The constantly rising tide of immigration required more territorial subdivisions in the western part of the State. Westmoreland County had been reduced in size on March 28, 1781, by the creation of Washington County, but was still inordinately large. The clamor of the inhabitants of Pittsburgh for a separate county was heeded at last, and on September 24, 1788, Allegheny County was formed out of Westmoreland and Washington Counties. To the new county was added on September 17, 1789, other territory taken from Washington County. In March, 1792, the State purchased from the United States the tract of land adjoining Lake Erie, consisting of two hundred and two thousand acres, which the national government had recently acquired from the Indians. This was added to Allegheny County on April 3, 1792. The county then extended northerly to the line of the State of New York, and the border of Lake Erie, and westerly to the present State of Ohio.29 On March 12, 1800, the county was reduced by the creation of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren, Venango, and Armstrong Counties, the area of these counties being practically all taken from Allegheny County. By Act of the General Assembly of March 12, 1803, a small part of Allegheny County was added to Indiana County, and Allegheny County was reduced to its present form and dimensions.30

On the formation of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh became the county seat. The county was divided into townships, Pittsburgh being located in Pitt Township. Embraced in Pitt Township was all the territory between the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, as far east as Turtle Creek on the Monongahela River, and Plum Creek on the Allegheny River, and all of the county north of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. With the growth of prosperity in the county, petty offenses became more numerous, and a movement was begun for the erection of a jail in Pittsburgh.31

Next to the establishment of the Pittsburgh Gazette, the publication and sale of books, and the opening of the post route to the eastern country, the most important event in the early social advancement of Pittsburgh was the passage of an Act by the General Assembly, on April 22, 1794, incorporating the place into a borough. The township laws under which Pittsburgh had been administered were crude and intended only for agricultural and wild lands, and were inapplicable to the development of a town. Under the code of laws which it now obtained, it possessed functions suitable to the character which it assumed, and could perform acts leading to its material and social progress. It was given the power to open streets, to regulate and keep streets in order, to conduct markets, to abate nuisances, and to levy taxes.32

Before the incorporation of the borough, various steps had been taken in anticipation of that event. The Pittsburgh Fire Company was organized in 1793, with an engine house33 and a hand engine brought from Philadelphia. A new era in transportation was inaugurated on Monday, October 21, 1793, by the establishment of a packet line on the Ohio River, between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, with boats “sailing” bi-weekly. The safety of the passengers from attacks by hostile Indians infesting the Ohio Valley, was assured. The boats were bullet-proof, and were armed with small cannon carrying pound balls; muskets and ammunition were provided, and from convenient portholes, passengers and crew could fire on the enemy.34

One of the first measures enacted after Pittsburgh was incorporated, was that to prohibit hogs running at large.35 The dissatisfaction occasioned by the imposition of the excise on whisky, had caused a spirit of lawlessness to spring up in the country about Pittsburgh. When this element appeared in the town, they were disposed, particularly when inflamed with whisky, to show their resentment toward the inhabitants, whom they regarded as being unfriendly to the Insurgent cause, by galloping armed through the streets, firing their pieces as they sped by, to the terror of the townspeople. This was now made an offense punishable by a fine of five shillings.36

Literary culture was hardly to be expected on the frontier, yet a gentleman resided in Pittsburgh who made some pretension in that direction. Hugh Henry Brackenridge was the leading lawyer of the town, and in addition to his other activities, was an author of note. Before coming to Pittsburgh he had, jointly with Philip Freneau, written a volume of poetry entitled, The Rising Glory of America, and had himself written a play called The Battle of Bunker Hill. While a resident in Pittsburgh he contributed many articles to the Pittsburgh Gazette. His title to literary fame, however, results mainly from the political satire that he wrote, which in its day created a sensation. It was called Modern Chivalry, and as originally published was a small affair. Only one of the four volumes into which it was divided was printed in Pittsburgh, the first, second, and fourth being published in Philadelphia. The third volume came out in Pittsburgh, in 1793, and was printed by Scull, and was the first book published west of the Alleghany Mountains. The work, as afterward rewritten and enlarged, ran through more than half a dozen editions.

The interest in books increased. In 1793, William Semple began selling “quarto pocket and school Bibles, spelling books, primers, dictionaries, English and Dutch almanacs, with an assortment of religious, historical, and novel books.”37 “Novel books” was no doubt meant to indicate novels. In 1798 the town became possessed of a store devoted exclusively to literature. It was conducted in a wing of the house owned and partially occupied by Brackenridge on Market Street.

John C. Gilkison had been a law student in Brackenridge’s office, and had tutored his son. Abandoning the idea of becoming a lawyer, he began with the aid of Brackenridge, to sell books as a business.38 In his announcement to the public his plans were outlined:39 “John C. Gilkison has just opened a small book and stationery store.... He has a variety of books for sale, school books especially, an assortment of which he means to increase, and keep up as encouragement may enable him; he has also some books of general instruction and amusement, which he will sell or lend out for a reasonable time, at a reasonable price.”

Changes were made in the lines of the townships at an early day. When the new century dawned, Pitt Township adjoined Pittsburgh on the east. East of Pitt Township and between the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers were the Townships of Plum, Versailles, and Elizabeth. On the south side of the Monongahela River, extending from the westerly line of the county to Chartiers Creek, was Moon Township. East of Chartiers Creek, and between that stream and Streets Run was St. Clair Township, and east of Streets Run, extending along the Monongahela River, was Mifflin Township, which ran to the county line. Back of Moon Township was Fayette Township. North of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers were the Townships of Pine and Deer. They were almost equal in area, Pine being in the west, and Deer in the east, the dividing line being near the mouth of Pine Creek in the present borough of Etna.

The merchants and manufacturers of Pittsburgh had been accumulating money for a decade. In the East money was the medium of exchange, and it was brought to the village by immigrants and travelers, and began to circulate more freely than before. In addition to the money put into circulation by the immigrants, the United States Government had expended nearly eight hundred thousand dollars on the expedition which was sent out to suppress the Whisky Insurrection. At least half of this sum was spent in Pittsburgh and its immediate vicinity, partly for supplies and partly by the men composing the army. The expedition was also the means of advertising the Western country in the East, and created a new interest in the town. A considerable influx of new immigrants resulted. With the growth in population, the number of the mercantile establishments increased. Pittsburgh became more than ever the metropolis of the surrounding country.

Ferries made intercourse with the districts across the rivers from Pittsburgh easy, except perhaps in winter when ice was in the streams. Three ferries were in operation on the Monongahela River. That of Ephraim Jones at the foot of Liberty Street40 was called the Lower Ferry. A short distance above the mouth of Wood Street was Robert Henderson’s Ferry, formerly conducted by Jacob Bausman. This was known as the Middle Ferry. Isaac Gregg’s Ferry, at this time operated by Samuel Emmett,41 also called the Upper Ferry, was located a quarter of a mile above the town, at the head of the Sand Bar. Over the Allegheny River, connecting St. Clair Street with the Franklin Road, now Federal Street, was James Robinson’s Ferry. As an inducement to settle on the north side of the Allegheny River, Robinson advertised that “All persons going to and returning from sermon, and all funerals, ferriage free.”42

The aspect of the town was changing. It was no longer the village which Lewis Brantz saw on his visit in 1790, when he painted the sketch which is the first pictorial representation of the place extant.43 In the old Military Plan the ground was compactly built upon. Outside of this plan the houses were sparse and few in number, and cultivated grounds intervened. Thomas Chapman who visited Pittsburgh in 1795, reported that out of the two hundred houses in the village, one hundred and fifty were built of logs.44 They were mainly of rough-hewn logs, only an occasional house being of sawed logs. The construction of log houses was discontinued, the new houses being generally frame. Houses of brick began to be erected, the brick sold at the dismantling of Fort Pitt supplying the first material for the purpose. The houses built of brick taken from Fort Pitt were characterized by the whiteness of the brick of which they were constructed.45 Brickyards were established. When Chapman was in Pittsburgh, there were two brickyards in operation in the vicinity of the town.46 With their advent brick houses increased rapidly.

With the evolution in the construction of the houses, came another advance conducive to both the health and comfort of the occupants. While window glass was being brought from the East, and was subject to the hazard of the long and rough haul over the Alleghany Mountains, the windows in the houses were few, and the panes of small dimensions; six inches in width by eight inches in length was an ordinary size. The interior of the houses was dark, cheerless, and damp. In the spring of 1797, Albert Gallatin, in conjunction with his brother-in-law, James W. Nicholson, and two Germans, Christian Kramer and Baltzer Kramer, who were experienced glass-blowers, began making window glass at a manufactory which they had established on the Monongahela River at New Geneva in Fayette County.47 The same year that window glass was first produced at New Geneva, Colonel James O’Hara and Major Isaac Craig commenced the construction of a glass manufactory on the south side of the Monongahela River, opposite Pittsburgh, and made their first window glass in 1800. Both manufactories produced window glass larger in size than that brought from the East, O’Hara and Craig’s glass measuring as high as eighteen by twenty-four inches.48 The price of the Western glass was lower than that brought across the mountains. With cheaper glass, windows became larger and more numerous, and a more cheerful atmosphere prevailed in the houses.

All that remained of Pittsburgh’s former military importance were the dry ditch and old ramparts of Fort Pitt,49 in the westerly extremity of the town, together with some of the barracks and the stone powder magazine, and Fort Fayette near the northeasterly limits, now used solely as a military storehouse.50 Not a trace of architectural beauty was evident in the houses. They were built without regularity and were low and plain. In one block were one- and two-story log and frame houses, some with their sides, others with their gable ends, facing the street. In the next square there was a brick building of two or possibly three stories in height; the rest of the area was covered with wooden buildings of every size and description. The Lombardy poplars and weeping willows which grew along the streets51 softened the aspect of the houses before which they were planted. The scattered houses on the sides of the hills which commanded the town on the east52 were more attractive.

It was forty years before houses, even on the leading streets, were numbered.53 The taverns and many of the stores, instead of being known by the number of their location on the street, or by the name of the owner, were recognized by their signs, which contained characteristic pictures or emblems. The signs were selected because associated with them was some well-known sentiment; or the picture represented a popular hero. In the latter category was the “Sign of General Washington,” conducted by Robert Campbell, at the northeast corner of Wood Street and Diamond Alley. Sometimes the signs were of a humorous character, as the “Whale and the Monkey” with the added doggerel:

displayed by D. McLane54 when he conducted the tavern on Water Street, afterward known as the “Sign of the Green Tree.” The sign was hung either on the front of the house, or on a board attached to a wooden or iron arm projecting from the building, or from a post standing before it. The last was the manner in which most of the tavern signs were displayed. This continued until 1816, when all projecting or hanging signs were prohibited, except to taverns where stabling and other accommodations for travelers could be obtained. Only taverns located at street corners were thereafter permitted to have signposts.55

Not a street was paved, not even the footwalks, except for such irregular slabs of stone, or brick, or planks as had been laid down by the owners of adjoining houses. Major Thomas S. Forman who passed through Pittsburgh in December, 1789, related that the town was the muddiest place he was ever in.56 In 1800, there was little improvement. Samuel Jones was the first Register and Recorder of Allegheny County, and held those offices almost continuously well into the nineteenth century. He resided in Pittsburgh during the entire period, and his opportunities for observation were unexcelled. His picture of the borough in 1800 is far from attractive. “The streets,” he wrote, were “filled with hogs, dogs, drays, and noisy children.”57 At night the streets were unlighted. “A solitary lamp twinkled here and there, over the door of a tavern, or on a signpost, whenever the moon was in its first or last quarter. The rest of the town was involved in primeval darkness.”