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ESCAPE OF WM. LYON MACKENZIE
Stopped at St. John’s and Cook’s Mills
Interesting Reminiscences of Mr. D. G. Holcomb
[Welland Tribune, 8 January 1909]
The following brief but intensely story of the escape of William Lyons Mackenzie during the troublous times of 1837-8, is from the pen of D. Grove Holcomb, who was then a lad. Mr. Holcomb is now a resident of Power Glen, a few miles from Welland. He says:-
It was early in December, 1837, that MacKenzie’s force at Toronto was broken up. He went from there to Lafferty’s and asked Lafferty to protect him, and he did so. It was about eight o’clock in the morning and Lafferty had just begun to tramp out peas with his horses. He (Lafferty) dug a hole in the centre of his stack, put MacKenzie in, and covered them with peas tramping them down. In about an hour a squad of men came along looking for the fugitive. They said, “Where is Mackenzie?” The answer was I don’t know. They pulled up the stable floor, looked under the barn, and then went out to the stacks and jabbed down their bayonets, striking MacKenzie in the side so as to draw blood, after which they left and went west. MacKenzie went from Lafferty’s to Reynolds’ where he got a horse and went down to the house of Thomas Hardy, who lived east of Hamilton on the mountain. Mr. Hardy was not at home, but Mrs. Hardy said he would be back in less than an hour. She then hid him and took care of his horse. In something less than an hour Hardy was back, and they went to Samuel Chandler’s at St. Johns. Chandler went with him to Cook’s Mills, crossing the Welland River west of Welland, then to the Junction where Mr. Carter kept a hotel. His son, Charles Carter, a young man about 18 years of age, went with them to Cook’s Mills. They arrived at D. Holcomb’s about eleven o’clock, and went to bed and slept about 2 ½ hours, while John Hardy and others were fixing to take him to Wm. Current’s, putting the horse that MacKenzie rode in J. Wilson’s barnyard. Current took him to Mr. Macafee’s, getting there about eight o’clock in the morning. Here MacKenzie went into the house, got on Mrs. Macafee’s dress and bonnet, while the others were getting the boat ready. The river was guarded by soldiers from Niagara to Point Abino, some of them being kept in Macafee’s house. MacKenzie got in the front part of the boat, Current in the back part, while a Dutchman pulled at the oars.
Soldiers ordered them to come back but a man on shore said Mrs. Macafee was going to Buffalo to do some trading, so they let them go. So that is the way MacKenzie got to Buffalo. This was related to me by my mother, who also told me MacKenzie had lodged at our place the preceding night. My father went to Chippawa about ten o’clock, and the word came in that Mackenzie was captured. Mr. Jas. Cummins had the cannons fired off. My father told him that MacKenzie had passed through about four o’clock. Mr. Cummins came to my father and told him that MacKenzie was in Buffalo. By the way, Cummins was a friend of Mackenzie. This ended for a time, in Canada, the career of one of her greatest men. His friends were all true, and God protected him and got him through safely.
D.G. HOLCOMB
Power Glen, Jan. 4, 1909
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