The Portville Historical and Preservation Society
17 Maple Avenue
Portville, NY 14770

www.portvillehistory.org
Portville, New York
Credits

The lovely watercolor
in our toolbar above is
a depiction of the office
at 17 Maple Avenue.  
The artist is Portville's
very own talent,
Marilyn Reynolds.

It Was Quite A Year - 2011!

Happy New Year to all!  We had a great year at PHPS and have been so busy, we have had trouble
finding the time to fit everything in.  We had so many interesting visitors this past year, spanning the
country from California to the Carolinas, and have had many new items donated to add to our
collection.  Some of these include military uniforms, photographs, postcards, scrapbooks, and school
ephemera.  Longtime member and PHPS Trustee, David Pupo, has donated many items from his own
personal collections of local bottles and earthenware jugs, printed materials, and rare cheese factory
items.  These items will be featured in our museum.

Speaking of the museum, our work on Charles Eshelman's properties has been gradual but we are
finally seeing a lot of progress on the infrastructure of the main house.  This project has been
consuming most of our time, but our volunteers have been very enthusiastic and generous with their
support.  The boiler and radiators were replaced by a high-efficiency forced air furnace by Ron Kelley
of Kelley Heating of Cuba.  Ray and Robert, from Haberly Electric, have almost finished rewiring all
the electrical.  We are now working on some plumbing and also insulating the attics.  

So despite not seeing anything new here on the website lately, a lot has been going on behind the
scenes at PHPS.  We continue to be amazed at the connections we have made through the website
with people whose ancestors are from Portville or are related to someone from here.  We are
constantly learning new facts and nuances about our town.  Many thanks to all of the people that have
contacted us and shared their family information.  Our files "floweth over" and it is wonderful to have
all these great photographs and genealogies!

By the way, our office is now closed but you can still contact us via this website for research or
questions regarding the historical society.  We will reopen in May 2012.  

Visit Portville's Hall of Fame

One of the things that makes Portville so great is the people here.  If you have been up to the school in
recent years, you may have seen their Wall of Fame.  If you have not seen it, you can spend some
time perusing through our newest feature on this website, the Portville Hall of Fame.  

The Hall of Fame was initiated in 2002 with the induction of 4 outstanding contributors to the
community of Portville.  Since that year, there have been a total of 47 inductees.  The recipients have
ranged from educators and school contributors, to mayors and medical professionals, and various
philanthropists and community leaders.  Applications for the consideration of individuals for this
award can be submitted to the Hall of Fame Committee, in care of Gary Swetland at his email,
GSwetland@portville.wnyric.org.

This year, Portville will add a Sports Hall of Fame to honor the athletic accomplishments of graduates
of our Portville school.  Awarded in the fall, they plan to present the awards during halftime of a
regular season basketball game.  We will post the event on the Event Calendar for anyone interested in
attending the ceremony.   

Searching the Portville Newspapers Just Got Easier

One of the greatest tools we have for researching is the Portville Free Library's collection of old
newspapers dating back to 1900.  Years ago, the original Portville Autograph, the Portville Review and
the Portville Star were all stored on microfilm.  This enabled the preservation of the original
newspapers which become brittle with age, and a way to print excerpts from the film on a piece of
paper.  Microfilm readers are still in use today, however the library's reader has not been working for
some time.  Even with the machine, the quantity of data to search through makes finding information
this way quite tedious.

The technology to digitize the newspapers for use on the computer is available today - for a fee - but
the funds to tackle this type of project have been limited.  Both the Library and PHPS have been
dreaming of the day we would have this capability and now our  prayers have been answered in a
most unexpected way.

Local artist and Chestnut Hill Cemetery "enthusiast", Mark Weitzel, has been corresponding with a
fellow named Tom Tryniski in Fulton, NY.  He maintains a website called fultonhistory.com and has
an interest in local newspapers in New York.  He has scanned the library's microfilm at no cost and
posted it to his site.  Since he has tackled the search and storage problems of such a huge volume of
documents, we are forever in his debt for the three newspapers' digital records.  Bea Eldridge would
be thrilled that her newspapers are making another comeback!

Click Here to start your search at fultonhistory.com.

    The Portville Autograph (1901-1908)
   The Portville Review (1909-1952)  We are figuring out which years we are missing to fix this
   The Portville Star (1958-1969)

For best results, check out his help/FAQ page.  Each page of each paper is saved as a separate file so
there is an enormous amount of information to search, all in PDF files.  He has a search feature that
works well if you put in the correct information.  Start with "Portville Review" for example and add a
surname (like Holden) and perhaps a first name (like William) and a year if you can get close (like
1903).  Check the cemetery listings for date of death and start there.  You can also try to find a first
and last name as a phrase (like Portville Review William Holden 1903).  The search will give you an
assortment of results that contain the words that you used.  Click on each "hit" to bring up the page
and start reading. The type is quite clear and can be zoomed in if necessary.  We are checking into an
easier way to display the papers, but until then, GOOD LUCK!

175th Birthday Celebration for the Town of Portville - 1837 to 2012

Chuck Lucas has been busy lining up promoters and events for the 175th birthday of the formation of
the Town of Portville.  Way back in 1837, Portville was formed from Olean and became its own
municipality.  Years ago, Chuck organized Portville's Colonial Days celebrations.  The events got
bigger and better every year until insurance coverage became prohibitive to holding such a large annual
event.  It was replaced with a scaled-back event known as Heritage Day.  Next year is a special year
though, and he is working on a memorable party we will all enjoy.

Chuck plans to have a large carnival, a birthday party, street dance, parade, fireworks, and lots of
food vendors.  He is working on a possible Dice Run, Civil War Reenactment, and other fun
festivities.  The date is not firm at this early stage but will likely be in August, 2012.  If you have ideas
or want to contribute funds to the project budget, please contact Chuck.  We will provide more
information here as it becomes available.

112th Annual Alumni Banquet - Night Changed

Due to circumstances beyond their control, the Portville Alumni Committee has had to change the
night of the annual banquet to Friday night of the 2nd weekend in July 2012, instead of Saturday
night.  The location will continue to be the Premier Banquet Center in Olean, which has been a very
nice venue for the banquet the last few years.  Even if you are not superstitious, Friday the 13th will
be a fun night!  Save the Date for the Alumni Banquet:  Friday, July 13th, 2012

On another note, Portville is mourning the recent sudden passing of Alumni President, Joanne Nasuta
Sosnowski.  Joanne loved the Alumni banquet and will be sadly missed by many friends and
classmates from the Class of 1959.  Click here for the Times Herald obituary.
Welcome to PHPS
This page was last updated on 1-01-12