Dear Group, This evening I watched the second 15 minutes of the videotape of the interview that Danny had with Cora about the history of our Town of Porter. And this is what was discussed. But before I begin . . . well let me just say this as a kinda PS. As I was writing this down, I was prompted to add a bit of facts of history that wasn 't mentioned in the interview. And so the end result is a combination of what Cora told Danny and what I felt would add to the history. Danny asked Cora about the early settlement around Fort Niagara around where the Coast Guard Station is now. The Coast Guard Station in on the Niagara River directly west of the fort within a few yards of it. Danny referred to the settlement as The Bottoms. Cora knew what he was talking about but knew that it was known by another name. It finally came to her-it was called Trader Town. Now this was in the very earliest years of the settlement here-probably before the War of 1812. Cora said that Trader Town was a settlement of people-hangers' on-who came here to do business with the fort. He asked her what sort of business other than farming would other settlers have to contribute to the fort and she named off a few of them-blacksmiths, barrel makers, and in later years the business of the grist mill-grinding wheat into flour. [The grist mill was located on the corner of Water St. and Main St. where our only stop light is in "downtown" Youngstown.] Danny prompted her to describe the earliest settlement of the village of Youngstown. She recalled the map-or sketch-(ca 1810) that we have in our museum that shows four or five log cabins along the Niagara River just outside Fort Niagara. Everything else around here at the time was still a dense virgin forest. They agreed that during the War of 1812 when the British burned all the settlements from Youngstown all the way up the Niagara River to Buffalo, those cabins were among those that were burned to the ground. At the end of the war, some of the families who had originally settled here and who had fled to settlements further east in New York to escape the British and the Indians, eventually returned and started all over again on. There are records of those families who had suffered property damage and losses as a result of the war. Although the records are scant, we know that Widow Agnes Greensit who owned a tavern in Youngstown, was burned out and so was Isaac Swain. The records also include mention of some settlers who had been taken prisoner by the British and mentions the state of their families immediately after the burning. Some of them were "in want," others were "not in want." Danny asked Cora about what sort of government there was in Youngstown during the early years of settlement. Well, Youngstown wasn't incorporated until 1864 but before that it was under the government of the Town of Porter. Cora said that the earliest written records that have survived are those dated in 1815 and that individuals were elected to serve as Overseer of the Poor, Commissioner of Schools, etc. [Note: I have a copy of those records.] That prompted Danny to ask Cora about the early schools here. The first school outside the village of Youngstown that she could recall from the records that we have in the museum was known as the Blairville School [School District No. Three-just a stroll up (south) Creek Road from where I live]. Cora couldn't remember the exact dates of the records but I'll tell you that the records are from 1819-1872. The earlier schools were the one in the village of Youngstown on the corner of what is Water Street and Main Street and the one at Tower's Corners that is just down (north) of where I live at the intersection of what is now Rt. 93 and Rt. 13 (Creek Rd). We also have early records from the Tower's Corners school, but I/we haven't gotten around to transcribing them yet. Danny questioned Cora about the number of people who lived here in the early settlement years. Off the top of her head she said that in the 1800 census there were 125 people. Well, dear Cora was a bit off on that figure, it was 152 people. And no, we're not talking about the population of the village of Youngstown or the Town of Porter or the Town of Cambria. From the same record that Cora was quoting from, I have an idea that it was the total population of not only Niagara County but that it included a great deal of Erie County as well. But, hey, don't quote me on that! As with Danny's interview with Cora, my comments at this moment haven't been seriously researched or studied. And as with any interview, remember the three most important rules of either genealogy or historical research, (1) source, (2) source, (3) SOURCE! I hope I can continue to give you an insight into the continuing "saga" of the history of the Town of Porter as recorded on videotape by Danny Schlisler over the hours he spent with our dear Town of Porter Historian, Cora Gushee. Who knows what actual personal memories that Dan might encourage Cora to talk about that have to do with our town's history. She has lived in this area all her 97 years and although I doubt that she will tell Danny about one particular soldier she knew during the years of WWI who was stationed at Fort Niagara at the time, I'm certain that when I continue to view the videotape, I'll have more history to tell you about. Tune in to the next episode. vee from Youngstown