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Wattsburg
was first known as the Forks of French Creek.
It is here that the main branch of French Creek
flows southwest into the area from New York
State and meets the west branch of French Creek.
The first settlers came in 1796, four years
after the Erie Triangle was purchased. William
Miles, one of the earlier surveyors of the 10th
Donation District in the southeastern portion of
the county, purchased 1,400 acres here and
established a shipping business, transporting
supplies between Colt's Station to the north and
other settlements to the south by canoe along
French Creek. The first road was opened through
to North East in 1800. Nine years later a road
was opened to the Erie settlement. Fording the
west branch had long been a problem and in 1822
county officials built the first permanent
bridge in the county here over this branch of
French Creek.
The little settlement was growing in size and
importance. In 1828 Miles laid out a village and
called it Wattsburg, naming it after his
father-in-law, David Watts. That same year the
first Temperance Society in the county organized
here. Wattsburg continued to grow and five
years later it was incorporated as a borough.
Stage lines kept a regular schedule and the town
seemed to be booming. A weekly mail route was
established between Erie and Jamestown, NY, and
the carrier passed through Wattsburg as he
walked the distance on foot. Mills, retail and
service shops, a hotel, factories, and more were
locating here as the town grew. For a brief
time there was even talk of organizing a new
county, calling it Miles and making Wattsburg
the county seat.
In the 1850s Wattsburg became known for its
butter. The surrounding land was sufficient to
support dairy cattle and a creamery began
production that was almost legendary. Its
products rivaled those of New York State butter
and it remained in business for many decades.
By the beginning of the third quarter of the
19th Century, three secret societies
organized in the borough: a Grange in 1874; a
Masonic Blue Lodge, in 1875; and a Lodge of the
Knights of Honor in 1877. An eight-page
newspaper began publication in 1878 and
continued for a year, then another started in
1881 and was more successful. An agricultural
society organized to start a community fair in
1883 which grew in size and importance and
became known as the Wattsburg Erie County Fair.
The fairgrounds were located less than a mile
north of the borough, yet one of the delights in
the early part of the 20th Century
during fair time was to take the steamboat from
Miles' old landing just east of town to the
fairgrounds. The cost for this short ride was
five cents each.
As time passed and the county progressed,
Wattsburg residents realized that many railroad
lines passed through nearby townships and
boroughs, but none were here. The town had been
bypassed.
In the 20 th Century fires and
floods took their toll on the borough. A fire
along the main street in 1928 destroyed an
entire block, which took most of the business
district including the Wattsburg Hotel. The
hotel was built in 1882 and had been a landmark
in the community. It was said that the
firefighters drained French Creek in their
efforts to put out the blaze. Two terrible
floods occurred, one in 1939 and the other in
1947, and these did dreadful damage to
individual residents. This magnitude of flooding
has not occurred again since the French Creek
Reservoir and Dam project was completed in the
1960s.
During the 1960s several high school students
became interested in the history of the town.
Although their interest waned, in 1983 a group
of adults took up the idea and as the 150th
anniversary of the borough's incorporation
loomed, the adults officially formed the
Wattsburg Area Historical Society. Their
purpose is to research and preserve the history
of Wattsburg as well as Amity and Venango
Townships. Not long afterward an old grocery
store building was donated to them and they set
to work to restore it. Today they use the first
floor of the building to exhibit a period
kitchen, living room and bedroom of the early
1900s. The second floor is used for meetings and
to store the archives and genealogical data.
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