Crawford County, Pennsylvania
History & Biography
1869-70 DIRECTORY OF THE OIL REGIONS
MEADVILLE
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until 1799, when he became one of the Associate Judges of Crawford County. He was appointed, by Gov. McKean, a Major General of Militia, subsequently re-appointed by Gov. Snyder, and continued to discharge the duties of that office until the commissions in the militia were vacated by law. He was a man of great liberality and hospitality, and of wonderful energy and public spirit. He presented the ground now known as the Public Square in Meadville to the (then) borough, and the old grave yard property to the trustees of the Presbyterian Church. He also donated the property, upon which is erected the First District School Building, to the State, for the Arsenal which has recently been removed. In person Gen. Mead was a man of remarkable size, being six feet and three and a half inches in height, and built in proportion. He died suddenly August 23, 1816, in the 65th year of his age, and in full vigor of body and mind.
In 1816 the only churches were the Presbyterian and German Lutheran. Rev. Joseph Stockton, the first pastor of the former, settled here in 1801. Now there are 13 churches : 2 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, 1 Episcopal, 1 Baptist, 1 Lutheran, 1 German Reformed, 1 Independent German Reformed, 1 Unitarian, 1 African Methodist Episcopal, 2 Roman Catholic.
The building of a second Methodist Episcopal Church has been commenced on State street in the north-eastern part of the city, and it is expected that it will be ready for occupancy during the present year. The foundation has been laid for the erection of a new Roman Catholic Cathedral, on the corner of Main and Pine streets. It will be a large and costly edifice. The First Methodist Episcopal Church is the finest and most expensive structure of the kind in North-western Pennsylvania, and is, in all its arrangements, a splendid specimen of architecture, an ornament to the city and a credit to the public spirit and zeal of the denomination to which it belongs.
The “ French Creek Feeder,” of the Erie Canal, connecting Lake Erie and the Ohio River, furnishes water communication north and south, and,
