Meet the Author: Edward T. Davis III, Author of Chautauqua Lake History Books
67 Washington Street, JAMESTOWN, NY 14701
The Fenton History will soon be offering for sale three volumes of local history compiled by Edward T. Davis III, a retired family physician who practiced for many years in Jamestown.
A two-volume set entitled The Early Years of Boating on Chautauqua Lake contains almost 600 pages of text, mostly consisting of newspaper articles dating from 1826-1888, the majority of which are from the Jamestown Journal, Jamestown Daily Journal and Jamestown Evening Journal. Accompanying the articles are 280 photographs/advertisements supplied by the Fenton History Center, the Chautauqua County Historical Society, the Chautauqua Institution Archives, the Davis collection of stereoviews of the Chautauqua Lake region dating from the 1870s-1880s and several private collectors.
The third volume, entitled Life in a Chautauqua Lake Resort Community: The Early Years of Point Chautauqua, New York, tells the story, again through period newspaper articles, of the evolution of Point Chautauqua from a Baptist colony in 1875, through the years of the Grand Hotel and ending in 1930, as it settled into a quiet summer and year-round community. It consists of 320 pages with 250 photographs.
A Meet-and-Greet will be held at the Fenton History Center June 25, 2026 at 7:00 PM. Copies of the books may be ordered at that time.