Submitted by Gaylene Kerr Banister
Fairview Township and Borough of Fairview |
The first known settlement in Fairview Township was made in 1797, by Francis Scott, who had been in the employ of Thomas Rees, the surveyor, for a year previous. Nearly a year before -- on the 25th of July, 1796 -- a company of ten men was formed at Harrisburg, for the purpose of improving and populating the country near and adjoining Lake Erie. Their names were Richard Swan, Thomas Forster, John Kean, Alexander Berryhill, Samuel Laird, John A. Hanna, Robert Harris, Richard Dermond, William Kelso and Samuel Ainsworth. Each contributed 200 Pounds ($1,000), as a common stock for the use of the company, and the money was agreed to be used in the purchase of inlots and outlots in the town of Erie and elsewhere, and for improving and settling such lands as might be bought. The company was styled the Harrisburg and Presque Isle Company. Thomas Forster was a native of Paxtang, born in 1762, brought up as a surveyor, served as Colonel during the Whisky Insurrection of 1794, an Associate Judge of Dauphin County, member of the Legislature in 1798; subsequently removed to Erie in the interest of the Harrisburg & Presque Isle Land Company, where he became thoroughly identified with its interests, and filled important positions, dying in 1836. Richard Swan was a native of Paxtang, born in 1757; served in the war of the Revolution, and was a gentleman of influence in his locality. He removed to Erie County, and here many of his descendants reside. He died in April, 1808. William Kelso, the son of Joseph and Margaret Kelso, who located on the Susquehanna in Paxtang, prior to 1830, was a native of that township. He lived many years on the Cumberland Valley side, in the old Kelso ferry house, where he died May 22, 1807. He was the father of John Kelso, who went to Erie in 1802, there located, and the ancestor of the family in this county. Immediately after the first compact, Messrs. Harris and Kean were delegated to go to Carlisle, where public sale of the lots in the towns of Franklin, Erie, Waterford, Warren and Beaver were being made, and purchase such as they deemed proper in the interests of the company. This sale was on the 3d and 4th of August, 1796, and resulted in the company becoming the owners of numerous town lots in Erie and Waterford. |
Capt. Swan moved his family to Erie County in 1802, and settled on Walnut Creek. He rented the company's mill for one year from April 11, paying $250 rental, and agreeing to clear a piece of land. He managed the mill until his death in 1808. His widow bought a farm about one and a half miles from the mills. In 1817 her son Richard built the first frame house in Fairview Township. This house stood until a few years ago. When Col. Forster and Capt. Swan first arrived at the point where the mills were built, they were standing a high bluff overlooking the lake, and the former exclaimed, "This is the fairest view I have seen yet." The expression pleased them, and they named the future town Fairview. A log tavern was built in 1797, of peeled hemlock logs, and contained four rooms in the first story, besides a back kitchen and three rooms above. Capt. Swan, who rented the milled in 1802, also rented this tavern, paying $100 a year. |
Among other early settlers who reached the township in 1797 were John and George Nicholson, John Kelso, Patrick Vance, Alexander, Patrick and John McKee, William Sturgeon and William Haggerty. The Nicholsons were born in Ireland, but emigrated to Lancaster County, where they remained a short time before coming to the lake shore. Mr. McKee remained in Fairview a few years, and then changed to Mill Creek. Gen. Kelso moved to Mill Creek in 1800, and from there in 1804 to Erie, where he died in 1819. In 1798, the colony was enlarged by the arrival of John Dempsey, of Dauphin County; and in 1800, by that of Thomas Kennedy, James Moorhead and Thomas McCreary. The latter was from Lancaster County, his brothers having come north at the same time and settled in Mill Creek. The settlers during 1802 were S. F. Gudtner, of Franklin County, William and Moses Arbuckle, of Maryland, and Joseph M. Kratz, a Frenchman, who afterward removed to Erie. About 1801, Jacob Ebersol, of Lancaster County, moved in, followed in 1805 by James Ryan, of Dauphin County. Rev. Johnston Eaton arrived the same year as Mr. Ryan, remained but a few months and returned for a permanent residence in 1806. Among other early settlers were John Caughey and Samuel McCreary, of Lancaster County. Mr. Caughey moved to Washington County in 1812, and came back in 1822. Moses Barnett, from Dauphin County, went in about 1816; Arthur Oney, from Otsego County, N. Y., in 1820, John Silverthorn, probably in the same year; David Russell about 1822; Samuel P. Allen, from New England, and Daniel Bear, from Lancaster County, in 1823. The first colonists, with the exception of Messrs. Ebersole and Gudtner, were Protestant Irish stock, but at a subsequent date many Pennsylvania Dutch moved in, followed still later by numerous foreign Germans. Of the Pennsylvania Dutch, Daniel Waidler, from Lancaster County made his settlement in 1834. Mr. Oney took up a 400-acre tract, at the rate of twenty shillings an acre. |
In 1805 occurred the first death of a grown white person in the township, being that of John Gordon. The body was buried on the bank of the lake, near Manchester, and has never been removed. |
General
Description |
Land and Streams |
Bridges and Mills |
The manufacturing industries of Fairview Township are as follows: On Bear Run -- Nason's grist mill. On Walnut Creek -- Weigle's grist mill, Lohrer's grist mill and Morgan & Co.'s paper mill, just below Avonia or Fairview Station (the paper mill was destroyed by fire August 30, 1883), and Feidler's grist mill at the Lake road (now owned by McKee & Kermick). These are all run by water except Feidler's mill and the paper mill, which have used steam in connection, but more recently water only. George Siegel has tile and brick works on the Andrews place, a mile south of the borough, and L. Vettner a tannery on the Lake road. The Walnut Creek Mills of Mr. Weigle were established at a very early day by S. F. Gudtner. In 1856, the flouring mill was rebuilt by Alexander Nicholson. Nason's mill was built by Daniel Bear in 1823, and fell into the hands of Mr. Nason in 1864. The second saw mill in Erie County was built at the mouth of Walnut Creek in 1797, under the supervision of Col. Thomas Forster, who added a grist mill in 1799, which was the first in the county. Both of these have gone down. In 1815, Samuel McCreary erected the first woolen mill in the county at the intersection of the Depot and Lake roads. He continued to operate it till 1841, when two of his sons succeeded him. In 1848, the firm became McCreary, Thornton & Co., and after that the mill had several changes of ownership until it was abandoned. The building was used as Morgan & Co.'s paper mill. The Lock Haven Woolen Mills, on the bank of the lake, were established by the Messrs. Caughey in 1842, who had built a saw mill the year previous. They disposed of the woolen factory in 1850 and of the saw mill in 1864, after which time they had various owners. The property was destroyed by fire in October, 1878. A number of saw mills once successfully operated have gone to ruin. |
Schools |
Common Roads,
Railroads and Canal |
Political |
Religious
Societies |
St. Jacob's Evangelical United Church is located on the Ridge road about a mile and a half east of the business part of Fairview Borough. The congregation was organized in the winter of 1852, and the church was built about the same time at a cost of $1,000. The first pastor was the Rev. Michael Kuchler. The present pastor is Rev. C. Gavehling, who has been in charge of the congregation in connection with the one at Girard for the past four years. |
The United Brethren Church is upon the road from Franklin Center to Sterrettania, five miles south of Fairview Borough. The congregation was organized about 1857, and held meetings until some five years ago in the Van Camp Schoolhouse. Rev. Z. C. Dilley is the present incumbent. The church building was dedicated February 22, 1880, by Rev. J. Hill. |
The Christian Church is three miles south of the borough, on the direct road from Girard to McKean Corners. The congregation was organized by Rev. Asal Fish, first pastor, in 1835. The building was erected in 1845, at a cost of $1,000. Among other pastors of the church have been Elders Ziegler, Morse, Sherman, Langdon, Washburn and Kendell. |
Manchester and
Swanville |
Swanville, on the Ridge road, nine miles west of Erie, and about a third of a mile south of the Lake Shore Railroad, received its name through John J. Swan, who built the first house and established the first tavern on the site. It consists of a blacksmith shop, store, schoolhouse, about twenty residences, and had a population of about 98 in 1880. Mr. Swan opened his tavern about 1832, and soon after another was started by the Nicholsons. These continued in operation until 1853-54, when the want of business compelled their closure. The Westminster Presbyterian Church in Mill Creek Township was built at Swanville in 1832, and removed to its present site in 1851. This church is interesting from the fact that Rev. Johnston Eaton, the first permanent minister of that denomination in the county, began and closed his career as its pastor. He came on in 1805, remained for a short time, went back to his former home and returned in 1806 to stay permanently. The first service held by Mr. Eaton was in Swan's tavern at the mouth of Walnut Creek. He was ordained on the 30th of June, 1808, in the barn of William Sturgeon, which stood within the present limits of Fairview Borough, and was installed as pastor of the congregations at Fairview and Springfield. His relations with the Springfield Church continued till November 8, 1814, and those with the Fairview Church till his death, on the 17th of June, 1847, and those with the Fairview Church till his death, on the 17th of June, 1847, in the seventy-second year of his age and the forty-second of his ministry. After his release from the Springfield Church, Mr. Eaton occupied his time till 1818, between Erie, Fairview and North East, and between Fairview and Erie till 1823, when the latter church felt strong enough to sustain a separate pastor. Mr. Eaton served as an army Chaplain during the campaign of 1812 and 1813. His venerable and estimable lady died in 1872 in the ninety-third year of her age, leaving a family of eight children, all of whom but one are living. The first church building was erected at Manchester, then known as Fairview. This was abandoned and a new building put up in 1832, at Swanville, which still retained the name of the Fairview Church. About 1837, the New School element of the congregation seceded and established a church in Fairview Borough, and in 1845 they were followed by a number who belonged to the Old-School side. This left the main body of worshipers in the church at Swanville living in the western part of Mill Creek. In order to have their place of worship more convenient, they removed the building in 1851 to a point on the Ridge road, several miles east of Swanville, where it is still in use, under the name of the Westminster Church. The building at Swanville stood where the schoolhouse is now. |
Other Matters |
Lock Haven, at the mouth of Trout Run, is nothing more than a name. It once had a woolen factory and saw mill, but the latter fell into ruin and the former burned down, as stated above. |
Two quarries have been opened in Fairview, one at Manchester and the other on Trout Run, just below the depot. From the Manchester quarry, some of the stone were taken for the locks of the canal. The material is not very good, however, and neither of the quarries has proved of much value. Most of the stone used in the township and borough comes from Howard's quarry in Franklin. |
Borough of Fairview |
The borough of Fairview was incorporated in 1868, covering an area of one mile square, and including a population at that time of some 400. It stands on the first rise of the lake shore plain, twelve miles west of Erie, a mile and a half south of the lake, and a half a mile from the railroad station. The Ridge road forms its main street, and Trout Run winds through its limits. The churches of Fairview are Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal, Lutheran and German Evangelical, the first being of brick and the two others of frame. Its schools are all held in one large two-story building erected in 1866. It has three apartments, and the schools are graded. Two teachers are employed. The first schoolhouse in the village was erected by the people some time prior to 1838. The manufacturing concerns of the place are Henry Kreider's steam planing and saw mill, James H. Glazier's steam cider mill, J. Galyard's steam cider, sorghum and jelly mill, S. J. Fargo & Gardner's wagon shop, and three or four blacksmith shops. The mercantile interests embrace one dry good store, one grocery, one clothing store, two hardware stores, one millinery store and one dry goods store. The hotel is knows as the Monitor House. The borough once boasted of two military companies -- the Fairview Guards, organized in 1858, with J. Beckman as Captain, and another with O. H. P. Ferguson as Captain. By the united States census, Fairview Borough had a population of 480 in 1870 and 425 in 1880. The assessment of the latter year gave the following results: Real estate, $165,081; horses, 64; cows, 35; personal property, $4,011, trades and occupations, $9,155; money at interest, $35,435. |
Early Incidents |
Other Churches |
Mt. Nabo Church of the Evangelical association owes its origin to the early missionary labors of Rev. J. Siebert, who began preaching in Erie County in 1833. Following him in this field were Revs. Stoevers, D. Brickley and J. Noecker. Preaching was held at private residences and later in schoolhouses. The congregation was on Erie Circuit until 1877, since which time it has been on Fairview Circuit. The church building of the society was formerly occupied by the Presbyterians, of whom it was purchased in April, 1872. |
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the village was organized in 1856, with less than a dozen members. This congregation and the one at St. Jacob's on the Ridge road were originally one and the same church society, but at the date given above became separate bodies, owing to some difficulties which arose between the membership and pastor. The Rev Michael Kuchler became the first pastor of this society. The first house of worship was built in 1857, on the outskirts of the borough, and used until the present one was erected in 1878. At present the congregation is without a pastor. |
Miscellaneous |
Mrs. Sarah Green, who was living at Fairview in February, 1883, was claimed to be one hundred and two years old, and able to go about and do all kinds of housework. The wife of Casper Doll died in February, 1883, aged ninety-seven years and ten days. |
Bibliography: Samuel P. Bates, History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, (Warner, Beers & Co.: Chicago, 1884), Township Histories, Chapter VIII, pp. 739-749. |
This page was last updated on Tuesday, September 12, 2000.
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