USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Pioneer sketches : scenes and incidents of former days > Part 6
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It was Wayne's victory at the battle of "Fallen Timbers," on the Maumee River, in August, 1794, that crushed the spirit of the Indian tribes and rendered possible the settlement of Presque Isle Bay by white men.
General Lafayette visited Erie in 1825; and on the 3d of June was royally entertained at a banquet spread on tables 170 feet in length on Second Street bridge over the ravine between State and French Streets, covered by awnings made from British sails captured by Perry, and under the supervision of John Dickson. Joseph M. Sterrett commanded the military who met Lafayette outside the incipient city. The speech of welcome was delivered at the house of Daniel Dobbins, who is a conspicuous figure in the history of Erie.
The U. S. S. Michigan, the only war vessel on the lakes, was built in sections at Pittsburg and brought to Erie, part of the way in wagons. It was launched at Erie November 9th, 1843, and here its headquarters have been ever since.
When the batteries on Sullivan's Island opened fire on Fort Sumter and the War of the Rebellion had begun, Erie responded by sending four regiments into action, and the record of the bravery, the suffering, and the ultimate
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achievements of those heroic men will not suffer in compar- ison with any in the land. Their brilliant deeds give forth a lustre to gladden the memory and to assuage the grief of the dear ones at home, whose great bereavement is the price of the nation's glory and the emancipation of its slaves.
The Garrison Grounds were laid out in 1794, "for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals and dockyards." Its peculiar shape is said to have been suggested by General Anthony Wayne. . The writer was shown a mass of relics recently dug from these grounds, consisting of swords, gun barrels, cannon balls, flint locks, musket balls, military but- tons, jack-knives, a human skeleton, etc., and while cutting the terrace on the east bank of Garrison Hill, the remains of the old stockade were discovered.
The first Court House erected in Erie was built in 1808, in the West Park. It was destroyed by fire, together with all its contents, March 23, 1823. It was rebuilt on same site in 1825. The bell which hung in the cupola of this Court House from 1825 to 1854 was a trophy of war, hav- ing belonged originally to the British ship Detroit, which was captured by Commodore Perry at the battle of Lake Erie. This bell is now at the rooms of the Y. M. C. A., corner Tenth and Peach Strects.
A market house was erected in the West Park in 1814, and another in the thirties. The latter was torn down in 1866, since which time the market has been held on the cast side of State Street.
Erie was supplied with water through wooden logs fed by a spring, in 1841, which continued to render valuable service until 1868, when it was supplanted by the present magnificent system, furnishing an abundant supply of water
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for all purposes at low rates, as well as affording a large annual revenue.
A series of large wells, sunk at convenient distances along the streets, supplied water for fire purposes in the days of Eric's infancy. Traces of these wells still exist ; one at the corner of Sixth and French Streets, was used for drinking water up to a few years ago, and one which was closed only recently at Twenty-sixth Street, west of Peach,
Eric became the county seat in 1800. The first court held in the county is said to have been held in the Buchler Hotel. corner Third and French Streets, which was suhse- quently known as the "MeConkey House." This building was also the headquarters of Commodore Perry during the building of his historie fleet in 1813. Other authorities claim that court was first held in a log building at corner of Second and Holland Streets in 1803.
The present magnificent Court House was completed in 1855. Its front is modeled after the Parthenon at Athens so far as wa- consistent with its purpose.
The man who cut the first tree for the construction of Perry's fleet, Captain Daniel Dobbins, well-known to our older citizens, was the same man who prepared General Wayne's remains for burial.
The Garrison tract, now the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, was the seat of war during all this period. Here events followed each other in rapid succession. The his- torical associations which cluster around this spot have never half been told. Here contended the then two most martial nations of the globe for the mastery of a continent. Here on this 60 acres has been created history (American, French and English) sufficient to fill a large volume, and
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history, too, which would make interesting reading for the honored veterans who have made their home upon this famous battle-ground.
The Erie Extension Canal was completed in 1844 and abandoned in 1872. The whistle of the locomotive was first heard in Erie, January 9, 1852.
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ERT COUNTY
SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT.
CHAPTER XV.
ALFRED KING.
A LFRED KING. the third Mayor of Erie, was born in Waterford, Eric C'o .. Pa., December 31st. 1821. He attended school at Waterford Academy, and grad- uated at the Eric Academy, after which he taught school for several years. In 1842 he was appointed Dep- uty Prothonotary and Acting Clerk of the Courts, in which capacity he served six years.
In 1851 he was elected County Treasurer and served a three years' term; served two consecutive terms as Mayor of the City of Erie, viz .: in 1853 and 1854, and served a three years' term as Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts; served three years as Deputy Collector of the port of Erie. Has served as Chief of Police for three years, from 1888 to 1890.
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Was married to Miss Mary Kennedy, of Livingstone County, N. Y., in 1845.
Mr. King was extensively engaged in the brewing and malting business, during his business career, having built three large malt houses in Erie. Was at one time an extensive real estate dealer. Kingtown, Eric's eastern suburb, was named after him.
He was peculiarly unfortunate in sustaining losses by fire. An extensive malt house on the canal, stored to its fullest capacity with barley and malt, was destroyed by fire, and later a large new lager beer brewery on the corner of Twenty-sixth and Cherry Streets was burned to the ground. He died March 19th, 1891.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE PIONEER SOLDIERY.
OLLY WERE THE BOYS one fine morning, the fore part of May, 1830, before the break of day, when a volley by the mem- bers of the Rifle Company of Spring, Pa., was fired through the door of the old block house of Captain Phineas Sargent, as an eye-opener for the young Lieuten- ant, Alfred Sargent, to get up and don his uniform for the wars. It was the custom in those days for members of each Company to salute their officers with a volley before daylight, to prepare for Training Day.
The Beaver Rangers was the name of the company which was made up in Spring and Beaver Townships, con- nected to the Powerstown (now Conneautville) Light Infan- try, the Sadsbury Rifles, Greenwood and Shenango Rifles, which formed the Western Crawford County Volunteer Battalion. The first place they met for battalion or general training was at Billy Campbell's, west of Conneaut Lake, and subsequently at different places in the County at Brightstown, Evansburg, Powerstown, and Isaac Hunds' place-Spring. In this battalion every man had to appear in full uniform and well equipped with rifle, cart-
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ridge box, tomahawk, belt and powder horn. Clubs and sticks, with cow horns on the end, used by the militia, were not allowed, and every member was held sub- ject to a fine of $2.00 for being absent on training days without he had a reasonable excuse, and the fine must be paid or the delinquent member go to jail. This law not only applied to the military, but to civil debt. One Potter would not pay his fine, whereupon a warrant was issued by Captain Sargent and served by Constable E. R. Hall. But Potter came down with the $2 rather than go to jail.
Cases of this kind were few; the mass of the people in those days were chivalrous, patriotic and true; the blood of their revolutionary sires coursed flush in their veins, and it required no eloquent and patriotie speeches to arouse them to a sense of duty.
The officers of the battalion were (in part): John C. Thayre, Shenango, lieutenant colonel ; Alfred Sargent, Spring, first major ; William Rankin, Sorrel Hill, second major; John MeLean, Shenango, adjutant; James Mc- Dowell, Summer Hill, quartermaster.
Among the captains were: John B. Rice, Brightstown; William Pratt, Stephen Eighmy and John Nicholas, Spring; Theo. Powers, Powerstown. Lieutenants: Hiram Ham- mond and Win. Crozier, Powerstown; E. R. Hall, Spring.
The law required the volunteers to meet three times yearly and the militia twice yearly for training. On gene- ral training days a big time was had. The inspiring music by the band and the tramp and step to the fife and drum, and when brought to a halt the exercises of the manual of arms were gone through with in a very creditable manner, with zeal and animation.
The Legislature repealed the militia law in 1840.
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The sires of this pioneer soldiery would relate their ex- perience at Lexington, Bunker Hill, Trenton and Valley Forge, when destitution, bare feet and rigid economy, played a great part in the fortunes of war in holding them back in the ranks. Ammunition was scarce, and General Putnam said, "Don't fire until you see the white of their eyes ; then fire low-take aim at their waist- bands."
A soldiery which had to resort to hurling stones and use the butt of their guns at the enemy, and then come out victorious, will maintain freedom of their country and pro- tect their families and live down all oppression. This we have seen manifested down to the War of 1812 on more than one occasion. While our country was still new, poor and unprepared for war, the same sturdy, independent, patriotic spirit prevailed, courting no smiles, asking no favors, heeding no frowns or thrust, nor threats from the enemy, as Johnny Bull became aware in his American tilt of 1812-13 on Lake Champlain, Lake Erie and elsewhere.
An incident comes fresh to my mind in Ashtabula Harbor, showing the strategy displayed by the few militia men, about one hundred in number.
A British man-of-war stood a short distance out and they wanted to capture a couple hundred barrels of beef which they knew to be stored in a warehouse near the mouth of the river. The few militia men there, with few guns and many more pitchforks and clubs, marched through and around the Lake Side House on the point, making the enemy below think that there was ten times as large a force there as there actually was. The British fired a few shots, the cannon ball cutting off some limbs of the trees and some bricks of the chimney, and sailed away.
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From the days of the Revolution down to 1840 one- half never wore uniforms nor were properly armed. But such ancestral heroes as Generals Putnam and Allen had shown them that without the best equipments they could do effective fighting.
Who gave Britain a worthy foe In war, that she might know That she could not monkey with our raw recruits,
No more than with her game lion brutes.
Then let us not be unmindful of the heroic deeds of the Pioneer militia and volunteer soldier of America, who, on several times, when their country was in peril, reseued her from the invading foe. And when the joyous notes of peace were sounded through the land he quietly returned to the plow. the counter of commerce, or to the jurist, leg- islative or congressional halls. Then behold our grand, vast America again teeming forth her busy millions, plod- ding again all the avenues of commercial life, and thus with the smallest defensive force or standing army o'er its vast domain of any other nation on the globe.
Then let us revere the Pioneer soldier of America, who never flinehed in time of emergency and whose acts and examples shine forth in the starry firmament to guide the living and unborn generations to similar deeds of humanity and freedom, the heritage of the Pioneer soldier of America.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE COUNTRY SCHOOL HOUSE.
was called.
HE DISTRICT SCHOOL of my boyhood days, in Spring Township, Crawford County, Pa., situated on the Albion and Conneautville road, and near to the bank of a small stream, is to me an historic spot. The Sturtevant School House, it
There is no time like the old time, When you and I were young; When the buds of April blossomed, And the birds of springtime sung.
There is no place like the old place, Where you and I were born; Where first we lift our eyelids On the splendor of the morn.
Well, our school house was built in 1830; a frame structure 22×28 feet, with a row of seats along cach side six feet long, and one long seat across the back end, with some extra seats in the center near the stove to give each one a chance, by turn, to go up to the fire to warm their toes, on cold days when the thermometer was down to zero. The schoolmaster's desk and pulpit were located at the front end between the girls' and boys' doorway. And this primitive school house was to accommodate ninety-five scholars.
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THE STURTEVANT SCHOOL HOUSE.
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We had lots of fun at that old school house. Our teacher, too, occasionally put us through a course of sprouts which was preferable to the hand ferril or the ruler. But, after all, we learned lots of Kirkoam and Dayboll. Why, Samuel Woodard sat right down in that old school house and ciphered right through Dayboll, then took up his alge- bra and geometry and never called on his teacher to work a problem. J. F. Woodard, J. C. Sturtevant, S. Church, S. J. Thomas and others were not far behind in math. ematics.
In attending to reading and spelling exercises we were brought up in line and toe the mark (a crack in the floor) salute the teacher, by a bow, and proceed at the head of the class to read our piece in the English reader, which con- tained perhaps as many good pieces as any other reader since published. The same tactics were used in spelling class, Cobb's spelling book, which contained a good many k's, pot hooks and diagraphs, so that one had to be pretty pert or you would misspell and have to drop down one peg to- ward the foot of the class. But we had a good number in that old school house who could spell any word for Mr. Cobb. Geography, why we used to sing right along through geography, viz. : Pennsylvania, Harrisburg; Ohio, Columbus; New York, Albany; &c. We sang a tune --
And to that tune each one had their key; Some got up in C, others up in G.
Active, healthy sports were freely engaged in, with all the vigor of country lads ; also wrestling, jumping and cracking the whip, the latter line of sport as follows : Say fifteen or twenty boys would join hands, having some stout fellows about the middle of the train, and run several rods, and when nearing the bank turn quickly and throw off a
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half dozen at the end of the string over the bank into the snow drifts. This was called cracking the whip.
"Sometimes you'd see a frightful face As he went flying forty feet through space Over the bank, away down he'd go, Out of sight, six feet under the snow."
You could have seen at the old country house forty scholars nearly of an age and size, and forty more of the kid and deacon variety, up to those of the maid and matron. All seemed to take a common interest in the pursuit of learning and none were held back. If one could do his arithmetic in one term lie was not held back for the slower nag, whom it required two terms to get there.
SPELLING.
Great interest was manifested in spelling, and one or two evenings each weck during the winter term were de- voted to the spelling school, with good results.
EXHIBITIONS, DECLAMATIONS.
Having a good number in school who aspired to be a Patrick Henry, a Dan Webster or a Clay, and were anxious to give vent to their oratory, we accordingly enlarged and arranged the teacher's pulpit into a stage and certain evenings set apart for the exhibition. We had there on the stage quite a variety, neighbor Derby and Scrapewell Hoch- enlinden, David and Goliath, and other heroes, orators and tragedians. When David with his sling slew Goliath, at his fall the curtain dropped, and in order to change the awfully solemn sensation the two fiddlers who sat perched up in the corner of the stage behind the curtain, at once jerked the vibrating sound from the melodious cat-gut and all went merry as a marriage bell, and soon the listener could hear that the vibration had caught onto the toe and heel of the
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good old people, the schoolmaster and the deacon, and all for the "spell" were keeping time to the bewitching notes of the fiddler's fiddle.
In justice to these country students, however, I will state that more competent teachers went out from the Stur- tevant School District than from any other school district in Crawford county. They came from a hardy stock of New Englanders, and were created not only for piano thumpers and red tape manipulators, but they have mostly went out-
And engaged in the arduous, active duties of life, Throughout this continent, mid a world of strife, And heroically have battled, some with great precision, And none of them have landed in a poor house or prison.
The roll call was taken by the teacher at the close of cach days' school, but as we call the roll to-day we find that many of our old school mates have crossed the silent river. Lucius Church, a bright, active young man, was killed by a grizzly bear in California. While in company with Moses Church, plowing, his dog commenced barking in a chaparral near by; Lucius caught his gun, though remonstrated with by his companion, and started for the thicket. He fired, wounding the animal, but was soon torn in pieces. Wil- liam Skeels, a very promising young man and an excellent school teacher, was killed by the falling of a tree on his father's farm in Spring Township, Pa.
George, Lucius, Lucy, Sally, Mary and Marilla Tru- man; Betsy, Cornelia, Elizabeth, Leonoria and Edwin Sar- gent; Wm. Alderman, Johnson, Jacob and Augustus Thomas, Harmon Thomas, Sarah McCoy and Annie and Mandy MeLaughlin are among the number of old school mates who have passed from earth.
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Retrospectively, as we glance back to our boyhood school days, and note the number of school mates and other acquaintances who have stopped as it were on their journey while others are struggling forward through the rugged ways, trials and vicissitudes of the journey of life, there comes a beacon light, and the consolation-REST.
Life doth seem what we make it,
Whatever way we please to take it.
LADIES, says the Insurance World, (London), are begin- ning to obtain a foothold in the insurance world. One edits a French insurance paper, and another has recently been appointed manager of a Belgian insurance company.
CHAPTER XVIII.
RIPE AGE.
S EXTREME OLD AGE desirable ? Most people will answer the question by saying, as a general thing, No; but in my personal case, Yes. We rather think that seventy-five years are as much as the average man can use to advantage. In that time he sees nearly all that is worth seeing, runs through a large variety of experience, gets at last to resemble the double eagle that has been rubbed smooth by constant attrition and is ready to be thrown into the smelting pot of the mint and be recoined. History, how- ever, gives us some remarkable incidents of great achieve- ments in the afternoon of age. Chaucer didn't begin to write the "Canterbury Tales" until he was sixty, and at the same age Milton was hard at work on "Paradise Lost;" Homer, too, was on the edge of the sere and yellow leaf when he put the finishing touches to the Iliad. The man of sixty is just beginning to get his wits together and to pull himself into shape. His blood runs clear and cool as a mountain stream. His castles in the air have been swept away, and if he has any genius it has grown ripe and rich.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE WILD HOG CHASE.
ARLY IN the winter of 1840 Hiram E Griffin, of Elkcreek Township, Eric Co., Pa., very generously left out a field of corn, for the birds, the wild turkey and the wild hog to feed upon, during that unpropitious time of the year. He found that ere long there would be no corn left for him to harvest. Hog tracks were daily seen, and terrible havoc made on the corn crop. Whereupon Chester Morley and Charles Sargent, noted nimrods, and others with guns and dogs went in pursuit of the wild boar and came in sight of him on the bank of the gully stream south of Albion. Dogs were set upon him and a lively chase ensued. After some time one of the biggest dogs, over confident, seized him. In an instant the boar, with his tusk, ripped his assailant from stem to stern, and on went the critter in his wild flight. The dogs did not seem to like that kind of medicine and were more timid. Toward evening the boar became somewhat fatigued. Finally a small white dog of Alfred Sargent's grappled him by the gamble and would chasee to the right and left to evade the tusks of the boar. In a few moments Charles Sargent came up and shot him. His satanic porkship was conveyed to the house of Hiram Griffin to be dressed, and when the last rites were about to take place (in an equal division of the game) Major
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Fleming, of Lundy's Lane, appeared on the scene, who claimed and demanded the prize, it having, he said, strayed from his premises the year before. Mr. Griffin claimed the hog was a wild one, that he had fed him from his corn field and that he had the best claims to his porkship. Others chipped in, saying, "that's so," and they had a lively, hazardous tilt, and a man's pantaloon-leg and a dog were ripped open. The matter was compromised, however, by giving to the Major one fore-quarter, and the balance was equally divided. The party arrived home about 9 o'clock the same night, quite weary, with one man's panta- loon leg ripped open and their biggest dog slain upon the battle ground.
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QebbAND.
LOGGING.
CHAPTER XX.
LOGGING SCENES.
URING the period of time from 1815 up to the year 1850, it was a custom among the early settlers of Spring Township, Crawford County, Pa., to get together and log up a fallow of three to ten acres for each other. It required a yoke of oxen, driver and three men to log to advantage. The teamster could get the logs to the spot as fast, generally, as the log rollers could roll them into log heaps and pick up the numerous pieces of saplings, limbs and chunks found scattered about the fallow; consequently on many occasions of this kind there would be eight or ten yoke of cattle and twenty-five to thirty men engaged at log- ging at these logging bees, as they were called, at different times throughout the county.
Acres of timber they had to log up in heaps together, To burn off before it came on rainy weather;
Also to sow and drag in their Fall wheat,
To raise for their families plenty of bread to eat.
The time usually employed in logging was the latter part of August and during September. The timber was pretty well blackened, as the fire had previously swept over it in burning off the brush heaps, and the logger would soon get a coat of charcoal over his whole outfit and plenty in his gill and nostrils. But charcoal is healthy, and occasionally the "jigger" would be passed around, which was then said to be healthy, too, to wet down the charcoal,
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and appeared in those days to be much freer of snakes and tanglefoot than it is now-a-days.
The time engaged in these logging frolics, generally, was from 1 to 6 P. M., and the hundred or more log heaps on fire at night, illumined the field in the darkest night so that one could pick up the scattering chips, play a game of old sledge or shoot a rabbit. And when the heaps were burned down the remaining brands were re-piled and burned to a finale. The ashes, in the earlier days, were made into black salts, and later hauled off to an ashery and sold at ten cents per bushel, or scattered upon the unburnt places of the ground.
While we contemplate that we are now paying two dollars per cord for 16-inch beech and maple stove wood, we are reminded of the millions of cords of timber in for- mer days that went up in smoke. Still, we console our- self with the fact that this is a Pioneer sketch.
CHAPTER XXI.
OBED WELLS.
BED WELLS was more than an ordinary man. He never done things by halves. He was one of the pioneer farmers of Spring, Pa. His Homestead Farm, comprising 400 aeres, laying along Conneaut Creek and upon both sides of the old Erie & Pittsburg Canal, and three-fourths of a mile along the Conneautville Stage Road. Also a 150-acre farm known as the Flemming Lot, situate one mile east of his Homestead Farm.
He built the largest farmhouse in town in his day 18 35), the largest cellar, and he stored the largest lot of potatoes, apples and turnips therein of any other farmer in town. He also had the largest dairy, made the largest cheese ever made in town, had the largest lot of calves, lambs, and flocks of geese, turkeys, chickens and children.
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