The first court house was memorable for another reason. It was in the court room that the townspeople assembled on that eventful evening of the thirty-first day of July, during the stormiest days of the Whisky Insurrection.[191] The mail from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia had been robbed by the Insurgents and among the letters taken were several, written by prominent citizens of Pittsburgh, which indicated a hostile spirit toward the insurrection. The sentiments expressed were considered as reflecting the opinion of the town. The rage of the Insurgents was now directed against Pittsburgh. In their wrath they characterized it as another Sodom, and declared that they would come and destroy it with fire, and leave nothing but smoking ruins to mark the spot where it had stood. With this end in view they commenced gathering in force at Braddocksfield. News of the sinister purpose spread to the town. Alarm grew into terror, and a meeting was hastily called to consider measures of protection. The meeting was already in progress, when a committee sent by the Insurgents arrived and announced that the town would be spared if certain obnoxious persons, including the writers of the letters found in the mail, were banished from the town. They reported that the task of saving the town would be easier of accomplishment if the inhabitants marched out in a body to meet the Insurgents, and by fraternizing with them show that they were not hostile to the Insurgent cause. The meeting deliberated far into the night, and at two o’clock the next morning arrived at a humiliating conclusion. They agreed to banish the men asked for, and to join the Insurgents at Braddocksfield, “as brethren to carry into effect with them any measure that may seem to them advisable for the common cause.” Even then the panic did not subside. The people refused to go to bed; women wept; valuables were hidden, and lights flickered in the houses all night long.
At the northwest corner of Market and Second streets, in the three-story double brick building owned by Colonel O’Hara, was the store of Scott & Trotter, where they sold “merchandise of a superior quality suitable to every station, which they are determined to sell on very low terms for cash, peltry, furs, and approved country produce.”[192] Next door to Scott & Trotter was Dr. George Stevenson. Like Dr. Richardson, Stevenson conducted an apothecary shop and sold “drugs, medicines, surgical instruments, etc.”[193] He was a former Revolutionary officer, and had been third lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania Regiment. In 1778, he resigned to study medicine, and re-entered the service in 1779 as surgeon’s mate with the rank of ensign. In 1798, he was major in the Tenth United States Regiment. Stevenson was chief burgess in 1801.[194]
At the southwest corner of Market and Third streets was the “hat sales shop” of Thomas and Samuel Magee.[195] Here they kept for sale the beaver, castor, and roram hats, which they manufactured at the corner of Front Street and Chancery Lane. On the opposite side of Market Street from Scott & Trotter was William Herd’s dry goods and grocery store.[196] Also on this side of Market Street, at the northeast corner of that street and Third Street, was another physician, Dr. Hugh Scott.[197] Then came the store of William Gazzam, and adjoining was that of William Barrett. Farther on, Fulton & Baird sold “soal and upper leather,”[198] and James Riddle had a boot and shoe-making establishment[199] and sold “Halifax soal leather, also boot legs, half and whole soals, and boot webbing.”[200] Another establishment was that of William Porter who had a cut and forged nail manufactory.[201]
Adjoining Porter on the north was the well-known tavern of Mrs. Mary Murphy, commonly known as “Molly” Murphy, the widow of Patrick Murphy, at the “Sign of General Butler.” Beginning on April 1, 1800, and for several years afterward, the tavern was conducted by Richard Hancock.[202] Next door to the “Sign of General Butler,” and extending to Fourth Street at the “Sign of the Negro,” Joseph McClurg sold dry goods, hardware, china, and glassware, and conducted a tobacco manufactory.[203] He also advertised as having for sale “a large assortment of window and hollow glass of a superior quality, from A. Gallatin, Esq’s., glass works at New Geneva.”[204]
The “Sign of General Butler” was named for General Richard Butler who in his day was the most noted character in Pittsburgh. He had been Indian trader and Indian agent. In the Revolution he was second in command to General Daniel Morgan at Saratoga, and second in command to General Anthony Wayne at Stony Point. He was a justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County[205] and was the first lieutenant of the county, the officer who at that time was commander of the militia.[206] He was a member of the General Assembly,[207] and met a glorious death during St. Clair’s unfortunate expedition against the Indians on the Miami River, on November 4, 1791.[208] His name has been commemorated in that of Butler County.[209] His home was in the log house situated on the east side of Marbury, now Third Street, one door south of Penn Street, now Penn Avenue,[210] where his widow continued to reside.
The “Sign of General Butler,” like the home of Brackenridge, became famous during the Whisky Insurrection. President Washington had appointed a commission to meet the Insurgents, and procure their submission. It consisted of Senator James Ross, Attorney General William Bradford, also a Pennsylvanian, and Jasper Yeates, a justice of the Supreme Court of this State. The commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania were Chief Justice McKean and General William Irvine. The commission had arranged to meet representatives of those in rebellion, on Wednesday, August 20, 1794. Two days before that date, the commissioners took up their lodgings at the “Sign of General Butler.” When it became known that they were at the tavern, a mob gathered before it on Market Street, and made their sentiments apparent by raising a liberty pole, the emblem everywhere in the disturbed districts of disaffection toward the national government. A streamer was fastened to the pole on which were inscribed the watchwords of the Insurgents:
“Liberty and no Excise.
Death to Cowards and Traitors.”
Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge has stated that it was with difficulty that he and others who were influential with the rioters prevailed on them to forego their intention of placing on the pole the flag which had been prepared, bearing six stripes, emblematical of the six counties, five in Pennsylvania, and one in Virginia, which were threatening to secede from the United States and set up a government of their own. That the conferences which followed were fruitless is well known. Only one man in attendance gained in reputation. Albert Gallatin was on the committee sent by the Insurgents. His ability and his firm stand in favor of law and order won for him everywhere, and particularly in Allegheny and Washington counties, the lasting regard of the citizens. Two months later a member of Congress was to be elected in the district composed of these counties, and Insurgents and non-insurgents flocked to Gallatin’s support, and to the surprise of Brackenridge and General John Woods, the other candidates, he was elected.
During the occupancy of the “Sign of General Butler” by Richard Hancock, James Hilliard had a farrier shop and livery stable, in the stable connected with the tavern.[211] The public controversy in which Hilliard engaged his wife, is a striking illustration of the mischievous result of the husband’s absolute control of his wife’s separate estate under the existing laws. Hilliard was married to Elizabeth Bausman, a daughter of Jacob Bausman, who was possessed of property in her own right which she had inherited from her father. Hilliard published a notice[212] advising the public that his wife had “absconded from his bed and board,” and declaring that he would not be responsible for debts contracted by her. To this charge Mrs. Hilliard replied in a sharp letter.[213] She denied her husband’s accusation, and stated that she had gone with her children, at his request, on a visit to Jacob Haymaker. She charged Hilliard with having, during her absence, disposed of the household effects, including her wearing apparel, to John Smur, a tavern keeper in the town, and that everything had been taken away after nightfall; that the articles were part of her separate estate; that now she had “no bed nor board to go to.” She asked that no credit be extended to Hilliard on the strength of her estate, and declared that thereafter she would decline to pay his debts, but would use her estate for her own benefit. “In the future,” she concluded, “it shall not be expended in paying his tavern bills.”