"Birmingham is a small village across the Monongahela, about one mile south of Pittsburgh. It has works for green glass, furnaces for casting hollow ware, &c. from pigs, and a saw mill, which is moved by a steam engine. The coal for all these, is used fresh from the mine, without mixture, coaking or desulphuration.

Many of the balls for Perry's fleet, were cast in this foundery. But instead of forming such ministers of havoc, the metal is now moulded for softer hands, and flat or smoothing irons are produced in abundance. These are ground on a stone which revolves by a band from the steam engine." Thomas's Travels through the western country in 1816.

"At a respectable meeting of the inhabitants of Birmingham and its vicinity, convened at the school-house, on Friday evening the 28th of March, 1816, in order to take into consideration the expediency of erecting a Market-House, in said town; Nathaniel Bedford, was called to the Chair, and George Patterson, appointed secretary.

The chairman having stated the object of the meeting, the following resolutions were proposed and unanimously adopted, viz.—

Resolved, That a Market-House be built on the plan exhibited by Mr. Benjamin Yoe.

Resolved, That the site of the structure be the centre of the square.

Thus, another thriving and Manufacturing Town, is added to the many which have been established in the western section of Pennsylvania; and social order, with its concomitants, the arts and sciences, illuminate those wild and dreary shades, where lately none but the prowling wolf, or the restless and cruel savage held their haunts." Mercury, April 20, 1816.

"At the beginning of the century the site of Allegheny City was a wilderness. In 1812 a few settlers had made inroads upon the forest, and had builded their cabins. Notice is called to the fact in the minutes of the Presbytery of Erie, in April of that year, in the following words: 'An indigent and needy neighborhood, situated on the Allegheny, opposite Pittsburgh, having applied for supplies,' the matter was laid before the Presbytery.

Joseph Stockton seems to have been the first stated minister, preaching a part of his time there until 1819." Centenary memorial of Presbyterianism in western Pennsylvania.

"The facility for getting to and from Pittsburg [from Allegheny] was quite a different matter from what it is to-day. The only highway (if it may be called such) leading west from Federal Street to the Bottoms at that early day, was the erratic Bank Lane, which owing to the natural unevenness of the ground upon which it was located, and total neglect of the authorities of Ross township to put it in a condition for travel, … was for many years only accessible for foot-passengers." Parke's Recollections of seventy years.

Lawrenceville was laid out in 1815 by Wm. B. Foster, and had begun with the building of the United States arsenal.