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Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



carried on their business. Young Mellor having returned to Pitts- 

 burgh was now sent to the Third Ward school, where his skill in 

 penmanship, acquired under Mr. Creighton, served to secure for 

 him some favor from the writing-master of the school, who was 

 also an Irishman, and a rather severe disciplinarian, whose ruler 

 was a terror to his pupils, but from the blows of which young 

 Mellor succeeded in escaping to some extent in recognition of his 

 ability as a penman. 



About this time the native instincts of the boy began to assert 

 themselves. He undertook to form a "museum," arranging his 

 collections in shallow pasteboard boxes. Much of his time was 

 spent in the exploration of Grant's Hill, portions of which had 

 been left after streets had been graded through it, all of them con- 

 tiguous to the Third Ward school. Upon Grant's Hill a skirmish 

 had been fought during the French and Indian War, and prodding 

 over the ground with a sharp piece of iron, young Mellor succeeded 

 in recovering many bullets, a musket, a bayonet, a cartridge-box, and 

 a leather holster in very fair preservation. These things he dis- 

 played in his museum, charging the admission price of one cent, 

 the revenue thus received being expended in purchasing additions 

 to the collection. 



On the tenth of April, 1845, Pittsburgh was visited by a terrible 

 conflagration, by which about one third of the city as it existed at 

 that time was destroyed, and about two thirds of the property 

 values represented by buildings and their contents consumed. Mr. 

 John H. Mellor and his family made strenuous efforts to remove their 

 belongings from the store and home, but fortunately for them the 

 fire swept by the spot, and though thousands had been financially 

 ruined, this disaster proved in the case of Mr. Mellor a blessing 

 in disguise, for his store was the only one left standing in Pittsburgh 

 at which books, stationary, and similar supplies could be obtained. 

 The result was a great increase in business and the building up of 

 an extensive patronage, which was afterward successfully held be- 

 cause of the uniform affability and courtesy of the owner of the 

 house. The young lad soon made himself helpful in the store. 

 The environment, with a supply of books and musical instruments 

 at hand, was congenial to him. His father and mother were pos- 

 sessed of more than ordinary culture and of great musical taste. 



