Edwin Collins (1848 - 1924)

Born 18 Mar 1848 in Bristol, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 2 Nov 1924 at age 76 in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Chris Collins [send private message]

Biography

Edwin was born in 1848 of Richard Collins and Eliza Fluck/Flook^[1], christened 11 Jun 1848 at St. Marys, Bristol, Gloucester, England. ^[2]

Appears in the 1851 Census with his parents and brother, living on Park Row in Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, Wales. Birthplace is recorded as Bedmister Bristol. ^[3]

Stayed as a boarder in Wales^[4]

Lived on Greenfield Ave with his father-in-law and family for the 1880 census, working as a blacksmith.^[5]

Edwin started Squirrel Hill Brickyard on the site of what is now [|Bud Hammer Field}. The 1890 map shows him owning the property in that area^[6]. The 1900-1903 map shows the brickyard ^[7]. The 1910 map shows a more developed brickyard^[8] as does the 1920-23 map^[9]. The brickyard passed to his son Thomas and it went out of business during the depression. A 1939 aerial photo shows some of the structures still standing^[10]. During a trip to the area sometime around 2005, I found what appeared to be remaining debris, including an old "E COLLINS" stamped brick in the ravine to the north of the ball field. ^[11]

A brief history of the brick yard appears in two parts of the book Millhunks and Renegades: A portrait of a Pittsburgh neighborhood^[12]. This work cites an article from a local newspaper which might be archived at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, but I haven't viewed the publication^[13]. The following text is excerpted from that book:

Past Gardner's Spring is Edwin Collins' brickworks. A few years ago, the gas company was digging gas line ditches on Collins' property when they realized the mounds of dirt piling up around them were actually thick, rich clay. The men put down their shovels and called their boss, who called his boss, who called some bricklayers. When Mr. Collins trudged up the hill after a long day's work at the Demmler Tin ill, the bricklayers offered him a partnership.

Now, horse and wagon teams from the Squirrel Hill Brick Company deliver brick all over the city. Brick deliveries are slow, deliberate work. If there are a lot of hills on the way to the construction site, the wagon driver has to bring an extra horse along to help. It can take all day to make a trip from Bristol Street through Schenley Park to an Oakland work site.

Collins, a tough Welshman who started out as a blacksmith down in Hazelwood, runs the brickyard. He named the streets that surround us in honor of his beloved Britain: Bristol Street, Gladstone Street, Chambers Way.

...

Edwin Collins' Squirrel Hill Brick Company, meanwhile had become a big business. NEarly everywhere you turned you could see buildings constructed with his brick: the new Greenfield School, Hazelwood's Gladstone School, St. Rosalia Church, even majestic Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland. The brickyard now had nine horses in its barn and Collins had a second brickyard in Somerset. Collins and his family still lived on Bigelow Street, but they now wore fine clothes and drove motorcars. ^[12]

Millhunks also details the story of Edwin's involvement in the founding of Squirrel Hill Christian Church:

Protestants who were descended from the town's first settlers lived on top of the hill along Bigelow Street, the old Squirrel Hill Road. The Welsh families attended Hazelwood Christian, the Baptist church over the hill. When there were enough of them - 17 adults and 10 children - they formed a little congretation of their own, holding services at the homes of Robert James and Edwin Collins while they built a frame church on Bristol Street. When the congregation grew, the church was replaced with a new brick one at the corner of Gladstone Street and Squirrel Hill Road. It cost a whopping $10,000.^[12]

He passed away in 1924.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Pennsylvania Department of Health, Certificate of Death no. 102370, Edwin Collins, 2 November 1924, Allegheny County; consulted through "Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://interactive.ancestry.com/5164/41381_620305176_0860-00428/1927460 : viewed 7 February 2017); citing Series 11.90: Death Certificates 1906-1963, Record Group 11: Pennsylvania Department of Health, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg.
2. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903\1:1:J7K2-HXJ : 30 December 2014), Edwin Collins, 11 Jun 1848; citing Bristol, Gloucester, England, reference item 2 p 50; FHL microfilm 1,595,694.
3. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1851," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SGT5-M6Z : 29 July 2017), George Collins in household of Richard Collins, Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, Wales; citing Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, Wales, p. 9, from "1851 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO HO 107, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.
4. ↑ "England and Wales Census, 1861," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7R3-HJK : 6 April 2016), Edwin Collins in household of William Wood, , Herefordshire, Wales; from "1861 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 9, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MW62-K64 : 10 August 2016), Edeoys Collins in household of Thos James, Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district ED 152, sheet 8D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 1094; FHL microfilm 1,255,094.
6. ↑ 1890 PA Historic Map
7. ↑ 1900 PA Historic Map
8. ↑ 1910 PA Historic Map
9. ↑ 1920 PA Historic Map
10. ↑ 1939 PA Historic Map
11. ↑ Personal recollection, Chris Collins 7 February 2017
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1 12.2} Kulina, Anita. Millhunks and renegades: a portrait of a Pittsburgh neighborhood. Pittsburgh, PA: Brandt Street Press, 2003. [On Google Books]
13. ↑ "The Squirrel Hill Brick Company and the Incredible Mr. Edwin Collins," Thomas A. Baker, Greenfield Grapevine, April 1988

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MS1R-GZS : accessed 5 February 2017), Edwin Collins, Precinct 2 Pittsburgh city Ward 23, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 266, sheet 15A, family 251, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,363.

• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGCY-M3Z : accessed 7 February 2017), Edwin Collins, Pittsburgh Ward 15, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 472, sheet 8B, family 147, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1304; FHL microfilm 1,375,317.

• "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6T2-C4X : accessed 7 February 2017), Edwin Collins, Pittsburgh Ward 15, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, United States; citing ED 555, sheet 11B, line 64, family 221, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 1523; FHL microfilm 1,821,523.