Pittsburgh in 1816: Compiled by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Granting of the City Charter

In Short

Compiled by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh for the 1916 charter centennial, this volume brings together original documents, newspaper clippings, and travel journals from 1815 through 1817. Rather than offering a single narrative, it captures a rapidly growing river settlement navigating the transition from a wilderness outpost to an industrial center. Readers encounter early steamboat experiments, municipal traffic laws, tavern culture, and local civic disputes. The collection endures as an unvarnished primary snapshot of early nineteenth-century American expansion, revealing how geography, steam power, and human ambition transformed a dirty manufacturing hub into the gateway to the West.

The Story

The text traces the emergence of Pittsburgh as it transforms from a isolated border settlement into a bustling commercial city. At the center of this progression is the strategic geographic position at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. Early travel accounts describe a town framed by natural beauty yet continuously shrouded in coal smoke, where the clang of heavy manufacturing hammers echoes off the surrounding hills. Visitors note a stark contrast between the natural sweetness of rural country seats on Grant's Hill and the intense, dirty hustle of the brick and frame streets below.

As the account moves through the civic record, the newly chartered municipality grapples with the practicalities of governance. City officials draft laws to regulate high-speed horse traffic, dictate the planting of shade trees along the Monongahela riverbank to protect foot pavements, and offer financial rewards to the fastest local fire companies. Meanwhile, economic activity shifts rapidly. While early commentators warn that trade might be lost to downstream cities like Cincinnati or Louisville due to new turnpikes and river routes, local manufacturing explodes. Heavy industries take root, producing everything from iron cannonballs and agricultural tools to high-pressure steam engines and internationally acclaimed flint glass.

The transportation section illustrates the mechanical revolution reshaping western trade. Heavy six-horse Lancaster and Conestoga wagons make the arduous two-week trek across the Allegheny Mountains from Philadelphia, carrying heavy loads at high freight rates. Simultaneously, the arrival of river craft and early steamboats like the Oliver Evans, the Harriet, and the Dispatch opens rapid trade routes down the Ohio toward New Orleans. These technological strides bring an influx of migrants, driving up market prices for farm produce, land, and basic lodgings.

In its final movement, the volume highlights the everyday social fabric of the city through its public institutions and newspaper advertisements. Local citizens organize churches, establish small subscription libraries, run dramatic societies to benefit charitable causes, and form moral efficiency groups to curb public drunkenness and Sunday sabbath-breaking. The collected notices reveal a lively local marketplace where traders exchange goods for deer skins, blacksmiths lease property near old military forts, and residents post rewards for lost riverboats or runaway thieves. The arc concludes with a community firmly established, leaving behind its wilderness origins to become an engine of American industrial power.

How It Unfolds

The frontier town charters Civic leaders gather at local taverns to select candidate slates for the new city council while municipal authorities establish strict regulations regarding horse speeds, street maintenance, shade trees, and fire brigade incentives.

Travelers record their impressions Out-of-town visitors portray a romantic yet smoky settlement, marvelling at the dramatic views from Grant's Hill, the widespread reliance on coal, high market prices, and the surprisingly polished manufacturing operations.

Industry and glassworks expand Local workshops produce high-pressure steam engines, nails, and superior flint glass at Bakewell's warehouse, earning international renown and supplying luxurious cut glassware to growing Western markets.

Wagons and steamboats transform transit Massive Conestoga wagons haul heavy freight across the Allegheny Mountains from eastern cities, while experimental steamboats navigate rapid river currents to establish direct trade links down to New Orleans.

Civic and moral life takes shape Resident groups construct new brick churches, debate the actual size of the local subscription library, perform plays for charitable causes, and organize societies to enforce sabbath laws and public decorum.

The marketplace posts its notices Local broadsides reveal the routine transactions of daily life, offering rewards for stolen coats and stray river rafts, advertising candle manufactories, and auctioning government lots at the former site of Fort Fayette.

The People

• John Scull seeks to build a lasting press in the Western wilderness. Undeterred by early predictions of failure, he publishes the Pittsburgh Gazette for decades, witnessing the town grow from an Indian village into an industrial city before passing the newspaper to his son.
• Bakewell and Page seek to establish a premier glass manufacturing business on Water Street. Facing skepticism from Eastern markets, they produce high-quality flint glass and cut tableware that gains international fame and draws prominent visitors to their factory.
• Joshua Armitage aims to prove the commercial viability of steam navigation on Western rivers. By commissioning the construction of the steamboat Harriet, he successfully tests her engine against rapid Allegheny currents to establish regular trade routes.
• L. Pettiborne wants to navigate the Ohio River on a wooden river ark. He offers free passage to traveling companions in exchange for help managing the vessel, safely transporting passengers downriver to Pittsburgh.
• James Dunlap seeks a roving lifestyle funded by odd jobs and excessive drinking. Staying in local boarding houses and frequenting grog shops, he flees after stealing a heavy black greatcoat, leaving behind a five-dollar reward for his capture.

In Its Own Voice

"Grant's-hill, an abrupt eminence which projects into the rear of the city, affords one of the most delightful prospects with which I am acquainted; presenting a singular combination of the bustle of the town, with the solitude and sweetness of the country."

A traveler describes the striking contrast between the natural landscape and the growing industrial hub spread out below.

"The Stage conveys a moral in colours more vivid than the awful and elevated station of the preacher permits him to use--it is his coadjutor in good, and goes with him hand in hand exposing vice to ridicule and honouring virtue."

The local Thespian Society defends its theatrical performances as a useful tool for public morality and charitable fundraising.

"From an experience of twenty years following the sea, he flatters himself he will be enabled to give satisfaction to those who may want any thing in his line."

A local sailmaker advertises his services and Philadelphia canvas supplies to riverboat builders looking to fit out their vessels.

What It's Really About

Underneath its fragmented historical records, the book examines the tension between rapid industrial modernization and frontier order. It explores how isolated communities adapt to swift economic shifts when steam power and heavy manufacturing replace traditional rural lifeways. The collection captures the friction of a society in transition, where high-minded aspirations for culture, theater, and religious restraint constantly clash with the rough realities of high prices, tavern rowdiness, and environmental grime. By contrasting the glowing reports of local promoters with the critical observations of passing tourists, the text asks how physical geography and human ambition combine to shape the identity of an emerging American city.

Why Read It Today

This compilation will appeal to history enthusiasts, urban historians, and readers curious about authentic life in early nineteenth-century America. Rather than offering a polished historical narrative, it presents raw, unedited voices that make the past feel immediate and unvarnished. Reading the text feels like sifting through an old attic chest of primary sources; one encounters everything from high-minded newspaper editorials to petty public notices and business cards.

The primary difficulty for modern readers lies in its fragmented, non-linear structure. Because it collects brief extracts, statistical notes, and isolated newspaper advertisements without a unifying narrative voice, the reading experience can feel disjointed. Furthermore, readers must navigate period spelling variations, outdated vocabulary, and the casual prejudices typical of early nineteenth-century travel writing. Yet what remains after working through these archaic fragments is a vivid portrait of early frontier commerce. The book rewards patience by revealing the small details of daily existence—the cost of hay, the struggle of ice-blocked river transit, and the noise of early factories—offering an authentic window into an era of rapid change.