Places Visited
Some of the places encountered on these trips
ActonEzra Adams is usually recognised as the founder of Acton. He was a saddlebags Methodist preacher whose health had failed by 1822 from the grind of travelling. He probably hired himself to Silas Emes to clear the land for Emes to be able to claim a patent on it. In return, Adams got half of the land. So Adams became owner of the eastern half of Lot 28 Concession 2 Esquesing Township. This was on the western side of Main Street from about River Street to Cobbleshill Road. Soon he was joined by his brothers Rufus, in 1825, and Zenas, in 1827. Rufus got Lot 28 Concession 3, which was parallel to Ezra's land but ran from the east side of Main Street to Eastern Street. Nearly all of the early settlement was on his land. He built a house at the eastern end of St Alban's Street. Zenas, like Ezra, was a saddlebags preacher and he too was taking a break to recover his health. Zenas received Lot 27 Concession 2 south of Ezra but also bought the southern half of Rufus' land. So all of the land from the southern side of Mill Street to Agnes Street belonged to Zenas. The streets here were named for Zenas's children. Zenas too built a house on the southeast corner of Church and Main Streets, and, under a worse-for-wear exterior, it is still there. Ezra's house kitty-corner from Zenas' on the northwest corner was demolished to make way for a parking lot. (Pave Paradise, put up a parking lot!) Later, other people began to join the settlement, including Eliphalet and Patience Adams, the brothers' parents. About 1835, Miller Hemstreet built a log cabin and store on the west side of Main Street just north of Mill Street. He may have let his young employee Dan run the store because the store had a sign stating Danville Grocery (or possibly Dan's Village Grocery?) . Soon the settlement began to be named Danville after the store. By 1830, Ezra was ready to get back on the circuit, returning to his land in 1836 to build two mills. He built a gristmill on the land occupied by the present mill, and the lake he created by damming the stream is the present Fairy Lake. The sawmill he built was where the stream crosses Main Street south of Church Street. These mills attracted people to the site and soon a flourishing village sprang up. The village at last became known for the Adams brothers as Adamsville. Ezra finally settled in what is now Dayton in Peel Township. He may have sent one of his flock when Robert Swan came south to buy the remainder of Ezra's land. In 1844, he built a store and post office near the corner of Main and Knox Streets. The name Adamsville had already been given to another post office so Swan gave his post office the name Acton. Soon more of Swan's friends arrived: the Nicklins, Matthews, and Moore families. John Nicklin bought the old Adams mills from Swan and James Matthews succeeded Swan as the postmaster, retaining the job for seventy years. Nicklin may have been the man who hired John Plewes, a newly arrived Yorkshireman, to run the gristmill in 1850. The mill was where his sons Simon and William learned the trade, before moving to Terra Cotta and Kimberley after John died. The leather industry for which Acton is known began when Abraham Nelles opened a tanning factory in 1842. At about the same time, a young Liverpudlian, George Beardmore, and his brother Joseph started a leather company in Hamilton. Joseph died a few years later, but the company flourished until 1854 when a fire destroyed everything. Beardmore started up again, this time in a small factory in Guelph. In 1865, he bought the factory in Acton, which had changed hands several times by then. Although George Beardmore died in 1893, the family kept the business until 1944, when it was taken over by Canada Packers. The present leather store on Eastern Street was once part of the Beardmore warehouse. Places to see in Acton:
AncasterThe village of Ancaster got its name from the township, which in turn was named after Peregrine Bertie, the Duke of Ancaster, by Lieutenant- Governor Simcoe. In 1787, when the first Loyalists arrived to settle in the township, this was the frontier, the west. The nearest settlement of importance was Newark, now Niagara-on-the-Lake. These Loyalist settlers had been granted land but could only choose a plot of land hoping that they would be allocated the land after it had been surveyed. They had no idea where the eventual boundaries would be and could end up clearing land for somebody else. The area was finally surveyed in 1793. The founders of Ancaster are acknowledged to be James Wilson and Richard Beasley. They owned adjacent lots and, with Wilson's skills as a millwright and Beasley's money, they built a grist mill in 1791 and a saw mill the next year. Wilson then built up an industrial empire, which he sold in 1794 to St John Rousseaux. Rousseaux had a general store and ran a hotel in his home on Wilson Street. Before that he had been a successful trader with the aboriginals at his Humber River store. Rousseaux in turn sold the mills to a group of men known as the Union Mill Company and from the profits built another hotel, which he named the Union Hotel from the Union Company money that built it. This was the hotel used for the Bloody Assize during the War of 1812. In 1812, before the war, a group of people from Brant's Block (Burlington) petitioned for a new district to be set up between the Home District, with its County Town at York (Toronto), and the Niagara District, with its County Town at Niagara. The Brant's Block people felt that it should be the County Town of the new district. People of Dundas thought that Coote's Paradise was more suited so they petitioned too. Then the people of Greensville, Bullock's Corners, and Crooks Hollow sent in a petition for Crooks Hollow to be the County Town. A fourth petition arrived from James Durand's village on his farm. Then a fifth and final petition from Ancaster arrived. Before anything final could be done, the war had broken out and all plans had to be shelved. At the end of the war, when the matter came up again, things had changed. It had become apparent that the village on James Durand's farm was the most up-and-coming and it was named the County Town. Except that it was no longer owned by Durand. So, instead of becoming Durand, the new town was named after the new owner of the farm, George Hamilton, and so became Hamilton. And now Ancaster, Coote's Paradise, Greensville, Bullock's Corners, and Crooks Hollow are all part of Hamilton. In 1820, Job Lodor bought the Union Mills and revitalized the industrial complex in the 1820s. In 1826, William Wiard started a foundry and this employed Harris and Alonzo Egleston when they arrived here in 1832. Eventually they bought out Wiard and started an industrial empire of their own, including a grist mill that is now the Old Ancaster Mill. But gradually, in the 1830s, Hamilton's position as a port on Lake Ontario took it beyond Ancaster as a centre for industry. Places to see in Ancaster:
The Seymour Lodge building next door at 419 Wilson Street East may date from 1821 and may have been a wagon and carriage shop. It certainly looks old enough and once had a wide doorway in the front.
At 413 Wilson Street East, next door to the Seymour Lodge building, is the Moore store and house, noted for its two huge windows and an extremely high step out of the Wilson Street door. Each window of the Moore store contains twenty five separate panes of glass. In the early 1800s, when glass was so expensive, it was smarter to make large windows out of smaller panes of glass because of the risk of breakage during transportation over bumpy roads. Originally, there was a wooden sidewalk in front of the store. The sidewalk was much higher than the present sidewalk and had a set of steps between the Moore store and the Seymour Lodge building. The building was built about 1820.
On the other side of the road at 406 Wilson Street East is a 1½-storey house built by Alonzo Egleston, who with his brother Hiram, came to Ancaster from New York State in 1832 to become industrialists here. Egleston built this house in 1846 and it has been considerably modified over the years. Note that the Eglestons built the Old Ancaster Mill in 1836. At the time of writing, there is a plan to move the building from its position fronting onto Wilson Street to a position at the rear of the lot, so you may find it at its new location.
Just past the Egleston house is the Marr house at 400 Wilson Street East. The house was built about 1840 by a family of carpenters. There once was a workshop behind the house but that has been moved to Westfield Heritage Village. The Marr house has recently been covered with coloured vertical siding, which has managed to take away all of its character.
At 398 Wilson Street East is the John Phillipo house. This fine stone house was built after 1840 because that was the year when John arrived here from England. Notice the quoined corners of the building and the transom light over the front door.
This was the home of Richard Edmund Hammill, a grocer and butcher. It was built in the 1830s. While the new Township Hall was being built about 1966, this house was used as the municipal centre, police station, and council offices. There could not have been much room. BarrieBarrie started as the end of a native trail from Kempenfelt Bay on Lake Simcoe to Willow Creek, a tributary of the Nottawasaga River. The trail thus connected Lake Simcoe to Lake Huron by way of the Nottawasaga River. During the War of 1812, the trail, now called the Nine-Mile Portage, became a strategic route for supplying the northern forts on the Upper Lakes, away from possible interference of American forces. In 1819, the military erected depots at the ends of the Portage, one at Fort Willow and the other on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay. The depots were for storing supplies for the new naval post at Penetanguishene. The Barrie depot was located at Memorial Square. Within six years, the Portage was replaced as a supply route by the Penetanguishene Road and the extension of Yonge Street. The village of Kempenfelt at the southern end of the Penetanguishene Road became the settlement at this part of Lake Simcoe. The town of Barrie was laid out in 1833 by William Hawkins, who also surveyed the Nine-Mile Portage for its improvement. At about the same time, Charles Rankin surveyed the Sunnidale Road from Barrie through Sunnidale Township. Barrie is named for a naval officer, Commodore Sir Robert Barrie, commander of the British naval forces at Kingston. The first settler in the area was Alexander Walker, who moved here to work on the improvement of the Portage and stayed. Soon he was joined by others. By 1837, more people lived at Barrie than at Kempenfelt. By 1847, the population had reached 500. Of Barrie's early streets: Dunlop Street is named for Tiger Dunlop, army surgeon in the War of 1812, builder of the Penetanguishene Road, and founder of Goderich; Worsley Street is for Lieutenant Miller Worsley, commander of the Nancy; McDonald Street was originally McDouall Street named for Lt. Col. Robert McDouall, the commander of the expedition to supply Fort Michilimackinac in the War of 1812. BramptonWhen Samuel Kenny arrived at the future site of Brampton in about 1820, the area was low, swampy, and covered with a dense hardwood forest. He eventually sold his land there to John Elliott, a native of Brampton in the county of Cumberland, England. Elliott laid out village lots and named the place after his home town. In 1822, Martin Salisbury opened a tavern in what is now the north end of Main Street. This was used for many years as a community centre. Shortly after, Mr Buffy opened a tavern at what is now the Four Corners (Queen and Main) but was then called Buffy's Corners. About 1858, the Grand Trunk Railway built a line through Brampton and with it came business. The Haggert Foundry built farm machinery and stoves, and the Dale Estate Nurseries grew flowers, especially hybrid roses and orchids. Brampton became known as the Flower Town. Today, Brampton is one of Ontario's largest cities with a wide industrial base and a growing population of about 300,000. The city is trying to regain its name as the Flower Town of Ontario and you can see the results in the beds of flowers at most major intersections throughout the city. Brampton has become a site for the motion picture industry and residents are no longer surprised to see large trucks around the historic buildings across from City Hall on Main Street. Places to see in Brampton:
BrantfordAfter General Haldimand, Governor of the Province of Quebec, awarded the Grand River grant to the Six Nations Confederacy, Iroquois people built a village at a site at the Grand River near where the Royal Chapel of the Mohawks is now located. The government, in fact, built the chapel for the Six Nations in 1785 to replace the Royal Chapel at Fort Hunter in the Mohawk Valley, which had been lost as a result of the Revolutionary War. To build the chapel, Joseph Brant called upon two old friends from the Mohawk Valley, John Smith and John Thomas. For their help, he gave them land nearby. Smith's grant was in today's North Ward of Brantford and Thomas' grant was in Cainsville. It was Brant's goal that Smith and Thomas would also give the Iroquois the benefit of their farming knowledge. Before the Revolutionary War, Iroquois men had led a life of hunting and fighting. Brant realized that this lifestyle would have to be replaced with one of farming. But he knew that this would be difficult for Iroquois men to do because it had been done previously by the women. Someone would be needed to show the men how to farm. Brant encouraged other friends to settle on the Grand River by giving them grants. People like the Nelles and Young families from the Mohawk Valley moved to the Grand River. But settlement near the Six Nations' village did not occur until later. The person considered the first white settler in Brantford was John Stalts, who in 1805 built a log cabin where the War memorial is now located, at the west end of Dalhousie (pronounced daLOOZie) Street. This was on the farm of Mohawk chief John Hill. However, Stalts was not overrun with neighbours because by 1818 the population had swelled to twelve people. There was a thriving village nearby at Mount Pleasant but not here. It wasn't until the Hamilton and London Road was completed in 1823 that things began to pick up. Early settlers included William Sutton, the Wilkes family consisting of John and his two sons, John and James, Nathen Gage, Reuben Leonard, and Arunah Huntington. Dutton bought the western half of Chief Hill's farm and John Wilkes Sr. bought the eastern half. John Aston Wilkes was a merchant from Birmingham in England. He started his business in York (Toronto) in 1820 and in 1822 sent his sons John and James to Brantford to open up a branch store to trade with the Iroquois. The branch was so successful that it became the tree; John Sr. sold up in York and moved to Brantford. At that time the population of Brantford was less than 100 white people. One of the sideshoots of Wilkes' business was a distillery, which he built in 1830 on his land, which extended from the Market Place to Waterworks Creek, near Clarence Street, and included Colborne, Dalhousie, and Darling Streets. The next year, William Kerby built a competing distillery on the bank of the river near Church Street. The booze business must have been good because, in 1832, William Spencer built a brewery on the west side of the river near St Mary's Lane. Marshal Lewis, from New York State, built the first bridge over the Grand River near his mill, which was near the present Mill Street. Lewis was one of two men who tried to name the town after themselves. By 1826 or 1827, the town had grown big enough for a formal name. At a gathering of about two hundred people, Lewis suggested that the town be named Lewisville. Robert Biggar, who lived at Mount Pleasant but owned a tract of land just west of West Street, put forward the name Biggar's Town. John Wilkes Sr. wanted it named Birmingham after his home town in England. Thankfully, someone mentioned that, as it was near where Brant had established a ford over the river, perhaps the town should be named Brant's Ford. This was unanimously accepted. The exact location of Brant's Ford is in dispute but it is close to the Lorne Bridge, which replaced an earlier bridge built by Robert Biggar in 1827. The downtown area looks very different from 150 years ago. Then a small stream called the Cove made an island of the land where the casino and Earl Haig Park are now. The Cove has been filled in and is now under Icomm Drive. Two streets north of the Cove are still called Water Street and Wharfe Street, recognizing their role when Brantford was a port. The Grand River Navigation Company cut a canal from the Grand River near Cainsville to Brantford, where it followed the line of Greenwich Street. From the completion of the canal in 1849 to the company's bankruptcy in 1861, Brantford could be reached by river and canal from Lake Erie and, through the Welland Canal, Lake Ontario. The western end of the canal has been filled in to form Shallow Creek Park but the rest of the canal can still be seen. The remains of one of the locks can be seen where Locks Road crosses the canal at Beach Road. Places to see in Brantford are:
BurlingtonBefore the early pioneers arrived in this area, it was inhabited by the Mississaugas, a peaceful branch of the Chippewa or Ojibway nation of Algonquin native people. The Mississaugas were a nomadic tribe, living and hunting in an area before moving on to a better location. When the French arrived, the Mississaugas became involved in the fur trade, buying furs from more-western tribes and selling to the French at the mouth of the Credit River. As wildlife disappeared and settlers started to arrive, the Mississaugas started to sell their land. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Joseph Brant was awarded land at the head of Lake Ontario. land that now comprises Burlington from Francis Road in the west to the mouth of Rambo Creek in the east. On his grant, called Brant's Block, Brant built a house at a site that's now covered by the QEW and an extension to the hospital. The house has been recreated on the south side of the intersection of Maple Avenue and Lakeshore Road and is now the Joseph Brant Museum. In 1806, the Mississaugas sold the southern part of their land to the Upper Canada government. The land purchased extended from Burlington Bay to the mouth of the Etobicoke Creek and about six miles north. It includes the lake frontage of the cities of Burlington, Oakville, and Mississauga. After Brant died in 1807, his land was sold off to settlers, who became the first white residents of Burlington. Brant and his son John, also a noted chief of the Mohawks, were first buried near their Burlington home but the remains were later moved to the Chapel of the Mohawks in Brantford. As Brant's land was sold, the name of the block was changed to Wellington Square. The first person to buy land from Brant was Nicholas Kern, who bought 200 acres in 1803. Two Welshmen, Thomas Ghent and Ashael Davis, bought land in 1805 or 1806. They were Loyalists who had moved here from North Carolina. They may have brought apple seeds with them, starting all those apple orchards around Burlington. Another early settler was James Gage, who bought 338 acres, surveyed them, sold the lots, and then built factories and a warehouse in the area. In the War of 1812, the main advanced base for the British forces was at Burlington Heights, which is where Dundurn Castle is now located. Highway 403 now travels across the Heights with Burlington Bay to the east and Coote's Paradise to the west. Places to see in Burlington are:
ChippawaBefore the British conquest of Canada, there was a French stockade located here at the confluence of the Chippawa Creek (now the Welland River) and the Niagara River. Between 1763 and 1764, British schooners were built on Navy Island opposite Chippawa for service on the Great Lakes. During the American Revolution, the British built a blockhouse called Fort Chippawa here. The first settler, John Burch, who was in the second wave of west-bank settlers in 1783, obtained land on the north side of the creek. After he emigrated from England to New York, he set up as a tinsmith, becoming very wealthy and owning property on the Delaware River and in Albany. During the Revolutionary War, he had been the sutler to Butler's Rangers, but, in Canada, his relationship with authorities was mixed. He wanted to build a sawmill and a gristmill on his property but the Army decided that a suitable site was just north of Dufferin Islands, about where the Toronto Generating building is now located. This was a not the best spot because it was more awkward for settlers to reach from the Portage Road. At that spot, the Portage Road was on top of the ridge and, to get to the mill down by the river, settlers had to walk almost to the Falls before they came to the narrow path leading down the ridge to the mill. However, his were the only mills in the area for many years so, bad site or no, he prospered. Later, he had to give up some of his land next to the Welland River when the Army decided to build Fort Chippawa on the north side of the river. Burch became a partner with Robert Hamilton in the Portage Syndicate, which controlled the movement of goods along the Portage Road. He is the man who ransomed Andrew Miller of Miller's Creek. The second settler was Thomas Cummings, a Scot from Albany, New York State. Cummings had been the manager of John Burch's Albany farm and his mother had also worked for Burch. He obtained a land grant at the mouth and south of Chippawa Creek and built a house there in 1783. He was an early store owner but his stores were destroyed during the War of 1812. When the Army built Fort Chippawa, they also built a bridge, the King's Bridge, across what had now become the Welland River. This bridge was closer to the Niagara River than the present bridge. The King's Bridge was burned during the War of 1812 and was not replaced for some time. People crossed the river by ferry until Samuel Street Jr. built a bridge in 1816 to allow farmers south of the river to take their grain to Street's Falls Mills, the old Burch mills, for milling. Street's bridge was at about the same location as the present bridge, further upstream than the King's Bridge. Chippawa was the outlet for the first Welland Canal built in the late 1820s. The canal ran from Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario to Port Robinson on the Welland River. A southbound ship would enter the canal at Port Dalhousie, sail up the canal to Port Robinson, pass through a lock into the Welland River, sail down the river to Chippawa, where oxen would tow the ship against the flow of the Niagara River to Fort Erie. Later, to avoid the laborious tow, the route of the canal was changed to take it from Port Robinson to Port Colborne, bypassing Chippawa. Chippawa was also the terminal of Ontario's first railway, the Erie and Ontario Railway, created to counter the drop in business on the Portage Road caused by the Welland Canal. This railway ran between Chippawa and Queenston, and was horse-drawn until 1854, when iron horses were first used. DelawareThe first white settlement of Middlesex County was here, in the old hunting grounds of the Hurons and Mississauga peoples. Ronald McDonald patented the land on which Delaware Village stands in 1798. He sold it to Dr Oliver Tiffany, whose brother Gideon arrived in 1802 to plan the village, the old village just north of the present village. The present village was established in 1832 when Henry Rawlings built the first house, which also housed the first hotel, known as the Western Hotel. This stood on the south side of Commissioner's Road. DundasDundas was formed from two older villages: Dundas Mills and Coote's Paradise, named after Captain Thomas Coote, who hunted in the area. The stretch of water near McMaster University is still called Coote's Paradise. The original village of Coote's Paradise was located inside the rectangle formed by King Street East (known then as North Street), West Street, East Street, and South Street. The first settlers into the wilderness valley that became the town of Dundas were members of the family of Ann Durham Morden, a widow and a United Empire Loyalist from Philadelphia, whose husband, Ralph, was hanged for trying to help a friend, Robert Land, escape to Canada. She and her family arrived in 1787 after being granted the land on which the northern part of the town now lies. Edward Peer bought some land from the Mordens and built a mill about 1801. Peer named his mill Dundas Mills and that became the name of the area around the mill. The Dundas Mills area is in the triangle formed by Ogilvie Street, Hatt Street, and Governor's Road. Apparently Edward Peer did not have much respect for the natives, who tended to walk onto property and take whatever they fancied. When a group of natives walked onto his property and helped themselves to some of his chickens, Peer walked over, shot one of them, and took the native's blanket, saying, "This will pay for the chickens." In 1804, Richard and Samuel Hatt in partnership with Manuel Overfield bought the Dundas Mills from Peer. As a partner, Overfield, a millwright, built a much bigger mill that had three runs of stones. This became the New Dundas Mill. About 1805, Richard Hatt changed the original Peers mill to an oatmeal mill and built a store just to the east of it. The store, built of stone, still survives after being used as a blacksmith's shop, a home, and now an electrical store. Hatt cleared the lower part of Spencer's Creek to allow vessels to reach Coote's Paradise (this was years before the Desjardins Canal). As a result, there was once a North Quay off East Street on the north side of Spencer's Creek, and a South Quay south of the creek also off East Street. Only part of South Quay still exists. Another early settler was William Hare, a former Butler's Ranger. He bought Ann Morden's farm on York Street, 300 acres comprising most of the northern part of present Dundas east of Cross Street. Hare built what is now King Street but was then called Hare Street. It ran from York Street to where Market Street is now. In 1826, the government authorized Pierre Desjardins and six others to construct a canal to allow large vessels to negotiate the stretch of water from Burlington Bay to Dundas. The canal was opened in 1837 and for a time Dundas became the most important town west of Toronto. Desjardins' canal is still there, between King Street East and East Cootes Drive. Places to see in Dundas:
43 Cross Street was built in about 1822 as the home of George Rolph. Rolph was born in England and was a veteran of the War of 1812. He bought Ann Morden's original farm from William Hare in 1822 and built this house upon it. He was, however, a tremendous snob, which did not endear him to such people as Allan MacNab, future builder of Dundurn Castle. A gang of these people got together one night and tarred and feathered Rolph on the excuse that he was reposing in the arms of his housekeeper, Mrs. Evans. Included in the gang were Titus Simons and his son-in-law Alexander Robertson, who owned Foxbar. Allan McNab was suspected of being a member. The incident plagued McNab for many years because Rolph would not let it die. Rolph had a very influential brother, Dr. John Rolph, in the Legislative Assembly and the matter kept reappearing in the public eye. DundalkClaudius Ekins opened a tavern at the corner of what is now Highway 10 and the 230 Sideroad. When the tavern burnt down (as they seemed to do frequently), James May built a hotel on the northeast corner of the site and the location became known as May's Corners. Elias Gray opened the first post office at his home and named the village Dundalk after his hometown in Ireland. Later, John McDowell owned property there and the place became known as McDowell's Corners. The village of Dundalk is not now located at Highway 10 but is instead about a mile to the west. There is a story behind this. When the railway was planning the route through this area, John McDowell wanted too much money for his land, so the railway just moved the line further west to the land belonging to R.J.Doyle, who donated it to the railway. Eventually more and more businesses moved to the location of the station, which eventually became the new location of Dundalk.
DunnvilleWhen the first Welland Canal was built, the builders identified a problem of water supply. The plan was to build the canal from Port Robinson to Port Dalhousie. Access from Lake Erie was by way of Chippawa, along the Chippawa Creek (Welland River). However, Lake Erie would not be able to provide water for the canal because the Chippawa Creek flows in the wrong direction: from Port Robinson to Chippawa not the other way round. The water for the canal would have to come from the Chippawa Creek upstream of Port Robinson. This was not considered to be adequate so an alternative source had to be found. The solution was to take water from the Grand River through a feeder canal to Port Robinson. To raise the level of water so that it would flow to Port Robinson, the Grand River was dammed at what would become Dunnville. The feeder canal is still there. It runs from south of Welland in a straight line to Stromness just east of the eastern half of Port Maitland. Originally, it diverted north to Dunnville. The dam was located under the present bridge that crosses from Dunnville to Byng. EloraThe first settler on the site of Elora was Roswell Matthews. He had worked for James Crooks at Crooks' Hollow and had been given the contract to build a saw mill on the Grand River. He was promised 100 acres of land for each member of his family. When he arrived in the area, he left his wife and the young children at Capt. Smith's house at the junction of the Conestogo and Grand Rivers, about 10 km north of the present-day Waterloo. Matthews then went with his older boys to clear the site, build what would be the first house in Elora, and start work on the mill. The dam for the mill was never entirely successful because the riverbed was not solid enough and the dam washed away in the first flood. Matthews never received his land and eventually left the area and moved on to Guelph in 1827. In 1832, attracted by the water power of the waterfalls, Capt. William Gilkison, a cousin of John Galt, bought half of the township. He then laid out the town, which he named Elora. The origin of the name has a story. Captain Gilkison had a brother John, also a navy captain. John was captain of a ship that sailed between Glasgow in Scotland and Bombay in India. Not far from Bombay are the Cave Temples of Elora and presumably John must have visited them because, when he was given command of a new vessel, he named it Elora. William Gilkison remembered the unusual name when he named the village in Canada. Captain Gilkison was born in Irvine, in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1777 and he commemorated the town in naming the Irvine Creek, which flows into the Grand River at Elora. FergusOriginally the land around Fergus and Elora was part of the grant made by the Crown to the Six Nations. Before 1800, Joseph Brant, on behalf of the Six Nations, sold Block 4, with 28,500 acres, to Colonel Thomas Clark of Stamford. The sale was confirmed in 1807. The land became Nichol Township, named after Colonel Robert Nichol, a distinguished soldier of the War of 1812. In 1832, Captain William Gilkison, cousin of the famous novelist and founder of Guelph and Goderich, John Galt, bought half of the township and the following year Adam Fergusson and James Webster bought half of the remaining land in the township. In 1831, the Highland Society of Scotland, including Adam Fergusson of Woodhill in Perth, was concerned about the lack of information being provided to Scots who were emigrating to Canada. They persuaded Fergusson to make a trip to Canada and report back to them. That he did, taking volumes of notes in the process. When he returned, the book he published about the trip became a big seller. He became so enamored by what he had done, that he decided to emigrate. He partnered with James Webster, a man half his age (Fergusson was 52, Webster 25) and returned to Canada in 1833. They were looking for the perfect spot and so rejected an area south of Lake Michigan because it was not within the Empire and anyway it was too swampy. Otherwise they might have settled on the site of Chicago. They eventually arrived at Little Falls, later Elora, and were very impressed. They worked their way upstream until they found a spring, and decided this was the place for them. They had already decided that the place was going to be named Fergus after Fergusson. But Adam Fergusson never settled in Fergus. The first winter, he returned to Britain; it was Webster with two associates, William Buist and "Scott the contractor", who built the first house in the town. This house was south of St Patrick's Street and west of St David's Street, and forms part of the municipal parking lot. In 1850, a disagreement between Webster and Fergusson ended with Webster leaving Fergus and moving to Guelph for good. To run his investments in Fergus, Adam Fergusson persuaded his son George to move here and George eventually built the house that is now the Breadalbane Inn but was then called Mapleshade. Many of Fergus' streets are named after Fergusson's relatives: Johnston Street is named after Fergusson's first wife, Jemima Johnston, who had died before he came to Canada the first time; Tower Street after his second wife, Jessie Tower; Blair Street also after his first wife, who was heiress to the Blair Estate. James Street was named after James Webster. Places to see in Fergus:
Fort ErieOld Fort Erie is located just south of the town on Lakeshore Road. There have been at least three forts here because of its strategic site at the entrance to the Niagara River. British forces established a post here at the end of the war with France in 1746. Early forts were wooden but a stone fort was started in 1805. The Fort Erie that took part in the War of 1812 was completed in 1806 and destroyed by retreating American forces in May 1813. It was rebuilt by the British the following December, only to be captured again by the Americans in 1814 and subsequently destroyed again.
The present fort is a rebuilding of the stone fort and was begun in 1937 by the Niagara Parks Commission. It features red-coated British soldiers and green-coated Canadian militia, and, if you time it right, you may see a re-enactment of the 1814 Battle of Fort Erie.
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The
Hermitage 
Echo Villa
Wynarden or Yates Castle
Brant County Courthouse
Myrtleville
Bell Homestead
Henderson House
Oak Bank
Kerby House
Kerby House as it used to be
55 Albion Street
Foxbar
Ballindalloch
Mount Fairview
Kirkhill Cottage
Fort
Erie
