C. Mercer; these artists were all born in Pennsylvania; the consecutive
line of historical and idealistic thought in the decorations was a
conception of the architect. In Capitol Park, sixteen acres, notable for
shrubbery and flowers, is a bronze equestrian statue, General and
Governor John Frederick Hartranft; sculptor, Frederick W. Ruckstuhl;
also Mexican monument, white marble, erected by the state in 1868, in
memory of citizens lost in war with Mexico, 1846-48. An elementary
course of art is taught in nearly every public school in Pennsylvania,
prepared by the Department of Public Instruction at Harrisburg, the
basis of all art instruction in normal schools; nearly every summer
school in the state offers a course in freehand drawing, and special
courses for both grade teachers and supervisors.
Harrisburg is famous for her park system, the 972 acres extend along the
river front, and to the center of the city for over a mile. Harris Park,
four acres, from Paxton Street to Mulberry Street; contains monument to
John Harris, first settler, and John Harris, Jr., founder of the city;
facing the park, below Mulberry Street, is the Harris residence, stone,
built in 1766; little changed from the original form; Lincoln Park, two
and one-fourth acres, from Mulberry Street to Market Street, contains
memorial, “In memory of J. Conrad Weiser, 1696-1764, Provincial
Interpreter, and his friend Shikellimy, 1683-1748, an Oneida Chief.”
Erected about 1911. Facing this park is the building of the Historical
Society of Dauphin County, with interesting museum. Promenade Park,
three and one-half acres, Market to State Streets; and the D. W. Gross
Park, two acres, Water to Herr Streets, with bronze memorial statue, a
charging soldier, in memory of Sylvester P. Sullivan. Reservoir Park,
eighty-eight acres, contains the city reservoir, giving a lake setting,
with elaborate planting of flowers and shrubs; best scenic view is from
this elevation. Wildwood Park, 666 acres, has a large lake for boating.
The Boulevard or Parkway, 146 acres, is along streams, through ravines,
and meadows; landscape architect, Warren H. Manning.
[Illustration: THE JOY AND BURDEN OF LIFE
Harrisburg State Capitol
_George Gray Barnard, Sculptor Photographed by Boyd P. Rothrock,
Curator_]
St. Patrick’s Procathedral; architect, George I. Lovatt; Renaissance;
main altar, marble, is reproduction of Bernini’s altar in St. Peter’s,
Rome. In Grace Protestant Episcopal Church is a painting by E. Irving
Couse, “Adoration by the Shepherds.” Soldiers’ Monument, State and
Second Streets, “To the Soldiers of Dauphin County, in 1861-65; erected
by their fellow citizens in 1869.” Bronze tablet in west wall of the
Camp Curtin School House, corner of Sixth and Woodbine Streets;
commemorating site of old Camp Curtin, 1861-65; placed in 1911, by
Keystone Chapter, United States Daughters of 1812. Memorial Market
Street entrance to the City of Harrisburg; eastern approach to new
bridge, formerly the old “Camel Back,” includes two columns from the old
burned state capitol, and commemorative bronze tablets, designed by A.
Sterling Calder; architect, Albert Kelsey; presented by the Henry
McCormick Estate under auspices of the Harrisburg Civic Club; erected
and dedicated in 1906.
HERSHEY, the chocolate town, a model village, out of which daily roll
fifteen cars loaded with candies and chocolate; in 1915 Dunkards came
from all over the United States to the annual conference of the “Church
of the Brethren,” held in convention hall which seats six thousand,
built for them by M. S. Hershey, largest meeting in the history of their
church.
The Susquehanna River, one mile wide here, is spanned by three other
bridges; Mulberry Street viaduct is said to be largest reinforced
concrete bridge in the world, designed and erected by James H. Fuertes;
stone arch bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Rockville, said to be
the largest four-track stone bridge in the world. Historic buildings;
residence of William Maclay, first United States Senator from
Pennsylvania, built in 1791; original building intact, with large wing
added; on upper river front above South Street, used later by the
Harrisburg Academy. Old Derry Church, Derry Township, a Presbyterian
settlement since 1724, first log church built in 1732; present stone
building on first site, built, 1883; has burial ground of much historic
interest; Old Hanover Church, Presbyterian, eleven miles from
Harrisburg, first log church built on Bow Creek in 1735; present
building closed; the ancient burial ground is chief point of interest.
Old Paxtang Church, Presbyterian, three miles east of Harrisburg, first
log church said to have been built in 1716, with burial ground; present
stone building built, 1740. Bronze gate and tablet at Paxtang Cemetery
is memorial to soldiers of the French and Indian War and the Revolution;
dedicated in 1906 by Harrisburg Chapter, Daughters of the American
Revolution. Fort Hunter, five miles from Harrisburg on Fort Hunter and
Fishing Creek Road, was laid out about 1760, on a high bluff facing the
Susquehanna River, colonial house, built in 1814 by Colonel Archibald
McAllister, is on foundations of an English blockhouse known as Hunter’s
Fort.
XVII
LUZERNE COUNTY
Formed September 25, 1786; named in honor of Anne Cæsar, Chevalier de la
Luzerne, minister from France to the United States 1779-83. Ranks third
in number of inhabitants of Pennsylvania counties. Along either bank of
the Susquehanna, a broad and shallow river, lie rich, fertile, alluvial
bottom lands, mostly well cultivated; bounding them are ranges of hills
and mountains 1200-1600 feet above sea level; other mountains in the
northwest of the county attain an altitude of 2200 feet. In the
northeast lies the historic Wyoming Valley, Indian name, Maughwauwama,
or large plains, a long, oval basin from Campbell’s Ledge to Nanticoke
Falls, some sixteen miles in length, with an average breadth of three
miles.
Luzerne County lies within the limits of the Connecticut Charter,
granted in 1662, and within the limits of the Pennsylvania Charter
granted in 1681; this double ownership caused much contention in later
years, finally the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut was victorious;
settlers now came rapidly, and by 1778 were distributed in several
villages, with schools, churches, and all the characteristics of New
England orderliness and thrift, enthusiasm and devoted patriotism. The
British leader, Colonel John Butler, saw that this settlement was
exposed in position, and that they had sent the
[Illustration: LUZERNE COUNTY]
best part of their militia to serve in Washington’s army, so with a
company of his own rangers, a regiment of Johnson’s Greens, and a band
of Indians, in all about 1200 men, he took the warpath from Niagara;
they journeyed down the Susquehanna in bark canoes, landed above the
settlement, and began their work of murder and plunder, harrowing
incidents are made known by Campbell in his “Gertrude of Wyoming.” The
women and children were placed in the fort. At the junction of Fort and
River Streets, in the borough of FORTY FORT; a conglomerate boulder with
bronze tablet, marks the site of “Forty Fort,” erected by the
Connecticut settlers in 1772. From this fort, on July 3, 1778, the
Wyoming Militia, numbering about 300, mostly old men and boys, marched
forth to oppose the invading British troops and Indians, fight the
Battle of Wyoming, and meet with complete defeat and atrocious massacre,
in which the British officers were unable to set any bounds in the
butchery of their savage allies; next day the fort was taken; the
Indians burned all the houses; the inhabitants fled to the woods, and
the valley was abandoned; a hundred women and children perished of
fatigue and starvation. On Wyoming Avenue in the borough of Wyoming is
the “Wyoming Monument,” marking the burial place of many of the patriots
who were slain in the battle and massacre; dedicated July, 1846.
On Susquehanna Avenue near Seventh Street is “Queen Esther’s Rock,” a
half-breed queen of the Senecas, on which she tomahawked fourteen
prisoners; marked by a tablet, placed by the Daughters of the American
Revolution, bearing this inscription, “Upon this rock the Indian queen
Esther slaughtered the brave patriots taken in the battle of July 3,
1778.” On the bank of the river, near the Pittston Ferry bridge, in the
borough of WEST PITTSTON, is a small monument marking site of Jenkins’
Fort, destroyed by the British and Indians July, 1778. The Battle of
Wyoming, with the subsequent massacre, was one of the important events
of the Revolutionary War, as it led to the sending of the Sullivan
Expedition in 1779 into the country of the Six Nations, whereby the
power of their confederacy was forever broken. WHITE HAVEN Township was
the place of Sullivan’s army encampment, in 1779.
The oldest church in the county is in Forty Fort, not far from the site
of the old fort, interior of the building remains as it was when erected
in 1808; in the burial ground are many old graves, with headstones
bearing quaint inscriptions. Other historic places marked by tablet or
monument are, site of a bridge built by the engineers of General John
Sullivan’s army in the spring of 1779, on the banks of Ten Mile Run,
northwest of Bear Creek Village, marked by boulder with tablet. Place
where two commissioned officers, and three others of General Sullivan’s
army were ambushed and slain by Indians, April, 1779; marked by boulder
with tablet. In the Public Square, WILKES-BARRE, is a monument marking
site of Fort Wilkes-Barre, erected in 1776-77 by the inhabitants of the
town; destroyed by the British and Indians July, 1778. On the river
common, at the foot of Northampton Street, a boulder, with tablet, marks
the site of Fort Wyoming, erected, 1771, demolished in 1774 or 1775.
And at the foot of South Street a boulder, with tablet, is erected near
the site of Fort Durkee, built in 1769 by first settlers from
Connecticut, named for their leader, Major John Durkee, who founded and
named Wilkes-Barre in honor of John Wilkes and Colonel Barre; this fort
fell into decay prior to 1776, it was located near site of a village
occupied from 1758-63 by a band of Delaware Indians under “King”
Tedyuscung.
WILKES-BARRE, county seat, was settled, 1772, population, 73,833. Places
of modern interest, containing historical collections, portraits, and
paintings, open free to the public, are the Courthouse, modified
adaptation of classic, the façade, with Ionic porch, is very dignified,
surmounted by a Gustavino dome; architects, Osterling, McCormick &
French; said to be one of the handsomest and most elaborately decorated
courthouses in this country; contains mural paintings by E. H.
Blashfield, Kenyon Cox, Will H. Low, William T. Smedley, C. D. Hinton,
and others. Irem Temple, Moorish design, with tall slender minarets at
each corner. Osterhout Free Library, Gothic. Wyoming Historical and
Geological Society. The Second National Bank, with interesting Ionic
porch at entrance, steel frame, faced with brick and concrete,
architects, McCormick & French. First Presbyterian Church and St.
Stephen’s Protestant Episcopal Church contain handsome memorial tablets
and stained glass windows; a fine bronze relief, by J. Massey Rhind, is
in St. Stephen’s. In the Coal Exchange Building is the Atherton Atelier,
T. H. Atherton, Jr., Superintendent, Architecture, in coöperation with
Society of Beaux Arts. Particular care has been given to improving the
public parks located in different parts of the city. Public square in
center, and the river commons, stretching along the bank of the
Susquehanna for a considerable distance, are attractive and noteworthy.
Opposite the city, across the river, is Riverside Park, chiefly a
natural grove of old trees.
The principal educational institution is Wyoming Seminary, co-ed, at
KINGSTON, founded in 1844, conducted under auspices of the Wyoming
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, ranks high as a college
preparatory school and has an academic art course. There are many places
of scenic beauty; notably the Conyngham dairy and stock farms at
Hillside, just outside Wyoming Valley, on the road from Kingston to
Harvey’s Lake, which is 1226 feet above sea level; one of the largest
stock farms in the state, covering 651 acres. Sugarloaf Valley, not far
from HAZLETON. The Hazleton Country Club. Glen Summit Springs and the
neighboring country, Bear Creek Village, and Wyoming Valley, viewed
either from Campbell’s Ledge, Mount Lookout, or Prospect Rock.
The principal roads are maintained in good order, and there are no toll
roads in the county. For many years the chief industry has been the
mining of anthracite coal, discovered here in 1762; for a considerable
period it stood first among the counties in annual output; first
development of this coal for shipping to market from the Wyoming region
was in 1776, when two Durham boats purchased cargoes from a mine
operated by R. Greer, near Wyoming. There are many large manufactories.
Within a ten mile circle, having Wilkes-Barre public square as its
center, there were, according to the United States census of 1910,
thirty-three smaller municipalities, cities, boroughs, and hamlets,
having a total population, including Wilkes-Barre, of 266,951. The other
principal towns of this county are Hazleton, population 32,277;
Nanticoke, 22,614; Plymouth, 16,500; Pittston, 18,497; West Pittston,
6968; Kingston, 8952. Peter Frederick Rothermel, prominent historical
painter, was born in Nescopeck, this county, in 1817.
[Illustration: HUNTINGDON COUNTY]
XVIII
HUNTINGDON COUNTY
Formed September 20, 1787; named by Provost William Smith, of the
University of Pennsylvania, in honor of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon,
a benefactress of the University; lies within the central mountainous
region, being drained by the Juniata. Many fine farms are on the rich
soil of the river flats. Juniata iron early became famous, and numerous
iron works were erected; the old Bedford Furnace was near Orbisonia.
Abundance, variety, and value of the ores; rich and convenient deposits
of limestone; contiguity of the Broad Top, Allegheny and Cumberland coal
fields, combine to indicate the importance of this country. Other
industries are coal-mining, lumber, agriculture, and manufactories.
Large water-power dams of the Pennsylvania Central, and Raystown Water
Power Companies generate electric light and power.
HUNTINGDON, county seat; population 7051, largest town on the Juniata.
The first white visitors to this region were traders, in traffic with
Indians, exchanging goods for furs and skins. On incursions, made before
the middle of the eighteenth century, they found a tribe, a branch of
the Six Nations, located on the now southeast portion of this borough,
their wigwams circling around a pillar of stone, 14 feet high and 6
inches square, covered with hieroglyphics supposed to be a record of
their history and achievements. This tribe, besides hunting and fishing,
had cleared land and cultivated corn. This stone was regarded with
great veneration by the natives; here they had assembled for centuries
to hold their grand councils; its conspicuous position and appearance
led the white visitors to name the locality, “Standing Stone,” it stood
above Second Street, on or near 208 Allegheny Street. Conrad Weiser, in
1748, and John Harris, in 1754, in accounts of their journeys to the
Ohio River, both describe this stone.
The Proprietaries of this province, ever mindful of the rights of the
Indians, would not grant lands, nor permit settlements to be made until
the Indian title had been purchased; at a treaty held in Albany, in
1754, the Six Nations, consisting of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras, executed a deed to the Proprietaries
for a large portion of the province, including the whole valley of the
Juniata; soon after, the resident tribe migrated, and, it is supposed,
carried the stone with them. The seal of the borough has, as its central
figure, a Standing Stone. A second stone was erected by the settlers;
and in 1896 a third, at Penn and Third Streets; as a memorial of the
ancient standing stone of the Indians. Fort Standing Stone was built
here at an early date; site about intersection of Penn and Second
Streets, it was stockaded and provided with barracks, blockhouses, and
magazines constructed of heavy hewn timber, and was the place of many
important incidents during troublesome times following the defeat of
General Braddock in 1755, and until peace was made with Great Britain in
1783.
Provost William Smith, D.D., obtained the land in 1766 from George
Croghan, and numerous other tracts in the vicinity, and in 1767 caused
the town of Huntingdon to be laid out, now on the William Penn Highway;
the proprietor donating plots of ground for a public school, cemetery,
and to each of six prominent religious denominations. About 1797 a post
office was established here, and John Cadwallader was appointed
postmaster; a weekly mail was carried between Harrisburg and Huntingdon.
The most important public buildings, architecturally, are Juniata
College, nine buildings, erected 1878-1916; the older buildings are
colonial; Library, Gothic, red brick with terra-cotta trimmings, built,
1907; contains memorial windows; the Church of the Brethren on the
college campus, Gothic; McGee sandstone; erected, 1910; members of this
sect settled in this county in 1775; and the J. C. Blair Memorial
Hospital, Spanish mission style, light buff brick and Indiana limestone
trimmings, on a commanding position overlooking the town. E. L. Tilton,
New York, architect, also of the College Library and Church of the
Brethren.
Among the places of historic interest in the county are Fort Shirley,
built, 1755, on bluff near site of Indian town of Aughwick, now
Shirleysburg. McAlevey’s Fort, at the head of Standing Stone Creek
Valley, named for Captain William McAlevey, afterwards general in the
Revolutionary War. Warm Springs, five miles northeast of Huntingdon,
known, in 1775, as a resort for invalids. Pulpit Rocks on the Warriors
Ridge, on the old pike between Huntingdon and Alexandria. And Jack’s
Narrows, where the Juniata River cuts through Jack’s Mountain, west of
Mount Union. The Pennsylvania Canal extended through this county from
Shaver’s Aqueduct, below Mount Union, to line of Blair County, above
Water Street; here in Indian times canoes came to receive supplies of
lead. Two miles east is ALEXANDRIA, laid out, 1793; in 1800 the turnpike
was completed to Alexandria, and stage service to Harrisburg began; fare
charged travelers was six cents a mile; this town was the shipping point
of grain for the rich Hart’s Log and Shaver’s Creek valleys.
XIX
ALLEGHENY COUNTY
Formed September 24, 1788; named from Delaware Indian word signifying
“Fair Water.” Surface undulating, many elevations being precipitous. Is
the center of one of the richest bituminous coal and natural gas
districts in the world. Oil fields lie mainly in basins of Allegheny and
Ohio Rivers. Staple manufactures are iron, steel and glass. The history
of Allegheny County presents a greater variety of startling incidents
than almost any other portion of the state. Mound builders were primeval
inhabitants, site of ancient fortifications are on Chartier’s Creek,
eight miles from PITTSBURGH, county seat, second city in size in the
state, on site of Shannopin’s Town, chief of about twenty families of
Delawares; he attended councils with the Governor; his name is signed on
several state archives. By it ran the main Indian path from east to
west.
Washington first came to “The Forks,” in 1753, on way to Fort Le Boeuf.
The French possessed it as Fort Duquesne 1754-58, when it was conquered
by General Forbes; General Stanwix erected a stockade and named it Fort
Pitt, for the British premier. In 1764, Colonel Bouquet built a redoubt
on site of the Fort; old brick blockhouse is still standing, Penn Avenue
near Second Street. First town of Pittsburgh built near the Fort in
1760, inhabitants enjoyed
[Illustration: ALLEGHENY COUNTY]
comparative quiet until 1763, when Pontiac’s War broke out and they were
completely surrounded by savages, later rescued by Colonel Bouquet. In
1811 first steamboat ever run on western waters was launched at
Pittsburgh, the “New Orleans.” In 1839 first iron steamboat made in the
United States, the “Valley Forge,” was built here.
The sister city, ALLEGHENY, north side, was incorporated with Pittsburgh
in 1907, combined population 588,343. An art commission was organized,
1911, for an improvement in public works of art in Pittsburgh, and to
educate public sentiment for civic beautification; in 1915, E. H.
Bennett, City Planning Architect of Chicago, was engaged to make a
thorough economic and æsthetic analysis of “The Point,” at junction of
the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers.
Close to the business center is SCHENLEY PARK, 440 acres, acquired by
gift to the city in 1889, contains the Carnegie Institute; Carnegie
Institute of Technology; Phipps Conservatory and Hall of Botany, given
by Mr. Phipps in memory of his mother, with one of the most beautiful
bronze statues in the world, “Mother and Child,” French sculptor;
Hawkins Memorial, a bronze portrait figure, backed by wall of polished
granite, base and floor marble, sculptor, Richard H. Couper, erected,
1904, in honor of Colonel Hawkins, Tenth Pennsylvania Regiment, in
Spanish-American War; Panther Hollow, in which is an arch bridge, Beaver
County sandstone, with panthers, sculptor, G. Moretti; and two other
stone arch bridges built in 1892, architect, A. L. Schultz.
Near the Forbes Avenue entrance is the great central building of the
CARNEGIE INSTITUTE, established by Andrew Carnegie with large annual
fund, in perpetuity, for purchase of objects of art and scientific
collections; built 1892-95, Italian Renaissance, sandstone, architects,
Alden & Harlow, enlarged in 1904-07, contains Library, Music Hall,
Department of Fine Arts, and the Natural History Museum, in which are
large collections of ancient pottery, Chinese glass, and porcelains
representing various eras; jades and crystals; valuable collections of
coins and medals; illuminated manuscripts and early printed books, cut
and uncut gems; one of the largest collections of carved ivory in the
United States; and art metal work. The Library operates more than one
hundred and seventy agencies for free distribution of literature, within
“Greater Pittsburgh.”
On top of the building are four bronze groups, representing Science,
Art, Literature, and Music. Bronze statues, Michelangelo and Galileo,
are at entrance to Art Gallery. Entrance to Music Hall is through
exquisitely designed bronze doors, wrought in relief, with bronze
statues, Bach and Shakespeare, at either side. These bronzes were
designed and modeled in the studio of J. Massey Rhind, and cast in
Naples. Foyer to the Music Hall is considered the most beautiful portion
of the Institute; here are twenty-four huge columns of Tinos marble,
with gilded Corinthian capitals; and one of the finest organs in the
world, on which the greatest organists obtainable give concerts of
highly classical music, which are free, every Saturday night and Sunday
afternoon. The great Archer, Queen Victoria’s Jubilee organist, held
this position for many
[Illustration: GALLERY OF THE SCULPTURE HALL, CARNEGIE INSTITUTE,
PITTSBURGH]
years. The Hall of Sculpture, designed on lines of the Parthenon, is two
stories high, around the first story is a Greek Doric colonnade; above
this is a row of Ionic columns, all of the most flawless, milk-white,
Pantelicon marble, dug out of the quarries from which the marble of the
Parthenon itself was obtained; collections of sculpture represent,
chronologically, its history from early Egyptian to the Renaissance of
the sixteenth century.