557 M. ERIE, Pop. 93,372.
(Train 3 passes 9:30; No. 41, 2:06; No. 25, 1:36; No. 19, 5:59. Eastbound No. 6 passes 9:25; No. 26, 10:30; No. 16, 2:03; No. 22, 5:08.)
Erie stands on the site of the old French fort Presque Isle, built in 1753 and surrounded by a village of a few hundred inhabitants. Although Washington protested on behalf of the Governor of Va. against the French occupation of this territory, it remained in French hands until 1758 when an epidemic of small-pox broke out, making the fort untenable. Two years later the British seized it, and three years after the Indians, rising against their white rulers in the Conspiracy of Pontiac, took possession. In 1765 the British recaptured the fort and kept it until 1785, when it passed into the possession of the U.S. Gen. Anthony Wayne, who was given the task of occupying the lake posts delivered up by the English, came here soon after to negotiate the famous treaty of Greenville with the Indians in 1795. He died in 1796 at Erie.
Certain hostile tribes in northwest of Ohio who had defeated Gen. St. Clair in 1791, sent away in scorn a mission asking permission for white men to settle beyond the Ohio (1793). Wayne, angry at this insolence, gathered together some troops of the recently organized American army and after having given the Indians one more chance of a peaceable settlement, defeated them thoroughly in the battle of Fallen Timbers, 80 miles north of Cincinnati. By the resulting treaty of Greenville, he opened up the northwest to civilization.
In spite of the necessary severity of the punishment meted out to the Indians by the new government through the agency of Wayne, no part of Washington's administration, domestic or foreign, was more original or more benign than the policy he constantly urged toward them. To save them from the frauds of traders a national system of trade was adopted, and a number of laws were passed to protect them from the aggressions of borderers, as well as to secure them in the rights allowed them in their treaties.
The battle of Lake Erie (1813) was closely associated with the city. Here were Perry's headquarters during the War of 1812, and here he built in less than six months many of the vessels with which he won his naval victory over the British.
Erie is now an important manufacturing centre, the products of which are valued at between $40,000,000 and $50,000,000. A large branch of the General Electric Co. is here, besides important factories for flour and grist mill products, paper and wood pulp, organs, petroleum, etc. The leading articles of shipment are lumber, coal, grain and iron ore. Over 1,400 ships a year enter and clear the broad, landlocked harbour. On a bluff overlooking lake and city, is the State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, and nearby, a monument to Gen. Wayne. Between Springfield (577 M.) and Conneaut we cross the state line into Ohio.