Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine

THE WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL MAGAZINE

Volume 47 October 1964 Number 4

PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER Some Nineteenth Century Glimpses of the Growing City Including a New Account of the 1884 Flood Stanton C. Crawford and Mary C. Brown history of Pittsburgh in the nineteenth century traditionally and properly centers in the story of boat building and railroad Thelaying, the manufacture of iron and steel, of cotton goods and glass, the distribution of oiland coal, and the lives of the men who developed those industries. But the city at the Forks of the Ohio often was viewed with other interests as well as these by the inhabitants of the farms and villages lying in the valleys downstream. George McCandless Porter of New Cumberland, West Virginia, on January 11, 1864, began a trip to Pittsburgh by walking, from his home in that village, across the solid ice of the frozen Ohio River to take a railroad train on the Ohio side. His diary 1 records : Get on the train.... Wrote a letter to the Capt. of Canal Boat Excelsior and leftitat Rochester.2 Get to Pittsburgh about 4 & go immediately to Hussey, Wells & Co. Leave my accounts for them to examine. Stop at the Monongahela House. Find Mr. Tower of Monongahela City there and he promises to get me a demijohn fullof pure Rye Whiskey He continues on January 12 Start out about half past eight Settle today with Hussey, Wells & Co., Dr. Crawford is a member of the administrative staff of the University of Pittsburgh, and his daughter, Mrs. Brown, is associated with the Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland. —Ed. 1 Written inink in a leather-bound book with pages printed for the days of the year. Diary preserved in the files of the senior author. 2 lies at the junction of the Beaver River with the Ohio, hence ad- Rochesterjacent to the terminus of the Beaver arid Lake Erie Canal. 288 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

Brown & Co., Park Smith & Co., Robinson Rea & Co. & John Hall & Co.* Compare accounts with Shoenberger & Co &find ours right. Take dinner at the FirstRational Bank, where they have an election today and serve up oysters etc to their patrons .... It is very damp & cold on the feet to do business as the ice is melting. His Pittsburgh visit continued on the 13th. Settled with Hartupee &Co. Sat for a likeness at McBrides* .... Collect all my checks & finish all my business to be ready for the morning train [tomorrow]. At 3-10 go to the office of the East Liberty Passenger R.R. They tellme to come back at 3-50. Get there at that time. Start at 4-5. Get to Oakland &have to wait 45 minutes. Get to East Lib. after 6. Go to David Lewis,5 take tea there. Consult him about my lungs. He sounds the chest and pronounces the lungs unaffected &recommends to continue present treatment. He is a believer in whiskey. Go to RR waiting room at the time directed & wait an hour. Get —to Oakland to wait 45 min. Get to my room about 11 & to bed & asleep at 12 very indignant at the ELRR. On the 14th the diary continues : ....On a/c of the disappointment last night withthe passenger RR to East Liberty — Igave up going home this morning, as it would be necessary to rise at 5 am thus giving me too littlerest .... Got my watch fixed, paying Mr. Richardson*— $3 for cleaning & crystal. Itwas cleaned last in 1857 at Edinburg for 4d say 18 cents .... Buy some more stationery .... Take the 3 o'clock train from Allegheny .... Get home via Elliotts [train stop] walking on the ice — at 7-20 .... A few years before, on April10, 1861, George's eighteen-year-old sister Fannie, who had come to Pittsburgh for music lessons, had written to her older sister Mary a long letter from which we read this excerpt :

Linnie and Iwere invited to a party in east liberty which came last night . They chartered one of the Street cars [to] take them out and bring them back but as the rest of the party would not consent to Start home until 4 o'clock in the Morning we .... concluded not to go the rest of them went and got

3 George H. Thurston, Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Cities, 1864-65 (Pittsburgh, 1864). The various entries show that Hussey, Wells & Co. operated a steel works ;Brown & Co. could have been a boat builder, hoisting apparatus maker, or any one of several lumber and iron merchants ;Park, Smith &Co. were iron founders ;Robinson, Rea &Co. were founders and machinists ; John Hall & Co. operated a plough works ; Shoenberger & Co. were proprietors of the Juniata Iron & Nail Works; Hartupee & Co. were founders and engine builders. Appreciation is expressed to Miss Prudence Trimble, Librarian of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, for her assistance with these directories and many other records. 4 T. H. McBride, photographer, 31 Fifth Avenue. Thurston's Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Cities, 1864, 217, hereinafter cited as Directory. 5 David W. Lewis, M.D., Highland Lane, East Liberty. Directory, 1864, 181. 6 H.Richardson & Co., Jewelers, Market and 5th Streets. Directory, 1864, 268. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 289 home this morning a little before six o'clock.7 [The oncoming war seemed far away.] As background for these writings it may be explained that the New Cumberland Porters were engaged in the manufacture of fire brick and in river shipping. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Rail Road had been laid down in 1856 on the west bank of the Ohio River across from New Cumberland. The new Monongahela House, erected after the original building had been destroyed in the great fire of 1845, was advertised as having "an elegant Grecian Portico on Water Street 210 bedrooms and 412 windows." 8 East Liberty in mid-nineteenth century was a rural village sur- rounded by farms and grazing lands. Through this area the Greens- burg Turnpike, later to be called Penn Avenue, developed along the course of an earlier trail.Here in1853 the Pennsylvania Railroad was opened for travel. Also, the East Liberty Passenger Railway was opened in 1860. Many sought homes along the new roads and rail lines. This soon made East Liberty one of the leading suburbs of the city.Here were taverns enjoyed by sleighing and riding parties, and fine country homes. At this time, too, Fifth Avenue was extended out as far as Oakland, which already was a favored suburban village. Be- tween Oakland and East Liberty was the rustic Shadyside area. By 1873, the City of Pittsburgh included the Highland and East Liberty sections and the South Side across the Monongahela River, including Mount Washington. The business community was much broader, including Wilkinsburg to the east, Allegheny City to the north, and McKees Rocks lying down the Ohio River. The reactions toward the growing city on the part of people living downstream, and their interests in the changing scene, may be better understood by grouping the many new developments under various categories.

Pittsburgh as a Regional Center to Be Visited Zadok Cramer said of the Pittsburgh of 1802 that "No inland town in the United States can boast of a superior situation to this, 7 Stanton C. Crawford, "Lincoln's Visitto Pittsburgh as Reported in School- girl Correspondence," Wester** Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, hereinafter cited as WPHM, XXIII(March 1940), 50-51. Quoted from a four-page hand-written letter preserved in the files of the senior author. 8 Many of the factual items which are recalled for background purposes are so thoroughly recorded elsewhere that they do not seem to require specific documentation here. Files of the Pittsburgh Gazette are the most frequent source, whether or not that paper is directly Quoted. 290 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER both as to its beauty, as also with respect to the many advantages with which itis attended, being delightfully situated at the head of the Ohio River/' 9 But in the earlier years the approach from downstream was difficult and often lonely. Michaux wrote of his 1802 trip from Pittsburgh to Kentucky by water that "all that part of Virginia situated upon the left bank of the Ohio is .... covered with forests, and almost uninhabited." 10 Henry Marie Brackenridge, writing in 1834 of his earlier second voyage down the Ohio, reported that "we reached the town of Wheeling. The intermediate space between this place and Pittsburgh willlong continue to be the wildest and rudest part of the Ohio." n The British visitor Hoffman found more beauty on his November 1833 trip from Wheeling to Pittsburgh: "An occasional farm-house, with its luxuriant orchards .... may be found along the smaller 'bottoms/ while the larger ones are frequently enlivened by a bustling village .... the increasing number of farm-houses indicated our approach to the city.... Our course lay for a few moments among islands .... and then, as we escaped from this green cincture, the tall cliffs of the Monongahela, blackened by the numerous furnaces that smoke along their base .... frowned." 12 Yearnings for cultural advancement and for getting ahead eco- nomically were felt by many of the downriver dwellers. Their thoughts often turned to the center lying upstream as they searched for oppor- tunity and for leadership. Those who resided near enough visited frequently, those who lived farther away planned to come when they could. Some of the attractions were of a continuing nature, some were related to special happenings. The town was growing, as was the countryside, and the people were busy. Reiser found that of the 1314 heads of families and wage earners who had been making a living in Pittsburgh in 1815, only 18 were listed in Riddle's Directory as being without occupation, and 16 others werelisted as "Gentlemen." "Manyof the 'Gentlemen' were men who had been engaged in trade and had retired or relinquished their businesses to their sons. Professional men numbered 82 .... Specialty

9 Zadok Cramer, The Ohio and Mississippi Navigator, revised ed., Pittsburgh, 1802, 19. Appreciation is expressed for the assistance ofMiss Ruth Salisbury of the Darlington Memorial Library, in providing many of these older documents. 10 F. A. Michaux, Travels to the West of the Allegheny Mountains (London, 1805), 85. 11 H. M. Brackenridge, Recollections of Persons and Places in the West (Philadelphia, 1834), 214. 12 G F. Hoffman, A Winter in the Far West (London, 1835), I, 55-57. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 291 shops were not so numerous as the general stores :the largest group of these were the grocery and liquor stores, of which there were 20 .... A shop in the yard or the front part of the house was adequate space for the majority of enterprises." n The population of the town in1810 was 4740; in 1820 it was 7248, and in 1830, 12,542. Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York, when he arrived inPitts- burgh on August 3, 1825, from Steubenville, after touring Ohio withHenry Clay, was, as reported by Innes, recognized by twenty-four gun salutes from steamboats. He toasted Pittsburgh as "the unrivalled domicile of manufacturing skilland ingenuity, and a grand emporium of internal commerce." 14 Sometimes, such visits were announced in advance. The Gazette, on May 27, 1825, had reported rather dramati- cally that "It has just been ascertained that Gen. LaFayette is to enter the city on Monday morning next. He willcome by the way of Braddock's Field." An advertisement in Gazette issues of May 1832 offered "For a short time only.... The celebrated Siamese Twin Brothers who have excited so much astonishment wherever they have been seen, for the wonderful manner in which their bodies are joined together. Their room, at the Exchange Hotel, is now open .... daily. Admittance 25c. The morning and the afternoon willbe found the most pleasant time for women and children to visit the room." In the fall of the next year six Egyptian mummies were exhibited "In the Diamond, next door to the office of the Pittsburgh Gazette .—... The features of some of these mummies are in perfect expression the hair of the head preserved as ifnow living.... bodies that were embalmed not less than three thousand years ago." During periods of open navigation on the Ohio in those years the three larger hotels, the Exchange, the Mansion House, and the Pittsburgh Hotel, were reporting guests from Beaver and Bridgewater in Pennsylvania, from Wellsburgh, Wheeling and Parkersburgh in "Virginia," from Wellsville, Steubenville, Cadiz, Bloomfield, St. Clairsville, Cambridge, Zanesville, Portsmouth, Dayton and Cincin- nati in Ohio, from Louisville and Hopkinsville in Kentucky, Hender- sonville in Tennessee, Rome in Indiana, and from St. Louis and New Orleans. The Gazette of July 5, 1833, reported routinely that "The 13 Catherine E. Reiser, "Pittsburgh, the Hub of Western Commerce, 1800-1850," WPHM, XXV (September-December, 1942), 124, 125. 14 Lowell Innes, "Governor Clinton Comes to Pittsburgh," WPHM, XLIV (September 1961), 238, 239. 292 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

Honorable Daniel Webster arrived in this city on the .... 4th and has taken lodgings at the Exchange.' 1 The Exchange Hotel also noted in 1842 the arrival of Charles Dickens, on his American tour which took him downstream by steamboat from Pittsburgh. Beginning in 1840, the Monongahela House entertained such notable figures as John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, KingEdward VII when he was Prince of Wales, Henry Clay, Jefferson Davis. Often these visits were events attractive to persons dwelling within ready travelling distance. And ifsuch notable persons found the city worthy of visitation, why should Ohio Valley residents hold back when the steamboats were running? John Rogers of Boston wrote from St. Louis about his Pittsburgh visit made in September 1839 : Pittsburgh is so full of interest to the young that Iam lost in the multitude of objects which arrest the attention .... at 10 in the morning of 28th shipped on board the Steamer Peoria for St. Louis .... 30 boats lie at the Levee. Itis a market day and there is a great assembly of people around it.... But one— boat up for St. Louis today, several are receiving freight for "Down river" great variety of goods shipped from here South and West .... The boats lying at the landing appear fairly — all being elegantly painted and neat throughout, their flags waving, with the name painted in large letters upon it. Porters, draymen and passengers, hurry to them as they ring their bells, & the black smoke emits from their chimneys. Itis often a boat is up for a certain hour, & thus decoys passengers aboard, assuring them she willbe off, & often remains hours, if not unfrequently one or two days, always keeping the fires up and ringing the bell.... The streets are decidedly filthy and the hogs are running about as in New York, but they have just passed a law forbidding it.15 In the 1850's Stephen Foster was writing the songs so often inspired by his own travels down the Ohio, his wharfside employment by a Cincinnati shipping firm, and his consequent association with river boatmen. In 1860 the City of Pittsburgh was approximately five square miles in area and had a population of about 55,000. The population of greater Pittsburgh was 130,000 and of Allegheny County 178,800. By 1870 Pittsburgh stood sixteenth in size among the country's larger cities. Frey writes of the Pittsburgh fashions and folkways of the seventies :"Men invariably carried six-chambered revolvers [even to church], since there were no restrictions against them ... no adult man was without a mustache, a beard, or both, and if he did appear clean shaven, he was looked upon as a curiosity .... Hoopskirts for the ladies had given way to fullskirts with bustles, .... bulging out eighteen inches behind the wearer .... Skirts swept the streets and 15 Letter preserved inDarlington Memorial Library, writtenNov. 10, 1839, from Saint Louis to "Dear Parents, Brother and Sisters." 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 293 records do not show how the ladies managed to clean the hems." l6 Wrote Davis, "Pittsburgh [in the 1870's and 1880's] with its flicker- ing gaslamps and bobtail mule-drawn street cars, was symbolic of a never-to-be-forgotten era inlocal history .... The stage for mechanical art was located in the 'Iron City/ Although some other cities manufactured more of some single specialty, when it came to allkinds of iron and steel products, however, Pittsburgh was unrivaled ... ." 17 The blacksmiths and mechanics in the villages and towns found their necessary working materials here. A clipping from an unidentified Steubenville newspaper of Janu- ary 18, 1878, in a commercially inspired paragraph, said, "Our read- ers visiting Pittsburgh and desirous of stopping at a hotel, should not overlook the advertisement in this issue of the 'American' House of that city. This house is a very convenient and admirable place to stop at, as itisbut a short distance from the Union Depot, and on a direct line from it to the heart of the city; and its rates are so very low, being only one dollar and fiftycents per day ;its tables are supplied with the best the country produces, also has large and elegant dining rooms. The ladies' sitting rooms are also very handsomely fitted up." In 1880 the city's population was 156,000. Pittsburgh and Allegheny City together counted 235,000 residents, and outlying sections of the county's population were growing apace, so that the total was 335,800. Lissfelt writes that "visitors, curious about the new city, praised its cultured ladies, its keen merchants, its hospitality, its singing and dancing .... Jenny Lind and Adelina Patti found frantic admirers onits steamboat landings. Edwin Booth played Shakespeare inits Opera House." 18 Baldwin observes that "Circuses, which visited the city frequently, usually camped in the vicinity of Penn Street and the Canal." 19 These were some of the glimpses presented to those living downriver, as they contemplated the growth of the vigorous center lying to the east and north. Whether for business or for pleasure, or merely from curiosity, there were many reasons for travelling upriver on the boats or, in the later years of the century, on the trains. 16 Laura C. Frey, The Land in the Fork, Pittsburgh 1753-1914 (Dorrance & Co., Phila., 1955), 119. 17 George Littleton Davis, "Greater Pittsburgh Commercial and Industrial Rev- olution 1850-1900," unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1951, 113. Appreciation is expressed to Miss Margaret Zenk of the University of Pittsburgh Library for making theses and other unusual materials available. 18 J. Fred Lissfelt, Kaffeeklatsch (Pittsburgh, 1955), Foreword. 19 Leland D. Baldwin, Pittsburgh, the Story of a City (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1957), 282. 294 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

Pittsburgh as a Center of Manufacture and Trade The Jeffery Scaife Tin Manufactory was founded in 1802 ;Mc- Clurg's Iron Foundry was built in 1804. 20 That year also saw the first cotton factory opened inPittsburgh. In 1809 a grist millwas the first steam driven factory in Pennsylvania west of the mountains. The Pittsburgh Steam Engine Company was established in 1812 ;a steam driven paper mill was built in 1814. News about these spectacular new developments was carried downriver by the boatmen and their passengers, and the fame of the changing city grew in those parts. Michaux's 1802 comments were that "The territorial produce of that part of the country finds an easy and advantageous conveyance by the Ohio and the Mississippi. Corn, hams and dried pork are the principal articles sent to New Orleans, whence they are re-exported into the Carribbees. They also export for the consumption of Louisi- ana, bar iron, coarse linen,bottles manufactured at Pittsburgh, whiskey and salt butter." 21 Harpster quotes an 1805 journal entry of Thaddeus M. Harris : "Articles of cabinet work are .... made at Pittsburgh of their native woods, which supply many of the settlements of both sides of the Ohio and Mississippi. The furniture made of the black walnut, wild cherry, and yellow birch, is very strong and handsome .... The merchants here, as well as those of the western country, receive their goods from Philadelphia and Baltimore .... Most of the articles of merchandise brought in waggons over the mountains in the summer season, and destined for the trade down the river, are stored at this place, to be ready for embarkation. With these a great many trading boats are laden, which float down the river, stopping at the towns onits banks to vend the articles. In a country, so remote from commerce, .... where each resides on his own farm .... these trading boats contribute very much to the accommodation of life, by bringing to every man's house those littlenecessaries which it would be trouble- some to go a great distance to procure." 22 Baldwin writes that "By 1812 there were half a dozen glass houses intown, and their products were being distributed widely over the West .... The War of 1812 .... was no small factor in 20 Different dates are sometimes cited for these early beginnings. Except where they appear in quoted materials, the dates used in this article are usually those reported in various publications of the Western Pennsylvania His- torical Survey. 21 Michaux, 61. 22 John W. Harpster, Pen Pictures of Early Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, 1938), 243, 244. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 295 promoting the prosperity of Pittsburgh manufacturers. An abnormally high tariff as well as the British blockade of American ports not only stimulated the demand for domestic manufactures but reversed to a large extent the direction of western commerce. Southern cotton and sugar, Missouri lead and peltry, and Kentucky saltpeter, hemp and hides came up the rivers to Pittsburgh where they were transhipped to the East. The movement was not temporary, for the development of the use of the steamboat enabled western goods to be carried rapidly and cheaply up the river." 2l Cramer's 1817 Navigator made a number of comments about scattered manufacturing operations which were being developed downstream : Big YellowCreek :several salt works Island Creek :Several flour mills Harmon's Creek: (Holliday's Cove) Here is a warehouse, and is a principal place for the delivery of flour inthis part of Virginia. Steubenville :The town has about 12 stores .... The Steubenville Steam Mill Company are erecting buildings in which itis intended to manufacture flour and cotton cloths .... Messrs. Ross and Baldwin of Pittsburgh and Wells and Patterson of this place have established a manufactory for woolens .... the steam power is used. A large paper millis erecting by Messrs. Scott and Bayless, in which they purpose to apply the steam power. 24 By 1817, in spite of the slump that followed the War of 1812, there were in Pittsburgh 259 factories employing 1637 men. Kehl writes that in the 1820's "Pittsburgh was awakened to her potential market in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois .... with the realization that those areas could not obtain such articles as manufactured in the Emporium of the West at such prices from any other production area . . . . Pittsburgh was finally able to boast a surplus of exports over imports by 1825 .... Hand in hand with this industrial prosperity came the promotion of commerce through natural waterways and internal improvement projects." 2$ In 1824 issues of the Gazette John M'ilroy was announcing his manufacture of cotton domestic goods, while Allen and Grant were offering baled Alabama and Tennessee cotton. Some of the combina- tions of offerings mentioned by the general stores were curious from our present-day view. In1825 R. Bevan, Jr., advertised "Best quality Rifle Powder and about 500 feet Mohogony [sic],99 while Harris & 23 Baldwin, 148, 152. 24 Zadok Cramer, The Navigator (Cramer, Spear and Eichbaum, Pittsburgh, 1817), 76, 77. 25 James A. Kehl, /// Feeling in the Era of Good Feeling (Pittsburgh, 1956), 241. 296 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

Stockton's listed "Sugar, salt, carpeting/ 1 and Elkin & Ledlie mentioned "Buffalo Robes, Pig Lead, Whiskey/' Inthe spring of 1831 Forsyth and Dobbin of Wheeling advertised in the Pittsburgh Gazette on behalf of J. S. Copeland & Co. of Zanes- ville, that they "respectfully offer their services to the public, for the transaction of Commission business, and for Receiving and Forward- ing Merchandise." The Pittsburgh merchants conversely remembered their downriver customers. The summer Gazette issues of 1831 carried an advertisement of James W. Brown & Co.'s Wholesale and Retail Grocery with the request that "The Ravenna Courier, Beaver Argus, .... Canton Repository, Steubenville Herald, will insert the above six times and charge this office." Similarly it was advertised that "M. &F. Tiernan have .... a splendid assortment of Seasonable Goods. The Steubenville Herald, New Lisbon Palladium, .... and the paper at Marietta, willeach insert the above advt. 4 weeks." Baldwin notes that Pittsburgh's iron industry, before 1835, was concerned largely withthe manufacture of tools, utensils, and materials for the use of the country blacksmiths. "No structural iron and little railroad iron was fabricated. As the century wore on, however, the foundries and shops of the city began to displace the blacksmith The first complete rolling mill in Pittsburgh was set up in 1818-19 .... soon after 1840 the puddling process began to be used." 26 The owners of downstream land looked to Pittsburgh for potential buyers. InPittsburgh Gazette issues in the fall of 1823, William Wells of Wellsville was advertising a new subdivision of town lots. "The harbor is good .... where steamboats of any burden and other craft can come as near as necessary to load and unload." In the spring of 1824 James Gray of Island Creek, seven miles above Steubenville, was advertising in the Gazette "a valuable farm for sale with a saw mill, 642 acres well adapted for the raising of sheep." In the spring of 1825 A.Farquhar of Harrison County, Ohio, was advertising a "Farm and Salt Works. Inpayment willreceive the principal part inGoods." The fall of 1829 found David Shields of Pittsburgh listing "a plantation and tract of 180 acres .... 4 miles E. of Economy .... a good stand for a blacksmith shop." The Trustees of Beaver Academy, in the Gazette issue of May 29, 1832, offered for sale "about Two Hundred and Fifty acres of land, of a good quality, adjoining the town of Beaver, lyingon the Ohio River." InDecember of that year David Shields was offering "Tolet. A Good Stand for a Country Tavern .... The Stone 26 Baldwin, 221. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 297 House .... the half-way House between Pittsburgh and Beaver on the Sewickley bottom, and also, the meadows, pastures and first rate farm- ing land connected therewith." In the Gazette issue of September 25, 1829, James Wilson, editor of The Western Herald and Steubenville Gazette, had made his own bid for Pittsburgh patronage. "This is the title of one of the oldest and most popular newspapers in the state of Ohio. Its circulation in Ohio, particularly in the section of it that has most intercourse and trade with Pittsburgh, is considerable. Itis, of course, a good medium through which to circulate the advertisements of merchants, manufacturers and others, who wish to extend their business in Ohio." Additional evidence of the desire to promote downriver commerce is found in the fact that Harris' Business Directory of the Cities of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, in the 1837 edition, devoted considerable space to informational sections about the towns of Florence, Fallston, Freedom, Frankfort, Georgetown, New Brighton, Smith's Ferry, Fairview, Hookstown, Wheeling, Wellsburg, Wellsville, "Liverpool," Steubenville, Zanesville, Marietta, Portsmouth, Point Pleasant and Louisville. The 1841 edition added statements on Economy, Beaver, Bridgewater, Rochester, Phillipsburgh [Monaca] and Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh's own development surged forward. The Gazette of November 7, 1833, printed "alist of Steam Engines in,and adjacent to Pittsburgh." A tabulation described 89 engines, indicated their locations and the purposes for which they were used. By 1850 Pittsburgh had numerous cotton mills,consuming 15,000 bales of cotton a year, and producing yarns, sheeting, batting, and other woven items. Davis writes that "During the months of open navigation, raw cotton was unloaded at the wharf, shipped from the deep South." 27 Harper adds that the cotton mills, employing 1400 hands, "were nearly all on Robinson Street, Allegheny. The tariff acts of 1832 and 1842, lowering duties, and the increasing competition of the New England cotton mills gradually drove the Pittsburgh mills out of business, although Andrew Carnegie got his first job working as a bobbin boy inone of them at $1.25 a week." 28 Davis reports that :"The Cincinnati and Pittsburgh Daily Steam- er Packet Line.... touched St. Louis, Quincy, Galen, Dubuque, and all intermediate points. At the wharves almost constantly boats represented the cities of Cincinnati, Memphis, Louisville,New Orleans, St. 27 Davis, 32. 28 Frank C. Harper, Pittsburgh, Forge of the Universe (New York, 1957), 107. 298 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

Louis, Nashville, Indiana, Wheeling, Zanesville, Beaver and Steuben- ville.... The crystal or table glassware of the 1850's was of a good grade, and the output was prolific .... Candlesticks, compotes, lacey patterns of tableware, cup plates, lamps and bureau knobs were produced and the heaviest consignments were to towns and cities of the rapidly growing Mississippi Valley .... an extensive assortment of plows, wagons, timber, wheels, carriages and other items were scattered along the levees for all points on the lower river, principally below Memphis." 29 A glimpse of the nature and cost of river cargo shipments is seen from a billof lading given at New Orleans on April1, 1842, by H. H. Lewis, to Robert Crawford, then a resident of West Pittsburgh, call- ing for transportation from New Orleans to Cincinnati, on the steam boat Columbus, of the following items, all at a charge for freight of eighteen cents per hundred pounds, for that distance 1 Bag Coffee 13 Bbls Molasses 1 Box Candles 1 Bbl Cordage 5 Hhds Sugar An endorsement on the back of the bill indicates that these items were then brought from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh on the Goddess l of Liberty at a cost of "57y2 cts pr Bbl for Molasses & \2/2 cts pr 100 wt for balance." 30 Those on the distaff side were more interested in wearing apparel. Jane Anderson, on January 4, 1852, wrote from her home in New Cumberland [now West Virginia, then Virginia] to her friend Mary Porter who was attending the Steubenville Female Seminary : Your Uncle Williamhas been up here some time. Last Monday he and your cousin George started to Pittsburgh on horse back. Your mother sent with him for a shawl your Aunt to select it,he got one a brocade shall Isicl 26 dollars it is a beautiful looking shall tsic] Iwould not fancy it as well myself as the one you got inPewtown [inland from New Cumberland]. 31 Pittsburgh in the Civil War period, Snelsire summarizes, "became the camp and arsenal for the western armies of the Union and produced large quantities of shot and shells, cannons, armor plates, wagons, artillery, harness, cavalry supplies, and other munitions of warfare .... The oil industry was the fastest growing industry in

29 Davis, 7, 43, 55. 30 This billof lading is preserved in the files of the senior author. 31 This letter, closely written in ink on four small pages, is preserved in the files of the senior author. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 299

Allegheny County during the Civil War .... by 1865 only the iron industry was larger.' 132 Harper adds that "over 500,000 barrels of oil were produced in Pennsylvania in 1860, the year following the drilling of the first well. Pennsylvania continued to be the greatest producing state for many years. Its banner year was 1891 .... It was in the refining and marketing fields .... that Pittsburgh played the role that for a while made it the greatest oilcenter in the world .... In 1867 there were fifty-eight refineries on the banks of the Allegheny within the city limits of Pittsburgh and a few miles beyond." 1I Baldwin writes that although "foundries and metal working factories sprang up on every side, no blast furnace for the conversion of ore into pigs was erected until 1859. Pittsburgh's role was that of iron worker and iron monger .... The rapid growth of heavy industry was attributable both to the strategic location of Pittsburgh with respect to the commerce of the west and to the plentifulness of coal, which afforded a cheap fuel for the production of steam power .... by 1857 there were about one hundred industries and just under four hundred manufacturing establishments." 34 Harper adds that "the greatest impetus to the steel industry in the Pittsburgh area came with the inauguration of Bessemer steel making by the Edgar Thomson Steel Works at Braddock in1875." 3$ The ladies continued to have their own interests. On February 20, 1865, Fannie Porter wrote from Pittsburgh to her sister, Mary,at New Cumberland, about the purchase of dress materials : Ihope you willbe pleased with my purchases. Ithink the muslin is good. Ibought itat a wholesale store on Wood Street. They asked 60 cts. per yd but they let me have it for 58 cts, the web contains 46% yds. ... Ionly bought trimming enough for one set of underclothes the edge was 70 cts per yd the inserting 45 cts. ... Jin was telling me about some elegant chemises she saw at Pitcairns 56 they had a good deal of inserting about them and .... lined with pink chintz, Imean the inserting was. We refer again to the summaries made by Davis :"In1865 The transportation of and new uses for oil created a boom period of production in all the allied industries, including glass chimneys, oil 32 Richard H. Snelsire, "Industry in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County during the CivilWar," unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1960, 14, 63. 33 Harper, 202, 203. 34 Baldwin, 149, 219, 317. 35 Harper, 214. 36 Mrs. J. C. Pitcairn, boys' clothier and dress maker, 33 St. Clair. Directory, 1865, 256. This quotation is made from a two-page handwritten letter preserved in the files of the senior author. 300 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER lamps, chemicals, tanks, refinery supplies, mining tools and similar articles .... Facilitating commerce were .... the products allied with the cotton industry rather than the domestic production of textiles. Cotton machinery and devices of iron and"steel for expediting cotton shipments were the 'order of the day/ 37 The Harbison- Walker Company (Refractories) was founded in 1866, and the H. J. Heinz Company in 1869. Other industries whose names still persist were getting under way. Lyman Stedman, who operated a 150-acre farm on Brown's Island in the Ohio River near the site of the present Weirton, West Virginia, wrote in his 1882 diary this report on a business and shopping visit to Pittsburgh : Nov. 18. Hauled 45 Bbls. Russets, IS Bellflower & 5 Gal of Cider in am to river. Shipped Apples & self on "Batchelor" « at 5 pm for Pittsburgh. Nov. 19. Daylight found us 18 miles below Pitt tied to the shore, where the fog drove us at 3 a.m. Reached Pitt at 11 a.m. Spend the [Sunday] p.m. perambulating Pitt hunting Chas. Staples & Co.59 Nov. 20. Staid over night on "Batchelor" &breakfast this morn. They put my apples on the wharf, knocking the heads out of 10 or a doz. Bbls. Tried to sell them till10*4 but the best bid was 2.25 — when Ileft them with J. J. Pettit & Co40 to sell. Bot. Steel land side for plow 1$. Shopping Bag 1.25 for Mabel, Bee hive Bank .15 for Chet, Toy gun .10 for Faber and Rubber ring .10 for Peter and clothes brush .75. Left Pitt at lj^ pm on Batchelor &reached home at midnight. 41 Adding to the fame of Pittsburgh throughout the Ohio Valley in the later years of the century was an annual Exposition which showed progress inmachinery, foodstuffs, glass making and dress making, and gave entertainment through the elaborate exhibits which included an art gallery, and through concerts given by noted bands, symphony 37 Davis, 94, 96, 123. 38 The steamer C. W.Batchelor, named for the Port Collector of Pittsburgh, a boat captain who earlier had resided at Steubenville. 39 J. F. Diffenbacher, Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Cities for 1884 (Pittsburgh, 1884). "G Staples, 64 Ohio St.," 843, is the only one listed. 40 John J. Pettit & Co., Commission & Produce Merchants, 114 Second Ave. Diffenbacher's 1884 Directory, 1884, 707. 41 The Lyman Stedman Diary, containing daily entries between July 16, 1880, and August 9, 1885, has been borrowed by the senior author from Stedman's great-granddaughter, Mrs. Eleanor S. Dawson of Columbus, Ohio, and Mr. and Mrs. George P. Wilson ofRichmond, Ohio. Written inink in a ruled journal book withcardboard covers, the entries reflect Mr.Stedman's broad interests in current events of many kinds, including international happenings. He attended regional meetings of the Methodist Church, and travelled to other states to attend political conventions. The family was of New England origin. That background explains the names given to his older sons, Audubon and Sedgwick. He moved to Brown's Island in 1858. He once represented Hancock County in the House of Delegates. His other diary volumes, known to have existed, cannot now be located. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 301 orchestras, and other musical organizations. Itfunctioned in Allegheny City from 1875 through 1883, then after a fire it was re-established near the Point inPittsburgh proper, where it was conducted invarious patterns from 1889 until 1916. The 70-page brochure of the 1895 Exposition carried a reminder that "the greatest bands in America can be heard without extra charge beyond the twenty-five cent ad- mission fee." 42 Davis notes that many Pittsburgh products were exhibited also at fairs in other cities, including Ohio's State Fair at Cleveland in 1852, and the fair at New Orleans in 1884; also that Pittsburgh's Keystone Bridge Company constructed the Mexican Building in that New Orleans World Exposition. 43

Pittsburgh as a Center of Control for Money and Prices As a growing financial center, Pittsburgh provided a trade barometer as well as a channel of capital accumulation, both for the immediate region and for the more remote downriver areas. Frey observes that "The Pittsburgh Bank opened in 1804 thereby eliminating many of the confusions attendant on business transactions. In the past, one had relied on banking by a friend, a lawyer, a postrider, or anyone who happened to be going to Phila- delphia." 44 This was the Pittsburgh branch of the Bank of Pennsyl- vania. A Bank of Pittsburgh was organized in 1810 and a Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank in 1814. A branch of the Bank of the United States was established in 1817. 45 Kehl notes the additional problem that until 1812 "financial arrangements with New Orleans had been marked, not only by delays in payment, but also by confusion in the type and value of money presented .... Because of the general distrust of paper currency, based on either political or economic conditions, many Pittsburgh banks and merchants forced the farmers and merchants of the country areas around the city to sell their local bank paper at a discount The farmers of the outlying districts were encouraged to retaliate to these banking practices of Pittsburgh by refusing to accept any paper

42 Brochure preserved in the files ofthe senior author. 43 Davis, 300 ff. 44 Frey, 77, 78. 45 The Gazette of April 22, 1825, observed that "Alex Brackenridge was elected on the 19th inst. President of the Office of the Bank of the U. States, at this place." 302 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

in payment for their produce except that of Pittsburgh banks or their own country banks." 46 Exchange rates printed in the Pittsburgh Gazette in the 1820's usually showed notes of the Bank of Steubenville, the F. & M.Bank of Steubenville, and the Northwestern Bank of Virginia at Wheeling selling at 1% discount, while the notes of Pittsburgh banks were always listed at par. By the end of 1829, the discount of this downriver bank paper had been reduced to J4%. On June 11, 1830, the Gazette announced editorially that "The old Bank of Steubenville 47 [not the F&M] has stopped payment." In later issues the quotations printed from the Pittsburgh Bank Note Exchange listed this bank's paper as "unc," but George A. Cook, Lottery and Exchange Broker, apparently accepted these notes at 25% discount for several years thereafter. Paper of the Pittsburgh- Steubenville Turnpike was selling in the 1820's at 3% discount, and of the Zanesville Canal Co. at 50% discount. Kehl reports a most interesting early financial development. "A society to encourage domestic manufactures was initiated .... [about 1817] at Pittsburgh .... with officers and fixed annual dues, [it] resulted from a public meeting .... Eventually the organization was chartered as The Pittsburgh Manufacturing Association which established a warehouse, from which articles manufactured by members of the association could be sold .... Since actual selling was difficult in these years because of a scarcity of money, the association was also prepared to barter manufactured articles for country produce and raw materials. It was willing to accept iron, wool, cotton, sugar, salt, whiskey, butter, rags, flaxseed oil,and many other basic requirements of an industrial town in exchange for such agrarian needs as axes, sugar, assorted brushes, copper stills, window glass, hatchets, hoes, nails, ploughs, shot and saddles. Under the direction of George Cochran, its first agent, the association did not limit itself to the ex- clusive handling of Pittsburgh products, but kept its warehouse stacked withflour from distant mills,broadcloths from the Steubenville Woolen Factory, and supplies of every description that could be obtained." 48 The Pittsburgh Gazette's issues of 1822 and 1823 carried a

46 Kehl, 8, 87, 88. 47 The 1817 edition of The Navigator said that "a bank was established in Steubenville in 1809, with a capital of 100,000 dollars, and a power to increase it to 500,000. Bazil [sic; the name was Bezaleel] Wells, president." Wells is generally regarded as the founder of Steubenville. 48 Kehl, 187. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 303 standard advertisement for the offerings of the Pittsburgh Manufac- turing Association, featuring "Steubenville Cloths, Cassimeres and Cassinets." 49 The Association closed its warehouse in 1830. The business was being liquidated in 1831 and 1832. Kehl observes further that when "the whole economy was upset by 1820 .... A public meeting of the citizens of Pittsburgh and vicinity sponsored the formation of another association for the advancement of the whole domestic economy, agrarian as well as industrial .... The 'Society for the Promotion of Agriculture and Domestic Manufactures for the County of Allegheny' was organized and application for a charter honored by the Pennsylvania legislature .... William Wilkens was elected president with Henry Baldwin assuming the role of vice president. The Denny father-and-son combi- nation of Ebenezer and Harmar served as treasurer and secretary, respectively, and other businessmen of the community dominated the board of directors ... ."50 Inmid-1833 George A. Cook offered, in a Gazette advertisement, "Drafts on Wheeling, Cincinnati and Louisville, at par, payable at sight/' By 1834, the Pittsburgh Bank Note Exchange was listing quotations on 230 banks of the United States and Canada, while the pub- lished "Pittsburgh Wholesale Prices Current" tabulated more than 325 items. The problem of currency exchange continued for many years to give trouble in commercial transactions carried out farther downstream. Aninteresting 1842 receipt 51 for the "Sale of Uncurrent Money" was preserved in the effects of Robert Crawford, who has already been mentioned :

49 Also,in 1824, J. Anderson and Co. were advertising inthe Gazette "Steuben- villeCloths" along with Juniata Bar Iron and Prime Bacon. 50 Kehl, 188. He explains that "Chief among the duties of the officers was the conduct of correspondence with similar societies, which were springing up elsewhere throughout the nation, for the purpose of collecting and dis- seminating information that might be useful .... Locally the organization attempted to encourage agricultural and industrial progress by granting monetary rewards to individuals who contributed substantially to the human knowledge of these pursuits. The introduction of new grains, grasses, or roots, an increase in the yield of grain per acre, the invention of new and useful implements of husbandry, and improvements in breeding horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs constituted the society's major classes of interest and recognition." 51 Handwritten record contained in the files of the senior author. 304 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

Sale of uncurrent money made at N Orleans — 75 Commercial Bank— Natchez checks on Merchts Bnk New Orleans $75 @ 40 discount 30.00 155 —Exchange Bnk" notes 155 @ 55 85.25 116 Orleans " " 116 @ 50 58.00 140 Atchafalaya " " 140 @ 50 70.00 80 Improvement 80 @ 30 24.00 566 Discount $267.251267.25 267.25 $298.75 Net proceeds New Orleans 30 March 1842

Baldwin comments on the two major depressions of 1837 and 1857. "Business had been hampered perennially by the scarcity of specie and frightened by the popular clamor for the issuance of scrip and banknotes. The city actually issued scrip in 1837 and 1838 to the value of one hundred thousand dollars, and the county issued a great deal more during the next decade." 52 Davis reports that "in the spring of 1861 the war scare reduced the price of almost every article not included in the listof Union Army supplies, particularly dry goods. The dullness of monetary affairs was occasioned by bad weather, and intensified by the unfortunate political relations with the South. Missouri and Virginia currency were not considered legal exchange since the two states had southern constituents. In addition, Kentucky money, as well as the currency of all the secession states, was refused. This .... halted commerce the wharves were almost deserted." n Then came all the new business centering in the manufacture of munitions and other materials needed by the Northern army, as already discussed. One of the most notable happenings of this period in the financial realm was the depreciation of greenback currency. By 1864 the greenback was exchanged for 39 cents worth of gold. The de- moralizing effects of these happenings on struggling farmers and villagers living downstream must have been survived with extreme difficulty. Davis observes, nevertheless, that after the post-war depression passed away, "southern reconstruction and northern industrial growth were simultaneous, 1865 to 1876. By the advent of the seventies, an entirely new period in Pittsburgh's industrial development was in the

52 Baldwin, 219. 53 Davis, 61. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 305

making." 54 Frey recalls the significant facts that "In1868 the Mellon brothers entered the realty and lumber business in East Liberty In 1866 Thomas had loaned prestige to the Peoples Savings Bank by becoming President .... On Jan. 2, 1870, the private banking firm of T.Mellon &Sons opened its doors on Smithfield Street." 55 Fisher comments, however, that the soon forthcoming nation-wide "great depressions of 1874 to 1879, [were] a positive sign of basic changes which were to come in the American economic and social system." Happily, Pittsburgh was more prosperous than the remainder of the nation during these years. 56 Fisher adds that "The Granger Movement, which started just prior to the crisis, was given its big impetus by this depression. The Greenback Party, in violent support of currency inflation,reacted to the limitation and contraction of currency practiced by the Grant ad- ministration .... This movement became mixed with that of the Grangers, who, in confusion, felt that 'free* silver would aid their cause by raising agricultural prices ... ." 57 Fisher observes further that "The commercial side of business showed surprisingly steady prices, especially in food and grain .... Such items as apples, butter, coffee, corn, potatoes, rye and eggs maintained fairly high prices from 1874 to early 1876. Failures of a business nature increased moderately, and astonishment was evoked when the unusually good harvest in the autumn of 1874 did not revive business as had been expected." 58 Davis notes nevertheless that "In1884 the 'Iron City' was the ninth leading center of financial importance in the nation." 59 This financial center must therefore have had an important stabilizing effect on the economy of the region, whether or not this fact was fully realized by those dwelling in the more rural areas up and down the river valleys. As the century advanced, the commercial and financial interrelationships of the city withregions to the west and south became so commonplace as to be assumed inmany respects without comment.

54 Ibid., 97. 55 Frey, 150-151. 56 Douglas Fisher, "Economic Impact of the Market Crisis of 1875 and the De- pression of 1873 to 1879 on the Pittsburgh Area," unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1958, 1, 2. 57 Ibid., 3. 58 Ibid., 44. 59 Davis, 121. 306 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

Pittsburgh as a Center for the Distribution of Agricultural Products and Livestock With all the traditional emphasis on industrial strength it is often overlooked that Pittsburgh has long been an indispensable center for the distribution of farm products, especially for the people residing to the south and west. Harpster quotes the 1804 observations of a Swiss farmer who visited Pittsburgh :"European emigrants would find within a few miles of here that there are still very fine pieces of properties and dairies for sale .... Besides, very many landowners lend their lands to people who are careful and hard-working in return for half the yield, and in addition furnish them with cattle and agricultural implements." 60 The community was stillpredominantly rural. In the year 1800 only 1565 residents had been counted in the town. In 1807, according to Frey, the dozen Pittsburgh newspapers "were six pence an issue, with farm produce often accepted in lieu of cash. Beef was three cents a pound, veal seven cents, pork three cents, a hunch of venison fifty cents, and a flitch of bear meat one dollar. Butter was fourteen cents a pound, eggs five cents a dozen, milk three cents a quart .... Oysters were an expensive delicacy, and .... they were eaten the year round. An 'oyster express/ a light wagon loaded with live oysters imbedded in straw and kept moistened with salt water, made through trips from Baltimore to Pittsburgh. The horses were changed frequently, but the driver drove all night without stopping. At Pittsburgh, 61 the oysters were transferred to swift boats and shipped to Cincinnati, where they were placed in tanks of salt water and corn meal and kept alive for months." 62 Cramer's Navigator of 1821 remarked: "Ido not see why loaf and lump sugar could not be manufactured from our maple sugar as good as that produced from the West India sugar cane." 63 In the Gazette's issues of the mid-1820's, price quotations were given regularly on bacon, butter, cheese, feathers, flour,grain (wheat, barley, rye, corn), hemp, hides, leather, lard, pork, potatoes, salt, soap, tobacco, tallow, wax, wool, whiskey, and yarn. By 1830, this list had been extended to include beans, biscuit, beer, coffee, cotton goods, 60 Harpster, 248, 249. 61 Much later, in1886, the Pittsburgh newspapers were printing the schedules of the Pennsylvania Railroad, including "Main line westward. Trains leaving Union Station. Oyster Express, except Monday, 6:10 a.m." 62 Frey, 81, 85. 63 The Navigator, Eleventh edition (Cramer and Spear, Pittsburgh, 1821), 14. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 307 flaxseed oil, flax, flannels, fish (herring, shad, mackerel), indigo, molasses and tea. On July 9, 1830, the Pittsburgh Gazette observed editorially that "Mr.Dickinson's flock of Merino Sheep willbe sold, at Steubenville, on the 10th day of September next. This flock is admitted to be one of the best, if not the very best, in the United States." Cramer's 1817 report on the Steubenville Woolen Mills,already quoted, is supple- mented by Cumings' 1829 reference to "a very large and justly celebrated woolen Factory, at which 60,000 pounds of wool are annually manufactured into cloth. Large flocks of sheep of the Merino breed are owned by the neighboring farmers and by the proprietor of the establishment, which has several times obtained the premium for the best specimens of cloth manufactured in the United States." 64 On August 27, 1830, a Gazette editorial reported with a degree of wistful credulity that "a man named Clark advertises in the Wells- burgh Gazette, that he purchased, from a German gentleman, a receipt for keeping cider from souring, and for restoring that which had be- come hard to its original sweetness." Itseemed worthy of editorial comment in the Gazette of March 25, 1831, that "The fine Steer, Guyasuthe, fatted by Harmar Denny, Esq., was weighed on Wednesday last .... twenty-two hundred and twelve pounds." On August 5 of that year Frederick Rapp of Economy reported the theft of two horses from his premises, advertising that "Areward willbe given, of Twenty-Five Dollars, for the Horses, or Fifty Dollars, for the Horses and Thief." The Farmer's Almanac for 1833 included many pages of rules for sowing crops, planting schedules month by month, and work out- lines for other kinds of farm labor scheduled throughout the year.65 Gazette issues of 1834 carried a card offering"ToLet. A Spacious Cellar .... near the Boat Landings. In this .... may be salted 2 to 3 hundred thousand weight of Pork .... also .... a Brick Smoke House .... in which 80,000 lbs. of Bacon may be hung." Advertise- ments carried in the spring of 1836 promoted "C. Evans' Combined —Farmers' Mill.Southern Planters and Farmers generally take notice That the subscribers, having invented a new Millfor the purpose of grinding Corn and Cobs, Corn Meal,Rye, Wheat, Oats and Plaster, are now prepared to fillorders for the same .... This Millis arranged

64 Samuel Cumings, The Western Pilot (Cincinnati, 1829), 13. 65 The Western Farmer's Almanac, calculated by the Rev. John Taylor for the meridian of Pittsburgh (H. Holdship & Son, Pittsburgh, 1833). 308 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

with a horse power of very simple construction." The Pittsburgh Horticultural Society announced that at its Spring Exhibition on June 7 of that year, premiums of from 2 to 5 dollars would be given for the best in each line of 19 kinds of vegetables, 8 kinds of fruit,and 10 kinds of flowers and flowering shrubs. Davis writes that "InJanuary 1850 a Quaker farmer whose resi- dence was some hundred miles distant in Ohio, offered to supply a portion of the city's need for turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens regularly during the year. Since his home was near the river he reached Pittsburgh on the packets .... During the first two weeks of open navigation in the spring of each year, the bulk of stored farm produce, surplus to the city's needs, was shipped aboard the steamboats .... At New Orleans, Memphis and Natchez, the surplus products of the Smoky City were in demand." He reports that in the year 1854-55 Pittsburgh handled 344,844 bushels of wheat, 174,874 bushels of corn, and 169,892 bushels of oats. 66 Fisher says that "the city was a .... shipping point for grains and vegetables of all sorts, which were grown in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio .... [in 1873-79] receipts of most grains were fairly high in the city, especially in the latter part of the depression when the huge mid- western plains were opened to improved transportation techniques. The local markets for vegetables and meats were centered in Market Street, and other shops were scattered along Penn Avenue." 67 Baldwin in reviewing those times writes that "at two or three o'clock in the morning the farmers' wagons began to lumber in from the country .... From the fertile market gardens on Neville Island or 'Shirties' [Chartiers] Creek appeared flat-bottom 'John boats' piled high with melons and green groceries." 68 In the latter half of the century the newspapers regularly carried current quotations on the prices not only of cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry, but also of game, wheat, hay, apples, butter, beans, cheese, eggs, potatoes, honey, various fruits and vegetables. These Pittsburgh market reports were quoted weekly in such downriver newspapers as the Wellsburg Weekly Herald and the New Cumberland Independent. Against this background, itis interesting to note the kind of pro- cedure involved for a downriver farmer in delivering and selling his agricultural products in Pittsburgh, as shown in the following entries

66 Davis, 2, 3, 13, 28. 67 Fisher, 8. 68 Baldwin, 268. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 309 made in the 1882 diary of Lyman Stedman of Brown's Island : June 1. A letter from [Captain] Edie of [steam packet] 'Batchelor' reports Marshall, Kennedys and Co.69 willpay $1.40 for Fultz and $1.35 for Clawson wheat, but do not want it until next week. June 10. 'Batchelor' left 200 bags for wheat. June 12. Fill*61 Bags Clawson wheat and 121 Bags Fultz. June 13. Shipped per 'C, W. Batchelor' to Marshall, Kennedys & Co. Pitt. 69 Bags" =160^ Bu." Clawson Wheat 121 " =272>y2 Fultz 1 = 10 empties June 19. Rec'd from Marshall Kennedys &Co. a/c of wheat 156^ Bu." Clawson @ 1.35 less fr't. 17.32 274% Fultz @ 1.40 N.P. $577.53 June 20. Sent M.&K's check onPitt to Nat'l Ex.Bk. Steub. The Stedman diary, on another subject, and for another part of the Valley, reports in 1883 : Sept. 14 We attended 'State Fair' on the lower end of Wheeling Isl'd. A very creditable display of Stock from Ohio & Penn but very little from W.Va. In the later years of the century, because so many Pittsburgh residents owned carriage horses, and the wealthier ones maintained more extensive stables, there was in the area much breeding and trading of fine horses. Some of these animals were brought by steamboat from the lower Ohio River country, along with cattle and other livestock. 70 Farmers living in closer proximity could drive their stock to the town which was becoming a city.

Pittsburgh as a Center of River, Canal y Rail and Highway Transport The development of various kinds of transportation, all intimately 69 Marshall, Kennedy & Co. (Pittsburgh and Allegheny City Flouring Mills), 15th and Liberty, and 148 S. Canal. Diffenbacher's Directory, 1884, 568. 70 While this article was being written, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of October 10, 1963, carried a news story indicating that this city continues to play such a role, even in the present industrial age :"A little wobbly but other- wise healthy after a 2400 mile waterborne trip from Texas, 500 cattle arrived in Pittsburgh last night, bound for a Chester County farm Their home during the past month has been the triple deck barge Lulu Belle .... as part of a tow pushed by Union Barge Lines Towboat Northern. Last night, another towboat picked up the Lulu Belle and took the cattle up the Monongahela to Elizabeth .... next comes a truck ride over the Pennsylvania Turnpike." The same newspaper on May 9, 1964, reported that "a barge carrying 740 cross-bred Santa Gertrudis steers pulled into the Howell Brothers Landing at Elizabeth yesterday after a .... trip from Corpus Christi.... for sale in the eastern markets the herd willbe loaded into 24 trucks." 310 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

interrelated with expansion of Pittsburgh commerce and industry, has received considerable mention above. Issues of the Pittsburgh Gazette of the 1820's, in reporting arrivals and departures at the Port of Pittsburgh, listed keelboats and flatboats as well as steamboats. Keelboats of from 20 to 35 tons brought upstream from Wheeling, Steubenville, Yellow Creek, "Liverpool," and Beaver their cargoes of flour, lead, shot, hemp, tobacco, bacon, cotton and whiskey. The average steamboat size in those years was 100 tons. Among early "Steam boats" frequently mentioned were the Rambler, America, William Penn, Bolivar, Citizen, Paul Pry, Erie, Monongahela, Baltimore, La Grange, Reindeer, Sylph, Potomac, Seventy-Six, Mohican, Native, Lady Franklin, Herald, Mexico, Ohio, Miami,New Velocipede, Courier, Congress, Rufus Putnam, President, General Brown, Pittsburgh, Plow Boy, Eliza, General Pike. As these passed up and down the Ohio they reminded observers living in the Valley about the great port at the head of the stream. The historical, geographical, political, literary, personal and sentimental connotations of the names are interesting to contemplate. There were changes from year to year in the lists of boats arriving and departing, and to a considerable extent these resulted from the loss of craft due to boiler explosions, collisions with snags and rocks, and other disasters. The stories of these accidents 71 were told and retold up and down the valleys. On May 13, 1825, the Gazette observed under "Steam Boat News" that "Itappears from the books of the Pennsylvania that no less than 480 persons took passage in her for the different points on her last voyage down and up." This note hints the extent to which service was given to downriver residents by the steamers. The distant destination most frequently listed by steam packets departing from Pittsburgh in those times was Louisville. By 1831 New Orleans was often mentioned. There was much talk up and down the river about canals built and building. The Gazette of October 31, 1823, quotes the Steubenville Herald concerning "a respectable meeting of the citizens of the County of Jefferson, Ohio," when enthusiastic endorsement was given to the "project of uniting the waters of the Ohio and the Potomac [via Pittsburgh] by means of canals." 71 The Gazette ofMarch 19, 1830, quoted from the Kanawha Register a tabulation of 321 steam boats built on the Western Waters between 1821 and 1829. Of these, 133 were said to be out of commission, as follows: worn out 57, lost by snags 35, burned 14, lost by collision2, by other accidents 25. PITTSBURGH 1964 AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 311

Before long the Pennsylvania Canal was coming into service. By late 1829 the Gazette was listing canal boat as well as steam boat arrivals and departures. From 8 to 12 canal boats were reported in each semi-weekly list.Byearly 1830 as many as 27 canal boat arrivals were listed for a 10-day period. The Gazette of those days was carrying an advertisement for Leech's New Line of Canal Boats to Blairsville. The freight for the whole distance was 20 cents per hundredweight, and passenger fare was two cents per mile. Harris' 1841 Directory listed a dozen "Canal Lines, Offices and Agents." On December 31, 1824, the Pittsburgh Post Office announced in the Gazette the "Arrivals and Departures of the Mails," as follows : "The Beaver mail arrives from Cleveland (O.) on Monday and Friday at 6 p.m. and from Wooster (O.) on Monday at 6 p.m. and closes immediately at sunset. The Steubenville mail arrives on Tuesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. and closes same days at sunset." The Gazette issues of early February, 1830, when the rivers were frozen, carried numerous notices such as this one, that "The Steam Boat Shamrock .... willleave for Saint Louis on the opening of the navigation." On February 19 the editor wrote: "Our Rivers are still closed with ice, but are rising slowly, and we confidently predict that they will open for navigation on the 22nd inst." On the 23rd he effused :"the river was open for navigation on the 22nd instant, as we had predicted .... many strangers from the West have been detained here, waiting with much impatience for the opening of the rivers. Our gratification at the recommencement of navigation is heightened, in no small degree, by the evident pleasure which beams on their countenances. We wish them all safe and speedy returns to their homes." During this same freeze-up, a recurrent advertisement had announced that "The Steam Boat Rahamah will run as a Regular Packet, during the season, between Pittsburgh and Wheeling, twice a week. Leave Pittsburgh every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon, passing Economy, Beaver, Wellsville,Steubenville and Wellsburg the same evenings. Returning, leave Wheeling every Monday and Thurs- day at 11 o'clock a.m., passing Wellsburg and Steubenville the same evenings, and Wellsville on Tuesday and Friday mornings and Beaver and Economy on Tuesday and Friday afternoons." This schedule reflects the slower progress made upstream. The senior author well re- members how the packets (of later years) adhered to such weekly schedules. They could usually be sighted from a downriver town at 312 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER or near the expected times. On March 15 of that year the Gazette noted that "The Steam Boat Talisman left our city on the evening of the 22d of February, about six o'clock, witha fullcargo and many passengers, for Nashville. About the same hour on the evening of the 13th instant, she returned to our wharf with a full cargo of cotton &c, thus completing the trip of about two thousand five hundred miles, discharging and receiving cargo at Nashville, in nineteen days. This is not the shortest trip which has been made, but it certainly is a striking exemplification of the advantages which we derive from the use of steam. Twenty years ago it would have required at least ninety days to send a cargo to Nashville and receive a return. Freight going and returning is now one dollar and fiftycents per hundred .... twenty years ago, it would have cost about eight dollars." Later that spring Tillay and Scott of Louisville were advertising in the Gazette regular packet service to "Terre Haute, Lafayette, and all Intermediate Landings" by the steam boats Tippecanoe and Highlander. Also, William Snodes was advertising direct Pittsburgh- Nashville packet service by the steam boats Cora and Commerce. From the summer of that year on into 1831, George A.Dohrman of Steubenville was advertising in the Gazette for "Stagedrivers good horsemasters and first rate reinsmen. For such Iwillpay from $10 to $18 per month." By the summer of 1831 the explanation appeared when Mr. Dohrman began advertising his "Daily Line from Wheeling to Pittsburgh &c. by Steam Boat and Stage. This line runs through from Wheeling, via Wellsburgh and Steubenville, to Pitts- burgh, and from thence to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Lake Erie, &c, &c. The Mail Steam Boat runs between Wheeling and Steubenville. Leaves Wheeling daily, at 9 o'clock in the evening, and arrives at Steubenville at 3 o'clock in the morning .... The mail departs from Steubenville in the stage at 4 o'clock am, and arrives in Pittsburgh at 1 pm. Returning [schedule details given] .... the steamboat is light, not drawing above 12 inches water, and can run at all stages of the river. It is fitted up in the most commodious manner, with births [sic] &c. so that the traveller can enjoy a good night's sleep." In 1833 the Mediterranean and the Boonslick were steamers be- ingadvertised in the Gazette for the New Orleans run. In 1834 this newspaper announced that "The Steam Boat Beaver has formed a connection with the Canal Packet Boat Alpha, plying on the Beaver River Canal, between Beaver and Newcastle, by which passengers 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 313 and freight are carried through from Pittsburgh to Newcastle in 12 hours!" William Pettit wrote from Wellsville, Ohio, on "21st of 6th Mo. 1835," as follows :"Nobetter way to travel than on the boat. Thee can leave at 7 a.m. any morning. $1.50 to Pittsburgh on the Pitt-Packet and 25 for dinner .... Ifthe bargain ismade, $1.50 and found elegantly.... and arrive at 5 or 6 p.m 2 cents a day buys a pint of milk delivered at the room in the morning, and as much at night .... i.e., 4 cents a quart .... For every lb of flour Ifurnish the baker he will deliver as we need it a lb. of bread ... ."72 Winfield "Shiras records the memories of George Shiras, Sr., who beginning in 1837 with the purchase of his downriver farm near the present Baden, in Beaver County, had heard "the hoarse whistles of packet steamers straining for speed on the river ;the cries of boatmen ; the rumble of farm wagons along the valley road," and had seen "the procession of towboats pulling heavily laden barges of coal ;the timber rafts piled high with logs from forests on the hillsides of the Allegheny and Monongahela ;the keelboats and flatboats loaded with cargoes of every description, riding the current down to faraway New Orleans ; the little stern-wheel steam tubs thrashing and panting against the stream, inching their way up to Pittsburgh, and at night, the glow of steamboat furnaces .... the showers of sparks .... the lonely lanterns of small craft creeping between the black hills." 73 This rather colorful language doubtless reflects quite well the mood of many observers in what was a period of considerable romance. Baldwin reports that along the Monongahela wharf "it was nothing unusual for thirty steamboats to arrive in a day, and in the decade before the Civil War arrivals were averaging close to three thousand a year .... the favored packets were up-to-date luxury liners of the inland waters, scrupulously overhauled and repainted every season, and furnished withpier glasses, rosewood and mahogany furniture, and carpets with piles so deep that passengers might well have thought they were walking on bearskins. Their menus and wine lists would have delighted an epicure." 74 Demorest observes that .... "Great excitement was provided when railroads reached the city and October [1852] saw the com- pletion of the connection with Philadelphia. This was a blow to much 12 WPHM, Winter 1956, Historical Society Notes, 314. 73 Winfield Shiras, Justice George Shiras, Jr., of Pittsburgh (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1953), 22, 26. 74 Baldwin, 189, 190. 314 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER of the river trade and many owners of the packet lines sold their boats, fearful that the railroads would take all their trade from them." 75 Davis writes that "The Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad between Allegheny and New Brighton opened in October 1851. This was Pittsburgh's first railroad .... about 1855 the railroads caught up withthe canals which had done so much for the development of central and western Pennsylvania. The canals were sold by the state in 1857 to the railroad companies." 76 Lumber floated in rafts continued to be a major kind of river commerce. The 1859 journal of Theodore L. Putnam is quoted by Miller. Having ridden a raft down the Allegheny from Warren, April2 found him ready to leave the Pittsburgh area. "We left the stone house at daybreak this morning, had good luck all day, passed the several towns of Freedom, Economy, Wellsville, and at dark we landed on the point below the mouth of Yellow Creek." The next day was too inclement for further progress, but "The Steamer Stephen Decatur just passed on her way to Pitt, it being the first side wheel boat we have seen this season. She was loaded to the guards. Her loading was principally cotton .... Some of the boys took the pains to measure the dimensions of our raft .... found the surface to con- tain one acre eighty-five rods and fifteen feet. It contains sixteen hundred thousand feet of boards, two hundred thousand feet of shingles and five hundred thousand lath." On April 5, after three stormy days "The wind calmed about nine o'clock. We thought we could keep her off the banks, so we untied the lines, fought her for twenty-five miles, and at five o'clock blew ashore just below the village of Wellsburg." 77 On March 1, 1864, George McCandless Porter left home in New Cumberland, crossed the river by skiff and took a "Cand P" train for Pittsburgh at noon. He wrote in his diary : Stop a half hour at Rochester at a brickmakers meeting. Nothing done of consequence. Keep on to P. on same train.... Put up at Monongahela House ....Mrs. Lewis [his late wife's mother] expected to leave on the Minerva for Pitt. Did not come with her owing to the danger of taking cold sleeping on the boat. Davis' account continues :"After 1870 the expansion of the Penn- sylvania Railroad west of Pittsburgh continued rapidly. The most important gains in the seventies were the purchase of great lines reaching 75 Rose Demorest, Pittsburgh: a Bicentennial Tribute, 1758-1958 (Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 1958), 24. 76 Davis, 47, 49-50. — 77 Ernest C. Miller, "Down the Rivers A Rafting Journal of 1859 WPHM, XL (Fall 1957), 156, 157. 1964 PITTSBURGH AS VIEWED FROM DOWN RIVER 315

west from Pittsburgh to St. Louis and northwest to Chicago. This system, the Tan-Handle' Route, later the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, was a consolidation of several independent properties." 78 The first Panhandle train to reach Steubenville arrived in 1865. Of the post-war era, Davis writes that "Several of Pittsburgh's 'coal kings' possessed fleets of coal vessels of such magnitude as to produce amazement .... In 1881 the boating interests of Pittsburgh were represented by 163 passenger steamboats and towboats, 45 model barges, 1500 coal barges, 500 coal boats, and 1000 coal flat boats. The total tonnage of the commerce of these boats was 1,359,972 tons/' 79 Davis further observes that "Pittsburgh's river commerce ex- tending into 23 states of the Union,80 analagous to Cleveland's lake commerce, was larger and more important than that of the Ohio port. The Iron City was an inland Liverpool, whose commercial facilities placed her in communication with her consumers of her product in every inhabitable part of the globe." 81 Construction of the Davis Island Dam six miles below Pittsburgh's Point furnished a haven for the boats and barges of the whole district after 1885 at all times whether river stages permitted downstream travel or not. Another extract from the Stedman diary gives a further glimpse of the manner in which the Ohio Valley farmer availed himself of the river packet service : Dec. 15, 1884. Sed [his son] and self finished nailing apple Bbls. Sent S. to Steub. on 4 pm Train to telephone to James A. Henderson, 82 64 Water St., Pitt., Agt. of Cin. & Pitt. Packet Line — reports the 'Stockdale' in port and — l willleave by 8 pm Allhands went to work at 7/2 pm &hauled down 110 Bbls apples to S. B. Landing by W/2 pm. Sat up the rest of the night for the 'Stockdale' Dec. 16. 'Katie-Stockdale' came down at Noon. & Shipped on her 110 Bbl. apples for Alexn. Call to Taylor & Powell, Memphis Tenn. at 45 ct per bbl [freight]. Letter to Taylor &Powell, Memphis, enclosing BillLading of apples. Itisprobable that as of that date there were only a few telephones available in Steubenville at the larger industrial and commercial establishments including the railroad. 78 Davis, 138. 79 Ibid., 126. 80 Downriver ports could of course send as wellas receive freight through these agencies. Thus the Hancock County Independent of New Cumberland, West Virginia,noted on April6, 1887, that "McMahan, Porter &Co. shipped 200 tons of sewer pipe on Gray's Iron Line barge Bellaire, for Memphis, last week." 81 Davis, 115. 82 James A. Henderson, 94 Water Street, Agent of Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line. "Grain, mill feed, hay, straw, flour, lime." Diffenbacher's Directory, 1884, 415. 316 STANTON C. CRAWFORD AND MARY C. BROWN OCTOBER

Among the other steamboats named incidentally by Stedman as stopping at or passing Brown's Island between 1880 and 1885 were the Abner O'Neal** Clipper, Emma Graham, James Gilmore, Heathering- ton, Chattahoochie, Garrett, Diurnal, Telegram, Hunter, Burdette, Will G. Hays, St. Lawrence, Anderson, Iron Age, Clifton, Willis Austen, Elaine, Hibernia and Scotia. He mentioned on July 4, 1882, the passage downstream of the excursion steamer Scioto, which collided later that same day with the John homos and sank with great loss of life. He frequently mentions the smaller shallow-draft local packets G. P. Wells, Pres. Ellison, Lettie,24 and Return. He also names special purpose boats such as the U. S. Beacon Light Tender Lily,and the produce boat Friendly.

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83 Nathan Wintringer of Steubenville was at different times captain of the Abner O'Neal and of the C. W.Batchelor, previously mentioned, according to Mary Donaldson Sinclair in Pioneer Days (Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., Strasburg, Virginia, 1962), 18. 84 Concerning the Lettie, and the Stockdale, previously mentioned, the Hancock County Independent of New Cumberland, W. Va., on April 6, 1887, reported: "Capt. Shane has under consideration the matter of running the Lettie through to East Liverpool. She is now in excellent condition .... and she could make the run .... in good time.... A new brick machine, of the latest and most approved make was put off the steamer Katie Stock- dale, on Sunday [from Pittsburgh], for the Etna brick works." The next issue of this weekly newspaper reported on April 13 that .... "The Relief Towboat Co. is loading four hundred tons of 8-inch gas pipe at Pittsburgh for the Ohio Valley Gas Company. The pipe will be brought to Cumberland."