The year 1800 ushered in more than a new century in Pittsburgh. It heralded the beginning of another era. The decade beginning with that year will ever be memorable in the annals of the city. During those ten years the foundation was laid on which the great industrial city was subsequently built. In 1800 the population of Pittsburgh was 1565, and in 1810 it had risen to 4768, an increase of 204 per centum, which was the greatest percentage of increase that has ever taken place in its history. This decade marked the dividing line between that which was obsolete and that which was newly-born.
In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, ceded to the United States the vast Louisiana Territory, whereby the area of this country was more than doubled, and commerce between Louisiana and Pittsburgh increased tremendously.
As far back as 1791, Alexander Hamilton, the Secretary of the Treasury, had communicated to the House of Representatives his famous report of manufactures. In this far-away community, with coal at its doors, and iron in the near-by mountains, Hamilton’s new doctrine found willing disciples and industry had more than a beginning. Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, iron ore was mined in the Juniata Valley, and furnaces and forges established, and bar iron and castings made. The iron was carried to Pittsburgh, partly on horseback, and partly by water, down the Conemaugh and Allegheny Rivers. Small shops for the manufacture of articles of iron were opened. Shortly afterward iron ore was also mined in the counties of Fayette and Westmoreland and furnaces and forges built and iron produced. The distance being shorter from Fayette and Westmoreland Counties than from the Juniata Valley, iron was thereafter brought to Pittsburgh only from the former districts. The iron shops increased in number. Coal was the pole star which lighted the way to their establishment. A writer who saw the advantages of Pittsburgh with the eyes of a Münchhausen, writing of the value of its coal, declared, that the blaze afforded “so strong a light, that in winter, ... neither tailors, or other mechanics burn candles.”137
At the close of the eighteenth century, the black smoke of the iron shops, the glass manufactory, the boat yards, the distillery, the brewery, the tanneries, the brickyards, and the increasing number of dwelling houses had already given the town a sombre hue. Industry went forward with leaps and bounds, and manufactories on a larger scale were set up. They were insignificant, if compared with even the medium-sized establishments of to-day, but were large and important in the eyes of people who, prior to the American Revolution, had been practically prohibited from engaging in any manufacturing by their English masters. Cotton mills were established, as were iron foundries, nail factories, engine shops, a tinware manufactory, a pipe manufactory, and in 1808 a second glass works, that of Robinson & Ensell.138 The extent of the plants can be gauged, when it is known that one of the nail factories employed thirty men, the tinware manufactory twenty-eight men, and one of the cotton mills twelve men.139
In 1804, the Bank of Pennsylvania opened a branch in Pittsburgh. A stage line from Chambersburgh to Baltimore and Philadelphia was placed in operation in the spring of 1803.140 In 1804 this was extended to Pittsburgh, the first coach from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia being run on July 4th.
Religion was now keeping pace with the increase in population and the growth in material prosperity. Hitherto those who were religiously inclined were obliged to attend the services of either the German or the Presbyterian church. Other churches were now brought into existence. The Episcopalians formed an organization in 1805, under the name of “Trinity Church,” and began the erection of their brick octagonal building, on the lot bounded by Liberty, Seventh, and Wood streets, which was a landmark in its day.
Ever since the English occupancy, the population had been Protestant in religion, although Protestantism in the early days signified little more than a stout opposition to Roman Catholicism. The Presbyterians, who constituted the bulk of the English-speaking Protestants, had looked askance when the Episcopalians, whom they regarded as closely akin to Roman Catholics, formed their church organization. When it was rumored that Roman Catholic services were to be held, they shook their heads still more doubtfully. Prior to 1800 there was hardly a professed Roman Catholic in Pittsburgh. In 1804, the number was still so small that when the missionary priest and former Russian prince and soldier, Demetrius Augustine Gallitzen, came and celebrated mass, there were only fifteen persons present to assist.141 In 1808, a congregation was formed, and the next year a one-story brick chapel was erected142 at the southeast corner of Liberty and Washington streets, Washington Street then extending to Liberty Street. The site is now occupied by the entrance to the Pennsylvania Station. Practically all the parishioners were Irish, and it was natural that the new edifice should be named “St. Patrick’s Church.” The Methodists organized a congregation at the same time as the Roman Catholics,143 and in 1810 erected a small brick building on Front Street below Smithfield, opposite the lower end of the site at present occupied by the Monongahela House.144 The Baptists were growing in numbers and, although lacking a church organization, met at one another’s houses, and listened to the exhortations of traveling missionaries of that faith.145
The Freemasons must be credited with a movement, inaugurated at this time, which was to have a far-reaching effect. The meetings of Lodge No. 45 in the taverns had been conducive of almost everything except sobriety. The effects were degrading, and in many cases injurious, not only to the persons affected but to their dependents as well. Also the evil was growing, and was contrary to the expressed ideals of the order. Practically all the leaders in the village, whether in public or private life, had been or were still members of the lodge. Among the older members were General Richard Butler and his brother, Colonel William Butler, General John Neville, Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Captain Joseph Ashton, John Ormsby, Colonel James O’Hara, Captain Michael Hufnagle, Major Isaac Craig, Senator James Ross, Samuel Ewalt, and Captain John Irwin. Younger members were Dr. Andrew Richardson, Dr. Hugh Scott, William Wusthoff, Anthony Beelen, Thomas Baird, James Riddle, Tarleton Bates, Rev. Robert Steele, and Henry Baldwin. It is not surprising that such men should sooner or later realize the calamity which confronted the members of the lodge, and decide upon eliminating the cause. The change was effected upon the completion of William Irwin’s brick house, at the southwest corner of Market Street and the West Diamond, just prior to the opening of the new century. Thenceforth the meetings of the lodge were held in a room on the third floor of this building, and the temptation to excessive drinking was at least farther removed than when the sessions were being held in the “Sign of the Green Tree.” This was the first practical temperance movement in Pittsburgh.
Market Street was one of the narrowest streets in the town, but was the principal commercial thoroughfare. Coincidentally it was called “Main Street.” It received the name by which it has been known for more than a century and a quarter, from the fact that the first market house, erected in 1787, was located at the northwest corner of this street and Second Street. In 1800 the street was bustling with life. More drays and carts and wagons were moving over at least a portion of the thoroughfare than is the case to-day. Intermingled with the other vehicles were wagons from the country, drawn by oxen. In wet weather the roadway was ground into mud and thin mire. The merchants generally lived with their families in the houses where their business was conducted. The street was noisy with children. Trees grew on the outer edges of the foot-walks, and in the summer grass and weeds sprang up, watered by the street wells and pumps that supplied the residents with water.
Most of the prominent people lived on Market Street. Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, although often absent from Pittsburgh in the performance of his judicial duties, maintained his residence on the street, until August 24, 1801, when he removed with his family to Carlisle.146 All but one of the physicians were located there. Here the leading mercantile establishments were concentrated. Open spaces still intervened between the houses, and there were gardens, inclosed with fences painted white, in which flowers bloomed and vegetables flourished, but the spaces were rapidly being built upon. Everywhere the sounds of hammer and saw greeted the ear, and heaps of brick and beds of mortar encumbered the street.
Public improvements were commenced: Market and Wood streets were being paved, as was Chancery Lane from the Monongahela River to Second Street. Front and Third streets were being graveled from Market to Wood Street, as was also Diamond Alley.147 The price of land was advancing. The Penns had sold most of the lots fronting on Market Street, in 1785, at the average price of ten pounds each in Pennsylvania currency, a pound being equal to two dollars and sixty-six and two-thirds cents in United States money of the present value. The lots were of varying dimensions: some had a front on Market Street of one hundred and sixty feet, and a depth of eighty feet, while others had fronts of from fifty-six to eighty feet, and were of different depths. In 1789 and 1790, respectively, two lots were sold for fifty pounds each. In 1791, two others were sold for one hundred and twenty pounds each. In 1793, a lot on the East Diamond, where values had not appreciated to the same extent as on Market Street, was sold for one hundred pounds. After 1800, the lots began to be subdivided, and still higher prices prevailed, and they continued to advance year by year.
The Act of Congress of July 6, 1785, established a national currency, the unit being a dollar, equal in value to the Spanish milled dollar. The Spanish milled dollar had been in circulation in this country for many years, and was the expressed unit in the paper money and other obligations, authorized by Congress since the first year of the Revolution. The United States mint, however, was not authorized until the passage of the Act of Congress of April 2, 1792, and the first coinage of silver and gold did not take place until two years later. During this interval the circulating medium was mainly Spanish silver money and the consideration mentioned in conveyances was usually in the Spanish milled dollar. In 1801, a lot having a front on Market Street of thirty feet and a depth of seventy feet, was sold for six hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents; in 1803, a lot having a front of forty-six feet and a depth of seventy feet was sold for thirteen hundred dollars. In 1804, an undivided fourth interest in a lot having a front of fifty-six feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy-five feet, was sold for eight hundred and seventy-five dollars. In 1805, a half interest in a lot also having a front of fifty-six feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy-five feet was sold for twelve hundred dollars. In 1806, an eighth interest in a lot having a front of fifty-six feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy-five feet, was sold for two hundred and seventy-five dollars. In 1807, a sixth interest in a lot having a front of fifty-six feet, and a depth of one hundred and seventy-five feet, was sold for six hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents.
Most of the houses were built on land leased from the owners, or on lots subject to the payment of ground rents, which accounted to some extent for the inferior quality of the improvements. The number of brick houses on Market Street was still so limited that the merchants were fond of referring to the fact that the establishments conducted by them were located in a “brick house” or “next door to,” or “across the street from,” a “brick house.”
A majority of the merchants and professional men on the street were young, or at least had not arrived at middle age. Like all the men in new communities, they were possessed of unbounded energy, which found vent in their business affairs, in a desire for pleasure, and in an inordinate ambition for political preferment. Perhaps it was owing to this cause, that the number of town and other offices were so numerous. The town officers were a chief burgess, a burgess and four assistant burgesses, a town clerk, a high constable, two assessors, and two supervisors. The duties of the assistant burgesses were to assist the chief burgess and the burgess in the performance of their duties.148 The justices of the peace were even more plentiful than the town officers. They were appointed by the governor and held office during good behavior, which was practically for life. Appointments were constantly made, usually as a reward for party fealty, and there being a dearth of deaths among those in office, the number of justices of the peace had become inordinately large. There was also a cause peculiar to Pittsburgh, for the craving for office. The legislative acts of the borough were performed at Town Meetings held in the court house by the “Burgesses, Freeholders, and Inhabitants, householders,” at which all the male adults whether citizens or aliens149 who had resided in the place for a year, had a voice. In 1800, there were nearly two hundred qualified electors who had a right to participate in the Town Meetings,150 and practically the entire number were politicians. A desire for the glare of public life developed, and the creation of offices resulted.
Considering the extent of the town and the number of the inhabitants, the stores were numerous, there being, in 1803, forty-nine stores and shops.151 The explanation was that much of the trade of Pittsburgh was with travelers passing through the place, and with settlements farther west and south. The travelers were frequently delayed for long periods. Owing to the lack of a sufficient stage of water in the rivers, as high as a hundred boats, each carrying an average of twelve emigrants, were sometimes tied up along the Monongahela River between Pittsburgh and New Geneva, and as many more along the Allegheny.152 The various supplies required while there and for the further journey were furnished by the merchants of the town.
The stores were usually what is termed “general stores,” where everything necessary for the use of pioneer families could be purchased. Only a few establishments dealt in special lines. On the shelves were articles that at present are suggestive of the day in which they were sold. Taken in connection with the dress of the people, the food they ate, their churches, their societies, their work, and their amusements, they form a more or less complete outline picture of the time. Items which stand out in relief are Franklin stoves, chimney hooks, window weights, brass and stock locks, brass and iron candlesticks, snuffers, horse fleams, iron combs, iron buttons, knee buckles, powder flasks, American and German gunpowder, bar lead and shot, wallowers for Dutch fans, and cards.153 The sale of cards was an industry of importance in agricultural communities. At present the name is confusing. The civilization of the day had not developed business or visiting cards, and if playing cards were intended they would have been so designated. The cards sold in Pittsburgh were brushes with wire teeth used in disentangling fibers of wool, cotton, and hemp, and laying them parallel to one another preparatory to spinning. In 1794, the advertisement of Adgate & Co., “at the card manufactory, corner of Market and Water Streets,” appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette.154
The occupancy of Market Street began at Water Street. Some of the early settlers were still living in the houses where they began their business life. Samuel Ewalt was among the earliest merchants on the street. His store was at the northeast corner of Market and Water streets. He owned the entire block on the easterly side of Market Street, between Water and Front streets, his land extending eastwardly a considerable distance.
On Water Street, one lot removed from the west side of Market Street, was the home of Colonel Presley Neville. While a very young man, living in his native Virginia, he had served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. During this period he married the eldest daughter of General Daniel Morgan. In Pittsburgh Colonel Neville held many public positions. He had been inspector of the Allegheny County brigade of militia, agent for the United States for receiving and storing whisky taken in kind for the excise, a member of the Legislature,155 and was now surveyor of Allegheny County,156 and was engaged in selling town lots, and lands in the adjacent townships.157 In 1803, he was a candidate for chief burgess, but his vote was a tie with that of his opponent, Colonel James O’Hara, who had also been an officer in the Revolution The determination of the case being with the governor, the decision was in favor of Colonel O’Hara,158 but under the law Colonel Neville became burgess.159 Below Colonel Neville’s house, at the northwest corner of Water and Ferry streets, was a large two-story frame building set in a garden. This was the town house of General John Neville, the father of Colonel Neville. Like his son, he was a former Revolutionary officer; he had been Inspector of the Revenue under the excise law, during the Whisky Insurrection. The burning of his country home by the Insurgents was one of the events of the short-lived revolt. On Water Street, one door above Redoubt Alley, was the frame tenement house of Major Isaac Craig. The building had become historic. It was here that Alexander Hamilton, Judge Richard Peters of the United States District Court for Pennsylvania, together with the United States District Attorney, and the United States Marshal, who accompanied the army of General Lee into Western Pennsylvania, held court and interrogated Hugh Henry Brackenridge, and others suspected of fomenting the Whisky Insurrection.
West of Major Craig’s home, a short distance east of West Alley, was the large frame dwelling of Colonel O’Hara. O’Hara was the most enterprising citizen in the town, and an important factor in its early development. At one time he was engaged in almost a dozen enterprises. He was also the largest owner of real estate both in Pittsburgh, and Allegheny County, resident in the borough. Among the older merchants were William Christy, John Irwin, and William Irwin. They had formerly been partners, but the partnership had long since been dissolved,160 and each now had a store of his own. Christy’s establishment was at the northwest corner of Market and Water streets. He sold all kinds of cloths and velvets, cassimeres, corduroys, and flannels, teas, sugar, and “common groceries of every denomination.”161 During the Virginia régime, he was a lieutenant in the Pittsburgh militia, and in 1802 was town clerk.162 Adjoining Christy’s store was that of Dr. Andrew Richardson. Richardson was a physician. At this time physicians not only prescribed medicines, but prepared and sold them, and Richardson was no exception. His advertisement reads like that of a latter-day druggist: “Oil of Vitriol. I have for sale at my medical store a quantity of oil of vitriol which I will sell low for cash. Also a variety of drugs and medicines which I will sell wholesale or retail at the same terms.”163
He was prominent in many respects. Besides being a physician, he was a justice of the peace, and a leader in politics. In January, 1800, Governor McKean appointed him Register and Recorder of Allegheny County in place of Samuel Jones, his Federalist father-in-law,164 but he soon relinquished the office. He was likewise a prominent Freemason, being secretary of Lodge No. 45, and was well known as a public speaker. At the dinner given on the first anniversary of the inauguration of President Jefferson he was one of the two presiding officers.165 On St. John the Evangelist’s Day, December 27, 1798, he delivered an oration before Lodge No. 45, which was considered of such importance that the lodge procured its publication in the Pittsburgh Gazette.
The style was florid. Richardson was high in the councils of the Republican party, yet his argument was that of a Federalist. It was a panegyric on Freemasonry, and an expression of hope for universal peace and love. Opening with a review of the conflict convulsing Europe he launched out into a severe denunciation of the course that France was pursuing. “Already hath nation arisen against nation in lawless oppression,” the orator proclaimed. “Already hath our infant country been threatened with a final subjugation.” Continuing he asked: “And who are those who dare to usurp a superiority over us? The French! Once the boast of history, the pride of the smiling page; but now a band of robbers, dead to every feeling of humanity, lost to every virtue; a band of robbers whose lawless acts have drawn upon them the just resentment of our virtuous brother, the illustrious Washington, who, though loaded with the oppressive weight of sixty-six years, stands ready once more to unsheath his conquering sword to save his country from rapine and murder. Shall he stand the war alone? No, every Masonic heart will rush like lightning to his standard, with him conquer, or with him die!”166
Richardson’s outspoken views appear to have caused an estrangement with the local Republican leaders, and in 1801, when he was a candidate for the State Senate, they were arrayed against him. He was charged with the unpardonable sin of reviling Thomas Jefferson, the idol of American public life. The Pittsburgh Gazette and the Tree of Liberty contained frequent references to the incident. Richardson himself published a card, which was at once evasive and apologetic. He was accused of having three years before drunk a toast, “Damnation to Jefferson and his party,” in Marie’s tavern. He admitted having been in the tavern on the occasion referred to, but added: “This much I will say, that if such a toast was given by me, it was improper, and I must have done so on the impulse of the moment. I cannot say whether it was given at all.” The Republican tide was too strong and he was defeated, and was again defeated in 1802, when a candidate for representative to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,167 and he met with a like fate when a candidate for the same office in 1803.168 In August of 1809 he died, a disappointed man.169
In the same block with Dr. Richardson, at the southwest corner of Market and Front streets, were the cabinet-makers and upholsterers, Dobbins & McElhinney.170 Directly across Market Street from Dobbins & McElhinney, was the establishment of the Chevalier Dubac. The sign gave no inkling of the noble birth of the proprietor, reading simply, “Gabriel Dubac.”171 He had recently removed to this corner from Front Street.172 He has been described as the most popular citizen of the village.173 With his wines, dry goods, and groceries, he sold confectionery. His dog “Sultan,” and his monkey “Bijou,” were the joy of the children. He was an accomplished scholar, and possessed most polished manners. When he closed his shop and entered society, he was the delight of all with whom he associated. He was in the habit of dining on Sundays at the home of General Neville. When the French princes, the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis Philippe, King of France, and his two brothers, the Duke of Montpensier and the Count of Beaujolais, visited Pittsburgh in 1797, it was the Chevalier Dubac who assisted in making their stay agreeable.