Source:Fleming-aged-man-boyhood
George T. Fleming. "Aged man tells tales of his boyhood: Octogenarian's recollections picture Minersville as stirring suburb: Events 70 years ago." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Dec. 12, 1915, sec. 5, p. 2. Newspapers.com 85896674.
TODAY'S story may be considered as a continuation of the story of Center avenue in The Gazette Times of October 31, last. It is a Minersville story in the main, but the name now exists only in memory and in the designation of the old Thirteenth Ward school at Center avenue and Morgan street.
Yet 70 years ago, Minersville was a "hive of industry."
Old Minersville was a mere hamlet, a veritable "stringtown on the pike," the pike the Seventh street road or the route from Seventh street (now avenue) via Washington, Wylie and Fulton streets and Center avenue to East Liberty, following the present Center avenue.
The village of Minersville consisted of a lower and an upper "town." The lower town lay along the pike, mainly around the present school building at Morgan street. The upper town was along the township road which branched off the pike in front of Jacob Ewart's mansion, still standing and remodeled into the Montefiore Hospital.
This township road is now and has been for many years Herron avenue, the winding road down the hill being now included in the avenue. This road was formerly Thirty-third street.
District Is Extended.
Gradually Minersville was extended—the name rather—to include all the district between the Red Pond and Herron Hill between, the tops of the hill overlooking Oakland and that above the Pennsylvania Railroad. There was no railroad, however, until about 1854.
When the East End section was taken into the city in 1868, all that was left of Pitt township, except that north of the Pennsylvania Railroad, was erected into the Thirteenth Ward and then the ward name supplanted the old village name.
When one wants information of any locality the proper procedure is to hunt up the "oldest inhabitant" and interview him. The "oldest inhabitant" continues by succession, and he is never a negligible quality. Moreover, he is always interesting.
Jab [sic] Inder, now residing at 757 Clarissa street, Herron Hill, has just claims to be the oldest inhabitant of Minersville. But he was not continuously a dweller there, for Mr. Inder is about the last of the Argonauts who left Pittsburgh for California in the exciting days that followed Marshall's discovery of gold.
In 1852, Mr. Inder having attained legal age, left the parental home in Minersville and trudged across the plains, remaining in California, mainly in Nevada and Placer counties, until 1875, when he returned to Pittsburgh to his father's house. Mr. Inder has since remained here.
Family Comes to City.
His acquaintance with old Minersville began in 1841 when his parents emigrated from Somersetshire, England, and located in Pitt township, Allegheny county. Here the father, Robert Inder, and his good wife passed their remaining days in the little frame house on Center avenue, just below Herron avenue, the second house shown in the picture looking towards the school house or into the city. Robert Inder died in 1882.
When Job Inder came to Minersville he was a boy about 11 years old. He is somewhat deaf, but otherwise in good health, and likes to tell of the palmy days of his youth and the beautiful section where he grew to manhood.
The late Samuel Ewart was a boy with him and the two may be said to have been lifelong friends.
Robert Inder on coming to Minersville worked for Jacob Ewart, who was a farmer, market gardener and orchardist, owner of coal mines and a manufacturer of coke. Indeed, Jacob Ewart is said to have been the first man to manufacture coke in Pittsburgh. Ewart's ovens, five in number, were on the pike just above the fork at Herron avenue about where the residence of Mrs. George Ewart now stands. Thomas Cokain had five ovens down at the Red Pond.
Job Inder worked for Jacob Ewart also and drove his market wagon to the city to Scotch Hill market and the old Diamond market. When he became older he drove the team on one of the 100-bushel coal wagons drawn by four horses.
These wagons disappeared from Pittsburgh about 1870. When one of them put in your winter's coal in a few loads it required all hands to get busy and keep busy getting the coal into the cellar.
Real Rural Community.
"Minersville in my boyhood," said Mr. Inder, "was a truly rural community. Those of us who wanted to go into the city walked and came back on one of the market wagons or big coal wagons if lucky enough to catch one. Sometimes on the way home on foot one would be overtaken or perhaps a teamster might be at Rea's Tavern in Fulton street, opposite Hazel street." He continued:
We had no stores in the village for many years after I came. The nearest store was at Seventh and Grant streets. We had a tavern, though, on the pike just opposite the present Episcopal Church at Watt street. It was more of a doggery than a tavern.
Of those old-timers whom I found living in Minersville on my arrival in 1841 I can enumerate the three Herron brothers, John, William and Davidson; Isaiah Dickey, William M. Gormley, John Rutherford and George Wandless—come to think of it, his son, William Wandless, who was a boy with me, is an older resident than I am.
Then there was "Bill" Wiley, the tax collector. I've got a receipt from him showing my father paid 89 cents to the country in 1847, distributed as follows: Road, 37; poor, 15; school, 22; county, 15. Mr. Wiley signs the receipt as treasurer and collector. He was of the family that gave the name to Wylie avenue, though changing the spelling.
Oh, yes, I knew Gen. John A. Wiley. He was just a little boy, though, when I left for California. He was William Wiley's son.
I have another old document here. In 1853 after my departure my father was assessor of Pitt township and acted as such for many years. The return he made for 1843 [sic] has been preserved. Here it is.
Well-Known Names on List.
You know Pitt township then extended from the Monongahela to the Allegheny, including the Ruch and Gazzam Hills, and the Oakland and Bellefield districts to Craig street. You can pick out the Minersville people on the list as well as I can tell you.
The list is nicely written and in good preservation. It is headed:
"An alphabetical list of the names and the surnames of all the white male taxable persons resident within the township of Pitt by the assessor for the year 1853."
Familiar names on this list in the Minersville district are:
John Arthurs, gent; Robert Arthurs, Farrelly Alden, Willis Boothe, Alex Brackenridge, John Bridgins, Joseph Crawford, James, Joseph and Thomas Cokain, Henry P. Cain, Isaiah Dickey, Peter Duff, Jacob Ewart, George Ewart, George Evans, Frank H. Eaton, Thomas Farrow, K. T. Friend, William C. Friend, William A. Gildenfenny, John, William and Davidson Herron, the elders, and Samuel D., John D., John F., William A. and Stephen W. of the second generation; James Hunter, Stewart Haney, E. P. Jones, attorney; Matthew Lawton, David Lupton, John D. Mahon, attorney; Edward McCallum, James McAleese, Judge William Porter, Capt. Robert Porter, Frank Porter, his brother, marked "age;" Robert and James Patterson, the latter well known as the Thirteenth Ward squire in the late '80s; Yost Ruch, Samuel Roberts, the Rev. Samuel Sparks, Michael Woolslair, Jacob and William Wiley, J. D. Williams, William Wandless, generally pronounced as though spelled "Windless," and Thomas Young.
In the Oakland section of the township most of the names we have been reading of lately occur:
James Tustin, William Britton, Ralph Reed, Alexander Miller, J. P. and Edward D. Gazzam.
Other Oakland names are:
William Eichbaum, James S. Craft, Attorney George Fawcett, Asa P. Childs, Joseph Coltart, Henry Dauler, John Gray and Robert Small.
Gazzam and Craft are remembered in street names, and Eichbaum and Coltart by their family mansions still standing on Fifth avenue. Craft is also remembered in the name Crafton, Dauler and Gray in business relations and "Bob" Small was an ax maker at Lippincott's works in the "Lane."
But this is getting away from Minersville.
"Schools, you ask about," continued Mr. Inder. "The first school I attended after coming here was on Herron avenue, then a country road." He continued:
It was a pay school taught by Miss Mary Ann Whitcraft, who resided in one of Jacob Ewart's houses long since torn down. Any of my schoolmates living? One, an old lady nearby. I guess I hadn't better mention her and make her an octogenarian like myself.
There was a pay school for girls down the pike at Dickey's lane, now Francis street, but I forget who taught it. Robert Jenkins built the stone house still standing next to the Episcopal Church which Matthew Lawton bought and moved into about the time I left for California. The family occupied it for many years. It was the home in late years of Marsh Gardner, who married Miss Martha Lawton. She died recently.
The tavern was across the street from the Jenkins home. In this vicinity resided the Bowen, Davies and Griffith families, the men diggers. There was a big Welsh contingent among the miners—and some English.
Among the miners I remember—"diggers" we called them then—were William Huey, John Jenkins, the Whitcrafts, the Williamses, the Haneys, James McLeese and James Hunter, who lost an arm in the pit and was for many years a road commissioner when Minersville was taken into the city.
Early Coal Workers.
Then there were the Oskins boys, who moved to Braddock afterward; the Metcalfes, James Patterson, father of the late Capt. "Tom" Patterson, a former well-known river pilot; Squire "Jim" Patterson, and the Altons, George, Samuel and James.
There were a number of pits about the village, besides Ewart's. The Herron boys' pits and John Rutherford, and George Petty.
Naturally with so much teaming there were blacksmiths and wagonmakers. "Tom" Farrow was a smith and owned the hillside opposite the Red Pond, his land lying below Willis Boothe's property.
The Rev. Mr. Sparks preached for the Minersville Presbyterian Church for many years. This old home is still standing in Milwaukee street opposite Alelaide [sic] street. The church, a neat little frame edifice, stood where the present Minersville Presbyterian Church is.
Henry P. Cain and William Herron were the first elders here. Their wives were sisters, and Mrs. Davidson Herron was a sister of Mrs. Cain and Mrs. William Herron.
Henry P. Cain was a shoe merchant in Pittsburgh. He had several sons. Col. John H. Cain was the eldest. They are all dead.
H. P. Cain, I have heard, taught the first Sunday school gathered in Minersville about 1832. It was in a dwelling on the pike at Dickey's lane. Mr. Cain's old home was next to Mr. Sparks' church.
There was a Methodist Church when I was a boy, a small frame, opposite Ewart's pits above Herron avenue. Among those who preached there in my boyhood were the Rev. Jerry Knox, for whom Knoxville was named, noted later as a horticulturist, and the Revs. Kramer, Foster, M. L. Weakley and A. J. Rich. The latter died a few years ago, over 90 year of age. Preacher Weakley was also over 90 when he died.
One Church Burns.
This Methodist Church in Minersville burned during the war. I don't know just when, not being there at the time.
I often took care of Preacher Rich's horse when he came to hold services. Minersville was a station on a circuit and these preachers were old-time circuit riders.
Politics! You bet, plenty. One of the hottest fights was when "Billy" Magill, the Whig candidate, beat Charley Kent, "the butcher boy," for sheriff. Charley was a Democrat and was defeated by a few votes in 1852.
Charley Kent was a butcher, who lived on the Fourth Street Road near the Relief Engine House. He was so chagrined over his defeat that he went to California and located in Nevada county where he ran for sheriff and was defeated. He was an uncle of Addison C. Gumbert, county commissioner elect.
Mr. Kent was drowned, having fallen off a ferry boat in San Francisco bay.
William Magill was a local preacher. When I knew him, he lived on the 'Squire Arthurs place, opposite Isaiah Dickey's mansion. The Arthurs farm was later occupied by Robert Arthurs.
When I came back in 1875, Minersville was quite city-like with horse cars and street lamps, etc. I missed the big bank barns of my boyhood. Jacob Ewart had one on his place, and 'Squire Arthurs one that faced what is now Morgan street, above Center avenue; Davidson Herron had one on his place on what is now Webster avenue which was torn down not so many years ago.
Coal Mines Operated.
Jacob Ewarts' [sic] mines were operated a short time after I came back by Mrs. Rachel Arthurs, a daughters [sic], who was the widow of George Arthurs. She built the brick mansion that stands above the hospital.
In the division of the Ewart estate Mrs. Sarah Blackmore, the other daughter, widow of Mayor James Blackmore, got the old mansion, now the hospital. I tell you things now are mightly [sic] little like the Minersville of 1841.
There were two entries to the Ewart pits, one at right angles to the road to East Liberty on the "pike," and the other paralell [sic] to the road, the loading platforms also paralell [sic] to the road—the latter opening was the Alder.
These pits were worked for two score years and furnished the Hill district with about as good a quality of coal as was ever mined. The loading platform was close to the road.
Old-time Hill people will remember the men who last hauled from these mines, Joseph Chestnut, Philip Daly, Thomas Young and the redoubtable "Dan" Crawford.
The pits were worked out about 1875, perhaps previously. George Alton took out the pillars.
The part of Center avenue above the pits was a seldom traveled road compared with the road into town. The cut at the top of the hill at Aliquippa street was known as the "Deep Cut."
When one got to the brow of the hill a charming vista spread away in the distance. The whole East Liberty valley lay before you and close by the Schenley estates, well-kept farm buildings and well-tilled fields that passed away within the last decade.
Fields and orchards, mansions here and there among the trees, cattle in pasture, oats and wheat in harvest time in shock, spacious groves and shrubbery, cornfields and meadows and the far-off woodland scenery of the present Squirrel Hill section—all combined to make a charming view and reveal a fascinating sylvan beauty.
Early Street Railroad.
Anon off on the Fourth street road or outer Fifth avenue there could be seen the horse cars of the Pittsburgh, Oakland and East Liberty street car line, jogging along on their hourly trips, making schedule time—about seven miles an hour.
Below the "Deep Cut" on the left there was not a house until you came to the bridge over the Pennsylvania Railroad at the Shadyside Station, generally known as "Joe Hastings' Bridge," from the contractor who built it. On the other side of the road a few mansions were to be seen nestling amid the trees.
In winter the view was not the less beautiful when deep snows covered the ground. All the development about this "Deep Cut" section is decidedly modern—mostly within the past two decades.
Mr. Inder was asked if he had not known the Herron families well.
"Yes," he said, "intimately, and if I go telling about them you will need an extra page to put it on. Better see me again."
Schools have a sentiment of their own in a community, scarcely less than the churches. Minersville first had a public school in the old Presbyterian Church on Miner street, now Herron avenue. This was in 1850. William A. Aughinbaugh was the teacher, and the school sessions were held in the basement.
Old Minersville School.
The next school was on what is now Brackenridge avenue. It had two rooms, and it was used until 1860, when it was sold for $800 to Thomas K. Petty, who remodeled it into a dwelling which later became the home of James Cassidy, and still later of his son, William H. Cassidy.
There were two other schools in Pitt township, one at the big bend of the Fourth street road in Oakland, now the site of Montefiore Hall, and the other at the copper works on the Braddock's Fields plank road, now Second avenue.
The school at the corner of Morgan street known in late years as Minersville No. 2, was originally Pitt township No. 1 and was built in 1860 on the lot purchased in 1859 from Jacob Ewart for $1,000.
The first building on this site was a two-story brick of four rooms dedicated in September, 1860. One hundred and twenty pupils attended, 62 boys and 58 girls. The old frame school on what is now Brackenridge avenue had become too small in 1860.
A. T. Jackson was the principal, succeed [sic] by H. G. Squires the next year. Well-known educators who taught here were Samuel P. Harbison, 1863; Joseph M. Logan, 1864; Robert H. Kelly, 1868; James L. Harrison, 1869–1878, and H. G. Squires again, from 1878–1894.
In a few years the growing community furnished enough pupils to fill two more rooms and to meet the increase a frame addition was erected. In 1873 the original building was made three stories and a front wing the same height added, with a hall, making nine recitation rooms.
Later the hall had to go, being made into two rooms. In 1894 the frame addition was removed and brick additions added in the rear, also a frame, making 17 rooms in all.
It will be seen Minersville School No. 1 is a piece-meal structure. A new building is suggested, and may come soon and the old, with its endearing memories go the way of the back number.
Some Odd Pictures.
The pictures today date back to 1889. In one of them the Minersville school is plainly seen; the row on the hillside at the left is on Brackenridge avenue. It was built by George I. Whitney, and is still called Whitney's Row. The house at the lower corner of Herron and Center avenues was the Wandless home and the brick beyond on the same side, Mrs. Siemon's store.
The original Cain home is still standing on Herron avenue. It was occupied by the Williams family for many years.
The Center avenue pictures were photographed by a young man named Gray. The picture of the Red Pond overflowed was taken at the time, June, 1889, by Frank Lenz, who lived on Webster avenue, in the Eleventh Ward. Young Lenz was murdered by Arabs in Syria a few years after, while making a bicycle tour of the world.
Old Red Pond Views.
In the pond picture the sloping hillside at the upper left side is the site of "Tom" Farrows' woods, the Willis Boothe orchard above, on both sides of what is now Junilla street. The street below the slope is Chauncey street.
The pond covered the triangular space between Reed street, Center avenue and Soho street, and the dam at Soho street, before the street was put through to Center avenue, having been washed out in 1866 in a big flood, it was not rebuilt, hence the yellow run flowed through the deep hollow.
When Soho street was extended a sewer was built under the street fill, which clogged and made the scene shown in the picture.
The low building under the bank on Center avenue was a roller skating rink, known locally as the "Sewer Rink," and was built by Eugene F. Elliott. After the roller craze died out it was used as a dance hall until later it was turned into shops for building operations.
The brick row at the upper right end of the picture was owned by E. P. Jones, and across the street was the residence of Ridgeley J. Powers, an eccentric attorney famed for his likeness to Lincoln in form and feature.
A crowd of sightseers can be seen in the picture at the lower corner of the rink on Center avenue.
