PIONEER DAYS – [Welland Tribune, Date Unknown]

By Robert J. Foley

[Welland Tribune, Date Unknown]

William Hamilton Merritt stood on the floor of his grist mill and watched the feverish activity as they attempted to get as much done as possible before the mill shut down. The level of the Twelve Mile Creek had been dropping steadily in the last week and soon the great water wheel would be high and dry. The shutdown could last for weeks or even months with the loss in business and the financial pressures that accompanied it.

To add to the pressure a monetary crisis was brewing in England that had begun to affect the business in the colony. Merritt had gone up to Montreal and had received a very low price for his goods because of the shortage of cash. Things looked gloomy for business prospects for the balance of 1818.

On his return from Montreal he found all the mills idle and a backlog of timber and grain to be processed. Merritt then resolved to pursue an idea that had been lodged in the back of his mind since his days of patrolling the upper Niagara River during the war. If he could dig a ditch from the Welland River to the head of the Twelve Mile Creek his water problems would be over. To pay for the project he envisioned a canal that also would carry boats to bypass the Falls of Niagara.

Taking the imitative, he went about the district gathering support for his proposal. The idea of a canal was not as revolutionary as we might think. This was the age of the canal. In Britain the young Duke of Bridgewater had toured the Canal du Midi in the Languedoc region of France in 1753. He was so impressed that he began to build his own canals in England using the French model. The Canal du Midi had been in operation since 1681. In the United States, two small canals had been built in the 1790s. The Santee Canal in South Carolina, 22 miles long with twelve locks was completed in 1822 with the Champlain Canal linking Lake Champlain with the Hudson opening the following year.

In the summer of 1818 Merritt, with his friends, George Keefer, a merchant and mill owner from Thorold and John Decew also from Thorold set out to make a rough survey of a possible route. With a borrowed water level belonging to a mill owner at the Short Hills the three set out. Starting from the south branch of the Twelve Mile Creek at present day Allanburg they proceeded due south to the Welland River a distance of two miles. They reckoned the dividing ridge to be 30 feet above the level of the creek. It was later proven that an error of 30 feet had occurred and the height was actually 60 feet. Merritt and his partners were not the only ones thinking canal in the peninsula. The inhabitants of Humberstone and Willoughby Townships advocated a canal from Lake Erie to the head of Lyons Creek. Bertie Township pushed for a canal to avoid the rapids at Fort Erie. John Garner of Stamford remarked that, “Locks may be made to pass the great falls and connect Lakes Erie and Ontario; but many years must elapse before the province is rich enough to afford the expense.”

The British government was also interested in a canal. The vulnerability of shipping should another war erupt with the United States was of great concern. Ships would have run the gauntlet of guns all the way to Queenston when coming from Lake Ontario and from Fort Erie to Chippawa on the other end.

The government was also planning to survey a route from Ottawa to Lake Ontario. The rapids at Lachine were being eyed as well. However, talking was one thing, building was another.

While others dreamed and talked, Merritt plans in hand, went into action. He approached the legislature for an appropriation of funds for a proper survey of his route. Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, having built a summer home at Stamford, was most interested in the project and lent his support to the scheme. The legislature set aside $2,000 for the purpose and hired an engineer by the name of James Chewett to do the job.

To Merritt’s dismay, Chewett scraped his proposal and embarked on a much grander canal scheme that was doomed to failure before it began. Chewett began his survey at the Grand River passing just west of Canborough into Caistor where it was to swing east into Gainsborough. It then swung north crossing the Twenty Mile Creek and descending the escarpment between Beamsville and Vineland. The canal turned west from there and following the escarpment, ended at Burlington Bay, a total distance of over 50 miles.

Although Merritt’s main motivation for a canal was one of water rather than shipping a new impetus for construction of a ship canal in the form of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal began construction in 1817 to link Lake Erie with the Hudson River allowing goods from the upper lakes to move directly to New York City. The bulk of trade thus would bypass Montreal and Quebec leaving Canada a backwater in the scheme of continental business.

With the rejection of his proposal by Chewett, Merritt’s financial situation became critical and dark days lay ahead for him both financially and personally.