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COHOES
[History of the Village of Fonthill, 1944]
Among the early settlers of Thorold Township we find the name of Cohoe and learn that Ambrose, the progenitor of the Canadian Cohoes, married Deborah Heacock in 1774. In 1788 they set out for Canada, skirting the Niagara River at what is now Lewiston; lowering their ox-carts down the hill there by means of an improvised windlass, and having constructed a raft they made the crossing. Afterward they made their way inland to the site of the present village of Fonthill, this journey taking several days.
We have spoken of the Hunger Year 1788-89 elsewhere in this history, and it was during this terrible drought, when acorns, roots, berries, even grass and the roots of trees were pressed into service as food, that the heroism of Ambrose Cohoe was made manifest. He, in the prime of life, and having brought his family here to the wilderness fifteen years before the first attempts at ordered authority, chose to deny himself even the scanty rations obtainable and succumbed to starvation but saved the rest of the family, consisting of six children and his wife, who died sixty years later.
During these sixty years, the Cohoes intermarried with many of the early settlers of Fonthill, including the Browns, Clarks, Howells, Buchners, and the McCombs families and today there are many descendants in this district.
Brought up in the Quaker tradition, the influence of the Cohoe family along the border has always been for peace, not only with the white people but with the Indians on the Frontier. During the early days of our country this influence was sorely needed, and we have much to be thankful for in the unselfish enduring of hardships by so many of our pioneer forefathers.
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