Erie still goes ga-ga over Mad Anthony Wayne, the post-Revolutionary War hero who died here after fighting Indians in Ohio. Mad Anthony was buried in Erie, but 13 years later his daughter asked that his bones be dug up and brought to the family burial plot in Radnor, Pennsylvania. The gravediggers, however, encountered a setback: Mad Anthony hadn't decomposed! At a loss for what to do, Erie hacked up Mad Anthony and boiled the flesh off of him in a big pot, then sent the bones back to Radnor.
The boiling cauldron is now a favorite exhibit at the Erie County History Center. It's displayed with cartoon-like "bones" floating in it and wood piled beneath, illuminated by a fake fire. A period illustration placed next to the pot shows a cadaver-like Wayne sitting in his chair of death (which is also displayed).
Other exhibits at the Center are similarly memorable, such as "Washington's Teeth" (a set of generic lead dentures) and a wax dummy of Henry Francisco, "the first man hanged under civil law in Erie County." Henry is displayed with a noose.
