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 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
Nothing so contributed toward breaking down the barrier be- tween the Germans and their English-speaking fellow citizens as the War for the Union. Nothing ever occurred to exhibit their spirit of loyalty to the land they had adopted as that important crisis in the history of the nation. When the call went forth for volunteers to enter the army of defense, the Germans were among the first to re- spond. Many of them had had military training in the land of their birth, and of these not a few entered as officers, while the rolls of the rank and file in the several regiments contained the names of hun- dreds of Germans. They enlisted as American volunteer soldiers, and they served as American soldiers, doing valiant service where- ever duty called them. One of the Erie regiments was organized and commanded by a German, Col. Schlaudecker, and the list of officers who went out from Erie from among the Germans includes the names of Mueller, Lutje, Wagner, Sexauer, Cronenberger, Woeltge, Liebel, Dieffenbach, Zimmerman and Mehl.
Industrially the Germans have contributed materially to the pro- gress of the county. In the milling business, as weavers, tanners, manufacturers of lumber and products of wood, of shoes, soap and candles, musical instruments, machinery ; as brewers, maltsters, dyers, refiners of oil, chemists-in all these lines and others, the Germans have had prominent part. The manufacture of oil cloths, which for years was one of the most important of Erie's industries, was pur- sued exclusively by Germans. One of the greatest of Erie's present industries was founded, developed, and carried forward to its present splendid proportions by a single family of Germans. It would be difficult for the people of the present time to understand how im- portant to the community the oil cloth industry was, the financial proceeds of which furnished for a time most of the ready money that came into Erie, a result that was due to the genius and skill of Schwingel, Woelmer, Dieffenbach, Curtze, Camphausen and Beck- ers. And the city owes much to the splendid business foresight of
252
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Henry Jarecki who appreciated and promptly took advantage of the opportunity offered by the discovery of petroleum to build up out of small beginnings the gigantic industry that now bears his name. There are those who are later comers into Erie's industrial world, not so much in its history by the measure of years, but greatly so in the standard of importance. The advent of the Behrends-Ernst R. and Dr. Otto F .- in 1898, when the great Hammermill paper manu- factory had its beginning, was the opening of another chapter in the history of manufacturing in Erie county.
For many years the social life of the Germans in Erie, character- istic of that people, was an example to those of the other race and an inspiration, and nothing perhaps exerted a stronger influence than the Erie Liedertafel. This society was organized in 1863. As its name indicates, it was a musical association. But, being German, it was more. It was social. It was the nearest approach to a club that Erie had known. It appealed to the rest of the population of Erie to such an extent that not a few who had little or no knowledge of the German language became members. And yet it remained dis- tinctively German. As a social organization it quickly became im- mensely popular. Musically it took high rank, and the name of the Liedertafel in connection with any undertaking of a musical char- acter was accepted as a guarantee. It maintained a well drilled chorus, directed by capable musicians paid for their services, and the public performances in concerts drew large and critical audiences. There was also later a mixed chorus, and from time to time operas were produced in a manner to win the approval of the most com- petent critics. Soon after the organization of the Liedertafel the first Saengerfest held in Erie took place (in 1866), which was one of the most notable events of the period. There was formed, after a time, an auxiliary, called the Liedertafel Ladies Society which proved a valuable adjunct. It turned out in the end, however, that the Liedertafel could not endure. It was not that those who had formed and maintained it for many years had lost interest or enthusiasm. It was due to the fact that death had thinned the ranks, and, out of the next generation, there were not recruits to fill the vacancies. They were becoming Americanized. The newer clubs, and the newer associations, together with the effect of their American education was working a change. In all the attributes that distinguish the German, those of the second generation were also German-except that which clung to the old country customs and traditions. There are not so many in proportion who are singers or players upon in- struments of music, and the means of enjoyment and facilities for amusement are so numerous, and so different from what they were, and, also, so attractive to the younger generation, that the old associa- tions and the old customs have fallen into neglect. The Erie Lieder- tafel after an honorable and brilliant career, fell asleep about 1905.
253
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
The same experience is to be recorded of the Erie Turnverein, organized in 1868, and for many years a highly successful institution. The annual fests or picnics of the Turners at Cochran's Grove were events that appeared on the calendar in red letters. Other turner societies were the turnvereins of South Erie and East Erie, both of which were most popular and successful soon after their organiza- tion.
In 1873 there was dedicated with considerable circumstance the hall or club house of the Philharmonia Society, at the corner of Ninth and Parade streets. Col. M. Schlaudecker was its president, and it had a large membership. The house was provided with parlors, dining room, grill room, a bowling alley and an assembly hall, and besides, a finely shaded garden, provided with seats and tables. A feature of the organization was a full military band under the leadership of Prof. Anton Kohler, a skilled musician. For a few years the Phil- harmonia prospered. Then the membership began to fall away, and in the course of time it went out of existence. Its club house eventually came into the possession of the East Erie Turnverein, and to this day it is known as the East Erie Turn Hall.
There were other German societies organized at various dates, some of which proved enduring, others going out of existence after a time. The Herrmann's Sohne was organized in 1858. The German Friendship Benevolent Society began in 1863. The Casino Club was organized in 1865 by F. Curtze, A. Roemer and P. A. Becker. The D. O. Harugari was introduced in Erie in 1867, Mozart and Bismarck lodges being formed in that year. Under the encouragement of this order a large German library and a museum of considerable preten- sions were established and for years maintained. The museum was under the direction of Capt. W. F. Lutje, an enthusiastic collector and antiquarian, who brought it up to a high degree of excellence. Another feature in connection with the activities of this order was the organization in 1869 of the Harugari Maennerchor, a musical society that attained to distinction. Other lodges of this order are, Erie lodge, 1872; Fritz Reuter lodge, 1888; Germania degree lodge, 1874; life insurance section, sixth district of Pennsylvania, 1876; Elizabeth lodge, the women's degree, 1891. The Erie Saengerbund, organized in 1871, was a musical society for years popular among the German Americans, but it finally went out. The Erie Maen- nerchor, organized in 1872, became immediately popular and pros- perous. It has manifested a degree of stability that gives promise of an extended existence. A piece of ground on State street above Sixteenth was acquired and a handsome and substantial music hall was built in 1889, which contains, besides the club rooms required for the organization a commodious hall with a fully equipped stage, in which concerts are given, and several engagements by German the- atrical organizations have rendered it a popular playhouse. The
254
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Maennerchor is still in existence and has a large membership. The Siebenburger is the latest German organization, founded in 1898, and occupying a commodious hall at the corner of Twenty-first and French streets.
Perhaps nothing contributed more to the Americanizing of the Germans than intermarriage. It began early, a good deal earlier than is generally understood. One of the first, perhaps the very first of the Germans to take a wife from among the American women was William F. Rindernecht; and his example found very many imitators, not only among the second generation, but among the natives of the Fatherland. Today it is a very common matter that a German man or woman shall select as a life mate one of another nationality, and most of all are ties formed with Americans. By German, in this connection it is to be understood not to refer alone to those who have come from the old country, but to those of German blood. Nor are there lacking those who, proud enough of their ancestry, yet, recognizing the logic of fact, proclaim themselves, not Germans nor German-Americans, but Americans pure and simple without any quali- fication whatever, no matter what significance there may be in a name.
DR. E. W. GERMER.
No account of the Germans in Erie would be complete without allusion to Dr. E. W. Germer. He was one of the noblest char- acters this town of Erie ever knew ; gruff and rugged outside as a
255
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
chestnut burr, but with a heart of gold. There is no lack of Erie people who remember the good doctor, some because of his splendid social qualities ; many because of his inflexible purpose in connection with his position of health officer, and no telling how many because of his generous nature, for he never paraded his beneficences, and if the newspaper fellows learned anything of this trait of his character it was incidental, and not through any parade or boast on his part. I well remember my first acquaintance with Dr. Germer. It was on the day when, after the surrender at Appomattox, the city was pre- paring for a proper celebration. Eager to have his compatriots duly represented in that great demonstration, preparations for which were crowded into a few hours of a single day, he was early at one of the centres-the office of the Dispatch-with an order for handbills, to be distributed. They were to be printed in two languages, and he had the German portion headed in the largest letters to be procured : "Reiter heraus." As early as possible the German type was pro- cured from the Zuschauer office, and the doctor himself attended to the distribution of the bills, enlisting the aid of a sufficient number in the work in hand. The result was noticeable in the greatly increased body of horsemen in the procession.
But it was as a sanitarian that he stood pre-eminent, and in that connection that he became famed. He was the first health officer of Erie and as such exercised an autocratic power that was remarkable in the fact that in spite of his tyranny he retained his position until his death. When Dr. Germer first assumed the position of health officer Erie was like any other country town of the period, number- ing among its inhabitants not a few who kept pigs and geese. Against this civic abomination the doctor waged instant and unrelenting war. It had been the practice to allow the pigs and geese quite free range, and the commons and even the streets in certain portions of town were none too good to be pastures for these creatures. When, therefore, Doctor Germer moved upon this public enemy, as he de- nominated it, there was war, and a merry war it was. This was especially true of the First ward, where the Celtic housewife was ready to dispute the ground and defend her property, and there was comedy sure enough when the doctor's red face surmounted by a pompadour of tawny hair appeared on the scene.
The lingual acquirements of a healthy and irate Irish woman are proverbial and her cutting wit are well known. But the doctor was something of a talker himself when occasion demanded, and humor- ous as well. Nothing more entertaining can be conceived than the dialogues that ensued during his numerous raids. But he had his way. He ferretted out every pigsty and smashed it, and protests and threats were of no avail. He was absolutely fearless where timidity might have been excusable. He was also impartial. The Second ward was compelled to come to time along with the First.
Vol. I-17
256
JHISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
There were in those days no sanitary police or constables. Dr. Germer was all there was of the department of health. He made his own investigations and served his own notices. More than that, he personally executed his mandates. An instance of this was wit- nessed one day when he undertook to suppress a nuisance in rear of the old Zimmerly house, a frame building that stood on the site of the Park View House of today. Notice had been served and the date fixed when the nuisance complained of was to be suppressed. It had not been complied with. The doctor fixed it.
Probably the first thing in the shape of a sewer that Erie ever possessed consisted of a covered drain extending from Peach street, near Seventh, diagonally across the West park, under Brown's Hotel and the rear of the Gallagher building adjacent, and passing north under the brick building on Fifth street at one time occupied by the Dispatch office. The kitchen of the Zimmerly house was connected with this drain by a four-sided wooden conduit exposed for a height of about 10 feet perpendicularly, from the sink extension of the kitchen to the ground of the low-lying back yard. The pipe-if it could be so called-was, of course, without traps of any sort. Besides it was not tight, and much of the slop and waste that passed down it leaked out through the seams of the corners. This was the nuisance and it was to execute his order for its suppression that the doctor had come. He was armed with the necessary process. That was an axe. Passing through the hotel from the front door to the back he de- scended the flight of steps to the ground in the back yard and, wield- ing his process, applied it with such good effect that in the space of a few seconds the nuisance was removed. Then he proceeded up- stairs to the kitchen floor, and turned his axe upon the sink, nor stopped until it was a complete wreck. That was Dr. Germer's way, and it was a good way. Before the day was over the necessary changes were being made.
Dr. Germer was a scientist. His sanitary ideas were based upon scientific principles, and he had a way at command always of convincing. Sometimes force was his way. Oftener that was not necessary. When it came to fighting trichinosis there were a number of methods employed. The doctor was a skilled micro- scopist, and he employed the microscope to good purpose in dem- onstrating the presence of trichinae in pork, while his lectures and newspaper articles were informing to the general public. Of course trichinosis was a new ailment then, and it was not easy to convince people who believed it to be a new medical fad. It was a still harder task to convince the butchers who had meat to sell. Force became necessary with the butchers, but in time the reforms he set about were accomplished and the meat market men came to submit with a sufficient degree of grace to the inspections that were forced upon then.
257
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Dr. Germer's fame was not always bounded by the limits of Erie city. In the course of time he was known and respected throughout the state and had the honor of being the first president of the state board of health. It was during his connection with that body that he suddenly acquired national fame. He was attending a health con- vention at Washington, when he brought forward the subject of prohibiting the importation of rags, especially from the southern Med- iterranean countries where Asiatic cholera was at the time prevalent, and his address where he ridiculed the idea of praying to Heaven for the suppression of a plague due to people's own neglect, caught the entire country. It came to be known as the grasshopper speech be- cause he employed that pestiferous insect as an illustration in a way that was as humorous as it was convincing.
It was through Dr. Germer's personal efforts that a hospital was made available when an epidemic of virulent smallpox came down upon Erie, and it was his labors, well directed and diligently pursued, that discovered the grave of Mad Anthony Wayne, long lost through the indifference of Erie people. He was a marvelously entertaining story-teller, and, brusque and gruff in speech, had a heart as tender as woman's where distress appeared. There was not a selfish thought in his mind-and yet there were very many who judged him other- wise, and not a few who rated him "queer."
During an epidemic of smallpox he was not only health officer and physician to the afflicted, but undertaker as well. Aided by his lientenant, Katzmeyer, of the pest-house, he buried the dead of the pestilence during the night time, and added to the duties of under- taker that of clergyman as well, reading the burial service by the light of the lantern his assistant held before committing "earth to earth." And yet he was no professor of religion. His beneficences were unnumbered. He was the physician of the poor, and the greater part of his practice as a doctor was for pure love of his kind. Dr. Germer deserves a monument in Erie.
CHAPTER XXV .- THE RAILROADS ENTER.
THE ERIE AND NORTH EAST LINE .- TO BE THE TERMINUS OF THE NEW YORK AND ERIE .- THE ROAD FROM THE WEST .- OTHER PLANS.
Commercially Erie maintained from the beginning a place right in the van in the march of progress. When lake commerce had its begin- nings in the early years of the Nineteenth Century, Erie's imports in the salt trade, with exports of bacon, whiskey and flour, constituted the bulk of the commerce of the great lakes, and this condition pre- vailed for a number of years. It was not until about the time of the war with Great Britain, which began in 1812, that lake mariners made bold to push their efforts to secure trade farther west than Erie. As a matter of fact there was little trade west of Erie that could be se- cured, for all the western country was still unsettled, barring a few outposts and trading stations where barter in furs was the chief busi- ness transacted. So in the beginning Erie was a leader in commerce.
Soon afterward followed the era of steamboats, and in this branch of commerce Erie was quick to forge to the front. The population of the town of Erie was not large, but it included one man who, for genius in conimerce and general business, was remarkable. No man of his time, perhaps, exhibited more brilliant abilities in business than Rufus S. Reed, and Erie's early prestige in commerce was due to the activities of Mr. Reed. Under him the steamboat business was begun. His son Charles M., who had inherited his father's instinct, took to steamboating, and in a few years it developed to really pro- digious proportions, especially for the period. He was not only in control of the steamboat business, but brought it to a degree that was far in advance of the times. And under his management the busi- ness of steamboating was exceedingly profitable. Gen. Reed also identi- fied himself with the stage business, and though that did not compare in magnitude with the business of the boats, it, too, was financially success- ful. Yet again was his business foresight and shrewdness manifested when, taking advantage of a fortunate situation that offered, he be- came the leading spirit in the canal enterprise.
There was yet another direction in which he could reach out and become identified with the advance of progress. He saw the dawn of the railroad era approaching and was among the very first to become
259
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
identified with it. When the building of railroads came to claim the attention of the business world, and had with some degree of success been begun in the east, the feasibility of introducing the railroad into the new west became at once apparent to Mr. Reed and those engaged in business in Erie, at that time, and when a convention was at length proposed to consider the subject of extending the railroads then undertaken in New York State farther west, the Erie men were ready to take a hand. In 1831 a convention in the interest of railroad extension was held at Fredonia, N. Y., and Messrs. C. M. Reed, P. S. V. Hamot and Thomas H. Sill attended as representatives of Erie. In those days railroad charters, granted by the states, conveyed au- thority only to the state boundaries, so that when it was proposed to extend the project of building a new railroad parallel with the shore of Lake Erie westward beyond the boundary of New York, it be- came necessary to obtain a charter from the state of Pennsylvania for that part of it to be constructed in Erie county. There was an agreement entered into on the part of those representing New York State railroad interests to build a road to the Pennsylvania State line, while the representatives from Erie agreed to organize and build from the western terminus of the New York roads to Erie.
It was in furtherance of the plan adopted at Fredonia that the Erie & North East Railroad Company was organized, but it was not incorporated until 1842. Nor was there immediate progress. The Erie men interested in the enterprise were desirous of obtaining a distinct business understanding with the projectors of the New York rcads, so that it was October, 1846, before books were opened for subscriptions to the stock of the new company. Nearly all the stock was taken by Erie men, the leaders being Charles M. Reed, John A. Tracy and John H. Walker, and the inducement for undertaking the work was a contract with the Dunkirk and State Line Railroad Com- pany which provided that a road to extend the New York & Erie rail- road would be built to connect with the Erie & North East Railroad at the State line.
Erie people were very ready to aid the enterprise of building an extension of the New York & Erie Railroad, for it was the expecta- tion, and the understanding that Erie would thus become the terminus of a railroad that would give direct communication with New York City. It meant much to the people of Erie who saw in the future a splendid development of the fine harbor of which it was justly proud, a development that was certain to prove of immense benefit to the whole people. The charter obtained at Harrisburg for the Erie & North East Railroad, established the terminus at the harbor of Erie.
In pursuance of the contract with the Dunkirk & State Line Rail- road work upon the Erie & North East Railroad was begun in 1849. and the track was laid of the gauge of six feet, which was that of the
260
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
New York & Erie. Railroad building in those days was not as it is now. Progress was slow; very slow as compared with what is done today. There were but twenty miles of railroad to be constructed. The surveys under the direction of Milton Courtright of Erie were completed in the spring of 1849 and contracts for the construction of the road were let on the 26th day of July of the same year, but the road was not completed until the beginning of 1852, the first train over the new road entering Erie on the 19th of January of that year. This tardiness turned out to be an unfortunate matter for Erie. The Dunkirk & State Line road did not at once enter upon the performance of its part of the contract, and meanwhile there came on the scene a new competitor,-a rival,-in the form of a railroad to be a continua- tion of the New York Central from Buffalo to the west. The fact that this new opposition was developing was not unknown to the Erie & North East Railroad Company, and the knowledge may have been somewhat responsible for the delay. But the local road had no re- course. Bound both by their contract and the state charter, they were under obligations to build a six-foot track. This they did, and the railroad completed, it was operated as an independent link, for at the New York State line the road that should have connected with it had been built of an entirely different gauge.
Meanwhile railroads from the west had been projected along the lake shore, and, under a charter from the State of Ohio, the Cleve- land, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad was built, extending from Cleve- land to the Ohio-Pennsylvania State line. There remained here an- other Erie county link necessary to connect the western road with Erie. A curious expedient was resorted to in order to supply the want. The Franklin Canal Company was chartered at Harrisburg in 1844. It had to do with the operation of a canal between Meadville and Franklin, but on the 9th of April, 1849, the charter was so amended as to author- ize the building of a railroad on the route of the canal from Mead- ville to Franklin, and to extend it northward to Lake Erie and south- ward to Pittsburg. This charter, by some sort of legal logic was so construed by Judge John Galbraith as to make it apply to a separate railroad line between Erie and the Ohio State line, and the railroad was built, completing a line of communication between Cleveland and Erie, the first train being run from Erie to Ashtabula, November 23, 1852.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.