USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 18
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In 1815 a salt well was struck in Beaver Township, and a good quality of salt was obtained. Hoping to strike a more powerful vein, the well was deepened to 300 feet, when, instead of salt, a current of petroleum was tapped and the salt business was at an end. Magaw and Clark were the
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original proprietors and subsequently Daniel Shryock became a partner. Salt was so much of cash value that it became a medium of exchange. Ham- lin Russell, of Belle Valley, Erie County, sold a yoke of oxen for eight barrels of salt, and Rufus S. Reed bought of General Kelso one colored boy, who was to be held to service until he was twenty-eight years old. for 100 barrels of salt.
The roads, in the early days of Crawford, were simply no roads at all, but the settlers would pick their way through the woods as best they could. In transporting the salt from Erie to Waterford the old French road was followed, but having had no repairs for thirty years, in many seasons of the year it was next to impassable. The Erie and Waterford Turnpike Com- pany was chartered in 1805, with the intention of making it a link in the great thoroughfare contemplated from Erie to Philadelphia by the Venango, Juniatta and Susquehanna Valleys. Work was commenced in 1806, and the road was completed in 1809. In laying it out a circuitous route was followed to accommodate the settlers, many of whom were stockholders. In 1811-12 the Susquehanna and Waterford Turnpike Company was incor- porated. The State agreed to appropriate $125.000, provided citizens would subscribe for 2,000 shares of the stock. The war which broke out caused delay. The stock was finally secured, and in November, 1818, the several sections were offered for construction. In 1820 the road was com- pleted from Waterford to Bellefont, and in 1824 was completed through to Philadelphia, making a continuous turnpike from Erie, through Water- ford. Meadville, Franklin, Bellefont and Harrisburg to Philadelphia. As it was a toll road the companies were obliged to keep it in repair, and it proved remunerative to the owners; but the tolls finally dropped off to such an ex- tent, as other roads were laid out and constructed, that it proved unprofitable and was abandoned, the gates were removed and the road was assumed by the townships through which it ran. The Mercer and Meadville Turnpike Company was incorporated in 1817, and in 1821 was completed and opened, connecting at Mercer with a pike that had been constructed from Mercer to Pittsburg. '
As early as 1790 the Legislature had appropriated $400 for the im- provement of the navigation of the Venango River and Le Bœuf Creek, and in 1807, $3.000 more for improvement of the roads and streams west of the Allegheny. Of this latter amount $500 was used for improving the
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navigation of these streams, $450 for the pike from Meadville to Waterford, $400 from Meadville to Mercer and $400 from Meadville to Franklin. In 1810 an appropriation of $2,000 was made, of which Crawford got $900, Erie $800, and Venango $300. In these later days when the whole country is gridironed with railroads, and the steam whistle is heard in every hour of the day and night, we are disposed to smile at the simplicity of the Penn- sylvania Legislature in voting money for the improvement of the Venango River, a stream that in a dry time a barefoot boy could cross without wet- ting his knee-breeches. But, in reality, it was no simple thing to do, and if to-day the railroads and canals of the country should be swept from its surface, and it he again returned to the condition of the county in that early day, it would not be twenty-four hours before that despised stream would be appealed to for the means of heavy transportation. Nor would it be in vain, for if that channel were properly slackwatered and reservoirs were laid up for feeding, it would become a waterway on which great navies might ride. and a mighty commerce might be carried on its boson1.
By act of Assembly of March 13th, 1817, commissioners were appointed to lay out a road from the northeastern limit of Crawford County on the Warren County border to Meadville, fifty feet in width, the survey to be made between April and November, 1817, and $3,000 was appropriated towards its construction. James Miles, John Brooks and Major McGrady were appointed to locate it. Through the ignorance or pig-headedness of these men, forgetting the familiar principle that the bail of a kettle is no longer when lying down than when standing up, they struck an almost absolutely straight line, over precipitous hills, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, and the penalty has been that generations have clambered up and down over those hills during all the succeeding years and will prob- ably to the end of time, some of the climbs being known as dead-horse hills.
Though roads had been laid out from Meadville to almost every point of the compass, and considerable amount of work had been expended upon them, yet in the spring of the year, when the frost was leaving the clay sub- soil which underlies the greater part of the county, they became almost im- passable. To remedy this difficulty resort was had to plank roads. Accord- ingly, the Meadville, Allegheny and Brokenstraw Plank Road Company was chartered in 1849, and the company was organized by electing John Stuart Riddle president, John Dick, William Sharp. Alfred Huidekoper,
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John M. Osburn, John McFarland and William Reynolds, managers. A sawmill was established on the line of the road, and the lumber for its con- struction was taken from the forest, and cut as required. It was finally com- pleted as far as Gay's Mills and was open to travel, but was not a profitable enterprise and was shortly abandoned.
In the session of 1849-50 the Meadville, Klecknerville and Edinboro Plank Road Company was chartered. Gaylord Church was elected presi- dlent and Edward and Isaac Saeger and William Reynolds were directors. It was rapidly constructed, and at Edinboro connected with the Erie and Edinboro Plank Road. The grade was easy. The great omnibus, capable of carrying twenty persons, would start from Meadville at early dawn, drawn by four beautiful white horses, and make the run to Siverlings, where a relay of horses was in readiness, then to Edinboro, where another relay of horses was in waiting, and would run proudly into Erie in time for the mid- day trains on the Lake Shore Road. When first constructed, a ride over the "Plank" was delightful. But when the fall rains came and the great Conestoga wagons, with their five or six tons of freight, began to roll over it with their narrow tires they very soon began to feel for the defective planks, which were quickly crushed to splinters, and were thrown out by the side of the road. This process was continued until finally there was but an occasional whole plank left, when it was abandoned to the townships through which it passed, and defects were mended with gravel, resulting in an easy grade highway between the two cities
The first bridge which spanned the Venango River was built by Thomas R. Kennedy in 1810-II at the Mercer Street crossing, and was for toll. In 1828 a free bridge was thrown across the river at the Dock Street crossing. In 1815 two more bridges were constructed, one at Broadford and the other at Cambridge, known as Deadwater. These have all been replaced by iron structures except the one at McGuffintown and that at Sagertown, which are of the old covered wooden patterns. Indeed, there is scarcely a stream of any account in the whole domain of the county that is not spanned by a substantial steel structure.
A weekly mail route was established between Erie and Pittsburg by way of Meadville and Franklin, in 1801. In 1806 the route was changed to Meadville and Mercer. The mail was carried on horseback, and when it increased in size, two horses were employed, one to carry the driver and
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the other the mail-bag. A semi-weekly mail was established through Mead- ville from Erie to Pittsburg, Harrisburg and Philadelphia in 1818, a tri- weekly in 1824 and a daily in 1827. The introduction of stage coaches was a great advance in travel. The turnpikes became great thoroughfares of travel for emigrants working their way west, and hotels were opened along the route, until there was scarcely a mile without a place of entertainment for man and beast.
Mr. Brown, in his history of Crawford County, quotes the following extract from the Crawford Messenger of December 4, 1828: "Cleared from the port of Meadville, the fast floating boat Ann Eliza; all the ma- terials of which this boat was built were growing on the banks of French Creek on the 27th ult. On the 28th she was launched and piloted to this place before sunset, by her expert builders, Messrs. Mattox and Towne. Her cargo consisted, among other things, of 300 reams of crown, medium and royal patent straw paper, with patent books and pasteboards. She left Meadville early on the 30th for Pittsburg, with about twenty passengers on board." And in the issue of April Ist, 1830, is the following: "We are in- formed on good authority that between Woodcock and Bemus' Mills, on Venango River, a distance of twenty-two miles, from ninety to one hun- dred flat-bottomed boats have started or are about to start for Pittsburg. These boats are built principally by individual farmers, and are freighted with hay, oats, potatoes and various other kinds of produce; also salt, staves, bark, shingles, cherry and walnut timber. The average capacity of these boats is twenty-seven tons, and the average value of boat and cargo at Pitts- burg is estimated at $500. Calculating the number of boats at one hundred the total tonnage would be 2,700 tons, and the product at Pittsburg $50,000. From Bemus Mills to the mouth of Venango River the number of boats of the above description is equal, if not greater, exclusive of rafts, which make a considerable item, so that the trade of the Venango River this season may be safely estimated at $100,000."
During the second quarter of the century heavy freightage by canal was the favorite subject of enterprise throughout the length and breadth of the land. In August, 1824, General Barnard, Colonel Totten, Major Doug- lass and Captain Poussin, United States Engineers, under authority of the Government, while engaged in surveying the route for a canal between the Ohio River and Lake Erie, encamped on the west bank of French Creek,
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near the site of the Mercer Street bridge, opposite Meadville. General Bar- nard and Captain Poussin had been officers of distinction in the armies of the great Napoleon. In 1827 an act of the Legislature provided for the con- struction of a canal from the Ohio River, by the Beaver and Shenango Rivers, to the city of Erie, and sections were let during that year. The chief difficulty in operating the canal was in securing a sufficient supply of water to feed the locks. It was found that Conneaut Lake was on the sum- init of the watershed between the Mississippi and the Saint Lawrence Val- leys, and that the Venango River at Bemus Mills was higher than Conneaut Lake. It was accordingly decided to build a substantial dam across the river at this point, which is two miles above Meadville, and carry the water by a canal seven miles below Meadville, build there an aqueduct across the river high above its current, and thence to the lake and pour its current into this great natural reservoir, for the steady feeding of the canal in both direc- tions, towards the river Ohio and the lake Erie. In order to make sure of abundant supply of water, an embankment was built across the outlet of the lake Conneaut, so that the surface was raised nine feet and thus nearly doubled its area.
It was a joyous day for Crawford County when it became assured that the canal was to be a reality, and the breaking the ground, as it was celebrated at Meadville, was an event of a lifetime. The line of march was formed at the Diamond. The formation was announced by the booming of cannon and the clangor of bells. The procession was led by Captain Tor- bett's company of artillery, Captain Berlin's company of light infantry and a band of music, followed by a long array of teams, laborers and civilians. Arrived at the point of operations, which was in front of the residence of James White, now of A. C. Huidekoper, on the Terrace, the exercises were opened by prayer offered by the Rev. Timothy Alden, president of Allegheny College, who also delivered an address, which was succeeded by the event of the day, "the breaking ground." This was assigned to two aged pioneers, Robert Fitz Randolph, nearly ninety years old, and Cornelius Van Horn, who was eighty. The plow was drawn by seven pairs of oxen, and when the earth had been thus loosened eight laborers with their wheel-barrows appeared and removed a portion of the earth. The artillery was brought into play, and delivered thirteen rounds, which echoed along all the hills. Re-forming, the procession moved to Lord's spring, where a cold collation
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was served, and, in accordance with the customs of the times, the head of a barrel of fine old whiskey was staved, and the tin cups were merrily passed. Returning to the Diamond, the procession broke ranks, and the work of building the canal was fairly inaugurated.
The work proved to be one of immense proportions. The Governor in his message to the Legislature of 1842-3, showed that 974 miles had been finished, from Rochester, on the Ohio, to the mouth of the Venango River feeder, and 494 miles, including the feeder and the Franklin Division, leav- ing in progress and nearly completed the 383 miles. Up to that date the State had expended more than $4,000,000, and it was calculated that but $211,000 more would be needed to make the canal ready for boats. At the session of the Legislature of 1843 an act was passed incorporating the Erie Canal Company, and ceding to it all the work that had been done, on con- dition that the company would finish and operate the property. The first boats to reach Erie were the "Queen of the West," crowded with passen- gers, and the "R. S. Reed," loaded with Mercer County coal, which came in on the 5th of December, 1844. The canal did a profitable business until the completion of the Erie and Pittsburg Railroad, when the competition be- came too strong for a waterway of so light tonnage. It was proposed to deepen and enlarge it, but the expense was too great, and the promise of success too uncertain to warrant the undertaking, and the property was finally acquired by the railroad company. It was operated for awhile suc- cessfully; but finally the fall of the Elk Creek aqueduct, in Erie County, gave excuse for abandoning the entire property, and thus the enterprise which was rung in with so much enthusiasm and the booming of cannon came to an inglorious end.
The attempt to secure the charter for and the construction of a railroad from Erie to Pittsburg, by the way of Meadville, was so far successful as to secure a charter, obtain subscriptions from individuals and from the county of $200,000. Contracts were let and some ten miles graded; but the pros- pect of success becoming dubious, the county authorities, after having ex- pended $30,000 of its subscription, applied to court for an injunction to re- strain them from issuing any further amounts of the subscription, and the cancellation of the agreement, which was granted. By act of the Legisla- ture of March 10, 1859, the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad of Penn- sylvania was incorporated, which, with the section in New York and Ohio,
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made a continuous line from Salamanca, on the Erie Road, to Dayton, Ohio, virtually Cincinnati, as a connection was there made with a local road be- tween Dayton and Cincinnati. Gen. C. L. Ward and William Reynolds visited Europe and it was largely by their personal influence that funds were secured from Spanish and English capitalists for the building this gigantic work. With such energy was the work pushed that by October 22, 1862, the road was completed to Meadville, and to the Ohio State line by January, 1863. The road was originally six feet wide to conform to the track of the Erie Road, with which it connected Salamanca, but was subsequently changed to the standard gauge of the United States, as was the Erie, on January 6, 1880, and the name changed to the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad Company, and in March, 1883, it was leased to the New York, Lake Erie and Western Company for ninety-nine years. By its con- nection with the Chicago and Atlantic Railroad, at Marion, which was also leased by the Erie, it gives the Erie a through run from New York to Chi- cago and it constitutes a trunk line.
As early as 1845 the Pittsburg and Erie Railroad Company was char- tered, but nothing was accomplished until 1856, when a new charter was ob- tained, and as it failed to designate definitely the course it was to follow, a sharp rivalry arose between the Conneautville and Meadville routes. It was finally decided in favor of the former, and not until 1864 was the track com- pleted to New Castle, where it connects with the New Castle and Beaver Valley Road, which connects with the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago at Homewood. This gave a continuous route from Pittsburg to Miles Grove, and by running on the Lake Shore to Erie, a continuous road be- tween the two cities. This road is now owned and controlled by the Penn- sylvania company.
That portion of the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railroad which extends from Corry to Titusville, or the Miller farm, Venango County, was completed in 1862. This road extends through the eastern tier of town- ships, following for the most part the valley of Oil Creek. The Union and Titusville Road extends from Titusville. to Union City, where it connects with the Philadelphia and Erie Road. It was begun in 1865 and was com- pleted in 1871. It crosses the townships of Bloomfield, Steuben, Troy and Oil Creek, running over the track of the Oil Creek Road from Tryonville to Titusville, and is also a part of the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia line.
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The Meadville and Linesville Railroad was built to secure a second connec- tion with a trunk line, and thus secure competition in rates of transporta- tion. The road was built by the canal tow-path and Conneaut Lake to Linesville, to connect there with the Pennsylvania system, a distance of twenty and one-half miles. The road was finished in 1881. On the 3d of January the road was sold to the Meadville Railroad Company for $150,000. by whom it has been successfully operated. The Dunkirk, Allegheny Val- ley and Pittsburg Railroad enters Titusville, crossing the southwest corner of Oil Creek Township, and a branch of the Lake Shore Railroad crosses the southwest corner of West Shenango Township in its entry into Jamestown, Pennsylvania.
The Shenango and Allegheny Valley Railroad was originally a coal road, extending from the mines in Mercer and Butler Counties to the She- mango Junction, where it connected with the Erie, and also with the Eric and Pittsburg. Subsequently it was continued to Greenville and still later to the Exposition grounds at Conneaut Lake and to Conneaut Harbor, on Lake Erie. Here it delivered coal from the mines and received rich iron ore from Superior mines. Andrew Carnegie, principal owner of the great steel works at Homestead, was in need of this ore, and cast longing eyes on this road, the shortest cut from his works to lake navigation at Conneaut Harbor. He secured a controlling interest in the road, spent vast sums of money in tunneling, bridging and extending the road to his works, renewed the track with extra heavy steel rails, enlarged the harbor at Conneaut, built a breakwater at its mouth, enlarged and improved the machinery for dis- charging the ore from shipboard, and loading on cars, making the road one of the most substantial and valuable properties in the world, giving it the name of the Pittsburg, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, characteristic of the business which it does, and the places it connects.
This record in railroad construction is remarkable. In 1860 there was not a mile of finished railway in the county. In less than six years' time it was gridironed with tracks, and at present, with one exception, has more miles of railroad than any county in the State.
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CHAPTER XV.
CRAWFORD COUNTY IN ITS MULTIFORM RELATIONS.
N O COUNTY organization could have been legally attempted in the northwest corner of the State until after the purchase made of the Indians at Forts Stanwix and McIntosh, in 1784. But on the 24th of September, 1788, Allegheny County was erected, which was made to em- brace all the land north and west of the Allegheny River. Thus it remained until the 12th of March, 1800, when the Legislature passed an act erecting the counties of Beaver, Butler, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Warren and Arm- strong from a portion of the county of Allegheny. By the same act, Arm- strong County for judicial purposes was provisionally attached to Westmore- land County; Butler and Beaver were joined with Allegheny, and the coun- ties of Crawford, Mercer, Venango, Warren and Erie, "shall form one county," was the language of the act, "under the name of Crawford." Three trustees were appointed by the act for each of the newly elected counties, those for Crawford being David Mead, Frederick Haymaker and James Gibson. On the 2d of April, 1803, Erie and Mercer were organized as sep- arate and distinct counties, Venango, April 1, 1805, and Warren, March 16, 1819.
It was fitting that Crawford, the friend and companion of Washington, and the successful Indian fighter, should have his name given to one of the largest and most important counties in the State. His fate was peculiar and a sad one. William Crawford was born in Orange, now Berkeley County, Virginia, of Irish lineage. In 1749 the youthful George Washington be- came acquainted with the family, and it was from him that William Craw- ford learned the art of surveying, which, in connection with farming, he followed until 1755, when he received an ensign's commission in a company of Virginia riflemen, and served with Washington, under General Braddock, in the ill-fated and disastrous battle of the Monongahela. For gallantry in this battle he was promoted to be a lieutenant. In 1758 Washington, then
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commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces, obtained a captain's commission for Crawford, who immediately recruited a company of hardy frontiers- men for Washington's regiment, and was, with his command, at the occupa- tion of Fort Du Quesne. November 25th, 1758, the French having evacu- ated the post on the approach of the army under General Forbes.
Early in 1767 he removed to a new location on the Youghiogheny, Pennsylvania, in the northern part of Fayette County, where he resided when not in the service of his country. He had previously married Saralı Vance, and they had issue of three children-Sarah, John and Effie. At the re- quest of Washington he selected and surveyed a tract of land for him, some twelve miles from his own, and on the 13th of October Washington visited him, and remained three days exploring the surrounding country. In com- pany with a party of friends they went to Fort Pitt, and, securing a large canoe, they descended the Ohio as far as the Great Kanawha River, visiting the Indian village at Mingo Bottom, on the route, going and coming. Horses having been brought from Captain Crawford's home to Mingo Bottom, the party returned by land from that point. During the whole journey Wash- ington and Crawford were boon companions. On the 12th of January, 1776, Crawford was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Virginia Regiment, and, on the IIth of October following, colonel of the Seventh Regiment of the Virginia Battalion. He participated in the Long Island campaign, and the famous retreat through New Jersey; crossed the Dela- ware with Washington, and commanded his own at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He served continuously under Washington up to the fall of 1777, rendering important services while in command of a picked detach- ment of scouts, detailed to watch the movements of the enemy during Howe's advance upon Philadelphia.
In November, 1777, Colonel Crawford was placed on detached service on the frontier and served in various capacities for the space of three years under McIntosh, and was engaged in constructing Forts McIntosh and Laurens. Hostilities still continuing, in the spring of 1782, Colonel Craw- ford, who yet held his commission in the regular army, was earnestly urged by many leading men to take command of the expedition, then organizing, against Sandusky, and, together with his son John and son-in-law, Major Harrison, volunteered to go. He left his house on the 18th of May, and after à consultation with General Irvine at Pittsburg, proceeded down the river
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