Search This Blog

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Founder's Day Essay Contest Winners

click here

FORT LAPRÉSENTATION ASSOCIATION ANNUAL FUNDRAISING DINNER HONORS DEDICATED SUPPORTERS

OGDENSBURG, NY 22 September, 2011-- The Fort La Présentation Association is presenting a hat-trick of awards at its annual fundraising and awards dinner at the Gran-View Restaurant Friday, October 28.

Marijean Remington, chair of the association’s fundraising committee, and Horst Dresler and Daniel Roy, long-time participants and advocates of Founder’s Day Weekend, are the three honorees.

Ms. Remington will be presented the Persis Yates Boyesen Award for her outstanding contribution toward the historically accurate reconstruction and ongoing presence of Fort de la Présentation.

Mr. Dresler from Vermont and Mr. Roy from Quebec are to receive the David L. Dickinson Award for their outstanding commitment of time and effort dedicated to Fort de la Présentation.

"We are honoring these people for their enthusiastic, long-term faithfulness to the Fort de la Presentation project," said Barbara O’Keefe, President of the Fort Association. "Without the dedication of Ms. Remington, Mr. Dresler and Mr. Roy we would not have had Lighthouse Point cleaned of petroleum contamination nor witnessed the growing success of Founder’s Day Weekend."

Ms. Remington is the President, CEO and majority owner of Canton-based Atlantic Testing Laboratories (ATL). More than 10 years ago, the state was able to ensure the remediation the Fort Association’s Lighthouse Point property thanks to ATL accurately tracing the spread of the subsurface pollution. Since her earliest involvement, Ms. Remington has been a keen supporter of the fort project.

Mr. Dresler and Mr. Roy are French and Indian War re-enactors who have brought their troops year after year to the Fort Association’s July re-enactment and colonial trade fair. Although Mr. Dressler often commands the English forces, squaring off against the French commanded by Mr. Roy, their shared physical and moral support has contributed significantly to the development of Founder’s Day Weekend.

"The Fort Association annual dinner is our major fundraising event with a silent auction and prize draws of goods and services donated by local businesses and individuals who back our efforts," said Mrs. O’Keefe. "The dinner also celebrates the commitment of every member of the Fort La Presentation Association for the success and progress of our activities: the Fort de la Presentation project; Founder’s Day Weekend; the War of 1812 Symposium; and Living History Day."

Social Hour, at the Gran-View on Rte 37, is at 6 pm with dinner at 7pm. The tickets at $35 per person are the same price as last year. They are available from the Greater Ogdensburg Chamber of Commerce and members of the Fort Association board of directors.

The menu is a historic cornucopia: Molly’s Corn Chowder; Amherst’s Salad with Pouchot’s Dinner Rolls; Lorimier’s Sirloin Tournadours or Oswegatchie Baked Stuffed Chicken or Forsyth’s Cracker Crumb Haddock or Seven Fire’s Vegetarian Dish; Tecumseh’s Acorn Squash; Macdonnell’s Red Skinned Potatoes with Parsley Butter; Laura’s Coffee or Tea; and Dolley’s Apple Crisp.

###
Backgrounder attached.
For More Information Contact:
Barbara O’Keefe
President, Fort La Présentation Association
315-393-3315

BACKGROUNDER

The Menu Who’s Who
These historic figures and events represent the "Four Flags" (France, the Iroquois Confederacy, England and the United States) associated with Fort de la Présentation and its successors, Fort Oswegatchie and Fort Presentation.

Molly Brant (c.1736 –1796) was a prominent Mohawk woman. From her home in Canajoharie, she provided food and assistance to Loyalists who were fleeing from New York to Canada during the American Revolution. With the American invasion of Iroquoia in 1779, she joined Iroquois refugees at the British post on Carleton Island. In 1783, Brant moved to Cataraqui, now Kingston, Ontario, where the government built her a house and gave her an annual pension of £100.

General Jeffery Amherst, (1717 –1797) led an Anglo-American army down the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario, and captured Montreal on 8 September 1760, ending French rule in North America. He infuriated the French commanders by refusing them the "honors of war" (the ceremonial right of a defeated garrison to retain their flags); the French burned the colors rather than surrender them.

Captain Pierre Pouchot (1712 – 1769) was a military engineer and officer in the French regular army commanding at Fort Lévis in 1760. On August 21, he had fighting force of 316 to delay Amherst’s 10,000-man army’s descent of the St Lawrence River to Montreal. Pouchot only surrendered on 25 August, when his guns could no longer fire and the fort was a wreck. Amherst and his staff treated Pouchot with respect.

Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier (1744 – 1825) and his large party Indians were instrumental in May 1776 in securing the capture of Fort Cedars (Les Cédres, Quebec) from Continental soldiers by a company of the British 8th Regiment of Foot. The company under Captain George Forster was stationed at Fort Oswegatchie. In July 1780, Lorimier led a reconnaissance and raiding expedition from Oswegatchie to Fort Stanwix (Rome) which netted 38 prisoners and 10 scalps.

The Treaty of Oswegatchie has its roots in assurances given in February 1760 to the Iroquois from Oswegatchie, Kanesatake and Kahnawake by the Six Nations Iroquois that they would not take up arms against their Iroquois brethren in the final battles of the French and Indian War. When the British army reached La Présentation in mid-August, William Johnson, superintendent of Indian Affairs, met with delegates of the "Seven Nations of Canada" and solemnly promised to secure to them the possession of their lands and the free exercise of the Catholic religion. The terms of treaty were confirmed 16 September 1760.

Captain Benjamin Forsyth (d.1814) from Stokes County, North Carolina, commanded a company of the U.S. First Rifle Regiment at Ogdensburg. Although he was ordered to observe British movements on the St. Lawrence, he led successful raids against Gananoque and (Elizabethtown) Brockville. Forsyth’s Rifles withdrew to Sackets Harbor following the Battle of Ogdensburg February 22, 1813. He was active in skirmishing and patrolling north of Lake Champlain in the late spring and summer 1814, but was killed in a clash at Odelltown in June.

The Seven Fires of Caughnawaga was an Indian alliance organized by the French in the years leading up to the French and Indian War. The alliance was composed of the Iroquois mission villages on the St. Lawrence (Caughnawaga, Kanesatake, Oswegatchie, and St. Regis); the Abenaki at St. François and Bécancour; and the Huron at Lorette.

Tecumseh (1768–1813) led the forces of his Indian confederacy opposed to American encroachment into the west to join the British at Fort Malden on the Detroit River and participated in the capture of Fort Detroit in August 1812. He was killed at the Battle of the Thames in October 1813 as the British withdrew toward York (Toronto).

Lieutenant Colonel George Macdonnell (1780–1870), commonly known as Red George, was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Macdonnell, in command of the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles and detachments of reinforcements, launched a successful attack from Prescott against a Forsyth’s company of the U.S. First Rifle Regiment in Ogdensburg February 22, 1813. In October he was ordered to move to reinforce Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Salaberry's troops south of Montreal. He was effectively second-in-command to de Salaberry at the Battle of Chateauguay.

Laura Secord (1775–1868), born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812 for warning British forces of a planned American attack. Her legendary trek through forest and swamp in June 1813 to reach Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon led to the victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams. Laura Secord Chocolates, founded in 1913, was named after her.

Dolley Madison (1768–1849) was wife of President James Madison. As the invading British approached a near-empty Washington in August 1814, she ensured the collection of valuables from the Presidential Mansion, including Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington, and original drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The earliest evidence of the public using the name "White House" was recorded in 1811, years before it was restored after the burning of Washington.

###

New York History