A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I, Part 61

Author: Miller, John, 1849-
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 926

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 61

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In 1861 the proposal to transfer the academy property was accepted by the state and the Edinboro State Normal was established. In 1863 Prof. J. A. Cooper, who had been an assistant, was made principal, and the school rapidly forged to the front. Prof. Cooper was an industrious, painstaking and enthusiastic educator. Besides that, he was a most cap- able executive officer, and a careful manager, and, better than all else, earned the loyal friendship of the teachers under him and the pupils as well. For nearly thirty years he conducted the school with such signal ability that it took rank among the best in the State, and its graduates were in request in even the schools of the higher grades up to the high school. No teacher, probably, ever numbered more friends from among the ranks of his pupils than Prof. Cooper did, a testimonial of this friend- ship being the gift to him of the title deed to a beautiful home in the village in which he had so long labored. Prof. Cooper was displaced as principal on February 5. 1892. his successor being Prof. Martin G. Benedict.

The present principal of the State Normal School is Prof. John F. Bigler, and the past few years have witnessed extensive and valuable additions to the splendid property. The original buildings remain, but in many instances large additions have been made to them and some

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have had new names bestowed upon them. The large addition to Normal Hall, erected in 1890, extends its facilities to accommodate the model school, library, chapel, general office and art and drawing rooms. The library contains 12,000 volumes. The power plant was remodeled and more than half rebuilt in 1903. Haven Hall, a girls' dormitory, was built in 1903-4 ; the gymnasium in 1904-05 ; Reeder Hall in 1907-9. There is a faculty of 25 teachers.

NORMAL HALL, EDINBORO.

Edinboro, occupying a position remote from the railroads, was not situated to become a manufacturing town. Nevertheless it had its industries. At one time there were a pump factory, a manufactory of handles for agricultural tools, and a cheese box factory. These prospered until in the course of time the timber upon which they depended for business became exhausted. Being the centre of a fine dairy section, the manufacture of cheese and butter was successfully carried on. The first cheese factory was opened by a Mr. Ruddick in 1868, who made cheese until, in 1882 or 1883, he added the necessary machinery to make butter as well.>The factory was burned about 1902, and the owner moved away. In 1905 Oakes & Burger built a new creamery which is still operated. In 1888 J. S. Lavery, an extensive operator of creameries opened one about a half mile from Edinboro, which was sold recently to W. S. Alward. New conditions. however, are operating against the success of the creameries. The new trolley service makes it possible to ship the milk to Erie, which is being largely done, while the modern separators

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and gasoline engines enable the dairy farmer to make butter himself, and many are doing so.

Edinboro has two banks at the present time. The Peoples' Bank was opened for business on September 2, 1892, but in August, 1904, was chartered as the First National Bank of Edinboro. The Edinboro Savings Bank began business in 1896. Both banks have offices in modern brick buildings of their own. 1

Edinboro has several times suffered severely from fire. That of 1902 destroyed five stores and two dwellings on Erie street, much of the property remaining to this day in the ruinous state in which the fire left it. In 1905 there was another disastrous fire which destroyed five stores and a dwelling on the east side of Meadville street, involving a loss of $12,000. Most of this has been rebuilt, handsome modern stores re- placing the loss. In the summer of 1909 the handsome residence of Dr. King, the finest in the borough, was burned the loss being $6,500.

The Edinboro Presbyterian church of the present was organized in 1829. When the separation of the denomination into schools occurred there was a split, and the New School party built a church in 1854, the Old School erecting a building in 1855. When the two schools reunited in 1871 the New School church was selected and the other was sold to the Baptists. The latter church, organized in 1838, held services in the schoolhouse until 1871 when the Presbyterian church building was bought. The Methodist Episcopal church was formed in 1829, and the meeting house now in use was built in 1863. The Advent Christian church, organized in 1863, built in 1864.

The borough school building, erected in 1894, is a result of the Nor- mal School trouble that occurred when Prof. Cooper was displaced. It is a handsome and commodious modern structure in which provisions have been made for instruction in every grade up to the high school, and pupils in the high school grade are received from the township on school certificates. It cost $12,000. The principal in 1909 is Prof. W. J. McQuiston, and the enrollment is 154.

Edinboro cemetery, beautifully located on a knoll overlooking the lake, was opened in 1892, but the original cemetery, a gift from William Cul- bertson, had been in use for eighty years.

The earliest newspapers of Edinboro, published in 1855, were the Native American, the Gem and the Museum. The first two ceased publi- cation in 1856, and the Museum was moved to Waterford. The Edin- boro Independent was started by the Cobb Brothers in 1880, was subse- quently acquired by Charles Cooper, and is now published by Mr. Cooper and A. W. Proud. Mr. Cooper also fills the office of postmaster at Edinboro.

From 1883 to 1897 the Edinboro Agricultural Society successfully conducted an annual fair, but judging from the signs of the times that the agricultural fair was no longer held in the esteem it had been, de-

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY

cided to discontinue the custom. When the trolley line was new, in 1904 an attempt to revive the fair was only partially successful. How- ever, the fine race track that had been constructed was made available by J. S. Lavery who conducted a highly successful race meet in 1909, in connection with the Erie circuit. +

Edinboro, in 1907, had a prospective summer hotel boom, when a syndicate was organized to buy the lake-or the mill privilege-together with a tract of adjacent land, and erect a fine hostelry. The preliminaries of the transaction were carried into effect by Messrs. Mccullough, Cul- bertson and Mizener, but the panic of the end of that year brought the enterprise to an inglorious end. At present the only hotel accommodations are furnished by the Cutler House, the survivor of three hospices that have been entertaining travelers since 1868.

The public officers supplied by Edinboro have been Assembly, John W. Campbell, E. C. Twitchell, Chauncey P. Rogers, E. H. Wilcox ; treas- urer. Mortimer Phelps; prothonotary, C. P. Rogers, F. L. Hoskins ; county commissioners, Russell Stancliff, William Campbell, Josiah J. Compton, N. T. McLallen ; auditors, Russell Stancliff, James H. Camp- bell, Samuel Reeder, John W. Campbell, J. J. McWilliams; jury com- missioner, and afterwards director of the poor. H. H. McLallen ; sealer of weights and measures, Wm. P. Butterfield: county surveyor, Elmer Nesbit.

CHAPTER XX .- WATERFORD.

THE ANCIENT BOROUGH .- THE FRENCH OCCUPANCY AND WASHINGTON'S VISIT .- PONTIAC'S INDIANS .- THE PERMANENT SET- TLEMENT BY THE WHITES.

Waterford's story begins, not with the organization of the county, but nearly half a century earlier, coincident with that of Presque Isle, for Waterford was the southern terminus of the military road that was constructed in 1753 by the French under Marin, and the fort there built-Fort Le Bœuf-was occupied by a French garrison until 1759, when it was evacuated almost simultaneously with Fort Presque Isle. It was not a settlement to be sure, for under the French there was only military occupancy. And yet the presence of the French drew around the fort large numbers of Indians who formed considerable of a vil- lage. But, though the first possessors of Waterford did nothing in an intentional way for the permanent benefit of the place, and though on their departure they burned the fort behind them, they did leave much that was to be of benefit to those who were, thirty-five or forty years later, to come in with the purpose of winning homes out of the forest wilderness. They left the only road that was in existence in this part of the State, and at least the knowledge of a means of easy communica- tion, by the water route, with earlier settled portions, even though that thoroughfare might not have been very extensively improved for traffic. No small part of the immigration into the county, and even to the town of Presque Isle, when the permanent settlement began, was over the French route. Waterford well deserves the name of The Ancient Bor- ough. by which it has long been known.

There were events in the history of Waterford that ante-date Erie. In 1785 David Watts and William Miles came on under direction of the Commonwealth, to survey the Tenth Donation District, which begins about a mile east of the borough, and in 1790 Waterford was again the centre of State operations, when a commission was sent out to explore the route from the south and west to Erie, appropriations having been made for the improvement of the streams from Franklin to Le Bœuf, and the road from there to Erie. Again, in pursuance of an Act ap- proved in April, 1794, William Irvine, Andrew Ellicott and Albert Galla- tin, appointed to survey a road from Reading to Erie by way of Franklin

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and Meadville, reached Waterford with a body of troops the same year. 1794, and, delayed there by the military who had set about building a fort, laid out the town and called it Waterford. Erie was not surveyed until the next year. During 1796, Ellicott located the State road from Cur- wensville, by way of Franklin and Meadville to Waterford.

All this activity had its effect upon the region in bringing to the locality, residents from other parts of the state. The earliest were, how- ever, only transients ; hunters and traders in furs with the Indians ; but nevertheless useful in the respect that through them the new country came to be known. There is no record of those who, between 1785 and 1795, were temporary sojourners. The earliest of the permanent settlers located in 1795, among them being some who, upon the termination of their military service, decided to remain. Lieut. Martin, commander of the post, became a settler. and so did James Naylor, one of the com- missioners for the sale of lands. That was in 1:95. The same year Amos Judson, who had come up the lake from Buffalo with Col. Seth Reed, located in Waterford and became the first merchant of the place. Capt. Martin Strong came to Erie county from Connecticut in 1795 and selected Waterford, finally settling on the ridge north of Waterford that is still known as the Strong neighborhood.

Once settlement in Waterford was begun it increased with what, considering the times and the circumstances, might be called rapidity. In 1796, John Lytle, Robert Brotherton, John Lenox and Thomas Skinner came in and located. In 1792 John Vincent and Wilson Smith; in 1798, John T. Moore, Aaron Himrod and the Lattimores: in 1801-02, Capt. John Tracy, William Boyd and his son David, John and James Boyd and their three sisters and James Anderson; in 1804, James and William Benson. In 1799, or possibly earlier, George W. Reed came and Eliachim Cook, who had first settled in Mckean, removed to Waterford in 1809. Then followed these : in 1812, John Henry and Levi Strong; in 1813, the Mckays; in 1814, Simeon Hunt ; in 1816, William Smith, William Vin- cent and John Hutchins; in 1822, I. M. White; in 1824, Seth and Tim- othy Judson; in 1826, Daniel Vincent. These were not all, by any means, who came into Waterford during the interval in time between 1795 and the close of the first quarter of the next century, but they are those the dates of whose arrival have been preserved, and they were all the founders of families who remained to build up the new community that was being established in the wilderness ; all names that for a century were to figure in the affairs of the county.

Waterford took on urban airs at an early date, and for a time rivaled the town that had been settled on the shore of Lake Erie. At one time, indeed, it was a question whether Waterford, and not Erie, should have the honor of being the county seat. When at length Erie did win out and secure the sittings of the court, there still remained another question-that had to do with business and commercial suprem-

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acy. Much that was required by the town on the lake came from the south, through Waterford, and a very large amount of the principal imports of the harbor of Erie also found its way to Waterford to be carried to the south and west by the only routes then available. New roads and a better route between Waterford and Erie to facilitate the transportation of the salt and flour, the bacon and whiskey, become necessary, were laid out. In Waterford, at its port on Water street, warehouses sprang up and boat landings were constructed, and as a port of entry Waterford was giving Erie a lively chase. The water route between Waterford and Pittsburg was thronged with flat boats and keel- boats and many another style of embarkation.

During the year 1813, Waterford. in common with Erie, had a prominent part to play in connection with the Second War for Inde- pendence. The ships of Perry's fleet were built and fitted out at Erie, but much of their armament and munitions and a very large part of the iron necessary for building the vessels, was furnished by Pittsburg. All of these necessary supplies were transported by the river route, and, landed at Waterford, were stored in readiness for use when the demand came, in an arsenal on the far side of Le Bœuf creek. Discretion prompted the storing at a safe place, until it should be required, all the ammunition, as well as the guns that had been made at Pittsburg, and the arsenal at Waterford was secure in case the British should attack and carry the town of Erie. In Waterford township, too, nearly a mile north of the borough, on the Lytle farm near where the Water- ford station on the P. & E. Railroad is located, the camp grounds of a brigade of the Pennsylvania troops was established. Waterford, as well as Erie, was a centre of operations in the exciting period when the Second War with Great Britian was being waged.

The salt trade declined about 1819, and with the removal of that item from the commerce of the period, general traffic on the streams fell away. Then began the exodus that has, ever since, rendered Erie the debtor of Waterford. Then began the acquisition by Erie, on her tax lists, on the signs over store entrances, on the entries in the deed books of the county, in the columns of the newspapers, of such names as Vincent and Himrod. Strong and Tracy, Clemens, Farrar, Gray. Adams, Benson, King, Lytle, Skinner, McNair, Rees, Stancliff-all from Waterford and all among the boosters-prominent in manufacturing, among the leading merchants, taking high positions at the bar-in fact recognized as leading names for many years in the borough and in the city of Erie.

With the beginnings of things-the first laying-out of the county of Erie, the State had endowed an Academy at Waterford, just as had been done at Erie, by setting aside a tract of land for its use or benefit. As early as 1811 the citizens of Waterford, before the place was a bor- ough, incorporated the Waterford Academy, and had an act passed

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authorizing the sale of the 500-acre tract and the conversion of the proceeds into an investment that would yield an income to be employed for the payment of teachers. In 1822 Waterford Academy was built. It was constructed of blue stone, similar in appearance, size and style to the academy at Erie, and was opened in 1826. It soon became not only efficient but popular, and was patronized very largely by students from distant parts. In 1856 a large brick addition was erected to pro- vide boarding accomodations, so extended was the patronage it received. The rise of the public schools had its effect upon the Academy. In the process of time it fell behind. In 1899 it was turned over to the school board and became the high school for Waterford borough and township. As a high school it has distinguished itself by paying special attention to agricultural science, in which it attained a reputation beyond the boundaries of the borough.

The church history of Waterford began with the organization of the First Presbyterian Society in 1809 ; its church was not erected until 1834. The United Presbyterian Congregation came into existence in 1812, and its first church was begun in 1835, but not completed until 1838. It was enlarged and altered at various times as necessities arose-in 1859 and 1868-and later it became necessary to add a chapel. Rev. P. W. Free's term as pastor, which exceeded a quarter of a century, was the most extended pastorate in the history of Waterford. St. Peter's Epis- copal congregation was organized in 1827, and its church was con- secrated by Bishop Onderdonk in 1832, and overhauled and improved in 1871. The beginnings of Methodism were in 1814, and the reorganization in 1835. The Methodist Episcopal church was built in 1854.

Waterford Cemetery was originally laid out for the borough by William Benson, in 1840, and then consisted of about an acre and a quarter. It soon became evident that it was not large enough, and in 1865 the land was deeded to the Waterford Cemetery Association, and became part of a burial tract of eleven acres. In this cemetery is buried Michael Hare, most notable because at his death he was 115 years, 8 months and 22 days old. He had been a soldier in Braddock's campaign against the French, fought through the Revolution, and as d soldier in St. Clair's expedition against the Indians was left for dead on a battle-field, scalped by the Indians, and yet survived to become one of the first settlers of Wayne township and in the end die the oldest person in the history of this county, and it is believed of the State.

An incident at Waterford, in 1753, precipitated the Seven Years War of history, in which France, England and Prussia were involved. The incident was the curt but soldierly reply made by St. Pierre, the commandant of Fort Le Bœuf, to Col. George Washington, the envoy of Gov. Dinwiddie. Waterford has also been distinguished in other wars-that of Pontiac when Ensign Price's force was so dreadfully out- numbered by the savages; and in the war of 1812, when it became the Vol. I-36

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arsenal for the lake navy and a camping ground for the army. In the war for the Union it was not less distinguished. There was no town in the county outside the city of Erie, that furnished more recruits in pro- portion to its population, or braver men. Waterford was represented in the Erie Three-months Regiment by a full company (Company E) and when in September, 1861, the Eighty-third Regiment marched to the front, again there was a full company from Waterford. Nor was that company of soldiers all that was contributed to the Union army from Waterford township and borough. There were perhaps as many more. For a time the office of the provost marshal of the district was in Waterford, and the second draft was made there.

But Waterford, founded in militarism, when the French named it Le Bœuf, and not lacking when called upon by duty, is nevertheless dis- tinguished in the practice of all the arts of peace. It is the abode of domestic thrift and quiet industry. It has been for years prominent as a seat of learning ; and the science of politics is far from being un- known in Waterford. Probably no district in Erie county has given more men to public service than Waterford. The list includes : Quarter- master General in 1812, Wilson Smith; presidential electors, John Boyd, Wilson Smith, Charles C. Boyd : State Senate, Wilson Smith; Assembly, John Lytle, Wilson Smith, Samuel Hutchins, David Himrod. O. S. Woodward; associate judges, John Vincent, Samuel Hutchins, William Benson ; sheriffs, Wilson Smith, Thomas B. Vincent, John L. Hyner, H. C. Stafford, G. H. Barnett. P. S. Sedgwick; Prothonotary, E. L. Whittelsey ; register and recorder, Reuben J. Sibley; treasurer, Judson Walker; coroner, M. S. Vincent ; county commissioners, John Vincent, John Boyd, Henry Colt, William Vincent, Flavel Boyd, Charles C. Boyd ; directors of the poor, James Benson, James Anderson. George Fritts : county surveyors, Wilson Smith, Wilson King, William Benson ; 'county auditors, Charles Martin, John Lytle. Amos Judson, James M. McKay, Martin Strong, William Benson, Simeon Hunt, Flavel Boyd, Frank Shaw, George Taylor; jury commissioner. C. L. Townley ; mercantile appraisers. S. B. Benson, J. P. Vincent, C. W. S. Anderson, H. R. Whittelsey, James R. Taylor. Nor are these all. Waterford men who had removed to Erie, and who were elected to public office as from the city were: Thomas Wilson, Congressman from 1813 to 1818; John P. Vincent, Additional Law Judge, and afterwards President Judge; James Skinner, State Senator and afterwards prothonotary ; Alfred King, pro- thonotary, and mayor of Erie during the Railroad War ; John A. Tracy, county treasurer : F. F. Farrar. mayor of Erie. John A. Tracy began a wonderfully successful career, as clerk for Reed & Sanford in 1816. He was father of John Frank Tracy the famous railroad man, and father-in- law of William L. Scott, equally famous in connection with railroading.

In the newspaper business Waterford for a time rivaled Erie. In 1851 Joseph S. M. Young started the Waterford Dispatch and made it

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very popular, not only at home, but throughout the county. It became an especial favorite in Erie because of the ardor with which it supported the cause of the "Rippers" in the Railroad War, so that Mr. Young felt encouraged to remove his newspaper plant to Erie, and did so in 1856. B. F. H. Lynn, connected with his force in Waterford, came with him, became a partner, and at length sole owner, and in May, 1864, started the Daily Dispatch, which has been published regularly ever since. Soon after the removal of Mr. Young and the Dispatch, Mr. Lewis, who had been publishing the Edinboro Museum, transferred his plant to Water- ford, and after a few months it fell into the hands of Amos Judson, who changed the name to the Enquirer. Later C. R. H. Lynn became the owner of the paper, but on the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion Lynn enlisted in the Union army and the paper was discon- tinued. In 1824 L. B. Thompson started the Waterford Enterprise, which in a year was removed to Union City, and three years later the Astonisher was started by Dr. D. P. Robbins. The name was objection- able to A. F. Moses, who bought the plant in December, 1878, and changed the name to the Waterford Leader, by which it has ever since been known.

Waterford has been a frequent sufferer from fires of large propor- tions, and at one time or another most of the business section of the town and some of its most important industries have fallen before the flames. The first occurred in March, 1865. and swept away all of the west side of High street from Second Alley to Judson's store. On the last of December, 1873, the Union Hotel was burned down. The Bryant & Hayes Tannery was twice destroyed. Extensive fires occurred in 1881 and 1883. In 1884 Wheeler & Dewey's extensive mill property was burned. On March 3, 1895. the whole square on the west side of High street from First to Second streets was destroyed involving a loss of $45,000.

The story of the township of Waterford is mostly that of the bor- ough. There are a number of neighborhoods or localities that have been given names, but, save Waterford Station, or East Waterford, none can be designated a village. The station came with the opening of the P. & E. Railroad in the beginning of the sixties, and, by having country stores located there and a church built, it took on the airs of a rural village. The church is of the Catholic faith, and was built in 1878. It is served by priests from Union City and is known as St. Cyprian's parish. The other churches of the township are the Freewill Baptist Church at Newman's Bridge, started in 1832, reorganized in 1853, and provided with a meeting house in 1860; the Freewill Baptist Church of the north- eastern part of the township, begun in the thirties and the church built in 1877 : the Methodist Episcopal church at Sharp's Corners, organized in 1838, building erected in 1868; the Christian congregation at Oak Hill, formed in 1854, church built in 1861.

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Very soon after the settlement began there were found, among the newcomers, some who had the energy, enterprise and knowledge to embark in enterprises that promised double results, profit to the pro- moter and benefit to the community at large. The pressing need of the farmer, isolated in the wilderness, was the mill, which was to fur- nish the lumber and shingles required to render his home comfortable : which was also to provide him with flour and meal. The first mill in Waterford was built by Robert Brotherton in 1797. the year after he came. It was located on Le Bœuf creek near what is now Waterford station. It was a sawmill only, until 1802, when a gristmill was built as part of the mill enterprise. Mr. Brotherton also kept tavern in the village-from 1815 to 1817. Another early tavern keeper was George Reed, whose caravansary was opened in 1810. Thomas King was an early Boniface, located at the corner of First and Walnut streets. Mr. King was ambitious. He began the erection of a stone hotel in 1826, and opened it in the winter of 1827. That was the Eagle Hotel. Up to this time the mills and the hospices, the warehouses and the boat- landings, and all there was in Waterford were of the township. It was so in the greatest event in the early history of the town, the visit of the ally of Washington in the Revolution, Gen. La Fayette, who came by the water route from Pittsburg in 1825, and remained in Waterford over night.

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A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I, Part 61

Author: Miller, John, 1849- Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 926

Author: Miller, John, 1849-
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 926