"Father" of The South Side
After receiving the land grant, John Ormsby married Jane McAllister in July 1764. The couple moved to Bedford, Pennsylvania, where Ormsby opened a trading store. The Ormsbys started their family on their 300-acre (120 ha) farm in Bedford, but in 1770 they returned to Pittsburgh, where Ormsby had land and business interests.
This land stretched from the present-day Smithfield Street Bridge to Becks Run Road along the Monongahela River; Ormsby called it Homestead Farms. Ormsby also received the first license to operate a ferry across the Monongahela River, which connected Pittsburgh with his estates in what is now called the South Side. He also established a brickyard and boatyard near his estate. This ferry was later operated by John Patch and served as a contributor to the development and culture of the area in centuries following.
Dr. Nathaniel Bedford married John Ormsby's daughter Jane, and in 1811 Bedford "laid out a town on the flats extending from the south side of the Monongahela River. Although Bedford named the town Birmingham in tribute to his native city," he named four of the streets after the daughters of John Ormsby - Jane, Sarah, Mary, and Sidney. This area is now known as the South Side.
Read more about this topic: John Ormsby (Pittsburgh)
Famous quotes containing the words father of, father, south and/or side:
“For it is the suffering flesh, it is suffering, it is death, that lovers perpetuate upon the earth. Love is at once the brother, son, and father of death, which is its sister, mother, and daughter. And thus it is that in the depth of love there is a depth of eternal despair, out of which springs hope and consolation.”
—Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936)
“Until you have a son of your own . . . you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)
“I don’t have any doubts that there will be a place for progressive white people in this country in the future. I think the paranoia common among white people is very unfounded. I have always organized my life so that I could focus on political work. That’s all I want to do, and that’s all that makes me happy.”
—Hettie V., South African white anti-apartheid activist and feminist. As quoted in Lives of Courage, ch. 21, by Diana E. H. Russell (1989)
“Where does one go from a world of insanity?
Somewhere on the other side of despair.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)