History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 21

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc > Part 21

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(A) South Erie incorporated as a borough in 1866, and added to Erie in 1870, when another slice was taken from the township. By the census of 1880, East Mill Creek contained a population of 1,200 and West Mill Creek of 2,069.

(") North East Borough incorporated in 1834.

A portion of Girard taken off in 1832, and of Conneaut added in 1835.

(k) Amity taken off in 1826. Union Borough in 1863.

(I) Wattsburg incorporated in 1834.

(m) Waterford Borough incorporated in 1838. A part of Summit taken off in 1854.

(n) Known as Conneauttee till 1834. Edinboro incorporated in 1840. A portion of Franklin cut off in

1844. (o) A slice cut off to form Corry Borough in 1863, and another in the creation of Corry City in 1866.

1870

1880

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

EXTRACTS FROM THE UNITED STATES CENSUS OF 1880.

The population by race in Erie County:

White-In 1860, 49,251; in 1870, 65,584; in 1880, 74,345.

Colored-In 1860, 181; in 1870, 389; in 1880, 332. Of the number in 1880, 222 were in Erie City.

Chinese-In 1880, 2; all in Erie City.

The population of Erie County by nativity:

Native-40,758 in 1860; 52,699 in 1870; 61,543 in 1880.

Foreign-8,674 in 1860; 13,274 in 1870; 13,145 in 1880.

The population of Erie and Corry, by nativity, with number of dwellings and families in Erie in 1880:

Erie-1870, 12,718 native, 6,298 foreign; 1880, 20,031 native, 7, 706 foreign; dwellings, 4,903; persons to a dwelling, 5.66; number of families, 5,294; persons to a family, 5.24.

Corry -- 1870, 5,080 native, 1,729 foreign; 1880, 4,250 native, 1,012 foreign.

The places of birth of the inhabitants of Erie County in 1880:

Native born-Pennsylvania, 47,446; New York, 9,260; New Jersey, 170; Maryland, 102; Ohio, 1,645; Virginia, 93.

Foreign born-British America, 1,436; England and Wales, 1,257; Ire- land, 3,403; Scotland, 263; German Empire, 5,831; France, 144; Sweden and Norway, 123.

The sex and age of the inhabitants of Erie County in 1880:

Males, 37,303; females, 37,295.

Five to seventeen inclusive-Males, 10,947; females, 10,654.

Males twenty-one and over-19,779.

The farm areas and values in Erie County in 1880:

Farms, 5,579; improved land, 301,669 acres; value of farms, including fences and buildings, $21,613,613; value of farming implements and machin- ery, $941, 725; value of live stock on farms, $2,209,900; cost of building and repairing fences in 1879, $88,398; cost of fertilizers purchased in 1879, $52,002; estimated value of all farm products in 1879, $3,028,260.

The principal vegetable productions of Erie County in 1880:

Barley, 195,646 bushels; buckwheat, 52,955 bushels; Indian corn, 713,749 bushels; oats, 657.179 bushels; rye, 4,876 bushels; wheat, 256,224 bushels; value of orchard products, $125,550; hay, 100,195 tons; hops, 3,048 pounds; common potatoes, 502,400 bushels; sweet potatoes, 954 bushels; tobacco 2,730 pounds.

The live stock on farms, and dairy products and wool products, in Erie County in 1880:

Live stock-horses, 13,160; mules and asses, 124; working oxen, 815; milch cows, 25,425; other cattle, 28,497; sheep, exclusive of spring lambs, 33,411; swine, 18,324.

Dairy products-Milk, 1,893,631 gallons; butter, 2,201, 141 pounds; cheese, 72,796 pounds.

Wool-158,116 pounds.

The following are the manufacturing statistics of Erie County in 1880:

Establishments, 559; capital, $6,424,413; average number of hands em- ployed: males above sixteen years, 4,554; females above fifteen years, 257; children and youth, 397; amount paid in wages during the year, $1,869,466; materials, $6,646,427; products, $10,463, 906.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

CHAPTER II.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

"THE surface of Erie County is divided into five distinct sections, viz .: The Lake Shore plain, the series of dividing ridges, the valleys between the ridges, the valleys of French Creek and its tributaries and the high lands south of the last-named stream.

Four separate ranges of hills extend across the county from east to west, known respectively as the First, Second, Third and Fourth Ridges. The First Ridge rises to a height of 100 to 150 feet above Lake Erie, the Second to about 400, and the height of the Third and Fourth Ridges varies from 600 to 1,200 feet, their most elevated summits being in the eastern portion of Mc- Kean, the western portion of Waterford, the northern portion of Venango and the southern part of Greenfield. The separation of the ridges becomes more clearly defined along a line drawn through Harbor Creek, Mill Creek, Sum- mit, Waterford and Mckean Townships than further east, but from there westward each ridge is as distinct as though it belonged to a system of its own. As the Third and Fourth Ridges extend westward they recede from the lake, until they run into Crawford County.

Three continnous valleys cross the county between the ridges, from the line above mentioned, broken in places by slight elevations, and known in succession as the Mill Creek, the Walnut Creek and the Elk Creek Valleys. These streams rise on the high ground of the Third and Fourth Ridges, and, after flowing westward for some distance down their respect- ive valleys, suddenly turn to the north and break through the First and Second Ridges by a series of deep "gulfs" or gullies, which are a striking feature of the region. North of the First Ridge and between it and Lake Erie is a broad alluvial tract, from two to three miles in width, which extends ' along the whole water front of the county. Its general height above the lake is from fifty to sixty feet, but in the eastern part of Harbor Creek Township its elevation suddenly rises to nearly 100 feet and so continues almost to the New York line.

South of the dividing ridges are the valleys of French Creek and of the streams which empty into it, and still beyond are the hills which form the water-shed between that stream and Brokenstraw, Spring and Oil Creeks. The water on the north side of the main ridge flows into Lake Erie and on the south side to the Allegheny River. The dividing line between the waters is some eight miles south of Lake Erie in Greenfield and Greene Townships, twelve mile, in Summit, fourteen in Waterford, Mckean and Washington, and sixteen in Franklin and Elk Creek. Along French, Walnut, Elk, Conneaut, Mill, Big Conneauttee, Little Conneauttee and LeBoeuf Creeks, Hatch Hol- low Alder Run, Beaver Dam Run and the outlet of Lake Pleasant are very handsome valleys, from a quarter of a mile to more than a mile in width. The elevation between the Walnut Creek Valley and that of the West Branch of LeBoeuf Creek, both rising in Summit Township, is quite low; so moderate, indeed, that it is barely noticeable. The sides and summits of the ridges are much cut up with ravines, though considerable stretches of country are as level as the valleys.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

The Pennsylvania State Geological Report gives the following as the elevation above tide-water of the points named: Surface of Lake Erie, 573-7. feet, Philadelphia & Erie Railroad summit between Walnut and LeBoeuf Creeks, 1,229; hill-tops on each side of the same summit, 1,355; hill-tops in western Waterford and eastern Mckean, 1,470; Philadelphia & Erie Rail- road station at Union City, 1,270; hill-tops south west of Union City, 1,301; railroad station at Corry, 1,431; hill-tops east of Corry, 1,500; hill-tops south of Corry, 1,725; hill-tops along the Little Conneauttee, 1,196; hill-tops south- west of Edinboro, 1, 400.

Jutting out from the mainland, in Mill Creek Township, is the penninsula of Presque Isle, which forme the bay of Presque Isle, the harbor of the city of Erie .. It is a low sand bank, washed up by the action of the waves, some sev- en miles in length, and varying in width from a few rode to a mile and a half. Except at its head and foot, it is covered with trees and shrubs of al- most every variety that grows in this latitude. The peninsula is indented with several shallow ponds, one or two of which run half way across Long Point. A peninsula of similar character, but much longer and wider, juts out from the Canada Shore opposite, making the space between the narrowest por- tion of Lake Erie.

THE LAND-ITS CHARACTERISTICS AND VALUE.

The Lake Shore Plain has in general a sandy soil, while immediately south of it, along the First Ridge, is a wide and continuous strip of gravel. The valleys between the ridges are a mixture of clay and sand, making a mellow soil that is easy to work. On the high lands and slopes of the ridges, the soil is mostly of a clayey nature, somewhat damp and cold. That of the valleys of the French Creek system is a rich alluvial deposit corresponding in character to bottom lands the country over.

The lands which are generally regarded as the best in the county for farm- ing purposes are those bordering upon Lake Erie. This favored section produces every kind of grain, fruit, vegetable, etc., common to the temperate regions. The lake tempers the climate so that it is less troubled by frosts than regions many miles south, and as fine melons, grapes, peaches, strawber- ries, etc., are raised as in any part of the State. A belt of swamp land about half a mile wide originally extended along the Lake Shore Plain, in an east and west direction, from Twelve Mile Creek to the Ohio boundary. Most of this has been drained, and is now fertile land. East of Mill Creek, on the line of the swamp, the rock comes nearer to the surface than west, and the results have been less gratifying.

The valleys of the French Creek system are equally fertile, perhaps, but are subject to frosts, which prevent the successful culture of the more delicate fruits. On the high lands the frosts are less troublesome, but the nature of the soil adapts them best for grazing. Fruits of most kinds do better than in the valleys, but wheat, except in detached spots, does not succeed as well, and some of the more elevated townships do not raise enough of that grain to sup- ply them with bread. Off of the lake shore the attention of the farmers is mainly given to dairying, which may be said to be the leading industry of the county. Aside from wheat, every other kind of grain does well in all sections. That grain has of late years, however, been grown with considerable success in various portions of the county south of the lake shore, and it is possible that in time it will be generally cultivated. The apple crop is everywhere sure and prolific. Large quantities of this fruit aud of potatoes are annually shipped to the Southern and Eastern markets. A good deal of hay is baled in

Lor M. Sterrett

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

the southern townships and shipped by rail. Hundreds of tons of butter are sent from the county to the large cities, where the Erie County make ranks with the best. Within the last ten years, cheese factories have been started in almost every township, which manufacture immense quantities of that product.

The price of land differs very much, according to its location. Along the lake shore, speaking only of farms that are outside the influence of the towns, very little land can be purchased for less than $75 an acre, and its value runs from that to $200. On the bottoms of French Creek and its tribu - taries, the price is from $50 to $100. The high lands are estimated to be worth as low as $25 and as high as $75. In a few choice spots, the value of the latter is little less than that of the valley lands, but, as a rule, they bring a lower price. The highest priced farming lands are in the vicinity of Erie, Girard, North East, Fairview and Waterford, and the lowest priced are in Greenfield, Elk Creek, Franklin and Wayne.

CLIMATE, GEOLOGY AND TIMBER.

The climate is more moderate than would be thought from the high northern latitude. The county lies within the same isothermal lines as Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania generally, but, while the average temperature corre- sponds with that section, there is less sultry weather in summer and more piercing wind in winter and spring. This is due to the proximity of Lake Erie, which has a wonderful effect upon the atmosphere. To the same influ- ence is due the fact that the seasons are from one to two weeks earlier on the lake shore than they are in the southern part of the county, and that peaches, melons and grapes grow successfully in the first section, while they are almost a total failure in the other. It sometimes happens that good sleighing prevails in the southern townships when the ground is bare along the lake. In the spring, especially if ice is on Lake Erie, the winde are somewhat trying to those who are not acclimated, but this brief period of unpleasant weather is more than recompensed by the delightful summers, the freedom from fogs and miasma, and the purity of the water. On the south side of the dividing ridge frosts are frequent in the late spring and early fall, but nothing of the kind is known along Lake Erie, except at the seasonable period of the year. The winters and summers are about of equal length, but it is seldom that either are extreme or unendurable. For at least six months in the year, the county is as delightful a place of residence as the most fastidious could desire.

A peculiarity of the county is the scarcity of stone, of which barely enough is found for ordinary home use. The entire lake front is under- laid to a height of four to seven feet above the water's edge with a body of soft slate, which is practically valueless for building purposes. The only quarries of much account are in Frauklin, Le Bœuf, Summit and Waterford Townships, and these do not consist of vast masses of rock, but are merely thin layers, one above the other, ranging from five to twenty feet in total thick- ness. The stone is hard, of good quality and easily worked, but is saturated with oil, which causes it to blemish after exposure. Small quarries are found in Fairview, Washington, Amity, Venango, Mckean and Union, but are rarely worked to advantage. There is little surface stone, and the most that is found consists of bowlders that have been thrown up by some convulsion of nature.

When the county was first opened to settlement it was covered with a dense forest, consisting mainly of pine, hemlock, chestnut, walnut, cucumber, beech and maple. Perhaps two-thirds of the land has been cleared, and but little good timber is left. The pine and hemlock of the French Creek Valley were largely rafted to Pittsburgh. That of the lake shore was shipped to Cleve-

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

land, Buffalo and the New York markets. The county does not furnish build- ing material enough now for home use, and at the rate the forests are disap- pearing it will not be long until there will be barely sufficient for ordinary farm purposes.

MINERALA, OIL WELLS, ETO.

No minerals of any kind have ever been found in the county, except small deposits of iron, of the grade known as bog ore, in Mill Creek and Elk Creek Townships, and a few unimportant beds of marl in Waterford, Wayne and Le Bœuf. None of these are extensive enough to be considered worth working at present, though the iron ore was used to a slight extent during the early history of the stove manufacture.

Mineral springs, the waters of which are of a medicinal character, have been discovered in different localities. One in Elk Creek Township has con- siderable reputation and is much visited. Another in Erie, near the corner of Eighth and Chestnut streets, was once quite widely known.

Before the days of canals and railroads, a number of salt wells were put down at various points, and the manufacture of salt was carried on to a con- siderable extent. The most valuable of these were along the East Branch of Conneaut Creek, near Wellsburg. A salt spring still flows in Springfield, and salt licks prevailed in almost every township.

A great many test wells for oil have been bored, nearly every section hav- ing had from three to half a dozen experiments of that character. With scarcely an exception, a small yield of oil has resulted, but not enough to en- courage the belief that it will be found in paying quantities. The most prom- ising territory is in Union. Franklin and along Mill Creek, in Erie City. The Althof well in Erie produced oil enough for many years to warrant the expense of pumping. The oil that has been got in the county is of the heavy kind used for lubricating purposes. Natural gas is found almost everywhere by boring. The wells put down for oil have invariably yielded gas in a heavy volume, and in Erie it has been used in a number of instances for light and . fuel. In the course of time, the gas diminishes and the wells lose their value.

Several extensive sink holes have been encountered, the best known of which is on the line of the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad, near Waterford. They undoubtedly mark the beds of small lakes.

The most interesting natural curiosities are the " gulfs," or gullies, of the lake shore creeks, and the "Devil's Backbone" in Girard Township. Winter- green Gulf, in Harbor Creek Township, five miles southeast of Erie, and the gulf of Six Mile Creek, near the Clark settlement, in Harbor Creek Township, are the most interesting of the gullies. The first of these has become a pop- ular picnic resort. The views from the ridges overlooking Lake Erie are very fine at some points, especially about sunset.

Tamarack Swamp, in the northeast part of Waterford and the eastern part of Mckean Townships, is about two miles long by 100 rods wide. Its waters flow into Le Bœuf Creek. Portions of the swamp have been drained, leaving a rich, black mold that is very productive.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

CHAPTER III.

GEOLOGY.

THE geological formations are comprised within the Devonian period, and in- clude in the nomenclature of the State geological report, in descending order, Corry and Cussewago Sandstone, Venango Oil Sand Group, Chemung forma- tion, Girard shales and Portage flags. The age of the upper strata has not been definitely determined. The Corry and Cussewago beds belong either to the Pocono, No. X, or Catskill, No. IX, formation, and the Venango Group is by different geologists ascribed to both Catskill and Chemung ages.

Topography .-- The mean level of Lake Erie above the ocean in New York Harbor is 573 7 feet. Facing the lake, a steep terrace of sand and clay, from 50 to 100 feet high, rises, and through this terrace break three or four fair sized streams and numerous smaller ones, descending a slope which extends upward from the lake terrace to a line which may be drawn from the northeast corner of Greenfield Township, through Greenfield, Greene, Summit, Mckean and Franklin. The slope is high and short at the New York line, hence the lake streams in the east part of the county are short and rapid. Along the Ohio line, the slope is long and low, and the streams here are larger. Walnut Creek heads only eight miles from the lake shore, but is fifteen miles in length. Elk Creek is thirty miles long, yet its head is only ten miles back from the shore. Conneaut Creek runs twenty-six miles in Pennsylvania, then crosses iuto Ohio. The course of all these streams is the same, first down the upper part of the slope toward the lake, then westward in a deep gully parallel to the lake, then out through a ravine straight to the lake shore.

South of the divide, French Creek is the largest stream in Erie County. The valleys are flat, one or two miles wide, and are bordered by low and gently rounded hill slopes, separated by low, flat table-lands. Swanips occur along the South Branch of French Creek, and Tamarack Swamp stretches across the water-shed of the divide. on the highest land of the Waterford (Mckean) Township line; elsewhere in Erie County, swamps are rare. Several lakes are found in the low valleys.

Drift Period. - There is little land in the county that has not been affected by the great ice-sheet which in glacial times moved southeastward over the entire county, except possibly the hilltops which rise 1,200 feet above the level of the lake; in them no erratic bowlders have been observed. While the ice was smoothing down the lower flat country of the western townships, it was operating through the deep and narrow vales of the eastern ones, leaving the high hill-tops comparatively untouched. The character of drift deposits can be studied along the shore of Lake Erie toward the Ohio line, where they constitute a terrace bluff fifty to eighty feet high, out of which the wavee are constantly removing the clay and fine sand, leaving the coarse sand, pebbles and bowlders to be daily rounded and polished on the beach. The matrix is a bluish-white tough clay, imbedding fragments, mostly angular, of all kinds of crystalline rocks, with sandstone, shale, black slate and limestone, and occa- sionally a large bowlder of granite or gneiss. Quicksand is abundant in the drift deposits of the townships back from the lake.

Buried Valleys .- Scarcely a stream of any considerable size in Erie

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

County flows over a rock bed except those which cut deep ravines in the lake slope. The present water-courses meander along the upper surfaces of drift deposits, which fill up the ancient valleys to various heights above the old rock beds, even in some places where no living stream now flows. Bed rocks are seen along French Creek at Union, Mill Village, Le Boeuf and elsewhere, but the flood plain being two miles wide, there is ample space for a buried valley between the two wall slopes.

The most remarkable of these buried valleys are those through which two streams now flow in opposite directions from a common divide scarcely more elevated than other parts of the flood plain.

These ancient valleys were excavated, first, either by ancient rivers flowing from 100 to 400 feet below the present floors; or, second, by the great south- ward moving Canadian ice sheet, which as it retreated filled them up again with debris; or, third, they were first excavated by pre-glacial rivers, then deepened and widened by the moving ice and filled with its moraine to the present level. J. C. White, who made the geological survey of Erie County, ascribes the buried water ways to the plowing power of ice. The State Geol- ogist, Prof. J. P. Lesley, takes exceptions to this view, and assigns the val- leys to ancient rivers draining Northwestern Pennsylvania toward Lake Erie. Recent discoveries confirm this latter opinion. Prof. Spencer, of King's Col- lege, Windsor, Nova Scotia, has shown that a submerged valley bed crosses Lake Erie transversely, entering the present lake basin from the north, and by a bend northward and extending beneath the present drift filled water bed of Grand River, Upper Canada, then passing eastward into the head of Lake Ontario. Into this river channel, before the basin of the lake was filled, the Allegheny, French Creek, Mahoning and other streams doubtless poured their waters. Then came the glacial winter, and a thousand feet of snow and ice from the Laurentian Mountains moved slowly southward, filled the channel of this ancient river, damming back its waters and converting the forest-covered plain into an inland sea, banking itself against the Pennsylvania upland, and sending long glaciers across the country. By the melting of these glaciers, the valleys were filled with debris and a new topography formed. Lake Erie and the upper lakes were formed; the direction of Pennsylvania and Ohio rivers was reversed to the south. The pent-up waters of the inland sea found new outlets. The waters were lowered from terrace to terrace, and Niagara River was rapidly cut back till the present lake level was reached.

Terraces .- Along Lake Erie, there are many fragmentary remains of old terraces, marking ancient higher levels of the lake surface. From the top of the bluff east of the Ohio line the land slopes up regularly and very gently, covered with a continuous beach sand and shore shingle to 225 feet above the present lake level. This sloping plain east of Erie, near Belle Valley, be- comes a continuous flat at an elevation of 425 feet above the lake, covered in places with beach sand, etc. On the irregular escarpment of higher land, which rises from this flat on the south, no shore deposits were found. In Har- bor Creek and western northwest townships, is the nearest approach to a series of terraces; three miles back from the lake, at 577 feet elevation, is a wide level. destitute of beach deposits; an abrupt descent to about 500 feet eleva- tion reaches to the remnant of a terrace, covered with beach sand and shingle; then follows a rapid descent, wholly destitute of beach deposits to 300 feet elevation, to a broad sloping plain, covered with beach sand, etc. At the northern edge of this plain, 220 feet above the lake, is a genuine terrace of beach sand forty feet high, from the foot of which a plain one mile wide ex- tends to the top of the bluff, 170 feet high. which descends steeply to the water's edge.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

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History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 21

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280