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Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville, Pennsylvaniae
In this abridged history of Fayette County, of Western Pennsylvania, and of the Three Towns of Brownsville, Bridgeport and West Brownsville particularly, it has been the aim of the author and compiler, to devote more time to the writing, assembling and systematic arranging of facts and incidents of the early settlement and life, social and industrial, than to the portrayal of the present.
It is around the things of the past that memory most fondly clings, and to place them upon the pages of history that old and young may pore over them, the former with fond recollections and the latter with awakened interest in the life and trials of our forefathers, is the incentive that prompted the writing of these pages.
With more recent history, all are more or less familiar. The history of the world, of today, is being made and comes to us daily through the columns of newspapers and magazines; it is being graven upon marble and granite and upon the everlasting hills, in a manner that it will never be erased, but the history of the past centuries, we must gather from tradition or from musty Volumes of ancient and almost forgotten lore. And, it is from these that we have gathered what we here present and we assure you that it was as much a pleasure as a task' to gather much of what we haw written from the trembling lips of beautiful old age, and embellish it by the aid of the photographer and illustrator.
All who took part in making the earlier history of this part of Pennsylvania, have long since gone to their reward but their works live after them and will result in manifold blessings to generations yet unborn; while many of the others who came upon the scene from a half to three-quarters of a century later, are still with us bearing upon their brows the silvery crown of interesting and instructive old age, but their memory of things seen and heard is a rich storehouse from which an historian delights to draw, and it is to these as well as to the ancient chroniclers of history, that we are indebted for much that enters into this volume.
Table of Contents
Early History of Western Pennsylvania 614
Fayette County History 615
Geology of Fayette County 616
Fayette County's Part in Wars 617
Early and Present Modes of Transportation 618
History of the National Pike 618
Slack-Water Navigation 619
Old Taverns Along the Pike 620
Railroad History 621
History of the Three Towns 622 and 623
Necrological Record of the Three Towns since August 10, 1869 250
History of Brownsville 624
History of Bridgeport 625
History of West Brownsville 626
Financial Institutions of the Three Towns 627
Educational History 628
Religious History 629
List of Telephone Subscribers — "Bell," "Federal," "Monongahela Valley" and "Home-Mutual." 420
History of Uniontown 630
Business Directory of Uniontown 464
Directory of the Three Towns 475
Brownsville 475
Bridgeport 520
West Brownsville 579
Business Directory of the Three Towns 600
Index to Illustrations 631
Index to Advertisements 630
Large Map of the Three Towns - Back of Book
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It is not our purpose in this work to enter into a detailed history of Fayette County, as its history has been written many times by abler men who in their works exhausted the subject and gave to those interested all that there is to know about this section of the state and particularly of Fayette County, but to deal more particularly with what has long since become familiarly known as the Three Towns and by which name Brownsville, Bridgeport (Cadwallader P. O.) and West Brownsville are known. How- ever, as the links are all intact between the gradual transition of Wendell Brown and his two sons, Manus and Adam, from nimrods to husbandmen, in 1751, to the present time, it will not be out of order nor consume much time of the reader to follow the trail of the trader till it develops into the modern, steel highways that now vie with the ever-rolling rivers, as the arteries of commerce.
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