McKinstry was born in Chicopee, Massachusetts, in 1815 where he worked on his parents' farm as a child. Meanwhile, McKinstry also served as an apprentice with a local printer. In 1839, he arrived in Mayville, New York, as a journeyman of his trade and began his career in publishing. In 1842, he purchased a local newspaper, The Fredonia Chaser, which he operated as publisher of for 34 years.[i] A signature component of The Chaser was its publication of recently passed legislation from previous meeting sessions of governmental bodies.[ii] In 1866, McKinstry was sifting through and publishing laws that had passed in the earlier portion of the year. He took notice to a particular piece of legislation that was ratified in April of that year which provided for the establishment of four new normal schools in the state of New York. With this in mind, McKinstry recalled an earlier piece of legislation which allowed townspeople to contact their local representatives if they had the desire for such a in their village.[iii]
At a town festival, Willard McKinstry presented his findings and proposed a call for a town meeting to discuss the possibility of Fredonia receiving one of the four new normal schools to be established. On September 28, 1866, such a meeting took place in the local concert hall with 119 villagers present to hear his claim. McKinstry argued that the current state governor at the time, Reuben E. Fenton, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Victor M. Rice, would consider Fredonia for a new normal school being that they originated from Chautauqua County and that the Fredonia Academy could act as a solid foundation to a new program. Following the meeting, the town's board of trustees, President A.C. Cushing and Clerk A.H. Judson, were authorized to continue McKinstry's movement.[iv]
While en route to Albany from his home in Jamestown, Governor Fenton stopped to hear the Fredonia's claim. Fenton approved the town as a recipient of one of the new normal schools on the condition that it raised one hundred thousand dollars for facilities and maintenance. After the town's initial investment, the new normal school would receive up to twelve thousand dollars annually from the state to continue functioning. The village of approximately two thousand five hundred people was able to accrue the amount which accounted for ten percent of the village's total wealth.[v]
After a dispute over the location of the new building was settled, the cornerstone was laid on August 8, 1867, with between ten and fifteen thousand people in attendance for the ceremony. Superintendent Rice claimed that the grounds for the new building “allowed for good [water] drainage and protection from cold winds.”[vi] The facility opened on October 7, 1867, and named Dr. J.W. Armstrong its first administrative head in 1869. No tuition was charged and travel expenses were covered for all students.
NOTE: Willard McKinstry is buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery, Fredonia, Chautauqua County, New York, USA, Plot: C/82. However, since he is listed on this obelisk, this marker is rendered a cenotaph. The link to his spouse, Maria A Durlin McKinstry, will take you to that memorial.
Also, the McKinstrys in Fredonia have a very interesting background. See: http://ugrr.orbitist.com/content/mckinstry#12/42.4457/-79.3343 for more details.
Find A Grave contributor Nipper #47367135 would like to point out that subsequent to his older brother Willards untimely death, this Willard was born the following year to Perseus and Grace (Williams) McKinley. Renaming a child in this manner was a fairly common practice in the centuries prior to the 20th century. The McKinstry family represent collateral relatives of mine through the Chapin Family.
Fredonia is a village in Chautauqua County, New York, United States.[2] The population was 9,871 as of the 2020 census.[3] Fredonia is in the town of Pomfret south of Lake Erie. The village is the home of the State University of New York at Fredonia (in the northwest part of the village).
Fredonia is one of only twelve villages in New York still incorporated under a charter, the other villages having incorporated or re-incorporated under the provisions of Village Law.[4]
History
The village that is now Fredonia was most likely first occupied by early Mound Builders, then the Erie people (13th to 17th centuries), then the Iroquois (specifically, the Seneca).[5] In 1791, Robert Morris purchased the Fredonia land from Massachusetts and sold it to the Holland Land Company.[5] Parcels were sold to pioneers around 1800, and the first settlers came around 1803 or 1804.[5] Among the first settlers included Zattu Cushing, the countys first judge, and David Eason, the countys first sheriff.
In 1821,[6] William Hart dug the first well specifically to produce natural gas in the United States on the banks of Canadaway Creek in Fredonia. It was 27 feet (8.2 m) deep, excavated with shovels by hand, and its gas pipeline was hollowed out logs sealed with tar and rags.[7] It supplied enough natural gas for lights in two stores, two shops and a gristmill (currently the villages fire station) by 1825. Expanding on Harts work, the Fredonia Gas Light Company was formed in 1858, becoming the first American natural gas company. A stone monument in downtown Fredonia marks the site of the first gas well.
The village of Fredonia was incorporated in 1829. The areas original name was Canadaway (from the Indian word Ganadawao, meaning "among the hemlocks"). The name "Fredonia" was coined by Samuel Latham Mitchill, coupling the English word "freedom" with a Latin ending. Mitchill proposed it as a replacement name for the United States. It failed in that regard, but became the name of many towns and cities.[8]
Established within 20 years of the founding of Fredonia, the Fredonia Academy was the first higher educational institution in Chautauqua County. It was started in 1824 and opened in 1826. The academy became a State Normal School in 1866. On August 8, 1867, the cornerstone of the Fredonia Normal School was laid on a site where the Old Main building stands today. The Normal School used the academys building, which stood on the site of the present village hall, until the Old Normal was completed in 1868. The Fredonia Normal School is now One Temple Square and Association, a 91-unit, NY HUD housing project for the disabled and the elderly that was started by Henry F. Sysol Jr. in the late 1970s. Thereafter the academy building was used for some time as fire department headquarters.
Today the building houses the village offices and includes the 1891 Fredonia Opera House, a former vaudeville theater that fell into disrepair in the 1970s while being operated as a movie house. The theater underwent a complete nine-year restoration in the 1980s by the Fredonia Preservation Society and a cadre of volunteers. It now serves as a year-round performing arts center. In 1930 under the director of the Normal School, Hermann Cooper, 58 acres (230,000 m2) of land west of Central Avenue were bought with the dream that one day it would become a campus. The construction of a music building took place in 1939, and in 1942 the Feinberg Law converted the Normal School into a teachers college. In 1948 the college became a vital part of the new State University of New York (SUNY) system.
In the mid-19th century Fredonia became the home of the first dues-paying Grange. The United States first Grange Hall was erected in Fredonia in 1868, and the original building (Grange Hall #1) still stands on Main Street. Fredonia was also host to the first meeting of the Womans Christian Temperance Union, which was held at the Fredonia Baptist Church in 1873.[9]
