Dear Group, This evening Debbie asked for information about the history of the Niagara County Pioneer Association. And because I have my own copy of the original published edition of the book that she referred to, I just sat down and started to transcribe what I could about its history. However, when I realized to total length of that chapter in the book, I gave up in midstream and just summarized from there on. Debbie, I think that the following will give you an idea what the Association was all about. It sure opened MY eyes! vee youngstown, NY The following is extracted from Souvenir History of Niagara County, New York, published by the Niagara County Pioneer Association, 1902. Niagara County Pioneer Association Compiled by Frederick F. Purdy A work of this character, issued on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of the Niagara County Pioneer Association, would indeed be incomplete without at least briefly recounting the growth of this unique institution of Western New York, where, each year at Olcott, gather old friends from the ends of Niagara County by the thousands to greet each other, and where political fortunes are made and unmade. The roster of the presidents of the association includes some of the most eminent citizens of the county, past and present, and indicates the high place the Pioneer Association has had during all these twenty-five years in the esteem of the people of the county. The first president was Hon. John Van Horn, who was followed successively by Hon. Franklin Spalding, Hon. Guy C. Humphrey, Colonel George L. Moote, John G. Freeman, Hon. John Hodge, Elisha B. Swift, Hon. Benjamin F. Felton, Hon. Lee R. Sanborn, Hon. John E. Pound, Hon. Thomas V. Welch and the present incumbent, Hon. Peter A. Porter. This sketch could best be written by Andrew Ten Brook, whom everybody knows, from Youngstown to Wolcottsville and from Somerset to the Tonawandas. But the work would then have such a flavor of autobiography and call for the use of so many capital "I's" that the modest founder of Pioneer Association insists that this duty shall devolve upon the writer. Consequently, with data which we have secured from him together with some of his personal reminiscences, we assume this task of compilation, rather than of authorship, with less diffidence than would be the case under any other circumstances. Andrew Ten Brook, though thoroughly alive to present, carries with him the memory and the atmosphere of a former day. His name and his lineaments betoken his sturdy Dutch and Knickerbocker ancestry. Indeed, it has been suggested by people in whose minds Irving's charming Knickerbocker History of New York is fresh that the indefatigable promoter of the Pioneer Association has jumped right out of some of its pages. But be that as it may, whatever reverence he may have for the past, he is still an earnest worker and effective advocate of the purposes for which the Pioneer Association was formed. Early in the summer of 1877 Mr. Ten Brook read in the Lockport Journal a notice of the projected formation of a Western New York Pioneer Association at Attica. Recognizing the value of such a society to the pioneers of the County of Niagara, he projected the formation of the organization. He conferred with a number of citizens on the project . . . and they and others viewed the project favorably and advised Mr. Ten Brook to call a meeting. Although only six men attended the meeting, Mr. Ten Brook went right ahead and issued the call for the first picnic of the "Pioneer Association of Niagara County." It was held at Olcott; and inasmuch as 1,500 people attended, and it was the first effort, it may well be regarded as a success. In 1878 the attendance had risen to 5,000. In 1888, when the log cabin was formally dedicated at Olcott, the attendance was 10,000. In 1900, when Governor [Theodore] Roosevelt was the speaker, the throng numbered 20,000. In 1901 the attendance was 25,000. ----- Note: the history of the Pioneer Association of Niagara County then goes on further for over five more long pages in the large book. Current (1902) officers were listed from all the individual towns of Niagara County and in reading over that list, I recognize a great number of names as being descendants of the very earliest settlers of Niagara County. What happened to the Pioneer Association after 1902? I don't know. I feel, however, that the spirit of those annual picnics at Olcott continued for many years afterward and if you would ask some of the real old-timers of this county, you might find a few left that have warm memories of the huge picnics at Olcott, even if they were only little girls and boys at the time. I have the feeling that Olcott was a very special magical place in the early part of the 1900s.