Verna Feather of Jamestown is a bicyclist who has covered a lot of territory through the years and will tell about her trip around Australia when the Mayville Tuesday Club meets at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Mayville Library.
Michelle Henry, Chautauqua County historian, presented the history of the county's War of 1812 involvement. After the country became independent, England wasn't happy about that and was convinced it would fail and "come back home."
The United States didn't want that to happen so they declared war on England on June 18, 1812. The U.S. invaded British North America's Upper and Lower Canada (today's Ontario and Quebec, respectively). One problem, however, was finding enough men from this area to travel to Buffalo to join the fight.
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Michelle Henry, Chautauqua County historian, pictured at left, presented the county’s involvement in the War of 1812, in which most men didn’t want to serve. Looking over some of her notes is Dianne Goodrich, Tuesday Club president.
Eventually, there were enough (500). It was interesting to note that, at that time, there were only two county supervisors (now county executives), Chautauqua and Pomfret, who ran the county.
In the fall of 1811, many men owned oxen but not many horses. Then, a Ripley man traveled to and from Albany, which took him 26 days, for arms. In addition, the men had no military training and had to be trained by the British. Mrs. Henry noted, too, that many of the men were angry because they wanted to stay home to protect their families instead of going to Buffalo.
One thing that makes the War of 1812 most unusual is that "nobody came out as a declared winner of the war," Mrs. Henry concluded.
The Tuesday Club is currently selling tickets for a drawing for a most unusual cross stitch sample called a Collect, meaning a piece that is a prayer or invocation. The cross stitch begins each club meeting by all members reciting it together. The cost is $2 for three tickets or $1 for each. Drawing for the Collect will be some time in November during a special used book sale. The public is invited to purchase tickets at the library during its hours.
Hostess for the October meeting was Jean Peters, who read a poem about October. All who attend the November meeting are reminded to bring food for the Mayville Food Pantry.