Editing Erie County, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
Erie County was established on March 12, 1800, from part of [[Allegheny County, Pennsylvania|Allegheny County]], which absorbed the lands of the disputed [[Erie Triangle]] in 1792. Prior to 1792, the region was claimed by both New York and Pennsylvania and so no county demarcations were made until the federal government intervened. Other states have also tried to bid for the Erie Triangle but ultimately Pennsylvania purchased it and it was ceded to Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.genealogyinc.com/pennsylvania/maps/|title=State and County Maps of Pennsylvania|access-date=May 31, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130218071801/http://www.genealogyinc.com/pennsylvania/maps/|archive-date=February 18, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Since Erie County and its newly established neighboring Counties of Crawford, [[Mercer County, Pennsylvania|Mercer]], [[Venango County, Pennsylvania|Venango]], and Warren were initially unable to sustain themselves, a five-county administrative organization was established at Crawford County's [[Meadville, Pennsylvania|Meadville]] to temporarily manage government affairs in the region. Erie first elected its own county officials in 1803.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Whitman |first=Benjamin |display-authors=etal |year=1884 |chapter=Part II, Chapter I |title=History of Erie County, Pennsylvania: Containing a History of the County, Its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc. |location=Erie, Pennsylvania |publisher=Warner, Beers and Company |volume=1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nn_SWMpgrKgC&pg=PA137 137] }}</ref> Unfortunately, on March 23, 1823, the Erie County Courthouse burned and all county records to that point were destroyed.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Whitman |first=Benjamin |display-authors=etal |year=1884 |chapter=Chapter XVII County Buildings |title=History of Erie County, Pennsylvania: Containing a History of the County, Its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc. |location=Erie, Pennsylvania |publisher=Warner, Beers and Company |volume=1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=nn_SWMpgrKgC&pg=PA283 283]}}</ref>

The county was originally settled by immigrants of "[[Yankee]]" stock (immigrants from New England and the western part of New York descended from the English Puritans whose ancestors settled New England in the colonial era). Erie County resembled [[Upstate New York]] more than it did [[Pennsylvania]] with its population primarily consisting of settlers from [[Connecticut]], [[Rhode Island]] and [[Maine]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rosenberry |first=Lois Kimball Mathews |year=1909 |title=The expansion of New England: the spread of New England settlement and institutions to the Mississippi River, 1620–1865 |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |page=151 }}</ref>  Roads were laid out, post routes established, public buildings erected and people were invited to move there. The original settlers were entirely of [[New England]] origins or were [[Yankee]]s from [[upstate New York]] whose families had moved to that place from [[New England]] only one generation earlier, in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. This resulted in Erie County being culturally very contiguous with early [[New England]] culture.

Erie County was part of the [[Underground Railroad]] giving slaves the ability to gain freedom through Lake Erie into Canada, East through New York State, or to stay in Erie with the help of abolitionists and the free black community.<ref>Meyer, Melinda.''Journey to Freedom'' National Park Service. Erie County Historical Society. November 17, 2010. http://www.nps.gov. (December 6, 2012)</ref>