Autograph Letter, Franklin, [Venango County, Pennsylvania] May 10th, 1862, to Theora, Describing a Trip to Pittsburg and Western Pennsylvania

octavo, 4 pages, unsigned, possible incomplete, in very good condition.

The writer describes his travels in Pittsburg and other western Pennsylvania towns, he provides an epistolary tour of Pittsburg's industries of the day, an oil refinery, comments on the pollution "earth and air are impregnated with the aroma of petroleum", lumber raftsmen and iron mills, before continuing on to New Brighton, New Castle, and Franklin, in Venango County:

"My dear Theora,

… My letter from Pittsburg was written on Thursday morning and mailed then and there so I suppose you have read it before this time and I shall start from the point where I left off …. After taking my breakfast at the St. Nicholas (which, by the way was an excellent one and at the moderate charge of 25 cents) I turned out to view the city, went to P. Office with your letter and thence across the Allegheny river and through the city of Allegheny to the heights beyond, from which a fine [view] of the rivers and surrounding country could be obtained – rambled over a German Catholic cemetery, on one of the highest hills and then descended towards the river and found myself, on plunging down into a deep ravine, in what I supposed by the stables and shanties around to be the Irish town, or suburb but the steep hill sides were terraced and laid out in rude gardens or graperies indicating a German population in part if not in whole. I threaded my way out towards the shore where a number of oil refineries are located. I entered one of them and discoursed the proprietor upon the subject of coal oil and he very politely showed me through his refinery and described the various processes and operations to which the crude material is subjected reserving only to himself the final chemical mystery which of course no "outsider" has a right to enquire into. He made me a present of a vial filled with the purified oil – transparent, warranted to be non-explosive, and to burn without smoke, or odor, in any properly constructed lamp; of which oil he offered to sell me one hundred barrels (more or less) at 20 cents per gallon! Cheap and brilliant light indeed. After parting from him I wandered among the oil boats, rafts and bins lying along shore all so saturated with oil, and the barrels which cover the landings and surrounding commons leak so profusely that earth and air are impregnated with aroma of petroleum and even the beautifully transparent waters of the Allegheny are glazed with a coating of the same material borne on the current towards the gulf of Mexico. I crossed, by a different bridge, to the Pittsburg side and got among the lumber raftsmen who tried to sell me shingles at $ 1.25 per bunch of 500 and boards proportionately low but I was not ready to purchase and left them for a peep at some of the large iron mills close at hand.

These mills abound along the margin of both the Allegheny and Monongahela but more particularly in Manchester, which is across the latter river from Pittsburg. You may wonder how I had so much leisure time and I may state that a gentleman with whom I had conversation upon the subject of reaching the oil region, informed me that he had wells and property here and that he preferred to travel by the New Castle rout, when the Allegheny was not full enough for Steamboats to run. By this rout passengers take the cars (as I did) by the accommodation train of the Pittsburg and Chicago R. R. at 4.45 in the afternoon. As that hour approached I recrossed to Allegheny City, where the depot is, paid 55 cents for a ticket to New Brighton on the Beaver river, a distance of 28 miles, where we arrived about 6 ½ o'clock after a very pleasant run along the margin of the Ohio, among gardens and truck patches villas and towns so numerous that I cannot name near all of them, but there was Industry, Economy, and Freedom, - very good and suggestive titles; besides Rochester at the mouth of Beaver and but a short distance below New Brighton.

This latter is a very pretty manufacturing town, there being a grand water power here equal to Manayunk, which propels machinery for a variety of purposes among which are the making of tub buckets, woolen shawls and numberless other articles. After taking supper at a well conducted hotel in the town we prepared for a night travel by that now antiquated and almost obsolete conveyance, a canal packet which carries passengers from that point to New Castle distant 26 miles by the Beaver Canal, they being expected to pay one dollar for the privilege of taking a berth and waking up in the morning in the latter town which your geography will tell you is the seat of justice of Lawrence County.

The evening being cool on deck, the captain thought to consult the comfort of the sleepers (about 20 in number) by making a fire in the cabin stove after they had retired to rest, and as my berth was immediately along side of it came pretty near to being roasted. The consequence was very indifferent rest but fortunately I did not take cold, and after partaking of a ramble around the little town and a very palatable breakfast at the Cochran house some 10 or 11 of our boat passengers too coach for this town of Franklin and intermediate points via Meadville, which is made the dining station.

Our teams were not first rate and the road but a clay one over a hilly country made the travel very slow and it was sunset by the time we had overcome the 43 miles of distance and, after climbing nearly two miles uphill and descending the same distance again we entered this metropolis of Venango County, dusty, tired and ready for supper and rest …"