Source notes:Campbell
Source:Johnston, pp. 83–84:
As we have just been speaking of colonial times, as a matter of interest relating thereto we shall here introduce one of the earliest maps of the locality of Pittsburgh, known to have been made. It is a copy of what is commonly called the military plan of Pittsburgh, made in 1764 by John Campbell by order possibly of the Commandant of Fort Pitt. It embraced the four blocks bounded by Water, Ferry, Second, and Market Streets. Upon it, long after, some one ignorant of the facts attempted to mark the location of the houses of eight early settlers, and hence recent writers have been misled. It was only possible for two of these to have been built when the plan was made. One, Semple's tavern, was erected in the same year, which was also that of Colonel [p. 84] Bouquet's redoubt. It stood on the southeast corner of Water and Ferry Streets. Washington on his second visit here in 1770 lodged in it, and mentioned it favorably in his journal. The other was the house of John Ormsby, who came with General Forbes in 1758, and settled here soon after. This house, built of logs, is still standing on Water Street, a short distance from Ferry Street, and was the earliest house of substantial character built west of the Alleghenies, and possibly antedates Colonel Bouquet's redoubt. General Gibson was here as early as 1763, but it is not known where he lived. The house Mr. Craig mentions as Gibson's, on the corner of Second Street and Chancery Lane, whilst the first built of brick, was not erected till about 1784. General Neville, according to Mr. Craig, did not reside here until the time when the Revolutionary troubles began. John Scull, General Tannehill, and Judge Brackenridge came still later. The latter tells us in the first number of the Pittsburgh Gazette, that he came in 1781. These are the houses that have been marked on Campbell's plan, and not in a single instance are they properly located.
However in 1774 John Campbell came along with a better plan. He shows six streets besides Water street and Chancery lane intermediate to Ferry and Market.
At Market and Water the northwest corner lot is marked "P. Neville." Gen. Neville did not come to this property until after the whisky insurrection of 1794. It is evident the names on this plan were not given by Col. Campbell Chancery lane and Market street, suggesting a court house and a market, which did not come for years afterward.
