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Some of these people might
not have considered themselves Canadian. Some are not even famous but perhaps they should be. They all made a
significant contribution to their time and place, and they all have a story to
tell. You will come across them in these trips.
The Adams Brothers
Ezra Adams
The founders of the town of Acton were deeply religious and dedicated public servants. The most famous of them was Ezra, a saddlebags preacher on the Methodist Episcopal circuit. Preachers like Ezra and his brother Zenas spent years going from place to place bringing Christianity to the backwoods shanties and rudimentary villages of Upper Canada. This very hard life took its toll on the preachers and both Ezra and Zenas were forced by ill-health to retire for long periods.
Eliphalet Adams fought on the side of the Americans in the Revolutionary War. At the end of the war, he married Patience Rice and settled in Cambridge NY, a short distance northeast of Albany on the border with Vermont. There Rufus was born in 1783, Ezra in 1788, and Zenas in 1792. In 1798, the Eastern Townships in Lower Canada presented an opportunity for immigrants to obtain good land so Eliphalet and his family moved north to Canada. They settled in the Westbury area northeast of presentday Sherbrooke, in the backwoods miles from anywhere.
In 1811, Ezra heard a Methodist saddlebags preacher and was inspired. By March 1812, he had become a schoolteacher near Newmarket, Ontario. Two years later, he was a saddlebags preacher himself, working with David Culp on the Ancaster circuit. For the next eight years, he worked in the Bay of Quinte, Hallowell, Ottawa, Thames, and Niagara circuits. Finally, in 1822, he was forced by ill health to retire from the grind of the circuit. By then, he had married Isa Proctor and he and his family settled in Esquesing Township, probably working for Silas Emes to clear his land on lot 28 concession 2. By 1829, he had bought the eastern half of lot 28 concession 2 from Emes.
Meanwhile, in 1825, Ezra persuaded his brother Rufus to move to Esquesing from Westbury. Rufus obtained lot 28 concession 3, just across the road (now Main Street Acton) from Ezra. Most of present Acton is built on what was once Rufus' land. Rufus built his house at the end of what is now St Alban's Drive, which was the driveway to the house. Maria, Rufus' wife, wanted a schoolhouse for her children, so she built one across the road from her driveway on the land where Knox Church now stands. This school doubled as a chapel and the land behind became the family cemetery.
In 1827, Zenas Adams decided to join his brothers. He, like Ezra, had been a saddlebags preacher, but south of the border. Also like Ezra, he had burned out and needed to refresh himself, so he obtained land south of Ezra on lot 27 concession 2. Zenas first built a log cabin, then he built a frame house. When Asa Hall moved to the area in 1833, the only houses belonged to Rufus and Zenas. Zenas must have been the businessman of the family because he, in addition to his land south of Ezra, he bought l;and from his brothers. From Rufus, he bought all the land south of Mill Street, which is why the streets south of Mill Street are named after Zenas' children: Agnes, John, Frederick, Maria, and Wilbur. That is also why his second house was built at the corner of Church and Main Streets. The second house is still there but looks a bit worse for wear.
Zenas Adams House
In those early days of Canada, it was easy to clear land and build a house only to find that you had put in all that hard work on somebody else's property. That is what happened to Eliphalet Adams in Westbury, Lower Canada. After failing to get any satisfaction from the government, he decided in 1829 to pack up and move his family to be near his sons in Upper Canada. The next year, his youngest son Phineas, who had accompanied him from Westbury, died at 31 and was buried in the family cemetery. Two years later Eliphalet's wife Patience joined her son there.
By 1830, Ezra had recovered his health enough to take part in local politics, becoming Warden of Esquesing Township. Then, later in the year, he decided to become a saddlebags preacher again, taking up the Newmarket circuit. From there he went to the London District and then the Muncey mission, where his wife died in 1832. The next year, he married Amy Curtis, the widow of another preacher. Being on the circuit didn't stop Ezra from taking care of his Esquesing property. He returned in 1836 and built a gristmill and a sawmill. The gristmill was on the same site as the present flour mill and the sawmill was located where the stream crosses Main Street, south of Church Street. The present Fairy Lake was created when Ezra dammed the stream for his mill.
Ezra continued on the circuit until his final retirement in 1843, when he moved to Dayton, Ontario to be near his stepdaughter. Once again he was a pioneer, building his home in the backwoods of Peel Township. His home became known as the Methodist Inn for the hospitality it offered to travellers. When his second wife, Amy, died in 1864, he married her sister Betsy, the widow of Smith Griffin, the nephew of the founder of Smithville, Ontario. He died in Dayton in 1871.
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Ebenezer (Indian) Allan
The
stuff of legends, Allan (or Allen) was an adventurer and
frontiersman who refused to let ethics or scruples get in his
way. Born in Morristown, New Jersey in 1752, he lived with the
Seneca nation of the Iroquois Confederation for a time before
the Revolutionary War. He stole Sally or Kyen-da-dent, the
sister of Seneca chief Captain Bull, away from her husband in
about 1775. During the Revolutionary War, Allan served as
sergeant and lieutenant with Butler's Rangers, but, unusually,
this does not seem to have been held against him by the
Americans, despite his reputation of inflicting murder and
mayhem to families on both sides.
At
the end of the war, he moved to the Genesee area of New York
State and lived with Mary Jemison, the white woman who was
kidnapped at age 15 and raised as a Seneca. Allan's charm seems
to have created problems with women throughout his life. While
staying with Mary Jemison, he caused a problem between another
man and his native wife but, unlike Sally, this woman stayed
with her husband. In 1783, he moved to the Mount Morris area
where he became a trader and farmer. Meanwhile, the Iroquois and
the British on the Niagara frontier were dissatisfied with the
terms of peace with the Americans. They were preparing to resume
the war when Allan found out about it. He obtained some wampum
fraudulently and approached the nearest American post stating
that he brought the wampum as a token of peace. The Americans
accepted his offer of peace, and this enraged the Iroquois and
British, who were obliged by the power of the wampum to accept
peace. They captured him and put him on trial in Montreal, where
he was acquitted of being a traitor.
In 1786, he moved to Scottsville NY and
settled on Allan's Creek (now Oatka Creek). In 1789, agents from
N. Gorham and O. Phelps and Co. approached him to build a
gristmill and a sawmill for them in what is now Rochester NY in
return for 100 acres of what is now the heart of Rochester. He
sold his Scottsville farm and built the mills, but they were
ultimately unsuccessful because there simply were not enough
people around to keep the mills in business. He borrowed money
from his former commander, Colonel John
Butler, and somehow failed to repay
it. While building the mills, he found time to marry Lucy
Chapman, the daughter of a man on his way to Niagara. In 1792,
after his venture at Rochester, he returned with Lucy to Mount
Morris and there she found out that he was already married.
Eventually he was to have four wives: two native and two white.
Allan
did not stay long at Mount Morris because he had applied for a
grant from Lt. Gov. Simcoe because of his service in Butler's
Rangers during the war. He was given 2200 acres in Delaware
Township on condition that he build a gristmill and a sawmill
and some church buildings where Dingman's Creek joins the Thames
River at what is now Delaware Village. The mills were to belong
to him but the church buildings and the land they were on were
the property of the Government. Between 1797 and 1807, he was
building the mills. Running out of money, as he had done in
Rochester, he could not borrow any more from Col. Butler, who
had died in 1896, so he began to counterfeit some. He was
discovered and sent to prison. After he was released, he
returned to Delaware Village, where he completed the mills and
buildings. During the War of 1812, he was distrusted by his
neighbours, who regarded him as an American sympathizer. He died
in 1813 and was buried on the north side of the Thames. Three of
his children were horse thieves and one was murdered by natives
while on his way to California.
Allan
was no hero but he was instrumental in the founding of three
communities: Rochester and Mount Morris in New York State, and
Delaware Village in Ontario.
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The Barber Brothers
Thrifty, shrewd, and enterprising, the
Barber brothers, Joseph, Robert, William, and James, built up
huge businesses in two locations. They are the real founders of
both Georgetown,
now part of the Town of Halton Hills,
and Streetsville, now part of the City of
Mississauga.
The Barber brothers were born on County
Antrim in Ireland and immigrated to Niagara with their family in
1822. In 1824, their father had obtained work as a stonemason
for James Crooks
near what is now
Dundas.
The family moved to Crooks Hollow and the brothers began to
learn the mill trade.
It took thirteen years for them to learn
the ropes and to save enough money but at last in 1837 they were
able to open their own mill. They decided that the Credit River
was a suitable source of water, so they started at its mouth and
worked their way upstream until they found the right spot. This
happened to be near George Kennedy's
old mill in Georgetown. They bought the land from George Kennedy and built their mill. They must have learned very well
under James Crooks because in six years they opened a second
mill. This mill was in Streetsville because Silver Creek in Georgetown could not provide enough power to drive all of their machinery. In another nine years, 1852, they had so
much business that they built another mill in Streetsville to
consolidate all of the wool mills into one place. The new mill
contained all of the machinery from the previous two mills and
added more.
So,
in 1852, the old Barber mill in Georgetown closed. However, just
after the old mill closed, James Barber helped David Forbes to
build a brand-new, state-of-the-art, paper mill on the Credit River near Georgetown. After only a
few months, Forbes decided for some reason that he could not
keep the mill going, so James Barber risked his other businesses
to buy Forbes out. That meant there was a new Barber mill in
Georgetown. You can still see the Barber paper mill in
Georgetown although it is now empty and disused. The mill is
located on River Drive, just east of Mountainview Road.
Old Barber Paper Mill
In
1869, the partnership of William Barber & Bros. finally broke
up. Joseph retired, Robert and William shared the Streetsville
mill, and James operated the Georgetown mill.
You can also see a house built by William
Barber in Streetsville; it is now a restaurant called The Old
Barber House. You can read about it on the Internet at
www.oldbarberhouse.com. Willowbank, Joseph Barber's family home is located on Park Avenue. just east of Main Street. Just south of Willowbank, at the corner of Park Avenue and Main Street is
Berwick Hall, the house built by James Barber's son John, to replace James' family home after it buirned down in 1881. It
is now an apartment house. Both of these houses look down on what used to be the old Barber mills at the bottom of the hill on Park Avenue.
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Richard Beasley
History has come up with mixed reviews for
Richard Beasley. On one hand, he was a shrewd and visionary
businessman, becoming a founder of
Ancaster,
fur trader, owner and operator of various businesses, and owner
of vast areas of land. On the other hand, he had the reputation
for not paying bills and he sold land to
Mennonites under very
dubious circumstances.
Beasley was born in 1761 in Albany NY and
was cousin of Richard Cartwright, partner of
Robert Hamilton.
In the 1780s, Beasley used his connection with Cartwright and
Hamilton to build a business, in partnership with former
Butler's Ranger Peter Smith, to trade in the Toronto area. About
this time, he built his home on the Burlington Heights, at the
site where Dundurn Castle now stands.
In 1791, Beasley bought a lot in what is
now Ancaster Village. The next lot was owned by
James Wilson, a
millwright, and through both lots ran a stream. The two men
became partners in what was to become an industrial complex
leading to the founding of Ancaster. Wilson supplied the
know-how and Beasley the capital to build a mill at what is now
the intersection of Wilson and Rousseaux Streets in Ancaster.
As a trader, Beasley had done business
with the Iroquois, and so, when the Six Nations decided to
divide and sell their land on the Grand River, they turned to
Beasley. Under the terms of the treaty that gave the Six Nations
the land, the Iroquois could not sell land directly but only
through agents, who were required to take out a mortgage with
the government. They gave Block 2 to Beasley, James Wilson, and
St John Rousseaux
to sell but Beasley took over the block of land from his
partners.
The mortgage Beasley had to take out
became a problem when he eventually sold parts of the land to
Mennonites from
Pennsylvania. The Mennonites could not own the land until the
mortgage was discharged and so they felt they had been cheated.
The Mennonites and Beasley came up with a system that would
satisfy everybody. If the Mennonites could come up with money
for the whole of Block 2, Beasley could pay off the mortgage and
the Mennonites would own the whole block. The Mennonites formed
a company called the German Company, found the money in
donations in Pennsylvania, and so bought Block 2 from Beasley.
Beasley had later financial problems and
eventually was forced to sell his house on the Burlington
Heights to Sir Allan MacNab.
Until his death in 1842, Beasley felt that MacNab had cheated
him on the deal. MacNab eventually built Dundurn Castle on the
site, incorporating part of the foundations of the Beasley home
into the castle. If you visit Dundurn Castle, ask to see the
foundations of Beasley's house in the basement of the Castle.
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Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea)
Joseph Brant was a bridge between his people, the Iroquois
Confederation, and the British. Not universally beloved by
either side, he was nonetheless the most powerful leader of the
Iroquois and guided the confederation in its dealings with the
British.
Thayendanegea was born in 1742 on the banks of the Ohio River
where his parents had gone on an expedition into Wyandot
territory. There is confusion about several things concerning
Brant: what his Mohawk name means, where the name Brant came
from, and what happened to his father. His father was
Tehowaghwengaraghkwin and he was a leading sachem of the Wolf
clan of the Mohawks. His father was the son of
Sagayeathquapiethtow, one of the four "kings" who were presented
to Queen Anne in 1710.
His
sister Molly became the mistress of the most powerful man in the
Mohawk Valley, Sir William Johnson, and later became his Mohawk
wife when Johnson's wife Catherine died. In 1755, when he was
13, he accompanied Johnson on the British expedition to Lake
George and later against Fort Niagara, a triumph for Johnson. In
1757, Brant was commissioned Captain in the Royal American
Regiment.
In
1761, Johnson sent him, at age 19, to Moor's Charity School for
Indians in Lebanon, Connecticut where he studied under Dr.
Eleazer Wheelock. This school later became Dartmouth College. He
was there for two years, receiving an education that was very
beneficial to him throughout his life. He left the school in
1761 to fight in Pontiac's War, when Pontiac, a chief of the
Ottawas, led a general uprising of all Western tribes. Brant
helped Johnson to persuade the Iroquois not to join Pontiac.
About
1768, Brant married Owaisa (Christine) the daughter of an Oneida
chief. The couple had two children, Isaac and Christine. Owaisa
died seven years later of tuberculosis and, to give his young
children a mother, Brant married Owaisa's sister, Onogala
(Susannah). She unfortunately died within a year. Isaac always
held his mother's death against Brant and came to hate him,
although Isaac was Brant's favourite son. Brant remained single
until 1775, when he married Catherine Croghan, the daughter of a
famous frontiersman, George Croghan, and his Mohawk wife.
In
the Revolutionary War, Brant fought with the British and carried
the Mohawks with him. Brant feared that the rebels would take
the Iroquois lands if they won, which proved to be the case.
There was never any love lost between the Iroquois and the
Americans and this led to atrocities on both sides. Brant was
not blameless. He participated with Butler's Rangers and other
groups in various attacks, including one battle at Oriskany
Creek. The American commander, General Herkimer, tried to murder
Brant, but Brant smelled it out. He set up an ambush for
Herkimer and virtually destroyed the American force, mortally
wounding Herkimer.
After
the war, the Iroquois found themselves without a home land and
appealed to the British. Brant negotiated with General Frederick
Haldimand, the Governor-General, for a grant of land that turned
out to be six miles each side of the Grand River from source to
mouth. However, Brant was not universally loved by the Mohawks.
A large group of Mohawks elected to move to land at the Bay of
Quinte under Chief John Deseronto rather than follow Brant to
the Grand River. When the Royal Chapel of the Mohawks was built
at what is now Brantford, the communion silver that Queen Anne
had given to the original Royal Chapel in the Mohawk Valley was
shared between the Grand River Mohawks and the Bay of Quinte
Mohawks.
In
addition to serving his people in war, Brant served them in
religion. He had been converted while in Moor's School and
became very devout. He helped to translate the Gospel of St Mark
into Mohawk and, with Daniel Claus, translated the Book of
Common Prayer into Mohawk.
Brant
visited England and had an audience with King George III. There
is a story that he refused to kiss the King's hand, saying,"I
bow to no man for I am considered a prince among my own people.
But I will gladly shake your hand."
Brant
was given a personal grant of land at Wellington Square in what
is now Burlington. He built a home and spent the last years of
his life there. In 1795, he suffered a personal tragedy. His son
Isaac had hated him from an early age and this hatred made Isaac
into a jealous, uncontrollable drunkard who had murdered a man
in a drunken rage. After the murder, Isaac threatened his
father, who despite everything still loved his oldest son. Brant
went to Isaac's room to try to calm him down but Isaac lunged at
him with a knife. Reacting instinctively from a life of war and
violence, Brant struck back with his own knife, cutting Isaac in
the scalp. If it had been treated, the wound would have been
minor, but Isaac, full of hatred, refused to have it treated.
The wound became infected and Isaac died a few days later. Brant
never really forgave himself, considering that he killed his
son.
He
died in 1807 at his home in Wellington Square. His last words
were, "Have pity on the poor Indians; if you can get any
influence with the great, endeavour to do them all the good you
can."
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Sir Isaac Brock
Brock
would have preferred to fight in Europe against Napoleon but he
was assigned instead to Upper Canada with his regiment, the
49th. Here he died and became a hero.
He
was born in 1769 on Guernsey, the Channel Island then called
Sarnia, a British possession off the coast of France. He was an
exceptional youth, tall at over six feet, broad and muscular to
go with the height. At fifteen, he joined the 8th Regiment of
Foot as an ensign and later became a captain in the 49th. After
serving with the regiment in the Caribbean, he bought the
regiment commander's lieutenant colonel's commission. He then
spent his energy revitalizing the regiment, turning it into one
of the best regiments in the Army. In 1802, his regiment was
ordered to Upper Canada.
In
the next ten years, Brock worked to improve the state of the
military in Canada. He was convinced that war between Britain
and the US would occur soon and his opinion of the preparedness
of the military was not high. Brock built and repaired military
fortifications, trained the militia, and generally prepared
Canada for the war that he regarded as inevitable.
In
1811, he was promoted to major general and took control of all
troops in Upper Canada. When the Lt. Governor of Upper Canada,
Francis Gore, returned to England temporarily, Brock became the
administrator in his absence. This was the situation when the
United States declared war in 1812.
The
Commander-in-Chief in Canada was Sir George Prevost, the
Governor-General, who was more a cautious politician than
military man. Prevost was of the opinion that Canada only had
enough forces to defend Quebec, and so he wanted Brock to defend
Upper Canada and conserve his forces. Brock's view was that the
best way to cover up a weak defence was to attack, so, against
the wishes of Prevost, he attacked and took Fort Mackinac, near
Sault Ste Marie. When the Americans attacked Sandwich, now part
of Windsor, he typically took that as an excuse to override
Prevost's caution again. He allied himself with the leader of
the native forces, Tecumseh, and attacked Detroit, forcing the
surrender of the American general, William Hull, and 2000 of his
men. When Tecumseh heard of Brock's intention to attack Detroit,
he said, "Now here is a man!"
Prevost, however, stopped Brock's momentum by signing an
armistice with the American commander, Henry Dearborn. This
allowed the Americans some breathing space, which they used to
build up their forces around Niagara. American general Stephen
Van Rensselaer attacked at Queenston and Brock was killed at the
Battle of Queenston Heights. He had received a knighthood only a
few days before his death but never knew of the award.
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John Burch
Tinsmith, miller, politician, and Loyalist, John Burch was born
in England in 1741 and immigrated to New York City in 1772. He
started in business making and selling tinware and very soon
became so successful that he was able to buy an estate at
Papakunk, New York, on the Delaware River. At the start of the
Revolutionary War, he was forced to move to Albany in 1775 and
then to Fort Niagara in 1778. Because he was not fit for war
service, he became keeper of the Indian stores and sutler to
Butler's Rangers. In 1783, he and his family moved across the
Niagara River and settled on the north bank of the Chippawa
Creek (Welland River). On the opposite bank of the creek settled
Thomas Cummings, who had been Burch's farm manager in Papakunk.
A little later, Burch wanted to build a
sawmill and a gristmill but the military, who controlled this
area, refused to allow him to build the mills on his land.
Instead they directed him to a less-suitable site further north
near the rapids, where the Toronto Power House is located.
Burch's customers would have to take a roundabout route from the
creek along the ridge near to where the Rankine Generating
Station is located before they could reach a road that would
take them down the ridge to Burch's Mills. Still, because there
was no competition, Burch prospered. After his death, the mills
were sold to Thomas Clark
and Samuel
Street Jr.
Burch also became a partner of
Robert Hamilton
in the Portage Syndicate, which received the control of the
portage on the west bank of the Niagara River.
Then,
in 1794, Simcoe's aide, John McGill, and his partner, Benjamin
Canby, succeeded in getting permission to build mills between
Burch's Mills and the Welland River, at the place where Burch
had originally wanted to build his mill. The mills were named
the Bridgewater Mills, and were located where Burning Springs
Hill meets the Niagara Parkway. The new mills ate into Burch's
business but not mortally. He was again dealt a blow when the
military took most of his property at the mouth of the Welland
River to build Fort Chippawa.
Burch
was an important man in the region, becoming justice of the
peace in 1786 and member of the Lincoln County Land Board in
1792. By the time he died in 1797, he had become very
respectable. He and his wife were the first people buried in the
Drummond Hill cemetery.
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Mahlon Burwell
Mahlon Burwell was an
aristocrat by North American standards. He was descended from
two families of Burwells who landed in the American colonies in
the early 1600s: Major Lewis Burwell settled in Virginia and
John Burwell in Milford Connecticut. He became the
right-hand man and close friend of the Irish aristocrat, the
Lake Erie Baron, Colonel Thomas Talbot.
Mahlon was born to Adam
Burwell and his wife Sarah on Long Island, New York, on February
18, 1783. Adam was a Loyalist who moved to Bertie Township near
Fort Erie before 1797. He made sure that his son Mahlon had a
good education, which in those days included practical subjects
such as land surveying.
In those days, surveyors
used a primitive tool called a theodolite. Having established
the correct direction of the line to be surveyed, the surveyor
had his assistants mark the line with surveying poles. Then
chainmen with their 66-foot chains would walk along the line,
using the chain to measure distance and directing axemen who
would clear the line as much as possible and blaze marks on
trees to indicate lot lines.
In 1809, with backing
from Col. Talbot, Burwell received a commission as Deputy
Surveyor for Upper Canada and in the same year married Sarah
Hawn. His first job as Deputy Surveyor was to survey the
Talbot Road from Dunwich Township (Port Talbot) to
Middleton Township (Delhi).
When he started
surveying, Burwell was paid seven shillings and sixpence per day
but in 1819 this was changed to a payment in land of 4½% of all
lands surveyed. This led to Burwell holding large plots of land
in widely separated areas. Besides owning land in what became
Port Burwell, he also had land at Burwell's Corners, and a huge
parcel south of Delaware and the Longwoods Road.
In 1811, he was instructed by
Surveyor General Ridout to survey a road from Westminster
Township (London) to Kettle Creek Village (St Thomas) and to
survey a line from the west edge of Dunwich Township to Essex
County. Quite a handful! For some reason, Ridout was at odds
with Col. Talbot and this now extended to Burwell, so he was
apoplectic when Burwell changed the Westminster survey without
permission. After surveying from Westminster to Five Stakes, now
Talbotville, Burwell veered west to survey a new line parallel
to the Talbot Road. This line was called the Back Street and is
now Highway 3 west of St Thomas.
In 1811, again with
support from Col. Talbot, he was appointed Registrar of Deeds
for the County of Middlesex, which at that time also included
what became the County of Elgin, where Talbot ruled. The next
year, he began to survey the Talbot Road west from Dunwich to
Howard Township.
Burwell was an officer
in the militia called out by Col. Talbot in the face of an
attack by the Americans. He had to suspend his survey of the
Talbot Road for the duration of the war. He was captured in Port
Talbot in 1814 by the traitor Andrew Westbrook and sent as a
prisoner to Ohio. In return for a partial parole that allowed
him to move freely within limits, he promised not to escape, a
promise that he kept where many others on both sides reneged.
Eventually he received a full parole and returned home to take
no further part in the conflict.
In 1816, he tried to
resume his survey of the Talbot Road but discovered that all the
directions he had received from Ridout had been destroyed so he
had to wait until they could be recreated. Other surveys he
performed were: the Middle Road in Howard, the Talbot Road west
to Essex, the eastern end of the Middle Road in Orford Township,
the town plot for London, and a trial line from near Wellesley
in Wilmot Township through Monkton and Blyth to Lake Huron.
After Burwell's survey of the town plot for London, Ridout was
able to extract a little revenge for Burwell's failure to follow
orders on the Westminster survey by naming the main street
through the town plot for himself and relegating Talbot Street
to a "back street".
Burwell died in 1846 and
is buried in St Stephen's Churchyard in Burwell's Corners.
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John Butler
John
Butler was born in New London, Connecticut in 1725. His father,
Walter, was a British officer stationed in the American colony.
When John was 14, his family moved from New London to Fort
Hunter, now Fonda, NY, where Walter Butler became useful to Sir
William Johnson. In turn, Johnson helped to promote his
children. Walter Butler died in 1760 aged 90 and having been a
lieutenant in the British Army for 70 years.
When
Johnson was given command of the expedition against Crown Point
in 1755, he made John Butler a captain in the Indian department.
John Butler could speak several Iroquois languages and
respected, and was respected by, the Iroquois. Butler fought in
several campaigns in the French and Indian Wars. In the
expedition against Fort Niagara, Butler was second-in-command of
the Iroquois to Johnson, and succeeded to the command when
Johnson took overall command of the expedition after General
Prideaux was accidentally killed. During Pontiac's War, Butler
had the difficult job of restraining the Iroquois from joining
with the western tribes in support of Pontiac.
Perhaps it was because of Butler's ability, the respect he could
command from the Iroquois, and his stature as second to Johnson
that Butler was disliked and even hated by Johnson's son, Sir
John, and his sons-in-law, Guy Johnson and Daniel Claus. These
three were constantly trying to belittle Butler's achievements
and trying to put the worst interpretation on everything he did,
especially after Sir William Johnson died suddenly in July 1774.
At
the start of the Revolutionary War, Butler and his eldest son
Walter had to flee to Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), leaving the
rest of Butler's family as prisoners. Butler had a price on his
head of $250. Early in the war, the leaders of the Indian
Department, Guy Johnson and Daniel Claus, wanted to use the
Iroquois to attack the rebels in New York Province but were
refused by the Governor-General, Sir Guy Carleton. Johnson and
Claus then left for England to the disgust of Carleton, who then
appointed Butler as deputy head of the department. Butler's job
was then to keep the Six Nations neutral in the war.
This all changed in May 1777 when Carleton
was ordered to use the Iroquois against the rebels. Butler was
neither for nor against this policy shift; he just obeyed
orders. Butler and Colonel Barry St Leger organized a strike
against Fort Stanwix. Just then, Claus arrived back from England
with a commission as superintendent of the Indians. Carleton had
no choice other than to ratify it but appointed Butler as
deputy. The operation never did take the fort but Butler and
Joseph Brant managed to ambush a relieving force at Oriskany and destroyed it.
In
1779, refugees from the war were becoming a problem for the
commandant of Fort Niagara who was trying to feed them from his
supplies. Sir Frederick Haldimand ordered Butler to negotiate
with the Mississaugas to obtain land on the west bank for
settlement, and in the summer of 1780, ex-Rangers Peter and
James Secord, Michael Showers, Samson Lutes, and Isaac Dolson
and their families moved to the west bank. Later, these families
were followed by other families, mostly belonging to ex-Rangers.
After
the Rangers were disbanded in 1784, Butler remained a leader of
the communities on the Niagara Peninsula. He was appointed head
of the Nassau Militia, which later became the Lincoln Militia
with the formation of Lincoln County. The present-day Lincoln
and Welland Regiment, a reserve infantry battalion, is the
successor to the famous Butler's Rangers.
Colonel John Butler died in 1796, a great leader in war and
peace, and a great friend and patron of the Six Nations.
Top
Butler's Rangers
Although John Butler had been using a number of men, including
his son Walter, as rangers employed by the Indian Department, in
1777 he received permission to recruit a corps of rangers
consisting of eight companies. Two of the companies were to
consist of men "speaking the Indian languages and acquainted
with their customs and manner of making war." The corps were
paid well but were responsible for providing their own clothing
and arms. Butler's Rangers fought in many engagements, usually
in units of one or two companies and usually accompanied by
natives.
In
1778, six companies of Rangers went into winter quarters in new
barracks on the west side of the Niagara River. The barracks can
be seen today but they are not on the original site; at some
later time they were moved further away from the Niagara River
to reduce their exposure to fire from Fort Niagara after that
fort was returned to the Americans.
In
1782, several Rangers and their families were given permission
to move to the west bank of the Niagara River to reclaim land
that had been granted by the Mississaugas to Sir William
Johnson. The Rangers chosen were older or had large families and
could be spared by Col. Butler. The families were not given the
land but were to settle on it as tenants. The idea was that they
were to farm the land, and the produce in excess of their needs
was to be sold to the commander of Fort Niagara. Among these
first settlers were Peter and James Secord and Daniel Servos. By
the next year, there were sixteen families on the west bank, and
the Secords wanted to build saw and grist mills but were denied
permission. Instead, the government assigned Lieutenant David
Brass to build three mills, two for the Secords at present-day
St Davids and another mill further down the Forty Mile Creek for
Servos.
When
the corps was disbanded in 1784, many of the Rangers decided to
join their colleagues on the west bank. The government
eventually decided to survey the land and to grant lots to
former Rangers. The history of Niagara is dotted with the names
of these former Rangers like Dolson and Phelps, who settled at
Queenston; Bender, at Niagara Falls; Burch, at Chippawa; Secord,
at St Davids; and Nelles, at Grimsby.
Today the tradition of Butler's Rangers is
carried on by the Lincoln and Welland Regiment. The web site is
at
http://www.iaw.com/~awoolley/lincweld.html.
Top
Thomas Clark
First brought over to Canada by his uncle,
Robert Hamilton,
Thomas Clarke (he later dropped the "e") became a merchant and
land speculator in his own right. He was born in Dumfries in
Scotland about 1770 and arrived in Niagara in about 1792 as an
apprentice to his uncle. After four years, part of which was
spent in Hamilton's Queenston store, he left Hamilton to set up
his own business as a merchant in Queenston in partnership with
Samuel Street Jr.
Robert Hamilton arranged for Clarke and Street to share a
portion of the portaging contracts along the new Portage Road on
the west bank of the Niagara River.
In 1799, Street left the partnership and
was replaced by Robert Nichol, a close contact of Hamilton and
possibly another Hamilton relative from Dumfries. This
partnership lasted for four years, at which time Clarke went on
his own. By 1805, he had bought the Falls Mills on the Niagara
River from John Burch,
and two years later sold them to Samuel Street Jr.. In 1810, he
turned over his business to his clerk, James Kerby, and Robert
Grant. Having dropped the "e" from his name sometime before, he
again went into partnership with Samuel Street Jr., this time in
the milling business. Clark and Street started with the Falls
Mills and later bought the Bridgewater Mills, between the Falls
Mills and Chippawa.
Clark also got into land speculation. He
bought the Six Nation Block 4 in 1806 and sold the southern part
to Robert Addison two years later. In 1811, he bought Block 1
with his cousin, William Dickson
and transferred his part of the block to
Dickson in 1816.
In
the War of 1812, Clark was Lt. Col. of the 2nd Lincoln Militia,
seeing action at Queenston Heights and Frenchman's Creek. He was
present at the surrender of the American forces at Beaver Dams
and took part in the raids on Fort Schlosser and Black Rock. At
Black Rock, he suffered a wound that led to his return to
Scotland to recover. During the war, Clark and Street had lost
their Bridgewater and Falls Mills, which were both burned by the
Americans. Only the Falls Mills were rebuilt.
Clarke married the daughter of the surgeon to the Indian
Department but never had children. His great wealth went to
Thomas Clark Street, the son of his partner. TC Street went on
to become Canada's first millionaire.
Top
James Crooks
James
Crooks arrived from Kilmarnoch Scotland and settled in
Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1791. He opened a store, which was so
successful that soon he has a ship called Lord Nelson operating
on Lake Ontario, carrying goods between his store at Niagara and
Cataraqui. By about 1805, he had made enough money in his store
to buy Lot 5 Concession 2 in West Flamborough through which
flowed Spencer's Creek. In 1808, he married Jane Cummings,
daughter of Thomas Cummings, former Butler's Ranger and founder
of Chippawa.
In
1812, the Lord Nelson was attacked on Lake Ontario and sunk. As
this was before the war was declared, Crooks protested and
demanded repayment from the American government. The family
finally received compensation—123 years later.
During the War of 1812, his store and home in Niagara (located
in the present Chautauqua Park) were destroyed, so after the war
he turned his attention to his property in West Flamborough. In
1813 he finished construction of a gristmill incorporating a dam
and a sluice on Spencer's Creek and named the mill after his
hero, Lord Darnley. The ruins of the mill are located at Crooks
Hollow, northwest of Dundas.
He
expanded his business to an astonishing size, including a
distillery, linseed oil mill, cooperage, tannery, woollen mill,
clothing factory, foundry, agricultural implement factory, and
general store. In 1826, he was awarded 125 pounds offered by the
Upper Canada government to the first person to build a fully
operational paper mill. The first book printed on Canadian paper
was produced in this mill in 1830.
At
one time, Crooks Hollow was one of the villages in consideration
to be named county town for Wentworth County but the honour went
to what became Hamilton. After Crooks died in 1860 aged 82, the
Darnley Mill was bought by Stutt and Sanderson and continued to
operate as a paper mill until 1934. The house built by Stutt is
next to the ruin of the Darnley Mill in Crooks Hollow.
Top
William Dickson
A merchant who became a lawyer, a
confidant of the Six Nations, and founder of Galt, William
Dickson was one of three brothers brought from Dumfries in
Scotland to Niagara by Robert
Hamilton, their cousin. Like his
brothers, Robert and Thomas, before him, William served an
apprenticeship with the firm of Hamilton and Cartwright. Part of
William's apprenticeship was spent on Carleton Island, near
Kingston, as a forwarding agent under Richard Cartwright, and
part was spent as manager of Hamilton's mills and store at
Twelve Mile Creek (St Catharines).
After the apprenticeship, Hamilton set
Dickson up in his own business, dealing with the military and
trading along the new Portage Road on the west side of the
Niagara River. Dickson was so successful that, in 1790, at the
age of 21, he was able to build the first brick house on the
Niagara Peninsula. He became a land speculator and, as a result,
got involved with land agency and so gravitated into law. By
1795, he was acting for Richard
Beasley and James
Secord, Cartwright's cousin and
brother-in-law. In 1803, Robert Hamilton arranged for Dickson to
become a lawyer even though he had not gone through the usual
training.
As a lawyer, Dickson acted for the Six
Nations in many of their transactions to sell the blocks of land
on the Grand River. In 1811, with his cousin
Thomas Clark, he
bought Block 1 (Dumfries Township) and five years later Clark
sold his portion to Dickson for about a dollar an acre. At that
time, Dickson was Chairman of the Quarter Sessions of Niagara
and was concerned with building a new courthouse. For the job,
he interviewed Absalom Shade,
a young builder with ambition and business acumen. Shade made
such a good impression that Dickson asked Shade to accompany him
on a tour of his new property. Where Mill Creek joins the Grand
River, they stopped for a night at an abandoned squatter's
cabin. Dickson decided that this area was to be the site for his
planned community, first called Shade's Mills and later
Galt.
Top
William "Tiger" Dunlop
A huge man with fiery red hair and a
gargantuan appetite for whisky and tall tales, William Dunlop
was born in 1792 in Greenock, Scotland, the son of a local
banker. He studied medicine in Glasgow and London, and was
appointed assistant surgeon to the 89th Foot Regiment in 1813.
The regiment was posted to Upper Canada during the War of 1812
in time to participate in the battles of Crysler's Farm and
Lundy's Lane.
In 1815, he heard that the war had ended while he was in charge
of the construction of the Penetanguishene Road. After going on
half-pay in 1817, he went to India, attempting to clear tigers
from Sagar Island and earning himself the nickname "Tiger". From
1820 to 1825, Dunlop flitted from project to project, writing
articles for magazines, giving lectures on medical
jurisprudence, and editing newspapers.
In 1825, John Galt
of the Canada Company appointed Dunlop
Warden of the Woods and Forests, his job being to inspect the
company lands to protect them for being spoiled and to select
land that could be sold quickly for funds. He arrived in Upper
Canada in 1826 and from then acted as second-in-command to Galt.
He was present at the founding of Guelph, cut a road to Goderich,
and built his home just north of Goderich. When Galt resigned in
1829, Dunlop managed to keep his job. In 1833, he was appointed
general superintendent of the Huron Tract. In the same year, he
published Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada, an interesting
and amusing book that attempted to lure clever young people to
Canada.
In
1833, he was joined in Canada by his brother Robert, a retired
naval captain and much quieter personality. During the rebellion
in 1837, Dunlop raised a military unit nicknamed The Bloody
Useless. He commandeered supplies and food from Canada Company
stores, leading Galt's successor, Thomas Jones, to demand his
withdrawal from militia activities. Dunlop refused and resigned
from the company in 1838.
There
is a story about the Dunlop brothers that involves Robert's
marriage. They had a live-in housekeeper, Louisa McColl, for
some years and apparently this had been the subject of gossip
that was causing a great deal of distress to her. To end the
speculation and to keep Louisa, the brothers proposed that one
should marry her. Tiger tossed a coin and Robert lost, mainly
because the coin had two heads. So Robert had to propose to her.
She accepted and that was that. There is no evidence that she
was anything but a housekeeper before or after her marriage, but
she was well known to run a strict house. She continued to rule
the house after Robert's death.
Robert became Huron's first representative in Parliament in 1835
and held the seat until his death in 1841. William ran in his
brother's place in the General Election that year and lost in
the vote but won on appeal. He was re-elected in 1844 but
resigned in 1846. He died two years later.
Tiger
Dunlop had a fund of stories to tell and there are a fund of
stories about him. He once gave three reasons for not going to
church: first, a man was sure to find his wife there; second, he
could not bear to be at a meeting where one man dominated the
conversation; and, third, he never liked singing without
drinking. He loved his liquor, which he kept in a cabinet on
wheels called The Twelve Apostles. One bottle contained water
and was called Judas.
Top
Benjamin Eby
In
1806, two young men from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
Benjamin Eby and Henry Brubacher, made a trip to meet relatives
in Block 2. For years at his home in Lancaster Pennsylvania,
Benjamin had heard stories about his relatives settling in
Canada and he wanted to go and see what it was all about. His
father supported him but his mother would have nothing to do
with the idea. In 1806, he came of age and was old enough to
make up his own mind, so with his friend Henry Brubacher he set
out on his great adventure. In what is now Waterloo, he visited
a cousin, George Eby, who decided to show the two young people
some of the country. In dense forest, they followed the route of
the present Highway 85 into what is now Woolwich Township, then
Block 3 of the Six Nations Lands. Eventually they reached the
Conestogo River, which George Eby named for a river in
Pennsylvania. They made their way northeast to the Canagagigue,
then followed it to the Grand River. They followed the Grand
River south until they heard someone shouting on the other side
of the river. It was old Yoch Schneider working in his clearing
at what is now Bloomingdale. Yoch's wife Mary was Henry
Brubacher's aunt. Yoch's land was the northernmost of the first
wave of settlers.
When
they returned to Pennsylvania, they carried a map of Block 3
prepared by Augustus Jones. The map showed the block divided
into 130 lots of 350 acres each. The success of the first German
Company aroused the interest of the people in Lancaster County
and they invested in the new company by placing their names in
the lots on the map. Benjamin Eby returned to Canada in 1807
bearing a barrel half full of coins to pay for the new German
Company Tract. He later became business agent for the new
company, and was also a bishop of the Mennonite Church. The
First Mennonite Church of Kitchener-Waterloo stands on what was
his land.
Top
James FitzGibbon
James
FitzGibbon was a rarity in the class-conscious British Army of
the late 1700s and early 1800s. He was a man who rose from the
lowly rank of private soldier to the exalted rank of Colonel. He
did it through a combination of luck, intelligence, hard work,
determination, and sheer physical presence.
Born
in 1780 in Glin, on the south bank of the River Shannon in
County Limerick, Ireland, FitzGibbon was the second son of
Gerald FitzGibbon, a freehold farmer. As a young boy, James was
a voracious reader, reading any book he could find in any time
he could spare. There is a story that the parish priest found
him reading a New Testament he had bought from a pedlar. The
priest and the boy had an argument that the boy won, but then
lost, because the priest confiscated the book. This would not be
the last time that speaking up got him into trouble.
When
James was fifteen, his father enrolled himself, his eldest son
John, and James in the local militia in response to a call to
arms to defend Ireland against an invasion by the French. Always
quick to learn, James was quickly promoted to sergeant because
of his ability to drill the men. After three years, he was
persuaded to join the Tarbert Fencibles and was shipped with
them to England to replace a regular unit on garrison duty.
Although he had promised his mother faithfully that he would not
join the regular army, he thought that he would be considered a
coward if he refused when asked. So, at the age of eighteen, he
found himself a sergeant in the 49th Regiment of Foot.
With the 49th, he arrived in Canada in
1802 and stayed for forty-five years. His good luck was that his
commanding officer was Isaac Brock,
then the senior Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment. Brock
thought highly of FitzGibbon and taught him how to be a
"gentleman". Brock had him promoted to Sergeant Major, and, in
1806, succeeded in getting FitzGibbon a commission as ensign. In
1809, FitzGibbon became a Lieutenant.
After
the war started in 1812, Lt. FitzGibbon distinguished himself by
escorting supply bateaux down the St Lawrence River under the
noses of the Americans, and, the following winter, by escorting
45 sleighs from Montreal to Kingston. He took part in the Battle
of Stoney Creek as a company commander.
After
Stoney Creek, he formed a unit of 50 volunteers from the 49th as
a quasi-Ranger unit to disrupt American communications and
harass the groups of renegades who were looting and burning
farms. The 49th Regiment was known as the Green Tigers for the
green facing on their coats; FitzGibbon's men were known as
FitzGibbon's Green'uns or the Bully Boys. They were dressed in
grey fustian jackets to cover their red coats, and were trained
to move silently and invisibly through the woods.
The success of the Bully Boys led to
their, and FitzGibbon's, greatest triumph. The Americans,
frustrated by FitzGibbon's activities, determined to take him
out of action. They sent an expedition to attack FitzGibbon at
his headquarters at the DeCew house near DeCew Falls. With the
help of Laura Secord and bands of Iroquois under
Joseph Brant, Dominique Ducharme, and
William Kerr, FitzGibbon bluffed the Americans into surrendering
at the Battle of Beaver Dams.
FitzGibbon became a hero that day and as a result was promoted
captain in the Glengarry Fencibles until the end of the war. He
became a Lieutenant Colonel of Militia in 1821 and a Colonel in
1826.
After the war, he began his public
service, becoming clerk in the office of the Adjutant-General of
Militia for Canada, Assistant Adjutant-General, then, in 1827,
clerk of the Upper House of Assembly. He was used on many
occasions to restore order when Irish immigrants went on a rant.
FitzGibbon used the same talent to break up a riot outside
William Lyon Mackenzie's
printing house in 1832.
In
the rebellion of 1837, FitzGibbon tried to get the
Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head, a stubborn and
malicious nincompoop, to take action but could not persuade him
to do so. So FitzGibbon took action on his own initiative,
irritating Head in the process. Finally Head seemed to recognize
the urgency, appointing FitzGibbon acting Adjutant-General of
Militia. FitzGibbon then irritated Head further by posting a
unit of militia on Yonge Street. It was fortunate that he did,
because the unit intercepted a rebel force that was marching
into Toronto and dispersed it.
Finally Head decided to take action
against the rebels, appointing Allan
MacNab to lead it, to the annoyance of
FitzGibbon, who was senior to MacNab. MacNab persuaded Head to
allow FitzGibbon the command, and FitzGibbon led his troops up
Yonge Street to rout the rebellion. FitzGibbon then resigned as
Adjutant-General of Militia to protest his treatment by Head.
The
rest of FitzGibbon's life was downhill from there. He never
received the compensation he deserved from the people of Canada
and, after the death of his wife in 1847, returned to Britain
and became a Military Knight at Windsor Castle, a kind of
retirement home for old heroes. He died in 1863 and was buried
at Windsor Castle, still thinking of Canada.
Top
John Galt and the Canada Company
During the War of 1812, many Canadian families suffered great
losses of property and possessions through depredations of the
military on both sides. By 1820, most of the claims had still
not been honoured and the claimants were very distressed. They
engaged John Galt to lobby for them with the British Government.
Galt was an extraordinary man. The son of
a sea captain, he was born in 1779 in Irvine, Scotland and was a
cousin to Captain Robert Gilkison,
later a landowner in Upper Canada. Although he was involved in
business from the age of 16, he was a prolific writer of plays,
poems, biographies, novels, and travel guides. The turning point
in his career came in 1819 when he was hired to lobby for the
Glasgow-Edinburgh Canal with the British Government. This
brought him to the attention of the Canadian claimants, who then
hired him for a similar role.
Meeting with little interest from the government, Galt sought to
solve the problem in a different way. One of the reasons why
Galt was making little headway initially was that Britain had
just gone through about twenty years of war with France and was
broke. So Galt thought he might be able to sell the solution of
the problem as a way to have the British Government receive
money instead of paying it out. His proposal was to form a
company, raise capital, and buy all available land in Upper
Canada from the Crown. Then the company would settle people on
the land, and use the money they got from the settlers to pay
off the claimants. Any profits would go back to the company. So
was born the Canada Company.
After
receiving its charter in 1823, the company eventually was to buy
more than two million acres of land including the Huron Tract,
an area of land between the present Kitchener and Lake Huron,
and containing Goderich and Stratford. Most of the townships in
the Huron Tract were named after directors of the Canada Company
(Bosanquet, Williams, and so on).
Galt was appointed to represent the
company in Canada and he arrived there in January 1827. He
appointed Dr. William "Tiger" Dunlop
as the Warden of the Forests, virtually his deputy. Right from
the start, Galt clashed with the directors. Galt took the long
view that helping settlers and putting money into developing the
property would result in large profits in the future. The
directors were more interested in reaping gains as quickly as
possible by spending less and selling more. After only two
stormy years in Canada, Galt was replaced in 1829. He returned
to England and was promptly imprisoned for debt. He managed to
regain his freedom but for the rest of his life was forced to
write to live. He died in 1839 and his widow moved back to
Canada to join her three sons who were already there.
Top
William Gilkison
Born
in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland in 1777, William Gilkison was a
sailor, adventurer, land speculator, and founder of Elora. When
he was a young man, he was a merchant seaman and was captured by
the French during the Napoleonic Wars. After he escaped, he
decided to emigrate to America, taking with him letters of
reference to John Jacob Astor, founder of the great North West
Company. Astor gave him command of a schooner on Lake Erie and
he sailed her until 1803, when he married Isabella Grant, the
daughter of Alexander Grant, commodore of the Great Lakes in
1777 and Administrator of Upper Canada in 1805.
After his marriage, he worked with his
father-in-law. Gilkison's brother-in-law was Thomas Dickson,
cousin of Robert Hamilton,
brother of William Dickson,
the founder of Galt, and a prominent businessman in his own
right. Gilkison had a famous cousin of his own; he was
John Galt,
the superintendent of the Canada Company and founder of Guelph.
Gilkison served in the War of 1812 and was at the Battle of
Crysler's Farm. After the war, he returned to Scotland to
educate his six children. The air must have suited him because
his other five children were born there. His wife died in 1826,
and, in 1832, he decided to join his children, some of whom had
returned to Canada. He bought a large lot on the west bank of
the Grand River in what is now West Brant in the City of
Brantford. There he established a farm, which he called Oak
Bank. The house he built is still standing as 71 Gilkison Street
but the farm has been split up and covered in houses.
He must have liked the land on the Grand
River because, when he heard that land was available further
upriver, he bought about 14,000 acres of land in Nichol
Township. After visiting the area, he commissioned Lewis Burwell
to lay out a town, which he named
Elora, at
the Falls of the Grand. Unfortunately, he never got to see the
results, because he died suddenly in April 1833.
Top
Robert Hamilton
In
the years following the Revolutionary War, when people, money,
and cultivated land were scarce on the Niagara Peninsula, Robert
Hamilton managed to build a huge mercantile empire. When he died
in 1809 aged only 56, he was owed £69,000 (or $276,000 at the
rate of 4 dollars to a pound), an enormous sum for those days.
He had also acquired 83,000 acres of land.
He
was born in a small town in East Lothian, Scotland in 1753 to a
Presbyterian minister. He was an educated man and may have, like
his father and brothers, had an education at the University of
Glasgow. In 1775 he joined the firm of the Ellice brothers and
spent time at their office in Montreal, learning the business
and making contacts that would last his lifetime. One of the
most important contacts was Isaac Todd of the firm Todd &
McGill, a supply house in Montreal. In 1780, Hamilton became a partner
with Richard Cartwright in the firm of Hamilton & Cartwright
based in Niagara.
At
that time, most trading involved barter; the only sure source of
money was trade with the military, who, until 1796, still
occupied Fort Niagara on the east side of the Niagara River.
Hamilton was able to establish a good relationship with the
officers because he came from the same class, knew how to deal
with them, and understood their requirements. Where other
merchants had to scramble to get business from the military,
Hamilton & Cartwright were able to impress the officers and
build a reputation for respectability and reliability. The firm
used Todd & McGill as a supplier in Montreal and, in turn,
became a supplier for one of Todd & McGill's oldest customers,
John Askin in Detroit. Eventually, Hamilton established the
business in Queenston while Cartwright built up the business in
Cataraqui (Kingston).
Hamilton, besides building links to his
suppliers, began to build personal links. He brought his cousins
over from Dumfries in Scotland to learn the business and
eventually start businesses of their own. Their names were
Robert, Thomas, and William Dickson,
and Thomas Clarke.
Robert Dickson eventually established himself in the fur trade,
and Thomas Dickson had his own retail business. William Dickson
also became a merchant, but then became a lawyer, land
speculator, and developer. He bought Block 1 of the former Six
Nations Reserve and founded the city of Galt. Thomas Clarke
became a partner of Samuel Street Jr.
in milling at Bridgewater near Niagara
Falls, Ontario. Like William Dickson, he became a land
speculator and his wealth enabled his partner's son Thomas
Clarke Street to become Upper Canada's first millionaire.
Richard Cartwright also used cousins in
the business. One cousin he helped was
Richard Beasley,
one of the founders of Ancaster and the owner of the land upon
which Dundurn Castle was built. Cartwright married Magdalen
Secord, sister of James Secord, the husband of the famous Laura
Secord.
Hamilton's first wife was Catharine Askin Robertson, the
daughter of his business client, John Askin of Detroit. The City
of St Catharines was named after her. One of his sons was George
Hamilton, a founder of the City of Hamilton.
Top
Richard and Samuel Hatt
Richard and Samuel Hatt were sons of Richard Hatt, a well-to-do
woollen draper from London, England. Richard, the son, came to
the Niagara region in 1792, setting himself up as a merchant.
After his mother died, his father and brother Samuel joined
Richard in Canada in 1796. Richard and Samuel then decided to
move away from Niagara to Ancaster, where they opened a general
store. They also built a mill, the Red Mill, just north of
Ancaster on the road called the Devil's Elbow. To drum up
business for the Red Mill, they built a road from the Red Mill
to Dundas, a road that still exists as the Old Ancaster Road.
Still
ambitious, the Hatt brothers decided that the Red Mill was not
successful enough so they looked for something better They found
it in Edward Peer's Dundas Mill, which they bought in 1804 in
partnership with Manuel Overfield. The partnership did not last
long because, by 1807, Richard Hatt had bought out the others.
Richard now turned his full attention to Dundas, buying more
land and building more businesses until he owned a cooperage,
all of the water rights of Spencer's Creek from Webster's Falls
to Main Street, a distillery to use up all the grain unfit to
grind, and a pig pen to use up the mash produced by the
distillery.
He opened up Hatt Street and built a
store.
The street and the store are still there. The former end of Hatt
Street at Governor's Road has been closed off and Hatt Street
now bends east to end at Main Street. The store is now an
electrical store. It was originally the last building on Hatt
Street but is now in the closed-off part of the street behind
the Town Hall. The address is still 2 Hatt Street.
The
village growing around Richard's mills became known as Dundas
Mills and gradually spread until it overwhelmed the old village
of Coote's Paradise. Richard built a grand house, which he
called Ogilvie Terrace; Ogilvie Street was once his front
driveway.
In the War of 1812, both brothers fought
and both were captains in the 5th Lincoln Militia. Samuel took a
major part in repelling the Americans at Queenston Heights. He
commanded a battery located at Vrooman's Point on the Niagara
River north of Queenston. The battery was perfectly sited to be
able to fire on the American invaders as they crossed from
Lewiston to Queenston before the
Battle of Queenston Heights.
The major American force was never able to break out of the area
of the Queenston Landing and this contributed to the eventual
American defeat in the counterattack by Major General Sheaffe.
There is a historical marker recognizing this incident on the
east side of the Niagara Parkway just north of Queenston.
After
the war, Samuel was a commissioner administering oaths of
allegiance. In 1816, he moved to Chambly, Quebec, built mills,
and became prosperous. He died in 1842 in Quebec.
Richard did not have as famous a role as his brother but he did
return home in 1814 having been severely wounded. About the time
Richard came home, there was good news and bad news. The good
news was that the government was to establish a post office
named Dundas in Richard's store. The bad news was that Dundas
had not been chosen as the county seat for the new Gore
District; that honour went to the growing village on George
Hamilton's farm. The bad news was not all bad for Richard
because he was appointed the first magistrate for the new
district.
After
the war, Richard started Dundas' first, and the province's
fourteenth, newspaper, The Upper Canada Guardian or Freeman's
Journal. He hired Richard Cockerel to do two things: publish the
newspaper and teach his children. Unfortunately the newspaper
did not last long. Its last issue was on September 28 1819 and
told of the death of its owner. Richard died on September 16
1819 aged 50. He had just been elected to the House of Assembly
and was looking forward to becoming a father again. The child,
Margaret, was born after his death.
Richard's grave was lost for many years. His gravestone was
found in 1947 on an Ancaster farm, obviously not where his grave
was located. His grave and that of his wife Polly have been
recently located in the old Cooley graveyard on the farm once
owned by his father-in-law, Preserved Cooley.
Top
The
Kennedy Family
John Kennedy, the grandfather of the founder of Georgetown, emigrated to North America about 1750 and settled in New Jersey. His son, also John, was born in New Jersey in 1761. His religious principles and age did not allow him to take part in the Revolutionary War and the American attitude of "if you weren't with us, you were against us" made it very difficult for the younger John after the war. So he and his wife Charity and their five children headed north in 1795, settling in Gainsborough Township near present St Anns. Their children were John, Elizabeth, Anny, Charles, Morris, Samuel, and George. At least four sons fought in the War of 1812; John at Queenston Heights, Charles at Lundy's Lane.
The
surveying of the northern part of Esquesing Township was under
the control of Captain Abraham Nelles. He subcontracted it to
Charles Kennedy, who received property on Silver Creek as
payment. Charles' brothers John, Morris, Samuel, and George all
bought land close to Charles in the Silver Creek Valley.
Charles owned land on Lot 21 Concession 9. He also came to own Lot 19 Concession 8. Charles
built a mill at what is now Main and Wildwood on the northern
perimeter of modern Georgetown. He married Elizabeth Williams of the family that founded Glen Williams. In 1845, he transferred Lot 19 to his son John, who built a home on the family farm. This home, known as Cleave House for later owners, is still there on Cleaveholm Drive. John later subdivided his land but kept a lot on James Street. On this land in 1871, he built the small cottage that still stands at 16 James Street.
John Kennedy House
In 1823, George bought Lot 18 Concession 9 from John Moore and built a sawmill in Hungry Hollow. The mills were on what was once Silver Creek and is
now parkland between Main Street and Guelph Street (Highway 7).
Seventeen years later, in 1837, there were still only three
families in the area. With a name like Hungry Hollow, it's
hardly surprising that there was no rush to grab the land.
Perhaps that is why the place was renamed Georgetown shortly
afterwards, in honour of George Kennedy, who had stuck it out
for seventeen years.
The
opening of the York-to-Guelph Road by the Canada Company spurred
the growth of the hamlet at George Kennedy's mill because the
road connected the McNab mills in Norval with the Stewart mills
at Esquesing (Stewarrttown). Kennedy was able to add grist and
woollen mills to his complex. In 1837, he sold land south of his mills to the
Barber brothers. In the 1850s, he had the rest of his land surveyed and laid
out, naming many of the streets after his children. He died in
1870.
Top
Robert Land
The
story of Robert Land and his family has everything: war, love,
hate, death, love lost and found. The story starts in the
Delaware River valley near present Milansville, Pennsylvania.
There, in the 1770s, lived Robert Land and his family. In 1757,
he had married Phoebe Scott, member of a family that would
become famous after the war of 1812. By 1776 they had a family
of seven, ranging from John aged 19 to a young baby, and Robert
was a justice of the peace.
With
the coming of the Revolutionary War, all that changed. Robert
was loyal to the Crown and soon volunteered for service. Because
of his knowledge of the area, he was ordered to carry dispatches
for the British forces. Soon thugs and louts calling themselves
Patriots began to persecute his family, imprisoning John and
roughing up another son, Abel. In 1778, one of the daughters was
woken up by a friendly native, who told her to go to her
neighbours, the Kanes, who were also loyalists. When she got
there, she found they had all been murdered. The native advised
her that the Lands would be next.. With that, the family left
their home and fled to the woods. As they left, they looked back
to see the smoke rising from what had been their home. The
family made their way to New York City, where they were
protected by the British Army until the army evacuated the city.
Then the family, except John who was still in prison, was
evacuated to New Brunswick.
Meanwhile, Robert had managed to get a
break from service and returned home only to find his home
burned and his family nowhere to be found. Suspecting that they
may have been murdered, he returned to duty. As a courier, he
was always in danger of being captured, and one day he found he
was surrounded by the enemy. He asked his friend and neighbour
Ralph Morden
to guide him through them. Unfortunately, the enemy had heard
that Land was in the area and took off in pursuit. When they
caught up with Land and Morden, they shot Land in the back and
captured Morden, who was confidant that he was safe because he
was a Quaker. Alas he was wrong. He was tried and executed.
Land
had been shot inn the back but the bullet had only hit a
knapsack, causing some minor bleeding, enough to convince the
pursuers that he was dead or badly injured. He made his way to
Fort Niagara and found shelter there. When the war ended, he
received a Loyalist grant of 200 acres near Niagara Falls but
soon left to go to Burlington Bay. There he built a log cabin.
He periodically visited Ralph Morden's family, who, after
Ralph's execution, had escaped from Pennsylvania and now lived
in the Dundas Valley, about eight miles away.
John
Land, Robert's eldest son, was released from prison in
Pennsylvania and, because he had not taken up arms, he was
accepted back and allowed to keep his property in the Delaware
Valley. His brother, Robert (designated Robert II to distinguish
him from his father), had become disenchanted with New
Brunswick. So, at the age of 17, he persuaded his mother to move
to Upper Canada, where Loyalists were welcomed. They sailed for
New York and made their way back to the Delaware Valley, where
they met John, now married and settled on the old land. Like
them, John had heard about Ralph Morden and reconciled himself
that his father had died in the war. John decided that he was
not going to move so the rest of the family made its way to
Niagara without him.
After
living in Niagara for about a year, Robert Land II happened to
hear of another Land who was living alone at Head-of-the-Lake.
He thought it was unlikely that it could be a relation of his
but he decided to investigate anyway. Eventually, he, with his
mother and brother Ephraim, arrived at the log cabin to find
their long lost father sitting outside smoking. The family had
been separated for eleven years.
Robert Land died in 1818 and his wife, Phoebe died in 1826. Both
were still alive when Phoebe's nephew led American forces in an
invasion of Upper Canada at Queenston in 1812. He was also the
victor in the Battle of Chippawa in 1814. He went on to become,
arguably, the greatest general in United States history. His
name: Winfield Scott.
Top
William Lyon Mackenzie and the Upper Canada Rebellion
William Lyon Mackenzie was born near Dundee, Scotland, on March
12, 1795. Both grandfathers had been Jacobites, followers of
Bonny Prince Charlie, who fought for the English throne in 1745.
William's father died when he was only three weeks old and so he
and his mother lived without much money for the early part of
his life. He, however, managed to get a good education, and he
even put aside enough money to open a small store in nearby
Alyth. The store included a circulating library, indicating his
life-long interest in reading and writing. This first venture,
however, was not successful.
In
1820 he left Scotland for Quebec and then York (Toronto), where
he started a business with John Lesslie. After a disagreement
with Lesslie, Mackenzie moved to Dundas, where in 1822, he
married Isabel Baxter. His house in Dundas is still there. Next
he moved to Queenston, where he started the Colonial Advocate in
May 1824. The Mackenzie house in Queenston is a reconstruction
of the original house except for the trees in front, which were
planted by Mackenzie.
In
the Advocate, Mackenzie wrote about the abuses of the system of
government. Upper Canada at that time was governed by a
lieutenant-governor with supreme power. He was officially
advised by an appointed Executive Council and an elected
Legislative Assembly. In fact, the Lieutenant-Governor could and
did ignore the Legislative Assembly as he felt necessary. The
Executive Council was more effective but was drawn from the
upper ranks of society. This "upper crust" regarded any
so-called reforms as disloyal and to be resisted at all costs.
Mackenzie's newspaper then and later was not characterized by
restraint; he did not hesitate to attack the system or the
people who were part of the system.
In
November, 1825, he moved the Colonial Advocate to Toronto. He
attempted to get a copy of the newspaper buried in the first
Brock Monument, but the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Peregrine
Maitland, had part of the monument torn down to retrieve the
newspaper. The Family Compact, as the "upper crust" were known,
made a mistake when they attacked Mackenzie's printing press.
Mackenzie had decided to close it down just before it was
attacked. Instead, Mackenzie sued for damages and received
enough money to keep the newspaper running.
Next, he was elected to the Legislative
Assembly. There he made an enemy of
Allan Napier MacNab, an up-and-comer
from Hamilton. Several times Mackenzie was expelled from the
Assembly, mostly due to the urging of MacNab, but each time he
was voted back in again. In 1832, he went to England and
received a hearing by the Colonial Office. In 1834, he became
Toronto's first mayor. In 1835, the Reformers, including
Mackenzie, won control over the Assembly and promptly sent a
report of grievances to Britain. The Colonial Office decided to
replace the lieutenant-governor with someone they hoped would be
more tactful. What a mistake they made! They appointed just
about the worst person for the job, a stubborn, opinionated,
malicious nincompoop named Sir Francis Bond Head.
Head
appointed three reformers, Robert Baldwin, Dr. John Rolph, and
John Dunn to the Executive Council, then ignored their advice,
so they and the rest of the Executive Council resigned. The
Assembly then withheld supplies, and so Head prorogued
Parliament. However, he was smart enough to use the loyalty
weapon; he accused anyone who opposed him as being disloyal to
the mother country. Now reformers were in a fix: if they
criticized him, they were disloyal; if they didn't criticism
him, they were virtually on his side. This split the reformers.
Many important people who wanted some reform did not want to
appear to be disloyal to the Crown, and so they felt unable to
support Mackenzie. This effectively caused the failure of the
rebellion in Upper Canada in 1837.
The rebellion itself was a shambles. One
swift blow by militia led by Col. James
FitzGibbon was enough to shatter the
mish-mash of non-soldiers assembled by Mackenzie to overthrow
the government. Even so, Head nearly managed to make the
rebellion a success. At first, when told by FitzGibbon of the
uprising, he refused to acknowledge it. Only FitzGibbon's prompt
action in posting Sheriff Jarvis and his men near College and
Yonge Streets saved Toronto from a band of rebels that was
advancing down Yonge Street. The rebels, seeing Jarvis and his
men, fired at them. The front row of rebels, having fired, lay
down for the second row to fire over them. But the rebels at the
rear, seeing the front row fall down, thought they had been shot
and immediately panicked and ran away.
Finally, Head came to realize there was a problem. He organized
an army of militia, but then, instead of giving command to his
Adjutant-General of Militia, FitzGibbon, a professional soldier,
hero of the War of 1812, and senior commander, he gave command
to Mackenzie's archrival MacNab. MacNab, to his credit, refused
the command, which then went to FitzGibbon. Despite being
miffed, FitzGibbon then organized the army and led it up Yonge
Street to Montgomery's Tavern, where resistance melted away.
Mackenzie escaped by back roads, across the Humber River on a
small footbridge, to Streetsville. Pursued by soldiers, he
managed to reach Wellington Square, now Burlington. From there
he rode by horse to Ancaster, where he changed horses and
carried on. At one point he was arrested as a horse thief. When
taken to the local magistrate, he found that the magistrate was
in favour of reform, so he decided to reveal who he was. The
magistrate then decided to let him go. Still pursued, he managed
to reach Smithville. There he met Samuel Chandler, who guided
him across the Welland Canal and the Chippawa Creek to Captain
Samuel McAfee's house on the Niagara River. The next morning,
Mackenzie had a narrow escape when, just before he was to sit
down for breakfast, he looked out the window and saw a posse of
militia approaching. McAfee, Chandler, and Mackenzie darted out
of the house, pulled a rowboat across the road to the river, and
rowed off as fast as they could. Mackenzie always felt that
someone in the militia saw them but decided to keep silent.
Mackenzie finally made his way to the US. There he found enough
support that he could try again, this time by setting up a base
on Navy Island. A steamboat, the Caroline, was engaged to supply
Mackenzie's troops on the island. Colonel MacNab was not amused
by this. By now in charge of all forces in Upper Canada, he
decided that the Caroline had to go. He ordered Captain Drew to
take a raiding party to get rid of the steamboat. This they did
by putting the Caroline's crew ashore, towing her out into the
river, then setting fire to her. The Caroline did not go over
the Falls as shown in some illustrations; she burned and broke
up in the river, and only small parts of her eventually went
over the Falls.
Mackenzie's fortunes did not get better after that. He was
imprisoned in the US for 18 months for violating the neutrality
laws and the conditions in the prison destroyed his health.
After his release, he worked with little success as a journalist
in the US until 1849, when a general amnesty allowed him to
return to Canada. From 1851 to 1858, he was a member of the
Legislative Assembly for United Canada, defeating George Brown,
the founder of the Globe newspaper, in the process. But he was
never the same force. Plagued with health and debt problems, he
died on August 28, 1861.< |