The first written record of the Slippery Rock area is that of George Washington and Christopher Gist, who in 1753 made their trip to Fort Le Boeuf, the French Fort in Venango County.They passed through the township on the indian trail which crossed the road at the point where the famous "Old Stone House" is now located.
One of the four Kuskuski villages, home to Iroquois-Delaware indians, was once located along Wolf Creek outside of Slippery Rock. At the time of the white man's arrival Indians still lingered in the area, still taking advantage of their old hunting grounds.
The first permanent white settlers in the Slippery Rock area was Zebulon and Nathaniel Cooper settling on 500 acres of land on Wolf Creek in 1796. In 1800, his uncle, Stephen Cooper settled upon 200 acres of land, located at the Big Spring, and was the first inhabitant of the land now included in the borough of Slippery Rock. Stephen built a log house that became the first home and inn of this new settlement, which in a few years was called Centreville.
Indian Trails
The area which now forms the western part of Butler County were traversed by two Indian trails, of which very distinct traces remained when the first settlers came into the county in 1796, and which can be identified in some localities in the present. The more important of these was the Venango trail from the forks of the Ohio (the site of Pittsburgh) to Venango, an old Indian town at the mouth of French Creek, on the Allegheny River, near the present town of Franklin. Present day Route 8, as originally laid out, closely follows the ancient path of the red men. Entering the present limits of Butler county at the south line of Cranberry Township, the trail extended almost directly northward.
From Cranberry, after passing northward into what is now Jackson Township, it bore slightly eastward, following a small run to Breakneck Creek, which it must have crossed very near Evans City. From this point it extended northward through Forward and Connoquenessing, Franklin, Brady and Slippery Rock Townships, and so onward to Venango. It is highly probable that it crossed near the village of Prospect, and it was doubtless at that locality that the trail from Logstown intersected it. This latter trail is supposed to have traversed the sites of Zelienople and Harmony.
