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 70
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The most important and most generally observed event in the history of the city was the celebration of the Centennial of Erie on September 9, 10 and 11, 1895. It was an occasion of general festivity, the city being gaily decorated with flags, bunting, emblems, illumina- tions and arches, the latter commemorating for the period of the cele- bration important events in the city's history. The proceedings began with a parade of 500 bicycle riders on the evening of the ninth. The tenth was ushered in with artillery salutes and the ringing of bells ; in the forenoon there was a parade of 2,000 Sunday-school children in five divisions, each headed by a band, at the halting place on South Park Row "The Living Flag" being formed by 250 little girls. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon the formal exercises of the occasion began Vol. 1-41
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on a platform erected on the north front of the City Hall, historical addresses being made by Hon. J. F. Downing, Hon. James Sill and Superintendent of Schools H. C. Missimer, and a centennial poem was read by Henry Catlin. Hon. John P. Vincent presided, and the pro- ceedings were opened with prayer by Rev. J. C. Wilson of the United Presbyterian church and closed with a Pontifical benediction by Rt. Rev. T. Mullen, bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Erie. Later the cornerstone of a proposed public library was laid by the Masonic Fraternity on a lot donated by Mrs. and Miss Sanford. In the evening there was a jubilee concert in Park Opera House, participated in by all the singing societies of Erie, a feature of which was a centennial ode written by Rev. A. H. Caughey, the music by H. N. Redman. Wednesday, the third day of the celebration was ushered in by the firing of guns and the ringing of bells ; at 10 o'clock an industrial and historical parade took place; in the afternoon there was a parade of military and naval bodies and civic societies ; on the bay there was a review and regatta : in the evening a grand display of fireworks closed the celebration of Erie's centennial.
Features of the celebration were a daily La Fayette reception in the old Dobbins homestead, which had been the stopping place of the Marquis at the time he visited Erie, and a series of entertainments during the three days, conducted by Erie ladies in the People's Market House, State and Fourth streets. A tribe of Indians from the Cattar- augus reservation added a feature of historic interest by participating in the doings of the occasion.
The executive committee of the Centennial were F. F. Adams, chairman; Hon. Walter Scott (Mayor), E. Camphausen, W. J. Sell, F. P. Magraw, S. W. Bolles, E. J. Howard, J. P. Hanley, F. Brevillier, W. J. Sands, M. Liebel, Joseph H. Williams, John Fleeharty, J. F. Downing, Harry Vincent and A. B. Felgemaker.
CHAPTER V .- ERIE'S HARBOR.
FIRST LANDINGS .- THE PUBLIC DOCKS .- THE CANAL BASIN .- ERIE VES- SELS .- THE FISHING INDUSTRY.
The beginnings of Erie's harbor came with the erection of the borough of Erie in 1805. By the act of 1811 the sand beach at the eastern end of the bay, "from the upper corner of the Garrison tract, and for twenty perches back from the water's edge down the lake to the outlots, and from thence down the same, including all the land between the outlots and the water's edge, to the tract of land No. 38, the property of John Kelso," was dedicated a public landing, to be for the use of the inhabitants and others until otherwise appropriated by law. It was the shore of the bay or bight at the eastern end of the harbor entrance that was long employed as an anchorage by vessels of too great draft to enter the bay, and a warehouse was constructed upon it and roads constructed by which communication with it could be had. Before the passage of the act, this piece of beach had been so employed, and the purpose of the act was to confirm the rights of the public in its use. It was one of the features of the earliest harbor of the port of Erie.
The beginnings of the real harbor, within the bay, were inaugurat- ed, however, when the borough authorities in 1806 began the sale of the water lots to citizens whose present or prospective business inter- ests in the harbor prompted them to acquire proprietary interests in these water lots. The first act by the borough council, looking to a public improvement at the harbor, was the proceeding on May 26, 1807, which directed :
That Thomas Forster, Rufus S. Reed and George Buehler, or any two of them be authorized to contract with such person or per- sons and on such terms as they shall consider most advantageous to the borough for raising a wall six feet above the surface of the water across the ends of French and State streets at the north side of Water street (a street laid out in the bay sixty feet north of the north line of Front street, to be forty feet wide) and for making side walls to the said streets if necessary ; for filling French street from the said north side of Water street to the bank of the lake.
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Just what the outcome of this piece of legislation was does not appear in the records of Council. It is fair to presume, however, that nothing came of it. Subsequent proceedings indicate this, for on Octo- ber 28, 1816, it was voted that a contract be made with Seth Biddle and Samuel Bunting for repairing State street from Third street to the lake and also for making a wharf. This, too, seems to have been abortive, for on August 12, 1823, the clerk was directed to advertise for bids for building a wharf 50 feet wide and 130 feet long at the north end of State street. This produced the result of awarding a contract to John Randall for $945, the work to be completed in four years and payment to be made in "instalments of $250 per year until all is paid, by drafts drawn on the purchasers of water lots." Although a bond of $2,000 was furnished by Mr. Randall, something interfered to pre- vent the performance of the contract, but what it was does not appear.
During the end of the year 1831 the public began to take an in- terest in the matter with a view of hoiding up the hands of the bor- ough council. At a meeting on January 4, 1832, "a committee appoint- ed at a meeting of citizens to ascertain the consent of the taxable in- habitants of the borough to a tax for the purpose of making a public wharf opposite to State street, reported to Council that they had per- formed that duty, and returned lists signed by the taxable inhabitants approving the same." The clerk was directed "to ascertain the pro- portion of all taxables that have signed." and it was resolved that "Council will borrow money for the wharf." A committee was ap- pointed "to ascertain whether money can be borrowed by pledging the faith of the borough, and for how long, and on what terms." Even this seems to have failed, but success was in sight. There was a brighter day about to dawn. The very next year the canal project was on and as that, with its several problems, was worked out, the public wharf came into actual existence. The real beginning of Erie's harbor came with the work upon the canal basin.
Meanwhile there was development along private lines. That was to have been expected with so many of the water lots having been dis- posed of ; for it was not likely the purchasers of all of them had been buying on speculation. The trade was not great at the port of Erie when the people began to buy the water lots. It was principally in receipts of salt and shipments of bacon, flour and whisky, and the ac- tual harbor had been at the public landing. That had increased in im- portance, and in the course of time three warehouses found business there. But there came a new factor in lake trade, a new method by which vessels were navigated. Steamboats began early on the lakes, so that in the decade of the twenties there was not a little of the com- merce of the lakes carried on by steam vessels. At Erie a very large proportion of the business of the harbor was by steamboats. For a number of years these were halted at the harbor entrance, being un-
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able to proceed farther, and the business of unloading was proscuted by the aid of lighters or scows that were poled out and in. With the improvements effected under the government it became possible for every class of vessel then in service on the lakes to enter the bay, and with this improvement began the development of the harbor within. The first to build a landing or dock for large vessels was Rufus S. Reed. 'He had acquired water lots at or near the foot of Sassafras street, and there he built a dock long enough to obtain a depth of nine feet of water at its outer end. Mr. Reed had a purpose in the construc- tion of this dock. He was the most extensive steamboat owner of the time. He acquired a suitable landing place for his steamers. But Mr. Reed had business ideas. He was not averse to other steamboat own- ers making use of his dock. On the contrary he desired that they should, and he desired it so strongly that he contrived to have a rule or regulation, a law or ordinance, framed and enforced which compelled all steamboats having business at Erie to land at Reed's dock, and this order of things was in effect for a number of years. Reed's dock thus became the center of business of Erie harbor.
There was at the same time a smaller wharf at the foot of French street, built by Messrs. Kellogg, Hamot, Dobbins and others. It came earlier into use than the steamboat landing at Reed's dock, but it was employed mostly by the sailing vessels of the time, many of which were able to cross the bar and effect an entrance through the narrow channel. In order to render it more available, a road was constructed down the ravine at the foot of French street. The French street dock, however, was but a small affair and counted for little, even after the new entrance of the bay had been made, and Reed's dock was very soon about all there was of the harbor. In order conveniently to reach it a road was made along the shore from French street. In the course of time, the demand for another landing, one which might be a com- petitor with Reed's, and that would relieve commerce from the neces- sity of paying tribute to the great steamboat owner, began to be felt, and from time to time the subject of building a public dock at the foot of State street came before Council, as has already been stated, but without reaching a definite result, until, in the fullness of time the canal project came forward.
It was in the year 1833 that interest in the harbor in connection with the canal first came before the borough Council to receive atten- tion. The enterprise of extending the Pennsylvania canal from Pitts- burg to Lake Erie had been decided upon, and the Erie representatives in the Legislature, confident that Erie would be the terminus of that canal extension, had secured from the state a grant to the borough of Erie of the land of the third section of the town of Erie to be sold and the proceeds devoted to the construction of a canal basin in the harbor of Erie. On April 20, 1833, there was a meeting of the borough coun-
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cil, devoted exclusively to the new canal project. The act ceding the third section was read and a resolution passed to have the tract sur- . veyed by Thomas Forster and laid out in 50-acre lots. These were to be sold at auction in August, and the sale was to be advertised in the newspapers of Erie, Harrisburg, Chambersburg, Lancaster, Philadel- phia, Pittsburg, Meadville, Fredonia, Buffalo, Rochester and Utica, and for the purpose of paying the expenses incurred it was voted to negotiate a loan of $200. At the same meeting it was voted to request the canal commissioners to send on one of their engineers as soon as convenient, consistent with other duties, to assist in laying out the contemplated canal basin, with a view to future operations; and to correspond with the Governor on the same subject.
Meanwhile the borough authorities were not idle. On May 21 John Justice was engaged as chief carpenter at $2.25 per day, "and board himself," and he was authorized to build two crane scows at $130 each. Timber was contracted for at one-half cent per foot, to be cut from land in the third section, and stone was bargained for at $3.25 per cord, for filling.
On May 31 Messrs. Brown and Babbitt, the committee, introduced to Council, Alonzo Livermore, engineer of the French creek division of the Pennsylvania Canal, and his assistant, whereupon the Council adjourned to accompany the engineers, in a body, in making the neces- sary exploration of the bay and deciding upon a plan. No report of this expedition appears in the borough records, nor any ordinance locating or defining the proposed work, except the report to the gover- nor in 1834. It appears that the decision or advice of Mr. Livermore was taken as a finality and the work proceeded at once in conformity. This may be said : The position of the dock that was to be the outer boundary of the basin was determined by the depth of water, which was twelve feet. The details were incidental. These consisted of a series of slips extending from the south up into the main dock, an ex- tension of State street to the front of the dock, and a passage way across State street at the southerly line of the outer dock, to be bridged.
Directly afterwards John Justice, head carpenter, was authorized to engage good framers at $30 per month and board themselves or $24 per month and boarded, and other good hands at $13 per month and boarded.
In view of what has since been, the report of the Burgess and Council to Governor Wolf, of January 28, 1834, will be of interest. The report sets forth
The land of the third section of Erie, reserving 100 acres and also 50 acres for the present (for the purpose of procuring timber for the construction of the works), was sold at public auction August 6th.
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7th, and 8th, to the highest bidders. The terms of sale were one half in hand, one-fourth in six months and one-fourth in twelve months.
Amount received $13,112.24
Amount due February 6, 1834. 6,556.12
Amount due August 6, 1834. 6,556.12
Total
$26,224.48
As to the plan adopted, at the suggestion of Mr. Livermore: The work is carried out into twelve feet of water, and the whole area pro- posed to be included is about thirty acres, which will form a safe, con- venient and spacious harbor for canal boats and afford sufficient depth of water for steamboats and other vessels to come inside when it shall suit their convenience to discharge and receive freight, and for other purposes.
The corporation have already put down and nearly completed 660 feet of pier work and have on hand a large quantity of materials. The amount already expended is $9,207.06. They are of opinion from what has already been done that there will be sufficient funds to con- struct and entirely complete the work according to the plan adopted.
The importance of the improvement to the navigation and com- merce of the place is already apparent. There are now five large steamboats and quite a number of schooners laid up for the winter within the works constructed. It is admitted on all hands that it will form the most convenient and safe place for vessels to lay up for the winter, and to repair and fit out, there is any where on Lake Erie, leaving an abundance of room for any number of canal boats that ever may be wanted. It will also form, as intended, a most convenient and secure place for the loading and unloading of cargoes from vessels and canal boats and for shifting cargoes from one to the other as may be required.
And, following up the plan begun, the canal basin was at length completed, a good long while before the canal itself was finished, for it was not until the close of navigation in 1845 that the first boats over the canal reached Erie. Meanwhile the business of Erie harbor continued, for during the thirteen years between the commencement of the harbor at the lake terminus of the canal and the actual beginning of the canal business at the port of Erie, steamboating developed prodigiously.
Rufus S. Reed, of the pioneer stock, was among the first on the shores of Lake Erie to acquire stock in vessels, and, keeping abreast of the times, he was one of the first, also, to invest in steamboats. It was in the Reed blood, in fact, to develop the new commerce, for Gen. C. M. Reed, following the example of his father, who was part owner
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of the steamboat William Penn, 200 tons (built in 1826), embarked in the business on a far grander scale, and in 1832 built the Peacock at Erie. This was the first of a line of the most famous steamers that ever ploughed the water of the great lakes. The Thomas Jefferson and James Madison followed, two years apart, and after them came others in what, even to this day, would be reckoned a fleet of fine steamers.
Now the arrival of one of these boats at its Erie landing was al- ways regarded as an event not to go unnoticed. On pleasant summer evenings it was a sort of society function to stroll down to the land- ing and meet the incoming steamer. All Erie then lived in close prox- imity to the water. There was practically nothing of the town above the park, and French street was the fashionable center of the place. It was the only street that led down to the harbor, and, besides its shops and taverns, many fine residences graced it with their imposing presence. At the corner of Fourth street was the Colt mansion ; at Fifth street the Reed family residence; and east and west, but prin- cipally east, upon every street from Second to Sixth, but extending no farther than to what is now Holland, the other notables of the town had their residences.
When the evening of steamboat day had come (the steamers made three trips a week, and always reached Erie in the evening), the ladies appeared in their summer evening attire and in groups, or escorted by the gentlemen, wended their way down the steep incline at the foot of French street and proceeded thence along the road west- erly to the Reed wharf and there received the incoming steamer in . appropriate fashion, greeting acquaintances as they arrived, or possibly adding new acquaintances to their list. Sometimes music lent its adventitious aid, but it was not indispensable.
They were busy times at Erie harbor, those of the steamboat days. Besides the big steamers there were sailing craft that traded here. bringing chiefly salt, fish, whisky, lime and such commodities. But brisker times and a livelier harbor were yet to come. This resulted from the building of the Erie extension canal, opened in 1845.
Erie harbor in canal days presented a scene of great activity, and those who remember its appearance then are excusable for declaring it now to be deserted and dead. In the early sixties it had reached its height, and there are many comparatively young men of today who remember very well what Erie harbor then looked like.
The public dock consisted of an extension of State street in the form of a mole or causeway, 1,500 feet or so out into the bay, and at its end there were east and west extensions, on the one hand reaching toward Reed's dock : on the other past the French street landing over towards what in the parlance of the boys who frequented it and made use of it to go in swimming from, was known as the "Muddy dock."
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The eastern and western wings, presenting a plain front to the bay, had a roadway, twenty feet wide, extending from end to end, and this portion was public. South of this roadway, next the canal basin, the dock was private property, and each of the several sections of the docks was provided with one or more slips, up into which the canal boats could be run for unloading, to give place in turn to the vessels, usually schooners, that were to take on a cargo of the coal that the canal boats had discharged.
These slips were of various sizes. Generally they were about 25 feet wide and from 60 to 125 feet in length. The water was of no very great depth. Probably ten or twelve feet was the extreme. Between the slips there was space for the storage of the coal, and at the upper end, next the street, that extended along the dock front, were the ware- houses in which were kept the other items of merchandise traded in; and they also contained the offices of the storage, commission and for- warding companies that did business at the harbor.
Among the names appearing on the public dock that were long familiar to Erie people were these: D. D. Walker, Scott & Hearn, Richards, Pelton, Reed & Co., Walker & Gilson, Josiah Kellogg, Starr & Payne, George J. Morton, Scott & Rankin, Curtis & Bryce, and An- drew Hofsies. Perhaps, the very last name to disappear from the public dock was that of Dame Walker, which prominently marked the old red warehouse that stood at the east side of the causeway just beyond the bridge.
It has been said the scene at the harbor was lively in the early sixties ; and so it was. The voices of the drivers of the haggard horses that towed the boats; the shouts of the numerous captains as they hailed one another or the passing tugs; the nervous puffing of the little towboats, as they moved here and there, berthing the boats or the vessels, and the general activity on the docks, proclaimed that something was all the time doing.
At that time there were these tugs employed: Hercules, A. L. Griffin, Mary A. Green, Dragon and Home. The two last named were larger boats, that brought vessels in from beyond the channel piers, or towed them out; the others moved about in the basin here and there, now doffing a smokestack as the passage was made under the causeway bridge and again with its nose saucily pushing a schooner up into its berth in one of the numerous slips.
On the docks a large number of men were employed as coal heavers, for every pound of coal had to be lifted out of the holds of the canal boats by human brawn and the same coal had again to be heaved into the vessels that were to convey it to Buffalo or to some other port on the Great Lakes. It was common report and general belief that these coal heavers made remarkable wages, especially for laboring men. Whether this be true or not, it cost vastly more in
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those days to handle coal than it does nowadays, when a device is employed to pick up a car bodily, lift it over the vessel and dump its contents into the hold; or where a car carrying as much as a canal boat used to, is pushed up an incline and its bottom dropped out and the contents sent sliding into the vessel waiting to receive it.
It was not all exporting that resulted at Erie harbor from the opening of the canal. There was importing as well, and the period of the beginning of the sixties witnessed the inauguration of trade in iron ore from the west, principally, in those days, from the mines on Lake Michigan. This ore found its way as a return cargo on the canal boats, to Sharon and all the points touched by the canal in the Shenango valley, down to Pittsburg, and in this opening of the iron trade with Escanaba was laid the foundation of more than one for- tune. How insignificant Erie's iron ore trade of the canal days was, however. may easily be understood when it is considered that the public dock accommodated the iron ore trade as well as the coal busi- ness, with room to spare.
The building of new railroads sounded the death knell of the har- bor that the canal had built up. In the fall of 1864 the Philadelphia & Erie and Erie & Pittsburg railroads were opened. Both railroads built their own docks, and it was not long before the competition be- tween the Erie and Pittsburg and the canal became so strong that it was evident the latter must yield. It did. It became the property of the railroad and in 1871 was abandoned. Meanwhile the railroads were greatly improving their harbor facilities. The Philadelphia & Erie Railroad was opened through to Erie from the seaboard in 1864. In 1865 there was incorporated the Erie & Western Transportation Co., subsidiary to the railroad company, and in 1866 it established itself at Erie. At the time business was begun at this port by the E. & W. T. Co. there was little available out of which to form a harbor, except the vacant space. There was a small dock or pier in a line with the north front of the Public dock. For a long time it had been used by W. W. Loomis in connection with his floating drydock, a novelty in those days, employed for the docking and repair of schooners and other vessels of the size and burthen then almost universal-not above 200 or 300 tons. Upon that dock elevator A now stands. This dock was bought by the Erie & Western Transportation Co. along with the land upon which it stands. The "Muddy dock" was also on the same property. It was a wharf that extended into the harbor 300 or 400 feet and there was a wide slip or passage between that and the outer dock or pier above alluded to. At first this space was bridged, but, after the building of the first elevator by Messrs. Noble, Brown, McCarter and Shannon in 1868 it was filled in with solid pier work.
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