Fort Presque Isle

History

The French built the original Fort Presque Isle to solidify their hold on the Ohio Country, a region also claimed by the British, a dispute that sparked the French and Indian War. After losing the Battle of Fort Niagara in 1759, the French set the fort ablaze and abandoned it. A marker now stands at the southeast corner of East Front and Parade Streets, where the fort once sat among the houses. The British later erected their own Fort Presque Isle, which fell to Native American forces during Pontiac’s Rebellion. Around 250 Ottawas, Ojibwas, Wyandots, and Senecas surrounded the fort on June 19, 1763. The garrison of roughly sixty men held out for two days before surrendering under a promise of safe passage to Fort Pitt, but most were killed as they left the fort. General Anthony Wayne first visited the Presque Isle area in 1786. In 1795, Captain John Grubb led 200 Federal troops from Wayne’s army to build a blockhouse on Garrison Hill in what is now Erie, Pennsylvania. This blockhouse, also called Fort Presque Isle, served as a defense against Native American uprisings and later saw use during the War of 1812. Wayne fell ill at the fort and died there in 1796. At his request, his body was buried beneath the flagpole of the northwest blockhouse, which burned down in 1852. In 1880, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania rebuilt the blockhouse at Second and Ash Streets in Erie as a memorial to Wayne. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has deemed this reconstructed blockhouse eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Located at N 42° 08.400, W 80° 04.463, it sits on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home and was last rebuilt in 1984.