USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Volume One > Part 24
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An additional protection against fire in the little borough, was the installation of the town pumps. It seems there was one of these at Third and State Streets, at Captain Dobbin's; another at the American Hotel where the Erie Trust Company building is now; one on the public square; one on lower French Street; another on Fifth Street; one on Fifth and State Streets; and one at Sixth and French Streets. These town pumps were worked by hand, to raise the water from the wells, to be caught in buckets (leathern at first), and carried to the engine, poured into it, and thence pumped by the engine through a hose to the fire. The town had provided its limit of fire hose, something like 300 feet of it, which seemed adequate for all emergencies. At each town pump was placed a trough of generous proportions, for serving the thirsty horses, oxen, dogs and other domestic animals. These pumps must have been in existence, at latest, when the borough got its first fire engine which was bought in 1815, although the fire company had been organ- ized two years before that. A little later reservoirs of ample size were located at the intersections of Fifth and French streets, and also at Seventh and State streets, into which the water was conveyed from the
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pump-log water works extending to the supply furnished by Ichabod's Run above our Union Depot. From these reservoirs the water was drawn into the engines by a suction hose.
Another thing also had to be provided by the councils in order to keep up with the demands of the growing town, for when Mr. H. T. Dewey found he had a large tower clock to dispose of, the councils some how or other found it wise to afford the citizens a town time regulator. It probably cost the town about $400, as that was the appropriation, and was shortly installed in the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church. This was in August of 1845, and shortly afterwards means had to be provided, not only to keep it wound and timed, but to keep it in repair. Its payment seems to have required some little financing, for Moses Koch in May, 1848, demanded payment of the notes which he held, received for the town clock. About the same time, or in August, 1848, the officers of the church notified the borough to remove the clock, as the steeple was to be extensively repaired. We wonder where the remains of the old town clock are now reposing.
The streets were slightly rounded up by shoveling and dragging, and after rains, if not overlooked, the holes shown by the rainfall to require it, were filled up. It was supposed that the water would, by the law of nature, find its way from the roadway to the slightly indicated gutters, and thence flow away, or be evaporated in due time. The main difficulty encountered was the removal of the hundreds of stumps, logs, and roots, from the street sections. Prior to 1810, a custom in the borough required every man to spend each Saturday afternoon grubbing out the stumps from the streets. Until June of 1846 an ordinance re- quired the imposition of a penalty, for every one who was convicted of drunkenness, of digging out three stumps from the highway.
By 1813 a very fine carriage-way was in use along the sandy beach of the bay from State Street to the present location of the Pittsburg Docks at the mouth of the Big Cascade Run. Here was the fashion- able boulevard of the town, where on fine days could be found the best driving horses and rigs, as well as the elite, of the town, on exhibition.
Accommodations for the general public, and for the soap-box clubs, was fully cared for by the following hotels: one kept by Thomas Rees, Jr., at Third and French streets; the Globe Hotel, kept by James Duncan at Fifth and French streets (this latter was open so late as 1826) ; the American Hotel, built of stone by Robert Brown where the Erie Trust
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Company building now stands on the southwest corner of State and South Park Row in 1811, opened in 1812, and operated until 1829 by Mr. Brown, when he was succeeded for a number of years by Mr. Joseph Y. Moorhead; a public house on the southeast corner of Second and French known as the Steamboat House, was kept by John Dickson, and where the celebrated dinner tendered to Lafayette was prepared; another on the southwest corner of Eighth and State streets, lately occupied by the Second National Bank, was built and conducted by Thomas Laird, who owned all of the property in that square, farming it as well as he could; the old Buehler Hotel on the northeast corner of Third and French streets, where the first court was organized, and in which Commodore Perry established his headquarters in 1813; the "Old Bell House" was also a notable hostelry on the corner of Sixth and French streets, erected by John Teel for William Bell the owner in 1805, used as a dwelling and store from 1806 until the winter of 1812-13 when he operated it as a hotel for a short time, until Fox & Bailey bought him out, and conducted a store in the building until 1819, when they sold out to William Hughes who reopened the place as a hotel and so used by various proprietors until 1871, when it gave place to the Becker Block. Mr. Hughes was an Irishman, formerly an actor, and the young people were organized into a dramatic society by him, which gave exhibitions in a building which stood between Third and Fourth streets on French. In this building (Bell House) was organized the first dancing class of the village, by a Mr. Jennings.
Another well known, and well-patronized hotel, was the "South Erie Hotel" built at Peach and Twenty-sixth streets by Nathan McCammons in the winter of 1817-1818. Captain John Justice bought it in April, 1821, James Parks in 1824, and by many others subsequently. In the boom days of 1837 this property sold for $17,500. Other hotels were also kept at this hill-top by other well known men of the times.
Probably the most pretentious residence in the town in those early days was that of Captain Daniel Dobbins on the northeast corner of Third and State streets. Although General LaFayette remained in Erie during his trip such a very short time, it was in this house that he was entertained while he was here, preparatory to the memorable dinner on the bridge in his honor.
On the north side of Eighth Street, about a hundred feet west from State once stood a dwelling which might be said to have been the seat
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of the government of the United States for about a week, when Presi- dent Taylor stopped in it while on a traveling tour. He was taken ill at Waterford, and obliged to remain at Erie until able to return to Wash- ington, where he died the following year. His short stay in Erie was in August, 1849, and he was accompanied by Governor Johnston. The Surgeon of the U. S. Navy, Dr. W. M. Woods tenderly cared for him in his own home, where the President's life was for a time despaired of, and Vice-President Filmore came from Buffalo, and remained here until the President's illness passed its crisis. The remainder of the tour was abandoned. The president departed for Buffalo by water, and on leaving a salute was fired from the Michigan, during which a gun burst, killing seven of the crew. Their bodies were buried on the hill in Erie Cemetery.
PERRY SQUARE IN 1838
A famous old stopping place for travelers was the United States Hotel, which stood opposite the Dickson House on French Street. The boat landing in those days was at the foot of French Street, and lake travelers on disembarking found the two taverns just up the hill most convenient stopping places. The big ravine leading away from the land- ing place, led south past the eastern buildings of Hamot Hospital, under the west corner of the Reed House and diagonally across the parks about where the Soldiers and Sailors Monument stands, and across the lot on which stands the present City Hall. This ravine was utilized in those days for a driveway down to the boat landing. This landing place con- tinued for years as a most thriving and busy section until more preten- tious landing places were provided for the shipping farther west, when the old hostelries gradually lost their former glories.
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ERIE HAMLETS.
Stumptown has long since been forgotten by most of our people. It came to be so called when the troops were here in January, 1814. They built some cabins from trees which they cut in the surrounding woods, and the section so cut over, extending from Peach Street to Lee's Run gully came to be called by this name for a time.
New Jerusalem was laid out and named by William Himrod, who, in 1828-9, purchased a tract of land west of Lee's Run and north of Sixth Street. But two families were said to have been living down there then, and as remarked by a lady of that time, the place was so named "because it was so hard to get to," the deep ravine of Lee's Run being crossed by only one or two very shaky bridges. This region came to be currently known as "over in Jerusalem" which has but lately dropped the local term. Mr. Himrod's sales were conditioned upon the purchaser building and occupying a house on the lot, and so shortly a considerable neighborhood sprang up there.
Jericho was the term applied by the same Mr. William Himrod to his home at Second and French streets, because, as he said, "it was on the side of a hill," and the road and path from there to his land project above-described, came to be known as "the road to Jerusalem," or "the road to Jericho," as the occasion demanded. His old home at Jericho, later came to be the Erie Bethel.
Cloughsburg was a designation arising from the south west corner of Sixth and Parade streets being the location of Mr. Rufus Clough's blacksmith shop, and later his grocery. Major Clough enjoyed the con- fidence of his neighbors to a sufficient extent to have had them dub his corners with his patronymic. His house later came to be the home of Colonel Charles M. Lynch.
Kingtown lay just southeast from the Soldiers' and Sailors Home. Here Mr. Alfred King had some out-lots which he exploited, and shortly a considerable settlement arose there which folks came to call Kingtown.
Marvintown was located at the junction of the Wattsburg Road and Parade Street, and quite early became a busy little center of its own. It was the home of Elisha Marvin who owned a great tract of land about
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it. He employed Samuel Low, in 1852-3 to lay out some lots there which rapidly sold. Mr. Marvin finally sold his homestead there to Pardon Sen- nett, and it came to be known as "The Sennett Place."
Federal Hill, sometimes called Eagle Village, was named by George Moore, for the thriving hamlet on the summit of the ridge at Twenty-sixth and Peach streets. Even as early as 1812 a considerable settlement had grown up there. It was noted as having a large number of adherents to the Federal Party living there, called "Federals." Several stores and public houses were located there from its earliest days, amongst them being a hotel named the "American Eagle," which incited the name "Eagle Village." It was for years the voting place for Millcreek town- ship, and many hot political contests occurred there, some of them in the memory of the writer, when the meetings and polls were held in "Schultze's Hall" on the northwest corner of the intersecting streets. In those days Federal Hill was as distinct, and far removed, from the Erie settlement as is now the village of Kearsarge or Belle Valley, and even more so; for the great forest stretched all the way between with not a break in it. Some of the early residents there were George Moore, Ira Glazier, Dr. P. Faulkner, Captain John Justice, Simeon Dunn, John Sweeney, and Dr. Plara Thayer.
South Erie gradually grew up, partly as the extension of Federal Hill, into a thriving settlement; and when the railroad was built, sud- dently found itself physically severed from the community north of that. It quickly developed a character and name of its own, which later ripened into a borough organization in 1866, and when the limits of the City of Erie were extended in 1870, became incorporated in the larger municipality,
Weigletown was laid out by George Weigle, Sr., in 1833, on the Ridge Road front of his fifty acre tract. Its original building up never in- creased, but the little village remained practically in statu quo for many years. Its claim to fame lies in the old road house of ancient days known as the Weigletown Hotel, which was far and well known in the old days of stage drivers. Here, the voters from the west district of Millcreek Township resorted for their hustings and elections after the township was divided.
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
ERIE BURGESSES.
1805- 7-John C. Wallace. 1833
-Thomas H. Sill.
1807- 8-Thomas Wilson.
1834- 5-Joseph M. Sterrett.
1808- 9-George Buehler.
1836- 7-J. B. Langhead.
1810-11-John C. Wallace
1838 -James L. White.
1812 -Samuel Hays.
1839
-William Kelley.
1813 . - Judah Colt.
1840
-Myron Goodwin.
1814-15-George Moore.
1841
-Rufus S. Reed.
1816-17-Thomas H. Sill.
1842
-Thomas Stewart.
1818-19-George Moore.
1843- 4-Thomas H. Sill.
1820-21-Judah Colt.
1845
-Charles W. Kelso.
1822-24-John Morris.
1846- 7-William Kelley.
1825-27-John C. Wallace.
1848
-Charles W. Kelso.
1828 -Tabor Beebe.
1849
-A. W. Brewster.
1829
-Thos H. Sill.
1850
-B. B. Vincent.
1830 -William Jones.
1831
-George A. Eliot.
1832 -(elected) Thomas Forster.
who on April 14, 1851, became the first mayor of the new city.
(acting burgess, Tabor Beebe)
1851
-Thomas G. Colt.
On April 14, 1851, the little borough by the side of Presque Isle Bay, stepped from its childhood into full-fledged maturity, by taking unto itself a full-grown city charter. Thomas G. Colt, the Burgess who was in office at the time, became the first Mayor of the newly organized city, and until 1860 the mayors were elected to serve for one year; then the change in the law enlarged the term of mayor to three years, rendering him ineligible to succeed himself. Each branch of councils during the fol- lowing period, selected its own presiding officers. No salary was paid the mayors up to 1888. Oct. 1, 1888, the councils ordained that the Mayor should hold a Mayor's Court, and fixed his salary.
The City Treasurers were elected by councils previous to 1880; since that date they have been elected by the people.
Erie's first water works was a system of log pipes laid under ground about 1840 or 1841, which brought excellent spring water down town from the springs on the Reed Farm south of Eighteenth and west of Parade Street, until other supplies were gradually introduced. The Reed House was the last taker of water from that old system.
In 1865, an act of the legislature incorporated John W. Shannon and
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
a few other men of the city under the style of "Erie Water and Gas Com- pany," and organized with a capital of $100,000 under the provisions of the general corporation law of the state of March 11, 1857, and the Mayor and Councils of the city were duly authorized to contract with the com- pany for water and gas. The Erie Gas Company took steps to compete for this water business by securing the passage of an act permitting them to insert the word "water" in their charter, wherever it formerly authorized them to introduce "gas".
The problem of selecting the source from which the water supply was to be taken, provoked much heated argument, and the holding of numerous public meetings until the election of Orange Noble for Mayor, in 1867, on a platform of immediate city improvements, when the Act of Assembly of April 4, 1867, was passed entitled "A further supplement to the charter of the city of Erie, to provide for the appointment of Water Commissioners, and to define their powers and duties." On June 29th, 1867, the first Board of Water Commissioners was organized under this act, the members having been William L. Scott, Henry Rawle, and Wil- liam W. Reed, who had been appointed by the court under the provisions of the act. They appointed as their secretary, Mr. William Brewster, and Mr. Birkenbine was chosen as their engineer to plan and superintend the construction of the water works. The plan used at Detroit was finally adopted, but shortly after was changed to the one which was constructed. One of the features of the city perspective was the tall tower of the water stand-pipe which was a wrought iron tube five feet in diameter and two hundred and seventeen feet in height, surrounded by a brick tower. Be- tween the tube and the wall of the tower was constructed a spiral stair case reaching to a balcony upon the top of the tower, from which a most wonderful view of the surrounding countryside could be obtained.
The manner of raising this great tube was conceived by Mr. George Selden, of the Erie City Iron Works, who suggested the raising of the top section a short distance from the ground, then attaching the next section to it, and then section by section in like manner, until the entire tube was standing in place. Nine windows pierced the walls of the tower. Subsequent additions to it reached the total height of 260 feet above the normal level of the bay, constituting this water stand-pipe tower the highest of its kind in the world. A reservoir was constructed on Twenty- sixth Street of an area of seven acres, the bottom of which is 210 feet above the surface of the bay, and holds 34,000,000 gallons of water. A
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
later reservoir was constructed upon the high ridge of land farther south, which affords better water pressure to the southern portions of the city.
But the great improvement made by the water department, and which has spared the City of Erie further ravages of typhoid fever, was the construction of a new intake pipe far out into the open lake. The water drawn through it is treated chemically and filtered at the new plant on the peninsula, from whence it is forced into and through the city. Since this improvement has been in operation, no cases of the dread disease have been traceable to the water served by this department.
Some of the more interesting places, buildings and institutions about the City of Erie are the following :
Old Teel House, still standing on the southwest corner of Ninth and Peach Streets, is amongst the oldest structures in the city. It has still the old lumber and character which it received at its building years ago. It stood along side of one of the roads leading south from the little set- tlement of Erie, and past it traveled many of the celebrities who made a call at Erie. It has later been known as the home of Mr. and Mrs. Benja- min Whitman, Mrs. Whitman being a direct descendant of John Teel, the pioneer who settled there and built it.
Reed House, the old hostelry of the Reed Family proprietorship, now occupies the same site as the one erected by the Reeds, and is not much changed in its outward appearance from what it was in those early days. It has suffered the ravages, and experienced the rejuvenation incident to several disastrous fires. In the southeast corner of it the present First National Bank had its banking house for some years, and occupied that room when the building was burned. The big hotel has always been a popular place, well known throughout the country.
The Old Dickson House, still standing at the southeast corner of French and Second streets, was erected about 1812, and is one of the very few oldest buildings still to be found about the city. Mr. Dickson had been, in his earlier life a British tar serving under Lord Nelson. Coming to Erie he had constructed the large frame building still stand- ing, where he conducted a popular tavern to which resorted travelers and sailors for some years. The early boat landings being close below it at the foot of French Street, made this a very convenient stopping place for all. It is said that Commodore Perry occupied, for a time, the two
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
west rooms of the tavern, on the second floor. Mr. Newton McCreary, when almost an hundred years of age, related how his father took him as a little boy into the old tavern, showed him about it, and told him of having helped build Perry's fleet in the harbor, and of Perry living in the old Dickson House while here. Perry, however, had his official head- quarters in the Buehler House, located at the northeast corner of Third and French streets-the house in which the County of Erie was later organized.
In view of its ancient character, its associations with the very early history of the settlement at the harbor, of its connection with Lafayette's visit and historic banquet, and of the tradition of Perry hav- ing made it his Erie homeplace, a sentiment developed which crystalized into the purchase of the old house and its appurtenant lot by the City of Erie, which has dedicated the whole to public purposes as a memorial to the historic occurrences which have been enacted in and about it. Its location is one of a commanding and interesting view of most of the sites where much of the history associated with Presque Isle has taken place. The city has commenced gathering momentoes of historic happenings, and the old house is expected shortly to become a repository of much that is curious and interesting concerning pioneer Erie.
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The Pennsylvania Railroad tracks now run through, nearly, the site of the old French Fort, and the later English one, at the foot of Parade Street. The place has been vastly changed since the military occupied it; the railroad having taken toll of a part of the site, and a large brick- yard later removing a great area of the old parade ground which gave name to the street running south from it. Some of the clay which was soaked with the life-blood of patriotic soldiers when the Pontiac Indians destroyed the place, are, in the form of bricks, to be found in the walls of many State Street building fronts. Upon the site of the old fort was placed the "Erie Stone" by the surveyors, as the beginning point for the surveys which defined the streets, blocks and lots of the City of Erie. The old stone itself is now preserved in the Erie Public Museum. Down at the foot of the hill at this spot, as the place then was, and upon the beach of the bay, was where the old French explorers and military landed on their way to the "La Belle Riviere"; where Chevalier Le Mercier landed in April, 1753, on his discovery of Presque Isle Bay; where the French landed their canoes, their bateaux, and their great cargoes destined for the Ohio River posts; from there they went the tortuous way to Fort
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
LeBoeuf, bearing their canoes, their bateaux, and their burdens of muni- tions and other supplies; there the soldiers beheld the Indians emerge from the forest into the little clearing around the post and begin their attack in Pontiac's time; there General Israel Putnam, and many another celebrated personage walked out to the brink of the hill and looked earn- estly and with interest out over the blue waters of the harbor, which the French declared was the finest spot in nature; there came the first American pioneers and settlers; to that hallowed spot came Perry and his heroes; and there was builded the first white folks structures in this county. These and many more hallowed and historical associations clus- ter around and upon the place which saw the birth of our county-seat, and the beginnings of American occupation. It should be a revered shrine for every thoughtful citizen; and its place in our county's history should be more stressed than it is, in the schools, and in our reflections of what we owe to the exertions of the forefathers.
Second Street, midway between State and French streets, was crossed by a very formidable gully, with a small streamlet gurgling along northward at its bottom. This chasm was crossed in the early days by a substantial foot bridge of ample width for travelers along Second Street. On the occasion of Lafayette's visit to Erie on June 3, 1825, no suitable banquet hall could be found in the town to do justice to the occasion. But John Dickson, proprietor of the Dickson House near by was equal to the occasion. He it was who conceived the idea of utiliz- ing the Second Street bridge, one hundred and seventy-feet in length, for a temporary hall. Here he set the long tables and spread above them the sails taken from the British ships of Commodore Perry and his men in the Battle of Lake Erie. Flowers and evergreens in profusion decked the place and the tables, which presented a scene of indescribable attractiveness.
General Lafayette was making a trip from New Orleans to New York, and arrived at Waterford by boat from Pittsburg on June 2, 1825. Here he was entertained and feted, staying that night in Waterford. The next morning he was met at Waterford by an escort of honor com- posed of leading Erie citizens, and the party accompanied him over the road now known as the Waterford Pike; not over the "Old French Road" now known most of its way as the "Perry Highway." They came on down through the settlement around Seth Reed's homestead now known as Kearsarge, over the present Edinboro Road down Nicholson Hill to
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