Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 7

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192

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"JOHN PENN."

Affairs had now come to such a pass that it was difficult to see what the end was likely to be; but two circumstances were at work to force the issue, for a time at least, into the background. Dunmore had rendered him- self so odious to the Virginians that his life was in jeopardy, and he esteemed himself fortunate in being able to take refuge on board a British man-of-war, June 8, 1775. With the fall of his administration it was hoped that a gov- ernor of a less violent and more conciliatory disposition might be named in his stead, and a way might thus be opened for the settlement of the point in dispute. The dawn of the vital struggle between the colonies and the mother country was also beginning to break upon the colonies, which would serve to unite them in the one common cause, and force them to forget for the time their internal dissensions. In the meantime patriotic citizens of both colonies lamented the continual disturbance of the peace between two such flourishing colonies, and on the 25th of July, 1775, the delegates in Congress, including Thomas Jefferson, Patrick, Henry and Benjamin Franklin, united in a circular urging the people to mutual forbearance. Yet on the 7th of August the Virginia Provincial Convention passed a resolution that "Captain John Neville be directed to march with his company of one hundred men, and take possession of Fort Pitt." This action was wholly unexpected by the Pennsylvanians, and it created considerable confusion, exasperating all par- ties, and preventing the delegates from Congress, who were to hold a treaty with the Indians at the fort, from doing so. But the clouds of war now began to darken the land, and foreboded the inevitable struggle with England for perfect freedom or more abject slavery. Connolly, true to his policy, was planning a scheme by which Fort Pitt would become an important point from which British troops could be operated under his command. But the authorities could no longer permit so turbulent a spirit to remain at liberty, and accordingly, on the 22d of November, he and two of his associates were arrested at Frederick, Maryland. His machinations were discovered and exposed, and, by order of Congress, he was taken to Philadelphia for greater security, and there kept in prison. After the Revolution he resided in Can- ada, where he enjoyed the confidence and liberality of the British Government; and there we shall bid him farewell. He was unquestionably a man of far more than ordinary ability, and had his patriotism and integrity been equal to his natural endowments, he might have been of incalculable service to his country, and his name might have ranked with that of so many others who served it so honorably in that trying hour. So true it is that ambition wins not more than honesty.

Notwithstanding that public attention was absorbed both in Western Penn- sylvania and Virginia with the great national struggle for freedom, and with the special work of defending the frontier against the Indians, instigated and frequently led by the English at Detroit, the boundary dispute was still a vexed question daily demanding adjustment. Both colonies were anxious to

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

have it settled now that Lord Dunmore was removed, and the only difficulty that stood in the way was the unwillingness of both parties to make conces- sions; and a settlement of a dispute always presupposes concessions. The running of Mason and Dixon's line settled the long and bitter dispute between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland; but though it exercised an influ- - ence on the Pennsylvania and Virginia boundary question, it decided nothing. The latitude of this line, as we have said, was, as corrected, 39º 43' 26" north; but neither party was willing to accept a continuation of it as the dividing line between the colonies. The proprietaries of Pennsylvania claimed, under the royal charter, a territory three degrees of latitude in width, that is, "from the beginning of the fortieth degree of north latitude to the beginning of the three-and-fortieth degree of north latitude." They contended, and justly, that the beginning of north latitude is at the equator, and the beginning of the second degree is at the end of the first; therefore, that the beginning of the fortieth is at the end of the thirty-ninth, or 39º north latitude. They, there- fore, claimed this parallel as the southern limit of the colony. This would have given Pennsylvania a strip of land 43' 26" in width south of Mason and Dixon's line, in that part of the colony west of the western boundary of Mary- land. Virginia, on the contrary, claimed that the boundary between the two colonies -- or states, as they should more properly be called after the Declara- tion of Independence-should be the parallel of 40° north latitude. This was manifestly wrong, but it goes to show, as was said above, that one of the causes of boundary disputes was the inclination of those receiving charters to interpret them in the manner most favorable to themselves, regardless of how that interpretation might affect their neighbors. This boundary line would have given to Virginia a strip of territory 16' 34" north of the present State line as far east as the western boundary of Maryland. From the position of this line it will be seen that the claim of Virginia did not inelude the site of Pittsburg, which is situated 40° 26' 34" north latitude; but that State con- tinued to claim jurisdiction over the territory on the assumption that the west- ern boundary of Pennsylvania was the summit of Laurel Ridge; for it would appear that the Virginians were doubtful of their ability to establish their southern boundary claim, and yet, like the Pennsylvanians, they were anxious and determined, if possible, to secure the forks of the Ohio. Their strong point, then, was to dispute the western boundary, which it was more difficult to fix; so that the boundary dispute involved the western no less than the southern line, and the latter had by this time loomed in equal or even greater prominence than the former. Whatever commission might be named to settle the matter would have to deal with both lines.

Something must be done for the sake of peace between two States that should be united in repelling a common enemy bent on enslaving both, as well as that valid titles could be given to the settlers who had begun in con- siderable numbers to take up lands west of the Monongahela River since the purchase of 1768.

The first practical step toward a final settlement of the boundary dispute was taken in 1779, by the appointment, on the part of Pennsylvania, of George Bryan, John Ewing and David Rittenhouse, and of Dr. James Madison and Robert Andrews, on the part of Virginia, as commissioners to meet in con- ference and determine a boundary line to be afterward submitted to their respective governments for ratification. They met at Baltimore, August 3, 1779, where they drew up and signed the following agreement: "We (naming the commissioners) do hereby mutually, in behalf of our respective States, ratify and confirm the following agreement, viz .: To extend Mason and Dixon's line due west five degrees of latitude, to be computed from the Delaware,

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

for the southern boundary of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian drawn from the western extremity thereof to the northern limit of said State be the west- ern boundary of said State forever." This agreement of the commissioners was ratified-upon certain conditions as to land titles-by the Virginia Legis- lature, June 23, 1780, and by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania on the 23d of September of the same year. It now remained to draw the southern and western boundaries in accordance with the decision of the commission; but this was no easy task. In running their line Mason and Dixon had com- puted a degree of longitude on that parallel to be 53 miles 167.1 perches, and consequently the line from where it was left when first drawn would have to be extended about 23 miles westward to complete the five degrees longitude from the Delaware. But as some doubts had arisen as to the accuracy of this computation, it was determined to establish the western boundary by astronomical observations, and as considerable preparation was necessary for the execution of the work by this method, it was thought neces- sary in the meantime to run a temporary line; and in the spring of 1781 the President and Council of Pennsylvania, under authority from the Assembly, appointed Alexander M'Lean, a noted surveyor to meet one to be appointed by Virginia to execute the work. That State named Dr. James Madison. So many delays occurred, it was thought intentionally on the part of Virginia, that nothing was done in 1781 toward running the temporary line. On the 2d of March, 1782, the Council of Pennsylvania received and adopted the fol- lowing report from a committee appointed to consider the question of running the temporary line: "That Council and your committee are unanimous in opinion, from the great expense necessarily attending the completing the line between this State and Virginia, it would be most prudent to defer it for the present, and that a temporary line during the continuance of the present war, or till times are more settled on the frontiers, may be made and agreed on at a small expense, which will answer every purpose expected, and to effect which Council will take the necessary measurcs." The work was ordered to proceed, and the Ist of June was set as the time for commencement. At the appointed time M'Lcan repaired to the place of rendezvous, but neither Commissioner Madison nor the Virginia surveyor, Joseph Neville, appeared, but an armed body of Virginians who had collected there prevented him from proceeding with the work. He laid the state of affairs before his Govern- ment, and an arrangement was entered into between it and Virginia, and all obstacles having been sufficiently removed, he and Neville ran the temporary line in the fall of 1782.

The permanent boundary line was run and established from the Mary- land line westward to the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, by a commission composed of members from the two States, "to determine by astronomical observation the extent of five degrees of longitude west from the River Dela- ware, in the latitude of Mason and Dixon's line, and to run and mark the boundaries which are common to both States, according to an agreement entercd into by the commissioners of the said States at Baltimore, in 1779, and after- ward ratified by their respective Assemblies." The commissioners divided them- selves into two bodies, one of which proceeded to the point on the Delaware where Mason and Dixon's line began, and the other to the southwestern corner of the State, at each of which points an observatory was erected, where, by many weeks of careful astronomical observation, the commissioners carefully adjusted their chronometers to the true time. On the 20th of September the castern party set out to meet those of the west to compare their observations. On comparing their chronometers, however, there was found to be a differ- ence of one and one-eighth seconds. A sufficient distance was therefore meas-

Jones

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ured back on the line, and the permanent corner of the State fixed. In the joint report of the commissioners, dated November 18, 1784, they say: "The underwritten commissioners have continued Mason and Dixon's line to the termination of the said five degrees of longitude, by which work the southern boundary of Pennsylvania is completed. The continuation we have marked by open vistas over the most remarkable heights which lie in its course, and by planting on many of these heights, in the true parallel of latitude, the true boundary, posts marked with the letters P and V, each facing the State of which it is the initial. At the extremity of this line, which is the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, we have planted a squared, unlettered white oak post, around whose base we have raised piles of stones. . . . The advanced season of the year and the inclemency of the weather have obliged us to suspend our operations, but we have agreed to meet again at the southwest corner of Pennsylvania on the 16th day of next May, to complete the object of our commission." In accordance with this agreement they met in the fol- lowing year, ran and established the western boundary line of Pennsylvania due north from the southwestern corner post to the Ohio River, and made a report of their labors on the 23d of August. Thus ended this protracted dispute, per- haps the most remarkable in the history of this country, although it required some time, especially on the part of Virginia, to adjust all the details relating to land titles.

CHAPTER IV.

NATURAL ADVANTAGES OF THE SITE OF PITTSBURG-PERMANENT OCCUPATION- BUILDING AND FALL OF FORT DUQUESNE-BEGINNING A TOWN-EARLY RELIG- IOUS SERVICES, FRENCH, ENGLISH-EXTINCTION OF INDIAN TITLE-SURVEY OF THE MANOR OF PITTSBURG-WASHINGTON'S VISIT AND DESCRIPTION- IMPORTANCE OF THE PLACE DURING THE REVOLUTION - GENERAL IRVINE-THE PROPRIETARIES CONCLUDE TO SELL THE LANDS OF THE MANOR-SURVEY AND PLAN OF LOTS OF THE TOWN-GROWTH OF

THE TOWN - EARLY DESCRIPTIONS OF IT -ESTIMATES OF POPULA- TION - EARLY INDUSTRIES - ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST

NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS-FIRST POST- OFFICE, AND MAIL REGULATIONS-BUILDING OF A MARKET HOUSE-LAST FAREWELL TO THE RED MAN-FURTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN-INCORPORATION OF THE BOROUGH OF PITTSBURG-TOPOGRAPHY-CONCLUSION.

Nature fitted the forks of the Ohio for the site of a great city, the French and frontier wars drew attention to its many advantages, and in a measure prepared the way, and it is for us in this chapter to record its incipiency, and trace its gradual growth in the last century. It has already been stated that the first attempt at permanent occupation of the spot by the white man was made on Sunday, February 17, 1754, when Captain William Trent arrived with a small detachment to throw up a fortification to resist the threatened encroachments of the French. Little could he and his small band have appre- ciated, on that cold winter's day, the importance of the work they inaugu- rated in any of its numerous phases, all of which tended to attract greater attention to the advantages of the place, both from a military and a civic point of view. It was destined to experience several changes of masters and numer- ous vicissitudes, all of which have been or will be traced in these pages, before it was free to pursue its onward march to greatness. Yet all of these but tended to lay more deeply and firmly the foundations of that greatness; like the mountain oak, the storms that shake it but aid it in striking its roots more deeply into the soil.

Scarcely had the English begun the work of fortification when the French descended the river, came suddenly upon them, as we have seen, and demanded their immediate and unconditional surrender. With the building of Fort Duquesne the work of permanent occupation was continued, though not so much with a view of building a town-for the French then cared little for more than a military occupation-as of affording accommodations outside the fort for soldiers and hangers-on of the army; so that at the time of the victo- rious entry of General Forbes to take possession of the smoldering ruins of the fort and plant the standard of Great Britain, there were found the chim- neys of some thirty houses near the fort. On Friday, November 24, 1758, when the army under Forbes was within about ten miles of the forks, and near the spot where the ill-fated Braddock had met with so crushing a defeat a little more than three years before, deep sounds were heard about sunset as of a heavy explosion, and it was conjectured from the volumes of smoke seen rising in the direction of Fort Duquesne that the French, despairing of

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

holding the place against the advancing enemy, had blown it up and with- drawn. Such was found to be the case. We have already spoken of the retreat of the French, and need not follow them now. On the next day, which witnessed the downfall of the French power in the Valley of the Ohio, and presaged it for all North America, the English took possession of the forks. But could the dying Forbes and his worn out but victorious army have penetrated the veil of the future, their prophetic eyes would have dis- cerned in this victory a foreboding of the future overthrow of the power which they represented; and, strange as it might have appeared, they would have seen by their side the young hero by whom it was to be effected. Says the historian Bancroft: "On Saturday, the 26th of November, the little army moved on in one body; and at evening the youthful hero (Washington) could point to Armstrong and the hardy provincials, who marched in front, to the Highlanders and the Royal Americans, and to Forbes himself, the meeting of the rivers. Armstrong's own hand raised the British flag over the ruined bastions of the fortress. As the banner of England floated over the waters, the place, at the suggestion of Forbes, was with one voice called Pittsburg. It is the most lasting monument to William Pitt. America raised to his name statues that have been wrongfully broken, and granite piles of which not one stone remains upon another; but long as the Monongahela and the Allegheny shall flow to form the Ohio, long as the English tongue shall be the language of freedom in the boundless valley which their waters traverse, his name shall stand inscribed on the gateway of the West." The first use on record of the name "Pittsburg," and that, too, without the superfluous "h," is found in a letter from General Forbes to Governor Denny of Penn- sylvania, dated the day after taking possession, from "Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg, the 26 of November, 1758." Colonel Bouquet, in the minutes of the conference which he held with the Delaware Indians a few days later, signs them "at Pitts-Bourgh, December 4, 1758."

Although uninterrupted possession was held from that time forward, no immediate attempt was made at building a town; only a small fortification was thrown up for a garrison to hold the place during the winter until work could be begun on a permanent stronghold. During the early part of the following year fears were entertained that the French would descend the Allegheny and recapture the place; but their forces were needed to defend the posts on the lakes, and the English were free from further direct moles- tation. With the building of the larger Fort Pitt, the Indians were convinced that they had nothing to hope for from their former allies, and they returned to trade with the English and revive the friendship that had existed before the French occupation; and the traders, on their part, were only too willing to resume so lucrative a business. This necessitated the erection of buildings for the accommodation of the traders and their merchandise, while others were needed for quarters for such of the soldiers as were not accommodated ·in the fort. In this way the foundations of the future city of Pittsburg were laid; and the little cluster of houses would have increased more rapidly had it not been for the united effort of the Indian tribes, commonly known as the conspiracy of Pontiac, an account of which has already been given, to drive the palefaces into the sea, in the first half of the year 1763. So deeply had the plans of this daring plot been laid that the commander of Fort Pitt found it necessary to burn the houses around the fort to prevent the sav- ages from taking shelter behind them in their attack upon it. The crushing defeat which the Indians suffered at the hands of Colonel Bouquet, at Bushy Run, and the humiliating terms they were forced to accept in the Muskingum country a year later from the same intrepid commander, forced them to accept

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

terms of peace which promised to be lasting, and which offered the frontier a much needed repose. It proved, however, to be only a respite. But we are now concerned with it in so far only as it exercised an influence on the settlement of the forks.

With the year 1764 began the building of Pittsburg as a town. What- ever houses had been erected up to that time were nothing more than adjuncts of the fort for the accommodation of soldiers and traders; but in that year a step was taken to lay out a town, by what authority is not known, and Colonel John Campbell surveyed that part of the present city which lies between Water Street and Second Avenue, and Ferry and Market streets, on the banks of the Monongahela, a short distance above the fort. The lots were sixty by two hundred and forty feet and fronted on Ferry and Market streets instead of on the streets parallel with the river. This was the first sys- tematic arrangement of the houses that it was then thought necessary to build; but, like those that had been previously put up, they were rather for the accommodation of traders and their customers than as the nucleus of a permanent population. And, what is most remarkable, the land had not as yet been purchased from the Indians, though they would appear to have acquiesced in the movement from the need they had of the articles furnished them by the traders. Reference is made from this time forward to Pittsburg as a town; and, as before, it was the scene of a number of conferences with the Indians. But these references are few and unsatisfactory. Our pioneer forefathers were more given, both from choice and necessity, to acting than to recording their actions; still we are able to follow the history of Pitts- burg, with many and provoking breaks, to the time when it changed its military aspect for one of civic quietude. In 1764 was also erected Bouquet's redoubt, which stood outside Fort Pitt to the south, and between it and the site of Fort Duquesne, and which is yet standing, "the sole existing monu- ment of British rule." Engraven in a stone tablet on its wall may still be read the legend: "Col. Bouquet, A. D. 1764." How unaccountably strange and unpardonable that Pittsburg has not erected a single monument to any of the great men who figured in her early history; no, not even to Pitt or Washington, though the living have that honor.

In the strife necessary for taking possession of the backwoods the fron- tiersman did not forget the higher allegiance he owed to his divine Master. The pioneers were, as a rule, profoundly religious, and their religious annals furnish valuable historical data not to be found elsewhere. We have seen that the French were accompanied by their chaplain, who ministered to them during the period of their occupation, and left a record that has happily been transmitted to us. Braddock's army was accompanied by a chaplain, who was 'wounded in the battle of the Monongahela. So, too, was Forbes' army, the Reverend Charles Beatty, who preached in the Sunday after taking posses- sion of the ruins of Fort Duquesne on the superiority of the British arms. He was some time after appointed by the Presbyterian Synod of New York and Philadelphia to visit the frontier inhabitants. On Friday, September 5, 1766, he arrived at Fort Pitt late in the evening in company with a Reverend Mr. Duffield, and both were introduced to Captain Murray, the commander of the post. But the fort was already attended by a resident chaplain of the same denomination, the Rev. Mr. McLagan, to whom the Captain intro- duced the visiting ministers. On Sunday, the 7th, the latter reverend gen- tleman invited Reverend Mr. Beatty to preach in the fort, while Mr. Duffield preached to the people "who live," as the record states, "in some kind of a town without the fort." Nothing more is known of Pittsburg as a town till the visit of Washington in 1770; but by the treaty of October, 1768, the

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

proprietary government purchased from the Indians all the territory which they still claimed east and south of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, and con- sequently that upon which Pittsburg stands. Settlers soon began to take up lands west of the Monongahela, and those who had settled before the pur- chase returned to the lands from which they had been driven by order of the King and the Governor. January 5, 1769, a warrant was issued for the survey of the Manor of Pittsburg. The survey was completed March 27th of the same year, and returned May 19th. The manor embraced the lands between the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and extended across the latter stream including within its limits an area of 5,766 acres with the usual allowance of six per cent. for public highways. Both the fort and the incip- ient town were included within its limits.

About the middle of October, 1770, Washington stopped at Pittsburg on his way to look after certain of his landed interests on the Kanawha River, and, true to his custom, for which succeeding generations well know how to thank him, he kept a journal. In this we read: "October 17 .- Doctor Craik and myself, with Captain Crawford and others, arrived at the fort. . We lodged at what is called the town, distant about three hundred yards from the fort, at one Sample's, who keeps a good house of public entertain- ment. The houses, which are built of logs, are ranged in streets, are on the Monongahela, and, I suppose, may be about twenty in number, and inhab- ited by Indian traders." Sample's "house of public entertainment" was a two- story hewed log house, and the first in Pittsburg with a shingle roof. Giving seven persons to each house-for new houses would hardly be built without necessity-the population of the town would approach one hundred and forty souls. It is worthy of remark that the first description of the site of Pitts- burg extant is from the pen of Washington, on the occasion of his visit to the French near the close of 1753; and now the first description of the town is from the pen of the same illustrious personage.

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 7

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co. Number of Pages: 1192

Author: Wilson, Erasmus, 1842-1922; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926. cn
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : H.R. Cornell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1192