Pennsylvania, Crawford County, near Hartstown
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Cut off from the rest of Pymatuning Swamp by a 3-mile bank, this became the 600-acre "Pymatuning Reservoir" of the canal, which lay at its western edge. Begun by the State, 1838; finished by the Erie Canal Co., 1843-44.
(Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Cut off from the rest of Pymatuning Swamp by a 3-mile bank, this became the 600-acre "Pymatuning Reservoir" of the canal, which lay at its western edge. Begun by the State, 1838; finished by the Erie Canal Co., 1843-44.(Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Part of the old channel lies near the highway. The Conneaut Line, from Erie to near Conneaut Lake, was begun by the State, 1838, and completed by the Erie Canal Company, 1843-44. Canal in use until 1871.
Drilled here in 1815 by Samuel Magaw and William Clark to reach brine, a frontier source of salt. When it was deepened by Daniel Shryock to 300 feet in 1819, oil was struck. Because of this unwanted byproduct, the well and salt works here were closed, 1821. This early yield of oil from a drilled well occurred 40 years before Edwin L. Drake's 1859 discovery near Titusville.
The canal bed beside the road is part of a channel constructed 1827-1834 to take water from Meadville to Conneaut Lake for the Erie Extension Canal. Two miles below here the Feeder crossed the creek by aqueduct.
The Riviere aux Boeufs of the French, renamed by George Washington in 1753. It had an important part in the French and Indian War and the settlement of northwestern Pennsylvania.
Here on August 5, 1936, the State's first rural electric pole was placed by the Northwestern Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Incorporated on April 30, 1936, this was Pennsylvania's first such cooperative. By 1941, thirteen more had been formed in this State.
Built in 1802 by Patrick McGill, this log house one of the oldest surviving homes in the French Creek Valley. McGill was a farmer, organized the first school, and served in the War of 1812. Saegertown was originally known as McGill's Settlement.
Founded in 1807 as the Society for the Encouragement of Domestic Manufacture and the Useful Arts, the nation's third oldest Chamber of Commerce met here in the old log courthouse, led by Crawford Messenger editor Thomas Atkinson and Holland Land Co. agent Roger Alden.
Zoar Methodist Church was founded in the late
18th century. Bishops Coke and Asbury are
believed to have ministered to congregations
in a log structure which served as the first
church building. A cypress-shingle church was
constructed after the land was purchased from
Robert and Sukey Lacey in 1802. Within a few
years, camp meetings were being held in the
adjoining grove. The Church was incorporated
on November 5, 1810. Following a fire in 1910,
the present structure was built. Much of the
carpentry and masonry was completed by Rev.
James L. Derrickson, pastor of the Church.
The last camp meeting was held in 1919. Annual
homecoming services are held in late October.
On Short Mountain, 7.1 mi., Henry Hoover & John Beeson established a millstone and grindstone factory in 1806. An inscription on a bluff of the mountain, and discarded fragments of stone mark the spot.
The Tennessee Coal and Iron Company in 1883 built 120 coke ovens 6 miles east to help supply its growing iron works. The company contracted with the state, and convicts worked the ovens until 1896. On August 13, 1892, Tracy City miners, who opposed the use of convict labor, burned the stockade and put the convicts on a train and sent them back to Nashville as had been done in Anderson County, Tennessee in 1891.
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One of the original Swiss settlers of Gruetli in 1869, Melchior Thoni become one of the most famous woodcarvers of Tennessee, executing carvings in the old Governor’s Mansion and the altar of Christ Church in Nashville. About 1880, among his many sculptural enterprises Thoni designed and carved the first wooden animals to stand upon a “Flying Jenny” (merry-go-round) in Tennessee.
During 1805–08, the U.S. Government and State of Tennessee constructed the Federal–Georgia Road in order to connect Tennessee to the Atlantic seaboard. The road proceeded north from Augusta to Spring Place, Georgia, where it divided. Federal Road proceeded northeast to Tellico Blockhouse. Georgia Road proceeded northwest to the Stone’s River where it connected to the road to Nashville. The Cherokee later constructed an alternate route north of Lookout Mountain.
