Source:Fleming-tragic
George T. Fleming. "Tragic tale is recalled by streets: Names of thoroughfares bring story of early city life to mind: Two prominent men." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, May 21, 1916, sec. 6, p. 8. Newspapers.com 85467709.
TERE [sic] are two streets in Pittsburgh the names of which, taken together, tell a tragic story. They commemorate pioneers of the city, both prominent in their day. One remained prominent despite the tragedy that he brought about. The names commemorated are Ephraim Pentland and Tarleton Bates, widely diverse characters.
Pentland street, which the Gazette Times Building faces, is all that is left of old Fountain street, which originally extended from Washington street, now place, to Chatham street, at the head of Strawberry alley, now way. The part of Pentland street between Strawberry way and Webster avenue forms part of the boundary of Gazette Square.
Ephraim Pentland was a newspaper man in early Pittsburgh, also an office holder in Allegheny county, prothonotary from 1808 to 1821.
May 15, 1803, he established the Commonwealth, a weekly newspaper. The office of this paper was in Diamond alley, between Market and Wood streets. Pentland was the publisher. The files of the paper that have been preserved show that it was "printed every Wednesday by C. Colerick for S. Douglass & Co., publishers of the 'Laws of the United States.'"
The name of the paper was changed in 1820 to the Statesman. In 1826 Samuel Jones mentions it in his "Directory of Pittsburgh" as having passed through the hands of various owners and that it was then conducted by Andrews & Waugh and in a flourishing condition.
In 1837 the paper was styled the Pennsylvania Advocate and Statesman, with William D. Wilson editor and proprietor, issuing daily, weekly and tri-weekly editions. In 1839 it passed into the possession of Robert M. Riddle, son of James M. Riddle, the elder the publisher of the first separate directory of Pittsburgh, in 1815.
So much for Pentland's paper, the third established in Pittsburgh. It was distinctly and violently antagonistic to the Gazette, which, conducted by John Scull and his son and successors, among these the noted N. B. Craig, was the organ of the Federal party, or the party of Washington and Adams, and opposed by Thomas Jefferson and his Republicans, or Democratic-Republicans, as they were also called.
When Pentland came, a new Richmond in the field of Pittsburgh journalism, the Gazette had been in existence 17 years. It was the only Pittsburgh paper until August 4, 1801, when John Israel began the publication of the Tree of Liberty. Four years later this paper was published by Walter Forward for the proprietors.
Forward is yet a living name in Pittsburgh and Allegheny county, for we have long had Forward avenue and Forward township. He was a notable jurist and had an extended public career.
In the nature of the associations of Pentland and the Gazette proprietors during Pentland's career, the name Pentland applied to the street close by the new Gazette Times Building is not a happy choice. But as it was there before the building, in printers parlance, "stet." It will stand. Pentland's paper died; The Gazette lives.
The street name was probably bestowed haphazard as were many more in the city, and all must admit that it is not much of a street, having but two houses on it, both facing Seventh avenue.
Pentland became prothonotary of Allegheny county in 1808 and served as such until 1821. His predecessor was Morgan Neville and Neville succeeded Tarleton Bates on Bates' death.
When the full story of Pentland and Bates is examined the reader's verdict upon individual character will probably be that Pentland's was in no wise lovely. Bates' appeals as having been a man.
But his end was tragic. He was a victim of the code duello and the cause arose out of the frothings of Editor Pentland, the abuse and vituperation heaped upon Bates, his friend and preceptor; the afterwards celebrated Henry Baldwin, Walter Forward, Steele Semple and upon all Federalists, whom Pentland hated with an intense hatred.
Baldwin and his two friends were young men. Baldwin was 26, Forward a boy of 19, and Bates about 30, the oldest and best known of the trio at the time.
The story of Steele Stemple was told in the history of the Craft patent which appeared as Oakland history in these columns January 16, 1916. At that time reference was made to Bates' fate and the story of his death was pronounced as pertinent to the write-up of Bates street, which is in the immediate neighborhood of Semple street and Craft avenue in the Oakland district. All these streets figuring in the Craft patent.
Bates street is not much of a street—at least in parts. As laid out it extends from Bouquet to Second avenue.
The name is particularly appropri- Ohio Railroad into Second avenue about where Bates was killed. comes out under the Baltimore and [sic]
Ephraim Pentland did not kill Bates. He challenged Bates after Bates had publicly cowhided him on Market street January 2, 1806. Bates refused to accept, but became involved with Thomas Stewart, who had carried Pentland's challenge.
Stewart's challenge was accepted and Bates went to his death within 24 hours.
Back of all the trouble was the rancorous politics of the age. Old timers can recall the politics of our Civil War period and the venom instilled in them by political writers and speakers in opposition to Lincoln and his policies. These "Copperhead" utterances seem mild in comparison with the days of Jeffersonian democracy or republicanism, or both.
Even sojourners of brief duration in Pittsburgh and travelers have written of the stormy days of early nineteenth century politics.
Thus Fortesque Coming [sic] in his book, "Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country in 1807–1809," and published in 1810 was compelled to remark:
Two parties calling themselves Federal-Republicans and Democratic-Republicans, but shortened to Federals and Democrats, argued their opinions with more warmth and thus produced more rancor and violence in Pittsburgh than in any other part of the country.
This was written a year or more after Bates' death, when politics were still rampant.
The quarrel that led to the Bates tragedy began in 1803. Gov. McKean's second term was drawing to a close. He had disagreed in many ways with the Republican Legislature and had arrayed himself against the extreme radicalism of the Assembly. He vetoed the bills he considered revolutionary and that fanned the flames that had been smouldering into extreme fierceness.
The story of McKean's administration is too long to insert. It will however, have to be briefly gone over.
The General Assembly was greatly inimical to lawyers and became hostile to the courts also. One of the results of this hostility was the impeachment and removal from the bench of Allegheny county of that great jurist and upright man, Alexander Addison.
Attempts were made to impeach the Supreme Court of the state, but they failed. The hostility was particularly bitter against Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge of Pittsburgh. The Supreme Court then consisted of but three members.
Although Brackenridge had been largely responsible for the impeachfent [sic] of Judge Addison, when the Supreme Bench was attacked he stood loyally by his colleagues. The court had been charged with arbitrary conduct in committing a plaintiff in a pending suit to jail for contempt.
Brackenridge had been absent on this day. Nevertheless, he had the hardihood, effrontery, his enemies said, to send a letter to the House of Representatives in which he declared his full concurrence in the course taken by the other judges and asked to share their fate.
The House responded by asking the Governor to remove Brackenridge, which request, or demand, rather, the Governor refused.
The impeachment trial ended in a legal failure. Although a majority of the senators pronounced the judges guilty, the two-thirds vote necessary to convict was lacking and the result was an acquittal.
The wrath of the radical Republicans knew no bounds. The Republican party became separated into two warring factions causing intense feeling throughout the state.
Gov. McKean and his friends were called "Constitutionalists." His opponents went under the alluring Frenchy title, "Friends of the people." Editor Pentland was one of the chief "friends" and one of the most rabid and abused editors in the state.
In 1805 Gov. McKean's second term expired and he was again a candidate. In 1799 and 1802 he had run as a Democrat defeating James Ross of Pittsburgh both times, the first election by a small majority, the second decisively. Ross was the candidate of the Federalists.
At his third election McKean was an "Independent Democrat." His opponent was Simon Snyder.
The abuse that was poured upon McKean's devoted head was astonishing. No idol ever fell harder. The extreme radicals, unmindful of the short-lived Whisky Insurrection, even threatened civil war. McKean was charged, among other things, with being an aristocrat, a demagogue and of having gone over to the Federalists.
The Tree of Liberty stood staunchly by the Governor. The violence that had previously characterized its utterances had discreetly softened and finally gave way to the advocacy of "moderation"—but toleration would not—could not be thought of by the paper's enemies.
Pentland's Commonwealth, established to fight McKean and his friends, did so with all the malignity that the small soul of Pentland was capable of. The attacks on McKean and John Israel, editor and proprietor of the Tree of Liberty, became more and more brutal.
Pentland's particular grudge was against Israel, whom Pentland accused of being ignorant. Pentland's coarse threats were the extreme of personalities. He was fond of designating Israel as "the man with a long beard but no brains."
This bitter political war was very amusing to the Federalists. They put up no candidate in 1805, but supported McKean and elected him, the vote being McKean 43,644, Snyder 38,833.
Then the chagrin of Pentland was deep. His venom increased. The management of the Tree of Liberty had changed and the deep-seated hate of Pentland was given further vent in attacks upon the supposed owners, whom he claimed were Walter Forward, Tarleton Bates and Henry Baldwin—the real editor, Bates; the two politicians the real owners.
The article in the Commonwealth that was the indirect cause of Bates' death appeared on Christmas Day, 1805. Of all the incendiary and despicable diatribes of Pentland this was easily the limit in savagery. He declared that Bates and Baldwin were "two of the most abandoned political miscreants that ever disgraced a state," and similar phrases. He accused the two of having belonged to all parties as existing circumstances warranted.
It is an easy deduction that such a man as Pentland would sooner or later get what was coming to him and this punishment be swift and sure. Bates cowhided him publicly, as stated above, January 2, 1806, but the nimble-footed Pentland was more ready with his tongue and pen than with the weapons nature had given him to defend himself with, and discretion was much better than valor in his opinion, for he fled precpitately [sic]. So after all he got only part of his deserved punishment.
Bates at the time was prothonotary of Allegheny county. Pentland's account of the affair was lurid. He had been attacked long after dark, he said, after being waylaid, by Bates, "co-proprietor and editor of the Tree of Liberty." Bates was in company with others who would have come to his assistance had it been necessary to overpower Pentland.
But the mistiness of the evening, he claimed, and their quick disappearance prevented the recognition of all. But two of them were "Baldwin, Bates' colleague in infamy, and the brave and redoubtable Steele Semple, who never feels afraid but when he is in danger, both limbs of the law, students of morality."
Although dueling was prohibited by law in Pennsylvania under severe penalties, there were many who approved of this so-called "code of honor." Pentland, after threatening legal proceedings against Bates, at length challenged him, Thomas Stewart carrying the message.
Bates refused the challenge, declaring Pentland's conduct since his chastisement had rendered him unworthy of such notice. Pentland accordingly posted Bates as a coward—the regular procedure in such cases.
Bates replied in a letter in the Tree of Liberty, giving his reasons in full for refusing and reflecting on Stewart. This naturally angered Stewart, who demanded a retraction, which Bates refused. Thereupon Stewart challenged.
A deep melancholy came upon Bates upon acceptance. He immediately wrote his will. The premonition that he was to be killed he could not shake off. He asked that his remains be cremated. He had lived a simple life, he said, and was averse to ostentation. He made Henry Baldwin, his very dear friend, his sole executor, who was to burn his body, or at least bury it without display.
He provided funds for the education of his brother James, which was to be completed by studying law, and if the funds were insufficient, another brother, Frederick, was to provide the deficiency; any residue was to go to his "adored mother."
The duel took place January 8, 1806, on the flat ground as now constituted between Second avenue and the Monongahela River, about opposite where Bates street comes out on Second avenue. This ground is now occupied by the lower part of the ore yards of the Jones & Laughlin Company. A small run came down the ravine through which Bates street is now laid out, which has long since been sewered. Old maps show this, some without a name. Runs were named from their distance from the Point, so that this run went by the name of the Three-mile Run or the Monongahela Three-mile Run.
The locality is not an inviting one now. The rain-washed hillsides and unpaved streets do not attract. The lower portion of Halket street comes down into the ravine. Bates street passes or is crossed by Ethel and Frazier streets, Craft avenue, Wilmot, Coltart, Semple streets, Meyran avenue, Atwood street and Oakland avenue.
The distance at which the duel was fought was 10 paces, the weapons pistols.
The principals were cool. The first fire was harmless. At the second Bates fell, shot through the breast, expiring within an hour.
The injured "honor" of Stewart could not be appeased by the resultless fire at the first word. The presumption is plain that it was meant and planned to be a duel to the death and Bates could not back out. He was not the challenger.
Of course the Commonwealth published a full account and on the very day that Bates lay dead in the lonely ravine on that wintry day. His memory lives in the street; around his melancholy death has been woven more than one halo of romance. His striking personality and cheeriness had endeared him to his friends and his sudden end shocked the entire community. A duel in Pittsburgh, and a well-known official slain!
It did not shock the virtuous Pentland. Really he gloated. The time-worn maxim coming down the ages, "De mortuis nil nisi bonum," he refused to acknowledge.
On the contrary, he published a parting and utterly atrocious slander.
"I shall not," he wrote, "engross the columns of this paper with remarks on the private character of Mr. Bates, because that already appears to the public in conors [sic] as dark as the skin of his mistress."
We translate the Latin aphorism above:
Concerning the dead
Let nothing but good be said.
Notwithstanding Bates' directions as to the disposal of his body, he was given a public funeral and was interred in Trinity Churchyard on Sixth street, now avenue. A vast throng attended the services. Henry Baldwin was the chief mourner.
Pittsburgh was sadened [sic], the little town sorrowed as neler [sic] before. The Tree of Liberty came out in mourning dress. Two weeks later the slow post of that day brought the news of her son's death to the widowed mother and her children in their Virginia home.
Had Tarleton Bates lived until May 22, 1806, he would have been 31 years old. He was born in Virginia of Quaker origin, but his father lost his membership in the Friends Society by reason of services with the Continental Army at Yorktown.
The Bates family home was at Belmont, Goochland county, Va. Tarleton came to Pittsburgh in 1793 at the age of 18. He had, therefore, been a resident here nearly 13 years when he was killed. He was "making good," as we say now.
He was first an employe of Maj. Isaac Craig in the quartermaster's department with headquarters at Fort Fayette and made his home with Maj. Craig. After five years in Pittsburgh Bates meditated removal to the territory of Mississippi, which had been organized with Natchez the capital.
About this time John C. Gilkison was appointed prothonotary and made Bates a clerk under him. Gilkison had been a student in the elder Brackenridge's office, but had abandoned the study of the law and opened a book store in Pittsburgh.
His first advertisement appears in The Gazette December 29, 1798, announcing the opening.
Judge Brackenridge aiding in the venture, Bates succeeded Gilkison as prothonotary.
Bates never married. He was a deep student, a man of much culture for his years. His letters to his family show him to have been generous, warm hearted and tender.
The family was in straightened circumstances. Tarleton had aided his brother, Frederick, financially, to the extent of $30 per month. He led an upright life and it was his proud boast that he ever attempted to deserve the good opinion of his mother and had avoided the imprudences of youth.
Upon his brother Frederick's charging him with being engaged he frankly admitted he was in love, but could not be married as success had not crowned his efforts.
He was fond of the society of women and favorite with them. His name has been associated with Emily Morgan Neville, daughter of Col. Pressley Neville, a fascinating Pittsburgh beauty.
It is true that Bates once wrote an acrostic on her name which led color to the imputation. However, such acrostics were common for many years later and many meant no more than mere esteem.
Bates was deeply interested in politics; obsessed, we say now. He habitually called the then Republican party the Democratic party.
He was a proud man. He told his family he "acknowledged no superior, and admitted no knave however bloated with wealth, to be an equal."
Three younger brothers became famous, Frederick, James and Edward. Of these Edward can be best remembered by elderly Pittsburghers. He was Lincoln's first attorney-general, serving two years, and had been a candidate for president in the convention of 1860 when Lincoln was nominated. He had been, too, one of the warmest friends and supporters of Henry Clay.
The Bates brothers had removed to Missouri when that state was a territory. Frederick became the second governor of the state. James went to Arkansas and served in Congress from that state.
Edward was born in Virginia in 1793 and died in 1869. He was therefore a babe when Tarleton came to Pittsburgh.
The Virginia mother and her tears could find but one consolation. Her son had been true to traditions of honor. In her view Tarleton had preferred "death to a life of infamy and disgrace."
Tarleton was the ablest of the brothers, who received their inspiration from him. It is believed by those who have studied the Bates family history that in his untimely death Tarleton Bates was cut off from great fame. Undoubtedly, as Baldwin, Ross and Forward attained fame and honors, so, too, Bates—a name to have been great at least in Pennsylvania history, if not in national.
For years Bates' grave in Thinity [sic] churchyard was a hallowed spot. Old friends passed away; new generations came on; the grave became neglected. Its location even is forgotten. We have, however, Bates street—and Pentland street—more's the pity.
Some time in the winter when engaged in looking up points on Oakland history the story of Tarleton Bates loomed up. Much data was collected and notes made of other data by the writer hereof. That data and those notes were carefully put away and it is now known have stayed carefully put away.
However by the graciousness of our Pittsburgh historian, Charles W. Dahlinger of the Allegheny county bar, who has kindly permitted recourse to his recently published book of absorbing interest, entitled "Pittsburgh; a Sketch of Its Early Social Life," it is believed the complete story of Tarleton Bates has been presented today.
It may be added that a quite recent publication goes briefly into the records of the Bates family. It is a brochure by Onward Bates, entitled "Bates et al of Virginia and Missouri," published in 1914.