Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 9

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania > Part 9

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HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

15 cents ; over 90 and not exceeding 150 miles, 182 cents; over 150 miles and not exceeding 300 miles, 25₺ cents; over 300 miles and not exceeding 500 miles, 30 cents; over 500 miles, 372 cents. Double letters, or those composed of two pieces of paper, double these rates; triple letters, or those composed of three pieces of paper, triple these rates. Packets or letters composed of four or more pieces of paper, and weighing one ounce or more, avoirdupois, are to be rated equal to any single letter for each quarter ounce. Newspapers-Each paper carried, not exceeding 100 miles, or for any distance, not being carried out of the State in which it is printed, Ig cents; if carried out of the State in which it is printed and over 100 miles, 24 cents. Magazines and Pamphlets-Carried not over 50 miles, for each sheet, 12 cents; over 50 miles and not exceeding 100 miles, 24'cents; over 100 miles, 3 cents. But pamphlets are not to be received or conveyed by the post on the main line, or any cross-road, where the mail is large." The receipts of the postoffice for the year ending October 1, 1790, netted $110.99.

A market house was built at the corner of Market Street and Second Avenue in 1787, and regular market days were appointed; and on the 29th of September of the same ycar an act was passed by the Legislature for the establishment of an academy or school of higher education, and the work of public education was begun. But both of these matters will be treated at length in their proper places.

Our pity for the rude and misguided sons of the forest will be sufficient apology for pausing to record their last attempt to regain possession of their ancient hunting-grounds around the head of the Ohio, and for the last serious demonstration they made against Pittsburg; and while we congratulate our fore- fathers on their final escape from the terrors of the so long familiar Indian raid, we cannot but cast a parting glance of regret and heave a sigh as the red man leaves his hunting-ground forever and retires before the advance of civilization, which he had long learned to contemplate in some of its repulsive aspects. The record- ing angel that pens the inevitable may drop a tear upon the page, but sad would it be for future generations if he blotted it out forever. Let us pause, then, for a moment and bid our red brethren an eternal farewell at the forks of the Ohio. In the year 1790 they began to be troublesome on the frontier, and the town itself was for the last time felt to be in danger. General Henry Knox, then Secretary of War, on learning the hostile disposition of the savages, wrote to Major Isaac Craig, in command of the garrison at Pittsburg, under date of December 16, 1791, when the danger seemed imminent: "I request you immediately to procure materials for a blockhouse and picketed fort, to be erected in such part of Pitts- burg as shall be the best position to cover the town, as well as the public stores which shall be forwarded from time to time." Major Craig replied, on the 29th of the same month: "I am making every possible exertion for the erection of a work to defend this town and the public stores. . . The work, if you have no objection, I will name Fort Lafayette." The name was approved by the War Department. This, the last defensive work within the limits of Pittsburg, stood near the bank of the Allegheny River, about the present Ninth Street. "Mad Anthony Wayne"-after whom, by the way, Tenth Street was very appro- priately named-arrived on the 15th of June, and history has recorded how effectually he rid Pittsburg forever of all fear of Indian incursions.

So few are the references to the carly history of Pittsburg, and so valuable, especially when written by one who is not an inhabitant of the place, that they should be preserved. John Pope, in his journal of his "Tour Through the South- ern and Western Territories of the United States," in 1790, under date of October, gives the reader his impressions of Pittsburg in his own peculiar style, which could not have appeared very flattering to his sanguine host, Mr. Brack- enridge. He writes: "I staid ten days. Here I saw the celebrated Hugh Henry

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

Brackenridge. In company with this gentleman I viewed the fort and the neighboring eminences of Pittsburg, which will one day or other employ the historic pen as being replete with strange and melancholy events. The town at present is inhabited, with only some few exceptions, by mortals who act as if possessed with a charter of exclusive privilege to filch from, annoy and harass their fellow-creatures, particularly the incautious and necessitous; many who have emigrated from many parts to Kentucky, can verify this charge. Goods of every description are dearer in Pittsburg than in Kentucky, which I attribute to a combination of pensioned scoundrels who infest the place. . . . . Was a Spaniard to reside among Pittsburgers only one week, he would be apt to exclaim in the words of Quevedo:

'Tis not for thee, but for thy bread, Tray wags his tail and shakes his head '"

There is no document extant containing a petition for the incorporation of the Borough of Pittsburg, but the subjoined document, which has but lately been discovered, would appear to be a preliminary step in that direction. It is found in the minutes of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny County, in these words:

"September 9, 1792.

"According to the prayer of a petition made by a number of the inhabitants of Pittsburg-Read at the June Session, 1792, and laid over till September- ordered that so much of Pitt Township as lies within the following boundaries, that is to say: Beginning at the point or confluence of the rivers Mononga- hela and Allegheny, and running up the margin of the Monongahela to the two- mile run, thence up said run to the head thereof, thence by a due north course to strike the two-mile run that empties into the Allegheny River, thence down said run to the mouth thereof, thence down the said river to the place of begin- ning, be, and the same is, erected into a new township, called Pittsburg Town- ship."

But the time at length came for Pittsburg to cut loose from the surrounding territory and assume municipal proportions. This important event took place on April 22, 1794, and is contained in a document entitled "An Act to erect the Town of Pittsburg, in the County of Allegheny, into a borough, and for other Purposes therein Mentioned." The subjoined extracts will be sufficient:

"Whereas, the inhabitants of the Town of Pittsburg, in the County of Alle- gheny, have, by their petition, prayed to be incorporated, and that the said town and its vicinity, as hereafter described, should be erected into a borough;

"And whereas, it may contribute to the advantage of the inhabitants of the said town, as also to those who trade and resort there, and to the public utility, that nuisances, encroachments, annoyances and inconveniences in the said town and its vicinity should be prevented, and for the promoting rule, order and good government in the said town.

"Section Ist. Be it enacted, etc., That the said Town of Pittsburg shall be, and the same is hereby erected into a borough, which shall be called the Borough of Pittsburg forever, the extent of which said Borough of Pittsburg is and shall be comprised within the following boundaries, to wit: Beginning at the point or confluence of the rivers Allegheny and Monongahela and running up the northeast beach of the said river Monongahela, south 57 degrees east 39 perches to Short Street, thence south 64 degrees east 207 perches to Grant Street, thence south 74 degrees east 49 perches to the mouth of Suke's Run, thence north 30 degrees east 150 perches to a post in Watson's field, thence north 19 degrees west 150 perches to the river Allegheny, thence down the said river Allegheny south 71 degrees west 315 perches to the place of beginning." It will be seen

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

that these boundaries include something more on the Monongahela side than the plan of lots surveyed by Mr. Wood, as given above. In the matter of regu- lating the borough government, the act directs that certain provisions of the recent act for the erection of the Borough of Reading be followed, The first election of borough officers was fixed by the act to take place on the 19th of the following May, which was accordingly held, and the persons named below were chosen to fill the several offices: "Two chief burgesses, George Robinson and Josiah Tannehill; high constable, Samuel Morrison; town clerk, James Clow; assistant burgesses, Nathaniel Irish, John Johnston, George Adams and Nathaniel Bedford; assessors, William Amberson and Abraham Kirkpatrick; supervisors, William Gray and John McMasters." Two days later the first regular meeting of the newly-elected council took place, when Adamson Tannehill, William H. Beaumont and Major Isaac Craig were appointed surveyors or regulators of the borough.

Mr. Craig, in his History of Pittsburg, gives a description of Pittsburg a's it appeared soon after its erection into a borough. He says: "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. The gates were gone, and the brick wall, called the revetment, which supported two of the ramparts facing toward the town, and against which the officers and soldiers used to play ball, were gone, so that the earth all around had assumed the natural slope. Outside the fort, on the side next the Allegheny River, was a large, deep pond, the frequent resort of wild ducks. Along the south side of Liberty Street, and extending from Diamond Alley to the foot of Fourth Street (now avenue) another pond, from which a deep ditch led the water into a brick archway, lead- ing from Front Street (now First Avenue), just below Redoubt Alley, into the Monongahela. . . . South of Market Street, just below Front and Water Streets, was another pond, and still another in the square in front of the St. Charles Hotel (i. e. west of Wood Street and south of Third Avenue). Finally, there was Hogg's Fond"-so called after Captain James Hogg, whose name is fre- quently met with in the early history of the country around the headwaters of the Ohio, and who was a member of the Transylvania Land Company-"extend- ing along the north of Grant's Hills from Fourth to Seventh Avenues. From this last there was a low, ugly drain, extending down nearly parallel to Wood Street to the river. A stone bridge was built across this gully on First Avenue, probably soon after the borough was incorporated. .... Nothing could be less pleasing to the eye than the rugged, irregular bank of the Monongahela. From the bridge (Smithfield Street) down to Wood Street, the distance from the lots to the break of the bank was from sixty to seventy feet. Wood Street was impassable when the river was moderately high. From Wood to Market, the distance from the lots to the break of the bank was fifty or sixty feet. At Market Street there was a deep gully worn into the bank, so that a wagon could barely pass along. At the mouth of Chancery Lane there was another chasm in the bank. At Ferry Street there was a similar contraction of the way. At Redoubt Alley there was quite a steep and stony descent down to the level of the covered archway of which I have before spoken. Below that archway the space between the lots and the break of the bank nowhere exceeded twenty feet, and between Short and West streets it varied from fifteen feet to five."

was

CHAPTER V.

TRANSPORTATION-THE KEEL-BOATS AND KENTUCKY BOATS-THE PACK-HORSE PERIOD-THE TRAILS AND EARLIEST ROADS-WAGONING OVER THE MOUN-

TAINS - CONVEYANCE BY SCHOONERS, BRIGS AND SHIPS - SEA-GOING

VESSELS-TURNPIKE AND PLANK ROADS-THE STAGE COMPANIES-

CARRIAGE OF FREIGHT -MAIL AND PASSENGER LINES - THE

GREENSBURG AND PITTSBURG TURNPIKE - OPPOSITION

TO THE CUMBERLAND ROAD-IMPROVEMENTS IN NAV- IGATION-FERRYBOATS, WHARVES AND DOCKS-

THE STEAMBOATS - INCIDENTS AND STA-

TISTICS - THE STRUGGLE TO GAIN THE

TRANSIT TRADE-TELEGRAPH LINES - ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES OF

VESSELS - TOLL ROADS, ETC.

Batteaux and canoes were used by the French and their Indian allies to carry themselves and their possessions down the Allegheny River to this point in 1754. After the establishment of Fort Duquesne the same conveyance was used to supply the garrison with necessaries. After the English took possession in 1758, batteaux were used on the rivers and pack-horses over the mountains, and the same conveyances continued to serve the purpose during the Revolutionary war. In 1776 Gibson and Linn made the hazardous trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, and the following spring returned with 136 kegs of gunpowder for the Continental army. At the "Falls of the Ohio" they were forced to unload and carry their cargo around the falls. No doubt they used batteaux or canoes. Their trip was such a pronounced success that others with produce to sell ventured over the same perilous route (a). Flatboats, how- ever, were used instead of batteaux or canoes, the boats being sold for whatever they would bring after the cargo had been disposed of. In fact, it was in 1777, after the return of Gibson and Linn, that boat-building by carpenters from Phila- delphia began for the first time on the Monongahela. This industry grew very rapidly and gave employment in a short time to large numbers of persons, both as builders and boatmen. The journey to New Orleans was a dangerous one, for Indians lined the rivers and constant vigilance was required. Snags, whirlpools and eddies were of frequent occurrence and pirates and desperadoes were on the watch to plunder and murder. The boatmen equaled the emergency and at the call of the horn were ready for any sort of an affray with Indians, pirates or scoundrels. Keel-boats, fiatboats, batteaux, "Kentucke" boats, arks, barges and other varieties of conveyance by water were devised. The arks were used to take down families and live stock, and were often large enough to carry 500 barrels of flour. Keel-boats were usually the only early kind used for common carrier service. They carried about thirty tons.

In 1794 packet boats began to ply regularly down the river from Pittsburg. They carried cannon and arms, and passengers slept on them instead of having to go ashore. The line extended between Pittsburg and Cincinnati and consisted of four keel-boats of twenty tons each, the round trip being made in four weeks.

(a) History of Pennsylvania.

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

The cabins were made rifle-ball proof. Property insurance on these boats was offered and men could work their passage, but must obey the master. Up to this time commerce was confined to necessities, but now began to be a source of profit to the owners of the line. Thus was transportation on the rivers con- ducted until steamboats came. On the keel or packet boats the cost of freight was usually about six times as much up stream as down.

The early commerce of Pittsburg was injured to some extent by the fact that freight at one time from the Atlantic coast, destined for the western country, could be carried via New Orleans cheaper than across the mountains (b).

Before 1755 there was no road for wagons west of the Alleghanies, but dur- ing that year one was cut by the army of General Braddock along an old Indian trail, and in 1758 another was cut by the army of General Forbes. Immediately succeeding this for many years pack-horses were almost the sole means of con- veyance across the mountains. Beginning with 1760 the settlers began to pour across the Alleghanies into Western Pennsylvania. After that date caravans of twelve to fifteen horses, tied together in single file, each animal carrying about 200 pounds, and the whole line guided by two men, would carry eastward the furs, peltries, ginseng, bear's grease, etc., of the western country and bring back salt, iron, nails, etc. When wagons were finally introduced to take the place of the pack-horses, the drivers of the latter were much offended, and in some instances openly rebelled, believing their rights had been invaded. Pack-horses continued to be used so long as roads were difficult of passage by wagons.

"For several years after the peace of 1783 there was nothing but a horse-path over the mountains; so that salt, iron, powder, lead, and other necessary articles had to be carried on pack-horses from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. As late as 1794, the year of the insurrection, so bad were the roads that freight in wagons cost from five to ten dollars per hundred pounds; salt sold for five dollars a bushel; iron and steel fiom fifteen to twenty cents per pound in Pittsburg" (d).

In 1782 the Monongahela River was declared by the Legislature a public highway, and John Ormsby was granted the right in March, 1784, to establish a ferry on the same at Pittsburg. In September, 1785, Jacob Bausman was granted the right to establish a ferry on the Monongahela River opposite Pittsburg, and in March, 1784, the Legislature granted to David Elliott the right to establish a ferry over the Ohio at the mouth of Sawmill Run, about one mile below Pittsburg. By act of September, 1785, the Legislature appropriated £2,000 to lay out a "States Highway" from Miller's Spring in Cumberland County to Pittsburg, and by act of March, 1798, the Ohio and the Allegheny rivers were again declared public streams or highways.

"Philadelphia, September 14, 1786.

"Mr. Brison is just returned from New York with orders to establish a post irom this place to Pittsburg and one from Virginia to Bedford, the two to meet at Bedford; from thence one will proceed to Pittsburg (e)."

An act passed the house March 15, 1784, "For raising, by way of lottery, the sum of $42,000 for improving the public roads from the city of Philadelphia to the western part of the state and toward the improving the navigation of the river Schuylkill." September 25, 1785, there was passed "An act to appropriate the sum of £2,000 of the public money to the laying out and making of a highway from the western parts of Cumberland County to the town of Pittsburg and to authorize the president in council to appoint commissioners to lay out the same." By 1788, £600 had been spent on that part of the road which led over the moun- tains. In 1786 a bill to carry on this work was introduced, but, strange to say,

(b) Judge Barnett. (d) Egle.

(e) Extract of a letter written at Philadelphia and published in the Gazette of 1833.

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

was lost because the people did not want to be taxed for it. August 30, 1786, John Blair notified people along the Monongahela that he intended to pass up and down between Pittsburg and Gasting's ferry, thirty-five miles, every week with his boat.

On September 25, 1783, the General Assembly, by special act, granted William Butler the right to establish a public ferry upon the land reserved to the State opposite the town of Pittsburg, and Mr. Butler continued to conduct the same until 1786, when having found that his building was subject to overflow, he was granted the furtlier right of erecting his building upon any other portion of the said reserved tract, and was also allowed to cultivate land there which had pre- viously been cultivated by James Boggs, deceased.

During the year 1784 about sixty-three wagon loads of goods from the East, mainly from Philadelphia, arrived in Pittsburg, and for the round trip each team charged about £50, or $250, for its services. Goods for the merchants were brought out and the products of the Western country taken back; but the revenue from these transactions came from the pockets of the Western people, who were already almost wholly destitute of money. It came to be properly reckoned, therefore, that the money paid the wagoners was in the nature of a tax upon the people, which could be cut down very greatly by the construction of good roads- turnpikes. But the people had no money to build roads and so were compelled to pay the enormous tax to the wagoners. When the roads became bad in the wet season of the year, pack-horses were used to carry the freight back and forth to the Western country. Long lines of loaded animals could be seen winding through the forests and around the mountain sides (f).

From October, 1786, to December, 1788, the number of boats and persons passing down the Ohio for Kentucky and elsewhere from a register kept at Fort Harmar at the mouth of the Muskingum was as follows: Boats, 857; souls, 16,203; horses, 7,190; black cattle, 1,811; sheep, 1,258; wagons, 563.

In 1786 a ferry was opened, by Hugh Ross from his new house to Rory Frazer's in Pittsburg on the Monongahela and was made free on Sunday from Io to 12 and 3 to 4 o'clock for those wishing to attend divine service in Pittsburg.

"Since Sunday evening last upward of 120 boats have passed by this town on their way to Kentucky, which at an average of 15 persons each, will add 1,800 inhabitants to that young settlement. This excessive emigration, it is said, is owing to the badness of the crops of corn in old Virginia, which have not, in general, produced one-fourth of the quantities that were expected. There are more than the above number now up the Monongahela River nearly in readiness to depart for the same country" (g).

In May, 1787, a resolution was introduced in the House declaring a state road opened extending from the Middle Ferry on the Schuylkill to Lancaster, thence to Miller's Springs and thence to Pittsburg, and appropriating £2,000 annually for the maintenance of the same, to be raised by a tax on horses. This resolution was lost by a vote of 29 to 36 (h). H. H. Brackenridge said of this · road in April, 1788: "Perhaps it might be well that the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg should remain as it is, because, in that case, it would resemble the way to heaven-rough, rugged and difficult to pass."

In March, 1787, a post route was established from Alexandria, Virginia, to Pittsburg, via Newgate, Leesburg, Winchester, Fort Cumberland and Bedford, to be weekly from May Ist to November Ist, and fortnightly the rest of the year. In April, 1788, about 4,000 persons passed down the river Ohio to Kentucky and Ohio (i). Marcus Huling asked all those who owed him for ferriage to pay same

(f) Gazette, June 2, 1787.

(g) Gazette, November 24, 1787.

(h) Gazette, March 19, 1787. (i) Gazette, July 12, 1788.

HISTORY OF PITTSBURG.

at once, June 12, 1788. In 1788 the Ohio Company sent out many emigrants for settlement in that state under General Putnam. John Patch took the Ormsby ferry in August, 1789. Previous to January 23, 1790, the rivers here continued open, permitting navigation-a mild winter. A large keel-boat came down the Monongahela River in the evening of January 31, 1789, loaded with coal, and was sunk and four persons were drowned. John McDonald, the owner, reached shore, but came near freezing to death before finding shelter.

In August, 1787, the general postoffice at New York called for proposals for carrying the mail from Philadelphia to Bedford, to commence January I, 1788, and continue one year, the contractor to have the exclusive privilege of carrying the mail for hire over the route, and to pay all expenses and receive all the postage and other emoluments therefrom, the rate of postage to be fixed by Congress.

In September, 1787, it was noted in the Gazette as a memorable circum- stance that David Irwin with his team and wagon had carried 2,800 pounds over North and Tuscarora mountains, through Clark's Gap, on the new road built by Mr. Skinner (j).

In April, 1791, the Governor was empowered to contract for certain improve- ments, among which was £500 on the road from Bedford to Pittsburg.

In 1792 the Legislature appointed commissioners to make an artificial road from Philadelphia to Lancaster, which act led to the formation of the Phila- delphia and Lancaster Turnpike Company, with a capital of $360,000. This com- pany was incorporated April 9, 1792, and the road was finished in 1794, and was about sixty-two miles in length.

It appears, then, that the first two routes to the East were the old Braddock trail to Cumberland and thence to Baltimore, and the other route through Bedford, Chambersburg, Harrisburg to Philadelphia. Later, these gave place to three routes partly over the other lines: I. The Braddock trail was aban- doned for the one leading more directly to Brownsville, thence through Union- town; 2. The Bedford route; 3. The northern route through Murrysville and Ebensburg, the latter nearly on the old Kittanning trail. For many years these were the great highways connecting Western Pennsylvania with the Atlantic cities, and as the settlements progressed branch roads from these routes were projected in all directions. In the 'Sos a rude road was laid out to connect Pittsburg with Washington and another to connect it with the Ohio country via Beaver, and still another to branch from this line northward to Lake Erie. None of these was turnpiked at first, but was kept in uncertain repair by teamsters and merchants, who were compelled to corduroy or otherwise improve them in places from time to time, and such was the condition of the roads until after the beginning of the present century. Almost from the start, how- ever, the State aided with meager and insufficient appropriations to keep the main routes in repair.

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Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Part 9

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