The Founding of Erie Pennsylvania

Fort Presque Isle

Fort Presque Isle (also Fort de la Presqu'île) was a fort built by French soldiers in the summer of 1753 along Presque Isle Bay, at present-day Erie, to protect the northern terminus of the Venango Path. It was the first of the French posts built in the Ohio Country, and was part of a line that included Fort Le Boeuf, Fort Machault, and Fort Duquesne.

The fort was built as part of the French military occupation of the Ohio Country; rival claims to the area by the British led to the French and Indian War. After the 1759 British victory at the Battle of Fort Niagara, the French burned the fort and retreated from the area.

The British built a new Fort Presque Isle, which was captured by American Indians during Pontiac's Rebellion. On June 19, 1763, the fort was surrounded by about 250 Ottawas, Ojibwas, Wyandots, and Senecas. After holding out for two days, the garrison of approximately sixty men surrendered on the condition that they could return to Fort Pitt. Most were instead killed after emerging from the fort.

Forts of 1753-54

General Anthony Wayne first arrived in the area of Presque Isle in 1786. Nine years later in 1795, some 200 Federal troops from Wayne's army, under the direction of Captain John Grubb, built a blockhouse on Garrison Hill in Erie. Also named Fort Presque Isle, the blockhouse was used as part of a defense against Native American uprisings. It was also used during the War of 1812. General Wayne, stricken with gout, returned from Detroit to Fort Presque Isle, where he died in the arms of Dr. Balfour, in 1796. At his request, he was buried at the foot the flagpole of the blockhouse. After the blockhouse burned in 1852, in 1880 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania reconstructed the blockhouse at Second and Ash Streets as a memorial to General Wayne. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has recognized the reconstructed blockhouse as eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

Erie Triangle

Roughly an area of 300-square-miles, the Erie Triangle was a tract of American land that was the subject of several competing colonial-era claims, and was eventually acquired by the United State Government and sold to Pennsylvania so that the state would have access to a freshwater port on Lake Erie. The Erie Triangle land makes up a large portion of present-day Erie County.

Most of northwestern Pennsylvania came under American control following the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the Iroquois Confederacy. The following year, a boundary dispute between New York and Pennsylvania erupted. Following a surveying effort by Andrew Ellicott representing the Pennsylvanians and James Clinton and Simeon DeWitt representing the New Yorkers, the western edge of New York was set at 20 miles east of Pennsylvania's Presque Isle. However, this left an unclaimed area, which came to be known as the Triangle Lands.

The Triangle Lands problematically fell under neither New York's or Pennsylvania's charter, while both Connecticut and Massachusetts also spoke up with claims derived from their original colonial sea to shining sea grants.

Of these four competing claimants (Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts), only Pennsylvania was landlocked. Following some pressure from the new federal government, all four states surrendered their claims to the government, which then, in 1792, turned around and sold final rights to the 202,187 acres of land to Pennsylvania for $151,640.25 (75 ¢/acre). The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy released the land to Pennsylvania in January 1789 for payments of $2,000 from Pennsylvania and $1,200 from the federal government. The Seneca Nation separately settled land claims against Pennsylvania in February 1791 for the sum of $800. This was accomplished without the approval of the federal government and in violation of federal law, which reserved the right to make treaties to the United States government.

Cornerstone of the Erie Triangle

The Erie Triangle is often described as a tab or chimney attached to the Keystone State. The water off the coast of the Erie Triangle is known as the Graveyard of Lake Erie because of the large number of shipwrecks that occurred in the area's stormy waters in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was also the site of a preliminary battle between forces that participated in The Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The battle itself took place in the Lake Erie Islands, at the western end of the lake, off the coast of Ohio.

Surveying and settlement

The General Assembly of Pennsylvania commissioned the surveying of land near Presque Isle through an act passed on 18 April 1795. Andrew Ellicott, who famously completed Pierre Charles L'Enfant's survey of Washington, D.C., and helped resolve the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York, arrived to begin the survey in June 1795. Initial settlement of the area began that year.

In 1795 Colonel Seth Reed and his family, natives of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, arrived from Geneva, New York, to become the first European settlers of Erie. Reed erected a log cabin at the mouth of Mill Creek, becoming the first permanent building in Erie. Reed's other sons, Rufus S. Reed and George W. Reed, came to Erie later in the year.

Erie was established as a borough by an act of the General Assembly on 29 March 1805. This act created a Borough and Town Council headed by a Burgess. This form of government stood until the City of Erie was incorporated on 14 April 1851, when a mayoralty and a select council were established.