Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

On April 17, 1754, Ensign Ward was surprised by the appearance of Frenchmen, who landed, planted their cannon and summoned the English to surrender. The French soon demolished an unfinished fort and built in its place a much larger and better one, calling it Fort Duquesne, in honor of the Marquis Duquesne, the French Governor of Canada.

This was the actual beginning of what is now Pittsburgh, but there were many stirring conflicts for permanent possession of the site at the “Forks of the Ohio.”

When General John Forbes invested Fort Duquesne November 25, 1758, he marched into a place which had been abandoned by the French and instead of a formidable fortress it was now nothing but a mass of blackened and smoldering ruins. The enemy, after burning the barracks and storehouses, had blown up the fortifications. Forbes’ first care was to provide a better defense and shelter for his troops, and a strong stockade was built, which he named Pittsburgh, in honor of England’s great Minister William Pitt.

A strong fort was subsequently built, which was known as Fort Pitt, and which continued until after the Revolutionary War to be the western base of the military department.

The first town of Pittsburgh was built near Fort Pitt in 1760. In a very carefully prepared list of the houses and the inhabitants outside of the fort, headed “a return of the number of houses of the names of the owners and number of the names of the owners and number of men, women and children in each house Fort Pitt, April 14, 1761,” the number of inhabitants is 233, with the addition[addition] of ninety-five officers, soldiers and their families residing in the town, making the whole number 328. There were 104 houses. The lower town was nearer the fort, the upper on higher ground, principally along the bank of the Monongahela, extending as far as the present Market Street.

This town enjoyed comparative quiet until the Pontiac War, in 1763, when Fort Pitt was completely surrounded by the savage foe and the garrison reduced to dire straits until relieved by Colonel Bouquet.

The second town of Pittsburgh was laid out in 1765, by Colonel John Campbell, by permission of the commandant of Fort Pitt. It comprised the ground bounded by present Water Street, Second and Ferry Streets. Campbell’s plan of lots was subsequently incorporated unaltered in the survey made by George Woods for the Penns in 1784, and is known as the “Old Military Plan.” Several of these houses built of hewn logs and weather-boarded stood until quite recently and the old redoubt of Colonel Bouquet, built in 1764, north of the present Penn Street, west of Point, remains the most valued relic of the pre-Revolutionary days in Western Pennsylvania.

The little building is of brick, five-sided, with two floors having a squared oak log with loop holes on each floor. There are two underground passages, one connecting it with the fort, and the other leading to the Monongahela River. This building and ground upon which it stands is owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution of Allegheny County, who keep it in excellent repair. It was the gift of Mrs. Mary E. Schenley, April 1, 1894.

During the Revolution the Assembly confiscated the property of the Penn family, excepting certain manors and other property which the Proprietaries held in their private capacities by devise, purchase, or descent. The Manor of Pittsburgh contained 5766 acres and included the present city of Pittsburgh and the country eastward of it and south of the Monongahela; this was surveyed March 27, 1769, and remained as the property of the Penns.