Early The valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi were originally claimed by the French in virtue of the explorations and discoveries of La Salle in 1669. Virginia laid claim to the valley of the Ohio in virtue of her charters; and in 1748 the Ohio Company was formed to exploit and take possession of the region. In 1749 a French expedition under Celeron was dispatched to formally annex the Ohio Valley to the French crown. This ex pedition was followed by the French in the spring of 1753 by a small army of occupation, which did not advance further than the present site of the town of Venango, Pa., where it went into winter quarters. In the fall of 1753 Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia sent George Washington to warn the French against further intrusion and in the spring of 1754 a force of Virginians was sent to build a fort on the site of the present city of Pittsburgh. While en gaged in this work the small body of troops, commanded by Capt. William Trent and En sign Edward Ward, was confronted by an over whelming force of French and Indians coming from the north. The Virginians withdrew. The first armed encounter between the French and the Virginians took place on 27 May 1754, when Washington defeated and captured a body of French troops under Jumonville near the mouth of Redstone Creek. This engage ment was followed by the battle of Fort Neces sity, where the Virginians were defeated, but alloWed to withdraw with the honors of war. In 1755 an attempt to retake the spot was made under the command of Major-General Brad dock. It resulted in the terrible defeat at Brad dock's Field on 9 June. The French, who in the meanwhile had built Fort Duquesne, held the region until 25 Nov. 1758, when they fled before the advance of General Forbes, leading an army of 10,000 British and Colonial troops. In the dusk of the evening of that day Colonel Armstrong planted the flag of Great Britain over the smouldering ruins of Fort Duquesne, which the French had fired as they abandoned it, and, at the suggestion of George Washing ton, Forbes called the place Pittsburgh. °It is," says Bancroft, °the most enduring monu ment to William Pitt. America raised to his name statues that have been wrongfully broken and granite piles of which not one stone re mains upon another; but long as the Mononga hela and the Allegheny shall flow to form the Ohio, long as the English tongue shall be the language of freedom in the boundless valley which their waters traverse, his name shall stand inscribed upon the gateway of the west." The English occupation continued until the out break of the American Revolution and was made memorable by the series of engagements which took place on the spot, or near by, during the period of Pontiac's Conspiracy and the events of the French and Indian War. The only remnant of the extensive fortifications erected by the British is the °Old Block-house," which was a redoubt built by General Bouquet in 1763 and which still stands, being the prop erty of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Daugh ters of the American Revolution, presented to them by the late Mrs. Mary E. Schenley.
A town was laid out about Fort Pitt in 1764 under the authority of Col. John Campbell and this plot, which was incorporated in subsequent surveys, is commonly known as "the old mili tary plan." The °Manor of Pittsburgh," re served to the Penns by acts of assembly in 1779, had been originally surveyed in 1769, and was resurveyed in 1783 by George Woods. In
the following year a portion of it was plotted as the site of the town of Pittsburgh. On 22 April 1794, the place was incorporated as a borough and in 1816 it was reincorporated as a city. Several acts of reincorporation have been passed by the legislature of Pennsylvania since then and the original limits have been gradually enlarged by the annexation of con tiguous territory.
The Spirit of Pittsburgh joys a well-deserved reputation for the gen erosity and civic pride of its citizenship. An illustration of its devotion to the Common wealth was furnished by its loyal response to the call of the country for funds with which to prosecute the World War and provide for the various works of relief incident thereto. The per capita contributions of Pittsburgh to the different Liberty Loans, to the support of the Red Cross and other agencies, exceeded that of every other city in the Union. Its total sub scription to the Liberty Loans amounted to $625,429,600, exceeded only by that of the Wall Street district in New York and representing a total oversubscription of $118,708,850. To those who only know Pittsburgh as they may have caught a glimpse of her fires and seen the smoke, which on still and foggy days fills* the valleys about her, as they have been whirled into and out of her portals on trains, she may indeed seem forbidding; but those who have traversed her avenues at leisure, who have visited her great establishments, who have studied the splendid institutions which reflect her love of science, learning, and art, and above all who have experienced the warmth of the open hospitality which clings to her with the traditions of the earlier days, grow to love and admire her. She has learned the secret of transmitting material prosperity into °the things of the spirit' Though still at times aswart with the smoke of her forges° she is known to day as one of the great scientific, artistic, and educational centres of the New World. She has justified her motto °Pittsburgh Promotes Progress," as she has justified her title °The Workshop of the World" The citizens of Pittsburgh who have risen to distinction in various walks of life are legion and her glory is not so much that she makes steel as that she makes men. From her distinguished bar she has given to the Supreme Court of the United States a number of judges. To the halls of national legislation she has sent many senators. She has been represented in the Cabinet by many of her illustrious sons and repeatedly has provided governors for the Com monwealth of Pennsylvania. To the long list of the world's most eminent inventors, finan ciers, philanthopists, artists, and men of science she has added a striking array of names with which the student of her history is familiar. She is proud of her Stephen C. Foster, whose songs are sung the world over; of her Keeler, who wrote his name on the stars; of her Lang ley, who paved the way for man's dominion of the air; of her Stanton, man of iron, who, when others wavered or were faint, stood like a wall of adamant amidst the conflict, of the Civil War; of her Westinghouse, prince of inven tors; and of her Carnegie, king of philanthro pists. She rejoices in her sons, a mighty army of them, the story of whose deeds would fill volumes, who in many callings and in many lands have done honor to the great gray city, which sits as °The Mother of Prosperity° at the fountain-head of the beautiful Ohio.