[Pennsylvania County Histories]

f 77-. / p 3rc,n V. 3? Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacoun37unse Page B Page • C - D !. ‘ ‘ INDEX* S Pase S Pase S • T ■ U V w ■, 1 --* -1 M~-- -- » / j - W w • XYZ 1 1 i ut west of State street. TKe first building ERIE FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO. put up on that front was a blacksmith shop built by Thos. Dillon in 1825 on the Hughes State Street. lot, and it was operated by him for many by OUR “ERIE COUNTY” CONTRIBUTOR. years. In 1821, State street, from the Bay to There were no buildings on the east side 26ch street, had been laid out to the width from the Park to 7 th street. John Mapes of 100 feet for 26 years, and from the bank built a small frame house and a blacksmith of the lake to 12th street, had been opened shop where the “ Perry Block * now stands, to its legal width, but at that date was very then owned by Christian Ebersole of Mill- blank as to buildings. From the water to creek. James Liddell started a blacksmith Second street the bluff bank stood m its shop on the next lot south in 1827. Mr. natural state until 1824, when the farst at¬ Mapes worked on the Ebersole lot three tempt was made to cut the hill down to veais', and was succeeded by S. & D. Burton. grade, but it was not passable for two or South of 8th street, west side, Thomas three years thereafter. On the east side ot Laird was owner“to 9fch street, and had a State street, from Front to Second street, tavern on the corner of. 8th and State streets, it was owned by P. S. V. Harnot, Esq., which he kept from 1811 to. 1833, and died half wav through to French street, and he there that year. Mr. Laird was Sheriff of lived in a story and a half frame house near the county from 1819 to 1822, and was the corner of State and 2d, fronting on 2d. County Treasurer several years. His tavern, Mr. Hamot lived there until 1826, when he barn, and sheds adjoining were the only built the brick mansion on Front street, buildings in that square except a two-story and made that his residence until his. death framehouse built by him in 1819, at the in 1846. The site of the old house is now corner of 9th and State streets. An orchard occupied by the ‘‘Franklin buildings.” with fruit of all kinds in abundance occupied From t ront to 2d street, west side Gen. the rest of the premises. ■ Kelso’s old residence and garden, yard, &c., , The east side from 8th to 9th had no occupied the entire space. IT1 , ! buildings to speak of, until David Burton South of 2d, east aide, Gapt. Darnel Dob-1 built a two-story brick house where the bins owned the entire front to 3d street, ana Noble Block now stands, about 1830. the “Dobbins homestead, built in 181b, Samuel Hays, Esq., owned the south half of stood at the corner of State and 3d streets. , the front, and moved part of his old house No other house was on that blank until the; e in 1827. Mr. Hays had his home south |1823, when a small frame building was put j of 9th street, and erected a tannery there in L by Gapt. Dobbins, which is still stand- 1806. His first row of frame buildings were ncr Gapt. Dobbins opened bis house as a replaced by fine brick structures, where he motel in 1822. which be kept some time and resided until his death in 1850. The prop¬ then discontinued it. It was in that house erty is still owned by his sons, who inherit that Gen. Lafayette and party were intro the energetic business habits of their worthy Idused to the Burgess aud citizens, June od, father. Mr. Hays owned half way from 9th 1825, on his tour through here. to 10th streets, and the new Hays block From 2d to 3d streets, west side, Gen. on those old grounds, speaks creditably for Benjamin Wallace had a row of wooden the owners. South of Mr. Hays to 10th buildings occupied by him as a dwelling, was owned by Jonah Cowgill, who lived in blacksmith shop, and nail factory, when asmall house on 10th street where he resided nails were made and sold at 25 cents pei until his death in 1826. It afterward passed into the hands of Henry Cadwell, Esq., and P°Ont"heeast side, from 3d to 5th streets, the since his death has been broken up, and only building then there was a barn where now has some of the best stores in Erie on the Wright block now stands, which was that front. owned by Judah Colt, Esq., and an orchard South of 9kh street, west side, where the from the barn to 3d street. With the ex¬ Cottage House now stands, was an old u ception of the barn, not a building stood on wooden building long used as a cabinet either side from Gapt. Dobbins’s residence maker’s shop, first by a Mr. Cook, then by to the Park. , . , - George Schantz, James Gray, and William The old Court House, which stood west McNutt. This property passed into the of State street in the Park, was burnt down hands of William Kelley, Esq., who erected in March, 1823, and rebuilt the same year. the cottage house for a residence. State street across the Park was broken by No buildings were erected on State street ; ,a ravine, and the roadway was very narrow. south of 10th until after 1825, when Alvah | South of the Park, west side, stood Fivr.t erected the large two-story frame 1 Brown’s Hotel, the stone tavern built in house standing at the north east corner of 1811, and kept by Robert Brown until 1829. State and 11th streets, which was his resi¬ Brown’s Hotel, with the barn and garden, dence until his death. A small log house extended to 7th street, and they were the stood where Black & Germer’s foundry now [only buildings there until 1829 when Thos. stands, which was the only habitation on Moorhead, jr., built a store building at the State street south of 10th'in 1825. [corner of State and 7th streets, and open¬ It is hard to realize that State street was ed a general store there. This was the lirst merely a country road, with two taverns on fctore started on State street. | it, but not a store or shop, while gardens, From 7th to 8th streets, west side, Thos. | orchards, and potato patches covered the Hughes owned the north half front and Slots on both sides of the street. _U [Thos. Laird the south half, but there were The local and commercial trade of Erie now I no buildings on State street. Mr. Hughes engaged in the fish business, and the large ■- ' two story brick house on 7th street. amount of capital invested in it, is a suili- cient excuse for culling attention to the early .-Y*... .. fishing days of Erie^X"When the first white ..age, seme, &c., at a cost of nearly people landed at Presque Isle they found j and commenced the fish business. In fifteen or twenty Indian wigwams in the G spring of 1831, he got._it fairly under .. _ valley at the mouth of Millereek, whise in¬ and kept up many years, and had a comp habitants subsisted chiefly on fish got in the, titor in the person of__ David Towzier,_,_ on bay and lake, and the first surveyors in smaller scale. Poor Horton, after follow! their camp there were furnished with fisl | it season after season, and known to eveES bought of those Indians. ^After Capt. Bis one, was drowned in January, 1841, iH sell came with his company and camped tc breaking through the ice in coming over tIH clear Garrison Hill and build a fort there Bay from the Peninsula with others from IS their supplies were brought on the lake, anc ' hunting party, and he was greatly missed® 'm- were of a very inferior quality, that haa jj by his patrons. White fish were early in■ been furnished for “Wayne’s army” ii caught in the Fall of the year, cured and | the west, and the men soon resorted t< packed in barrels, and the. citizens all along catching fish as the Indians did. One o | the lake had an abundant supply of salt the company, if he was not at least par , white fish, that were caught in Detroit _ native, had been among them so much tha river, and the idea then prevailed- they he was at least Indian in habits and inclina ; could not be got anywhere else. A fresh i tion, and Capt. Bissell found it more profit white fish to any of the early residents of able to let him fish for their supply than tr J Erie was almost unknown. Many from and.keep him at the axe, which he would no . Erie went every Fall up to Detroit river swing if he could help it. “Jim” at firs and made a business of fishing and packing borrowed one of the Indian canoes and go | for the markets.

Load more