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Cornell University Library 
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Old 
 Pittsburgh Days 
 
 By 
 
 T. J. Chapman 
 
 Author of " The Valley of the Conemaugh," 
 
 " The French in the Allegheny 
 
 Valley" etc. 
 
 Pittsburgh 
 
 J. R. Weldin & Co. 
 
 Mdcccc 
 
Copyright, 1900 
 BY J. R. WELDIN &- CO. 
 
 ''■.Lippincott Press," Philadelphia 
 
Preface 
 
 There is no foot of American soil richer in histori- 
 cal incident than the point of land at the confluence of 
 the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers/ Here began 
 that struggle between France and England which was 
 destined to involve many nations in its course, to en- 
 dure through two generations, and cover with its rav- 
 ages the face of the civilized world. About the rude 
 fortification at the head of the Ohio cluster a score of 
 names illustrious on the page of history. The later 
 annals of this spot are scarcely less interesting. 
 
 In the following pages we have attempted an outline 
 of the story of Pittsburgh. Within the compass of a 
 single small volume it has been impossible to relate all 
 the details of that story ; but we have tried to preserve 
 the thread of the narrative and to embody the more 
 striking events. We have not aimed to make a book of 
 Indian stories. We have not aimed to make a book of 
 industrial and social statistics. What we have aimed 
 to do has been to present a sketch of the origin and 
 early development of our city that should be correct as 
 to matters of fact and as attractive as possible. We 
 trust the reader will find entertainment and profit in 
 contemplating the old days of Pittsburgh. 
 
 T. J. C. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://archive.org/cletails/cu31924028863665 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I Rival claims 7 
 
 II The stress of war 27 
 
 III The turn of the tide 49 
 
 IV Fort pitt and bushy run 73 
 
 V Pioneer life 90 
 
 VI Trouble with dunmore 105 
 
 VII In the revolution 115 
 
 VIII After the storm 130 
 
 IX Indian hostilities 148 
 
 X The whiskey insurrection 166 
 
 XI Public thoroughfares 181 
 
 XII Three distinguished visitors 198 
 
 XIII Stirring events 213 
 
 XIV Churches and schools 226 
 
Old 
 Pittsburgh Days 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 RIVAL CLAIMS 
 
 Who was the first white man to set his foot upon 
 the site of Pittsburgh it is, of course, impossible to 
 say. Indian traders at an early period made their way 
 through the devious paths of the forest, carrying with 
 them such articles as were most in requisition by the 
 savages, and returning with heavy packages of valu- 
 able skins and furs. Among these traders were a few 
 honorable men; but generally they were men of no 
 principle, whose influence among the Indians was only 
 evil. 
 
 It was not until about the middle of the eighteenth 
 century that the region of country about the head- 
 waters of the Ohio comes into distinct view. Two 
 claimants then appear upon the scene. The French, 
 who had formed settlements in Canada and Louisiana, 
 laid claim to the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys by right 
 of the explorations of La Salle, and now they proposed 
 to assert their claim by establishing a series of military 
 posts that would connect their remote settlements to- 
 gether. The effect of this course would be to confine 
 
 7 
 
8 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 the English to the comparatively narrow strip of coun- 
 try occupied by them along the Atlantic coast. 
 
 ■ About the same time the English began to cast their 
 eyes in this direction. By the charters of 1607 and 
 1609 was granted to the London Company, all the ter- 
 ritory lying between a point two hundred miles north 
 and one two hundred miles south of Point Comfort, 
 having thus a frontage of four hundred miles on the 
 ocean, and extending " up into the land' throughout 
 from sea to sea." The boundary-line between Virginia 
 and the western part of Pennsylvania had not been 
 conclusively determined, and the Virginians laid claim 
 to the region drained by the head-waters of the Ohio. 
 It was a vast and unknown domain, inhabited by the 
 bear, the elk, and the wolf, and the red man, scarcely 
 less wild than they. In the year 1716, Governor Spots- 
 wood, of Virginia, a man of chivalric character, or- 
 ganized an expedition whose object was to visit the 
 shadowy realm beyond the Blue Ridge. His expedi- 
 tion, however, advanced only as far as to the Shenan- 
 doah, which they named the Euphrates.* From the 
 summit of the mountains they looked upon the land- 
 scape. " Not a white man," says Dr. Caruthers, " had 
 ever trod that virgin soil from the beginning of the 
 world. What a solemn and sublime temple of nature 
 was there ! And who could look upon it, as it spread 
 far out to the east and west until it was lost in the dim 
 and hazy horizon, and not feel deeply impressed with 
 the majesty of its Author ?"f With suitable ceremo- 
 
 * John Esten Cooke's " Virginia," p. 314. 
 
 t " The Knights of the Horseshoe," chapter liii. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 9 
 
 nies Governor Spotswood assumed possession of this 
 fair country in the name of King George the First, 
 and then returned to Williamsburg. In commemora- 
 tion of this enterprise was founded the old Virginian 
 order of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. 
 
 In the year 1748 a number of enterprising gentle- 
 men, mainly Virginians, organized what was termed 
 the Ohio Company, whose chief object was to divert 
 as far as possible the fur-trade to Virginia. In further- 
 ance of their objects they procured from the king a 
 grant of five hundred thousand acres of land west of 
 the mountains, to be taken chiefly on the south side of 
 the Ohio, between the Monongahela and the Kanawha 
 Rivers; and it was stipulated in the charter that the 
 Company should, within seven years, seat one hundred 
 families on the land, build a fort, and maintain a gar- 
 rison to protect the settlement.* 
 
 In the struggle for possession, which was fast coming 
 on, the French, while greatly in the minority in the 
 country, were much more prompt and active in assert- 
 ing themselves than the English. In the summer of 
 1749, M. Celoron was despatched to take formal pos- 
 session of the Ohio Valley. At that time the Allegheny 
 River was regarded as the upper Ohio, and was called 
 indifferently the Ohio, Allegheny, and La Belle Riviere, 
 or the Beautiful River. Celoron was a chevalier of St. 
 Louis and a captain in the colony troops. He had upon 
 the present service a detachment consisting of one cap- 
 tain, M. de Contrecoeur, second in command; a chap- 
 lain. Father Bonnecamp, a Jesuit priest; eight subal- 
 
 * " The Monongahela of Old." By James Veech. P. 41. 
 
lo OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 tern officers, six cadets, twenty soldiers, one hundred 
 and eighty Canadians, and about thirty Indians. They 
 left La Chine, near Montreal, on the 15th day of June, 
 in a flotilla of twenty-three canoes. They pushed their 
 way laboriously up the St. Lawrence, entered Lake 
 Ontario, and skirting the northern shore, they reached 
 Niagara on the 6th of July. Here they were obliged to 
 shoulder their canoes and luggage and carry them 
 through the forest to Lake Erie above the falls. Re- 
 embarking, they paddled along the southern shore until 
 they reached the mouth of Chautauqua Creek. The 
 creek was not navigable and they were forced to carry 
 their outfit to the head of Lake Chautauqua, a distance 
 of eight or nine miles. Passing down this beautiful 
 sheet of water whose name is now world-famous, they 
 entered Conewango Creek, and at noon on the sgth 
 of July, after a most arduous voyage of five days, their 
 canoes floated out into the broader current of the Alle- 
 gheny. Rowing across to the southern side of the 
 river, Celoron here nailed up on a tree a tin plate bear- 
 ing the arms of the King of France, and buried at the 
 foot of a red oak a plate of lead bearing an inscription 
 which set forth that he had thereby taken renewed pos- 
 session of the river Ohio " and of all those which fall 
 into it, and of all the territories on both sides as far as 
 the source of the said rivers, as the preceding Kings of 
 France have possessed or should possess them." Again, 
 on the 3d of August, at a point eight miles below the 
 mouth of French Creek, " opposite a naked mountain, 
 and near an immense stone upon which certain figures 
 are rudely carved," he nailed a plate of tin bearing the 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS ii 
 
 king's arms to a tree, and buried a leaden plate similar 
 to the one he had buried on the shore opposite the 
 mouth of the Conewango. The immense stone, now- 
 known as " the Indian god," still lying on the left bank 
 of the Allegheny, sufficiently marks the site of Celo- 
 ron's encampment. These two were the only plates he 
 buried in the Allegheny Valley. The sheets of tin were 
 soon torn down by the natives;' neither of the leaden 
 plates has ever been found. 
 
 Celoron desired to meet the natives in their villages 
 as he passed down the river. To this end he sent for- 
 ward an officer, a very capable man named Chabert de 
 Joncaire, a half-breed whose father had been a French 
 officer, to reassure the Indians and invite them to meet 
 Celoron; but they were suspicious and generally fled 
 to the woods upon the approach of the canoes. Such 
 as stood their ground Celoron endeavored to win over 
 to the French interest. At several points he found 
 parties of English traders, one consisting of six men 
 with fifty horses and one hundred and fifty bales of 
 furs, at Chartier's town, an old Shawanese village 
 which stood near the site of the present town of Taren- 
 tum. These men he ordered to withdraw from the 
 territories claimed by the French, and by them sent a 
 letter to the governor of Pennsylvania. This letter is 
 still among the archives of the State. In it Celoron 
 expresses his surprise to find some English merchants 
 in a country to which England never had any preten- 
 sions. He had treated them, he said, with mildness, 
 though he had a right to regard them as " intruders 
 and mere vagrants." Another party of six traders he 
 
12 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 found at a village within the limiis of the present city 
 of Pittsburgh, ruled by an old Iroquois woman, who, 
 he says, " looks upon herself as queen." Here is per- 
 haps the first distinct reference to the site of Pitts- 
 burgh on record. The village was called Shannopin's 
 town. It lay on the bank of the Allegheny, in what is 
 now the Twelfth Ward of Pittsburgh, and near the foot 
 of Thirty-second Street. Shannopin was the name of 
 the chief who had lived here. He died not long before 
 the visit of Celoron. The old Iroquois woman referred 
 to was the famous Queen Aliquippa. The queen and 
 her subjects had all fled. 
 
 Celoron calls the place " Written Rock." This name 
 was no doubt conferred on it by himself, and found its 
 origin in the fact that at a short distance below, his 
 Indians, in passing, saw certain writings on a rock by 
 the river. The place was what, is now known as Mc- 
 Kee's Rocks. This circumstance seemed so important 
 that he despatched the chaplain and Joncaire to ex- 
 amine the writings. They did so, and reported that 
 "they were nothing more than some English names 
 written with charcoal." 
 
 From Shannopin's Celoron passed on down to Logs- 
 town, or Chiningue as he calls it, an important Indian 
 town on the right bank of the Ohio, about where Se- 
 wickley now stands. The Indians at Logstown were 
 generally favorable to the English. Only the year 
 before this Conrad Weiser, the agent for Pennsylva- 
 nia, had held a council here with the chiefs of a num- 
 ber of tribes and had distributed valuable presents 
 among them. But now, upon the approach of this 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 13 
 
 large body of Frenchmen, it was thought best to dis- 
 semble. When Celoron came in sight of the town he 
 beheld three French flags flying and only one English. 
 As the fleet of canoes drew in to the landing the natives 
 fired a salute of musket-balls. This surprised and 
 somewhat alarmed Celoron, who had "no confidence 
 in their good intentions," and he ordered them to stop 
 it, or he would open fire upon them. He ordered the 
 English flag to be taken down, which was promptly 
 done. He surrounded his camp with guards, not feel- 
 ing quite at ease among them. A large body of war- 
 riors came to the town, and appearances were some- 
 times very threatening. But evidently the savages were 
 afraid to attack so strong a force, and all warlike 
 demonstrations gave way to presents and mutual 
 palaver. Early in the morning of the 12th of August 
 Celoron and his men resumed their canoes and so 
 passed on down the Ohio and beyond the purview of 
 our story.* 
 
 Only twelve months after Celoron had returned to 
 Montreal quite a different adventurer was threading 
 his way through the Ohio Valley. This new-comer 
 was Christopher Gist. He was now in the service of 
 the Ohio Company, and his present duty was to explore 
 the country that had been granted by the king. He 
 was instructed to proceed westward of the great moun- 
 tains with whatever number of men he should think 
 necessary, " to search out and discover the lands upon 
 the river Ohio and other adjoining branches of the 
 
 *An English translation of Celoron's Journal has been pub- 
 lished by the Rev. A. A. Lambing, LL.D. 
 
14 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Mississippi down as low as the great falls thereof," 
 to observe particularly the ways and passes through 
 the mountains, to take an exact account of the soil, 
 quality and product of the land, the character of the 
 rivers, the Indian tribes that inhabited the region, etc., 
 " that the Company may the better judge where it will 
 be most convenient for them to take their land." Gist, 
 who is believed to have been an Englishman by birth, 
 was at this time living on the Yadkin, in North Caro- 
 lina. What had been in his previous career to recom- 
 mend him to this service we do not know ; but certain 
 it is the duty could not have fallen into more capable 
 or faithful hands. During the border troubles of the 
 succeeding half-dozen years Gist bore a conspicuous 
 part, and in every position acted with credit to himself 
 and advantage to the service. 
 
 Gist set out on this expedition October 31, 1750. 
 November 14 he arrived at Loyalhanna, "an old In- 
 dian town on a creek of the Ohio called Kiscominitas." 
 This town stood where Ligonier now stands. It is a 
 historic spot. The Indian chief at Loyalhanna could 
 speak English, and he directed Gist to Shannopin's 
 town, on the Allegheny. He reached Shannopin's on 
 the 19th and remained until the 23d of the month. 
 There were then about twenty families in the town. 
 He says nothing about Queen Aliquippa. During his 
 stay here he no doubt visited the localities in the neigh- 
 borhood, the point at the confluence of the Allegheny 
 and Monongahela Rivers, and the bluff at the mouth 
 of Chartier's Creek. He says nothing about it, how- 
 ever, in his journal. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 15 
 
 Leaving Shannopin's, he crossed the Allegheny and 
 proceeded down the river. The path to Logstown was 
 along the line of East and West Ohio Streets to Beaver 
 Avenue, in Allegheny, and then along the river-bank. 
 This was the path pursued by Gist. At Logstown he 
 " found scarce anybody but a parcel of reprobate In- 
 dian traders," the Indian chiefs being out hunting. 
 He remained over Sunday at Logstown, but left bright 
 and early Monday morning. " I preferred the woods," 
 he says, "to such company." Gist traversed a great 
 part of the present State of Ohio. At Muskingum he 
 fell in with George Croghan, a man prominent in his 
 day, who was here now as the agent of Pennsylvania 
 to brighten the chain of friendship with the Indians. 
 With Croghan was the French-Indian interpreter An- 
 drew Montour. Croghan, Gist, and Montour went 
 together to White Woman's Creek, a branch of the 
 Tuscarawas, to visit Mary Harris, who lived there. 
 She had been captured when a little child at the mas- 
 sacre of Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704, and had 
 now been living nearly fifty years among the savages, 
 "finding such comfort as she might," says Parkman, 
 "in an Indian husband and a family of young half- 
 breeds." Poor woman! she remembered her early 
 childhood. The people of New England, she said, 
 used to be very religious, and she wondered how white 
 men could be so wicked as she had seen them in the 
 woods. 
 
 Gist was absent on this tour about seven months. 
 He returned through what is now the State of West 
 Virginia, reaching his home on the Yadkin in May, 
 
i6 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 1751, only to find his family all absent; for the Indians 
 had killed five people in the winter near his place, which 
 frightened his wife and family "away to Roanoke," 
 about thirty-five miles nearer the more settled parts of 
 the country.* 
 
 Meanwhile, the French had not been indififerent. 
 They were far from being satisfied with a mere con- 
 structive ownership of the Ohio Valley. La Galis- 
 soniere had been recalled to France, and a few years 
 later he appears as commander of the French fleet at 
 the siege of Minorca, one incident of which was the 
 execution of the unfortunate Admiral Byng. The 
 Marquis de la Jonquiere had been appointed his imme- 
 diate successor in the governorship of Canada; but 
 he was an old man, and his administration was brief 
 and not marked by any great enterprise. He died in 
 March, 1752, and was succeeded by the Marquis Du- 
 quesne. The new governor began his administration 
 with vigor. He at once set about taking actual posses- 
 sion of the Ohio Valley, by establishing a line of mili- 
 tary posts along the watercourse. If they had been 
 allowed to complete this, French domination in North 
 America would have been assured. "Thus by form- 
 ing a line of forts," says a writer of that period, " in 
 some measure parallel to the coast, they inclose tis be- 
 tween their garrisons and the sea, and not only hinder 
 our extension westward, but, whenever they have a 
 sufficient navy in the sea, can harass us on each side, 
 as they can invade us at pleasure from one or other of 
 
 * See " Christopher Gist's Journals, with Notes," etc., by Wm. 
 M. Darlington. J. R. Weldin & Co., Pittsburgh, 1893. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 17 
 
 their forts." * To this end Duquesne, in the early 
 spring of 1753, sent out a force of not less than one 
 thousand men under M. Marin, to occupy the desired 
 region. This force proceeded by way of the St. Law- 
 rence and the Gr^at Lakes in a large fleet of canoes. 
 The course pursued by Celoron had been so difficult 
 that a less arduous route to the Ohio had been sought 
 and found. Passing the point where Celoron had 
 landed, Marin kept his course until he came to the 
 beautiful bay at Erie, — Presqu' Isle they called it, the 
 peninsula, from the long encircling arm which the land 
 puts out and gathers the waters of the harbor to its 
 bosom. Duquesne called the harbor "the finest in 
 nature." Near the shore at Presqu' Isle they at once 
 built a fort of squared logs, with four bastions. They 
 then opened a road south fifteen miles, to a branch of 
 French Creek, where the town of Waterford, Erie 
 County, now stands. Here they built a somewhat 
 larger fort, which they named Le Boeuf. They desired 
 also to erect a fort at Venango, at the mouth of French 
 Creek. Thus would they have completed the chain in 
 the northwest, and would have fastened a link upon 
 the shore of the Ohio itself. But the Indians at Ve- 
 nango would not consent to this; besides, the French 
 force was sadly wasted by fatigue and illness; and a 
 fort there was not built at that time. Joncaire, a man 
 of singular adroitness, courage, and activity, so far 
 prevailed with the Indians that he was permitted to 
 remain upon the spot with a handful of soldiers. M. 
 Marin had failed in health, and Legardeur de St. 
 
 * Dr. Johnson on the " Political State of Great Britain," 1756. 
 
 2 
 
i8 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Pierre, a gallant knight of the Order of St. Louis, 
 was appointed in his place. St. Pierre fixed his quar- 
 ters at Fort Le Boeuf. The French force, leaving a 
 small garrison at each of the forts they had established, 
 in the month of October returned to Montreal. When 
 the winter of 1753 set in the French flag was flying 
 at Presqu' Isle, Le Boeuf, and on the Allegheny river- 
 bank at Venango. 
 
 Rumors of all this were carried from time to time 
 by the traders to Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia. 
 He was a hard-headed old Scotchman, exceedingly 
 jealous for the rights of those whom he represented. 
 He took the alarm and wrote a message to the French 
 commandant, insisting upon the claims of the English 
 to the Ohio Valley, and urging the French to with- 
 draw. This message he intrusted to Major George 
 Washington, of the Virginia militia, a youth of only 
 twenty-one years, but who had already given evidence 
 of those high qualities for which he was afterwards 
 so distinguished. 
 
 It is with a thrill of interest that we r.ead in Chris- 
 topher Gist's journal, under date of Wednesday, No- 
 vember 14, 1753, the simple entry: "Came this day 
 to my house in Wills Creek Major George Washing- 
 ton with a letter from the Virginia council requesting 
 me to accompany him to the commandant of the 
 French forts on the Ohio." It was the first step in a 
 great career. Little did Gist dream of the vast per- 
 sonality in the tall youth that stood before him. 
 
 Besides Gist, who went as guide, Washington had 
 with him Jacob Vanbraam, a French interpreter; 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 19 
 
 John Davison, an Indian interpreter; and four hired 
 men or servitors, Barnaby Currin, John McQuire, 
 Henry Steward, and William Jenkins. This Barnaby 
 Currin was an Indian trader, and three years before 
 he had been at Muskingum when Gist was there, and 
 he it was that had besought leave to bury the remains 
 of a poor white woman who had been cruelly mur- 
 dered there by the Indians for attempting to escape 
 from captivity. With this small retinue Washington 
 on the next day "left the inhabitants" and plunged 
 into the wilderness. 
 
 The principal path from the forks of the Ohio east- 
 ward was what was called Nemacolin's Path. This 
 had been an Indian trail from a remote period; but 
 in 1748, when the Ohio Company determined to open 
 out a road to the Ohio Valley, Colonel Cresap, of Old- 
 town, who was put in charge of the work, engaged 
 Nemacolin, a well-known Indian of the Delaware tribe, 
 who resided at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek, to locate 
 and mark the way.* It was by this path that Wash- 
 ington and his party now rode over into the valley of 
 the Ohio. On the 22d of the month of November they 
 reached the house of John Frazier, at the mouth of 
 Turtle Creek. This John Frazier was a somewhat 
 noted man on the border. He was a Scotchman, and 
 by trade a blacksmith or gunsmith, as he is described 
 in both characters. In 1749 he was living at the 
 mouth of French Creek; but upon the approach of 
 Celoron he had fled. When Celoron called upon the 
 Indians there to drive away the English, they begged 
 
 * Veech's " The Monongahela of Old," p. 26. 
 
20 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 that "the blacksmith" might be allowed to remain; 
 otherwise they should have no one to mend their guns, 
 and they would be left to perish. Frazier did not re- 
 turn to Venango. We find him now living at the 
 mouth of Turtle Creek, at a spot shortly afterwards 
 to be made famous. The French took possession of 
 his house at Venango, and Joticaire and his compan- 
 ions installed themselves in it. Gist says that Frazier 
 received Washington and his retinue very kindly, and 
 lent them a skiff to carry their baggage to the forks of 
 the Ohio. This had become necessary, because the 
 streams along the way were now so swollen by the 
 heavy rains as to be quite impassable except by swim- 
 ming their horses. 
 
 The next day the party left Frazier's house. The 
 canoe was put in charge of Currin and Steward; the 
 others set forward with the horses. They were to 
 meet at the forks of the river. The horsemen rode 
 over to Shannopin's town, half a dozen miles away, 
 and then down along the bank of the Allegheny to the 
 mouth of the Monongahela. The horsemen reached 
 the place of rendezvous first, and while they waited 
 for the canoe Washington examined the spot with a 
 view to building a fort there. It had been recom- 
 mended to the Company to build a fort and lay out a 
 town at McKee's Rocks. Two of Washington's broth- 
 ers were stockholders in the Ohio Company, and thus 
 he felt interested in its welfare. It was likely the next 
 day when he visited King Shingiss, who was living 
 just below the Rocks, that he viewed the site of the 
 proposed fort and town. In his report to Governor 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 21 
 
 Dinwiddie he strongly urged the superiority of the 
 forks as a miHtary position. " A fort at the fork," he 
 observed, " 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." As a con- 
 sequence of this report the Company decided to aban- 
 don their previous design and build at the fork of 
 the Ohio. While Washington was thus occupied the 
 canoe with Currin and Steward was heading down 
 the Monongahela, and they now pulled in to the shore 
 where their comrades were awaiting them. That even- 
 ing they all crossed the Allegheny and encamped for 
 the night not far from the foot of Monument Hill. 
 
 Next day they went on down to Logstown. Here 
 Washington experienced a good deal of delay. Tana- 
 charison, or the Half-King, as he was usually called, 
 a warm friend of the English, whom Washington de- 
 sired particularly to see, was absent at his hunting- 
 cabin in the woods, quite a distance away. A messen- 
 ger was sent for him, and about three o'clock of the 
 next day the chief came to town. Washington at once 
 called on him and invited him privately with the inter- 
 preter Davison to his tent. The Half-King had made 
 a visit to the French at Le Boeuf to remonstrate against 
 the proceedings of the French in those quarters and 
 their evident designs upon the Ohio region; but he 
 had been received by the commandant, Marin, with 
 great contempt. "You need not put yourself to the 
 
22 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 trouble of speaking," said the Frenchman, " for I will 
 not hear you. I am not afraid of flies or mosquitoes, 
 for Indians are such as those; I tell you that down 
 that, river I will go, and build upon it, according to 
 my command. If the river was blocked up, I have 
 forces sufficient to burst it open and tread under my 
 feet all that stand in opposition, together with their 
 alliances; for my force is as the sand upon the sea- 
 shore; therefore, here is your wampum; I sling it at 
 you." The chief had come away filled with indigna- 
 tion and shame. 
 
 Washington was very eager to get forward ; but it 
 was not until the 30th of the month that the Indians 
 could be got to start. Then but four accompanied 
 him, the three chiefs, the Half-King, Jeskakake, White 
 Thunder, and an Indian whom Washington calls " the 
 hunter," but who was afterwards famous as Guyasu- 
 tha. The weather was extremely rough, and the diffi- 
 culties of the way very great, so that it was the 5th day 
 of December when they arrived at Venango. Here 
 Washington found Joncaire and two subaltern officers 
 in the house of John Frazier. The French flag was 
 floating above the roof. Joncaire received him with 
 great affabiHty, and invited him to supper with him 
 and his fellow-officers. He informed Washington that 
 the commandant was at Le Boeuf, about forty miles 
 distant. He got hold of Washington's Indians, and 
 by his blandishments and the free use of fire-water he 
 almost won them away from their allegiance. Gist 
 says that Joncaire did everything he could to prevail 
 upon the Indians to remain behind, and it was noon 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 23 
 
 of the 7th before Washington could get them started 
 for Fort Le Bceuf. M. La Force, commissary of the 
 French stores, a very enterprising fellow, and three 
 other soldiers accompanied Washington to Le Bceuf. 
 The roads were exceedingly bad, and they did not get 
 to the fort until the nth of the month. Washington 
 at once waited upon St. Pierre and presented the letter 
 of Governor Dinwiddle. " St. Pierre and the officer 
 next in rank, who knew a little English," says Park- 
 man, "took it to another room to study it at their 
 ease; and in it, all unconsciously, they read a name 
 destined to stand one of the noblest in the annals of 
 mankind; for it introduced Major George Washing- 
 ton, Adjutant-General of the Virginia militia."* 
 
 St. Pierre treated Washington with extreme com- 
 plaisance; but it was the evening of the 14th of De- 
 cember before he gave him an answer to Governor 
 Dinwiddle's letter. He was exceedingly anxious to 
 return to Virginia; but in one way or another St. 
 Pierre kept tempting the Indians and detaining them. 
 Washington complained of this ; but the polite French- 
 man protested that he was doing nothing to keep them 
 back; on the contrary, he wondered why they did not 
 go away. The cause of the delay was that he had 
 promised them a present of guns, etc., and as the guns 
 were not forthcoming it was impossible for Washing- 
 ton to get the Indians off. He had already sent the 
 horses back to Venango under the charge of Currin 
 and two other men. St. Pierre had provided him with 
 canoes and a plentiful store of liquor, provisions, etc., 
 
 * Parkman's " Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. i. p. 132. 
 
24 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 that he might return by water. At last the guns were 
 given to the Indians, and on the i6th of the month 
 Washington and his company set ofif down the creek. 
 The navigation was difficult and dangerous, and they 
 did not reach Venango until the 22d. Here they found 
 Currin with the horses waiting for them. 
 
 The next day Washington resumed his journey. 
 The Indians found a pretext for remaining some time 
 at Venango, and Washington very reluctantly left them 
 there. As the horses were every day becoming less able 
 to travel, the cold increasing, the roads more and more 
 blocked with snow, and Washington impatient to get 
 home and report to the governor, he and Gist surren- 
 dered their horses to be used in carrying the baggage; 
 the horses were put in charge of Vanbraam, who was 
 instructed to push for home as fast as possible ; and on 
 the 26th Washington and Gist separated from their 
 company and set off afoot the nearest way through the 
 woods for Shannopin's town. The next day, near a 
 place called Murdering Town, about fifteen miles from 
 Logstown, they were fired on by a scoundrelly Indian, 
 but escaped unharmed. They walked all that night 
 and the next day, and about dark of the 28th they got 
 to the river about two miles above Shannopin's town. 
 
 They had hoped to find the river frozen over; but 
 it was not, except for a distance of about fifty yards 
 from the shore. The ice was driving furiously down 
 the channel, having, as Washington supposed, broken 
 somewhere above. They had nothing to work with 
 but one poor hatchet, and they spent the whole day of 
 the 29th in making a raft. They finished it just after 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 25 
 
 sunset. They then launched it and pushed off; but 
 before they were half-way across the raft became 
 jammed among the floating ice. Washington put out 
 his setting-pole to try to stop the raft, but the force of 
 the stream was so violent that he was jerked from 
 the raft out into ten- foot water ; but he saved himself 
 by catching hold of the raft. In spite of all their 
 efforts they could not reach either shore; but as they 
 were near an island, they abandoned the raft and made 
 for the island. A more distressing or more discour- 
 aging situation one can hardly imagine. 
 
 The night was intensely cold. Mr. Gist had all his 
 fingers and some of his toes frozen. We have no re- 
 port that Washington was at all frost-bitten. That 
 he could escape, his clothes soaked with water, through 
 a bitterly cold night, without fire or shelter, seems 
 wonderful. " But the cold did us some service," says 
 Gist ; " for in the morning it was frozen hard enough 
 for us to pass over on the ice." The island upon which 
 Washington and Gist passed that night of discomfort 
 is believed to have been what was afterwards known 
 as Wainwright's Island. It lay towards the left bank 
 of the river. It has long since been washed away. 
 
 Glad were they to reach the mainland, and they hur- 
 ried off to the house of their friend Frazier, at the 
 mouth of Turtle Creek. Here Washington remained 
 until the ist day of January, 1754, waiting for horses 
 with which to continue his journey. The horses he 
 awaited were likely those he had sent forward under 
 Vanbraam. During his stay at Frazier's he went up 
 to the mouth of the Youghiogheny to visit Queen Ali- 
 
26 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 quippa. The old lady felt some concern that he had 
 not visited her when on his way to the Ohio. Wash- 
 ington, however, placated her with a small present, a 
 bottle of rum being the chief article, which she received 
 with great satisfaction. 
 
 The horses having arrived, on the first day of the 
 new year, a year destined to be forever memorable, 
 Washington set out from Frazier's house, and on the 
 1 6th he arrived at Williamsburg, the capital of Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE STRESS OF WAR 
 
 The Virginians lost no time in preparing to meet 
 the emergency. Washington's journal, together with 
 Governor Dinwiddle's letter to the French comman- 
 dant and a translation of St. Pierre's reply, was imme- 
 diately printed in a small pamphlet and dispersed 
 through the colony.* It was reprinted in England and 
 copied into the newspapers, and served effectually to 
 open the eyes of the authorities to the real danger of 
 the hour. Dinwiddle appealed to the governors of the 
 various colonies; but only North Carolina made any 
 material answer. St. Pierre's letter was at once trans- 
 mitted by Dinwiddle to Governor Hamilton, of Penn- 
 sylvania, and he in turn laid it before the Assembly, 
 February, 1754, with an earnest request that they 
 would promptly furnish men and means to defend the 
 province ; " for you will undoubtedly agree with me," 
 he says, " that so alarming an occasion has not occurred 
 since the settlement of the province, nor any one thing 
 happened that so much deserves your serious atten- 
 tion;"! but that body, instead of taking any steps 
 towards repelling the advances of the French, spent 
 the time in undignified bickerings with the governor. 
 
 St. Pierre's letter to Dinwiddle was to the effect that 
 it belonged to the general in Canada, and not to him, 
 
 * But three copies of this pamphlet are known to be now in 
 existence. The newspapers report that a short time ago one of 
 these copies was sold in New York for one thousand dollars. 
 
 t Franklin's "Historical Review of Pennsylvania." 
 
 27 
 
28 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 St. Pierre, to demonstrate his king's rights to the lands 
 situate along the Ohio. As to Dinwiddie's request that 
 he should retire, he stated that he was there by his gen- 
 eral's orders, and it was his duty to obey; and that he 
 did not know of anything that had passed during the 
 campaign that could be deemed an act of hostility. 
 
 The Virginia House of Burgesses met in the middle 
 of February, and voted the sum of ten thousand pounds 
 to defend the Virginia frontier. Dinwiddie had an- 
 ticipated the burgesses, and called out two hundred 
 men from the militia, and placed them under the com- 
 mand of Washington and Trent. The latter was al- 
 ready at the forks of the Ohio with a force of forty 
 men for the purpose of building a fort. With the small 
 sum allowed by the burgesses Dinwiddie was doing 
 what he could in the way of putting a force in the field, 
 and the nucleus of a regiment, three hundred men, 
 had been raised and put under Joshua Fry, as colonel, 
 and George Washington, as lieutenant-colonel. In the 
 middle of April Fry was at Alexandria with half the 
 regiment, Washington was pushing on to Wills Creek 
 with the other half, and Captain Trent with his handful 
 of men was at the forks of the Ohio. This was the 
 position of things when, on the 17th of April, in the 
 temporary absence of both Captain Trent and the lieu- 
 tenant, John Frazier, suddenly a large fleet of canoes 
 and batteaus, conveying, as was believed at the time, 
 one thousand French and Indians, appeared before the 
 eyes of Trent's astonished fort-builders. Their leader, 
 De Contrecoeur, who had succeeded St. Pierre in the 
 command on the river, instantly sent in an order for 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 29 
 
 surrender. Ensign Ward, who had been left in charge 
 of the company, pleaded for delay until he could confer 
 with his superiors; but no delay would be gi'anted; 
 the order was peremptory; and, though the number 
 of the new-comers was not nearly so large as at first 
 reported, they were still nearly as twenty as to one, 
 and the ensign had simply to submit. He was allowed 
 to retire with his men and effects; and he stood not 
 long on the order of his going, but withdrew at once. 
 He hastened to Washington at Wills Creek, to report 
 the disaster. The French seized the coveted spot and 
 immediately set about building a larger and stronger 
 fort, which they named Duquesne, in honor of the 
 governor-general of Canada. 
 
 Washington reached Wills Creek on the 20th of 
 April, and there, five days later, Ensign Ward came in 
 with his untoward report. Upon this Washington 
 changed his purpose, and instead of proceeding di- 
 rectly to the forks of the Ohio, he turned his course 
 towards the Monongahela ai the mouth of the Red- 
 stone Creek, where the Ohio Company had built a 
 storehouse. While laboriously clearing a road to that 
 point, on the 27th of May, in the evening, an Indian 
 runner from the camp of the Half-King, not far away, 
 came in to tell Washington that a party of Frenchmen 
 were hidden in a dark ravine in the neighborhood. 
 Washington at once determined to investigate. Taking 
 forty men with him he set out. He found the French- 
 men, as reported, in a dark glen. They at once seized 
 their arms upon the approach of the English, and 
 Washington commanded his men to fire. The battle 
 
30 OLD -PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 was very brief, but decisive. M. Jumonville, the officer 
 in command, and nine of his men were killed ; twenty- 
 two were taken prisoners, and one, a Canadian, made 
 his escape and ran back to Fort Duquesne. Washing- 
 ton had one man killed and several wounded. Among 
 the French prisoners was M. La Force, the commis- 
 sary who, the winter before, had accompanied Wash- 
 ington from Venango to Fort Le Boeuf. "This ob- 
 scure skirmish," says Parkman, " began the war that 
 set the world on fire." 
 
 Washington now fully expected to be attacked in 
 greater force by the French. He fell back to an open 
 glade called the Great Meadows, about four miles west 
 of the Laurel Hill. On the 31st of May, Colonel Fry 
 died suddenly at Wills Creek, when on his way to join 
 Washington, and the chief command devolved upon 
 the latter. He had received some accessions to his 
 force, and now had with him about four hundred men. 
 Washington decided that the Great Meadows fur- 
 nished " a charming field for an encounter ;" and under 
 the direction of the gallant Captain Stobo a fortifica- 
 tion was made here and named Fort Necessity. 
 
 About noon of the 3d of July the expected enemy 
 put in his appearance. They were about nine hundred 
 strong, and were commanded by Coulon de Villiers, 
 brother of the slain Jumonville. The enemy at once 
 opened fire upon the fort from the edge of the sur- 
 rounding forest. The Virginians were almost without 
 ammunition or provisions. They were in no condition 
 to stand a siege. Washington at first drew up his men 
 on the open plain, hoping to make a stand-up fight of 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 31 
 
 it; but Villiers had other views. The trees and bushes 
 almost concealed his men, while their higher position 
 enabled them to fire into the fort. The rain poured 
 down in torrents, and the Virginians were soon stand- 
 ing up to their knees in mud and water. At times the 
 showers were so heavy as almost to put a stop to the 
 conflict, " and the bedrenched combatants," says Park- 
 man, " could do little but gaze at each other through 
 a gray veil of mist and rain." Heavily enough the day 
 and the tedious fight went on until eight o'clock in 
 the evening, when the French proposed a parley. 
 After some hesitation Washington consented to send 
 out a man to confer with the French. This man was 
 Captain Jacob Vanbraam, who had been Washingr 
 ton's French interpreter the year before. Vanbraam 
 returned after some time with certain terms of capitu- 
 lation which he interpreted, and in one point at least 
 not very successfully, to Washington. The main fea- 
 ture of the capitulation was that the English were to 
 be allowed to retire without molestation, with colors 
 flying, and to take with them everything except their 
 artillery. Two hostages were to be delivered to the 
 French for the safe return of the prisoners taken at the 
 defeat of Jumonville. The hostages were Captain Van- 
 braam and Captain Stobo. In the battle the enemy 
 were at least double the number of the English. Din- 
 widdie reports the English losses as thirty killed and 
 seventy wounded, and M. Varin puts the losses of the 
 French as seventy-two killed and wounded.* 
 
 * Parkman's " Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. i. p. 159, note. 
 
32 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 The next morning, July 4, the English departed 
 eastward, trudging painfully through the mud, bur- 
 dened with their wounded and luggage, as the Indians 
 had killed all their horses, and weakened by exposure 
 and the want of food. Such was the first campaign of 
 George Washington, and such were the opening scenes 
 in the long and bloody drama that followed. 
 
 But as the retiring Virginians pursued their weari- 
 some way towards the east, Stobo and Vanbraam set 
 off with their jubilant enemies for Fort Duquesne. 
 From this hour Vanbraam disappears from the page 
 of history ; of his companion, Stobo, we have some fur- 
 ther knowledge. In a history of Pittsburgh he de- 
 serves a place. 
 
 Robert Stobo was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in the 
 year 1727. He was of a very ardent, adventurous 
 spirit ; and as a child it is said of him in his Memoirs, 
 that he preferred beating a drum to going to school, — 
 which, by the way, has been a characteristic of many 
 other boys who have never arrived at any kind of dis- 
 tinction. Stobo was brought up to mercantile pur- 
 suits. His father died in 1740, and a few years later 
 young Stobo was sent over to Virginia to serve in a 
 store belonging to some merchants of Glasgow. In 
 1747 he returned to Glasgow, and converting some 
 property which he had there into money, he returned 
 to Virginia, where he set up in trade for himself. Be- 
 tween business and pleasure, both of which he seems 
 to have cultivated with equal ardor, he went along 
 until upon the beginning of the troubles with the 
 French on the border, when he promptly offered his ser- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 33 
 
 vices to the cause of Virginia. Being a favorite with 
 his fellow-Scotchman, old Governor Dinwiddle, he was 
 appointed senior captain of the regiment that went for- 
 ward under Colonel Fry. 
 
 But Captain Stobo had his own views as to the best 
 methods of campaigning in the wilderness. He had 
 ten servants, a covered wagon filled with table delica- 
 cies, a whole butt of Madeira, and he took care to have 
 his larder duly supplied with game which the woods 
 abundantly afforded, " having some of the best sports- 
 men of this kind constantly out for this purpose." 
 Thus all went merry as a marriage bell with Stobo until 
 that unhappy morning when he was delivered into the 
 hands of the French, as one of the hostages given by 
 Washington at the capitulation of Fort Necessity. 
 
 It was a sad decline for Stobo, from the luxuries of 
 his covered wagon and his butt of Madeira to the short 
 commons of prison life at Fort Duquesne. The author 
 of Stobo's Memoirs attributes the fact of Stobo's being 
 delivered as one of the hostages to jealousy on the part 
 of the other officers ; but for the sake of him who after- 
 wards became " first in the hearts of his countrymen," 
 we hope this is not true; though it is difficult to say 
 just why the jovial captain should have been selected 
 as one of the victims. 
 
 Anyhow, whatever the motive may have been, the 
 selection could not have fallen upon any man who 
 would have supported the trying position with more 
 gallantry and patriotism. On the 28th of July he 
 found means to send by a faithful Indian named Mono 
 a long letter to the Virginia authorities, with a plan 
 
 3 
 
34 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 of the fort, and on the next day, by an Indian called 
 Delaware George, another letter giving additional de- 
 tails as to matters at the French post. This corre- 
 spondence must have been prepared and conducted at 
 infinite hazard of his life. But Stobo did not flinch 
 upon such a consideration. "When we engaged to 
 serve the country," he wrote, "it was expected we 
 were to do it with our lives. Let them not be disap- 
 pointed. Consider the good of the expedition without 
 the least regard to us." These were not the words of 
 a man in comparative safety at home, but of one in 
 the hands of his enemies, and of enemies who would 
 have set small value upon his life. 
 
 The cartel signed by Washington and Villiers at 
 Great Meadows was not recognized by the authorities 
 at Williamsburg, and poor Stobo and his unfortu- 
 nate fellow-hostage, Vanbraam, were left in durance. 
 Stobo remained at Fort Duquesne but a short time, 
 when he was transferred from one post to another 
 until finally he brought up at Quebec. The genial 
 captain, however, ingratiated himself with the free- 
 living French officers, and was allowed all liberty 
 within the limits of safety. In fact, he seems to have 
 become quite a favorite in certain quarters, and was 
 adopted into one of the Indian tribes. 
 
 Times were not bad with Stobo until after the de- 
 feat of General Braddock. Unfortunately for him the 
 letters which he had written from Fort Duquesne were 
 delivered to Braddock at Cumberland, and when that 
 officer fell, at the battle of the Monongahela crossing, 
 all his baggage and papers became the booty of the 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 35 
 
 enemy, and Stobo's letters among the rest. A change 
 at once came over the spirit of his dreams. He was 
 committed to close custody at Quebec, and the letters 
 were sent to France for the determination of the gov- 
 ernment. In the following year orders were remitted 
 to the governor of Canada to try Stobo for his life. 
 An opportunity appearing, he escaped from prison be- 
 fore his trial came on ; but as a reward of six thousand 
 livres was offered for his apprehension, the whole pop- 
 ulace turned out to scour the woods. He was soon 
 recaptured and returned to a worse dungeon, there to 
 await his trial. In November, 1756, he was brought 
 before the court, and arraigned " for violating the 
 known laws of nations, for breach of faith, and trea- 
 sonable practices against the government that sheltered 
 him." He was speedily found guilty and sentenced to 
 be hanged. 
 
 The judgment, however, had first to be sent to 
 France to be approved by the king; his majesty, for 
 some reason, declined to approve the sentence, and 
 Stobo was placed in the common jail. From this place 
 he succeeded in making his escape in the night of the 
 30th of April, 1757; and, although the reward of six 
 thousand livres was again offered, and again the whole 
 town set out upon the search, he evaded them by se- 
 creting himself for several days in a barn in the near 
 neighborhood, living meantime on the eggs of the 
 farmer's hens ; and when at length the hunt was called 
 off, he ventured out; but, just at twilight of the next 
 day, as he stepped into the high-road below the Falls 
 of Montmorenci, he was confronted by a number of 
 
36 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 horsemen who were coming up the road; he at once 
 plunged into the woods and tried to escape; but he 
 was seized, and again returned to prison in Quebec. 
 
 " There dwelt, by lucky fate," so chants the author 
 of the Memoirs, " in this strong capital a lady fair, of 
 chaste renown, of manners sweet, and gentle soul." 
 It is the old, old story. " Long had her heart confessed 
 for this poor prisoner a flame;" besides, which was 
 much to the purpose, she had influence with Vaudreuil, 
 the governor; and the result was that a little more 
 freedom was granted to the poor prisoner, of which 
 freedom he took advantage to run away, by a strange 
 coincidence again on the night of the 30th of April. 
 This time he departed with several other prisoners in a 
 large canoe which they found on the bank of the river. 
 
 They paddled silently and swiftly down the St. Law- 
 rence, and when day dawned they had left Quebec far 
 behind them. They then landed, carried their canoe 
 with them into the woods and lay quietly through the 
 day. When night returned they again embarked ; and 
 so for ten days they continued their course down the 
 river, secreting themselves during the day and rowing 
 rapidly by night until they reached the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence. After a variety of adventures by sea and 
 shore, in the course of which they take a French shal- 
 lop with a crew of five men, and " thus doubly manned, 
 they can relieve the oars, and then away they fly with 
 double speed;" a few days later they capture a sloop 
 and then a schooner, and so they arrive at the welcome 
 port of Louisburg in thirty-eight days from Quebec, 
 with their last capture and ten prisoners, having al- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 37 
 
 lowed eight to depart in the long-boat, there being too 
 many in all for the schooner to carry. 
 
 From Louisburg Stobo returned to Quebec, and 
 there served some time under the gallant Wolfe, and 
 afterwards with Amherst on Lake Champlain. In 
 the year 1759 he returned to Williamsburg, in Vir- 
 ginia. Though absent from his regiment, he had long 
 before been advanced to the position of major. Here 
 he received the thanks of the Virginia Assembly and 
 the sum of one thousand pounds, with leave of absence 
 for twelve months with full pay. Stobo sailed from 
 New York for England, February 18, 1760, and ar- 
 rived in London on the 226. of March. He remained 
 but a short time in England, leaving again for Amer- 
 ica, April 24 of the same year, with a letter from 
 Mr. Pitt to General Amherst, expressing the king's 
 approval of Major Stobo's conduct, and bespeaking 
 for him the command of a company "either in your 
 own or Anstruther's regiment." 
 
 The " Memoirs of Major Stobo"* brings the life of 
 its hero down only to the year 1760, to which period 
 we have traced it. Of his later career we have no 
 knowledge. What further services he may have given 
 to his country, the time, the place, the manner of his 
 death, are all alike covered by the pall of oblivion. It 
 is one of the strange facts of history that this enter- 
 prising man should thus disappear from the stage of 
 
 * This is a small book by some unknown hand, but written in 
 the worst possible style, — a dreary sing-song that is almost exas- 
 perating. An edition of it was published in Pittsburgh in 1854 
 under the auspices of Neville B. Craig. 
 
38 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 action and no record of his exit remain. He deserves to 
 be remembered, not only as a brave and patriotic char- 
 acter, but as one of the first EngUsh residents of the 
 future Pittsburgh and the earliest historian of the place. 
 
 Of Vanbraam it is only casually mentioned that he 
 reappeared at Williamsburg, Virginia, in the fall of 
 the year 1760, after a confinement of six years in Can- 
 ada. He has been harshly and perhaps unjustly treated 
 by history, because by his misinterpretation of one of 
 the articles of capitulation at Great Meadows Wash- 
 ington was led unwittingly to admit the killing of 
 Jumonville to be an assassination. 
 
 The Virginians were highly incensed and alarmed 
 by the defeat at Fort Necessity, and within a few 
 weeks the Assembly met and voted the governor 
 twenty thousand pounds for the defence of the colony. 
 And they had need to be active. "The French are 
 like so many locusts," said Dinwiddle; "they are col- 
 lected in bodies in a most surprising manner; their 
 number now on the Ohio is from twelve hundred to 
 fifteen hundred." 
 
 In the early part of August Governor Hamilton 
 called the Pennsylvania Assembly by special summons 
 and laid before them the state of the country, and ap- 
 pealed to them to take some steps towards the protec- 
 tion of the frontier; but his efforts issued only in a 
 renewal of the old-time controversies. In the following 
 October Robert Hunter Morris succeeded Hamilton 
 as deputy-governor of Pennsylvania. A new Assembly 
 had also been chosen. The new governor applied him- 
 self to the task in which Hamilton had failed, but with 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 39 
 
 no better success. Pages of the Assembly's journals 
 were covered with expressions of loyalty, but they re- 
 fused to do anything in the way of providing for the 
 emergency. They even resorted to the shameful eva- 
 sion that the French forts on the Ohio were beyond 
 the territorial limits of Pennsylvania, and that it was 
 the business of Virginia to look after them ; and finally 
 wound up by granting the sura of five thousand pounds 
 " for the accommodation of the king's troops," — if they 
 should ever arrive. They then adjourned to the fol- 
 lowing May. 
 
 Meantime the home government had decided to take 
 some measures against French encroachments in the 
 colonies. To this end two regiments of regulars, of five 
 hundred men each, to be recruited in America to seven 
 hundred men each, were ordered to Virginia. The two 
 regiments chosen for this duty were the Forty-fourth, 
 Sir Peter Halket, and the Forty-eighth, Colonel Thomas 
 Dunbar. Sir Peter was a gallant soldier, and at the 
 rout of the English at Prestonpans, in 1745, where he 
 acted as a captain in Lee's regiment, he almost alone 
 showed any spirit. He kept his company together, 
 and getting behind a ditch he continued to fire on the 
 rebels till they were glad to let him surrender on 
 terms.* Colonel Dunbar had been appointed to the 
 
 ♦"Autobiography of the Rev. Dr. Alexander Carlyle," p. 118. 
 Sir Peter Halket was of Pitferran, Scotland, and was brother 
 of Mrs. Wardlaw, author of the ballad of " Hardyknute" : 
 
 " Stately stept he east the wa'. 
 And stately stept he west." 
 
 See Percy's " Reliques of Ancient English Poetry." 
 
40 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 command of the Forty-eighth Regiment in April, 1752. 
 A gHmpse of his military character will appear in the 
 sequel. The entire campaign was put in charge of 
 Major-General Edward Braddock. Braddock was a 
 native of Perthshire, Scotland, and was at this time 
 not less than sixty years of age. His father, whose 
 name he bore, entered the famous Coldstream Guards 
 as lieutenant at some period prior to October, 1684, 
 and retired from the service with the rank of major- 
 general in September, 171 5. His son, with whom we 
 are now more particularly concerned, entered the same 
 regiment as ensign in October, 1710, and retired from 
 the regiment in February, 1753, with the rank of lieu- 
 tenant-colonel, — thus the roster of the Coldstream 
 Guards bore the name of Edward Braddock for a 
 period of seventy years. In February, 1753, he was 
 appointed colonel of the Fourteenth Foot; in March, 
 1754, major-general; and September 24, following, 
 he was appointed General and Commander of the 
 Forces in an expedition to North America. In the 
 wars of Europe for a period of forty-five years he had 
 taken a part, and he was present at the defeat at Fon- 
 tenoy and the victory at Culloden. He was a thorough 
 soldier, and was noted even in those rude times for 
 courage, recklessness, and want of feeling. Thack- 
 eTcij; in his "Virginians," represents him as a jolly, 
 roystering man, who, when the guest of Madame Es- 
 mond, "required to be helped to most dishes at the 
 table, and more than once, and was forever holding 
 out his glass for drink." 
 
 The two designated regiments sailed from Cork 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 41 
 
 in the middle of January, 1755, under the convoy of 
 Admiral Keppel, and arrived at Alexandria, on the 
 Potomac, in the following March, where they went 
 into camp. They were here recruited to the required 
 strength; there were also several independent com- 
 panies of colonial troops, a company of horse, another 
 of artillery, a company of marines; in all, about two 
 thousand one hundred and fifty men; besides the 
 usual swarm of camp followers and non-combatants, 
 women, sutlers, wagoners, etc. A number of Indians 
 had also joined Braddock's camp; but they were 
 treated with such indifference and contempt that they 
 rapidly went off, so that at the end of the campaign 
 there were but eight of them remaining. Among these 
 soldiers were men yet unknown to fame, who were 
 destined to act on a wider stage a few years later, — 
 George Washington, Thomas Gage, Horatio Gates, 
 and Hugh Mercer. The forces concentrated at Fort 
 Cumberland, which had recently been built at the 
 mouth of Wills Creek, and by the loth of June they 
 were all on the move for Fort Duquesne. 
 
 Their progress was very leisurely. They followed 
 the line of Nemacolin's Path, opening it out as they 
 went for the passage of the artillery and wagons. The 
 general rode luxuriously in his carriage. He was in 
 no hurry. His prey could not escape him. "Du- 
 quesne can hardly detain me above three or four days," 
 he said to Franklin, " and then I see nothing that can 
 obstruct my march to Niagara." By the i8th of the 
 month they had arrived only at the Little Meadow, 
 less than thirty miles from Cumberland, where some 
 
42 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 fortifications had been made by Major Chapman and 
 Sir John Sinclair, who had been sent on in advance 
 for that purpose. Here it was determined to make a 
 division of the army : General Braddock and Sir Peter 
 Halket with a picked force of about twelve hundred 
 men, besides officers and drivers, were to push on 
 more rapidly; while Colonel Dunbar, with the re- 
 mainder, nearly one thousand men, was to follow with 
 the heavier artillery and baggage. Still, owing to the 
 "extreme badness of the road," Braddock's progress 
 was very slow. Parties of the enemy hung about the 
 line of march. They stripped the bark from the trees 
 and wrote upon them threatening and scurrilous lan- 
 guage. On the 25th of June they shot and scalped 
 three stragglers from the line.* 
 
 On the last day of June Braddock crossed the 
 Youghiogheny at the point where Connellsville now 
 stands ; the place was then called Stewart's Crossings. 
 ■ The route led north and northwest through the gloomy 
 ravines and over the wooded hills of the Youghiogheny 
 country. On the evening of the 8th of July they neared 
 the confluence of that stream with the Monongahela. 
 Here they encamped. Next morning early they were 
 again on the march, hoping to gain their destination 
 that day. They crossed the Monongahela just below 
 the mouth of the Youghiogheny, for the sake of the 
 easier travelling on the left bank of the river, and 
 about three miles farther down, just below the mouth 
 of Turtle Creek, they recrossed to the right-hand side. 
 John Frazier's abandoned cabin stood here, — the only 
 
 * Veech's " The Monongahela of Old," p. S9- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 43 
 
 habitation belonging to a British subject in all that 
 wide region. Washington knew the place well. It 
 was within ten miles of Fort Duquesne. 
 
 The summer of 1755 was one of extreme drought 
 in Pennsylvania, and the crossings of the river were 
 made without difficulty. Braddock partly expected to 
 be opposed by the enemy, if opposed at all, at the cross- 
 ing of the Monongahela. And such had been the pur- 
 pose of Beaujeu, a spirited man, who had determined 
 to go out to meet the English. But for some reason 
 he had not been able to reach that point in time. The 
 vanguard of Braddock's army, consisting mostly of 
 three hundred soldiers under Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, 
 afterwards famous as the British commander at Bun- 
 ker Hill, and a large number of axemen and pioneers 
 under Sir John Sinclair, were moving up the slope 
 above Frazier's house, when Beaujeu appeared upon 
 the scene, bounding along the woodland path, and 
 waving his hat as a signal to some unseen party.* The 
 main body of troops had halted under the trees near 
 the foot of the hill, and the rear-guard was still in the 
 act of crossing the river, when a quick, sudden fire 
 opened upon the van from the bushes in front of them. 
 The authorities usually give noon as the time when 
 the attack upon Braddock's front was made; Wash- 
 ington says ten o'clock, and all the circumstances of 
 the case would seem to indicate the earlier hour.f 
 
 Only a few days before this James Smith, a bright 
 
 * Parkman's " Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. i. p. 215. 
 tSee "An Unpublished Autograph Narrative by Washing- 
 ton" in Scribner's Magazine, May, 1893. 
 
44 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 young fellow of eighteen, had been captured by the 
 Indians while with a party of road-cutters near Bed- 
 ford, and brought to Fort Duquesne. Here he had 
 been compelled to run the gauntlet, in which he had 
 been very severely dealt with. He had recovered from 
 the effects of his ill-usage so far as to be able to go 
 about a little with the aid of a staff, when, on the morn- 
 ing of the Qth of July, he perceived an unusual stir 
 about the place. He climbed up to the top of the wall, 
 and looking over he saw outside an excited throng of 
 Indians near the gate. Barrels of gunpowder, bullets, 
 flints, etc., had been opened, and every one was helping 
 himself to whatever he needed. After a little they all 
 marched off in order towards the woods, and with 
 them went a number of French and Canadians. Smith 
 computed their number to be about four hundred, and 
 wondered that they would go out so small a party to 
 confront Braddock's army. There were actually more 
 than twice four hundred. These were the men to 
 whom Beaujeu was signalling with his hat; and it 
 was they who now opened fire upon Gage's party. 
 
 The troops were startled for an instant by the sud- 
 den attack, but British discipline quickly asserted itself. 
 The pioneers fell back. The soldiers faced about and 
 discharged volley after volley in the direction of the 
 unseen enemy. Their fire was mostly without effect, 
 but at the third volley the gallant Beaujeu fell. Dumas 
 succeeded to the command. The Canadians betook 
 themselves to flight. The Indians also broke and scat- 
 tered, but they did not leave the field. Concealed by 
 the bushes and trees, and favored by some convenient 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 45 
 
 ravines, they extended themselves along the flanks of 
 the English, and poured in a constant and deadly fire. 
 At the first onset Braddock hurried forward re-enforce- 
 ments. He himself galloped about the field, ordering, 
 encouraging, and cursing. But discipline could accom- 
 plish little here. It was a species of warfare alike new 
 and demoralizing to the British regulars. There was 
 no sign of weakness or cowardice, no thought of run- 
 ning away; but gradually the ranks of the red-coats 
 were broken up and they fell back until they stood in 
 a confused crowd, a fair target for their unseen foe. 
 The Virginians, who understood the matter better, 
 made some attempts to rout the enemy from their 
 hiding-places; but their successes were only tempo- 
 rary. Besides, Braddock did not approve of that irreg- 
 ular mode of fighting. For three hours the carnage 
 went on. It was an altogether one-sided fight, and the 
 advantages were all on the side of the assailants. 
 Washington had one horse killed and two wounded 
 under him, a bullet through his hat and several through 
 his clothes. Sir Peter Halket was killed. Braddock 
 had four horses shot under him, and had mounted the 
 fifth, when a bullet passed through his arm and pierced 
 his body, and he fell heavily to the ground. The order 
 for retreat had already been given, and upon the fall 
 of the general the men rushed pellmell from the field 
 and across the river. The slaughter had been dread- 
 ful ; the rout was complete. " The conduct of the Brit- 
 ish officers," says Parkman, " was above praise. Noth- 
 ing could surpass their undaunted self-devotion; and 
 in their vain attempts to lead their men the havoc 
 
46 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 among them was frightful." Of eighty-six officers, 
 sixty-three were killed or wounded ; while out of thir- 
 teen hundred and seventy-three non-commissioned offi- 
 cers and privates only four hundred and fifty-nine 
 came off unharmed.* The losses to the French and 
 Indians were comparatively slight, — ^probably not more 
 than sixty or seventy in all, killed and wounded. The 
 artillery, the baggage, the wounded, — everything was 
 alike abandoned by the fleeing soldiers, and fell into 
 the hands of the enemy. A number of the Indians 
 pursued the fugitives to the edge of the river, but they 
 did not follow them across. Fortunate for the English 
 was it that such abundance of plunder remained upon 
 the field as to attract the savages from further chase. 
 "Had a pursuit taken place," says Washington, "by 
 passing the defile which we had avoided, and they had 
 got into our rear, the whole, except a few woodmen, 
 would have fallen victims to the merciless savages." 
 The horrors of the battle-field, when the Indians fell 
 upon the wounded and the prisoners, can only be im- 
 agined. There was no survivor to tell the tale. 
 
 Nobody remained in command of the English. 
 Washington placed the wounded general in a small 
 cart, and with a handful of his brave Virginians, who 
 covered the retreat, so far as it was covered at all, bore 
 him from the field. Braddock lingered in great agony 
 of both body and mind until the evening of Sunday, 
 
 * Parkman's " Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. i. p. 219. Parkman 
 observes in a note on page 220 that Braddock's force had been 
 increased a few days before the battle by detachments from 
 Dunbar. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 47 
 
 the 13th of July, when he died at Dunbar's camp, near 
 the Great Meadows. His body was interred by Wash- 
 ington in the road, and the army wagons were hauled 
 over his grave, so that no sign of his place of sepulture 
 might be discovered by the enemy. Orders had been 
 given to destroy all the wagons and stores that could 
 not be at once taken back to Fort Cumberland, and the 
 retreat to that place be made. These orders were car- 
 ried out with " shameful alacrity." 
 
 Towards the close of the afternoon of the battle the 
 voice of joy and triumph was heard in Fort Duquesne. 
 The victorious warriors were coming back in squads 
 and companies, bearing with them the trophies of the 
 field, — bloody scalps, grenadier caps, British canteens, 
 bayonets, and all the plunder of a defeated army. To 
 the firing of small-arms by the returning braves the 
 great guns of the fort roared in reply. With the re- 
 port of the fire-arms were mingled the most frightful 
 shouts and yells, so that it seemed that the infernal 
 regions had broken loose. 
 
 Again young Smith climbed to the top of the wall 
 and looked out. "About sundown," says he, "I be- 
 held a small party coming in with about a dozen pris- 
 oners, stripped naked, with their hands tied behind 
 their backs, and their faces and part of their bodies 
 blacked; these prisoners they burned to death on the 
 bank of the Allegheny River, opposite to the fort. I 
 stood on the fort wall until I beheld them begin to 
 burn one of these men; they had him tied to a stake, 
 and kept touching him with firebrands, red-hot irons, 
 etc., and he screamed in a most doleful manner; the 
 
48 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Indians, in the mean time, yelling like infernal spirits. 
 As this scene appeared too shocking for me to behold, 
 I retired to my lodgings both sore and sorry."* The 
 scene of their immolation was near the lower end of 
 the present Exposition Building, on Duquesne Way. 
 
 * See "An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the 
 Life and Travels of Colonel James Smith," etc. " Perhaps the 
 best of all the numerous narratives of captives among the In- 
 dians." — Parkman. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE TURN OF THE TIDE 
 
 Braddock had fallen. All the great expectations 
 that had been based upon his enterprise were scattered 
 to the winds. Our fathers were so stung by anger and 
 disappointment that they could not do his memory 
 justice. His defeat was attributed to pusillanimity, 
 to ignorance, to obstinacy, to incompetency, — to every- 
 thing except the real cause, and that was an unreason- 
 able contempt for the foe and an overweening confi- 
 dence in himself and the British regulars. "These 
 savages," he had said, "may indeed be a formidable 
 enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the 
 king's regular and disciplined troops it is impossible 
 they should make any impression."* Braddock's per- 
 sonal courage was of the highest quality, and his sol- 
 diership had been approved on many battle-fields. Even 
 upon the fatal field at the Monongahela crossing his 
 deportment was that of a man of spirit and intelli- 
 gence. His chief error was in persisting in fighting 
 according to the rules of civilized warfare and refusing 
 to adopt the methods of the savage in dealing with a 
 savage foe. "He was brave even to a fault," says 
 Washington, " and in regular service would have done 
 honor to his profession."f The fact of the matter is 
 that Braddock's army was doomed from the moment 
 
 * " Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, written by Himself." 
 t Washington's MS., Scribner's Magazine, May, 1893. 
 
 4 49 
 
so OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Beaujeu set out to repel their approach. The disparity 
 in numbers was not so great as to be any particular 
 consideration, as we see from the sequel; and by the 
 Indian method of bushwhacking the line of march, not 
 a man of them would ever have appeared before the 
 walls of Fort Duquesne except as a prisoner of war. 
 
 The fugitives fled for the camp of Dunbar, forty 
 miles in the rear. Through all the hours of darkness 
 they stumbled along the rough way, with the sound of 
 the warwhoop still in their ears. " The shocking scenes 
 which presented themselves in this night's march," 
 says Washington, " are not to be described, — the dead, 
 the dying, the groans, lamentations, and cries of the 
 wounded for help, were enough to pierce a heart of 
 adamant." Washington, who had been ordered by 
 -the wounded general to hasten to Dunbar for assist- 
 ance, rode on all night and reached the camp in the 
 forenoon of the next day. By noon the advance wave 
 of the retreat reached the place, and in due time the 
 remainder of the shattered host. With those who had 
 returned from the field of disaster Dunbar had now 
 at least twelve hundred or fourteen hundred able- 
 bodied men, and could well have renewed the attack 
 upon Duquesne or could have effectually guarded the 
 frontier against invasion ; but no such purpose entered 
 into his mind. He could not get away too fast or too 
 far. " Surely you must mistake," wrote Dinwiddle 
 to Washington on the heels of the defeat; "Colonel 
 Dunbar will not march to winter-quarters in the middle 
 of summer, and leave the frontier exposed to the inva- 
 sions of the enemy." To Dunbar himself he wrote 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 51 
 
 urging a renewal of the attempt: "You have four 
 months now to come of the best weather of the year 
 for such an expedition. What a fine field for honor 
 will Colonel Dunbar have to confirm and establish his 
 character as a brave officer." But he did not know 
 Dunbar; for that "brave officer" was heading with 
 all expedition for Philadelphia. " To march off all the 
 regulars," exclaimed Dinwiddle, "and leave the fort 
 and frontiers to be defended by four hundred sick and 
 wounded, and the poor remains of our provincial forces, 
 appears to me absurd." It was worse than absurd, it 
 was shameful. From Philadelphia Dunbar marched 
 north to join Shirley's enterprise against Niagara; but, 
 as Parkman observes, " at a pace which made it certain 
 that he could not arrive in time to be of the least use." 
 His subsequent fortune was perhaps better than his 
 desert. In 1756 he was made lieutenant-governor of 
 Gibraltar, and in 1760 he was promoted to lieutenant- 
 general. He died in 1767. 
 
 The Assembly of Virginia promptly voted forty 
 thousand pounds for the defence of the colony. Wash- 
 ington was put in command, and with a force of from 
 twelve hundred to fifteen hundred men he tried to pro- 
 tect a frontier of three hundred and fifty miles. But it 
 was impossible to do much. The work of slaughter 
 went on right and left. "The supplicating tears of 
 the women," Washington wrote to Dinwiddie, "and 
 moving petitions of the' men melt me into such deadly 
 sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my own 
 mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the 
 butchering enemy, provided that would contribute to 
 
52 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 the people's ease." In Pennsylvania matters were in 
 a still more lamentable case. Governor Morris sum- 
 moned the Assembly to meet on the 23d of July, and 
 laid before them the defenceless condition of the prov- 
 ince, and begged that they would not " by any ill-timed 
 parsimony, by reviving any matters that have been in 
 dispute, or from any other motive, suffer the people to 
 remain any longer undefended or the blood of the 
 innocent to be shed by the cruel hands of savages." 
 It seems almost inconceivable, but upon this appeal by 
 the governor the Assembly at once resorted to their 
 old tactics of bickering and delay. As a show of doing 
 their duty they brought in money bills for the king's 
 use, but burdened with provisions such as they knew, 
 both by the terms of his commission and the heavy 
 bonds under which he was placed, the governor could 
 not sign. Months were thus spent in acrimonious de- 
 bate and mutual recriminations. We are sorry to say 
 that the leader in this unbecoming course on the part 
 of the Assembly was Benjamin Franklin, who was not 
 only a statesman, but on occasion could be a politician, 
 and who was now more bent on defeating the governor 
 than on providing for the safety of the people. The 
 Quaker element in the Assembly, with their singular 
 notions about non-resistance, were his ready and easy 
 tools. , i ~ 
 
 Meantime murder was rampant all along the border. 
 Not only were the settlements left unprotected by the 
 retreat of Dunbar, but a highway had been opened by 
 Braddock by which the invaders could all the more 
 easily destroy them. Within a few days after the fall 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 53 
 
 of Braddock, Dumas, who had succeeded De Contre- 
 coeur in the command at Fort Duquesne, had his war- 
 parties scouring the country, and, as he wrote, the 
 Indian villages were soon " full of prisoners of every 
 age and sex." By the beginning of October nearly 
 fifty persons had been killed on Patterson's Creek. It 
 was reported that one hundred had been killed near 
 Fort Cumberland. The settlements in the Great Cove 
 were destroyed. More than forty persons were killed 
 in the neighborhood of Paxtang. Acrelius, a contem- 
 porary writer, says : " In Gnadenhiitten, a place of the 
 Herrnhiitters, the brotherhood were sitting at their 
 evening meal, when the wild heathen, like so many 
 spirits of darkness, crept into the house, murdered the 
 people, and tore off their scalps, and then let all things 
 ascend in smoke."* But a still more terrible arraign- 
 ment is that by a contemporary French writer. " Our 
 Indians have waged the most cruel war against the 
 English," writes the Rev. Claude Godfroy Cocquard 
 to his brother, in 1756; "they continued it throughout 
 the spring, and are still so exasperated as to be beyond 
 control. The farmers have been forced to quit their 
 abodes and to retire into the town. They have neither 
 ploughed nor planted. The Indians do not make any 
 prisoners; they kill all they meet, men, women, and 
 children. Every day they have some in their kettle, 
 and after having abused the women and maidens, they 
 slaughter and burn them."f 
 
 Repeated cries and petitions were sent up by the 
 
 * Israel Acrelius's " History of New Sweden," p. 138. 
 t " Pennsylvania Archives," second series, vol. vi. p. 409- 
 
54 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 helpless settlers to the governor and Assembly at Phil- 
 adelphia; but, as Parkman observes, the governor 
 could do nothing, and the Assembly would do nothing, 
 to help them. The mayor, the magistrates, and the 
 common council of Philadelphia, whom Franklin dig- 
 nifies as " inconsiderates," next appealed to the gov- 
 ernment, but with no better success. The alarm con- 
 tinued to grow. The savage invaders crossed the 
 Susquehanna and carried on their devastation within 
 sixty or seventy miles of the city. The people of the 
 counties threatened to march in a body and compel the 
 Assembly to act. Finally a wagon containing the 
 bodies of some of the victims was brought into the 
 city by the enraged settlers, and the ghastly remains 
 were exhibited at the doors of the Assembly. Only 
 under such pressure, and upon receipt of a voluntary 
 contribution of five thousand pounds sterling from the 
 proprietaries, did the Assembly yield so far as to pass 
 a bill for the defence of the people, such as the gov- 
 ernor felt that he could sign. The whole history of 
 the year 1755, so far as the Assembly of Pennsylvania 
 is concerned, was disgraceful.* 
 
 But thus at length furnished with means, Governor 
 Morris took instant measures to secure as great safety 
 for the border settlers as possible. A chain of forts 
 and block-houses extending along the Blue Mountains 
 
 * Parkman gives a summary of the trouble between the gov- 
 ernor and the Assembly in " Montcalm and Wolfe,'' vol. i., 
 chapter x. It may be read at full length in the " Historical 
 Review," etc., of Pennsylvania, in " Franklin's Works," vol. ii., 
 Philadelphia, 1840. The " Review" is written from Franklin's 
 stand-point, which was not that of the governor. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 55 
 
 from the Delaware River to the Susquehanna was 
 made at a cost of eighty-five thousand pounds. These 
 forts were usually ten or fifteen miles apart, and were 
 garrisoned by soldiers maintained at the expense of 
 the province. It was hoped that these fortified posts 
 would protect the settlements; but they could not 
 effectually serve this purpose. As Franklin observed, 
 they could not give security "unless they were con- 
 nected by a wall like that of China," from one end of 
 the settlements to the other;* while to send out the 
 soldiers in pursuit of the marauders, he said, was like 
 setting a cow to catch a hare. 
 
 No further serious attempt was made against the 
 enemy until late in the summer of 1756. On the 30th 
 of August in that year Colonel John Armstrong, with 
 a force of three hundred and seven men, marched from 
 Fort Shirley, in Huntingdon County, against the fa- 
 mous Indian town of Kittanning, on the Allegheny 
 River. The French called the place Attique. It was 
 a town of the Loup family of Delaware Indians, and 
 the head-quarters of the noted chief Captain Jacobs. 
 Colonel Armstrong took a conspicuous part in all the 
 troubles of the French and Indian War, and after- 
 wards was a major-general in the Revolution. Our 
 best authority in the present case is the official report 
 of Armstrong himself to William Denny, who had 
 succeeded Morris in the governorship of Pennsylvania 
 only two or three weeks before. Leaving Fort Shir- 
 ley, Armstrong proceeded up the Juniata Valley to 
 
 *" Franklin's Works:" "The Canada Pamphlet." 
 
56 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Frankstown, at the eastern foot of the Allegheny 
 Mountains, which he reached on the 3d day of Sep- 
 tember. He then took the " Kittanning Path," and at 
 the close of the 6th he had approached within fifty 
 miles of the town. By a night march on the 7th they 
 were able to reach Kittanning early in the morning of 
 the 8th of September. It is remarkable that this large 
 party, with a train of horses carrying supplies, should 
 have proceeded the whole breadth of the intervening 
 forest and reached Kittanning without being perceived 
 by any of the Indians. There is but one way to ac- 
 count for this : having no apprehensions of an attack 
 from the English, but, on the other hand, themselves 
 preparing for an attack upon Fort Shirley, they had 
 called in all their forces, so that at this particular time 
 the woods were quite free from straggling warriors. 
 
 About ten o'clock in the evening of September 7 
 Armstrong unexpectedly came across a party of sav- 
 ages encamped for the night within six or eight miles 
 of Kittanning. These were an advance party of the 
 force that was about to descend upon Fort Shirley. 
 Armstrong had the good luck to discover them before 
 they perceived him. He left a party of twelve men here 
 under Lieutenant Hogg, to surprise the savages early 
 in the morning. Armstrong then withdrew his army, 
 and by making a wide circuit he passed around the 
 enemy without being seen. Lieutenant Hogg attacked 
 the savages the next morning, according to his instruc- 
 tions, but instead of there being only three of them, as 
 the scouts had reported, he found them to be superior 
 in number to his own party. The result of the fight- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 57 
 
 ing here was that the heutenant was mortally Wounded, 
 four of his men were killed, while the rest ran away. 
 
 It was a little before dawn when Armstrong came 
 out of the woods at a point about a quarter of a mile 
 below the main body of the town. Between him and 
 the river were some cornfields, and in the cornfields, 
 because the night was warm, a number of the Indians 
 had taken up their lodgings. According to their cus- 
 tom on the eve of any important enterprise, they had 
 spent nearly the whole night with their war-dance; 
 in fact, Armstrong says he was guided in the latter 
 part of his march by the beating of the drum and the 
 whooping of the warriors. 
 
 Daylight came on apace, but the presence of the 
 English had not yet been discovered. Armstrong 
 quietly made his preparations for the attack. The 
 Indians, after their late exertions, were sleeping. Arm- 
 strong ordered a detachment to proceed along the brow 
 of the hill in the rear of the town until they should 
 come opposite the main body of the houses. He de- 
 layed the attack at the cornfields until this detachment 
 should reach the desired point. Then the assault was 
 made simultaneously upon the town and upon the 
 sleepers in the fields. The principal contest went on 
 among the houses in the town. Of the buildings there 
 were about thirty. One of the principal of these, which 
 seems to have been at least a story and a half high, 
 was occupied by Captain Jacobs. When the fighting 
 began, and the Indians discovered that they were being 
 assailed in their own stronghold, they raised the war- 
 whoop, and cried out that the white men had come 
 
58 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 and they should now have scalps enough. They at 
 once returned the fire of their enemy, and with very 
 serious effect. 
 
 It was impossible to contend successfully against 
 the savages while the latter occupied the houses; so 
 Armstrong gave orders to set fire to the buildings. 
 This was accomplished, but not without the loss of 
 several men. The Indians were good marksmen, and 
 killed and wounded any who came within range of their 
 guns. Armstrong himself received a wound from a 
 musket-ball in the shoulder. As the work of fire and 
 destruction went on, the Indians were summoned to 
 surrender ; one in particular replied that he was a man 
 and would not be a prisoner. Upon being told that he 
 would be burned in his house, he answered that he did 
 not care, for he should kill four or five before he died ; 
 " and," says Armstrong, " had we not desisted from 
 exposing ourselves they would have killed a great 
 many more, — they having a number of loaded guns 
 there." 
 
 As the fire progressed and the smoke enveloped the 
 place, an Indian in one of the houses, to show his man- 
 hood, began to sing, and a squaw crying out through 
 fear was severely rebuked by the man. Very soon 
 thereafter, as the fire became too hot, two men and a 
 squaw rushed out of the house and ran for the corn- 
 fields, but they were shot down on the way. Captain 
 Jacobs, appearing at the garret window of his house, 
 was shot, and fell to the ground. The fighting went 
 on fiercely on all sides. Captain Mercer was wounded 
 in the arm. " During the burning of the houses," says 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 59 
 
 Armstrong, "we were agreeably entertained with a 
 quick succession of charged guns gradually firing off 
 as they were reached by the fire, but more so with the 
 vast explosion of sundry bags and large kegs of gun- 
 powder, wherewith almost every house abounded." 
 The Indians had made their boasts that they had am- 
 munition enough on hand to carry on war with the 
 English for ten years. A large supply of goods but 
 lately received from the French was also destroyed. 
 Eleven English captives were rescued from bondage. 
 
 Armstrong's victory at Kittanning was a great event 
 and filled the colony with rejoicing; yet it had been 
 dearly purchased. He reported his losses as seventeen 
 killed, thirteen wounded, and nineteen missing. Many 
 of the Indians escaped, crossing the river and fleeing 
 into the woods. Some of them returned and hung 
 upon the flanks of Armstrong's army upon its home- 
 ward march, causing much apprehension among the 
 men. But the dreaded Kittanning was destroyed, and 
 honors and more substantial rewards were paid to 
 Armstrong and his gallant troops.* 
 
 This was the only enterprise of pith and moment 
 directed against the enemy on the western border of 
 Pennsylvania after Braddock's defeat until the sum- 
 mer of 1758. In the mean while, as we have seen, the 
 frontier had been left almost without defence. The 
 torch and the tomahawk wrought their accustomed 
 havoc among the scattered cabins. The line of ad- 
 vancing civilization had not only been checked, but 
 
 * Armstrong's letter may be seen in the " Pennsylvania Ar- 
 chives," vol. ii. pp. 767-72- 
 
6o OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 was being driven back upon the older settlements by 
 the hosts of savagery. 
 
 The accession of William Pitt, the Great Commoner, 
 to the premiership of England in 1757 was the begin- 
 ning of a more vigorous administration of public af- 
 fairs. In the plan of operations for the year 1758 an 
 expedition against Fort Duquesne was made a part. 
 The command of the enterprise was given to Briga- 
 dier-General John Forbes. Like his predecessor in 
 the same field, Braddock, Forbes was a Scotchman by 
 birth. In early life he had been a student of medicine, 
 but had speedily abandoned the healing art for that of 
 war. At the time of his present appointment he was 
 forty-eight years of age and a veteran in service. He 
 was an able man, honest, brave, and without ostenta- 
 tion. He thought only of his duty. Such was his 
 steadfastness of purpose that he was popularly nick- 
 named the " Head of Iron." 
 
 Forbes arrived in Philadelphia in the spring of the 
 year 1758, but his forces were slow in getting to- 
 gether. In the mean time he was attacked by a painful 
 disease, which clung to him throughout the campaign 
 and to the close of his life. To the army of Forbes 
 Pennsylvania contributed about two thousand seven 
 hundred men, including the regiment called the Royal 
 Americans. These, together with a detachment of 
 twelve hundred Highlanders of Montgomery's regi- 
 ment, formed the First Division of the army, and were 
 commanded by Colonel Henry Bouquet, a gallant Swiss 
 officer. Virginia sent about two thousand six hundred 
 men into the field, and to these were added contingents 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 6i 
 
 from Maryland and North Carolina. The Southern 
 troops formed the Second Division, and it was placed 
 under the command of Colonel George Washington. 
 The entire army consisted of nearly seven thousand 
 men. By the end of June it was got into motion. 
 Bouquet, with an advance party, proceeded to Rays- 
 town, on a branch of the Juniata, where he established 
 a fortified post, which was named Fort Bedford. The 
 present town of Bedford marks the place. Washing- 
 ton, with his Virginians, was at Cumberland, on the 
 Braddock Road, where he awaited the arrival of 
 Forbes. 
 
 But now sprang up a debate whether it would be 
 better to make a new road from Raystown direct to 
 Fort Duquesne or, turning southward, join Washing- 
 ton at Cumberland, thirty-four miles distant, and from 
 there follow the road that had already been prepared 
 by General Braddock. It was to the interest of Penn- 
 sylvania to have the new road made, while it was to the 
 advantage of Virginia to have the army proceed by 
 Braddock's Road. Washington strenuously advocated 
 the latter, but wholly from a military point of view. 
 A month of precious time and a vast amount of labor 
 would have been saved by following his advice. But 
 he was overruled, through the influence mainly of Sir 
 John Sinclair and Colonel Bouquet. Whatever per- 
 sonal or mercenary motives may have entered into the 
 dispute on the part of others, Washington had none. 
 " I am uninfluenced by prejudice," he wrote, " having 
 no hopes or fears but for the general good." The 
 delay in cutting the new road endangered the success 
 
62 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 of the expedition, as Washington foresaw, and it es- 
 caped failure by the narrowest margin. 
 
 It was with much grumbHng and many complaints 
 of the " dirty Dutchmen"* that the Virginians yielded 
 the point and marched to Raystown. Owing to his 
 illness Forbes's progress was very slow. He did not 
 reach Raystown until the middle of September. Here 
 he was joined by the troops under Washington. The 
 work of constructing the new road had been intrusted 
 to Colonel James Burd, and he had opened it up as far 
 as to the Loyalhanna, a distance of fifty miles from 
 Raystown. Here he built a small stockade fort, which 
 was afterwards called Fort Ligonier, in honor of Sir 
 John Ligonier, commander-in-,chief of the English 
 army. Forbes was fifty days in getting over these 
 fifty miles, — a mile a day. Washington fretted with 
 impatience. " We shall be stopped at the Laurel Hill 
 this winter," he writes, " but not to gather laurels, 
 except of the kind that covers the mountains." It was 
 now November, and fifty miles of rude highway 
 through a howling wilderness still lay between them 
 and Fort Duquesne. Winter was at hand, and in 
 council the question of going into quarters for the sea- 
 son had been discussed. 
 
 While Forbes was yet away back at Raystown, or 
 beyond, Bouquet, at Loyalhanna, sent forward Major 
 James Grant with about eight hundred men, Vir- 
 ginians and Highlanders, and a number of Pennsyl- 
 vanians of the Royal American regiment, to make a 
 
 * See letter of Robert Mumford in The Olden Time, June, 
 1846. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 63 
 
 reconnoissance of Fort Duquesne. It was never meant 
 that he should attack the place. In the early morning 
 of September 14 he reached the brow of the hill which 
 has ever since borne his name, overlooking Fort Du- 
 quesne, and scarcely half a mile from it. The hill 
 was a high, rugged bluff, thickly wooded, with a steep 
 descent towards the fort. It was not only much higher 
 than at present, but it was cut across by deep ravines. 
 The work of grading down has been going on at inter- 
 vals for a hundred years, until of Grant's Hill nothing 
 remains but the much anathematized " Hump," while 
 the long, sloping streets which cross it give little hint 
 of its former abruptness. On the face of the hill were 
 heavy forest-trees, and at its foot were thickets and 
 swamps through which it was difficult to pass. For 
 the distance of a quarter of a mile from the fort the 
 ground had been cleared, and much of it was in corn- 
 fields, which the Indian women cultivated. In the first 
 year of the French occupation two thousand bushels 
 of corn were raised there ; while it was calculated that, 
 with the later clearings, " if the harvest were good," 
 as M. Duquesne wrote in July, 1755, not less than 
 six thousand bushels might be gathered.* Outside the 
 walls of the fort, and scattered about with regard only 
 to the whim or the convenience of the occupants, were 
 twenty-five or thirty cabins, where dwelt the Indian 
 population of the place. In times of emergency, like 
 the present, this population was greatly increased, and 
 their lodges stood thickly upon the open space. The 
 fort itself was a small, four-sided work, strongly built, 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Archives," second series, vol. vi. p. 268. 
 
64 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 on the sides facing the land of squared logs, and on 
 the sides towards the water of stockades standing about 
 twelve feet high. There were bastions or gabions at 
 the corners, and upon each were mounted several guns 
 carrying balls of three or four pounds. The entire 
 work was surrounded by a deep ditch and an embank- 
 ment. It could have offered slight resistance to a 
 properly appointed army; and as M. Dumas, the com- 
 mandant asserted, it was fit only to dishonor the officer 
 who should be intrusted with its defence. 
 
 Grant's march, strange to say, had not been dis- 
 covered by the enemy. From this fact perhaps it was 
 that he had got the impression that the garrison at the 
 fort had been greatly reduced in numbers, whereas 
 the exact opposite was the case. Within only the 
 last day or two Captain Aubry had arrived from 
 the Illinois country with large re-enforcements. The 
 enemy outnumbered Grant's men certainly two to 
 one. 
 
 It was about two o'clock in the morning when Grant 
 arrived at the brow of the hill which we have described. 
 As soon as the troops came up. Major Lewis, of the 
 Virginians, was sent forward with about four hundred 
 men, with orders " to attack anything that was found 
 about the fort." Captain Bullitt, with two subalterns 
 and fifty men, had been left two miles in the rear in 
 charge of the baggage. Grant himself remained upon 
 the hill in order to cover the retreat and form the rear- 
 guard in their return from the fort. The men under 
 Major Lewis wore each a white shirt over his clothes, 
 so that no mistakes might be made in the darkness. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 65 
 
 After some time Lewis returned and reported that the 
 night was so dark and the way so difficult, being ob- 
 structed by logs and fences, he could do nothing. 
 Grant set out to investigate for himself, and found the 
 men in great confusion, " which," he says, " was not 
 surprising, for the major had brought them back from 
 the plain when he returned himself, and everybody 
 took a road of their own." He was then obliged to 
 change his plans, and in order that at least something 
 might be attempted, he sent forward a party of fifty 
 men, who set fire to a building which stood on the 
 clearing. 
 
 At the break of day Major Lewis, who had fallen 
 greatly in the estimation of Grant, was sent back with 
 some of the Royal Americans and Virginians to 
 strengthen Captain Bullitt. This left only the High- 
 landers and some Pennsylvanians upon the scene. All 
 this time a heavy fog added to the obscurity of the 
 night, and when the vapor lifted about seven o'clock 
 in the morning. Grant found that he could make out 
 no plan of the fort, which seems to have been his main 
 business, because of his distance from it. He then de- 
 termined to make a direct assault upon it. Captain 
 Macdonald, with one hundred Highlanders, was or- 
 dered forward to open the attack. Captain Mackenzie, 
 with about two hundred and fifty more, was posted 
 on the left, nearly facing the Monongahela, and one 
 hundred Pennsylvanians were stationed on the right, 
 near the Allegheny. The drummers and pipers re- 
 mained with Grant on the hill ; and now, " in order 
 to put on a good countenance and to convince our men 
 
 5 
 
66 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 that they had no reason to be afraid," he gave orders 
 to sound the reveille. 
 
 We imagine we can hear the beating of the drums 
 and the droning and wheezing of the bagpipes on the 
 wooded hill-top that early September morning. The 
 enemy at Fort Duquesne heard them and came swarm- 
 ing out from behind its walls. Grant's disposition of 
 his men was an excellent one, if his purpose had been 
 to have them cut up in detail. Captain Macdonald, 
 who led the centre, was soon killed, and his troops fell 
 back. Captain Mackenzie was made prisoner, many of 
 his men were killed or captured, and the rest chased 
 away. The Pennsylvanians, who were posted on the 
 right, " were off without orders, without firing a shot." 
 In half an hour from the beginning everything was in 
 confusion, and Grant was attacked upon all sides. He 
 now attempted to make an orderly retreat. He sent 
 a message to Major Lewis, directing him to make the 
 best disposition of his men he could until the discom- 
 fited forces could join him; but, as it happened, Lewis, 
 on hearing the firing, hastened to the front again to 
 assist Grant; but, as he took a path different from 
 that pursued by Grant in his retreat, he missed him. 
 The result was that Lewis was attacked in turn and 
 taken prisoner; and Grant, upon coming up to the 
 place, found only Captain Bullitt and his fifty Vir- 
 ginians. Grant endeavored to make a stand whenever 
 he could get anybody to stay with him; but his party 
 rapidly diminished, " every soldier taking the road he 
 liked best," until he was left with only about a dozen 
 of men. A number of French officers and soldiers 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS (,y 
 
 now came up and offered him quarter, which he ac- 
 cepted. His losses in this conflict were two hundred 
 and seventy-three killed, wounded, and captured.* 
 
 The losses fell most heavily on the Highlanders, 
 because, just as their countrymen had done at Brad- 
 dock's defeat, they stood out exposed to the fire of the 
 enemy, while the provincial soldiers took to the trees 
 and fought the savages on their own terms. Captain 
 Bullitt and his handful of men checked the pursuit, 
 and thus enabled many to escape who would otherwise 
 have been slain or captured. Five of the prisoners 
 the savages burned at the stake, while others were 
 tomahawked on the spot. Numbers of dead bodies 
 were found lying through the woods upon the arrival 
 of Forbes's army some weeks later, and skulls bleach- 
 ing in the wintry winds grinned horribly from the tops 
 of tall stakes along the sides of the Indian race-track 
 near the fort.f 
 
 Major Grant was soon exchanged. He afterwards 
 became a member of Parliament, and in the military 
 service he was advanced from time to time. He served 
 in America in the Revolution, and was present at the 
 battles of Long Island, Brandywine, and Germantown. 
 He rose successively through the grades of brigadier- 
 general, major-general, lieutenant-general to general. 
 
 * " The returns show that five hundred and forty came back 
 safe out of eight hundred and thirteen." Parkman's " Montcalm 
 and Wolfe," vol. ii. p. 154, note. 
 
 t The Olden Time, April, 1846 : " Historical Incidents," etc. 
 See Grant's own account of his defeat in letter to Forbes, printed 
 in Darlington's " Fort Pitt," pp. 63-71, and in " Frontier Forts of 
 Pennsylvania," vol. ii. pp. 83-89. 
 
68 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 He died in 1806, in his eighty-sixth year. One can 
 but remark the singular parallelism between the record 
 of his final military promotions and that of his illus- 
 trious American namesake long afterwards. 
 
 The enemy emboldened by his easy defeat of Grant 
 determined to turn the tables and attack the advancing 
 army of Forbes in their camp. Accordingly, about 
 noon on the 12th day of October De Vetri with a 
 large force, said to number twelve hundred French 
 and two hundred Indians, fell upon the stockade at 
 Loyalhanna with great fury, and kept up the assault 
 until three o'clock in the afternoon. Their efforts were 
 unavailing. In the following night they renewed the 
 attack, but still without success. The losses of the 
 English were sixty-seven men and officers killed, 
 wounded, and taken. What loss the enemy sustained 
 is not reported, but it was known to be heavy. Bou- 
 quet was not present at this engagement, being at the 
 time stuck fast in the mud with the artillery at Stony 
 Creek. Colonel James Burd was in command at 
 Loyalhanna at the time. It was a severe engagement ; 
 " but," wrote Burd, " we had the pleasure to do that 
 honor to his Majesty's arms to keep his camp at Loyal- 
 hanna." The next day Colonel Bouquet writes : " I 
 have had this afternoon a second letter from Colonel 
 Burd. The enemies have been all night around the 
 entrenchments, and have made several false attacks. 
 The cannon and the cohorns have held them in awe, 
 and until the colonel had sent to reconnoitre the en- 
 virons, he was not sure that they had retired. At 
 this moment [ten p.m.] is heard from the mountains 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 69 
 
 several cannon-shots, which makes me judge that the 
 enemies have not yet abandoned the party." On their 
 march backward to Fort Duquesne De Vetri's men 
 were so pressed by famine that they were obliged to 
 kill and eat some of the horses they had captured on 
 their raid. 
 
 While all this warlike work was going on, not far 
 away was a man threading the deep forests on a more 
 peaceful errand. Christian Frederick Post, an unas- 
 suming Moravian, who had married among the In- 
 dians and was much respected by them, was requested 
 by Governor Denny, in July, 1755, to proceed to the 
 western part of Pennsylvania and endeavor to win 
 the Indian tribes from their allegiance to the French. 
 Post set off almost immediately from Philadelphia in 
 company with several friendly Indians, crossed the 
 northern part of the colony to Kushkushkee, on the Big 
 Beaver, where he met in council the Indian chiefs. 
 Though he did not succeed fully in his mission, he 
 very much weakened the attachment of the Indians 
 to the French and opened the way to greater results 
 in the near future. At the end of October following 
 Post again set off on the same errand. He followed 
 the route taken by Forbes's army, arriving at Loyal- 
 hanna on the 7th of November. On the i6th he again 
 reached Kushkushkee. On the 20th the chiefs as- 
 sembled in council to hear the message of Post, and 
 by the 24th such progress had he made in his work of 
 conciliation that he ventured to put up the English 
 flag, in spite of a French officer who was present. The 
 next day King Beaver, Shingiss, and about fifty war- 
 
70 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 riors met together in council. Post and the French 
 officer were also present. The latter manifested great 
 sorrow at the course things were taking; but it was 
 too late, the French influence had waned; that same 
 day Fort Duquesne was abandoned, and Post's mis- 
 sion was accomplished. " We ended this day," he 
 says, " with pleasure and great satisfaction on both 
 sides." 
 
 All the time the events were transpiring at Loyal- 
 hanna which we have mentioned Forbes was creeping 
 along towards that point. He was extremely ill, and 
 was carried along in a litter which was slung between 
 two horses. Anybody else under the circumstances 
 would have resigned the command; but Forbes held 
 on, and finally arrived at Loyalhanna in the early part 
 of November. It was late in the season. As we have 
 said, it was proposed to go into quarters for the winter. 
 The French concluded that the expedition for the pres- 
 ent would be abandoned. " I think that Fort Du- 
 quesne is safe for this autumn and winter," writes 
 Montcalm, November 15, "and that the enemy will 
 think of going into winter-quarters."* Washington 
 was the moving spirit of the enterprise. It was his 
 courage, his wisdom, his energy, that saved it from 
 failure. " Vast as were the preparations," says Ban- 
 croft, " Forbes would never, but for Washington, have 
 seen the Ohio." 
 
 While Forbes was lying at Loyalhanna a reconnoi- 
 tring party of the enemy approached within two miles 
 of the camp, whereupon Colonel Mercer was sent out 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Archives," second series, vol. vi. p. 451. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS \yi 
 
 with a body of Virginians to dislodge them. A severe 
 fight ensued; and from the firing, which seemed to 
 be drawing nearer to the camp, it was thought that 
 Mercer was falling back. Upon this Washington, with 
 the consent of Forbes, called for volunteers, and went 
 out to the assistance of Mercer. By this time it had 
 grown dusk, and through a misunderstanding Mer- 
 cer's men began firing upon Washington's party, and 
 the latter replied, by which a number of soldiers were 
 killed and wounded. The enemy had already retreated. 
 Long afterwards Washington said that he had never 
 been in more imminent danger, being between the 
 lines endeavoring to stop the firing.* 
 
 Meanwhile, matters had not been going well with 
 the French at Fort Duquesne. Stores that had been 
 forwarded from Canada had been intercepted by Brad- 
 street at Fort Frontenac. They were, short of provi- 
 sions. The Indians had mostly withdrawn. Mont- 
 calm, in the letter from which we have just quoted, 
 says : " The Indians have retired to hunt, and the 
 Louisiana detachments, which came from the post of 
 the Illinois, as well as those of Detroit, have returned 
 home." Intelligence of this having been made known 
 to Forbes, it is said by an English prisoner who had 
 been recovered from the French, a forward movement 
 was resolved on. Washington claimed the privilege 
 of leading the advance column, on the ground that 
 " from long intimacy with these woods, and frequent 
 scouting in them, my men are at least as well ac- 
 quainted with all the passes and difficulties as any 
 
 ♦Washington's MS., Scrihner's Magazine, May, 1893. 
 
'jz OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 troops that will be employed."* His request was 
 granted, and on the 12th of November he marched 
 forward. The next day he was followed by Colonel 
 Armstrong, the hero of Kittanning, with a force of 
 one thousand Pennsylvanians. The combined strength 
 of the two detachments was about two thousand five 
 hundred men. On the 17th Washington was at Bushy 
 Run; on the i8th he was within seventeen miles of the 
 fort. On the 17th Forbes himself followed with four 
 thousand five hundred effective men, having left strong 
 garrisons at Ligonier and Bedford.f 
 
 On the 24th Forbes encamped his whole army at 
 Turtle Creek, only ten or twelve miles from Fort 
 Duquesne. During the night a heavy explosion was 
 heard to the westward, and in the early morning the 
 word was brought that the French had blown up the 
 magazine, fired the buildings, and abandoned the place. 
 The advance hastened forward, but found only a mass 
 of smoking ruins. Some of the French had gone 
 down the Ohio, and others up the Allegheny to Ve- 
 nango. In the dusk of evening, Saturday, November 
 25, 1758, the army assembled upon the spot and took 
 possession of the site of Fort Duquesne. 
 
 * Sparks's " Writings of Washington,'' vol. i. p. 99. 
 t " Frontier Forts of Penns3-lvania," vol. ii. p. 208. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 FORT PITT AND BUSHY RUN 
 
 A FIERCE snow-storm was sweeping up the Ohio 
 Valley when the gallant Colonel Armstrong, amid the 
 shouts of his exulting comrades, ran up the banner of 
 St. George above the ruins of Fort Duquesne. Amid 
 their acclamations the place was named Pittsburgh. 
 GrifBs, in his " Life of Sir William Johnson,"* says 
 the name was given by Washington. Surely no one 
 had a better claim to stand as sponsor for the future 
 city. 
 
 It was a night of great physical discomfort. A 
 number of cabins had stood about the fort, but these 
 had shared in the general destruction of the place, and 
 their roofs had been heaped against the fort to add 
 to the conflagration. The weary soldiers improvised 
 such shelter as they could from the scattered ruins, or 
 crouched about their camp-fires and ate their rations 
 in the snow. The sentinels, wrapped in their military 
 cloaks, plodded their laborious paces through the 
 drifts, and fancied they heard in the night winds 
 among the trees the shrill cry of the distant savage. 
 But their sufferings were lightened by the reflection 
 that the coveted prize was in their hands and their toils 
 almost at an end. 
 
 The immediate necessity of the time was a place of 
 shelter and defence, and at once work was begun upon 
 
 * In " Makers of America" series, p. i68. 
 
 73 
 
74 OLD, PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 a fortification. It was but a slight structure, to be 
 superseded soon by a better one. The first fort built 
 here by the English was not called Fort Pitt. It seems 
 not to have borne any distinctive name. Pittsburgh, 
 as we have said, was so called from the first ; for No- 
 vember 26, the very day next following the occupa- 
 tion by the English, we find General Forbes dating a 
 letter at Pittsburgh.* Colonel Mercer, July and Sep- 
 tember, 1759, dates from Pittsburgh, but makes no 
 mention of Fort Pitt. General Stanwix, December 8, 
 1759, dates from " Camp at Pittsburgh," and speaks 
 of " the works here," but does not mention Fort Pitt. 
 Finally, in a letter bearing date December 24,, 1759, 
 Stanwix mentions " Fort Pitt" in the body of his let- 
 ter,! '^rid this is the first mention on record of the fort 
 by that name. So that not until more than twelve 
 months after the taking of Fort Duquesne do we hear 
 any mention of Fort Pitt, and then the work after- 
 wards to be known by that name had been carried well 
 on towards completion. Hence it seems clear that the 
 temporary fortification built in the winter of 1758 was 
 known simply as the fort at Pittsburgh, or, as Stan- 
 wix termed it, the camp at Pittsburgh. 
 
 On the day following the capture of Fort Duquesne 
 a thanksgiving service was held by the chaplain, the 
 Rev. Charles Beatty, a Presbyterian minister.:]: This 
 is memorable as the first sermon preached by a Protes- 
 
 * " Colonial Records of Pennsylvania," vol. viii. p. 232. 
 t " Pennsylvania Archives,'' vol. iii. p. 696. 
 t Rev. Charles Beatty was grandfather of Rev. C. C. Beatty, 
 D.D., founder of the Steubenville Female Seminary, 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 75 
 
 tant divine on the site of the city of Pittsburgh. Mr. 
 Beatty is worthy of a more extended notice. He was 
 a native of Ireland, and acquired a good classical edu- 
 cation in his native country. When he came to 
 America he was in very narrow circumstances, and was 
 obliged to resort to peddling for a livelihood. One 
 day passing the Rev. William Tennent's famous Log 
 College, in Bucks County, he stopped and greeted the 
 master in excellent Latin. Mr. Tennent was surprised ; 
 but after some conversation with the peddler, and find- 
 ing him a man of fervent piety as well as of learning, 
 he said to him : " Go and sell the contents of your 
 pack and return immediately and study with me. It 
 will be a sin for you to continue a peddler when you 
 can be so much more useful in another profession." 
 He accepted Mr. Tennent's offer, and in due time 
 became an eminent minister.* 
 
 The present was not Mn Beatty's first military 
 campaign, for he had accompanied Franklin as chap- 
 lain to his force at Fort Allen in the beginning of the 
 year 1756. Of him Franklin relates a whimsical anec- 
 dote. " We had for our chaplain," says he, " a zealous 
 Presbyterian minister, Mr. Beatty, who complained to 
 me that the men did not generally attend his prayers 
 and exhortations. When they enlisted they were 
 promised, besides pay and provisions, a gill of rum a 
 day, which was punctually served out to them, half 
 in the morning and half in the evening, and I observed 
 they were punctual in attending to receive it, upon 
 
 *"The Log College." By A. Alexander, D.D. Princeton: 
 184s. Page 357- 
 
'je OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 which I said to Mr. Beatty : ' It is, perhaps, beneath 
 the dignity of your profession to act as steward of the 
 rum, but if you were to distribute it out just after 
 prayers, you would have them all about you.' He liked 
 the thought, undertook the task, and with the help of a 
 few hands to measure out the liquor, executed it to 
 satisfaction, and never were prayers more generally 
 and more punctually attended. So that I think this 
 method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some 
 military laws for non-attendance on divine service."* 
 This anecdote is very characteristic of Franklin, and 
 gives us some little view of the man who this rough 
 Sunday morning addressed his motley congregation 
 among the ruins of the French stronghold. 
 
 Two days later a detachment of Pennsylvanians un- 
 der Captain West, with several Indian guides, was sent 
 off to the scene of Braddock's defeat, to gather up and 
 inter the bones of those who fell there, so far as they 
 could be found. In the heart of the savage wood they 
 found them in abundance, gnawed by wolves and foxes, 
 and covered with the dead leaves of four successive 
 autumns. They were carefully gathered up and buried 
 in a deep trench dug in the freezing ground.f 
 
 The Indians from the Big Beaver region gathered 
 in at Pittsburgh, very well pleased to have got rid of 
 the French, but greatly dissatisfied that the new-comers 
 should remain upon the spot. " If the English would 
 draw back over the mountain," said Ketiuscund, " they 
 
 *" Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin, written by Himself," p. 
 60. 
 
 t Parkman's " Montcalm and Wolfe," vol. ii. p. 160. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 n 
 
 would get all the other nations into their interest; but 
 if they stayed and settled there, all the nations would 
 be against them; and he was afraid it would be a great 
 war, and never come to a peace again." It required 
 a great deal of explaining and cajolery on the part of 
 Post, Croghan, and Montour to reconcile them to the 
 new conditions. Colonel Hugh Mercer, with a force 
 of two hundred Virginians, a few weeks later re- 
 enforced by fifty men under Captain Wedderholz,* 
 was directed to hold the place. On the 3d of December 
 Forbes left Pittsburgh for Philadelphia, being carried 
 on a litter as he had come. He lived to reach Phila- 
 delphia, but died in the following March, and was 
 buried in the chancel of Christ Church in that city. 
 
 Fort Duquesne had stood in the immediate angle 
 formed by the two rivers at their confluence. The fort 
 now built by the English under Colonel Mercer stood 
 upon the bank of the Monongahela, at the southern end 
 of West Street.f It was completed about the ist of 
 January, 1759. Colonel Mercer, in a letter dated the 
 8th of that month, says that the garrison then con- 
 sisted of two hundred and eighty men, and that the 
 post was capable of some defence, though huddled up 
 in a very hasty manner, the weather being extremely 
 severe.:j: In the summer of 1759 Pittsburgh was seri- 
 ously threatened by the French. Aubry and Ligneris 
 had collected a large force of French and Indians at 
 Venango and Presqu' Isle; but as they were on the 
 
 * See Post's " Second Journal," December 23, 1758. 
 
 t Craig's " History of Pittsburgh," p. 78. 
 
 X " Colonial Records of Pennsylvania," vol. viii. p. 293. 
 
78 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 point of setting off for Pittsburgh news was brought 
 of the movement of General Prideaux and Sir William 
 Johnson against Niagara, and the army that had been 
 collected to attack Pittsburgh was marched off to Ni- 
 agara. Meantime the handful of men at Pittsburgh 
 cowered behind their trifling palisade and offered up 
 hearty prayers to the Almighty for deliverance in this 
 hour of danger.* The defeat of the French at Niagara 
 saved the garrison at Pittsburgh. 
 
 General John Stanwix was appointed to succeed 
 General Forbes. About the ist of August, 1759, he 
 arrived in Pittsburgh, and at once set about the erection 
 of a more formidable fortification; one that would 
 " to latest posterity," as a writer of the day phrased it, 
 " secure the British empire on the Ohio." This fort 
 was called Fort Pitt. It stood just between the site 
 of old Fort Duquesne and the small fort built by Mer- 
 cer. The present line of Penn Avenue almost exactly 
 bisected it, one salient extending across Liberty Street 
 and nearly to the Monongahela. The redoubt, which 
 is still standing, was within the line of circumvallation, 
 but just outside the lower wall of the fort. Extrava- 
 gant statements have been made as to the cost of Fort 
 Pitt; it was only a moderate work, as the following 
 description shows, and we may be sure it was built at 
 a moderate expense, f 
 
 * See letter of John Ormsby in Craig's " History of Pitts- 
 burgh," p. 83. 
 
 t Arthur Lee, of Virginia, who visited Pittsburgh in 1784, 
 says Fort Pitt cost the Crown six hundred pounds. This is no 
 doubt about right. See his journal in The Olden Time, August, 
 1847. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 79 
 
 " The work erected by General Stanwix," says Nev- 
 ille B. Craig, "was five-sided, though not all equal. 
 The earth around the proposed work was dug and 
 thrown up so as to enclose the selected position with 
 a rampart of earth. On the two sides facing the coun- 
 try this rampart was supported by what military men 
 call a revetment, — a brick-work, nearly perpendicular, 
 supporting the rampart on the outside, and thus pre- 
 senting an obstacle to the enemy not easily overcome. 
 On the other three sides the earth in the rampart had 
 no support, and, of course, it presented a more inclined 
 surface to the enemy, — one which could readily be 
 ascended. To remedy, in some degree, this defect in 
 the work a line of pickets was fixed on the outside of 
 the foot of the slope of the rampart. Around the 
 whole work was a wide ditch which would, of course, 
 be filled with water when the river was at a moderate 
 stage."* 
 
 Fort Pitt was a sufHcient defence against Indian at- 
 tacks, as was proved in the course of its history, though 
 it could not have resisted for an hour an army pro- 
 vided with artillery. It was commanded by the neigh- 
 boring heights, and during the siege in Pontiac's war 
 a man was shot in the fort from a hill across the river. 
 ,Yet around its walls soon sprang up a village where 
 dwelt a motley population, and among its log cabins 
 the Indian in his blanket and paint was a familiar 
 object. From the very beginning Pittsburgh was a 
 prosperous business centre. Its situation at the head 
 of the Ohio made it the point of departure for the 
 
 * Craig's " Historx of Pittsburgh," p. 85. 
 
8o OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Western country, and being upon the remote verge of 
 civilization, it became at once the chief point of trade 
 with the Indians and trappers of the forest. Among 
 its citizens was Colonel William Clapham, a man dis- 
 tinguished in his day, who had once commanded at 
 Fort Augusta. In April, 1761, Colonel Clapham took 
 a census of the town of Pittsburgh. He reported one 
 hundred and four houses and a population all told of 
 three hundred and thirty-two souls. A couple of years 
 later Colonel Clapham was living at Sewickley old- 
 town, said to have been about eighteen miles east of 
 Pittsburgh, where he met an unhappy fate. 
 
 With the fall of Quebec in September, 1759, French 
 power in North America was destroyed. The Indians, 
 most of whom were much attached to the French, 
 were greatly dissatisfied with the result of the war. 
 As they saw the Englishmen encroaching more and 
 more upon their ancient domain their discontent in- 
 creased. All that was required to bring about an 
 uprising of the red men against the English was a 
 competent leader, and such a leader was soon found 
 in Pontiac. This man, a chief of the Ottawas, was 
 shrewd, eloquent, and brave. He set about forming 
 a secret confederacy of a number of tribes. It was 
 designed to strike the English posts on the border 
 simultaneously and unexpectedly. His plans were so 
 well carried out that when, in the early summer of 
 1763, they made their attempt, all the posts on the 
 frontier line fell into their hands except Detroit, Fort 
 Pitt, and Niagara. 
 
 At Fort Pitt Captain Simeon Ecuyer was in com- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 8i 
 
 mand. In the beginning of May he learned that some 
 rascally Indians were hanging about the fort. As 
 the month wore on the conduct of the Indians became 
 more suspicious. On the 27th of that month he was 
 informed by Alexander McKee, the Indian agent, 
 that the Mingoes and Delawares were restless and 
 that they had sold skins to the value of three hundred 
 pounds, with which they had purchased powder and 
 lead. The next day McKee was sent to the Indian 
 towns in the neighborhood to gather information, but 
 found them all abandoned. At daybreak of the 29th 
 three men came into Fort Pitt from Sewickley old- 
 town, where they had been at work, and reported that 
 in the afternoon of the preceding day the savages had 
 killed Colonel Clapham, together with one of his men, 
 two women, and a child. The leader of the gang was 
 a Delaware named Wolf. The same day two soldiers 
 were killed at the saw-mill, not far from the fort. 
 
 At this time Pittsburgh consisted of two groups of 
 cabins, called the " upper town" and the " lower town." 
 The latter stood near the fort; the former on the 
 higher ground some little distance above, on the bank 
 of the Monongahela. Some scattered houses were at 
 a greater distance, — one Thompson living near the 
 Monongahela half a mile away, and George Croghan 
 about four miles up the Allegheny. On the 30th day 
 of May the inhabitants of Pittsburgh moved into the 
 fort, and two days later Ecuyer ordered all the " out- 
 houses" in the town to be torn down and burned. 
 Efforts were made to communicate with the outside 
 world, but the messengers were fired on and compelled 
 
 6 
 
82 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 to turn back. In the fort were three hundred and 
 thirty men in all.* Of these, two hundred and fifty 
 were soldiers, one half of them regulars and the others 
 militia.f There were also about one hundred women 
 and a still greater number of children. Everybody that 
 could handle a musket was armed for the defence. 
 They had but a small supply of provisions, and from 
 the beginning of the siege the people were put on half 
 rations of bread and meat. The defences of the fort 
 were greatly strengthened. A fire-engine was con- 
 structed. A hospital was fitted up under the draw- 
 bridge. In all points Ecuyer approved himself a most 
 competent officer, and in his work he was ably sec- 
 onded by Captain Trent, the Indian trader. 
 
 On the 2d of June, while a party was destroying 
 the houses in the upper town, the Indians set fire to 
 Thompson's house. On the 7th of the same month 
 one Wilkins with his wife and child arrived from 
 Venango. How they escaped the vigilant eyes of the 
 savages is a mystery. Once on a similar occasion 
 Frederick Post prayed the Lord to blind the eyes of his 
 enemies, " as he did the enemies of Lot and Elisha," 
 that he might pass unseen. " The Lord heard my 
 prayer," he adds. Perhaps Wilkins would have as- 
 signed his escape to the same cause. Our pious an- 
 cestors had a simple method of disposing of such diffi- 
 culties. On the 9th a great smoke was seen up the 
 river, from which it was inferred, and rightly, too, 
 
 * Parkman's "Conspiracy of Pontiac," vol. ii. p. 11. 
 t Ecuyer to Bouquet, June 2, 1763, Darlington's "Fort Pitt," 
 p. 128. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 83 
 
 that Croghan's house was burning. Some parties who 
 were working at a short distance from the fort were 
 fired on by the savages, but no one was hurt. The 
 Indians were seen skulking about, firing at any person 
 who ventured out. On the 15th Sergeant Miller with 
 three others went up to Grant's Hill, contrary to or- 
 ders, and just as they reached the summit Miller was 
 shot dead. The others escaped. On the i6th four 
 Shawanese appeared on the opposite side of the Alle- 
 gheny and desired to speak to McKee. He went over 
 to them, and they assured him that the murders had 
 been committed by the Six Nations and the Delawares. 
 The Indians continued to increase in numbers and in 
 boldness. On the afternoon of the 23d of June a gen- 
 eral assault was made upon the fort, and two men were 
 killed. But the assailants were driven off. The next 
 day Turtle Heart and Mamaltee approached the fort 
 with an air of the greatest friendliness. " You must 
 leave this fort," said Turtle Heart, " with all your 
 women and children, and go down to the English set- 
 tlements, where you will be safe. There are many 
 bad Indians already here," he continued, " but we will 
 protect you from them." In reply to this cajollery 
 Ecuyer told them that he was well able to defend the 
 fort against all the Indians in the woods, that he had 
 abundant provisions for three years, and that three 
 large armies were on the way, who would severely 
 chastise the Indians. " Out of our regard to them," 
 he wrote, " we gave them two blankets and a hand- 
 kerchief out of the smallpox hospital. I hope it will 
 have the desired effect." There was now a lull in the 
 
84 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 proceedings for some time, though the enemy con- 
 tinued to hang about the place. 
 
 Meantime the three posts in Pennsylvania north of 
 Pittsburgh had fallen into the hands of the Indians, — • 
 Presqu' Isle, June 17, Le Boeuf, June 18, and Venango 
 a day or two before. Not a soul had escaped at 
 Venango to tell its sad story. At the capitulation of 
 Presqu' Isle two men darted into the forest and dis- 
 appeared. One of these men, a Scotch soldier named 
 Benjamin Gray, arrived at Fort Pitt, haggard and 
 half starved, ten days afterwards. At Le Boeuf En- 
 sign Price, who was in command, escaped with his 
 small g'arrison into the woods under cover of the 
 darkness. In the evening of the 25th of June two of 
 his men reached Fort Pitt, and the following morning 
 the ensign himself with five of his men; and in the 
 evening of the 27th four more men and a woman 
 from Le Boeuf came in, and with them the Scotch 
 soldier who had escaped from Presqu' Isle. They had 
 the good fortune to reach the fort at the time the In- 
 dians had somewhat relaxed their vigilance, and so got 
 in unharmed. 
 
 The Indians continued about the place, even entering 
 the ditch and approaching the foot of the glacis, and 
 firing, as before, on any one that ventured to show 
 himself. On the 28th of July they made a vigorous 
 and determined assault upon the fort. It continued 
 with more or less virulence for five days and nights. 
 Seven of the garrison were wounded, — among them 
 Ecuyer himself, though his wound was not serious. 
 Twenty of the savages were killed and wounded to the 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 85 
 
 certain knowledge of the besieged, besides a number, as 
 they believed, who were carried off by their friends. 
 The contest raged tintil the afternoon of the ist of 
 August, when they withdrew. Large numbers of them 
 were seen crossing the Allegheny with their luggage. 
 
 The Indians had gone off to intercept Bouquet. On 
 the 5th of August three express riders arrived from 
 Bouquet, whom they had left at Ligonier. As they 
 passed Small's plantation at Turtle Creek they heard 
 a great deal of cheering, shooting, and the ringing of 
 bells, from which Ecuyer inferred that they meant to 
 attack Bouquet's army. He sent off two expresses to 
 Bouquet to apprise him of the danger. Through the 
 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Ecuyer waited with feverish 
 impatience, but no tidings came from Bouquet. All 
 was quiet at Fort Pitt. Not an Indian was to be seen. 
 But in the early morning of the loth Miller, who was 
 one of the expresses sent out on the 5th, returned with 
 the news that Bouquet had been engaged for two days 
 with the Indians, but had succeeded in beating them 
 off. When Miller left Bouquet the latter was at Nine 
 Mile Run. A detachment of the garrison under Cap- 
 tain Philips marched out to meet the troops, whom 
 they joined at Bullitt's Hill. The latter was no doubt 
 the hill whereon Captain Bullitt, of the Virginians, 
 was stationed at the time of Grant's defeat. It 
 was about two and a half miles from Fort Pitt. 
 The attack upon Bouquet was begun on the 5th of 
 August, at a point about half a mile east of Bushy 
 Run. From the best accounts at hand Ecuyer sums 
 up the battle in a few lines. " Our advanced guard," 
 he says, " discovered the Indians where they were lying 
 
86 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 in ambush and fired on them about three o'clock in the 
 afternoon; this brought on a general engagement, 
 which continued through the next day and night. Our 
 people behaved with the greatest bravery, and also the 
 Indians, who often advanced within a few steps of 
 our people. The action continued doubtful till the 
 enemy by a stratagem was drawn into an ambuscade, 
 where they were entirely routed, leaving a great many 
 of their people dead on the spot. Our loss in this affair 
 is about fifty killed and sixty wounded. It is thought 
 by our people the enemy left as many."* 
 
 The engagement which Ecuyer thus sums up so 
 briefly was one of the most determined and sanguinary 
 battles ever waged by the unaided red men against 
 the white. Bouquet had lightened his march by leaving 
 his heavier baggage at Ligonier to be brought on 
 more leisurely, and with a train of three hundred and 
 forty pack-horses carrying flour and other supplies 
 for Fort Pitt, he pushed forward. In the afternoon 
 of the 5th of August, when he was within about 
 twenty-four miles of Pittsburgh, suddenly the war- 
 whoop was raised and a furious fire from an unseen 
 foe was poured upon his front. The troops fell back 
 and were soon encircled by the enemy, who kept be- 
 hind the trees. Bouquet's men made repeated charges 
 upon them, when they instantly fled, but immediately 
 retraced their steps as the soldiers returned to their 
 places. " They would never stand their ground when 
 attacked," says Parkman, " but vanish at the first gleam 
 
 * Darlington's " Fort Pitt," p. 107. Ecuyer's journal and let- 
 ters of this time are published in that valuable work. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 87 
 
 of the levelled bayonet, only to appear again the mo- 
 ment the danger was past." Thus the day wore on. 
 Many of the soldiers had fallen, killed or wounded. 
 The rest were wearied with the heat and with their 
 unavailing efiforts and perishing for want of water. 
 It looked as though the dreadful fate of Braddock was 
 to befall Bouquet. Night put a temporary stop to the 
 contest, but the soldiers could get but little rest. At 
 the early dawn the conflict was renewed. The tactics 
 of the previous day were again pursued. It was mani- 
 fest that some different method of dealing with the 
 foe must be adopted if a man of the whole army was 
 to escape. At length it was seen that by a certain 
 movement a large body of the enemy might be taken at 
 advantage. The movement was executed. Two com- 
 panies of Highlanders in front were ordered to fall 
 back. The Indians, taking this movement to be the 
 beginning of a retreat, pressed eagerly forward to 
 what they thought was a certain victory. By a quick 
 detour to the left through a hollow unobserved by the 
 Indians, the two companies suddenly appeared upon 
 the right flank of the enemy and poured in a most de- 
 structive fire. For a moment the savages hesitated, 
 then broke and ran for their lives, closely pursued by 
 the infuriated soldiers. They were not able to make 
 any further stand. Sixty Indian corpses were counted 
 upon the ground after the fight. Bouquet's loss in all 
 was one hundred and fifteen men. Many of the pack- 
 horses had been killed or had broken away during the 
 battle and a good part of the stores had to be destroyed. 
 No time was lost. The army, as soon as possible, re- 
 
88 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 sumed the march, halting for a short time for rest and 
 refreshment at Bushy Run. Here the savages made a 
 feint at renewing the fight, but they were soon driven 
 away. After this, except for occasional scattered 
 shots from the lurking enemy, the march of the army 
 was unmolested. 
 
 By the defeat of the Indians at Bushy Run and the 
 arrival of Bouquet's army at Fort Pitt the siege was 
 broken up. They did not return to the attack, though 
 on the 1 2th of August they were seen, says Ecuyer, 
 " on a hill on the opposite side of the river looking at 
 us." But as a body they soon disappeared in the wilds 
 beyond the Allegheny, though individuals and small 
 parties lingered about for some weeks, and on the 19th 
 of September a Highland soldier was shot and scalped 
 by three Indians at the bullock-pen, not far away. 
 
 Bouquet's arrival was timely. He brought not only 
 active help but food. Famine was close at hand in Fort 
 Pitt. The abundance of provisions of which Ecuyer 
 had boasted to the Indians was merely brag. In his 
 letter to Bouquet, written on the 2d of August, he says, 
 " I have four legs of beef, and no flour." This was 
 little for a population of five or six hundred souls. If 
 the siege could have been protracted but for a day or 
 two longer Ecuyer would have been compelled to 
 capitulate, which meant the probable murder of the 
 whole garrison, or attempt the hazardous alternative 
 of cutting his way through the enemy. But during the 
 absence of the Indians at Bushy Run the people of the 
 garrison were able to go into their fields of spelt, 
 which was now ripe, and the gardens about the fort, 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 89 
 
 and from these sources some slight additions were 
 made to their meagre supplies. 
 
 Bouquet, at Pittsburgh, desired to pursue the 
 marauding and murderous savages to their lair in the 
 distant forests; but he could get nothing done in the 
 matter until late in the fall of the succeeding year. In 
 the mean time he strengthened Fort Pitt and erected 
 the redoubt which is still standing, the sole relic on 
 the ground of the famous frontier post. It bears upon 
 its front the stone tablet placed there by the gallant 
 commandant, with the inscription: 
 
 A*D. 
 
 1764 
 
 Coll — Bouquet 
 
 In the autumn of this year he found himself 
 in command of a sufficient force, and leaving Fort 
 Pitt in the early part of October, he pushed his way 
 westward. His movements were slow but consider- 
 ately taken, and in the course of ten days he had pene- 
 trated to the heart of the Indian country. The savages 
 saw the futility of resistance, and at the summons 
 of Bouquet the chiefs of all the neighboring tribes met 
 him in council on the bank of the Muskingum. The 
 grand result of the expedition was that peace and 
 tranquillity were restored to the borders without blood- 
 shed, and Bouquet returned to Pittsburgh with several 
 hundred happy men, women, and children whom he 
 had received out of heathen bondage and restored to 
 the blessings of Christian homes and civilization.* 
 
 * " Colonel Henry Bouquet and his Campaigns.'' By Rev. 
 Cyrus Cort. P. 72. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Of the history of Pittsburgh we get only occasional 
 glimpses for many years immediately following the 
 events related in the preceding chapter. Little more 
 than a military post on the frontier, in times of peace 
 its annals were necessarily dull. There was no local 
 newspaper to record the trifling occurrences of the day. 
 There was no mail service, and few letters were writ- 
 ten, and still fewer have been preserved. 
 
 The town as it stood in the spring of the year 1764 
 had been largely destroyed by command of Captain 
 Ecuyer, and what he had allowed to stand had been 
 destroyed by the Indians. A party which was sent out 
 of the fort after the siege found the house of George 
 Croghan burned, as well as all the houses between. It 
 is not likely that a house was left standing in Pitts- 
 burgh. 
 
 In 1764, immediately after the siege, Colonel John 
 Campbell laid out that part of Pittsburgh which is 
 bounded by Water Street and Second Avenue and 
 Ferry and Market Streets, comprising four squares. 
 Colonel Campbell's name is of frequent occurrence in 
 the transactions in this locality at that period. He 
 afterwards went to Kentucky, where he figured even 
 more prominently than here. Under what authority 
 or instructions he proceeded in laying out the town 
 ,90 
 
ULD riTTiJUURGH DAYS 91 
 
 we do not know; but no doubt his work was fully- 
 authorized, as in the subsequent survey and plan of the 
 town it was recognized and adopted. 
 
 The first descriptive notice we have of the town 
 after its reconstruction is from the pen of the Rev. 
 Charles Beatty. This gentleman will be recalled as 
 the worthy chaplain of Forbes' s army. He now came 
 by appointment of the Synod of New York and Phila- 
 delphia to visit the frontier settlements and discover 
 the religious state and needs of the inhabitants. He 
 was accompanied upon this mission by the Rev. Mr. 
 Duffield. They arrived at Pittsburgh on Friday even- 
 ing, September 5, 1766. On the following Sunday 
 Mr. Beatty preached in the garrison by invitation of 
 the chaplain, the Rev. Mr. McLagan, while Mr. Duf- 
 field discoursed to the people who lived " in some kind 
 of a town without the fort." The next day Mr. Beatty 
 crossed the Monongahela and ascended the hill oppo- 
 site the town. From this hill, he says, the garrison 
 was supplied with coals. He notes that the coal in the 
 hill was then burning and had been burning for almost 
 a twelvemonth, the coal having caught fire through 
 the carelessness of the workmen. " The earth in some 
 places," he remarks, " is so warm that we could hardly 
 bear to stand on it: At one place where the smoke 
 came up we opened an hole in the earth till it was so 
 hot as to burn paper thrown into it: The steam that 
 came out was so strong of sulphur that we could 
 scarce bear it. We found pieces of matter there, some 
 of which appeared to be sulphur, others nitre, and 
 some a mixture of both. If this strata be large in 
 
92 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 this mountain, it may become a volcano."* Mr. Duf- 
 field preached in the town again on Tuesday evening, 
 and the good missionaries comforted themselves 
 with the belief that their labors here had " not been 
 in vain." 
 
 Our next notice of Pittsburgh is by a no less distin- 
 guished visitor than Colonel George Washington. He 
 arrived October 17, 1770. Twelve years had passed 
 since he entered the place with the van of Forbes's 
 army. In the mean time he had been living quietly 
 on his estate at Mount Vernon, little dreaming of the 
 great part that he should be called on to act in the 
 near future. He was now accompanied by Dr. Craik, 
 Colonel Crawford, and some others. Colonel Craw- 
 ford was a gallant and capable man. He was after- 
 wards an officer in the Revolutionary War ; and in an 
 expedition against the Sandusky Indians in 1782 he 
 was taken prisoner and cruelly burned at the stake. 
 Dr. Craik is also noteworthy. He was the life-long 
 friend of Washington and his physician in his final 
 illness nearly thirty years later. 
 
 The little town that Washington found at the forks 
 of the Ohio was built mainly on the plan laid out by 
 Colonel Campbell. The most pretentious house in the 
 place was no doubt the inn kept at this time by Samuel 
 Semple. It was a two-story double house of hewn 
 logs, and is said to have been the first building in the 
 town that was roofed with shingles. It stood on the 
 
 *"The Journal of a Two Months' Tour," etc. By Charles 
 Beatty, A.M. London: 1768. P. 31. A very rare and curious 
 book. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 93 
 
 upper corner of Water and Ferry Streets. It was 
 built about the year 1764, probably by Colonel George 
 Morgan. Long afterwards it was known as the " Vir- 
 ginia House." No relic of it remains upon the ground. 
 Washington spoke of it as " a very good house of 
 public entertainment." 
 
 What was called the town, he says, lay about three 
 hundred yards from the fort. It consisted of about 
 twenty log houses ranged in streets near the Mononga- 
 hela, and inhabited chiefly by Indian traders. The pop- 
 ulation was from one hundred to one hundred and 
 twenty, exclusive of the soldiers in the fort. The garri- 
 son at the time of Washington's visit consisted of two 
 companies of Royal Irish under the command of Cap- 
 tain Edmundson. On the day following his arrival 
 Washington dined in the fort with Colonel George 
 Croghan and the officers of the garrison. The next 
 day he dined at the house of Colonel Croghan, who, 
 in 1766, had re-established himself on the Allegheny. 
 At Croghan's house he met the White Mingo and other 
 chiefs of the Six Nations, who desired to greet him 
 and to assure him that they wished the people of Vir- 
 ginia to consider them as friends and brothers, " linked 
 together in one chain." After dinner he returned to 
 the town, accompanied by Croghan, who intended to 
 go with him part of the way down the river. The fol- 
 lowing day, which was the 20th of October, having 
 secured a large canoe, " with sufficient store of provi- 
 sion and necessaries," the company set off down the 
 Ohio. On the 21st of November, just a month after- 
 wards, Washington returned to Pittsburgh and re- 
 
94 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 mained until the 23d. On the next day after his return 
 he invited the officers of the garrison and some other 
 gentlemen to dinner at Semple's. This dinner was in 
 liquidation of the attentions he had received a few 
 weeks before. No doubt it was a season of great old- 
 fashioned, high-toned hospitality and good cheer. The 
 following morning the distinguished visitors mounted 
 their horses and rode away.* 
 
 Colonel Croghan well deserves some notice here. 
 He was an Irishman by birth, and came to America 
 about the year 1743. In 1749 he was appointed one 
 of the justices of the peace for Lancaster County. 
 He embarked in the Indian trade, and soon became one 
 of the best known and most thriving traders in the col- 
 ony. As early as 1748 he had a trading-house at Logs- 
 town, and soon afterwards at other points in the remote , 
 wilderness. For many years he took a leading part in 
 the various public transactions with the Indians, and 
 by his good sense and honorable methods of dealing 
 with the red men he averted much bloodshed and hor- 
 ror from the colonists. He was one of the few bright 
 exceptions to the majority of Indian traders, who are 
 described by Proud as " the vilest and most abandoned 
 part of the community," and who by their nefarious 
 practices did much to bring about the troubles between 
 the white settlers and the savages. Through all the 
 difficulties of the French and Indian War Croghan took 
 a conspicuous part. He continued to reside for some 
 years on the bank of the Allegheny. " The history 
 
 * See Washington's journal in The Olden Time, September, 
 1846. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 95 
 
 of George Croghan, the Indians' friend and generous 
 protector," says Darlington, "is the history of the 
 Indians of Pennsylvania, — their conferences, treaties, 
 and treatment by the white usurper."* He died in 
 the year 1782. 
 
 The majority of the houses at Pittsburgh in the 
 times of which we write were likely only such log 
 cabins as were common on the frontier. They were 
 usually of round logs, roofed with clapboards, which 
 were held in place by slender poles extending length- 
 wise of the house from end to end. The crevices be- 
 tween the logs were filled with clay and chips of wood 
 called " chinking." Glass was never found in the 
 windows, but over certain openings between the logs 
 oiled paper was pasted, which admitted a dubious light. 
 An immense fireplace built of stones on the outer side 
 of the cabin, but opening into it, occupied the greater 
 part of one end of the house. The chimney was com- 
 posed of sticks of wood well plastered with clay. In 
 the winter-time fires from great logs of wood roared 
 up the wide-throated chimney and aided in lighting up 
 the room. The door of heavy boards swung on im- 
 mense hinges of hickory and was secured by a wooden 
 latch. A thong of leather attached to this latch passed 
 through a small hole in the door just above, by means 
 of which the latch was raised. When the string was 
 pulled in the door was effectually secured against all 
 intrusion. Hence the saying, " The latch-string is 
 out," was an expression of welcome. In the construc- 
 tion of such a cabin a nail was never used. 
 
 * Darlington's " Christopher Gist's Journals," p. 190. 
 
96 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Overhead was usually a loft, access to which was 
 commonly by a ladder, though sometimes only by a 
 series of wooden pins inserted one above another in 
 the logs of the wall. The floor was formed of 
 puncheons or heavy slabs of wood, the upper surface 
 smoothed with the axe and the curved side laid upon 
 the ground. The interior furnishment of the house 
 was in keeping with the building. A rude table made 
 with the hatchet and auger, a few rough stools of the 
 same style of workmanship, though sometimes only 
 blocks of wood furnished seats for the family, and a 
 bedstead built firmly against the wall, were the prin- 
 cipal articles of furniture. The household dishes were 
 usually wooden plates and platters, drinking vessels 
 made of dried gourd shells, and an iron pot. A tin 
 drinking cup was a rare and valuable possession. 
 Spoons were of wood and of horn. Hunting- and 
 clasp-knives were used for table cutlery; and the say- 
 ing that " fingers were made before forks" was justi- 
 fied by the common practice among the border cabins. 
 Plates of Delft-ware conferred distinction upon a 
 family; but the backwoodsman did not approve of 
 them, as they were apt to dull the edge of his scalping- 
 knife. For the most part the woods, the small culti- 
 vated patches in the clearings, and the streams sup- 
 plied food for the family. Sugar of the most pala- 
 table kind was made from the sap of the maple-tree, 
 and whiskey in those unexcised days flowed almost 
 as freely as water. Some simple groceries were almost 
 indispensable, and these could be obtained usually only 
 with difficulty. In the autumn the settlers gathered 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS . 
 
 together the skins and furs that they had procur( 
 through the year, and joining company for great 
 security, with their pack-horses and provision for m; 
 and beast on the way, they set off in a caravan for tl 
 eastern towns, where they exchanged their peltry f 
 such things as were needful. The Indian traders al 
 carried into the backwoods many of the supplies r 
 quired by the settlers. Salt was an indispensable an 
 cle, and in some parts of the country commanded 
 most exorbitant price. Dr. Doddridge, who lived 
 the Panhandle of Virginia, says that the common pri 
 of a bushel of salt was a good cow and calf; and ; 
 precious was the salt esteemed that while the proce 
 of measuring it out was going on no one was alloW( 
 to walk heavily across the floor for fear of spillii 
 any of it* 
 
 The clothing of the pioneer family was almost e 
 tirely a home product. In every clearing was a pati 
 of flax, and wherever practicable a few sheep we 
 kept. The fabric of the clothing was spun and ge 
 erally woven by the good housewife, who also fas 
 ioned the garments. Linsey and coarse linen formi 
 the common apparel of the women and children, whi 
 the tanned or untanned skins of wild animals co: 
 stituted an important element in the dress of the me 
 
 The settlers in a garrison town like Pittsburgh ( 
 course had many advantages over their contemporari 
 out on the border. Though we have no record of tl 
 earlier years of the city's history, there were probab 
 
 * Doddridge's "Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars 
 etc., p. 147. 
 
 7 
 
98 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 among the cluster of cabins which Washington found 
 here the unpretentious shops of a few of the more 
 necessary artisans, — a gunsmith, a weaver, a breeches- 
 maker, and a small store or two for the sale of such 
 goods as the traders carried into the wilderness. The 
 presence of the garrison imparted to the people a sense 
 of security, while the aristocratic British ofificers in 
 their red coats and gold lace gave a certain ton to the 
 little society that was impressive. We may be sure 
 that Scrapie's good house of public entertainment was 
 the scene of many jolly carousals. 
 
 The main thoroughfare between Pittsburgh and the 
 settlements on the eastern side of the Allegheny Moun- 
 tains was Forbes's Road. It led across the flat from 
 Fort Pitt in a line more or less conforming to the 
 present Liberty Avenue, passing a little north of Wil- 
 kinsburg, then over the hills and through the defiles 
 in a direction a little south of east past the battle-field 
 of Bushy Run to Hannastown, and on to Fort Ligo- 
 nier. It lay through an almost unbroken wilderness. 
 But few clearings or settlements had been made along 
 this line of communication prior to the year 1775. As 
 early as 1764 one Small seems to have made a settle- 
 ment where the road crossed Turtle Creek, and An- 
 drew Byerly was living at Bushy Run, midway be- 
 tween Pittsburgh and Fort Ligonier. A few years 
 later the Widow Myers kept a famous hostelry at 
 Turtle Creek, and Washington dined there on the day 
 he left Pittsburgh on his return to Virginia. The 
 thoroughfare was originally a wagon road, but as it 
 received no attention or repairs, it soon fell into a bad 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 99 
 
 condition, and was so overgrown with bushes as to be 
 impassable except for pedestrians and horsemen. The 
 vast uninhabited wilderness and the thickets of under- 
 wood long remained as Forbes had found them. 
 
 By proclamation of the king in the year 1763 a line 
 was drawn around the head-waters of all the rivers in 
 the United States which flow into the Atlantic Ocean, 
 and the colonists were forbidden to settle to the west 
 of it. All the valley from the Great Lakes to West 
 Florida and from the proclamation line to the Missis- 
 sippi was set apart for the Indians. The country be- 
 yond the Mississippi was Spanish territory. Pitts- 
 burgh was beyond this line of demarcation and in the 
 Indian country. The king's decree was little regarded. 
 "The hardy frontiersman of 1763," says McMaster, 
 " cared no more for the king's proclamation than he 
 did for the bark of the wolf at his cabin door. The ink 
 with which the document was written had not dried 
 before emigrants from Maryland and Virginia and 
 Pennsylvania were hurrying into the valley of the 
 Monongahela." 
 
 The Indians complained bitterly of these encroach- 
 ments, and the royal authority, the authority of the 
 colonial governors, and of General Gage, the British 
 commander-in-chief in the colonies, were exerted in 
 vain; and in February, 1768, by act of Parliament, 
 even the penalty of death without benefit of clergy 
 was denounced against those who should enter the 
 country of the savages, or who, having already settled 
 there, should remain. But all efforts of government 
 seemed to be useless. The numbers were too great. 
 
loo OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 It was impossible to inflict the death penalty upon a 
 whole population. Many of the settlers were removed 
 by force; but as soon as the soldiers had returned to 
 their garrison at Fort Pitt the trespassers were back 
 again on their clearings. In the spring of 1 768 a con- 
 ference was held at Pittsburgh with the chiefs of the 
 Six Nations, the Delawares, Shawanese, Muncys, and 
 Mohicans, which, however, did little to remedy the 
 grievances. It was clear that but one thing could be 
 done in the premises, and that was to purchase the 
 lands from the Indians. Accordingly, in October, 
 1768, a council was held at Fort Stanwix, New York, 
 with the Iroquois tribes by Sir William Johnson, the 
 Indian agent, and commissioners from New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The main result of this 
 conference was that articles were signed by which the 
 Indian title was extinguished to all lands which they 
 claimed lying eastward of the Allegheny River as far 
 north as Kittanning and southward and eastward of 
 the Ohio down to the mouth of the Tennessee River, 
 " and extending eastward from every part of the said 
 line as far as the lands between the said line and the 
 purchased lands or settlements." The consideration 
 received by the Indians was, as Griffis remarks, "ten 
 thousand dollars and unlimited rum."* By the terms 
 of this treaty the territory west of the Allegheny and 
 north and west of the Ohio remained "the Indian 
 country." 
 
 But an individual who was destined to be for some 
 years more troublesome to the peace of the Pennsyl- 
 
 * Griffis's " Life of Sir William Johnson," p. 193. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS loi 
 
 vanian than either Frenchman or Indian was at the 
 door. This was the Virginian. Under the charter of 
 1609, as has been already remarked, Virginia claimed 
 that part of Western Pennsylvania in which Pittsburgh 
 lay, and the region was embraced in what they called 
 the District of West Augusta. This claim gave rise 
 to a long and bitter contention. 
 
 In the year 1772 the British government determined 
 to abandon Fort Pitt as a military station. By order of 
 General Gage, therefore. Major Edmundson, the com- 
 mandant at the fort, on the loth of October, in that year, 
 in consideration of the sum of fifty pounds. New York 
 currency, sold to Alexander Ross and William Thomp- 
 son "all the pickets, bricks, stones, timber, and iron 
 which are now in the buildings or walls of the said 
 fort and in the redoubts." A corporal and three men 
 were left to look after certain property which belonged 
 to the government, and Major Edmundson and the 
 garrison marched off to other quarters. 
 
 The people of Pittsburgh were much discomposed 
 by the sale of the fort and the withdrawal of the gar- 
 rison. A remonstrance was sent to General Gage, and 
 among other complaints it was stated that the sale had 
 been of the nature of a private transaction, and not a 
 public one. If what was further charged was true, 
 Major Edmundson had good reason to make the trans- 
 action a private one as far as possible; for it was 
 charged that he had received a present of fifty pounds 
 from the purchasers, and that Ensign Prideaux and 
 Surgeon Hand, the two witnesses to the sale, had also 
 been handsomely remembered by the same parties. In 
 
I02 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 reply, Gage acknowledged that the sale had been irreg- 
 ular, but refused to rescind it. In a letter to Governor 
 Penn he says, in regard to the abandonment of the 
 fort : " It is natural for the people near Fort Pitt to 
 solicit the continuance of the garrison, as well for their 
 personal security as obtaining many other advantages; 
 but no government can undertake to erect forts for 
 the advantage of forty or fifty people." This seems a 
 strange estimate of the population of the place. The 
 general adds that the fort was comparatively useless, 
 as it could afford no protection to people at any dis- 
 tance from it, and could not cover or protect the fron- 
 tiers, as was " fully evinced in the last Indian war."* 
 
 To what extent the fort was destroyed in conse- 
 quence of this sale we have no means of knowing, 
 though it must have been considerable, for Ross sold 
 some part of the materials and built several houses 
 out of a part. Thompson does not appear any fur- 
 ther in the transaction; but in December, 1775, Ross 
 presented a petition to the Virginia Convention asking 
 damages to the amount of fourteen hundred and 
 eighty-two pounds seventeen shillings and two pence 
 for the old fort which the Virginia authorities had 
 seized. Of this large claim he was allowed only one 
 hundred and seven pounds one shilling and nine pence, 
 but which, taken in connection with the houses he had 
 built of a portion of the materials, and the further fact 
 that he still owned " two redoubts and eight stacks of 
 chimneys," shows that Ross had not made a bad specu- 
 lation.f 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Archives," vol. iv. p. 437. 
 t The Olden Time, February, 1847. 
 
v-'j^j-' J. ii iojDUJXvaxa jjAia 
 
 103 
 
 That part of Allegheny County which lies east of 
 the Allegheny River for some time had been included 
 in Cumberland County, afterwards, by subdivision of 
 Cumberland County, 1771, in Bedford County, and 
 again, by subdivision of Bedford County, February 
 26, 1773, in Westmoreland County. It was partly in 
 the region claimed by Virginia as the District of West 
 Augusta. 
 
 On the old Forbes Road, about thirty miles east of 
 Pittsburgh, was then living a man named Robert 
 Hanna. The act by which Westmoreland County was 
 organized directed the courts to be held at Hanna's 
 house until a court-house should be built. At once a 
 struggle sprang up between Pittsburgh and what came 
 to be known as Hannastown as to which should be- 
 come the county-seat. It seems impossible that any 
 serious rivalry should ever have existed between Pitts- 
 burgh and such a place as Hannastown. But the latter 
 had the great advantage of a central position ; besides, 
 Hanna was somewhat of a politician. Of the five 
 trustees named in the act to locate the county-seat and 
 erect the public buildings were Hanna himself and one 
 Joseph Erwin. Hanna rented his house to Erwin to 
 be kept as a tavern. Thus two of the trustees were 
 committed in advance in favor of Hanna's place as the 
 seat of justice for the new county, and, perhaps by 
 methods as well understood then as now, one of the 
 remaining number was secured to go with them. The 
 other two trustees, one of whom was Arthur St. Clair, 
 voted in favor of Pittsburgh; but the majority vote 
 prevailed, and Hanna's place was chosen. The site 
 
104 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 thus selected was named Hannastown, and it suddenly- 
 experienced, as was to have been expected, an era of 
 great prosperity. Two years later Hannastown had 
 twenty-five or thirty log cabins, and was about as large 
 a town as Pittsburgh. 
 
 The justices of the new county were William Craw- 
 ford, ^neas Mackey, Devereux Smith, and Andrew 
 McFarlane. Justice Crawford was Colonel Crawford, 
 whom we have already mentioned as one of Washing- 
 ton's companions in his Western tour. Though not 
 so designated or appointed by any law, he came to 
 be recognized as the chief justice. Why this distinction 
 was so generally conferred on him is a difficult matter 
 to determine. He was a Virginian, and had settled on 
 the southern side of the Youghiogheny. All his pre- 
 dilections were in favor of Virginia. He held the title 
 to his lands and his military commissions under Vir- 
 ginia, and was personally interested in the claims of 
 that colony. But he enjoyed the distinction of chief 
 justice of Westmoreland County until 1775, when he 
 was ousted from his position by order of the Council 
 of Pennsylvania for his undisguised partiality for Vir- 
 ginia in the controversy of that time.* 
 
 * George Dallas Albert in Egle's " History of Pennsylvania," 
 p. 1154- 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 TROUBLE WITH DUNMORE 
 
 Among the gentlemen who sat down to dinner with 
 Washington at Sample's tavern was a very clever man, 
 Dr. John Connolly, a nephew of Colonel Croghan. 
 Washington was much pleased with him. He had 
 travelled extensively through the Western country, 
 had been nearly four hundred miles up the Shaw- 
 nee River, and now entertained the company with a 
 glowing description of the lands and climate of that 
 region. " He wished for nothing more," says Wash- 
 ington, "than to induce one hundred families to go 
 there and live, that he might be among them." Sub- 
 sequent events gave the good people of Pittsburgh 
 ample reason to wish that he had gone there and 
 stayed. 
 
 In the year 1772, John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, 
 was appointed governor of Virginia. Lord Dunmore 
 was imperious, arbitrary, and unscrupulous. He had 
 scarcely settled himself in his chair of office before he 
 began to press the claims of Virginia to Western Penn- 
 sylvania. Many of the settlers in the disputed terri- 
 tory were Virginians. They loved Virginia. They 
 despised Pennsylvania. In Dr. Connolly Dunmore 
 found a ready tool. Connolly was himself a Pennsyl- 
 vanian, a native of Lancaster County; but he chose 
 to throw in his lot with the Virginians, and, like all 
 renegades, he was more zealous in the cause he had 
 espoused than those to the manner born. 
 
 105 
 
io6 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Accordingly, about the end of the year 1773, Con- 
 nolly came up from Virginia under authority of Dun- 
 more. In January, 1774, he seized the ruins of Fort 
 Pitt and erected a small stockade, which he named Fort 
 Dunmore, and issued proclamations in the name of the 
 governor of Virginia, calling upon the people to obey 
 that authority. Arthur St. Clair, who represented the 
 interests of the Penns in this region, had him arrested 
 and thrown into jail at Hannastown. He was not 
 held in durance long, however, but gave bail for his 
 appearance at the next term of court, and was released. 
 He returned to Virginia ; but when the session of court 
 opened at Hannastown in April, 1774, Connolly was on 
 hand with a force of one hundred and fifty men, armed 
 and in all the panoply of war. He denied the author- 
 ity of the court, and put a stop to the proceedings; 
 and on the 9th day of April, at Pittsburgh, he arrested 
 the three justices, Mackey, Smith, and McFarlane, 
 and sent them off under guard to Staunton, in Vir- 
 ginia. Before reaching the place of their destination, 
 however, Mackey got permission to go by way of Wil- 
 liamsburg to see Lord Dunmore, and after some con- 
 versation with him his lordship wrote to the sheriff 
 asking him to permit the prisoners to return home. 
 Armed with this letter, Mackey hastened to Staunton, 
 when the prisoners were set free. They returned to 
 their homes in Pittsburgh about the 5th of May. 
 
 Connolly's proceedings called out a letter from Gov- 
 ernor Penn to Lord Dunmore, in which he directed at- 
 tention to Connolly's performances, and set forth what 
 he claimed were the boundaries of Pennsylvania in the 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 107 
 
 disputed region. "The western extent of the Prov- 
 ince of Pennsylvania," he says, " by the royal grant is 
 five degrees of longitude from the river Delaware, 
 which is its eastern boundary." From the two hun- 
 dred and thirty-third milestone on the line run by 
 Mason and Dixon in 1763- 1767 "a north line hath 
 been since carefully run and measured to the Ohio," 
 he continues, "and from thence up to Fort Pitt." 
 From the various data the most exact calculations had 
 been made by several competent mathematicians, and 
 they all agree, he says, that Pittsburgh "is near six 
 miles eastward of the western extent of the Prov- 
 ince."* 
 
 To this letter Dunmore made reply, March 3, 1774, 
 in which he disputes the boundary-lines as laid down 
 by Governor Penn, and resents with great spirit the 
 arrest of Connolly, and demands the dismissal of St. 
 Clair from office, unless, indeed, the latter can prevail 
 by proper submission on Mr. Connolly " to demand his 
 pardon of me."f Governor Penn, however, declined 
 to dismiss St. Clair; and as it does not appear that 
 St. Clair ever attempted to make any kind of submis- 
 sion to Connolly, it is likely he died at last without the 
 benefit of Lord Dunmore's "pardon." In the begin- 
 ning of May James Tilghman and Andrew Allen were 
 appointed commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania 
 to confer with the governor of Virginia in regard to 
 the points in dispute. But nothing came of it. Dun- 
 more was haughty and persistent. The boundaries of 
 
 * " Colonial Records," vol. x. p. 149. 
 t Ibid., p. 156. 
 
io8 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Pennsylvania, he insisted, were on the north a straight 
 line from the Delaware River along the forty-second 
 parallel westward five degrees, on the south a straight 
 line westward from the circle drawn at the distance of 
 twelve miles from Newcastle to a meridian line which 
 should pass through the western extremity of the 
 northern boundary-line; that meridian line being, as 
 he says, "the limits of longitude mentioned in the 
 royal grant, and no other, as it appears to me."* It 
 is a remarkable fact that Governor Penn's proposition 
 gave to Virginia more than she claimed; for a line 
 conforming to the Delaware in every part drawn at 
 the distance of five degrees to the westward of that 
 river would have fallen at one point as far eastward as 
 Latrobe, and would have left Pittsburgh ten miles 
 over the border in Virginia. On the other hand, Dun- 
 more's proposition would have given Pennsylvania 
 far more than she demanded; the boundary-lines as 
 he described them being nearly the same as those at 
 present established, — so little did the parties to the dis- 
 pute understand the matter. 
 
 But while Penn and Dunmore were arguing the 
 question on paper Connolly was carrying things with a 
 high hand about Pittsburgh. He seized the property 
 of the people, and so dragooned and oppressed them 
 that many families returned to the eastern side of the 
 mountains to escape his tyranny. By midsummer his 
 oppression had become such that the Pennsylvanians 
 in Pittsburgh entertained the scheme of abandoning 
 the place in a body and establishing themselves else- 
 
 * " Colonial Records,'' vol. x. p. 184. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 109 
 
 where. One proposition was to erect a stockade on 
 the Forbes Road about Turtle Creek, and another was 
 to build a town at Kittanning. The communication 
 with Philadelphia from the latter point it was thought 
 would in time become very easy, and might be done 
 with very little land carriage, as there was an old 
 trading path from there to Frankstown, on the Juniata, 
 and another to the head of the West Branch of the 
 Susquehanna.* 
 
 Dunmore endeavored to enforce his pretensions to 
 the disputed region by holding courts of justice for 
 the county of West Augusta at Pittsburgh. The first 
 court convened on the 21st of February, 1775. It con- 
 tinued in session four days, and then adjourned to 
 Staunton. Courts were also held in May and Sep- 
 tember of that year. The regular Virginia courts 
 cbntinued to be held at Pittsburgh for West Augusta 
 County until November 30, 1776. The territory was 
 then divided into three counties and called Ohio, Yo- 
 hogania, and Monongalia. Pittsburgh was in Yoho- 
 gania County, which embraced the greater portions 
 of the present counties of Allegheny and Washington. 
 The courts of this county were held regularly until 
 the 28th of August, 1780. They were sometimes held 
 in Pittsburgh, sometimes in or near the present town 
 of Washington, but the greater portion of the time 
 on the farm of Andrew Heath, on the Monongahela 
 River, near the present line between Allegheny and 
 
 * Arthur St. Clair to Governor Penn, July 22, 1774, in " Penn- 
 sylvania Archives," vol. iv. p. S5i- 
 
no OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Washington Counties, where a log court-house and 
 jail were erected.* 
 
 Not content with plunging Pennsylvania and Vir- 
 ginia into strife with each other, Dunmore and Con- 
 nolly seemed bent on bringing on a war between the 
 settlers and the Indians. It required all the skill and 
 diplomacy of Penn and St. Clair to placate the savages 
 and prevent an outbreak. But Dunmore and his ac- 
 complice at length succeeded in irritating the red men 
 into taking up the hatchet against the Virginians. The 
 struggle that ensued is known in history as Dunmore's 
 War. It was marked in its course by the massacres 
 at Captina and Yellow Creek and the bloody battle of 
 Point Pleasant, and has been made memorable by the 
 speech of Logan, the chief of the Mingoes. General 
 Lewis had marched across the country to Point Pleas- 
 ant, on the Ohio River. Here, on the loth day of Oc- 
 tober, 1774, he engaged the Indians under Cornstalk, 
 the chief of the Shawanese. In the battle the Virgin- 
 ians lost eighty-seven killed and one hundred and forty 
 wounded. The Indians were completely defeated. 
 " Between sunrise and sunset," says Cooke, " Lewis 
 and his Virginians had put an end to the long drama 
 of horror."f 
 
 Dunmore was to have co-operated with Lewis, but 
 failed to be at hand. He assembled his forces at Pitts- 
 burgh to the number of about one thousand men in 
 the middle of September, and here providing canoes 
 
 *"The Judiciary of Allegheny County." By Judge J. W. F. 
 White. P. 9. 
 
 t John Esten Cooke's " Virginia," p. 425. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS m 
 
 and keel-boats he descended the Ohio. Instead of pro- 
 ceeding to join Lewis at Point Pleasant, he disem- 
 barked some distance above and marched to the Indian 
 town of Chillicothe, on the Scioto. Instead of attack- 
 ing the Indians he entered into some composition with 
 them. He has been charged with treachery towards 
 the Virginians. After the battle of Point Pleasant 
 he made a treaty of peace with the Indians at Camp 
 Charlotte, in November, 1774.* At the conclusion 
 of Dunmore's War Connolly returned promptly to the 
 scene of his former exploits in Pennsylvania. In No- 
 vember of this year, and again in February, 1775, he 
 appeared at Hannastown with an armed force, and 
 released from confinement certain prisoners who were 
 detained there. But the reign of Dunmore and Con- 
 nolly was drawing to a close. The conduct of the 
 former had become so odious to the patriotic people 
 of Virginia that on the night of June 7, 1775, he was 
 compelled to seek safety on board the British man-of- 
 war " Fowey," which was lying in the York River. 
 He never returned to Williamsburg. In the following 
 November Connolly was arrested at Fredericktown for 
 treasonable practices. By order of Congress he was 
 sent to Philadelphia for safe-keeping. He was de- 
 tained in captivity until the winter of 1780, when he 
 was released by exchange. After the Revolution he 
 resided in Canada. 
 
 Though Dunmore had abandoned the field, Vir- 
 ginia still asserted her claims to the western part of 
 Pennsylvania. In August, 1775, Captain John Neville 
 
 * Doddridge's "Notes," etc., p. 237. 
 
112 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 was ordered by the Virginia Convention to march his 
 company of one hundred men and occupy Fort Pitt. 
 They reached the place and took possession of the fort 
 on the nth of Septerhber, much to the surprise of the 
 inhabitants. The courts of Yohogania County con- 
 tinued to be held, as we have seen, for a number of 
 years. All the functions of government, civil and mili- 
 tary, were exercised by Virginia in this region from 
 1776 to 1780. It was to all intents and purposes an 
 integral part of Virginia, and senators and delegates 
 to the Virginia Legislature were chosen here as in any 
 other part of that colony. 
 
 But the Penns did not relinquish their claims to the 
 district. They struggled to maintain their power over 
 this territory through the Westmoreland County or- 
 ganization. West of the Monongahela, however, ex- 
 cept in a few localities along the shore of the river and 
 in the southeastern corner of Greene County, Penn- 
 sylvania did not venture to exercise any authority.* 
 
 The pressure of events was now appealing to a larger 
 patriotism, and in the presence of the common enemy 
 both Pennsylvania and Virginia were willing to lose 
 sight, if possible, of their local bickerings. Several 
 attempts were made from time to time to arrange the 
 vexatious question of the boundary-line. Neither 
 side, however, was willing to yield any material point. 
 But in 1779 both parties agreed to a joint commission 
 to determine the boundary. The commissioners met 
 in Baltimore, and on the 31st of August, 1779, they 
 agreed "to extend Mason and Dixon's line due west 
 
 *Veech's "The Monongahela of Old," p. 254. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 113 
 
 five degrees of longitude, to be computed from the river 
 Delaware, for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, 
 and that a meridian, drawn from the western extremity 
 thereof to the northern limit of said State, should be 
 the western boundary of Pennsylvania forever." The 
 agreement of the commissioners was ratified by Penn- 
 sylvania in November, 1779, and by Virginia a little 
 more reluctantly in June, 1780. And thus ended the 
 long and bitter boundary dispute between the two colo- 
 nies. Pennsylvania had good reason to be satisfied 
 with the terms. 
 
 But entire peace did not come at once. Many of the 
 settlers who found themselves thus brought into the 
 fold of Pennsylvania possessed in full measure the 
 Virginian contempt for the Quaker State, and resisted 
 strenuously their transfer. They appealed to Con- 
 gress for relief, but that body gave no heed to them. 
 They then agitated the formation of a new State con- 
 sisting of parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia, 
 with the seat of government at Pittsburgh. The gov- 
 ernment of Pennsylvania was forced to use all its 
 power to repress this movement, and by an act passed 
 in December, 1782, declared all such attempts to be 
 treason.* 
 
 By the final adjustment of the boundary-lines Pitts- 
 burgh found herself again in Westmoreland County. 
 Yohogania County had disappeared forever from the 
 map of Pennsylvania. The people of Westmoreland 
 County were distinguished for their patriotism. At 
 Hannastown, on the i6th of May, 1775, more than a 
 
 * Veech's " The Monongahela of Old," p. 257. 
 8 
 
114 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 year before the Declaration of Independence was pro- 
 claimed by Congress at Philadelphia, a convention of 
 the people of Westmoreland was held and a series of 
 patriotic resolutions were adopted, one of which reads 
 as follows : " That should our country be invaded by 
 a foreign enemy, or should troops be sent from Great 
 Britain to enforce the late arbitrary acts of its Parlia- 
 ment, we will cheerfully submit to military discipline, 
 and to the utmost of our power resist them and oppose 
 them, or either of them, and will coincide with any 
 plan that may be formed for the defence of America 
 in general, or Pennsylvania in particular." This was 
 the boldest and most direct notice that had yet been 
 served upon the British government, and entitles the 
 people of Western Pennsylvania to a top line on the 
 historic page. In a convention of the citizens of the 
 county on such an occasion, we may be sure tha't dele- 
 gates from so important a point as Pittsburgh were 
 not wanting. It is to be regretted that the names of 
 the prime movers in this memorable convention have 
 not been preserved. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 IN THE REVOLUTION 
 
 The battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill had been 
 fought, and Washington had taken command of the 
 American army, when Captain Neville and his Vir- 
 ginians entered Fort Pitt. It had evidently been the 
 design of Dunmore and Connolly to get this important 
 post into a shape that it might serve the cause of the 
 king to good purpose ; but their treachery to the colo- 
 nies had been detected in time, and the fort was in safe- 
 keeping. 
 
 During the greater part of the Revolutionary strug- 
 gle affairs were quiet at Pittsburgh. A treaty of peace 
 had been made under the auspices of Colonel Morgan, 
 the government agent at Pittsburgh, with the principal 
 tribes of Indians in the neighborhood, though the bor- 
 der was sadly harassed by some of the disaffected 
 tribes. Henry Hamilton, the English commandant at 
 Detroit, distinguished himself for inhumanity by offer- 
 ing a reward for scalps but nothing for prisoners. 
 
 On the 1st of June, 1777, Brigadier-General Ed- 
 ward Hand arrived and assumed command at Fort 
 Pitt. Hand desired to carry the war into the enemy's 
 country, but his efforts to raise a sufficient force for 
 this purpose were in vain. Local and personal jeal- 
 ousies had much to dq in preventing this step. General 
 Hand was a good officer, but he was able to do but 
 little. He was pleased to find himself able even to 
 " assist the inhabitants to stand on the defensive." 
 
 115 
 
ii6 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 In March, 1778, Alexander McKee, Matthew El- 
 liott, and Simon Girty left Fort Pitt and went over 
 to the enemy. Their defection was a serious matter to 
 the Americans, because of their intimate knowledge 
 of the country and their influence with the Indians. 
 They were soon distinguished for their virulence and 
 energy against their former friends and comrades. It 
 is not to be understood that these men cast ofif all their 
 claims to civilization and assumed to be savages ; they 
 were simply Tories, men who preferred their loyalty 
 to the king to independence. There were thousands 
 of men all over the country just like them. 
 
 In May, 1778, Brigadier-General Lachlan Mcintosh 
 was sent out to take the place of General Hand, who 
 had asked to be transferred to that part of the army 
 which was directly under Washington's command. 
 Mcintosh, in the early fall of the same year, built a 
 fort on the right bank of the Ohio, just below the 
 mouth of the Beaver River. It was named Fort Mc- 
 intosh, and thither the head-quarters of the Western 
 army were removed. From this point in November, 
 1778, Mcintosh set out with a force of about thirteen 
 hundred men against Detroit. He proceeded to the 
 Tuscarawas, a distance of about seventy miles, but 
 for want of certain supplies, which should have been 
 forwarded, he was compelled to relinquish his purpose 
 for the present. He built a fort on the Tuscarawas, 
 which was named Fort Laurens. He left there Colo- 
 nel John Gibson with one hundred and fifty men. 
 Upon his return to Fort Mcintosh he discharged the 
 militia, who numbered not less than one thousand 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 117 
 
 men. The Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment, a choice 
 body of men mainly from Westmoreland County, had 
 been assigned to Pittsburgh. This regiment was under 
 Colonel Daniel Brodhead. Stephen Bayard was the 
 lieutenant-colonel. Originally the regiment was com- 
 manded by Colonel ^neas Mackey, but Colonel 
 Mackey died in service, in February, 1777. To the 
 Eighth Pennsylvania was added the Thirteenth Vir- 
 ginia Regiment. In April, 1779, Mcintosh retired 
 from the command of the Western troops, and Colonel 
 Brodhead was appointed to succeed him. 
 
 Brodhead was born in the State of New York per- 
 haps about the year 1725,* but in his infancy his 
 parents removed to Dansville, Monroe County, Penn- 
 sylvania. From his youth he was noted for his 
 prowess in dealing with the savages of the border. He 
 entered the service of the colonies at the breaking out 
 of the Revolution, and upon the death of Colonel 
 Mackey he was appointed to the command of the 
 Eighth Pennsylvania. Brodhead had fought gallantly 
 under Washington at the battle of Long Island and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Colonel Brodhead was a brave and enterprising offi- 
 cer. He sent out various expeditions against the hos- 
 tile savages. One of these, which he himself headed, 
 left Pittsburgh on the nth day of August, 1779. It 
 numbered six hundred and five men, rank and file. 
 In the Allegheny Valley above the mouth of French 
 
 *The authorities do not agree as to either the time or place 
 of Brodhead's nativity. But this is nothing; they rarely agree 
 about anything. 
 
ii8 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Creek he encountered and defeated a party of thirty or 
 forty warriors, burned a large number of houses, de- 
 stroyed five hundred acres of standing corn, and 
 brought away plunder to the amount of three thousand 
 dollars. He did not lose a man in this enterprise. " I 
 have a happy presage," he writes, " that the counties 
 of Westmoreland, Bedford, and Northumberland, if 
 not the whole western frontiers, will experience the 
 good effect of it."* 
 
 Under Colonel Brodhead was Captain Sam Brady, 
 who, as a local hero, deserves more than a passing no- 
 tice. Though little more than a youth in years he 
 achieved a fame that has already endured a century. 
 " Captain Brady," says Smucker, " has been by some 
 historians styled the ' Marion of the Northwest,' by 
 others he was frequently called the ' Daniel Boone of 
 the western portions of Pennsylvania and Virginia,' 
 and by still others he has been often likened to the 
 Chevalier Bayard, as possessing many similar quali- 
 ties to the knight who was without fear and without 
 reproach."-)- 
 
 Besides his hostility to the savages on general prin- 
 ciples, Brady was actuated by a special grudge of his 
 own. In the summer of 1778 a younger brother of 
 Brady's had been killed by the Indians while in the 
 harvest-field, and in the following April his father, 
 Captain John Brady, of the Revolutionary army, was 
 ambushed and slain by the savages almost at his own 
 doorstep. Sam Brady at this time was but twenty-one 
 
 * Brodhead to Washington, September 16, 1779. 
 t Magazine of Western History, July, 1891. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 119 
 
 years old, and it is said that he took a solemn vow to 
 be revenged upon the red men. The field of opera- 
 tions about Fort Pitt gave him ample scope to wreak 
 out his vengeance, and he soon became a terror to the 
 Indians all along the frontier. He figures frequently 
 in the border history of those days. 
 
 The particular achievement which gained for him 
 the title of " Hero of the Allegheny," and stamped his 
 name permanently upon a locality in the valley of that 
 river, took place in June, 1779, as we learn from a 
 letter written by Colonel Brodhead to President Reed. 
 Brodhead writes that about a fortnight before the date 
 of his letter, which was June 24, a party of Indians 
 had descended the Allegheny and fallen upon the Se- 
 wickley settlement, where they killed a woman and 
 four children and took two other children prisoners. 
 
 While the Indians were on their homeward way 
 with their booty Captain Brady, with a small number 
 of men, fell in with them about fifteen miles above 
 Kittanning. This is the distance as given by Brod- 
 head, but it is likely short of the fact. " The Indians," 
 says Brodhead, " had chosen an advantageous situation 
 for their camp. He, however, surrounded them, and 
 attacked at the break of day. The Indian captain, a 
 notorious warrior of the Muncy nation, was killed on 
 the spot, and several more mortally wounded ; but the 
 woods were remarkably thick and the party could not 
 pursue the villains' tracks, after they had stopped their 
 wounds, which they always do as soon as possible after 
 receiving them. Captain Brady, however, retoolc six 
 horses, the two prisoners, the scalps, and all their 
 
20 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 lunder, and took all the Indians' guns, tomahawks, 
 latch-coats, moccasins; in fine, everything they had 
 xeept their breech-clouts." 
 
 Such is the simple official account of this action as 
 iven by Colonel Brodhead. The story has been many 
 mes retold by our local annalists, who have embel- 
 shed it with many adventitious circumstances. In 
 LUgust, 1779, Captain Brady was transferred to the 
 'bird Pennsylvania Regiment, and retired from the 
 ;rvice January i, 1783. He remained in and about 
 'ittsburgh, one of the romantic characters of the bor- 
 er, for a number of years after the close of the war. 
 [e died near West Liberty, West Virginia, December 
 5, 1795, aged only thirty-nine years.* 
 
 Brodhead's position at Fort Pitt does not seem to 
 ave been an easy one. From his correspondence his 
 len seem to have been most of the time on scanty ra- 
 ons and destitute of nearly everything needful. " I 
 n exceedingly distressed," he writes, " on account 
 f the want of blankets, shirts, and many other articles 
 f clothing, being very sensible that the soldiers must 
 afifer much for want of them and will follow the 
 icample of those who have already deserted to a warm 
 imate on that account." Again he writes : " The 
 ■oops have not tasted meat at this post for six days 
 ast, and I hear of none that we can purchase, or 
 rocure by our compulsory means; indeed, there is 
 ery little meat to be had on this side the mountain at 
 ny rate." 
 
 In the summer of 1781 he became involved in a bit- 
 
 *" Pennsylvania Archives,'' second series, vol. x. p. 451. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 121 
 
 ter dispute with Colonel Gibson and some other of his 
 officers. The controversy raged to such an extent that 
 Washington felt constrained to end it by ordering 
 Brodhead to resign his command until matters could 
 be investigated, and appointed Colonel Gibson to as- 
 sume the command at Fort Pitt in the mean time. 
 " At this juncture," says George Dallas Albert, " Fort 
 Pitt was little better than a heap of ruins. The regu- 
 lar force stationed there was wholly incompetent to the 
 exigencies of the service. The controversy about the 
 command of the post had greatly increased the dis- 
 order. The garrison was in want of pay, of clothing, 
 of even subsistence itself, and as a consequence was in 
 a mutinous condition. The militia of the department 
 was without proper organization ; and when called into 
 service, destitute, to a great extent, of military knowl- 
 edge and discipline."* 
 
 In September, 1781, Brodhead turned over his office 
 to Colonel Gibson. A few weeks later Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral William Irvine was appointed to take charge at 
 Fort Pitt. In the reorganization of the army in 1781 
 Brodhead was appointed colonel of the First Pennsyl- 
 vania Regiment. After the war he served in various 
 public positions. He died at Milford, Pike County, 
 Pennsylvania, in November, iSoQ.f 
 
 General Irvine found Fort Pitt, as we have seen, in 
 a sorry condition. The garrison consisted of only 
 about two hundred men fit for service, and of these a 
 number were detached for duty at Fort Mcintosh and 
 
 * " Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania," vol. ii. p. 138. 
 
 t " Pennsylvania Archives," second series, vol. x. p. 646. 
 
122 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 elsewhere. A thousand men were needed in order to 
 make any effective defence of the country, but these 
 it was impossible to obtain. The commanding officer 
 might summon the militia, but it was like calling spirits 
 from the vasty deep. " The power of calling out the 
 militia of this country," wrote Irvine, " is more ideal 
 than real, especially till the lines between Virginia 
 and Pennsylvania are determined and actually run. 
 Neither civil nor military law will take place until 
 then."* 
 
 In the year 1781 the famous General George Rogers 
 Clarke, of Virginia, passed through Pittsburgh on 
 his march against Detroit. The expedition was a fail- 
 ure. Colonel Lochry, the lieutenant of Westmoreland 
 County, with a company of one hundred men, had 
 been directed by Clarke to join him at the mouth of 
 the Miami, up which river it was his intention to pro- 
 ceed. For some reason Clarke afterwards changed 
 his plan, but left a small party at the designated place 
 with orders for Lochry to join him at the falls of the 
 Ohio. After reaching the mouth of the Miami the 
 party was attacked by the enemy and defeated. Not 
 a man escaped death or captivity. This calamity 
 plunged the Pennsylvania border into consternation 
 and grief. Of the sixty-four prisoners, nineteen event- 
 ually returned to Westmoreland County. 
 
 The early spring of 1782 witnessed a tragical affair 
 on the Muskingum River, in which men from the 
 Monongahela Valley were concerned. The month of 
 February of that year had been unusually mild, and 
 
 * Irvine to Washington, December 2, 1781. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 123 
 
 consequently parties of the enemy were early on the 
 war-path. Many murders were committed. The 
 early date of these crimes led people to believe that the 
 Moravian or Christian Indians of the Muskingum vil- 
 lages were implicated in them, or that their towns har- 
 bored the savages from Sandusky. In the preceding 
 fall a detachment under Colonel David Williamson, of 
 Washington County, had visited the villages, but found 
 few of the inhabitants there. These were taken 
 prisoners and brought to Pittsburgh. They were de- 
 tained here a short time and then allowed to go. This 
 excited many of the people of the country, who thought 
 that the Indians ought to have been put to death. Col- 
 onel Williamson had to meet a great deal of oppro- 
 brium for his lenity. Posterity has heaped reproaches 
 upon his memory for subsequent acts, for which perhaps 
 he was not to blame. " I was personally acquainted 
 with him," says Dr. Doddridge, " and from my recol- 
 lection of his conversation, I say with confidence that 
 he was a brave man, but not cruel. He would meet an 
 enemy in battle and fight like a soldier, but not murder 
 a prisoner. Had he possessed the authority of a supe- 
 rior officer in a regular army, I do not believe that a 
 single Moravian Indian would have lost his life; but 
 he possessed no such authority."* 
 
 In March, 1782, James Marshell, the lieutenant of 
 Washington County, ordered out some militia to 
 march against the Moravian villages. The number 
 of men is placed at between eighty and ninety. The 
 command was given to Colonel Williamson. 
 
 * Doddridge's " Notes," etc., p. 260. 
 
124 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Arrived at the village of Gnadenhiitten, they found 
 the Indians at work in their fields. The white men 
 professed friendship for them, and said that they had 
 come to take them to Pittsburgh, where they would be 
 safe from the wild Indians of Sandusky, who had 
 caused them much trouble. The Moravians were de- 
 lighted, gave up their arms, and set about preparing 
 victuals for themselves and the white men on the 
 journey. Meantime, a party of Moravians and white 
 men proceeded to the neighboring town of Salem with 
 the good news, and in a short time the people of that 
 place came in. In the evening two buildings were 
 assigned the Moravians, — the men, numbering about 
 thirty, were placed in one of them, and the women and 
 children, about sixty or sixty-five in number, were 
 placed in the other. From that moment they were 
 prisoners. A clamor arose for their destruction. Colo- 
 nel Williamson did not desire it, — he himself voted 
 against it, — but the odium that had befallen him for 
 his former leniency caused him to leave the question to 
 his men.* All that were favorable to mercy were re- 
 quested to step forward. It is said that only sixteen or 
 eighteen voted on the side of mercy.f The dreadful 
 sentence was made known to the prisoners. The execu- 
 tion of it was deferred to the next day. Meanwhile, 
 the poor Moravians gave themselves to singing, pray- 
 ing, and endeavoring to encourage and console each 
 other. In the morning the massacre began. A more 
 ruthless crime was never committed. " While still 
 
 * " Pennsylvania Archives," vol. ix. p. 324. 
 
 t Withers's " Chronicles of Border Warfare," p. 323. 
 
OLD i'iTTSBURGH DAYS 125 
 
 religiously engaged, singing together a hymn at the 
 moment, the impatient ruffians who had voluntarily 
 assumed the task entered the rooms, and, harshly in- 
 terrupting the proceedings, asked the prisoners if they 
 were ready. They had committed their immortal souls 
 to God, they said, and were ready. One of the border- 
 men took hold of a cooper's mallet that lay on the floor, 
 observing, as he did so, ' How exactly this will answer 
 for the purpose!' and with a heavily-wielded blow at 
 the head of Brother Abraham brought him to the 
 floor. Plying the weapon right and left he did not 
 pause until fourteen of the Christians were prostrate, 
 struggling in the agonies of death. He then delivered 
 the mallet to one of his fellows, remarking, ' My arm 
 fails me! Go you on in the same way!' And so, 
 while a victim remained, the work of butchery con- 
 tinued."* Ninety-five or ninety-six victims thus per- 
 ished. Two only succeeded in making their escape. 
 The inhumanity of such a deed is appalling. Those 
 who perpetrated it have long since been called to 
 account. April 7, 1782, L. Weiss writes to Secre- 
 tary Thomson: "The tragic scenes of erecting two 
 butcher houses or sheds and killing in cold blood 
 ninety-five brown or tawny sheep of Jesus Christ, one 
 by one, is certainly taken notice of by the Shepherd, 
 their Creator and Redeemer."! 
 
 The fate of the poor Moravians met little commiser- 
 ation on the Pennsylvania border. On the contrary, 
 the deed of blood was generally applauded. It was 
 
 * " Black Robes." By Robert P. Nevin. P. 166. 
 t " Pennsylvania Archives," vol. ix. p. 523. 
 
126 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 determined now to follow up the Moravian campaign 
 with another against the warlike Indians of Sandusky. 
 On the 25th of May a force of four hundred and eighty 
 men set out from the Ohio under Colonel William 
 Crawford. In the election for the leadership Colonel 
 Williamson came in only five votes behind Crawford, 
 a very popular and capable man. This goes to show 
 the high estimation in which the former was held. The 
 campaign, however, ended in disaster, and Colonel 
 Crawford perished miserably at the stake. 
 
 Yet another event of thrilling interest marked the 
 year 1782 in Western Pennsylvania. In the early sum- 
 mer of that year a detachment consisting of three 
 hundred British and five hundred Indians was formed 
 at Lake Chautauqua for the purpose of making an 
 attack on Fort Pitt;, but upon the report of a spy as 
 to the condition and strength of the place the enterprise 
 was abandoned. The detachment then broke up into 
 a number of war-parties. One of these parties, com- 
 prising not less than one hundred white men and In- 
 dians under the leadership of the renowned Guyasutha, 
 suddenly, on the 13th of July, 1782, fell upon Hannas- 
 town. On that day a number of the people were en- 
 gaged in the harvest-fields not far from the town, when 
 one of their number perceived some Indians approach- 
 ing through the woods. The alarm was given, and 
 the whole party of harvesters at once dropped their 
 reaping-hooks and ran at full speed for the town. The 
 savages followed in close pursuit, and soon entered the 
 place. The people had all crowded into the fort. 
 There were only fourteen or fifteen rifles among them. 
 
The enemy immediately set about robbing and burning 
 the houses. Though most of the buildings were within 
 gunshot the people in the fort made little attempt to 
 protect them. But two of the Indians were known to 
 have been killed. A young girl named Margaret Shaw 
 ran in front of the gate, in which were some crevices 
 through which the bullets of the enemy occasionally 
 whistled, in order to take up a little child that had 
 wandered there, when a bullet entered her bosom. 
 This was the only casualty in the fort. But two of the 
 houses were left unburned. From Hannastown a party 
 of the marauders set off for Miller's Station, a small 
 place about four miles southeast of Hannastown. 
 There they killed nine persons and carried off twelve 
 prisoners. At both places they made all the havoc 
 possible. "They carried away," writes one, "a great 
 number of horses and everything of value in the de- 
 serted houses, and destroyed all the cattle, hogs, and 
 poultry within their reach."* 
 
 When evening fell the scattered enemy returned to 
 the neighborhood of Hannastown with the intention 
 of makiiig another attack on the fort in the morning. 
 During the night a re-enforcement of thirty armed 
 men, who, by a ruse, made their number seem much 
 larger, entered the fort. The Indians and their no less 
 barbarous allies took the alarm, and shortly after mid- 
 night they departed with their plunder to their former 
 haunts. 
 
 Hannastown never fully recovered from this blow. 
 By degrees it partially arose from its ashes, but it 
 
 * Ephraim Douglass, July 26, 178J. 
 
128 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 never again attained its former importance. The 
 courts were resumed at the house of Robert Hanna. 
 The last session held there was in October, 1786. The 
 term for January, 1787, was held at the new county- 
 seat, Greensburg, and the glory of Hannastown had 
 departed forever.* 
 
 The attack upon Hannastown and Miller's Station 
 was the most serious demonstration of the enemy in 
 this quarter during the Revolution. That was itself 
 one of the expiring blows of the war. Lord Cornwallis 
 had surrendered to Washington at Yorktown in the 
 preceding October, and though the final treaty of peace 
 was not signed untjl nearly two years afterwards, the 
 war was practically over. On the 6th of November, 
 1 78 1, General Irvine made official announcement of 
 "the great and glorious news" of the surrender of 
 Cornwallis, and ordered thirteen pieces of artillery 
 to be fired in Fort Pitt at ten o'clock. The further 
 glorious proclamation was made that " The commis- 
 saries will issue a gill of whiskey, extraordinary, to the 
 non-commissioned officers and privates upon this joy- 
 ful occasion." As the higher officials and the citizens 
 were not limited to a gill, extraordinary, there is no 
 doubt that the glad news was ratified in right royal 
 style in the good town of Pittsburgh. 
 
 After the close of the war many of the officers and 
 soldiers remained in Pittsburgh, where they were after- 
 
 * A well-written sketch of the destruction of Hannastown, 
 by Hon. Richard Coulter, first published in the Argus of Greens- 
 burg in 1836, may be read in " The Frontier Forts of Pennsyl- 
 vania," vol. ii. pp. 300-307. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 129 
 
 wards as conspicuous in the social and business circles 
 of the place as they had been in its military affairs. 
 Among these may be named General O'Hara, General 
 Richard Butler, Major Isaac Craig, Colonel Stephen 
 Bayard, General Neville, and Major Kirkpatrick.* 
 
 * The Revolutionary period of our local history has been well 
 presented by Edgar W. Hassler in his " Old Westmoreland," 
 published since these pages were written. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AFTER THE STORM 
 
 The war of the Revolution was over. Pittsburgh 
 had not been molested by the enemy. It seems to have 
 prospered in those troublesome days and the twenty 
 houses of 1770 had increased to nearly one hundred, 
 and the population numbered nearly five hundred souls. 
 The buildings would seem to have clustered about the 
 fort, and in 1779 Colonel Brodhead complains that the 
 inhabitants were encroaching upon what he conceives 
 are the rights of the garrison, even building " their 
 fences within a few yards of the bastions."* Situated 
 as the town was at the gateway to the great Southwest, 
 and being the chief rallying-point on an extended fron- 
 tier, it had a various and curious population. John 
 Wilkins, who settled here about the year 1783, says 
 that the place was then filled with old officers, soldiers, 
 and camp followers, mixed with a few families of 
 credit. All sorts of wickedness were carried on to 
 excess, and there was no appearance of morality or 
 order, or any signs of religion among the people. The 
 description of the place by Arthur Lee, of Virginia, 
 who visited it in the year 1784, is not more flattering. 
 " Pittsburgh," he says, " is inhabited almost entirely 
 by Scots and Irish, who live in paltry log houses, and 
 are as dirty as in the north of Ireland, or even in Scot- 
 land. There is a great deal of small trade carried on, 
 
 * Brodhead to Pickering, June 27, 1779. 
 130 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 131 
 
 the goods being brought at the vast expense of forty 
 shilHngs per hundred-weight from Philadelphia and 
 Baltimore. They take in the shops money, wheat, 
 flour, and skins. There are in the town four attorneys, 
 two doctors, and not a priest of any persuasion, nor 
 church nor chapel, so that they are likely to be damned 
 without the benefit of clergy. The rivers encroach 
 fast on the town, and to such a degree that, as a gen- 
 tleman told me, the Allegheny had within thirty years 
 of his memory carried away one hundred yards. The 
 place, I believe, will never be very considerable."* 
 
 From this account one gets quite a different impres- 
 sion from that produced by Hugh Henry Bracken- 
 ridge's glowing description only two years later, — his 
 " town with smoking chimneys, halls lighted up with 
 splendor, ladies and gentlemen assembled, various 
 music, and the mazes of the dance," — his new world, 
 " where there is all the refinement of the former and 
 more benevolence of heart." Brackenridge was a 
 young lawyer, a Scotchman by birth, who had come 
 over to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia in the spring of 
 1 78 1 and settled here. He was afterwards for many 
 years a conspicuous figure in Pittsburgh and Western 
 Pennsylvania. His description of his adopted town, 
 which was published in the Gazette in 1786, was a 
 highly fanciful sketch, " intended," as he said, " to 
 give some reputation to the town, with a view to in- 
 duce emigration to this particular spot." His sketch 
 has small historical value because of its gross exag- 
 gerations. He grows at times quite idyllic; for ex- 
 
 * See The Olden Time, August, 1847. 
 
:32 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 imple, a small island in the Allegheny about a mile 
 ibove the town was such that it might aspire "to 
 ive with those of the ^gean Sea, where the song of 
 lomer drew the image of delight, or where the Cam 
 )r Isis, embracing in their bosoms gems like these, 
 ire sung by Milton, father of modern bards."* 
 
 There was no doubt much in the appearance and 
 ;urroundings of the village nestled on its point of land 
 )etween the wooded hills to justify the enthusiasm 
 )f Brackenridge. The world seemed young. The 
 •ivers flowing on each side were as yet fresh and un- 
 ;ainted. The blue sky was not yet dimmed by the 
 smoke of human industries. It was already historic 
 ground. The ditches and mounds of old Fort Du- 
 juesne were yet plainly visible. The palisades of Fort 
 Pitt still bore the marks of a memorable siege. On 
 ;he bank of the Allegheny near the point was an or- 
 :hard of apple- and pear-trees, which had been planted 
 jy an English officer many years before. Just above 
 he orchard were cultivated grounds, formerly called 
 he King's Gardens. Here Ecuyer's people had walked 
 n those early August days and gathered vegetables 
 ;o eke out their slender stores. On the opposite side 
 af the river was a level piece of ground of three thou- 
 sand acres, reserved by the State, to be laid out in lots, 
 where was a delightful walk under the oak-, cherry-, 
 md walnut-trees. " On this ground," says Bracken- 
 ridge, " it is supposed a town may stand ; but on all 
 tiands it is excluded from the praise of being a situa- 
 
 * Brackenridge's description of Pittsburgh is printed in His- 
 torical Researches in Western Pennsylvania, January, 1885. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 133 
 
 tion so convenient as on the side of the river where the 
 present town is placed." By special permission of the 
 State authorities James Boggs had settled over there 
 at some date prior to 1785.* The city of Allegheny 
 has long occupied the site where it was thought that 
 possibly a town might some time be built. By the Su- 
 preme Executive Council, in October, 1787, David 
 Reddick was appointed to lay out the " Town Com- 
 mon" and lots on this tract of land. 
 
 Brackenridge speaks in glowing terms of the Pitts- 
 burgh of that day as a summer resort, and compares it 
 in that respect with the Warm Springs of Virginia, 
 very much to the advantage of the former. " Nor is 
 the winter season enjoyed with less festivity," he says, 
 " than in more populous and cultivated towns. The 
 buildings warm, fuel abundant, consisting of the finest 
 coal from the neighboring hills, or of ash, hickory, or 
 oak, brought down in rafts by the rivers. In the fall 
 of the year and during the winter season there is usu- 
 ally a great concourse of strangers at this place, from 
 the different States, about to descend to the westward, 
 or to excursions into the uninhabited and adjoining 
 country. These, with the inhabitants of the town, 
 spend the evening in parties at the different houses, 
 or at public balls, where they are surprised to find an 
 elegant assembly of ladies, not to be surpassed in 
 beauty and accomplishments perhaps by any on the 
 continent." The truth of history is likely the medium 
 between the estimates of Lee and Brackenridge. The 
 town, whatever else it was, was a small collection of 
 
 * " Colonial Records," vol. xiv. p. 373. 
 
134 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 houses, with possibly one or two exceptions built of 
 logs, situated chiefly on the Monongahela River, and 
 occupied mainly by such characters as Lee has de- 
 scribed. The ground was broken and rough. A pond 
 lay across the line of the present Wood Street, not far 
 north of Third Avenue. A still larger pond extended 
 from the foot of. Grant's Hill beyond Sixth Avenue 
 diagonally across to Fourth Avenue. It had an outlet 
 into the Monongahela on the upper side of Wood 
 Street. Another pond lay along the south side of 
 Liberty Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. 
 Its outlet was into the Monongahela near Short Street. 
 Major Samuel Forman, of Syracuse, who visited Pitts- 
 burgh in the winter of 1789, declared it to be the 
 muddiest town he had ever been in. He observes, 
 however, that the place " was noted for handsome 
 ladies. I had the pleasure to see a few," he says; 
 " they certainly were very hospitable."* 
 
 As early as 1769 the Penns had determined on a 
 survey of five thousand acres of land about Pittsburgh, 
 and also on laying out the town, " which," says 
 Thomas Penn, " I think from its situation will become 
 considerable in time." The constantly increasing dif- 
 ficulties between the mother-country and the colonies 
 prevented this design from being carried out for some 
 years. But in 1783 they again took up the matter. 
 As partisans of England in the Revolution they had 
 forfeited their claims to the soil of Pennsylvania ; but 
 by an act of the Assembly, November 27, 1779, they 
 
 * See his autobiography in the Historical Magazine, December, 
 1869. 
 
v-'j-.j-' J. J. a. iOJDUJVvjJn x^XA.xo 
 
 135 
 
 were allowed a compensation of one hundred and 
 thirty thousand pounds sterling, and were permitted 
 to retain several tracts of land in different parts of the 
 State, called manors, which aggregated four hundred 
 and twenty-one thousand and fifteen acres. One of 
 these manors included Pittsburgh. It was surveyed 
 in the fall of the year 1783, and the first sale of land 
 under this survey was made in the following January 
 to Isaac Craig and Stephen Bayard. The tract sold 
 was the piece of land lying between Fort Pitt and the 
 Allegheny River, and comprised about three acres.* 
 
 In the summer of 1784 the work of surveying and 
 plotting the town was accomplished. This work was 
 in charge of George Wood. His assistant was Thomas 
 Vickroy, of Bedford County. The land laid out in 
 building lots was all the tract lying between Grant 
 Street and the two rivers. In the same year the privi- 
 lege of mining coal in the " great seam" opposite the 
 town was sold at the rate of thirty pounds for each 
 mining lot, extending back to the centre of the hill.f 
 Mr. Wood has perpetuated his identity with the work 
 in the name of one of the principal streets of the city. 
 
 On the 29th day of July, 1786, appeared the first 
 number of The Pittsburgh Gazette. It was a remark- 
 able venture in journalism to undertake a newspaper in 
 a remote corner like Pittsburgh, with the small and 
 rude population then to be found here. It marks an 
 epoch in the history of the town. The paper was estab- 
 
 * Craig's " History of Pittsburgh," p. 181. 
 t " Iron and Coal in Pennsylvania." By James M. Swank. 
 P. 112. 
 
136 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 lished by John Scull and Joseph Hall. The ofifice outfit 
 was of course brought from the East, and upon the East 
 they were obliged to depend for all their office supplies. 
 They seem to have been sometimes hard pressed for 
 paper, the Gazette being reduced temporarily to the 
 size of a mere handbill and printed on paper of the 
 worst possible quality. But it continued to live 
 through all, and still lives. Joseph Hall, one of the 
 publishers, died November lo, 1786, aged only twenty- 
 two years. The paper was then carried on by Scull 
 alone until June 6 of the following year, when he was 
 joined by John Boyd, of Philadelphia. The art of 
 journalism was in its infancy in the days of John 
 Scull. The meagre columns of the Gazette were filled 
 with European news two months old, with long dis- 
 quisitions on public affairs, with personal controversies, 
 with moral essays, and with poems amatory and 
 didactic. The modern reporter and the city editor had 
 not yet been evolved. News of a local character was 
 almost entirely wanting. Who died or who was mar- 
 ried, who came or who went, was very rarely noticed. 
 Only from the advertisements, as a rule, can we get any 
 glimpses of life in Pittsburgh in those early years. 
 
 The only accessible file of the paper, perhaps the 
 only one in existence dating from its first year, begins 
 with the fifth number, August 26, 1786. In that num- 
 ber a writer continues from a previous issue some 
 " Observations on the Country at the Head of the 
 Ohio River," etc. There seems to have been at that 
 time a minister in the town, and the danger to which 
 Arthur Lee found the people exposed, eighteen months 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 137 
 
 before, might happily be escaped. " A clergyman is 
 settled in this town of the Calvinistic Church," says this 
 old writer. While he adds that some of the inhabi- 
 tants are of the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches, he 
 does not intimate that any such congregations were 
 here. He says further that " a clergyman of the 
 German Calvinist Church also occasionally preaches 
 in this town," and he thinks from the rapid increase of 
 German inhabitants that it will not be long until a 
 minister " who can deliver himself in this language 
 will be supported here altogether." 
 
 In laying out the town he says that " five lots have 
 been assignated for churches and burying-grounds." 
 These lots were about the centre of the town as it was 
 laid out, and midway between the two rivers. There 
 was still at that date an " antient cymetery of the na- 
 tives," which was in the form of a mound whose height 
 was such as to indicate that it had been " a place of 
 sepulture for ages." A church building of squared 
 logs and of sufficient size to accommodate the people 
 for some time was then being erected. 
 
 There were two physicians in the town, one " a 
 native of South Britain," the other an American. He 
 does not name them. One of them we know was Dr. 
 Nathaniel Bedford, who came here about 1770; the 
 other was likely Dr. Thomas Parker. Such was the 
 healthfulness of the place that the doctors evidently 
 had little to do, though feeble youth and failing age 
 sometimes required assistance. Two lawyers com- 
 pleted the list of gentlemen of the three learned facul- 
 ties in the town. The rest of the inhabitants were 
 
[38 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 raders, mechanics, and laborers. There were no 
 nanufacturing establishments beyond the shops of the 
 simple artisans. But the prescient eye beheld the near 
 ipproach of a new era. " This town," says the writer 
 ivhom we have been following, " must in future time 
 )e a place of great manufacturing'; indeed, the greatest 
 )n the continent, or perhaps in the world." The reason 
 le assigns for this belief is the fact that Pittsburgh 
 vas so far removed inland from the seats of manufac- 
 uring, that the expense of importing articles was so 
 jreat as to require the people to resort to manufac- 
 uring for themselves. " The present carriage from 
 Philadelphia is sixpence for each pound weight, and 
 lowever improved the conveyance may be, and by 
 whatever channel, yet such is our distance from either 
 )f the oceans that the importation of heavy articles 
 vill still be expensive." His prophetic vision was not 
 vide enough to take in the fact that the day was fast 
 ipproaching when the people of Pittsburgh would not 
 )nly manufacture for themselves, but to a large degree 
 'or the inhabitants of the remotest countries. 
 
 Two topics occupy a great part of these " Observa- 
 ions." One is that the county-seat should be removed 
 Tom Hannastown to Pittsburgh. He gives several 
 easons for this : the distance, more than thirty miles ; 
 L rugged road; and a stream, which is for a great 
 )art of the year very difficult to pass ; the lack of con- 
 veyance, so that many persons, even women and aged 
 )eople, who are not able to keep horses, " are often 
 mder the necessity of travelling on foot." Another 
 irgument, which, however, he forgets would apply 
 
ULD i'lTTiSBURGH DAYS 139 
 
 as well to Hannastown as to Pittsburgh, was that 
 " the holding a court brings money to a town, retains 
 a number of ofificefs, and brings inhabitants, and con- 
 tributes to its improvement." 
 
 The other subject discussed by our old Pittsburgh 
 writer was in regard to education. " I do not know," 
 he says, " that the Legislature could do a more accept- 
 able service to the Commonwealth than by endowing 
 a school at this place. The door of Janus has long 
 been open, presenting battle-axes and all the armory 
 of war. The literary education of our youth has been 
 in the mean time neglected." He observes that Penn- 
 sylvania has not been wholly inattentive to the interests 
 of learning " since the late war," but had added to the 
 funds of the University of Philadelphia; but it could 
 not be expected that that institution could be of the 
 least service to the people of Pittsburgh; while the 
 college at Carlisle was little more accessible; anyhow, 
 " why," he demands, " should this country be under 
 the necessity of remitting money to the county of 
 Cumberland for the advantages of education?" As a 
 first step possibly towards filling this great want, Mrs. 
 Pride, in November, 1786, gives notice by public ad- 
 vertisement that she will open a boarding and day 
 school for young ladies, where they will be taught 
 Plain Work, Flowering, Fringing, and Knitting; and 
 that the literary side of education may not be slighted, 
 " Reading English" would be taught, " if required." 
 
 H. H. Brackenridge, member of the Assembly from 
 Pittsburgh, writes the editor of the Gazette, in Decem- 
 ber, 1786, that a bill had been published incorporating 
 
I40 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 a number of trustees in the Western country for an 
 academy at Pittsburgh, and that he had obtained from 
 the Penns a grant of one square in what is called 
 Ewalt's field for' its use.* This bill became a law on 
 the 28th day of February, 1787. The trustees named 
 in the act were the Reverends Samuel Barr, James 
 Finley, James Powers, John McMillan, Joseph Smith, 
 and Matthew Henderson; General John Gibson ; Col- 
 onels Prestly Neville, William Butler, and Stephen 
 Bayard; Messrs. James Ross, David Bradford, Robert 
 Galbraith, George Thompson, George Wallace, Ed- 
 ward Cook, John Moore, William Todd, and Alexan- 
 der Fowler; and Doctors Nathaniel Bedford and 
 Thomas Parker. These gentlemen were not all resi- 
 dents of Pittsburgh. 
 
 Among the business men of the town in the year 
 1786 were John & Samuel Calhoun, dry goods. Front 
 Street; Daniel Britt & Co., Wilson & Wallace, and 
 James O'Hara, general merchandise; and John Gib- 
 son, on the bank of the river, " wet and dry goods." 
 Hugh Ross notifies the public that he intends to erect 
 a rope- walk in Pittsburgh, and expects to " have for 
 sale a quantity of Hemp Seed before the sowing season 
 of that article comes on." In October of that year 
 the same individual informs the public that his ferry 
 on the Monongahela will be open free to all foot pas- 
 sengers on Sundays " when there is divine service in 
 Pittsburgh," between ten and twelve o'clock in the 
 forenoon and from three to four o'clock in the after- 
 noon, " so that every person may have it in their power 
 
 * The Pittsburgh Gazette, January 6, 1787. 
 
OLD riTTSBURGH DAYS 141 
 
 of attending on public worship who reside in the 
 neighborhood of Pittsburgh in Washington County." 
 
 Two public-houses at least were in the town in 
 1786, both on Water Street, one kept by David Duncan 
 and the other, " two doors above Market Street," by 
 A. & J. Tannehill. At this time there was no mail 
 service to and from Pittsburgh. Letters and packages 
 were sent by whatever means were at hand; some- 
 times with the result complained of in the Gazette by 
 William Freid and John Grof, who say that some 
 person who had undertaken to convey a valuable letter 
 to them from " the sign of the Ship," in Lancaster, 
 had not delivered it, and they would like to have it. 
 Mr. John Blair gives notice that he will pass up and 
 down the Monongahela with a boat every week, and 
 that he will be able to deliver the Gazette to subscribers 
 on his route " at a more reasonable rate than any other 
 conveyance." 
 
 Steps were being taken, however, to supply this great 
 want, and Mr. Brison received orders to establish a 
 post between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.* This does 
 not seem to have been accomplished; but later notice 
 is sent out from the post-office at Philadelphia that a 
 regular mail service would be established between 
 Alexandria, in Virginia, and Pittsburgh by way of 
 Bedford. At the same time the authorities announce 
 their willingness to enter into a contract with any per- 
 son who desired to form a more direct communication 
 between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, — the exclusive 
 privilege and all the emoluments arising therefrom 
 
 * Gasette, September 30, 1786. 
 
142 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 would be granted for any term not exceeding seven 
 years.* More than twelve months later the public is 
 congratulated on the establishment of a regular post 
 between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.f John Scull 
 the editor of the Gazette, was the postmaster. A list 
 of letters remaining in the office is published December 
 6, 1788. There were one hundred and sixty of them, 
 which would indicate considerable correspondence for 
 those times. 
 
 Among characteristic notices were frequent adver- 
 tisements of runaway soldiers, apprentices, servants, 
 and slaves. Mr. Ormsby announces as to be sold a 
 German woman servant, " who has near three years 
 to serve," and Colonel John Gibson, at Fort Pitt, " A 
 Negro Wench," who is described as an excellent cook, 
 for whom " produce will be taken, or cattle of any 
 kind." :j; There are notices of negro men, " Jack," 
 " Joe," and " Sam," who have absconded from their 
 masters, or have been taken up and jailed, and who, 
 if not claimed within a reasonable time, " will be sold 
 for their fees." § 
 
 Fort Pitt continued to be occupied by the govern- 
 ment as a military post. About the year 1784 the 
 Supreme Council had ordered the fort to be sold by the 
 agents of confiscated estates in Westmoreland County ; 
 but this order was recalled in July, 1785. In the fol- 
 lowing month orders were given to the commissioners 
 of the State to take possession of the fort in behalf 
 of the Commonwealth upon its relinquishment.il We 
 
 * Gazette, March 14, 1787. t Ibid., July 19, 1788. % Ibid., May 
 26, 1787. I Ibid., June i6, 1787 ; June 28, 1788 ; July 18, 1789 ; 
 August 22, 1789. II " Colonial Records," vol. xiv. p. 517. 
 
Kji-ij-i JTii lorxjJX-Ofxa jj/\io 
 
 143 
 
 find but scant mention of the fort in those times of 
 peace. In February, 1788, Lieutenant Ernest offers 
 a guinea reward for the discovery of the " evil-minded 
 persons" who had been divesting the fence around the 
 garrison of the pales belonging to it; and in the fol- 
 lowing winter the same officer advertises the desertion 
 of a soldier from Captain Zeigler's company at Fort 
 Pitt, and Ensign Jeffers, of the First United States 
 Regiment, gives notice of the desertion of two men 
 from Captain Heart's company at the same place. 
 During all these years the Indians were more or less 
 troublesome on the border, and in July, 1788, General 
 Richard Butler, the superintendent of Indian affairs 
 at Pittsburgh, notifies the people on the Ohio below 
 Fort Pitt to be on their guard. On Dunkard Creek, 
 in Washington County, on the 25th of April, 1789, 
 the savages killed five persons, Joseph Cumbridge and 
 his wife, and William Thomas and two children.* 
 
 In October, 1786, the " Jocky Club" of Pittsburgh 
 offers a purse of one hundred and twenty dollars for 
 best animal in a three-mile heat, entrance fee five 
 dollars ; " no Jocky will be permitted to run unless 
 he has some genteel Jocky Habit." In January, 1788, 
 Thomas Tousey gives notice that he has opened a 
 school in the house of Mr. McNickel, in Front Street, 
 in which he will teach the Latin Language, Reading 
 English Grammatically, Writing, and Arithmetic. 
 The trustees of the Pittsburgh Academy are requested 
 to meet at the house of Mr. David Duncan on the i8th 
 of March, 1788, to consider some business of impor- 
 
 *Gasefte, May 2, 1789. 
 
144 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 tance. In February, 1787, the inhabitants of Pitts- 
 burgh were asked to meet at the Diamond on the ist 
 of the following month to consider the expediency of 
 erecting a public market-house. The result of the 
 meeting was that Hugh Ross, Colonel Stephen Bayard, 
 and Rev. Samuel Barr were appointed a committee 
 to prepare the plan of a market-house, etc. A watch- 
 ful correspondent of the newspaper, however, advises 
 the people to be careful about pledging themselves to 
 buy no provision except in the market on market days, 
 unless they have the cash, — " we had better stay at 
 home," he says, " and suck our fingers than to go to 
 the market without it."* The market-house was built 
 at the corner of Market and Second Streets, f 
 
 These may seem trivial details with which to en- 
 cumber the page of history ; but it is the every-day life 
 of our fathers that we are endeavoring to understand. 
 
 Captain Thomas Hutchins, geographer-general to 
 the United States, died at the house of his old friend, 
 John Ormsby, in Pittsburgh, on the 28th day of April, 
 1789. The funeral services were conducted by the 
 famous Moravian missionary Heckewelder, who had 
 long known the deceased, and who happened to be in 
 the town at the time. J 
 
 Somewhat against the general bad character that 
 Arthur Lee and some other early chroniclers had given 
 to the inhabitants of Pittsburgh is the fact that books 
 seem to have been fairly numerous among them. This 
 is remarkable when we consider the inconvenience and 
 
 * Gazette, March 10, 1787. 
 
 t Craig's " History of Pittsburgh," p. 205. 
 
 t Gazette, May 2, 1789. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 145 
 
 the expense with which they must have been brought 
 over the mountains. A set of six small leather-covered 
 volumes of Pope's Works at hand, each bearing the 
 date 1787, and the well-known autograph, " Rich'd 
 Butler," would indicate the literary taste of this dis- 
 tinguished citizen of early Pittsburgh. General Butler 
 himself made some claims to literature, and in 1787 
 he published a valuable and now very rare work en- 
 titled " Vocabulary of the Shawnoes."* 
 
 The first English book brought into the place was 
 no doubt that volume of sermons which was carried 
 by a French soldier from the scene of Braddock',s de- 
 feat and given to James Smith, the young captive at 
 Fort Duquesne. " When I came into my lodgings," 
 says he, " I saw Russell's ' Seven Sermons,' which they 
 had brought from the field of battle, which a French- 
 man made a present to me." It goes to show the 
 thoroughness with which they gleaned the bloody 
 field, when a French soldier thought it worth the 
 trouble to carry off a trifling book which he prob- 
 ably could not read. In July, 1788, John Boyd gives 
 notice that he will open a circulating library in Pitts- 
 burgh as soon as one hundred subscribers were secured. 
 The books in some of the private collections seem to 
 have got into circulation beyond the intention of their 
 owners, as we find William Watson giving notice in 
 the Gazette that somebody, " not now recollected," 
 had borrowed his Ferguson's Lectures, and he begs, to 
 have it returned; and George Cochran desires the re- 
 
 * See Filling's " Algonquian Languages." Washington : 1891. 
 P. 64. 
 
 10 
 
146 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 turn of the first, third, and fifth volumes of Sterne's 
 Works, " Julia de Roubigne," the fourth volume of 
 ' Charles Grandison," Euclid's Elements, Howay's 
 IVTensuration, and Gibson's Surveying, which some 
 parties had borrowed and forgotten to bring back. In 
 [anuary, 1790, Hugh Ross advertises a book auction 
 :o be held shortly at Mr. Beaumont's Coffee House. 
 This was the " Ohio Coffee House" in Market Street, 
 3pened by W. H. Beaumont in August, 1789. 
 
 But books were also published in Pittsburgh at a 
 v&vy early date. The " Pittsburgh Almanac" was an- 
 nounced as in press in September, 1787. " The Ob- 
 servations of Rittenhouse, Ewing, and Ellicot at their 
 Observatory at the end of Mason and Dixon's line," 
 says the advertisement, " have enabled us to give the 
 places and appearances of the heavenly bodies in the 
 meridian of this western country with great exact- 
 ness."* The almanac was printed at the office of the 
 Gazette. From the same source were issued Spelling 
 Books, which could be had " by the dozen, or the single 
 Dne," and the " A, B, C, with the Shorter Catechism." 
 The earliest Pittsburgh author to make any real con- 
 tribution to literature was Hugh Henry Brackenridge. 
 His description of Pittsburgh, published in the Gazette, 
 we have already mentioned. In 1795 he published 
 " Incidents of the Insurrection in Western Pennsyl- 
 vania in 1794." His best-known and most meritorious 
 work is his " Modern Chivalry," a humorous political 
 satire. The first portion of it was published in Pitts- 
 burgh in 1796; the second part did not appear until 
 
 * Gazette, September 23, 1786. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 147 
 
 ten years later. The writings of Brackenridge show 
 him to have been learned, shrewd, and witty. His 
 biographer declares " he has had no equal in this coun- 
 try in versatility and originality of genius." This, it 
 may be observed, was written some time ago. His 
 son, H. M. Brackenridge, the author of " Views of 
 Louisiana," "History of the Late War" [1812], etc., 
 is nearly as well known as his father. 
 
 Through the decade from 1780 to 1790 there was a 
 constant rush of emigration to the Southwest. The 
 route was by water down the Ohio, and the business 
 of boat-building soon came to be an important industry 
 in the Monongahela valley. " Since Sunday evening 
 last," says the Gazette, " upwards of one hundred and 
 twenty boats have passed by this town on their way 
 to Kentucky, which at an average of fifteen persons 
 each, will add eighteen hundred inhabitants to that 
 young settlement."* At Pittsburgh and various points 
 above were yards for the construction of the required 
 craft, and " Kentucke Boats" for sale was a standing 
 advertisement in the columns of the Gazette. Many of 
 the emigrants took boat at Brownsville and other places 
 on the Monongahela above Pittsburgh; but most of 
 them, if not all, halted at the latter town to lay in sup- 
 plies. Pittsburgh shared in this era of enterprise, and 
 at the close of the decade contained perhaps over one 
 hundred buildings of various kinds and a population of 
 five or six hundred souls.f 
 
 * Gazette, November 24, 1787. 
 
 t Pittsburgh : " It contains about two hundred houses, stores, 
 and shops, and eight or nine hundred inhabitants." — Morse's 
 "American Geography," 1796, p. 556. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 INDIAN HOSTILITIES 
 
 Major Form an, 1789, whom we have already re- 
 ferred to, makes the remark that Pittsburgh was then 
 a great manufacturing town, and that by reason of 
 burning so much coal the complexion of the inhabitants 
 was affected. This seems a curious observation when 
 we reflect upon what the manufactures of Pittsburgh 
 were in that day and the quantity of coal that could 
 only have been required for the uses of the town. 
 
 In 1789, William Dunning carried on the " Scythe 
 and Sickle making" at his shop in Pittsburgh, fronting 
 the Diamond, where any quantity of the above articles 
 could be had on the shortest notice, for either cash, 
 ginseng, or country produce.* This, we believe, is the 
 first mention of any kind of iron industry in Pitts- 
 burgh. George McGunnegle, in Market Street, manu- 
 factured locks, keys, hinges, pipe tomahawks, scalping- 
 knives, grates, andirons, shovels, tongs, pokers, ladles, 
 flesh forks, currycombs, and other articles of hard- 
 ware.f Thomas Wylie, corner of Third and Market 
 Streets, was an edge-tool maker, and was prepared to 
 make " all kinds of mill irons turned in the neatest 
 manner.":}: These three seem to have been the precur- 
 sors of the army of iron-workers that have since made 
 Pittsburgh famous. Those early enterprises must have 
 
 * The Pittsburgh Gazette, June 13, 1789. 
 t Ibid., August I, 1789. 
 J Ibid., September 19, 1789. 
 148 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 149 
 
 been extremely limited, little if anything more than 
 mere workshops. It is significant of the state of the 
 manufacturing enterprises of Pittsburgh to find the 
 editor of the Gazette, April 25, 1789, in extending 
 in his columns an " Invitation to Emigrants" to come 
 and settle in that town, mentioning, as especially de- 
 sirable, " hatters, button makers, rope makers, and 
 weavers," but not a word of invitation to workers 
 in metal. This is not to be wondered at when we 
 remember that no iron was at that time made west 
 of the Alleghenies, and what was used here was 
 brought at great expense across the mountains on the 
 backs of horses. 
 
 As illustrative of this point is the interesting inci- 
 dent related by Samuel Maclay, one of the commis- 
 sioners of survey of the State, in his "Journal," 1790. 
 As the surveying party were descending the Allegheny 
 River John Rea, one of the men, found part of an old 
 gun-carriage near a small island a short distance above 
 Kittanning. How it had got there is a mystery. Mac- 
 lay was very anxious to reach the mouth of the Kis- 
 kiminetas that day, August 11, but Rea delayed the 
 party three hours while he stripped the gun-carriage 
 of its iron; so that Maclay failed to reach the desired 
 point on time. The next day Rea and Frederick Bawm 
 left the party, much to the discomfiture of Maclay, and 
 proceeded to Pittsburgh, no doubt for the purpose of 
 bringing their precious find of old iron to a profitable 
 market.* 
 
 This point of time, however, marks the beginning 
 
 *Maclay's "Journal," 1790, p. 44. 
 
[SO OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 jf the iron industry west of the Alleghenies. In 1789 
 Furnbull, Marmie & Co. built a furnace and a forge on 
 Jacob's Creek, in Fayette County, a mile or two above 
 ;he entrance of that stream into the Youghiogheny. 
 The furnace was put in blast November i, 1790. This 
 ive take to be the first enterprise of the kind it\ Western 
 Pennsylvania. Turnbull, Marmie & Co. was a Pitts- 
 3urgh business firm which appears in the Gazette as 
 ;arly as June, 1787. This enterprise was known as 
 ;he Alliance Iron-Works. The furnace was operated 
 it intervals until 1802, when it finally went out of 
 jlast. A large number of six-pound balls were made 
 lere in 1792, for the use of General Wayne's army in 
 lis expedition against the Western Indians.* Peter 
 Miarmie was a Frenchman whom tradition reports to 
 ^lave brought himself to a tragical end.f 
 
 The first iron-works within the limits of the present 
 :ity of Pittsburgh were built by George Anshutz near 
 what is now Shady Side Station on the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad. It was a furnace, built on a small scale, 
 :ompleted about the year 1792, and devoted mainly 
 to casting stoves and grates. It seems to have been 
 operated for but a couple of years, being then aban- 
 doned for want of ore. What had been supposed to 
 be a bank of iron ore in the near neighborhood turned 
 3Ut to be only a stratum of red shale. To bring ore 
 from a distance with the means then at hand was im- 
 practicable, and the furnace was abandoned in 1794. 
 
 * " Iron in all Ages." By James M. Swank. P. 214. 
 t See Frank Cowan's " Southwestern Pennsylvania in Song 
 md Story," p. 102. 
 
^Ju.u Jrj.1 lOJDUX^-UrJn JJAYS 
 
 151 
 
 This pioneer in what has become Pittsburgh's great 
 industry died in this city in the year 1837. 
 
 About 1805 Joseph McClurg estabhshed the first 
 iron-foundry- in Pittsburgh. It stood on the lower 
 corner of Smithfield Street and Fifth Avenue, where 
 the Parke Building now stands. During the war of 
 1812 it was employed in the casting of cannon, how- 
 itzers, shells, and balls for the use of the American 
 forces. Both Commodore Perry and General Jackson 
 were supplied in part by McClurg's foundry. In 1807 
 three nail-factories were in operation at Pittsburgh, — 
 Porter's, Sturgeon's, and Stewart's. The output was 
 about forty tons of nails annually. In 1810 the quan- 
 tity was put at two hundred tons. The ventures in 
 the iron industry kept pace with the lapse of time until 
 it has become what we now see it. In 181 1 and 18 12 
 Christopher Cowan established the first rolling-mill in 
 the city. It was situated at the corner of Penn Ave- 
 nue and Cecil Alley, where the Fourth Ward public 
 school-house afterwards stood for.twoscore years. At 
 this rolling-mill were made a variety of articles which 
 no one now would associate- with a rolling-mill ; for 
 besides sheet-iron and nail and spike rods, were made 
 shovels, tongs, spades, scythes, hoes, axes, cutting 
 knives, chains, hammers, chisels, augers, and other arti- 
 cles of ironmongery.* The editor of Cramer's " Maga- 
 zine Almanac" for 1826 says: "The manufactures of 
 Pittsburgh, particularly in the article of iron, begin to 
 assume a very interesting aspect. Not less than five 
 rolling-mills are now in operation, and a sixth will 
 
 * Swank's " Iron in all Ages," p. 229. 
 
52 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 oon be ready, for the various manufactures of iron, 
 ^our of the mills are capable of making iron from the 
 ig, besides rolling, slitting, and cutting into nails. 
 ?he other is engaged only in rolling bar and boiler 
 :on and cutting nails. The fuel to supply the engines, 
 -the metal and other materials required in conduct- 
 ig the operation of these works, and in their repairs, 
 ; is computed, afford employment to upwards of fifteen 
 undred people, the value of whose labor may be esti- 
 lated at fifteen hundred dollars each per annum, or 
 wo million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
 labile the total product may be estimated at three mil- 
 ion dollars !" 
 
 The business of boat-building, which has already 
 leen mentioned, grew rapidly. The number of barges, 
 lat-boats, and similar craft runs far up into the thou- 
 ands. In the year 1810, Tarascon Brothers & Co. 
 luilt the "Amity," a schooner of one hundred and 
 ifty tons, which was sent with a cargo of flour to 
 )t. Thomas, in the West Indies. In the same year they 
 luilt the schooner " Pittsburgh," of two hundred and 
 ifty tons, which was despatched with a similar cargo 
 Philadelphia, and thence to Bordeaux, in France. 
 These first ventures in sea-going vessels were speedily 
 ollowed by others. One of these, the brig "Ann 
 ane," built in 1803, was one of the fastest sailing 
 'essels of the day, and was run for some time as a 
 lacket between New York and New Orleans. 
 
 In the year 181 1 was constructed at Pittsburgh the 
 irst steamboat on the Western waters. It was called 
 he " New Orleans." It was one hundred and sixteen 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 153 
 
 feet in length, with twenty feet beam. The boat was 
 owned by Fulton, Livingston & Roosevelt. Its cost 
 was about thirty-eight thousand dollars. It was built 
 on the right bank of the Monongahela, a short distance 
 below the mouth of Sook's Run. Anthony Beelen's 
 foundry was near. The freight warehouse of the Bal- 
 timore and Ohio Railroad now occupies the spot. 
 Upon its completion in September, 181 1, the vessel 
 was taken to the lower Mississippi, where it was used 
 as a packet between New Orleans and Natchez.* As 
 a financial venture it was a success, the net profit for 
 the first year being twenty thousand dollars. Unfor- 
 tunately, in the winter of 1814 the boat was sunk at 
 Baton Rouge. Since the year 181 1 more than three 
 thousand sea-going vessels and steamboats have been 
 built in and near Pittsburgh. The most prolific year 
 was 1857, when one hundred and forty-one were built. 
 Only a few years ago a writer remarked : " Pittsburgh 
 seems to be one of those locations predestined, if the 
 expression may be allowed, for a ship-building centre. 
 All the varieties of timber necessary are at her doors. 
 The enterprise and skill of man have assembled all 
 other materials for the complete construction of any 
 vessel, from an armored war-ship to a burden barge."-]- 
 We cannot look into the seeds of time and say which 
 will grow. What the future may have in store in this 
 matter we do not know; but for the present we may 
 
 *Read "The First Steamboat Voyage on the Western 
 Waters." By J. B. H. Latrobe. 
 
 t" Allegheny County's Hundred Years." By George H. 
 Thurston. P. 117. 
 
154 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 say that Pittsburgh has ceased to be a ship-building 
 centre. 
 
 By a treaty made at Fort Stanwix in October, 1784, 
 all the remaining territory in Western Pennsylvania 
 claimed by the Indians was made over to the State by 
 the chiefs of the Six Nations. This territory came to 
 be known as the " New Purchase." The troubles from 
 the savages, however, grew only worse and worse. 
 The murder or abduction of pioneer families was of 
 constant occurrence. Thrilling indeed were many of 
 the personal adventures of those times. One of the 
 most remarkable of these was that of Mrs. Massy Har- 
 bison.* In the year 1792 she was living in a cabin 
 within two hundred yards of Reed's block-house, on 
 the left bank of the Allegheny River, about a mile 
 below the mouth of the Kiskiminetas. Her husband 
 was absent on the public service as a scout or spy. In 
 the early morning of the 226. of May, while she was 
 sleeping, her house was entered by a gang of Indians. 
 A child of three years was slaughtered at the doorstep. 
 Mrs. Harbison with a babe in her arms, and a little boy 
 of five years, were driven from the house into the wil- 
 derness. What the forty armed men in the block- 
 house, in plain view, were doing all this time is hard 
 to say. They had not gone far when the little boy 
 was killed and scalped. At this scene the poor mother 
 fainted away, but was flogged back into consciousness 
 by her brutal captors and compelled to go forward. 
 
 * Her name was no doubt Mercy ; but as the word was 
 usually pronounced in those days, she is always termed Massy 
 Harbison. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 155 
 
 The company soon separated, and she was put in the 
 custody of two savages, one of whom claimed her as 
 his squaw. She was taken across the country to the 
 Connoquenessing, some miles beyond the site of the 
 present town of Butler. On the third morning of her 
 captivity, in the absence of one of the Indians and while 
 the other was asleep, she made her escape, and through 
 infinite sufferings and perils from which only Provi- 
 dence, as she piously believed, delivered her, she 
 reached the settlements on the Allegheny near Pitts- 
 burgh on the 27th of May, with her babe in her arms. 
 The " Narrative of the Sufferings of Massy Harbi- 
 son," a small book once common enough, now ex- 
 tremely rare, is a detail of thrilling interest. One 
 incident we relate. In the evening of the second day 
 of her flight " a moderate rain," she says, " came on, 
 and I began to prepare for bed by collecting some leaves 
 together, as I had done the night before, but could not 
 collect a sufficient quantity without setting my little 
 boy on the ground ; but as soon as I put him out of my 
 arms he began to cry. Fearful of the consequence of 
 his noise in this situation, I took him in my arms and 
 put him to the breast immediately, and he became 
 quiet. I then stood and listened, and distinctly heard 
 the footsteps of a man, coming after me, in the same 
 direction which I had come. The ground over which 
 I had been travelling was good and the mould was 
 light; I had therefore left my footmarks, and thus 
 exposed myself to a second captivity. Alarmed at my 
 perilous situation, I looked around for a place of 
 safety, and providentially discovered a large tree 
 
:S6 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 vhich had fallen, into the tops of which I crept, 
 vith my child in my arms, and there I hid myself 
 ;ecurely under the limbs. The darkness of the night 
 greatly assisted me, and prevented me from detec- 
 ion. 
 
 " The footsteps I had heard were those of a savage. 
 ie heard the cry of the child, and came to the very 
 ;pot where the child cried, and there he halted, put 
 lown his gun, and was at this time so near that I 
 leard the wiping-stick strike against his gun distinctly, 
 ^y getting in under the tree and sheltering myself 
 :rom the rain, and pressing my boy to my bosom, got 
 lim warm, and most providentially he fell asleep, and 
 ay very still during the time of my danger at that 
 ime. All was still and quiet, the savage was listening 
 f by possibility he might again hear the cry he had 
 leard before. My own heart was the only thing I 
 ■eared, and that beat so loud that I was apprehensive 
 t would betray me. 
 
 "After the savage had stood and listened with 
 learly the stillness of death for two hours, the sound 
 )f a bell and a cry like that of a night-owl, signals 
 vhich were given to him from his savage companions, 
 nduced him to answer, and after he had given a most 
 lorrid yell, which was calculated to harrow up my 
 ;oul, he started and went off to join them. After the 
 ■etreat of the savage to his companions, I concluded 
 t unsafe to remain in my concealed situation till morn- 
 ng, lest they should conclude upon a second search, 
 md being favored with the light of day, find me, and 
 ;ither tomahawk or scalp me, or otherwise bear me 
 
yji-u jrii i3J3UJK.Uil UlWii 
 
 157 
 
 )ack to my captivity again, which was worse than 
 leath." 
 
 When the two Indians who had Mrs. Harbison in 
 ;harge separated from the band and set off to the 
 "onnoquenessing, the rest went on towards Puckety. 
 They killed, captured, and destroyed, as they went. 
 Vmong the prisoners taken was a young woman named 
 ilizabeth Flails. She remained in captivity sixteen 
 nonths. Upon her return to her home, she related 
 hat the Indians hid her for three days at the forks 
 )f the Kiskiminetas, and that while there the two In- 
 lians from whom Mrs. Harbison had escaped came 
 o them and showed the scalp of the little boy they had 
 :illed. " They stated that the white people had come 
 ipon them," says Mrs. Harbison in her Narrative, 
 ' and took the woman away from them. This refers 
 o me, and this was the way they accounted for my 
 scape from the Indians. Miss Flails said she knew a 
 hawl of mine which one of them had about his neck. 
 The savages told her they must alter their course, as 
 here were white people after them. 
 
 "A little before the sun went down, she said, they 
 ame upon a track of a person who was travelling 
 irithout anything upon the feet. When they saw this 
 hey were struck with astonishment, and one of the 
 avages followed the track till dark. At dark they 
 ang a bell and made a noise like owls to bring him 
 ack to his party again. When he came back he said 
 e had heard either the cry of a child or young bear, 
 e could not tell which, but said he listened and ex- 
 mined a long time, but could hear nothing afterwards. 
 
58 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 "This was without doubt," Mrs. Harbison con- 
 inues, " the very Indian who pursued me, and the cry 
 irhich he heard was that of my child when I put him 
 lown to collect some leaves to make a bed. Doubtless 
 his was the man who remained near me so long when 
 
 took my child, hid him in my bosom, and hid him in 
 he boughs of a tree as before mentioned." 
 
 The continued outrages of the savages upon the 
 lorder at length determined the government to take 
 teps against them. Various enterprises were organ- 
 zed, but they were fruitless of any great or permanent 
 esults. Among others an army of three thousand men 
 vas ordered by Congress in the spring of 1791 to be 
 aised, and the campaign was put in charge of Gen- 
 ial Arthur St. Clair, at that time governor of the 
 'J'orthwestern Territory. General Richard Butler, of 
 Pittsburgh, was second in command. The army as- 
 embled at Pittsburgh, and from this place proceeded 
 o Cincinnati. In September the force amounted to 
 ibout two thousand three hundred men. With these 
 3t. Clair marched north into the very heart of the In- 
 lian country. By the 3d of November he reached one 
 if the head-waters of the Wabash, about one hundred 
 niles north of Cincinnati, and near the present line 
 letween Ohio and Indiana. Many desertions had 
 aken place, and his force is said to have been thus 
 educed to only about fourteen hundred men, mostly 
 nilitia. He encamped for the night of the 3d without 
 ittempting any defensive works, meaning to fortify 
 limself the next day ; but in the early morning of the 
 l-th a large body of the enemy fell upon the unsuspect- 
 
<Jl^u Jfll ISJJUKUU JJAYb 159 
 
 ■ troops with great fury. More than half the army 
 s destroyed. The men fought with the utmost 
 irage, but were compelled to give way, and the re- 
 it speedily became a rout, which did not end until 
 fugitives entered the gates of Fort Jefferson, nearly 
 rty miles from the scene of the action. The artil- 
 ■f was abandoned, and in their fright men threw 
 ay their arms, even after the pursuit had ceased, 
 ice Braddock's fateful day no such slaughter and 
 eat had befallen the white men in their struggles 
 :h the Indians. Among those who fell was the gal- 
 t General Butler. He was shot down, tomahawked, 
 1 scalped. 
 
 jreneral Butler was one of the conspicuous figures 
 the early history of Pittsburgh and Western Penn- 
 v^ania. First as major of the Eighth Pennsylvania 
 ^iment, and finally as colonel of the Ninth, he 
 ved continuously in the Revolution from July, 1 776, 
 the end of the war. He served also for some time 
 lieutenant-colonel in Morgan's command ; and Gen- 
 1 Henry Lee, author of "Memoirs of the War," 
 ., speaks of him as " the renowned second and rival 
 Morgan in the Saratoga encounters." For the five 
 six years preceding his death he had been Indian 
 ;nt at Pittsburgh. His home was at the corner of 
 rbury Street, now Third Street, and Liberty Ave- 
 
 rhe revulsion from high expectation to blank despair 
 I indignation was almost as complete as that which 
 owed Braddock's disaster. St. Clair, who, though 
 it the time, was borne about everywhere in his litter 
 
i6o OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 into the thickest of the fire, giving his orders with the 
 :oolness and self-possession worthy of a better fortune, 
 was made the target of criticism and obloquy. All his 
 long and distinguished services on the frontier and in 
 the Revolution were forgotten, and he became the butt 
 Df the satirist and the lampooner. Over nine hundred 
 men were killed and wounded in the action, among 
 ivhom were forty-nine commissioned officers. The In- 
 dians lost only about sixty killed. The prisoners, of 
 whom there were many, were put to death by the In- 
 dians in the most barbarous manner.* 
 
 General St. Clair, like Braddock, Forbes, and so 
 nany others who figured largely in our early history, 
 was a Scotchman. He was born at Thurso in 1734. 
 When only twenty-three years of age he entered the 
 British army. In May, 1758, he arrived in America 
 with Amherst, and in 1759, having been raised to the 
 rank of a lieutenant, he was assigned to Wolfe's com- 
 mand and was present at the fall of Quebec. Having 
 married in 1760, he resigned from the army a year or 
 ;wo later, and in 1764 he settled at Bedford, in Penn- 
 sylvania, as agent for the Penns. He served as pro- 
 ;honotary of Bedford and afterwards of Westmore- 
 and Counties, and of the latter he was also appointed 
 I justice of the peace. We have seen the course he took 
 n the troubles of Dunmore's time. It was his hand 
 ihat drew up the patriotic resolutions adopted at Han- 
 lastown in May, 1775. When the Revolution broke 
 )ut St. Clair joined Washington, and was one of his 
 xusted officers to the close of the struggle. He rose 
 
 *"The Great West." By Henry Howe. P. 157. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS i6i 
 
 to the rank of major-general, and served conspicu- 
 ously throughout the war. Upon the return of peace 
 he was selected for various posts of high responsibility, 
 and in 1787, as president of Congress, he was virtu- 
 ally President of the United States. When the North- 
 western Territory was organized in 1787, St. Clair was 
 appointed governor by Congress. His defeat on the 
 Wabash was the end of his prosperous career. He 
 continued to serve as governor of the Territory for a 
 number of years, but his star grew more and more dim 
 until finally it went out in obscurity. In 1802, Presi- 
 dent Jefferson retired him to private life, and at the 
 age of sixty-eight years he returned to his home in 
 Westmoreland County, where he found that his fortune 
 was gone, his improvements in ruin, and remorseless 
 creditors at his heels. His property was seized by the 
 sheriff and sold, and St. Clair was left without a roof 
 to shelter his head. 
 
 In this extremity his son came to his relief and pur- 
 chased a piece of land on Chestnut Ridge, about five 
 miles west of Ligonier, and thereon a rude log house 
 was erected, in which the aged soldier and patriot 
 sought refuge. In this house he kept a roadside 
 tavern, that he might gain enough for the support 
 of his family; but had it not been for a few philan- 
 thropic friends, he would often have suffered. The 
 closing scenes of his career were melancholy. The end 
 was that he fell from his wagon on the road between 
 his house and Youngstown, was found lying by the 
 wayside, was carried home, where he died with- 
 out regaining consciousness, August 31, 181 8. He is 
 
 II 
 
1 62 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 buried in the St. Clair Cemetery at Greensburg, where 
 his monument may still be seen. 
 
 "The State of Pennsylvania, it is true," says the 
 writer whom we have been following, "granted St. 
 Clair a small annuity, and thirty-nine years after his 
 death Congress did something for his heirs, but they 
 never received a tithe of what the gallant soldier sacri- 
 ficed to aid Washington in carrying on the war for 
 independence. How much more honorable it would 
 have been to have recognized his claim while living, 
 and made his last days comfortable, instead of doling 
 Dut a small sum long after he had mouldered into 
 lust."* 
 
 The rage of the Indians against the settlers seemed 
 to increase, if possible, in consequence of the failure of 
 St. Clair. Murder was rife everywhere. Boats pass- 
 ing up and dbwn the rivers were particularly objects 
 Df their attack; and sometimes an Indian dressed in 
 :he old clothes of a white man would appear alone and 
 inarmed on the shore and lure the occupants of the 
 3oats within reach by pretending to be an escaped cap- 
 :ive and calling for assistance, when the enemy con- 
 :ealed behind rocks and bushes fired upon them. Even 
 50 lately as 1794 a boat that had been put on the Ohio 
 ior the purpose of making regular trips between Cin- 
 ;innati and Pittsburgh was advertised as bullet-proof, 
 irmed with six pieces carrying a pound ball, besides a 
 lumber of good muskets, and amply supplied with am- 
 nunition. It must have added a spice of adventure to 
 
 * " John of Lancaster" in Dr. Egle's " Notes and Queries," 
 mnual volume, 1897, pp. "55-58. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 163 
 
 the other charms of travel to hear the sudden discharge 
 of guns on the shore and the patter of leaden hail 
 against the side of the boat in which the good people 
 were all snugly " under cover." 
 
 In April, 1792, General Anthony Wayne was ap- 
 pointed to the command of a new army for the inva- 
 sion of the Miami country. Wayne would accept the 
 appointment only on condition that the complement of 
 men should be full and that time should be given for 
 them to be fully disciplined. He took time enough. 
 He arrived in Pittsburgh in June, 1792. In Decem- 
 ber he went into winter-quarters with his " legion" in 
 a camp known as Legionville, on the Ohio, near Logs- 
 town. In October, 1793, he advanced with his force 
 to a point about eighty miles north of Cincinnati, and 
 erected a fort on the site of the present town of Green- 
 ville, Ohio. He remained here until midsummer of 
 1794, drilling his men and making preparations for 
 his campaign. A detachment was sent forward twenty- 
 three miles north of Greenville, who built a fort on St. 
 Clair's battle-field, which was called Fort Recovery. 
 A fierce battle was fought at this fort on the 30th of 
 June and the ist of July between a detachment of one 
 hundred and forty soldiers and fifteen hundred Indians, 
 in which the Indians were repulsed with great loss. 
 
 In July, 1794, Wayne, with an army of nearly four 
 thousand men, departed for the Indian towns on the 
 Maumee. On the 8th of August he encamped at the 
 junction of the Au Glaize and the Maumee, one hun- 
 dred and three miles north of Greenville, where he 
 erected Fort Defiance ; and on the morning of the 20th 
 
1 64 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 he moved forward to attack the Indians, who were en- 
 camped on the Maumee, a little south of the site of 
 Maumee City. As he was advancing his vanguard, 
 under Major Price, was fiercely assaulted by the In- 
 dians, who were secreted in the woods and the high 
 grass. Wayne's army was at once drawn up in order. 
 The severe drill that his men had undergone now told 
 its story. The Indians were dislodged at the point of 
 the bayonet, and in the course of an hour were driven 
 back more than two miles. The enemy numbered not 
 less than two thousand. The troops actually engaged 
 with them were less than nine hundred. Wayne's loss 
 was one hundred and thirty-three killed and wounded. 
 The loss to the Indians was greater. The latter were 
 completely broken up and driven away. Wayne re- 
 mained three days on the battle-field, and destroyed all 
 the houses and cornfields within reach. He then re- 
 turned to Fort Defiance by easy marches, laying waste 
 the country for about fifty miles on each side of the 
 Maumee.* 
 
 " Notwithstanding the signal victory obtained by 
 General Wayne over the Indians," says Withers, " yet 
 lid their hostility to the whites lead them to acts of 
 occasional violence, and kept them for some time from 
 icceding to the proposals for peace. In consequence 
 3f this their whole country was laid waste and forts 
 erected in the hearts of their settlements at once to 
 itarve and awe them into quiet. The desired effect was 
 Droduced. Their crops being laid waste, their villages 
 
 * " The Great West," pp. 161-163. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 165 
 
 burned, fortresses erected in various parts of their 
 country and kept well garrisoned, and a victorious 
 army ready to bear down upon them at any instant, 
 there was no alternative left them but to sue for peace." 
 Finally the treaty of Greenville, concluded on the 3d 
 of August, 1795, put a period to the war, and with it 
 to those acts of devastation and death which had so 
 long spread dismay and gloom throughout the land."* 
 
 * Withers's " Chronicles of Border Warfare,'' p. 430. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION 
 
 To meet the necessities of the general government 
 m excise law was passed in the year 1791, laying a tax 
 upon spirituous liquors. A similar law had been passed 
 in 1756, but it had not been enforced with much vigor, 
 md was afterwards repealed. The excise law bore 
 particularly hard upon the people of Southwestern 
 Pennsylvania, and was correspondingly disliked by 
 them. A great deal of rye was grown in the Monon- 
 =;ahela Valley, far exceeding the demands of the com- 
 munity. There was no means of transportation except 
 by pack-horses, and a horse could carry only about four 
 bushels of rye. Of course this rendered the exporta- 
 tion of it impracticable; but by converting the grain 
 into whiskey a horse could carry the equivalent of 
 twenty-four bushels of rye. The consequence was that 
 m immense number of small distilleries had sprung 
 Lip, and a thriving business was done in whiskey. 
 
 The people generally were Scotch, or of Scotch-Irish 
 2xtraction, and had come honestly by both their taste 
 for good whiskey and their dislike of the exciseman.* 
 The colonies had stood shoulder to shoulder in carry- 
 
 * Burns, himself an exciseman, gives expression to the popular 
 feeling in regard to gentlemen of his cloth : 
 
 "The de'il cam' fiddling through the town, 
 And danced awa' wi' th' Exciseman, 
 And ilka wife cries, — ' Auld Mahoun, 
 I wish you luck o' th' prize, man !' " 
 166 
 
ig through the Revolution; but independence of 
 loughtand action, individual and State, had as yet 
 ardly crystallized into a sentiment of nationalism, 
 •esides, the French, with whom our people largely 
 ympathized, were in the first stages of that political 
 itoxication which speedily led to the Reign of Terror, 
 nd under this rebellion against constituted authority, 
 11 personal restraint by government was felt to be an 
 ifringement of personal right and liberty. Anyhow, 
 lany of the people of this part of Pennsylvania bitterly 
 esented the excise law. 
 
 In the outstart of this resistance to government the 
 eople were led by many of the most respectable and 
 ifluential citizens, among them Albert Gallatin, Hugh 
 lenry Brackenridge, General John Gibson, and George 
 Vallace. Afterwards they saw their error and tried 
 ) undo it, but with little success. The affair had passed 
 ut of their hands and beyond their control; and led 
 y Holcroft, Bradford, and men of that class, it soon 
 eveloped into a full-fledged rebellion against the gov- 
 rnment. Pittsburgh, as the chief town in the insur- 
 ectionary region, became the principal focus of the 
 lovement and shared largely in it. 
 
 The insurrection was not entirely a campaign on 
 aper or of mere declamation. It soon passed the point 
 f petitions, representations, and resolutions. General 
 ohn Neville, a man of the highest character, had been 
 ppointed inspector of excise for this district. His 
 ome at Bower Hill, a few miles south of Pittsburgh, 
 ras burned. The barn of Major Kirkpatrick, a friend 
 f the government, was also burned. The collectors 
 
i68 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 of the tax were abused, intimidated, and chased away. 
 Several lives were lost. The mails were interrupted 
 and the letter-bags rifled. Armed men, said to have 
 been seven thousand in number, met at Braddock's 
 Field in July, 1794, with the design of marching on 
 Pittsburgh to take vengeance on some of the citizens 
 of the town who had opposed the purposes of the revo- 
 lutionists. By the adroitness of Brackenridge, who 
 assumed the leadership on the occasion, not to conduct 
 them to acts of violence, but in the hope by diplomacy 
 to steer the multitude clear of serious wrong-doing, 
 no great harm ensued. The men marched to Pitts- 
 burgh, passed through the town with a great show of 
 determination, assembled on the point just below old 
 Fort Pitt, and then crossed the river. Brackenridge 
 deserves credit for the manner in which he handled the 
 matter. His motive and his conduct were misunder- 
 stood at first, but time and inquiry have shown them 
 to have been patriotic and wise. " The people," he 
 afterwards said, " were mad. It never came into my 
 head to use force on the occasion; I thought it safest 
 to give good words and good drink rather than pow- 
 der and balls. It cost me four barrels of good whiskey 
 that day, and I would rather spare that than a quart of 
 blood." 
 
 However, the proceedings of "Tom the Tinker's 
 men," as they were called, at length became so serious 
 that the government was forced to take decisive steps 
 against them. An army of fifteen thousand men, under 
 command of General Lee, of Virginia, was directed 
 to march into the rebellious region. Washington hira- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 169 
 
 self accompanied the army as far as Bedford. As this 
 powerful array drew near the insurgents disappeared. 
 An executive committee of twelve, representing the 
 cause, met commissioners of the United States, and 
 terms of peace were agreed upon. But the army, in 
 order to overawe effectually any of the more stubborn 
 malcontents, proceeded on to Pittsburgh, where they 
 arrived in the month of November, 1794. The army, 
 however, soon returned to their homes, except a de- 
 tachment under General Morgan, which remained upon 
 the spot for some time; but in the following spring, 
 order having been fully restored, they were also with- 
 drawn. 
 
 The whiskey insurrection had a vastly wider signifi- 
 cance than a mere uprising of a portion of the people 
 in Southwestern Pennsylvania. It was the first occa- 
 sion in which the government had been called upon 
 to assert itself as against a rebellion of its own people, 
 and the wise intelligence, the lofty patriotism, and the 
 firm hand of Washington alone were competent to 
 deal properly with it. 
 
 In the mean time, April 22, 1794, Pittsburgh was 
 incorporated as a borough. George Robinson and Jo- 
 siah Tannehill were elected the two first-burgesses of 
 the town. The population was likely not far from one 
 thousand. Several industries, as we have seen, had 
 already developed, as boat-building, iron-making, etc. 
 In the year 1797, General James O'Hara and Major 
 Isaac Craig put into operation the first window-glass 
 factory in Pittsburgh. To these industries may be 
 added the lumber business on the Allegheny and the 
 
I70 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 peltry trade with the hunters and trappers of the wil- 
 derness. Chief among the dealers in peltry at Pitts- 
 burgh were Peter Maynard and William Morrison. 
 
 In December, 1791, orders were sent by General 
 Knox, the Secretary of War, to Major Craig, the dep- 
 uty quartermaster at Pittsburgh, to procure immedi- 
 ately materials for a block-house and picketed fort at 
 Pittsburgh. Old Fort Pitt had been sold to TurnbuU 
 & Marmie, and was fast being dilapidated. The orders 
 were for the new fort to be erected " in such part of 
 Pittsburgh as shall be the best position to cover the 
 town as well as the public stores which shall be for- 
 warded from time to time." The work was set about 
 at once, and May 18, 1792, Major Craig writes to the 
 Secretary that " Captain Hughes, with his detachment, 
 has occupied the barracks in the new fort since the 
 first instant. The work, if you have no objections, I 
 will name Fort Lafayette."* The Secretary approved 
 of the name, and Fort Fayette, as it was more conve- 
 niently termed, continued in use until the building of 
 the Allegheny Arsenal in 1814. Fort Fayette stood on 
 the government property at the corner of Garrison 
 Alley and Penn Avenue, in the Fourth Ward. 
 
 In October, 1795, Mr. Thomas Chapman, an Eng- 
 lish gentleman of fortune, arrived in Pittsburgh in the 
 course of a tour he was making of the country. He 
 describes the place as " a thriving town containing at 
 present about two hundred houses, fifty of which are 
 brick and framed, and the remainder log." But as he 
 notes there were two brick-yards in the vicinity, where 
 
 * Craig's " History of Pittsburgh," p. 214. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 171 
 
 bricks could be had for one guinea per thousand, he 
 predicts that in a few years " all the log houses will be 
 rebuilt, and brick substituted in the room of wood." 
 While in Pittsburgh he stayed "at the sign of the 
 Green Tree." This was a famous hostelry on Water 
 Street, between Wood and Market, kept by Mr. Mor- 
 row. Mr. Chapman remained in Pittsburgh about two 
 weeks, and left on the 2d of November in a " Kentucky 
 boat" belonging to Major Craig.* 
 
 Water Street was then the most fashionable part of 
 the town. At the corner of Smithfield lived the Hon. 
 James Ross, United States Senator, and below him 
 Adamson Tannehill, Samuel Ewalt, John Ormsby, 
 John Neville, Major Isaac Craig, Major Abraham 
 Kirkpatrick, and near West Street General James 
 O'Hara. The last-named gentleman is to be noted 
 in the early history of the city as one of its most enter- 
 prising and successful business men. He was grand- 
 father of Mrs. Mary Schenley, to whom Pittsburgh is 
 in large part indebted for the beautiful park which 
 bears her name. H. H. Brackenridge lived on Market 
 Street, between First and Second Avenues, Judge Ad- 
 dison at the corner of Second Avenue and Smithfield 
 Street, and General Wilkins at the corner of Wood 
 Street and Third Avenue. The town was almost ex- 
 clusively within the triangle bounded by Smithfield 
 Street and the two rivers. Smithfield Street is said 
 to be so named from the fact that Devereux Smith, 
 one of the early justices of the county, had a field on 
 the line of that thoroughfare. 
 
 * See The Historical Magazine, June, 1864. 
 
172 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 A local incident of those days which caused a good 
 deal of interest in the community was the deposition 
 of Judge Addison. The two great political parties of 
 the country were the Republican and the Federalist 
 parties, corresponding in relation to each other to the 
 Democratic and the Republican parties of the present. 
 Of the Republican party Thomas Jefiferson was the 
 great exponent, while George Washington was the 
 chief representative of the Federalist party. The 
 French Revolution, which broke out during Washing- 
 ton's administration, had sharply divided the sentiment 
 of this country. France had been our friend and ally 
 in our time of need; and while all Americans felt a 
 strong friendship for the French people, the wise con- 
 servatism of Washington prevented the United States 
 from committing itself too strongly in the interest of 
 France. Jefferson was a decided Francomaniac. The 
 whiskey rebellion had been largely conducted on these 
 party lines. The leaders in that affair were chiefly, if 
 not entirely, Republicans; those who stood by Wash- 
 ington in his efforts to enforce the law were Federal- 
 ists. Judge Alexander Addison, the first law judge of 
 Allegheny County, was a Federalist. He was a Scotch- 
 man by birth, and educated at Edinburgh. In early 
 life he came to America. In 1791 he was appointed 
 president judge of the Fifth Judicial District of Penn- 
 sylvania. His fellow-Scot, Brackenridge, the most in- 
 teresting character in early Pittsburgh, was a bitter 
 Republican and fiercely hostile to Judge Addison. 
 
 Through the troublesome times of the whiskey in- 
 surrection Judge Addison had stood manfully at his 
 
ULD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 173 
 
 post. In the year 1801 the Federalist administrations 
 of Washington and Adams ended by the accession of 
 Jefferson to the Presidency. The local enemies of 
 Judge Addison were in the seats of power. In July, 
 1800, a Frenchman named John B. C. Lucas had been 
 appointed an associate judge of Allegheny County, — 
 on what principle it is difficult to say. He was intensely 
 hostile to Judge Addison, and he seems to have deter- 
 mined from the start to irritate and annoy .him. Lucas 
 was not a lawyer;* yet he frequently differed from the 
 judge on points of law, and sometimes went the length 
 of charging petit juries contrary to the views that had 
 been expressed by the president judge. Finally, on 
 one occasion he insisted on charging the grand jury, 
 setting forth views opposite to those that had been ex- 
 pressed by Judge Addison to a previous grand jury. 
 Such assurance on the part of a mere layman seems 
 almost incredible, and could have been the result only 
 of a deliberate purpose. 
 
 On this latter occasion he was stopped by Judges 
 Addison and McDowell, who constituted a majority 
 of the court. This seems to have been what Lucas had 
 been playing for, and gave him a pretext for legal pro- 
 ceedings against Judge Addison. An effort was made 
 before the Supreme Court to indict him for misde- 
 meanor in office, but it failed. He then applied to the 
 Legislature, by which Judge Addison was impeached 
 and removed from office, January, 1803, on the most 
 flimsy charges. 
 
 * He is said to have practised law two years in France, before 
 coming to America. 
 
174 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 "No person can read the report of the trial," says 
 Judge White, "without feeUng that it was a legal 
 farce; that gross injustice was done Judge Addison 
 from the beginning to the end, and that the whole pro- 
 ceeding was a disgrace to the State. The trial took 
 place at Lancaster, where the Legislature sat. The 
 Hotise and Senate refused to give him copies of cer- 
 tain papers, or to give assistance in procuring witnesses 
 from Pittsburgh for his defence. The speeches of 
 counsel against him, and the rulings of the Senate on 
 questions raised in the progress of the trial, were char- 
 acterized by intense partisan feeling. It was not a 
 judicial trial, but a partisan scheme to turn out a po- 
 litical opponent. It resulted in deposing one of the 
 purest, best, and ablest judges that ever sat on the 
 bench in Pennsylvania."* Judge Addison was suc- 
 ceeded in office by Samuel Roberts, a native of Phila- 
 delphia, but a practising lawyer of Sunbury when he 
 was appointed to the vacant judgeship. In 1799 H. 
 H. Brackenridge had been appointed a judge of the 
 Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 
 
 One October afternoon in the year 1806 there rode 
 into Pittsburgh an individual who was destined to 
 attract some attention. This was Mr. Thomas Ashe. 
 He was an Irish tourist, and he states on the title-page 
 of his volume of travels that the object of his tour was 
 to explore " the Rivers Allegheny, Monongahela, Ohio, 
 and Mississippi, and Ascertaining the Produce and 
 
 * " The Judiciary of Allegheny County." By J. W. F. White. 
 P. 16. 
 
U1.U fiiiiSiiUKiiH DAYS 175 
 
 Condition of their Banks and Vicinity." * He was a 
 mere adventurer, and some of his "villainies" were 
 long remembered. In Pittsburgh he was known by 
 the name of Arvil, and one old writer says that there 
 "he assumed the manners of a gentleman." From 
 Pittsburgh Mr. Ashe made various excursions into dif- 
 ferent quarters of the country; but he did not finally 
 leave the town until the spring of 1807. In this con- 
 nection he is only important because he has given us a 
 fuller description of Pittsburgh at that period than any 
 other writer. At the same time we must add, he was 
 so untruthful and dishonest that we are obliged to take 
 some of his statements with a good deal of allowance. f 
 Mr. Ashe came in over the old Forbes Road from 
 Bedford. Of his near approach to Pittsburgh he says 
 it lay through a beautiful valley, than which nothing 
 could be more interesting. It extended three miles 
 on a perfect level, cultivated in the highest degree, 
 bounded by a rising ground on the left and a trans- 
 parent river on the right. As for the town itself, he 
 doubted if any town in the world could boast of a posi- 
 tion superior to this, both as to its beauty and the many 
 advantages which it enjoyed. It then contained about 
 four hundred houses, many of them large and elegantly 
 built of brick, and over two thousand inhabitants. He 
 notes that many manufactures were carried on, espe- 
 cially of glass, nails, hats, and tobacco. Ship-building 
 
 * " Travels in America, performed in 1806." By Thomas Ashe, 
 Esq. Newburyport : 1808. 
 
 t For some account of Ashe see Zadok Cramer's " Navigator" 
 for the year 1818, pp. 224, 225. 
 
176 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 he found was extensively carried on, and several ves- 
 sels were then on the stocks. Goods designed for the 
 Kentucky and Louisiana trade were brought in wagons 
 across the mountains, and here loaded on boats. The 
 term Louisiana was then applied to the vast region west 
 of the Mississippi. 
 
 The principal inhabitants of Pittsburgh, he says, 
 were Irish or of Irish origin, which accounted for the 
 commercial spirit of the place and the good breeding 
 and hospitality which in general prevailed throughout 
 it. He mentions several gentlemen of the place as 
 distinguished for the liberality of their character and 
 their generous attention to strangers. The influence 
 of these and many other gentlemen of similar senti- 
 ments he thinks was very favorable to the town, and 
 "hindered the vicious propensities of the genuine 
 American character from establishing here the horrid 
 dominion which they assumed over the Atlantic 
 States." Mr. Ashe is enthusiastic in his praise of the 
 ladies of Pittsburgh. 
 
 The market-house, which, he observes, stood in a 
 square in the centre of the town, was frequented almost 
 daily, but more particularly on two stated days of the 
 week, by vast numbers of country people, who brought 
 in produce of every description. Excellent beef was 
 sold sometimes for only three cents a pound, good veal 
 at seven cents, pork at three cents. Fine fowls sold 
 for only about a shilling a pair, and partridges, 
 pigeons, and game of various kinds at prices equally 
 reasonable. A haunch of venison brought only half a 
 dollar, and a flitch of bear-meat about one dollar. But- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 177 
 
 ter was fourteen cents a pound, eggs five cents a dozen, 
 and milk three cents a quart. Vegetables and fruit 
 were also abundant. Whiskey sold at two shillings a 
 gallon. The best taverns charged half a dollar per 
 day, and boarding, lodging, and washing could be had 
 for one hundred dollars per year. 
 
 In the winter sleighing was the favorite amusement. 
 Every young man of a certain condition possessed a 
 good horse and sleigh, and with these they drove with 
 great dexterity through the streets, calling on their 
 acquaintances and taking refreshments "at many an 
 open house," — as well they might in a town where 
 "excellent porter was brewed at a very cheap rate," 
 and whiskey was but two shillings a gallon. The 
 summer amusements consisted principally "of con- 
 certs, evening walks, and rural festivals held in the 
 vicinity of clear springs and under the shade of odor- 
 iferous trees," — ^by which he means picnics. 
 
 In April, 1807, Mr. Ashe left Pittsburgh, passing 
 down the Ohio in a Kentucky boat which he had pur- 
 chased for forty dollars. " In turning into the stream 
 from Pittsburgh," he says, "I found the scene in- 
 stantaneously changed and become peculiarly grand. 
 In ten minutes I got into the confluence of the Monon- 
 gahela and Allegheny waters. For half an hour I 
 steered my boat in this confluence, being able to dip 
 up whitish water on one side and perfectly green on 
 the other. The hills on the right hand were near twelve 
 hundred feet high, — ^those on the left something less 
 lofty, — each cloathed with sumptuous and unceasing 
 timber,. from the base to the summit, the garb of many 
 
 12 
 
178 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 thousand years, each tree perishing in an imperceptible 
 progression, and each as imperceptibly renewed ! The 
 whole and the individual, still appearing the same, 
 always conveying a grand idea of the munificence of 
 Nature and the immutability of all her works. This 
 view was sufficient to lead the mind into a serious con- 
 templation which assumed a character of melancholy, 
 when I reflected on the endless scenes of the same 
 nature, only more pregnant with danger, vicissitude, 
 and death, through which I had to pass." 
 
 Among the noteworthy citizens of Pittsburgh in 
 the early part of the century was the Rev. Solomon 
 Spaulding, around whom centres a special interest as 
 the author of " The Manuscript Found" — a book 
 which is generally believed to have formed the base 
 of the " Book of Mormon." Mr. Spaulding's work 
 was never published during his lifetime, nor written 
 with any such object in view as that to which it was 
 applied. By some means his manuscript fell into the 
 hands of Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, who 
 adapted it to their own purposes. Mr. Spaulding 
 came to Pittsburgh in 1812, removed to Amity, Wash- 
 ington County, in 1814, where he died in 1816.* 
 
 The war of 1812 excited great interest in Pittsburgh. 
 It lay so near the scene of operations in the Lake Erie 
 region as to be concerned from local circumstances. 
 As we have seen, much of the war equipment of Perry 
 on the lake and of Jackson at New Orleans was fur- 
 nished from Pittsburgh. The town also sent two com- 
 panies to the war, — the Pittsburgh Blues, commanded 
 
 * Read " Early Days of Mormonism," by J. H. Kennedy. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 179 
 
 by Captain James R. Butler, son of the gallant General 
 Richard Butler, who fell in St. Clair's defeat, and an- 
 other company under Captain Jeremiah Ferree. Of 
 the latter company but little has been recorded ; of the 
 Blues, history has preserved some trace. This company 
 was a military organization that had existed previously 
 to the year 181 2, having been organized under the 
 military laws of the State. Upon the opening of hos- 
 tilities they tendered their services to the government, 
 which were accepted. They were ordered into active 
 service at once, to join the Northwestern troops, com- 
 manded by General Harrison.* On the 23d of Sep- 
 tember, 1 812, they embarked on keel-boats, and moved 
 down the Ohio to join the army on the Maumee. They 
 numbered sixty men. At the battle of the Mississi- 
 nawa River, on the i8th of the following November, 
 they distinguished themselves, where their well-directed 
 fire relieved the dragoons of Major Ball, who had for 
 some time sustained the onset of the enemy ;f also at 
 Fort Meigs, May 5, 1813, and at Fort Sandusky, under 
 Major Croghan, August 2 of the same year. 
 
 At the siege of Fort Meigs two of the Blues, James 
 Newman and William Richardson, were killed by the 
 same bullet. Newman was standing up, while Rich- 
 ardson, who was just behind him, was stooping down, 
 picking his gun flint, when a bullet fired by an Indian 
 concealed in a tree passed through the body of Newman 
 and into that of Richardson, killing them both. 
 
 * Parke's " Recollections of Seventy Years," p. 33. 
 t Brackenridge's "History of the Late War," p. 65. 
 
i8o OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 " Behold yon band whose lightning gleams afar, — 
 
 'Tis Butler's corps so lately crown'd with fame; 
 By Freedom roused they bravely lead the war, 
 
 And pluck the honors of a spotless name. 
 On Maumee's banks they've met their steel-clad foes. 
 
 Loud shouts proclaim the contest now begun; 
 With bay'nets fixed they front to front oppose. 
 
 Whilst clouds of smoke obscure the distant sun. 
 ******* 
 Curst war, away! let peace return once more; 
 
 Come, gentle peace, we'll meet thy fond embrace, 
 Thou hast the means our blessings to restore, 
 
 And raise again the smile on beauty's face."* 
 
 * These lines from " A Fragment" on the death of J. New- 
 man I find in an old school-book, "An Essay on the Origin and 
 Structure of Language," by N. Vernon. Frederick City, Md. : 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 PUBLIC THOROUGHFARES 
 
 The roads and water-ways of a country have a vast 
 influence in its development and final character. In 
 regard to the second of these, nature had been most 
 generous to Pittsburgh. The noble Allegheny on one 
 side and the placid Monongahela on the other con- 
 verging together at this place and here forming the 
 beautiful Ohio furnish a natural highway of infinite 
 value. The earliest road to this point was Forbes's 
 Road. It has already been described. Braddock's 
 Road stopped short at the scene of his disaster. At 
 Bedford a branch of Forbes's Road led southward to 
 Cumberland, where it joined Braddock's Road. Thus 
 at Bedford Forbes's Road separated into two strands, 
 one leading down into the Potomac Valley and the 
 other pursuing a course nearly due east through Car- 
 lisle and Lancaster to Philadelphia. 
 
 " Nature," says an old writer, " has done much for 
 Pennsylvania in regard to inland water carriage, which 
 is strikingly exemplified by this fact, that although 
 Philadelphia and Lake Erie are distant from each other 
 above three hundred miles, there is no doubt but that 
 the rivers of the State may be so improved as to re- 
 duce the land carriage between them nine-tenths. In 
 the same way the navigation to Pittsburgh, after due 
 improvement, may be used instead of land carriage for 
 the whole distance except twenty-three miles." 
 
 Again, the same writer says: "The south side of 
 Pennsylvania is the best settled land throughout, owing 
 
 i8l 
 
1 82 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 entirely to the circumstance of the western road having 
 been run by the armies, prior to 1762, through the 
 towns of Lancaster, Carlisle, and Bedford, and thence 
 to Pittsburgh. For the purpose of turning the tide of 
 settlers from this old channel into the unsettled parts 
 of the State the government and landed interest of 
 Pennsylvania have been and are still busy in cutting 
 convenient roads. . . . It is now in contemplation to 
 cut a road from Sunbury, at the forks of the east and 
 west branches of Susquehanna, west one hundred and 
 fifty miles to the mouth of Toby's Creek, which 
 empties into the Allegheny River from the east. . . . 
 Another road is cut from Huntingdon town, on 
 Frankstown branch of the Juniata, westward to Cone- 
 maugh, a navigable branch of the Allegheny." These 
 two roads would be highly contributory to the interests 
 of Pittsburgh. " The populous parts of the State," he 
 adds, "can, at present, bear the expense of turnpike- 
 roads. One from Philadelphia to Lancaster has lately 
 been completed, which shortens the distance between 
 these places eight miles; and others are in contem- 
 plation."* 
 
 The map of Pennsylvania in Morse's Geography, 
 1796, shows three roads leading directly to Pittsburgh: 
 one, as straight as a ruler can make it, westward from a 
 point on the upper waters of the Juniata where stood 
 the ancient Indian village of Frankstown; another 
 west and northwest from Philadelphia through Carlisle 
 and Bedford; and a third northeast from Ryerson's, 
 
 * Morse's "American Universal Geography." Boston : 1796. 
 Pp. 537, etc. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 183 
 
 in the southwestern corner of the State, through the 
 town of Washington. The first of the above-described 
 roads was what was called the Frankstown Road. It 
 was a famous thoroughfare in its day. In March, 
 1787, an act of the Legislature was passed appointing 
 commissioners "to lay out a State highway, between 
 the waters of the Frankstown branch of the Juniata 
 and the river Conemaugh." The road was opened to 
 the mouth of the Blacklick by the close of the year 
 1789. It was extended to Pittsburgh about the year 
 1793 or 1794. It was no doubt a rude enough road; 
 but for many years it served as the main channel of 
 communication between the Juniata and the Alle- 
 gheny Valleys. Reminiscences of it still linger at 
 Blairsville, and perhaps at other points. Frankstown 
 Avenue, one of the thoroughfares of Pittsburgh, is a 
 reminder of this old-time highway. 
 
 The turnpike between Philadelphia and Lancaster, 
 mentioned in the quotation above, had been built in 
 the year 1792, and for many years was the only road 
 of the kind in the Union. It was a matter of great 
 pride to the good people of that part of the State. " To 
 this day," says McMaster, 1885, " in every town 
 along the route, old men may be found who delight 
 to recall the times when the pike was in its prime, when 
 trade was brisk, when tavern-keepers grew rich, when 
 the huge sheds were crowded with the finest horses, 
 and when thousands of Conestoga wagons went into 
 Philadelphia each week creaking under the yield of the 
 dairy and the produce of the famous Pennsylvania 
 farms." 
 
1 84 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 In the first score of years in the beginning of the 
 century turnpike roads were gradually introduced into 
 different parts of the country, and for some time they 
 seemed to be all that could be wished for or obtained. 
 A turnpike from Pittsburgh east, going through Blairs- 
 ville, Ebensburg, Hollidaysburg, and so on to Phila- 
 delphia, was opened for travel at the beginning of the 
 year 1819. Other roads of the same kind led out from 
 the city in various directions. Along the line of these 
 roads sprang up villages and roadside inns. Stage lines 
 were put on, — the " Pioneer," the " Good Intent," or 
 whatever, — and men whose hair is frosted with years 
 remember well the dashing vehicle, — " green picked out 
 wi' red, — three yellow wheels and a black ane,"* — in 
 all the glory of paint and gold-leaf ; and the caravans of 
 heavy, canvas-covered wagons, "turnpike schooners," 
 drawn by six or eight horses each, all jingling with 
 scores of bells, moving leisurely along over the Penn- 
 sylvania hills. The superiority of the turnpike over 
 the old-style roads of alternate mud and "corduroy" 
 may be seen in the fact set forth by Trego, "that 
 whereas formerly it required a team of five or six good 
 horses from eighteen to twenty-five days to haul a 
 load of three thousand pounds from Pittsburgh to 
 Philadelphia, afterwards, when the turnpike was com- 
 pleted across the mountains, the same team could trans- 
 port a load twice as heavy between the same two places 
 in twelve or fifteen days."f 
 
 * Mrs. Macleuchar in " The Antiquary.'' 
 
 t " A Geography of Pennsylvania." By Charles B. Trego. 
 Philadelphia: 1843. P. 151- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 185 
 
 But the spirit of progress was abroad, and the 
 vaunted turnpike soon failed to answer the demands 
 of the times. In 1824 an act was passed authorizing 
 the appointment by the governor of three commis- 
 sioners to explore a route for a canal from Harrisburg 
 to Pittsburgh, by the waters of the Juniata and Cone- 
 maugh Rivers. In the next year an act was passed for 
 the appointment of a board of canal commissioners, 
 and ordering surveys for canals to be made in different 
 parts of the State ; among them, " one from Philadel- 
 phia through Chester and Lancaster Counties, and 
 thence by the west branch of the Susquehanna and the 
 waters thereof to the Allegheny and Pittsburgh; also 
 from the Allegheny to Lake Erie ; and one other from 
 Philadelphia by the Juniata to Pittsburgh, and from 
 thence to Lake Erie." 
 
 By the act of February 25, 1826, the canal com- 
 missioners were directed to locate and put under con- 
 tract a canal on the east side of the Susquehanna River, 
 from the mouth of the Swatara to a point opposite the 
 mouth of the Juniata, and one from Pittsburgh to the 
 mouth of the Kiskiminetas ; thus commencing two sec- 
 tions of the main line of communication from Philadel- 
 phia to Pittsburgh. By subsequent acts of the Legis- 
 lature the main line of public improvements was 
 extended by a canal up the Juniata to Lewistown, and 
 up the Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh to Blairsville. 
 Surveys were also ordered to be made of the route 
 across the Allegheny Mountains from Frankstown on 
 the Juniata to Johnstown on the Conemaugh, with a 
 view of determining whether the portage should be 
 
1 86 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 by " a smooth and permanent road of easy graduation, 
 or by a railway with locomotive and stationary engines 
 or otherwise." It was decided to build a railway; and 
 the result was the famous Portage Railroad. It was 
 opened for use in March, 1834. By the construction 
 of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad and further 
 extensions of the canal there was finally provided a 
 continuous line of canal and railway communication 
 between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Other canals 
 were made at the same time in other parts of the State, 
 but they do not come into our present purpose. The 
 first canal-boat to enter Pittsburgh was the packet from 
 Blairsville, which arrived August 9, 1829.* 
 
 The western division of the canal crossed the Alle- 
 gheny by an aqueduct at the mouth of the Kiskimine- 
 tas, and followed down the western side of the river 
 to Allegheny-town. Here one branch followed along 
 the line of Lacock Street to the river near Balkam 
 Street. Another branch crossed the Allegheny by an 
 aqueduct to the Pittsburgh side. At the intersection 
 of Penn Avenue and Eleventh Street was what was 
 called the Basin. From this point were short lateral 
 branches leading off to the warehouse slips ; while the 
 canal itself passed up Eleventh Street across Liberty to 
 the line of Seventh Avenue, where it entered a tunnel a 
 short distance below the present entrance to the tunnel 
 of the Panhandle Railroad, and passed under Grant's 
 Hill, coming out on the Monongahela River near Try 
 Street, f After the construction of the line between 
 
 * Pittsburgh Gazette, August 11, 1829. 
 
 t See Thurston's "Allegheny County's Hundred Years," p. 244. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 187 
 
 Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, says Trego, merchan- 
 dise and produce could be transported from one of 
 these cities to the other in six or seven days, at an 
 average cost of one cent per pound, while travellers 
 could perform the trip in from two to four days at 
 less than one-half the expense of the stage. 
 
 The first railroad from Pittsburgh was the Fort 
 Wayne and Chicago, which was completed as far as 
 Beaver in the year 1851. In 1852 the Pennsylvania 
 Central was opened for travel from Pittsburgh to Phil- 
 adelphia. Other railroads speedily followed. The 
 canal had been of vast advantage in its day. It 
 had not only furnished more rapid transportation 
 and cheaper rates, but it gave employment to large 
 numbers of men and opportunities for investment to 
 small capitalists. Any man with three or four hundred 
 dollars could fit out a boat, hire a crew, and embark 
 in the business of transportation. But the canal soon 
 outlived its usefulness. Not only did the railroads 
 come into competition with it, but from the first it 
 had been saddled by incompetent, dishonest, and cor- 
 rupt officials. Being a State institution, the positions 
 were filled by mere placemen, and instead of being a 
 source of revenue to the State, as it would have been 
 under proper management, its drafts upon the public 
 treasury were constant and heavy. It soon came to be 
 known as "the old State robber." As early as 1843, 
 Trego wrote of it : " If the system of public works 
 undertaken had been less extensive in the beginning, 
 and had been confined at first to the main line between 
 Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with the addition of the 
 
i88 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Delaware division, and these had been constructed 
 with a strict regard to the pubHc interest alone, and 
 managed afterwards with prudence and economy, the 
 favorable anticipations of the people would doubtless 
 have been realized. But in order to obtain votes in 
 the Legislature for the commencement of the main 
 lines it was deemed expedient to push the improve- 
 ments into every practicable part of the State, that as 
 many as possible should partake of the expected bene- 
 fit. The consequence has been the lavish expenditure 
 of millions on lines as yet unproductive; while a sys- 
 tem of management directed by party politics, and the 
 employment of countless swarms of public agents as 
 a reward for political services, without due regard to 
 their character or qualifications, have not only absorbed 
 the, whole revenue derived from the finished lines, but 
 have brought the State annually in debt for their main- 
 tenance."* 
 
 The construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad be- 
 tween Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, pursuing through 
 a large part of its way a parallel course with the canal, 
 did away with the need of the latter. This, together 
 with the mismanagement and maladministration of the 
 public works, whereby they had become an incubus 
 upon the State, resulted finally in the sale of the main 
 line by authority of the Legislature in 1857 to the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad for the sum of seven and one- 
 half million dollars. Some parts of the line were kept 
 in running order for a short time; but in a few years 
 
 * Trego's " Geography of Pennsylvania," p. 149. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 189 
 
 all that part of it west of Hollidaysburg was entirely 
 abandoned as a thoroughfare. The West Penn Rail- 
 road from Pittsburgh to Blairsville lies in great part 
 of its way along the line of the old canal. 
 
 In January, 1804, an " Office of Discount and De- 
 posit" was opened in Pittsburgh, — ^the first regularly 
 organized banking institution in the place. It was a 
 branch of the "Bank of Pennsylvania," which had 
 been chartered by the State in 1793. Of the Pitts- 
 burgh branch bank John Wilkins was president and 
 Thomas L. Wilson cashier. "The Bank of Pitts- 
 burgh," properly the first Pittsburgh bank, had been 
 organized in 1810 as the " Pittsburgh Manufacturing 
 Company;" but in 1814 was chartered under the name 
 it still bears, and was organized for business in No- 
 vember of that year. William Wilkins was elected 
 president and Alexander Johnstone, Jr., cashier of the 
 bank. 
 
 By act of the Legislature, March 18, 1816, Pitts- 
 burgh was incorporated as a city. The population of 
 the town in the year 1800 was 1565; in 1810 it was 
 4768; and in 1820 it was 7248. In 1790 there was in 
 Allegheny County a population of 10,309, of whom 
 159 were slaves. In the year 1800 there were but 79 
 slaves.* In the decade from 1810 to 1820 there was a 
 gain of 2480 souls, or an average yearly gain of 248; 
 so that we may believe the population in 1816 to have 
 been 6256. The first mayor chosen was Ebenezer 
 Denny. He served in that office from July 9, 1816, to 
 July 20, 1 81 7. Mr. Denny was born in Carlisle in the 
 
 * See table in Pittsburgh Commercial, January 17, 1867. 
 
I90 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 year 1761, and came to Pittsburgh as a despatch boy 
 in 1774, when only thirteen years old. He served in 
 the Revolution; and in the return of officers of the 
 First Pennsylvania Regiment, September 23, 1783, he 
 appears as a lieutenant. He was also adjutant to Gen- 
 eral Harmer in 1790, and an aide to General St. Clair 
 in 1 79 1. Mayor Denny was for many years one of the 
 leading men of Pittsburgh. 
 
 Meantime, the manufacturing enterprises of the 
 town kept pace with the increase in other respects. 
 Its fame as a manufacturing town was already wide- 
 spread. In the year 1817 a return of manufacturing 
 establishments was taken by order of the City Coun- 
 cils, when it was ascertained that there were 248 fac- 
 tories of various kinds, employing 1280 hands, and 
 III other industries, entitled trades, employing 357 
 men. Many of the so-called factories could have 
 been little more than workshops, as altogether they 
 averaged only about five hands to each establishment. 
 In the same year, 181 7, Mr. Morris Birkbeck, an Eng- 
 lish tourist, visited Pittsburgh. " Here I expected," 
 he says, "to have been enveloped in clouds of smoke, 
 issuing from a thousand furnaces, and stunned with 
 the din of a thousand hammers. I confess I was much 
 disappointed by Pittsburgh. A century and a half 
 ago, perhaps, Birmingham might have admitted a com- 
 parison with Pittsburgh." Nevertheless, Mr. Birk- 
 beck found the city, as he says, " a very interesting and 
 important place." Journeymen in the various mechan- 
 ical arts earned two dollars per day. But he says that 
 many of them are wasteful and improvident, spending 
 
UL.U i-llTiJBURGH DAYS 
 
 191 
 
 their money not so much in vicious and dissolute prac- 
 tices as in excursions and entertainments. " Ten dol- 
 lars spent at a ball," he remarks, " is no rare result of 
 the gallantry of a Pittsburgh journeyman." 
 
 A very different impression did another visitor a 
 few years later get from his first view of Pittsburgh. 
 "Pittsburgh was hidden from our view," he says, 
 "until we descended through the hills within half a 
 mile of the Allegheny River. Dark, dense smoke was 
 rising from many parts, and a hovering cloud of this 
 vapor, obscuring the prospect, rendered it singularly 
 gloomy. Indeed, it reminded me of the smoking logs 
 of a new field."* There is something very remark- 
 able in these early notices of the Pittsburgh atmos- 
 phere. Major Forman, as early as 1789, as we have 
 seen, speaks of the coal smoke, and says that it was 
 such " as to affect the skin of the inhabitants." Pitts- 
 burgh being, as he says, a great manufacturing place, 
 he attributed the smoke, as men have ever since done, 
 to the coal used as a fuel in the town ; whereas we have 
 seen what the town was, and what the manufacturing 
 interests were in his day, and not one of them contrib- 
 uted more to the dinginess of the atmosphere than an 
 ordinary blacksmith-shop. For domestic use no doubt 
 wood, which was cheap and abundant, was generally 
 used. ZadcJk Cramer in the Navigator, 1808, says of 
 Pittsburgh that on "entering the town the stranger 
 
 * " Diary of a Journey," p. 50. [Ramsay's ?] The title-page 
 of the only available copy of this book is wanting, so that neither 
 the author's name nor the date of the publication can be certainly 
 known. 
 
192 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 is rather offended with its dark and heavy appearance. 
 This arises from the smoke of the coal, which is used 
 as a common fuel, and of which about one hundred 
 and seventy thousand bushels are consumed annually. 
 It costs six cents a bushel at your door, and is said to 
 be equal to any in the world." At this time the popu- 
 lation of Pittsburgh was about four thousand, and the 
 chief manufacturing enterprises of the town were an 
 air-furnace and four nail-factories. How the con- 
 sumption of about four hundred and sixty-five bushels 
 of coal in a day could have greatly afifected the atmos- 
 phere over a wide region of country is not very ap- 
 parent. Without following the matter down into 
 more recent times, we may add this from James Stu- 
 art, a Scotch traveller, who visited our town in the 
 year 1832: "Pittsburgh is well known as the great 
 manufacturing city of Western America, and would 
 be a very delightful place of residence but for the 
 clouds of coal smoke which cover it and give a gloomy 
 cast to the beautiful hills which surround it and to 
 all the neighboring country."* 
 
 But the smoke, according to the author of the 
 "Diary of a Journey," who was evidently a very 
 minute and careful observer, was not an unmixed evil. 
 " Our common fruit-trees do well in Pittsburgh," he 
 says. " The peach, the plum, the apple, and the cherry 
 abound on the branches, though the frosts have been 
 
 *" Three Years in North America." By James Stuart, Esq., 
 vol. ii. p. 475. This Mr. Stuart was the slayer of Sir Alexander 
 Boswell, eldest son of Johnson's biographer, in a duel at Auch- 
 tertool, in Scotland, March 26, 1822. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 193 
 
 severe. Much of this exemption ought to be ascribed 
 to the smoke, which constantly, day and night, loads 
 the atmosphere over this place. But this benefit is 
 not without its counterpoise. Often descending in 
 whirls through the streets, it tarnishes every object 
 to which it has access. The gloomy appearance thus 
 imparted to the houses, especially to those of wood, 
 whether painted or not, is such as instantly to fix the 
 attention of a stranger." The writer was a Quaker 
 gentleman from Cayuga County, New York, whose 
 experience hitherto had been confined to the smoking 
 logs of a clearing. He was much interested in the 
 industrial establishments of the place. "The slitting 
 and rolling mill," he says, "together with the nail- 
 factory of Stackpole & Whiting, is moved by a steam- 
 engine of seventy horse-power.* These we visited with 
 much satisfaction. On entering the southwest door, 
 the eye catches the majestic beam, and at the same in- 
 stant nine nailing-machines, all in rapid motion, burst 
 on the view. Bewildered by the varying velocity of 
 so many new objects, we stood astonished at this sub- 
 lime effort of human ingenuity. 
 
 "The plate, to be cut into nails, is fixed in an iron 
 cramp with a short wooden handle. The workman is 
 seated, and with a motion of the arm, like a smith who 
 turns his iron under the hammer, he alternately in- 
 verts the plate to keep the end square. The breadth 
 of the nail is accurately gauged, as in other nailing 
 
 * This mention of Stackpole & Whiting's nail-factory would 
 fix the date of the " Diary of a Journey*' as 1818 or i8ig. Stack- 
 pole & Whiting failed in 1819. 
 
 13 
 
194 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 machines; but at the instant of its separation, and 
 before it can move, it is clamped to the spot by a 
 strong iron jaw, which leaves the broader end to pro- 
 ject, while an iron mallet at one blow completes the 
 head. 
 
 " While J. R. held his watch I made several attempts 
 to count the number of strokes in a minute, but the 
 motion was too quick. The nails would ascertain it, 
 but we never saw the workman keep pace with the 
 machine for a minute. Knowing, however, that be- 
 tween three and four may be counted in a second, I 
 compute the strokes at two hundred and forty. The 
 smaller nails are cut cold, but the plates for brads are 
 heated. The quantity made is about one and a half 
 tons per day, and twenty cents a pound is the common 
 retail price. 
 
 " Two cotton-factories, one woollen- factory, one 
 paper-mill, two saw-mills, and one flour-mill are all 
 moved by steam in this city and in its suburbs across 
 the Monongahela. Four glass-factories, two for flint 
 and two for green, are very extensive; and the pro- 
 ductions of the former for elegance of workmanship 
 are scarcely surpassed by European manufacture. It 
 is sent in many directions from this place; one of the 
 proprietors assured me that Philadelphia receives a 
 part, but the great outlet is down the Ohio. 
 
 " The vast advantages that accrue to this place from 
 its coal will be appreciated when we consider that 
 almost every manufacture owes its existence to this 
 article of fuel. The glass-houses, the furnaces for 
 castings, the steam-engines, and every domestic fire- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 195 
 
 place are supplied from the mines. These are situated 
 near the tops of the hills, in every direction from the 
 city; and the vast mass of earth that once buried this 
 plain appears to have been removed by the waters. 
 A correct idea will be had by supposing (and even 
 believing) that the stratum of coal once extended 
 across from hill to hill several hundred feet above 
 where the city now stands. 
 
 " The shafts of these mines extend far into the hills. 
 The pick-axe and the shovel are the instruments used; 
 and on wheel-barrows the coal is removed to the en- 
 trance, where it is placed on scaffolding, from which 
 wagons are conveniently loaded. The citizens are sup- 
 plied in their yards for seven or eight cents a bushel." 
 
 In April, 1845, a great disaster befell Pittsburgh. 
 At noon of the loth day of that month a fire started 
 at the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Ferry 
 Street, which extended with the utmost rapidity until 
 it had swept bare a space of fifty-six acres, destroying 
 nine hundred and eighty-two buildings and involving 
 a loss of nearly three and a half millions of dollars.* 
 The fire extended along the Monongahela side of the 
 town from its place of beginning to the point where 
 the Tenth Street bridge across that river now stands, 
 while inwardly it was bounded by Fourth Avenue to 
 Wood Street, and from Wood by Diamond Street to 
 Ross Street. The destruction was complete over the 
 
 * The statistics of the fire have been variously estimated, the 
 money loss running from three to ten millions of dollars. The 
 figures we give above are from Harper's " Book of Facts," 1895, 
 p. 638. 
 
196 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 burned district. Household goods and merchandise 
 that had been carried out on the wharf caught fire and 
 were consumed. The wooden bridge at Smithfield 
 was burned. Thousands of people were left homeless, 
 and many of them were compelled to sleep in the open 
 air. What the fire had spared was in many cases car- 
 ried off by thieves. The distress was great. The 
 Legislature immediately passed a bill appropriating 
 fifty thousand dollars and exempting the sufferers from 
 the payment of taxes for four years. Private contri- 
 butions, some from foreign countries, were also sent 
 to their relief, and besides large quantities of groceries 
 and clothing, nearly eight hundred thousand dollars in 
 money was distributed to the applicants for aid. But 
 two lives were lost in the fire. 
 
 With the aid extended to them the people were en- 
 abled to rebuild their homes, and the city soon recov- 
 ered itself. In the course of three months no fewer 
 than two hundred buildings had been erected. Most 
 of them were of a better character than those which 
 had previously occupied the ground. 
 
 The patriotism of the people of Pittsburgh has al- 
 ways been conspicuous. In the Mexican War the 
 quota of troops for Allegheny County was but three 
 companies, and this was speedily filled by the Du- 
 quesne Grays, Captain John Herron; the Pittsburgh 
 Blues, Captain Alexander Hays ; and the Irish Greens, 
 Captain Robert Porter. These companies left Pitts- 
 burgh on the 25th of December, 1846, reached New 
 Orleans, January i, 1847, ^"d landed near Vera Cruz 
 on the 9th of the following March. They took part 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 197 
 
 in all the active operations of Scott's army in his march 
 to the City of Mexico. 
 
 But while Pittsburgh was thus developing as we 
 have seen, the settlements on the farther banks of the 
 river had grown into prosperous towns. Allegheny, 
 now the third city in the State, was incorporated as a 
 borough in April, 1828, and a city in April, 1840. 
 General William Robinson was elected first mayor of 
 Allegheny. 
 
 On the eastern bank of the Monongahela had grown 
 up a number of thriving manufacturing villages, Bir- 
 mingham, Temperanceville, etc. These villages, by 
 act of Assembly, March 29, 1872, were consolidated 
 with Pittsburgh, and added a population of thirty-five 
 thousand to the city. Other suburbs to the eastward 
 have also been taken within the city limits, so that at 
 the end of the nineteenth century Pittsburgh ranks as 
 the second city in the State, and one of the chief cities 
 of the Union. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THREE DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 
 
 Monday, the 29th of May, 1825, was a gala-day in 
 Pittsburgh, for on that day Lafayette, the idol of the 
 people, arrived in the city in the course of his tour of 
 the United States. He had been invited by President 
 Monroe, at the request of Congress, to be the nation's 
 guest. Forty years had passed since he had been in 
 America, and he was now a venerable man of three- 
 score-and-ten. He spent a year in this country, and 
 visited every one of the twenty-four States of the 
 Union. He was everywhere greeted with enthusiasm 
 and affection, and Congress granted him two hundred 
 thousand dollars and twenty-four thousand acres of 
 land. 
 
 After visiting Uniontown and the residence of Al- 
 bert Gallatin, Lafayette, on the 28th of May, proceeded 
 to Elizabeth, where he, with his party, embarked in a 
 four-oared boat and were rowed down the Mononga- 
 hela to Braddock's Field, which they reached about 
 sunset. Some time was spent in viewing the famous 
 battle-field and discussing the memorable action that 
 had transpired there just seventy years before. Even 
 at that late day the plough could not trace a furrow 
 "without turning up bones whitened by time and 
 fragments of arms corroded by rust." At Braddock's 
 Field he was entertained by George Wallace, Esq., at 
 his elegant mansion, who received him with the utmost 
 cordiality. A large deputation of citizens of Pitts- 
 198 
 
burgh here greeted the general, and next morning at 
 daylight Captain Murray's troop of light dragoons 
 arrived to serve as an escort to the city. 
 
 We have no minute details of that great occasion, 
 but enough is on record to enable us to get a, pretty 
 clear idea of the affair. The entire route from Brad- 
 dock's Field to Pittsburgh, we are informed, was 
 " covered with people," in the midst of whom the 
 cavalcade advanced slowly towards the city. On the 
 way the arsenal was visited, and a discharge of twenty- 
 four guns announced the arrival of Lafayette. Major 
 Churchill and the officers of the garrison entertained 
 the distinguished visitor at breakfast. Upon leaving 
 the arsenal he was conducted to " Bell's cloverfield," 
 where the local military companies, under command 
 of General Wilkins, were drawn up to receive him. 
 
 Just where this cloverfield, which seems to have 
 been a familiar spot to our fathers, was situated it is 
 impossible now to say, but it was likely near the line 
 of Penn Avenue, and perhaps not far from the arsenal. 
 Leaving the field of the military review, Lafayette re- 
 sumed his way, and was received into the city by 
 Mayor Darragh and the board of aldermen at the head 
 of the people. He entered the place in a barouche 
 drawn by four white horses, and was conducted to 
 Darlington's Hotel, on Wood Street. In front of the 
 hotel the school-children were drawn up in line, and 
 Lafayette saluted them as he passed. Immediately 
 following the general's barouche came three carriages 
 containing veterans of the Revolution. These were 
 Joseph Patterson, Alexander Gray, Galbreath Wilson, 
 
200 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Richard Sparrow, Thomas Vaughn, David Morse, 
 Thomas Rae, Elijah Clayton, and John Barnwell. It 
 is proper to record their names once more as the latest 
 survivors in this community of the immortal band who 
 laid the foundations of our great country. These old 
 soldiers dined with the general at Darlington's on 
 Monday and at Ramsay's on the following day. 
 Among them was an aged man, who, when presented 
 to Lafayette, asked the general if he had forgotten the 
 young soldier who first offered to carry him on a litter 
 when he was wounded at the battle of Brandywine. 
 Lafayette regarded him for a moment and then ex- 
 claimed: "No, I have not forgotten Wilson; and it 
 is a great happiness to be permitted to greet you this 
 day." Lafayette also recognized in the Rev. Joseph 
 Patterson another of his ancient comrades of the Revo- 
 lution. At the conclusion of his visit to Pittsburgh 
 Lafayette presented Mr. Wilson with a gold-headed 
 cane. 
 
 The chief historian of the occasion is M. Levasseur, 
 who was secretary to Lafayette during his American 
 tour; and his book,* which was published shortly 
 afterwards, ekes out the little information we have in 
 regard to Lafayette's visit to our city. His account 
 is rather brief. He remarks, with the air of one op- 
 pressed with ennui, that he had been obliged to de- 
 scribe so many triumphal entries into great and rich 
 cities in the course of that tour that he was compelled 
 to pass some of them by in silence. " It is for this rea- 
 
 * " Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825." By A. Levas- 
 seur. Philadelphia: 1829. 
 
^->i^i-f J. J. X J. o JL> kj ivvjxa j-'rx.io 20I 
 
 son," he says, " I omit the account of his reception at 
 the National Hotel at Pittsburgh ; although that city- 
 yielded to no other in the United States in the splendor 
 of her festivals and in the expression of her sentiments 
 of patriotic gratitude." This was saying a good deal 
 for Pittsburgh, which was at that time a town of only 
 ten or twelve thousand inhabitants on the little plain 
 at the foot of Grant's Hill. 
 
 "I will not, however," adds M. Levasseur, "quit 
 Pittsburgh without paying my tribute of admiration 
 to the eloquence of Mr. Shaler, who addressed the 
 general in the name of the citizens, and that of Mr. 
 Gazzam, charged with the presentation of the chil- 
 dren of the public schools. These two orators, so 
 remarkable for elevation of thought and elegance of 
 expression, obtained the approbation of their auditors 
 and excited in the heart of him whom they addressed 
 the most profound sentiments of gratitude." The 
 orators here mentioned were the Hon. Charles Shaler, 
 President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and 
 Mr. Edward D. Gazzam, afterwards a distinguished 
 physician of Pittsburgh and State senator of Allegheny 
 County. 
 
 The day following the reception Lafayette devoted 
 to an inspection of the town. " He was struck by the 
 excellence and perfection of the processes employed in 
 the various workshops which he examined," says M. 
 Levasseur ; " but that which interested him above all 
 was the manufacture of glass, some patterns of which 
 were presented to him, that for clearness and trans- 
 parency might have been admired even by the side of 
 
202 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 the glass of Baccarat." Two of these " patterns" were 
 cut-glass vases, presented by Bakewell, Page & Bake- 
 well. In the Carnegie Library, Allegheny, may be 
 seen a photographic fac-simile of a note of thanks from 
 Lafayette to Bakewell & Co. for this present. He 
 carried the vases with him on his return to France. 
 
 Such is the account of Lafayette's visit to Pitts- 
 burgh, as we can make it out from the very meagre 
 records at hand. It was a great event in the annals 
 of the town, and well deserves to be remembered. 
 
 The Pittsburgher who opened his Morning Chroni- 
 cle, Tuesday morning, March 29, 1842, read there the 
 simple announcement that at about half-past nine 
 o'clock of the evening before Charles Dickens and lady 
 had arrived in the city, on their way to St. Louis, and 
 had taken lodgings at the Exchange Hotel. " We 
 understood," says the editor, " that the managers have 
 given him an invitation to visit the Theatre to-night." 
 That was all the notice the arrival of the great novelist 
 received at the hands of the Morning Chronicle. It 
 reminds one of the welcome of the Micawbers at 
 Plymouth. " It is truly painful to contemplate man- 
 kind in such an aspect, Master Copperfield," said Mrs. 
 Micawber, " but our reception was decidedly cool." 
 Many others, however, were more demonstrative. 
 
 Dickens had come on one of D. Leech & Co.'s " Ex- 
 press" packets from Johnstown. On his return to 
 Europe, as all good Englishmen were bound to do, 
 he published a book* descriptive of his travels in 
 America. As he drew near to Pittsburgh, " furnace 
 
 ♦"American Notes for General Circulation." 
 
UJLD ir'iXTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 203 
 
 fires," he says, " and clanking hammers on the banks 
 of the canal warned us that we approached the termina- 
 tion of this part of our journey. After going through 
 a dreamy place, — a long aqueduct across another Alle- 
 gheny River, which was stronger than the bridge at 
 Harrisburg, being a vast, low, wooden chamber full 
 of water, — we emerged upon that ugly confusion of 
 backs of buildings and crazy galleries and stairs which 
 always abuts on water, whether it be river, sea, canal, 
 or ditch, and were at Pittsburgh." Here Dickens 
 parted from his fellow-passenger, the man " from the 
 brown forests of the Mississippi," and stepping upon 
 the wharf of the old Basin at the corner of Eleventh 
 and Penn, he was warmly greeted by a little man whom 
 he calls D. G., whom he had known in London ten 
 years before, and who was now a portrait-painter in 
 Pittsburgh. He was delighted to see Dickens, and the 
 latter seems to have been equally pleased to meet his 
 old friend in this remote place. We have not been able 
 to identify D. G. 
 
 The Exchange Hotel, where Dickens and his wife 
 lodged, was at the corner of Penn and St. Clair Streets, 
 now Penn Avenue and Sixth Street, likely on the site 
 of the present Anderson Hotel. He was received in 
 Pittsburgh with even more than the usual demonstra- 
 tions of good will. In his letters to his friends he 
 speaks particularly of liis enthusiastic (reception in 
 Pittsburgh. People flocked to see him, and for the 
 time being the Exchange Hotel was the Mecca to- 
 wards which all the better class of our citizens turned. 
 But for some reason Dickens seems to have taken a 
 
204 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 dislike to Pittsburgh. In his book he gives it only- 
 very scanty notice. " Pittsburgh is like Birmingham 
 in England," he says; "at least, its townspeople say 
 so. Setting aside the streets, the shops, the houses, 
 wagons, factories, public buildings, and population, 
 perhaps it may be. It certainly has a great quantity of 
 smoke hanging about it, and is famous for its iron- 
 works. It is very beautifully situated on the Allegheny 
 River, over which there are two bridges ; and the villas 
 of the wealthier citizens, teprinkled about the high 
 grounds in the neighborhood, are pretty enough. We 
 lodged at a most excellent hotel, and were admirably 
 served. As usual, it was full of boarders, was very 
 large, and had a broad colonnade to every story of the 
 house." That is all he has to say about it. 
 
 Dickens remained in Pittsburgh three days. On 
 the 1st day of April he went aboard the steamboat 
 " Messenger" and departed for Cincinnati. In no- 
 ticing the departure of Dickens from the city the local 
 journalist says : " He was not bespattered with that 
 fulsome praise with which he was bedaubed in the 
 East, and which, we have not the least doubt, was as 
 disagreeable to himself as it was sickening to all sensi- 
 ble men. . . . Many of our citizens called upon him, 
 and were delighted with the man whose writings had 
 contributed so greatly to their enjoyment."* 
 
 Though the editor of the Chronicle thus attempted 
 to minimize the occasion, the fact is that Dickens was 
 greatly lionized in Pittsburgh, — remarkably so. Yet 
 he made a rather ungracious return for the idolatry 
 
 * The Morning Chronicle, April 2, 1842. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 205 
 
 which was paid to him. Not only did he give scant 
 notice of the town in his book, but in his private cor- 
 respondence, some of which has been pubHshed by 
 Forster, he treats our people with small courtesy. 
 Among those who crowded his receptions he says were 
 some " very queer customers," — among them was one, 
 '* a gentleman with his inexpressibles imperfectly but- 
 toned and his waistband resting on his thighs, who 
 stood behind the half-opened door, and could by no 
 temptation or inducement be prevailed upon to come 
 out." Another of his visitors he describes as having 
 " one eye and one fixed gooseberry, who stood in a 
 corner, motionless, like an eight-day clock, and glared 
 upon me, as I courteously received the Pittsburgh- 
 ians."* It was hardly kind to write in such terms, 
 even in private correspondence, of people who did all 
 they could to make his stay among them pleasant; 
 but Dickens's disposition to banter and caricature was 
 irrepressible. 
 
 In the early part of December, 1851, Louis Kos- 
 suth arrived in the United States. He had been gov- 
 ernor of Hungary, and had headed an unsuccessful 
 revolt against Austria, and had been seized and con- 
 signed to prison. While in prison he had asked for a 
 copy of the English Bible and Shakespeare, and with 
 these books he sat down to master the language. And 
 he did acquire a mastery of it that has been equalled 
 by few among the millions who have found it their 
 native tongue. He was a romantic, eloquent man ; and 
 upon his release from prison he visited the principal 
 
 * Forster's " Life of Dickens," vol. i. p. 373- 
 
2o6 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 cities of England and the United States, and by his 
 wonderful eloquence and thrilling story he won the 
 hearts of men and enlisted the sympathies of untold 
 thousands in the cause of Hungary. 
 
 In view of his expected visit to Pittsburgh a public 
 meeting was called at two o'clock, Saturday afternoon, 
 December 27, to arrange for his reception. The meet- 
 ing was held in the Supreme Court room, which was 
 crowded with citizens of all parties and occupations, 
 and all shades of religious views. Hon. Moses Hamp- 
 ton presided. A long list of prominent citizens were 
 named as vice-presidents. D. N. White, Lecky Har- 
 per, H. Mustier, J. G. Backofen, and J. Heron Foster 
 were appointed secretaries. A committee on resolu- 
 tions was designated, consisting of W. W. Irwin, 
 J. H. Sewell, Colonel S. W. Black, James McAulay, 
 Morrison Foster, Wm. A. Irwin, W. W. Dallas, James 
 Schoonmaker, R. Biddle Roberts, John Morrison, S. 
 McClurkan, Samuel Fahnestock, and W. J. Rose. 
 Stirring addresses were made by Moses Hampton, 
 T. J. Fox Alden, Thomas M. Marshall, Dr. E. D. 
 Gazzam, Colonel Samuel W. Black, and Charles Nay- 
 lor. A long series of ringing resolutions were then 
 presented by Mr. Irwin, the chairman of the com- 
 mittee, and adopted by the meeting with great enthu- 
 siasm.* In fact, so great was the feeling and excite- 
 ment over the coming of Kossuth that almost every 
 other topic was ignored, and the editor of the Gazette, 
 December 31, felt constrained to apologize in a manner 
 for giving so much of his space to this subject; but 
 
 * The Piffsburgh Gazette, December 29, 1851. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 207 
 
 " if any of our readers are tired of the subject," he 
 says, " we pray them to recollect that not many great 
 men are born in a century, and that never before has 
 so sublime a spectacle been presented to the world of 
 an exiled, penniless, untitled man being received by 
 a great people with such distinguished honor and such 
 profound , respect, and that respect and that honor 
 so worthily bestowed." A numerous executive com- 
 mittee, headed by Hon. J. B. Guthrie, Hon. H. S. 
 Fleming, and Colonel S. W. Black, had been appointed 
 by the chairman of the citizens' meeting. Truly, Pitts- 
 burgh was in a frame of mind to give the great Hun- 
 garian a royal welcome. 
 
 But Kossuth's progress towards Pittsburgh was very 
 slow. The patience of the good people would hardly 
 keep. A meeting of clergymen was held in the Cum- 
 berland Presbyterian Church on Sixth Street, now 
 Sixth Avenue, on the 12th of January, and a com- 
 mittee appointed to prepare " a suitable address and 
 resolutions, expressive of the feelings of the clergy of 
 Allegheny County with regard to Kossuth."* At this 
 meeting the Rev. Dr. Homer J. Clark occupied the 
 chair and Rev. Mr. Paxton acted as secretary. An 
 elaborate programme was also prepared by the recep- 
 tion committee. The route laid out for the street 
 parade was " down Penn to Hay Street, along Hay to 
 Liberty, down Liberty to Short, along Short to Water, 
 up Water to Smithfield, up Smithfield to Fifth, down 
 Fifth to Wood, down Wood to the St. Charles Hotel." 
 William Larimer, Jr., was chief marshal. Everything 
 
 * Gazette, January 13, 1852. 
 
2o8 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 was in readiness, but Kossuth did not come. Tuesday, 
 January 20, the Gazette remarks : " The deep snow on 
 the mountains has prevented the arrival of Kossuth, 
 and all the arrangements will, of necessity, have to be 
 deferred." 
 
 For so it was. Kossuth was snow-bound on the 
 Alleghenies. On Saturday, the 17th, he had pro- 
 ceeded to the Mountain House, at what is now Cres- 
 son, where he remained over Sunday. The snow had 
 fallen to such a depth that all operations on the Por- 
 tage Railroad had ceased. At Hollidaysburg he had 
 been obliged to resort to the sleigh. In his party 
 were fifteen persons. The snow was deep. The 
 weather was intensely cold. The accommodations at 
 the Mountain House were not very good. Though 
 Kossuth himself was not charged with engaging in 
 the junketing, much good wine and many other deli- 
 cacies were consumed there by his party, and the land- 
 lord's charges for the day or two amounted to four 
 hundred and eighty dollars, which caused a good deal 
 of grumbling on the part of some who did not share 
 in it, as the State was called on to foot the bill. 
 
 All communication across the mountains was cut 
 off. To the people of Pittsburgh Kossuth was simply 
 lost somewhere between Hollidaysburg and the Smoky 
 City. In his suite were Francis and Theresa Pulszky, 
 husband and wife, and between them they afterwards 
 brought out a book* descriptive of Kossuth's tour in 
 America, from which we extract some notes of this 
 
 * " White, Red, Black. Sketches of American Society," etc. 
 By Francis and Theresa Pulsky. New York: 1853. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 209 
 
 part of his journey. " On our way over the moun- 
 tains," say they, " we suffered much from the intense 
 cold in the open sledges. We had to put hot bricks 
 under our feet and to cover ourselves with buffalo- 
 robes. The country through which we drove is inhab- 
 ited nearly exclusively by Irish. The small towns of 
 Blairsville, Ebensburg, Armagh, and Salem are filled 
 with them ; and on the slopes of the AUeghenies I saw 
 that land is constantly being taken up, the trees girdled, 
 felled, and the country cleared, though the soil is very 
 poor. I was astonished to see that people stop here 
 among the mountains who could find farther west a 
 rich soil, which better remunerates their toils. But I 
 was informed that the first settlements were founded 
 by Irishmen only, — that this happened to be the first 
 country they met where land was cheap on their way 
 westwards, and that the gregarious habits of the Celtic 
 race soon peopled the country. Americans rarely re- 
 main here ; they clear the wood, patch up a log house, 
 and sell it to those emigrants who do not like the hard 
 work of the pioneer. ... In every little town a yell- 
 ing Irish crowd, with pipers and drummers, greeted 
 us, and boisterously claimed a speech, protesting their 
 sympathy for Hungary." The present writer was a 
 lad living in Blairsville at the time, and he well re- 
 members shivering around the old " Marker House" in 
 that town one wintry afternoon awaiting the arrival 
 of Kossuth, and he had the gratification of seeing the 
 famous Magyar, — a little, swarthy, bewhiskered man 
 in a cloak and a soft hat ornamented with a black os- 
 trich plume. 
 
 14 
 
2IO OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Kossuth's party remained in Blairsville over the 
 night of the 21st of January, and the next morning set 
 off in sleighs that had been sent out from Pittsburgh. 
 " We are requested by the chief marshal, General 
 Larimer," says the Gazette, January 22, " to say, that 
 at the ringing of the bells all the fire companies, com- 
 mittees, associations, delegations, and citizens intend- 
 ing to take part in the procession will organize them- 
 selves, and repair to the ground designated in the 
 programme, so that the procession can be formed 
 within two hours after the first ringing of the bells." 
 Kossuth, however, did not arrive in Pittsburgh until 
 about half-past seven o'clock in the evening. The 
 drive from Blairsville was forty-two miles. However 
 jubilant and expectant the good people of Pittsburgh 
 were, Kossuth was ill and tired, and only longed to get 
 quietly to his bed. " We happily escaped the hubbub 
 of a great reception and procession which awaited us 
 not far from the city; for a gentleman of the Pitts- 
 burgh committee, in compassion to our fatigues, and 
 dreading the consequences to our health, gave out that 
 it was not Kossuth and his party who came along in 
 the sledges. Nevertheless, before we had reached the 
 city, it oozed out in which carriage Kossuth was ; and 
 the horsemen and firemen, engines with their tolling 
 bells, caught us in the very moment of our alighting 
 at the back door of the hotel."* To the people who 
 crowded about the St. Charles and filled the air with 
 their shouts Kossuth spoke a few words from the 
 balcony. He stated that he was ill and unable to ad- 
 
 * " White, Red, Black," vol. i. p. 268. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 211 
 
 dress them at that time, thanked them for their mani- 
 festations of kindness, and hoped that after a day's 
 rest he would be able to speak to them. When he 
 retired, Colonel Black addressed the crowd in a very' 
 happy manner, after which the multitude dispersed. 
 
 Kossuth stayed in Pittsburgh until Saturday morn- 
 ing, January 31, having spent over a week in the city. 
 It was a week long to be remembered. The people 
 thought well of Kossuth and he fully reciprocated the 
 feeling. " For the cause of Hungary," said the Pulsz- 
 kys, " they were enthusiastic, and especially the ladies 
 exerted themselves most nobly to give practical proof 
 of their S3rmpathy. Nor only under the excitement of 
 Kossuth's speeches, but they formed and kept up a 
 lasting association for the aid of Hungary. Even 
 they, however, were surpassed in generosity by the 
 workmen of the Pittsburgh Alkali- Works, who with- 
 out exception handed to Kossuth a whole week's 
 wages as their contribution for struggling liberty in 
 Europe." The alkali-works here mentioned belonged 
 to Bennet, Berry & Co., and were situated in East 
 Birmingham. 
 
 There was a great outpouring of eloquence during 
 Kossuth's stay in Pittsburgh, not only by the great 
 Hungarian but by our local speakers. Never has the 
 presence of any other man so thoroughly moved the 
 hearts of the people of this city. On the eve of his 
 departure the editor of the Gazette said: "No city 
 that Governor Kossuth has yet visited has given him 
 a more cordial, hearty, and enthusiastic reception than 
 Pittsburgh; and in no place, probably, has he made a 
 
212 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 more favorable impression. There has been no idle 
 pageantry, no expensive feasting, — ^nothing, in short, 
 but a plain republican hospitality, and a generous con- 
 tribution of substantial aid to his cause, contributed 
 cheerfully and gladly by all classes." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 STIRRING EVENTS 
 
 The fever of excitement which immediately pre- 
 ceded the open outbreak of the Great Rebellion was 
 greatly increased in Pittsburgh in the closing days of 
 the year i860 by an order from J. B. Floyd, Secretary 
 of War under President Buchanan, to Major Syming- 
 ton, commandant at the Allegheny Arsenal, to ship 
 immediately to points in the South a large number of 
 pieces of ordnance. Though the South had not yet 
 actually taken up arms, yet the people of Pittsburgh 
 believed they saw sinister designs in this order of 
 Floyd's, who was himself a Southern man, and they 
 determined that the cannon in question should not be 
 taken away. " It is not enough^" exclaimed one news- 
 paper, " that we are to be sold out to the secessionists, 
 — the Administration would bind us hand and foot, 
 deprive us of arms, and deliver us neck and heels to 
 the traitors who would destroy the Union! It has 
 already ordered one hundred and twenty-four heavy 
 guns from our Allegheny Arsenal to the Far South, — 
 not to defend the stars and stripes, for which our 
 skilful mechanics made them, but to batter it down 
 under the pirate flag of some Lone Star or Rattlesnake 
 government. . . . Will our people submit to this? 
 Our citizens, of all parties, as a unit, denounce the 
 movement as treason, and have telegraphed to Wash- 
 ington to have the order revoked. If it is not done, 
 we owe a duty to the nation, to the State of Pennsyl- 
 
 213 
 
214 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 vania, and to ourselves, to prevent — ^by force, if neces- 
 sary — ^the transfer of these munitions of war, under 
 color of law, to the enemies of the nation."* Mayor 
 Wilson was requested by a card signed by a large 
 number of most respected citizens to call a public meet- 
 ing for the purpose of expressing their opinions upon 
 the act of the War Department, and to take such action 
 as the exigency of the case might seem to require. 
 
 It was a critical moment. Whatever his own views 
 may have been in the matter, to Major Symington, as 
 a soldier, there was but one course open, and that 
 was to obey orders. The excitement soon rose to a 
 white-heat. As the hours passed the determination to 
 retain the cannon in Pittsburgh grew stronger. Edwin 
 M. Stanton, afterwards Secretary of War, was at that 
 time Buchanan's Attorney-General, and to him a com- 
 mittee of the citizens of Pittsburgh applied to have 
 the order rescinded. The meeting that had been called 
 by the mayor was large and tumultuous. Those who 
 had best right to be heard counselled calmness and de- 
 liberation; and as it would require eight or ten days 
 to place the guns on the boat for removal, there was 
 time in which matters might be arranged. This advice, 
 though wise, was not palatable to many. " We bow 
 with deference to the judgment of the majority," said 
 the newspaper already quoted, " and trust no one will 
 raise a hand against the execution of the orders of 
 the War Department, — although, we must confess, the 
 action looks to us somewhat as if the three militiamen 
 who captured Andre had allowed him to depart until 
 
 * Pittsburgh Daily Dispatch, December 25, i860. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 215 
 
 they could get a warrant for his arrest from a justice 
 of the peace."* 
 
 But while the meeting of citizens was in progress a 
 detachment of troops started from the arsenal with a 
 number of the guns to place them on a steamboat lying 
 at the wharf. The feeling mounted still higher, and 
 it was planned by some of the more hot-headed, if 
 nothing else would serve, that some cannon should be 
 posted on the Allegheny side of the river opposite 
 Brunot's Island and sink the boat as she attempted to 
 pass. The line of troops convoying the guns to the 
 Monongahela wharf was on Wood Street, between 
 Virgin Alley and Diamond Alley, when through the 
 earnest representations of a number of influential citi- 
 zens a halt was effected until an answer to the mes- 
 sages that had been sent to Washington could be re- 
 ceived. Happily, an answer came in time. It was in 
 effect to rescind the order of Floyd. The cannon were 
 not sent away. If the answer had been different, there 
 is no doubt that in the heated state of the public mind 
 blood would have been shed and the opening act in the 
 drama of the Civil War would have been anticipated 
 by the Union-loving citizens of Pittsburgh. 
 
 It is not our purpose to enter into any history of 
 the causes or the events that led up through the first 
 three months of the year 1 861 to the fall of Fort Sum- 
 ter ; but when the news of that event reached Pittsburgh 
 on Monday, April 15, it found a community already 
 wrought up to the highest pitch oi patriotic ardor. A 
 mass-meeting was at once held at the City Hall, where 
 
 * Daily Dispatch, December 28, i860. 
 
2i6 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 speeches were made and resolutions were enthusiasti- 
 cally adopted representing the present to be " a fit oc- 
 casion to renew our obligations of undying fealty to 
 that gcW^ernment and that Union which we have been 
 taught to regard and revere as the palladium of our 
 liberties at home and our honor abroad; and in their 
 defence and support, by whomsoever assailed, we will 
 endeavor to prove ourselves worthy sons of patriotic 
 sires."* A Committee of Public Safety consisting of 
 one hundred citizens was appointed, of which William 
 Wilkins was chairman. In practical illustration of the 
 resolutions which had just been adopted the work of 
 enlisting men in response to the President's call was 
 at once begun ; and on the 17th of April, only two days 
 later, the first company, the " Turner Rifles," Captain 
 Amlung, left for Harrisburg. Within eleven days fol- 
 lowing April 14 nearly two thousand men from Alle- 
 gheny County were on the tented field. 
 
 At a meeting of the Committee of Public Safety, 
 April 19, the formation of a corps of home guards 
 was also set on foot, to serve for home defence in case 
 of need, and to be the " nucleus for future recruits for 
 the public active service of the country." The Home 
 Guards, as an organization, were to be subject to no 
 authority except that of the Committee of Public 
 Safety. They were to be armed and equipped from a 
 fund contributed by the banks through the efforts of 
 John Harper, president of the Bank of Pittsburgh. At 
 a parade of the Home Guards on the 4th of July, 1861, 
 under the command of General Wilkins, three thou- 
 
 * Daily Dispatch, April 16, 1861. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 217 
 
 sand three hundred men were on review. This body 
 of men answered fully to the purpose of their organiza- 
 tion, and proved indeed the nucleus for future recruits, 
 as from their ranks volunteered hundreds of mfen for 
 service in the field. Over twenty thousand men of 
 Allegheny County served in the cause of their coun- 
 try in the Great Rebellion. 
 
 Nor was the cause of the Union confined to the 
 efforts of our soldiers in the field. In the summer of 
 1 86 1 was organized a Subsistence Committee, the ob- 
 ject of which was to provide for the immediate wants 
 of soldiers passing through the city. It was an entirely 
 voluntary association, both as to personal service and 
 contributions of funds. The service was mostly per- 
 formed by ladies ; and from first to last no fewer than 
 four hundred and seventy thousand soldiers were fed 
 by the people of Pittsburgh. Besides this, about 
 eighty thousand sick and wounded soldiers were cared 
 for at the Soldiers' Home. Among these recipients 
 of the bounty and tender care of Pittsburgh were many 
 Confederate prisoners. " If thine enemy hunger, feed 
 him; if he thirst, give him drink." 
 
 Many of the men whose patriotism led them to offer 
 their lives if need be on the altar of their country 
 were poor in worldly goods, and their families, in 
 their absence, were left without resources. This was 
 an additional appeal to the great heart of the loyal city, 
 and a Relief Committee was formed almost as soon 
 as the volunteering began. This committee was or- 
 ganized as a subsidiary branch of the Committee of 
 Public Safety, and only two months after the first 
 
2i8 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 company had departed for the scene of strife seven 
 hundred and fifty families were on the roll of those 
 needing assistance. Besides large donations of food 
 and clothing, over twenty-four thousand dollars was 
 voluntarily contributed by citizens to this end. By 
 the Legislature in the following winter a tax for this 
 purpose was authorized, and the work of distribution 
 of. aid was assumed by the county commissioners, and 
 over one hundred thousand dollars was paid out by 
 them. As another means of raising money for patri- 
 otic uses was the great Sanitary Fair. It was opened 
 June I, 1864, was patronized by tens of thousands, and 
 produced over three hundred and sixty-one thousand 
 five hundred dollars. This, it has been said, was equal 
 to three dollars and forty-seven cents for each man, 
 woman, and child in the two cities, — a record of prac- 
 tical benevolence and patriotism unequalled by any 
 community. 
 
 An episode of this period in the history of Pitts- 
 burgh was the threatened invasion by the Confederates 
 in June, 1863. General Lee, after his great success at 
 Chancellorsville in May, determined to carry the war 
 into the country of his enemy. Pittsburgh was re- 
 garded by the authorities at Washington as an impor- 
 tant strategical point, and when it became apparent 
 that Lee was about to direct his march into Pennsyl- 
 vania, great apprehensions were felt for the safety of 
 Pittsburgh. On the nth of June Major-General 
 Brooks arrived to take command of the Department of 
 the Monongahela. He at once called a meeting of 
 prominent citizens to consult upon the best measures 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 219 
 
 for the defence of the city. It was determined to close 
 the workshops and employ the men in throwing up 
 earthworks and fortifications around the city. Govern- 
 ment engineers were sent on to take charge of the 
 work. More than fifteen thousand men were at times 
 employed upon this labor. Many miles of earthworks 
 were constructed, some traces of which still remain. 
 Lee's forces had crossed the Pennsylvania border, and 
 the danger to Pittsburgh was imminent. We may say 
 that her safety depended wholly upon the result of 
 a single contest. On the 15th of June Governor Cur- 
 tin telegraphed from Harrisburg that the enemy was 
 advancing in three columns, — one towards Waynes- 
 boro' and Gettysburg, one direct to Chambersburg, 
 and one towards Mercersburg and Cove Mountain. 
 Fortunately for Pittsburgh, Cemetery Hill at Gettys- 
 burg was the rock upon which the advancing tide broke 
 and was dissipated. The loyalty of Allegheny County 
 was conspicuous throughout the war. Hundreds of 
 her gallant sons fell upon the field of battle or perished 
 in the prison-pens of the South, — among them Colonel 
 Samuel W. Black, General Alexander Hay, and Colo- 
 nel C. F. Jackson. " To narrate all of the many inci- 
 dents of personal sacrifice and individual labors of men 
 and women of Allegheny County during the war for 
 the preservation of the Union would in themselves fill 
 a volume of many pages. . . . Whatever differences 
 of opinion on the conduct of the war might have ex- 
 isted, when the echoes of the guns at Sumter startled 
 the Nation, long before the rebel troops had invaded 
 
220 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 the soil of Pennsylvania, the citizens of Allegheny 
 County were a unit."* 
 
 In July, 1877, occurred the most serious outbreak 
 against public order that had ever disturbed the peace 
 of Pittsburgh. A good deal of dissatisfaction on the 
 part of certain classes of employees on the Pennsyl- 
 vania Railroad had sprung up, owing mainly to a re- 
 duction of wages and some regulations in regard to 
 trains that had recently been ordered. Similar dis- 
 content existed on some other railroads at the same 
 time, and the feelings of the men were heightened by 
 certain injudicious and inflammatory articles in some 
 of the newspapers. A sentiment decidedly hostile to 
 the railroads seems to have spread over the country 
 generally. There was a sense of trouble and unrest 
 in the air. 
 
 At length on Thursday morning, July 19, a number 
 of freight conductors and brakemen refused to go out 
 with their trains. Other crews when summoned to 
 take the places of the recalcitrants refused to go out. 
 There was no regularly organized strike on hand, but 
 an understanding among the men concerned to hold 
 up the trains until some concession or compromise 
 could be made in the matters complained of. No vio- 
 lence or mischief was contemplated by the strikers. 
 The passenger trains were not interfered with. 
 
 As the news of the trouble at the Union Depot cir- 
 culated crowds of people congregated at that point, 
 mostly the idle and vicious elements of the two cities, 
 — curiosity on the part of some had led them, and the 
 
 * Thurston's " Allegheny County's Hundred Years," p. 81. 
 
Ui.U i"ii Ti>liUK.GH DAYS 221 
 
 hope of some gain and the love of excitement had 
 brought others. Repeated attempts were made from 
 time to time by the railroad officers to send out trains, 
 but the trains were boarded by the mob, the engine 
 reversed, and the trains detained.* The railroad offi- 
 cials appealed to Mayor McCarthy for assistance, and 
 the latter promptly set off in person with a detail of 
 fifteen policemen for the scene of disorder. He could 
 do little, however, as the vast assemblage only defied 
 and derided his authority. A feeling of bitterness 
 towards the railroad company was manifest even 
 among those who had no personal interest in the strug- 
 gle. The property of the company had been taken pos- 
 session of by the mob, and the business of the rail- 
 road was completely stopped. A man that had as- 
 saulted one of the railroad officers who had attempted 
 to turn a switch was arrested by the police, who, with 
 considerable trouble, had taken him to the Twelfth 
 Ward station-house. This angered the mob, and a 
 large crowd collected in front of the station-house with 
 loud threats of breaking into the place and rescuing 
 the prisoner. Nothing, however, came of these threats. 
 The original strikers, who were comparatively few in 
 number and pacific in their intentions, had been entirely 
 lost sight of in the disorderly multitude that now 
 swarmed about the railroad and terrorized the city. 
 As the mayor was not able to do anything, the officials 
 of the railroad appealed to Sheriff Fife, who, at mid- 
 night, with a large posse, proceeded to the company's 
 round-house at Twenty-eighth Street, where a great 
 
 * Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, July 20, 1877. 
 
222 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 crowd had collected, and ordered them to disperse. 
 But his authority was as little regarded as had been 
 that of the mayor, while many of his posse abandoned 
 him and joined the mob. 
 
 The sheriff thus finding himself powerless sought 
 the aid of the military, and by order of General Pear- 
 son the Eighteenth Regiment of the National Guards 
 of Pennsylvania marched to the scene of trouble in the 
 early morning of Friday. These troops were stationed 
 mainly in the yard at the Union Depot and on the slope 
 of the hill just above. The mob cared little for the 
 soldiers, who, they believed, would very unwillingly 
 fire into a mass of their friends and neighbors. At the 
 East Liberty stock-yards on Friday afternoon General 
 Pearson addressed a large body of the rioters, and 
 stated that freight trains would be sent through that 
 day; that he intended to accompany the first of these 
 trains, and that the military would not use blank car- 
 tridges, if compelled to use any. Sixty or seventy 
 members of the Eighteenth Regiment were present 
 under command of Colonel Guthrie; but the mob 
 showed no fear of them. The rioters replied to General 
 Pearson that they would be heard from too, and that 
 no blanks would be fired by them.* But no freight 
 trams went through on Friday. 
 
 It was doubtful wisdom to appeal to the military 
 arm at all at this stage of the affair, as the full 
 authority and power of the peace officers had not been 
 nearly exerted, and the presence of the soldiers only 
 added fuel to the flame. But a worse blunder was in 
 
 * Commercial Gazette, July 21, 1877. 
 
\jL^u JTxj. ior)UJ%.\an ui\x:3 223 
 
 telegraphing to the governor for additional aid. Gen- 
 eral Brinton was ordered to proceed immediately to 
 Pittsburgh with a division of Philadelphia troops. 
 The arrival of these men on Saturday afternoon com- 
 pletely exasperated the mob. The Philadelphians were 
 marched to the round-house at Twenty-eighth Street 
 and ordered to clear the property of the railroad com- 
 pany. This they attempted to do, perhaps more rudely 
 than was necessary, when the rioters resisted them and 
 stones were thrown at the soldiers. In the excitement 
 some one wholly unauthorized gave the order to fire, 
 and a volley was poured into the mob. It was about 
 five o'clock in the afternoon. A number of persons 
 were killed by this fire. Volleys were also discharged 
 among the spectators on the hill-side where the Four- 
 teenth and Nineteenth Regiments were stationed, and 
 several persons were killed and wounded. It was a 
 frightful disaster. Instead of overawing or dispersing 
 the mob, the latter, inflamed with rage, closed in upon 
 the troops and obliged them to seek shelter in the 
 round-house. The mob then determined to burn them 
 out, and for this purpose cars loaded with petroleum 
 and other combustible materials were run down the 
 tracks to the round-house. A cannon belonging to 
 Hutchinson's Battery had been left behind when the 
 troops retired, and this was now brought up by the 
 mob and directed against the building. General Brin- 
 ton appeared at one of the windows and appealed to 
 the mob to desist, otherwise he would open fire upon 
 them. They paid no regard to his threats. He then 
 ordered a party of his soldiers to fire upon the men 
 
224 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 who were using the cannon, and several of them were 
 killed and wounded. This put a slight check upon the 
 rioters, though they continued the siege of the round- 
 house. This was Saturday afternoon. The Philadel- 
 phia troops remained in the building until Sunday 
 morning, when they retreated to Claremont, beyond 
 the city limits, where they remained until ordered to 
 return to Philadelphia. Such was the course of events 
 at Twenty-eighth Street. 
 
 Through Saturday night and Sunday anarchy pre- 
 vailed in the city. Gun stores were broken into and 
 rifled of arms and ammunition. The banks were 
 threatened. Incendiarism was added to the terrors of 
 the hour. The round-house, the Union Depot, the 
 grain-elevator at the corner of Washington and 
 Liberty Streets, the Adams Express building, and the 
 Panhandle Depot were set on fire and burned. A 
 number of private dwellings were also consumed. The 
 firemen, who were hastening to extinguish the flames, 
 were met by the mob and compelled to go back. Hun- 
 dreds of cars were robbed of their contents and burned. 
 It seemed on that Sunday morning that Pandemonium 
 had broken loose. 
 
 At four o'clock, Sunday afternoon, at a meeting of 
 citizens the mayor was authorized to enroll five hun- 
 dred police; yet such was the state of demoralization 
 that prevailed that the ranks of the additional police 
 filled up but slowly. Governor Hartranft came to the 
 city and used the influence of his high position to quiet 
 the disturbance, and a little later a large body of troops 
 went into camp at East Liberty. On Monday morning 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 225 
 
 a Committee of Public Safety, of which William G. 
 Johnston was chairman, and a Vigilance Committee, 
 under General Negley and Major Swearingen, were 
 formed. Vigorous measures began to be used, and 
 gradually order again emerged from chaos. Twenty- 
 five persons had been killed and fifty-three wounded, 
 among them a number of the soldiers. 
 
 There remained the bill to pay. Besides other prop- 
 erty of the railroad company that had been burned, 
 thirteen hundred and eighty-three freight cars, one 
 hundred and four locomotives, and sixty-six passenger 
 cars had been destroyed. A vast quantity of goods 
 had been burned or stolen. Claims for damages to the 
 amount of two million seven hundred and seventy-two 
 thousand three hundred and forty-nine dollars and 
 fifty-three cents were paid by the tax-payers of Alle- 
 gheny County, of which sum the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road received one million six hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 " We realize for the first time in our history," says 
 a writer of that day, " what mob rule and mob law are, 
 and that when once we pass the line that divides the 
 law-breaker from the faithful citizen, how fearfully 
 rapid is the descent to scenes of the most brutalizing 
 and inhuman character. . . . How the scenes of the 
 last few days must burn into our minds the lesson 
 that all sympathy with lawlessness, however alluring 
 its sophistries, is the sure and certain road to destruc- 
 tion. A redress of grievances can never be reached 
 by weakening the bonds that hold society together."* 
 
 * Pittsburgh Daily Post, July 23, 1877. 
 IS 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS 
 
 The first public exercise of religion in Pittsburgh 
 we have reason to believe was conducted by the Rev. 
 Denys Baron, chaplain to the French garrison at Fort 
 Duquesne. He appears to have served there from 
 midsummer of the year 1753 until the early part of the 
 year 1757. He was a Recollect priest of the order of 
 St. Francis. 
 
 On the day following the occupation of Fort Du- 
 quesne by the English the Rev. Charles Beatty, as we 
 have already seen, preached upon the ruins of the 
 abandoned fort, — in all probability the first sermon 
 delivered by a Protestant minister west of the moun- 
 tains. It is quite possible that during the early days 
 of Fort Pitt some kind of religious services were had, 
 though we have no record of it. When the Rev. 
 Messrs. Beatty and Duffield came to Fort Pitt in 1766, 
 they found a chaplain there, the Rev. Mr. McLagan. 
 There was no church edifice on the spot. Much later 
 than this, in 1783, John Wilkins observed that there 
 was no appearance of morality, order, or any signs 
 of religion among the people of Pittsburgh, and the 
 next year Arthur Lee found no church or cIerg)TTian in 
 the place. But in the fifth number of the Gazette, \ 
 August 26, 1786, a writer remarks that a minister of 
 the Calvinist Church was then settled in the town, 
 and that a church edifice of squared logs was in course 
 
 of building. This was no doubt the German Evan- 
 226 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 227 
 
 gelical Protestant Church which stood at the corner 
 of Diamond and Wood Streets, of which the Rev. 
 Wilhelm Weber was the first pastor. This was the 
 earliest permanent church organization west of the 
 Alleghenies. In June, 1788, the Penns donated the 
 property at the corner of Smithfield Street and Sixth 
 Avenue to this congregation. The handsome edifice 
 now standing there represents this early church. 
 
 Good Mr. Beatty hoped that the visit of himself and 
 his companion, Mr. Duffield, had been productive of 
 beneficial effect upon the inhabitants of Pittsburgh, 
 for certainly they needed it. Yet long afterwards we 
 find the author of the " Diary of a Journey" remarking 
 upon the singular impiety that characterized a large 
 portion of the people of Pittsburgh. Especially was he 
 shocked by the common use of profane language. 
 " Crossing the Monongahela in the ferry-boat," he 
 says, " with an intelligent gentleman of polished man- 
 ners, I was shocked and surprised to hear almost every 
 sentence from his lips interlarded with an oath or an 
 imprecation; yet he was in gay good humor, and, I 
 believe, unconscious of this breach of decorum." 
 
 Occasional services continued to be held in the town 
 by Presb3rterian ministers; but in 1785 the Rev. Sam- 
 uel Barr, an Irishman by birth, became the first stated 
 minister of that denomination in Pittsburgh. He con- 
 tinued to serve this congregation until June, 1789, 
 when he requested of Presb3rtery a dissolution of his 
 pastoral relation, because, among other reasons, he was 
 expected to collect his salary himself from door to 
 door. During his incumbency he was often in hot 
 
228 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 water, and he appears frequently among the contro- 
 versialists in the columns of the old Gazette. Sep- 
 tember 24, 1787, the Penns deeded to this congrega- 
 tion two and a half lots of ground, on which a building 
 of squared logs and of moderate dimensions was 
 erected. In 1804 a more commodious structure was 
 built. Of this church, now the First Presbyterian, the 
 Rev. Francis Herron served as pastor from 181 1 to 
 i860. 
 
 On the same day that the Penns donated the property 
 above mentioned to the Presbyterian congregation at 
 Pittsburgh they also deeded to the Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church two and a half lots of ground. General 
 John Gibson, John Ormsby, Devereux Smith, and Dr. 
 Nathaniel Bedford were the trustees named in the 
 deed. The two and a half lots adjoined the property 
 that was granted to the Presbyterians. No church 
 building was erected by the Episcopalians for several 
 years afterwards, and then they built, not on the 
 ground donated by the Penns, but upon the triangular 
 lot bounded by Liberty and Sixth Avenues and Wood 
 Street. For this piece of ground the congregation paid 
 four hundred dollars. The corner-stone of the church 
 was laid July i, 1805. The property deeded to them 
 by the Penns had been used, however, as a burying- 
 ground. The church built on the triangular lot was a 
 small brick building of eight sides, and known as the 
 " Round Church." It stood until the year 1825, and 
 was the original Trinity Church of Pittsburgh. The 
 first church built by the Presbyterians and the old 
 Round Church were both erected in part by the pro- 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 229 
 
 ceeds of lotteries that were held for the purpose. Prior 
 to building the church Episcopal services had been 
 held in private dwellings, public halls, and the court- 
 room.* 
 
 The first rector of Trinity was the Rev. John Taylor, 
 who came to Pittsburgh in 1797. He was not either an 
 Episcopalian or a minister when he first arrived, — per- 
 haps a teacher, and he long continued that employment 
 in connection with his pastoral duties. He was a fine 
 scholar, especially in the line of astronomy and mathe- 
 matics, and for many years he made the calculations 
 for Cramer's and other Pittsburgh almanacs. He was 
 an earnest, simple, good man, and served old Trinity 
 for twenty years. He was killed by lightning at She- 
 nango in the year 1838. Of the rectors of Trinity 
 Church four have been elevated to the episcopate, — 
 John Henry Hopkins, George Upfold, Theodore B. 
 Lyman, and John Scarborough. The diocese of Pitts- 
 burgh was organized in 1866, and the Rev. John B. 
 Kerfoot, LL.D., was elected the first bishop. He died 
 in the year 1881. 
 
 The Methodist itinerant found his way to the village 
 of Pittsburgh at an early date, though no regular ser- 
 vice was established here until near the close of the 
 century. In 1788 the Pittsburgh district was formed, 
 and Rev. Charles Conway was appointed the preacher. 
 He rode the circuit, which embraced Westmoreland 
 and Allegheny Counties and parts of Fayette and 
 
 * Read " Old Round Church," by Oliver Ormsby Page, in the 
 Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, October, 
 1895. 
 
230 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 Washington, from 1788 to 1790, preaching occasion- 
 ally in Pittsburgh. A few years before this period 
 John Wilkins expressed the opinion that " Presbyte- 
 rian ministers were afraid to come to the town, lest 
 they should be mocked and misused." Nothing of that 
 kind had any terrors for the early Methodist preacher. 
 The more Satan lifted up himself the more the itiner- 
 ant raised himself up to smite him. To such sons of 
 thunder as Lorenzo Dow, Peter Cartwright, Valentine 
 Cook, and Asa Shinn the rage or the mockery of man 
 was as idle as the summer breeze. In the early years 
 of their ministry here the Methodists had no church 
 edifice, but held their services in the open air or in 
 private dwellings, and sometimes, we are informed, 
 " in a room of old Fort Pitt," — by which no doubt was 
 meant Bouquet's block-house, which is still standing. 
 To John Wrenshall, a merchant of Pittsburgh, who 
 was also a Wesleyan local preacher, is accorded the 
 distinction of organizing, in 1796, the first Methodist 
 society in the town. 
 
 The Pittsburgh Conference was formed in the year 
 1825, comprehending all the appointments in two large 
 districts, the Erie and the Ohio. " A renowned ec- 
 clesiastical body," says Stevens, " was this ' old Pitts- 
 burgh Conference' to become; thronged with notable 
 men, constituting the chief northern stronghold of 
 Methodism between the East and the West."* The 
 humble society founded by Wrenshall has developed 
 
 * " History of American Methodism." By Abel Stevens, 
 LL.D. P. 470. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 231 
 
 into a membership second only in numbers among the 
 Protestant denominations in this community. 
 
 The Roman Catholics, though first on the ground, 
 were fifth in order in making a permanent lodgement 
 here. Priests of that faith going to and fro ministered 
 to the small number of Catholics in Pittsburgh for 
 many years. Among these priests the most noted was 
 the Rev. J. B. Flaget, afterwards bishop of Bardstown, 
 Kentucky. He came to Pittsburgh in the early sum- 
 mer of the year 1792, on his way to the West. Here 
 he was detained by low water for nearly six months, 
 during which time, oddly enough, he boarded in the 
 family of a French Huguenot and read mass every 
 day to a handful of Catholics in this man's house, 
 " This circumstance would argue the small number of 
 the Catholics at that time and their poverty; for a 
 priest would hardly stop with Protestants if there was 
 any of his own faith in a condition to afford him ac- 
 commodations."* The first resident priest was the 
 Rev. W. F. X. O'Brien. He arrived in the fall of the 
 year 1802. In the same year the first Catholic church 
 in Pittsburgh was begun. The building stood on a lot 
 at the corner of Liberty Avenue and Washington 
 Street. The ground had been donated by Colonel 
 James O'Hara. The building was a plain brick struct- 
 ure, perhaps not more than thirty feet by fifty feet. 
 It was dedicated by the Right Rev. Michael Egan, on 
 his first visit as bishop, in August, 181 1 . It was known 
 as St. Patrick's Church. The corner-stone of St. 
 Paul's Cathedral, but not the present building, was laid 
 
 * " Historical Researches in Western Pennsylvania," July, 1884. 
 
232 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 on June 24, 1829, under the auspices of the Rev. 
 Charles B. Maguire, one of the most distinguished of 
 the Catholic clergymen of Pittsburgh. In 1843 the 
 See of Pittsburgh was erected, and the Rev. Michael 
 O'Connor was appointed bishop. The handful of 
 Catholics that Father Flaget found here has grown 
 into a membership of more than one hundred thousand 
 souls. 
 
 In the wake of these pioneer churches have followed 
 scores of congregations and many sects of all names 
 and of all varieties and shades of belief and practice. 
 
 We have seen the beginnings of educational activity 
 here in the modest announcement of Mrs. Pride and 
 the chartering of the Pittsburgh Academy. Other 
 teachers and schools soon entered the same field. The 
 Academy under its charter was promptly got under 
 way. Frequent meetings of the board of trustees were 
 called by the secretary. On the loth of September, 
 1787, the Legislature made a grant of five thousand 
 acres of public lands for the benefit of the Academy; 
 but by the neglect of the trustees nothing was ever 
 realized from it.* From the list of trustees one would 
 have augured better things. Their immediate suc- 
 cessors in office seem to have been no better ; for Ashe 
 remarks that in his time, 1806, the trustees employed 
 themselves so much in altercation whenever they met, 
 that they had not had time to come to any understand- 
 ing on the concerns of the school. The first term of 
 the Academy began April 13, 1789. The first princi- 
 
 * Superintendent George J. Luckey, in " Pennsylvania School 
 Report," 1877, p. 772. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 233 
 
 pal was George Welch. The curriculum embraced the 
 " Learned Languages, English, and the Mathematics."* 
 In March, 1798, the Legislature appropriated the sum 
 of five thousand dollars to the Academy, on condition 
 that ten pupils should annually receive free instruction. 
 
 At the beginning of the century the Academy was 
 taught by James Mountain, formerly principal of the 
 Canonsburg Academy, and the Rev. John Taylor, the 
 Episcopal minister. Mr. Mountain had charge of the 
 classical department and Mr. Taylor of the mathe- 
 matical. The former may have continued for some 
 time in the Academy; but Mr. Taylor, in 1806, was 
 engaged in a private school for young ladies. " His 
 course of study," says Ashe, " is very liberal, philo- 
 sophical, and extensive. Some of his scholars com- 
 pose with great elegance, and read and speak with 
 precision and grace." There were several other private 
 schools in the town at that time, where " a sound Eng- 
 lish education" might be acquired. 
 
 Ashe, however, could not make so good a report of 
 the Academy. " There is but one school of a public 
 nature," he says, " which is called an academy, and 
 supported by the voluntary munificence of the place. 
 . . . There is a master appointed who instructs about 
 twenty boys in a sort of transatlantic Greek and Latin, 
 something in the nature of what the French call patois, 
 but which serves the purpose of the pupils as well as 
 if their teacher were a disciple of Demosthenes or 
 Cicero." Mr. Ashe at the best was not very scrupu- 
 lous in regard to the truth, and in this case some per- 
 
 * Pittsburgh Gazette, April ii, 1789. 
 
234 
 
 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 sonal feeling may have entered; for Zadok Cramer 
 informs us that Ashe, or Arvil, as he called himself, 
 desired to get up a school in the town but failed. 
 
 Among the early principals of the Pittsburgh 
 Academy the most distinguished was the Rev. Joseph 
 Stockton. He became principal in the year 1809. 
 For the preceding nine years he had been principal of 
 the academy at Meadville, where also he had at the 
 same time been pastor of the Presbyterian Church. 
 Mr. Stockton became widely known and is best re- 
 membered because of the text-books, " The Western 
 Spelling Book" and " The Western Calculator," which 
 he brought out while connected with the Pittsburgh 
 Academy. They were very meritorious works and met 
 a large demand through the Western country. He 
 died of cholera in Baltimore in the year 1832. His 
 name is preserved in that of Stockton Avenue in Alle- 
 gheny. " His success as an educator," says Judge 
 Parke, " was well known. The author's recollection 
 and observation enable him to state that his happy 
 methods of inspiring his pupils with his own ami- 
 able manner was his highest recommendation as a 
 teacher."* 
 
 In the year 1819 the Pittsburgh Academy was 
 merged under a new charter with the Western Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania. The first faculty of the Uni- 
 versity was quite cosmopolitan in its religious make- 
 up : Dr. Robert Bruce, Principal, was of the Associate 
 Church, Rev. John Black, Professor of Ancient Lan- 
 
 * " Historical Gleanings of Allegheny." By Judge John E. 
 Parke. P. 262. 
 
OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 235 
 
 guages, of the Reformed, Rev. E. P. Swift, Professor 
 of Moral Science, of the Presbyterian, Rev. Joseph 
 McElroy, Professor of Rhetoric, of the Associate Re- 
 formed, and Rev. Charles B. Maguire, Professor of 
 Modern Languages, of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 The board of trustees formally organized under the 
 charter in 1822, and opened the first term in the old 
 Academy .building at the corner of Third Avenue and 
 Cherry Alley. At a later date a university building 
 was erected on Third Avenue. This building was de- 
 stroyed in the great fire of 1845. Another building 
 was then erected on Duquesne Way, but it was burned 
 in 1849. This second calamity almost disheartened 
 the friends of the University; but in 1854 a lot was 
 secured at the corner of Ross and Diamond Streets and 
 a building was erected which was used until the year 
 1882, when it was sold to the county for a temporary 
 court-house pending the building of the present court- 
 house, and the University was transferred to Obser- 
 vatory Hill in Allegheny, where it remains. 
 
 The primitive teachers and schools of Pittsburgh 
 were like those which prevailed generally at the time. 
 The teachers were frequntly widows and elderly spin- 
 sters, or men down at the heel, — often Irishmen of 
 questionable habits, strolling Yankees out of a job, or 
 young men preparing themselves for the higher pro- 
 fessions. Many of the teachers, however, were per- 
 sons of education and excellent character. 
 
 In 1834 a free school law was passed by the Legis- 
 lature, which placed the schools of Pennsylvania on a 
 better footing than the old " pauper school" law that 
 
236 OLD PITTSBURGH DAYS 
 
 had previously existed. Under this law school direc- 
 tors were elected as now, and applicants for schools 
 were required to be examined. But no examining offi- 
 cer was designated; and the examinations being held 
 at the instance of the school board by a preacher, a 
 lawyer, a doctor, a justice of the peace, or any other 
 learned man that happened to be at hand, and as he 
 received no pay for his services, was not a sworn offi- 
 cer, likely knew nothing about the proper qualifica- 
 tions of a teacher, and perhaps had little interest in the 
 school, the examinations were generally farcical in the 
 extreme. Under this system the schools were little 
 better than formerly. 
 
 The first public school opened in Pittsburgh under 
 the law of 1834 was in the North Ward, now the 
 Fourth Ward, in a building that stood at the lower 
 corner of Irwin Street, now Seventh Street, and Du- 
 quesne Way. The school opened with only five pupils. 
 The teacher was Mr. George F. Gilmore, afterwards 
 a well-known member of the Allegheny County bar. 
 The North Ward was followed within a very short 
 time by the South Ward, now the Second Ward. In 
 September, 1855, the Pittsburgh High School was 
 opened with one hundred and fourteen pupils and five 
 members of the faculty. The Rev. Jacob L. McKown 
 was elected the first principal of the High School. 
 
 No great improvement was made in the public 
 schools before the year 1854, when the county super- 
 intendency was established. The first superintendent 
 of Allegheny County was Mr. James M. Pryor. Origi- 
 nally the county superintendent had jurisdiction over 
 
ULU iTllbiJUKtiH DAYiS 237 
 
 the cities and towns within the county; but by an act 
 of the Legislature in 1867 cities and towns of not less 
 than ten thousand inhabitants were authorized to elect 
 superintendents for themselves. Under this law Mr. 
 George J. Luckey was elected in May, 1868, the first 
 city superintendent of Pittsburgh, in which office he 
 served continuously until June, 1899. 
 
 Thus have we endeavored to give an outline of the 
 educational system of Pittsburgh. It has been no part 
 of our purpose to speak of the various educational 
 establishments of the city, of which there are many, 
 and most of them excellent. A few words in conclu- 
 sion: For the year ending with June, 1899, the enroll- 
 ment of the High School was eighteen hundred and 
 fifty, and the faculty numbered sixty-three. In the 
 sixty-five years that have passed, the little company of 
 five pupils that gathered in the old North School has 
 increased to an army of over forty-five thousand ; and 
 instead of the solitary dilapidated building at the cor- 
 ner of Irwin Street and Duquesne Way, the public 
 school property of the city is estimated at nearly four 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 THE END