New bicentennial display in Youngstown

Town of Porter Historian Suzanne Simon Dietz will host a reception during the Holiday in the Village celebration Saturday, Dec. 14, in the Porter Historical Museum, located in the Red Brick School Village Center, 240 Lockport St., Youngstown. Visitors will have an opportunity to view the new display highlighting the town's bicentennial celebration.

In addition to working with Karen Noonan of the Town of Porter Historical Society, the two have completed research documenting the town's residents in 1813 and created a map of early settlements in Porter from 1800-29. While much has been written about the burning of Lewiston Dec. 19, 1813, Noonan points out that, until recently, little attention had been paid the burning of homes in the Town of Porter by British soldiers late in December 1813. "First they razed the small hamlet of Young's town, named after land owner John Young, then later in the month the soldiers moved along the lake shore burning homes and taking male prisoners back to the fort," says Noonan. "The soldiers traveled as far as 18 Mile Creek in what now is the Town of Newfane, burning a mill located on the creek which was considered an important military objective."

She adds a map of the area in the early 1800s and a booklet, "Early Town of Porter Residents 1800-1829," which provides a detailed list of those who lived in the town will be released Dec. 19, when students from Lewiston- Porter, Wilson, Stella Niagara and the Tuscarora Elementary Schools take part in an education program at Old Fort Niagara and Youngstown as part of Old Fort Niagara's bicentennial commemoration of the British attack.