Page:Family of Ormsby of Pittsburgh.djvu/11



S no portrait of John Ormsby of Pittsburgh is in existence, the following graphic pen picture of him will be appreciated. It is contributed by the Hon. Thomas Mellon of Pittsburgh, ex-judge of the court of common pleas of Allegheny county: "In reply to your note requesting my reminiscences of your great great grandfather, John Ormsby, I regret to say that I had no personal acquaintance with him as he died several years before I came to Pittsburgh, yet I have been in a position to hear so much about him from a reliable source that I feel constrained to give you such information as I have.

"My informant was my mother-in-law, Mrs. Anna B. Negley, née Winebiddle. She spent the last years of her life in my family and delighted, as most clear-headed old people do, in telling about events and neighbors and friends of her youth. The Ormsby family were her neighbors and intimate friends when she was in her 'teens,' as she related, and according to her narrative John Ormsby, the head of the family, was quite a character. He was among the leading men of the town and was looked up to with deference, but was rather too aristocratic to be a favorite