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 27
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Nor was that the end of his official act. He caused to be published in the columns of the Dispatch a formal notification to all concerned of the changed conditions of affairs across the bay, proclaimed the land the property of the United States, and warned all not to trespass upon that property.
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Nor did he permit his care and defense of the new United States territory to relax by the lapse of time. He was too faithful to any duty entrusted to him to permit any lax methods while so important a matter was under his charge. His guardianship was maintained to whatever extent he regarded necessary. And that was how it came about that on that cranberry day in 18:1 the jackies stood guard in the cranberry marsh and the unusual sight of stacked muskets was there to be witnessed.
But, after all, that collector of customs had transcended his authority. His duty required him to receive and account for government moneys, and he was also custodian of government property, whether buildings or goods in bond. He had no right to accept a deed to land or an acces- sion of territory, unless directed explicitly to do so. He realized that fact himself. But it did not deter him from at once reporting the matter to his superiors in Washington.
When the matter came to the attention of Secretary Boutwell he stated that the collector at Erie had clearly exceeded his authority. And that was all there was of it then. The collector was not rebuked nor was the action taken reversed. As a matter of fact, the collector was sustained by the course pursued by the secretary. It even came to the attention oi President Grant who said the collector had no power to do what he did, but yet he had done right.
United States District Attorney Swope was sent to Erie to look into the matter, but he made no changes in the status of affairs. On the contrary, upon his return and report, there was sent to Erie a military commission consisting of Gen. Gottfried Weitzell, Gen. Comstock, and another, who reported to the collector and then proceeded to make a tour of the peninsula. The result was that the commission declared the land admirably adapted for military purposes and well fitted for fortifi- cations and for a garrison.
The outcome was that the' war department assumed charge of the peninsula and exercises supervision of it to this day, Capt. James Hunter being its custodian for years. The authority for this disposition of the peninsula comes from an act of congress passed in 1871, that directs the secretary of war to receive and accept the title passed under the state legislative acts of May 11, 18:1.
Will there ever be anything done with the peninsula by the govern- ment more than to let it remain in its present delightful state of nature? Who can say? There was a time when there was every prospect of great and important changes being effected there. That was during the lifetime of Hon. W. L. Scott. It will be remembered that the peninsula was an issue in the campaign in which he was elected mayor, and he was on the side that favored the change which eventually came to pass. When he learned the purpose back of Capt. Ottinger's order published in August. 1871. he was greatly pleased.
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When, however, he became a representative in congress he laid plans for mammoth changes on the eastern end of the peninsula. It was his purpose to eventually secure a military garrison for Presque Isle, and the plan included the construction of a fine macadam boulevard all the way around the outside of the peninsula to the garrison at its eastern end, a drive that would be without an equal anywhere else in the country.
His friends also report a plan of his to have converted Misery bay into a naval station, with facilities for building and repairs and all the requisites to make it as fully equipped as a complete naval headquarters should be. His plans regarding the peninsula are, however, only a few of the mammoth projects he had in mind to bring about, if death had not stepped in and cut short his career. They may yet be realized, for the peninsula remains, and all the attributes that recommended it when the military commission visited it and when Mr. Scott planned, are still there.
CHAPTER XXIII .- THE CANAL BUILT.
A STATE ENTERPRISE .- INTENDED TO CONNECT TIDEWATER AND THE LAKES .- FINISHED TO ERIE BY A LOCAL COMPANY. -ITS CLOSING.
Among the very earliest enterprises to engage the attention of the leading statesmen of the new-born American republic was that of internal commerce. Long anterior to the railroad, when, indeed, such a method of communication between distant points had not even been dreamed of by the most fertile of mechanical imaginations, the means of ready communication with the interior was regarded as a pressing need, and believed to be one that would rapidly in- crease in importance as the country was developed. President Wash- ington was one of the leading advocates in his time of a system of canals. The streams had been utilized to a considerable extent, but not practically, for they were not always serviceable and generally were navigable but one way. The solution, however, was easy enough, and that was to construct canals, following the course of the rivers when the rivers themselves would not answer-for there was a good deal of slack water in every stream. The early years of the Republic, therefore, became an era of canal projects.
In Pennsylvania the canal idea took root early. As far back as 1:62 the feasibility of connecting the Delaware River and Lake Erie was discussed among the numerous projects for internal com- merce that came up for attention among the progressive men of that time. There can be no doubt something of this sort was in the minds of the Philadelphians who took so much interest in securing the Tri- angle as a part of the state, mainly because of its splendid harbor. The plan or definite proposition of connecting Lake Erie with the Delaware did not come to a head, however, until the year 1823, when the state legislature passed an act creating a commission to survey or explore a route for connecting Lake Erie with French Creek by canal and slack water. The outcome of this was a con- vention that met in Harrisburg in August, 1825, at which there were representatives from forty-six counties, Giles Sanford attending from Erie. The result of this convention was the adoption of a series of resolutions in favor of a canal from the Susquehanna to the Alle- gheny river, and from the Allegheny to Lake Erie.
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Immediately afterwards the State embarked in the enterprise, incurring a heavy debt for the purpose, and by 1834 had completed a canal as far as to Pittsburg, the first boat from the east reaching Pittsburg in October of that year. Then ensued a vigorous and bit- ter contention regarding the route for the extension to Lake Erie. There were two routes that seemed to be available, and each had its partisans. What was known as the eastern route extended up the Alle- gheny river and French creek, following the old French route, to Waterford, whence it was intended by some means to get over the summit to Erie. The other, known as the western route was down the Ohio from Pittsburg, up the Beaver and Shenango rivers, and thence across another summit, to Lake Erie. The only way of settling the question at issue was by having surveys made, and when this was done the engineers reported in favor of the western route. The adoption of this route, however, opened up another controversy. This was with reference to the terminus of the canal, one party favoring the mouth of Elk creek, and the other the harbor of Erie. It got into the legislature. Hon. Elijah Babbitt represented Erie in the session at which the matter came up to be disposed of, and through his efforts Erie was made the lake terminus of the Penn- sylvania canal.
West of Erie, in Millcreek township, there was a state reserve tract of 2,000 acres of land. It was the third section of the town of Erie. In the year 1832 Hon. John H. Walker, then a representa- tive in the Legislature secured the passage of an act ceding this land (the third section), to the borough of Erie, for the purpose of building a canal basin, reserving out of the section, however, 100 acres for the county alms house. The controversy with reference to the terminus was not finally settled until 1836, when work was under- taken by the State. In 1838, operations began at Erie, which took the form of a public celebration. The Fourth of July was appropriately chosen as the date, and the ceremonies of the occasion were in keep- ing, consisting of a demonstration on the streets of the village, speech- es and at the proper time, "breaking ground" for the new public work that meant so much to Erie. Captain Daniel Dobbins was given the honor of throwing out the first shovelful of earth. Work on the canal was prosecuted by the state in a rather desultory fashion, until 1842, when, having expended $4,000,000, the legislature decided to call a halt. It only required the appropriation of $211,000 to complete the work, and put the Erie extension of the canal in operation, but the legislature was not willing to appropriate.
However, it was quite ready to make a free gift of what had cost four million dollars if any other interest would complete the work. There was another interest right on the spot. By an act passed at the session of 1842-43 the Erie Canal Company was incorporated.
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The company was organized with Rufus S. Reed as president and C. M. Reed as treasurer. To this new corporation was ceded all the work that had been done, on condition that it would finish the canal and operate it. Promptly the corporation set about the work. That well-watered stock was calculated to put spurs in the sides of far less enterprising men than the Reeds, who were the moving spirits. Construction progressed rapidly, both on the line of the canal and at the terminus. At the harbor an extensive basin was constructed. This consisted of the extension of State street into a causeway out to a dock that extended east and west about 400 feet each way. The basin, enclosed by the east and west extensions was protected from westerly gales by Reed's dock. The outlet of the canal was just east of Reed's dock. The canal was completed in 1844, and on De- cember 5th of that year the first boats arrived at Erie. They were the packet Queen of the West, crowded with passengers, and the R. S. Reed, loaded with coal. It was another day of celebration at Erie.
Fishing for chubs at the corner of Eighth and Chestnut streets is not a popular sport nowadays. And yet there are men still living in Erie who no doubt in their time have cast a line there and caught their string of fishes. But the conditions were different then.
Nor is it so very long since fishing was a pastime that might be engaged in in that now closely built up and populous section of the city. Until the year 1811 the conditions were admirably favorable for the peaceful sport, and almost any summer day there might be seen a group of boys seated on the grassy bank a short distance from the Eighth street bridge busy with their poles and lines intent upon capturing the wary chubs which there were found in plenty.
They were fishing in the canal.
The bridge was a short distance west of the intersection of Eighth and Chestnut streets, and was a considerable distance above the grade of the present street. It was necessary that it should be so in order to afford headroom, as the horses upon the towpath had to pass beneath. The towpath was on the western or northern side of the canal. The fishing ground, therefore, was on the opposite side, near the eastern end of the bridge.
There was a lock a short distance further up the canal, and, be- tween Eighth street and the lock there stood a grocery store (Glover's grocery) much patronized by the boatmen and by the people of Erie living in the neighborhood. An interesting sort of a place it was in its day, odorous with its miscellaneous stock, coal oil, codfish and ship chandlery affording the dominant elements of the overpowering smell, which was at times modified by cabbages and other vegetables, become stale for the lack of cold storage
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It was a great place for loungers and story-tellers. Perhaps the narratives that were dealt out were not technically to be denomi- nated sailor's yarns, but they were certainly yarns and plenty of them entertaining enough, to judge from the interest they excited among the crowds that sat about on the barrel-heads and boxes chewing fine- cut that had been weighed out of a big pail, or smoking the same rank form of the weed in short clay pipes. The men wore heavy boots into which the legs of their trousers were thrust, and coarse shirts, often of dark blue flannel. They were not all canalers, but, as a rule, there was a large proportion of that trade or profession, for at times, while one boat was locking through there would be one or more on each of the levels above and below, awaiting their turn at the lock, and mean- while their crews would drop in at Glover's to talk matters over and compare reckonings-such reckonings as these inland sailors thought important to make.
The Eighth street bridge was the last bridge in the city that spanned the canal. Below there were bridges at Sixth and at Fourth streets. Seventh, Fifth and Third streets were closed and some of the intersecting streets, where the canal interfered.
The level at Eighth street extended from a short distance below Seventh street where the weigh-lock was located. This lock had a building of two or three stories erected over it, the lower story being open, and displaying only the heavy beams of the frame upon which the superstructure was built. It was close to the gas works that occupied a position on Seventh street near Myrtle and extended about half-way to Sixth street. The coal necessary for the manufacture of the city's supply of gas came by way of the canal, and there was a slip to form the necessary harbor to accommodate the gas works.
There was another slip communicating with this same level. The canal extended diagonally across this portion of the city, and this other slip was constructed parallel with Chestnut street, beginning at about Seventh street and reaching almost to Eighth. This was Bur- ton's slip and in it the boats were moored that brought coal to Burton's coal yard. That yard was located just east of where A. P. Burton's residence now is, on Eighth street near Chestnut, and no doubt the sub- soil of that lot to this day bears trace in the carboniferous character of its make-up, of the time when it was one of the principal coal de- pots of the city of Erie.
On the bank of the canal just south of Seventh street stood Alf King's malt-house. This was one of the pioneer warehouses and man- ufactories of its kind in Erie, for Alfred King introduced the business of malting to this part of the world and set in motion the cultivation of barley as a feature of the farming industry of Erie county. The King malt-house was a frame structure and it was a memorable oc- casion when. in the early summer of 1865, it was burned. There were
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no water works or steam fire engines in Erie in those days and even with the plentiful supply of water that the canal afforded the Perry and Goodwill engine companies found they were not in it when it came to battling with the destroying element. feeding upon such combustible material as that structure was composed of.
That level was famous in its day. It was known as the weigh- lock basin, and at Seventh street was three or four times the ordinary width of the canal. Sometimes boats would be massed here by the score, awaiting their turn at the weigh-lock, many of them, however, finding business at the various warehouses that occupied positions on the margin of the canal or awaiting opportunity to discharge cargoes at the coal yard, the gas works or the wharves of those in other lines of trade. Among the warehouses was one owned by the Burtons which stands to this day but is now transformed into a double dwelling situat- ed on Chestnut street about half-way between Seventh and Eighth streets, and is now the property of Richard O'Brien's estate.
In the early days of the canal there was conducted a packet ser- vice of considerable importance. The packet lines went no farther north than the weigh-lock basin. That was the Erie terminus of the passenger business on the canal, and it was the scene of great activity as long as the passenger business continued. In the course of a few years, however, the packets disappeared from the canal. While it lasted, and at least during the first years of the passenger boats there were lively times on that aqueous thorough- fare, the emigrant business alone being something remarkable for those days. Very many Germans found their way to the west over the Erie canal, passing from the Lake Erie route to the Ohio and thence to Cincinnati and other cities that have been largely populated by people of that nationality, and Erie first obtained the Teutonic element of its population through Germans who had come, intending to pass through, but attracted by the charms of the city on the lake.
The weigh-lock basin, however, was not by any means all there was of the canal in Erie. Far from it. That artery of trade was lined with industries all the way from Ninth Street to the outlet lock at the harbor, and even farther.
Just below the weigh-lock, at Sixth street, there was a large cooperage. Adjoining the barrel factory on the east there was a coal yard in which for a time W. W. Todd, had an interest, and on the opposite side of Sixth street, occupying the space up to what is now the corner of Myrtle, there was another coal yard, that of E. W. Reed. All that space on Sixth street, now covered by handsome residences, that extends from the Kuhn block to the corner of Myrtle street, was occupied in the olden time by the canal and the coal yard. The Morrison residence occupied a fine elevated position west of and over-
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looking the turbulent waters of the canal and the roar of the waste water as it fell into the level below after passing around the lock was constantly in the ears of the dwellers in that vicinity.
There was another lock at Myrtle street, between Fifth and Sixth, and the waste water was utilized in its passage around this lock, for supplying power to the Canal mill, for many years operated by Oliver & Bacon. On the level below John Constable had established his planing mill business, and it is conducted by his sons to this day on the old site, though very greatly enlarged.
From this point down to the outlet the locks were frequent and the levels between locks were short. There were, however, numerous industries of one sort and another occupying whatever space was advantageous, among them being yards for the building and repair of canal boats. Prominent among these boat builders were Messrs. Bates and Foster, who long prospered.
Above the Glover lock there were also industries. The pottery that for many years did a successful business in the manufacture of brown earthenware, was noteworthy and Burger's shipyard was an- other deserving of mention.
It may thus be seen that the route of the canal through Erie was marked as a section of its greatest business activity. And yet, in commerce, its terminus was greater than all, for the bulk of the business that the canal brought to Erie was done at the harbor, and more than one colossal fortune had its foundation laid in the busi- ness brought to the harbor of Erie by the canal. The Public Dock, east and west, was alive with business enterprises in which such names as Reed, Scott, Rawle, Hearn, Richards, Walker and others, familiar to this day as leaders in business and wealth in Erie, were prominent.
Today there are but few traces remaining of that once famous artery of inland commerce. The deep hollows from Fourth street down, between Peach and Sassafras streets, called, now, the remains of the old canal, are not, strictly speaking, so much the remains of the canal as of the ravine that was utilized by the canal company at the time that waterway was constructed. In early days there was a stream called Lee's Run, which found its way to the bay through a deep gulley, and what remains unfilled below Fourth is in fact that gulley. Still it is also a remnant of the canal.
Let us look over the route in order to locate its course, and learn what remains at present of the canal.
Following the course backward from the bay : it started from the slip at the east side of Reed's dock, a wharf devoted to the soft coal business. Proceeding southward it nearly paralleled Peach street to Fourth, but there began to bend toward the west. It crossed Vol. I-16
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Sassafras between Fourth and Fifth, and Fifth more than half way between Sassafras and Myrtle.
Myrtle was crossed near Sixth, and Sixth a short distance west of Myrtle. Chestnut was crossed at about Seventh, but there was in reality no Chestnut street south from Sixth to the canal, for all that tract back half way to Walnut street, was occupied by what was known in the olden time as the Mulberry Orchard, a fine grove of that species of tree which was a favorite haunt of the youth of the town when the berries were ripe. Mawkish to the uncultivated palate, this fruit was greedily devoured by the boys. West of the canal Seventh street was such only in name east from Walnut to the canal.
The crossing of Eighth street was a short distance west of Chest- nut; and of Ninth at about Walnut. At Cherry, Tenth street was crossed and until within a few years there remained the trace of a lock between the rear of the little U. B. church and the old house at the corner of Twelfth and Poplar that, standing diagonal with the course of the two streets was the last relic that, architecturally, sug- gested the canal. From there the canal can still be traced through the grounds of the Erie Pail factory or the Williams Tool Company, crossing Liberty street near the railroad, under which it formerly passed, the old channel of the canal being still plainly seen at that point.
On the south side of the railroad there is a remnant of the old waterway leading in the direction of the Erie Forge Company's plant, and the main building of that company stands at a bias because the canal compelled it to be so placed. The course of the canal through the old Car Works property cannot now be traced; it was long ago filled up; but, proceeding in the general direction indicated by the remnant existing east of the Forge Company's works, an important trace is found just west of Raspberry street below Seventeenth, and from that point to beyond the city limits it is easily followed.
Occupying a commanding position near the center of the com- mon west of Raspberry street there is seen the well-preserved ruin of an old lock, in which every feature is prominently seen. Of course the stone of which it was built long ago disappeared. Yet the remains plainly indicate every part and detail of it. On the north side there is the gravel towpath, still made use of, but as a footpath affording a short cut to Eighteenthi street. Just south is the narrow but deep excavation that indicates the position of the lock. Grown up with willows and sumachs, it is a tangle of shrubbery, but it still contains water nearly all the year round, encouraging a growth of sedges and cat-tail flags. Just south of the mound that indicates the other side of the lock there is easily traced the wier that carried the surplus water from the level above to the level below, and just below the lock there is a large circular pool of water that never dries
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up and is filled with a rank growth of rushes, sedges, and other marsh plants. It is the basin formed below the lock, caused by the rush of water as the lock was being emptied, a feature of the upper end of every level. It is the only well defined relic of the canal still to be found within the limits of the city.
Above that lock the course of the canal is easily followed as it crosses Eighteenth street and then west, parallel to the Nickel Plate Railroad, past the Erie Chemical Co.'s plant, where it has received the waste of that factory, changing the color scheme of the mud into a resemblance to mortar. From that point westward its remains are frequently met with. Here and there stretches of several hundred yards are found, one place, not far from Asbury chapel, the old bed being filled with water that supports a luxuriant growth of cat-tail flags and is a favorite nesting place of the soldierly red-winged black- birds.
The deep ravine of Walnut creek was spanned by an aqueduct, the ruins of which a few years ago were to be seen at the eastern side of the gorge not far from Swanville station. The canal passed through Fairview and at what we know today as Wallace Junction turned southward, passing through Girard. It is the route of the old canal that the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad traverses and that course is faithfully followed even at the point south of Girard, where there was a mammoth curve along the side of a high side hill. It passed through Lockport and Albion, Springboro and Conneautville, and Conneaut Lake was the main feeder of the canal, for that marked the summit, furnishing the supply of water that made the canal possible. In many places south of Girard there still remain traces of the canal, and there are long stretches, filled with water, in which thousands of waterlilies bloom during June and July.
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