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 51
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work. In 1808 he was ordained, the service taking place in the barn of William Sturgeon on the site of the present village of Fairview.
Among the other early settlers of Fairview township were John Caughey and Samuel McCreary from Lancaster county, Moses Barnett, from Dauphin county in about 1816, Arthur Oney from Otsego county, N. Y., in 1820; John Silverthorn in the same year, David Russell about 1822; Samuel P. Allen from New England and Daniel Bear from Lan- caster county in 1823, and Andrew Sturgeon in 1830. All the first colonists, with the exception of Kratz, Ebersole and Gudtner were of Protestant Irish stock. Subsequently many Pennsylvania Dutch moved in, and still later numerous foreign Germans. Daniel Waidley from Lancaster county, settled in 1834 and in time became one of the most prominent citizens of the township.
The first death of an adult white person was that of John Gordon, which occurred in 1805. He was buried on a lofty point that occupies a commanding position on the lake shore. It is now a part of the farm of Matthew H. Taylor, and is still known as Gordon's Point.
A short distance west of Walnut Creek there remains to this day some trace of an ancient mound and a circular construction of earth, that were in the early days very plainly discernable. They are rem- nants of the work of the mound-building Indians. Near these a log church was built, and a burial ground was established adjacent to what was believed to be a place of interment used by the aborigines. The church also served for school purposes. The settlers were largely farmers, with only such mechanics as were employed about the mills or in the growing improvements of the farms. They bore their part in the stirring events of 1812-15 as soldiers and helpers in the building of the fleet, but war's alarms did not affect their homes otherwise. They lived in the main quiet lives of hard labor with many deprivations and anxieties, but grew steadily into a prosperous community.
In 1829 Charles Lord erected a saw mill on Walnut Creek, and laid the foundations of a paper mill near the mouth of the stream. In 1830 his brother, Lynds Lord, who had purchased the 400-acre section embracing the valley of the creek from the lake to the present rail- road line. built a grist mill and made the log tavern his dwelling. About 1836 the grist mill was sold to Selden & Spencer of Erie, who made improvements and named the village Manchester. The paper mill was primarily intended for the maunfacture of coarse paper out of straw. It was the first paper mill in the county and prob- ably the first anywhere in northwestern Pennsylvania. The build- ing was a large one, built of heavy white oak timbers covered with clap- boards, three stories high with a garret. When the mill was ready to start something broke, and Mr. Lord was obliged to go to Chardon, Ohio, 70 miles away, to get the needed repairs. While absent he died, and some time afterwards the executor sold the mill to Halsey and Roder- ick Pelton. In the course of time other Erie men became interested
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in the property and in 1845 John Brecht of Fairview having obtained control, built the stone paper mill, the remains of which are still in evi- dence. In 1848 the property was leased to Erie parties who subse- quently became the owners and under their management the frame build- ing was removed and the stone mill was enlarged, new machinery was added and a large building for storage with a storeroom for mer- chandise and an office and several dwellings were built.
The Peltons built comfortable dwellings for themselves and their workmen, and soon afterward established and operated a stone saw mill for cutting into sills and caps for doors and windows, and other forms, the blue rock quarried from the bed of the creek. This stone was a stratum or series of strata of the shale formation, and subse- quently furnished material for the second canal aqueduct under con- tractor George W. Barr. The little village of Manchester had now. by its varied industries, taken on an air of activity that placed it among the most important manufacturing centres in Erie county. Besides the saw and grist mills that had long been doing a large and increasing business, the stone mill, the paper mill and the extensive general store were all prosperously employed. The paper mill had abandoned the manufacture of course product upon which it was originally engaged and made the finer grades of "flats" or writing papers. and news prints and book papers, employing cotton and linen rags, so that the charac- ter of the goods furnished from the village was of a higher order as well as larger in quantity.
Meantime another paper mill had been built on Walnut creek near the crossing of the Ridge Road by Charles Folsom and John C. Perkins. Its specialty was manila wrapping paper, made largely for the Post Office Department. And there had been built in the same lo- cality by S. F. Gudtner, a grist mill, which was continued in business under various owners, most recently Mr. Nicholson and Mr. Weigle. until the end of the century, when it was destroyed by fire. In 1815 the first woolen mill in the county was built by Samuel McCreary at the intersection of the depot and Lake roads, and was operated by him until 1841, when it fell into other hands. The Lock Haven Woolen Mill, on the bank of the lake was established by the Messrs. Caughey in 1842. It was destroyed by fire in 1878. The McCreary paper mill, afterwards owned by H. F. Watson, north of Avonia, was burned down in 1883. There was also operated in the township a tannery and a tile works, but they were abandoned years ago. The last of the grist mills were Kernick's and Lohrer's on Trout run.
In the course of time the water in Walnut creek, as well as the other streams, had so dwindled in quantity that it was insufficient to furnish the requisite power, and it became necessary to introduce steam. Coal was brought by canal, and to facilitate its handling as also that of other freight a dock and storehouse were built at the west end of
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the aqueduct. The closing of the canal, however, erected a serious bar- rier to the progress of the mill industries of the creek that had now to place their dependance upon coal. However, the fate that ultimately overtakes most of industrial undertakings located in the country. came upon those of lower Walnut creek. It was soon after the coal supply had been cut off that fire came to the lower paper mill. With practically no facilities for fighting the fire it was vain to put forth the efforts employed. It was totally destroyed. It was the beginning of the end of Manchester. With the industries gone-for the saw mills had long since become useless because the timber had been exhausted, and the grist mills idle, the people sought other homes and other occupations. There remained for a time the picturesque little hamlet, Mayside, of which Capt. Sexauer was the ruling spirit. But the fiery element found that, too. One by one the fine houses that crowned the bluff were wiped out until now it is not a deserted village but an obliterated one, for there remains but a bare trace to show that there once had been a scene of human occupation and activity, where now only rural peace and quiet prevail. The beauty of that broad valley at the estuary of Walnut creek-and the scenery there is unsurpassed on the shore of Lake Erie-induced a company under the direction of C. E. Bacon, in 1908, to establish a summer resort. Cottages and fine grounds, a park and casino, and drives up the valley and through the charming country east and west will make it an ideal place for summer sojurn for the people of Pittsburg and the interior. And that is undoubtedly what the future has in store for this "fair view" that so charmed those pioneers upon whose delighted gaze it opened more than a century ago.
Fairview township was one of the first in the county to establish schools. The education of the children began in the log tavern kept by Richard Swan at the very beginning of the century. The first school house was built in 1804 of peeled logs and stood on School House run, about a mile from the mouth of Walnut creek and was taught by Jolın Lynn, a Revolutionary soldier. His successor as teacher was Wil- liam Gordon, the father of John Gordon, buried on Gordon's Point. Others of the earliest schools were that on the farm of Jeremiah Stur- geon within the present limits of Fairview borough in 1810; the school built by William Sturgeon in 1811 ; the school on the Lake road in 1812; one built in 1816 a mile west of the residence of Thomas Sturgeon ; a school built later near the dwelling of Rev. Johnston Eaton and a schoolhouse in the southeastern part of the township near the dividing line between Fairview and Millcreek.
The religious or church history of Fairview began early. As has already been stated, Rev. Johnston Eaton came as a Presbyterian missionary in 1805. and after completing his studies, was ordained in 1808. At that time a log church was about ready for use. It stood on the bluff adjacent to the Indian mound and burying ground. Rev. Mr.
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Eaton's dwelling was first near by the church but later at Lakeside, a mile or more to the west. His parish was an extensive one, reaching from Erie to Springfield and his ministerial work was prodigious. The original church was the Fairview church, for the original Fairview, upon which Col. Forster and Capt. Swan had bestowed the name, was the valley at the mouth of Walnut creek. The church of 1808 was aban- doned in 1832, when a new Fairview church was dedicated at Swanville on the Ridge road. The new church continued in use at Swanville until 1851, when it was removed into Millcreek township and then became known as Westminster church, which is its name today. Rev. Johnston Eaton continued as minister of the Fairview church until his death June 17, 1842, in his seventy-second year, and after a period of ministration of over forty years. It was his only charge and was faithfully filled. In 1837 another Presbyterian church was established at Fairview village, afterwards incorporated as a borough.
Other church organizations in Fairview are these: Salem church of the Evangelical Association, started by the missionary efforts of Rev. J. Siebert in 1833 ; St. Jacobs' Evangelical United church, a mile and a half east of the borough on the Ridge road, organized in 1852 with Rev. Michael Kuchler as pastor ; the Christian church, three miles south of the borough, organized by Rev. Asal Fish in 1835, the building erected in 1845; the United Brethren church, five miles south of the borough, organized in 1857, and holding meetings in the Van Camp schoolhouse until the new church was built in 1880, and the Evangelical church, south- west of Sterrettania, started in 1884.
Of the villages of Fairview township the earliest was that at the mouth of Walnut creek to which the name of Fairview was given. Be- sides its importance as a place of manufacturing, of which extended mention has already been made it became a postoffice in 1822 with James Dunn as postmaster, and from the time of the original settlement for a quarter of a century was the most important place in the township. The elections and general trainings were held there and it was a stopping place for the stages until the Ridge road was enabled to effect a crossing of the creek. Its name was changed to Manchester in 1829. Swanville came into existence in 1832, when John J. Swan built the first house and established the first tavern. It was in the same year the Fairview Presby- terian church was built. Subsequently the Nicholsons established a tavern, but both of these wayside inns were discontinued for lack of business. The village remains, however, with its collection of homes, its stores and postoffice. Avonia is the postoffice name of Fairview station and dates its origin to the opening of the railroad. Lock Haven was a mill village at the mouth of Trout run, its industries having been a woolen-mill and a saw-mill. These were burned years ago and Lock Haven is now only a memory.
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Fairview village, originally known as Sturgeonville, was one of the earliest communities of the township, and much that was of importance in its history transpired while it was still a mere village. It was in- corporated as a borough in 1868, its boundaries including an area a mile square. The earliest settlers were Jeremiah and William Sturgeon, who came in 1797. William Sturgeon erected a house on the, Ridge road near Trout run and afterwards a tavern, which he kept for many years. Subsequently the Monitor House was built by S. C. Sturgeon, and this hotel is still in existence, although for years it has not had a liquor license.
On the death of William Sturgeon in 1837, he directed in his will that on the demise of his wife fifty acres of land and twenty town lots should go to the Presbyterian church of Fairview. It was a condition that a congregation was to be organized and a church building erected within one year from the time specified in the will, otherwise the prop- erty was to go to the Presbyterian Board of Publication. In the year of Mr. Sturgeon's death the General Assembly of the church separated into the New School and Old School. There were adherents of each in Fairview, and both sides made haste to qualify by organizing and build- ing churches, the result of which was a contention that got into the courts, and a decision in favor of the Old School body. In 1869 there was a reunion in the general body, and this did away with the necessity of maintaining two churches of the denomination in Fairview, and both now worship harmoniously in one church, a new church of brick that was erected in 1874 at a cost of $11,000.
The Methodist Episcopal church is the result of a class formed in the house of Justice Osborne in 1817. The first meeting house was built in 1836, and stood just outside the bounds of the borough. The new church, built in 1854 is situated inside the borough limits. Mt. Nabo church of the Evangelical Association dates its origin to 1833, when Rev. J. Siebert was doing missionary work in the county, Salem church, in the township having had its start at the same time. The church of Mt. Nabo was that formerly occupied by the New School Presbyterians, which was bought in 1872 and moved to its present location. The Evan- gelical Lutheran church of Fairview and St. Jacobs, in the township were originally one but afterwards a division occurred, and at length, in 1878 the church in Fairview borough was built.
The Fairview Cemetery has been in use now upwards of thirty years. The first body interred was that of Mrs. Milton Sturgeon.
Citizens of Fairview who have held public positions are : Assembly, Myron H. Silverthorn, S. B. Bayle ; Sheriff. Miles W. Caughey, Andrew F. Swan, Joseph W. Swalley; Register and Recorder, Daniel Long, James D. Hay; County Treasurer, Joseph W. Swalley, Jacob Yeagla, William C. Hay ; County Commissioners, George Nicholson, Isaac Web- ster, W. W. Eaton, M. H. Silverthorn; Directors of the Poor, Curtis
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Heidler, M. M. Kelso, Alex. Nicholson, W. W. Eaton, F. Willis, Noah WVaidley ; Clerk and Treasurer of Poor Directors, D. W. Nason; County Surveyor, R. P. Holliday; County Auditor, George Nicholson, Daniel Sayre, David H. Chapman, John J. Swan, Moses Barnett, H. H. Bassler, J. P. Swalley, O. H. P. Ferguson, W. C. Eaton; Mercantile Appraiser, Johnston Eaton, James McCreary; Jury Commissioner, Noah Waidley ; Steward of the Almshouse, M. H. Silverthorn; County Superintendent of Schools, S. B. Bayle.
CHAPTER VI .- FRANKLIN.
LAST OF THE TOWNSHIPS TO BE SETTLED .- ITS REMOTE POSITION .- WHEN IT WAS FORMED .- BUT ONE VILLAGE .- THE HOWARD STONE QUARRY.
The township of Franklin was established in 1844 out of portions of McKean, Washington and Elkcreek, and given the name of the printer philosopher and patriot of the Revolution on the suggestion of Hon. John H. Walker. J. P. Silverthorn was the principal person in circulat- ing petitions and working for its creation. The viewers were Robert Porter and Elijah Drury of Girard and Thomas R. Miller of Springfield. Franklin township is exactly five miles square and contains 16.896 acres.
Franklin is so remote from the main lines of travel that settlement was delayed until a much later period than any other section of the county. The State road, which was opened by the Commonwealth in 1802 from the head waters of the Delaware to the Ohio line, passes through the centre of the township, and on this road immediately after- wards a few settlers located, but it was so remote that they left soon afterwards, and from that time until 1829, it cannot be learned that any- one chose this section for a home. It remained the whole of that quarter of a century an unbroken wilderness, save for the thread through it made by the State road, a section of the great forest in its virgin con- dition. In 1829 L. D. Rouse went in from Connecticut, but so far as is now known, was without a neighbor, far or near, until 1832, when William and Levi Francis from New York, James P. Silverthorn from Girard township, Henry Howard from Vermont, and Messrs. Goodban. and Longley from England took up land and became permanent resi- dents. In 1833 there were added Thomas Spence and Thomas McLaugh- lin from Ireland. William Vorse from Chautauqua county. N. Y. ; Allen Mead from Saratoga county, N. Y .; Ezra Milks and his son Amos from Rensselaer county, N. Y .; Curtis Cole and father from Unadilla, N. Y., and Andrew Proudfit from York county, Pennsylvania. Isaac Fry from Vermont and John Tuckey. an Englishman. took up land in 1834; John Loyer from Eastern Pennsylvania in 1835; Levi Howard from Vermont in 1840, and James B. Robinson from Pompey, N. Y., in 1844. Levi Silverthorn also went in during 1844, the year the township was organized. John Gilbert was born in Somerset county, Pa., and moved Vol. I-30
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with his father into Waterford township in 1826. He married Elizabeth Gregory January 22, 1846, and the young couple immediately settled in Franklin and made that their permanent home. Among other early set- tlers were Messrs. Webster, Huff, Gibson and Perry, all from Warsaw, N. Y.
The whole country embraced within the limits of Franklin township is high rolling land, devoid of the ravines and broken ridges that prevail in the other elevated townships. The soil is a heavy clay loam, not the best adapted to the cultivation of grain, so that dairying became the chief industry. But as a rule the people of Franklin are distinguished for unusual progressiveness, and it is said the township has improved more, proportionately within the last forty years than any other rural district in the county. The houses and barns are mostly good, and the citizens generally free from debt. It has been a common saying that the farms of Franklin township have fewer mortgage blankets upon them than have those of any other township in the county.
There is but one village in the township, Franklin Centre by the voice of the people, but Franklin Corners according to the Post Office Depart- ment at Washington. It was founded by Oren G. Wood, who started a store on the old State road, where it is crossed by the Quarry road, and induced others to settle around him. The original owners of the land upon which the village stands were John Tuckey, O. G. Wood and John Loyer. In the course of time it grew into quite a sturdy little town with two stores, a church, schoolhouse, cheese factory, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, shoe shops, and a dozen or fifteen houses, with about 75 people. A grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was started in 1876 but disbanded after two years. There are two other trading places, cross-roads stores, called Ivarea and Population Corners, but they never attained to the dignity of villages.
Franklin township never had a grist-mill, the most of the grain being taken to the mills at Sterrettania, five miles from the Centre. There has been a good deal of lumber making, however, but little remaining of the splendid timber with which the township was originally covered. The earliest of these was probably that built on the State road near the Washington township line in 1854 by J. P. Silverthorn, Daniel Munson and Charles Billings and afterwards known as Sweet & Alden's mill. The Mohawk mill, on the Crane road in the southwest was built by D. Knight in the sixties and operated for about fifteen years. Mischler's on the State road less than a mile east of the Centre was built about 1870 and did business for ten years. These were all steam mills, the situation of the township being such that water power is not available, for it is the starting point of all the streams included within its boun- daries. In 1874 J. R. Steadman started a creamery and cheese factory at the Centre, and there are also similar industries at Silverthorn's Corners
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and Population Corners. Lawrence's cooper shop in the southern cor- ner is another of the vanished industries of Franklin township.
There were no log schoolhouse days in the history of Franklin township, for the region was much too sparsely settled for schools until after the school act of the State was in effect. The first schoolhouse in the township was built at Franklin Centre about 1840, and occupied the site of the present schoolhouse. The schools are, the Foy, on the Crane road in the southeast corner ; the Eureka, on the same road near the Eureka church; the Silverthorn, on the State road, two miles from the Centre ; the Franklin Centre school ; the Howard, at the stone quarry, and the Goodban, on the Sterrettania road. There are, besides two joint schools : the Billings used by Franklin and Washington, and the Francis, used by Franklin and Girard, both of which are within the bounds of the township. In addition there is a school in Elkcreek, belonging to the Elkcreek and Franklin independent school district.
The religious societies include two Methodist churches, one Lutheran and one Baptist. The M. E. church at Franklin Centre was organized in 1866. Two years later there was built there a Union church, intended for the use of any or all religious denominations, and this was put into service from the beginning by the Methodists. A church of the Lutheran denomination, organized in 1871, also holds services in the Union church at the Centre. The Eureka M. E. church was organized in 1867, and erected its own meeting-house on the Crane road two years later. The Baptist church is more properly an Elkcreek institution, as its name im- plies, and is located on the Population road, which is the western boun- dary of the township.
The Howard stone quarry, on Falls creek, near the northern boun- dary of the township, is worthy of note. For many years a large amount of business was done in the product of this quarry. The stone is a fine hard sand rock, somewhat laminated, and defective in that respect, but much of the material taken out, when carefully selected is of an ex- cellent quality. When the courthouse at Erie was built in 1853 all the stone required for its construction was supplied by the Howard quarry, which was fully equipped to supply every need. The stone tile of which the floors of the first story are composed was sawed and shaped at the quarry, as were also the stones for the portico, the steps, sills and other purposes. In its day the Howard quarry, with its machinery and equipment was an extensive and valuable plant. In early days more or less petro- leum exuded from the standstone stratum from which the building stone is taken, but, though wells were drilled in the vicinity, oil was never found in any quantity worth while. There is also a sulphur spring at the Howard quarry, but its waters have never been utilized. There are other quarries in Franklin, opened later, and operated to some extent.
CHAPTER VII .- GIRARD.
HOW THE TOWNSHIP CAME TO BE .- THE CANAL .- THE MILES FAMILY. -THE BOROUGH OF GIRARD .- THE OLD STAGES .- CIR- CUS DAYS .- MODERN INDUSTRIES.
Girard township did not appear on the map of Erie county until the year 1832, for it was in that year it was created out of contiguous parts of Springfield and Fairview townships, and it received its name from Stephen Girard, who held a large area of land in the adjoining township of Conneaut. The original boundary line between Fairview and Spring- field was a continuation of the line between Conneaut and Elkcreek, so that in the new deal, considerably more land was contributed by Fair- view than by Springfield. In the first years of the settlement of Erie county the territory embraced in the township of Girard was regarded as remote territory by both Fairview and Springfield, so that while colonists came in quite early they did not come in such numbers as they did in the other townships. But it was not because the land embraced in Girard township was inferior, for, as a matter of fact there is no finer soil in the county. The lake plateau is here between three and four miles wide, and the soil, sandy near the lake and gravelly on the higher ground, is ideal for purposes of cultivation. The principal valley, that of Elk creek, is wide toward its month, and its soil a rich alluvium, rendering it very desirable for tillage.
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