Small hamlets sprung up at various points around the township and these, at one time or another, included Albion Depot, Cherry Hill, Jackson's Crossroads, Keepville, Kidders Corners, Lexington, Pennside and Tracy. Today, Cherry Hill, Keepville and Tracy continue to be hamlet sites on the county map. Lexington, named by a Kentuckian according to one story, was said to have been platted in the 1790s as one of Erie County's earliest villages. By 1823 it was fairly well established, with residences, hotels, a general store, school, post office, blacksmith, livery and a distillery. However, as time passed bits and pieces of the town fell away, the post office closed, buildings burned or fell into disrepair and gradually the town slipped from view.
Nothing remains of Lexington today.
Several of the other small communities disappeared in the same way. In 1844 the Erie Extension Canal became reality, offering inexpensive, though seasonal, transportation from Beaver near Pittsburgh, north to Girard Township and east to a terminus in Erie. The canal meant new businesses could prosper all along its route and one settlement that particularly benefited was Jackson's Crossroads, later renamed Albion Borough. The canal offered opportunities for everyone who lived along the canal route. Even homemakers who lived near the great ditch could sell baked goods and other food items to the passengers and crew who were traveling along at about four miles per hour.