In the territory contiguous to Pittsburgh the uprising, for the right to manufacture whisky without paying the excise, had its inception. That taverns should abound in the town was a natural consequence. In 1808 the public could be accommodated at twenty-four different taverns.[113] The annual license fee for taverns, including the clerk’s charges, was barely twenty dollars. Through some mental legerdemain of the lawmakers it had been enacted that if more than a quart was sold no license was required. Liquors, and particularly whisky, were sold in nearly every mercantile establishment. Also beer had been brewed in Pittsburgh since an early day, at the “Point Brewery,” which was purchased in 1795 by Smith and Shiras.[114] Beer was likewise brewed in a small way by James Yeaman, two or three years later.[115] In February, 1803, O’Hara and Coppinger, who had acquired the “Point Brewery,” began brewing beer on a larger scale.[116] In the taverns men met to consummate their business, and to discuss their political and social affairs. Lodge No. 45 of Ancient York Masons met in the taverns for many years, as did the Mechanical Society. Even the Board of Trustees of the Academy held their meetings there.[117] Religion itself, looked with a friendly eye on the taverns. In the autumn of 1785, the Rev. Wilson Lee, a Methodist missionary, appeared in Pittsburgh, and preached in John Ormsby’s tavern,[118] on Water Street, at his ferry landing,[119] at what is now the northeast corner of that street and Ferry Street. This was the same double log house which, while conducted by Samuel Semple, was in 1770 patronized by Colonel George Washington.[120]