About an hours
drive south-east from Pittsburgh is the location of Fort Necessity and Braddock's
Road. Both are important in the history of our country.
Rev. 07/11/02
Yankee Land - Pittsburgh Area
Fort Necessity and Braddock's Road
About an hours
drive south-east from Pittsburgh is the location of Fort Necessity and Braddock's
Road. Both are important in the history of our country.
George Washington, as a newly commissioned Lt. Colonel in the Virginia Militia, was a key player in the start of the French and Indian War. In 1754 he was sent, with a Company of Militia, to stop the French from building a fort at Fort Duquesne, where Pittsburgh is now.
At what is now called Jumonville Glen, about fifty miles south of Fort Duquesne, Washington discovered a party of French and Indians camped in the glen. Quietly in the morning he surrounded the French party, lead by Ensign Jumonville. In the surprise attack by Washington's forces, all of the French and their Indian supporters were killed or captured, except one. This single man escaped to carry the news back to Fort Duquesne. During this battle Washington's forces suffered only one man killed and two wounded.
This
battle was the beginning of the French and Indian War, as it is known in
the US, or known elsewhere as the Seven Year War. The war ended in
1763, with the expulsion of the French from North America and from India.
When Washington realized that one man had escaped he returned with his force to the Great Meadow about seven miles back and built a circular palisade in the middle of the meadow. The palisade was much too small for the number of men in his command and poorly placed because it was surrounded by forest and hills. This encampment he named Fort Necessity.
The
players
in these battles were French, dressed in white coats, British and Colonial
Militia, dressed in red coats. Both forces had Indian allies.
The French, with a much larger force of about 600 and 100 Indians, arrived at the Great Meadow on July 3. The French took up positions around the fort in the woods. Washington brought his men into the fort and into trenches he had dug outside. That afternoon heavy rain fell , flooding the trenches. During the battle Washington's forces suffered many more casualties than the French. That evening Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers, brother of Ensign Jumonville, requested a truce to discuss the surrender of Washington's command.
Late that night, after hours of negotiation, Washington signed the agreement. His forces were allowed to withdraw with the honors of war, with their baggage and weapons, except for the nine swivel guns. The surrender agreement that Washington signed was written in French, which he did not understand, and stated that Washington "assassinated" Jumonville. Washington later denied the assassination charges.
The
battle at Fort Necessity was the only time Washington ever surrendered.
The next year Maj. General Edward Braddock, with a force of
about 2,400 men set out to drive the French out of the Ohio Valley.
Washington, now a Colonel in the Virginia Militia, was invited to go
along as Braddock's aide-de-camp.
As Braddock advanced toward Fort Duquesne, he widened Washington's original narrow road to twelve feet. He was within eight miles of Fort Duquesne when he was met by about 600 French and Indians. Braddock used the typical "European" tactic of fighting (advancing in a straight line and firing in volleys) while the French utilized the indian method (using the trees for cover). When the battle ended, two thirds of the British men and most of their officers were dead. Braddock was mortally wounded and died during the retreat.
His body was buried about two miles north of Fort Necessity, in the middle of the road he had built. Wagons were run back and forth to hide the site of his grave. This precaution was to prevent the French and Indians from desecrating his body.
His body was discovered in 1804 and reburied in a grave site on the side of the road.
It wasn't until 1758 that the Fort Duquesne, the French fort, was finally destroyed.
The French and Indian War was one of the major causes of the Revolutionary
War. The war was costly. So the British tried to force the colonies
to pay for it by special taxes -- "Taxation Without Representation."
Titusville Oil Field
Contrary
to rumors perpetuated by some, the birthplace of the oil industry was in
Titusville, Pennsylvania, not in the state of Texas as some claim.
Titusville is located about 125 miles north of Pittsburgh, PA.
Indians first used the oil that seeped from the ground near the present town of Titusville, PA as a salve to help heal various conditions and injuries. They in turn taught this to hunters and trappers who visited the area.
On August 27, 1859, "Col." Edwin L. Drake, after drilling 69 1/2 feet, struck oil. This was the birth of the petroleum industry.
He tried many different methods to extract oil from the ground in large enough quantities to be economically useful. Drilling finally proved to be the solution.
The
Drake Oil Field still produces oil. A number of wells, scattered over
several acres, are still operational. They are all connected to a single
compressor by connecting rods which extend for many yards across the field.
These rods in turn operate the pump at each well by lifting the rod
that goes down the well shaft, bringing oil to the surface where it runs
into a storage tank.
This extensive field of slowly reciprocating linkages, moving back and forth, is a sight to see. Today, in a field such as this, each pump would instead have an electric motor to replace this mechanical linkage.
Originally
a well was drilled by repeatedly dropping a heavy wedge shaped bit down the
well. The well hole was cased by a pipe. Usually the bit
was raised by an engine and then dropped.
But
if there wasn't enough money to purchase an engine a "spring pole" was used.
The trunk of a small tree was cut and tied to a frame so it was horizontal
over the well. The bit was tied to a rope which was tied to the
tree trunk, or "spring pole." Two men operated the spring pole. Two
stirrup loops were tied to the pole. The men would step into the loops,
causing the pole to bend, dropping the bit sharply on the rock in the bottom
of the well. They would then step down, letting the pole rise and lift
the bit -- step into the stirrup again, again, again,.... Slow, but
gradually a hole was drilled.
There is much more to this story -- how oil was stored -- how it was transported -- small towns, such as Pithole, that sprang up and as quickly vanished.
Henry Clay Frick
"Clayton"
was the home of Henry Clay Frick and is located in an area of Pittsburgh
once known as millionaire's row. His neighbors were H.J. Heinz (57 variety
fame), George Westinghouse and Thomas Mellon (founder of the Mellon banking
empire). Henry was native to southwestern, PA, had only 30 months of
formal education and became the "coke king" of the world. He realized that
coke was essential to the budding steel industry and cornered the market.
He was a millionaire by the age of 31.
On his honeymoon in New York City he met with Andrew Carnegie
who was converting his iron mills in Pittsburgh to steel. The relationship
established in 1881 lasted some 20 years. Carnegie named Frick as CEO
of the Carnegie Steel company which consisted of several mills all with different
wage scales/rules for the workers. Frick worked to bring all of the
workers under one contract with wage scale lower then some of the workers
had had before. In 1892 the workers rebelled -- those workers involved
in budding "union" activities (forerunner to USW) attempted to take over
the Homestead, PA steel works. Frick locked them out and called the
Pinkerton agency to provide protection for the mill. The Pinkerton
men came up river to the steel plant but the steel workers were waiting for
them. In the ensuing melee 11 men were killed -- mostly steel workers.
Order was eventually restored but those workers involved in the riot never
worked in a steel mill again. The Homestead strike of 1892 broke the
back of the union movement for the next 45 years.
To back tract in the timeline a bit -- Frick and his wife purchased a two story Italianate house, in 1882, which served as their home for 10 years. In the early 1890s the Frick renovated their "small" home into the present day 4 story, 16 room home complete with turrets and rounded corners. The Fricks and their two children (Childs, Helen) moved into the house in 1892. The Fricks lived there until the early 1900 when they moved to New York City. However, "Clayton" remained in the family until 1984 when, at Helen's death (at the age of 94) it became a historical house. The Fricks never threw anything out, as a result everything in the house is original (linen, silver, china, dresses, etc) and used by the Fricks. The pictures show the original house, the 1892 house, the small brick play house (now used as a visitors center) and the greenhouse.
On the property is a car museum. While the museum houses many antique cars it also houses many of the horse carriages that the Fricks used. The oldest carriage (1881) is one the Fricks purchased on their honeymoon.
Below are the collection of cars.
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The 1898 Panhard belonged to H.J. Heinz' son. The body was Ketchup Red, the spokes of the wheels, Pickle Green.