The story has been told many times of the first settlers coming from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in 1796 or 1797. Three German men, one David Klingensmith who went further up the hill from the Shenango River to build his cabin. two, Joseph Keck and Jacob Loutzenhiser who stayed nearer the river, two miles south of town and the Irishman, Andrew Christy, who went east into what is now Hempfield Township. (Andrew Christy was to become a colonel in a few short years when he joined Oliver Hazzard Perry, the boat-building admiral at Erie in the War of 1812.)
Two 400 acre parcels of land were laid out, one on the west and one on the east side of the Shenango. These were “warrant lands” for donations to veterans of the recent American Revolution. Although no veterans took up residence here, land hungry settlers were streaming in to acquire acreage by fair means or foul. A Philadelphia judge and two fellow business men spent time in prison for selling fictitious warrants. Here at the confluence of the Shenango and Little Shenango Rivers was hemlock for log cabins, water to power any kind of mill, sandstone, flagstone and slate, and evidence of coal and iron ore. On the sheltered west side of the river, the first plot was laid out and the first lot sold at auction to one Tobias Shank. Scott, a schoolmaster, reportedly laid out the first plot.
 |
|
Passenger Canal Packet Boat such as traveled on the old Erie Canal.
|
Shank built a large two story log cabin on his lot, west side of the river, at the north end of the ford. He had a canoe tied in the bushes along the bank and a “hallo-o’ from stage or wagon would bring him down to the water to ferry early travelers for respite with food, drink and rest at his tavern. He ran a way station with horses and mules for hire. On the second floor a room used for “divine services” on Sunday, although there are stories of the animals quartered below making an “awful din”. It is small wonder that the small village was known for several years as “Shank’s Ford”. Thus Mr. Shank’s tavern and way station became the first part of the story of Greenville as transportation town. Situated on the “road from the lake to the city” - the lake was Erie to the north and the city was Warren, Ohio. With the finishing of the Erie Canal in 1826, which extended from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Erie, people were going west – canal boats on the Erie Canal, steam ships or sailing ships on the lake and finally a primitive wagon road hacked through the wilderness toward pioneering in the west. Co incidentally, in 1826 or 1828 the town became West Greenville with the appointment of A.P.Waugh as the first Postmaster and the town was incorporated in 1838. Waugh’ brother, James S. Waugh, served the 1826 term in the Pennsylvania Legislature and again co-incidence, Harrisburg, Erie and Pittsburgh were alive with intense discussion about a canal to connect the Port of Erie with the Ohio River. This took some ten years but finally, the Canal was started in 1836 and finished entirely to Erie in 1844, transversing five counties. In Greenville, it followed the little Shenango and Shenango, a new way for people to travel and to transport goods, again, right through West Greenville and on to the Ohio River at the old town of Beaver near Monaco and New Brighton. Beginning as the Beaver and Lake Erie Canal, the waterway eventually became known as the Erie Extension Canal, extending the Pennsylvania Canal from Pittsburgh via the Ohio River northward to Lake Erie. It lasted about thirty one years. An accident to the huge Elk Creek aqueduct near Erie caused canal traffic to shut down for the most part in 1871.
Samuel West had a regular stage coach route from Greenville to Warren in 1858.
Finally, the railroads were moving in. Before the canal was drained, the towing paths were being converted to railroad track beds.
Greenville, as West Greenville, and the naming of the town has been debated for years but in 1856 by petitioning the legislature the suffix West was finally dropped. During this period the Shenango and Allegheny Railroad built shops at the south end of Clarksville Street - the line came from Bessemer to Shenango - when the line was completed to Greenville in 1885. The Shenango shops were closed. An interesting side line - there was a move to change the name West Greenville to Shenango but concerned citizens took it upon themselves to have a post office established at the village of Shenango fixing the name there permanently. They also attempted to have the county seat changed to Greenville because of train accessibility, but Mercer held out.
 |
|
Early Bessemer Railroad Crew with their firefighting apparatus.
|
The Shenango and Allegheny offices were located in Greenville for a time, then moved to Meadville. In 1896, visitor Andrew Carnegie, observed railroad cars loaded with Mercer Co. coal going one direction and Superior Region iron ore on the return, bought the controlling interest in the company and the offices moved again to Greenville. The line became the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad; thus B&LE changed from Beaver and Lake Erie in canal days to Bessemer and Lake Erie with railroads. The line is still busy although all offices were moved to Monroeville in August 1982 and the Bessemer Railroad part of U.S. Steel. The Bessemer Railroad also had a successful passenger line and passenger depot until 1951. The Atlantic and Great Western road came through Greenville in 1865 as the Erie. It was a busy road between New York and Chicago; Greenville was half way between the two cities. A good stop over on the two day trip for speakers, actors, and musicians at the Laird Opera House. As late as the 1940’s, one could board the Erie, as it was known, at seven in the evening and arrive in Dearborn Station at seven o’clock in the morning. The line was later bought by Conrail and finally (1999) is part of the Norfolk, Southern and Chesapeake (Chessie) system.
The New York Central came through the west side of town and included the NYPa-n-O (New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio roads) going north. The tracks have been abandoned for many years.
 |
|
1910 Empire Car
|
The industries which contributed to the Transportation saga were the early steel mills which have come and gone; the Kimberly Rolling Mills, Greenville Iron Company and Carnegie Steel, manufacturing steel rails for railroad tracks. In 1909 or 1910 the Greenville Steel Car was founded making various railway cars and still in business, employs as a general rule about 1000 men. It has operated under the company, Ampco, and finally, Trinity Industries. Early in the company’s history, they assembled passenger cars - the “Empire” car in particular. One Empire car is displayed at the Railroad Park and Museum. Another large business, Chicago Bridge and Iron, fabricated among other things, large standing water tanks in the Greenville plant which were vital to transportation as well as municipal and industrial sites in a world market.
Around this framework citizens worked, maintained homes and developed their religious, educational, health, safety and cultural life.
|