Before the Revolutionary War, the Dolsons and Fields were neighbours in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania. Johannes (John) Dolson was a descendant of Jan Gerritzen van Dalsen who arrived in America in 1640. His son, Teunis, was the first white male born in New Amsterdam (New York City) after the British took control. Old John married Elizabeth Buys and had at least two sons: Isaac was born about 1739 and Matthew about 1749. George Field was married twice. By his first wife, whose name is unknown, he had three children: Daniel (born 1749), Mary (born 1751), and Hannah (born 1753). He later married Rebecca Haines and had two more children: Gilbert (born 1765) and Nathan (born 1767). The families were joined when Isaac Dolson married Mary Field and Matthew Dolson married Hannah Field.

During the Revolutionary War, the Dolsons and Fields remained loyal and suffered persecution as a consequence. Isaac and Matthew Dolson together with George and Daniel Field joined Butler's Rangers. They were later joined by the younger Fields, Gilbert and Nathan. At the end of the war, when food shortages at Fort Niagara became intolerable for the Loyalists gathered there for shelter, Governor Haldimand allowed some of the older Butler's Rangers and their families to move across the river into what became Ontario. Among these families were those of George Field and Isaac Dolson. Dolson settled on land at the foot of the escarpment in Queenston and Field settled further north. However, the terms under which they settled were difficult. They did not own the land and in fact only owned the crops they raised. They could be removed at the whim of the commandant at Fort Niagara and could only sell their crops to Fort Niagara at the rate set by the commandant. Dolson and others pleaded with Haldimand to grant them some security to no avail. So, before 1784, Dolson had sold his interest to Samuel Street and moved to Detroit, where he was joined by his brother Matthew when the Rangers disbanded.

The Dolson brothers became traders and farmers at Detroit and Petite Cote, the settlement across the river from Detroit, now Lasalle. Isaac must have made some money selling his Niagara land because, in 1784, he bought a strip of land in Petite Cote for £500. It is probable that Matthew bought the neighbouring strip at about the same time. Certainly, Matthew sold the neighbouring strip six years later for £200. About 1790, smelling that the winds of change were about to make Detroit American, they obtained land on the Lower Thames River, Isaac on the south bank and Matthew opposite him on the north bank. There they built farms and operated inns. Matthew was the more successful and his inn and store was well-known in the area. After the outbreak of the War of 1812, American Col. MacArthur led a raid up the Thames and confiscated blankets and other goods from Matthew's store. Later in the war, when General Procter was leading his ill-fated retreat up the Thames from Amherstburg, he stopped at Isaac Dolson's before going on to defeat at the Battle of the Thames.

Meanwhile, George Field had built up a blacksmithing business in Queenston by the time he died in 1785. His older son, Daniel, had settled in Detroit next to the Dolsons. He eventually moved with the Dolsons to the Lower Thames, where he settled close to Isaac Dolson on the south bank in Raleigh Township. His half-brothers Gilbert and Nathan settled just north of Queenston although Nathan soon after moved to the Thames. Gilbert married Eleanor Morden, daughter of Ann Durham Morden, built a house and operated it as an inn. The house is still standing just off the Niagara Parkway, a red-brick, two-storey building with a centre porch and nine twelve-over-twelve windows in the front.

Field House near Quennston

There is a lot of confusion involving Isaac and Matthew Dolson. The last name is often spelled Dolsen or even Dalsen. Isaac had six sons, two of whom were Isaac and Matthew. The two Isaacs and two Matthews are confused with each other. The younger Isaac was born in 1773 and the younger Matthew was born about 1783 and so neither could have married the Field sisters nor been Butler's Rangers. The older Matthew had two sons, John and Isaac Matthew, who co-founded the first Anglican church in Chatham—St Paul's. Isaac Matthew married a woman with an exotic name, Pelagia Dagneau de Quindre, the daughter of another early settler on the Lower Thames. One of their sons, Jacob Alexander, published the Planet newspaper in Chatham in 1851 before emigrating to Australia.