Erwin: Painted Post and the Pennsylvania Settlers
Near Watkins Glen, New York
The Town of Erwin sits in the Chemung River valley in southern Steuben County, New York, adjacent to the city of Corning. The first permanent settlers arrived around seventeen eighty-six, many of them from Pennsylvania, including Arthur Erwin the elder, who had come from Erwinna in Bucks County. The township takes his name.
Erwin was originally part of the larger Town of Painted Post , a name that recalled a painted post found in the valley, whose origin and purpose remain uncertain , and separated into its own town in eighteen twenty-six. The surrounding valley, carved by the Chemung River and its tributaries, was the territory of the Seneca Nation before American settlement pushed west after the Revolution. Today the town is known mainly as the residential and commercial backdrop to Corning, home to the Corning Museum of Glass and the Steuben glass industry.
