The story of Robert Land and his family has everything: war, 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.