MT. LEBANON POST OFFICE­—1901 1 ....... Before we were: PRE-1912 2 ....... Mt. Lebanon Public Library MAJ. WILLIAM LEA Maj. Lea had been a young soldier with Gen. John Forbes’ army, which routed the French from Fort Duquesne in 1758. He settled along Chartiers Creek. Lea’s descendants had a farmhouse at the corner of Salem Drive and Chalmers Place(Willow Terrace). Lea is buried at Old St. Luke’s Episcopal Church cemetery off Greentree Road in Scott (below). Gene Puskar FARMLAND Mt. Lebanon developed as a farming community. Major crops grown here were corn and rye, most of which was converted into whiskey. The whiskey, besides being easier to transport to eastern markets than the grain itself, brought a higher rate of profit and was used as a medium of exchange. In 1681, when William Penn began his “Holy Experiment” that became Pennsylvania, the six square miles now comprising Mt. Lebanon were part of nearly 30 million acres of unbroken, primeval forest, a wilderness of small game, deer, elk, bear, cougar and rattlesnake. American Indians of a dozen or so different tribes, including the Leni Lenape (Delaware) and Shawnee, inhabited Pennsylvania as tenants of the powerful Iroquois Nation. The closest Indian settlements to the present Mt. Lebanon were at Tarentum, McKeesport, McKees Rocks, Logstown, and Shan- nopin’s Town. The European population of Pennsylvania in the late 1600s included about 680 British, Germans and Swedes, most of them in the eastern end of the colony. During this period, the fur trade dominated the economy, and fur was the medium of exchange among tribes and between Indians and white men. In 1727, John Frazier was trading near the Monongahela River in the area one day to be occupied by the Edgar Thomson steel plant. Another trading post, run by white men, was at Logstown, below Ambridge. British victories, in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and in Pontiac’s Indian uprising that followed, opened opportunities for increased settlement. The Pennsylvania Indian population was dwindling (from about 20,000 when the white man arrived to scarcely 1,200 by 1790), so thousands of settlers began pouring into Western Pennsylvania from the east. Even after William Penn’s death in 1718, his family continued to gobble up huge tracts of land from the Indians, reselling it (for 3 about 20 cents an acre) to farmers eager to become ....... landowners. The treaty of Fort Stanwix, N.Y., in 1768 secured for the Penns a vast swath of land ex- tending from the northeast to the southwest corners of what is now Pennsylvania, from the Iroquois, for about 20,000 pounds sterling. After this “New Purchase,” as the Penns called it, the area beyond the Alleghenies was for sale to farmers. Some of the earliest permanent settlers in Mt. Lebanon began arriving in the 1770s and 1780s: Alexander Long, James Long, John Henry Lea, Maj. William Lea, Andrew McFarland and James Brady. Settlers had at least two excellent reasons to choose land here. First, it was cheaper than land farther east; second, even in those days, farmers realized the advantage of a spread near three rivers. Maj. William Lea had been a young soldier with Gen. John Forbes’ army when it routed the French from Fort Duquesne in 1758. He settled along Chartiers Creek. Lea’s descendants had a farmhouse at the corner of Salem Drive and Chalmers Place (Willow Terrace). Maj. Lea is buried at Old St. Luke’s Episcopal Church cemetery, off Greentree Road in Scott. Andrew McFarland bought 900 acres south of Biltmore Avenue near what is now Washington and McFarland roads. About 1774—old records don’t agree—he was commissioned the area’s magistrate. Alexander Long had 400 acres. His grant was signed by Benjamin Franklin, chairman of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, indicating the year was either 1776 or 1777. The Penns lost proprietorship after the American Revolution, and Franklin served as chairman of Pennsylvania during those years. However, one oft-repeated, possibly apocryphal anecdote purports that there were Indians still wandering about Mt. Lebanon in the early 1800s. Lavinia Long “Granny” McKnight, whose house was at 310 Washington James Long called his tract of 309 Road, was said to have spied a group acres “Republic” after the concept of of hostile Indians heading her way. the new American government. It lay Rather than hide, she boldly called 4 along Washington Road “in the Penn them to her door and presented them ....... lands newly opened for settlement.” with freshly baked bread. Her gift had James Brady, in 1787, described his the desired effect, and the Indians left 249-acre tract, named “Tribunal,” as WHISKEY REBELLION peacefully. The veracity of this tale “part of the great wilderness beyond Two major skirmishes of the Whiskey Rebellion took place close to the site of today’s Bower Hill at has never been confirmed, but what the Allegheny Mountains.” a great story! Mt. Lebanon high-rise residential complex. The three buildings are called the John Neville, the Hugh By 1790, settlers in what is now Mt. At the time of the American Revolu- Henry Brackenridge and the Marshal Lenox. (Above) a tax collector is tarred and feathered. Lebanon were counted among the tion, about half the population of Europeans in western Pennsylvania 75,000 or so living in the five western was English, the other half Irish, Scotch and Scotch-Irish, an ethnic group that counties of Pennsylvania—Bedford (formed in 1771), Westmoreland (1773), originated with the migration from Scotland to northern Ireland in the early Fayette (1783), Washington (1781), and Allegheny (1788). Most were small 1600s. It is highly likely that some Mt. Lebanon farmers were among citizens farmers whose financial success was bare existence. attending a historic meeting in Pittsburgh in 1775, “approving the actions of the They worked long hours chopping trees, building cabins, clearing fields, New Englanders in resisting the tyranny of the British Parliament.” planting and harvesting crops by hand and caring for their animals. When With the political chaos brought about by the American Revolution, however, new Indian conflicts plagued settlers here. An anecdote about Andrew McFarland says he once hastily traveled the six miles from his farm to Fort Pitt to report the presence of possibly hostile Indians in the area. No date is recorded for this tale, but if it happened in the early 1780s, he would have had good reason to be concerned. Around 1780, from their territory north and west of the Ohio River, marauding Indians renewed the kind of murderous raids on settlers they had perpetrated all during the French and Indian War, causing many farmers here to give serious consideration to abandoning the area. By the turn of the century, most serious Indian harassment finally stopped. they got sick, they treated themselves with molasses and sulphur and, as one historian put it, “with what amounted to elaborate rituals of the Middle Ages.” It is estimated that a farm wife lifted a ton of water a day. Despite the hardships, though, their children’s education was as important to the early settlers of Mt. Lebanon as it is to today’s residents. Around 1794, they built a one-room log structure on the property of Obadiah (or Odadiah) Higbee about a mile south of what is now Mt. Lebanon Park. Chairs and desks were made from tree trunks and heat came from a fireplace. It was a semiprivate, subscription school in use until 1835. Mt. Lebanon settlers were mostly Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, hardy and vigorous folk who came here with nothing more than “a rifle, a Bible and a “still” (distillery), and who were willing to meet conditions where “every acre they claimed had to be cleared by ax and held by rifle.” Their major crops were corn and rye, most of which was converted into whiskey. The whiskey, besides being easier to transport to eastern markets than the grain itself, brought a higher rate of profit and was used as a medium of exchange. In the 1790s, farmers here along with hundreds of others in southwestern Pennsylvania became embroiled in the Whiskey Rebellion. Bullets at Bower Hill The new American government had assumed debt incurred by the states during the Revolution in the amount of nearly $54 million. In 1790, U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton proposed a tax on all distilled spirits (from six cents to nine cents a gallon) to be paid annually in cash—difficult for small farmers to come by. To farmers here, the duty seemed senseless and unjust, a burden laid on them by a government many saw as being dominated by eastern interests, and ignoring the needs of those on the frontier. Some saw a parallel with the British colonial policies which had brought about the American Revolution. The fine for noncompliance with the law was $250, a sum practically unheard-of on the frontier, and accused violators were required to stand trial in Philadelphia, a journey which could take weeks to complete. Many farmers not only refused to pay the surtax on whiskey, but destroyed the stills of farmers who did pay, usually by shooting holes in the stills from a distance. On September 6, 1791, a band of rebels tarred and feathered Robert Johnson, a revenue collector, hoping this would send a message to other collectors. Sporadic incidents of violence punctuated the next few years, until events of July 15 and 16, 1794, transformed a minor tax squabble into a serious armed insurrection. On July 15, at the farm of William Miller, near the site of the present Miller Homestead in South Park, a musket was fired by an unknown person at Gen. John Neville, district revenue inspector, and U.S. Marshal David Lenox, as the two were attempting to serve Miller with a summons to appear in Philadelphia for refusing to pay the tax. The two retreated to Bower Hill, Neville’s summer residence, on Old Bower Hill Road, now Kane Boulevard. 5 ....... NEVILLE HOUSE Excise tax collector John Neville built this house, which sits on Route 50 between Bridgeville and Heidelberg, for his son. Neville built another house just like it for himself atop Bower Hill, but the 100-acre estate was destroyed in the Whiskey Rebellion. Neville later built another house for himself on an island in the Ohio River, now Neville Island. Neville House is a national historic landmark. Art Humphreys 6 ....... EARLY MAP OF MT. LEBANON This 1876 atlas of Allegheny County, when Mt. Lebanon was part of Scott Township, shows the northern end of Washington Road as “Old Pittsb. & Wash. Rd.,” as well as the founding families’ properties, including the Abbott and Bockstoce estates, and the Mt. Lebanon Cemetery, and St. Clair Church—which became Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian. Early the next morning, a group of well-armed farm- ers encircled Bower Hill. A 25-minute gun battle left several farmers wounded, including Oliver Miller, William’s son, who would not survive. Neville re- quested reinforcements from nearby Fort Fayette, and about a dozen soldiers arrived at Bower Hill under the command of Maj. Abraham Kirkpatrick. In the early evening of July 17, a group of about 500 members of the local militia, led by Maj. James McFarlane, a Revolutionary War veteran, arrived at Bower Hill for a second showdown. Neville was not at home, but rioting ensued anyway. Several men were wounded on each side, and McFarlane was killed. Kirkpat- rick and the soldiers surrendered, and were held at Couche’s Fort, along with Lenox, who had been apprehended on the way to Bower Hill. Neville’s house was burned. His family fled to Woodville, another of their residences a couple miles away and later, to Neville Island. Bower Hill was never rebuilt. Later that month, to compound the seriousness of the event, some rebels robbed the post rider leaving Pittsburgh in order to intercept official reports of the incident. President Washington, learning that none of his warnings, proclamations of condemnation or other peace measures had any effect on the rebels, finally summoned an army of almost 13,000 volunteer militia from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland and began a march toward Pittsburgh, ar- resting rebels along the way. He was assisted by Alexander Hamilton and Gen. “Lighthorse Harry” Lee of Virginia, father of Robert E. Lee. In the face of such force, the Whiskey Rebels capitulated. Their representatives met with the government at Uniontown, Fayette County, and agreed to pay the tax if amnesty was given to all. About 20 rebels had been arrested and some leaders taken to Philadelphia and tried for treason. All eventually were pardoned and the Whiskey Rebellion ended. Ironically, anti-federalist President Thomas Jefferson quietly repealed the tax in 1802. Robert Ruschak CEDARS OF LEBANON GAVEL Wood from the two Cedar of Lebanon trees brought back from the Holy Land by the Rev. Joseph Clokey was made into three gavels and presented to Mt. Lebanon municipality, the Woman’s Club of Mt. Lebanon and the Ladies Sunday School Class of the United Presbyterian Church. The Whiskey Rebellion was not only an impor- tant first real test of the federal government’s power to enforce its laws and to command the use of state militias, but the rebels themselves, many from this area, helped to define and establish the concept of civil protest. The 19th Century The frontier period lasted until about 1800 when 7....... most farms had finally become established and there was some accumulation of capital for farmers in the way of cleared lands, buildings and livestock. In 1839, St. Clair Township, named for Revolutionary War Gen. Arthur St. Clair, was divided. People of what is now Mt. Lebanon became citizens of Upper St. Clair (Lower St. Clair eventually was absorbed into the City of Pittsburgh). In 1861, another division put them in Scott Township. Around the 1850s, while still part of Upper St. Clair Township, “Mt. Lebanon” began to be used as a name for our area. The name came, supposedly, from two Cedar of Lebanon trees that the Rev. Joseph Clokey, pastor of St. Clair Church, brought back from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and planted on his property. (Wood from those trees was later made into three gavels and presented to the municipality, the Woman’s Club of Mt. Lebanon and the Ladies Sunday School Class of the United Presbyterian Church.) Mt. Lebanon became such a familiar name for this area that by 1883 a postal station in a country store at the corner of Washington and Bower Hill roads was referred to as the “Mt. Lebanon Post Office.” The local post office designation proved fortunate years later when, in 1909, citizens just to the north began to form their own borough, planning to call it Mt. Lebanon. Strong dissent from people here and, perhaps the threat of a court battle, persuaded organizers to give up on the idea. Instead they named their borough Dormont, a derivation of the French words Mont d’Or meaning Mountain of Gold. The main road through Mt. Lebanon was a dirt road known at times as Coal TROLLEY The first trolley car arrived in Mt. Lebanon in 1901. The track ended at Cedar Boulevard, and a shuttle at Washington Road and Alfred Street took people to Castle Shannon. The trolley helped to open the area to further development. Mt. Lebanon Public Library Mt. Lebanon Public Library Hill Road and Upper St. Clair Turnpike. In 1870 it was renamed Washington Road. It was still a two- hour trip to Pittsburgh by wagon or horse and buggy, and mail came but once a week. On this road, from 1835 until 1875, RAILROAD the Alderson Tavern served as the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad at Castle Shannon Boulevard and Willow Avenue in front 8 second stagecoach stop south of ....... Pittsburgh. It stood at the intersection of the Schenot Hotel, circa 1910. of Washington and Cochran roads, where the Mt. Lebanon United Lutheran Church stands today. Until the early 20th century, it was a long and uncomfortable trip to and from Pittsburgh. Wagons took farm produce along old Banksville Road into Pittsburgh by way of the West End. Most residents, however, walked down Castle Shannon Road to Arlington, boarded a narrow-gauge railroad to Mount Washington, then an incline to Carson Street, and then walked across a bridge to Downtown. By 1878, however, Mt. Lebanon residents had fairly rapid transit to Pittsburgh, on the Pittsburgh Southern Railroad. The line ran through Mt. Lebanon from the Arlington station stop to present-day Banksville Road, crossing Washing- ton Road and going above McFarland Road on a 30-foot trestle. It then went down the valley to the West End (Temperanceville). From Temperanceville, passengers were shuttled by horse-drawn omnibus to Pittsburgh. The line lasted until 1884, when it became bankrupt. The first trolley car arrived in Mt. Lebanon July 1, 1901. The track ended at Cedar Boulevard, and a shuttle at Washington Road and Alfred Street took people to Castle Shannon. The trolley helped open the area to further development, but Mt. Lebanon Public Library CLEARVIEW The Mt. Lebanon Land & Trust Company’s “Clearview Plan” grew near Mt. Lebanon’s central business district. The company ran an advertisement describing the plan as “The large plot community” and the area as “The beautiful suburb: The cleanest spot in greater Pittsburgh. Healthful (no smoke, soot or fog), Convenient (home to office in 25 minutes) and Picturesque.” The Ellison and Walker buildings on Washington Road near Cedar Boulevard now occupy the building’s site. Mt. Lebanon Public Library Jane Little LIBERTY TUNNELS When the Liberty Tunnels opened in 1924, they accelerated development of Mt. Lebanon. At the center of this 1920 photo, the first boring for the long awaited tunnels is visible. J. Vincent Gilfillan, part owner of the feed business at near left, lived on Cedar Boulevard. PHARMACY, 1909 L. B. Finley Druggist, 677 Washington Road. One of the first buildings in what would become the uptown business district. not until the Liberty Tunnels were opened in 1924 did real estate development 9 ....... here flourish. From beginnings as a spot on the frontier to an area of farms and orchards, Mt. Lebanon slowly became less rural and more suburban. Near the turn of the 20th century, residents began seeing a few service-oriented businesses. Mt. Lebanon Public Library “The Beautiful suburb” The first “Mt. Lebanon Plan of Homes,” laid out in the center of town including Shady Drive East and Shady Drive West, was developed in 1901. A year later, the Mt. Lebanon Land & Trust Company’s nearby “Clearview Plan” advertise- ment described this area as “The beautiful suburb: The cleanest spot in greater Pittsburgh. Healthful (no smoke, soot or fog), Convenient (home to office in 25 minutes) and Picturesque.” With more real estate being developed, many people speculated that Mt. Leba- non was likely to become an important suburb. Some residents decided they wanted to split off from Scott Township and set up their own government. By law, the question had to be settled by majority vote. In two previous elections the question was defeated, but the third turned the trick, and on February 6, 1912, Mt. Lebanon came into legal existence when the Court of Quarter Sessions of WASHINGTON ROAD, 1907 In 1907, Washington Road remained mostly residential. Business got a boost around 1910 when William Lowe, a druggist, erected a brick building on Washington Road, and John T. Taylor opened a grocery in it as well. SIEGFRIED (Left) Willis Siegfried, one of Mt. Lebanon’s first commissioners, elected March 5, 1912, with his wife, Margaret. Their house stood at Washington Road and Shady Drive East until 1990, when it was torn down. Mt. Lebanon Public Library Mt. Lebanon Public Library Allegheny County decreed its territory severed from Scott Township’s eastern portion. The following township commissioners were elected March 5, 1912: C.W. Scheck, J.S. Gilfillan, Willis H. Siegfried, J.S. Chambers and F.W. Cooke. Their first meeting was in the boiler room of the Ammann Avenue school on Washington Road between Ammann Avenue (Cedar Boulevard) and Academy Avenue. On March 11, Scheck was elected President; Mr. Chambers, Vice President; H.M. Johnson, Secretary and C.W. Clatty, Supervisor. S.A. Schreiner became solicitor and McCully Engineering company the township engineers. 10 Minutes of the commissioners’ meetings reveal that ....... in the months and years following, these men of intelligence, experience, taste and vision plunged into the task of developing and modernizing Mt. Lebanon. In a flurry of activity, much of it in the first month, they tied up loose ends and began a number of important projects: They fixed the boundary line between Scott and Mt. Lebanon townships and sent a $2,000 settlement to Scott for having permitted them to split off. Finding they had a balance on hand of $5,315.17, the first Commissioners chose the Bank of Castle Shannon as “official depository.” They set speed limits for automobiles and posted notices of dangerous points on the roads to avoid future suits against the township. They held special meetings to listen to citizens and took immediate action on their suggestions (elec- tric lights and boardwalks along their streets) and listened to their complaints—everything from too much smoke from the Sunny Hill Power Plant to too many chickens running loose. The chicken problem seems to have been taken care of, and Sunny Hill has been dark many a year, but successors to Scheck, Chambers, et al have found more than enough to keep them busy over the years. MT. LEBANON SCHOOL, 1896 Located at Ammann Avenue (Cedar Boulevard) and Washington Road, this two-story frame schoolhouse opened in 1895. Pictured are Miss Mulholland, teacher, and (from left, top row) Fran Martin, Charles Fetterman, Edward Abbott, George Goodby[sic], Albert Ab- bott, Philip Fetterman, John McNeilly, Blake Fetterman. (Second from top row) Lizzie Olmer[sic], Alice Powers, Rosie Abbott, Lizzie McDonough, Laura Schreiner, Isabelle Bailey, Nannie McCormick, Edith Alderson. (Third from top) Mary Ohlmer[sic], Ada Martin, Emma Algris, Alice Powers, Bessie Goodboy[sic], Emma Alderson, Agnes Schreiner, Agnes Gilfillan, Ella McKnight. (Seated) Frank Balt- man, Phil Power, Howard Abbott, Martison Bailey, James Hast, John McCormick, Willie Smith, Clarence Fetterman.