Political opportunist was colorful character in Pittsburgh history

One of the most significant characters to emerge in Pittsburgh politics was a man named Joseph Barker, a reformer, fanatic, jailbird, and for a year mayor of the city. He was not the only unusual man to head the city government, but by far the most extreme in his efforts.

In 1840, Barker became a political opportunist at a time when there were more than a dozen political parties in the city. Some were merely splinter groups to divide support for more popular candidates.

Barker was an ardent advocate of temperance, and a sober, roughly dressed worker who lived in Bayardstown, north of the Golden Triangle. A good speaker, he opposed many things with increasing zeal (including being anti-Catholic and anti-Mason).

A Whig, he filled some minor offices, started shaving regularly and began wearing a top hat and cape. While he was against churches, he began to hold a meeting of sorts on Sunday evenings on the bridge over the Pennsylvania Canal.

They became quite well attended, probably for the entertainment value. His efforts picked up a following of sorts, including a man named Hugh Kirkland, who had been a minister.

Kirkland carried a bunch of papers, and when Barker made a point, he would call on Kirkland to back him up. Kirkland would reply that he had the backing with a paper he would pick out of the bundle at random.

By late 1849, Barker's enemies made him more famous by sending him to the workhouse for 30 days after an anti-Catholic diatribe in a speech. After his release, he went back to speaking from the canal bridge.

Some drunks started a riot, and Barker landed behind bars again for a year. Many Pittsburghers felt Barker was justified when he told the jury to go to hell and threatened that the judge might wind up hanging from a lamppost some day.

By then, he was running for mayor, and it became evident that the only way to avoid a Democratic victory (the Democrat was running for three offices simultaneously) was to vote for Barker.

When the votes were counted, Barker was elected, as Pittsburghers apparently admired his straight talk. He was still in jail at the time.

An effort was made to get a pardon from the governor, but the latter did not respond in time for his inauguration. He was able to take office on schedule, a historian reports, when a mob forced the sheriff to release him. It also was said that someone arranged for the judge who sentenced him to administer the oath.

The new mayor surprised everyone by starting to enforce laws, removing street obstructions and prosecuting short weights. But the police followed council instructions diametrically opposed to Barker. The new mayor hired a new police force, but all that did was create two sets of police vying with each other.

During one brief but hectic year in office, Barker was indicted for interfering with council's instructions, and he was again confined to jail briefly.

Out as mayor, he fought on but won little, not too vigorously persecuted because he showed no signs of seeking prominence, although continuing as a town character.

He was killed, however, after the start of the Civil War, when hit by a train while he was walking on the railroad tracks on the way home from a meeting at which he supported prosecution of that war.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY

Jan. 27 is the anniversary of one of Pennsylvania's major mine disasters in 1981, when an explosion killed 16 miners at the H.C. Frick Coke Company's Mammoth mine, north of Mt. Pleasant.

Ironically, the mine had been examined by three fire bosses just before the miners started to work, one of whom was killed in the explosion. Sixty-eight of the victims were buried in one grave in a Scottdale cemetery.

Otherwise, the date has been relatively free of major newsmaking events.

James G. Blaine, born in West Brownsville in 1830, died on this date in 1893. He was nearly elected president of the United States in 1884. A graduate of Washington College, he taught school and studied law before moving to Maine as a newspaper editor in 1854.

Nine firemen were injured in a major fire in 1930 at Wainwright's Department Store in New Kensington.

Pittsburgh was the center of attention in 1949 when the first locally generated commercial television broadcast pioneered the air waves on station WDTV, the original such broadcaster here.

INDIAN SUMMER

Ever wonder about the term “Indian summer”?

During the frontier days of western Pennsylvania and nearby, during cold weather and the winter season, Indians were unable or unwilling to make their incursions into the settlements. However, after winter was apparently coming on, there was often a spell when the weather became warm and hazy.

This afforded Indians of hostile intent another opportunity to make raids before the final onset of winter.

ALLEGHENY PORTAGE RAILROAD

The Allegheny Portage Railroad, in operation in March 1834, began primarily as a freight link across the mountains to make a Philadelphia-Pittsburgh route on the Pennsylvania Canal.

A westbound passenger, however, could board a railroad car at 8 a.m. in Philadelphia, and arrive in Pittsburgh on the afternoon of the fourth day.

The trip from Philly went 82 miles by rail to Columbia, then 172 miles by canal to Hollidaysburg. After 36 miles on the Allegheny Portage came 104 on the canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh along the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers.

At that time, it was competing with the Erie Canal, but there was little impact in that, since the delays and inconvenience of the Allegheny Portage put it at a disadvantage.

The need for an east-west railroad became even more apparent, and it was finally completed from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh in late 1852. It reached Altoona in 1850 and spawned substantial growth there as a railroad town.

It originally was named Allatoona for a pass in Georgia on which Pennsylvania chief engineer and later president J. Edgar Thomson had worked. It was quickly shortened to Altoona.

That railroad cut the time between the state's major cities to 25 hours. However, the portage part of the cross-state route continued in use until the so-called Mountain Division could be financed and completed. It opened Feb. 15, 1854.

Also of historic note, the portage portion included 10 inclined planes, five on each side of the mountains. They originally used hemp rope to pull the cars, but a real advance was made in 1841 when Brooklyn Bridge builder John Roebling developed much better wire rope on his Saxonburg farm.

For 20 years, the Allegheny Portage was important.

EARLY FEBRUARY FIRES

The first two weeks of February, in earlier regional history, have been marked by a number of fires, particularly in Fayette and Westmoreland counties. Among them: