Judah Colt (July 1, 1761 – October 11, 1832) was an early pioneer of Erie County.

Early Life

Colt was born on July 1, 1761, in Lyme,

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. After the death of his father, Colt decided to move west in 1789 and in

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, joined Oliver Phelps heading for the Genesee Lands. There he purchased land in Canadarque, later known as Canandaigua, from Phelps. In Canandaigua, Colt worked as a surveyor, merchant, and farmer and commonly returned to Lyme, Connecticut during the winter. He was appointed sheriff of Ontario County in 1790. In 1795 he traveled with Augustus Porter to Presque Isle and purchased land from the Pennsylvania Population Company in Erie County, Pennsylvania. 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.

Colt's Station

Colt established Colt's Station in 1797 in present-day

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. 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 Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. Soon goods that were traveling by ship from

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, to Erie were being transported overland to his settlement. He extended the road in early 1798 to French Creek, where he established a

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. 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

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service in the county on July 2, 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

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church in Erie that formed in September 1815, attending worship services in the old court house and soon becoming an

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. 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. Colt was elected a member of the

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in July 1815.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
/ref> He served three terms as

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in Erie (1813, 1820-1821). Colt died in Erie on October 11, 1832, and is buried in the Erie Cemetery.

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

Judah Colt, Historical Markers, Explore PA History

200th Anniversary of the Presbytery of Lake Erie quotes Colt journal in 1801

Turner, Orasmus. Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase of Western New York (Buffalo: Jewett, Thompson and Co, 1849), p. 372
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colt, Judah 1761 births 1832 deaths People from Lyme, Connecticut People from Erie, Pennsylvania Members of the American Antiquarian Society