Pitcairn High School - Retrospect Yearbook (Pitcairn, PA)

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6-4f0u'a'uf .of Pilcavw Marching home from the 1Vyoming Valley. and having lost 300 men, they arrived at Fort Pitt on September 10, 1778. At the close of the war, Elizabeth McKay Bayard, as heir of her father, was the owner of the 300 acres. now Pitcairn, while her husband, Major Step- hen Bayard, had acquired title to a large tract of land on the Monongahela River on the site of the present Borough of Elizabeth. Major Bayard and his wife decided to es- tablish their home on tl1e Monongahela tract, which they named Elizabeth, and the land at Dirty Clamp was offered for sale. Our records show a sale of tl1e tract by Stephen Bayard and Elizabeth Bayard, his wife, to George McDowell for 66 pounds Eng- lish money, which represents about S300 for the 300 acres. In 1794, after 50 strenuous years, the Mc- Kay tract was now on its way towards de- velopment. That part of Pitcairn which we know as Kenney Avenue, Wood Street, and North Pitcairn was part of another large farm of about 300 acres lying just west of' the Dirty Camp tract. This acreage was conveyed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1789 to William Pelton and Samuel Jones, then to Dunning McNair, who is the record owner in 1794 at the end of our first fifty years. Thus at the close of' the first half century of the story ot' Pitcairn in 1794, we find the land upon which the town has been built, con- sisting of' two 300 acre tracts, completely wrested from the Indians and well identified by surveys, improved by dwelling houses and barns surrounded by several hundred acres of cleared land with a well-established road run- ning along Turtle Creek to Fort Pitt. The three great detriments to settlers have been completely removed. Mountain barriers have been removed by the building of sub- stantial roads over the Allegheniesg the In- dians had been driven far out into the Ohio Country, and the tangled titles to the land had all been adjusted. During the first titty years we lived under the rule of five different counties, but now we were permanently a part of Allegheny County with our county seat in Pittsburgh. Instead of King George of England as our ruler in 1744, we lived in 1794 under the lead- ership of President George 1Vashington with our own Constitutional government establish- ed just five years before and our National Capitol in the city of New York. Chapter II-1794-1844 Having brought into the early picture of Pitcairn two tracts of land, which now make up the greater part ol' the town, it will be ne- cessary to follow the story of each of these farms through the second fifty years. George McDowell is now the owner of the Dirty Camp triangular tract of 300 acres which included all of Broadway from the Brick Yards east to the Yocum home, and ex- tending northward to Ninth Street. For the second time in the chain of this title death enters into the story. Soon after his purchase of the land, George McDowell died leaving as his only heir his sister, Euphemia Grant. Miss Grant evidently was not interested in Pitcairn real estate for in 1807 she sold her inheritance to George Wallace. In tracing the chain of owners of the orig- inal site of Pitcairn we find that death took but few holidays, for soon after George Wal- lace assumed ownership of his land he, like the former owners, McKay and McDowell, passed on to his reward. By his will the farm became the property of his widow and children, Irwin and Henry Wallace. Sad to relate, the next misfortune to turn up in the succession of our owners was not death, but a sheriff sale. It seems that George Wallace had mortgag- ed his farm to the Bank of Pittsburgh a11d that after his death, the widow and children were unable to meet the payments on the mortgage, whereupon, the bank by Morgan Neville, Sheriff, sold the tract in 1822 to the Bank of Pittsburgh. The Bank of Pittsburgh, continuing as owner for eleven years, rented tl1e farm to various tenants until they sold to Michael Shields. After an ownership of two years Shields. on October 28, 1835, sold the entire tract to John McGinnis, who was the grandfather of John C. McGinnis, our well-known local at- torney. Mr. McGinnis was tl1e first owner to become firmly attached to the soil, for in tl1e seventy years which elapsed from the original title to Aneas McKay to the coming of the first John McGinnis, none seemed to leave any marked impression on the farm, nor in the community, other than the building of the customary houses and barns. Cffontinued on page 171 fifteen

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DR. N. CAMERON First Burgess - 1? :Qs 'Zi-X A 'xl I BOROUGH BUILDING Completed May 16, 1902 FRANK LESHER, Contractor

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7 Borough Building, Light Plant, Police Department and Hose Company No. 1 I Interior of Light Plant Borough Employees sixteen W. B. BEST, Electrician F irst Row-E. M. Border, Henry 0. Loop, Charles R King, J. D. Rice. Sevond Row-Roy Hector, N. N. Mills, G. J. Stromcr August St1'OSCllCl11l.