MORE REMINISCENCES

By

META SCHOOLEY LAWS

              Welland County played no small part in the life of the whole district in early days.

             Of course, it was not “Welland County,” then, but a part of “Niagara District.”

             Haldimand County formed a part of Long Point district.

             The history of Haldimand does not date back quite so far as does that of Welland, because so much of the county was held by the treaty which gave to Brant’s Indians, a territory extending six miles on each side of the Grand river.

             But the progress made by Welland aided the pioneers of Haldimand some of whom, at least, came from that county.

For instance, Adam Fralick’s brother, John, took his family up the Chippawa creek, and settled somewhere near Wellandport. One of his descendents was the District Deputy Grand Master who officiated at the I.O.O.F. installation in Welland recently.

Adam Fralick as young man was in business, teaming on the Portage road between Queenston and Chippawa.

             B.F. Canby, whose wife was a sister of Col. “Billy” Buchner, was a grandson of the B.F. Canby who laid out the township of Canboro which he named for himself. That township never was surveyed by the government. The three roads which Canby laid out converge at the sleepy little hamlet of Canboro which its founder dreamed would be an important town some day.

             One road, still known as “The Canboro road,” was a part of Talbot street-a second meandered along Oswego creek, then busily turning the wheels of a grist mill and a saw mill; now all but dry in summer time. This road led to the Chippawa creek, near the mouth of the “Oswego.” The third road led to the little hamlet of Dunnville and is now part of provincial highway No. 3.

             Driving down the south-east side of the Grand river from York to Cayuga, we pass the Harcourt homestead-a beautiful home overlooking the river. Here Hon. Richard Harcourt was born. He was the first superintendent of schools in the county. For years he represented Monck in the Ontario legislature and during that time held the portfolio of education in the Ross government.

             The old “Davis” home is near York. An old atlas lies open before me in which is the business card of A.A. Davis, Miller, York.

             This road once led through the thriving village of Indiana, whose very ruins have disappeared.

             Yet we talk with men who remember when there were distilleries, breweries, mills, at this spot; when a two-roomed school was required.

             Wild grape-vines cover and tangled Virgina creeper cover completely the few crumbling stones left of the foundation of one of these buildings.

             But near-by is Ruthven Park, where Colonel Andrew Thompson spends the summer months in the beautiful home built by his grandfather. One relative of this family lives at Port Colborne-a woman who certainly possesses the gift of growing old beautifully-Charles Carter’s widow.

             She could throw valuable light on the pioneer history of this district, and doubtless Welland County’s Historical society with much valuable data.

             But the intention of this letter was to speak of the important part the old windmill at Windmill Point played in the life of the early settlers of this Grand river district. But the letter is already too lengthy. 

             Hiram MacDonald, a cousin of Sir John A’s, was one of the early settlers along the river.

             He and his stepsons have made the journey from their home, 20 miles up the Grand river from Port Maitland to this mill more than once. Their canoe was hollowed out of a big log and provided with a rude sail.

             Rafts of timber, and scow loads of cordwood, or grain, found their way down the river and lake to Buffalo in those days.

             The Grand River Navigation company, whose ancient papers, the Six Nation Indians are bringing into the limelight again, in an attempt to prove that they were defrauded by the company, or government, or both, did a thriving business then.

             Reminders of the “canals” they constructed are to be seen in the ditches nearly overgrown with reed and rushes, as we drive along the river road.

             Remains of the locks they built still exist.

             Every spring freshet brings some of the great timbers down. The River road drive is beautiful now as then.

             Folk from the nearby cities are just beginning to learn this and are invading the silence which has settled over the once busy scene.

             Instead of the scows and occasional schooner of fifty years or so ago, the canoe of the fisherman is seen. Here and there along the bank are the tents of the campers.

             Some one will buy the hermitage or some other of those beautiful old homes and a summer hotel will be established. There could be no more beautiful spot.

             But the dreams of the pioneers of an ever increasing commercial importance attaching to the district have not, and will not be fulfilled.

             Yet, who shall measure the national influence and worth of those who won from the wilderness, these fertile farms, and of their successors, the farmers of this banner section of Canada’s banner province?

The Welland Tribune and Telegraph

17 February 1927