Pittsburg

Pittsburg, a city of Crawford county, Kansas, U.S.A., about 130 m. S. of Kansas City. Pop. (1880), 624; (1890), 6697; (1900) 10,112, of whom 860 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 14,755. It is situated at the intersection of four great railway systems-the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe, the St Louis & San Francisco, the Kansas City Southern (which maintains shops here), and the Missouri Pacific, and is served by inter-urban electric railways. The city is the seat of the State Manual Training Normal School (1903) and of the Pittsburg Business College. Pittsburg is situated near the lead and zinc region of south-east Kansas and south-west Missouri, is in the midst of a large and rich bituminous coalfield, and lies near natural gas and oil fields. Among the manufactures are zinc spelter-there are large smelters here-clay products (chiefly vitrified brick, sewer pipe and tile; the clay being obtained from a great underlying bed of shale), blasting powder, packinghouse products and planing-mill products. The total value of the city's factory products in 1905 was $1,824,929. Pittsburg was settled about 187 9, was chartered as a city in 1880, and became a city of the first class in 1908.