Tis the season for high school guidance counselors to be working with the seniors to search for scholarships that can help with the staggering cost of further education.
The Soldier’s Friend Scholarship, launched in 2022, honors our own Gov. Fenton, who in his youth (late 1830s) was in the “local militia”. That was the easy way to say New York National Guard. It’s purpose is to be ready if the country was again attacked by an enemy force. Also, because he was referred to as “The Soldier’s Friend” during his tenure as a Representative for the Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties beginning in 1853. At that time, he introduced a successful bill that would grant needed relief to survivors of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. During and after the Civil War he worked very hard to alleviate the hardships of the wounded and families of the deceased soldiers due to the slow slog of bureaucracy.
Since his own Grandpa Owen was a Revolutionary War veteran, both of his fathers-in-law, John Frew and Joel Scudder were War of 1812 veterans, and Uncle Ira Own was a veteran, he grew up in the company of these veterans and many others. He may even have accompanied his grandpa from Carroll to Jamestown on the yearly trip to pick up the small pension sum, and if so, he’d have met the other aged Revolutionary War Vets and witnessed their struggles. Grandpa Owen was very healthy until he died of “old age” at the age of 107 years in 1843! (Oh, to have been a fly on a wall!)
The Scholarship awards $1000 toward further education or training for a Chautauqua County graduate planning to serve our country as a member of the military, ROTC, or in a supportive civilian capacity. Department of Defense Careers, offered by each branch of the military, encompasses a wide range of skills and these positions are an essential part of keeping our military members safe wherever they are in the world. If the graduate is headed for West Point, for instance, books and manuals are supplied, so the scholarship can be used to purchase whatever is needed to help the transition from living at home to life away from home, (i.e. gas cards, a new laptop because the current one is shared with a brother, new phone, dorm size refrigerator, etc.)
If you have a high school graduate or undergraduate in your family who is headed in this direction, alert them to contact us, the school counselor, or the Fenton History Center Facebook page.
The completed applications must be received by 4 p.m. on April 10.
