Pittsburgh Streets - Recent changes [en]

Source:Fleming-first-growth

Bkell — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 19:43:28 GMT

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Bkell — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 19:43:20 GMT

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{{headline|FIRST GROWTH OF PITTSBURGH DESCRIBED}}

{{deck|Rugged Topography of City's Land Cause of Peculiar Layouts.}}

{{deck|FIRST HOUSES GIVEN}}

{{byline|By GEORGE T. FLEMING.}}

SOME further consideration of the first plans of Pittsburgh is necessary in order to trace the growth of the town. Special attention must be given to the rugged topography of the place. This will be noted fully.

It is evident that the surveyors had their troubles, as Thomas Vickroy recounts in his deposition made in 1841. Today even, comment is made upon the poor planning of the original town. Vickroy explains why some streets were made narrow and others of uniform width throughout the plan. {{sic|Wood's|Woods'}} and Vickroy's plan of Pittsburgh, it may be stated, was acceptable to the proprietaries of Penn's Manor ot Pittsburgh—the Penn heirs and their agent, Tench Francis. The surveyors laid out the town in lots, streets and alleys. On the face of the plat, the lots were all numbered, the size of each stated, the width of the alleys given and the width of all the streets, except Water street.

On one side of that street were the lots commencing at the junction of the rivers and extending up to Grant street. Water street was left a roadway, irregular in width and buildings, between the roadway and the river.

At Ferry street this roadway was fewer than 50 feet in width. It was about the same at Market street. At Redoubt alley, now called Blockhouse way, it was about 20 feet in width, becoming narrower as it approached the Point. This ill-conditioned roadway became Water street. Its high banks and irregular outline did not prevent its becoming a busy thoroughfare, and in the early days of Pittsburgh borough the principal residence street, while the business houses grew along Market street. The growth along the adjacent street will be reverted to today and some idea given of the sparsely settled village previous to 1800, or shortly after it was granted a borough form of government.

{{subhead|Never a Boom Here.}}

There was a slow growth. The town was a frontier town, long distances intervened between us and the civilization and manufactures of the East. The nation was new. The Indian troubles were long continued. There was never a boom here.

January 9, 1796, the Pittsburgh Gazette printed a paragraph, stating that "the number of inhabitants in the borough of Pittsburgh, as taken by the assessors last week, amounts to 1,395."

Neville B. Craig comments on this statement and states that it is the earliest authentic account of Pittsburgh's population and that it is well to notice the condition of this place and its appearance at that time. He assumes six persons as an average to each house and this will give 232 houses in the town. His own memory, he continues, "goes back pretty distinctly to that time" and he can not conceive where that number of houses could then be found. He says:

"I have tasked my own memory severely, and with the aid of one whose recollection is more distinct than mine have made out the following enumeration of the houses in Pittsburgh about the time mentioned."

{{subhead|Totals 102 Houses.}}

Mr. Craig wrote this in 1852. He was born in Bouquet's block house in 1786, and hence at the age of 10 his memory would be good, and 55 years later would not be seriously impaired. Mr. Craig totals 102 houses. Of these, 10 were on Market street and 10 on Front street (now First avenue), 18 on Water street, nine on Second street (now avenue west of Market street) and six east of that street; seven on Wood street, nine on Fourth street (now avenue, east of Market street) and two west of Market; one only on Third street (avenue) and seven on Ferry street.

Fifth street (now avenue) had "Battle Row" between Wood and Smithfield and two or three more, and three west of Wood street. There were three houses on Penn street (now avenue, east of Fort Pitt), two on Liberty and three in the Diamond; one on Marbury street (Boquet's old Redoubt) and in Fort Pitt four or five, Craig concludes.

Craig allows eight persons to a house, which makes the population "a little over 800." H. Niles, in his Register (Vol. 30), states, without giving his authority, that Pittsburgh had 36 log houses in 1786 one stone, one frame house and five small stores. Craig comments that the detail and particularity of statement seem to give it some credibility.

{{subhead|1,565 Here in 1800.}}

In 1800 the United States census gave Pittsburgh 1,565 inhabitants and from the Gazette list this shows an increase of only 170 in the four years from 1796. There was a more rapid growth in the next decade, for in 1810 the increase was 3,203. The growth from 816, Craig's estimate, in 1796, to 1,565, the 1800 census enumeration (to be taken as absolutely correct) shows an increase of 749 and nearly double, which looks reasonable.

From the study of these statistics we must particularly admire the brand of assessors we had then. They found, according to Craig, nearly double the number of people there really was. Of course, Mr. Scull, the editor of the Gazette, was not to blame. He, as an editor, postmaster, publisher, job printer, etc., was a busy man and could not stop to count the people. There is no doubt he accepted the item as turned in by the assessors. He had no reason to go back of the returns. But Mr. Craig, from his own long experience as an editor, might have suggested another reason for the Gazette's figures as turned in by the assessors. They may have been the result of a typographical error, or even a clerical error.

{{subhead|Town's Appearance Described.}}

It is clear that, although created a borough in 1794, Pittsburgh was not much of a town, and at the time (1796) the assessors' figures were published, 12 years had elapsed from the date of Col. {{sic|Wood's|Woods'}} survey of Pittsburgh. It is clear also from Craig's enumeration where the majority of the people dwelt: on Market, Water, Front, Second, Ferry and Wood streets. Sixty-seven houses of Craig's total were on these streets. His memory extended also to the occupants and owners, many of whom he mentioned by their first names.

Mr. Craig next describes the appearance of the town in detail. Market street seemed to become the main business street by reason of its central location and despite its narrowness. Wood street at Water was impassable when the river was moderately high on account of the "gut" or deep gulley there. Soon after the borough was incorporated a stone bridge was built across this at Front street, now First avenue.

The wharf was nothing but a rugged, irregular bank, the width varying from {{sic|Wood's|Woods'}} lots to the break of the bank. At Market street this distance was between 50 and 60 feet. But there was a deep gulley there also, that had been worn in the bank. A wagon could scarcely pass along. At the mouth of Chancery lane there was another chasm in the bank, and Craig states that a horse could not pass between the post at the corner lot and the steep bank.

{{subhead|Careful Driving Necessary.}}

At Ferry street there was a similar difficulty, and here it required careful driving also. At "Redout" alley, now Blockhouse way, there was a steep and stony descent to the level of the covered archway which led from Front street, just below Redoubt alley, into the Monongahela River.

A pond extended along the south side of Liberty street from Diamond alley to Fourth street (now avenue), and from this pond a deep ditch led the water into the archway at Front street. Craig could never learn by whom this archway was built. It was no trifling work. The sides, which were about four feet in height, and the top were of hard burnt bricks and the bottom of flag stones. Craig and his boy companions often passed through this archway. He speculates that there must have been a gulley extending up from the river below Redoubt alley; and infers that when Col. Grant, who built the redoubt which stood on the river bank just above that gulley, he probably had the archway (or culvert, it may be termed) constructed to facilitate the communication between his redoubt and Fort Pitt. How, it is not exactly clear. Evidently the archway was built for a purpose. It fulfilled that purpose in perilous days. Grant's redoubt, spelled always as Bouquet's "Redoubt," must not be confounded with the latter. Grant was undoubtedly the British major who came here in advance of Forbes and who was defeated on Grant's Hill in September two months before Forbes came in 1758.

{{subhead|Name Is a Misnomer.}}

The name Blockhouse way, a change from Redoubt alley, is not a desirable one. We have but one block house now, Bouquet's, at the foot of Penn avenue, and Blockhouse way does not lead to it or near it. When Woods surveyed the town with Grant's blockhouse or redoubt still standing, "Redoubt" alley, as then spelled, was a proper designation for the little thoroughfare. Now, as Blockhouse way, it is a misnomer and misleading. Better had it been left Redoubt alley.

Craig remembers that Water street, gradually narrowing, was closed at West street by a fence extending to the foot of the bank, so that persons going to Jones' Ferry from any place on Water street had either to climb the steep bank and go along the beach or else turn up from Water to Front street and go along Front to Liberty street and thence to the ferry at the foot of Liberty street. An examination of the map of Pittsburgh made in 1795 with reference to Craig's enumeration of the houses in the town in 1796 shows that the map maker has furnished reference marks to 46 houses, but under Fort Pitt and Fort Fayette enumerates 10 more, viz: The barracks, the commandant's house, the storehouse, storehouse for flour and magazine at Pitt, and the block house, two stories, six-sided; the magazine, the officers' quarters of brick, two stories; the barracks, two stories of hewn logs, and the guard house at Fayette.

{{subhead|Buildings Marked on Map.}}

Counting the houses as drawn on the map of 1795, noting several not numbered, we find 93 houses indicated, which, counting those in the forts, tallies closely with Craig's list.

There are other buildings than dwellings marked on the map; Gen. Wayne's old stables left standing at the mouth of Sukes Run, about the site of the Baltimore and Ohio freight depot; the First Presbyterian Church, a log structure at Wood and Virgin alley (now Oliver avenue); a boat yard, between Short street and Redoubt alley on Water street; the market house; the jail; Samuel Sample's tavern at Water and Ferry streets, where Washington stopped in 1770, and Irwin's Hall at the Diamond and Market street, where the first courts of Allegheny county were held. All the forts—the two Pitts and Fayette—are designated, the Second Fort Pitt especially in a complete ground plan.

A large sand bar lay in the middle of the Monongahela, extending from Sukes Run to Fort Pitt and on most of the bar a crop of buckwheat was grown in 1795. Between Penn street and the Allegheny River, extending from Marbury street, later Third, to Barker's alley, above St. Clair, now Federal street, were remains of the orchards known as the King's Orchards in colonial days. One house stood on the north side of Penn street (now avenue) above Pitt street, now Stanwix.

{{subhead|Senator Ross' Home.}}

Jean Marie's house on Fourth street (now avenue), above Cherry alley, was the most southerly residence. Across Grant street, diagonally facing the Fourth street road, was Senator Ross' home. At Irwin street, later Seventh street and Liberty, were the mansion and grounds of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford. There was an orchard around the middle ferry house at Wood and Water streets. Judge Alexander Addison's dwelling stood alone at the corner of Smithfield and Second, and at Smithfield and Fourth was the next house, on the edge of Hogg's Pond, in a small triangular plot formed by the street and the pond. The owner's name is not given—doubtless it was only a log cabin.

The two widows Butler, Mrs. Gen. Richard and Mrs. Col. William, lived at Penn and Marbury streets. The log church was away up town. And doubtless the walking was bad at times, for we are told religion languished for some years.

Such is a brief {{sic|reveiew|review}} of the extent and character of the town of Pittsburgh prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century. When Market street began to take on business aspect, Pittsburgh really began to grow, and it is well to remember that in 1816, when the city was chartered, its boundaries were identically the same as those of the borough created in 1794; in fact, the ground covered by Col. {{sic|Wood's|Woods'}} survey of 1784 with the areas of the forts added. The boundaries of the town and city were the rivers, Grant street and Washington street, which first extended from Liberty to the Allegheny river. Cut up with sluices, gulleys, ponds and with the precipitous Grant's Hill on the southern edge the town could grow only in the flat region towards the Point, and though Market, Ferry and the first three cross streets were made only 40 feet in width, it will be noted that they show the earliest growth, keeping pace with Water street.

{{subhead|Blacksmith Shop at Third.}}

In 1796 Mr. Craig counts the 10 houses on Market street from Fourth street to Water, thus: The old jail at the corner of Fourth; John Irwin's, Molly Murphy's, a tavern; Brady's smith shop on the corner of Third; Horner's, corner of Second; Judge H.{{thin}}H. Brackenridge's, Dr. Peter Mowry's, Samuel Ewalt's at Water street, and Christy's, also at Water Street, the latter not mentioned on the map of 1795.

On Wood street the same year Mr. Craig remembers the two Wilkinses, John, Sr. and Jr., Henderson, who owned the middle ferry, Sturgeon's, Palmer's log house and Rody McKinney's.

On Ferry street he enumerates Devereaux Smith's, Diehl's, Frank's, Charles Richard's, Willock's and two other log houses. Richards, a colored man, kept a tavern on the corner of Second street, "a good tavern," the reference note on the map tells us.

For Front street, now First avenue, Mr. Craig's list runs as follows: Ward's, M. Adams', George Adams', Hanlon's stone house; Larwill's, Cooper's, Watson's log tavern and Delaney's.

Watson's Tavern was on the southeast corner of Front and Market streets, doubtless facing Front. It was a noted place in its day.

{{subhead|Lists of More Houses.}}

On Second street (avenue), east of Market street, were six dwellings, the uppermost Judge Addison's. On Second, west of Market, were nine houses, which Mr. Craig lists thus: "Fox Gibson's, Chamber's, Gen. Gibson's (the first brick house), Turnbull's storehouse, McLaughlin's, "Jinny Lang's, Ben Askin's and Maj. Irwin's. Ben Richards, a colored man, was the only dweller on Third street (avenue), as Craig remembers, and at the corner of Chancery lane. None of these houses but Richards' are noted by a reference line on the map of 1795.

Water street, with 18 houses, claims attention as the main street, such as it was, and Craig begins with Col. Pressly Neville's, then McIntyre's, John Scull's, where the Pittsburgh Gazette was printed; Wilmer's, Duncan's, J. Irwin's, John Ormsby's, Samuel Sample's, John Neville's, Isaac Craig's, Grant's redoubt, Abraham Kirkpatrick's, Gen. O'Hara's, Adamson Tannehill's, Morrow's, Green Tree Tavern, Henderson's Ferry House, Senator Ross' home before he moved to the Fourth street road, and Peter Andrian's, sometimes spelled Andrian.

{{subhead|Other Locations Given.}}

Craig's list runs toward Grant street, Ross and Audrain, were above Smithfield street, the ferry house, Green Tree tavern and Tannehill's between Wood and Smithfield streets; Ewalt's at Market street, the upper corner; John Ormsby's, between Chancery lane and Ferry street; Sample's tavern, next door; John Neville's and Maj. Craig's in the next block west; Grant's redoubt, on the line of the present Water street, directly in front of Craig's; Kirkpatrick's and O'Hara's were between Short and West street. Pressly Neville's is marked at the corner of Market street, across from Ewalt's. This is especially prominent on the plan of Col. Campbell, the old military plan of Pittsburgh.

John Scull's home on the map of 1795 is marked at Market and Front streets, the northeast corner. Craig remembers Scull's house as still on Water street that year and as Craig then lived within a few doors and knew John Scull well, in after years becoming editor and proprietor of the Gazette, we must accept Craig's testimony, which can be verified easily by reference to the Gazette files.

Then, too, on the map of 1795 the first postoffice is given at Front street (First avenue) and "Redout" alley, G. Adams, postmaster. John Scull, by the directory of 1815, was living at the northwest corner of Market and Front streets. We learn from the history of the Pittsburgh postoffice that it was moved in 1797 from Scull's on Water street, where it had remained from the time it was opened in 1787, to a substantial log house on Front street near Ferry street. The map of 1795 shows this located as noted. The map man, it seems, moved the office two years too soon. The Gazette office, Scull's print shop, and the postoffice were all in the same log structure on Water street.

In the early days of Pittsburgh the taverns were all near the water front except the Black Bear, which stood until within recent years on what is now Masters Way, leading from Diamond to Fifth avenue. Mr. Craig mentions also Molly Murphy's a famous place, the Green Tree Tavern, Charley Richards' and Samuel Sample's. No doubt he remembered all these places in his boyhood and as he lived until 1863, saw them disappear.

In the wagoning days the necessity for other and greater taverns came and they gradually moved uptown. Then the canal came and more public houses became necessary.

{{subhead|Depots for Conestogas.}}

Russell Errett, in his "Chapters of Pittsburgh History" in the volume issued by A. Warner & Co., in 1889, dwells on this phase of business growth and its relation to business in general and speculates on the connection that can be made with Col. {{sic|Wood's|Woods'}} survey when local traffic is given consideration.

Mr. Errett relates that the "great caravansaries" for the Conestoga wagons were on Liberty, Fifth and the streets {{sic|belong|below}} Fifth avenue. Very few now can recollect them, but some traces were still to be found even after the canal was opened. There was one at Liberty and Seventh avenues, the "Spread Eagle Tavern;" and one at the corner of Wood and Fifth, and further up Fifth—near Smithfield, nearly opposite the postoffice, there was a great arch under which the wagons used to drive, and a high courtyard around which frame dwellings were erected. This courtyard was an old wagon yard and the houses around it had been originally stables or a part of the tavern buildings.

{{subhead|Traffic Concentrates.}}

Certain it is that tavern keeping of that kind was a huge business up to 1830, and the proprietors (the Penns) must be supposed to have had sense enough to see that traffic with the East and West would concentrate here so largely as to make special provision for it necessary. Could they have foreseen the days of railroads and telegraphs and the change they would work in the methods of business, they would have made the lots on Front street outfront on Market, Wood, Smithfield and Grant, but who of the present generation would have acted differently had they lived in their times and circumstances?"

These words were written about 1888. Mr. Errett during almost the whole of his newspaper career was an editorial writer, fond of speculation, one can infer. The truth is the Penns cared very little, so they sold their land. They left this solely to Tench Francis, their agent. Francis left it with Woods and Vickroy and whatever they did was to be. The sub-divisions that came naturally gave frontages on the main streets, Wood, Grant, etc. Market stayed narrow and has never been changed. Yet it was the first great business street of the town.

The story of that business growth is an interesting one, too, but must be deferred. Thomas Vickroy in his deposition referred to last week, gave us valuable history.

Source:Pittsburgh-1795

Bkell — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 19:01:42 GMT

reproduced in Source:Fleming-first-growth

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Source:Fleming-street-scenes

Bkell — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 05:56:37 GMT

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Bkell — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 05:56:12 GMT

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{{headline|STREET SCENES CHANGE WITH CITY'S GROWTH}}

{{deck|Familiar Thoroughfares Have Presented Many Phases and Made History}}

{{deck|WOOD AND SIXTH AVE.}}

{{byline|By GEORGE T. FLEMING.}}

EVERY street has a growth and a development. These terms are not synonymous. A street may have growth in dimensions; be widened or lengthened. Its character develops. The story of this growth and development is the history of the street.

Many of our downtown streets furnish interesting history along these lines. The transitions from a residential to a business thoroughfare or from a manufacturing one, in whole or in part, have been frequently observed in Pittsburgh. These transitions are slow; nevertheless in time they change the character, the looks, the business of the street and the trend of travel.

There is a continuous change perceptible in some streets. Modern architecture tends most forcibly to change the appearance of our streets, especially {{sic|down town|downtown}}. Modern systems of passenger transportation have caused congested vehicular traffic. Auto vehicles have made our thoroughfares well nigh as dangerous as the tracks of any of our great railroads. We are ready for the double-decked street or sidewalk.

{{subhead|Streets Even Die Out.}}

The changes of 50 years in many of our streets have been numerous and varied. Streets even die. Searching old street lists and old city maps one is astonished at the number of streets that have passed away. The ground is yet there, but there is no need of the sign, "No thoroughfare."

Vacations, of course, have been the chief causes of this passing of former thoroughfares and by this means the railroads have been the chief beneficiaries. We can see this in many instances. The Pennsylvania Railroad from Thirty-third street in, and its Monongahela Division from South Twelfth street eastward are familiar examples, where once were many streets and structures, a better term than dwellings, predominating.

Manufacturing concerns and even individuals have profited by the vacation of streets. Other business interests also. Witness the historic ground at the Point and note the passing forever of streets almost as old as the town.

One may speak of physical changes in our streets. Widenings for example. Diamond alley to Diamond street, Virgin alley to Oliver avenue. Lengthenings, more properly extensions, can be readily called to mind. Familiar ones downtown are Diamond street to Fifth avenue, and Forbes from Boyd street to Diamond.

{{subhead|Changes Become Rapid.}}

All these changes are betterments. They bring about new architecture and new business relations. The transformation of lower Forbes street into a business thoroughfare is becoming more rapid. This same transformation has taken place in all our downtown streets. The old residences still standing in the lower avenues from Sixth down Seventh (entirely transformed) prove conclusively the former residential character of these avenues, originally called streets, and laid out by Col. George Woods and his assistant, Thomas Vickroy, in 1784, in the original survey of the town of Pittsburgh.

Additional evidence of this character can be seen on Ross and Grant streets. Ferry and Market streets are completely changed, yet within 30 years Ferry was almost exclusively a residence street. Sixth avenue was once noted as a quiet church and residence thoroughfare. About 1868 the Turners built a hall just about the upper corner of the William Penn Hotel. On the corner of Grant street there was a livery stable. Across was a German Lutheran Church. On the corner of Cherry way the Third Presbyterian congregation built the stone church recently razed for the William Penn Hotel. This church was completed in 1863.

{{subhead|Plenty of Churches.}}

Directly across the street there were residences. Many old frame shacks stood in a hollow and were torn away when the old Pittsburgh Gas Company erected its building that gave place to the present Philadelphia Company building a few years ago.

Diagonally across from the Third Presbyterian Church was the Third United Presbyterian Church, better known as Dr. Prestley's church, from its prominent pastor, the Rev. Dr. James T. Prestley. Below this church were several dwellings extending to Miltenberger alley, now Montour way, then the German Evangelical Church, but not the present structure. Across the street were dwellings, three or four still standing; a frame or two stood at the corner of Smithfield; on the corner for many years there was a plumbing shop which was also a polling place.

{{subhead|Drug Store Is Razed.}}

Below Smithfield on the South Side there were no dwellings. An old brick two stories in height, stood on the corner and can best be recalled as having been occupied as a drug store. This building was razed to make way for the Murtland building, one of the first steel frame structures in Pittsburgh, and it in turn had to go when the Henry W. Oliver building was erected.

Below Trinity Church there stood the building used by the First Presbyterian congregation as a Sunday School room and for prayer meetings and other gatherings. This building was changed into stores when the stone chapel was erected above the church on the Virgin alley side in the rear of old Third National Bank building. On the corner of Wood street were two two-story bricks with attics and dormer windows.

{{subhead|Grocery Stores Gone.}}

Across on Wood street at the corner were one and two-story shacks razed to erect the first building of the National Bank of Commerce. This latter building was completed in 1868 and most of the upper stories occupied by the old Central High School until the fall of 1871, when the school was removed to the Fulton (Fullerton) street and Bedford avenue location.

There were three warehouses from Wood street to Liberty, two wholesale grocery houses and a wholesale clothing store—the latter at the corner of Liberty street. Across the street where the Monongahela Bank building now stands were several brick structures used as stores with a rounded end at Liberty street. This ground was the site of the "Old Round Church," the first Episcopalian edifice in Pittsburgh.

Going towards Smithfield street again—on the corner of Wood street was the first edifice of the German National Bank, now defunct, originally the German Trust and Savings Bank. Next to the bank building at the corner of the alley then called Church alley, were two small yellow frames, the upper one occupied by one Gillespie, an Englishman and a chimney sweep—a lost art in Pittsburgh. Mr. Gillespie also wove rag carpets when sweeping was bad.

{{subhead|Aged Book Seller Gone.}}

Across the alley was the steepleless church of the Cumberland Presbyterian congregation. Then there were residences up to the corner of Smithfield street except that an old frame nearly opposite Trinity Church was occupied as a book and periodical store by an old gentleman named John D. Eagan, a real old-timer in that line of business. It is {{sic|needles|needless}} to say Mr. Eagan always had a complete line of "Beadle's Dime" and Munro's "Ten-Cent" novels, both long out of print, but bringing to the boys of the '60s recollections of real thrills in the story line.

Odd how recollections bring other recollections! How good those novels were can be ascertained from the fact that there were sold 1,000,000 copies of one written by Edmund S. Ellis. Many a reader today can imagine himself a boy again gazing into Old Man Eagan's book shop window in Sixth avenue and mentally vowing he was going to buy the novel of his choice with the next spare dime he had, or into Gildenfenny's, Henry Miner's, Frank Case's or Johnny Pittock's windows on Fifth avenue—all gone years ago—and who all kept the standard literature of the day, including Beadle's and Munro's "libraries."

{{subhead|Old Gazette Building Recalled.}}

Just above Eagan's store was the brick building long occupied by The Pittsburgh Gazette after the paper removed from the old Gazette Building on Fifth avenue, this latter to be occupied by the Pittsburgh Telegraph and where that paper was first issued, the building standing about opposite the Hotel Henry.

This completes the description of Sixth avenue, when Sixth street, 50 or more years ago. Go along it as opportunity may afford and in fancy try to replace the old buildings and contrast them and now. Remember no street cars came down Sixth avenue until about the spring of 1890, when the Central Traction Company, a cable line, the old Wylie avenue and Center avenue line turned in at High street and off at Wood street, thence up Fourth avenue to Grant street, to Webster avenue, to High street, and to Wylie again. There was some looping here and many a car off the track.

{{subhead|Wood Street Changes.}}

So much for the story of one downtown street, but we can take another equally as interesting: Wood street. The name is historic and properly commemorative of Col. {{sic|William|George}} Woods, chief surveyor of the plan known as Col. Woods' plan of Pittsburgh.

We have it so and it has been Wood street for a century and a third. It was intended to have been Woods street, the pronunciation easily gliding into Wood street through lack of effort in articulating and pausing sufficiently long to separate the two s sounds. We have this excess of sibilancy in Hays street and some other names.

{{subhead|Surveyors Came Here.}}

Wood street is a commemoration of a surveyor and a pioneer, yet not a resident of Pittsburgh, for both Col. Woods and his assistant, Thomas Vickroy, came here from their homes in Bedford county at the solicitation of Tench Francis, agent for the Penns, to lay out the town of Pittsburgh and to divide their proprietary manor here into outlots and farms. The survey began in May, 1754.

Wood street had a slow growth as a business street. Old directories, 1826, 1837, 1840, show that the bulk of Pittsburgh's business was transacted on Market street and the few cross streets, Front, afterwards First, Second, Third and Fourth, with the center of trade at Market and Third. Of 49 drapers and tailors listed by Isaac Harris in his directory of 1841 only 10 had locations on Wood street, 11 on Market and 14 on Liberty.

{{subhead|Tailor Shops Near River.}}

A tailor shop at Wood and Water streets would not be considered an advantageous location today, yet there is where William Schoyer did a tailoring business in 1840. Many shops of this character on Market street and on Liberty were near the river and for a good enough reason. Steamboats were numerous and the river the great highway to the West. The wharves were daily thronged with people and transient trade was generally good.

As far back as 1795 we find residences on Wood street; also some public houses. The Pittsburgh Hotel at Third street, away back in 1815, the Western Hotel, the Darlington also. The street seems to have been favored by certain lines of trade. Thus in 1840 of 13 wholesale dry goods houses in the city 12 were on Wood street. Wholesale grocers were more numerous on Liberty street, getting near the canal basins at Eleventh street, 30 of the 53 then along that thoroughfare and only 11 on Wood street.

{{subhead|Marble Works Downtown.}}

Then there were the wholesale drug stores, some hardware dealers, some wholesale and retail looking glass, comb, fancy and variety dealers, three of the four music stores in the city, three of the eight book stores, eight hat, cap and fur stores, five tin and coppersmiths, the warehouses of some glass manufacturers and Lawton's marble works opposite the First Presbyterian Church.

These brief statistics will serve to show the variety of the business carried on along the thoroughfare 75 years ago. But in a few years there came a change. The fire of 1845 transformed much of lower Pittsburgh. Wood street was devastated almost to Diamond alley on both sides of the street. But with the characteristic energy always observable here, rebuilding was rapid, so that much of the architecture of lower Pittsburgh is that erected immediately succeeding the "big fire." Quick construction was most of it.

{{subhead|Only a Few Remain.}}

There are only a few of these structures remaining on Wood street. It may be truthfully stated that the street has been rebuilt within the last three decades. Old-timers recognize but two landmarks—the tenantless buildings at the southwest corner of First avenue and the old St. Charles Hotel.

From the map of 1795 we find Gen. John Wilkins' mansion at the corner of Wood and Fourth on the site of the Arrott Building. The Henderson ferry house was just above the mouth of Wood, on Water street, a run between Wood and the Ferry house; this run the entrance to Hogg's Pond, which extended to Sixth street (now avenue), taking in the ground now occupied by the William Penn Hotel. This ground here was all pile-driven when the Third Presbyterian Church was built. There were other ponds in Pittsburgh, one extended from Second to Fourth, between Wood and Market streets. In fact, we are a much filled in and dug down and dug up city.

{{subhead|150 Log Buildings in 1795.}}

In 1795 Thomas Chapman, a traveler here, reported 200 houses in the village, 150 of them built of logs, and rough-hewn logs at that. It was a pretentious house that was constructed of sawed logs. When we can look at the map of our city in 1795, we must remember that one-fourth of all the residences depicted thereon were log structures. Wood street had three, one on the corner where the Conestoga Building now stands, Gen. Wilkins' house and a long structure of some kind at Sixth street (now avenue) opposite the log church of the First Presbyterian Congregation, which faced Virgin alley, the sides parallel to Wood street, but the church generally spoken of as situated on Wood street, built about 1785.

It is a matter of record that the first brick buildings in Pittsburgh came from the brick taken from Fort Pitt, but these brick structures were on Ferry street, Market, Second and the streets nearer the fort than Wood street.

{{subhead|Two Brickyards in 1795.}}

When Chapman was in Pittsburgh in 1795 he noted that two brickyards were in operation. Doubtless brick houses were erected on Wood street soon afterward and in a decade brick houses were common in the town. Window glass came about this time also, so that pictures of log cabins prior to 1796 with modern windows may be attributed to the eyes of the artists who drew them.

We cannot boast of how nice a town this was in our early days. Samuel Jones, who was the first register and recorder of Allegheny county, resided in Pittsburgh for many years and gave us the directory of 1826. In describing the old town he wrote that the streets were "filled with hogs, dogs, drays and noisy children."

{{subhead|Fifth Avenue the Worst.}}

We must admit some offsets; there were no howling hawkers of fruits and vegetables, no rags nor old iron fellows and no murderous autos.

Wood street with its nearby ponds and its mud probably vied with Fifth street (now avenue) for the palm in degradation. The latter was always spoken of, up to 1840, and later, as an abominable thoroughfare.

But we grew and gradually put on some style. By 1815 Wood street had quite a few dwellers. The main thoroughfare to the Monongahela wharf was Smithfield street on account of the bridge, but Henderson's or the Middle Ferry was at the mouth of Wood and the long rows of packet boats lay along the wharf from Smithfield street down toward the Point. So that Wood street in a short time, keeping pace with the growth of steamboat traffic, became a great thoroughfare and business houses naturally sprang up upon it and its abutting lots became more and more valuable.

{{subhead|Fire Removed Ugly Buildings.}}

The fire of 1845 was costly enough, but it removed from Pittsburgh much that was unsightly and made way for better architecture, the best the times afforded.

The coming of the canal necessitating the reshipping of merchandise, usually of a bulky nature, required the use of many vehicles. Hundreds of drays turned from Wood street into Liberty on their way to the canal basins and warehouses at what is now Liberty and Eleventh street, and on the return trip carried full loads to the steamers and warehouses along the wharf. This made a busy street.

First recollections of Wood street present it as paved with cobblestones, usually procured from the Allegheny River. In fact there were no streets paved otherwise. Along about 1868 there came the wonderful invention of the wooden block pavement, usually square blocks, sometimes conical. Wood street and Fifth avenue were paved with square blocks. It was very, very nice at first—the new pavement certainly contributing quiet and ease, quiet to the business people, ease to the teamsters. The jolt was almost gone.

{{subhead|Pupils Welcomed Change.}}

No class of people on the street realized the quiet part more than the professors and pupils in the Central High School at Sixth avenue. There were no car tracks on Wood street until about 1887. The {{sic|Tranverse|Transverse}} Line was the first, coming in from Forty-eighth street via Charlotte, Butler, Smallman, Liberty to the Baltimore and Ohio Station. Hence the rattle of drays and the heavy hauling over the rough cobblestones on Wood street made a racket all day long and when the softening came all was well.

But, alas, all did not stay well. The blocks rotted and by the spring of 1875 had gradually become loosened, so that the pavement of both Fifth avenue and Wood street became a mixture of sand, rotten foundation boards and rotten blocks, oozy in wet weather—sometimes a quagmire.

{{subhead|Teamsters Shun Wood.}}

Teamsters shunned these streets if possible, also the fire department, for two or three jolts of the men from their machines invoked caution. Fortunately the tumbling ones did not alight hard, usually in mud. By 1876 Councils took pity and repaved both streets, Fifth with granite blocks and Wood street with Ligonier blocks. Now enters Ligonier into Pittsburgh street paving.

Wood street never was much of a manufacturing street. In the 60's and early 70's there was a tobacco manufactory opposite the First Presbyterian Church. This was a "plug" factory and owned by W. & D. Rinehart. The firm has long since passed, and the business in Pittsburgh, once a leading one, is virtually dead.

The young fellows working in the tobacco factory were wont to play ball during their noon hour and utilized the street in front of the church. Some exciting games were played. Soft balls of rags, of course, were in use, but catching practice was with the regulation balls of the period. The audiences were the high school pupils from the upper windows of the National Bank of Commerce Building.

{{subhead|Pictures from Library.}}

There is much more interesting matter that can be written of Wood street and many reminiscences. It is not possible to enumerate and describe the buildings as in the case of Sixth avenue, neither is it necessary. However, some historic Wood street buildings may receive notice later.

The picture of the First Presbyterian Church shown today is from one in the collection of Pittsburgh views in the reference department of the Carnegie Library. It differs from ordinary views by the exhibit of a dwelling to the right on the side next to Virgin alley (now Oliver avenue). On this site the bank building shown was subsequently erected.

{{subhead|Church {{sic|Raised|Razed}} in 1903.}}

The church picture is from a print, a wood cut engraving, most probably taken from "Ballou's Drawing Room Companion," a magazine published in Boston, prior to the Civil War, that had a great circulation and made a special feature in illustrating after the manner of the old Harper's and Leslie's weeklies. The church was the third edifice of the congregation and was erected in 1851 and razed in 1903, when the McCreery Building was put up.

The corner now occupied by the Farmers Bank Building is shown with the adjacent buildings on Wood street and on Fifth avenue. On the Fifth avenue side the billiard saloon became in the '70's Burnell's Museum. About 1880 it was bought by the Sportsmen's Association of Western Pennsylvania and used by them as their headquarters. The corner building was razed in 1903 for the present great structure.

{{subhead|Familiar to Many.}}

Hill & Co. a few years later became the Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce, Joseph H. Hill president. This bank was absorbed a few years ago by the Mellon National Bank. The first building of the bank, that housed the old Central High School from April, 1868, until October, 1871, is also shown.

The stone chapel of the First Church in the rear of the bank building will be a familiar structure to many, but few will remember the old warehouse of 1851.

Source:Fleming-careers/content

Bkell — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:33:51 GMT

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	{{subhead\|Browns Erect Memorial Church.}}		{{subhead\|Browns Erect Memorial Church.}}

	The graveyard, as sometimes graveyards do, became neglected, but within a few years was reclaimed and put in good order by the late ~~Catp~~. Sam S. Brown, a native of the vicinity, who with his brother, W. Harry Brown, erected the Mary S. Brown Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church on the site of the old Turner chapel, in memory of their mother.		The graveyard, as sometimes graveyards do, became neglected, but within a few years was reclaimed and put in good order by the late Capt. Sam S. Brown, a native of the vicinity, who with his brother, W. Harry Brown, erected the Mary S. Brown Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church on the site of the old Turner chapel, in memory of their mother.

	The Turner land about this graveyard adjoined the land of Thomas Sutch. The burial plot, the deed states, contains 108 perches strict measure. To the deed John Turner made his mark, the consideration was "one dollar, lawful money of the United States well and truly paid."		The Turner land about this graveyard adjoined the land of Thomas Sutch. The burial plot, the deed states, contains 108 perches strict measure. To the deed John Turner made his mark, the consideration was "one dollar, lawful money of the United States well and truly paid."

Burchfield Avenue

Bkell — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:32:29 GMT

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	{{street		{{street
	\|neighborhood=Squirrel Hill South		\|neighborhood=Squirrel Hill South
			\|origin=Burchfield family, early Squirrel Hill pioneers
			\|origin-category=[[Category:Streets named for people]]
	}}		}}
	'''Burchfield Avenue''' was first laid out in 1893 in the Midway plan by J.{{thin}}C. Aufhammer and S.{{thin}}J. Macfarren.{{r\|midway-plan}} It was extended eastward in 1901 in the Squirrel Hill plan.{{r\|squirrel-hill-plan}}		'''Burchfield Avenue''' was first laid out in 1893 in the Midway plan by J.{{thin}}C. Aufhammer and S.{{thin}}J. Macfarren.{{r\|midway-plan}} It was extended eastward in 1901 in the Squirrel Hill plan.{{r\|squirrel-hill-plan}}

			In 1917, George T. Fleming wrote a newspaper column including a few paragraphs about burials in the graveyard at the Mary S. Brown Memorial Church. He wrote, "Adam Burchfield died in 1826, aged 64. We have Burchfield avenue from this family name."{{r\|fleming-rescued}}

	==References==		==References==
	{{references		{{references
			\|fleming-rescued
	\|midway-plan		\|midway-plan
	\|squirrel-hill-plan		\|squirrel-hill-plan
	}}		}}

Notes:Burchfield Avenue

Bkell — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:21:01 GMT

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			1917-02-11: [[Source:Fleming-rescued]]: "Adam Burchfield died in 1826, aged 64. We have Burchfield avenue from this family name."

	{{todo\|Ira M. Burchfield?}}		{{todo\|Ira M. Burchfield?}}

Source:Fleming-rescued

Bkell — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 08:33:49 GMT

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	\|source-name=Fleming-rescued		\|source-name=Fleming-rescued
	}}		}}<noinclude>{{source content}}</noinclude>

Source:Fleming-rescued/content

Bkell — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 08:33:14 GMT

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New page

{{headline|GIRTY RESCUED MAN FROM THE STAKE}}

{{deck|History Shows Renegade Was Cruel and Barbarous, However, to Whites.}}

{{deck|GLORIED IN REVENGE}}

{{byline|By GEORGE T. FLEMING.}}

MANY memories of Squirrel Hill have been awakened by the story of the little brick church and the old Turner graveyard in last week's Sunday Gazette Times. In the mention of John Turner there comes up also all the history of the three Girtys, the scourges of the borders, half-brothers of John Turner.

Some of this border history was reverted to last week. It is voluminous; much of it sad; much of it shocking. The fact that Mrs. John Turner, mother of John Turner, Jr., with her four sons by her first husband, Simon Girty, Sr., were pioneers in the Squirrel Hill district of Pittsburgh, gives this history a local phase and renders all the subsequent history of the Girtys relevant and necessary to complete the story begun within a few miles of Fort Pitt in the days of Col. Henry Bouquet here, 1763–1764.

{{subhead|Simon Refused Army Commission.}}

Then, too, Girtys Run commemorates this notorious family and the passing of the three renegade brothers, James, George and Simon, from even the rude civilization of the border to savage life among the Western tribes. Simon was the last to go, and he became the most notorious, but undoubtedly carried many of the sins of his fierce brothers.

Simon might have remained here with his mother, his brother, Thomas, and his well-loved half-brother, John Turner, on the lands they had settled on in the Squirrel Hill district had the colonial authorities granted him a commission in the Continental Army. His association with Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliott rendered him a subject to suspicion to the patriots, so that when the commission was refused him he became soured and morose and needed little urging to go along with McKee and Elliott in their flight from McKees Rocks in March 1778.

{{subhead|McKee and Elliott Dissatisfied.}}

James R. Albach, in his book, "Annals of the West," published in Pittsburgh in 1848, states that McKee and Elliott were also solicitous of commissions and were dissatisfied for the same reason that Girty was. There was good reason for distrusting McKee. Elliott was thoroughly contemptible. He was a spy and a traitor. The history brought up by the mention of these names has a Pittsburgh side and takes us back to thrilling days here. Some of this history is pertinent today.

Simon Girty seems to have been kind and humane at times and a thorough savage at others. With young John Turner he had served in a company that left here for service during Lord Dunmore's war in 1774. A comrade was Simon Butler, celebrated in Western history under his changed name, Simon Kenton.

{{subhead|Girty Saves Kenton from Stake.}}

A strong and lasting friendship sprang up between Kenton and Simon Girty which was turned to most excellent account when Girty met Kenton in 1774, a naked, blackened captive, condemned to the stake. Girty was successful in saving Kenton's life. It is an accepted fact of history that Girty was present at the burning of Col. William Crawford and had no mercy for that unfortunate man. Dr. Knight, surgeon under Crawford in the expedition, providentially escaped. In his "narrative" he fully describes Girty's conduct on that occasion.

It was on Saturday night, March 28, 1778 that the three subsequent notorious tories, McKee, Elliott and Girty, fled from McKee's house. In many accounts of the attack upon Fort Henry, now Wheeling, W. Va., it is stated that Simon Girty led the Indians. This is manifestly an error, for Girty was about Pittsburgh yet, and did not flee until six months later.

{{subhead|Attacks Are Mixed.}}

In the second attack upon Fort Henry the Indians were led by George Girty. This was September 11, 1782, shortly after the destruction of Hannastown, Westmoreland county. Someone has mixed the attacks and the leaders in the Fort Henry history.

Last week's story stated that George Girty had followed the good traits of the mother and her sons, Thomas Girty and John Turner. This statement is an inadvertence and can not be substantiated. Yet it is not any more at variance with the truth than many other statements of border history especially some concerning the Girty family.

Many facts mentioned last week were taken from a neat little booklet entitled "Squirrel Hill and Its Memories," published by the congregation of the Mary S. Brown Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1906. This church is the successor of the original Turner chapel of 1843. May 28, 1905 the congregation met in solemn service, the book states, to pay homage to the memory of the "Early Settlers of Squirrel Hill."

{{subhead|Say Turner Slew Girty.}}

On this occasion an interesting historical address was delivered by Samuel W. Stewart, a member of the congregation, and many of his statements therein were accepted. Some of them are at variance with standard writers of history. For instance, he attributes the murder of the elder Girty to an Indian. Albach, Hanna and other writers state that John Turner, Sr., murdered Girty in order that he might marry Mrs. Girty.

Albach is specific on this point. He states Girty came to Pennsylvania from Ireland about 1737; calls him a man of bad character (he could have said vile) and of dissolute habits. Beaten and abused by Girty, the poor wife turned to any kind heart near and that man happened to be Turner. George Girty was a typical Girty, Of the five sons of this woman Thomas Girty and John Turner, Jr., turned out upright men and that they did so seems wonderful, considering their environments. They were honest men—so, too, was Simon Girty, in many ways, as will be shown.

{{subhead|Met Indian Captives.}}

Henry Howe in his "Historical Collections of Ohio" has pages of history referring to the Girtys. Mr. Howe travelled over the state in a buggy and made it his business to search out elderly people who knew the facts he wanted. He met some real old people in those years between 1845–48, who had been captives among the Ohio Indians and some who had met the Girtys, one or all of them. Traces of them were lost shortly after the close of the war of 1812.

Mr. Howe also quotes from the many early histories to which he had access and presents many facts and much interesting history. For instance, in the sketch of Henry county (the Howe history is by counties), he states that Simon Girty for some time resided in a log cabin on the Maumee River and that in his day this place was known as Girty's Point.

{{subhead|Girty Liked {{sic|Wisky|Whisky}} Best.}}

Quoting from Campbell's sketches of border life, Howe gives this history:

<blockquote>
Simon Girty was from Pennsylvania, to which his father had emigrated from Ireland. The old man was beastly intemperate, and nothing ranked higher in his esteem than a jug of whisky. Grog was his song, and grog would he have. His sottishness turned his wife's affection. She yielded her heart to a neighboring rustic who, to remove all obstacles to their wishes, knocked Girty in the head and bore off the trophy of his prowess.

Four sons of this interesting couple were left. Three of them, Simon, George and James, were taken prisoners in Braddock's war. George was adopted by the Delawares, became a ferocious savage and died in a drunken fit. James was adopted by the Shawanese and became as depraved as his other brothers.
</blockquote>

{{subhead|Was Unrelenting Barbarian.}}

<blockquote>
Simon was adopted by the Senecas and became an expert hunter. In Kentucky and Ohio he sustained the character of an unrelenting barbarian. To the women and children in particular nothing was more terrifying than the name of Simon Girty. At that time it was believed that he had fled from justice and sought refuge among the Indians, determined to do his countrymen all the harm in his power. This impression was an erroneous one.

Being adopted by the Indians he joined them in their wars, and conformed to their usages. This was the education he had received, and their foes were his. His influence was great, and when he chose to be merciful it was generally in his power to protect the imploring captive.
</blockquote>

{{subhead|Abusive of Friend and Foe.}}

<blockquote>
His reputation was that of an honest man, and he fulfilled his engagement to the last cent. It is said that he once sold a horse rather than incur the odium of violating his promise. He was intemperate and when intoxicated ferocious and abusive alike to friend and foe. Although much disabled the last 10 years of his life by rheumatism, he rode to his hunting grounds in pursuit of game; suffering the most excruciating pains, he often boasted of his warlike spirit. It was his constant wish that he might die in battle. He was at Proctor's defeat, and was cut to pieces by Col. Johnston's mounted men.
</blockquote>

So much for Campbell's story. Proctor's defeat was on the River Thames, 86 miles from Detroit, October 5, 1813. There the great Shawanese chief, Tecumseh, was killed. We commemorate his name in a street in Hazelwood. Col. Johnston's men were Kentuckians. Proctor was the British commander.

{{subhead|Doubt Cast on Campbell.}}

Howe quotes Campbell as in the foregoing and in his own text says he has some anecdotes and facts which will throw doubt over Campbell's estimate of Girty's character. Howe makes Simon the leader in the Indian attack on Fort Henry at Wheeling. He quotes Dr. Knight and one Col. John Johnston, as to Girty's conduct at Crawford's death, Johnston saying: "Crawford and Girty were intimately acquainted in the early settlement of Pennsylvania. I knew a brother of Girty at Pittsburgh in 1793."

Which brother? Either Thomas Girty or John Turner who was also known as John Girty. Indeed Mrs. Turner, the mother, again became known as Mrs. Girty. Crawford and Girty became acquainted about Fort Pitt and prior to 1778. That much is certain, and not in the early settlement of Pennsylvania, but in the early settlement of the region about the forks of the Ohio, Augusta county, Virginia, for many years and Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, with conflicting claims and Virginia in power. Crawford was an adherent of the Virginia party.

{{subhead|{{sic|Ohion|Ohioan}} Tells of Girty.}}

So history rolls itself along—opening wider at the mention of each border name. Few think that the mention of the well-known suburb, McKees Rocks, or an equally well-known run, Girtys; a city church on land granted to pioneers; an olden time graveyard; can each and all bring up the same train of historical facts and the whole story of thrilling events on our Western border from Braddock's defeat until after the victory of Anthony Wayne, a period of 40 years—four decades of war and savagery.

To return to "Howe's Collections"—In his travels he met an old man near Bellefontaine named Daniel M. Workman, who gave this story:

<blockquote>
In 1812 I went to Malden, Canada, and put up at a hotel kept by a Frenchman. I noticed in the barroom a grayheaded and blind old man. The landlady who was his daughter, a woman about 30 years of age, inquired of me, "Do you know who that is?" pointing to the old man. On my replying "No," she rejoined, "That is Simon Girty." He had been blind for about four years.
</blockquote>

{{subhead|Found Girty Had Died.}}

<blockquote>
In 1815 I returned to Malden and ascertained that Girty had died a short time previous. Simon Newton informed me that Girty left the whites because he was not promoted to the command of a company. I was also so informed by my father-in-law, who was taken prisoner by the Indians. Girty was of extraordinary strength, power of endurance, courage, and sagacity. He was in height about 5 feet 10 inches and strongly made.
</blockquote>

Possibly there is some truth in this story. Kenton's part may be right, at least. Remember, when Mr. Workman was at Malden in 1812, he was in an enemy's country. It would add much to the story if he had told or Howe had thought to have asked him where he went from. The War of 1812 was then going on and few Americans were touring Canada of their own accord.

{{subhead|Brutal Looks of Girty.}}

Mr. Howe ran across a man named Oliver M. Spencer who had been taken prisoner by the Indians in 1792, the year after St. Clair's defeat. Mr. Spencer lived with an old Indian medicine man at Defiance or where Defiance now stands and during his captivity met the Girtys of whom all the frontiersmen had heard. Spencer described Simon. Two visitors came to the medicine man's cabin, one a chief named Blue Jacket, the other Simon Girty.

<blockquote>
Whether it was prejudice associated with his look, the fact that he was a renegade, the murderer of his own countrymen racking his diabolical invention to invent new and more excruciating tortures or not; his dark shaggy hair; his low forehead; his brows contracted and meeting above his short, flat nose; his grey sunken eyes, averting the ingenious gaze; his lips thin and compressed, and the dark and sinister expression of his countenance, he seemed, to me, to be the very picture of a villain. He wore the Indian costume but without any ornament, and his silk handkerchief while it supplied the place of a hat, hid an unsightly wound in his forehead. On each side of his belt was stuck a silver mounted pistol and at his left hung a short broad dirk, serving occasionally the uses of a knife.
</blockquote>

{{subhead|Exulted Over Revenge.}}

<blockquote>
He made of me many inquiries, some about my family, and the particulars of my captivity, but more of the strength of the different garrisons, the number of American troops at Fort Washington and whether the President intended soon to send another army against the Indians. He spoke of the wrongs he had received at the hands of his countrymen and with fiendish exultation of the revenge he had taken. He boasted of his exploits, the number of his victories and of his personal prowess, then raising his handkerchief he exhibited the deep wound in his forehead (which I afterwards learned was inflicted by the tomahawk of the celebrated Chief Brandt in a drunken frolic) said it was a saber cut which he had received at St. Clair's defeat, and that he had sent the {{3mdash}} Yankee officer to his grave—the latter saying with a great oath. He ended by saying that I would never see home, but if I should turn out to be a good hunter and a brave warrior, I might one day be a chief. His presence and conversation rendered my situation painful.
</blockquote>

Before Spencer was liberated he had a much more unsatisfactory interview with James Girty, who threw a great scare into the captive by pretending to sharpen a knife with which to kill him. Mr. Howe closes his account of the Girtys as far as Henry county is concerned by an extract from the manuscript of one Jonathan Alder, who knew Simon and to attest that Simon was not altogether destitute of kind feelings.

{{subhead|Said He Was Kind to Prisoners.}}

Alder said:

"I knew Simon Girty to purchase at his own expense several boys who were prisoners, take them to the British and have them educated. He certainly was a friend to many prisoners."

We can note that Mr. Howe makes no effort to reconcile his various testimonials. Spencer, whom he quotes, was probably between 60 and 70 when Mr. Howe met him and doubtless of sound mind and memory, a capable witness, but the reconciliation of the accounts of Simon Girty as an old man, a rheumatic hunter finally killed in battle, and a pathetic decrepit blind man is somewhat difficult.

{{subhead|Remained With the Indians.}}

James R. Albach, historian of our "Western Annals," states that the rest of the Girtys after their capture in 1756, were ransomed from 1758 to 1765, and that only the mother and Simon returned. He may be right in this, despite the fact that a warrant for land on Squirrel Hill was applied for in George's name. Albach states George remained with the Delawares until his death. He became a perfect savage, adopting entirely the manners of the Indians. To consummate cunning he added the most fearless intrepidity. In his latter years he gave himself up to intemperance and died drunk about 1813 on the "Miami of the Lake"—evidently a misprint for Maumee.

Albach says the Shawanese adopted James as a son. As he approached manhood he became dexterious in all the args of savage life. To the most sanguinary spirit he added all the vices of the depraved frontiersmen with whom he frequently associated. "To this barbarian," attests Albach, "are to be attributed many of the cruelties charged on Simon, yet this monster was caressed by Proctor and Elliott."

{{subhead|John Released by Senecas.}}

These two were British officers, the latter, Matthew Elliott, who had fled with Simon. No mention is made of John Turner by Albach. John was undoubtedly released among those forced from the Senecas, Delawares and Shawanees by Col. Bouquet in 1764. He was 10 years old when he was returned to his mother at Pittsburgh. Albach says Thomas Girty alone of the sons returned to civilized life. This is not true. We know Simon did, and remained about Pittsburgh, serving in Dunmore's war, and taking up land on Squirrel Hill, and leaving this vicinity in March, 1778. And there are records showing James returned, but, liking savage life, went again to the Indians. Albach says Thomas was one of the celebrated Sam Brady's spies in the Indian wars after the Revolution and that he died in 1820, probably in Butler county, Pa. He is not of record, any more than John Turner, his half-brother, is, of any connection with Indian life aside from their enforced captivity.

{{subhead|Honest in Money Deals.}}

Albach attests that Simon Girty was scrupulously exact in the {{sic|paymetn|payment}} of his obligations, also that he was a great lover of rum. Albach recounts the Thames battle version of Simon's death—and adds: "This, however, is not certain."

Let us depart from the story of these renegades and come again to the part of Pittsburgh where their mother and good brothers dwelt and where Simon lived, too, until he became an enemy to his countrymen; to the pleasant hills and valleys of former Peebles township of Allegheny county, to memories of the Turner Chapel, the Turner neighborhood and the mention of those pioneers who attended it and the mention also of some of Pittsburgh's foremost citizens, who maintained luxurious homes in the vicinity of the original Turner holdings and on parts of it.

Squirrel Hill is rich in memories. It was a beautiful suburban district when annexed to the city in 1868, and for some years afterwards, and then streets came and the rustic beauty of the region began to depart and is now about gone.

{{subhead|Story of Squirrel Hill.}}

Albert K. Smith, who spent 14 years of his early life in the Squirrel Hill region, writes from his home in Crawford county, Pa., where he has lived for 40 years. He says:

<blockquote>
I can send you a little story of old Squirrel Hill. My father, Dill A. Smith, moved his family there from Colwell street, in the original Sixth Ward, in March, 1854. I was then about 11 years old. Excepting the three years I was in the army I spent the succeeding years up to 1868 in our Squirrel Hill home, and a delightful rural section it was.

Our neighbors were John W. Butler, a retired commission merchnat; Abram Garrison, of the foundry firm of Bollman & Garrison; William H. Williams, a banker; John G. Martin, a bank official; William McKee, a blacksmith, and Joshua Tunstall, a milkman. There also was the Lytle family, John I. House, J.{{thin}}D. Collingwood and some others I cannot recall.
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{{subhead|No Means of Transportation.}}

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Our old home is in Greenfield avenue, about Kaercher street, and is now occupied by Emil Ertzman. There was a frame school house about a mile from us, where I attended. The teacher's name was Wilkinson. Two or three miles to the east of us there was a little Methodist brick church where we used to go with the girls of the neighborhood, most frequently to the revivals that were held there. We would cut across the fields, climb the hills, and climb over the many worm, or rail, fences, that abounded. The girls were always assisted over the fences.

We had no means of transportation to the city except by private conveyance or by walking. Later in the 50's the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad came in along the Braddocks Field plank road, as Second avenue was then called, and it gave us two stations near, one about what is now Greenfield avenue, called Frankstown Station, and the other at Four Mile Run, called Laughlins Station, from James Laughlin of Jones & Laughlin, who had their original Eliza furnace about opposite. There was a rolling mill at Frankstown owned and operated by John Grey & Co. I have been out around the old neighborhood several times, but could find no one I knew in my boyhood days. More than 60 years have rolled away since I first dwelt there. All is changed. Much is memory now.
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{{subhead|Sold Out to Jones.}}

Mr. Smith on a recent visit to Pittsburgh and since writing the above lines, was shown the picture of the Turner chapel. He said:

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That's the little brick church where we attended revivals in the fifties. Oh, yes! I remember the old graveyard. I knew the Brown boys, too, Capt. Sam and W. Harry Brown, and am glad they have remembered their mother in so practical and beautiful a manner as in the erection of the Mary S. Brown Memorial Church.

About 1864 or 1865 my brother sold his first home on Squirrel Hill to B.{{thin}}F. Jones of Jones & Laughlin, father of the present head of that firm. My father built a smaller house on a tract adjoining which he owned. This home he sold to George F. McCleane of the Soho Rolling Mills, the firm then Moorhead, McCleane & Co. This was in 1868, when my family left Pittsburgh. Both places were noted for the beautiful and well-kept grounds, handsome floral effects and abundant fruit trees. This was customary then about all suburban homes and Squirrel Hill had as handsome as any other suburb.
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{{subhead|List of Pioneers.}}

Mr. Smith was shown the memorial booklet of the Mary Brown Church and read over the list of many Squirrel Hill pioneer families. Others may do the same. Many of these can be read on the tombstones in the burial ground donated to the township by John Turner, some of the dates of birth going back to colonial days. Adam Burchfield died in 1826, aged 64. We have Burchfield avenue from this family name. Elizabeth Attison died in 1828, aged 73, showing she was born in 1755, the year of Braddock's defeat. Rachel Castleman died in 1832, aged 82, her birth antedating Braddock by five years. John Turner's wife, Susannah Clark, died April 1, 1833, aged 71; John Turner died May 20, 1840, aged 85; Margaret Sutch, born January 1, 1776, died July 29, 1849, so the old tombstones tell the story of pioneers who lived in thrilling years. There were interments as late as December 30, 1878, to-wit: "Delmont Jones, in the seventy-sixth year of his age."

{{subhead|Seven Soldiers Sleep There.}}

There were many burials without a mark of any kind and some with only a plain stone. One soldier of colonial wars, John Turner; one Revolutionary veteran, Abraham Boother (buried with military honors in 1820); one soldier of 1812, William Craig; one of Mexico, Henry Brewno, and three of the Civil War—seven soldiers sleep there and flags fly on each Memorial Day and flowers are strewn on their graves in memory of their services. The Civil War veterans were William Nelson, John Clark and Samuel Fowkes.

Many other names appeal as pioneers—McElroys, Pankes, Herberts, Dukes and Mitchels. There is known to be a record of a house built at a place on the Monongahela called "Summerset" as early as 1760; one by Hugh Reed in 1765, both near Squirrel Hill. Jacob Castleman, William Redding, Francis Wilson, James Blashford, James Fleming, David Irwin, William Craig, John McDonald, James Guffey and John Grace are names of Squirrel Hill pioneers that are reminders that descendants of them are still here.

And there are many others.