Benson Memorial Library, Franklin Street, near Main Street, colonial, brick and Indiana sandstone, built, 1902, architects, Jackson & Rosencrans, New York. St. James Protestant Episcopal Church, built, 1863, Gothic, native stone, has fine Tiffany window. Presbyterian Church, built, 1887, Romanesque, Medina sandstone, is on site of log church built in 1815; stained glass window by the Montague Pastle-London Co. of New York. Presbyterian Chapel, 1907, Romanesque, stained glass window by Lamb, New York. The Commercial Bank has a portrait of John L. McKinney, former president, by John C. Johanson. [Illustration: DRAKE MONUMENT WITH STATUE OF THE DRILLER, TITUSVILLE _Charles H. Niehaus, Sculptor_] XXX ERIE COUNTY Formed March 12, 1800; named for Lake Erie, the name Erie from a tribe of Indians, Eries, conquered by the Iroquois Confederacy in 1653, their identity and language is lost; curious mounds and circular embankments, still found in several places, show traces of a race superior to the Indians; human bones in large quantities have been unearthed on line of the Pennsylvania and Erie Railroad, indicating huge physical development, one was nine feet in height. The triangle north of Pennsylvania and west of New York was purchased, by authority of Governor Mifflin, in 1791, from the United States, to obtain a lake port for the state; conveyance being signed by President Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State; afterwards the Indian title was purchased from the Six Nations, through the diplomacy of Cornplanter (Gyantwachia), the Seneca chief, for which the state gave him a reservation in Warren County; later the Indians resolved to prevent the settlement of Presque Isle by Americans, but General Wayne gained a decisive and final victory against them in the battle of “Fallen Timbers” on Maumee Road in 1794. The Shore belt, for ten miles in width, is noted for grape and fruit raising; back of this is a productive agricultural section. Iron and steel industries predominate. Principal roads are along the south shore of Lake Erie, called the East and West Lake Roads, [Illustration: Erie County] [Map of Erie County showing: City of ERIE; Towns of EDINBORO, WATERFORD, and LE BOEUF; Railroad lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central, and New York Chicago & St. Louis; _LAKE ERIE_; PRESQUE ISLE; and WALNUT, ELK, CONNEAUT, and FRENCH Creeks] that form a fifty-mile section of the international touring route across the continent. The old French Road from Erie southeast to Waterford, 18 miles, was originally part of the stage route between Pittsburgh and Erie, and also the old portage route from Lake Erie, for military and commercial purposes, to the head waters of the Allegheny River navigation, at Fort Le Boeuf, Waterford, on Lake Le Boeuf.