History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 23

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 23

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Elk Creek rises in Waterford Township and flows in a general westerly course through Mckean, Fairview and Girard Townships to Lake Erie, north of Miles Grove. The length of Elk Creek is between twenty-five and thirty miles. An effort was made to have the mouth of this stream made the terminus of the canal, and various projects have been advocated for establishing a harbor there. The name of Elk Creek was given from the number of elk found in its

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

valley. Falls Run starts in Franklin Township and joins Elk Creek in Fair- view. Brandy Run rises in Fairview Township and unites with Elk Creek in Girard. The West Branch, which also joins the same stream in the latter township, rises in Elk Creek Township. They are all small.

Walnut Creek, so named because its banks were lined with walnut trees, rises on the western edge of Greene Township, and flows through Summit, Mill Creek and Fairview, entering the lake at Manchester. Its length is about fifteen miles.

Crooked Creek rises in Lockport Borough, and flows through Girard and Springfield to Lake Erie, a short distance from North Springfield. It is about ten miles long.

The Head Run is the small stream that enters Presque Isle bay just above the Massassauga pleasure ground.

Cascade Run is historical because a portion of Perry's fleet was built at its mouth. It falls into the bay at the Pittsburgh docks, in Erie City.

Mill Creek is formed by two branches, the one rising in the extreme south- eastern section of Mill Creek Township, and the other in the northwestern part of Greene. They unite near the southeastern line of the first-named township, and the stream enters the bay within the city limits of Erie. Mill Creek cannot be less than eight miles long.

Four Mile Creek rises in Greens, runs through the western edge of Harbor Creek, and enters the lake in the northeastern corner of Mill Creek Township, after a course of about eight miles.

Twelve Mile Creek hsads on the line of North East and Greenfield Town- ships, and joins the lake in Harbor Creek. Its length is about seven miles.

Twenty Mile Creek rises in Chautauqua County, N. Y., and empties into the lake in North East Township, near the State line. It is from sixteen to eighteen miles long.

LAKES AND BAYS.

Lake Erie .- The whole northern front of the county is bordered by Lake Erie and Presque Isle Bay, giving a shore line, with the various indentations, of fully forty-five miles. Lake Erie is one of the chain of " Great Lakes," con- sisting, besides itself, of Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, St. Clair and On- tario. No one of these, except St. Clair, is excelled or equaled in size by any body of fresh water elsewhere in the world. The name Eris has been "held to mean 'cat,' thus giving the title of Cat to the tribe of Eries, and Cat Lake to the body of water." This, however, is disputed by one writer, who claims that the word " means raccoon in the original, and that the error as to meaning came into vogue by the confounding by the early French explorers of the wild cat with the raccoon, both of which animals abounded, but the latter being the most numerous." Recent measurements give the following results:

"The greatest length of Lake Superior is 335 miles; its greatest breadth, 160 miles; mean depth, 688 feet; elevation above the ocean, 602 feet; area, 82,000 square miles.

"The greatest length of Lake Michigan is 300 miles; its greatest breadth, 108 miles; mean depth, 600 feet; elevation, 581} feet; area, 23,000 square miles.

"The greatest length of Lake Huron is 200 miles; its greatest breadth, 169; mean depth, 600 feet; elevation, 5812 feet; area, 23,000 square miles.

"The greatest length of Lake Erie is 250 miles; its greatest breadth is 80 miles; its mean depth is 84 feet; elevation, 573 ,7 feet; area, 6,000 square miles.

"The greatest length of Lake Ontario is 180 miles; its greatest breadth,

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65 miles; its mean depth is 500 feet; elevation, 246} feet; area, 6,000 square miles.

" The length of all five is 1,265 miles, covering an area of upward of 135,- 000 square miles."

Lake Erie receives the outflow of Lake Huron through the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, and empties itself through the Niagara River into Lake Ontario. The outlet of the latter is the St. Law- rence River, which, after a course of some five hundred miles, falls into the Atlantic Ocean within the Dominion of Canada, the volume of water which it carries down being greater than that of the Mississippi. By some geographers, the lakes are regarded as expansions of the St. Lawrence, which would give that river a length, from the source of the St. Louis, the most remote tributary of Superior, of about twenty-one hundred miles. Lake Erie is the fifth and most southerly of the chain. Its breadth varies from thirty to eighty miles. The narrowest part of the lake is between Long Point, Canada, and Presque Isle, and the widest is between Ashtabula, Ohio, and Port Stanley, Canada. The average depth of Lake Erie is less than that of any other of the chain, except St. Clair, which renders its navigation the most dangerous. It has few natural harbors, that of Erie being the best, but the mouths of a number of the larger streams have been dredged and protected by breakwaters, offering good facilities for shipping.

In commercial importance, Lake Erie excels any other of the chain. The Falls of Niagara, twenty miles below its foot, forbid direct navigation between Erie and Ontario. This has been remedied by the construction of the Welland Ship Canal. Vessels pass through this artificial channel to and from Lake Onta- rio, the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean .* The lake seldom freezes over more than a few miles from shore, but instances have been known of the ice being clogged between Long Point and Presque Isle so that teams and wagons have crossed. Navigation usually closes about the 1st of December and opens early in April, though it has sometimes begun much sooner. Several winters are recorded when vessels have sailed every month of the year. The streams that flow into Lake Erie are small, scarcely adding as much to its supply as it loses by evaporation. The body of water that flows over Niagara Falls is estimated not to exceed that received by the lake through the Detroit River. The lake abounds in fish, the most common varieties being white fish, pickerel, bass, perch, herring, sturgeon and mutton-heads.

It is subject to fluctuations of several foet in the height of the water, ac- cording to the direction of the wind. The general surface is also higher in some seasons than in others, depending on the winter and spring weather along the upper lakes.

Some unaccountable phenomena are reported by old settlers along the shores of the lake. Just after sunset on the 30th of May, 1823, several swells were observed at the mouths of Otter and Kettle Creeks, Canada, being twen- ty miles apart, and the water suddenly dashed to a height of nine feet at the former point and of seven at the latter. The weather was fine and the lake had previously been calm. A similar incident was witnessed at the mouth of Sixteen Mile Creek, in 1820, at that of Cunningham Creek, Ohio, in 1826, and again at that of Grand River, Ohio, in 1830. At the second point named, the water rose fifteen and at the third eight feet. Water-spouts are of frequent occurrence, and as many as three have been seen at one time. A whirlwind was experienced at Conneaut, Ohio, in September, 1839, which lifted the water of the lake to a height of thirty feet. Three monster waves are reported

*The Welland Cana: was begun in 1824 and opened in 1829.

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as having dashed upon the dock at Madison, Lake County, Ohio, the first of which was fifteen or twenty feet high. "In 1844 or 1845, a wave came into Euclid Creek fifteen feet in height, carrying everything before it. On Novem- ber 18, 1845, the water at Cleveland suddenly fell two and eight-tenths feet during a high wind from the southwest. The Toledo Blade records a change of ten feet on December 5, 1856."

A remarkable phenomenon occurred at Cleveland in July, 1881, which is thus described by the Signal Service officer at that port: "At 5:30 in the morning there was a slight breeze from off land in a southerly direction, and at 6 o'clock there was almost a calm, while to the northward a dark cloud appeared like a curtain, and at the same time was heard a rumbling sound. At 6:20 there came up a large green colored wave. with no crest, which approached from the northwest with great rapidity, and soon after the passage of the wave the wind returned to its original quarter. The cloud, wave and wind seemed to travel together. The wave was about nine feet above the present level of the lake. The highest barometer in the country occurred in the city yesterday morning, viz., 30.15. The recoil of the wave along the line of the shore caused two smaller receding waves, parallel to the shore, and from fifty to seventy- five feet apart. "

Similar occurrences are reported as having happened on the other lakes. Col. Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland, has kept a record of some of the most prominent of these events, from which we learn that " on Lake Superior, in 1879, opposite Isle Royal, there was a sudden fall of four feet in the waters. When they returned, they did so with a rush, the vibration continuing for several hours. In 1834, the waters above the Sault Rapids suddenly receded, and in half an hour returned with great velocity. In August, 1845, Dr. Foster states that while in an open boat between Copper Harbor and Eagle River, an enormous surge, twenty feet in height and crested with foam, rolled toward the shore, succeeded by two or three swells. Dr. Foster observed repeated flows and reflux of the waters in 1847, 1848 and 1849, which preceded or followed storms on the lake. In 1858, D. D. Brockway reported, in a per- fect calm, a sudden rise of one foot and three inches, and in another two and one-half feet. The Lake Superior News of July 17, 1855, reports extreme fluctuations between the hours of nine in the morning and four in the evening. Father Andre, in 1670, while on Green Bay, reported a three-feet rise, but this was accompanied by a northwester. On April 14, 1858, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported a change of level in Lake Michigan of six feet."

Bay of Presque Isle .- The Bay of Presque Isle, forming the harbor of Erie-the only one in the county-is a quiet and beautiful body of water, about five miles long, with a breadth ranging from a mile and a quarter to nearly two miles. The long and narrow sand bank which divides it from the lake is known as the Peninsula, or in French as Presque Isle, meaning " nearly an island." Within a hundred years, the bay extended by a narrow channel half a mile further westward than it does now, the action of the sands and the earth brought down by the two little streams at the head having caused the restriction of its limits. The entrance to the bay is at its eastern end, between two long piers which create an artificial channel 200 feet wide. Before the Government improvements were made, the mouth of the bay was nearly a mile in width, and obstructed by a bar which afforded only six to eight feet of water. Now the largest vessels upon the lake can enter easily, and when with- in the bay are secure against the worst storms. Two noble lighthouses direct mariners to the entrance, while the course of the channel is made clear by a series of range lights. At the head of the bay, the peninsula is only a few

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rode in width, and so low that the water sometimes washes over during winter gales. Within a few years, this neck has been protected by a barrier of piles and heavy timbers, at the cost of the General Government. A channel was opened across this portion of the peninsula many years ago, and several vessels passed through, but the experiment was unsatisfactory, and the passage was allowed to close up. The greatest depth of water in the bay is nearly opposite the Pittsburgh docks, where the lead touches bottom at twenty-seven feet.

Misery Bay is a small subdivision of the bay proper at its northeastern extremity. Its name was suggested by Lieut. Holdup during the war of 1814, when the vessels of the Lake Erie squadron were anchored there. The gloomy weather that prevailed, and the uncomfortable condition of the crewe made the title eminently appropriate. Within this little bay were sunk two of the ves- sels of Perry's fleet, the Lawrence and Niagara. The former was raised and taken to the Centennial Exhibition in 1876; the latter still lies at the bottom of the bay on the side next to the lighthouse. Both of the bays freeze over in winter, and usually continue closed until about the 1st of April. They abound in fish, and are a famous resort for anglers. A number of pleasure yachts ply upon the quiet waters of the bays, and sail boats and row boats are always to be had at the boat houses along the public pier. (For a further ac count of the bay and harbor, see Erie City.)

THE INTERIOR LAKES.

In the interior of the county are three small lakes-LeBœuf, Pleasant and Conneanttee-all of which lie on the south side of the dividing ridge, and empty into French Creek.

Lake LeBœuf .-- This lake is in Waterford Township, on the southwestern edge of Waterford Borough. It is about two-thirds of a mile long, by half a mile wide. The lake is fed by LeBœuf Creek and Boyd and Trout Runs. Its outlet falls into French Creek in LeBœuf Township.

Lake Pleasant, in the southwestern corner of Venaugo Township, is about two-thirds of a mile long by a third of a mile wide, with a depth of five to fifty feet. It has no tributary streams except two tiny rivulets, and is appar- ently fed by springs in the bottom. The outlet joins French Creek in Amity Township.

Lake Conneauttee lies on the northern side of Edinboro, and is partly in that borough and partly in Washington Township. Its length is about a mile, and its width a little over a half mile. The deepest water is about fifty feet. Big Conneauttee Creek enters at its northern extremity, and leaves at the southern, continuing on to Crawford County, where it unites with French Creek.

BRIDGES, CULVERTS, ETC.

Where there are so many streams, it follows as a consequence that there must be a great number of bridges. None of these are very extensive or cost- ly compared with the immense structures that are found in other parte of the Union. The most important public bridges are those which span French Creek in Amity, Waterford and LeBœuf Townships; Conneaut Creek in Con- neaut Township, and upon the line between that township and Springfield; the South Branch of French Creek in Union City and Township; Elk Creek in Fairview and Girard Townships; Walnut Creek in Fairview and Mill Creek Townships; the Big Conneauttee at Edinboro; and LeBœuf Creek in Waterford Township.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

The iron bridges of the "Nickle Plate " railroad over Crooked, Elk, Walnut and Twenty Mile Creeks, are the longest and costliest in the county. This company have made use of iron almost entirely in crossing the numerous streams along the lake shore. State street in Erie is spanned by three good iron bridges belonging to the railroad companies. The Philadelphia & Erie Railroad has a lofty trestle work over Mill Creek, near Belle Valley, and fine wooden bridges over LeBœuf Creek, in Waterford Township; French Creek in LeBœuf; and the South Branch in Union and Concord.

On the line of the Erie & Pittsburgh road, Crooked Creek is spanned by a formidable bridge and trestle work in Girard Township, while other bridges of importance cross Conneaut Creek in the township of the same name. The townships which are subjected to the most expense on account of bridges are Le Bœuf, Conneaut and Springfield.

The Lake Shore Railroad formerly overcame the gullies of Twenty Mile Creek, Sixteen Mile Creek, Walnut Creek, Elk Creek and Crooked Creek by ex- tensive trestle works, which have been replaced by substantial culverts and em- bankments that cost many thousands of dollars. Most of the streams upon the line of this road are now spanned by stone culverts or iron bridges. It is not to be doubted that wherever culverts are practicable the example of the Lake Shore Company will eventually be imitated by the other railroad cor- porations.

Within the limits of Erie almost all the city bridges over Mill Creek have given way to durable stone culverts. An elegant culvert was thrown across the East Branch of Conneaut Creek, in Conneaut Township, for the use of the canal, which still remains, and is used for a public road.

The aqueducts of the canal over Walnut Creek, in Fairview Township, and Elk Creek in Girard, were at one time looked upon as wonders of engineering and mechanical skill.

CHAPTER V.

PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS AND NATURAL CURIOSITIES.

M ANY indications have been found in the county proving conclusively that it was once peopled by a different race from the Indians who were found here when it was first visited by white men. When the link of the Erie & Pitts- burgh Railroad from the Lake Shore road to the dock at Erie was in process of construction, the laborers dug into a great mass of bones at the crossing of the public road which runs by the rolling mill. From the promiscuous way in which they were thrown together, it is surmised that a terrible battle must have taken place in the vicinity at some day so far distant that not even a tra- dition of the event has been preserved. The skulle were flattened, and the foreheads were seldom more than an inch in width. The bodies were in a sitting posture, and there were no traces that garments, weapons or orna- ments had been buried with them. On account of the superstitious notions that prevailed among the workmen, none of the skeletons were preserved, the entire collection as far as it was exposed being thrown into the embankment further down the road. At a later date, when the roadway of the Philadel- phia & Erie road, where it passes through the Warfel farm, was being widened, another deposit of bones was dug up and summarily disposed of as before. Among the skeletons was one of a giant, side by side with a smaller

Engraved by J C Buttre NY

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

one, probably that of his wife. The arm and leg bones of this native Amer-, ican Goliath were about one-half longer than those of the tallest man among the laborers; the skull was immensely large; the lower jawbone easily slipped over the face and whiskers of a full-faced man, and the teeth were in a per- fect state of preservation. Another skeleton was dug up in Conneaut Town- ship some years ago which was quite as remarkable in its dimensions. As in the other instance, a comparison was made with the largest man in the neigh- borhood, and the jawbone readily covered his face, while the lower bone of the leg was nearly a foot longer than the one with which it was measured, indi- cating that the man must have been eight to ten feet in height. The bones of a flat head were turned up in the same township some two years ago with a skull of unusual size. Relics of a former time have been gathered in that section by the pailful, and among other curiosities a brass watch was found that was as big as a common saucer.

An ancient graveyard was discovered in 1820, on the land now known as the Drs. Carter and Dickinson places in Erio, which created quite a sensation at the time. Dr. Albert Thayer dug up some of the bones, and all indicated a race of beings of immense size.

ANCIENT EMBANKMENTS.

Equally curious are the pre-historic mounds and circles found in Wayne, Harbor Creek, Conneaut, Girard, Springfield, LeBœuf, Venango and Fair- view Townships. The principal one in Wayne Township, which is still in a fair state of preservation, is in the valley of the South Branch of French Creek, near the road from Corry to Elgin, and but a short dis- tance east of the large springs which furnish water for the State fish-hatch- ing establishment. It consists of a vast circle of raised earth, surrounded by a trench, from which the earth was unquestionably dug, the whole enclosing about three acres of unbroken ground. The embankment has been much flattened and reduced by the elements, but is still from one to two feet high and from three to four feet wide at the base. When the first settlers discov- ered it, the interior of the circle was covered with forest trees, and stumps are still to be seen on the embankment, the rings of which represent an age of several hundred years. Half a mile west, a little to the north of the road, on a slight eminence, was another and smaller circle, which has been plowed down, leaving no vestige behind.

The circles in other portions of the county are or were similar in their general features, with one exception, to the above. Those in Harbor Creek Township were situated on each side of Four Mile Creek, slightly southeast of the big curve of the Philadelphia & Erie road, on points overlooking and commanding the deep gulf of that stream. The one on the west side of the creek is still in a good state of preservation, but the other has been obliter- ated. The two Conneaut circles were near together, while those in Girard and Springfield, four in number, extended in a direct line from the western part of the former township to the southwestern part of the latter. One of the circles partially occupied the site of the cemetery at East Springfield. In Fairview Township, there was both a circle and a mound, the first at the mouth of Fort Run and the second at Manchester. The latter, at the close of the last century, was about six feet high and fifteen feet in diameter. Somebody had the curiosity to open it, in the hope of finding treasure, but was rewarded with nothing more than a small quantity of decomposed bones. A tree was cut on one of the embankments in Conneaut that had attained the age of 500 years. The circles in LeBœuf and Venango were very much like those above described. 10

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

The position of some of these embankments would seem to favor the idea that they were provided for warlike purposes, while no speculation of that character is warranted by the location of others. That they were not the work of the Indians, as our fathers knew them, is the only thing of which we can be positively certain. The knowledge we possess of the red men assures us that they had neither the will nor the skill to provide such inclosures, either for defense or as places of worship. Every instinct of the mind impels us to the belief that they are the remains of a superior race to the Indians, who dis- appeared so completely and mysteriously that no trace of their numbers, their habits, their character, their origin, or their destiny exists in history or in tradition.

MORE STRANGE DISCOVERIES.

Other evidences of a different population from the red men, as well as of an utterly distinct animal kingdom, have been found in the county. In the year 1825, while one Francis Carnahan was plowing along the lake shore in Harbor Creek Township, he turned up a strange looking bead, which he cleaned and carefully preserved. It fell into the hands of L. G. Olmstead, LL. D., a traveler and archaeologist of some reputation, formerly a resident of Erie City, but later of Fort Edward, N. Y., who unhesitatingly pronounced it to be one of the celebrated "Chorean beads" of ancient Egypt, and kept it until his death as a relic of rare interest and value. Similar beads taken from tombs near the Nile are in the Egyptian collection in New York City, one other is in a like collection in Boston, and altogether, there are some thirty in the great museums of antiquity in Europe. They were employed in worship and worn as amulets, and were among the most cherished possessions of the ancient people of Pharaoh. Presuming the Harbor Creek bead to be genuine, of which Mr. Olmstead was thoroughly convinced, how came it there and what is its history ? To say the least, it adds additional testimony to the proof fur- nished us by the mounds and circles that a race of people inhabited this section anterior to the red men, who were far in advance of, them in progress and in- telligence. Who they were, where they came from, and what became of them remains an unsolved problem.

The skeletons of extinct species of animals have frequently been found in the county, but perhaps the most extraordinary discovery of that nature was made near Girard Borough in the early part of May, 1880. A man in the employ of Mr. W. H. Palmer, while plowing, turned up some bones of a mammoth, which, upon investigation by scientific persons, were thought to indicate an animal fifteen feet long and from twelve to thirteen feet high. One of the teeth weighed three and a half pounds, having a grinding surface of three and a half by four inches, and pieces of the tusks led to the opinion that they must have been eight or ten feet long. The most curious feature of the case is that animals of this class at the present day are natives of the tropics and require the equatorial heat and vegetation of the same region to enable them to reach maturity.

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History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 23

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