This book presents transcriptions, extracts and indexes of articles from the surviving issues (twenty, in total) of The Niagara Courier newspaper, published between June 26, 1828 - November 6, 1833. Of the 749 articles extracted, 611 are full transcriptions; the remainder are presented in detailed point form. Name, subject, and supplementary indexes are valuable finding aids, pointing to 3,336 surnames and organizational names. More than 1,000 index entries pertain to the town of Lockport. More than 1,300 entries relate to nearby towns including Niagara, Lewiston, Royalton, Pendleton, Youngstown, Cambria and Hartland. Subjects range from advertisements and politics, to legal notices, education, and transportation. People published cautions to the public about their stray cows, stolen horses, runaway servants, lost wallets, and eloped wives. Legal notices announced letters awaiting pick-up at the local post offices, the probate of wills, and the imminent sale of a deceased person's real estate. The supplementary indexes cross-reference surnames to the subjects of court in chancery, insolvent debtors, sheriff's and mortgage sales, wills and estates, and women. Most of the references to women pertain to postal notices, but also include mentions of the new Ontario Female Seminary at Canandaigua, one woman's plea to the public for assistance in finding her adult sons, and advertisements by enterprising seamstresses, milliners, and mantua-makers. Genealogists and historians will appreciate this window into the town of Lockport's early 19th century past. Admittedly reported from the perspective of the editor, Michener Cadwallader (1798-1864), this book allows readers to delve into such topical events as: - the rise of the anti-Masonic political movement, - the trial for the abduction and murder of Capt. William Morgan in 1828, - the trial and conviction of Americans in Madawaska, New Brunswick in 1831, - the emergence of that dreaded disease, Cholera, in 1832, and - the early years of the Temperance movement.
About the Author: Alison Kilpatrick is an amateur genealogist with a keen interest in historic newspapers. Alison is well known in the online genealogical community, as much for her family history interests in England and Ireland, as for the volume and reliability of her transcriptions from 18th and 19th century Irish newspapers, covering several counties in the province of Ulster. Alison developed an interest in the historic newspapers of Lockport whilst researching her husband's Berry, Isenhour, Ludwig and Newman ancestors, who lived at Lockport and Newfane, in Niagara County, and Gorham and Seneca, in Ontario County.