The first canal boat ever built or run west of the mountains was the General Abner Lacock. She was owned by Patrick Leonard, of Pittsburgh, but was built in Apollo. This was a fine packet boat, with berths and dining service, as well as capacity for carrying freight. The first railroad entered Pittsburgh in the fall of 1834, on the completion of the Philadelphia and Columbia, and the Allegheny portage railroads. Pittsburgh became a city by an Act of Assembly at the sessions of 1815–1816, the date of the change in city government being March 18, 1816. At the first election for municipal officers under the City Charter, Major Ebenezer Denny was chosen Mayor. The first great consolidation was effected March 29, 1872, when the South side was united with Pittsburgh. This brought into the city the boroughs of Birmingham, East Birmingham, Ormsby, Allentown, St. Clair, South Pittsburgh, Monongahela, Mount Washington, Union, West Pittsburgh and Temperanceville. The population of Pittsburgh according to the census of 1920 was 588,343. ---------- Margaret Junkin Preston, Poetess-Laureate,| Died March 19, 1897 It is a matter of just pride that the most brilliant and beloved poetess of yesteryear was none other than a Pennsylvania girl, Margaret Junkin Preston, who through her writings, both in prose and poetry, attained Nation-wide distinction and won the title “Poetess-Laureate of the South.” Margaret Junkin was born in Milton, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1820, the eldest child of Rev. George and Julia Rush Miller Junkin. Her parents were of that stalwart, heroic race, the Covenanters of Scotland. Dr. Junkin’s life was devoted to religion and education, and at the time of his marriage he was the minister of the Presbyterian Church at Milton. When Margaret was ten years old her parents moved to Germantown, where her father assumed charge of the Manual Labor Academy of Pennsylvania. After a delightful residence of two years Dr. Junkin was called to the first presidency of Lafayette College, and the family moved to the “Forks of the Delaware.” It was during the incumbency of Dr. Junkin that the college, which for two years was conducted on a farm south of the Lehigh, was moved to the present site, on what has since been known as College Hill Easton, and Old South College built. President and Mrs. Junkin and their seven children moved into the original building, where they continued to reside until March 30, 1841, when the doctor accepted the presidency of Miami College, Oxford, O. It was during her residence at Easton that Margaret and her sister, Eleanor, became members of the First Presbyterian Church and that her first productions in verse appeared in the columns of a local newspaper; they were “Childhood,” “The Forest Grave” and “Where Dwelleth the Scent of the Rose.” After her removal to Oxford, O., she wrote “Lines Written on Reading Letters Bringing Sad News From Easton.”