Dear Folks, I know that I had mentioned to you over a year ago in November around Veterans Day 2002 that I was determined to collect all of the names of the veterans who had ever served in the military in any war or peace time whatsoever and the only criteria is that at some point they either resided or now reside or were eventually buried in the Town of Porter, Niagara Co., NY. What I wanted was to have an all-name list of those of us veterans who had served from the Revolutionary War up to those who are still on active duty. I prepared a Veterans Questionnaire blank form that was distributed to all of the shops and stores and libraries and municipal offices, etc., throughout the Town of Porter. The Niagara Gazette picked up on the story and it got the ball rolling. It wasn't long before the questionnaires started flooding in. It was all that I could do to keep up with the volume. Prior to even making up the Veterans Questionnaire, I had already set up a simple database with only their names, what war, dates, other basic bits of information and from what source the information came. In addition I set up a Veterans Personal Page in word processing form that told the whole story of their military career including whether they served in combat, what theater of operations, what medals they were awarded and any additional comments that were provided. During the eventual trickle down of questionnaires coming in, I dug into all of the local records that could give me more names of our veterans. Cemeteries, tax records, census records, obituaries, newspaper articles, you name it. I dug it up and entered the names and information into both my database and word processing program (double entries). Now this evening as I'm fading fast, it looks like the tally of names and personal information will go well over the top of 1,000 of our veterans from the Revolutionary War to the present. About 175 of the names and information came from the questionnaires we've received. The rest of information is from our town and historical society records including the cooperation of the local VFW. What will be done with such a list of information on our veterans? In the first place it will be stored as history and for the public to view in the historical society museum's computer and undoubtedly all of the information will be printed out. Note, the database printout will be about 30 pages but the word processing personal information will take over two reams of paper to print all of the records out. More than that, I continue to hope that an all-name list of our veterans will be displayed publicly in some fashion. There certainly is an interest in both the village of Youngstown and the Town of Porter but in the meantime at least the mayor of Youngstown in very interested in viewing the list inasmuch as Youngstown will be celebrating it's 150th (Sesquicentennial?) this year and he wants to honor our veterans as part as the celebration. I have to admit that I'm bustin' my buttons here with what I've accomplished all by myself. However, I have to give credit to the historical society for maintaining a supply of questionnaires around town. But the bottom line is that I can't imagine any village, town/township, city, county or any other area ever putting together such a list of the history of their veterans. What has been driving me on this project? It's my feeling that very few (if any) of us veterans over the many wars have ever been properly publicly acknowledged as ever serving our country whatsoever. And I feel that it's long overdue. Vee L. Housman PNC, USNR (Ret.)

Vee, This sounds like a real project. In the neighboring town of Putney, VT, which celebrated it's 250th last year, they got together the names of all the veterans of all wars and now have a large granite monument on the front lawn of the Town Hall with all the names on it. I'll have to take a picture of it and send to you. This town had had a wooden plaque with WWII names on it but nobody knows what happened to it, probably somebody used it for firewood at some point. I don't know how much info they collected about these veterans, if it was just names or more info, I'll have to ask. Ruth At 1:11 AM -0500 3/1/04, Vee L. Housman wrote: >Dear Folks, > >I know that I had mentioned to you over a year ago in November around >Veterans Day 2002 that I was determined to collect all of the names of the >veterans who had ever served in the military in any war or peace time >whatsoever and the only criteria is that at some point they either resided >or now reside or were eventually buried in the Town of Porter, Niagara >Co., NY. What I wanted was to have an all-name list of those of us >veterans who had served from the Revolutionary War up to those who are >still on active duty. -- Ruth Barton [email protected] Dummerston, VT

Ruth, I would really appreciate receiving a picture of the monument. Also if you can tell me how many names are on it I'd be interested in that also. Thanks vee ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ruth Barton" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 11:19 AM Subject: Re: [FOLKS] My veterans project > Vee, This sounds like a real project. In the neighboring town of Putney, > VT, which celebrated it's 250th last year, they got together the names of > all the veterans of all wars and now have a large granite monument on the > front lawn of the Town Hall with all the names on it. I'll have to take a > picture of it and send to you. This town had had a wooden plaque with WWII > names on it but nobody knows what happened to it, probably somebody used it > for firewood at some point. I don't know how much info they collected > about these veterans, if it was just names or more info, I'll have to ask. > Ruth > > > > > At 1:11 AM -0500 3/1/04, Vee L. Housman wrote: > >Dear Folks, > > > >I know that I had mentioned to you over a year ago in November around > >Veterans Day 2002 that I was determined to collect all of the names of the > >veterans who had ever served in the military in any war or peace time > >whatsoever and the only criteria is that at some point they either resided > >or now reside or were eventually buried in the Town of Porter, Niagara > >Co., NY. What I wanted was to have an all-name list of those of us > >veterans who had served from the Revolutionary War up to those who are > >still on active duty. > -- > Ruth Barton > [email protected] > Dummerston, VT >