This collection of articles weaves extracts from over 30 years of local history research by distinguished historian Dr. Douglas H. Shepard into a single volume, offering a detailed and engaging narrative of Fredonia's development from prehistory to the preservation efforts of the 1990s. Topics range from the physical geography that defines Chautauqua county and places Fredonia in the Lake Erie grape belt, to the many national ÔfirstsÕ which occurred in Fredonia: the first march of the WomenÕs Christian Temperance Union in 1873, the first Grange established by the Patrons of Husbandry in 1867, and the first commercial natural gas well established in 1825.