Once, there was no city of Alliance. There were no homes here, no streets, no businesses, no schools. There were only fields and forests where wild animals roamed. Then the pioneers came and established settlements. Three of the tiny villages which sprang up were Williamsport, founded in 1827; Freedom, founded in 1838; and Alliance (sometimes called Liberty), founded in 1850.
About this time railroads were being built across the United States. Two of these companies, the Cleveland and Wellsville Railroad (later called the Cleveland and Pittsburgh), and the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad (later known as the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago) laid tracks which crossed in the village of Alliance. In fact the site had been named Alliance in anticipation of the union of the two railroad companies there. The railroad industry brought prosperity to the nearby communities. The villages grew so much that soon their boundaries were very close to each other. In 1854 the townspeople decided to incorporate the three small villages into one larger one called "Alliance". The population of the new village was less than 1,000.
In 1888 the village of Mount Union became a part of Alliance, giving the combined area a population of 7,607. The following year, 1889, Alliance was incorporated as a city.
As Alliance grew so did its industries. Today products made here can be found throughout the world. They include traveling cranes, mill machinery, drop forgings, bricks, bathroom fixtures, coated abrasives, metal stampings, electric motors, paint, pottery, and rubber bands. Since the city is also located in the center of a rich agricultural area, it is a fine place in which its nearly 27,000 citizens can live, work, and play.