Pittsburgh--Panorama round it.
At the conflux of the rivers Allegheny and Monongahela, the French when
possessed of Canada, had the principal of a line of posts extending
from that country round the back frontier of the British settlements,
for the purposes of awing the aborigines and commanding their trade,
and to prevent the spreading of the Anglo-American colonization
beyond these limits. It was named Fort Du Quesne, after the Marquis
Du Quesne, a governour of Canada. It was always kept well garrisoned
by European troops, and in time of war, was never without an army
of auxiliary Indians encamped under its protection. This continual
state of preparation cost the British much blood. In the year 1757,
general Grant, with a regiment of eight hundred Scotch highlanders,
arrived without discovery on a hill immediately commanding the fort,
since named after him Grant’s hill, where thinking himself secure of
conquest, he alarmed the enemy by beating the reveille at sunrise.
The garrison, without awaiting {220} to be attacked in the fort,
which would not have been tenable, and reinforced by a strong body of
Indians, stole out under the high river banks, and divided itself into
two parties, one of which took the route upwards of the Monongahela,
and the other that of the Allegheny, until they flanked Grant’s little
army, when profiting by the woods, with which the hill and surrounding
country were then covered, they suddenly attacked it in flanks and
rear, cut to pieces, tomahawked and scalped the greater number, while
the rest with the general saved their lives by becoming prisoners to
the French, on whose mercy they threw themselves.[154]
The following year 1758, was productive of greater slaughter to the
British, by the defeat of general Braddock’s army of five thousand
men, being surprised by the French and Indians in great force on the
banks of the Monongahela, when within eight miles of Fort Du Quesne,
then a wilderness, but now well inhabited and ornamented on the very
spot by the handsome brick house and fine farm of judge Wallace.[155]
The general and three-fourths of the army, were shot down from behind
trees, while in the parade of European tacticks, presenting four bold
open fronts to the enemy, being formed in a hollow square. The few who
escaped, did so under the protection of Col. since Gen. Washington’s
provincial militia, who by opposing a similar warfare against the
savage enemy, covered the retreat of the few remaining regulars.
Some time afterwards in the same year, the fort capitulated to general
Forbes, and the river Allegheny having made some encroachment on it
by undermining its banks, a new and more extensive fortification of
a square with four bastions was erected by general Stanwix just
above, and named Fort Pitt, in honour of the then prime minister
of England.--It cost government £60,000 sterling. A garrison {221}
was kept here for several years after the peace of 1763, but it was
withdrawn on the commencement of the disputes between Britain and
America, and the inhabitants of the surrounding settlement, which had
not yet taken the form of a town, occasionally forted themselves for
defence against the Indians, and so late as the year 1781, there were
only a few small houses and cabins on the banks of the two rivers,
under protection of the fort, a noble row of brick and stone houses
built by the French Indian traders on the banks of the Allegheny,
having been undermined and swept away by that river since 1766, in the
memory of some of the present inhabitants of Pittsburgh.[156] After
1781, Pittsburgh began to improve slowly, and in 1784 a gazette[157]
was established in it.[158] In 1783 Fort Pitt was repaired by general
Irwin, but was afterwards neglected, and a stoccado fort called Fort
Fayette, was erected on the bank of the Allegheny, half a mile above
Fort Pitt.[159] Fort Fayette is now used as a barrack and place of
deposit of stores, but is useless for either offence or defence. The
surrounding grounds were handsomely laid out, planted, and ornamented
by general Wilkinson[160] some years ago, and considering the smallness
of the field he had to work on, shew much taste, and are an ornament to
the eastern and principal approach to the town, in which situation the
fort stands.
The town or borough, as it now is, has increased in a very rapid degree
both in size and consequence since the last ten years. The plan, by
its being designed to suit both rivers, is rather irregular, Penn and
Liberty streets which are very fine streets, running parallel to the
Allegheny, while the principal {222} part of the town is parallel and
at right angles with the Monongahela.
In seventeen streets and four lanes or alleys in March 1808, were two
hundred and thirty-six brick houses, of which forty-seven were built in
the last twelve months, and three hundred and sixty-one wooden ones,
seventy of which were added last year. There are fifty stores generally
well assorted and supplied, and which divide the retail business of the
town and adjacent country in tolerably good proportion. Some however
have rather a superiority of custom, the owner of one of which, a man
of veracity, assured me that he received in ready money, one market
day with another, one hundred and fifty dollars, and that he had once
taken one hundred and eighty besides the credit business. Either as
a trading or a manufacturing town, I think Pittsburgh for situation,
is not excelled in the United States, and that it bids fair to become
the emporium of the centre of the federal union. There are 24 taverns,
four or five of which are excellent ones, and the rest of every grade.
An account of the manufacturies and tradesmen was taken in the fall
of 1807, the result of which was--A cotton manufactury, having a mule
of 120 threads, a spinning jenny of 40 threads, 4 looms and a wool
carding machine under the same roof; a glasswork for green glass on the
opposite side of the Monongahela, and another just erected for white
glass on the town side of the same river; two breweries, where are made
excellent beer and porter, equal to any in the United States; an air
furnace, where all sorts of hollow iron utensils are cast; four nail
facturies, at one of which one hundred tons of cut and hammered nails
are made annually; seven coppersmiths, tinplate workers and japanners;
one wire weaving and riddle factury; one brass foundery; six saddlers
and harness-makers; two gun-smiths; two tobacconists; one bell-maker;
three tallow-chandlers; {223} one brush maker; one trunk-maker; five
coopers; thirteen weavers; ten blue-dyers; one comb-maker; seven
cabinet-makers; one turner in brass, ivory and wood; six bakers;
eight butchers; two barbers; six hatters; two potteries of earthen
ware; eight straw bonnet-makers; four plane-makers; six milliners;
twelve mantua-makers; one stocking weaver; two book-binders; four
house and sign painters; two portrait painters; one mattress-maker;
three wheelwrights; five watch and clock-makers and silversmiths; five
bricklayers, five plasterers; three stonecutters; eight boat, barge
and ship builders; one pump-maker; one looking-glass plater and maker;
one lock-maker; seven tanners; two rope-makers; one spinning wheel
maker; seventeen blacksmiths; one machinist and whitesmith; one cutler
and tool-maker; thirty-two house carpenters and joiners; twenty-one
boot and shoemakers; five windsor chair-makers; thirteen tailors;
one breeches-maker and skin-dresser; twelve school-masters; four
schoolmistresses; four printing offices; six brick yards; three stone
masons; two book-stores; four lumber yards; one maker of machinery for
cotton and woolen manufacturies; one factury for clay smoking-pipes;
and one copper-plate printing press.
The tradesmen above mentioned are all master-workmen, who employ more
or less assistants in proportion to their business.
Besides the fine situation of Pittsburgh for manufacturies, another
circumstance encourages much the settlement of industrious tradesmen
in it, which is the cheap, plentiful and various market. There are two
market days weekly, and the common prices of necessaries are,--good
beef, from 2½ to 4 cents per lb., pork 3½, mutton 4, veal 3, venison
3 to 4, bacon 6 to 10, butter 10 to 18, cheese 8 to 12, hogs lard 8,
{224} fowls each 10 to 12, ducks 25, geese 33 to 37, turkies 40 to 75,
flour $1 75 to 2 50 per cwt. or from 3 50 to 4 50 per barrel, corn 33,
potatoes 40, turnips 18, Indian meal 40 cents per bushel, onions a
dollar, white beans a dollar, dried apples and peaches a dollar, and
green 40 cents per bushel, eggs 10 to 18 cents per dozen, fresh fish
3 to 6 cents per lb., maple sugar, very good, made in the country, 10
to 12 cents a pound, whiskey 30 to 40 cents per gallon, peach brandy
75 to 80, beer 5 to 7 dollars a barrel, and cider 3 to 4, 700 country
linen 40 cents, and tow cloth 33 cents per yard;[161] but salt comes
high, being generally 2½ dollars per bushel, which is occasioned by
its being supplied from the Onondago salt works, in the upper part of
the state of New York, from whence it is brought by water with a few
portages, through part of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and down French
creek and the Allegheny to Pittsburgh, where it is a great article of
trade, giving employment to several keel boats on the river.
The situation of Pittsburgh is unrivalled with respect to water
communication, with a great extent and variety of country; and would
also be so in beauty was it not hemmed in too closely by high and steep
hills. It may notwithstanding be called a beautiful situation, as there
is a variety in those very hills, which all differ in appearance from
each other, and admit between them fine vistas up the Allegheny and
Monongahela, and down the Ohio, which river is formed by the confluence
of the other two, and which after flowing eleven hundred miles through
all its sinuosities, is itself lost in the Mississippi, at a point
about W. S. W. from Pittsburgh, from whence eleven hundred miles more
carry that chief of Atlantick rivers (whether with regard to unimpeded
navigation, or the immense body of water discharged through it) into
the ocean below New Orleans, in {225} about a south direction from its
confluence with the Ohio.
Standing on the point which was the scite of the old French Fort Du
Quesne, about the middle of the last century, and of which there is
now no vestige, and looking up the Allegheny to the northward, a chain
of hills, with a narrow bottom partially cultivated between the hills
and the river, bound the view on the left, while two beautiful little
islands, the uppermost one cultivated, and owned by a Mr. Wainwright
from England, terminate the water prospect in front.
Turning gradually to the right, the eye looks over the dry ditch and
old ramparts of the former English Fort Pitt, which succeeded Fort Du
Quesne, beyond which are a few straggling apple and pear trees, being
all that remains of the king’s and artillery gardens, planted and
cultivated by the first British garrison, and now laid out in streets
and town lots. Looking onward up the bank of the river, which is about
thirty feet above the surface, when the water is lowest, houses, trees,
and cultivated fields, are seen for three miles to Mr. Davis’s large,
and handsomely situated house, about half a mile beyond the race
course, and the same distance above Wainwright’s island. Hills covered
with wood, rising amphitheatre-like behind Davis’s, terminate the view
that way.
Turning a little more to the right, the eye follows the Quarry hill,
which is a ridge of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet
perpendicular height, crowned with lofty forest trees, under which is
a quarry of fine building stone, about half a mile long, with a good
wagon road along its whole length, from every part of which are most
charming views of the town and rivers, the cultivated sides of the hill
below, and the rich and luxuriant plain of a quarter of a mile wide
between the foot of the hill and the Allegheny, {226} with the post and
stage road from Philadelphia and the eastern states running through the
middle of it two miles from Hill’s tavern to the town, which in its
most compact part, with the belfry of the court-house, the Episcopal
brick octagonal church, a handsome Presbyterian brick meeting house,
and the roofs of the dwelling houses intermixed with lombardy poplars
and weeping willows, the eye still approaching itself, is the next
object.
A little to the right of the last line of view, Grant’s hill, with
its sloping sides and regular ascent to about one hundred feet
perpendicular height, covered with delightful short green herbage,
seems to obtrude itself into the town, affording to the citizens a
charming mall or promenade both for exercise and air. It lies within
the bounds of the borough; but it is to be hoped that general O’Hara,
who is the proprietor, will with true patriotism, reserve it for its
present use, and not permit one of the greatest ornaments of Pittsburgh
to be destroyed, by having it cut down and levelled for building lots.
Its belonging to a man of such extensive property is a fortunate
circumstance for the inhabitants, as that may prevent its being changed
from pleasure to profit, to which it might be more liable was it owned
by some needy person. Was the general to fence it in, terrace it, which
could be done at a small expense, ornament it with clumps of evergreens
and flowering shrubs, and erect a few banqueting houses in the forms
of small temples according to the different orders of architecture, it
would be one of the most beautiful spots, which not only America but
perhaps any town in the universe could boast of.
Grant’s hill is united to the Quarry hill, by a plain at first flat,
then rising gradually, over the middle of which on a very commanding
situation, is seen the handsome cottage of Mr. Tannehill, a continental
officer during the revolutionary war, who now enjoys {227} the evening
of life in the shade of the finest fruit trees of this climate, of his
own planting, for which rational and delightful employment as well as
horticulture in general, he has a good taste.[162]
Still continuing to turn to the right, the next prominent object is the
house of Mr. James Ross, an eminent lawyer, which he purchased from a
Mons. Marie, a Frenchman, who had taken great pains to cultivate a
good garden, which Mr. Ross does not neglect, and in which, on the top
of an ancient Indian tumulus or barrow, is a handsome octangular summer
house of lattice work, painted white, which forms a conspicuous and
pleasing object.
From Mr. Ross’s, which is immediately behind the top of Grant’s hill,
there is a gradual slope to a small but elevated plain, called Scotch
or Scots hill, from its being the residence of several families from
the northern Hebrides. It is improperly called a hill as it is no
higher than the general level of the town, which is about forty feet
above the low water mark of the Monongahela, to the bank of which river
this plain extends, from the foot of the hill below Mr. Ross’s house.
A valley commencing at the upper extremity of this plain, divides
Grant’s and Grove hills (the latter the seat of Mr. Tannehill before
mentioned) from Boyd’s hill, which equally steep and twice as high as
Grant’s, is the most striking feature in the view, {228} still looking
to the right over the principal part of the town. This valley is
watered by a little rivulet called Suke’s[163] run, which flows past a
pleasant retired situation, said to have been formerly inhabited by one
Anthony Thompson, long before Pittsburgh was a town. A few indigenous
plum trees are the only vestiges of its former occupancy. The rivulet
passes Mr. Watson’s large brick house, supplies a tanyard owned by
general O’Hara, then crossing the Monongahela road, falls into that
river at the ship-yards, at a low inlet between Scots hill plain and
Boyd’s hill, where several vessels have been built, some as large as
four hundred tons. The coal which supplies Pittsburgh with fuel, is
brought on wagons from a distance not exceeding two miles, and is
delivered in the town at six cents a bushel.
Boyd’s hill was formerly named Ayre’s hill, from a British engineer
of that name who wished to have it fortified, but it changed its
appellation about twenty years ago in consequence of one Boyd, a
printer, hanging himself there on a tree. It was first cleared and
cultivated by a Highland regiment, which built huts on it, no remains
of which now exist.
The view from Boyd’s hill exclusive of the Allegheny, which is veiled
by Grant’s and the Quarry hills, is as fine as that from the Quarry
hill exclusive of the Monongahela, shut out from it by Boyd’s, and
is more uninterrupted down the Ohio to Robinson’s point and Brunot’s
island, almost three miles.
The Monongahela is then the next object to the right of Boyd’s hill.
It is four hundred and fifty yards wide, and is seen to the N. E. in a
vista of about two miles, when it takes a sudden bend to the eastward,
and disappears behind the hills, at the extremity {229} of this vista,
at the Two mile run, Mr. Anthony Beelen, a respectable merchant, has
a neat ornamented cottage, opposite the bend, on the left bank, which
commands a view of the reach above, as well as of that below to the
town. The intermediate bank between Mr. Beelen’s country seat and
Pittsburgh, has a pleasant road along it, which is one of the principal
avenues to the town, and which is surmounted by the ridge, of which
Boyd’s hill is the termination, whose round regular bluff verges into a
bare rock, crowned with trees, impending romantically over the road in
the whole distance from Two mile run.
Still turning to the right the opposite bank of the Monongahela
presents to the eye a fine level bottom well cultivated and settled,
with a ridge of hills half a mile behind it, which gradually approach
the river until immediately opposite the town, where rising abruptly
from the water’s edge to the height of about five hundred feet
perpendicular, they take the name of the Coal hill, from that fuel
being formerly dug out of it for the use of the town, before pits were
opened more convenient on this side of the river. It still supplies
the coal for general O’Hara’s glass-works, which, with the houses of
the overseer and workmen, forms a village at the foot of the hill on
the river bank, immediately opposite the point where the spectator
stands, who has now gone round rather more than half a circle since his
first view up the Allegheny. Window glass of a good quality and quart
bottles, are made at this manufactury, which with a rival one at New
Geneva, about sixty miles up the Monongahela, supplies all the western
country.
The face of the Coal hill is very steep, and on the summit, major
Kirkpatrick[164] has a farm house and barn, which seem to hang
immediately over Pittsburgh, to a traveller approaching from the north
{230} eastern avenues. The bird’s eye view from thence of the town and
rivers is very striking. Every street, lane, alley, house and object,
however minute (if visible to the eye) being delineated under the
spectator, as a plan on paper, the inequalities of surface not being
discernible, and even Grant’s hill being flattened to a plain on the
optick sense.
Continuing to turn to the right from our original centre, the point,
we see the Ohio for about two miles, with Elliot’s mills on Saw-mill
run below Coal hill on the left, an amphitheatre of lower hills about
Chartier creek and M’Kee’s farm to Brunot’s island in front, and
Robinson’s point and Smoky island at the mouth of the Allegheny on the
right.
The eye still keeping its circuit, looks over a fine level of three
thousand acres, once intended as the scite of a town to be called
Allegheny, to be the capital of the county, but the situation of
Pittsburgh being very properly judged more convenient, it has
eventually become the seat of justice of the county, and the most
flourishing inland town in the United States. A chain of irregular
hills, not so steep, but nearly as high as Coal hill, bounds this
level, and completes the Panorama.
The plan of Pittsburgh by being designed to suit both the rivers, is
in consequence irregular. The ground plot is a triangle. Some of the
streets run parallel to each river, until they meet at the point,
and they again are intersected by others at right angles, meeting at
acute angles in the centre. At one of those acute angles at a corner
of Wood street, is the Episcopal church, an octagonal building of
brick not yet finished, and nearly opposite on the other side of the
same street is a Presbyterian meeting-house of brick also, well built,
neat, and roomy. In a remote street near Grant’s hill, is a small old
framed Presbyterian meeting-house, used by a sect a little differing
from the other, and the German Lutherans {231} have a small house of
worship near it--at the N. E. end of the town is a very good brick
meeting-house for a large congregation of Covenanters--and without
the town, near Mr. Woods’s handsome seat, a handsome brick church is
building for a society of Roman Catholicks. The court-house in the
centre of the town is the only publick building which remains to be
mentioned.
It is well built of brick, is spacious, and convenient for judiciary
purposes, and serves for a place of worship for the Episcopal society
until their own church is finished, as also occasionally for itinerant
preachers to display their oratory--and the jury room up stairs is
sometimes converted into a very good temporary theatre, where private
theatricals are practised in the winter by the young gentlemen of the
town.
A respectable society of Methodists meet at each others houses, not
having yet any house for that express purpose.
From the number of religious houses and sects, it may be presumed that
the sabbath is decently observed in Pittsburgh, and that really appears
to be the case in a remarkable degree, considering it is so much of a
manufacturing town, so recently become such, and inhabited by such a
variety of people.
Amusements are also a good deal attended to, particularly concerts
and balls in the winters, and there are annual horse races at a
course about three miles from town, near the Allegheny beyond Hill’s
tavern.[165]
On the whole let a person be of what disposition he will, Pittsburgh
will afford him scope for the exercise of it.
FOOTNOTES:
[154] Cuming’s historical narratives are not as accurate as his
observations. This defeat of Grant occurred in 1758, and but a third of
the troops engaged were killed and captured--540 out of 813 returning
to Bouquet’s camp at Loyalhanna. See Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_
(Boston, 1885), ii, pp. 150-154.--ED.
[155] General Braddock’s defeat occurred July 9, 1755; the site of the
battle-field is now covered by the manufacturing town of Braddock,
Pennsylvania.
Judge George Wallace, whose farm comprised the field of battle when
Cuming wrote, was an eminent citizen of Allegheny County. First
appointed presiding judge of Westmoreland (1784), then of Allegheny
County (1788), he acted as magistrate until his death (1814). Wallace
had not studied law, but held his position on account of being a large
landholder; his fairness and moderation, especially during the Whiskey
Rebellion, proving of great service to the settlements.--ED.
[156] Brackenridge’s Gazette Publications.--CRAMER.
[157] Published by Mr. John Scull, the first press established west of
the Allegheny mountains.--CRAMER.
[158] The publication of the Pittsburg _Gazette_ was begun July 29,
1786, and continued for several years under great difficulties.
Sometimes the consignment of paper from Philadelphia failing to arrive,
it was printed on cartridge paper obtained from the commandant of the
fort. John Scull remained the owner and proprietor until 1818, when
he retired to Westmoreland County where he died ten years later. The
publication of the _Gazette_ has been continuous to the present day,
being now known as the _Commercial Gazette_.--ED.
[159] For note on Fort Fayette, see Michaux’s _Travels_, vol. iii of
this series, p. 32 note 12.
General William Irvine was a Scotch-Irish Revolutionary officer who
had been captured on the Canadian expedition (1776) and not exchanged
until two years later. Commissioned brigadier-general, he was sent by
Washington, at a critical juncture, to take command at Fort Pitt, and
there remained until peace was signed (1783). Thereupon he retired
to Carlisle, and after distinguished public services died in 1804.
Pennsylvania granted him a tract of land near Erie in return for his
services.--ED.
[160] The career of General James Wilkinson is as remarkable as
his character is despicable. His adroitness and power of inspiring
confidence maintained him in his intrigues, and gave him the
opportunity of playing a prominent part in early Western affairs. His
share in the Revolution was indicative of the man, he being concerned
in the Conway Cabal and other questionable movements. At the close of
the war, he migrated to Kentucky and engaged in mercantile business.
His commercial connection with New Orleans furnished the opportunity
for his intrigue with the Spaniards, whose paid agent he became, for
attempting to dismember the union. Returning to the army, he acted
as second in command under Wayne. Upon the latter’s death, he became
commander-in-chief, and after 1805 was appointed governor of Louisiana.
In this position he first embarked upon, and then betrayed the schemes
of Aaron Burr. Not able entirely to clear himself of suspicion,
Wilkinson was removed from his Western position at the outbreak of the
War of 1812-15; and after a futile and mismanaged campaign against
Montreal demanded an investigation by court-martial. This being
inefficiently conducted, Wilkinson was acquitted, but he soon (1815)
retired to extensive estates which he had acquired near the City of
Mexico, where he died ten years later.--ED.
[161] Ohio and Mississippi Navigator--sixth edition.--CRAMER.
[162] What adds to the beauty of Mr. Tannehill’s seat is, a handsome
grove of about two acres of young black oaks, north-west of his
dwelling, through the middle of which runs a long frame bowery, on
whose end fronting the road, is seen this motto, “1808, _Dedicated to
Virtue, Liberty and Independence_.” Here a portion of the citizens meet
on each 4th of July, to hail with joyful hearts the day that gave birth
to the liberties and happiness of their country. On the opposite side
of the road to the bowery, is a spring issuing from the side of the
hill, whose water trickles down a rich clover patch, through which is a
deep hollow with several small cascades, overhung with the willow, and
fruit trees of various kinds.--CRAMER.
[163] This rivulet derives its appellation from the circumstance of
a woman named Susan, nicknamed Suke, having either hung herself in
a thicket of plum trees here, or drowned herself in the run, about
thirty-five years ago.--CRAMER.
[164] Major Abraham Kirkpatrick, a Marylander by birth and a
Revolutionary officer, was one of the earliest settlers of Pittsburg. A
brother-in-law of John Neville, he aided the latter in his difficulties
with the insurgents in the Whiskey Rebellion. Nevertheless, he was
popular in his vicinity, and left a number of descendants who became
useful citizens.--ED.
[165] We are sorry to have it to acknowledge that _horse racing_,
contrary to an express law of the state, has been more or less
practised within the vicinity of this place a few years back, but
are pleased with the prospect of having it totally abolished by the
influence of its evident impropriety, danger, and wickedness, operating
on the minds of the more thoughtful and judicious.--CRAMER.
{232} _Notes made in descending the rivers Ohio and Mississippi in the
spring of 1808--from Maysville._