Judge Joseph M. Sterrett

Born February 19, 1800, near Shippensburg, Cumberland County, the Honorable Joseph Sterrett was the son of James and Anna (McKnight) Sterrett. He received a common education, later apprenticing for Robert Curtis’s Erie Northern Sentinel, the Mercer Western Press, the Hagerstown (Maryland) Torchlight, the Frederick (Maryland) Star of Federalism, the Baltimore American, and the Carlisle Volunteer. Returned to Erie in 1819 and founded the Erie Gazette a year later. From 1827 through 1865, Sterrett’s newspaper supported Antimasonry, the Whig Party, and the Republican Party through the Civil War. In public life, he was county commissioner, 1829; served as a Whig in the state Senate, 1837-1841; Erie County Associate Judge, 1849-1854; Erie Postmaster, 1861-1869; and U.S. Revenue Commissioner for the Erie Judicial District. Senator Sterrett died on June 20, 1888, interred in Erie Cemetery. He married Catherine Riblet, 1824, in Erie, Pennsylvania.Senate Bio