Description
From the early French forts, commerce on Lake Erie, and the oil boom to today’s new technology and tourism industry, northwestern Pennsylvania’s economy comes alive in a new and unique history by Jefferson Educational Society Scholar-in-Residence Judith Lynch. This was America’s earliest frontier from colonial times to the American Revolution and the early days of a new nation. But it soon confronted industrialization, immigration, world wars, and evolving transportation, while constantly changing to adapt to new challenges. Author Lynch guides the reader through this American story by examining the history and development of four counties of northwestern Pennsylvania: Erie, Crawford, Venango, and Warren, and the people, events, topography, companies, competition, and inventions that helped shape them. The book is filled with stories of triumph, transformative change, and sometimes abrupt endings to what once seemed unshakable.