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Erie Pennsylvania City and County Guide
From Federal Writers Project - 1938
GENERAL INFORMATION
Location: On southern shore of Lake Erie; 100 m. east of Cleveland and
93 m. west of Buffalo; longitude 80 5 W.; latitude 42 7 N.
Railroad Stations: 1 2 1 W. 1 2th St. for Bessemer and Lake Erie R. R.; Union
Station, W. i4th and Peach Sts. for New York Central R. R. and Pennsylvania R. R.; 2 1 1 E. 1 9th St. for Nickel Plate R. R.
Bus Stations: 12 N. Perry Sq. for Greyhound Lines, and West Ridge
Transportation Co.
Airports: Port Erie: 7 m. W. on State 5, municipally owned. Erie County
Airport, 1 2 m. W. on US 20, privately owned.
Ferries and Motor Launches: Ferries from the Public Steamboat Landing,
foot of State St., to Waterworks Park on the Peninsula (round trip 25$);
during summer months launches may be rented by the hour for tours and
fishing in Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie.
Taxis: Yellow Cab, W. i4th and Peach Sts., (30$ ist m., 5$ each additional
% m.; hourly rate $1.50); Checker Cab, 316 E. 7th St., (30$ ist m., 5$ each
additional l /$ m.; hourly rate $2.00).
Intracity Bus Line: Erie Coach Co. coaches operate to all points in the city;
fare 10^; transfers without additional charge.
Traffic Regulations: Maximum speed 20 m. per hour between intersections;
10 m. per hour at intersections, and 15 m. per hour in school zones. Right
and left turns permitted on green light; no turns on red.
Street Order and Numbering: From the bay front, the northern boundary
of the city, streets are numbered from First in consecutive order. Even
numbers are on west side of streets; odd numbers on the east side. House
numbers in each block begin with a new hundred series. House numbering on east and west streets begins at State St. Even numbers are used on
the north side of streets; odd numbers on the south side.
Accommodations: Hotels, inns, boarding houses, and tourist homes are
available throughout the city. Lawrence Hotel, W. loth and Peach Sts.,
400 rooms; restaurant, cafeteria, cocktail lounge, bar, ballroom, and ban
quet room. Ford Hotel, State St. and N. Perry Sq., 400 rooms; restaurant,
and bar. Wayne Hotel, 12 W. i2th St., 54 rooms; restaurant. Milner
Hotel, W. 8th and Peach Sts., 40 rooms; Y. M. C. A., W. loth and
Peach Sts.
Tourist Camps: Available on all main highways near Erie.
Shopping: Eries shopping district is centered at loth and State Sts., and
extends north to yth St., south to i4th St., one block west to Peach St.,
and one block east to French St.
Theatres and Motion Picture Houses: The Community Playhouse, 128 W.
7th St. Plays with amateur casts and professional direction during winter
season. Six motion picture theatres in business section, with 7 others
throughout the city.
Information Service: Travelers Aid Society, Union Station, W. i4th and
Peach Sts.; Y.W.C.A., 130 W. 8th St., Erie Chamber of Commerce, 801
State St.; Erie Motor Club (AAA), Lawrence Hotel, W. loth and Peach
Sts.; Erie Manufacturers Association, Ariel Bldg., 8th and State Sts.,
Y. M. C. A., W. loth and Peach Sts.
Restaurants and Bars: Restaurants and night clubs are numerous in business section. Several of the restaurants specialize in fresh water sea foods.
Most of the hotels have bars. Many of the night clubs offer floor shows,
but much of the night life occurs in private clubs, to which admission may
be gained through members.
Radio Station: WLEU, Commerce Bldg., i2th and State Sts.
Libraries and Exhibits: Public Library, S. Park Row and French Sts.
(open 9-9 daily, 2-5 legal holidays; reading room 2-5 on Sundays); Art
Gallery, second -floor of Library building, (usually open Saturday, Sunday,
and Monday afternoons, closed to the public during July and August;
free); Erie Public Library Museum, library building basement, (open 9-5
daily; free). Fish Hatchery and Aquarium, foot of Chestnut St., (open
9-4 daily; free); Glenwood Park Zoo, (open daily 9-5; feeding time 5; free).
Hospitals: Hamot Hospital, 2nd and State Sts.; St. Vincent s Hospital, W.
24th and Sassafras Sts.; Lake View Hospital, 136 East Ave.; Zem Zem
Hospital, 1501 W. 9th St.
Recreation Facilities: Presque Isle Peninsula State Park, 4.5 m. W. on State
832; 3200 acres of woodland, lagoons, and picnic grounds, with 7 miles of
guarded bathing beaches with bathhouses; wild life, skating, iceboating
and hockey (see COUNTY TOUR 1).
Glenwood Park, Shunpike Rd. and Glenwood Drive; 115 acres, munici
pally owned, with a 9-hole golf course, tennis courts and baseball field;
modern zoo building with many animals, and picnic grounds.
Waldameer Park, 4 m. W. on State 5 and 832; a commercial amusement
park, bathing beach, ballroom, concessions, amusement devices, restaurant
offering music, dancing, floor show, and refreshments.
Athletic Fields: Erie Stadium, 26th and State Sts.; major athletic events
with flood lights for night contests; ice skating in winter.
Roosevelt Field, W. 23rd and Cranberry Sts.; scholastic baseball, foot
ball, tennis.
Glenwood field, Glenwood Park; baseball field, tennis courts, golf
course.
Strong Vincent High School Athletic field, W. 8th and Washington Sts.
General Electric Field, Lawrence Park; baseball, soft ball, and amateur
boxing.
Swimming: Presque Isle Peninsula State Park beaches, 4.5 m. W. on
State 832.
Waterworks Park, maintained on the Peninsula by the Erie Waterworks
Dept. Only locker and checking service on the Peninsula. Pay station
telephone.
Shorewood Beach, 10 m. E. on State 5; cottages.
Manchester-on-the-Lake Beach, 8 m. W. on State 5.
Waterworks Pool, at City Filtration Plant, foot of Chestnut St.
Not far from Erie are other swimming places, such as Lake LeBoeuf at
Waterford, Conneaut Lake at Edinboro, and Eagley s Grove on Lake Erie
i m. north of North Girard. These resorts also afford boating and fishing.
Hunting and Fishing: For rules and regulations governing hunting and
fishing in Erie County, apply to Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Board
of Game Commissioners, and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Board of
Fish Commissioners respectively. Small game abounds; rabbit, squirrel,
pheasant, duck, and geese. Streams of the county are stocked with game
fish. Lake waters abound in pike, perch, and game fish. Hunting license
costs $2.00 for residents, non-residents are charged the same amount as
Pennsylvanians are charged in the non-resident s home State. Fishing li
cense costs $1.50, plus collector s fee of 10 cents. Non-residents are charged
in the same manner as non-resident hunting license applicants. Licenses
are procurable at the County Treasurer s office, Erie County Courthouse.
ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
Golf Courses: Glenwood, Glenwood Park, intersection State 505 and State
99; a 9-hole municipal golf course (daily fee 35$ for 9 holes; 50$ for all day).
Erie Golf Course, 6 m. S. on State 99; an i8-hole municipal golf course
( all day; $16 for season; a fee of $17 entitles a member to play on both
Glenivood and Erie Golf Courses) .
Lake Shore Golf Club, 8 m. W. on State 5; 18 holes; members and
guests only.
Lawrence Park Golf Club, Lawrence Park on State 5, 9 holes (green
fee 7 ).
Kahkwa Golf Club, 5 m. W. on US 20; 18 holes; members only.
Tennis Courts: Erie Tennis and Country Club, Willis Rd. near State 97;
members and guests only.
Lake Shore Golf Club tennis court, Hardscrabble Blvd., State 5
(small fee) .
Free Courts:
Glenwood Park.
Academy High School, 28th and State Sts.
Strong Vincent High School, 1330 W. 8th St.
East High School, 1151 Atkins St.
Technical High School, W. loth and Sassafras Sts.
McKinley Park, 23rd St. and East Ave.
Riding: Algeria Riding Academy, 4.5 m. W. on State 5, saddle horses for
riding on Peninsula bridle trails ($1 per hr.).
ERIE: AN IMPRESSION
Erie, in the far northwest corner on the tiny strip of Pennsylvania s
lake shore line, has developed from a trading post fort to a ranking
industrial and recreational center largely because of three great physical
attributes: Lake Erie with its shipping facilities and moderating
effect upon the local climate; Presque Isle Bay with its landlocked harbor
affording safe anchorage for shipping; and, more recently, Presque
Isle Peninsula State Park with its seven miles of sandy beaches and hundreds of tree-shaded picnic areas offering a cool, breeze-swept recreation
spot for western Pennsylvania.
The lake has figured prominently in the vast program of expansion of
this country as a whole, and more intimately in the history of the city,
but its great economic value is twofold. The presence of this large body
of water tempers the climate, prolonging the normal growing season for
this latitude, making possible the production of grapes and other fruit, a
substantial part of Erie s resources today. The income derived from
fruit-growing directly increases the purchasing power of the farmer, and
therefore the mercantile income of the city. Many of the city s leading
industries are dependent upon the favorable transportation facilities of
the lake, or upon the abundant supply of fresh water. Less important
economically, but of major interest to Erie citizens is the physical beauty
of the lake as a background for their homes and a setting for a constantly changing panorama of cloud and storm and sunset.
The city, lying along a glacial moraine, looks northward across the
bay and the long, embracing arm of the peninsula that forms and protects the bay. This harbor has long been considered, by Erie citizens,
as an index of national business activity a busy, changing scene in summer indicates a period of prosperity; anchored, idle ships mean hard
times. In winter, however, the bay provides a refuge from the lakes
swift, vicious storms. And, although most of the commercial fishing is
done in the lake, it is the bay that provides safe harbor for the fishing
fleets and a base of operations where, along the shore, are docks and
warehouses and home.
In the summer the Peninsula becomes a playground, not only for the
people of Erie, but for much of western Pennsylvania. Long, sandy beaches,
tree-shaded bridle paths, hundreds of well-equipped picnic groves at
tract caravans of cars with thousands of pleasure-seekers. Regardless
of the weather in the city, or farther inland, there is always a fresh,
tempering breeze along the Peninsula. On a late summer afternoon, cars
line the long, looping drive; bright-colored bathing suits mark the favorite beaches; smoke rises through the trees at the picnic groves; laughter
carries far across the water. Erie is earning its reputation as the picnic
city and enjoying it. Yet one whose attention centers wholly on these
recreation areas will carry away a false impression, for the life of the
year-round population is rooted in toil.
The streets of the city are wide and tree-lined, with homes set deep
in wide lawns the predominating style. Several of these older houses
have been included in national architectural surveys for their grace of
design, but the public buildings are not notable from an architectural
standpoint. However, the brisk modernism of the new Federal Building is in refreshing contrast to the prevailing ornate Victorianism of
public and business structures. There are no skyscrapers, and only a
few tall buildings, perhaps because, from its beginning, Erie has had
ample room in which to spread, so that even the business district has a
spacious look.
This quality of spaciousness is all the more evident in several of the
residential areas. Along West 6th Street, in Frontier Place and the Glenwood Park districts attractive homes of varied architectural design are
set in landscaped lawns. Even in the east side section there has been
little of the standardization of row houses though the houses are set
closer together there is always a patch of surrounding lawn and a few
trees on most of the plots. Southward, as the terrain becomes more
hilly, the town merges with the country; homes are predominately one-
acre suburban residences with flower and vegetable gardens set behind
modest frame homes.
Although industry plays an important role in the life of Erie it does
not dominate the physical landscape. Much of the population is foreign-
born or first-generation American. Rambling along the streets, the
visitor will hear the accents of German, Polish, Italian, and Russian residents, drawn to the city in the periods when their brawn or skill was
at a premiumn in its mills and factories. The distinctive characteristics
of the various nationalities easily identify the sections of the city in
which they are concentrated.
Erie, thanks to its three great physical assets, the lake, the bay, and
the peninsula, is a pleasant place in which to live and looks it.
THE CITY AND ITS SETTING
THE city of Erie is situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie in the
northwestern tip of Pennsylvania, almost equi-distant from New York
and Chicago. About 52 miles from east to west, and 4 miles north to
south, its area of 2o l / 2 square miles is bisected by State Street, the main
thoroughfare. Erie occupies a central position in respect to the county,
being 16 miles west of the New York State line, 25 miles east of the Ohio
State line, and 19 miles north of Crawford County.
The city is 1 1 3 feet above lake level and built on a plain, with a gradual
slope from the lake to the first ridge of foothills south of the city limits.
This plain is a broad tract of land two to three miles in width, which
extends along the entire waterfront of the county.
The physiography of the section is distinct from any other in Pennsylvania. It possesses three principal characteristics which are not found in
any other section of the State: lake bluffs, a succession of lake plains
arising like steps from the lake shore, and a series of ravines or gorges
formed by streams that empty into the Lake.
The last glacial period of the eastern Great Lakes area dammed the St.
Lawrence River outlet and the lake level rose above its banks, forming new
escarpments and bottoms. Many smaller lakes were formed along the old
lake shore and as the ice receded, the water levels lowered, leaving dry
beaches where the old lakes once existed. Many of the deep gulfs in the
vicinity of Erie were formed in this manner. The streams were swollen
to a high level and as they fell with the retreat of the ice, deep ravines and
gulfs were cut. A topographical cross section from the lake south shows a
profile of a broad step or cliff, a broad flat a mile or more in width, ending
in another sharp rise of terrain.
Across the bay from Erie is Presque Isle Peninsula, a sandy formation 7
miles in length and about a mile wide. The only one of its kind on the
southern shore of Lake Erie, it was formed by sand, gravel, and shingle
washed by water action from the bluffs and accumulated at this point in a
re-curved sandspit. Some of the bluffs have receded six feet a year over a
period of years. Sand and gravel washed eastward by the predominant
west wind are deposited along the shore line of the peninsula. The accumulation of sand is constantly working the peninsula eastward at a rate of a
mile every 200 years.
The cottonwood trees and grasses on the peninsula form hedges as the
dry sand is blown up from the beaches and piled up along them. The
eastern shore thus extends slowly, and as more sand gathers, the beach is
surrounded and becomes a lagoon. Some of these lagoons fill with drift
ing sand, and in time nothing is left but a sandy plain between the trees
and the beach. These sandy plains and lagoons, which once were a part
of the lake proper, are plainly discernible near the eastern end of the
peninsula.
The region is not rich in mineral resources. Two paleozoic formations
are unusual: the vergent flags and the vergent shales. The vergent flag
formation is a fine-grained gray sandstone in thin layers, separated by
alternative bands of shale. The vergent shales are a mass of gray, blue, and
olive shale and grayish brown sandstone.
A low grade of bog ore was once mined in Mill Creek Township near
Erie, and was used in the foundries for a time. Stone quarries have been
worked in other parts of the county, but Erie was noted only for its brick
clay and gravel. A superior grade of building and foundation brick was
made from this clay.
Gravel banks on an extensive scale have been opened within the city
limits. The gravel is of excellent quality, and is used in the manufacture
of concrete blocks and in concrete building work. Because of the scarcity
of stone, gravel is used locally instead of broken stone for concrete highways, and as a base for asphalt pavements.
Wells drilled in the area have yielded little petroleum, but they usually
have provided sufficient gas for farm and household use.
The county lies within the common isothermal lines of Pennsylvania,
but because of the marked influence of Lake Erie on the climate there is
little sultry weather during the summer months. This condition is some
what offset by the frequency of cloudy days and strong winds during the
winter, spring, and fall months.
According to U. S. Weather Bureau records, Erie is the second cloudiest
city in the country. In 1936 there were 4,300 hours of sunshine of a possible 8,764, this figure varying from a low percentage in winter to a high of 85 percent in July. The mean annual rainfall is 31.65 inches. The
average yearly temperature is 48.8. Recordings of over 90 and below
10 are unusual.
The refreshing, almost continuous, breeze from the lake during the
summer months has made Erie a summer resort city. The peninsula is
another contributing factor to the balanced climate. Storms from the
west often strike the peninsula and veer from their course, missing Erie
completely. It is not unusual to have a light rain or snow in Erie, and a
much heavier storm a few miles away, while the mercury descends even
lower away from the immediate shores of Lake Erie.
HISTORY
THE FRENCH
Tradition connects the names of Etienne Brule and Sieur de
Champlain with early exploration in the Erie district, an explora
tion party of four French missionaries of the Recollet branch of the Franciscan order, 12 French laymen, and four Indians, led by the Reverend
Joseph LeCaron, made the first recorded expedition to the Erie region
in 1615. The region was usually referred to in French journals as the
Niagara valley. They found a tribe of Indians living on the southern
shore of Lake Erie, known as the Cats or Neutral Nation. The French
called them Eries.
The Erie Indians resisted French efforts to civilize them and received
these Franciscans with distrust. The Jesuit priests who later endeavored
to establish a post among them were repulsed and all efforts were
abandoned until the valley was in possession of the Senecas.
The Seneca Indians wrested control of the rich valley from the Eries
in a bloody war which culminated in 1654 with the extermination of the
Eries. The Senecas were friendly to the French, and the first attempts
at European colonization began shortly afterward. Pere Jacques Marquette spent several days at Presque Isle in 1673 with Louis Joliet. They
made the first important chart of Presque Isle Peninsula and the Bay, and
later explored the other Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.
In 1679 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, set out for the western wilderness to establish military posts along the Mississippi and extend the bound
aries of New France. He founded a French colony near the outlet of
Lake Erie into the Niagara River and built the Griff on, the first sailing
vessel launched on Lake Erie.
In the bitter race between the French and English to expand their
boundaries and wrest control of the rich western country from each other,
the French extended their activities into the Mississippi Valley, and the
English moved toward the Ohio Valley. Three savage wars were waged
between the rival powers, King William s, 1689-97; Queen Anne s, 1702-
1713; and King George s, 1744-48, but none of them directly affected the
region.
When King George s War was ended in 1748, the Ohio Company was
organized by 20 Virginians, among them Augustus and George Washington, to develop land in the Ohio River Valley. Christopher Gist and
ten other families settled in what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania,
under authorization of the Ohio Company. The French authorities at
Quebec immediately dispatched troops to garrison the forts at Presque
Isle, LeBoeuf, Venango, and Duquesne.
The first fort was established at Presque Isle in 1753, when 250 men
under Sieur Marin were sent from Montreal to build and garrison a fort
and establish a French colony. They built the fort on the west bank of
Mill Creek, about one hundred yards from its mouth, adjoining the
grounds of the present Soldiers and Sailors Home. A French village
consisting of one hundred families, a Catholic priest, a school master, and
a grist mill was established. Land was cleared and cornfields cultivated.
George Washington was selected by Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia
to notify the French they must withdraw their soldiers from the territory
west of the Allegheny Mountains, as it rightfully belonged to the British.
Washington started out on his journey in 1753 with instructions to communicate with the friendly Indians at Logstown and to proceed to the
French headquarters and demand an answer to Dinwiddie s letter. He was
accompanied on his wilderness journey by Christopher Gist, Jacob Van
Braam, John Davison, and by the Indian chiefs, Jesakake, Tanacharison
or Half-King, and White Thunder.
The Indians went along because, as one of their chiefs said, "The English claim all the land on one side of the river, and the French all the land
on the other side of the river, so the Indians wonder if the only land they
own is at the bottom of the river." The Indians were angered at the
French answer to this conundrum when Tanacharison had protested to
the French commander at Fort Presque Isle. "The Indians," haughtily
replied the commander, "are like flies and mosquitoes, and the number
of the French as the sands of the sea shore. Here is your wampum. I
fling it at you."
Washington was treated with great courtesy by Captain Jean Coeur
at Venango (Franklin) and advised to see the commanders of Forts Presque
Isle and LeBoeuf. At Fort LeBoeuf, Commander St. Pierre and Captain
Reparti of Fort Presque Isle held a council of war, giving Washington
and his men an opportunity to make notes concerning French fortifications and the dimensions of their fort. According to their notes, the fort
had one hundred men, exclusive of a large number of officers, fifty birch
canoes, and seventy pine canoes.
Through the artifice of many presents and frequent resort to the wine
jug, the French successfully evaded any direct committal of their intentions. Washington, in his Journal, comments on their dilatory tactics:
"I cannot say that ever in my life I suffered so much anxiety as I did
in this affair. I saw that every strategem which the most fruitful brain
could invent was practiced to win the Half -King to their interests, and
that leaving him there was giving them the opportunity aimed at. I
went to the Half-King and pressed him in the strongest terms. He told
me that the commandant would not discharge him until the morning. I
then went to the commandant, and desired him to do their business, and
complained of ill treatment, for keeping them, as they were part of my
company, was detaining me. This he promised not to do, but to forward
my journey as much as possible. He protested that he did not keep them,
but was ignorant of the cause of their stay; tho I soon found it out; he
promised them a present of guns, etc., if they would wait until morning."
After many difficulties, Washington, then but a youth, finally completed his mission, although its main objective was not achieved. While
the French treated him with all deference and respect, they politely
pointed out that they were under orders from a superior officer and had
no choice but to carry out these orders, requesting the English to communicate with their superior in Canada. However, he did manage to
obtain vital information concerning French strength at Forts LeBoeuf and
Presque Isle.
The Senecas were alarmed by the establishment of a French garrison
at Presque Isle and sent a delegation to Marin at LeBoeuf (Waterford)
to inquire whether he was "marching with banner uplifted or to establish
tranquillity." His tactful answer that he intended to help them "drive
away the evil spirits (the English) that encompass the earth," appeased
the Indians and they zealously assisted the French. The French through
out exercised more tact than the English in their dealings with the
Indians, treating them courteously and giving them numerous presents,
whereas the English aroused Indian resentment because of their superior
attitude and coldness. DeVaudrail, in a letter from Montreal, August 8,
1756, wrote: "The domiciliated Massassaugues of Presque Isle have been
out to the number of ten against the English and have taken one prisoner
and two scalps and gave them to cover the death of M. de St. Pierre."
The strategic importance of the Presque Isle site was soon apparent.
The portage to LeBoeuf was short, and from there canoes readily could
be paddled down French Creek and the Allegheny River to link the
French forts. General DuQuesne, commenting on the importance of the
fort in a letter to the French Minister, July 6, 1755, wrote: "The fort at
Presque Isle serves as a depot for all others on the Ohio. . . . The effects
are put on board pirogues at Fort LeBoeuf. ... At the latter fort the
prairies, which are extensive, furnish only bad hay. ... At Presque Isle
the hay is very abundant and good. The quantity of pirogues constructed
on the River LeBoeuf has exhausted all the large trees in the neighborhood." His letter continued with high praise of the harbor at Presque Isle.
The French planned to establish a chain of forts from Quebec along
Lakes Ontario and Erie and the waters of French Creek and the Allegheny
River to Fort Duquesne, and from there along the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.
The English were aware of the French strategy and took all possible
steps to checkmate them. A plan was advanced to block the French in
their attempts at expansion and control. If they could control the pass
at Niagara, it would make it impossible for the French to communicate
with their garrison at Presque Isle except through a tedious and difficult
passage. If the fort at Presque Isle could be taken, the French then could
send no supplies or provisions to Forts LeBoeuf and Duquesne. English
control of Presque Isle would enable them to transport troops and materials
much more speedily and economically than by sending an overland
expedition from Virginia to Ohio.
The English finally managed to win some of the Indian tribes over to
their side in 1757 and the French were compelled to maintain a garrison
of one hundred men at Presque Isle to ward off English and Indian attacks.
General Braddock had lost his life in his futile attempt to capture the
French forts in 1754, but General John Forbes was successful in driving
the French from four Pennsylvania forts in 1759. The French abandoned
Fort Presque Isle after a dramatic parting with their Indian friends,
promising an early return. But French domination of the Erie country
was over.
THE BRITISH
The French and Indian War closed in 1760, leaving the western country
under British control. Presque Isle was the last of the French forts south
of Lake Erie to be abandoned and when the English came into this section
in 1760, Colonel Bouquet rebuilt the fort, and ordered the forts at LeBoeuf
and Venango put in good condition.
The Indians resented English attempts to expand and, because of the
threat of Indian massacres, no attempts were made to attract settlers to
Presque Isle. A band of Senecas, during Pontiac s Conspiracy, captured
the forts at Presque Isle and LeBoeuf in 1763 and roamed this district unmolested until the British lost the western country to the United States
under the peace treaty of 1783.
Despite the treaty, the English were reluctant to abandon their forts
and maintained garrisons at some of them, realizing the importance of
Fort Presque Isle to their dreams of a western dominion. In order to
hamper American settlement they instigated the Indians to organize raiding and marauding parties.
Pennsylvania acquired title to the northwestern part of the State in a
treaty with the Six Nations in 1784. A dispute arose over the Triangle
lands in 1785 between Pennsylvania and New York. Major Andrew
Ellicott for Pennsylvania and James Clinton and Simeon DeWitt for New
York were appointed to establish the boundary lines between the States.
They surveyed the line from the Delaware River to Lake Erie and the
western boundary of New York was fixed at 20 miles east of Presque Isle.
A triangular tract of land was left which was not included in the charter
of either State and which Massachusetts and Connecticut also claimed.
A later treaty was made between Pennsylvania and the Six Nations in
1789 giving jurisdiction over the Triangle Lands to Pennsylvania. Gen.
William Irvine was impressed by the fine natural harbor at Presque Isle
and interested a number of citizens in trying to obtain it for Pennsylvania.
New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut ceded their claims to the
United States. In 1792 the Triangle Lands, embracing 202,187 acres, were
sold to Pennsylvania for $151,640.25. To adjust Indian claims, Pennsylvania paid them $2,000 and the United States settled for $1,200. Chiefs
Cornplanter, Half Town, and Big Tree were paid an additional $800.
The Six Nations were still displeased with the arrangement and displayed open hostility. Joseph Brant, a powerful Mohawk chief, tried to
organize the Indians in a war, which was averted only through the efforts
of Cornplanter. An Indian council was held at Buffalo early in 1794 in
protest against the Presque Isle settlement. Another council was held at
LeBoeuf on July 4, 1794, when the Indians repeated their intention to
prevent the establishment of a garrison at Presque Isle.
The Indians remained sullen in spite of attempts to pacify them, and in
dulged in sporadic skirmishes with the settlers. General Wayne, who had
established a garrison at Erie in his western warfare with the Indians,
finally crushed the backbone of Indian unrest in the Battle of Fallen
Timbers on the Maumee River in 1794 and the Indians were quick to
come to terms. Wayne completed a treaty of peace with the western
tribes at Greenville, Ohio, in 1795.
Gen. William Irvine and Maj. Andrew Ellicott had been appointed
to construct a road from Reading to Presque Isle in 1794, and to lay out
a town at Presque Isle. Albert Gallatin, later Secretary of the Treasury,
was appointed to assist them. Due to Indian trouble, it was necessary to
send troops to protect the settlers, but preparations for the establishment
of a town at Presque Isle were suspended because of possible hostilities with
the Indians. The settlers openly voiced their indignation until Governor
MifHin made it plain that he was acting under orders from President
Washington.
Captain Denny arrived at LeBoeuf in 1794 with a detachment of troops
under instructions to remain there until further orders. Major Ellicott
revealed the hostile attitude of the Indians in a letter: "The Indians consider themselves our enemies and that we are theirs. From this considera
tion they never come near the garrison except as spies and then escape
as soon as discovered."
After strenuous American protests, the British eventually abided by the
treaty of 1783 and abandoned all claim to the western country, including
all garrisons, forts, and military posts. A treaty of peace concluded at
Canadaigua in 1794 removed all final obstacles to the laying out of a town
at Presque Isle. Ellicott had laid out the town of Waterford in 1794, and
the following spring proceeded to Presque Isle where he laid out the town
of Erie in June, 1795. Ellicott was later to redraft L Enfant s plan of
Washington, D. C.
THE AMERICANS
Capt. Russell Bissell, with two hundred men from Wayne s Army,
landed at Presque Isle in the spring of 1795 and built two block houses
on the bluff overlooking the harbor entrance, just east of the mouth of
Mill Creek. The men cleared land for a cornfield, built a sawmill to
supply lumber for the barracks occupied by the troops, and within a
year completed a warehouse and stockade.
The first settlers to locate permanently within the county were Thomas
Rees and John Grubb, who arrived here in the spring of 1795. Later in
the same year William Miles and William Cook, with their wives, made
a settlement in Concord Township. Col. Seth Reed, accompanied by his
wife, and two sons, arrived during the same year and took up lands in
McKean Township. Other settlers at Erie during 1795 were Rufus S.
Reed, and George W. Reed, James Baird and children, Mrs. Thomas Rees,
and Mrs. J. Fairbanks. Among some of the outstanding men who followed them in the next few years were Capt. Daniel Dobbins, Judah Colt,
Timothy Tuttle, Jacob Weiss, and William Wallace.
The region was a dense forest at the time the first settlers arrived.
HISTORY
Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres and later King of France, was enter
tained at the mouth of Mill Creek in 1795 by Thomas Rees and was greatly
impressed by the beauty of the wilderness scenery.
Migration to this section was slow during the first five years after laying
out the town because of Indian opposition. The entire population of the
Triangle in 1800 was 237, with 81 at Erie. After 1805, the county began
to be settled more rapidly, and Erie had a population of 394 in 1810.
Most of the settlers prior to 1800 came from New England and New York.
Subsequent migrations were also from the same sections.
Erie County was made a separate county in 1800 with Erie designated
as the place for holding court. The first election in the county had been
held at Erie in 1798 while it was still part of Allegheny County. Erie was
incorporated as a borough in 1805, and the first election was held on
May 5, 1806. The boundaries of the borough extended from the bay
south to i zth Street and from Chestnut Street to Parade Street, practically
forming a one mile square.
The first act of borough council at their meeting May 9, 1806, was
to fix the pay of Regulators, or streets commissioners, at one dollar per
day. All the meetings were held at the village inn. In the 1806 election
a burgess, five councilmen, and a constable were elected. The newly
elected officers met at the Buehler Hotel and appointed a town clerk,
three street commissioners, and a treasurer. The first ordinance passed
by the borough council was made at the first meeting and provided for
the examination and regulation of Second Street from the west side of
Parade Street to the east side of French Street to the north side of Sixth
Street, the marking of street intersections, driveways, and other matters
pertaining to the town plan.
Erie was still a straggling village of around 400 inhabitants when war
with England was declared in 1812. Western settlers looked with alarm
at their well organized enemy across the lakes. Erie, while regarded as
one of the most important points on the south shore of Lake Erie, had
only a handful of buildings at the time, and the territory between Buffalo
and Sandusky was sparsely settled. The British were in a favorable position
to strike a fatal blow at any time.
Capt. Daniel Dobbins acquainted President Madison with the dangerous
situation and was authorized to build a fleet. The construction of ships
was begun under great handicaps, lack of finances, materials, and men. A
young naval lieutenant, Oliver Hazard Perry, was commissioned to take
command of the Lake Erie fleet. He arrived in Erie March 27, 1813, and
personally supervised the building of the two largest ships.
Considerable difficulty was experienced in getting the two large ships,
Lawrence and Niagara, over the sand bar at the entrance to the harbor,
but they were finally lifted over and the fleet sailed out August i2th with
about four hundred men, their objective being San dusky where they
were to meet Gen. William Henry Harrison s army.
Perry s startling and brilliant victory in the Battle of Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, routed the British from the Great Lakes and turned the eyes
of the world upon Erie (see COUNTY TOUR 1). The citations of
Perry and his men, by a grateful Congress, and the wild acclaim of
the entire Nation, was reflected directly upon Erie. Large numbers of
militia, marines, and sailors stationed at Erie strutted around the town,
basking in the glory of the victory, the only time in naval history that
an entire British squadron had been made to surrender. Wild rumors of
marauding Indians and British expeditions marching to burn Erie lent an
air of tense excitement and confusion to the town.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
The first mode of travel was by foot, horseback, or water. The roads
were rough, muddy, and impassable at certain times of the year. When
they were somewhat improved around 1810, the two-horse wagons were
introduced. These wagons were crude affairs covered with cotton cloth
stretched over hickory ribs, furnishing shelter for the entire family and
its goods. Supplies for Perry s fleet were transported in flat boats to
Waterford and from there by way of the turnpike to Erie.
The opening of the salt trade in 1800 did much to develop Erie as a
port and a transportation center. The salt was shipped from Buffalo to
Erie, then carried to Waterford by ox teams, where it was transported
down French Creek and the Allegheny River on flatboats to Pittsburgh.
During the height of the trade, it was estimated that one hundred teams
of oxen were constantly on the road between Erie and Waterford trans
porting salt. Vessels leaving Buffalo for the West were loaded principally
with salt from 1805 to 1810. Six thousand barrels of salt were registered
at the Customs House in Erie in 1808, and the figure reached a peak of
18,000 in 1811.
Some dissension arose as to whether the salt trade was beneficial to the
county. An "Old Salt-hauler" gave his views in the Erie Mirror, January,
1809, stating that, "The farmers were obliged to haul salt to procure the
comforts, if not the necessities of life, such as sugar, tea, coffee, wearing
apparel, etc., as salt seemed to be the current medium of trade during the
embargo; it was the only commodity they had for market or exchange,
the greater the traffic the more the farmers progressed in the improve
ment of the soil."
The freightage charge from Buffalo to Erie was 87 1 / 2 $ per barrel, with
a 12 1 / 2 charge for storage. It cost $1.50 a barrel to haul the salt from Erie
to Waterf ord and $ i from there to Pittsburgh. The receipts to the transporters aggregated $42,000 in one year and the trip from Salina, N. Y.,
to Pittsburgh took from four to six months. The salt trade became so important that at one time salt was the only circulation medium in the section, with oxen and other commodities being paid for in salt. The discovery of salt wells nearer Pittsburgh was responsible for the abandon
ment of the Erie trade in 1819.
Sawmills, gristmills, tanneries, and breweries were erected all over the
county and prospered until shortly after the War of 1812. Every stream
that could develop power was used to drive from one to a dozen wheels.
The county at that time was covered with forests but, with the gradual
cutting of the timber, the streams dried up and the mills fell into disuse.
The early settlers were a hardy lot of people who lived in a frugal
manner. Mush, corn, bread, and potatoes were the principal foods, with
flour, pork, and sugar looked upon as luxuries. Any meat that graced
the table came from the pioneer s backyard, for the county abounded
with game.
Mills were far apart and the roads through the woods mere pathways.
Small loads of grist were carried on the backs of horses or men, and it
was not unusual to see men carrying bags of grain on their backs from
Waterford or farther to be ground at Erie. Few families had stoves and
cooking was usually done over open fires. Beds were made up by laying
blankets over boxes or rude frames. Every house had a spinning wheel
and many were provided with a loom to make home-made clothing.
Liquor was distilled on most farms and few families were without a bottle
for the safety of guests that might be bitten by the poisonous snakes
reported but seldom seen in the county.
The pioneer s home was usually a log cabin of unhewn logs laid one
upon the other, the crevices filled in with mud. As conditions improved,
structures of hewn timber were erected, mortar displacing mud. Wall
paper was unknown and many houses were without window glass. As
saw mills increased in number, frame buildings of a better character were
substituted for the log cabins. An occasional brick or stone structure was
regarded as an architectural marvel.
At the "raisings," when a new residence or barn was to be erected,
neighbors and friends from miles around were invited. Liquor and cider
flowed freely at these combination community work and merry-making
events.
The dense forest covering the county abounded with deer, wolves,
bears, panthers, rabbits, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, oppossums, minks,
skunks, martins, and some wild cattle or buffalo. All except the smaller game, and one or two small herds of deer are extinct today. Deer were so
abundant that hunters lay in wait for them at numerous deer licks within
the county and slaughtered them mercilessly. The wolves destroyed so
much stock that a bounty of twelve dollars a head was offered for them.
Pigeons, ducks, geese, pheasants, partridges, and turkeys were plentiful,
and the lakes and streams teemed with fish.
A disturbing factor in the pioneer s life was the Indians. They were
generally friendly to the settlers except when under the influence of
whiskey, but the ease with which they obtained liquor from the traders
made them a constant menace. Most of these red men were good-natured
friends of the white man, bearing such curious names as Half Town,
Cheat, Twenty Canoes, Laughing Thief, Surly Bear, and Stinking Fish,
usually descriptive of a possession or personal characteristic; occasionally,
as with our nicknames, they marked a childishly frank and brutal humor.
The city gradually began to expand from its early location around
Third and French Streets westward. Third Street was the most important
business thoroughfare until the early iSzo s when it was superseded by
French Street, which remained the busiest until the i860's.
Immigration of the Pennsylvania Germans set in around 1825, followed
by Irish and German immigrants ten years later, boosting the population
to 1465 in 1830, more than double that of the previous decade.
A branch of the United States Bank of Pennsylvania was established at
Erie in 1837 and sold $200,000 worth of stock in one day. This, coupled
with the previous surveying of the canal to Beaver, the charter granted
for a railroad to Sunbury, and Government work in building piers and
deepening the harbor, gave strength to the belief that Erie was destined
to become a great city. Prices of real estate skyrocketed, one lot purchased
for $10,000 selling a month later for $50,000. The speculation lasted
until 1839, when bank failures throughout the Nation caused a serious
panic.
Industries which later were destined to play an important role in Erie's
development started during this period. The fishing industry, which later
gave Erie the name of being the largest fresh water fishing port in the
world, began with the establishment of the Shaw Fish Company in 1821.
The establishment of the Hinkley, Jarvis Company in 1833 started Erie
on the road to industrial importance. This company was the forerunner
of the heavy manufacture of engines and boilers in latter day industry.
The opening of the Erie and Pittsburgh Canal in 1844 brought a boom
to business in the section (see TRANSPORTATION). The canal did a
profitable business for thirty years and lapsed quietly, despite the protests
of the canal men, when the Erie and Pittsburgh Railroad bought it to
eliminate competition.
The oilcloth industry began in Erie in 1840 and soon there were a
dozen such plants in operation. They were shortlived, however, dying
out during the Civil War industrial scare.
Erie obtained its city charter in 1851, a short time before it began
to vie with other sections of the country in the sometimes mad construction of railroad lines in all directions. Short roads were built, later to be
consolidated into larger lines. The wild period of railroad construction
reached its peak with the so-called Railroad War, in which Erie citizens
vigorously protested what they considered a death blow at the towns
growth (see TRANSPORTATION).
Despite the Civil War and its effect of frightening away capital investment and industry, the decade from 1860 to 1870 saw the largest numerical
increase in population to that time, when Erie gained from 9,414 to 19,646.
The first foreign immigration really began during this period with small
numbers of Germans, Italians, and Poles coming in. Railroad consolidation began to be felt and national expansion westward bulged over into
this territory. The village of South Erie was incorporated as a borough
in 1866 and consolidated with Erie in 1870.
When oil was first discovered at Titusville in 1859, Erie again saw
an opportunity to become a large city. Twenty refineries were set up
in a short time and production mounted from 325 barrels to a peak of
15,092 barrels in two years. The peculiar structure of the railroads and
their schedule of rates apparently discriminated in favor of a few and
the local oil companies were discouraged by being overcharged by the
roads. Refinery after refinery moved out, and another boom had hit
Erie and left it without visibly affecting its economic status.
The oil boom of the 6o s brought a large demand for drills, fittings, pipe
and oil well machinery, and dozens of little shops that had located here
with the rise of Northern industry prospered. The factories were first
set up only to satisfy local consumption; among these were oilcloth factories, bakeries, breweries, packing houses, stove works, oil refineries,
and clothing and textile plants. Erie was termed "the home of cockroach
industries" because it was a city of small shops. The tendency toward
small scale production was affected by the manner of development of
the city s economic life. Craftsmen set up little plants and slowly expanded them in line with the demand.
Commodity prices doubled and tripled during the Civil War period be
cause of the issuance of script by the local authorities and "greenbacks"
by the Federal Government.
Until 1862 employees rarely received as much as a dollar in cash for
their labor. Workers were paid mostly in printed due bills good for
merchandise. The State passed a law prohibiting the issuance of these due bills, but the New Furnace Company circumvented the law by
issuing metal tokens, called pewteringtum. The due bills, which were
used even during the construction of the Erie and Pittsburgh Canal, were
called "blue crackee," colloquially called "crackee and be d d." Uncertain fluctuations of National currency during this period made the
blue crackee often preferable to National currency.
Life in the county during the yo s changed from the colorful, romantic
life of the boatmen to the uncertain one of politics. Erie became politically minded during the 1850 $ and attained sufficient prominence in 1875
to entertain the only State assemblage of either party when the Democrats
convened in Erie. The citizens took their politics seriously, and were
often moved to vigorous action. Newspaper owners and editors were
political czars, and their offices the center of all prominent politicians. On
several occasions irate citizens raided newspaper plants and destroyed them
in the frenzy of a political campaign.
Erie continued to expand after 1870 and almost tripled its 1870 popula
tion during the next thirty years. The gradual influx of immigrants and
the steady increase in industrial activity were the primary factors in this
development. The town was caught between the Buffalo trading area,
with its superior communication and transportation connections with the
Atlantic coast, and Cleveland, the western railroad division head and
refinery center. Erie could scarcely hope to compete on equal terms
with these cities. But its transportational advantages still existed and much
of the overflow trade from the East and West found its way here.
In 1885 Erie adopted the electric trolley system, being the second city
in the United States to do so. With the organization of interurban and
suburban lines in all directions shortly afterwards, a consolidation of the
county s population drew the people into a more compact trading group.
While there were no outstanding local events of major importance,
exclusive of National development, many industries located in Erie and
expanded. The Hammermill Paper Company came to Erie in 1898 and
probably marked the first step in bringing nation-wide attention to Erie's
industries. Other industries which had been struggling through the formative years of 1870 and 1880 were firmly entrenching themselves to
participate in the golden industrial eras soon to follow.
By 1900 Erie had become nationally known for the manufacture of its
engines and boilers, which were shipped to all parts of the world. The
establishment of a branch of the General Electric plant in 1911 once again
focused attention on the advantages of Erie s location, and its large labor
reserve.
War clouds hanging over Europe brought a flood of immigrants to
the section. Thousands of Italians, Poles, and Germans thronged to Erie as laborers in its many industries. When America entered the World
War, many of the local plants were easily adapted to the manufacture
of munitions, and Erie knew a prosperity that it had never known before.
Workers in crowded factories toiled day and night, drawing fabulous
wages in comparison to the pre-war period. Money flowed freely, and
there was a further expansion of industry.
By 1920 Erie had a population of 93,372. The Mill Creek flood of
1915, with a loss of 25 lives and property damage of $2,000,000, had, some
what paradoxically, led to certain city-wide improvements. A flood control tube was built, many new sewer lines were laid, streets and parks
were beautified, and a school building program was begun that gave
Erie three well-equipped high schools.
The significance of industry in Erie s development may be seen from
a comparison of the total numbers of employees and Erie s population. In
1900, with a total number of 10,579 employees, Erie had a population of
52,733. Twenty years later the total number of employees had increased
to 24,783, or an increase of more than 140 percent, while its population
had increased to 93,372, or only 66 percent.
On the momentum of the post-war boom Erie hit an all time mark of
$40,000,000 in total wages and salaries in 1920, a figure that was not again
equalled until the banner year of 1929. After 1929 Erie s "durable goods"
industries were adversely affected by the Depression. However, a measure
of recovery has been achieved (1938), and today Erie is third in the
diversity of industries for cities of its size.
TALES AND LEGENDS
COMPETITIVE sports were played between Indian tribes before the
coming of the white man. Foot races, wrestling matches, and weight
throwing contests were quite common. Baseball had its antecedents in a
game the French named la crosse. Called "boggataway" by the Indians,
it is probably the oldest sport in America, and the game furnishes a legendary background for a war between the Eries and Senecas which re
sulted in the virtual extermination of the Erie tribe in 1654.
For years a feud had existed between the two tribes, a feud which had
never broken into open hostilities because of the peaceful influence of an
Indian queen, Yagowanea, who was respected and revered by all the
Indian tribes living in the New York-Pennsylvania region. Attempts of
the Eries to embroil the Senecas in war had often been halted by this wise
old woman, and it was not until the Eries insulted the Senecas during a
boggataway game that open warfare became inevitable.
The game was played with a curved hickory stick, the loop of which
was netted with gut and rawhide. The Eries lost a contest to the Senecas,
and immediately challenged them to a foot race, intending somehow to
humiliate their rivals. The winners were to scalp the losers with their
own tomahawks. Again the Senecas won, but they refused to carry out
the bloody bargain.
A few weeks after the boggataway game, the legend says, a group of
Erie warriors went to Yagowanea with an unjustified grievance against
two Seneca chieftains who were visiting in the Eries camp. In a moment
of absentmindedness the queen found the Seneca warriors guilty of the
trumped-up charge and gave the complaining Erie warriors permission to execute the Senecas, thus bringing about the Erie-Seneca War. The
Iroquois Confederation joined with the Senecas, and the Eries were completely routed. Remnants of the once powerful tribe were split into small
groups and distributed among tribes friendly to the Senecas.
There are several stories concerning the fall of Fort Presque Isle to the
Senecas during Pontiac s Conspiracy in 1763. One of these, exemplary of
the red man s cunning, states that an Indian appeared at the Fort and told
the British commander that his canoe, laden with furs from Detroit, had
sprung bad leaks and could proceed no further. He asked the commander
if he wished to purchase the furs, as the Indians were anxious to return
home and would sell the furs at a sacrifice price. The commander was
suspicious, but the Indian answered his questions readily. Still somewhat
distrustful, the commander left the fort with two men to inspect the furs,
giving instructions not to admit anyone to the fort until he returned.
An hour later, several Indians laden with furs appeared at the gate.
They asked the garrison to open the gates so that they might deliver the
furs according to the commander s instructions. They said that the commander would be back soon. As soon as the gates were opened the Indians
dropped their furs and drew tomahawks, which had been concealed in
their clothing, and held the gates open long enough to permit a waiting
army of hidden Indians to enter and massacre the British garrison.
One of the stories told about Gen. Anthony Wayne and the Indians,
which is probably more fiction than fact, tells of the time when Wayne
and two of his men in a canoe were fired upon by an Indian war party
on shore. Wayne and his men paddled vigorously in an attempt to get
out of range of the bullets. But a large Indian war canoe loaded with
warriors brandishing tomahawks suddenly appeared, blocking their
progress and heading them towards shore.
Caught between the two hostile parties, Wayne quickly ordered his
men to overturn the canoe. While they held on, he swam under water
to the Indian war canoe and, coming up underneath it, gave it a mighty
shove, dumping its cargo into the Lake. He snatched a tomahawk from
one of the Indians and attacked them so viciously that they swam away,
leaving Wayne and his two soldiers to continue their journey unmolested.
So great was the Indian fear of Wayne that, even after his death, some
Indians abided by a treaty they had made with the settlers, saying that
the ghost of Wayne had appeared menacingly before them. It is regrettable that the whites did not show as much respect for this American
hero, for when his son disinterred Wayne s body in 1 809 in order to transport it to Radnor for burial he found that some culprit had pilfered
Wayne s remaining good boot.
Early borough ordinances reflect the rude civilization of the frontier.
One dated 1810 called out every man to dig out stumps in the main streets.
Another ordinance required convicted drunkards to dig three stumps
from the town s streets as punishment.
Money was scarce among the early settlers. Few of them were able to
employ labor in accomplishing a difficult task. It became the custom
among the settlers to combine their labor in mutual assistance. Thus,
when a family built a log house, neighbors from the vicinity gathered on
an appointed day, felled trees, and hauled them to the site of the new
house. Entire families gathered for these events. The women prepared
the food, and gossiped as they knitted socks, underclothing, and scarves
for their husbands and children.
In the cutting of trees a suitable clearing was provided for a garden
and cornfield. Brush and undergrowth were removed and piled in heaps
for burning. Stumps usually stood for two or three years after the land
was cleared, gradually drying out, and becoming seasoned for fuel.
Following the long day s labor, the settlers gathered at the fireside of
the new house to drink home-distilled whisky and recount tales of their
daily lives. As the evening progressed a squeaky fiddle would be brought
on and a square dance begun. Until early morning, the younger members
of the group swung and swayed to Money Musk, the Virginia Reel, and
Turkey in the Straw. The marriage of a young couple furnished sufficient
excuse for another logging and house building. Few settlers could get
along without the help of neighbors in the early days.
Characteristic of the early pioneer life in this section is a tale of a
"wild boar" hunt. The pioneers were always chasing wolves, panthers,
and bears, so it did not strike them as unusual when one man reported that
his cornfield was being ravaged by wild boar. With equal resignation they
would have picked up their rifles if a Bengal tiger or an African lion had
been reported in the vicinity. They soon tracked the boar down and shot
him.
The hunting party took it to a neighbor s home, dressed it and prepared
for an epicurean revel. Hardly had the feast begun when another settler
appeared and claimed that the boar was a pig, and his own pig at that,
which had strayed off his premises a year ago. The killer insisted on his
rights and a free-for-all fight followed. The minor riot was finally settled
with the original owner receiving a quarter of the "wild boar" and the
feast continued on its merry way.
Erie first attracted National attention in 1813, when Commodore Oliver
Hazard Perry arrived to take command of the Great Lakes fleet. The
period of the building of the fleet and immediately following the great
victory in the Battle of Lake Erie can properly be called the golden era
of Erie s history. The influx of sailors and militia gave a boom to the straggling town, and the intoxication of victory filled the air. The town
became known as the "mother-in-law of the American Navy," and weddings and engagements were many.
The sailors were as quick to fight on land as on sea. Many disputes arose
about the Battle of Lake Erie, after Perry s departure, and some questioned
Captain Elliott s conduct during the engagement. Quarrels broke out
between Perry s and Elliott s adherents, and many duels were fought.
In one of the duels, Midshipman Senat, who commanded the Porcupine
during the battle, was killed by Acting-Master McDonald. Some people
maintained that the dispute was occasioned by the number of buttons
on McDonald s suit, but most of their contemporaries agreed that the
argument arose over Elliott s wisdom in hanging back with his large ship,
the Niagara, leaving Perry s flagship, the Lawrence, to be riddled by the
British.
Two marines were shot during this period for desertion, and a seaman
was hanged to the yard-arm of the Niagara. James Bird was one of the
marines tried for desertion and executed. A sergeant, Bird had been placed
in charge of a storehouse, which post he deserted. He was found guilty
by a court martial and the sentence approved by the President. The story
goes that Perry, who had left Erie, ordered a pardon to stay Bird s execution, but that it arrived after he was shot. One of the most popular of the
flood of songs which followed Perry s victory was the Ballad of James
Bird, a lugubrious ditty of Bird s heroism and sad end that was often
recited at meetings and in barrooms.
One of the stories coming down from the period following Colonel
Drake s discovery of oil in 1859 centered around "Coal Oil Johnny"
Steele. Steele, an orphan, found himself rich overnight when oil was
struck on his farm. He went on one of the most glorious spending sprees
Northwestern Pennsylvania had ever seen. It was nothing unusual for him,
so the story goes, when the proprietor of a hotel insisted that Johnny s
party had become too boisterous, to buy the hotel and continue the party.
Another story deals with one of his unusual habits hiring a cab and
tacking ten dollar bills all over the upholstery. Driving to Erie, he would
stop in front of a bar room, pluck a ten dollar bill from the upholstery,
order a drink for everybody, have one himself, and drive off to another
spot. At the close of the evening s roistering all money left in the cab
was given to the driver. Steele soon found himself with neither friends
nor money. But as luck would have it, he came on a forgotten $20,000
deposit in a bank, and having learned his lesson well began to lead a wiser
and saner life.
NATIONALITY GROUPS
THE French village of 100 families established by French explorers
near Fort Presque Isle in 1753 was abandoned six years later, ending
the first European effort to colonize the Great Lakes area. The first
American settlers arrived in the region in 1795, coming mainly from New
England, New York, and southern Pennsylvania.
Foreign immigration began with the arrival of a large number of Ger
mans in 1830. The Finns came in 1850, followed by the Italians in 1860.
In 1865 a few Poles began to arrive, driven from Europe by floods and
low wages. Many of these immigrants were so poor that they had to
depend upon relatives already in the country or upon steamship and land
companies for their passage money. In the post-Civil War period, thou
sands of them were brought in to build railroads and work in coal mines.
Although many of the newcomers were penniless, they represented a
good investment to land speculators and industrialists. Immigrants continued to arrive until 1914. Armenians, Hungarians, and Turks came in
small numbers, but many Italians, Germans, and Poles arrived.
According to recent figures, the three largest National groups in Erie
are the German, with approximately 30,000; Polish, with 20,000; and the
Italian, with 18,000.
A city directory published in 1853 reveals that Germans predominated
in the building trades. The Germans were quick to exert their influence
on the city. Those of the Catholic faith banded together, breaking away
from the business section then on French street, to concentrate in the
vicinity of German and Parade Streets, between 8th and 9th Streets. They
built a frame church there in 1833 and the present St. Mary s Church on
the same location.
The Protestant group organized St. John s Lutheran Church in 1835
and, two years later, the Salem Evangelical Association for Germans in
America was founded. A German language newspaper, the Zuschauer,
came out in 1851. This paper became, in turn, the Freie Presse, the Tageblatt, and the present (1938) Deutsche Zeitung. In 1862 the Erie Liederstafel, the first German singing society, was formed; six years later a
Turnverein was organized.
At first the German people favored the neighborhood of German and
Holland Streets, between 9th and loth Streets. Now they are spread
throughout the city, predominating in the East and West 2 6th Street
districts. Many of their stores originally were community centers, where
only the German language was spoken. Societies were established, and
after considerable agitation, a German Free School was built. The school
was abandoned when the public school system had become firmly entrenched in the city.
The Civil War did much to break down the barriers of misunderstand
ing and distrust among nationality groups. There was a prompt response
on the part of Germans to the call to arms and a regiment went from Erie,
commanded by Colonel Schlaudecker, with several German officers. The
patriotic spirit of the Germans in the war was the most important single
factor in welding together the nationalities. A German, P. A. Becker,
was elected mayor in 1883. Two of his outstanding acts in office were
the introduction of electricity in street lighting and the construction of
a new City Hall.
The Italian influx began in 1860, but did not become pronounced until
1914. They came from Abruzzi, Campobosso, and Naples in the south;
and from Rome, Pisa, and Tuscany in the north; with some from Sicily
and Calabria. Many of the Italians from southern Italy and Sicily are
concentrated in the district between i5th and i8th Streets, west of State
Street; and between Myrtle and Raspberry Streets. Those from northern
Italy have settled along East 25th, 26th, and 27th Streets and from Pennsylvania Avenue to the southern city limits.
The census of 1870 lists but 18 Poles, a figure which was increased in
1930 to 20,000. St. Stanislaus Church, East i3th and Wallace Streets, one
of the outstanding religious edifices in the city, was begun in 1883. It
is attended largely by persons of Polish extraction and is a center for
their community activities. The largest group of Poles is near St. Stanislaus Church. A second group is in the section from East Avenue to the
eastern city limits, between 6th and i2th Streets, while a third group is
in St. Hedwig s parish on East 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Streets.
Other nationalities are scattered throughout the city: Russians largely
around East Front Street, and on Parade Street, between 2nd and 3rd
Streets; the Slovaks on Pennsylvania Avenue from 8th to mh Streets; and
the Greeks on mh, i4th, and Peach Streets.
Citizenship and literacy classes conducted in various night schools have
done much toward the assimilation of the foreign born. So successful has
this been that the second and third generations are completely American
in speech and manner.
Erie s population in 1930 was 115,967. The number of foreign born
and of first generation Americans in Erie in 1936, according to records
of the International Institute, is shown in the following table:
Armenian
Canadian (includes French
Canadians) 2,481
Chinese 9
Czech 91
Danish 362
Dutch 104
English 1,831
Finns 280
Germans 30,000
Greek 201
Hungarian 700
Irish (Free State and Northern Ireland) 3,310
Italian 18,000
Lithuanian 221
Mexican 95
Norwegian 1 8 1
Polish 20,000
Russian 175
Scotch 500
Slovak 2,5 1 2
Spanish 6 1
Swedes 3,126
Swiss 1 6 1
Yugoslavia (includes Croatians, Serbs, Slovenes, Albanians) 192
All others Brazilians, Arabians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Flemish, Maltese,
Letts, Welsh, and French 199
Total 87,050
INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE
ERIE ranks third among cities of from 100,000 to 500,000 population
in the diversity of its manufactured products. In 1936 it had 277
manufacturing plants, with an invested capital of more than $58,176,000.
The value of the yearly output was more than $97,643,800, with 21,078
employes and an annual payroll totalling $29,129,100.
Among the principal manufactures are power shovels and power hammers; electric and steam locomotives; writing, printing, and roofing
papers; machine and hand tools; rubber specialties; boilers, boiler controlling equipment; sterilizers for hospitals; electrical specialties; building
hardware, plumbing supplies; heating equipment; kitchen equipment; and
castings of iron, steel, and non-ferrous metals. Erie imports pulpwood
from Canada; crude rubber from the Far East; linens from Ireland; and
other articles for direct consumption from virtually every country of
the world.
Although Erie has few consumer-goods industries, it has long been a
great producer of heavy or durable goods. Its steam boilers and engines,
electric locomotives, forgings, power equipment, gas meters, gasoline
pumps, and oil well supplies are shipped to all parts of the world. It has
a large traffic in iron ore, grain, and coal, and is a leading fresh water
fishing port.
The first industry established in what is now Erie was a sawmill, built
at the mouth of Mill Creek in 1796, by Capt. Russell Bissell of the United
States Army. The mill supplied lumber for barracks which were built
to house troops sent here to protect the settlers. The mill dam was just
east of Parade Street near East 4th Street.
A second sawmill was built in 1800 by John Cochran near i6th and
State Streets. Cochran added a gristmill in 1801, the first in Erie. In 1806 Robert Brotherton built a sawmill on Hill Road, also near State Street,
and in 1807 or l8 8 another sawmill was erected on Mill Creek, at the
intersection of E. 8th Street, by Thomas Forester and William Wallace.
About 1 8 10 Rufus S. Reed, later to become Erie s first citizen, built a
gristmill nearby; somewhat later, he constructed a distillery, the first in
the city.
More gristmills and sawmills were built during the early iSoo s, and
several woolen mills were erected in the 1830*5. Today no sawmills, and
only two gristmills are operating in Erie. Textile mills are no longer an
important part of the city s economic life.
A brickyard was built in 1803 just east of Parade Street between 2nd
and 3rd Streets. Bricks from this yard were used in the construction of
the first brick house in Erie County, still standing on German Street between Front and 2nd Streets. Other brickyards were established later,
but only one is still in operation.
Early in the century a tannery was built by Ezekiel Dunning, on
Holland Street between 5th and 6th Streets. Later known as Sterrett s
tannery, it continued in operation until 1852. In 1805 another tannery
was built, and for years the tanning business was carried on extensively,
but by 1900 the industry had ceased to exist in Erie.
A brewery was built in 1815 by Maj. David McNair on Turnpike
Street, and a distillery was added in 1823. Many breweries were built
later, of which only two remain in business. At one time small distilleries
were found in almost every neighborhood of Erie, but in 1830 a great
temperance wave swept through the county, and whisky became unpopular. Erie distilleries thereafter disappeared rapidly; there are none
in the city now.
The industry that launched Erie on the road to industrial importance
was an iron foundry, established in 1833 by Hinkley, Jarvis & Company
on the west side of State Street at nth Street, and later known as the
"Old Furnace." The foundry smelted iron from bog ore mined near the
head of Presque Isle Bay, transported it by wagons to Waterford, and
from there to Pittsburgh by river boats. Castings, principally for
stoves and plows, and sawmill machinery were also manufactured. The
industry continued under various names until it became part of the
Germer Stove Company.
The manufacture of engines and boilers, important in the development
of Erie s economy, was begun in 1855 at the Presque Isle Iron Works, on
E. l0th Street between Holland and German Streets. In 1905 the plant
was acquired by the Erie City Iron Works.
With the discovery of oil at Titusville in 1859, a number of refineries
were established, 15 having been in operation at one time. This business gradually fell away in the iSyo s, because of various factors, perhaps the
most important being a lack of cooperation by the transportation companies.
The building of Great Lakes boats in Erie dates from the sailing vessel,
Washington, in 1798, and later many large steamboats were constructed.
John D. Paasch began building vessels in 1866 at the foot of State Street,
and the business is still carried on by his son, Frederick.
Fishing has long been one of the leading industries of Erie, and the
annual catch frequently exceeds that of any other port on the Great
Lakes. Thousands of tons of blue pike, white fish, and perch are shipped
annually. Ciscoes, once caught in large quantities, are now quite rare.
Lumber was an important factor in lake trade for years; today it has
been superseded by the coal, grain, iron ore, coke, and pulp-wood trade,
and by an extensive package freight business. Boatloads of automobiles
arrive in the early spring for transhipment to eastern markets. Erie has
adequate and modern equipment for handling these products, including
several grain elevators and package freight warehouses.
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL TRADE
Approximately 2,000 retail establishments in Erie have a gross business
of about $50,000,000 annually. The retail area, within a radius of 50 miles,
contains a population of 300,000 persons, and the city s retail stores compare favorably in variety of merchandise with establishments in other
American cities of like size. There are approximately 160 wholesale
business places, with estimated sales of $30,000,000 annually.
The first retail store in Erie, a two-story log building, was erected in
1796 by Col. Seth Reed at the southwest corner of 2nd and Parade Streets.
The Reeds conducted a store and tavern in the building until it was
destroyed by fire in 1799. Rufus S. Reed, son of the founder, then rebuilt
the structure and maintained the business there for many years.
Third Street was the main business thoroughfare until the early 1900' s,
when it was superseded by French Street, which, until the i86o s, continued to be the busiest thoroughfare in the city, its importance having
been enhanced by the fact that the post office, the leading business houses,
and the principal hotels were convenient to it.
Today, the retail business center is on State Street between 7th and 14th
Streets. Peach and French Streets and the intervening cross streets from
7th to 14th are part of the principal downtown trading district. The next
most important business sections are Parade Street from 7th to 13th Streets,
and from 24th to 28th Streets; and Peach Street from 6th to
Streets and from i8th to 26th Streets.
TRANSPORTATION
As EARLY as 1753 the advantages of Erie in regard to transportation
were recognized by the French, who sent an expedition from
Montreal to build a fort that was to be a vital link in a chain extending
to the Ohio Valley. Erie s calm, landlocked harbor, which Duquesne's
letter of July 6, 1755, to the French Minister of Finance, described as
one that the largest vessels could enter in safety, is still the central and
determining factor in the city s transportation system.
Erie Harbor is protected by a natural breakwall, which provides a
harbor of adequate depth and anchorage facilities for the largest of
Great Lakes carriers. Loading and unloading facilities are modern; a
network of tracks makes possible the immediate conjunction of water
and rail traffic. Three unloading machines expedite the handling of ore
from boats a io,ooo-ton boat can be unloaded in less than 10 hours.
During 1935 more than 600 freight-carrying boats entered and left
Erie harbor, carrying mostly iron ore, coal and coke, wheat, package
freight, and pulp wood.
Erie is the division headquarters of two large railroad systems The
New York Central, and the Pennsylvania and is a key point for passenger and freight traffic of the Nickel Plate R. R. and the Bessemer and
Lake Erie R. R. Erie is also the headquarters of one large inter-state
trucking concern and a distribution point for a number of others. Its
location makes it an important point in lake and rail shipments. Large
ore boats bring cargoes from the upper lakes to Erie, whence the ore is
shipped by rail to the Pittsburgh and Youngstown steel districts. Coal
shipped here by rail from the Pennsylvania mines is transported up the lakes by boats; and package freight from all sections of the country is
brought to Erie by rail, to be transported by way of the cheaper medium
of water to Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo, and Canadian ports.
EARLY MODES OF TRAVEL
The first road was built in 1753 by the French from Fort Presque Isle
to Fort LeBoeuf. Known as the French Road, it was the only one in the
section for more than 40 years. In 1796 Maj. Andrew Ellicott surveyed
the Susquehanna and Waterford Turnpike from LeBoeuf to Curwensville, in Clearfield County, by way of Meadville and Franklin, so that
a continuous road from Erie to Philadelphia could be built. In 1797 Judah
Colt built a road from Freeport on Lake Erie to Colt s Station, the first
in the county after the American occupation.
In Erie s early years all articles of commerce were landed on the beach
near the mouth of Mill Creek, where three storehouses were erected in
1815. In the early days of steam navigation, boats landed freight and
passengers at the lighthouse piers at the channel entrance to save time.
In common with other sections of the United States, the region was a
dense forest at the time the first settlers arrived. The first mode of travel
was by foot, horseback, or water. The roads were rough and muddy
until about 1810, when they were widened and gravelled. Then came
the two-horse wagons, crude affairs covered with cotton cloth stretched
over hickory ribs and furnishing shelter for family and goods. In 1812
supplies for Perry s fleet were transported in flat boats from Pittsburgh
to Waterford, and from there by way of the turnpike to Erie. Another
mode of travel was by ice. It was not unusual for the early astute business
man to buy a barrel of whisky at Buffalo and haul it over the lake ice on a
sled.
The Erie and Waterford Turnpike (a toll road), now US 19, was
completed in 1809. The first toll gate was near the southern city limits
of Erie, the second on the summit between Erie and Waterford. A toll
road from Erie to Meadville by the way of Edinboro was completed in
1852. This road, now State 99, was floored with planks. The Erie and
Waterford plank road, now State 97, had been constructed over an entirely new route in 1851.
These roads crossed swamp areas, and, in order to make them passable
in bad weather, they were "corduroyed." This paving consisted of half
logs, roughly squared, laid side by side across the road. The chinks were
filled with small poles and gravel. Though quite rough according to
modern standards, this kind of road made possible the transportation of
freight in the region. Plank roads, a refinement of the corduroy, were made of heavy planks eight inches wide by three inches thick, laid crosswise of the road on supporting sills of heavier timbers or logs. Plank
roads were considered more durable and cheaper to maintain than macadam roads.
Toll roads were abandoned because of their unpopularity with farmers
who had to use them to haul their produce to market. They boycotted the
roads by constructing trails and bypasses, and, in one instance, a group
pulled down the toll gates. The gates were not rebuilt, and the last toll
road, the Erie and Waterford, was turned over to the township in 1868.
A weekly mail route, covered by horseback, was opened in 1801 between Erie and Pittsburgh by way of Waterford and Meadville. In 1806
a weekly mail route was started between Buffalo and Erie. The stage
left Buffalo on Saturday noon and reached Erie on Monday at 6 p. m.,
requiring 54 hours to make the go-mile journey. In 1827 a line of four-
horse coaches was placed in daily operation between Cleveland and
Buffalo, by way of Erie.
An incident of transportation in those days is related in Sargent s
Pioneer Sketches about Judah Colt, who later became superintendent of
the Erie and Pittsburgh Canal. When a young man, Colt was traveling
through Herkimer County, N. Y., and was stopped near Praker's Bridge
by Colonel Praker, who told him he must not travel on Sundays; that it
was his duty to arrest Colt if he continued the journey.
Well, said Colt, If I have to stop, I must; but I would like to get on
three or four miles farther to some friends, where I expect to stop, as
I am about to be taken down with the smallpox and I already feel symp
toms of its coming on.
What! said the old Dutchman, You coming down mit de smallpox?
Yes.
Vail, den you must not stop here/
Then you ll have to give me a pass/
Yes, but I write no English. You write de pass in English and I sign it
in German.
Colt wrote a check for $1,000 and Praker signed it. The next morning
Colt went to the bank, where the check was promptly paid, and resumed
his journey to Erie.
Two weeks later Praker went to town, and the banker said, Mr. Praker,
we paid your check for $1,000/
My check for $1,000! I does not know about that/
Come in, it will show for itself/
The check was produced, Praker scrutinized it and exclaimed, I see,
it be that d d Yankee s smallpox pass!
In that day there were no telegraphs or railroads, and Colt was un
molested."
The authors piece de resistance in a summary of the situation follows:
"And onward thus Colt travels for Erie,
Through forest, o er hill, valley and stream, not weary.
But this man Colt was a sharp undertaker
In playing his smallpox game with Dutch Praker.
$1,000 was a big fortune at that day,
$1.25 per acre for land to pay.
Across the State Line into Pennsylvania he crosses,
At Erie he stops to raise young Colts and horses.
Large streams from little fountains grow,
From this $1,000 rich did Colt grow.
It has been said, and it must be so,
That there are tricks in trades, you know."
The transportation of salt was a leading industry until 1819. Salt was
mined at Salina, N. Y., hauled to Buffalo in wagons, then shipped by
vessel to Erie. From Erie it was sent to Waterford by ox teams, and
then transported on flatboats down French Creek and the Allegheny
River to Pittsburgh the same course the French followed in 170 (see
HISTORY).
LAKE NAVIGATION
The first sailing vessel on Lake Erie was the Griffon, 60 tons, built in
1679 on the Niagara River by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who
sailed the vessel to Green Bay, Wisconsin. No record has been found of
any other sailing vessel on the lake until about 1766, when the British
launched four small ships used chiefly for carrying troops and army
supplies.
In 1795 the only sailing vessel on the south shore of Lake Erie belonged
to Capt. William Lee of Chippewa, N. Y. This ship made infrequent trips
from Buffalo to Erie. Oars were auxiliary equipment. The first sailing
vessel built on the south shore of Lake Erie was the 36-ton sloop Washington, constructed in 1798 at the mouth of Four Mile Creek, east of
Erie. The Good Intent, built by Capt. William Lee and R. S. Reed at
the mouth of Mill Creek in 1799, was the first vessel launched at Erie.
Prior to the War of 1812 a dozen or more vessels, averaging 60 tons,
composed the entire merchant fleet on Lake Erie. Salt was the chief
article of freight, although some business was done in transporting furs
from the far west to Buffalo.
The Walk-in-the-Water was the first steamboat to navigate Lake Erie.
Of 300 tons, it was built on the Niagara River, launched in May, 1818,
and made regular trips between Buffalo and Detroit, stopping at Erie
on each trip. The first steamboat launched at Erie was the William Penn, 200 tons, in May, 1826. By 1826 three steamboats and from two to ten
schooners cleared from Erie harbor every week.
The Vandalia, 150 tons, built at Oswego, New York, and brought
through the Welland Canal in 1842, was the first boat on Lake Erie operated by a propeller. Other propeller vessels soon appeared, and this type
replaced the old style side-wheel steamboats.
CANALS
The Erie Canal of New York, now called the New York State Barge
Canal (not to be confused with the Erie-Pittsburgh Canal), opening a
low cost transportation system from New York City to Buffalo, New
York, by way of the Hudson River to Troy, New York, thence by canal
to Buffalo, brought an influx of immigration to the western states. Following the opening of this canal large numbers of Germans landed at Erie.
Their original destination had been Cincinnati, Ohio, and the lower Ohio
Valley but, attracted by the Pennsylvania farm lands, they remained in
the Erie region and became an important section of the population.
The opening of the Erie-to-Pittsburgh Canal in 1844 greatly increased
the lake trade at Erie. Daily steamboat service was established between
Erie and Buffalo in 1846. Completion of the Lake Shore Railroad to
Toledo, Ohio, in 1853, greatly curtailed immigrant travel by way of
canal and lake, and the steamboats depended mainly upon freight to and
from the upper lakes.
In the i840's the State spent more than $4,000,000 in the construction
of the canal from Pittsburgh to Lake Erie by way of the Ohio, Beaver,
and Shenango Rivers.
In 1843 the State had refused to appropriate the estimated $211,000
required to complete the canal. The Erie Canal Company was then in
corporated. The State ceded to the company all the work that had been
done, on condition that the corporation finish and operate the canal.
The additional $211,000 was subscribed by Erie merchants. The first
boats to reach Erie were the Queen of the West and the R. S. Reed on
December 5, 1844. The first boat carried passengers, and the second
brought coal, iron ore, and merchandise. The canal did a thriving business
and materially assisted in the development of trade.
The mule-drawn canal boats stopped at any point along their line to
discharge or take aboard passengers and baggage. The canal did a profitable business for 30 years. With the coming of the steam railroads, the
Erie & Pittsburgh Railroad bought it to eliminate competition and let
it lapse quietly into oblivion, despite the strenuous protests of the canal
men.
RAILROADS
A charter was obtained for the Erie & North East Railroad Company
on April 12, 1842. Stock in the railroad company was sold largely in
Erie, and construction of six-foot wide gauge track was completed in
January 19, 1852, and the first train steamed into Erie. This track, now
standard gauge (4 ft. S l / 2 in.), is now part of the main line of the New
York Central through Erie County.
The New York & Erie Railroad Company had been formed to build a
road from Dunkirk, N. Y., to the Pennsylvania line, and a second road
was projected by the New York Central from Buffalo, by way of Fredonia, to the State Line. At this period railroads were being built rapidly
in all sections of the country, and the common practice was to build short
lines and later sell them at a high profit to continuous lines that merged
the shorter units.
Although tentative efforts had been made by citizens of Erie as early
as the year 1831 to have a railroad extended from Buffalo to Erie, the
first organization of a company for that purpose was not effected until
April 12, 1842, when the Erie and North East Railroad Company was organized. Surveys were completed in 1849 and contracts were let for
construction of a six foot gauge track to be laid from Erie to the New
York State line. The first train entered Erie January 19, 1852.
In 1852 the Franklin Canal Company completed a railroad from Erie
to the Ohio State Line, connecting with a line from Cleveland. The first
train from Erie to Ashtabula, Ohio, was run on November 23, 1852. The
Pennsylvania State law at that time required all roads entering from the
east to have a gauge of 6 feet or 4 feet 8 1 / 2 inches. All from the west were
required to have a gauge of 4 feet 10 inches. This necessitated a break
and transfer at Erie.
The change of gauge at Erie was a serious inconvenience to the railroads,
and on November 17, 1853, the Erie & North East Company entered
into a contract with the New York Central whereby the former was to
alter the gauge of its track to 4 feet 10 inches, making a uniform gauge
from Buffalo to Cleveland. The change, completed on February i, 1854,
enraged the people of Erie, who had visualized their city as the Lake Erie
terminus of the New York & Erie Railroad instead of a way station.
Crowds of citizens, reinforced by Mayor Alfred King and 150 special
constables, tore down the bridges over State and French Streets, ripped
up the tracks across all streets east of Sassafras Street, and pelted officials
of the railroads with rotten eggs whenever they appeared on the streets.
The enmity of the voting public towards the railroads became so intensethat in the elections of 1854, 1855, and 1858, party lines were obliterated,
and the main political issue was the railroad trouble.
Erie s angered citizens were successful in preventing the changing of
track gauge for a time, necessitating the transfer of passengers and freight
between Harborcreek and Erie by stages and wagons. The city was condemned by railroad travelers. Horace Greeley, one of the inconvenienced
travelers, declared in the New York Tribune: "Let Erie be avoided until
grass grows in her streets." Another outbreak occurred in 1855, in which
several bridges were destroyed and tracks torn up. State and Federal
officials were compelled to intervene. The controversy was carried eventually to the Supreme Court, which decided that the road gauge as constructed by the Franklin Canal Company was illegal, and repealed the
company s charter.
A new charter was granted by the legislature on condition that the
company, known as the Cleveland & Erie, should subscribe $500,000 to
the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad and extend its track to the harbor at
Erie. The charter of the Erie & North East Company was also repealed
in 1855, but was restored in April, 1856 upon condition that the company expend $400,000 towards building a road from Erie to Pittsburgh.
A few years later, the Erie & North East and the Buffalo & State Line
Railroads were consolidated under the name of the Buffalo & Erie Rail
road. In the early i86o s the Cleveland & Lake Erie Railroad was consolidated with the Cleveland & Toledo Railroad, and later this company
was merged with the Michigan Southern, placing a continuous line under
one management from Erie to Chicago. The road became known as the
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company. In 1869 the Buffalo
& Erie was merged with this organization, which was owned by the
Vanderbilts, with Chauncey Depew as legal and business representative.
This system is now the New York Central Railroad.
The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, a United States Steel Corporation
subsidiary, runs from Erie to East Pittsburgh. It was the latest railroad
to enter Erie County and was opened in 1892. It was originally known as
the Pittsburgh, Shenango, and Lake Erie Railroad. It follows the route
of the old Erie-Pittsburgh Canal. Its tonnage consists largely of heavy
freight between the Pittsburgh steel district and the Great Lakes. According to Interstate Commerce Commission figures, it carries more tonnage per mile of track than any other railroad in the world.
The first passenger depot in Erie was a rude brick structure built in
1851. It was replaced by the Union Depot in 1864, which was replaced
by the present (1938) Union Station in 1927.
LOCAL AND INTERURBAN TRANSPORTATION
The first franchise to operate horse-drawn street cars was issued to
Heman Janes and Associates on March 12, 1866. A horse-drawn bus was
operated in 1867 on the main streets by William Loesch. The Erie Pas
senger Railway Company began to operate horse cars in 1868 on virtually
the same streets as Loesch s bus line. Loesch s franchise was sought by
others, but he would not sell. One morning he found all his horses dead
from poison, and unable to operate that day, he had to forfeit his charter,
as one of its clauses called for operation each day with forfeiture as the
penalty.
Erie was the second city in the country to have an electric trolley system, when, in the early spring of 1885, the first electric passenger car
made its trial trip on State Street. The first rails were wooden stringers
with steel straps. The cars were operated by the Erie Passenger Rail
ways Company which was reorganized in 1888 as the Erie Electric Motor
Company.
On April 13, 1906, the Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Company took over
all the intercity electric lines, and in August of the same year acquired
the suburban and interurban lines east of Buffalo Road to Westfield, New
York, and on New Year s Day, 1909, the company opened a through line
to Buffalo. This line was bought in 1924 by the Buffalo & Erie Railways
Company, which was forced out of business in recent years.
The Erie Street Railways Company, successor to the Erie Electric
Motor Company, operated the last electric trolley car in Erie. On December 7, 1925, the Erie Coach Company placed the first motor bus in operation and gradually increased this type of service until May 13, 1935, when
the last street car made its final trip.
The first bus line to operate in Erie County was the West Ridge Transportation Company in April 1923 from Erie to Conneaut, Ohio. The
Great Lakes Stages, now part of the Greyhound Lines, entered the county
in 1927, with bus service to Cleveland. Two years later it established a
line to Buffalo, and now operates interstate busses through Erie.
Besides the privately-owned airport at Fairview, a modern airport,
Port Erie, was completed in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration
and the city. Air mail service was inaugurated on May 19, 1938.
RELIGION
CHRISTIANITY was brought to the Erie region in the late summer of
1615, when about 20 Frenchmen landed on the shore of Presque Isle
(see HISTORY). They planted a large wooden cross in the soil, sang the
Te Deum, and the Reverend Joseph LeCaron, a Franciscan friar, celebrated Mass with an upturned canoe for an altar, in a clearing near some
Indian huts.
Father Le Caron tried to convert the natives to Christianity, but his
efforts and those of other friars resulted in scant success. The Indians
worshipped evil spirits and practiced sorcery, and believed they would
go to a happy hunting ground at death. The efforts of missionaries were
also hampered by the fact that the Eries were nearly always at war with
the Senecas, a neighboring tribe in New York State.
Medicine men, as the sorcerer-priests of the Indian tribes were called,
incited so much opposition to the missionaries that no attempt was made
to found a Catholic congregation in Erie until 1753, when the Reverend
Luke Collett, a Franciscan, was sent from Montreal as chaplain of the
French troops who built Forts Presque Isle and Le Boeuf. After the
French evacuated these forts in 1759, there is no record of Catholic activity in Erie until near the end of the century.
Because of its early military and political history, the Catholic Church
in Erie County has been subject to four different ecclesiastical jurisdictions.
During the period of French occupancy and until 1763, they were under
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec. From 1763 until 1784, Catholics
in America were subject to the Vicar Apostolic of London. After the
Revolutionary War, Erie belonged to the Philadelphia Diocese. On August 15, 1843, the Reverend Michael O Connor, of Philadelphia, was con
secrated first bishop of the newly established diocese of Pittsburgh, and
Erie became a part of the Pittsburgh Diocese.
St. Mary s and St. Patrick s Churches are known to have held services
in Erie in the i83o s. The chapel of St. Patrick s, a two-story structure
with living quarters for the priest on the second floor, was on German
Street near 4th Street. The Reverend Charles McCabe was the first priest
of the parish. The German Catholics founded St. Mary s Church, and held
service in a log house on the northeast corner of loth and State Streets.
The first resident priest at St. Mary s was the Reverend Ivo Levitz, who
probably came to Erie early in 1840.
The Erie Diocese was established in 1853, when Bishop O Connor was
transferred from Pittsburgh. He remained seven months, and was returned
to the Pittsburgh Diocese. The Most Reverend Tobias Mullen, third
Bishop of Erie, was consecrated on August 2, 1868. He made plans for
building the present St. Peter s Cathedral, at W. loth and Sassafras Streets,
a task requiring nearly 20 years.
The Most Reverend John Mark Gannon, D.D., present (1938) Bishop
of Erie, was installed as fifth Bishop of Erie on December 16, 1920. Bishop
Gannon is regarded as one of the most learned members of the Catholic
hierarchy. He is frequently called upon to perform important duties as
a member of the National Catholic Welfare Council.
The diocese embraces Erie, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford,
Elk, Forest, Jefferson, McKean, Mercer, Potter, Venango, and Warren
counties in northwestern Pennsylvania. The Catholic population of the
diocese is 131,828; number of diocesan priests, 164; priests of religious
orders, 52; churches with resident pastors, no, to which are attached 47
missions.
The first Protestant service of which there is any record was held on
Sunday, July 2, 1797, at the home of Judah Colt, at Colt s Station in Green
field Township. In response to a general invitation, about 30 persons
came to the service, at which Colt read the sermon, no minister being
available. The text was from I Corinthians 14:40: "Let all things be done
decently and in order." This subject was chosen because of land controversies at the time.
The Ohio and Redstone Presbyteries sent two missionaries, the Reverend
Messrs. McCurdy and Stockton, in 1799, who preached in Erie, Waterford, and North East. Two years later McCurdy again visited the region,
accompanied by the Reverend Messrs. Tate, Satterfield, and Boyd. Services were held in a clearing prepared for the occasion on the west branch
of French Creek at Middlebrook in Venango Township.
The work of McCurdy and Satterfield met with the approval of the people and it was decided to build a meeting house at Middlebrook, aboi
a mile and a half north of Lowville, on State 89. In 1801 a log structure
was erected, the first Protestant Church in Erie County. It was
as the Middlebrook Presbyterian Church.
The first Sacrament of the Lord s Supper, according to Protests
forms, was administered at North East on September 27, 1801. There
were about 300 in attendance at the meeting. A congregation with the
title, "The Churches of Upper and Lower Greenfield," was organized at
the time.
The Erie Presbytery was established October 2, 1801, and embraced
that portion of Pennsylvania west and northwest of the Allegheny and
Ohio Rivers, including a part of the Western Reserve. The first meeting
of this presbytery was held at Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, on
April 13, 1802. The Reverend Messrs. McCurdy, Satterfield, and McPherrin were chosen as missionaries to serve Erie and its environs.
The Reverend Johnson Eaton held occasional services for several years
at Colt s Station, Middlebrook, Waterford, and Erie, and organized a congregation at Springfield in 1806. A church was built at the mouth of
Walnut Creek, in Fairview Township, in 1810, where Eaton preached
several Sundays. He also organized a church at Erie in 1815. In 1820
the minutes of the presbytery showed congregations at Springfield, Fairview, North East, Waterford, Middlebrook, Union, and Erie.
Meetings of the Methodist Episcopal denomination in Erie were held
by circuit preachers as early as 1801. A congregation was established
soon afterwards, but was unable to support a pastor until 1826, from which
time the First M. E. Church of Erie dates its organization.
St. John s Evangelical Lutheran Church asserts that it is the oldest religious organization in the city, dating from August 18, 1808, although
the Associated Reform Presbyterian Church also makes the same assertion, having organized a congregation in October, 1811 , with the
Reverend Robert Reid as minister. This latter organization held services
in a schoolhouse at what is now E. yth and French Streets until 1816.
The Reverend Charles Colsom, a Lutheran minister from Germany,
organized congregations at Meadville, French Creek, Conneaut, and Erie
in 1815 or 1816. The first Lutheran church in Erie was built in 1836.
The first organization of Episcopalians in Erie County was effected on
March 17, 1827, when a number of persons withdrew from the Presbyterian church of Erie and became united as St. Paul s Episcopal congregation, now St. Paul s Cathedral, with the Reverend Charles Smith, of
Philadelphia, as rector. Services were held in the courthouse at Erie until
a building was erected in November, 1832.
The Erie Diocese of the Episcopal Church was established in 1911, with the Reverend Rogers Israel, as bishop. He was succeeded in 1921
by the Reverend John C. Ward. The diocese includes 13 counties in
northwestern Pennsylvania and was formerly a part of the Pittsburgh
Diocese.
The first Erie County Baptist congregation was organized in Harborcreek Township in 1822. This was followed by churches in Erie in 1831,
and in North East and Waterford Townships in 1832.
The first Hebrew congregation was formed in 1853. The Anshe Hesed
Reformed Congregation originated in 1875. The B rith Sholom Synagogue, an orthodox congregation, was organized in 1896.
Other groups to organize in Erie were the First Christian Church in
1888, the First Church of Christ Scientist, 1888, and the Russian Orthodox
Church, 1916.
The first Sunday School was founded by the Reverend Mr. Morton
and James Moorhead at Moorheadville in 1817. A year later a Sunday
School class for girls was established in Erie. Mrs. Judah Colt, who had
returned from a visit to England, where these schools were being in
troduced, was responsible for initiating the movement. Horace Greeley
was one of the students in the winter of 1830.
The 25 different denominations in Erie and Erie County now possess
more than 100 church structures and meeting places in the city and suburbs and 107 in the comity. The churches in the city and suburbs have
an enrollment of approximately 68,000 members, composed of 26,000
Protestants, and 42,000 Catholics.
ARCHITECTURE
THE history of Erie s development from a pioneer outpost to a modern
commercial city can be traced through a knowledge of the city s
architecture.
During the i8th and early 19th centuries Erie developed slowly from
an outpost military fort to a small but active frontier town. It was logical
that her first structures, the forts and dwellings of the militia and the
early pioneers, should be built of logs, since wood was the most readily
accessible building material. Unfortunately, none of the original pioneer
buildings are standing today, but in the History of Erie County, by Laura
Sanford, there is a description of the first Fort Presque Isle, built by LeMercier in 1753 for the French Army: "They fell to work and built a
square fort of chestnut logs, squared and lapped over each other to the
height of 15 feet. It is about 120 feet square, a log-house in each square,
a gate to the southward, another to the northward, not one port-hole cut
in any part of it. When finished, they called it Fort Presqu ile."
The Fort Wayne Blockhouse, reconstructed in 1880, is a log fort, two-
stories high. Above the square ground floor, the octagonal second story
cantilevers out beyond the walls below. Log houses were the most practical form of construction until well into the i9th century. A few examples standing today are sheathed over with boarding, such as the Hughes
Log House at 135 E. 3rd Street.
The symbol of Erie s emergence from a pioneer settlement to a commercial city, as well as a symbol of a new cultural age in America, is seen
in the Old Erie Customs House, 1839. It was designed by William Kelly
after its parent bank in Philadelphia. The building is faced with Vermont
marble and is the first marble structure erected west of the Allegheny
Mountains. It is of Greek Revival design with a finely proportioned portico of six fluted Greek Doric columns, supporting a large entablature
and pediment; it is an outstanding example of the architecture of the
awakening Republic.
About 1800, after the bonds which had tied America to England were
severed, there arose a classic spirit in America. It was an age of interest
in the culture of ancient Greece. This spirit left its tangible traces par
ticularly in architecture that had for its inspiration the ancient classic
temples. This style asserted itself strongly in western New York State;
and, with migration southward into Pennsylvania, there appeared numer
ous domestic, public, and ecclesiastical buildings whose design was rooted
in Greek antiquity. While the old Customs House is the outstanding example of the architecture of this period, the Reed Mansion, 1849, is like
wise of interest, chiefly for its broad Ionic portico. The third floor is
arranged like a boat deck with the entrance to all rooms from a corridor,
with a ship s "railing" on one side. Its adjacent small office, built in 1846,
simulates a Greek Doric temple.
St. Luke s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1844, represents a fusion of
late Greek Revival and early Victorian architecture. Its facade of Greek
Doric design, surmounted by a box-like belfry, belongs to the former
period; while the lancet windows represent the Gothic influence of the
later Victorian era.
The west wing of the Erie County Court House, 1855, was originally
of late Greek Revival design. In 1929 the structure was entirely rebuilt
and enlarged by Walter T. Monahan, Erie architect, to its present "U"
plan, the west wing retaining the wall structure of the early building.
Faced with gray, cut cast stone, its two similar Corinthian porticos with
their tall fluted columns are monumentally impressive.
The Hoskinson House, 127 W. 6th Street, built in 1840, is an attractive
early brick residence, notable for its twin Doric doorways, refined examples of the Greek Revival style.
Erected concurrently with the buildings of the Revival Period were
the simple brick dwellings which were rooted in the early designs of the
Colonial or American Georgian architecture of the eastern seaboard.
These include such houses as the Metcalf House on the northwest corner
of W. 9th and Sassafras Streets, a two-story and attic dwelling of simple
Colonial proportions.
The middle of the last century, and particularly after the close of
the Civil War, was a period of commercial expansion. The comely era
of the Greek Revival had spent itself. The Victorian architecture which
followed expressed the new-found wealth of the community. The turreted mansions of the wealthy, with slate mansard roofs and gingerbread
detail, are on West 6th and West 8th Streets. Buildings of all styles were erected, regardless of the suitability or utility of the architecture.
The grey limestone commercial Scott Building, N. W. corner of loth
and State Streets, of French Renaissance design, followed the design of
New York s old Court House, and Philadelphia s City Hall. Doric, Ionic,
and Corinthian columns parade its walls. It was a style popularized by
architects returning from their studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in
Paris.
Present day Erie is still characterized largely by the stamp of the late
19th century. This is borne out by a glance down State Street, Erie's
main business thoroughfare, or down W. 6th Street, its avenue of better
class homes.
Many of the modern buildings, however, are recognizably of good
architecture. Foremost among these is the Presbyterian Church of the
Covenant, 1931, of which Corbesier & W. E. Foster were the architects.
It is a large, imposing edifice of English perpendicular Gothic design.
The delicacy of its rich detail is etched against a background of warm
rough stone. The Luther Memorial Church, 1926, designed by Alden and
Harlow, is also English Gothic of rugged proportions. The Mercyhurst
College, 1926, of modified Gothic architecture, designed by F. Ferdinand
Durang of Philadelphia, is likewise noteworthy.
Among the commercial buildings, the six-story, two million dollar
Erie Dry Goods Company, 1930, Shutts and Morrison, architects, is an
Erie landmark. It is constructed of steel and concrete with cream brick
facing trimmed with terra cotta and limestone. The fourteen-story Erie
Trust Company building, 1925, designed by Dennison and Hirons, is the
city s lone skyscraper.
The Lord Manufacturing Company, 1937, is a modern commercial
building, simply constructed of common red brick and opaque glass
brick; which, with the lofty concrete grain elevators of the Pennsylvania
Railroad on the Lake Shore, represent functionalism in industrial architecture.
Beyond the city, the county extends in gently rolling farm country
with many towns containing much of the picturesque architecture of
early days. In Waterford, an attractive town of considerable historic
interest, is the old Eagle Hotel built in 1826; Thomas King, architect. It
is late American Georgian in character, but bears the rugged stamp
of the frontier. The Amos Judson house, 1820, of Greek Revival, and
the Waterford Academy, 1822, topped by a graceful cupola, are also
notable.
The towns of North East and Girard also retain architectural remnants
of their earlier days. The First Baptist Church at North East is a small
Greek Revival edifice of white clapboard, with a graceful tower and tall spire. Of more recent times is St. Mary s College on the northern edge of
the town. It comprises a group of connected buildings of red brick and
grey stone with high, blue slate mansard roofs, some of Victorian Gothic
and others of later Tudor architecture. At the western end of the group
is a French Gothic chapel.
Since it is not the buildings alone but also their setting within the
physical pattern of the city which make for their beauty and greatest
usefulness, it is interesting to study the city plan of Erie. Downtown Erie
was laid out in 1795 by Andrew Ellicott and William Irvine under the
influence of William Penn s plan for Philadelphia. They also laid out
the towns of Franklin, Waterford, and Warren.
The original plan is divided into four quadrants by its two axial streets
State Street, running north and south, and Sixth Street, east and west.
These intersect at Perry Square. The city was divided into blocks by a
plan of intersecting parallel streets known as the "gridiron" pattern.
Little was done, unfortunately, to take advantage of the long water
front of the city. James Parton, in his Life of Horace Greeley, written in
1869, says, "The people of Erie care as much for the Lake as the people
of Niagara care for the Cataract, as much as people generally care for
anything wonderful or anything beautiful which they can see by turning
their heads. Not one house is built along the shore, though the shore is
high and level. Not a path has been worn by human feet above or below
the bluff. Pigs, sheep, cows, and sweetbriar bushes occupy the unenclosed
ground, which seems so made to be built upon that it is surprising that
the handsome houses of the town should have been built anywhere else."
The same can be said for Erie today. The waterfront with its several
piers and factories presents an uninviting coast line.
The new and finer residential areas, particularly the well designed Frontier Place section, near the western limits of the city, Southlands subdivision to the southwest, and the Glenwood area to the south, represent
the present day movement of moderate income and well-to-do groups
away from more congested areas. Houses in these sections are usually
substantially built in the style of Elizabethan half-timber houses, Spanish
patios, French chateaux, and American and English Georgian houses.
A busy industrial city, Erie s tree-lined avenues, finer residential communities and well designed structures, both old and new, reflect her commercial development from an outpost fort to a modern city. The needed
improvements of the drabber sections, especially the small wooden houses
of the poorer workers, and the uncontrolled hodgepodge construction
of the lesser business and industrial neighborhoods, are typical of all
American cities. They are a challenge to good government, wise planning,
and architectural ingenuity.
EDUCATION
ERIE S educational system is excellent. Graduates from Erie high
schools are admitted to leading colleges, in many cases without being
required to take entrance examinations. Modern well-equipped buildings
and advanced educational methods maintain a high standard.
The public school system of the city of Erie is comprised of three senior
high schools, one technical high school, four junior high schools, and
twenty-three grade and grammar schools with an enrollment of 19,000
students in 1937. In addition to the public schools, there are five paro
chial high schools and eighteen grade schools with an enrollment of 7,100
pupils under the control of the Erie Catholic Diocese. The public school
system of Erie embraces school property valued at $12,000,000, including
the three large high schools, which were constructed at a total cost of
approximately $4,000,000.
Special courses make educational facilities available to the exceptional
child. Forty-two specially trained teachers are employed in this work.
Adult education and recreation programs sponsored by the Works Progress Administration supplement the activities of the public school system.
Complementing the public schools are institutions located in the county
where the students may continue their education. These are the State
Teacher s College at Edinboro, Villa Maria, Mercyhurst College, and
Cathedral Preparatory School in Erie.
The University of Pittsburgh maintains a junior college center which
offers regular college courses of the freshman and sophomore years. Pennsylvania State College also conducts extension evening classes in Erie.
HISTORY OF THE SCHOOLS
Educational advantages have increased greatly since the inception of
the "Free Public School Law" in 1834. The early schools had but little
equipment; many of the classes were held in teachers homes, or in
churches.
The first schoolhouse in Erie was built at the corner of E. ;th and Holland Streets in 1806. Erie was then a village of 100 inhabitants and the
schoolhouse, constructed of hewn logs and costing about $30, stood among
the trees on the outskirts of the village. Capt. Daniel Dobbins bought
the lot with contributions collected from the villagers for the purpose of
founding the school, which was christened the "Presque Isle Academy."
The school was known as a "pay school," as were all schools in the State
during this early period. The 1812 roll list, preserved as a historic relic
by the Erie Board of Education, named 70 boys and girls.
The public school law enacted in 1834 permitted each school district
to decide whether a public school system should be adopted. Erie was
one of the first to take advantage of this law, which also provided for
the maintenance of such schools by levying a general tax. Four frame
schoolhouses were constructed on leased ground in 1837 at a cost of $310
each. Classes were held in reading, writing, speaking, geography, grammar, and arithmetic. The four small buildings became inadequate, and in
1848 two brick buildings were erected. These new buildings were the
East Ward School, E. 7th and Holland Streets, and the West Ward
School, W. 7th and Myrtle Streets.
During 1861 and 1862 the schools were divided into three departments,
primary, intermediate, and grammar. By 1866 there were five school
buildings; three in the West Ward and two in the East Ward.
Central High School was formed in 1866 by consolidating several
higher-class schools. During that year 144 pupils were enrolled and the
first graduates of the high school completed their courses in 1869. Requirements for admittance were simple, comprising examples in common
fractions, decimals, and U. S. money, the boundaries of two or three
states and the names of 20 cities and rivers in the United States, and examples in mental arithmetic. No tests were made in spelling or grammar.
Carter W. Trow, wrote of the Erie High School in 1877:
"The yard was surrounded by a stone wall on top of which was an iron
fence. There were two gates, one on Holland and one on Seventh
Street. On the third floor there was a large study room in which the
whole school assembled and four recitation rooms. In each recitation
room were from four to six long benches with backs, but without desks.
Usually the boys sat on one side of the room and the girls on the other,
with the teacher s desk between them."
Central High School remained at E. yth and Holland Streets until
1891, when it was transferrd to W. loth and Sassafras Streets. In 1930 the
classes were transferred to the new Strong Vincent High School, 1330
W. 8th Street, and in February, 1931, old Central High School became the
Technical High School. Other high schools were Academy High School,
2825 State Street, in 1920, and East High School, 1151 Atkins Street, in
1921.
Prominent citizens of Erie working in conjunction with the Erie School
Board drafted the first law permitting Boards of Education to organize
and operate public libraries. This law was passed in 1895, and Erie was
the first city in the State to organize such a library. Previous to this, the
only library was a privately-supported one at the Y.M.C.A. Branch
circulating libraries are maintained in all Erie schools.
CITY TOUR 1
Downtown Erie, z.y miles
PERRY SQUARE, the central starting point for all city tours, occupies two
t city blocks extending across State St. between N. and S. Park Rows.
In W. Perry Square is a large fountain consisting of a 15 ft. metallic pedestal
centered in a concrete basin about 30 ft. in diameter. Surmounting the
pedestal is an iron crane with outspread wings which spouts water from its
long bill. Four smaller figures of sea serpents are mounted in each quadrant of the basin. In E. Perry Square there is an eight sided fountain.
The square is shaded by tall maple trees, and contains iron park benches
for the convenience of visitors. On the R. side of State Street is a MONUMENT TO GENERAL "MAD" ANTHONY WAYNE. Its base is 6 ft. wide and 6
ft. high and is topped with two cannon, aimed in opposite directions.
A bronze inscription faces the street.
On the L. side of State Street is the SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MONUMENT, a
square granite base 7 ft. in height, surmounted by two life-sized bronze
figures representing the Army and Navy. The monument was designed
by Martin Milmore and erected by public subscription in 1872. Band
concerts are held in Perry Square on Saturday nights during the summer
months. Music is furnished by Campbell s Band. (Perry Square is shown
as point of interest No. 13 on map.)
S. from Perry Square on State Street.
1. The ERIE TRUST BUILDING, 1001-1007 State Street, largest
office building in the city, is 14 stories in height. The first and second
stories are of Indiana limestone, and the 1 2 upper stories are of light buff
brick. Doors and arched entrances are of Romanesque design, and the
interior sidewalls are of Italian marble. The structure, designed by Dennison-Hirons, architects of New York City, was built in 1926.
The first floor of the building is occupied by the National Bank and
Trust Company of Erie. On the walls of the bank are seven murals, painted
by Edward A. Trumball, of New York, depicting historical events of
the colonization of Erie. They are: The Visit Of The First White Man
To Erie and the French Expedition Into The Ohio; Pontiac's Attack
(1763); Washington s Visit To Fort LeBoeuf (Waterford, 1753); Visit
Of General Lafayette To Erie (1825); Building Of Perry s Fleet At Erie
(1813); Battle Of Lake Erie (1813); and Bringing Powder Overland
From Wilmington, Delaware. The Erie Center of the University of Pitts
burgh is on the eighth floor.
R. from State Street on W. wth Street.
2. The ERIE TIMES BUILDING, no W. l0th St., is the home
of the Erie Daily Times, circulation 40,000, the only newspaper in Erie
which has retained the same name and ownership since its founding. The
newspaper was founded in 1888 by striking printers from the Evening
Herald and the Morning Dispatch who pooled their resources. With $225
in cash, and under the leadership of John Mead, Sr., present president and
owner (1938) of the Times Publishing Company, they set up a shop at
the S. W. corner of 9th and State Streets. The Times was published there
for 36 years, and then was moved to its present location. The paper
started as an independent evening publication, its first issue appearing
April 12, 1888. In 1894 tne Times absorbed the Erie Sunday Graphic (est.
May 20, 1880) and the Erie Observer (founded 1886).
3. The ERIE TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL, SE cor. W. l0th and
Sassafras Streets, is the seat of vocational training of the Erie public school
system. Arts and crafts, sheet metal work, and other units requiring
special equipment are contained in the building, a 4-story structure of red
brick with a tall, square tower. Shop wings have been added in recent
years.
4. ST. PETER S ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, NW cor.
W. l0th and Sassafras Streets, is a Gothic structure of red Medina lime
stone, with three spires over the main entrance on Sassafras Street. Built
during the Most Rev. Tobias Mullen s episcopacy, the Cathedral was
dedicated in 1893. The architec |
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