A Short History of Pittsburgh | Page 7

stick was reached on June 22, 1763, and the Delawares and
Shawanese began the assault in the afternoon, under Simon Ecuyer.
The people of Pittsburgh took shelter in the fort, and held out while
waiting for reinforcements. Colonel Bouquet hurried forward a force of
five hundred men, but they were intercepted at Bushy Run, where a
bloody battle was fought. Bouquet had fifty men killed and sixty
wounded, but inflicted a much greater loss on his savage foes and
gained the fort, relieving the siege. As soon as Bouquet could recruit
his command, he moved down the Ohio, attacked the Indians, liberated
some of their prisoners, and taught the red men to respect the power
that controlled at Pittsburgh.
In 1768 the Indians ceded their lands about Pittsburgh to the Colonies,
and civilization was then free to spread over them. In 1774 a land office
was opened in Pittsburgh by Governor Dunmore, and land warrants
were granted on payment of two shillings and six pence purchase
money, at the rate of ten pounds per one hundred acres.
IX
Washington made his last visit to Pittsburgh in October, 1770, when,
on his way to the Kanawha River, he stopped here for several days, and
lodged with Samuel Semple, the first innkeeper, whose hostelry stood,
and still stands, at the corner of Water and Ferry Streets. This house
was later known as the Virginian Hotel, and for many years furnished
entertainment to those early travelers. The building, erected in 1764 by
Colonel George Morgan, is now nearly one hundred and forty years old,
and is still devoted to public hospitality, but the character of its
patronage has changed from George Washington to the deck roysterers

who lodge there between their trips on the river packets. At the time of
Washington's visit the lower story of the house was divided into three
rooms, two facing on Ferry Street, and the third, a large room, on Water
Street, and in this latter room was placed, in the year of Washington's
stop there, the first billiard table ever brought to Pittsburgh. The
mahogany steps from the first to the second floors, which were once the
pride of the place, are still in the house.[B] According to Washington's
journal, there were in Pittsburgh in 1770 twenty houses situated on
Water Street, facing the Monongahela River. These were occupied by
traders and their families. The population at that time is estimated at
one hundred and twenty-six men, women, and children, besides a
garrison consisting of two companies of British troops.
[Footnote B: On going again to look at this house, which I have seen
many times, I find that it was recently demolished to make room for
railway improvements.]
In October, 1772, Fort Pitt was ordered abandoned. The works about
Pittsburgh, from first to last, had cost the British Crown some three
hundred thousand dollars, but the salvage on the stone, brick, and iron
of the existing redoubts amounted to only two hundred and fifty dollars.
The Blockhouse was repaired and occupied for a time by Dr. John
Connelly; and during the Revolution it was constantly used by our
Colonial troops.
X
With the French out of the country, and with William Pitt out of office
and incapacitated by age, the Colonies began to feel the oppression of a
British policy which British statesmen and British historians to-day
most bitterly condemn. America's opposition to tyranny found its
natural expression in the Battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775. The fires
of patriotism leapt through the continent and the little settlement at
Pittsburgh was quickly aflame with the national spirit. On May 16th a
convention was held at Pittsburgh, which resolved that
This committee have the highest sense of the spirited behavior of their
brethren in New England, and do most cordially approve of their

opposing the invaders of American rights and privileges to the utmost
extreme, and that each member of this committee, respectively, will
animate and encourage their neighborhood to follow the brave
example.
No foreign soldiers were sent over the mountains to Pittsburgh, but a
more merciless foe, who would attack and harass with remorseless
cruelty, was impressed into the English service, despite the horrified
protests of some of her wisest statesmen. American treaties with the
Indians had no force against the allurements of foreign gold, and under
this unholy alliance men were burnt at the stake, women were carried
away, and cabins were destroyed.
With the aim of regaining the friendship of the Indians, Congress
appointed commissioners who met the tribes at Pittsburgh; and Colonel
George Morgan, Indian agent, writes to John Hancock, November 8,
1776:
I have the happiness to inform you that the cloud that threatened to
break over us is likely to disperse. The Six Nations, with the Muncies,
Delawares, Shawanese, and Mohicans, who