USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > Erie > Erie; a guide to the city and county > Part 5
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Prior to the War of 1812 a dozen or more vessels, averaging 60 tons, composed the entire merchant fleet on Lake Erie. Salt was the chief article of freight, although some business was done in transporting furs from the far west to Buffalo.
The Walk-in-the-Water was the first steamboat to navigate Lake Erie. Of 300 tons, it was built on the Niagara River, launched in May, 1818, and made regular trips between Buffalo and Detroit, stopping at Erie on each trip. The first steamboat launched at Erie was the William Penn,
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ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
200 tons, in May, 1826. By 1826 three steamboats and from two to ten schooners cleared from Erie harbor every week.
The Vandalia, 150 tons, built at Oswego, New York, and brought through the Welland Canal in 1842, was the first boat on Lake Erie oper- ated by a propeller. Other propeller vessels soon appeared, and this type replaced the old style side-wheel steamboats.
CANALS
The Erie Canal of New York, now called the New York State Barge Canal (not to be confused with the Erie-Pittsburgh Canal), opening a low cost transportation system from New York City to Buffalo, New York, by way of the Hudson River to Troy, New York, thence by canal to Buffalo, brought an influx of immigration to the western states. Follow- ing the opening of this canal large numbers of Germans landed at Erie. Their original destination had been Cincinnati, Ohio, and the lower Ohio Valley but, attracted by the Pennsylvania farm lands, they remained in the Erie region and became an important section of the population.
The opening of the Erie-to-Pittsburgh Canal in 1844 greatly increased the lake trade at Erie. Daily steamboat service was established between Erie and Buffalo in 1846. Completion of the Lake Shore Railroad to Toledo, Ohio, in 1853, greatly curtailed immigrant travel by way of canal and lake, and the steamboats depended mainly upon freight to and from the upper lakes.
In the 1840's the State spent more than $4,000,000 in the construction of the canal from Pittsburgh to Lake Erie by way of the Ohio, Beaver, and Shenango Rivers.
In 1843 the State had refused to appropriate the estimated $211,000 required to complete the canal. The Erie Canal Company was then in- corporated. The State ceded to the company all the work that had been done, on condition that the corporation finish and operate the canal. The additional $211,000 was subscribed by Erie merchants. The first boats to reach Erie were the Queen of the West and the R. S. Reed on December 5, 1844. The first boat carried passengers, and the second brought coal, iron ore, and merchandise. The canal did a thriving business and materially assisted in the development of trade.
The mule-drawn canal boats stopped at any point along their line to discharge or take aboard passengers and baggage. The canal did a profit- able business for 30 years. With the coming of the steam railroads, the Erie & Pittsburgh Railroad bought it to eliminate competition and let it lapse quietly into oblivion, despite the strenuous protests of the canal men.
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TRANSPORTATION
RAILROADS
A charter was obtained for the Erie & North East Railroad Company on April 12, 1842. Stock in the railroad company was sold largely in Erie, and construction of six-foot wide gauge track was completed in January 19, 1852, and the first train steamed into Erie. This track, now standard gauge (4 ft. 81/2 in.), is now part of the main line of the New York Central through Erie County.
The New York & Erie Railroad Company had been formed to build a road from Dunkirk, N. Y., to the Pennsylvania line, and a second road was projected by the New York Central from Buffalo, by way of Fre- donia, to the State Line. At this period railroads were being built rapidly in all sections of the country, and the common practice was to build short lines and later sell them at a high profit to continuous lines that merged the shorter units.
Although tentative efforts had been made by citizens of Erie as early as the year 1831 to have a railroad extended from Buffalo to Erie, the first organization of a company for that purpose was not effected until April 12, 1842, when the Erie and North East Railroad Company was or- ganized. Surveys were completed in 1849 and contracts were let for construction of a six foot gauge track to be laid from Erie to the New York State line. The first train entered Erie January 19, 1852.
In 1852 the Franklin Canal Company completed a railroad from Erie to the Ohio State Line, connecting with a line from Cleveland. The first train from Erie to Ashtabula, Ohio, was run on November 23, 1852. The Pennsylvania State law at that time required all roads entering from the east to have a gauge of 6 feet or 4 feet 81/2 inches. All from the west were required to have a gauge of 4 feet 10 inches. This necessitated a break and transfer at Erie.
The change of gauge at Erie was a serious inconvenience to the railroads, and on November 17, 1853, the Erie & North East Company entered into a contract with the New York Central whereby the former was to alter the gauge of its track to 4 feet 10 inches, making a uniform gauge from Buffalo to Cleveland. The change, completed on February 1, 1854, enraged the people of Erie, who had visualized their city as the Lake Erie terminus of the New York & Erie Railroad instead of a way station. Crowds of citizens, reinforced by Mayor Alfred King and 150 special constables, tore down the bridges over State and French Streets, ripped up the tracks across all streets east of Sassafras Street, and pelted officials of the railroads with rotten eggs whenever they appeared on the streets. The enmity of the voting public towards the railroads became so intense
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ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
that in the elections of 1854, 1855, and 1858, party lines were obliterated, and the main political issue was the railroad trouble.
Erie's angered citizens were successful in preventing the changing of track gauge for a time, necessitating the transfer of passengers and freight between Harborcreek and Erie by stages and wagons. The city was con- demned by railroad travelers. Horace Greeley, one of the inconvenienced travelers, declared in the New York Tribune: "Let Erie be avoided until grass grows in her streets." Another outbreak occurred in 1855, in which several bridges were destroyed and tracks torn up. State and Federal officials were compelled to intervene. The controversy was carried even- tually to the Supreme Court, which decided that the road gauge as con- structed by the Franklin Canal Company was illegal, and repealed the company's charter.
A new charter was granted by the legislature on condition that the company, known as the Cleveland & Erie, should subscribe $500,000 to the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad and extend its track to the harbor at Erie. The charter of the Erie & North East Company was also repealed in 1855, but was restored in April, 1856 upon condition that the com- pany expend $400,000 towards building a road from Erie to Pittsburgh.
A few years later, the Erie & North East and the Buffalo & State Line Railroads were consolidated under the name of the Buffalo & Erie Rail- road. In the early 1860's the Cleveland & Lake Erie Railroad was con- solidated with the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad, and later this company was merged with the Michigan Southern, placing a continuous line under one management from Erie to Chicago. The road became known as the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company. In 1869 the Buffalo & Erie was merged with this organization, which was owned by the Vanderbilts, with Chauncey Depew as legal and business representative. This system is now the New York Central Railroad.
The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, a United States Steel Corporation subsidiary, runs from Erie to East Pittsburgh. It was the latest railroad to enter Erie County and was opened in 1892. It was originally known as the Pittsburgh, Shenango, and Lake Erie Railroad. It follows the route of the old Erie-Pittsburgh Canal. Its tonnage consists largely of heavy freight between the Pittsburgh steel district and the Great Lakes. Ac- cording to Interstate Commerce Commission figures, it carries more ton- nage per mile of track than any other railroad in the world.
The first passenger depot in Erie was a rude brick structure built in 1851. It was replaced by the Union Depot in 1864, which was replaced by the present (1938) Union Station in 1927.
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TRANSPORTATION
LOCAL AND INTERURBAN TRANSPORTATION
The first franchise to operate horse-drawn street cars was issued to Heman Janes and Associates on March 12, 1866. A horse-drawn bus was operated in 1867 on the main streets by William Loesch. The Erie Pas- senger Railway Company began to operate horse cars in 1868 on virtually the same streets as Loesch's bus line. Loesch's franchise was sought by others, but he would not sell. One morning he found all his horses dead from poison, and unable to operate that day, he had to forfeit his charter, as one of its clauses called for operation each day with forfeiture as the penalty.
Erie was the second city in the country to have an electric trolley sys- tem, when, in the early spring of 1885, the first electric passenger car made its trial trip on State Street. The first rails were wooden stringers with steel straps. The cars were operated by the Erie Passenger Rail- ways Company which was reorganized in 1888 as the Erie Electric Motor Company.
On April 13, 1906, the Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Company took over all the intercity electric lines, and in August of the same year acquired the suburban and interurban lines east of Buffalo Road to Westfield, New York, and on New Year's Day, 1909, the company opened a through line to Buffalo. This line was bought in 1924 by the Buffalo & Erie Railways Company, which was forced out of business in recent years.
The Erie Street Railways Company, successor to the Erie Electric Motor Company, operated the last electric trolley car in Erie. On Decem- ber 7, 1925, the Erie Coach Company placed the first motor bus in oper- ation and gradually increased this type of service until May 13, 1935, when the last street car made its final trip.
The first bus line to operate in Erie County was the West Ridge Trans- portation Company in April 1923 from Erie to Conneaut, Ohio. The Great Lakes Stages, now part of the Greyhound Lines, entered the county in 1927, with bus service to Cleveland. Two years later it established a line to Buffalo, and now operates interstate busses through Erie.
Besides the privately-owned airport at Fairview, a modern airport, Port Erie, was completed in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration and the city. Air mail service was inaugurated on May 19, 1938.
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RELIGION
C HRISTIANITY was brought to the Erie region in the late summer of 1615, when about 20 Frenchmen landed on the shore of Presque Isle (see HISTORY). They planted a large wooden cross in the soil, sang the Te Deum, and the Reverend Joseph LeCaron, a Franciscan friar, cele- brated Mass with an upturned canoe for an altar, in a clearing near some Indian huts.
Father Le Caron tried to convert the natives to Christianity, but his efforts and those of other friars resulted in scant success. The Indians worshipped evil spirits and practiced sorcery, and believed they would go to a happy hunting ground at death. The efforts of missionaries were also hampered by the fact that the Eries were nearly always at war with the Senecas, a neighboring tribe in New York State.
Medicine men, as the sorcerer-priests of the Indian tribes were called, incited so much opposition to the missionaries that no attempt was made to found a Catholic congregation in Erie until 1753, when the Reverend Luke Collett, a Franciscan, was sent from Montreal as chaplain of the French troops who built Forts Presque Isle and Le Boeuf. After the French evacuated these forts in 1759, there is no record of Catholic ac- tivity in Erie until near the end of the century.
Because of its early military and political history, the Catholic Church in Erie County has been subject to four different ecclesiastical jurisdictions. During the period of French occupancy and until 1763, they were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec. From 1763 until 1784, Catholics in America were subject to the Vicar Apostolic of London. After the Revolutionary War, Èrie belonged to the Philadelphia Diocese. On Au-
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Farm scene, Erie County
Grape raising in eastern Erie County
FACTURING
ODIN STOVE MA
DIN S'OVE MANUFACTURING CO
Odin Stove Manufacturing Company Plant
URKE . ELE
Burke Electric Company Plant
RELIGION
gust 15, 1843, the Reverend Michael O'Connor, of Philadelphia, was con- secrated first bishop of the newly established diocese of Pittsburgh, and Erie became a part of the Pittsburgh Diocese.
St. Mary's and St. Patrick's Churches are known to have held services in Erie in the 1830's. The chapel of St. Patrick's, a two-story structure with living quarters for the priest on the second floor, was on German Street near 4th Street. The Reverend Charles McCabe was the first priest of the parish. The German Catholics founded St. Mary's Church, and held service in a log house on the northeast corner of roth and State Streets. The first resident priest at St. Mary's was the Reverend Ivo Levitz, who probably came to Erie early in 1840.
The Erie Diocese was established in 1853, when Bishop O'Connor was transferred from Pittsburgh. He remained seven months, and was returned to the Pittsburgh Diocese. The Most Reverend Tobias Mullen, third Bishop of Erie, was consecrated on August 2, 1868. He made plans for building the present St. Peter's Cathedral, at W. 10th and Sassafras Streets, a task requiring nearly 20 years.
The Most Reverend John Mark Gannon, D.D., present (1938) Bishop of Erie, was installed as fifth Bishop of Erie on December 16, 1920. Bishop Gannon is regarded as one of the most learned members of the Catholic hierarchy. He is frequently called upon to perform important duties as a member of the National Catholic Welfare Council.
The diocese embraces Erie, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Mckean, Mercer, Potter, Venango, and Warren counties in northwestern Pennsylvania. The Catholic population of the diocese is 131,828; number of diocesan priests, 164; priests of religious orders, 52; churches with resident pastors, 110, to which are attached 47 missions.
The first Protestant service of which there is any record was held on Sunday, July 2, 1797, at the home of Judah Colt, at Colt's Station in Green- field Township. In response to a general invitation, about 30 persons came to the service, at which Colt read the sermon, no minister being available. The text was from I Corinthians 14:40: "Let all things be done decently and in order." This subject was chosen because of land con- troversies at the time.
The Ohio and Redstone Presbyteries sent two missionaries, the Reverend Messrs. McCurdy and Stockton, in 1799, who preached in Erie, Water- ford, and North East. Two years later McCurdy again visited the region, accompanied by the Reverend Messrs. Tate, Satterfield, and Boyd. Ser- vices were held in a clearing prepared for the occasion on the west branch of French Creek at Middlebrook in Venango Township.
The work of McCurdy and Satterfield met with the approval of the
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ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
people and it was decided to build a meeting house at Middlebrook, about a mile and a half north of Lowville, on State 89. In 1801 a log structure was erected, the first Protestant Church in Erie County. It was known as the Middlebrook Presbyterian Church.
The first Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to Protestant forms, was administered at North East on September 27, 1801. There were about 300 in attendance at the meeting. A congregation with the title, "The Churches of Upper and Lower Greenfield," was organized at the time.
The Erie Presbytery was established October 2, 1801, and embraced that portion of Pennsylvania west and northwest of the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers, including a part of the Western Reserve. The first meeting of this presbytery was held at Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, on April 13, 1802. The Reverend Messrs. McCurdy, Satterfield, and Mc- Pherrin were chosen as missionaries to serve Erie and its environs.
The Reverend Johnson Eaton held occasional services for several years at Colt's Station, Middlebrook, Waterford, and Erie, and organized a con- gregation at Springfield in 1806. A church was built at the mouth of Walnut Creek, in Fairview Township, in 1810, where Eaton preached several Sundays. He also organized a church at Erie in 1815. In 1820 the minutes of the presbytery showed congregations at Springfield, Fair- view, North East, Waterford, Middlebrook, Union, and Erie.
Meetings of the Methodist Episcopal denomination in Erie were held by circuit preachers as early as 1801. A congregation was established soon afterwards, but was unable to support a pastor until 1826, from which time the First M. E. Church of Erie dates its organization.
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church asserts that it is the oldest re- ligious organization in the city, dating from August 18, 1808, although the Associated Reform Presbyterian Church also makes the same as- sertion, having organized a congregation in October, 1811, with the Reverend Robert Reid as minister. This latter organization held services in a schoolhouse at what is now E. 7th and French Streets until 1816.
The Reverend Charles Colsom, a Lutheran minister from Germany, organized congregations at Meadville, French Creek, Conneaut, and Erie in 1815 or 1816. The first Lutheran church in Erie was built in 1836.
The first organization of Episcopalians in Erie County was effected on March 17, 1827, when a number of persons withdrew from the Presby- terian church of Erie and became united as St. Paul's Episcopal congre- gation, now St. Paul's Cathedral, with the Reverend Charles Smith, of Philadelphia, as rector. Services were held in the courthouse at Erie until a building was erected in November, 1832.
The Erie Diocese of the Episcopal Church was established in 1911,
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RELIGION
with the Reverend Rogers Israel, as bishop. He was succeeded in 192 1 by the Reverend John C. Ward. The diocese includes 13 counties in northwestern Pennsylvania and was formerly a part of the Pittsburgh Diocese.
The first Erie County Baptist congregation was organized in Harbor- creek Township in 1822. This was followed by churches in Erie in 1831, and in North East and Waterford Townships in 1832.
The first Hebrew congregation was formed in 1853. The Anshe Hesed Reformed Congregation originated in 1875. The B'rith Sholom Syna- gogue, an orthodox congregation, was organized in 1896.
Other groups to organize in Erie were the First Christian Church in 1888, the First Church of Christ Scientist, 1888, and the Russian Orthodox Church, 1916.
The first Sunday School was founded by the Reverend Mr. Morton and James Moorhead at Moorheadville in 1817. A year later a Sunday School class for girls was established in Erie. Mrs. Judah Colt, who had returned from a visit to England, where these schools were being in- troduced, was responsible for initiating the movement. Horace Greeley was one of the students in the winter of 1830.
The 25 different denominations in Erie and Erie County now possess more than 100 church structures and meeting places in the city and sub- urbs and 107 in the county. The churches in the city and suburbs have an enrollment of approximately 68,000 members, composed of 26,000 Protestants, and 42,000 Catholics.
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ARCHITECTURE
T HE history of Erie's development from a pioneer outpost to a modern commercial city can be traced through a knowledge of the city's architecture.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries Erie developed slowly from an outpost military fort to a small but active frontier town. It was logical that her first structures, the forts and dwellings of the militia and the early pioneers, should be built of logs, since wood was the most readily accessible building material. Unfortunately, none of the original pioneer buildings are standing today, but in the History of Erie County, by Laura Sanford, there is a description of the first Fort Presque Isle, built by Le- Mercier in 1753 for the French Army: "They fell to work and built a square fort of chestnut logs, squared and lapped over each other to the height of 15 feet. It is about 120 feet square, a log-house in each square, a gate to the southward, another to the northward, not one port-hole cut in any part of it. When finished, they called it Fort Presqu'ile."
The Fort Wayne Blockhouse, reconstructed in 1880, is a log fort, two- stories high. Above the square ground floor, the octagonal second story cantilevers out beyond the walls below. Log houses were the most prac- tical form of construction until well into the 19th century. A few ex- amples standing today are sheathed over with boarding, such as the Hughes Log House at 135 E. 3rd Street.
The symbol of Erie's emergence from a pioneer settlement to a com- mercial city, as well as a symbol of a new cultural age in America, is seen in the Old Erie Customs House, 1839. It was designed by William Kelly after its parent bank in Philadelphia. The building is faced with Vermont marble and is the first marble structure erected west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is of Greek Revival design with a finely proportioned por-
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ARCHITECTURE
tico of six fluted Greek Doric columns, supporting a large entablature and pediment; it is an outstanding example of the architecture of the awakening Republic.
About 1800, after the bonds which had tied America to England were severed, there arose a classic spirit in America. It was an age of interest in the culture of ancient Greece. This spirit left its tangible traces par- ticularly in architecture that had for its inspiration the ancient classic temples. This style asserted itself strongly in western New York State; and, with migration southward into Pennsylvania, there appeared numer- ous domestic, public, and ecclesiastical buildings whose design was rooted in Greek antiquity. While the old Customs House is the outstanding ex- ample of the architecture of this period, the Reed Mansion, 1849, is like- wise of interest, chiefly for its broad Ionic portico. The third floor is arranged like a boat deck with the entrance to all rooms from a corridor, with a ship's "railing" on one side. Its adjacent small office, built in 1846, simulates a Greek Doric temple.
St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1844, represents a fusion of late Greek Revival and early Victorian architecture. Its facade of Greek Doric design, surmounted by a box-like belfry, belongs to the former period; while the lancet windows represent the Gothic influence of the later Victorian era.
The west wing of the Erie County Court House, 1855, was originally of late Greek Revival design. In 1929 the structure was entirely rebuilt and enlarged by Walter T. Monahan, Erie architect, to its present "U" plan, the west wing retaining the wall structure of the early building. Faced with gray, cut cast stone, its two similar Corinthian porticos with their tall fluted columns are monumentally impressive.
The Hoskinson House, 127 W. 6th Street, built in 1840, is an attractive early brick residence, notable for its twin Doric doorways, refined ex- amples of the Greek Revival style.
Erected concurrently with the buildings of the Revival Period were the simple brick dwellings which were rooted in the early designs of the Colonial or American Georgian architecture of the eastern seaboard. These include such houses as the Metcalf House on the northwest corner of W. 9th and Sassafras Streets, a two-story and attic dwelling of simple Colonial proportions.
The middle of the last century, and particularly after the close of the Civil War, was a period of commercial expansion. The comely era of the Greek Revival had spent itself. The Victorian architecture which followed expressed the new-found wealth of the community. The tur- reted mansions of the wealthy, with slate mansard roofs and gingerbread detail, are on West 6th and West 8th Streets. Buildings of all styles were
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ERIE: A GUIDETO THE CITY AND COUNTY
erected, regardless of the suitability or utility of the architecture.
The grey limestone commercial Scott Building, N. W. corner of 10th and State Streets, of French Renaissance design, followed the design of New York's old Court House, and Philadelphia's City Hall. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns parade its walls. It was a style popularized by architects returning from their studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.
Present day Erie is still characterized largely by the stamp of the late 19th century. This is borne out by a glance down State Street, Erie's main business thoroughfare, or down W. 6th Street, its avenue of better class homes.
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