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Pre-1734
Indians occupy the site of Brownsville at various times and build fortified
villages there.
Several Indian "forts" were located in the area of the castle.
One was a "mound" on a hill overlooking the castle. Another
was in the "fort field" behind St. Peter's church. The site
of the castle may have been a fortified Indian village, used over several
generations, and most recently used as Nemacolin's residence. The information
on events prior to 1759 is taken from fort Burd, Redstone's historic frontier
fort (1981) by rev. Richard a. Sells. It is a good summary of French and
Indian war era information, and is sold at the castle gift shop.
c1734
Indian traders begin visiting the Brownsville area
1749
Nemacolin, an Indian acquaintance of trader Col. Thomas Cresap lives at
the castle site. The Ohio Company of Virginia begins a survey of the region
toward its charge of settling 1,000 families in the general area; Nemacolin
is guide for Ohio Company survey of the area. The French move into Pittsburgh
area from Canada, inspiring British military intervention.
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1752
The Ohio Company blazes a trail from Wills Creek (Cumberland) Md. to Brownsville.
Nemacolin is the guide for colonel Cresap and Christopher gist in blazing
the trail. The Ohio Company builds a temporary warehouse at the mouth
of Redstone creek. This disagrees with sells and with Busch's report of
the commission to locate the site of the frontier forts (1896), but see
footnote by Reuben Gold Thwaites in 1912 edition of Wither's Chronicles
Of Border Warfare.
1754
The British build a log fort/warehouse called the Hangard at the mouth
of Redstone creek.
1759
Fort Burd built, probably on a parcel that projected forward of the present
castle location.
Most of what is known about fort Burd comes directly from the military
journals of Colonel Burd and his contemporaries among the English and
French officers (see Pennsylvania Archives, volume XII, by Samuel Hazard,
1851-52). Two of the earliest written histories about the region also
mentioned the fort: James s. Withers' Chronicles Of Border Warfare (1831)
and James L. Bowman's article Redstone Old Fort from the 1843 edition
of a short-lived magazine from Cincinnati called the American Pioneer.
The author of the three towns (1883) thought they were in disagreement
as to when Fort Burd was built, but he may have misread Withers. Withers
was wrong on several other points; see Thwaites footnotes in 1912 edition
of Withers.
1770
Michael Cresap, trader, builds a log house with a nailed-on shingle roof,
the first west of mountains. See Redstone Old Fort by James L. Bowman,
American Pioneer, 1843, which contains a drawing of this house, with which
Bowman would have been familiar.
1783
Fort Burd still in service according to some historical sources.
John Bowman (Jacob's brother) arrives at Brownsville as a merchant. See
the Pittsburgh Dispatch article on the Brownsville Centennial, 4 October
1914. It suggests that John Bowman's house was older than his brother
Jacob's.
1785
Thomas brown lays out the earliest part of Brownsville.
1786
Robert Elliott purchases first lot sold in Brownsville and the only one
sold until 1788.
1786
Jacob Bowman arrives in Brownsville as a partner or employee of Robert
Elliott.
1787
Jacob Bowman opens a store.
The various sources disagree on the exact details of when Jacob Bowman
went into business in Brownsville. James L. Bowman is consistent in saying
his father settled in Brownsville in 1787. Edmund Hayes Bell gives conflicting
dates, including 1786. The confusion probably arises from an assumption
that Bowman was in Brownsville in 1786 to take part in the purchase of
the first parcel of ground where the castle now stands. However, Elliott
may have made this purchase on his own, and Bowman may have only been
an employee in his Maryland store at the time.
1788
Jacob Bowman purchases his first parcel of castle ground.
1789
First wagonload of merchandise brought over the mountains on Cumberland
Road. This fact was first noted in James L. Bowman's article in the American
Pioneer, and was quickly copied into Sherman day's Historical Collections
Watson's Annals, Smith's Old Redstone, and Thurston's Directory, as a
symbol of a great transition for the entire region. By 1936, its significance
had become profoundly symbolic that it was quoted in Allegheny County
books, such as Degelman's Historical Narrative Of Bethel Presbyterian
Church without reference to the earlier ubiquity of pack horses or to
the fact of the National Road corridor was only one way into western Pennsylvania.
1790
Second parcel purchased. This was the half lot, half of lot 18 on the
garden side.
1790-91
Jacob Bowman is a clerk at store of David Furnier in Belle Vernon. This
surprising piece of information is found in The Old And New Monongahela
by John s. Vanvoorhis. This book is primarily a history of Monongahela
City and Belle Vernon. Vanvoorhis indicates that he owned one of Bowman's
ledgers from 1790-91, from which he was drawing his information. Surprisingly,
no mention is made of Bowman's Belle Vernon hiatus in any of the other
sources. Incidentally this fact links Bowman and Elliott up with the remainder
of the valley in another important way. Elliott had another business partner,
Colonel Eli Williams, and they together were associated with a whole string
of stores or trading posts, owned in partnership with, or later sold to
David Furnier.
1792
Lot 19 purchased
1794
Colonel Elliott dies on his way to carry supplies to general Anthony Wayne
in Ohio.
1795
Jacob Bowman starts the first nail factory west of the Alleghenies.
1797
Lot 20 purchased.
1798
Jacob Bowman owns a 20x22 log house and a frame house, but no stone house.
This information is drawn from the United States direct tax, also known
as the "window tax" or "glass tax" of 1798. The tax
was based on building sizes, materials, and the number of window panes.
Very thorough documentation was made of certain parts of the country,
and these are considered among the most reliable references for buildings
in this era. In 1954, in the articles by Carl Apone in the Brownsville
Telegraph, Lelia Bowman states that the log part of the house was
the first part, but she also implies that there are still log walls standing
within the structure, which in fact is not true, though the legend has
been handed down to the present, presumably from these articles.
1801
Jacob Bowman buys Elliott's share of lot 17 at sheriff's sale, and buys
eastern half of lot 18.
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c1805-08
Jacob Bowman's ledger says that he built a stone kitchen. This is almost
undoubtedly the room that is now referred to as the trading post room.
This room was not the location of the trading post, but was rather the
1805-08 stone kitchen, probably built on the exact site of the pre-1798
log kitchen. This room, though a kitchen space from Jacob Bowman's time
until Lelia Bowman's death, was set up as a display to depict the trading
post when the house was made into a museum. The source of the 1805-08
information is a ledger that Jacob Bowman kept with descriptions of his
many property holdings. He first wrote these descriptions in 1805, describing
his home on page one. In 1808, he updated the list, and at that time noted
that he had added a stone kitchen worth at least $1000.
1806
Thomas Ashe mentions Indian sites still visible in Brownsville. Thomas
Ashe visited Brownsville and observed Indian mounds here. He apparently
made some excavations, and then wrote a detailed account of his findings,
which were published in his travel journals in 1809. In 1834, Josiah priest
repeated Ashe's report in a publication known as American Antiquities.
Ellis's History Of Fayette County (1881) claims that Ashe's report
was greatly exaggerated. Ellis interviewed Nelson Bowman (who was born
the year after Ashe visited), quoted Bowman as saying that he found the
report entirely unsupported by anything his friends and family had said.
1809
Joshua Gilpin says all remnants of the Indian forts and Fort Burd have
been destroyed by the building of foundations for the various buildings
of the town.
1812-1814
Monongahela National Bank formed and chartered.
1813-1818
National Road is built. Denise Grantz states in her 1986 Pennsylvania
historic resource survey form that she believes the retaining wall along
the side of the property that abuts market street, or Route 40, dates
from the 1818 construction of the National Road.
1818
Jacob Bowman is taxed for a "phrame" house and a log house by
Brownsville borough.
1822-1824
Jacob's ledger lists a large amount of building materials that had been
purchased for the "house at the point", including large amounts
of stone and brick. Well-known local mason Randolph Dearth is paid for
"holing in two cellars". The log house was apparently torn down
and replaced by a three-story stone house.
c1825
The maid's bedroom may have been added to the original house.
c1826-1859
The kitchen and buttery were added after the maid's bedroom was built.
1842-43
James Lowry Bowman writes articles about Brownsville for The American
Pioneer, an early history magazine about Ohio and surrounding areas. Sherman
Day's Historical Recollections Of The State Of Pennsylvania (the first
county-by-county history of Pennsylvania) carries a version of James L.
Bowman's piece from The American Pioneer.
1847
Jacob Bowman dies.
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1855
James L. Bowman suggests building a new Episcopal church in his will.
He also mentions that his brother Nelson is an old bachelor with no prospects,
and leaves him less money than he leaves to his other brother, Goodloe.
1855-1856
Idea is conceived to build a new Episcopal church. (according to the version
of the story in Donald W. Edwards' Christ Church (Episcopal) Brownsville,
Pennsylvania; History And Memorials, Brownsville Pa: published
by author, 1958; Edwards and perhaps other church historians had not read
Bowman's will).
1857
James Lowry Bowman dies. His death is mentioned in the Monongahela Valley
Republican.
c1858
Remainder of the house is built
1859
Local books refer to the house as a fort-like, castle-like residence,
as if it were already old.
Veech's Monongahela of Old calls it the fort-like mansion of N.B. Bowman
and Thrurston's directory refers to it as having a "castellated wing"
and unusually fine gardens.
1854-1874
The wall around the property was probably built around 1854, when the
last piece of the property was acquired (the garden is shown as it is
today on barker's map of Fayette County in 1858), or perhaps around 1874
when the deed for the final parcel was recorded.
c1875-80
The study and the dressing rooms above the study were added
1883
Strayer's The Three Towns is published, noting that N.B. Bowman was writing
his memoirs. It calls the house "Nemacolin", one of the finest
homes on the Monongahela, with its octagonal tower and its handsome grounds
enclosed by massive masonry..."
1892
Death of Nelson B. Bowman. His obituary says he lived in a "castle
shaped house".
1897
Marriage of Charles and Lelia. Redecorating of the drawing room, library,
sitting room, etc., with some features designed by Charles Bowman.
1899
Gottlieb Smitt's poem calls the house "old Nemacolin castle with
round tower".
1906-07
Charles has new furnace installed, then threatens a lawsuit when the system
doesn't work properly. The conservatory balustrade is closed in behind
the balusters.
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1914
Brownsville Centennial; John Bowman's house, built in 1790, is opened
for tours and called the oldest house in Brownsville.
1920's
Charles and Lelia Bowman throw many parties.
c1930
The conservatory balustrade is bricked in.
1954
Carl Apone interviews Lelia Bowman for The Brownsville Telegraph. The
best hard facts about the house and the earliest version of the insidious,
romanticized myths that are still being repeated are intertwined in the
article.
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1959
Lelia Bowman dies; the family sets the house up as a museum run by Esther
Brain. Esther Brain makes some changes to the house, including painting
the sitting room parquet floor red and cutting the door from the sitting
room to grand stair hall in half to serve as a Dutch door.
1961
Brownsville Historical Society is formed and leases the building from
the family. Carnegie tech students visit the house and make measured,
HABS quality drawings.
1962
Charles Bowman Jr. dies in Maryland and house is put on the market.
1963
A second HABS project is done under John Milner's supervision, mostly
photography.
c1963
House is sandblasted.
c1965
Fayette County buys the house from the family.
1967
A section of the stone wall along the upper side of the garden collapses
and is rebuilt.
1973-75
Three summers of archeology field schools under dr. Ron Michael find nothing
of the fort of Native American sites. Dr. Michael persuades the county
to tear down the barns.
1974-1975
Nancy Bender, Paul Mitchell, and David Stack prepare the national register
nomination. Paul Mitchell is an architect, an associate of Charles Stotz,
who does drawings and photos. County gets $110,000 grant to replace roof,
paint, and put concrete floor on porch.
c1986
Balconies restored, part of porch at exterior restrooms entrance comes
down.
1989
Castle archives are organized under leadership of president Jean Kifer.
1994
Museum assessment program report prepared by John Herbst, executive director
of the Historical Society Of Western Pennsylvania.
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1995
Robert G. Shanahan of Maryland prepares an estate list of all items in
the house still belonging to the Bowman heirs Lorraine Bowman Claggett and Dorothy Bowman Crawford.
Mrs. Claggett and Mrs. Crawford take a few things back to Maryland, and donate the remaining
items to the Brownsville Historical Society.
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