THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEYTHE VILLAGE OF ISE,WICKLEY
Road, just above Shousetown. Two other buildings of this
same brick are still standing in the borough; one on Broad
Street, built by D. N. White and long occupied by him, is now
the Dorian Club; the other, located on Pine Road, next to the
J. M. Tate residence, was built by Mr. MeKnight in 1866.
Judge Warner died in 1873, leaving the Osburn house to
his daughter by will. The Warner home was sold by the
executors to Mrs. Harriet Gilmore, wife of Capt. David Gilmore. Here Capt. Gilnore, with his wife and sisters-in-law,
Miss Little and Mrs. Mudie, lived for many years. Next door,
in the house now owned by Don Rose, Esq., lived another
retired river-man, Capt. George W. Cochran, one time burgess
and the especial patron of our volunteer firemen whose organization still loyally bears his name as the Cochran Hose Company. The next neighbor of the Osburns to the east and across
Graham Street was Jehul P. Smith whose house was on the
site later occupied by Mrs. Heck's residence. Mr. Smith, in
1864, bought the house in an unfinished condition from the
executors of John Irwin of Irwin Avenue, Allegheny. These
four families with two or three more on either side of the
railroad comprised all that there was of Sewickley in that
immediate neighborhood.
May, 1925.
98A FERRY TALECLOSE UNDER THE HILLSIDE RAN A CHARMING COIUNTRY RIOADA JFERRY TALE
T'IIE STORY OF THE LASI:ELL AND STOOPS FERRIES
A\H:EN the Ohio River bridge was opened to traffic in 1911
it put out of service two ferries, Lashell's and Stoops', the one
at the foot of Chestnut, the other at Ferry Street, which had
long served a public need; now they are but a memnory. The
lands of Jacob Lashell and William  Stoops adjoined on the
south side of the river, the two properties having together a
river frontage of approximnately 3,000 feet.  Close under the
precipitous hillside and at some elevation above the shore line
ran a charming country road bordering the two estates and
forming a part of the highway between Middletown (now Coraopolis) and the Narrows Run valley.
Lashell was the earlier landholder of the two and his was
probably the first of the two ferries, for the twenty-five acre
tract which he bought, April 8, 1847, from Caleb and Eliza
Jeffers, adjoining other lands of his which ran back from the
river "by the meanderings of Griffith's (or Guffie's) run," was
the same for which Itenry lTlery on February 14, 1793, received
the patent wherein the tract is called "The Ferry."  (Guffie's
Rlun, " the well-nigh forgotten name of the little stream  that
tumbles down the ravine a short distance above Stoops Ferry,
where formerly the road tookl a sharp bend inward, passing over
a wooden bridge at the foot of "Buttermilk Falls.") Henry
Ulery, it will be recalled, was the first white settler on the land
which is now part of Sewickley.  He held "The Ferry" till
Decemiber 13, 1.814, wNhen he conveyed to Andrew Boggs, from
whom Caleb Jeffers bought it, October 7, 1834, and Jeffers, as
was said, sold i.t to Jacob LIashell. It is of interest to note that
Henry Ulery, "yeoman," acknowledged his deed before John
WVay, Justice of the Peace; John Way, who was the son of Caleb
Way and grandfather of John Way, Jr., and who in 1810, built
the brick house on Beaver Road, below Sand Hill.THE WILLIA,M STOOPS IIOUiSEA FERRY TALE
The chain of title ending with William Stoops, on the other
hand, begins with a patent to Andrew Boggs, dated January
1st, ]1835. From him the land passed to an Andrew Beggs in
July of that year, who held it till the year 1857, and he it was
who in 1841 built on the property the substantial stone dwelling house that still stands under the cliff-quarry a short
distance from the turn of the road back of Stoops Ferry
station.  Andrew Beggs wTas succeeded by his son Andrew
who in 1862 sold to Thomas S. Guy, but long after he had
parted with the property the stone house continued to be
known as "the Beggs house."
It does not appear who first operated a ferry at this point
but it seems certain that Thomas or "Seat" Guy as he was
called and his father, Jacob, did, though no mention of ferry
rights occurs in the deed of Thomas S. and Leonore Guy to William Stoops whichl is dated MAay 26th, 1869. Lashell's ferry then
would seem to have the longer pedigree; but be that as it mnay,
Stoops ferry undoubtedly was the older and more frequented.
crossing point, being directly opposite the mouth of the
Narrows run ravine by w,ay of which, tradition says, the
Indians passed to and fro betwTeen the trail which is now the
Brodhead Road and the great Fort Pitt, Fort McIntosh, Sandusky, Detroit trail which skirted the river on its northern
shore. The Narrows run ravine was a natural gatewvay to the
Indian country lying north and east of the Ohio, river, and
the canoe here furnished the connecting link between two
great and well marked trails.
It was in the year 1865 that William Stoops and his wife,
Nancy, moved to Sewickley from the home of their pioneer
ancestors on the banks of Chartiers Creek. The story of Jenny
Stoops, great-grandmother of William, as told in Charles
McKnight's Our Western Border and as handed down by
tradition in the family today, is a thrilling one. Jennie and her
husband, James Stoops, lived in a cabin some five umiles distant
from Fort Pitt. It was in the summer of 1780, during the husband's absenee at the fort, that the Indians in a night attack
burned the cabin and made off with Jennie and her baby boy.
103TH!:E VILLAGE OF,SEWICKLEY
James on his return followed their trail down the river,
crossing, it is believed, at the very place where, years later,
Stoops Ferry was to be located. The Indians were evidently
following the Fort McIntosh trail, and Stoops pressed forward
with his companions hoping to overtake the band. It happened
that Captain Sam Brady, General Brodhead's trusted scout
and friend of the settlers, wvas returning from an expedition
to the north. Approaching Fort McIntosh from the north
he was following the trail when suddenly he was aware of a
number of Indians advancing on horseback. He hid and as
they drew near he saw that one of the savages was carrying a
baby while another had mounted behind him, a white woman.
Catching the woman's eye Brady motioned to her to hold
her head back and, aiming at the Indian, he fired and killed
him, seized the woman and made his escape. Being himself
disguised as an Indian, the woman said to him, "Why did you
kill your brother?' He replied, "Jennie Stoops, don't you
know me, Captain Sam Brady?"  Jennie and her husband
were soon re-united but nothing was heard of the child for
three years. One evening an old Indian came to their cabin
and asked them to trade him a gun and a white horse, offering to tell them where the boy was. A bargain was struck and the
lad was brought back, but he had become so used to Indian ways
that it was long before he could be made to feel at home or be
persuaded to sleep indoors. The child grew to manhood and was
the grandfather of William Stoops of Stoops Ferry.
Mr. Stoops on comning to Sewickley bought from Capt. John
C. Anderson a sixty foot lot on Beaver Street, east of Division
Street with the brick dwelling which had been Capt. Anderson's home for eight years. We of today remember it as
Dr. Chantler's house, formerly occupying the site of the present
residence of Mr. George R. IMcDonald, No. 537 Beaver Street.
Here Mr. Stoops had as his next door neighbor Mr. John
Miller who well remembers him today. Down by the river at
the foot of Ferry Street was a sawmill owned and operated by
Joe Banks, Samuel MeMNaster and Ilenry Warner which they
104A FERRY TALE
had bought from "Seat" Guy and his father "Jake."  This
sawmill William Stoops bought, and soon thereafter he purchased from Guy the ferry rights and the land across the river
with the stone dwelling house, where he made his home, and
where he died on August 20th, 1879.
Jacob Lashell and William Stoops did not actually operate
their ferries. Each employed a ferryman to handle the skiffs
and flats. Mr. Jolly who for so many years ran Lashell's ferry
will be remembered by many who can picture him as he rowed
leisurely across the river, sitting sideways on the thwart for
the purpose of more easy expectoration down stream. Do any
recall Syd Sawyer, MAr. Stoop's ferryman, a silent philosopher
who knew every skiff, barge, towboat and packet on the river?
Close to the stone dwelling house there was a country store
the site of which is now covered by the tracks of the Lake
Erie railroad; a little country store where folks came to trade
and gossip; farmers down from Sharon (now Carnot), with
butter, eggs and berries. It was on a bench in front of this
store that Syd Sawyer, the ferryman, sat all day long silently
chewing his natural leaf Virginia tobacco and whittling a
stick. Here he had a full view of all the river craft and could
respond to a hail fromn either shore summoning him to his intermittent duties as ferryman.
Entrusting the ferry to Sawyer, Mr. Stoops devoted himself to the busy life of a river captain. He owned and ran
at different times several steamboats; the last one, which he
had built at Pringle's boatyard up the Monongahela, he named
the J. S. Pringle, after its builder. It was of unusual design,
having two engines and tAwo stern wheels, one of which could
be stopped or reversed while the other went ahead thus enabling
the boat to "turn on a ten cent piece."  The only other boat
on the river of similar design had been built by Samuel Young,
father of Mr. Ezra Young of Edgeworth.
The J. S. Pringle ran in the Pittsburgh-St. Louis trade
carrying passengers and 700 to 800 tons of freight. Captain
Stoops ran also to New Orleans, and was active in his river
interests down to the time of his death in 1879. In only one
105106            THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
WILLIAM STOOPS
(Photograph by Sperber)
venture did he fail of success. He made the experiment of a
steam ferry, but the amount of business did not justify the expense, and moreover the operator was required to carry a pilot s
license, which was a bit beyond Syd Sawyer's attainments.
Five years after Captain Stoops's death his widow parted
with the title to the property and the old stone house came
into the possession of one Jeremiah Mleek, who took by the
same conveyance "all the rights, liberties, privileges and
franchises connected with or necessary to the proper enjoyment of the ferry-etc."  The naming of the station "StoopsA FERRY TALE                107
JACOB LASHELL
(Photograph by Dabbs)
Ferry" by the Pittsburgh  Lake Erie Railroad has preserved
the historic traditions which were also recognized in the
chartering of the Stoops Ferry Bridge Company in 1903 by
Joseph W. Craig, Charles W. Baker and Percy L. Craig. This
project, capitalized at $100,000.00, came to naught as did two
other incorporations by the same gentlemen in that year, the
Crescent Bridge Company and the Osborne Bridge Company,
proposing to cross the river at Leetsdale and at Glen Osborne.
Jacob Lashell looked to the river for a livelihood as did
William Stoops, though in a different fashion. He had theSE'WICKTIEY: A HISTORICAL SKETCHTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
income from his ferry and his earnings as mate on one or
another of the river steamboats, but more important than
these sources of gain were his ventures down the river, as far
as New Orleans, carrying potatoes and other farm  produce
which he bought on Neville Island and floated down in flat
boats which he had built for the purpose. Arrived at the end
of his journey he would sell the fiat for its lumber and come
north to repeat the operation another year.
He was an enterprising man; his versatility was shown
when he gathered together a string of horses and drove them
over the mountains to Philadelphia for sale. He died April 11,
1886, since when most of his land has passed into other hands,
though descendants still retain some. In 1892 his sons John
and George with two other inecorporators secured a charter
for the Lashell Ferry Company "located more than 3000 feet
from any other ferry."  Then in 1911 the highway bridge was
built, and the Lashell and Stoops ferries both passed into the
limbo of half-forgotten things.
September, 1928.
108HARBAUGH'S POND-ITARBAUGH'S POND
AN OLD SEWICKLEY PLAY CENTER
THEY are filling in Harbaugh's pond. You don't hear this
shouted from. the house-tops nor yet discussed in whispers.
In fact, nobody notices it or cares. "'Harbaugh's Pond" mneans
nothing at all to the present generation. Only the firm that
has the contract for excavating the site of the new hospital
is in the least interested, its truck-loads of earth and shale
finding there a convenient place of disposal. Behind the freight
station and extending eastwardly from Chestnut Street the fill
is gradually approaching street level and soon another old
favorite playground will have completely disappeared.
"Harbaugh's Pond"-that little depression by the roadside?  Yes, but once it was more than that. Formerly there
were only two railroad tracks and the ground fell away immediately back of the station which was located about where
the present freight station now stands, so that the lowland
had quite a respectable width and, extending in length from
Chestnut Street almost to Pine and sometimes quite that far,
it held a considerable body of water. In summer the pond
was the home of hosts of tuneful frogs and the breeding place
of swarms of mosquitoes. (Every bedroom in those days had a
hook in the ceiling above thle bed from which hung a mosquito
bar that swept to the floor.) The bottom of the pond was of
blue clay, too sticky and tenacious for pleasant wading and apt
to seize and hold the pole of any daring youngster who pushed
his raft out on a voyage to the muskrat island off-shore.
In winter time the pond was at its best, for then it was gay
with skaters boys and girls and an occasional grown-up, all on
strapped skates. Today, above the rising tide of earth, still
stands on the south bank the old locust tree where we used
to put on our skates, screwing them round and round till they
wvere fast to the heel, if we hadn't already strapped them toTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
our copper-toed shoes before leaving the warmth of the home
kitchen, clumping down to the pond over the frozen ground.
Some were the envied possessors of "club" skates which fitted
into an iron plate let into the heel and were clamped to the
sole with a key. There were not lacking graceful and expert
skaters. One of the best remembered was Joseph Warren, the
telegrapher and station agent, whose intricate ice patterns
were the admiration of all. Lively hockey games were staged
there by thie older boys, though none had heard it -alled
hockey; it was "shinny," and the best shinny siticks were to be
found on the slope of Cemetery Hill or up at "Miller and
Dickson's."  (What h1as become of that word "haley" by the
way, m:eaning th1e goal.) No, the winters weren't any colder
than those of today, for there is recollection of recurring
thaws when the ice bent underfoot and you skated as on a
carpet, uphill at every stroke, with the water gradually seeping through till yoi made wavaes like a boat. Then suddenly
the strain would become too great and the last venturesome
lad would break through and get a thorough ducking, to the
unbounded delight of the rest of the gang.
The pond was gradu-ally decreasing in size; it had seen its
best days. Even the old muskrat had gone wThose winter honme
in the midst of the waters made an island, convenient for the
skaters' bonfire. Then it was that we listened to the tales of
long ago when the pond was in its heyday of skating carui'vals
at night, of fancy costumes, brilliant lights, bonfires on shore'n' everything. For Harbaugh's pond in the very early'Seventies.--and before-had attained the dignity of a cared-for
and supervised skating rink.  Under a special dispensation
from Mr. Harbaugh, a group of the boys undertook to keep the
ice clear of snow and to police the place generally. They built
a set of steps down from Chestnut Street and put up a small
rest-house with coal stove and skate lockers, all the privileges
of which, together with that of the ice, were secured by the
purchase of a season ticket.  This efficient management continued through several seasons, and the picture of those gay
times is bright in the memory of some today. Ask about it
112HARBAUGH'IS POND
and see the twinkle of merriment as recollection brings back
the ballooning of hoop-skirts and the flashing of peg-top
trousers as the girls and boys of those days frolicked on the
)pond.
In later times the steps and rest-house were no more, and
the main approach to the pond was from Chestnut Street at
the railroad crossing, down a slight grade from  the tracks
by a road that led to a freight siding. John Howard's little
store stood at the corner about on the spot now occupied by
the gateman's tower. "Pop" Howard w-as a colored man,
short and well-rounded, with grayish hair; a kind-hearted
friend of the boys and girls, all of whom were fond of him.
His sign read: "Candy. Pies. Hair Cut," and, desiring one
or another of these commodities, you stepped down  abruptly
into the shop where you were offered a tempting selectioii of
stick candy of the barber pole variety, "lickerish" root and
peppermint "lozengers" from the glass jars on the counter, a
cent's worth the usual purchase. Or he would at your request
dig out from within the show-case pink strips of cocoanut
candy or other of the more perishable stock. Sometimes these
after Pop's handling carrie,l a faint suggestion of bay rum.,
for his barber shop, a little room possibly ten by twelvAe, was
right next to the candy store, a doorway between. Unpretentious it was and primitive in its appointments, the one barber
shop of the town. Today you will find men of rising years
and dignified matrons who recall with a smile the visits they
regularly made in their childhood to Pop Howard's hair cutting establishment. Here as you sat in the operating chair
you looked out through the window upon the waters of the
pond. Fifteen cents was the price of a hair cut; not exorbitant, considering that Pop had a monopoly. Simplicity marked
the interior furnishings, a few chromos on the walls and a
busy woodchopper toy fastened( to the stovepipe and operated
by the heat which rose fromn the stove. Pop furnished no
reading matter to his patrons. The Police Gazette as an innovation came later, introduced by a rival shop-where hair cuts
were raised to twenty cents.
113THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
The last skating on Harbaugh's pond wvas in 1882, or 1883,
for the pond was drained about then by means of a connection made with the sewer on Chestnut Street. Ask George
("Jersey") Little if he remembers it. He should. You'll find
him, one of Sewickley's three surviving Civil War veteralns,
faithfully holding down his job as night watchman on the
Ohio river bridge. "Jersey" and Tomn Cunningham were at
work in the trench that was cut many feet deep in the sandy
loam  when suddenly the sides caved in and buried them.
Feverishly the other men dug down to rescue them. Cunningham was dead when found and smnall hope remained for
Jersey when, most surprisingly, he appeared at the end of
the trench wAThither he hiad crawled through the sewer pipe.
I wonder if he thinkls of that experience as he sees the old
pond being filled( and leveled up.
Harbaugh's pond is gone. It was only a memory anyhow,
and that memory wTe may still cherish even though its very site
has now disappeared un.der the march of progress. It is better
so.
March, i928..7.14.ON THE WAY TO SCIIOOLWhere Mrs. Mudie had her school.  This picture was taken later, in Dr. Benton's timre.ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL
WHAT A LOITERING BOY SAW
ONE of Sewickley's private schools of the late'Seventies
was that conduceted by Mrs. E. L. Mudie in the Episcopal
Sunday School building oni the site of the St. Stephen's Parish
House. It was a one-story frame structure, its floor-plan in
the form  of a cross with the entrance on Vine Street, now
Frederick Avenue, about opposite Dlr. Mitchell's present office.
To the wvest of the school stood the frame church near the
Christy line, while on the Broad Street side was an open lot
shut in by a high paling fence and with boardwalks around
it. Here was ample roomrn for such gamres as "black-man,"
"prisoners' base" and even for a pint-size ball game where
"'over the fence was out.'  Happy were the youngsters who
here received their first initiation into the mysteries of the three
R's at the hands of a kind and gentle teacher.
From all parts of the village the children came. Let us in
imagination accompany the contingent from  below the railroad and note the landmarks as we pass.  There was, first,
Harbaugh's pond, bordering Chestnut Street, with its seductive
allure of muskrat and tadpoles.  At the erossing of the
two railroad tracks stood John Howard's candy store and
barber shop, where you stepped down below the street level to
inspect his stock of candies, and as chewing gum had not yet come
into vogue, a cent's worth of stick candy was the usual purchase.
If time allowed, a side excursion might be indulged in to explore
the dim interior of the pump-house, a high brick building to the
east of the station where two w-ells, popularly believed to be one
hundred feet deep, fascinated one with their hollow reverberations. These wells supplied water for the engines which pulled
up and stopped at the tanks. Tramps frequented this spot, waiting for a lift to points east or west, and here yoll mi'lht read
their records carved on plattornL and on tank timbers, slchTHrE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
pseudonyms as "Kiansas Shorty," "Omaha Bill" and other
dime novel penknife names.  I-tere, too, the long cattle trains
coming in from the west would on hot summer days puff slowly
by so that the suffering animals might be showered with a
gush of cold water.  The passenger station was then located
about where the present freight station stands, to the east of
Chestnut Street.  It was of red brick with a wide wooden
platform  extending out to the rails where stood a tall square
post carrying a red banner-signal at its top.  Benches for
passengers ranged along the wall beneath the porch, while
inside were two waiting rooms, one for men and one for
women and children, with a semi-circular ticket office between
themn where Joseph Warren, station agent and telegrapher,
presided for so many years. Across the tracks was the freight
and baggage platform, four or five steps above street level,
with a small baggage room  at the western end close to the
Chestnut Street sidewvalk.
Leaving the attractions of the railroad and paying heed
to the sign that warns us to "ILook out for the L.ocomotive,"
we cross the tracks, turn west on Bank Street and. pass, on the
left, the old one-story frame building that had formerly been
the station, which now stood about half way between Chestnut
Street and the site of the present one. This building served as
council chamber and jail, the city fathers occupying one room.
and the guests of the municipality the other. You pause to
listen and even -venture to peep in at the w-indow if perchance
you might catch a glimpse of some forlorn dereliet locked in
there to sober up. About where the station now stands there
was a small frame house past which ran the drive that led
across the tracks into the Colonel McKel.vy place, now  the
PI'ark Place Ilotel. The remains of that driveway are still to
be seen, extending from  the station platform  to the trolley
stop.
Now we turn up Broad Street passing Judge White's apple
orchard which reached from  Bank Street to a point nearly
opposite Vine Street with an entranee drivewMay directly across
from the present Dorian Club. This ledl to the White home118ON THE WAY TO S,C;HOOL1
stead, a portion of which still stands on Melville Lane 3urrounded by modern dwellings.  On the Bank Street corner
opposite was the hlome of "Old M~an Reed" wNho earned the
enmity of all youngsters each winter season by sprea(ling
ashes on his sidewalk where we coasted past his entrance gate.
Later we had our revenge, when the old man, then away past
seventy, set forth on a strange].y romnantic treasure hunt somewhere along the Atlantic coast, where his body was later found.
The building now the Dorian Club was then the residence of
D. N. ("Deacon") White, editor of the Pittsburgh Daily
Gazette and widely known as the "Father of the Republican
Party."  (ltie it was who issued the call for the first convention of the party which met in 1856 in old Lafayette Hall at
the corner of Wood Street and Fourth Avenue, Pittsburgh.)
Next to Deacon White's house was an open lot and then on
the corner of Vine Street (nowT Frederick) behind the usual
paling fence and gate posts stood the residence of F. M. Hutchinson, later to be crowned by him with a mansard roof. That
vacant lot wThere now stands the St. James Parochial School
was shut off from view by a fence of wide boards set upright
which could however be scaled in case of necessity, as when
MVir. Hutchinson, captain of some military organization from
the city, drilled his company there, his two sons, also in uniform and gold lace, marching at his side to the anguished envy
of the spectators on the fence top.
We are almost at the school now anld have come to the
Graham house (MIr. Gilchrist's residence today), a clapboarded
dwelling with a low picket fence in front. The gate opens
and little old Prof. Anderson steps out on his way to the
Academy where he is a teacher. We fear that he will be late
as he has a long walk ahead of him and it is almost time for
school to "take in."  Here come the youngsters fromn other
parts of the village hurrying down Broad Street. They have
passed old "Chapultepee" Sample's home (now the Wessenauer FlowTer Shop) where lived our sole surviving veteran of
the Mlexican War, with his wooden leg "mowing the grass"
as we irreverently dubbed his sidewheel gait. Farther on their
119120            THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
way were the homes of Dr. Johnston and Dr. Burns and the
house on the corner of Thorn Street with its woodshed close
to the sidewalk. Across from it stood the old Methodist
church, later to be torn down to make way for the present
building; then came the parsonage' close by, and, a little
further along, the United Presbyterian chuLrch with its twin
spires or towers. Now comne Lent and Easter, side by side,
for John Lent, the florist, lived in the house now the residence
of our burgess, O. S. Richardson, Esq., and next door to Lent,
the Reverend Easter, rector of St. Stephen's.
But we must not keep Mrs. Mudie waiting, although our
tardiness would receive the mildest of reproofs. There she
stands in the doorway, bell in hand; she rings, and we cross
the dusty street, filing into the school-room to take up another
day's march along the HighwAay of Learning.
May, 1928.TI-TE FRIENDLY RIVERTIHE FRIENDLY RIVERTHE FRIENDLY RIVER
RECOLLECTIONS OF BOY LIFE IN AND ON THE OIIO
SEWICKLEY no longer possesses a water-front; the old Ohio
river beach is gone.   The shelving expanse of pebbles that
extended from Glen Osborne to Chestnut Street, with the
willow-covered river frontage farther down-strealn, has completely disappeared under a deep cover of earth and cinders
deposited there by the steam shovels that are preparing the
railroad's new right-of-way. Another natural feature is thus
sacrificed in the inexorable march of progress.  Time was
when the river and its beach were the delight of all Sewickley
boys both great and small; one might say the chief delight,
for strange as it may seem to the present generation, the river
and its interests once occupied a foremost place in the affections of the youth of the Valley. At all seasons of the year
it furnished recreation of one kind or another, swimnming and
rowing in the summer and skating in winter, while in spring
and fall the beach with its piles of driftwo,od invited to the
enjoyment of roaring fires where potatoes were to be baked
and an occasional jack salmon broiled and eaten with a gusto
that the absence of salt failed to diminish.  The first swim
of the season some time in May, and the last usually in late
September though too cold for real enjoyment, were the
occasion of much pardonable boasting, while in the regular
summer season no day went by, Sundays included, without
its troop of youngsters splashing and shouting in the river,
running up and down the beach, or diving from barge or
towboat that ehaneed to be tied up awaiting the return of
high water. To run barefoot on those beach pebbles called
for soles like shoe leather, but these were soon acquired since
all boys in those days said farewell to shoes in early spring.
Bathing suits were, of course, unheard of, excepting' when
parties of sedate older folk resorted to the river on summerTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
evenings-and such improvised bathing suits as did then appear!
Just to play abouLt on the beach was a delight; collecting strange
kinds of pebbles, lucky stones with holes through them, fossils
that we called "coral" and that red or orange-colored "keel" so
coinvenient for writing and marking on board fences and on house
walls. Theni there were crawfish to catch, springs of cold water
to dig for and "trot-lines" to set, pulling them in next day with
now and then a jack salmon on one end of their many hooks. But,
after all, the swrim was the thing. Mr. Bruce Tracy's barges below
Chestnut Street were the favorite resort for those who enjoyed
diving, but for the real experts in that linie the upper deck of a
steamboat or the topmost bucket of its stern wheel was none
too high. Then there was old Stevenson's scow to swim from
if he weren't around; the old fiat that he pushed before him,
wading waist deep and picking up the round stones that he
sold in Pittsburgh as paving or cobble stones. Stevenson was
crabbed by reputation, a hater of youth, one who would steal
your clothes, it was said, besides giving you a round of profanity
if he caught you near his fiatboat. Occasionally a great lumber
raft would appear from the far upper reaches of the Allegheny, a beautiful sight, like a floating island( quietly drifting
with the current, the two big sweeps at the bow and stern
guiding it around the bends, and in the middle a board wigwam, the living quarters of the half dozen rough lumbermen
that composed its crew. Great sport and exciting it was to
swim out and clamber aboard, to run up and down on the
clean pine boards and dive off before you were carried too
far downstream.
It was no great feat to swim the river in time of low water,
and when the river was particularly shallow it could be waded
afoot or on horseback at the riffle opposite Osborn station.
Rowing vied with swimming as the favorite summer sport,
the field of adventure extending from the Riffle to Dead
Man's Island. Both of these landmarks (or v ater marks?)
have now beenl done away with. The current at the riffle was
too swift to stem with oars, though by clinging to the timbers
of the wing dam that extended down stream near the far
124THE FRIENDLY RIVER
shore of the river you could w-ork your skiff up to quiet water
and so to the "back river" above Middletown now  called
Coraopolis. Then, returning, you enjoyed a short dash down
through the swift water and a quiet row to the home port.
The only excitement comparable to this was to row out and into
the second or third wave behind the stern wheel of a steamboat.
In winter time the skating was not associated especially
with the freezing over of the river, though that sometimes
occurred, but was enjoyed here and there in more or less
sheltered coves like that just below "Tracy's abutmnent" at
the foot of Chestnut Street, although occasionally continuous
stretches of available ice along shore lured the youngsters
as far as Little Sewickley Creek arnd beyond.  Especially
fortunate was it when one could cross the river and enjoy the
larger field of ice that lay within the wing damn. Usually
however this was inaccessible as Lashell's ferry opposite Chestnut Street would be out of service at such times because of
floating ice. Lashell's ferry, where you shouted "Over" and
old Mr. Jolly, the ferryman, would row across for you, charging fifteen cents the round trip.
Interest in the river was not confined to these summer
and winter sports. There was the river traffic with its towboats and packets, the former guiding great fleets of coal
barges, and the passenger packets with deck, "texas" and pilot
house trimmed with fancy woodwork and gleaming in white
paint.  Every boy kept a list of the boats he had seen.
Their names and appearance were familiar to all, and many a
lad could distinguish them by their whistle, or even by their
manner of puffing, before they came within sight around the
bend. The Boaz with its fancy pilot house, the R. J. Grace,
Nellie Walton, Tom Dodsworth, Katie Stockdale, Buckeye
State-any boy could run through a score of these from
memory. Once in a great while a boat would come up from
the lower river, beyond Cincinnati, or even from the Mississippi, and then great was the excitement and bitter the disappointment of those who missed the sight. On the rare occa125THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
sions when a packet made a landing at Chestnut Street it was
an opportunity to dash up the gangplank among the real
southern darky roustabouts, to be chased off with a rush when
the starting bell sounded or when the mud clerk lost his
temper. Then there was the little steamer that was always
warmly welcomed on its somewhat rare visits, the "Lighthouse Tender Lily."  Like "Light Horse Harry Lee" the
name itself sounded sweetly on the tongue. Shyly we recognized something poetic in her name, "Tender Lily," the word
"Lighthouse" not registering particularly, and it was not till
after years that we realized that the government boat Lily
was merely a lighthouse tender bringing lamp oil and supplies
up river to the numerous shore lights.
In early spring the first of the jo-boats appeared, usually with
a tin type "gallery" attached. Here you disposed of your winter's accumnulation of old iron, glass bottles, etc., in return for
which you had your picture taken-no extra charge for the dogor you accepted a bit of pressed glassware, say a pair of salt cellars in the shape of swans or elephants or something equally
gracefuLl and artistic. The jo-boat man fixed the price of your
scrap iron and you took whatever he bid for it. Then there
were the boat clubs whose members wrere the proud possessors
of paper racing shells in which they skimmed the surface of
the waters on summer evenings, in training for imaginary race
meets. A real boat race now and then furnlished a thrill, as
when John Lynch, the village champion, met somnie rival oarsman from one of the Pittsburgh clubs; and when Captain Paul
Boynton gaily paddled by on his way to New Orleans in his
inflated rubber bathing suit and towing his diminutive supply
boat christened Baby Mine, the beach was lined with cheering spectators.
Why, the river teemed with varied interests the year
round! Its sleepy low water in summer time and its wild
freshets in winter and spring, all of its moods met a response
in our daily lives. It was the central fact in our boyhood existence. Whether roaming the beaches under the hot summer
sun, playing Indian on the mud flats back of the dam, or in
].26THE FRIENDLY RIVER                   127
winter-time standing on the shore ice with "hawking pole"
struggling to bring ashore saw-log or lumber as it floated by,
the River was our great playground; and today--how many
give it a thought; how many have even noticed that Sewickley
has lost her waterfront?
March, 1928.SEWICKLEY
A HISTORICAL SKETCH
IN the settlement of western Pennsylvania, that region
lying to the north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers
was considerably later in its development than the land to
the south. A number of causes combined to bring this about.
The southern territory, particularly that along the Monongahela River, was more readily accessible to settlers coming from
the east by way of the Short Route, as it wvas called, which
left the Potomac valley at Wills Creek (Cumberland, Md.)
and struck directly across to Redstone (Brownsville), on the
Monongahela, a popular highway of trade and migration.
Powerful influences deterring settlers from crossing into the
country north of the Ohio were the hostile Indians and the
uncertainty of land titles due to the conflicting claims to that
territory which were strongly maintained by the Virginia
and Pennsylvania colonies. Penn's grant ran five degrees of
longitude west from the Delaware River, but just how far
that was no one knew. Virginia boldly claimed everything to the
north and west, and created two counties, Frederick and Augusta,
which extended indefinitely, covering what is now sonme fifty or
sixty counties and four or five states. She only relinquished her
claim in 1.779, when the PIennsylvania and Virginia boundaries
were settled by a commission which extended Mason and Dixon's
line to a point five degrees west of the Delaware, and, a few years
later. ran a line directly north from  that point to form  the
western boundary of Pennsylvania.  This disputed territory
was not so well adapted to farming as was that to the south,
and this was yet another cause of its isolation. It had no army
roads, no conisiderable streams; it was traversed by only a few
Indian trails. In fact, after the expulsion of the French, it was
long left to the Indians, its original owners.THE BELVA DEARS1.30         THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
WI'NCHESTER DANA OSGOODTHE BELVA DEARS
AN INCIDENT OF THE BELVA LOCKWOOD CAMPAIGN
BRIGADIER General Frederick Funston in his Memories of
Two Wlars writes of the fall of Guiamluaro, an episode of the
Cuban War of 1896, and incidentally tells of the death of
Major Winchester Dana Osgood, commanding the Cuban
artillery, who was killed while in the act of sighting a 12pounder in the thick of the fight. Win Osgood was a Sewickley
boy back in the'Eighties and ten years later was known
throughout the college world as a brilliant foot-ball star at
Cornell and at the University of Pennsylvania. His name brings
up recollections of a campaign and a fracas here in Sewickley
in which he took a promninent part.
It was in the fall of 1884, during the Blaine-Cleveland
presidential campaign, that Mrs. Belva Lockwood, a prominent
lawyer of Washington, D. C., and a strong advocate of what
was known in that day as "wTomen's rights," forced her way
into the lime-light by announcing her candidacy for the office
of President of the United States.  The cry of "women's
rights" was not taken very seriously then by the general
public and Mrs. Lockwood's campaign camine in for a great
deal of more or less flippant comment.
Taking their cue fronm their elders, it occurred to some of
the Sewickley youngsters to organize a mock Belva Lockwood
Club in honor of the first woman to be nominated for the
presidency. Torch-light parades were a feature of political
campaigns then and a marching club was the natural outcome
of a meeting held one evening at "Reed's corner," Broad and
Bank streets, where a membership of some twenty-five orTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
thirty boys was enrolled. Dave Murdoeh was elected captain,
Harry ("Happy") Gilson, Ed. MeMillen and George Sonimuerville, lieutenants, and shortly thereafter drilling began on the
river bank back of the Nevin home. Every day after school
hours the work went on, until the comnipany had pretty well
mnastered the problem  of alignment and this was about all
the tactics that were aspired to, besides keeping step. Chief
interest was centered in the uniform, or more properly, the
costume, the twenty-five or thirty varying ideas and opinions
finally simmering down to agreement upon white Mother
Hubbard gowns wTith red yokes, the ensemble topped with
blue sun bonnets of the poke variety, while each "Belva Dear"
was to carry a new broomn  equipped wAith a kerosene torch.
The profoundest secrecy was maintained, only "Billy" Chivers,
the tailor, being taken into their confidence and given the
contract for some two score umniformns. Greatly did the old
man enjoy his part in the undertaking and scarcely could he
ply his needle and thread for chuckling as the boys dropped in
for their fittings.
The date of the parade was fixed for the night of October
30th; citizens along the line of march wTere tipped off and
promised to burn red fire in honor of the occasion. Then
came a surprise.  Somehow the Pittsburgh Leader got wind
of the proceedings, and, as it happened that Mrs. Belva Lockwood herself was due to pass through Pittsburgh that day
the Leader people sent word to her that a woman's suffrage
demonstration was to be held in Sewickley, preceded by a
parade of a club named in her honor. Could she stop over
and attend the ceremonies? She replied that her engagements
would not permit, but that in passing through Sewickley she
would throw  from  her train a message of greeting to the
Belva Lockwood Club. This she did; the eager committee at
the railroad erossing captured the bit of paper and, it
must be confessed, felt just a twinge of remorse when
they noted the earnestness of the mnessage. Mrs. Lockwood, not
suspecting  the burlesque  nature  of the plans, wrote as
follows:
132THE BRELVA DEARS
"On the train from Pittsburgh, October 29,'84.
"Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen of Belva Lockwood
Club:
"I send cheers and congratulations for your demonstration tonight. It means equal rights for men and
women, equal political privileges, and equal civil rights
under the law. It means harmony between capital and
labor, and a reform in the money system of the country.
Reading has an Equal Rights mass meeting tonight for
the same purpose, and Cumberland tomorrow night. I
address the people of Flint, Mich., tomorrow evening.
"Yours truly,
"IBELVA A. LOCKWOOD."
The parade came off as scheduled, though the muddy condition of the then unpaved streets necessitated the addition
of rubber boots to the regulation uniform. Headed by drum
and fife, the march began in Maple Lane and extended over
the principal streets of the village. The lighted transparency
carried well to the front was a work of art. The inscriptions
on its four sides were: "Lockwood and Ilowe Club, of Sewickley."  "Women's Equal Rights."  "The Fair Belva Dears"
and "Give IUs a Vote!" Along the entire line of mnarch the
procession wvas greeted with red fire and great enthusiasni, the
latter gradually resolving itself into jeers and eat-calls as the
attending mob grew larger and the point of disbanding drew
near. At last, as the unattached grew bolder, apples and
overripe vegetables began to get the range. The transparency was too good a mark, and it was soon riddled, while its
guardian, proudly bearing it aloft, received a turnip full on
the yoke of his Mother Hubbard, and "Happy" Gilson was
bleeding from a cut on the head. When the railroad crossing
at Pine Street was finally reached all semblance of an orderly
march was abandoned and a free-for-all pitched battle began.
Here was where WYin Osgood came out strong. He was probably the smallest Belva of them all, but stockily built and full
133THE VILLAGE OF SEAVICKLEY
of fight. Thrusting his broom into the hands of a bystander,
and shouting, "Here, hold my torch," he plunged into the
thiekest of the fight in a whirl of muddy skirts and rubber
boots. He went after the leader of the mob, a chap twice his
size, with such suddenness of onslaught as to turn the tide of
battle and enable the. marchers to gather their scattering
forces and reach the drill ground in more or less dignified
retreat, where they disbanded. Tlhus passed into history the
Lockwood and Howe Marchini: Club, of Sewickley; "The
second Lockwood Club in the United States," as the Leader
boasted the next day, a similar organization having been
formined in some New Jersey town.
Lieutenant (later Brigadier General) Osgood, Winl's father,
soon after removed from Sewickley with his family, Win entering Cornell and later the University of Pennsylvania where,
whatever his scholastic attainments may have been, his athletic prowess was acclaimed throughout the world of sport.
Old graduates of "Penn," and of their athletic rivals, will
recall how the cheering sections rang with the pulsating yell,
"Who's good?  Os-good! The whole-damn  team's good!"
The fall of 1895 saw himl the gridiron hero of the University
and one year later he gave his life to the cause of Cuban
liberty. Always impulsive, always eager for the fray, whether
in peace or in war-time, WincThester Dana Osgood first showed his
mettle in the memorable battle of the Belva Dears of 1884.
November, 1910.
134MIcDONALD'S GROVEMcDONALD'S GROVE
B USH AMEETINGS; TE:KMAPERANCE RALLIES; SUMMER NIGIHT CONCERTS
AND DANCING IN THE'EIGHTIES
DOWN on Maple Lane betwTeen the railroad and the river
bank stands the frame dwelling that was formerly the home
of Captain J. Sharp McDonald, a retired rivermen and in his
day one of the best known citizens of Sewickley, whose widow,
a gifted singer, is still with us', honored
and respeeted bv the entire community.
Originally the McDonald home stood
alone in the center of a tract of about
seven acres, which extended from the
railroad down to low water mark on the
Ohio  river.  Lawn, shade trees and
meadow beautified the front, towards
the railroad, while between the rear of
1_  1  1A  *I,1 * I
CAr.l J. S-I~ARP' MeDOXLD the dwelling and the steep river bank
there grew a number of stately oaks with
chestnut and hickory trees forming what was known as "iMcDonald's grove.'
Quite a considerable grove it was, entirely clear of underbrush with a soft carpet of grass between the massive tree
trunks and here and there a patch of bluets and a bit of imoss
to give it a forest look. The grove was by no means a public
park, yet the genial proprietor made no objection to its enjoynent by all, not excepting the youngsters of the neighborhood.
Gatherings of various sorts were held here. Sometimes a platform and speakers' stand were built for services religious, or
semi-religious in character. The grass extended to the edge of
the cliff overlooking the river where a set of steep steps led
down to the gravelly beach. An ideal spot it was, especially
at night when one left the circle of candle lanterns surrounding
the platform and strolled out into the moonlight to enjoy the
view of the quietly flowing river below.THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
When Colonel Bouquet, in 1764, conducted his expedition
against the Indians in "Muskingum County," as the country
to the far west was called, he followed a course through the
lowlanlds of Nwhat is now the North Side of Pittsburgh, to
the "Narrows" and thence proceeded along the Ohio River
beach to Beaver Creek. The regular line of communlication
between Fort Pitt and Fort McIntosh (Beaver) was a longer
route by a military road, on the south side of the river, which
passed near Sharon chuLrch, now Carn.ot post-office.
On October 23, 1784, the Indians' title to the land north of
the river was extinguished by a deed to the state from the
Six Nations, in consideration of the sum of $5,000. This was
effected by a treaty made at Fort Stanwix, in New York
state. In the followingr year, 1785, by another treaty, made
at Fort McIntosh, the interests of the Delawares and Wyandots were purchased for $3,000, additional. These sub-tribes
were, in effect, terre-tenants under the more powerful Iroquois,
who looked upon them as a conquered and subservient race.
While yet a colony, Pennsylvania, in 1771, had erected the
county of Bedford, embracing all of its southwestern territory.
In 1773 Westmoreland County was carved out of this unwieldy
subdivision. In 1781 all of the land south and west of the
Monongahela and Ohio was made into Washington County,
the first county created after the colony had become a state,
and in 1788 Allegheny County, reaching clear to Lake Erie,
was in turn cut out of Westmoreland.
While Allegheny County was still a part of Westmoreland,
the so-called "New Purchase" was divided into two great
sections by a due east-and-west line running from Mogulbughtiton (Mahoning) Creek, on the Allegheny River, above Kittanning, to the western border of the state. The land south
of this line was appropriated to the redemption of the depreciation certificates which had been given to the officers and
soldiers of the Pennsylvania line in payment for their services
in the War of the Revolution. These allotments were called
"Depreciation Lands" and Sewickley is of course included
therein. The land north of the line was known as "Donation
12THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLF,Y
Occasionally of a summer Sunday afternoon the colored
folk of the valley would hold religious services here; "bush
meetings" they were called, where the unrestrained singing and
praying and the shouted "Amens" awakened echoes from
the hills across the river. Then again as the backwrash of the
"Francis Murphy Movement" disturbed the tranquillity of
our village pool, great temperance meetings wvere held in the
grove, when the best known and most sincere drinkers of the
community would rise and give their "experience," perhaps
weep a bit, then sign the pledge to an accomnpaniment of hymns
and approving shouts, while we of the younger element, caught
up in the general excitement, would in our turn file up to the
speakers' stand to add the Tweight of our approval to the
verdiet against the demon rum, signing the pledge "never to
use wThisky as a beverage."  We may not have had a very
clear notion as to the exact meaning of the word "beverage"
but the applause was thrilling and the pledge card with its
fancy Old English lettering and gilt trimmings was quite
attractive, and besides--everybody was doing it. So, we signed
up for the rest of our lives. Like the bush meetings these
gatherings wvere held on Sunday afternoons and they served
quite effectively to liven up those otherwise rather oppressive
periods of somnolence, those summer Sunday afternoons whose
hush was almost audible, and only accentuated. by the mournful
note of a dove or the distant crowing of some lonely rooster.
The "church train" had returned from the city and all. was
quiet along the railroad, when there would come a burst of
singing from the grove with an accompanimnent of piano or
violin, the opening shout of the exhorter, and the spell was
broken; the world woke up again and was glad. With all due
respect for the good old days it must be admitted that the
old-fashioned Sabbath afternoons just verged on the dull.
The decade before the Gay Nineties was not lacking in
diversions. MceDonald's grove was the scene of brilliant social
affairs, of musical evenings when John andc Charlie Gernert
brought their orchestra from the city and gave seasons of
summer night concerts there. A large platform was built,
138McDONAILD'S GROVE                   1,9
a piano and folding chairs installed and the weather mnan
importuned. Following the musical program the platform was
cleared for dancing which was kept up till the last train summoned the orchestra back to town.  The waltz and polka
shared the stage with square dances, the quadrille and lancers.
It was not considered too old-fashioned to have the figures
called for the latter by a member of the committee in charge
wrho stood on a chair beside the leader of the orchestra. The
favorite "figure caller" is today one of our prominent citizens,
our burgess, in fact, wrho can testify to the truth of the
assertion that the Elegant Eighties were socially all that could
be desired. The grove on these festal occasions was a scene of
beauty with Chinese lanterns lighting up the dancing floor and
dimly revealing the (lark tree trunks in the background, the
contrast of evening gowns and formal dress with the out-of-door
surroundings making a picture long to be remembered. These
seasons of summer night
concerts continued  for
a number of years; and
were distinctly the high'spots  of  Sewickley's
social life. We wonder
if Rear Admiral Charles
B. MIcVay of the, United
States Navy, a former
Sewickley  boy,  ever
harks back in memory
to a certain summer of
dances in  McDonald's
grove when he and a
"EI REDDIN.G UP "          party of his fellow middies from Annapolis with their uniforms and gold braid put the
civilian beaux comllpletely out of the running and turned the
heads of all of the girls! Dull? No, the'Eighties were not dull.
The summer over, the youngsters under dancing age canle
into their own, for then arrived the nutting season and it never
occurred to them that the nuts were not their property. InTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
the fall, after a night of frost, the early morning would find
numerous small boys busily gathering their harvest of shellbarks and chestnuts.  It is pleasant to record that Mr.
McDonald, the owner of the grove, told some of us in after
years that he enjoyed our sport as much as we did, often
watching us from his window, and that once when his "hired
man" (so called in those days) had gathered the nuts before
we arrived he made him scatter them on the ground again so
that we youngsters might not meet disappointment in our
search.
What a delightful part in the life of the community
McDonald's grove played; childhood, youth and age resorting
to it in pursuit of their varied interests; the scene of nutting
parties, of social affairs and of fervent religrious gatherings.
The remnants of two or three of those old trees still stand,
vainly endeavoring to furnish shade and shelter to the dwellings that have sprung up there, but the grove itself is gone
and with it has departed much of the simplicity that once
marked the social life of Sewickley.
April, 1928.
140TIIE SEWICKLEY ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONTHE ATHLETIC GROUNDS
Reproduced from  The Qui Vive, 1885TIIE SEWICKLEY ATHILETIC ASSOCIATION
THE RECREATIONAL AND SOCIAI CENTER IN THE EIGHTIES
AND NINETIES
BASEBALI. was the one great sport indulged in by the youth
of Sewickley in the'Seventies. The game had become popular
in the colleges and when the summer vacations brought home the
fortunate few "college men" they gave a great impetus to the
athletic movemnent, particularly on the ball field. Not that there
were lacking ball nines of stay-at-homue talent some of which,
notably the La Belles, the Crescents and others, carried their
fame afar; others not so widely celebrated named themselves
for some popular local merchant whose patronage was evidenced by the gift of uniforms and equipment. The F. A.
Myers and the C. P. Miles ball clubs were of that category,
honoring Mr. Myers, the hardware dealer, whose store occupied
the present site of the Peoples Bank and "Charley Miles,"
the proprietor of the drug store on the opposite corner.
The college boys, however, infused new life in the game and
introduced its latest developments. Great was the sensation
when a young college pitcher displayed an uncanny ability
to strike out the batsmen with what sure]ly appeared to be a
curve ball. The fairness of this was questioned and he was
ruled out of the pitcher's box in some games and relegated
to the outfield. Various vacant lots were resorted to for mnatch
games, the most popular and the largest one being the Sands
and Adair field on the south side of Frederick Avenue between
Walnut and ILittle Streets, the backstop near Walnut and
the outfield in the slight depression at Little. Here was
played many a hard fought match. Gloves, masks and chest
protectors were unknown, yet the catcher caught "off the
bat" and hot liners were fielded with bare hands. Old timers
will recall one of the cracek catchers on the Sands and Adair
lot, afterwards a well-known preacher, whose bloody fingersTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
were tied up in rags as the game progressed but who continued
to catch through the full nine innings.
Gradually this playing ground was encroached upon by
buildings and the game languished for a time. Then, in the
spring of 1882, a well attended meeting was held at the residence of M1r. Cass Carpenter "for the purpose of organizing
an athletic club for the cultivation of outdoor amusements."
A constitution was drafted, the name "Sewvickley Athletic
Association" adopted and officers chosen for the first year:
Mr. Carpenter, President; Charles A. Atwell, Vice President;
Alexander C. Robinson, Treasurer, and Thomas Patterson,
Secretary. Five acres of land were leased fromn Mrs. Robert
H. Davis, on Nevin Avenue opposite the ends of Hill and
Hopkins Streets and lying between the road and Peebles Run
where beautiful old trees and a never failing spring were
valuable adjuncts. Walnuts, oaks and sycamores bordered the
creek while a group of locust trees out near the ball field
furnished shade for the spectators. The new Methodist Church
was then being built and the Association was able to secure at
a bargain a number of the pews from the old building, which
did duty at the Athletic Grounds throughout the life of the
organization, accommodating a very wide awake congregation of tennis followers and worshipers of the game. A ball
field was laid out and half a dozen courts, afterwMards increased
to ten or more, with croquet, archery andcl quoits as additional
attractions, and the project was a success from the start. Later,
a bowling alley was built on the far side of the creek under
the cliff, and for a time it too was quite popular. A modest club
house was also erected for the housing of the varied equipment
but with no modern country club features. Today it would be
mistaken for a chicken house, but it served its purpose. Rackets
and balls, as well as nets, were furnished by the club, and only
two or three of the more expert players owned "private raequets" with cork handles, as much admired and wondered at as
were the new ball-bearing high bicycles. One of those primitive
tennis rackets would attract attention in a museum today, with
its off-center playing face and general lopsidedness. Though the
144THE SEWITCKLEY ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION              145
courts were of clay the game was always given its full title, lawn
tennis. Its popularity in this region was just beginning and soon
it entirely displaced croquet and archery, becoming a furore
among the young and the not-so-young. To read some of the
"Lawn Tennis Personals" in The Qui Vive, Sewickley's monthly
newspaper of that day, is to enjoy a laugh at their naivete, at the
untechnical language in which the sport is described and the
extremely personal comments upon the styles of the several
players of both sexes. The game was new and the reporting was,
to put it mildly, a scream. Nevertheless, some good players were
developed and lively games were played, not only between
members but with representatives of out-of-town clubs, our
particular rival being the tennis club of Brushton, while members of the Sewickley association entering the Western Pennsylvania championship tournaments at Altoona gave an
exceedingly good account of themselves.
Il charge of the grounds and especially of the tennis
courts was "Pa" Gibson, a dour old Scotchman with the richest
of native accents, who ruled with a rod of iron and was the
terror of any unlucky Junior
member who happened to
break a racket or damage a
net. Ground rules were made
to be obeyed, and he was
there to enforce them. Woe
unto you if thoughtlessly
you set foot on a court still
wet from recent rains or,
worse yet, marred one of his
freshly marked lines! Such
a torrent of hot Scotch as he
would pour on your head!
Ride your bicycle off the
path and across the corner
of a tennis court, and have        "PA" GIBSON
Pa Gibson conime hot-foot after you crying, "Hoot mon! Keep on
the pad, will ye then! " Never was there a more faithful guardianTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
or a harder working caretaker. Stern-mannered he was, grumbling when you insisted that the rain was over and rackets and
balls should be forthcoming, but beneath the grim exterior was a
vein of quaint humor that cropped out now and then in a half
smile and a twinkle of the eye that belied the outer man and
showed that his tyranny was largely assumed, the expression of
an intense loyalty to the club, and that in reality he was kind and
even soft-hearted. Long will Pa Gibson be remembered.
On the ball field which was laid out nearer the street there
was activity, no less than on the courts. Every evening saw
pick-up games in progress while intensely exciting matches
were played on Saturdays by the Bluestockings, the crack
Sewickley nine.  Special features on Memorial Day or the
Fourth of July were the contests between the married and the
single men, but ehiefest of all attractions were the Field Days
that were held annually; athletic carnivals with a program
that included everything in games and sports, field and track
events, as well as tennis matches and ball games. One of
these is especially remembered which lasted the entire day
and was widely heralded as "The County Fair."  An admission fee was charged and $1,200.00 realized, a highwater mark
in money raising enterprises.  One spectacular feature was
a quadrille of mounted horsemen, while at the other end of
the scale was the climbing of the greased pole by youthful
contestants. For the winners in the several events prizes were
contributed by the Pittsburgh dealers in sporting goods. In
the earlier years of the association the prize winners were
content, perforce, with honors only. The prospectus for the
season of 1887 announced a series of events in lawn tennis,
archery, sprints and high jumps, to continue from May 14th
to October 15th, the prizes for which "are the property of the
Association awarded to the successful contestants merely as
Badges of Honor to be worn until the next Field Day."  Strict
amateurism, in fact. This conservative policy is readily understood when one considers the extremely moderate annual
membership fees that were charged: "Gentlemen $5.00, Ladies
$3.00, Juniors $2.00."
146THE SEWICKLEY ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION              147
The "Athletic,'' as the grounds were generally called, was
the scene of activities other than competitive games. Picnics,
both afternoon and evening affairs, were frequent. Firewood was
plentiful and water was supplied by the spring which bubbled up
-. -   I~~~~~~~
up beside the creek.
From the local paper
we cull the following:
"A social nove)lty in
its way and one likely
to possess many features of Hallow E'en
joyousness, will be an'oyster bake' to be
partaken of by the
young people of Sewickley at the Ath].etic  Club  grounds
this evening.  These
beautiful grounds are
admirably ad a p t e d
for such  an  affair,            AT THE SPRING
and a delightful time is anticipated."  Here was the common
meeting ground whether for sport or merely for social contacts.
While the mornings and afternoons saNw the courts well patronized, the evenings brought not only players but great numbers
of spectators to enjoy the cool air from  the Waterworks
ravine and to meet friends and acquaintances. The fences
along the street were lined with horses and buggies parked
there for the evening, while the newly popular high-wheeled
bicycles were grouped here and there on the grounds.
It is hard to realize today what a commanding position the
Athle tic Association occupied in the social life of the town.
Nothing else compared with it in popularity. In the winter,
entertainments of various kinds were given in Choral Hall to
raise money for the coming season, and the opening day each yearA HISTORICAL SKETCCH
Land," and was given to officers and soldiers according to
their rank and service.  The Depreciation Lands were laid
out under the direction of the Surveyor General in lots of
not less than 250 nor more than 350 acres each and were put
on sale in numerical order, under certain restrictions, to be
paid for in gold, silver, or in depreciation certificates. Major
Daniel Leet and Nathaniel Breading surveyed those sections
within which Sewickley lies, the division between their respective districts being a line w\hich ran due north from the Ohio
River to the above described east-and-west line, a distance of
about thirty miles. A part of the lower end of this line is still
marked by what remains of Division Street, in the borough.
Popular tradition has it that the name Sewickley is derived
from an Indian word meaning "sweet water," allusion being
made to  the sugar maples called  Seweekly  trees, which
abounded in this and other localities so named. Charles A.
Hanna, in his exhaustive study of the early history of this
region, The Wilderness Trail (published in 1911), says (vol. i,
page 298): "The name of the Asswikales Indians who eame
from  South Carolina has been preserved to the present day
under the form  of Sewickley, a name now  applied to two
creeks, forty miles apart, one on the east and the other on the
west side of Pittsburgh."  Elsewhere he gives the following
variants of the tribal name, some of which result from differences in the native dialects:  Assekales, Asswekalaes, Shaweygilas, and Shaweygiras. The oldest form, he says, appears
to have been Sawakola or Sawolki, derived from two Indian
words sawi, raccoon, and utili town. The New York Evening
Post, in its review of Mr. Hanna's book, goes on to say: "The
Assiwikalas, from whom Sewickley, Pa., takes its name, were
the Hathiwikala, or Absentee Shawnee, one of the five (not
four) original sub-tribes of the Shawnee, but always in history
keeping somewhat aloof from the others. It is quite possible
that they were the Sawok]i, or Souikila, ineorporated with
the Creeks."
As a sidelight upon the unsettled question of the name's
derivation it is worthy of note that in Marion County, West
13148             THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
in May was hailed with delight by all. In the early'Nineties,
due to various causes, the Association declined in popularity,
and finally it died out, other interests taking its place, but for
over ten years it was far and away the dominating feature of
life in the Sewickley Valley.
May, 1928.WHEN BICYCLING WAS A SPORTCharles L. Do.yle         E. I1. Stowe        F. T. Nevini M. A. Chrlisty  A. W. Adair
Photographed by J. M. Tate, Jr.WHEN BICYCLING WAS A SPORT
THE HIGH TWHEEL AND THE SEWICKLEY VALLEY VWHIEELMEN
SEWICKLEY in the'Seventies boasted of no paved streets.
Deep mud and ruts marked the highways in spring and fall,
with dust in summer and snow in winter-time.  Sidewalks
were either of cinders or, at best, of boards laid lengthwise,
and prone to warp and turn up at the ends; the "tar walk"
had not yet come in nor of course the flagstone pavement.
The wooden velocipedes of the very young consequently
enjoyed an extremely restricted use, while the few "bone
shakers" possessed by some of the more fortunate Sewickley
youths in their'teens barely managed to cruise about town
on the sidewalks. These so-called "bone shakers" were large
heavy velocipedes with two wheels of equal size having wooden
spokes and iron tires, the front wheel equipped with spoolshaped "treadles" and with the saddle swung upon long iron
springs between the wheels; a cumbersome and unlovely conveyance; would that one were in existence today, preserved
as a curiosity! They wTere too rough, these "bone shakers,"
and used up too much power to be really popular even had
better roads been available.
It was in the early'Eighties that reports began to come
in of a glorified "silent steed" that was making a stir in the
East. Scribner's Mionthly Magazine and St. Nicholas carried
stories of its growing popularity. "A Wheel Around the
Hub," in Scribner's, was a fascinating account of a circumnavigating tour about Boston by a party of knickerbockered
men riding upon these strange machines that had one wheel as
high as the dismounted rider's chin, followed by a diminutive
rear wheel at the end of a curved rod or "backbone," both
wheels with wire spokes and shod with solid rubber tires.THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
The St. Nicholas article demonstrated that boys could enjoy
the new sport as well as their elders.
Then-"came a day" (as the movies say) when a boy
stood almost in awe before an exhibit of the Pope Manufacturing Company in the old Exposition building in Allegheny,
where for the first time was shown in this region the new
vehicle in all its glory of nickeled handlebars, wire spokes like
spiders' webs and silent tires of solid rubber. The supreme
thrill came when there floated by, as quietly as a ghost, an
"Expert Columbia" bicycle ridden by one of the men in charge
of the exhibit. The high bicycle had arrived.
Sewickley lost no time in taking up the craze. First one,
then another "machine" appeared on its streets, John WTarden's the pioneer of them all. Farther and farther afield the
riders ventured, contending with dust and ruts and stones;
conitending too with the other occupants of the highway,
horsemen who objected to the new-fangled usurper that
frightened their horses and arrogantly claimed to be a vehicle
entitled as of right to a share of the road. The sidewalks
were no longer available since pedestrians quite rightly
objected and moreover the cracks between the boards offered
too great a risk of "headers," those sudden unpremeditated
dismountings, head first over the handle bars with the little
wheel following after to admninister the coup de grace, a crack
on the head, if one failed to dodge it in its descent. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, "Sewickley bicyclists," the local
paper said, "are very indignant at the City Fathers because
they are compelled by them to direct their fiery steeds through
the dust and gravel of the streets."
The number of "wheels'" increasing, a bicycle club--The
Sewickley Valley Wheelmen-was soon formed, some twenty
members enrolled and officers chosen; Seward Murray, President; T. Herbert Nevin, Treasurer, and Robert D. Wilson,
Secretary. On the property of Mr. F. L. Clark at the corner
of Thorn and Little Streets, under the hill, a modest one-storied
club house was built facing Little Street, in plan somewhat
resembling a railroad passenger coach with a porch extending
152AVHEN BICYCLING WAS A SPORT
throughout its length. Summer evenings saw the club members on the road. Usually they would meet at the Athletic
Grounds, then in groups down Beaver Road they would go,
and out Little or Big Sewickley creek where the favorite
gathering plaee was at the top of the rise just beyond the
Van Cleve chapel. Then toward dusk came the return trip to
the club house porch for a smoke and chat and later, lighting
the oil lamps that hung from  front wheel hubs inside the
spokes, the riders wended their several ways homeward.
The new sport was not taken entirely seriously by the
general public. Small boys loved to run beside the mounted
eyelers shouting "Monkey on a stick," while such facetious
comment as the following appeared in print: "A Sewickley
Bicycle Club has been organized. Our M. D.'s offices and Chief
Justice Rudisill's are putting on a new coat of paint. Broken
limbs and runaway teams are expected to make business lively
during the dull summer months."  Still, the wheel's popularity
increased-but not without protest.  This semti-serious plaint
was voiced on behalf of deserted femininity: "We notice that
girls do not take kindly to bicycles and bicycle talk. This
can not be wondered at. Every June evening, when the roads
are in good condition, there are forlorn damsels sitting alone
that would be enjoying masculine attendance but for the
silent steed. Three or more girls on an embowered porch and
three young men wheeling off in the distance is a sight grown
familiar."
Beside these evening excursions, longer trips were taken
on Saturday afternoons; most often to Economy where the
quiet burghers gazed upon the riders in silent amazement.
Among the relies preserved in the Great House is the old
hotel register with entries running back to 1849. Search this
record through the'Eighties and you will find registered here
and there groups of a dozen or more "Sewickley Valley
Wheelmen" who partook of the generous fare of that quaint
old hostelry. There we have noted these Wheelmen's names:
S. IH. Murray, R. D. Wilson, R. C. Swartzwelder, J. C. McKown,
153BIG SEWICKLEY BRIDGE-A FAVORITE RESTING-PLACE FOR SEWICOKLEY W~iHEELMENWHEN BICYCLING WAS A SPORT
A. W. MleKown, A. C. Robinsion, M. H. McDonald, J. P. Coleman, J. R. Gilmore, F. E. Richardson and R. S. Tate.
Zelienople was visited; and Frankfort Springs was another favorite resort, where the bicyclers sometimes remained
over night  (and  Sundays), or perhaps made  the round
trip in a single day. Or, the Bluestockings, Sewickley's crack
ball team, might have a game on at Brushton, near Wilkinsburg, whither a number of faithful supporters would proceed
by wheel, enjoying on their return trip the thrill of coasting
down Forbes Street's "Ice.Iouse Hill;" that coasting which
was the supreme thrill afforded by the high bicycle, as with
feet over the handle bars you sat above and almost in front
of your rushing steed.
These excursions were events of a Saturday, as has been
said. Not yet had Sunday been recognized as a possible day
of recreation.  After the family carriage had returned from
morning service the streets and roads were virtually deserted.
Some may remember the half shocked, half puzzled comment
when the leader of the Presbyterian choir braved public
sentiment by riding his wheel to church of a Sunday morning
and parking it against the ivy till the service should be over.
Here was food for controversy. He was riding his bicycle on
Sunday! Yes-but he was using it solely as a means of getting to church. A puzzling dilemma for the advocates of strict
Sabbath observance.
Innovations, new mnodels in bicycles, began to appear. The
most radical one was the "Star" which carried its little wheel
in front and was equipped with powerful levers, instead of
revolving pedals, by which one gained immensely in hillelimbing ability. Then it was that Seward Murray conquered
the grade up Murder Lane Road from Beaver Road to the
hill-top, thereby setting a hill-climbing mark for all Western
Pennsylvania cyclers to shoot at.  The fame of that climb
spread afar and many came to test their strength and stamina
there. The "ordinary" and the "Star" were not long alone
in the field. Still newer designs appeared and were tried out.
1 5 5THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
The Keystone Bicycle Club of Pittsburgh issued an invitation
to the wheelmen of Sewickley and other outlying communities
to join them on May 30th, 1884, in an all day ride over the
old National Pike from Brow7nsville to Little Washington, a
distance of twenty-eight miles, and this brought together a
grand assortment of all makes alnd varieties of wheels. The
Standard and Expert Columnbia of the Pope Manufacturing
Conmpany were the favorite mounts; withl the Victor, Star,
Royal Mail, Rudge, Kangacroo, F'acile, and others in varying
popularity.  (It mnight be of interest to note that the fifty
inch Expert Columbia cost $127.50, a fair average price.)
The trip to Brownsville was made by steamboat the night
before. Next morning appeared the contingents from Uniontown and Greensburg and the entire cavalcade of sixty-seven
wheelmen set forth, the hill. immediately across the Monongahela furnishing a gruelling test at the very start. A stop
was made at Scenery Hill for luncheon and a two hours' rest
where the merits of the various wheels were discussed and the
incidents and accidents of the morning's ride recounted, while
an exhibition of trick riding upon the single front wheel was
given by one of the party. Then a blast from the bugle, a hop
into the saddle and again we were on our way. At 5:30 P. MVI.
the tourists reached Little Washington where a band of local
cyclers and a contingent from Wheeling met them. a street
parade followed, composed of "the largest number of wheelmen
that ever assembled for touring in Western Pennsylvania."
Among the numerous makes of bicycles which took part in
this Decoration Day exeursion, one styled the "Kangaroo"
calls for special mention.  Modelled after the "ordinary"
high-wheel bicycle, but in miniature, its pedals were close to
the groum,d and connected with the axle by a sprocket chain.
Here for the first time appeared a prophevcy of doom for the
high wheel, the prototype of the "safety" that was soon to
appear, displacing the "ordinary" and casting it upon the scrap
heap; that "safety" which was looked upon with scorn as effeminate and lacking in sportiness, but which by its safe riding
quality at last completely drove out the old machine. Bicycling
156WHEN BICYCLING WAS A SPORT                  157
remained for sonme years a real sport. "Century runs" became
regular Sunday events as the new wheel proved its worth-but
that is another story, coming down into the'Nineties. With the
passing of the high bicycle the gymnastic element in the sport
was eliminated and the whieel gradually settled down into its
present more or less utilitarian character.
June, 1928.THE VILLAGE OF'SEWICKLEY
Virginia, there is a vein of coal that is shown on old title
abstracts as the "Mapletown or Sewickley" vein and the
two names appear to be used interchangeably, which is some
evidence of a tradition current there as with us that Sewickley
took its name fronm the seweekly or maple trees.
Be the derivation of the name as it mrnay, the earliest
mention of Sewickley as the name of a locality seems to have
been in the form "Sewiehly Old Town," in a grant from the
Six Nations to George Croghan, dated 1749. This probably
stood on the Youghiogheny River at the mouth of the Big
Sewickley Creek in'Westmoreland County, though there is
some authority for supposing it to have been located on the
Allegheny River near the present site of Tarentum.
In  an interesting letter, now  in the possession  of AXr.
Gilbert A. Hays, which is dated at Pittsburgh, 31st December
1767, and written by one John Camnpbell, an Indian trader,
reference is m-ade for the first time, so far as is now known,
to the Sewickley lying on the north bank of the Ohio River.
He says: "Four Men that I sent off in a Cannoe and who had
gone but a short Distance be]low the Point had nearly been
overset, and with great Difficulty returned w-ithout daring to
attempt the Recovery of the Batteau. She was seen passing
the Sewiely Bottom (a Place about 12 or 14 miles off,) that
Night and was sound."
The locality is named again as early as the year 1779,
when the Delaware Indians, i.n gratitude for his treatment of
them, offered to Colonel George MZorgan, the first Indian agent
at Fort Pitt, as a free gift, a strip of land extending roughly
from  what is now Haysville to Legionville and back to the
tops of the highest hills, including the Sewickley Bottom
a tract possibly six miles long by three wide.  This gift
Colonel Morgan declined to accept in return for "merely doing
his duty," as he expressed it.
To return to the allotments of land in this locality: AMajor
Daniel Leet's survey comprised nine ]lots in District No. 2,
which began at the present Division Street and extended to
and included Leetsdale. He took by' patent lots 6, 7, 8, and 9,
14ROCK SPRlING AND THE CAM,iEL BACKFROM THE FOOT OF C'HE.ST"NUT,STREET W'#E CRO;SiSED T'O THE PICNIC PLACEROCK SPRING AND THE CAM, EL BACK
TIHIE PICNIC PLACE ACROSS TIIE RIVER
"RocK- Spring" and "Camel Back" are unfamiliar namnes
today though once, upon a time long past, they were knoTwn
to all Sewickleyans; knowTn and visited and loved. Let us
leave the automobile at home, to its surprise and chagrin, and
set out afoot across the Ohio river bridge to revisit after
many years those scenes of former good times. No concrete
highway leads to them, so they are necessarily neglected and
unknown; thousands of motorists pass along the Narrows Run
road at the foot of the hill but seldom or never nowadays does
anyone explore the heights above. However, we'll try it. We
reach the end of the bridge and, crossing the highway, a steep
and imnpracticable roadway gives us a start up the hill, but
soon we abandon it and strike into a narrowA foot-path to the
right which eventually leads to a spring in the hillside and,
just above the spring, to a more or less open space in wThich
are masses of tumbled rocks and some sparse forest trees.
Search closely and you may find on rock or smooth-barked
beech tree the remains of initials or dates carved there long
ago, for this rather forlorn spot wTas once the picnic ground
known as "Rock Spring." There lies the fiat rock that served
as the table, with other sfones about it as seats; there is the
open space where always the fire was laid for the boilin:g of
coffee, the frying of bacon and the heating up of the delectable
corn pudding. There is the narrow sidling path down to the
spring, while just back of the table rock may be seen the
beginning of the steep trail that leads to the top of the hill.
The spot is readily identified but its beauty has departed, its
woods have been despoiled and today it has a mean and sordid
look.
Back in the'Eighties it was not thus. To begin with
there was no bridge to make the erossing commonplace. YouTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
walked to the foot of Chestnut Street and cupping your hands
megaphone-fashion you shouted "O-ver" till the answering
cry came back and you saw old Mr. Jolly, the ferryman, shove
off and placidly row across to get you. This was Lashell's
ferry which landed you at the foot of a path that led past
the old log house abandoned long before by the Lashell family
for the more modern frame dwAelling near by. Both houses are
gone now. It was good form to open the gate and go in to
ask permission before proceeding up the hill. Across the road
and immediately back of the house was the mouth of Lashell's
ravine and there began the climb of the steep and narrow
trail that we are following in our walk today.
With the river spanned by a great bridge and wvith our
modern means of annihilating distance it is hard to realize
the charm that in those earlier days lay in the words "across
the river." There was a certain thrill about it as you stepped
ashore and sensed the quiet and aloofness of it all; the
unspoiled natural beauty, the unfrequented trails, the primitive woodsiness that surrounded you. No wonder is it that
Rock Spring was a favorite resort of various picnic groups.
Of one such gathering there is an especially bright recollection. This was known for a number of years as the "Monday
Picnic." From early summer till late in the fall no week went by
without a meeting of this group which varied in number from a
dozen to as many as forty persons. No telephones brought the
party together; it was simply an understanding that, weather
permitting, the M:onday picnic would be held, and if you proeeeded to Rock Spring with a basket of eatables you would
be certain to meet there with others on similar errand bent.
Two o'clock in the afternoon saw the earlier arrivals and
five-thirty or six o'clock brought the men fromr the afternoon
train. Supper followed, then all but the few sit-by-the-fires
would set out to elimb up to the "Camel Back" for an evening
view of the valley and a round of songs. Nearing the end of
the elimb you emerged from  the wToods onto a grass-grown
slope where was a worm-fence and back of it two trees side by
side and covered with a thick growth of wild grapevines. One
162ROCK SPRING- AND THE CAMEL BACK16
of these trees was taller than the other and together the two
as seen from the Sewickley side of the river presented a
striking likeness of a camel, which resemblance was helped out
by occasional trimmings and prunings. This gave the name
"Camel Back" to the entire hill-top. No picnic was complete
without a climb to this outlook-point. Then in the gathering
dusk the descent to the Spring began where baskets were
rouLnded up, the embers of the camp-fire quenched and, now in
total darkness, relieved by the light of a flamnbeau carried
ahead, the descent of the precipitous trail began in single file
to the bottom of the hill. To accommodate the entire party
the large flat was usually employed on the return trip across
the river, and thus another Monday picnic was brought to an
end.
The "flambeau" mentioned above was a large ball of
kerosene-soaked rags tightly wAound, bound with wire and
fastened to a pole, the light from which illuminated the woods
far around, casting strange shadow7s but servingt materially to
make safe the descent. And this calls up the recollection of
another illumination that mrarked an especially eventful gathering of the clan. It wTas just after the assassination of President Garfield that, as the party sat around the fire after supper,
the talk drifted naturally to that all-absorbing topic and each
one present exercised his or her ingenuity in devising a
horrible punishment for Guiteau, the assassin.  The conversational drift in this direction wATas skillfully managed as a
preliminary to the denouement planned by some of the younger
members of the party. A life-sized effigy of Guiteau had
been fashioned and secretly carried up the hill, where, after
dark, it was drenched with oil and hung from a tree limb
outside the circle of light. -When the last blood-thirsty young
woman had outlined her scheme of retribution, one of the
party, a young attorney, rose to his feet and in a short speech
announced that Guiteau would now be punished on the spot.
A light was touched to the figure and the flames shot up
revealing a man fully clothed writhing and squirming in the
blaze while firecrackers in his pockets and a background of
163164            THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
red fire lent horror to the scene. After the more nervously
terrified onlookers were restored to calm the affair was voted
a shining success, while over in Sewickley the blaze was noted
and it was even declared that with opera glasses the figure
of a man was seen in the mnidst of the flames.
The final picnic of the season, in late October, was usually
marked by an oyster bake.  The struggle to get the halfbarrel of shell oysters up the hill was felt to be well worth
while as you sat about the fire fishing out of the embers the
opening shlells and eating the oysters "on the half," piping hot.
The Mionday picnics will linger long in the memory of those
who were so fortunate as to take part in them and in those
memories of by-gone days there will always remain a delightful recollection of "Rock Spring" and the "Camel Back."
September, 1928.WHEN COXEY CAMEWHEN COXEY CAME
THE ARMY OF TIHE COMMONWEAL IN SEWICKLEY
SEWlCKI,EY was somewhat agitated. There were not lacking
certain of its citizens who were considerably disturbed. tHidden
back of a contemptuous smile there would now and then appear
a furtive look of uneasiness. The army that was approaching
from the west would arrive in a day or two; who could say what
it might not portend? Was it a straw showing the set of the
wind, a mnenace of possible riotous demonstrations against the
government? As it rolled on to the east gaining recruits by
the way might it not get out of hand and become a frenzied mob
bent on storming the capital at Washington, singing some
American counterpart of the "Ca Ira" of the French Revolutior?
Looking back upon Jacob Coxey's futile gesture from our
present standpoint we can afford to smile, recalling his dusty
marching Army of the Commonweal and the anticlimax with
which it was dispersed upon the capitol steps at Washington.
And we smiled-even laughed at it, in the spring of 1894, yet
uneasily withal, as not knowing just how serious it might prove
to be.
Times were hard and vast numbers of men were out of work.
There was a vague demand for legislation which should cure the
evils of unemployment. Jacob Coxey of MIassillon, Ohio, came
forward with a scheme which he believed would remedy the
situation. Congress should pass a law permitting each state to
issue legal tender certificates to citizens on personal or real
property as security, non-interest-bearing bonds, which would
ease up the money stringency and result in more work and wages.
To bring hlis ideas before Congress in a dramatic and compelling
manner a great Army of the Commonweal, 20,000 strong, would
collect from al] over the land and march to Washington where
Congress, then in session, would be practically forced to heed itsA HISTORICAL SKETCH
called respectively Lincoln, Locust Bottom, Sugar Bottom, and
Leetsburg. Later he purchased lots 3, 4, and 5, named Newburg, Norwich, and Newington.  Lot No. 1, called Loretto,
a 250-acre tract which inclides the wTestern half of the borough,
was purchased at the government sale at the Old Coffee House,
Philade]lphia, by Levi HollingswTorth who, before receiving
the patent, transferred it to MIark Wilcox, wvho conveyed it to
Jonathan Leet, by whom it wvas in turn sold in 1798 to Ihenry
Ulery, a German sea-captain, and the first white settler on
the land now Sewickley. This sale is recorded in the Recorder's office of Allegheny County, in Deed Book, vol. 8, at page
111. Lot No. 2, known as Way's Desire, consisted of 200 acres
and lay next to Loretto, extending from the present western
limrits of the borough andl including the eastern portion of the
present Edgeworth borough. It was bought in 1785 by Caleb
Way of Chester County, ancestor of the Ways who still hold
the greater portion of it. John Way, son of Caleb, occupied
the tract in 1797, and lived in a log house which stood near
the present site of the Sewickley electric light plant, at
Quaker Valley. In 1810 he built on the Beaver Road the first
brick house between Pittsburgh and Beaver, which is now
occupied by his descendant, Judge William A. Way.
Adjoining Loretto on the east, in Breading's District, was
the tract called Aleppo, containing 234 acres, 91 perches.
This was boaght from the state by Henry Pratt in 1786. He
sold it to Jonathan Leet. by whom it was conveyed to one John
Vail, and by him in turn to Thomas Beer, the settler, in 1802.
(Deed Book, vol. 11, page 57.)  The eastern limit of this
farm was near the present Glen Osborne station. Mr. Beer
built the frame house which is still standing on the river bank
beside the MeMillen lumber-yard, at Glen Osborne station,
and there made his home. Henry Ulery, who had boughl.t
Loretto, built for himself a log house near where the Park
Place Hotel now stands. In 1810 he sold his farm to Thomas
Ifoey, the grandfather of Mrs. Judge White and Mrs. William
Harbaugh.  When we say farm, it must not be understood
that it was at that time under cultivation. Mrs. Harbaugh
15THE VILLA.GE OF SEWICKLEY
demands. A start was to be made from Massillon, recruits to
join the Army as it marched al]ong and like a giant snowball,
growing as it progressed, it would assume a startling and impressive shape ere its goal should be reached.
One week the Arnmy had been on its way when the Ohio
Valley was reached, and while it had been somewhat augmented by hobo recruits and groups of unemployed the marchin g mob numbered not more than 200 or 300 men and boys.
Heavy rains at the start had proved a handicap but now
the weather had turned fine and with the warm spring sunshine and the drying, up of the roads hope rose high and
enthusiasm in the ranks increased. Especially cheering had
been the reception accorded the marchers in Beaver Falls, where
a warmly enthusiastic crowd applauded the speeches and took up
a collection of $50.00 or more to help along the cause, while one
of the hotels gave free lodgings to the officers and their mounts.
This luxurious over-night rest put so much pep in the leaders
that a rather fast pace was set, which resulted in the first appearance of dissension in the ranks.  The California commune
threatened to split off from the main body. "The Unknown"
(and of him, more anon) brought his mesmeric gifts to bear
but without success. Finally Marshal Browne brought peace
with a promise to set a slower pace-and the march was resumed.
The village of Economy was no less cordial than Beaver Falls in
its greeting, for Trustee John S. Duss of the Harmony Society
had a warm feeling for Coxey, and set about to show that he
knew how to treat the weary travellers. Warm and appetizing
food was provided in abundance at the Economy camp which
Coxey named "Camp Valley Forge," but the' ragged army was
not made free of the famous old wine cellars of the Society.
A wise precaution, undoubtedly.  Cheered thus by "the best
meal to date," the Army resumed its march towards Pittsburgh
on the afternoon of April 2nd, its commander anticipating with
something like dread the chilly reception he foresaw upon reaching Sewickley, "the bedroom of Pittsburgh capitalists."  And
his presentiment proved correct. Passing through Leetsdale the
marchers viewed with suspicion and dislike the "magnificent
168WHEN COXEY CAME
homes" of the valley residents, while the newspaper correspondents accompanying the cavalcade mnade much of the contrast
between the hobo army and the "gay society people" whose
earriages, drags and bicycles crowded the road and who stared
with ill-concealed amusement at the dusty marchers.  "Thc
terraces of the pretty homes were thronged with sightseers eager
to catch a glimpse of Coxey and his army."  Whatever may
have been their secret feelings there was no appearance of either
fear or respect; merely a great curiosity was in evidence. Leading the van, close beside the General and as dusty and bedraggled as the marchers themselves, the reporters came in. for commnent with the rest. "There go the hoboes. Aren't they the dirty
looking people!"'  There was nothing formidable about the
army's appearance, though to make it seem  larger the men
marched in single file; yet people were puzzled, did not quite
know what to make of it. And so, at last, Sewickley was reached.
It was early in the evening that the vanguard topped the
rise of Sand Hill and entered the village, where it was planned
to spend the night. "General" Coxey himself in a buggy drawn
by a white horse was recognized at once.  Close on his heels
followed the news-writers representing papers in all parts of
the country.  These occupied vehicles of various and weird
description, which were followed by a long line of dusty and
bedraggled marchers, the "Armny of the Commonweal."  Here
and there appeared an officeer on horseback.  Most prominent
was picturesque Carl Browne, theosophist and near-anarchist,
Coxey's chief of staff, and, riding beside him, the mysterious
"Unknown," called also "Unknown Smith," the leader from
the far west, whose identity remained a secret to the end. There
was "Cycl]one" Kirkland, astrologer, meteorologist, "ordnance
store officer" and recruiting sergeant; M.arshal Broderick of the
Chicago commune, in charge of the tents; Iler, the commissary
officer, commonly called "Weary Idler" by the correspondents,
with his sombrero worn at a rakish tilt; Oklahoma Sam on a
wiry western horse with eowboy trappings, galloping about as
aide de camp to Browne. And now as the head of the procession
is about to enter the town, Jasper Johnson, the standard bearer,
169THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
climbs out o0 a buggy, unfurls the American flag and takes his
place at the head beside General Coxey, accompanied on one
side by his yellow cur dog "Bunker Hill" and on the other, by
the half-breed Jackson, long-haired and picturesque, belted with
wampum and swinging a big axe. Is it any wonder that Sewickley stared? It was as good as a Wild West show. A lodging
for the night was sought and after some dickering and wrangling
General Coxey received permission to establish "Camp Duss"
on the Grimes lot at the corner of Grimes and Centennial. Here
ihe dusty and weary trampers proceeded to make themselves
comnfortable for the night, putting up tents, preparing supper
and, best of all, resting up. Some of the neighbors were not so
comfortable in such close proximity to this motley aggregation
but got out their guns and made ready to sell their lives dearly
should anybody start anything. Their fears, however, proved
unfounded. Nothing happened.
That was a great evening in Sewickley. Everybody turned
out to look the Army over; curiosity was not confined to any
class. Judge Edwin H. Stowe and Mr. D. C. Herbst innocently
stepped over the "dead line" established by the "Unknown"
and were unceremoniously hustled out beyond the ropes. W7hen
the anarchist was told that he had ejected the President Judge
of the Common Pleas Court he said, "I don't care if he is the
President Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Marshal of Group 19, come forward and put these men out!"
This incident was played up in large headlines by the Pittsburgh
papers next day:'"Bounced a Judge!" There was plenty to see
and no lack of excitement, but no real disorder. The sheriff
with thirteen deputies and some detectives were on hand, coming
from Pittsburgh to have a look-see, expecting to round up some
crooks or yegg-mnen who nmLight attach themselves to Coxey in the
hope of gain. They confessed themselves rather astonished to
find none of such gentry present. Perhaps the crowd of onlookers was greatest in front of "Cyclone" Kirkland's astrological chart, listening to his esoteric harangue and asking him to
predict tomorrow's weather.  The more practical side of his
discourse was his recruiting speech, of which the peroration is
170WHEN COXEY CAME
remnembered: "The wives and babies all over this land are crying
out for food and the citizens are ready to join in an upraising
against the gold bugs and elements on our way and the dawn of
the new era is corning."
Carl Browne, Coxey's chief of staff, collected a goodly audience to hear his theosophical speech, ranting about the Reincarnated Christ problemin, a speech interesting to some, revolting to
others and merely ludicrous to most of those who had the patience
to hear him. He harangued the crowd after this fashion: "I
address yTou as fellow dogs and when you hear me out you will
not be angry me at me for doing so. We are the dogs, and the
monopolists and other capitalists are the fleas sucking away our
life blood."
So the evening passed. Gradually the villagers withdrew and
Camp Duss settled down for the night, though some twenty
weary ones sought more comfortable quarters in the Sewickley
lock-up. One desertion from the ranks occurred. It happened
ill this wise: Mir. William Dickson with the other townsfolk was
inspecting the camnp, and upon taking a look inside one of the
tents he found there a respectable-appearing Scotchman who
told a hard-luck tale of unemployment and general discouragement. Mlr. Dickson, who had ever a warm spot in his heart for
an exiled Scotlander, persuaded the man to abandon the march
to Washington and took him to his home where he gave him
food, shelter and a job. Next morning the town heaved a sigh
of relief as the Army packed up and took to the road again looking forward eagerly to a promised cordial reception in Allegheny
and an enthusiastic one in Homestead.  Sewickley's chilliness
affected not only the rank and file. General Coxey thus unburdened himself to the Pittsburgh newspapers, after speaking of
the warmth of Allegheny's greeting: "But what a different
reception I got in Sewickley. The people down there are what
I term an English snobocraev and are too stingy and niggardly
to be classed among decent citizens."  Rather peevish of the
General, one would say.
Editorially the city papers, while pointing out the futtility
of Coxey's scheme of legislation, treated him for the most part
171THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
quite sympathetically, recognizing the man's evident sincerity.
And  particularly  the news-writers and  editors laid  great
emphasis upon the singular freedom from misbehavior and disturbance of any kind, complimenting the Army's leaders for
their sucecess in preserving order in camp and upon the march.
The worst that was said was that while some of the speeches
were a mixture of absurdity and blasphemy and the movement
would not be productive of a particle of good to any one and
was not an inspiring spectacle, still it was not demonstrably
harmful. Sewickley saw it as a Wild West circus and enjoyed
the show, once the lurking anxiety as to the "Army's" movements and results was allayed. After thirty-five years General
Coxey and his army are still a subject of good-natured comment.
The "General" is still living and the people have always had a
kindly regard for him  as was shown by the popular vote of
nearly 53,000 given him when he ran for governor of Ohio the
year following his march to Washington; that march which is
described as "one of the most remarkable popular uprisings ever
witnessed in any country."
January, 1929.
172SEWICKLEY'S COLORED PIONEERSSEWICKIjEY`'S COLfORED PIONEERS
AN APPRECIATION OF TiIE OLDER GENERATION OF NEGROES
No sketch of old-time Sewickley would approach completeness
if it failed to mention the elder generation of colored folk,
respected citizens of the village in those days, many of whom
are remembered today with a warmth of feeling which is not
confined to members of their race, but is shared by the older
white inhabitants whose recollections span the years between.
Faithful servitors most of them were, in the families of the
white folk, the men working in field, garden and barn, the
women busy in the kitchen or laundry, and in useful work about
the house. Others pushed out into independent lines as small
storekeepers, barbers, blacksmiths or as preachers of the gospel.
Good folk for the most part they were, conscientious workers and
law-abiding citizens, many of them deeply religious, fervent
in worship and active in the interests of their church.
Probably the first colored man to come to "Sewickley
Bottom," according to Captain David Shields, was one Jim
Robinson who was brought as a servant in the Shields household
from their former home in Washington County where he had
been given his freedom by the ILeet family. Washington County,
it will be remembered, was a part of Augusta County, Virginia,
and hence was slave territory. The Captain remembers Jim as a
tall, powerful, black man, famous as a teamster. Ile it was who
laid out most of the roads over the Shields land and drew out logs
for the saw mill which, with the Shields grist mill, stood on
Little Sewickley creek near where it is crossed by the Beaver
Road. Jim was a rugged woodsman. In the winter he insisted
on sleeping on the oaken planks of the kitchen in the Shields
mansion (now the home of Mrs. Halsey'Williams) with his
head to the great wood fireplace where it was warmed by the
smoldering black gum back-log which Jim was wont to drag
into the kitchen with a horse. In Jim's old age the fireplace ofTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
the great kitchen was modernized with a stove, and Jim
remarked, "It's time fo' Jim to go back to Washington when
the Shieldses done got so pore dey got to hab a stove."
In his address on The Olden Time in Sewickley, quoted in
Miss Ellis's Lights and Shadows, John Way, Jr., pays tribute
to M~rs. Shields's carriage driver, "a giant African of brawn
and muscle, who could neither read nor write, and whose
knowledge of mathematics was limited to four,-the number of
horses in his farm  team.  At times, when Mrs. Shields was
unable from rheumatism to climb the steep hillside to her little
Sunday-school, big Harry Robinson would tenderly assist her
with his huge arms. He used his one talent, strength, in a
good cause and with a loving heart." (This must have been
the Jim Robinson of whom Captain Shields speaks.)
Captain Shields has boyhood memories of anothler old
negro, Williamn Blankenship, who was brought to Sewickley
Bottomi from  Ohio by Thomas Shields, "Captain Dave's"
father, to serve as nurse for David Shields, the grandfather, in his feeble old age.  He remembers how  as  a
small boy he sat with "Uncle Billy" on the' fence by the
old Shields graveyard to enjoy the novel sight of the railroad
train roaring its way to the city at eight or ten miles an hour.
Little Dave hugged a fencepost and wTas held tight by Uncle
Billy, following the maternal injunction "not to be sucked in
by the train." And how the lad was impressed by Uncle Billy's
boast, "I could run one of dem t'ings, Mr. David, if I just
knowed how to make it turn de corner!"
In the year 1835 Theodore Nevin, then a youth of twenty,
drove a two-horse team  from  Sewickley to Niles, Michigan
Territory, taking with him a black boy "George" to help work
the wagon through the " 3Black Swamp" of Ohio, which lay across
their route. The colored lad attracted great attention from the
inhabitants along the way, beingr evidently a rare sight in those
parts, and he proved to be lively company on the lonely trip.
His master writes: "George is now entertaining mine host and
his four sons in the big room. He is caressed at every stopping
place; I am asked a thousand different questions about him at
176SEWICKLEY'S COLORED PIONEERS
every tavern.  Last night my landlady's little boys actually
quarrelled about getting to sleep with him. The mother being
called in to decide the difference, gave the preference to a little
white-haired urchin and put them to bed together!"
Not many are living today who remember Franklin Wetzel.,
generally known as "Old Wetz." Undoubtedly he was one of
the earliest of the colored settlers here, for it was on October
3rd, 1865, that he bought from the estate of Catherine Hezlep
for the sum of $75.00 a one acre tract lying in what is now the
Waterworks Park, whereon he built himself a one-story log
cabin which stood on a knoll about where the rustic pavilion is
located, a short distance above the lower reservoir. Here he
lived for mnany years though it seems he parted with the title
in 1866, selling to his son William Isaac and daughter, Ruth
Frances Wetzel, for the astonishing sum of $2,000.00  so at least
the deed recites. The son, William Isaac Wetzel by the way,
was for many years in the employ of J. D. Layng of Edgeworth,
General Manager of the old Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago
Bailway, acting as porter in charge of that official's special ear.
They in turn conveyed to the Borough of Sewickley in 1878, the
land nGw fornmiing a part of the waterworks property. "Wetz"
was the oldest inhabitant of the valley  of the county in fact,
claiming 116 years at the time of his death, which occurred April
3rd, 1879. The Pittsburgh Telegraph of the following day
honored him with quite an obituary notice on the first page,
wherein his birth year is given as 1763, and the statement is made
that "his tremnendous age is well substantiated and he does not
belong to that array of mythical colored patriarchs that contribute to newspaper paragraphs." The notice continues: "In many
respects the deceased was a remarkable man both physically and
mentally. His bodily vigor was unimpaired by the weight of
accumulating years.  His memory was something remarkable
and at any time he could give a well-connected narrative of
events that transpired early in the history of our country."  Mr.
Franklin Osburn, father of F. C. Osburn, the attorney, carefully
questioning the old man, was convinced of the genuineness of
his claims. Wetz had come from Charles Town and McPherson's
177THE VILLAGE OF SE WICKLEY
used to tell how, as a child, when accompanying her father,
the Rev. Charles Thorn, to the "village," she would cling
tightly to his hand, when entering the dense chestnut woods
which began at about wvhere the railroad nowJ is. The darkl
woods were full of terrors for her childlish imagination.
On the line dividing the IJlery and Beer lands an acre was
set apart by the two owners as a burying-ground, during the
plague years 1809-10.  This lay just east of the present
Gilmore residence, 653 Bank Street. The road leading to this
spot was long known as GC-raveyard Lane, now Division Street.
Mr. Hoey subsequently built a stone house near the site of
Ulery's log cabin, and in that house his daughter Sophronia
and the Rev. Charles Thorn were married by Rev. Thomas
McClelland, the first Methodist preacher in the valley, who
was a frequent visitor there.
All of the land now comprising, the boroughs of Osborn,
Sewickley, and Edgeworth, with an immense outlying territory,
lay within Pine Township, which was created in 1796 out of Pitt
township which included all of the county land west of the
Allegheny River and north of the Ohio as far as Lake Erie.
Out of Pine was cut Ohio Township in 1803, and in 1853 a
portion of Ohio Township was set apart as Sewickley Borough.
The Township of Sewickley was not taken from Ohio Township
until a year or so later.
Among the early settlers who bought tracts of land around
the present borough was James Park, who purchased 205
acres, much  of which  now  makes up  Osborn  borough.
William McLaughlin, great-grandfather of Mrs. P. D. Nicols,
bought a tract in 1798, lying in what was later to become
Sewickley Township. He was one of the pioneer Scotch-Irish
who came from the East over the mountains by Conestoga
wagon.  Frederick Merriman, who had been a soldier in
Wayne's Legion, wvas a squatter on the McLaughlin land. He
afterwards bought 300 acres, more or less, the consideration
being a gun, an iron kettle, andc a sled. He claims to have had
a prior offer for the same gun of forty acres of land in Alle16THE VILLAGE OF' SEWICKLEY
Mills, Jefferson County, West Virginia, with which region Mr.
Osburn, himself a Virginian, was well acquainted, and the old
man's accurate and detailed account of persons and places he
hlad known gave evidence of his great age. He told of General
George Washington's frequent visits to the home of the Frederick
County, Virginia, family where he was a slave, and how he had
mnore than once held the General's horse.  In the Centennial
year, i876, Wetz attained a county-wide prominence. A local
celebration was staged in Allegheny and the old man was put on
exhibition there. Hie proved a drawing card and the result was
the raising of a fund to send him to the Centennial Exposition
at Philadelphia, which was suecessfully accomplished, to his
unbounded pride.
They tell of old "Pop"' Reese, Charles Reese, who built him
a cabin of sod and fence rails up the hollow, beyond Wetz. Later
he put up a log cabin on the Jim Winters farm overlooking
Little Sewickley creek and near the present site of the Allegheny
Country Club, where he worked as a woodehopper.  Here he
lived through his last years. To him as he lay dying came his
pastor, Father Fidler, who discovered that Reese was a former
slave whom  he, years before, had helped to escape by the
"Underground Railroad." Another old-time woodchopper from
back in the hills was "Pete" Davis, said to be part Indian. His
wife, too, looked as if she had Indian blood as she stalked into
the village with long silent strides, her son following behind in
In(lian file.
It would appear then that even before the end of the Civil
War some few colored people had settled hereabouts.  When
William Curtis, father of I)avid Curtis, came to Sewickley in
1866 he found here a number of pioneers, Franklin Wetzel,
GCeorge Marlatt, John Howard, Thomas Branson, Israel Jackson,
Albert Fields, George Wilson, Sylvester Lee, David Brooks,
Dtavid Gordon, Albert Seamore, Robert Logan, Dennis Buchanan,
William Braxton, William  ("Pap") Fisher, Edward Johnson,
William  and James Parker, B3enjamin Ford, Philip Brown,
WilliamrI Henderson and Rev. Billie Fleming.  These, with
WNilliam Warfield, who came in 1868, John Ward, John Pryor,
178SEWICKLEY'S COLORED PIONEE R.S
and a few others, may be called the colored pioneers of the
valley. Fields was employed by Dr. McCready, Davy Brooks
by Mr. Nevin, Seamore by Judge White, Logan by Mr. Murray,
Buchanan by Mir. Sands, James Parker by'Squire Way, Johnson
by Mr. Quay, Ford by the Misses Shields, Thomas Branson by
Mr. Atwell and Brown by Dr. Dickson.
To attempt a biographical note of each individual would
exceed the limits of such a sketch as this, but there was
among them an outstanding group, men and women of
especial worth, who were marked by dignity of bearing and
soundness of character. Concerning these a word of appreciation is due. Of them and some others it can be said that
they were of the best quality, scrupulously honest and faithful
and in religious matters not given to the emotional extravagance so common among members of their race. There were
George Marlatt and "Aunt Callie," his wife.  George, tall,
heavily built and reputed to have unlimited strength, was a
handsome physical specimen, a peaceable, soft-spoken giant. To
Revt. Sanmuel Mackey he related the thrilling tale of his journey
on foot from Virginia and over the mountains of Pennsylvania
aecompanied by his sister, MIrs. Montgomery, and her small son,
George, whom he packed on his back the greater part of the way.
Reaching Sewickley, Marlatt first worked for Washington Gibb
and later he and his wife were for many years in the employ
of the Robert H. Davis famnily. Mr. Davis had bought George's
freedom, sending money south for that purpose. "Aunt Callie"
was a wonderful nurse and had a wide field of usefulness among
the white families about Sewickley, and, later, in Allegheny
where she nursed Dr. Louis Willard's patients. George's sister,
Mrs. Montgomery, married Dennis Buchanan who worked for
Mr. David Sands, while George and his wife lived in a log
cabin on the Davis property, close to the site of the present
A. J. Barron residence. Here MIr. Davis's daughter Rebekah
(afterward Mrs. Dr. Willard) taught both George and Aunt
Callie to read and write, and when their church was established
she gave to it a handsome pulpit Bible. John'Ward, brother
of Aunt Callie, and Augusta Ward, his wife, naturally are
179THE VILLAGE OF SEWICGLEY
thought of next. John, clean-cut, dignified and polite, sober
in convAersation, singularly mnodest and with high moral
standards, was gardener andc man of all wNork for Mr. George H.
Chlristy who in later years secured for him an appointment as
messenger in the Federal Courts. HI-e was born, free, in Philadelphia where he grew up and was employed by a German, fronm
whom he learned a few German words which he was fond of using
occasionally with an interesting African accent. And Augusta,
his wife, the prop and mnainstay of all Sewickley's social functions, where she presided in the kitchen and looked after the
table appointments as well! Augusta knew  as much about
correct dinner giving as any white woman in town. The Woman's
Club instituted a course of lectures on Domestic Science by an
expert from the east, and a number of wom.en subscribed on
behalf of their cooks. Augusta was one of those who attended
the opening lecture with note-book and pencil. At the close of
the session she came to Mrs. Laughlin and showed her note-book
untouched, saying, "'Deed, M3rs. Laughlin, I feel educatedbut I got to say I can't read or write."  Nevertheless she
probably knew more about the art and mystery of cooking than
did the lecturer herself.  Augusta's first husband had been
named Hill, and her son by that marriage, curiously named
Murray  lill, was well known in the neighborhood.  Some ten
years after her marriage to John Ward they gave an elaborate
silver wedding party explaining that though she and John had
been married but ten years it was the twenty-fifth anniversary
of Augusta's first wedding. Poor Augusta, her end was a sad
one. Returning from the city one dark night she was killed as
she stepped from the train at Sewieckley station.
"Aunt Mary" Jackson, sister of Mrs. Marlatt, was another
of the members of the group, as was John Howard also, who was
a man of some education, a man of parts, with fine manners and
a pleasant personality. John, an employee of the old Logan
House at Altoona, was brought to Sewickley by Mr. David R.
Miller, father of MXIr. Chambers Miller. He opened the candy
store and barber shop at Chestnut Street crossing, mention of
which was made in an earlier paper about "Harbaugh's Pond."
180SEWICKLEY'S COLORED PIONEERS
Rather short in stature and inclined to stoutness, with graying
hair, he was an amiable kindly man.
William  Warfield came to Sewickley from  York, Pa., in
1868. He was born, free, in Carroll County, Maryland, and
was apprenticed there to a blacksmith.  Coming to Sewickley
he opened his first shop back of the present Hegner store
but later moved to Fife Street (now Blackburn Avenue) back
of Dr. McCready's residence. Like John Howard, Warfield was
rather stout and of moderate height, a cheerful, good-humored
man.
John  and  Melinda Pryor lived  in  a little  one-story
cottage on the edge of what was then known as "The
Devil's Half Acre," a name long since discarded as the neighborhood imnproved. The house stood on Pryor Alley, the only
street in the village that is named for a colored man.  Self
respecting and upright citizens they were; John, tall and rather
spare of build; iielinda, quite otherwise. For years John was
employed as sexton of the Presbyterian Church where he worshipped with the white folk. Mr. T. H. B. McKnight in a paper
read some years ago giving short biographies of the church
trustees wrote as follows: "Captain George W. Cochran was
elected trustee of the Presbyterian Church in 1873, and held
the position of treasurer for twenty years, in which he was
ably assisted by the sexton, John Pryor, who attended to the
collection of the pew rents, carrying a bunch of already signed
receipts about with him, ready for delivery when payment was
made. As may be imagined, it was a large and much rumpled
bundle to be thumbed over when a pew-holder settled."  One
of the memorable events in John's life was his presiding at the
free lunceh which was served on two days in June, 1873, during
the auction sale of lots in the Sands and Adair Plan dispensing
hot coffee and hami sandwiches in a barn on the premises. Over
$60,00(.00 worth of lots were sold at this, the first auction sale
of land in the county, and John felt that no small part of the
glory was his. When the F4'irst National Bank was organized
and opened for business, November, 1890, in the "Chamberlin"
building across from its present location, John was given the
181THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
job of messenger which he held to the time of his death. In
November, 1894, the bank moved into its present quarters
and John pridefully took on all the dignity of a president,
cashier and watch-dog combined. Add to this his boast that
he was the only colored Democrat in the village, and you realize
that John was "different."
Thomas Branson's name belongs in any catalog of Sewickley's colored worthies. "Tomnmy" was a quiet, modest man,
humble in manner, a faithful worker. He and William Braxton
were employed by Mr. Theodore Nevin at different times in
1877 and 1878. A pocket memorandum book of those years
shows that Tommy was paid $12.00 a month, working in the
winter time, while William, employed in the summer, got $15.00.
All that they had to do to earn this stipend, besides making
garden, picking the vegetables, cutting the grass, helping in
with the hay and working generally about the seven acre place,
was to care for four horses, five cows and a flock of chickens,
and to drive the family to church twice on Sundays and again
to Wednesday evening prayer meeting! Still, $15.00 had some
purchasing value in those days and the rate of pay was not
unusual.
Jarrmes Parker, a zealous member of the church, was for many
years in the employ of "Squire" John Way, looking after the
Academy property and premises. William Parker was similarly
employed as janitor of the public. school buildings. Benjamin
Ford, also a pillar of the church, lived "down the road," where
he was coachman for the Misses Hannah and Rebecca Shields.
Every day he drove up for the mail; his buckwagon and little
stylish chestnut horse were familiar to all. A distressing episode
in Ben's life was his trial on a charge of murder. The body of
a colored girl had been found on the ice pond opposite the Shielclds
residence and suspicion pointed to Ford. His innocence, however, was satisfactorily established and he was acquitted. Wil..
liam HTenderson, tall, dignified, with something Indian-like in
his bearing, was seldom seen apart from his wagon and white
mule. Rev. Daniel Matthews, earliest of the preachers of the
gospel, was an earnest and zealous worker, a sincere and godly
182SEWICKLEY'S COLORED PIONEERS
man. William Curtis, like the bo'sun's mate, "was very sedate
yet fond of amusement too," for he and his family coming
here from  Virginia introduced  a somewhat lighter, jollier
element. They were full of music and brought with them their
plantation songs, the spirituals of today. That musical strain
still persists in William  Curtis's descendants, some of whom
have shown marked talent.  The Curtis family, however, did
not have a monopoly of musical ability; many others had good
voices and enjoyed singing.  It is pleasant to relate that it
was customnary on Christmas eve for a number of the colored
men to meet at the home of George Marlatt or John Ward and
from there proceed on a round of serenades at the homes of
certain of the white folk, where their music and the compliment
were greatly appreciated. The story of Curtis's coming is an
interesting one; how he was body servant to an officer in the
Confederate Army when he broke away, and, with the help of
the "Underground Railroad," succeeded in reaching the North
and freedomr. After a short stay at Duff City he removed to
the Murray farm and later to Sewickley.
Lewis Costley, Dr. Allison's driver, lived in the little stone
cottage diagonally opposite the Doctor at the northeast corner of
Beaver and Academy AvenuLe, built years before by "Deadman
Jim  Smith," an old river pilot.  George Campbell lived on
Captain J. C. Anderson's farm in a little log cabin up the hollow
near the present Rea place. Cyrus ("Cy") Bell we all remember, but we may have forgotten that at one time he kept a
boarding house on Beaver Street (about where the Miullan store
is now, No. 4290 Beaver Street), elegantly-or perhaps in derision
-known as "Hotel de Bell." Then there was Henry Stafford
who worked for the Hays family. He came from near Frederieksburg, Virginia, was body servant to General Alexander Hays,
witnessed all the battles down to that of the, WAilderness, where
the General was killed, and he it was who brought the body home
for burial. For many years he remained in the employ of Mrs.
Hays at Fair Oaks, Leetsdale and Sewickley. Jacob Portee,
brother-in-law of David Curtis, was best known for his violin
playing. lie was an early addition to the colony. His violin
183'THE1 VILLAGE )OF SEWICKLEY
was much in demand at dances and merry-makings. George
Montgomery is readily recalled. He was janitor at Choral Hall
and an interested on-looker at the social affairs given there.
Later he had a job at the court house in Pittsburgh. And so
on, and so on. The list could be considerably lengthened but
other matters mnust be recorded.
There was among these old-timers quite a survival of ancient
s!perstition, all trace of which is of course lost today.  Odd
vestiges of early beliefs., tales of witchcraft and spells, were
now and then brought to light in talks around the kitchen fire
or between chores in stable or barnyard. WAhite children, the
devoted satellites of the old colored folk, were the spell-bound
recipients of these confidences. Peter Brooks, before he bought
a horse and wagon and went into business for himself, worked
as stable man for Dr. Robert MeCready. Combing out the
snarls in the horse's miane of a morning, Peter told small Robert,
Junior, how the witches had ridden the horse that night until it
was "all of a lather" and showed the wide-eyed lad the "stir
rups" in the horse's mnane which the witches had used. Just
one way to catch these witches, Peter averred. Place a sieve
over the horse's head and the witches couldn't get out till they
had counted all of the holes. Then you could catch them.
Peter's avocation was preaching. He had quite a local reputation in that line. T-lie was especially gifted in prayer. Once he
offered up a supplication for the countless heathen, "thousands,
millions-yea hundreds, in the world!" Magical cures were
more or less popular. If a dog bit you the best treatment was
to make a paste containing hair from  the dog's back.  This
spread over the wound was a sure remedy. Now and then would
appear in "The Acre" a weird figure reminiscent of southern
"voodoo," a large, portly black man displaying snake skins,
teeth and various charms, and wearing a necklace of teeth and
bones. He was generally spoken of as an herb doctor, claiming
to have acquired his knowledge from the Indians among whom
he had lived. One of his fearful and wonderful herb concoctions
almost did for George Marlatt, who took it internally for a lame
knee. The herb doctor's visits were somewhat exciting, accom184SEWICKLEY'S COLORED PIONEERS
panied as they were by the laying on of hands and numbling of
incantations over bear's teeth and charms, but his voodoo was a
bit too crude to obtain much of a following among the Sewickley
negroes. Belief in a personal devil who masqueraded in various
disguises was quite common. "Granny" Curtis, a famous cook
in the Davis family, coming to work in the early morning, meets
a black dog on the way and recognizes it as His Satanic Majesty
on some baleful errand bent.  G-host stories were a favorite
entertainment. On holidayTs groups of colored folk would meet
and spend the entire day reciting these thrilling tales and singing
their southern melodies.  Some little drinking marked these
occ(asions, the favorite tipple, eggnogg, but it can truthfully be
said that there was no drunkenness there and rarely any
dancing, for dancing was frowned upon by the sedate elders.
Some account should be given of the colored people's religious
activities.  MAention has been made in a former paper of the
Sunday afternoon bush meetings held in Mr. J. Sharp.McDonald's grove, those open-air revivalistiec assemblies where the
natural religious exuberance of the race was given full swing.
These meetings were a late survival, for back in the'Sixties
there had been a series of such gatherings in what was known as
"Linn's Hollow," now the Waterworks Park. These were allday Sunday affairs, several of which would be held in the course
of a summer season. In the'Sixties also and repeated during
two or three years, there was an organized camp meeting in
McKown's grove, on the river bank at Glen Osborne station.
These meetings were attended by colored folk from far around.
Tents were put up and the services lasted ten days or longer,
presided over by two bishops, the one a typical southern negro
orator named Moore, the other, Bishop Jones, a man of better
education and more polished manner. Certain of the local citizens were prominent at these meetings, John Howard, Franklin
Wetzel, William Henderson and others. But, earlier even than
the camp meetings in MeKown's grove, in 1857 in fact, the Rev.
Daniel Matthews, an earnest and enthusiastic worker for souls,
had established a colored mission in Sewickley which held services in a log building located near what is now the corner of
185THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
Broad and Centennial, and later in another log building on Walnut Street, next to the present Catholic church. George Marlatt's family occupied the rear portion of the building. It was
about the year 1868 that John Howard, Wetz, Warfield and a few
others approached MAr. Theodore Nevin with the request that the
white people help in founding a colored church in the village. Mr.
Nevin and Judge White consented to act as trustees of a fund
to be collected for the purpose, and the church was formally
established, taking the name of St. Matthew's A. M1. E. Zion,
as much in honor of the Rev. Daniel Matthews, it is said, as of
the evangelist of that name. Years of varying fortune followed;
years of discouragement and apparent defeat followed by times
of enthusiasm and prosperity. The lot at the corner of Thorn
and Walnut was purchased and the frame church built which
was later moved back to make room  for the present brick
building. In the 1880's Mr. George H. Christy presented to
them a small frame house which was moved from the Christy
lot to its present location facingr Thorn Street where it is used
as the parsonage. Then, in the year 1903, a church' charter was
secured, the present wATriter having the privilege of preparing
and presenting in court the petition which was signed by John
P. Ward, John Burnard, David S. Curtis, William Mossett, T. E.
Hines, Jefferson Granison, James Parker, Mary Johnson and
Lucy Carter, the first five being named as trustees. The matter
came up before Judge Collier in old Common Pleas Court No. 1.
His Honor slowly read over the full name, "Saint-MatthewsAfrican-Methodist-Episcopal-Zion-Chureh--of-Sewicekley
-Pennsylvania," and asked, "Are you certain that you have
the whole name there?"
It is not proposed here to write a church history. Suffice it
to say that with varying fortunes, some internal disturbances
and defections, and under many pastorates, certain ones marked,
as was the Rev. Durham's, by a pronounced success in raising
funds, the church continued to advance, and in the year 1917
at its 60th year celebration, the mortgage was burned amid great
rejoicing. The A. M. E. Zion is the pioneer church for colored
people in the valley.  Others followed later but being more
186SEWICKLEY'S COLORED PIONEERS
modern they are not properly to be included in a sketch of the
olden times.
Like their white neighbors the colored folk found in their
church organizations a favorite field for social as well as religious
activities. Church bazaars and strawberry-and-ice-cream festivals were not uncommon or unusual events, but one entertainment that was given by the younger element on a certain summer
afternoon in the mid-'Seventies, long stood as a high-water mark
in the annals of Sewickley's colored population. This was the
"Tournament of the Knights of the Red Cross" held on the
Sands and Adair lots fronting on Frederick Avenue between
Walnut and Ljittle Streets. Twenty young fellows from Sewickley
with ten more from Bellevue were organized and drilled by Prof.
Neal, a colored school teacher from Allegheny. The tilt-yard
extended along Frederick Avenue with a flag and bunting-draped
arch erected opposite the residence of Mrs. General Hays. From
the center of the arch hung a ring at which the riders stabbed
with their tin-pointed lances as they galloped past to the rattle
of drums and the blare of trumpets. The spectators crowded
close to the lists cheering the several riders, while the judges'
stand and Mrs. Hays's porch were filled with an applauding
audience. The prize went to the Knight who collected the greatest number of rings on his lance and he it was who won the
honor of crowning as queen the dusky beauty of his choice. Alex
Warfield, now a county employee in the office of the Prothonotary,
was chief marshal, mounted on Mr. J. Sharp McDonald's
"]fate," the ancient white mare celebrated as the oldest equine
in the valley. (Forty-four years she numbered when she died.)
There was George Montgomery riding Dr. MeCready's roan
"Kit," full of pep and bounce; Charlies Gilkerson mounted on
"Dolly Varden," and Beverly Gilkerson, William  Braxton,
Tom and Jim  ("Quickstep") MatthewTs also ran. The prize
went to Ed Johnson on Col. McKelvy's army mare, "Sis Lee"
and he it was who crowned Eva M1ason as the "Queen of the
Tourney. "
This brings us to the younger generation of near-old-timers.
Charlie and "Bev" Gilkerson, George Ward and others. Feel187A HISTORICAL SKETCH
ghenytown-the land that is now occupied by the City Hall
and the Carnegie Library.  "Surely a valuable gun!" as
one chronicler remarks. Robert Linn was another Ulsterman,
who settled on a neighboring farmn and whose descendants are
among the old Sewickley families. William Larimore came,
it is said, as early as 1793, and took up a farm in what is now
Leet Township. A neighbor of his was Nathan McPherson.
These are Sewickley names today. Rev. Thomas McClelland
in 1809 or 1810, then in his seventieth year, bought a farmn
about six miles north of the present borough, which remained
in the family many years. The price he paid was $1.25 an
acre. James Moore, known as Commodore Moore, was the
most extensive landowner on the Sewickley hills, his farm
comprising some 1200 acres. The Murray and Besterman farms
are a part of Moore's land.
The first collection of houses from  which the village of
Sewickley was evolved naturally grew  ip on the Pittsburgh
and Beaver road. This road was in existence in 1778, and
closely follows an old Indian trail leading from the Forks of
the Ohio to the northwest counltry. General Anthony Wayne
made a military road of it in 1792, when he led his Legion
from Fort Pitt to Logstowin, there to drill his men in preparation for a campaign against the hostile Indians, the success
of which practically opened the entire region for settlement
by the white men. Legionville station on the railroad takes
its name from  that military camp.  Other trails intersected
this, coming down our present Waterworks and Blackburn
roads and connecting with the great Warriors' Branch trail
beyond Frankfort, in Beaver County-the Indians crossing
the river at Stoops Ferry by canoe.
The original Hoey farm lay on both sides of the Beaver
Road. A portion of it passed to John Hoey and from him to
John Little in 1832. The John Hoey homestead stood at what
is now the corner of Beaver and Walnut streets. As the
village grew, a general store became a necessity, and this was
supplied by Robert and James Green, brothers, who began
business in a log house on the Beaver Road, just about where
17TI-IE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
ings of genuine respect coupled with pleasant memories come
over one in recalling the kindly and in some ways child-like old
colored folk. It is not with respect so much as with amusement
that some of the younger negroes are remembered, George Ward,
for instance; nephew of John, who brought him up, a mischievous
sky-larking, banjo-playing fellow who tried but never seemed to
break the patience of "UIncle John."  Long, lank and preternaturally solemn-looking George was, with a bass voice that came
up from his boots, verily fromn the heels thereof. Any employment that was not too steady suited George. For instance when
the perennial Sewickley Minstrels were booked for a performance
in Choral Hall George was hired to advertise the event. All day
he paraded the streets in long-tailed coat and slouch hat with an
old-fashioned musket on his shoulder, and on his, back a sign
reading "I'm  looking for the Man Who Is Not Going to the
Minstrels Tonight." Death came to George while he was yet
a young man. Shortly before he passed away his minister called
at his bedside and asked, "George, are you prepared to die?
George replied, "Yass sir. Pretty ready. I got a first rate
coat, but my pants ain't jest what they'd ought to be."  And
"Betty" Harris--who remenibers Betty Harris, George's partner in various escapades?  For "Betty" was a boy, strangely
misnamed, and fully as mischievous as George. Betty, George
and "Fling" Henderson formned a trio that was hard to beat.
Then there were the Gilkersonls, Charlie, Beverly and Ed, whose
steadiest employment was at housecleaning time-though Beverly
long worked for Mrs. Hutehinson and brought up a family in
the building in _Mrs. Hutchinson's yard which is now the office of
Doctors Nettleton and Mitchell. Charlie Gilkerson's passion was
debating. Many a hilarious gathering in the A. M. E. Zion
Church applauded his oratory as he pounded the pulpit and
pressed homne his arguments to prove that "Steam power is more
valuable than horse power" or to decide "Which is the most
beautiful to the eye--art or nature?"  It was a bold man that
challenged Charlie to debate. Even Ajax Jones, the colored
orator and politician from Pittsburgh, met his match in this
forum. At the height of his oratory Charlie's cuffs would work
188SEWICKLEY'S COLORED PIONEERS
out of his sleeves and over the ends of his fingers, falling to the
floor in front of the pulpit when he reached his perorationl. And
his peroration was well prepared, for Charlie, to prime himself
for the occasion, would go down to the Academy and get the
boys to give him somie "good words" to use. It didn't matter
what they mneant "just so they sound good" he would say.
Crowded assemblies attended these contests, the judges always
chosen from among the white folk present.
Lively tales could be told of the younger colored element
typified by George Ward and Charlie Gilkerson but when
we look back across the years and recall those pioneers of the
colored race who made their homes in this valley in the days
immediately following the Civil War their War of Independence; when we consider their sterling quLalities, their honest and
God-fearing lives, their fidelity in humble employment-then we
believe that the present generation cannot fail to realize that
there has been handed down to them a precious heritage, a fine
tradition and an example which they and their children's children should preserve and cherish.
January, 1929.
For valued assistance in the preparation of this paper'
acknowledgment must be made to Captain David Shields, Messrs.
Gilbert A. Hays, Robert T. M. McCready, Bayard II. Christy,
F. C. Osburn, Rev. Samuel Mackey, David S. Curtis and
Alexander Warfield.
1893PITTSBURGII TO BEDFORD BY CARRIAGEPITTSBURGH-I TO BEDFORD BY CARRIAGE
FROM A BOY'S DIARY OF 1878
BEDFORD, Pennsylvania, is on the Lincoln Highway-formerly the Philadelphia turnpike-100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
The modern motorist who does not "make" it in three hours-,
or less, thinks he is wasting time on the road. The following
extracts from a boy's diary of fifty years ago give an impression of travel over the turnpike in that day, a glimpse of a
mnore placid form of enjoyment, with an appreciation of the
amenities of the highway such as is scarcely the vogue today;
a journey in which the three days seemed all too short.
It is thought that this small-boy chronicle might not inappropriately be included among such a eollection of papers as
this, as showing something of the same simple pleasure as
was characteristic of life in the Village of that day.
Monday, Sept. 2, 1878
This morning Dave (who is my best friend) and I were up
in our carpenter-shop that we have over the cow stable working on a printing press that we are making when Sister LIide
called me and when I went into the house she told me that
F'ather says I can go with them tomorrow on a trip to Bedford
Springs in the carriage. Father, Cousin Fanny, Sister Lide
and I are going. My but I was glad and excited for I rode
to Bedford Springs with Father once before and I know what
fun it is. I am going to keep a diary this time and put down
everything. Sister Lide helped me to pack my valise this
evening because Mother is not at home. She is at Bedford
Springs with Cousin Mary, wAaiting for us. This afternoon
William Braxton our colored hired man hitched up the two
horses and drove up to Allegheny so wTe can start from there
tomorrow morning early.THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1878.
This mornin(g Father, Sister LIide, Cousin Fanny and I came
up to town on the 1/4 to 8 train and after I got my hair
cut we waited a little while in Father's office at the bank and
then the carriage came and we all got in and started at 10 A. M.
The two horses, Dick and Sam, were as anxious to start as we
were and could hardly wait for us to get in. Dick Swviveler and
Sam Weller are their full names; Father says in honor of Mr.
Charles Dickens. All the men in the bank stopped work and
came to the door to see us off and we went with a hurrah, down
Federal Street and across the "Suspension Bridge" to Pittsburgh. My but the streets were full of wagons, carriages and
horse ears. It took us a good while to drive out Penn Avenue
to Wilkinsburg where at last we were on the Greensburg turnpike. We had to pay a toll almost as soon as the pike began
and I have decided to keep track of the number of toll-gates
and the amount we have to pay; it was ten cents this first
time. We are now at Turtle Creek for lunch. We got here at
12 M. and had a splendid drive.
This afternoon we drove to Mt. Pleasant; it took us till 7 P.
M. We thought that from Pittsburgh to Mt. Pleasant was 33
miles but we found to our suprise that it was 40! We haven't
tackled the mts. yet. We are at the Jordan House at Mt.
Pleasant. We paid 33e toll today.
Wednesday, Sept. 4, 1878.
Joneses Mills. We got down to breakfast after having a
very pleasant night. Sister Lide and Cousin Fanny's room and
Father's and mine were adjoining and right on the street.
We came mighty near beinrg caught in an awful thunder storm
last night. Dick was overcome with the heat and he would
not eat anything. This morn we were not quite sure whether
he could stand the drive to Somerset (28 miles) from Mt.
Pleasant. But he is all right now. We are stopping at Joneses
Mills for dinner. I forgot to say that we passed through
Madison yesterday. We all walked up Chestnut Ridge except
Cousin Fanny and she drove. I am just through dinner and so
194PITTSBURGH TO BEDFORD BY CARRIAGE
is F:ather. There goes Father out to see about the horses and
we -will start in a minute. I carved my name on the rail of
the porch and wrote Dave's with a lead pencil. We left Mt.
Pleasant at 8 A. M. and got here at 12 M., noon, 12 miles.
We drove slowly on Dick's account. It is 17 miles to Somerset
from here and we want to get there by night.
We got here (Somerset) at 1/2 past 6. We have had a
splendid drive. We rode over Laurel Hill just after leaving
Jones Mills. My but the mountains are lovely. We got lots
of mountain tea. The horses walked the wNhole way and it
took an awful long time. We all took turns wTalking too to
help the horses. A man on the road who had just walked over
the mountain said "It's a long pull. Better rest your horses
now and again." Father said Yes he knew the mountain well.
I drove part of the time and the rest got to the top before
the horses and I did. Cousin Fanny picked a lot of wild
flowers and they made the carriage look real pretty. We are
at the Somerset Hlouse. This is a good hotel. We have got
real nice rooms. We are going to get up and start early
tomorrow for we have 38 miles to travel. We have gone 28
miles today. We paid no toll today. We left Mt. Pleasant
at 8 P. M., and got to Somerset at 1/2 past 6.
Bedford Springs, Thursday, Sept. 5, 1878.
We got breakfast and started at 20 min. after 7 A. M.
Dick's'most all right now but neither he nor Sam are eating
much. We rode 21 of the most beaultiful miles there are
over the mts. to a little hamlet called West End where xve ate
lunch. We had only 17 more miles to Bedford and so we
made it easily. We left the turnpike at West End and took a
road along the "blue Juniata."  My finger that was sore
is'most well and healing up rapidly. We had one of the
lovelyst views from one of the Alleghenys that is anywhere
to be seen. 0 lMy! but it was bee-autiful! We crossed two or
three mountains today. We got on the pike again at Man's
Choice and I got a fearful headache which lasted till I got here
at Bedford. My but it did ache. Father said to a young
195THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
woman What place is this and she said Man's Choice. Father
said she looked embarased. We arrived here at a little after
seven and drove to the Arandale Hotel. The people were all out
on the porch when wTe got there and we were pretty dusty
and dirty. Mother and Cousin Mary were there and said they
were very well. And now the first part of the trip is ended.
Golly but it was fun. We are going to stay here a week and
then drive home again. First day 40 miles, 2d day 28 miles,
3d day 40 miles, 108 mniles altogether. We paid 43c toll.
Monday, Sept. 9, 1878.
Today we started home again and I am going to write in
my diary again because we are going back a different way.
My but Sam and Dick are skittish after resting all week!
Father says the Bedford Springs water seems to have done
themn good. They like the iron water too. It is so strong I
don't like it much. The sulphur water is awful bad. We
started from the Arandale at 1/2 past 7 A. M. We had a real
nice ride. This time we are going over the turnpike that
runs from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. We stopped at the
Stoy House on top of the mountain for dinner, 19 mniles. After
dinner we had an awful rough ride. It was foggy when we
reached the top of Allegheny mountain and Father said we
were driving in a cloud. We were so high up it was a cloud.
On the way up it cleared so we had a magnificent view over
the valley and saw the farms below. Father stopped the horses
one place and had a talk with a farmer working in a field.
lIe let the horses heads down and they nibbled the grass at
the side of the road. Father told the man how he had worked
on his father's farm near Shippensburg when he was a boy.
They had a good talk. I remembered the barn at the Stoy
House where we stopped when I rode over with Father and
IJUnele Daniel and my sister M5ary. That was three years ago
and I went to the barn with the hotel keeper's boy to see soime
new baby pigs and Father pretended to drive off without
me. I ran and caught up and pretty near cried. I was a
]96PITTSBUIRGH TO BEDFORD BY CARRIAGE
baby then. This afternloon we drove to here. It is 38 mrailes
from Bedford Springs. We are stopping at Judge Pickings
now at Jenners Cross Roads at the foot of Laurel Hill. We
paid 37c toll. The road is awfulM rough and when we pay
toll Father most always tells the toll-gate keeper that he ought
to pay us instead of us paying himn. Father says the pike used
to be kept in good shape when the stage coaches ran but nowv
no one hardly uses it any more. We had two jokes on Father
today. Once when we stopped at a spring to a get a drink he said
Wait till I open my valise and get out my drinking cup. Whlile
he w-as hunting for the cup a pistol dropped out and we all
laughed and asked him how he expected to protect us with
the pistol in the valise packed under the front seat. He just
laughed too. Then Cousin Fanny thought she had a good joke
on Father wThen she saw a paper covered book called That
Beautiful Wretch sticking out from under his shirts in the
valise.  O Well was all Father said.  i:e didn't care and
laughed. We went through Shellsburg and Stoystown today.
The pike is awful steep through Stoystown. But the principal
part I liked was the long straight stretch where you can see
the road ahead of you for I guess over six miiles. Anyhow it
took us over an hour to get from one end of it to the other.
Then we stopped the horses and looked back to see where we
had come from. I am awful tired and sleepy.
Tuesday, September 10, 1878.
We all had a boss sleep and a bosser breakfast. Father is
helping a man hiteh up the horses and we are going to start
pretty soon so I'll write some more in my diary. I'll have to copy
it in ink when I get home. This is an old log house and Father
has known Judge Picking a long time. He doesn't look much
like a judge we said but I guess he was one once. Father
says he was one of those jucldges who never were lawyers but
just judged by their common sense. I slept with Father in one
room and Cousin Fanny and Sister Ijide were in the room
across the hall. It was awful funny going upstairs to bed
because the stairs leaned in and you had to hold on to the
197FHE SHIELDS HOUSE, ONCE SEWICKLEY BOTTOM POiST OFFICETHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
Grimes Street commences. RPobert bought land of John Little
and built the smnall frame house on Beaver Road that stood
until a few years ago in the corner of the Willoek lot, almost
in front of the residence of Mr. S. G. Cooper, No. 202 Beaver
Street. The Greens' descendants are still large property holders in the central part of the town. Robert continued to keep
store for many years, although his brother James went back to
his former home in the East. The population to whose necessities he ministered wAas scattered throughout the township, and
had grown in number from  832, in 1810, to 1631, in 1840,
according to the figures in Daniel Rutpp's History of Western
Pennsylvania.  The community  enjoyed a healthy  growth.
While in 1836 there were but 103 voters in Ohio Township", a
territory which extended from Glenfield to Big Sewickley and
somne ten miles back from  the river, in 1846 the village consisted of thirty houses dotted( here and there for a distance of
more than a mile, with two churchles, a Methodist and a
Presbyterian.  In 1837 John Garrison opened another store,
at his home which stood on Beaver Road where Mr. Hegner's
establishment now is, No. 429. Tracy  Schofield for many
years had a wagon-shop on the site of Miller's shoe store, No.
503 Beaver Street, where wagons were made for the government during the Mexican War.
Long before the first country store cam:e into existence a
church building had been erected. This was a log house built
in 1818 beside Hoey's Run, on Division Street, where Challis's
yard now is. The first sermon preached in that modest structure was by the Rev. Michael Law, pastor of the church of
Montour, across the river. This log building was used many
years as a church, then until 1846 as a public school; later it
was removed to Fife Street (nowA Blackburn Avenue), where
it became a carpenter shop; and was finally demolished in
1876 when Centennial Avenue was opened.
The erection of this church building did not, of course,
mark the first public worship held in the valley. Long before,
*See list at the end of this article.
18THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
bannisters. Cousin Fanny said it was like the Leaning Tower
in Italy. I forgot to tell about how our wheels rattled before
we got here. The spokes of the wheels were loose so last night
Father took off all four of them and laid them in the creek
to soak and this morning they are "as tight as wax" he saild.
Now the carriage is ready.
W'e started fromn Judge P'iking s at 20 min. to 8 A. M.
We went right over Laurel Hitl but Father forgot to get
the wheels greased so we found a stick and greased them ourselves. We drove through Ligonier and Father said he would
have to taste the beer they make here. And so he did at the
hotel. It is made by the monks or something at a place called
St. Vincents.  [St. Vincent College, Latrobe.-Ed.]  We are
stopping for dinner at the Union House at Youngstown. We
hadn't a good dinner at all. We will try to make Turtle
Creek for the night. We have traveled 14 or 15 miles. The
owner of this house has 22 children. He married one of two
sisters and had 10 children. another man took the other sister
and had 7. This hotel keeper's wife died and so did the
husband of the other sister. The two left were married and
had five children, 10 + 7 + 5 = 22! Most all of the first are in
California. I didn't eat any of the miserable dinner. We
started at 10 min. after 2 P. M. Thunder! But the sun was
hot. But it cooled down soon. We had a beautiful ride all
day and did 36 miles from Judge Pickings to here at Jacktown
and paid 52c toll. Horses all right. My but the road down
Laurel Hill is long. We most all walked part of the way up
and part of the way down. About half way down there is
anl old tavern beside a big bend in the road. Father turned
Dick and Sam in to take a drink at the watering trough. Golly
but they were glad. It Twas fun to see them stick their faces
into the water clear up to their eyes almost and snort. This
afternoon I saw something that I remembered. It was on a big
stone in front of a farm houise and said Root Hog, or Die. I
remembered it and so did Father and he said a farm is no
place for a loafer. Out beyond Greensburg we were talking
with a man who said we ought to drive off a mile or two and
198PITTSBURGH TO BEDFORD BY CARRIAG E
see a burning spring. So wve did and the road was not so bad
as the pike. Father said he had heard of the burning spring
and would like to see it. It really was on fire and looked awful
queer. It came up through the water in bubbles and some one
had lighted it with a matel. It has something to do with the
petrolium that there is in the ground. Father said that he
and some other men bored a well not far from there in 1858
looking for oil but didn't find any. The well was 400 feet
deep. We started from Judge Pickings at 1/2 past 7 A. Ml.,
and got here at the McIntyre House in Jacktown at 7 P. M.
We drove by mnoonlight. This is a boss little tavern.
Wednesday, September 11, 1878
Had a splendid breakfast at 6 A. M. My, I never tasted
anything so good.  Chickens, waffles. honey, beefsteak and
hosts of other things.  Golly but it was good! Started at
1/2 past 6 A. M. anld passed through Turtle Creek and arrived
in Allegheny at 11 A. M. We went right through down to
old Sewickley and got here at 10 min. of 1 P. M. The horses
are fresh as when we began the trip. Rode 37 miles today.
Paid 18c toll. First day, 38 miles; 2d day, 36 miles; 3d day, 37
miles-altogether 111 miles. We paid 43e toll going and $1.37
coming back. We got some brown biscuits for lunch. They
were not expecting us till late in the evening and we suprised
them  mightily.  We have just missed Barnum's Circus.  I
went over to see D)ave and he and I and the rest went in
swimming.
199LORETTO AND ALEPPOLOCRETTO AND ALEPPO
SOME ACCOUJNT OF THE EARLY LAND TITLES IN SEWICKLEY
THE following notes were taken from the records in the
offices of the County Engineer, the Recorder of Deeds and the
Register of Wills of Allegheny County, in running the chain
of title to the land now occupied by the Sewickley High School.
They are of interest as showing the origin of Sewickley land
titles in general.
Allegheny County was erected from parts of Washington and
Westmoreland Counties in 1788, and in 1792 there was added to
it the triangle on Lake Erie purchased from the United States.
Originally the county was divided into five townships, of which
one called Pitt emnbraced all the land lying north and west of the
Ohio and Allegheny rivers and extending to Lake Erie. In 1796
Pine township was cut out of Pitt, and in 1800 the county was
reduced to its present size by the creation of Armstrong, Beaver,
Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango and Warren counties.
In 1803 followed the creation, from a part of Pine, of a new
township named Ohio, within which, in 1853, w;as erected the
borough of Sewickley.
Division Street within the borough marks a portion of an
almost exactly north-and-south line dividing two districts of the
Depreciation Lands, which were surveyed respectively by Daniel
Leet and Nathaniel Breading, two of the Deputy Surveyors of
the State.
The tract lying immediately west of Division Street was the
farm Loretto, which was surveyed by Daniel Leet in the month of
April, 1785, in pursuance to instructions from the Surveyor
General dated the second day of January, 1785. It was Lot
No. 1 of District No. 2, and contained two hundred fifty (250)THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
acres with the usual allowance of 6 per cent for roads. The
property was purchased by Levi Hollingsworth when the lands
were put up for sale at the English Coffee House on High (now
Market) Street, Philadelphia, but was released by him to Mark
Wilcox, to whom the patent was issued. Returned the eleventh
of January, 1786, to Mark Wilcox. Patent Book P-5-119. These
patents are enrolled in the RoTls Office at Harrisburg, where they
can be seen and examined. Mark Wilcox and Mary, his wife,
by deed dated December 6, 1786, sold Loretto to Jonathan Leet
(Deed Book vol. 2, page 469, in the office of the Recorder of
Deeds for Allegheny County). Consideration, 62 pounds. Jonathan Leet and his wife, Mary, sold to Henry Ulery, April 10,
1798 (D. B. vol. 8, page 111), consideration, 98 pounds, 15
shillings. That deed contains the following which is all that our
county records show back of that date: "Which said Tract of
land (250 acres) was surveyed by Daniel Leet, one of the Deputy
Surveyors of District No. 2 within the Tract of land appropriated
for the redemption of the Depreciation Certificates by an Act of
Assembly passed the 12th day of March 1783, entitled an Act
for the Sale of certain lands therein mentioned for the purpose
of redeeming and paying off the certificates of Depreciation
given to the Officers and Soldiers of the Pennsylvania line and
which said described Tract is marked in the survey and plan of
the said District'No. One' and was sold to Levi Hollingsworth
at Public Auction being the highest bidder, who released the
same to Mark Wilcox to whom the Patent was issued bearing
date the 19th day of January 1786, who conveyed the same to
Jonathan Leet by deed dated the 6th day of December 1786.
Reference thereunto will more fully and at large appear."
Henry Ulery sold Loretto to Thomas Hoey October 22, 1814
(D. B. vol. 20, page 72), consideration $4,000.00. Thomas Hoey,
for $4,000.00, sold part of the farm "to Charles and Sophronia
Thorn and their children and assigns" on April 7, 1.828 (D. B.
vol. 36, page 293-corrected in D. B. vol. 97, page 30). This
property ran down to the Ohio River and was that part of
Loretto farm whereon Rev. Charles Thorn and his wife, who was
the daughter of Thomas Iloey, resided. The children were Mary
204LORETTO AND ALEPPO
and Sophia, minors, who afterwards married Judge J. W. F.
White and William Harbaugh. The peculiar form of this deed
which was "to Charles and Sophronia Thorn and their children
and assigns" made necessary certain court proceedings, at No.
54 March Term, 1839, with deeds back and forth (James Chadwick taking title between-times) and finally a deed of partition
whereby J. W. F. White and MIary E. White, his wife, on December 2nd, 1852, conveyed to Sophia E. Harbaugh, Mary's sister,
the piece above the railroad containing four acres, 37.78 perches;
and on July 26th, 1853, William Ilarbaugh and Sophia, his wife,
sold it to David N. White for $1,694.45 (D. B. vol. 110, pages
105-108). (Rev. Charles Thorn lived till June 30, 1874. Will
dated March 21, 1874, Will Book 17, page 520.)
The tract lying east of Division Street was called Aleppo.
it contained 234 acres, 91 perches, and was Lot No. 126 of District No. 3, which was allotted to Henry Pratt of Philadelphia
and was surveyed by Nathaniel Breading June 26, 1875, pursuant to instructions from  John Lukens, Esquire, Surveyor
General, dated at Philadelphia the 5th day of March, 1785.
Patent Book P-5-46. What Henry Pratt paid for the patent
does not appear-though of course he paid in Depreciation Certificates on a gold basis.
On September 7th, 1793, Henry and Elizabeth Pratt sold
Aleppo to Jonathan Leet (D. B. vol. 5, page 233) for 70 pounds,
7 shillings and 6 pence. Between that date and April 10, 1798,
a period of five years, when he sold Loretto to Henry Ulery,
Jonathan Leet was the owner of the combined tracts Aleppo and
I oretto, 484 acres, 91 perches, at a total cost to him of 132 pounds
7 shillings, approximately $643.00. Jonathan and Mary Leet
on April 7th, 1802, sold Aleppo to John Vail (D. B. vol. 11,
page 411) for 233 pounds.  John Vail and Sarah, his wife,
parted with the title the same day for $1,752.00 to Thomas Beer
(D. B. vol. 11, page 57). Beer died leaving a widow and nine
children, all of whom joined in a deed to Samuel and Robert
Peebles, April 24, 1834; consideration $4,400.00 (D. B. vol. 51,
page 447).
205THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
On the death of Samuel Peebles his share in Aleppo was by
his last wAill and testament (Will Book 4, page 319) devised to
his executor, John Graham, to whom Robert Peebles by deed
dated December 15th. 1842 (D. B. vol. 75, page 506), conveyed
his half interest also, and John Graham by deed dated November
Ist, 1848 (D. B. vol. 83, page 186) for a consideration of $5,100,
conveyed to Robert.Hopkins 50 acres between the Beaver Road
and the Ohio River. (Also 64 acres north of Beaver Road.)
Rev. Robert Hlopkins and Pamelia, his wife, by deed dated
February 21st, 1854 (D. B. vol. 111, page 360), conveyed to
David N. White the plot bounded by White's property (acquired
from  the Harbaughs) and by Harhaugh, Graham and Railroad
Streets.  Robert Hopkins's deed also passed such title as he
might have in the old graveyard which Beer and Ulery had set
apart at the foot of Division Street-or "Graveyard Lane."
David N. White ("Deacon" White) now owned a combined
piece of property lying across the line that divided Aleppo
from  Loretto.  I-le and his wife, Dianna, on May 3rd, 1858
(D. B. vTol. 146, page 391), sold the whole tract, five acres more
or less, to Griswold E. Warner for $9,100.00. Following the
death of "Judge" Warner the two pieces were again separated.
His executors, Franklin Osburn and D. N. White, on May 15th,
1873, under a powTer contained in his will (Will Book 16, page
389), sold to THarriet A. Gilmore, for $15,000.00, (D. B. vol. 306,
page 332) the piece since knowj as the Gilmore property, and
by Articles of Agreement dated May 15, 1873, confirmed to
HTenrietta W. Osburn, "Judge" Warner's daughter, the piece
across the line in Aleppo since known as the Osburn property
(D. B. vol. 318, page 9). This was done in accordance with a
provision in her father's will.
Partition proceedings were necessary in Orphans' Court, at
No. 4, December Term, 1889, to confirm title in the Osburn heirs,
with another deed by Franklin Osburn, Surviving Executor,
dated March 28th, 1890 (D. B. vol. 693, page 274), the heirs also
taking title as devisees under the will of Henrietta W. Osburn
dated October 3rd, 1899 (Will Book 97, page 234). The Osburn
heirs on July 30th, 1924, conveyed to the School District of the
206LORETTO AND ALEPPO
Borough of Sewickley for $30,000.00 (D. B. vol. 2224, page 365'
and on August 8th, 1924, Louise W. Wilson, a daughter of
Henrietta W. Osburn, conveyed to the same for $5,000.00 the
"Rleisinger lot" at the corner of Graham  and Bank Streets,
fronting 87.75 feet on Bank by 117.3 feet in depth, which had
been sold to her by the other Osburn heirs February 7th, 1893
(D. B. vol. 922, page 459).
Mrs. Gilnmore died April 1Sth, 1920, and by her will (Will
Book 162, page 420) she left her residence with the acreage
surrounding it to her grandchildren, EdwTard G. Cunningham
and Harriet C. Orth, who on July 1st, 1924 (D. B. vol. 2236,
page 206), sold it to the School District of the Borough of Sewickley for $28,000.00 (excepting a portion conveyed by -chem
October 17th, 1923, to Martha Williams. D. B. vol. 2170, page
354)M
Thus the title to both the Warner and Osburn properties was
vested in the Sewickley School Board, and after the razing of
the two homesteads, the High School building and athletic field
were located on the line dividing Aleppo and Loretto.
207A HISTORICAL SKETCH             19
THE LOG CHURCH (1818)
as early as 1797 or 1798, the Rev. Francis Reno, an Episcopalian, conducted occasional services in Sewickley Bottom, and
continued to do so at intervals until. after 1809. Rev. McClelland,
a Methodist minister, came in 1808 or 1809 and preached at
the house of Jesse Fisher who lived on Daniel Leet's farm,
near the site of the old Shields mill on Little Sewickley Creek,
below Beaver Road. A few years later, prior to 1823, a frame
building was erected as a preaching place on the hill just
beyond the old mill. At a later date services were held in the
little brick house which was built in 1826 by Mr. Shields, for
school, prayer-meetings, and general church purposes, on the
hill just opposite his hoiuse. This building is still standing,
near Mr. D. Leet Wilson's residence.  The itinerant Methodist
preachers found hospitable entertainment at the home of Mr.
and Mrs. Shields, across the way.  Services were frequentlyPITTSBURGH IN 1815PITTSBURTGH IN  1795
Fro1'0    Life and Rem,riniscences, by Wm. G. Johnston'By permissionPITTSBURGH IN 181.5
BY WAY OF APPENDIX
As some of the foregoing papers relate to a Sewickley village
of the early nineteenth century it was deemed not inappropriate to publish in connection with these a paper written a few
years ago, though not for publication, giving some account of the
Borough of Pittsburgh as it was in 1815, Pittsburgh being rightly
considered as within the metropolitan district of Sewickley. In
the preparation of that paper much material was drawn from
Charles W. Dahlinger's Pittsburgh: A. Sketch of its Early Social
Life, an extremely entertaining and informative book of more
than local interest. In publishing the following paper, Mr.
Dahlinger's consent was given to the use of excerptsi from his
book, and gratefuLl acknowledgment is due him therefor.
F. T. N.
Pittsburgh in the year 18].5 was still a borough. It was in
the following year that it became a city-obtained a city charter.
Its population numbered about 9,000, thus slightly exceeding
that of our three boroughs, Sewickley, Osborn and Edgeworth,
today. Just a village, but already it had begun to disprove
the assertion of Arthur Lee, who, as a visitor in 1784, taking
note of the squalor, the hogs rooting in the streets and
the sullen demeanor of the inhabitants, predicted that "the
place will never be considerable." No account of Pittsburgh's
early days and its growth and prosperity fails to include
mention of Arthur Lee's unfavorable description of the place
and of the people, "almost entirely Scots and Irish who live in
paltry loghouses and are as dirty as in the North of Ireland,THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
or even Scotland."  Mr. Lee to the contrary notwithstanding,
there were, even in 1784, decent and respectable Pittsburghers
to whom his words did not apply. Perhaps he got in with the
wrong set.
Mr. John Melish, an English traveler, was favorably
impressed with Pittsburgh when he visited it in 1811. He
predicted that it would "in all probability become one of the
largest towns in America." HIe goes on to say: "With the
spirit of enterprise which is exhibited in Pittsburgh I have no
hesitation in hazarding an opinion that it will becomlue one of
the greatest manufacturing towns in the world. Besides the
supply of the town and country round with manufactures it has
a vast export trade, principally down the Ohio. The various
manufactures in Pittsburgh exceed a million of dollars annually
and we may calculate its progress in wealth from this data. A
million of dollars is above $200.00 a year to every man, woman
and child in Pittsburgh; or taking them by families of five, it
is $1,000.00 to a family, and the expenditure of a famnily does
not, on an average, exceed one-third of that sum."
By 1815 the little town was well on its way to refute Mr.
Lee. In that year the first Pittsburgh Directory was compiled
and put forth by MIr. James M. Riddle, its title page announcing
an "Appendix Containing a Variety of Useful Information."
The information is certainly various, though some of it has lost
its usefulness-as for instance-the "Rules for Reducing the
Currencies of the Different States into each other"-and "for
Reducing the Currencies of the States to Dollars"; the
"Method of Procedure in Obtaining Bounties," etc. Mr. Riddle
gives the total population in that year as 9,431. Seven cities
exceeded Pittsburgh in size. One notes with some surprise that
after Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and Boston, in that
order, there follow Salem, Providence and Richmond. Then
came Pittsburgh, as number eight.
Already the town was becoming a manufacturing centeras I shall note more particularly later on. An impressive list
of manufactories ends with mention of "three large breweries,
two white lead factories, three large rope-walks and two white
212PITTSBURGH IN 1815
and three green glass houses where the amount of glass annually
manufactured is estimated at $200,000.00, and where glass
cutting is also executed equal to any in Europe." There! That
for you, Mr. Arthur Lee!
In order to visualize the scene of action, the stage on which
the pioneer drama of Pittsburgh is unfolded, a brief glance at
the physical setting is necessary-a look at the city map as it
appeared in 1815. First of all you will note the extremely
modest extent of the settlement. Clinging for the most part
to the banks of the two rivers, it spread somewhat more sparsely
toward the east as far as G-rant's Hill. The general plan of the
streets remains the samne today; only the names have in many
cases have been changed. All of the Avenues running parallel
with the Monongahela  First to Seventh-were then called
Streets, and First was then known as Front Street. Diamond
Alley was just replacing the name Hammond Alley, and we
ourselves reco]lect when Oliver Avenue was Virgin Alley (+he
Allee of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, as the builders
of Fort Duquesne named it). A little thoroughfare called
King Alley ran between Virgin Alley and Fifth Street. Penn
and Liberty, paralleling the Allegheny river, have retain-ed
their original names, but the streets erossing them have not.
In 1815 these cross streets were called (beginning at the Point)
Water Street, Mlarbury, Pitt, Cecil's Alley, St. Clair (now
Federal), Irwin, Irwin's Alley, Hand and Wayne (now Tenth
Streets.
The streets running down to the Monongahela were West
and Short Streets, Redoubt Alley, Ferry Street, Chancery Lane
(also called Jail Alley), Market, Wood and Smithfield Streets,
(the latter named for Devereux Smith, whose farm it crossed),
Cherry Alley, Grant and Ross Streets. That takes us to the
outermost limits of the town.
Speaking of Jail Alley-the Directory locates a number of
estimable citizens between Jail Alley and Liberty!-a somewhat
tantalizing situation, it would seem. More precarious even
was that of one William Bennett-viz, on Liberty but "at the
mouth of Jail alley."
213THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
So much then for the general plan and outline of the borough.  It occupied that restricted district now the heart of
downtown Pittsburgh, called by present day realtors "The
Golden Triangle."  The two rivers bounded it on north and
south, no bridges as yet spanning them, while to the east rose
Grant's Hill, named as you all know for Major Grant of the
British armiy who met defeat there in 1758 at the hands of the
FPrench and Indians. Grant's Hill was a real barrier. No
thoroughfare led up its precipitous face, other than certain goat
paths by whose devious course the summit was reached, though
the more gentle approach from the Monongahela river, or from
the direction of Liberty street was usually employed.  It is
hard for us to realize this today, for Grant's Hill has not only
been physically reduced since that day, but even in name it
has come down to be called by us "The Hump."  Three times
has its top been shaved off. In 1836 the cut was ten feet, at
Grant street and Fifth avenue, with a fill of four feet at
Smithfield. In 1848 seven feet more were taken off and two
feet filled in belowT. And finally, in 1912, the Hump was
lowered fourteen feet, thus reducing the height of the hill by
a total of thirty-seven feet. So you see, originally it wAas quite
an eminence.
Once arrived at the summit, one was repaid by the extensive
view over town and forest, with glimpses of the rivers in the
distance. Grant's Hill was a favorite pleasure ground for the
townspeople and charming descriptions may be read of its
pleasant walks and wooded picnic grounds. Here was located
Marie's Tavern, the favorite resort for parties of pleasure,
famous in a town of many taverns for the hospitality of its
proprietor, a genial Frenchman. Overlooking the town it stood,
amidst gravelled walks and cultivated grounds in the center of
a six acre tract where now stand the Court House and the CityCounty building.
Not yet had the smoke risen in such volume as to obscure
the view. Fogs?  Yes, they had fogs, but how different from
the fogs of the present day! The first numnber of the Gazette
contains a graphic description of Pittsburgh's surroundings
214PITTSBURGH IN 1815
and climate, and while it is dated some years earlier than the
period assigned to this paper, yet doubtless the description fits
the conditions as they were in the year 1815- (if it fits at all!).
"It may be observed," says the writer, "that at the junction
of these two rivers until 8:00 o'clock of summer mornings a
light fog is usually incumbent, but it is of a salutary nature,
inasmuch as it consists of vapour not exhaled from stagnant
water, but which the sun of the preceding day had extracted
from trees and flowers, and in the evening had sent back in dew,
so that rising with a second sun in fog, and becoming of aromatic quality, it is experienced to be healthful."  "I was
greatly struck," the writer continues, "in a summer morning,
viewing from  the ground the early vapour rising from  the
river. It hung midway between the foot and summit of the hill.
so that the green above had the appearance of an island in
the clouds." Reading this, one can only murmur "Alas!"
Mention has been made of the fill at Fifth and Smithfield
in connection with the cutting down of Grant's Hill. This was
a necessary measure owing to the presence there of quite a
considerable body of water euphoniously called Hogg's Pond.
Early maps show this pond extending diagonally from a point
near the present ramp of the Pennsylvania railroad station tc
Fourth avenue, west of Smithfield, where it narrowed to a
stream which emptied into the Monongahela at Wood street,
Another somewhat smaller pond lay between Hogg's Pond and
Wood street and a third one, still smaller, west of Wood and
between Second and Fourth avenues. There was still another
pond, and quite a large one, along Liberty at about Ferry street
which emptied into the Monongahela below Redoubt alley. The
river bank was high and steep and the only access to the beach
was by way of the two ravines, one at Wood street, the other
below Ferry, where these two small watercourses ran.
Hiere we will end our topography lesson and consider Pittsburgh in its business and social aspects; not exhaustively, of
course, but necessarily in a very sketchy manner.
Pittsburgh was a town built by pioneers, a settlement carved
out of the primeval forest. In this it was no different from
215THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
other pioneer communities. What made it different was the
rugged character of its Scotch-Irish founders on the one hand
and, on the other, its situation at what was a strategic point,
for it lay at the very gateway to the great illimitable West.
As soon as the roads were built over the mountains in the East,
the pioneers came by hundreds, then by thousands, seeking new
homes in the Mississippi Valley.
Being at the gateway it was necessarily the re-shipping point
where goods brought over the mountains by wagons were
unpacked and loaded again on boats destined for points west by
way of the Ohio River. Thus the settlement at the head of
navigation became the outfitting place for the western voyagers.
This encouraged manufactures.  Hlere was the market for all
sorts of goods. H1ere, too, were the natural resources which
supplied the raw materials and here were the industrious and
skillful artisans, themselves pioneers, schooled in self-reliance
and inventive ingenuity, who set themselves to the task of
supplying what the settlers needed. Pots and spinning wheels
these home makers required. Axes, horseshoes, candle molds,
flails, guns, cow bells--every sort of thing almost, the villagers
learned to make to supply the trade.
By 1815, the Directory tells us, the town boasted of a steam
engine factory, three air foundries-by which is not meant
"free air and crank case service," but places "where castings
of every description from a cannon to a spider are extensively
and handsomely executed"; an anvil and anchor factorv, a
brass foundry, a butt hinge factory, a pattern maker's shop
with steam lathes, a wire factory, a steam flour mill, rolling
mill, paper mill, a cotton factory, and the breweries and glass
factories mentioned above. A stirring little community it was,
already beginning, with its foundries and steam engine factories,
to be noted for its most famnous product-smoke. To these
industries were added saw-mills, tan-yards, lime kilns and boat
building docks where "The Mississippi Steamboat Company"
built boats "on Fulton's plan"' to transport the emigrants and
their outfits to their promised land.
216PITTSBURGH IN 1815
A surprising diversity of employment appears from a glance
at the first Directory. Beside the usual vocations such as carpenter, saddler, brewer, merchant, cooper, turner, glassmaker,
etc., we note many that are strange to us and unusual today.
Such as hair cap maker, card maker (these cards were not to be
played with; they were cominbs used in carding wool and hemp),
bow-string maker, blue dyer, reed maker, ship joiner, glover,
hot nailor, bridle bit and sword maker, makers of candlesticks,
snuffers, chimney-hooks, horse fleams, wallowers for Dutch fans,
boulting cloth makers and many others. I note one maker of
piano fortes-also a Windsor chair maker.
By this timine the benighted Scotch-Irish of Arthur Lee's
day had been joined by considerable numbers of English and
German settlers; although the Directory lists no less than 109
names beginning with "Mace" or "Me."  In 1815, we are told
that the buildings of a public character were "a handsome octagon Episcopal chuLrch, a handsome and spacious Presbyterian
church, also a Covenanters', a German Lutheran, and a Roman
Catholic church, and an Academy, all of brick; a courthouse,
jail, three incorporated bankcs, a dramatic theatre, a Masonic
hall, three market houses, one in the Diamond and two in Second
street, and several mercantile and financial building of a substantial character."
They had long ceased to lack places of worship. The Protestant Episcopal at the junction of Wood and Liberty streets; the
First Presbyterian on Wood street where McCreery's store now
stands; the Second Presbyterian on the northwestern corner of
Diamond alley and Smithfield street (now Frank  Seder's,store); a Romnan Catholic chapel at the upper end of Liberty; the
Seceders on the north side of Seventh street (now Seventh avenue) east of Liberty; the Covenanters, close by; the Methodists
on the north side of Front street (now First avenue) between
Wood and Smnithfield, and the German Lutheran on land granted
by the Penns, east side of Smithfield above Fifth, where it stands
today, generously sharing its site with Woolworth's 5  lOc store.
With the sparsely settled shores to the north and south there
was communication only by ferry. No bridges spanned the
217THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
held in private houses, barns, or in the woods. Mr. John
Way, in his paper The Olden Time in Sew?ickley, mentions
several such meeting-places: Thomas Hoey's barn which stood
on the south side of the Beaver Road, about where Mr. Albert
Moore now lives (No. 328 Beaver Street); Mr. Beer's barn,
about the corner of Beaver and Peebles streets; Jackson's
barn on the lower side of the Beaver Road, about opposite the
old stone house just beyond Little Sewickley Creek. "Gradually," he says,'"these various points were given up, and the
people seem by common consent to have picked upon a beautiful oak grove on Mrs. Addy Beer's place, on Hoey's Run...
there in the summer seasons they met to hear the gospel."  A
forty-year lease of this oak grove was secured and the first
church erected, in 1818, as stated above. Ilere beginning on
June 1, 1822, the Rev. John Andrews preached to a Presbyterian congregation, serving as stated supply here and at the
larger Fairmount church at D)avid Duff's on Big Sewickley,
until 1831 or 1832. The two churches grew during his pastorate
from  twenty-seven communicants to a total of one hundred
and twenty-eight.
Prior to 1837 there was no regular Methodist preaching
within the present borough limits, though an occasional itinerant preacher held servTices in the log church on Hoey's Run.
It was largely through the efforts of John R. Garrison that the
first regular preaching wvas established in 1837 or 1838. In
1839, when the Rev. John'White, father of Judge J. W. F.
White, was preacher on the circuit, the first Methodist church
was erected, a frarme building which stood on the site of the
present church fronting on Broad Street. This was succeeded
in 1853 by a brick structure, with the first church bell in the
valley, installed seveni years later. The present building, on
the site of the first, was dedicated in 1884. It cost, with the brick
chapel and accessories, about $45,000, of which $15,000 came to it
by the will of Rev. Charles Thorn, son-in-law of Thomas Hoey.
Upon the erection of the brick chapel, fronting on Thorn Street,
the old original frame church was removed and now forms a part
of the Campney store and dwelling, No. 425 Beaver Street.
20THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
two rivers then, as I have said. The oldest ferry, known as
Jones's, crossed the Monongalhela at the Point.  The boats
were propelled by horse power. Another, Henderson's, was
located farther up Water street and a third, still farther up,
called Gregg's, or The Upper Ferry. Each ferryman conducted
a tavern as a side line. To cross the Allegheny, one patronized
James Robinson's ferry which eonneeted with Franklin Roadnow Federal street. Apparently as an inducement to prospective settlers, he advertised, "All persons going to and returning
from sermon, and all funerals, free ferriage."
While we are free to assume that the burghers were diligent
in attending divine worship, there is no need to assume anything
with regard to the popularity of the taverns. There is ample
testimony to this fact. Considering the size of the community
there was a multitude of inns. As early as 1808 they numbered
twenty-four. The constant flow of west-bound travel assured
abundant support, and in addition to the transient trade there
was the regular patronage by all classes of the townspeople.
Tavern keeping and liquor selling were of such respectability
that many of the most esteemed citizens were, or had been,
tavern-keepers or had sold liquors, or distilled whisky, or
brewed beer.  Elders of church, choir leaders, precentors,
deacons, thought it no disgraee to engage in the business.
The taverns, scattered here and there throughout the town,
clustered most thickly along Market street and that vicinity.
They were known by names displayed on signs hung over the
sidewalks, as-"The Sign of General Washington," "The Sign
of General Butler," "The Sign of the Crossed Keys," "The
Sign of the Green Tree," "The Sign of the Waggon," "The
Sign of the Whale and the Monkey," etc.
Semple's Tavern, at the corner of Water and Ferry streets,
was one of the oldest and best. Here George Washington
stayed in 1770,--and it was only in the year 1909 that it was
torn down. How many of us ever saw it? John Marie's inn
on Grant's Hill I have already mentioned. It partook, more or
less, of the character of an out-of-town roadhouse, though one
of great respectability.
218PITTSBURIGH IN 1815
Downtown, the taverns suLpplied the demand for places of
public assembly, for the holding of political conferences, as
Masonic lodge rooms, etc. Certain political cliques regularly
foregathered at certain taverns, while their rivals met and
orated at other inns near by. Orating and whisky drinking
flourished to an enormous extent.  The taste for these two
luxuries seems to have been universal and insatiable. Perhaps
one was cause and the other effect; at all events they went
hand in hand. No moral stigmna attached to the consumption
of whisky. How they got away with it in such quantities is a marvel today. Judge Veech in writing of these times declares that
whisky "was the indispensable emblem of hospitality and the
accompanimnent of labor in every pursuit, the stimulant in
joy and the solace in grief. It was the omnipresent beverage of
old and young, men and women, and he was a churl who stinted
it." The farmer placed a jug under a tree beside the hayfield
for the refreshment of the mowers; the merchant sealed his
bargain with his customer in a friendly glass. The lawyerbut the less said, the better. "Even the minister," says Judge
Veech, "partook of it before going to church, and after he
came back," and frequently was known to keep a brown bottle
under his reading desk from which he would take a pull before
launching into his discourse. Charles Dahlinger in his book,
Pittsburgh: A Sketch of its Early Social Life, tells of a practical
joke perpetrated by the Rev. John MeMillan on the Rev. Joseph
Patterson, another of the early ministers in this region which
illustrates the custonm of drinking among the clergy.
On their way to attend a meeting of the Synod, the two
ministers stopped at a wayside inn and called for whisky, which
was set before them. M'r. Patterson asked a blessing which was
rather lengthy. Dr. McMillan meanwhile drank the whisky,
and to Mr. Patterson's blank look remarked blandly, "You
should watch as well as pray."' Dr. McMillan was a leader
in the movement for education. He founded Canonsburg Academy which later became Jefferson College.
Market street was the civic center. On it were located the
chief taverns and the principal stores, where the merchant
219THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
usually lived on the second floor above his place of business.
From Front street to the Diamond the stores and residences
were now continuous, with no vacant lots between. Here were
gathered the elite of the town, social and professional. Here
were published the rival newspapers, John Seull's Pittsburgh
Gazette, Brackenridge's Tree of Liberty, of opposite political
faith, and, later, The Commonwealth.
On Market, at its junction with the Diamond, had been
erected in 1789 the "new courthouse," a substantial two-story
brick building with hip roof and bell tower, facing east on the
square. It served its purpose till 1841, when the first court
house on Grant's Hill was built. Facing the court house to the
east stood a semi-circular market house with wide projecting
roof supported by brick pillars where the country people
displayed their produce for sale, while within were stalls where
butchers sold their meats.
On the west side of Market street, between Front and
Second streets, lived Zadok Kramer, over his book shop and
printing establishment, at the sign of the Franklin Head. Benjamin Franklin was the patron saint of everyone who had any
connection, however remote, with printing. Here were supplied
reading matter and such novels as were rather meagerly put
forth in that day. Here Kramner published his Navigator which
furnished valuable information to intending western travTelers
and which went through several annual editions. Kramer's
bookshop was the headquarters of the intelligentsia. Ilis influence as writer and publisher was a beneficent one and didcl not
fade out at his death.
Physicians and lawyers had their homes and offices on
Market street-which. by the way, prior to the building of the
new court house and market on the Diamond, was known as
"Main street."  Gradually the trend of building was toward
the Diamond and Fifth street. The east side of MAarket,
between Third and Fourth, was especially important as the residence section and headquarters of a powerful political junta
or ring known as Clapboard Row. Sort of a local Tammany
Hall it was, from whence went forth open propaganda and
220PITTSBURGH IN 181..5
secret instructions looking to the political domination of the
town. "Clapboard Row" was the object of vitriolic attacks in
the columns of the newspaper of opposite faith. Vitriolic is the
word. No newspaper today would venture to indulge in such
personal abuse as was usual in those days. Duels sometimes
followed-though duelling was forbidden by statute. One particularly sad affair was that of Tarleton Bates, a handsome
young Southerner, who was challenged by one Ephraim Pentland as the result of a libellous article that appeared in the
Tree of Liberty. Bates horsewhipped Pentland in public and
the challenge followed. The duel took place next day in a
ravine in Oakland, near the Monongahela river at a point now
occupied by the lower end of Jones  Laughlin's ore yard.
Bates was killed. The event is eommemnorated today by a street
named for hinm, which runs down through the length of that
ravine.
While on the subject of newspapers, it might not be uninteresting to quote an advertisement culled here and there from
the current issues. Slavery had existed to a limited extent up
to a few years prior to ]815. The Act of Assembly of March,
1780, provided that all negroes and mulattoes born after that
date, of slave mothers, should become free upon arriving at the
age of twenty-eight years. Advertisements offering slaves for
sale no longer appeared in the papers, but a few years earlier
the following was not an unusual notice:
"FOR SALE: A Black woman, who has six years and a
half to serve, with two female children, from four to six
years of age, to serve till twenty-eight. The woman is
healthy, honest and industrious and an excellent cook.
The owner having no further occasion for their services
will dispose of them on moderate terms. Enquire at the
Gazette office."
Or the following:
"FOR SALE: A Black girl who has eleven years and eight
months to serve. She is young, active and healthy; a good
221THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
house-maid and equally qualified for farm or tavern
work. "
The apprentice system was in vogue. There appears to have
been no such anxiety for the recovery of a runaway apprentice
as attended the escape of a slave, rewards of $20, $30 and $50
being offered for the latter. Here is the proof:
"Five Cents Reward is offered for the return of a runaway apprentice in the tin plate business. The above
reward will be paid if brought home, but no expenses."
Or again:
"Three cents and a pound of old horseshoe nails reward
for the return of a strayed blacksmith's apprentice. The
above reward, no charges and no thanks, will be given
to any person who will return said stray."
An explanation of these perfunctory advertisements lies
probably in the fact that the Act of April 11, 1799, relating
to abseonding apprentices, placed upon the runaway, when he
should reach the age of twenty-one years, liability in an action
at law, which is not defined in the Act, but which was presumably an action to recover for support and maintenance furnished
by the master. The apprenticeship agreement called for nurture and instruction by the master or mistress and, on the part
of the apprentice, for servAice; and when these obligations
ceased to be mutual, the parties were released. Hence the necessity for public notice of the apprentice's flight, even though
the master should be indifferent as to his return.
Time is lacking even to skim  through the advertisements,
many of which are quaint, amusing and sometimes incongruous
in content and make-up.  As where a gentleman advertises
the flight of his wife, Fanny, from  his bed and board, which
compels him, though reluctantly (hlie says) to forbid all persons
to trust her on his account; then goes on to say that he begs
to inform those who wish to be shaved in Imperial style that
he is always to be found at his shop in Market street between
Front and Water streets.
222PITTSBURGH IN 1815
Here is one headed-in capitals-" OYSTERS     " John
Byrne at his Umbrella Manufactory, 4th between Market and
Ferry streets. Just received and for sale at his Oyster lIouse
a few kegs of most excellent Spiced Oysters. He continues to
make and repair Umbrellas, and Parasols in the newest manner;
the smallest favour will be gratefully attended to."  Again,
under the caption "OYSTERS," "Gentlemen can be genteely
accommodated at the City Hall with Oysters."
Here is one with an old-time flavor: "John Cowan announces
that he has removed his Bow String Manufactory from Liberty
street to the house lately occupied by William Davis, Sign of
the Bird in Hand."
Many of the advertisements reflect the social life of the day.
Evidently the strictest of the Scotch-Irish were losing their
grip a little, for there begin to appear occasional advertisements
of dancing instructors, music masters-and even of public
balls! This one gives, it would seem, cruelly short notice of the
event: "M. Boudet respectfully informs the Ladies and Gentlemen of Pittsburgh and its vicinity that he will give a Ball this
evening- (Friday the 24th inst.) at the Court House at half
past seven o'clock, and will be conducted as they are in populous
cities, viz: the ladies to be invited, and gentlemen to pay one
dollar on their admission--understood that such gentlemen as
are strangers to the professor must come introduced by some
person with whom he is acquainted, without which they cannot
be admitted. N. B. No gentleman allowed to dance in boots.
Tickets to be had at the door. Price one dollar."
If the dance, then why not the theatre? So thought some of
the wild younger element, to the scandalizing of the older generation. Private theatricals formed the entering wedge. Two
dramatic societies existed as early as 1808 and a third was
organized in 1812. But this godless form of entertainment
met with little encouragement, in fact with much opposition.
Even stronger was the feeling against the professional play
actors who now and then came to town. Gradually the bolder
and more broad-minded citizens learned to frequent the play
house, but it would seem that even they felt constrained, as not
2 2aTHE'VILLA-GE OF SEWICKLEY
knowing, quite when to applaud, perhaps lacking the self confidence to express such emotions as the play aroused. The editor
of the Commonwealth, in an issue at about this time, complains
of the coldness of Pittsburgh's reception of visiting artists:
"The Theatre of this City has been now opened nearly a fortnight," he writes, "and the managers, although they have
used every exertion to please, in the selection of their pieces,
have not been enabled to pay the contingent expenses of the
House. This is a severe satire on the taste of this place." "It
is to be hoped that the correct and manly acting of Mr. Savage
and the chastened elegance which Mrs. Savage is said to exhibit,
will attract to the Theatre for this one evening at least the
friends to this rational amusement."  Once lured into the
naughty precincts, it would seem that the audience felt ill at
ease.
On one occasion Hamlet was the offering, the title role taken
by one Hutton, an actor from the East. In modern parlance
the play was a flop. The manager, a Mr. Entwisle, determined
to reach his audience, put on a raw burlesque of Hamlet the
following night, himself taking the leading part and making it
a broad farce. A traveler from the sophisticated East-let us
hope he exaggerated somewhat-wrote of the performance:
"The audience were solemn, serious and dull. The affecting
entrance of the deranged Ophelia, who, instead of rosemary,
rue, etc., carried an ample supply of turnips and carrots, did
not cause them to move a muscle of their intelligent faces, the
ladies, indeed, excepted, who evinced by the frequent use of
their pocket handkerchiefs that their sympathies were engaged
on the side of the love-sick maiden-." The writer goes on to
say that a respectable lawyer assured him next morning that
he had been at the play, "And sir," he said, "I do not think
that Mr. Entwisle acted Hamlet quite so well as lM[r. Hutton."
Let us hope that the story is merely an early example of the
kind of gibes at Pittsburgh's expense which are not unknown
today.
Howbeit, if the theatre was an unaccustomed pleasure to
which the people generally were untrained, no restraint hedged
224PITTSBURGH IN 1815
them about in their enjoyment of the horse races. Unbounded
hilarity prevailed. The race course was located on the outskirts
to the northeast of the town between Liberty Street and the
Allegheny River. The races were conducted under the auspices
of the Jockey Club, which had been in existence for many years.
(I am quoting now from Mr. Dahlinger's book.) "Sportsmen
came from all the surrounding country. The races were under
the saddle, for sulkies had not been invented. Racing proprieties were observed and jockeys were required to be dressed in
jockey habits."  Quoting another historian-"The races were
an affair of all-engrossing interest. The whole town was daily
poured forth to witness them. Schools and shops were shut up
or deserted. This was an annual event, in the autumn, and
lasted three days. The plain within the course and near it was
filled with booths as at a fair, where everything was said and
done and sold and eaten or drunk, where frequent fights
occurred, dogs barked and bit, horses trod on men's toes and
booths fell down on people's heads." Truly a good time was
had by all, though there were not lacking voices that were raised
in protest against the riot and license and particularly against
the gambling that accompanied the sport.
Another popular form of entertainment was furnished by the
militia companies, at their semi-annual exhibitions and drills.
The fact that the rival companies represented differing shades
of political opinion added to the zest of the occasion. The Revolution and the Indian fighting had left a decided military stanmp
on the people and, in what day or generation has not the glamour
of gold lace, cockades and waving plumes had a strong hold on
the popular imagination?
The parade ground w-as the level part of Grant's Hill which
adjoined Marie's tavern on the northeast. IHere twice a year
the militia received its training, furnishing unbounded enjoyment and patriotic thrills for the multitude.
It is easy to lay too much emphasis upon the dour and cold
religious nature of the Scotch-Irish, and to lose sight of the
fact that there was life and gayety in the town. Perhaps the
unco' guid did not partake of it, but there were many, less
225THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
strait-laced, who did. Charming pictures are drawn by some
of the early writers of the comforts and luxuries of the homes,
of the pleasant winter evenings spent in the blaze of generous
open fires or around the more economical Franklin stoves, where
games of eards-chiefly "whisk" (as it was called) and "Boston"-were enjoyed and the young ones made merry with song
and even dancing, while without, the night watchman on his
rounds called the hours and notified all intending robbers of his
approach. One old German watchman had a well-known cry,
"Past 2 o'gloek; cold vedder and de moon peeps out vunee or
dwice."
Small affairs were given in the homes; the large ones, called
"Assemblies," usually in the new court house or in the taverns
which had rooms set apart for dances. The Sign of the Green
Tree had an "Assembly Room"; The Sign of General Butler
and The Sign of the Waggon each had a "Ball Room."
There were also concerts which may not have measured up to
the modern HIarvey Gaul standard, but which were enjoyed
none the less.
The stately and picturesque costumes of Colonial days had
passed. The influence of the French Revolution is shown in the
more sober dress of both womlen and men. Here and there
an old-timer still clung to the ruffles, knee breeches and queues
of an earlier day, but for the most part the men wore tight-fitting
full-length trousers in rather neutral colors, with coats and
waistcoats of more lively shades. Stocks with high colors upheld
the chin, while the head was covered and adorned with a tall
hat of beaver, eastor or roram. Castor was made of silk in imitation of beaver, while roram was made of felt with a beaver
facing. These were for the town folk. The country people were
more simply clothed, in homespun or linsey woolsey. The men
wore short, round reefer-like coats, wide long trousers and
squarish black felt hats, while from  the remoter settlements
appeared smock-like garments died in walnut juice, with here
and there the tanned deer-skin still popular in the backwoods.
Mr. Dahlinger, after enumerating a great variety of materials
and dress goods obtainable in the shops of that day says: "Other
226PITTSBURGH IN 1815
articles were tamboured petticoats, tamboured cravats, silk and
cotton shawls, wreaths and plumes, sunshades and parasols,
black silk netting gloves, white and salmon colored long and
short gloves, kid and morocco shoes and slippers, men's beaver,
tanned and silk gloves, men's cotton and thread caps and silk
and cotton hose."
While we occasionally indulge in a smile at the quaintness
of the people of a hundred years ago, the crudeness of their
amusements, the simplicity of their mode of life, and are prone
to patronize them as we look back smugly from the height of
our modern civilization, let us not lose sight of the fact that
they were sturdy pioneers, far-seeing men, conquerors of the
wilderness, builders of the foundations of our industrial supremacy. They accomplished a task which we, softened by our life
amid such creature comforts as they never imagined, could not
begin to do. They were not all cold and narrow religionists as
some would have us believe. They were not all boors. Many
a cultured gentleman there was in those days, many a sweet
and gracious hostess, dispensing cheer and hospitality in tasteful
and well furnished homes.
Some accounts of those days to be sure, leaning to the
biographical and the genealogical, perhaps overemphasize this
social side of the picture. An impartial historian should show
both sides-the cultivated and courtly gentleman of the old
school, and on the other hand the roystering turbulent frequenter
of the wayside tavern, with the quiet industrial artisan and
home builder occupying the middle of the picture. In the
words of MAlr. Dahlinger, "All that Pittsburgh has been and
much that it is destined to be can be traced to the ground-work
laid by those early leaders. The history and progress of the
place is a continual reminder of their shrewdness and foresight.
Pittsburgh has always gone forward in culture and refinement,
no less than in wealth. The greatest iron and steel center in
the world is the monument of those pioneers. All honor to
them!"
March 14th, 1927.
227A HISTORICAL SKETCH
In 1860 St. James Romnan Catholic church was organized
and a lot bought on Walnut Street where the present brick
building (now concrete faced) was begun a few years later,
succeeding the frame structure in which services were first
held.  St. Stephen's Episcopal church dates from  the year
1.863, when the corner stone was laid. Rev. Mr. Ten Broeek was
the first rector. This building gave way to the present stone
church in 1894. The parish house was built in 1911. In 1864
the United Presbyterians effected an organization and held
services in the Methodist church until their own house of
worship wvas completed.  It stood on Broad Street, where
there is now the double dwelling-house numrnbered 327 and 329.
Rev. W. A. MacKenzie was called in 1865. This property was
sold by the congregation and the stone church built on Beaver
Street, opposite the head of Peebles, in 1896. The Baptists
began holding services in 1873 in Mozart Hall, over Chamberlin's store at the corner of Broad and Beaver streets.  They
built their church at Beaver and Grimes streets in 1889, where
Rouzer's wagon shop and later a roller-skating rink had stood.
Let us leave church history now and turn to other activities, retracing our steps somewhat. Being on one of the main
lines of travel to the West, Sewickley boasted of several hotels
in the early days. John ILittle's tavern, sometimes called the
Half Way House, from its being midway between Pittsburgh
and Beaver, stood in an open space on the Beaver Road where
Little Street now begins. Another hostelry in the neighborhood was Fife's, across the road, at the corner of the present
Grove Street. This was kept by John Fife, grandfather of
Dr. Grimes. It was a brick building, afterwards occupied by
the Rev. Joseph Travelli's academy. It was burned down in
1851 and when rebuilt many of the original bricks were used.
These gave the wTalls a peculiar spotted appearance which
caused the building to be dubbed "the leprosy house."  Mr.
Fife miarried a daughter of Thomas H-loey and built for his
home, in 1834, the little log house, afterwvards weatherboarded,
which stood until 1904 on the north side of Beaver Street on
01THE THOMAS BEER HOMESTEADA HISTORICAL SKETCH
the property now ownled by Mr. A. L. Lowrie (No. 43). This
cottage for years was pointed out as the oldest house in
Sewickley. There Mlr. H-oey died, in 1838.
Mr. Thomas Beer's homestead on the river bank (built
about 1805) was a port of call for travelers going west by
way of the river. It was sometimes called the Old Beer Inn.
The Beer tavern was a stopping place not only for the keelboatmen but for emigrants and travelers. John Melish, an
Englishman, voyaging by skiff down the Ohio in October,
]811, undoubtedly refers to Thomas Beer's inn when he writes
as follows:  "The afternoon wTas clear, warm  and pleasant
and we had an agreeable sail, during which we passed several
islands, to a small tavern on the right hand twelve miles from
Pittsburgh where wve stopped for the night."  About a quarter of a mile back fromn the river and just off the Beaver
Road was the Park Inn, kept by James Park, Sr., who built
it, also in 1805. This old stone house is still standing. John
and Elizabeth Mitchell bought it from the Parks in 1864 and
lived in it until 1899, when it was sold to Mr. Joseph Lambie,
its present owner.  The iname of the original landholder is
preserved in Park's Run and Park's Hollow, the latter now
generally known as Glen Mitchell, a name said to have been
suggested by Dr. Bittinger.
In the days of long ago, when Sewickley was a quiet little
village and not a residential suburb of Pittsburgh, this community had a character all its own. Life in this beautiful
valley then surely must have had a touceh of the idyllic. While
the glamour which hovers over the good old times may blind
us to wThat was sordid and difficult in the daily round of those
who preceded us, still it is certainly true that their lives were
more tranquil, their pleasures simpler, and their wants fewer
than ours. Think of the quiet which had not yet been disturbed by the clatter of the railroad or the insistent horn of
the automobile! Picture the landscape untouched by smoke,
the valley still beautifiul with much of its original growth of
chestnut, oak, and maple, and the village streets not yet made
unsightly by telegraph poles! A primnitive little town it was,
23EDGEWOIRTH FEMA'LE SEMINAR-Y
From a lithograph in a prospectus of the school, dated 1838.A HISTORICAL SKETCH
with streets unpaved, uneurbed, and unlighted, marked by
board fences and here and there a board sidewalk whose
planks, laid lengthwise, were prone to warp and turn up at
the ends, tripping the unwary. These boards were evidently
"seconds," as they contained the auger holes through which
wooden pegs had been driven to hold together the rafts by
which the lumber had been floated dowTn from the upper river.
The only means of comnmunication with the city was by
occasional stage-coach or steamboat and yet Sewickley was
not out of touch with the world nor unknown beyond its
boundaries, for the fame of its schools spread its name far
and wide and attracted to it young men and women from all
parts of the country. The boys' academy and the Edgeworth
Seminary, which flourished in the days before the Civil War,
lent quite an academic air to the community.
Mrs. Mary Olver, an accomplished and stately Englishwoman, founded the Edgewiorth Female Seminary in 1825,
naming it for the novelist, Maria Edgeworth. It was first
located in Pittsburgh, but soon afterwards it was removed
to Braddoek's Field, and in 1836 to the Sewickley valley,
where it occupied a brick building to the south of the Beaver
Road and a short distance west of what is now Edgeworth
Lane, then called Seminary Lane. In its prospectus (of 1838)
Sewickley is described as "an eligible location on the north
bank of the Ohio River, near the village of Economy. It has
regular and free communication with the city both by the river
and the great public road leading to Beaver and Cleveland.
By stage or steamboat the distance [to the city] may be
traveled in a few hours."  Some years later the railroad
adopted the name for a station in the vicinity and today the
memiory of Mrs. Olver's seminary is preserved in the name of
the borough of Edgeworth where the school was located,
though Olver Street, passing back of the seminary, has been
changed to Oliver. In its school-room the Sewickley Presbyterian Church was organized, by order of the Presbytery of
251
yA HISTORICAL SKETCH:7
Ohio, on February 17, 1838, by Rev. John Williamson Nevin
anld Rev. Joseph Reed. In this organization no one took a
livelier or more active interest than Mrs. Olver. Upon her
death, in 1842, the seminary was closed and it remained so
until 1846, when it was reopened by Rev. Daniel E. Nevin,
who conducted it successfully for six and a half years. Following Mr. Nevin as principal were Prof. Samuel R. Williams
(1852-4), Rev. Henry R. Wilson, and Rev. Aaron Williams.
The career of the seminary ended with the destruction of
the two wooden wings of the building by fire, on February 11,
1865. The central part, which was of stone, remained and is
standing today, having been remodeled several times. It is now
the residence of AtMr. J. Wilkinson Elliott. Hon. Morrison Foster,
brother of Stephen C. Foster, lived there for a number of years.
The Sewickley Academy for boys was opened in 1838, by
John B. Champ, an Englishman, and William M. Nevin, a
brother of Rev. D. E. Nevin, in'Squire Way's Brick IHouse,
on Beaver Road, and it soon attained a reputation as a school
of high character.  The following advertisement appears in
Harris's Pittsburgh Directory, for the year 1839.
NEVIN  CHAMPS CLASSICA.L and COMMERCLAL school for
Boys: on the OHIO River, fourteen miles below Pittsburgh.
Terms, $75. per season of five months; half to be paid in
ADVANCE. "
Upon the removal from  the valley of Messrs. Champ and
Nevin (1841), the former to Michigan and the latter to accept
the professorship of English at Marshall College, Mercersburg,
Pa. (which, continued in the united Franklin  Marshall
College, he held for fifty years), the acadenmy was closed for
a while, but was reopened in 1842 by Rev. Joseph S. Travelli
in the Fife house on Beaver Street, in the village. Under Mr.
Travelli the school prospered and became more widely known.
As the river was the natural highway from the South, many
students were drawn from  that section, some eoming even
from as far as New Orleans.'Mrs. S. M. Glen:n, a daughter
27THE
VILLAGE OF SE WICKLEY
BY
FRANKLIN TAYLOR NEVIN
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
ALEXANDER C. ROBINSON
PRESIDENT OF PEOPLES-PITTSBURGH TRUST COMPANY
PITTSBURGH - PENNSYLVANIA
END-PAPERS DESIGNED BY
AUDLEY DEAN NICOLS
SEWICKLEY, PENNSYLVANIA - EL PASO, TEXAS
PUBLISHED BY
THE SEWICKLEY PRINTING-=SHOP
SEWICKLEY - PENNSYLVANIA
1 9 2 928         THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
REV. JOSEPH S. TRAVELLI
of Alr. Travelli, tells of the barrels of sugar-cane and other
home products which used to come lup the river by steamboat
for the Southern boys who remained at the academy over the
Christmas holidays. For weeks the whole school enjoyed the
luxury of chewing sugar-cane.
When the Fife house was burned, in 1851, the academy
was moved to the building now the Park Place Hotel. Two
wvings were added to an old building which had stood on
the I-Ioey property and the premises adapted to school requirements. Here Mr. Travelli conducted the academy until 1864.
The Civil War made serious inroads in its attendance, so many
of the boys hurrying off to their homes in the South.A HISTORICAL SKETCH
Miss Ellis, in her Lights and Shadows of Sewickley Life,
gives a picture of the academy boys and the girls from the seminary walking decorously and demurely to church under the
watchful eyes of their sedate teachers. The girls occupied the
gallery in the little brick Presbyterian church, where they
were reasonably removed as a source of distraction to the boys.
President Zachary Taylor's passage through the village in
1848, on his way to the West, was an exciting event in the
lives of the boys and girls, and of their elders as well.
The party left Pittsburgh on the morning of August 31.
The paper stated that they would dine! at Economy and lodge
at Beaver; Sewickley was therefore prepared in advance.
In the Pittsburgh Gazette an interesting account of the episode
is given. To quote:
"Two of the citizens of Sewickley met the President on
his approach to the Valley, last Tuesday, and invited him in
behalf of the institute and the community to visit the Edgeworth Ladies' School. They also handed him the following
invitation from the pupils of that institution.'DEAR GENERAL:
We wish very much to see you, and delicacy forbids
our running to the roadside to gaze upon you whilst passing. Could you not drive into the Seminary grounds, and
pause a few minutes, in front of the porch, and we will
always gratefully remember your kindness. That you, of
whom we have heard so muceh during your celebrated career
in Mexico, of whom our fathers and brothers talked so
hopefully in the recent election time, and now too, our
President, should pass our gate without our having the
privilege of seeing you, would fill us with lasting regret.
Do, dear General, permit us to salute you here, as you pass,
and please convey our compliments to the Governor of our
Commonwealth, who, we understand, is travelling with
you, we hope to greet him in your company.
Yours respectfully,
THE YOUTNG LADIES
OF EDGEWORTH ACADEMY.'  
29THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
"As gallant as he was fearless," to quote from  another
writer, "Old Zaeh could not resist this appeal. He capitulated
at oncee, and in company with Governor Johnston, drove into
the grounds where they were met by the Rev. Joseph S.
Travelli and Rev. Daniel E. Nevin, headmasters respectively
of the academic schools for boys andcl girls. He was formally
introduced by Dr. Nevin, and given a most hearty reception.
Both the distinguished callers made pretty speeches, the
students signifying their delight by round after round of cheers.
In the course of Governor Johnston's remarks he stated that
he had always had a soft spot in his heart for the Edgeworth
School, as his wife, the best woman in the world, wTas a graduate of the institution. This was received with demonstrations
of approval, particularly by the young ladies. As the party
drove away, the girls continued their cheers, and remained on
the porch waving their handkerchiefs until the cavalcade was
out of sight on its journey to Beaver."
Until the year 1840 the village had no official].y established
name. It had enjoyed various appellations  in the sense in
which one is said to enjoy ill health.  Oppotongo was one of
the earliest, an Indian name, used within the recollection of
Mr. Elias Reno, now living. This name is mentioned by Rev.
Daniel E. Nevin in a poem in which hlie narrates an Indian
legend of the valley. Fifetown was the name perhaps as generally
used as any, in honor of the numerous family of Fifes. Bowling
Green had been favored by some. Dogtown, Contentiotn, and
The Devil's Race Traclk are regrettable memories reminiscent,
probably, of the days of the keelboatmen and squatters along
the river who once formed a considerable part of the community.
These "hardy frontiersmen," as we delight to call them, were in
reality a lawless, roistering, and illiterate lot.
The name Sevtic?kley Bottomn came to be applied exclusively
-to that portion of the valley lying near Little Sewickley Creek,:and a post-office so designated had been established there asi early
-as 1825, Ir. David Shields assuming the duties of postmaster, in
comnbination with those of storekeeper, in the front room of his
30A HISTORICAL SKETCH           3
house, now the home of Mrs. L. Halsey Williams, his granddaughliter. Finally, in the fall of the year 1840, a meeting of the
citizens was called for the purpose of definitely deciding upon
a name for the village, at which Sewickleyville was chosen, the
termination "ville" being used as properly distinguishing the
more closely settled portion of the valley from that known as
the "Bottom."  The name was hailed with bonfires and great
rejoicings, with which we can readily sympathize in view of the
names that we escaped.  Old postmarks show  that the name
Sewickleyvtille received the sanction of the post-office authorities,
but when the village was incorporated in 1853 the borough
was called simply'" Sewickley," though the longer form continued in popular use for some years, possibly because the
post-office, established in 1851, was so called until 1871. Mr.
John \Vay, afterwards of Lisbon, Ohio, was the first appointed
postmaster.
The year 1851 was marked by another event of greater
importance than the establishing of the post-office. In that year
the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad was opened and the first
train passed through Sewickley.  July 4 had been set as the
date for the great event, and the program was followed out even
though passenger coaches were not yet ready for service. Gravel
cars with improvised board seats were attached to the engine and(
the run was made to Economy, the end of the line, where the
intrepid passengers were regaled by the Economites with a feast
of celebration. Soon a regular passenger service of two trains
a day was established between Pittsburgh and the valley, and
gradually, as the service increased, the change from village to
city suburb took place.
Of course the railroad met with opposition. Such innovations always do. It was not the stage-coach drivers, as in Eng]and, who made chief objection,'but property owners who feared
that their land would depreciate in value or their cows cease to
give milk if frightened by the terrible steam-engine. MIr. Ezra
Young, advocating the introduction of a trolley line at a meeting
held recently in Edgeworth, told the following:
3132            THE VILLAGE -OF SEWICKLEY
SEWICKLEY'S FIRST POST OFFICE
Beaver Street west of ChestnutA HISTORICAL SKETCH
"Objections will be raised, as they always are, to any enterprise that is intended to benefit a community. Being one of the
oldest living residents of the valley, I well remember how the
introduction of steam railroads here was bitterly opposed in the
early'fifties.  My own ancestors, the Andersons, then living
on a farm that took in the land now covered by the town of
Leetsdale, were among the most bitter opponents. They were
somewhat relieved, however, when Atrs. David Shields came to
see my grandmother and said,'Don't be alarmed, Auntie; the
Economites and Mr. Shields are opposed to the railroad and it
won't be built.' "
The railroad was built, howTever, and the first Sewickley
station was a rough frame building which stood on the south side
of the single track, a little east of Chestnut Street, about where
the freight station now is. This building was afterwards movedc
across the track and used as a combination council-chamber and
village lockup. The second station, a brick one, occupied the
same site as the first, while the third, the present building on the
north side of the tracks and east of Broad Street, was built
in 1885.
By the mid-century Sewickley had grown to be a village o?
some five hundcred inhabitants and desired to become a borough.
Accordingly, on April 8, 1853, there was presented to the grand
jury a petition of a majority of the freeholders and a majority
of the legal voters within "the present limits of the Borough of
Sewickley who are desirous of being regularly incorporated as
a Borough and forming a separate election and School District."
(It will be noticed that the petitioners elsewhere refer to themselves as "the citizens of Sewickleyville.")  Of the eighty-two
signers, sixty-one were freeholders and twenty-one were "voters
not freeholders.*"' The petition having been considered by the
grand jury and the incorporation recommended, a decree was
made by the court on July 6, 1853. These proceedings are found
of record in Deed Book, vol. 108 at page 122, and not the least
interesting part of the record is the map of the proposed borough
*The list will be found at the end of this article.
3334           THEE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLIEY
MAP OF SEWICKLEY, 18.53.
The original, drawn in two colors, is part of the Charter petition.A HISTORICAL SKETCH                    35
which accompanied the petition. In this first plan of the borough
the streets are indicated by red lines "but not accurately, as
they are not surveyed."  No street names are given, but the
several property owners are designated. Broad and Walnut
Streets seem not to have been cut through between Thorn and
Beaver, while Division Street has all the dignity of a thoroughfare between the borough limits.
An election was held, and on August 30, 1853, council met
and organized. Rev. Robert Hopkins, the first burgess (Mrs.
Rudolph Lipp's father), was a large
property holder and lived in what
was afterwards known asi the Watson
house, on Blackburn Avenue, whic'h
he built. He owned nearly all of the
land within the borough limits east
of Division Street, including the cemeterv property, which was bought
from him and dedicated as a burying
ground on November 1, 1860. Hopkins Street, of course, is named for
him.  Another large section, which
he laid out in a plan of lots, he sold
to individual purchasers. This was
the triangular piece bounded by
REV. ROBERT HOPKINS
Beaver, Peebles and Division Streets," situated in Ohio Township,
Allegheny County, adjoining the town of Sewickley," which was
surveyed as early as 1849, and recorded in 1851, in Plan Book
vol. 1, page 189. Other portions of the town had been laid
out by various individuals. Upon the death of Thomas Hoey,
in 1838, his estate was divided among his three children, John
Hoey. Mrs. Fife and Mrs. Thorn.  Mrs. Thorn's portion lay
south of -Beaver Street and east of HIoey's Run, and was sold
to Mlessrs. Gray and Chadwick, who laid out the principal streets,
which were afterwards confirmed, though the sale was set aside
on account of certain legal complications.  John Hoey took
as his share the land south of Beaver Street and west of theTHE VIL1AGE -OF SEWICKLEY
run, selling it later to John H. Little, who subdivided it; while
that part of the farm to the north of the Beaver Road which
remained unsold went to Mrs. Fife. In 1837 John R. Garrison
had bought the triangle bounded by Beaver, Division and Fife
Streets and laid out lots fronting on Beaver Street, on some of
which he built houses. In 1860 a three-cornered section of Mrs.
Thorn's holdings was surveyed for her son-in-law, William
Harbaugh, by Hays  Darley, andcl put on record in Plan Book
vol. 3, page ]80. This lies between Chestnut, Harbaugh and
Division Streets, just across the line from the Rev. Hopkins plan.
In 1856 the first official survey and map of the borough was
made by Alexander Hays (afterwards General Hays), the original document being now on file in the borough engineer's office.
This plan (which seems not to have been put on record) shows
thirty-one streets, a curious feature being that none runs directly
through from the river to the hill, a condition that will be
changed only when the new bridge is connected with Broad
Street. All of the streets laid out at that time were confined to
what are now the first and third wards, while Beaver Street was
the only one extending west of the present Blackburn Avenue
and Walnut Street. It is interesting to note some of the original
street names. Bank Street, east of Chestnut, was called Railroad
Street; Clar7k Street, between Peebles and Logan, is now a part
of Thorn Street; Vine Street is now part of Frederick Avenue;
Locust Street, between Nevin Avenue and Division Street, forms
part of Centennial.. Wheelbarrow Lane is Boundary Street now;
Mlechanic's Street is part of Logan; Gray Street is changed to
Nevin Avenue, and Fife Street to Blackburn Avenue. Broad
Street ran from Bank to Beaver Street. To go up the hill above
Beaver, one passed through Short Alley (now Hegner Alley)
to Division Street and thence by Crooked Street (which accounts
for the still remaining name of the not-far-distant Straight
Street), to Hopkins. Between Woods's (now A. C. Walker's)
drug store and Reibert's shop, which occupied the site of the
First National Bank, there was a fenced-off open lot through
which Broad Street was eventually carried, in 1878, the extension north of Beaver being originally called Lincoln Avenue.
36:A HISTORICAL SKETCH'
This niap of 1856 shows us the village practically as it was
in the days of the Civil War.
Of those days it is hard to draw an adequate picture. The
alternation of excitement and grief, of discouragement and hope.
which marked those four bitter years cannot be fully appreciated
by us of a younger generation. At the outbreak of the war the
young men of the Sewickley valley responded loyally and eagerly
to their country's call. A company was organized and drilling
began in the new Presbyterian church, the present building,
which hlad just been roofed and floored. On July 6, 1861, the
company left for Philadelphia and was mustered into service
July 11 as Company G of the 28th Regiment of Pennsylvania
Volunteers. On the Sunday before they left, the soldier boys
attended morning service in the Presbyterian church and evening
service in the Methodist, walking two by two up the aisle to their
allotted seats. On the forenoon of the day of their departure, in
the presence of a large gathering swords were presented to Captain Conrad U. Meyers and to Lieutenants William C. Shields
and John I. Nevin, J. W. F. White, Esq., making the presentation speech. Each man in the company at the same time was presented with a New Testament and an appropriate address was
made by Rev. James Allison. Then followed the good-byesand the days of anxious waiting. Six months from the day the
company left Sewickley the first break in its ranks occurred,
in the death of Private A. Jackson Gray at Camp Goodman,
Point of Rocks, Maryland. The second death was that of Joseph
Moore, brother of Mr. Albert Moore, in March, 1862. Then came
the dark days following Antietam in September, and the neverto-be-forgotten funeral services held in the Presbyterian church
over the bodies of James D. Travelli, John D. Tracy and William
C. Ritchey, who were killed in that battle. Other young menl
from the valley enlisted, and meanwhile, week after week, the
girls met in the church to sew for the soldier boys. The memories
of the Civil War which are associated with this building are
indeed a precious heritage.
Shortly after the close of that great struggle, the Soldiers'
Monument was placed in the cemetery, commemorating those
37Copyright, 1929, by
THE SEWICKLEY PRINTING-SHOP, Inc.38          THE VILLA.GE OF SEWICKLEY
THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT
who gave their lives for the UTnion. The following namles are
inscribed thereon:  "'Killed in battle.  Lieutenant Wim. C.
Shields, WVm. IBanks, John D. Tracy, WVm. Painter, James D.
Travelli, Robert White, WVm. C. Ritchey, Theodore Webb, Robert
Johnston, WVm. mWharton, Thomas Smith, Moses Sherman. Diead
of Wounds and Diseases. Captain Alexander MeKinney, James
Scott, James I] CArady, John Park, Albert J. White, Joseph
Moore, Andrew J. Gray, Henry M. Rhodes, Wm. I. Nevin,
Thomas A. Htill, W. H. Forrester, Harry Black, G. W. Forrester,
Alex. Black, James Grimes, L. B. Gainer."  Today there are
buried in our cemetery upwards of eighty veterans of the war, the
roll of honor lengthening as the years thin the ranks of survivors.
In the decade of the'seventies Sewickley made material
advancement. In 1879 the second survey of the townf:was
made, which shows the development of all territory: w-ithinA HISTORICAL SKETCH
the borough limnits, the laying out of streets in the second
ward, with a number of changes in names, widths, and locations of the original streets. In 1.872 the old White and Harbaugh farmn of twenty-five acres, a part of the Charles Thornl
property, bounded by Bank and Thorn, Little and'Walnut
streets, had been bought by David Sands and James Adair
and by them laid out in a plan of lots wThich were sold at
auction the following year. This was the largest and most
valuable tract of land ever offered, among the several additions made to the borough. In the naming of the streets in
this plan the children of the Adair and Sands families were
remembered, Alec Adair (called Elwick by one of his little
brothers), Frederick Sands, Emery Sands, and Henry Adair
lent their first names to as many streets, while the name Rose
was given to the alley adjoining Thorn Street as an appropriate juxtaposition.  As Mi'r. Adair once remarked:  "No
alley was ever more fragrant."
Within this decade the borough made other valuable acquisitions: a library, a waterworks and a fire company.
The Sewickley Library had its beginning in a meeting held
February 7, 1873, in Mozart ilall (the hall at the corner of
Beaver and Broad streets, now used by the Knights of Pythias).
It was a meeting of "a few young men of the borough," and
was held "for the purpose of establishing a Reading Room and
Library Association."  Quoting from a paper by Mr. Bayard
H. Christy:
"Some persons may be interested to know w-ho'a few
young men of the borough' were, forty years, ago, and I take
from the minute book the namnes of the persons who at the
first meeting subscribed themselves active mnembers of the
Association which was then being formed. They were E. R.
Kramer, F. A. Myers, John Dickson, William  Dickson, John
Thomas, S. A. Chamberlin, R. Boobyer, S. C. Ritehey, S. Y.
Anderson, W. A. McElwain, C. Fleming, Jr., and John Lent.
"The new enterprise was called the Young Men's Library
Association, and the organization was effected by obtaining
a charter and adopting a constitution. A board of ten direc40            THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
Robert Watson
WIm. Hlarbaugh
Theodore HI. Nevin
J. W. F. White                          D. N. White
SEWICKLEY'S FIRST WATER COMMISSIONERSA HISTORICAL SKETCH
tors was provided for and, at the first election of directors
and officials, the following board was chosen and organized:
John Way, Jr., president; William I)ickson, vice president;
E. R. Kramer, secretary; John Thomas, treasurer; and in
addition the board of directors included John McElwain, Kidd
Fleming, C. T. Harbaugh, Rev. S. B. Moore, George H. Christy,
and C. F. Nevin. Two auditors were elected, F. M. Hutchinson
and William tlarbaugh.
"This board of directors, with few changes, continued to
serve during seven years. from the beginning of the enterprise
to the time when its property was turned over to the control
of the school board, and the Library as a private venture caine
to an end. Mr. Way continued to be the pres,ident through all
the period and Mr. Kramer the secretary."
To Joseph WA. Warren great credit is due for his untiring
efforts in raising money to finance the library. Ilis dramatic
entertainments, given year after year, were well attended and
hailed with enthusiasm-to the great benefit of the fund.
For its water Sewickley had been dependent upon a
number of deep wells and cisterns scattered throughout the
village.  The need of a more adequate supply led to the
holding of a public meeting in Mozart Hall on June 15, 1872,
where a resolution was passed calling upon council to appoint
a water commission. On June 24, council named Messrs. T. H.
Nevin, D. N. White, Robert Watson, J. W. F. White, and
William Harbaugh, and made an appropriation of $500 to
cover the cost of prelimninary surveys, etc. The outcome of
this action was the purchase of the beautiful tract of land
whose springs long sufficed to supply the needs of the village,
and whose advantages as a public park, aside from its utilitarian value, have proved the wisdom and foresight of the
first water commission.
Following the completion of the wvaterworks, in 1874, a
volunteer fire company was organized, at a meeting held also
in Mozart Hall on the evening of April 6, 1876. David R. Scott
was chosen foreman and Alex. MeHenry and Hiram Lake
assistant foremen. Upon couneil's declining to make an appro41THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
priation for the purchase of equipment, the necessary money
was raised by subscription, largely through the efforts of the
burgess, George W. Cochran. In recognition of his services
and enthusiastic support, the name Cochran Hose Company
was adopted.  The fire company remained an independent
organization until 1879, when the apparatus was presented to
the borough. It was housed for mrany years in the little building on Division Street between Beaver and Chestnut, now the
Reibert property; thence it'was moved to the old Neely blacksmith shop at the corner of Chestnut and Washington streets,
where it remained until the comnpletion of the town hall in
1910, where our volunteer firemen were at last provided with
comfortable and adequate quarters.
The first fire to which the company responded was at the
Merriman house, up the WATaterworks Road; but little could
be done, as it was far from any fire-plug. When Reibert's
store, on the site of the First National Bank, caught fire, in
April, 1878, the boys had their first opportunity to show their
mettle. Though the store was barnt out, "the operation was
successful," in that the fire was kept from spreading to Ellis's
shoe store and other frame buildings adjoining. A spirited
oil painting of the excitingo event was made by John Drynan,
which may be seen today on the wall of his office, No. 437
Beaver Street.
In 1878 Capt. J. Sharp McDonald, Stuart S. Colville, and
W. F. Speer leased an old sawmill property at the foot of
Ferry Street on the river bank and turned it into a boat-yard.
In April, 1879, the first boat was launched, the steamer Butte,
destined for the upper Missouri trade. The next was the
James Lee, a side-wheel packet for the lower Mississippi; then
they built the Wyoming for the Pittsburgh-St. Louis line and
the Florida, a side-wheeler, for the coast trade between Savannah and Jacksonville.  Several towboats followed, of which
the W. W. O'Neil was one. Seventeen hulls in all were constructed, before the yard was wiped out by fire, in 1883. A
part of the old boat-yard site is now occupied by the John B.
Semple fuse and tracer factory.
42A HISTORICAL SKETCH
The feeling of neighborliness which existed between Sewilckley and the quaint German village of Economy, "down the
road," was pleasantly shown in a series of annual visits paid
to us in the'seventies by the Economites, who chose the winter
time for their excursions and appeared in a procession of sleds
headed by their famoLs band. All Sewickley turned out to
welcome them, and a reception was held in Choral Hall,
followed by a band concert tendered by our guests. In 1879,
by way of returning the comnpliment, "a sleighing party of
four hundred" as the newspapers reported it, set out from
Sewickley, to invade the quiet precincts of the Harmonists.
Friday, January 17, was the day, and the children of the
public school in twenty-three bob-sleds, accompanied by the
school directors, teachers, military aides on horseback, and two
bands, formed the cavalcade. It was truly an invasion. No
announcement had preceded it, and yet the jolly party met
with the warmest welcome at the hands of the sedate Economites. The town hall was thrown open and the visitor.s regaled
wvith apples and ginger cakes, while the rafters ran,g vith the
mu.sic of the bands.  The return journey was made without
mishap and, in the language of the country newspaper, "a good
timne was had by all.'" What the effect was on the Economrites,
history does not record, but the exchange of amenities between
the villages seems to have ended with this children's crusade.
The principal event of the'eighties was, of course, the
erection and dedication of the new Methodist church, in 1884.
Through the activity of Judge J. W. F. White the sumn of
$1,200 was collected to purchase the town clock which was
placed in the clhurch tower that year. Of this sum, all but
$379 was contributed by members of that congregation,
although the clock is an object of general public benefit.
In a mere historical sketch, as this paper of necessity
must be, it is impossible to go into the details of the social
and business life of the community, and a bare catalogue of
the numerous organizations which have sprung into existence
43THE OLD MUSIC HALL AT EICONOMYA ]IISTORICAL SKETCH                   45
in the past thirty years wrould be uninteresting. In an exhaustive history of our' town, which it is to be hoped some abler
historian may one day write, such details as the founding
and personnel of the first Masonic lodge and of the other
fraternal and social organizations, the establishment of ouc
banks, of the Young Men's Christian Association, of the hospital, and so forth, may profitably be considered. An interesting chapter would be devoted to the various newspapers
which flourished at different periods, some the creatures of a
day, others with long and useful careers. The Sewickley Athletic Association, founded in 1882, and enjoying a deserved
popularity for more than fifteen years, would be given a large
place in such a chronicle. With what pleasure do we not look
back to the activities of those days at the Athletic Grounds,
on Mrs. R. H. Davis's property on Nevin Avenue! This is now
a choice residential section; the old ball-field and tennis courts,
the bowling alley, and even the spring having been wiped out and
the creek pushed aside, to make way for streets and dwellings.
Let us hope that some day a full and adequate history of
Sewickley may be written.  Mleanwhile, a word about our
schools shotuld not be omitted frorm this sketch. The first school
was held in the old log church on Division Street, built in
1818, and continued there until 1846. In its one window, a
small opening between the logs, oiled paper served instead of
glass. The teacher was a Mr. Scott. In 1848 the first real
school-house was built, a brick and frame building, also on
Division Street, at a point near the present intersection of
Broad Street and Centennial A-venue. This continued in use
down to 1862, and some of the pupils of that school we have
still with us, among whom may be mentioned William Dickson
and G. Fred Muller. One of their schoolmates, C. Stanley
Rinehart, who attained world-wide celebrity as an artist and
illustrator, gave promise even in those days of his future fame
in his illustrations of the text of the school paper, The Privateer, which was put forth by the students. The present school
property on Chestnut Street was bought in 1860, the frontage
on Broad Street a little later, and a brick building of fourSE'WICIKLEY'IS, FTIRIST SCHOOL HOUiSE (1848)A HISTORICAL SKETCH
rooms erected which, with several additions, continued in use
from 1862 till 1893, when it was destroyed by fire. The present
building was put up in 1894. The attendance has grown from
a mere handful in the'forties to an enrollment of 850 pupils
in the grammar and high schools of today.
In 1896 a cavalry comlpany was organized in the valley
through the efforts of Capt. David Shields, Mr. Edward P.
Coffin, and others, but for several reasons it had disbanded
when, in 1898 the Spanish wa.r fever struck SewTickley and the
Sewickley Troop was permanently organized.  Efforts were
made to have the company sent to the front, but as this proved
impracticable many of the nmembers enlisted and saw active
service in the 14th and 18th Regiments of Pennsylvania
Volunteers and in Battery B. T'he boys in the battery were
the only ones that had the good fortune to be sent out of the
country. It was their guns that were trained upon the Spaniards in the mnountains of Porto Rico, awvaiting the signal to
open battle, when news of the peace protocol was received,
and the war was over.
Our historical sketch nowA  brings us down to extremely
modern times, of which it is difficult to write with thei proper
perspective.  On the whole, it seems best not to attempt to
carry it further but to let this imperfect review of Sewickley's
past suffice, leaving to some future scribe the task of writing
the history of the Sewickley-Coraopolis bridge and the celebrations attending its opening, in the fall of 1911.
Sewickley is now a prosperous and happy community of
4,500 people, flanked on either side by its sister boroughs,
Osborn and Edgeworth.  May the near future see the three
boroughs joined in one, as their community of interests demands
that they should be, forming by their union a Greater Sewickley in which we shall take even a greater pride and for which
we shall feel in our hearts a stronger allegiance!
February, 1913.
47INTRODUCTION
SEWICKLEY has always had an individual character of its own,
but the powerful modern forces working for standardization
of life, thought, and customs throughout the country, such as
the multiplication in the means of transport and increase in
the speed of travel, tend rapidly to destroy this self-contained
and interesting quality. To cite but one example, the old stores
with the personalities of their proprietors, are being replaced by
the impersonal and foreign owned chain stores. This is in the
line of present economic development, but it makes it the more
important that the records of the old, and in many respects,
unique community should be put in permanent form while it
is still possible to do so.
Topographically the widening of the level ground at this
point on the river naturally early attracted settlers, and the
place was just the right distance from Pittsburgh for the flat
boats floating down or being laboriously poled up the river to
be stopped for a noonday meal or for a night at a local tavern.
The same thing was true of the stage coaches and wagons
driving along the Beaver Post Road. So Sewickley began and
its semi-isolation combined with the strong characters of its
early settlers made it a distinctive and self reliant community
in its civic and cultural life. It developed its owIn resources,
furnished its own amusements and recreations. Growing slowly
and free from the influences of large industries, there was more
of personal acquaintance and community of interest uninflueneed by distinctions of wealth or social position. This
remained true long after the coming of the railroad turne(
its male population so largely into daily commuters to Pittsburgh for business, and the city shops and amusements became
more available.THE VILLAGE OF SEWICIKLEY
l OST OF VOTERS IN OHIO TOWNSHIP IN 1836
A list of the names of voters at an election held on Tuesday, the 11th day of October, A. D. 1836, at the house of
Thomas Hamilton, Ohio Township.
From a document loaned by Mr. William Linn.
W7illiam  Fi'razer    Robert Anderson, Esq. John Stuck
Hugh Duff, Esq.       Adam Scott            Craven Stevens
Nicholas Way          John George           Henry Creese
Campbell MeGlaughlin James Merriman, Jr.  Robert Lin
Davidson Duff         Levi Merrimnan        Thomas Pinkerton
John Mitchell, Esq.   Thomas Wagener        James Duff
James Duff, Jr.       Samuel Creese         James Skiley
Thomas J. Pierson     William  Sutton       Thomas Mitchell
William Courtny       Samuel Merriman, Jr. James Laird
Edward Crawford       John Anderson         Hugh Lin
John Scott            Alexander Merriman   Wilson Mitchell
John Gillen           Jacob Fry             John O'Neil
John Seaton           James Anderson        Dr. John Dickson
William Hamilton        (Voted on age)      Samuel Little
David Dickson         Davidcl Wilkey        Alexander Miller
Andrew Gilleland, Jr.  John Lauramor        John Leeser
William  Long         James Park            Thomas Merriman
Nathan MeFersen, Sr. James Wilkey           William  Reno
James Gilleland       William  Wagener      Thomas Hamilton
David Shields         F'rancis Logan        William Morrow
William Jackman       Robert Scott          George Mitchell
Samuel Baggs          James Wakefield       John McLaughlin
George Merriman       William  Crawford     Alexander MeiSortin
William  C. Means     Isaac Crawford        James McLaughlin
Lewellen Bonem        William  Ritehey      Philip Young
John Taylor, Sr.      Jackson Gillen        Andrew Creese
John Means            James Crawford        John Dickson
John Brewer           Frederick Merriman   Samuel Means
John MeFersen, Jr.    George Stuck          MeClelland Hood
Samuel MeFersen       John MeFerson, Sr.   James Frey
Frederick Merriman, Jr. Edward O'Neil, Jr.  John R. Garrison
Andrew Pinkerton      Edward 0'Neil, Sr.   John Creese, Sr.
Nathan McFerson, Jr. William  Duff          George Creese
James Brooks          Patterson Mitchell    James Duff
Campbell Duff (Voted on age)           Francis Duff
4SA HISTORICAL SKETCH                        49
LIST OF PETITIONERS FOR BOROUGH CHARTER
SEWICKLEY, 1853
(Deed Book, vol.108, page 122)
FREEHOLDERS
Samuel E. Babcock, John F. White, William  Harbaugh, Charles
Thorn, David R. Miller, Joseph S. Travelli, E. W. Wrorthington, Johnl
Way, Lewis F. MeClelland, Solomnon Ague, A. McElwain, Wilson Moor,
George F. Rudisill, James P. Mars, T. H. Nevin, D. E. Nevin, John
Miller, Joseph Bush, Samuel Morrow, James MeClelland, Siamuel D.
Miller, Charles Miskaeis, Wrilliam A. Ellis, James Ellis, John Ague,
John R. Garrison, James Miller, Robert Hopkins, James McC. Williams,
James Allan, Daniel Deputron, William C. Gray, Jo;seph Craft, James
Blackstock, Robert H. Cochran, John Lake, Frederick Ringley, Stephen
Dickson, John Norris, Charles Norris, John M. Stevens, Robert Lutle,
Jolhn C. Little, Baldwin Gray, Philo Goff, John Dickson, Absolom Smith,
James Gray, William Miller, Bruce Tracey, Thomas Stevenson, WVylie S.
Means, William  Sarver, Josiah Winters, Alexander VWinters, James
Grimes, John Flemning, George Hall, Levi Wade, D. N. White, John
Ingram.
VOTERS NOT FREEHOLDERS
A. Al. Reed, John B. S. Ward, Abraham Miller, James R. Wilson,
James Allison, S. T. Garrison, David. R. McPherson, T. P. Brown, James
W. Stevens, Charles Lake, W'atson Moore, G. S. Moore, John Estep,
Jamnes E. Anderson, Esq., William M. May, John D. Hyke, Robert A.
MeCray, John Hamilton, George Gray, Albert G. Williams, John Sneed.ADDY BEER'S GROVEADDY BEER'S GROVE
ONE OF THF FIRST PLACES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP
THE old oak tree on Hill Street not far from  Blackburn
Avenue had long since passed its prime. Shorn of most of its
branches, it gave no shade and was a menace and an obstruction
to traffic standing as it did in the middle of the sidewalk, with
no compensating advantages either of beauty or of usefulness.
So it had to come down to be converted into firewood, leaving
only- the stump, full nine feet in girth, to await the time whlien it
too shall be removed, the last relic of a noble forest tree, the! last
vestige of the beautiful grove of which it had once been a part,
"Addy Beer's grove," that lay under the hill on which now
stands the Valley Hospital. Along the banks of Hoey's Run and
grouped about a clear and sparkling spring stood in close array
many splendid oakls and chestnuts, a lovely forest glade with
open vistas between the great tree boles.
Addy Beer was the widow of Thomas Beer who on April 7th,
1802, had bought from John Vail and Sarah Vail, his wife, for the
sum of $1,752.00, a tract of 219 acres lying to the east of what is
now Division Street and extending from low water mark on the
Ohio River back northward to the hills. On this land Thomas
Beer in 1805 built his home, the low frame dwelling on the river
bank at Glen Osborne, which was destroyed by fire in 1925, and
the very site of which has now disappeared with the shifting
of the railroad's right-of-way. Here he lived and made a
home for his growing family while keeping tavern for the keelboatmen and travelers who passed up and down the river. Dying
in 1809, he left to survive him his widow Addy Beer and nine
children (one of them, Abigail, was the wife of James Hoey,
another of the earliest settlers here). Addy Beer's farm, the
land was then called, and "Addy Beer's grove" the forestcovered tract that became a favorite resort of the sparse inhabitants of the district. For the settlers were few. Along the
river bank squatters had here and there made their homes, forTHE VILLA. GE OF SEWICKLEY
the most part a rough and turbulent lot. The two chief landholders of the better sort were Thomas Beer in "Aleppo," and
Henry Ulery, a retired sea captain who on April 10th, 1798, had
bought from Jonathan TLeet for ninety-eight pounds, fifteen shillings the entire 250-acre tract called "Loretto" which lay on the
west side of the dividing line between Breading's and Leet's
districts. Ulery was the owner also of 25 acres known as "The
Fl'erry" on the other side of the river, for which he had received
a patent on February 14, 1793, out of which the Commonwealth
reserved to itself "the one-fifth part of all gold and silver ore,
to be delivered at the pit's mouth clear of all charges."
In 1810 the cholera threatened, and Ulery and Beer set aside
half an acre each as a burying ground. This one-acre plot lay
across the line separating their farms, just where the new high
school now stands. Naturally the dividing line became a lane,
"Graveyard Lane," and, later, Division Street, running due
north and south, or nearly so. Leaving the Beer homestead, a
walk of something less than a mile through the dense chestnut
woods on the lower level and the forest of white oaks farther up
brought you to Addy Beer's grove.
Gradually the soberer element of the community increased
in numbers and the roistering keelboatmen and riffraff of the
river ceased to be the predominant type. The God-fearing folk
naturally drew together for Sunday worship, gathering in various places, most frequently in barns, one of which stood about
opposite the present UInited Presbyterian Church, another near
the foot of Sand Hill, on the Beaver Road. The sugar camp on
the river bank a short distance above Shousetown Lane was
another favorite meeting place; but gradually the people by common consent resorted to Addy Beer's grove as. the most convenient and pleasant place for Sunday worship.
The comfortable shade of the forest trees and the cool waters
of the bubbling spring added physical refreshment to the spiritual satisfaction provided by the religious services. Itinerant
preachers held forth here from time to time, ministering to all
without regard to sect; but finally the Methodists drew apart
and began the erection of a separate house of worship down near
54ADDY BEER'S GROVE
Little Sewickley Creek in the "Sewickley Bottom," as it was
called. The Presbyterians took a similar step when, in 1818,
they leased the grove from MArs. Addy Beer for a term of forty
years and built, of hewn logs, the first Presbyterian church,
wherein one Michael IJaw is said to have preached the first
sermon.
Gradually the ancient oaks surrendered to advancing age and
the encroachment of suburban development. The first considerable dwelling erected in the grove was that of Rev. Robert F.
Hopkins, in 1850, who two years before had bought 114 acres
from the Samuel Peebles estate, successors to the Beer heirs.
That house, with an added half story, was known to us of the
present generation as the Watson house, and only a year or two
ago it gave way to the present lot plan developmlent which now
covers the block north of Hill Street and west of Locust Place.
Last of all to yield before the inexorable march of events was
that grizzled old veteran whose stump alone remains to mark the
location of the old-time mneeting place and pleasure ground that
was called by the earliest inhabitants of the valley-"Addy
Beer's grove."
February, 1928.
5556            THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
CAPTAIN JOHN C. ANDERSON
On Hi-s One Hundredth BirthdayOLD SEWICKLEY TAVERNS
REMINISCENCES OF
CAPTAIN JOHN C. ANDERSONTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICIKLEY
The town, nevertheless, wTas never provincial in its attitude
and outlook. It took a wide and intelligent interest in the
affairs of the country and of the whole wTorld, and felt itself
part of them, vwhile preservingo its own integrity anid individuality.
Sewvickley (and this of course includes the immnediately
adjoinling boroughs, for the differences are only those of
municipal divisions) has always held the affection and justified
pride of its residents. Those who have read in The Herald Mr.
Nevin's descriptions of the Sewickley which was, but is nowpassing, will rejoice that they have been gathered into permanent form, and those to whom they now come as new will equally
find them delightful.
No one is better qualified than Mr. Nevin for this work.
Coming of a family which had so large a part in forming the
life and development of the Valley he is fully fitted by his own
tastes, education, ability, and interest to be its historianl and
biographer.
The history of the Sewickley Valley, the reminiscences of
the individual and forceful mnen and women who lived in it. are
well worth preserving, and Mr. Nevin has done this well. Those
who have tender associations with the Valley, its hills and its
streams, its homes and its activities, are under deep obligation
to Mr. Nevin. That this book has to him been a labor of love
but adds to its value, and has increased his understanding and
sympathetic handling of the varied material.
ALEXANDER C. ROBINSON.
4JAMES PARK'S TAVERNOLD SEWICKLEY TAVERNS
REMINISCEINCEIS OF CAPTAIN JOHN C. ANDERSON
IN HIiS ONE HUNDREDTH YEAR
No citizen of our Valley was better known or more honored
than Captain John C. Anderson, whose one hundredth birthday
was celebrated as a community event on January 14, 1928. The
followilng notes of a conversation with him will be of general
interest.
Passing over the dramatic story of his experiences as a'Fortyniner and as a pilot for twenty-five years on the Ohio and Cumberland rivers, his early recollections were called forth with
particllar reference to the hotels that flourished in this vicinity.
"Well," said the Captain, "they were called taverns in
those days. There was the one at Haysville. The first proprietor that 1 know anything about was John Anderson; no
relation to me at all. That was quite a little while ago. I
was only a small boy then. Anderson's daughter lmarried a
Captain Hays, a fine, big, military-looking man, and they kept
on with the hotel after him. It was on the upper side of
Beaver Road, just an old-fashioned country tavern, a two story
brick. They used to hold the township elections there. Ohio
towvnship ran from Big Sewickley up to Jack's Run and three
miles back in the country. Then there was the stone tavern
at the foot of Park's HIollow (Glen Mitchell), kept by James
Park; I knew Jim first rate. The road took a bend there and
ran in around wvhere the tavern stood. It has been straightened out since. Park had three sons, Jinm, Jalck and Wash, and
he had two daughters, one, Esther, married Rudisill; the other
was named Polly, I think. The old Beer tavern on the river
bank was before my time.WAY'S TAVERN, BELOW SAND HILLOLD SEWICKLEY TAVERNS
"The first hotel in the village stood about where Myers's
store is now, and Ague's before it. It was a frame building,
two stories, and pretty close to the sidewalk. It was kept by
a man named Weimer and after him by different people. Then
came Little's tavern on the other side of Beaver down at the
corner of Little Street, a pretty big two story frame house.
It was the biggest of all the taverns. The road widened out
there to fifty feet or more and the hotel stood back from
the street. The stage coaches would turn in and drive up to
the front door. I don't know how many people it accommodated. There was quite a big stable on the other side of Little
Street where the Community Kitchen now is, with a horse
trough in front of it. John Little was the proprietor. He had
three sons, John, Toni and Sam.
"Across from Little's and a short way further down the road
was Fife's tavernii, kept by John Fife. It was a brick building
of two stories, standing back from the street some and was
afterwards the Academy; it burned down and was re-built,
later. There was a stable just back of it.
"Down below Sand Hill was Way's tavern in the brick
house, one of the oldest houses here. Old Squire Jolin Way
built it, long before my time (1810). The last Way that kept
it was Nicholas who kept tavern there for awhile in my earliest
recollection. Several people ran it after Way quit. The next
after him was a man named Barnes; the last one was John
Oliver, no relation to the Sewickley Olivers. IHe afterwards
moved to Allegheny, on the Common.
"Next below Way's was the old stone tavern down by Little
Sewickley Creek they call Lark Inn now. I think Daniel Leet
built it. According to my first recollections it was kept by a
man named John Might. He died there. It was called The
Half Way House; half way between Pittsburgh and Beaver.
There was a big sign in front of it, "Half Way House," and
the name of the proprietor painted below. Robert Routh, an
Englishman, followed Might.; then Benjamin Pyle, a Quaker
from Columbiana, Ohio; then Samuel Ritehey, Pyle's son-inlaw, and he kept it as long as it was a hotel, along into the
61THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY'50's. He was keeping tavern wvhen I eame back from California."
"Captain," he was asked, "How do you accounlt for the
great number of taverns?"
"That was because there was immense traffic along the
road. Great strings of wagons, Conestogas, with six-horse
teams coming in from Ohio and Indiana and going to Philadelphia, I guess. Big, fine horses, with bells on them. And
there would be droves of eattle, and pigs, and turkeys too.
The hogs were the hardest to drive and the turkeys the easiest.
Men would run along beside them with a piece of red flannel
on a long pole and scare them so they would crowd together
and run. They would drive easier than cattle but when it
began to get dark you couldn't drive them. They would fly
up inito the trees and roost. I have seen the fence tops alL
along the road for miles covered with turkeys roosting.
"Did the taverns have large stables to accommodate the
teams  "
"No, the stables weren't very big. The horses were mostly
fed from the back of the wagon. The drivers carried their
feed with them or bought it at the hotels. At night they would
cover the horses with blankets if it was cold. The horses
didn't lie down, they just stood by the wagons and slept. You
would see six or eight covered wagons at the hotels in the
evenings with the horses unhitehed for the night. The drivers
paid twelve and a half cents for their meals and would sleep
on the bar-room floor, wrapped in their blankets. Every
tavern had its bar; they served all kinds of liquors, brandy,
beer, etc., but whisky was the main drink. A drink of whisky
cost three cents, two for a nickel, so you could treat a man
for a nickel, but they didn.'t have nickels then, just the little
silver five cent pieces. Old Captain Hays kept two brands of
whisky, one at five cents a glass and the other at ten cents.
He would ask you which yon wanted-and they were all the
same, came out of the same barrel."
62OLD SEWICKLEY TAVERNS            6a
THE HALF WAY HOUSE, NOW "LARK INN"THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
"Were there stage coaches on the road too?"
"Yes, there was a stage coach every day, one each way.
The only post office between Pittsburgh and Beaver was at Mr.
Shields's house, where Mrs. Williams lives now. Sewickley
Bottom  it was. The stage stopped mostly at Might's Half
Way House, but sometimes at Little's, and at Way's, too,
depending on the best terms they could get; for so mnany
horses, so many passengers. The passengers would get their
meals while the horses wTere changed. There would be maybe
six or eight passengers in the coach and there were right
comfortable rooms for them if they stopped over, but generally
they kept right on, slept in the coach, for it didn't stop over
night. The stage coach carried mail and would drive in and
out at Mr. Shields's to change the mail. Mr. Shields sometimes
would go to Philadelphlia on horseback and stop every night
at one of his hotels; he owTned a chain of taverns. He wouldn't
be very long gone, either.
"I guess that is about all that I rememnber about the old
taverns along the road. There were many of them and they
were busy places wMith the heavy traffic of those days."
August, 1928.
64EARLY SEWICKLEYEARIY SEWICKLEY
FURTHER REMINISCENCES OF CAPTAIN ANDERSON
CAPTAIN Anderson's chats about old times, whether recounting the colorful experiences of an exceptionally long and
eventful life or merely recalling early days in the Sewickley
Valley, had a flavor all their own. A lively sense of humor,
a cheerful philosophy and a marvelously clear memory were
his and to draw him out in conversation was a delight. The
following notes give merely the substance of one of his talks;
lnuch of their charm evaporates in reducing his reminiscences
to writing.
* *
Asked about the general appearance of Sewickley as he
first knew it, Captain Anderson said:
"Well, there weren't but a few stores along the street, mostly
vacant lots. At the corner of Broad and Beaver streets, where
the Peoples Bank is, old Robert Green had a general store. It
was the same building that Sylvester Ritechey kept store in before
the bank, and part of it is there yet. Then, Mrs. John Garrison
had a little store down where the picture house now is. Just a
little store it was, where she sold cider, candy, ginger cakes and
tobacco.
"John Garrison made bricks and had his brickyard about
where Bert Campney's stable is, across from Mrs. Garrison's
store. That is Locust PI'lace now. Quite a street. We used to
call it "Coffee Pot Alley."  Garrison used steers, oxen, to
tramp the mud for the bricks. I used to watch them when
I was a boy. It was Garrison that built the house on Hopkins
Street where Mrs. Gormly lived. He lived part of the time
over the store.FOREWORD
THE papers which make up this volume, with a few exceptions, appeared originally in the Sewickley Herald through
whose courtesy they are here republished. Aeknowledgment
is due to the trustees of the Presbyterian Chureh of Sewickley
for permission to reprint the Historical Sketch which was
included in the copyrighted volume issued in 191.4 on the
occasion of that chureh's seventy-fifth anniversary celebration.
In the preparation of that paper valuable manuscripts in the
possession of Mr. Gilbert A. Ilays were consulted as were
the following authorities:  Presbyterianism  in the Sewickley
Valley by Rev. James Allison, 1876; The Fiftieth Anniversary
Exercises of the Presbyterian Church, Sewickley, Pa., 1883;
The Olden T'ime in Sewickley by John Way, Jr.; Lights and
Shadows of Sewickley Life by Agnes L. Ellis, 1891; The Qttui
Vive, Sewickley, 1885; and Settlements and Land Titles of
Northwestern Pennsylvania, by Judge Agnew of Beaver, Pa.
Mr. Harrison D. Mason's charming volume of Memntories furnishled
the description of Syd Sawyer and the country store at Stoops
F erry, and thanks are due to Mrs. Francis M. Hutchinson and
to descendants of William  Stoops and Jacob Lashell for the
loan of famnily portraits.  An especially valuable source of
information was the marvelously clear memory for facts and
dates which Captain John C. Anderson drew upon in conversations about the old days.
Written at various times and without continuity the
several papers have been here arranged with some sequence,
some relation to the periods to Twhich they refer.  Certain
references here and there to matters contemporaneous with the
first appearance of the articles have been allowed to remain in
the present text, although those refereneesi are now out of date.68             THE VILLAGE OF SE WICKLEY
"His two boys went to school where I did, in the little
brick schoolhouse that Mllr. Shields built on the hill above
Beaver Road. The first teacher I went to was named Peacock.
After he went away'William  Reno taught, father of Elias
Reno; then John Way. He used to keep store at the corner
of Beaver and Chestnut.  Gaston's it was afterwards, now
Watson's. They called him John Senior. He was a cousin
of John Way, Jr. The teachers were paid by the patrons, by
subscription. That was before the free schools. I suppose
thirty-five or forty children attended. It was all Ohio Township then, before they struck off Sewickley. At Christmas
time we used to bar the teacher out and wouldn't let him in
till he would sign a paper for a treat, and we would bring it
up to Mrs. Garrison's store and get cider and gingerbread
and apples for Christmas. They'd all go pretty good right
now, wouldn't they?
"There was a little half-way kind of a store next to
Weimer's tavern, about where I-legner's now is, but Bob
Green's was the principal store and there wasn't much else
MRS. GARRISON'S STOREEARLY SEWICKLEY              69
THE LITTLE BRICK SCHOOI, HOUSE
but open lots. It wasn't much of a place. They called it'Fifetown' after John Fife who kept the tav.ern; had called
it'Dogtown' and down on the river where the Hoeys lived,
they called it'Tloey's Point.'  I remember it was called
"Oppotongo" too; Indian name, I guess; but the people
wouldn't stand for that and named it Sewickl.eyville. Right
up here where I live (Centennial, east of Broad Street) it was
all in big oak timber; hadn't been cleared out yet; it all
belonged to Samuel Peebles who bought out the Beer family
and moved into the Beer house.  His brother Robert built
further up, to-ward the hill, the frame house afterwards the
home of Robert H. Davis.THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
"And I remember the chestnut grove dowvn where the
railroad now is. This w-as all eovered with trees about here.
You turned off the road at McElwain's corner (Beaver and
Division Streets) and went right through woods dowin to the
graveyard. You know wrhere that was. The Iligh School is
there now.
"There wasn't much of anything on Beaver Street east of
Division Street; just open lots. That all belonged to Dr.
Hopkinis; he bought it fromn the Peebles. The little store kept
by James Porter and his wife came along later. It stood a
little bit east of Chestnut Street.
"Across from Little's tavern on Beaver Street, where the
Baptist Church is, was a vacant lot where Dr. John Dickson
built his home.  Old Dr. Dickson was a great surgeon and
practiced in Pittsburgh before he caine down here. I remember
him very wrell. Ie wTas one of a lot of witnesses that wvere
subpoenaed to testify to the value of land in the MIeKean
tract, 2400 acres, eight farmrs of 300 acres each, where the
Country Club is and all those homes. I wTas subpoenaed with
the rest and so was my brother Dave, WAVade Hampton, the
lawyer in charge of the proceedings, called on Dr. Dickson
first and asked himl if he knew the MeKean tract, was familiar
with it.'Yes,' said the doctor,'I know it well. I have practiced medicine over it in the daytime and hunted'coons over
it at night and it is worth $S.00 an acre.''Why,' said Mr. IHampton,'the timber on it is worth more than that.''No, it isn't,'
said Dr. Dickson,'Old John Mc'lherson cut the best timber off it
to make kegs and Jim Brooks made baskets of the younger
timber. It all went long ago.' And he stuck to his story. Eight
dollars. I was called next and added two dollars, said it was
worth ten dollars an acre. You couldn't buy it for that now."
"When did you come to SewTickley to live, Captain?"
"When I was married, in 1857. I was on the river then.
I bought the house on Beaver Street where I lived for eight
years, when I sold it to William Stoops, 1865. The lot fronted
sixty feet on Beaver Street and ran clear back to what is now
Centennial.  The brick house on the lot was built by Jock
70EARLY SEWICKLEY
Dickson, brother of Robert Dickson. His name was John but
we called him'Jock' as he was a kind of a horse jockey. The
place had passed out of his hands to David Shields, grandfather
of Captain Dave, and from him to John Thompson who sold it
to me. Dr. Chantler was pretty nearly the last one to live in
it; it was torn down a few years ago and a new building put
up where George McDonald lives, No. 537 Beaver Street.
"Next door to me, as you go towards Broad Street, was
another brick house that old Williamn Miller built, we called
him'Billie' Miller, father of John ililer who keeps the shoe
store. The year after I moved in he built the story and a half
brick house at the corner of Broad and Hill and moved up
there. He rented the house next to me to Dr. Alex. Black,
father of Mrs. Snyder and Mrs. Adair and Sam Black, the real
estate man. There was a big family of them and I knew them
all well; neighbors to me for seven years. The Blacks lived
there till 1864, then they moved to their house on Wylie Street
in Pittsburgh.
"Next to Dr. Black was old Dr. Willianm  Woods, father
of Charlie Woods who afterwards ran the drug store at the
corner of Broad and Beaver. Dr. Woods was a tall fine-looking
old man and wore a long white beard. There was an'upping
block' in front of his house, a white oak stumnp with a step
sawed into it so that the women who came to see the Doctor
could get on and off their horses. Next to Dr. Woods was
the brick house and store of Squire George H. Starr, and it's
there yet, directly opposite the end of Division Street. Squire
Starr and his wife kept the store. She wvas a Miss Hooker, one
of the teachers in the Edgeworth Seminary. Mrs. Olver (not
Oliver, Olver) brought her and another teacher, Miss Johnston,
with her when she moved her school here from Braddock.
They were both pretty well up in years but they got married.
Miss Johnston married old Jimmie Olver after Mrs. Olver died.
They were married in the Daniel. Nevin house in Edgeworth
and lived there; Daniel Nevin moved over to the Seminary and
ran it.-Did you know how Mrs. Olver happened to move her
school down here?
71THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
"Susan and Hannah Shields, two of David Shields's daughters, went to the Seminary while it was in Braddoek and Mrs.
Olver visited them  at their home down by Little Sewickley
Creek. She liked the place so m-uch she moved her school
here.  Susan married Isaac Cook, Mrs. Martha Williams's
father (Mrs. L. Halsey Williams). I knew him well. He was
a preacher down at Beaver and followed Rev. Andrew
B. Quay, father of Senator Matthew Stanley Quay. Hannah
never married.  Eliza was the oldest; she married John K.
Wilson; then there was Rebecca; she never married either.
"The house next to mne, to the east, wTas of brick too. Mrs.
Rinehart lived there; widow of Squire Rinehart, an aldermanl
in Pittsburgh. Trhe house is still there, next to the A.  P. store.
Her son Joe married Lizzie Allison, daughter of Dr. Allison and
his first wife, my sister Mlary. Joe was a railroad mian, afterwards was president of the Santa Fe railroad. The next house,
brick too, was Jamnes Ellis's, and on the corner of Straight street
John McLaughlin's, where Wat MNarlatt lives. Mrs. Nicols, who
lived there, was a daughter of John McLaughlin.
"All of that row of houses were brick. Squire Starr's stood
near the street, for it wTas a store. All of the rest stood back
a piece and there was a fence all along in front with gates;
pretty nice looking street. On the other side was Rev. Andrew
Black who lived in the brick house still standing at the
corner of Logan Street. I don't know who built it. Yes, I
used to hear Logan called'Snuffgulligan' but I don't know
where they got that namne. Andrew Black was Dr. Alex.
Blaek's brother, a Methodist preacher but he had to quit
preaching on account of his chest. His wife was a Roseburg,
daughter of Captain  Roseburg who lived where the E. Bo
Taylor family now lives, at Roseburg Station, that was just
above Quaker Valley. AMrs. Andrew Black, or Mrs. Martha
Bacek as she was called when she was a widow, built the big
frame house on Beaver Street below Grant Street that was
afterwards the Bevington House. It rwas burned down. She
was a temperance reformer and that was long before prohibition. She and her son Wat used to march around trying to
72EARLY SEWICKLEY
close up saloons, breaking bottles, etc. Her daughter Mary
married Dr. Woods's oldest son Will. He died and left her
with two boys, Billy and Wat who died young. Dr. Woods's
other son, Charles, married Col. MeKelvy's daughter Julia.
"There were some brick houses on Beaver Street, across
fromn the row I lived in, built before I came there. A double
house just across from me; Squire Rudisill lived in one end
of it. And a brick house on each side of it. The one next to
Watson's store is still there. It was rented to different families.
Dr. MeCready's brother, a Methodist preacher, was living
there when I came.
"Thei on the corner of Chestnut Street was the fralme house
and store built by John Way, Sr., cousin of John Way, Jr.
He lived there and kept store. One of his daughters married
Sam Gaston and it was Gaston's store later; now it's Watson's.
Across Chestnut from this was a frame house where four Miller
boys lived; all carpenters; no relation to the other Millers.
When they widened Chestnut this house was moved back to
Washington Street.
"I guess that is about all I can tell you about Beaver Street
when I lived there."
August, 1928.
73Xii.~~SEWICKLEY RIVERMENTHE " DICK FULTON " PIIOT HOUSE
Now overlooks the river from Captain Fred Dippold's former homeSEWICKLEY RIVERMI:EN
AS REMEMBERED BY CAPTAIN ANDERSON
SEWICKLEY has long been favored as the home of railroad
men, both high officials and employees. There was a time when
it was equally popular with rivermen-steamboat captains, pilots
and mates. Captain John C. Anderson in a recent chat about
the river drew on his memories of past years and, in substance,
related the following:
"There used to be a lot of steamboat captains and river
pilots living in and about Sewickley. Going back to my earliest
recollections, there was Jim Smith. He lived down at Deadman's Island and wTe called him'Deadman Jim  Smith'; a
well-known pilot; pretty rough he wvas, the bully of the river.
He married Polly Bean, a granddaughter of Major Leet. Her
mother was Polly, too, Polly Leet, before she married Bean.
She was a sister of Eliza Leet who married Mr. Shields.
Jim Smith and Jim Park, who kept the tavern up at Park's
Ihollow, were the only ones who ever called Mr. Shields by
his first name. Jim Smith would come into the post office at
Sewickley Bottom--Mr. Shields was the postmaster there-and
call out, "Hello, Uncle Dave!"  He built the one-story stone
house that stood on what is now the corner of Academy and
Beaver Street. He lived and died there. I just don't remember when he built it. Little "Davy," the dwarf, lived in it
afterwards-I suppose you remember him?
"There were four McDonalds, all pilots and captains. The
oldest, John V. MceDonald, lived at Beaver; Dave McDonald
came next. He married Dr. Woods's daughter Mary. His first
wife was a Dowds. Then there was Marshall McDonald, generally called "Marsh."  He lived at the upper end of the
borough in what is now Glen Osborne (the Henry W. Davis
house, now the home of Horace F. Baker.-F. T. N.). And
last, there was Joe McDonald, all four pilots and captains6              THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
In presuming to embody these random notes and memories
in book form the thought has been to preserve something o'f
the village atmosphere, something of the simplicity that
marked our lives and recreations in a day now fast receding
into the once-upon-a-ti-me.  It is hoped that older readers
may have pleasant memories revived and that an occasional
younger one may catch a glimpse of the Village of Sewickley
as it wTas in a quieter and less strenuous age.
FRANKLIN TAYLOR NEVIN.
Sewickley, Pa., September, 1929.
FRANKLIN  TAYLOR NEVINTHE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
and their father, John McDonald, was a pilot before them.
He lived opposite Economy. The fifth son, J. Sharp McDonald,
wasn't a river man. The McDonald boats, I don't remember
their names, were tow-boats; carried coal from Pittsburgh to
Louisville. Fred Dippold, a captain and pilot, lived on the
river bank up by  Glen  Osborne.  His tow-boat Tigress
belonged to his father, John Dippold. Fred was a good pilot
and knew the river. David Gilmore, I knew him well. You
remember where he lived, down by the railroad (now the site
of the High School.-F. T. N.). He was captain of a packet in
the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati trade; what was known as "transient" trade; go anywhere-somnetimes to St. Louis, sometimes to New Orleans. George W. Cochran who lived next to
Captain Gilmore (now the horne of Don Rose, Esq.) was first
a clerk with his brother Robert and later rose to be captain.
He ran on packet boats, too. I don't recall their names. Jehu
P. Smith was another pilot and captain. He lived on Bank
Street, corner of Grabham. He was a tow-boat man. William
Stoops who bought my house on Beaver Street in 1865 was
captain of several boats at different times; carried both passengers and freight to St. Louis, sometimes to New Orleans. His
last boat was the J. S. Printgle, the one I told you of that had
double engines and two stern wheels. She colld stop and turn
right around on herself. Captain hWilliam Cunningham I
didn't know. He was Captain George Cunningham's father,
a tow-boat captain. James Porter was another. First clerk,
then captain of the Argosy, a packet in the transient trade;
ran anywhere. That was before the war. He first clerked
with Robert Cochran, Captain George Coehran's brother.
"James Logan and George Rowley wvere two fine pilots but
they didn't live here. Mr. Logan was Mrs. Fred Dippold's
father. They vouched for me when I went up to get my pilot's
license. I got it in three years because I studied the river. I
was very ambitious to be a pilot and I worked and studied the
river when some of the other young fellows just had a good
time. I'll admnit that I had special opportunities. I would
run with Mr. Logan and handle the boat on his watch under
78SEWICKLEY RIVERMEN
his direction. He'd let me take her down the riffles and make
landings; so I got my license in three years. There were no
lights then to steer by. You depended on the lead.  Two
leadsmen stood near the bow, one to the starboard, one to
port. They'd sing out'Six feet,''Seven feet,' like that, and
at ten feet,'MAlark twain.' Then if it got over ten feet'Mark
under water twain;''Mark three' was twelve feet. This was all
below Louisville. Didn't use the leads above that. The leadsmen
could tell the dcepth at night by the feel of the leads as well as by
day.'MAark Twain'-that's the name Clemens took for his
writings. I met Clemens several times, but I didn't know him
well. He learned the river under old Bixby, a Mississippi river
pilot. Clemens says to him after making a landing,'How do,
you know where to land in the dark? I can't see any landing.'
B1ixby says,'I'll make a pilot out of ye or I'll kill ye.'
"The sand bars shifted all the time. When the leadsman
would call'Five feet'-' Four feet,' etc., then you'd stop her
and back out.'That's not the channel!' You learned to
know the landmarks on shore. Coming down from Pittsburgh
there was Merriman's Riffle, below Lowrie's Run. When you
got directly opposite the white church on Neville Island you
pulled her sharp over to the south bank. That's where the
channel was. Pilots could see that church at night, if nobody
else could. Then when you could see light through a gap in
the hills on the right bank you steered through White's Riffle
and so down through the Trap (opposite Glen Osborne stationi).
That's the way you had to know the river.
"I used to work on the farm at my home in Leetsdalethe house is still there. Riter  Conley own it now-or did.
I saw the towboats and packets go by and wished that some
day I eould be a pilot. Then when the gold excitement broke
out, I went to California-in 1849. When I came back i 1851
my mother asked Captain Samn Young to give me a job on
one of his boats to keep nme from going back to the gold mines.
He had built the J. 3M. Harris, named for Captain Htarris (lhe
married a Shouse). Captain Young sold me an interest in her
that I paid for with money I'd brought back from California
79THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
and I shipped with her as second mate. That was my first
boat. Afterwards I was first mate. She ran up the Chattahoochee river carrying cotton to New Orleans; there she loaded
up with sugar for Pittsburgh and would lie up at Shousetown
for the winter. We sold her down in Arkansas. My second
boat was the Allian)?ce; I was part owner and mate on her.
After one year we sold her, too, and Captain Young built the
Rescue. I had an interest in her and in a lot of boats after
her. I don't remember all of their names. It was on the
Rescue that I learned to pilot, steering her under Mr. Loganl's
direction during his watch. We sold her after one season.
Captain Young's next boat was the Challenge. That wvas the
packet with the double engines and double paddle wheels.
I piloted her. Then came the Progress and the Reliance, both
packets in the transient trade Cincinnati, Nashville, St. Louis.
Then the Untdine, Captain John Woodburn. He lived in Eddgeworth. His two brothers were steamboat captains, too. Jim
built the house in Beaver Street (No. 322 Beaver) where he
lived. Ben lived in Shousetown. I'll tell you about Ben. He
had made his pile at steamboating, made a lot of money, then
he quit and went to studying to be a preacher. From steamboating to preaching! He studied for a United Presbyterianr
but when he got through they said to him,'You're more of a
Baptist than a U. P.' So he turned Baptist and preached in
the old Baptist Church on Sandusky Street, Allegheny, till
he died.  After the Undine came the Kenton.  Maybe the
H. H. Conn was before that. I had a part interest in all the
boats Captain Young built beginning with the J. iM. Harris.
The J. H. Conn was namedc after a steamboat agent at St. Louis,
a packet.  She was burned afterwards at the Pittsburgh
wharf in 1858. Those that had steam up backed out in the
stream; the rest were burned up.
"I had an interest in a lot of boats afterwards. In war
time I was captain and pilot on the Cumberland river. Ran
the Alpha; had an interest in her, too. We sold her to the
government. Quartermaster Stevens bought her at Nashville.
We were carrying stuff for Sherman's army, from March to
SOS.EWICKLEY RIVERMEN
August, 1864, everything; soldiers, horses, cattle and fixed
ammnunition.  We were mighty glad when we got all that
amnmunition unloaded!  We took on stuff at Smith's Landing,
sixty miles above Cairo and carried it two hundred miles to
Nashville; that was a mnilitary post.  Then there was the
Kate B. Porter, in war time; Captain Joe Porter, son of Ezra
Porter of Shousetown.  I went as her pilot the first trip,
Pittsburgh to Nashville. From there they sent me to Burnside's Poiiit, 470 miles abov7e Nashville on the Cumberland
river. Burnside's Point was being evacuated by the Union
troops. They took out everything, carried away what they
could and burned the rest, then marched the soldiers off to
join Shermnan. We were 435 miles outside the Union lines.
That was when we had boiler iron around the place where
the pilot stood to protect against bullets. We had a gunboat
along to make it safe. Burnside's Point is on the south fork
of the Cumberland river and to get there we went out of
Tennessee through Kentucky and into Virginia.
"After this I was on the Glide, built by my brother William,
who lived in Shousetown. We sold her to the government
and built Glide No. 2 and Glide No. 3; she was sunk in the
Red River. Then came the R. C. Gray, named for Captain
Gray. That was after the war was over. I had an interest in
the Ezra Porter, too; built by Captain Joe Porter and named
for his father. We lost a lot of money on that boat. That's
all I can remember the namies of just now. Maybe some more
will come to me. There were Captain Sam Young's boats, and
Ezra's-Ezra Young is my nephew. The river was a busy life
in those days, and Shousetown and Sewickley saw a lot of it.
September, 1928.
One week after the date of this interview Captain Anderson
died, October 6, 1928, aged one hundred years, eight months
and twenty-two days. It was intended that he should check up
certain names and dates in the first draft of this paper, but the
opportunity slipped by and was lost.
-81SEWICKLEY RAILROAD MEN84           THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
GEN. GEORGE W. C'ASSSEWICKLEY RAILROAD MEN
SOME HIGIT OFFICIALS WHO ONCE LIVED HERE
THrl- Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad Company was incorporated by acts of the Ohio and Pennsylvania legislatures, passed
the 24th February and 11th April, 1848, by which, and by an
Act of Assembly of Pennsylvania, passed 14th December, 1854,
this road was to be connected with the Pennsylvania Railroad in
the city of Pittsburgh by a bridge across the Allegheny river.
It ran its first passenger train through Sewickleyville on July
4th, 1851, a gala day in the Valley. On August 1st, 1856, there
was effected a consolidation wvith the Ohio and Indiana and the
Fort WVayne and Chicago Railroad, the three lines jointly connecting Pittsburgh and Chicago. This consolidated line was
named the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad. This
company became financially involved and the road was sold
under foreclosure on October 24, 1861, to agents of a new company which was formed February 26, 1862, under the name
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway Company.
In 1890 the western lines centering in Pittsburgh were
absorbed by the Pennsylvania Railroad and were designated the
"Pennsylvania Linies West."  Since 1'920, when these railroads
came back from  F1ederal administration, which had been in
effect during the W orld War, they have been incorporated in
the Pennsylvania System, of which they now constitute the
Central Division.
From  the earliest days of the railroad's history Sewickley
has been the place of residence chosen by many of its officials,
in fact, a very remarkable number have lived here in the past
and there are today as many as ten or more prominent railroad
men who make the Sewickley valley their home. Limiting this
historical foot-note to the past, and making mention only of
those officials who formerly lived here, we go back to George W.
Cass, who heads the list.THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
General Cass was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1810.
Jlie lived for sone years in Detroit as a member of the family of
his uncle, General Lewis Cass, who was successively Secretary
of War in Presidenlt Jackson's cabinet, United States Senator
from MAichigan, Secretary of State under Buchanan and United
States envoy to France.  George W. Cass was graduated from
West Point in 1832 with high honors, but resigned the service in
1836 to take up the engineering profession. He became actively
interested in the Adams Express Company and in 1854 was
elected president of all the eonsolidated Adams Express lines;
between Boston and St. Louis. In 1856 he was living in Brownsville, Pa., and in that year he removed to Pittsburgh where he
was elected president of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad,
succeeding General William. Robinson of Allegheny. He was, in
the same year, made the first president of the consolidated Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad (afterwards "Railway") and held the position until 1881, when he resigned the
office but continued as director and trustee down to the time of
his death. In 1.867 he became largely interested in the Northern.I'acifie Railroad and in 1872 he succeeded to its presidency. In
1.875 the Federal court appointed him receiver of the road. After
resigning the presidency of the "Fort Wayne" he retired from
active railroading and spent his latter years in New  York
City, where he was senior warden of Christ's Church, and where
he died March 21, 1.888.
It is the period between 1863 and 1873 that especially interests us, for it was then that he lived in what is now the borough
of Osborn. tIe and his wife bought land in Ohio township, as
it was then called, adjoining property of Judge Warner, lying
on both sides of the Beaver Road and extending down to the
railroad. Here General Cass built a large and beautiful mansion
which he named "Cassella," a composite of his wife's name and
his own. With its lovely garden, its orchard and vineyard, itb
graded grass-covered slopes and stately forest trees, it was by far
the most beautiful and attractive home in the Valley.  This
house in recent years was the Sewickley home of Mrs. MAlary
Roberts Rinehart.  Ilere Mr. and MlIrs. Cass lived until 1873
86SEWICKLEY RAILROAD MEN
and here their daughter Sophia L. Cass was married to Francis
M. Hutchinson in the year 1866. MAr. Hutchinson had entered
the service of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago in 1862,
and in 1865 he was appointed Secretary and Treasurer, which
positions he helCd until his death, which occurred in 1882. He
lived in Sewickley throughout his married life, first in a brick
house on Chestnut Street that formerly stood next to the John
MeMillen house, and from December, 1866, in the house at the
corner of Broad and Frederick where, it is a pleasure to note,
Mrs. Hutchinson still lives; the house to which she came so soon
after her marriage.
James D. Layng served as Assistant General Superintendent
under J. N. M1cCullough, General Superintendent, during the
presidency of General Cass. Later he became General Manager
of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, holding
that position until 1881.  Hie came from Steubenville, Ohio, in
1873 and took up his residence on the terrace fronting upon
the railroad, at Edgeworth. With him came his brother-in-law,
Basil WA. Doyle, as his assistant, who also was long a resident
of Edgeworth and Sewickley.  In 1881 Mr. Layng went to
Chicago where he was made General Manager of the Chicago
and Northwestern, \Mr. Doyle going with him as Secretary. In
1884 he removed to New York where he became president of the
West Shore railroad and a member of the Vanderbilt Board.
During his connection with the "Fort Wayne," as its General
Manager, George S. Griscom, also an Edgeworth resident, was
Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division, in which position he
was followed by Arthur B. Starr, whose home was on Linden
and later on Academy Avenue.
Mr. Layng's successor as General Manager was William A.
Baldwin. who came here from Williamsport, Pa., in 1881, making
his home at the corner of Shields and Nursery Lanes in the house
which later was the residenee of Mr. J. J. Brooks. Here he
lived until 1888 when he removed to Rochester, N. Y., where, he
was connected wTith the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad until 1900. In that year he returned to Pittsburgh to
87CONTENTS
Sewickley: A Historical Sketch                                11
Addy Beer's Grove       -    -    -    -    -    -            53
Old Sewickley Taverns    -    -    -    -    -    -    -      59
Early Sewickley    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    - 67
Sewickley Rivermen  -   -    -    -    -    -    -    -       77
Sewickley Railroad Mfen      -    -    -    -    -   -    -  85
The Passing of Two Landmarks    -    -    -    -    -         95
A Ferry Tale  -   -    -    -   -    -    -    -    -    - 101
Harbaugh','s Pondcl    -   -    -    -   -    -    -   -    111
On the Way to School   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    - 117
The Friendly Rivrer   -    -    -    -    -   -    -    -    123
The Belva Dears   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    - 131
MeDonald's Grove    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    137
The Sewickley Athletic Association    -    -    -    -    - 143
Wiheii Bicycling was a Sport   -    -    -    -    -    -    151
Rock Spring and the Camel Back -    -    -    -    -    - 161
When Coxey Came    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    167
Sewiekley's Colored Pioneers      -    -    -    -   -    - 175
Pittsburgh to Bedford by Carriage  -    -    -    -    -    193
Loretto and Aleppo       -   -    -    -    -    -   -    - 203
Pittsburgh in 1815   -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    211THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
accept the presidency of the Cleveland and MAIarietta R. R. which
office he held until 1905, when he was retired. From 1900 until
his death in 1911 he lived on Maple Lane, Sewickley.
Following  IIr. Baldwin as General Manager of the "Fort
Wayne," came Leonor F. Loree, who is today perhaps the most
prominent railroad man in the United States. To enumerate
the various offices that he has held, even to list all that he
occupies today, would unduly prolong the present paper. Suffice
it to say that he is now President and Chairman of the Executive
Committee of the Delaware and Hudson Company, also president
and director of thirty-four companies controlled by or affiliated
with it. Hlie has recently been mnuch in the public eye by reason
of his efforts to secure control of a number of roads whereby
another route would be opened from the West into the metropolitan area and a powerful competitor created for the New York
Central and the Pennsylvania systems. During the World War
he held high governmental posts. Mr. Loree while with the
Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago as General Manager lived
at Shields, on the terrace overlooking the railroad, in the house
which later was the home of Mrs. Agnes Graff. From there
he moved to the former A. B. Starr house on Linden Avenue,
next to the Frank Semple residence.
Joseph NAT. Rinehart, a brother of C. Stanley Rinehart, the
artist, several of whose paintings hang in the permanent collection of the Carnegie Art Gallery, was another Sewickley railroad man wTho went far in his chosen career. He. began as a car
checker in the Allegheny Valley railroad yards; later rose to be
Auditor, then, after a period with the Baltimore  Ohio Railroad,
he secured a position wTith the Santa. Fe railroad and in the'Nineties became its president. His first Sewickley home was on
Beaver Street, about opposite the end of Chestnut, where he
lived with his mother, the widow of'Squire Rinehart, a Pittsburgh alderman. Joseph Rinehart married Elizabeth Allison,
daughter of Rev. James Allison and Mary Allison, his first wife,
who was a sister of Captain John C. Anderson. Mr. and MArs.
Rinehart miade their home at the corner of Walnut and Elwick
Streets. If you had asked any Sewickley boy in the late'Seven88SEWICKLEY RAILROAD MEN
ties or the'Eighties about "Joe" Rinehart you would have
learned that he was famed as a baseball player, and especially
known as an immaculate dresser. Whether in street clothes or
inr hunting costume he was always sartorially correct.
Sidney B. Liggett in 1871 was a clerk in the office of the
Auditor of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway.
In 1879 he became Assistant Secretary, and in 1881 Secretary of
the Pennsylvania Lines West, which position he held until his
death in 1915.  In 1877 he came to Sewickley and made his
home on Chestnut Street below Thorn.
As Signal Engineer of the Lines West, William McC. Grafton
served for many years down to the time of his death which
occurred in 1913. FIe lived on Beaver Street below Blackburn,
later removing to the former Dr. Allison residence at the southwest corner of Beaver and Academy Avenue.
H. L. I-Toward Blair, Assistant General Manager of the
IJines West, was a life-long resident of the Valley, living on
Bank Street near Little. Mr. Blair died in 1928.
Charles Watts, whose home fronted on the railroad near
Edgeworth station, was General Superintendent of Passenger
Transportation.  J. C. Bland, Chief Engineer of Bridge and
Buildings, lived on Thorn Street and, later, in Edgeworth.
Upon his retirement in 1923 he was succeeded by James F.
Leonard, son-in-law of Robert Trimble.  Their home overlooks
the recently abandoned site of Glen Osborne station.  Mir.
Trimble was retired only a few months ago as Chief Engineer of
the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburgh and, since 1920,
Assistant Chief Engineer of the entire Pennsylvania System.
J. Morton Hall, who lived at the corner of Bank and Walnut
Streets, in the house which is now the residence of Mrs. Melehior
Chaplin. was General Passenger Agent of the Allegheny Valley
Railroad, and afterwards Assistant to Vice President King of
the Baltimore and Ohio. He died more than twenty years ago.
Mr. Charles B. Price, brother-in-law of Mrs. Edward A.
Woods, was also for many years connected with the Allegheny
Valley, first as Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division, later
as Genera] Manager of the road, which position he resigned in
89THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
1902. For over twenty years he lived in Sewickley; his death
ocecurred in 1923.
Rudolf Lipp had a long career as a railroad man, his position upon retirement being that of Assistant to the General
Passenger Agent, Pennsylvania Lines. He and his wife, who
is a daughter of Rev. Robert Hopkins, Sewickley's first burgess,
live at No. 316 Broad Street. Sewickley has been their home
for more years than it is possible to state.
GCeorge L. Potter, who formerly lived at the corner of Nevin
Avenue and Beaver Street, was, while a resident here, General
Manager of the Pennsylvania Lines. About 1901 he moved to
Baltimore, where he held the office of Vice President of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He died about five years ago.
Dr. Samuel C. Scott, Assistant to the President of the Penn-,sylvania Railroad, lived on Thorn Street below Grant, for many
years a respected member of our community. Two officials of
the P. C. C.  St. LT. Railway will be readily recalled to memory:
John H. Dury, Paymaster, whose home was on Maple Lane, and
Michael C. Spencer, Cashier of that road, who lived on Walnut
Street below the Fort Wayne tracks.
J. Judson Brooks, who succeeded his brother J. Twing Brooks
as General Counsel for the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago
Railway, and later for the Lines West, lived at the corner of
Shields and Nu-rsery Lanes. Upon his death, in 1914, he was
succeeded by Judge C. B. Heiserman, who came from Urbana,
Ohio, where he was on the Circuit Court bench. It was with
regret that we saw hiLm transferred to Philadelphia, in 1921,
although hlie wias to be congratulated upon his rise to the office of
Vice President in charge of Legal Affairs. His home while a
resident here was for a time in the building which is now the
Dorian Club, on Broad Street, and later on Linden Place.
Of Vice Presidents it would appear that Sewickley has had
more than a fair share. There was Edward B. Taylor, Second
Vice President in charge of Finance, whose home on Linden
Avenue overlooks the railroad at what, in the old days, was
Roseburg station. Mr. Taylor was one of our foremost citizens;
public spirited, highly esteemed. HIe will long be remembered
90SEWICKLEY RAILROAD MEN
especially for his enthusiastic interest in the borough water
system, as head of the Water Commission. He died November
8th, 1922.
D. T. iVicCabe, who retired a few years ago and now lives in
Atlantic City, was Fourth Vice President in charge of Traffic of
the Lines West. His home was for many years on Thorn Street
at the corner of Little, now the Nelson Van Kleeck residence.
T. H. B. McKnight upon his retirement this year had completed more than fifty years in the service, rising from the position of messenger to that of Treasurer of the Lines West, and
since 1920, Treasurer of the Central, Northwestern and Southwestern Regions of the Pennsylvania System, of which the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburgh are now a part. Altogether,
he held the position of T'reasurer for thirty-eight years and, a
short time before the end of his service, he was promoted to the
Vice Presidency of the Pennsylvania Company and of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway. Mr MeKnight
was a lifelong resident of Sewickley. His home was for many
years on Thorn Street below  Grant and, more recently, on
Centennial Avenue, at Pine Road. He has within the past few
months moved to Washington, D. C.
George L. Peck, Fifth VArice President of the lines West, and
later, Vice President in charge of Personnel, with headquarters
in Philadelphia, was one of our valued citizens and an elder in
the Presbyterian church. His home until 1920 was in Sewickley.
Of our younger men who have made their mark in railroad
circles, and, in the course of promotion have been lost to Sewickley, W. Miller Wardrop, son of Mr. Robert Wardrop, has had
perhaps the most noteworthy career. Rising through successive
promotions he has recently been transferred from Wilmington,
Delaware, wThere he was General Superintendent of the Southern
Division, to D)etroit where he now holds the position of Assistant
Vice President.
Charles H. Matthews when living on Thorn Street, below
Grant, was General Passenger Agent. Recently he was transferred to Philadelphia and made General Traffic Manager in
91THE VILLAGE OF SEWICKLEY
charge of Passenger Traffic and has been one of the prime
movers in the Pennsylvania Railroad's aviation branch, the
Transcontinental Air Transport, Inc.
Two Sewickley boys who progressed side by side in the
railroad service should be mentioned, A. Howard Shaw and C.
Curtis Blair. The former is now in New York City as General
Traffic Manager, while the latter when he resigned a few years
ago, was Assistant Treasurer of the Western Region, with offices
in Chicago.
While the scope of the present paper was to be limited to
officials now deceased, or who have removed from the Valley, an
exception was made in referring to Robert Trimble, who is
retired but still lives with us. This sketchy article should not
end without another infraction of the rule, in mention of John
J. Koch, Assistant to the General Traffic Manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad System, who completed his fiftieth year of railroad service within the present year. Mr. Koch, a valued citizen
of our borough, has long made his home on Thorn Street west
of Little.
To include a biographical note concerning each of the ten
or a dozen officials who now live in Sewickley; to follow this
with mere mention of the twenty or more who lived here but
a short time and were transferred elsewhere; to add to these a
list of the numerous holders of minor positions, would be to
extend this paper beyond reasonable limits.
Glance back over this partial catalogue of men high in the
service of the Pennsylvania Railroad and of its earlier constituent companies, and you must be impressed with the fact
that since the middle of the last century Sewickley has been, in
a certain sense, pre-eminently a railroad town.
November, 1929.
92THE PASSING OF TWO LANDMARKSTHE OSBURN HOMESTEADTHE PASSING OF' TWO LANDMARKS
A HISTORY OF THE GILMORE AND OSBURN HOUSES
IN May, 1925, ground was broken for the High School
Building at the corner of Peebles and Graham Streets and
the work was thereafter pushed to an early completion, in the
course of which twvo well-known landmarks, the Gilmore and
Osburn dwellings, were necessarily swept away. The history
of these hoLuses is not without interest and is worthy of preservation.
Away back in 1825 "Judge" GriswNold E. Warner, a rich
lumber merchant of Olean, N. Y., came to Pittsburgh and made
his home in Alleghenytown where he lived until 1858. He had
served with a New York regiment in the War of 1812. Real
estate seems to have been his hobby, for between the years
1831 and 1873 the records show him to have made upwards
of eighty purchases of land in the county and between four
hundred and five hundred sales. Among his many land ventures one especially appealed to his daughter Henrietta, who
longed for a home in the country. Accordingly, in the year
1858, Judge Warner and his family moved down to Sewickley
and occupied the house which he had bought in May of that
year from Hon. David N. White, publisher of the Pittsburgh
Daily Gazette, who had built it about the year 1854.  This
house stood in a five acre tract fronting on the railroad,
extending back to Harbaugh Street and along Harbaugh Street
to Graham Street. Thus it lay on both sides of the line dividing Daniel Leet's District from that of Nathaniel Breading
(or Braden), two of the Deputy Surveyors who laid out the
Depreciation Ljands in this part of the state. That dividing
line, where it passes through our borough is marked byTHE GILMORE HOUSETHE PASSING OF TWO LANDMARKS
Division Street, which runs due north and south (or nearly
so). The portion of D. N. White's (and his wife, Dianna's),
property which lay to the west of the line and in Leet's
District was a bit of Section No. 1, called "Loretto," while
that to the east of the line was in "Aleppo'" farm, No. 126,
of Braden's survey. The title to the former portion came to
"Deacon" White, as he was called, from Sophia Harbaugh,
a daughter of the Rev. Charles Thorn, and was a part of the
original Hoey tract, while the eastern portion was deeded to
White by the Rev. Robert Hopkins, having come down from
the Peebles and Beer line. Back in 1.810, a cholera scare had
swept over Pittsburgh, and the then owners of the adjoining farms, "Aleppo" and "Loretto," set aside an acre upon
their dividing line to be used as a burying ground. This one
acre tract was included in the conveyance by D. N. White
to Judge Warner but, as the deed recites, "only so far as he
might be able to give title thereto."  It was not until its abandonment as a burying ground and the removal of the bodies to
the Sewickley Cemetery in 1860, that full title was vested in the
owner.
It was in the summer of 1850, while visiting in Virginia,
at Shannondale Springs with her brother James, that Henrietta Warner met Franklin Osburn, a young Virginian, who
fell in love with and shortly thereafter married her. Coming
north the young couLple lived for a number of years in what
is now Osborn Borough, where Judge Warner built them the
house which later became the residence of James W. Arrott
In the year 1868, the father set aside for his daughter one and
a half acres from the eastern portion of his Sewickley property
and built thereon the "Osburn" house, employing a curious
pressed brick of peculiar texture and unusually large dimensions. Each window-sil.l was composed of a single brick, the
ornate lintels made of large moulded designs, while the first
course, laid upon the foundation walls, was of immense blocks
with the appearance of cut stone. These bricks were made by
a Sewickley company of which Charles MeKnight was the
head. The brickyard was located across the river at Anderson
97