USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Volume One > Part 3
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Lafayette Visits, 467.
White Settlers, 429.
Fort LeBoeuf, at, 136, 140, 257.
Churches and Schools, 468.
Academy, 431-2. Salt Trade, 431.
First Lots Sold, 429.
Martin, Lieut., Settles, 429.
Wayne Township, 468-9. Formed, Losses, Settlers, Horace Greel- ey, Earth-works, Churches and Cemeteries.
Wayne Grays, 471.
Wayne Guard, 471.
Wattsburg Turnpike, 289, 302, 330.
Western Hotel, 304.
Willis House, 332.
Wilcox Library, 422.
Waterford Invincibles, 471.
World War, 482-89.
American Red Cross Organized, 483, 486- 7. Liberty Loans, 483-7. Council of National Defense, 483-8. Food Administration, 483. Four Minute Men, 483. Employment Service, 484.
Legal Advisory Board, 484. Medical Board, 484.
Fuel Administration, 484.
War Gardens, 484. Draft Boards-
No. 1, 485.
No. 2, 486.
No. 3, 486.
District Boards-
No. 1, 486. No. 2, 486.
District Exemption Board No. 2, 486.
Number of Men Furnished, 489.
Wars- French and Indian, 165 et seq.
Revolution, 191.
Pontiac's, 176-180.
1812, 340-45, 470.
Spanish, 480-2.
Mexican, 380, 470.
Railroad, 352-5.
Civil, 471-80. World, 482-89.
Ward, Ensign, Surrenders. "Forks of Ohlo," 162. Watts, David, Surveyor for 10th District, 213.
Williams, Ennion- First Agent Pennsylvania Population Company, 228.
Weigeltown, 297; Hotel, 334.
Wolverine, 308.
Weather Office, U. S., 311.
Water Commissioners, Erie, List, 316.
Wattsburg House, 334.
Wayne, General Anthony - Defeats Indians on Maumee, 225-6, 261, 336-39. Death of at Erie, 306.
Body Disinterred, 306.
Monument to, 305. Indians Afraid of, 261, 337.
Whittelsey, Col. Charles- On Early Remains, 75.
Wampum, Indian Belt of, 124.
Z
Zalterii's Map, Ancient, 100-1. Zuschaeur, The Erie, 409.
. MAP OF
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ERIE COUNTY PA.
NORTH LAST
ERIE COUNTY COURT HOUSE-1925.
PUBLIC LIBRARY AND POST OFFICE, ERIE, PA.
History of Erie County
CHAPTER I
OUR BEGINNINGS.
"NEW WORLD" AS ANCIENT AS THE "OLD"-NATURE'S RECORDS EVIDENCES OF ANCIENT PEOPLES.
In the very Beginning, God created Erie County at the same time that He created the remainder of the Earth. Although this may seem a very trite expression, we feel that the fact can be stated in no better manner; and then, too, we are assured of the truth of the statement upon very high precedent. But of the detail concerning that creation, mere man was not, nor has he since, been consulted nor especially enlightened beyond what he has been able to glean from the wide open Book which Nature has far-flung for his study. Suffice it to say that this country, and this county, in all probability, came into being in the same elementary way as the rest of the world. And this county was given a most desir- able situation here by the picturesque shores of the lake and harbor which were destined to come into song and story as the scene of an epoch- making battle, and the building of that same fleet in record time out of the standing timber cut from the wilderness forest which stretched away across the land in almost interminable spaces.
The territory of which Erie County forms a part, is usually spoken of as "The New World", implying by that expression that this country is much newer than the rest of the earth. Or, to state it somewhat differ-
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(5)
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
ently, it is assumed to be that portion of the earth upon which mankind has the more recently made his appearance. Europe and Asia have been popularly regarded, and until recently by scientists, as the so-called "Cradle of the Race"; as the region where Mankind first seems to have appeared, and where his pre-historic exploits and development occurred. That doctrine has grown and gained current credence until very recently, when questions concerning its truth and reasonableness have been broached. Data which has been accumulating during recent years, would seem to seriously threaten that theory; for exploration during the recent generation has uncovered archaeological remains, and evidences of former periods of human life upon this hemisphere, which are asserted to have occurred in life eras as ancient as, perhaps more ancient than, those of the Eastern Hemisphere.
As I sit here in my study by the side of grand old Lake Erie, and look out over its tempestuous waters; or at times upon its surface as smooth and innocent looking as a pool in the highway; and watch the summer light playing over its animated depths, and see the angling sportsmen pursuing the lure of the wayward bass within its sparkling waters, I cannot help but vision those other eyes-singly, in groups, and in multitudes, who must have likewise looked from about where I am writing, out and over those same watery vistas, and waited and watched for the passing of friend or foe in the primitive bark or log canoes of olden time, and their owners prepared to deal with the case be it either the one or the other. And as I vision the scenes, for they must have been innumerable, I somehow seem to glimpse the forms and appearances of humans of strange and mysterious types. These forms seem to have characteristics unlike those of any race or type of mankind with whom we moderns are familiar. Their appearance betokens habits and customs at variance with the habits and customs of historic peoples. Their lan- guage and voices belong as it were to another realm. These people are those mysterious ones who lived and fought and died in this region hundreds, probably thousands, of years before the native red man ap- peared upon these shores. They are the ones, for evidences of whose origin, life, achievements, and fate, ethnologists and other scientists have been searching in vain for several hundreds of years. Historians dismiss them with a shrug of the shoulders, and the remark that it is all so very mysterious.
This old lake must have formed a main artery of communication,
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
and for travel and traffic, for peoples who inhabited these shores during countless eons of the earth's past life; and countless travellers must have passed and re-passed these shores in their wanderings to and fro in search of food, of adventure, for increase of power, upon missions diplomatic and otherwise, and for the varying objects which lead men to travel this old world o'er. One can vision the canoe gliding out from the sandy shore of the lake, and dancing up and down upon its rippling waters in the early morning light, or mayhap as the rays of the setting sun glow in splendid glory from out the western sky, its occupant intent upon the
SUNSET ON LAKE ERIE
task of capturing the wary fish with which to satisfy the hunger pinch of his dear ones within the rude shelter just beyond where shore and forest meet. His is no dream of pleasure or holiday pastime, but involves the stern labor of providing sustenance for self and family that they may a little longer postpone the inevitable farewell to the natural beauty of this wonderful wilderness by the lake were he to fail in his duty of providing food for them.
Or perhaps one's vision of that long past time conjures up a picture of a grand fleet of great canoes laden with humans of that strange race, all earnestly intent upon some objective, and enthusiastically active in their purpose to quickly reach it. As they swiftly skirt the winding line
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
of shore lands, their eyes are alert for waiting forms within the forest screen. For, no doubt, war time came to them even oftener than it does to those who live in modern times. And may we not be persuaded, too, that in those days a considerable system of barter and trade may not have been carried on along these shores, and within the safe enclosure of our beautiful harbor, between the various clans, tribes or nations who lived in that far-off time along and accessible to these shores? The sub- ject is so pregnant with possible conclusions, that we may be pardoned for permitting our imaginings to occasionally go a wool-gathering.
Who, or what, those first inhabitants were, and where they came from, or even those who followed those first ones-and probably others- and yet other nations and races of people through the many cycles of past times down to the time of those whose remains and works may still be discerned in this county, and throughout many parts of western New York, of the "Western Reserve", and farther west, is information which is still contained in an unopened volume whose contents will likely never be ascertained, at least until that day when the graves give up their dead, and the peoples who have lived in former times shall have been brought, as it were, face to face with us and with each other. But we do have some little evidence of a race of men who lived here before the time of our so-called "American Indian", who were remarkable for the type and objects of the records of their existence which they have left for our perusal. For these men we have no definitive name; no title which seems ethnologically adequate for their designation. But they have been dubbed with a characteristic or descriptive name which will likely follow down the ages as a term with which to designate a people, who, in their time must have been exceedingly numerous, and wonderfully industrious ; and who were, or at least became, native to this region. The evidences remaining of the life and activities of this people, are characteristic, un- usually enduring, and exceedingly numerous. Some of their monuments compare favorably in size and proportions with those of the Pharaohs of Egypt, those famed pyramids which are world famous as some of the wonders of the world. The estimated age of some of these same monu- ments also compares favorably with the antiquity of the most ancient monuments produced by man in Europe and in Asia. Their character and contents have enabled explorers to apprehend with a degree of assurance what were the domestic, religious, and commercial activities and customs of that people. However, much is written upon and within those memo-
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
rials which is as yet wholly enigmatical to the most astute of our investi- gators. So much for that page of Nature which has to deal with our human predecessors. But besides this, Nature has written largely and deeply as to the structure of the region, and of the changes which have come to it in the ages which probably preceded human occupancy, and of those which transpired during human life within this territory.
' VIEW OF STATE STREET, ERIE, PA.
CHAPTER II
THE MOUND-BUILDERS.
PALEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC REMAINS-MASTODON REMAINS DESCRIPTION OF THEIR INNUMERABLE AND CURIOUS EARTHEN WORKS-ANCIENT UTENSILS, TOOLS, AND ORNAMENTS-"TERMINAL MORAINE"-EARLY INHABITANTS- THEIR TERRITORY AND PROBABLE CHARACTER-MYSTERIOUS FATE. .
A number of strange mounds and embankments found in this county by the early settlers, and which later yielded strange remains of a long since past human life, raised many conjectures as to the identity of the people whose remains have reposed for so long a time within those earthen structures.
The discovery and exploitation of similar works in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Minnesota, as well as a few in western New York, caused archaeologists and ethnologists to commence the study of the evidences thus brought to light, with the result that it is now well admited that this region was a portion of a large territory densely populated with a wonderful people, who must have advanced a considerable way in the arts of community welfare, and were certainly industrious to a degree, as shown by the numerous and great works which they have left to survive them, and which could never have been con- structed by a primitive people without the expenditure of immense labor and toil.
As history is but recent, comparatively speaking, and covers only that of which we have written records, or such as was written down from well established traditions of unquestioned authenticity, it must needs
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Works
490 ft.
of
Stone Graues
Dolerson
Lin
12 acres.
Stone Graves
Residence Spring
Creek
Big Harpeth River
N.
Village of the STONE GRAVE PEOPLE.
1 acre+
"Fort Circle" Erie County.
Elephant Effigy. 136ft. Long.
- 500
Circle and Square. Circleville. Ohio.
Circle and Square Portsmouth, O.
ANCIENT MOUNDS
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
follow that the race of men which built the great earth-works of this region must have been a pre-historic race of men; for there is nothing left for their record but what may be interpreted from their works, their graves, and a few rude utensils, ornaments and tools. Nothing whatever appears as a written or traditional memorial of their existence.
China, and Greece, and Rome, and Egypt, claim very great antiquity for their historical records. Thousands of years are claimed, and are shown by well attested records, for their existence. Yet right here in Erie County, in association with Ohio and other places, appear unques- tioned records of a physical character, of a people whose existence here may be measured in terms of tens of thousands of years, perhaps longer. In any event, it must be conceded that human life within this very region of ours must have been a live and throbbing activity which invested the whole territory with an active community purpose even during those periods when history affirms the Eastern Hemisphere was teeming with humans. It is not at all unlikely that this hemisphere may have been the cradle of the race, rather than the eastern one; and that, mayhap, humanity strayed away from here and into Asia as the manner in which men came to be dispersed throughout the earth. However it may have been, research has made it certain that America saw human endeavor and human struggling against the terrors and tragedies of a fearful wilder- ness thousands of years ago; and that men found a way to protect them- selves and their loved ones from the onslaughts of wild beasts the like of which we have never beheld, and which it is difficult for us to even comprehend; and managed to live, and to increase in numbers, and to do their part in exterminating the savage creatures which menaced their safety and their lives. But this all occurred long ages before history took up the work of passing on down to later generations the story of what mankind was doing upon the earth. And to this day mankind re- tain very much of the instincts, the primal passions, even the instinctive and latent fears, which must have dominated them in those distant times, and which we have inherited from them along with our physical frames and natures.
Our land has various historic, and pre-historic ages, as well as do the other lands upon the earth. We have the Paleolithic, or stone age, the very earliest period of human development, well established for our coun- try. It therefore follows, and is also well substantiated by the evidences,
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
that the Neolithic, or later stone age, had a place in human development upon this continent.
And first as to the Paleolithic Age here, that is the beginnings of improvement by humans in their methods of seeking food, and of protect- ing themselves from the savage beasts by whom they were surrounded.
To Dr. C. C. Abbott, as much, or more, as to any other person, is due the establishment of the fact that a Paleolithic Age occurred in this country. His discoveries of many rude and primitive objects in the gravel beds near Trenton, N. J., was the first step towards the proof. These relics seem to have been left by pre-historic peoples by the side of the ancient rivers, and in the loops of the great moraines of the ancient ice-sheet. They very strongly resemble the paleolithic remains found in Europe, and have been found also at Loveland, Ohio; Newcomerstown, Ohio; and Medora, Ind. Other such relics were later discovered near River Falls, Minn., by Miss Frances E. Babbit, and by other persons at various places since.
It is well known that in those ancient times the northern part of this continent was covered with a great sheet of ice, which slowly, very slowly, moved southward over the land, grinding the hills smoother, and filling in the low places, as it went; and as it moved along, gathered up great rocks and soil which lay in its course, carried them with it great distances, ground the stones and polished off their surfaces, until a convenient place to deposit them was found. This great sheet of ice covering moved south until the genial warmth of southern latitudes melted it; and there it de- posited much of the soil, smoothed stones, boulders and rocks which it had picked up farther north and which still remain through the land, and all over this county, silent reminders of the period when our county was at the very edge of this ice flow. The large smooth boulders found in our fields are utterly unlike any rock strata to be found anywhere near here; and have come here from their native beds hundreds of miles north, where they were wrenched from the ledges and slowly carried in the bosom of the ice sheet until released by the warm sunshine of our temperate region. These deposits of foreign earth and rock occur in a fairly uniform line across the land, and constitute what is geologically termed, the "Terminal Moraine", or the line of rocks and gravel at the edges and base of glaciers. Farther north, much evidence is present of the passage of the great glacier in those distant times. Evidence is also present to show us
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
that this ancient glacial sea did not just cease at once; but that the influence of the warm air gradually sought it out, and little by little made thawing inroads upon it, driving the line of the terminal moraine farther and farther north, leaving evidences of this retreat over all the land.
It is along ancient edges of this terminal moraine that the relics of ancient paleolithic mankind have been found. These relics have been found in close association with the edge of the great ice sheet. It is therefore certain that man existed here even in the ice age. These relics are rude stone weapons and implements, little more than slightly modified forms of pieces of rock which they casually picked up and sought to form in more convenient shape for their uses. But they prove to us that man existed at that date here in this land, and belonged to its paleolithic age. These relics, being found in widely separated places, prove to us that man- kind was present in very many places on this continent, in that early day.
Some of those relics consist of rude axes, some of which seem to have had a rude groove as if intended for attaching a handle to them. Others are the well known flint and argillite arrow and spear heads. When covered with a peculiar sort of gloss when found, which is called the patina, and perhaps having dendrites upon their surfaces, assurance is had of their extreme age. Many of those found in this country have shown these evidences, as have those discovered in Europe.
The Neolithic Age in this country is evidenced by improved utensils, implements and weapons. These consist of such articles as steatite pots, mortars and ollas, some of which have been found on or near the surface, and others at great depths in association with lava beds, and where ver- tical erosions in the earth's crust have taken place to the extent in some instances of many hundreds of feet. Human squlls have been found in association with the bones of the mastodon, the elephant, and other smaller animals. Full credence is now given to the theory that man existed on this continent before the glacial periods, and science describes him as "short of stature and strong of limb. His head was long in propor- tion to its breadth, his under jaw was square and heavy, his chin sloped backward, and he had a retreating forehead. His skull was small in front and large behind."
Whoever was the Paleolithic man, or even the Neolithic individual, we have sure evidence of a type of beings upon this continent at a later period, whose works are sufficiently numerous to afford us proof that they
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
had advanced a long way from the earlier type of mankind. In South America various deposits of human bones have been found mixed in with the bones and skeletons of mammals, some of which are still extant, while many others are extinct, tending to show that those were the remains of a race of paleolithic humans; while the remains of the cave-dwellers of this continent have never been found intermixed with the bones of extinct animals, as the remains of cave-dwellers in Europe have been, or as the remains dug up in South America have been shown to be. In California have been found kitchen middens associated with shelter caves; while at Chickies, Pa., a shelter cave was found which contained many rude stone relics and human remains. Other such shelter caves have been described by M. C. Read and by C. C. Baldwin at Elyria, and at Newbury, in Ohio, which contained many bone relics such as awls, needles, chisels, and other rude articles, more like those used by a later race of beings. "Col. Charles Whittelsey held that there were three races in Ohio, the first being the Mound-builders, the second being the Cave-dwellers, the third being the Indians; but Prof. Read held that there was a race preceding the Mound-builders, a race whose skulls were very thick and of a low type." (Prehistoric America, by Dr. Peet.) Evidences of the presence of Cave-dwellers in the Mound-builder's territory is plentiful, comprising some in Tennessee where mummies were found, the result of the bodies having become impregnated with salt; some of these had been covered with feather head dresses and feathered robes resembling those used by later races.
Both east and west, as well as throughout the central portions of our land, are found kitchen middens, or shell heaps, which evidently belong, some to a very early period, some to a middle period, and still others to a fairly recent period of human life. These consist of shells and flints which are the remains of the shell fish used by men for food, and some of the weapons and implements dropped amongst the shells. In some of these great shell heaps may be seen "hut rings" deeply imbedded in the layers of shells, showing that the heaps had been accumulated over very long periods of time.
Other evidences of the antiquity of man's sojourn here may be found in the so-called "Period of the Mammoth and the Mastodon", both of which animals have been long since extinct. It is highly probable, how- ever, that the Mound-builders were familiar with these animals, as it is believed that they lived in the same period. A most interesting "find"
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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
was made by Dr. Koch in the bottom lands of the Bourbouse River, Gas- conade County, Mo., where he discovered the remains of a mastodon. Apparently the animal had become mired in the mud of the marshes, and being unable to extricate itself, had finally been overcome by exhaustion, and fallen upon its side. The beast had evidently then been attacked by the natives with almost every kind of weapon to which they could lay their hands; for arrows, stones, and pieces of rock, some fragments weighing as much as 25 pounds, were found about the carcass, evidently having been cast at the beast as it struggled in the mud. The natives had lighted great fires around the beast; for some of the heaps of cinders still remain, and are 5 and 6 feet in height. The following year the same man discovered the remains of another mastodon in Brinton County, Mo., and under its thigh bone was found an arrow made of pink quartz, and near by were four other arrows, all of which had been flung at the stranded beast.
These arrows belong properly to the neolithic age, rather than to the more ancient period; while it has been thought that the mammoth and the mastodon became extinct prior to that time. The problem therefore is not without its perplexities. In Iowa, Nebraska and in Ohio, have been found remains of these animals by other explorers, in each instance being mixed with ashes, traces of fire, and with stone weapons and arrow-heads strewn about as if lodged there during an attack by the natives upon the beasts. It is believed that the mammoth and the mastodon flourished before the glacial period, and that the convulsions and physical changes which marked the close of that epoch, spelled the finish of those great animals. It is therefore concluded that mankind must have existed here prior to the great glacial age, because of the finding of his remains inter- mingled with those of the ancient and extinct beasts; which gives man an antiquity on this continent of at least 10,000 years, if geologists read the story aright for us.
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