.-J^' . \.^*' 'O, *-V.s^ .'V .^ 0-.0 '*'_ •• .0> .,. ^<6 ""' .^" .-„ ^'?'„"-*'' 4>" ^-j*^ /.^•y7^v: > Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/fortpittOOdahl FORT PITT BY CHARLES W. DAHLINGER PRIVATELY PRINTED PITTSBURGH, 1922 FORT PITT BY y CHARLES Wr DAHLINGER PRIVATELY PRINTED PITTSBURGH, 1922 GIFT NOV 23 '27 INTRODUCTORY The following account of Pittsburgh while it was still generally known by the name of Fort Pitt, was originally published in the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine for January and April, 1922. The story is now reprinted separately in order that it may be preserved in a more convenient form than if scattered through the pages of a serial publication. CONTENTS Page Chapter I The Struggle For Supremacy Between France and England 1 Chapter II The Collapse of French Rule in America, and the Rise of English Power in the Ohio Valley 11 Chapter III The Town Grows as the Fort Declines 21 Chapter IV In Virginia 31 Chapter V Under the Continental Congress 45 Chapter VI Last Days of Fort Pitt 57 Chapter VII The Old Redoubt, I Location and Date qf Erection 66 II In Later Days 76 William Pitt FORT PITT By CHARLES W. DAHLINGER. CHAPTER I. The Struggle For Supremacy Between France and England In the olden time Pittsburgh was known indiscrim- inately as Pittsburgh and Fort Pitt, the latter designation being most generally used. The story of those far-away days has been told before, but as Sir Charles Wakefield of England is about to present to the city, a bust of William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, for whom the place was named, it will not be inappropriate to repeat the tale, together with such incidents as may have been overlooked, or which did not come to the knowledge of the earlier historians. The story of the struggle for supremacy in America be- tween the French and the English is of romantic interest. The French claimed the interior of the continent by right of discovery by LaSalle, The English claims were more comprehensive and just as inconclusive as those of the French. They claimed the country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific on the ground of discovery, and the Ohio Valley by purchase at Lancaster in 1744 from the Six Nations, the ostensible owners. (1) The contest on the part of the French was hopeless from the beginning. Their settlements were widely scattered. Canada and Acadia, which last, had been ceded to England in 1713, were in the far north, while away to the south was Louisiana. The total population was only about eighty thousand, while the Eng- lish Colonies, which were all closely connected and located on the Atlantic seaboard, numbered about one million one hundred and sixty thousand souls. (2) The French de- veloped a comprehensive plan of building a line of forts from Canada southward, intended ultimately to connect Canada with Louisiana, and restrict the English to the sea- board. 2 Fort Pitt Like that of most frontier communities, the story of Fort Pitt and of the village which sprang up within its shadow, is so intermingled, that in order to arrive at an in- telligent understanding, the incidents connected with each must be treated as the history of the whole. The annals of Fort Pitt begin many years prior to its actual erection. It was the desire for the possession of the Indian trade that first stirred the rival claimants to the Ohio Valley into action. It was a great fur country and was capable of drawing rich tributary currents from the region of the Great Lakes. (3) English traders were doing business there as early as 1730, French traders even earlier. At first the French had a monopoly of the fur trade, but the prices of furs declined and the Indians were dissatisfied and in 1747 they turned to the English traders who paid them more money for their furs. Conrad Weiser, a German, who had been a farmer and school teacher, (4) and in early life had lived with the Indians, spoke their language and had their confidence, was now the Pennsyl- vania Indian interpreter and the confidential adviser to the authorities in Indian affairs. He early learned of the discontent of the Indians with the French traders and saw an opportunity for enlarging the trade and influence of Pennsylvania, which information he imparted to the Provincial authorities. Accordingly in 1748 he was sent with presents to the Indians at Logstown, situated on the north side of the Ohio River, eighteen miles below the site of Pittsburgh, where he made a treaty and secured their friendship for Pennsylvania. At the same time he gained for the Province the Indian trade from Logstown to the Mississippi River, and from the OMo to thel Michigan region. (5) Virginia was also anxious for the Ohio Indian trade, and in 1748 there was formed by London merchants and a few leading men in Virginia, including Thomas Lee the Presi- dent of the Council of the Colony, and two brothers of George Washington, the Ohio Company, to trade with the Indians and settle on their lands, Governor Dinwiddle becoming a partner at a later date. They obtained a grant from Eng- land of 500,000 acres of land on the south side of the Ohio River and sent Christopher Gist, a surveyor, into the coun- Fort Pitt 3 try to explore and report on the same, his first journey being undertaken in 1751, and the other in 1752. On the second visit to the Indians Gist made a treaty with them at Logs- town, where he secured their promise not to molest the company in its settlement of the lands. (6) The next year the Ohio Company made plans for building a fort and laying out a town on the hill immediately below the mouth of Chartiers Creek. (7) The French were not asleep while Weiser was weaning the Indians from their cause, and during the time that the Ohio Company was negotiating with them for permission to occupy their lands, but were preparing to assert their claims to the Ohio Country by some positive act. Accord- ingly, in 1749, they sent an expedition down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, under Captain de Celeron and took posses- sion of the Ohio Valley in the name of the French king. The French carried the sword of conquest in one hand and the cross of salvation in the other; and the occupation of the Ohio country was both spiritual and political. The wooden crosses which DeCeleron erected along the Ohio River were intended to indicate that the country was dedi- cated to the Christian religion; the sovereignty of France was proclaimed by the burial of leaden plates reciting the story of the occupation. Priests and soldiers chanted the Te Deum, the hills and valleys rang with the cries of Vive Le Roi, and the country was part of New France. The English soon learned of DeCeleron's expedition, but took no decisive measure to gain possession of the Ohio Valley until 1754. Two years (8) before the French had begun building their series of forts southward and were contemplating the erection of a fort at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. Pennsylvania knew of this action of the French but did nothing to thwart them, although three of the forts already constructed were within the limits of that Province. Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia was not so quiescent, being perhaps also influenced by his connection with the Ohio Company. First he sent George Washington, then twenty-one years of age, to interview the command- ants of the French forts and ascertain their reasons for 4 Fort Pitt building the forts, but their only reply was that, "France was resolved on possessing the great territory which her mis- sionaries and travellers had revealed to the world." (9) In the spring Dinwiddle, with the consent of Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania, (10) sent a small force, hastily collected, to the confluence of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers where they began the erection of a fort in an effort to forestall the French, the place having been recommended by Washington as the most suitable for the purpose. This the Virginians called Fort Prince George (11) after the grand- son of George the Second, king of England, the heir ap- parent to the throne and afterward King George the Third. Virginia also decided to raise a regiment of six companies, and in order to stimulate the military ardor of the people. Governor Dinwiddle issued a proclamation offering a bounty of two hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio River, to be divided among those who would enlist for the pro- posed expedition. (12) But the French were equally alert and by a movement from Canada which was Napoleonic in its rapidity (13) they appeared on April 17, 1754, in overwhelming force before the Virginians and compelled Ensign Ward, the officer in charge of the uncompleted works, to surrender, and themselves built a fort, which they named Fort Du- quesne after the Marquis, Duquesne deMenneville, Gov- ernor-General of Canada. The next year the French an- nihilated the army of English and Provincials under Brad- dock, which had been sent to capture Fort Duquesne. Then came a change in the English policy. The nation was disheartened at the failure of its armies in Europe and America, and in 1757 with one voice called William Pitt, to form a ministry in which he became nominally Secretary of State but in reality Prime Minister, the Premier, the Duke of New Castle, being a figurehead. Pitt was a man of unbounded energy and immediately upon assuming power planned for the next year a vigorous prosecution of the war against the French whom the English had been fighting in Europe for several years. For America he designed three campaigns — one against Ticonderoga and Crown Point, an- other against Louisburg and the third against Fort Du- Marquis Duquesne de Menneville. Fort Pitt 5 quesne, the last to be commanded by General John Forbes. The fame of William Pitt spread to America and the Colonials were aroused as they had never been aroused be- fore; and they became enthusiastic partisans of the war. The Pennsylvania Assembly at once provided men, voted money, supplied wagons and repaired roads. In Phila- delphia the Rev. Dr. William Smith, Provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia, now the University of Penn- sylvania, renowned in his day as an orator and writer, advo- cated participation in the war from the pulpit, and with his pen. (14) The prevalent opinion among the Americans was that they were engaged in a religious war. The French were Catholics and the English Protestants, and therefore it was a struggle between the two religions. Dr. Smith advocated this view. In an address written, and published broadcast, at the desire of General Forbes while levying forces for the contemplated expedition against Fort Du- quesne, he declared: "Never was the Protestant cause in a more desperate situation." Probably for the benefit of the many German settlers in Pennsylvania he lauded Fred- erick II, the Protestant king of Prussia, designated in his- tory as Frederick the Great, who was dazzling Eng- land and the rest of Europe by his audacious victories over several Catholic powers, and proclaimed him "The great and heroic King of Prussia." Dr. Smith's conclusion was an appeal to the patriotism of the Americans. "Rise then, my countrymen! as you value the blessings of the liberty you enjoy, and dread the evils that hang over you, rise and show yourselves worthy of the name of Britons !" Pennsylvania responded nobly to the appeal, and sup- plied nearly half the required force, not including wag- goners and laborers. Colonel Henry Bouquet, a brilliant Swiss officer, and lieutenant-colonel of the First Battalion of the 60th or Royal American Regiment, was the second in command to Forbes. The campaign was opened in the spring by Colonel Bouquet setting out with the regulars on his march to Raystown which he reached early in June. The Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina troops were assembled at Winchester under Washington. Forbes marched from Philadelphia early in July. The cam- paign proceeded without mishap until September 14th when 6 Fort Pitt the army met with a serious setback at the very gate of Fort Duquesne, where Major James Grant was defeated and taken prisoner. Emboldened by this victory the French with a large force of Indians determined to attack Bouquet at his camp on Loyalhanna Creek on October 12th, before the arrival of the force under General Forbes, but were defeated with considerable loss. The march was resumed. The weather turned cold and the mountains were white with snow; then the snow melted and the cold rains fell and the new road which had just been constructed became deep with mud. But the march continued. On November 24th the army was on the bank of Turtle Creek, within twelve miles of Fort Duquesne. In the evening the Indians reported seeing thick clouds of smoke rising over the fort; at midnight the dull sound of a distant explosion was heard. In the morn- ing the army moved forward again and in the evening came in sight of the smoking ruins of the fort, and not a Frenchman to be seen. The goal was reached and the cam- paign ended. In thankfulness to the great minister who had sent him there, Forbes named the ruins, "Pittsburgh". The next day was Sunday and by direction of General Forbes the Rev. Charles Beatty, the chaplain of Colonel William Chapham's Pennsylvania Regiment, was ordered to preach "a thanksgiving sermon for the remarkable superi- ority of his Majesty's arms." (15) On the same day Forbes wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Denny of Pennsyl- vania, reporting the capture of Fort Duquesne, the letter being dated "Fort Duquesne or now Pittsburgh," (16) this being the first time of which there is any record that the name "Pittsburgh" was used. On the 27th Forbes notified William Pitt of the victory over the French, this letter being dated simply "Pittsburgh." He also gave Pitt this addi- tional information: "I have used the freedom of giving your name to Fort DuQuesne, as I hope it was in some measure the being actuated by your spirits that now makes us masters of the place." (17) A flood of other letters must have been sent by the happy captors of the French stronghold describing the ex- pedition, and telling of the taking of the fort and expressing the exhuberance of their joy over the event. Only a few, Fort Pitt ? however, have been preserved, and these are mainly from officers of the expedition. Among those still in existence are two letters from Colonel Bouquet. To his friend, William Allen, the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, he wrote on No- vember 25, 1758, the letter being dated at "Fort Duquesne" in which he told of the last days of the campaign, and (18) generously gave Forbes the credit for its happy ending. "After God," he said, "the success of the expedition is en- tirely due to the General." The other letter written by Bouquet is the one he sent his friend, Miss Anne Willing of Philadelphia, whose cousin, Joseph Shippen, was in his command and was his intimate friend. This also was dated at Fort Duquesne on November 25th. He addressed his correspondent as "Dear Nancy." She has been described as a charming young lady to whom Bouquet was engaged to be married. "I have the satisfaction to give you the agreeable news of the conquest of this terrible Fort," he began. "The French seized with a panic at our approach have destroyed themselves — the nest of pirates which has so long harboured the murderers and destructors of our poor people. "They have burned and destroyed to the ground their fortifications, houses and magazines, and left us no other cover than heaven — a very cold one for an army without tents or equipages. We bear all this hardship with alacrity by the consideration of the immense advantage of this important acquisition." He concluded by telling her that he hoped soon to have the pleasure of seeing her when he would give her "a more particular account — chiefly about the beauty of this situation, which appears to me beyond my description." (19) Another letter of importance is that of George Washington, who wrote to Governor Farqieur of Virginia on November 28, 1758, from the "Camp at Fort Duquesne" : "I have the pleasure to inform you that Fort Duquesne, or rather the ground upon which it stood, was possessed by his Majesty's troops on the 25th inst. The enemy, after letting us get within a day's march of the place, burned the fort, and ran away by the light of it, going down the Ohio by water, to the number of about five hundred men, according to our best information. The possession of the g Port Pitt fort has been a matter of surprise to the whole army, and we cannot attribute it to more probable causes than the weakness of the enemy, want of provisions, and the defec- tion of the Indians. Of these circumstances we were luckily informed by those prisoners, who providentially fell into our hands at Loyalhanna, when we despaired of proceeding farther. A council of war had determined that it was not advisable to advance this season beyond the place; but the above information caused us to march on without tents or baggage, and with only a light train of artillery." (20) Forbes left the junction of the two rivers on December 3rd with the bulk of the army, (21) Bouquet remaining with the residue. The next day as Forbes' representative he met the Indians and gave them Forbes' assurance that the intentions of the British toward them were peaceful. (22) On December 5th Bouquet followed Forbes (23) with nearly all the remaining troops leaving Colonel Hugh Mercer in command with a force of two hundred and eighty men. (24) In the meantime Forbes was marching eastward, but at Ligonier he became ill, and was obliged to remain there until December 27th, when he continued his journey, reaching Philadelphia on January 17, 1759. Not- withstanding his continued illness, one of his first acts after his arrival in Philadelphia, was to cause to be struck a gold medal in commemoration of the campaign which had ended so gloriously. On one side was a repre- sentation of a road cut through a forest and over rocks and mountains, together with the motto. Per tot Discrimina. On the reverse side was a picture of the con- fluence of the Ohio and Monongahela rivers, with a fort in flames, and Forbes approaching, carried on a litter, fol- lowed by the army marching in column with cannon; the motto here was Ohio Brittanick Concilio Manuque. On February 20th Forbes distributed the medals, (25) which were to be worn around the neck attached to a dark blue ribbon, to the officers of Colonel Bouquet's battalion of the 60th or Royal American Regiment. On March 11th, the conqueror of Fort Duquesne died in Philadelphia. The entire city mourned his death and two days later he was given an imposing funeral. The remains were taken to the State House, and from there, escorted be- » Fort Pitt 9 by a large force of military and by the officers of the Province and of the city, were taken to Christ Church, thousands of spectators lining the streets as the funeral cortege passed by. In the chancel of the church the Iron Head, as his Indian allies admiringly called Forbes, was laid to rest. (26) Winter was coming on at the junction of the Monon- gahela and Allegheny rivers, and in order to provide shelter as well as to afford protection for the troops, it was neces- sary to build a temporary works, and the construction of a small stockade was begun before Forbes left. It was located on the bank of the Monongahela River at the south end of West Street, and between that street and what was for many years known as Liberty Street, but is now Lib- erty Avenue, and within four hundred yards of Fort Du- quesne. It was four-sided with bastions at the four corners. According to the plan in the Crown Collection of Maps and Manuscripts in the British Museum it was of sufficient size for the accommodation of two hundred and twenty men. (27) The importance of the place as a barrier against the encroachments of the French, in the eyes of the English ministry, is apparent from the letter of William Pitt, dated January 23, 1759, and written immediately upon receiving news of the capture of Fort Duquesne. Already he advocated the restoration, if possible of Fort Duquesne, or the erection of a fortress adequate to maintaining the pos- sessions of English. (28) REFERENCES. ' 1. William L. Stone. The Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart, Albany, 1865, Vol. I, pp. 436-437. 2. Walford Davis Green, M. P. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, New York, 1901, p. 66. 3. Joseph S. Walton. Conrad Weiser And The Indian Policy Of Colonial Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, p. 178. 4. Lucy Forney Bittinger. The Germans In Colonial Times, Phil- adelphia, 1901, p. 188. 5. Joseph S. Walton. Supra, p. 193. 6. Early History of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, 1846, app. p. 4-5. 7. William M. Darlington. Christopher Gist's Journals, Pittsburgh, 1893, pp. 236-237. 8. William L. Stone. Supra, p. 440. 9. George Bancroft. History Of The United States Of America, Boston, 1879, Vol. Ill, p. 71. 10. Neville B. Craig. Lecture Upon The Controversy Between Penn- sylvania And Virginia, Pittsburgh, 1845, pp. 6-7. 10 Fort Pitt 11. The Official Records Of Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-Governor Of The Colony Of Virginia, 1751-1758, Richmond, Virginia. MDCCCLXXXIII,Vol. I, p. 323. 12. William L. Stone, Supra, p. 446-447. 13. George Bancroft, Supra, p. 75. 14. William Smith, D.D. Discourses On Public Occasions in America London, 1762, Appendix pp. 2-31. 15. William M. Darlington. In Centennial Memorial Of The Plant- ing and Growth Of Presbyterianism In Western Pennsylvania And Parts Adjacent, Pittsburgh, 1876, p. 265. The Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1846, Vol. I, pp. 184-185. 16. Colonial Records. Vol. VIII, pp. 232-234. 17. Gertrude Selwyn Kimball. Correspondence Of William Pitt, New York, 1906, p. 409. 18. The Olden rime.__Supra, pp. 182-184. 19. George Harrison Fisher. Brigadier General Henry Bouquet, InThe Pennsylvania Magazine Of History and Biography, Phil- adelphia, 1879, Vol. Ill, pp. 121-143. 20. Early History Of Western Pennsylvania, Supra, App. pp. 302-303 21. Ibid, p. 122. 22. Ibid, pp. 127-128. 23. Ibid, p. 123. 24. Colonial Records, Supra, p. 292. 25. Nesbit Willoughby Wallace. A Regimental Chronicle And List Of Officers Of The 60th Or Kings Royal Rifle Corps, London, 1879, p. 44. William M. Darlington. Supra, pp. 265-266. 26. J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott. History of Philad- elphia, Philadelphia, 1884, Vol. I, p. 254. 27. Archer Butler Hulbert. The Crown Collection Of Photographs Of American Maps, Cleveland, Ohio, 1905, Vol. II, No. 23. 28. Colonial Records, Supra, p. 315. Fort Pitt 11 CHAPTER II. The Collapse of French Rule in America, and the Rise of English Power in the Ohio Valley. Forbes had been succeeded in the command of the English and Provincial troops in the Southern Department to which Pennsylvania belonged, by General John Stan- wix (1) and Captain Harry Gordon who ranked as lieuten- ant in the First Battalion of the 60th or Royal American Regiment, (2) was designated as chief engineer of the proposed fort. On August 6, 1759, Colonel Mercer wrote to Governor Denny that Captain Gordon had arrived with most of the artificers, but would not select a site for the new fort until the arrival of General Stanwix, and added, "We are preparing the materials for building with what expedition so few men are capable of." (3) Shortly afterward Stanwix arrived bringing with him ma- terials and more skilled men and laborers, and on September 3, 1759, the work of building the fortress, advocated by Pitt, was commenced. The plan of the fort, however, was not the work of Cap- tain Gordon, but was made by Lieutenant Bernard Ratzer, an assistant engineer, also belonging to the First Battalion of the 60th or Royal American Regiment. (14) The orig- inal of this plan, like the plan of the temporary fort built along the Monongahela River, is preserved in the Crown Collection of Maps and Manuscripts in the British Museum. The 60th or Royal American Regiment, originally the 62nd or Royal American Regiment of Foot, had been authorized by an act of Parliament of November 5, 1755, which pro- vided for raising a regiment among the German and Swiss settlers in America, and for the granting of commissions in this regiment to foreign Protestants who had served abroad as officers or engineers. The number of officers was never to exceed fifty and the engineers never to be more than twenty, and none were to be allowed to rise above the rank of lieutenant-colonel. (5) One of the requirements of the officers was that they must be able to speak the German language. Judging from Ratzer's name and because it appears in the list of officers of the battalion with nearly 12 Fort Pitt a score of other lieutenants with German names, all of whom were commissioned at about the same time as Rat- zer, he was a German. That he was a man of ability is apparent from the fact that in 1766 and 1767 he made a survey of the city of New York and a plan of the place, of which several editions were published. This plan, according to an eminent authority, is "the most accurate and reliable survey which we have of New York at this period and even today is much used in searching titles." (6) Ratzer remained in the English army for many years after the close of the French War, advancing to the rank of captain in 1773 and major in 1782. (7) An interesting account of the happenings at the forks of the two rivers at this period was printed in the American Magazine of December, 1759, published at Woodbridge, New Jersey. (8) It is in the form of a letter, and is dated September 24, 1759. "It is now near a month since the army has been employed in erecting a most formidable fortification; such a one as will to latest posterity secure the British empire on the Ohio. There is no need to enum- erate the abilities of the chief engineer, nor the spirit shown by the troops in executing this important task, the fort will soon be a lasting monument to both. Upon the General's arrival, about four hundred Indians of different nations came to confirm the peace with the English, particularly the Tawas and Wyandots, who inhabit about Fort D'Etroit. These confessed the errors they had been led into by the perfidy of the French ; showed the deepest contrition for their past conduct, and promised not only to remain fast friends to the English, but to assist us in distressing the common enemy whenever we should call on them to do it. And all the nations which have been at variance with the English, said they would deliver up what prisoners they had in their hands to the General, at the grand meeting that is to be held in about three weeks. As soon as the Congress was ended the head of each nation presented the calumet of peace to the General, and showed every other token of sin- cerity that could be expected which the surrender of the prisoners will confirm. In this as in everything that can secure the lasting peace and happiness of these Colonies, the General is indefatigable." Fort Pitt 13 On October 25, 1759, General Stanwix held another council with the Indians and told them that he insisted on their restoring the prisoners who were still in their pos- session. He also had Captain Montour, the interpreter, in- form them that the city of Quebec had been captured by the English, who soon expected to drive the French out of America. The Indians then formally buried the hatchet and declared themselves fast friends of the English for all time. The chronicler of conference adds that "thereupon General Stanwix drank to the health of the Indians and the meeting dispersed." (9) The work of building the fort went on throughout the summer and autumn, but was necessarily slow. The only material at hand was wood, which could be cut within a few hundred feet of the fort. Bricks had to be made, and to do this the proper clay must first be secured and thereafter kilns constructed for burning the bricks. Every other article needed in the construction of the fort was car- ried overland on packhorses, a distance of more than three hundred miles. It was therefore winter before the fort was well under way, and on December 8th, General Stanwix wrote to Governor Hamilton from the "Camp at Pittsburgh." "The works here are near carried on to that degree of defence which was at first prepared for this year, so that I am now by degrees forming a winter garrison which is to consist of three hundred Provincials, one-half of whom are Pennsylvanians, the others Virginians, and four hun- dred of the First Battalion of the Eoyal American Regi- ment, the whole to be under the command of Major Tulli- kens when I leave it. These I hope I shall be able to cover well under good barracks and feed likewise for six months from the first of January, besides artillery, artificers and batteau men; Indians, too, must be fed, and they are not a few, who come and go and trade here." (10) On December 24th, General Stanwix sent another letter to Governor Hamilton, this time dated "Pittsburgh," in which he wrote that he was making arrangements to have more troops at Fort Pitt in the following spring to assist in the construction of the fort; and that it could be completed during the next summer. (11) 14 Fort Pitt After the fort was occupied, although far from fin- ished, on March 21, 1760, General Stanwix left Fort Pitt for Philadelphia. On June 29th, General Robert Monc- ton, the chief officer of the department to which Fort Pitt belonged, called by Bancroft "the brave, open-hearted and liberal Moncton," who only the year before had been the second in command under Wolfe at the surrender of Que- bec, came to the fort. (12) Almost immediately he began arranging to send a large force to Presqu' Isle (now Erie) to take possession of the upper posts as well as those along the frontiers as far as Detroit and Mackinaw ; and on July 7th, Colonel Bouquet marched with five companies for Presqu' Isle, other troops following later. But the march was uneventful. The French, in order to reinforce the army which was being collected by them to oppose the English who were moving against Montreal, had withdrawn their forces, and when Bouquet reached Presqu' Isle on July 17th, he was enabled to take possession without resistance. It was at about this time that the first census of Pitts- burgh was taken, the work being done hy Colonel James Burd who arrived with his regiment of Pennsylvanians on July 6th. The enumeration was made on July 21st and it was found that the population, exclusive of the soldiers, was one hundred forty-nine. (13) That the reputation with which Bancroft credits Monc- ton, was well deserved is evidenced by the consideration which he had for the Indians. Some of the Indian traders were unscrupulous in their dealings, and the Indians were often imposed upon, and cheated in trading their skins and furs for such necessaries as they required. Moncton saw the evil and provided a remedy, and established a store at Fort Pitt where the Indians could trade without fear of being wronged. (14) On August 20th, Moncton made a treaty at Fort Pitt with the Six Nations and delivered a speech from Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the commander in chief of the British forces in America. He declared that the King of England had not sent him to deprive the Indians of their lands, that he did not mean to do so, and that the posts which he was establishing were being built to prevent the enemy from taking them; nor were the English people there to settle Fold-out Placeholder This foid-out is being digitized, and will be ins future date. Fort Pitt 15 on the Indian lands. (15) Meanwhile the work on the fort was progressing. In the diary of James Kenny, a Quaker, who was living in Pittsburgh in 1761, and managing a store (16) for Phila- delphia parties, there is an account of the uncompleted fort as it appeared in civilian eyes, as well as interesting side- lights on the life of the village. In one of the entries dated "11th mo., 19th," there is a detailed description of the fort, the "banks" of which the writer states are nearly raised. He relates that the front facing the town is of brick and the corners of the angles of hewn stone ; * * * the part nearest the point where the two rivers meet is of earth sodded over and covered with thick long grass planted the year before, the bank having been mown several times during the summer. The fort he said is "four square" with a row of barracks along each square, three rows being of wooden framework, and the row on the side nearest the point, brick. Also that a large brick house had been erected during the past summer in the southeast corner of the fort on which the roof is being put on. He continues, telling that there are steps at the door of hewn free stone, and the building has a cellar under it. The doors of the magazine, vaults and dungeons, are under huge banks of earth thrown out when the trenches were dug, and open in the rear of the barracks. In the magazines are kept the stores of ammunition, etc., and in the dungeons the pris- oners who are to be tried for their lives are confined. There are no lights in the vaults and on the southeast bastion stands a high pole like a mast, on which a flag is hoisted every first day of the week from about eleven to one o'clock, and on state days, etc. Then there are three wells of water walled in the fort, and there is a square of clear ground in the interior about two acres in extent. Kenny's journal also gives the earliest information obtainable in regard to the state of education and re- ligion in Pittsburgh. He states that many of the inhabi- tants had engaged a schoolmaster, and had subscribed sixty pounds for him for the year, and that he had twenty scholars; also that the soberer people seemed to long for some public way of worship and that the schoolmaster, although a Presbyterian, reads from the book of Common 16 Fort Pitt Prayer, on the first day of the week to a congregation of different principals, "where they behave very grave." This last remark is evidently not made from personal knowl- edge, as the writer adds in parenthesis, "as I heard;" and concludes his observations by saying that, "On occasion the children also are brought to church as they call it." General Moncton had left Fort Pitt on October 27, 1760, (17) and from that time Colonel Bouquet was in charge, and at his direction a second enumeration of the inhabitants, as well as of the houses in the town was made. This was done on April 14, 1761, and the report showed that the population consisted of two hundred and twenty-one men, which included a number of soldiers dwelling outside of the fort, seventy-three women and thirty-eight children, and that there were standing in the village one hundred and sixty-two houses, of which ten were unoccupied. (18) By the time that winter arrived Colonel Bouquet had completed Fort Pitt. It was a most formidable work and the cost was enormous. Lewis Brantz, a well educated young German, who stopped over in Pittsburgh in 1785, while on his way from Baltimore, being employed in con- ducting a party of Germans to the Western country, who had engaged to settle on lands owned there by his employ- ers, wrote in his journal, that Fort Pitt was "formerly the strongest Western fortification of the Americans." (19) The Rev. David Jones, a Baptist missionary who was in Pittsburgh in 1772, related that the fort was said to have cost the crown £100,000 sterling. (20) Hugh Henry Brackenridge, who came to the place in 1781, writing of the fort in 1786, said, the cost was £60,000. (21) What is claimed to be an authentic description of the fort was printed in the Centennial number of the Pitts- burgh Commercial Gazette of July 29, 1886 "It covered eighteen acres of ground and was much larger than Fort Duquesne. The fort proper was built in the form of an irregular pentagon, with regular bastions at the five angles surrounded by a broad moat, which at times was nearly filled by the rising water of the rivers. The moat extended from the Allegheny River northeast of the fort, and entirely around it, but did not connect with the Monongahela, though it approached very near it. The Fort Pitt 17 two shorter angles of the work upon the land side were revetted with brick solidly embanked with earth. The other three angles were stockaded with an earthen parapet. A line of sharpened palisades was planted near the foot of the rampart. The fort was supplied with casemates, or bomb-proofs, and had barracks and officers quarters for a thousand men. Running across a point outside of and parallel to the ditch was the glacis, or earth work, with salient and re-entrant angles having entrances covered by traverses and extending from river to river, A light parapet with three bastions, extended along the Allegheny and thence along the Monongahela to the bastion. Eigh- teen guns were mounted on the bastions." The fort was located almost entirely west of Marbury (now Barbeau) Street which was laid out partly along what had been the glacis and partly in the moat of the fort. (22) At about where Penn Street (now Penn Avenue) inter- sects Marbury Street was the main entrance to the fort and here there was a drawbridge crossing the moat. The southerly line of the fort extended across Penn Street, this portion of Penn Street being entirely covered by the fort all the way to the Monongahela River. It also crossed Liberty Street at West Street and extended thence to the Monongahela. Facing this stream was another en- trance with a drawbridge. The stronghold extended north- wardly from Penn Street at the point nearest to Marbury Street, about one hundred and fifty feet, and at the north bastion about three hundred feet, the distance in both in- stances being measured to the outer line of the moat. Along the easterly front of the fort Lieutenant Ratzer had laid out gardens covering all the ground between the Allegheny River and Liberty Street, and extending east- wardly approximately to about seventy-five or a hundred feet from Fifth (now Stanwix) Street. This ground was divided by three lanes into five blocks. The gardens com- prised about forty acres and were divided into two parts. Close to the fort and extending eastwardly from the bas- tions and along the Allegheny River, under the direction of the officers of the fort, an orchard of apple and pear trees was planted, called the King's Orchard. Farther east the ground was brightened with flowers and shrubs ancj 18 Fort Pitt ornamental plants, and made useful by the cultivation of vegetables, necessary for the inmates of the fort. This was christened the Artillery Gardens. (23) But the great fortress erected for the maintenance of English supremacy proved to be unnecessary. Long before it was completed French arms everywhere in America had met with defeat at the hands of the English. The year 1759 had been a glorious one in English history. The French had abandoned Ticonderoga on the approach of General Amherst. The battle of Niagara had been fought and won on July 24th by Sir William Johnson, the Colonial Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the victory being so de- cisive that the troops sent by General Stanwix from Fort Pitt took possession of the French posts as far as Presqu' Isle without resistance. (24) Finally General Wolfe had climbed to the plains of Abraham and captured the fortress of Quebec, In 1760 these victories were crowned by the surrender of Montreal; and Detroit, and all other places in Canada were surrendered to General Amherst in Septem- ber. The end had come to the French domination. All their possessions in the North, as well as those east of the Mississippi were in the hands of the victorious English. A preliminary treaty of peace between France and Great Britain, as well as with other powers, was signed on No- vember 3, 1762. But a definitive treaty of peace yet remained to be executed, and this was not finally accomplished until February 10, 1763, when a treaty was signed at Paris form- ally ceding the conquered territories to Great Britain. Fort Pitt, however, was still necessary as a protection against the Indians. The transfer from the French to the English of the posts between the Great Lakes and the Ohio led to a war with the Indian tribes of which the master spirit was Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawas. A coalition of the Indian tribes from the Allegheny and Ohio rivers to the Great Lakes was formed, led by Pontiac, and by Kiyasuta at the head of the Senecas, Delawares and Shaw- anese. It is generally known as Pontiac's War, but along the Ohio border it was called the Kiyasuta and Pontiac War. (25) The design of the Indians was to drive the English from all the Western country. So sudden were the move- /O^/^^^^^'^^^^— Fort Pitt 19 ments of the Indians and so vigorous their attacks, that in a short time they had captured eight widely scattered forts and massacred the garrisons. Only Detroit, Niagara, Fort Pitt and Ligonier remained in the hands of the English, and these were all besieged. During the latter part of May the Indians began murdering settlers in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt and even soldiers who tarried outside of the fort. On the 30th the matter had become so threatening that the inhabitants of the town were ordered into the fort, and in the next few days all the houses in the town were pulled down or burned. Now the siege commenced in earnest. Colonel Bouquet then in command at Philadelphia, was early in the spring ordered by General Amherst to collect a force and march to the relief of Fort Pitt. (26) After being engaged by the Indians at Bushy Run, whom he defeated decisively, he reached Fort Pitt on August 10th and raised the siege. (27) The Indians were dismayed at the terrible punishment received at Bushy Run, and not only gave up their designs against Fort Pitt, but withdrew westward to the Muskingum River. The next spring, hov/ever, having recovered from their fright, they again ravaged the fron- tier, and a new expedition was planned to be sent against their towns on the Muskingum River. The army began to assemble at Carlisle on August 5, 1764, and here Colonel Bouquet assumed the command. The arrangements were completed on August 9th, when the new army began its march, arriving at Fort Pitt on September 17th. (28) On October 3rd the army left Fort Pitt and arrived at the Muskingum on the 17th, when a conference was held with the Indians. The Indians were only too will- ing to make peace, the prisoners in their hands were sur- rendered, a treaty of peace was entered into, and this ended the Kiyasuta and Pontiac War. The termination of this war ended the usefulness of Fort Pitt, except as a watch tower from which to observe the neighboring Indians, and as a place to fit out expeditions against the Indians farther away. REFERENCES 1. Neville B. Craig. The History of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 1851, p. 80. 20 Fort Pitt 2. Nesbit Willoughby Wallace. A Regimental Chronicle And LAst Of Officers Of The 60th Or Kings Royal Rifle Corps, London, 1879, p. 74. 3. Colonial Records. Vol. VIII, p. 392. 4. Nesbit Willoughby Wallace, Supra, p. 74. Calendar Of New York Colonial Manuscripts, New York, 1643- 1803, Albany, 1864, p. 501. 5. Nesbit Willoughby Wallace, Supra, p. 1-32. 6. I. N. Phelps Stokes. The Iconography Of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, New York, MDCCCCXV, Vol. I, pp. 342-343. 7. Nesbit Willoughby Wallace, Supra> pp. 95-106. 8. Hazard's Register Of Pennsylvania,, Vol. VIII, pp. 136-137. 9. Early History Of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, 1846, App. pp. 139-142. 10. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. Ill, p. 693. 11. Ibid, p. 696. 12. George Bancroft. History Of The United States Of America, Boston, 1879, Vol. Ill, pp. 216-225. 13. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. VII, p. 422. 14. Colonial Records, Vol. VIII pp. 646-647, p. 739. 15. Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1846, Vol. I, p. 331. 16. The Pennsylvania Magazine Of History And Biography, Phil- adelphia, 1880, Vol. Ill, pp. 350-351. 17. Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. VII, p. 428. 18. The Pennsylvania Magazine Of History And Biography, Supra, Vol. VI, p. 347. 19. Henry E. Schoolcraft. Information Respecting The History, Con- dition And Prosperity Of The Indian Tribes Of The United States, Philadelphia, 1853, Part, III, pp. 336-339. 20. Rev. David Jones. A Journal Of Two Visits Made To Some Na- tions Of Indians On The West Side Of The River Ohio, In The Years 1772 And 1773, New York, 1865_, p. 20. 21. H. H. Brackenridge. Gazette Publications, Carlisle, 1806, p. 11. 22. The Olden Time. Supra 1848, Vol. II, p. 48. 23. C. W. Butterfield. Washington-Irvine's Correspondence, Madi- son, Wis., 1882, p. 171. H. H. Brackenridge. Supra, p. 12. 24. George Bancroft. Supra, p. 12 25. Neville B. Craig. Supra, p. 90. A. W. Patterson. History Of The Backwoods, Pittsburgh, 1843, p. 128. 26. The Pennsylvania Magazine Of History And Biography Supra, p. 132. 27. Historical Account Of Bouquet's Expedition Against The Ohio Indians, Cincinnati, 0, pp. 16-26. 28. Ibid, p. 35. Fort Pitt 21 CHAPTER III. The Town Grows as the Fort Declines. The town, which was located east of the fort, was soon rebuilt after the termination of the Kiyasuta and Pontiac War and grew in importance. Formerly nearly all the houses were located along the Monongahela River, only a few near the fort, in what was known as the lower town standing away from that river and in the direction of the Allegheny. The upper town was farther up the Mononga- hela River and extended to the location of Market Street. (1) On the rebuilding of the town the houses were mainly erected in what had been the upper town, which now began near the location of Ferry Street. There were as yet no streets, and the only road was the one which came from the East, and led to the main entrance of the fort. From this a few paths diverged to the Monongahela River and to the houses standing there and at the other points. And now, in 1765, Colonel John Campbell, by direction of the com- mander at Fort Pitt, prepared a plan of that part of the territory which lay between Water Street and Second Street, now Second Avenue, and Ferry and Market streets, comprising four blocks; and this was the town of Pitts- burgh. (2) More traders settled in the town; the population in- creased, trade with the Indians grew in volume, but other- wise the only events of moment were the conferences held with the Indians who were always willing to attend, know- ing that food and drink would be served in abundance, and that they would be supplied with such necessaries as am- munition and blankets. The most important of these was the great conference which began on April 26, 1768, with the Six Nations, the Delawares, Shawanese, Munseys, Mohi- cans and other tribes (3) who had complained of the mur- der of several of their people by the whites, and about their encroachments on the Indian lands, particularly on those along the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers. The In- dians attending this conference are said to have numbered eleven hundred. (4) The title to all the lands in Western Pennsylvania, in- 22 Fort Pitt eluding those about Fort Pitt, was still in the Indians, the possession of the numerous occupants being by sufference of the proprietaries or by permission of the military author- ities. That it was true that the whites were encroaching on the Indian lands, and that the Indians had cause for their complaints is evident from the fact that the Pennsyl- vania Council on February 3, 1768, enacted a law providing the death penalty for persons settling on lands owned by the Indians. (5) But nothing was done under this law ex- cept to issue a proclamation notifying the intruders to remove, which they refused to do. The conference con- tinued until May 9th, but little was accomplished. It was agreed that four deputies from the Indians, accompanied by two white men, should go to the illegally settled lands and warn the settlers to leave. The Indians, however, re- fused to go and the conference ended in failure (6) and the irritation between the Indians and the whites continued. The desire for the acquisition of the Indian lands in the Colonies was not confined to the people of Pennsylvania, but was equally strong in New York and Virginia. A set- tlement was eventually brought about by leading trading companies, assisted by self-interested public men, (7) among the latter being William Franklin, the Royal gov- ernor of New Jersey, Governor Sir Henry Moore of New York, and General Thomas Gage, the commander in chief of the British forces in North America, all of whom con- nected themselves with a land company formed to acquire some of these very lands after the Indians had surrendered their title, and expected to profit largely thereby. Sir William Johnson is also said to have become interested in this company. The matter of the acquisition of the Indian lands was brought before the British cabinet, and in Jan- uary, 1768, the Earl of Shelburne, the Secretary of State, authorized Sir William Johnson to adjust the boundary with the Six Nations. Johnson soon arranged for a con- gress with the Indians to convene at Fort Stanwix, now Rome, New York. On October 24th thirty-two hundred In- dians had gathered and with the commissioners of the interested Provinces, including Lieutenant Governor Penn of Pennsylvania, in attendance, the first session was held. Sir William Johnson had the confidence of the Indians Fort Pitt 23 and easily persuaded them to concede the demands of the whites, and the sessions ended on November 1st. And for a sum of money equal to about ten thousand dollars, and such goods as were necessary to the Indians, or for which their untutored hearts yearned, they conveyed enormous tracts of land to Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York. The deed to Pennsylvania was for about one-third of the land in the Province, the western portion of the grant, in- cluding all the territory south of the Ohio River and east of the Allegheny, and comprising the southern portion of Allegheny County, all of Washington, Greene, Fayette, Westmoreland, Somerset and Cambria counties, and por- tions of at least a dozen other counties, extending all the way to the northeastern boundary of the state. To Vir- ginia the Indians granted a still larger tract, including most of the present state of Kentucky, and that to New York was also enormous in extent. (8) Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, were now prepared to place portions of their newly acquired lands in the market for sale. All of West- ern Pennsylvania was in Cumberland County, and the first step taken by the Penns was on March 27, 1769, when they caused a survey to be made of a tract of land in that county to be called the manor of Pittsburgh, containing fifty-seven hundred sixty-six acres, which included Fort Pitt and the town of Pittsburgh, and much of the present city, as well as a still larger area south of the Monongahela River. This was patented on May 19, 1769. In June, 1769, panic seized the people of Pittsburgh. It was feared that an Indian uprising was imminent. In the neighborhood of the town the Senecas had stolen up- wards of a hundred and fifty horses, shot about two hun- dred head of cattle, and murdered several settlers. The prevalent opinion was that the Indian tribes had broken the treaty of peace made with them the year before, and the farms about the town were soon deserted. The Moravians were a sect of German enthusiasts who believed themselves called upon to preach the Gospel to the heathen nations of all the world, and had penetrated the Western wilds and risked torture and death in their efforts to Christianize the Indians. The assistance which they rend- 24 Fort Pitt ered the Colonists of the middle Provinces during the French War and in the time of Indian troubles, forms an illuminating page in Colonial history. Since 1768 they had conducted a mission on the upper Allegheny which was in charge of David Zeisberger and Gottlieb Senseman. When the excitement was at its height at Fort Pitt, the two mis- sionaries appeared there for the purpose of obtaining sup- plies for their people, and learned of the Indian outrages. They knew the sentiments of the Indians toward the whites better than the people at the fort and assured them that they had nothing to fear as no general uprising of the In- dians was contemplated. (9) The help which the Moravi- ans gave General Forbes in keeping the Indians from join- ing the French in 1758 had been invaluable, and was well known at Fort Pitt, where also a number of the Moravians had visited and were highly respected, and the assurance given by Zeisberger and Senseman stayed the panic and calmed the fears of the frontiersman. The next year the mission on the Allegheny River was removed to Beaver Creek, the congregation leaving on April 17th in fifteen canoes, reaching Fort Pitt three days later. Zeisberger's biographer refers thus to the Indian converts and the impression made by them at Fort Pitt: "When this post still bore the name of Fort Duquesne, and French priests were as active as French soldiers, it had often been visited by baptized Indians. But now, for the first time appeared a company of Protestant converts. It was a novel sight. Traders and the garrison thronged the camp, and beheld with astonishment the problem solved, that savages can be changed into consistent Christians." (10) Ever since the first settlers came into the neighborhood of Pittsburgh, there had been scarcely any semblance of enforcement of law. Carlisle, the county seat of Cumber- land County, was two hundred miles away and when Bed- ford County was erected in 1771, there was no relief, the county seat of that county being still too distant to induce the settlers on the Western border to attempt to secure their rights or redress their wrongs by lawful methods. They now agitated for a new western county, with a centrally located county seat, and on February 26, 1773, their desires were attained and Westmoreland County Fort Pitt 25 erected, which embraced all of the Province west of "Laurel Hill." The county seat was fixed at Hannastown, located on the Forbes road about three miles northeast of the pres- ent borough of Greensburg, and thirty-five miles from Pittsburgh. Three years before its erection as the county seat, Robert Hanna had purchased from the Penns the land of which Hannastown was part, had built a tavern, laid out a village site and thereafter had the place established as the county seat. (11) The houses were all built of logs and never exceeded thirty in number. Few travelers visiting or passing through Pittsburgh have left written records of their impressions while there. In addition to a few missionaries who were sent out by religious organizations in the East to attempt the con- version of the Indians, or to preach the Gospel to the set- tlers, there was only one lay traveler who wrote out his ex- periences while in the place, of which there is in existence a published record. Most of the early travelers have left only meager details of their visits to "Fort Pitt," for by that name they all designated the place. The notes of these sojourners in Pittsburgh have an historic interest as they indicate the various steps in the progress of the place. But the reader cannot help wondering at the unanimity with which, where, they refer to the houses at all, they place the number so much below the figure given in Colonel Bouquet's census of 1761. They were surely not all mistaken in this respect, and the only manner in which this can be explained, is that when Bouquet gave the number of the houses as 162, he meant rooms, the trading houses, which comprised prac- tically all of the town, generally having quite a number of rooms, and a room being considered sufficient for a family. The earliest account is that written by John Heckeweld- er, the Moravian missionary, and is the story of a visit made by him in 1762. He was then nineteen years of age, and was accompanying Christian Frederick Post as assistant, who was on a mission to the Moravian Indian towns on the Tus- carawas River. On the evening of April 1st, the two trav- elers reached Fort Pitt, and Heckewelder relates that when within seven or eight miles of the fort, they came upon the field of Braddock's defeat. "A dreadful sight was pre- sented to our eyes," he writes. "Skulls and bones of the 26 Fort Pitt unfortunate men slain here on the 9th of July, 1755, lay scattered all around, and the sound of our horses' hoofs continually striking against them, made dismal music, as, with the Monongahela full in view, we rode over this memor- able battleground." Continuing he said: "The only pri- vate dwelling in the neighborhood of the fort was situated at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela. It was owned by two traders, Messrs. Davenport and McKinney, who received us in a very friendly and hospitable manner. Within the fort also we met with kind well-wishers, and the treatment we received at the hands of the gallant com- mander, Col. Bouquet, and all his officers, calls for my last- ing gratitude." (12) Mathew Clarkson of Philadelphia, who subsequently became prominent in the public life of that city, being mayor of the city from 1792 to 1795, was at Fort Pitt in 1766, At this time he was connected with one of the most noted commercial houses in Philadelphia, which carried on the fur trade with the Indian tribes of the Mississippi Val- ley, having their headquarters at Fort Chartres. He made the western tour for his employers, and while on his way to Fort Chartres stopped at Fort Pitt, arriving on August 18th. (13) His diary is disjointed, but throws consider- able light on many phases of the life of the place of which little is known today. Immediately upon his arrival he de- livered the letters which he had brought for Major William Murray, the commander of the fort. The first entry after he reached Pittsburgh reads: "Got to Fort Pitt just after dark, was stowed away in a small crib, on blankets, in company with fleas and bugs, and spent a night not the most comfortable." On August 10th, he wrote: "Took a walk to the ship-yards. Found four boats finished and in the water, and three more on the stocks; business going on briskly. Met with Major Murray, who had been at the store (which must have been the store established by General Moncton) to wait upon me with an invitation to dine with him today. Was extremely polite and obliging ; took me into the fort. — Dined with him at the mess-room in company with the officers in the gar- rison at this post. Major Murray offered me a room in the barracks which I accepted of. Lodged this night in Mr. Fort Pitt 27 John Reid's room, the Commissary. He tells of hearing "Mr. McCleggan preach to the sol- diers in Erse — but little edified. He preaches alternately one Sunday in that language, and the next in English." He gives some information in regard to the manner in which letters were received at and sent from the fort. "Sent let- ters to forward by the Express, which sets off directly with monthly returns. They are forwarded by soldiers to Ship- pinsburg, where they are put in the Post Office, and for- warded to Philadelphia. The returns are made up the 24th of every month." He also notes the arrival at Fort Pitt of the Rev. Charles Beatty and Rev. George Duffield, two Presbyterian missionaries, "on a message among the In- dians to preach the Gospel. Supped with them at the mess." He then relates that he heard Mr. Duffield "preach in the town a very judicious and alarming discourse." The Rev. Charles Beatty, who had been at Fort Pitt with General Forbes' army, has also written a journal of the visit to Pittsburgh which he and Mr. Duffield made and about which Mr. Clarkson wrote. They remained at the place four days, and Mr. Beatty (14) tells of waiting on the commander of the fort whom he calls "Captain" Mur- ray, who received them politely and introduced them to the Rev. Mr. McCleggan, the chaplain of the Forty-second Regi- ment, part of which was in garrison there. Both mission- aries slept in a room in the fort, and Mr. Beatty seems to be very grateful because Mr. McCleggan, "with some other gentlemen of the place," furnished them with "blankets to sleep in, and some other necessaries, so that we fared as well as we could expect." On Sunday forenoon, at the invitation of Mr. McCleg- gan, Mr. Beatty preached to the garrison, while Mr. Duffield preached to the people "who live in some kind of a town without the fort." The journal most often quoted is that of George Wash- ington who was in Pittsburgh in 1770, while on his way to the Kanawha River district. On October 17th he arrived at Fort Pitt. "We lodged in what is called a town," he wrote, "distant about three hundred yards from the fort at one Semple's, who keeps a very good house of public en- tertainment. The houses are built of logs and ranged in 28 Fort Pitt streets, are on the Monongahela, and I suppose may be about twenty in number, and inhabited by Indian traders. The fort is built on the point between the rivers Allegheny and Monongahela, but not so near the pitch of it as Fort Duquesne stood. It is five sided and regular, two of which near the land are of brick; the others stockade. A moat encompasses it. The garrision consists of two companies of Royal Irish, commanded by Captain Edmonstone." (15) Another glimpse of the village and the fortification is obtained from the diary of Rev. David Jones, already re- ferred to, who was there on June 4, 1772. (16) "At this time," he relates, "the fortification was remaining but some- what impaired. Here are about eighty soldiers with one commanding officer — East at about two hundred yards dis- tant, by the Monongahela, there is a small town chiefly in- habited by Indian traders, and some mechanics. The army was without a chaplain, nor was the town supplied with a minister. Part of the inhabitants are agreeable and worthy of regard, while others are lamentably dissolute in their morals." Two months after the visit of Mr. Jones, two other ministers of the Gospel came to Pittsburgh, the Rev. David McClure, and the Rev. Levi Frisbee, both Presbyterians. Mr. McClure kept a diary and from this an extended view and a most vivid picture may be obtained of life in early Pittsburgh. Mr. McClure made Pittsburgh his headquarters, preaching to the settlers in many places in Western Penn- sylvania, as well as to the Indians on the Muskingum, remaining in the country for eight or nine months. He arrived in Pittsburgh on August 19, 1772, and thus de- scribes his entry into the village. (17) "Arrived at this place about sunset. The first object of our attention was a number of poor drunken Indians, staggering and yelling through the village. It is the head- quarters of Indian traders, and the resort of Indians of different and distant tribes, who come to exchange their peltry and furs for rum, blankets and ammunition, etc." He describes the fort as "a handsome and strong fortifica- tion. In it are barracks, and comfortable houses, one large, brick house is called the Governor's house. It stands at the point of land formed by the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, on an extensive plain. Adjoining are Fort Pitt 29 good orchards and gardens. The village is about one-fourth of a mile from the fort and consists of about forty dwelling houses built of hewed logs and stands on the bank of the Monongahela." His first Sunday morning he spent in preaching in the fort to the garrison at the request of Major Hamilton. The greater part of the soldiers had lately arrived from Fort Chartres, and had not heard a sermon for four years. The men, about two hundred in number, were paraded under arms during the divine service. His companion, Mr. Frisbee, preached in the village in the afternoon. He com- ments on the character of the inhabitants, and says they are very dissipated. "They seem to feel themselves beyond the arm of the government, and freed from the restraining influence of religion. It is the resort of Indian traders ; and many here have escaped from justice and from creditors, in the old settlements. The greater part of the Indian traders keep a squaw, and some of them a white woman as a temporary wife." The reception of the missionaries by the officers of the fort was most friendly. On the eve of his departure for the Indian country, having passed the evening with Major Edmonstone, the commander of Fort Pitt, and the other officers of the garrison, Mr. McClure wrote: "The Major po- litely waited on me at the gate and at parting said, 'you are engaged in a benevolent work and you have m^y best wishes for your success. I am a Christian and therefore please to command me in anything in which I may serve you.' " In the entry of Oct. 19th he tells of the contem- plated abandonment of Fort Pitt. "In consequence of orders from General Gage, the garrison are preparing to depart. They have begun to destroy the fortress. This is a matter of surprise and grief to the people around who have requested that the fortress may stand as a place of security to them in case of an Indian invasion. I asked one of the officers, the reason of their destroying the fort, so necessary to the safety of the frontier. He replied, 'The Americans will not submit to the British Parliament and they may now defend themselves.' " Shortly before he left the place finally, on November 19th, he made this entry in his journal, "Waited on Major 30 Fort Pitt Edmonstone, who remained in the dismantled fort, expect- ing to leave it in a few days. — The Major appears dis- pleased with the manners of the people of this country. In conversation on the parade, he told me he had traveled through England, Ireland, France, Germany and Holland, but never knew what mankind were, till he came to that sta tion.'' REFERENCES: 1. William M. Darlington. In Centennial Memorial Of The Plant- ing And Growth Of Presbyterianism In Western Pennsylvania And Parts Adjacent, Pittsburgh, 1876, p. 267. 2. The Navigator, Pittsburgh, 1808, p. 35. William M. Darlington, Supra, pp. 267-268. 3. Colonial Records, Vol. IX, pp. 514-543. 4. Edmund De Schweintiz. The Life And Times Of David Zeis- berger, Philadelphia, 1870, p. 337. 5. Neville B. Craig, Supra, pp. 99-100. 6. Colonial Records, Supra, pp. 514-543. 7. William L. Stone. The Life And Times Of Sir William John- son Bart, Albany, 1865, Vol. II, pp. 303-309. 8. William L, Stone. Ibid. George Bancroft. History Of The United States Of America, Boston, 1879, Vol. IV, pp. 127-128. 9. George Henry Loskiel. History Of The Mission Of The United Brethern A^nong The Indians In North America, London, 1794, Part 3, pp. 48-49. 10. Edmund DeSchweinitz. Supra, pp. 359-360. 11. Charles A. Hanna. The Wilderness Trail, New York, 1911, Vol. II, p. 287. 12. Rev. Edward Ronthaler. Life Of John Heckewelder, Philadel- phia, 1847, pp. 43-45. 13. Henry A. Schoolcroft, LL. D. Information Respecting The History, Condition And Prosperity Of The Indian Tribes Of The United States, Philadelphia, 1856, Part, IV, pp. 268-274. 14. Charles Beatty, A. M. The Journal Of A Two Months Tour, London, MDCCLXVIII, pp. 28-34. 15. The Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1846, Vol. I, p. 418. 16. Rev. David Jones. A Journal Of Two Visits Made To Some Nations Of Indians On The West Side Of The River Ohio, In The Years 1772 And 1773, New York, 1865, p. 20. 17. Franklin B. Dexter, M. A. Diary Of David McClure, Doctor Of Divinity, New York, 1899, pp. 45-105. Fort Pitt 31 CHAPTER IV. In Virginia. The English had now been at peace with the Indians for eight years. But the Indians were suspicious of them on account of the continued maintenance of Fort Pitt. They feared that the troops kept there and at the fortified places on the Wabash, the Illinois and the Mississippi were in- tended at some future time to be used against them. The forts were regarded as useless by the English and in order to conciliate the Indians, in the autumn of 1772, so it is alleged by several authorities. General Gage ordered their abandonment. (1) It is quite possible, however, that the remark made to Mr. McClure by the English officer about the abandonment of Fort Pitt, had more than a foundation in fact. A revolu- tionary spirit was already abroad, not only in the East, but on the border as well. Ever since the passage of the Stamp Act by Parliament in 1765, in pursuance of which documents of all kinds were to be taxed, the American Colonists had been irritated against England. They refused absolutely to obey the law and declined to buy English goods. Nor did the repeal of the obnoxious measure two years later allay the popular resentment, especially as under a new act duties were levied on importations; and the Americans again re- fused to buy from England. General Gage in 1770, had sent troops to Boston and the "Boston Massacre" resulted; and in Pittsburgh the New England spirit may have be- come evident. That the population was not any too friendly to the English is apparent from the remarks of Major Edmonstone to Mr. McClure, already quoted. It may have been quite true that Fort Pitt and the other forts were ordered dismantled as a precautionary measure, so that in case of an uprising the Colonists might not gain the ad- vantage of the possession of the forts and the military sup- plies kept there. Also the conciliation of the Indians may have been part of the plan of the English to win them to their side in case the Americans rose in arms against them. On October 10, 1772, Major Edmonstone, the com- mander of Fort Pitt, sold the buildings and materials of the 32 Fort Pitt fort consisting of picketts, bricks, stone, timber and iron in the building and walls of the fort and in the redoubts to be demolished, for the sum of fifty pounds, New York cur- rency, to William Thompson and Alexander Ross. (2) Thereupon the fort was abandoned, but a corporal and three men were left to care for the boats and batteaux intended to keep up communication with the Illinois country. The people of Pittsburgh protested and petitioned the Governor of the state to intervene and prevail on General Gage to restore the fort. Governor Penn, however, by a message of January 29, 1773, recommended to the Assembly that a small garrison be maintained at Fort Pitt by the Province, (3) and in a communication dated February 5, 1773, suggested to the Assembly that a garrison of twenty- five or thirty men might be placed there by the Prov- ince. (4) The Assembly, however, on February 19, 1773, declined to comply with Governor Penn's request, giving as a reason that it might offend the Indians with whom the country was at peace. (5) But while Fort Pitt was abandoned it was not fully destroyed and continued to be occupied in some way for a score of years afterward. Upon its evacuation by the Eng- lish it was taken possession of by Major Edward Ward, a half brother of George Croghan, the Indian trader, and Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs to Sir William Johnson. He was the same Ward who, while Ensign, had been compelled to surrender to the French the uncompleted fort at the forks of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. It is not quite clear by what right Ward took possession of Fort Pitt, but it was perhaps done as agent of or by per- mission of Ross and Thompson, to whom Major Edmon- stone had sold the materials and buildings of the fort. That this is probably the explanation of Ward's possession, is in- dicated from the fact that a petition was presented to the Virginia Convention on December 18, 1775, by Ross and Thompson, in which they asserted that they were in posses- sion of Fort Pitt from the time of its abandonment by Major Edmonstone until it was occupied by Dr. Connolly on January 1, 1774, (6) Ward's occupation of the fort ending at that time, and asking to be compensated for the use of the fort by Connolly. Also Ross had been the Fort Pitt 33 agent in Pittsburgh for the contractor for victualling his Majesty's forces in North America, and was besides the possessor of the title to several tracts of land located about the fort, the grant of which had been made to him directly or indirectly by Major Edmonstone prior to the evacua- tion of Fort Pitt by the British. (7) Hence he was strongly suspected of being disloyal to the American cause, and was in fact afterward attainted of treason by Act of the Penn- sylvania Assembly. The possession of the property at the fort may therefore have been turned over to Ward whose loyalty was unquestioned, in order to avoid being confis- cated. In 1774 the long pending controversy between Virginia and Pennsylvania in regard to the boundary between the Colony of Virginia and the Province of Pennsylvania reached its climax in Pittsburgh. Lord Dunmore had been Royal governor of New York from October 18, 1770, to July 8, 1771, when he was transferred as Royal governor to Virginia. (B) Bancroft paints a disagreeable picture of Dunmore. "No Royal governor showed more rapacity for power. During his short career in New York he had ac- quired fifty thousand acres of land. Scarcely had he set- tled in Virginia when his greed for land caused him to be- come a partner in two immense purchases of land from the Indians in Southern Illinois." (9) From the beginning he had cast longing eyes on the growing settlements in West- ern Pennsylvania, and early in 1773 he appeared at Fort Pitt (10) where he met Dr. John Connolly, a Pennsylvanian by birth, well connected, a nephew of George Croghan, and the husband of the daughter of Samuel Semple who kept the tavern where Washington stopped in 1770. That Connolly made a most favorable impression on Washington who met him on this visit, is evident from the entry which he made in his journal on that occasion. Washington had invited Connolly, together with Crog- han, and the officers of the fort to dine with him at Semple's tavern and he wrote of him that he was "a very sensible, intelligent man, who had traveled a good deal over this Western country." He quotes Connolly's views at length on the lands, climate and prospects of the country southwest of Pittsburgh. (11) To Connolly, Dunmore un- 34 Fort Pitt folded his plans for extending the Virginia dominion. The wiley Earl claimed that Pittsburgh and the surrounding country was part of Virginia, being embraced in West Augusta, as that part of Augusta County lying west of the Alleghany Mountains was called. (12) He worked on Con- nolly's ambition and perhaps his cupidity, and easily per- suaded him to become the instrument for carrying out his plans. Early in January, 1774, Connolly appeared in Pitts- burgh bearing a commission as captain from Dunmore, and claimed authority to establish a new Virginia county which was to include Pittsburgh. His bombastic proclamation was dated January 1, 1774, and was posted in the village on Jan- uary 6th. The proclamation called upon all persons in Pittsburgh to assemble as militia on January 25th. (13) The day before they were to gather, however, Connolly was arrested in Pittsburgh (14) by order of Arthur St. Clair, later a general in the Eevolutionary War, who was then a Justice of the County Court, Prothonotary, Register and Recorder of Westmoreland County, and committed to jail at Hannastown. But Connolly's arrest did not prevent the assembling of some of the people as militia. On February 2nd St. Clair wrote to Governor Denny of Pennsylvania, (15) 'T was in hopes that the sending him (Connolly) out of the way would put an end to it altogether, but I was mistaken. About eighty persons in arms assembled themselves, chiefly from Mr. Croghan's neighborhood and the country west and below the Monongahela, and after parading through the town and making a kind of feu de joy, proceeded to the fort, where a cask of rum was produced on the parade, and the head knocked out. This was a very effectual way of recruiting." Connolly, however, was soon released on his own recog- nizance. (16) In a few days he returned to Pittsburgh and from there went to Redstone where he collected a body of armed men, and then proceeded to Staunton, Virginia, where he was sworn in as a justice of the peace of Augusta County. Armed with civil authority, as well as the military power which he already possessed, he reappeared in Pitts- burgh on March 28th, (17) with a body of militia and took possession of Fort Pitt, changing the name of both the fort Lord Dunmcre The Ducking Stool. Fort Pitt 35 and the village to Fort Dunmore. He reconstructed and refurnished the fort, using it principally as a jail or lockup for the imprisonment of those who opposed him. (18) That many of the settlers sup- ported Connolly's contentions is beyond question. Bancroft says, (19) "The western people, especially the emigrants from Maryland and Virginia, spurned the meek tenets of the Quakers, and inclined to the usurpation," — and with this powerful support Connolly carried through his meas- ures with a high hand, appointing civil and military officers, levying taxes on peltries (20), arresting and imprisoning those who refused to obey his orders. Jurisdiction was now opposed to jurisdiction, arrests were followed by counter arrests; and the Western country became a scene of con- fusion. Since February, 1774, there had been a number of In- dian outrages in the Western country, which were met with terrible reprisals by the whites. The Indians were for war. Dunmore called out the militia of Western Virginia and proceeded to Pittsburgh where he collected his forces, and in September, 1774, with about twelve hundred men, raised in the Northwestern counties of Virginia and about Pitts- burgh, he descended the Ohio River. When he reached the Scioto River, however, the fighting was over, General Andrew Lewis, the commander of the militia of Southwestern Vir- ginia, having defeated the Indians at Point Pleasant. (21) This ended the war, and Dunmore, foreseeing the approach- ing Revolution, arranged such terms of peace with the In- dians, that they subsequently became the allies of the British. (22) Connolly, who had been more or less occu- pied with this war, now returned to Pittsburgh. At Hannastown the Pennsylvania adherents were still attempting to enforce the laws of that state, and on Decem- ber 12, 1774, Dunmore issued a writ in the name of his Brittanic Majesty, adjourning the county court of Augusta County from Staunton, the county seat of Augusta County, to Fort Dunmore and the first term was held there on Feb- ruary 21, 1775. (23) The Virginia laws provided for the ducking stool as a punishment for evilly disposed women, and one of the first acts of the court at Fort Dunmore was at the session held on February 22nd^ at whiqli Connolly 36 Fort Pitt presided, to instruct the sheriff to employ a workman to ' build a ducking stool at the confluence of the Ohio and Mo- nongahela rivers. (24) But'Dunmore's power was rapidly drawing to a close. The Revolution was beginning, the battle of Lexington was fought on April 19, 1775. The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10th. The Virginia Convention which convened at Richmond on March 20, 1775, to appoint delegates to the new Continental Congress, had taken meas- ures for enrolling companies of volunteers in each county, and before daylight on June 8th, Lord Dunmore and his family fled from Williamsburg, and took refuge on board the Fowey, an English man of war, lying at Yorktown. (25) On July 25th, Connolly left Fort Dunmore (26) to join Dun- more. He never returned to Pittsburgh, his rule was at an end, and like his employer, he espoused the British cause. The leaders in the newly formed government viewed with alarm the troubles existing between Virginia and Penn- sylvania, and on the day that Connolly shook the dust of Pittsburgh from his feet, the delegates in Congress from both Virginia and Pennsylvania published an address to the "Inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Virginia on the west side of Laurel Hill," whom they designated "Friends and Country- men." The address was signed by Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, and by John Dickenson, George Ross, Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson and Charles Humphries of Pennsyl- vania. It referred to the unhappy condition existing west of Laurel Hill and begged the inhabitants to terminate their differences, dismiss their armed men, release their prison- ers, and suggested that until the dispute was decided, every person should be permitted to retain his possessions unmo- lested. (27) But the danger of civil war in Western Pennsylvania between the adherents of that Province and those of Vir- ginia was not yet over. The claim of Virginia to the dis- puted land was not surrendered at Dunmore's flight, and although she had driven him from Williamsburg and was intensely loyal to the Revolution and was standing shoulder to shoulder with Pennsylvania in the movement, she did not loosen her grip on the western end of that Province. The Fort Pitt 37 first Provincial Convention organized by the Revolutionary- Virginians met at Williamsburg on August 1, 1774, and again at Richmond on March 20, 1775, Williamsburg being no longer a safe place for treason mongers. (28) At the session held in July, 1775, it appointed a Committee of Safety. This body was given authority to commission offi- cers, direct military movements, issue warrants on the Treas- ury, and all commanding officers were directed to pay strict obedience to its orders. (29) The Committee of Safety com- missioned John Neville of Frederick County, captain of militia, and on August 7th ordered him to proceed with his company of one hundred men to Fort Pitt and take posses- sion. Captain Neville was probably selected for this service because he had been a resident of Pittsburgh for some time, having made large entries of land on Chariters Creek under the Virginia laws, and having been elected to the Virginia Provincial Convention from Augusta County in the previous year, but being prevented from attending on account of illness. During all of this time of turmoil and controversy, the adherents of both Virginia and Pennsylvania were loyal to their oppressed brethren in Massachusetts. On May 16, 1775, only four weeks after the battle of Lexington, meet- ings were held by the Virginians at Pittsburgh, (30) and by the Pennsylvanians at Hannastown, (31) at which resolu- tions were adopted unanimously approving the New England movement; and steps were taken to organize, arm and discipline the militia in order to meet whatever might betide. The better to carry out their designs the Hannastown meet- ing organizd themselves into the Association of Westmore- land County. At the same time the meeting proclaimed their loyalty to King George the Third. On July 12th, Congress created three Indian depart- ments of which one was to be west of the Alleghany Moun- tains, called the Middle Department. (32) Richard Butler was made agent of this department with headquarters at Pittsburgh, and continued as such until April 10, 1776, when he resigned in order to assist in the organization of a regiment, which became the Eighth Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line, and of which he was commissioned major by Congress on July 20, 1776. He was §8 Fort Pitt succeeded as Indian agent by George Morgan. Shortly- after Morgan assumed the duties of the office there were indications of Indian troubles. Consequently a hundred men were raised in Westmoreland County for this service if needed, and in September, Congress issued an order as- sembling all the militia that could be spared, for the defense of Fort Pitt. (33) Powder, lead and ten thousand flints were forwarded to Morgan, but the Indians remained quiet and neither the militia, the powder, lead or flints were needed. The Virginia Provincial convention which convened at Richmond on July 17, 1775, divided Virginia into sixteen districts. West Augusta being created one of the districts, (34) and a law enacted in October, 1776, defined the boundary between Augusta County and the District of West Augusta. On November 8, 1776, the legislature divided the district of West Augusta into three counties, Ohio, Monon- galia and Yohogania, nearly all of the last, which included Pittsburgh, and much of the other two being composed of Pennsylvania territory. (35) Delegates were elected to the Virginia Provincial Council, and after the passage of the Act of 1776, senators and delegates to the legislature, and all the other officers in the district were elected or ap- pointed under the Virginia laws. Troops were raised for the Revolutionary armies, the Sixth Virginia Regiment being attached to Muhlenberg's brigade. (36) The Thir- teenth Regiment was known as the West Augusta Regi- ment. (37) The Seventh Virginia Regiment was the first considerable body of men raised in the Monongahela coun- try, (38) Justice's courts were now held regularly, those of Yohogania County being held in the upper story of a log jail and court house 24x16 feet, on the farm of Andrew Heath on the Monongahela River, nearly opposite and a lit- tle above West Elizabeth, and at or near the location of Elizabeth. (39) Virginia granted lands to settlers, taxes were levied but frequently not paid, the disputed jurisdic- tion between Pennsylvania and Virginia giving to many of the disaffected a chance to shirk their payment as well as avoid military service. (40) Roads, mills, taverns and ferries were authorized, and the Pennsylvanians obeyed the Virginia laws and applied to the courts of that Colony or Fort Pitt 3d state, and brought and defended suits there when necessary. On December 18, 1776, Virginia, through its legislature, proposed a certain line as the boundary between the two states and suggested that a joint commission be appointed to agree upon a boundary line to which proposal Pennsyl- vania refused to consent. On July 5, 1777, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania made an effort to bring about an agreement by sending a letter to the Virginia dele- gates in Congress, proposing a settlement, but nothing came of the matter. On February 7, 1777, the Virginia Provincial Council directed the raising in Yohogania County of a company of militia to consist of a hundred men to garrison Fort Pitt and relieve Captain Neville's company. Robert Campbell was made captain of this company and commanded at the fort (41) until the arrival of Brigadier General Edward Hand on June 1st. In the meantime Captain Neville had been ordered to join the Eighth Virginia Regiment, known as the German Regiment, so called because it was largely composed of young men of German birth or extraction. It was organized on December 1, 1775, by the Rev. Peter Muhlenberg, pastor of the German Lutheran Church at Woodstock, and at least one company, that of Captain Stinson, came from about Pittsburgh. (42) Muhlenberg was made colonel, and the regiment became historic, not only on account of its achieve- ments in the Revolution, but also by reason of the glowing verses of Thomas Buchannan Read. The poet's picture is prescient of war. It was Sunday morning; the church was crowded with worshippers from far and near. The pastor was in his pulpit declaiming about the impending conflict. "When suddenly his mantle wide His hands impatient flung aside, And lo! he met their wondering eyes Complete in all a warriors guise." Outside before the open church door the trumpets were calling to the men to enlist ; the drum and the fife were firing them "with fiercer life," while overhead the church bell rang out wildly, and the word that is spoke was, "War! War! War! War!" 4d Fort Pitt Muhlenberg having been made brigadier general on February 21, 1777, and the regiment afterwards also los- ing the two colonels who had successively follov/ed him, Neville became colonel on December 11, 1777. On Septem- ber 14, 1778, the regiment was merged into the Fourth Vir- ginia Regiment, of which Neville became colonel on June 1, 1778. (44) After the war Colonel Neville returned to Pittsburgh and became one of its most prominent citizens. It was only at Hannastown, the county seat of West- moreland County, and in the contiguous country that the Pennsylvania jurisdiction continued. After the April term of 1776, however, no sessions of this court were held until 1778, (45) the Assembly of the state having on January 28, 1777, under the first constitution, provided for reorgan- izing the courts, and the first term of the Westmoreland County court began with the July, 1778, session. (46) Westmoreland County was not behind the District of West Augusta in raising troops, and as early as May 24, 1775, in pursuance of the resolution adopted at Hannastown on May 16th, the Associators of Westmore- land County began organizing themselves into companies, which were formed into a regiment of two battalions, the First Battalion being commanded by John Proctor. Con- gress having on May 26th resolved that the Colonies be put into a state of defense, (47) the Pennsylvania Assembly on June 30th (48) created the Council of Safety, delegated with power to call the Associators into actual service. Thereupon the Regiment of Westmoreland County Asso- ciators was reorganized, and became part of the militia of the state. The First Battalion was called to Philadelphia in January, 1777, (49) and was later stationed in the West. A flag had been adopted by this battalion which was one of the first, if not the first. Rebel flag to appear in the Western country, and was the first Colonial flag to be flaunted in Pittsburgh in defiance of British authority. On its crimson folds alongside of the cross of St. George, was a rattlesnake with thirteen rattles, and the warning motto, "Don't tread on me !" The Eighth Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line was another body of Western Pennsylvania troops, seven of the eight companies being organized in Westmoreland County, Flag of the First Battalion of the Regiment of Westmoreland County Associators The letters J. P. I. B. W. C. P., are the initials of the words, "John Proctor's First Battalion, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania." Fort Pitt 41 and seeing service in the East and at Fort Pitt. (50) Other troops raised in Westmoreland County were two companies of the Second Pennsylvania Battalion, of Colonel Arthur St. Clair. Westmoreland County also furnished men to the Third and other Pennsylvania regiments. At last, on December 18, 1778, Virginia proposed a joint commission to agree upon a boundary line. To this Penn- sylvania acceded in March, 1779. (51) The Commission met in Baltimore in August, and on the 31st agreed that Mason and Dixon's line should be extended westward, and that private property rights acquired under the laws of either state were to be fully recognized. The report was ratified by the Pennsylvania legislature on No- vember 19, 1779. But Virginia was not yet ready to sur- render her claims, and in December sent into the disputed territory three commissioners to adjust land titles therein, this action being authorized by an act of her legislature of May 3, 1779, enacted after her proposal for the boundary commissioners but prior to their report. The land-adjusting commissioners met at various points and granted a hundred certificates to claimants under Virginia settlement rights. (52) The differences between the two states were a disturb- ing element in the new republic and late in 1779 Congress adopted a resolution recommending to the two states "not to grant any part of the disputed territory or disturb the possession of any person living therein until the dispute can be amicably adjusted between the two states." (53) This resolution came up in the Pennsylvania Council on December 28th and a proclamation was ordered to be issued in accordance with the recommendation of Congress. (54) Virginia still held back and Pennsylvania, no longer ruled by the Quaker government, became impatient of further delay, and on March 24, 1780, through its Council, adopted threatening preambles and resolutions which breathed war. "But if Pennsylvania must arm for internal defense," the resolution recited, "instead of recruiting her Continental line; if her attention and supplies must be diverted in like manner; if the common enemy encouraged by our division should prolong the war; interests of our sister states and the common cause be injured or disturbed; we trust 42 Fort Pitt we shall stand justly acquitted before them and the whole world." (55) But on June 23rd, Virginia confirmed the commissioners report on condition that rights acquired by persons to whom lands had been granted by Virginia be saved ; and the Vir- ginia Court of Yohogania County closed its records on August 28, 1780, (56) and the power of Virginia was with- drawn. The conditional agreement by Virginia had yet to be ratifie(d by Pennsylvania, and on September 23rd, that state agreed to the condition attached to Virginia's ratifica- tion and confirmed and ratified the agreement of August 31, 1779. A survey had yet to be made and as Virginia was then being invaded by the British, and her affairs were in some confusion, at the suggestion of Governor Thomas Jefferson, contained in a letter of June 3, 1781, a temporary line was agreed upon between Pennsyl- vania and Virginia to hold good during the continuance of the war. While the temporary line was being fixed on the ground, the surveyors were under the protection of two hundred militia, for fear of trouble from the Virginia ad- herents. They made their report on February 19, 1783. (57) The ratification by Pennsylvania of September 23, 1780, was finally confirmed by Act of the Legislature on April 1, 1784. After the Revolution was over the permanent line was run, the commissioners making their final report on August 23, 1785. (58) The western boundary was still to be run and this was completed on October 4, 1786. (59) REFERENCES: 1. William L. Stone. The Life And Times Of Sir William Johnson Bart, Albany, 1865, Vol. II, 356. Johann David Schoepf. Travels In The Confederation, 1783- 1784, Philadelphia, 1911, Vol. I, p. 247. 2. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. X, 463-464. 3. Colonial Records, Vol, X, pp. 68-69. 4. Ibid, p. 71. 5. Ibid, pp. 74-75. 6. The Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1848, Vol. II, pp. 94-95. 7. The Records Of Deeds For The District Of West Augusta, Vir- ginia, &c.. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Vol. Ill, No. 2, 1905, pp. 285-290. '8. William L. Stone. Supra pp. 338-346. Fort Pitt 43 9. George Bancroft. History Of The United States Of America, Vol. IV, pp. 418-419. 10. Boyd Crumrine. History Of Washington County, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1882, p. 168. 11. The Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1846, Vol. I, p. 432. 12. Boyd Crumrine. Supra, p. 172. 13. Colonial Records, Vol. X, pp. 140-142. 14. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. 4, p. 484. 15. Ibid, pp. 476-477. 16. Neville B. Craig. The History Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 1851, pp. 112-113. 17. Pennsylvania Archives, Supra, p. 484. 18. Pennsylvania Archives, Supra, pp. 628-632. 19. George Bancroft. Supra, p. 419. 20. Pennsylvania Archives, Supra, p. 628. 21. Early History Of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, 1846, pp. 181-185. 22. Boyd Crumrine. The Boundary Controversy Between Pennsyl- vania And Virginia, 1748-1785, Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Vol. I, p. 517. Alexander Scott Withers. Chronicles Of Border Warfare, Cin- cinnati, 1895, p. 181. 23. Boyd Crumrine. Supra, p. 518. 24. Ibid, p. 530. 25. John Esten Cooke. Virginia — A History Of The People, Boston 1885, p. 434. 26. William Henry Smith. The St. Clair Papers, Cincinnati, 1882, Vol. I, p. 362. 27. John J. Jacob. A Biographical Sketch Of The Life Of The Late Captain Michael Cresap, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1866, pp. 51-52, 28. John Esten Cooke. Supra, p. 427. 29. Ibid, p. 435. 30. The Olden Time, Supra, pp. 572-575. 31. Ibid, pp. 575-576. 32. Journal Of Congress, Vol. I, p. 151. 33. Ibid, Vol. II, p. 250. 34. Boyd Crumrine. History Of Washington County, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1882, p. 182. 35. James Veech. Mason And Dixon's Line, Pittsburgh, 1857, pp. 52-53. Alfred Creigh, LL. D. History Of Washington County, p. 15. 36. The Virginia Magazine Of History And Biography, Richmond, Virginia, 1912, Vol. XX, pp. 276-277. 37. Boyd Crumrine. Supra, p. 77. 38. Ibid, pp. 76-77. 39. James Veech. Supra, p. 52. 40. Louise Phelps Kellogg. Frontier Retreat On The Upper Ohio Madison, 1917, p. 22. 41. C. W. Butterfield. Washington-Irvine Correspondence, Madison» Wisconsin, 1882, p. 8. 42. The Virginia Magazine Of History And Biography, Supra, p. 268- Henry A. Muhlenberg. The Life Of Major-General Peter Muhl- enberg, Philadelphia, 1849, p. 73. 43. Thomas Buchannan Read. The Waggoner Of The Alleghanies, Philadelphia, 1868, pp. 89-91. 44 Fort Pitt 44. The Virginia Magazine Of History And Biography, Supra, p. 269 45. Boyd Crumrine. Supra, p. 183. 46. Ibid, p. 156. 47. Journal Of Congress. Vol. I, p. 99. 48. Lewis S. Shimmell. Border Warfare In Pennsylvania, Harris- burg, 1901, pp. 46-47. 49. Boyd Crumrine. Supra, p. 85. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. V, p. 202. 50. Colonial Records, Vol. II, p. 110. Boyd Crumrine. Supra, pp. 77-78. 51. James Veech. In Centennial Memorial Of The Planting And Growth Of Presbyterianism in Western Pennsylvania and Parts Adjacent, Pittsburgh, 1876, p. 333. 52. Boyd Crumrine. The Boundary Controversy Between Pennsyl- vania and Virginia, 1748-1785. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, Vol. I, p. 522. 53. Colonial Records, Vol, XII pp. 210-211. 54. Ibid, pp. 212-214. 55. Ibid, pp. 289-292. 56. Smith Xessee v. Brown. 1 Yeates, p. 514. Boyd Crumrine. History Of Washington County, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, 1882. p. 195. Boyd Crumrine. The Boundary Controversy Between Pennsyl- vania And Virginia. Supra, p, 521, 57. Boyd Crumrine. History Of Washington County, Pennsylvania, pp. 197-199. 58. Ibid, p. 203. 59. Ibid, p. 203. N 13 -u rr- g C o M <: Oi t> M n 1— 1 ^ 03 fi 5 1— ( 3 'T3 J-i OJ =H c4 cu o M < p4 Fort Pitt 45 CHAPTER V. Under the Continental Congress General Hand had been appointed by the Continental Congress to the command of the Western Department, com- posed of the counties of Westmoreland and Washington in Pennsylvania, and Monongalia and Ohio in \^irginia, with headquarters at Fort Pitt (1) because the people v/est of Pittsburgh had become fearful of an Indian uprising. (2) On June 1, 1777, he arrived at Fort Pitt, escorted by a troop of Westmoreland lighthorse militia. (3) The force under his command consisted of a few regulars, the balance being militia, and with these little could be accom- plished against the Indians who were threatening. The boun- dary controversy between Virginia and Pennsylvania was still on, and Hand was early accused of taking sides with Pennsylvania. Then on March 28, 1778, he allowed the Loy- alists, Mathew Elliott, Alexander McKee and Simon Girty, and two others whom he had under surveillance, through too much leniency, to escape from Fort Pitt to the British lines, and on May 2, 1778, he was recalled by resolution of Congress. (4) On May 19, 1778, Washington appointed Brigadier General Lachlan Mcintosh as Hand's successor. (5) On August 6th he assumed command at Fort Pitt. His greatest achievement was the treaty which he concluded with the Delawares at Fort Pitt on September 19, 1778, whereby they bound themselves to the American cause and agreed to join in the contemplated expedition against the Western Indians. Late in October, Mcintosh left Fort Pitt and proceeded to the mouth of Beaver Creek, where many of the regular troops and militia had preceded him, and had begun building a large stockade which was called Fort Mcintosh after the General. The main body of the army consisting of twelve hundred men, more than half of whom were militia from northwestern Virginia, proceeded as far 46 Fort Pitt as the Tuscarawas, where the Delaware Indians met them. Fort Laurens was built; winter came on; dissatisfaction arose between the officers, the campaign proved a failure and on February 20, 1779, at his own request, Mcintosh was recalled by resolution of Congress. (6) Colonel Daniel Brodhead, who had been Mc- intosh's second in command, was appointed to succeed him on March 5, 1779. (7) On April 5th, Mc- intosh surrendered the command to Brodhead. (8) Great plans were in contemplation, but they all ended in a campaign against the Indians on the upper Al- legheny River, which began on August 11th. Rroahead proceeded as far as the present boundary of the state of New York, but the Indians had burned their villages and fled before the approaching army. (9) On April 7, 1781, Brodhead left Fort Pitt on his expedition against the Dela- ware Indians at Coshocton, who had gone over to the Eritifc'h. Completely surprised, the Indians were easily overcome, many being taken prisoners and the remainder dispersed; and their town was destroyed. (10) It was during this time that part of the ground belonging to Fort Pitt began to be encroached upon by settlers and Colonel Brodhead wrote about the matter to the Secretary of War. On June 22, 1779, he also complained to Timothy Pickering, President of Pennsylvania: "The inhabitants of this place are continually encioaching on what I conceive to be the rights of the garrison * * *. They have now the assur- ance to erect their fences within a few yards of the bas- tions * * *. The block houses likewise, which are part of the strength of the place, are occupied by private i ar- sons to the injury of the service.". (11) On November 22, 1779, he again wrote to Pickering, "I hope the Hon. Con- gress has come to a determination what extent of clear ground to allow this garrison. The inhabitants on this side the Alleghany Hills profess a great law knowledge, and it would be exceedingly disagreeable to me to be pestered with their silly courts, and therefore the service will suffer until the pleasure of Congress is known respecting it." (12) At Fort Pitt provisions were obtained with difficulty. The inhabitants of the neighboring country refused to ac- Fort Pitt 47. cept the depreciated Continental currency. At Pittsburgh the troops marched in a body to the commandant's house and protested against their lack of rations. Force was re- sorted to to obtain the needed provisions. Charges were made against Brodhead that he was taking advantage of his position to further his private interests. (13) On May 5, 1781, Washington summoned Brodhead to Philadelphia, and on May 6th, Brodhead turned over the command to Colonel John Gibson and the next day left for that city. (14) On September 24th, Brigadier General William Ir- vine was appointed by Congress to the command of the Western Department. Leaving Philadelphia on October 9th, (15) Irvine prob- ably reached Fort Pitt in the middle or latter part of the month. At Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19th, Com- wallis had surrendered the flovv^er of the British forces in America to the allied American and French armies, and the war was practically over. The news of the great vic- tory reached Fort Pitt shortly after Irvine's arrival and his first important act was on November 6th to issue a proclamation congratulating the troops on the surrender, and ordering thirteen pieces of artillery be fired at one o'clock in the fort, at which time the troops were to be under arms, with their colors displayed. He further di- rected the commissary to issue "a gill of liquor extraord- inary to the non-commissioned officers and privates on this joyful occasion." (16) During the administration of both Mcintosh and Brodhead at Fort Pitt, the works had been sadly neglected and at the close of Brodhead's command the fort was said to be almost in ruins. This policy was immediately changed under Irvine. On December 3, 1781, he wrote to the Board of War : "Any person to look at the place and be told that a number of artificers were employed, I believe they would rather imagine they were pulling down than building up or repairing. Such a complete heap of ruins to retain the name of a post, I believe cannot be found in any other place." (17) And in the summer of 1782, Irvine made extensive repairs. On October 29th he wrote to Washington about them: "A new row of picketing is planted on every part of the parapet where the brick re- 48 Fort Pitt vetment did not extend, and a row of palisading is nearly- finished to the ditch — above all a complete new magazine, the whole arched with stone — some parts of the ramparts and parapets are much broken down, a new main gate and drawbridge are wanted and some small earthworks are necessary to be erected." (18) It was during this time that the British planned an attack on Fort Pitt, and a force of three hundred soldiers and five hundred Indians with twelve pieces of artillery, was sent from Canada for the purpose. They reached Lake Chautauqua and had already embarked in canoes for the further journey when word was received from spies, that the fort had been repaired and much strengthened. In consequence of this information the campaign was aban- doned and the soldiers returned to Canada. Detachments of Indians, together with numerous Tories, were, however, sent out in different directions to harass the settlements on the borders of Pennsylvania. One of these bands, con- sisting of three hundred Indians and sixty Tories, under command of Kiyasuta, the Seneca chief, who had been so conspicuous in the Indian war of 1763, fell upon Hannas- town on July 13, 1782. The county court had just adjourned and those in at- tendance had gone to their homes, and many had resumed their labors in the fields when the foe appeared. The object of the attacking party seemed to be to surprise the inhab- itants and make them prisoners, rather than to attack them, but at the first alarm the settlers had hastened into the blockhouse. Thereupon the Indians and Tories began a vigorous attack on the building. Being unable to reduce the structure they commenced plundering the houses in the village, finally setting them on fire. This accomplished, the force withdrew, carrying with them their booty and the few prisoners they had taken. Large areas, both in New York and Pennsylvania and to the westward of both states, were still owned by the In- dians. The country across the Allegheny and Ohio rivers from Fort Pitt was all Indian territory and was forbidden to white men, and on February 25, 1783, Irvine issued an order regarding the same- (19) "Persons ferrying, either men or women, across the Allegheny River, or who shall Fort Pitt 49 be found crossing into what is generally called the Indian Country, between Kittanning and Fort Mcintosh, without a written permit from the commanding officer at Fort Pitt or orders for that purpose — until further orders, shall be treated and prosecuted for holding or aiding others to cor- respond and give intelligence to the enemy." The Revolution being over, Irvine, on October 1, 1783, left Pittsburgh finally (20) , Captain Marbury assuming the command in his place. Peace was declared by a preliminary treaty between Great Britain and the United States on November 30, 1782, the definitive treaty being signed at Versailles on Sep- tember 3, 1783. Immigration to the West was now re- sumed and soon reached dimensions hitherto unknown. Also travelers came for purposes of pleasure, trade, or to inspect the lands in the Western country, who either made Pittsburgh the end of their journey, or tarried there in order to prepare for a continuation farther west. Among the earli- est of the foreigners to arrive was Dr. Johann David Schoepf , who had been chief surgeon of the Anspach troops, a con- tingent of the German auxiliaries who fought on the British side in the Revolution, (21) accompanied by an Englishman named Hairs. The two men arrived in Pitts- burgh on September 6, 1783, and remained seven days. Speaking of their reception. Dr. Schoepf relates: "Not we, but our vehicle, had the honor of being the first object of their curiosity, for we had come the whole way in a two- wheeled chaise." The place, he said, "numbers at this time perhaps sixty wooden houses and cabins, in which live something more than a hundred families * * *. The first stone house was built this summer. * * * Of public houses of worship or justice, there are none as yet. The state of Pennsylvania, as is customary in this country, sends hither a judge once or twice a year to administer the law * * *. However little to be regarded the place is now, from its advantageous site, it must be that Pittsburgh will in the future become an important depot for inland trade." He expressed his gratitude for the reception ac- corded him by the men to whom he had been opposed in the war just closed. "I should not fail to mention the 50 Fort Pitt courtesies and assistance rendered us by the officers of the garrison, and I must especially acknowledge our obliga- tions to the commander of the fort, General Irvine, and to Colonel Bayard." Another distinguished stranger who came to Pittsburgh shortly after the Revolution, was General Peter Muhlenberg, the former pastor of the German Lutheran Church at Woodstock, whose services in the Rev- olution had enabled him to attain the rank of major gen- eral. He remained for three weeks while on his way to the Falls of Ohio, now Louisville, having been appointed by Virginia one of the Superintendents to locate lands in- tended for the officers and soldiers of the Virginia line in the Continental service- (22) He was accompanied by his friend. Captain Paske', and records that he reached "Fort Pitt" in the afternoon of March 10, 1784. He must have attracted attention even in this frontier settlement as he rode into town, having, as he relates, a "perfect resemblance to Robinson Crusoe." He states that he had "four belts around him, carried two brace of pistols, wore a sword and had a rifle slung over his shoulder, and carried a pouch and a tobacco-pipe, which was not a small one." He con- cludes his description: "Add to this the blackness of my face, which occasioned the inhabitants to take me for a traveling Spaniard." General Muhlenberg spent his time while in Pittsburgh in preparing for the further journey, his leisure being employed in "trying to catch some Ohio fish, which, according to report, are very large ; but hitherto I have been unsuccessful, as the river is too full of ice." When the boat on which General Muhlenberg and the party with which he was now traveling left Pittsburgh, was' passing Logstown, where his grandfather, Conrad Weiser, had held his conference with the Indians in 1748, it ran aground on an island. It was near sunset, and as the boat could not be floated, they were compelled to stay all night. The occupants of the boat became uneasy. On the north side of the river was the Indian Country, and they were fearful of an attack. The Indians, although at peace with the whites, could probably not "withstand the great temp- tation of plundering a boat so richly laden as ours," Muhl- enburg writes. The company was therefore divided into TWO RELICS OF FORT PITT. From Sketches made by Russell Smith in 1832. imm ^■^x^ t^>::-^^^^^^ The Old Redoubt. The Powder Magazine. Fort Pitt x" 51 four watches and placed under his orders. He admits that he felt anxious. "For I must confess that I did not hear the noise of the wild fowl, the screaming loons, the hooting owls, and the howling wolves, which continued around us all night, with total indifference." Early in 1784, Congress appointed three commissioners to meet the Six Nations on the northern and western frontiers, and purchase their western lands. On February 3, 1784, Pennsylvania also appointed commissioners to acquire the Indian lands in Pennsylvania, (23) who were to meet with the United States commissioners. All the commissioners met the Indians at Fort Schuyler (more generally known by its former and subsequent name of Fort Stanwix), beginning on October 3, 1784. The treaty was signed with the United States commissioners on Oc- tober 22nd and with the Pennsylvania commissioners the next day, (24) and all the Indian lands in Pennsylvania, north and west of the Allegheny River, except certain lands at Erie, were ceded to Pennsylvania. One of the United States commissioners was Arthur Lee, of Virginia, who, together with Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane, had been joint commissioners of the United States to the Court of France during the Revolution. Lee kept a journal from Philadelphia to Fort Schuyler, and after the conclusion of the treaty with the Six Nations, continued the journal through Western Pennsylvania while on the way to Cuya- hoga, now Cleveland, where a conference was to be held with the Western Indians- The party came by way of Sun- bury and Carlisle and consisted of the United States com- missioners, George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, and arrived at Fort Pitt on December 2, 1784. (25) On December 5th a conference was held with Colonel Josiah Harmer, who commanded the Pennsylvania troops on the frontier, in the Indian Country on the opposite side of the Allegheny River from Fort Pitt, where he was en- camped, with a force of soldiers intended as an escort for the commissioners on the further journey. Here it was decided that owing to the lateness of the season and the difficulty in securing supplies, the conference should be held at Fort Mcintosh, thirty miles distant, Aft^r a stay 52 Fort Pitt of several weeks at Fort Pitt, the commissioners proceeded to Fort Mcintosh, where the Pennsylvania commissioners met them, and where the conference was finally held and the deeds granting the lands to the United States and to Pennsylvania were signed on January 21, 1785. (26) During his stay in Pittsburgh, Lee wrote down his im- pressions of the place: ''Pittsburgh is inhabited almost entirely by Scots and Irish, who live in paltry log-houses, and are as dirty as in the north of Ireland and Scotland. There is a great deal of small trade carried on, the goods being brought at the vast expense of forty-five shillings per hundred weight from Philadelphia and Baltimore. They take in the shops, money, wheat, flour and skins. There are in the town four attorneys and two doctors." He also expressed the opinion that the place would "never be very considerable." In this respect the subsequent history of Pittsburgh has shown that his judgment was of far less value than that of Dr. Schoepf. Religion also had begun to reassert itself in Pittsburgh in the bosoms of those who, owing to the vicissitudes of their new life, had neglected its outward observance. Wandering clerics came and preached in the fort or in some public house in the town, but house of worship there was none. The strain of the Revolution being over and the stress of adverse material circumstances being lessened, the people began yearning for the spiritual life which they had led in their old homes in the East, and a desire for a church home developed. The majority of the people in Pittsburgh and its vicinity were either Scotch-Irish or German. The former were Presbyterians, while the latter were divided in their church affiliations between the Evan- gelical and Reformed faiths. The Germans were the first to organize a congregation, their church dating from 1782. (27) The Presbyterians claim 1784 as the natal year of their church. When Dr. Schoepf was in Pittsburgh, as he relates, a German preacher was living there who ministered to all the Germans. (28) Arthur Lee, on the other hand, tells that there was not in Pittsburgh "a priest of any persuasion, nor church nor chapel; so they are likely to be damned without the benefit of clergy." (29) Mr. Lee probably did not know that the Presbyterian church was Port Pitt 5S in process of formation, and he may have closed his eyes to the fact that the German church had been in existence for two years, in order that he might elaborate his wit- ticism about being "damned without the benefit of clergy." John Wilkins, who removed from Carlisle to Pitts- burgh in October, 1783, and who subsequently became one of its leading citizens, being an associate justice of the com- mon pleas court of Allegheny County upon its erection, a chief burgess of the borough of Pittsburgh, and county treasurer for many years, has left a graphic, but rather dark account of the social and religious conditions prevail- ing in Pittsburgh at the time he settled there. (30) "When I first came here I found the place filled with old officers and soldiers, followers of the army, mixed with a few families of credit. All sorts of wickedness v/ere carried on to excess, and there was no appearance of mor- ality or regular order. * * * There appeared to be no signs of religion among the people, and it seemed to me that the Presbyterian ministers were afraid to come to the place lest they should be mocked or mistreated," He then relates that he had "often hinted to the cred- itable part of the people that something ought to be done toward establishing a Presbyterian church." The result of his suggestions was the organization of the Presbyterian church and a building was commenced at which he says he worked "with his own hands." The Episcopalians in Pittsburgh comprised only a small proportion of the population, but included some of the most prominent and influential citizens of the village. They were mainly emigrants from Virginia and Maryland, where the Episcopal, or Church of England as it was com- monly called, had been the state church, being disestab- lished during the Revolution. The church as a whole had fallen into disrepute, notwithstanding the fact that more than two-thirds of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence were Episcopalians, the principal reason being that the majority of the clergy had remained Loyalists during the Revolution. But at this time the movement for the reorganization of the church on American lines was well under way. In September, 1785, a convention of dele- gates from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Dela- U Fort Pitt ware, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina had been held in Philadelphia and the Protestant Episcopal Church as a national body organized, and a provisional constitution adopted. On September 14, 1786, the Rev. Dr. William White, the rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia, the friend of Washington, who had been chaplain of the Continental Congress, was elected Bishop of Pennsylvania, and on February 4th of the following year, he and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Provoost, Bishop-elect of New York, were consecrated in London by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishops of Both, Wells and Peterborough. And now the Episcopalians of Pittsburgh were looking forward to the formation of a church of their own, which, however, was not to be accomplished until many years afterward. All the Penns were devout Christians and John Penn, Jr., and John Penn, at this time the proprietarys of the manor and town of Pittsburgh, were not exceptions to their forebears. Regardless of how they were affected by the Revolution in which they were staunch Loyalists, they set aside land in Pittsburgh at the time their plan of the town was laid out, for all the religious denominations to which the residents of Pittsburgh belonged at least nominally, upon which to erect houses of worship. This land they donated to trustees for the use of the congrega- tions which had either been formed or were in process of formation. The first deed given for such purpose was to the German congregation and was dated June 18, 1787. Two other donations were made, both deeds for the same being dated September 24, 1787, the one being to the Presby- terian congregation, whose building had already been erected on the ground so conveyed, and the other being for the use of the Episcopalians; but for almost forty years after this land was conveyed to the Episcopalians it remained bare of a church building, being used solely as a burying ground. And the German church and the Presbyterian church were the pioneers in the reawakening of the religious life of Pittsburgh. The crudeness of the frontier was wearing off and the people yearned for a broader life, one of their desires being for a newspaper of their own. This new con- Fort Pitt 55 dition coming to the ears of two adventurous young printers in Philadelphia, John Scull and Joseph Boyd, they deter- mined to meet it and establish a newspaper. The two men removed to Pittsburgh, bringing a printing outfit with them, and the Pittsburgh Gazette was born on July 29, 1786, and was the first newspaper to be published in the entire Western country, and has had a continuous exist- ence to this day. The community was no longer isolated from the rest of the world. The paper mirrored the hap- penings in the Eastern parts of the United States and in Europe; and the only regret of the modern readers of the files of this old newspaper is the fact that the publishers did not deem it necessary to give publicity to local events. The people of Pittsburgh were now on the highroad to culture. REFERENCES. CHAPTER V. 1. C. W. Butterfield. Washington-Irvine Correspondence, Madison, Wis., 1882, pp. 72-74. 2. Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL. D. Revolution of the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777, Madison, 1908, pp. 255-256. 3. Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL. D. Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio. Madison, 1912, p. 1. 4. Ibid, pp. 249-252, pp. 293-294. 5. Louise Phelps Kellogg. Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, 1778-1779, Madison, 1916, p. 54. 6. Ibid, p. 233. 7. Ibid, p. 238. 8. Ibid, p. 28. 9. Louise Phelps Kellogg. Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, Madison, 1917, p. 15. 10. Ibid, pp. 376-382. 11. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. XII, p. 133. 12. Ibid, p. 190. 13. Louise Phelps Kellogg. Supra, pp. 31-32. 14. Ibid, p. 395. 15. Ibid, p. 73. 16. Ibid, pp. 73-74. 17. Ibid, pp. 159-160. 18. Ibid, pp. 139-140. 19. Ibid, pp. 261-262. 20. Ibid, p. 68. 56 Fort Pitt 21. Johann David Schoepf. Travels in the Confederation, (1783- 1784), Philadelphia, 1911, Vol. I, pp. 241-290. 22. Henry A. Muhlenberg. The Life of Major General Peter Muhlenberg, Philadelphia, 1849, pp. 425-430. 23. Colonial Records, Vol. 14, p. 40. 24. Olden Time, Pittsburgh, 1848, Vol. II, p. 429. 25. Richard Henry Lee. Life of Arthur Lee, LL.D., Boston, 1829, Vol. II, p. 380. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. 10, p, 391. 26. Richard Henry Lee, Supra, p. 385. 27. Carl August Voss. Gedenkschrift Zur Ein Hundert Fuenfund- zwanzig-Jaehrigen Jubel Feier, 1907, p. 13. 28. Johann David Schoepf, Supra, p. 244. 29. Richard Henry Lee, Supra, p. 385. 30. Centennial Volume of the First Presbyterian Church of Pitts- burgh, Pa., 1784-1884, Pittsburgh, 1884, pp. 16-17. Fort Pitt 57 CHAPTER VI. Last Days of Fort Pitt. The days of Fort Pitt's usefulness were over, although it remained a landmark for a number of years longer, and the Penns began to sell lots in the town of Pittsburgh. On November 27, 1779, by enactment of the Pennsylvania As- sembly, all the lands of the Penns in the state, except cer- tain manors, etc., which had been surveyed and returned to the land office prior to July 4, 1776, were forfeited to the Commonwealth, and they were granted as compensation, the sum of 130,000 pounds sterling. The manor of Pittsburgh in which Fort Pitt and the town of Pittsburgh were lo- cated, having been surveyed and returned to the land office in 1769, remained the property of the Penns. Neville B. Craig, in his. Life and Services of Isaac Craig, relates: (1) "The army being disbanded, it at once became necessary for these officers who had no for- tunes to retire upon, to embark in some business to sus- tain themselves, and to prevent the waste of what means they may have accumulated before the war." Accordingly Major Craig and Colonel Stephen Bayard, both of whom until recently, had been officers at Fort Pitt, formed a partnership to carry on the mercantile business, with the design to deal in lands and lots. Their first venture was to purchase from the Penns by agreement dated January 22, 1784, "a certain tract of land lying and being in a point formed by the junction of the rivers Monongahela and Al- legheny, bounded on two sides by said rivers, and on the other two sides by the Fort and the ditch running to the Allegheny; supposed to contain about three acres." This was the first land sold in Pittsburgh. The Penns employed Colonel George Woods, an engi- neer residing in Bedford, to make a survey of the town and lay out a plan of the same, which was completed on May 31st, and which embodied Colonel Campbell's plan of 1765. Thereafter by deed dated December 31, 1784, they con- veyed to Craig and Bayard thirty-two lots in the new plan, which included the land sold to them by agreement. These 58 Fort Pitt thirty-two lots comprised all the lots between the Alle- gheny and Monongahela rivers, and Marbury and West streets, and included all the land occupied by Fort Pitt. While the deed was made to Major Isaac Craig and Colonel Stephen Bayard, they by a deed dated January 4, 1785, acknowledged that the purchase had been made on their own account and for the account of John Holker, William Turnbull and Peter Marmie of Philadelphia, they having entered into partnership with those gentlemen in June, 1784. These five men comprised the firm of Turnbull, Marmie and Company, formed to engage in various enter- prises in Pittsburgh, including dealing in real estate and operating a distillery; (2) and later they also applied for a license to trade with the Indians. (3) At subsequent dates they added to their enterprises a sawmill up the Al- legheny River and a salt works on the Big Beaver. Fort Pitt had been in possession of the Continental Congress since General Hand was placed in charge on June 1, 1777, but for some years the garrison had been dwindling in numbers. In 1784, it consisted of a lieutenant and twenty-five men. (4) It was at this time that Major Craig and Colonel Bayard made a claim to the land on which the fort was located. In a letter of Major Craig dated July 25, 1784, Craig and Bayard made a request to use some of the buildings, their request being refused, both by Captain Marbury and by his successor. Lieutenant Lucket. That Craig and Bayard fully expected to obtain possession of Fort Pitt at this time, is evident from the fact that the materials for the erection of the distillery which they expected to establish, had already been ordered, Craig stating in this letter that on the refusal of the officers at Fort Pitt to allow him to occupy any of the buildings, he had provided a house for their reception when they arrived. (5) In 1785, there were at the fort, only the commander, Lucket, now risen to the rank of captain, and six men, whose duty seemed to be to guard military pris- oners awaiting trial. (6) An incident occurred at this time which created considerable excitement Fort Pitt 59 in Pittsburgh. On May 11, 1785, a Delaware Indian named Mamachtaga, while intoxicated, killed a white man and wounded three others on the north side of the Alle- gheny River opposite Pittsburgh- (7) He was apprehended and taken to Fort Pitt and confined in the dungeon. The feeling of the whites against the Indian was strong. They were particularly incensed against Hugh Henry Bracken- ridge, the leading lawyer of Pittsburgh, who was to appear for the Indian, and against Joseph Nicholas, the interpreter, who had been with Brackenridge in his interview with Mamachtaga. They proposed to hang the interpreter and exact an oath from Brackenridge not to appear at the trial. It was, however, finally decided to go to the garrison and demand the surrender of the Indian. Two attempts were then made by parties of Washington County militia, Wash- ington County then extending to the south side of the Monongahela River opposite Pittsburgh, to take the Indian out of the custody of the military and tomahawk him. In their first effort the militia took possession of the garrison, but were persuaded by Captain Lucket, to retire, which they did, firing their guns as they passed through the town. The next attempt was made two days later when they made a prisoner of Captain Lucket and were marching him off, when, through a hastily organized party of Pittsburgh citi- zens and five or six soldiers, they were overpowered, and the prisoner released, and several of the militia taken into custody. Thereupon Colonel Harmar sent Captain McCurdy with a number of soldiers to reinforce the garrison. Major Michael Huffnagle, a justice of the peace of Westmoreland County, reported the occurrence to John Armstrong, the Secretary of the Council, and closed his communication as follows: "I wish for a special commis- sion to be sent for the trial of the prisoner at this place, and a "blank death warrant." To the honor of the Council, however, it should be remembered that they were not as complaisant as Major Huffnagle imagined they would be, and did not send a blank death war- rant, but waited until the Indian had been tried and found guilty, the trial taking place at Hannastown, when on No- vember 25, 1785, a warrant was directed to be issued, whereupon Mamachtaga was duly hanged. (8) 60 Fort Pitt Now Craig and Bayard instituted legal proceedings by bringing a suit in ejectment against Captain Lucket for the possession of the fort. The commander, however, was not to be intimidated by the service of a Pennsylvania writ, and declared that he would remain at his post until he had received orders from Congress to surrender the possession. (9) That the fort was to be given up by the United States was generally understood in Pittsburgh. The state of Pennsylvania claimed that the effects purchased by Wil- liam Thompson and Alexander Ross from Captain Edmon- stone now belonged to Alexander Ross who had been at- tained of treason during the Revolution, and it made prep- arations to sell them. Major Huffnagle, who in addition to being a justice of the peace, was one of the agents for the sale of confiscated estates in Westmoreland County, (10) on May 6, 1785, wrote to Secretary John Armstrong in re- gard to the proposed sale. He reported that the greater part of the property purchased by Alexander Ross and William Thompson from Captain Edmonstone, had re- mained in the fort and had been made use of, and inquired how to proceed * * *. He also stated that in his opinion it would be necessary to have an order from Congress that possession be given to such person or persons as Council should direct. (11) In accordance with the suggestion of Major Huffnagle, John Dickenson, the President of Pennsylvania, wrote on June 28th to the Pennsylvania delegates in Congress ask- ing them to obtain from Congress directions to the com- manding officer at Fort Pitt, upon its abandonment by Con- gress, to deliver the possession to John Ormsby, Michael Huffnagle, John Proctor, Thomas Galbraith and Robert Galbraith, citizens of Pennsylvania. (12) General Arthur St. Clair, learning of the matter, ad- dressed a letter to President Dickenson, on July 16, 1785, in which he complained of the contemplated sale, and claimed that no part of the buildings left standing on the evacuation of Fort Pitt by the British belonged to Ross- Part of them, he said, belonged to him and part to other persons. (3) In compliance with this request the Council on July 11th, ordered the sale to be postponed until further Fort Pitt 61 order of Council. (14) Turnbull, Marmie and Company, in addition to the ejectment brought by Craig and Bayard for the land on which Fort Pitt was erected, had also presented a memorial to Congress setting forth their claims and asking that they be given possession. (15) To the letter of Presi- dent Dickenson, Charles Pettit, a Pennsylvania delegate to Congress, (16) replied in a communication dated August 12, 1785. He stated that he believed the garrison would shortly be removed, and said, "as it is understood that pos- session of the fort was taken on behalf of the United States without any treaty or contract, it seems to be the intention of Congress to relinquish it in the same manner." He added, "I have therefore advised Turnbull, Marmie and Company to make their application to your Excellency and the Council on the subject." On August 15, 1785, Presi- dent Dickenson addressed a letter to the commissioners appointed to take possession of Fort Pitt upon its relin- quishment by Congress, in which he stated, that as it was probable that the United States would soon relinquish the possession of Fort Pitt, which he called "Pittsburgh," he thought it proper to direct, that upon such relinquishment, they should take possession in the name and behalf of this Commonwealth, and that the possession taken should be without prejudice to private property rights. (17) It was some time after August 15th that Turnbull, Marmie and Company received possession of a portion of Fort Pitt, a small garrison being maintained there for some years longer. In 1786, the garrison consisted of twelve men. Doctor Hildreth, of Marietta, Ohio, who passed through Pittsburgh as late as April, 1788, related that there was still "a small garrison of troops at Fort Pitt." Major Ebenezer Denny, writing on July 10, 1791, stated that he found two battalions of levies at Fort Pitt. (18) Colonel John May of Boston, a former Revolutionary officer, was in Pittsburgh from May 7th to May 24th, 1788. (19) He stopped at the tavern of Marcus Hulings on the south side of the Monongahela River, in Washington County, opposite the foot of Liberty Street, and directly across the river from Fort Pitt, because, as he complains, the same lodgings would have cost him in Pittsburgh seven 62 Fort Pitt times as much as Hulings charged, and added, "Such is the odds between the counties of Westmoreland and Washing- ton. "Pittsburgh is in plain sight," he continued, "at half a mile distance. It is an irregular, poorly built place. The number of houses, mostly built of logs, about one hundred and fifty. The inhabitants (perhaps because they lead too easy a life) incline to be extravagant and lazy. They are subject, however, to frequent alarms from the savages of the wilderness. The situation is agreeable and the soil good." He tells that Hulings informed him that more than two hundred and fifty boats of twenty to thirty tons filled with people, live stock and furniture had passed the place since early spring, going down the river, the destination being to the settlements farther south and west- He records that General Harmar called on him, crossing the river in a barge called the Congress, rowed by twelve men in white uniforms and caps, and took him to the north side of the Allegheny River where they visited some Indian graves at the head of which tall poles were fixed daubed with red. Later General Harmar also took him up the Monongahela River where they visited Braddock's field. Of this he said, "The bones of the slain are plenty on the ground at this day. I picked up many of them which did not seem much decayed." The constantly rising tide of immigration into Western Pennsylvania required more subdivisions of territory. Westmoreland County had been reduced on March 28, 1781, by the creation of Washington County, and was further re- duced by the erection of Fayette County on September 26, 1783, but was still inordinately large, and on September 24, 1788, Allegheny County was formed out of Westmore- land and Washington counties, and the county seat located at Pittsburgh; and the village assumed a new importance. In 1790, John Pope undertook a journey from Rich- mond to Kentucky and the region farther south, stopping on the way at Pittsburgh. In October he had crossed the Alleghany Mountains. He relates: "I passed through the shadow of Death — saw George Washington's intrenchments at the Meadows, and undismayed rode over Braddock's Q O :^ ^ «2 5- , p-t M 03 o a w O ►-S ^ % ^ o Fort Pitt 73 fort to have been the parapet, which was about fifteen feet above the ground. This fact will not change the contention that the Redoubt was on the bastion, the bastion being merely an extension of the parapet. The contour of the ground at the Point has been much changed since Fort Pitt was erected. At that time the ground was low, and was subject to overflow from the Allegheny River. John McKinney in his description of Fort Duquesne, where he was a prisoner in February, 1756, said, "the waters some- times rise so high that the whole fort is surrounded with it, so that canoes can go around it." (12) In many places the distance from Penn Street to the ground subject to overflow did not exceed one hundred and fifty feet and nowhere two hundred and fifty feet. (13) As late as 1807, Zadok Cramer, writing about the former location of Fort Pitt, stated that on part of the ground there stood a large brewery and two dwellings, and added, "the situ- ation is too low for general building." (14) The brewery referred to was the Point Brewery, then conducted by Colonel O'Hara. The writer in Watson's Annals speaking of this brewery, (15) said, "a part of the brew-house premises fills the place which was a bastion. At a little distance from it there is still a small brick five-sided edifice called the Guard- House, erected by the British after the capture from the French." This was the Redoubt. There is in existence an old plan of Pittsburgh made in 1805, by William Masson (15a) and owned by Mr. Joseph B. Shea of this city, on which the names of the owners of the property are given, (mainly those of the grantees of the Penns) and on which pictures of a few of the more prominent buildings ap- pear. Twenty or thirty feet north of Penn Street and about seven hundred feet west of Marbury Street, there is shown the brewery, a large, two'story structure surmounted by a belfry. It was the north bastion that was located north of this part of Penn Street, and it was the easterly end of the brewery which stood on the site of the bastion, if the writer in Watson's Annals was correct in his statement. Brewery Alley was laid out easterly of the rear line of the brewery and led to it. It was a narrow alley nine feet in width running parallel with Penn Street and about ninety-eight 74 Fort Pitt feet north of it. Eight feet north of the location of this alley is the Redoubt. The depth of the lots in Wood's plan which ran to the Allegheny River, is given as four hundred and ten feet. Therefore from one hundred and sixty to two hundred and sixty feet must have been the lowlands which overflowed. Since that day there have been great changes in the contour of the ground, it having been raised from eight to seventeen feet. A number of excavations have been made and tim- bers of the old fort uncovered, buried from twelve to fifteen feet underground. The width of the ground between Penn Street and the Allegheny River has not only been widened to four hundred and ten feet, but the Penn Street lots have been increased to a depth of four hundred and twenty feet. In 1836, two acts of the Assembly were passed authorizing the councils of the City of Pittsburgh to lay out Duquesne Way at not less than four hundred and twenty feet north of Penn Street and to establish a grade for the same and to fill up the ground. In pursuance of this authority, in 1839, councils laid out Duquesne Way and it was entirely outside of Wood's plan and ten feet beyond Wood's line; and the land at the Point now extends several hundred feet beyond even Duquesne Way. The north bastion was no doubt built on the ground subject to overflow and was fifteen feet or more above the then level of the ground. If the level of the ground at this place has been raised only ten or twelve feet, what is more reasonable than that the Redoubt, the foundation of which is something over five feet above the present level of the ground, might have been part of the north bastion of the fort ? That the north bastion was the most important part of the fort was apparent to military eyes, there can be no doubt. It was the nearest point to the Allegheny River. Across that stream all was Indian country, and from there the attack would occur if at all. This was made plain by General Irvine while commanding here. In December, 1781, when there was talk of abandoning Fort Pitt and building a new fort at the mouth of Chartiers Creek, he wrote that in such case all of the fort but the north bastion should be destroyed, and on this there should be placed a strong blockhouse. (16) The belief that there were Re- Fort Pitt 75 doubts on the bastions is strengthened, when it is borne in mind that the word Redoubt and Block House, then as now, were used interchangeably, and that Neville B. Craig says there were two or three block houses on the bastions, (17) which undoubtedly meant that they were what we know as redoubts. Nor is it certain that the building was erected in 1764. It is more likely that it was built with the fort and that the tablet with the date was placed in the structure to commemorate the fact that it was occupied by Colonel Bouquet in 1764. There are extant two views of early Pittsburgh, the first being that made by Lewis Brantz, the young German, who was in Pittsburgh in 1785, as has already been re- lated, and who was there a second time in 1790, the pic- ture bearing that date. This shows that the ground about Fort Pitt was quite low. The fort is seen, and surmounting the easterly side are two small stack-like projections, which are undoubtedly redoubts, one being on what was apparently intended to represent the north bastion and the other standing on what seems to be the east bastion. Brantz Mayer, the biographer of Lewis Brantz, tells of the remarkable accuracy which the artist displayed in this picture. "Every house at the fort is minutely delineated * * * and forty-five years afterward I saw him point out every place of historical interest in a landscape which art and trade has so transformed." (18) The other view of Pittsburgh is the one appearing in the book of General Henri Victor Collot, a French army officer, who was in Pittsburgh in 1796, having been sent out by the French government at the request of M. Adet, the French Minister to the United States, for the purpose of obtaining minute details of the political, commercial and military state of the western part of the continent. (19) In this picture also a structure is seen which appears to be the fort and here there are redoubt-like buildings rising above the main structure. The fort of course, had been abandond at this time, but Collot said "one still sees the remains of it. It is a regular pentagon of which today the parapets have fallen into the moat, and it is neither surrounded nor covered, either by stone or by palisades, and it is open on all sides." 76 Fort Pitt II. In Later Days. The Redoubt was acquired by new owners, going early into the hands of Colonel O'Hara. It was rented to tenants, became surrounded by manufacturing establishments, and the character of the tenants changed from year to year and the building deteriorated. W. G. Lyford has left an extended account of the Redoubt as he saw it in 1837- (20) "A part of this fort, however, so far as houses constitute a part, must yet be remaining; or a block house and officers' quarters must have been erected on or near the same spot, soon after the period last mentioned; for such buildings exist — they are of brick and two stories high ; the former low pitched, adjoin each other, and carry in their appearance everything of a military feature. The heavy timbers, in which the loop-holes are mortised, are on the side next the city, about half the height of the building, and probably serve at this time to support the floor of the second story. "I asked permission of the occupant, a pleasant looking German, whose name is John Martin, to enter his citadel, which he readily granted, and found the lower room taste- fully finished and furnished; but he could give me no further information, than that he had a lease on it at $40 a year. I suggested to him the advantage he might derive, by opening the room (which is about 20 feet square), dur- ing the season of travel, for the accommodation of strangers, and have in preparation some light cakes, lem- onade, ices, fruits, etc., for that numbers would be pleased to visit the military relic, if they could do so under circum- stances other than intrusive, and while he obliged such, he would profit liberally by the pleasant speculation. His wife just at this moment entered the room, laughing, from an adjoining shed, and wiping her arms (for she appeared to have been washing) said, 'Dare Jon, didn't I tell de so, of den? hear vat de man sa.' John laughed likewise, and. replied, *ah, Fms doo old now; and pesides, yoo nose I cot vork petter dan dat.' The Old Redoubt in 1843. From Day's "Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania." The Old Redoubt in 1893. Fort Pitt 77 "These buildings are located in the midst of lumber yards and workshops, very near the point at which the two rivers unite; but as it is difficult finding them, from the nature of the materials with which they are sur- rounded, some of which appear as ancient as the edifices themselves, it is probable that few other of the inhabitants are acquainted with their existence than those whose vo- cations call them into that section. It is a subject which at present does not interest business men." William Ferguson, an English traveler, visited the Re- doubt in 1856, and said it v^^as "a small brick house with arched windows and doorways, now inhabited by the 'lowest class.' " (21) Only at rare intervals during these later years while the Redoubt was used as a dwelling, was it occupied by families of the character of those living there in its early days. Among these were the parents of Professor Michael J. McMahon, the Pittsburgh educator, who was for many years Principal of the First Ward Public School. The family resided in the Redoubt during the last years of the decade beginning in 1850, and in the decade beginning in 1860, and it was during this time that Pro- fessor McMahon was born there. What is now called the Old City Hall, situated on Smithfield Street, was dedicated on May 23, 1872. During the course of its construction, the stone tablet was removed from the Redoubt and placed in the rear wall of the build- ing, opposite the main entrance on Smithfield Street, at the top of the first flight of stairs, and immediately beneath the window containing a representation of the seal of the city. After the Redoubt became the property of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the stone was taken from the City Hall and replaced in its old location on the Redoubt. The writer recalls visiting the building in his boyhood when it was occupied by an Irish family, who besides living there had adopted, very likely unconsciously, Mr. Lyford's suggestion, and in addition to showing the place to visitors, were selling candy, lemonade, cigars, etc. The Redoubt was also occasionally used for less legitimate purposes, an instance occurring after the passage by the Legislature of the Brooks High License Law in 1887, when the building 78 Fort Pitt was used as a "speakeasy," as drinking houses were called where liquor was sold illegally. Brewery Alley had been abandoned for more than half a century, and as the Redoubt was in an obscure location, it was difficult of approach. It could be reached either from First Street, vacated by the city when the Pennsyl- vania Railroad took possession of the block in which the Redoubt is located, or by way of Point Alley, also vacated at the same time. It was surrounded by poorly constructed, shabby brick and frame houses, with a frame stable or two close by. Hemming it in on all sides were manufac- turing establishments, forges, foundries, boiler works, planing mills, lumber yards and machine shops. The settlement about the Redoubt was unique in Pitts- burgh. The owner of the land lived in England, and leased it in small lots for long terms of years to persons who built their own dwellings, or released the ground for manu- facturing purposes. It was the most densely populated district in the city, and according to Rev. Dr. A. A. Lambing, who had an intimate knowledge of conditions in that lo- cality, being pastor of the Roman Catholic "Church of Our Lady of Consolation," (22) located on the east side of First Street only a short distance from the Redoubt, who, writing in 1880, said: "It would not be exaggeration to say that it would not be difficult to find at least a hundred families who each occupied a single room, and that perhaps not. more than twelve by fourteen feet." The Redoubt was as crowded with tenants as the other houses. The people were with very few exceptions, Irish Catholics from County Galway, who had settled there about twenty-five* years earlier, and Gaelic was the language generally spoken, even by children born there. The people were poor and earned their daily bread and little more. From 1868 on, they had a church and a school of their own, the "Church of Our Lady of Consolation," located in a remodeled dwelling on First Street. And in the church a priest preached sermons in Gaelic, and the district had another attraction in addi- tion to the Redoubt. (23) All this had vanished; the shabby settlement has dis- appeared. The Irish are there no longer. The oldest among them are long since dead, and their children and grand- Fort Pitt 79 children have scattered over the city and to more distant points. The houses, the stables, the manufacturing estab- lishments have gone, the very contour of the ground has changed and now along Duquesne Way one sees a huge brick warehouse extending along the entire length of the block; a long low freight house runs parallel with it, and leading to the buildings are railroad tracks, some low on the ground, others elevated high in the air. Nestling among these marvels of modern industrial life, sole re- minder of the life that was, there still remains the OLD REDOUBT. REFERENCES AND NOTE. CHAPTER VII. 1. John F. Watson. Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1857, Vol. II, p. 131. 2. Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. X, pp. 463-464. 3. C. W. Butterfield. Washington-Irvine Correspondence, Madi- son, Wis., pp. 170-172. 4. Louise Phelps Kellogg. Frontier Advance on the Zipper Ohio, Madison, 1916, p. 175. 5. Neville B. Craig. In The American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1844, Vol. I, p. 239. 6. Major Samuel S. Forman. Narrative of a Journey Down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1789-90, Cincinnati, 1888, pp. 19-25. 7. Neville B. Craig. The History of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 1851, p. 92. Neville B. Craig. In The American Pioneer, Supra. Harris's General Business Directory, Pittsburgh, 1841, p. 5. 8. Historical Account of Bouquet's Expedition, Cincinnati, 1868, p. 33. 9. Ibid, p. 81. 10. Isaac Craig. In The American Pioneer, Supra, p. 237. 11. George H. Thurston. Allegheny County's Hu7idred Years, Pitts- burgh, 1888, p. 15. 12. Olden Time. Pittsburgh, 1846, Vol. I, p. 40. 13. James Ross. Colonel George Wood's Plan of Pittsburgh, P. B. Recorder's Office of Allegheny County. 14. The Navigator, Pittsburgh, 1808, p. 33. 15. John F. Watson, Supra. 15a. Note. — William Masson, who prepared this plan, was appar- ently the sailmaker who in the early part of the Nineteenth Century resided on Water Street, between Smithfield Street and Cherry Alley. The Pittsburgh Directories for both 1815 and 1819 have him as residing at this place, and according to a deed filed in the Recorder's Office of Allegheny County he had purchased the property in 1813. The belief that he was the author of the plan is strengthened by the fact that the plan contains pictures of eleven sailing ships of various classes, all of which are labeled as having been built at Pittsburgh or in the vicinity, and about which hardly anyone could have had knowl- edge, unless he was intimately connected with shipbuilding. 80 Fort Pitt 16. C. W. Butterfield. Supra, p. 78. 17. Neville B. Craig. The History of Pittsburgh, Supra, p. 187. 18. Henry R. Schoolcraft, LL. D. Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Philadelphia, 1853, Part III, p. 336. 19. Georges Henri Victor Collot. Voyage Dans L'Amerique Sep- tenroale ou Description, Etc., Paris, 1826, Vol. I, p. 61. 20. W. G. Lyford. InThe Western Address Directory for 1837, Baltimore, 1837, pp. 45-47. 21. William Ferguson, LL.D. America, by River and Rail, London, MDCCCLVI, pp. 246-247. 22. Rev. A. A. Lambing. A History of the Catholic Church in the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, New York, 1880, pp. 137- 138. 23. Rev A. A. Lambing. Mary's First Shrine in the Wilderness, Pittsburgh, 1888, pp. 13-14. f^'C^W: ^0^ :i ^^ .^ Av ... 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