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HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
ITS RISE AND PROGRESS
BY
SARAH H. KILLIKELLY
PITTSBURGH, PA.
B. C, & GORDON MONTGOMERY CO.
1906
p- 1 s^
Copyright, 1906
BY SARAH H. KILLIKELLY
LIBRARY of OONSRESS Two Copies Received
DEC 16 1906
GLASS A/XXc.^No, ' COPY B. '•
J. B LYON COMPANY PRINTERS, ALBANY, N. Y.
PREFATORY NOTE
^^OUR years after commencin'g the task of gathering *| data, this volume is presented to the public. The history of Pittsburgh is essentially the history of Allegheny county — the greater Pittsburgh. The chief factor in its rise and progress has been manufacturing. All others have been secondary. Whatever has been ma- tured and sent forth from this district has been given what may be called its final touch in Pittsburgh. The city, as the metropolis of the county and the vast busy region adjacent thereto, has stood out in the affairs of the State and nation, and in the history of the world, as a leader in the evolution of the industrial arts for nearly a century. For this reason it has been impossible to confine the treatment to Pittsburgh proper, or to give distinct place to any lesser city or town within the district. Generally, what is written of Pittsburgh will, with very little modification, apply to Allegheny, and so on.
To ensure the best results it has been necessary to divide the work into sections. The chief aim has been to make a readable book, not a biographical work; to make a book of events, which actually constitute the history of Pittsburgh, rather than laudatory accounts of those who played a part therein. An attempt has also been made, in a moderate
[ iii ]
PEEFATORY NOTE
way, to hold the history of the district in just proportion to national history. That it is not more complete in this re- spect is due to the meagre records, and to this cause may also be attributed the brevity of the minor sections of the book.
In the collection of data I wish to acknowledge my indebt- edness to Mrs. Mary C. Darlington, Mr. J. L. Schwartz, and my niece, Sarah Carpenter, of Pittsburgh; to the various city and county officials ; to the libraries of the city and to Miss Willard, of the Central Carnegie Library; to the His- torical Societies of Pennsylvania and New York, and to the National Library at Washington. For assistance in the preparation of the work, I am indebted to my niece, and to Mr. Karl A. Seager, of New York.
July twentieth, 1906. Saeah H. Killikelly.
[iv]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece, Pittsburgh at Night.
Relic of the French Domination, found at Point Pleasant, buried in the
summer of 1749 4
Plan of Fort Duquesne 15
Historical Map of Southwestern Pennsylvania, showing sites of the prin- cipal old Forts, Military Roads, and Trails 19
Plan of Fort Pitt 36
Block House, built by Colonel Bouquet, 1764 49
Fort Fayette 59
Plan of Lots in Pittsburgh, 1764 74
First Pittsburgh Post Office and First Home of the Gazette 99
Allegheny County's first Court House and the Old Diamond Market 106
Pittsburgh in 1795 115
Benjamin Bakewell, Esq 134
Point Bridge and Coal Fleet 145
Pittsburgh in 1817, from a sketch by Mrs. E. C. Gibson 157
Smithfield Street Bridge, 1832, from an oil painting by Russel Smith, 1833. 160 Pittsburgh about 1825; from an old plate made by Clews of Stafi'ordshire,
Eng 162
Pittsburgh in 1825-26, from "The Travels of H. H. Bernhard, Duke of
Saxe Weimar Eisenach, in North America, 1825-26." 165
Old Allegheny Penitentiary; from an old platter made in England 168
Aqueduct over the Allegheny 1829, from an oil painting by Russel Smith. 170
Allegheny County Court House, destroyed by fire 1882 176
Over the Mountains in 1839; Canal Boat being hauled over the portage
road 181
Diagram of the Burned District 186
Great Conflagration at Pittsburgh, April 10, 1845 189
Pittsburgh and Allegheny, from Coal Hill, 1849 194
Old City Hall 202
Burning of Round House, from a sketch by J. W. Alexander 229
Burning of Union Station, from a sketch by Fred B. Schell 233
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Pittsburgh as it is to-day 244
A Typical Steel Works, Jones & Laughlin Steel Co 248
One of Pittsburgh's Giants, the Westinghouse Works 253
University Building, 1830-45, and Present Buildings 294
Allegheny Observatory, Riverview Park, Allegheny 302.
First Trinity Church 357
Plan of Pews in Old Log Church 362
Old First Presbyterian Church 365
Third Presbyterian Church, corner Third and Ferry streets, built 1833. . . . 368
First Presbyterian Church in East Liberty, erected 1819 371
Old United Evangelical Church 376
Subsistence Committee and part of City Hall where upwards of four hun- dred thousand soldiers were furnished a meal each during the Civil
War. A thousand could be accommodated at one time 478
General James O'Hara 519
Hon. Wm. Wilkins 520
Hon. Ebenezer Denny, first Mayor of Pittsburgh 522
Pittsburgh's first Theatre and the Old Drury Theatre 530
Stephen Foster, author of " Suwanee River " and other songs 536
Mrs. Mary Schenley 538
Anderson Library, Allegheny, established 1850 549
Carnegie Institute 554
CHRONOLOGY
1681 Grant of land by Charles II. to William Penn.
1682 William Penn founded the Province of Pennsylvania
and drafted the " Frame of Government."
1682 The French laid claim through LaSalle's discovery of the Mississippi to all the tributary rivers and the territory through which they flowed.
1713 At the Treaty of Utrecht the English claimed the con- tinent from sea to sea through the discoveries of the Cabots,
1716 The Governor of Virginia became alarmed at the in- tention of the French to extend a series of fortifica- tions between their possessions in Canada and Louisiana, thereby creating a French military bar- rier west of the English provinces.
1719 Governor Keith, of Pennsylvania, urged the erection of a fort on Lake Erie.
1731 Lieutenant-Governor Patrick again reminded the Pennsylvania Assembly of the menace of the French and recommended a fort on Lake Erie.
1744 Treaty at Lancaster. Eepresentatives of Pennsyl- vania, Virginia, and Maryland met with the Six Nations. Conrad Weiser acted as friend and inter- preter for the Indians. Upon the purchase accom- plished at this treaty the English thereafter based their western territorial rights against the Indians.
1748 Ohio Land Company organized by Thomas Lee, Presi- dent of the Virginia Assembly, to settle the lands about the headwaters of the Ohio. [ V ]
CHRONOLOGY
1748 Conrad Weiser presided over Council and Treaty with
the Indians at Logstown further confirming the Treaty at Lancaster.
1749 The Governor-General of Canada despatched Captain
Celeron down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers to take formal possession of that region for France in the name of Louis XV. by depositing Leaden Plates, en- graved to that effect, and buried at various points. French possession of the ' ' Three Rivers ' ' was thus declared and recorded August third, 1749.
1749 Many evidences of English traders among the Indians
in this region.
1750 Christopher Gist blazed the trail west over the moun-
tains from Virginia, following the Potomac, the Juniata, the Kiskiminetas down the Allegheny into the Ohio, below the " Three Rivers."
1751 Christopher Gist again went west and was present at
a treaty with the Indians held at Logstown.
1752 Beginning of the Boundary dispute between Penn-
sylvania and Virginia.
1753 George Washington, with Gist for guide, acted as mes-
senger for Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, to the Commandant at Fort Le Boeuf.
1754 Captain Trent and forty men sent by Governor Din-
widdle arrived at the Forks of the Ohio, and began the erection of a stockade.
1754 April seventeenth, Captain Contrecoeur, with several hundred French and Indians, came down the Alle- gheny, demanded the surrender of Trent's men and sent them back to Governor Dinwiddle, declaring the English to be encroaching on French territory.
1754 The erection of Fort Duquesne on the *' Point " named in honor of the Governor-General, of Canada.
1754 May twenty-eighth, " Battle of Little Meadows " (a skirmish in which Washington was successful).
1754 July third, " Battle of Great Meadows " (an engage- ment of some ultimate purport, in which Washing- ton was defeated, and forced to evacuate the stock- ade called " Fort Necessity "). [ vi ]
CHRONOLOGY
1754 Services held by Catholic daaplain at Chapel, in Fort
Duquesne.
1755 July ninth, Braddock's defeat.
1756 September, Colonel Armstrong's successful expedi-
tion against Kittanning.
1758 September fourteenth, Major Grant, with a detach- ment of the Forbes army, made a precipitate attack on the French, in the vicinity of Fort Duquesne, and suffered a disastrous defeat.
1758 November twenty-fourth, the French destroyed their stores at Fort Duquesne, fired the structure, and hurriedly evacuated, being unequal to meet and re- sist General Forbes.
1758 November twenty-fifth. General Forbes and his army camped in sight of the smouldering ruins. Among his officers were Colonel George Washington and Colonel Bouquet.
1758 The name * ' Pittsburgh ' ' first used.
1758-59, winter of. Erection of the first Fort Pitt. Colonel Hugh Mercer in command.
1759 September third, General Stanwix, with large force of
workmen, began the erection of the substantial structure of Fort Pitt, which was not completed until the summer of 1761.
1760 First recorded population of Pittsburgh, 464.
1760 First boats built in Pittsburgh.
1761 The first schoolmaster had twenty scholars.
1763 Survey of boundary between Pennsylvania and Mary- land commenced by Mason and Dixon.
1763 Siege of Fort Pitt during Conspiracy of Pontiac.
1763 May thirtieth, Captain Ecuyer, Commandant of the Fort, demolished the town of Pittsburgh, and took the inhabitants into the Fort.
1763 August eleventh, siege lifted by reinforcements under
Colonel Bouquet.
1764 Redoubt or Block House built during summer, bearing
tablet engraved '' Coll. Bouquet, 1764." 1764 First survey made of Pittsburgh, by Colonel John Campbell.
[ vii ]
CHEONOLOGY
1766 Coal was used in the Garrison, and '' Coal Hill " was burning.
1768 October twenty-fourth, at a conference with the Six
Nations, Delawares and Shawanese, Thomas and Richard Penn purchased, for $10,000.00, territory including Pittsburgh and vicinity.
1769 Early part of this year, the Manor of Pittsburgh was
surveyed, containing 5,766 acres.
1770 Washington stopped at Pittsburgh on a journey to
look over land he held in the '' Western Country." Previous to the year 1770, a short distance above where the arsenal is now located, Jonathan Plum- mer erected a distillery.
1771 The Penns appointed magistrates to act in Pittsburgh.
1772 October, because of the Penn purchase of 1768, Gen-
eral Gage ordered Major Edmonson to abandon Fort Pitt.
1773 By order of Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, Dr. John
Connolly took possession of Fort Pitt, and renamed
it Fort Dunmore. 1775 August seventh, Captain John Neville, with 100 men,
garrisoned Fort Pitt. 1775 February twenty-first, Virginia held the first court in
Pittsburgh. 1775 A ducking stool was erected at the Point. 1775 May sixteenth, prominent Pittsburghers took part in a
meeting at Hannastown, to indorse the action of the
eastern provinces in resisting Great Britain.
1779 Amicable settlement of the bitter Boundary Dispute,
between Pennsylvania and Virginia.
1780 Iron ore discovered on western slope of the AUe-
ghenies.
1781 Protest of citizens against Colonel Brodhead.
1781 November sixth, Cornwallis surrender reported at
Fort Pitt.
1782 Monongahela declared open to the public, followed
shortly by similar declarations regarding the Ohio and Allegheny.
1783 September, William Butler was granted the right of a
ferry between Pittsburgh and the tract opposite (Allegheny).
[ viii ]
CHEONOLOGY
1784 March, Jolin Ormsby was granted tlie right of a ferry from Pittsburgh across the Monongahela.
1784 David Elliott was granted the right of a ferry from Saw Mill Run to the opposite bank of the Ohio.
1784 Woods and Vickroy surveyed Pittsburgh.
1784 First sale of land included in the Manor of Pittsburgh
was made to Isaac Craig and Stephen Bayard.
1785 September, An Act appropriated $10,000.00, for a
State road between Miller's Spring and Pittsburgh.
1786 July twenty-ninth, John Scull and Joseph Hall estab-
lished the Pittsburgh Gazette.
1786 Hugh Ross established the first ropewalk.
1787 Deed executed by John Penn and John Penn, Jr., for
two and one-half lots for erection of Trinity Church ;
deed filed at Greensburg, 1788. 1787 Presbyterian congregation organized at Pittsburgh;
Penns deeded lot for this church. 1787 German Evangelical Church also given lots by the
Penns for a church. 1787 First postal service. 1787 First Market House.
1787 Incorporation of Pittsburgh Academy.
1788 The Reserved Tract, opposite Pittsburgh (now Alle-
gheny), was surveyed. 1788 Allegheny county erected. 1788 December, first court of Quarter Sessions held in the
house of Andrew Watson. 1788 First Circulating library. 1790 Iron ore found in Fayette county by John Hayden.
1790 Furnace of Alliance Iron Works first blown in, on
November first.
1791 Congress laid an excise on spirits.
1791 An Act appropriating $2,500.00 for a road from Bed-
ford to Pittsburgh, was passed.
1792 George Anshutz built the first iron furnace in Pitts-
burgh. 1792 May first, Fort Fayette first occupied. 1792 Mass meeting to denounce whiskey tax. 1794 April twenty-second, Pittsburgh incorporated as a
Borough.
[ ix ]
CHRONOLOGY
1794 May nineteenth, first election of Borough officers, two chief Burgesses elected, George Robinson and Josiah Tannehill.
1794 August twentieth, General Anthony Wayne, at Fort Deposit, so completely defeated the Indians as to forever relieve Pittsburgh from the devastations and raids to which it had always been subject.
1794 August first, seven thousand men gathered in rebellion against the government because of the whiskey tax.
1794 October first. President Washington and an army of
about 12,000 started for Pittsburgh. Before they had reached Bedford the insurrectionists had sub- mitted and the Whiskey Insurrection ended.
1795 Jacob Bowman made nails in his factory at Browns-
ville. 1797 First glass manufactured by Craig and O'Hara. 1797 April sixteenth, a meeting of the citizens at which it
was resolved to buy fifty fire buckets. This was the
beginning of the Fire Department. 1799. First court house completed. 1800 Population of Pittsburgh, 1,565.
1802 Pathways of brick, stone or gravel, bounded by curb- stones, were laid in the town. 1802 August ninth. Town Council ordered four wells sunk
to increase the water supply. 1803-4 First iron foundry in Pittsburgh erected by Joseph
McClurg on the northeast comer of Fifth avenue
and Smithfield street. 1804 March fifth, Borough of Pittsburgh re-incorporated. 1804 First cotton factory by Peter Eltonhead. 1804 A branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania established. 1804 First line of stages, with regular schedule, between
this place and the East. 1808-9 First white or flint glass house. 1810 Population of Pittsburgh was 4,740. 1810 Great flood ; much damage done.
1810 Bank of Pittsburgh organized as a private institution.
1811 First steamboat, the ' ' New Orleans, ' ' built on western
waters at Pittsburgh. 1813 Pittsburgh '' Humane Society " established.
[ X ]
CHRONOLOGY
1813-14 Building of the Allegheny Arsenal.
1816 March eighth, Pittsburgh incorporated as a city.
1816 Mayor of Pittsburgh, Ebenezer Denny,
1816 Bayardstown and Lawrenceville laid out.
1816 Charters granted for the first bridges over the Monon-
gahela and Allegheny,
1817 September fifth. President Monroe visited the city. 1817 Mayor, John Darragh ; served until 1825,
1817 Branch Bank of the United States established.
1817 259 factories and manufactories,
1818 Monongahela bridge opened.
1819 First rolling mill to puddle iron and roll iron bars.
Union Rolling Mill.
1819 Februar}^ eighteenth, charter of Western University.
1820 First Allegheny bridge opened.
1820 Population, 7,248,
1821 Gas found by Cook and McClelland while boring for
salt water, on Little Chartiers Creek, six miles from Washington, Pa. 1825 Visit of General Lafayette.
1825 Mayor, John M. Snowden ; served until 1828.
1826 Bill authorizing the Pennsylvania Canal.
1827 Completion of the State Prison ; cost $183,092.
1828 Mayor, Magnus M. Murray ; served until 1830.
1828 April fourteenth, Allegheny and Birmingham incor- porated into boroughs.
1828 December, first waterworks went into operation.
1829 April twenty-third. The Northern Liberties became a
borough. 1829 November tenth, first canal boat entered Pittsburgh.
1829 December fourth, the city was divided into four wards,
North, South, East, and West.
1830 Mayor, Matthew B. Lowrie.
1830 Population of Pittsburgh and environs, 22,461.
1830 Great tariff agitation.
1831 Mayor, Magnus M. Murray.
1831 First steam ferry.
1832 Mayor, Samuel Pettigrew; served until 1836. 3832 A scourge of cholera.
1833 Daniel Webster visited the city.
[ xi ]
CHRONOLOGY
1833 Removal of govemment deposits from the branch of
the United States Bank. 1833-34 Legislature amended the city charter, and the mayor was elected from the body of the people.
1834 April sixteenth, completion of the canal from the coast
to Pittsburgh.
1835 September, first common schools opened in Pitts-
burgh. 1835-36 Organization of first Board of Trade in Pittsburgh.
1836 Mayor, Jonas R. McClintock ; served until 1839.
1837 February twenty-second, Monongahela Navigation
Company obtained a charter.
1837 The four wards of the city were denominated First, Second, Third, and Fourth, and the Northern Lib- erties were incorporated as the Fifth Ward.
1837 First Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh.
1837 The Panic.
1837 Suspension of specie payment. * ' Rag currency ' ' pre- vailed.
1837 April fifth, city first lighted by gas. Experiments made, 1829.
1839 Mayor, William Little.
1840 Mayor, William W. Irwin.
1840 Pittsburgh and Beaver Canal opened.
1840 During this year about one hundred iron boats were
made in Pittsburgh. 1840 Population of Pittsburgh proper, 21,115; including
suburbs, 38,931. 1840 Pittsburgh known as the Iron City.
1840 5,927 people engaged in manufacturing in what is now
Greater Pittsburgh. Capital invested in manufac- turing, $3,554,562.
1841 Mayor, James Thomson.
1842 Tariff legislation affecting Pittsburgh industries. 1842 Mayor, Alexander Hay ; served until 1845.
1842 Three bridges across the Allegheny. 1842 Six daily and twelve weekly newspapers, besides periodicals, published here.
1842 The second court house completed ; cost $200,000.
1843 The third jail completed.
[ xii ]
CHRONOLOGY
1844 Second system of waterworks put into operation.
1845 Mayor, William J. Howard.
1845 Great fire. Fifty-six acres of Pittsburgh consumed.
1845 First towing of coal by steam, by Daniel Bushnell and
the " Walter Forward." ] 846 Mayor, William Kerr.
1846 Tariff legislation affecting Pittsburgh industries.
1846 First telegraphic communication with the east.
1847 Mayor, Gabriel Adams ; served until 1849.
1847 January first, first hospital '' The Mercy."
1848 Henry Clay visited Pittsburgh.
1849 Mayor, John Herron.
1849 President Taylor, accompanied by Governor Johnston,
visited Pittsburgh.
1850 Population of Pittsburgh proper, 46,601; including
suburbs, 55,583. 1850 Mayor, Joseph Barker.
1850 Value of Pittsburgh manufactures, $50,000,000.
1851 Pittsburgh and Ohio Railroad completed to Beaver;
July first, first locomotive, *' The Salem," arrived by canal.
1851 Mayor, John B. Guthrie; served until 1853.
1852 Baltimore & Ohio and Pennnsylvania Central Rail-
roads opened. 1852 Board of Health established.
1852 Visit of Louis Kossuth, ex-Governor of Hungary. 1852-53 Building of City Hall and Market House on the
Diamond.
1853 Mayor, Robert M. Riddle.
1853 Work on Allegheny Valley Railroad commenced.
1853 Post-office and Government Building erected, corner
of Fifth avenue and Smithfield street. 1853-54 Effort to consolidate Pittsburgh and Allegheny and adjacent boroughs.
1854 Mayor, Ferdinand E. Volz ; served until 1856.
1854 Another visitation of cholera by which 249 persons
died. 1854 Inauguration of the use of iron in the outside, structure
of buildings. 1854 Reorganization of the Board of Trade.
[ xiii ]
CHRONOLOGY
1855 Roman Catholic Cathedral completed.
1856 Mayor, William Bingham.
1856 February, holding of the first National Republican
Convention, Lafayette Hall,
1857 Mayor, Henry A. Weaver; served until 1860.
1857 September to January first, 1858, business almost at a stand-still.
1857 The Public Works (canals) purchased by the Penn-
sylvania Railroad Company for $7,500,000.
1858 First operation of the law requiring that the mayor,
treasurer, and controller be elected biennially by a general vote.
1859 First street railway built.
1859 August twenty-eighth, first oil well; great excitement
in Pittsburgh.
1860 Mayor, George Wilson ; served until 1862. 1860 Work on Allegheny Observatory commenced.
1860 Visit of Prince of Wales (now Edward VII., of Eng- land).
1860 City disturbed over its railroad debt.
1860-61 General suspension of specie payment.
1860 Tariff legislation affecting Pittsburgh industries.
1860 December twenty-fourth, Secretary of War Floyd or- dered removal of cannon from Arsenal.
1860 December twenty-seventh, citizens resolved to prevent
removal.
1861 January third. Secretary Floyd recalled order for re-
moval of cannon. 1861 February fourteenth and fifteenth. President Lincoln
visited Pittsburgh. 1861 April fourteenth, war excitement intense. 1861 April fifteenth. Committee of Public Safety formed.
1861 April seventeenth, the first troop, the Turner Rifles,
left Pittsburgh for the front.
1862 Mayor, B. C. Sawyer; served until 1864.
1862 September seventeenth. Arsenal explosion, 74 killed. 1862-64 War tariff legislation affected Pittsburgh favor- ably ; increased growth of city. 1864 Mayor, James Lowry ; served until 1866. 1864 Panic of short duration.
[ xiv ]
CHRONOLOGY
1864 Sanitary Fair held.
1865 September nineteenth, General Grant visited Pitts-
burgh.
1866 Mayor, W. S. McCarthy; served until 1868.
1866 September thirteenth, President Johnson, Admiral Farragut, General Grant and Secretaries Seward and Wells visited Pittsburgh.
1868 Mayor, James Blackmore.
1869 Manufacture of air brakes begun by George Westing-
house. 1869 Mayor, Jared M. Brush; served until 1872. (Term extended to three years).
1869 September fourteenth, President Grant visited Pitts-
burgh.
1870 Capital invested in Pittsburgh manufactures $106,-
732,000.00; value of products, $82,057,000.00. 1870 Paid fire department inaugurated. 1870-80 Many banks established. 1872 Mayor, James Blackmore; served until 1875. 1872 Work on new water system commenced. 1872 District south of the Monongahela, 27.7 square miles,
annexed to the city.
1872 New City Hall completed.
1873 Many bank suspensions.
1874 Steel manufactured by Bessemer process at Edgar
Thomson Steel Works.
1875 Mayor, William C. McCarthy; served until 1878.
1875 Natural gas applied to manufacturing.
1876 Point Bridge opened.
1877 Railroad riots.
1878 Mayor, Robert Liddell ; served until 1881.
1881 Mayor, Robert W. Lyon; served until 1884.
1882 May seventh, second court house burned. 1884 Mayor, Andrew Fulton ; served until 1887.
1887 Mayor, William McCallin; served until 1890.
1888 Present court house completed. 1888 Centennial celebration.
1890 Mayor, Henry I. Gourley; served until 1893.
1892 July, Homestead strike.
1893 Mayor, Bernard McKenna; served until 1896.
[ XV ]
CHRONOLOGY
1896 Mayor, Henry P. Ford; served until 1899. 1899 Mayor, William J. Diel; served until 1901.
1899 January thirteenth, ordinance for the widening of
Diamond alley; work completed 1904.
1900 Population 321,616.
1901 Recorder, A. M. Brown.
1901 Recorder, J. 0. Brown; served until 1903.
1903 Recorder, W. B. Hays ; served about one week.
1903 Mayor, W. B. Hays; served until 1906.
1903 January twenty-third, ordinance for the widening of Virgin alley; March twenty-third, 1904, name changed to Oliver avenue; work completed Decem- ber eleventh, 1905.
1905 250,000 men engaged in manufacturing.
1905 $2,000,000,000.00 invested in iron and steel manufac- tures; 103,000,000 tons of freight handled.
1905 First department of the Carnegie Technical Schools
opened.
1906 Roman Catholic Cathedral completed. 1906 Mayor, George W. Guthrie.
[ xvi ]
SOURCES
Colonial Records; Pennsylvania Archives; Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania; Niles' Register; Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America; Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography; The Magazine of Western History; Olden Times, Neville B. Craig; Annals of the West, Albach; Frontier Forts, edited by Dallas Albert; Works of Benjamin Franklin; The Journal of General Arthur St. Clair; William Trent's Journal; Jour- nal of Colonel Bouquet's Expedition; Upland and Denny's Journal; Gazette Publications, H. H. Brackenridge ; Fort Pitt, Mary C. Darlington; Gist's Journal, William M. Darlington; Old Round Church, Oliver Ormsby Page; Monongahela of Old, Judge James Veech; The Boundary Controversy, Judge James Veech; Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia Boundary Controversy, Neville B. Craig; Watson's Annals; History of Pittsburgh, Isaac Craig; Honest Man's Almanac, 1812; Riddle's Directory for 1815; Lyford's Western Directory ; Isaac Jones ' Directory for 1826 ; Har- ris' Directory for'l837; The Pittsburgh Gazette from 1786- 1880; The Pittsburgh Commercial Journal; The Commer- cial; The Hesperus and Western Miscellany; The Rhode Island Mercury; The New York Sun; The New York Tribune; The Boston Commercial Bulletin; Manuscript from the Manuscript Department of the Congressional Library, at Washington; Pamphlets from the State His- torical Society of Pennsylvania ; Pamphlets from the State
[ xvii ]
SOURCES
Historical Society of New York; History of the United States, George Bancroft ; Montcalm & Wolfe, Francis Park- man; Conspiracy of Pontiac, Francis Parkman; Spark's Life and Writings of Washington; History of American Politics, Alexander Johnston; Twenty Years in Congress, James G. Blaine; Tariff History of the United States, F. W. Taussig; History for Ready Reference, J. N. Larned; Financial History of the United States, A. S. Bolles; Life of Henry Clay, Carl Schurz ; Daniel Webster, H. C. Lodge ; Thirty Years' View, T. H, Benton; The Tariff Controversy, 0. H. Elliott; Travels through some of the Middle and Southern North American States, 1783-1784, Johann Davis Shoepf, Chancellor of the Medical College of Bayreuth; Travels in America, Thomas Ashe; Pope's Tours through the Southern and Western Territories of the United States, John Pope; Fearon's Travels; The Eastern and Western States of America, J. S. Buckingham, Esq.; Flint's Letters from America; Michaux's Travels to the Westward of the Allegheny Mountains; A Tour of the Unsettled Parts of North America, Journey Made in 1796 by Francis Baily; Recollections of the West, H. M. Brackenridge ; History of Pennsylvania, William H. Egle; Notes and Queries, Egle; History of the Whiskey Insurrection, H. M. Brackenridge; Whiskey Insurrection, Findley ; History of Western Penn- sylvania, by a Gentleman of the Bar (Rupp) ; Mrs. Royall's Description of Pittsburgh; Allegheny County, Its Early History, Rev. A. A. Lambing ; The Catholic Church and the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, Rev. A. A. Lambing ; History of Allegheny County, 1753-1876 ; Judiciary of Alle- gheny County, J. W. F. White ; Digest of Pittsburgh Laws ; Rebellion Record of Allegheny County; Anonymous pam- phlet, published by W. A. Lare and W. M. Hartzell ; Pitts- burgh As It Is, George H. Thurston ; Pittsburgh and Alle- gheny in the Centennial Year, George H. Thurston; Alle- gheny County's Hundred Years, George H. Thurston; Pittsburgh's Progress, Industries and Resources, George H. Thurston; Pittsburgh, Its Industries and Commerce, 1870; Historical Gleanings, Judge Parke; Standard History of Pittsburgh, edited by Erasmus Wilson ; Life and Reminis- cences, William G. Johnston ; Bishop's History of American
[ xviii ]
SOURCES
Manufactures; Report on the Manufacture of Glass, Joseph D. Weeks, 1884; Iron in All Ages, Swank; Merchants' Magazine of New York, 1854; Pittsburgh's Quarterly Maga- zine ; Chamber of Commerce Reports ; The Banker ; A Cen- tury of Banking in Pittsburgh; Annual Reports of the Public Schools of Pittsburgh; Review of Reviews, 1905; Harper's Weekly, 1877; Leslie's Weekly, 1877; The Index; The Leader; The Post; The Dispatch; The Bulletin.
[ xix ]
THE
HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
FRONTIER TIMES
The birth of Pittsburgh dates back to the contention of England with France for the continent of North America. The English had colonized the seaboard from Maine to Florida, and year by year were pushing farther inland their frontier line, claiming the land from the sea west, without limit, by right of the discoveries of the Cabots. The French had colonized the valley of the St. Lawrence and had possessed themselves of the Mississippi by the pioneer voyage of La Salle in 1682, claiming all the territory of the Mississipi)i and of its tributary rivers. It was inevitable that these rivals should meet, and they met where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers unite to form the Ohio.
In 1688 a comparison of the English with the French in North America showed the French to be in a majority by a proportion of almost twenty to one, and to this advan- tage of numbers they continually added advantage of position.
Governor Spotswood of Virginia, in 1716, alarmed by the encroachments of the French, attempted to break the line of French possessions from Canada to Louisiana by extend- ing the English settlements still farther west. He examined the mountain passes, encouraged settlers to establish them- selves on the other side, endeavored to increase the friendly relations with the Indians, and planned a Virginia Indian
[ 1 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
Company whose profits should pay for the maintenance of frontier defences. But his project was treated with in- difference and he accomplished nothing.
In 1719 Governor Keith of Pennsylvania urged upon the *' Lords of Trade " the necessity of the erection of a fort on Lake Erie, and Lieutenant-Governor Patrick Gordon brought the situation again before a meeting of the Pro-- vincial Council, held at Philadelphia, August fourth, 1731.
The minutes of this Council record that the French claims on this continent were " exorbitant; " that by the descrip- tion in the map there produced " they claim a great part of Carolina and Virginia, and had laid down Sasquehanna as a boundary of Pennsylvania, " * * * ^nd ' ' that by virtue of some treaty, as they allege, the French pretend the right to all the land lying on rivers the mouths of which they are possessed; that the river Ohio (a branch of the Mississippi) comes close to those mountains which lie about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty miles back of Sasquehanna, within the boundaries of this province, as granted by the King's Letters Patent; that adjoining thereto is a fine tract of land, called Allegheny, on which several Shawanese Indians had seated themselves. And that by advices lately brought to him by several traders in those parts, it appears that the French have been using endeavors to gain over those Indians to their inter- ests. " * * * It was further represented ' ' how destructive this attempt of the French, if attended with success, may prove to the English interests in this continent and how deeply in its consequences it may affect this province," * * * and it was moved that " to prevent or put a stop to these designs if possible a treaty should be set on foot with the Five Nations," * * * that " the Shawanese may not only be kept firm to the English interest, but like- wise be induced to remove from Allegheny nearer to the English settlements. * * * and no opportunity ought to be lost of cultivating and improving the friendship which has always subsisted between this government and them." * * *
Thus it was becoming more and more evident that if the English desired to extend their colonial possessions farther
[ 2 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
west, a binding treaty with the Indian nations should be speedily made. This, however, was not accomplished until the June of 1744, when Pennsylvania, Virginia and Mary- land met with the Six Nations at Lancaster, Pa., with Conrad Weiser as the '' friend and interpreter " of the Indians. " On the terms of this treaty the claims of the colonists to the west by purchase rested, and upon this and the grant from the Six Nations Great Britain relied in all subsequent steps."
At this time a Memorial was sent to the Prime Minister of England, Sir Robert Walpole, representing the pre- carious situation of the colonies. He, however, was so engrossed with the European condition that he did not con- sider the perplexities of the colonists. This lack of pro- tection to the colonies by the mother country bred early the necessity of independent action which culminated in the Revolution.
Governor Spotswood's scheme of settlement having failed, no further attempt was made till the year 1748, when a company denominated '' The Ohio Land Company," com- prised of gentlemen of Virginia and Maryland, among whom were Lawrence and Augustine Washington, was organized avowedly to further the Indian trade, but for the actual purpose of driving a wedge of English settlement west of the Allegheny mountains.
George the Second, through the right of discovery by the Cabots, granted to this company one-half million acres of land, " to be taken principally on the south side of the Ohio between the Monongahela and Kanawha." Two hundred thousand acres were to be taken up at once and to be free of rents and taxes to the King for ten years, upon con- dition that the company should settle, within seven years, 'one hundred families on the lands, build a fort, and main- tain a garrison to protect the settlement.
News of this project drifted to Pennsylvania and French traders in the Ohio region, who had no desire whatsoever to see Virginia gain a foothold and interfere with their interest, so word was taken to the Marquis de la Galis- soniere, Commandant General of New France (Canada), who forthwith dispatched M. Celeron de Brienville with
[ 3 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
an escort of two hundred men to take formal possession of the country in such manner as should thereafter give France B legal right thereto. Accordingly, Celeron buried, at the mouths of the tributary rivers to the Ohio, leaden plates, whereon was engraved the announcement that Louis XV. held the country '' by force of arms and by treaties, espe- cially those of Riswick, of Utrecht, and of Aix-la-Chapelle. ' ' Celeron also sent a letter to Governor Hamilton of Pennsyl- vania, dated " Camp on the Beautiful River, at an old village of the Shawanese, 6th August, 1749," desiring him to forbid that region to English and Colonial traders, assur- ing Governor Hamilton of his surprise at finding them there trespassing on the territory of France. Copies of this letter were sent by three different traders to insure its reaching the Governor. Several of these plates have been found, the earliest bearing the date of July twenty-ninth, 1749.
After Celeron's reconnoissance, in 1750, the French pro- ceeded to erect a series of forts, designed ultimately to connect their Canadian possessions with Louisiana, and did erect three: the first on the present site of the city of Erie; the second at what is now Waterford, and the third near what is now the town of Franklin.
The Ohio Land Company, in 1750, sent Christopher Gist, a surveyor, to explore their lands on and about the Ohio river, but nothing was accomplished in the way of a settle- ment owing to the obstacles which the traders and the French threw in their way. The Company concluded that the friendship of the Indians was of first necessity. In pursuance of this policy the treaty made at Logstown (about the present site of Sewickley) took place the next year. Mr. Gist attended as an agent for the Company, and the Indians agreed not to molest any settlements that might be made on the southeast side of the Ohio. It is remarkable, that in the debates attending the negotiation of this treaty, the Indians took care to disclaim a recognition of the English title to any of these lands. In a speech to the Commissioners, one of the old Chiefs said, '^ you acquainted us yesterday with the King's right to all the lands in Virginia, as far as it is settled, and back from
[ 4 ]
LAN I> 4^ DV REGNE DE LOVIS XV ROY.. 1^^ .,,:y: FRANCE NOVS CELORON COMMANDANT ^"^^ i^ U^'y-^;-:'^,--./:^ TACHEMENT ENN^OIE PAR MONSIEVR LE, M- Dcf' LlA ' '
CALtSSONiERE , COMMANDANT GENERAL DE LA ^ ^,
NOVVELLE IvRANCE POYR RETABLIR LA TRAN^viLJ^JTE ; DANS HVELHVES ^ VILLAGES SAUVAGES DE C.E.S ,"" CANrOM5 AV0N5 ENTERRE CETTE PLA^VE A LENTR E E DE 1/V /./%^^ RIUfERE CHINODAHICHETHA LE ISAOUST ^■■■•■'^' ■ ■'■:l|§
FRC? DE LA RIVIERE, 6Y(3_aUTREMENT BELLE' ^-fe R-IVIERE POVR MONVMENT d'v " R ENO V VELLEME N T . DE.'^V^^^^^ POSSESSION gVE NOVS AVONS : PRIS DE l^A DITTEJ:0:^
RIVIERE OYO ET
TOVTES CELLES *IVi Y TOMBI<?"r
E'T DE TOVES LES TERRES DES DEVX GQJE5 J VS^ VE ^s- AVX SOVFCES DES DITTES RlviES VINSf ylVEIC*, ONT lOVY OV pV JOVIR LES PRECEDENTS R(SXS DE FRANCE ^ET_^ ^VILS sisONT MAINTENVS PAR LE5^-,5i-ARMES ^ET PAR LES TRAITTES ■ SPECIALEMENT PAR^; t EVX , ,0 E RISVVICK DVTRGHT . ET DAIX LA CHPELLe' / ,^ :^, '^ ^
RELIC OF THE FRENCH DOMINATION, FOUND at POINT PLEASANT, BURIED IN THE SUMMER OF 17-19.
■' In the year 1749, in the reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Celoron, commandant of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la Gallssoniere, commandant general of New France, to re-establish tranquility in some Indian towns in these departments, have buried this plate at the mouth of the river * Chinodahichetha, this 18th day of August, near the river Ohio, otherwise called Beautiful River, as a memorial of the resumption of possession we have made of the said river Ohio, and all those that fall into it, and of all the lands on both sides up to the sources of the said rivers, the same as the preceding Kings of France have enjoyed or were en- titled to enjoy, and as they are established by arms and by treaties, especially by t]iose of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle." — Translated from the French.
It is a lead plate about nine inches in breadth, twelve or fourteen in length, and near an eighth of an inch in thickness. The inscription appears evidently to have been made by stamps. These appear to have been en- graved with a knife or instrument for that purpose, and are of thesame size and shape of the stamped letters made in France with others similar, expressly for the purpose of preserving memorials of their claims.
* " Chinodahichetha " is doubtless the Indian name of the river now known as the Great Kanawha.
FRONTIER TIMES
thence to the sunsetting, whenever he shall think fit to extend his settlements. You produce, also, a copy of his deed from the Onondaga council, at the Treaty of Lancaster, 1744, and desire that your Brethren of the Ohio might like- wise concur in the deed. We are well acquainted that our Chief Council at the Treaty of Lancaster confirmed a deed to you for a quantity of land in Virginia, which you have a right to; but we never understood, before you told us yesterday, that the lands then sold were to extend farther to the sunsetting than the hill on the other side of the Allegheny hill, so that we can give you no further answer. ' ' This treaty was concluded June thirteenth, 1752. Colonel Joshua Fry, Colonel Lunsford Lomar, and Colonel James Patten were present in the interest of Virginia.
In the meantime some of the original twenty shares of the Ohio Company changed hands and Governor Dinwiddle became a proprietor. When, therefore, during the spring and summer of 1753 various intelligences were received of French and Indians, coming down in numbers about the head of the Ohio, thereby endangering the holdings of the Company, he sent George Washington to deliver a letter to the Commandant of the French forces on the Ohio.
Washington, at the time of his appointment by Governor Dinwiddle, was twenty-one years of age and this was his first commission ; thus the foundation of Pittsburgh has the unique honor of being connected with the first notable ser- vice of Washington's career.
Because of the interest of this journey. Governor Din- widdle's Letter of Instruction is given in full; also extracts from Washington's journal of his expedition:
" Whereas I have received information of a body of French forces being assembled in a hostile manner on the river Ohio, intending by force of arms to erect certain forts on the said river within this territory, and contrary to the dignity and peace of our Sovereign, the King of Great Britain;
" These are, therefore, to require and direct you, the said George Washington, forthwith to repair to Logstown on the said river Ohio; and having there informed yourself where the said French forces have posted themselves, thereon to proceed to such
[ 5 ]
THE HISTOEY OF PITTSBURGH
place; and, being there arrived, to present your credentials, with my letter to the chief Commanding Officer and in the name of His Britannic Majesty to demand an answer thereto.
" On your arrival at Logsto^vn you are to address yourself to Half-King, to Monacatoocha, and to the other sachems of the Six Nations, acquainting them with your orders to visit and de- liver my letter to the French Commanding Officer, and desiring the said chiefs to appoint you a sufficient number of their warriors to be your safe guard as near the French as you may desire, and await your further direction.
" You are diligently to inquire into the number and force of the French on the Ohio and the adjacent country; how they are likely to be assisted from Canada ; and what are the difficulties and conveniences of that communication, and the time required for it.
" You are to take care to be truly informed what forts the French have erected and where ; how they are garrisoned and appointed, and what is their distance from each other and from Logstown; and from the best intelligence you can procure you are to learn what gave occasion to this expedition of the French ; how they are likely to be supported and what their pretensions are.
" When the French Commandant has given you the required and necessary dispatches you are to desire of him a proper guard to protect you as far on your return, as you may judge for your safety, against any straggling Indians or hunters, that may be ignorant of your character and molest you.
" Wishing you good success in your negotiation, and safe and speedy return, I am, etc.,
" ROBERT DINWIDDIE.
" WiLLiAMSBUKG, SOtJi of Octoher, 1753."
" To George WasJiington Esquire, one of the Adjutants-General of the Troops and Forces in the Colony of Virginia: " 1, reposing especial trust and confidence in the ability, con- duct and fidelity of the said George Washington, have appointed you my express messenger; and you are hereby authorized and empowered to proceed hence, with all convenience and possible dispatch to the part or place on the river Ohio, where the French have lately erected a fort or forts or where the commandant of the French forces resides, in order to deliver a message to him;
[ 6 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
and after waiting not exceeding one week for an answer, you are to take your leave and return immediately back.
" To this commission I have set my hand, and caused the great seal of this Dominion to be affixed, at the City of Williamsburg, the seat of my government, this 30th day of October, in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of his Majesty, George the Second, King of Great Britain, etc., etc., Anno-que Domini 1753.
" ROBERT DINWIDDIE."
'' To all to whom these presents may come or concern, Greeting:
" Whereas I have appointed George Washington Esquire by commission under the great seal my express messenger to the commandant of the French Forces on the river Ohio and as he is charged with business of great importance to his Majesty and this Dominion:
" I do hereby command all His Majesty's subjects, and par- ticularly require all in alliance and amity with the Crown of Great Britain, and all others to whom this passport may come, agreeably to the law of ISTations, to be aiding and assisting as a safeguard to the said George Washington and his attendants, in. his present passage to and from the Ohio river aforesaid.
" ROBERT DINWIDDIE."
" To the Lords of the Board of Trade :
" Right Honokable. — My last to you was on the 16th of June to which I beg you to be referred. In that I acquainted you of the accounts we have had of the French, with the Indians in their interest, invading his Majesty's lands on the river Ohio.
" The person sent as a commissioner to the commandant of the French forces neglected his duty and went no further than Logstown on the Ohio. He reports that the French were one hundred and fifty miles farther up that river, and I believe was afraid to go to them. On the application of the Indians in friendship with us on the Ohio I sent Mr. William Trent with guns, powder, and shot to them, with some clothing; and enclosed I send you his report and conferences with these people, on his delivering them the present.
" I have received by a Man-of-War sloop, orders from the Right Honorable Earl of Ilolderness, and instructions from his
[ 7 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
Majesty. In consequence thereof ^ I have sent one of the adjutants of militia, George Washington, out to the Commander of the French forces, to know their intentions and by what authority they presume to invade His Majesty's Dominions in the time of tranquil peace. When he returns I shall transmit you an account of his proceedings and the French commander's answer.
" Your Lordships, etc.,
" ROBERT DINWIDDIE."
Extracts from Washington's Journal of a Tour over the Allegheny mountains :
" I was commissioned and appointed by the Honorable Robert Dinwiddle, Esquire, Governor, etc., of Virginia, to visit and deliver a letter to the commandant of the French forces at the Ohio, and set out on the intended journey on the same day (October 31st, 1Y53) ; the next I arrived at Fredericksburg and engaged Mr. Jacob Vanbraam to be my French interpreter and proceeded with him to Alexandria, where we provided necessaries. From thence we went to Winchester (Virginia) and got baggage, horses, etc., and from thence we pursued the new road to Will's Creek where we arrived on the 14th of ]!^ovember. Here I engaged Mr. Gist to pilot us out and also hired four others as servitors, Barnaby Currin, and John McQuire Indian traders; Henry Steward and William Jenkins; and in company with these persons left the inhabitants the next day. The excessive rains and vast quantities of snow which had fallen prevented our reaching Mr. Frazier's at the mouth of Turtle creek on Monon- gahela river till Thursday, the 22nd (ISTovember). We were informed here that expresses had been sent a few days before to the traders down the river to acquaint them with the French General's death and the return of the major part of the French army into winter quarters. The waters were quite impassable without swimming our horses which obliged us to get the loan of a canoe from Frazier and to send Barnaby Currin and Henry Steward down the Monongahela with our baggage, to meet us at the forks of the Ohio, about ten miles below, there to cross the Allegheny. As I got down before the canoe I spent some time in viewing the rivers, and the land in the fork, which I think extremely well situated for a fort, as it has the absolute command of both rivers. The land at the point is about twenty-five feet
[ 8 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
above the common surface of the water, and a considerable bottom of flat well timbered land all around it very convenient for build- ing. About two miles from this, at the place where the Ohio Company intended to erect a fort, lives Shingiss, King of the Delawares. We called upon him to invite him to a Council at Logstown. As I had taken a good deal of notice yesterday of the situation at the fork, my curiosity led me to examine this more particularly, and I think it greatly inferior, either for defense or advantages ; especially the latter. For a fort at the fork would be equally well situated on the Ohio, and have the entire command of the Monongahela, which runs up our settlement, and is extremely well designed for water carriage, as it is of a deep still nature. Besides, a fort at the fork might be built at much less expense than at the other place."
"Washington found the Indians in this neighborhood ap- prehensive. Half -King (Tanacharison), who was friendly to the English, told Washington he had already made known to the French Father at Venango that this was Indian land, not French, saying: '' If you had come in a peaceable manner, like our brothers, the English, we would not have been against your trading with us as they do; but to come, fathers, and build houses upon our land and take it by force is what we cannot submit to.
' ' Fathers, both you and the English are white, we live in a country between, therefore the land belongs to neither the one nor the other, but the Great Being above allowed it to be a place of residence for us ; so. Father, I desire you to withdraw, as I have done our brothers the English, for I will keep you at arms length. I lay this down as a trial for both to see which will have the greatest regard to it, and that side we will stand by and make equal sharers with us. Our brothers, the English, have heard this, and I come now to tell it to you, for I am not afraid to discharge you off this land. ' '
After some days delay Washington finally added to his party Half -King, who took with him the French speech-belt that he might return it, thus intending to break off friendly intercourse with the French; Jeskakake, WTiite Thunder, and the Hunter (the famous Guyasuta) started on the road
[ 9 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
to Venango, where they arrived the fourth of December, '' without anything remarkable happening but a series of bad weather." " We found the French colors hoisted at a house from which they had driven Mr. John Frazier, an English subject. I immediately repaired to it to know where the Commandant resided. There were three officers, one of whom, Captain Joncaire, informed me that he had the command of the Ohio, but that there was a general officer at the near fort (Le Boeuf) where he advised me to apply for an answer. He invited us to sup with him and treated us with great complaisance. The wine, as they dosed themselves pretty plentifully with it, soon banished the restraint which at first appeared in their con- versation, and gave a license to their tongues to reveal their sentiments more freely. They told me that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio, and, by G-D, they would do it; for that, although they were sensible the English could raise two men for their one, yet they knew their motions were too slow and dilatory to prevent any undertaking of theirs."
On the seventh he wrote : ' ' We found it extremely diffi- cult to get the Indians off to-day as every stratagem had been used to prevent their going up with me * * * At twelve o'clock we set out for the fort and were prevented arriving there until the eleventh by excessive rains, snows and bad travelling through many mires and swamps. ' '
The twelfth, at Le Boeuf: '' I prepared early to wait upon the commander, and was received and conducted to him by the second officer in command. I acquainted him with my business and offered my commission and letter. * * * The commander is a knight of the military order of St. Louis and named Legardeur de St. Pierre. He is an elderly gentleman and has the air of a soldier."
Fourteenth: "As the snow increased very fast and our horses daily became weaker, I sent them off unloaded, under the care of Barnaby Currin and two others, to make all convenient dispatch to Venango and there to wait our arrival, if there was a prospect of the rivers freezing; if not, then to continue down to Shanapin's town at the forks of Ohio and there to wait until we came cross the Allegheny ;
[ 10 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
intending myself to go down by water, as I had the offer of a canoe or two.
''As I found many plots concerted to retard the Indians' business, and prevent their returning with me, I endeavored, all that lay in my power, to frustrate their (the French) schemes, and hurried the Indians on to execute their intended design. They accordingly pressed for admittance this evening, which at length was granted them privately to the commander and one or two other officers. The Half -King told me that he offered the wampum (speech- belt) to the commander, who evaded taking it, and made many fair promises of love and friendship, said he wanted to live in peace and trade amicably with them, as a proof of which he would send some goods down to the Logstown for them. But I rather think the design of that is to bring away all our straggling traders they meet with, as I privately understood they intended to carry an officer, etc., with them. And what rather confirms this opinion : I was inquiring of the commander by what authority he had made prisoners of several of our English subjects. He told me that the country belonged to them ; that no English- man had a right to trade upon those waters; and that he had orders to make every person prisoner who attempted it on the Ohio, or the waters of it * * * This evening I received an answer to his Honor the Governor's letter from the commandant."
Fifteenth: '' The commandant ordered a plentiful store of liquor, provision, etc., to be put on board our canoes, and appeared to be extremely complaisant, though he was exerting every artifice which he could invent to set our Indians at variance with us, to prevent their going until after our departure; presents, rewards and everything which could be suggested by him or his officers. I cannot say that ever in my life I suffered so much anxiety as I did in this affair; I saw that every stratagem which the most fruitful brain could invent was practised to win the Half -King to their interest.'"
On the next day, however, after much urging, the Indians set off for Venango with Governor Dinwiddle 's young mes- senger, reaching that place on the twenty-second, after a
[ 11 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
tedious, fatiguing journey. Here again Captain Joncaire tried to disaffeet Half-King, who insisted to Washington, however, that he knew the French only too well and would surely leave in a day or two, bringing with him White Thunder, who was hurt, by way of the river. Washington further said in his Journal : "As I was uneasy to get back, to make report of my proceedings to his Honor the Gov- ernor, I determined to prosecute my journey, the nearest way through the woods, on foot. Accordingly I left Mr. Vanbraam in charge of our baggage. * * * I took my necessary papers, pulled off my clothes and tied myself up in a watch coat. Then with gun in hand and pack on my back, in which were my papers and provisions, I set out with Mr. Gist fitted in the same manner, on Wednesday the twenty-sixth. The next day we continued travelling until quite dark, and got to the river about two miles above Shanapin's. We expected to have found the river frozen, but it was not only about fifty yards from each shore. The ice I suppose had broken above us for it was driving in v&jt quantities. There was no way of getting over but on a raft ; which we set about with but one poor hatchet and finished just after sunsetting. This was a whole day's work; we next got it launched, then went on board of it and set off; but when we were about half way over, we were jammed in the ice in such a manner that we expected every moment our raft to sink and ourselves to perish. I put out my setting pole to try to stop the raft, that the ice might pass by; when the rapidity of the stream threw it with so much violence against the pole, that it jerked me out into ten feet of water; but I fortunately saved myself by catching hold of one of the raft logs. Notwithstanding all our efforts, we could not get to either shore, but were obliged, as we were near an island, (Wainright's, long since washed away), to quit our raft and make to it."
On the sixth of January, 1754, Washington wrote : ' ' We met seventeen horses loaded with materials and stores for a fort at the fork of the Ohio, and the day after some families going out to settle. This day we arrived at Will 's Creek. ' '
On the sixteenth of February (1754), Washington
[ 12 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
arrived at Williamsburg and waited upon Governor Din- widdle with the letter from the French Commandant, and offered with it his journal. This journal was published widely and even sent to London to show the position taken by the French and to stir the English to action. St. Pierre in his letter assured Governor Dinwiddle that his letter should be given to the Marquis Du Quesne, '^ to whom it better belongs than to me to set forth the evidence and reality of the rights of the King, my master, upon the lands situated along the Ohio and to contest the pretensions of the King of Great Britain thereto. His answer shall be a law to me * * * As to the summons to retire you send me, I do not think myself obliged to obey it. Whatever may be your instructions, I am here by virtue of the orders of my general, and I entreat you sir not to doubt one moment but that I am determined to conform myself to them with all the exactness and resolution which can be expected from the best officer * * * j made it my par- ticular care to receive Mr. Washington with the distinction suitable to your dignity, as well as his own quality and merit. I flatter myself he will do me this justice before you, sir, and that he will signify to you, in the manner I do myself, the profound respect with which I am, sir, etc. ' '
This made it entirely clear to Governor Dinwiddle and the Ohio Company that the French intended to take posses- sion of the lands on the Ohio and its tributaries as soon as it could be accomplished.
After the return of Washington from his journey to the French commander, at Fort Le Boeuf, and his report to Governor Dinwiddle, the Virginia House of Burgesses made a grant of ten thousand pounds for the protection of the frontier. Washington, who had been stationed at Alexandria, to enlist recruits, received from Dinwiddle a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel and orders, ^' with one hundred and fifty men, to take command at the forks of the Ohio, to finish the fort already begun there by the Ohio Company, and to make prisoners, kill or destroy all who interrupted the English settlements." Officers and men were promised two hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio.
[ 13 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
It was the opinion in England that the Colonies should combine to defend the frontier, and efforts were made to hold a Convention of the Provinces for that purpose, but want of foresight and intercolonial jealousies prevented any progress in this matter until later in the year. Penn- sylvania, like Maryland, fell into strife with its pro- prietaries, and, indignant at their lack of liberality, made no grant although the French were within their borders. Virginia was thus the only colony that made any special effort to take possession of the Ohio country at this time.
The Ohio Land Company had, in the previous January, made preparations for occupying the territory at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. To aid this enterprise Governor Dinwiddle authorized the formation of a company of militia under the command of Captain William Trent; John Frazier, the Indian trader, residing at Turtle Creek on the Monongahela, being appointed Lieutenant, and Edward Ward, Ensign, Trent was at this time engaged in building a log storehouse at Redstone (now Brownsville, Pa.). On receiving orders to raise one hundred men he returned to Virginia for that purpose. He started west with only forty men intending to recruit the remainder on the journey. In this he was dis- appointed. His route was by Christopher Gist's, the Red- stone trail to the mouth of the Redstone creek, and from thence to the forks of the Ohio, where he arrived on the seventeenth of February, 1754, and on the point bounded by the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers commenced im- mediately the building of a stockade or small fort of squared logs.
A few weeks later Captain Trent was obliged to return to Will's Creek, on the other side of the mountain, for provisions, and, Lieutenant Frazier being absent. Ensign Ward was left in command, when on the sixteenth of April the French, under Contrecoeur, came down from the north and demanded the surrender of the post. Resistance being useless, Ward withdrew, and with his party returned to Redstone.
Washington arrived at Will's Creek on the twentieth of April, and two days later Ensign Ward arrived, announcing his surrender.
[ 14 ]
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FRONTIER TIMES
Later, a full account of the affair was given under oath by Ensign Ward to Governor Dinwiddie, who transmitted it to the British government. This remote event has been considered the commencement of the memorable '' Seven Years War, ' ' which was terminated by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, by which Prance lost all her territory in North America, with the exception of the Isle of Orleans.
The commencement of this fort by the Ohio Land Com- pany under Trent, and its completion by the French under Contrecoeur, may be considered the first settlement at Pitts- burgh. Contrecoeur named the fort '' Duquesne," in honor of the Governor-General of Canada, the Marquis Du Quesne, a grand nephew of Abraham Du Quesne, the famous Admiral of Louis XIV.
The surrender of the post was immediately reported by Washington to the Governors of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania with requests for reinforcements. In the meantime, after consultation with his brother officers, Washington resolved to advance and endeavor to reach the Monongahela river in the vicinity of Redstone creek, and there erect a fortification.
On the ninth of May, 1754, with three companies, he arrived at " Little Meadows," which was about one-third the distance to Redstone creek and about half the distance to ^' Great Meadows," where the information awaited him that ContreccEur had been reinforced by eight hundred men. He encamped on the Youghiogheny near the present site of Smithfield, Fayette county, where, in a few days, a messen- ger from Half-King arrived with the information that the French were about to attack him. Other messages were received at the same time reporting the enemy in the immediate vicinity.
Washington at once put his ammunition in a place of safety and set out during the night with forty men to reach Half-King. Upon arriving a council was immediately held and it was decided to join forces and attack the enemy, marching in single file, according to Indian custom.
Early the next morning a skirmish took place which resulted in a complete victory for Washington and the death of Jumonville, the French commander.
[ 15 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
This brief encounter, though insignificant in itself, was of importance, as it was the first exchange of fire in that long struggle, the French and Indian war. It also marks the first military engagement of Washington.
The account of this action is taken from Washington's official reports, which were sent by Governor Dinwiddle to the English government, and is corroborated by extracts from Washington's private journal captured by the French at Braddock's defeat a year later and published by the French government. Contrecoeur's account to Du Quesne, in a letter dated June second, 1754, is entirely different, claiming that Jumonville and his party were sent out as an envoy and that Washington had fired on them; but from the evidence of those engaged on the English side the actions of Jumonville hardly conformed to those of an en- voy. England claimed that a state of war had existed since the capitulation of Ensign Ward to the French on the seven- teenth of the previous April, and that Washington was but obeying the order of his superior ' ' to clear the Ohio head- waters of French invaders."
Washington, with about four hundred men, now pro- ceeded to enlarge and fortify the stockade which protected his stores and ammunition, calling it Fort Necessity, and appealed for additional troops ; but none came, excej^ting an independent company from South Carolina, under Captain Mackay, who resented Washington's position as command- ing officer, and in consequence did practically nothing.
Meantime, the French at Duquesne were hastening to make good their loss at " Little Meadows." On the third of July, 1754, six or seven hundred French, led by Villiers, brother to Jumonville, with about a hundred Indians, took up an advantageous position and opened fire on Fort Necessity. The engagement was sharp throughout, and after about nine hours, his ammunition being practically exhausted, Washington was compelled to accede to Villiers' summons to a conference. The terms of the capitulation were misrepresented to Washington, who did not under- stand French, and he accepted them, and in accordance therewith, on the fourth of July, 1754, the English with- drew from Fort Necessity, taking with them such of their
[ 16 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
effects as were possible, but leaving Captains Stobo and Vanbraam as hostages.
Such was the outcome of the first attempt of the English, more exactly speaking, the Virginians, in the interest of the Ohio Land Company, to hold the country on and about the headwaters of the Ohio; and the French had seemingly demonstrated that the eastern mountains were the western boundary of English dominion in North America.
Governor Dinwiddle received a letter from Captain Robert Stobo during his imprisonment in Fort Duquesne which gave the Virginians the only accurate information regarding the garrison there and the description of the fort itself. In a letter dated July twenty-eighth, 1754, he wrote:
'' * * * I send this by Monakatoocha's brother-in- law, a worthy fellow, and may be trusted. On the other side you have a draft of the Fort, such as time and oppor- tunity would admit of at this time. The garrison consists of two hundred workmen, and all the rest went in several detachments, to the number of one thousand, two days hence. Mercier, a fine soldier, goes so that Contrecoeur, with a few young officers and cadets, remain here. A lieutenant went otf some days ago, with two hundred men, for provisions. He is daily expected. When he arrives, the garrison will. La Force is greatly wanted here — no scouting now. He certainly must have been an extraor- dinary man amongst them — he is so much regretted and wished for. * * * Consider the good of the expedition, without the least regard for us. For my part I would die a thousand deaths, to have the pleasure of possessing this fort but one day. They are so vain of their success at the Meadows, it is worse than death to hear them. Strike this fall as soon as possible. Make the Indians ours. Prevent intelligence. * * * Qne hundred trusty Indians might surprise this fort. They have access all day, and might lodge themselves so that they might secure the guard with the tomahawks; shut the sally gate, and the fort is ours. None but the guard and Contrecoeur stay in the fort. For God's sake communicate this to but few, and them you can trust. Intelligence comes here unaccountably. * * * Pray be kind to this Indian." 2 [ 17 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
In the letter of the twenty-ninth he said : ' ' The French use the Indians with the greatest artifice, * * * There are two hundred men here at this time and two hundred more expected in a few days; the rest went off in several detachments to the amount of one thousand, besides Indians. The Indians have great liberty here; they go out and in when they please without notice. If one hundred trusty Shawanese, Mingoes and Delawares were picked out, they might surprise the fort, lodging themselves under the plat- form behind the palisadoes by day, and at night secure the guard with tomahawks. The guard consists of forty men only, and five officers. None lodge in the fort but the guard, except Contrecoeur — the rest in bark cabins around the fort * * * ."
After the surrender of Washington at Fort Necessity, and his return to Virginia, the disappointed Governor of that province at once made an effort to provide for another attempt to repossess the forks of the Ohio ; endeavoring to procure a grant of money from the House of Burgesses, which was only accomplished after much delay and difficulty.
The governors of the various provinces were at this time trying to make their assemblies grant money for defence, but in most cases were met with indifference. Even the inhabitants of Pennsylvania did not seem concerned whether or not the French held the Ohio valley. Half the population was Quaker traders, who either did not see how the French occupation of the Ohio country could affect their interests, or else from religious principles were opposed to war; while the other half was mainly German and they cared little whether they lived under English or French rule, provided they were left in peace on their farms.
Until this time the English government had forced on the colonists the burden of repelling the advance of the French in North America. But it was now plainly evident that unless drastic measures were taken by the home gov- ernment France would absorb the New World. France and England made protestation of a desire for peace to each other while they secretly made preparations for war.
[ 18 ]
BUTLER
I CAMBRIA
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lA' , _ . r~"^. __^^ ]\ _ n ^ ssr^fT-A- ^."ve \) ^^^ ^^_ V ^
FRONTIER TIMES
England already had a large navy, and being formidable at sea it was her policy to strike quickly ; but France on the sea was weak, and it was her interest to avoid an immediate issue.
The British ministry therefore despatched General Brad- dock and two regiments to Virginia. France sent the Baron Dieskau with an army, and Marquis de Vaudriel, who was to succeed Du Quesne as Governor, to Quebec. The diplomats of each country meantime assured one another that nothing hostile was intended.
On the twentieth of February, 1755, Braddock landed at Hampton, Virginia, as Commander of the British forces in America. Shortly after his arrival he met the Colonial Governors at Alexandria ; when the Council readily agreed to the main points of an aggressive campaign.
Shirley was to take Niagara; an army of Provincials, under William Johnson, was to capture Crown Point; the New Englanders were to attack the Acadian Peninsula; while the attack on Fort Duquesne, being the most difficult, was to be undertaken by Braddock himself.
Braddock 's choice of route to the Ohio has been deemed, by some authorities, an error. (Parkman, " Montcalm and Wolfe," Vol. I, p. 196; AVinsor, " Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. V, p. 495.) Had Brad- dock landed at Philadelphia and marched through Pennsyl- vania, instead of marching from Alexandria through Vir- ginia and Maryland, his route would have been through a more populous and better cultivated country, and his base of supplies less distant. The enemies of the English Ad- ministration attributed the selection of the Virginia route to the influence of John Hanbury, a Quaker merchant, who traded extensively in Virginia, and who had been consulted by the Duke of Newcastle, because of his supposed familiarity with American affairs. It has also been claimed that the desire of Governor Dinwiddle to develop the Vir- ginia route to the Ohio had quite as much to do with the choice.
General Braddock brought with him two regiments of five hundred men each from the British army in Ireland; the Forty-fourth, commanded by Sir Peter Halket, and tlie
[ 19^]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURG-H
Forty-eighth by Colonel Dunbar. The English troops, accompanied by a suitable train of artillery, military sup- plies and provisions, marched from Alexandria to Will's creek, arriving there about the middle of May. The forces which Braddock was able to bring together at this point amounted to somewhat more than two thousand men; one thousand belonging to the Royal Regiments, the remainder supplied by the colonies. Among the latter were parts of two independent companies from New York, one of which was commanded by Captain Gates, afterwards a Major- General in the Revolutionary Army.
The army was detained for several weeks at Will's creek, owing to the scarcity of supplies. The inhabitants of the Colonies showed such unwillingness to furnish supplies and such indiiierence to the expedition that even Washington was provoked to severely censure them. Upon the Pennsyl- vanians fell the major portion of the blame. In a letter to William Fairfax, dated Will's Creek, June seventh, 1755, Washington said: "A line of communication is to be opened from Pennsylvania to the French Fort Duquesne, along which, after a little time, we are to receive all our convoys of provisions, and to give all possible encourage- ment to a people who ought rather to be chastised for their insensibility to danger and disregard of their Sovereign's expectation. They, it seems, are to be the favored people, because they have furnished what their absolute interest alone induced them to do, that is, one hundred and fifty wagons and an equivalent number of horses. ' ' In the same letter he also said : ' ' The General, from frequent breaches of contract, has lost all patience, and for want of that temper and moderation which should be used by a man of temper and sense upon these occasions will, I fear, represent us in a light we little deserve, for instead of blaming the individuals, as he ought, he charges all his disappointments to public supineness and looks upon the country, I believe, as void of honor and honesty. We have frequent disputes on this head which are maintained with warmth on both sides, especially on his, as he is incapable of arguing without it or giving up any point he asserts, be it ever so incompatible with reason or common sense."
[ 20 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
Although rather injudicious in his expression General Braddock had just reason for complaint. He was de- ceived and disappointed by contractors in nearly every instance, and his efforts to have the army proceed were thus impeded. Braddock, however, praised the New Eng- land colonies and echoed Dinwiddle's declaration that they had shown a fine martial spirit. He also commended Vir- ginia as having done far better than her neighbors ; but for Pennsylvania he could not find words enough to express his wrath. He was ignorant of the strife between proprieta- ries and people, and therefore could see no excuse for con- duct which threatened the ruin of both the expedition and the colony. All depended upon speed, and speed was impossible. Many of the colonists believed the alarm about French encroachment to be but a scheme of designing politicians and did not fully realize their peril until dis- asters and calamities forced it upon them, caused by the folly of their own representatives, who, instead of giving the expedition full and prompt support, displayed a per- verseness and narrowness which gave Braddock very just ground for his anger and contempt.
The obstacles which prevented the progress of the army were removed by Franklin. Being at the time Postmaster- General for the colonies he visited Braddock at Frederick- town in order to arrange for the transmission of dispatches between the General and Governors. On the fifth of June, Braddock wrote from Will's Creek to the Secretary of State, as follows:
'^ Before my departure from Frederic, I agreed with Mr. Benjamin Franklin, Post Master in Pennsylvania, who has great credit in that Province, to hire one hundred fifty wagons and the necessary number of horses. This he accomplished with promptitude and fidelity and it is almost the only instance of address and integrity which I have seen in all the Provinces. ' ' Franklin, upon his return to Pennsylvania, issued an address to the farmers, and by appealing to their interest and their fears obtained the necessary wagons and horses.
The methods of transportation being obtained at the eleventh hour the march to Fort Duquesne was continued.
[ 21 J
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
George Washington sent the following letter to his brother, John A. Washington, from Youghiogany, on the twen«ty- eighth of June, 1755 :
"At the Little Meadows a second council was called wherein the urgency for horses was again represented to the officers of the different corps, and how laudable a further retrencliment of their baggage would be, that the spare ones might be turned over for the public service. In order to encourage this, I gave up my best horse, which I have never heard of since, and took no more baggage than half my portmanteau would easily contain. It is said, however, that the number reduced by this second attempt was only from two hundred and ten or twelve to two hun- dred, which had no perceivable effect.
'' The General, before they met in council, asked my private opinion concerning the expedition. I urged him in the warmest terms I was able, to push forward, if he even did it with a small but chosen band, with such artillery and light stores as were necessary; leaving the heavy artillery, baggage, and the like with the rear division of the army, to follow by slow and easy marches, which they might do safely while we were advanced in front. As one reason to support this opinion, I urged that, if we could credit our intelligence, the French were weak at the Fork, at present, but hourly expected reinforcements, which, to my certain knowledge, could not arrive with provisions, or any sup- plies, during the continuance of the drought, as the Buffalo River (Riviere aux Bceufs), down which was their only communication to Venango, must be as dry as we now found the Great Crossing of the Youghiogany, which may be passed dry-shod.
'^ This advice prevailed, and it was determined, that the General with one thousand two hundred chosen men, and officers from all the different corps, under the following field officers, viz: Sir Peter Halket, who acts as brigadier; Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, and Major Sparks, with such a number of wagons as the train would absolutely require, should march as soon as things could be got in readiness. This was completed, and we were on our march by the nineteenth, leaving Colonel Dunbar
[ 22 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
and Major Chapman behind, with the residue of the two regiments, some Independent Companies, most of the women, and in short, everything not absolutely essential, carrying our provisions and other necessaries upon horses.
'' We set out with less than thirty carriages, including those that transport the ammunition for the howitzers, twelve-pounders, and six-pounders, and all of them strongly horsed, which was a prospect that conveyed infinite delight to my mind, though I was excessively ill at the time. But this prospect was soon clouded, and my hopes brought very low indeed, when I found, that, instead of pushing on with vigor, without regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every mole-hill, and to erect bridges over every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles. * * * "
On the eight of July, General Braddock and his division arrived at the junction of the Youghiogheny and Mononga- hela rivers, where he was joined by Washington, who had been compelled to remain in the rear because of a severe attack of fever, from which he was barely recovered. Owing to the steep and rugged ground on the north side of the Monongahela, when about fifteen miles distant from Fort Duquesne, the army crossed to the south bank and con- tinued to march on that side until opposite the present site of the borough of Braddock, when the river was reforded about noon on the ninth.
Washington was afterwards frequently heard to remark that the fording of the Monongahela by the British troops, on this eventful day, was the most beautiful spectacle he ever witnessed. The sky was without a cloud, the sun made the burnished arms and the scarlet uniforms of the British regulars even more brilliant, as they marched in columns with all the regularity of veterans of the Old World, to which the tranquil river and the grandeur of a primeval forest was a romantic and beautiful background.
The advance column came into the road, consisting of, first, the guides with some half dozen Virginia light horse- men, followed at about forty yards by the vanguard; next, Gage with three hundred men, and Sinclair with the axe- men; then two cannon, with ammunition and tool wagons;
[ 23 ]
THE HISTOEY OF PITTSBURGH
the rear-guard with flanking parties thrown into the woods. Braddock moved in with the main body almost immediately. The pack horses, cattle and wagons were brought through the thicket, with immense difficulty. The Provincials with a body of regulars were in the rear.
The force at Port Duquesne in the summer of 1755 was small. Contrecoeur, who was kept well informed of the British movements by his Indian scouts, had little belief in his ability to hold the Fort against an attack. But Beaujeu, a man of extreme dash and courage, finally persuaded Contrecoeur to let him go out to intercept the English. Beaujeu 's force consisted of somewhat more than two hundred regulars and Canadians, with about seven hundred Indians. It was Beaujeu 's design to intercept Braddock at the ford of the Monongahela, but failing to make this in time he disposed his men in a rough, well wooded rising ground, where they waited, unseen by the advancing army.
The first intimation the English had of the presence of the French was a volley, from ambush, which checked their advance. Gage returned the fire with cannon and musketry, and the only visible adversary fell, being probably Beaujeu. Confusion was caused in the French ranks, the Indians and Canadians falling back. Braddock, hearing the firing, at once hurried to the front, but no enemy was to be seen, the French keeping behind the brush and trees, and deliberately picking off their opponents in the open. Braddock, brave, energetic, but obstinate and devoid of judgment, ignoring the advice of Washington and the example of the Provin- cials (who hurried behind trees to fight the French in their own way), mechanically followed Old World tactics, and railed at the run for cover as the basest cowardice; his soldiers must fight in order, in the open. It was unfortu- nate that so much bravery was not accompanied by an equal amount of judgment. Braddock and his officers set the soldiers every possible example of courage and forti- tude; Braddock himself had five horses shot under him, and at last fell mortally wounded; Washington lost two horses and had four bullets through his coat, but was him- self unscathed ; many of the officers were killed or wounded.
It was useless to fire blindly at unseen foes, and to be a
[ 24 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
target for imerring shots was beyond endurance. The In- dians, encouraged, returned and added still more terror. At last, panic-stricken, the English fled in the wildest con- fusion; their imaginations haimted by the carnage and the blood-curdling cries of the Indians, they hurried on and on, and put many a mile between them and the field of battle be- fore exhaustion compelled a halt. Only four hundred eighty-two men recrossed the river, where but a few hours previous an army, well disciplined and in fine array, had passed.
Braddock was removed with difficulty and against his wish, desiring to die where he had fallen. He lingered for three days, and shortly before he expired was heard to mutter : ' ' We shall know how to deal better with them next time." He was buried in the middle of the road, the wagons driving over his grave so as to efface all marks that might attract the attention of the Indians. The grave was afterwards located a few yards west of the Braddock Run on the National Turnpike, in Wharton township, Fay- ette county, on the north side of the road.
There is a report, with perhaps some foundation, that Braddock was shot by one of his own men, a certain Thomas Fausett, whose brother Joseph, Braddock had cut down with his sword for his persistence in fighting from behind a tree. Watson, in his Annals, gives the story credence.
Washington sent his mother the following description of the disastrous battle:
" To Mrs. Mary Washington, near Fredericksburg:
' ' HoNOEBD Madam : As I doubt not but you have heard of our defeat, and perhaps, had it represented in a worse light, if possible, than it deserves, I have taken this earliest opportunity to give you some account of the engagement as it happened, within ten miles of the French fort, on Wednesday the ninth instant.
'' We marched to that place without any considerable loss, having only now and then a straggler picked up by the French and scouting Indians. When we came there,
[ 25 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
we were attacked by a party of French and Indians, whose number, I am persuaded, did not exceed three hundred men ; while ours consisted of about one thousand three hun- dred well-armed troops, chiefly regular soldiers, who were struck with such a panic, that they behaved with more cowardice than it is possible to conceive. The officers be- haved gallantly, in order to encourage their men, for which they suffered greatly, there being near sixty killed and wounded; a large proportion of the number we had.
' ' The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and were nearly all killed; for I believe, out of three companies that were there, scarcely thirty men are left alive. Captain Peyrouny,' and all his officers down to a corporal, were killed. Captain Poison had nearly as hard a fate, for only one of his was left. In short, the dastardly behavior of those they call regulars exposed all others, that were in- clined to do their duty, to almost certain death ; and, at least, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they ran, as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them.
' ' The General was wounded, of which he died three days after. Sir Peter Halket was killed in the field, where died many other brave officers. I luckily escaped without a wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me. Captains Orme and Morris, two of the aids-de-camp, were wounded early in the engagement, which rendered the duty hard upon me, as I was the only person then left to distribute the General's orders, which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not half recovered from a violent illness that had confined me to my bed and a wagon for about ten days. I am still in a weak and feeble con- dition, which induces me to halt here two or three days in the hope of recovering a little strength, to enable me to proceed homeward ; from whence, I fear, I shall not be able to stir till towards September; so that I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you till then, unless it be in Fairfax. Please to give my love to Mr. Lewis and my sister; and compliments to Mr. Jackson, and all other friends that inquire after me. I am, honored Madam, your most dutiful son."
[ 26 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
The French loss was small, but Beaujeu, who commanded the action, was killed. There is no record to show that Contrecoeur, the Commandant of the Fort, took any part in the engagement. Denys Baron, the French Chaplain, records the burial of Monsieur Beaujeu, in the ^' Register of Baptisms and Burials at Fort Duquesne," as having taken place on the twelfth of July in the Cemetery of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin at the Beautiful River, with the ordinary ceremonies. All trace of this cemetery was lost when Fort Pitt was erected.
James Smith, later a Colonel and a member of the Ken- tucky Legislature, has described the return of the French and Indians to Fort Duquesne, and the horrible torture of the English prisoners, during the next three days, by the savages, without interference from the French.
Of the four armies sent to accomplish the design of the Duke of Newcastle, by striking simultaneously, or nearly so, at the four dominant points of French dominion in America, Braddock, whose task was heaviest, was signally defeated ; Washington says, ' ' scandalously beaten. ' ' This disheartened Shirley, and the movement against Fort Niagara proved abortive; thus the western division of the scheme failed. Johnson was to capture Crown Point, but on reaching the head of navigation on the Hudson, Fort Lyman, was engaged by the French, who were routed by Lyman, who was in command, Johnson being ill. Johnson, well pleased with the outcome, moved on down to Albany and received a baronetcy and five thousand pounds. The expedition of the New Englanders was successful. Fort Beau Sejour surrendered; and, shortly afterwards. Fort Gaspereaux, which was little more than a stockade, was invested by the English. Acadia was in the hands of the English in June, 1755.
Braddock 's defeat cast a gloom over the colonies and weakened England's position at home. Towards the end of the year, England made an alliance with Prussia, and in May, 1756, war was formally declared against France. Fort Duquesne, the object of England's design under Brad- dock, continued to be a point of contention, because of its commanding position with regard to the whole west.
[ 27 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
The campaign of 1756, as planned by the English, com- prehended taking the three forts on Lake Ontario ; Niagara, Frontenac and Toronto ; with Crown Point on the east and Fort Duquesne as the key to the western position. The result was that the French not only maintained themselves, but gained Oswego, August fourteenth, on the southern shore of Ontario, which lent them strength to further pro- tect Fort Duquesne. The French, under Montcalm, gained Fort William Henry in the summer of 1757. But there was still a chance for England, and, through her, for the Colonies, when in June, 1757, William Pitt was made Prime Minister. The season was too advanced for effective cam- paigns during that summer, but there was hope in the year to come, for the vitality of the great man quivered to the length of every British Colony. Despondency continued unbroken over Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia from Braddock's defeat, until the coming of General John Forbes in the autumn of 1758.
The history of the whole three years is of border war- fare ; Indian raid succeeding Indian raid ; and it is true that these were sometimes French and Indian raids. A line of forts was constructed on the west side of the Susquehanna. Washington endeavored his utmost to protect the three hundred miles of Virginia frontier with one company. Franklin had been commissioned to defend the frontiers of Pennsylvania, but the Assembly bickered with the Gov- ernor about expenditure and did nothing to defend the out- lying settlers. The only effective action taken, during the period, was by Colonel John Armstrong, who crossed the Alleghenies in September, 1756, raided and razed the Dela- ware Indian village of Kittanning, whose chief was the redoubtable Captain Jacobs.
Pitt's plan for the campaign of 1758 embraced the same idea as those planned for the three preceding years. The result was that Louisburg was taken by Amherst and Boscawen on the twenty-sixth of July. Lord Howe was killed near Ticonderoga, July sixth ; and Abercrombie was absolutely repulsed by Montcalm on the eighth. Fort Frontenac surrendered to Bradstreet on the twenty-seventh of August.
[ 28 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
Pitt appointed Forbes, a man of enduring energy and vital patience, to take Fort Duquesne. Forbes went to Philadelphia in the April of 1758, where he set about to raise his army, and Franklin to provide for its subsistence. This seemed next to impossible, owing to the stolidness of the Quakers. Delay after delay made it the last of June before his force, amounting to about seven thousand men, left Philadelphia. Among Forbes' officers were Washing- ton, Bouquet, Armstrong and Grant. There was strong feeling as to the route ; Washington was very anxious that they should move over Braddock's road, as it was already made, but Forbes decided to take the way through Carlisle, Bedford and the Pennsylvania passes, which was more direct, but which had to be opened. The selection of the route was due in all probability to the efforts of the Pennsylvanians who, jealous of Virginia, were determined to avail themselves of this opportunity to open a way and a road for their traders and influence.
Forbes ' force ' ' consisted of twelve hundred Highlanders, three hundred and fifty Royal Americans, twenty-seven hundred Provincials from Pennsylvania, one hundred from Delaware (then called the Lower Counties), sixteen hun- dred from Virginia, two hundred and fifty from Maryland, one hundred and fifty from North Carolina, and about one thousand Wagoners and Laborers." The march was extremely slow; Armstrong ahead, cutting and hewing a way. The month of August found Forbes in Carlisle so ill that to remain with his army necessitated his being car- ried. Bouquet was given the advance, and pushed on over Laurel Hill to its western base on the Loyalhanna, The fortified camp there was called Fort Ligonier, in honor of Sir John Ligonier who was in command of the British land forces in 1757. It had been Forbes' plan, throughout the whole march, to encamp and fortify, bring up the ammuni- tion, stores and baggage, and then again to move forward.
Before General Forbes was able to reach Fort Ligonier, Bouquet had allowed Major Grant with Major Andrew Lewis to go on with about eight hundred men to reconnoitre Fort Duquesne. Grant made the attempt and wittingly or unwittingly brought about a most disastrous engage-
[ 29 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
ment with the French. Under cover of night on the four- teenth of September, Grant and his men were on what is now known as Grant's Hill, without the cognizance of the French. Grant sent Lewis forward to burn the Indian village about the French Fort, with the understanding that, when Grant beat the reveille, Lewis was to fall back, thus drawing on the French and Indians, who would then be at the mercy of Grant. Just before dawn, Lewis and his men stumbled back, claiming to have been unable to make their way through the rough country. Grant had so disposed his forces that their mutual support was impossible; the astonishing reveille was heard by the French and Indians, who came out and drove the English like beaten sheep before them. Two hundred and seventy of Grant's men were killed, forty-two wounded, and some made prisoners ; the remainder returned to Bouquet, on the Loyalhanna, as best they could. Grant, himself, was taken prisoner, and later wrote a letter of explanation to General Forbes, in which he said: '^ I am willing to flatter myself that my being a prisoner will be no detriment to my promotion, in case a vacancy should happen in the Army, and it is to be hoped that proper steps will be taken to get me exchanged as soon as possible." Lewis insulted and challenged Grant for the manner in which he had been represented, and this same astute Grant said in the British Parliament, in 1775, that he knew the Americans well and " that they would never dare face an English army, being destitute of every requisite for good soldiers." The effect of Grant's ex- pedition was exceedingly bad. During the first part of October, the French and Indians attacked Fort Ligonier, but were driven off after having killed a large number of horses and cattle.
Early in November Forbes was carried into the advance camp and a council was held. It was feared that it was too late in the season to attack the French fort that now lay but fifty miles beyond them, and for which they had striven with such persistent energy, under the direction of the quiet man, whose fortitude and endurance seemed to have been spent in vain. A day or two later, however, some prisoners reported the defenseless condition of Fort
[ 30 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
Duquesne, which the commandant, M. Dumas, had reported to his superior a year or two earlier as being so worthless * ' that the spring freshet all but carried it off. ' '
The way having been opened within a day's march of the Fort by Washington and Armstrong, on the eighteenth of November, 1758, Forbes, carried by his men, started over the last stretch between the English and the French dominions in the West. Late in the afternoon of the twenty-fourth of November they came in sight of the ruins of Fort Duquesne, covered with lingering smoke and fog, lying close in the crotch of the yellow '' Y " formed by the three rivers. Forbes took immediate possession of the point of land which had cost England and France so much blood.
The French had evacuated the fort the night before, blowing up their magazines, ruining and destroying all their haste would allow; so Forbes came to the ruins of Fort Duquesne, finally, without the loss of a life, and re- named it '' Fort Pitt," in honor of William Pitt, Prime Minister of England, the man who was driving the French from North America.
Believing that contemporary evidence should be used wherever practicable, several letters are here given, which were written immediately after the capture of Fort Duquesne by General Forbes, and which give some in- formation as to the fort and its destruction by the French. The first three letters appeared in the Rhode Island Mer- cury of December, 1758 ; the first is dated ' ' Fort Duquesne, November twenty-sixth, 1758," and was written by Cap- tain John Haslet to Reverend Doctor Allison; the others are unsigned.
'' I have now the pleasure to write to you from the ruins of the Fort. On the twenty-fourth, at night, we were informed by one of our Indian scouts that he had dis- covered a cloud of smoke above the place, and soon after another came in with certain intelligence that it was burnt and abandoned by the enemy. We were then about fifteen miles from it. A troop of horse was sent forward im- mediately to extinguish the burning; the whole army fol-
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THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
lowed. We arrived sd six o 'clock last night, and found it in a great measure destroyed.
" There are two forts about twenty yards distant, one built with immense labor; small, but a great deal of very strong works collected into little room, and stands on the point of a narrow neck of land, at the confluence of the two rivers; it is square, and has two ravelins, gabions at each corner, etc. The other fort stands on the bank of the Allegheny in the form of a parallelogram but nothing so strong as the other ; several of the outworks are late began and still unfinished. There are, I think, thirty stacks and chimneys standing, but the houses are all destroyed. They sprung a mine which ruined one of their magazines ; in the other we found sixteen barrels of ammunition, a prodigious quantity of old carriage iron, barrels of guns, about a cartload of scalping knives, etc.
'^ They went off in so much haste that they could not quite make the havoc of the works they intended. We are told by the Indians, that they lay the night before last at Beaver Creek, about forty miles down the Ohio from here. Whether they buried their cannon in the river, or carried them down in their battoes, we have not yet learnt. A boy, twelve years old, who has been their prisoner about two years, and made his escape on the 2d inst., tells us they carried a prodigious quantity of wood into the fort; that they had burnt five of the prisoners they took at Major Grant's defeat, on the parade, and delivered others to the Indians, who were tomahawked on the spot. We found numbers of bodies within a quarter of a mile of the fort, unburied, so many monuments of French humanity. A great many Indians, mostly Delawares, were gathered together on the island last night and this morning, to treat with the General, and we are making rafts to bring them over. Whether the General will think of repairing the ruins, or leaving any of the troops here, I have not yet learnt. Mr. Batie is appointed to preach a Thanksgiving sermon for the superiority of His Majesty's Arms. We left all our tents at Loyalhanning, and every convenience except a blanket and a knapsack. ' '
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FRONTIER TIMES
"^ Fort Duquesne, November thirtieth, 1758. ''After much fatigue and labor we have at last bro't the artillery to this place and found the French had left us nothing to do, having on the twenty-fourth instant blown up their magazine, their Indians had, either through fear, or to atone for their many barbarities, deserted them ; and as they depended on them to attack us in the woods (the only chance they had of beating us), the French judged rightly in abandoning the fort, the front of whose polygon is only one hundred fifty feet, and which our shells would have destroyed in three days. We have fired some howitzer shells into the face of the work, which is made of nine inch plank, and rammed between with earth; and found that in firing but a few hours we must have destroyed the entire face." The Mercury adds: ''All this, confinns the ac- count we received two weeks past, that the fort surrendered without resistance."
Another letter mentioned that " only about twenty-five hundred picked men marched from the Loyalhanning ; that the garrison consisted of about four hundred men, part of which had gone down the Ohio, one hundred by land, sup- posed to Presque Isle, and two hundred with the Governor, JMonsieur Delignier, to Venango, and to stay there till the spring, and then return, and dispossess our people. That two hundred of our people are to be left at Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, to keep possession of the ground, one hundred of the oldest Virginians, the other of our oldest Pennsylvanians ; that the new raised levies are all dis- charged; and that at the last affair at Loyalhanning the French lost nine Indians in the field, and carried off four mortally wounded; this an Indian now in camp informs, who was in the engagement."
Washington, after the capture of Fort Duquesne, wrote to Governor Farquier as follows:
" Camp at Fort Duquesne,
^'Twenty-eighth November, 1758. ' ' Sir. — I have the pleasure to inform you, that Fort Duquesne, or the ground rather on which it stood, was 3 [ 33 ]
THE HISTOKY OF PITTSBURGH
possessed by Ms Majesty's troops on tlie 25th inst. The enemy, after letting us get within a day's march of the place, burned the fort, and ran away by the light of it, at night, going down the Ohio by water, to the number of about five hundred men, according to our best information. This possession of the fort has been a matter of surprise to the whole army, and we cannot attribute it to more probable causes, than the weakness of the enemy, want of provisions, and the defection of their Indians. Of these circumstances we were luckily informed by three prisoners who providentially fell into our hands at Loyal Hanna, when we despaired of proceeding further. A council of war had determined that it was not advisable to advance this season beyond that place; but the above information caused us to march on without tents or baggage, and with only a light train of artillery. We have thus happily suc- ceeded. It would be tedious, and I think unnecessary, to relate every trivial circumstance, that has happened since my last. To do this, if needful, shall be the employment of a leisure hour, when I shall have the pleasure to pay my respects to your Honor.
*' The General intends to wait here a few days to settle iOiatters with the Indians, and then all the troops, except a sufficient garrison to secure the place, will march to their respective governments. I give your Honor this early notice that your directions relative to the troops of Vir- ginia may meet me on the road. I cannot help reminding you, in this place, of the hardships they have undergone, and of their present naked condition, that you may judge if it is not essential for them to have some little recess from fatigue, and time to provide themselves with neces- saries. At present they are destitute of every comfort of life. If I do not get your orders to the contrary, I shall march the troops under my command directly to Win- chester. They may then be disposed of as you shall after- wards direct.
'' General Forbes desires me to inform you, that he is prevented, by a multiplicity of affairs, from writing to you so fully now, as he would otherwise have done. He has written to the commanding officers stationed on the com-
[ 34 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
munication from hence to Wincliester, relative to the con- duct of the Little Carpenter, a chief of the Cherokees, the purport of which was to desire, that they would escort him from one place to another, to prevent his doing any mis- chief to the inhabitants,
'' This fortunate, and, indeed, unexpected success of our arms will be attended with happy effects. The Delawares are suing for peace, and I doubt not that other tribes on the Ohio will follow their example. A trade, free, open, and on equitable terms, is what they seem much to desire, and I do not know so effectual a way of riveting them to our interest, as by sending out goods immediately to this place for that purpose. It will, at the same time, be a means of supplying the garrison with such necessaries as may be wanted ; and, I think, the other colonies, which are as greatly interested in the support of this place as Vir- ginia, should neglect no means in their power to establish and maintain a strong garrison here. Our business, with- out this precaution, will be but half finished; while on the other hand, we shall obtain a firm and lasting peace with the Indians, if this end is once accomplished.
" General Forbes is very assiduous in getting these mat- ters settled upon a solid basis, and has great merit for the happy issue to which he has brought our affairs, infirm and ;vorn down as he is. At present I have nothing further to add, but the strongest assurances of my being
'' Your Honor's most obedient and most humble servant,
^' GEORGE WASHINGTON."
General Forbes returned to Philadelphia where he died a few weeks later. Colonel Hugh Mercer, with about two hundred men, was left at the forks of the Ohio. His position was difficult. Winter was on, shelter from weather as well as for defense must be made by men on short rations and insufficiently clothed, and with the fear of the Indians always upon them. Under this stress the first Fort Pitt was completed some time in January, 1759. In a letter, written during that month. Colonel Mercer said, the Fort is " capable of some defense though huddled up in a very hasty manner; the weather being extremely severe." It i\^as, in fact, a mere stockade.
[ 35 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
The French had declared that they would return in the spring, but they did not, and the French and English cam- paign in the summer of 1760 differed radically from those of the preceding years. To Wolfe is due the final and entire overthrow of the French in northern North America. While the aspect of affairs at Fort Pitt changed when relieved from fear of conflict with the French, the situation was by no means without its complexities. The Indians claimed their original right to the land, and Virginia asserted her title, according to her first charter from James I. in 1609. The English made many concessions to the Indians, in view of winning their allegiance. An- nouncing they had not come to take their land from them as the French had, but had come to trade with them and to be of much benefit to them.
Many were the councils held with the Indians to promote good feeling. Colonel Bouquet presided over a conference, December fourth, 1758, with the Delawares, to assure them of the love of the English King. Colonel Hugh Mercer held two conferences with them ; one in January, 1759, with the chiefs of the Six Nations, Delawares and Shawanese, and one in the following July, at which George Croghan represented Sir William Johnson, the English Indian Com- missioner. English and Colonial traders gathered rapidly around the fort and did a brisk business.
General John Stanwix was appointed to succeed General Forbes as Commander of his Majesty's troops in the Southern Department, and showing the importance of Fort Pitt, from a military point of view. General Stanwix came to Pittsburgh in the latter part of August, 1759, with a force of workmen to erect the formidable fortification which was to take the place of the light work thrown up by Colonel Mercer. The work actually began on the third of Septem- ber, under the personal supervision of General Stanwix, and went rapidly forward, so that by the following spring it was capable of occupation, though it was not entirely com- pleted until the summer of 1761. The fort was five-sided, irregular. The two facing east and north were guarded by a revetment (a brick work nearly perpendicular) ; the other three by a line of pickets. The whole work was sur-
[ 36 ]
PLAN OF FOKT PITT; BUILT BY GENL. STANWIX, 1759-60.
o, Barracks, already built. /;, ( A)iumaiidaiir» Hoiise, not built, e, StDre House. d,d,Povr der Magazines, c, Casemate, ooiu])letcd. .;', .Slorc House for Flour, Ac. ff, Wells, in two of which are pumps. A, Fort Duquesiie. /, /, Horn Work, to cover French Barracks. /.-, Fh-st Fott Pitt, destroyed, h, Sally Port.
FRONTIER TIMES
rounded by a ditch, which, when the rivers were at moderate height, was full of water, and, when the two rivers were low and the ditch dry, it was used by the officers as a ball alley. The fort occupied the land from the point of confluence of the rivers as far east as Third street, West street, and part of Liberty street. Rutzer, an engineer, made a draft of the fort which is in the British Museum. From this has been obtained the only reliable idea of Fort Pitt, of which not the slightest remnant remains. Bouquet's re- doubt was built in 1764. The fort is said to have cost £60,000 sterling; this, however, seems a high estimate, though there is no reliable evidence refuting it. It was capable of accommodating one thousand men.
Conferences with the Indians continued to be a common occurrence. The great chiefs and their many followers made appreciable inroads on the provisions of the garrison, often leaving the officers more than seriously incon- venienced. The most notable Indian meeting, during Gen- eral Stanwix's sojourn at Fort Pitt, was held on the twenty- fifth of October, 1759, at which were present Guyasuta, The Beaver, King of the Delawares, Shingas, the Pipe, Gus- talogo and Kilbuck. Beside General Stanwix and the offi- cers of the garrison, were present George Croghan, Sir William Johnson's representative, and his assistants, Wil- liam Trent and Thomas McKee, with Henry Montour acting as interpreter. The Indians declared their unalterable friendship and the English assured the Indians of their everlasting protection. But, despite these protestations, and the fact that there was but little ravaging at this time, there was no feeling of confidence.
General Stanwix, in a letter to Governor Hamilton, dated Fort Pitt, March seventeenth, 1760, said: * * * '^As soon as the waters are down, I propose to leave this post for Philadelphia, which I can now do with great satis- faction, having finished the works all round in a very defensible manner, leave the garrison in good health, in excellent barracks, and seven months wholesome, good provisions from the 1st of April next ; the rest of the works may now be finished under cover, and the men be obliged only to work in proper weather, which has been very far
[ 37 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
from our case this hard winter and dirty spring, so far as it is advanced; but we have carried the works as far into execution as I could possibly propose to myself in the time, and don't doubt but it will be finished as soon as such work can be done, so as to give a strong security to all the Southern Provinces and answer every end proposed for his Majesty's service."
The General left the fort and seven hundred men in charge of Major Tulikens. General Monckton, Command- ant of the entire Western Department, is reported to have been at Fort Pitt on the twenty-ninth of June, 1760, and to have remained a short time.
Colonel Burd arrived in Pittsburgh on the sixth of July of the same year to relieve Major Tulikens, and remained in charge until the following November, when Colonel Vaughan commanded during the winter of 1760 and 1761. The Colonial Records indicate that, during the year 1762, the Indians continued to declare their desire to cultivate the friendship of the English, and the King of the Delawares, with other Indians, promised to give up all white prisoners to Colonel Burd and Josiah Davenport at Fort Pitt. Colonel Burd was most probably commandant at Fort Pitt during the latter part of the year 1762 and the early part of 1763, when Pontiac was planning, with civilized precision, the extermination of his English brothers, but the blow fell during the command of Captain Simeon Ecuyer, a Swiss, as was Bouquet, to whose foresight and astuteness the English owed the preservation of this important point.
The record of Fort Pitt during the spring and summer of 1763 is preserved, in the letters of Ecuyer to Colonel Henry Bouquet, in the British Museum. In a letter, dated the eleventh of March, he reported that on the eighth there were " six inches of water in the Fort and the Allegheny full of ice." In a letter of the ninth of April he said: *' It appears by the return of Mr. McKee that the Shawanese are no longer so well disposed as they were last Autumn."
In another letter to Bouquet, dated May twenty-ninth, from the Fort, he said :
' * SiE. — A large party of Mingoes arrived here at the beginning of the month and have delivered to us ten
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FRONTIER TIMES
miserable horses. They demand presents from me, but I have refused all their demands excepting eight bushels of Indian corn, which they have planted opposite Croghan's house, where they have formed a town. Before yesterday evening Mr. McKee reported to me that the Mingoes and Delawares were in motion, and that they sold in haste £300 worth of skins, with which they have bought as much powder and lead as they could. Yesterday I sent him to their villages to get information, but found them all abandoned. He followed their traces, and he is certain they have descended the river; that makes me think they wish to intercept our boats and prevent our passage. They have stolen three horses and a cask of rum at Bushy Run ; they at the same time stole £50 from one called Coleman (on the road to Bedford) with the gun at his breast. They say the famous Wolfe and Butler were the chiefs, and it is clear that they wish to break with us. I pity the poor people on the communication. I am at work to put the Fort in the best possible condition with the few people we have. Mr. Hutchins arrived here yesterday with six recruits. We have twenty boats in the water ; I would like to know the number you wish, and what the carpenters must do. As I was finishing my letter three men arrived from Clapham's with the bad news that yesterday at three o'clock p. M. the Indians had killed Clapham, and all that were in the house were robbed and massacred. These three men were at work and escaped through the woods. I sent them immediately with arms to warn our men at Bushy Run. The Indians told Byerly to quit the place or they would all be killed in four days. I tremble for our small posts. As for this one, I will answer for it.
'' If any person should come here, they must take an escort, for the affair is serious.
'' I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, * ' Your very humble and obedient servant,
" S. ECUYER.'' (Colonel Bouquet.)
Ecuyer demolished the " lower town " (the settlement immediately about the fort) and took the wood for use in
[ 39 ]
THE HISTOEY OF PITTSBURGH
the fort, but he burnt the '' high town " (the settlement farther up the hill) to prevent the Indians from using it for cover. On the thirtieth of May, 1763, the inhabitants, numbering about three hundred, were taken into Fort Pitt. The garrison had consisted of about two hundred and fifty men, but there were now three hundred and thirty men, one hundred and four women, and one hundred and six children to be sheltered and provided for.
The fort was made as formidable as possible; Ecuyer stated he had ' ' sixteen pieces mounted on good platform, ' ' and '' a sufficiently good retrenchment to join a f raise, which is not set out over all, so is not altogether as regular as it should be, but without engineers and being much hurried this should pass, and I think it is good enough against this rabble so that I begin to breathe. We have worked during eleven days in an incredible manner, our men are much fatigued, but I do not complain. In the future they will have rest. I have divided my little garri- son into two divisions, each one with three officers, five sergeants, one drum and from sixty to seventy men. We are all doubly armed."
The Indian attack actually began on the afternoon of the twenty-eighth of July. The Indians swarmed around the fort, burrowed into the ground like moles, and from these small individual defenses, with the utmost precision, shot any one who dared appear. Ecuyer covered his men well. The attack lasted five days and five nights ; seven soldiers were wounded, Ecuyer himself was struck in the leg by an arrow, but wrote '^ we are certain of having killed and wounded twenty of their men, without counting those whom we have not seen." Word must have come to the Indians of Bouquet's expendition, for at this time they left Fort Pitt, moving to the east.
Bouquet was in Philadelphia when he was ordered by Sir Jeffrey Amherst to relieve Fort Pitt. He was given ** the shattered remainder of the 42nd and 77th regiments, about five hundred men, lately returned in a dismal con- dition from the West Indies, and far from being recovered from their fatigue at the siege of Havana." Sixty of these men were so ill and weak they had to be carried over the mountains in wagons.
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FRONTIER TIMES
The country through which Bouquet marched instead of yielding provisions for the beleaguered fort as well as for his army, had either been devastated by the savages or the fields had been left unharvested by the settlers who had sought refuge in the eastern towns. Bouquet left Fort Bedford on the twenty-eighth of July and reached Fort Ligonier safely. To expedite matters, he left his wagons and all that was not absolutely necessary at this post, and the army, thus lightened, continued the route to the west.
On the afternoon of the fifth of August, when the army was half a mile east of the dangerous defile of Turtle Creek, they were attacked with great vigor by the Indians. This particular pass Bouquet had determined to move through under the cover of night, owing to the great natural advantages it possessed for an assailing party. The precipitate attack of the Indians, however, proved very clearly the ability of Bouquet and the temper of his men. The savages attacked with violence, but fell back before any aggressive movement only to return with renewed violence as soon as the assault ceased. In this way the troops were like to be harried to destruction ; that they were not was due to a well planned and well executed manoeuvre which Bouquet describes in the following letters to Sir Jeffrey Amherst, Commander-in-Chief:
* ' Camp at Edgehill, twenty-six miles from Fort Pitt,
''Fifth of August, 1763.
^' Sir. — The second instant, the troops and convoy arrived at Ligonier, whence I could obtain no intelligence of the enemy; the expresses sent since the beginning of July have been either killed or obliged to return, all the passes being occupied by the enemy; in this uncertainty I determined to leave all the wagons with the powder, and a quantity of stores and provisions at Ligonier; and on the fourth proceeded with the troops and about three hun- dred and fifty horses loaded with flour. I intended to have halted a day at Bushy Run (a mile beyond this camp) and after having refreshed the men and horses to have marched
[ 41 ]
THE HISTOEY OF PITTSBURGH
in the night over Turtle creek, a very dangerous defile of several miles, commanded by high and craggy hills; but at one o'clock this afternoon after a march of seventeen miles, the savages suddenly attacked our advanced guard which was immediately supported by the two Light In- fantry Companies of the Forty-second regiment who drove the enemy from their ambuscade and pursued them a good way. The savages returned to the attack and the fire being obstinate on our front and extending along our flanks we made a general charge with the whole line to dislodge the savages from the heights in which attempt we succeeded without obtaining from it any decisive advan- tage; for as soon as they were driven from one post they appeared on another, till by continued reinforcements they were at last able to surround us and attack the convoy left in our rear; this obliged us to march back to protect it; the action then became general and though we were attacked on every side and the savages exerted themselves with uncommon resolution, they were constantly repulsed with loss — we also suffered considerably ; Lieutenant Graham and Lieutenant James Mcintosh of the Forty- second are killed and Captain Graham wounded. Of the Royal American Regiment Lieutenant Dow who acted as A. D. Q. M. G. is shot through the body. Of the Seventy- seventh Lieutenant Donald Campbell and Mr. Peebles, a volunteer, are wounded. Our loss in men including rangers and drivers exceeds sixty killed and wounded. The action has lasted from one o'clock till night and we expect to begin again at daybreak. Whatever our fate may be I thought it necessary to give your excellency this information that you may at all events, take such measures as you will think proper with the Provinces, for their own safety and the eifectual relief of Fort Pitt, as, in case another engagement, I fear insurmountable difficulties in protecting and transporting our provisions, being already so much weakened by the losses of this day in men and horses; besides the additional necessity of carrying the wounded whose situation is truly deplorable.
*' I cannot sufficiently acknowledge the constant assist- ance I have received from Major Campbell during this long
[ 42 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
action nor express my admiration of the cool and steady behaviour of the troops who did not fire a shot without orders and drove the enemy from their posts with fixed bayonets — the conduct of the officers is much above my praises.
' ' I have the honor to be with great respect Sir, etc.,
''HENRY BOUQUET. " To Sir Jeffrey Amherst."
' * Camp at Bushy Run, Sixth of August, 1763.
' ' Sir. — I had the honor to inform Your Excellency in my letter of yesterday of our first engagement with the savages.
" We took post last night on the hill, where our convoy halted, when the front was attacked, (a commodious piece of ground, and just spacious enough for our purpose.) There we encircled the whole, and covered our wounded with flour bags. In the morning the savages surrounded our camp, at the distance of about five hundred yards, and by shouting and yelping, quite round that extensive cir- cumference, thought to have terrified us, with their num- bers. They attacked us early, and under favor of an in- cessant fire, made bold efforts to penetrate our camp; and though they failed in the attempt, our situation was not less perplexing, having experienced that brisk attacks had but little effect upon an enemy who always gave way when pressed, and appeared again immediately ; our troops were besides extremely fatigued with the long march, and the long action of the preceding day, and distressed to the last degree by a total want of water, much more intolerable than the enemy's fire.
" Tied to our convoy we could not lose sight of it, with- out exposing it and our wounded to fall a prey to the savages, who pressed upon us at every side; and to move was impracticable, having lost many horses and most of the drivers, who, stupified by fear, hid themselves in the bushes or were incapable of hearing or obeying orders.
'' The savages, growing every moment more audacious, it was thought proper still to increase their confidence ; by
[ 43 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
that means if possible to entice them to come close upon us, or to stand their ground when attacked. With this view two companies of light Infantry were ordered within the circle, and the troops on their right and left opened their files, and filled up the space that it might seem they were intended to cover the retreat ; the third light Infantry Company and the Grenadiers of the Forty-second were ordered to support the two first companies. This manoeuvre succeeded to our wish, for the few troops who took possession of the ground lately occupied by the two light infantry companies being brought in nearer to the center of the circle, the barbarians mistaking these motions for a retreat, hurried headlong on, and advancing upon us with the most daring intrepidity, galled us excessively with their heavy fire; but at the very moment that, certain of success, they thought themselves master of the camp, Major Campbell at the head of the two first companies, sallied out from a part of the hill they could not observe, and fell upon their right flank ; they resolutely returned the fire biit could not stand the irresistible shock of our men, who, rushing in among them, killed many of them and put the rest to flight. The orders sent the other two companies were delivered so timely by Captain Basset and executed with such celerity and spirit, that the routed savages, who happened to run that moment before their front, received their full fire when uncovered by the trees; the four com- panies did not give them time to load a second time, nor even to look behind them, but pursued them until they were totally dispersed. The left of the savages, which had not been attacked, was kept in awe by the remains of our troops posted on the brow of the hill for that purpose ; nor durst they attempt to support or assist their right, but being witness of their defeat, followed their example and fled. Our brave men disdained so much to touch the dead body of a vanquished enemy that scarce a scalp was taken, except by the rangers and pack horse drivers.
' ' The woods now being cleared and the pursuit over, the four companies took possession of a hill in our front; as soon as litters could be made for the wounded, and the flour and everything destroyed, which for want of horses
[ 44 ]
FEONTIER TIMES
could not be carried, we marched without molestation to this camp. After the severe correction we had given the savages a few hours before, it was natural to suppose we should enjoy some rest; but we had hardly fixed our camp when they fired upon us again; this was very provoking. However, the light Infantry dispersed them before they could receive orders for that purpose.
*' I hope we shall be no more disturbed, for if we have another action we shall hardly be able to carry our wounded.
' ' The behavior of the troops on this occasion, speaks for itself so strongly, that for me to attempt their eulogium would but detract from their merit.
" I have the honor to be most respectfully. Sir &c,
'' HENRY BOUQUET. '* To His Excellency Sir Jeffrey Amherst."
This battle at Bushy Run, gained by Colonel Bouquet over the Delawares, Shawanese, Mingoes, Wyandots, Mohikons, Miamies and Ottawas, on the fifth and sixth of August, 1763, was of vital importance, inasmuch as it broke fatally the design of Pontiac. Bouquet marched over the twenty-five remaining miles to Fort Pitt, en- countering but a few random shots.
The relief of Fort Pitt closed the campaign.
The following is an entry made in Ecuyer's orderly book:
*' Fort Pitt, August 11, 1763, G. 0. parole.
" Countersign. Garrison orders:
'' The guard to be relieved at 10 o'clock. For guard. Ensign Price, 2 sergeants, 1 drummer and 36 rank and file.
'* Colonel Bouquet orders his thanks to be given to the officers, soldiers and inhabitants who have so bravely de- fended the post against the repeated attacks of barbarians and malicious enemies. Captain Ecuyer by his firm and prudent conduct has obtained the General's entire appro- bation and it is with the greatest satisfaction that the Colonel informs him of it. The Colonel takes a particular
[ 45 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
pleasure in expressing to Major Trent how agreeable his services and those performed by the brave militia under his command are to him and returns him his sincere thanks for the ready assistance he has constantly given the com- manding officer, desiring he will inform his officers and men of the grateful sense the Colonel has of their behavior. Nothing can be more agreeable to the Colonel than to have to represent to the General the merit of the officers and men who have contributed to the preservation of this im- portant post, which particularly curbs the insolence and pride of the faithless savages and continues an immovable barrier against the impotence of their rage and perfidy.
''All the double arms employed in defense of this post to be drawn and delivered with the ammunition to the offi- cer of the artillery who will have them put in order. All the women and children and useless people to hold them- selves in readiness to-morrow night to go to the settlement. A party will be ready to reap to-morrow morning, who will be covered by a company of light infantry.
^' The effects of a deceased officer of the Forty-second Regiment are to be sold at vendue to-morrow morning in camp at 10 o'clock.
'' For guard to-morrow. Lieutenant Donelon, 1 sergeant, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, 36 privates."
Bouquet distributed his men among the posts along the eastern communications. The winter that followed was quiet, but in the spring the savages again commenced their raids and devastations. To stamp out this Indian war General Gage sent Colonel Bradstreet through the Lake District to Detroit; while Bouquet was ordered down the Ohio to penetrate into the country of the Shawanese and Delawares.
The Pennsylvania Assembly was less dull than on former occasions to the condition of the frontier (due perhaps to the uneasiness the " Paxton Boys " had caused in their very midst), and voted three hundred men to guard the frontier, and ordered that one thousand men accompany Bouquet to the west.
Despite all Bouquet's endeavors it was the fifth of
[ 46 ]
FRONTIER TIMES
August before he finally completed his arrangements and left Carlisle. He had about five hundred '' regulars," many of whom had been tested at Bushy Run in the previous year, and a thousand Virginia and Pennsylvania volunteers; the latter were very raw and many deserted. Bouquet and his command arrived at Fort Pitt on the seventeenth of September, 1764.
Colonel Bouquet left Fort Pitt on the second of October and proceeded along the Ohio to Beaver creek, then almost directly west to the Muskingum river, following its course down to White Woman's creek into the very heart of the Shawanese and Delaware country, where he camped. This formidable army struck the Indians with such terror that the march was unmolested.
Great numbers of the Delawares, Shawanese and Senecas congregated with their chiefs, Gustaloga, Guyasuta and Turtle Heart, smoking the peace-pipe and abjectly suing for pardon. Bouquet, however, angered with Bradstreet's laxity and understanding from experience the treacherous character of the people with whom he was dealing, pro- claimed that he would exterminate them unless they brought all their white prisoners in within twelve days. There was much speech making; but Bouquet was inexora- ble, and, by the ninth of November, two hundred and six prisoners were returned. The Shawanese claimed that many of their warriors were off hunting, but vowed to bring all their whites to Fort Pitt the following spring; this contract they kept. His mission being accomplished. Bouquet returned to Fort Pitt on the twenty-eighth of November, 1764.
General Gage reported Bouquet's expedition to Lord Halifax on the thirteenth of December, as follows:
" The Perfidy of the Shawanese and Delawares, and they having broken the ties which even the Savage Nations hold sacred amongst each other, required vigorous meas- ures to reduce them. We had experienced their treachery so often, that I determined to make no peace with them, but in the heart of their Country, and upon such terms as
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should make it as secure as it was possible. This conduct has produced all the good effects which could be wished or expected from it. Those Indians have been humbled and reduced to accept of Peace upon the terms prescribed to them, in such a manner as will give reputation to His Majesty's Arms amongst the several Nations. The Regu- lar and Provincial Troops under Colonel Bouquet, having been joined by a good body of Volunteers from Virginia, and others from Maryland and Pennsylvania, marched from Fort Pitt the beginning of October and got to Tus- caroras about the fifteenth. The March of the Troops into their country threw the Savages into the greatest con- sternation, as they hoped their woods would protect them and had boasted of the Security of their Situation from our attacks. The Indians hovered round the Troops during their March, but despairing of success in an action had recourse to Negotiations. They were told that they might have Peace but every Prisoner in their possession must first be delivered up. They brought in near twenty and promised to deliver the Rest; but as their promises were not regarded they engaged to deliver the whole on the first of November, at the Forks of the Muskingham (about one hundred and fifty miles from Fort Pitt), the centre of the Delaware towns and near to the most considerable settle- ment of the Shawanese. Colonel Bouquet kept them in sight and moved the Camp to that Place. He soon obliged the Delawares and some broken tribes of Mohikons, Wian- dots and Mingoes to bring in all their prisoners, even to the Children born of White women, and to tie those who were grown as savage as themselves and unwilling to leave them, and bring them bound to the Camp. They were told that they must appoint deputies to go to Sir William Johnson to receive such terms as should be imposed upon them, which the Nations should agree to ratify; and, for the security of their performance of this, and that no further Hostilities should be committed, a number of their Chiefs should remain in our hands. The above Nations subscribed to these terms; but the Shawanese were the most obstinate and were particularly averse to the giving of Hostages. But finding that their obstinacy had no
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effect and would only tend to their destruction, the Troops having penetrated into the Heart of their Country, they at length became sensible that there was no safety but in Submission and were obliged to stoop to the same condi- tion as the other nations. They immediately gave up forty prisoners and promised that the Rest should be sent to Fort Pitt in the Spring. This last not being admitted, the immediate Restitution of all Prisoners being the sine qua non of peace, it was agreed that parties should be sent from the Army into their towns, to collect the Prisoners and conduct them to Fort Pitt.
'' They delivered six of the principal Chiefs as hostages into our Hands and appointed their deputies to go to Sir William Johnson, in the same manner as the Rest. The number of prisoners already delivered exceeds two hun- dred and it was expected that our Parties would bring near one hundred more from the Shawanese Towns. These conditions seem sufficient proofs of the Sincerity and Humiliation of those Nations, and in justice to Colonel Bouquet I must testify the Obligations I have to him, and that nothing but the firm and steady conduct which he observed in all his transactions with those treacherous savages would ever have brought to a serious Peace.
' ' I must flatter myself that the Country is restored to its former Tranquillity and that a general, and, it is hoped, lasting Peace is concluded with all the Indian Nations who have taken up Arms against His Majesty.
*' I remain, etc.,
'^THOMAS GAGE.»»
Though Bouquet put an end to the *' Conspiracy of Pontiac," the Pennsylvania border could scarcely be termed tranquil, despite the fact that General Gage flattered himself that it might be so considered; for the frontier was disturbed and agitated until freed from dread of the Indians by General Anthony Wayne.
The only existing monument testifying to the English dominion in Pittsburgh is the small five-sided brick redoubt built by Bouquet, bearing a tablet inscribed '' Coll. Bouquet 1764."
4 [ 49 J
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
However, Bouquet had the satisfaction of being appre- ciated; the Legislative bodies of Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia accorded him thanks.
*' The Assembly of Pennsylvania.
'* In Assembly, January Fifteenth, 1765,
** To the Honorable Henry Bouquet, Esq., Commander-in- chief of His Majesty's Forces in the Southern Depart- ment of America.
*' The Address of the Representatives of the Freemen of
the Province of Pennsylvania, in General
Assembly met.
' * Sir. — The representatives of the freemen of the province of Pennsylvania, in general assembly met, being informed that you intend shortly to embark for England, and moved with a due sense of the important services you have rendered to his Majesty, his northern colonies in general, and to this province in particular, during the late wars with the French and barbarous Indians, in the re- markable factory over the savage enemy united to oppose you, near Bushy Run, in August 1763, when on your march for the relief of Pittsburgh, owing, under God, to your intrepidity and superior skill in command, together with the bravery of your officers and little army ; as also in your late march to the country of the savage nations, with the troops under your direction; thereby striking terror through the numerous Indian tribes around you ; laying the foundation for a lasting as well as an honorable peace with them; and reducing from savage captivity upwards of two hundred of our christian brethren, prisoners among them, these eminent services and your constant attention to the civil rights of His Majesty's subjects in this province, demand. Sir, the grateful tribute of thanks from all good men; and therefore we, the representatives of the freemen of Pennsylvania, unanimously for ourselves, and in behalf of the people of this province, do return you our most sincere and hearty thanks for these your great services,
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wishing you a safe and pleasant voyage to England, with a kind and gracious reception from his Majesty." ' ' Signed by Order of the House,
'' JOSEPH FOX, Speaker."
General Gage, prior to the formal taking over of the Illinois country from the French, sent George Croghan west to conciliate the Indians with presents. Croghan set out from Fort Pitt on the fifteenth of May, 1765. He was eminently successful in his mission, and Captain Sterling with the Forty-second Highland Regiment followed him during the summer to Fort Chartres. After this the Indian trade with the several nations reopened. In the latter part of April, 1766, Colonel Croghan distributed presents among them amounting to several thousand dollars.
There was little excitement now at Fort Pitt; the monotony was varied by occasional Indian conferences and warning squatters off the Indian reservations. But despite military threats and removals by force, the settling on Indian lands continued, even in the face of an Act passed February third, 1768, which made the offense punishable with death.
Finding it impossible to control the settlers, who re- turned as soon as the soldiers that ejected them were out of sight, it was decided to hold a conference with the Indians with the view to purchasing this territory. Ac- accordingly, a conference was held at Fort Stanwix, New York, on the twenty-fourth of October, 1768, at which Sir William Johnson presided, and to which New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia sent commissioners. The chiefs of the Six Nations, Shawanese, and Delawares were present. The result was the purchase by Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, for ten thousand dollars, of the Indian lands lying west from the Susquehanna, embracing the dis- puted territory of Pittsburgh and its environs. The following spring a land office was opened in Pittsburgh and immigration increased rapidly.
The cause of the trouble having been removed by this purchase of the Penns, there appeared to be no necessity
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THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
for the maintenance of a garrison at Fort Pitt. Accord- ingly, General Gage ordered Major Edmonson, commandant at that time, to abandon Fort Pitt, October, 1772. The fortification was not destroyed, but Major Edmonson sold everything that could be disposed of for fifty pounds. New York currency. Only a corporal and a few men were left in the place.
During the latter part of 1773, Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, ordered John Connolly, as Captain Command- ant of Militia, to take possession of Fort Pitt and rename it Fort Dunmore. The dispute between Pennsylvania and Virginia, regarding their respective right to the territory about the Ohio headwaters, began as early as 1752, but through the French and Indian War and Pontiao's War, had been held in abeyance. John Murray, Lord Dunmore, a scheming, avaricious and unscrupulous man and Governor of Virginia, was the immediate precipitator of the trouble. John Connolly, although by birth a Pennsylvanian, was his willing and energetic tool. Upon his arrival at Fort Pitt, Connolly issued a pompous proclamation, calling on the militia to meet him on the twenty-fifth of January, 1774; declaring Pittsburgh to be embraced in Augusta county, Virginia. For this high-handed proceeding, Arthur St. Clair, a magistrate of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and agent for the Penns, arrested Connolly and committed bim to jail in Hannastown, from which, however, he was re- leased by entering bail for his appearance at court.
Pennsylvania, or rather the Penns, claimed the territory by a charter from Charles II., dated 1681, which assigned the Delaware as the eastern boundary and the * ' said lands to extend westward five degrees of longitude to be com- puted from the said eastern bounds ; ' ' which line would lie five or six miles west of the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. They claimed, not only by this charter, but particularly by the purchase of the land at the Treaty with the Indians, held at Fort Stanwix, New York, 1768, when, ^' in consideration of ten thousand dollars, they granted to Thomas Penn and Richard Penn all that part of the province of Pennsylvania, not heretofore purchased of the Indians, within the said general boundary line," that is,
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on the east side of the Allegheny river from Kittanning south to the fortieth degree of latitude. Thomas Walker, Esquire, was present as Commissioner from Virginia, when this purchase was made by the Penns, and interposed no objection.
Virginia claimed under a grant made by James I., in 1609, to a company of Londoners, which grant had been annulled by the desire of the company in 1624 ; and, by the endeavors of the Ohio Company to occupy the disputed ter- ritory in 1753 and 1754.
A long and futile correspondence ensued between Gov- ernor Penn and Lord Dunmore. In 1774 Dunmore was engaged in the Indian war generally known as '' Duu- more's War."
JEneas Mackay wrote to Governor Penn on June four- teenth, 1774: " the deplorable state of affairs in this part of your government is truly distressing. We are robbed, insulted and dragooned by Connolly and his militia, in this place and its environs."
Virginia treated the disputed territory and the adjacent country west of the Ohio as part of Augusta county, during the years 1774, 1775 and 1776 ; held courts, levied taxes and exercised judicial functions generally.
' ' To form an adequate conception of the condition of the inhabitants in this place, at that time, we must take into view, not only the oppressive conduct of Connolly, but also bear in mind that the War of the Revolution was rapidly approaching and that hostilities between the Indians and Virginians were actually raging at the time. The Indians, it is true, were understood to say they would not touch Pennsylvania; but still they must have felt much of the embarrassments arising out of the Indian war. So great was the anxiety and distress of the adherents of the Pro- prietary, that they at one time thought seriously of leaving this place, and removing to Kittanning, which lay in an- other manor. Another project was to raise a stockade around the town of Pittsburgh, being that part of our city which lies between Water and Second streets, and Market and Ferry streets. Neither project was carried into execu- tion and I merely mention them as signs of the times, and as evidences of the state of feeling then prevailing here."
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THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
Early in the year 1775 it was evident that the power of Dunmore and Connolly was declining.
But this lesser strife, the boundary controversy, shrank out of sight in the great struggle for independence, which was beginning. Meetings were held in Pittsburgh and Han- nastown on the sixteenth of May, at which " the spirited be- havior of their brethern of New England ' ' was ' ' cordially approved, ' ' and it was unanimously resolved that it was the '' indispensable duty of every American " to resist the tyranny of the British Parliament.
The disturbance attracted much attention, even in the Second Continental Congress, from whence a circular was is- sued on the twenty-fifth of July, 1775, which read, in part : ** We recommend it to you that all bodies of armed men, kept up by either party be dismissed; and that all those on either side, who are in confinement or on bail, for taking loart in this contest, be discharged." On the head of this the Virginia Provincial Council, on the seventh of the suc- ceeding August, ordered Captain John Neville with one hundred men to take possession of Fort Pitt. The Penn- sylvanians had been inclined to adopt a more conciliatory attitude under the influence of the advice of Congress, but this move on the part of Virginia aggravated them exceed- ingly. Arthur St. Clair wrote to Grovernor Penn : ' ' This step has already, as might be expected, served to exasperate the dispute between the inhabitants of the country and entirely destroyed the prospect of a cessation of our grievances, from the salutary and conciliating advice of the delegates in their circular letter."
But Captain John Neville was a Whig and had taken part in the meeting of May sixteenth, so while he was there by order of Virginia — Virginia was a sister State and held in community of interest with Pennsylvania feelings of in- dignation and revolt against the oppression of England — Fort Pitt was safe, in the keeping of Neville, from the scheming and plotting of the arrant Tory, Connolly, who had laid some plan of giving it over to the English.
On the eighteenth of December, 1776, the Virginia Legis- lature passed the following resolution: " That the meridian line, drawn from the head of the Potomac to the
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northwest angle of Maryland, be extended due north until it intersects the latitude of forty degrees, and from thence the southern boundary shall be extended on the said forty degrees of latitude, until the distance of five degrees of longitude from the Delaware shall be accomplished thereon ; and from the said point, five degrees, in either or every point, according to the meanderings of the Delaware, or (which is easier and better for both) from proper points or angles on the Delaware, with intermediate straight lines."
John Penn had claimed from the beginning and through- out the entire controversy that '^ the western extent of the Province of Pennsylvania, by the Royal Grant, is five de- grees of longitude from the river Delaware, which is at its eastern boundary." The malignity and bitterness of the contest were undoubtedly due to Dunmore and Connolly.
This notice appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette of Sep- tember thirtieth, 1786:
^' Pennsylvania and Vieginia Boundary.
" The commissioners appointed to extend and complete the line of the western boundary of Pennsylvania by as- tronomical observations have completed said line and are returned to this town on their way to their respective homes. We have the pleasure to inform our readers that the line extends near one mile and a half into Lake Erie." This was the end, save a proclamation regarding land patents.
The bitter boundary controversy melted before the glare of the heat that flamed into light against Great Britain for the wrongs she had perpetrated against her own sons, whose only intent had been to add the New World to her glory.
At the meeting on the sixteenth of May, 1775, of the in- habitants of "Augusta County," as that part of Westmore- land county was termed by Virginia, the following men were chosen to represent the district: George Croghan, John Campbell, Edward Ward, Thomas Smallman, John Cannon, John McCullough, William Gee, George Valand-
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THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
ingham, John Gibson, Dorsey Pentecost, Edward Cook, William Crawford, Devereanx Smith, John Anderson, David Rodgers, Jacob Vanmetre, Henry Enoch, James Ennis, George Wilson, William Vance, David Shepherd, William Elliot, Richmond Willis, Samuel Semple, John Ormsby, Richard McMaher, John Neville, and John Swear- ingen. They endorsed the action of the eastern states, and many men went east to join the army, but the dread that lay in the hearts of the people of this section was of the Indians rather than of the British.
A conference was held early in July, 1776, with the In- dians to cultivate their friendship, whereon Guyasuta guar- anteed that his people would allow neither the Americans nor the British to march an army through their country. But there was never a moment when reliance could be placed on the stability of the most solemn promises of the savages. The Indians in the Detroit district were the allies of the English, and Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton, the commandant of that place, offered a bounty for Ameri- can scalps. Throughout the autumn of 1776-77 the most serious trouble with the Indians was apprehended, but the winter passed without notable event.
The importance of maintaining Fort Pitt had been real- ized, since the opening of the Revolution, as a barrier be- tween the British at Detroit and the east ; and its position as a frontier Indian post. Captain John Neville, with his hundred men, held it until June first, 1777, when Brigadier General Edward Hand took it over and planned an expedi- tion into the Indian country. Both men and supplies were difficult to obtain and he was compelled to be satisfied with assisting the inhabitants of his immediate district. The Indians grew bolder and bolder in their raids and devasta- tions. Provisions were so scarce in the January of 1778 that bacon sold for a dollar a pound and flour for sixteen dollars a barrel.
Fort Pitt was reinforced in the spring of 1778 ; General Mcintosh took command and General Hand returned to the east. Fort Mcintosh, at the mouth of Beaver creek, was erected during the summer. On the eighth of October, Fort Mcintosh was made headquarters for the army of the
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Western Department; and from thence one thousand men started for Detroit, but the supplies failing when they had proceeded only seventy miles, they erected Fort Laurens and remained throughout the winter.
Colonel Daniel Brodhead succeeded General Mcintosh in charge of the Western Department, during March, 1779. On the eleventh of August, with about six hundred men, he undertook an expedition against the Munsies and Senecas in the northern part of the state. The raid was eminently successful, as no men were lost, and he took about three thousand dollars worth of plunder. In October, Brodhead informed Washington that he had provisions enough for a thousand men for but three months. Owing to the scarcity of provisions and the depreciation of the currency, it must be remembered that the country was at this time in a most deplorable condition, and an effect that was so apparent at the centers could not but be even more exaggerated on the frontier; consequently the difficulty of subsistence at Fort Pitt was a serious matter. Colonel Brodhead, through his effort to care for his garrison, and perhaps through a tactless way of accomplishing it, brought on himself the enmity of the citizens of Pittsburgh, and a disaffection also arose in the garrison, in which Captain Gibson took a prom- inent part. The trouble assumed such proportions that the citizens sent a petition " To His Excellency, the President and Supreme Executive Council of the State of Penn- sylvania. ' '
" The representation and memorial of the inhabitants of the town of Pittsburgh, humbly sheweth :
' ' That we are greatly alarmed with the claim of Colonel Brodhead, Commanding Officer at the Garrison of Fort Pitt, assuming authority to exercise military power over this Town, which he conceives he has a right to do, within the round of his Patroles. In many cases he has actually exercised this authority taking away the property, con- fining the persons of citizens, and ordering them to be tried by court martial. * * * " The petition proceeds to re- view in detail the grievances of the civilians at the hands of the military, emphasizing especially the part of Colonel Brodhead. The garrisons of Fort Pitt and Fort Mcintosh
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were in a state of mutiny; Colonel Brodhead wrote to Gen- eral Washington on September sixth, 1781, *' things sre in utmost confusion." Whereon, General Washington relieved him, and General William Irvine took command at Fort Pitt, October, 1781, and, with decision, brought order out of the confusion.
The surrender of Cornwallis was reported at Fort Pitt, on the sixth of November, when General Irvine had the pleasure to congratulate the " Troops " and ordered, " Thirteen pieces of artillery will be fired this day at one o'clock, in the Fort, at which time the Troops will be under arms, with their colors displayed. The Commissaries will issue a gill of liquor extraordinary to the non-commissioned officers and privates on this joyful occasion,"
The end of the struggle with Great Britain in no way marked a cessation of hostilities with the Indians. General Clarke planned the taking of Detroit in 1781, but the usual ** lack of supplies " defeated it.
General Irvine repaired Fort Pitt during the summer of 1782. In October of the next year, his garrison having been furloughed, General Irvine retired and Major Joseph Mar- bury, with a small detachment, remained in charge of Fort Pitt.
Despite the border raids and ravages, the growth of the town of Pittsburgh, in the years succeeding the Revolution, was astonishing. And was, in part, due to the fact that the government redeemed its depreciated gold and silver cer- tificates from the officers and men of the Pennsylvania line by receiving them in payment for unlocated lands, ter- ritory lying west and northwest of the confluence of the Allegheny and Ohio, as far north as Pine creek and west to Beaver creek. These lands came to be known as '' depre- ciation lands," and *' donation lands," and were referred to as the '' struck district."
General Harmar headed an expedition of about fourteen hundred men to the Maumee, in the autoumn of 1790, which was unsuccessful. General Scott marched to the Wabash with seven hundred and fifty men the next summer. And General Arthur St. Clair, with about twenty-three hundred men, was disastrously defeated by the Indians in the
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Wabash country in the November of 1791, The govern- ment now realized its error in leaving Pittsburgh without military protection. Fort Pitt had fallen into ruin, the fear of Indian attack revived and the settlers besought the government for a garrison. Under orders from General Knox, the Secretary of War, Major Isaac Craig, then Quartermaster U. S. Army, in that same year was ordered to build a new defense in a position to protect the town and to secure in safety public stores forwarded at different times by the Government. The site chosen by the Govern- ment was located on what is now Penn avenue and Ninth street, on the property now occupied by W. G. Johnson & Co., because it is said the Penns desired Fort Fayette to be located beyond the town limits, believing the value of their property would be enhanced by the absence^of a mili- tary post at the point ; particularly, if they could advertise in the eastern papers that there was so little danger from the Indians that there was no longer a garrison in Pitts- burgh. The fort was completed by Major Craig and occu- pied by Captain Hughes and a detachment of the Second U. S. Regiment on May first, 1792; Major Craig had named, in his report to the Secretary of War, the new fortification ' ' Fort Lafayette, ' ' but the name was later changed by the War Department to '' Fort Fayette." It was but a little while after Captain Hughes had assumed command that General Wayne arrived, with two troops then in pursuit of the Indians, relieving him of command. (In August, 1813, an Act of Congress was passed for its abandonment and for the sale of the property. In 1815 the old fort had dis- appeared, and the property, under this act, was sold, the Government retaining a small portion, which it still owns and is now used as a recruiting station for the U. S. Army.)
The conditions in Pittsburgh again became complex, for, in addition to the border warfare with the Indians, they were convulsed with local difficulties brought about by the resistance of the excise on distilled spirits.
Congress, in 1791, in the face of much popular opposi- tion, accepted the financial plan of Alexander Hamilton, one clause of which levied an excise on spirits, distilled from grain, of nine to twenty-five cents per gallon, accord-
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ing to their strength. Distilling was, at this time, the most lucrative business in western Pennsylvania; this was due to the great cost of transportation across the moun- tains and to the fact that the mouth of the Mississippi was in Spanish territory. The soil was rich and produced the various grains with little labor, but there was no outlet, no market. In Allegheny, Fayette, Washington and West- moreland counties about one-fifth of the farmers were dis- tillers ; more whiskey was made here in proportion to the population than in any other part of the country. The people, therefore, felt the whiskey tax to be oppressive and unjust, owing to the obstacles in transportation which practically barred them from the general market. The in- habitants were largely Scotch-Irish and they quickly re- sented the restriction. Public meetings were held, resolu- tions were passed and ordered published, to the following effect, in the Pittsburgh Gazette:
*'Any person who had accepted or might accept an office under Congress in order to carry the law into effect, should be considered inimical to the interests of the country, and citizens to treat every person accepting such office with contempt, and absolutely to refuse all kinds of communica- tion or intercourse with him, and withhold from him all aid, support and comfort. ' '
Some prominent men of this section were identified with the resistance. The collector for the counties of Allegheny and Washington, Robert Johnson, was waylaid on the fifth of September, 1791, and tarred and feathered. On the fifteenth of September, 1792, the President issued a procla- mation " enjoining all persons to submit to the law," and the Governor resolved: '' First, to prosecute delinquents; second, to seize unexcised spirits on their way to market; and third, to make no purchases for the army except of such spirits as had paid duty." Personal outrages to the collectors continued, but regard for the law gained, rather than lost, throughout the year 1793. '' Tom the Tinker " was the popular phrase used to designate the opposers of the whiskey law.
The opposition to the law, until July fifteenth, 1794, may be considered a resistance; then for a short time features
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of an insurrection were apparent, when Major Lenox, the marshal, with the inspector, General Neville, undertook to serve a writ on a farmer named Miller, living near Peters' creek.
Lenox had successfully served his writs in Allegheny county, but this one was resisted by Miller and his neigh- bors, who resented, it is generally considered, the presence of General Neville. General Neville had been made in- spector for reason of his deserved popularity, hoping to render the office less offensive to the people through his personality. Miller, or one of the five or six men with him, fired, it is believed, without any intention of harming either Neville or Lenox, so long as they did not persist in serving the writ.
At a public meeting, held that day at Mingo creek, this act of resistance was reported and it roused about thirty young men, who, led by John Holcroft, went to General Neville's house early the next morning, demanding his official papers and commission; these were refused and shots were ex- changed. A public meeting was called, and a force, under Major MacFarlane (lately an officer in the Revolution), marched to the house of Neville, which was now defended by Major Kirkpatriek and ten United States soldiers from the garrison in Pittsburgh. MacFarlane demanded Ne- ville, but Neville was not there; then Neville's papers were required, but Kirkpatriek said he would not deliver them, and that he could defend them. In the skirmish which en- sued MacFarlane was killed; infuriated by this, some of the insurgents set fire to the bam, which spread and de- stroyed the dwelling house and small buildings. Major Kirkpatriek and his men surrendered. Another meeting was held in the Mingo creek meeting house; David Brad- ford and Colonel John Marshall of Washington (Pa.) at- tended, also Messrs. Parkinson, Cook and Brackenridge. Great indignation was expressed for the death of MacFar- lane; and a circular letter was sent to the colonels of the regiments in the western counties arranging Braddock's Field as a rendezvous. It has been estimated that probably seven thousand men gathered there in response, August first, 1794.
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Consternation was rife in Pittsburgh, lest the mob should come in and burn the town. The insurgents searched the mail and found letters from Colonel Presley Neville, Mr. Brison, Mr. Edward Day and General Gibson, which dis- pleased them, and the gentlemen named were compelled to leave the town. David Bradford even went so far as to suggest that Pittsburgh should be entered and the garrison taken, but this found small favor. Speeches and sugges- tions took up the greater part of the day, with Brackenridge and Cook arguing against any rash action. The result was, the insurgents marched mutteringly into Pittsburgh and, through the manipulation of Brackenridge and the grace of a *' treat " of whiskey, they were quietly ferried across the Monongahela, leaving the town unharmed.
This movement, though somewhat ludicrous in its pro- ceedings and harmless in its outcome, caused President Washington to issue a proclamation on the seventh of August, calling out the militia, ' ' feeling the deepest regret for the occasion, but withal, the most solemn conviction that the essential interests of the Union demanded it; that the very existence of government, and the fundamental principles of social order are involved in the issue, * * * all persons being insurgents, on or before the first day of September, to disperse and retire peaceably to their re- spective abodes."
Directed by the President, Pennsylvania accoutred fifty- two hundred men. New Jersey twenty-one hundred, Mary- land twenty-three hundred and fifty, and Virginia thirty- three hundred. Governor Mifflin called the Assembly of Pennsylvania in special session, and ordered the State militia to be put in readiness with all haste. James Ross, Jasper Yeates and William Bradford were appointed com- missioners to the western counties, and Colonel Cook, Albert Gallatin, H. H. Brackenridge and Judge Edgar con- ferred with them on behalf of the insurgents. Wliile these gentlemen had been associated with the insurgents, they had pointed out the folly of resistance and the ruinous effects to the new Republic if the insurrection continued, and had done all in their power to restore quietness and submission. ''All males over eighteen " were individually
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to sign a test of submission on or before September eleventh, but, owing to tlie distances and the slowness of communication, this was not promptly accomplished and, consequently, the report of the commissioners was not favorable. President Washington actually set out for Pittsburgh on the first of October, but before he reached Bedford, a great reaction had taken place, the test of sub- mission had been signed and the Whiskey Insurrection ended. The President came no farther west than Bedford, but the army was permitted to arrive in Pittsburgh.
Except twenty-five hundred men, who remained in Pitts- burgh under command of General Morgan through the winter, the army immediately returned east. The judicial investigation was conducted by Judge Richard Peters, and, though many innocent persons were seriously incon- venienced, because the trials were held in Philadelphia, only two were convicted and these were pardoned by the President. The quelling of this rebellion cost the govern- ment about three-quarters of a million dollars.
W^hile this district was laboring with a local insurrection, General Wayne was drilling an army to subdue the Indians who were menacing the western country. Although they had failed in their alliance with the French in the Seven Years War, and failed in the conspiracy led by Pontiac to drive the English east of the AUeghenies in 1763, they con- tinued to harass the frontier and to defeat nearly every expedition led into their own country against them.
The terms of the treaty made at Fort Stanwix with the English in 1768, named the Ohio river as the western boundary line of the English possessions. Little by little the settlers continued to encroach on the Indians' territory; protest after protest was made by the several nations but were of no avail. Offers of money and annuities as a con- sideration for allowing the settlers to remain undisturbed in their new homes were rejected. Various councils re- sulted in no amicable adjustment and the settlers showed a determination to remain in any event.
This prolonged state of hostility on the part of the In- dians was doubtless enhanced by the promises of aid and the moral support of the English, who were feeling bitter
[ 63 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
over their defeat by the colonies in the War for Independ- ence, therefore, it became necessary to strike a decisive blow. Accordingly, General Wayne's army was moved into the disputed territory in the fall of 1793, and the winter was spent in building roads, constructing forts and collect- ing stores. The following year, after a series of minor conflicts, the decisive battle on the Maumee was fought on the twentieth of August. This so paralyzed the Indians that no further resistance was made to the settlements within a long radius of Pittsburgh.
In the same year (1794), Pittsburgh was erected into a borough. It had been the point of contest between the English and French, between the English and Indians, be- tween Pennsylvania and Virginia; had suffered the throes of insurrection and the attendant humiliations, but, by this last campaign of Wayne, relieved from all hindrance to growth, the vicissitudes of its beginning were accomplished.
[ 64]
BEFORE THE CITY CHARTEB
BEFORE THE CITY CHARTER
It is impossible to give the date of the actual beginning of trade, or the names of the first traders or settlers at the headwaters of the Ohio, but during the French occupation of Fort Duquesne, from the spring of 1754 until the autumn of 1758, Indian traders dwelt in the vicinity under the protection of the fort. Among these traders there were some English, not only at this time but at least five years earlier, 1749, at which time protest was made to the Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania by Celeron, the commander of the French forces along the Allegheny, that the traders from the English colonies were trespassing on the territory of France, and there is extant a record pointing to the possi- bility of traders here even ten years previous to the French occupation. In the Isaac Craig annotated list of the in- habitants of Pittsburgh in 1760, to be found in the succeed- ing pages, there occurs the account that *' Lazarus Lowry and his brother James were licensed Indian traders as early as 1744. ' ' In this account the essential information to establish the certainty of the Lowrys being Indian traders at Pittsburgh as early as this is lacking, though it is possible that they were. There is no information in detail regard- ing any of these traders, owing to the meagre records, but it is worthy of note that, the day following the capture of Fort Duquesne, General Forbes, in acquainting Lieutenant- Governor Denny with his success, dated his letter from *' Fort Duquesne, or now Pitts-Borough." It is evident from this fact that there were enough settlers to warrant 5 [ 65 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
Forbes in using the term " borougli." In fact, the name " Pittsburgh " was almost as frequently used in the cor- respondence of the period dated here as " Fort Pitt," which was doubtless due to the fact that there was in reality no fort until the completion of Fort Pitt, the French having burned Fort Duquesne, although the name " Fort Pitt ' ' had been decided upon to succeed the French name, even before the French evacuation. General Stanwix seems to have been the first to use the term '' Fort Pitt " in his correspondence, the earliest date being December twenty-fourth, 1759. He also used, in the same letters, *' Pittsburgh," and in other communications, '' Camp at Pittsburgh." Pittsburgh was, and had, for some time, been regarded the most important trading post in the western country, and within a short time after the English occupa- tion, the number of inhabitants ha.d increased to such an extent that a fair sized village flourished outside the gar- rison.
One of the early settlers about Fort Pitt was James Kenney, from Chester county, Pennsylvania, who had charge of a general store for the Pemberton family of Philadelphia. Kenney 's manuscript diary has fortunately been preserved, and from it is learned that, in 1761, the commanding officer of the fort ordered an enumeration to be made of all the dwelling houses outside the fort. Ac- cording to Kenney, all of these houses, except one, had been built within two years. That ' ' many of ye inhabitants here have hired a schoolmaster, and subscribed about sixty pounds for this year (1761) for him, he has about twenty scholars, and likewise ye soberer sort of people seem to long for some public way of worship, so ye schoolmaster, etc., reads ye Litany and Common Prayer on ye first da3^s to a Congregation of different principles (he being a Pres- biterant), where they behave very grave (as I hear), on ye occasion, ye children are also brought to church as they call it."
A record of the population of Pittsburgh at this period gives the number of men as three hundred and twenty-four, the woman ninety-two, and children forty-eight, living out- side the garrison ; and the number of houses, with owners '
[ 66 ]
BEFORE THE CITY CHARTER
names, two hundred and twenty. Also, Mr. Isaac Craig's
annotated list of 1760 (from the Ecuyer Papers), of the
names is here given and furnishes interesting bits of in- formation concerning the inhabitants.
John Langdale, an Indian trader; May twentieth, 1760. He and Josiah Davenport and Robert Burchan were nominated and recommended to the Governor as suit- able persons for agents at Pittsburgh, by the Commis- sioners under the Act for preventing abuses in the Indian trade. In 1765 he married Alice Coates.
John Barklit, probably John Barkley, an Indian trader as late as 1772.
Hugh McSwine,
James Braden,
Philip Boyle, enlisted May fourth, 1756, in Captain Joseph Shippen's Company, in Colonel William Clapham's regiment. After the capture of Fort Duquesne he was employed by Colonel Croghan in the Indian trade.
John Greenfield,
Edward Graham,
Lewis Bernard,
Samuel Hyden,
William Splane,
Robert Hook,
John Pierce, subsequently Pa^nnaster-General of Pennsyl- vania militia.
William McAllister, was living in Washington county dur- ing the Whiskey Insurrection in 1794.
James St. Clair,
Erasmus Bokias, a family named Bokius, settled very early in that portion of Washington county on the Mononga- hela river, above Redstone, Old Fort.
John Everlow,
George Carr,
Edward Cook, was a man of great ability and influence ; he held numerous offices, both civil and military. He was one of the three persons who ordered the building of the fort at Hannastown in 1776. He was a delegate from Westmoreland county to the Convention of 1776 ; County Lieutenant in 1782 ; and Judge of the Court of
[ 67 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
Common Pleas for Washington and Fayette counties in 1786.
AVilliam Bryan,
James Harris, of Cmnberland county; April eighteenth, 1785, was appointed Deputy Surveyor under the Act of the seventh of April, 1785 ; and he was the surveyor of Harris's district, No. 11. April sixth, 1787, he was appointed one of the three commissioners for laying out a road between the Frankstown Branch and the Conemaugh river. April third, 1789, he was appointed one of the three commissioners to run the boundary line of Huntingdon county.
John M'Kee,
William Work was a Paxton man, and one of the signers of a circular addressed " To all His Majesty's subjects in the Province of Pennsylvania and elsewhere," dated at ' ' Paxton, October thirty-first, 1755, from John Har- ris's at twelve o'clock at night." The address will be found in the Pennsylvania Colonial Records, Vol. VI., p. 669. March fifteenth, 1758, he was appointed an ensign in Captain Patrick Davis' Company, and sta- tioned east of the Susquehannah. May fourth, 1759, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in Colonel William Clapham 's regiment.
William Downey,
James Milligan was commissioned April sixteenth, 1779, a Lieutenant in the Seventh Pennsylvania regiment, and by the arrangement of January twentieth, 1780, he was transferred to the Fourth Pennsylvania regiment, com- manded by Lieutenant Colonel William Butler. I think he was a delegate to the Provincial Convention of January, 1775.
John Linsey, a private in Colonel William Butler's com- pany of St. Clair's Battalion, in 1776.
Alexander Ewing, an Indian trader as late as 1772.
Andrew Briarly,
Isaac Hall,
Lazarus Lowry and his brother, James, were licensed In- dian traders as early as July, 1744. They had great influence with the Indians, and the Governor of Canada
[ 68 ]
BEFORE THE CITY CHARTER
authorized the commandant at Detroit to offer a Very high price for their scalps in order to get rid of them.
Uriah Hill,
Edward Ward. Too well known to require notice.
William Trent. Too well known to require notice.
John Finly, Indian trader licensed in 1774, afterwards a Captain in Colonel Richard Butler's regiment, and assistant-quartermaster in Wayne's Army.
Hugh Crawford, an Indian trader, July thirty-first, 1750, * * Governor Hamilton laid before the Council at Phila- delphia a message from the chiefs of the four nations of the Twigh twees, which was spoken to Mr. Hugh Crawford, Indian trader, in one of the Twightwees towns on the Owaback, where he was trading last win- ter, and which he put down in writing, ' ' The message can be found in Pennsylvania Colonial Records. In 1756 he was Lieutenant in Captain James Patterson's Company of Colonel Weier's Battalion.
Joseph Spear, Indian trader as late as 1775; he then re- sided in Pittsburgh, near Judge Ormsby's house. Spear was also one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace of Westmoreland county in 1774 and 1775. He appeared prominently in the controversy between Dr. John Connolly and the Pennsylvania authorities in re- gard to the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Virginia.
John McClure was coroner of Cumberland county, 1754- 1758. An uncle of Mayor Ebenezer Denny, mentioned in his journal, p. 321, as residing " nine miles above Fort Pitt on the Monongahela," an ancestor of all the McClures in the neighborhood.
Thomas Welch,
.John Cahoon,
Patrick Cunningham,
Samuel Heyden, a captain in the King's Rangers in the Revolution. In 1777, taken prisoner, violated his parole, and was sent to the Council of Pennsylvania.
James Reed is doubtless the Read of Reading; he after- wards held many oflQces both civU and militar}^
Jolui Daily resided in Rostaver township, Westmoreland
[ 69 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
county. November twenty-fifth, 1794, he was accepted by Judge Addison as bail for the appearance of Moses D. Devore, who was charged with being concerned in the Wliiskey Insurrection.
Charles Boyle, brother of Philip Boyle.
William Jacobs,
Robert Paris, this is perhaps a mistake, and should be Richard Paris. Colonel John Armstrong frequently mentions Paris as a trader. In 1757, Paris brought a number of Cherokee and Catawba Indians to aid Penn- sylvania. In a letter dated Carlisle, May fifth, 1757, Colonel Armstrong writes to the Governor: " Be- sides the inclination which the Cherokees have ex- pressed to be acquainted and occasionally join with us, I am well acquainted with Paris, the trader, who is at the head of these people, and can, I am persuaded, get him to visit us and assist with more or less of his people, except when they may be put on some expedi- tion, or particular service from Virginia but have not taken the liberty even of writing that gentleman on the subject, until I have Your Honor's authority for do- ing so."
William Fowler,
John Judy,
Thomas Small,
Cornelius Atkinson enlisted April twentieth, 1756, in Cap- tain Joseph Shippen's company, and June fifth was sent with Lazarus and James Lowry and others on a scout, for an account of which see Colonial Records, Vol. VII., p. 155.
Robert Reed,
Neil McCollum,
John Work, subsequently a Justice of the Peace in Cumber- land county. John Work signed a petition for the in- habitants of Westmoreland county, dated Pittsburgh, June fourteenth, 1771. See Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. IV., p. 518.
George Tomb, probably George Tump, a militiaman and spy during the Revolution.
George Sly,
[ 70 ]
BEFORE THE CITY CHARTER
Patrick McCarty,
Cliristoplier Miller resided in or near Pittsburgli; he also signed the petition of the inhabitants of Westmoreland county to Governor Penn, dated June fourteenth, 1781.
William Heath, this was probably William Heth, after- wards Lieutenant-Colonel of the Third Virginia Regi- ment, in the Revolutionary war. The name was quite commonly written Heath.
William Winsor,
John Graham was in the Indian trade as late as 1772.
John Robinson,
John Duncastle,
Peter Smith,
Windle Creamer,
John Snyder,
Peter Mumaw,
Matthias Doberick,
James Sampson,
Charles Hays,
Abram Lingenfilder,
John Coleman. Can this be the man whose case before the Presbytery, April fifteenth, 1788, is noticed in Smith's " Old Redstone," p. 355? There was a family of this name in Lancaster engaged in the manufacture of rifles and pack-saddles, and in the Indian trade. Robert and William are the best known of the family. I am under the impression that General Hand became associated with them after the Revolution, in the manufacture of rifles.
Jacob Sinnott,
Sinnott,
(imperfect),
dor (imperfect),
alesby (imperfect),
Conrad Crone,
Nicholas Philip,
Harnider,
France Ferdinanders,
Henry Wembock,
Adam Overwinter,
[ 71 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
Paul Sharp,
Tineas Smith,
Philip Byarly,
Anthony Baker,
Christopher Rorabunck,
Thomas Bretton,
Joseph George,
Ephriam Blane was Commissary-General of the Middle Department in the Revolution and great grandfather of Honorable James G. Blaine, United States Senator. Total, 90.
Women's Names.
Susannah McSwine, Margaret Pomry,
Mary Wallen, Chris 'm McCollom,
Mary Atkinson, Agnus Tomb,
Martha Reed, Marget Sly,
Elizabeth Randal, Lydia McCarty,
Phebe Byarly, Lenora Rogers,
Judah Crawford, Elenor Millar,
Mary Reed, Bridget Winsor,
Anna Thomas, Marget Crone,
Sarah Daily, Susannah Sinnott,
Henrietta Price, Mary Hays,
Elizabeth Boyle, Marget Sampson,
Elizabeth Jacobs, Cate Creamer,
Mary Judy, Chris. Smith.
Mary Reed, Total, 29.
Male Children.
George McSwine, Godfrey Christian,
Jacob Byarly, Henry Millar,
Jno. Reed, Chris. Phillips,
Robt. Atkinson, John Sinnott,
George Reed, Philip Sinnott,
Thomas McCollom, Patrick Feagan,
Jno. Work, George Creamer.
Total, 14.
[ 72 ]
BEFORE THE CITY CHARTER
Female Children.
Mary McSwine, Elizabeth Judy,
Elizabeth Otter, Elizabeth Pomry,
Marget Coghran, Elizabeth Work,
Nelly Thomas, Elizabeth Sly,
Susan Daily, Susanna Sly,
Rebekah Boyle, Rachel Sly,
Marget Boyle, Nancy Ba (imperfect),
Marget Jacobs, Mary Sinn (imperfect),
Mary Judy, Marget Cro (imperfect).
Total, 18.
Houses , 146
Number of hutts 36
Number of unfinished houses 19
Total 201
From Captain Ecuyer's Journal, the Colonial Records, the writings of Judge Brackenridge, and other sources, it is possible to form a fairly accurate idea of the pioneer days of Pittsburgh. The town was divided into a Lower and Upper town; the *' King's Gardens " stretching along the Allegheny, with a background of wheatfields. The resi- dence of the commandant, a substantial brick building within the Fort, being the most pretentious house. As a diversion, a club met at Port Pitt every Monday during the winter months, and a ball was given by the soldiers every Saturday evening.
The letters of Ecuyer state that, on June second, 1763, the garrison of Fort Pitt consisted of two hundred and fifty men. But, owing to the conspiracy of Pontiac, that same year, the refugees increased the number in Fort Pitt to five hundred and forty men, women and children, the town having been demolished by the garrison in order to leave no shelter for the Indians, It is estimated that, because of this war, twenty-four Indian traders divided among themselves a loss of about ninety thousand pounds, New York currency. The reinforcements under Colonel Henry Bouquet, and his
[ 73 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
subsequent victory over the Indians at Muskingum, brought relief to Fort Pitt. But the fear of Indian attack, as has been said, continued to exercise a detrimental effect upon the growth of the town until the victory of Wayne, in 1794. However, in 1764, confidence was so far restored that Col- onel John Campbell made a survey, laying out a plan of lots and streets, afterwards termed the " Old Military Plan," which comprised that part of the city now lying within the boundaries of Water and Second streets. Market and Ferry streets. It is not known for whom Campbell acted, but his survey was later accepted by the Penns.
The Indian trade continued to increase, and it was proba- bly at this time that the row of substantial brick houses on the bank of the Allegheny was built. Many prominent Eastern merchants had warehouses here, among whom were the Pembertons, and the firm of Boynton, Wharton & Mor- gan, of Philadelphia.
Accommodations for travelers were of a very primitive nature. In 1766, Matthew Clarkson, a merchant, and at one time Mayor of Philadelphia, made a journey from that place to Pittsburgh. He left Philadelphia on horseback, August sixth, accompanied by a servant. Exclusive of stops, ten days' traveling were required to reach Pitts- burgh. His journal does not convey much information re- garding the town; but sufficient to show that accommoda- tions were meagre. Upon his arrival, he said: " I was stowed away in a small crib, on blankets, in company with flees and bugs." He went to the " ship yards," where he found four boats finished and in the water, and three more on the stocks, and business going on briskly. The fort was then under the command of Major Murphy, who gave Mr. Clarkson lodging in the barracks, but owing to the poor food supplied he usually made his meals of bread and milk ^' at the store." Mr. Clarkson spoke of Doctor Murdock, and of Reverend Mr. McLagan, Chaplain, who preached alter- nately in Scotch and English. And he also mentioned that the mail from Pittsburgh was sent monthly by soldiers to Shippensburg, which was the nearest post-office.
When George Washington visited Pittsburgh in 1770, the town was much smaller than it was eight or nine years
[ 74 ]
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BEFORE THE CITY CHARTER
previous. This was due to the constant fear of Indian attack subsequent to the conspiracy of Pontiac. Wash- ington was a large land holder in the vicinity of the Great Kanawha, and a journey to his possessions was the reason for his visit to Pittsburgh.
In his journal he wrote: " Dr. Craik and myself, with Captain Crawford and others, arrived at Port Pitt, distant from the Crossing forty-three and a half measured miles. We lodged in what is called the town, distant about three hundred yards from the Fort, at one Mr. Semple's, who keeps a very good house of public entertainment." (Sem- ple's Tavern stood on the corner of Water and Ferry streets.) *' These houses, which are built of logs, and ranged into streets, are on the Monongahela and I suppose may be about twenty in number, and inhabited by Indian traders, etc. The Fort is built on the point between the rivers Allegheny and Mongahela, but not so near the pitch of it as Fort Duquesne stood * * * etc." The next day he made the following entry : ' ' Dined in the Fort with Colonel Croghan and the officers of the garrison; supped there also, meeting with great civility from the gentlemen, and engaged to dine with Colonel Croghan the next day at his seat about four miles up the Allegheny."
The first attempt at civil government for Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania was made in 1771, when the Penns appointed Arthur St. Clair, ^neas Mackay, Devereux Smith, and Andrew McFarlane to act as magistrates in Westmoreland county, which then included almost all of Western Pennsylvania. Previous to this the settlement had practically been under the rule of the Commandant of Fort Pitt.
While the Indians on the frontier appeared to be peace- ably inclined, the departure of the garrison, in the latter part of 1772, caused great consternation among the inhab- itants who feared that without protection the growth and prosperity of the town would be seriously retarded. A peti- tion was sent to Governor Penn urging the necessity for the continuance of the military force at Fort Pitt. The Governor applied to General Gage, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in America, for the restoration of the
[ 75 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
garrison, but the request was refused on the ground that '^ no government can undertake to erect forts for the ad- vantage of forty or fifty people. ' '
Again the inhabitants of the town and vicinity became apprehensive of the Indians and sent a petition to Governor Penn for protection. Among the signers of this petition are to be found the names of many men who afterward rose to positions of prominence in the various walks of life in Pittsburgh, and whose influence is still felt by the citizens of to-day. The list is given complete, as it is, with the signers of the protest of 1781, against the retention of Colonel Broadhead as Commandant at Fort Pitt, the only record extant of even a portion of the inhabitants from the enu- meration of 1760, down to the early part of the next cen- tury: '' Ensign McKay, Devereux Smith, William Butler, James O'Hara, Samuel McKenzie, John Ormsby, John Mc- Allister, Andrew Robinson, Edward Thompson, William Evans, William McClellan, William Lea, Frederick Henry, John Henry, Christopher Miller, John Stewart, Richard Carson, James Camahan, John Chilton, John Camahan, Peter Ecklej^, Edward Murray, William McConnell, James Kyle, Benjamin Coe, Joseph Kyle, John Worf, Robert Pat- terson, Reuben Powell, Peter Coe, William Elliott, John Emerson, Adam McClintock, James Neely, Leaven Cooper, Nathaniel Field, Aldrich Allen, David Watson, John Cleg- horn, Stephen Lowry, Silas Miller, John Camahan, William Stewart, Clarence Findley, John Findley, Andrew Findley, Robert Thompson, Samuel McGomery, Thomas Carroll, James Patterson, Arthur St. Clair, James Pollock, David Sample, Michael Huffnagle, Samuel Shannon, Samuel Smith, James Dugan, George Hutcheson, George McDowell, Nathan Young, Michael Coffman, William Piper, George Glenn, David McCann, Alexander Jolmston, John Cave- naugh, Robert Nox, James McDowell, Thomas Bleack, David Thompson, Jacob Meens, John Smith, John Mc- Naghar, Hugh Lorrimer, Benjamin Sitten, Thomas Sutton, H. Slatten, David Loveger, James McCurdy, Abel Fisher, Robert Porter, John Livingston, Robert Laughlin, Charles Kille, Dudley Dougherty, Hugh Hamill, Richard Shannon, John Wesnor, John Shannon, Joseph Gaskins, Robert Mc-
[ 76 ]
BEFORE THE CITY CHARTER
Dowell, John Jordan, John Smith, Thomas Galbraith, Sam- uel Evans, Henry Fitzgerald, Edmund Mullaly, James Thompson, Robert Mickey, David Mickey, Alexander Mc- Dowell and William McKenzie. ' '
Another effect of the departure of the garrison was to add io the heated controversy between Pennsylvania and Virginia regarding the boundary line. When Dr. John Connolly, under orders of Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, took possession of Fort Pitt, in 1774, the inhabitants of the town came under his despotic rule, and there was no relief until the fall of 1775, when Connolly was succeeded by Captain John Neville, also a Virginian, whose government was more lenient; but the custom of the military oppressing the inhabitants of the town continued to a greater or less degree through his regime and those of subsequent com- mandants. During the efforts of Pennsylvania to forcibly prevent the depreciation of paper currency, in 1779, by fix- ing the prices of all commodities of exchange and for con- sumption, as well as rates of rent, the officers of the line and staff in the Western Department at Fort Pitt, under Colonel Brodhead, a continental commander, attempted to carry tlie plan through, but the move was met with in- dignant opposition by the traders and inhabitants. Several protests were made to the Legislature of Pennsylvania against Brodhead and his associates. The whole intent of the State's plan was misconstrued and failed here, as else- where. Brodhead was accused of '' jobbery, conspiracy, speculation, despotism, tyranny, confiscation of property, etc." The charge of '' jobbery " and *' conspiracy " re- lated to Brodhead 's questionable dealings with the Assistant Deputy Quartermaster of the State, Mr. David Duncan, concerning the supply and fixing of prices of articles for consumption at the post. Brodhead 's unpopularity at Pittsburgh continued. He practically ruled the town with military power, utterly disregarding the opposition of the inhabitants. Protest was again made to the President and Supreme Executive Council of the State in 1781. This, and the angry controversy in which he became involved with some of ins officers, headed by Colonel Gibson, resulted in his recall the same year. General William Irvine succeeded
[ 77 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
him by choice of Congress, and the transition of the town to a civil center was somewhat accelerated. The names of the feigners of the protest, or memorial mentioned above, are as follows : William Christy, John Oiinsby, Thomas Nicholas, Robert Campbell, Robert McKinley, James Robinson, Peter Bowlider, E. M. Ward, Samuel Ewalt, John Hamilton, Wil- liam Amberson, Thomas Smallman, John Bradley, William Barr, James McFelland, Devereux Smith, John Jerry, James Fleming, Andrew Robertson, John Fowler, George AVallace, John Handlyn, E. Moore, William Reddich, A. Lowler, David Tait and John Irwin.
The breaking out of the struggle between the colonies and England retarded immigration and, hence, in a measure, the growth of the town; it was not until after the Revolu- tion that Pittsburgh again resumed the substantial progress which had been interrupted by the conspiracy of Pontiac in 1763. The poverty stricken Continental Government availed itself of the large and vacant Northwest Territory as a means of payment to its soldiers, and, with this added incentive, immigration was resumed.
This immigration and settlement of new territory was a most important factor in the growth of Pittsburgh, as the Ohio river was the natural highway to the west. In 1787 the population of the Northwest Territory was estimated at three or four thousand. Much of the emigration to Ken- tucky, beginning at the close of the Revolution, likewise passed through Pittsburgh. In the Pittsburgh Gazette of January seventeenth, 1789, it is estimated that from Octo- ber, 1786, to December, 1788, sixteen thousand, two hundred and three persons went westward on the Ohio river. But this progress of Pittsburgh was only comparative, and though it was substantial, it was not of an increasing vigor ; it was only the slow beginning of things. The really marked advance began in the summer of 1794, after Gen- eral Wayne's decisive victory over the Indians, which re- lieved Pittsburgh and its vicinity from all further fear of them.
The treaty made by Thomas and Richard Penn with the Six Nations in 1768, secured to them, for $10,000.00, all the country in the Province of Pennsylvania south of the west
[ 78 ]
BEFORE THE CITY CHARTER
branch of the Susquehanna and of a straight lino from the northwest corner of Cambria county to Kittanning, and all east of the Allegheny below Kittanning, and all south of the Ohio. While they prepared to sell their lands, they decided to reserve for their private estate certain sections which they regarded as especially valuable, owing to favor- able location or for other reasons. These sections were called manors, and among them was the Manor of Pitts- burgh, comprising five thousand seven hundred and sixty- six acres about the headwaters of the Ohio. The survey of this manor was made in the early part of 1769,
In the latter part of 1783, John Penn and John Penn, Jr., the then Proprietaries, decided to sell the lands included in the Manor of Pittsburgh which, according to this survey, were bounded as follows :
" The survey began at a Spanish oak on the south bank of the Monongahela, thence south eight hundred perches to a hickory, thence west one hundred fifty perches to a white oak, thence north thirty-five degrees west one hundred forty-four perches to a white oak, thence west five hundred eighteen perches to a white oak, thence north seven hun- dred fifty-eight perches to a post, thence east sixty perches to a post, north fourteen degrees east two hundred eight perches to a white walnut on the bank of the Ohio, thence up the river two hundred two perches to a white walnut, thence crossing the river and up the south side of the Allegheny seven hundred sixty-two perches to a Spanish oak at the corner of Croghan's claim, thence south sixty degrees east two hundred forty-nine perches to a sugar tree, south eighty-five degrees east one hundred ninety-two perches to a sugar tree, thence by vacant land south eighteen degrees east two hundred thirty-six perches to a white oak, thence south forty degrees west one hundred fifty to a white oak, thence west by claim of Samuel Semple one hundred ninety-two perches to a hickory, thence south sixty-five degrees west Seventy-four perches to a red oak on the bank of the Monongahela, thence obliquely across the river south seventy-eight degrees, west three hundred and eight perches to the Spanish oak, the beginning. ' '
A more intelligible explanation for the present genera-
[ 79 ]
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
tion would be to say, that the Spanish oak, from which the survey began, stood on the south side of the Monongahela, in the middle of McKee street. The hickory, at the south- west corner, eight hundred perches, from the beginning, stood not far from what was known as the Buck Tavern on the old Brownsville road. The white walnut on the Ohio stood a short distance above Saw Mill Run where the Wash- ington and Steubenville roads unite. The white walnut, from which the line starts across the river, stood near the old glass house erected by James O'Hara and Isaac Craig. The Spanish oak on the Allegheny stood near the line be- tween Croghansville and Springfield farm. From thence the line passes the western side of Springfield farm, crosses the Fourth street road, five or six yards east of what was known as the ' ' Colony, ' ' turns just beyond and strikes the Monongahela three or four hundred feet above the mouth of Two Mile Run. From thence the line ran obliquely across as stated above. (Adapted from Craig's " Olden Time.").
It is due to this survey of the Manor of Pittsburgh that almost all titles to real estate within the city of Pittsburgh are derived originally from the Penns, while all the titles in the city of Allegheny originate from the Commonwealth. In 1779 the Penn lands, except the manors, were confiscated by the Commonwealth (the Penns having sided with Eng- land during the War of the Revolution), which allowed them, however, one hundred and thirty pounds sterling, money of Great Britain, for their divested holdings.
The first sale of these lands was made in January, 1784, to Isaac Craig and Stephen Bayard, and included the ground, about three acres, between Fort Pitt and the Alle- gheny river. Under the supervision of Tench Francis, agent for the Penns, a survey was made by Messrs. George Woods, of Bedford, an experienced surveyor, and Thomas Vickroy, his assistant, who left the following deposition re- garding it:
'* I assisted George A¥cods, the elder, to lay out the town of Pittsburgh. He requested me to go with him as a sur- veyor and employed me in that capacity to lay out the town of Pittsburgh and to divide the Proprietary Manor into out- lots and farms. We arrived at Pittsburgh in the month of
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BEFORE THE CITY CHAETER
May, 1784, and the first thing we did was to circumscribe the ground where he intended to lay a town out. We began up about where Grant street now is on the bank of the Monongahela, and proceeded down the Monongahela ac- cording to the meanderings of the river to its junction with the Allegheny river, then up the Allegheny on the bank, keeping on the bank to a certain distance up to about Wash- ington street, from thence to Grant's Hill, thence along Grant's Hill to the place of beginning. I made a draught of it in Mr. Woods ' presence, throwing it into a large scale to see how it would answer to lay it out in lots and streets. After that there was a good deal of conversation. And the ground was viewed by Mr. Woods and the persons who lived at that place to fix on the best plan to lay out the town with the greatest convenience. There had been lots laid out be- fore, as I understand, called Military lots said to be laid out by Mr. Campbell. There are four blocks on the plan con- tained between Market street and Ferry street. Water street and Second street, Mr. Woods expressed a desire to remodel 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 de- stroy their property. Eventually Mr. Woods acquiesced in their wishes and laid out four lots as they had been be- fore. A rough draft of the plan was retained by me, and is hereto annexed marked in my handwriting ' Original Draught kept by Thomas Vickroy. ' I made about six copies of it and gave them to Mr. Woods. The original now identified remained in my possession until about the year 1827, when I handed it to Mr. Craig, but it is now again be- fore me, and I now further identify it by having this day marked on it in my handwriting: ' This draft presented to the City of Pittsburgh, December 16th, 1841, Thomas Vick- roy. ' Mr. Woods having procured a pole and a great num- ber of locust pins for the purpose of measuring and staking off the lots and streets, we then went to Samuel E wait's house, which stood at what is now the corner of Market and Water streets. Then we took the range of Water street 6 [ 81 1
THE HISTORY OF PITTSBURGH
from some houses that then stood on the bank of the Monongahela river, viz: Ormsby's, Galbraith's 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 began at 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 com- menced at Ewalt's and measured up the river on Water street to Wood street, which we laid out sixty feet wide, running it from Water street parallel with Market street through to Liberty street, we then laid out the blocks be- tween Wood and Market streets through from Water street 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, making it parallel with Wood street, and then proceeded to lay out the blocks be- tween Smithfield and Wood streets from Water through to Liberty. From Smithfield we went on to lay out Cherry alley, making it twenty feet wide 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, making it parallel with Cherry alley, and then laid out the block of lots between Cherry alley and Grant street. We ran Grant street through from Water street to Liberty, making it end on Liberty street.
* ' It was the last street we laid out on that side of Liberty. We made Market street and Water street the bases of the blocks of survey south of Liberty street, and we finished all the surveying and laying out lots on that side of Liberty street before we proceeded to the other side. In making the sur^^ey of lots south of Liberty street, we staked them all off with good locust pins. In making the survey of lots . between Liberty and the Allegheny river we commenced I '. think at Marbury street and worked on up until we flushed 1 at Washington street which was the last street we made. , We made Washington street to run toward the Allegheny river to Liberty street when it ended. The reason we
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BEFOEE THE CITY CHARTER
stopped at Liberty street was that if we had run across it, it would have run through a public street. Liberty street had been run and when we ran Grant street we stopped at Liberty street as running to a public street, and when we ran Washington 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, I cannot recollect whether there was an off-set or not, we made no off-set, but to the best of my knowledge the draft hereto annexed which I have identified is correct. I made it im- mediately after the survey. I made it from my field notes directly after my return from Pittsburgh. There was no connection between Washington street and Grant street, a public street intervened. There was no surplus ground over and above the lots between Market street and Grant street to the best of my recollection. We drew a line along the outside of the last row of lots sixty feet wide from Grant street, the streets and lots were all measured with a pole and not with a chain. The first survey made I called a circumscribing 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 sur- vey it. Water street was to extend in width from the base line we established at Ormsby's house to low water mark in the river and this width was to prevail through its 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. Woods said 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 lower down also 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.
' ' We ran no outside lines either on Washington or Grant
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