Excerpt from Pittsburgh as It Is: Or, Facts and Figures, Exhibiting the Past and Present of Pittsburgh, Its Advantages, Resources, Manufactures, and Commerce
In February, 1756, one John McKinney was taken prisoner by the Indians and imprisoned in Fort Duquesne. After being carried to Canada, from whence he made his escape to Philadelphia, he gives the following incident in his description of the Fort. "While he was at Fort Duquesne, there came up the Ohio from the Mississippi, about thirty battus and about one hundred aud fifty men, loadened with pork, flour, brandy, peas, and Indian corn; they were three months in coining to Fort Duquesne, and came all the way up the falls without unloading."
November 24th, 1768, the French, terrified by the approach of the English under Gen. Forbes, set fire to their Magazines, Barracks, &c. burnt all their improvements to the ground, and evacuated the place in boats. The remains of Fort Duquesne were taken possession of by General Forbes, November 25th, 1758. The army was immediately employed erecting a small military work upon the east bank of the Monongahela river, capable of accommodating 200 men.
This was the first Fort Pitt; whence our city derives its name; and was completed about tho 1st of January, 1759: from which date this point appears in the newspapers of the day, and in letters, to have been indiscriminately called Fort Pitt and Pittsburgh.
Of the trade at this point at that time, Smollett makes the following mention when recording the actions of Major General Stanwix, at Fort Pitt, in the winter of 1769-60. He says, "The happy consequences of these measures were soon apparent in the production of considerable trade between the natives and the merchants of Pittsburgh."
In 1764, Col. John Campbell laid out a plan of lots, near the Fort, now embraced in four squares, in tho city of Pittsburgh, which act may be regarded as the inception of the present city.
In September, 1766, Pittsburgh is mentioned by Rev. Charles Beatty, in his Journal, as "some kind of a town without the Fori," leaving the inference that it must have been a miserable affair indeed, when thore was no other description applicable.
January 6, 1769, a warrant was issued for the survey of the Manor of Pittsburgh, which survey was completed May, 1769, and embraced 5,766 acres.
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