among themselves, owing to the disputed boundary lines between Pennsylvania and Virginia. There was a similar meeting held at Hannastown on the same day, composed, most probably, entirely of Pennsylvanians, while the meeting at Pittsburgh was, with several notable exceptions, made up of Virginians.
John Ormsby owned the first ferry over the Monongahela river,[1] from his house on Water street, one door south of Ferry street to his estates on the south-west side of the river, renewal of patent granted by the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania, 1 May, 1780.[2] John Ormsby's name appears as heading the list of signers of an address dated 30 September, 1783, from the inhabitants of Pittsburgh to Brig. General William Irvine on the occasion of his retiring from the command of Fort Pitt.[3] He was one of the four "trustees of the congregation of Episcopalian Protestant church, commonly called the Church of England," to whom John Penn, Junior, and John Penn of the city of Philadelphia, Esquires, late proprietors of Pennsylvania, deeded the land for the present Trinity Episcopal church, the cathedral church of Pittsburgh, on 24 September, 1787. The original deed, still in existence, names these trustees as "the Honorable John Gibson, Esq., John Ormsby, merchant, Devereux Smith, gent., and Doctor Nathaniel Bedford."[4]
John Ormsby was identified with the government side in the Whiskey insurrection and was prominent at the town meeting held in Pittsburgh in 1794, dur-
- ↑ Washington-Irvine Correspondence by C. W. Butterfield, p. 294.
- ↑ Colonial Records, vol. XII, p. 317, where it is termed "ferry over the rivers Allegany and Monongahela at the confluence of said rivers."
- ↑ Washington-Irvine Correspondence by C. W. Butterfield. pp. 151-2.
- ↑ See also pp. 9 and 27-30, The Sermon preached at the Farewell Service in old Trinity Church 3 October, 1869, by the Rector, the Rev. John Scarborough. Pittsburgh: J. R. Weldin & Co., 1869. Also King's Handbook of Notable Episcopal Churches, p. 143.
