Monday Updates in late December of 2019.

By the year of 1800, things started to change in Pittsburgh. Commerce was a big part of its economy. Manufacturing developed. It had great coalfields by then. The region became rich in petroleum, natural gas, lumber, and farm goods. There were blacksmiths who made iron, horse shoes, and nails. Pittsburgh by 1800 had a population of 1,565 persons, over 60 shops, general stores, bakeries, and hat plus shoe shops. By the 1810’s, Pittsburgh grew even more. The first steamboat was built in the city by 1811. Commerce would flow upriver. The War of 1812 further catalyzed the growth of the Iron City. The war with Britain, the manufacturing center of the world during that time period, cut off the supply of British goods, stimulating American manufacture. Also, the British blockade of the American coast increased inland trade, so that goods flowed all over Pittsburgh from all four directions. In 1815, Pittsburgh was producing $764,000 in iron, $249K in brass and tin, and $235K in glass products. On March 18, 1816, Pittsburgh was incorporated as a city; it had already taken on some of its defining characteristics, commerce, manufacture, and a constant cloud of coal dust. Other towns economically challenged Pittsburgh too. There was the National Road’s first segment completed in 1818 that linked Baltimore to Wheeling. It bypassed Pittsburgh. Later, there were many improvements in transportation infrastructure. The Smithfield Street Bridge opened the first step in developing the city of bridges in 1818. By October 1, 1840, the original Pennsylvania Turnpike was finished. It linked Pittsburgh and the eastern port city of Philadelphia. In 1834, Pennsylvania Main Line Canal was completed. It made Pittsburgh part of a transportation system that included rivers, roads, and canals. The first locomotive west of the Alleghenies was created by McClurg, Wade, and Co. back in 1835. Machines flourished, and Pittsburgh was one of the largest cities west of the mountains by the 1840’s. In 1841, the Second Court House on Grant’s Hill was finished. It was made up of polished gray sandstone; the court house had a rotunda of 60 ft. in diameter and 80 ft. high.

Pittsburgh’s growth back then outstripped some of its resources like the water supply with dependable pressure. That is why on April 10, 1845, a great fire burned out of control. It destroyed over a thousand buildings and caused $9M in damages. As the city rebuilt, the age of rails arrived. In 1851, the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad began service between Cleveland and Allegheny City (present-day North Side). In 1854, the Pennsylvania Railroad began service between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Despite many challenges, Pittsburgh had grown into an industrial powerhouse. An 1857 article provided a snapshot of the Iron City. By 1857, there were 939 factories in Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, more than 10,000 workers were employed, it produced almost 12 million dollars of goods, etc. It was the third busiest port in the nation surpassed only by New York City and New Orleans. The iron industry was big in the city. Later, many of the Scotch Irish people had a stronghold of the industry in Pittsburgh. New immigrants after 1800’s made this a reality. For example, Thomas Mellon (b. Ulster 1813–1908) left Northern Ireland in 1823 for the United States. He founded the powerful Mellon family, which played a central role in banking and industries such as aluminum and oil. As Barnhisel (2005) finds, industrialists such as James H. Laughlin (b. Ulster 1806–1882) of Jones and Laughlin Steel Company comprised the "Scots-Irish Presbyterian ruling stratum of Pittsburgh society." Iron furnaces used coke fire smelting in the region. The American Civil War allowed Pittsburgh’s economic power to grow. Arms were created. A milestone in steel production was achieved in 1875, when the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock began to make steel rail using the new Bessemer process. Industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew W. Mellon, and Charles M. Schwab built their fortunes in Pittsburgh. Also based in Pittsburgh was George Westinghouse, credited with such advancements as the air brake and founder of over 60 companies, including Westinghouse Air and Brake Company (1869), Union Switch and Signal (1881), and Westinghouse Electric Company (1886). Banks played a key role in Pittsburgh's development as these industrialists sought massive loans to upgrade plants, integrate industries and fund technological advances. For example, T. Mellon and Sons Bank, founded in 1869, helped to finance an aluminum reduction company that became Alcoa. Ingham (1991) shows how small, independent iron and steel manufacturers survived and prospered from the 1870s through the 1950s, despite competition from much larger, standardized production firms. These smaller firms were built on a culture that valued local markets and the beneficial role of business in the local community. Small firms concentrated on specialized products, particularly structural steel, where the economies of scale of larger firms were no advantage. They embraced technological change more cautiously than larger firms. They also had less antagonistic relations with workers and employed a higher percentage of highly skilled workers than their mass-production counterparts. By the 1870’s,  entrepreneurs transformed the economy from small, craft-organized factories located inside the city limits to a large integrated industrial region stretching 50 miles across Allegheny County. The new industrial Pittsburgh was based on integrated mills, mass production, and modern management organization in steel and other industries. Labor unions fought for economic rights.

There was a rapid growth of capital, plants, railroad equipment, and glass resources. This led to more mill towns, satellite cities, and hundreds of mining towns. Strikes came about too. Many people wanted more environmentalism. Residents of Vandergrift caused loyalty among McMurtry’s skilled workers. German immigrants came into Pittsburgh too. During the mid-19th century, Pittsburgh witnessed a dramatic influx of German immigrants, including a brick mason whose son, Henry J. Heinz, founded the H.J. Heinz Company in 1872. Heinz was at the forefront of reform efforts to improve food purity, working conditions, hours, and wages, but the company bitterly opposed the formation of an independent labor union. There was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 involving labor unions. There were demonstrations. There was violence via the Pittsburgh Railway Riots. Militia and federal troops came to the city to stop the strike. There were more strikes too. The Pinkertons were sent to break the Homestead Strike. Labor strife continued into the years of the Great Depression, as workers sought to protect their jobs and improve working conditions. Unions organized H.J. Heinz workers, with the assistance of the Catholic Radical Alliance. Andrew Carnegie was an immigrant from Scotland. He made the Carnegie Steel Company and he was a former PA Railroad executive turned steel magnate. He was a philanthropist too. Carnegie made the Carnegie Library in 1890. He also funded libraries in various cities. He was involved in making the Carnegie Institute in 1895.

In 1901, as the U.S. Steel Corporation formed, he sold his mills to J.P. Morgan for $250 million, making him one of the world's richest men. Carnegie once wrote that a man who dies rich, dies disgraced. He devoted the rest of his life to public service, establishing libraries, trusts, and foundations. In Pittsburgh, he founded the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

The third (and present) Allegheny County Courthouse and Jail was completed in 1886. In 1890, trolleys began operations. In 1907, Pittsburgh annexed Allegheny City, which is now known as the North Shore. In the early 1900’s, Pittsburgh became an industrial powerhouse. It produced thousands of freight yards. It produced pig iron, steel, and other shoes. Bootlegging was found in the Prohibition era. During that time, Prohibition Administrator John Pennington and his federal agents engaged in 15,000 raids, arrested over 18,000 people and closed down over 3,000 distilleries, 16 regular breweries, and 400 'wildcat' breweries.  Even the term "Speakeasy," meaning an illegal drinking establishment, is said to have been coined at the Blind Pig in nearby McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Flooding has existed in 1936 in Pittsburgh. Also, Pittsburgh developed its culture in Oakland. There was the University of Pittsburgh, the 42 story Cathedral of Learning, and Forbes Field where the Pittsburgh Pirates played from 1909 to 1970. By the late 19th century to the early 20th century, new immigrants arrived from Italy, Eastern Europe, Russia, Hungary, etc. They were Polish, Jewish people, and other ethnic groups. Many restaurants today show the multicultural aspect of Pittsburgh. The years 1916–1940 marked the largest migration of African Americans to Pittsburgh during the Great Migration from the rural South to industrial cities of the Northeast and Midwest. These migrants came for industrial jobs, education, political and social freedom, and to escape racial oppression and violence in the South. Known as the cultural nucleus of Black Pittsburgh, Wylie Avenue in the Hill District was an important jazz mecca. Jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Pittsburgh natives Billy Strayhorn and Earl Hines played there. Two of the Negro League's greatest rivals, the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays, often competed in the Hill District. The teams dominated the Negro National League in the 1930s and 1940s. Pittsburgh had strong Republican support back then. The Great Depression came and overnight, Pittsburgh became a strong Democratic stronghold. There was the New deal Coalition where many ethnic groups voted in favor of the WPA, and other Democratic programs for jobs and relief. Joseph Guffey, statewide leader of the Democrats, and his local lieutenant David Lawrence gained control of all federal patronage in Pittsburgh after Roosevelt's landslide victory in 1932 (and the election of a Democratic mayor in 1933). Guffey and Lawrence used the New Deal programs to increase their political power and build up a Democratic machine that superseded the decaying Republican machine. Guffey acknowledged that a high rate of people on relief was not only "a challenge" but also "an opportunity." He regarded each relief job as Democratic patronage. By World War II, Pittsburgh supplied the Allies steel, aluminum, munitions, and machinery for America during that era. Pittsburgh's mills contributed 95 million tons of steel to the war effort. The increased production output created a workforce shortage, which resulted in African Americans moving en masse during the Second Great Migration from the South to the city in order to find work.



Dreams will blossom alive daily. Every time a child is born in the Universe, miracles and dreams flourish. Therefore, regardless of what anyone says, continue to follow your own path. Just a few years ago, I never envisioned knowing so much of my genealogy. Now, I can trace my genealogy back all the way back to the 1700’s. Today, we live in polarizing times politically, socially, and racially. We witness a President who is unapologetic in his cruelty by demonizing women, people of color including black people, veterans who passed away, and peaceful protesters. Yet, we still believe in the Dream. The Dream is a world ideal that anyone born on this Earth should have not only equality but justice. Anyone should have the right to live and to pursue their own sense of happiness without oppression or unjust discrimination. That is what we believe in. Many people back then and today fought earnestly for that dream to be fulfilled. As we approach the year of 2030 very soon, we understand that justice is not based on a clock. It must be earnestly fought for. We have to continuously work together in each generation to seek out the social liberation that is ours by birthright. We have witnessed actors, actresses, athletes, scholars, activist, judges, etc. making contributions in the world. Also, it is important to recognize our own value. Heroism can be unsung. You don't have to be famous to be great. Being yourself is a truism that lives onward forever and ever. Our dignity is not up to sale. We don’t need to relinquish our integrity to be free. We can always maintain our core beliefs systems. Another lesson in life is to recognize our own responsibility to contribute our gifts in making the community better. From the past, we honor Harriet Tubman’s courage, we respect Malcolm X’s criticisms of injustice, and we believe in Ella Baker’s grassroots organizing. Also, we certainly understand that the younger generation has heroes too. Some may not report on this, but there are tons of young people working in charities, standing against racism, and focusing on humanitarian works that outline the glory of human compassion. That is why we are in this to win this. The older I get, the more progressive I get. I came a long way, and we have a very long way to go in seeing the world transformed prodigiously. In life, there is a time and place for things. There is a time for humor and there is a time to be serious on things. There is a time to advance relaxation, and there is a time to focus on working. Therefore, we will move forward in harmony with truth and righteousness.



The future of the car is developing now. During the 21st century, researchers and engineers are constantly experiencing to develop the best future cars available for human beings. Back in 1901, many people used horses and buggies. Now, in the time of the 21st century, we have new innovations flourishing all over the place. In the future, more cars will have Alexa-like personal assistant systems. In other words, a person is driving, and you can say commands to allow the vehicle to navigate into certain locations. There will be more map options or navigational maps in vehicles. There will be displays of safe routes and other scenic imagery. Custom designed vehicles with 3D printing technology are a reality now, and it will continue in the future. The Arizona based Local Motors is 3D printing cars. They use engines and 3D print cars on top of the engines. Some cars will use brain wave technology to control vehicles. Many future cars will help diagnose their own mechanical problems. The existence of autonomous vehicles will grow too. Ford is trying to use technology to monitor health from the driver’s seat. Ford already has an electrocardiography reads that can monitor heart function via sensors in the seat that don’t need to touch the skin in order to function. In the future, technology can monitor glucose levels of people with diabetes. This technology can help people in the car. Some vehicles have augmented reality dashboards. Later, new cars will have them. These devices can project speed and improve the vision of people. Smart dashboards are the wave of the future.


By Timothy