USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > Erie > Erie; a guide to the city and county > Part 2
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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 constant- ly 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 pro- tects the bay. This harbor has long been considered, by Erie citizens,
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ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
as an index of national business activity-a busy, changing scene in sum- mer indicates a period of prosperity; anchored, idle ships mean hard times. In winter, however, the bay provides a refuge from the lake's 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 favor- ite 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 Build- ing 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 Glen- wood 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-
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ERIE: AN IMPRESSION
born or first-generation American. Rambling along the streets, the visitor will hear the accents of German, Polish, Italian, and Russian resi- dents, 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.
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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 51/2 miles from east to west, and 4 miles north to south, its area of 201/2 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 113 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 Pennsyl- vania. 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.
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THE CITY AND ITS SETTING
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 accumu- lation 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 high- ways, 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 pos- sible 8,764, this figure varying from a low percentage in winter to a high
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ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
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.
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Commodore Perry's residence, 1812- 1813
The Pennsylvania Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in winter
:
n
Site of Fort LeBoeuf, Waterford
The NIAGARA, only remaining ship of Perry's fleet
HISTORY
THE FRENCH
N HILE 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 Fran- ciscan 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 Mar- quette 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 wilder- ness 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 Griffon, the first sailing vessel launched on Lake Erie.
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ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
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 Wash- ington, 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 com- municate 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 Eng- lish 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
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HISTORY
Reparti of Fort Presque Isle held a council of war, giving Washington and his men an opportunity to make notes concerning French fortifica- tions 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 inten- tions. 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 com- pleted 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 com- municate 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.
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ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
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 neighbor- hood." 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
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HISTORY
Presque Isle. A band of Senecas, during Pontiac's Conspiracy, captured the forts at Presque Isle and LeBoeuf in 1763 and roamed this district un- molested 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 raid- ing 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, Penn- sylvania 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 dis- played 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
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ERIE: A GUIDE TO THE CITY AND COUNTY
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 Mifflin 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 con- sider 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 fol- lowed them in the next few years were Capt. Daniel Dobbins, Judah Colt, Timothy Tuttle, Jacob Weiss, and William Wallace.
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