Pittsburg without an 'h'
During 1759 we are interested in place names and the stories behind them. One of them is how Pittsburgh got to be Pittsburgh.
All the forts and forted homes and Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA itself were built as a defense against the French and their allied Indians using that area as a base to launch attacks.
The French thought of both Allegheny and Ohio as one river they called La Belle Riviere. The French and English sought control of that intersection. That intersection constituted everything the French, the Indians and the English wanted.
The genesis of the name comes from General Forbes naming the area with different spellings as Pittsbourg in a letter 26 Nov 1758 to Abercrombie and Amherst, and as Pittsbourgh in a letter 27 Nov 1758 to William Pitt, known as one of the first Prime Ministers before Prime Minister became an official name. Forbes had Scottish background, and at the time a renaissance of science and knowledge and teaching was occurring at Edinbourgh.
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George Washington guessing on the spelling (which was not standard on many words) and being used to his local version of burgh, spelled it Pittsburgh in a letter to Forbes' second in command, Colonel Henry Bouquet. But George was not the name creator. That was Forbes' invention.
Then through word of mouth, during this time of 1758 and 1759 and onward , many letters show the name simplified to Pittsburg.
A story by a well known author, Willa Cather, entitled. Paul's Case published in 1905 uses the spelling without an h.
In 1890, the United States Board on Geographic Names was created to establish uniform place name usage throughout the various departments and agencies of the U.S. government. To guide its standardization efforts, the Board adopted thirteen general principles, one of which was that the final -h should be dropped from place names ending in -burgh. The Board compiled a report of place name "decisions" in 1891 in which Pittsburgh's name for federal government purposes was rendered Pittsburg
In support of its decision favoring the Pittsburg spelling, the Board referenced the 1816 city charter.
[Another article disputes that the original 1816 Charter spelled the name Pittsburg without the h. The article claims the original charter was burned in a fire and the copy made of it, mistakenly dropped the h ]
Responding to mounting pressure and, in the end, political pressure from senator George T. Oliver, the names board reversed itself and added an h to its spelling of the city on July 19, 1911. The letter sent to Senator Oliver to announce this decision, dated July 20 [1911], stated:
Pittsburgh, a city in Pennsylvania (not Pittsburg).
With the spelling controversy largely settled, the h-less form of the city's name headed toward extinction. There were some holdouts: the city's largest-circulation newspaper, The Pittsburg Press, adhered to the shorter spelling until 1921;The Pittsburg Dispatch and The Pittsburg Leader did so until ceasing publication in 1923.
Source:
THE PITTSBURGH NAME
General Forbes, himself,
the namer of this area,
spells the name differently.
In one case he writes Pittsbourg, in the letter of 26 Nov 1758 to Abercromby and Amherst.
The very next day he writes Pittsbourgh in the letter of 27 Nov 1758 to William Pitt.
The naming of Fort Pitt came later towards end of 1759, early 1760. But, of interesting note, the first naming of Fort Pitt was actually of the camp at Loyalhanna. That soon got dropped and was named Fort Ligonier by General Forbes.
On December 1 [1758],
Forbes issued those orders that remain today as his most enduring legacy in North America. Specifically, he named the posts upon which he had expended so much labor and effort:
"General Forbes is please to name the different Posts as follows & all Officers serving in the Army are desired to give them their several appelations either in Writing or otherwise;
Late Fort Duquesne = Pittsburgh
Loyal Hannon = Fort Ligonier
Ray's Town = Fort Bedford "
Source:
Page 179, The British Defeat of the French in Pennsylvania, 1758: A Military History of the Forbes Campaign Against Fort Duquesne: by Douglas R. Cubbison. More on this author here. And a review here.
The letters by all the top officers --
all refer to Reastown (Raystown) and to Loyalhanna -- not Fort Bedford, not Fort Ligonier until after the French abandoned Fort Duquesne. See link on this claim.
source
Washington's letters
Colonel George Washington writes a letter datelined Pittsburgh 28 Nov 1758. Forbes Just the day before GW datelines his letter [Camp at Fort Duquesne, 28 November 1758]
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That's it.
That's our lead story.
There's a lot more as always.
Skip around.
Read bits and pieces.
Also we are still working on this story.
Compiled and authored by Jim Moyer 9/4/2022 still in progress, updating more today, 9/5/22, 9/6/22, 9/11/2022, 10/4/22, 12/2/2022, 12/4/2022, 11/8/23, 11/12/23
Source on the name changes:
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About Edinburgh familiar to General Forbes:
From the late 1740s onwards, Edinburgh began to gain an international reputation as a centre of ideas, especially in philosophy, history, science, economics and medicine.[90]The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, formed in 1726, soon attracted students from across Britain and the American colonies. Its chief sponsor was Archibald Campbell (1682–1761), 1st Earl of Islay, later 3rd Duke of Argyll, Scotland's most influential political leader.[91] It served as a model for the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
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