Crawford County, Pennsylvania
History
1876 ATLAS 1
"HISTORY OF THE VILLAGES AND TOWNSHIPS OF CRAWFORD COUNTY."
SADSBURY TOWNSHIP.
This township, lying southwest of the centre of the County, was formed from Vernon and Summit in 1811. Its area is eleven thousand nine hundred and ninety-six acres, much of which is occupied by the waters of Conneaut Lake. The first residents, so far as known, were the Williamsons,—Samuel and Matthew. The first settler at Conneaut Lake was Abner Evans. A Dutchman, named George Royer, was the next. Peter and Jacob were others of the family, all of whom were married and were men of family. Evans sold to Adam Stewart. Then came Dr. Shotwell from New Jersey,—the first physician in the township. Joseph T. Cummings moved from Meadville to Evansburg, and started a store in company with William Foster and Judge Barlow. These men had bought one hundred acres of land from Adam Stewart, and started their store on the hill east of Evansburg. They afterwards built a frame store-building in the village. Abner Evans was the builder of the first hewed-log house and the first blacksmith in Evansburg. Record erected the second cabin in the place. Ephraim Johnson, of Gettysburg, constructed the first tanyard. Evans erected the first grist-mill, about two miles down the outlet from Conneaut Lake. Adam Stewart ran a grist-mill at Evansburg, and carried on a distillery two miles west of the lake. After some time the grist-mill was changed to a carding-mill. Mrs. Mashworth [sic; Mushrush?] was an early vendor of native liquors, and kept a primitive house of entertainment in a log cabin near the lake. John McClure and his neighbors united to build a log church on the lake-bank, on ground donated for the purpose by Evans. It was duly dedicated by Rev. Joseph Stockton, of Meadville. The ground was finally sold, and the proceeds used in erecting a better house in the year 1832. Stewart was the first Justice. The first school-master was named Leffenwell, who taught in a small log house which stood near the present monument built to commemorate the Sadsbury soldiers who lost their lives in the civil war of 1861-65. The old Beaver, and Beaver and Erie Canal once passed through the township, and Conneaut Lake was raised eleven feet. Evansburg was then enjoying prosperity. It is still a favorite resort for lovers of the gun and rod. The canals are gone to ruin, and enterprise is being shown in draining large tracts formerly overflowed. Upon the beautiful lake where early settlers hunted deer and boated down to church, the pleasure-parties gather for a row, the canal boat decays, and the clear water runs between the crumbling docks, and quiet is unbroken save by the sharp, quick puff of the steam-mill, and the whistle of the locomotive at the station. Shermansville is in the northwestern part of Sadsbury. Its first occupant was a man named Craven, whose log cabin was the white man's sign of possession. It stood on the site of the present school-house. The Williamsons, previously named, bought out Craven, and in time sold to Anson Sherman, who laid out the village, and until his death, in 1873, was its most prominent citizen.
