(Located where the present Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad crosses the Ohio River.)
Between Beaver Point and the "fording" of the Beaver River stood old "Sawkunk," an Indian village established by hunters of the Delaware tribe soon after their crossing of the Allegheny Mountains, probably about 1725. In the 1740's a new and much larger vi1lage, also known as "Sawkunk" was built in Beaver between the present Beaver Cemetery and the Ohio River. This was after the main body of the Delaware tribe had crossed the mountains, and was the vi1lage usually referred to as "Sawkunk" in early historical records.
"New Sawkunk" at Beaver was abandoned by its inhabitants in the Spring of 1759, with the villagers moving to "Kuskuskie," an Indian settlement at the headwaters of the Beaver River. But "Old Sawkunk" in Bridgewater lingered on until 1763. It was finally abandoned by the Indians after their defeat by Colonel Bouquet's Army at the Battle of Bushy Run in Westmoreland County on August 6, 1763. At the time of abandonment, the village consisted of seven cabins. Two famous Indian warriors, Chief White Eyes and Chief Killbuck, occupied cabins here. It is known that Chief White Eyes had a lodge here as late as the Spring of 1762 where he was visited by John Heckewelder, the noted Moravian missionary.
This was the landing point for Ohio River steamboats and a favorite place for the townsmen to congregate to learn the latest news.
This was the site of Stone's Hotel. As a small boy, Andrew Carnegie spent the night at this hotel, whfle his parents were traveling from Scotland to a new home at Pittsburgh.
When Andrew Jackson was on his way to Washington, D.C. for his Inauguration as President, he came from his home in Nashville, Tennessee by stagecoach to Louisville, Kentucky and there boarded an Ohio River steamboat bound for Pittsburgh. When the boat docked at Beaver Point, Andrew Jackson came out on deck and made a speech to the assembled crowd.