Category: History || By Walter L. Riggs

Excerpted from "The Early History of McKeesport," published in 1960 as part of the city's Old Home Week celebration.

When John McKee decided to lay out a plan of lots on the old plantation, he consulted with Andrew McCullough, a former teacher and a surveyor, and between them they created the plan of the new town.

This plan provided for a public square or market place near the center of the town, where the country folks could display and sell their produce to the town's people. There were two main streets eighty feet wide, Market Street running north and south, and Fourth Street, running east and west from the public square, later known as the Diamond.

Unfortunately, these two far-sighted planners did not live to lay out lots on the ground beyond the original plan. Warner's History of Allegheny County states: "A comparison of the original town plan and the additions thereto is not favorable to the latter. John McKee's plan is distinguished by uniformity and regularity, qualities that cannot be ascribed to the labyrinth of crooked and narrow streets that surround it."

One plan laid out for Robert Shaw and recorded in Allegheny County Plan Book Vol. 6 has the following notation on the side of the recorded plan: "The lots on the south end of this plan, having been laid out by a carpenter or other men calling themselves surveyors and, having made a mistake, they altered the plan of the first eight lots to suit their plan."

As a result, to this day the width of Locust Street changes five or six times in as many squares; and even Fifth Avenue changes its width on occasions.

. . .

Schools and Schoolhouses: As set forth in the advertisement for the new town, four lots were donated by tho proprietor for a place of worship and four lots for a "seminary of learning," and on the day of the drawing of the lots, April 1, 1795, those present at the drawing chose the persons who were to draw the tickets and select the lots given by the proprietor for the seminary of learning and the place of worship.

The two lots selected for the seminary of learning, later to be known as the "School Lots," were located at the northwesterly corner of Market Street and Sixth Street; and the lots selected for the place of worship were located at the northeasterly corner of Market Street and Sixth Street.

In the early days, the laws of the Province of Pennsylvania made no provision for education, and the only books accessible for that purpose in the western country, as Western Pennsylvania was called, were the Bible and the almanac. In Philadelphia and the eastern part of Pennsylvania, the people had spellers, readers, arithmetic books and even Goldsmith's natural history.

Education began at the mother's knee, and, perhaps, some person who had received a little education, would teach a few youngsters in his home during the winter months when they were not needed to help with the work on the farm or in the home.

According to the book "The First Hundred Years of McKeesport," "The earliest record obtainable of school teaching in McKeesport was the engagement in the profession of Andrew Hendrickson in 1816, long before the first schoolhouse had been erected. The next pedagogue was Dr. Robert McClelland, brother in-law of Oliver Evans. He taught a school in a small frame addition to the east end of the Evans mansion."

This book further states that there was an old country school about a quarter of a mile south of the line of Christy Park. Asaph Atwater was the schoolmaster, and among his students were the Hueys, Bakers, Harrisons, Stewarts, and many other pioneer families.

. . .

The First Schoolhouse: The first schoolhouse in the new town was a private school erected in 1832 by private subscriptions, and maintained in the same manner. Hamilton Stewart was the contractor and Joseph Wampler sawed the weather boarding and the flooring. It was originally situated on Fourth Street, west of Market Street on the Square, later called the Diamond, right in the middle of the street. Its dimensions were twenty feet by thirty-two feet. The first schoolmaster was a man named Higby.

The little old school has been moved several times, but is now preserved in Renziehausen Park.

By 1841, the school directors of Versailles Township decided that a public school was necessary for the proper education of the children of the village of McKeesport, and they purchased from James Evans a lot at the northeasterly corner of Ninth Street and Walnut Street. The deed for the property is dated July 10, 1841, and the grantees in the deed are David Coon, James Penny, Jacob Keister, Hamilton Stewart, Samuel Foster and James Gray, school directors of Versailles Township.

On this lot the school directors erected a frame school building one and one-half stories high, and it the was the first public school building in McKeesport.

History is silent regarding the reason for the purchase of the said lot for the school building in what was then the "suburbs" of the village of McKeesport, when two perfectly good lots were available at the corner of Market and Sixth Streets.

But the suggested reason is that a rumor had been spread about the township that the village of McKeesport might shortly sever its ties with the township, and become a full-fledged borough; this became reality the following year, when the village of McKeesport became an incorporated borough.

And perhaps, then as now, there may have been just a shadow of jealousy darkening the relations between the town and the township; therefore, the township school was erected just beyond the village limits.

. . .

School District Evicts Squatters: Meanwhile, McKeesport's student body soon outgrew the confines of the little frame schoolhouse, and a new school building became a necessity. This time the site selected for the new school building was the property set apart by John McKee for a "seminary of learning."

By the time the school directors visited the site selected for the new building, lots were already occupied, however, not by a seminary of learning, but by the homes of John Klinkner, Jacob Haren and Jacob Lose.

An order from the school authorities to move from the premises brought the curt reply from that the school directors had lost their title to the property by "non-user" --- what would commonly be called today, "Squatter's Rights."

The embarrassed school directors went to the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County in 1848 against the three homeowners. The plaintiffs had to prove not only that the property was a gift to the borough from John McKee, but also that possession of the property by the three gentlemen for 21 years didn't give the defendants a good title, nor take away the title of the school authorities.

In the preparation of the case for trial, the attorneys desired to give a good look at the recorded plan.

Again to the chagrin of the school directors, the Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds declared that there was no such plan on record. The unrecorded plan was found in the cupboard of the recorder's office, having been left there on Feb. 23, 1829 by John Behan, a surveyor and engineer, almost 20 years prior to the entry of the suit! The defendants objected to the recording of the plan, and it required a number of depositions and an order of court before the plan was finally recorded.

The case came to trial and resulted in a verdict for the school directors. An appeal was taken to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by the squatters, and the verdict of the lower court was sustained.

. . .

Before closing the history of the first public school in the new town, it may be interesting to note the teaching staff of the old school, and what happened to the building itself. The schoolmaster was James E. Huey, and he was assisted part of the time by John Rowland, and part of the time by W. E. Harrison.

When the building was abandoned for school purposes, it was sold and the purchaser raised the building and added a basement story underneath, and it became the home of Audley Calhoun and his family: in the ground floor, Mr. Calhoun conducted a small grocery and confectionary store.

In 1880, the Second Ward or Walnut Street school was opened directly across Walnut Street and Mr. Calhoun's little store at 819 Walnut St. became the center of attraction for the students; the kindly and gentle Mr. Calhoun with his white beard became personally acquainted with many of the students.

Many old timers still remember the huge pickle barrel in the corner of the store, the soda cracker barrel, the candy case with its caramel sticks, licorice root and "shoe laces," and the large glass jars on the shelf back of the candy case, and its contents, horehound and jaw breakers.

. . .

The Church Lots: Like the school lots, the church lots were donated by John McKee, who stated that they were given for a place of worship. While he was a Presbyterian by birth, he did not specify any particular denomination. Therefore, the first church building, erected in 1819 housed a congregation with no particular religious affiliation. That is, for a time.

After a while, the Baptists began to look askance at the Presbyterians, and the Presbyterians looked askance at the Baptists, and as a result, by mutual consent the Baptists held church on one Sunday and the Presbyterians worshipped in the first church building on the following Sunday.

It appeared they had love and charity for their neighbors all week long, but not on Sunday.

The original church was a frame affair, erected by private subscription, and the subscriptions ran out before the church building had been completed. As a result it was not plastered and it had no ceiling.

. . .

Well, the swallows, circling around and looking for a nice place to build their nests, inspected the loft of the church and found it to their liking, so they moved in. It was a matter of conjecture which the swallows appreciated the most, the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterians or the "Shall We Gather at the River" song of the Baptists, but they all stayed for the benediction.

In due time, every nest had its quota of little swallows, and as time passed the little swallows grew into big swallows, and desired to go out into the cold, cold world. But the matter that caused them the most worry was whether they were Baptist swallows or Presbyterian swallows.

Also in due time, the Baptists left and the Presbyterians, then in full possession of the church lots and desiring to build a new church building (free and clear of all swallows) and being just a little bit worried about their title to the church lots, contacted Redick McKee, son of John McKee, and obtained from him a deed for the church lots, of course not knowing that Redick McKee had a brother, John, who, although dead, had numerous heirs living in California.

Redick McKee had about as much right to make a deed for the property as the Man in the Moon. However, as long as a church building stands upon the property, donated for a place of worship, the Presbyterians have little to worry about.

Tomorrow: Digging up the graveyard, the Evans family dispute, and steel comes to McKeesport.

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