As we are driving in Pennsylvania, a sign invites us to visit the
home of Albert Gallatin. If you know who this man was, then you earned an "A" in American History. I, on the other hand, hoot my response: "Who?"
Gallatin accomplished so much for the formation of this country, every American ought
to know about him, and that is why the National Park Service established Friendship Hill
National Historic Site on the land where he lived forty years. Look at his credentials and
the park’s website.
Our first visit, we tour only the home on a biting cold day, but we learn about trails
(9 miles) and picnic areas and resolve to return in summer. This Fourth of July, we
revisit the site 3 miles north of Veterans Bridge in Point Marion, Pennsylvania, twenty minutes from Morgantown. This time, we walk a portion of Gallatin’s original farm that
predates roads into this part of the nation, then frontier. As senator, Gallatin was first to
propose to Congress a road to link the country, but the National Road (U. S. Route 40)
was not begun until 1811. (See NationalRoad.) Gallatin
began his home in 1789. For his first 32 years here, his only access was the Monongahela
River. An outlook is just steps from the house.
This river was the sole route west to the Ohio Country. Folks travelled north on the
Monongahela to Pittsburgh, where it meets the Allegheny to form the Ohio. So, Gallatin
planned to get rich by building industries here. Son of a watchmaker, he emigrated from
Geneva, Switzerland, created a town called New Geneva, and started New Geneva
Glassworks (1797), first glassworks west of the Alleghenies. He started a musket factory,
sawmill, gristmill, and other industries, none of them successful. Why? The man was
too talented, too involved in the founding politics of this country to stay home much, even
though he loved his western Pennsylvania estate.
We enter at the side of the restored home.
A hologram greets us. A vaguely familiar man I must have seen in history books recounts
his incredibly numerous accomplishments. As fourth Secretary of the Treasury under
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, he arranged financing for the Louisiana Purchase
and Lewis and Clark Expedition. His speeches to gun-wielding rebels quelled the
Whiskey Rebellion. As U.S. Minister to France, he entertained Lafayette here and worked
in Europe to end the War of 1812. (He did more after he moved to New York!) Portraits of him decorate this country, including Independence Park.
We see some of his belongings and writings, and one room reveals how sections of the
house were joined when Gallatin added on. Since visitors are sparse, talking with the
ranger is possible and informative, so we linger in the bookstore. The 675-acre estate offers good history lessons related to others in western Pennsylvania. As we walk,
we see this land and river as they were long ago.
From journal Every Which Way from Morgantown