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 556 PITTSBURGH MANUFACTURES. Amount of capital invested. Annual value of products. Ale and beer $2,000,000 $3,500,000 White lead 1,200,000 1,500,000 1,500,000 1,800,000 850,000 2,000,000 Cotton and woollen factories. . . Chair and cabinet factories 1,500,000 400,000 400,000 1,800,000 500,000 500,000 Planing mills Potteries 500,000 150,000 700,000 150,000 150,000 300,000 200,000 400,000 Carriage factories Distilleries 850,000 300,000 850,000 2,500.000 150,000 250,000 40000 75 000 160,000 400,000 30,000 60,000 Total $9 880,000 $16,785,000 The city is divided into 3V wards, and is governed by a mayor, a select council of 74 members (two from each ward), and a common council of 44 members. It has a police force and an efficient fire department. Water works on a magnificent scale are in course of con- struction, to cost from $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. The assessed value of property is $172,000,000. The city debt amounts to about $13,000,000, and the real estate owned by the municipality is estimated to be worth about the same sum. The state supreme court for the -western dis- trict meets here, and two sessions of the United States courts for the western district of Penn- sylvania are held here annually. Among the principal charitable institutions are the western Pennsylvania hospital, with a department for the insane at Dixmont, on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago railroad ; the city general hospital, the homeopathic hospital and dis- pensary, the Pittsburgh infirmary, the Pitts- burgh free dispensary, the mercy hospital, the home for destitute men and young men's home, the Episcopal church home, the home for des- titute women, and the Roman Catholic orphan asylum. The city is divided into 36 school districts, and the public schools are under the control of a board of education consisting of one member from each district. There are 53 school houses, and the schools are graded and include a high school. The number of teach- ers employed during the year ending Sept. 1, 1874, was 383 (56 male and 327 female); num- ber of pupils enrolled, 21,009 ; average daily attendance, 12,873; value of school property, $1,904,500. The expenditures for the year end- ing June 1, 1874, amounted to $601,629 19, of which $273,895 08 was for salaries. The Pitts- burgh female college (Methodist) is a flourishing institution. The western university of Pennsyl- vania was founded in 1819. It has a collegiate department, with classical, scientific, and engi- neering courses, and a preparatory department, with classical and English courses. In 1873-'4 the number of instructors was 17 ; of students, 252, of whom 80 were in the collegiate and 172 in the preparatory department. It has a library of about 2,500 volumes, extensive philo- sophical and chemical apparatus, and a cabi- net containing more than 10,000 specimens in geology, conchology, mineralogy, and zoology. Connected with it is an astronomical observa- tory in Allegheny City. There are two thea- tres, an opera house, an academy of music, and several public halls. There are 9 daily (3 Ger- man), 1 semi- weekly, and 19 weekly (3 German and 1 Welsh) newspapers published. There are 141 churches and chapels, viz. : 4 African Methodist Episcopal, 8 Baptist, 1 Church of God, 1 Congregational, 1 Cumberland Presby- terian, 2 Disciples', 10 Episcopal, 1 Evangelical Association, 1 German Evangelical, 2 Jewish, 9 Lutheran, 6 Methodist, 21 Methodist Episco- pal, 1 New Jerusalem, 16 Presbyterian, 5 Re- formed, 2 Reformed Presbyterian, 34 Roman Catholic, 1 Unitarian, 11 United Presbyterian, 1 Universalist, 2 Welsh, and 1 Welsh Cal- vinistic. The territory in which Pittsburgh is situated was, at the opening of the French and Indian war, claimed by the English under a charter from the crown, strengthened by a treaty with the Iroquois ; and the French laid claim on the ground of discovery. In Febru- ary, 1754, the English began building a stock- ade at the river junction, but were driven from it in April by a French force under Captain Contreco3ur, who proceeded at once to erect a fort, which he called Duquesne, in honor of the governor of Canada. This fort at once be- came the great centre of all the military opera- tions of the French in this part of the coun- try, and its commanding position rendered its restoration to the English a matter of the first importance. In 1755 Gen. Braddock, at the head of the largest expedition that had ever crossed the Alleghanies, was sent to recapture it. On July 9 he was met and defeated by the French and Indians at a point on the Mo- nongahela 10 m. above the fort. Twelve of the British soldiers taken prisoners on that occa- sion were burned by the savages. A force of 800 men under Major Grant was cut to pieces in a second attempt to take the fort, Oct. 15, 1758; but a third, by 6,000 men under Gen. Forbes, Nov. 25, 1758, was successful, the French, disheartened by the failure of several attacks on the advancing army, having aban- doned and set fire to it on the day preceding. A new and large fort was completed about January, 1759, and was called Fort Pitt, in honor of the British minister. Several expedi- tions were fitted out against it by the French, but they all failed. In 1764 the first efforts were made toward building a town. In Oc- tober, 1772, the post was abandoned by the English. A controversy between Pennsylvania and Virginia as to the boundary line was the subject of much negotiation, and gave rise to ill feeling between the two states, Virginia claiming the territory on which the city stands under a charter from James I., and Pennsylva- nia under a charter from Charles II. A com- pany of Virginians took possession of the fort under an order from the Virginia convention,