Pennsylvania Canal kept Pittsburgh 'the main road' west
Southwestern Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia commerce often was sent through Wheeling rather than Pittsburgh.
First evidence of this competition was manifested when the National Pike (today's U.S. Route 40) was completed in 1818. Originally planned to go around Pennsylvania, Albert Gallatin of Fayette County, then U.S. secretary of the treasury, persuaded President Thomas Jefferson to approve its final route through Somerset, Uniontown and Washington to Wheeling.
There, travelers could switch to river transport somewhat downriver from Pittsburgh with little additional land travel.
In 1826, the state Legislature authorized completion of the Pennsylvania Canal westward to Pittsburgh. From a rail portage across the mountains near Cresson, it followed the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas river valleys from the Johnstown area to Freeport.
There, it crossed the Allegheny River and came down the northwestern side of that river to Allegheny City, then crossed that river on a viaduct at a point near the new PNC Park and tunneled underground across the downtown.
Completed in 1834, it was a busy route for passenger and freight traffic until the Pennsylvania Railroad went into full operation between Johnstown and Pittsburgh in 1852.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had been built from Cumberland, Md., to Wheeling, again going around Pennsylvania by way of Grafton in what later became West Virginia.
While the railroad from Philadelphia and the east to Pittsburgh's strategic location on the rivers was a major factor in this area's economic development, along with addition of railroads north and west, there was still another plan to bypass Pittsburgh for Wheeling.
That was the development of Hempfield Railroad, which was to run between Greensburg and Wheeling via Washington. It was started in the early 1850s, but only part was completed.
That effort stands historically as an example of the battle of rival cities for trade a century and a half ago. The railroad also was helped by pike revenue declines, which caused maintenance declines on the National Road and other turnpikes of the era.
As the Pennsylvania built branches, and the West Penn Railroad along the Kiski River came into service, the need for the canal declined and it was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857.
TRAVEL ON THE CANAL
Charles Dickens, the famed English author, took a trip over the canal to Pittsburgh in March 1842, and wrote an account of the conditions, which he interpreted rather glamorously:
'The washing accommodations were primitive. There was a tin ladle chained to the deck, with which every gentleman who thought it necessary to cleanse himself fished the dirty water out of the canal and poured it into a tin basin secured in like manner.
'There was also a jack towel hanging up before a little looking glass in the bar; in the immediate vicinity of the bread, cheese, and biscuits were a public comb and hair brush. And yet, despite these oddities, even they had, for at least some, a humor of their own, there was much in the mode of traveling which I heartedly enjoyed at the time and look back upon with great pleasure.
'Even the running up bare-necked at five o'clock in the morning from the tainted cabin to the dirty deck, scooping up icy water, plunging one's head into it and drawing it out all fresh and glowing with the cold, was a good thing.
'The fast brisk walk upon the towing path between that time and breakfast, when every vein and artery seemed to tingle with health, the exquisite beauty of the opening day, when the light came gleaming off from everything; the lazy motion of the boat when one lay idly on the deck, looking through rather than at, the deep blue sky; the gliding on at night so noiselessly, past fronding hills, sullen with dark trees, and sometimes angry in one red burning spot high up where unseen men lay crouching around a fire; the shining out of the bright stars, undisturbed by noise of wheels or stream, or any other sound than that of the liquid rippling of the water, as the boat went on, all of these were pure delights.'
In addition to the 'raptures' of the slow trip over the canal, it nonetheless had an important role in the history of southwestern Pennsylvania despite its short stay in the limelight.
COUNTY ANNIVERSARIES
Five nearby counties mark anniversaries of their creation the last week of March - Cambria, Clearfield, Indiana, Jefferson and Washington.
Washington is the oldest and the first taken from the original Westmoreland, March 28, 1781, celebrating its 220th birthday.
Three of the five had identical county and county seat names, and two have U.S. presidential names. However, Washington was named for the commander in chief of the Revolutionary War Continental Army before he became the nation's chief executive.
Its county seat was originally known as Catfish Camp for an Indian settlement there, then became Bassettown before Washington. George Washington had earlier purchased 2,813 acres of the county's 862 square miles of land in 1774.
Indiana came next, March 30, 1803, from Westmoreland and Lycoming counties. Early settlers in that 829-square-mile county were primarily Scotch-Irish from the Cumberland Valley in southcentral Pennsylvania.
Its similarly named county seat was established in 1805.
The other three, Cambria, Clearfield and Jefferson, all were created by the same legislative act of March 26, 1804, along with three others in the state.
Pioneer Cambria settlers were Samuel, Solomon, and Rachel Adams, prior to 1774. Many were from Wales, and the county name came from there. In 1805, Ebensburg was chosen as a county seat and apparently named for the son of a pioneer Welsh clergyman.
Parts of Huntingdon and Somerset counties became Cambria.
Clearfield, and its courthouse town site, were named for a stream. Earliest settlers were at the site prior to the Revolution, although the first permanent resident was James Woodside in 1784.
Clearfield County's 1,142-square-mile area makes it one of the state's largest.
Jefferson is another named for a president. Its pioneers were the Joseph Barnett family from the Susquehanna West Branch, including Joseph's brother-in-law, Samuel Scott.
Because of quite sparse population, its county seat of Brookville was not established until 1830. During the early years of the interval, the 666-square-mile county taken from Lycoming was administered by Westmoreland and Indiana.
THIS DATE IN HISTORY
March 25 was an eventful date in the early 1800s locally.
In 1805, a legislative act of the state established Indiana as the location of the Indiana county seat. A turnpike between Washington and Pittsburgh was authorized in 1817.
In 1825, Blairsville was chartered as a borough.
In 1881, Leisenring post office in Fayette was established.
One of the early area commercial aviation disasters occurred March 25, 1937, when a TWA plane crashed into a hillside just a few miles from landing at Allegheny County Airport.
Trolley service between Uniontown and Fairchance was ended by West Penn Railways in 1950.
VIGNETTES MILESTONE
This Vignettes version marks the 1,250th consecutive Sunday that the column has appeared in the Tribune-Review in chronicling the rich heritage of southwestern Pennsylvania.
That run covers almost 24 years since the first debuted April 24, 1977.
The author has been unable to answer all of the high volume of letters and calls for further or other historical information, but will continue to try to respond to as many as time and circumstances permit.
SPORTS HISTORY
While some thought there was little chance to make the major leagues from Class D minor league ball in its heyday before World War II, 50 players from the Penn State League of 1934-1942 did. Nearly all of them started their pro careers in that league.
The major leaguers, and their Penn State teams (some played with more than one Penn State team):
BEAVER FALLS: Chet Ross, Jimmy Russell and Whitey Wietelman.
BUTLER: Joe Collins, Karl Drews, Allen Gettel, Oscar Grimes, Billy Johnson, Bill Kennedy, Mike McCormick, Joe Page, Mel Queen, Jimmy Russell, Hank Sauer, Dick Starr and Nick Strincevich.
CHARLEROI: John Johnson, Dan Litwhiler and Maurice Van Robays.
GREENSBURG: John Blatnik, Stan Ferens, Ken Holcombe, Ed Lopat, Frank (Rube) Melton, Eddie Morgan, Lynn Myers, Bob Scheffing, Steve Souchock and Tom Sunkel.
JEANNETTE: Lee Gamble, Ken Heintzelman, Lloyd (Dee) Moore, Jim Outlaw and Al Rubeling.
JOHNSTOWN: Clint Connatser, Vic Lombardi, Bob Ramazotti and Eddie Stevens.
McKEESPORT: Ken Heintzelman.
MONESSEN: George Binks, Harry Craft, Tom Henrich, Joe Mack, Mike McCormick, Al Rubeling, Charley Stanceu and Gene Thompson.
OIL CITY: Al Gionfriddo and Jim Walsh.
WASHINGTON: Benny Bengough (after his major league career), Joe Beggs, Bob Scheffing, Dick Sisler and Pete Suder.
