- Judah Colt
Judah Colt (born
1 July 1761 inLyme, Connecticut , died11 October 1832 inErie, Pennsylvania ) was an early pioneer of Erie County.Hill country
Colt left Connecticut in 1795 and moved to Erie County. He soon decided that the lake shore was inhospitable, so he looked to join earlier pioneers in the hill country south of Erie. In 1796, he attempted to buy thousands of acres of land from the
Pennsylvania Population Company , but they declined, hiring him instead to replace Thomas Rees, Jr. as their agent, a job he held until his death in 1832.Colt established Colt's Station in 1797 near present-day Greenfield. That same year he built the "earliest road after the American occupation" in Erie county (after Old French Road) as a supply route from
Lake Erie . Soon goods that were traveling by ship fromBuffalo, New York to Erie were being transported overland to his settlement. He extended the road in early 1798 to French Creek, where he established a boat landing. He continued the road to the forks of the creek at Wattsburg later that same year.Colt's wife joined him at Colt's Station in May 1798. In the absence of a minister, Colt conducted the first Protestant service in the county on
2 July ,1797 .City life
Colt realized that prosperity would be found near the lake, so he left Colt's Station for Erie in 1804. He joined the Presbyterian church in Erie that formed in September 1815, attending worship services in the old court house and soon becoming an elder. He built a frame building on Sassafras Street, known locally as the "yellow meeting house", which became the first regular place of worship in Erie.
He served three terms as Burgess in Erie (1813, 1820-1821).
References
* "Nelson's Biographical Dictionary And Historical Reference Book of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Vol. I". Erie: S. B. Nelson, 1896. Reprinted by Erie County Historical Society (Salem, WV: Don Mills Inc, 1987), pp. 110, 120, 138, 313, 437.
External links
* [http://www.explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=879 Judah Colt, Historical Markers, Explore PA History]
* [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~paerie/townships/Greenfield/JudahColtArticle.html Judah Colt Daybook (1798-1799)]
* [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~paerie/townships/Greenfield/EarlyFams.html Greenfield Twp Before 1810]
* [http://www.eriecemeteryassoc.com/famous%20residents.html#12_anc Erie Cemetery Association biography]
* [http://www.pbylakeerie.org/history.php 200th Anniversary of the Presbytery of Lake Erie quotes Colt journal in 1801]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=q-5JAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA372&lpg=PA372&dq=%22judah+colt%22+erie&source=web&ots=0zdit-SGRe&sig=kl_HCshpowGbdP3jswlT7u8M-w8&hl=en Turner, Orasmus. Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York (Buffalo: Jewett, Thompson and Co, 1849), p. 372]
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