Hi Vee, What a coincidence, I have a book with the minutes of School Dist. #3, Dummerston, Vermont, years 1808-1893 when state law consolidated all districts in a town under one board. I know this has nothing to do with Niagra Co. NY but it appears things were similar to what was here. This book has been here in my parents house at least since 1893 as near as I can tell. The last entry was made by my ggrandfather who was clerk at the time. I did not transcribe the whole book as it is not very interesting, the clerks were the soul of brevity, just listed who was elected to what position and how much they were paying for wood and teacher board mostly. I did notice that at one point the amount was listed in shillings, which I thought odd but I guess it was just the preference of the clerk as it was only one time. Rather than transcribe the whole thing, since my typing is quite slow, I went through and listed the date and all names given on that date. I figure this gives sort of a timeline of when folks appeared and disappeared in the neighborhood. I plan to give the book and a printout of the list to the town school district as it really belongs to the town. I hope they will care for it properly or give it to the historical society so they can. Now I am on to transcribing the box of Civil War letters home that I found in the attic. There are about 50 or so of them. Fortunately he had good handwriting and it is easy to read. Vee, yes please post the interesting stories from the school dist. minutes. I wish there were some in mine, I know there were some interesting characters in the neighborhood and I'll bet the meetings were quite lively at times but these things were not written down, alas. Ruth At 8:47 PM -0500 2/21/04, Vee L. Housman wrote: >Dear Jane, > >I'm certain that Kim would jump in here right now and explain that in >Phoebe's 1860 diary she was apparently living on the tip of Long Island. In >1857 she was living in Niagara County. > >The reason for my putting my two cents in here (or two farthings??) is >because of her use of the British term for money as late as 1860. I was >quite surprised at the continued lingering use of the terms if not the >actual coins. A number of years ago I meticulously transcribed the Minutes >of the Proceedings of of School District No. Three of Lewiston and Town of >Porter dating from 1819 to 1872. As I recall even up into the 1840s and >1850s the records would show that so many pounds and pence were spent on >fire wood or such. > >I still find it the continued use of the terms quiet strange well after the >War of 1812 at the least. >P.S. Hmmmm, I wonder if I could be coerced into extracting the MOST >interesting stories that can be read into those school district meetings. >Hmmmm! >vee -- Ruth Barton [email protected] Dummerston, VT