USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Volume One > Part 37
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Some of the churches in this township are: Salem Church of the Evangelical Association, which grew out of the missionary labors of Rev. J. Siebert in 1833, and was followed shortly after by the building of its church. St. Jacob's Evangelical United Church was organized in the winter of 1852, and its church was built on the Ridge Road about a mile east of Fairview at about the same time. A small cemetery is used in connection with it. An Evangelical Church southwest of Sterrettania was started in 1884. The United Brethren congregation was organized about 1857, and is situated about five miles south of Fairview, on the road from Sterrettania to Franklin Center, and its building was dedi- cated Feb. 22, 1880.
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The Christian Church was organized by Rev. Asal Fish, its first pastor, in 1835, and its building erected in 1845. It is three miles south of Fairview, on the road from Girard to Mckean Corners. The first church organized in this township was that by Rev. Johnston Eaton at the mouth of Walnut Creek about 1806, and its log church erected on the high bluff near by about 1810, for the Presbyterian congregation. A frame building was later erected at Swanville, and it in turn was removed to Westminster, which congregation is the logical successor and out- growth of that first organization by the lake. Manchester was long a most thriving and bustling village, to which the stages and traveling public resorted, and where the military trainings took place; but it de- clined after the mills burned down, and became a thing of the past. It, however, later was somewhat revived under the name of Mayside, where picnics and parties were held for some years.
Franklin Township, the youngest of our townships, was made up of portions from Elk Creek, Washington and Mckean Townships in 1844, and named in honor of Benjamin Franklin. It is exactly five miles square, and its population in 1850 was 686. Its only village is Franklin Center. Its earliest settlers were L. D. Rouse in 1829, William and Levi Francis in 1832 with James P. Silverthorn, Henry Howard, and Messrs. Goodban and Longley from England, the same year. Following these were Wil- liam Vorse, Allen Mead, Ezra Milks and his son Amos, Curtis Cole and his father, Andrew Proudfit, Isaac Fry, and John Tuckey in 1834; John Loyer in 1835, Levi Howard in 1840, James B. Robinson and Levi Sil- verthorn in 1844, the year the township was created. This territory is essentially a dairying section, although no finer location could be found for raising apples, the soil and the high, clear air affording almost per- fect fruit in form, size and flavor. The first school house was in Franklin Center about 1840, where the present building stands.
The Methodists have a class here organized in 1866; the German Lutherans a congregation organized in 1871; the Eureka M. E. class was organized in 1867, and its building erected in 1869. The Catholics attend services at Cussewago, in Crawford County. The principal burial place in the township is at the Dawley school house, or Francis; burials are, however, largely made from this township in Edinboro, Sterrettania, Fairview, and Girard.
Franklin Center was laid out, or founded, by Oren G. Wood, who, with John Tuckey and John Loyer, owned the land thereabouts. Mr.
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Wood started a store, and shortly others settled about the store. The Howard stone quarry south of the center, on Falls Run, is one of the most important stone quarries in the county, having a rather thick stratum of fine, hard sandstone, from which excellent stone have been taken for 60 or 70 years, perhaps longer. The square flagging for the Erie Court House floors were obtained here. Small quantities of oil have been seep- ing from the rocks about the quarry for years, formerly being gathered and used as a medicine; but it has not been found in paying quantities.
Girard Township was formed in 1832 out of portions of Fairview, Springfield and Elk Creek, and named in honor of Stephen Girard, the Philadelphia philanthropist, who held a great body of land close by in Conneaut Township. Its population in 1840 was 2,060. Its early settlers were William Silverthorn and his son Captain Abraham Silverthorn, who came in from Fayette County in 1798; Robert Brown at the mouth of Elk Creek in 1799, removing to Weigleville in 1804; Robert Porter, Isaac Miller and John Kelley in 1800; Jacob Coffman in 1801, and Patrick Ward about the same time settled on the Lake Road; William and Samuel Mc- Clelland and William Crane from Ireland in 1802; John Miller from Fay- ette County in 1802; George Kelley in 1803; Joel Bradish and his brothers from New York, and James Blair from York County, in 1804; Martin Taylor in 1813; William Webber in 1814; Cornelius Haggerty in 1815; Samuel Jenner and his son Peach from Vermont, Justus Osborne and his son Philip, Abner Boder, Scott Keith and wife, in 1816; Elijah Drury in 1817; Ethan Loveridge and Nathan Sherman in 1818; and these were succeeded later by many other people, of substantial worth. The first births were those of John R. Ward, and a daughter of Robert Brown who later married George A. Eliot, of Erie.
This township has a curious and interesting natural curiosity known as the "Devil's Backbone", and another known as "The Devil's Nose", both on the stream called Little Elk, a few miles south of Girard Bor- ough. The former being a double-sided cliff formed by the stream taking a long sweep to the east and around the point of the cliff, returning to within a few feet of where it diverged, howbeit some ten or more feet lower. The cliff thus enclosed is very narrow, is several hundred feet in length, and upon its top used to be a foot path in common use by the inhabitants; but which is now so narrow, shelving and irregular as to be too dangerous for use, excepting by the most adventurous. The mouth of this creek, at the lake, has been a place much desired for a harbor
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from time to time by various projects including the lake terminal for the Erie Extension Canal, which caused a strenuous effort to secure it. Several hundred acres about it has recently been acquired by the United States Steel Corporation, but no move has been made for its development as yet.
A grist-mill is said to have been established on Spring Run as early as 1799 by Mr. Silverthorn. Peter Wolverton is said to have built the first mill in the township, in what is now West Girard, in 1814.
An ancient earth work was formerly to be seen southwest of the bor- ough, being one of four similar ones extending southwestwardly through East Springfield towards Ohio, each being a circular earthern bank enclos- ing about an acre or so, with appertures at regular intervals.
The cemetery at Girard is the common burial place for the town- ship, but a number of small burial grounds are situated in the township. On Jan. 7, 1815, the Methodists organized a class at Fair Haven, in the southwest part of the township in the home of Mr. Webber, which was reorganized in 1860, and its building put up in 1861. In 1840 they organ- ized another at Fairplane on the Lake Road, and its building was erected in 1841. The United Brethren, on the State Road near the Elk Creek Township line were organized in 1870. The Christian Church have a congregation and building on the Population Road on the line between Girard and Franklin townships.
The village of Miles Grove, on the railroad a mile north of Girard, has been re-christened in late years as North Girard, and is now plan- ning to be incorporated as a borough. That will likely be accomplished by the time this work is published. It takes its name originally from the family of Judge Miles, who owned about 1,600 acres in the vicinity, having a fine brick mansion on the Lake Road at its crossing of Elk Creek. The town has an Episcopal, a Presbyterian and a Methodist church, as well as a handsome school building. Here have been operated for years the Otsego Fork Mills, Novelty Works, Ideal Foundry, and other works. It is a thriving little town. Judge Miles instigated the founding of the settlement, and Austin H. Seeley donated the ground for the depot and laid out the town.
Greene Township was one of the original sixteen townships, and known as Beaver Dam until 1840, when it changed the name in honor of General Nathaniel Greene of Revolutionary fame. Its boundaries have been twice changed, once by adding a portion of Mckean Township, and
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later by the formation of Summit Township. In 1820 it boasted 140 inhabitants. Its earliest settlers were Peter Himebaugh and Conrad Wineman in 1800, who settled along LeBoeuf Creek; in 1802, Jacob and Samuel Brown, Thomas Bunnell, and John and Ambrose Coover in the LeBoeuf valley; Thomas Hinton and his five sons and two daughters in the spring of 1802 in the northeast portion followed by other Welsh settlers with the Joneses, Knoyles, Morgans, Wilkins and others. Weeds Corners was settled in 1828 by William Weed and William Yaple. From New England came the family of Cyril Drown, Martin Hayes and sons, Isaac and David Church, Benjamin Gunnison, Roger Root, David Ed- wards and S. T. Rockwood, between 1816 and 1818. The Germans started to come in about 1833, and the Irish about 1836. The Welsh settlement came to be known as Wales, where is a thriving Presbyterian church and beautiful cemetery, the congregation having been organized by Rev. G. W. Cleaveland in 1849, and its building erected in 1851. The Methodists organized a class here about 1850. On the Plank Road the Catholics organized a church called St. Boniface in a German settlement in 1857, and erected a building the same year; a separation taking place between the English speaking and the German speaking members, another church was built and known as St. Peter's, which was later removed to Kuhl's Hill, and in connection with it a graveyard was laid out. A graveyard is also attached to St. Boniface church. St. Paul's United Lutheran and Presbyterian Church was located at Bogus Corners where a building was erected in 1857 and rebuilt in 1885. The Methodists have a church at West Greene, organized in 1827, and the church built in 1848, and a new one erected in the autumn of 1883.
Greenfield Township was one of the original sixteen townships, with a strip taken off in 1841 and added to North East. In 1820 its popula- tion was 281. The second highest point in this county is said to be in this township on the former Brown farm, and is about a half mile north- east from the highest point in the county, over in Venango Township.
Its first settlers were Judah Colt, the agent for the Pennsylvania Population Company, who settled here in 1797, and his home became "Colt's Station," but he was preceded in settlement by his brothers- in-law, Enoch and Elisha Marvin. Other early settlers were Cyrus Rob- inson, Henry and Dyer Loomis, Charles Allen, Joseph Berry, John and William Wilson, James Moore, Joseph Webster, Philo Barker, Timothy
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Tuttle, Silas and William Smith, Joseph Shadduck, John Daggett and John Andrews, most of them from New England. Mr. Colt cut the first road in the county- after the old French Road-from his residence here to the lake, the northern terminus becoming known as Freeport. The first settlement at Colt's Station was made in the belief that the higher lands were preferable to the densely wooded, low and moist lands along the lake shore. Some of the settlers soon discovered their error, and a few moved to other locations. Colonel Joseph Selden established a store at Colt's Station in 1820, in which Morrow B. Lowry clerked when a boy. A tavern was also opened there, and continued for some 60 years. The first military company organized in the county was in Greenfield in 1801, with Elisha Marvin as its captain. The first celebration of Independence Day in this county was held near Colt's Station on July 4, 1797. The first sawmill in the township was built at or near "Little Hope" by Lev- erett Bissell in 1799, and another in 1824 by John Whiteside in the south part of the township.
The first Protestant religious services held in the county were at Colt's Station on July 2, 1797, with about 30 persons present, who listened to the reading of one of Dr. Blair's .sermons by Judah Colt. The first church building for Protestant services in the county was erected in Greenfield Township, the site known as Middlebrook just north of Low- ville, in August, 1801. The old graveyard just east of Colt's Station, on the Erie and Mayville road, is the earliest (1801) Protestant burial place in the county, of which record has been made. At Greenfield village, known as "Little Hope," was the settlement made by Leverett Bissell about 1796, where he had taken up a soldier's right of 400 acres and built a sawmill on French Creek. To this place came the old fashioned bat- teaux from Pittsburg, and unloaded at the landing on the creek.
The Methodists organized a class in 1836, and built their house in 1850. The Free Will Baptists organized in 1881 and at once built their church. The United Brethren were organized about 1875, and built their church in the Walling neighborhood about 1893, holding services in the school houses until then. A school was held in a log house at Colt's Station during the winter of 1820-21. The first marriage in the town- ship was that of Joseph Shadduck and Betsy Willard, and their son Ira was the first birth in the township. This Mr. Shadduck built the first frame barn in the township about 1815. There used to be a huddle of cabins a mile or so north of Colt's Station, which was called "Log City."
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Harborcreek Township is one of the original sixteen townships in the county, its first location, known as "Rees' Reserve," having been taken up by Thomas Rees in 1796. The first actual settlers were William Saltsman, Amasa Prindle, and Andrew Elliott in 1797; Hugh McCann and Alexander Brewster in 1800; Thomas Moorhead, John Riblet and sons, John, Christian and Jacob Ebersole as well as the Backus family about 1801; Benjamin and Ezekiel Chambers in 1802; Dr. Ira Sherwin in 1825. Sarah Prindle was the first female child born in the township, in 1799, and William Clark, born in 1801, was the first male birth.
Neely's Mill was established near the mouth of the Twelve Mile Creek in 1802 by Captain Daniel Dobbins and James Foulk, later coming into the hands of Joseph Neely, and did a thriving business until 1841, when his son-in-law General John W. McLane operated it until the Civil War. It was operated by various people after that, and was dismantled a few years since. The wheat was ground here for the first boat load of flour sent through the Erie Canal, being hauled to the mouth of the creek and loaded onto canal barges off the shore. William Saltsman built a saw mill in 1815, adding a grist mill in 1826, sold to William Cooper, Sr., in 1839, and rebuilt in 1850, being situated on the Four Mile Creek near the foot of its gully out of the hills.
The Presbyterian congregation at Harborcreek was organized May 26, 1832, with 58 members from the North East Church. The Method- ists at the same place built in 1873 on land donated by Rev. Noah Sulli- van and the church was dedicated on December 11 of that year. It has been abandoned and the building removed. The South Harborcreek M. E. Church was organized at an early day, and a building put up about 1841; a few years since the church was destroyed by fire and a fine new one was immediately erected. The United Brethren were organized in the Clark Neighborhood in 1856, and put up a building the same year.
Very early a school was held in Robert Hurst's barn near Moorhead- ville, and on Colonel Moorhead's farm a half mile east of Hurst's a log school house was built, and shortly after another was built on the Buffalo Road on the farm of William Wilson north of the L. S. & M. S. R. R.
The township was greatly interested in the operation of the rail- roads, and participated in the activities known as the railroad war which led to so much bitter feeling here and in Erie.
LeBoeuf Township is one of the original sixteen townships, taking its name from LeBoeuf Creek. Captain Robert King located 400 acres in
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1794 at the Ford Bridge, and returned for his family, with whom he arrived in the spring of 1795, finding William and Thomas Black estab- lished on the tract next east of his. It is said that William Black's son, John R., was the first white child born in Erie County, being on Aug. 29, 1795. In 1797 Francis Isherwood with his son and daughter arrived, also James, Robert and Adam Pollock. William Mallory came in 1801, and John Clemens, James Biggers and Philip Gregory in 1802. French Creek traverses the northern and west-central parts of the township, its Indian name having been Innungah, or Toranadakon, which, under French ef- forts at pronunciation became Weningo, Weenango, and Venango. Some of the early mills were the Burger gristmill on French Creek, Water- house's saw mill, Troup's saw mill, Wheeler's saw and feed mill and cheese factory.
"The Society of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen," had done the public a great service by maintaining missionaries amongst the Indians, and in recognition of that service, the state granted them, by the Act of April 17, 1791, two large tracts of land, the one in this township of 2,875 acres which they named "Good Luck" tract, and one in Conneaut and Springfield townships of 2,797 acres which they termed "Hospitality" tract. In common report these are known as the "Moravian Tracts." The Academy tract of 500 acres at the mouth of LeBoeuf Creek was set apart by the state for the benefit of Water- ford Academy, and the land sold in 1840.
The Methodists organized a society at Edenville about 1839, and built the church at that place in 1855. The Manross Church was built in 1869 by John W. Manross for use of all religious bodies, but has been mainly used by the Methodists. The United Brethren grew from a revival held in the New Ireland neighborhood in 1876, erecting a building in 1877, which was dedicated Jan. 6, 1878. The earliest school seems to have been held in a building about two and a half miles north of Mill- village, in the Ford neighborhood, which was standing in 1820.
Mckean Township was also one of the original 16 townships, reduced in 1820 by losing a piece to Waterford, and in 1844 another piece to Franklin. The Old State Line ran a little north of the center of this township, and almost exactly through the center of Middleboro.
Its first settlers were James Talmadge from Genesee County, N. Y., in 1795, locating in what has become known as the Dunn neighborhood, who brought with him the first bushel of wheat sown in this county ;
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Thomas and Oliver Dunn in the fall of 1797; Lemuel Stancliff in 1799; Benjamin Grubb, from Lancaster County, in 1800; Benjamin Grant in the same year; Robert Sterrett in 1804; James Aubrey in 1806. Joseph Weldon was the first male child born in the township, and Hannah Tal- madge was the first female born there, both about 1798. The first saw- mill in the township was put up by James Sterrett on Elk Creek in 1810, the second by Oliver Dunn in 1812. The South Hill M. E. Church was dedicated Dec. 9, 1880, on land donated by Oren Reed. The Union Church at Sterrettania was built in 1842, jointly by the Methodists and Presby- terians and later used by all denominations. The United Brethren built a church at Branchville about 1865.
Millcreek Township was one of the original 16 townships, and named from the stream emptying into Presque Isle Harbor. It has lost several portions by additions made from time to time to the City of Erie. The original surveys were made in 1795 by George Moore under the direction of Thomas Rees, the first State Surveyor in the county. In laying out the land in this township, the state reserved a tract surrounding the townsite of Erie, starting about the head of the bay, south three miles and then east eight miles and down to the lake, known as the Erie Re- serve lots. Later the surveyors for the Pennsylvania Population Com- pany started at the same place by the lake and ran south three miles, east eight miles, and then north to the lake and plotted all outside of that line; but through an error in the calculation of the needle's bearings, and also an error in chaining, there remained "The Gore," a considerable strip of land between the two surveys, that was left out of both of them.
Its early settlers included Colonel Seth Reed, David McNair, George Moore, Captain Russell Bissell, David Dewey, James Baird, Francis Ran- dall, J. W. Russell, and Thomas P. Miller, who selected their locations in 1795, and moving upon them in 1796, when they were joined by Captain John Grubb and his bride; Benjamin Russell, Anthony Saltsman, and John McFarland. William Saltsman, John Nicholson, the Mckees, Jacob Weis, and Bo Bladen, a colored man, came in 1797. Joseph Henderson came in 1798 and in 1800 came William Bell, David, Samuel, William and Joseph F. McCreary from Lancaster County, and James Wilson, John M. Warren and John Cosper from New York. The first male child born in this township is believed to have been David M. Dewey, Dec. 15, 1797, and the first female child was Matilda Reed, born Nov. 14, 1798.
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The Westminster Presbyterian Church on the Ridge Road was organized by Rev. Johnston Eaton in 1806, at the mouth of Walnut Creek, probably in the tavern of Captain Richard Swan, a rough log building put up about 1810 near by, and in 1833, a substantial frame church erected where the present Swanville school house stands. This was removed in 1851 to the site of the present fine brick structure, which was built during the pastorate of Dr. George Booth, and dedicated Nov. 30, 1895. It was originally called the Fairview Church, the name
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HOME OF HON. JOHN GRUBB
being changed to that of Westminster in 1861. Asbury M. E. was organ- ized in 1846, the church built the same year, and remodeled in 1894. It has a fine community cemetery in connection with it.
The Belle Valley Presbyterian was organized the second Monday of December, 1841, with 38 members, who came from the First Presbyterian Church of Erie. They worshipped in the school house where the organi- zation took place, until 1843 when their frame building was erected with a seating capacity for 300. It was dedicated Jan. 6, 1843. St. Paul's German Lutheran Church, on the hill in the southwest part of the town- ship was organized quite early and its building erected about 1837, being overhauled in 1873. It has a cemetery in connection with the lot. One of the first schools was opened about 1805 in the southeastern part of
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the township, and about the same time another was opened in the Love Neighborhood. Both were well maintained until the state instituted the common school system. School was conducted in the Seth Reed resi- dence at Kearsarge in 1809. This township was the first in the county to adopt the one term school system, which was about 1863. Through this township was very early opened the highway from west to east, along which soon sprang up numerous taverns and hostels for the accom- modation of travelers and drovers. The Half-Way House west of Erie is perhaps the sole survivor of those interesting old places. It is inter- esting to note that the old Ridge Road lay some ten or more rods south of its present location between the site of the old Alms House and West- minster.
WEIS LIBRARY
The Weis Library, a unique institution of its kind, is in the western part of this township. It was established under the will of John Weis for a purely public use, and is in charge of Messrs. R. B. Gill, John A. Hinkle, and Clyde H. Waidley, as trustees. It is freely used by the com- munity, and has about 3,000 volumes on its shelves. The devise directs that it shall be for the free use and benefit of any and all residents of Fairview township and borough, Mckean township and so much of Mill Creek as compromises the election district of West Mill Creek (then all of the township west of the Edinboro Road), without distinction of race, color, creed or sex. It provided that the testamentary trustees should buy two acres of land, build and equip a suitable library building thereon to contain a library room, a hall for literary and scientific use, and such other apartments as may be deemed proper by said trustees, "which building and ground shall not exceed in cost $5,000"; the balance of the
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fund to be kept at interest upon real estate, the interest only to be used in maintaining and in the upkeep of the institution.
North East Township was one of the original 16 townships, deriv- its name from its position in the extreme northeastern part of Pennsyl- vania, as well as being the northeastern township in the county. It was enlarged in 1841 by a strip from Greenfield. It is, perhaps, the most adapted to fruit culture of any of the county sections, or at least its land owners have developed fruit growing in this township far ahead of the other townships, grapes, plums, peaches and cherries being the staples.
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