Daniel Dobbins was born 5 July 1776 (near present-day Lewiston) in Mifflin Co., Pennsylvania. An Erie pioneer, he came to the town with a surveying party, c.1795-6. He soon began serving onboard Lake Erie merchant ships, and by 1803 was captain of the Sloop Good Intent, one of perhaps only a dozen ships on the lake at that time. In 1809, Dobbins became master and part owner, along with Rufus S. Reed, of the 90-ton salt-trade Schooner Salina.

Dobbins sailed Salina on Lakes Erie and Huron until they were captured by the British when Fort Michilimackinac fell, 17 July 1812. The British gave Dobbins parole and ordered him to take his ship and paroled American soldiers to Cleveland. When Salina reached Detroit, the ship and her passengers were commandeered and taken into US service. Dobbins joined the militia unit there and participated in some skirmishes. When Gen. Hull surrendered Detroit, 16 Aug. 1812, Dobbins again became a prisoner of the British. Accused of violating his parole, he faced execution by the British but managed to escape back via a perilous journey to Erie. Once there, he was commanded by Gen. David Mead to report what he’d seen to the authorities in Washington. Dobbins made the long trek to the capitol, where he informed the government of the grave situation on the north western frontier.

Dobbins persuaded the Navy of the need for an American naval force on Lake Erie and of the suitability of Erie as the place to build and base that squadron. The Navy gave Dobbins the rank of sailing master and sent him back to Erie to gather the supplies and oversee the Herculean task of building a “fleet in the wilderness.” After Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry took command of the ship building effort at Erie, Dobbins continued to be instrumental in the success of that project. Perry appointed Dobbins to command the US Schooner Ohio. The vessel was sent back to Erie for supplies and missed the Battle of Lake Erie.

Dobbins remained in the Navy after the war, stationed at Erie. In 1826, he left the service and supervised harbor improvement projects in Erie and Ashtabula, Ohio and was a director of the Erie and Chautauqua Steamboat Company, which built and operated the Steamer William Penn.

In 1829, he was appointed a captain in the US Revenue Cutter Service. Dobbins commanded the Erie based Revenue Cutters Benjamin Rush and Erie; he left the service in 1849. Dobbins was involved in the Underground Railroad, helping an escaped slave, William Mason, evade salve catchers and getting him to safety onboard a schooner departing Erie. Dobbins had over forty years of service on the Great Lakes. He died at the age of eighty, on 29 Feb. 1856, and is buried with his wife, Mary West Dobbins in Erie Cemetery. Of their eight children, two sons, Capt. David P. Dobbins and Capt. William W. Dobbins went on to distinguished maritime careers.

Dobbins Landing, Erie’s public dock, is named for Capt. Dobbins. In 2003, Dobbins was honored by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with a state historical marker on Dobbins Landing. For further information we suggest reading Daniel Dobbins: Frontier Mariner by Robert D. Ilisevich, published by the Erie County Historical Society, 1993.

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