Fine morning--Clement’s tavern--Washington--Go on in the stage--Meet
an acquaintance--Canonsburgh--Morganza--Colonel Plummer’s--Coal
Hill--Frightful road--Charming views--Monongahela ferry--Arrive at
Pittsburgh.
Thursday, twenty-first August, I walked on with the first dawn of a
fine morning, nothing being wanting to render it delightful, except
the carrol of the winged inhabitants of the woods, which throughout
this whole country is very rare. I stopped to rest a few minutes at
Clement’s tavern, five miles on the road, where I found a number of
young men and women up, and drest decently, and even genteelly, though
so early; indeed many of them had the appearance of not having been
in bed all night. On inquiry I learned that there had been a wedding
here last night, which had occasioned such a concourse of young people.
Several of the males joined {216} the landlord in civilly pressing
me to take my morning dram of bitters with them, and they were not a
little astonished at my excusing myself, and requesting in lieu, a
little milk and water.
Wishing to arrive in Washington in time to join the stage for
Pittsburgh, I walked very fast, on a good road, through a pleasant but
hilly country, and got to M’Cammont’s tavern, as the family were rising
from breakfast.[151] The table was however soon replenished with plenty
and variety, to which I did ample justice from the excellent effect on
my appetite, of early rising, and a ten miles’ walk.
Having a little time before the stage would depart, I walked through
the town, and was much pleased with it. Washington is surrounded by a
fertile, well cultivated, and well inhabited country, rather hilly,
but the hills not very steep. The town occupies a hill itself, and
consists of one main street, intersected at right angles by four
shorter ones, the whole containing one hundred and seventy-five
dwelling houses, a good brick court-house and a stone gaol adjoining;
two meeting houses, one of brick for Presbyterians, and an old one
of logs for Methodists; a neat masonick lodge of stone and lime, and
a small market house. There are several stores and taverns, and on
the whole it is a thriving town, and a pleasant residence for either
trader, mechanick or private man, the inhabitants being a spirited and
polished people, mostly descendants from the northern Irish.
At noon I left Washington in the stage, having the pleasure of a
fellow traveller in my old acquaintance Dearborn, who was returning to
Pittsburgh after an excursion to Washington for the purpose of taking
some likenesses. His anecdotes of domestick and social occurrences at
Pittsburgh during my absence, beguiled the time pleasantly, and we were
in Canonsburgh, without being sensible of the seven {217} miles between
Washington and it. The road leads mostly along Chartier’s creek,
crossing it three times in that distance. We stopped at Westbay’s
excellent tavern, where is also the post office. They were making
preparations for dinner, which (having breakfasted so late) we declined
partaking of, and amused ourselves with a walk through the town. It is
on the S. western declivity of a steep hill, having Chartier’s creek at
the bottom. It contains eighty-eight houses, of different descriptions,
exclusive of the college, which is a plain stone edifice, much out of
repair, with a cupola belfry. There is also a small market house, but
the town does not seem flourishing; indeed was it not for the college,
it would probably soon go to decay, in favour of its more successful
neighbour Washington.[152] The most striking thing I saw here was my
landlord’s garden, which is both good and handsome, being laid out
with taste, abounding in a variety of the best culinary vegetables,
and having some very pleasant shady bowers, where the student, or man
of leisure, sheltered from the noonday sun, and inhaling the fragrance
of the surrounding aromatick plants, might luxuriantly roam into the
realms of fancy.
Two miles from Canonsburgh, we passed Morganza, the seat of general
Morgan, on the left. It is a long and narrow frame building, with
two ends lower than the body of the house, by way of wings--the
whole ornamented with green jalousie window shutters. The situation,
immediately on the road side, does not appear well chosen, especially
as the general apparently had a choice of a variety of situations, any
of which I should have supposed, would have merited a preference. One
is more apt to be struck with any thing like false taste in any work
which has been finished under the direction of a man of education and
refinement, which in addition to {218} liberal hospitality, is general
Morgan’s character, as well as that of his amiable and accomplished
lady.[153]
At Fosset’s, three miles further, we changed an excellent set of grey
horses, for as good a one of bays, owned by my friend M’Cullough of
Pittsburgh.--For four miles from Fosset’s to M’Cully’s, the country
is neither so fertile, nor so well cultivated as before, but it there
improves again a little, and is ornamented at two miles further, by
colonel Plummer’s fanciful but handsome house and fine farm on the
left. Rather exceeding three miles more brought us to the top of the
Coal hill, the descent of which to the Monongahela, almost a mile, is
so steep that two of the wheels of the stage wagon had to be locked,
and I frequently wished myself out of it, but it was impossible to
stop to get out, so I comforted myself with the reflection that no
unfortunate accident had yet happened to the stages on this hill, which
giving me courage, I was enabled to enjoy the views so inexpressibly
fine, which are perpetually varying, as the road winds down the hill.
From a bird’s eye view on the top, the town of Pittsburgh, Grant’s
hill, and even Boyd’s hill so much higher than Grant’s, appear as
a plain, enclosed by the Monongahela from the S. E. directly under
one, and the Allegheny meeting it at a point below the town, and both
together forming the Ohio, which glides off majestically towards the N.
W.--keeping the course of the Monongahela rather than that of the more
rapid Allegheny, which flowing into it at a right angle from the N. E.
is seen several miles upwards in that direction, with some beautiful
islands about three miles above Pittsburgh. Descending the hill, the
Monongahela gradually opens more on the right from its breadth assuming
the appearance of a beautiful lake surrounded by irregular hills, with
Mr. Beelen’s finely situated country house, shewing to great advantage,
at its upper end.
{219} When near the bottom of the coal hill, a sudden precipice on the
right, and a short turn of the road to the left, brought back our
thoughts home to ourselves, but the well trained horses seeming to know
exactly where they should place their feet, soon removed us from the
object of terror, and without stopping, trotted directly with the stage
and us into the ferry flat, which was prepared to receive us--after
which, ten minutes sufficed to land us at Pittsburgh.
FOOTNOTES:
[151] William McCammant’s tavern, at the sign of the “Cross Keys,” was
first opened in 1801. An advertisement of early prices cited “dinner
and horse-feed, twenty-five cents; jurors and others attending court,
two dollars per week.”--ED.
[152] For the history of Canonsburgh and the college here mentioned,
see Harris’s _Journal_, vol. iii of this series, p. 347, note 31.--ED.
[153] Morganza was the home of Colonel George Morgan, a prominent
character in Western land history. He was originally a member of
a large firm of Philadelphia Indian traders, and made journeys to
Pittsburg as early as 1768. In the treaty of Fort Stanwix of that year,
his firm was one of those reimbursed for losses by a grant of Western
lands, out of which grew the Indiana Company, for which Morgan during
many years acted as agent and secretary, vainly seeking confirmation
of the grant by the Virginia legislature and later by Congress. At
the outbreak of the Revolution, Morgan was made Indian agent for the
Western Department, with headquarters at Pittsburg. At the close of
the war, removal to Princeton, New Jersey, brought Morgan into contact
with college life, his services as trustee being much appreciated. In
1788-89, he was engaged in a scheme for settling a colony on Spanish
territory at New Madrid, but several trips to New Orleans on this
business failed to effect a satisfactory arrangement. Morgan next
turned his attention to the estate in Washington County, Pennsylvania,
which had recently been bequeathed to him by his brother. Thither he
removed in 1796, and at Morganza occurred the dinner at which Burr was
charged with treasonable remarks against the authority of the United
States. The death of Morgan occurred at Morganza in 1810.--ED.