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PITTSBURG, or PITTSBURGH
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See also:PITTSBURG, or PITTSBURGH ,1 the second largest See also:city of
See also:Pennsylvania, U.S.A., and the See also:county-seat of See also:Allegheny county, on the Allegheny, See also:Monongahela and See also:Ohio See also:rivers, 440 M. by See also:rail W. by S. of New See also:York City, 36o m. W. by N. of See also:Philadelphia, 368 m. N.W. of See also:Washington and 468 m. E. by S. of See also:Chicago. Pop. (189o), 238,617;2 (19oc), 321,616, of whom 84,878 were See also:foreign-See also:born, 17,040 were negroes and 154 were See also:Chinese; (1910
See also:census, after the See also:annexation of Allegheny), 533,905. Of the 84,878 foreign-born in Igoe), 21,222 were natives of See also:Germany,
18,620 of See also:Ireland, 8902 of See also:England, 6243 of See also:Russian See also:Poland, 5709 of See also:Italy, 4107 of See also:Russia, 3553 of See also:Austria, 3515 of See also:German Poland, 2539 of See also:Wales, 2264 of See also:Scotland, 2124 of See also:Hungary, 1072 of See also:Sweden and 1023 of See also:Austrian Poland. See also:Area (including Allegheny, annexed in 1906), 40.67 sq. m. Pittsburg is served by the Pennsylvania (several divisions), the See also:Baltimore & Ohio; the Pittsburg & See also:Lake See also:Erie (controlled by the New York Central See also:System), the Pittsburg, See also:Cincinnati, Chicago & St See also: Picturesque See also:rolling plateaus, the three rivers and narrow valleys, from which rise high hills or precipitous bluffs, are the See also:principal natural features of the See also:district over which the city extends. See also:Retail houses, wholesale houses, See also:banks, tall See also:office buildings, hotels, theatres and railway terminals are crowded into the See also:angle, or "The Point," formed at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, with Fifth See also:Avenue as the principal thoroughfare, especially for the retail houses, and See also:Fourth Avenue as the See also:great banking thoroughfare. Factories extend for See also:miles along the banks of all three rivers into the tributary valleys, and are the cause of Pittsburg's See also:nickname, " The Smoky City." The more attractive residential districts are on the See also:plateau in the eastern portion of the district between the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and on the hills over-looking the Allegheny river from the See also:north. Overlooking the Monongahela river is Schenley See also:Park (about 422 acres), the first city park, of which about 400 acres were given to the city in 1890 by Mrs. See also:Mary E. Schenley. About 2 M. to the north, overlooking the Allegheny river, is Highland Park (about 366 acres), which contains the city reservoirs and a picturesque lake. Adjacent to Schenley Park are Homewood and See also:Calvary cemeteries; and adjacent to Highland Park is Allegheny See also:cemetery. Across the Allegheny river, in the Allegheny district, are the beautiful Riverview Park (240 acres), in which is the Allegheny See also:Observatory, and West Park (about too acres). A number of See also:bridges span the rivers. The city has some See also:fine public buildings, office buildings and churches. The Allegheny county See also:court-See also:house (1884—1888) is one of H. H. See also:Richardson's masterpieces. The See also:Nixon See also:theatre is also notable architecturally. The high Frick Office See also:building has exterior walls of See also: It is the largest in See also:America, and, with its Hall of See also:Botany, which is utilized in instructing school See also:children in botany, is situated in Schenley Park. The conservatory is maintained by municipal appropriations. There is a zoological See also:garden in Highland Park. In See also:December 1907 it was decided that the several departments of the Western University of Pennsylvania, then in different parts of the city, should be brought together on a new campus of 43 acres near the Carnegie Institute. .In See also:July 1908 the name was changed to " The University of Pitts-See also:burgh." The university embraces a cellege and See also:engineering school, the Western Pennsylvania School of Mines and See also:Mining Engineering, a See also:graduate department, an evening school of See also:economics, accounts and finances, a summer school, evening classes, Saturday clasess, and departments of See also:astronomy (the Allegheny Observatory, in the Allegheny district), See also:law (the Pitts-See also:burg Law School), See also:medicine (the Western Pennsylvania Medical See also:College), See also:pharmacy (the Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy) and See also:dentistry (the Pittsburgh Dental College). The institution had its beginning in the Pittsburgh See also:Academy, which was opened about 1770 and was incorporated in 1787. It was incorporated as the Western University of Pennsylvania in 1819,but was only a college from that date until 1892, when the Western Pennsylvania Medical College became its department of medicine. In 1895 the department of law was added, the Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy was See also:united to the university, and See also:women were for the first See also:time admitted. In 1896 the department of dentistry was established. In 1909 the university had 151 instructors and 1243 students. In the See also:east end is the Pennsylvania College for Women (Presbyterian; chartered in 1869), with preparatory, collegiate and musical departments. In the Allegheny district are the Allegheny Theological See also:Seminary (United Presbyterian, 1825), the Western Theological Seminary (Presbyterian, opened 1827), and the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1856). Although Allegheny is now a See also:part of Pittsburg, the two public school systems remain See also:independent. The Pittsburg High School (five buildings in 1910) has a normal course; and there are various private schools and See also:academies.
The Pittsburg See also:Gazette-Times is probably the See also:oldest See also:news-See also:paper west of the See also:Alleghany Mountains; the Gazette was founded in 1786 and in 1906 was consolidated with the Times (1879). Other prominent See also:newspapers of the city are the See also:Dispatch (1846), the See also:Chronicle See also:Telegraph (1841), the Post (1792; daily, 1842), which is one of the few influential Democratic newspapers in Pennsylvania, the See also:Leader (See also:Sunday, 1864; daily, 1870) and the See also:Press (1883). Two German dailies, one See also:Slavonic daily; one Slavonic weekly, two See also:Italian weeklies, and See also:iron, building, See also:coal and glass See also:trade See also:journals are published in the city. In Pittsburg is the See also:publishing house of the United Presbyterian See also: Its See also:harbour has a total length on the three rivers of 27.2 m., and an See also:average width of about r000 ft., and has been deepened by the construction (in 1877—1885) of the See also:Davis See also:Island See also:dam, by dredging, under a federal project of 1899. Slack See also:water See also:navigation has been secured on the Allegheny by locks and dams (1890 and 1896 sqq.) at an expense up to July 1909 of $1,658,804; and up to that time $263,625 had been spent for open-channel See also:work. The Monongahela from Pittsburg to the West See also:Virginia state See also:line (91.5 m.) was improved in 1836 sqq. by a private company which built seven locks and dams; this See also:property was condemned and bought for $3,761,615 by the United States government in 1897, and, under the project of 1899 for rebuilding three of the locks and enlarging another, and that of 1907 for a new See also:lock and dam and for other improvements, $2,675,692 was spent up to July 1909. Coal is brought to the city from the coalfields by boats I on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers as well as by rail, and great fleets of See also:barges carry coal and other heavy freight, such as steel rails, See also:cotton ties, See also:sheet iron, See also:wire and nails, down the Ohio in the See also:winter and See also:spring. A See also:ship See also:canal to provide water communication between Pittsburg and Lake Erie has been projected. The railways have a heavy See also:tonnage of coal, See also:coke and iron and steel products, and a large portion of the iron ore that is produced in the Lake See also:Superior region is brought to Pittsburg. In 1908 the river See also:traffic amounted to 9,090,146 tons, most of which was carried on barges down the Ohio. Pittsburg is also a See also:port of entry; in 1907 the value of its imports amounted to $2,416,367, and in 1909 to $2,062,162. The value of the factory products in 1905 was $165,428,881, and to this may be added $45,830,272 for those of the city of Allegheny, making a total of $211,259,153. In the manufacture of iron and steel products Pittsburg ranks first among the cities of the United States, the value of these products amounting in 1905 to $88,250,805 or 53'3 % of the total for all manufactures; if the manufactures of Allegheny be added they amounted to $92,939,860 or 43.7%. Several neighbouring cities and towns are also extensively engaged in the same See also:industry, and in 1902 Allegheny county produced about 24% of the See also:pig-iron, nearly 34 °/o of the See also:Bessemer steel, more than 44% of the open-See also:hearth steel, more than 53 % of the crucible steel, more then 24% of the steel rails, and more than 5o% of the structural shapes that were made in that See also:year in the United States. In 1905 the value of Pittsburg's foundry and See also:machine See also:shop-products was $9,631,514; of the product of See also:steam railway repair shops, $3,726,990 (being 424'8% more than in 1900); of See also:malt liquors, $3,166,829; of slaughtering and See also:meat-packing products, $2,732,027; of cigars and cigarettes, $2,297,228; of glass, $2,130,540; and of See also:tin and terne See also:plate, $1,645,570. See also:Electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies were manufactured largely in the city (value in 1905, $1,796,557), and there was another large plant for their manufacture immediately outside of the city limits. Coke, cut See also:cork, rolled See also:brass and See also:copper were other important products in 1905. In 1900, and for a long See also:period preceding, Pittsburg ranked first among See also:American cities in the manufacture of glass, but in 1905 it was outranked in this industry by See also:Muncie, Indiana, See also:Millville, New See also:Jersey, and Washington, Pennsylvania; but in the district outside of the city limits of Pittsburg much glass is manufactured, so that the Pittsburg glass district is the greatest in the country, and there are large glass factories at Washington (18 m. See also:south-west), See also:Charleroi (20 M. south) and See also:Tarentum (15 M. north-east). In Pittsburg or the immediate vicinity are the more important See also:plants of the United States Steel See also:Corporation, including that of the Carnegie Company. Here, too. are the plants of the Westinghouse Company for the manufacture of electrical apparatus, of See also:air brakes invented by See also:George Westinghouse (born 1846), and of devices for railway signals which he also invented. In the Allegheny district the H. J. Heinz Company has its main See also:pickle plant, the largest See also:establishment of .he See also:kind in the country. The Pittsburg charter of 1816 vested the more important See also:powers of the city government in a See also:common See also:council of 15 members and a select council of 9 members, and until 1834 the See also:mayor was appointed annually by these city See also:councils from their own number. By the See also:Wallace See also:Act of the state legislature in 1874 a See also:form of government was provided for cities of three classes, and Pittsburg became a city of the second class (population between See also:ioo,000 and 300,000); under the act of 1895 a new See also:classification was made, under which Pittsburg remains in the second class. An act of 1887 had amended the provisions of the Wallace act in regard to second class cities by changing the terms of select councilmen from two to four years and of common councilmen from one to two years. In 1901 a new act was passed for the government of cities of the second class. It provided that the executive be a " city See also:recorder "; this See also:provision was repealed in 1903, when the See also:title of mayor again came into use. The mayor holds office for three years, has the powers and See also:jurisdiction of a See also:justice of the See also:peace, appoints the heads of departments (public safety, public See also:works, See also:collector of delinquent taxes, assessors, city treasurer, law, charities and correction,and sinking fund See also:commission), and may remove any of the See also:officers he has appointed, by a written See also:order, showing cause, to the select council. The city controller is elected by popular See also:vote. The legislative bodies are the select and common council, elected under the law of 1887; by a three-fifths vote it may pass resolutions or ordinances over the mayor's See also:veto. The department of public safety controls the bureaus of See also:police, detectives, See also:fire, See also:health, See also:electricity and building inspection; the department of public works controls bureaus of surveys, construction, highways and sewers, city property, water, See also:assessment of water rents, parks, See also:deed registry, bridges and See also:light. In 1909 the taxable valuation was $100,771,321, and the tax See also:rate was 13.8 See also:mills for city property, 9.2 mills on rural property and 6.9 mills on agricultural property. The tax rate for separate indebtedness varied from 6 mills in Allegheny to 16.2 mills in the 43rd See also: He reached the present site of Pittsburg on the 24th of See also:November 1753, and subsequently reported'. that what is now called " The Point," i.e. the See also:tongue of land formed by the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, was a much more favourable situation for a fort and trading post than the one about two miles up the Monongahela (near the present site of McKees Rocks) which had been tentatively selected by the Ohio Company. Accordingly, on the 17th of See also:February 1754, a detachment of about 40 soldiers, under the command of See also:Captain See also: See also:Goodman.
(commonly considered the beginning of the French and Indian—Seven Years'—War) on the 28th of May 1754, at Great Meadows (in what is now See also:Wharton township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, about 50 M. south-east of Pittsburg), between a detachment under his command and a scouting party under N. Coulon de Jumonville, in which Jumonville and several of his men were killed; the building, at Great Meadows, by Washington, of Fort See also:Necessity, and its See also:capitulation (July 3); and the See also:retreat of Washington to Virginia. Another expedition, led by Major-General Edward See also:Braddock, resulted in the engagement known as " Braddock's Defeat " (July 9, 1755), fought within the present See also:borough of Braddock (about 8 m. east of Fort Duquesne), in which Braddock's force was practically annihilated, and Braddock was mortally wounded, dying four days later. The fort was finally recaptured by the English in 1758, as the result of an elaborate expedition (involving about 7000 troops) planned by Brigadier-General John Forbes (1710-1759), and prosecuted, with the assistance of See also:Colonel George Washington and Colonel Henry Bouquet, in the See also:face of great difficulties. General Forbes himself was so See also:ill that he had to be carried in a See also:litter throughout the campaign. The troops having rendezvoused during the summer (of 1758) at See also:Ray's See also:Town (now See also:Bedford, Pennsylvania), and at Loyalhanna See also:creek (now in Westmoreland county), about 50 M. to the north-west (where Fort See also:Ligonier was built), Colonel Bouquet, commanding the See also:division at the latter See also:place, despatched Major See also: 26) the success of the expedition he dated his letter from Fort Duquesne "or now Pitts-Bourgh," and this name, with its subsequent modification " Pittsburgh," was thereafter more commonly used than that of Fort Pitt, which, as designating the fortification proper appears to have been first applied by General John Stanwix to the enlarged fort built (at a cost, it was estimated, of £6o,000) chiefly under his direction during 1759-1760.
The first considerable settlement around the fort sprang up in 1760; it was composed of two See also:groups of houses and cabins, the " See also:lower town," near the fort's ramparts; and the " upper town," built chiefly along the banks of the Monongahela, and extending as far as the present See also:Market See also:Street. In April 1761, according to a census of the settlement, outside of the fort, taken for Colonel Bouquet, there were 332 inhabitants and 104 houses.
Fort Pitt was one of the important See also:objective points of Pontiac's conspiracy (1763), and as soon as the intentions of the Indians became evident, Captain See also:Simeon Ecuyer, the Swiss officer in command of the See also:garrison (which then numbered about 330), had the houses outside the ramparts levelled and prepared for a See also:siege. The Indians attacked the fort on the 22nd of See also:June (1763), and kept up a continuous, though ineffective, fire upon it from the 27th of July until the 1st of August, when they See also:drew off and advanced to meet the relieving party under Colonel Bouquet. They were defeated at Bushy Run, and Colonel Bouquet relieved the fort on the loth of August (see PONTIAC). In 1764 Colonel Bouquet added to the fort a See also:redoubt, the " See also:Block House," which still stands, the See also:sole remaining trace of Fort Pitt, and is owned and cared for by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
A second town, laid out in 1764, by Colonel John See also: In January 1774 it was occupied by an armed force under Dr John Connolly, a See also:partisan of See also:Lord See also:Dunmore, governor of Virginia, and by him was named Fort Dunmore (which name, however, was never formally recognized), this being one of Dunmore's overt acts ostensibly in support of his contention that the Fort Pitt region was included in See also:Augusta county, Virginia. In the following April Connolly took forcible possession of the court-house at See also:Hanna's Town (near the present See also:Greensburg), the county-seat of Westmoreland county (which then included the Fort Pitt region), a few days afterwards arrested the three justices who lived in Pittsburg, and for the remainder of the year terrorized the settlement. Lord Dunmore himself issued a See also:proclamation dated " Fort Dunmore," 17th September (1774), in which he called upon the inhabitants to ignore the authority of Pennsylvania, and to recognize only that of Virginia. A year afterwards Fort Pitt was occupied by a company of Virginia soldiers by order of the Virginia Provincial See also:Convention (assembled at See also:Williamsburg in August 1775), but this move apparently was more for the See also:defence of the frontier in the coming war than an expression on the Pennsylvania-Virginia boundary dispute; and, in November, Connolly was arrested at Fredericks-burg, See also:Maryland, on the charge of furthering Dunmore's plans for invading the western frontier. The boundary itself was in controversy until 1780, and the marking of the boundary lines was not completed until 1785. During the War of Independence the fort was maintained as a frontier Indian post, and as a See also:protection against the See also:British at See also:Detroit. Soon after the See also:close of the war it was neglected, and by 1791 it was in See also:bad repair; there-fore at the time of the Indian hostilities of 1792 another stockade fort was built near the See also:bank of the Allegheny river and about a quarter of a mile above the site of Fort Pitt, this new fort being named Fort See also:Lafayette, or, as it was more commonly called, Fort Fayette. After General See also:Anthony See also:Wayne's defeat of the Indians, at Fallen Timbers, Ohio (Aug. 20, 1794), Pittsburg lost its importance as a frontier post. In January 1784 the sale of the land included in the " Manor of Pittsburgh " was begun by the grandsons of William Penn, John Penn (1729-1795), the second son of Richard Penn and See also:lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania in 1763-1771 and in 1773-1776; and John Penn (1760-1834), the fourth son of Thomas Penn; and in the following June a new series of town lots was laid out in which was incorporated Colonel Campbell's survey. Thereafter, settlers, chiefly Scotch and Irish, came rapidly. ' This tract was confiscated by Pennsylvania in 1779. Pittsburg and its vicinity witnessed much of the disorder, and some of the violence against See also:person and property, incident to the See also:Whisky Insurrection of 1791-94. Delegates from Allegheny, Westmoreland, Washington and Fayette counties met here on the 7th of September 1791, and passed resolutions severely denouncing the See also:excise tax; and a similarly constituted gathering, on the 24th of August 1792, voted to proscribe all persons who assisted in the enforcement of See also:laws taxing the manufacture of liquor. Thereafter various persons who had paid the excise tax, or had assisted in See also:collecting it, were tarred and feathered or had their houses or barns burned. General John See also:Neville (1731-1803), having accepted the office of See also:chief excise inspector for Western Pennsylvania, his fine country See also:residence, about 7 M. south-west of Pittsburg, was attacked by a See also:mob of about 500 men on the 16th and 17th of July 1794. The defenders of the property (who included a. squad of soldiers from the garrison at Pittsburg) killed two and wounded several of the attacking party, but they were finally forced to surrender, and General Neville's See also:mansion and other buildings were burned to the ground. A See also:mass See also:meeting of about 5000 citizens of the above-mentioned counties (many of them armed militiamen), at Braddock's See also: In 1806 the manufacture of iron was well begun, and by 1825 this had become the leading industry. On the loth of April 1845 a considerable portion of the city was swept by fire, and in July 1877, during the great railway strike of that year, a large amount of property was destroyed by a mob. The commercial importance of the city was increased by the canal from Pittsburg to Philadelphia, built by the state in 1834 at a cost of $ro,000,000. The first See also:petroleum See also:pipe line reached Pittsburg in 1875. A See also:movement to consolidate the cities of Pittsburg and Allegheny, together with some adjacent boroughs, was begun in 18553-1854. It failed entirely in that year but in 1867 Lawrenceville, See also:Peebles, See also:Collins, See also:Liberty, Pitt and See also:Oak-land, all lying between the two rivers, were annexed to Pittsburg; in 1872 there was a further annexation of a district embracing 27 sq. m. south of the Monongahela river; in 1906 Allegheny (q.v.), although,a large See also:majority of those voting on the question in that city were opposed to it, was annexed, and in November 1907 the Supreme Court of the United States declared valid the act of the state legislature under which the vote was taken. See N. B. See also:Craig, The See also:History of Pittsburgh (Pittsburg, 1851); Early History of Western Pennsylvania and the West, by a See also:gentleman of the See also:bar—J. D. Rupp (Pittsburg, 1848) ; William H. Egle, Illustrated History of the See also:Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (See also:Harrisburg, Pa., 1876) ; Sarah H. Killikelly, The History of Pittsburgh, Its Rise and Prcgress (Pittsburg, 1906) ; S. H. Church, Pittsburgh the See also:Industrial City," in L. P. See also:Powell's Historic Towns of the See also:Middle States (New York, 1899) ; G. H. Thurston, Pittsburgh and Allegheny in the Centennial Year (Pittsburg, 1876) ; for a history of the various forts as such, See also:Report of the Commission to Locate the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania, vol. u. (Harrisburg, Pa.. 1896) ; and for a thorough study of economic and social conditions in Pittsburg, P. U. See also:Kellogg (ed.), The Pittsburg Survey (6 vols., New York, 1910 sqq.), prepared under the direction of the See also:Sage See also:Foundation. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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