Source:Fleming-old-residents
George T. Fleming. "Old residents tell about city: Former Pittsburghers write of conditions in the early days: Stories are liked." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, May 14, 1916, sec. 5, [p. 5]. Newspapers.com 85460266.
THE series of articles pertaining to local history, with such occasional touches of state and national history as may have been evolved, seems to have been widely circulated and has brought many letters, commendatory, suggestive, requests for further mention, reminiscences, etc.
Some of these letters are of such a nature as to merit a reply as matter corroborative and supplemental of the stories that evoked their writing.
First comes Joseph M. Gazzam, native Pittsburgher and former state senator from Allegheny county, who testifies that he is alive and well in spite of the report of his death from injuries received in escaping from the burning Kenilworth Hotel at Biltmore, N. C., April 14, 1909, published all over the United States.
Mr. Gazzam states that he does not wonder that his Pittsburgh friends have ever since mourned him as one gone. He states also that many papers published his picture and sketches of his life and public career.
That there was reason for thinking him dead can be inferred from the fact that he fell two stories from a broken rope.
Unlike Mark Twain, Mr. Gazzam does not claim these reports were "exaggerated," but that they were premature and unwarranted. Despite the fact that the reports were contradicted and the facts published, old friends are turning up every now and then, who, after gazing upon him in blank astonishment, finally blurt out:
"Why, 'Joe,' I thought you were dead."
Mr. Gazzam, to prove that he is still a live wire, states that his picture appeared in several Philadelphia papers within the last six months and sends a copy of the Evening Telegraph to show what he now looks like.
The picture today is reproduced from the Telegraph. It was reproduced also in the Sun of Clearwater, Fla., of which town Mr. Gazzam was one of the promoters and where he spends the winters.
Mr. Gazzam says:
The article in The Gazette Times January 23, 1916, on the Gazzams and the Beelens was clever and almost entirely correct and displayed much pains in collecting data.
There is no doubt that had not the history of old Gazzam's Hill and Gazzam street been incidental to this series, involving mention of Mr. Gazzams's career here at the bar and in Allegheny county politics, many who once knew and appreciated him would still be under the impression that he had died as the papers stated in 1909.
The cartoon and sketch from the Evening Telegraph is quite clever. His picture is in the center under the heading, "The Evening Telegraph's Men of Affairs." At the upper left a scroll enumerates the societies and associations with which Mr. Gazzam is connected, The Pennsylvania Historical Society, Franklin Institute, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, etc.; under this another scroll states the clubs to which he belongs, the Union League, etc. At the upper right corner a small keystone reads, "Ex-State Senator;" under this a small scroll contains the words "Auther [sic] of the first marriage license act introduced in Pennsylvania."
That Mr. Gazzam is unswerving to the party with which he has been a half-century affiliated, is evidenced by the cartoonist introducing the elephant and the letters G. O. P. upon it. In his trunk is a ponderous law book typical of Mr. Gazzam's legal training and his connection with the law book business as the head of a large publishing house in that line.
The sketch attests that Mr. Gazzam was born in Pittsburgh December 2, 1842, and removed to Philadelphia in 1879, and that he had been a member of the Pittsburgh city councils and state senator and some other matter which appeared in the Gazzam story herein in January last.
From Abilene, Tex., comes a long letter from Morris R. Locke, formerly of Pittsburgh, and also one from Mrs. Locke, both descendents [sic] of pioneer families in Pittsburgh. These letters are appreciative of the history of Pittsburgh as it has appeared here.
Mrs. Locke contributes some reminiscences of her early life here and something of the services of her family in the upbuilding of the city.
Mrs. Locke's maiden name was Louise E. McGowin. She was the daughter of Franklin McGowin and niece of Robert E. McGowin, the map maker and surveyor of Pittsburgh previous to the Civil War.
Robert McGowin's maps have been frequently referred to in these articles.
Mrs. Locke states that he surveyed most of the Hill district (Wylie avenue way) and was assisted by another uncle of her's [sic], Eli Remington.
William McGowin, grandfather of Mrs. Locke, was an early resident of Pittsburgh. His name occurs in Riddle's Directory of 1815 as residing on Liberty street above the Round Church and that would be above Wood street, as the Round Church stood in the triangle at Wood, Sixth and Liberty streets.
Mrs. Locke states that her grandfather first resided on Sixth street, now avenue, opposite the present Trinity Church, and about 1819 built a house on Duquesne way above Hand street, now Anderson street, but better known as Ninth street.
This lot extended to Garrison alley on the east and Fayette street, now French street, on the South. The plot was part of the United States land about old Fort Fayette.
Mrs. Locke says that the deed from the government to William McGowin was signed by James Madison, president of the United States, and was made in 1809.
William McGowin's residence on Duquesne way was a two-story brick, which became known as the "Big House." In this house Franklin McGowin was born, the first of the family born in it.
The property remained in the hands of the McGowin heirs until 1895, when it passed from them. A wholesale grocery house now stands on the site.
Mrs. Locke was born on Hand street in one of four small two-story houses, the lots on which they stood running back to her grandfather's land. When she was a young girl her father moved to Marbury street, now Barbeau, and best known as Third street. This street was once a prime residence street. Very little of it is left.
James Wood, "the iron master," owned three three-story bricks and into one of these the McGowins moved; next door resided Mrs. Jane Wood Friend. Mrs. Locke remembers there was a spice mill opposite their home.
One of the brightest of her memories is the burning of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary on Seminary Hill on the North Side, the hill we now know as Monument Hill. Its original name was Hogback Hill.
This fire occurred on the evening of January 23, 1854, and as the buildings were large, the fire was in plain view of all the downtown section of the city.
Mrs. Locke enumerates the cotton and flour mills on the North Side or in old Allegheny. She mentions also the old Gen. Robinson home on Federal street at the north end of the bridge on the west side of the street.
This historic old mansion was a large brick with a porch and columns facing Federal street and the writer hereof has vivid memories of standing on the old suspension bridge one Sunday in March, 1865, and observing the old house entirely surrounded by water, with debris and driftwood floating about and smashing in the lower windows.
This house was probably demolished soon after that flood. Its site today is probably 20 feet below the grade of Federal street, which has been raised twice since those days.
Mrs. Locke has also distinct memories of the Mechanic street bridge, now the Sixteenth street and generally known as the upper bridge in those days.
She writes that she was greatly pleased to read the descriptions of the canal and the aqueduct that brought the canal into Pittsburgh from the north side of the Allegheny River.
She also reverts to lower Penn avenue as the best residential section of old Pittsburgh. This remained such until the late eighties. Reminiscent of former grandeur, there are today many of these old mansions changed into stores. Many have been demolished for the modern structures that now adorn the old thoroughfare.
Prominent in Mrs. Locke's girlhood as residents of lower Penn street (not an avenue until 1868), were Judge Henry W. Williams, the Fettermans, Laidleys, Lorenzes, Dalzells, James Wood, ex-Gov. William F. Johnston, Gen. Alexander Hays, his father-in-law, John B. McFadden, and John H. Ricketson.
Many more could be enumerated, Michael Whitmore, Robert McKnight, the Speers, and others. These were west of Federal street, or Sixth.
Penn avenue was a residence street as far as Wayne street, now Tenth. There were numerous doctors' offices later. Drs. Burgher, Cote, Dake, Hoffman, the McClellands, of the homeopathic school, and Drs. Thomas W. Shaw, McCann, Le Moyne, Emmerling of the older, the allopathic or "regular" school as they were often termed. There were also many dentists on Penn avenue.
On the upper or east end of Penn avenue, James Verner who introduced street cars in to Pittsburgh, was a prominent resident.
At Penn and Hancock streets, the latter now Eighth street, there stood Christ Methodist Episcopal Church, and at Seventh, or Irwin street, the Second Presbyterian Church, but recently razed, the site now occupied by the Pitt Tehater [sic].
Mrs. Locke has fond memories of the old Liberty street Methodist Episcopal Church, still standing at the corner of Fourth street, or Fancourt. In this building her father, Franklin McGowin served many years as librarian of the Sunday school of which Joseph Horne was superintendent. Fancourt street was originally Hay street.
Mrs. Locke enumerates among other well remembered places Knox's confectionary on Fourth avenue above Ferry street, the best of its kind in the city; the semi-circular market sheds in the Diamond about the old court house, built on brick pillars, and the old Fourth street road, the old South or Second Ward school now abandoned.
She concludes her letter:
All you have written about this locality (Ross street) has impressed me, and called to mind much of my childhood. I feel proud to boast of five generations of my family having lived in Pittsburgh, four of whom were born there, father, myself, my son, H. C. Irwin of Dormont, and his son, Robert Locke Irwin.
Mrs. Locke, it should have been stated, was married twice.
Mr. Locke has also some family history in Pittsburgh's early days. The Lockes are Irish stock from County Antrim. He enumerates the families that came to America with his grandfather Locke—most of them familiar names, viz: Shannons, Ewings, Parkers, McGaugheys and Littles, and all came to the vicinity of Pittsburgh.
Grandpa Locke was an Episcopal minister and school teacher in County Antrim, as was his father before him.
He and his friends came to Western Pennsylvania before the Whisky Insurrection and got mixed up in it.
The Rev. Mr. Locke was so deeply involved that he was captured by the United States forces under Gen. Lee and marched to Philadelphia and was among those tried and condemned to be shot, but pardoned by President Washington and had to walk all the way back to Pittsburgh.
While this is not strictly street history, it shows that Mr. Locke can justly claim to be descended from a pioneer family and as such interested in old Pittsburgh and old Pittsburgh history, and that it appeals to him strongly can be inferred from his several letters.
Thomas C. Bradley of the East End writes and asks that mention be made of the fact that when the French under Contracoeur drove off Ensign Ward and his 41 Virginians from the Point in April, 1754, the French named the fort which they erected the "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin," and then changed it to Duquesne in honor of the Marquis Duquesne DeMennville, then governor general of New France in America, or Canada, as the French colonies are most frequently referred to in history.
Mr. Bradley states that he recently met a prominent Pittsburgher who did not know that at times during the Civil War the United States flag was floated from the spires of the old cathedral at Fifth avenue and Grant street. On the occasions of victories for the Union armies and on the Fourth of July the flag was always there.
Bishop M. Domenec was a profound patriot and Judge Charles F. McKenna states that to his personal knowledge Bishop Domenec, who was a native of Spain, was entrusted by President Lincoln with a mission to Spain in the interests of the Union cause and to use his influence with the Spanish court to prevent the recognition of the Southern Confederacy. In this secret mission the bishop was successful.
At the time of the national encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Pittsburgh in September, 1894, pictures were printed showing the flag floating on a rope stretched from the nearest front steeple to the cupola of the old court house. This looks good, too.
The facts are that the front steeples of the cathedral were not built until 1868–69. For more than 10 years the cathedral had but one steeple and that a huge, high one in the center, but its foundations becoming insecure, it was taken down in the early '80s. The Civil War was over in 1865.
But this is as good history as the oft-recurring line—"The block house of old Fort Duquesne."
And then there's the first jail which for years has been doing historical duty as the first bank in Pittsburgh. This old jail was in Jail alley and the first court house in the Diamond, close by.
The first bank in Pittsburgh was not the Bank of Pittsburgh, but a branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania. This was also the first bank west of the Alleghenies. John Wilkins, Jr., was the president and George Poe cashier.
This bank existed until after James M. Riddle published the first directory in 1815. Then Gen. O'Hara was president and Mr. Poe still cashier. Anthony Beelen, Thomas Baird, Boyle Irwin, Ebenezer Denny and George Wallace were among the directors.
The building in which this bank was conducted was the residence of Samuel R. Johnston, father of William G. Johnston, and was on Second avenue below Market street. It was destroyed by fire April 10, 1845.
A history of Allegheny county published in 1889 by a Chicago firm first put out the old jail as the first bank and the first bank it has remained.
William G. Johnston, who was 17 years old at the time of the fire in 1845, remarks in his "Life and Reminiscences":
On page 585 of this "History of Allegheny County" will be found what purports to be the building above shown (referring to the picture of his father's residence) and it will be there seen that the compiler of the history impliedly adds his testimony to its correctness when he says he remembers it well. But inasmuch as it closely resembles the old jail the picture on page 72 of the volume ("Life and Reminiscences of William G. Johnston") the reader in comparing the two cuts in connection with the facts here stated may find occasion to indulge in a quiet smile.
When indeed will the old jail once in Jail alley, now Delray street, formerly Decatur, quit masquerading as the first bank in Pittsburgh?
Another wonderful historical fact (?) is of record—that stages for Washington, D. C., started from the old Red Lion Hotel on Sixth street. Now if the historian had said Washington, Pa., he would have said rightly.
Washington, D. C., had rail connection with Pittsburgh at least 15 years before our neighbor Washington. Then why the stage to the capital?
There never was a direct stage from Pittsburgh to the capital or even Baltimore. Relays were made at Chambersburg, as Lyford testifies in his Western Address Directory.
The first theater in Pittsburgh was erected in 1817 in Third street, now avenue, on the end of the Dollar Savings Bank lot. It stood for several years.
Judge William Wilkin's [sic] residence, shown today, was on Run avenue, Homewood. It was erected in 1836 and stood until late years. It was adjudged the finest piece of architecture in the way of a dwelling west of Philadelphia at the time it was built.
The Merchants and Manufacturers Bank stood on the site of the stone building of the Merchants and Manufacturers Bank, recently razed.