Judge James Kingsbury arrived soon after the surveying party, and wintered with his family at this place. He was compelled by business to return to New York that fall, and was delayed by illness from rejoining his family. He arrived in the dead of winter to find a child born in his absence, dead from starvation, and his wife almost on the point of death from the same cause. The first permanent settlement was made in Conneaut in 1798. Some thirty Indian cabins were then standing at the mouth of the stream. [it should be noted that this is incorrect information, the cabins stood near present day Harbor and Main Sts.]

In 1846 Conneaut harbor was an important shipping point. It had a pier with a lighthouse upon it, two forwarding houses, and eleven dwellings. It was a frequent stopping place for steamers. Its recent growth has been the result of railway traffic. The Nickel Plate railroad shops are located here, and when the Pittsburgh, Bessemer, & Lake Erie was completed to the great furnaces of the Carnegie Steel Company, the assurance of an immense ore traffic was possible.

Soon after the first government appropriation for the improvement of Conneaut creek, the marine fraternity began to develop an ambition to make it a ship building center, and in 1830 a small schooner was built and launched under the name of the Farmer. She was lost during a great freshet or flood in Chicago river. The schooner New Connecticut was the next vessel built there, followed by the commercial steamers Lady of the Lake and Conneaut Packet, schooner J.B. Skinner, sloops Humber and Red River, schooner North America, steamers Wisconsin and Constitution, brigs Sarah C. Walbridge, Lucy A. Blossom Banner (the largest vessel on the lakes at that time), schooners Dan Marble, Telegraph, Traveler, and the bark Stambach, brig Belle, and schooner J.W. Brown, all constructed previous to 1850. Since that year there were many vessels constructed, notably the schooners Nightengale, Snowdrop, brig Greyhound, schooners Mary M. Scott, Henry M. Kinney, scows Seabird and Times, schooner Anna Maria, schooner Zouave, barks Rosenberry, Ogariatta, Monitor, scows Indianola, Tom Swayne, May Guthrie, schooners T.B. Rice, Valentine, Kate Gillett (now the Horace Badger), Conneaut, and M. Capron.

Conneaut harbor is at the mouth of Conneaut creek, 13 miles east of Ashtabula harbor, and within a short distance of the boundary line between Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was known early in the century as Conneaut creek, and has, from time to time, received government aid, but developed little business until 1892. Originally the channel over the bar was but two feet in depth. The first appropriation was made March 2, 1829, of $7,500 for the improvement of the navigation of the creek, “by removing the bar at the mouth of the same.” Under this appropriation improvements were commenced, and were continued until 1880, the amount appropriated and expended during this time being $112,629. As a result of these improvements the channel increased its depth from two feet to a usual depth of eight feet, and in favorable circumstances the depth was sometimes 11 feet. From 1880 to 1892 the business of the poet did not justify further expenditure, and the work already done was permitted to decay and ruin.

In 1892 a project was adopted for extending parallel piers 200 feet apart to a depth of 17 feet, the estimated cast being $500,000. There had been expended by June 30, 1896, the sum of $79,819, out of a total $120,000 appropriated. During the year 1896 there was completed a part of the east pier 60 feet in length, and an extension 526 feet long was made from the inner end to form a substantial revetment to the channel bank.

The Pittsburgh, Shenango, & Lake Erie Railroad Company, now the Pittsburgh, Bessemer, & Lake Erie, has within the past few years made this harbor a terminus on the lake, and has expended a large amount of money in improving the harbor by dredging and construction, by which means the commerce of the port has largely increased. This harbor is well situated with a reference to the transfer of ores by water and rail from the mines to the furnaces, as well as for return freights of coal. This harbor enjoys one great advantage over most others on the southern shore of Lake Erie, and that the water here is more uniformly of the same depth throughout the season then elsewhere, because the high west winds do not lower it here as they do in harbors further to the west.

It was in 1892 that commercial interests again began to develop at Conneaut harbor. Early in the year Capt. Erastus Day, of Cleveland, went there in the interest of the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company, and began the work of deepening the channel and building docks. This proved to be a labor of many difficulties as there was no railroad laid to the harbor upon which to transport timber and piles, necessitating the alternative of floating all material to be used down the river by means of raft or scow. Before the close of the season, however, the river was dredged, dock room completed and three Brown hoists erected. On November 3, 1892, the first cargo of ore arrived on the steamer C.J. Kershaw. Since that time, under Capt. Day’s industry and supervision, Conneaut harbor has been provided with the best modern appliances for speedy handling of iron ore, coal and railroad iron, the latter being handled by means of an ingenious patent invented by Captain Day.

The machinery for loading and discharging ore and coal comprise nine Brown hoists, six King hoists and conveyers, twelve hoists of the McMyler fast plant for transferring from vessels into cars, ten whirlers and one coal car dump of an improved type. The railroad is about to dredge a new slip 1,200 feet long on the east side of the river, and construct docks upon which will be erected twelve additional hoisting and conveying machines, and the river spanned by a railroad bridge at its intersection with slip No. 1. The new slip will have double berths, beside two thousand feet of dock front on the river.

The railroad from Conneaut to the coal and iron districts near Pittsburg, Penn., has recently been greatly improved, both in curves and grades, and equipped with the patent hopper cars, which greatly add to the speedy transport of ore. It may be said that some of the largest industries in the country are developing Conneaut harbor as a port for the transfer of coal and iron.

Appropriations for improving Conneaut Harbor.—1829, $7,500; 1830, $6,135; 1831, $6,370; 1832, $7,800; 1836, $2,500; 1837, $5,000; 1852, $10,000; 1866, $20,513; 1867, $1,000; 1869, $8,910; 1870, $6,000; 1873, $400; 1874, $1,500; 1875, $1,000; 1880, $6,000; 1892, $40,000, 1894, $40,000; 1896, $40,000. Total, $231, 629. Expended to June 30, 1898, $231, 643.

Vessels entering the harbor in 1896 were 582, with a tonnage of 761,634; vessels entering in 1897, 668; tonnage, 939,173. During 1897 560,198 tons of freight were received and 29,700 tons shipped, a total of 589,368, as compared with 443,031 tons for 1896. Of the receipts on 1897 551,417 tons were iron ore, and of the shipments 29,170 tons were coal.