Source:Historical-background
"Historical background of Allegheny county boroughs: Historical background of Pittsburgh's neighbors." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept. 26, 1936, pp. 16–17. Newspapers.com 88920787, 88920794.
A huge field of horse radishes, strange as it may seem, first brought into prominence the Allegheny river town known now as Aspinwall.
Residents across the river, in the Highland Park district, oft-afflicted by the highly acrid and odoriferous smell of the H. J. Heinz Company garden called the small community "Spicetown."
Incorporated about 40 years ago, Aspinwall bears the name of one of the town's leading residents at that time, but old Chief Guyasuta, a Six Nations Indian, is wrapped up far more intimately in the borough's history than any other individual.
Chief Guyasuta once owned all the land now comprising Aspinwall, but General James O'Hara, of Revolutionary war fame, acquired the land from him and provided him a home thereon. Thenceforth the erstwhile scourge of the district's early settlers was a familiar figure on Pittsburgh's streets. When the old chief died, he was interred in a sunny cornfield on O'Hara's property. Later the body was moved to Carnegie Museum.
All but one of OHara's [sic] sons preceded him in death. O'Hara left his estate to a daughter of the surviving son. She married William McCullough Darlington and the district became known as the Darlington farm. Descendants of the Darlington family married into the Aspinwall clan and the latter led the movement for incorporation.
Even in just the borough's name, Avalon residents have something to brag about because in Arthurian legend it means "abode of the blessed." In Welsh, the name means "place of large apples" and, by coincidence, the site of the borough originally was a large apple orchard.
In 1875, then just a part of Kilbuck township, the present Avalon borough was incorporated as West Bellevue to bring the local postoffice, railroad station and other sections under one name.
With the borough of Bellevue immediately adjacent, confusion oft resulted, so a delegation petitioned and won permisison [sic] from the Allegheny county courts in 1893 to change the name to Avalon, a name suggested by a woman resident who returned shortly before from a visit to Greece. There, she said, she saw a city named Avalon and built on a site like her own home town's—a steep hillside.
The first council met for many years in an old school building, replaced in 1903 by a modern brick structure. In 1928, the council installed a borough manager form of government, selecting Joseph N. Arthur to guide the borough's affairs. He has been borough manager uninterruptedly from that time.
Failure to win a new boardwalk, sought by a group of citizens, led to formation of Bellevue borough in 1867, a 640-acre tract in Ross township known previously as "Sandy Bottoms."
Originally, the borough was a farm owned by Joseph Robinson, to whom the state deeded the tract in 1816. Subsequently, he sold portions to Sam Dilworth, Andrew Jack, Zacharias Blackburn, Erasmus Cooper and William Whiteside. Jack supplied the section with flour from a grist mill, running a ferry also across the Ohio river.
About 1852, the district began to attract residences of Pittsburgh's industrialists and business leaders. They asked the township to provide a boardwalk over the dirt roads in the district to Jacks Run, only railroad station in the vicinity.
The township refused. On June 8, 1867, 31 property owners led by Thomas M. Bayne, petitioned the Allegheny county courts for incorporation. The courts granted the petition and ordered an election of borough officers September 11 of the same year, and Samuel Claney became the borough's first burgess. Councilmen and other officers were elected also.
When a group of Kilbuck township residents living on a hill above the Ohio river decided in 1892 to inrporate as a borough, they were undecided, in choosing a name, between Scotch euphony and a tribute to an Indian chief friendly to the district's early settlers.
Leaders circulated petitions, asking the residents to choose between two Scotch words meaning "a hill by a lake," or the name Shannopin, suggested by the memory of the friendly Indian chief. The Scotch element in the borough won, however, and thus was Ben Avon titled.
The charter was granted in January of 1892 to about 350 residents. Since then, the number of residents has grown to about 2,600. But despite its fast growth, Ben Avon has kept Fred Schmucker as borough secretary from the time of the borough's inception.
General Edward Braddock, commander of England's colonial forces, and General George Washington were marching east [sic] along the Monongahela river July 9, 1755, when from ambush scattered shots rang out. General Braddock fell wounded. Several days later he died in a camp near Uniontown. The field in which he was wounded became known as Braddock's Field and was soon to be the first white settlement west of the Allegheny mountains.
Residents of Braddock's Field figured prominently in the Whisky Rebellion of 1794. George Wallace, Esq., of Pittsburgh, secured a tract of 328 acres from England. That tract was Braddock. Through a sheriff's sale Wallace was forced to sell and his land was purchased by James H. Buchanan and George H. Bell in 1846.
The chief industry in Braddock's Field at that time was the mining of coal, which soon gave way to steel. The village was incorporated into a borough in June 1867, the first burgess was Isaac Mills, Sr.
In 1917 during the early days of the World war, Brentwood borough was incorporated in several large farms, chiefly the Cowan, Davis and Sitterer estates. With a sparsely settled area of a square mile and with 500 inhabitants, Brentwood has grown to a thriving, residential suburban district of 8,000 population. Assessed valuations have jumped from $1,000,000 in 1917 to $8,500,000 today.
Two men, prominent in the history of Brentwood, still guide her course. They are A. J. Kaufman, now the burgess, who was a member of the first council, and Attorney C. H. Bracken, the borough solicitor. Mr. Bracken has served the borough since the days of the incorporation.
Unusual in the growth of the borough, Brentwood has no trolley line traversing it, as do almost all other boroughs. The trolley enters the borough only a few blocks, but buses ply the highways now. When the town was young, however, walking was the daily stint of almost all the residents.
The borough of Bridgeville which today is the center of many industries, had its beginning as a community in typical pioneer fashion more than 150 years ago. And because its early history was centered about a bridge over Chartiers creek, the residents, in seeking its incorporation as a borough in 1901, asked that it be named Bridgeville.
Back in the post-revolutionary war days, two farmers—Thomas Ramsey and Thomas Redman—owned the 640 acres that now comprise the borough. Chartiers creek in those days was used by the pioneers of the district to ship their flour and grain to the Ohio river and to point [sic] as far south as New Orleans. The only way these early shippers could reach the creek was by crossing a section of the land owned by Ramsey. That farmer undertook to capitalize on this. He moved to Virginia, but he placed a colored man on the property to collect toll from every one who crossed the land.
The pioneers objected to the levy, and decided to circumvent the charge by building a bridge across the creek. Each craftsman among the pioneers worked hewing timbers and joined in building the span. Before they were ready to set the timbers in place, however, Ramsey's toll collector protested in behalf of his master. The bridgebuilders chased him away at the point of a rifle, although one end of the bridge rested on the Ramsey property.
The colored man walked to Virginia to report to Ramsey, who took his case to court. The pioneers won, for the Government ruled the stream was navigable and therefore could not be blocked.
Since that time 19 bridges have been built in the town.
Bridgeville was once a part of Upper St. Clair township. Among its industries, the Vanadium Corporation, the Universal Steel Company and the Flannery Bolt Company are the largest. John F. Hosack was the first burgess. Dr. C. E. McMillen now holds that office.
In 1872 the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad bought the Smith, McCully and Strawbridge farms and extended the railroad through this section which was strictly an agricultural district. The farms provided many of the vegetables used in Pittsburgh. After the railroad had been built an auction was held and the property that had been bought from the land owners was sold and many purchasers built homes and started truck farms.
Several years later it was discovered that the property held rich coal veins and farming was almost forgotten to make way for this new industry. The Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Corporation owns most of the coal rights.
Castle Shannon was incorporated a borough in 1919 and has won fame as one of the largest coal centers in the country.
When the residents of Chartiers and Mansfield boroughs merged their twin governments back in 1895, they decided to name their combined community Carnegie in honor of the little Scotch steelmaster then at the height of his power. Andrew Carnegie not only gave the residents of the new borough permission to use his name, but he presented them with a library. The borough of Carnegie was a thriving industrial center in its early days and within its confines were big yards and repair shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. About a quarter of a century ago the shops were moved to the Scully yards, but the railroaders continued to make Carnegie their home. William Hill was the burgess of Carnegie, a position now held by J. Kelso Nichols.
In 1934 business men living on the hill above Wilkinsburg in Wilkins township decided to form a borough, "highly restricted" so that they "might be assured of a friendly group of neighbors; people like those now residing here who hold responsible positions." The struggle to form Churchill borough was a bitter one, but the secessionists were determined and carried their fight to the supreme court. The group not included in the borough complained that the township would be injured financially since most of the taxes came from the section wishing to break away. The keynote of the new borough was economical operation of the community enterprise. Joseph Hollander was elected first burgess.
During one of General Braddock's retreats through the Monongahela Valley, Zaddock Wright, a wagoneer in Braddock's army, saw an ideal spot for a home. That was in 1755. Several years later Wagoneer Wright returned to the spot along Peters Creek and in 1784 got a patent for the land from the government. The next settler in the district was Benjamin Custard, who came in 1785. The land passed from one man to the next and finally Samuel Sinclair acquired a farm which consisted of what is now most of Clairton proper.
Some say the city got its name from the last syllable of Sinclair's name. Soon Sinclair's farm was laid out in plans for lots and streets and with a population of 3,000 Clairton became a borough in 1903. In 1922, when the residents of North Clairton and Blair voted to organize with Clairton residents, the borough became a city.
Farming and shipping were the first industries of the town, but in 1900 Crucible Steel Company built plants there. Since that time Clairton has been a steel town.
Born in travail, nurtured in hardship and fostered by difficulties, the present borough of Coraopolis can point, probably, to the most exciting history of any other borough in Western Pennsylvania.
A settlement on the present site along the Ohio river dates back to pre-Revolutionary days, when Fort Vance, named for the district's principal landowner, guarded the homesteaders from a vicious band of Indians across the river.
As a part of Moon township, the settlement was known variously as Fort Vance and Middletown until exactly 50 years ago (plans are under way for an anniversary celebration) the Watsons, Ferrees, McCabes and others who succeeded the Vance family decided to incorporate.
They named the town after Cora Watson, daughter of T. F. Watson. Miss Watson later became Mrs. W. T. Treadway and is still alive. Descendants of the McCabes, related to the Vances, and the Ferrees are still living also. R. N. Ferree, present proprietor of an electrical store on the borough's main street, lost a great-great-uncle to the scalping knife of an Indian who crossed the river in pioneer days and led a foray against Fort Vance.
Except to some of the older residents of Pittsburgh, it probably will be news that the first silk mill west of the Allegheny mountains was located in Crafton. The mill was started in the borough several years after its incorporation in 1890.
Crafton was named in honor of James S. Crafton [sic] who owned most of the 800 acres that became the borough, and financed small time payments of lots and material to build homes there. He was the father of C. C. Craft, the first burgess. The majority of the residents of Crafton are employed or are in business in Pittsburgh. George W. Hill is the present burgess.
Dormont, one of Pittsburgh' [sic] best known suburbs, which topped all other communities in the state in rapid growth between the 1910 and 1920 censuses, was incorporated in 1909 and for a quarter of a century, developed with such amazing speed that today it is transformed from the sparsely settled real estate development of muddy streets and board walks, to a thriving community of fine residences, parks and schools.
The borough, once a part of Union and Scott townships, was made up of the Espy, Fetterman, Golden and Snyder farms. Its conception came with the boring of the street car tunnel through Mt. Washington and the opening up of hundreds of acres in the South Hills to home owners. Among the few hardy "pioneers" who braved the rigors of suburban life in 1909 were Fred E. Brown, ho became the first burgess. Charles Chamberlain is the present executive.
From the few hundred who lived in Dormont when it was formed, the population has grown to an estimated 15,000 today. The name, the product of a real estate firm's imagination was taken form the French, "D'or" for "of gold" and "mont" for mountain.
Farm land on the Greensburg Pike with elevation of 1,200 feet was originally owned by James Carson and James McClure, but in 1892 deeds for the land were transferred to the Monongahela Investment Company. Several years later a Mr. Sterling bought some of the land and blocked off a portion of it into Sterling Terrace. Not until some later date did James L. and John C. Deveeny, brothers, develop the terrace south to what is now the East McKeesport–North Versailles township line. The borough was incorporated in 1895 and has served as a residential district. Being surrounded with mills and so located that much of the mill dirt does not get to it, its advantage as a residential district is obvious.
In October, 1890, residents along Turtle Creek laid out the principal plot of what was to become the borough of East Pittsburgh. Situated 12 miles from Pittsburgh on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the borough has the distinction of being an asset to Pittsburgh's progress in transportation. East Pittsburgh was incorporated in 1892, and Miles Farrell was elected first burgess. Two years later the first units of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company were constructed, causing an influx of population which has been steadily growing since. It was in the Westinghouse buildings in East Pittsburgh that the idea of radio was born and conceived in the mind of the late H. P. Davis. As in other Turtle Creek valley communities, the chief occupation is either with the railroad or the Westinghouse company.
One of the pioneer settlers in the district that is now the borough of Edgewood, was Jane Grey Cannon Swishelm [sic], one of the leaders in the abolition movement 80 years ago and a friend of Abraham Lincoln. Early in the last century, however, the land was owned by James Kelly.
Edgewood which was incorporated as a borough in 1890 and is one of the few in this district operating under a borough manager.
With the exception of the plant of the Union Switch and Signal Company from which the borough derives much of its revenue, Edgewood is a residential community. Since E. O. Garrett, a civil engineer, took office as borough manager in January, 1931, taxes have been reduced from 14 to 11½ mills.
The very structure from which the present Edgeworth borough derived its name—a girl's seminary—no longer exists but the town's residents are proud that their town has such a dignified background.
The old Edgeworth Seminary was founded in 1836 by Mrs. Mary Oliver, an English lady, for the sprightly jeunes filles from neighboring Sewickley. Fire destroyed the institution about 50 years later but the residents near the seminary liked the name so well they chose it for the borough when the borough was incorporated in 1904. Before that, it was merely a portion of Leet township.
The district became famous throughout the country and in many other parts of the world as the home of Dr. John Dickson, born in 1812, who ran into a cholera epidemic while inspecting hospitals and medical schools in Rome. He figuratively peeled off his coat and aided materially in halting the disease's spread. Later, he served valiantly with a volunteer medical corps on the bloody battlefields of Chickahominy and Shiloh, during the Civil war. He spent the last 30 years of his life, after the war, in Edgeworth.
Donald Monroe and his family settled on the shores of the Monongahela river in 1769 and obtained a patent for the land, which he sold in 1784 to Stephen Bayard. Bayard laid out a village and named it Elizabethtown for his wife.
Joshua Walker, a pioneer from Philadelphia, settled in the new village and started a boat building industry in 1800. Two of his boars were used in the Lewis and Clark expeditions. The first steamer built in Elizabethtown, which history says is the oldest community in Allegheny county except Pittsburgh, was named "Stephen Decatur." It was finished in 1824. Ten years later the town was incorporated. Lumber was the chief industry of Elizabeth in the early days. Now the borough has become a strictly residential section with the river port its chief concern.
All Etna's life and activities still center around the huge Spang–Chalfant mill, whose predecessor on the same site started the present Allegheny river borough toward prosperity and incorporation on September 16, 1868.
Old General Wilkins, of Revolutionary war fame, was the original owner of a large tract of land at the mouth of Pine creek which is now comprised by Etna borough. His home was the first in the district.
After General Wilkins came David Anderson, who purchased much of the former's holdings and laid them off into streets and lots. For many years, the community was known as "Stewardstown [sic]," in honor of David Stewart, an active citizen who aided Anderson in founding the place and one of the first residents following General Wilkins.
When the time came, however, for formal naming of the district, the residents selected Mt. Etna, and then just Etna, after a hill within the town's limits.
In 1820, a manufacturer started producing farm tools and machinery on the present Spang–Chalfant location. H. S. Spang purchased the plant in 1828 to start producing iron. From Spang's purchase, the present huge industrial plant developed.
The boom days of the World war and a housing shortage in the Turtle Creek Valley were the two factors which brought about the creation of Forest Hills borough, which today has a population of more than 5,000. The Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh was operating to capacity in those days and many employes found housing their families a problem. Several erected homes on a strip of land known as Hemple's farm and erected homes. Others followed. In 1919 the residents of the community banded together and had the place which was part of Braddock and Wilkins township incorporated as a borough. They elected John France as their first burgess. Most of Forest Hills residents are employed by Westinghouse.
Glassport, named for the United States Glass Company located there, was once a part of Port Vue. The secession came when the residents of Glassport wanted to issue bonds for $60,000 to pave the main street—Monongahela avenue. Port Vue citizens objected because they said they would never see the improvement. Glassporters thereupon petitioned for an incorporation of their own and got it in 1902. H. C. Griffin became burgess and George F. Pforsich, the first president of council. The bond issue went through and the street was paved.
Before the glass plant or many of the residents came to that section, Harry Rommel settled on a farm there. The house, over 100 years old, still stands at Seventh and Michigan avenues.
Besides glass, residents depend upon steel and railroads for their livelihood.
Probably one of the oldest—but still one of the smallest—boroughs in Allegheny county is Glenfield, beautifully situated on the Ohio river adjacent to Sewickley and incorporated in 1875.
When the town was incorporated, the residents selected the name of Camden for their community, situated in a little glen from whence flowed a creek into the Ohio river. A year later, however, they went before the Allegheny county common pleas court with a petition to change the name to the present one. The petition was granted.
Glenfield is and always has been purely a residential district, and it contains to this day many descendants of early pioneers who carved the livelihoods out of slowly-yielding forest land. The first settler in the district is believed to be John Boggs, a soldier in the Revolution, who arrived there from Philadelphia about 1796.
Mt. Oliver is unique among communities in Pennsylvania, if not the United States, in that it is an independently governed community within a metropolitan city. Back in 1892 a section of Lower St. Clair township was divided and Mt. Oliver formed. The borough was named in honor of Oliver Ormsby, a son of John Oliver [sic], a pioneer who once owned all the land in that area of the South Hills. Mt. Oliver is completely surrounded by Pittsburgh and is bounded by such communities as Knoxville, Carrick and St. Clair which were once boroughs until their annexation to the city within the last decade. Although it has a few small industries, the residents of Mt. Oliver in the main depend on those in Pittsburgh for a livelihood. Charles W. Beckman is burgess of Mt. Oliver.
Although it has scarcely more than 100 residents whose homes are spread over a mile-square area that was once farm land, the borough of Heidelburg [sic] will be remembered by historians as the scene of one of the major disasters in the history of Allegheny county.
The borough was incorporated in [ . . . ] by its German immigrant founders, who named their community for old Heidelburg [sic] in their native land which has been [renowned?] in song and story. And it was a strange twist of fate that an unforgettable tragedy in the [ . . . ] of the community should come when all its resources were in use manufacturing munitions to help America win its war against Germany, Heidelburg [sic] today is a residential community. But in the [⸺rid] war days the American Chemical Corporation was working at capacity on munitions orders. An explosion, the cause of which was never determined, destroyed the plant, killing 35 persons and injuring 30 others.
Where Heidelberg now stands in Collier township, there was once nothing but the McCabe and [Cub⸺ge] farms. William Lindsay was the borough's first burgess. Frank [⸺rnick] holds that position today.
Tracing their heritage back to the famous land grants of William Penn, members of the family of Edward Ingram owned all of what is now the thriving borough that bears the family name when it was incorporated in 1902. Before that, small parcels of land had been sold as homesites. Shortly after the [⸺iley] line and the Pennsylvania Railroad crossed near the center of the community it was incorporated and D. J. Rex chosen as the first burgess. Mr. Rex gave away [to?] his son, John Rex, as the chief executive who held office until just a few years ago when Carl [Dittmar?], the present burgess, was elected.
For many years Ingram was a favorite community for Pennsylvania Railroad employes, there hundreds made their homes close to the line that carried them to their employment.
Mrs. Helen B. Ingram, idow of the son of the man for whom the community was named, still lives in the old Ingram homestead.
Early advent of the machine age almost spelt the doom, 30 years ago, for the then newly-formed Leetsdale borough, far down the Ohio river to the Allegheny county line.
The early settlement on the borough's present site prospered and grew fast under the guidance of the Economites from Ambridge, who found the clay soil at Leetsdale excellent for manufacture of building bricks.
The settlement grew so fast that the several hundred brick-making residents decided, in 1905, to secede from Leet township and form a municipality of their own, which they did. However, they retained in the borough nomenclature the name of Samuel Leet, pioneer farmer and landowner, for whom the township was named originally.
About 1907, however, machine methods displaced the value of Leetsdale's clay beds. Then the borough started in search of industries, succeeding so well that the town has grown at present to a population of 2,800.
McKeesport, a thriving city of large steel factories, department stores, schools and churches, was laid out and planned by John McKee and known at first as McKee's Ferry. In planning the town, McKee erred, for he built the main streets running north and south instead of east and west as they run today. Consequently, the side streets in McKeesport are wide, and the main streets narrow.
John McKee was the son of David McKee who settled at the junction of the Youghiogheny and Monongahela rivers in 1755 after fleeing religious prosecution [sic] in England and Ireland. David started a trading post and operated a ferry across the rivers. Thus was the town's first name derived.
As a trading post the settlement flourished into a farming and coal mining center which in 1842 was incorporated as a borough. James P. Hendrickson was the first burgess. Prosperity continued for the borough and in 1897 it became a city, and Thomas Tillbrook became the first mayor with Jacob Everett the first treasurer. Steel is the principal industry in McKeesport.
In and around Millvale still live many descendants of John Sample, Revolutionary war soldier who, in 1790, received a grant of land comprising the site of the present borough in exchange for his military services.
Sample, a doughty and enterprising businessman from the Cumberland valley, surrounded his own home with several others in the deep valley of Girty's run, named for Simon Girty, the notorious renegade.
In 1844, Sample sold Allegheny county a 164-acre tract which became the county poor farm. Sample's price was $25,000, but the county sold it later for $300,000. The old poor farm building, still standing, is now an apartment house in the heart of the town.
But the town gets its name from being the home of one of the district's first steel mills, established in 1863 by the Graff and Bennett company. The town prospered so with its steel mill that incorporation came just five years later.
Sample's fourth child, a son, was the second white male child to be born north and west of the Allegheny river. Soon after the child's birth, Indians descended on the home of a neighbor, Thomas Dick, and wiped out the family. Then they attacked the Sample home. Sample was out scouting. The Indians captured Mrs. Sample, still abed with her new-born boy, and her other children. They carried the family across the Allegheny river.
An Indian squaw whom Mrs. Sample had befriended and clothed several months before aided Mrs. Sample and her children from the camp and into a canoe. Mrs. Sample paddled it through the ice-choked river, made her way to Fort Duquesne, and awaited her husband's return.
In 1764 Colonel Bouquet, commander of the garrison of Fort Pitt, deeded 1,375 acres of land in what is now Stowe township to Alexander McKee, assistant agent for Indian affairs. Already McKee's brother, James, had settled there and oral history has it that he, not Alexander, was the first McKees Rocks settler. But it is said that it was Alexander and not James who gave his name to the town. Upon the outbreak of the revolution Alexander sided with the British and so an order was issued by Colonial authorities for his arrest. Tradition states that he bed [sic] on horseback, but that when he rode into the Ohio river he was thrown from his horse. Grasping his horse's tail he was dragged to the shore. The name of "Horsetail Rapids" was given to the rapids at the point where he entered the Ohio.
Still another legent [sic] has it that McKee's name was given to the town because he rode his horse off a rocky cliff overhanging the Ohio river when Indians surrounded him while he was working in his fields one summer afternoon. That legend reports that although the horse was killed, McKee swam to the other side and escaped. From that time the cliffs, long since blown down to make way for a railroad, were known as McKee's Rocks. When the borough was incorporated in 1890 it took its name from the old legend.
The borough once a part of Stowe township, became identified with heavy industry early in its existence.
The shops and yards of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad is the largest industry. Other large employers of labor are the Federal Stamping and Enamel Company, the Enterprise Can Company, and several large spring companies. P. J. Henney is the burgess.
In 1901 the residents of "Carnegietown" (so known because of Carnegie's steel mills, there) succeeded in having their village incorporated into the present borough of Munhall. John M. Molamphy was elected burgess. The Carnegie mills are now the Homestead plant of the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation and are on property that once was the site of the Allegheny County Poor Farm. Most of the borough's property was the farm of John Munhall from whom the borough got its name. In 1929 the residents of that section of Mifflin township known as Homestead Park voted to enter Munhall. The chief industry in this thriving community is steel.
The phenomenal growth of Mt. Lebanon township from tracts of farm land to one of the largest suburban residential communities in the county in the space of 24 years is told in population figures and property valuations. Back in 1912 when the township—which often is erroneously referred to Mt. Lebanon borough because of its size—was incorporated, the population was 1,500. Today more than 16,000 persons reside in the township. Property valuation in the township 24 years ago was $2,000,000. Now it is $30,000,000. The township consists of little more than five square miles.
Two of the men who took an active part in the beginning of the community are now, as they were then, township officials. They are Frank Cooke, the tonship secretary, who was one of its first commissioners, and Attorney Samuel Schreiner, the first solicitor who still holds that position. Although the street railway line ends in the middle of the township, the residents have bus service from outlying sections connecting with the trolley route.
Farms belonging to the Mills, Andersons, Kirkpatricks, Bells and McKenneys in Braddock township have gone to make up North Braddock borough, which was incorporated in 1897. Henry L. Anderson was the first burgess. The community got its name because of its location in relation to Braddock. The Edgar Thomson plant of Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation as built in part of the old McKenney property. Borough historians point with pride to the 1900 population figure of 6,500 and the 1927 figure of 16,784. The first industry of the borough was of course, farming, then coal mining and now the making of steel.
From its earliest days, Osborne borough has been beset by a multitude of legal difficulties, multifarious land transfers and other untoward circumstances. A fight over incorporation, even, was carried through the supreme court, but a charter was granted finally on March 10, 1883.
The original site of the pleasant Ohio river residential community was a tract allotted to Henry Pratt, of Philadelphia, by the commonwealth, in 1793. Pratt's family sold it to Jonathan Leet, who owned many other large tracts in the district.
In 1802, John Vail obtained the tract. He sold it to Thomas Beer and Robert Peebles. Peebles' share went to Robert Hopkins ho conveyed it to Daniel M. White. The latter, in turn, sold it to Griswold Warner. Warner's executors sold the land to Harriet A. Gilmore and Harriet W. Osburn, the latter a daughter of Warner's.
This land became known as the "Osburn" tract, now spelled "Osborne." In 1889, orphans court confirmed the Osburn title and the Osburn heirs conveyed the property to the Sewickley school district for $30,000.
Mary Roberts Rinehart lived in Osborne for many years, although Sewickley claims her. The house in which she lived suggested "the Circular Staircase," with hich the noted author attained early fame. Osborne is one of the smallest boroughs in the county, in population, and is virtually all residential.
Residents of the borough of Port Vue are quick to tell you that their borough was purchased from the Indians for a jug of whisky. Levi Edmundson, a shrewd old settler, was the man said to have made the deal. He settled there with his family and started farming. Another settler was a man named McClure.
Port Vue became a borough in 1892. The chief industry of the borough now is the making of tin plate in the McKeesport Tin Plat Company on the banks of the Youghiogheny.
James Hawkins, Thomas Rankin and Jack Adams had farms near Braddock's Field along the Monongahela river. Braddock's Field was already a sizable village and industry was crowding out toward these farms. In 1893 residents along Braddock's road (now Braddock avenue) sought to form a borough. Rankin was incorporated that year. The name was taken from Thomas Rankin, whose daughter, Clara, married Dr. George Alfred Sloane, the first burgess. William Sullivan, father of the borough's present captain of police, William Sullivan, was the first chief of the fire department and the first constable. From a quiet farming land, Rankin has changed to a busy steel manufacturing town.
The beautiful Ohio river town of Sewickley, noted for its pleasant homes, scenery and well-kept lawns, has always been a residential center, and one of the finest in the United States.
In 1783, Daniel Leet started a survey of lands acquired shortly before by William Penn from the Six Nations Indians. He came upon the present site of Sewickley and, stricken by its beauty, desired it instantly for his own. Purchase followed.
The land descended from Leet to a daughter, who later became Mrs. David Shields. Its first white settler was Henry Ulery, retired German sea captain, who arrived there about 1790. He moved away several years later, however, because of the depredations of neighboring Indians, the precariousness of frontier existence, and the fact he lost two sons in farm accidents.
Then the land was sold in 1810 to Thomas Hoey. Settling picked up fast thereafter and Hoey's holdings diminished quickly in favor of more and smaller homesteads. The residents called their community "Sweet Valley" and later "Sweetleyville."
But the present name of the town is derived from the Indian word "Seweekly," which the Indians applied to sap flowing each spring from the many maple trees in the district. When the town was incorporated on July 6, 1853, it was named "Sewickleyville," and common usage in later years did away with the affix. Before that, the town had been known also as "Contention," "Fifetown" (a tribute to the many Scotch-Irish settlers) and as "Bowling Green."
General Forbes and his column of soldiers passed through Swissvale, then a wilderness, in 1758. Later, in 1786, Wililam [sic] Elliot settled in the vale. He brought his family from New Jersey. Tangible history of Swissvale began when Jane Gray [sic] Swisshelm, her husband and her baby settled there in 1842. They had a large rambling house in Nine-Mile Hollow. Mrs. Swisshelm, a writer, is said to have had two tame bears, a deer and a tame panther chained in back of her home. She so loved the vale in which she lived and wrote that she named it Swiss-vale. Her home was the center of a settlement that gradually grew until in 1898 the residents petitioned the courts to have the town incorporated. Swissvale has always been a residential district with few large industries.
History of the lower Monongahela Valley and necessarily Turtle Creek Valley frequently mentions the name of the Widow Meier. Nationally known men of colonial days, hunters, pioneers and everyone, it seems, could find shelter at Widow Meier's. Her home and her land bordered on Turtle Creek and much of it is now the present borough.
History is vague about Widow Meier and her life remains mysterious. Years later her land was divided into farms which were owned by McClellands, Carothers and Mellons. Turtle Creek borough was incorporated in 1892. Old residents say it got its name from the creek which was "infested" with turtles. W. H. Semmens was elected first burgess. The chief occupation of the inhabitants was coal mining until the mines gave out and they turned to farming and later to employment in the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company.
That section of South Versailles township which in 1892 became Versailles borough was noted in its early days for Indian outrages. In 1777, seven members of the Keyser family were murdered by a roving band of savages who set fire to the house and went to the fields to scalp the father and a son. One son escaped in the river, it is said.
When Versailles became of sufficient size to become a borough there were many controversies. Justice of the Peace Robert Wilson said the place was all woods and was used simply by McKeesporters for a place to shoot rabbits. Nevertheless, it became a borough and thrived beside the quiet waters of the Youghiogheny. In 1920 the borough attracted especial interest throughout the country when word of gas being found there got about. Hundreds of dollars were invested in wildcat speculation. Dave Foster and Sam Brendel are credited with starting the boom by finding a well near Snake Hollow.
Farming was the chief industry in Versailles until the galvanizing plant of the National Tube Company was built there. Now that is the main industry of the borough.
The Schultz farm covered most of the territory which is now Whitaker borough. It started as a German community in the lower section of Mifflin township. The "people just came here and settled" was the explanation of why they came. Aaron Whitaker, a prominent man of the time and a well-to-do farmer in this section, was honored by having the new borough named for him. It was incorporated in 1904 and, it was learned that the residents had a standing agreement that if the first child born in the new borough was a boy, he would be named Whitaker. If it was a girl, she would be called Borough. It so happened the first child was a boy. He was promptly christened Whitaker Dierstein, now a justice of the peace and a political leader in the borough.
