Pittsburgh

On July 24, 1805, a third Richmond appeared in the Pittsburgh newspaper field in the person of Ephraim Pentland. He established a weekly newspaper called The Commonwealth, which was published in a building situated in the West Diamond, opposite the southwest corner of the new court house. The newspaper resulted from the dissension in the Republican party in Pennsylvania.

Governor McKean’s second term was drawing to a close. For two years prior to 1805, he had disagreed with the Republican General Assembly because of its extreme radicalism. It had enacted several revolutionary bills which he vetoed. The members appeared to have an especial aversion to lawyers, and a bill was passed to substitute, in civil cases, referees for juries, and prohibiting the employment of counsel. This bill was also vetoed. The House assumed that the Supreme Court was arrogating to itself powers which it did not possess, and on February 28, 1803, scarcely a month after the impeachment and removal from the bench of Judge Addison,233 the first step was taken in the attempt to impeach three of the judges of the Supreme Court for alleged arbitrary conduct in committing to prison for contempt, the plaintiff in a suit pending in the court.234 Brackenridge was absent from the bench when the offender was imprisoned, and although accused of being largely responsible for the impeachment of Judge Addison, was now loyal to his colleagues, and sent a letter to the House in which he declared his full concurrence in the course taken by the other judges, and asked to share their fate. The House replied by addressing the governor, and asking for Brackenridge’s removal. McKean refused to comply with the request. On January 28, 1805, the impeachment trial came to an end; a majority of the Senators pronounced the judges guilty, but as the majority was short of two-thirds, the result was an acquittal. The anger of the radical Republicans was boundless. A division took place in the party, which caused intense feeling throughout the State. McKean’s supporters took the name of “Constitutionalists,” while the opposition called themselves “Friends of the People.” The charm of French phrases was still strong.

The “Friends of the People” now put forward Simon Snyder as a candidate for governor in opposition to McKean. The abuse that was heaped on their former idol was appalling; threats of civil war were in the air. McKean was charged with being a demagogue who pandered to the worst elements in the Republican party, while being by education and sentiment an aristocrat. He was also accused of having gone over to the Federalists. The Tree of Liberty continued a staunch supporter of McKean. Its former violence had given way to an advocacy of “moderation.”

The Commonwealth was established in the interest of the faction opposed to McKean, and its attacks on him and his supporter, the Tree of Liberty, were brutal. Israel came in for the most violent abuse. Pentland accused Israel of being ignorant. “Let a beardless boy instruct you, old goat!” was one of his coarse thrusts. In the same article he designated Israel as “the man with the long beard, but no brains,” and concluded crudely, “Let a goslin’ instruct you, old goose!”235

The campaign teemed with personalities. The Federalists looked on in amusement, but finally came to the support of McKean, and he was elected. Pentland’s chagrin knew no bounds, and after the election was over, he continued to attack the Tree of Liberty, the management of which, by this time had changed. He vented his spite on the supposed owners. He charged that, although the newspaper was published in the name of Walter Forward, Tarleton Bates and Henry Baldwin,236 the two most prominent politicians in Pittsburgh, were the real proprietors, and that Bates was the editor. Baldwin, who was not quite twenty-six years of age, later in life became a member of Congress and a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Forward was a young man of nineteen, a law student in Baldwin’s office, and subsequently attained high political distinction. He was several times a member of Congress, was Secretary of the Treasury under President Tyler, chargé-d’-affaires to Denmark, under President Taylor, and president judge of the District Court of Allegheny County.

Bates was the oldest and best known of the three men. His tragic end has caused a halo of romance to be cast about his striking personality. He was a native of Virginia, where he was born on May 22, 1775. He was of Quaker origin, his father having lost his membership in the Society of Friends because of his services as a volunteer at the siege of Yorktown. The family seat was Belmont in Goochland County. Tarleton Bates came to Pittsburgh when eighteen years of age. During the early years of his residence he was employed by the national government in the Quarter Master’s Department under Major Isaac Craig, the Deputy Quarter Master and Military Storekeeper at Pittsburgh, with whom for a time he made his home. When the Spaniards surrendered their rights to the country on the lower Mississippi in 1798, and the Mississippi Territory was organized with Natchez as the capital, Bates determined to leave Pittsburgh and settle in the southern town, but did not carry his design into execution.237 Upon the appointment of John C. Gilkison to the office of prothonotary, he became a clerk under him.

He had a fair education, was studiously inclined, and was possessed of considerable culture, including a knowledge of the French language. He owned the best copy of Lavater in Pittsburgh. His letters to members of his family238 indicate that he was generous, warm-hearted, and tender. The family fortunes were low. His brother Frederick, just starting out in life, felt the need of money and made his wants known to Tarleton. Although in the habit of speaking of himself as living in “exiled poverty,” he responded without hesitation: “Nothing within my ability shall be wanting to smooth the entrance of the rugged path of life”; and he offered to help Frederick to the extent of thirty dollars a month. He led an upright life and ever attempted to deserve the good opinion of his mother and “avoid the imprudencies of youth.” Frederick charged him with being engaged to be married. His answer was an admission that he was in love, and a frank intimation that thus far success had not crowned his efforts. That he was fond of the society of ladies appears from a letter in which he tells of the many charming ladies in Pittsburgh. His acrostic on the name of Emily Morgan Neville, the daughter of Colonel Presley Neville, lends color to the imputation that at one time he was in love with that fascinating young woman. His complete obsession with politics was probably responsible for his remaining unmarried.

He was warmly attached to his party. In a letter written while the Republican party—which he was in the habit of calling the Democratic party—was still in its infancy in Pittsburgh, he said: “I believe I am almost the only Pittsburgher who is not ashamed to call himself a Democrat, and I am sure the appellation will never discredit me.” He related humorously that on one occasion he attended a Fourth of July celebration, and among the speakers was Colonel Presley Neville, who, “abhors the Democrats as so many imps of hell.” He was proud and told his family that he acknowledged no superior, and “admitted no knave, however bloated with wealth, to be an equal.” He was one of several famous brothers. His younger brothers, Frederick, James, and Edward, after his death, emigrated to the Missouri Territory where Frederick was the first secretary of the Territory, and the second governor of the State. James afterward settled in Arkansas and became a delegate to Congress from that Territory. Edward became the friend of Henry Clay and in 1860 was a candidate for President before the convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln; he became Attorney-General in Lincoln’s Cabinet.

On Christmas Day, 1805, the article appeared in The Commonwealth, which was the direct cause of the death of Tarleton Bates in a duel. In the course of the incendiary diatribe, Pentland declared that Bates and Baldwin were “two of the most abandoned political miscreants that ever disgraced a State.” He demanded savagely: “To what party do they belong?” and answered the question himself. “To no party, to all parties. They have been Whigs and Tories, High or Low Republicans, Democrats or Anti-Democrats, Jacobins or Anti-Jacobins, Constitutionalists or Republicans, according to existing circumstances.”

Pentland’s punishment was to be publicly cowhided by Bates on Market Street on January 2, 1806. He is said to have fled precipitately when attacked. Pentland gave a darkly colored account of the occurrence: “On Thursday evening last, a considerable time after dark, the editor of this paper was waylaid, and attacked in a most outrageous manner, by Tarleton Bates, the prothonotary of this county, and co-proprietor and editor of the Tree of Liberty. Bates was in company with some persons who were no doubt to act as aids, should their assistance be wanted, but owing to the mistiness of the evening, and their quick disappearance, all of them could not be recognized. Baldwin, Bates’s colleague in infamy, and the brave and redoubtable Steele Semple, who never feels afraid but when he is in danger, were in the gang,—both limbs of the law, students of morality!”239

Dueling had been forbidden in Pennsylvania since 1794, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, and loss of citizenship for seven years.240 An unconverted public sentiment, however, still approved of the code of honor, and Pentland, who had at first threatened legal proceedings against Bates, challenged him instead. The challenge was carried by Thomas Stewart, a young Irishman who was a merchant in the town. Bates declined to accept, on the ground that Pentland’s conduct since his chastisement, had rendered him unworthy of such notice. Pentland then posted Bates as a coward, upon which on January 7, 1806, Bates published a letter in the Tree of Liberty giving his reason for refusing the challenge, in which he reflected on Stewart. Stewart demanded a retraction, which was refused, whereupon he challenged Bates. This challenge was accepted.

Bates immediately wrote his will. It was expressive of deep feeling. There was every indication of a premonition of his forthcoming end. He had always led a simple life, and in death he desired to avoid display. In that moment he recalled the discussions in the French Legislative Councils during the Directory, on the disposal of the dead by burning. “Henry Baldwin, my very dear friend, my sole executor, ... is to burn my body, or at least bury it without any direction,” he wrote; then he provided for the education of his brother James, which was to be completed by his studying law. In case the estate proved insufficient for the purpose, his brother Frederick was to provide the deficiency. Any residue, he declared, “is to go to my adored mother.”

The encounter took place the next day in a ravine in Oakland, in what is at present the Fourth Ward of the city of Pittsburgh. The ravine through which a rivulet coursed, called “Three-Mile Run,” long since sewered over, opened on the Monongahela River, at a point now occupied by the lower end of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company’s ore-yard, and by the office of the Eliza Furnace. To-day there are laid out through the ravine several unpaved hillside streets with narrow board sidewalks, one of which is the lower portion of Halket Street. On the upper edge of the easterly border of the ravine is Bates Street, named for Tarleton Bates. The duel was fought near the Monongahela River; the distance was ten paces; the weapons were pistols. Both principals displayed undaunted courage. Bates fell at the second fire, shot in the breast, and expired in an hour.241 On the day that Bates lay dead in the ravine which ever since has been haunted with his memory, Pentland made another slanderous charge in his newspaper: “I shall not engross the columns of this paper with remarks on the private character of Mr. Bates, because that already appears to the public in colors as dark as the skin of his mistress.”242

The community was shocked at the tragedy. Notwithstanding the directions of Bates’s will in regard to the disposal of his body, he was buried in Trinity Churchyard. A great concourse of people attended the funeral, the chief mourner being Henry Baldwin; but the whole town deplored his death. In its next issue, the Tree of Liberty added to the general gloom, by appearing in mourning dress. Two weeks later the post brought news of the dire calamity to the widowed mother in her Virginia home, and to her children. Amid their tears they rejoiced that the Virginia traditions of honor had not been violated and that Tarleton Bates had accepted the challenge and preferred “death to a life of infamy and disgrace.”243 The depth of their attachment appeared in the fact that the family preserved his letters as precious mementoes as long as they survived. For a time the grave was a hallowed spot to be pointed out to visitors, but as Bates’s old friends died, and a new generation came on, it was neglected, and now the location is forgotten. Bates’s brothers received their inspiration from him. He was the ablest member of the family. Had it not been for his untimely death, the name of Tarleton Bates might have become one of the great names in Pennsylvania history, if not in that of the United States.

At the northwest corner of Market and Third streets, in the house built by Major Ebenezer Denny, of brick taken from Fort Pitt,244 was the store of Denny & Beelen. The firm was composed of Major Denny and Anthony Beelen. They sold, “dry goods, hardware, groceries, stationery, perfumery, china, glass, and queensware.”245 Major Denny, the senior partner, was a slender, blue-eyed, and red-haired man of thirty-nine. His was a most adventurous career. In the Revolution he was ensign in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment, and lieutenant in the 3d and 4th Pennsylvania Regiments. He had served as lieutenant under General George Rodgers Clark in Illinois, was adjutant to General Josiah Harmar in the campaign against the Indians in 1790, and aid-de-camp of General Arthur St. Clair in 1791. He was the messenger who carried the news of the rout of St. Clair’s army to President Washington at Philadelphia, then the seat of the national government. On returning to private life he had gone into business with Captain Joseph Ashton, a former Revolutionary officer like himself, at the place later conducted by Denny & Beelen. This partnership was dissolved in 1794 when Denny was again appointed to a military command and placed in charge of an expedition sent to Fort Le Boeuf. In Pittsburgh he took a conspicuous part in public affairs.246 He was a candidate for representative to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives against Lucus, but was defeated. Later he was elected county commissioner. In 1803 he was treasurer of the county, being the first man to hold that office, and was the first mayor of Pittsburgh upon its becoming a city in 1816.

Anthony Beelen, Major Denny’s partner, was a native of the Austrian Netherlands, now Belgium, and was the son of Francis, Baron de Belen Bartholf, Minister of the King of Austria, Joseph II., to the United States, who, upon the death of the King in 1790, continued a resident of the United States. The Baron seems to have soon discarded his title of nobility, as he was engaged in business in Pittsburgh at an early date, going by the name of Francis Beelen, being a partner in the firm of Amberson, Beelen, & Anshutz which was dissolved in 1794.247 Anthony Beelen made the acquaintance of Denny in Philadelphia, and became associated with him, and in 1794 settled the affairs of Ashton & Denny.248 In 1803 he was one of the Pittsburgh assessors.249 In later years he conducted an air furnace and other enterprises. Beelen afterward lost his property, but the family fortunes rose again when Mrs. Mary Murphy died. In her will she left all her valuable estate, the principal part of which consisted of the block on Market Street in which “Clapboard Row” was located, to Beelen in trust for his daughter and granddaughter.

On Third Street a short distance west of Market Street, Andrew Willock, Jr., conducted a baking business, at the “Sign of the Sheaf of Wheat.” He also kept a tavern,250 taverns and bakeries being frequently carried on together. Alexander McLaughlin, an oldtime merchant, was located at the southwesterly corner of Market and Fourth streets in the same block with Denny & Beelen. He had formerly been on Second Street.251 In 1800 he was a candidate for county commissioner, but was defeated by Nathaniel Irish.252 James Wills, who dealt in “boot and bootee legs,” adjoined McLaughlin on the south.253 Next to Wills’s house was that occupied by John Wrenshall. Wrenshall was a man of culture and, in addition to keeping store and preaching the Gospel when the opportunity was presented, was a writer of ability. His Farewell to Pittsburgh and the Mountains, published in Philadelphia in 1818, was a poem of some merit, and of considerable local interest. He was the grandfather of Julia Dent, the wife of General U. S. Grant, eighteenth President of the United States. Joseph Davis was located between Wrenshall and Denny & Beelen. He was assessor in 1802.254

John Irwin, one of William Christy’s old partners, had his store at the northeast corner of Market and Fourth streets. He was a former Revolutionary officer, having been captain in the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment. At the next corner, where Market Street intersected the South Diamond, in the large three-story brick building were the tavern and store of William Irwin, the other partner of Christy. This building was another of the houses built of brick taken from Fort Pitt.255 To this house William Irwin had removed in 1799256; and here he furnished public entertainment, and sold, in addition to whisky, and other diverting drinks, “kettles, stoves, and dry goods.”257 Dancing classes were also held in the building, those for ladies at three o’clock in the afternoon, and the classes for gentlemen at six o’clock in the evening.258 More serious business was conducted there. In the large hall in the third story the courts were held for more than a year after being removed from Andrew Watson’s house.259 This was likewise the room in which Lodge No. 45 now held its sessions.260

North of the South Diamond the buildings were farther apart. At the southeast corner of the East Diamond and Diamond Alley was the log store of William Woods & Company.261 On the opposite side of Market Street from John Irwin and William Irwin’s stores, in the middle of the block, was John Hamsher’s retail shop, where he sold copper and tin-plate articles, and clover seed.262 Next door was the store of James Dunlap & Company.263 In the Diamond, east of Market Street, was the semicircular market house, which covered most of this part of the Diamond. Its wide, projecting roof was supported by a double row of brick pillars. In the interior of the building were rows of stalls, with benches and blocks, for the butchers. Encircling the structure was a brick pavement along the curb of which the farmers and market gardeners were stationed.264 In the Market House the borough elections were held.265

Across Market Street from the Market House was the new court house. It was the pride of the western country, and the only high building in the town. It was a square, two-story brick structure with one-story wings, for the county offices, and was surmounted by a tall wooden spire. In 1800, the main building was barely completed, some of the upper rooms being yet unplastered, although the county offices had been removed to the wings two years before.266 The belfry lacked the bell; and the space before the building was only then being paved. The main entrance was on Market Street, and on either side of the doorway were fluted wooden columns with Corinthian capitals. The court room was on the first floor and was paved with bricks which, like the brick used in the pavement outside, were large and almost square. Supporting the ceiling were Doric pillars resting upon square panelled pedestals.267 The judges’ bench and the jury box were in the rear of the court room. They faced the entrance, and the judges’ bench admitted seating the president judge and the four lay associate judges, at one time. It was elevated above the floor and was reached by stairs placed at the northerly end. The jury box was southerly of the judges’ bench, with a narrow passage between it and the judges’ bench. After the bell was placed in the belfry in 1801, Joseph Harris became bell-ringer, and rang the bell whenever court was about to convene.

Back of the court house, one hundred and forty feet west of the West Diamond, and running parallel with it, was an alley, now called Delray Street. On the westerly side of this alley, a short distance south of Diamond Alley, was the new square two-story stone county jail. It was erected on a lot purchased by Allegheny County in 1793, and was completed at the same time as the court house. The building was surrounded by a stone wall, the entire lot being enclosed by a high board fence.

Immediately in the rear of the court house, at the southwest corner of the West Diamond and Diamond Alley, was the tavern of John Reed at the “Sign of the Waggon.” Here the Allegheny County courts held a few sessions, during the interval between the time of leaving William Irwin’s house, and the completion of the court house.268 At the northeast corner of Market Street and the North Diamond, was the tavern of Thomas Ferree at the “Sign of the Black Bear.” Directly across Market Street in the new brick building, was the boot and shoemaking establishment of John and Alexander Wills.269 On the same side of the street, the second door south of Fifth Street, was James Yeaman’s brick building, in which he conducted his bakery and brewery.270