USA > Pennsylvania > Progressive Pennsylvania; a record of the remarkable industrial development of the Keystone state, with some account of its early and its later transportation systems, its early settlers, and its prominent men > Part 24
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General John Forbes, who drove the French out of Western Pennsylvania and who gave to Pittsburgh its name, was born in Scotland in 1710 and died on March 11, 1759, in Philadelphia, where he was buried in the churchyard of Christ church, less than four months after he had compelled the French to abandon Fort Du Quesne.
In 1763 the conspiracy of the Western Indians under the leadership of Pontiac was formed and a fierce border war ensued, during which Fort Pitt was for many weeks besieged by a large body of Indians and successfully de-
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fended by the garrison under command of Captain Ecuyer, a native of Switzerland. While the siege was in progress Colonel Bouquet, also a native of Switzerland, command- ing the British and provincial forces in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and whose headquarters were in Philadelphia, moved from Carlisle to the relief of Fort Pitt with about five hundred men in his command. In August the Indians temporarily abandoned the siege of Fort Pitt and attacked Colonel Bouquet's command at Bushy Run, in Westmoreland county, about twenty-five miles east of Pittsburgh, but after an engagement of two days were defeated, with severe loss on both sides. This defeat resulted in raising the siege of Fort Pitt. Suffi- cient importance has never been attached to the battle of Bushy Run. It was one of the most sanguinary and eventful engagements between the whites and the Indians that was ever fought.
In 1772 Fort Pitt was abandoned by the British and its garrison was withdrawn by General Thomas Gage, the commander of the British forces in America. The fort was subsequently occupied by Continental troops during the Revolution. For some years after the Revolution Fort Pitt was occupied by United States troops for protection against the Indians, but by 1791 it had been entirely abandoned and a large part was torn down in the fall of that year. Late in the same year orders were issued to Major Isaac Craig to build a new fortification at Pitts- burgh, and this structure, situated on the left bank of the Allegheny river, about a quarter of a mile above Fort Pitt, and which was called Fort Fayette, was finished and occupied by a garrison in 1792. This fort was used in that year in the initial operations of General Wayne's expedition against the Ohio Indians, and it continued to be occupied by a garrison for several years afterwards, forming one of the frontier forts that were maintained to overawe the Indians. Thomas Ashe, an English traveler, says that a garrison was maintained at Fort Fayette when he visited Pittsburgh in October, 1806. The Allegheny Arsenal, at Pittsburgh, was completed in 1814 and Fort Fayette was abandoned about that time.
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH.
Returning to Fort Pitt, it is stated in Craig's History of Pittsburgh, in a description of the fort as it existed about 1796 to 1800, that "the ramparts of Fort Pitt were still standing, and a portion of the officers' quarters, a substantial brick building, was used as a malt house." From 1803 to 1806 the Methodists of Pittsburgh were accustomed to hold religious services "in a room of old Fort Pitt," which is supposed to have formed a part of "the officers' quarters " mentioned by Craig. The city of Pittsburgh occupies in part the site of Fort Du Quesne, the French fortification, of Fort Pitt, its British successor, and of Fort Fayette, built by the United States.
As early as 1758 settlers began to gather about Fort Pitt, most of them Indian traders, and in 1760 there were 149 men, women, and children outside the fort. In 1764 lots and streets in the immediate vicinity of the fort, oc- cupying four squares, were laid out. Chapman says : "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 lo- cality at that period. Under what authority or instruc- tions he proceeded in laying out the town 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." In 1769 the Manor of Pittsburgh was surveyed and reserved by the Penns, the proprietaries of the province. In 1770 Washington visited Pittsburgh while on his way to the Kanawha valley, in the present State of West Virginia. In his journal Washington says : " We lodged in what is called the town, distant about three hundred yards from the fort, at one Semple's, who keeps a very good house of public entertainment. The houses, which are built of logs, and ranged in streets, are on the Monongahela, and I suppose may be about twenty in number and inhabited by Indian traders." In the siege of Fort Pitt, in 1763, the houses which had then been built outside the fort were all burned. Washington de- scribes Fort Pitt as follows: "The fort is built on the
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point near the rivers Allegheny and Monongahela, but not so near the pitch of it as Fort Du Quesne stood. The garrison consists of two companies of Royal Irish, com- manded by Capt. Edmondson." In 1783, after the treaty of peace, the proprietaries decided to sell the lands within the Manor of Pittsburgh, the first sale being made in Jan- uary, 1784. In that. year the town of Pittsburgh was surveyed into streets, alleys, and lots, and sales of lots were rapidly made. Writing in his journal under date of December 24, 1784, Arthur Lee, a Virginian, says : " Pitts- burgh 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 Scotland." In 1786 Pittsburgh is said to have contained thirty-six log houses, one stone house, one frame house, and five small stores. The town had grown but little since Washington's visit in 1770. Even after 1786 it had a very slow growth.
Down to 1779 Virginia attempted to exercise juris- diction over that portion of Southwestern Pennsylvania which is now embraced in Allegheny, Washington, West- moreland, Fayette, and adjoining counties, but in that year commissioners from Virginia and from Pennsylvania agreed to the boundaries between the two States which have since been observed, and in 1780 the agreement was formally ratified by the Legislature of each State. Under the Virginia claim the settlement at Fort Pitt was em- braced within the boundaries of Augusta county, Virginia, Staunton being then as now its county-seat. Under the Pennsylvania claim and down to 1788 Pittsburgh was included within the limits of Westmoreland county, its county-seat being at first Hannastown and afterwards Greensburg, but in that year Allegheny county was or- ganized and Pittsburgh became the county-seat.
On April 22, 1794, an act of the Pennsylvania Legis- lature was passed incorporating the town of Pittsburgh into a borough. In 1796 Pittsburgh had a population of 1,395 and in 1800 the population was only 1,565. In 1810 it had increased to 4,768. On March 18, 1816, the borough of Pittsburgh was erected into a city. In 1830 the population was 12,568, in 1840 it was 21,115, and in
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1850 it was 46,601. In 1845 occurred the great fire at Pittsburgh, which destroyed over one thousand dwellings, warehouses, stores, and other buildings, the loss amount- ing to about six million dollars.
In 1787 the town of Allegheny, opposite Pittsburgh, was " laid out by the order of the sovereign authority of Pennsylvania," with the intention of making it the coun- ty-seat of Allegheny county, but this intention was soon abandoned. Allegheny became a borough in 1828 and it was incorporated as a city in 1840. In 1907 it was consolidated with Pittsburgh and lost its municipal inde- pendence.
The proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania were fully aware as early as 1769 of the existence of coal at Pittsburgh. In 1784, the year in which Pittsburgh was surveyed into building lots, the privilege of mining coal in the "great seam" opposite the town was sold by the Penns at the rate of £30 for each mining lot, extending back to the centre of the hill. This event may be regard- ed as forming the beginning of the coal trade of Pitts- burgh. In a few years the supply of the towns on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers with Pittsburgh coal became an established business.
Down to 1845 all the coal that was shipped westward from Pittsburgh was floated down the Ohio in flat-bot- tomed boats with the spring and fall freshets, each hold- ing about 15,000 bushels of coal. The boats were usually lashed in pairs and were sold and broken up when their destination was reached. In 1845 steam tow-boats were introduced, which towed coal barges down the river and brought them back empty. About 1845 Pittsburgh coal began to be used in Philadelphia, transportation being by way of the Pennsylvania Canal in section-boats, which carried the coal from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia without breaking bulk.
In 1786 the Pittsburgh Gazette, the first newspaper published west of the Allegheny mountains, was estab- lished at Pittsburgh. The first glass works at Pittsburgh were established in 1797, in which year Craig & O'Hara began the manufacture of window glass on a small scale.
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The first steamboat on the western rivers was built at Pittsburgh in 1811 and named the New Orleans, but prior to this year many sailing vessels had been built at Pittsburgh for ocean service. The great iron and steel industries of Pittsburgh are described in sufficient de- tail in earlier chapters of this volume.
In a previous chapter allusion has been made to the decadence within comparatively recent years of the busi- ness of building steamboats at Pittsburgh. Other indus- tries which once added to the activity of Pittsburgh and helped to make it prosperous have also declined in im- portance. Chapman says of the glass industry of Pitts- burgh that it has rapidly declined since 1886. He says : "There is still some glass made in Pittsburgh, but it is no longer a characteristic industry of the city. The great centres of this industry have been removed from the city limits and are now at Ford City on the Allegheny river, at Jeannette in Westmoreland county, and at Glassport on the Monongahela river." He says that "ropemaking has ceased as an industry of Pittsburgh" and that "the business of manufacturing cotton goods continued down to a comparatively recent date, but now no enterprise of the kind is carried on in the Pittsburgh district." He adds that "the business was at one time one of the lead- ing industries of the Pittsburgh district." In 1848 there were six cotton mills in this district, all in Allegheny City, making sheeting, ticking, cotton yarn, and cordage. All these mills have been torn down for many years or con- verted to other uses. Pittsburgh was long foremost in the manufacture of cut nails, but now it makes none. Nev- ertheless, notwithstanding the decline or total disappear- ance of some of its once prominent industries, Pittsburgh as an industrial centre is without a rival in this or any other country. The basis of its industrial pre-eminence to-day is its marvelous steel industry.
Some account of the growth in population of Phila- delphia and Pittsburgh, the two largest cities in Pennsyl- vania, may properly close this chapter.
The census gives the population of Philadelphia in 1900 as amounting to 1,293,697, an increase of 23.56 per
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH.
cent. over 1890, and the population of Pittsburgh as 321,- 616, an increase of 34.78 per cent. over 1890. Pittsburgh newspapers say that numerous contiguous suburbs ought to be included in a Greater Pittsburgh, and that, if they were so included, the population of the city to-day would closely approximate three quarters of a million. On No- vember 18, 1907, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, unit- ing Allegheny City to Pittsburgh, was constitutional. By this decision the population of Pittsburgh at the close of 1907 was probably 550,000. Philadelphia long ago ab- sorbed virtually all its nearby suburbs-all that are in Philadelphia county. The consolidation took place in 1854.
In the following comprehensive table we have made a comparison of the growth in population of Philadelphia county and Allegheny county in the hundred and ten years from 1790 to 1900, the boundaries of Philadelphia county being coterminous with those of the city of Philadelphia, while Allegheny county embraces the city of Pittsburgh. The figures for the eleven decades are as follows :
Years.
Population of Philadelphia county.
Per cent. of increase.
Years.
Population of Allegheny county.
Per cent. of increase.
1790.
54,391
1790
10,309
1800
81,009
48.93
1800.
15,087
46.34
1810.
111,210
37.28
1810.
25,317
67.80
1820.
137,097
23.27
1820
34,921
37.93
1830
188,797
37.71
1830.
50,552
44.76
1840
258,037
36.67
1840
81,235
60.69
1850
408,762
58.41
1850.
138,290
70.23
1860
565,529
38.35
1860.
178,831
29.31
1870
674,022
19.18
1870.
262,204
46.62
1880
847,170
25.68
1880.
..
355,869
35.72
1890
1,046,964
23.58
1890 ....
551,959
55.10
1900
1,293,697
23.56
1900.
. .
775,058
40.41
. . .
. . .
. ..
. ..
In 1790 the population of Allegheny county was less than one-fifth that of Philadelphia county, but in 1890 it was more than one-half as large as that of Philadelphia county, being 52.72 per cent. as large, and in 1900 it was nearly 60 per cent. as large. In the eleven decennial periods the average decennial increase of the population of Philadelphia county was 33.87 per cent., while that of
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PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
Allegheny county was 48.62 per cent. Four times in 110 years Allegheny county increased its population more than 50 per cent. in ten years, but Philadelphia county did this only once. In the last four decades ending with 1900 the progress of Philadelphia county in population has been very slow judged by percentages, while the per- centage of increase in the population of Allegheny county has been very rapid, particularly in the decade from 1880 to 1890. The latter's progress in the decade ending with 1900 was, however, notably less than in the preceding decade, judging again by percentages. The absolute in- crease of population in Philadelphia county in the dec- ade ending with 1900 was 246,733, and that of Allegheny county in the same decade was 223,099.
Pittsburgh owes its early business prominence and prosperity to its location at the head of navigation on the Ohio river, and much of its present prominence is due to the large shipments of coal which annually pass down this river. About sixty years ago railroads began to supersede the Ohio for transportation purposes. At first railroad trains entered and departed from Pittsburgh without inconvenience, as all railroad traffic was light as compared with that of recent years. But with the increase in traffic and the increase of railroad lines and railroad tracks great inconvenience has been experienced in the prompt handling of railroad freight, so that, to avoid the congestion, many iron and steel and other manu- facturing enterprises which owe their existence to Pitts- burgh capital are located miles away from Pittsburgh.
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CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 267
CHAPTER XXVII.
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS.
WE present herewith a chronological record of lead- ing events in the development of the iron, steel, coal, and other industries of the United States, and particularly of Pennsylvania, from colonial times down to the present time ; also of the beginning of canal and railroad building in Pennsylvania and in the United States ; also of early iron and steel shipbuilding and of some notable iron and steel bridges built in the United States ; also of many other events and achievements that are more or less closely as- sociated with the industrial development of Pennsylvania.
1619-In this year the Virginia Company sent to Vir- ginia a number of persons who were skilled in the manu- facture of iron to "set up three iron works" in the colony. The works were located in that year on Falling creek.
1620-In this year, as stated by Beverley in his His- tory of Virginia, " an iron work at Falling creek in James river " was set up, "where they made proof of good iron oar." In this and the following year the enterprise lan- guished. On March 22, 1622, the works were destroyed by the Indians and all the workmen were massacred.
1627-Petroleum was first noticed this year in New York; in Pennsylvania in 1721.
1642-In this year "The Company of Undertakers for the Iron Works " in the province of Massachusetts Bay, consisting of eleven English gentlemen, was organized with a capital of £1,000.
1643-In his History of Lynn (1844) Alonzo Lewis says that in 1643 " Mr. John Winthrop, Jr., came from England with workmen and stock to the amount of one thousand pounds for commencing the work. A foundry was erected on the western bank of Saugus river," at Lynn. This foundry was a small blast furnace, completed in 1645. It was the first successful iron enterprise in the thirteen colonies. Bog ore was used. For a hundred years
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PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
after its settlement in 1620 Massachusetts was the chief seat of the iron industry on this continent.
1645-A small iron pot, holding about a quart, which is still preserved at Lynn, was cast at the Lynn foundry in 1645. It was the first iron article made in America. 1664-In this year we read of negro slaves in Dela- ware, which afterwards became a part of Pennsylvania.
1679-In the Statistics of Coal, by Richard Cowling Taylor, published in 1848, it is stated that the earliest historic mention of coal in this country is by the French Jesuit missionary, Father Hennepin, who saw traces of coal on the Illinois river in 1679. In his journal he marks the site of a "cole mine" above Fort Crevecoeur.
1681-Charter of Pennsylvania granted on March 4.
1682-In an account of the province of East Jersey, published by the proprietors in 1682, it is stated that " there is already a smelting furnace and forge set up in this colony, where is made good iron, which is of great benefit to the country." This enterprise was located at Tinton Falls, in Monmouth county, New Jersey. Other authorities definitely establish the fact that the Shrews- bury works, as they were called, were established before 1676. They were, the first iron works in New Jersey.
1683-The first sea-going vessel built in Pennsylvania was the Amity, built by William Penn at Philadelphia in this year for the Free Society of Traders. In the same year Penn wrote : "Some vessels have been built here and many boats."
1683-In this year the first glass factory in Pennsyl- vania was established at Philadelphia. In August, 1683, Penn wrote that "the saw mill for timber and the place of the glass-house are conveniently posted for water-car- riage." In March, 1684, Pastorius wrote that "a mill and glass factory are built" at "Franckfurt," now a part of Philadelphia. Both writers probably referred to the same glass factory.
1685-A ferry over the Schuylkill at Market street, Philadelphia, was in operation in this year.
1690-The first paper mill in the colonies was estab- lished before this year on a tributary of the Wissahickon,
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 269
near Germantown, by Willem Rittinghuysen, the great- grandfather of David Rittenhouse.
1692-In 1692 we find the first mention of iron hav- ing been made in Pennsylvania. It is contained in a met- rical composition entitled A Short Description of Pennsyl- vania, by Richard Frame, which was printed and sold by William Bradford, in Philadelphia, in 1692. Frame says that at " a certain place about some forty pound" of iron had then been made. This was an experimental enterprise.
1703-Abraham Lincoln's paternal ancestry was identi- fied with the manufacture of iron in Massachusetts. The head of the American branch of his father's family, Sam- uel Lincoln, emigrated in 1637 from Norwich, England, to Massachusetts. Mordecai Lincoln, son of Samuel, born at Hingham on June 14, 1657, followed the trade of a black- smith at Hull, from which place he removed to Scituate, where "he built a spacious house and was a large con- tributor toward the erection of the iron works at Bound Brook" in 1703. These works made wrought iron directly from the ore. Mordecai Lincoln had two sons who set- tled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, Mordecai, Jr., and Abraham. Mordecai, Jr., was the great-great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln.
1710-The first slitting mill in the colonies for slitting nail rods is said by tradition to have been erected at Mil- ton, in Norfolk county, Massachusetts, as early as 1710. Nails were made by blacksmiths and others from these nail rods, sometimes on small anvils in chimney corners.
1716-After the failure of the enterprise on Falling creek no successful effort was made to revive the iron in- dustry in Virginia until after the beginning of the succeed- ing century, when Governor Alexander Spotswood and his associates built a furnace in Spottsylvania county, about ten miles northwest of Fredericksburg, in 1715 or 1716. It was soon followed by other furnaces in Virginia.
1716-The first iron works in Maryland were probably erected in Cecil county, at the head of Chesapeake bay. A bloomary at North East, on North East river, erected a short time previous to 1716, probably formed the pioneer iron enterprise in this colony.
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PROGRESSIVE PENNSYLVANIA.
1716-Pool forge, on Manatawny creek, in Berks coun- ty, Pennsylvania, was built in 1716 by Thomas Rutter, and was the first iron enterprise in Pennsylvania of which any record has been preserved. Mrs. James, in her Me- morial of Thomas Potts, Junior, says that Rutter was an English Quaker and a resident of Philadelphia in 1685.
1717-The exportation of bar iron from the American colonies began in this year, when 2 tons were sent to England from the British West India islands of Nevis and St. Christopher, but which had evidently been taken there from one of the Atlantic coast colonies.
1719-In this year the first newspaper in Pennsylva- nia was established at Philadelphia by Andrew Bradford. It was entitled The American Weekly Mercury.
1722-In 1722 Joseph Farmer, an ironmaster, of Eng- land, and his associates, afterwards known as the Prin- cipio Company, commenced the erection of a furnace on Talbot's manor, in Cecil county, near the mouth of Prin- cipio creek, in Maryland, which was finished in 1724 and followed by a forge which was completed in 1725, both works being built and afterwards operated for the com- pany by John England. This company afterwards owned many furnaces in Maryland and Virginia.
1722-Sir William Keith established a forge for the manufacture of bar iron on Christiana creek, in Dela- ware. It was probably built between 1722 and 1726. It was soon followed by Abbington furnace, built about 1727.
1728-In this year James Logan wrote that "there are four furnaces in blast in the colony" of Pennsylvania. Colebrookdale and Durham were two of these furnaces.
1728-Scrivenor says that in 1728-29 there were im- ported into England from " Carolina" one ton and one cwt. of pig iron, and that in 1734 there were imported two qrs. and twelve lbs. of bar iron. These dates fix the erection of iron works in North Carolina as early as 1728. Hoes made in Virginia and "Carolina" were sold in New York long before the Revolution.
1728-Connecticut was probably the first of the colo- nies to make steel. In 1728 Samuel Higley, of Simsbury, and Joseph Dewey, of Hebron, in Hartford county, repre-
CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD OF IMPORTANT EVENTS. 271
sented to the Legislature that the first-named had, "with great pains and cost, found out and obtained a curious art, by which to convert, change, or transmute common iron into good steel, sufficient for any use, and was the first that ever performed such an operation in America."
1732-Augustine Washington, the father of George Washington, was engaged in 1732 in making pig iron at Accokeek furnace, in Stafford county, Virginia, about fif- teen miles from Fredericksburg, when his famous son was born. This furnace had been built by the Principio Com- pany as early as 1726, on land owned by Augustine Washington, aggregating about 1,600 acres, and contain- ing iron ore, Mr. Washington becoming the owner of one- sixth of the furnace property in consideration of the transfer of his land to the company.
1732-Cornwall iron ore hills first mentioned.
1734-As early as 1734 a bloomary forge was built at Lime Rock, in Litchfield county, Connecticut, by Thomas Lamb, which produced from 500 to 700 pounds of iron per day. A blast furnace was afterwards added to this forge.
1735-In this year Samuel Waldo erected a furnace and foundry on the Pawtuxet river, in Rhode Island, which were afterwards known as Hope furnace.
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