Notes:Negley Avenue

To do

• Source:Street-names says: "Negley avenue—for the family of Jacob Negley who once owned most of what is now East Liberty. The name, originally spelled Nageli, means a little nail and is the name of a pink blossom which grows on Swiss hillsides." Source:Carlin says essentially the same thing. Source:Delaney says, "Remembering Jacob Negley, who once owned much of what is now East Liberty."
• "For rent," Pittsburgh Daily Gazette, Dec. 21, 1837, p. 1: "For rent. The building known as Negly's mill, in East Liberty, about four miles from the city, on the Philadelphia turnpike, will be leased on a term of years—possession given immediately. It is well calculated [?] for a woolen or other factory, coal being in abundance in the neighborhood, &c. Also—for sale. The Engine, Mill Stones, &c., now in the establishment. Enquire of C. & O. O. Evans, Pittsburgh Steam Mill. March 17, 1837—d&wtf"
  • See also Collins Street.
• Source:Chatham-college@13–14: "In very early times what is now called East Liberty was a free public grazing ground. There was a time in the late eighteenth century when it was known as Negleytown, due to the prominence of the Negley family, which traces its descent not only from Alexander Negley, said to be the first white settler in the valley now known as East Liberty, but further back from the Swiss reformer, John Nageli, of the sixteenth century, a co-worker of Ulrich Zwingli. Concerning Alexander Negley, his descendant, the late Georgina G. Negley, a graduate of the college [Chatham] in the class of '83, has written, 'It is not surprising that he and his family contributed their services not alone to the building up of the commercial, financial, and industrial life of Pittsburgh, but that they made definite efforts to minister to the spiritual and educational needs of the growing community.' In the homes of Alexander Negley and of his son Jacob the first religious services of the community were held. Jacob Negley and his wife, nee Barbara Ann Winebiddle, both extensive landowners in the valley, gave land for the building of 'a comfortable schoolhouse of reasonable dimension,' ca. 1809, and ten years later gave jointly one and one-half acres of ground 'for the use and behoof of the East Liberty Congregation for a Meeting House, and for no other purpose whatever.' One of the first institutions established on the ground given by the Negleys was the East Liberty Academy, which until after the Civil War provided the young people of the community with a classical education. Miss Negley states that the close of this academy was soon followed by the establishment of Pennsylvania Female College."
• Negley family: Source:Ency-pa-biog-5, pp. 1631–1640; Source:Pittsburg-and-her-people-3, pp. 104–118; Source:Miller-chronicles, pp. 92–96; Source:Frey, pp. 142–144
• Source:Frey, pp. 143–144: "A son [of Alexander Negley], Jacob, married Barbara Anna Winebiddle, and was criticized for his permission to widen the Pittsburgh–Greensburg turnpike where it crossed his land. Jacob Negley was a civil engineer and recognized the value of the road, laying out Negley Avenue in a direct line from his house to the turnpike. He then planned a town at what is now the junction of Penn and Frankstown Avenue and named [p. 144] it East Liberty."