David Ramsay in Local Legend
A number of regional legends, traceable to stories told by white settlers in the mid to late 19th century in southern Ontario, have arisen surrounding the figure of David Ramsay. In one such tale, Ramsay is presented as a fur-trader who manages to evade natives along the north shore of Lake Erie with a boat loaded with gold, which he purportedly buries in a ridge at Long Point, planning to dig it up when the natives were no longer a problem.
According to the tale, Ramsay died before retrieving it, forgot all about his cache, or most likely forgot exactly where it was buried. A deacon named John Troyer learned of the legend, and reputedly using divination, acquired knowledge of its exact location. Troyer purportedly invited an 11- or 12-year-old boy, Simpson McCall, to help him claim the treasure. McCall's parents refused, fearing the Deacon's reputation. In one version of the tale excerpted from the Niagara Falls Evening Review of October 19, 1922, Troyer and the boy, in this variant referred to as his "son", go in quest of the treasure:
"They went to Long Point, arriving just enough before dark to locate the spot where the treasure was. Then they waited until exactly midnight, and then started a procession, Deacon Troyer holding the open Bible before him, and his son following with a lighted candle, with spades, picks, etc. They dug down, and presently the pick struck metal. They got the pick under the lid of the box and pried it up. And then, at that moment a black shape rose up and assumed the form of a black dog, growing bigger and bigger, and they dropped the Bible and candle and rushed for the canoe, and never had any curiosity to return to the spot."
This failed reclaiming story was purportedly told by Troyer to McCall, and McCall to J. H. Coyne, who made it public in an address at an Ontario Historical Society meeting in Norfolk County. This meeting was reported a few days later in the Niagara Falls Evening Review.
Read more about this topic: David Ramsay (Upper Canada)
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