Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-06
ROMANCE OF A NAME.
How the st. Nicholas Building Be-
came Possessed of the Title.
CAPTAIN H0UGH'S SAD LOVE STORY.
Nicholas LongwOrth PlayedlDollar Against
Cupid and Won.
BONDS WERE BROKEN BY THE SHERIFF
CAPTAIN HOUGH'S SAD LOVE STORY.
BONDS WERE BROKEN BY THE SHERIFF

Few people who stop to admire the stately
edifice, one of the finest law buildings in the
world, lately erected on the corner of Fourth
avenue and Grant street, by Hon. John Dal-
zell, the st. Nicholas law building, know
how it came by its name. As the
incidents that caused the christening arc
very romantic, they are worth more than a
passing notice. The name was taken from
the old hotel that occupied the site for some
40 years. and around the original the ro-
nance clustered.
The name st. Nicholas was not given in
honor of that child of many prayers,
St Nicholas of Myra, to whom
history, or perhaps partly tradition,
gave great prominence during the
reiFns of Macmillan and Diocletian and
Constantine, emperors of Rome this saint
also being accorded place in the delfoera-
tious of the Council of Nice but the cele-
brated old hostelry was named in honor OF
Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, the
Cropsus Of the West. whose fortune i'll 1865
was estimated ut sI5 COO 900, and who 40 years
ago was the richest man west of Philadel-
phia.
About 1887 two young men from Westmore-
land county, p. H. Wakefield, son of the
noted Methodist preacher, Rev. Samuel
Wakefield, popularly known as Father
Wakefield, and John Hcugh, a cousin OF ID. II.
Wakefield, came TO this city and on capital
OF 500 and large amount of wind bought q
steamboat named the Orpheus. d. II. Wake
field was the father of James IL Wakefield,
the Grant street attorney. Hough was few
years older than Wakefield, and his being
on-idcrcd the most handsome man in w est-
ern PENNSYLVANIA and q complete Chester
field IN department marked him as the
proper person for Captain. while Wakefield
assumed the duties OF clerk.
SHE LOVED THE CAPTAIN.
They knew nothing of navigation, but they
hired pilots and "A mate and the latter took
command of the other departments of the
Orpheus. On their 500 and several square
miles of cheek the young men had happy,
iDvous existence while they ran the boat one
season 4 daughter of Nicholas Longworth
took a trip on the Orpheus and became
smitten by the graces Of the Captain. 1t
should be noted that in those days one of
the chief duties of a steamboat captain was
TO entertain the passengers and this
Captain Hough did to the taste
ladies who fell under his guardianship.
Miss Longworth became a frequent passen-
ger. Sometimes she would board the boat at
Cincinnati and go to Louisville and return,
and at others she would come to this city
and return, and for whole season Young
Loves dream was never disturbed by night
mare.
Whether the passion of the gallant Cap
tain and his lovely passenger ever turned to
ashes as Captain Hough's body has since
done is not known, but one day Nicholas
Longworth sued out a preIim nary injunc
tion mot in hymen's COURT, and in great
wrath swore to do young Hough up. The
boat was at the time on her way up
from Louisville, and Hough got wind OF
Longworth's intentions and went ashore in
Kentucky, some miles below Porkopclis.
CUPID BLOCKED BY MAMNIoN.
As the boat was considerable in debt, with
prospects that she would not work her way
out soon, Longworth had no trouble in buy
ing a claim against her, and when she
rounded to at the Cincinnati wharfa Sheriff
was on hand and without any unnecessary
ceremony chained her to the wharf log.
Other creditors hearing of the state of affairs
gwooped down like flock of buzzards and
Wakefield, seeing that his mission was |
ended, quietly steDped down and out and |
went into other business, and subsequently |
prospered.
John Hough, pursued by the fear of falling |
under the paw of the wealthiest man of the /
West, had no rest for the soles of his feet so |
long as he stayed in the United States, and |
he drifted away toward the Southern cross, i
finally coming to q halt somewhere in South |
America. Being a young man of business
ability and, by this time, of considerable ex-
perience, he soon amassed considerable |
fortune, for that time, it being estimated |
In the neighborhood of quarter of
came a sense of power and Nicholas Long |
worth's fierce countenance was no longer /
nightly photographed on young Hough's |
cerebral ganglia, so he decided to come back |
TO Pittsburg. In due time be arrived and |
bought lot and on it built the hotel, nam |
ing il after the Christian end of his adver- /
sary's name and pretXirg est, an hon orary |
title which Longworth probably appreciated |
as little as he had at one time the |
christencr.
Mr.. Hough lived on apparently as happily
as the average mortal until ISL or lSS2, when
he died I'm Beallsville, Washington county
Mr.. Wakefield is still in the flesh and njoys 1
life well could be expected, consider
ing that he was in business "a years ago.
The Stag's-Head Shirt
You can buy it only at
Jos. HORNE & Co.'S,
607-621 Penn avenue.