History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 87

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 87

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BURIAL PLACES.

The cemetery at East Springfield is the principal burying place of the township, though small graveyards are attached to the Christian Church in the same village, at West Springfield, at the Town House, and in other localities. The inclosure takes in eighteen acres of high and dry gravel and loam on the north side of the village, is tastefully laid out, contains some fine monuments, is carefully kept, and is deservedly the pride of the people. It was originally the burial ground of the Presbyterian Church, to which other land was added

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

by purchase. The cemetery was surveyed and graded in 1864, John H. Millar being the engineer and Robert P. Holliday the contractor. The first sale of lots was in October of that vear, and the first body interred was that of Henry Keith. which was placed in the inclosure in August, 1864, before the work was completed. The original officers were: William Holliday, President; I. New- ton Miller, Secretary; T. Webster, Treasurer; William Cross, Samuel Holli- day, Henry Teller, J. M. Strong and Samuel H. Brindle, Managers. Judge Cross was elected President in January, 1878, and still retains the position. Messrs. Miller and Webster have been officers from the day the cemetery orig- inated to the present hour. Funerals come from Girard, Elk Creek and Con- ueaut. In the northeast part of the cemetery are still to be seen traces of one of the series of ancient earthworks, four in number, which extended from the western part of Girard to the southern portion of Springfield. The other mouuds in Springfield are on the M. Oney farm, about a mile southwest of East Springfield, and on the Thomas McKee place, half a mile further west. They are all in a direct line from northeast to south west, and are similar in char- acter, each one covering over half an acre, being circular in form, and having earthen embankments two to three feet high by six feet thick at the base.

During the war for the Union, Springfield sent about 150 men into the army. Every one of the departed patriots has a headstone at the township expense.

PUBLIC MEN.

The following is a list of citizens of Springfield who have held State and county offices; Assembly, Thomas R. Miller, 1836; David A. Gould, 1843 and 1846; I. Newton Miller, 1870. Associate Judge, William Cross, Novem- ber 22, 1861, to November 8, 1866; elected without opposition, his name be- ing on the Union and Republicau tickets. Prothonotary, Maj. S. V. Holli- day, January 2, 1882-85. County Superintendent of Public Schools, L. W. Savage, 1860-63. Register and Recorder, Samuel Rea, Jr., November 17, 1863, to November 16, 1866; Henry G. Harvey, November 16, 1866, to No- vember 19, 1872. County Treasurer, Thomas J. Devore, December 23, 1858, to December 20, 1860. County Commissioner, Thomas R. Miller, 1831-34; Richard Robinson, 1852-55. Directors of the Poor, Thomas R. Miller, 1840- 42. John Spaulding was elected in 1856, but refused to serve. County Aud- itor, John Eagley, 1848-51. Mercantile Appraisers, Samuel Rea, Jr., 1858; Perry Devore, 1862. County Surveyor, Robert P. Holliday, November 5, 1863, to November 12, 1866, and February, 1869, to November 11, 1872; George M. Robison, January, 1879, to May, 1879. Hon. Humphrey A. Hills, County Commissioner from 1847-50, Deputy Marshal for taking the census in 1850, Commissioner to fix the boundary between Erie and Crawford Counties in the same year, and Assemblyman in 1852-53, has been a resident of East Springfield since 1863, moving there from Conneaut, his former home. E. B. Ward, the Detroit millionaire, was a native of the township, where he be- gan life as a fisherman and sailor. The citizens of Springfield who have be- come residents of Erie City are Samuel Rea, Jr., Col. E. P. Gould, Carl Wal- bridge, Joseph Patterson and A. E. Sisson.

ACADEMIES AND SCHOOLS.

The township possesses no less than three Academies, one each at the vil- lages of East, West and North Springfield. The first of these, at West Spring- field, was founded in 1853, and had a hundred and sixty-five pupils in 1855, with four teachers. Among its Principals were John A. Austin, W. H. Heller, Joseph H. Colt and C. C. Sheffield. It was burned down in December, 1859,

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SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP.

und rebuilt of brick two or three years subsequently. The East Springfield Academy, once an institution of high repute, opening with 150 scholars, grew out of the rivalry between the two villages, and was built in 1856. The first Principal was B. J. Hawkins, and L. W. Savage held the position in 1858. Neither school has been maintained distinctly as an academy for some years. The one at East Springfield is now used wholly as a public school, and the West Springfield one as a select and public school, the former having two and the latter three teachers. The North Springfield academy was established in 1866, after the two others had run down. and is still maintained as a select school. The other schools of the township are the Depot, at North Spring- field; Anderson, on the Lake road, three quarters of a mile north of Strong's mill; Weed, two miles south of East Springfield, on the Albion road; Bald- win, on the Ridge road, a mile west of East Springfield; Moon, on the road from West Springfield to Albion; Center, near the Town House; Brockway, one mile north of the Town House; Brindle, on the Lake road, a mile and a half west of North Springfield; Deveraux, near Deveraux Cornere; Hubbard, on the Ridge road, beyond West Springfield; Blickenederfer, on the Lake road, one mile west of Raccoon Creek, and Hewett, in the southwest. One of the first schoolhouses was built at an early day on the Joseph Eagley place, near the lake. The material was logs, with chimney of stones and sticks. In 1818, a log schoolhouse was standing in what is now the village of East Springfield, in which James Porter was teaching school. William Clark, a Mr. West and a Mr. Smith were other early teachers in the East Spring- field settlement. About the year 1822, Louisa De Wolf kept a school in a vacated log cabin located in the Ferguson neighborhood, about three miles southwest of East Springfield. Not long after this, another school was held in a similar building, probably a mile east of East Springfield, in the summer by Jane Fer- guson and in the winter by William Branch. About the year 1827, a frame schoolhouse stood in the Vandeventer neighborhood, some two and a half miles southwest of East Springfield. Hiram Dixon was one of the early teachers in this house.

RAILROADS, COMMON ROADS AND HOTELS.

Springfield has the advantage of two through lines of railroad-the Lake Shore and the Nickel Plate-which cross the township from Girard into Ohio, the first at a disance of half a mile to a mile from the lake, and the second farther south. The Lake Shore has a station at North Springfield, and the Nickel Plate one each for East and West Springfield. The Erie & Pittsburg Railroad branches off from the Lake Shore in Girard Township, half a mile from the Springfield line, which it follows southward into Conneaut, at about the same average dis- tance. Crosses' Station, in Girard Township, a mile and a half from East Springfield, was established for the accommodation of the township. The principal common thoroughfares are the Ridge road, which runs nearly through the center of the township, forming the main streets of East and West Springfield; the Lake road, which is half a mile from the water at North Springfield, and follows the lake front to the Ohio line; the Middle Ridge, which leaves the Lake road not far from North Springfield, runs southwest and strikes the Ridge road a mile beyond West Springfield; the Kingsville, which branches off from the Ridge road two-thirds of a mile west of East Springfield and continues to Kingsville, Ohio; and the roads from East and West Springfield to Albion, which come together at Sherman's Cor- ners, near Conneaut Creek, in the southeast.

From the close of the last war with Great Britain to the opening of the railroad, the travel on the Ridge road was very extensive, requiring numerous

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

public houses on the route. Scott Keith opened a house at East Springfield for the accommodation of the public in 1832, which became one of the most famous and popular between Erie and Cleveland. It is still open. In 1822, William Doty removed to East Springfield from North East, and took charge of the old Remington stand, which he kept till his death in 1864. The Keith House is still kept open. The East Springfield Post Office, the first in the town- ship, was established many years ago. The post office at West Springfield was established in 1838 or 1839, with Samuel Castle as the first Postmaster, and the one at North Springfield some time after 1860. That at West Springfield was long kept by Riley Potter. On the night of the 6th of December, 1874, this office was broken into and robbed, set on fire by the burglars and destroyed with the store to which it was attached. Two of the guilty parties were caught, convicted and sent to the penitentiary.

CHURCHES.

The churches of the township are Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal and Christian at East Springfield, and Methodist Episcopal, Baptist and Univer- salist at West Springfield. The Universalist and the two Methodist Episcopal buildings are brick; all the rest are frame. The Methodist congregations are one charge, having their parsonage at West Springfield. John Mershon was married to Miss Bathsheba Brush, of Greene County, in January, 1799, three years after his settlement in this county. When the bride came to her new home she brought with her a church letter from the Methodist minister at the place of her former residence. By her inducement, Rev. Joseph Bowen, a local preacher of the denomination at Franklin, Penn., held services in the Mershon house in September, 1800, and later in the same year he came again. These were the first Methodist services in the county. In the spring of 1801, a class was organized by James Quinn, near Lexington, and in 1804 a church building was erected about a mile south of West Springfield, which was long known as the Brush Meeting-house. During the latter year. nearly a hundred persons were converted under the ministry of Rev. Andrew Hemphill. In July, 1810, nearly forty persons were awakened through the instrumentality of a powerful sermon preached by Rev. John Gruber, Presiding Elder. A second society, with fourteen members, was formed on the 7th of January, 1815, at the house of Mr. Webber, in what is now Girard, but was then a part of Springfield, which has since been known as the Fair Haven Church. This congregation divided in 1821, in consequence of a personal difficulty between two of the leaders, and twenty-one of the members formed what they styled a " Reformed Methodist Church." In 1825, a fourth society was organized in the east part of the town, which was the beginning of the church at East Springfield. The Cottage Church, which stood on the Ridge road, about half a mile west of West Springfield, was commenced in 1830, but was not finished till 1836. The present church at West Springfield was built in 1854, and the one at East Springfield about 1866. The second parsonage in Erie Conference was built at Springfield. S. Ayers and J. C. Avers were the first pastors in 1830, and latterly E. M. Kernick, 1882-83.

The first Presbyterian edifice was a small log structure which stood on the old portion of the cemetery grounds. A preaching point was established at Springfield in 1804, by Rev. Robert Patterson, of North East, who was then the only regularly settled minister in the county, and the building referred to was put up the same year. The congregation was organized in 1806, by Rev. J. Eaton, pastor of the church at Fairview, who assumed the same relation to the Springfield Church June 30, 1808. His relation with the Springfield Church

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SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP.

continued until November 8, 1814. The original congregation consisted of about thirty members. Isaac Miller, James Blair and James Bruce were the first Elders. The present church edifice was built in 1844, at a cost of $4,000.

The Christian Church at East Springfield was organized with twelve mem- bers in 1826 by Rev. Asa C. Morrison, and had Rev. Joseph Marsh for its first pastor. The church was built in 1839, and cost $700. A graveyard is attached to it, from which the bodies are gradually being removed to the cem- etery. Elder H. Crampton is the present incumbent.

The Baptist congregation was organized in 1826, and erected a church in 1833, which cost $1,600. This building, which stood on the Ridge road, about two and a half miles west of East Springfield, was sold to the township, and a new one was erected at West Springfield in 1858, at a cost of $1,600. Rev. Asa Jacobs was the first pastor of the congregation. The old edifice is used as a Town House. The present pastor is Elder Telford, who has served the con- gregation for three years.

The Universalist congregation at West Springfield was organized January 10, 1848, and built a house of worship in 1850. The pastors of the congrega- tion have been as follows: Revs. P. P. Fowler, J. S. Flagler, B. F. Hitch- cock, A. J. Patterson, C. E. Shipman, I. George, H. S. Whitney, and the pres- ent incumbent, C. L. Shipman.

VILLAGES.

The village of East Springfield occupies a high and beautiful site along the Ridge road, three miles south from the lake, two and a half from North Springfield, on the Lake Shore Railroad, one and a half west of Cross's Station, on the Erie & Pittsburgh Railroad, four and a half southwest of Miles Grove, five west of Girard, and twenty-one by common road from Erie. The country around is the best portion of the township, and the village is the largest set- tlement. East Springfield comprises three churches, one academy, one hotel, one general store, two groceries, one hardware store, one millinery store, one drug store, one harness shop, one tailor shop, one meat market, one wagon shop, one furniture store and undertaking establishment, one cider mill, three blacksmith shops, and about forty buildings. The population in 1880 was 102.

West Springfield has grown up at the junction of the Albion with the Ridge road, three miles east of the Ohio line, four west of East Springfield, and twenty-five by common road from Erie. It is not as large as its sister village, but contains some neat residences and other buildings. The insti- tutions of the place are three churches, an academy, a cheese factory, hotel, general store, tile works and two blacksmith shops. The village sustains one physician and one minister. The old cemetery has fallen pretty much into disuse and the bodies are being removed to the more attractive burial ground at East Springfield.

North Springfield has sprung up within the last thirty years on the Lake Shore Railroad, just west of the Crooked Creek embankment. about half a mile south of Lake Erie, and twenty by railroad from Erie. The railroad company have at this place a station house, two water tanks and an engine house to pump the water up from Crooked Creek. Besides these there are an academy, an old hotel building, now used as a boarding house, a general store, a grocery and a public school. The village consists of perhaps twenty buildings and sixty inhabitants. It stands mostly on a portion of the John Holliday farm. The station was established in 1852, the year the railroad was opened, ground for the purpose being given by Samuel and John Holliday.

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

On the M. H. Gould farm, near the residence of Seymour Ware, in the valley of a branch of Turkey Run, is a famous salt spring, the water of which is so strongly impregnated with the mineral that the cattle on the place need no salting. Some sixty years ago Judge Gould drilled a well at this spot to the depth of 200 feet, but in putting the well down a fresh water spring was struck which diluted the salt water to an . stent that rendered it valueless.

CHAPTER X.

CONNEAUT TOWNSHIP AND BOROUGH OF ALBION.

YONNEAUT TOWNSIIIP is one of the original subdivisions of Erie County. C It is the extreme southwestern township of the county, and contains 25, - 540 acres. The population was 631 in 1810; 1,324, in 1830; 1,746, in 1840; 1,942, in 1850; 2,118, in 1860; 1,538, in 1870, and 1,545, in 1880. The de- crease between 1860 and 1870 was due to the incorporation of Albion as a borough in 1861. The township is bounded on the north by Springfield and Girard, on the east by Elk Creek, on the west by Astabula County, Ohio, and on the south by Beaver and Spring Townships, Crawford County. Its great- est length is about eight and three-fourths miles from east to west, and its greatest width six and one-fourth from north to south. Conneaut contains the villages of Cherry Hill, Keepville, Tracy and Albion Depot, all of which have post offices except the last. The township received its title from Conneaut Creek, its principal stream. The word Conneaut is of Indian origin, signifying " snow place," from the fact that the snow used to lie longer upon the ice of Conneaut Lake, Crawford County, than anywhere else the country round.

The appraisement for 1883 gave the following results: Value of real es- tate, $686,536; number of cows, 574; value, $14,250; number of oxen, 16; value, $995; horses and mules, 423, value, $23,240; total value of personal property assessed, $38,485; value of trades and occupations, $8,820; amount of money at interest, $6,378. The census returns for 1880 show that there were 433 houses occupied by 453 families.

THE FIRST SETTLERS.

The first settler within the bounds of the township was Jonathan Spauld- ing, who reached there from New York in the year 1795. Two years after the Population Company sent Col. Dunning McNair on as agent, who established his headquarters at what became known as Lexington, and with a corps of assistants surveyed the country, laid out roads, and made preparations for dis- posing of the property. In 1798, Abiather Crane and his brother Elihu, from Connecticut, located near Col. McNair, but neither remained long, the former moving to Mill Creek in 1809, and the latter to Elk Creek in the spring of 1800. Abiather first went into Conneaut as a surveyor in 1797, but did not locate there until the ensuing year. The arrival of other pioneers was as follows: In 1800, Matthew Harrington, from Vermont; George Griffey and Andrew Cole, from Onondaga County, N. Y., and Stephen Randall and his son Sheffield, from Rensselaer County, N. Y .; in 1801, Robert McKee, from Cum- berland County, Penn .; in 1802, Henry Ball, from Fredericksburg, Va., Pat- rick Kennedy, his son Royal, and William Payne, from Connecticut; in 1803,

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Marsena Keep and son Marsena, from Montgomery County, N. Y .; in 1804, Joel Bradish and brothers, from New York; in 1806, Lyman Jackson, from Otsego County, N. Y .; in 1810, Michael Jackson, son of Lyman, who remained but a few months, returned to New York and came back five years later. The following persons settled iu the township at a later date: In 1815, George Stuntz, from Barclay County, Va., and his son E. W. Stuntz; in 1816, Medad Pomeroy, from Massachusetts, with his sons, Nathaniel, Uriah, John, Lyman, James, George and Horace, and three daughters, together with James W. and G. Spicer, from New York; in 1817, Benjamin Sawdy and Isaac Pomeroy, from Massachusetts; in 1818, David Sawdy, from Massachusetts, Abijah Barnes, from Cayuga County, N. Y., and Samuel Bradish; in 1819, Noah Kidder and son Francis, Edward DeWolf and Daniel Rossiter, from New York, and Samuel Sawdy (father of David and Benjamin), with his sons John, Job and Daniel, from New Bedford, Mass .; in 1820, Rodolphus Loomis, from Chautauqua County, N. Y .; about 1824 or 1825, Harrison Parks; in 1829, Jonas Lewis; in 1831, Thomas Bowman, wife and family (including Ralph), from Oneida County, N. Y. ; in 1832, William Cornell and John Curtis; in 1833, Chester Morley and Andrew and Silas Morrison; in 1834, Christopher Cross, Edward Dorrence and Hiram Griffis; in 1837, Andrew Swap, Daniel Waters and Joseph Tubbs; in 1838, Isaiah and Johnson Pelton; in 1839, Marcus A. Bumpus. Among those who went in about the commencement of the century, are Bartholomew Forbes, Howard, John, Nathan, David and Charles Salsbury, Thomas Sprague, James Paul, James Whittington, Thomas Alexander, John Stuntz, Giles Bad- ger, Ichabod Baker and Jacob Walker. A large portion of the settlers whose former homes are not given were from New York, principally from the cen- tral counties. Henry Ball was a Captain in the war of 1812, and several of the others served against the British as privates. Jonathan Spaulding's sons, David, John and George, were born in the township, the first in 1802, the second in 1806, and the last in 1816. William Harrington, the oldest son of Matthew, was born in 1805. William Paul went into Elk Creek with Mr. Colton in 1797; returned to Connecticut, and came back about 1816. George Stuntz was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Noah Kidder and son went to Springfield in 1817, but moved to Conneaut two years after. Medad Pomeroy settled on Conneaut Creek, about a mile north of Albion, where he owned several hundred acres, extending into Elk Creek Township.

The first male child was Henry Wood, born about 1798. The first female children were Ruth, danghter of Elihu Crane and wife, and Eliza, daughter of Abiather Crane and wife, who were born in the same house near Lexington, on the same day, April 20, 1799. Ruth Crane married Isaac Pomeroy, and became the mother of two sons-Alden and Jerome-and seven daughters. Her cousin, Eliza, became the wife of James Love, Jr., and moved to Mill Creek. The first recorded death was that of Mrs. Thomas Alexander, who ex- pired in 1801, and was buried " at a point between two runs, about half a mile north of Albion." The oldest lady who has ever lived in the township was Mrs. Thomas Bowman, who died in the fall of 1862 aged nearly ninety-two years.

CREEKS AND BRIDGES.

The chief stream of the township is Conneaut Creek, which rises below Conneautville, in Crawford County, flows in a general northerly course to the Springfield line, then turns abruptly westward, and continues into Ohio. After changing its course, it forms the boundary line between Conneaut and Spring- field, the former lying on the south and the latter on the north. In Ohio, it continues westward nine miles to Kingsville, then makes another sudden bend

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HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY.

to the east, and comes back eight miles to Conneaut, where it turns again to the north, and after a further course of about a mile empties into the lake a mile and a half from the boundary of Pennsylvania, forming Conneaut Har- bor. It is the most crooked of the lake shore streams, the length from head to mouth by its windings being from seventy to seventy five miles, while the distance by an air line is not more than twenty-five miles. The valley of the creek forins the route of the Erie & Pittsburgh Railroad through Conneaut Township, and was utilized for the same purpose in laying out the old canal from Albion southward. Its length across the township is fully twelve miles. The West Branch of Conneaut Creek rises in Crawford County, near the Ohio line, runs in a general northeasterly direction through the south part of the township, and unites near Keepville, after a course of between nine and ten miles. The East Branch heads in Crawford County, below the Elk Creek line, runs past Wellsburg and Cranesville, and enters Conneaut Township a mile or so northeast of Albion. It has a length of not far from ten miles. At Wells- burg, it is joined by Frazier's Run, and at Albion by Jackson's Run. The lat- ter takes its rise on the Conneaut and Elk Creek line, near Crawford County, flows north, then northeast, and is from four to six miles long. After receiv- ing Jackson's Run, the East Branch continues about half a mile further, before merging with the main stream. Marsh Run heads in the west, flows eastward. and empties into the Conneaut about a mile from Albion Depot, having a length of four or five miles. The dividing ridge between the waters of the lake and the Allegheny turns to the south in Fairview Township, and follows nearly the line of Conneaut Creek into Crawford County. The frequent streams and their unusual crookedness are a source of heavy expense to the tax-payers, the number of bridges and the cost of keeping them up being undoubtedly greater than in any other township of the county. Not to name those on the branches, there are, on Conneaut Creek alone, the Law, Griffith, Porter, Perry and Salsbury bridges, along the Springfield line, and the Pomeroy, Kennedy, Silverthorn, Keepville and Spaulding within the township proper. These include the public bridges only, besides which the Erie & Pittsburgh Railroad Company have two more, known as the Sawdy and Kennedy second. All of the township bridges are built of timber with stone abutments.

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History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 87

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