PITTSBURGH IN 1790

As sketched by Lewis Brantz

From Schoolcraft’s Indian Antiquities

PITTSBURGH
A SKETCH OF ITS EARLY
SOCIAL LIFE

BY
CHARLES W. DAHLINGER

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1916

Copyright, 1916
BY
CHARLES W. DAHLINGER

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

To
B. McC. D.

PREFACE

The purpose of these pages is to describe the early social life of Pittsburgh. The civilization of Pittsburgh was crude and vigorous, withal prescient of future culture and refinement.

The place sprang into prominence after the conclusion of the French and Indian War, and upon the improvement of the military roads laid out over the Alleghany Mountains during that struggle. Pittsburgh was located on the main highway leading to the Mississippi Valley, and was the principal stopping place in the journey from the East to the Louisiana country. The story of its early social existence, interwoven as it is with contemporaneous national events, is of more than local interest.

C. W. D.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
November, 1915.

CONTENTS

Pittsburgh

CHAPTER I
THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

Until all fear of Indian troubles had ceased, there was practically no social life in American pioneer communities. As long as marauding bands of Indians appeared on the outskirts of the settlements, the laws were but a loose net with large meshes, thrown out from the longer-settled country whence they emanated. In the numerous interstices the laws were ineffective. In this Pittsburgh was no exception. The nominal reign of the law had been inaugurated among the settlers in Western Pennsylvania as far back as 1750, when the Western country was no man’s land, and the rival claims set up by France and England were being subjected to the arbitrament of the sword. In that year Cumberland County was formed. It was the sixth county in the province, and comprised all the territory west of the Susquehanna River, and north and west of York County—limitless in its westerly extent—between the province of New York on one side, and the colony of Virginia and the province of Maryland on the other. The first county seat was at Shippinsburg, but the next year, when Carlisle was laid out, that place became the seat of justice.

After the conclusion of the French and Indian War, and the establishment of English supremacy, a further attempt was made to govern Western Pennsylvania by lawful methods, and in 1771 Bedford County was formed out of Cumberland County. It included nearly all of the western half of the province. With Bedford, the new county seat, almost a hundred miles away, the law had little force in and about Pittsburgh. To bring the law nearer home, Westmoreland County was formed in 1773, from Bedford County, and embraced all of the province west of “Laurel Hill.” The county seat was at Hannastown, three miles northeast of the present borough of Greensburg. But with Virginia and Pennsylvania each claiming jurisdiction over the territory an uncertainty prevailed which caused more disregard for the law. The Revolutionary War came on, with its attendant Indian troubles; and in 1794 the western counties revolted against the national government on account of the imposition of an excise on whisky. It was only after the last uprising had been suppressed that the laws became effective and society entered upon the formative stage.

Culture is the leading element in the formation and progress of society, and is the result of mental activity. The most potent agency in the production of culture is education. While Pittsburgh was a frontier village, suffering from the turbulence of the French and Indian War, the uncertainty of the Revolution, and the chaos of the Whisky Insurrection, education remained at a standstill. The men who had blazed trails through the trackless forests, and buried themselves in the woods or along the uncharted rivers, could usually read and write, but there were no means of transmitting these boons to their children. The laws of the province made no provision for schools on its frontiers. In December, 1761, the inhabitants of Pittsburgh subscribed sixty pounds and engaged a schoolmaster for the term of a year to instruct their children. Similar attempts followed, but, like the first effort, ended in failure. There was not a newspaper in all the Western country; the only books were the Bible and the almanac. The almanac was the one form of secular literature with which frontier families were ordinarily familiar.

In 1764, while Pittsburgh was a trading post, the military authorities caused a plan of the village to be made by Colonel John Campbell. It consisted of four blocks, and was bounded by Water Street, Second Street, now Second Avenue, Market and Ferry Streets, and was intersected by Chancery Lane. The lots faced in the direction of Water Street. In this plan most of the houses were built.

At the outbreak of the Revolution, the proprietors of the province were the cousins, John Penn, Jr., and John Penn, both grandsons of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. Being royalists, they had been divested of the title to all their lands in Pennsylvania, except to a few tracts which had been surveyed, called manors, one of them being “Pittsburgh,” in which was included the village of that name. In 1784 the Penns conceived the design of selling land in the village of Pittsburgh. The first sale was made in January, when an agreement to sell was entered into with Major Isaac Craig and Colonel Stephen Bayard, for about three acres, located “between Fort Pitt and the Allegheny River.” The Penns determined to lay out a town according to a plan of their own, and on April 22, 1784, Tench Francis, their agent, employed George Woods, an engineer living at Bedford, to do the work. The plan was completed in a few months, and included within its boundaries all the land in the triangle between the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, extending to Grant Street and Washington, now Eleventh, Street. Campbell’s plan was adopted unchanged; Tench Francis approved the new plan and began to sell lots. Major Craig and Colonel Bayard accepted, in lieu of the acreage purchased by them, a deed for thirty-two lots in this plan.

Until this time, the title of the occupants of lands included in the plan had been by sufferance only. The earlier Penns were reputed to have treated the Indians, the original proprietors of Pennsylvania, with consideration. In the same manner John Penn, Jr., and John Penn dealt with the persons who made improvements on the lands to which they had no title. They permitted the settlement on the assumption that the settlers would afterwards buy the land; and they gave them a preference. Also when litigation arose, caused by the schemes of land speculators intent on securing the fruits of the enterprise and industry of squatters on the Penn lots, the courts generally intervened in favor of the occupants.[1] The sale was advertised near and far, and immigrants and speculators flocked into the village. They came from Eastern Pennsylvania, from Virginia, from Maryland, from New York, and from distant New England. The pack trains carrying merchandise and household effects into Pittsburgh became ever longer and more numerous.

Once that the tide of emigration had set in toward the West, it grew constantly in volume. The roads over the Alleghany Mountains were improved, and wheeled conveyances no longer attracted the curious attention that greeted Dr. Johann David Schoepf when he arrived in Pittsburgh in 1783, in the cariole in which he had crossed the mountains, an achievement which until then had not been considered possible.[2] The monotonous hoof-beats of the pack horses became less frequent, and great covered wagons, drawn by four horses, harnessed two abreast, came rumbling into the village. But not all the people or all the goods remained in Pittsburgh. There were still other and newer Eldorados, farther away to the west and the south, and these lands of milk and honey were the Meccas of many of the adventurers. Pittsburgh was the depository of the merchandise sent out from Philadelphia and Baltimore, intended for the western and southern country and for the numerous settlements that were springing up along the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers.[3] From Pittsburgh trading boats laden with merchandise were floated down the Ohio River, stopping at the towns on its banks to vend the articles which they carried.[4] Coal was cheap and emigrant and trading boats carried it as ballast.[5] In Pittsburgh the immigrants lingered, purchasing supplies, and gathering information about the country beyond. Some proceeded overland. Others sold the vehicles in which they had come, and continued the journey down the Ohio River, in Kentucky flat or family boats, in keel boats, arks, and barges. The construction and equipping of boats became an industry of moment in Pittsburgh.

The last menace from the Indians who owned and occupied the country north of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers was removed on October 21, 1784, when the treaty with the Six Nations was concluded at Fort Stanwix, by which all the Indian lands in Pennsylvania except a tract bordering on Lake Erie were ceded to the State. This vast territory was now opened for settlement, and resulted in more immigrants passing through Pittsburgh. The northerly boundary of the village ceased to be the border line of civilization. The isolation of the place became less pronounced. The immigrants who remained in Pittsburgh were generally of a sturdy class, and were young and energetic. Among them were former Revolutionary officers and soldiers. They engaged in trade, and as an adjunct of this business speculated in lands in the county, or bought and sold town lots. A few took up tavern keeping. From the brief notes left by Lewis Brantz who stopped over in Pittsburgh in 1785, while on a journey from Baltimore to the Western country, it appears that at this time Fort Pitt was still garrisoned by a small force of soldiers; that the inhabitants lived chiefly by traffic, and by entertaining travellers; and that there were but few mechanics in the village.[6] The extent of the population can be conjectured, when it is known that in 1786 there were in Pittsburgh only thirty-six log buildings, one of stone, and one of frame; and that there were six stores.[7]

Religion was long dormant on the frontier. In 1761 and 1762, when the first school was in operation in Pittsburgh, the schoolmaster conducted religious services on Sundays to a small congregation. Although under the direction of a Presbyterian, the services consisted in reading the Prayers and the Litany from the Book of Common Prayer.[8] During the military occupation, a chaplain was occasionally stationed at Fort Pitt around which the houses clustered. From time to time missionaries came and tarried a few days or weeks, and went their way again. The long intervals between the religious services were periods of indifference. An awakening came at last, and the religious teachings of early life reasserted themselves, and the settlers sought means to re-establish a spiritual life in their midst. The Germans and Swiss-Germans of the Protestant Evangelical and Protestant Reformed faiths jointly organized a German church in 1782; and the Presbyterians formed a church organization two years later.

The first pastor of the German church was the Rev. Johann Wilhelm Weber, who was sent out by the German Reformed Synod at Reading.[9] He had left his charge in Eastern Pennsylvania because the congregation which he served had not been as enthusiastic in its support of the Revolution as he deemed proper.[10] The services were held in a log building situated at what is now the corner of Wood Street and Diamond Alley.[11] Besides ministering to the wants of the Pittsburgh church, there were three other congregations on Weber’s circuit, which extended fifty miles east of Pittsburgh. When he came West in September, 1782, the Revolutionary War was still in progress; Hannastown had been burned by the British and Indians in the preceding July; hostile Indians and white outlaws continually beset his path. He was a soldier of the Cross, but he was also ready to fight worldly battles. He went about the country armed not only with the Bible, but with a loaded rifle,[12] and was prepared to battle with physical enemies, as well as with the devil.

Hardly had the churches come into existence when another organization was formed whose origin is claimed to be shrouded in the mists of antiquity. In the American history of the order, the membership included many of the greatest and best known men in the country. On December 27, 1785, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Free and Accepted Masons, granted a charter to certain freemasons resident in Pittsburgh, which was designated as “Lodge No. 45 of Ancient York Masons.” It was not only the first masonic lodge in Pittsburgh, but the first in the Western country.[13] Almost from the beginning, Lodge No. 45 was the most influential social organization in the village. Nearly all the leading citizens were members. Toward the close of the eighteenth century the place of meeting was in the tavern of William Morrow, at the “Sign of the Green Tree,” on Water Street, two doors above Market Street.[14] Although not a strictly religious organization, the order carefully observed certain Church holidays. St. John the Baptist’s day and St. John the Evangelist’s day were never allowed to pass without a celebration. Every year in June, on St. John the Baptist’s day, Lodge No. 45 met at 10 o’clock in the morning and, after the services in the lodge were over, paraded the streets. The members walked two abreast. Dressed in their best clothes, with cocked hats, long coats, knee-breeches, and buckled shoes, wearing the aprons of the craft, they marched “in ancient order.” The sword bearer was in advance; the officers wore embroidered collars, from which depended their emblems of office; the wardens carried their truncheons; the deacons, their staves. The Bible, surmounted by a compass and a square, on a velvet cushion, was borne along. When the Rev. Robert Steele came to preach in the Presbyterian Meeting House, the march was from the lodge room to the church. Here Mr. Steele preached a sermon to the brethren, after which they dined together at Thomas Ferree’s tavern at the “Sign of the Black Bear,”[15] or at the “Sign of the Green Tree.”[16] St. John the Evangelist’s day was observed with no less circumstance. In the morning the officers of the lodge were installed. Addresses of a semi-religious or philosophic character, eulogistic of masonry, were delivered by competent members or visitors. This ceremony was followed in the afternoon by a dinner either at some tavern or at the home of a member. Dinners seemed to be a concomitant part of all masonic ceremonies.

By the time that the last quarter of the eighteenth century was well under way, the hunters and trappers had left for more prolific hunting grounds. The Indian traders with their lax morals[17] had disappeared forever in the direction of the setting sun, along with the Indians with whom they bartered. If any traders remained, they conformed to the precepts of a higher civilization. Only a scattered few of the red men continued to dwell in the hills surrounding the village, or along the rivers, eking out a scant livelihood by selling game in the town.[18]

A different moral atmosphere appeared: schools of a permanent character were established; the German church conducted a school which was taught by the pastor. Secular books were now in the households of the more intelligent; a few of the wealthier families had small libraries, and books were sold in the town. On August 26, 1786, Wilson and Wallace advertised “testaments, Bibles, spelling books, and primers” for sale.[19] Copies of the Philadelphia and Baltimore newspapers were brought by travellers, and received by private arrangement.

In July, 1786, John Scull and Joseph Hall, two young men of more than ordinary daring, came from Philadelphia and established a weekly newspaper called the Pittsburgh Gazette, which was the first newspaper published in the country west of the Alleghany Mountains. The partnership lasted only a few months, Hall dying on November 10, 1786, at the early age of twenty-two years;[20] and in the following month, John Boyd, also of Philadelphia, purchased Hall’s interest and became the partner of Scull.[21] For many years money was scarcely seen in Pittsburgh in commercial transactions, everything being consummated in trade. A few months after its establishment, the Pittsburgh Gazette gave notice to all persons residing in the country that it would receive country produce in payment of subscriptions to the paper.[22]

The next year there were printed, and kept for sale at the office of the Pittsburgh Gazette, spelling books, and The A.B.C. with the Shorter Catechism, to which are Added Some Short and Easy Questions for Children; secular instruction was combined with religious.[23] The Pittsburgh Gazette also conducted an emporium where other reading matter might be purchased. In the issue for June 16, 1787, an illuminating notice appeared: “At the printing office, Pittsburgh, may be had the laws of this State, passed between the thirtieth of September, 1775, and the Revolution; New Testaments; Dilworth’s Spelling Books; New England Primers, with Catechism; Westminster Shorter Catechism; Journey from Philadelphia to New York by Way of Burlington and South Amboy, by Robert Slenner, Stocking Weaver; ... also a few books for the learner of the French language.”

In November, 1787, there was announced as being in press at the office of the Pittsburgh Gazette the Pittsburgh Almanac or Western Ephemeris for 1788.[24] The same year that the almanac appeared, John Boyd attempted the establishment of a circulating library. In his announcement on July 26th,[25] he declared that the library would be opened as soon as a hundred subscribers were secured; and that it would consist of five hundred well chosen books. Subscriptions were to be received at the office of the Pittsburgh Gazette. Boyd committed suicide in the early part of August by hanging himself to a tree on the hill in the town, which has ever since borne his name, and Scull became the sole owner of the Pittsburgh Gazette. This act of self-destruction, and the fact that Boyd’s name as owner appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette for the last time on August 2d, would indicate that the library was never established. Perhaps it was the anticipated failure of the enterprise that prompted Boyd to commit suicide.

The door to higher education was opened on February 28, 1787, when the Pittsburgh Academy was incorporated by an Act of the General Assembly. This was the germ which has since developed into the University of Pittsburgh. Another step which tended to the material and mental advancement of the place, was the inauguration of a movement for communicating regularly with the outside world. On September 30, 1786, a post route was established with Philadelphia,[26] and the next year the general government entered into a contract for carrying the mails between Pittsburgh and that city.[27] Almost immediately afterward a post office was established in Pittsburgh with Scull as postmaster, and a regular post between the village and Philadelphia and the East was opened on July 19, 1788.[28] These events constituted another milestone in the progress of Pittsburgh.

Another instrument in the advancement of the infant community was the Mechanical Society which came into existence in 1788. On the twenty-second of March, the following unique advertisement appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette: “Society was the primeval desire of our first and great ancestor Adam; the same order for that blessing seems to inhabit more or less the whole race. To encourage this it seems to be the earnest wish of a few of the mechanics in Pittsburgh, to have a general meeting on Monday the 24th inst., at six P.M., at the house of Andrew Watson, tavern keeper, to settle on a plan for a well regulated society for the purpose. This public method is taken to invite the reputable tradesmen of this place to be punctual to their assignation.”

Andrew Watson’s tavern was in the log building, at the northeast corner of Market and Front Streets. Front Street was afterward called First Street, and is now First Avenue. At that time all the highways running parallel with the Monongahela River were designated as streets, as they are now called avenues. The object of the Mechanical Society was the improvement of the condition of the workpeople, to induce workpeople to settle in the town, and to procure manufactories to be established there.

The society was more than local in character, similar societies being in existence in New York, Philadelphia, and in the neighboring village of Washington. At a later day the Mechanical Society of Pittsburgh produced plays, some of which were given in the grand-jury room in the upper story of the new court house. The society also had connected with it a circulating library, a cabinet of curiosities, and a chemical laboratory.

REFERENCES
Chapter I

[1] James Fearnly v. Patrick Murphy, Addison’s Reports, Washington, 1800, p. 22; John Marie v. Samuel Semple, ibid., p. 215.

[2] Johann David Schoepf. Reise durch einige der mittlern und südlichen vereinigten nordamerikanischen Staaten, Erlangen, 1788, vol. i., p. 370.

[3] F. A. Michaux. Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains, London, 1805, p. 37.

[4] Thaddeus Mason Harris. The Journal of a Tour, Boston, 1805, p. 42.

[5] “A Sketch of Pittsburgh.” The Literary Magazine, Philadelphia, 1806, p. 253.

[6] Lewis Brantz. “Memoranda of a Journey in the Westerly Parts of the United States of America in 1785.” In Henry R. Schoolcraft’s Indian Antiquities, Philadelphia, Part III., pp. 335–351.

[7] Niles’ Weekly Register, Baltimore, August 19, 1826, vol. xxx., p. 436.

[8] James Kenney. The Historical Magazine, New York, 1858, vol. ii., pp. 273–274.

[9] Rev. Cyrus Cort, D.D. Historical Sermon in the First Reformed Church of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1907, pp. 11–12.

[10] Johann David Schoepf. Reise durch einige der mittlern und südlichen vereinigten nordamerikanischen Staaten, Erlangen, 1788, vol. i., p. 247.

[11] Carl August Voss. Gedenkschrift zur Einhundertfuenfundzwanzig-jaehrigen Jubel-Feier, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1907, p. 14.

[12] Rev. Cyrus Cort, D.D. Historical Sermon in the First Reformed Church of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1907, p. 20.

[13] Samuel Harper. “Seniority of Lodge No. 45,” History of Lodge No. 45, Free and Accepted Masons, 1785–1910, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 97–109.

[14] Pittsburgh Gazette, June 15, 1799.

[15] Tree of Liberty, June 6, 1801.

[16] Tree of Liberty, June 12, 1802.

[17] Diary of David McClure, New York, 1899, p. 53.

[18] Perrin DuLac. Voyage dans les Deux Louisianes, Lyon, An xiii-(1805), p. 132.

[19] Pittsburgh Gazette, August 26, 1786.

[20] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 18, 1786.

[21] Pittsburgh Gazette, January 6, 1787.

[22] Pittsburgh Gazette, December 2, 1786.

[23] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 5, 1787.

[24] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 17, 1787.

[25] Pittsburgh Gazette, July 26, 1788.

[26] Pittsburgh Gazette, September 30, 1786.

[27] Pittsburgh Gazette, March 24, 1787.

[28] Pittsburgh Gazette, July 19, 1788.

CHAPTER II
A NEW COUNTY AND A NEW BOROUGH

The constantly rising tide of immigration required more territorial subdivisions in the western part of the State. Westmoreland County had been reduced in size on March 28, 1781, by the creation of Washington County, but was still inordinately large. The clamor of the inhabitants of Pittsburgh for a separate county was heeded at last, and on September 24, 1788, Allegheny County was formed out of Westmoreland and Washington Counties. To the new county was added on September 17, 1789, other territory taken from Washington County. In March, 1792, the State purchased from the United States the tract of land adjoining Lake Erie, consisting of two hundred and two thousand acres, which the national government had recently acquired from the Indians. This was added to Allegheny County on April 3, 1792. The county then extended northerly to the line of the State of New York, and the border of Lake Erie, and westerly to the present State of Ohio.[29] On March 12, 1800, the county was reduced by the creation of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango, and Armstrong Counties, the area of these counties being practically all taken from Allegheny County. By Act of the General Assembly of March 12, 1803, a small part of Allegheny County was added to Indiana County, and Allegheny County was reduced to its present form and dimensions.[30]

On the formation of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh became the county seat. The county was divided into townships, Pittsburgh being located in Pitt Township. Embraced in Pitt Township was all the territory between the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, as far east as Turtle Creek on the Monongahela River, and Plum Creek on the Allegheny River, and all of the county north of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. With the growth of prosperity in the county, petty offenses became more numerous, and a movement was begun for the erection of a jail in Pittsburgh.[31]

Next to the establishment of the Pittsburgh Gazette, the publication and sale of books, and the opening of the post route to the eastern country, the most important event in the early social advancement of Pittsburgh was the passage of an Act by the General Assembly, on April 22, 1794, incorporating the place into a borough. The township laws under which Pittsburgh had been administered were crude and intended only for agricultural and wild lands, and were inapplicable to the development of a town. Under the code of laws which it now obtained, it possessed functions suitable to the character which it assumed, and could perform acts leading to its material and social progress. It was given the power to open streets, to regulate and keep streets in order, to conduct markets, to abate nuisances, and to levy taxes.[32]

Before the incorporation of the borough, various steps had been taken in anticipation of that event. The Pittsburgh Fire Company was organized in 1793, with an engine house[33] and a hand engine brought from Philadelphia. A new era in transportation was inaugurated on Monday, October 21, 1793, by the establishment of a packet line on the Ohio River, between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, with boats “sailing” bi-weekly. The safety of the passengers from attacks by hostile Indians infesting the Ohio Valley, was assured. The boats were bullet-proof, and were armed with small cannon carrying pound balls; muskets and ammunition were provided, and from convenient portholes, passengers and crew could fire on the enemy.[34]

One of the first measures enacted after Pittsburgh was incorporated, was that to prohibit hogs running at large.[35] The dissatisfaction occasioned by the imposition of the excise on whisky, had caused a spirit of lawlessness to spring up in the country about Pittsburgh. When this element appeared in the town, they were disposed, particularly when inflamed with whisky, to show their resentment toward the inhabitants, whom they regarded as being unfriendly to the Insurgent cause, by galloping armed through the streets, firing their pieces as they sped by, to the terror of the townspeople. This was now made an offense punishable by a fine of five shillings.[36]

Literary culture was hardly to be expected on the frontier, yet a gentleman resided in Pittsburgh who made some pretension in that direction. Hugh Henry Brackenridge was the leading lawyer of the town, and in addition to his other activities, was an author of note. Before coming to Pittsburgh he had, jointly with Philip Freneau, written a volume of poetry entitled, The Rising Glory of America, and had himself written a play called The Battle of Bunker Hill. While a resident in Pittsburgh he contributed many articles to the Pittsburgh Gazette. His title to literary fame, however, results mainly from the political satire that he wrote, which in its day created a sensation. It was called Modern Chivalry, and as originally published was a small affair. Only one of the four volumes into which it was divided was printed in Pittsburgh, the first, second, and fourth being published in Philadelphia. The third volume came out in Pittsburgh, in 1793, and was printed by Scull, and was the first book published west of the Alleghany Mountains. The work, as afterward rewritten and enlarged, ran through more than half a dozen editions.

The interest in books increased. In 1793, William Semple began selling “quarto pocket and school Bibles, spelling books, primers, dictionaries, English and Dutch almanacs, with an assortment of religious, historical, and novel books.”[37] “Novel books” was no doubt meant to indicate novels. In 1798 the town became possessed of a store devoted exclusively to literature. It was conducted in a wing of the house owned and partially occupied by Brackenridge on Market Street.

John C. Gilkison had been a law student in Brackenridge’s office, and had tutored his son. Abandoning the idea of becoming a lawyer, he began with the aid of Brackenridge, to sell books as a business.[38] In his announcement to the public his plans were outlined:[39] “John C. Gilkison has just opened a small book and stationery store.... He has a variety of books for sale, school books especially, an assortment of which he means to increase, and keep up as encouragement may enable him; he has also some books of general instruction and amusement, which he will sell or lend out for a reasonable time, at a reasonable price.”

Changes were made in the lines of the townships at an early day. When the new century dawned, Pitt Township adjoined Pittsburgh on the east. East of Pitt Township and between the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers were the Townships of Plum, Versailles, and Elizabeth. On the south side of the Monongahela River, extending from the westerly line of the county to Chartiers Creek, was Moon Township. East of Chartiers Creek, and between that stream and Streets Run was St. Clair Township, and east of Streets Run, extending along the Monongahela River, was Mifflin Township, which ran to the county line. Back of Moon Township was Fayette Township. North of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers were the Townships of Pine and Deer. They were almost equal in area, Pine being in the west, and Deer in the east, the dividing line being near the mouth of Pine Creek in the present borough of Etna.

The merchants and manufacturers of Pittsburgh had been accumulating money for a decade. In the East money was the medium of exchange, and it was brought to the village by immigrants and travelers, and began to circulate more freely than before. In addition to the money put into circulation by the immigrants, the United States Government had expended nearly eight hundred thousand dollars on the expedition which was sent out to suppress the Whisky Insurrection. At least half of this sum was spent in Pittsburgh and its immediate vicinity, partly for supplies and partly by the men composing the army. The expedition was also the means of advertising the Western country in the East, and created a new interest in the town. A considerable influx of new immigrants resulted. With the growth in population, the number of the mercantile establishments increased. Pittsburgh became more than ever the metropolis of the surrounding country.

Ferries made intercourse with the districts across the rivers from Pittsburgh easy, except perhaps in winter when ice was in the streams. Three ferries were in operation on the Monongahela River. That of Ephraim Jones at the foot of Liberty Street[40] was called the Lower Ferry. A short distance above the mouth of Wood Street was Robert Henderson’s Ferry, formerly conducted by Jacob Bausman. This was known as the Middle Ferry. Isaac Gregg’s Ferry, at this time operated by Samuel Emmett,[41] also called the Upper Ferry, was located a quarter of a mile above the town, at the head of the Sand Bar. Over the Allegheny River, connecting St. Clair Street with the Franklin Road, now Federal Street, was James Robinson’s Ferry. As an inducement to settle on the north side of the Allegheny River, Robinson advertised that “All persons going to and returning from sermon, and all funerals, ferriage free.”[42]

The aspect of the town was changing. It was no longer the village which Lewis Brantz saw on his visit in 1790, when he painted the sketch which is the first pictorial representation of the place extant.[43] In the old Military Plan the ground was compactly built upon. Outside of this plan the houses were sparse and few in number, and cultivated grounds intervened. Thomas Chapman who visited Pittsburgh in 1795, reported that out of the two hundred houses in the village, one hundred and fifty were built of logs.[44] They were mainly of rough-hewn logs, only an occasional house being of sawed logs. The construction of log houses was discontinued, the new houses being generally frame. Houses of brick began to be erected, the brick sold at the dismantling of Fort Pitt supplying the first material for the purpose. The houses built of brick taken from Fort Pitt were characterized by the whiteness of the brick of which they were constructed.[45] Brickyards were established. When Chapman was in Pittsburgh, there were two brickyards in operation in the vicinity of the town.[46] With their advent brick houses increased rapidly.

With the evolution in the construction of the houses, came another advance conducive to both the health and comfort of the occupants. While window glass was being brought from the East, and was subject to the hazard of the long and rough haul over the Alleghany Mountains, the windows in the houses were few, and the panes of small dimensions; six inches in width by eight inches in length was an ordinary size. The interior of the houses was dark, cheerless, and damp. In the spring of 1797, Albert Gallatin, in conjunction with his brother-in-law, James W. Nicholson, and two Germans, Christian Kramer and Baltzer Kramer, who were experienced glass-blowers, began making window glass at a manufactory which they had established on the Monongahela River at New Geneva in Fayette County.[47] The same year that window glass was first produced at New Geneva, Colonel James O’Hara and Major Isaac Craig commenced the construction of a glass manufactory on the south side of the Monongahela River, opposite Pittsburgh, and made their first window glass in 1800. Both manufactories produced window glass larger in size than that brought from the East, O’Hara and Craig’s glass measuring as high as eighteen by twenty-four inches.[48] The price of the Western glass was lower than that brought across the mountains. With cheaper glass, windows became larger and more numerous, and a more cheerful atmosphere prevailed in the houses.

All that remained of Pittsburgh’s former military importance were the dry ditch and old ramparts of Fort Pitt,[49] in the westerly extremity of the town, together with some of the barracks and the stone powder magazine, and Fort Fayette near the northeasterly limits, now used solely as a military storehouse.[50] Not a trace of architectural beauty was evident in the houses. They were built without regularity and were low and plain. In one block were one- and two-story log and frame houses, some with their sides, others with their gable ends, facing the street. In the next square there was a brick building of two or possibly three stories in height; the rest of the area was covered with wooden buildings of every size and description. The Lombardy poplars and weeping willows which grew along the streets[51] softened the aspect of the houses before which they were planted. The scattered houses on the sides of the hills which commanded the town on the east[52] were more attractive.

It was forty years before houses, even on the leading streets, were numbered.[53] The taverns and many of the stores, instead of being known by the number of their location on the street, or by the name of the owner, were recognized by their signs, which contained characteristic pictures or emblems. The signs were selected because associated with them was some well-known sentiment; or the picture represented a popular hero. In the latter category was the “Sign of General Washington,” conducted by Robert Campbell, at the northeast corner of Wood Street and Diamond Alley. Sometimes the signs were of a humorous character, as the “Whale and the Monkey” with the added doggerel:

“Here the weary may rest,

The hungry feed,

And those who thirst,

May quaff the best,”

displayed by D. McLane[54] when he conducted the tavern on Water Street, afterward known as the “Sign of the Green Tree.” The sign was hung either on the front of the house, or on a board attached to a wooden or iron arm projecting from the building, or from a post standing before it. The last was the manner in which most of the tavern signs were displayed. This continued until 1816, when all projecting or hanging signs were prohibited, except to taverns where stabling and other accommodations for travelers could be obtained. Only taverns located at street corners were thereafter permitted to have signposts.[55]

Not a street was paved, not even the footwalks, except for such irregular slabs of stone, or brick, or planks as had been laid down by the owners of adjoining houses. Major Thomas S. Forman who passed through Pittsburgh in December, 1789, related that the town was the muddiest place he was ever in.[56] In 1800, there was little improvement. Samuel Jones was the first Register and Recorder of Allegheny County, and held those offices almost continuously well into the nineteenth century. He resided in Pittsburgh during the entire period, and his opportunities for observation were unexcelled. His picture of the borough in 1800 is far from attractive. “The streets,” he wrote, were “filled with hogs, dogs, drays, and noisy children.”[57] At night the streets were unlighted. “A solitary lamp twinkled here and there, over the door of a tavern, or on a signpost, whenever the moon was in its first or last quarter. The rest of the town was involved in primeval darkness.”

REFERENCES
Chapter II

[29] Laura G. Sanford. The History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1862, p. 60.

[30] Judge J. W. F. White. Allegheny County, its Early History and Subsequent Development, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1888, pp. 70–71.

[31] Pittsburgh Gazette, December 14, 1793.

[32] Act of April, 22, 1794; Act of September 12, 1782.

[33] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 2, 1793.

[34] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 23, 1793.

[35] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 31, 1794.

[36] Pittsburgh Gazette, June 21, 1794.

[37] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 2, 1793; Ibid., June 28, 1794.

[38] H. M. Brackenridge. Recollections of Persons and Places in the West, Philadelphia, 1868, pp. 44, 68.

[39] Pittsburgh Gazette, December 29, 1798.

[40] Neville B. Craig. The History of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 1851, p. 295.

[41] Pittsburgh Gazette, April 30, 1802; Ibid., April 16, 1802.

[42] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 13, 1803.

[43] Lewis Brantz. “Memoranda of a Journey in the Westerly Parts of the United States of America in 1785.” In Henry R. Schoolcraft’s Indian Antiquities, Philadelphia, Part III., pp. 335–351.

[44] Thomas Chapman. “Journal of a Journey through the United States,” The Historical Magazine, Morrisania, N. Y., 1869, vol. v., p. 359.

[45] The Navigator for 1808, Pittsburgh, 1808, p. 33.

[46] Thomas Chapman. “Journal of a Journey through the United States,” The Historical Magazine, Morrisania, N. Y., 1869, vol. v., p. 359.

[47] Sherman Day. Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, p. 345; Rev. William Hanna: History of Green County, Pa., 1882, pp. 247, 248.

[48] Pittsburgh Gazette, February 1, 1800.

[49] F. Cuming. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, in 1807–1809, Pittsburgh, 1810, p. 225.

[50] The Navigator for 1808, Pittsburgh, 1808, p. 33.

[51] F. Cuming. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, in 1807–1809, Pittsburgh, 1810, p. 226.

[52] F. A. Michaux. Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains, London, 1805, p. 30.

[53] Harris’s Pittsburgh and Allegheny Directory, for 1839, p. 3; ibid., for 1841.

[54] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 3, 1794.

[55] Ordinance City of Pittsburgh, September 7, 1816, Pittsburgh Digest, 1849, p. 238.

[56] Major Samuel S. Forman. “Autobiography,” The Historical Magazine, Morrisania, N. Y., 1869, vol. vi., PP. 324–325.

[57] S. Jones. Pittsburgh in the Year 1826, Pittsburgh, 1826, pp. 39–41.

CHAPTER III
THE MELTING POT

The population of Pittsburgh was composed of various nationalities; those speaking the English language predominated. In addition to the Germans and Swiss-Germans, there were French and a few Italians. The majority of the English-speaking inhabitants were of Irish or Scotch birth, or immediate extraction. Of those born in Ireland or Scotland, some were old residents—so considered if they had lived in Pittsburgh for ten years or more—while others were recent immigrants. The Germans and French had come as early as the Irish and Scotch. The Italians were later arrivals. There was also a sprinkling of Welsh. The place contained a number of negroes, nearly all of whom were slaves, there being in 1800 sixty-four negro slaves in Allegheny County,[58] most of whom were in Pittsburgh and the immediate vicinity. A majority of the negroes had been brought into the village in the early days by emigrants from Virginia and Maryland. Their number was gradually decreasing. By Act of the General Assembly of March 1, 1780, all negroes and mulattoes born after that date, of slave mothers, became free upon arriving at the age of twenty-eight years. Then on March 29, 1788, it was enacted that any slaves brought into the State by persons resident thereof, or intending to become such, should immediately be free.[59] Also public sentiment was growing hostile to the institution of negro slavery. The few free negroes in Pittsburgh were engaged in menial occupations, and the name of only one, whose vocation was somewhat higher, has been handed down to the present time. This was Charles Richards, commonly called “Black Charley,” who conducted an inn in the log house, at the northwest corner of Second and Ferry Streets.

Among themselves the Germans and the French spoke the language of their fathers, but in their intercourse with their English-speaking neighbors they used English. The language of the street varied from the English of New England and Virginia, to the brogue of the Irish and Scotch, or the broken enunciation of the newer Germans and French. Being in a majority the English-speaking population controlled to a considerable extent the destinies of the community. Their manufactories were the most extensive, the merchandise in their stores was in greater variety, and the stocks larger than those carried in other establishments.

Next in numbers to those whose native language was English, were the German-speaking inhabitants. They constituted the skilled mechanics; some were merchants, and many were engaged in farming in the neighboring townships. They were all more or less closely connected with the German church. Only the names of their leading men have survived the obliterating ravages of time. Among the mechanics of the higher class were Jacob Haymaker, William Eichbaum, and John Hamsher. The first was a boatbuilder, whose boatyard was located on the south side of the Monongahela River at the Middle Ferry; Eichbaum was employed by O’Hara and Craig in the construction and operation of their glass works. John Hamsher was a coppersmith and tin-worker, whose diversion was to serve in the militia, in which he was captain.[60]

Conrad Winebiddle, Jonas Roup, Alexander Negley, and his son, Jacob Negley, were well-to-do farmers in Pitt Township. Winebiddle was a large holder of real estate, who died in 1795, and enjoyed the unique distinction of being the only German who ever owned negro slaves in Allegheny County. Nicholas Bausman and Melchoir Beltzhoover were farmers in St. Clair Township; and Casper Reel was a farmer and trapper in Pine Township, where he was also tax collector. Samuel Ewalt kept a tavern in Pittsburgh in 1775, and was afterward a merchant. He was Sheriff of Allegheny County during the dark days of the Whisky Insurrection, and later was inspector of the Allegheny County brigade of militia. He was several times a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. William Wusthoff was Sheriff of Allegheny County in 1801. Jacob Bausman had a varied career. He was a resident of Pittsburgh as far back as 1771, and was perhaps the most prominent German in the place. As a young man he was an ensign in the Virginia militia, during the Virginia contention. He established the first ferry on the Monongahela River, which ran to his house on the south side of the stream, where the southern terminus of the Smithfield Street bridge is now located. The right to operate the ferry was granted to him by the Virginia Court on February 23, 1775, and was confirmed by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania ten years later. At his ferry house he also conducted a tavern. His energies were not confined to his private affairs. Under the Act of the General Assembly incorporating Allegheny County, he was named as one of the trustees to select land for a court house in the tract reserved by the State, in Pine Township, and was again, under the Act of April 13, 1791, made a trustee to purchase land in Pittsburgh for the same purpose. He was treasurer of the German church and, jointly with Jacob Haymaker, was trustee, on the part of the church, of the land deeded by the Penns to that congregation for church purposes at the northeast corner of Smithfield and Sixth Streets, where the congregation’s second and all subsequent churches were built. Michael Hufnagle was a member of the Allegheny County Bar, being one of the first ten men to be admitted to practice, upon the organization of the county. He was the only lawyer of German nationality in the county. He had been a captain in the Revolution, and prothonotary of Westmoreland County. On July 13, 1782, when the Indians and Tories attacked Hannastown, he occupied a farm situated a mile and a half north of that place, which has ever since been known in frontier history as the place where the townsfolk were harvesting when the attack began.[61]

By their English-speaking neighbors the Germans were generally designated as “Dutch.” In the references to them in the Pittsburgh Gazette and other early publications, they were likewise called “Dutch.” Books printed in the German language were advertised as “Dutch” books. The custom of speaking of the Germans as “Dutch” was however not confined to Pittsburgh, but was universal in America. The Dutch inhabitants of New York and elsewhere, were the first settlers in the colonies, whose language was other than English. The bulk of the English-speaking population, wholly ignorant of any language except their own, were easily led into the error of confusing the newer German immigrants with the Dutch, the only persons speaking a foreign tongue with whom they had come in contact. Nor were the uneducated classes the only transgressors in this respect. The Rev. Dr. William Smith, the scholarly Provost of the College of Philadelphia, writing during the French and Indian War, spoke of the Germans as “the Dutch or Germans.”[62] Also “Dutch” bears a close resemblance to “Deutsch,” the German name for people of the German race, which may account, to some extent, for the misuse of the word.

The Germans were in Pittsburgh to stay. Their efforts were directed largely toward private ends. When men of other blood made records in public life, the Germans made theirs in the limited sphere of their own employment or enterprises. Owing to their inability to speak the English language, their position was more isolated than that of the greenest English-speaking immigrant in the village. That they were clannish was a natural consequence. This disposition was accentuated when a newspaper printed in the German language was established on November 22, 1800, in the neighboring borough of Greensburgh, entitled The German Farmers’ Register, being the first German paper published in the Western country. Subscriptions were received in Pittsburgh at the office of the Tree of Liberty,[63] then recently established, and the effort to acquire a knowledge of English in order to be able to read the news of the day in the Pittsburgh newspapers, was for the time being largely abandoned. As the Germans learned to speak and read English, their social intercourse was no longer restricted to persons of their own nationality. With the next generation, intermarriages with persons of other descent took place. The German language ceased to be cultivated; they forsook the German church for one where English was the prevailing language. It is doubtful if a single descendant of the old Germans is now able to speak the language of his forbears unless it was learned at school, or that he is a member of or attends the services of the German church.

The French element was an almost negligible quantity, yet it exerted an influence far beyond what might be expected when its numbers are considered. So strong was the tide of public opinion in favor of all things French, occasioned by the events of the French Revolution, that Albert Gallatin, a French-Swiss, who had just been naturalized, and still spoke English with a decided foreign accent, attained high political honors. To the people he was essentially a Frenchman, and in 1794, he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, from Fayette County where he lived. At the same time he was elected to Congress from the district consisting of Allegheny and Washington Counties; and was twice re-elected from the same district, which included Greene County after the separation from Washington County in 1796, and its erection into a separate county. It was while serving this constituency that Gallatin developed those powers in finance and statesmanship which caused his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury by President Jefferson, and by Jefferson’s successor, President Madison. From the politicians of this Congressional District, Gallatin learned those lessons in diplomacy which enabled him, while joint commissioner of the United States, to secure the signature of England to the Treaty of Ghent, by which the War of 1812 was brought to a close, and which led to his becoming United States Minister to France and to England. The training of those early days finally made him the most famous of all Americans of European birth, and brought about his nomination for Vice-President by the Congressional caucus of the Republican party, an honor which he first accepted, but later declined.[64]

Another prominent Frenchman was John B. C. Lucus. In 1796, he lived on a farm on Coal Hill on the south side of the Monongahela River, in St. Clair Township, five miles above Pittsburgh. It was said of him that he was an atheist and that his wife plowed on Sundays, in spite of which he was several times elected to the General Assembly.[65] In 1800, he was appointed an associate judge for the county. He quarrelled with Alexander Addison, the president judge of the judicial district to which Allegheny County was attached, yet he had sufficient standing in the State to cause Judge Addison’s impeachment and removal from the Bench. In 1802, Lucus was elected to Congress and was re-elected in 1804. In 1805, he was appointed United States District Judge for the new Territory of Louisiana, now the State of Missouri.

Dr. Felix Brunot arrived in Pittsburgh in 1797. He came from France with Lafayette and was a surgeon in the Revolutionary War and fought in many of its battles. His office was located on Liberty Street, although he owned and lived on Brunot Island. An émigré, the Chevalier Dubac, was a merchant.[66] Dr. F. A. Michaux, the French naturalist and traveler, related of Dubac:[67] “I frequently saw M. Le Chevalier Dubac, an old French officer who, compelled by the events of the Revolution to quit France, settled in Pittsburgh where he engaged in commerce. He possesses very correct knowledge of the Western country, and is perfectly acquainted with the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, having made several voyages to New Orleans.” Morgan Neville a son of Colonel Presley Neville, and a writer of acknowledged ability, drew a charming picture of Dubac’s life in Pittsburgh.[68]

Perhaps the best known Frenchman in Pittsburgh was John Marie, the proprietor of the tavern on Grant’s Hill. Grant’s Hill was the eminence which adjoined the town on the east, the ascent to the hill beginning a short distance west of Grant Street. The tavern was located just outside of the borough limits, at the northeast corner of Grant Street and the Braddocksfield Road, where it connected with Fourth Street. The inclosure contained more than six acres, and was called after the place of its location, “Grant’s Hill.” It overlooked Pittsburgh, and its graveled walks and cultivated grounds were the resort of the townspeople. For many years it was the leading tavern. Gallatin, who was in Pittsburgh, in 1787, while on the way from New Geneva to Maine, noted in his diary that he passed Christmas Day at Marie’s house, in company with Brackenridge and Peter Audrian,[69] a well-known French merchant on Water Street. Marie’s French nationality naturally led him to become a Republican when the party was formed, and his tavern was long the headquarters of that party. Numerous Republican plans for defeating their opponents originated in Marie’s house, and many Republican victories were celebrated in his rooms. Also in this tavern the general meetings of the militia officers were held.[70] Michaux has testified that Marie kept a good inn.[71] The present court house, the combination court house and city hall now being erected, and a small part of the South School, the first public school in Pittsburgh, occupy the larger portion of the site of “Grant’s Hill.”

Marie’s name became well known over the State, several years after he retired to private life. He was seventy-five years of age in 1802, when he discontinued tavern-keeping and sold “Grant’s Hill” to James Ross, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, who was a resident of Pittsburgh. Marie had been estranged from his wife for a number of years and by some means she obtained possession of “Grant’s Hill,” of which Ross had difficulty in dispossessing her. In 1808, Ross was a candidate for governor against Simon Snyder. Ross’s difference with Mrs. Marie, whose husband had by this time divorced her, came to the knowledge of William Duane in Philadelphia, the brilliant but unscrupulous editor of the Aurora since the discontinuance of the National Gazette, in 1793, the leading radical Republican newspaper in the country. The report was enlarged into a scandal of great proportions both in the Aurora and in a pamphlet prepared by Duane and circulated principally in Philadelphia. The title of the pamphlet was harrowing. It was called “The Case of Jane Marie, Exhibiting the Cruelty and Barbarous Conduct of James Ross to a Defenceless Woman, Written and Published by the Object of his Cruelty and Vengeance.” Although Marie was opposed to Ross politically, he defended his conduct toward Mrs. Marie as being perfectly honorable. Nevertheless, the pamphlet played an important part in obtaining for Snyder the majority of twenty-four thousand by which he defeated Ross.

Notwithstanding the high positions which some of the Frenchmen attained, they left no permanent impression in Pittsburgh. After prospering there for a few years, they went away and no descendants of theirs reside in the city unless it be some of the descendants of Dr. Brunot. Some went south to the Louisiana country, and others returned to France. Gallatin, himself, long after he had shaken the dust of Western Pennsylvania from his feet, writing about his grandson, the son of his son James, said: “He is the only young male of my name, and I have hesitated whether, with a view to his happiness, I had not better take him to live and die quietly at Geneva, rather than to leave him to struggle in this most energetic country, where the strong in mind and character overset everybody else, and where consideration and respectability are not at all in proportion to virtue and modest merit.”[72] And the grandson went to Geneva to live, and his children were born there and he died there.[73]

The United States Government was still in the formative stage. Until this time the men who had fought the Revolutionary War to a successful conclusion, held a tight rein on the governmental machinery. Now a new element was growing up, and, becoming dissatisfied with existing conditions, organized for a conflict with the men in power. The rise of the opposition to the Federal party was also the outcome of existing social conditions. Like the modern cry against consolidated wealth, the movement was a contest by the discontented elements in the population, of the men who had little against those who had more. Abuses committed by individuals and conditions common to new countries were magnified into errors of government. Also the people were influenced by the radicalism superinduced by the French Revolution and the subsequent happenings in France. “Liberty, fraternity, and equality” were enticing catchwords in the United States.

Thomas Jefferson, on his return from France, in 1789, after an absence of six years, where he had served as United States Minister, during the development of French radicalism, came home much strengthened in his ideas of liberty. They were in strong contrast with the more conservative notions of government entertained by Washington, Vice-President Adams, Hamilton, and the other members of the Cabinet. In March, 1790, Jefferson became Secretary of State in Washington’s first Cabinet, the appointment being held open for him since April 13th of the preceding year, when Washington entered on the duties of the Presidency. Jefferson’s views being made public, he immediately became the deity of the radical element. At the close of 1793, the dissensions in the Cabinet had become so acute that on December 31st Jefferson resigned in order to be better able to lead the new party which was being formed. By this element the Federalists were termed “aristocrats,” and “tories.” They were charged with being traitors to their country, and were accused of being in league with England, and to be plotting for the establishment of a monarchy, and an aristocracy. The opposition party assumed the title of “Republican.” Later the word “Democratic” was prefixed and the party was called “Democratic Republican,”[74] although in Pittsburgh for many years the words “Republican,” “Democratic Republican,” and “Democratic” were used interchangeably.

Heretofore Pennsylvania had been staunchly Federal. On the organization of the Republican party, Governor Thomas Mifflin, and Chief Justice Thomas McKean of the Supreme Court, the two most popular men in the State, left the Federal party and became Republicans. There was also a cause peculiar to Pennsylvania, for the rapid growth of the Republican party in the State. The constant increase in the backwoods population consisted largely of emigrants from Europe, chiefly from Ireland, who brought with them a bitter hatred of England and an intense admiration for France. They went almost solidly into the Republican camp. The arguments of the Republicans had a French revolutionary coloring mingled with which were complaints caused by failure to realize expected conditions. An address published in the organ of the Republican party in Pittsburgh is a fair example of the reasoning employed in advocacy of the Republican candidates: “Albert Gallatin, the friend of the people, the enemy of tyrants, is to be supported on Tuesday, the 14th of October next, for the Congress of the United States. Fellow citizens, ye who are opposed to speculators, land jobbers, public plunderers, high taxes, eight per cent. loans, and standing armies, vote for Mr. Gallatin!”[75]

In Pittsburgh the leader of the Republicans was Hugh Henry Brackenridge, the lawyer and dilettante in literature. In the fierce invective of the time, he and all the members of his party were styled by their opponents “Jacobins,” after the revolutionary Jacobin Club of France, to which all the woes of the Terror were attributed. The Pittsburgh Gazette referred to Brackenridge as “Citizen Brackenridge,” and after the establishment of the Tree of Liberty, added “Jacobin printer of the Tree of Sedition, Blasphemy, and Slander.”[76] But the Republicans gloried in titles borrowed from the French Revolution. The same year that Governor Mifflin and Chief Justice McKean went over to the Republicans, Brackenridge made a Fourth of July address in Pittsburgh, in which he advocated closer relations with France. This was republished in New York by the Republicans, in a pamphlet, along with a speech made by Maximilien Robespierre in the National Convention of France. In this pamphlet Brackenridge was styled “Citizen Brackenridge.”[77] The Pittsburgh Gazette and the Tree of Liberty, contained numerous references to meetings and conferences held at the tavern of “Citizen” Marie. On March 4, 1802, the first anniversary of the inauguration of Jefferson as President, a dinner was given by the leading Republicans in the tavern of “Citizen” Jeremiah Sturgeon, at the “Sign of the Cross Keys,” at the northwest corner of Wood Street and Diamond Alley, at which toasts were drunk to “Citizen” Thomas Jefferson, “Citizen” Aaron Burr, “Citizen” James Madison, “Citizen” Albert Gallatin, and “Citizen” Thomas McKean.[78]

In 1799, the Republicans had as their candidate for governor Chief Justice McKean. Opposed to him was Senator James Ross. Ross was required to maintain a defensive campaign. The fact that he was a Federalist was alone sufficient to condemn him in the eyes of many of the electors. He was accused of being a follower of Thomas Paine, and was charged with “singing psalms over a card table.” It was said that he had “mimicked” the Rev. Dr. John McMillan, the pioneer preacher of Presbyterianism in Western Pennsylvania, and a politician of no mean influence; that he had “mocked” the Rev. Matthew Henderson, a prominent minister of the Associate Presbyterian Church.[79] Although Allegheny County gave Ross a majority of over eleven hundred votes, he was defeated in the State by more than seventy-nine hundred.[80] McKean took office on December 17, 1799,[81] and the next day he appointed Brackenridge a justice of the Supreme Court. All but one or two of the county offices were filled by appointment of the governor, who could remove the holders at pleasure. The idea of public offices being public trusts had not been formulated. The doctrine afterward attributed to Andrew Jackson, that “to the victors belong the spoils of office,” was already a dearly cherished principle of the Republicans, and Judge Brackenridge was not an exception to his party. Hardly had he taken his seat on the Supreme Bench, when he induced Governor McKean to remove from office the Federalist prothonotary, James Brison, who had held the position since September 26, 1788, two days after the organization of the county.

Brison was very popular. As a young man, he had lived at Hannastown, and during the attack of the British and Indians on the place had been one of the men sent on the dangerous errand of reconnoitering the enemy.[82] He was now captain of the Pittsburgh Troop of Light Dragoons, the crack company in the Allegheny County brigade of militia, and was Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Academy. He was a society leader and generally managed the larger social functions of the town. General Henry Lee, the Governor of Virginia, famous in the annals of the Revolutionary War, as “Light-Horse Harry Lee,” commanded the expedition sent by President Washington to suppress the Whisky Insurrection, and was in Pittsburgh several weeks during that memorable campaign. On the eve of his departure a ball was given in his honor by the citizens. On that occasion Brison was master of ceremonies. A few months earlier Brackenridge had termed him “a puppy and a coxcomb.” Brackenridge credited Brison with retaliating for the epithet, by neglecting to provide his wife and himself with an invitation to the ball. This was an additional cause for his dismissal, and toward the close of January the office was given to John C. Gilkison. Gilkison who was a relative of Brackenridge, conducted the bookstore and library which he had opened the year before, and also followed the occupation of scrivener, preparing such legal papers as were demanded of him.[83]

REFERENCES
Chapter III

[58] Pittsburgh Gazette, January 23, 1801.

[59] Collinson Read. An Abridgment of the Laws of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, MDCCCI, pp. 264–269.

[60] Pittsburgh Gazette, December 7, 1799.

[61] Neville B. Craig. The Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1848, vol. ii., pp. 354–355.

[62] A Brief State of the Province of Pennsylvania, London, 1755, p. 12.

[63] Tree of Liberty, December 27, 1800.

[64] John Austin Stevens. Albert Gallatin, Boston, 1895, p. 370.

[65] Major Ebenezer Denny. Military Journal, Philadelphia, 1859, p. 21.

[66] Pittsburgh Gazette, October 23, 1801.

[67] Dr. F. A. Michaux. Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains in the Year 1802, London, 1805, p. 36.

[68] Morgan Neville. In John F. Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1891, vol. ii., pp. 132–135.

[69] Henry Adams. The Life of Albert Gallatin, Philadelphia, 1880, p. 68.

[70] Tree of Liberty, November 7, 1800; Pittsburgh Gazette, February 20, 1801.

[71] Dr. F. A. Michaux. Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains in the Year 1802, London, 1805, p. 29.

[72] Henry Adams. The Life of Albert Gallatin, Philadelphia, 1880, p. 650.

[73] Count De Gallatin. “A Diary of James Gallatin in Europe”; Scribner’s Magazine, New York, vol. lvi., September, 1914, pp. 350–351.

[74] Richard Hildreth. The History of the United States of America, New York, vol. iv., p. 425.

[75] Tree of Liberty, September 27, 1800.

[76] Pittsburgh Gazette, February 6, 1801.

[77] Political Miscellany, New York, 1793, pp. 27–31.

[78] Tree of Liberty, March 13, 1802.

[79] Tree of Liberty, September 19, 1801.

[80] Pittsburgh Gazette, October 26, 1799.

[81] William C. Armor. Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1873, p. 289.

[82] Neville B. Craig. The Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1848, vol. ii., p. 355.

[83] H. M. Brackenridge. Recollections of Persons and Places in the West, Philadelphia, 1868, p. 68; Pittsburgh Gazette, December 29, 1798.

CHAPTER IV
LIFE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The Pittsburgh Gazette was devoted to the interests of the Federal party, and Brackenridge and the other leading Republicans felt the need of a newspaper of their own. The result was the establishment on August 16, 1800, of the Tree of Liberty, by John Israel, who was already publishing a newspaper, called the Herald of Liberty, in Washington, Pennsylvania. The title of the new paper was intended to typify its high mission. The significance of the name was further indicated in the conspicuously displayed motto, “And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” The Federalists, and more especially their organ, the Pittsburgh Gazette,[84] charged Brackenridge with being the owner of the new paper, and with being responsible for its utterances. Brackenridge, however, has left a letter in which he refuted this statement, and alleged that originally he intended to establish a newspaper, but on hearing of Israel’s intention gave up the idea.[85]

The extent of the comforts and luxuries enjoyed in Pittsburgh was surprising. The houses, whether built of logs, or frame, or brick, were comfortable, even in winter. In the kitchens were large open fire-places, where wood was burned. The best coal fuel was plentiful. Although stoves were invented barely half a century earlier, and were in general use only in the larger cities, the houses in Pittsburgh could already boast of many. There were cannon stoves, so called because of their upright cylindrical, cannon-like shape, and Franklin or open stoves, invented by Benjamin Franklin; the latter graced the parlor. Grates were giving out their cheerful blaze. They were also in use in some of the rooms of the new court house, and in the new jail.

The advertisements of the merchants told the story of what the people ate and drank, and of the materials of which their clothing was made. Articles of food were in great variety. In the stores were tea, coffee, red and sugar almonds, olives, chocolate, spices of all kinds, muscatel and keg raisins, dried peas, and a score of other luxuries, besides the ordinary articles of consumption. The gentry of England, as pictured in the pages of the old romances, did not have a greater variety of liquors to drink. There were Madeira, sherry, claret, Lisbon, port, and Teneriffe wines, French and Spanish brandies,[86] Jamaica and antique spirits.[87] Perrin DuLac, who visited Pittsburgh in 1802, said these liquors were the only articles sold in the town that were dear.[88] But not all partook of the luxuries. Bread and meat, and such vegetables as were grown in the neighborhood, constituted the staple articles of food, and homemade whisky was the ordinary drink of the majority of the population. The native fruits were apples and pears, which had been successfully propagated since the early days of the English occupation.[89]

Materials for men’s and women’s clothing were endless in variety and design and consisted of cloths, serges, flannels, brocades, jeans, fustians, Irish linens, cambrics, lawns, nankeens, ginghams, muslins, calicos, and chintzes. Other articles were tamboured petticoats, tamboured cravats, silk and cotton shawls, wreaths and plumes, sunshades and parasols, black silk netting gloves, white and salmon-colored long and short gloves, kid and morocco shoes and slippers, men’s beaver, tanned, and silk gloves, men’s cotton and thread caps, and silk and cotton hose.

Men were changing their dress along with their political opinions. One of the consequences in the United States of the French Revolution was to cause the effeminate and luxurious dress in general use to give way to simpler and less extravagant attire. The rise of the Republican party and the class distinctions which it was responsible for engendering, more than any other reason, caused the men of affairs—the merchants, the manufacturers, the lawyers, the physicians, and the clergymen—to discard the old fashions and adopt new ones. Cocked hats gave way to soft or stiff hats, with low square crowns and straight brims. The fashionable hats were the beaver made of the fur of the beaver, the castor made of silk in imitation of the beaver, and the roram made of felt, with a facing of beaver fur felted in. Coats of blue, green, and buff, and waistcoats of crimson, white, or yellow, were superseded by garments of soberer colors. Coats continued to be as long as ever, but the tails were cut away in front. Knee-breeches were succeeded by tight-fitting trousers reaching to the ankles; low-buckled shoes, by high-laced leather shoes, or boots. Men discontinued wearing cues, and their hair was cut short, and evenly around the head. There were of course exceptions. Many men of conservative temperament still clung to the old fashions. A notable example in Pittsburgh was the Rev. Robert Steele, who always appeared in black satin knee-breeches, knee-buckles, silk stockings, and pumps.[90]

The farmers on the plantations surrounding Pittsburgh and the mechanics in the borough were likewise affected by the movement for dress reform. Their apparel had always been less picturesque than that of the business and professional men. Now the ordinary dress of the farmers and mechanics consisted of short tight-fitting round-abouts, or sailor’s jackets, made in winter of cloth or linsey, and in summer of nankeen, dimity, gingham, or linen. Sometimes the jacket was without sleeves, the shirt being heavy enough to afford protection against inclement weather. The trousers were loose-fitting and long, and extended to the ankles, and were made of nankeen, tow, or cloth. Some men wore blanket-coats. Overalls, of dimity, nankeen, and cotton, were the especial badge of mechanics. The shirt was of tow or coarse linen, the vest of dimity. On their feet, farmers and mechanics alike wore coarse high-laced shoes, half-boots, or boots made of neat’s leather. The hats were soft, of fur or wool, and were low and round-crowned, or the crowns were high and square.

The inhabitants of Pittsburgh were pleasure-loving, and the time not devoted to business was given over to the enjoyments of life. Men and women alike played cards. Whisk, as whist was called, and Boston were the ordinary games.[91] All classes and nationalities danced, and dancing was cultivated as an art. Dancing masters came to Pittsburgh to give instructions, and adults and children alike took lessons. In winter public balls and private assemblies were given. The dances were more pleasing to the senses than any ever seen in Pittsburgh, except the dances of the recent revival of the art. The cotillion was executed by an indefinite number of couples, who performed evolutions or figures as in the modern german. Other dances were the minuet, the menuet à la cour, and jigs. The country dance, generally performed by eight persons, four men and four women, comprised a variety of steps, and a surprising number of evolutions, of which liveliness was the characteristic.

The taverns had rooms set apart for dances. The “Sign of the Green Tree,”[92] had an “Assembly Room”; the “Sign of General Butler”[93] and the “Sign of the Waggon”[94] each had a “Ball Room.” The small affairs were given in the homes of the host or hostess, and the large ones in the taverns, or in the grand-jury room of the new court house.

The dancing masters gave “Practicing Balls” at which the cotillion began at seven o’clock, and the ball concluded with the country dance, which was continued until twelve o’clock.[95] Dancing became so popular and to such an extent were dancing masters in the eyes of the public that William Irwin christened his race horse “Dancing Master.”[96] The ball given to General Lee was talked about for years after the occurrence. Its beauties were pictured by many fair lips. The ladies recalled the soldierly bearing of the guest of honor, the tall robust form of General Daniel Morgan, Lee’s second in command, and the commander of the Virginia troops, famous as the hero of Quebec and Saratoga, who had received the thanks of Congress for his victory at Cowpens. They dwelt on the varicolored uniforms of the soldiers, the bright colors worn by the civilians, their powdered hair, the brocades, and silks, and velvets of the ladies.

In winter evenings there were concerts and theatrical performances which were generally given in the new court house. A unique concert was that promoted by Peter Declary. It was heralded as a musical event of importance. Kotzwara’s The Battle of Prague, was performed on the “forte piano” by one of Declary’s pupils, advertised as being only eight years of age; President Jefferson’s march was another conspicuous feature. The exhibition concluded with a ball.[97]

Comedy predominated in the theatrical performances. The players were “the young gentlemen of the town.” At one of the entertainments they gave John O’Keefe’s comic opera The Poor Soldier, and a farce by Arthur Murphy called The Apprentice.[98] There were also performances of a more professional character. Bromley and Arnold, two professional actors, conducted a series of theatrical entertainments extending over a period of several weeks. The plays which they rendered are hardly known to-day. At a single performance[99] they gave a comedy entitled Trick upon Trick, or The Vintner in the Suds; a farce called The Jealous Husband, or The Lawyer in the Sack; and a pantomime, The Sailor’s Landlady, or Jack in Distress. Another play in the series was Edward Moore’s tragedy, The Gamester.[100]

Much of Grant’s Hill was unenclosed. Clumps of trees grew on its irregular surface, and there were level open spaces; and in summer the place was green with grass, and bushes grew in profusion. Farther in the background were great forest trees. The hill was the pleasure ground of the village. Judge Henry M. Brackenridge, a son of Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge dwelling on the past, declared that “it was pleasing to see the line of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen and children, ... repairing to the beautiful green eminence.”[101] On this elevation “under a bower, on the margin of a wood, and near a delightful spring, with the town of Pittsburgh in prospect,” the Fourth of July celebrations were held.[102] On August 2, 1794, the motley army of Insurgents from Braddocksfield rested there, after having marched through the town. Here they were refreshed with food and whisky, in order that they might keep in good humor, and to prevent their burning the town.[103]

Samuel Jones has left an intimate, if somewhat regretful account of the early social life of Pittsburgh. “The long winter evenings,” he wrote, “were passed by the humble villagers at each other’s homes, with merry tale and song, or in simple games; and the hours of night sped lightly onward with the unskilled, untiring youth, as they threaded the mazes of the dance, guided by the music of the violin, from which some good-humored rustic drew his Orphean sounds. In the jovial time of harvest and hay-making, the sprightly and active of the village participated in the rural labors and the hearty pastimes, which distinguished that happy season. The balls and merry-makings that were so frequent in the village were attended by all without any particular deference to rank or riches. No other etiquette than that which natural politeness prescribed was exacted or expected.... Young fellows might pay their devoirs to their female acquaintances; ride, walk, or talk with them, and pass hours in their society without being looked upon with suspicion by parents, or slandered by trolloping gossips.”[104]

The event of autumn was the horse races, which lasted three days. They were held in the northeasterly extremity of the town between Liberty Street and the Allegheny River,[105] and were conducted under the auspices of the Jockey Club which had been in existence for many years. Sportsmen came from all the surrounding country. The races were under the saddle, sulkies not having been invented. Racing proprieties were observed, and jockeys were required to be dressed in jockey habits.[106] Purses were given. The horses compared favorably with race horses of a much later day. A prominent horse was “Young Messenger” who was sired by “Messenger,” the most famous trotting horse in America, which had been imported into Philadelphia from England in 1788, and was the progenitor of Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, Abdallah, Goldsmith Maid, and a score of other noted race horses.

A third of a century after the race course had been removed beyond the limits of the municipality, Judge Henry M. Brackenridge published his recollections of the entrancing sport. “It was then an affair of all-engrossing interest, and every business or pursuit was neglected.... The whole town was daily poured forth to witness the Olympian games.... The plain within the course and near it was filled with booths as at a fair, where everything was said, and done, and sold, and eaten or drunk, where every fifteen or twenty minutes there was a rush to some part, to witness a fisticuff—where dogs barked and bit, and horses trod on men’s toes, and booths fell down on people’s heads!”[107]

The social instincts of the people found expression in another direction. The Revolutionary War, the troubles with the Indians, the more or less strained relations existing between France and England, had combined to inbreed a military spirit. Pennsylvania, with a population, in 1800, of 602,365, had enrolled in the militia 88,707 of its citizens. The militia was divided into light infantry, riflemen, grenadiers, cavalry, and artillery.[108] Allegheny County had a brigade of militia, consisting of eight regiments.[109] The commander was General Alexander Fowler, an old Englishman who had served in America, in the 18th, or Royal Irish, Regiment of Foot. On the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, he had resigned his commission on account of his sympathy with the Americans. Being unfit for active service, Congress appointed him Auditor of the Western Department at Pittsburgh.

The militia had always been more or less permeated with partisan politics. During the Revolution the American officers wore a cockade with a black ground and a white relief, called the black cockade. This the Federalists had made their party emblem. The Republican party, soon after its organization, adopted as a badge of party distinction a cockade of red and blue on a white base, the colors of revolutionary France. The red and blue cockade thereafter became the distinguishing mark of the majority of the Pennsylvania militia, being adopted on the recommendation of no less a person than Governor McKean. General Fowler’s advocacy of the red and blue cockade and his disparagement of the black cockade were incessant. He was an ardent Republican, and his effusions with their classic allusions filled many columns of the Tree of Liberty and the Pittsburgh Gazette. At a meeting of the Allegheny County militia held at Marie’s tavern, the red and blue cockade had been adopted. Fowler claimed that this was the result of public sentiment. He was fond of platitudes. “The voice of the people is the voice of God,” he quoted, crediting the proverb to an “English commentator,” and adding: “Says a celebrated historian, ‘individuals may err, but the voice of the people is infallible.’”[110] A strong minority in Allegheny County remained steadfast to the Federal party, and the vote in favor of the adoption of the red and blue cockade was not unanimous. Two of the regiments, not to be engulfed in the growing wave of Republicanism, or overawed by the domineering disposition of General Fowler, opposed the adoption of the red and blue cockade, and chose the black cockade.[111]

The equipment furnished to the militia by the State was meagre, but the patriotism which had so lately won the country’s independence was still at flood tide, and each regiment was supplied with two silk standards. One was the national flag, the other the regimental colors. The national emblem differed somewhat from the regulation United States flag. The word “Pennsylvania” appeared on the union, with the number of the regiment, the whole being encircled by thirteen white stars. The fly of the regimental colors was dark blue; on this was painted an eagle with extended wings supporting the arms of the State. The union was similar to that of the national flag. The prescribed uniform which many of the men, however, did not possess, was a blue coat faced with red, with a lining of white or red. In Allegheny County a round hat with the cockade and buck’s tail, was worn.[112] The parade ground of the militia was the level part of Grant’s Hill which adjoined Marie’s tavern on the northeast. Here twice each year, in April and October, the militia received its training. Of no minor interest, was the social life enjoyed by officers and men alike, during the annual assemblages.

In the territory contiguous to Pittsburgh the uprising, for the right to manufacture whisky without paying the excise, had its inception. That taverns should abound in the town was a natural consequence. In 1808 the public could be accommodated at twenty-four different taverns.[113] The annual license fee for taverns, including the clerk’s charges, was barely twenty dollars. Through some mental legerdemain of the lawmakers it had been enacted that if more than a quart was sold no license was required. Liquors, and particularly whisky, were sold in nearly every mercantile establishment. Also beer had been brewed in Pittsburgh since an early day, at the “Point Brewery,” which was purchased in 1795 by Smith and Shiras.[114] Beer was likewise brewed in a small way by James Yeaman, two or three years later.[115] In February, 1803, O’Hara and Coppinger, who had acquired the “Point Brewery,” began brewing beer on a larger scale.[116]

In the taverns men met to consummate their business, and to discuss their political and social affairs. Lodge No. 45 of Ancient York Masons met in the taverns for many years, as did the Mechanical Society. Even the Board of Trustees of the Academy held their meetings there.[117] Religion itself, looked with a friendly eye on the taverns. In the autumn of 1785, the Rev. Wilson Lee, a Methodist missionary, appeared in Pittsburgh, and preached in John Ormsby’s tavern,[118] on Water Street, at his ferry landing,[119] at what is now the northeast corner of that street and Ferry Street. This was the same double log house which, while conducted by Samuel Semple, was in 1770 patronized by Colonel George Washington.[120]

Tavern keeping and liquor selling were of such respectability that many of the most esteemed citizens were, or had been tavern-keepers, or had sold liquors, or distilled whisky, or brewed beer. Jeremiah Sturgeon was a member of the session of the Presbyterian Church.[121] John Reed, the proprietor of the “Sign of the Waggon,” in addition to being a leading member of the Jockey Club, and the owner of the race horse “Young Messenger,”[122] was precentor in the Presbyterian Church, and on Sundays “lined out the hymns” and led the singing.[123] The pew of William Morrow is marked on the diagram of the ground-plan of the church as printed in its Centennial Volume.[124] The “Sign of the Cross Keys,” the emblem of Sturgeon’s tavern, was of religious origin and was much favored in England. Although used by a Presbyterian, it was the arms of the Papal See, and the emblem of St. Peter and his successors. That the way to salvation lay through the door of the tavern, would seem to have been intended to be indicated by the “Sign of the Cross Keys.” William Eichbaum, a pillar in the German church, after he left the employ of O’Hara and Craig, conducted a tavern on Front Street, near Market, at the “Sign of the Indian Queen.” The owners of the ferries kept taverns in connection with their ferries. Ephraim Jones conducted a tavern at his ferry landing on the south side of the Monongahela River; Robert Henderson had a tavern on Water Street at his ferry landing; Samuel Emmett kept a tavern at his landing on the south side of the Monongahela River; and James Robinson had a tavern on the Franklin Road at the northerly terminus of his ferry.[125]

Drinking was universal among both men and women. Judge James Veech declared that whisky “was the indispensable emblem of hospitality and the accompaniment of labor in every pursuit, the stimulant in joy and the solace in grief. It was kept on the counter of every store and in the corner cupboard of every well-to-do family. The minister partook of it before going to church, and after he came back. At home and abroad, at marryings and buryings, at house raisings and log rollings, at harvestings and huskings, it was the omnipresent beverage of old and young, men and women; and he was a churl who stinted it. To deny it altogether required more grace or niggardliness than most men could command, at least for daily use.”[126]

A practical joke perpetrated by the Rev. Dr. John McMillan, on the Rev. Joseph Patterson, another of the early ministers in this region, illustrates the custom of drinking among the clergy. On their way to attend a meeting of the Synod, the two men stopped at a wayside inn and called for whisky, which was set before them. Mr. Patterson asked a blessing which was rather lengthy. Dr. McMillan meanwhile drank the whisky, and to Mr. Patterson’s blank look remarked blandly, “You must watch as well as pray!”[127]

Families purchased whisky and laid it away in their cellars for future consumption, and that it might improve with age. Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge declared that the visit of the “Whisky Boys”—as the Insurgents from Braddocksfield were called—to Pittsburgh cost him “four barrels of old whisky.”[128] The statement caused Henry Adams, in his life of Albert Gallatin, to volunteer the assertion that it nowhere appeared “how much whisky the western gentleman usually kept in his house.”[129]

There was no legislation against selling liquors on Sundays. The only law on the subject was an old one under which persons found drinking and tippling in ale-houses, taverns, and other public houses on Sundays, were liable to be fined one shilling and sixpence; and the keepers of the houses upon conviction were required to pay ten shillings. The line of demarcation between proper and improper drinking being faint, the law proved ineffectual to prevent drinking on Sundays.

Religion had not kept pace with material progress. The people had been too much engrossed in secular affairs to attend to spiritual matters. They were withal generous, and practiced the Christian virtues; and never failed to help their unfortunate neighbors. This disposition was manifested in various ways. Losses by fire were of frequent occurrence and were apt to cause distress or ruin to those affected. In these cases the citizens always furnished relief. An instance where this was done was in the case of William Thorn. Thorn was a cabinet-maker on Market Street, and built windmills and Dutch fans.[130] When the house which he occupied was burned to the ground and he lost all his tools and valuable ready-made furniture, a liberal subscription was made by the citizens, and he was enabled to again commence his business.[131]

But there was little outward observance of religious forms. The Germans had made some progress in that direction. The little log building where they worshipped had been succeeded by a brick church. The only English church was the Presbyterian Meeting House facing on Virgin Alley, now Oliver Avenue, erected in 1786. It was the same building of squared timbers in which the congregation had originally worshipped. From 1789 to 1793, the church had languished greatly. There was no regular pastor; services were held at irregular and widely separated intervals. Two of the men who served as supplies left the ministry and became lawyers.[132] From 1793 to 1800, the church was all but dead. The house was deserted and falling into ruin. Only once, so far as there is any record, were Presbyterian services held in the building during this period. It was in 1799 that the Rev. Francis Herron, passing through Pittsburgh, was induced to deliver a sermon to a congregation consisting of fifteen or eighteen persons “much to the annoyance of the swallows,” as Herron ingenuously related, which had taken possession of the premises.[133]

A light had flashed momentarily in the darkness when John Wrenshall, the father of Methodism in Pittsburgh, settled in the town. Wrenshall was an Englishman who came to Pittsburgh in 1796 and established a mercantile business. He was converted to Wesleyanism in England and had been a local preacher there. As there was no minister or preaching of any kind in Pittsburgh, he commenced holding services in the Presbyterian Meeting House. His audiences increased, but after a few Sundays of active effort, a padlock was placed on the door of the church, and he was notified that the house was no longer at his disposal. The Presbyterians might not hold services themselves, but they would not permit the use of their building to adherents of the new sect of Methodists, “the offspring of the devil.”

A great religious revival swept over the Western country in the concluding years of the eighteenth century. In Kentucky it developed into hysteria,[134] and in Western Pennsylvania the display of religious fervor was scarcely less intense.[135] The effect was felt in Pittsburgh. On October 24, 1800, the Pittsburgh Gazette was moved to ask the Presbyterian congregation, of which its proprietor was a leading member, a number of pertinent questions: Could they hope for good morals without religion or the fear of God; could religion be maintained without public worship; had they a house in which public worship could be performed with decency and convenience? Were they not able to erect a respectable and commodious church building, as well as to provide for the maintenance of a minister? Would not money so employed “be more for the benefit of the town than horse racing, billiard playing, etc., etc.?” The answer of the congregation was to procure the appointment of the Rev. Robert Steele as supply and the church began to show signs of life again. In April, 1802, Steele was received as a member of the Presbytery, the action being approved by the Synod in the following September.[136] From that time forward, the church began that spiritual and material advancement—although there were ebbs and flows in its progress—which has continued to this day.

REFERENCES
Chapter IV

[84] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 28, 1800.

[85] Tree of Liberty, August 23, 1800.

[86] Pittsburgh Gazette, October 10, 1800.

[87] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 2, 1793.

[88] Perrin DuLac. Voyage dans les Deux Louisianes, Lyon, an xiii. [1805], p. 131.

[89] H. H. Brackenridge. Gazette Publications, Carlisle, 1806, p. 12.

[90] Centennial Volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., Pittsburgh, 1884, p. 154.

[91] Charles J. Sherrill. “Dancing and Other Social Customs,” Scribner’s Magazine, New York, April, 1915, vol. lvii., pp. 479–490.

[92] Pittsburgh Gazette, October 20, 1798.

[93] Pittsburgh Gazette, January 3, 1800.

[94] Pittsburgh Gazette, October 29, 1802; Pittsburgh Gazette, August 25, 1798.

[95] Pittsburgh Gazette, October 20, 1798.

[96] Pittsburgh Gazette, September 25, 1801.

[97] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 6, 1801.

[98] Tree of Liberty, February 19, 1803.

[99] Pittsburgh Gazette, January 7, 1803.

[100] Pittsburgh Gazette, January 21, 1803.

[101] H. M. Brackenridge. Recollections of Persons and Places in the West, Philadelphia, 1868, p. 60.

[102] Tree of Liberty, July 11, 1801; Pittsburgh Gazette, July 13, 1793.

[103] H. H. Brackenridge. Incidents of the Insurrection in the Western Parts of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1795, p. 66.

[104] S. Jones. Pittsburgh in the Year 1826, Pittsburgh, 1826, pp. 43–44.

[105] H. M. Brackenridge. Recollections of Persons and Places in the West, Philadelphia, 1868, p. 62.

[106] Pittsburgh Gazette, September 9, 1786.

[107] H. M. Brackenridge. Recollections of Persons and Places in the West, Philadelphia, 1868, p. 62.

[108] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 28, 1802.

[109] Pittsburgh Gazette, September 25, 1801.

[110] Tree of Liberty, April 11, 1801.

[111] Tree of Liberty, April 11, 1801; ibid., January 9, 1802.

[112] Tree of Liberty, December 27, 1800.

[113] F. Cuming. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country in 1807–1809, Pittsburgh, 1810, p. 222.

[114] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 14, 1795.

[115] Pittsburgh Gazette, August 28, 1801; ibid., August 5, 1803.

[116] Pittsburgh Gazette, February 3, 1803.

[117] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 16, 1799; ibid., May 3, 1800; ibid., November 26, 1802.

[118] Centennial Celebration of Pittsburgh Methodism, 1888, p. 63.

[119] Pittsburgh Gazette, August 26, 1786.

[120] James Veech. “The Secular History,” Centenary Memorial of the Planting and Growth of Presbyterianism in Western Pennsylvania and Parts Adjacent, Pittsburgh, 1876, p. 320.

[121] Centennial Volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., 1784–1884, Pittsburgh, 1884, p. 212.

[122] Pittsburgh Gazette, April 2, 1802.

[123] Centennial Volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., 1784–1884, Pittsburgh, 1884, p. 154.

[124] Centennial Volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., 1784–1884, Pittsburgh, 1884, p. 155.

[125] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 13, 1803.

[126] James Veech. “The Secular History,” Centenary Memorial of the Planting and Growth of Presbyterianism in Western Pennsylvania and Parts Adjacent, Pittsburgh, 1876, p. 364.

[127] Rev. D. X. Junkin, D.D. “The Life and Labors of the Rev. John McMillan, D.D.,” Centenary Memorial of the Planting and Growth of Presbyterianism in Western Pennsylvania and Parts Adjacent, Pittsburgh, 1876, p. 33.

[128] H. H. Brackenridge. Incidents of the Insurrection in the Western Parts of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1795, p. 71.

[129] Henry Adams. The Life of Albert Gallatin, Philadelphia, 1880, p. 130.

[130] Pittsburgh Gazette, December 12, 1800.

[131] Pittsburgh Gazette, February 27, 1801.

[132] Centennial Volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., 1784–1884, Pittsburgh, 1884, p. 28.

[133] Rev. William M. Paxton. Two Discourses upon the Life and Character of the Rev. Francis Herron, D.D., Pittsburgh, 1861, p. 28.

[134] Richard McNemar. The Kentucky Revival, Albany, 1808, pp. 9–72.

[135] David Elliott. The Life of the Rev. Elisha Macurdy, Allegheny, 1848, pp. 55–78.

[136] Centennial Volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., 1784–1884, Pittsburgh, 1884, p. 32.

CHAPTER V
THE SEAT OF POWER

The year 1800 ushered in more than a new century in Pittsburgh. It heralded the beginning of another era. The decade beginning with that year will ever be memorable in the annals of the city. During those ten years the foundation was laid on which the great industrial city was subsequently built. In 1800 the population of Pittsburgh was 1565, and in 1810 it had risen to 4768, an increase of 204 per centum, which was the greatest percentage of increase that has ever taken place in its history. This decade marked the dividing line between that which was obsolete and that which was newly-born.

In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, ceded to the United States the vast Louisiana Territory, whereby the area of this country was more than doubled, and commerce between Louisiana and Pittsburgh increased tremendously.

As far back as 1791, Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, had communicated to the House of Representatives his famous report of manufactures. In this far-away community, with coal at its doors, and iron in the near-by mountains, Hamilton’s new doctrine found willing disciples and industry had more than a beginning. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, iron ore was mined in the Juniata Valley, and furnaces and forges established, and bar iron and castings made. The iron was carried to Pittsburgh, partly on horseback, and partly by water, down the Conemaugh and Allegheny Rivers. Small shops for the manufacture of articles of iron were opened. Shortly afterward iron ore was also mined in the counties of Fayette and Westmoreland and furnaces and forges built and iron produced. The distance being shorter from Fayette and Westmoreland Counties than from the Juniata Valley, iron was thereafter brought to Pittsburgh only from the former districts. The iron shops increased in number. Coal was the pole star which lighted the way to their establishment. A writer who saw the advantages of Pittsburgh with the eyes of a Münchhausen, writing of the value of its coal, declared, that the blaze afforded “so strong a light, that in winter, ... neither tailors, or other mechanics burn candles.”[137]

At the close of the eighteenth century, the black smoke of the iron shops, the glass manufactory, the boat yards, the distillery, the brewery, the tanneries, the brickyards, and the increasing number of dwelling houses had already given the town a sombre hue. Industry went forward with leaps and bounds, and manufactories on a larger scale were set up. They were insignificant, if compared with even the medium-sized establishments of to-day, but were large and important in the eyes of people who, prior to the American Revolution, had been practically prohibited from engaging in any manufacturing by their English masters. Cotton mills were established, as were iron foundries, nail factories, engine shops, a tinware manufactory, a pipe manufactory, and in 1808 a second glass works, that of Robinson & Ensell.[138] The extent of the plants can be gauged, when it is known that one of the nail factories employed thirty men, the tinware manufactory twenty-eight men, and one of the cotton mills twelve men.[139]

In 1804, the Bank of Pennsylvania opened a branch in Pittsburgh. A stage line from Chambersburgh to Baltimore and Philadelphia was placed in operation in the spring of 1803.[140] In 1804 this was extended to Pittsburgh, the first coach from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia being run on July 4th.

Religion was now keeping pace with the increase in population and the growth in material prosperity. Hitherto those who were religiously inclined were obliged to attend the services of either the German or the Presbyterian church. Other churches were now brought into existence. The Episcopalians formed an organization in 1805, under the name of “Trinity Church,” and began the erection of their brick octagonal building, on the lot bounded by Liberty, Seventh, and Wood streets, which was a landmark in its day.

Ever since the English occupancy, the population had been Protestant in religion, although Protestantism in the early days signified little more than a stout opposition to Roman Catholicism. The Presbyterians, who constituted the bulk of the English-speaking Protestants, had looked askance when the Episcopalians, whom they regarded as closely akin to Roman Catholics, formed their church organization. When it was rumored that Roman Catholic services were to be held, they shook their heads still more doubtfully. Prior to 1800 there was hardly a professed Roman Catholic in Pittsburgh. In 1804, the number was still so small that when the missionary priest and former Russian prince and soldier, Demetrius Augustine Gallitzen, came and celebrated mass, there were only fifteen persons present to assist.[141] In 1808, a congregation was formed, and the next year a one-story brick chapel was erected[142] at the southeast corner of Liberty and Washington streets, Washington Street then extending to Liberty Street. The site is now occupied by the entrance to the Pennsylvania Station. Practically all the parishioners were Irish, and it was natural that the new edifice should be named “St. Patrick’s Church.” The Methodists organized a congregation at the same time as the Roman Catholics,[143] and in 1810 erected a small brick building on Front Street below Smithfield, opposite the lower end of the site at present occupied by the Monongahela House.[144] The Baptists were growing in numbers and, although lacking a church organization, met at one another’s houses, and listened to the exhortations of traveling missionaries of that faith.[145]

The Freemasons must be credited with a movement, inaugurated at this time, which was to have a far-reaching effect. The meetings of Lodge No. 45 in the taverns had been conducive of almost everything except sobriety. The effects were degrading, and in many cases injurious, not only to the persons affected but to their dependents as well. Also the evil was growing, and was contrary to the expressed ideals of the order. Practically all the leaders in the village, whether in public or private life, had been or were still members of the lodge. Among the older members were General Richard Butler and his brother, Colonel William Butler, General John Neville, Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Captain Joseph Ashton, John Ormsby, Colonel James O’Hara, Captain Michael Hufnagle, Major Isaac Craig, Senator James Ross, Samuel Ewalt, and Captain John Irwin. Younger members were Dr. Andrew Richardson, Dr. Hugh Scott, William Wusthoff, Anthony Beelen, Thomas Baird, James Riddle, Tarleton Bates, Rev. Robert Steele, and Henry Baldwin. It is not surprising that such men should sooner or later realize the calamity which confronted the members of the lodge, and decide upon eliminating the cause. The change was effected upon the completion of William Irwin’s brick house, at the southwest corner of Market Street and the West Diamond, just prior to the opening of the new century. Thenceforth the meetings of the lodge were held in a room on the third floor of this building, and the temptation to excessive drinking was at least farther removed than when the sessions were being held in the “Sign of the Green Tree.” This was the first practical temperance movement in Pittsburgh.

Market Street was one of the narrowest streets in the town, but was the principal commercial thoroughfare. Coincidentally it was called “Main Street.” It received the name by which it has been known for more than a century and a quarter, from the fact that the first market house, erected in 1787, was located at the northwest corner of this street and Second Street. In 1800 the street was bustling with life. More drays and carts and wagons were moving over at least a portion of the thoroughfare than is the case to-day. Intermingled with the other vehicles were wagons from the country, drawn by oxen. In wet weather the roadway was ground into mud and thin mire. The merchants generally lived with their families in the houses where their business was conducted. The street was noisy with children. Trees grew on the outer edges of the foot-walks, and in the summer grass and weeds sprang up, watered by the street wells and pumps that supplied the residents with water.

Most of the prominent people lived on Market Street. Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, although often absent from Pittsburgh in the performance of his judicial duties, maintained his residence on the street, until August 24, 1801, when he removed with his family to Carlisle.[146] All but one of the physicians were located there. Here the leading mercantile establishments were concentrated. Open spaces still intervened between the houses, and there were gardens, inclosed with fences painted white, in which flowers bloomed and vegetables flourished, but the spaces were rapidly being built upon. Everywhere the sounds of hammer and saw greeted the ear, and heaps of brick and beds of mortar encumbered the street.

Public improvements were commenced: Market and Wood streets were being paved, as was Chancery Lane from the Monongahela River to Second Street. Front and Third streets were being graveled from Market to Wood Street, as was also Diamond Alley.[147] The price of land was advancing. The Penns had sold most of the lots fronting on Market Street, in 1785, at the average price of ten pounds each in Pennsylvania currency, a pound being equal to two dollars and sixty-six and two-thirds cents in United States money of the present value. The lots were of varying dimensions: some had a front on Market Street of one hundred and sixty feet, and a depth of eighty feet, while others had fronts of from fifty-six to eighty feet, and were of different depths. In 1789 and 1790, respectively, two lots were sold for fifty pounds each. In 1791, two others were sold for one hundred and twenty pounds each. In 1793, a lot on the East Diamond, where values had not appreciated to the same extent as on Market Street, was sold for one hundred pounds. After 1800, the lots began to be subdivided, and still higher prices prevailed, and they continued to advance year by year.

The Act of Congress of July 6, 1785, established a national currency, the unit being a dollar, equal in value to the Spanish milled dollar. The Spanish milled dollar had been in circulation in this country for many years, and was the expressed unit in the paper money and other obligations, authorized by Congress since the first year of the Revolution. The United States mint, however, was not authorized until the passage of the Act of Congress of April 2, 1792, and the first coinage of silver and gold did not take place until two years later. During this interval the circulating medium was mainly Spanish silver money and the consideration mentioned in conveyances was usually in the Spanish milled dollar. In 1801, a lot having a front on Market Street of thirty feet and a depth of seventy feet, was sold for six hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents; in 1803, a lot having a front of forty-six feet and a depth of seventy feet was sold for thirteen hundred dollars. In 1804, an undivided fourth interest in a lot having a front of fifty-six feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy-five feet, was sold for eight hundred and seventy-five dollars. In 1805, a half interest in a lot also having a front of fifty-six feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy-five feet was sold for twelve hundred dollars. In 1806, an eighth interest in a lot having a front of fifty-six feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy-five feet, was sold for two hundred and seventy-five dollars. In 1807, a sixth interest in a lot having a front of fifty-six feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy-five feet, was sold for six hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents.

Most of the houses were built on land leased from the owners, or on lots subject to the payment of ground rents, which accounted to some extent for the inferior quality of the improvements. The number of brick houses on Market Street was still so limited that the merchants were fond of referring to the fact that the establishments conducted by them were located in a “brick house” or “next door to,” or “across the street from,” a “brick house.”

A majority of the merchants and professional men on the street were young, or at least had not arrived at middle age. Like all the men in new communities, they were possessed of unbounded energy, which found vent in their business affairs, in a desire for pleasure, and in an inordinate ambition for political preferment. Perhaps it was owing to this cause, that the number of town and other offices were so numerous. The town officers were a chief burgess, a burgess and four assistant burgesses, a town clerk, a high constable, two assessors, and two supervisors. The duties of the assistant burgesses were to assist the chief burgess and the burgess in the performance of their duties.[148] The justices of the peace were even more plentiful than the town officers. They were appointed by the governor and held office during good behavior, which was practically for life. Appointments were constantly made, usually as a reward for party fealty, and there being a dearth of deaths among those in office, the number of justices of the peace had become inordinately large. There was also a cause peculiar to Pittsburgh, for the craving for office. The legislative acts of the borough were performed at Town Meetings held in the court house by the “Burgesses, Freeholders, and Inhabitants, householders,” at which all the male adults whether citizens or aliens[149] who had resided in the place for a year, had a voice. In 1800, there were nearly two hundred qualified electors who had a right to participate in the Town Meetings,[150] and practically the entire number were politicians. A desire for the glare of public life developed, and the creation of offices resulted.

Considering the extent of the town and the number of the inhabitants, the stores were numerous, there being, in 1803, forty-nine stores and shops.[151] The explanation was that much of the trade of Pittsburgh was with travelers passing through the place, and with settlements farther west and south. The travelers were frequently delayed for long periods. Owing to the lack of a sufficient stage of water in the rivers, as high as a hundred boats, each carrying an average of twelve emigrants, were sometimes tied up along the Monongahela River between Pittsburgh and New Geneva, and as many more along the Allegheny.[152] The various supplies required while there and for the further journey were furnished by the merchants of the town.

The stores were usually what is termed “general stores,” where everything necessary for the use of pioneer families could be purchased. Only a few establishments dealt in special lines. On the shelves were articles that at present are suggestive of the day in which they were sold. Taken in connection with the dress of the people, the food they ate, their churches, their societies, their work, and their amusements, they form a more or less complete outline picture of the time. Items which stand out in relief are Franklin stoves, chimney hooks, window weights, brass and stock locks, brass and iron candlesticks, snuffers, horse fleams, iron combs, iron buttons, knee buckles, powder flasks, American and German gunpowder, bar lead and shot, wallowers for Dutch fans, and cards.[153] The sale of cards was an industry of importance in agricultural communities. At present the name is confusing. The civilization of the day had not developed business or visiting cards, and if playing cards were intended they would have been so designated. The cards sold in Pittsburgh were brushes with wire teeth used in disentangling fibers of wool, cotton, and hemp, and laying them parallel to one another preparatory to spinning. In 1794, the advertisement of Adgate & Co., “at the card manufactory, corner of Market and Water Streets,” appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette.[154]

The occupancy of Market Street began at Water Street. Some of the early settlers were still living in the houses where they began their business life. Samuel Ewalt was among the earliest merchants on the street. His store was at the northeast corner of Market and Water streets. He owned the entire block on the easterly side of Market Street, between Water and Front streets, his land extending eastwardly a considerable distance.

On Water Street, one lot removed from the west side of Market Street, was the home of Colonel Presley Neville. While a very young man, living in his native Virginia, he had served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. During this period he married the eldest daughter of General Daniel Morgan. In Pittsburgh Colonel Neville held many public positions. He had been inspector of the Allegheny County brigade of militia, agent for the United States for receiving and storing whisky taken in kind for the excise, a member of the Legislature,[155] and was now surveyor of Allegheny County,[156] and was engaged in selling town lots, and lands in the adjacent townships.[157] In 1803, he was a candidate for chief burgess, but his vote was a tie with that of his opponent, Colonel James O’Hara, who had also been an officer in the Revolution The determination of the case being with the governor, the decision was in favor of Colonel O’Hara,[158] but under the law Colonel Neville became burgess.[159] Below Colonel Neville’s house, at the northwest corner of Water and Ferry streets, was a large two-story frame building set in a garden. This was the town house of General John Neville, the father of Colonel Neville. Like his son, he was a former Revolutionary officer; he had been Inspector of the Revenue under the excise law, during the Whisky Insurrection. The burning of his country home by the Insurgents was one of the events of the short-lived revolt. On Water Street, one door above Redoubt Alley, was the frame tenement house of Major Isaac Craig. The building had become historic. It was here that Alexander Hamilton, Judge Richard Peters of the United States District Court for Pennsylvania, together with the United States District Attorney, and the United States Marshal, who accompanied the army of General Lee into Western Pennsylvania, held court and interrogated Hugh Henry Brackenridge, and others suspected of fomenting the Whisky Insurrection.

West of Major Craig’s home, a short distance east of West Alley, was the large frame dwelling of Colonel O’Hara. O’Hara was the most enterprising citizen in the town, and an important factor in its early development. At one time he was engaged in almost a dozen enterprises. He was also the largest owner of real estate both in Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County, resident in the borough. Among the older merchants were William Christy, John Irwin, and William Irwin. They had formerly been partners, but the partnership had long since been dissolved,[160] and each now had a store of his own. Christy’s establishment was at the northwest corner of Market and Water streets. He sold all kinds of cloths and velvets, cassimeres, corduroys, and flannels, teas, sugar, and “common groceries of every denomination.”[161] During the Virginia régime, he was a lieutenant in the Pittsburgh militia, and in 1802 was town clerk.[162] Adjoining Christy’s store was that of Dr. Andrew Richardson. Richardson was a physician. At this time physicians not only prescribed medicines, but prepared and sold them, and Richardson was no exception. His advertisement reads like that of a latter-day druggist: “Oil of Vitriol. I have for sale at my medical store a quantity of oil of vitriol which I will sell low for cash. Also a variety of drugs and medicines which I will sell wholesale or retail at the same terms.”[163]

He was prominent in many respects. Besides being a physician, he was a justice of the peace, and a leader in politics. In January, 1800, Governor McKean appointed him Register and Recorder of Allegheny County in place of Samuel Jones, his Federalist father-in-law,[164] but he soon relinquished the office. He was likewise a prominent Freemason, being secretary of Lodge No. 45, and was well known as a public speaker. At the dinner given on the first anniversary of the inauguration of President Jefferson he was one of the two presiding officers.[165] On St. John the Evangelist’s Day, December 27, 1798, he delivered an oration before Lodge No. 45, which was considered of such importance that the lodge procured its publication in the Pittsburgh Gazette.

The style was florid. Richardson was high in the councils of the Republican party, yet his argument was that of a Federalist. It was a panegyric on Freemasonry, and an expression of hope for universal peace and love. Opening with a review of the conflict convulsing Europe he launched out into a severe denunciation of the course that France was pursuing. “Already hath nation arisen against nation in lawless oppression,” the orator proclaimed. “Already hath our infant country been threatened with a final subjugation.” Continuing he asked: “And who are those who dare to usurp a superiority over us? The French! Once the boast of history, the pride of the smiling page; but now a band of robbers, dead to every feeling of humanity, lost to every virtue; a band of robbers whose lawless acts have drawn upon them the just resentment of our virtuous brother, the illustrious Washington, who, though loaded with the oppressive weight of sixty-six years, stands ready once more to unsheath his conquering sword to save his country from rapine and murder. Shall he stand the war alone? No, every Masonic heart will rush like lightning to his standard, with him conquer, or with him die!”[166]

Richardson’s outspoken views appear to have caused an estrangement with the local Republican leaders, and in 1801, when he was a candidate for the State Senate, they were arrayed against him. He was charged with the unpardonable sin of reviling Thomas Jefferson, the idol of American public life. The Pittsburgh Gazette and the Tree of Liberty contained frequent references to the incident. Richardson himself published a card, which was at once evasive and apologetic. He was accused of having three years before drunk a toast, “Damnation to Jefferson and his party,” in Marie’s tavern. He admitted having been in the tavern on the occasion referred to, but added: “This much I will say, that if such a toast was given by me, it was improper, and I must have done so on the impulse of the moment. I cannot say whether it was given at all.” The Republican tide was too strong and he was defeated, and was again defeated in 1802, when a candidate for representative to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,[167] and he met with a like fate when a candidate for the same office in 1803.[168] In August of 1809 he died, a disappointed man.[169]

In the same block with Dr. Richardson, at the southwest corner of Market and Front streets, were the cabinet-makers and upholsterers, Dobbins & McElhinney.[170] Directly across Market Street from Dobbins & McElhinney, was the establishment of the Chevalier Dubac. The sign gave no inkling of the noble birth of the proprietor, reading simply, “Gabriel Dubac.”[171] He had recently removed to this corner from Front Street.[172] He has been described as the most popular citizen of the village.[173] With his wines, dry goods, and groceries, he sold confectionery. His dog “Sultan,” and his monkey “Bijou,” were the joy of the children. He was an accomplished scholar, and possessed most polished manners. When he closed his shop and entered society, he was the delight of all with whom he associated. He was in the habit of dining on Sundays at the home of General Neville. When the French princes, the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis Philippe, King of France, and his two brothers, the Duke of Montpensier and the Count of Beaujolais, visited Pittsburgh in 1797, it was the Chevalier Dubac who assisted in making their stay agreeable.

REFERENCES
Chapter V

[137] “A Sketch of Pittsburgh,” The Literary Magazine, Philadelphia, October, 1806, p. 252.

[138] Cramer’s Pittsburgh Almanac for 1809.

[139] “A Sketch of Pittsburgh,” The Literary Magazine, Philadelphia, October, 1806, p. 254.

[140] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 13, 1803.

[141] Rev. A. A. Lambing. A History of the Catholic Church in the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, New York, 1880, p. 38.

[142] F. Cuming. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country in 1807–1809, Pittsburgh, 1810, p. 69.

[143] F. Cuming. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country in 1807–1809, Pittsburgh, 1810, p. 69.

[144] Centennial Celebration of Pittsburgh Methodism, 1888, pp. 66–67.

[145] F. Cuming. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country in 1807–1809, Pittsburgh, 1810, p. 69.

[146] Tree of Liberty, August 22, 1801.

[147] F. Cuming. Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country in 1807–1809, Pittsburgh, 1810, p. 61.

[148] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 22, 1801; Act of September 12, 1782; Act of April 22, 1794.

[149] Stewart v. Foster, 2 Binney, 110.

[150] Tree of Liberty, May 23, 1801.

[151] Thaddeus Mason Harris. The Journal of a Tour, Boston, 1805, p. 41.

[152] “A Sketch of Pittsburgh,” The Literary Magazine, Philadelphia, October, 1806, p. 253.

[153] Pittsburgh Gazette, August 23, 1794; Pittsburgh Gazette, October 10, 1800.

[154] Pittsburgh Gazette, July 26, 1794.

[155] Pittsburgh Gazette, September 22, 1798.

[156] Pittsburgh Gazette, October 10, 1800.

[157] Pittsburgh Gazette, November 28, 1800.

[158] Pittsburgh Gazette, May 20, 1803.

[159] Tree of Liberty, December 10, 1803.