PIONEER DAYS – Pelham, Jewel in the Crown

By Robert J. Foley

[Date Unknown]

Visitors to Niagara Falls, who happen, by chance or design, to drive out Lundy’s Lane along Highway 20 and cross the canal bridge at Allanburg are in for a treat. Astride the hills which dominate the landscape is the village of Fonthill, sitting like a crown on the brow of the Peninsula. Fonthill forms the hub of what is now the town of Pelham.

The first settlers in the area were refugees from the American Colonies who began arriving as the revolutionary war was in full swing. Major David Secord, brother-in-law of the famous Laura Secord, settled on three hundred acres in the area around 1781. By 1783 there were 46 families in the township which was named Pelham by the Lieutenant-Governor, John Graves Simcoe. David Secord became the Justice of the Peace and a small community began to grow where Fonthill now stands.

Among the early arrivals was one George Hansler who settle down with his wife and daughter in 1782. He became a benefactor to the community when he donated the land for a school in 1821, which was appropriately named Hansler school. Nichols Oille settled in 1783 and built the first brick house in the township with clay from his own land.

The War of 1812, which devastated much of the Peninsula bypassed Pelham as far as material destruction went, however many of her sons served in the militia and so action in many of the battles fought in the peninsula. Despite this fact, Pelham almost became a military base. The Duke of Wellington visited the peninsula in 1825 and upon seeing the dominant position that the town held from the ridge, which now boasts the Lookout Point Golf Course, he proposed to build a fort there. It even got to the design stage before the plan was abandoned.

Pelham did not remain immune from the fortunes of war however. During the rebellion of 1837, a number of locals sided with William Lyon MacKenzie and in that year 38 men and two women were rounded up and charged with treason. The group was sentenced to death by hanging but the sentences were commuted to being transported to a penal colony in Tasmania for life. One Samuel Chandler, however, managed to escape and returned home in 1841, he packed up his family and moved south never to be heard of again.

In 1871 Pelham boasted a population of 776 with three grist mills, six saw mills and all the other amenities that made up a prosperous community in the early part of the 19^th century. Many of the peninsula’s settlements underwent many name changes before they received the ones we know today and this one was no exception. It was first known as Riceville after one of its early justices of the peace. It was called Osbournes’s Corners, for Osbournes’s Inn for a short time after 1842 but then was again changed, this time to Temperanceville, probably to the chagrin of Mr. Osbourne the inn keeper. In 1850 it finally received a proper name and became Fonthill after Fonthill Abbey in England.

The mid-19^th century were momentous times for Pelham. In 1851 Fonthill, because it held the local registry office was in the running for the new Welland County seat along with Port Robinson, Cook’s Mills and Merrittsville. The competition was hot and heavy and in 1854 Merrittsville (Welland) won out. Looking at the region today we might think Welland was the obvious choice, however in 1850 the population of Welland was 750, while Pelham could muster a count of 2,253 souls.

Today Pelham, containing some of the most beautiful landscape in the peninsula, consists of the villages of Ridgeville, North Pelham, Effingham, Fenwick and the surrounding agricultural lands.

It is, indeed, the jewel in the crown.