“...[T]he best advice that science can afford
and the most judicious treatment...”
The Life Of Pittsburgh's First Physician
Dr. Nathaniel Bedford
And The Founding Of The Town Of Birmingham
by
J. Cox
2012
1
While the name of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford is not unknown in Pittsburgh, the man himself is
nonetheless an obscure figure. He is most frequently remembered for being the founder of the town of
Birmingham, or what is today the neighborhood of South Side. Periodically, his status as one of the
founding trustees of the Pittsburgh Academy, now the University of Pittsburgh, or of Trinity Episcopal
Church, in whose downtown churchyard Bedford's memorial stone still stands, is noted in connection
with one institution or the other. Bedford's name is adequately perpetuated upon the landscape in the
names of Bedford Square, Bedford Schoolhouse (Lofts), Bedford Avenue, and Bedford Dwellings. Most
appropriately, his career as Pittsburgh's first privately-practicing physician is commemorated in the
annual bestowal of the Nathaniel Bedford Award For Outstanding Primary Care Physician, one of the
local medical community's highest honors.
Yet while these vestiges of Dr. Bedford's legacy can still be found here and there across the city,
they have become scattered and unfocused, distorting what little information is available about Dr.
Bedford and allowing the dedicated doctor who planted the seeds of medicine in Pittsburgh to slip into an
all-but-technical obscurity. The brief, standardized biography which has been handed down to us is-- as
with most historical figures-- mostly blank, partly untrue, and tends to leave out more than it includes
about the remarkable times in which Dr. Bedford practiced, and the rich life he led in the service of
Pittsburgh's populace. Generally considered to be the story of a childless widower it tells us, also, very
little about the large, interesting family of which Bedford became a part, less about the many young
people he cared for and mentored, and almost nothing about the birth of the thriving, vital neighborhood
he founded. Finally, Dr. Bedford's existing biography is silent regarding his interesting life after death, or
the circumstances of how his conspicuous gravestone came to be located in Trinity Churchyard, which
was not it's original location. It is hoped, then, that this biography may help to provide a more complete
picture of the life, and afterlife, of Pittsburgh's pioneer physician.
~ England ~
2
Nathaniel Bedford is generally noted to have been born in the city of Birmingham, England.1
Bedford, however, could only be said to hail from that city in the same way that people from, say, the
suburb of West Newton, Pennsylvania might be considered to be from the city of Pittsburgh. While
Pittsburgh and West Newton are two entirely separate towns, if someone from West Newton were to
travel to a foreign land, and foreign residents asked where they had come from, the West Newton native
might substitute Pittsburgh, in a general sense, for their actual origins as few residents of foreign
countries would have ever heard of West Newton, Pennsylvania. Similarly, therefore, Nathaniel Bedford
may have told many Americans that he was from Birmingham, and he may have named the little town he
founded on the shores of the Monongahela River in honor of that English city, but Bedford was, in fact,
born in the town of Codsall, Staffordshire, some twenty miles northwest of Birmingham, in the rolling,
green countryside of the English Midlands.
Nathaniel was baptized by his parents, William and Mary Bedford, at St. Nicholas', parish church
of Codsall, on the 14th of March 1756. Although the available information is scant, it appears that young
Nathaniel enjoyed a short but comfortable middle-class childhood amidst a large family, in a
comparatively idyllic location. The Bedford family home, known as “The Stockings,”2 having been passed
down through several generations, was already over a century old at the time of Nathaniel's birth3 and is
still standing in Codsall today, very little changed from the way it looked in the mid-1700's.
Situated approximately a mile west of the village along a winding road bordered with hedges, and
entered through a low gate in a mossy sandstone wall,4 the Stockings is comprised of a stately, timeweathered farmhouse with beamed ceilings, Dutch doors, fireplaces big enough to stand in, oak
staircases, numerous bedrooms, extensive surrounding pastures, and a properly decrepit old barn with an
1
Fleming, George T. History of Pittsburgh and Environs Vol. II. (New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1922)
215.
2
Elizabeth M. Palmer, Birmingham City Archives. Message to the author, e-mail, “Pittsburgh,” 23 September, 2010.
3
Liz Street, Staffordshire Record Office. Message to the author, e-mail, “Fort Pitt Museum,” 4 October, 2010. Judy Davies,
St Nicholas Church. Message to the author, e-mail “The Stockings,” 4 April, 2012.
4
Judy Davies, St Nicholas Church, Codsall. Message to the author, e-mail “The Stockings,” 4 April, 2012.
3
appropriately-crooked weathervane. Additional rooms are known to have been added to the house in the
mid-18th century, perhaps by Nathaniel's father, to better accommodate the growing Bedford family which
ultimately included nine children.5 Just a year or two after Nathaniel came a sister named Martha, with
whom Nathaniel appears to have been particularly close.
There were likely no formal medical facilities in Codsall in the 1750's; indeed, there would be no
public infirmary of any kind even in the city of Birmingham until 1766.6 What event or influence, then,
might have stirred in young Nathaniel an interest in the medical art is unknown. Perhaps Codsall was
served by an inspiring country doctor. Perhaps that doctor was the senior Mr. Bedford himself. Perhaps
Nathaniel-- being not an eldest son, and having no claim to an estate, nor any inclination to the clergy or
the law-- apprenticed himself to some learned Codsall apothecary as a means to an education and
discovered a fascination for the profession. Although we do not know what specifically inspired Nathaniel
Bedford to become a doctor we must assume that he was an inquisitive boy, as a career in 18th century
medicine was not for everyone.
Modern sensibilities recoil with horror at descriptions of the healing arts of the 1700's. Bleedings,
leechings, humors and miasmas were still the order of the day, and doctors worked largely from sketches
in books. Instruments were comparatively crude, anatomical understanding was incomplete, and
anesthesia was imperfect, therefore a good deal of space was dedicated in medical texts of the time to
diagrams showing the proper methods for tying patients down.7 Nonetheless, the late 1700's were also the
boom years of the Enlightenment, and in the eyes of it's contemporaries the world of medicine was a
rapidly advancing science. Great battles were beginning to be waged between superstition and fact,
humble barbers and midwives were fighting to find their place as recognized professionals, and public
5
Elizabeth M. Palmer, Birmingham City Archives. Message to the author, e-mail, “Pittsburgh,” 23 September, 2010. During
the compilation of this research, the Stockings came up for sale through Berriman Eaton Real Estate, Tettenhall office,
and so the author was able to obtain a wonderful description of many aspects of the estate. Since that time, however, the
Stockings has been purchased by a private owner, and thus the information is no longer available for public view. The
author's attempts to contact the current residents have yielded no response.
6
Stevens, Rosemary. Medical Practice in Modern England: The Impact of Specialization and State Medicine. (New
Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2003) 14, note 8.
7
See Diderot, Denis. L'Encyclopedie: les illustrations completes, 1762-77, Chirurgie. (New York, NY: Abrams, 1979)
4
hospitals and infirmaries were beginning to be opened which would become the foundations of some of
England's greatest modern institutions. New frontiers were indeed being explored and there could be said
to have been a lot of opportunity in the medical field. With that in mind, it is perhaps not surprising that
it would attract an intelligent young man who seems to have enjoyed exciting new frontiers.
Exciting as the world of medicine may have been, however, teenage apprentices from Codsall were
a long way from it. Established practices and recognized institutions already in existence enjoyed a
jurisdiction extending only seven miles beyond London; after that, one was medically on one's own.8
Despite this, an aspiring young doctor like Nathaniel would generally be expected to have already
completed a period of preparatory apprenticeship with a reputable local practitioner before they were
considered fit to go on to an academic education at a medical college. Such apprenticeship was destined
to eliminate all but the gamest aspirants, it being the job of the young student to mix medicines, carry
bags, saddle horses, handle slop-jars, sit on squirming children, and restrain unhappy adults at a very thin
line between treatment and torture. In between all of this, said apprentice was also expected to absorb a
well-rounded amount of book-studies to prepare himself for the wider academic world.
Whatever instruction he may have received close to home, therefore, to advance himself beyond
the station of a country sawbones, young Nathaniel had to leave the Stockings for the big city. It is
unknown whether he sought any education in Birmingham itself, but Dr. Bedford's obituary notes that he
“received a regular medical education in his native country[,]” “[a]fter going thro' the usual course[.]”9 By
1770, at about the age of fifteen, Bedford had made it to London where he attended some of the formal
lectures and symposiums expected of students of the day. On April 3rd of that year he received a diploma,
in copperplate script, which certified “that Mr. Nathaniel Bedford hath diligently attended our lectures on
the Theory and Practice of Midwifery and on the diseases of Women and Children[,]” which was signed
8
Warren, M.D. “Medical Education in the 18th Century,” Postgraduate Medical Journal (June 1951): 304-311. Pub-Med
Central, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Web. (17 May, 2012).
9
Obituary Notice, Nathaniel Bedford, M.D., Pittsburgh Gazette, 31 March, 1818, 2. Google News Archive. Web. (23 May,
2012)
5
by Drs. William Moore and Thomas Denman.10
With some analysis, the obtainment of this diploma may open a small window for us into young
Nathaniel's personality. In those days, as still today, there was some amount of rivalry between doctors
and midwives, each tending to look upon the other with suspicion. Midwifery was generally considered to
be women's business, and many competent and capable females made a respectable living at it without
any need for academic training or accredited assistance. Assuming that there was no grave medical
situation, or the mother was not a member of the blooded class, the bringing of babies into the world was
not usually the purview of doctors. Therefore obstetrics, as it was later known, was not taught as part of
the standard medical curriculum in the mid-18th century. Students in London wishing to obtain such
instruction had to seek out these types of private lectures on their own, and attend them at additional
expense.11
The Dr. Thomas Denman who signed Bedford's diploma, however, was a somewhat celebrated
doctor of his day. Denman rose to prominence through the study of problem births, such as breech babies,
and was among the first to popularize the inducement of premature labor among women whose lives or
health would be imperiled by delivering at full term.12 This work may be seen as particularly
groundbreaking in light of the fact that the obstetrics field, in the 1700's, was not fully recognized as a
field, nor was it even a word. Dr. Denman, however, was making great strides in advancing the study of
the difficult births at which midwives alone were inadequate, and what he would have had to say in
lecture would have been very interesting, and up-to-the-minute. However, while Denman's extracurricular lectures on advanced midwifery were extremely popular, they were not attended, or even
considered necessary, by everyone.
10
Chalfant, Ella. A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press,
1955) 59. Note that Denman is misspelled “Debman,” perhaps due to illegibility of archaic copperplate script. In another
account, found in Adolph Koenig, M.D., The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI, (Pittsburg: Murdoch-Kerr Press,
1902) 15., the name of William Osborn is given instead of William Moore.
11
Warren, M.D. “Medical Education in the 18th Century,” Postgraduate Medical Journal (June 1951): 304-311. Pub-Med
Central, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Web. (17 May, 2012).
12
See Denman, Thomas, M.D., An Introduction To The Practice of Midwifery, Volume the Second. (London: 1795). Dr. F.
Winckel, A Text-Book of Obstetrics, (Philadelphia, PA: P. Blakiston, Son & Co., 1890) 620.
6
It also bears mention that not every young man of the day who attended medical college was
destined to practice. Some, as stated, who had no particular interest in the army, the clergy, or the law
chose medicine as a vehicle through which to obtain a respectable education and did not intend to apply
their knowledge in the real world. Additionally, many of those who trained as doctors preferred to
become physicians rather than surgeons, the two careers being very different in trajectory. Although all
doctors of the time were essentially general practitioners, physicians tended toward the realms of theory
and academia, and the cultivation of the social status that went with it, while surgeons tended more
toward actual “blood-and-guts” practice. Though they were often greatly respected, surgeons of the 18th
century did not always merit the same level of social privilege as physicians. Apothecaries (or pharmacists)
fell in somewhere under the surgeons, with barbers, midwives, and folk practitioners at the bottom of the
scale. All of the above disciplines were cooperative, however, and given the level of medical uncertainty of
the time, the opinion of as many as were necessary, or were available, might be consulted as needed.
Nathaniel's diploma, therefore, says a few things about Nathaniel. As such lectures were generally
held in the international language of Latin, with a heavy dose of Greek terminology to boot,13 Nathaniel's
attendance confirms that he did not spend his childhood at the Stockings idling his time away.
Furthermore, as such lectures were extra-curricular and Nathaniel was only yet fifteen-- not yet old
enough to have completed a full preparatory apprenticeship at any recognized institution-- it seems that
he was very eager to get started. In being so eager we must assume that he, like most medical students,
had some patron such as his parents or another interested party who not only wished to see Nathaniel
fulfill the basic requirements of his education, but wished to ensure that he made the most of his
academic opportunities in London. Finally, setting aside parental expectations, the “usual course” of
medical education, and obvious differences in the mindsets of teenagers of the 18th century versus those
of today, one cannot help but think that any fifteen-year-old male, of any era, who diligently attends
extra-curricular lectures on problematic childbearing, and cherishes his resultant diploma deeply enough
13
Warren,“Medical Education in the 18th Century.” 304-311.
7
to keep it until death clearly does not wish to simply be a learned man of medicine-- he wants badly to be
a doctor.
The diploma's date of 1770 is also significant, as it is traditionally stated in common biographies of
Dr. Bedford that he came to Pittsburgh with the British army and was stationed for a period of time at
Fort Pitt, during which service he so fell in love with the city as to have resigned his commission sometime
around 1770, and put down roots here as a private citizen.14 As 1770 is also the year Nathaniel received his
obstetrical diploma in London, however, it would be impossible that he could have resigned from active
military service at Fort Pitt at around the same time.
Instead, the Royal College of Surgeons in London holds an original manuscript, a “Naval Surgeon's
Casebook,” or medical log, attributed to a Dr. Nathaniel Bedford who is said to have been born in 1757,
which documents his cases, symptoms, and treatments between the years of 1776 and 1782.15 Although
this journal of medical knowledge makes no mention of any personal detail whatsoever which might
definitively connect it's author to the Dr. Nathaniel Bedford who later turned up in Pittsburgh,16 the
locations and events suggested in the casebook closely match the details of Dr. Bedford's Pittsburgh
obituary, strongly suggesting that the two doctors are one and the same.
The casebook first chronicles it's author as spending 1776 in a year's apprenticeship at St. George's
Hospital, an advanced 250-bed facility on the outskirts of London under John Gunning, an unusually
outspoken doctor-professor who preferred the practice of healing to the privileges of tenure.17 On March 5,
1778, the casebook's author qualified as Second Mate, First Rate under the auspices of the Company of
Surgeons (later to become the Royal College18), and qualified as Surgeon, Fifth Rate on April 19, 1781. In
December he joined the British navy at Portsmouth, taking sail for the West Indies aboard the Formidable
in January 1782. He was appointed to the Ardent later the same year, and shortly thereafter joined the
14
Wilson, Erasmus. Standard History of Pittsburg Pennsylvania. (Chicago: H.R. Cornell & Company, 1898) 603.
Royal College of Surgeons, “Bedford, Nathaniel (b.1757)” Aim25 Archives. Web. (23 May, 2010).
16
Geraldine O'Driscoll, Royal College of Surgeons Library and Archives. Message to the author, e-mail “Fort Pitt Museum”
5 October, 2010. In fact, this casebook does not even contain the name of Nathaniel Bedford, being attributed to a doctor
by that name by the Casebook's owner, Robert Rutson James, who donated it to the College in 1933.
17
Stephen, Leslie and Sidney Lee, Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 8. (New York: Macmillan, 1908) 788.
18
Warren,“Medical Education in the 18th Century.” 304-311.
15
8
Conqueror, which sailed from Barbados to the American colonies, Antigua, and Guadeloupe before
returning to England in July of 1783.19
Although there were comparatively few Americans in the West Indies during the American
Revolution, it was nonetheless a hotly contested theater for the British. The islands were nearly as divided
in political thought as the colonies themselves, and were further conflicted by the nearby influence of the
Spanish and French, both of whom had allied with the Americans, but were primarily interested in
securing their own prizes. Big ships, therefore, levied massive broadsides upon one another for possession
of tiny islands, as cannonballs and flying shrapnel inflicted wounds against which doctors were nearly
powerless. All of the ships mentioned are known to have seen battle during the casebook's author's time
in the West Indies; one is said to have fired ninety broadsides in the course of a single engagement.20
Besides the dangers of combat, the West Indian climate was also notorious for felling mass numbers of
soldiers through disease-- malaria, smallpox, scurvy, measles, influenza, and other ailments wreaked
havoc aboard closed ships, evaporating troop strength and ruining the longer-term health of many who
were lucky enough to survive. Doctors, in such a place, faced a challenging caseload indeed, and would
that this clinical, impersonal Casebook contained any non-medical thoughts or observations of it's author,
it might have provided us with great insight. Sadly, however, it is all but professionally silent.
Meanwhile, Bedford's obituary notes that following the “usual course” of preparatory education,
he “attended the hospitals in London, for the purpose of improving himself in the different branches of
his profession, particularly in surgery. After the war (which ended in our independence) broke out, he was
appointed a surgeon's mate, on board one of the English vessels,”21 all of which, though unspecific,
squares roughly with the timeline contained in the casebook.
In May of 1780, meanwhile, the American revolutionary cause had suffered a severe blow with the
capture of the city of Charleston, South Carolina, and the more than 5,000 American troops within it.
19
Royal College of Surgeons, “Bedford, Nathaniel (b.1757)”
Burgoyne, Bruce E., ed., A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press,
1990) 209.
21
Obituary Notice, Nathaniel Bedford, M.D., Pittsburgh Gazette, 31 March, 1818, 2.
20
9
Having taken a major portion of the enemy prisoner and secured an immensely valuable port, the British
regarded Charleston as a great victory. It was also, however, a logistical nightmare for the victors, as
something now had to be done with these 5,000 American prisoners for an indefinite period of time.
Unable to securely house so many within the city, the British employed prison ships-- stripped-down
naval vessels into which human beings were crammed in atop one another, and more or less left to rot.
Plenty of soldiers would have gladly bled to death on the battlefield rather than end up on such a vessel;
once incarcerated, nearly half of the Charleston prisoners would die of disease in filthy, overcrowded,
unventilated holds.22
Somewhere in the midst of all of this was the young Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, his tour of the
southern Atlantic having brought him to be among those appointed to care for these imprisoned
Americans. “[A]fter the surrender of Charleston,” his obituary notes, Bedford “had it in his power, and
with the benevolence which has always marked his character, he exercised with great activity that power,
of befriending and relieving the miseries of the American prisoners.” Treating his patients in a kind and,
we must assume, gentlemanly manner which transcended international boundaries, Bedford “contracted
intimacies with some continental officers that lasted thro' life.”
“At the close of the war,” the obituary continues, “he returned to England,” as is also noted in the
Naval Surgeon's Casebook. From there, however, the trail of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford, insofar as was known
to the Royal College of Surgeons, goes cold. While, again, there is no information contained within the
casebook which might prove it's author to be the Dr. Nathaniel Bedford who later turned up in Pittsburgh,
it seems unlikely that two Dr. Nathaniel Bedfords with roughly the same chronological history would
both happen to be naval surgeons in the southern Atlantic at the same time. Moreover, the reason that
there is no further record of the casebook's author in England is possibly because, as is noted in Bedford's
obituary, he then “with professional views” in mind, “made the tour of France and the Low Countries[,]”
before determining to “emigrate to America, whose rising greatness, he had the sagacity to foresee, from
22
Borick, Carl P. A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston, 1780 . (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press,
2003) 223.
10
the transient view he had of it, while in the English service.”23 Once landed in the American capital of
Philadelphia, Dr. Bedford appears to have gone where newly-arrived doctors might naturally go-- to the
Pennsylvania Hospital.
The Pennsylvania Hospital had been founded in the 1750's as America's first hospital, on the order
of the similar, aforementioned institutions springing up in England. There, among other surgeons, the
talented Dr. Benjamin Rush-- one of the new nation's most respected doctors and a signer of the
Declaration of Independence-- practiced his art.24 Seeking opportunity, Dr. Bedford would have inquired
where to find it, and “his early friend, Dr. Rush advised him to fix himself in Pittsburgh[.]”25 Although Dr.
Rush himself had no particular connection to the city, he had some interest in the American west. Many
years later he would become the medical adviser to the Lewis and Clark expedition, supplying the
mercury-based laxatives which expedition members referred to as “Dr. Rush's Thunderbolts.”26 Upon Dr.
Bedford's inquiry, therefore, it appears that “Go west, young man,” was Dr. Rush's advice.
Indeed, the growing village of Pittsburgh was the kind of wide-open place where a diligent doctor
willing to invest a few years hard work could advance himself to whatever station he desired. Moreover,
while there were undoubtedly plenty of doctors in Philadelphia, there were almost none, if any at all, in
Pittsburgh, seemingly making the establishment of a practice all the easier. That said, however, Dr. Rush
was not one to dispense capricious advice, and Dr. Bedford would likely have to have displayed certain
personal characteristics for Dr. Rush to think Pittsburgh was the right place for him-- namely, Bedford
would have to have had not only a thirst for adventure, but the common sense and practical experience
which would allow him to thrive on a still-chaotic frontier. While most biographies suggest that Bedford
became enraptured with the beauty of Western Pennsylvania, and so decided to hang his hat here,27 it
would seem instead to have been a combination of Dr. Rush's prompting and an eagerness for new
23
Obituary Notice, Nathaniel Bedford, M.D., Pittsburgh Gazette, 31 March, 1818, 2.
Malin, William Gunn. Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, its Origin, Objects, and Present State. (Philadelphia,
PA; Thomas Kite, 1831) 9, 32.
25
Obituary Notice, Nathaniel Bedford, M.D., Pittsburgh Gazette, 31 March, 1818, 2.
26
Blumberg, Rhoda. The Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark. (Harper Collins, 1995) 19.
27
Koenig, Adolph, M.D., The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI. (Pittsburg: Murdoch-Kerr Press, 1902) 14.
24
11
horizons that enticed him over the mountains.
For while Pittsburgh was, without a doubt, a growing concern, few early visitors described the
remote village of log cabins and muddy thoroughfares as the type of place one could fall in love with. In
1784 it was still considered by most to be the edge of the civilized world, and not every doctor-- however
needy of work-- might choose to emigrate where there were, as yet, comparatively few people to treat,
where he would have almost no recourse, informational or social, with any other medical peer, where
supplies were difficult to obtain, where everything was expensive due to the cost of bringing it over the
mountains, and where there was little actual cash to be made as the barter system was still the daily
standard. Furthermore, people of 18th century frontier were not always the types of individuals who would
draw upon, or could afford the services of a doctor even if one were available. To what degree the simple
need for medical expertise on the far side of the mountains appealed to Dr. Bedford's passions and
compassions, or to what extent the call of the wild echoed in his ear, we can only speculate, but he seems
not to have hesitated at Dr. Rush's suggestion.
The opportunity to own American land is also usually cited as a prime motivator in such cases, but
as “country doctor” is in itself a more-than-full-time career, and what land Dr. Bedford would ultimately
posses would not come to him for a good many years, it does not seem that land was his primary concern.
We might wonder if simply being “first” held some appeal for the doctor, but sadly, here again, Dr.
Bedford's position as the city's first physician is only a technical truth. Military surgeons had attended the
regiments which had been stationed at Fort Pitt,28 experienced medical professionals had been among
the officers, soldiers, and frontiersmen who had preceded Fort Pitt,29 Native American midwives, folkhealers, and holy men had presumably already made appearances at the Forks of the Ohio in their turn.
28
General Edward Hand, for example, had practiced both as a military and private physician prior to commanding Fort Pitt
from 1777-1778. See Bowden, A.J. The Unpublished Revolutionary Papers of Major General Edward Hand. (New York,
NY: George H. Richmond, 1907) 5.
29
Colonel Hugh Mercer, an exemplary soldier and physician, had been instrumental in the occupation of the Forks of the
Ohio. See Fleming, George T. History of Pittsburgh and It's Environs, Vol. 1. (New York: American Historical Society,
Inc., 1922) 452. General John Forbes himself had also trained as a physician. See Cubbison, Douglas. The British Defeat
of the French in Pennsylvania 1758. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers, 2010) 9.
12
No sooner had Dr. Bedford arrived, moreover, than other doctors began to slowly trickle in alongside.30 As
we do not know the exact date of Bedford's arrival we cannot say with absolute certainty that he was the
very first. It is more appropriate, then, to say that Dr. Bedford was the first among a handful of doctors to
make Pittsburgh his permanent home, and to dedicate his life exclusively to the care of Pittsburghers.
The earliest known documentation of Dr. Bedford's presence in the city appears in 1784, in the
form of an account book kept by him-- perhaps similar to a naval surgeon's casebook-- which Bedford
would subsequently hand down as a relic to his future apprentice, Dr. Peter Mowry.31 After passing
through the hands of several more generations of Pittsburgh physicians this account book, and Dr.
Bedford's obstetrical diploma, eventually made their way into the collections of the Carnegie Library
Pennsylvania Room. There they were housed, and the diploma displayed on the wall for all to see until at
least 1955, when they were still known to historical researchers.32 Since that time, however, both seem to
have disappeared, and no record of their fate exists.33 We can only presume, therefore, that this account
book was related to Bedford's time in Pittsburgh, and not compiled elsewhere.
Regardless of when or why Dr. Bedford arrived in Pittsburgh, it is clear that upon his arrival his
fortunes became entwined with that of John Ormsby, who was already a leading townsman, and who was
already accumulating the bulk of the estate along the south shore of the Monongahela River which
Bedford would one day help establish as a separate city. From the point of their meeting onward, it is
impossible to tell the story of the young doctor without the older gentleman; indeed, some early sources
have confused the two altogether.34
~ John Ormsby ~
30
Marder, Daniel, ed. A Hugh Henry Brackenridge Reader, 1770-1815. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970)
112.
31
Koenig, The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI. 14-15.
32
Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. 59-60.
33
In 2010, the author casually inquired with the Pennsylvania Department if anyone had seen or heard of this diploma and
account book, and after an informal search was told that no record of either existed. A second attempt to clarify this
information in May of 2012 received no response from the Pennsylvania Department at all.
34
Fleming, George T. History of Pittsburgh and Environs Vol. II. 62.
13
John Ormsby too is often credited, and not incorrectly, with being the founder of today's South
Side, adding another layer of technicality to Dr. Bedford's list of achievements. Ormsby also has the
historical advantage over Bedford in that his activities in Pittsburgh, starting from the very day of it's
founding, are quite well documented, leaving us with a clear picture of a man who saw no distinction
between the nascent city's fortune, and his own.
Born in 1720 in County Mayo, Ireland, John Ormsby was “descended from a long and illustrious
line of ancestors” that could trace their origins to the dawn of British history. John himself had come to
America in 1752, first establishing himself as a teacher in several locations, and later noted that “the
young people came to my Seminary in numbers so that I had uncommon success.” In 1755, he was offered
a captain's commission in the colonial contingents of General Braddock's army, which had been ordered
to the American frontier to take possession of the Forks of the Ohio back from the French who had
occupied it the previous year. “[B]ut alas,” Ormsby noted, “man appoints and God does as he thinks fit[.]”
On his way to rendezvous with his regiment, Ormsby was overtaken by an attack of malarial fever which
is said to have lasted nearly three years. Given the unfortunate fate of Braddock's expedition, Ormsby
must have later found this debilitating sickness to be a blessing in disguise.
In the spring of 1758, when the British Crown was ready to try again, Ormsby was again eager to
accompany General John Forbes' army on it's similar mission to the Forks of the Ohio, but his
compromised health compelled him to refuse two active commissions before agreeing to serve as
Commissary. Once signed on, Ormsby's was a “wretched employment” he noted, “provisions being so
scarce that I could [ha]rdly supply the general's table.” Despite privations, the progress of the army under
General Forbes-- a trained physician who was himself terminally ill-- was nonetheless brilliantly
methodical. The troops moved west across Pennsylvania with all the precision and precaution possible in
a body of 5,000 men. Doing so took considerable time, however, and it was not until November 24th that
Ormsby wrote, “About mid[nigh]t a tremendous explosion was heard from ye westward, up[on] which old
14
Forbes swore that the French magazine [at Fort Duquesne] was blown [up], either by accident or chance,
which revived our drooping [sp]irits a little. The above conjecture of ye head of iron [as Forbes was
affectionately known] was verified by a [de]serter from Duquesne who said that the Indians who watched
[the] march of the English army declared to the French that there [were] as many white people coming
against them as there were [tr]ees in ye woods. This report so terrified the French that they [se]t fire to
their magazines, barracks, etc., and pushed off in their [bo]ats, some up and some down the Ohio, so that
next morning we [go]t peaceable possession without a fight.” General Forbes, carried forward to his
conquest upon his litter, gave the name of Pittsburgh to the former site of Fort Duquesne, in honor of
British Secretary of State Sir William Pitt.
A few weeks later Ormsby was among the small force left behind at the new outpost when the
main army returned to the east. Though the Forbes Road now connected Fort Pitt to a reliable supply line,
Ormsby's pack trains were regularly attacked and plundered, ensuring that daily rations at Pittsburgh
remained a challenge. Moreover, the fledgling town was still under the constant threat of attack by nearby
Native Americans, causing regular alarms. Ormsby would reminisce that during this time, he made
“sincere application to the Almighty, to pardon my sins and extricate us from [this] deplorable situation.”35
By the following autumn however, General John Stanwix had arrived, complete with a military
band, for the construction of Fort Pitt,36 and Ormsby was appointed Paymaster of Disbursements for the
project;37 no small job considering that Fort Pitt was the largest outpost ever attempted by the British
military on the frontier. Over the following winter and spring Ormsby diligently inventoried and
managed young Pittsburgh's fluctuating wealth-- 136,562 pounds of flour, 194 oxen, 22 barrels of pork,
5,321 pounds butter, 3,291 pounds cheese, etc.-- received and paid out upon the venison, turkeys, and
Indian corn purchased from visiting Native Americans, and accounted for the daily provisioning of 700
35
Ormsby, John. “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” History of the Mormon Church, Americana Magazine 1909-1915. 155-157.
Internet Archive. Web. (18 May, 2012).
36
Jordan, John W., ed. “James Kenny's Journal To Ye Westward 1758-1759” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
Biography, Vol. XXXVII (1913) 440.
37
Page, Oliver Ormsby. A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. (Albany, NY: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1892)
12-18.
15
British soldiers and citizens on the rolls, plus a rotating contingent of several hundred Indians.38 During
this period he also developed a lifelong friendship with Thomas Hutchins, then a soldier-cartographer
and deputy Indian agent, later to become Geographer General of the United States.39
It was through Hutchins superior, George Croghan, that Ormsby was persuaded to try his hand at
the Indian trade,40 which prompted him to briefly leave Fort Pitt in 1760 and establish trading posts at
Presque Isle and Detroit. Ormsby initially found success in the Indian trade, and was still able to maintain
his post as commissary at Fort Pitt, returning to Pittsburgh in early 1761 when he was styled Manager of
Contractors, and his outlying stores were operated by employees.41
Following his return, Ormsby was noted in a census of Fort Pitt as living at Lot 41 in the Lower
Town-- the small village which was nestled within the earthworks of Fort Pitt and surrounded the fort
itself-- in a log house where he resided with another man, presumably another officer. The following year,
in April of 1762, it is unclear whether he was living in the same house, but for reasons which are equally
unclear, Ormsby purchased-- or believed he purchased-- the house within the outworks of the fort in
which he was living from William Clapham, the local soldier-turned-farmer who had been appointed as
census taker. Despite having no authority whatsoever to sell it, Clapham appears to have let the “property”
go to Ormsby for 130 pounds. As the military retained exclusive ownership of all structures within Fort
Pitt, Pittsburghers wondered why Ormsby would throw his money away, “notwithstanding ye General
Orders against buying or Selling Houses.”42 Ormsby seems to have been unconcerned, however, and
regarded this first purchase of property in the city of Pittsburgh as entirely valid.
Just as Ormsby and his adopted city seemed to be making progress toward their fortunes,
however, Pontiac's War swept the frontier in June of 1763. Having grown weary of trade restrictions and
38
Waddell, Louis M., John H. Tottenham, Donald H. Kent, ed., The Papers of Henry Bouquet Vol. IV. (Harrisburg:
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1978) 348-349, 366, 506-507.
39
Fleming, George T. History of Pittsburgh and It's Environs: Vol. 1. (New York, NY: American Historical Society, Inc.,
1922) 517. See also Waddell, The Papers of Henry Bouquet Volume IV. 366.
40
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” History of the Mormon Church, Americana Magazine 1909-1915. 157.
41
Waddell, Louis M., John L. Tottenham, Donald H. Kent, ed., The Papers of Henry Bouquet Volume V. (Harrisburg: The
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1984) 76.
42
Harpster, John W., ed. Cross Roads: Descriptions of Western Pennsylvania 1720-1829. (Pittsburgh: University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1938) 94.
16
increasing settlement in their hunting country, Native American tribes across the back country joined
forces to rid themselves of the British once and for all. Simultaneously attacking whatever posts and
settlements were within their reach, the combined Native force regained complete control of the territory
from Carlisle, Pennsylvania all the way to Detroit in only six weeks. Nine forts fell to the Indians, with as
many as two thousand frontier inhabitants killed or captured, until only Fort Detroit and Fort Pitt
themselves remained in British hands. Ormsby, “besides being plundered of his horses and goods and his
property destroyed” at his outlying stores, lost five employees killed or captured by hostile war parties.43
Even “more grievous than my losses,” Ormsby noted, was the fact that those losses “left me above £1500
indebted to the Philadelphia Merchants” from whom he had purchased his starting stock.44
Ormsby himself was trapped inside the besieged Fort Pitt all summer, enduring, along with
the rest of the town's populace, uncomfortable crowding, outbreaks of disease, and continuous military
duty. As the structure of Fort Pitt was far too immense to actually be overtaken by the Native force, the
Natives instead hoped to starve the garrison into submission. The “Copper Gentry,” as Ormsby described
his besiegers, eventually succeeded so well in their endeavors that “there was not a pound of good flour or
meat to serve the garrison and a number of the inhabitants who joined me to do duty.”45 Just as starvation
loomed, however, Ormsby and Pittsburgh were finally relieved in early August 1763 when Colonel Henry
Bouquet's victory 30 miles to the southeast at the Battle of Bushy Run broke the siege of Fort Pitt, and reopened the Forbes Road to the east.
Unfortunately for Pittsburghers, however, there was no Pittsburgh to go back to. Captain Simeon
Ecuyer, commander during the crisis, had had the fledgling city burned to the ground to deprive the
besieging Indians of cover, and Ormsby was infuriated at losing the house he believed he owned. On
September 30, hardly six weeks after his victory, Ecuyer's superior, Colonel Henry Bouquet wrote to the
eastern employer of the individual he believed was fueling Ormsby's fire, complaining of his giving “bad
43
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 14. See also Waddell, Louis M., ed., The Papers of Henry
Bouquet Volume VI. (Harrisburg: The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1994) 490.
44
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 158.
45
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 14.
17
advices to certain litigious Persons here, and namely to Ormsby, who threatens to Arrest Capt. Ecuyer in
the Settlements, for having before he was Attacked by the Savages, demolished the houses which
obstructed the Defences of the Fort, tho neither Ormsby, nor any other Inhabitant had ever any right of
Property to any House or Ground at this place[.]” Additionally, in a court inquiry held the same day,
Ormsby submitted a claim of slightly more than five pounds against William Clapham,46 the farmer who
had supposedly “sold” him his now-incinerated house, and who had, unfortunately, been among the first
of the outlying settlers killed early in the summer.
Though Ormsby's debts seemed incredible, and his creditors advised him “to give up as an
insolvent[,]” Ormsby pledged to “pay them honestly” in due time,47 though how he would do so remained
a mystery, even to himself. Nonetheless, in 1764 the 44-year-old Ormsby married 17-year-old Jane
McAllister “of fine old Scotch stock,”48 and retired, for a time, with his new wife to Bedford, Pennsylvania.
There he worked at improving a 300 acre farm called Fredrigal Place, and was blessed with “pretty good
success,” as well as with the first three of his five “beautiful children”49-- sons John Jr. and Oliver, and
eldest daughter Jane Jr., or “Jennie”.50
Four years later in 1768, Ormsby was listed as one of 22 receivers of a portion of present-day West
Virginia, referred to as the “Indiana Grant,” as part of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix which was ultimately
intended to compensate him for his crippling losses in Pontiac's War.51 In the meantime, despite his debts
and perhaps knowing how fragile land-grants could be until the deed is held in one's hands, Ormsby
instead fixed his attention on the tract of land across the Monogahela River from Pittsburgh upon which
he intended to create his personal family estate, so that he “could support my dear wife and children in a
state of independence.”52
46
Waddell, The Papers of Henry Bouquet Volume VI. 407.
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 158.
48
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 15.
49
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 158.
50
McAllister, Mary Catharine. Descendants of Archibald McAllister of West Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, PA.
(Harrisburg: Scheffer's Printing and Bookbinding House, 1898) 36. Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days.” 160.
51
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh.. 15.
52
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 162.
47
18
On April 1, 1769, Ormsby entered applications with the colony of Pennsylvania for three adjoining
tracts of land on the southern shore of the Monongahela. One was taken out in his own name, and one
each in the names of his toddler sons John Jr., and Oliver.53 No transactions were made in the name of the
infant Jane Ormsby, however. As women were, at this time, able to own property but unable to control it
without male representation, John likely did not intend to leave her out, but instead planned to wait until
she had married, or at least came of age, to divide off part of his own slightly-larger tract to her. John's
youngest children, son Joseph B. and daughter Sidney, were yet to be born.
Ormsby's own tract, which comprised most of the present-day “South Side Flats” area between
South 10th Street and the Hot Metal Bridge, he named “Ormsby's Villa.” John Jr.'s tract, which covered
roughly from today's Hot Metal Street to Beck's Run Road, was named Barry Hall, after the Barry family of
Ireland from whom John was descended.54 The steep, hillside tract intended for second son Oliver-which was not quite as large as his father's or brother's, but which included valuable land surrounding the
Old Brownsville Road (also known as the Old Redstone Road) roughly following today's South 18th
Street55-- Ormsby named “Mount Oliver.” A fourth tract, comprising the hillside area east of present day
18th Street, which Ormsby christened “Bergen Op Zoom,” appears to have been purchased on a separate
occasion, and was later reconfirmed under a Virginia Certificate.56
Ormsby soon began the customary improvement of his own “Ormsby Villa” tract by clearing land
and building fences, but left his sons' parcels untouched, intending they should do as they pleased with
them upon their inheritance.57 Although Ormsby undoubtedly acquired his Monongahela land with the
expansion of Pittsburgh in mind, it does not seem that he himself ever saw it as anything more than a vast
53
Watts, Frederick. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Vol. X. (Philadelphia:
James Kay, Jn., 1841) 162-163.
54
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 11.
55
Allegheny County Bar Association, Pittsburgh Legal Journal Volume 54. (1907) 446.
56
Plate 17, Baldwin and Lower St. Clair Townships, Warrantee Atlas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania [map]. 1914.
University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. Web. (29 April, 2012). Purchases made under Virginia Certificates
were later reconfirmed when the Pennsylvania-Virginia boundary line dispute was decided.
57
Watts, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Vol. X. 162-163. It is not clear
whether John Ormsby or his son Oliver was the original builder of the “Homestead Farms” estate at the far eastern end
of the Ormsby Villa survey.
19
personal estate, a mostly-rural birthright for his descendants with perhaps just enough tenants to make it
self-supporting.
Meanwhile, he continued in the improvement of his Bedford, Pennsylvania farm “till I met with
an accident which nearly put a period to my existence[.]” Having employed a number of men to clear a
meadow, and those men having gone to their dinner break, the gentle-bred Ormsby “took up one of their
axes and began to chop a middeling tree (which was the first I ever attempted) and when it was coming
down I ran for it, but unhappily, right in its way so that it struck my head partly in the ground. I was
carried home and with much difficulty the blood was stopped when, I suppose, very little was left.”
Interestingly, Ormsby noted that there was “no Surgeon in those parts[,]” and so he was forced to send
elsewhere for one at a “heavy expense.” Ormsby lingered under the care of this unnamed physician for six
months before he “recovered... unimpaired, which very few expected wou'd be ye case.”58
Soon after his recovery, and about the time Nathaniel Bedford received his diploma in England,
John Ormsby left his country farm to again take up residence in the city of Pittsburgh,59 where his
storekeeper had again been killed by Indians, and his store again plundered of merchandise before the
commandant got around to seeing it secured. Moreover, the recently-deceased storekeeper had also been
a poor accountant, and Ormsby's books were in a shambles. By now, his previous debt had swelled to
“near £3500” with interest, and Ormsby felt keenly this additional blow “to a weak back[.]” Settling his
family as best he could at Pittsburgh, Ormsby set out for “Philadelphia with a heavy heart and empty
pockets” to “make one push more at dame Fortune[.]” With no clear picture of what he was now to do,
Ormsby nonetheless “put up (as I always did) at the best Tavern,” and while “one day musing over my
distressed situation” he bumped into William Trent, another Indian trader and Pittsburgh veteran. Trent,
a friend and partner of George Croghan's, who, like Ormsby, had suffered severe losses in Pontiac's War,
and who, like Croghan, never met a scheme he did not like, had a proposition to share.
Trent claimed that he had just “met some foreigners” who had excessive amounts of depreciated
58
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 160.
Miller, Annie Clark. “Old Houses and Estates In Pittsburgh,” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, 9.3. (1926) 138.
59
20
cash which they wished to use to purchase shares of the Indiana Grant in which Ormsby was a
shareholder. This paper currency, which had plummeted in value following the end of the Seven Years
War, still held some worth but was continuing to decline rapidly. The time to act, therefore, was now, and
Ormsby did not hesitate. Selling out of his 21 shares to the foreign investors at £300 each, Ormsby
crammed his saddlebags with depreciating bills, and lit out for Bedford, where he sold off some of his
Bedford property, and blazed off again for his creditors in Philadelphia, where he “cleared off the whole of
their demands which amounted to near £5000[.]” Setting out again “for Pittsburgh with a much lighter
heart than when I left it[, y]ou may easily guess the reception I met with from the most virtuous and
affectionate woman in the world. To see my dear, turning over 5 Cancelled Judgment Bonds and sundry
other papers of consequence,— nay the little ones laughed and cried in turn as they saw their parents do.”
Indeed, Ormsby had made the most of his opportunity “[F]or if I had not the good fortune to do as I have
done in about six months after I cleared off with the Merchants, not a shilling of the depreciated money
would pass[.]”60 Moreover, the American Revolution which was to break out in a few short years would
effectively suspend land purchases, and eventually redraw the map so that none of the foreign investors to
whom Ormsby sold out likely ever saw any return on their investment.
Now free of obligations, and perhaps feeling that he'd had enough of farms and creditors, Ormsby
and his happy family established a home and tavern on Water Street in Pittsburgh, along the busy
Monongahela wharf between Ferry Street and Chancery Lane, at roughly the location of today's Fort Pitt
Boulevard and Stanwix Streets.61 Ormsby's Tavern was conveniently located next door to Samuel Semple's
Tavern, Semple's tavern being arguably considered the leading local tavern of the day, at which George
Washington-- who had also been with General Forbes on the morning Pittsburgh was founded-- stayed
later the same year during a visit to scout land opportunities in the Pittsburgh area.62 From this welllocated and well-connected downtown base, Ormsby settled comfortably into his place as a town father.
60
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 160-161.
Pittsburgh in 1795 [map]. In: Stefan Lorant, Pittsburgh: Story of An American City, Fourth Edition (Lenox, MA: Authors
Edition, Inc., 1988) 63-64.
62
Boucher, John Newton. A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People Vol. 1. (Lewis Publishing Company, 1908) 271.
61
21
Barbara Ann Winebiddle Negley, mother-in-law of Oliver Ormsby Page, had known the Ormsbys
well when she was young, and through her recollections her son-in-law was able to construct a vivid
descriptive sketch of the Ormsby family patriarch, who was remembered as being “looked up to with
deference, but was rather too aristocratic to be a favorite with the rough and ready inhabitants of the
frontier[.]” He was noted for having “a military air, rather haughty of manner but exceedingly kind and
obliging to his neighbors and friends. He was always addressed as 'Colonel,' not out of mere courtesy but
because he had held that office in the British army prior to the Revolutionary War. He was regarded as a
high-toned gentleman of the old school even then,” and was “very particular about his dress, whether in
citizen’s clothes, or with any of the insignias of his profession about him.” Ormsby's “military taste” also
“appeared in the fashion of his hat and otherwise when he appeared in full dress at parades or on other
public occasions. He would have then his dress sword in his belt and was noted for his immaculate breast
and sleeve ruffles and for the brightness of his shoe and knee buckles; but excepting elegance in quality
and texture there was nothing peculiar about this for such was the fashion of dress at that time among
those who were able to afford it and wished to be regarded as gentlemen[.]” Mrs. Negley also noted that
“even the dress sword at his side was not regarded as for display. The fighting spirit was then still in the
ascendant and it was well understood that Mr Ormsby was quite willing and ready to meet an antagonist
with a similar weapon if occasion required it, but... he was too much of a gentleman to give an insult and
his opponents in politics or otherwise had too much respect for 'Sweet Lips', as they called his sword, to
provoke a quarrel.”
Mr. Ormsby's “fighting spirit” well suited him for life in his adopted city, which was, fifteen years
after it's founding, not yet free of threats from without. In 1773, Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia,
wished to assert his colony's claims to the Pittsburgh area, and Ormsby, having a habit of recording
personal anecdotes on the blank flyleaves of his books, noted within a copy of A History of the Civil War
In America that “When Lord Dunmore arrived at Pittsburgh he lodged at my house and often closeted me,
as he said, for information respecting the disposition of the inhabitants. He threw out some dark
22
insinuations as to my usefulness, in case I would be concerned, but as he found I kept aloof he divulged
his plans to [Dr. John] Connolly[.]” To Connolly, “my Lord made him a deed of gift of 2,000 acres of land
at the Falls of the Ohio,” and with visions of his future fortune dancing before his eyes, Connolly
proceeded to arm a militia in Virginia's name, and declare Virginian suzerainty over Pittsburgh. Taking
over Fort Pitt and renaming it Fort Dunmore, the Virginia faction also conspired to push matters to a
head by inflaming the neighboring Indian tribes against the local settlers.
Ormsby, fearing for the continued stability of the town, was a signer of petitions in June, first to
Governor Penn requesting better protection for the townspeople against Indian attack, and a second, not
two weeks later, protesting the actions of Connolly.63 Ultimately, the “villainous Doctor” was arrested,
which “news, you may be sure[,]” Ormsby wrote, “was joyfully received on the frontier and especially at
Pittsburgh, where the writer of these lines resided with his family[.]” Had Connolly been able to proceed
in his designs, Ormsby believed, “there were a great many drunken, idle vagabonds waiting to join him.
The savages were, also, in high expectation, that they would soon glut their vengeance on the distressed
frontier inhabitants. But the Almighty Lord showed himself to be our protector against all the
machinations of our European and American foes.”64
“The next occurrence of consequence in which I was implicated” Ormsby noted for posterity, “was
the American Revolution, which, if it turned out in the favor of the English would infallibly ruin me, as I
adhered to the American cause, [and] there would be no mercy showed me by losing my chief
independence in lands.” Unwiling to see his Monongahela tracts revert to the British Crown, on May 16,
1775, at a landmark meeting in Pittsburgh in support of “the spirited behavior of their brethren” colonists
four weeks earlier at the battles of Lexington and Concord, John Ormsby was chosen as one of six
members of a committee of correspondence to communicate with those like it across the colonies in the
organization of an active resistance against Great Britain.65 Meanwhile, although the American
63
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 7-9, 16.
Craig, Neville B. The Olden Time Vol. II. (Lewisburg, PA: Wennawoods, 2003) 93-94.
65
Craig, Neville B. A History of Pittsburgh: With A Brief Notice of it's Facilities of Communication and Other Advantages
For Commercial and Manufacturing Purposes. (Pittsburgh: J.R. Weldin & Co., 1917) 114-115.
64
23
Revolution would serve to unite the colonies militarily, it did not necessarily serve to unite it's citizenry,
and only further complicated the Pennsylvania-Virginia boundary line dispute. In March of 1777, at the
height of the conflict, a palette of frontier notables-- Edward Ward, Simon and Thomas Girty, and
William Crawford among others-- gathered at Ormsby's tavern to give depositions regarding their
knowledge of the colony's borders.66 A year later, however, the Girtys would turn their coats, and flee Fort
Pitt for the British stronghold of Detroit.
Such uncertainty would prevail until well after Pennsylvania and Virginia came to an agreement in
1780, and even after international hostilities officially ceased in 1783. That year, however, would mark the
end of an era in Pittsburgh when Brigadier General William Irvine, commander of Fort Pitt for the last
years of the Revolution, was reassigned. On September 30, John Ormsby's name would appear first
among twelve signers of an address from the inhabitants of the city to General Irvine, thanking him for
his service, and wishing him well in his future endeavors.67 Two years later in August of 1785, the Supreme
Executive Council of Pennsylvania authorized Ormsby and three other men, as commissioners for
Pennsylvania, to “take possession of Fort Pitt in behalf of the Commonwealth upon its being relinquished”
by the new United States.68
In 1784, meanwhile, Johann David Schoepf, a German physician and naturalist who had served
with the British army during the war, but was determined to see America before he returned home,
lodged at John Ormsby's tavern during his stopover in Pittsburgh. Scheopf was impressed with the
verdancy of western Pennsylvania, predicting a bright agricultural future for it and it's landholders, save
that there were, at the moment, so few inhabitants. As an example, Schoepf noted, in what is perhaps the
earliest description of the settlement which would later become the South Side, “Mr Ormsby, our host,
owns a tract of land along the Monongahela some miles in length, but only 18 indolent families are settled
on it, who are required to pay a third of their harvest as rent. But being careless whether they raise much
66
Flournoy, Henry W. Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts 1652-1781 Vol. 1. (Richmond, VA: R.F.
Walker, 1875) 277-278.
67
Butterfield, C.W. Washington-Irvine Correspondence. (Madison, WI: David Atwood, 1882) 152.
68
State of Pennsylvania, Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, From it's Organization to the
Termination of the American Revolution (Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn & Co., 1853) 517.
24
more than they themselves need or whether the owner bids them go or stay, and having so far no
competitors to fear, what they render is very insignificant.”69
~ Pittsburgh's First Physician ~
1784 is also said to be the year of Dr. Bedford's early account book. While, again, this author has
not been able to rediscover this account book, and so cannot vouch for it's contents, it seems that it may
have been compiled shortly after Dr. Bedford's arrival in the city. During this time, although the war was
well over and what was left of Fort Pitt had fallen into extreme disrepair, a skeletal garrison commanded
by a rotation of officers still existed, more or less, at the Forks of the Ohio. While it does not seem that Dr.
Bedford was officially attached to any military beyond the status of being a veteran, the expectation that
any qualified surgeon in town might be obliged to treat Pittsburgh's small garrison may be what has led to
the over-simplified idea of Bedford's being “stationed” at Fort Pitt.
Clear evidence of Dr. Bedford's presence in Pittsburgh finally appears in 1786, when Hugh Henry
Brackenridge-- local state assemblyman, publisher of the Pittsburgh Gazette, and indefatigable civic
booster-- noted proudly in one of his many articles praising the city's attributes that “In this town we have
also two gentlemen of the medical faculty, one a native of South Britain (Dr. Nathaniel Bedford) the other
a native of America (Dr. Thomas Parker), but though health may be counted a birth right of this place we
account these gentlemen a great acquisition. I will not take the liberty of saying anything with respect to
the respective merits or professional abilities of these gentlemen, but I will answer for it that if individuals
or families at any time should think it adviseable to cross the mountains and spend a few months at
Pittsburgh for the sake of health they will find it in their power to receive the best advice that science can
afford and the most judicious treatment.”70 Indeed, the arrival of a non-military doctor in Pittsburgh
69
Schoepf, Johann David. Travels in the Confederation, 1783-1784: From the German of Johann David Schoepf. (New
York, NY: Burt Franklin, 1968) 274.
70
Killikelly, Sarah Hutchins. History of Pittsburgh: It's Rise and Progress. (Pittsburgh, PA: B.C. Gordon Montgomery Co.,
25
would have been regarded as a great advance. Brackenridge appears to have soon had need of some
medical expertise, for many years later his son, H.M. Brackenridge, would recall being made to swallow “a
few doses of nauseous doctor's stuff” at Bedford's order.71
Also around 1786, John Ormsby's eldest children began to come of age. At the appropriate time,
second son Oliver paid his due fees and came to full ownership of his steep, hillside tract. John Ormsby Jr.,
however, was already in debt to his father and others at the time he became entitled, and so in 1786
elected to transfer ownership to his mother with the intention that the land be sold, and his debts paid.
Land on the Monongahela seems to have been of little interest to John Ormsby Jr. who craved a wilder
frontier. Heading down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the Natchez country, a borderland territory
then fluctuating between British, Spanish, and French control, John Jr. settled for a time at Homochitto,
where he married a Catholic woman named Lydia Swazey in a ceremony which the Pittsburgh Ormsbys
seem to have regarded as legally questionable. The couple also had a daughter named Mary, whose
legitimacy the Pittsburgh Ormsbys appear to have also regarded as suspect, despite the girl's distinction
of being the first Ormsby grandchild. Young Mary was not entirely disavowed but neither was she fully
acknowledged, and fifty years later would be left to fight for her portion of the Ormsby inheritance in
court.72
Nathaniel Bedford also seems to have become a de-facto member of the Ormsby family by 1786,
for in May of that year he proceeded to Philadelphia to take out a deed for 62 acres in the Ormsby's
Monongahela tracts, which he then transferred back to Mrs. Ormsby. Mrs. Ormsby appears to have
accumulated the transfer fees for this tract, and by this time either already was, or was about to become,
1906) 97. Parentheticals in original.
Brackenridge, Henry Marie. Recollections of Persons and Places in the West. (Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott & Co.,
1868) 12.
72
Watts, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Phillips v. Gregg 158-172, Hart
against Gregg 185-192, and Gregg against Blackmore 192-195. As nearly all of the Ormsbys died intestate, and neither
John Sr. nor Oliver were overly-diligent record keepers, much of what is known about these various Ormsby tracts
comes down to us in the form of court records, from many years after the fact, when Ormsby grandchildren and greatgrandchildren were left to sort out what belonged to whom. These records, albeit summarized, are scattered, lengthy,
confusing, and vague or contradictory in certain particulars, though nonetheless interesting for their account of some of
the Ormsby family's activities.
71
26
Bedford's mother-in-law.73 Eldest daughter Jane Jr., or Jennie, was now seventeen, and by frontier
standards, well of marriageable age. It is not known exactly when she and Dr. Bedford, now thirty-one,
tied the knot, but it is notable that the wording of this deed transfer seems to have been legally vague,
naming ownership of the property only to “Jane Ormsby.” Again, as women could own property, but could
not facilitate it's management without the signature of a male, this vague wording could be taken to mean
either Bedford's future wife, or his future mother-in-law, and it is possible that this transfer was made in
view of an impending marriage, with the result being that control of the tract would ultimately fall to
Bedford, anyway.74 Although there is no clear indication that Bedford's traveling east to secure this tract
was done as anything more than a favor to the elder Jane Ormsby, and no indication that he hoped to
benefit in any way from this specific tract, his capacity as messenger nonetheless clearly documents him
as solidly within the Ormsby family orbit by 1786.
All concerned would appear to have blessed the marriage of Jennie Ormsby and Doctor Nathaniel
Bedford. However, when the time came for the couple to exchange vows, the doctor had some trouble in
pinning-down the minister, the Reverend Samuel Barr, who was somewhat new to Pittsburgh and, for a
variety of reasons, not getting along well with his congregation. Feeling that his adopted city was far too
loose in their religious interpretation, the Reverend Barr's relationship with his flock deteriorated so
badly that the doors of the meeting house were eventually locked against him by the citizenry who had, at
any rate, also dropped off attending services as a result of their apparently mutual dislike. Among other
charges later brought against him in a sensational trial before the Presbytery of Redstone in June of 1789,
the town fathers cited as evidence of the Reverend Barr's poor disposition his “improper and imprudent
conduct in the affair of Dr. Bedford's marriage.”
“Dr. Bedford[,]” the Presbytery’s record notes, “being solemnly called upon to declare the truth
says, that before he was married he had at different times called at Mr. Barr's house in order to get him to
73
Supreme Court of the United States, Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States,
Book VIII (Newark, NY: The Lawyers Co-Operative Publishing Company, 1883) 933.
74
Curtis, B.R. Reports of Decisions in the Supreme Court of the United States Vol. 11. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co.,
1881) 89. The vague wording of this deed transfer was questioned in court, though deemed irrelevant to the case at hand.
27
perform the ceremony; but he being not at home, nor known when he would return; and the day being
set and the Guests bidden,” Dr. Bedford “found it inconvenient to defer the marriage longer; and therefore,
with the advice of friends, sent for Mr. [David] Philips [Baptist], who came and performed the business.”
The Reverend Barr happened to return later that same evening, and the following morning was,
despite his inconvenient earlier absence, “invited to Breckfast with” the Reverend Philips and John
Ormsby, proud father of the bride. Dr. Bedford testified, however, that when Reverend Barr arrived “he
behaved in a very insulting manner both towards Mr. Ormsby and Mr. Philips,” for taking the ceremony
into their own hands. This, Dr. Bedford testified, “he... was informed by both these Gentlemen[,]” being
himself not present at the breakfast.
“Mr. Bedford being asked[,]” the Presbytery’s record continues, ”whether Mr. Barr's conduct on
this occasion was the reason why he withdrew from the public ordinances? He answered that though this
much disgusted him, yet he did not instantly withdraw; but his after conduct, taken in connection with
this, was the occasion why he last withdrew.”
John Ormsby, for his part, was fully disgusted, and “being solemnly called upon to declare the
truth says, that when Mr. Barr came to his house on the morning after his daughter's marriage, he
appeared to be in anger, and that his calling Mr. Philips to an account for marrying his daughter in the
manner he did, gave him umbrage, and was the occasion of his breaking off from the congregation.”
Besides these charges, the Pittsburgh townsmen also accused the Reverend Barr of insulting
General John Gibson in the baptism of his child, of refusing to baptize other children on bizarre pretexts,
and of publishing a series of disgruntled essays in the Pittsburgh Gazette “in which are some very
unbecoming expressions and one profane oath,” signing them “A Farmer,” despite telling people in town
that it was he who was the author.
In their defense to the Reverend Barr's counter-charges of drinking, card playing, and “being idle
with women,” the Pittsburgh townsmen proudly declared that they did frequently play cards, and were
known to enjoy a drink, but that they neither gambled for money, nor became intoxicated. Furthermore,
28
they said, the Reverend himself was aware of their card-playing, and had made no protest. In regard to
being “idle with women,” however, a local woman was produced by Barr's side, who claimed that shortly
after she moved in near a certain townsman, he had visited her, and given her “two small pieces of money,
at the same time saying something that she took an ill meaning from, but does not remember the
particular expressions[.]” As the witness further added, however, that this townsman “neither then, nor at
any other time offered to lay hands upon her, or attempted anything indecent,” the Presbytery, finding
that it was the Reverend Barr's “own misconduct principly,” that was at fault, dissolved the relationship
between he and his Pittsburgh flock without further mention of this testimony.75
It is not known whether Dr. Bedford's elegant downtown estate was established prior to his
marriage or shortly thereafter, but once established it quickly became a local landmark. Located at 7th
Street between Penn and Liberty Avenues, at the present location of the EQT Plaza and Midtown Towers
Apartments, the house would have been the center of the doctor's practice as well as his home. This
practice, despite whatever challenges the doctor may have faced in establishing himself at Pittsburgh,
must have been thriving by 1790, for he would be remembered as living in high style-- grafting, like John
Ormsby, something of the life of an English country gentleman onto his life in Pittsburgh. The new Mrs.
Bedford would have brought with her a feminine touch, and perhaps also became, as one text noted, the
“pioneer medical auxiliary of Allegheny County.”76
Seen on a map of the city from 1795, Dr. Bedford's home appears particularly large, and uniquely
orderly. It is notable for being centered on it's lot, and also for appearing to be immediately surrounded
by neatly planted grounds-- perhaps consisting of gardens in which Dr. Bedford cultivated the medicinal
plants necessary to his profession. To it's rear, the house looked out over the Allegheny River frontage
which had, in the days of Fort Pitt, been planted by British troops as the King's Garden. Though this
75
The Organization of Presbytery, Minutes of the Presbytery of Redstone of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
(Cincinnati, OH: Elm Street Printing Company, 1878) 50-58. Italics in original.
76
Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, The Women's Auxiliary to the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania,
Mrs. E. Kirby, ed., “The Tenth Councilor District,” Pennsylvania Medical Journal Vol.34. February 1931 (Harrisburg,
PA) 356.
29
garden was now “wholly neglected[,]”77 it's overgrown remnants would have nonetheless provided a
pleasant view to the shoreline. The size and location of Dr. Bedford's house may also indicate it's function
as a hospital of sorts, as it was somewhat removed from the more-bustling side of town, and a number of
people not within the doctor's immediate family appear to have resided there at various times. The
house's location two blocks below the new Fort Fayette-- a smaller structure built in 1792 to replace the
decaying Fort Pitt-- where Dr. Bedford could also be convenient to the troops and garrison, if needed, was
perhaps also not coincidental.78
The closest we have to an eyewitness description of Bedford's home is that of Agnes Milnor Hays
Gormly, an elderly but sharp-witted lady who had grown up along Penn Avenue in the early decades of the
19th century, and who was invited to recall her memories before the Twentieth Century Club in 1902.
Although she had not seen the house herself, Mrs. Gormly remembered breathlessly listening to stories
told by her elders “of Dr. Bedford's house with its avenue of catalpa trees, and its grounds covering the
square bounded by Wayne and Liberty, Barker's alley and Penn streets,” which she heard described as
“palatial to a degree[.]”79 These descriptions of luxury are notable in a city which is generally believed to
have been largely comprised of log cabins. Dr. Bedford is also said to have kept servants, though no slaves
are noted as ever residing with him,80 and to have kept hunting dogs, though for what hunts we do not
know.81
Also around this time, Dr. Bedford would take as his first official apprentice the teenage Peter
Mowry,82 who would, as a result of a rapidly increasing population, go on to be far better remembered
77
Schoepf, Travels in the Confederation, 1783-1784: From the German of Johann David Schoepf. 273.
Pittsburgh in 1795 [map]. In: Lorant, Stefan. Pittsburgh: Story of An American City, 63-64.
79
Hays Gormly, Agnes Milnor Hays. Old Penn Street: The Old Fourth Ward. (Sewickley, PA: Gilbert Adams Hays, 1922) 4.
80
United States Bureau of the Census, Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790:
Pennsylvania (Genealogical Publishing Company, 1908) 13. U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule), Pittsburgh,
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Page 8, Nathaniel Bedford Household. Subscription database, Ancestry.com (July,
2010). U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule), Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Page 3, Nathaniel
Bedford Household. Subscription database, Ancestry.com (July, 2010).
81
Koenig, The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI. 15.
82
Dates regarding the apprenticeship of Peter Mowry differ widely between sources. Most place the beginning of his time
with Dr. Bedford somewhere between ages 14 and 19, or 1784 and 1789.
78
30
than his mentor. Born at Pittsburgh in 1770,83 young Peter now, in his time, began to mix medicines, carry
bags, saddle horses, hold slop-jars, and restrain patients for Dr. Bedford. It would be during Mowry's
apprenticeship that H.H. Brackenridge's son would be made to ingest his memorably nauseating
medicine under the gaze of both physicians.84
Despite the clear presence of other doctors in Pittsburgh by this time,85 Dr. Bedford must have
again possessed some personal quality-- education, habit of manner, or level of personal ambition-which clearly established him as the city's leading physician. These qualities, undoubtedly assisted by the
prestige naturally associated with his profession, no less than by his socially-fortuitous marriage, served
to position Bedford as a town father in his own right, alongside his veteran father-in-law, within only a few
years after his apparent arrival in the city. Perhaps his popularity was boosted by the fact that while other
physicians appear to have come and gone, Dr. Bedford, who had married a local girl and had already
begun educating the next generation, had clearly come to Pittsburgh to stay.
On February 28, 1787, upon on the principle that “the education of youth ought to be a primary
object with every government; and, whereas, any school or college yet established is greatly distant from
the country west of the Allegheny Mountains; and... the town of Pittsburgh is most central to that
settlement and accommodations for students can be conveniently obtained in that town” a school, or
university, was duly created in the city “for the education of youth in useful arts, sciences, and literature,
the style, name, and title of which shall be the Pittsburg Academy[,]” later to become the University of
Pittsburgh.86 The learned Dr. Bedford, who clearly understood the value of a quality education, and to
judge from the later keepsaking of his diploma equally valued quality educators, was named as one of the
new Academy's twenty-one original trustees.87 Although it is not known specifically what role Dr. Bedford
83
Buck, Solon J. and Elizabeth Hawthorn Buck. The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania. (Pittsburgh, PA:
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995) 374.
84
Brackenridge, Recollections of Persons and Places in the West. 12.
85
Such as Thomas Parker, also mentioned by H. H. Brackenridge; Killikelly, History of Pittsburgh: It's Rise and Progress.
97.
86
Boucher, A Century and A Half of Pittsburg and Her People Vol. II. 295.
87
Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. 60.
31
may have played in the steering of this seedling institution, it's trustees met regularly88 to discuss and
decide upon it's courses and instructors.
On September 24 of the same year Bedford also became one of four original trustees of Trinity
Episcopal Church in a group of land grants given to Pittsburgh by the Penn family for the varied faithful
of the city. Also named were General John Gibson, local merchant Devereaux Smith, and Bedford's
father-in-law, John Ormsby.89 Bedford and this considerably smaller group of fellow trustees helped to
steer the church to local prominence; besides the Bedfords, Ormsbys, Gibsons, and Smiths, Trinity
counted among it's early worshipers the O'Haras, the Nevilles, the Butlers, the Semples, the Mowrys, and
other leading Pittsburgh families who, between being baptized, married, and buried at Trinity,
contributed immeasurably to the fabric of the early city. Doing his part, too, in the steering of the new
nation, on November 25th, 1788 as part of the elections held following the ratification of the new federal
Constitution, Dr. Bedford seconded a motion in unanimous support of a much-belabored congressional
ticket.90
Dr. Bedford also remained in contact with Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, with whom he
appears to have kept up a scientific dialogue, as from April 1st to April 15th 1788 Bedford engaged in a
meteorological experiment with Dr. Rush and a Mr. Legaux, of Spring Mill, Pennsylvania, to record and
compare temperature and weather information on both sides of the Allegheny Mountains. The Pittsburgh
results were interesting (but perhaps not surprising) in that the temperature was considerably more
variable than in the east, with Dr. Bedford noting a Fahrenheit of forty-two degrees on April 2nd, and
eighty degrees on April 5th. Additionally, only four days out of the fifteen were noted to be “Clear” in
Pittsburgh, as opposed to “Cloudy.”91
Shortly thereafter, in 1789, in the midst of surveying the Seven Ranges to the west for the United
88
Buck, The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania. 395.
Mitchell, James T., J. Willis Martin, Hampton L. Carson, The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania: 1806-1809. (Harrisburg,
PA: Wm. Stanley Ray, 1915) 216.
90
Jensen, Merrill and Robert A. Becker, A Documentary History of the First Federal Elections: 1788-1790 Vol. 4. (Madison,
WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976) 327.
91
Rush, Benjamin, M.D. Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. I. (Philadelphia, PA: T&G Palmer, 1805) 105-107.
89
32
States government, John Ormsby's old friend Thomas Hutchins, Geographer General of the United States,
fell ill of “a gradual failing of the nerves, and an almost insensible waste of the constitution.” Apparently
sensing that the end was near, Hutchins returned east to Pittsburgh to which he felt “a particular
attachment,” and sought sanctuary in “the house of his particular friend, John Ormsby.” It is not recorded
if Hutchins was attended in his illness by Dr. Bedford, but it seems likely given Bedford's connections to
the Ormsby family. While Hutchins languished he was “daily visited during his indisposition by those of
this place,” and when he died on the 28th of April 1789, “[h]is funeral was attended by a considerable
concourse of people, and the service read at his obsequies by Mr. Heckenwelder, a Moravian clergyman
accidentally present, who had long known the deceased.”92
Sadly, more tragedy would soon follow. On July 8, 1790, for reasons which are not known, the 21year-old Jane Ormsby Jr., now Jennie Bedford, also died.93 Again, the cause of death is unknown, but given
the conditions of the time it is not unreasonable to assume that she, a young, recently married woman,
may have died in childbirth, or of complications of pregnancy. Whatever the cause, it was beyond the
power of her own well-trained husband to save her. Interred the following day, Jane's passing seems to
have struck a more-than-typically melancholy note, as the touching poem read at her burial services was
subsequently published, though without comment, in Brackenridge's Gazette.94 Such a publication was
not necessarily a common tribute, particularly for a young female; perhaps it was published at the request
of her father, a friend of Brackenridge's, who regarded this loss of “my dear daughter Mrs. Bedford” as “the
first rub” in his long string of good fortune.95
At Jane's death, it is generally stated that Dr. Bedford became the sole heir of the Monongahela
River property John Ormsby had intended for his daughter. While this is certainly possible, and likely true
in an informal sense, no bequest to Jane is known to have been formally made. As she and Bedford appear
to have had no children, and Bedford yet made no move to begin the improvement of any tracts across the
92
Hicks, Frederick Charles, ed. A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina.
(Cleveland, OH: The Burrows Brothers Co., 1904) 48-49.
93
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 21.
94
Brackenridge, Hugh Henry. Gazette Publications. (Carlisle, PA: Alexander & Phillips, 1806) 278-279.
95
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 160-162.
33
river, it leaves to question whether such an inheritance through his deceased young wife was, at the time
of her death, fully secured.
Some sources also suggest that at this time, Dr. Bedford retired from professional life, and took
up with his wife's former maid.96 There is no evidence of Dr. Bedford's retirement, however, and while
there is an equal lack of evidence that Dr. Bedford subsequently took up with his deceased wife's maid, it
is nonetheless notable that his household was rather large, at this time, for being that of a childless
widower. In 1790, the new United States conducted the first census of it's population, and Dr. Bedford's
household was recorded as containing 2 free white males over sixteen years of age, one male under sixteen,
and one free white female, no age given.97
Dr. Bedford, now 35 years old, and young Peter Mowry, now 20, would account for the two white
males over sixteen. Because the census took time to record, tabulate, and publish, it is difficult to say
whether the white adult female who was counted in the household was Jane Ormsby-Bedford or not,
though it is likely that she was counted, and died shortly thereafter.98 If she was not counted, then this
female could indeed have been a nurse or maid, or someone else lingering in the house following a period
of caring for the deceased.
The male under sixteen however, is an intriguing mystery. It is possible that this boy was the
happy result of Jane Ormsby-Bedford's marriage, perhaps the cause of her unfortunate death. If so,
however, that would make the boy the first Ormsby grandson, and no such grandchild is subsequently
noted in Ormsby family histories. Jane Bedford is repeatedly noted as having died without issue.99 It is
also possible, then, that this under-sixteen male was not very far under sixteen, and was yet another
young apprentice in residence with Dr. Bedford. It is also equally possible that the boy was a patient of the
96
Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. 58-59. Also, Bartlett, Virginia K. Keeping House:
Women's Lives in Western Pennsylvania 1790-1850. (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press & Historical Society
of Western Pennsylvania, 1994) 116.
97
United States Bureau of the Census, Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790:
Pennsylvania. 13.
98
Although Jane Ormsby-Bedford died in July, a month before the census was published in August, she was likely counted
well before.
99
Supreme Court of the United States, Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States,
Book VIII. 245.
34
doctor's, residing where he could be conveniently cared for while he recuperated from whatever malady
had brought him to the doctor's door.
It would seem unlikely that this boy was a son of Dr. Bedford, born not long after Jane Ormsby's
death to whatever live-in female resided in Dr. Bedford's home, and was subsequently recorded in the first
US census as a gurgling infant. Such an occurrence would have been fairly scandalous, and, one would
think, distasteful to John Ormsby, who continued in a close relationship with his widower son-in-law for
many decades. At the time of Dr. Bedford's death in 1818, no children are mentioned in his will or in
connection with him in any way. We are left, therefore, to only speculate upon the identity of this young
boy.
In 1792, far from being retired in his widowerhood, Dr. Bedford was active as Allegheny County
coroner, though his commission was bureaucratically delayed for a brief time.100 He was also busy with
military obligations, declaring one Captain Smith unfit for duty in May, 101 and being noted as the official
surgeon for the 2nd Regiment of the Allegheny County Militia, along with young Peter Mowry, Surgeon's
Mate, in 1793.102
Also in 1793, tracts were sold off of the Ormsby estates to pay the debts of the younger John
Ormsby. By this time, it seems that John Jr. had left his wife and daughter in Homochitto, and had written
home to his brother Oliver that he was glad to hear of her subsequent obtainment of a divorce and
remarriage.103 From Homochitto, John Jr. passed through Georgia, where he made a deposition at Rock
Landing regarding his apprehensions that the English, French, and Spanish were all moving to ally with
the Creek Indians against the United States,104 and from there apparently made his way home to
100
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, “Executive Minutes of Governor Thomas Mifflin” Pennsylvania
Archives, Colonial Records Series 9 Vol. 1. 399. Fold3 History and Genealogy Archives. Web. (20 May, 2012)
101
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, “Papers Relating to the Defense of the Frontiers 1790-1796”
Pennsylvania Archives, Colonial Records Series 2, Volume IV. 72. Fold3 History and Genealogy Archives. Web. (20
May, 2012)
102
Montgomery, Thomas Lynch. Pennsylvania Archives, Sixth Series Vol. IV. (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg State Printer, 1907)
248.
103
Watts, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Vol. X July-September 1840. 166,
186-187.
104
Papers of the War Department, American State Papers, Indian Affairs; 1784-1800, Deposition of John Ormsbay,
Enclosed in Seagrove to Knox, 24 May, 1792. Web. (10 May, 2010)
35
Pittsburgh for a time, where old and new governments were also yet struggling to fully establish
themselves.
In 1794 Pittsburgh was officially constituted as a borough, and on May 19, it's first borough
elections were held at the Market House in Diamond Square (now Market Square), where Dr. Bedford was
elected an assistant burgess-- another first for which he is often noted. Two days later, however, at the first
meeting of the newly elected council, Dr. Bedford immediately resigned from his appointed office, along
with John McMasters, who resigned as a borough supervisor. “Whereupon the High Constable was
ordered to hold a new election... when W[illia]m Dunning was duly elected Assistant Burgess... instead of
Nathaniel Bedford[.]” At the same time the new council “resolved that a fine of one pound ten shillings be
levied on Nathaniel Bedford, And that the sum of three pounds be levyed from John McMasters[,]”105 as
an example to others not to shirk their civic duty. It is not noted why Dr. Bedford resigned from his
elected post, nor why he received a considerably smaller fine for doing so, although we might assume both
had something to do with his being already fairly busy as the town's leading doctor. Additionally, however,
it may also be significant that Dr. John Gunning of England, under whom the unconfirmed Dr. Nathaniel
Bedford apprenticed at St. George's Hospital in 1776, had himself recently resigned, quite publicly, from
several appointments on the grounds that extraneous pursuits took experienced hands away from the
practice of healing.106
In the same year it achieved the status of a borough, Pittsburgh was once again plagued by the
potential for hostilities, as it had been every-so-many summers since 1754, when the ongoing local
resistance to the government's tax on whiskey distilling reached it's climax. Western Pennsylvania rye
farmers chafed under the new excise, which, they felt, cut sharply into their livelihoods as well as their
personal freedoms, and they did not shy from violent demonstrations of their opinion. The more
aristocratic Pittsburgh townsmen, such as John Ormsby, however, felt that the resistance was no less than
105
106
The Globe Illustrated Annual for 1886. (Pittsburgh, PA: Breen & Ramsay, 1886) 17.
Stephen, Leslie and Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography Vol. XXIII Gray-Haighton. (London: Smith, Elder &
Co., 1890) 345.
36
“a deep laid plot to overset the established Government to the west of the Allegheny Mountains, which
was spreading like wildfire further west.”107 At one point, Ormsby recorded, “A large gang of fellows forced
themselves into my house at Pittsburgh, who very impudently called for victuals and drink. I told them I
had none for them and ordered them out of my house[.]” The cooler head of Mrs. Ormsby, however,
prevailed, “and if it were not for the kind treatment my wife gave them[,]” Ormsby remembered, “they
really wou'd burn the house.”108 The passing of time only increased frustrations, and that July, in response
to the serving of writs upon those who had not paid the excise, a contingent of 500 armed farmers
gathered in the hills south of the city to burn Bower Hill, the estate of tax-inspector General John Neville,
to the ground.
In Pittsburgh itself, the majority of the populace “favored law and order[.]” Nonetheless, many
still carried a torch of sympathy for the insurrectionists as true patriots, and were reluctant to do anything
to oppose their momentum. “[E]ven with the best disposition in the town of Pittsburgh,” Brackenridge
noted, “a concern for their general interest, as mechanics and shopkeepers, would render them reluctant
to enter into a contest with the country, whence a great part of their custom came; and a concern for their
immediate safety would prevent them altogether. They would reflect, the most ignorant of them, that the
militia of the town, about 250 men, were they unanimous and spirited in support of government, would
be nothing to the country; which would, in the next instance, after an attack on the excise officer, turn
itself against the town. It could starve them out, and the garrison with them, by an interdict of provisions;
or, as was threatened afterward, it could plunder and burn.”109
With the militia both indisposed and unable to oppose the enraged farmers with force,
Brackenridge and a small party of peacemakers instead headed out to Bower Hill in the hope of
dissuading the mob from torching the home. “At the ferry,” they fell in with a party which included
Colonel Neville, the son of the General Neville who owned Bower Hill, Marshal Lenox the town sheriff,
107
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days.” 164.
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 165.
109
Brackenridge, Henry Marie. History of the Western Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, Commonly Called the Whiskey
Insurrection, 1794. (Pittsburgh, PA: W.S. Haven, 1859) 54-55.
108
37
and the recently-returned John Ormsby Jr., who was intent on showing all the fighting spirit which he
clearly inherited from his father. Despite their claiming to be out on a similar mission of mediation,
Brackenridge was alarmed to note that Ormsby's party was armed to the teeth. “Addressing himself to the
young man, with whose family he was on terms of friendship,” Brackenridge questioned their riding into a
sensitive situation with weapons blazing. “You may go as you please,” Ormsby Jr. replied, “we will go
armed.”
Brackenridge's party did not make it to the scene in time to prevent the burning of Bower Hill,
while Ormsby and the young colonel themselves made it only in time to be intercepted by a guard party,
and forced to watch the conflagration from afar. The guard party became increasingly drunk on the
taxable commodity in question as the Neville's house burned, and Ormsby's group only barely extricated
themselves without harm. Ormsby was treated “with some indignity and rudeness[,]”110 and had “great
difficulty afterwards in escaping from the insurgents, a party of whom started in pursuit of John Ormsby
[Jr.], whose family were known adherents of the government, and would certainly have killed him had he
not been warned in time, and sought shelter in the old fort at Pittsburgh.”111
Though the whereabouts of Dr. Bedford, who was likely also a government supporter along with
the Ormsbys, is not noted among the peacemakers or provokers in the drama at Bower Hill, it seems
likely that some of the bleeding and banged-up effects of that drama would have trickled into his office
shortly thereafter. Following the conflagration, a delegation of country representatives traveled to
Pittsburgh to again attempt to extricate a promise from Marshal Lenox that no more writs would be
served west of the mountains. Marshal Lenox agreed to serve no more, though would not rescind those
already served as a violation of his oath of office. In returning to their farms to deliver this message, the
country delegation wished to travel by way of Neville's smoldering property, to see if they could recover a
missing man. Given “what had happened,” however, they “did not wish to go ourselves. General Gibson,
110
Brackenridge, History of the Western Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, Commonly Called the Whiskey Insurrection,
1794. 45-46.
111
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 19-20.
38
Doctor Bedford, Mr. Brackenridge, and others,” agreed to accompany the party,112 Dr. Bedford likely
wishing to fulfill his duties as physician to any who may have required it. In the end, however, several who
had agreed to go along bowed out on various pretexts, some of them political, and it is not recorded if
Bedford was among them. The hot-headed John Ormsby Jr., meanwhile, would be deceased by the
following year, at the age of thirty, of unrecorded causes.113 This loss of John Sr.'s “well accomplished”
eldest daughter and now also his eldest son “was a severe trial to their worthy mother and affectionate
father.”114
In less sorrowful developments, the young Dr. Peter Mowry would soon marry, and set up an
independent practice of his own115 in a brick house on Diamond Street.116 Though Pittsburgh and the
wider area was now virtually bustling with doctors,117 Dr. Mowry would eventually emerge as a leader, due
in large part to his being the first and apparently closest apprentice of Dr. Bedford. Dr. Mowry appears,
also, to have picked up some of the leisure habits of his mentor, becoming accomplished at the cardplaying which the Reverend Barr had found rampant at Pittsburgh. In contrast to his predecessors,
however, who claimed to find wagering ungentlemanly, Dr. Mowry is said to have made frequent trips
downriver to New Orleans for gambling purposes.118
In 1796, Dr. Bedford, now forty years of age, had an appropriately busy year as the town's leading
physician, though it may not have been a lucrative one, perhaps due in part to the extraneous obligations
he had collected. That year, he continued his graduation upwards in the ranks of Lodge 45,119 the oldest
lodge of Freemasons west of the Allegheny Mountains, and, as a church elder, was among those who
invited the Reverend John Taylor to come to Pittsburgh and take up the reins of the Trinity Episcopal
112
Brackenridge, History of the Western Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, Commonly Called the Whiskey Insurrection.
1794. 56.
113
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 19.
114
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 162.
115
Lawrenceville Historical Society, “Dr. Peter Mowry Genealogy Page.” Web. (10 May, 2012).
116
Dahlinger, Charles W. Pittsburgh: A Sketch of its Early Social Life. (New York, NY: Knickerbocker Press, 1916) 114.
117
Davison, Elizabeth M. and Ellen B. McKee. Annals of Old Wilkinsburg and Vicinity. (Wilkinsburg, PA: Group for
Historical Research, 1940) 112.
118
The Family History Page, Specializing in the Cowley, Mowry, Odhner, and Reinfurt families of Pennsylvania,
“Peter Mowry” Web. (20 May, 2012).
119
Rommel, Frederick Conrad. A History of Lodge No. 45 F. & A.M. 1795-1910. (Pittsburgh, PA) 95-96.
39
congregation.120 Also, that autumn, the doctor appears to have temporarily rented out his large home on
Liberty Avenue to an unusual young couple on their way westward.
Harmann Blennerhasset, a distinguished lawyer from Dublin, in company with his wife, said to be
notably attractive and herself keenly intelligent, stopped in Pittsburgh on their way to establishing
themselves in what is now West Virginia. The pair seem to have arrived under a cloud of suspicion, either
owing to shady political connections in Dublin, or to Blennerhasset's wife being his own niece-- or both.
Travel on the rivers being dependent upon the seasons, however, they resided in Pittsburgh “all of the
succeeding winter, occupying the house of Dr. Bedford on Liberty Street.”121 On November 9th 1796,
“Nathaniel Bedford of Pittsburgh... Pennsylvania, Esquire, Doctor of Physic,” and Blennerhasset entered
together into a six-month lease, during which time Blennerhasset would “have, hold and enjoy the
present dwelling house of the said Nathaniel Bedford situate at Pittsburgh aforesaid, together with the
kitchen, garden, shrubbery and the northwest adjacent lot or close therewith now occupied and enjoyed
by the said Nathaniel Bedford, and also together with sundry articles of household furniture and family
utensils now lying in or upon the premises” for a rental fee of two hundred dollars.122 It is not clear why Dr.
Bedford decided to temporarily vacate his house, for, as will be seen, he remained in Pittsburgh, working
diligently during this period though, as also will be seen, he may have been strapped for cash, which
would have made Blennerhasset's two hundred dollars a happy windfall. Perhaps the doctor took up
temporary residence with the Ormsbys, or perhaps he lodged at Fort Fayette, for in the month of
December he would be kept busy with the historical incident with which he is most frequently associated,
though for reasons which would not manifest themselves until almost a century following Bedford's death.
That winter, a venerated chief of the Shawnee nation named Red Pole, in company with his
brother Blue Jacket, arrived in the city with a contingent of fellow councilors and warriors, on their way
120
Dahlinger, Charles W. Rev. John Taylor, The First Rector Of Trinity Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh and His
Commonplace Book. Reprint from the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, January 1918, retrieved from
University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. Web. (10 May, 2012) 3-4.
121
Wilson, Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 888.
122
“Blennerhasset and Wife Lived in Pittsburgh” The Gazette Times, 23 July, 1911, 16. Google News Archives. Web. (22
May, 2012).
40
home from a diplomatic meeting in the east. Both brothers were familiar figures in Pittsburgh, and their
party was lodged at Fort Fayette, as was typical. The weather, however, was awful; trails were blocked by
snowfall, the rivers choked with ice, and so the Native party found themselves stranded in the city for
weeks. Worse, shortly after their arrival, Red Pole fell ill.
Major Isaac Craig, commander at Fort Fayette, reported that the aging chief “complained of a pain
in his breast and head, supposed by Dr. [John] Carmichael to have been occasioned by a slight cold, and
for which necessary medicines, &c., were applied, but without success, as his complaints have increased,
attended with other bad symptoms, and he is now, according to the opinions of Doctors Carmichael,
Bedford, and Wallace, dangerously ill, notwithstanding every possible attention has been paid to him and
to the other Indians, of which they are all perfectly sensible, and Blue Jacket, in particular, acknowledges
with gratitude that the kindest attention possible is paid to his sick brother.”123 A triumvirate of doctors in
attendance was not uncalled for, as Red Pole was not just any chief-- he was the highly-respected chief of
a nation with which the expanding United States was not entirely at peace, and he was on Pittsburgh's
hands. If something were to happen it might not be good for Pittsburgh, either in the eyes of the Indians,
or of the federal government.
Despite what were undoubtedly the best efforts of Drs. Carmichael, Bedford, and Wallace,
however, Chief Red Pole died in Pittsburgh of his illness on January 28th. Major Craig wrote, we must
suspect, with some trepidation to Secretary of War James McHenry, that “At 9 o'clock a.m. On the 28th, he
breathed his last, to the inexpressible grief of the other Indians, and indeed of all others that had any
knowledge of him. Blue Jacket and the other Indians acknowledge that he was treated with utmost
kindness during his illness[.]”
Neither the federal government nor Pittsburgh's townsmen wished the wider Shawnee nation to
take this bit of coincidental misfortune as anything more ominous, however, and so pulled out all the
stops in condolence. Major Craig continued, “I have had the corpse attended and interred in the most
123
Quinon, Stephen. “The Old Indian Burying Ground,” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Vol. 3. (Pittsburgh, PA:
Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1920) 207-208.
41
respectable manner in our church burying ground, and with your approbation, and to gratify Blue Jacket
and the other chiefs, I wish to place either a tombstone or a headstone to his grave with any inscription
you may please to point out.” The Secretary of War, in response, composed a simple epitaph: ““Mio-QuaCoo-Na-Caw or Red Pole, Principal Village Chief of the Shawnee Nation, Died at Pittsburgh Jan. 28, 1797,
Lamented by the United States.”124
Full funeral services with military honors were held for Red Pole, which must have been a
remarkable event as it would have incorporated aspects of both white and Indian burial customs. While
there is no record of Dr. Bedford's participation in the memorial, it seems unlikely that an attending
physician would have, in this delicate diplomatic case, escaped whatever duties were seen as being
required.
By 1797, however, Dr. Bedford's finances were, as stated, perhaps suffering for all his civic duty, for
within weeks of Red Pole's funeral the following advertisement appeared in the Pittsburgh Mercury:
“Dr. Bedford requests those who are indebted to him on the score of his profession, or
otherwise, to make speedy payments. He makes this call on his friends with reluctance. But in
consequence of certain new engagements that will require the command of considerable sums,
he will be under the disagreeable necessity of putting in suit all monies, without distinction, that
are now due to him, and shall remain unpaid by the 15th of March next. Further indulgence cannot
be given.”125
It is not known what these “new engagements” might have been, nor precisely what type of debts
may have been outstanding, but it would not be surprising to find that the need for medical attention in
the local area may have frequently outpaced by the afflicted's ability to pay. Nor would it be surprising to
find that a caring doctor could be quickly outpaced by his own kindness.
In the spring, the Blennerhassets vacated Dr. Bedford's home, and in July of the following year the
legislature approved the holding of a lottery to improve water frontage in the downtown Pittsburgh area,
124
Hazard, Samuel. Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, Devoted to the Preservation of Facts and Documents and Every
Kind of Useful Information Respecting the State of Pennsylvania: Vol. XII. (Philadelphia, PA: Wm. F. Geddes, 1834) 63.
125
Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. 60-61. For the Indians approval of the
ceremonies held, see Hazard, Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, Devoted to the Preservation of Facts and Documents
and Every Kind of Useful Information Respecting the State of Pennsylvania: Vol. XII. 63.
42
particularly on the Allegheny, along which lay Dr. Bedford's house with it's sweeping view through what
remained of the King's Garden to the river's shore. Not surprisingly, then, Bedford was a signer of the
lottery advertisement, prompting action on the grounds that the river “is making yearly, nay daily,
encroachments on the land, and... will, at no very distant day, take possession of the delightful spot on
which the town stands, should its ravages not be checked by the erection of piers, or some other efficient
means.” 2,210 prizes of up to $1,000 were to be awarded, but evidently few tickets were sold, because a few
months later the prizes were reduced by fifteen percent.
Nor was the city yet free of concern for war. The French Revolution-- which many Americans
identified with, though many did not-- was engulfing the attentions of Europe, while the new United
States was doing it's best to remain uninvolved. Pittsburgh's connections to France, however-- meaning
Canada and New Orleans via the Mississippi River-- left the young city open to influences and dangers
not necessarily felt in the east. On the second of August 1798, therefore, “At a meeting of a number of
citizens of Pittsburg, held in Courthouse,” the said citizens passed a resolution naming Dr. Bedford to a
committee “to correspond with persons in the different parts of the district, to ascertain the person best
qualified to represent the Western country in Congress[.]” The committee's search was intended to
discover who was “most likely to zealously support the Constitution and Government of the United States,
and... do his utmost to promote strong, decisive measures for defending the right, honor and
independence of this country, against the lawless aggressions of the French Republic.” After looking into
the matter, this committee reported that “it is absolutely necessary that our present representative [Albert
Gallatin, who was opposed to seeking redress from France] be not returned to Congress.” Bedford and his
fellow Federalists would have preferred that Presley Neville be their representative, but the antiFederalists felt that the Neville family already held too many important offices. After a protracted public
battle, Steele Semple, an ambitious lawyer who was apparently objectionable to neither side, was
eventually sent.
Meanwhile, Bedford had likely played a role in the raising of four hundred dollars in Pittsburgh for
43
the relief of a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia,126 where his friend Dr. Rush would have been up to
his neck in violently ill patients. This was likely not the first time Pittsburgh had sent
relief to the eastern city, as not only was the disease fairly typical in the capital, epidemics had come in
waves over the previous decade, peaking in 1793 with over 4,000 dead.127 Whatever unique hardships Dr.
Bedford faced at Pittsburgh, he must have been glad during yellow fever season for the mountains that
separated the east and west, and for the differences in climate he had helped Dr. Rush study.
Tragedy, however, again loomed on the horizon when early in 1799, John Ormsby's beloved wife
Jane “took very ill.” Though she surely benefited from the tenderest of Dr. Bedford's care, Mrs. Ormsby, to
her husband's horror, declined over a period of six months, until in “the middle of June A.D. 1799 she
expired in my arms.” This loss, Ormsby wrote, “of his beloved children and now his heart's delight and the
supporter of his old age” seems to have finally broken the spirit of the fiery old veteran. “I endeavored to
keep house for about three months... but found it impossible as every trifling-incident brought the loss of
my beloved companion to my view.” After 35 years of marriage, Ormsby found that the absence of his wife
“left me a crazy old vessel, almost useless in this world.”128 Shortly thereafter, he seems to have turned the
management of his Water Street property over to his son Oliver, and placed himself under his son's care.
Nor would the new year bring respite from a sense of loss. On January 8, 1800, Dr. Bedford would
have been awakened at dawn-- whether he liked it or not-- by the roar of sixteen cannon fired from Fort
Fayette next door. On that day were held Pittsburgh's official funeral services for the late, lamented
former President George Washington, about whom many in the town would have had many personal
anecdotes. There were speeches, funeral dirges, military marches with arms reversed, troops clad in white
sashes with black borders, and a single cannon at Fort Fayette was blown every half hour throughout the
day.129 Bedford himself does not appear to have had the good fortune to have been in Pittsburgh during
any of Washington's visits, but likely heard many firsthand accounts of the great man from his father-in126
Wilson, Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.. 680, 741-743.
Wiley, Edwin, Irving Everett Rines, Albert Bushnell Hart, ed. Lectures on the Growth and Development of the United
States. (New York, NY: American Education Alliance, 1916) 168.
128
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 162.
129
Fleming, History of Pittsburgh and Environs Volume II. 110.
127
44
law, and others who had encountered the “Glorious Hero, Gen'l Washington” over the years. Indeed,
many a glass was likely raised in honor of the “worthy Gen'l Washington,” the “noble Gen'l Washington[,]”
and the “brave veteran, Washington,”130 throughout the day on Water Street, in respect to the occasion.
Also upon the turn of the new century, Dr. Bedford served as a Worshipful Master of Masonic
Lodge No. 45,131 the highest office obtainable within a lodge of Masons. That year, too, the US government
conducted the second census of it's citizenry, and recorded as living in the home of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford,
besides the doctor himself, one male under the age of ten, one male between 16 and 25, one female
between the age of 26 and 44, and one female between the ages of ten and fifteen.132
This represents a rather significant change to Nathaniel Bedford's household since 1790. The free
white female adult could be the same as recorded in the 1790 census (as no age is given in the 1790 census),
assuming the female counted in the 1790 census was not Bedford's wife. Even if she was not the same
woman, it could indicate the presence of an indentured servant, maid, or housekeeper to the bachelor Dr.
Bedford. If, however, such a housekeeper existed she would have had to have been-- for some reason-unmarried herself, in the prime of childbearing age and-- for some reason-- so above reproach as to be
residing with the bachelor doctor without the raising of eyebrows. With that in mind, it could indicate
that there was no housekeeper at all, and that the doctor had taken a new wife, of whom there is no
specific record. This would not be impossible given the imperfections in record-keeping of the time, and
if the new Mrs. Bedford had no notable family connections (such as Jane Ormsby had), a dutiful second
spouse who kept herself to home, and had no children, could easily be lost to history. Moreover, it would
be difficult for us to assume that Dr. Bedford, a man alone and in the prime of life, would have not sought
a new partner in the decade since the death of his first wife. That said, this mysterious woman, and her
teenage counterpart, could have been no more than patients of the doctor's, in such a condition that their
care was unmanageable elsewhere.
130
Ormsby, “Pennsylvania Pioneer Days,” 164-164-165.
Rommel, A History of Lodge No. 45 F. & A.M. 1795-1910. 95.
132
U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule), Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Page 8, Nathaniel Bedford
Household. Subscription database. Ancestry.com (July, 2010).
131
45
Additionally, however, there are others living in the household which might contradict the idea of
Dr. Bedford being entirely “childless.” Two young males, one older and one younger, were documented in
the census of 1790. Two boys, one older, one younger, are also documented in the 1800 census, but given
the elapse of ten years, cannot be the same boys. The boy who was older in 1790 (likely Dr. Mowry) would
have gone on to adulthood, and the younger would by now be on the verge of it. The older boy in the 1800
census, therefore, could be the same boy from the previous census grown older; if not, he could also
possibly be another apprentice, or a patient.
The younger boy in the 1800 census, however, is probably not an apprentice. While medical
training began at a far earlier age in Dr. Bedford's time than it does today, boys under ten generally do not,
in any era, make eager medical students, or effective medical apprentices. They also do not usually make
especially good servants, which Dr. Bedford is also believed to have employed. It is more likely, then, that
this boy was another young patient of the doctor's.
If he was not a patient, then given that nothing is known of this boy apart from his tabulation in
the census, he could have been almost anybody. Perhaps he was the housekeeper's son, or was a child of a
first marriage of Dr. Bedford's poorly-documented new spouse, if such a person existed. With no
additional information about any of these householders, speculative possibilities are endless. In August of
the same year, moreover, Bedford is noted to have received $95 in payment for three weeks of boarding
and medical care for visiting Connecticut senator Uriah Tracey and his servant.133 As this author has been
able to find no suggestion that the senator was particularly ill, their stay also suggests that temporary
boarding in the doctor's home-- though perhaps on less of a scale than the Blennerhassets had required-was not unusual, even for those who were not fully incapacitated.
Indeed, we might relegate all these mysterious people-- all of these women and children in the
home of a supposedly unmarried, childless widower-- to being some collection of servants, orphans,
students, guests, or patients, somehow gathered under the wing and in the large home of this trusted but
133
Lowrie, Matthew and Matthew St. Clair Clarke, American State Papers: Documents Legislative and Executive of the
Congress of the United State, Volume V. (Washington D.C.: Gales & Seaton, 1832) 819.
46
otherwise family-less townsman, were it not for a single notation in the accounts of the Reverend John
Taylor, the young pastor of Trinity Episcopal whom the church elders had invited to Pittsburgh in 1796.
The Reverend Taylor was not an exceptionally diligent record keeper; his entire tenure at Trinity is
encapsulated in a small book of short notations, a “Commonplace Book,” which was, afterward passed
down through several generations of the Taylor family. Between 1801 and 1807, however, Taylor opened a
series of schools in various rooms downtown, and enrolled pupils whose names he duly recorded in his
book. Sometime before 1918, the noted local historian Charles W. Dahlinger personally examined this
Commonplace Book, then still in the possession of distant-descendant Mr. Lewis Irwin of Pittsburgh, and
noted among the names of other members of the second and third generations of numerous prominent
Pittsburgh families, the name of Samuel Bedford, whom Dahlinger identifies as the son of Dr. Nathaniel
Bedford.134
Mr. Dahlinger is unclear whether such fact is actually noted in the Commonplace Book, or if he
himself has made this inference.135 However, the names and lineage of other pupils of the Reverend Taylor
seem to be noted correctly within Dahlinger's narrative, without any extraneous supposition. Moreover,
though a specific date of enrollment is not noted, a date between 1801-1807 could square roughly with the
school-age of a boy who would have been somewhere under ten in 1790, and somewhere over it in 1800.
Again, there is no certainty that any of the children noted in the 1790 census are the same as those noted
in the 1800 census, and, furthermore, there is no notation in any other source known to this author of the
existence of any child of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford. Nonetheless, a boy named Samuel Bedford appears to be
duly noted in the Commonplace Book of the Reverend John Taylor of Trinity Episcopal Church, a man
whose business it was to know the families of his congregation.
Meanwhile, in 1802 Oliver Ormsby, the fortunate second son of John Ormsby and the brother of
the now-deceased Jane and John Jr., married the beautiful young Sarah Mahon, and shortly thereafter
134
135
Dahlinger, Rev. John Taylor, The First Rector Of Trinity Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh and His Commonplace Book. 11.
Further inquiry with Trinity Episcopal Church has yielded no helpful information. Kate Ferrick, Trinity Cathedral Office,
Message to the author, e-mail, “Dr. Bedford.” 27 April, 2012.
47
began to dispense with any worries for the future of the Ormsby clan by having ten children. The longawaited appearance of this third generation must have greatly reassured the recently-widowed John
Ormsby Sr., particularly in light of a journey made the following year by his youngest son, Joseph
Blakeney Orsmby, down the Ohio River on a keelboat from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.
At the dawn of the 19th century such a journey proved a powerful temptation to the young men of
the Pittsburgh region. A boat could be loaded here, full of produce and provisions unobtainable in the
deep South, and floated down the Ohio to the Mississippi and on to New Orleans. There, the said cargo
could be sold at a fine profit, including the lumber with which the boat was constructed, and it's young
keelboaters would then be turned out into the city of New Orleans with a pocketful of cash to find their
own way home. Such journeys were certainly adventurous, and frequently lucrative; they were also
extremely dangerous, however, all sorts of hazards-- weather, current, Indians-- being present along the
way. Accordingly, Joseph B. Ormsby thereby became the only member of the Ormsby family to make a
will, requesting that should something tragic occur, all he was to receive in land be given to his younger
sister Sidney, and all proceeds from his sale of cargo in New Orleans be “extended to you my dear Father
and that you may live to enjoy it.” Joseph made it safely to New Orleans and from there went to Jamaica,
where he engaged with a crew carrying coffee to Norfolk, Virginia, seemingly to thereby carry himself part
of the way home. “To my unspeakable sorrow,” however, John Ormsby Sr. wrote, “my dear boy was
shipwrecked and drowned on that coast.”136 John Ormsby's son Oliver, and his youngest daughter Sidney,
were now the only two children left among whom to divide the Ormsby's Monongahela land holdings.
Times were indeed changing; by now, Dr. Peter Mowry was serving, in his time, as Pittsburgh's
busiest physician, and Dr. Bedford, though apparently still in practice, was nearly fifty years old and
seemingly become more of an educator and mentor than an active practitioner. John Ormsby, now eightyfour years old, had lived to see Pittsburgh grow from wilderness outpost to borough-hood, and was now
counted among the city's disappearing ranks of veteran founders. Despite Ormsby's advanced age and
136
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 20, 23.
48
string of sorrows, we can hope that all three men attended Pittsburgh's official civic festivities on the
Fourth of July 1804, America's 28th birthday, when the “the artillery at Fort Fayette was fired at intervals,
and an elegant dinner was spread out under the trees at 3:00, about a mile from town, where toasts were
drunk and elegant addresses delivered.”137
Additionally, in news which would have surely generated interesting conversation at Dr. Bedford's
dinner table, in 1805 Harmann Blennerhasset, who had leased Bedford's home for the winter of 1796,
would be unfavorably implicated in Aaron Burr's conspiracy to create an independent nation in the west.
Blennerhasset was arrested, imprisoned, and eventually forced to return to Ireland, while his remarkable
estate-- today's Blennerhasset Island State Historical Park-- was sacked by American militia.138
~ Birmingham ~
Later in 1804, perhaps sensing that his time was drawing near, John Ormsby began to tidy up his
affairs, insofar as a man does so who does not care to make a will. Knowing that all he possessed himself
would fall to Oliver, who was now head of the household on Water Street, and who was turning his
father's string of trading posts into a substantial dry goods business, John Sr. divided off a portion of the
Ormsby tracts for his other remaining child Sidney, and her husband, Isaac Gregg. Indeed, the Greggs
seem to have anticipated this bequest, making use of the property well before Ormsby deeded it to them
outright. Around 1800, Issac had hired local men to clear the tract, build fences, and erect a ferry house
on the property for around 80 dollars. In 1802 he began the operation of a ferry on the site, which was
probably located roughly in the area of today's South 15th Street.139
On December 1st of the same year, Ormsby also deeded a similar, 75-acre parcel of land at the
northwest corner of the Ormsby Villa tract, seemingly just to the west of the Greggs' parcel, to Dr.
137
Wilson, Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 749.
Safford, William H. The Life of Harman Blennerhassett. (Chillicothe, OH: Ely, Allen and Looker, 1850) 206.
139
Supreme Court of the United States, Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States,
Book VIII. 245.
138
49
Bedford.140 Though fourteen years had passed since the death of his eldest daughter, and she seems to
have had no children, John seems to not have begrudged Dr. Bedford the fact. Perhaps the loss of the
majority of his true heirs prompted Ormsby to complete this bequest to his close friend and widower sonin-law. Indeed, even without this tract, there would still be plenty left over for Oliver and Sidney. A year
after this bequest, in December 1805-- the same year that Trinity Church was officially incorporated with
Dr. Nathaniel Bedford as vestryman141-- Bedford's father-in-law, fellow Trinity trustee, and founding
Pittsburgher John Ormsby died at his home on Water Street, at the impressive age of eighty-five.142
Perhaps feeling that he was now in possession of his Monongahela property free and clear, or
perhaps because he was simply ready to retire, Dr. Bedford now seems to have begun to make a series of
changes with the future in mind. In 1807, he resigned his membership in Freemason Lodge 45,143 and in
March of the same year a warrant was issued to Ohio Lodge No. 113 for the formation of a second
Pittsburgh lodge, naming Nathaniel Bedford, Isaac Craig, and Thomas Collins as it's senior Masons.144
What prompted this split from Lodge 45 is unclear, though it seems that the two lodges worked together
to some degree in their earliest years. It seems logical that given Pittsburgh's rapid growth, Lodge 45 may
have become populated with newcomers, and some older members may have wished to establish for
themselves a lodge more politically agreeable, or less youthfully exuberant. However it occurred, the split
appears to have been amicable.145
Dr. Bedford also seems to have continued to enjoy mentoring Pittsburgh's aspiring physicians,
though his household had become smaller than in the previous decade. In the United States Census of
1810, Dr. Bedford was now recorded as residing at his home downtown with two other white males, aged
140
Wright, Pennsylvania State Reports, Vol. XL, Comprising Cased Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 506507.
141
Fleming, History of Pittsburgh and Environs, Vol. II. 411.
142
Miller, “Old Houses and Estates In Pittsburgh,” 139.
143
Rommel, A History of Lodge No. 45 F. & A.M. 1795-1910. 95.
144
Fleming, George T. History of Pittsburgh and Environs, Vol. III. (New York, NY: American Historical Society, 1922)
594-595.
145
Rommel, A History of Lodge No. 45 F. & A.M. 1795-1910. 110-118.
50
16-25, and no women.146 Again, we must wonder: could either of these young men be the Samuel who was
enrolled in the Reverend Taylor's school? If so, that would still only account for one young man who,
unless he was but a gurgling infant in the census of 1790, should have been grown and gone-- if not
notably present-- by 1810. It is possible that one or both of these young men were, again, servants or
patients, but given the number of young men connected to Dr. Bedford who would go on to become
doctors themselves, it seems most likely that both were yet more young apprentices still coming to Dr.
Bedford for study. Such apprenticeship would have provided the doctor with a steady income as he left
more intensive practice to younger doctors like Peter Mowry, and would have also served the students well,
giving them the benefit of Bedford's knowledge and experience.
There is no indication, however, of what had become of the female householders counted in the
census of 1800-- the adult female and teenage girl. Again, while there are numerous possible explanations,
there is no solid evidence to suggest who these individuals might actually have been, or what they may
have been doing in Dr. Bedford's house. While their absence by 1810 suggests that they were temporary
residents of some kind-- patients, guests, or servants-- their residency there at all, along with the
residency of other young people, shows clearly that despite having gone down in history as a childless
bachelor, Dr. Bedford's home and family life were much larger than such a label might suggest, and that
his paternal influence was known to and depended upon by many.
This reduction in his household by 1810 may also have had something practical to do with the
change of address Dr. Bedford was now anticipating, for by November of 1811, he had finally begun to lay
out a town on the 75 acres of Monongahela land which had been deeded to him by John Ormsby,147 and to
advertise his lots for sale in the Pittsburgh Gazette.148 Although it has already been seen that John Ormsby
had purchased, deeded, and rented the land which would one day grow to become the South Side, that
Isaac Gregg had previously begun the development of a ferry business there, and that Oliver Ormsby,
146
U.S. Federal Census (Population Schedule), Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Page 3, Nathaniel Bedford
Household. Subscription database, Ancestry.com (July, 2010).
147
Wright, Pennsylvania State Reports, Vol. XL, Comprising Cased Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 506507.
148
Koenig, The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI 15.
51
shortly following his father's passing, began to clear lands and build fences upon his own, expanded
estates,149 it may nonetheless be correctly stated that Nathaniel Bedford was the true founder of the town
which would soon appear across the Monongahela from Pittsburgh. Though Bedford's town would be
built upon, and virtually surrounded by Ormsby land, it was Bedford who began the street grid which still
defines the neighborhood today, and who intended it's frontages for the use of the people who would live
there, rather than as strictly a country manor for himself and his family.
Yet, the idea to establish a town on the Monongahela seems not to have originated entirely with Dr.
Bedford. On the 1st of November his advertisement in the Gazette, which had been composed in June,
noted that “[t]he subscriber having been solicited by a number of mechanics and others to lay off a
TOWN on the south side of the Monongahela opposite to Mr. Eichbaum's factory, he now gives notice,
that he has complied with their request; therefore, persons desirous to purchase Lots in said Town will
call at his house in Pittsburgh, where they will see the plan, and know the terms of purchase.”
Dr. Bedford goes on to note that “[t]he site for this Town is too well known to require a particular
description; suffice it to say, that for elegance of situation and salubrity of air, it is exceeded by none, and
the fine springs in its neighbourhood and an inexhaustible mine of coal, renders it a most eligible spot to
carry on manufactures either by steam or otherwise.”
Some of the “mechanics and others” who had prompted this laying out of this town were likely
skilled English and German workers who were currently employed in the various factories springing up in
Pittsburgh, such as “Mr. Eichbaum's factory.” Even before it was built, then, the neighborhood which
would later be nicknamed the “Workshop of the World” after it's larger sister in England, was a workingman's town in which coal-fired industry was the primary concern. “[T]hose who have bespoke Lots in the
Town laid out by N. Bedford, on the south side of the Monongahela river” were then “desired to come
forward and enter their names, as a Book for that purpose is now opened; otherwise they will be sold to
149
Watts, “Hart Against Gregg,” Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Vol. X
July-September 1840. 185-192.
52
the first bidder.”150
Upon it's establishment, Bedford chose to give his tiny village the larger name of Birmingham.
Although most sources have assumed that this choice was made in honor of Bedford's English hometown,
we know that Bedford was born in Codsall, and so this is not literally true. Likely, however, Bedford did
have some personal identification with the city of Birmingham, an association made stronger, perhaps, by
his distant but favorite sister Martha having married “John Bingham, of the Square,” of Birmingham,
England in 1781, and subsequently given birth to a son, whom she named Nathaniel Bedford Bingham.151
Besides this familial association, moreover, Pittsburgh and Birmingham, England also shared
some prescient similarities, as noted in Bedford's advertisement. At this time, Birmingham was growing
very rapidly, and was transforming itself into the center of what would become England's mighty
“industrial midlands.” Rich coal deposits in the region were found useful in the feeding of furnaces for the
manufacture of iron and steel, and large numbers of country folk were pouring into the English
Birmingham in search of work-- not unlike what Pittsburgh was already beginning to experience.
Bedford's notation of his Monongahela town's “inexhaustible mine of coal,” are, of course, not
exaggerated. To this day, in many places in the South Side, one has only to turn a shovel in the ground to
bring up a handful. Prior to any development of the region, therefore, the surface wealth would have been
enormous, a fact which would not have been a bit lost on the Cods all-born Nathaniel Bedford. While
Bedford's choice of name might seem rather visionary, given Pittsburgh's similar industrial destiny it was
instead probably merely observant.
Bedford's original plan of his town, as near as can be discovered, comprised only the area from
what is now South 10th to South 14th Streets, between what is now Roland Way (an alley running parallel
to Carson Street, just to its south) and the Monongahela riverbank, with Bedford Square at it's center.
There were 19 total blocks, of various sizes, and 107 total lots, each of which has since been subdivided
150
Bedford, Nathaniel. “Town Lots For Sale.” Pittsburgh Gazette, 1 November, 1811, Google News Archive. Web. (21 May,
2012).
151
Elizabeth M. Palmer, Birmingham City Archives. Message to the author, e-mail, “Pittsburgh,” 23 September, 2010. See
also: Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. 59.
53
several times. Lot #1 is now the largest, middle section of a parking lot behind the US Steel and Pittsburgh
Public Schools Business Centers on today's Muriel Street, and Lot #107 was located directly opposite, at
what is now the intersection of Carson and South 10th Streets. Although some sources have suggested that
Bedford's original town reached as far as South 6th Street to the west, and South 17th Street to the east,152
the earliest plan obtainable shows only the core of the nineteen blocks immediately surrounding Bedford
Square.153
Today's busy-at-all-hours Carson Street was not originally intended to be Birmingham's main
thoroughfare. As Bedford Square was to be the center of Birmingham, Bingham Street, therefore, which
runs through the middle of the Bedford Square parallel to Carson Street, and which appears to have been
named in honor of the marriage of Nathaniel's sister Martha, was intended to be the main east-west
street. Carson Street itself was named for a Philadelphia sea captain,154 a friend of the Semple and Ormsby
families and presumably, of Dr. Bedford. Today's Muriel Street, to the north of Bingham Street, was
originally named Neville Street in honor of the prominent Neville family of Pittsburgh, and today's Feiger
Street, a small alley between South 12th and South 13th, is all that is left of what was once Virgin Alley.
Water Street, which ran parallel to the Monongahela River-- a street with such a name being seemingly
requisite in all Anglo-derived riverside towns-- has today been completely displaced by the railroad.155
Running north to south, present-day South 11th Street was originally named Grosvenor Street, in
honor of the ancient family who were responsible for the construction of the Stockings estate in Codsall,
and through whom it was passed down to the Bedfords.156 Present-day South 13th Street was originally
named Ormsby Street, after the family through whom Dr. Bedford had received his land-wealth. Present-
152
Boehmig, Stuart P. Pittsburgh's South Side. (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2006) 7.
In Wright, Pennsylvania State Reports, Vol. XL, Comprising Cased Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania 506507, the court noted that the original plan created by Dr. Bedford had been lost, but that a copy of his plan, which was
testified to be as exact a copy as anyone had ever seen, was available in the Allegheny County Public Records Office,
Grant Street, Pittsburgh PA. This plan was retrieved by the author in 2010 from “Plan Book Vol. 1”, where it may still
be found.
154
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 22.
155
See “Plan Book Vol. 1,” Allegheny County Public Records Office, Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA.
156
Judy Davies, on behalf of St. Nicholas Church, Codsall, Message to the author, email, “The Stockings” 3 April, 2012.
See also William Salt Archaeological Society, Collections For A History Of Staffordshire, Volume 5 Issue 2, (London:
1885) 160-161.
153
54
day South 12th Street, which runs through Bedford Square and was originally intended to be Birmingham's
primary north-south thoroughfare, was named Denman Street, presumably in honor of Dr. Thomas
Denman of England who signed Dr. Bedford's diploma in 1770. Theses street names appear to have
remained in official use until 1872 when Birmingham was annexed to the city of Pittsburgh and it's northsouth streets were renumbered, but they likely continued in casual use for some time thereafter.157
The areas below what is now South 10th Street, and above what is now South 14th Street, were not
developed by Dr. Bedford, though they would be developed by others in short order and connected to
Birmingham by extensions of the street grid laid out by Dr. Bedford. The low-lying bottomland below
10th Street was reserved as a ferry landing and public wharf space,158 which gave anything being off-loaded
from river transport easy access to Birmingham itself, as well as to the road which, from the ferry area,
curved behind Birmingham toward the hillside, and just nipped-off the southwest corner of Bedford's
plan.159 This road likely either was, or connected up to what was called the Manor Road, which passed
through the Ormsby estates at the rear of Bedford's Birmingham, and connected with the Old Brownsville
Road at present-day South 18th Street.160
Dr. Bedford did not expand Birmingham beyond the present locations of South 10th and South 14th
Streets because that appears to have been the limits of the property deeded to him by John Ormsby.
Within a few short years of his establishment of Birmingham, however, the area immediately to the east,
between what is now 14th and 17th Streets, was plotted as an adjacent town of roughly-equivalent size by
John Ormsby's other, equally-ambitious son-in-law, Isaac Gregg.161 This town was named Sidneyville in
honor of it's lady and heir, though the name seems to have been quickly absorbed by that of
157
Plate 104, Birmingham and East Birmingham (South Side Borough), Atlas of the Cities of Pittsburgh, Allegheny and
Adjoining Boroughs [map] G.M. Hopkins Company Maps, 1872. University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library.
Web. (19 May, 2012).
158
Plan of Pittsburgh and Adjacent Country, 1815. [map] Darlington Digital Library Maps, University of Pittsburgh Digital
Research Library. Web. (19 May, 2012).
159
See “Plan Book Vol. 1,” Allegheny County Public Records Office, Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA.
160
Portions of the Manor Road are still reflected in today's Josephine Street.
161
Fleming, History of Pittsburgh and Environs, Vol. II. 215.
55
Birmingham.162 This extension of Carson Street to the east, however, displaced Bedford Square as the
geographic center of Birmingham, and probably began the creation of Carson Street as the primary eastwest thoroughfare.
Beyond the Manor Road to the south, between it and the mountain of Mount Oliver, at the head
of what was then known as Denman (or 12th) Street, likely lay the personal estate of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford.
Although there is no evidence of the exact location of Bedford's home, or of it's appearance, it would
seem that the limits of Bedford's plan, and the area already occupied by his lots-for-sale leave only this
area still open for the construction of a new home to replace the “palatial” one Dr. Bedford would soon
relinquish downtown. This area at the head of Denman Street, which rises gradually away from Bedford
Square toward the hillside, would have, in Bedford's time, afforded a spectacular view of the village of
Birmingham, the river, and the city of Pittsburgh beyond. Backed by the hillside at a spot which would
have been equally beautified by the steep, forested declivities against which the Knoxville Incline-- and
it's unique 18 degree curve-- would later be built, the estate would have been dramatic in both seat and
scope. Though the changes which have come to Birmingham have rendered the early configuration of this
area almost unrecognizable, the modern house which today occupies this same location still commands a
remarkable setting and unparalleled views.
From the moment they were made available for sale, Dr. Bedford's lots in Birmingham below sold
steadily. James Patterson, “of Westmoreland County” was said to be the first official Birmingham settler,
building a frame house near the river.163 After Patterson came Wilkinson, McKeag, Griffin, Stephens,
Allison, Hare, and others.164 As these lots in Birmingham began to fill with residents, Bedford closed up
his elegant home on Penn Avenue downtown, and moved to Birmingham himself. What became of the
old house after Bedford's departure is unknown, but it would seem to have quickly become a victim of
162
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 24.
Fleming, History of Pittsburgh and Environs, Vol. II. 215. Patterson is noted to have been a civil engineer, and is
sometimes said to have been the surveyor who laid out Birmingham. While later speculative ventures with Dr. Bedford
lend credence to this theory, this author has been able to find no definitive documentation of James Patterson as the
engineer who laid out Birmingham.
164
See Wright, “Borough of Birmingham versus Anderson,” Pennsylvania State Reports, Vol. XL, Comprising Cased
Adjudged in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. 506-515.
163
56
progress. The area within the Golden Triangle was already densifying rapidly with people, traffic, and
businesses, and by the time of Agnes Milnor Hays Gormly's girlhood not many years hence, the house and
it's elegant avenue of catalpa trees were already a distant memory. By 1830, maps show no trace of the
home, and the lot as being subdivided.165
Upon Dr. Bedford's relocation to Birmingham, his household seems to have once again increased,
for around this time he acquired a new wife, named Mary.166 The appearance of this new wife is especially
curious, as in the census of 1810, there were no women listed as residing with Dr. Bedford at his home
downtown, though there had been in previous censuses. Now, only a few years later Dr. Bedford, nearly
sixty years of age, appears to have obtained a new wife to go with the new home and new town he was
building on the south side of the Monongahela River.
Conventional local wisdom dictates that the present Jane, Sarah, Mary, Josephine, and Muriel
Streets in the South Side were named for Ormsby women at the founding of Birmingham. However, while
these streets do appear to be named in honor of Ormsby ladies, the streets were not so named at the
founding of Birmingham, and were not named by Dr. Bedford. None of the early street names noted on
the copy of Dr. Bedford's early plan bear the names of women, and only Ormsby Street acknowledges any
Ormsby connection. Upon the establishment of Sidneyville, moreover, Sidney Ormsby-Gregg's clan
proceeded to give their own street names to their own streets-- Liberty, Centre, Franklin, and Harmony
for 14th through 17th Streets, while Carson, Bingham, and Neville Streets were continued to the east.167
In 1815, Mary Street appears on a crude, early map in the present location of Sarah Street, between
12th and 16th Streets, as a throughway for development expanding deeper toward the hillside. This street is
the only street of the time which is named for a woman, however, and is the only feminine-named street
which was potentially named within Bedford's lifetime. Perhaps then, it is not coincidental that, in 1815, it
bears the name of Bedford's then-current wife, Mary. By the maps of 1872, however, this street had been
165
Map of Pittsburgh and it's Environs, 1830. [map] Darlington Digital Library Maps, University of Pittsburgh Digital
Research Library. Web. (May 19, 2012).
166
Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. 58-61.
167
Plate 104, Birmingham and East Birmingham (South Side Borough), [map] G.M. Hopkins Company Maps, 1872.
University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. (23 May, 2012).
57
renamed Washington Street, with no indication of it ever having been called anything else. Jane, Sarah,
Sidney, Mary, Josephine and Muriel Streets do appear to have been named for Ormsby women, but their
names bestowed by later generations, and in some cases, in honor of later-born Ormsbys.168
No further trace of Samuel Bedford seems to exist. It is possible that he may have died, that the
notation in the Reverend Taylor's accounts is misleading and he never existed in the first place, or that
Samuel was simply grown by this time, and off to a life of his own-- seemingly elsewhere.169 Whatever may
have been Samuel's identity or fate, Dr. Bedford nonetheless became a “grandfather” of sorts in 1813, upon
the birth of Robert Bruce Mowry, a nephew of Dr. Peter Mowry, who would also go on to be a prominent
Pittsburgh physician.170 Dr. Peter Mowry's own sons, meanwhile, William and Bedford Mowry, would also
study and practice medicine in the city, but tragically, would both die young.171
From the moment of it's establishment Sidneyville, too, began to populate rapidly, and becoming
absorbed in name by that of Birmingham. Isaac Gregg having sold, meanwhile, tracts in Sidneyville to the
McNickels Foundry, which boasted a steam-operated sawmill, and the Wendt & Co. Glassworks, which
manufactured 5,000 boxes of window glass per year, Birmingham's rapid industrialization was assured
almost from the moment of it's founding, as Dr. Bedford had foreseen.172 Over the next hundred years,
the town would come to be a national leader in glass production, long before Pittsburgh itself became
renowned for it's iron or steel. When iron and steel later came to the fore, Birmingham, by then known as
the South Side, would also emerge as a leader in both.
In 1815, Dr. Bedford, now seemingly fully settled in to his impressive new estate, was listed in the
168
Plate 104, Birmingham and East Birmingham (South Side Borough), [map] G.M. Hopkins Company Maps, 1872. Plan
of Pittsburgh and Adjacent Country, 1815, [map] University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. (23 May, 2012).
169
Further inquiry with Trinity Episcopal Church has yielded no helpful information. Kate Ferrick, Trinity Cathedral Office,
Message to the author, e-mail, “Dr. Bedford.” 27 April, 2012.
170
Boucher, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol II. 118.
171
Fleming, History of Pittsburgh and Environs, Vol. II. 262.
172
Plan of Pittsburgh and Adjacent Country, 1815, [map] and Map of Pittsburgh and it's Environs, 1830, [map] Darlington
Digital Library Maps, University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. These were not necessarily the first industries
along the Monongahela, but appear to be among the earliest established within the Birmingham-Sidneyville street grid.
The Wendt & Co. Glass Works were located in approximately the area of today's U.S. Steel Business Center on Muriel
Street.
58
Pittsburgh city directory as a “gentleman,” indicating he had fully retired from professional practice.173 A
new wife and a new home, however, would have kept him well-occupied, and he also remained active in
the apparently bustling civic life of his new town, steering it's development much as he had done in
Pittsburgh years before. On Friday, March 28, 1816, the same year that Pittsburgh was declared a fullfledged city, Dr. Bedford acted as the chairman of a meeting of Birmingham residents held “at the school
house,” at which the question was discussed of whether to establish a Market House in Bedford Square.
“The chairman having stated the object of the meeting[,]” the residents proposed and unanimously
adopted that a Market House be duly built on “the centre of the square,” for the shopping convenience of
Birmingham residents. “Thus[,]” reported the Pittsburgh Mercury the following month, “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.”174 While the Mercury's account reads somewhat dramatically in hindsight, it's essence is
nonetheless valid when considered that the Bedford Square Market House-- in various physical
incarnations-- remained a thriving marketplace from Bedford's time through to the mid-20th century, and
though now repurposed, is still operating today as an important community center.
Having now realized success in his first large-scale land venture, in the summer of 1817 Dr.
Bedford, perhaps nicely flush from the sale of lots in Birmingham, continued in the accumulation of
property by purchasing, for $8,200, large tracts of land surrounding the Shenango and Conoquenessing
Creeks in present day Mercer County, upon which one John Nicholson, deceased, had defaulted.175 Copurchasing the tracts with Dr. Peter Mowry and early Birmingham resident James Patterson, the town of
173
Riddle, James M. The Pittsburgh directory for 1815: containing the names, professions, and residence of the heads of
families and persons in business in the borough of Pittsburgh ; with an appendix containing a variety of useful
information. 91. Historic Pittsburgh City Directories, University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. Web. (19 May,
2012.)
174
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh in 1816. (Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Library, 1916) 60.
175
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, “Executive Minutes of Governor Simon Snyder 1814-1818.”
Pennsylvania Archives, Colonial Records Series 9, Vol VI., 4720, 4735-4736. Fold3 History and Genealogy Archives.
Web. (20 May, 2012).
59
New Bedford, Pennsylvania is believed to have been named in the doctor's honor.176 By curious
happenstance, then, New Bedford, Pennsylvania, some sixty miles northwest of Pittsburgh, may be
counted as a distant cousin of Pittsburgh's South Side.
Although retirement seems to have little slowed the enterprising doctor, and he seems to have
been in the midst of a multitude of projects, on the 17th of March, 1818, likely not long after his 63rd
birthday, the physician began to feel that the end had come. On that date he composed his will in an
“irregular and shaky” hand which may indicate a lapse in his physical condition. His mental condition,
however, seems to have been appropriately clear, which makes the actual contents of his last earthly will
and testament yet more interesting. With Eternity before him, Dr. Bedford wrote:
“I give and devise to my wife, Mary Bedford, and her heirs, all that tract and parcel of land
whereon I now live situated adjoining the town of Birmingham aforesaid, containing sixty acres more or
less... together with the buildings, coal banks, improvements, and appurtenances thereto belonging, to
have and to hold... to the said Mary Bedford and her heirs...[.] The remainder of my real estate, after
satisfying the debts and legacies above mentioned, I order and direct my executors and their survivors to
part and divide equally between Bedford Mowry, son of Doctor Mowry, and Nathaniel Bedford Bingham,
son of my sister Martha Bingham, wife of John Bingham, of Birmingham, in England.”
In addition to his personal real estate, he also bequeathed to his wife “all moveable property
including all my horses, cattle, and stock of every kind, garden utensils, watches, time pieces, plate and
household and kitchen furniture of every kind whatever[.]” Dr. Bedford excepted from this bequest,
however, “all my books, maps, and manuscripts,” which he gave to Dr. Peter Mowry, and, curiously,
“Wilson’s Ornithology, Deleplaines, and Bible, which I bequeath to my wife, Sarah Bedford.”177
The meaning of this mysterious bequest, to yet another mysterious woman in Dr. Bedford's life-whether is was a slip of the pen, another name for his current wife, or another woman altogether-- is
176
Hazen, Hon. Aaron L. 20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania and Representative
Citizens. (Chicago, IL: Richmond Arnold Publishing Co., 1908) 310.
177
Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. 58-59.
60
unknown. His copy of Deleplaine's Repository of the Lives and Portraits of Distinguished American
Characters would have been an important, and likely personally beloved text, however, as it contained an
extensive biography of Dr. Bedford's longtime friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush. “[T]he respect which Dr. Rush
avowedly paid to his opinions” noted Bedford's obituary, “does not form a trifling portion of
reputation.”178
Four days later, on Saturday the 21st, Dr. Nathaniel Bedford died “at his seat near Birmingham[.]”179
His death notice duly notes his “distinguished talents” and “great professional acquirements[,]” as well as
his place “among the first of the men of science who crossed the Allegheny mountains[.]” His obituary,
which was likely at least partly composed by those who now mourned his passing, closed with the
sentiment that “[t]hose in the circle of his acquaintance, know it is not the common cant of unmeaning
eulogy when we assert, that his character was strongly marked (probably imprudently so for his own
interest) by benevolence and philanthropy.”180
There is no record of Dr. Bedford's funeral proceedings, but it was likely a somber and dignified
event. Unlike his fellow town fathers, such as John Ormsby and John Gibson, Dr. Bedford did not elect to
be buried in Trinity Churchyard. Instead, he was interred on what appears to have been his Birmingham
property, between the Manor Road and the hillside at the head of Denman Street, where he could
eternally overlook Bedford Square, his growing town, and the city of Pittsburgh beyond.181 All of the
surviving Ormsbys, we assume, would have been in attendance at the doctor's services, as well as Dr. Peter
Mowry, the Mowry family, and perhaps a contingent of other medical professionals-- perhaps some of
Bedford's former students. While appropriate remembrances for Dr. Bedford were undoubtedly held at
Trinity Episcopal, it is not known whether additional services were also held at the graveside-- whether
any of Pittsburgh's notable sons made a procession across the Monongahela to see Dr. Bedford interred or
his memorial stone erected.
178
Obituary Notice, Nathaniel Bedford, M.D., Pittsburgh Gazette, 31 March, 1818, 2.
Pittsburgh Mercury, Vol. VI, No. 300, Friday, March 27, 1818. Ancestry Message Boards, “Death of Dr. Nathaniel
Bedford.” Ancestry.com (19 May, 2012).
180
Obituary Notice, Nathaniel Bedford, M.D., Pittsburgh Gazette, 31 March, 1818, 2.
181
Koenig, The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI. 15.
179
61
In deference to his high station as a Worshipful Master within Lodge 45, the “childless” Dr.
Bedford's burial was said to have been handled by his brethren Freemasons, though Bedford's widow and
the combined Ormsbys and Mowrys surely played their roles. The Masons, however, do seem to have
figured prominently in the design of Dr. Bedford's memorial stone, which is no humble marker, but a 9'
tall pillar consisting of a large iron urn atop a substantial sandstone pedestal, inscribed with Masonic
insignia and the following inscription:
The mystic band of Masons bright
Mourn the deceased a son of Light,
Whose soul, dissolved at misery’s grief,
Promptly offered sweet relief.
A widowed spouse records his name,
Of purest Honor, upright Fame:
A husband’s faith, a parent’s care,
Claim memory’s tributary tear.
This eulogistic verse is said in some sources to have been composed by Bedford's wife,182 but seems,
from it's content, to have been more likely composed by his fellow Freemasons. Whomever it was
composed by, it's notation of “a parent's care” claiming “memory's tributary tear” again casts a somewhat
contradictory light on Dr. Bedford's “childless” state. Bedford's own will bequeaths his worldly
possessions to his wife “Mary Bedford, and her heirs,” though it is unclear whether Mary Bedford already
had heirs, or if this was strictly a legal formality. Still, it suggests that there could have been yet more
young people in Dr. Bedford's sphere who were not Dr. Bedford's children, but who nonetheless may have
received the benefit of his paternal influence.
Dr. Bedford's sizable urn is believed to have been erected shortly after his will was probated, and
upon it's placement at the head of Denman Street it's prominence against a hillside which was far less
182
“Lodge 45 F. & A.M. Is 125 Years Old” Gazette Times, 1 January, 1911, 22. Google News Archive. Web. (19 May, 2012).
62
visually cluttered than it is today quickly made it a local landmark, ensuring that early residents of
Birmingham could not forget the founder of their fair hamlet.183 All who traveled through Birmingham
would have passed or seen it near where Denman Street intersected with the Manor Road; some of them,
like Dr. Bedford, heading west to find their fortunes-- either on to Pittsburgh to travel by steamboat down
the Ohio River and the Mississippi, or overland via the Old Brownsville Road which led, eventually, to the
National Road, and points west.
Permanent Birmingham residents, moreover, were growing in numbers every day. In the year of
Bedford's death nearly all of his town lots had been sold, with the remainder of his property near New
Bedford later liquidated at sheriff's sale.184 Traffic between Pittsburgh and the south shore of the
Monongahela River was growing such that the Monongahela Bridge, a wooden, covered toll bridge at the
site of the present Smithfield Street Bridge opened to the public, linking Pittsburgh and Birmingham by
an all-weather footpath for the first time.
It would seem that the mysterious Mrs. Mary Bedford, however, had little interest in hanging
around her deceased husband's expanding town. Slightly more than two years after the death of Dr.
Bedford, in July of 1820, she married one Joseph Robinson in a service conducted and duly noted by the
Reverend Taylor of Trinity Episcopal Church,185 and thereafter is said to have moved to Bayardstown,186
roughly in the location of today's Hill District. From this point, the widow Bedford, now Mrs. Robinson,
disappears from history as mysteriously as she had come, and the liquidation of her inherited property in
Birmingham appears to have begun to erase it's traceability to Dr. Bedford.187
Likely it was Mary Bedford who sold the land which included her deceased husband's home and
183
Koenig, The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI. 15.
John McDonald – Allen Dunn, Sheriff, g-1-591, 93, 95. October 1824, recorded May 17, 1825. “Mercer County
Transcribed Deeds I-J,” M(a)cDonald, M(a)c Donnell, M(a)cDaniel Genealogical Records of Western Pennsylvania.
Web. (19 May, 2012).
185
Dahlinger, Rev. John Taylor, The First Rector Of Trinity Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh and His Commonplace Book. 27.
186
Koenig, The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI. 15.
187
As there have been a great many John and Mary Robinsons in Pittsburgh and the wider world, this author has not put
rigorous effort into determining which of them, if any, may be the couple in question. Today's Bedford Avenue runs
through the area once known as Bayardstown, but was of a later developmental period so it is difficult to know for
certain if there is any connection, though the street is said to have been named for the doctor. Prior to further
redevelopment, the lower portion of Bedford Avenue would have begun not far from the area just beyond Fort Fayette,
in the neighborhood of Dr. Bedford's early town home.
184
63
prominent memorial to a German Methodist congregation, who shortly thereafter constructed a church
on the knoll overlooking Birmingham. It seems that it did not take long after Dr. Bedford's passing for his
property “adjoining the town of Birmingham” to become usurped by the rapidly-growing village of which
he was the founder. Nonetheless, some traces of his connection to the property, besides his memorial
stone, may have remained for some time. John Henry Rommel, a Birmingham glass maker, later recalled
that in April of 1845, as an 8-year-old resident of of the German parochial school which had been
constructed nearby, he stood near “Dr. Bedford's brickyard” for an unobstructed view across the
Monongahela, to see Pittsburgh being engulfed by the Great Fire.188
Dr. Peter Mowry, meanwhile, after a long and prosperous career, had also died in 1833, leaving
behind a large estate in the present Lawrenceville neighborhood which overlooked the Allegheny River.
This estate, which has miraculously survived nearly unaltered to this day,189 features a classic four-overfour colonial design with a grand center hall, carved oak details, and spacious, multi-windowed rooms-quite an impressive residence for it's time and place.190 While the detail and craftsmanship apparent in Dr.
Mowry's home was likely due to the increased number of skilled workmen available in Pittsburgh in the
years following Dr. Bedford's death, we wonder if Dr. Mowry's “palatial” home overlooking the river took
any cues from it's predecessor estates of the Bedfords or Ormsbys, which appear similar on maps in size
and situation.191 While Mowry's home could also be said to be typical of upper-middle-class estates of the
time, it nonetheless suggests that Peter Mowry, born on a wild frontier, may have learned far more from
the gentlemanly Dr. Bedford than simply medical technique.
Peter's young nephew Robert, meanwhile, entered into his own formal medical education in due
188
Jordan, John W. Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania Vol II. (New York, NY: Lewis Historical
Publishing Company, 1915) 883.
189
5134 Carnegie Street, following the death of Dr. Mowry's 2 nd wife in 1871, was sold to Andrew Carnegie and his brother,
who subdivided the lot. During the 20th century, it was boarded up and forgotten, save for a fraternal organization who
had established a social club in the home's large basement. In recent years, the home has been purchased by an architect,
and restoration work has begun. Dr. Mowry's home is once again on it's way to being one of Pittsburgh's premier
architectural gems.
190
Pitz, Marylynne. “Couple Restoring Their Fifth Home in Lawrenceville.” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 1 October, 2011. Web.
(20 May, 2012).
191
Plate 8, Atlas of the city of Pittsburgh : from official records, private plans and actual surveys, Volume 3 (1890)
Pittsburgh: Wards 15, 17-19, 21. [map] University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. Web. (May 20, 2012).
64
time, having been “initiated in the medical students' life by his uncle Dr. Peter Mowry, who supplied him
with quite a library of the medical text books then in use[,]”192 some of which were perhaps those
bequeathed to Peter in Dr. Bedford's will. Indeed, Dr. Peter Mowry also surely supplied his nephew with
some of the vast medical knowledge which is not to be found in books, much of which would have
originally come from the hand and mouth of Dr. Bedford. Dr. Peter Mowry would, in time, pass down
again the books and manuscripts which had been left to him by Dr. Bedford to Robert, who, after
graduating from medical school in 1836, would go on to practice medicine in Pittsburgh for 59 years.
Basing himself in Allegheny City, now Pittsburgh's North Side, Dr. Robert B. Mowry would eventually
become the leading force in the founding of Allegheny General Hospital,193 which is still in independent
operation today.
Robert, too, would mentor many young Pittsburgh physicians in his time, including his own
sons, William B. and Phillip,194 who were, no doubt, greatly entertained and edified with stories Robert
had heard from his uncle Peter about medicine on the old frontier. As fast as medical knowledge changes
and progresses today, so too it was in the 19th century; by the time of Dr. Robert B. Mowry's lecturing days,
much of the information contained in Dr. Bedford's dusty old account book from 1784 would have been
hopelessly out of date. Nonetheless, all of these physicians may, in some small way, be counted as the
professional offspring of the childless Dr. Nathaniel Bedford. It would be Dr. Robert B. Mowry's son, Dr.
William B. Mowry, who would subsequently donate Dr. Bedford's account book and diploma to the
Carnegie Library Pennsylvania Room.195
To have had so strong an influence on four succeeding generations of physicians is remarkable, a
tribute which any doctor might consider worth their life's achievement. To have played so early a part in
192
Swift, Elliott E. Brief Biographies of Ruling Elders in the First Presbyterian Church, Allegheny. (Pittsburgh, PA: Jackson
& McEwan, 1880) 34.
193
Wilson, Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 611.
194
Nevin, Alfred, D.D. ed., Encyclopaedia of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. (Philadelphia:
Presbyterian Encyclopaedia Publishing Company, 1884) 555.
195
Chalfant, A Goodly Heritage: Earliest Wills On The American Frontier. 60. The backside of Bedford's diploma
supposedly bears the following added inscription: “This diploma is the property of Dr. Wm. B. Mowry. His great uncle
Peter studied medicine under Dr. Bedford—and the diploma was handed down from him to Dr. Robert B. Mowry and
from him to Dr. Wm. B. Mowry, his son.”
65
the building of the foundations which would support a city in it's eventual growth from a rugged outpost
into a world leader in the medical field is likewise a noble enough eulogy, though even Dr. Bedford
himself might fail to see the hand-to-hand links between today's high-tech medical environment and his
own “nauseous doctor's stuff.” Nonetheless, in testament to the very personal ties that bind the far-flung
medical fraternity, it should be further noted that in 1840 and 1843 Nathaniel Bedford Bingham and
Robert Bingham, the English nephews to whom the “childless” Dr. Bedford had left a portion of his
Pittsburgh fortune, passed away in England and were duly interred alongside their mother, Dr. Bedford's
favorite sister Martha. Both nephews, perhaps partly upon proceeds bequeathed by their uncle, had
grown up to become members of the Royal College of Surgeons, with Nathaniel Bedford Bingham also a
licensed apothecary.196
In 1832, Oliver Ormsby also passed away in his time at his own Birmingham estate, having
expanded his father's string of trading posts into a mercantile and dry goods business which stretched
from Niagara to Cincinnati, and leaving a bouquet of six surviving daughters and one son to perpetuate
the family line. During Oliver Sr.'s life his Monongahela estate of Homestead Farms, which included a
fine manor house, cultivated grounds, and a private racetrack for the amusement of the extended Ormsby
family, had been “known for many beautiful entertainments[.]”197 Indeed, Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry, to
whom Oliver Ormsby had supplied tools and ordinance198 which contributed to the Admiral's dramatic
victory at Lake Erie in 1813, may have been a visitor. Oliver's son, Oliver H. Ormsby, who would, probably
not coincidentally, also study medicine but who did not practice, inherited the estate and for a time
renamed it “Fayette Knoll.”199 Sidney Ormsby, at 58 years old, was now “the only survivor,” among John
Ormsby Sr.'s children, and sadly by this time was noted in court documents as being “under the
196
Elizabeth M. Palmer, Birmingham City Archives. Message to the author, e-mail, “Pittsburgh,” 23 September, 2010.
Geraldine O'Driscoll, Royal College of Surgeons Library and Archives. Message to the author, e-mail, 1 May, 2012.
197
Harper, Frank C. Pittsburgh of Today: Its Resources and People Vol. 1. (New York, NY: American Historical Society,
1931) 169.
198
Skaggs, David Curtis. Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy. (Annapolis, MD:
Naval Institute Press, 2006) 60-61.
199
Page, A Short Account of the Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh. 43.
66
providence of God a lunatic.”200
At the time of his passing, the remaining Ormsby land holdings “comprised a family colony that
was unique.”201 Much of John Sr.'s original patents remained in the hands of his grandchildren, who had
steadily developed Birmingham further to the east, extending Carson Street as Isaac Gregg had done, but
otherwise naming their own streets as they saw fit. East-wast streets would be named for the ladies-Sidney, Sarah, Jane, Mary, Muriel, and Josephine-- while north-south streets would bear an assortment of
masculine family names, such as Page, Phillips, and Oliver. The present 19th and 20th Streets would be
christened Joseph and John, seemingly in honor of the deceased brothers of Sidney Ormsby-Gregg. As
stated, then, rather than being named after Ormsby women at the founding of Birmingham, Sidney,
Sarah, and Jane Streets would instead eventually absorb the names of their western connectors, as
Birmingham itself would eventually absorb the name of Sidneyville. Had the north-south streets not been
renumbered at the annexation of Birmingham, this masculine-feminine pattern would likely still be
apparent.
Above the rapidly expanding town these Ormsby descendants lived in a feudalistic style which was
rare in America, their large plots running parallel to each other from east to west,202 and connected by a
private road along which their individual properties were marked by “the old-fashioned stile.”203 At the
upper, easternmost end, between the present Eleanor & Barry Streets and overlooking 24th through 26th
Streets, lay the elegant estate of Homestead Farms, the “country seat” of Oliver Ormsby which passed to
his son, Oliver H. Ormsby, and which may have been the original second home of John Ormsby himself.
The house is shown in 1872 as being centered on it's large plot, surrounded by open land overlooking the
200
Supreme Court of the United States, Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States,
Book VIII. 245. Sidney's inability to legally speak for herself seems to have further complicated the decades-long round
of litigation over property which would be initiated by Oliver Sr.'s death.
201
Miller, “Old Houses and Estates In Pittsburgh.” 139.
202
Birmingham and East Birmingham, [map] G.M Hopkins Company Maps 1872, University of Pittsburgh Digital Research
Library. Web. (18 May, 2012).
203
Miller, “Old Houses and Estates In Pittsburgh,” 139. Anyone who has been to England has probably seen these types
of stiles still in use; it was essentially a wooden gate across the road that marked the end of one property & the
beginning of another.
67
Monongahela.204 The family may have been rather attached to this ancestral home, for as other Ormsby
tracts were steadily subdivided this plot was inherited again by Caroline Ormsby, and remained intact
until at least 1882.205 By 1890, however, the old brick house is seen buried within the core of newer
wooden buildings, and in 1926, the house itself was noted in a local history as having been absorbed and
divided into a series of built-on tenements.206 Almost nothing is now left of this once-elegant colonial
estate; Ormsby's personal racetrack is now a graveled parking area above 25th Street, and only one wall of
the manor house is said to still exist on Kosciusko Way.207
To the west of Oliver's plot lay those of his sisters. Immediately next door, on a slightly smaller
plot, now the area between Greely & Eleanor Streets overlooking 22nd through 24th Streets,208 lived
Sidney Ormsby-Page. She and her husband John Harding Page lived in a “low, rambling” house called
“The Dingle,” which was known for it's wide wraparound porch, and for its beautiful shrubbery and
gardens.209 The Page family, of Allegheny, were involved in the glass business with the Bakewell family,
who are considered to be the originators of the flint (or clear) glass industry, and whose primary glass
works would soon be built in Birmingham.210
Beyond the Pages to the west, above 21st and 22nd Streets in the area presently occupied by the
Mission Street Pumping Station, was the roughly-equivalent plot of Sarah Mahon Ormsby-Phillips,211 and
her husband Major Asher Phillips of the US Army. Their home, known as “The Orchard,” was noted for
it's profusion of red & pink rosebushes, and also for the numbers of “expectant small boys” who seemed to
204
Birmingham and East Birmingham, [map] G.M Hopkins Company Maps 1872, University of Pittsburgh Digital Research
Library. Web. (18 May, 2012).
205
Plate 25, Atlas of the cities Pittsburgh and Allegheny : from official records, private plans and actual surveys. [map] 1882.
University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. Web. (21 May, 2012).
206
Harper, Pittsburgh of Today: Its Resources and People Vol. 1. 169. See also Plate 9, Atlas of the city of Pittsburgh : from
official records, private plans and actual surveys. Volume 5. 1890 [map] G.M. Hopkins Company Maps, University of
Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. Web. (20, May 2012).
207
Boehmig, Pittsburgh's South Side. 8. The author has not attempted the trespassing which would be required to discover if
this is true.
208
Birmingham and East Birmingham, [map] G.M Hopkins Company Maps 1872, University of Pittsburgh Digital Research
Library. Web. (18 May, 2012).
209
Miller, “Old Houses and Estates In Pittsburgh” 140.
210
Hawkins, Jay W. Glasshouses and Glass Manufacturers of the Pittsburgh Region 1795-1910. (Bloomington, IN:
iUniverse, 2009) 58.
211
Birmingham and East Birmingham, [map] G.M Hopkins Company Maps 1872, University of Pittsburgh Digital Research
Library. Web. (18 May, 2012).
68
materialize from thin air as carriages approached, to open the Phillips stile gate in reward for pennies.212
Beyond the Phillipses, on a plot overlooking the area between the present 17th and 20th Streets,213
which was sliced through by the Old Brownsville Road, lived the other Phillipses-- Mary Mahon Ormsby,
and her husband Lieutenant Elias Phillips of the US Army, a younger brother of her sister's husband
Asher. Their house, noted for it's peach orchards, was called the White House.214
To the west of the combined Phillips families, above the former Sidneyville between 14th and 17th
Streets,215 lay the intended property of Sidney Ormsby-Gregg, as demonstrated by it's initial development
by her husband and son. On this plot lived Josephine Ormsby-Yard, and her husband Commandant
Edward M. Yard of the US Navy. As late as 1926, “The Yard,” or the “picturesque” “old colonial house” with
“large pillars” and a sweeping view to the Monongahela in which the couple lived, was described as being
“only recently... demolished.” Oliveretta Ormsby-Wharton, the youngest of Oliver Sr..'s daughters, who
married Lt. Col. Clifton Wharton of the US Army, also later occupied the elegant Yard house with her
three children.216
Despite some confusion as to it's exact boundaries, the Ormsby family fiefdom appears on all
maps as coming to an abrupt end at the western edge of the Yard property, near today's Yard Way, which,
not coincidentally, appears to have been the easternmost edge of the onetime property of Dr. Nathaniel
Bedford. His widow having sold off her inheritance, the doctor's prominent memorial stone soon became
increasingly surrounded by the successful town of Birmingham.
~ Trinity ~
212
Miller, “Old Houses and Estates In Pittsburgh,” (1926) 140.
Birmingham and East Birmingham, [map] G.M Hopkins Company Maps 1872, University of Pittsburgh Digital Research
Library. Web. (18 May, 2012).
214
Miller, “Old Houses and Estates In Pittsburgh,” 140.
215
Birmingham and East Birmingham, [map] G.M Hopkins Company Maps 1872, University of Pittsburgh Digital Research
Library. Web. (18 May, 2012).
216
Miller, “Old Houses and Estates In Pittsburgh.”139. Some texts place the location of the Yard property as being located
as high as above 21st & 22nd Streets; however, given the location of today's Yard Way, an almost-incomprehensibly long
set of city steps which leads from Carson Street up the hillside through the heart of these plots and all the way to the
mountaintop, it seems more likely to have been located in this area, on what likely would have been the property
originally intended for Sidney Ormsby-Gregg.
213
69
In 1839, a young immigrant laborer named John Nusser came to Bedford's Birmingham from
Germany, and found work as a cooper. In 1861, however, he was drafted into the Union Army, and sent to
Camp Copeland on the present site of Braddock, Pennsylvania, to await assignment in the Civil War.
Unfortunately, conditions at Camp Copeland were so poor that while there John Nusser went almost
completely blind. Happily thereby exempted from military service, but unable to continue working as a
cooper, John Nusser returned to the South Side, and opened a tavern on Denman Street.
Luckily, John Nusser seems to have had a knack for the tavern business, as well as for the art of
brewing beer. In the days before refrigeration and fast shipment, local breweries were hard pressed to
keep fresh stocks moving to their customers, and tavern owners like Nusser frequently ran short. In
attempting to fill this gap himself, John Nusser ended up creating a brew that outsold many of his
competitors. As the years went by Nusser did so well that he purchased the large property at the head of
Denman Street which contained Dr. Bedford's memorial urn, and there constructed the substantial
National Brewery. Nusser expanded his business with the assistance of German employees who lived in
the surrounding area, and sold his wares primarily to the immediate German population-- particularly
through home delivery to German women, who would have been scandalized to visit a tavern but
nonetheless did not wish to live without beer. Eventually, Nusser turned over the business to his son, John
Nusser Jr., who expanded capacity to 8,000 barrels a month, moved to a palatial home in the developing
neighborhood of Carrick, and eventually sold out to Iron City Brewing at the dawn of the 20th century for
a sizable sum.217
217
Fleming, George T. History of Pittsburgh and Environs, from Prehistoric Days to the Beginning of the American
Revolution. “Biographical”, (New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1922) 70-71. Ayers, Ruth. “Turn On The
Spigot.” The Pittsburgh Press. 14 November, 1932. Google News Archive. Web. (21 May, 2012) 21. The National
Brewery is sometimes also noted as the Nusser Brewery. A faint rendering of the Nusser family home, with Dr.
Bedford's urn just visible in the foreground, is also available at the previous link. The large, sloping wall also pictured
still exists today.
Just before selling out to Iron City Brewing, John Nusser spent a portion of his brewery fortune on the construction
of a mansion at 122 The Boulevard in Carrick, which remains in an outstanding state of preservation today. Though
appearing from the outside to be not unlike, if somewhat larger, than many houses in the area (save for a few Germaninfluenced details), the home's interior is full of carved oak, plaster friezes, leaded glass, and built-in cabinetry of a
quality that is rare anywhere. The home's succession of owners have thankfully left it's original details unaltered, though
70
All during this time Dr. Bedford's prominent memorial remained above Denman Street in the
burial ground which had become the front yard of the Nusser family home.218 For a century the urn had
stood overlooking Birmingham but had not fared well during that period. Time, weather, and pollution
had all done their work, and there is some indication that it's Masonic insignia may have been
intentionally defaced during the Anti-Masonic period prior to the Civil War.219 In 1871, the Knoxville
Incline, also known as the Twelfth Street Incline, which was widely renowned for it's 18-degree curved
track, was constructed along the declivity in the hillside against which Dr. Bedford's property once
nestled, obscuring and endangering the memorial itself. In 1889, it was noted that “Almost directly under
the track of the South Twelfth Street inclined railway, an antique wine-urn may be seen, storm beaten and
weather stained, which marks the last resting place of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford.”220
Though duly noted as a landmark, it was by now little more. By the time John Nusser Jr. sold out
to Iron City Brewing there would have been no one left in South Side with any personal recollection of Dr.
Bedford or his accomplishments. Moreover, far now from being a country manor the former Birmingham,
having become the South Side of the City of Pittsburgh in 1872,221 was one of it's most densely populated
neighborhoods, primarily inhabited by the waves of immigrants traveling from Europe-- not unlike Dr.
Bedford himself-- in search of work. So many were coming that now even the Germans were being pushed
out in favor of the larger masses of Eastern Europeans who would quickly come to define the
neighborhood. The elegant church-turned-Nusser family home at the head of 12th Street was now
hemmed in on all sides by buildings, tenements, streets, people, and-- not least of all-- by the railroad.
In October 1901, the Pittsburgh Press reported that “In the progress of the improvements which
the Pennsylvania railroad is making on the South Side a landmark will soon be obliterated. It is the shaft
erected to the memory of Dr. Nathaniel Bedford... This monument stands at the head of South Twelfth
the home has also been exceptionally-well modernized.
Koenig, The Pennsylvania Medical Journal, Vol. XXXI. 15.
219
“The Push of Commerce Removes a Monument.” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette. 10 November, 1901, 26. Google
News Archive. Web. (23 May, 2012)
220
Cushing, Thomas. History of Allegheny County. (Chicago, IL: A Warner & Co., 1889) 651.
221
Fleming, History of Pittsburgh and Environs Vol. II. 215.
218
71
street and was erected by his Masonic brethren sometime around March 24, 1818.... It will not be many
days before it has been demolished by the railroad contractors.”
The Press also noted that “An interesting question now being discussed is whether the remains of
Dr. Bedford lie under the monument, which has stood in his memory for so long. It is asserted that they
do not repose there, but instead are buried in Trinity Churchyard, on Sixth avenue. It is likely this doubt
will soon be solved and if they are under the monument they are to be removed to the Allegheny
cemetery.... Nearby is the old Nusser residence, which years ago was a German Methodist Church, but was
later bought by the well known family of brewers on the South Side. The brewery has been partly
demolished and the contractors are down to the ancient vaults, in which beer was cooled in the old
style.”222
A month later, a small blurb in the “Pioneer Days” column of the Pittsburgh Commercial
Gazette, which was written by Edgar W. Hassler, a noted Western Pennsylvania historian, reported that
“[m]embers of the Ormsby family” had responded to the call, and “have caused the removal of Dr.
Nathaniel Bedford's monument from the yard of John Nusser's residence, at the head of South Twelfth
Street, to a place beside the chapel door of Trinity church, in Sixth avenue... Workmen searched under
and near the monument for human remains, but found no traces.” 223
The following year, however, Lodge No. 45 would record that “In 1902, the Pennsylvania Railroad
acquired the possession of the old burying site, and in making excavations the remains were discovered.
John Nusser, a resident of Carrick who had always admired the monument, heard of the discovery and
notified the contractor that he would take charge of the remains until further arrangements could be
made. Finding that there were no known descendants, Lodge No. 45 took action[,]”224 and “in honor of
having been one of its early Worshipful Masters, had the stone shaft and the remains removed to the
222
“Landmarks on South Side Are To Be Removed Soon.” Pittsburgh Press, 9 October, 1901, 10. Google News Archive.
Web. (23 May, 2012).
223
“The Push of Commerce Removes a Monument”, Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, 10 November, 1901, 26.
224
“Lodge 45 F. & A.M. Is 125 Years Old.” Gazette Times, 1 January, 1911, 22.
72
burial ground of Trinity Episcopal Church[.]”225
Although there is considerable conflicting information between these reports, taken together they
appear to suggest that Bedford's stone, and his remains, may have been removed from the head of South
12th Street at different times. His weighty marker would have made the journey across the Monongahela
River by horse-drawn wagon to be reinstalled at Trinity among the stones of many whom Bedford would
have known in life. By 1909, the crumbling, urn-topped pillar had been seated against the west wall of the
church-- a far more appropriate location than beneath a rumbling incline.
By happenstance, Bedford's memorial stone was reinstalled directly next to that of Chief Red Pole,
the Shawnee chief whom the doctor had treated unsuccessfully some 116 years earlier. As Red Pole has
remained Trinity Churchyard's most popular resident, visited regularly by curious history buffs and
groups of giggling schoolchildren, Bedford has, therefore, achieved a degree of vicarious remembrance
which he might not otherwise have sustained, as all who visit are struck by the irony of patient and
physician ultimately coming to share the same plot of ground. Many who visit, however, do not realize
that neither Red Pole nor Dr. Bedford share any ground, at all. What became of the human remains which
were reportedly discovered at the head of Denman Street after John Nusser's temporary stewardship
would seem to be a mystery, as a removal to Trinity Churchyard in the early years of the 20th century
would not have been as quiet a repose as it would seem.
Due to it's higher, less flood-prone elevation than the rest of the Golden Triangle, Trinity
Churchyard was used as a burial place since long before Pittsburgh had been founded by General John
Forbes. The site had been occupied in antiquity by Native American burials, and upon the arrival of the
French and British militaries, had been usurped as a convenient, high-ground location neither too close
too, nor too far from the fortifications at the Point. Resultingly, by the time Trinity Episcopal was
established as a religious congregation, numerous bodies had already been interred in it's burial
225
Rommel, A History of Lodge No. 45 F. & A.M. 1795-1910. 95.
73
ground.226
As the downtown area densified with buildings, graves were shifted, and few, if any, records were
kept. Interments at Trinity, which were somewhat haphazard to begin with, steadily tapered off as the 19th
century progressed, and practically ceased with the opening of Allegheny Cemetery in 1844. With the
opening of Allegheny Cemetery, a grand memorial park set well apart from the city on the order of the
Rural Cemetery Movement, many of the descendants of Trinity's residents elected to have their ancestors
transferred to newer family plots at Allegheny. Construction of the current Trinity church building in 1872,
and its next-door neighbor of First Presbyterian in 1905, caused additional shuffling, and again, detailed
records were not kept. Those churchyard residents who were removed, however, were generally removed
at the cost and convenience of whatever family members may have been interested. Those without
descendants intent on keeping the remains of their extended family together seem to have been further
consolidated at Trinity as the city encroached.227
Nor was what was consolidated being diligently looked-after. Curatorial standards being not an
issue of the time, by 1901, though the congregation at Trinity yet thrived, the churchyard was in poor
shape with some stones missing, and no particular care shown to those that remained. Referencing a story
which had appeared in the Pittsburgh Leader, the Washington Reporter noted in March that “[s]ome
rotting limbs of trees lying... all around... are evidences of neglect and indifference on the part of
Pittsburghers toward the illustrious dead.”228
It is possible that Bedford's remains were reinterred at Trinity after their discovery above the
former Birmingham, as noted in the newspaper. However, by the time his actual remains might have
arrived downtown around 1902, the removal of most of Trinity's remaining residents was already planned
for the construction of the Oliver Building on Smithfield Street. With a mass-removal already in the
works, it seems unlikely that Trinity would go through the trouble and expense of re-burying Dr. Bedford,
226
See Dahlinger, Charles W. A Place of Great Historic Interest, Pittsburgh's First Burying Ground. (Pittsburgh, 1919)
University of Pittsburgh Digital Research Library. Web. (23 May, 2012).
227
Rodgers, Ann. “Cemetery Project Peers Into City's Past,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 26 May, 2008. Web. (23 May, 2012).
228
“Addison's Neglected Grave” The Washington Reporter, 15 March, 1901, 1. Google News Archive. Web. (23 May, 2012).
74
only to have to move him again. With that in mind, he may have been removed to the Allegheny
Cemetery immediately, or as part of the larger removal which continued until 1909.229 As detailed records
of the removals were, again, not kept, it seems impossible to know for certain if Dr. Bedford is in one
place or the other.
By 1909, following the removals and consolidations, there was now some concern for the
future of this tiny cemetery, and for the care of it's remaining stones. Dr. Bedford being considered worthy
of patriotic note, and his memorial being in such deteriorating condition, the Daughters of the American
Revolution-- as steered by Edith and Mary Darlington, the daughters of early local historian William
Darlington whose unparalleled library of books and manuscripts Edith and Mary would later donate to
the University of Pittsburgh-- took charge of the battered memorial. Among other plaques with which
this highly-commemorative DAR chapter have dotted the city, the Daughters installed a new, bronze
tablet upon Dr. Bedford's weather-beaten marker, bearing the inscription of Masonic verse which had
been nearly obliterated. For good measure, the Daughters also installed a new tablet upon Chief Red
Pole's deteriorating stone as well.
In June of 1909, the unveiling ceremony for Dr. Bedford's refurbished marker was appropriately
well-attended. The Pittsburgh Press reported that “Addresses were made by Dr. Thomas D. Davis [a
former president of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania],230 Lee S. Smith, president of the
Chamber of Commerce, Chancellor Samuel B. McCormick, of the University of Pittsburg, and the Rev. Dr.
A. W. Arundel.” The leading Darlington daughter, “Mrs. Samuel A. [Edith Darlington] Ammon, regent of
the Pittsburg chapter. D.A.R., read a paper presenting the monument and tablet to Trinity Church[,]”
before the newly re-plaqued monument was “unveiled by Milnor Roberts, a university student,”231
229
There is no official record of Dr. Bedford at Allegheny Cemetery, and the author's attempts to contact the cemetery for
further clarification have received no response.
230
American Medical Association, Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 37 Part 2. (Chicago, IL: 1901)
927.
231
“Unveil Monument to Dr. Nathaniel Bedford” Pittsburgh Press 3 June, 1909, 5. Google News Archive. Web. (23 May,
2012).
75
grandson of William Milnor Roberts, one of the most prolific civil engineers of the 19th century.232
Learning to care for the remnants of this small churchyard in the century since the unveiling of Dr.
Bedford's refurbished stone, however, has been a difficult process. Following the mass removal in 1909,
the remaining handful of graves continued to be left to the mercy of the elements for several more
decades. Beginning in the middle of the 20th century, small-scale restorations were attempted, but did not
arrest the deterioration of the churchyard as a whole. Beginning in the late 1980's, however, a full-scale
assessment and restoration was begun which, despite progressing in fits and starts for the next thirty
years, is now finally complete, and Trinity Churchyard may be said to be in the best shape it has seen in
over a century.233
Moreover, much was learned in the course of this restoration-- namely that not as many of the
remains had been removed as was thought. Some of the remaining bodies lie at a depth which the
restorations have not reached, and additional crypts which were not known to exist were also accidentally
discovered, including a large brick vault which contained remains theorized to be from consolidations
performed around the time of the construction of the Oliver Building.234 It is possible, then, that Dr.
Bedford does still lie somewhere among his friends at Trinity Churchyard, though it is equally possible
that whatever remains were recovered from the head of Denman Street in 1902 have been lost altogether.
For better or worse, then, his re-installed memorial stone-- which was one of the most intensive
restorations in the churchyard project-- is all that is physically left of Dr. Bedford.235
Thankfully, however, his displaced memorial stone has not been his only memorial, as his fellow
physicians have continued to commemorate his legacy of education into the 21st century. In 1864, the first
meeting of the Nathaniel Bedford Society was held in Pittsburgh, it being one of a number of fraternal
232
See American Philosophical Society, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia For
Promoting Useful Knowledge, Vol. XX. (Philadelphia, PA: M'Calla and Stavely, 1883) 199-202.
233
“Puffers and Pillows at the Burying Grounds” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 22 June, 2000, 10. Google News Archive. Web.
(23 May, 2012). Rodgers, Ann. “Cemetery Project Peers Into City's Past,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 26 May, 2008.
234
Rodgers, Ann. “Cemetery Project Peers Into City's Past,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 26 May, 2008.
235
“Puffers and Pillows at the Burying Grounds” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 22 June, 2000, 10.
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physicians' organizations which were founded in the city in the decades after Bedford's death.236 In 1865,
Dr. Andrew Fleming read a paper before this society proposing the establishment of a medical school in
Pittsburgh. Indeed, the establishment of such a school had been a hot topic for some time. As late as 1846
and 1847, local physicians, including Dr. Robert B. Mowry, had applied to the University of Pittsburgh for
the use of a room for dissection and the study of anatomy, but were refused. Despite continued
vocalization of this need, local doctors would have to make do with whatever educational venues they
could find until the Pittsburgh Academy of Medicine was established in 1904.237
In 1922, the College of Physicians of Pittsburgh instituted the “Bedford Lectures,” a series of
annual lectures on medical history, with the first being delivered by Dr. Clement R. Jones on April 27th of
that year.238 A number of these early lectures were subsequently published, and are still occasionally to be
found through rare booksellers. It would not be until 1972, however, that the Allegheny County Medical
Society would institute the most fitting tribute to Dr. Bedford's legacy, in the creation of the Nathaniel
Bedford Award For Outstanding Primary Care Physician, which recognizes a local doctor who has
demonstrated exemplary dedication to the long term care of their patients. Given Bedford's multigenerational influence, the “long term” effects of which can still be felt in Pittsburgh today, no more
appropriate commemoration of his life's work could be imagined. The Allegheny County Medical Society
also continued the Bedford Lectures in tandem with this award, featuring speakers as notable as Dr. Jonas
Salk, who developed the polio vaccine in Pittsburgh in the 1940's, and who returned to the city in 1976 to
deliver a Bedford Lecture on his hopes that current field studies would soon result in the development of
a single flu vaccine which could be easily administered to the public and help keep most common
influenzas under control.239
236
Kelly, George E. Allegheny County: A Sesqui-Centennial Review. (Pittsburgh, PA: Allegheny County Sesquicentennial
Committee, 1938) 212-213.
237
Starrett, Agnes Lynch. Through One Hundred and Fifty Years: The University of Pittsburgh. (Pittsburgh, PA: University
of Pittsburgh Press, 1937) 357-358.
238
Simmons, George H., M.D., L.L.D., The Journal of the American Medical Association Volume 78, Part 2. (Chicago, IL:
American Medical Association, 1922) 1135.
239
Pierce, Henry W. “One Vaccine For All Flu Possible, Salk Says.” Pittsburgh Post Gazette 28 October, 1976, 7. Google
News Archive. Web. (23 May, 2012).
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Today, Pittsburgh is a world leader in the medical field, and particularly in the field of medical
education. Though still considered, by some estimations, to be a rust-belt city struggling to redefine itself
in a post-industrial world, that struggling, rust-belt city may unquestionably stand shoulder-to-shoulder
with London and Paris-- where Dr. Bedford himself had received training-- in terms of it's medical
advancements, facilities, and practitioners. Indeed, it has been Pittsburgh's incredibly strong
commitment to it's medical community that has been partly responsible for the city's late transformation.
Hundreds of doctors, as well as thousands of nurses and other medical professionals go to work in
Pittsburgh each day. Specialists in a variety of fields so wide that Dr. Bedford himself could not have
comprehended their reach come to Pittsburgh from all over the world to study, and confer with one
another. Students, eager to continue advancements into the next lifetime, choose to study in Pittsburgh
over any other city, knowing that there is no better place to begin. Most importantly, those who are
unfortunate enough to be stricken with illness-- whether a common ankle sprain or an affliction so large
as for there to seem little hope-- come to Pittsburgh to benefit from, as Brackenridge predicted, “the best
advice that science can afford and the most judicious treatment.”
Pittsburgh's position as a medical leader is due to the finest efforts of hundreds of doctors,
researchers, and philanthropists in the city's history, and from around the world, and cannot be
specifically said to be a direct result of the achievements of Dr. Bedford. That said, any doctor who
practices his art in the city of Pittsburgh, any student who comes here for study, and any individual who
has ever had cause to thank a Pittsburgh doctor, carries on the spirit of Nathaniel Bedford in some small
way. For although Pittsburgh is now also a leader in the technological revolution which is transforming
medicine, each day in the city patients must still be personally seen, small children must still be made to
swallow things they do not like, and the next generation of physicians must still be educated in an oldfashioned, physician-to-physician way. Pittsburgh has built steadily and diligently upon the simple
foundations laid by Dr. Bedford to do these things exceptionally well, and it is difficult to imagine that
such a doctor as has now been coaxed further out of the shadows of history would not be exceptionally
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pleased.
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