Ancaster, Ontario - History

History

The creation of the Upper and Lower Canadian provinces (colonies) from the division of the Province of Quebec (1763-1791) colony by the Parliament of Great Britain's Constitutional Act of 1791 had a deciding influence on the timing of the founding of Ancaster. At its inception, Upper Canada was only sparsely settled (unlike the more established Lower Canada) and its land had not been officially surveyed to any great extent. Thus there was an urgency by the then Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe to survey this new and relatively barren province for establishing military roads and for preventing settlers from clearing and settling land not legally belonging to them. Predating Upper Canada, however, the earliest European settlers to arrive, clear land and obtain land grants in the mid 18th century in what would eventually become Ancaster were French speaking fur traders and newly landed British immigrants. Also arriving into this area in substantial numbers around 1787 with the incentive of inexpensive land grants were the United Empire Loyalists still loyal to the British crown who were fleeing from the United States after the 1776 American War of Independence. Britain expected its colonies to purchase all essential finished goods needed for day-to-day living from the mother country in exchange for raw materials such as fur and lumber. However, this 'arrangement' naturally proved to be very inefficient and impractical in practice so waterwheels, mills and factories soon hurriedly evolved in favourable towns in Upper Canada that had abundant water power, fertile soil, and good transportation access such as Ancaster that could then provide the new settlers with a good measure of self-sufficiency. In general terms, the mindset of typical Upper Canada settlers could be described as new arrivals that "evinced any amount of dislike of the Americans but something less than love of the Mother country. The early English settlers were independent cattle, they had emigrated; not to perpetuate a mould but to escape from it. They scattered far and wide; they would seem to have selected their lands rather like rummagers at a bargain sale, by feel or look. The Loyalists were more gregarious; they thickened wherever there was good soil or waterwheel sites".

In an age before electricity, the village of Ancaster had an early economic advantage in the region. This was due to the abundant energy that could be tapped by mills from streams and creeks that naturally existed because this settlement existed amidst a break in the Niagara Escarpment. Another major influence in Ancaster's rapid development was that it already had access to two very important prehistoric First Nations roads. The first European settlers to set foot in this region would have encountered the Iroquois Trail and the Mohawk Trail intersecting precisely in the area that would eventually become Ancaster Village. This aboriginal Iroquois trail had become the most important transportation route in Upper Canada. It meandered down the escarpment from the future Ancaster into what would eventually become Hamilton, Ontario towards present day Lewiston, New York, eventually linking up with similar aboriginal trails in New York State. In the other direction the Iroquois trail led from present day Ancaster to what would eventually become the town of Brantford, Ontario whereupon the trail then branched off into the Detroit Path and the Long Point trail. By 1770, the 80 kilometre Mohawk Trail was essentially the escarpment accompaniment of the lakeside Iroquois trail. The Mohawk Trail ran parallel to the Iroquois trail and originated and diverged from the Iroquois trail in present day Queenston, Ontario until finally ending and reconnecting to the Iroquois Trail in present day Ancaster at what is now known as the intersection of Rousseaux and Wilson Street. The two trails actually interconnected in four locations along the Mohawk Trail's 80 kilometre route when favourable escarpment conditions permitted. By 1785, the Iroquois Trail passing through present day Ancaster had been widened to accommodate horse and buggie traffic. Another influential road that intersected the Mohawk Trail very close to Ancaster Village was the Twenty Mile road that followed the Twenty Mile Creek up to present day Smithville, Ontario and beyond. Lastly, Ancaster also had fertile soil and abundant fresh water which encouraged pioneer settlers to arrive in this region to clear the land and plant crops for subsistence agriculture.

Ancaster was established formally in 1792, but the area now referred to as Ancaster Village had been referred to informally by local villagers by the more colourful name of Wilson's Mills. This was in reference to millwright James Wilson who along with his affluent fur trader, entrepreneur and business partner Richard Beasley were the primary founders of Ancaster village. With Beasley’s financial backing, Wilson built a gristmill in 1791 and a sawmill in 1792. In order to attract workers to his mills, Wilson needed to provide the social amenities and commercial framework for an area of land which in that period was a relatively isolated patch of forest with a running stream amongst already established well traveled prehistorical indigenous walking trails. Wilson managed to create the impetus for a community by constructing worker dwellings, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a distillery and a tavern, all within walking distance of his mills. As a result the community of Wilson's Mills began to thrive. To this day, the main street that winds through the historical Ancaster Village that once was a section of the original aboriginal Iroquois Trail still bears the legacy of Wilson's name. By 1793 an area of land that contained Wilson's Mills was finally surveyed and officially came to be known as Ancaster Township as chosen by John Graves Simcoe. Simcoe was apparently inspired in the name choice by Peregrine Bertie, the 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. Thus, Wilson's Mills was indirectly renamed Ancaster after an ancient village and former Roman town that stills exists in the district of Lincolnshire, England.

In 1794, Wilson sold his business empire to another trader named Jean Rousseaux who already had a home and general store on Wilson Street. James Wilson at this point moved away and the local villagers by 1795 gradually began referring to the community of Wilson's Mills as Ancaster Village. Curiously, the detailed whereabouts or activities of James Wilson after his departure are a mystery. Rousseaux eventually resold the mills to the Union Mill Company. With the profits from this business transaction Rousseaux built the Union Hotel on Wilson Street, which is now remembered as the location of the Bloody Assize trials in 1814 during the War of 1812. In 1794-1797, Rousseaux also added a general store, brewery and distillery as well as hiring Ancaster's first school teacher. His other accomplishments being the first assessor, tax collector, magistrate and the Township's first Lieutenant Colonel of Militia.

In 1798, the Hatt brothers Richard and Samuel from Dundas established their Red Mill downstream below Ancaster Falls and also built the Old Ancaster Road in order to provide better commercial access. In 1799, William Vanderlip built a hotel that in 1844 was sold to Adam Duff which gave birth to the nickname 'Duff's Corners' for describing the well known intersection on Highway 53. By 1800, a mail route was established between Montreal and Detroit with Ancaster appointed as the branching point for Queenston. In 1805, the Hatt brothers bought a majority of the village site from James Wilson and proceeded to subdivide it into streets and building lots. By 1810 the population of Ancaster had steadily risen to 400 residents yet in just 7 years by 1817 its populace would more than double to 1,037. In that same year Robert Gourlay carefully documented that Ancaster had 162 houses, 4 gristmills, 5 sawmills, 1 carding machine, 1 fulling mill, 5 doctors, 1 Episcopalian minister, and 1 Methodist meeting house. In 1820, Job Lodor acquired the Union Mill Company and rejuvenated Ancaster's industrial base. By 1823, the first post office was established. In 1824, the Ancaster Union Church was built. By 1825, Ancaster had constructed a public reading room with papers from Niagara, York and New York. A foundry making plough shears was established in 1825 by William Wiard. In 1826, Jacob Gabel started a tannery; Robert Douglas started a brewery and John Galt established Ancaster as his headquarters for the Canada Company. 1827 marked the year that inaugurated the publication of George Gurnett's Gore Gazette and the Ancaster, Hamilton, Dundas and Flamborough Advertiser. By 1835, Job Lodor was the only person in Upper Canada who managed to obtain banking privileges and thus the Gore Bank was established in the village in 1836. In 1844, Dr. Richardson opened his practice in the village. Eyre Thuresson founded a threshing machine factory in 1846, a stone mill in 1862, another card mill upstream in 1863 and reorganized the Cane Knitting Factory in 1865. In 1847, N. and E. Wiard re-opened the McLauglin foundry to make ploughs. Harris and Alonzo Egleston arrived in 1832 and began working at William Wiard's foundry and eventually bought him out. The Egleston's then proceeded to expand their own business empire which included building a foundry in 1843 employing 25 people and rebuilding a gristmill in 1863 at the present day location of the Old Ancaster Mill on the old Dundas Road. This Egleston mill was the 4th Ancaster mill and the third to be rebuilt at this current location. Wilson's original mills burnt down in 1812. Upon rebuilding, Wilson's mill's were relocated from this original site at Wilson and Rousseaux street a little further downstream and rebuilt in stone at the present Old Ancaster Mill location on Old Dundas Road. Again, at the same location, a second mill burnt down in 1818 as well as a third mill that was damaged by fire in 1854. Wilson's original 1791-1792 mill foundations still exist upstream at the Wilson and Rousseaux Street intersection but are hidden with vegetation. The much restored and modified remnants of Egleston's 1854 mill now operates as a restaurant and banquet hall. The Barracks of 1812 still stand as a reminder of the war of 1812. By May 1866, the first public telephone was set up in Gurnett's store but was disconnected from lack of use. Examples of Victorian architecture are located on Wilson Street, amongst them the Richardson residence, which was built in 1872 as a wedding present for Dr Henry Richardson and his new bride Sarah Egleston. The traveling expedition of Edison's magical phonograph was exhibited in the Township Hall in 1878. In 1891, John Heslop was murdered in his home on Mineral Springs Road and the murder case remains unsolved to this day. After 1900, affluent Hamilton industrialists began purchasing farm land close to Ancaster village for building estates. By 1946, housing subdivisions began to be established around the village and thus began the post-World War II population expansion that continues to this present day with the current housing construction in the Meadowlands subdivision.

Ancaster's dominant position in the region as an influential industrial, commercial and farming community throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries would soon be short-lived due to sudden modern transportation advancements in its neighbouring towns. Soon nearby Dundas and a small farm settlement close to the lakefront that by 1833 would be established as the town of Hamilton would soon become more influential mainly because of the successful completion of the following three transportation projects: the completion of the Burlington Canal in 1832 that connected Burlington Bay (Hamilton Harbour) to Lake Ontario, the completion of the Desjardins Canal in 1837 that enabled lake vessels to enter nearby Dundas through Hamilton Harbour and the completion in 1855 of The Great Western Railway connection to Hamilton (and eventually Dundas) enabled Hamilton, which already had flourishing and expanding ports, to become the prominent urban and commercial settlement in the region. A final contributing factor to Hamilton's dominance was the fact it was chosen to be the administrative center for the new Gore District in 1816 and was voted to be the county town instead of Ancaster.

In the latter half of the 19th century Ancaster became an unimposing gristmill hamlet and police village. Ancaster would not have access to a modern transportation system until the Brantford and Hamilton Electric Railway intersected Ancaster Village in 1907. The advent of the B&H radial line radically began the process of change to the character of Ancaster that is clearly recognizable today from a somewhat isolated yet self-sufficient village to its current status as a bedroom community of Hamilton. Interestingly, the evidence for this radial train is still easily visible in Ancaster village by a well maintained gravel path behind St. John's Anglican Church on Wilson Street. Walkers and cyclists can still follow this old radial line path down the escarpment to the Hamilton Chedoke Golf Course. The radial line was dismantled in 1931 as a condition of sale from the Cataract Company. With the advent of competition from the automobile and bus companies in North America at the turn of the 20th century, generally only publicly owned streetcar companies had the financial means to survive into the 1950s.

At the end of the 19th century, the townsfolk of Ancaster were certainly conscious that their town had once been a glowing star in Upper Canada that had quickly lost its luster during the Victorian age despite its second successful wave of industrialization in the 1820s. In 1897, local author Alma Dick-Lauder writing about Ancaster in the Hamilton Spectator using the colourful language of that time lamented that "So who can say that new life may not once more flow to the aged village, now high and dry on old time's sand banks, bringing back her bright meridian bloom and vigour of 70 years ago? Fanned by the breath of electricity to spring like a Phoenix from her bed of ashes-ashes, understand, being principally the matter choking up the old place with a fire record unequalled since the days of Sodom, making her an object of terror to her friend, derision to her foes and a hoo-doo to the guileless insurance agent. It is rather melancholy, on a summer's day, to stand on the high bridge and watch the waters slouching by like a gang of crystal dwarfs out of a job, idling and playing and painting the 'beautiful, waving hair of the dead' grass green among the fallen ruins, which a few years ago were instinct with the hum of industry, pouring forth at stated hours, with jangle of bells, a cheerful, clattering stream of bread winners, giving life and animation to the scene, in contrast to the occasional man who now meets the casual glance up street in the sunny noon hours". Alma Dick-Lauder was referring to the fact that by 1897, although Ancaster Township had a population of 4,000, the solitary industry that remained was Egleston's gristmill. The 'fire record' Alma refers to was the burning of the following: John J. Ryckman's store in 1841, St. Johns Church in 1868, The Ancaster Knitting Factory in 1875, the Morris S. Lowrey Hotel in 1881, Egleston's foundry in 1883, Thuresson's Foundry in 1884 and finally the Ancaster Carriage Factory in 1885. By Alma's expression the 'meridian bloom of 70 years ago' she was referring to the fact that in 1820 Job Lodor had purchased the Union Mills and in so doing had instantly transformed Ancaster's industrial center to the point where it was once again, albeit temporarily, the unrivalled commercial and industrial hub of the Gore district. At the time of Alma's 1897 newspaper article, Ancaster had but one school although it had managed to develop cultural institutions such as an orchestra, a literary society and an enclosed curling rink. Job Lodor as well as many other prominent as well as lesser known early Ancaster settlers left behind sometimes still legible tombstones in the cemeteries belonging to St. John's Anglican and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Churches located on Wilson Street.

Fiddler's Green road was apparently not named after a place or person but rather an activity. It turns out that by the late 19th century, Fiddler's Green was Ancaster's tawdry and hence very popular entertainment center once located in precisely the area between present day Ravina Court and Douglas Street. In more recent times this area was a busy hive of activity every Monday as the Ancaster Auction barn was active there until as recently as 1985. During auction Mondays, it was not an uncommon site to see farmers tackling runaway piglets or rounding up stray calves on surrounding house properties. However even during this latter period when this land was used as an auction for hogs and cattle, the remnants of an old race track on the premises was still easily visible. However 100 years ago, this area was "a place where fiddlers would gather and perform at what was known as the Fiddler's Green Inn, a popular place for musicians to come and perform. The area was popular for horse racing and drinking, which in turn attracted more spectators, a common stop over or a communications point. As a great number of travelers visited the area, like any other port of call, the taverns and the inns sprang up".

The Ancaster Fair has been an annual agricultural and social event since 1850 except for 1937 when it was cancelled due to a case of infantile paralysis. Originally the fair was held at Wilson and Academy Streets in the Village core. In 1894 it moved to Wilson and Cameron Drive driving park where it remained until its centennial year in 1950 when it moved to Garner Road. After nearly 60 years at the Garner Road site, the Ancaster Fair in 2009 has moved to 630 Trinity Road.

In 1976, an Ancaster Town Council vote reversed a long-standing policy that would finally allow Ancaster restaurants to apply for liquor licenses. Other than the LCBO and Brewers Retail outlets that were established in Ancaster in the 1950s, the village had up to that point been 'dry', presumably since Prohibition in Canada. Ancaster's earlier pioneers however experienced an entirely different social environment. Again according to Dick-Lauder writing in 1897, "Ancaster saw plenty of life during the rebellion of 1837, when it was quite a frequent thing for all the inns, five in number, and many of the private houses to be full over night of redcoats passing towards the west".

During this period Ancaster Township was attached variously to Nassau District, Home District, York County (West Riding) and Halton County. When Halton County and Wentworth County joined temporarily from 1850 to 1854, Ancaster remained permanently attached to Wentworth County, where it remains today in the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth

The Hermitage is a popular site in Ancaster. This historic house was once the property of Reverend George Sheed in 1830. Since then the house had changed ownership many times before burning to the ground in 1934. The last owner of The Hermitage was in fact local author Alma Dick-Lauder who has been referenced above. The fire that eventually consumed The Hermitage occurred directly from a party that she had been hosting. The shell of the old house and surrounding buildings can still be visited today. One of the main draws of this old property is the legend of the property being haunted. There are ghost tours run throughout the summer with the tour guides telling haunted stories of the land and the surrounding county.

Griffin House is a historic house associated with the Underground Railroad.