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Descendants Of Pittsburgh's First Mayor Return For City's Bicentennial

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Descendants of every former mayor of Pittsburgh, and we do mean all of them, will attend an event Friday night to celebrate the Pittsburgh Bicentennial.

Harmar Denny IV and his son, Harmar V, assemble mementos on the grave of their ancestor. Ebeneezer Denny was the first mayor of Pittsburgh, 200 years ago.

"He was more of a ceremonial leader in the beginning because he was a Revolutionary War hero, and also the French and Indian War," the older Denny says. "He fought in this area. He was a courier back and forth to Fort Pitt for Washington in Virginia. He crossed the mountains as a young boy at 16 years old on horseback."

A plot in Allegheny Cemetery is the final resting place for Ebeneezer Denny's wife and much of his family. More than 400 descendants of Pittsburgh mayors are in town to share in Bicentennial activities.

Ebeneezer Denny is just the first of 28 Pittsburgh mayors buried at Allegheny Cemetery. The last to be buried there was mayor number 49, William McNair, who served from 1934 to '36.

Harmar's son attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, which happens to be Ebeneezer Denny's birthplace.

"In my freshman year," he says, "I actually met my fiance. We had class together in a building called Denny Hall, which now stands where the birth home of Ebeneezer Denny was."

Both descendants are proud of their ancestor's contributions to his city and his country.

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Bicentennial festivities continue Saturday with a parade that will feature a large, 307-year-old bell that disappeared somewhat mysteriously more than two decades ago.

 

The bronze bell was cast in 1709, then purchased from an English cathedral and donated to the city in 1987.

Chief operations officer Guy Costa says late mayor Sophie Masloff used the Pittsburgh bell to ring in the New Year in 1993, and then...

"The bell went down into the basement of the Liberty Center parking garage, and it's been there ever since," Costa says.

It was largely forgotten until the city brought it back for the Bicentennial parade. Volunteers will restore it, but after the parade...

"We need a home for it," Costa says. "So we're looking for suggestions or anyone who has some ideas on where we can have this beautiful bell hang and put it back in working condition."

Across town in the City County building, there's another relic of the past: a bust of early 20th century mayor William Magee that has recently been rescued from a DPW office.

Before that, Costa says, "He was on a pedestal on the intersection of Grant Street and Bigelow Boulevard because he was very instrumental in moving the hump on Grant Street."

He, too, is looking for a permanent home, but only the bell gets to ride in the parade.

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