A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Miller, John, 1849-
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 926

USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 11

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

The commissioners who erected the new blockhouse were Dr. E. WV. Germer, Hon. D. T. Jones and Captain J. H. Welsh. The archi- tect of the blockhouse restoration was Ernest E. W. Schneider.

It is now a little museum of relics of General Wayne. Hanging inside, preserved in a frame and protected by glass, is to be seen what remained of the coffin-lid, with the legend that established its identity beyond doubt: "A. W. ob. Dec. 15, 1796," formed by brass-headed tacks driven through the covering of leather. On exhibition too are the knives that were used in the work of dissection, and a number of other relics that have interest as being connected with the great man who was buried there. Even the grave has been preserved by having the space bricked up.

BLOCK HOUSE (Burial Place of General Wayne.)

CHAPTER XI .- SETTLEMENT BEGUN.

WHERE THE PEOPLE CAME FROM, WHO OPENED UP THE WILDERNESS, AND WHO THEY WERE.

In those early days there was no chronicler of events, no news- paper, nor any other of the modern means of setting down occurrences as they transpired. Even the journals kept by the few who felt inter- ested in preserving an account of what was being done, were deficient in everything, or almost everything, except matters of purely personal import. It was with the people of that time as with the people of to- day, the present demands were for something entirely different. There were clearings to be made, houses to be built. food to be procured-a hundred and one things to be done with none too much time in which to do it. During the daytime every minute was employed by the work: in hand, and the evening not only found the men and women, busy all day, much more ready to seek their rest than to write up an account of the doings and gossip of the day, but the chances are without any facilities at hand to write a journal if they felt inclined to do so. The fact is, the people regarded life as they were then experiencing it such an every-day, uneventful sort of existence as not to be worth the mak- ing a record of. They could not know that, four or five generations later, not only their descendants but an entire community would have read an account of their struggles, homely though they might have been, with deepest interest. So, much that would have been of value to the people of the present time is forever lost.

However, it is known that the permanent settlement of this part of the country had begun, and that every year was adding more to the population. The business of the company that had organized for the purpose of bringing about the settlement of the Triangle did not begin in real earnest until the year 1796, and it was through Judah Colt, who had paid a flying visit to Erie the year before, that this was brought about.

Mr. Colt, it will be remembered, came to Presque Isle in August, 1195, along with Augustus Porter, for the purpose of buying land, and. after arriving here, they did invest in some of the acres that were available. MIr. Colt obtained more than the 800 acres he and his friend had secured. He obtained an excellent opinion of the country; so

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

good an opinion that he decided it would be a good business venture to secure a large tract. For the purpose of doing so he went to Phila- delphia in March of 1196, and there made an offer to the Pennsylvania Population Company of one dollar per acre for 30,000 acres of land in the eastern part of the Triangle. The company declined to sell in so large a quantity. But they were favorably impressed by Mr. Colt and immediately made him an offer to become their agent. He accepted. The terms were that he was to have a yearly salary of $1,500, and all his expenses were to be paid by the company. Immediately he set about the duties of his new position. In April he was at New York where he made purchases of "provisions and sundry kinds of goods, farming and cooking utensils such as are generally wanted in a new country." These were shipped to Albany, across the portage to the Mohawk and, through the lakes to Presque Isle. There were de- lays enroute. At Oswego there was a British garrison which would not allow the flotilla of batteaux to pass, and an empty boat had to be dis- patched to Niagara to obtain from Gov. Simcoe permission to proceed.

On the 22d of June Mr. Colt arrived at the town of Erie; his freighted boats did not reach here until July 1st. Then, as he says in a journal he kept, he "proceeded to business." Mr. Colt was accom- panied to Erie by Elisha and Enoch Marvin, brothers-in-law, all of them New Englanders, from Connecticut, though they had for a time been residents of Canandaigua, N. Y. The freight having arrived. Mr. Colt and his brothers-in-law set to work to get affairs to rights. They erected a tent or marquee near the old French fort, and this became their residence through the summer.

It would seem as though the natural place to establish headquarter; for the business of disposing of land would be the principal town or settlement. Mr. Colt held different ideas on the subject, and these were founded upon the belief, which proved well founded, that most of the immigrants seeking homes would come overland. He therefore selected a location out in the eastern part of the Triangle near the summit of the divide, in what was afterwards to be known as Greenfield township. This place was called Colt's Station.

Now there were two sections of the east from which the new set- tlers came into Erie county. A large contingent came from New Eng- land. Many of them, to be sure, had halted by the way. This was true of Col. Reed. It was also true of Mr. Colt. Theirs had been a sort of trying-out process : and it was the same with many of their New England fellows. In their migration they had rested for a time, only long enough to acquire the belief that farther west there was better opportunities open to them. It was not so much that they were rovers as that they were real home-seekers, looking for a permanent abode, and that the conditions suited to their mind had not been found in their earlier locations. Even in those early days, with the very imperfect means of

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

communication that existed. intelligence of the new country that was being opened up somehow extended eastward to where the home-seekers were. So they decided upon pursuing their search, and entered upon it with the faith and courage which have always distinguished the pioneer.

Perhaps an even larger contingent of the first settlers came from Eastern Pennsylvania. These were largely of the Scotch-Irish race, so- called. Originally, they came from the province of Ulster, the northern part of Ireland, and had settled in the eastern counties of the state. No better stock could be found upon which to build a law-abiding, solid com- munity. Along with the Scotch-Irish came quite a sprinkling of "Penn- sylvania Dutch." They were in reality Germans originally, become Americanized. There were probably more of this race among the early settlers here than the names would indicate, for it had become to a considerable extent obligatory upon the Germans of the eastern counties that they should Anglicise their names, so that, for instance, Shaefer be- came Shepherd, Schneider was changed to Taylor, Zimmerman was Car- penter, and so on. But many truly German names appear among the earliest settlers, such as Weiss, Braun, Ebersole, Stuntz, Gudtner, Riblet. and others. It was natural that there should be a large influx from the eastern part of the state, for Philadelphia was from the first much inter- ested in this section, the purchase of the Triangle as an addition to the state of Pennsylvania being largely due to the initiative and subsequent encouragement of Philadelphians. The Pennsylvania Population Com- pany, also, was a Philadelphia concern.

There were, however, a number of influences at work to bring about the settlement of Erie county, besides the efforts of the great land com- panies. There was the lesser enterprise of the Harrisburg and Presque Isle Company, composed of ten persons, of whom three, Thomas Forster, Richard Swan and William Kelso, became actual settlers among the earliest in the county, Mr. Forster having built the first mill in this corner of the state. These three men came from Dauphin county, a part of the contingent that the eastern section of the state contributed to the opening of the extreme northwest. With these influences at work the county began to fill up.

In 1796 the new settlers were: Erie, Capt. Daniel Dobbins. Mill- creek, Benjamin Russell, Thomas P. Miller, David Dewey, Anthony Saltsman, Jolın McFarland. Fairview, Francis Scott. Waterford, John Lytle, Robert Brotherton, John Lennox, Thomas Skinner. Washington, Wm. Culbertson and Alexander Hamilton, Greenfield, Judah Colt, Elisha and Enoch Marvin, Cyrus Robinson, Charles Allen, Joseph Berry, John Wilson, James Moore, Joseph Webster, Philo Barker, Timothy Tuttle, Silas and William Smith, Joseph Shattuck, John Daggett, John Andrews and Leverett Russell. McKean, Thomas and Oliver Dunn. Summit, George W. Reed. North East, William Wilson, George and

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

Henry Hunt, Henry and Dyer Loomis. Springfield, Samuel Holliday, John Devore, John Mershorn, Wm. McIntyre, Patrick Ager. Venango, Andrew and James Reed, Burrill and Zalmon Tracy.

In 1:95 David Watts came to this county, and with William Miles were the first surveyors for the state of the Tenth Donation District. It was on that district in Concord, that Miles and Cook, with their wives, who were sisters, settled in 1795, a month before the arrival at Erie of Col. Seth Reed, thus making them the first white settlers in Erie county. Miles had a romantic history. He was born in the valley of the Susque- hanna, which was subject to frequent Indian raids. In one of these he was captured by the savages when a mere child and carried into Canada, where he was spared with the idea of being adopted into the tribe. He was held for a long time but eventually obtaining release returned to his people. His Indian experience turned out to be of advantage to him later in life. Ile was a son-in-law of David Watts of Carlisle. When Watts came to Erie county to make the survey, for which he was commissioned by the state, Miles was made his assistant. Sub- sequently Miles laid out lands for a number of settlers and also laid out the village of Wattsburg, which was named after David Watts. He located 1400 acres at Wattsburg and 1200 at Lake Pleasant. Mr. Miles acquired a very extensive tract of land in Concord, and moved later to Union where he built saw and grist mills. A son, James Miles, purchased 1600 acres of land in Girard township, embracing the mouth of Elk creek, and the name of Miles was long among the most prominent in the county.

In the year 1797 the accessions were more numerous than during the preceding year, as was of course to be expected. Washington wit- nessed a larger influx than any other section, the settlers including Job Reeder, Samuel Galloway, Simeon Dunn, John and James Campbell, Matthew Sipps, Phineas McClenethan, Matthew Hamilton, John McWil- liams, James, John, Andrew and Samuel Culbertson and Mrs. James Campbell, a widow. Fairview benefitted next with these : Thomas Forster. Jacob Weiss, George Nicholson, John Kelso, Richard Swan, Patrick Vance, Patrick and John McKee, Jeremiah and William Sturgeon and William Haggerty. To North East came Thomas Robinson, John Mc- Cord, James McMahon, Margaret Lowry (a widow), James Duncan, Francis Brawley and Abram and Arnold Custard. In Harborcreek William Saltsman, Amasa Prindle and Andrew Elliott settled ; in Water- ford. John Vincent and William Smith ; in Wayne, Joseph Hall and Mr. Prosser : in Elkcreek, Eli Colton ; in Venango, Thomas, John and David Phillips ; in Springfield, Oliver Cross; in Le Bœuf, Francis Isherwood, James, Robert and Adam Pollock ; in Conneaut, Col. Dunning McNair : in Millcreek, John Nicholson, the Mckees and Boe Bladen.

The last named has the distinction of being the first of his race to become a permanent settler in Erie county, and the family he established

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

still retains an honored place in the community. In the book of entry his name appears as Negro "Boe," and by that appellation he was long known. But later his family name of Bladen had place regularly on the lists as a freeholder and a citizen, while yet even in Pennsylvania, men of his race were held in slavery.

The fresh arrivals during 1798 included William Wallace at Erie. He was the first lawyer to take up his abode in the county. In North East there were more settlers than in any other township during the year 1798, and including a number who founded families represented to the present time. These settlers were: Thomas Crawford, Lemuel Brown, Henry and Matthew Taylor, William Allison, Henry Burgett, John, James and Matthew Greer. The Silverthorns came the same year into Girard, William and Abraham the pioneers of that name. In Conneaut, Elihu and Abiather Crane; in Washington. Peter Kline; in Fairview, John Demsey ; in Springfield. Nicholas Lebarger : in Venango, William Allison and wife; in Wayne, William Smith and David Findley ; in Elk creek, George Haybarger and John Dietz. Union township was recruited that year by Jacob Shephard, John Welsh, John Fagan and John Wilson, and Waterford added to the list of settlers Aaron Himrod and John T. Moore. Many of these names have ever continued prominent in the affairs of the county, most of them still identified with the townships in which they originally settled.

Among those who entered the county in 1799 to become permanent residents were these : At Waterford, John, James and David Boyd, Capt. John Tracy, John Clemens, the Simpsons and the Lattimores; at Erie, John Teel ; at McKean, Lemuel and Russell Stancliff : at Summit, Eliakim Cook.

In thus designating the townships in which the settlements were made it is proper to state that the classification is a latter day matter, for con- venience sake. Prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century there were no such township designations. What is now Erie county was Erie township of Allegheny county in 1800 and before that belonged to other and different counties as may be explained in a future chapter. Nor has a complete list of the earliest settlers been given. That would be an impossible task. But out of the total of the earliest to become permanent residents in Erie county have been selected those who, having actually done so, became the heads of families that have figured in the affairs of the county during its history. Nor has there been an attempt to prolong the list beyond what might be as actual first settlers, only five years of the beginning being included in this list.

Immigration into this county was steady and as proportionately large as any other new section of the period could show, but there were prac- tically none of foreign birth for many years after the county was opened up for settlement, the exceptions, as for instance, the Agers of Springfield.

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

natives of Ireland, having settled first in Eastern Pennsylvania. The real Irish immigrant did not begin to arrive in Erie until about 1825, and the Germans from over seas sometime later, the influx of settlers with German names who appeared contemporaneously with the Irish, being a sccond migration this way of Pennsylvania Dutch from the region about Lancaster county, and including such well known names as Warfel, Weigel, Mohr, Berger, Brenneman, Metzler and Charles.

During the first five years of the settlement there were a number of instances where changes of residence or location were made. Mr. Colt at first set up his residence at Erie, or Presque Isle, and the year later decided upon Greenfield, where he established a little hamlet called Colt's Station. This was chiefly for business purposes of course, Erie being reckoned as his home. Quite different was the case of Col. Seth Reed. The first of the white settlers in Erie county, he was also the first to be called away by death. But before he died he had removed to the Walnut creek flats about where Kearsarge now is located. Col. Reed, when he came to Erie did not immediately "locate." He built a temporary dwel- ling which he made to serve as a hotel until a better could be built, which was the next year. No sooner was the new Presque Isle Hotel built- like its predecessor, of logs, but larger-than giving it in charge of his son Rufus, he moved out to the farm he had taken up on the banks of Walnut creek, and there he died in 1797.

Thomas Forster who in 1797, came with Richard Swan and John Kelso to this county and opening business in Fairview at the mouth of Walnut creek, brought his wife in 1799, and taking up his residence in Erie, continued to live in Erie until his death, occupying positions of prominence and trust during the entire period. No citizen of early Erie stood higher in the esteem of his fellows than Col. Thomas Forster.

David McNair located in what became Millcreek township, but entered two tracts, one in the flats of Walnut creek and the other on the northern slope of the first ridge in what was afterwards South Erie, which eventually became his home.

John Kelso, who came from Dauphin county in 1797 with Col. Forster, settling at first in Fairview township and giving a fair start to the hamlet which became known as Manchester because it was the site of so many industries, after a time moved to the region near the head of the bay, still a Kelso neighborhood, and later came to Erie, where in time he rose to eminence, becoming an associate judge, afterwards a brigadier general of militia, and filling, from time to time many positions of public trust.

As Col. Seth Reed's was the first death among the white settlers, the marriage of his son, Charles J., to Miss Rachel Miller, Dec. 27, 1797. was the first espousal among the newcomers. There was then no clergy- man of any denomination. The lack of a minister was easily supplied, Thomas Rees, Esq., a justice of the peace, tying the nuptial knot.

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

The earliest births recorded were that of John R. Black, son of William Black, in Fort Le Bœuf in August, 1795, and Mr. Boardman of Washington township, born in the same year.

It has become a proverbial saying that the life of the pioneer was a life of hardship, and perhaps there has never been a more impressive example of what real hardship actually implied than was afforded by the experience of Martin Strong, who came to Erie county from New England in 1795. He traveled the entire distance on foot, and upon arriving here was compelled by circumstances to accept work of any kind that offered. When he had a chance to work at 50 cents a day, he gladly accepted the offer, though it was to hew planks, or puncheons as they were called, in the woods, these puncheons being used as flooring in the log houses. He continued at this work for several days, until his contract was finished, when, upon making a settlement with his employer he discovered he was indebted for board at the rate of 25 cents per day. He refused to pay the difference, whereupon his compass and chain-for he was a surveyor-were seized and held until he consented to pay the charge and redeem them. It was only the beginning of the hardship he was called upon to endure. Having taken employment with the Holland Land Company as a surveyor, he located on the Summit, in Waterford township, and continued at work until November, when, dreading the ap- proach of winter with its loneliness in the woods and the rigors of the season, he embarked in a dugout canoe of his own construction and pro- ceeded from Waterford down the creeks by the old French route to Pittsburg. There finding no occupation for him, he offered himself to the highest bidder to do any kind of work. He secured a bid of three dollars a month and board, and accepted it, working faithfully for three months, and serving so well that his appreciative employer offered to add fifty cents per month if he would remain longer. This he declined, however, and returned to his Erie county farm and took up the toil of hewing out a home in the wilderness of woods.

The disparity between wages and board in those first years of the settlement has been noted, but it was not without reasonable excuse- unless that the wage scale should be so extremely low. It cost something to live at that time. Wheat, in 1798-99 sold at $2.50 per bushel, and flour at $18.00 a barrel. Corn was $2.00 a bushel and potatoes $1.50. The commonest food of the time was corn meal and potatoes-indeed little else was to be had, pork and flour being among the luxuries. The only meat obtainable was game, and that was not had in daily supply. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the price of board was high ; rather that under the circumstances it was so low.

There was no commerce in the early years of the settlement. Every thing that entered into the domestic economies was produced on the farm. Not only the food, but the clothing ; and in respect to the latter the whites who came in to conquer the forest were little if any better off for the

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

time being than the savages. Later there was an improvement in condi- tions; when the farmers became wool-growers. Then, however, it was an improvement in degree. The clothing was made in the house of the farmer, the wool spun into yarn or thread and woven into homespun on the homely wheels and unhandy looms that were part of the necessary outfit of every pioneer home. It was a long time before food or fabrics were brought in from the outside world, and quite as long before the conveniences of the woolen mill in the locality was available to lighten the toil of the housewife.

Implements of every kind were difficult to procure and many a crude makeshift had to be employed. There was no table-ware of even ordinary china, nor multiplied utensils for kitchen use. The stove was yet a long way in the future, and the household furniture was of the rudest kind, hewn out with the axe and put together without nails. The houses them- selves were of the same crude order of construction, consisting of a hollow pile of logs roughly roofed over, with a fire-place in one end. There were no windows of glass; no iron hinges for doors ; not a nail was em- ployed in the building. The house even stood without a foundation, and consisted of but a single room which was at once the kitchen, the living room, and the bed chamber. The fire-place was built of bowlders, the chimney built up square of sticks plastered with clay, and clay and moss were used to stop up the chinks between the logs of the enclosing walls. The roof was made of split clapboards held in place by logs laid upon each course and they were not always good roofs-rather, they were sometimes not very poor roofs. The lock on the door was the wooden latch with the string pulled in-when the latch-string was out the visitor might deem himself welcome. If there was any floor better than the ground packed liard from use it was made of puncheons hewn out of the logs in the woods. The sleeping accommodations were mostly shelves, but often a shake-down on the floor. It was in such a home as this that, almost without exception the first white natives of the county were born and grew up ; it was surrounded by such poor make-shifts of house fur- nishing and equipment that the pioneer mothers reared their large fami- lies while the multitudinous domestic duties were performed. Few remain who remember those rude pioneer homes, the very difficulties of which gave to the time and the place a healthy, hardy, industrious and frugal race.

Nor were these inconveniencies in domestic life the only hardship to be endured ; the only drawback to progress. It was a struggle for ex- istence all along the line and all the time. It is sometimes said the woods abounded in game, and that food was plentiful for that reason. But in this abundance of game there was itself a drawback, because the animals were so very destructive to the farmers' crops. At times the squirrels would become so numerous as to become a plague, and on occasions these and other wild game would feed upon the crops in such numbers as to Vol. I-7

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

nearly destroy it, and the deer would trample down the wheat and some- times ruin the whole crop. It was in self-defense rather than for sport that hunting parties were oragnized and went out to ruthlessly slay.

But there were compensations. The social life had its pleasures, quaint and curious to us, but interesting when told. The late Lewis Olds graphically described the visiting custom. "The mode of visiting," he said, "was a little different from what it is now. Neighbors and friends went several miles in both winter and summer to visit each other. Nearly all visiting was done with an ox-sled in winter, for every settler had a yoke of oxen. The sled-box. filled with straw, with plenty of blankets or coverlids, as they were then called, made a very comfortable way of riding.

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A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Miller, John, 1849- Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 926

Author: Miller, John, 1849-
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 926