Source:Fleming-aged-man-youth
George T. Fleming. "Aged man tells tales of his youth: Reisville's oldest inhabitant has vivid recollections of boyhood days: 'Sport' on New Year." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Dec. 26, 1915, sec. 2, p. 6. Newspapers.com 85762158.
THE story of so large and important a suburb of Pittsburgh as Reisville could not be all told in the space available in one issue of this paper, hence today's story is a second chapter of Reisville history and some mention of the oldest and next oldest inhabitant. Some comment and appreciation sent in by mail are noted.
First comes an old-timer who writes with a soft-marking pencil, who signs, as near as it can be deciphered:
"Yours truly, Past 83 years old."
The letter was mailed at Kilbuck Station, North Side. Whether he neglected to sign his name or omitted it intentionally cannot be determined.
Evidently the writer was pleased with the Reisville history, for he states that he knows all of the places mentioned and knew also all the butchers in Reisville, and that John Aiken butchered for the Union army in Kentucky and Tennessee during the Civil War.
Maj. William McConway writes that he was one of the "boys" who knew Reisville, Laceyville and "the places adjacent." He objects to the name "Shoffer's lane" as applied to Dinwiddie street, and states the name is Shaffer from the Shaffer family, parents of John S. and the Misses Sarah and Sophia Shaffer, who were early settlers on that thoroughfare.
Of course "Shoffer" was a typographical error and regrettable.
Complaint is Voiced.
Maj. McConway concludes:
My especial purpose in writing, however, is to suggest an article on the subject of historic names of our streets and the miserable lack of interest in them manifested by those charged with street nomenclature. What was there in "Federal" or Anderson that gave them a preference over St. Clair and Hand?
Mr. McConway voices the opinion of thousands of old Pittsburghers, many who have spent their lives here and cling to the ancient landmarks.
"Federal," it must be admitted, is a misnomer—it is not a federal street any more than Anderson is, the latter, however, commemorating Col. William Anderson of library fame.
This phase of street name changing was taken up in this series of articles and fully discussed, particularly in the issues of December 6 and 13, 1914.
There are those who are inclined to think that the power and influence of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania could have prevented many abominable street names had these been properly exerted.
Without information on this point one cannot enter into the discussion of it. The society did succeed in placing some historic names to streets, Fancourt (?), Barbeau, Graeme, Weiser and Post among them.
But it also permitted the perpetration of numerous atrocities in street names.
But this is not the history of Reisville. The oldest inhabitant deserves to come in here and tell what he knows.
Thomas Thomason of 50 Miller street can justly claim to be the oldest inhabitant of Reisville. He was there in its palmy days, and he is there yet—in his present dwelling 40 years.
Oldest Inhabitant's Story.
He states:
I was born in Allegheny on Ohio street, and came with my parents to this vicinity in 1844 when I was about 14. We had previously resided for a year or more up Four Mile Run near the powder magazine in that coal-mining community. This powder magazine belonged to two men named Watson.
In 1844 we lived on Pride street near the bluff. I remember most of the people you wrote of in your story last week. Some of them I knew well, especially the Reis family and the Tomers.
I was married in 1856 to a niece of Jacob Tomer in the old Tomer mansion, standing, now known as 1643 Colwell street at the corner of Miller street. My wife's maiden name was Deakon. She died a few years ago.
It is true as you have stated that Reisville was a butchers' community, and we had good meat. I remember Suke's Run and the numerous slaughterhouses along its banks.
It came down what is now Dinwiddie street and was sewered perhaps 18 or 20 feet under the present grade of the street, about 1874. It turned to the south on the Fourth street road, now Fifth avenue, below Dinwiddie street crossing at Van Braam street. There was a culvert over the Sidewalk at the turn, the culvert built of flat stones. This was in front of the Jacob Tomer property, there being no houses between the Tomer house only [sic] the road.
The run went back of Ann street between Fifth avenue and Forbes street. It was an open run to Washington street and was made to flow through the Watson property between stone walls.
It was a "dirty" water course and in dry weather, passing it, one would have to hold his nose at times. In 1847 or '48, the Fourth street road was filled in about 18 feet at Washington street. This raise ruined Curling's row.
Old Business Men.
Mr. Curling was one of the proprietors of the Fort Pitt glass house in Washington street, the firm then operating it being Curling, Robertson & Co. The partners were Alfred B. Curling, Morgan Robertson, Edward Dithridge and Henry L. Ringwalt. It was at first a flint works, later a lamp chimney factory.
Edward Dithridge was the manager of the works in 1850. Afterwards he was the sole proprietor and after his death the business was carried on by his sons-in-law George W. Blair and Paul Zimmerman under the firm name of Dithridge & Co.
The old works were torn down about 1900, the synagogue Beth Hamedrosh Hagodel and the Epiphany Roman Catholic Church now occupy the site. The street is now called Washington Place.
It was quite a place in my boyhood—a busy place. The picture is a very good one.
Mr. Dithridge resided in Oakland. Dithridge street is named for the family.
There were three Tomer brothers Jacob, Adam and William. Adam lived out the road on the site of the Eye and Ear Hospital in the old frame mansion, long the home of Charles Meyran, still standing in the rear of the hospital and now used by the nurses.
Adam was a neighbor of Yost Ruch, the dairyman, and James Tustin and the Ralph Reed family. Mrs. Ann Reed, the daughter of James Tustin, was killed by a stroke of lightning while standing at an open window.
On( [sic] yes, I knew of DeRouaud and often visited his tomb and bought fruit on the Tustin place. Some of the finest peaches and pears that ever grew, and they were sold cheap, too.
Old Time New Years.
I have very decided recollections of the "Social Garden" at the corner of Miltenberger street on the Miltenberger tract, the entrance on the Fifth Avenue High School site. I spent a New Year's day there once under exicting [sic] circumstances.
While living up Four Mile Run I followed some of the men "into town." They were rough miners and were going to the garden to see a fight between a big black bear and some bull dogs.
I saw it too. It was brutal in the extreme. Two dogs were set upon the bear at a time, but the bear generally threw them off and clouted them severely. One fine brindle dog was picked up for dead by his owner, and so badly mangled I am sure he died.
Sometimes the dogs would take so deep a hold that when the bear would tear them off his flesh would come with them in hunks in their jaws.
The bear was chained to a post and could not follow up his victims. The used up dogs would be replaced by others and poor Bruin was kept fighting dogs all day until dark.
I did not pity the fellow who lost his good dog, though he nearly cried. His cupidity got the best of him, for the dog owners were well paid. He surely knew the chances he took.
Often you could hear the dogs' jaws snap when they took hold—one big brute in particular.
I had climbed a tree in the garden to get out of the crowd and to get a good view of the fight, and I got it.
Before the climax of the fight some one on the outer fringe of the crowd threw a small dog into the ring which the bear immediately seized and strove to hug to death. But the dog was too small for a death grip and he wiggled out. And if he didn't die of fright soon after, he must be running yet. I can imagine while I am telling you that I can hear his terrific howling.
Rough Holiday Sports.
Of course such exhibitions are now prohibited and those taking part in them could be prosecuted, and I would not even think of attending one, but I was a boy of tender years then and with a boy's curiosity, which was fully satisfied. I had to wait there until the men took me home again.
The garden was quite a nice place, however, but on holidays there would be much drinking and fighting. I guess some of our people in those days could be called tough.
Oh, yes! I remember when the Rev. Dr. W. A. Passavant started his hospital on Roberts street in the Lacy Academy property, and I knew Dr. Lacy and was often in the Lacyville Church, or St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, which stood so many years on Roberts street.
I knew "Big Dan" Sherran and "Johnny" Hansel and "Bart" Acker, who at different times kept the Blue Bell tavern at Stevenson street.
There was a huge swinging sign on the pavement with a blue bell painted on it. There was a pump alongside of the tavern and stabling in the rear. "Dan" Sherran afterward worked in the ax factory.
There were three graveyards along the Fourth Street road. The run went through one known as Kerr's graveyard. It was about opposite Logan street.
There were many old-time tombstones. Some were laid flat on the ground and some raised like De Rouaud's.
One man's, whose name I forget, had been an official in a bank. Part of his epitaph read:
"Here lie the remains of an honest man."
I often thought it was a good epitaph.
Old Property Owners.
There were two Aikens in the butchering business. William Aiken owned the block now bounded by Locust, Pride and Marion streets, and the run, now about the line of Ann street. His house was up toward Locust street, fronting toward Forbes street; his slauhgter [sic] house was built over the run.
Afterward this Aiken property was sold for a glass house which was years later removed to Tarentum. The old firm operating it was Hartley, McKee & Co.
Jacob Tomer, when he sold his Reisville property, moved to Hazelwood, then in Peebles township, and after residing there for a few years he bought a farm on the Monongahela River near Webster, where he operated a coal pit, and where he passed his declining years and died.
Jacob Tomer had a fine orchard. In 1856 it reached to Reed street from the Fourth Street road. Miller street was opened from Reed street to Colwell about 30 years ago. The attempt to run through to Fifth avenue failed.
Jacob Tomer sold the lots on the upper side of Miller street at Reed street to the hospital people. The laundry of the hospital stands on this property.
This hospital, now called Passavant's, was originally called the Pittsburgh Infirmary.
George Reis, I remember, had several sons, Henry, William and John.
The latter kept a tavern for a time at Vine street on the Fourth Street road. William, who lived at the foot of Reed street, was a butcher and drover. Henry was a grocer, with a store on the "Road," and later went into the manufacture of stoves.
I suppose all the Reises are dead. I have not heard of any of them for years.
Sure, I knew "Billy" Price. Everybody did. He was quite a character.
My father, James Thomson, was a cousin of James Thomson, who was mayor of Pittsburgh in 1841.
Old Clock Still Goes.
My father was a clockmaker whose shop was at Third and Market streets. The style of clocks was what has since been known as "grandfathers' clocks." There is one in the corner my father made; it is 97 years old and still a-going—keeping good time.
Afterward my father became a machinist and built steam engines at Short and First streets under the firm name of Thomson & Tomlinson.
The old man mused.
"Great changes have I seen in Pittsburgh in my 85 years here," he said. "They are really wonderful."
During the Civil War Mr. Thomson was employed at his trade, machinist, at the original shop of McIntosh & Hemphill at Pike and O'Hara streets—now Twelfth street.
The Knap Fort Pitt foundry, owned by Knap & Wade, adjoined. This firm made rifled cannon and howitzers for the government and many of these guns were sent out to be rifled.
Mr. Thomson worked steadily at this all through the war. At times the emergencies were great and the works ran day and night. Machinists were worth more at a lathe than in the ranks with gun in hand.
Mr. Thomson's reminiscences of men and events of those days are exceedingly interesting. He is in good health, with all his faculties and is enjoying life in transformed Reisville as well as anyone could anywhere. His picture, taken on a very cold morning out of doors, necessitated wearing a hat.
John Frederick Wunderlich of 48 Reed street is the next oldest inhabitant of Reisville.
"John" was brought there by his parents when a small child. He says he was not old enough to join the Relief Engine Company when it was instituted with its house near Miltenberger street in 1849, but he was a volunteer before the war with that company and one of the original company when the paid fire department was instituted June 13, 1870. Two others of the original eight survive, Joseph Busha, engineer, and William J. Richardson, hoseman, subsequently foreman of No. 4 company, the old Relief still bearing that number and housed on the site of the first house.
Relief Fire Company.
For seevral [sic] years the Relief company in the paid department was No. 9. In 1849 it was the Fire Department of Reisville and vicinity.
The original company in 1870 was composed of John Wrighley, foreman (now called captain); Jacob King, driver; Edward Sweeney, stoker; Joseph Frittman and Harry Walker, hosemen, and the three mentioned.
Mr. Wunderlich was a hoseman. He served about three years on the department, and had previously been a policeman under Mayors McCarthy and Brush.
During the war Mr. Wunderlich served in the Sixth Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery. He is a tobacconist by trade and long since retired. He is a member of Gen. Alex Hays Post No. 3 G. A. R. at Pittsburgh.
James W. Forsythe is another old-timer in Reisville still residing at the old Forsythe home, the large frame on the right-hand side of Vine street above Reed street. He was a comrade of Mr. Wunderlich's in the Civil War. Mr. Forsythe has been living in the old home since then.
Shaffer's lane, or Lippincott's lane having been the outer boundary of Reisville, some mention of the Shaffer family is reqnisite [sic] to the story today.
The Shaffer family was a real old one in Pittsburgh. The original German spelling is Schaeffer.
Peter Schaeffer and Mary Obey were married in Trinity Church, Sixth avenue, May 5, 1808. Mrs. Schaeffer died in 1819 leaving three small children, John S., aged 8; Sophia, about 5, and Sarah, only 3. These children were raised by their maternal grandparents, Jean Baptiste, Emanuel Obie, and Mary his wife.
This worthy couple came to America after the French Revolution from Saarbrueck, in the Rhine district. They landed at Norfolk, Va., early in the nineteenth century and after several removals came to Pittsburgh.
When Miss Sarah was born, October 10, 1816, the paternal home was "some distance out in the country." It was in Pitt township, beyond Lacyville.
Home in "The Country."
This home was in the "hollow" in the point between Dinwiddie and DeVilliers street, at Center avenue. The boys of the Civil War days can remember the old homestead that stood under the site of the laundry buildings at the corner of Rose street. They can also remember the filling in of the hollow in the late '60s.
In 1867 John S. Shaffer built the present mansion on the site and also the house on the southwest corner of Center avenue and Dinwiddie street, always recognized for its many flowers in the well-kept yard.
Here lived for over 30 years the Shaffer sisters within a stone's throw of their birthplace. Miss Sophia died first in 1887, John died in 1903, aged 92, and Sarah in 1905, in her ninetieth year.
The Shaffers were livelong attendants and members of the First English Evangelical Lutheran Church on Grant street. Of this congregation John was a charter member.
When the call came early in 1861 for nurses Miss Sarah was among the first to respond. She was not a trained nurse, but she had much evxperience [sic] and busied herself and was in the commissary department hospital, or anywhere she could be serviceable.
Among those who went from Pittsburgh at the same time were two deaconesses from the Passavant Hospital, Sister Barbara Haag and Sister Elizabeth Hupperts, and Miss Mary Keen, Miss Mary Moorhead, daughter of Congressman J. K. Moorhead; Miss Martha Douglass and the Rev. Dr. W. A. Passavant.
Most gladly were these received and welcomed by Miss Dorothy L. Dix, the eminent philanthropist, upon whom the government had laid the work of organizing and managing the body of nurses assembled at Fortress Monroe.
Sometimes Miss Shaffer was at the front, sometimes at Old Point Comfort, and sometimes at Fortress Monroe. She became widely known among both the Blue and the Gray, to whom she administered alike, and she was held in high esteem for her vivacity, her industry, her outspoken patriotism and motherlike tenderness among the wounded and dying.
At the close of the war, when relieved of these duties, she visited the returning soldiers at the railroad stations here and distributed fruit and delicacies among the wounded and sick en route home.
Gifts from Soldiers.
She had many souvenirs ornamenting her home—many bits of work done by soldiers she had nursed. She had the extreme satisfaction in witnessing the engagement between the Monitor and the Merrimac. Her reminiscences of the war days were full of thrilling interest, but to write of Miss Shaffer's war days is not in the scope of this story.
John S. Shaffer was the father of Mrs. Henry Phipps (Annie Shaffer), now the sole survivor of the family.
The late William G. Johnston of Pittsburgh in his "Life and Reminiscences," published in 1901, describes the old Fourth Street road as he knew it in his boyhood. Three paragraphs read:
The country seat of George Miltenberger was nigh to where now the Fifth Avenue Market House stands; a street laid out in later years beside it is appropriately named after him.
Then we reached Reisville, a cluster of small houses of which Reis' tavern was the center. Next a notable landmark yet standing (Footnote—"Torn down in 1892") was Billy Price's round house. Mr. Price, both jovial and eccentric, quoted scripture with great freedom and upon all occasions, while at times he also swore like a trooper. He frequently stated that his object in building his residence in circular form was that the devil could not corner him.
When we came to the mansion of the late Robert Watson in the midst of a great orchard, through which now runs Magee street and others, we were yet in a district vastly more rural than townlike in appearance.
These paragraphs are reminiscent of riding parties in Mr. Johnston's boyhood. As he was born in Pittsburgh in August, 1828, these parties occurred about the time of the fire of 1845 and the subsequent years.
He might have added that "Billy" Price's swearing was mere habit and that he was a just and honest man.
Mr. Johnston was not in Pittsburgh when he wrote his book. After spending some years in Europe he passed his last years in Watertown, N. Y. He did not know then that several years before his book came out, the Fifth Avenue Market had been razed for the High School building.
Mr. Johnston was a '49er, or Argonaut, and so was the late Simon P. Tomer, son of Jacob Tomer whose old home still standing is shown today.
The date of the glass house picture is 1850 and is to be found in Samuel Fahnestock's directory of Pittsburgh of that year.
