History of Pittsburgh

Photo: Pittsburgh in 1817, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.

In 1803, Meriwether Lewis found Pittsburgh to be a booming port town of some 2,400 people, nearly 2,000 more than had been recorded in the first national census of 1790. The town supported two glassworks, a glass factory, a paper mill, powder, iron, and saltworks, lumber and flour mills, a brewery, and eight boatyards. Coal from Pittsburgh first traveled down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico, then returned north to cities along the east coast. Lewis knew Pittsburgh well. After volunteering for military service in 1794 he had spent five years on the Pennsylvania and Ohio frontier.

The area was long inhabited by the Shawnee and several other Native peoples. Robert de La Salle, the French explorer and trader was likely the first European to enter the region during his 1669 trek down the Ohio River.

The British first built a fort, Fort Prince George, in 1753, but the French forced them out and built Fort Duquesne. The British, led by General John Forbes, regained control in 1758 and built Fort Pitt named after statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, and the surrounding trading settlement was named Pittsborough. The village became a part of Pennsylvanian in 1785 and was incorporated as a city in 1794. By the turn of the 19th century, Pittsburgh has established itself as a primary base for settlers moving into the Northwest Territory.