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 56
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The site selected for the library was at the junction of the Thomas and Valley roads, near the corners of Millcreek, Fairview and Mckean townships, on land donated for the purpose by Amos Hinkle, a brother- in-law of Mr. Weiss, and one of the trustees under the will, the land being part of the old Weiss homestead. It was completed and in opera- tion in 1896, and immediately became a most useful institution to the people of the entire county-side. Soon after it was opened the department at Washington recognized it by establishing a postoffice at Weiss Library.
Millcreek is a region of excellent farming country and its farm- ers are a thrifty, prosperous and, generally educated people. The churches of Millcreek date back to the beginning of the last century. The first of these, Westminster church, in West Millcreek, was organized in 1805 by Rev. Johnston Eaton. It was his first church, and at the time it was organized the society's meetings were held in a log church near the mouth of Walnut creek, in Fairview town- ship. In 1833, the congregation moved to Swanville, into a new church that had just been erected, but in 1845 a part of the congregation was set off as the Presbyterian church of Sturgeonville and erected a new
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building in Fairview borough. This left to the Swanville church the members who principally resided in Millcreek, and in 1851 it was de- cided to move the church building from Swanville. It was then located on the Ridge road, in the western part of Millcreek, retaining its name of the Fairview church, however, until 1861, when it was changed to the Westminster Presbyterian church, by which it has since been known. A handsome new brick building was erected in 1894, during the ministra- tion of Rev. George Booth, and the new church was dedicated on No- vember 30, of that year.
The Belle Valley Presbyterian church, in East Millcreek, was or- ganized in 1841. The original members of this church, called at first the Presbyterian church of East Millcreek, came from the First Presbyterian church of Erie, and the organizers were Rev. George A. Lyon, D. D., of Erie and Rev. Nathaniel W. West. The schoolhouse served as a place of worship until 1843 when a building with a capacity of 300 was erected, and has served ever since, having been remodeled and improved from time to time, however, notably in 1885, 1892, and 1894.
Asbury M. E. church, on the Ridge road, west of Westminster church, was organized in 1846, and erected their first meeting house in that year. The church was rebuilt and. greatly improved in 1894. St. Paul's German Lutheran church, in the southwestern part of the town- ship, was erected in 1837 and reconstructed in 1873.
Millcreek has no well organized villages though there are several settlements or groups of houses, some of them containing a store or a smithy, a church or a school, a wayside inn or a postoffce, and these, hamlets, formed without design, most of them years ago, have endured. Belle Valley came into existence when a number of the farmers, the Russells and others, built their houses where the corners of their farms came together, and there, naturally, in course of time came the school, the church and the country store. The place takes its name from the beautiful valley of Mill creek which was given that appellation by the pioneers of the Russell family, and dates its beginning back to about 1805. Yankeetown, where the Oldses settled with others from New England. was a sort of mill village, that sprang up about the saw-mill, the woolen mill, and later, the pump factory. Happy Valley did not get that name until about 1845. though the industries began in the year 1800 with the building of the first of the Mccullough mills. The village of Kearsarge began with the inn of Seth Reed in 1796, and for many years it was known as Walnut Creek, until the Postoffice Department changed it to Kearsarge. Weigeltown, where Brown Avenue joins the Ridge road. came into existence in 1833, when George Weigel bought the farm there and platted a portion of it into building lots and built a tavern. It was then a mile and a half distant from any portion of Erie: it is now just over the border. Warrentown, a mile west on the Ridge road, had a similar origin early in the last century. All these places still have a
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village-like existence. Eagle Village, at the top of Federal Hill, where the Edinboro road crossed the Ridge road, has been lost in the city of Erie since 1871, and Marvintown, where Parade street, the Old French road. the Arbuckle road and the Wattsburg road come together, is also now, and for the same period has been, a part of the city. The Half- way House, is scarcely a village, for the ancient hospice, notwith- standing the name painted upon its front three-quarters of a century ago, has for many years been tenantless, and the smithy, the store and two or three houses that stand where four roads come together can by no sort of rule or reason be denominated a village.
Millcreek possesses other features. Space will not permit more than a mention of the summer colonies that have sprung up at Hartt's Farm, The Willows, Glenruadh, Eaglehurst and the Kelso farm, or the cottages, many of them elegant and costly that, at these localities and scattered along the shore as far as to Walnut Creek, and even beyond, become the summer residences of hundreds of Erie people, and which, begun twenty years ago, show accessions every year. The Kahkwa Club, organized in 1895, built and occupied for several years a fine club house on the top of the bluff overlooking the bay on the Tracy farm, but in 1904 erected a still finer building on the Reed farm, a mile east in a situation commanding a magnificent view of the bay and peninsula. The Country Club, then just organized, took over the club house that had been vacated by the Kahkwa Club. A year or two earlier a real estate company acquired title to a strip of land from the Lake road to the top of the bluff and laying it out in building lots, named it Ferncliff, and the beginnings of a suburban town were immediate. The Erie Golf Club secured a quite extensive tract lying between the Lake road and the Kahkwa Club grounds, built a club house in 1904 and laid them out. In 1879 Massassauga Point, that previously had been known only as The Head, by the public spirit and enterprise of the late William L. Scott, became a popular pleasure resort, continuing open to the public until 1901. In 1887 Grove House Park, at the mouth of Four-mile creek, was opened as a public pleasure ground by Mr. Lang. In 1895 Reed Driving Park, on the Reed farm a short distance west of Four-mile creek, was completed, with a good race track, club house, grand stand, and the neces- sary stabling accommodations, but the club house was destroyed by fire in 1908. Waldameer, the fine park and pleasure resort, four miles west of Erie, was opened by the Motor Company in 1901.
The county farm of 100 acres, located on the Ridge road where the later road known as Pittsburg street joins it, was selected out of the land of the Third section of Erie in 1833, and the almshouse was erected in 1871, enlarged from time to time to meet the steadily growing de- mands of the county. The period of the agricultural fair began in 1860. when a section of the Shannon farm, on the Buffalo road near Wesley- ville, was secured and the first county fair was held. The breaking out
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of the war for the Union, however, changed the plans of that early agricultural society, for the grounds were requisitioned for camp pur- poses by the regiments that were organized at Erie. After the war, when the people were again at liberty to think of fairs, a fresh start was made and grounds were laid out on the Reed farm immediately outside the city limits, with the entrance from Twelfth street. It was on these grounds that the Pennsylvania State Fair of 1872 was held. There, for a number of years, sometimes conducted under the auspices of the Northwestern Pennsylvania Fair Association (organized in 1875), once by the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society. and again by the Erie County Agricultural Society, highly sucecssful fairs were held.
What preceded has to do with the living. But provision for the care of the dead has also been made in Millcreek, East as well as West Millcreek having its Machpelah. In 1867 a tract of land at the corner formed by the Lake road and the "Head road," was bought by Rev. J. L. Coady, vicar general of the Diocese of Erie, and Trinity Cemetery was laid out. Adjoining it on the west are other cemeteries consecrated as burial places for Catholic communities of other nationalities than the English speaking and German people who bury in Trinity Cemetery proper. This is the burial ground of West Millcreek. In the eastern section Lakeside Cemetery, the property of a corporation organized for the purpose, was purchased and laid out in 1895. It consists of 135 acres, located about a mile and a half east of Erie, and extending from the Lake road to the shore of the lake, beautifully situated, operated under the perpetual care system, and artistically laid out.
Citizens of Millcreek who have filled public offices are these : Secre- tary of the Land Office ( national) John Cochran; Congress, Samuel Smith; Assembly, Stephen Wolverton, B. B. Whitley, George Evans ; Postmaster at Erie, Robert Cochran; Associate Judge, William Bell, John Cochran, Samuel Smith, John Grubb; Sheriff, David Wallace, Stephen Wolverton, Albert Thayer, William E. McNair; Coroner, Benjamin Russell, David Wallace, David McNair, John K. Caldwell ; County Com- missioners, John McCreary, John Grubb, Robert McClelland, Albert Thayer, James Love, William E. McNair, Joseph Henderson, George W. Brecht, Richard H. Arbuckle, B. B. Whitley, Thomas H. Mohr ; Com- missioners' Clerk, Robert Cochran, O. P. Gunnison ; Jury Commissioner. WV. W. Love, George A. Evans, Hartman Fisher, James Halinan, John A. Farver : County Treasurer, James F. Love; Directors of the Poor, Con- rad Brown, John Evans, William E. McNair, George W. Brecht, Thomas Willis. John C. Zuck; Stewards of the Almshouse, Freeman Patterson, Samuel Fickinger, S. P. Zuck, William Brown; County Surveyor, John Cochran, Irvin P. McCreary ; Auditor, William Wallace, John Grubb, Robert McClelland, William E. McNair, Robert Cochran, Thomas Nichol- son, George W. Brecht, N. W. Russell, Henry Gingrich, W. W. Love; Mercantile Appraiser, N. W. Russell, James C. Russell, O. P. Gunnison,
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R. H. Arbuckle, James F. Love; County Superintendent of Schools, Thomas C. Miller.
The Schwingel farm, near Kearsarge, was the scene of a terrible tragedy on the night of October 15, 1880-Charles Schwingel, with some neighbors, had spent the evening drinking hard cider and playing cards. Philip, his brother, came home from Erie late at night, very drunk. After the neighbors left Charles and Philip fell into a dispute which re- sulted in the death of Charles by a pistol shot fired by his brother. Philip was tried, convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to the penitentiary at Allegheny.
CHAPTER XIV .- NORTH EAST.
AT FIRST PART OF GREENFIELD .- SETTLED VERY EARLY .- FIRST OF COUNTY ROADS AND EARLIEST SCHOOL .- BURGETTSTOWN AND NORTH EAST BOROUGH.
It was surely in a spirit of jocularity that North East obtained its name; but having borne up under it when young, and survived the in- fliction until years of discretion had been reached, in time it came to be an honorable and honored name, standing for only what is best in all that pertains to rural and village life, in industry, in business, in society, in religion, in culture. The name of North East stands now the syno- nym of all that is desirable in suburban life. The township with its wide spreading plain and hilly slopes toward the south : the borough with its numerous fine residences, beautifully shaded streets and general air of comfort if not wealth, and the entire county-side breathing an atmos- phere of thrift and content: North East, town and country, is a region fair to see and to take delight in.
North East was with the beginning of things when this part of the great American republic came to be permanently settled. It may have been even earlier than Erie to become the choice of the pioneer from the east. The spot that had been Ft. Presque Isle received its first perma- nent acquisition in 1795. North East was a year earlier. Joseph Shad- duck, from Brattleboro, Vt., came to North East in 1794, and the year 1:95 witnessed quite a large influx. Henry and George Hurst from New Jersey. Francis Brawley, James and Bailey Donaldson, Henry Loomis and George Lowry coming in 1795. Mr. Lowry took up 400 acres near the borough-or what years afterward became the borough. In 1796 Margaret Lowry, mother of George, came from Cumberland county, Pa., with nine other sons, and settled 2,800 acres of land. Four of her sons subsequently married four daughters of James Barr. Dyer Loomis, Sr., father of Dyer Loomis, prominent in affairs in later days, also came in 1796. In the year 1797 these came: Thomas Robinson and Joseph Mc- Cord from Cumberland county, James McMahon from Northumberland county, Abram and Arnold Custard from Bucks county and James Dun- can from Ireland. In 1798 came Thomas Crawford from Susquehanna county, Matthew, John and James Greer from Ireland, William Allison, Henry Burgett, and Lemuel Brown and Joel Loomis from Washington
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county, N. Y. From that time until the end of the year 1800 these came : Robert Hampson with his wife and child from Huntingdon county, John and Andrew McCord and Alex. T. Blaine from Cumberland county, Samuel Graham from Centre county, Robert Burrows, William Dundas, James Barr, Timothy, Amos and Jerry Tuttle, Timothy Newton, James Silliman, Thomas Mellen, Cornyn Shadduck, Hezekiah and Tristram Brown, Robert McNeill, Stephen Sparrow, Perrin Ross, Charles Allen and John Russell.
The trouble that grew out of the disputed land titles affected the set- tlers here as it did in the townships to the west. It had its origin in the fact that a grant had been made to the Pennsylvania Population Company of 200,000 acres of land in the Triangle. Considerable of the land had been settled by immigrants under the original settlement laws and been improved in accordance with the provisions of those laws, and the Popu- lation Company undertook to dispossess those under the conditions of its grant. An appeal to the courts sustained the Population Company and the result was a grievous injury to a number of the settlers, particularly William Wilson, John Stewart and John Lowry. John Stewart, who at great sacrifice had for three years maintained his family besides clear- ing a few acres of land and erecting the necessary buildings, sold his only cow to buy a gun with which to maintain his rights, and John Lowry, who had settled near the mouth of Sixteen-mile creek, became mentally un- balanced and hanged himself.
Previous to 1800 North East was known as Lower Greenfield. When Judah Colt came into the Triangle to represent the Pennsylvania Popu- lation Company, he established himself at Colt's Station and named the district Greenfield, including the territory to the lake, and the first road after the permanent settlement that was laid out in the county was that from Colt's Station to the mouth of Sixteen-mile creek, the lake terminus being named Fairport. It was upon the erection of the county of Erie in 1800 that Lower Greenfield became North East Township. After the beginning of the nineteenth century the accessions to the population be- came more numerous and the growth steady. Among later settlers who were to found names of prominence and permanence were: Henry Tay- lor from Mifflin county in 1802; William Dickson, 1805; Wendell Butt, 1810; Jesse Belknap, 1812; Cyrus Robinson, 1813; Justin Nash, Gilbert Belnap and W. E. Mason, 1814; Harmon Ensign from Litchfield, Conn .. Buell Phillips, Edmond Orton, Joseph Force, Joseph Law, Levi and Shubal Adkins, 1815; Alex. Davidson, William Hale, Dr. Smedley of Litchfield, Clark Putnam from Vermont, and John Butt, 1816; Arnold Warner, 1817; Osee Selkregg from Litchfield, 1818; Hugh Beatty, 1819 ; Clark Bliss, 1821; Judge John Greer, 1823; Bester Town, 1824; James Cole, 1825; John Scouller from Kilbrida, Scotland, William Graham, D. D. Loop and N. C. Remington, 1830.
Vol. I-33
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Churches and schools came early to North East. There is a good deal in names and those of North East's pioneers are of.the order from which one would expect religion and education. History's record is that the names were not at fault. The first sacrament of the Lord's Sup- per administered in Erie county was at the house of William Dundas in North East Sept. 22. 1821. In the year 1:98 the first building used ex- clusively for school purposes, to be built in Erie county, was erected on the main or Buffalo road about two miles west of the present borough of North East. Among those who attended that school were W. A. Mc- Cord, Mrs. Col. James Moorhead, Jesse and William Custard, Mrs. Joseph Y. Moorhead, George Hampson, Mrs. John Shadduck and Mrs. McNeill. A day school was maintained in an addition to the log church in the cemetery until 1816, when the first school building in the borough was erected near the southwest corner of the park. In 1824 the ground now occupied by the high school was purchased of Stephen Sparrow and a brick school building erected, to be replaced by a better building in 1844 for the Academy, that to give place in 1878 for a new high school, built at a cost of $10,000, that was enlarged in 1893 at a cost of $16,000 more.
The first church building in the township was erected by the Presby- terian society in 1804 on a tract of five acres, comprising a part of what is now the beautiful cemetery of North East. It was of hewn logs 20x30 feet in size, and the first elders were John and Joseph McCord and Thomas Robinson. The cemetery of today is but a continuation of that old church-yard. The cemetery was incorporated in 1852. The Methodist Episcopal congregation was organized in 1812, by Rev. Thomas Branch from Connecticut, and the original members were Tris- tram Brown, George Culver, John Russell and two others. In 1822 a brick building was erected in the park but was abandoned in 1852, for a new church on the east side of Lake street. That in time became in- adequate and the present elegant new church was built in 1904. The First Presbyterian church to be erected in the borough was built in the centre of the park in 1818, which served until 1860 when a commodious brick church was erected on the site of the present church. That was destroyed by the fire of 1884, when the pres- ent fine edifice was undertaken and finished in 1885. The First Baptist society organized in the township was in the extreme eastern part, and in 1833 a small frame church building was erected two miles east of the borough. The organization ceased to exist in 1850, but the same year Rev. Zebina Smith organized a new church within the borough and in 1859 the present Baptist church was built and rebuilt and enlarged in 1870. The Episcopalians organized a mission in 1822 and in 1879 built the fine edifice now known as the Church of the Holy Cross. St. Gregory's Roman Catholic church was built about 1866; St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran church, organized in 1864, built first in
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1868, and afterwards, in 1888, erected the present handsome brick build- ing on the corner of Pearl street and Clinton avenue ; the German church of the Evangelical Association of America, organized in 1820, dedicated their place of worship on Division street January 15, 1821.
The first dwelling erected within the present boundaries of the borough was the log house of William Dundas, and it stood a little east of the Presbyterian manse. The second was built by John Lowry where the Haynes House now stands. In 1806 Henry Burgett came into pos- session, by purchase, of the Dundas property and converted the house of that strict Presbyterian elder into a tavern. Now Burgett was a char- acter. He was not the ordinary every-day tapster, but a Boniface who knew how to make a place for himself in the community, and this he did to such good purpose that, not only could he not be displaced, but there was no such thing as heading him off. It came in time to be said he owned the town, and in derision the village was named Burgettstown. The name stuck by it. For years it was known by no other name, and there would not have been a change but for a circumstance, and this is the circumstance :
There came from the east a wise man. His name was Gibson and he was wise because he saw there was a promising future for the place notwithstanding it was named after the leading tavern-keeper. He proved his faith by his works, buying up a considerable area of land including what is now the park, and the latter piece of ground he donated as the site of a church. To be sure it was not an entirely disinterested gift, but it was liberality beyond the common practice, so in 1818 Mr. Gibson and his church proposition supplanted Mr. Burgett and his tavern in public favor,-a distinct victory for the church-and the name of the village became Gibsonville. This name endured until 1834, when the borough of North East was incorporated.
The original survey of the borough was made by Thomas Forster and comprised 275 acres, but by act of the Legislature in 1852 the boun- daries were extended, so as to increase the area to 340516 acres. Then the southern boundary was the Erie & Northeast Railroad-now the L. S. & M. S .- and in 1893 there was another expansion, this time to include the section south of the railroad that had locally been known as German- town, and increasing the area to 540 acres. The population of North East borough at the present time is approximately 3,000.
Early in its history North East set out to engage in commerce, its lake harbor being at Freeport, the northern end of the road that led from Colt's Station through the village to the lake. William Wilson, who set- tled a tract of land in 1799, soon afterwards ventured across the lake in an open boat and in Canada bought a cargo of flour. It was a luxury, being worth $18 a barrel. It was so successful a venture that several trips were later made for the same purpose. Another necessity in the early days was salt, and in 1802 Henry Taylor with two others went to
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Salina to procure a cargo of it. They hauled the salt to Buffalo by ox- team and built a scow to transport it to Freeport, but they encountered such rough weather that boat and cargo were lost. Salt sold for $50 per barrel in Erie county that year.
Postal facilities began in 1806 when the first mail route between Erie and Buffalo was established. It was a pony express, the postboy being Abner Williams. But little mail was left for North East and that little at the house of John McCord, about a mile west of the borough. Something of an improvement was instituted in January, 1821, when Col. Nathaniel Bird of Westfield had a contract from the government for a weekly trip and this continued until 1829 when Rufus S. Reed, Thomas G. Abell and Bela D. Coe started a daily stage delivering mail along the route. The stage was an ordinary lumber wagon with a canvas cover and when the roads were in their worst condition, in the spring, the passengers walked, content to do this in consideration of getting their trunks carried.
The first of North East's hostelries was the tavern of Henry Burgett opened in 1806. Two years later Lemuel Brown built a more pretentious house at the corner of what is now Lake and Main streets, but he could not make headway against the redoubtable Burgett. Brown's Hotel was, however, the regular stopping place of the stages for many years. The original Haynes House was erected in 1852-53 and occupied the site of Brown's Hotel, standing until August, 1884, when it was destroyed by fire, the present Haynes House immediately taking the place of that burned. The Brawley House, taking its name from Richard M. Brawley, was built in 1833. In recent years it has come to be known as the Park Hotel. Short's Palace Hotel on Pearl street, at the railroad, was built in 1811; the Earl, on Clinton Avenue, in 1894, and the Colonial, on Lake street, a transformation of the Short mansion, opened by F. L. Bowman in November. 1903.
Newspaper history in North East began with the North East Guard, begun in 1855 and ended a year later. In 1867 Stephen O. Hayward started the North East Herald, a small four-page weekly, but a rather lively little sheet, but its career was brief. It survived for but a year. A third newspaper venture was entered upon September, 1868, by Brainerd & Cushman. when, with a better outfit than its predecessors had been blessed with, the North East Star was begun. It was so well received that in 1843 it was enlarged and the name changed to the Sun, and it is still published. In 1869 S. M. Brainerd of the original firm retired, removing to Erie, when L. B. Cushman took his place and the Cushman Brothers D. R. and L. B. became the publishers. Previous to 1884 a paper called the North East Advertiser was published by Mr. Will Belknap and others. That year Messrs. Belknap, Camp and Johnson of North East, acquired an interest in the Erie Dispatch, when the Advertiser came into posses- sion of G. W. Moore, who continued its publication until 1892, when M.
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