Daniel Dobbins of Erie and Noah Brown of Boston were notable shipbuilders who led the construction of four schooner−rigged gunboats and two brigs. President James Madison began the construction of a naval fleet during the War of 1812 to gain control of the Great Lakes from the British. They became the first European-American settlers of Erie in present-day Presque Isle.įurther information: Battle of Lake Erie and Pennsylvania in the American Civil War Colonel Seth Reed and his family moved to the Erie area from Geneva, New York they were Yankees from Uxbridge, Massachusetts. The initial settlement of the area began that year. Andrew Ellicott, who 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 and lay out the plan for the city in June 1795. The General Assembly of Pennsylvania commissioned the surveying of land near Presque Isle through an act passed on April 18, 1795. It became a part of Pennsylvania on March 3, 1792, after Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York relinquished their rights to the land and sold the land to Pennsylvania for 75 cents per acre or a total of $151,640.25 in continental certificates. Seneca Nation separately settled land claims against Pennsylvania in February 1791 for the sum of $800. 1789, a conference was arranged during which representatives from the Iroquois signed a deed relinquishing their ownership of the land in exchange for $2,000 from Pennsylvania and $1,200 from the federal government. The Iroquois claimed ownership of present-day Erie. Įrie is in what was the disputed Erie Triangle, a tract of land comprising 202,187 acres in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania fronting Lake Erie that was claimed after the American Revolutionary War by the newly formed states of New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, as part of its Western Reserve, and Massachusetts.įurther information: Pennsylvania in the American Revolution The British established a garrison at the fort at Presque Isle that same year, three years before the end of the French and Indian War. When the French abandoned the fort in 1760 during the French and Indian War in the Seven Years' War, it was the last post they held west of Niagara River. The French term presque-isle means peninsula. The name of the fort refers to the peninsula that juts into Lake Erie, now protected as Presque Isle State Park. Įuropeans first arrived as settlers in the region when the French constructed Fort Presque Isle near present-day Erie in 1753, as part of their effort to defend New France against the encroaching British colonists. Sommerheim Park Archaeological District in Millcreek Township west of the city, includes artifacts from the Archaic period in the Americas and the early and middle Woodland Period, roughly a span from 8,000 BCE to 500 CE. Indigenous peoples occupied the shoreline and bluffs in this area for thousands of years, taking advantage of the rich resources. Main article: History of Erie, Pennsylvania The Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812, a key historical event in Erie's history The local climate is humid, four-seasonal, and snowy, with warm summers and harsh winters, owing to its southern lakeshore location. Like the other Great Lakes port cities, Erie is accessible to the oceans via the Lake Ontario and St. Įrie's manufacturing sector remains prominent in the local economy, while insurance, healthcare, higher education, technology, service industries, and tourism are emerging as significant economic drivers. Erie is nicknamed both the "Gem City", in reference to it once being known as the "Gem of the Great Lakes" due to its fine natural harbor and more recently, the "Flagship City", from a local marketing effort to promote its status as the home port of Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship Niagara. The city was named for the Native American Erie people who lived in the area until the mid-17th century. Erie is located approximately 80 miles (130 km) from Buffalo, 90 miles (140 km) from Cleveland, and 120 miles (190 km) from Pittsburgh. The Erie metropolitan area, equivalent to all ofĮrie County, had a population of 270,876 in 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the largest in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 at the 2020 census.
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