A Short History of Pittsburgh | Page 8

have been assembled here
with their principal chiefs and warriors to the number of 644, have
given the strongest assurance of their determination to preserve
inviolate the peace and neutrality with the United States.
These amicable expectations were not realized, and General Edward
Hand came to Pittsburgh the next year and planned an expedition
against the Indians. Colonel Broadhead took out Hand's expedition in
the summer and burned the Indian towns.
The depreciation of paper currency, or Continental money, had by this
time brought the serious burden of high prices upon the people. The
traders, who demanded apparently exorbitant rates for their goods, were
denounced in public meetings at Pittsburgh as being "now commonly
known by the disgraceful epithet of speculators, of more malignant
natures than the savage Mingoes in the wilderness." This hardship grew
in severity until the finances were put upon a more stable basis.

In 1781, there was demoralization and mutiny at Fort Pitt, and General
William Irvine was put in command. His firm hand soon restored the
garrison to obedience. The close of the war with Great Britain in that
year was celebrated by General Irvine by the issue of an order at the
fort, November 6, 1781, requiring all, as a sailor would say, "to splice
the mainbrace." This order read as follows:
The commissioners will issue a gill of whisky, extraordinary, to the
non-commissioned officers and privates, upon this joyful occasion.
The Penn family had purchased the Pittsburgh region from the Indians
in 1768, and they would offer none of it for sale until 1783. Up to this
time they had held the charter to Pennsylvania; but as they had
maintained a steadfast allegiance to the mother country, the general
assembly annulled their title, except to allow them to retain the
ownership of various manors throughout the State, embracing half a
million acres.
In order to relieve the people of Pittsburgh from going to Greensburg to
the court-house in their sacred right of suing and being sued, the
general assembly erected Allegheny County out of parts of
Westmoreland and Washington Counties, September 24, 1788. This
county originally comprised, in addition to its present limits, what are
now Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango, and
Warren Counties. The Act required that the court-house and jail should
be located in Allegheny (just across the river from Pittsburgh), but as
there was no protection against Indians there, an amendment
established Pittsburgh as the county seat. The first court was held at
Fort Pitt; and the next day a ducking-stool was erected for the district,
at "The Point" in the three rivers.
In 1785, the dispute between Virginia and Pennsylvania for the
possession of Pittsburgh was settled by the award of a joint commission
in favor of Pennsylvania.
A writer says that in 1786 Pittsburgh contained thirty-six log houses,
one stone, and one frame house, and five small stores. Another records
that the population "is almost entirely Scots and Irish, who live in log

houses." A third says of these log houses: "Now and then one had
assumed the appearance of neatness and comfort."
The first newspaper, the Pittsburgh "Gazette," was established July 29,
1786. A mail route to Philadelphia, by horseback, was adopted in the
same year. On September 29, 1787, the Legislature granted a charter to
the Pittsburgh Academy, a school that has grown steadily in usefulness
and power as the Western University of Pennsylvania, and which has in
this year (July 11, 1908) appropriately altered its name to University of
Pittsburgh.
[Illustration: Anthony Wayne]
In 1791, the Indians became vindictive and dangerous, and General
Arthur St. Clair, with a force of twenty-three hundred men, was sent
down the river to punish them. Neglecting President Washington's
imperative injunction to avoid a surprise, he led his command into an
ambush and lost half of it in the most disastrous battle with the redskins
since the time of Braddock. In the general alarm that ensued, Fort Pitt
being in a state of decay, a new fort was built in Pittsburgh at Ninth and
Tenth Streets and Penn Avenue,--a stronghold that included bastions,
blockhouses, barracks, etc., and was named Fort Lafayette. General
Anthony Wayne was then selected to command another expedition
against the savages, and he arrived in Pittsburgh in June, 1792. After
drilling his troops and making preparations for two years, in the course
of which he erected several forts in the West, including Fort Defiance
and Fort Wayne, he fought the Indians and crushed their strength and
spirit. On his return a lasting peace was made with them, and there
were no further raids about Pittsburgh.
XI
The whisky insurrection demands a brief reference. Whisky seems to
be a steady concomitant of civilization. As soon as the white settlers
had planted themselves securely at Pittsburgh, they made requisition