May 22, 2000 In my next review of the videotape that I watched this evening, I want to say that I'm adding my own words and historical information to what Cora told Danny in his interview. Hopefully, between Cora and me, we'll give you a picture of the history of the Town of Porter. Danny questioned Cora about the early years, ca 1815, when it seemed that the settlers were responsible for the upkeep of our primitive roads. Cora agreed and told him that we have the records which lists the individual names of the property owners whose duty it was to spend their fair share of days in maintaining the roads. Whether it be the cutting down of trees or crudely plowing the deep snow to make the roads passable. Regarding the earliest streets in Youngstown, in the early years they consisted only of the road along the Niagara River that lead to Fort Niagara (now called River Road or-in Youngstown-Main Street) and the road that leads to Lockport (now called Lockport Street or the Youngstown-Lockport Road-Route 93). Cora then told Danny that the village of Youngstown was laid out in 1842 and that was when the other streets came into being; such as Second St., Third St., etc. Now some of our early maps of Youngstown show a very sharp jagged east/west twist to Third Street (in the vicinity of where Third Street crosses William Street) and Danny questioned Cora about it. She said that it had occurred because it had originally been on the southern boundary of the military grounds of Fort Niagara-the Garrison. She then went on to say that the fort grounds had originally consisted of 700 acres that stretched from the corner of where the Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario all the way distant to one mile eastward. [Note: the One Mile Reserve is another lesson in local history that hasn't been covered yet and I won't go into how it came about.] Danny then asked Cora about prominent men in the early years. Her initial response was to mention Moses Barsto (Bairsto/Barstow, etc.). He was an early Town of Porter Supervisor and was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church of Youngstown. He questioned her about the area known as Blairsville-about 2-1/2 miles from Youngstown. He knew that it wasn't even a hamlet; only that it was an area where people settled for some reason. It was in the vicinity of where Blairsville Road and Creek Road (present Rt. 18) come together. Cora told him that it was in that general area where Four Mile Creek crosses Creek Road and that they settled there because of the creek. You see, where there is running water, there is the power to turn the wheels of a mill. And there was a mill that was operated there. Now Cora couldn't recall whether the mill ground grain or cut wood and although I know that could tell you who owned that mill, I'd have to search through my records to find out. Now who was the Blair that Blairsville was named after? Well, Cora seemed to remember that he was a blacksmith who had lived in the area. Well, she was right. I haven't researched the family but the first time that William Blair shows up on our Town of Porter records was in the 1865 census. At that time he was 41 years old [born ca 1824] a boarder in this/my area, a widower born in Scotland, a blacksmith and living in a local household with his eight-year-old son(?) John Blair who was born in Canada, age 8 [born ca 1857]. In the 1875 local census it shows that William had married again to a girl by the name of Martha who was from Prince Edward Island, Canada, and they had three children, Oscar, 11 [born ca 1865?] Minnie, 8 [born ca 1867] and William, 6 [b ca 1869]. All the children were born in Niagara County. John wasn't listed on the census. By that time he was about 18 years old. I wonder what happened to John Blair. Well, I guess I've been rambling a bit about the Blair family just now when what I had originally wanted to do this evening was to give you the next episode of the oral history tape. But when it comes to the history of the Town of Porter, I get carried away when it comes to the families who lived here and/or settled here. Hey, without people and their families, there would be no history at all! Vee from youngstown