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 50
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Keepville's beginning was no doubt the settlement at that place in 1803 of Marsena Keep. When the country came to be opened up and roads laid out, two of them crossed at the Keep place near Corneaut creek, about two and a half miles southwest of Albion. Villages were planted thickly in that locality when the country was developing. Within a radius of four miles of Albion there are Keepville, Wanneta, Wellsburg, Cranesville and Lexington. At Keepville a Wesleyan Methodist con- gregation was organized in 1854 by Rev. John L. Moore, and a church was erected the same year. Cherry Hill. on the old State road, five miles west of Albion, is in the Harrington neighborhood and grew into con- siderable of a village, acquiring a church, a schoolhouse, two stores a smithy and perhaps thirty houses. Albion Depot. or Wanneta postoffice, is a mile west of Albion, for the railroad when it was built, was no respecter of persons or places and at Albion passed by on the other side. The Depot, however, came in time to support a store and a cluster of dwellings. Pennside at the county line, partly in Erie and partly in Crawford county, was originally a mill settlement brought about by the erection of extensive saw mills by the late J. Avery Tracy. It is of re- cent origin-within a quarter of a century,-but gives promise of perma- nence by possessing, in addition to the railroad station and saw-mill, two stores, a Methodist church, a school-house, blacksmith shop and a cluster of dwellings. Tracy, farther west, also started by the founder of Penn- side and named after him, was a more pretentious place once than it is now, though it still lingers, with something of the air of a rural village.
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The earliest road of this section was the Population Company's road from Lexington to Girard, laid out and opened in a sort of way in 1997. The State Road, opened in 1802 across the northern part of the township to the Ohio line, was the next common thoroughfare. The Meadville road, from Lexington into Crawford county, was opened in the beginning of the last century, and the Albion and Cranesville and Albion and Wellsburg roads, the Conneaut Centre road and the Albion and Keepville roads were also among the first. "Porky street," from Cherry Hill south and the Creek road from Pomeroy's bridge into Craw- ford county, have long been traveled.
Conneaut township citizens who have figured in public life are: David Sawdey and Humphrey A. Hills, members of the Legislature ; Abiathier Crane, John Salisbury, David Sawdey, H. A. Hills, Garner Palmer and George C. Mills, county commissioners; H. B. Brewster, jury commissioner ; Liberty Salsbury, S. D. Sawdey, mercantile apprais- ers; W. J. Brockway, S. D. Sawdey, C. F. Weigel, county auditors ; John H. Harrington, director of the poor ; David A. Sawdey, a prominent Erie lawyer, is a native of Conneaut township.
The earliest village and the first postoffice in Conneaut township was Lexington, named by Col. McNair, the agent of the Population Com- pany, when he established his office at that place. The postoffice was established there in 1823. In 1835, however, when a mile in width was taken from the township along its whole breadth, the interest of the people in the original settlement was transferred to a place that had sprung up where Jackson's run emptied into the East branch of Conneant creek. It was called Jackson's Cross-roads. It was already making some pretentions to business. There was a saw mill there, which had been built by Lyman Jackson and a grist mill, operated by Amos King, and not a few people, had established homes in that vicinity-Thomas Alexander, Patrick Kennedy, William Paine, Ichabod Baker, and Lyman Jackson. The place continued to be a sleepy little country hamlet until the beginning of the decade of the forties.
Then there was a sudden start forward. Accessions were numerous. The place assumed activity, and its name was changed to Albion. It was all due to the building of the canal. That artery of internal commerce quickened the entire region through which it passed, and Albion was not an exception. Dwellings multiplied in the village ; stores were established and industries sprang up. It was the centre of a good timber region, and was especially well supplied with white ash forests. Mills were built to saw the timber; manufactories of rake handles, of wooden rakes, of oars and other things were estab- lished and prospered, and the little community developed to such an ex- tent that in 1861 it was chartered as a borough, its first burgess being Perry Kidder. Albion was then at its best estate, its population being 443, and all of its industries were flourishing.
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Albion had attained considerable celebrity as a school town. The beginnings of education had been a little log house in which Lyman Jackson had taught. In 1838, however, there had been erected a school building of far more than ordinary pretensions, and it was called Joliet Academy. Its first principal was Elijah Wheeler. It was organized upon a high plane and its success dated from the start. It was widely patronized, attracting pupils from the greater part of Western Penn- sylvania, and of other states. It made a specialty of fitting its students to be teachers, and because of the specialty it thrived. For a time it was greater than the little town in which it was located, and Joliet was as often the name of the place as Jackson Cross-roads. After the borough of Albion had been incorporated, however, the Academy (in 1862) passed into the control of the school directors, but the school has always been maintained of a high grade. A new school was built in 1868. Just before the close of the spring term in 1908 it was de- stroyed by fire. In its stead there was erected and formally opened in January, 1909, a handsome brick high school building that cost $25,000. and is the finest building in town.
The churches of Albion include the M. E. congregation which had its origin in the neighborhood or Albion more than three-quarters of a century ago, and at one time worshipped in a church that stood a little west of the village. The present church, built in 1855, was enlarged in 1894. The Roman Catholics, Disciples and Congregation- alists also have organizations.
Albion Lodge of Odd Fellows was organized in 1849, passed through two fires and in 1885 emerged from the last of these disasters to establish itself in the most pretentious business block in the town, its own property. Western Star Lodge, F. & A. M., was chartered in 1859. and owns its own hall. Other orders that have flourished have been Albion Lodge, A. O. U. W., 1875; Albion Union, E. A. U., 1880; Mystic Circle, P. H. C., 1894; Conneaut Grange, 1893; Camp 67 State Police, 1893.
For a long period the principal hotel was the Sherman House, built in 1828 by Benjamin Nois, and for many years owned and managed by the Shermans, father and son. For seventy years it was the only caravan- sary of the borough.
Newspaper experience in Albion has been a repetition of that of every other little country town. The Erie County Enterprise, founded in 1861 by J. W. Britton and F. J. Dumars, failed three years later, not- withstanding its name. The Blissard was started in 1882 by E. C. Palmer and E. F. Davenport, but finally blew itself out, consolidating with the News, managed by C. Provo, who yielded to circumstances and sought riches elsewhere, the various changes at length bringing to the editorial chair, F. J. Brown, who controls its destinies at the present time.
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The Albion of today is different from what has been. The old Albion came into being through the influence of the canal. The new Albion owes its existence and splendid prosperity to another agency- the development of a railroad. With the building of the P. S. & L. E., Railroad Albion's hopes were revived. When that property passed into the hands of the Carnegie interests Albion's hopes were confirmed. From a population of 400 or less, in a few years the village grew to a town of 2,000, brought about by the fact that Albion had been made the junction of two branches of one of the most important railroads in the state. From a small station with a single siding the people saw track after track laid, and acre after acre added to the yards; saw round- houses erected and shops built, until the ground was covered with a network of steel, miles in extent, and buildings sufficient to constitute a small town. In 1908, the yards had facilities for storing 4,000 cars ; in 1909 enlargements were begun that promised to double the area and capacity.
Of course the town developed as the railroad increased. Dwellings were erected at the rate of 30 or 40 every year. Industries were added. In the place of the old Sherman House there was built in 1901 a fine new brick hotel now called the Hotel Albion, of which H. E. Wilson is manager; and the Central Hotel has been opened, in charge of F. J. Salsbury. In 1906 the borough was provided with electric lighting, fur- nished by the Albion Electric Light & Power Co. The Albion Water Company was chartered in 1909 and granted franchises, and is perfect- ing arrangements to introduce a gravity system to supply the town. A system of sewerage has been approved by the State Board of Health, and is soon to be introduced. A fire department has been equipped with chemical apparatus. The entire community is taking on modern and progressive ways.
In 1898 a half dozen of the business men formed an organiza- tion and opened the Citizens Bank which has ever since been success- fully managed by E. F. Davenport. Steps are now being taken to obtain a charter for it. On September 14, 1909, the First National Bank was chartered with a capital of $25,000, and Thomas Dolan as president. John Eckert as vice-president and W. A. Pond as cashier.
Of the industries of Albion, many of those of the olden time passed out of existence, in most instances due to destruction by fire. The flouring mill that was built by Amos King in 1828 was purchased by Joshua Thornton, and upon its being burned in 1889 was rebuilt the next year. To this Mr. Thornton added the Albion Woolen Mill. but both were burned in 1904. The woolen mill of W. H. Gray, built in 1840, was burned in 1876 and rebuilt by Thomas Thornton in 1880. The rake factory built by Michael Jackson in 1846, passed to George Van Riper & Co., but was burned in 1894. An oar factory built by Henry Salisbury and Reuben McLallen in 1859, burned down in 1868,
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was rebuilt, and again fell a victim to the flames. The manufacture of oars continued, however, A. Long & Son having opened their pres- ent oar factory in 189 :. The handle department of the A. Denio Fork Works, was operated for many years at Albion, but upon its destruction by fire in 1875 was removed to North Girard. C. Grate & Sons have for years operated a saw and planing-mill and general lumber business.
Of the most recent of Albion's industries may be mentioned the Flower Milling Company, organized in 1904, and operating by steam a large plant alongside the railroad. It is the most important industry of modern Albion. The plant of the Rogers Brothers, builders of steel bridges and buildings was established at Albion in 1905. Their busi- ness operations extend throughout the central and western part of the State.
These public officials have been furnished by Albion: Assembly. Orlando Logan; Clerk to the directors of the poor for two years, and clerk to the county commissioners from 1890 to the present, J. A. Robison. Garner Palmer, who was county commissioner during the war period, and who devised and successfully carried out a plan for the payment of the county's war debt, still lives in Albion, esteemed and respected by his fellow citizens.
CHAPTER IV .- ELKCREEK.
SETTLED EARLY .- ONE OF THE EARLIEST TOWNSHIPS, BUT TWICE AL- TERED .- ITS VILLAGES, FLOUR MILLS, OAR FACTORY AND OTHER INDUSTRIES.
Elkcreek was one of the original sixteen townships when Erie county was laid out in 1800, but then it was much greater in area than now. Girard township was an afterthought, and when it came into existence Elkcreek was called upon to contribute a portion of its terri- tory, the result being that a rectangular piece was taken out of the northwest corner leaving a small pan-handle at the northeast. That change came to Elkcreek in 1832. Another change c. me in 1844, when Franklin panhandled Elkereck on the other side, giving it the form of an L. Its arca, after the changes were complete was about two-thirds what it was originally. It was not only one of the first of the town- ships to be created but its territory was also among the first to be set- tled permanently. The first settler was Eli Colton, who moved in from Granby, Conn., in 1797. During the spring of 1798 George Haybar- ger and his brother-in-law, John Dietz, came from Maryland and took up farms and their families arrived in the fall of the same year, es- corted by Arnestes Dietz, father of John. Mr. Haybarger removed to Millcreek township in 1810, where his descendants still live. In 1800 Elihu Crane took up a tract where Cranesville now stands and remained until his death, but he had been a resident of the county from 1898, having in that year come from Connecticut to Conneaut township, changing to Elkcreek after two years. About contemporaneously with Mr. Crane numerous parties located in the township, among them David Randall, Daniel Akers, Mr. Odell and Mr. Harrington. In 1802 David Sherrod arrived from Susquehanna county, and others who set- tled during the first years of the Nineteenth century were James Mc- Cammon and his sons James and Robert, from Ireland, Jabez Clark, Charles Scott, Maxon Randall and the Shieldses.
It was a goodly country, especially in the valley of the Conneaut creek branch, and settlements continued for many years. In 1815 Daniel Winchester came from Connecticut, and Samuel Wells, with his sons Otis, Obed, Franklin, Samuel and Julius from Vermont: in 1818 Josiah Steward came; in 1824 the Stewarts, Rodgerses, and Brookses
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from New York; in 1831, Thomas Bowman; in 1832, Levi and William Joslin and Edmond Goodenow, Sylvester Hubbard, and Samuel Sher- man and family from New York State, John Warner from Massa- chusetts, and Wilson Cole from Chautauqua county, N. Y .; in 1833, John Stafford from Oneida county and William Vorce from Chautau- qua, N. Y .; in 1834 Orange and Perley Miller ; in 1835, Jeremiah Crow- ley, a native of Ireland, and Noah Almey ; in 1836, David Smith from Vermont; in 1838, Hiram Irish from Vermont and Burr L. Pulling from Saratoga county, N. Y. From about 1830 the growth of the town- ship was rapid. Samuel Sherman took up a large body of land which he divided among his five boys, and in 1840 Harley Sherman, one of the descendants of the pioneer of the name, opened a grocery store at Wellsburg. The Shermans became men of considerable note in the southwestern corner of the county. The forefathers of this family came to America from England in 1634, settling in New England, whence their descendants have spread into every State in the Union.
Villages quickly formed in the southwestern part of the township. In the valley of the east branch of Conneaut creek, where the Girard and Meadville road is crossed by the Albion and Edinboro road, Wells- burg sprang up. It derives its name from Samuel Wells who settled at this point with his five sons in 1815. They were a progressive family. At an early day Franklin Wells built a gristmill and several sawmills ; Samuel drilled a salt well and supplied the neighborhood with the pro- duct until the opening of the canal made possible a better article at a lower price. In the course of time stores, a reasonably good hotel, schools, mills, churches, flouring mills and a furniture factory came, and the place assumed considerable importance. It is one of three vil- lages exactly a mile apart-Cranesville, in the same township, and Al- bion, across the line in Conneaut township, being the other two.
Cranesville was founded by Fowler Crane, a son of Elihu Crane, who took up the farm which is its site in 1800. Fowler Crane laid out the village, built a tavern, and established a store and ashery. It is also located at a cross-roads-where the Girard and Meadville road crosses the Crane road. When the canal was built it passed through Cranesville and years afterward the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad, utilizing the old canal for its roadway, made Cranesville a station on its line, and a junction point, the Conneaut branch having its starting point at Cranesville. Besides a school the village has a church of the Methodist Episcopal denomination.
Four miles southeast of Wellsburg is located the village of Page- ville. once an important manufacturing centre. The village obtained its name from E. Page. Situated on the edge of an extensive forest of ash and oak. Mr. Page established here a manufactory of oars, the prod- uct of which was shipped to all parts of America and Europe, and this business continued prosperously for many years, until the supply of ma-
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terial had been exhausted. Upon the suspension of the oar factory the village declined, but still has an existence-and a memory of the "good old times."
Pont and Lavery are country villages, each boasting of a success- ful butter factory, besides stores, churches and schools.
The educational facilities of Elkcreek began with the school of Maxon Randall, which he taught in his own log cabin, beginning in 1815. It was located about a mile north of Cranesville. In 1817 Miss Becky Reese opened a school about a mile and a half south of Wells- burg. Immediately south of Wellsburg a Mr. Higgins began to teach in 1820, and the Sawdey schoolhouse, in the northwestern corner of the township was built about 1823. Not much later a school was estab- lished in Cranesville on the site afterwards used as the postoffice. These were all private or pay schools, and all that survived went out when the free school law made education a general charge upon the public and vastly increased the facilities.
The churches of the township are located chiefly in the villages. The Freewill Baptist church at Wellsburg (the Wellses were Baptists) began with a Sunday school that was successful for many years. The church was built in 1839. The Universalist congregation was organized in 1838, and erected its church in 1855, enlarging and improving it in 1871. A Methodist Episcopal society was organized at Wellsburg at an early day, and about 1835, built a church on the hill between Cranesville and Wellsburg, which was occupied until 1875 when the society divided, part going to Cranesville where a new church was built, and part going to Wellsburg, where services were for a time held in the school house. Soon there was a consolidation effected with the Pleasant Valley church, which was located some distance south of Wellsburg. It had been or- ganized in 1833 and built its church in 1854. When the union was effected the Pleasant Valley church moved into the village. At Page- ville there is another Methodist Episcopal church that has had an orga- nized existence for many years, but the date of its beginning is not re- corded. The Baptist congregation at Pageville was organized in 1839, and conducted services in the schoolhouse until its church was built in 1825. The United Brethren church at Pont was built in 1824, and the Randall church of the same denomination was organized in 1833, and built the little brick meeting house north of Cranesville soon afterwards. The Elkcreek Baptist church, at the intersection of the Population and Crane roads, was built in 1868; the society was organized in 1866.
The township has furnished a number of public men. Thomas Os- born was a member of the State Legislature; O. H. Irish of the U. S. Consular service, and later superintendent of printing at Washington, was from Elkcreek. George W. Colton, county commissioners' clerk, prothonotary and banker, was a native of the township. Stephen J. Godfrey and Richard Powell were county commissioners ; C. C. Taylor,
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county superintendent of schools; Daniel Roberts, Director of the Poor; Stephen J. Godfrey, George J. Powell and O. W. Irish, mercantile ap- praisers : George Manton, county auditor.
CHAPTER V .- FAIRVIEW.
COL. FORSTER AND CAPT. SWAN .- FIRST MILL IN THE COUNTY .- CEN- TRE OF RELIGIOUS EFFORT .- MANCHESTER AND ITS MANY ENTER-
PRISES.
The settlement of Fairview was begun when on the 25th of July, 1796, there was organized in Dauphin county the Harrisburg & Presque Isle Land Company. Each member of the company contributed £200 ($1000) to the common stock for the use of the organization in carry- ing out its purpose, which was the improving and populating of the country near and adjoining Lake Erie, and it was agreed the money should be used in the purchase of in-lots and out-lots in the town and county of Erie and for settling such lands as might be bought. In 1797 Thomas Forster and Capt. Richard Swan came from Dauphin County to Presque Isle. Both were stockholders in the Harrisburg & Presque Isle Land Company, and were the first settlers to locate in Fairview township, and they chose a large tract of land at the mouth of Walnut creek, part of what the company had bought of lands in Erie county. It was to these men that the township owes its name, which was sug- gested by the magnificent view of lake and valley and hill obtained from the high bluff, which, at a distance of half a mile from the lake shore, abruptly terminates the table land above. At this point, charmed with the beauty of the landscape, Col. Forster exclaimed to his companion, Capt. Swan, "This is the fairest view I have ever seen."
Col. Forster was agent of the Harrisburg & Presque Isle Co., and under his supervision a sawmill was erected the same year, being second only to the mill built at Erie by Capt. Russell Bissell. At the same time preparations were begun for the erection of a grist mill which was completed in 1798, and was the first mill of the kind in the coun- ty. These mills were only a short distance above the mouth of the creek, at about where the last bridge still crosses the stream. They were called "Forster's Mills." In 1799 Col. Forster's family joined him at Erie, of which town he was a resident thereafter until his death in 1836. Capt. Swan took charge of the mills as manager, and in 1802 brought his family to the new settlement at Walnut Creek. Among the members of Capt. Swan's family who thus became identified with the first settlers in Fairview were his sons John J. and Richard Swan
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and a daughter who became the ancestor of the late Gen. D. B. Mc- Creary of Erie. Their descendants still occupy lands on the east bank of Walnut creek, and in Millcreek, which belonged to their pioneer forefathers.
Contemporary with the mills a large dwelling house had been erected, built of peeled hemlock logs. From the first, probably, and for many subsequent years it was known as "Swan's Tavern." On his return from the east in 1802 with his family, having rented the mills and the tavern of the company, he took possession and occupied the property until his death in 1808. In all the early years up to 1805, when the Ridge Road was opened, the travel, such as there was, crossed the creek near its mouth, and Swan's Tavern was an important point in the journey. The present crossing of Walnut creek by the Ridge Road was not made until after 1820, when Arthur Oney cut down the west bank for $100.
Col. Forster and Capt. Swan were both men of position and in- fluence in their native county. Col. Forster had been a student at Princeton, and was a surveyor by profession, and had held the offices of associate judge and member of Assembly. Both were soldiers in the Revolution and held commands in the Pennsylvania troops sent to quell the Whiskey Insurrection in the southern counties. They were eminently fitted by their tastes, their education and their experience to lead the forces of civilization in its progress toward the west.
In the early years immigration was by no means rapid. It was interrupted and retarded by conflicting claims of rival land companies and by fear of the Indians. Nevertheless, farm after farm was lo- cated and occupied. and little by little the population grew. Among the early pioneers, from 1797 to 1802. these were of the list: John and George Nicholson, John Kelso, Patrick Vance, Jeremiah Sturgeon, Thomas McCreary, Alexander, Patrick and John McKee, William Stur- geon, William Haggerty, John Dempsey, Thomas Kennedy and James Moorhead. All did not settle in the valley or on its immediate banks, but they were near neighbors, and the mills and tavern, with a store in 1802, became a common centre. In that year, 1802, there came into the township S. F. Gudtner from Franklin county; William and James Arbuckle from Maryland, Jacob Ebersole from Lancaster coun- ty, and Joseph M. Kratz, a Frenchman. The store was opened by Mr. Kratz, and was continued by him until 1804, when he moved to Erie. Meanwhile it became a very important mercantile establishment including patrons from Erie and Waterford as well as all the region round about. In 1805 James Ryan of Dauphin county came, and the same year Rev. Johnston Eaton, one of the pioneer missionaries in the county, preached in Capt. Swan's log tavern and held what was undoubtedly the first religious service in the township. Returning to the east for further study he came again to Walnut Creek in 1807 and began his permanent
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