Block House of Fort Pitt. Built 1764.

FORT DUQUESNE

AND

FORT PITT

EARLY NAMES OF PITTSBURGH STREETS

SIXTH EDITION

PUBLISHED BY

FORT PITT SOCIETY

DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

OF

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Reed & Witting Co., Press
1921

This little sketch of Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt is compiled from extracts taken mainly from Parkman's Histories; The Olden Time, by Neville B. Craig; Fort Pitt, by Mrs. Wm. Darlington; Pioneer History, by S. P. Hildreth, etc.

Pittsburgh
September, 1898.

CHRONOLOGY

FORT DUQUESNE

Conflicting Claims of France and England in North America.

On maps of British America in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, one sees the eastern coast, from Maine to Georgia, gashed with ten or twelve colored patches, very different in size and shape, and defined more or less distinctly by dividing lines, which in some cases are prolonged westward until they reach the Mississippi, or even across it and stretch indefinitely towards the Pacific.

These patches are the British Provinces, and the western prolongation of their boundary represents their several claims to vast interior tracts founded on ancient grants, but not made good by occupation or vindicated by an exertion of power * * *

Each Province remained in jealous isolation, busied with its own work, growing in strength, in the capacity of self-rule, in the spirit of independence, and stubbornly resisting all exercise of authority from without. If the English-speaking population flowed westward, it was in obedience to natural laws, for the King did not aid the movement, and the royal Governor had no authority to do so. The power of the colonies was that of a rising flood, slowly invading and conquering by the unconscious force of its own growing volume, unless means be found to hold it back by dams and embankments within appointed limits.

In the French colonies it was different. Here the [Pg 8]representatives of the crown were men bred in the atmosphere of broad ambition and masterful, far-reaching enterprise. They studied the strong and weak points of their rivals, and with a cautious forecast and a daring energy set themselves to the task of defeating them. If the English colonies were comparatively strong in numbers these numbers could not be brought into action, while if French forces were small they were vigorously commanded and always ready at a word. It was union confronting division, energy confronting apathy, and military centralization opposed to industrial democracy, and for a time the advantage was all on one side. Yet in view of what France had achieved, of the patient gallantry of her explorers, the zeal of her missionaries, the adventurous hardihood of her bush-rangers, revealing to mankind the existence of this wilderness world, while her rivals plodded at their workshops, their farms, their fisheries; in view of all this, her pretensions were moderate and reasonable compared to those of England.

Forks of the Ohio.—Washington's First Visit.

The Treaty of Utrecht had decided that the Iroquois or Five Nations were British subjects; therefore it was insisted that all countries conquered by them belonged to the British crown. The range of the Iroquois war parties was prodigious, and the English laid claim to every mountain, forest and prairie where an Iroquois had taken a scalp. This would give them not only all between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, but all between Ottawa and Huron, leaving nothing to France but the part now occupied by the Province of Quebec.

The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and that of Aix la Chapelle in 1748, were supposed to settle the disputed boundaries of the French and English [Pg 9]possessions in America; France, however, repented of her enforced concessions, and claimed the whole American continent as hers, except a narrow strip of sea-coast. To establish this boundary, it was resolved to build a line of forts from Canada to the Mississippi, following the Ohio, for they perceived that the "Forks of the Ohio," so strangely neglected by the English, formed together with Niagara the key of the great West.

This chain of forts began at Niagara; then another was built of squared logs at Presque Isle (now Erie), and a third called Fort Le Boeuf, on what is now called French Creek. Here the work stopped for a time, and Lagardeur de St. Pierre went into winter quarters with a small garrison at Fort Le Boeuf.

On the 11th of December, 1753, Major George Washington, with Christopher Gist as guide, Abraham Van Braam as interpreter, and several woodsmen,[A] presented himself as a bearer of a letter from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to the commander of Fort Le Boeuf. He was kindly received. In fact, no form of courtesy was omitted during the three days occupied by St. Pierre in framing his reply to Governor Dinwiddie's letter. This letter expressed astonishment that his (St. Pierre's) troops should build forts upon lands so notoriously known to be the property of Great Britain, and demanded their immediate and peaceable departure. In his answer, St. Pierre said he acted in accordance with the commands of his general, that he would forward Governor Dinwiddie's letter to the Marquis Duquesne and await his orders.

It was on his return journey that Washington [Pg 10]twice escaped death. First from the gun of a French Indian; then in attempting to cross the Allegheny, which was filled with ice, on a raft that he and his companions had hastily constructed with the help of one hatchet between them. He was thrown into the river and narrowly escaped drowning; but Gist succeeded in dragging him out of the water, and the party landed on Wainwright's Island, about opposite the foot of Thirty-third Street. On making his report Washington recommended that a fort be built at the "Forks of the Ohio."

Men and money were necessary to make good Governor Dinwiddie's demand that the French evacuate the territory they had appropriated; these he found it difficult to get. He dispatched letters, orders, couriers from New Jersey to South Carolina, asking aid. Massachusetts and New York were urged to make a feint against Canada, but as the land belonged either to Pennsylvania or Virginia, the other colonies did not care to vote money to defend them.

In Pennsylvania the placid obstinacy of the Quakers was matched by the stolid obstinacy of the German farmers; notwithstanding, Pennsylvania voted sixty thousand pounds, and raised twelve hundred men at eighteen pence per day. All Dinwiddie could muster elsewhere was the promise of three or four hundred men from North Carolina, two companies from New York and one from South Carolina, with what recruits he could gather in Virginia. In accordance with Washington's recommendation, Capt. William Trent, once an Indian trader of the better class, now a commissioned officer, had been sent with a company of backwoodsmen to build a fort at the Forks of the Ohio, and it was hoped he would fortify himself sufficiently to hold the position. Trent began the fort, but left it with forty men under Ensign Ward and went back to join [Pg 11]Washington. The recruits gathered in Virginia were to be commanded by Joshua Fry, with Washington as second in command.

Fort Duquesne.—Washington at Fort Necessity.

On the 17th of April, 1754, Ward was surprised by the appearance of a swarm of canoes and bateaux descending the Allegheny, carrying, according to Ward, about one thousand Frenchmen, who landed, planted their cannon and summoned the Ensign to surrender. He promptly complied and was allowed to depart with all his men. The French soon demolished the unfinished fort and built in its place a much larger and better one, calling it Fort Duquesne, in honor of the Marquis Duquesne, then Governor of Canada.

Washington, with his detachment of ragged recruits, without tents and scarcely armed, was at Will's Creek, about one hundred and forty miles from the "Forks of the Ohio," and he was deeply chagrined when Ward joined him and reported the loss of the fort. Dinwiddie then ordered Washington to advance. In order to do so, a road must be cut for wagons and cannon, through a dense forest; two mountain ranges must be crossed, and innumerable hills and streams. Towards the end of May he reached Great Meadows with one hundred and fifty men. While encamped here, Washington learned that a detachment of French had marched from the fort in order to attack him. They met in a rocky hollow and a short fight ensued. Coulon de Jumonville, the commander, was killed; all the French were taken prisoners or killed except one Canadian. This skirmish was the beginning of the war. Washington then advanced as far as Christopher Gist's settlement, twelve or fourteen miles on the other side of the Laurel Ridge. He soon heard that strong [Pg 12]reinforcements had been sent to Fort Duquesne, and that another detachment was even then on the march under Coulon de Villiers, so on June 28th he began to retreat. Not having enough horses, the men had to carry the baggage on their backs, and drag nine swivels over miserable roads. Two days brought them to Great Meadows, and they had but one full day to strengthen the slight fortification they had made there, and which Washington named Fort Necessity.

The fighting began at about 11, and lasted for nine hours; the English, notwithstanding their half starved condition, and their want of ammunition, keeping their ground against double their number. When darkness came a parley was sounded, to which Washington at first paid no attention, but when the French repeated the proposal, and requested that an officer might be sent, he could refuse no longer. There were but two in Washington's command who could understand French, and one of them was wounded. Capt. Van Braam, a Dutchman, acted as interpreter. The articles were signed about midnight. The English troops were to march out with drums beating, carrying with them all their property. The prisoners taken in the Jumonville affair were to be released, Capt. Van Braam and Major Stobo to be detained as hostages for their safe return to Fort Duquesne.

This defeat was disastrous to the English. There was now not an English flag waving west of the Alleghanies. Villiers went back exultant to Fort Duquesne, and Washington began his wretched march to Will's Creek. No horses, no cattle, most of the baggage must be left behind, while the sick and wounded must be carried over the Alleghanies on the backs of their weary, half starved comrades. And this was the Fourth of July, 1754.

[Pg 13]The conditions of the surrender were never carried out. The prisoners taken in the skirmish with Jumonville were not returned. Van Braam and Stobo were detained for some time at Fort Duquesne, then sent to Quebec, where they were kept prisoners for several years. While a prisoner on parole Major Stobo made good use of his opportunities by acquainting himself with the neighborhood; afterwards he was kept in close confinement and endured great hardships; but in the spring of 1759 he succeeded in making his escape in the most miraculous manner. While Wolfe was besieging Quebec he returned from Halifax, and, it is said, it was he who guided the troops up the narrow wooded path to the Heights of Abraham. Strange, that one taken prisoner in a far distant province, in a skirmish which began the war, should guide the gallant Wolfe to the victory at Quebec, which virtually closed the war in America.

Braddock.

Nothing of importance was done in Virginia and Pennsylvania until the arrival of Braddock in February, 1755, bringing with him two regiments. Governor Dinwiddie hailed his arrival with joy, hoping that his troubles would now come to an end. Of Braddock, Governor Dinwiddie's Secretary, Shirley wrote to Governor Morris: "We have a general most judiciously chosen for being disqualified for the service he is in, in almost every respect." Braddock issued a call to the provincial governors to meet him in council, which was answered by Dinwiddie of Virginia, Dobbs of North Carolina, Sharpe of Maryland, Morris of Pennsylvania, Delancy of New York, and Shirley of Massachusetts. The result was a plan to attack the French at four points at once. Braddock was to advance on Fort Duquesne, Fort Niagara was to be reduced, Crown Point seized, and a body [Pg 14]of men from New England to capture Beausejour and Arcadia.

We will follow Braddock. In his case prompt action was of the utmost importance, but this was impossible, as the people refused to furnish the necessary supplies. Franklin, who was Postmaster General in Pennsylvania, was visiting Braddock's camp with his son when the report of the agents sent to collect wagons was brought in. The number was so wholly inadequate that Braddock stormed, saying the expedition was at an end. Franklin said it was a pity he had not landed in Pennsylvania, where he might have found horses and wagons more plentiful. Braddock begged him to use his influence to obtain the necessary supply, and Franklin on his return to Pennsylvania issued an address to the farmers. In about two weeks a sufficient number was furnished, and at last the march began. He reached Will's Creek on May 10, 1755, where fortifications had been erected by the colonial troops, and called Fort Cumberland. Here Braddock assembled a force numbering about twenty-two hundred. Although Braddock despised the provincial troops and the Indians, he honored Col. George Washington, who commanded the troops from Virginia, by placing him on his staff.

A month elapsed before this army was ready to leave Fort Cumberland. Three hundred axemen led the way, the long, long, train of pack-horses, wagons, and cannon following, as best they could, along the narrow track, over stumps and rocks and roots. The road cut was but twelve feet wide, so that the line of march was sometimes four miles long, and the difficulties in the way were so great that it was impossible to move more than three miles a day.

On the 18th of June they reached Little Meadows, not thirty miles from Fort Cumberland, where a report reached them that five hundred regulars were on [Pg 15]their way to reinforce Fort Duquesne. Washington advised Braddock to leave the heavy baggage and press forward, and following this advice, the next day, June 19th, the advance corps of about twelve hundred soldiers with what artillery was thought indispensable, thirty wagons, and a number of pack-horses, began its march; but the delays were such that it did not reach the mouth of Turtle Creek until July 7th. The distance to Fort Duquesne by a direct route was about eight miles, but the way was difficult and perilous, so Braddock crossed the Monongahela and re-crossed farther down, at one o'clock.

Washington describes the scene at the ford with admiration. The music, the banners, the mounted officers, the troops of light cavalry, the naval detachment, the red-coated regulars, the blue-coated Virginians, the wagons and tumbrils, the cannon, howitzers and coehorns, the train of pack-horses and the droves of cattle passed in long procession through the rippling shallows and slowly entered the forest.

Fort Duquesne was a strong little fort, compactly built of logs, close to point of where the waters of the Allegheny and Monongahela unite. Two sides were protected by these waters, and the other two by ravelins, a ditch and glacis and a covered way, enclosed by a massive stockade. The garrison consisted of a few companies of regulars and Canadians and eight hundred Indian warriors, under the command of Contrecœur. The captains under him were Beaujeu, Dumas, and Ligneris.

When the scouts brought the intelligence that the English were within six leagues of the fort, the French, in great excitement and alarm, decided to march at once and ambuscade them at the ford. The Indians at first refused to move, but Beaujeu, dressed as one of them, finally persuaded them to march, and they filed off along the forest trail that led to the ford [Pg 16]of the Monongahela—six hundred Indians and about three hundred regulars and Canadians. They did not reach the ford in time to make the attack there.

Braddock's Defeat.

Braddock advanced carefully through the dense and silent forest, when suddenly this silence was broken by the war-whoop of the savages, of whom not one was visible. Gage's column wheeled deliberately into line and fired; and at first the English seemed to carry everything before them, for the Canadians were seized by a panic and fled; but the scarlet coats of the English furnished good targets for their invisible enemies. The Indians, yelling their war-cries, swarmed in the forest, but were so completely hidden in gullies and ravines, behind trees and bushes and fallen trunks, that only the trees were struck by the volley after volley fired by the English, who at last broke ranks and huddled together in a bewildered mass. Both men and officers were ignorant of this mode of warfare. The Virginians alone were equal to the emergency and might have held the enemy in check, but when Braddock found them hiding behind trees and bushes, as the Indians, he became so furious at this seeming want of courage and discipline, that he ordered them with oaths, to join the line, even beating them with his sword, they replying to his threats and commands that they would fight if they could see any one to fight with. The ground was strewn with the dead and dying, maddened horses were plunging about, the roar of musketry and cannon, and above all the yells that came from the throats of six hundred invisible savages, formed a chaos of anguish and terror indescribable.

Braddock saw that all was lost and ordered a retreat, but had scarcely done so when a bullet pierced [Pg 17]his lungs. It is alleged that the shot was fired by one of his own men, but this statement is without proof. The retreat soon turned into a rout, and all who remained dashed pell-mell through the river to the opposite shore, abandoning the wounded, the cannon, and all the baggage and papers to the mercy of the Indians. Beaujeu had fallen early in the conflict. Dumas and Ligneris did not pursue the flying enemy, but retired to the Fort, abandoning the field to the savages, which soon became a pandemonium of pillage and murder. Of the eighty-six English officers all but twenty-three were killed or disabled, and but a remnant of the soldiers escaped.

When the Indians returned to the Fort, they brought with them twelve or fourteen prisoners, their bodies blackened and their hands tied behind their backs. These were all burned to death on the bank of the Allegheny, opposite the Fort. The loss of the French was slight; of the regulars there were but four killed or wounded, and all the Canadians returned to the Fort unhurt except five.

The miserable remnant of Braddock's army continued their wild flight all that night and all the next day, when before nightfall those who had not fainted by the way reached Christopher Gist's farm, but six miles from Dunbar's camp. The wounded general had shown an incredible amount of courage and endurance. After trying in vain to stop the flight, he was lifted on a horse, when, fainting from the effects of his mortal wound, some of the men were induced by large bribes to carry him in a litter. Braddock ordered a detachment from the camp to go to the relief of the stragglers, but as the fugitives kept coming in with their tales of horror, the panic seized the camp, and soldiers and teamsters fled.

The next day, whether from orders given by Braddock or Dunbar is not known, more than one hundred [Pg 18]wagons were burned, cannon, coehorns, and shells were destroyed, barrels of gunpowder were saved and the contents thrown into a brook, and provisions scattered about through the woods and swamps, while the enemy, with no thought of pursuit, had returned to Fort Duquesne. Braddock died on the 13th of July, 1755, and was buried on the road; men, horses and wagons passing over the grave of their dead commander as they retreated to Fort Cumberland, thus effacing every trace of it, lest it should be discovered by the Indians and the body mutilated. Thus ended the attempt to capture Fort Duquesne, and for about three years, while the storm of blood and havoc raged elsewhere, that point was undisturbed.

Henry Bouquet.

Brigadier General Forbes.

In the meantime Dinwiddie had gone, a new governor was in his place, while in the plans of Pitt the capture of Fort Duquesne held an important place. Brigadier General John Forbes was charged with it. He was Scotch by birth, a well bred man of the world, and unlike Braddock, by his conduct toward the provincial troops, commanded both the respect and affection of the colonists. He only resembled Braddock in his determined resolution, but he did not hesitate to embrace modes of warfare that Braddock would have scorned. He wrote to Bouquet: "I have been long of your opinion of equipping numbers of our men like the savages, and I fancy Col. Burd of Virginia has most of his men equipped in that manner. In this country we must learn our art of war from the Indians, or any one else who has carried it on here." He arrived in Philadelphia in April 1758, but it was the end of June before his troops were ready to march. His force consisted of Montgomery's Highlanders, twelve hundred strong; Provincials from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, [Pg 21]North Carolina, and a detachment of Royal Americans: amounting to about six or seven thousand men. The Royal Americans were Germans from Pennsylvania, the Colonel-in-Chief being Lord Amhurst, Colonel Commandant Frederick Haldimand, and conspicuous among them was Lieutenant Colonel Henry Bouquet, a brave and accomplished Swiss, who commanded one of the four battalions of which the regiment was composed.

General Forbes was detained in Philadelphia by a painful and dangerous malady. Bouquet advanced and encamped at Raystown, now Bedford. Then arose the question of opening a new road through Pennsylvania to Fort Duquesne, or following the old road made by Braddock. Washington, who commanded the Virginians, foretold the ruin of the expedition unless Braddock's road was chosen, but Forbes and Bouquet were firm and it was decided to adopt the new route through Pennsylvania. Forbes was able to reach Carlisle early in July, but his disorder was so increased by the journey that he was not able to leave that place until the 11th of August, and then in a kind of litter swung between two horses. In this way he reached Shippensburg, where he lay helpless until far in September. His plan was to advance slowly, establishing fortified magazines as he went, and at last when within easy distance of the Fort, to advance upon it with all force, as little impeded as possible with wagons and pack-horses. Having secured his magazines at Raystown, and built a fort which he called Fort Bedford in honor of his friend and patron, the Duke of Bedford,[B] [Pg 22]Bouquet was sent with his command to forward the heavy work of road making over the main range of the Alleghanies and the Laurel Hills; "hewing, digging, blasting, laying facines and gabions, to support the track along the sides of the steep declivities, or worming their way like moles through the jungle of swamp and forest." As far as the eye or mind could reach a prodigious forest vegetation spread its impervious canopy over hill, valley and plain. His next post was on the Loyalhanna Creek, scarcely fifty miles distant from Fort Duquesne, and here he built a fortification, naming it Fort Ligonier, in honor of Lord Ligonier, commander-in-chief of His Majesty's armies. Forbes had served under Ligonier, and his influence, together with that of the Duke of Bedford, secured to Forbes his appointment.

Now came the difficult and important task of securing Indian allies. Sir William Johnston for the English, and Joncaire for the French, were trying in every way to frighten or cajole them into choosing sides; but that which neither of them could accomplish was done by a devoted Moravian missionary, Christian Frederick Post. Post spoke the Delaware language, had married a converted squaw, and by his simplicity, directness and perfect honesty, had gained their full confidence. He was a plain German, upheld by a sense of duty and single-hearted trust in God. The Moravians were apostles of peace, and they succeeded in a surprising way in weaning their converts from their ferocious instincts and savage practices, while the mission Indians of Canada retained all their native ferocity, and their wigwams were strung with scalps, male and female, adult and infant. These so-called missions were but nests of baptized savages, who wore the crucifix instead of the medicine-bag.

Post accepted the dangerous mission as envoy to [Pg 23]the camp of the hostile Indians, and making his way to a Delaware town on Beaver Creek, he was kindly received by the three kings; but when they conducted him to another town he was surrounded by a crowd of warriors, who threatened to kill him. He managed to pacify them, but they insisted that he should go with them to Fort Duquesne. In his Journal he gives thrilling accounts of his escape from dangers threatened by both French and Indians. But he at last succeeded in securing a promise from both Delaware and Shawnees, and other hostile tribes, to meet with the Five Nations, the Governor of Pennsylvania and commissioners from other provinces, in the town of Easton, before the middle of September. The result of this council was that the Indians accepted the White wampum belt of peace, and agreed on a joint message of peace to the tribes of Ohio.

A few weeks before this Col. Bouquet, from his post at Fort Ligonier, forgot his usual prudence, and at his urgent request, allowed Major Grant, commander of the Highlanders, to advance. On the 14th of September, at about 2 A. M., he reached an eminence about half a mile from the Fort. He divided his forces, placing detachments in different positions, being convinced that the enemy was too weak to attack him. Infatuated with this idea, when the fog had cleared away, he ordered the reveille to be sounded. It was as if he put his foot into a hornet's nest. The roll of drums was answered by a burst of war-whoops, while the French came swarming out, many of them in their night shirts, just as they had jumped from their beds. There was a hot fight for about three-quarters of an hour, when the Highlanders broke away in a wild flight. Captain Bullit and his Virginians tried to cover the retreat, and fought until two-thirds of them were killed and [Pg 24]Grant taken prisoner. The name of "Grant's Hill" still clings to the much-ambushed "hump" where the Court House now stands.

The French pushed their advantages with spirit, and there were many skirmishes in the forest between Fort Ligonier and Fort Duquesne, but their case was desperate. Their Indian allies had deserted them, and their supplies had been cut off; so Ligneris, who succeeded Contrecœur, was forced to dismiss the greater part of his force. The English, too, were enduring great hardships. Rain had continued almost without cessation all through September; the newly made road was liquid mud, into which the wagons sunk up to the hubs. In October the rain changed to snow, while all this time Forbes was chained to a sick-bed at Raystown, now Fort Bedford. In the beginning of November he was carried from Fort Bedford to Fort Ligonier in a litter, and a council of officers, then held, decided to attempt nothing more that season, but a few days later a report of the condition of the French was brought in, which led Forbes to give orders for an immediate advance. On November 18, 1758, two thousand five hundred picked men, without tents or baggage, without wagons or artillery except a few light pieces, began their march.

[Pg 25]

Lord Viscount Ligonier.

FOOTNOTES:

Fort Pitt

French Abandon Fort Duquestne.——Fort Pitt is Built.

On the evening of the 24th they encamped on the hills around Turtle Creek, and at midnight the sentinels heard a heavy boom as if a magazine had exploded. In the morning the march was resumed. After the advance guard came Forbes, carried in a litter, the troops following in three columns, the Highlanders in the center headed by Montgomery, the Royal Americans and Provincials on the right and left under Bouquet and Washington. Slowly they made their way beneath an endless entanglement of bare branches. The Highlanders were goaded to madness by seeing as they approached the Fort the heads of their countrymen, who had fallen when Grant made his rash attack, stuck on poles, around which their plaids had been wrapped in imitation of petticoats. Foaming with rage they rushed forward, abandoning their muskets and drawing their broadswords; but their fury was in vain, for when they reached a point where the Fort should have been in sight, there was nothing between them and the hills on the opposite banks of the Monongahela and Allegheny but a mass of blackened and smouldering ruins. The enemy, after burning the barracks and storehouses, had blown up the fortifications and retreated, some down the Ohio, others overland to Presque Isle, and others up the Allegheny to Venango.

There were two forts, and some idea may be formed of their size, with barracks and storehouses, from the fact that John Haslet writes to the Rev. Dr. Allison, two days after the English took [Pg 28]possession, that there were thirty chimney stacks standing.

The troops had no shelter until the first fort was built. Col. Bouquet wrote to Miss Ann Willing from Fort Duquesne, November 25th, 1758, "they have burned and destroyed to the ground their fortifications, houses and magazines, and left us no other cover than the heavens—a very cold one for an army without tents or equipages."

Col. Bouquet in a letter written to Chief Justice Allen of Pennsylvania on November 26th, enumerated the needs of the garrison, which he hopes the Provinces of Pennsylvania and Virginia will immediately supply. He adds: "After God, the success of this expedition is entirely due to the general. He has shown the greatest prudence, firmness and ability. No one is better informed than I am, who had an opportunity to see every step that has been taken from the beginning and every obstacle that was thrown in his way." Forbes' first care was to provide defense and shelter for his troops, and a strong stockade was built around the traders' cabins and soldiers' huts, which he named Pittsburgh, in honor of England's great Minister, William Pitt. Two hundred Virginians under Col. Mercer were left to defend the new fortification, a force wholly inadequate to hold the place if the French chose to return and attempt to take it again. Those who remained must for a time depend largely on stream and forest to supply their needs, while the army, which was to return began their homeward march early in December, with starvation staring them in the face.

No sooner was this work done than Forbes utterly succumbed. He left with the soldiers, and was carried all the way to Philadelphia in a litter, arriving there January 18, 1759. He lingered through the winter, died in March, and was buried in Christ [Pg 29]Church, March 14, 1759. Parkman says: "If his achievement was not brilliant, its solid value was above price; it opened the Great West to English enterprise, took from France half her savage allies, and relieved the western borders from the scourge of Indian war. From Southern New York to North Carolina the frontier population had cause to bless the memory of this steadfast and all-enduring soldier."

Just sixty days after the taking of Fort Duquesne, William Pitt wrote a letter, dated Whitehall, January 23, 1759, of which the following extract will show how important this place was considered in Great Britain.

In a letter dated Pittsburgh, August 1759, Col. Mercer writes to Gov. Denny: "Capt. Gordon, chief engineer, has arrived with most of the artificers, but does not fix the spot for constructing the Fort till the general comes up. We are preparing the materials for building with what expedition so few men are capable of."

There was no attempt made to restore the old fortifications, but about a year afterwards work was [Pg 30]begun on a new fort. Gen. John Stanwix, who succeeded Gen. Forbes, is said to have been a man of high military standing, with a liberal and generous spirit. In 1760, he appeared on the Ohio at the head of an army, and with full power to build a large fort where Fort Duquesne had stood. The exact date of his arrival and the day when work was commenced is not known, but the work must have been begun the last of August or the first of September, 1759. A letter dated September 24, 1759, gives the following account: "It is now near a month since the army has been employed in erecting a most formidable fortification, such a one as will to latest posterity secure the British Empire on the Ohio. There is no need to enumerate the abilities of the chief engineer nor the spirit shown by the troops in executing the important task; the fort will soon be a lasting monument of both."

The fort was built near the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela unite their waters, but a little farther inland than the site of Fort Duquesne. It stood on the present site of the Duquesne Freight Station, while all the ground from the Point to Third Street and from Liberty Street to the Allegheny River was enclosed in a stockade and surrounded by a moat. It was a solid and substantial building, constructed at an enormous expense to the English Government.[C] It was five-sided, two sides facing the land of brick, the others stockade. The earth around was thrown up so all was enclosed by a rampart of earth, supported on the land side by a perpendicular wall of brick; on the other sides a line of pickets was fixed on the outside of the slope, and a moat encompassed the entire work. Casemates, barracks and store houses were completed for a garrison of one [Pg 31]thousand men and officers, and eighteen pieces of artillery mounted on the bastions. This strong fortification was thought to establish the British dominion of the Ohio. The exact date of its completion is not known, but on March 21, 1760, Maj. Gen. Stanwix, having finished his work, set out on his return journey to Philadelphia.

Conspiracy of Pontiac and Col. Bouquet.

The effect of this stronghold was soon apparent in the return of about four thousand settlers to their lands on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, from which they had been driven by their savage enemies, and the brisk trade which at once began to be carried on with the now, to all appearance, friendly Indians. However, this security was not of long duration. The definite treaty of peace between England, Spain and France was signed February 10, 1763, but before that time, Pontiac, the great chief of the Ottawas, was planning his great conspiracy, which carried death and desolation throughout the frontier.

The French had always tried to ingratiate themselves with the Indians. When their warriors came to French forts they were hospitably welcomed and liberally supplied with guns, ammunition and clothing, until the weapons and garments of their forefathers were forgotten. The English, on the contrary, either gave reluctantly or did not give at all. Many of the English traders were of the coarsest stamp, who vied with each other in rapacity and violence. When an Indian warrior came to an English fort, instead of the kindly welcome he had been accustomed to receive from the French, he got nothing but oaths, and menaces, and blows, sometimes being assisted to leave the premises by the butt of a sentinel's musket. But above and beyond all, they [Pg 32]watched with wrath and fear the progress of the white man into their best hunting grounds, for as the English colonist advanced their beloved forests disappeared under the strokes of the axe. The French did all in their power to augment this discontent.

In this spirit of revenge and hatred a powerful confederacy was formed, including all the western tribes, under the command of Pontiac, alike renowned for his war like spirit, his wisdom and his bravery, and whose name was a terror to the entire region of the lakes. The blow was to be struck in the month of May, 1763. The tribes were to rise simultaneously and attack the English garrisons. Thus a sudden attack was made on all the western posts. Detroit was saved after a long and close siege. Forts Pitt and Niagara narrowly escaped, while Le Boeuf, Venango, Presqu' Isle, Miamis, St. Joseph, Quachtanon, Sandusky and Michillimackinac all fell into the hands of the Indians. Their garrisons were either butchered on the spot, or carried off to be tortured for the amusement of their cruel captors.

The savages swept over the surrounding country, carrying death and destruction wherever they went. Hundreds of traders were slaughtered without mercy, while their wives and children, if not murdered, were carried off captives. The property destroyed or stolen amounted, it is said to five hundred thousand pounds. Attacks were made on Forts Bedford and Ligonier, but without success. Fort Ligonier was under siege for two months. The preservation of this post was of the utmost importance, and Lieut. Blaine, by his courage and good conduct, managed to hold it until August 2, 1763, when Col. Bouquet arrived with his little army.

In the meantime, every preparation was made at Fort Pitt for an attack. The garrison at that post numbered three hundred and thirty, commanded by [Pg 33]Capt. Simeon Ecuyer, a brave Swiss. The fortifications having been badly damaged by floods, were with great labor repaired. The barracks were made shot-proof to protect the women and children, and as the buildings inside were all of wood, a rude fire-engine was constructed to extinguish any flames kindled by the fire-arrows of the Indians. All the houses and cabins outside the walls were leveled to the ground. The fort was so crowded by the families of the settlers who had taken refuge there, that Ecuyer wrote to Col. Bouquet, "We are so crowded in the fort that I fear disease, for in spite of every care I cannot keep the place as clean as I should like. Besides, the smallpox is among us, and I have therefore caused a hospital to be built under the drawbridge."

Several weeks, however, elapsed before there was any determined attack from the enemy. On July 26th some chiefs asked for a parley with Capt. Ecuyer, which was granted. They demanded that he and all in the fort should leave immediately or it and they would all be destroyed. He replied that they would not go, closing his speech with these words: "Therefore, my brother, I will advise you to go home, * * * Moreover, I tell you if any of you appear again about this fort, I will throw bomb-shells which will burst and blow you to atoms, and fire cannon upon you loaded with a whole bag full of bullets. Take care, therefore, for I don't want to hurt you." On the night succeeding this parley the Indians approached in great numbers, crawling under the banks of the two rivers digging holes with their knives, in which they were completely sheltered from the fire of the fort. On one side the entire bank was lined with these burrows, from which they shot volleys or bullets, arrows and fire-arrows into the fort. The yelling was terrific, and the women and children in the crowded [Pg 34]barracks clung to each other in abject terror. This attack lasted five days. On August 1st the Indians heard the rumor of Col. Bouquet's approach, which caused them to move on, and so the tired garrison was relieved.

When the news of this Indian uprising reached Gen. Amhurst, he ordered Col. Bouquet to march with a detachment of five hundred men to the relief of the besieged forts. The force was composed of companies from the Forty-second Highlanders and Seventy-seventh Regulars, to which were added six companies of Rangers. Bouquet established his camp in Carlisle at the end of June. Here he found every building, every house, every barn, every hovel, crowded with refugees. He writes to Gen. Amherst on July 13th, as follows: "The list of people known to be killed increases every day. The desolation of so many families, reduced to the last extreme of want and misery; the despair of those who have lost their parents; relations and friends, with the cries of distracted women and children who fill the streets, form a scene painful to humanity and impossible to describe."

[Pg 35]

William Pitt.

Strange as it may seem, the Province of Pennsylvania would do nothing to aid the troops who gathered for its defense. The Quakers, who had a majority in the Assembly, were non-combatants from principle and practice; and the Swiss and German Mennonites, who were numerous in Lancaster County, professed, like the Quakers, the principle of non-resistance, and refused to bear arms. Wagons and horses had been promised, but promises were broken. Bouquet writes again to Amherst: "I hope we shall be able to save that infatuated people from destruction, notwithstanding all their endeavors to defeat your vigorous measures." While Bouquet harassed and exasperated, labored on at his difficult task, the terror of the country people increased, until at last [Pg 37]finding that they could hope for but little aid from the Government, they bestirred themselves with admirable spirit in their own defense. They raised small bodies of riflemen, who scoured the woods in front of the settlements, and succeeded in driving the enemy back. In some instances these men dressed themselves as Indian warriors, painted their faces red and black, and adopted the savage mode of warfare.

On the 3rd of July a courier from Fort Bedford rode into Carlisle, and as he stopped to water his horse he was immediately surrounded by an anxious crowd, to whom he told his tale of woe, adding, as he mounted his horse to ride on to Bouquet's tent, "The Indians will soon be here." Terror and excitement spread everywhere, messengers were dispatched in every direction to give the alarm, and the reports, harrowing as they had been, were fully confirmed by the fugitives who were met on every road and by-path hurrying to Carlisle for refuge. A party armed themselves and went out to warn the living and bury the dead. They found death and desolation everywhere, and sickened with horror at seeing groups of hogs tearing and devouring the bodies of the dead.

After a delay of eighteen days, having secured enough wagons, horses and oxen, Bouquet began his perilous march, with a force much smaller than Braddock's, to encounter a foe far more formidable. But Bouquet, the man of iron will and iron hand, had served seven years in America, and understood his work.

On July 25th he reached Fort Bedford, when he was fortunate in securing thirty backwoodsmen to go with him. This little army toiled on through the blazing heat of July over the Alleghanies, and reached Fort Ligonier, August 2nd, the Indians, who had besieged the fort for two months, disappearing at the approach of the troops. Here Bouquet left [Pg 38]his oxen and wagons and resumed his march on the 4th. On the 5th, about noon, he encountered the enemy at Bushy Run. The battle raged for two days, and ended in a total route of the savages. The loss of the British was one hundred and fifteen and eight officers. The distance to Fort Pitt was twenty-five miles, which place was reached on the 10th. The enemy had abandoned the siege and marched to unite their forces with those which attacked Col. Bouquet at Bushy Run. The savages continued their hasty retreat, but Col. Bouquet's force was not sufficient to enable him to pursue the enemy beyond the Ohio, and he was obliged to content himself with supplying Fort Pitt and other forts with provisions, ammunition and stores.

It was at this time that Col. Bouquet built the little Redoubt which is now not only all that remains of Fort Pitt, but the only existing monument of British occupancy in this region.

The Indians abandoned all their former settlements, and retreated to the Muskingum; here they formed new settlements, and in the spring of 1764 again began to ravage the frontier. To put an end to these depredations, Gen. Gage planned a campaign into this western wilderness from two points—Gen. Bradstreet was to advance by way of the lakes, and Col. Bouquet from Fort Pitt. After the usual delays and disappointments in securing troops from Pennsylvania and Virginia to aid in this expedition, the march from Carlisle was begun, and Col. Bouquet arrived at Fort Pitt September 17th, and was detained there until October 3rd. He followed the north bank of the Ohio until he reached the Beaver, when he turned towards Central Ohio. Holding on his course, he refused to listen to either threats or promises from the Indians, declining to treat with them [Pg 39]at all until they should deliver up the prisoners. Although not a blow was struck, the Indians were vanquished. Bouquet continued his march down the valley of the Muskingum until he reached a spot where some broad meadows offered a suitable place for encampment. Here he received a deputation of chiefs, listened to their offers of peace, and demanded the delivery of the prisoners. Soon band after band of captives arrived, until the number exceeded three hundred.

The scenes which followed the restoring of the prisoners to their friends beggar all description; wives recovering their husbands, parents seeking for children whom they could scarcely recognize, brothers and sisters meeting after a long separation, and sometimes scarcely able to speak the same language. The story is told of a woman whose daughter had been carried off nine years before. The mother recognized her child, but the girl, who had almost forgotten her mother tongue, showed no sign of recognition. The mother complained to Col. Bouquet that the daughter she had so often sung to sleep on her knee had forgotten her. "Sing the song to her that you used to sing when she was a child," said Col. Bouquet. She did so, and with a passionate flood of tears the long-lost daughter flung herself into her mother's arms.

Everything being settled, the army broke camp November 18th, and arrived at Fort Pitt on the 28th. Early in January Col. Bouquet returned to Philadelphia, receiving wherever he went every possible mark of gratitude and esteem from the people. The Assembly of Pennsylvania and the House of Burgesses of Virginia each unanimously voted him addresses of thanks, and on the arrival of the first account of this expedition the King promoted him to the rank of [Pg 40]Brigadier General to command the Southern District of North America.

Conflict Between Pennsylvania and Virginia.

We have seen two of the most powerful nations of Europe contending for the possession of the "Forks of the Ohio." We have seen the efforts of the Indians to destroy the Fort and regain possession of their hunting grounds.

In October, 1770, Washington again visited the "Forks of the Ohio," this time on a peaceful errand. He reached Fort Pitt October 17, 1770, and he says in his Journal: "Lodged in what is called the town; distant about three hundred yards from the fort, at one Semple's, who keeps a very good house of entertainment." He describes both the town and the fort, where the garrison at this time consisted of two companies of Royal Irish, commanded by Capt. Edmonstone. In this journal we find the following entry on October 18th: "Dined in the fort with Col. Croghan and the officers of the garrison; supped there also, meeting with great civility from the gentlemen, and engaged to dine with Col. Croghan next day, at his seat about four miles up the Allegheny."

Washington and his party, numbering nine or ten persons, with three Indians, continued their journey down the Ohio in a large canoe. On November 2nd, we find that the party "encamped and went a-hunting, killed five buffalos and wounded some others, three deer, etc. This country abounds in Buffaloes and wild game of all kinds, as also in all kinds of wild fowl, there being in the bottoms a great many small, grassy ponds or lakes, which are full of swan, geese and ducks of different kinds." The party returned to Pittsburgh November 21st, were again hospitably entertained, and on the 23rd [Pg 41]mounted their horses on their return journey to Virginia. This was Washington's last visit to Fort Pitt.

Now, after the season of rest and quiet, there comes another contest, this time between the Provinces of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The British Government, as the trouble with the colonies increased, deemed it advisable to abandon Fort Pitt and withdraw the troops. Maj. Edmonstone, then in command, sold the buildings and material October 10, 1772, to Alexander Ross and William Thompson, for fifty pounds New York currency. The fort was evacuated by the British forces in October, 1772, and in January, 1774, troops from Virginia sent by the Governor, Lord Dunmore, under command of Dr. James Connelly, took possession and changed the name to Fort Dunmore. Dr. Connelly was arrested by Arthur St. Clair, then a magistrate of Westmoreland County, of which Allegheny County was at that time a part, and put in jail, but was soon released on bail. He went back to Virginia, but shortly returned with civil and military authority to enforce the laws of Virginia. This contest continued for several years, until a prominent citizen wrote to Governor Penn: "The deplorable state of affairs in this part of your government is truly distressing. We are robbed, insulted and dragooned by Connelly and his militia in this place and its environs." Maryland, too, had contended, sometimes with the shedding of blood, for the possession of this important point. It was not until 1785 that commissioners were appointed, the boundary of the western part of the State finally run, and Pennsylvania established in the possession of her territory.

Revolutionary Period.

During the struggle for independence the settlements west of the Alleghanies had little to fear from [Pg 42]the invading armies of Great Britain; but, influenced by the English, the Indians again began their ravages.

Fort Pitt at that time was under the command of Capt. John Neville, and was the center of government authority. Just two days after the Declaration of Independence, but long before the news of it could have crossed the mountains, we read of a conference at Fort Pitt between Maj. Trent, Maj. Ward, Capt. Neville and other officers of the garrison, with the famous Pontiac, Guyasuta, Capt. Pipe and other representatives of the Six Nations. Guyasuta was the chief speaker. He produced a belt of wampum, which was to be sent from the Six Nations to other western tribes, informing them that the Six Nations would take no part in the war between England and America and asking them to do the same. In his address Guyasuta said: "Brothers:—We will not suffer either the English or the Americans to pass through our country. Should either attempt it, we shall forewarn them three times, and should they persist they must take the consequences. I am appointed by the Six Nations to take care of this country; that is, of the Indians on the other side of the Ohio" (which included the Allegheny) "and I desire you will not think of an expedition against Detroit, for, I repeat, we will not suffer an army to pass through our country." The Six Nations was the most powerful confederacy of Indians in America, and whichever side secured their allegiance might count on the other tribes following them.

[Pg 43]

Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair.

Instigated by the agents of Great Britain, it was not long before a deadly struggle began. Scalping parties of Indians ravaged the frontier, sparing neither age nor sex, and burning and destroying all that came in their path. Companies were formed to protect the settlements, whose headquarters were at [Pg 45]Fort Pitt, and expeditions were made into the enemy's country, but with no very great success.

On June 1, 1777, Brig. Gen. Edward Hand took command of the post and issued a call for two thousand men. He did not receive a very satisfactory response to this call. After considerable delay, he made several expeditions against the Indians, but was singularly unfortunate in his attempts. These fruitless efforts only emboldened the savages to continue their ravages.

In 1778, Gen. Hand, at his own request, was recalled, and Brig. Gen. McIntosh succeeded him. Gen. McIntosh planned a formidable expedition into the enemy's country. He marched to the mouth of the Beaver, where he built a fort and called it Fort McIntosh; then he advanced seventy-five miles farther, built another fort, and called it Fort Laurens; but on hearing alarming reports of the Indians and for want of supplies, he left Col. John Gibson with one hundred and fifty men there and returned to Fort Pitt. The depredations of the Indians continued, and Gen. McIntosh, utterly disheartened from the want of men and supplies, asked to be relieved of his command. He was succeeded by Col. Daniel Brodhead, who, like his predecessor, planned great things, but never had the means of carrying out his plans.

By this time Fort Pitt was badly in need of repairs, and the garrison, half-fed and badly equipped, was almost mutinous. In November, 1781, Gen. William Irvine took command of the post. He describes the condition of the fort and of the soldiers as deplorable. He writes: "The few troops that are here are the most licentious men and worst behaved I ever saw, owing, I presume, in a great measure to their not hitherto being kept under any subordination or tolerable degree of discipline." The firmness of [Pg 46]the commander soon restored order, but not without the free application of the lash and the execution of two soldiers.

The winter of 1782 and 1783 was comparatively quiet, and October 1st, 1783, Gen. Irvine took his final leave of the western department. The State of Pennsylvania acknowledged her gratitude for this service by donating him a valuable tract of land.

In 1790 there was another Indian outbreak. Maj. Isaac Craig was then acting as Quartermaster in Pittsburgh. On May 19th, 1791, he wrote to Gen. Knox, representing the terror occasioned by the near approach of the Indians, and asking permission to erect another fortification, as Fort Pitt was in a ruinous condition. This request was granted, and Maj. Craig erected a fortification occupying the ground from Garrison Alley to Hand (now Ninth) Street, and from Liberty to the Allegheny River. This he named Fort Lafayette.

The expeditions of Gen. Harmar and of Gen. St. Clair against the Indians had been ineffectual and disastrous. In 1794, Gen. Anthony Wayne was more successful, and defeated and scattered the Indians so effectually that they never again gave trouble in this region.

FOOTNOTE:

THE OLD BLOCK HOUSE

Mrs. Mary E. Schenley's Gift to the Daughters of the American Revolution of Allegheny County.

The close of the century found Port Pitt in ruins, and this spot over which had waved the flags of three nations, and the banners of two States, was left to the peaceable possession of the mechanic and artisan, the trader and farmer. The little Redoubt built by Col. Bouquet in 1764, and the names of the streets in Pittsburgh, are all that is left as reminders of the struggle for the "Forks of the Ohio,"—the only relics of the contest of the courtly Frenchman with the intrepid British, of the daring of the indomitable colonist and the craft and cruelty of the Indian. This Redoubt was not built by Gen. Stanwix when the Fort was erected in 1759 and 60, but by Col. Bouquet in 1764. At the time of Pontiac's War, when Col. Bouquet came to Pittsburgh, he found that the moat which surrounded the fortifications were perfectly dry when the river was low, so that the Indians could crawl up the ditch and shoot any guard or soldier who might show his head above the parapet. To prevent this, Col. Bouquet ordered the erection of the Redoubt, or Block House, which completely commanded the moat on the Allegheny side of the fort. The little building is of brick, five-sided, with two floors, having a squared oak log with loop holes on each floor. There were two underground passages, one connecting it with the Fort, and the other leading to the Monongahela River.

The ground from Fort Pitt to the Allegheny [Pg 48]River was sold in 1784 to Isaac Craig and Stephen Bayard, and, after passing through various hands, was purchased by Gen. James O'Hara, September 4, 1805. When Gen. O'Hara died in 1819, the property passed to his daughter Mary, who in 1821 married William Croghan. Mrs. Croghan died in 1827, and her daughter, Mary Elizabeth, an infant barely a year old, became her sole heir. She married Capt. E. W. H. Schenley, of the English army, and to Mrs. Mary E. Schenley, who might be called Pittsburgh's "Fairy Godmother," the Daughters of the American Revolution of Allegheny County are indebted for the gift of the old Block House and surrounding property.

While the property was in possession of Craig and Bayard, a large dwelling house was built and connected with the Block House. This was occupied one year by Mr. Turnbull, and for two years subsequently by Maj. Craig. From that time, 1785, until it came into the possession of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 1, 1894, it continued to be used as a dwelling house. Time and decay had done their work in one hundred and thirty years, and the "Daughters" found the old Block House fast crumbling away. If it had been left much longer without repairs it would soon have been nothing but a heap of broken brick. Mrs. Schenley's gift to the Daughters of the American Revolution was the Block House, with a plot of ground measuring one hundred by ninety feet, and a passageway leading to Penn Avenue of ninety feet by twenty.

[Pg 49]

The Block House Used as a Dwelling.

As soon as the Daughters of the American Revolution received the deed for the property, the work of clearing away the tumble-down tenements which covered the ground was commenced. It was not without great difficulty, and no little expense, that [Pg 51]the occupants of these houses were induced to give them up.

While the Block House was used as a dwelling the stone tablet placed over the door with the inscription,

COLL. BOUQUET
1764

was removed and inserted in the wall of the staircase of the City Hall. The Daughters of the American Revolution petitioned Councils for permission to restore it to its original position. The petition was granted, and the tablet now fills the space which it occupied one hundred and thirty-eight years ago.

Pittsburgh
September 1898.

Matilda Wilkins Denny.

NAMES OF PITTSBURGH STREETS.

Their Historical Significance.

By Julia Morgan Harding.M
(From the Pittsburgh Bulletin, February 15, 1893.)

We are told in his Autobiography that Benjamin Franklin "ever took pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of his ancestors," and in these days of reawakened interest in things of the past, many people may be found who, like the great prototype of American character, Pennsylvania's apostle of common sense, take pleasure in looking into the old records of their family history. A still richer inheritance is the story of the lives of the men who conquered the wilderness and subdued the Indians, French and British; and this inheritance is held in common by all good citizens of Pittsburgh, whether or not their ancestors fought with Braddock or Bouquet, or marched with Forbes. In the stir and bustle of the busy city, above the noise of the trolley and the iron wagon, one faintly hears the names of streets whose unfamiliar sound recalls to our minds these illustrious dead. With but little effort the inward eye quickly sees an impenetrable forest clothing hills and river banks—dark, mysterious, forbidding, crossed by occasional narrow and obstructed paths; war parties of painted savages; a few scattered settlers' and traders' cabins; here and there a canoe on the swift and silent rivers; a silence too often broken by the war whoop of the Indian and the scream of his tortured victim.

From the eastern slopes of the Endless Hills to the unknown and unbounded "Indian Country" that [Pg 53]lay beyond the Forks of the Ohio, such was the region into which Washington, Braddock, Forbes and Bouquet led their "forlorn hopes," In days when a less utilitarian spirit prevailed, and association was still powerful, the City of Pittsburgh acknowledged its debt of gratitude to the soldiers, statesmen and early settlers who made its unexampled prosperity possible, by naming for them many of its streets and suburbs. Its early history can be traced thereby, much as the historian and archaeologist discovers the successive Roman, Saxon, Danish and Norman occupations of London and other English towns. Aliquippa, Mingo, Shannopin, Shinghiss, Guyasuta and Killbuck recall the Indian tribes and chiefs who once possessed the country; Gist, Montour, Girty, McKee, Chartiers, and Van Braam the guides and traders who first penetrated the wilderness. Dinwiddie brings to mind the crusty but far-seeing Scotch Governor of Virginia, who first comprehended the value of the disputed land. Forbes, Bouquet, Ligonier, Halket, Grant, Stanwix, Neville, Crawford, Hay, Marbury, Ormsby, Tannehill, O'Hara, Butler, Wayne, Bayard, Stobo, Steuben, St. Clair, Craig, Smallman and Irwin recall, or did recall, the soldiers and commandants who won the West. Duquesne, St. Pierre, and Jumonville speak of the French governor of Canada, the officer who received Washington at Fort Le Boeuf, and the Captain who fell at Great Meadows. Smithfield owes its name to Devereaux Smith, prominent in colonial and revolutionary days; and Wood Street was called for George Woods, surveyor.

In Penn avenue, or street, as it used to be and still ought to be called, the name of the founder of the Commonwealth, the Quaker feudal proprietor, is preserved; and the great city itself, as well as two shabby, sooty little streets, forever immortalizes [Pg 54]William Pitt, the friend of America, and makes him a splendid and enduring monument.

But let us dig into the lowest historical stratum, and discover the real local relationships of names and places with the first occupants of the land. Aliquippa tells of the great queen of the Delawares, who lived at the mouth of the Youghiogheny, where McKeesport now is, and whom it must be remembered Washington visited on his first memorable journey to the Ohio. From what he relates to us she could not have been a very temperate sovereign lady, but she was a celebrity and a power in her day, with a prestige that long survived her; and when, in full savage regalia, surrounded by her warriors, she granted an audience to the young Virginian, she was doubtless most impressing and condescending.

Shinghiss, who bore a name that suggests a subject of Queen Wilhelmina rather than a North American Indian was a mighty warrior in his day, and a king of the Delawares. Some of the chroniclers give him a very bad name and tell us that his exploits in war would "form an interesting though shocking document"; others, among them Christian Post, give him a much better character. Nevertheless, it is true that the colony of Pennsylvania offered a thousand dollars for his scalp. Washington met him on his first visit to Ohio, and speaks of him in his Journal. This brave and much-feared chief was small in stature for an Indian and lived near the Ohio on Chartiers Creek.

Bronze Tablet at Entrance to Block House Grounds.

A chieftain as renowned as Shinghiss, and more frequently mentioned in the histories of the olden time, was Guyasuta, or Kiashuta, a Seneca, who first appears on the scene as one of the three Indians who accompanied Washington to Fort Le Boeuf. He was a conspicuous figure in all the Indian wars and treaties which followed that event, and was present [Pg 57]at the treaty Col. Bouquet held with the Shawnees, Delawares and Senecas on the Muskingum. We hear of him again in Lord Dunmore's war. He was frequently at or in the neighborhood of Fort Pitt, and had unbounded influence with his people, an influence he generally exerted for good and in the interest of the colonies, though finally won over to the British during the Revolution. His speeches at the various councils he attended were eloquent, and his language that of an autocrat who had unquestioning confidence in the power of his people and in his own might. He was deeply concerned in the conspiracy of Pontiac, and is believed to have inspired the attack on Hannahstown. Guyasuta found his last resting place near the banks of the Allegheny on Gen. O'Hara's farm, which is still called by his name.

The stray visitor who from time to time threads his devious way through the alleys and courts which surround the Block House may find himself perhaps in Fort Street, on historic ground once trodden by Washington, Forbes, Bouquet and the Indian kings of whom we have just been speaking. The echoes of the English drums, Scottish bagpipes and clash of arms have long since died away from the scarred sides of Mt. Washington and Duquesne Heights, and in their stead we hear the steam whistle and hollow reverberations from neighboring boiler shops. Hibernians and Italians inhabit the fields and the river banks where Killbuck, White Eyes, Shinghiss and Cornstalk once lit their camp-fires and held eloquent councils with Jumonville, De Ligneris and Bouquet. Squalid tenements crowd the narrow promontory where Robert de la Salle stood at the headwaters of the Ohio, in all probability the discoverer of the three rivers. The fort that Pontiac besieged has disappeared. The painted post to which the Indian tied his victim, the wigwam, the wampum belts, have [Pg 58]vanished; the tomahawk is buried forever, though the readiness once observed among the residents of the "Point" to draw knives on each other on occasions of superhilarity may be but the survival of the good old customs which prevailed in that neighborhood more than one hundred years ago.

Inspired by the suggestion of hereditary, the imaginative mind turns to the past for other instances. On any pleasant Monday morning during the spring or summer months the thrifty housekeepers in Fort Street or Point Alley, and in the shadow of the Block House itself, may be seen doing their week's washing in front of their houses. But little are they thinking of those Monday mornings in the middle of the eighteenth century when the women of the fort were escorted by bands of soldiers to the banks of the Allegheny, where laundry work was carried on under rather embarrassing circumstances. For Indians were dodging about behind trees and bushes, and dancing in full view on the opposite shore, with threatening cries, and only kept at a distance by the presence of a guard. The custom seems still to prevail on this classic ground, but do the conveniences of soap and hydrant water make up for the spice and variety that characterized the lives of colonial laundresses?

Pittsburgh has always been preeminently a hospitable city, and it is possible that in no other town of its size is there as much entertaining. At weddings, too, the display of presents is an object of surprise to the out-of-town guests, unused to such lavishness. Tracing our Provincial characteristics back to their remote origins, we discover that Pittsburgh at the end of the nineteenth century, in the grip of hereditary, imitates the traders and early settlers in this region, who were in the habit of entertaining whole tribes of Indians, and of making them [Pg 59]frequent gifts. Gay blankets, red paint, strings of wampum and barrels of whiskey are not now exchanged at Christmas and on New Year's Day, or shown at wedding feasts, as we have improved somewhat upon the primitive customs of our forefathers, but the instinct is unchanged.

Noted for the beauty and brilliancy of our balls, and the excellence of our dinners, it may be interesting to know something of our first attempts in the art of social entertaining. In a letter from Capt. Ecuyer, commandant at Fort Pitt, dated January 8th, 1763, written to Col. Bouquet, he informs the latter that they have a ball every Saturday evening, graced by the presence of the most beautiful ladies of the garrison. No mention is made of any solid refreshment, but we are informed that "the punch was abundant," and it is also intimated that if the fair sex did not find it strong enough for their taste, they knew where the whiskey was kept and how to remedy the fault. Gay indeed must have been the dancing and the merriment inspired by the frontier punch and the shrieks of the Indians outside the stockade, for at that very time hostile savages surrounded and threatened the lonely fort. No wonder the revellers needed strong drinks to keep up their spirits! It is indeed very doubtful if the very strongest ever brewed would give nerve enough to Pittsburgh belles of today to enable them to dance a cotillon to the tune of Indian whoops and yells.

As to more intellectual pursuits, it would at first seem impossible to discover what our frontier ancestors did in the way of reading. News from the outside world was not to be depended upon, and books a rare article, one would presume; but information often comes from unexpected sources, and in an edition of Robertson's "Charles Fifth," "printed for the subscribers in America in 1770," is "a list of [Pg 60]subscribers whose names posterity may respect, because of their seasonable encouragement the American edition hath been accomplished at a price so moderate that the man of the woods, as well as the man of the court, may solace himself with sentimental delight." In this list we find the name of "Ensign Francis Howard, of the Royal Irish at Fort Pitt," the only subscriber west of the mountains.

We can imagine the young soldier, far from home and friends, reading of those far-off times of war and peril, the winter wind howling up and down the river and beating against the Block House, carrying with it the echo, perhaps, of an Indian death halloo! Doubtless he wondered what the stern Spanish campaigner would have done if brought to the western wilderness to fight the red man, and, if he lived to return to his English home with his scalp intact, it is more than probable that Ensign Francis Howard's tales of America warfare and adventure were the delight of many a hunting dinner or evening fireside.

Few indeed are the tangible relics of the most romantic period of our local history. The writer owns a copy of the edition of "Charles Fifth," and in all probability it is the one that the English ensign read at Fort Pitt. A few old letters, maps and account books, some cannon balls, rusty swords and bayonets, the handsome carved stone sun dial which the Chapter has placed for safe keeping in Carnegie Museum until its own home is built, are about all we can show of the works and possessions of the men who made our early history.

Here was the scene of a mighty struggle for empire, a struggle of which the only vestiges left are the Block House and the names of our streets, too many of which have been changed in recent years to suit the vulgar needs of convenience and at the cost of our historical identity.

Julia Morgan Harding.

[Pg 62]

Pittsburgh in 1795

Postscript.

1914

Much water has run under the bridges of the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers, since the sketch, "The Names of Pittsburgh Streets" was written, and changes as radical as those that took place between the first years of the Nineteenth Century and the early days of the twentieth, have revolutionized the historic "Point" in the last decade.

Just as the French and Indians stole down the river before the advance of Gen. Forbes and his British and Colonial troops in 1758, so did the denizens of the aforesaid "Point" melt away in every direction before the steam shovels, creaking derricks and snorting engines of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1904-05.

With the consolidation of Pittsburgh and Allegheny into one city came other changes. Some of the old streets whose names commemorated dead patriots associated with Colonial and Revolutionary Pittsburgh, are buried under embankments, concrete walls and brick warehouses. Other names have been dropped and certain etymological curiosities have been put in their places. Still others have been transferred to distant and irrelevant localities, and an old resident, returning from the world of shades would be sadly confused if looking for old landmarks, Fort Pitt and all pertaining to it, excepting only the Block House, vanished long ago. There is nothing left of the later age which saw "Rice's Castle" in its glory. The new industrialism is steadily and rapidly blotting out the picturesque and historic all around us. Let all good Pittsburghers unite to preserve the little that is left, the Redoubt built by Col. Bouquet in 1764.

Julia Morgan Harding.

1914.