g hens, that had
been heard on the verdant ridges of Pennsylvania Road, had been crowded
to the rural district known later as East Liberty and Walls.

The log houses had given away to brick and frame dwellings owned by
those who occupied them. Doctor Spencer had opened a dental emporium on
Penn Street near the old ferry, then known as Hand Street, now Ninth.

Business was so good Joe Zimmerman had to paint his name upside down on
his store front near the union depot. The fact that this cigar store was
always crowded suggested the idea of another railroad for Pittsburgh. At
first it was contemplated building the road along the south or west bank
of the Monongahela, extending the road to, or beyond Brownsville.

Bill Brown then resided on Braddocks field, although he has repeatedly
and earnestly protested to the writer that he was not at home when
Braddock fell and did not hear of it for some time afterwards.
Therefore, it is hoped those who are not acquainted with Bill will not
connect him in any way with anything that happened to Braddock--the
general, not the village.

When Bill learned of the projected railroad he interested a number of
capitalists who owned coal land and town lots in Braddock. Hence, the
new road was built on Bill's side of the river. First, it was completed
to McKeesport. The opposition steamboat lines plying the river, (the
boats being much fleeter than the railroad), controlled the passenger
traffic.

When the projectors of the new railroad had this fact forced upon them
they abandoned the plan of building the road further up the Monongahela
than McKeesport. Surveying a route along the Youghiogheny River and
thence to Connellsville they announced that they would eventually build
to Uniontown and down Redstone Creek to Brownsville thus entering
Brownsville by the back door, as it were.

However, this change of route did not work as the railroad people hoped
for. The railroad carried a few passengers for Layton's Station, West
Newton and several settlements between McKeesport and Connellsville. All
travelers to McKeesport still patronized the boats, even those for West
Newton and Layton Station traveled on the boats to McKeesport, and
awaited the train to continue their journey.

The railroad people, dispirited and almost bankrupt, appealed to Brown
and his friends who had held out such glowing inducements to them to
build the road on their side of the river. An investigation of
conditions w