Toronto was founded when John Graves Simcoe ordered the building of a garrison at present day Fort York in 1793. His aim was to provide a naval station to ensure British control of Lake Ontario if tensions continued to rise between the the Canadian colonies and the USA.
At the same time, he moved the seat of government for the newly created Upper Canada from Niagara, which lay on the border with the States, to the settlement growing up 2 km east of the garrison.
While Simcoe remained suspicious of American expansion, tensions between British North America and the newly formed Republic were easing by the end of the year and the garrison was never developed with heavy defences. Furthermore, Lord Dorchester, Governor-in-Chief, decided that Kingston would make a better naval station since it was easier to supply and was linked to Lower Canada.
Fort York quickly deteriorated and new barracks were built 100 metres east of the current site for the small garrison deemed necessary to support the capital. In 1800 the old site was recycled to become Government House, the residence of the Lieutenant Governor.
Simcoe suspicions were not unfounded however and over the following decade tensions mounted. In 1807 the possibility of war was allowed and in 1811 Major-General Isaac Brock upgraded the Fort. The current west wall and circular battery date to his time.
In 1812 the US declared war on Britain and invaded Canada.
April 27, 1813, a combined US army and naval force attacked York with 2700 men using 14 ships and schooners, armed with a total of 85 cannon. The defending force consisted of 700 British, Canadian, Mississauga and Ojibway troops under Major-General Sir Roger Sheaffe, and 12 cannon. Their first clash was on the beach but the Canadians were quickly forced to retreat to the Fort.
From the Fort, the Canadians retreated east and blowing up the gunpowder magazine as they went, causing great injury to the American troops and mortally wounding their field commander Brigadier-General Zebulon Pike.
The first battle had lasted 6 hours and cost 157 Canadian and 320 American losses.
The native allies withdrew to the forests and Sheaffe’s troops headed for Kingston leaving the local militia to surrender the town. For the next 6 days, the Americans looted private homes, destroyed supplies and burned down both the Parliament Building and Government House. They then left, only to return in July to burn the barracks and other administrative buildings.
As soon as they left, the British began rebuilding the Fort. By August 1814 when the Americans again decided to test the Canadian defenses, they were able to repel the attackers and a few months later, a peace treaty ended the war, if not the suspicions of Canadians.
The British Army continued to garrison Fort York in a lacklustre manner, tightening defenses only in odd moments of tension such as the 1837 Rebellion.
In 1841 new barracks were built just west of the Fort and in 1870 the new Canadian government assumed responsibility for the country’s defence including Fort York.
By 1880 the cannon and earthworks were considered obsolete and from then until the 1930s it was used as training grounds.
The City of Toronto puchased the site in 1909 and restored the Fort between 1932-34. It opened on Victoria Day 1934 as a museum which now houses the largest collection of original War of 1812 buildings.
The restored Fort York contains only some of the buildings that would have been around in the War of 1812. None of the 1793 fort survived and many of the other buildings deteriorated.
Old maps show how the fortified walls closely followed the shoreline of Lake Ontario. Over the years, the lakefront was used for landfill and the beach is now hundreds of meters south of the Fort.
Blockhouses
Blockhouse
The oldest buildings on the site are the Blockhouses. These fortified barracks were built in 1813 and incorporated such features as loopholes from which soldiers could fire at their enemy while remaining reasonably protected, plus an overhanging second story so that the men could fire down more easily.
Bullet and splinter proof, they also had a magazine in the cellar.
The 1813 blockhouses could house up to 160 men leaving little room for fripperies.
New brick barracks were built in 1815 and housed up to 100 people including soldiers, their wives and children. Not all married soldiers lived at the Fort; some chose to live in town. However, at least some men lived here until the 1930s.
The brick barracks were often used for other purposes, for example, the garrison school, among other things.
Beds
Officers Barracks and Mess
Fort York 1815 Officers Barracks
The officers barracks were built in 1815 and included accommodations and mess facilities for up to 8 unmarried men. Married officers were permitted to live at the fort but in other quarters, or could choose to live in town.
These barracks are brick
In 1838 two money vaults were installed in the cellars and were used to secure bank and government funds in times of rebellion.
Stone Magazine
Stone Magazine
An earlier magazine for storing gunpowder had to be re-purposed when the bomb-proof roof proved too heavy for the walls. In 1824, the 1814 East Magazine had its roof removed and a second story was added to create weapons storage.
In 1815 a new stone magazine was built. It could store 900 barrels of gunpowder under a vaulted root. The fixtures were copper to prevent sparks and a simple ventilation system kept the powder dry.
This map is based on the tourist map issued by the Fort.The buildings on the left were built after 1815; those to the right were built during the war.
The 2 barracks on the far left were built in 1815 for ordinary soldiers. Just in front of them was storage for 900 barrels of gunpowder, and to the north of this was the officers’ barracks.
On the top far right were the barracks for junior officers, built in 1814 and a 2 story building that housed up to 160 soldiers. It was fortified, bullet and splinter proof and loopholed so that defenders could shoot at the enemy.
Just below these were the 1814 gunpowder store which was originally just 1 story high and below that a 2nd barracks for soldiers.
Canada is a land of immigrants and its history is founded on the experiences of many nations. The earliest people arrived shortly towards the end of the last ice age, some 12,000 or more years ago.
These early settlers spread across every part of North, Central and South America, adapting to a broad range of environments. From them, the First Nations were forged.
Many researchers have theorized that over the past millennium, the Americas were visited or settled by travellers from other nations, including the Vikings, Polynesians, and Chinese. If most cases, the record they left behind of their visits is at best, suggestive.
As marine technology improved, Europeans began to sail to the Americas, fishing off the Grand Banks, hunting, trading and eventually settling. With the turn of the 16th century, new initiatives brought explorers intent on carving the New World into colonies loyal to Old World Nations.
Spain was growing rich with gold and silver imported from South and Central America. The rest of Europe took note. Interest in what explorers might find increased dramatically, along with tall tales of great riches and exotic adventure.
Not all Europeans viewed the Americas as an exciting opportunity. Many felt it was an obstacle that prevented them from achieving a more profitable goal: finding quick passage to China and the Spice Islands.
Once the awesome size of the New World was accepted, the search began for a Northwest passage through Canada’s Arctic waters because, unless a canal could be dug through Central America, the only sea routes between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans required arduous sailing around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope.
European colonists brought tools, religion, crafts, diseases, domestic animals and plants, wars and alliances. Native cultures quickly found themselves caught up and then, overwhelmed by waves of immigrants. The disruption started with shifts in local economies, extending over time into massive relocations and fatalities.
At the same time, canals, railways and cities were growing across the country, and new forms of political representation were established. European settlement stretched east and west until the continent was transformed.
In 1867, Canada was created as a Confederation and a new era of intrigue and controversy was born, focused largely on the rights and duties of citizens and governments.
In Great Britain, in the mid to late 19th century, various charitable organizations were formed to build homes for homeless children to save them from sin and idleness.They went by such names as Ragged Schools and Industrial Homes and focused on helping children find employment and education. Many were paid for by subscription from patrons and were run by a handful of dedicated men and women determined to get the children off the streets and into useful employment and to end poverty.
The Ramsey Industrial School for example, trained girls for whom there was otherwise “no hope”, “to habits of order and industry, and every way fitted [them] for domestic service.” The benefactors could see no future for these children otherwise and through their schools and homes, expected to clothe, feed and educate the children so that they could be lifted out of poverty into the working class.
According to others, the organizations profited by getting rid of unwanted raggedy children as young as 4 years old, by selling them into near slavery as indentured servants and farm labour. Families were torn apart and many of the children ran away as soon as they could from the terrible conditions they suffered in their new homes.
Some of the children were homeless because their parents were in jail and others were orphans, but some were simply poverty-stricken. Children entering the Douglas Industrial Home which sent 270 children to Canada, needed a form signed by a parent or guardian agreeing to give up all claim to them and not to interfere with their upbringing in any way. In return the boys learned to read, mend their clothes and grow their own food on the estate’s kitchen farm. They manufactured paper bags, hearth rugs and firelighters for sale and worked as market porters on Saturday nights until they were old enough to be apprenticed. Strict contracts were put in place to guarantee the well-being of children being sent out that included 4 months of education and a monthly salary.
Some relocated children to the colonies where they worked as child labour . A few were set up so that the children worked to support themselves directly through market gardening and light industry. All of them ostensibly believed that their homes saved the children from destitution and would teach them values and skills they would use to become useful contributors to society.
Not all of the organizations were financially successful and many folded and were taken over by other organizations. Many of the children went on to become the workers, teachers and ministers envisioned by their benefactors, but others suffered at the hands of the people who took them in as cheap labour.
To get a sense of how common the homes were at the time, here is a short list
Alexander
Barnardo
Blaikie
Douglas House of Industry (1834)
The Douglas Industrial Home for Orphan and Destitute Children (1868)
The educated Annie Parlane Macpherson spent her youth helping her father with correspondence, but when he died in 1851 she moved to London where friends introduced her to the pitiable conditions in the East End. In 1869 Macpherson opened the Home of Industry at 60 Commerical Road in Spitalfield. In April she helped to send 50 families to Canada. In the spring of 1870 she travelled to Quebec with 100 children on the Peruvian. The children were distributed around towns from Quebec City to Hamilton.
Macpherson found support from the County of Hastings who provided rent free accommodations at Marchmont in Belleville. Ellen Bilbrough, who had worked with her in London, was put in charge of the home and lived their until her death in 1902. Two more homes were opened in 1872, Blair Atol in Galt (Cambridge), ON, the other in Knowlton, PQ
Macpherson worked with other organizations to place children in Canada and although her motives may have been altruisitc, and many of the children came from workhouses, she garnered a lot of bad press.
The Doyle Report of 1875, forced Macpherson decided to rethink her efforts. In 1877 she put Knowlton under the care of her sister, Mrs Birt, and Marchmont was turned over to Miss Bilbrough.
Macpherson continued to use Blair Atol as a home for child immigrants until 1882 when she moved to 51 Avon Street, Stratford, ON. There she worked with the Liverpool Sheltering Home, amalgamating with them in 1920. By then some 10,000 children had been relocated across Canada.
William Quarrier’s Scottish based charity Quarrier Village, made helping homeless children its mission. Quarrier himself was poor as a child but became a successful merchant selling boots and shoes. His ambition for many years had been to build and orphanage but was held back for want of money. A friend suggested he simply get on with it, which encouraged him to find and rent a loft over a rag shop in town and trust to God. Donations arrived and over his life he established an organization that held title to a 40 acre estate with a church and school, two hospitals and other buildings at the Bridge of Weir, sixteen miles from Glasgow.
The first children he sent to Canada left Scotland on the St. David, July 2, 1872 , destined for Belleville ON. Over the next few years, he helped 30,000 children through his charity, 6987 of whom were sent to Canada.
In the beginning allowed Macpherson to escort the children. Later they were chaperoned by Ellen Agnes Bilbrough who by then was in charge of the Marchmont home in Belleville. Finally Quarrier himself accompanied the children and by 1888 he was operating his own home at Fairknowe, in Brockville, ON.
In a defense of his work, after the Canadian government made it all but illegal in 1897, Quarrier wrote to the Globe [extra paragraphs added]
Sir,–On March 31 of this year there was put on the statute books of Canada a law for regulating the immigration into Ontario of certain classes of children which is anti-British in its enactments and alien in its character. It lays hold on a voluntary Christian work supported by British money and puts it under the control of a Government which does not contribute one cent towards its upkeep. It prohibits any philanthropic individual or society from bringing into Ontario a child under eighteen years of age without a license from the Government, while at the same time any immigrant–criminal or otherwise–may enter the country with his children.
Is this Canadian fair play in dealing with British subjects? It gives to societies bringing out children power to control them until eighteen years of age, when any other British child of fourteen can choose its own place of residence without the control of parent or guardian. This part of the new act is entirely at variance with British and Canadian law, and there are other clauses equally so. Without condemning the author of the bill or the Parliament that made it law, I say without fear of contradiction that it was hastily enacted, and is the most inquisitorial law that was ever put on the statute books of a British colony.
Twenty-seven years ago Miss Annie McPherson of London, England, brought the first party of children into Canada. I followed a year later, and Mrs. Birt of Liverpool joined us soon after. Miss McPherson established three homes, at Galt, Belleville and Knowlton, for the reception of children on their arrival, and as centres for placing them out. She retained the Galt home for London children, gave the one at Knowlton to Mrs. Birt and set apart the Belleville home for Scotch children. Ten years ago we opened the Fairknowe Home, Brockville, for placing out the children from the orphan homes of Scotland, leaving Marchmont Home, Belleville, to Mr. And Mrs. Wallace.
In twenty-seven years, we, who were the pioneers of the movement, have brought into Canada about 15,000 children and young people, whom we have trained and tested, and the results show that not two per cent. have ever become criminal or chargeable to any municipality, and the annual death rate is only 4 per 1,000.Many of them are now heads of families, some are teachers, ministers, missionaries, servants, etc., and we know of no other agency that has accomplished more lasting good.
We have ever held ourselves responsible for every one we brought out, and where failure has come we have returned them to the old land. We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in conducting this work and have never asked the Government at home or here to help us financially. It has been carried on in dependence on God and is a purely voluntary and religious movement. We hold tenaciously that the Government has no right to interfere with religious work which it does not support and that before framing this law we who have spent our money, time and energies in furthering the welfare of the land to which we have brought our children should have been consulted. Instead of that this new stringent law was passed before we were made aware that such a measure was thought of.
We feel that we have been injustly treated, and that an unmerited stigma has been put upon our work. After my arrival here in June, I put myself in communication with the Premier of Ontario to see if the law could be amended in such a way as not to interfere with our principles as voluntary Christian workers, but so far there seems to be no other course open but to refrain from bringing out children until the law is amended.
After finding 2 extremely destitute girls, Susanna Gibson, daughter of a shipyard owner, establishes a temporary Ragged School in North Ramsey
1863
The success of the Ramsey Ragged School leads to a subscription and the establishment of an Industrial School on a plot of land largely paid for by a Mr Callow. Susanna Gibson is Lady Superintendant, a job she kept even after her father’s bankruptcy in 1870
1868
The Douglas Industrial Home for Orphan and Destitute Children founded on the Isle of Man
1870
Macpherson brings 50 families to Canada and opens Marchmont
1872
Macpherson opens Blair Atol in Cambridge ON and a home in Knowlton PQ. Quarrier begins exporting children
1875
Doyle Report
1878
The Ramsey Industrial School is taken over by the Methodist’s Children’s Home and Orphanage
1880
Death of Susanna Gibson. The Ramsey School moves to Ballacloan overlooking the Mooragh and operates.
1881
Eccentric French immigrant to the Isle of Man, Pierre Henri Joseph Baume, leaves a substantial sum of money to the Douglas Industrial Home
1882
The Douglas Industrial Home purchases Strathallan Hall, previously Dr. Steele’s Academy, which is able to house 90 children
Quarrier retires from private entreprise to devote himself fully to charity
1887
Ellen Bilbrough marries Reverend Robert Wallace. Together they continued to bring children to Canada for the various agencies
1888
Quarrier opens Fairknowe, in Brockville, ON.
1902
Death of Ellen Bilbrough
1910
The Douglas Industrial Home moves to Glencrutchery
1913
Wallace leaves Marchmont turning it over to The Manchester Homes
1920
Liverpool Sheltering Homes of Liverpool takes over Marchmont
1925
The Barnardo organization takes over Marchmont and closes it in August.
1952
The once Ramsey Industrial School, now run by the National Children’s Home, closes
The success of the Catholic missions in New France was largely due to the persistence and steadfastness of a handful of dedicated men and women, backed by one of the most successful movements in the Catholic Church, the Jesuit order.
The story of Ste. Marie among the Huron is a Canadian fable juxtaposing heroism and tragedy, no less because in the modern world, we question the role of missionaries in the colonial enterprise and the impact they had on native cultures. The fathers, brothers and lay brothers who died for their religious beliefs after vigorous adventures and great hardship retain an iconic role in our history.
Franciscan Missionaries Meet Active Resistance in New France
In the early 17th century, Samuel de Champlain faced a number of problems in his efforts to stabilize and unite New France. He believed that a strong presence from the Catholic Church would be beneficial both within the settlement and with building strong ties to their trading partners among the Montagnais and their allies. Stronger ties to the native population would tighten the bonds that cemented trade. However, many of the French settlers were Hugenots. As Protestants, they resented the presence of Catholic missionaries and actively tried to undermine their mission.
Champlain hoped to forge a new Franco-Indian nation united by the fur trade. He believed that an important step in this process was the conversion of the natives to Christianity and French culture. In 1614 while visiting his home town in Brouges, France, he met with Récollet (Franciscan) brothers eager for missionary work. Champlain raised the money that would allow 4 men to travel to New France. These were Fathers Denis Jamet, Jean d’Obleau, Joseph Le Caron and Brother Pacifique du Plessis.
On reaching Quebec, the missionaries tried to reach out to the settlement’s closest neighbours, the Montagnais. They quickly found that it was almost impossible to convert nomadic people using their established methods and turned their focus to the Montagnais’ allies, the Wendat (Hurons). The Wendat looked like ideal prospects. As traders, they showed an interest in meeting with the French and inviting missionaries to visit. As farmers, they lived a settled life that made missionary activity viable.
Earlier, in 1611, Champlain had allowed Etienne Brulé to spend extensive time among the natives, first in Quebec and later in Wendake (Huronia), to learn their language and culture. Brulé landed in Toanche on Penetanguishene Bay and was so pleased with what he found that he later “went native”, living among the Huron until his death in 1633. Brulé’s favorable report to Champlain about the Huron in 1615 coincided with the Recollet’s frustration at trying to work with the Montagnais. Champlain and Father Joseph Le Caron decided to travel to Huronia.
Wendake was 1200 km (800 miles) west of Quebec. The trip was arduous requiring endless hours of paddling in a 3-person canoe along the St. Lawrence, Ottawa and French Rivers with over 50 portages. It often took 3-4 weeks. On his arrival, August 12, the eager Father Le Caron celebrated the first mass in Canada west of Quebec City at Carhagouha (Orillia). The Huron welcomed him by building him a home apart from the village where he could live and begin preaching. He spent the winter there, returning to Quebec the following May convinced that the seeds of a successful mission had been laid.
In Quebec however, the Récollet mission was being actively undermined by Huguenot traders who wanted the Catholic fathers out. The fathers were refused supplies and no-one would provide them with transport back to Huronia. This meant that the missionaries could only work with local nomadic bands of Micmac, Abnaki and Nipissing, which brought little success. It would be 7 years before the Recollets gained the resources and support they needed to return to Huronia. In 1623 Father Nicolas Viel and Brother Gabriel Sagard arrived in Quebec with enough money to extend their mission. Le Caron returned to Carhagouga while Viel went to Toanché and Sagard began work at Ossossané.
Still they found that they lacked the resources to effectively preach to a large and settled community. In 1624 Le Caron and Sagard reluctantly returned to Quebec to meet with the other Récollets and debate their next course of action. Their solution was to invite the powerful and wealthy Jesuit Order to join them in their work.
Jesuit Missionaries Hear the Call
The Jesuits agreed to join the Quebec mission and arranged passage for 5 men: Fathers Charles Lalemant, Ennemond Massé, and Jean de Brébeuf along with 2 lay brothers. Huguenot traders however, arranged for the ship’s captain to forbid them on board. It required the intercession of the Viceroy of New France to force the captain to give way. This began a long and trying 2 month voyage from France to Quebec which ended at the “Habitation” (Quebec City) on June 15, where they were refused the right to land. Not to be frustrated in their plans, the Récollet friars rowed out to the ship to fetch the Jesuits to shore. The Jesuits’ first act was to kiss the earth.
Within days Father Brébeuf set out for Wendake but at Trois-Rivieres he learned that Father Viel had drowned in the rapids at Riviere-des-Prairies. Brébeuf was persuaded to return to Quebec. Undaunted, he was determined to try again the following year and to use the intervening time as an opportunity to experience bush life among the Montagnais.
Father Brébeuf Travels to Huronia
The following summer, Fathers Brébeuf and Noue along with the Récollet Father Daillon set out for Huronia. They found Father Viel’s lodge intact and moved in until October. Father Daillon then attempted to travel south to the Neutral Nation but the Huron, fearing he would establish direct trade relations between the Neutral and the French, which would cut them out, sent advance word that he is a sorcerer. He is reviled and Brébeuf had to send an armed Frenchman to find Daillon and return him safely to Toanché.
Father Noue was not a young man and he was the first missionary to find that life among the natives was too difficult. He returned to Quebec in 1627. Daillon left in 1628 and Brébeuf was alone. He learned a great deal about Huron life but was unable to convince anyone to convert. Meanwhile, in Quebec the antagonism between the Huguenots and the missionaries intensified. Father Lalemant, Superior of the Mission decided to act and wrote to Cardinal Richelieu asking him to revoke the charter of the Quebec traders. Richelieu took advantage of the opportunity to not only fold them, but to establish his own company in Quebec with sole control over trade. The Company of New France excluded Protestants from the colony and was required to support the Huron and other missions.
While all this negotiation was taking place, other events inserted themselves: France and England went to war and the Kirke brothers captured Quebec, deporting half the Europeans and all of the missionaries. It would be 3 years before the French regained the country. With Richelieu’s Company of New France in control and Champlain as Lieutenant Governor, the Jesuits got back to work, this time without Récollet assistance.
Paul Le Jeune, Anne de Noue and Gilbert Burel arrived in Quebec on July 5, 1632 to find their old mission house partly destroyed and settled in to rebuild. The following year Jean de Brébeuf joined them along with Massé, Antoine Daniel and Ambrose Davost. A year later, the fathers left for Huronia.
It was a brutal trip. They were forbidden to move in the canoes lest they tip. They were crowded more tightly than they were used to. Brébeuf counted over 35 portages where they waded through raging currents dragging the empty canoes. Their soaked cassocks whipped at their ankles and their sandals proved to be inadequate protection against the rocks.
The reward came with their arrival. The Hurons of Toanché had moved but Brébeuf was able to find them again at Ihonatiria (St. Joseph), and with customary generosity, the villagers built the fathers a new home: 36 feet long and 20 feet wide, which the Frenchmen divided into 3 sections, for storage, living and worship. They stored their belongings on the platforms that ran the length of the longhouse and slept underneath them wrapped in furs.
Top religious pilgrimage sites in Canada:
Martyr’s Shrine, Midland
St. Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal, founded by Brother André, where pilgrims climb the 282 steps on their knees.
The Jesuits believed that the first step to converting non-Catholics was education. Whether in Canada or in China, they brought equipment meant to impress their audience with the intelligence of Catholic Europe whose technical sophistication was surely a consequence of their faith. Missions were often stocked with scientific equipment such as globes and prisms. On this occasion they had with them a mill, magnifying glass, prism and a clock that chimed the hours. They also had books, pens and writing paper. All these things fascinated the Huron who would visit the longhouse during the hours they were allowed: from 8am to 4pm.
The French fathers found the Hurons “hardly Barbarian, save in name” (Jesuit Relations v.38), but found life among the natives, trying. Having elected to live among the Hurons in their own villages where they could learn the language and be with their flock, they encountered unfamiliar food, rough living, extreme weather, distasteful smells, a lack of privacy, and teasing. The food was compared to wall paper paste or pig slop. The basic ingredient was corn mush mixed with tainted fish, cinders or waterflies. Some fathers found it all but unendurable. Others believed their suffering should be accepted in humility as a pious duty.
“If you go to visit them in their cabins … you will find there a little picture of hell. You will see nothing as a rule, but fire and smoke and on every side naked bodies, black and half-roasted, mingled pell-mell with the dogs, which are held as dear as the children of the house, and share beds, plates and food with their masters. Everything is in a cloud of dust, and, before you go within, you will not reach the end of the cabin before you are completely befouled with soot, filth and dirt.” Lalemant
While the Fathers suffered, the Hurons died. Smallpox and other diseases ravaged their population. Suicide was common and the fathers travelled from village to village ministering to the sick, speaking of eternal life in heaven to those who would be baptized, and handing out their meagre ration of raisins and prunes.
Brébeuf decided to move part of the mission to Ossossoné (Conception), a new village formed from others to face the Iroquois aggression. The Huron built them a new longhouse, 70 feet long, half of this was used as a chapel and decorated with crucifixes, religious vessels and ornaments. And here at last, Brébeuf baptized a healthy man, a chief, won over to the Faith. And here as well, the shamans put forward the idea that the diseases ravaging the villages were the work of the Fathers. The Fathers were turned away and pelted with rocks. Brébeuf fully expected they would be martyred and to show their courage, he offered a great farewell feast. Impressed, the Wendake ended their threats.
But the epidemics continued to rage and soon there was almost no-one left alive at Ihonatiria. Brébeuf moved the Fathers who had remained there to Teanaostaiaé (St. Joseph II).
With the growing sense of success and the commitment of the people of Quebec, 12 workmen were sent in 1638 to build a wooden chapel in Ossossone. In winter, as incentive to devotion, they kept a fire burning in the chapel. By now they had about 60 converts but had baptized only one healthy adult male. But after 7 years of dubious success, and in accordance with Jesuit tradition which seeks new leadership on a regular basis, leadership of the Huron mission fell to Lalemant. It was he who decided to consolidate activities in one location that would act as a refuge from the chaos and superstition the Fathers experienced in the native villages.[
In 1639 Father Jerome Lalemant became Superior for the Mission to the Hurons and made a decision that changed the way the missionaries worked. In South America Jesuits were having great success with “Reducciones” in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. These were protective reserves where Indians could live without being threatened by slave-hunters. They were converted to Catholicism, built monumental architecture, became literate and were largely self-sufficient. It is possible that Lalemant had this model in mind when he came to Huronia.
Until now, the French missionaries had moved into the villages where they worked, taking up residence in one of the longhouses. Each longhouse was controlled by a clan and the choice of where to live had political consequences. By creating a permanent home Lalemant believed the Fathers would no longer find themselves wrapped up in local politics. Further, he thought that Ste. Marie would act as moral influence on French workers and traders in the area who otherwise tended to slip into native lifestyles. Finally, the mission would provide the priests with a refuge where they could follow the order’s daily rule without interruption.
In the summer the Huron hunted and travelled but come winter, they tended to return to the villages, so beginning November 1, the missionaries set out in pairs to each of the 5 districts to preach. Lalemant called for a census of Huronia; when the Fathers returned in spring they were able to report on the locations and size of each village. (32 villages or 700 longhouses with 2000 fires or approx. 12,000 people).
With better information about the Huron population, Lalemant now searched for the best location for his new mission house. He settled on a site next to the Isiaragui (Wye) River, near Lake Attigouantan (Huron), a mile south of Georgian Bay. The land was in the area occupied by the Ataronchronons who accepted gifts in return for allowing the missionaries to build.
Q: What kind of building did the Fathers make in 1639? Was it French or Native? How many people shared this and how did they divide the space between the Jesuit priests and the lay workers who lived among them?
They began with a single building, either European style or a bark-covered longhouse, built by French workmen, 20 feet by 40 feet, divided inside into compartments including a private chapel. In this one building, the 4 fathers and the 5 workmen, spent the winter. Come spring they began clearing the land for development and were joined by more workmen. In all, by 1640 there were 28 men at Ste. Marie: 13 priests, a lay brother/ tailor Dominic Scot, 6 donnés, 2 adolescents, 2 boys, and 4 workmen. Donnés were laymen who bound themselves by solemn promises to the service of the mission without pay. Their advantage, besides costing only their room and board, was that they were permitted to do things forbidden to the priests. They could for example, carry guns. The workers generally built and maintained the mission while the priests travelled to the various villages to preach.
Within the year the number of converts went from one family to 100 people and the Fathers had enough grain in storage to keep them for a year. It is likely they grew it themselves.
From one cabin the mission grew to encompass fields of crops and stalls of cattle and pigs, hens, a rooster, a granary and warehouses with up to 3 years of rations, a chapel, cookhouse, hospital, workshops, residences and stone fortifications around the European (north) court, mounted with small cannon. The Hurons were amazed. The animals fascinated them. Pigs were compared to small hairless bears. Yet there were difficulties: the only light at night came from candles and lanterns, buildings were poorly insulated and temperatures sommonly dropped below freezing.
In 1643 they had a hospital, a cemetary near the church, a Church for Public devotions, a retreat for pilgrims, and a place for infidels to hear the good word, a well, and crosses to mark the 4 corners of the mission. By 1644 the mission was able to house 14 priests, 2 brothers, 11 donnes, 6 boys and youths and 3 hired workmen, plus 22 soldiers sent from Quebec to protect the annual flotilla from attack. Father Lalement began thinking about expanding the residences and making them more permanent.
In that year (1644) a Papal Brief, dated February 18 at Rome officially named Ste-Marie a place of pilgrimage and granted a plenary indulgence under customary conditions to all pilgrims who visited the church on the Feast of St. Joseph. This Brief was the first ecclesiastical document issued to the Church in what is now the Province of Ontario.
It would have meant more if people could reach the mission. Tensions between the French-Huron allies and the Iroquois were mounting. In 1642 the flotilla from Quebec was attacked. Father Jogues and two donnés, William Couture and Rene Goupil were captured by Mohawks. Goupil was killed, Jogues was ransomed later that year, and Couture was adopted then released. In 1644 four flotillas attempted to reach the mission from Quebec. Only the one carrying Brébeuf and the soldiers got through. In 1646, the fighting was so bad that no news got through from Quebec.
In 1644 Lalemant was replaced as head of the mission by Father Ragueneau who stressed the building of local chapels in the villages. Ste. Marie became even more, a headquarters where only the bursar and some support staff lived, though everyone came back for the 4 principal feasts of the year (Christmas, Pentecost, Easter). Then up to 20 Jesuits might be in residence. Meanwhile, there were 1300 baptisms in 1646 alone.
In 1647, 42 Frenchmen lived at Ste-Marie; in 1648 there were 66. At the same time, the Relations say: “This house is a resort for the whole country, where the Christians find a hospital in their sickness, a refuge in the height of alarms, and a hostel when they come to visit us. During the past year we have reckoned over 3,000 persons to whom we have given shelter, – sometimes, within a fortnight, six or seven hundred Christians; and, as a rule, three meals to each one. This does not include a large number who incessantly come hither to pass the whole day, and to whom we give charity; so that, in a strange country, we feed those who themselves should supply us with the necessities of life.” (Relations v. 33 ch.3)
Things were getting worse. On July 4, 1648, the Iroquois descended on Teanostaye’ and burned it to the ground killing or capturing 700 people including Father Daniel. This was the second large town to be destroyed and it left Huronia all but defenseless. St. Ignace fell the following year and Fathers Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were among the victims caught nearby. That year they gave hospice to 6000 natives without seriously depleting their own supplies of fish, game and pork. They baptized 1700 people. By May 1, 15 Huron villages had been abandoned.
Ste. Marie was soon the only bastion left standing and at this point Father Rageneau decided to burn it to the ground and set up a new mission on Manitoulin Island. He wrote:
“On each of us lay the necessity of bidding farewell to that old home of Sainte-Marie, to its structures, which, though plain, seemed, to the eyes of our poor savages, master-works of art; and to its cultivated lands, which were promising us an abundant harvest…. Moreover, for fear that our enemies, only too wicked, should profane the sacred place, and derive from it an advantage, we ourselves set fire to it, and beheld burn before our eyes, in less than one hour, our work of nine or ten years.”
From there it was felt they could preach to the remaining Huron and futher their approaches to the Algonquin and Tobacco. Before they could move, representatives arrived from St. Josephs Island where a few hundred Huron had taken refuge. They argued their cause for 3 hours while the fathers tried to convince the Huron to move to Manitoulin and the Huron tried to convince the fathers to join them on St. Josephs. The Huron won over the French. Ste. Marie was burned to the ground to prevent it falling into the hands of the Iroquois and the missionaries and their allies retreated to the Island. They found themselves trapped, the mission failing through famine and disease while the Iroquois waited on the mainland.
In desperation the Huron sent a messenger to Quebec asking for refuge. When it was granted, the Jesuits and the last 300 Wendat left on the Island headed for Quebec, June 10, 1650, ending Ste. Marie among the Hurons.
1650 – the Jesuits and their Huron flock quit Christian Island
1844 – Pierre Chazelle visits the site and recommends its excavation to Rome
1852 – Rev. George Hallen maps the site
1855 – Félix Martin, S.J. commissioned by the province, excavates at the site for 2 weeks
1876 – Peter Burnet surveys the site
1878 – Prof. John Galbraith maps the site
1940 – The Jesuit Order acquires the site and initiates archaeological exploration
1941-43 – Kenneth Kidd excavates part of the north court
1946 – Lindsay Warrdell draws up blueprints for the bastions, church and residence
1947-51 – Elsie and Wilfrid Jury of the University of Western Ontario excavate current site
1952-54 – Father Denis Hegarty clarifies building outlines and re-excavates St. Josephs church
1964-68 – Reconstruction of the mission directed by W. Jury, the Jesuits and province
After the Jesuits fled the burning mission in 1649, they moved to Christian Island and founded a second mission. This lasted only a year before the Iroquois war drove them to retreat to Quebec. For the next 150 years the land reverted to use by natives and the occasional fur trader. Its reputation remained however, and Governor Simcoe makes reference to the “French ruins supposed to be the Church of Ste. Marys” in his Diary.
Into the 19th and 20th Centuries
The Jesuits’ interest in Ste. Marie was renewed when in 1844 Pierre Chazelle visited the ruins after becoming Superior of the Jesuits in Canada. It was his idea that the site be excavated and rebuilt and to this end, he wrote the Superior General in Rome.
Over the next century 4 surveys were done of the site, all of which show the remains of stone fortifications with moats and earthworks along the south side. By 1941 when Kenneth Kidd began his excavations for the Jesuit Order, the trenches and earthworks had eroded. His task was to clarify the outlines of the settlement, recover artefacts for dating and interpretation, and collect whatever data was necessary for reconstruction. Since reconstruction was always a consideration, loose stones from the bastions and hearths were piled in low walls for reuse.
By 1941, WWII was in full swing and only 3 seasons of fieldwork were completed. The final report wouldn’t be issued until 1949. Despite this, in the aftermath of WWII, with the 5th centenary of the destruction of Ste. Marie looming, the desire to rebuild the mission was strong. The basis of the reconstruction would be
The Jesuit’s own records which held minimal descriptions of the settlement. A few things were known: they spoke of new buildings: the barn, hospital and church, for example. Christian converts lived nearby and there were European gardens and graves to be found
Martin’s 1855 survey had left the impression that land south of the fort was set aside for native converts, and
The results of Kidd’s excavations which included a few significant points: despite Martin’s contentions, Kidd found no signs of occupation in test pits dug south of the moat. To the west of the stone fortifications he found hearths, trade goods and Indian artifacts that he thought might date to 1649. To the north and east: nothing.
It should have been no surprise then that there was more to be learned from the site. As it happened, when the stones set aside to rebuild the bastions were moved, post moulds were uncovered, suggesting a wooden palisade extending west from the southwest bastion. Building came to a standstill and Wilfrid and Elsie Jury were hired to continue excavations. Over the next 4 years, the Jurys excavated first the north court, then the canal, the area between the canal and cemetery and finally the area south of the cemetery The results of their research were published in a short commercial book. Their fieldnotes disappeared until 1994.
Among their findings, the Jurys established where wooden palisades once stood. They found fireplaces and remnants of both European and Indian buildings outside the area covered by Kidd and showed that the mission was 5-6 times larger than indicated on previous surveys and maps. By his research, Ste. Marie had “the first cultivated farm lands, the first stables, and the remains of the first domesticated animals in the province, predating permanent settlement by two centuries.” (Jury, 1954, p. 37). It was also 756 feet long, with a canal, double palisades, and European style buildings with gables and stone chimneys, often two-storeyed with deep sloping roofs and some glassed in windows. (Jury, 1954, p.109).
In 1952 Father Denis Hegarty took over as archaeologist. He delineated building outlines and re-excavated St. Joseph church where he found the original grave of Fathers Brébeuf and Lalemant. (The Jesuits disinterred the bones when they abandoned Ste. Marie). The grave was marked by a lead plaque engraved with Brébeuf’s name and the details of his death. Later excavations led him to suggest that the church was a far more complicated building than Jury supposed, containing 3 or 4 rooms.
WIth this, it was assumed that excavations were complete and reconstruction could go ahead without disturbing hidden artefacts that would change the interpretation of the site now in place.
It has been many decades since Ste. Marie among the Huron was reconstructed in Midland ON. In that time, certain issues have been re-visited
Jury’s fieldnotes were found in 1994 and discrepancies between these, his book and Kidd’s notes have been studied. For example, in their report, Tummon and Gray note that Jury’s fieldnotes show the evidence for Natives occupying the south end of the site was “difficult to interpret”.
The problems of studying a site that has been modified by excavation and new building has been considered and new excavations under-taken
New models of native life before European contact have developed
New thinking on the mission has been the result.
As just one example of how Jury’s research has been re-evaluated, Tummon and Gray note that in his book Jury cleaned up the palisade so that it appeared to be a straight-forward double ring of wooden posts. In his fieldnotes several lines of post moulds are recognized as running south from St. Josephs Church and many of the posts are smaller than the ones in the northern courts and were staggered, suggesting they were native-built, possibly part of an Indian palisade or longhouse.
In the 1990s, new excavations were undertaken. It is difficult however to find undisturbed patches of land at the mission. Disturbed land is land that has been changed by later visitors who may have removed or added artefacts to the area, confusing the findings. During the reconstruction, every effort was made to place new buildings on top of older ones to make sure the site replicated its predecessor exactly. This meant that the palisade post moulds and waterway were completely dug up and rebuilt. Much of the land was dumped with fill to build administrative offices, and trenches were dug for building and drainage.
One recent finding is evidence that the site, rather than being the result of a single, 10-year settlement, is part of a larger site dating back to 1200AD. That is, Ste. Marie was actually just one of many habitations in the area. Other settlements included ancient campsites and modern farms. This makes the evidence much more difficult to interpret. Not everything that was forced into the 10 year timeframe necessarily belongs there. For example, the ditch that starts inside the north court and which is interpreted as a waterway, was not mentioned in 19th c. surveys and may be recent.
Our reconstruction follows that in Midland. It is based on Jury’s interpretation of the evidence he found, filtered through his knowledge of the site and what must have seemed probable. For example, in the southern court he found part of a wall that was similar to those in the northern compound. Along with it were hand-made nails and nearby was a hearth. He conjectured that these were the remains of a hospital since the building was far from the Jesuit’s residence and would have been an acceptable place to care for native women as well as men.
In all, the following questions have been raised:
Did the Jesuits use the areas now set aside as Non-Christian
Was there a Non-Christian longhouse at the time of the mission
Was there a 5-sided bastion at the south end of the mission
Was there an exterior double palisade around the Non-Christian area or are the remains the result of a variety of palisades both Huron and Iroquoian
Could the “hospital” actually be based on a 19th c. building
What we do know is that the following buildings existed:
Mission house
Private chapel
Public church (1642)
Hospital that women could access which means it was away from the main settlement
Forge
Cemetery
Hospice for Christian Hurons
Temporary shelter for non-Christian natives where they could hear the word
Crosses at the 4 corners
Boat ferry across the Wye
Fields were cultivated
Central location for mission providing shelter, food, and spiritual instruction
Many of the smaller missions were close enough they could be visited without a sleep-over
The French were practised in and knowledgeable about fortification principles
This model, like the reconstruction in Midland ON, shows Ste. Marie in its final year. Despite ongoing war with the Six Nations, the Jesuit fathers still hoped for a permanent mission and built liberally in stone and wood.
One interpretation of the evidence is that Europeans occupied the north and central courts. The south compound was set aside for Christian natives and contained a church, hospital and longhouse. Non-Christians were obliged to camp outside the palisade.
Historians are by no means positive that this represents mission life in 1649. Items in contention include the waterway, hospital, St. Joseph’s, and the setup of the south compound.
How the Model was Made
To make our 3D models, we visited Ste. Marie and took measurements, inside and out using both a normal and a laser-style tape measure. We took many photos of the buildings with attention to special features such as ceilings, doors, windows and hardware, and we took a series of photos to create a panorama. We also took photos for use as textures.
The size and shapes of our buildings are based on the site plan published by Wilfrid and Elsie Jury and maps of the current reconstruction in Midland. There are discrepancies between these two sources. For example, the archaeological site plan shows that there was a building just inside the gate and the shape of the Boivin building is different. We tried to understand the data as best we could and where there were differences, we followed the reconstructed site.
Finally we turned to various historical documents including the Jesuit Relations to find notes about how the mission was built, in what order the buildings were erected and what styles of architecture were used. For the most part, we have followed the reconstruction and Jury’s interpretation.
The buildings were modeled in 3dsmax and exported to Blender where we added textures. From there we created Flash files to show as animations, a blender file for viewing online through a browser, and an .exe file that can be downloaded and played on a computer as a standalone application.
The web file and the executable are both interactive. You can use your keyboard to move around the file.
When you download the model, you receive both the textures as .png files and the models. To improve the time it takes to download the files and play them, these textures are low quality graphics. We also have a version of the site with high quality textures, appropriate for print and film.
In 3D certain things can be overlooked. We used textures to suggest the textures of the wooden walls and shakes. In fact, Jury describes how the walls were made.
“They had been constructed as two rows of horizontal 2-inch planks packed with clay and stone for insulation and held in position by 11-inch-square uprights posts at 10- and 12-foot intervals.”
Jury, pg. 38
We took licence with this. First, we did not create 2 rows of planks packed with clay. No matter how they were made, only the planks and support beams were visible. Some of the buildings may have been finished with stucco on the inside, but we didn’t have enough information on this, so we left it off for now. If you know more about how interior walls were finished in New France, please tell us.
Our uprights are not exactly 11-inch square, nor are they exactly 10-12 feet apart. We wanted to preserve the sense of the beams and lumber being hand-hewn and positioned carefully, but without benefit of modern technology. Boards and beams were cut with hand-tools which would give them an uneven surface. Digital graphics software however, loves a straight line. When we combined Jury’s claims, with photo-realistic lighting and the dead-straight lines of our software, the result was a plastic looking model that lost any sense of being hand-hewn. To counter this, we adjusted the beams to be less rigidly spaced and used more watercolour-like textures.
Our goal is to recreate the site over its ten year existence but for this we need more detailed information. What we know at this point is the following. If you have more information about which buildings were erected and when, we would like to hear from you.
The Mennonites of Pennsylvania originally arrived in America seeking religious freedom and the opportunity to farm alongside like-minded brethren. They prospered and needed new farmland for their growing families but found land prices going through the roof. Forced to look further afield, Mennonites showed little interest in the division that separated British Canada from the new United States. They bought land in Virginia, the mid-West, and Upper Canada. One thing made Canada uniquely appealing: the government had recently passed the Militia Act exempting Quakers, Mennonites and Trunkers from military service as pacifists.
The first Pennsylvania Mennonites arrived in Upper Canada in 1786, settling in the Niagara Peninsula (around Beamsville). The second group was enticed to settle along the Grand River and a third group occupied lands north of Toronto (Markham).
The British purchased land along the Grand River from the Mississauga for their Six Nations allies in the expectation that the Six Nations would settle the land as farmers. When Joseph Brant, acting for the Iroquois, put half the tract up for sale, the government disputed the Natives’ right to sell what they had been given. Despite these squabbles, four blocks were surveyed and sold to speculators. Of these, Block 2 became the basis of Waterloo Township and it was here that the German Company Tract was located.
Although the right to sell land was still in dispute, Joseph Brant sold Block 2 to three Toronto area merchants, Richard Beaseley, James Wilson, and Jean-Baptiste Rousseaux, in November 1796. Beaseley could not raise the down-payment. Instead, he agreed to pay 6% interest on the £8,887 sale price of the Beaseley Tract. Both the Six Nations and the speculators were satisfied with the deal. Expecting government approval, Beaseley began to sell lots on his tract.
When in February 1798 official endorsement finally arrived, the definition of Block 2 differed from what Brant had sold. Further, there was a new catch: no deeds could be issued to buyers until full payment was received. That is, Beasely could not claim deeds for his tract until he paid for it completely and he could not issue deeds to people who had already purchased lots on his tract. The only solution was to sell the rest of the tract, but that was impossible if he couldn’t issue deeds unless he could sell to a bulk buyer. Meanwhile, since he couldn’t sell the land, he couldn’t make his interest payments and everyone who purchased lots from him found that they too were encumbered with the mortgage (the 6%).
From Six Nations to Beasley: the Government continues to Intervene
Beaseley’s first effort to clear the debt was to create smaller tracts which were surveyed by Richard Cockerell as Upper, Middle and Lower tracts. He gave part of the Upper tract on the east side of the Grand to his creditors, J. Horning and James Wilson, and began selling lots on the Lower Block without telling his buyers that they did not have clear title to the land. In 1800 Beaseley sold 6750 acres of land to Pennsylvania Mennonites for $3000. He sold another 14,200 acres in 1802 to a variety of families. One assumes he was hoping to sell everything quickly so he could clear the debt and give everyone their deeds.
Instead in 1803 Joseph Brant petitioned the Legislative Council because the Six Nations had not received payment. They claimed that the government had made it almost impossible for Beaseley to complete his sale and discharge his debt. As a result, settlement of Block 2 was suspended. In reply Brant petitioned the government to give Beaseley a one-year extension on his loan to extricate himself and find a buyer for the rest of the Tract.
Fortunately there was a potential buyer at hand but to understand the how and why, we need to step back a bit to an earlier purchase that was endangered by the title mixup.
From Beaseley to the Mennonites: the benefits of brotherhood
In 1799 Jacob Bechtel traveled with some Mennonites from Bucks County, Penn., to Niagara, but on hearing of Beaseley’s Tract he contacted Beaseley and asked to be shown around. He was guided to the Grand River by an Indian guide and surveyor and spent 2 months looking over the area before deciding it was an excellent place to settle. He then went back to Montgomery County to organize settlers. On his way he me Samuel Betzner and told him about the land. Further along he ran into the Schorgs, Reicherts and Jacob Bock. Schorg and Betzner then traveled to the Grand River to reconnoiter and they too decided to settle, bringing their families up from Niagara.
In 1800, Beaseley sold George Bechtel 3150 acres of land. He sold 3600 acres to John Bieln. Both men traveled to Upper Canada with their families in conestoga wagons taking on average 2 months to complete the journey. Only afterwards did the learn that Beasely could not give them clear title. Their only choice was to find buyers for the rest of the property so that all the deeds could be cleared.
Local tradition says that Samuel Bricker traveled all the way back to Pennsylvania to find backers to buy two more large grants of land, and it was only through the intercession of his in-laws the Eby’s and Erb’s that an agreement was reached. Back in Waterloo County with Daniel Erb he studied the land and began negotiations.
In late 1803 a formal agreement was made between Beasely, Bricker and Erb. For £10,000 the Mennonites would gain clear title to 60,000 acres. The agreement had to be approved by the Executive Council who, on May 18 1804, accepted the deal if the Mennonites paid £5000 now with £5000 due with 6% interest on May 23, 1805. All legal costs were to be paid by Beasely and Erb.
10,000 Silver Dollars are Carried through the Wilderness
There are different stories about how the money was transferred from Pennsylvania to Upper Canada. There were of course no banking systems in place to simplify the process. The story one hears most often is that the Mennonites of Pennsylvania were reluctant to buy the land until John Eby persuaded a few families in Lancaster County that it was their duty to dig their brethren to the north out of the hole Beaseley had dug. One story says that the Mennonites sewed 5000 silver dollars into quilts to carry them across the 800 mile wilderness trail in 1804. The currency exchange converted that to £4692. The balance was delivered in July 1805. This is when the second story kicks in: Sam and John Bricker along with Daniel, Jacob and John Erb packed silver coins in a cask for transport. At night, 4 of them slept, each in one corner, while one sat on the keg, gun in hand to protect it.
The total payment made by the Mennonites was £10795. In return they received all of Block 2 north of the Block Line except for a few tracts on the east river that had been sold earlier. To make up the difference, they also received 2656 acres south of the Block Line and west of Bechtel’s Tract. The Pennsylvania Mennonites divided the land into 64 shares and each person was allowed to buy between one and eight shares. Each share was then divided into two farms and they cast lots as to who would get each farm. Once arrived a certain amount of swapping consolidated farms.
The purchase of a large tract of land by what was essentially, an extended family was unusual in Upper Canada. The lack of Clergy and Crown reserves was also uncommon and the way the land was divided meant that the clearances for roads that usually follow lot lines were neglected. Instead, road building became an informal affair. For example, Joseph Schneider built a road north from his front door to what became the centre of town. This later became Queen St.
First visit by Benjamin Eby to his newly purchased Lot 2
1807
June. Benjamin Eby and Joseph Schneider arrive with the families and build homes on their GCT Lots 2 & 17
1813
The Eby meeting house, the first church in the area, is built on King St. East.
1816
Schneider’s saw mill is in operation and he builds his house on Queen St. S.
Part of the German Company Tract is renamed Waterloo Township in honour of the recent great victory of the English over the French in Europe
1818
Benjamin Eby opens a school in an annex of his church
1820
Or thereabouts, Eby and Schneider agree to let P. Varnum construct a commercial building at the corner of Schneider Road and the Great Road (Queen and King). He runs a blacksmith shop and tavern.
Agreat many new immigrants begin to arrive from Germany and England.
1822
First property owners meeting held, to discuss the creation of the Township Council
1825
Or a little after: the name Berlin is chosen for the hamlet
–
Over the next 5 years a number of craftsmen set up business, including John Hoffman (cabinetry) and Jacob Hailer (chairs)
1832
When the 3 Millar borthers buy land from Eby for a shop, the deed says it is in Berlin
1833
Frederick Gaukel buys Varnum’s site and builds a hotel. There has been a hotel on that corner ever since
A second school opens, at Frederick near King
1835
In March the town’s first newspaper is printed. Called the Canada Museum und Allgemeine Zeitung it is published weekly by H.W. Peterson
–
Dr. John Scott opens his practice. He is the first doctor in a hamlet that now has about 35 families
A stagecoach now connects Winterbourne, Berlin, Waterloo and Preston, running three times a week.
1840
George Rebscher opens the first brewer of lager beer in Canada.
1842
A postmaster is appointed: George Davidson
1845
John Hoffman automates his furniture factory with the first steam driven machinery
1846
Berlin has a population of 400
1849
Reinhold Lang opens his tannery at King and Ontario
1850
Berlin becomes the seat of government for Waterloo Township
–
There are 5 religious meeting houses, a town hall, 2 furniture factories, a foundary, 3 schools, a tannery, 2 breweries, 4 taverns, 6 shops, 6 small factories and a population of 782 in Berlin
–
Berlin and Galt vie to become the County capital and Berlin wins. A county courthouse and jail are built. John Scott becomes the first reeve of Waterloo County
1853
John Scott leads the battle to have Berlin incorporated at a village. The bank of Upper Canada opens a branch on Queen St. North.
1854
Januray 16 is the first meeting of the new Village of Berlin with Dr. Scott as reeve. The councillors are Enoch Ziegler, George Jantz, Henry Stroh, and Gabriel Bowman. Bylaws are passed to regulate taverns and inns, control animals, repair roads and adopt a village crest.
Justice in Dawson City during the gold rush was often complicated by the many nationalities represented among the miners. Americans, Crow and Canadians dominated the scene but this was the frontier. Policing was stretched and most of the people who lived in the area were there for only one purpose: gold!
In April 1898, a couple of prospectors, Christian Fox and William Meehan, were camped near the mouth of the M’Clintock River. They were met by 4 young men who turned out to be brothers, asking for food. The miners shared what they had with their visitors, relations seemed to be friendly, and the strangers set up camp “next door”.
Over the next week the 4 brothers and the 2 miners took to visiting each other. The brothers turned out to members of the Crow nation. Their names were Dawson, Jim, Joe and Frank Nantuck.
The Nantuck brothers were arrested, jailed, and tried for the murder. Two of the brothers were hung while the other 2 died in prison of tuberculosis.
The lack of mercy may have reflected the Canadian government’s determination to show Native Americans and the 40,000 or so American miners in the Yukon that the Canadian rule of law was in force and would be upheld.
In 1926 Charles and Gilbert LaBine founded the Eldorado Gold Mines company in Manitoba. When the company nearly went bankrupt after a couple of years, Gilbert used the remaining funds to prospect around Great Bear Lake.
On May 16 1930, his search for copper and gold around Echo Bay led him to an offshore island where he noticed
“a great wall … stained with cobalt bloom and copper green. I walked over to the place and investigated it carefully and found all the associated ores of cobalt, including silver. Following along, I found a tiny piece of ore, probably the size of a large plum, and it was pitchblende.”
Pitchblende is a dark, lustrous mineral long-used to colour pottery. 32 years earlier, in 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie had discovered pitchblende was also a source for radium, a radioactive element that could potentially cure cancer.
While the medical potential of radium excited publicity and demand, it wasn’t until deposits were found in the Belgian Congo that the price dropped to a mere $75,000 per gram. The complicated production process also acted to keep prices high.
Gilbert had a long-standing interest in pitchblende. Having recognized the ore, he staked a claim, and gathered some samples to send off for analysis. To his satisfaction, the results showed they were high grade ore.
The lone prospector in the barren north, a huge find of a rare mineral that cures cancer. Together they formed a public relations dream.
This was fortunate since building a mining industry based on pitchblende was going to cost money. With the help of his brother Charles, Gilbert raised enough to begin operations at Echo Lake. In the summer of 1931 they mined 10 tonnes of ore. By 1933 Eldorado Gold Mines was running a local mill to concentrate and pack the ore, and processing the concentrate at their new refinery in Port Hope Ontario.
Port Hope was chosen because it took massive amounts of chemicals and power to convert the concentrate into a saleable product. The town offered cheap power and excellent transport facilities.
For the next three years, production climbed and Eldorado Gold Mines continued to dominate the industry in Canada despite a flood of prospectors entering the area looking for their own strikes.
Mining in northern Canada faces many challenges: isolation, an extreme climate, and permafrost. The LaBine brothers needed resources and men. To reach the LaBine mine required a 1,600 km flight from Edmonton. The nearest railhead was 2,400 km away at Waterways, Alta. Fuel for the camp and mining equipment came from the Norman Wells oilfield on the Mackenzie River. To ensure affordable transport, Eldorado took control of the Northern Transportation Company in 1936.
Drilling began with a horizontal drift cut into the side of a cliff to reach the ore. Next they sank a vertical mine shaft. For the first 95 metres, they drilled through permafrost. Machines and water lines froze, and the haulageways and ditches were kept clear of ice only by continuous effort. Below the permafrost the miners were faced with water leaking through fissures into the work spaces.
Unfortunately, the price of radium was dropping. The cost of processing remained higher than anticipated and while the Eldorado was production was on the rise, the company was in trouble. By 1937 the price of radium was down to $21,000 / gram and the company was in a bidding war with the Belgian Company, Union Miniere.
The two companies eventually agreed to split the world market 60-40, each company having control in their home markets. This might have proved successful but the onset of WWII closed markets. National priorities shifted from health to war.
In June 1940, with inventories at a comfortable level and demand in a lull, Eldorado Gold Mines closed their Great Bear Lake mine and dramatically reduced production at the Port Hope refinery.
Uranium is a by-product of radium production. Until the late 1930s it was a waste material. But in the late 1930s, German researchers discovered nuclear fission and soon both the Axis and Allied powers were pursuing research into the potential of uranium for weaponry.
Eldorado’s first uranium sales, in 1940, were made through Boris Pregel, a mysterious man with connections. Once the USA entered WWII, the demand for uranium grew rapidly alongside a need to protect it sources.
Gilbert required government permission both to re-open the mine and to requisition transport, men and supplies. Deals were conducted discretely but with a number of American orders in place, it wasn’t long before permission was granted by C.D. Howe, Minister of Munitions and Supplies. To speed things along, the Americans provided aircraft for transportation.
The first shipments used up the remaining reserves of ore at Port Radium. Meanwhile the mine and mill were modernized and miners recruited from northern Ontario and Manitoba.
War brings labour shortages so companies need to provide perks if they want to attract the best employees. Port Radium added a recreation hall, library, pool tables, a store, movie facilities, and a bowling alley to their facilities. Underground, however, conditions were dangerous. The ore was frozen in the ground. It had to be thawed before it could be mined. Ventilation was a problem and the air contained increased amounts of radioactive radon gas. Long term exposure could be fatal.
The Port Hope operations were also expanded but the plant encountered numerous problems. The demand for uranium couldn’t be supplied from Port Radium alone so concentrates were also purchased from Union Miniere. The differences between the ores caused disruptions and slowdowns in the refining process. On top of the production problems, poor working conditions and low wages led to staff unrest. The factory unionized in 1943.
Despite the many issues to be overcome, some 2,000 tonnes of uranium oxide were processed between 1942 and 1946.
If American orders dominated sales, they were not the only buyers. The British had their own atomic weapons program and expected Canada to supply its needs. In an effort to maintain control, the Canadian government quietly began purchasing Eldorado Gold Mines share in 1942 until they effectively owned the company. In 1944 it became a Crown Corporation with Gilbert LaBine as president. In 1946 the federal Atomic Energy Control Act came into force to regulate all operations of the industry. The government now disallowed any further private stakes in the uranium exploration.
With the help of the British government, Canada now began its own atomic research project by building the atomic reactor at Chalk River.
Post-war, the American, British and Canadian governments continued to be the main buyers of uranium from Eldorado. There was also a management shake-up with Gilbert LaBine replaced by W.J. Bennett in 1947. Bennett negotiated contracts with the US Atomic Energy Commission and expanded exploration into Saskatchewan where pitchblende had been (re) discovered in 1952 at Beaverlodge Lake north of Lake Athabaska by Gilbert LaBine’s new company Gunnar Gold Mines.
Within 2 years there were 52 mines and 12 open pit mines working in the area. Neither the Saskatchewan government nor the Crown wanted to see dozens of shanty towns strung across the north, so they decided to concentrate development in one place. Unfortunately, neither wanted to pay the cost so urbanization began piecemeal. The company built the facilities it needed; the federal Department of Transport built an airstrip. The port of Bushell developed 15 miles away at Black Bay and the province provided land for warehouses. Meanwhile, shanty towns were spreading.
In desperation the province responded by building a model town called Uranium City. By 1958, it had 5000 inhabitants
With the advent of the cold war, mining pitchblende was profitable again.
Although their monopoly on exploration had expired and competitors had swept in, Eldorado remained the only marketing agent for all uranium ore in Canada. By 1959 contracts in uranium topped $330 million, and uranium was the most valuable metallic mineral exported from Canada. Even low grade deposits such as those found in the Blind River-Elliot Lake area on the north shore of Lake Huron in Ontario in 1952 were worth pursuing.
Yet the boom – bust cycle was in play once again. In 1959 the US Atomic Energy Commission announced that it had sufficient stockpiles and would in future purchase uranium from American sources.
By 1962 Port Radium, Beaverlodge and Elliot Lake had more or less closed down. Only one mine in Elliot Lake had a longterm contract in 1966. Exports declined to a mere $54 million.
The uranium industry picked up again in the 1970s, with the rise of thermonuclear energy, only to decline again when prices dropped in the 1980s. Beaverlodge mine was closed completely. Then the conservative government privatised Eldorado in 1988 selling 2/3 of the stock to the Saskatchewan government which formed Cameco. CAMECO expanded its mining interests into Nebraska and gold mining in Kyrgyzstan. By 1995 the federal government had divested itself of any shares, Saskatchewan held only 30% and the rest was in private hands.
Cameco now operates several uranium mines in North America and Kazakhstan, including McArthur River, the world’s largest high grade uranium deposit and mine, and Cigar Lake, the world’s largest undeveloped high-grade uranium deposit. Through the Bruce Power Limited Partnership (BPLP), Cameco participates in nuclear power generation in the province.
St. Joseph’s Oratory is 124 metres tall, taller than Notre-Dame in Pais of St. Patrick’s in New York. About 2 million pilgrims and tourists visit every year. On display is Brother André’s heart which was stolen in the mid-1970s but returned 18 months later.
The original chapel was replaced in 1917 by a crypt next to Brother André’s tomb. To reach it one climbs 103 steps. This also takes one to the base of the basilica that was built between 1924 and 1966.
There are 3 aisles of steps. The two flanking aisles are concrete and the one in the middle is painted wood, to ease the long trip to the top for those who climb on their knees, praying after each step. Miracles are performed at the Oratory and there is a display of canes and crutches left by those who were cured by faith.
Brother André, small, uneducated, sickly and orphaned, was doorman at a boy’s school for 38 years. Frequently visited by people seeking his help, he created the original oratory as a quiet place to meet with petitioners.
Frenchmen of the 16th century would sail across the ocean in tiny ships and camp along the shore, trading with the natives. For almost 100 years, no attempt was made to establish more permanent colonies.
These entrepreneurs faced hunger, cold and a dangerous trip across the ocean. They lived in temporary homes and depended on buckwheat biscuits imported from France, salted meat and fish, and whatever the could hunt or gather: beaver, moose, geese and berries. The diet had deficiencies and sailors fell victim to unfamiliar diseases.
Jacques Cartier describes scurvy which decimated his crew in 1535-36:
They “lost their balance, their legs became big and swollen … then the disease spread to their hips, thighs, shoulders, arms and neck until it reached the mouth which became so foul and rotten from cracks that all the flesh fell off down to the roots of the teeth.”
The native population had it’s own sources of food and medicines but it was only after 25 sailors died that the French reluctantly tried their cure for scurvy: white cedar, rich in Vitamin C.
Despite the hardships, the trip was worth the undertaking. Furs were an increasingly popular component of European fashion and fishing was always lucrative.
From Tadoussac to Quebec
At the start of the 16th century, the most permanent French camp in Canada was at Tadoussac at the mouth of the Saguenay where fishermen and traders took temporary shelter. Then within a few short years a handful of attempts were made to form a permanent colony. In 1604, Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Samuel Champlain scoured the Atlantic coast and St. Lawrence for a good site to settle and build a fort at Port Royale. They stayed for 3 difficult years before de Monts decided to settle along the St. Lawrence. He sent Champlain to a scout out a location.
On June 30 Champlain sailed along the St. Lawrence in a heavily laden ship with 30 carpenters, stonemasons and artisans to a spot that he thought was defensible and strategic. From Quebec he could control the St. Lawrence. While the ship and its crew returned to Tadoussac for more supplies, the craftsmen began felling trees and squaring timbers for the first fort at Quebec.
[Champlain's Habitation was a combination fort, residence and trading post. Parts of it were excavated at Place-Royale in Quebec City. There is also a widely displayed drawing of the fortress showing its walls and defensive towers. By 1704 the fort had been expanded and rebuilt in stone with cannon implacements. As late as 1812, these fortifications were considered formidible enought to deter American invaders.]
The first settlers at Quebec included 40 French Huguenots traders in support of the French mission to build up the fur trade. Champlain however, was intent on creating a prosperous self-sufficient colony. In his view, if the land along the St. Lawrence was farmed, it could support both the Quebec and Acadian colonies. To this end he argued that more craftsmen and farmers should be sent out by the government and merchant companies.
Vital to his vision was his belief that natives and Frenchmen could live on equal footing as Christians if the natives were seduced from their violent ways. This would require French education and the Church. The way to convert the natives was to invite missionaries to the colony. Champlain’s first choice were the Récollets but they met such resistance from the Huguenot traders that they were forced to turn to the Jesuits for support. The Protestant traders’ fears were not unfounded. The Jesuits were no more welcome than the Récollets, but they had powerful friends. Within the year, the Jesuit Superior of the Quebec mission, Father Lalemant, had decided that work could not continue with the Huguenots in power. He lobbied Cardinal Richelieu to revoke the traders’ charter.
Richelieu revoked the charter of the Huguenot Company of Rouen and St. Malo, and formed his own company, the Company of New France, headed by himself, to have exclusive control of trade in Canada. Under his authority, only Catholics were permitted into the colony which must, in turn, defray the costs of running a mission. They were given a 15 year charter and an almost unlimited budget.
[1615 was a watershed year for Champlain. He brought the first missionaries to New France, explored in Huronia and established an alliance with the Wendake, even even joining them in an attack on the Iroquois. As a result he and the French became allies and sworn enemies of the Five Nations.]
The English Interlude
None of this discord took place in a vaccuum. The English colonies to the south were expanding and English explorers were making incursions to the north. The bright future of New France came to an abrupt end when the English Kirke brothers seized Quebec and over half the French residents, including the missionaries, were deported.
The disruption ended as suddenly with the signing of the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye. Canada was returned to France, Champlain was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of New France and in 1633 arrived with 3 ships and 200 colonists. Meanwhile, the Jesuits got back to work, this time without Récollet assistance.
Hearing that the French were back in power, a fleet of 140 canoes arrived that summer in Quebec with 700 natives. The first thing they did was build shelters, then hold a council with the french. This was followed by 2 days of trading, another day of feasting and the homeward voyage.
In 1644 the only settlements in Canada were Ste. Marie, Quebec and Trois-Rivieres. To the south, the Plymouth colony prospered, and Dutch forts were erected on Manhatten Island. A few thousand English settlers lived in Virginia, but the population of New France was only a few hundred, mostly men, living along the St. Lawrence, fishing, hunting, trapping, trading and farming.
Far to the west, the French had a mission at Ste. Marie Among the Hurons that was thriving but under constant threat of attack. Their main allies, on whom they depended for the trade, were being decimated by war and disease. When the mission failed and Huronia was destroyed in 1649 the French were forced to find new ways to collect furs from the interior.
There had always been Frenchmen willing to live among the natives, exploring unknown lands and looking for opportunities. Now the coureurs de bois formed the basis of the French fur trade, paddling out to the First Nations to trade directly. The technology of trade changed. The 3-man canoe was replaced by 12 meter canoes paddled by 4 or 5 men and able to carry 1300 kg of weight. The politics of the fur trade changed. A crew required a license to trade and these were issued by the government. It became expensive to trade but at the same time, the call for furs in Europe was on the rise and there were heady profits to be made. Alliances needed to be forged with many nations, rather than relying on the Hurons to handle a trade network. Competition with the English for allies and furs became more tense.
In 1660 Pierre Radisson and his brother-in-law Médard Chouart travelled as far as Lake Superior and met with the Cree. They exchanged goods and returned to Quebec with a rich haul in furs but since they left without a license, the colonial authorities confiscated their property. Angered that the French were unwilling to help establish trade to the west, Radisson and Groseilliers turned to the English, leading them to the interior via Hudson’s Bay. Eight years later the Nonsuch wintered at James Bay, returning to England in the Spring with a such a load of furs that a group of financiers and courtiers formed The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay. They acquired a charter from King Charles to trade along all the rivers that fed into Hudson’s Bay. This in retrospect turns out to be about 7.8 million square kilometers.
The Mississippi
In 1673 Jesuit Father Marquette and Jolliette were the first Europeans to explore the Mississippi. They were followed nine years later by Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle who navigated the Mississippi’s full length and claimed the valley and the Gulf Coast for France and Louis XIV. LaSalle named the area Louisiana and built a fort at Peoria in 1680. In 1684 he sailed from France with colonists and equipment to found a colony in Louisiana but landed in Texas, 400 miles from the Mississippi. One ship ran aground, another returned to France and 180 colonists were deserted at Fort St. Louis (Victoria County, Tx).
In February 1676, the La Belle foundered in a storm leaving them stranded. Over the following year, disease and conflict with local natives reduced the colony to 40 survivors. LaSalle set out on foot to find help at a French settlement on the Mississippi but was killed by his own men. The remaining 20 colonists, many women and children, survived 2 more years before succumbing to an Indian attack.
[Items recovered from La Belle include cannon, pewter dishes, 700,000 glass beads and a cask of muskets. Read about it at the Texas Historical Commission.]
The area between Louisiana and Quebec was named Illinois, for the natives living in the region. Along the Gulf Coast, the French entered a trade network that included Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and Mexico which lasted until the War of the Spanish Succession in 1715.
[Numerous French sites have been excavated in the USA including Peoria, Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Ouiatenon, Old Mobile, Fort de Chartres, Ste. Genevieve, Fort Arkansas and Fort St. Joseph.]
French colonial plans focussed less on settlement than on establishing solid aliiances with native trade groups and limiting English control of the interior. French expansion to the west followed the Great Lakes, and included as string of permanent trading posts in the 1730s under Varennes and his sons (the La Vérendrye family). They eventually extended their network to Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan River, for the first time cutting into the English fur trade to the north.
200 years later, at its height, New France included south-central Ontario and Quebec, the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys, much of the Gulf Coast and the Maritimes. Although the western territories wree sparsely inhabited, the descendants of these early settlers would influence events in the French Indian wars, the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
France lost most of its possessions in North America at the close of the Seven Years War. Lands east of the Mississippi were given to England while lands west were given to Spain. Quebec shrank again at the close of the American War of Independance but French possessions expanded when Spain gave their lands to France in exchange for part of Italy in 1800. This was then sold to the USA by Napolean in 1803 (The Louisiana Purchase).
While New France was sparsely populated, it had many French amenities including churches, schools, roads, fine furniture and a social hierarchy.
Education
The Bishop in New France had complete control over who was allowed to teach and what the curriculum contained. Individuals seeking to open a school had to gain his permission and were then accountable to the local priest. Most schools were operated by one of the teaching orders in Quebec which included theUrsulines, Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame, the Seminaire, Jesuits, Sulpicians and Freres hospitaliers de la Croix et de Saint-Joseph.
The first schools were established by Ursuline nuns and Jesuit fathers and taught French and Indian boys and girls. Rules demanded exceptional morality on the part of teachers. As for the children, they were segregated by gender. According to Marie de l’Incarnation, “The French girls would behave like little animals without the instruction that we give them.”
Funding for education came from the French government, the Church and private sponsors. By the mid-18th century, many parishes were operating village schools. While rural children attended only when they could, children living in the towns were regular attendees. Rural children sometimes boarded in return for payment in kind (firewood, butter, meat, etc.). The result is that most French children could at least read, count and sign their names.
Commerce
In New France, payment for goods and services often came in the form of exchanges or barter. When coins were needed, the most common was the louis d’argent. Metal coins have intrinsic value, so sometimes other coins made their way into use: Spanish silver dollars even copper buttons.
Canadians tended to be self-sufficient, but there was money to be made in the fur trade and fisheries. Goods exported to Europe brought in coinage which made it possible to buy luxury goods and necessities. The result was often an imbalance that led to a shortage of coins in New France. People turned to other coins or to notes and leather money to fill the gap. To limit the problem, the government inflated the values of Canadian coins, but the problem continued. The annual budget from France was paid in part by coin and in part by bills of exchange. When coinage was low, it was difficult for local government to turn bills into coin and in 1685 the treasury was bankrupt in the sense that they operated purely on credit and the goodwill of the intendant Jacques de Meulles. Soldiers couldn’t be paid and the government hired them out as labour. In the end de Meulles had to issue his own money using the backs of playing cards. The cards were withdrawn when supply ships arrived from France with coin.
Other forms of money were in use. Natives across America used wampum or hiaqua made from white, purple and black shells strung into belts. The fur companies used the beaver prime male beaver pelt as the basis of trade. For example, 2 white fox furs might be worth one beaver pelt.
During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13) prices quadrupled in New France and at the end of the war all card money was abolished along with differences in value between Canadian and French coin. But the utilty of paper money continued and merchants lobbied for re-issues. Both card money and ordinances were put into use for almost 30 years until the end of the Seven Years War when France was unable to redeem either form of paper money and they became valueless. The British instigated their own coins based on sterling which were soon supplemented by paper money. The most common coin in Canada between 1760 and 1840 was the Spanish-American dollar.
Food
In Cartier’s day, the French depended on imported food to supplement what they acquired locally. With only one harvest per year, by spring, colonists were reduced to eating buckwheat biscuits from France. They suffered malnutrition from a lack of fresh food and scurvy was fatal until natives showed them how to boil a cure from white cedar. Over time, cuisine combined the French arts and Canadian ingredients including locally grown grains, corn, squash, pumpkins, strawberries, raspberries, blueberies, currants, other fruits, maple syrup and locally raised animals. The long cold winter provided the means to preserve foods. Caches were built in snow and cellars kept food cold. Ice houses later served to keep meats frozen for months.
Champlain emphasized the need to grow wheat and vineyards. Meat included wild beaver, moose, gees and game birds. Pigs and cattle were imported, pigs being preferred because pork can be salted more easily than beef. Bakers and butchers required a license from the inspector of weights and measurespermits to operate. The yearly routine consisted of fresh vegetables and fruits in summer and fall; dried for winter use. Fresh meat in spring and summer; preserved for winter in ice or salt. In the towns, public markets made a wider variety of foods available; most farmers ate what they produced.
In 1749 Peter Kalm visited New France and described the eating customs he discovered. Breakfast was between 7 and 8 in the morning and often consisted of bread dunked in alcohol, coffee or chocolate. The French preferred coffee and chocolate to tea since they could be purchased from the French Antilles. Tea was a luxury, imported from China via the English.
Dinner was at noon and could include anywhere from 2-6 dishes depending on the occassion and wealth of the eater. Soup was the usual starter made from meat stock, served with bread. Next came the meat and vegetable course(s). This was followed by nuts, berries and preserved fruit, possibly cheese or a dessert of sweetened milk and bread.
Salt, which was heavily taxed in Europe, was common in New France, but butter was rarely served at meals. Diluted wine and spruce beer were common drinks.
On Fridays, Saturdays or during Lent, Advent, rogation days, vigils and holidays, French Canadian Catholics abstained from meat. The total number of days was equivalent to nearly 5 months of each year. On those days, they ate egg, fish and vegetable dishes.
Cooking was done in large iron cauldrons over a fire until the advent of cast-iron stoves in the mid to late 18th century. As to dinner services, in the early years, a person might eat from a pewter or tin plate with a fork and folding pocket knife, but affluence brought china, silverware and napkins.
Originally called St Paul’s, Her Majesty’s Chapel of the Mohawks, Brantford Ontario is the oldest Protestant Church in Ontario and the only Royal Chapel outside the U.K. It is now the oldest surviving church in Ontario.
It is part of the diocese of Huron and its chaplain is appointed by the Bishop of Huron. The chapel contains the tomb of Joseph Brant and his son, and a memorial to E. Pauline Johnson. At the back of the church, an observation deck overlooks the Grand River. Eight stained glass windows depict major events in the history of the Six Nations.
History
1712 – the first chapel is built at Fort Hunter after an historic visit by Six Nations leaders to the Court of Queen Anne. The ambassadors pledged their allegiance to the Crown, offered their loyalty and requested a chapel and a priest. After the chapel was completed, the New England Company supplied a priest and Queen Anne presented the chapel iwht a Bible, silver communion service and prayer books.
American Revolution – The chapel is destroyed but the silver communion service and Queen Anne Bible are buried for safe-keeping on the farm of Boyd Hunter.
At the close of the Revolutionary War, the followers of Joseph Brant who had allied themselves with the Crown, abandoned Mohawk Valley and moved to land situated on the Grand River. The land was granted to the Six Nations in recognition of their war effort. Brant also negotiated for a new chapel which was duly built as St. Paul’s in Brantford in 1785.
1788. Brant and about 400 Mohawk settle on the Grand River at Brant’s Ford. The communion service and Bible are returned to the Six Nations and split between the Grand River Mohawks and the Bay of Quinte Mohawks.
1827. The first resident Minister arrives when Rev. Robert Lugger is sent by the New England Company.
1830. The church is consecrated by the Right Reverend Charles Stewart, the second Anglican Bishop of Quebec.
1831. The Mohawk Institute is built as a school for native children, by the New England Company.
1841. Mohawk Village is surrendered to the Crown and the Mohawks are moved to the Six Nations Reserve. The congregation shifts attendance to the Keyangah Church which is located on the reserve. St. Paul’s becomes the chapel for the Mohawk Institute and for the next 130 years until the Institute closes in 1970, the Principal and Chaplain are often the same person.
1850. The remains of Captain Joseph Brant are exhumed from their resting place in Burlington and moved to a tomb at the Mohawk Chapel. His son’s remains are also interred there.
1869. The Chapel being is sad repair, major renovations are undertaken.
1939. Extensive renovations are done on the chapel and further work is done in the 60s and mid 70s.
1959- 1962. Further renovations include the design and installation of 6 stained glass windows depicting native history.
1983. Renovations to the chapel are completed in anticipation of a visit by Queen Elizabeth. A fund is established for the perpetual care of the chapel.
1984. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit the Chapel.
