Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 8

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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It was stated in a previous chapter that Fort Pitt was dismantled in the autumn of 1772, and soon after occupied by the Virginians under Doctor John Connolly. The disturbances attending that sinister event, and the deter- mination of the Indian traders of the place to build a town on the Manor of Kittanning, where Ford City now stands, in Armstrong County, have been related. It is needless to speculate on the consequences of such a movement, had it been carried into execution, and the establishment of the claim of Virginia to the territory around the headwaters of the Ohio. The growth of the town would doubtless have been retarded, and it might never have attained its present proportions; but in the nature of things it was destined to become a center of trade and population. During the War of the Revo -. lution the hostility of the tribes west of the rivers, instigated as they were by the English at Detroit, inflicted serious injury on the Indian trade and interfered with the development of the town; but this was in a measure com- pensated for by the presence of larger numbers of soldiers who needed accom- modations, and by the knowledge of the natural advantages of the place, which they would make known east of the mountains on their return. With the close of the struggle with the mother country and the restoration of ami- cable relations with the Indians, especially after the last purchase of 1784, a new impulse was given to the building up of the town. From about this time the settlement of Kentucky began to exercise a wholesome influence on the growth of Pittsburg. Brownsville and Pittsburg were the places of embarka- tion for the emigrants from east of the mountains; and, as these were fre- quently delaycd by the low stage of water in the Ohio, and the necessity of building boats for their transportation, they increased the trade and activity

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

of the little town. During this time, and even later, it was called indifferently Pittsburg or Fort Pitt.

The extortion of the traders, upon whom the people so largely depended, exasperated the latter, and about the close of the year 1779 serious trouble was threatened. Meetings were held and resolutions couched in the strongest terms were adopted, and it required little more to drive the people to violence. This was the more to be dreaded when it was remembered that much of their lives had been spent in frontier warfare, which had inured them to the sledding of blood in defense of their persons or their rights. The school- ing which the frontiersman had received under these circumstances was such as, made him a man not to be trifled with; he was accustomed to resort to severe measures when he deemed them necessary, and the . traders, aware of this, yielded, at least for the time. But the dawn of better times was begin- ning to appear, and Pittsburg was destined to share them. The War of the Revolution was happily over, and the independence of the colonies declared. Prior to that time the discipline of the garrison of Fort Pitt, and, indeed, of all the soldiers in Western Pennsylvania, was in a lamentable condition. Something had to be done, and Washington, with that knowledge of char- acter for which he was conspicuous, selected General William Irvine to suc- ceed Colonel Brodhead. He arrived in May, 1781. Under his firm rule discipline was soon restored, but not until recourse was had on several occa- sions to very severe measures. As a compensation for this, however, he had the pleasure of announcing to the garrison the surrender of the British at Yorktown and the practical ending of the war. This he did in the fol- lowing order:

"Parole-General.

"Fort Pitt, November 6, 1781. Countersign-Joy.

"General Irvine has the pleasure to congratulate the troops upon the great and glorious news. Lord Cornwallis, with the troops under his com- mand, surrendered prisoners of war, on the 19th of October last, to the allied. armies of America and France, under the immediate command of his excel- lency General Washington. The prisoners amount to upward of five thou- sand regular troops, near two thousand tories, and as many negroes, besides a number of merchants and other followers.

"Thirteen pieces of artillery will be fired this day at ten o'clock, in the fort, at which time the troops will be under arms, with colors displayed. The commissaries will issue a gill of whiskey, extraordinary, to the non- commissioned officers and privates, upon this joyful occasion."

During these years the country around the head of the Ohio began to be more thickly settled, the site of Pittsburg and its natural advantages became better known east of the mountains, and for the future it was destined to be more of a civil community than a military post. The population at this time may have been about three hundred, although there is no means of fixing it with certainty. Neither church nor school was as yet organized, although they were not to be long delayed.

In the fall of 1783, the proprietaries, John Penn, Jr., and John Penn, concluded to sell the lands within the Manor of Pittsburg. The better to facilitate the sale they laid out that part of the manor which lay between the two rivers into a regular plan of lots. The survey was completed in June, 1784, and was approved for the proprietaries by their attorney, Tenchi Francis, on the 30th of September of the same year. It would appear that the survey was made to conform to the small plan of lots surveyed by Colonel Campbell, already referred to. Fortunately for us we have the sworn testi- mony of Thomas Vickroy, who assisted George Woods in laying out the

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lots, and owing to its importance will be given entire, both for the valuable information it contains, and with a view of preserving it. The document suffi- ciently explains itself, and is.as follows:

"And now, to wit, August 21, 1841, in the matter of petition of Moses Hampton, Esq., solicitor of the City of Pittsburg, to perpetuate the testimony respecting the true location, and extent and width of Grant Street, Water Street, Cherry Alley, and other streets, lanes and alleys in the City of Pitts- burg, under an act of Assembly of April 21, 1841, the court appointed John Mower, Esq., of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, Commisioner to take the testimony of witnesses under the act aforesaid.

"Pursuant to said act by said Commissioner of the taking of depositions of witnesses on behalf of the City of Pittsburg was begun at the house of Thomas Vickroy, at Alumbank, St. Clair Township, Bedford County, Pa., on December 16, 1841.

"STATE OF PENNA., ) Ss.

Bedford County.

"Personally appeared before me, Thomas Vickroy, a witness produced on behalf of the City of Pittsburg, aged eighty-five years and upward, who having been first duly sworn according to law, doth depose and say as follows, viz .: I assisted George Wood to lay out the Town of Pittsburg. He requested me to go with him as surveyor, and employed me in that capacity to lay out the Town oi Pittsburg, and to divide the proprietary manor into outlots and farms. We arrived in Pittsburg in the month of May, 1784, and the first thing we did was to circumscribe the ground where we intended to lay the town out. We began up about where Grant Street now is, on the bank of the Monongahela, and pro- ceeded down the Monongahela, according to the meanderings of the river, to its junction with the Allegheny River. Then up the Allegheny River on the bank, keeping on the bank a certain distance, up to about Washington Street; from thence to Grant's Hill, thence along Grant's Hill to place of beginning. I made a draft of it in Mr. Wood's presence, throwing it into a large scale to see how it would answer to lay out into lots and streets. After that there was a great deal of conversation, and the ground was viewed by Mr. Wood and the persons who lived at that place to fix on the best plan to lay out the town with the greatest conven- ience. There had been lots laid out before, as I understand, called military lots, said to be laid out by Mr. Campbell. These are the four blocks in the plan con- tained between Market and Ferry streets, Water Street and Second Street. Mr. Wood expressed a desire to new model those small streets and lots so as to make them larger, especially Market Street. A number of inhabitants had small houses on those lots, as they were laid out. These persons remonstrated and objected, and gathered in a body together and would not have it done, saying it would . destroy their property. Eventually Mr. Wood acquiesced in their wishes, and laid out the four squares as they had been before. Mr. Wood having procured a pole and a great number of locust pins for the purpose of measuring and staking off the lots and strects, we then went to Samuel Ewalt's house, which stood on what is now the corner of Market and Water streets. Then we took the range of Water Street from some houses that then stood on the bank of the Monongahela River, viz .: Ormsby, Galbraith and others, and then measured below Ewalt's some distance, perhaps as far as the military lots, and laid them out and staked them. We then returned and again took Ewalt's house, and laid out Market Street and the Diamond, and continued Market Street to a certain point. We then commenced and laid off Liberty Street. After we had laid out Liberty Street, we again commenced at Ewalt's, and measured up the river on Water Street to Wood Street, which we laid out sixty feet wide, running from Water

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

Street parallel with Market Street through to Liberty Street. We then measured up Water Street to Smithfield Street, which we also laid out from Water Street through to Liberty Street, sixty feet wide, making it parallel with Wood Street, and then proceeded to lay out the blocks between Smithfield and Wood streets, from Water Street through to Liberty. From Smithfield Street we went on to lay out Cherry Alley, making it twenty feet, and running it from Water Street to Liberty, parallel with Smithfield Street. We then laid out the block of lots between Smithfield Street and Cherry Alley, through from Water to Liberty Street. We then proceeded to Grant Street, which we laid out sixty feet wide, mak- ing it parallel with Cherry Alley, and then laid out the block of lots between Cherry Alley and Grant Street. We run Grant Street through from Water Street to Liberty, making it end on Liberty Street, which was the last street we laid out o11 that side of Liberty. We made Market Street and Liberty Street the basis of the blocks of survey south of Liberty Street, and we finished all the survey and laying out of the lots on that side of Liberty Street before we proceeded to the other side. Making the survey of the lots south of Liberty Street, we staked them all off with good locust pins. In making the survey of the lots between Liberty Street and the Allegheny River, we commenced, I think, at Marbury (now Third Street), and worked on up until we finished at Washington Street, which was the last street we made. We made Washington Street to run from the Allegheny River to Liberty Street, when it ended. The reason we stopped at Liberty Street was that if we had run it across it would have run through a public street. Liberty Street had been run, and when we run Grant Street we stopped at Liberty Street for the same reason. Washington Street was sixty feet wide. Those streets, viz., Grant and Washington, did not meet because there was a public street between them. We drew a line along the last row of blocks sixty feet wide for Grant Street. The streets and lots were all measured with a pole and not with a chain. The first survey we made I called a circumscribed survey. The object of it was to get a general view of the ground to enable us to lay out the town. None of the streets were fixed by it, not even Washington or Grant. It was run with a chain, and we threw it away and made no further use of it, except to plot by it the ground north of Liberty and below Marbury Street. That ground was then occupied by a military post, and we could not survey it. Water Street was to extend in width from the base line which we used, Ormsby's house, to a low- water mark in the river, and this width was to prevail through its whole length from Grant Street to the point. In laying out Water Street there was another murmuring of the inhabitants, complaining that the street was too narrow. Mr. Wood said that they would be digging cellars and then they would fill up the gullies and make a fine street. There was a narrow place at the mouth of Ferry Street, and also down lower. There was a great gut at the mouth of Wood Street, which made an ugly crossing. We set no pins at the south side of Water Street, for it was to go to low-water mark.

"(Signed)

THOMAS VICKROY."

This plan of Pittsburg is known as the "Wood's Plan," or "The Old Mili- tary Plan," and a remarkable circumstance connected with it was that the rod used in surveying it, mentioned above, was one-eighth of an inch in every ten feet longer than the United States standard of measurement. When the survey was adopted this rod was adopted as the city standard of measurement, and bence there is the anomaly of two standards in the city, which has occasionally produced unpleasant results in the purchase and sale of property. In order to harmonize them an eighth of an inch must be added to every ten feet when the Government standard is used. With the survey of the town a fresh stimulus was

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

given to its growth, and numerous lots were purchased, although they were but gradually built upon.

The conclusion of the war between the United States and the mother country drew many settlers across the mountains, lessened the confidence of the Indians in their ultimate triumph over the whites, and left nearly every man a soldier, ready at a moment's notice to march against them in case of an outbreak; and, . though the savages were still restless, and occasional depredations were com- mittcd, the settlements enjoyed greater repose than they ever had before. With the extinction of the Indian title to the lands beyond the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, still less was to be feared from them. Pittsburg now began to assume the airs of a town, although the greater number of the houses were very indiffer- ent, and their inmates, in not a few cases, rude and insubordinate. Among them, however, were some possessed of a liberal education and religous spirit and con- siderable wealth and refinement. Toward the end of 1784, Arthur Lee visited the town and left an account, by no means flattering, of its condition and prospects, an account which doubtless drew something of its coloring from the fact that Vir- ginia had been forced to give up the territory to Pennsylvania. He says: "Pitts- burg 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. There is a great deal of small trade carried on, the goods being brought at the vast expense of forty-five shillings per cwt. 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, as a gentleman told me, the Allegheny had in thirty years of his memory carried away one hundred yards. The place I believe, will never be very considerable." Of a piece with this are the following remarks by Mr. John Wilkins, who wrote about the same time: "When I came here I found the place filled with old officers and soldiers, followers of the army, mixed with a few families of credit. All sorts of wickedness were carried on to excess, and there was no appearance of morality or regular order. There appeared to be no signs of religion among the people."

Contrasted with these rather gloomy pictures we have the exaggerated one, drawn by Hon. Hugh Henry Brackenridge, in a paper on Pittsburg, which he prepared for the first number of the Pittsburg Gazette, that appeared on July 29, 1786. He says among other things: "It was in the spring of 1781 that, leaving the city of Philadelphia, I crossed the Alleghany Mountains, and took up my resi- dence in the town of Pittsburg:

" 'If town it could be called, that town was none, Distinguishable by house or street

"But in fact a few buildings under the walls of a garrison, which stood at the junction of the two rivers. Nevertheless it appeared to me as what would one day be a town of note, and in the meantime might be pushed forward by the usual means that raise such places." After enlarging on the attractions of the surrounding country and the streams, he continues: "But to return and take a view of the Monongahela, on the south side of the town. The bank is closely set with buildings for the distance of near half a mile, and behind this range the town chiefly lies, falling back on the plains between the two rivers. To the eastward is Grant's Hill, a beautiful rising ground, discovering marks of ancient cultivation, the forests having long ago withdrawn and shown the head and brow beset with green flowers. From this hill two crystal fountains issue, which, in the heat of summer, continue with a limpid current to refresh the taste. It is pleasant to celebrate a festival on the summit of this ground. In

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

the year 1781, a bower had been erected, covered with green shrubs. The sons and daughters of the day, assembling, joined in the festivity, viewing the rivers at a distance and listening to the music of the military on the plain beneath them. When the moonlight, rising from the east, had softened into gray the prospect, a lofty pile of wood inflamed with pyramidal rising, illuminated both rivers and the · town, which far around reflected brightness. Approaching in the appearance of a god, a swain begirt with weeds natural to those streams, and crowned with leaves of the sugar tree, hailed us and gave prophetic hints of the grandeur of our future cmpire. His words I remember not, but it scemed to me, for a moment, that the mystic agencies of dcities well known in Greece and Rome were not a fable; but that powers unseen haunt the woods and rivers, who take part in the affairs of mortals, and are pleased with the celebration of events that spring from great achievements and from virtue. On the top of the hill is a mound of earth, supposed to be a catacomb or ancient burial place of the savages. . The town of Pittsburg, as at present built, stands chiefly on what is called the third bank; that is, the third rising of the ground above the Allegheny water. First, there is the first bank, which confines the river at the present time; and about three hundred feet removed is the second, like the falling of a garden; then a third, at the distance of about three hundred yards; and, lastly, a fourth bank, all of easy inclination and parallel with the Allegheny River. These banks would seem in successive periods to have been the margin of the river, which gradually has changed its course, and has been thrown from one descent to another to the present bed, where it lies. . Nature, therefore, or the river, seems to have formed the bed of this town as a garden, with level walks and falling of the ground. The town consists at present of about an hundred dwelling houses, with buildings appurtenant. More are daily added, and for some time past it has improved with an equal but continual pace. The inhabitants, children, men and women, are about fifteen hundred; this number doubling almost every year from the accessions from abroad, and from those born in the town." This esti- mate will appear, on a moment's reflection, to be an exaggerated one, as it would give about fifteen persons to each house; nor is the estimate of the increase free from the same overdrawing. The number of inhabitants at that time was probably about four hundred, and it did not reach the figures given by Mr. Brackenridge until about the close of the century or later. Continuing, he writes: "In the fall of the year and during the winter season there is usually a great concourse of stran- gers 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 inhabit- ants 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. It must appear like enchantment to a stranger, after traveling an hundred miles from the settlements, across a dreary mountain, and through the adjacent country, where in many places the spurs of the mountain still continue, and cultivation does not always show itself, to see, all at once, and almost on the verge of the inhabited globe, a town with smoking chimneys, halls lighted up with splendor, ladies and gentlemen assembled, various music and the mazes of the dance."

While these contrasting views are not without their interest and value the sub- joined circumstantial accounts will be regarded as a more reliable picture of the Pittsburg of that time. In Niles' Register it is stated, but no authority given, that Pittsburg, in 1786, contained thirty-six log houses, one stone and one frame house and five small stores. Two years later, in April, 1788, Dr. Hildredth of Marietta, Ohio, remarks: "Pittsburg then contained four or five hundred inhabitants, sev- eral retail stores; and a small garrison of troops was kept at old Fort Pitt. To our travelers, who had lately seen nothing but trees and rocks, with here and there a

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

solitary hut, it seemed to be quite a large town. The houses were chiefly built of logs, but now and then one had assumed the appearance of neatness and com- fort." This calm and unimpassioned statement of a passing stranger must be taken as the most reliable account of what Pittsburg was at that time. Four years later the American Museum gives the following equally dispassioned account of the beginnings of our manufacturing center : "One clock and watch-maker, 2 coopers, I skin dresser and breechesmaker, 2 tanners and curriers, 4 cabinetmakers, 2 hatters, 2 weavers. 5 blacksmiths, 5 shoemakers, 3 saddlers, ï malster and brewer, 2 tinners, 3 wheelwrights, I stocking weaver, I ropemaker, 2 whitesmiths; total, 36 mechanics. The number of families was said to be 130." Allowing six persons to each house, this would give a population of 780 souls. Mr. Craig, in his History of Pittsburg, says that, with the aid of a friend whose memory goes back to the early days of the town, he can recall no more than one hundred and two houses in the town. The Pittsburg Gazette, of January 9, 1796, makes the following statement: "The number of inhabitants in the borough of Pittsburg, as taken by the assessors last week, amounts to one thousand three hundred and ninety- five." To this Mr. Craig remarks: "This is the earliest authentic account of our population, and it may be well to tarry awhile and notice the condition and appear- ance of this place at that time. The number of inhabitants, at six to each house upon an average, would give two hundred and thirty-two houses, and, although the writer's memory goes back pretty distinctly to that time, he cannot conceive where the number of houses could then be found. I have taxed my own memory severely, and with the aid of one whose recollection is more distinct than my own, have made out" the number of 102 houses mentioned above. Mr. Craig was at that time nine years of age, having been born in the old redoubt in 1787. Con- tinuing the question of population, the census of 1800 gives Pittsburg 1,565 inhabitants, thus showing an increase from 1796 of only 170, in four years; and yet, in the next ten years, to 1810, the increase was 3,203, giving a population of 4,768.

Pittsburg led in the establishment of newspapers west of the Alleghany Mountains, the Pittsburg Gazette having been established July 29, 1786; but this will be treated more at length in another part of this history.

As late as 1788 Pittsburg was in Westmoreland County, which then embraced all Western Pennsylvania, except the southwestern part; but by an act of the Legislature of September 24th of that year, the new County of Allegheny was formed out of parts of Westmoreland and Washington counties, and by the same act it was decreed that Pittsburg should be the county seat; and by a decree of the following spring the trustees were authorized to purchase ground for the county buildings.

A postoffice was established about the same time, and the regular transmis- sion of mails between the East and Pittsburg arranged, as we learn from the following extract from a letter published in the Gazette of September 30, 1788: ."Philadelphia, September 14, 1788: Mr. Brison has returned from New York, with orders to establish a post from this place to Pittsburg, and from Virginia to Bedford, the two to meet at Bedford." And from the same source we learn that "the mail, after April 18, 1795, will leave Philadelphia every Saturday at II:30 a. m., and be delivered at Pittsburg every Friday at noon; returning, will leave Pittsburg at 5 p. m. Friday, and be delivered next Friday noon at Phila- delphia." Another early account states that: "The eastern mail arrives on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. Where letters are not for a post town, the nearest post town ought to be mentioned. Those who send letters may either pay the postage in advance or leave it to be paid by their correspondents." The account continues: "The Rates of Postage for Single Letters: For any distance not exceeding 40 miles, 12 cents; over 40 and not exceeding 90 miles,

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 8

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