The Morgantowner: Crawford County, Pennsylvania

This is my second Crawford County, so I thought I would look up who Crawford was. There are counties named for Colonel William Crawford in Pennsylvania (this month) and Ohio (last month). He was born in 1722 in what is now West Virginia's Berkeley County, and had a history in both Virginia and Pennsylvania. Crawford was friends with George Washington, and learned surveying from him. He lived much of his life in Connellsville, now in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, not far from Morgantown. In March of 1782, 98 Christian Native Americans were massacred by American troops in Gnadenhutten, in eastern Ohio. Crawford was sent out to Ohio to deal with the natives, some of whom were allied with the British in the American Revolution. He was captured, tortured, and burned at the stake. American history is nothing if not gruesome in spots.

It's 159 miles, downtown to downtown, from Morgantown to Meadville, the county seat of Crawford County. From there, it's only forty more miles to Erie, on the lake of the same name. We think we are deep in the heartland here in West Virginia, but the border isn't all that far. We are shocked when we get "lake effect" snow, when there are no natural lakes in West Virginia, but of course, geography doesn't recognize the state lines, especially when they were imposed by Mason and Dixon and President Lincoln.

The population of Crawford County is somewhat under 90,000, so I thought I could drive up for lunch one day, stay over, and come back the next day. My schedule being what it is, I picked Saturday and Sunday to go. Joe has Torah study Saturday morning, and two widows at temple invited him for a late afternoon movie and dinner, so he was taken care of. I was home by four Sunday.

I left home after nine Saturday and drove, first to our Courthouse, then to Crawford County's Courthouse in Meadville. There's an oval urban park with a fountain, and a statue of a Civil War soldier. Despite the Confederate flags one sees occasionally in Western Pennsylvania today, the statue is of a Union soldier. Two tables were set up in the park, one touting medical marijuana, and the other, a table for the Gay Pride event going on. Dan, Sue and Alex were staffing the table. Dan is on the school board and running for County Commissioner. Sue is a writer, and I asked if they could be on my blog post, which I promised to have up more than a week ago. They said "Yes."

It was 1 P.M. when I had introduced myself to the Pride people, and I hadn't had lunch. Dan directed me to Chestnut Street at the south end of the block-long park. He recommended some places, but they weren't plain enough for me. I found a "street market" on Chestnut Street, the main commercial street of the town, with booths selling crafts, jewelry and baked goods. At the end of the block is a half-dead mall, smack in the middle of town. I ate at a restaurant called "The Bistro" in the mall, which is anchored by a Dollar General store. Welcome to America 2019.

I checked back in at the Pride event. There were a few more people, mostly mothers with kids drawing in chalk on the sidewalk. I took off on foot from there to find the historic places in town, most of which were in walking distance. The problem was that it was 90 F. and humid. I found most of them, and have pictures below. I picked up the car and drove to Terrace Street, at one time overlooking a river, now looking at factories. There were canals also before the railroad came through.

Allegheny College is at the north end of town and dates from 1815. I thought I had more pics from there, but only one survives, from Ruter Hall. I had an address for a Hillel chapter at Allegheny in a former synagogue building, but I only found a house with an American flag. Maybe I had the address wrong. I was way overheated and exhausted by the time I had walked through campus.

I was booked at The Usual Chain in Titusville, 28 miles east of Meadville. I checked in after four for my usual nap. An older woman (about my age) did the honors, and when I told her I was from Morgantown, she told me that her two children had gone there. One now works in Pennsylvania, the other in Ohio.

Titusville is where oil was first discovered in the ground, and it was a boomtown in the 1890s. Not so much, now. By dinnertime, I was ready to go out and explore. I drove a few blocks to Sheetz in the middle of town for gas, then parked at Lin's Chinese buffet. I was there Saturday at 6:30 P.M. and I was the only customer. A few more groups of people came in later. The food was good.

Titusville sits in a river plain, with a steep hill behind it. Downtown and the old city hall are on the National Register of Historic Places, and there is a branch of the University of Pittsburgh. The weather had cooled off, and it was comfortable to walk. Sunset was just before nine.It's a quiet and pretty town with lots of kids on bikes on the side streets, and old homes ranging from well-restored to falling down. On the way back to the car, I discovered a modern-looking senior citizens residence with a park next to it where older people were out barbecuing. I didn't get to the oil industry museum.

Sunday, I visited the next three largest places in the county: the borough of Cambridge Springs, and the CDPs (Census-Defined Places) Conneaut Lakeshore and Pymatuning Central. Cambridge Springs is a small town with a Main Street lined with churches. I stopped for a picture, and a woman dressed for church and carrying a cake yelled at me from across the street "Beautiful day, isn't it? Look at those clouds!" It was a beautiful day, cooler and dryer than the day before, and the clouds were, well, picturesque. I was tempted to go to church with her, and maybe score some cake.

Conneaut Lake is in the southwest part of the county. It's out from the towns. The lakeshore seems to be private, although there are some older motels and what looks like a derelict amusement park.

Pymatuning Lake is a state park in two states, on the border of Ohio (Ashtabula County). I may have visited the Ohio side of the park in March 2014. I stopped in the visitor center for the park, and walked down to the dam at the south end of the lake. There is a road over the dam, and a medieval-looking tower. The weather was sunny and just about perfect. I could have stayed longer, but I wanted to get lunch and head home. The Pymatuning Central community is on the east side of the lake, sprawled out and rural. I didn't see anyplace I wanted to eat, so I headed south on Route 58, to Greenville, in Mercer County, where I stopped for a pizza and salad before heading back to Morgantown.