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A SHORT HISTORY
OF
PITTSBURGH
1758-1908
[Illustration: George Washington, the first Pittsburgher]
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
PITTSBURGH
1758-1908
BY
SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH
AUTHOR OF "OLIVER CROMWELL: A HISTORY,"
"PENRUDDOCK OF THE WHITE LAMBS," "JOHN MARMADUKE,"
"BEOWULF: A POEM," ETC.
PRINTED AT
THE DE VINNE PRESS
NEW YORK
1908
Copyright, 1908, by
SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH
CONTENTS
PAGE
HISTORICAL 13
INDUSTRIAL 79
INTELLECTUAL 89
INDEX 127
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
George Washington, the first Pittsburgher _Frontispiece_
PAGE
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 26
Plan of Fort Pitt 31
Henry Bouquet 32
Block House of Fort Pitt. Built in 1764 33
Anthony Wayne 41
Conestoga wagon 44
Stage-coach 46
Over the mountains in 1839; canal boat being
hauled over the portage road 47
View of Old Pittsburgh, 1817 50
Pittsburgh, showing the junction of the
Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers 80
The Pittsburgh Country Club 88
Panther Hollow Bridge, Schenley Park 93
Entrance to Highland Park 97
The Carnegie Institute 101
Court-house 104
Zooelogical Garden in Highland Park 107
Carnegie Technical Schools (uncompleted) 111
Margaret Morrison Carnegie School for Women 115
Design of University of Pittsburgh 119
Allegheny Observatory, University of Pittsburgh 123
Phipps Conservatory, Schenley Park 125
PREFACE
Some ten years ago I contributed to a book on "Historic Towns,"
published by G. P. Putnam's Sons, of New York and London, a brief
historical sketch of Pittsburgh. The approach of the one hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Pittsburgh, and the elaborate
celebrations planned in connection therewith, led to many requests that
I would reprint the sketch in its own covers as a souvenir of the
occasion. Finding it quite inadequate for permanent preservation in its
original form, I have, after much research and painstaking labor,
rewritten the entire work, adding many new materials, and making of it
what I believe to be a complete, though a short, history of our city.
The story has developed itself into three natural divisions: historical,
industrial, and intellectual, and the record will show that under either
one of these titles Pittsburgh is a notable, and under all of them, an
imperial, city.
S. H. C.
Lake Placid Club,
Adirondack Mountains,
August 25, 1908.
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
PITTSBURGH
1758-1908
A SHORT HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
HISTORICAL
I
George Washington, the Father of his Country, is equally the Father of
Pittsburgh, for he came thither in November, 1753, and established the
location of the now imperial city by choosing it as the best place for a
fort. Washington was then twenty-one years old. He had by that time
written his precocious one hundred and ten maxims of civility and good
behavior; had declined to be a midshipman in the British navy; had made
his only sea-voyage to Barbados; had surveyed the estates of Lord
Fairfax, going for months into the forest without fear of savage Indians
or wild beasts; and was now a major of Virginia militia. In pursuance of
the claim of Virginia that she owned that part of Pennsylvania in which
Pittsburgh is situated, Washington came there as the agent of Governor
Dinwiddie to treat with the Indians. With an eye alert for the dangers
of the wilderness, and with Christopher Gist beside him, the young
Virginian pushed his cautious way to "The Point" of land where the
confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers forms the Ohio. That,
he declared, with clear military instinct, was the best site for a fort;
and he rejected the promontory two miles below, which the Indians had
recommended for that purpose. Washington made six visits to the vicinity
of Pittsburgh, all before his presidency, and on three of them (1753,
1758, and 1770), he entered the limits of the present city. At the time
of despatching the army to suppress the whisky insurrection, while he
was President, in 1794, he came toward Pittsburgh as far as Bedford, and
then, after planning the march, returned to Philadelphia. His contact
with the place was, therefore, frequent, and his information always very
complete. There is a tradition, none the less popular because it cannot
be proved, which ascribes to Washington the credit of having suggested
the name of Pittsburgh to General Forbes when the place was captured
from the French. However this may be, we do know that Washington was
certainly present when the English flag was hoisted and the city named
Pittsburgh, on Sunday, November 26, 1758. And at that moment Pittsburgh
became a chief bulwark of the British Empire in America.
II
As early as 1728, a daring hunter or trader found the Indians at the
head waters of the Ohio,--among them the Delawares, Shawanese, Mohicans,
and Iroquois,--whither they tracked the bear from their village of
Logstown, seventeen miles down the river. They also employed the country
roundabout as a highway for their march to battle against other tribes,
and against each other. At that time France and England were disputing
for the new continent. France, by right of her discovery of the
Mississippi, claimed all lands drained by that river and its
tributaries, a contention which would naturally plant her banner upon
the summit of the Alleghany Mountains. England, on the other hand,
claimed everything from ocean shore to ocean shore. This situation
produced war, and Pittsburgh became the strategic key of the great
Middle West. The French made early endeavors to win the allegiance of
the Indians, and felt encouraged to press their friendly overtures
because they usually came among the red men for trading or exploration,
while the English invariably seized and occupied their lands. In 1731
some French settlers did attempt to build a group of houses at
Pittsburgh, but the Indians compelled them to go away. The next year the
governor of Pennsylvania summoned two Indian chiefs from Pittsburgh to
say why they had been going to see the French governor at Montreal; and
they gave answer that he had sent for them only to express the hope that
both English and French traders might meet at Pittsburgh and carry on
trade amicably. The governor of Pennsylvania sought to induce the tribes
to draw themselves farther east, where they might be made to feel the
hand of authority, but Sassoonan, their chief, forbade them to stir. An
Iroquois chief who joined his entreaties to those of the governor was
soon afterward killed by some Shawanese braves, but they were forced to
flee into Virginia to escape the vengeance of his tribe.
Louis Celeron, a French officer, made an exploration of the country
contiguous to Pittsburgh in 1747, and formally enjoined the governor of
Pennsylvania not to occupy the ground, as France claimed its
sovereignty. A year later the Ohio Company was formed, with a charter
ceding an immense tract of land for sale and development, including
Pittsburgh. This corporation built some storehouses at Logstown to
facilitate their trade with the Indians, which were captured by the
French, together with skins and commodities valued at 20,000 francs; and
the purposes of the company were never accomplished.
III
Washington's first visit to Pittsburgh occurred in November, 1753, while
he was on his way to the French fort at Leboeuff. He was carrying a
letter from the Ohio Company to Contrecoeur, protesting against the
plans of the French commander in undertaking to establish a line of
forts to reach from Lake Erie to the mouth of the Ohio River. The winter
season was becoming very severe, in despite of which Washington and Gist
were forced to swim with their horses across the Allegheny River. On the
way they fell in with a friendly Indian, Keyashuta, a Seneca chief, who
showed them much kindness, and for whom a suburban town, Guyasuta, is
named.
Washington, in writing of his first sight of the forks of the river,
says:
As I got down before the canoe, I spent some time in viewing the
rivers and the land at the fork, which I think extremely well
situated for a fort, as it has the absolute command of both rivers.
The land at the point is twenty-five feet above the common surface
of the water, and a considerable bottom of flat, well-timbered land
all around it very convenient for building. The rivers are each a
quarter of a mile across and run here very nearly at right angles,
the Allegheny being northeast and the Monongahela southeast. The
former of these two is a very rapid and swift-running water, the
other deep and still without any perceptible fall. About two miles
from this on the southeast side of the river at a place where the
Ohio Company intended to erect a fort, lives Shingiss, King of the
Delawares. We called upon him to invite him to a council at
Logstown. As I had taken a good deal of notice yesterday at the
fork, my curiosity led me to examine this more particularly and I
think it greatly inferior either for defense or advantages,
especially the latter. For a fort at the fork would be equally well
situated on the Ohio and have the entire command of the
Monongahela, which runs up our settlement and is extremely well
designed for water carriage, as it is of a deep, still nature.
Besides, a fort at the fork might be built at much less expense
than at the other place.
Leaving Pittsburgh, Washington and Gist proceeded in a northeasterly
direction, and after a day's journey they came upon an Indian
settlement, and were constrained by the tribe to remain there for three
days. A group of these Indians accompanied the two travelers to the
French fort, and on the journey a large number of bear and deer were
killed. At Leboeuff Washington received from the French commander a very
satisfactory reply. On the trip back the two pioneers encountered almost
insupportable hardships. Lacking proper food, their horses died, so that
they were forced to push forward in canoes, often finding it necessary,
when the creeks were frozen, to carry their craft for long stretches
overland. When Venango was reached, Washington, whose clothes were now
in tatters, procured an Indian costume, and he and Gist continued their
way on foot, accompanied by an Indian guide. At this point an
illustrious career was put in deadly peril, for on the second day of his
escort, the treacherous guide deliberately fired his gun at Washington
when standing only a few feet away from him. Bad marksmanship saved the
intended victim, and Gist started to kill the Indian on the spot; but
Washington, patient then as always, sent the savage away, giving him
provisions to last until he could reach his tribe. But an apprehension
of further trouble from the friends of the discomfited guide impelled
the two men to travel all that night and the next day, although
Washington was suffering acute agony from his frosted feet. While
recrossing the Allegheny River on a rude raft, Washington fell into the
icy waters and was saved by Gist from drowning only after the greatest
efforts had been employed to rescue him. Reaching Herr's Island (within
the present city limits), they built a fire and camped there for the
night, but in the morning Gist's hands were frozen. The bitter cold had
now solidified the river and the two wanderers passed over it on foot.
By noon they had reached the home of John Frazier, at Turtle Creek,
where they were given clothes and fresh supplies. The journey was
completed in three more days, and on receiving the reply of
Contrecoeur, the English began their preparations for sending troops
to Pittsburgh.
IV
As soon as Washington's advice as to the location of the fort was
received, Captain William Trent was despatched to Pittsburgh with a
force of soldiers and workmen, packhorses, and materials, and he began
in all haste to erect a stronghold. The French had already built forts
on the northern lakes, and they now sent Captain Contrecoeur down the
Allegheny with one thousand French, Canadians, and Indians, and eighteen
pieces of cannon, in a flotilla of sixty bateaux and three hundred
canoes. Trent had planted himself in Pittsburgh on February 17, 1754, a
date important because it marks the first permanent white settlement
there. But his work had been retarded alike by the small number of his
men and the severity of the winter; and when Contrecoeur arrived in
April, the young subaltern who commanded in Trent's absence surrendered
the unfinished works, and was permitted to march away with his
thirty-three men. The French completed the fort and named it Duquesne,
in honor of the governor of Canada; and they held possession of it for
four years.
Immediately on the loss of this fort, Virginia sent a force under
Washington to retake it. Washington surprised a French detachment near
Great Meadows, and killed their commander, Jumonville. When a larger
expedition came against him, he put up a stockade near the site of
Uniontown, naming it Fort Necessity, which he was compelled to yield on
terms permitting him to march away with the honors of war.
V
The next year (1755) General Edward Braddock came over with two
regiments of British soldiers, and after augmenting his force with
Colonial troops and a few Indians, began his fatal march upon Fort
Duquesne. Braddock's testy disposition, his consuming egotism, his
contempt for the Colonial soldiers, and his stubborn adherence to
military maxims that were inapplicable to the warfare of the wilderness,
alienated the respect and confidence of the American contingent, robbed
him of an easy victory, and cost him his life. Benjamin Franklin had
warned him against the imminent risk of Indian ambuscades, but he had
contemptuously replied: "These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy
to your raw American militia; but upon the king's regular and
disciplined troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any
impression." Some of his English staff-officers urged him to send the
rangers in advance and to deploy his Indians as scouts, but he rejected
their prudent suggestions with a sneer. On July 9 his army, comprising
twenty-two hundred soldiers and one hundred and fifty Indians, was
marching down the south bank of the Monongahela. The variant color and
fashion of the expedition,--the red-coated regulars, the blue-coated
Americans, the naval detachment, the rangers in deerskin shirts and
leggins, the savages half-naked and befeathered, the glint of sword and
gun in the hot daylight, the long wagon train, the lumbering cannon, the
drove of bullocks, the royal banner and the Colonial gonfalon,--the pomp
and puissance of it all composed a spectacle of martial splendor unseen
in that country before. On the right was the tranquil river, and on the
left the trackless wilderness whence the startled deer sprang into a
deeper solitude. At noon the expedition crossed the river and pressed on
toward Fort Duquesne, eight miles below, expectant of victory. What need
to send out scouts when the king's troops are here? Let young George
Washington and the rest urge it all they may; the thing is beneath the
dignity of his majesty's general.
Meanwhile, all was not tranquil at the French fort. Surrender was talked
of, but Captain Beaujeu determined to lead a force out to meet the
approaching army. Taking with him a total effective of thirty-six
officers and cadets, seventy-two regular soldiers, one hundred and
forty-six Canadians, and about six hundred Indian warriors, a command
less than half the number of the enemy, he sallied out to meet him. How
insignificant were the armed forces with which the two empires were now
challenging each other for the splendid prize of a new world! Beaujeu,
gaily clad in a fringed hunting dress, intrepidly pressed on until he
came in sight of the English invaders. As soon as the alert French
commander felt the hot breath of his foe he waved his hat and his
faithful followers disappeared behind rocks and trees as if the very
earth had swallowed them.
The unsuspecting English came on. But here, when they have crossed, is a
level plain, elevated but a few feet above the surface of the river,
extending nearly half a mile landwards, and then gradually ascending
into thickly wooded hills, with Fort Duquesne beyond. The troops in
front had crossed the plain and plunged into the road through the forest
for a hundred feet when a heavy discharge of musketry and arrows was
poured upon them, which wrought in them a consternation all the greater
because they could see no foe anywhere. They shot at random, and not
without effect, for when Beaujeu fell the Canadians began to flee and
the Indians quailed in their covers before the cannon fire of the
English. But the French fighters were rallied back to their hidden
recesses, and they now kept up an incessant and destructive fire. In
this distressing situation the English fell back into the plain.
Braddock rode in among them, and he and his officers persistently
endeavored to rally them, but without success. The Colonial troops
adopted the Indian method, and each man fought for himself behind a
tree. This was forbidden by Braddock, who attempted to form his men in
platoons and columns, making their slaughter inevitable. The French and
Indians, concealed in the ravines and behind trees, kept up a cruel and
deadly fire, until the British soldiers lost all presence of mind and
began to shoot each other and their own officers, and hundreds were thus
slain. The Virginia companies charged gallantly up a hill with a loss of
but three men, but when they reached the summit the British soldiery,
mistaking them for the enemy, fired upon them, killing fifty out of
eighty men. The Colonial troops then resumed the Indian fashion of
fighting from behind trees, which provoked Braddock, who had had five
horses killed under him in three hours, to storm at them and strike them
with his sword. At this moment he was fatally wounded, and many of his
men now fled away from the hopeless action, not waiting to hear their
general's fainting order to retreat. Washington had had two horses
killed and received three bullets through his coat. Being the only
mounted officer who was not disabled, he drew up the troops still on the
field, directed their retreat, maintaining himself at the rear with
great coolness and courage, and brought away his wounded general.
Sixty-four British and American officers, and nearly one thousand
privates, were killed or wounded in this battle, while the total French
and Indian loss was not over sixty. A few prisoners captured by the
Indians were brought to Pittsburgh and burnt at the stake. Four days
after the fight Braddock died, exclaiming to the last, "Who would have
thought it!"
VI
Despondency seized the English settlers after Braddock's defeat. But two
years afterward William Pitt became prime minister, and he thrilled the
nation with his appeal to protect the Colonies against France and the
savages.
[Illustration: William Pitt, Earl of Chatham]
William Pitt, the great Earl of Chatham, the man for whom our city is
named, was one of the most indomitable characters in the statesmanship
of modern times. Born in November, 1708, he was educated at Eton and at
Oxford, then traveled in France and Italy, and was elected to Parliament
when twenty-seven years old. His early addresses were not models either
of force or logic, but the fluent speech and many personal attractions
of the young orator instantly caught the attention of the people, who
always listened to him with favor; and it was not long before his
constant participation in public affairs developed the splendid talents
which he possessed. Wayward and affected in little things, Pitt attacked
the great problems of government with the bold confidence of a master
spirit, impressing the clear genius of his leadership upon the yearning
heart of England in every emergency of peace or war. Too great to be
consistent, he never hesitated to change his tactics or his opinion when
the occasion developed the utility of another course. Ordinary men have
been more faithful to asserted principles, but no statesman more
frequently departed from asserted principles to secure achievements
which redounded to the honor of the nation. During the thirty years in
which Pitt exercised the magic spell of his eloquence and power over the
English Parliament, the stakes for which he contended against the world
were no less than the dominion of North America and of India. In the
pursuit of these policies he fought Spain and subdued her armies. He
subsidized the king of Prussia to his interests. He destroyed the navy
of France and wrested from her the larger part of her possessions beyond
sea. Having always a clear conception of the remotest aim of national
aspiration, he was content to leave the designing of operations in
detail to the humbler servants of the government, reserving to himself
the mighty concentration of his powers upon the general purpose for
which the nation was striving. The king trusted him, the Commons obeyed
him, the people adored him and called him the Great Commoner. He was
wise, brave, sincere, tolerant, and humane; and no man could more
deserve the honor of having named for him a city which was destined to
become rich and famous, keeping his memory in more enduring fame than
bronze or marble.
VII
Pitt's letters inspired the Americans with new hope, and he promised to
send them British troops and to supply their own militia with arms,
ammunition, tents, and provisions at the king's charge. He sent twelve
thousand soldiers from England, which were joined to a Colonial force
aggregating fifty thousand men, the most formidable army yet seen in the
new world. The plan of campaign embraced three expeditions: the first
against Louisburg, in the island of Cape Breton, which was successful;
the second against Ticonderoga, which succeeded after a defeat; and the
third against Fort Duquesne. General Forbes, born at Dunfermline (whence
have come others to Pittsburgh), commanded this expedition, comprising
about seven thousand men. The militia from Virginia, North Carolina, and
Maryland was led by Washington, whose independent spirit led the testy
Scotchman, made irritable by a malady which was soon to cause his death,
to declare that Washington's "behavior about the roads was no ways like
a soldier." But we cannot believe that the young Virginian was moved by
any motive but the public good. On September 12, 1758, Major Grant, a
Highlander, led an advance guard of eight hundred and fifty men to a
point one mile from the fort, which is still called Grant's Hill, on
which the court-house now stands, where he rashly permitted himself to
be surrounded and attacked by the French and Indians, half his force
being killed or wounded, and himself slain. Washington followed soon
after, and opened a road for the advance of the main body under Forbes.
Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, had just been taken by General
Amherst, with the result that supplies for Fort Duquesne were cut off.
When, therefore, Captain Ligneris, the French commandant, learned of the
advance of a superior force, having no hope of reinforcements, he blew
up the fort, set fire to the adjacent buildings, and drew his garrison
away.
On Saturday, November 25, 1758, amidst a fierce snowstorm, the English
took possession of the place, and Colonel Armstrong, in the presence of
Forbes and Washington, hauled up the puissant banner of Great Britain,
while cannons boomed and the exulting victors cheered. On the next day,
General Forbes wrote to Governor Denny from "Fort Duquesne, now
Pittsburgh,[A] the 26th of November, 1758," and this was the first use
of that name. On this same Sunday the Rev. Mr. Beatty, a Presbyterian
chaplain, preached a sermon in thanksgiving for the superiority of
British arms,--the first Protestant service in Pittsburgh. The French
had had a Roman Catholic chaplain, Father Baron, during their occupancy.
On the next day Forbes wrote to Pitt with a vision of prophecy as
follows:
PITTSBOURGH, 27th Novem'r, 1758.
_Sir_,
I do myself the Honour of acquainting you that it has pleased God
to crown His Majesty's Arms with Success over all His Enemies upon
the Ohio, by my having obliged the enemy to burn and abandon Fort
Du Quesne, which they effectuated on the 25th:, and of which I
took possession next day, the Enemy having made their Escape down
the River towards the Missisippi in their Boats, being abandoned
by their Indians, whom I had previously engaged to leave them, and
who now seem all willing and ready to implore His Majesty's most
Gracious Protection. So give me leave to congratulate you upon this
great Event, of having totally expelled the French from this
prodigious tract of Country, and of having reconciled the various
tribes of Indians inhabiting it to His Majesty's Government.
* * * * *
I have used the freedom of giving your name to Fort Du Quesne, as I
hope it was in some measure the being actuated by your spirits that
now makes us Masters of the place.... These dreary deserts will
soon be the richest and most fertile of any possest by the British
in No. America. I have the honour to be with great regard and
Esteem Sir,
Your most obed't. & most hum'le. serv't.
JO: FORBES.
[Footnote A: Local controversialists should note that the man who named
the city spelt it with the final h.]
VIII
As a place of urgent shelter the English proceeded to build a new fort
about two hundred yards from the site of Fort Duquesne, which is
traditionally known as the first Fort Pitt, and was probably so called
by the garrison, although the letters written from there during the next
few months refer to it as "the camp at Pittsburgh." This stronghold cut
off French transportation to the Mississippi by way of the Ohio River,
and the only remaining route, by way of the Great Lakes, was soon
afterward closed by the fall of Fort Niagara. The fall of Quebec, with
the death of the two opposing generals, Montcalm and Wolfe, and the
capture of Montreal, ended the claims of France to sovereignty in the
new world.
[Illustration: Plan of Fort Pitt]
The new fort being found too small, General Stanwix built a second Fort
Pitt, much larger and stronger, designed for a garrison of one thousand
men. The Indians viewed the new-comers with suspicion, but Colonel
Henry Bouquet assured them, with diplomatic tergiversation, that, "We
have not come here to take possession of your country in a hostile
manner, as the French did when they came among you, but to open a
large and extensive trade with you and all other nations of Indians to
the westward." A redoubt (the "Blockhouse"), built by Colonel Bouquet in
1764, still stands, in a very good state of preservation, being cared
for by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The protection of the
garrison naturally attracted a few traders, merchants, and pioneers to
Pittsburgh, and a permanent population began to grow.
[Illustration: Henry Bouquet]
[Illustration: Block House of Fort Pitt. Built in 1764]
But the indigenous race continued to resent the extension of white
encroachment; and they formed a secret confederacy under Pontiac, the
renowned Ottawa chief, who planned a simultaneous attack on all the
white frontier posts. This uprising was attended by atrocious cruelties
at many of the points attacked, but we may take note here of the
movement only as it affected Pittsburgh. At the grand council held by
the tribes, a bundle of sticks had been given to every tribe, each
bundle containing as many sticks as there were days intervening before
the deadly assault should begin. One stick was to be drawn from the
bundle every day until but one remained, which was to signal the
outbreak for that day. This was the best calendar the barbarian mind
could devise. At Pittsburgh, a Delaware squaw who was friendly to the
whites had stealthily taken out three of the sticks, thus precipitating
the attack on Fort Pitt three days in advance of the time appointed.
The last stick was reached on June 22, 1763, and the Delawares and
Shawanese began the assault in the afternoon, under Simon Ecuyer. The
people of Pittsburgh took shelter in the fort, and held out while
waiting for reinforcements. Colonel Bouquet hurried forward a force of
five hundred men, but they were intercepted at Bushy Run, where a bloody
battle was fought. Bouquet had fifty men killed and sixty wounded, but
inflicted a much greater loss on his savage foes and gained the fort,
relieving the siege. As soon as Bouquet could recruit his command, he
moved down the Ohio, attacked the Indians, liberated some of their
prisoners, and taught the red men to respect the power that controlled
at Pittsburgh.
In 1768 the Indians ceded their lands about Pittsburgh to the Colonies,
and civilization was then free to spread over them. In 1774 a land
office was opened in Pittsburgh by Governor Dunmore, and land warrants
were granted on payment of two shillings and six pence purchase money,
at the rate of ten pounds per one hundred acres.
IX
Washington made his last visit to Pittsburgh in October, 1770, when, on
his way to the Kanawha River, he stopped here for several days, and
lodged with Samuel Semple, the first innkeeper, whose hostelry stood,
and still stands, at the corner of Water and Ferry Streets. This house
was later known as the Virginian Hotel, and for many years furnished
entertainment to those early travelers. The building, erected in 1764 by
Colonel George Morgan, is now nearly one hundred and forty years old,
and is still devoted to public hospitality, but the character of its
patronage has changed from George Washington to the deck roysterers who
lodge there between their trips on the river packets. At the time of
Washington's visit the lower story of the house was divided into three
rooms, two facing on Ferry Street, and the third, a large room, on Water
Street, and in this latter room was placed, in the year of Washington's
stop there, the first billiard table ever brought to Pittsburgh. The
mahogany steps from the first to the second floors, which were once the
pride of the place, are still in the house.[B] According to Washington's
journal, there were in Pittsburgh in 1770 twenty houses situated on
Water Street, facing the Monongahela River. These were occupied by
traders and their families. The population at that time is estimated at
one hundred and twenty-six men, women, and children, besides a garrison
consisting of two companies of British troops.
[Footnote B: On going again to look at this house, which I have seen
many times, I find that it was recently demolished to make room for
railway improvements.]
In October, 1772, Fort Pitt was ordered abandoned. The works about
Pittsburgh, from first to last, had cost the British Crown some three
hundred thousand dollars, but the salvage on the stone, brick, and iron
of the existing redoubts amounted to only two hundred and fifty dollars.
The Blockhouse was repaired and occupied for a time by Dr. John
Connelly; and during the Revolution it was constantly used by our
Colonial troops.
X
With the French out of the country, and with William Pitt out of office
and incapacitated by age, the Colonies began to feel the oppression of a
British policy which British statesmen and British historians to-day
most bitterly condemn. America's opposition to tyranny found its natural
expression in the Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. The fires of
patriotism leapt through the continent and the little settlement at
Pittsburgh was quickly aflame with the national spirit. On May 16th a
convention was held at Pittsburgh, which resolved that
This committee have the highest sense of the spirited behavior of
their brethren in New England, and do most cordially approve of
their opposing the invaders of American rights and privileges to
the utmost extreme, and that each member of this committee,
respectively, will animate and encourage their neighborhood to
follow the brave example.
No foreign soldiers were sent over the mountains to Pittsburgh, but a
more merciless foe, who would attack and harass with remorseless
cruelty, was impressed into the English service, despite the horrified
protests of some of her wisest statesmen. American treaties with the
Indians had no force against the allurements of foreign gold, and under
this unholy alliance men were burnt at the stake, women were carried
away, and cabins were destroyed.
With the aim of regaining the friendship of the Indians, Congress
appointed commissioners who met the tribes at Pittsburgh; and Colonel
George Morgan, Indian agent, writes to John Hancock, November 8, 1776:
I have the happiness to inform you that the cloud that threatened
to break over us is likely to disperse. The Six Nations, with the
Muncies, Delawares, Shawanese, and Mohicans, who have been
assembled here with their principal chiefs and warriors to the
number of 644, have given the strongest assurance of their
determination to preserve inviolate the peace and neutrality with
the United States.
These amicable expectations were not realized, and General Edward Hand
came to Pittsburgh the next year and planned an expedition against the
Indians. Colonel Broadhead took out Hand's expedition in the summer and
burned the Indian towns.
The depreciation of paper currency, or Continental money, had by this
time brought the serious burden of high prices upon the people. The
traders, who demanded apparently exorbitant rates for their goods, were
denounced in public meetings at Pittsburgh as being "now commonly known
by the disgraceful epithet of speculators, of more malignant natures
than the savage Mingoes in the wilderness." This hardship grew in
severity until the finances were put upon a more stable basis.
In 1781, there was demoralization and mutiny at Fort Pitt, and General
William Irvine was put in command. His firm hand soon restored the
garrison to obedience. The close of the war with Great Britain in that
year was celebrated by General Irvine by the issue of an order at the
fort, November 6, 1781, requiring all, as a sailor would say, "to splice
the mainbrace." This order read as follows:
The commissioners will issue a gill of whisky, extraordinary, to
the non-commissioned officers and privates, upon this joyful
occasion.
The Penn family had purchased the Pittsburgh region from the Indians in
1768, and they would offer none of it for sale until 1783. Up to this
time they had held the charter to Pennsylvania; but as they had
maintained a steadfast allegiance to the mother country, the general
assembly annulled their title, except to allow them to retain the
ownership of various manors throughout the State, embracing half a
million acres.
In order to relieve the people of Pittsburgh from going to Greensburg
to the court-house in their sacred right of suing and being sued, the
general assembly erected Allegheny County out of parts of Westmoreland
and Washington Counties, September 24, 1788. This county originally
comprised, in addition to its present limits, what are now Armstrong,
Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango, and Warren Counties.
The Act required that the court-house and jail should be located in
Allegheny (just across the river from Pittsburgh), but as there was no
protection against Indians there, an amendment established Pittsburgh as
the county seat. The first court was held at Fort Pitt; and the next day
a ducking-stool was erected for the district, at "The Point" in the
three rivers.
In 1785, the dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania for the
possession of Pittsburgh was settled by the award of a joint commission
in favor of Pennsylvania.
A writer says that in 1786 Pittsburgh contained thirty-six log houses,
one stone, and one frame house, and five small stores. Another records
that the population "is almost entirely Scots and Irish, who live in log
houses." A third says of these log houses: "Now and then one had assumed
the appearance of neatness and comfort."
The first newspaper, the Pittsburgh "Gazette," was established July 29,
1786. A mail route to Philadelphia, by horseback, was adopted in the
same year. On September 29, 1787, the Legislature granted a charter to
the Pittsburgh Academy, a school that has grown steadily in usefulness
and power as the Western University of Pennsylvania, and which has in
this year (July 11, 1908) appropriately altered its name to University
of Pittsburgh.
[Illustration: Anthony Wayne]
In 1791, the Indians became vindictive and dangerous, and General Arthur
St. Clair, with a force of twenty-three hundred men, was sent down the
river to punish them. Neglecting President Washington's imperative
injunction to avoid a surprise, he led his command into an ambush and
lost half of it in the most disastrous battle with the redskins since
the time of Braddock. In the general alarm that ensued, Fort Pitt being
in a state of decay, a new fort was built in Pittsburgh at Ninth and
Tenth Streets and Penn Avenue,--a stronghold that included bastions,
blockhouses, barracks, etc., and was named Fort Lafayette. General
Anthony Wayne was then selected to command another expedition against
the savages, and he arrived in Pittsburgh in June, 1792. After drilling
his troops and making preparations for two years, in the course of which
he erected several forts in the West, including Fort Defiance and Fort
Wayne, he fought the Indians and crushed their strength and spirit. On
his return a lasting peace was made with them, and there were no further
raids about Pittsburgh.
XI
The whisky insurrection demands a brief reference. Whisky seems to be a
steady concomitant of civilization. As soon as the white settlers had
planted themselves securely at Pittsburgh, they made requisition on
Philadelphia for six thousand kegs of flour and three thousand kegs of
whisky--a disproportion as startling as Falstaff's intolerable deal of
sack to one half-penny-worth of bread. Congress, in 1791, passed an
excise law to assist in paying the war debt. The measure was very
unpopular, and its operation was forcibly resisted, particularly in
Pittsburgh, which was noted then, as now, for the quantity and quality
of its whisky. There were distilleries on nearly every stream emptying
into the Monongahela. The time and circumstances made the tax odious.
The Revolutionary War had just closed, the pioneers were in the midst of
great Indian troubles, and money was scarce, of low value, and very hard
to obtain. The people of the new country were unused to the exercise of
stringent laws. The progress of the French Revolution encouraged the
settlers to account themselves oppressed by similar tyrannies, against
which some of them persuaded themselves similar resistance should be
made. Genet, the French demagogue, was sowing sedition everywhere.
Lafayette's participation in the French Revolution gave it in America,
where he was deservedly beloved, a prestige which it could never have
gained for itself. Distillers who paid the tax were assaulted; some of
them were tarred and feathered; others were taken into the forest and
tied to trees; their houses and barns were burned; their property was
carried away or destroyed. Several thousand insurgents assembled at
Braddock's Field, and marched on Pittsburgh, where the citizens gave
them food and submitted to a reign of terror. Then President Washington
sent an army of fifteen thousand troops against them, and they melted
away, as a mob will ever do when the strong arm of government smites it
without fear or respect.
[Illustration: Conestoga wagon]
XII
It was not long after the close of the Revolutionary War before
Pittsburgh was recognized as the natural gateway of the Atlantic
seaboard to the West and South, and the necessity for an improved system
of transportation became imperative. The earliest method of
transportation through the American wilderness required the eastern
merchants to forward their goods in Conestoga wagons to Shippensburg and
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and Hagerstown, Maryland, and thence to
Pittsburgh on packhorses, where they were exchanged for Pittsburgh
products, and these in turn were carried by boat to New Orleans, where
they were exchanged for sugar, molasses, and similar commodities, which
were carried through the gulf and along the coast to Baltimore and
Philadelphia. For passenger travel the stage-coach furnished the most
luxurious method then known.
[Illustration: Stage-coach]
The people of Pennsylvania had given considerable attention to inland
improvements and as early as 1791 they began to formulate the daring
project of constructing a canal system from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh,
with a portage road over the crest of the Alleghany Mountains. In 1825,
the governor appointed commissioners for making surveys, certain
residents of Pittsburgh being chosen on the board, and in 1826 (February
25th) the Legislature passed an act authorizing the commencement of work
on the canal at the expense of the State. The western section was
completed and the first boat entered Pittsburgh on November 10, 1829.
Subsequent acts provided for the various eastern sections, including the
building of the portage railroad over the mountains, and by April 16,
1834, a through line was in operation from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.
The termini of the road were Hollidaysburg, 1,398 feet below the
mountain summit, and Johnstown, 1,771 feet below the summit. The boats
were taken from the water like amphibious monsters and hauled up the ten
inclined planes by stationary engines. The total cost of the canal and
portage railroad was about ten million dollars, and the entire system
was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in 1857 (June 25th) for
$7,500,000. The importance of canal transportation in the popular mind
is shown by the fact that in 1828, when the Pennsylvania Legislature
granted a charter to the Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company (which
never constructed its road), the act stated that the purpose of the
railroad was to connect Pittsburgh with the canal at Massillon, Ohio.
The railroad quickly superseded the canal, however, and when men
perceived that the mountains could be conquered by a portage road, it
was a natural step to plan the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio
railroads on a system of easy grades, so that all obstacles of height
and distance were annihilated. The Pennsylvania Railroad was
incorporated April 13, 1846, and completed its roadway from
Philadelphia to Pittsburgh February 15, 1854. The canal was for a time
operated by the Pennsylvania Canal Company in the interest of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company, but its use was gradually abandoned. The
division from Pittsburgh to Johnstown ceased to be operated in 1864, and
that portion which was in the Juniata Valley was used until 1899, while
the portion lying along the Susquehanna River was operated until
1900.[C]
[Footnote C: There is an interesting relief map of the portage railroad
of the Pennsylvania Canal in the Carnegie Museum.]
[Illustration: Over the mountains in 1839; canal boat being hauled over
the portage road]
Other railroads came as they were needed. The Baltimore and Ohio
received a charter from the State of Maryland on February 28, 1827, but
did not reach Pittsburgh until December 12, 1860, when its Pittsburgh
and Connellsville branch was opened. The Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad
was built into Pittsburgh July 4, 1851, and became part of the
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway in 1856, that line reaching
Chicago in 1859. The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis
Railway (the "Pan Handle") was opened between Pittsburgh and Columbus,
Ohio, October 9, 1865. The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, now a part
of the New York Central Lines, was opened into Pittsburgh in February,
1879. The Wabash Railway completed its entrance into the city on June
19, 1904.
XIII
[Illustration: View of Old Pittsburgh, 1817]
In 1784 the town was laid out and settlers, among whom were many Scotch
and Irish, came rapidly. The town was made the county seat in 1791,
incorporated as a borough in 1794, the charter was revived in 1804,
and the borough was chartered as a city in 1816. The first charter
granted to Pittsburgh in 1816 vested the more important powers of the
city government in a common council of fifteen members and a select
council of nine members. In 1887 a new charter was adopted giving to the
mayor the power to appoint the heads of departments who were formerly
elected by the councils. On March 7, 1901, a new charter, known as "The
Ripper," was adopted, under the operations of which the elected mayor
(William J. Diehl) was removed from his office, and a new chief
executive officer (A. M. Brown) appointed in his place by the governor,
under the title of recorder. By an act of April 23, 1903, the title of
mayor was restored, and under the changes then made the appointing power
rests with the mayor, with the consent of the select council. The
following is a list of the mayors of Pittsburgh:
1816-1817, Ebenezer Denny
1817-1825, John Darragh
1825-1828, John M. Snowden
1828-1830, Magnus M. Murray
1830-1831, Matthew B. Lowrie
1831-1832, Magnus M. Murray
1832-1836, Samuel Pettigrew
1836-1839, Jonas R. McClintock
1839-1840, William Little
1840-1841, William W. Irwin
1841-1842, James Thomson
1842-1845, Alexander Hay
1845-1846, William J. Howard
1846-1847, William Kerr
1847-1849, Gabriel Adams
1849-1850, John Herron
1850-1851, Joseph Barker
1851-1853, John B. Guthrie
1853-1854, Robert M. Riddle
1854-1856, Ferdinand E. Volz
1856-1857, William Bingham
1857-1860, Henry A. Weaver
1860-1862, George Wilson
1862-1864, B. C. Sawyer
1864-1866, James Lowry
1866-1868, W. S. McCarthy
1868-1869, James Blackmore
1869-1872, Jared M. Brush
1872-1875, James Blackmore
1875-1878, William C. McCarthy
1878-1881, Robert Liddell
1881-1884, Robert W. Lyon
1884-1887, Andrew Fulton
1887-1890, William McCallin
1890-1893, Henry I. Gourley
1893-1896, Bernard McKenna
1896-1899, Henry P. Ford
1899-1901, William J. Diehl
1901, A. M. Brown (Title changed to Recorder)
1901-1903, J. O. Brown (Recorder)
1903, W. B. Hays (Recorder; served about one week under that title)
1903-1906, W. B. Hays (Mayor again)
1906-1909, George W. Guthrie
A movement to consolidate the cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny
together with some adjacent boroughs, was begun in 1853-54. It failed
entirely that year, but in 1867 Lawrenceville, Peebles, Collins,
Liberty, Pitt, and Oakland, all lying between the two rivers, were
annexed to Pittsburgh, and in 1872 there was a further annexation of a
district embracing twenty-seven square miles south of the Monongahela
River, while in 1906 Allegheny was also annexed; and, as there was
litigation to test the validity of the consolidation, the Supreme Court
of the United States on December 6, 1907, declared in favor of the
constitutionality of the act.
XIV
The first national convention of the Republican party was held in
Pittsburgh on February 22 and 23, 1856. While this gathering was an
informal convention, it was made for the purpose of effecting a national
organization of the groups of Republicans which had grown up in the
States where slavery was prohibited. Pittsburgh was, therefore, in a
broad sense, the place where the birth of the Republican party occurred.
A digression on this subject, in order that the record may be made
clear, will probably not be unwelcome.