HISTORICAL ACCURACY OF LAURA SECORD’S HEROISM

[The Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune, 11 December 1931]

Editor Evening Tribune:

I was much surprised to read in an issue of the Mail and Empire of Dec. 1^st an article headed, “Laura Secord as Heroine, Fading out of History.”

The first reading suggested that the writer was laboring under the effects of a brainstorm or that a new mental disorder had appeared to afflict mankind.

The article is a disparagement of a feat well authenticated by indisputable documents and traditions received at the time as genuine. The main issue is that historians (sic) are omitting the story of Laura Secord from Canadian history on account of its mythical character; in other words disposing of it as a recent lecturer in Toronto did with “Wm. Tell.”

Let me say at the outset, that until I learn it from his own pen, I shall refuse to think that Professor Wallace omitted the story from present school histories, because he thought it mythical.

It is true, however, that in a school history, written by Mr. Wallace now in use in Alberta, he proved himself unreliable in accuracy. As to the contents of the article, we will notice the “lost key,” something unheard of before, and on the face of it most absurd. Why should she lock up her wounded husband and five children, prisoners in their home until her return, and carry the key with her through the “Black Swamp?”

These critics have not said that she locked the door; to have done so would have excited the suspicion of the enemy sentry at her door. Another paragraph reads: “It was only when Laura Secord was an old woman that her part in the episode became generally known, it was said.” This statement is the reverse of the truth.

In the Niagara district Laura’s story was told to admiring friends, who often invited her to their homes. One of them was the late Mrs. John Munro of Thorold, later vice-president of the Thorold Historical Society. The details of the story as told by Laura herself, were given when the heroine was in the full possession of all her faculties, unimpaired and not in old age. It may be found in the Historical Society’s “History of Thorold Town and Township,” published by John H. Thompson, editor of the Thorold Post. Mrs. Munro’s version of Laura’s story was corroborated by her eldest daughter, who had heard it at the time, and also Miss Amy Ball, a member of one of the oldest families in the Niagara peninsula, and familiar with the history of the period. Another statement reads: “It (Laura’s story) was dropped after investigation revealed that the troops at Beaverdams knew all about the surprise American attack, before Laura Secord’s arrival.” This looks like a fabrication to support an assertion of which no proof is given. On the contrary it may be safely assumed that if a previous warning had been received, Fitzgibbon would have received it. He says nothing of a previous intimation, but writes some years later, a certificate saying he received the warning from Laura Secord and acted upon it.

The certificate reads: “I do hereby certify that Mrs. Secord, the wife of James Secord, Esq., of Chippawa, did, in the month of June, 1813, walked from her house in the village of St. David’s to Decamp’s house in Thorold, a circuitous route of about twelve miles, partly through the woods, to acquaint me that the enemy intended to attempt by surprise to capture a detachment of the 49^th Regiment, then under my command. She having obtained such knowledge from good authority, as the event proved. Mrs. Secord was a person of slight and delicate frame, and made the effort in weather excessively warm, and I dreaded at the time that she must suffer in health in consequence of fatigue and anxiety, she having been exposed to danger from the enemy through whose line of communication she had to pass. The attempt was made on my detachment, by the enemy, and his detachment consisting of 500 men with a fieldpiece and fifty dragoons were captured in consequence. I write this certificate in a moment of much hurry and from memory, and it is therefore brief. (Signed) James Fitzgibbon, formerly Lieutenant to 49^th regiment.”

It should be observed that the merit of Mrs. Secord’s action would not be diminished in the least if warning had been given before or after her’s by some other person. It is  now in order for those historians (?) whose modesty made them “decline to be quoted,” to come forward and tell to whom and in what manner, whether by dream or vision was knowledge of a previous warning “revealed.” The use of the last word, suggests that a good part of the article is a pipe dream. Unless some proof is forthcoming a discriminating public will hold them guilty of defamation of a worthy person.

In 1897 the Thorold Historical Society published their “History of the Town and Township,” which circumstance brings the battle of Beaverdams within the scope of their activities.

Great pains were taken by the committee to obtain details from all reliable sources available, so that the work might be a truthful narrative of the past. Chapter V gives the story of Laura Secord as she told it while in the vigor of life. This chapter also gives particulars of the battle of Beechwoods, gleaned largely from military documents including Brigadier General Cruikshank’s pamphlet. I quote from the first paragraph of the narrative: “Many circumstances connected with the engagement commonly known as the battle of Beechwoods, or Beaverdams, combine to make it one of the most interesting episodes of recent Canadian history. It is indissolubly connected with the memory of one of the most patriotic and courageous women of any age, or country.”

Such is the tribute of General Cruikshank to Mrs. Secord. He supports it by Capt. Fitzgibbon’s certificate already quoted, which he placed in the appendix of his pamphlet. The only portraits in the pamphlet are those of the heroine and Fitzgibbon.

In a hundred years and more since the event, the writer of the article under criticism appears to be the first to cast doubt on the truthfulness of the story as received for many years.

Other writers than those already named have written the story. Mrs. Curzon interviewed Mrs. Secord’s third daughter, who remembered her mother leaving home on that fateful morning.

Mrs. J.G. Currie, also a native of Great Barrington, Mass., from which the Ingersoll’s came, has written a sketch of Laura’s life, the profits on which were to go towards a fund for a monument not built until 1901.

When King Edward, as Prince of Wales, visited Niagara Falls, in 1861, Laura Secord, then living at Chippawa, was present at a public reception, given to the prince. A prominent citizen , a member of the committee, drew the attention of His Royal Highness to the heroine, telling what she had done. The prince asked for an interview in which he expressed regret that she had not been rewarded for distinguished action. He afterwards sent her a personal gift of £100.

Ridgeway, Dec. 3, 1931
A.W. REAVLEY
One time Secretary Thorold Historical Society.

DECOU’S STONE HOUSE Decew Road, Thorold, ON 1812-1950 Headquarters of local British forces under James Fitzgibbon to which Laura Secord came from Queenston to warn of the American invasion. The house, destroyed by fire in 1950, was designated an historic site. The name Decou is now spelt Decew.