The first court house was memorable for another reason. It was in the court room that the townspeople assembled on that eventful evening of the thirty-first day of July, during the stormiest days of the Whisky Insurrection.[191] The mail from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia had been robbed by the Insurgents and among the letters taken were several, written by prominent citizens of Pittsburgh, which indicated a hostile spirit toward the insurrection. The sentiments expressed were considered as reflecting the opinion of the town. The rage of the Insurgents was now directed against Pittsburgh. In their wrath they characterized it as another Sodom, and declared that they would come and destroy it with fire, and leave nothing but smoking ruins to mark the spot where it had stood. With this end in view they commenced gathering in force at Braddocksfield. News of the sinister purpose spread to the town. Alarm grew into terror, and a meeting was hastily called to consider measures of protection. The meeting was already in progress, when a committee sent by the Insurgents arrived and announced that the town would be spared if certain obnoxious persons, including the writers of the letters found in the mail, were banished from the town. They reported that the task of saving the town would be easier of accomplishment if the inhabitants marched out in a body to meet the Insurgents, and by fraternizing with them show that they were not hostile to the Insurgent cause. The meeting deliberated far into the night, and at two o’clock the next morning arrived at a humiliating conclusion. They agreed to banish the men asked for, and to join the Insurgents at Braddocksfield, “as brethren to carry into effect with them any measure that may seem to them advisable for the common cause.” Even then the panic did not subside. The people refused to go to bed; women wept; valuables were hidden, and lights flickered in the houses all night long. At the northwest corner of Market and Second streets, in the three-story double brick building owned by Colonel O’Hara, was the store of Scott & Trotter, where they sold “merchandise of a superior quality suitable to every station, which they are determined to sell on very low terms for cash, peltry, furs, and approved country produce.”[192] Next door to Scott & Trotter was Dr. George Stevenson. Like Dr. Richardson, Stevenson conducted an apothecary shop and sold “drugs, medicines, surgical instruments, etc.”[193] He was a former Revolutionary officer, and had been third lieutenant in the First Pennsylvania Regiment. In 1778, he resigned to study medicine, and re-entered the service in 1779 as surgeon’s mate with the rank of ensign. In 1798, he was major in the Tenth United States Regiment. Stevenson was chief burgess in 1801.[194]