1793		Beaver, once abundant in North America, is now seriously depleted east of the Mississippi by fur trappers supplying European demand. As beaver became available from the New World, beginning in 1638, England's Charles I decreed, "Nothing but beaver stuff or beaver wool shall be used in the making of hats."		1794 In New York, the Canadaigua Treaty of 1794 is negotiated and signed by Six Nations and US representatives sent by President George Washington. Quakers are present to interpret and act as fair witness.		1796 George Washington refuses to accept third term as President, delivers Farewell Address. He dies three years later in 1799.																1812		War of 1812 between US and Britain. Painting of the warship USS Constitution.		1820 Population of the United States: 9.6 million people; population west of the Alleghenies: 2.5 million.		1827		John J. Audubon publishes Birds of North America. Illustration of wild turkey from his book.										1844		First viable telegraph transmission between Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland by Morse and Vail. The first-time messages can be sent long distances without delivery via horseback messenger, mail, or train.		1845 First of five consecutive years of the potato blight in Ireland; leads to mass emigration to US and Canada. Irish are among the many skilled and unskilled immigrants coming into western Pennsylvania to establish new lives.										1854		Henry David Thoreau writes Walden or My Life in the Woods.				1861		Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, April 12; ends in 1865.
							1797		The first two glass factories open in western PA near Pittsburgh. They blow glass for window panes and for bottles, jars, jugs, pitchers, and bowls. Glass is made from 75 percent silica, derived from sand. The Allegheny River is abundant with high quality, silica-rich sand left behind by the last glaciers. Left, a whiskey flask.		1803 Lewis and Clark's keelboat is built in Pittsburgh, from where they start their great expedition west. A sketch of the keelboat Discovery by William Clark is built to Meriwether Lewis's specifications. Native Americans on the upper Missouri were astounded by its enormous size.		1804 Shipping merchant, Charles Thaw, 23, and his wife Elizabeth, 18, write of their travel over the Allegheny Mountains during their move to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia.		1805 First economically viable iron foundry established in Pittsburgh. In the War of 1812, the foundry converts into a cannon foundry, supplying Commodore Perry's fleet on Lake Erie and General Jackson's army at New Orleans with cannons, shells, and balls.		1807 City of Pittsburgh founded. Above, the earliest lithograph of the City of Pittsburgh, done in 1817.		1810 Oil floated freely on the surface of Oil Creek. Indians lay wool blankets on top of the stream to soak up oil then wrung them into vessels. This drawing shows settlers collecting oil and putting it into barrels carried in canoes for sale downstream.		1811 First steamboat built on western PA rivers, the New Orleans, was built in Pittsburgh. Forty years before a railroad network in western PA, steamboats were the principal means of transportation for people and goods on the three rivers. By mid-century, steamboats were consuming 50-75 cords of wood per day to keep the steam-generated paddlewheels turning.		1812 80 percent of the original forest remaining in the Allegheny Watershed.		1818 Botanist F. A. Michaux writes that western Pennsylvania is dominated by "large forests, nine-tenths of which consisted of White Oaks."						1830 In Jefferson County, 2 million feet of white pine boards were cut and rafted down to mills and markets in Pittsburgh and beyond.		1830 Conemaugh Salt Works ships out 500,000 bushels of salt. Saltwater, also called brine, floats atop underground oil reserves. Brine was pumped, dried into salt, and used for preserving food.		1835 Andrew Carnegie born November 25, Dunfermline, Scotland. Famous for firmly establishing the steel industry in the Pittsburgh region. His Carnegie Steel Works later became the United States Steel Corporation.		1836 Cornplanter, a great war captain of the Seneca nation, dies at 100 years old. He saw the decimation of Indian peoples from European disease and alcohol and by the expansion of French and British territiories by the use of military force previously unknown. He brought his people to sign the Canandaigua Treaty.		1839 French traveler Michael Chevalier reports on commodities and living conditions he witnessed in Pittsburgh.		1844		H.J. Heinz born Oct. 11, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now shipped the world over, Heinz ketchup and condiments were started by this man who started out making and bottling sauerkraut in a log cabin.				1846 George Westinghouse born Oct. 6, Central Bridge, New York. Located in Pittsburgh, Westinghouse Corp. was famous for its inventions in electrical components, air brakes, and engineering technologies.		1851 The first locomotive of the Pennsylvania RR crosses into East Liberty, (Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania.		1851 50 percent of the original forest remaining in the Allegheny Watershed.		1852 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad completed to Wheeling on Christmas Eve.		1858		75 iron furnaces counted in the Allegheny Watershed: 18 in Armstrong County, six in Butler, 27 in Clarion, 24 in Venango. All were charcoal furnaces, except four coke ovens at Brady's Bend. Most supplied Pittsburgh rolling mills with pig iron. It took about 100 acres (1.1 square miles) of woodlands a year to keep a typical charcoal furnace in operation.		1859 Nation's first oil well struck at Titusville by Colonel Edward L. Drake, August 29.		1861 First land battle of the civil war at Philippi, considered in the state of Virginia at the time.		1862 October 25, the debut trip over the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, from Meadville, Pennsylvania to Jamestown, New York.		1863 West Virginia became the 35th State in the Union.		1865 Flood measured at Kittanning: 245,000 cubic feet/second; highest since records began.		1866 An English financial reporter describes Jamestown, New York near Lake Chatauqua, as a land "literally flowing with milk and honey."