Source:Fleming-story/content
LAST week's story of the canal days in Pittsburgh touched a few score hearts and awakened many tender memories. As a class perhaps our Civil War veterans were most appealed to, for they were approaching manhood when the canal ceased to be operated, which was shortly before the war broke out.
Many thousand elderly people can go back in memory to canal days, but there is a story of Pittsburgh's growth antedating the coming of the canal, which goes beyond the memory of living men and for which recourse must be had to printed records.
Just how to construe this period or place it in a story or series based on the idea of commemorated names in streets does not appear.
The original numbered streets, now avenues, downtown may do for a text taken together as a whole, for they were both business and resident streets. As designated they are clearly without commemorative history.
Yet taken with Smithfield, Wood, Grant, Liberty and Penn streets, the numbered streets made up the town, for it was a town, although chartered as a city from March 8, 1816,—100 years a city next Wednesday.
The Early City.
The period whose history is under consideration today may be taken as the decade from 1820 to 1830.
In 1820 the population of the four-year-old city was 7,248. Of course the community was bigger. Northern Liberties, Alleghenytown and Birmingham together had a few thousand inhabitants.
Some notable events occurred in the decade—and a few immediately preceding; in 1819 for instance.
That year the first rolling mill where puddled iron was rolled into iron bars was built.
In February the charter of the Western University of Pennsylvania had been granted.
These historical facts suggest progress along different lines. The puny mill was the forerunner of the gigantic steel plants of today. The little college has culminated in the famous University of Pittsburgh.
In 1820 the first bridge acress [sic] the Allegheny at Sixth street, then St. Clair street, was opened for travel—another step in progress. Two years earlier the first Smithfield Street Bridge had been erected.
In 1821 gas found by two men, Cook and McClelland, while boring for salt water on Little Chartiers Creek, six miles from Washington. This was an unheeded opportunity.
In 1825 La Fayette came. John M. Snowden was mayor then and served until 1828.
In 1826 the Pennsylvania Canal was authorized and work began.
In 1827 the old penitentiary buildings on the West Common, now the West Park, at Ohio street and Sherman avenue, North Side, were completed at a cost of $183,092.
In 1828 Magnus M. Murray became mayor and served until 1830. The Murray home was on Second street, now avenue, and the second building on the Murray lot there became the first Homeopathic Hospital in 1866.
Birmingham Comes In.
In 1828 our southern neighbor, Birmingham, became a borough and our northern suburb, Alleghenytown, was incorporated the same day, April 14.
In December, that year, the first water works in Pittsburgh was put into operation, pumping from the Allegheny River at Pitt street, now Stanwix, to the summit of Grant's Hill, on the site now occupied by the Frick Building, the reservoir being 70 feet above Smithfield street.
The pumping station buildings for many years were occupied as Speer's plow works and were recently torn down. The lot is now almost entirely vacant and is used for parking automobiles.
The year 1829 was a momentous one in Pittsburgh. The canal came and the canal fleet had begun to grow.
The city had grown so greatly that wards were necessitated and four were created, named for the points of the compass.
In 1830 Matthew B. Lowrie became mayor and the population had materially increased. The little city had 12,568 inhabitants, the South Ward, or that above Wood street, 4,606. Alleghenytown had 2,807; Bayardstown, 2,018; Birmingham and along the south bank of the river to Saw Mill run, 1,149; Lawrenceville, Pipetown, Hayti, East Liberty and the remaining part of the township of Pitt, 3,919. Altogether Pittsburgh and its environs had a population of 22,461. Hayti was the settlement about what is now Arthurs street and Wylie avenue. It was largely occupied by the dwelling houses of free negroes, as they were known in contradistinction to slaves.
The name Hayti for that locality has but recently died. Forty years ago it was as common as Reisville.
Some Local Names.
Pipetown was across the canal outlet and along Second avenue, then the Braddock road. East Liberty has been retained as a local name, largely owing to the Pennsylvania Railroad continuously maintaining the station of that name.
Prominent tourists visited the growing city of Pittsburgh and had something to print about it. Among these, his highness, Bernhard, the Duke of Saxe Weimar Eisenach, and he not only wrote something of us in his "Travels in America, 1825–26," but had prepared an elaborate map showing our coal pits, factories, streets, hills, rivers, water courses, roads, ferries, bridges, suburbs, etc.
He had this map given the title "Pittsburg and Ungebungen [sic]." German that he was he discarded the final "h."
We have recourse to this old map today and revel in its revelations. Its title signifies "Pittsburgh and Its Environs."
The same year one Clews of Staffordshire, England, a potter, made a plate which he put out and many ate off a picture of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Clews has not furnished us any clues as to why he made the plate or how he got the picture, but we must admit he made the plate well and burned the picture well into the plate.
With the picture and the map, we can set our imaginations to work and conjure up mental visions of the old town 90 years ago.
Pittsburgh had progressed so far that a directory was needed and to that end there appeared the second directory of the city, the title page reading:
Pittsburgh in the Year Eighteen Hundred and Twenty-six, containing Sketches, Topographical, Historical and Statistical, together with a Directory of the City and a View of its Various Manufactures, Population, improvements, etc., Embellished with an Engraving of the Episcopal Church. By S. Jones, Pittsburgh. Printed by Johnston & Stockton, 1826.
Old Directory Records.
S. Jones, we discover by reference to the directory part, was a conveyancer residing on the south side of Fourth street east of Market street. As no other S. Jones is listed, we must attribute the compiling to Samuel.
The book is more a compendium than a directory and is rich in facts in all lines indicated on the title page. The Episcopal church mentioned was the second Trinity building erected that year and demolished in 1870 for the present church edifice on Sixth avenue.
Mr. Jones gives us a full description of our embryo city. With the Duke's map and Clew's plate one can dig up considerable of a story of the "long ago."
Mr. Jones describes the courses and lengths of principal streets, which are located as now, and then proceeds to other descriptions, to wit:
Pittsburgh is built upon a plain rising above the level of the rivers, at low-water mark about 30 or 40 feet, the lowest part being on the side next to the Allegheny. This low part was once a very extensive flat, several hundred yards in breadth, but owing to the rapid current of the river, during the numerous freshets, and the soft and earthy nature of its banks, a great part has been washed away.
Along the whole extent of the banks of either river within the bounds of the city there is scarcely a single rock or stone, if we except the gravel on the immediate beach of the Allegheny; sand and clay being the constituent parts of all the ground upon which the city is built for a considerable depth. The earth is supposed to be alluvion.
Hills About City.
So well surrounded is Pittsburgh with hills that it may be justly supposed to resemble the area of a vast amphitheater. On the South side of the Monongahela and immediately opposite the city arises Coal Hill, presenting a steep, rugged and rocky front, which in the winter season exhibits a very bleak and dreary aspect, but in the summer and autumn it is extremely beautiful, owing to the thick and verdant foliage of the thousand trees and shrubs that seem to grow on the very rocks.
Observation—Once beautiful and remained so within the memory of many now here.
Query: Can it be made beautiful gain [sic]?
The highest altitude of the Hill (nearly opposite Ferry street) is 465 feet. It extends, unbroken, for several miles up and down the river. In that part of the hill above the Pittsburgh Glass Works, and near its summit, there has been a fire burning for many years, and the smoke may be seen daily curling from out the fissures of the rock. The fire is in the midst of the great strata of coal that here stretches along the hill. How this fire originated is pretty much of a desideratum, and many conjectures have been expressed, but the greatest probability is that as it is common for the diggers to have large fires at the mouth of the pits, there must have been one here, which on the pits being abandoned for a time, was left burning and by degrees through the great quantity of slack, or fine coal usually thrown about, worked its way into the pit itself.
Fire Proves Obstinate.
Frequent attempts have been made to suppress this burning by stopping up the mouth of the mine and neighboring crevices to prevent the accession of air, but in vain—it still rages, adn may some day produce serious consequences.
There is no record that it did. Stories of this kind about Pittsburgh in danger of being undermined by subterranean fires were current for years.
This very story was sent all over the country and not long ago read by the writer hereof in some old tome; he did not take the trouble to make a note of its name, but it was printed not later than 1826.
The locality of the fire Mr. Jones describes was along the hillside under Duquesne Heights. The glass house referred to was then owned by F. Lorenz and stood on the site of the former power house of the Pittsburgh Railways Company, at the north side of the Point Bridge on West Carson street. It was the original factory built by Gen. O'Hara and Maj. Craig in 1795.
Mr. Jones goes on to describe two other hills in the eastern part of the city, Grant's and Boyd's Hills. Grant's we learned to call the Hump; Boyd's is there yet, usually referred to now as the Bluff. He says of Grant's Hill:
The first is within the precincts and is partly in a state of lawn. Its height is only about 70 feet. The second is on the boundary line commencing its rise not far from the Monongahela, along which it soon extends for about two miles, one mile of which is composed of rocky and perpendicular precipices of a hundred feet in height.
Boyd's Hill Farms.
From the summit of these it slopes gradually towards Grant's Hill, forming a small, but beautiful belt of land which is devoted to small farms and summer residences.
We can all remember—those of us who were here 40 or more years ago—how these perpendicular walls used to come down in avalanches on the single track of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad, now the Baltimore and Ohio, and tie up the road, and how one extra heavy one smashed in a good part of the old Pennsylvania forge that was under the hill opposite the Second Avenue Bridge.
The beautiful belt comprised the tracts of the Watsons and Senator James Ross along what is now Ross street; the Watsons on their road, now Fifth avenue.
On the northeast part of the city and adjoining Grant's Hill where it rises with a gradual ascent, is Quarry Hill where the principal part of all the stone used in Pittsburgh is taken from its point, which is just within the city, it extends along and finds the second flat of the Allegheny for about two miles, when it is broken by the ravine of the Two Mile Run. The aspect of the Hill on the West side is very barren and poor, (Interpolation—it is yet) presenting scarcely any thing else than stone quarries.
The top and opposite side is composed of tolerable good soil, but is poorly cultivated. Here are a number of coal pits. The highest elevation of Quarry Hill is about 440 feet.
Hill Still There.
We know this ground now simply as "The Hill," or the Hill district, the main thoroughfare Wylie avenue. Its "point" was about Washington street and the Grant boulevard. Gen. Adamson Tannehill had his mansion and extensive grounds at which is now Tannehill street near Bedford avenue. The house is shown in Clew's picture and the plot is noted under the name "A. Tannehill" on Duke Bernhard's map.
On the Western side of the Allegheny, and opposite the lower part of the city is an abrupt promontory called Hogback Hill from its peculiar formation. It is half a mile in length and is of little value. In the rear of this hill and running North and South is the great chain of hills that bind the flat lands of the Allegheny and the Ohio.
We know Hogback Hill now as Monument Hill. The uneuphonious name, Hogback, gave way to Seminary Hill, and after the passing of the Theological Seminary by fire in 1854 the name Seminary continued until late years.
Jones says further:
in all these elevations coal is found in immense quantities, except in Grant's, Boyd's and Hogback Hills, their altitude not being sufficient to bring them within the range of the great strata of that mineral which pervades this region of the country.
Verily these are hills of rock—Grant's was—two are yet. They are good samples of the rock-ribbed hills we used to read about.
The scenery around Pittsburgh is very beautiful and when viewed from some points presents the most beautiful associations of nature and art.
Fine View from Hills.
The view from Castleman's Hill is not surpassed in any country—earth, air, rock, wood, water, town and sky break upon the vision in forms the most picturesque and delightful. Coal Hill immediately above the burning pits is another point of interesting observation, where the eye, at a single glance, takes in a hundred beauties which might vie with the purest and brightest of the other hemisphere.
(We are not able to identify Castleman's Hill now).
Slight wonder then that his highness Bernhard made a map and Clews of Staffordshire put our city on a plate. We, that is the old town, was a wonder.
Mr. Jones goes on to describe Northern Liberties or Bayardstown, Kensington, the Second avenue district across Sukes Run, Birmingham and Alleghenytown, all most interesting matter but not particularly material to today's story.
But about his highness' map and Clews' plate. First the map—it takes a magnifying glass to bring out some names, so fine is the print, but we get some good history.
On Bernhard's map Herrs Island is marked "Hares Island," with "Hare's" homestead on the north shore of the river where the bridge is.
Patterson's paper mill is shown on the Allegheny above the town of Northern Liberties, or Bayardstown, its more common name. This was a steam paper mill and there were a number of such mills making paper from rag stock. The site of Patterson's mill was about Eighteenth street.
Jelly's steam cotton manufactory is shown on the turnpike—now Penn avenue—about Seventeenth street. This mill involved the financial failure of the Jelly brothers, but the mill was afterward operated successfully by other parties.
Old Places Shown.
Hunter's Tavern is shown at the forks of the road on the ""Allegheny Two Mile Run," which has long since been sewered in the Thirty-third street sewer.
The old Fourth Street Road is called "Beelen's Road." Later maps call it "Watson's Road," still later ones the Fourth Street Road and then Pennsylvania avenue. It is now Fifth avenue from Ross street to the East End.
Anthony Beelen's homestead is shown in Soho, about Robinson street, or above the big bend. James Tustin's homestead is shown on the hillside about opposite what is now Seneca street, where it stood for many years.
In Lawrenceville William B. Foster's spring is shown in the bend of the pike about Thirty-fifth street, and the words "Ordnance Department" appear on the Arsenal site. William B. Foster was the father of Stephen C. Foster and the late Morrison Foster.
In Kensington, or Pipetown, Eichbaum's wire works are shown near the end of the Second Avenue Bridge, which, however, was not built for many years after. There was a ferry to Birmingham from this site. The Ormsby and McClurg homes are shown on the south shore above Birmingham, which extended to about South Seventeenth street, beginning at the ferry.
Three ferries are shown on the map. The lower or Jones ferry, from the foot of Liberty street, straight across the river and the Middle ferry, from Wood street, to the south end of the Smithfield Street Bridge. The Birmingham ferry was known as the Upper ferry.
Alleghenytown is shown with the Diamond in the center of a plan of 32 lots. There is a burying ground just under the Hogback Hill, about where Stockton avenue terminates. No streets are named on the North Side.
Hills Are Measured.
Judge Roberts' house is shown on what is now Roberts street near Reed street.
The Soho Run is called the "Monongahela Two Mile Run." There are coal pits marked on the different hills, especially on Quarry Hill and Mt. Washington.
The altitudes are also given, Ruchs Hill, as we knew it later, as 410 feet, and Gazzams 460 feet.
The hill where Central Park is now on Bedford avenue is marked 455 feet high and various parts of Mt. Washington are indicated, ranging in height from 450 to 467 feet.
The story of the Jellys and the paper industry belongs to the history of Bayardstown.
Clews' picture on the plate shows Pittsburgh along the Monongahela wharf with a small sloop in the river and a boat named Home, a side-wheeler that looks like a ferryboat, and two boats at the wharf named the Lark and the Nile.
The steeple at the left is that of the Third Presbyterian Church, then at the corner of Third avenue and Ferry street. This was burned in October, 1863.
The buildings shown in this picture were all destroyed in the big fire of April 10, 1845.
The view on Water street seems to extend from Ferry street to Smithfield street.
Capt. William J. Hamilton was met at the unveiling of the tablet of the One Hundred and Second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, on Tuesday night in Memorial Hall. He said:
I want The Gazette Times to know how deeply I appreciated the canal story in last Sunday's paper. I was born in a house three doors from the embankment leading to the aqueduct at which is now Hope and Lacock streets, on the North Side, and lived in that neighborhood until I went into the army in 1861. Of course my first impressions were of the conal [sic] and you took me back to glorious days.
No Monongahela Outlet.
I want to add that the canal never went to the Monongahela. The outlet was intended to, but it was not necessary. There was a lock at Third avenue on the outlet and one at the river and a bridge over Second avenue. There was no overflow from the canal basins at Canal street, now Eleventh street. In fact my recollections are that the canal tunnel for the outlet was not entirely completed.
"Comrade" Unks of "the old Thirteenth" Regiment, who was listening, coincided in these statements. In the canal days he was a Birmingham "fellow."
