The Anchor Line

The Erie and Western Transportation Company, known as the Anchor Line, established in 1865, with its terminal at the foot of Holland Street, and a passenger and commercial fleet of seventeen vessels, was by 1871 providing freight and weekly passenger service in the latter century to ports on the Great Lakes.

Passenger service on the Great Lakes was prevalent in Erie throughout the nineteenth century. Several steamer ships were launched from Erie in the 1830s, accommodating up to 250 cabin passengers. The Anchor Line provided weekly passenger service in the latter century to ports such as Cleveland, Detroit, Port Huron, and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; with connections to Lake Superior, Milwaukee, and Chicago. The Erie & Port Dover Ferry offered regular (twice daily) passenger ferry service to Port Dover, Ontario, for a short time from 1927 to 1932. The ferry Keystone could carry 80 automobiles and 1,000 passengers, and provided stateroom accommodations for 200.

The Anchor Line in the early years operated in connection with the Empire Line, until October, 1877, when the Pennsylvania Railroad (owned by the Standard Oil Company) purchased it to further their interest in oil refining. After the railroad’s purchase, the Anchor Line was separated from, and operated independently of the Railroad under Colonel Joseph D. Potts, who was the President of the Erie and Western Transportation Company from its organization, until June, 1881, when he was succeeded by F. J. Firth. The Empire Line, now a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, begun building refineries, neglecting its shipping business, which gave Anchor Lines dominance on the Great Lakes.

The Anchor Line handled large quantities of grain when the general railroad business to and from the lake was enormous, the nucleus being one small elevator, built in Erie by Messrs., Noble, Brown, McCarter & Shannon; and from that modest beginning it grew to magnificent proportions. Operating out of the Port of Erie, the company owned about forty acres of the finest dock property on the lakes, upon which it had two spacious, first-class elevators, with a combined capacity of 625,000 bushels; two large freight warehouses of sufficient capacity to store 3,000 tone of merchandise, together with all the necessary racks and other appliances for handling freight rapidly and cheaply.

The Anchor fleet consisted of seventeen propellers, one tug, and three schooners, viz.: the Clarion, Lehigh, Philadelphia, Alaska, India, China and Japan (all iron); the Juniata, Delaware, Conestoga, Lycoming, Conemaugh, Wissahickon, Gordon Campbell, Annie Young, Winslow, and Arizona (wood); the Allegheny, Annie Sherwood, and Schuylkill (schooners); and the tug Erie, a total tonnage of 29,780 tons.

During the season of navigation these vessels, both passenger and freight, left the Anchor Line docks at the foot of Holland street on their regular trips to Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and all Lake Superior ports. The effect of these facilities upon Erie’s future prosperity was considerable, and was the means of attracting capital for manufacturing purposes.