BY Robert J. Foley
[Welland Tribune, 11 January 1992]
Nowhere in the country had the effects of the War of 1812 been more evident than in the Niagara Peninsula. Besides the destruction of Newark and St. David’s, the town of Queenston was heavily damaged. The mills of Bridgewater as well as others had been burned by the retreating Americans or their raiding parties.
The farmers probably lost more than any others in this conflict. Many fought in the militia regiments neglecting the work necessary to grow their crops and feed their families. Fences were pulled down for firewood by both sides and many barns and houses were burned by American raiders. Refuse pits dug in the fields made some acreage untillable for some time.
The primitive transportation system was also in tatters. Roads were rendered impassable due to the heavy transports that weaved their way back and forth across the area. Bridges were burned or torn up. In present day. Welland Misener’s Bridge was burned by the British to impede the advance of the enemy. Brown’s Bridge, which was built about 1795 to cross the Welland River at the foot of Pelham Road, was also destroyed, but somehow it escaped the fate of its eastern neighbor.
The task of rebuilding was a daunting one and to many, who had started from scratch just 20 odd years before, the thought of beginning again must have been discouraging indeed.
Major David Secord stood before the ruins of his home in St. David’s. Only the chimney was left standing and a few bits of charred furniture were recognizable in the rubble. He had also lost a store and a large barn to the marauding American militia.
There was no question but that he would rebuild, beginning again. It seemed to him that his whole life had been spent starting over. One bright spot, however, was the promise of compensation for losses immediately suffered due to enemy action. The funds were to be raised by selling properties forfeited to the crown by those who had gone over to the invaders during the conflict. Still Secord was worried about the length of time it would take to pay the claims.
David Secord’s family was fortunate to have relatives in the Queenston area to stay with until a new house could be built, but many of his neighbors were under canvas with prospect of spending the winter in deplorable conditions. Major Secord knew that once the patriotic fervor over the war declined that the government might be reluctant to hand out money to those who had lately risked life and limb to save the country.
Worse yet were the families of men killed or crippled in the fighting. What was to become of them? He mounted his horse and rode back toward Queenston pondering the future of his devastated community.
While the peninsula was struggling to regain its feet with the end of the war, William Hamilton Merritt had not been idle while a prisoner of war. He took the opportunity to rekindle his friendship with the family of Dr. Prandergast of Mayville, New York, and in particular the good doctor’s daughter Catherine Hamilton, as he was usually called. Had met them when they lived near DeCew Falls and a budding romance had sprung up between the two. The romance had resulted in an engagement just prior to the move of the Prendergasts to Mayville just before the war.
With Merritt’s capture and confinement in Massachusetts for eight months he was able to communicate more frequently and on his release he headed to Mayville where he was married to Catherine on the 13th of March 1815. Merritt arrived in Buffalo with his new bride on a cool spring evening. They had come from Mayville on roads of upstate New York. Buffalo was in the process of being rebuilt and the sounds of hammers and saws filled the air with their symphony. The destruction caused in December of 1813 was disappearing under an onslaught of new lumber.
They moved on to Black Rock to await the ferry to take them across to Fort Erie the following morning as Hamilton was anxious to get home after so long an absence. The Merritts rode into Shipman’s Corners in the middle of the afternoon. The settlement along the Twelve had escaped the fate of St. David’s and had come through the war relatively unscathed. Its strategic location on the main Niagara-Burlington Road should have made it a prime target, but although some of its inhabitants were taken prisoner, including Hamilton’s father, Thomas, the buildings were spared. Merritt felt the warmth of home as he passed the church and approached Paul Shipman’s Tavern to the greeting so many of his acquaintances. They remembered Catherine from her previous stay and made her welcome. After they have been coaxed into the Tavern for a toast they headed out to the old family homestead on the Twelve Mile Creek.
William Hamilton Merritt spent a few months trying to decide what lay in the future for him. The one thing he knew for certain was that his military experience left him ill-suited for the quiet life of a farmer. The thought slowly formed.
In his mind that perhaps business was his calling. Goods of every kind were in short supply and if he could make use of the connections he had made during the war, perhaps he could become a merchant in the district. With the destruction of so many mills in the Peninsula there was money to be made there as well. He soon fixed his sights on such ventures and began to lay his plans to see them through. That decision changed the history of the Niagara peninsula forever.
Historical Notes: (1) The Bridgewater Mills were located on the Niagara River near Dufferin Islands. (2) Misener’s Bridge carried present day Quakers across the Welland River. The crossing disappeared with the building of the canal. If you go down to the foot of the Pelham Road when the waters of the Welland River are low, you will see five of the original pilings of Brown’s Bridge. They have been services of our past for 196 years.
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By Robert J.Foley
[Welland Tribune, Early March 1992]
The years 1818 and 1819 were the toughest that William Hamilton Merritt would ever face in his life. The rejection of his canal proposal put his various business ventures in extreme difficulty. Hamilton’s family life was prospering at the beginning of 1818 even if business wasn’t. His pride and joy was his first born son Thomas, named for his paternal grandfather, who had been born in 1816. A little girl born in late 1817 added to the happy household.
Hamilton sat at the back of the store pondering the pile of invoices stacked in the middle of his desk. The demands for payment were becoming more adamant as the months rolled by. With the financial crisis in England and the scarcity of cash in the country there was little he could do to satisfy his creditors. The mills sat idle for lack of water and barter was the only way goods moved in and out of the mercantile.
He was sitting in idle thought when he heard a frantic calling of his name from outside the store. One of the hired hands from the mill burst through the door. “Mr. Merritt, Mr. Merritt,” the breathless man shouted, “There has been a terrible accident, come quickly.”
Fear gripped Hamilton as he rose from the chair. “A terrible accident come quickly.”
“What is it man,” Hamilton asked impatiently.
“It’s young Thomas, sir, come quickly,” he said, a mixture of fear, sorrow and horror in his eyes.
Hamilton locked the store and ran out into the cold, crisp winter night. As he approached his house he could see all the lamps ablaze and the sound of weeping rushed out to meet him.
He found Catherine, his wife, almost hysterical with grief and the rest of the household in tears. It seems that one of the hired girls had boiled some water and had set it on the table. Young Thomas came toddling along and pulled the pot over scalding himself from head to foot. He died within minutes.
The death of his son affected Merritt. A few months later the grim reaper struck once more with the death of his daughter, probably from a fever brought on by teething, which was a common cause of death in those days. We can only imagine the consternation that Hamilton and Catherine felt at his double tragedy.
With all his personal problems Merritt struggled to save the business. The farmers, who had brought goods on credit until the harvest, were unable to meet fully their commitments to him due to the poor prices of produce. Wheat only returned 50 cents a bushel at the Queenston market leaving the farmers with little or no profit. A large quantity of lumber had also been cut but lay in the yard for lack of buyers.
At the end of 1819 his partner, Charles Ingersoll, returned to Oxford County and the mercantile business closed. His father had obtained a township grant, called Oxford-on-the-Thames, on coming to Canada in the late 1790s. The township grant was revoked because Ingersoll and his partners failed to produce the 40 families stipulated in the deed, however, Charles had reacquired the old homestead.
Merritt was determined to survive and to that end he put one of his mills up as collateral to one of the Montreal merchants to whom he was indebted. Fortunately the Merritt family was a close-knit one and his uncle Nehemiah from St. John, New Brunswick gave him some assistance. His father sold the old family homestead of 200 acres for $6,000 and gave part of the proceeds to his son to help him carry on the struggle.
The year 1820 saw a turn in Merritt’s fortunes. At the opening of navigation he shipped 300 barrels of flour to Montreal assigning the proceeds to the mercantile company, Forsythe, Richardson and Company to whom he still owed money. He soon was able to clear his debts with the Montreal merchants.
At the same time he was busy drilling a salt well on his property. A chemist by the name of Dr. Chase had recently moved to the area and his knowledge soon improved the quality of the salt production. Unfortunately cheap salt from the United States made the venture unprofitable and it was soon abandoned.
The store, which had been closed since Ingersoll had left, reopened with Dr. Chase adding a drugstore to compliment the mercantile side. Uncle Nehemiah and his father-in-law, Dr. Prendergast backed Merritt in this fresh venture and it was successful beyond all expectation. Merritt was able to purchase back the mill that has been given a collateral to the Montreal merchant. With a general upswing in business things began to look up for him and the entire Niagara Peninsula.
Dr. Chase turned out to be, not only a good chemist but an excellent businessman. When Merritt was forced to assist his father who had become entangled in the failure of the Niagara Spectator, a newspaper founded in 1817. Chase went to Montreal in his place and purchased the goods for the following season.
On June 1, 1820 the family grief over the loss of the children was lessened somewhat by the arrival of a son, Jedediah, named for his grandfather, Jedediah Prendergast. On July 5, 1822 a second son was born, William Hamilton Jr. bringing more consolation to the Merritts.
With the return of prosperity Hamilton again turned his thoughts to his ditch. He began to solicit support for a second survey.
HISTORICAL NOTE: The township of Oxford-on-Thames eventually became the townships of North, East and West Oxford. The city of Ingersoll, Ontario is located at the site of Ingersoll’s grant.
By Robert J. Foley
[Welland Tribune, 8 April 1992]
William Hamilton Merritt discussed the ongoing shortage of water on Twelve Mile Creek with some of his friends, fellow millers, over a pint of local ale.
George Adams owned a mill on the Twelve as did Merritt, and George Keefer and John DeCew worked mills in Thorold. William Chisholm, a St. Catharines merchant, and Paul Shipman, the tavern’s owner, rounded out the group.
“Gentlemen, we now have raised sufficient funds to commission a proper survey for a canal from the Chippawa to the Twelve,” Merritt said. “Mr. Tibbits will come on May 6th and draw up plans. If we can achieve our goals the canal will be navigable for the numerous bateaux that ply the lakes. Also, gentlemen, our seasonal water problems will be solved.”
“How does Mr. Tibbits propose getting over the escarpment?” asked Keefer.
“He is suggesting an incline railway to move boats up and down the escarpment similar to those used in Britain,” replied Merritt.
As these sober businessmen lit up their clay pipes, an uncharacteristic sense of excitement, perhaps brought on by the unknown, the prospects that they could not foresee, gripped this small group of visionaries.
Tibbitts arrived on schedule and he and Merritt inspected the Twelve Mile Creek from its mouth. “Well Mr. Merritt, I quite agree that the Twelve is well suited to navigation and I would suggest that we also use Dick’s Creek for our approach to the escarpment,” said Tibbitts.
The two stood looking up at the escarpment and the climb that would be necessary to the top. Tibbitts scratched his chin and said, “I fear that an incline railway may not be practical to climb this mountain. Locks may be the only answer available to you.”
They were joined by George Keefer at the top of the escarpment and together they walked the proposed route to the Chippawa. Satisfied with the information gathered, Mr. Tibbetts worked up a rough plan in anticipation of a proper survey.
While the survey was being completed Merritt went to inspect the Erie Canal to get a first-hand perspective of what they were about to embark on. He left for Lockport, New York on the 19th of July, 1823, and met with Roberts the head engineer on the Erie. Roberts gave him a certificate of efficiency for Tibbitts that reinforced his own opinion of him. He spent several days inspecting freight boats and construction methods.
The more he waw, the more the feasibility of their project became apparent. The timing was also excellent as many of the contractors were winding up their portion of the Erie Canal and could begin work on the Welland Canal almost immediately.
On Jan. 19, 1824, the Act passed the Legislature Assembly incorporating the Welland Canal Company with William Hamilton Merritt, George Keefer, Thomas Merritt, William Hamilton’s father, George Adams, William Chrisholm, Joseph Smith, Paul Shipman, John DeCew among others as director. Plans for financing the project got under way immediately.
Meetings were called throughout the district to sale the shares in the company. The fundraising ran into problems from the onset. People in Niagara (Niagara-on-the-Lake) would gladly purchase shares if the canal began at Niagara. The merchants of Queenston insisted that the entrance would be best there. Because of this bickering the shares did not sell well in the peninsula. The company decided that it would have to go further afield to finance the project.
It was at this time that tragedy struck the Merritt family. In early February, Hamilton’s older sister Caroline and her 13-yer old daughter along with a Miss Stephens arranged to go across to Lewiston, N.Y. on the ferry. The ferry was just a large rowboat and as they crossed the river a large ice flow struck the boat capsizing it. Miss Stephens and the girl were swept away and never seen again. Caroline was rescued but died of cold and exhaustion shortly afterward.
Mourning the loss of his sister, Merritt headed for Montreal and Quebec City in March to set up committees to solicit shareholders for the company. On his way, he stopped in York and received a pledge to buy stock from the Receiver-General of Upper Canada. J.H. Dunn, who also agreed to take on the position of president of the company.
Despite all the well-wishes and praise for the project, funds were slow in coming in. Added to that was the engineer’s disturbing news that too deep a cut would have to be made to use the waters of the Chippawa forcing the building of a feeder Canal from the Grand River. The feeder was to cut 27 miles through the Cranberry Marsh and carried via an aqueduct over the Chippawa near the Seven Mile Stake. These circumstances forced the company to postpone construction until all the shares were sold. In the meantime the surveyors completed their work from Thorold to the Chippawa and began the survey of the feeder.
In June, George Keefer was elected president of the company in place of Dunn and Hamilton was authorized to seek funds in New York City. The New York financiers were more than interested but insisted on a change in the plans. The canal was to be designed to carry larger steamers as well as the smaller bateaux. The New York trip was a rousing success and on Nov. 15th the first contracts were let. The great enterprise was about to begin.
HISTORICAL NOTE: The nature of the name Seven Mile Stake is uncertain, however it may have been the surveyor’s stake marking the northeast corner of Wainfleet Township.
[Welland Tribune January 29, 1940]
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Bernardo, 254 Hellems avenue, were bereaved on Saturday by the death of an infant daughter, Helen Anna Bernardo, aged three days. The infant died at the Welland County General hospital. Burial took place today.
[Welland Tribune January 27, 1940]
Many friends and relatives learned with regret of the death at St. Catharines on Thursday of Jacob A. Felker after a lingering illness.
Mr. Felker was born in Gainsboro township and lived there the greater part of his life following the vocation of a farmer, until he retired due to ill health. He was widely known throughout the surrounding area.
Surviving him are a sister Etta Hyatt, Thorold township and a number of nephews and nieces. Two brothers and two sisters predeceased him.
The funeral will be held from Lampman’s Funeral Home, Wellandport and interment will be in Hillside cemetery, Ridgeville.
[Welland Tribune January 30, 1940]
The funeral of the late Ward W. Michener, for the past 37 years postmaster of Lowbanks, was held from his late residence at Lowbanks yesterday afternoon to Lowbanks cemetery. The funeral was attended by many friends of the aged postmaster, who had served the lakeshore community through many of his 71 years.
Rev. Dr. Evand Baker of Morgan’s Point United church conducted the service during which the choir sang, among other hymns, “Abide With Me.”
The pallbearers were six nephews of the deceased, Amos Michener, Murray Kinneard, Clifford Chalmers, Frank Cook, James Cook, and Stanley Minor.
Friends and relatives were present from Dunnville and Port Colborne.
[Welland Tribune January 30, 1940]
Mrs William Outred has received word of the death recently in England of Richard John Brown, former employe of the International Nickel Company at Port Colborne. Deceased was struck by a motor cycle at Rainham road, Chatham England on December 21 and died shortly afterwards in hospital.
While a resident of Port Colborne deceased was a member of Port Colborne lodge, L.O.L. and the Port Colborne and Humberstone branch of the Canadian Legion. Mr. Brown resided in St. Catharines for a short time before going to England. He was employed as a boilermaker’s assistant at the dockyard at Chatham.
[Welland Tribune January 13, 1940]
Funeral services were held in Bradford on Tuesday, January 9th for Mrs James Jackson, whose death occurred in Welland last Saturday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. James Albon, with whom she had lived for the past two years. The funeral took place from the United church in Bradford and interment was in Mount Pleasant cemetery. Rev. H.W. Vaughan officiated.
Mrs. Jackson, who was born and lived practically all her life in Bradford is survived by her daughter, Mrs. Albon; one son, E.E. Jackson of Toronto’ two grandchildren, Mrs. C. Burnham and Mrs. Charles Swick, Welland, and two great-grandchildren.
[Wellland Tribune January 16, 1940]
The funeral of the late Thomas Firth who passed away at his home on Lincoln street east, Crowland township, on Friday morning was held yesterday afternoon from the H.L. Cudney Funeral Chapel, 241 West Main street with Rev. C. Gray Eakins, rector of Holy Trinity church officiating.
Two hymns were sung at the service by Mrs. Robertson of the People’s Mission, Stop 17. They were “Nearer My God to Thee” and “The Old Rugged Cross.”
Acting as pall bearers were William Christian, H. Martin, E. McClentic, W. Wyatt, A. Little and Fred Watt.
Interment was in Woodlawn cemetery.
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