"On Tuesday night last our town was brilliantly illuminated, in commemoration of Gen. Jackson's victory at New Orleans, and the return of peace," The Pittsburgh Gazette reported on March 4, 1815. "Harmony and good order reigned throughout the evening, and although the streets were crowded with persons rejoicing in the prospect of future happiness, not a single accident occurred to mar the general hilarity."

Pittsburgh's population had almost tripled in the decade between 1800 and 1810 to about 4,800, according to U.S. Census figures. Manufacturing and retail businesses continued to boom through the next decade, not just in Pittsburgh but in other nearby river towns like Brownsville.

As Pittsburgh prepares for its 250th birthday next November, the Post-Gazette will publish stories every other Sunday drawn from contemporary accounts in the region's newspapers and periodicals. The stories will offer snapshots at critical -- and sometimes comical -- junctures over the past two-and-a-half centuries.

Additional coverage of Pittsburgh birthday.

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The War of 1812 with Great Britain, sometimes called the Second War of Independence, shut down much of New England's Atlantic trade. Pittsburgh "manufactories," on the other hand, prospered. They turned out glass, metal goods, cotton thread, woolen cloth and chemicals for customers throughout the Ohio Valley.

While the region generally was insulated from attacks by the British and their Native American allies, communities still faced regular dangers from high water and from fire.

"Yesterday morning a very alarming Fire broke out in the workshop of Mr. John Ligget, cabinet maker, near Wood street, between Front and Second streets," the Gazette reported in the same March 4 issue. "It had progressed so far before it was discovered that it was impossible to save the building, but the great exertion of the citizens, and the morning being remarkably calm, saved the adjoining buildings, although frame, from destruction."

Despite occasional natural disasters and political strife, the community was prospering.

"Not a year revolves but brings with it sufficient matter relative to the improvement of this place to fill a pamphlet even larger than our Almanack," wrote the author of the 1815 edition of "Cramer's Pittsburgh Almanack." The book is in the archives of the Sen. John Heinz History Center.

Keel boats, propelled by the current and human muscle power, faced new competition in those years from steam-powered vessels manufactured here. With several such craft under construction or recently completed in boat yards along the three rivers, their makers needed reliable parts suppliers.

"At Mr. Anthony Beelen's foundry, about 400 tons of castings are made annually," according to the Almanack. "At the same establishment he has erected a mill for boring cylinders, air pumps and pipes for steam engines, for turning sugar rollers, pivots and shafts, and for grinding ... scythes, sickles, etc. ..."

Gov. Simon Snyder had called about 14,000 state militia members to service during the War of 1812, according Victor A. Sapio's 1970 history of Pennsylvania's role in the conflict. About 4,000 had ties to Western Pennsylvania, serving at Erie, Meadville and Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh factories turned out rigging used by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's Lake Erie squadron, which defeated the British in September 1813.

In his 1836 "History of the Late War Between the United States & Great Britain," Henry Marie Brackenridge credited "well directed fire from captain [James] Butler's 'Pittsburgh volunteers' " with forcing Delaware and Miami Indians to abandon their attack on American forces in the disputed Indiana territory in December 1812.

The war ended officially with a peace treaty signed in Europe in December 1814 that gave little advantage to either the British or the Americans. The news, however, didn't reach either side in North America until early in 1815, too late to head off the best known engagement of the war: the Battle of New Orleans on Jan. 8.

It was the most clear-cut American victory of the war, and the March 4 Gazette printed the text of Gen. Andrew Jackson's address to his successful troops.

"Natives of different states [acted] together for the first time in this camp," Jackson wrote. "Differing in habits and in language, instead of viewing in these circumstances the germ of distrust and division, you have made them the source of an honorable emulation, and from the seeds of discord itself have reaped the fruits of an honorable union. . . . "