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 9
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It was almost simultaneously with the passage of the Actual Settlement Act that the Pennsylvania Population Company, already mentioned, was formed at Philadelphia. Altogether this company acquired 890 warrants, partly in what is now Erie county and partly in Crawford, and these holdings embraced the whole of the Triangle ex- cept the town plot of Erie, the State Reserve, the Garrison Reserve and Irvine's reservation-the last named in what afterwards became Har- bor creek township. For the purpose of inducing settlers to locate here these offers were made : A gift of 150 acres each to the first twenty fami- lies to settle on French Creek, and a similar gift to the first twenty to settle in the Lake Erie territory; a gift of 100 acres to the next fifty families, after the first twenty to settle on French creek, and a similar gift to the next fifty to settle in the Lake Erie territory. Settlers were privileged to select whatever lands they desired, and if ten acres were cleared and a comfortable house built on the land, in which they resided,
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they were to have a deed in two years. In case they were driven off by the Indians no part of the two years was to stand against them, but no title was to vest in any person who abandoned his land before re- ceiving a deed. Thirty thousand acres of land was offered for sale to actual settlers at one dollar per acre payable at the option of the pur- chaser in three years, with interest the last two years, but no tract was to exceed 300 acres. The first agent of the Pennsylvania Population Company was Thomas Rees, Esq., who was succeeded in 1796, by Judah Colt, who continued to transact the business affairs of the com- pany in this county until it was dissolved in 1814.
The Holland Land Company early acquired a large amount of land in Erie county. It was composed of a number of wealthy men living in Holland, and soon after the close of the War of the Revolution, bought of Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, vast bodies of land in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. Besides the land purchased of Morris and what was acquired in this county the company had large holdings in Crawford. Those in Erie county were all south of the old state line. Major Alden was the first agent of this company and was succeeded by William Miles. In 1815 H. J. Huide- koper, a member of the corporation, came from Holland to take charge of the company's affairs and established himself at Meadville, being the original of that notable family.
The third land company to be interested in the settlement of Erie was the Harrisburg and Presque Isle Company, formed at Harrisburg in 1796, for the purpose of settling, improving and populating the coun- try near and adjoining to Lake Erie. Among those who joined to form this company were Richard Swan, Thomas. Forster, Samuel Laird and William Kelso, names later to be prominently identified with affairs in Erie.
These were the great land companies that, it turned out, were to be the means of bringing settlers into this section of the country. They had troubles. some of them, at the beginning, for it early appeared that the Actual Settlement act had, perhaps inadvertently, been nullified, the discovery being made that all the available land in the Triangle had been disposed of by the state to the Pennsylvania Population Company. This necessitated the passage of an act by the Legislature, in 1794, to. provide that no further application should be received at the land office for unimproved land in the Triangle, and that no warrant should issue after June 15 of that year for any land within the Triangle except in favor of persons claiming by virtue of some settlement and improvement having been made thereon, and that all applications remaining in the land office after that date, for which the purchase money had not been paid, should be void. However, applications might be received and war- rants issued until January 1, 1795, in favor of any persons to whom a balance might be due in the land office on unsatisfied warrants issued
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before the 29th of March, 1792, for such quantities of land as might be sufficient to discharge such balances.
Out of the legislation, of 1792 and of 1794 the difficulties above al- luded to, grew. for when proclamation was made in 1195 by the gover- nor, declaring that the Indians had been conquered and that the northi- western section of the State was open for settlement, a considerable nun- ber of people immigrated, some buying from the land agents, and others setting up claims on the ground that the land companies had forfeited their claims. The claims of the latter were controverted by the land companies, who set up the plea that the hostility of the Indian> had prevented them from making the improvements called for by the act, which act also made allowance for such a contingency. The land companies were sustained by the courts, the Holland Land Company also successfully maintaining its title in the United States courts, being a foreign company.
Besides the tracts of land taken up by the land companies above mentioned there were others set off by the State which should be men- tioned. During the progress of the Revolutionary war, in 1780, a promise was made "to the officers and privates belonging to this State in the Federal Army." that they were to be given certain donations and quantities of land, according to their several ranks, to be surveyed and divided off to them, severally, at the end of the Revolutionary war. The tenth of these Donation Districts was located within Erie county and be- gan about a mile east of Waterford and extended eastward to the War- ren county line. It was surveyed on the part of the State in 1785 by David Watts and William Miles. There were but few of the Revolu- tionary soldiers who moved onto them, the great bulk of the patents hav- ing been disposed of to speculators.
Then there was the Moravian Grant. This land was voted by the State in 1791 to the "Society of the United Brethren for propagating the Gospel among the heathen," in recognition of its services in main- taining at its own expense missionaries among the Indians. In Erie county two tracts were located, the "Good Luck" tract of 2875 acres in Le Bœuf township and the "Hospitality" tract of 2797 acres in Springfield township. William Miles was the first agent of the Hos- pitality tract and John Wood of Waterford was the first agent of the Good Luck tract. (In 1850 these tracts were sold to N. Blickensderfer and James Miles).
There were four state reservations: The Irvine Reserve of 2000 acres in Harborcreek township was donated by the Commonwealth to Gen. William Irvine as a special reward for his services in the Revolu- tion. The Erie State Reserve began at the head of the bay, extended south three miles, thence east eight miles, then north three miles to the shore of the lake, and included all land within those boundaries except what had been originally set apart for the town of Erie. The Waterford
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Reserve consisted of 1800 acres in Waterford township and 400 acres in Le Bœuf. The Garrison tract was laid out at the eastern end of the town of Erie on the shore of the bay and lake and included about one hundred acres, and is the only state reserve in Erie county that remains to this day the property of the commonwealth. Upon it stands the Pennsylvania Soldiers and Sailors Home.
Finally there was, by act of the legislature in 1799, held back from each of the reserve tracts of Erie and Waterford 500 acres "for the use of such schools and academies as may hereafter be established by law."
Above has been given an outline of the disposition made by the State, of the public lands, prior to and soon after the beginning of the first settlement of the county. Through the various legislative acts en- umerated it will be seen how titles to the land of the county originated. It will show how preparations had been made for the coming into Erie county of the hardy pioneers who were to make an opening right here in the Great Forest of North America.
For the Indian troubles were now at an end at and in the vicinity of Presque Isle, if only the settler could be made to feel satisfied of that fact. It had been a protracted and difficult task to reach a basis satis- factory to the Indians, and there is no doubt it would not so soon have been reached but for the activity and friendliness of the great chief Cornplanter. He was tireless in his efforts to have peace established. He was a loyal friend to the whites, whom he had come to understand, and finally succeeded in satisfying his people, although having been charged before a council with having accepted a bribe for the sale of Presque Isle. When, therefore, a conference to be held at Canan- daigua had been appointed by the President, with Timothy Pickering as the sole representative of the Government, for the purpose of estab- lishing a firm and permanent friendship with the Six Nations, it was agreed to by the Indians, who came in force. The meeting was held in October, 1794. The result of the conference was that a large tract of land west of the Phelps and Gorham purchase in New York was reserved to the Indians, with $14,500 in goods, whereupon fifty-nine sachems signed a treaty of perpetual peace and friendship with the United States. Thus was the remaining obstacle in the way of the inaugurating of a final settlement here removed.
CHAPTER IX .- COMING OF THE PIONEERS.
THE SURVEYORS AT WORK .- ARRIVAL OF COL. REED AND HIS FAMILY AND PERMANENT SETTLEMENT BEGUN.
And now the stage has been cleared for the beginning of a new drama of human interest. That which had preceded was essentially of the military sort, and before that. what might be denominated of the border kind. But the new one is the domestic drama that, in its work- ing out, has many a thrilling situation, introducing, to be sure, more than one military scene, and more than one spectacular effect. Indeed as we shall see, even the "grand transformation" of the mimic stage is here to be put on with great effect.
It is now 1795, in the great American forest. It is three full cen- turies since the Cabots made the civilized world acquainted with the western continent. It is three hundred years since the Europeans came to know of the existence of that stupendous expanse of woods that stretched from the tropic waters of the Gulf to the billows of the Artcic sea. Three hundred years! And yet the scene of our narrative upon the shore of Presque Isle bay and the terraced hills of the interior, is the same forest primeval, inviolate, save for the mere thread the ambitious French had stretched between the lake and the river. Most impressive must the view have been to the first comer, as, scanning the country to the south from the point of vantage of the frail embarkation of the time upon the lake, he beheld that grand panorama of arboreal verdure, impressive in its vast extent as it steadily unfolded during his progress westward and as steadily continued unchanged. It was as though it had never before been seen by man, for, as creation might have left it, it still remained.
But the change was impending. A new race in this part of the continent was about to appear, a race as unlike that which had preceded it as could well be. The French after an occupancy of six years, in a day burned behind them all their works, and no trace remained. Those who are now to take up the work and assume the duties of ownership, to have and to hold, after six years will have made marks not so easily obliterated. For they are of that people who had come into this western world to establish homes, and while they pursued commerce and trade
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and the industries of their time, held superior to these the homes they were to establish.
It is not easy to determine from the evidence available, just at what date the earliest settler in Erie county arrived, nor is the day of the month, nor even the month of the year 1795 reliably set down which marks the date of the arrival here of the earliest settlers. Nor can it be told from any records extant which part of the county is entitled to claim the honor of receiving the first settler. There had been a garrison maintained at Le Bœuf for some time, rendered necessary by the fear of the Indians, and it would appear as though, under the protection of that body of military there might have been found someone daring enough to have taken up land and set about establishing a claim. So far as can be learned this was not done before the year 1795, and during that year there appears nothing to show at what time in that year im- migration began. Statements appear in the histories that "early in the year" a detachment of soldiers arrived to erect blockhouses; "early in the year" Captain Grubb escorted the surveyors here; "early in the year" Thomas Rees came on to engage in the work of surveying the land of the Pennsylvania Population Company. Careful and inquiring search, however, places the date of all the arrivals above mentioned- and they were the first of the permanents-after mid-summer ; that is to say, none of them before the latter part of June.
It appears, from what he wrote at the time, that in the year 1795 Deacon Hinds Chamberlain of LeRoy, N. Y., looking for a place to buy desirable land cheap, made a journey to Presque Isle, having as companions Jesse Beach and Reuben Heath. The narrative of his trip bears no date or dates, so that it is not possible to state how early in the year their visit here was made. This party of men were the first arrivals here, but, according to the story as told, they were not here much if any before mid-summer day. Mr. Chamberlian writes :
"At Presque Isle we found neither whites nor Indians-all was solitary. There were some old French brick buildings, wells, block houses, etc., going to decay, and eight or ten acres of cleared land. On the peninsula there was an old brick house forty or fifty feet square. The peninsula was covered with cranberries.
"After staying there one night we went over to Le Bœuf, about sixteen miles distant, pursuing an old French road. Trees had grown up in it. but the track was distinct. Near Le Bœuf we came upon a company of men who were cutting out the road to Presque Isle-a part of them were soldiers and a part Pennsylvanians. At Le Boeuf there was a garrison of soldiers-about one hundred. There were several white families there and a store of goods. Myself and companions were in pursuit of land. By a law of Pennsylvania, such as built a log house and cleared a few acres acquired a presumptive right-the right
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
to purchase at five dollars per hundred acres. We each of us made a location near Presque Isle.
"On our return to Presque Isle from Le Bœuf we found there Col. Seth Reed and his family. They had just arrived. We stopped and helped him build some huts; set up crotches, laid poles across, and cov- ered them with the bark of the cucumber tree. . James Baggs and Giles Sisson came on with Col. Reed. I remained for a considerable time in his employ. It was not long before eight or ten other families came in."
This narrative of Deacon Chamberlain is informing but not instruc- tive in so far as it relates to the dates of the advent of some who were undoubtedly among the very earliest settlers here. It would appear from the Deacon as though no others but the Reed party were here. But there were others.
Undoubtedly the first comer was Thomas Rees. He had been here the year before as a surveyor. He came in 1195 also as a surveyor, ac- companied by a force of assistants, but this time, as it turned out, he was to become one of the settlers in the Triangle. He came early. He erected a tent or marquee on the high ground near where the French and English forts had been, and with this temporary shelter, at once his office and his dwelling, pursued his occupation as surveyor. For a time he was alone, except for his force of assistants, and it was during this period that there "dropped in" upon him a small party of travelers who claimed his hospitality for a day or two. It was. Louis Philippe of France and his younger brother and an attendant. They were prosecut- ing a journey through the wilds for recreation and having recuperated on the hospitality of Mr. Rees, proceeded eastward under the care of an Indian guide provided by their host.
The next arrivals at Presque Isle were the commissioners sent out by the state to locate the town of Erie. These commissioners, Gen. William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott, were appointed in pursuance of an act passed by the state legislature in April. 1795, and, for their protection as well as for that of the settlers, they were escorted by a company of state troops under command of Capt. John Grubb. They reached Erie in June, or early in July, the exact date being uncertain, though the probabilities are it was during the latter part of June. The great majority of those who formed this expedition were transients- enlisted men whose only interest lay in the duty placed upon them as soldiers of the state. There were exceptions to this last statement, how- ever, especially notable being that of the commander, Capt. Grubb, who became a permanent settler and rose to a position of honor, influence and distinction in the county, in which he lived until his death in 1845.
The first permanent settlers who came with the expressed pur- pose of making their homes in the Triangle were Col. Seth Reed and his family, with others who accompanied him. Col. Reed was a soldier
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of the Revolution and was in command of a regiment at Bunker Hill. He was a native of Uxbridge, Mass., a physician, but upon the close of the Revolutionary war decided to remove into the west. At first he located in Ontario county, N. Y., where he acquired a large tract of land, but after a time, becoming impressed with what he had heard of the region on the south shore of Lake Erie, decided upon a change of location. At Buffalo he met John Talmadge, who had fitted out a small sailing craft to run between that port and Erie, and engaged passage for his party. They arrived here the last day of June or the first day of July in the evening. Coming into a strange land, with rumors of Indian depredations still current, they were in fear and camped on the peninsula. They were themselves in turn objects of fear, for, discovering the camp- fires on the peninsula, the small garrison of Capt. Grubb judged that a band of hostile Indians had landed there with the intention of making an attack, and extraordinary precautions were taken to guard against a night surprise. The next morning a boat bearing a flag of truce put out from the shore, and soon the mystery was cleared up. Col. Reed, his family and the others of his company were given a cordial welcome and immediately crossed over to the mainland. Col. Reed's was the first family to settle in the Triangle, and the house he soon afterwards erected, a log structure, was the first house built in Erie. Moreover, it was the the first hospice, for it was given the name of the Presque Isle Hotel. To this day, from the date of the first settlement of Erie, there has ever been a hotel with which the name of Reed has been associated. The house Col. Reed built was near the mouth of Mill creek on its left or west bank. The members of his family who came to Erie at that time were his wife and sons Charles John and Manning. His other two sons, Rufus S. and George, came by way of Pittsburg, in Sep- tember. The coming of Mrs. Reed with her husband was an inspiration to others of the gentler sex. In September along with Rufus and George Reed, there came Mrs. Thomas Rees and Mrs. J. Fairbanks. During the same year James Baird and children became settlers at Erie.
Settlement during the year 1795 was not confined to Erie or the lake shore. Throughout the county the progress had begun, and it is a source of marvel at the present day that those pioneers had the splendid courage and hardihood to settle down in the midst of the dense forest, miles away from any others of their kind, and hew out of the wilderness a place of abode. Earlier even than the coming of the Reed family, first settlers in the Triangle, was the advent of William Miles and William Cook, who about the first of June, made a settlement in Concord town- ship, near the Crawford county line, and brought their wives with them. At Waterford the same year ( Waterford that year was laid out by the state commissioners) Amos Judson, James Naylor, Lieut. Martin and Martin Strong settled. Capt. Strong came by way of Presque Isle, or Erie, the last of July. The first settlers in Millcreek, as the township is known today, were John W. Russell, George Moore, David McNair.
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In Le Bœuf, Capt. Robert King and family, William and Thomas Black and Thomas Ford and wife settled. In Wayne, Michael Hare and Messrs. Rideau and Call; in North East, James and Bailie Donaldson ; in Conneaut, Jonathan Spaulding; in Girard, James Blair, and in Mc- Kean, James Talmadge, the skipper who brought Col. Reed to Erie, were the first settlers. All these were immigrants to the county of Erie in the year 1795. It was a small beginning, but it was an actual beginning.
The fears of Indian hostilities were not by any means laid by the beginning of 1795, notwithstanding official proclamations. Too often had treaties with the savages been made only, it would seem, to be soon broken, and though it appeared as though the conclusion of peace reached at Canandaigua was morally certain to endure, people continued to take council of their fears. Nor was it any wonder, when it is considered that taking up a home in the new country that was here being opened up involved isolation remote from any friendly assistance, and with no means of ready communication. It is but necessary to consider for a moment such a case as that of Jonathan Spaulding, settled alone in the trackless and almost impenetrable forest west of Albion, twenty miles away from the nearest military post ( Waterford) and ten miles distant from his nearest neighbor, Mr. Blair at Girard. It surely did call for masterful courage to become a settler in the wilds of the great American forest in those days.
Nor were the times of alarm yet entirely past for in the first year the settlement was thrown into a panic of fear by the report that two men had been massacred by the Indians at a place a short distance south of town that was being then surveyed. The greatest excitement and apprehension prevailed in the garrison, and every precaution was exer- cised and expedient employed that military experience could suggest, in order to be fully prepared in case of an attack by the savages. The story of the massacre is that two men, Ralph Rutledge and his son on the road between Le Bœuf and Erie, had been attacked by Indians a little more than a mile away from Erie and killed. The father, it developed, was dead when the discovery was made by passers-by, but the son though scalped was still alive, but died soon afterward. The scene of this tragedy, was by tradition located about where Turnpike street crosses the railroad, near the Union Depot, and for years the spot was viewed with superstitions fear and called Rutledge's grave. Undoubtedly there was error in locat- ing the scene of the tragical occurrence at that place, for it was a long distance from the French road, which was the only known route between Le Bœuf and Erie, and it was upon that road that the murder was committed. At that early day there was a dense hemlock wood border- ing Mill creek in the neighborhood of the so-called Rutledge's grave, and the spot being remote from travel, if the men had been attacked and murdered there, there was not one chance in a thousand that their bodies would ever have been found. It is far more likely that the scene of the murder was at the upper end of Parade street which was
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
the thoroughfare into the interior from Erie, and the only traveled road.
However the crime was committed and no doubt the people of that time knew its location well, but made no other record of the fact than that it occurred upon the road. Later, however, the murder of the Rutledges cut an important figure as affecting the business of the time. There arose disputes about the rights of landed interests, under the settlement acts. The Pennsylvania Population Co., which had not been able to comply with all the conditions imposed, cited this outrage as evidence that the country had not been pacified and set up a claim for an extension of the probation in accordance with the terms of the act. Rival claimants charged ·that the murder was not the work of Indians, but of the Popu- lation Co., which benefited by it. In the end, however, it came to be generally regarded to be the work of the savages.
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