USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Pioneer sketches : scenes and incidents of former days > Part 5
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
Great Lakes, affording at that time a great improvement in travel to the tourist. Yet the crack of the stage driver's whip an hundred times was heard on a trip of five miles from Erie to Willis' Tavern.
But the good old stage coach has gone from our land; The flying crack of the whip from the driver's hand, As he flung out his braid for a fly on the lead horse's ear, All for his amusement and his load of travelers.
In 1840 the Erie & Pittsburg Canal was built, which greatly improved the business and the growth of Erie and opened up a market for many country commodities which hitherto had lain dormant. The building of this canal seemed to be a herculean task. The job through the quicksand at the Summit, Crawford county, it seemed, could only be accomplished by the plucky, invincible M. B. Lowry, who later was a conspicuous figure for the people in the Erie Railroad war, and will be long remembered by the people of Erie and Crawford counties, also in both houses of the Legislature at Harrisburg, Pa.
In 1870 Erie established a Board of Trade. Its mem- bers went to work with a will and caused to be established many prominent manufactories, which doubled the city's population in ten years, and to-day Erie is a solid town of 42,455 inhabitants.
Near the north shore of Erie's beautiful bay lies sunk the trophies of Commodore Perry's victory on Lake Erie, the British fleet, Queen Charlotte and other vessels. This, as the reader is familiar, was at the battle near Put In Bay on Lake Erie, September 10th, 1812, the American fleet commanded by Commodore Perry-the last brush with Great Britain and it will probably be the last one with her Majesty's Highness.
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
JUDAH COLT
An incident is related of Judah Colt, when a young man and traveling through Herkimer County, New York. When near Praker's Bridge, he was stopped by Col. Praker, who said to the young man Colt that he must not travel on Sunday; that it was his duty to arrest him if he (Colt) at- tempted to pursue his journey.
"Well," said Colt, "If I have to stop, I must ; but I would like to get on three or four miles further to some friends, where I expect to stop, as I am about to be taken down with the smallpox, and I already feel symptoms of its coming on."
"What!" said the old Dutchman, "you coming down mit de smallpox ?"
"Yes."
"Vall, den, you must not stop here."
"Then you 'll have to give me a pass."
"Yes; but I write no English." You shust write de pass in English and I signs it in German."
Thereupon the material was produced and Colt wrote a check for one thousand dollars and Praker signed it. The next morning Colt presented the check at the bank, which was promptly paid, and then Colt resumed his journey onward to Erie, Pa.
Some two or three weeks later Praker went to town, and the banker said, "Mr. Praker, we paid your check some days ago for $1.000." "My check for $1,000! I does not know about that." "Come in, it will show for itself." The check was produced, Praker scrutinized it and finally exclaimed, "I see, it be that d-d Yankee smallpox pass!"
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At that day there were no telegraphs or railroads, and Colt was unmolested.
And onward this Colt travels for Erie,
Through forest, o'er hill, valley and stream, not weary.
But this man Colt was a sharp undertaker,
In playing his smallpox game with Dutch Praker.
$1,000 was a big fortune at that day,
$1.25 per acre for land to pay.
Across the State line into Pennsylvania he crosses,
At Erie he stops to raise young Colts and hosses.
Large streams from little fountains flow,
From this $1,000 rich Colt did grow.
It has been said, and it must be so,
That there are tricks in trades, you know.
ERIE & PITTSBURG DOCKS.
MASSASSAUGA POINT.
WAYNE MONUMENT.
WATER WORKS.
CHAPTER XIV.
ERIE CITY.
ITS EARLY HISTORY AND SUBSEQUENT PROGRESS-1626 to 1888.
By Thomas Hanlon.
RIE is situated on the site of the ancient Presque Ise Fort and French village of the same name. Presque Isle was one of a chain of forts extending along the St. Lawrence and south shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie, and the Alle- gheny River from Quebec to Fort Du- Quesne (now Pittsburg) connecting the the French possessions in Canada with their territory on the Mississippi.
PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS.
Excavations in various parts of the county have unearthed the remains of a mammoth race of whom no history now exists except what is based apon mere conjecture. Human bones in large quantities have been unearthed on the line of the P. & E. R. R., through the Warfel Farm (one of which indicated a height of nine feet,) and on the corner of Twenty-sixth and Holland Streets, which is probably part of an ancient cemetery dis- covered in 1820, south of Twenty-sixth Street, near Hol- land Street, and which created a sensation at that time.
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
In excavating for the E. & P. R. R. line to the Harbor, a mass of human bones was found at the crossing of what was known as the "Green Garden Road," west of the city. The skulls were flattened and the foreheads were only about an inch in width, contrasting unfavorably with the remains found in other parts of Erie county. The bodies were in a sitting posture, but thrown together so promiscuously as to lead to the belief that they were the victims of some terri- ble battle, fought at a period so remote that not even a din tradition of the event has been preserved.
Curious mounds and circular embankments have been found in various parts of Erie county, many of which still survive the levelings of civilization. A mound opened at Manchester was found to contain decomposed bones. One of these circles of raised earth above referred to may be seen at the Four Mile Creek southeast of the big curve of the P. & E. R. R., and another in Wayne township between Corry and Elgin, several feet in_height, enclosing three acres, and surrounded by a trench.
Similar circles and mounds exist now or did exist in Fairview, Girard, Conneaut, Springfield, LeBœuf and Ven- ango townships. The formation and makeup of these land- marks leave no room for doubt that they are the work of human hands. A faint idea of their antiquity may be formed from the age of timber found growing upon them. A tree has been cut on one of the Conneaut embankments . which had attained the age of 500 years.
Our knowledge of the character, habits and aims of the North American Indians justifies the belief that the in- tellectual progress unfolded to our view by a study of the cold reality of the past is not to be eredited to the Red Man.
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Skeletons of extinct species of animals have also fre- quently been found in this vicinity.
In 1825. Francis Carnahan. in Harborcreek township, on the shore of the lake, plowed up what upon competent archæological investigation proved to be one of the cele- brated "Chorean Beads." known only as existing in ancient Egypt. Similar beads have been found in the tombs of the Nile. They were employed in worship and worn as amulets and constituted some of the most cherished possessions of ancient people of Pharaoh. A few of these beads are in the great museums of antiquity in Europe, and one in New York and one in Boston Museum.
The last that is known of the one found here, it was in possession of L. G. Olmstead, LL. D., of Fort Edward, N. Y.
If genuine, where did it come from, and what is its history ?
These and many other evidences of pre-historic develop- ment, which cannot be here enumerated or explained, seem to convince us that the Indians as we know them, or as our fathers knew them, were not the original possessors of the south shore of Lake Erie. This theory is strengthened by the undisputed marks of a former civilization imprinted at various points in the United States and Canada.
Every instinet of the mind impels the belief that these relics of the past, these telltales of antiquity, are the remains of a race of men, anterior and superior to the Indians, who disappeared so completely and so mysteriously that neither history nor tradition furnishes a trace of their origin, their numbers, their habits, their character or their destiny. Who they were, where they came from, and what became of them, remains an unsolved problem.
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
OUTLINES OF EARLY HISTORY.
The earliest history extant finds Presque Isle in pos- session of a tribe of Indians known as the Eriez or Kah- Kwahs, and called by the French "the Neutral Nation." They seem to have been an intellectual race. The Eriez were visited by French missionaries in 1626, and in 1630 by Joncarie, a French Indian agent. The Eriez were ex- terminated in battle about the year 1650 by the Iroquois, or Six Nations, of whom the Senecas were in possession of Presque Isle in 1740, when the French and English com- menced their struggle for the acquisition of the territory. The French obtained the mastery, and in 1753 sent out an army of 250 men, under command of Sieur Marin, from Montreal to Presque Isle, where they built and garrisoned a fort and established a base of supplies by means of a portage road to Fort LeBœuf, (now Waterford), and thence by French Creek to the Allegheny. At this time General DuQuesne, French commander at Montreal, in a letter to the French minister in Paris, described Presque Isle as a "harbor which the largest vessels can enter loaded and be in perfect safety, the finest spot in nature a bark can safely enter." Presque Isle Fort and road, (which run sonth on the line of Parade Street), were completed August 3, 1753.
The fort was 120 feet long, two stories high, with a log house in each corner, and gates at the north and south sides, and built of chestnut logs, on the west bank of Mill Creek, something over 100 yards from its mouth, adjoining the ground now occupied by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home. The remains of this French fort, built in 1753, are described in an official report of Captain Denny, Com- mander at Fort LeBoeuf in 1795, as being a regular penta- gon, with parapet not exceeding five feet; that the stone
6
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walls of the magazine were then standing and could be suc- cessfully repaired, and the well made fit for use.
The ruins of this fortification were plainly visible twen- ty-five years ago, and citizens of the city who played around there in boyhood and who are still young men, are able to identify from memory almost the exact location described in history. The stone foundations of this fort were removed in June, 1888, by Messrs. Paradine & MeCarty, whose brick-yard is located near by; twenty musket barrels, bayo- nets, etc., were found in the north end. The foundation was three feet deep, and the original hard clay floor was covered with ashes under three feet of elay.
There was at this period a French village of more than 100 families, a grist mill, a Catholic priest and a school master, on the east bank of Mill Creek. They cleared land and cultivated cornfields. The village appears to have been abandoned after a few years' experiment, as it was not in existence in 1758.
The abandonment of this village may be attributed to smallpox, which appeared there about 1756.
In the year 1753 George Washington, then 21 years old, visited this section as a representative of the British Government for the purpose of formally notifying the French to discontinue the fortification of Presque Isle and LeBœuf. St. Pierre, the French commander at Fort LeBœuf, refused to comply with the notice, and Washington returned without visiting Presque Isle.
In 1757-8 the British captured several forts and French supremacy began to wane. In 1758 the garrison at Presque Isle had become reduced to two officers, thirty-two white soldiers and ten Indians. British success continued, Niag-
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ara had fallen, and the French evacuated Presque Isle in 1759. It was occupied by the British in 1760, who contin- ued to garrison it until 1763.
THE PONTIAC CONSPIRACY.
The Indians who had previously been allied with the French did not take lovingly to their change of masters, and while seemingly reconciled to English domination they conspired, under the leadership of the Ottawa Chief Pontiac, to overthrow British authority in the west.
Pontiac's "plan of campaign" against the British was while professing friendship to secretly form a union of all the tribes west of the Alleghenies, including the Six Nations, for concerted action. This he accomplished with remark- able skill.
This combination was so vast, its ramifications were so extensive, and its mode of operations so practical as to cast in the shade all previous efforts at Indian warfare.
In 1763 they had planned and executed a simultaneous attack upon all frontier posts, capturing Presque Isle and eight of the twelve other forts held by the British. Ensign Cristie commanded the British at Presque Isle, the garrison was surprised, the assault on the fortifications continued two days. The garrison surrendered June 22, 1763, after a heroic resistance.
Parkman, the historian, says : "There had been hot fighting before Presque Isle was taken ; could courage have saved it, it never would have fallen." The prisoners were sent to Detroit and soon after escaped. Some writers assert that the garrison was massacred and only two escaped, but this assertion is not borne out by the most reliable historians on the subject.
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
August 12, 1764, a British army of 3,000, returning from Detroit, commanded by Bradstreet, landed at Presque Isle in canoes and made a treaty with the Indians.
From this time until the close of the Revolutionary War very little history was made at Presque Isle, and the "noble red men" roamed undisturbed along the shores of Lake Erie, the English control being merely nominal.
By the treaty of 1783, England yielded to the United States all elaims to the western country, but notwithstand- ing this fact Presque Isle continued to be garrisoned by the British in 1785 in violation of said treaty, and was so com- plained of by Mr. Adams, the American Minister at London, to the English Secretary of State.
The British had won the confidence of the Indians and hoped through their aid and by retaining their western gar- risons to harass the infant republie and eventually regain possession of their lost territory. Presque Isle was consid- ered an important military point and was the last fort west of Niagara to be evacuated by the British,
The American occupation at Presque Isle commenced in 1785, but it was ten years later before their authority became supreme.
The last reported Indian outrage at Presque Isle was the scalping of Ralph Rutledge and his son, May 29, 1795, at the present site of the Wilson House, which was then two miles from the settlement. Ralph Rutledge was buried near the place of his murder, and the son was the first white man buried in Waterford.
The ruins apparently of a brick fort were visible on on the east end of the Peninsula in 1795.
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
The Peninsula was an island from 1833 to 1864. The breach at the neck was, in 1835, nearly a mile wide.
Iron ore was mined for several years near the "Head," and extensively used in the furnaces of Vincent, Himrod & Co.
THE TRIANGLE.
The northern part of Erie county, including the city of Erie, has long been known as the triangle. The triangle, as such, came into existence in this way: The charter of New York defined its western boundary as extending south- erly on a line drawn from the western extremity of Lake Ontario to the 42d degree of north latitude or northern boundary of Pennsylvania. The point of intersection of these lines was supposed to be in Lake Erie, west of Presque Isle, thereby including this territory in the New York grant.
This theory proved to be erroneous, the actual survey making the line run twenty miles east of Presque Isle, leav- ing a triangular traet west of New York and north of Penn- sylvania, to which neither State had the shadow of a title, being beyond their chartered jurisdiction, but each coveted the prize. Massachusetts and Connecticut also each claimed the triangle, under grants from Queen Anne, and it virtu- ally became a No Man's Land. New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut released their claims to the United States government, from which Pennsylvania purchased the trian- gle March 3, 1792, for $151,640.29, being 75 cents per acre. The transfer was signed by George Washington, President, and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State.
The Indian title was extinguished for a little less than $2.000.
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PIONEER SKETCHES.
THE WESTERN RESERVE.
Connectient's original chartered rights embraced Eng- land's title to all the territory in the latitude of Connecticut and Massachusetts from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The distance from ocean to ocean was at that time believed to be less than 1,000 miles.
In releasing her title to the triangle, Connecticut reserved for her own benefit that northeastern part of Ohio, lying between Pennsylvania and Lake Erie, hence the name "Western Reserve."
LAYING OUT THE TOWN.
On April 8, 1792, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an Act providing for the laying out of a town at Presque Isle, and for a military force for frontier service. The project was vigorously opposed by the Indians, backed by British influence. The Indians in council assembled at Buffalo, July 4, 1794, resolved to prevent by force the garrisoning of Presque Isle by the Americans. Anticipating resistance, General Knox, Secretary of War under Presi- dent Washington, directed a suspension of operations.
The State authorities protested, insisting that their capacity was ample to preserve order at Presque Isle. Upon the advice of Cornplanter, the Seneca chief, the Indians withdrew their opposition. Another Act was passed in 1795, under which the town was laid out and received the name it now bears. In that year Captain Russell Bissell arrived with 200 men from Wayne's army. They erected two block houses that year and a saw mill in 1796.
General Anthony Wayne, the hero of Stony Point, died in one of these block houses December 15, 1796, and
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was, by his own request, buried under the flagstaff, where his body remained until 1809, when it was exhumed by his son, Colonel Wayne, and Dr. Wallace, the General's physi- cian, and the bones removed to his former home near Phila- delphia. A portion of the remains were returned to the coffin in the original grave on Garrison Hill, where they remained until discovered by Dr. Germer, ten years ago, about 200 feet southwest of the present block house. Por- tions of the lid of the coffin were found, on which the follow- ing inscription appears, the letters being formed with copper headed nails viz .: "A. W .- OB Dec. 15, 1796." Two case knives and a few bones were also found in the grave.
The new block house was built in 1880 as a monument to General Wayne, in order to fittingly mark the spot at which was closed his earthly career than which none was more brilliant in the annals of American history.
Colonel Reed, great-grandfather of Hon. Charles M. Reed, arrived with his wife in a sail boat July 1, 1795. They camped on the Peninsula the first night. Their camp- fire was seen from the garrison, who, thinking it to have been lighted by an invading army, made preparations to resist an attack.
Colonel Reed built a log house near the block houses. Other white settlers having arrived, a public house became a necessity. He converted his dwelling into a public house and hung out his shingle, "Presque Isle Hotel." He erected a larger building the next year, moved to Walnut Creek, leaving his son Rufus S. to continne the business, which, under his able management, soon expanded to gigantic pro- portions and included general merchandise, grist mills, trad- ing with the Indians, lake commerce, etc., etc.
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The first vessel built in Erie was the Washington, in 1797. Immigration had set in, a little settlement was formed, supply depots were opened, wharves were con- structed, and business became active.
The first newspaper in Erie was the Mirror, published in 1808, by George Wyeth.
Erie was incorporated as a town in 1805, as a borough in 1833, and as a city in 1851. The first council convened May 5, 1806. The limits, which were originally one mile square, were extended in 1834, in 1848, and again in 1870. Erie was governed by a burgess and one branch of council until 1851, since then by a mayor, select and common councils. The plan of the city is excellent, the streets are wide, cutting each other at right angles, with very few exceptions, with public parks at convenient distances.
THIE WAR OF 1812-13.
When war was declared with Great Britain in 1812, Erie expected an invasion. Its citizens organized into a company of minute men, constructed and garrisoned a block house, which was still standing in 1853. In Erie Perry's fleet was built, with unparalleled celerity, that won the battle of Lake Erie. From here the fleet sailed for action, and to Erie returned with the captured squadron of the enemy.
The two block houses and fortifications built in 1796 were in ruins in 1813 when the block house of that year was erected. Another block house was built at Crystal Point the same year to defend the entrance to the harbor.
The Garrison Tract was the camping ground of the Pennsylvania militia in 1812-13.
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Here, in 1813, while the British fleet was drawn up in front of the harbor intent on destroying Perry's fleet, in course of construction at the foot of Sassafras and Cascade Streets, and at a time when "Britannia ruled the waves" on ocean and lake, 2,500 soldiers were encamped on these grounds. They had cannon mounted, and such military display and military strength were here developed as to forebode disaster, should an entrance to the harbor be at- tempted. The Britons, conscious that no picnic awaited them here, hoisted their top-sails and retreated to more con- genial waters.
The subsequent events, the completion of Perry's fleet, with the Lawrence to lead; the battle of Lake Erie, the de- feat and surrender of the British fleet on the lakes, com- manded by Barclay, who fought with Nelson at Trafalgar ; the downfall of English supremacy on the inland waters of America; the triumphal return to Erie, October 23, 1813, with the captured vessels and crews landing at the foot of French Street, amid the booming of cannon and the wildest demonstrations of joy, with Perry the hero of the hour, - all these have passed into history as glorious as ever recorded.
A full description of this battle would make interesting reading, but it is too voluminous to be recounted here.
The Lawrence was made the especial target of the enemy in battle. She was riddled and shattered, but still floating in triumph the eagles of victory which perched on her masthead, and Perry had won the victory which James Madison, then President, said had " Never been surpassed in luster, however it may have been surpassed in magnitude."
Of the American vessels that participated in this battle the Porcupine, Tigress and Scorpion were built at the mouth
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of Lee's Run, near Sassafras Street, and the Lawrence, Niagara and Ariel at the present site of the E. & P. R. R. docks.
The Lawrence brought the wounded of both fleets to Erie-was subsequently sunk in Misery Bay. While there a large part of the vessel was cut into walking canes, and the remainder was raised in 1876 and taken to the Cen- tennial.
The Ariel brought General Harrison and Commodores Perry and Barclay to Erie, the latter being a prisoner of war.
The Niagara still lies sunk in Misery Bay, Erie Harbor.
In November, 1863, when the Michigan was guarding 2,000 rebel prisoners on Johnson's Island, our citizens became alarmed at a threatening invasion from Canada. Erie being named as the landing place, 600 troops, with a battery under the command of Major General Brooks, occupied the Garrison grounds, and with the aid of 1,000 citizens had entrenchments thrown up northeast of the present block house.
SCRAPS OF HISTORY.
At the beginning of the century Erie was a hamlet at the mouth of Mill Creek, on the west side, with fortifica- tions on the east bank opposite the town. The only roads were Parade and East Sixth Streets. No other land outlet was accessible to the inhabitants.
French Erie (Presque Isle) of 1753 with 500 inhabi- tants, was on the east bank of the creek, with the fortifica- tions on the west. Their relative locations had become exactly reversed when American occupation began.
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Thos. Rees, who was the first justice of the peace and the first real estate agent in the township of Mead (now Erie and Crawford counties), had his office at the mouth of Mill Creek; and there in 1795 entertained the Duke de Chartres, who subsequently became Louis Phillippe, King of France.
A vessel named the Sloop Washington, of thirty-five tons, was built at the mouth of Four Mile Creek, in 1797-8.
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