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Little is known about the Native American tribe that gave its name to Erie, Lake Erie and a county in three states. They were gone when the first settlers of European descent arrived in the region. What happened to the Erie or Eriez tribe?

The first thing I do when I walk into my office each morning is turn on the lights.  I don’t care if a little sunlight is coming through my small window or not, I mindlessly turn them on and go about my day.  Today though, I thought about Thomas Edison and his connection to Erie when I turned on my lights and then did a little research.

In 1915, Carl Benz was a German-American who, although having formally declared his citizenship intentions, was still years from becoming a U.S. citizen. He was gainfully employed as a butcher at Haibach Brothers Meat Packers at 918 Parade Street in Erie. Then suddenly, the U.S. declaration of war against Germany had flipped the climate in the U.S. against immigrant Germans (and even resident German-Americans). The mood changed from welcoming to skepticism, then outright persecution.

Carl Benz was an Erie man, an immigrant, a butcher, a business-owner, a family man, and my grandfather.  He was born in 1888 in Offenburg, Baden, Germany along the western edge of the Black Forest, just six miles from the Rhine River (which was the sometimes-border between France and Germany).  He was the baby of the family with three older sisters. 

Every now and then, the author of this blog gets out to enjoy the surrounding beauty of our area.  I took a drive to Conneaut township, Ohio, recently and remembered that there were several covered bridges in the area to be admired.  Well, I had the wrong car for the job because my low-profile tires do not like dirt roads (my last experience ended with a tow truck ride!) but I found two of the four bridges anyhow and checked them out.

Where am I?  The land for this community was part of the Erie “Triangle” which was 315 square miles claimed by New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts at the same time.  In 1778, the Commonwealth (the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a state and a commonwealth as the same thing with the only difference being in the name) of Pennsylvania and the Federal Government signed a treaty with 24 Iroquois Chiefs and was purchased for $165,640.00 ($3,508,399.23 today).

Many readers have seen the 1998 World War II film Saving Private Ryan. A small group of Army Rangers is sent behind German lines in post-D-Day France to find Private James Ryan whose brothers have been killed in the war. The story is loosely based on the story of the Niland brothers of Tonawanda, New York.

Each and every day people get into their cars to travel from point A to point B. Most of us would never give it second thought to our journey. Some of the first cars were open meaning the riders were exposed to the weather, debris, etc. Today though, we have the luxury to jump into our fully covered cars and go where we want, whenever we want to.

As you walk through the Watson-Curtze Mansion, have you ever found yourself wondering about the story behind a particularly lovely decorative item or a piece of furniture that is on display?

Most of the gorgeous Provincial furniture that resides in the mansion’s parlor came from the estate of a pair of Erie sisters – Helen Taylor and Ethel Taylor Winder.

Let’s face it, we all like to eat.  Maybe some more than others of us as our waistlines may show! We all must eat to live, of course, but how many of us produce what we eat?  In the early days of life here in Erie County, it was imperative.