Pittsburgh

by Charles W. Dahlinger

The first pastor of the German church was the Rev. Johann Wilhelm Weber, who was sent out by the German Reformed Synod at Reading.[9] He had left his charge in Eastern Pennsylvania because the congregation which he served had not been as enthusiastic in its support of the Revolution as he deemed proper.[10] The services were held in a log building situated at what is now the corner of Wood Street and Diamond Alley.[11] Besides ministering to the wants of the Pittsburgh church, there were three other congregations on Weber’s circuit, which extended fifty miles east of Pittsburgh. When he came West in September, 1782, the Revolutionary War was still in progress; Hannastown had been burned by the British and Indians in the preceding July; hostile Indians and white outlaws continually beset his path. He was a soldier of the Cross, but he was also ready to fight worldly battles. He went about the country armed not only with the Bible, but with a loaded rifle,[12] and was prepared to battle with physical enemies, as well as with the devil.

Hardly had the churches come into existence when another organization was formed whose origin is claimed to be shrouded in the mists of antiquity. In the American history of the order, the membership included many of the greatest and best known men in the country. On December 27, 1785, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Free and Accepted Masons, granted a charter to certain freemasons resident in Pittsburgh, which was designated as “Lodge No. 45 of Ancient York Masons.” It was not only the first masonic lodge in Pittsburgh, but the first in the Western country.[13] Almost from the beginning, Lodge No. 45 was the most influential social organization in the village. Nearly all the leading citizens were members. Toward the close of the eighteenth century the place of meeting was in the tavern of William Morrow, at the “Sign of the Green Tree,” on Water Street, two doors above Market Street.[14] Although not a strictly religious organization, the order carefully observed certain Church holidays. St. John the Baptist’s day and St. John the Evangelist’s day were never allowed to pass without a celebration. Every year in June, on St. John the Baptist’s day, Lodge No. 45 met at 10 o’clock in the morning and, after the services in the lodge were over, paraded the streets. The members walked two abreast. Dressed in their best clothes, with cocked hats, long coats, knee-breeches, and buckled shoes, wearing the aprons of the craft, they marched “in ancient order.” The sword bearer was in advance; the officers wore embroidered collars, from which depended their emblems of office; the wardens carried their truncheons; the deacons, their staves. The Bible, surmounted by a compass and a square, on a velvet cushion, was borne along. When the Rev. Robert Steele came to preach in the Presbyterian Meeting House, the march was from the lodge room to the church. Here Mr. Steele preached a sermon to the brethren, after which they dined together at Thomas Ferree’s tavern at the “Sign of the Black Bear,”[15] or at the “Sign of the Green Tree.”[16] St. John the Evangelist’s day was observed with no less circumstance. In the morning the officers of the lodge were installed. Addresses of a semi-religious or philosophic character, eulogistic of masonry, were delivered by competent members or visitors. This ceremony was followed in the afternoon by a dinner either at some tavern or at the home of a member. Dinners seemed to be a concomitant part of all masonic ceremonies.

By the time that the last quarter of the eighteenth century was well under way, the hunters and trappers had left for more prolific hunting grounds. The Indian traders with their lax morals[17] had disappeared forever in the direction of the setting sun, along with the Indians with whom they bartered. If any traders remained, they conformed to the precepts of a higher civilization. Only a scattered few of the red men continued to dwell in the hills surrounding the village, or along the rivers, eking out a scant livelihood by selling game in the town.[18]

A different moral atmosphere appeared: schools of a permanent character were established; the German church conducted a school which was taught by the pastor. Secular books were now in the households of the more intelligent; a few of the wealthier families had small libraries, and books were sold in the town. On August 26, 1786, Wilson and Wallace advertised “testaments, Bibles, spelling books, and primers” for sale.[19] Copies of the Philadelphia and Baltimore newspapers were brought by travellers, and received by private arrangement.

In July, 1786, John Scull and Joseph Hall, two young men of more than ordinary daring, came from Philadelphia and established a weekly newspaper called the Pittsburgh Gazette, which was the first newspaper published in the country west of the Alleghany Mountains. The partnership lasted only a few months, Hall dying on November 10, 1786, at the early age of twenty-two years;[20] and in the following month, John Boyd, also of Philadelphia, purchased Hall’s interest and became the partner of Scull.[21] For many years money was scarcely seen in Pittsburgh in commercial transactions, everything being consummated in trade. A few months after its establishment, the Pittsburgh Gazette gave notice to all persons residing in the country that it would receive country produce in payment of subscriptions to the paper.[22]

The next year there were printed, and kept for sale at the office of the Pittsburgh Gazette, spelling books, and The A.B.C. with the Shorter Catechism, to which are Added Some Short and Easy Questions for Children; secular instruction was combined with religious.[23] The Pittsburgh Gazette also conducted an emporium where other reading matter might be purchased. In the issue for June 16, 1787, an illuminating notice appeared: “At the printing office, Pittsburgh, may be had the laws of this State, passed between the thirtieth of September, 1775, and the Revolution; New Testaments; Dilworth’s Spelling Books; New England Primers, with Catechism; Westminster Shorter Catechism; Journey from Philadelphia to New York by Way of Burlington and South Amboy, by Robert Slenner, Stocking Weaver; ... also a few books for the learner of the French language.”

In November, 1787, there was announced as being in press at the office of the Pittsburgh Gazette the Pittsburgh Almanac or Western Ephemeris for 1788.[24] The same year that the almanac appeared, John Boyd attempted the establishment of a circulating library. In his announcement on July 26th,[25] he declared that the library would be opened as soon as a hundred subscribers were secured; and that it would consist of five hundred well chosen books. Subscriptions were to be received at the office of the Pittsburgh Gazette. Boyd committed suicide in the early part of August by hanging himself to a tree on the hill in the town, which has ever since borne his name, and Scull became the sole owner of the Pittsburgh Gazette. This act of self-destruction, and the fact that Boyd’s name as owner appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette for the last time on August 2d, would indicate that the library was never established. Perhaps it was the anticipated failure of the enterprise that prompted Boyd to commit suicide.

The door to higher education was opened on February 28, 1787, when the Pittsburgh Academy was incorporated by an Act of the General Assembly. This was the germ which has since developed into the University of Pittsburgh. Another step which tended to the material and mental advancement of the place, was the inauguration of a movement for communicating regularly with the outside world. On September 30, 1786, a post route was established with Philadelphia,[26] and the next year the general government entered into a contract for carrying the mails between Pittsburgh and that city.[27] Almost immediately afterward a post office was established in Pittsburgh with Scull as postmaster, and a regular post between the village and Philadelphia and the East was opened on July 19, 1788.[28] These events constituted another milestone in the progress of Pittsburgh.

Another instrument in the advancement of the infant community was the Mechanical Society which came into existence in 1788. On the twenty-second of March, the following unique advertisement appeared in the Pittsburgh Gazette: “Society was the primeval desire of our first and great ancestor Adam; the same order for that blessing seems to inhabit more or less the whole race. To encourage this it seems to be the earnest wish of a few of the mechanics in Pittsburgh, to have a general meeting on Monday the 24th inst., at six P.M., at the house of Andrew Watson, tavern keeper, to settle on a plan for a well regulated society for the purpose. This public method is taken to invite the reputable tradesmen of this place to be punctual to their assignation.”

Andrew Watson’s tavern was in the log building, at the northeast corner of Market and Front Streets. Front Street was afterward called First Street, and is now First Avenue. At that time all the highways running parallel with the Monongahela River were designated as streets, as they are now called avenues. The object of the Mechanical Society was the improvement of the condition of the workpeople, to induce workpeople to settle in the town, and to procure manufactories to be established there.