Rapid Development in Niagara

At the beginning of the war, both Britain and the United States recognized the importance of the Niagara District as a cornerstone of the entire province that provided security for state and commercial interests throughout the Great Lakes. In the early weeks of the war, Secretary of State William Eustis wrote to a general officer, “Not a moment should be lost in gaining possession of Niagara and Kingston,” hoping that swift action would give the Americans control of the entirety of Upper Canada.⁶⁵ Although his hope of a quick attack and capture of Niagara did not come to fruition, Eustis was another in the succession of strategists who recognized the importance of Niagara. The settlement of Niagara was marked by a series of attempts to gain and maintain control over the river and surrounding lands, turning the region from a forested wilderness dotted with native camps and villages into the most populated and valuable district in the province.

From the first arrival of European explorers in the region, men with military and commercial aspirations recognized the value of controlling the Niagara River, the gateway from Lake Ontario into the upper Great Lakes and the interior of the continent. The earliest French explorers and Jesuit priests were impressed with the power of the falls at Niagara, “a vast and prodigious Cadence of Water,” where the upper river plunges over fifty meters onto the rocks below.⁶⁶ Although they initially viewed the falls as both a natural wonder and obstacle to their progress up the waterway, the French also quickly recognized the river’s importance in the fur trade. In 1679 and 1687, they attempted to build blockhouses on the lower river to house both men and supplies essential to their exploration and trading, but both projects were lost due to accidental fires and conflict with local native tribes. Finally, in 1725, the French were able to negotiate permission to build a stone fort at the mouth of the Niagara River on Lake Ontario, a structure which became a focal point in territorial disputes for nearly one hundred years.⁶⁷

As the first permanent settlement for Europeans along the river, Fort Niagara was the seed from which the entire region’s success bloomed. In 1770, John Huddlestone Wynne wrote that Fort Niagara was “the most important post in America and secures a greater number of communications, through a more extensive country, than perhaps any other pass in the world⁶⁸.” It seems unlikely that Wynne conducted a thorough comparison with all other forts throughout the world, but he was correct to acknowledge the importance of the fort in determining the success of Europeans’ endeavors in the Great Lakes region. When the British captured the fort in 1759 from the French, they effectively monopolized the trade route from the interior to the coast by controlling the easiest and most efficient passage. The Niagara River and the portage around the falls was the best way to move goods between Upper and Lower Canada, so the empire in possession of Fort Niagara could dictate the terms of trade.

Despite its importance for merchants and the military, Fort Niagara had little impact on the land surrounding it until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, which became an important catalyst in the expansion of settlement in the Niagara District. During the war, Loyalist refugees began to flood into the region seeking new places to settle down and hoping for support from the British government, putting an additional strain on the fort’s resources. Due to the cold winters that froze many of the waterways and the difficulty of overland transport, provisioning a frontier outpost in Upper Canada with supplies from Lower Canada was a constant challenge. For most of its existence, Fort Niagara had been reliant on regular supplies from outside sources and had limited capacity to provide for the troops, native allies, or refugees that it housed and protected. Although the garrison had constructed barracks across the river to house Colonel John Butler’s Rangers in 1778, the British had largely discouraged substantial settlement of Upper Canada in order to preserve their relations with native tribes who lived and hunted throughout the region.⁶⁹ In 1779, General Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Quebec, changed that policy by suggesting to his superiors, “By encouraging the settlement of farmers to raise grain and cattle in the vicinity, the security of these posts would be increased and the troops better supplied.”⁷⁰ Lacking firsthand knowledge of the land, Haldimand passed his idea to Lieutenant-Colonel Mason Bolton, commander of the garrison at Fort Niagara, who undertook a feasibility assessment of the proposal. In a decision that would shape the future of the entire region, Bolton and his advisors decided that the west shore was more suitable than the east “both from the soil and the situation.”⁷¹ Pressured by the influx of Loyalists and the increasing demand for support, the decision to begin settling the western shore of the Niagara River initiated a period of rapid growth in the young province.

Over the next ten years, the primary force behind the settlement on the western shore of the Niagara River was substantial investment by governors and military commanders through provision of land and equipment that supported the growth of farms. By December 1780, Colonel Butler had initiated the settlement plan and reported that he had “four or five families settled and they have built themselves houses.”⁷² The government provided both land and farming implements free of charge to those who settled and produced crops to supply the outpost. The statistics collected by Butler prove the success of the farming initiative and the rapid growth of the settlement. Between December 1780 and August 1782, a total of 238 acres of forested land were cleared to make fields. At that time, there were sixteen families in the settlement containing eighty-four inhabitants: sixteen married men, seventeen married women, one young or hired man, twenty-nine boys, twenty girls, and one enslaved man. By 1783, over 700 acres had been cleared, over 100 acres were planted, and over 300 were ready for planting. The population had swelled to forty-six families comprising about 600 inhabitants.⁷³ The combination of government support and the suitability of the Niagara District for farming meant that many families were able to become self-sustaining and the region began to attract even more settlers.

Another major government initiative that stimulated settlement and economic growth in the Niagara District was the construction of publicly subsidized lumber and grist mills. The dramatic drop in elevation at the escarpment created many streams and creeks that could power water mills, which were built across the region to cut timber and grind grain. In 1791, the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, expressed his desire to “furnish the necessary materials for some Grist & Saw Mills” which would be necessary for the “speedy Settlement of Lands” and “erection of publick [sic] Buildings.”⁷⁴ While many mills were built with government funds, other mills were constructed by individuals with only private investment. In 1789, entrepreneur John Green built his own grist mill on Forty Mile Creek (near present-day Grimsby) in Niagara and told one visitor that he intended “to bring up all his sons to farming, and to build for each of them a mill, either on this or on a neighboring creek.”⁷⁵ Like other mills throughout the region and province, Green’s mills provided a family legacy and were a connection point between farmers, local merchants, military outposts, and more distant commercial markets.

Following the successful establishment of farmland and mills throughout the Niagara District, the development that most securely guaranteed the growth and prosperity of the region was trade and commerce. While farms and mills provided food for government stores and personal use and lumber for various projects, the Niagara River was quickly recognized by merchants as an opportunity to secure their place as a central hub in the network of trade emerging in the new province. In 1802, John Clark, a respectable young man from a military family, took an apprenticeship with George Forsyth, a prosperous merchant, “to learn the art and mystery of commerce,”⁷⁶ because “all the young men in stores were crazy to become merchants.”⁷⁷ After a few years, Clark was able to obtain letters of credit and travel to Montreal, where he was “successfully furnished with goods to open a store.”⁷⁸ He returned to Niagara and opened his store, but was disenchanted by what he called “housekeeping” and lamented that he was only able to leave that role through “considerable sacrifice.”⁷⁹ Clark’s example demonstrates the extent to which young men were enamored by the opportunities offered by commercial activity in Niagara, even at the expense of their own happiness.

The growth of commercial activity in Niagara is also evident through a comparison of planning maps drawn in 1797 and 1798 of different points along the Niagara River. A map of Fort Erie on Lake Ontario shows twelve planned lots, with some reserved for Robert Hamilton, Thomas Clarke, Henry Warren, Robert Nichols, and Thomas Dickson. Fort Erie was an important point of divergence for trade goods traveling upriver, which could head further west by lake or east and south into New York.

Two maps of the area where the Chippewa River flows into the Niagara River show at least six planned lots for merchants with labels on lots reserved for Hamilton, Clarke, and Dickson, as well as Samuel Street. Chippewa was the head of the portage route around the falls, where boats arriving from Lake Erie would unload their cargo into wagons for the journey down the escarpment. Having warehouses at Chippewa was important to ensure that goods heading up and down river could be stored before or after the portage. These maps also show the portage road alongside the Niagara River and bridges crossing smaller rivers, demonstrating the infrastructure built to support commercial activities and troop movements along the border.

At the base of the falls in Queenston, the portaged goods were loaded back onto boats to travel through Lake Ontario up into Lower Canada. A map of Queenston includes a planned lot for the collector of customs and lots for Hamilton, Clarke, and Dickson. It also shows the roads leading to Newark and the portage road leading away from the river.

On the northern end of the river where it meets Lake Ontario, planners sketched out eighteen lots along the river and lake front in Newark, including reserved lots for Andrew Heron, James Crooks, and George Forsyth. The 1802 map also includes the site of Fort George and the buildings and wharfs at Navy Hall, used by both British military ships and commercial vessels carrying goods westward. Each of the men named on the lots along the river were successful merchants and traders with partners and connections in places along the commercial corridors such as Detroit, Kingston, Montreal, Albany, and New York. As the fur trade continued to grow and the flow of goods into the western territories increased, Niagara’s position as a central hub contributed to the successful expansion of the settlements through the district.

From its origin as a farming community to support Fort Niagara on the American side of the river, the Niagara District rapidly became the most active trading hub in Upper Canada with the fastest growing population in the province. The success of the farming initiative promoted by British officials provided a base on which further industries could be built. The river’s importance in the fur trade was further expanded and the region became an ideal place for merchants to set up and exploit their position at a narrow point in the transportation network. Both of these factors were important in making Niagara a valuable target when American officers began formulating their war plans. However, the proximity of the Niagara District to the western boundary of New York State, while adding to the appeal of capturing Niagara, created complex relationships across the border that would influence both the events of the war and its legacy in the region.