1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wilkinsburg

WILKINSBURG, a borough of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., immediately E. of Pittsburg, of which it is a residential suburb. Pop. (1890) 4662; (1900) 11,886, of whom 1336 were foreign-born and 275 were negroes; (1910 census) 18,924. Wilkinsburg is served by the Pennsylvania railway and by interurban electric lines. It is a post-station of Pittsburg. In the borough are a Home for Aged Protestants (1882), the United Presbyterian Home for the Aged (1879), and Columbia hospital (1908). Settled in 1798 and known first as McNairville and then as Rippeyville, the place was renamed about 1840 in honour of William Wilkins (1779–1865), a member of the United States Senate in 1831–1834, minister to Russia in 1834–1835, a representative in Congress in 1843–1844, and secretary of war in President John Tyler's cabinet in 1844–1845. In 1887 Wilkinsburg was incorporated as a borough.