Monongahela’s rich history to be highlighted
Planning has just begun for the 250th anniversary of Monongahela.
While the anniversary isn’t until 2019, Susan Bowers, president of the Monongahela Area Historical Society, said her group held a preliminary meeting recently to begin planning for the celebration. Historical society committees will reach out to residents to be a part of what Bowers hopes will be a community-wide celebration.
“We want everyone in the town involved, from the children to the priceless information that the older residents may have,” Bowers said. “Two hundred and fifty is pretty exciting. Think about it, we’re seven years older than the country.”
Monongahela residents trace their history to 1769, when Joseph Parkinson received the deed for the land where he would settle his family and operate a ferry.
It also marked a land rush for the area that was years if not decades in the making. According to Terry Necciai, an architectural historian who grew up in the city, early frontiersmen began arriving in the area in the first half of the 18th century, although they had no deed to the land.
In 1768, the British government received complaints from the Iroquois that there were too many settlers in the area between modern-day Brownsville and Pittsburgh.
The local Mingos encouraged the settlers to go to Fort Stanwix in upstate New York. The resulting new purchase registry in 1769 gave to the British a swath of land — roughly one-quarter of Pennsylvania — from northeast to southwest Pennsylvania.
Many settlers already illegally squatting on land in the area went to Philadelphia to secure a patent for the land.
Parkinson’s Ferry was located along East Main Street in the area of the current Sheetz convenience store. It was in an area known as The Island because of its low elevation and even today is first to be susceptible to flooding.
About a block away, Parkinson had his home and inn.
Although city residents hold to the 1769 date, Necciai said the city was slow to develop.
He notes that the Monongahela Centennial book, “Old and New Monongahela,” was written in 1892.
He believes that is because there was an attempt to create a town at that time but only a handful of families chose to settle there.
But Monongahela became well known nationally due to Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 and, by 1796, a second development was attempted.
That development of land included the area between what is now First and Third streets between the Monongahela River and Chess Street, and was known as Williamsport.
According to the book, Parkinson’s Ferry was deeded Aug. 26, 1769. A post office was granted to the town of Parkinson’s Ferry in 1781 or 1782.
Monongahela was developed through a combining of developments along the river that bears its name.
For example, Necciai notes, around 1807, Adam Wickerham developed a section stretching from the modern City Hall to the First Presbyterian Church and named it Georgetown in honor of his son.
Georgetown would be merged with Parkinson’s Ferry by 1816. By 1837, it officially became the borough of Monongahela City.
It has been named the City of Monongahela since 1873.