Judah Colt


Judah Colt was an early pioneer of Erie County.

Hill country

Colt was born on July 1, 1761 in Lyme, Connecticut. He left Connecticut in 1795 and moved to Erie County. He soon decided that the lake shore was inhospitable, so he looked to join earlier pioneers in the hill country south of Erie. 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, a job he held until his death in 1832.
Colt established Colt's Station in 1797 in present-day Greenfield. That same year he built the "earliest road after the American occupation" in Erie County as a supply route from Lake Erie. Soon goods that were traveling by ship from Buffalo, New York to Erie were being transported overland to his settlement. He extended the road in early 1798 to French Creek, where he established a boat landing. 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 Protestant 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 Presbyterian church in Erie that formed in September 1815, attending worship services in the old court house and soon becoming an elder. 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 American Antiquarian Society in July 1815.
He served three terms as Burgess in Erie. Colt died in Erie on October 11, 1832 and is buried in the Erie Cemetery.