River, 29 km/18 mi south of Muncie; population (1990) 17,800.

New Castle is a market centre for a farming region. It is also home to financial concerns, and its manufacturing industries turn out such goods as car and truck parts and metal products. Roses are cultivated in local greenhouses. The city contains several parks, a speedway arena, and the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. It is also the site of a number of prehistoric Indian mounds (see Moundbuilder). The Wilbur Wright State Historic Site, in Millville, 10 km/6 mi to the east, commemorates the birthplace of the aviation pioneer (1867-1912).

New Castle

City and seat of Lawrence County, in the far west of Pennsylvania; population (1990) 28,300. New Castle is situated at the junction of the Shenango and Neshannock rivers, in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, 32 km/20 mi southeast of Youngstown, Ohio, and 69 km/43 mi northwest of Pittsburgh.

New Castle was established as an iron foundry in 1798 by the entrepreneur John Stewart, on the site of a former Delaware Indian capital. In 1833, it became a terminus for the Erie Extension Canal, and was later an important station on the Underground Railroad network for fugitive slaves. The city's economy is based on the large deposits of coal, iron ore, limestone, and fire clay in the area; it manufactures steel and allied products, pottery, chemicals, bronze castings, explosives, and machinery.