[1][5] He participated in the Invasion of Canada (1775) Campaign in the Massachusetts 15th Regiment up until August 1776 but left active service in January 1777 that year for health reasons, after the 15th had succumbed to smallpox and hunger.

[5] General George Washington stopped at a tavern owned by Colonel Seth Read in June 1775, while on his way to assume command of the Continental Army at Boston.

The text which cites these earlier printings, again attributes use of e pluribus unum on US coins to Colonel Read of Uxbridge, Mass.

[4] But during the war their financial fortunes took a severe reversal and these two entrepreneurial adventurous men returned to Uxbridge to a relative state of poverty.

[15] At the conclusion of the war he moved from Massachusetts into Ontario County, where by trade with the Indians he became owner of a tract of land eighteen miles in extent.

[4] Finally, he sold this property and brought his wife and two sons (James Manning and Charles John) to the present site of Erie, arriving on the 17th of June, 1795.

The family came from Buffalo to Erie in a sail boat, reaching the harbor in the evening and camping on the peninsula over night, for fear of the Indians.

Soon after his arrival in June 1795, Colonel Reed erected a log cabin at the mouth of Mill Creek, which was the first permanent building in Erie.

[3] Seth Read, in 51 years, left his legacy, as a patriot soldier, a legislator, a pioneer, and as one who was instrumental in the phrase E Pluribus Unum, ("From Many, One") being added to all U.S. coins.

His wife (born Hannah Harwood) died in Erie on December 8, 1821, at the age of 74, being the mother of the following children, four sons of whom have already been mentioned: James Manning, Charles John, Sophia, Rufus Seth, Sally Adams, Henry Joseph, George Washington and Mary (Polly).

Seth and Hannah's grandson, Charles M. Reed became a Whig Congressman, from Pennsylvania, and wealthy great lakes steamship captain from Erie.

Capron Mills and its successors manufactured U.S. Military uniforms from before the Civil War Period to 1962 including the first U.S. Air force blues.

[14] Colonel Read's original home at Uxbridge, known later as a Capron house and later owned by Chase's, was razed in 1967 to make a parking lot for a local drug store.

The grist mill and water works later served as Bay State Arms, a manufacturer of single shot rifles, in the 1880s.