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 71
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In connection with the railroad enterprise of building the harbor, was that of David Burton & Sons, the pioneers in the anthracite coal
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
trade of Erie. They began business in 1866 on a dock the property of the P. & E. Railroad, east of the present hard coal trestle dock. The firm consisted of David Burton and his sons Andrew and Alured P. In 1868 David withdrew when the new firm of Burton & Longstreet was organized, and continued the business until 1874. The eastern har- bor grew quite rapidly in the early days. The city directory of 1867 boastfully says: "Erie has six large docks, four supplied with railroad tracks." These docks were the Public dock and Reed's dock, used in connection with the canal, and the Erie & Pittsburg, the Anchor Line (E. & W. T. Co.), Burtons, and the Whallon dock. That, which had been built outside the harbor at the mouth of Lighthouse run. by the Anthracite Coal & Iron Co., was then just completed and was regarded as the terminus of the Cleveland & Erie Railroad and a connection with the P. & E. But little business was done on that dock, however.
Meanwhile the development of the harbor of the Erie & Western Transportation Co. was progressing rapidly, and Erie became a live- lier steamboat port than it had ever dreamed of being, even in the era of the Reed steamers. Instead of two or three calls per week, vessels arrived daily, and frequently more than a single boat. At the beginning the vessels of the Erie & Western Transportation Co., known as the Anchor Line, were not numerous, the fleet consisting of boats bought by the company. But an arrangement was made by which the steamers of the Evans Line supplemented the Anchor Line. In 1871 the fleet that did business at Erie consisted of two lines. The Atlantic, Duluth & Pacific line included the steamers Keweenaw, Arc- tic, St. Paul, Meteor, Pacific, Coburn, Atlantic, and the India, China and Japan, then just brought out, built of iron, among the finest on the lakes and built for the E. & W. T. Co. The Anchor Line vessels were the steamers Philadelphia, Merchant, Thomas A. Scott, Wins- low, Annie Young, Alaska, Bradbury and Sun and the schooners Salina and Gardner.
Steadily increasing business produced a steady enlargement of the docks and facilities of the P. & E. harbor. Elevator A was rebuilt of vastly greater capacity in 1880. A year or two later elevator B was built and subsequently a third, elevator C. The large freight house was first built on the westerly side of the coal pier in 1876 and moved to its present location in 1881. In 1884 the Scott coal dock, with its great trestle of coal pockets was built, and in 1889 the easternmost dock was equipped for the iron ore business. In 1901 this dock came under the management of James Thompson, who, in 1908, formed a copartnership with M. A. Hanna & Co., when the equipment was thor- oughly modernized. The improvements made to the harbor are such that at the present time ships carrying a cargo of upwards of ten thou- sand tons can be accommodated at the docks and expeditiously re- lieved of their cargoes, and with equal dispatch furnished with a load
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
of coal from the opposite side of the slip. Development at the Anchor Line docks has kept pace with that on the other docks of the P. & E. Railroad, large warehouses providing separate facilities for handling the east-bound freight apart from that bound west.
The record of the vessels owned by the Anchor Line from the time business was begun, furnished by the company, is as follows:
Salina Sold in 1872
Gardner
Sold in 1872
Merchant
Lost in 1875
Thos. A. Scott
Lost in 1880
Keepsake
Sold in 1881
Prindiville
Sold in 1881
C. H. Weeks
Sold in 1881
Arizona
Lost in 1887
Annie Sherwood
Sold in 1888
Schuylkill
Sold in 1888
Allegheny
Sold in 1888
Annie Young
Lost in 1890
Winslow
Lost in 1891
Erie
Sold in 1891
Philadelphia
Lost in 1893
Gordon Campbell
Sold in 1899
China
Sold in 1905
Delaware
Sold in 1905
Conestoga
Sold in 1905
Juniata
Sold in 1905
Lycoming
Sold in 1905
India
Sold in 1906
Wissahickon
Sold in 1906
Conemaugh
Lost in 1906
The present fleet consists of :
Japan
Built in 1871
Alaska
Built in 1873
Lehigh
Built in 1880
Clarion
Built in 1881
Susquehanna
Built in 1886
Codorus
Built in 1892
Schuylkill
Built in 1892
Mahoning
Built in 1892
Muncy
Built in 1902
Tionesta
Built in 1903
Juniata
Built in 1905.
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Delaware Built in 1905
Wissahickon Built in 1907
Conemaugh
Built in 1909
The original Erie & Pittsburg dock, now known as No. 1, was built in 1864 by John and James Casey, but it has geen greatly en- larged, though still known by the number which identifies it as the original. Dock No. 2, to the west, was built by W. L. Scott & Co. a few years later, but the exact date cannot be ascertained. In the be- ginning all the lake business of the E. & P. Railroad was done on the single dock first built. The steady and even rapid growth of the iron ore business, however, demanded more room, and it was to provide this that No. 2 was built, that dock being devoted entirely to the ship- ment of bituminous coal, and, keeping pace with the times, its equip- ment now includes the device which, lifting a car bodily, overturns it and empties its contents directly into the hold of the vessel alongside. During the Scott administration Dock No. 3 was built, being an addi- tion to No. 1, and it was devoted to coal shipments as well as to the receipt of ore until 1891, at which time Dock No. 4 was built and leased by the Carnegie Steel Co., and operated by Pickands, Mather & Co., of Cleveland. The equipment of these docks had been traveling cranes with the dumping ore buckets now become obsolete, but in 1896 the newer and more efficient Brown hoists were substituted. In 1902 M. A. Hanna & Co. took over all the ore docks of the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad (or the Pennsylvania Company), and, the same year, sub- stituted for the buckets on the Brown hoists the Wilber, Seaver, Mor- gan Co. clam shell device, increasing expedition in unloading. In 1902 trestle No. 1, on the shore, was built to facilitate the storage of the ore that arrived in quantity too great to be moved away at once by the railroad. Trestle No. 1 has a capacity of 140,000 tons. Trestle No. 2, built in 1908, has a capacity of 100,000 tons, and altogether, in- cluding space on the docks, the entire storage capacity of the Erie & Pittsburg dock plant is about 600,000 tons. In 1892 a plant for pro- ducing electricity for lighting and power was installed at the E. & P. docks and continues in use.
The Watson dock was built in 1869 for the blast furnace that was that year erected. For a long time it remained idle until in 1894 it was bought by H. F. Watson, to be used in connection with his paper business, canal boats being laden there and towed to Buffalo and thence proceeding by the Erie Canal to New York. At present it is occupied in part by the Erie Sand & Gravel Co. At first the blast furnace dock was without railroad connection, but the year after it was opened, in 1870. the Erie & Pittsburg Railroad Company built a track along the shore of the bay, eastward from its original terminus, and laid tracks on the dock of the blast furnace. Subsequently the bay
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
shore line was continued through so that a connection was made with the tracks in the P. & E. yard. Tracks were also laid on the French street dock and the Carroll dock, after the junction had been effected.
The latest addition to the harbor of Erie is the fine Public Steam- boat Landing which was formally dedicated in June, 1909. This con- sists of an extension of the Public Dock northward 600 feet into the bay, and was made possible by an appropriation of $150,000 voted by the Legislature of Pennsylvania. The accomplishment of this enter- prise is due to the Erie Chamber of Commerce, and more especially to the individual efforts of Clark Olds, Esq., a former president of the Chamber, who succeeded in interesting the Erie representatives in the legislature. It is of timber construction to a short distance below the water line, the superstructure being of cement, the central area paved with vitrified brick. It contains a gallery of steel and reinforced con- crete construction, and is pronounced the best dock on the chain of lakes. The formal dedication was presided over by Governor Stuart, who turned it over to the city of Erie as a public boat landing. Imme- diately the Cleveland & Buffalo Steamboat Company arranged to furnish regular passenger and freight transportation between Erie and Cleveland and Buffalo, making use of the new dock.
The principal trade at the harbor of Erie is in iron ore and coal. This trade began in the days of the Erie Extension canal, and in 1866, it was announced with considerable flourish that the imports of ore that year had been 57,609 tons and the shipments of coal 251,317 tons, constituting Erie at that time the second in rank in the United States as a coal port. In 1907, however, the receipts of iron ore at Erie had reached, for that season, 2,657,410 tons, while the shipments of coal had been 1,506,554 tons. There were received at Erie by Anchor Line in 1906, 1,643,630 barrels of flour, while the value of the merchandise handled at this port, placed Erie third in the list of lake ports, Chicago and Buffalo only exceeding Erie.
The vessels owned at Erie according to the record at the Custom . House for the year 1908, the last full year available for this work, were :
Owned by Geo. B. Taylor and known as the Pittsburg & Erie Coal Co. fleet-steamers Alcona, 952 tons; Business, 985; H. S. Pick- ands, 625 ; Havana, 1,041; John Plankinton, 1,821 ; Philip D. Armour. 1,990 ; R. P. Fitzgerald, 1,681 ; Toledo, 960 ; and Wiley M. Egan, 1,677, and the schooners Edward Kelly, 776, and Marengo, 648.
Owned by the Sand & Gravel Co .- The steel steamers (or "sand suckers," as they are commonly called) Dan King, Erie and America.
Owned by E. D. Carter .- The steel steamers E. D. Carter, 6,359 tons, and J. H. Bartow, 6,316 tons.
Owned by James McBrier-Steamer Nyanza, 2,296.
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Owned by the Wainwright Steamship Co .- The steel steamer Wainwright, 4,937 tons.
Owned by Edward Mehl-Steamer Uganda, 2,298 tons.
Owned by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission-The gasoline boat Com. Perry, 34 tons.
The vessels of the Anchor Line have already been mentioned.
Then there are the boats employed in the fishing industry, a most important feature of the port. The steamboats, mostly of the build of tugs, range from ten to forty-three tons burthen. Of these boats four are built of steel, and forty-one are of wood, and besides these there are nine propelled by gasoline engines. Altogether there are 90 vessels of varying degrees registered as hailing from Erie ..
In the early days fish of many different kinds were abundant in the waters of Lake Erie, and Presque Isle Bay was a splendid fishing ground for such game species as black bass and muscallonge as well as for the shore varieties-perch, rock bass, sunfish, etc. The lake was especially well supplied with whitefish, the best of fresh water fish, besides different kinds of pike or pickerel and herring, and there are traditions, at least, of catches of whitefish of forty in number, the average weight of the fish being fifteen pounds. When fishing with nets, as a steady business began in Erie, the supply was deemed in- exhaustible, and so it was, if the demand and the method of taking them had never changed. But in the matter of catching fish as in everything else man has undertaken there have been great strides made in a forward direction.
The first fishermen were those who employed only the hook and line, and perhaps the first individual in Erie to try to earn his liveli- hood by fishing was old Ben Fleming. He was called "Bass" Flem- ing because of his occupation, and he was a survivor of the great Bat- tle of Lake Erie of 1813. His stock consisted only of bass and such other kinds as could be caught in the bay. Whitefish, which haunt the deeper water of the lake and are not taken with the hook, Fleming never had for sale, and it was not until 1854 that gill-net fishing be- came an established industry at the port of Erie. It was begun by a man named Hitchcock, who came here from the western end of the lake with his outfit, and the success that attended his labors produced a sort of sensation in the neighborhood of the islands. A decided im- pression was created here and resulted in John Dash and his two sons Adam and John, Jr .; Clark Jones, Richard P. Burke and others en- gaging in the business.
In those days, and for a good long while afterward, the fisher- man's outfit consisted of a boat, twenty or twenty-five feet long, double-cat rigged, and two or three gangs of nets. The boats were without decks but were built on beautiful lines and were not only sea-
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
worthy but very smart sailers. There were usually three in the crew, and the trip out to the nets was made very early in the morning. The nets were of cotton twine, but, instead of the present equipment of oiled floats and lead sinkers, were furnished with stone sinkers and floats that were slats of white cedar notched and slit in the end, so that when the nets had been drawn in it became necessary to detach the sinkers, and the floats before the twine could be dried.
At first the product of the fisheries had no ready sale when fresh. There was a local market, but of a limited extent and there were no facilities for the rapid transportation of fish, such as came later. As a consequence much of the product was salted and packed in barrels and at one time salt whitefish was a staple commodity in every gro- cery and provision store. Soon after the railroads were built the mar- kets were extended, and then, by the use of ice shipments of fresh fish to the interior increased steadily, and artificial freezing in time enabled a wonderful expansion of the business. In the year 1812 there was but one wholesale dealer at the docks, Clark Jones. Even to 1875, the trade continued to be limited, so that a single firm, H. Divel & Co., took care of the business. In those days the individual boats disposed of their catches to the dealers at the dock, the dealers as a rule having no boats of their own.
The beginning of the new order of things came in 1876, when there were four dealers at the harbor: Burch & Coatam, Aaron F. Bush & Co., and Marks & Kerber at the foot of Holland street, and Heidt & Nunn at the foot of Peach street. E. D. Carter first engaged in the business in 1872, and the next year Louis Streuber, and then for a long period-up to 1894-Carter. Streuber, Bush, and Divel were the lead- ers in the wholesale fish industry. With the impetus thus given to the business, of course there was a corresponding increase in that branch of it which included the fishermen and their outfits, and the various trades connected, such as boat building and the manufacture of nets, for the nets were made here out of twine brought in from the factories.
Soon, however, the demands of the trade called something swifter and more dependable than the fishing smacks, smart as they were. The wind could not always be relied upon, and the boats were of lim- ited capacity. Even the multiplication of the boats was not sufficient, and besides, the trouble about the wind remained. It fell to Aaron Bush to introduce the steam fishing boat. It came in the eighties, and it was not long before it had successors. W. W. Loomis was then in the business of vessel building, and for a number of years the princi- pal output of his shipyard was the "fish tug"-for the fishing boats were built on the exact plan of the tug boats of the lakes. Others en- gaged in the business and Seifert, Paasch, and several other builders came into prominence, and at the close of navigation in 1908 there were no less than 54 fishing boats, some of them of 43 tons burthen, registered at the port of Erie.
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Meanwhile a serious trouble had developed. The waters of Lake Erie were becoming depleted. At first little was sought but the white- fish. Most of the other species, regarded as inferior, were rejected, or not sought for, and the lake herring, esteemed in the colder seasons when its flesh was firm, was not considered salable. But changed conditions compelled the practical application of the old saw that "all is fish that is taken in the net." And even at that, the supply was becoming short. A resort was then had to artificial propagation. Hatcheries were established at the western end of the lake and in 1885 the Pennsylvania State Commissioners of Fisheries built a hatchery at Erie, a building of an attractive style, at the corner of Sassafras and Second streets, which was opened in December of that year. At first only whitefish were propagated, but other varieties were added until herring, wall-eyed and blue pike, and perch are also hatched. The product of the four first named varieties in a single year at the Erie hatchery reaches 234,000,000, which, in the form of young fry, are set free in the lake. This, it must be borne in mind, is only a part of what is artificially supplied, for there are other hatcheries on the Ohio shore of Lake Erie. A notable development in recent years is a new kind of fish, known to the trade as the Cisco, which is a cross between the whitefish and the herring, and is sometimes sold to those who cannot discriminate as whitefish. The session of the State Legislature of 1909 made provision for the construction of breeding ponds in the peninsula, where the perch, the black bass, the sunfish and other spe- cies are to be propagated. Louis Streuber, of Erie, was appointed a member of the State Fish Commission in 1895, and served until 1899, when John Hamberger was appointed from this port.
The sturgeon fishing business at Erie has come and gone, the stur- geon having become to all intents and purposes, exterminated. In 1872, Post & Durfee, of Fairport, Ohio, set the first pound nets off the port of Erie for the purpose of catching sturgeon. At first the only use made of these fish was to extract the roe for the manufacture of caviare, the rest being thrown away. A factory was established above Massassauga Point, and years afterward a manufacturer of fertilizers did a profitable business from the reduction of the fish carcasses that were dug out of the dunes of sand that, drifting over them, had buried and preserved them. Successors of Post & Durfee were Heidt & Wen- dell, Slocum & Stuntz, Slocum & Meyers. The last named firm estab- lished a caviare factory on the tongue of land at the southwest corner of Misery Bay, which has since been known as Sturgeon Point. At this place, however, the carcasses of the fish were put to better uise, and smoked sturgeon came into great demand. But the fisheries failed. The goose that laid the golden egg had been killed. There were no more sturgeon: Eventually the Legislature of Pennsylvania prohib- ited the use of pound nets, and for a number of years there was no Vol. I-42
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
fishing by means of that device. Within recent years pound net fish- ing has been resumed, but it is rare indeed that a sturgeon is taken.
During the last ten years the wholesale fish business has been principally in the hands of A. Booth & Co., a foreign corporation, and the Keystone Fish Co., of Erie. Other dealers have been the Buckeye Fish Co., and the Union Fish Co. The warehouses of Booth & Co. and the Keystone Fish Co. were destroyed by fire in 1908, and in the latter part of that year Booth & Co. failed. Work was immediately begun to rebuild by the Keystone Fish Co., and in 1909, on the ruins of the other a new warehouse was erected by W. F. Kalbe. In addi- tion to these, in 1909 there were engaged in the wholesale fish business at the port of Erie, the Union Fish Co. and the Booth Fisheries Co., both foreign concerns.
CHAPTER VI .- BURNING OF THE ERIE.
A HISTORIC MARINE DISASTER .- TERRIBLE FATALITY ON A STEAMER'S FIRST TRIP .- STORY OF A SURVIVOR STILL LIVING.
Tales of terrible loss of life by shipwreck have in all ages pos- sessed their own peculiar fascination, and many a story, of truth or fic- tion, in which the horrors of the storm or the fire at sea are depicted, are read again and again with scarcely any diminution in interest. The loss of the Medusa, the wreck of the Grosvenor, or even the tales of shipwreck of modern times as they appear in the columns of the daily newspaper are first to attract the eye and rivet the attention, and these stories are likely longest to be retained in memory. This is the case with the story of the burning of the steamer Erie, of this port, sixty-eight years ago, with the loss of nearly two hundred and fifty souls.
It was a particularly harrowing occurrence because of the lack of facilities for obtaining information, and people of today can imag- ine the situation when it is appreciated that, after it became known the vessel had burned, it required many long hours to get any partic- ulars-indeed it was not until twenty-four hours after the occurrence that the report of the loss of the Erie was confirmed, and then it was only after sending an express rider out from here to proceed as far as to Silver Creek, obtain the facts and then return to Erie, that the details of the awful occurrence became known. The state of suspense and anxiety that prevailed in this city meantime may be imagined, for there were believed to be many Erie people among the passengers and crew.
The Erie was a comparatively new vessel at the time of her de- struction. She had been built in Erie in 1837 by Thomas G. Colt and Smith I. Jackson, and was one of a number that constituted the finest line of steamers then in existence anywhere. Erie had become a note- worthy ship-building center. It was a result of the building here of Commodore Perry's fleet, in one sense, for the large force of carpen- ters and other mechanics brought from eastern ports to work on the ships of the American fresh water fleet, did not return when the work on these ships was completed. They remained and many of them be- came prominent, some as navigators, some as designers and builders
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
of vessels, some as business men and others as farmers. Many of the ship carpenters were Welsh, and with them the Welsh names, the Richardses. Hentons, Griffiths, Hugheses, Joneses, and such came into the county, and through them was established the settlement in South Harborcreek known to this day as Wales. There were a considerable number, however, who continued to follow their trade, and one of them, Captain Richards, became prominent as a designer and director of vessel construction at Erie.
Steam navigation became established on the great lakes in the twenties, and, following the development along the new lines of navi- gation, Erie business men became interested in the new departure. The first steamer owned in Erie was the Peacock, bought by Rufus S. Reed, and soon afterwards a sister ship was decided upon and the William Penn was built at Erie, Mr. Reed and others being the own- ers. Then followed these boats, all owned by Mr. Reed and built at this port; the Pennsylvania, in 1832; the Thomas Jefferson, in 1834; the James Madison, in 1836; and the Missouri, in 1840. The steamer Erie was built here in 1837, and after being operated for four seasons was bought by General Reed, who was then at the head of the steam- boat business on the lakes, and was added to the splendid line of steamers that sailed under the Reed colors.
It was in 1841 that the Erie was added to the Reed fleet of steam- ers, and, before being put into regular service she was given a general overhauling, receiving of course, a thorough renovation in which the paint pot and brush figured prominently. Indeed, the painters had not finished their work when the time came for the advertised departure of the vessel on her first trip as one of the Reed line of steamers, and the painters, still engaged in their work, accompanied the Erie on her run down the lake, which was the first stage of the trip, intending to have their work finished when the boat returned to Erie. The trip as laid out consisted of a run to Buffalo, from which port a trip to Chi- cago and return was to begin.
It was on Friday, Aug. 6, 1841, at 11 p. m., that the Erie left this port for Buffalo on her ill-fated trip. She lay at Buffalo until Mon- day, Aug. 9, and at 4:20 p. m., took her departure. She had a large list of passengers, numbering nearly 300, and including many emi- grants, Swiss and Germans, bound for the west. There was a fresh breeze from the west, but the boat made excellent progress, and by 8 o'clock in the evening had reached a point off Silver Creek, when there was an explosion, and almost in a flash the entire steamer seemed to be enveloped in flames. A number of demijohns of turpentine and varnish had been left on the boiler deck, and these, becoming over- heated, had exploded, the vapor at once bursting into a blaze that seized upon the freshly painted woodwork and the flames spread with
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