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Text Box: When you speak of Pittsburgh, we think of iron and steel - and glass. Pittsburgh became an international producing center because of the unequaled availability of natural resources. To manufacture glass, be it bottles, window, plate and flint glass, unlimited quantities of sand, limestone and fuel were nearby. Early glass makers first used wood for fuel, then coal. Pittsburgh’s Mt. Washington, also known as Coal Hill, was an initial source. (1) The first glass factory in this area was begun by Albert Gallatin, at New Geneva, Pa. in 1794. He employed German workmen, and they produced window glass, using the ashes from wood fuel for the alkali ingredient. In his widespread political career, he was named Secretary of the Treasury by Thomas Jefferson in 1801. The first glass factory in Pittsburgh was built in 1797 by Major Isaac Craig and Gen. James O’Hara on the south side of the Monongahela River opposite the Point. A historical marker at the foot of the Duquesne Incline marks the site. They produced window glass and bottles from an eight pot furnace first fired by wood. In 1798 Craig and O’Hara leased the factory to Eichbaum, Wendt & Company. In 1803, Craig again became the managing partner. In quick succession, upwards of three-score glass factories were begun in and around Pittsburgh. (2) Isaac Craig was born in Ireland, about 1742, and in 1765 he immigrated to Philadelphia. He first worked as a carpenter. In the Revolutionary War he served as a Lieutenant in the Navy and he participated in Washington’s crossing of the Delaware. He shared in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, and the battles at Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown. In 1780 he came to Ft. Pitt where he was Deputy Quartermaster General under Gen. O’Hara. He briefly commanded Ft. Pitt, and he led the building of the Ft. Fayette armory nearby. In 1802, he was burgess of Pittsburgh. (3) In 1785 he married Amelia Neville, daughter of Gen. John Neville. They lived in the remodeled Bouquet’s Redoubt (the Blockhouse), where their son Neville Craig was born. Next they moved to Water Street. He was Justice of the Peace in 1788 and Commissary General of the Western Army in 1794. He became a Major in 1832. At the end of the Revolutionary War, he and Stephen Bayard purchased the acreage from Ft. Pitt to the Allegheny River. It is interesting to note that in 1805 Craig sold a triangular piece of this ground for $600. to Episcopalians to build their first church structure on the triangular plot between Sixth, Liberty and Wood Street. (4)

Text Box: Craig’s partner in the glass factory was another Irishman, Gen. John O’Hara, who was born in Ireland in 1752. He also immigrated to Philadelphia and in 1772 he was appointed the sixth Quartermaster General of the U. S. Army. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1773 where he also conducted business with native Americans, and he purchased tracts of land. In 1784 he started a general store and he was a government contractor to Generals Harmer and St. Clair during the Indian wars. He was burgess of Pittsburgh in 1803. While Craig was a Presbyterian, his marriage with Amelia and the relationship with the Neville family brought him in close contact with (Old) St. Luke’s Church around 1790. He is noted repeatedly as a friend of the church. (5) One of the early itinerant clergymen serving west of the Allegheny Mountains was the Rev. Joseph Doddridge. The church leaders in Philadelphia ignored his pleas to expand missionary efforts, even years after the Revolutionary War. He noted that the Presbyterians and hardy, thrifty Scots-Irish settlers were very active. Dr. Doddridge states in his memoirs: “It is not to be wondered that we find no organization of the Episcopal Church in Allegheny County until the year 1790, and it is significant that this was made, not at Pittsburgh, but among the rural population at Chartiers, six miles from the city, under the name of St. Luke’s Church.” Doddridge then adds: “The first Episcopal Church west of the mountains was organized and the church built by several persons, viz. Gen John Neville, Presley Neville, and Maj. Isaac Craig” (6) and added note, on Major William Lea ’s king’s grant land named Summer Hill. When Gen. Neville died in 1803, at age 72 and 3 days, Isaac and Amelia inherited the Neville homestead on Montour’s (or Long’s) Island. It was soon renamed Neville Island to honor John. Craig and Amelia were founders of the Neville Island Presbyterian Church, and the First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh. Isaac, who was born on May 14, 1746, died also on May 14, in 1826. Amelia remained on Neville Island until her death in 1849. Their respective graves were placed first in Trinity Burial Ground, Pittsburgh and relocated to Allegheny Cemetery in 1902. (7) References: Pittsburgh and the Spirit of Pittsburgh, The Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh, 1927, p. 107 (2) Ibid., p 113 (3) http://digital.library,pitt.edu/pittsburgh/beck/ (4) Trinity & Pittsburgh, Helen Harriss, 1999, page 14. (5) The History of Allegheny County, p. 333 (6) The Memoirs of Allegheny County, p. 357 (7) The Story of Woodville, Ronald Carlisle, 1998, p. 65