This old Alabama town was on the banks of the Black Warrior River at Erie Bend near Greensboro. I have a map of the street layout somewhere around the house and it was a nice size town. If I find the map, I'll scan it in. I wish I knew more of the history. I haven't been there since 1965. Submitted by: Gordo

According to the history of Greene County, Eutaw, AL, Erie was located on the bank of the Black Warrior River in present day Hale County. It was a thriving little town for a while with several stores, shops, a hotel, and it's own paper. (Copies of the local paper "the Democrat" can be seen in a bound copy at the courthouse probate office in Greene Co., AL") It's population was considered intelligent and gentile, even prosperous. Sometime in the late 1830's or so, a sick black man was taken from a steamship at Erie to be nursed back to health. He had Yellow fever and soon an epidmeic spread throughout Erie. That, along with the fact that the location was not a good healthy one and had a poor water source ended the town. Most moved quickly to Eutaw (just across the river) and to the Greensboro areas. Only a few families stayed and the town soon fell into deterioration. Today Mr. C. O. Parnell owns the land where Erie stood. Only a few bricks or broken stones can still be seen.

The Erie cemetery can be found by traveling County Road 15 in Hale County, AL to Erie Road. The cemetery is on the Left before you reach Mason Bend Road.

According to "The Heritage of Greene County Alabama published by Heritage Publishing Company, P.O. Box 67 Clanton, AL 35046 1-800-568-1611 in 2001: Erie was the 1st municipality in the county, formed in 1820. It is located close to what is present day Sawyerville, AL in Hale county, about a mile above old Lock 6 and 11 miles west of Greensboro. The town spread over about 22 acres and housed quite a few business establishments. Nothing stands today.

According to Roland Monette (descendent of Elizabeth Monnette family and my distant ancestor) in a posting to Genforum on 9/3/2002:
"I have the old town plat, with last changes in 1910 by my great uncle Samiel Jackson "Jack" Monette who owned the entire town site until his death there in 1915. It then passed to his fiance, Miss Octavia Sledge who married Harvey Poellnitz; they disassembled the original old homestead of Rev James and Rachel Monett in 1946. In 1950's the town site and 580 surrounding acres was bought by my late friend Charles Parnell. I helped maintain the old burying ground there for many years, and often took people back there who came looking for their ancestral roots, but I left in mid 80's and moved to Europe. My family still owns the old Monette lands near Erie. I have all the old timer stories of Erie's settlement mostly by Tennesseeans (Monett, McGee, Sullivan...) and Carolinians (including Phares and McAlpin)."
Submitted by: Anita