Source:Fleming-minersville/content
It is many years since old Minersville occupied its proper place on the map of Allegheny county, Pa. We are specific here because there is another Minersville in Pennsylvania, a large town in Schuylkill county. Our Minersville was part of Pitt township, one of the original townships of Allegheny county, occupying the vast area subsequently cut into other townships and the remnant of old Pitt township and many of the cut off townships were annexed to Pittsburgh.
Old Minersville is a bygone name. Real old-timers who knew the locality well still refer to it, but it is destined to pass away like Croghansville, Laceyville, Birmingham, Bayardstown and many others that can be mentioned. Soho we have still with us; it, too, was part of Pitt township, and contiguous to that part in which Minersville was situated. The Soho district had its lower boundary on the Monongahela River, extending from Lock No. 1 to the Scotch Bottom, which was at the lower end of Hazelwood. Minersville lay in the valley along the old Seventh street road and on the hills. Its eastern boundary was the crest of Herron Hill. There was another part of Pitt township on the northern slope of the hill, which extended to the Allegheny River, lying between the eastern boundary of Bayardstown and the borough of Lawrenceville.
One of the first records we have of old Minersville is the following, taken from Harris' Business Directory for the year 1837:
"Minersville is about two miles east from Pittsburgh, on the new turnpike to East Liberty. It contains an industrial population of about 500 souls, the great mass of whom are engaged in farming or in the various employments about the rich coal mines which here abound, and which gave name to this flourishing place. It has a beautiful village church, and "the church going bell," which upon the Sabbath calls out the hard working people to the church, and the intelligent children to Sabbath school, a well conducted school of about 100 scholars. It has also a good day school. Several Welsh families live here and a number of our wealthy and respectable families have built themselves handsome mansions and moved to this place. Here, on the hours of the sacred Sabbath, is to be seen an industrious and moral people, after the labors, toils and cares of the week, dressed in clean genteel apparel, attending church, their children the Sabbath school and at night the prayer meeting."
In Harris' next edition, published in 1841, he has a similar paragraph, much in the same vein, supplemented with a directory of Minersville. His description of the village reads:
"The village is pleasantly situated about two miles east of Pittsburgh, on a new turnpike road, which passes through it from Pittsburgh to East Liberty. It is the dwelling place of a number of very respectable families, whose neat houses and flourishing farms and gardens and other choice improvements, surrounded by the naturally picturesque scenery, render it a very desirable residence. There are some of the best coal pits in our vicinity here and many coal dealers and waggoners reside in the neighborhood. There are two churches (Presbyterian and Welsh), with Sabbath schools attached in the village, and the population is sober, intelligent and industrious. We have seen, on a Sabbath evening, both these houses of worship, which are within 100 feet of each other, crowded to overflowing with their respective congregations. As much mining is done here, a large proportion of the inhabitants are Welsh."
Harris' Directory of Minersville follows below. There are some mistakes in it, which have been corrected. Jacob Ewart's name, Harris has, "J. Ewalt." Mr. Ewalt lived in Lawrenceville; his name was given to the present Forty-third street in that district. There will be noted many names subsequently prominent in Pittsburgh life, whose descendants are also prominent in the present generation.
Arthurs, Major William, Justice of the Peace; Booth, Willis, merchant; Burke, Frederick, milk man; Bickerstaff, Mr., miner; Cain, H. P., shoe merchant; Clarke, George, farmer; Coon, Archibald, miner; Dickey, Isaiah, grocer; Ewart, J., farmer; Farrow, Thomas, blacksmith; French, David, wagon maker; Fusten, Henry, coke burner; Grow, Christian, grocer; Grove, Mr., miner; Henry, Charles, laborer; Herron, John, coal merchant; Herron, S. D., coal merchant; Herron, James A., merchant; Herron, William, coal merchant; Huey, William, miner; Hulton, Jonathan, coke burner; Jenkins, John, miner; Johnston, Moses, wagoner; Jones, John, miner; Kelly, Mr., wagon maker; Lindsay, fence maker; Mahon, John D., attorney at law, ½ mile west Center avenue; McCord, James, coal merchant; McDonald, William, miner; McGonneigh, Daniel, blacksmith; Patterson, James, laborer; Peterson, John, miner; Petty, George, coal merchant; Petty, Robert, miner; Rutherford, John, coal merchant; Sparks, Rev. S. M., pastor Presbyterian Church; Stewart, Samuel, wagoner; Whitcraft, George, miner; Whitcraft, John, miner; William, Thomas, miner; Williams, William, teacher; Wilson, Alexander, grocer and extensive lime merchant; Wandless, George, coal merchant."
There are several names which should be added to this list, omitted by Mr. Harris, probably because they came to Minersville after the directory of 1841 was printed. There was Robert Inder, who was a resident of the district at the same location for more than 50 years; Job Inder, a son, died a few years ago, aged more than 90 years. James McAleese came to Minersville to live prior to 1842 and resided in that district all his subsequent life. He was the father of the late John McAleese, and Daniel McAleese, now a resident of Lawrenceville. The elder McAleese was a wagon smith in the employ of David French, but quit that occupation to mine coal, which paid better. He became pit boss for the Herrons, who were large producers of coal. Jacob Ewart had the largest acreage in the district; his old mansion opposite Herron avenue was transformed into the Montefiore Hospital. Squire Arthurs was the father of a large family. Among his sons there may be enumerated William M., who lived for many years on Center avenue, below Kirkpatrick street; Drs. Biddle and Addison Arthurs; George Arthurs, a grocer at Logan and Franklin streets for many years, and Robert Arthurs, attorney.
Willis Boothe lived at the lower end of the village; his home immediately opposite the residence of Alexander Brackenridge, which was at the present junction of Reed street, Brackenridge avenue and Center avenue. Mr. Boothe was a merchant in 1837 directory, residing at the head of Seventh street in Grant's Hill. Seventh street is now Seventh avenue. Mr. Boothe in his later years was in the lumber business. He lived to an advanced age. He was the father of a large family, one of his sons being Willis A. Boothe, a Pittsburgh attorney, another Nathan P. Boothe, who became a banker in Iowa and who was father-in-law of the late Henry A. Lavely, the Pittsburgh poet.
Henry P. Cain was an old resident of Minersville in 1840 and for years afterward a shoe merchant in Pittsburgh, the same business having been carried on by his sons and successors until within recent years. Archibald Coon, who is put down by Mr. Harris as a miner, previous to the Civil War was a clerk at the Herron's Mines. He enlisted in the summer of 1861 and became first lieutenant of Company E. Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, of which James A. Herron, a homeopathic physician and son of William Herron, was the first captain. Lieut. Coon moved to Nebraska some years after the war, where he died.
Isaiah Dickey was one of the best known citizens of Pittsburgh. His spacious grounds and fine old mansion stood back from Center avenue on the hill at what is now Francis street, in the old days always called Dickey's lane. He was the father of the late Charles C. Dickey, one of Pittsburgh's most prominent lawyers. Isaiah Dickey & Co. carried on the wholesale grocery business on Water street, near Market, in the palmy days of river transportation, when it was not uncommon for more than 100 steamboats to be moored at the Monongahela wharf, stretching around into the Allegheny River sometimes as far as Sixth street, formerly St. Clair street.
There were three Herron brothers: John, Samuel Davidson and William. The family name has been perpetuated in Herron avenue. At one time it was prominent also in the designation Herron Hill, but of late years there has been a tendency to call this hill, Schenley Heights, in honor of the late Capt. Schenley of England, who died in 1878 and who in the late fifties of the last century, resided with his Pittsburgh wife, Mary Elizabeth Croghan Schenley, at her father's beautiful suburban home called Pic-Nic on Stanton avenue.
Thomas Farrow had a shop at what is now Center avenue and Chauncey street, opposite the Red Pond, which was an artificial body of water made by a dam at what is now Soho street. It is the memory of the present writer that he was long ago informed that this pond was created for the use of the coke workers at the ovens that lined its bank. As late as 1867, there were reminders of Farrow's woods. Chauncey street lies in a hollow between two hill sides and comes to an abrupt bank at the deep fill of Wylie avenue, then begins again at Wylie and goes as far as Bedford avenue, in that direction. The Farrow property on the upper side adjoined the large orchard of Willis Boothe.
John D. Mahon was one of Pittsburgh's leading attorneys from the time of his arrival in the city. Like many subsequent Pittsburgh people of prominence, he hailed from Carlisle, Pa. His old mansion was on the terrace on Center avenue, opposite Erin street. About 1866, the Mahon homestead and grounds became the property of the late Alexander H. Miller, also an attorney. The old mansion was razed a few years ago. In Harris' Directory of 1837, after Attorney Mahon's name is the statement, "dwelling house, Erin Hill."
George Petty was a coal merchant; he was the father of the late Robert M. Petty, attorney. John Rutherford and George Wandless (pronounced "Windless,") and so recorded by Harris, were coal merchants. All of these men were substantial citizens and each has left many descendants in and about Pittsburgh.
It is evident from the perusal of the Minersville Directory, that coke burning was one of the industries of the village. The ovens at the Red Pond belonged to Thomas Cokain and there were but five ovens in this set. Jacob Ewart was the pioneer coke manufacturer in Pittsburgh, that is to say, in what is now Pittsburgh territory. He had five ovens opposite his home where the residence of his son, George Ewart, is still standing. Jacob Ewart was a farmer market gardener and orchardist, and owner of coal mines, as well as a coke manufacturer. From an interview with Job Inder about 10 years ago, much information relative to old Minersville was furnished by him.
Mr. Inder said that his father came to Minersville in 1841. In 1853 the elder Inder was the assessor of Pitt township. Preceding him was William Wiley, father of the late Gen. John A. Wiley of Franklin, Pa. Robert Inder was assessed by Assessor Wiley in 1847 for a county tax of 89 cents. Upon coming to Minersville, Robert Inder was employed by Jacob Ewart. When Job crew up he too, worked for Mr. Ewart and was accustomed to drive the wagon with Mr. Ewart's farm products to the old Scotch Hill market on Second street (now the Boulevard of the Allies), in the wide space between Grant and Ross streets. Some times Job Inder would go to the Diamond Market.
For several years after the Civil War the large coal wagons each holding a hundred bushels and drawn by four horses, were common in Pittsburgh. The driver rode the front high horse. He directed his team with a check line and usually had a whip with a long lash to touch up lazy leaders when necessary. Mr. Inder drove a double team for some years. In 1852 he left the parental home and trudged across the continent to California, returning in 1875. There were many things that remained as he had left them but the changes of more than a score of years were so numerous that he could hardly realize that he had come back to his boyhood home.
"Among the papers that his father had preserved, was an alphabetical list of all the white male taxables within the township of Pitt. It should have been stated above that upon the admission of Pitt Township to the city, the Minersville section was numbered the Thirteenth Ward. In this list there are a number of names of persons who did not reside in the village of Minersville, which really consisted of two parts; the lower about what is now Morgan street, that section adjacent to the Minersville School. The upper section lay about what is now Herron avenuue [sic] and extended towards Herron Hill. It should have been mentioned that Center avenue was known formerly as the Seventh Street Road because that road turned at Washington street, at the head of Seventh street, now avenue, proceeding up Wylie street, along Fulton, out Center avenue, over the hill at what is now Aliquippa street, and on to East Liberty, following the present Center avenue to its East Liberty terminus.
The following names are not on Harris' list of 1841: John Arthurs, gent; Robert Arthurs, Farrelly Aiden, Alexander Brackenridge, John Bridgins, Joseph Crawford, James, Joseph and Thomas Cokain, Peter Duff, George Ewart, George Evans, Frank H. Eaton, K. T. Friend, William C. Friend, William A. Gildenfenny, James M. Hunter, Stewart Haney, Edward P. Jones, attorney; Matthew Lawton, David Lupton, Edward McCallum, Judge William Porter, Capt. Robert Potter, Frank Porter, Robert and James Patterson, Yost Ruch, Samuel Roberts, Macheal Woolslater, Jacob and William Wiley, J. D. Williams and Thomas Young.
Alexander Brackenridge was the son of the celebrated Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, the first lawyer in Pittsburgh. The son also was a lawyer and he had a son, Linwood Brackenridge, who was a lawyer. The late Corneilia Brackenridge Ewart, wife of Samuel Ewart, was a daughter of Alexander Brackenridge. The Ewart family occupied the old home until the death of Mr. Ewart, within recent years. John Bridgins lived on Mahon avenue. He was an Englishman and had been an employe of the City of Pittsburgh for many years. His last position was as watchman in old Wilkins Hall on Fourth avenue, in which building were the mayor's and offices of other officials of the city.
Peter Duff lived on Wylie at what is now Duff street, the old homestead still standing. He was the father of the late William H. Duff, Charles P. Duff, Thomas Duff and Mrs. John Dalzell, all of whom are deceased. Peter Duff was the founder of Duff's College of Pittsburgh. Frank H. Eaton was a well-known merchant in Pittsburgh for many years, proprietor of a trimming store on Fifth avenue near Market street. He was the son-in-law of Farrelly Aiden and the father of the late Howard Eaton and the Eaton brothers of the famous Eaton ranch at Wolf, Wyo.
There are a number of names of this list taxable that should receive more extended notice, for instance, Attorney Jones, the Porters, Yost Ruch and J. D. Williams, but having used the available space for today's story this mention and other history of old Minersville must be left for a subsequent story.
