January, 2019:

St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada’s Niagara Region in Southern Ontario. It is 51 kilometers (32 miles) south of Toronto across Lake Ontario, and is 19 kilometers (12 miles) inland from the international boundary with the United States along the Niagara River. It is the northern entrance of the Welland Canal.

St. Catharines carries the official nickname “The Garden City” due to its 1,000 acres of parks, gardens and trails.

The city was first settled by Loyalists in the 1780s. The Crown granted them land in compensation for their services and for losses in the United States. Early histories credit Sergeant Jacob Dittrick and Private John Hainer, formerly of Butler’s Rangers, as among the first to come to the area. They took their Crown Patents where Dick’s Creek and 12 Mile Creek merge, now the city center of St. Catharines.

Secondary to water routes, native trails provided transportation networks, resulting in the present-day radial road pattern from the City center.

After the Butler’s Rangers disbanded in 1784 and settled the area, Duncan Murray as a former Quartermaster was appointed by the Crown to distribute free Government supplies (victuals) for two years to the resettled Loyalists. He did this from his mill, built on the 12 Mile Creek in Power Glen. After his death in 1786, his holdings went to merchant Robert Hamilton of Queenston. Hamilton became land wealthy, expropriating lands from subsistence Loyalist settlers who were incapable of settling their debts. Hamilton’s major profits were derived from transhipping supplies for the military and civic establishments from his Queenston enterprise. He sold his business to Jesse Thompson before the turn of the 18th century.

The Merritt family arrived; they were among the later Loyalists to relocate following the American Revolution. In 1796, Thomas Merritt arrived to build on his relationship with his former Commander and Queen’s Ranger, John Graves Simcoe, now the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

An old Iroquois Trail was renamed St. Paul Street by the settlers by the mid-19^th century. Several mills, salt works, retail outlets, a ship building yard, distillery and various other businesses were developed next.

At the time of European colonization, the British Crown appropriated the land from the Neutral Indians, and transferred title of the area to Captain Peter Tenbroeck, a United Empire Loyalist officer in Butler’s Rangers, as part of an 800 acre land grant. Tenbroeck and other settlers established farms along the Twelve Mile Creek. Within a few years, ships began to ply the waters of Lake Ontario, but only small craft could navigate to the fledgling mills and hamlet of Shipman’s Corners, later St. Catharines.

The northern entrance to the Welland Canal was at Port Dalhousie. Industries and services to meet the needs of the growing settlement were established. In 1837, a Scottish boat builder called Robert Abbey started a shipyard at Port Dalhousie, building yawls, sailing yachts and eventually steam yachts.

Confederation in 1867 was a major factor in the building of the Third Welland Canal. A new and enlarged waterway was needed for the larger steamers on the Great Lakes. By 1890 almost 300,000 tons of cargo were shipped along the canal each year, primarily wheat, corn, coal and forest products. By 1914, this had increased to almost four million tons. Further canal enlargements were demanded and a new Welland Ship Canal was completed in 1930 which bypassed Port Dalhousie.

The Port Dalhousie community is located on a small peninsula that separates Martindale Pond from Lake Ontario. The historical growth of this community around an elongated road grid pattern can be directly attributed to the development of the Welland canals, commerce, industry and Great Lakes shipping during the 19th century. By the end of the 20th century, Port Dalhousie began to be recognized as an area of rich cultural heritage.

The commercial core, located on Lakeport Road, Lock Street and Hogan´s Alley, is characterized by varying architectural styles from the 19th and early 20th centuries, ranging from red and buff brick to Italianate.

The residential area is comprised of dwellings once inhabited by sailors, canal workers, business people, lock tenders, farmers and many other individuals from an eclectic mix of social classes. Architectural styles include Gothic Revival, Colonial Revival, and Neo-classical among others.

Port Dalhousie was the terminus for the first three routes of the Welland Canal, built in 1820, 1845 and 1889. The city’s most popular beach, on the shore of Lake Ontario, is located in Port Dalhousie at Lakeside Park. The park is home to an antique carousel which was carved by Charles I. D. Looff in 1905 and brought to St. Catharines in 1921. It continues to provide amusement for young and old alike, at just 5 cents a ride. Port Dalhousie is named for George Ramsay, 9^th Earl of Dalhousie, Governor General of British North America from 1820-1828.

At the time of European colonization, the British Crown appropriated the land from the Neutral Indians, and transferred title of the area to Captain Peter Tenbroeck, a United Empire Loyalist officer in Butler’s Rangers, as part of an 800 acre land grant. Tenbroeck and other settlers established farms along the Twelve Mile Creek. Within a few years, ships began to ply the waters of Lake Ontario, but only small craft could navigate to the fledgling mills and hamlet of Shipman’s Corners, later St. Catharines.

The northern entrance to the Welland Canal was at Port Dalhousie. Industries and services to meet the needs of the growing settlement were established. In 1837, a Scottish boat builder called Robert Abbey started a shipyard at Port Dalhousie, building yawls, sailing yachts and eventually steam yachts.

Confederation in 1867 was a major factor in the building of the Third Welland Canal. A new and enlarged waterway was needed for the larger steamers on the Great Lakes. By 1890 almost 300,000 tons of cargo were shipped along the canal each year, primarily wheat, corn, coal and forest products. By 1914, this had increased to almost four million tons. Further canal enlargements were needed and a new Welland Ship Canal was completed in 1930 which bypassed Port Dalhousie.

Before written history, the Neutral Indians lived here. It was a perfect home with forests teeming with game, the lake providing fresh fish and transportation, and the fertile plain ideal for agriculture. The Neutrals were wiped out by their enemies by 1650.

In 1787, a group of United Empire Loyalists arrived from New Jersey. They named their little settlement The Forty after the creek which was believed to be forty miles from the mouth of the Niagara River.

John Graves Simcoe, an officer of the British army who served in the American War of Independence, became the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada (Ontario) from 1792-1796. The naming of the newly surveyed townships was part of his duty, and on a number of them he gave places names from Lincolnshire, England. One of these was Grimsby.

In the early days the many creeks on top of the Niagara Escarpment which flowed into Lake Ontario – each with a waterfall – were named according to their approximate distance from the Niagara River. There is the Twelve Mile creek, the Sixteen, the Twenty, the Forty, etc. It was along these creeks and stretching back from then on either side that the first settlers took up their land and built their log cabins, their saw mills and grist mills. This is how the Settlement at The Forty – later called Grimsby (from the name of the township) – began.

Less than twenty years after the arrival of the first settlers, the United States declared war on Britain and began by attacking Canada from three points – one of them was Niagara. In 1813, the Engagement at the Forty occurred on June 8, 1813. American forces, retreating after the Battle of Stoney creek, were bombarded by a British flotilla under Sir James Lucas Yeo. Indians and groups of the 4^th and 5^th Regiments Lincoln Militia joined in the attack and created such confusion in the enemy ranks that they abandoned this position and retreated to Fort George.