Unique yet Representative

In the preface to Janet Carnochan’s History of Niagara, Arthur H. U. Colquhoun argues that the “local narrative is in itself of wide interest because Niagara is a kind of mother-colony, and from it have gone forth to other parts of Canada families and individuals retaining memories and traditions of the early settlement.”120 The rapid growth of Niagara from a few barrack huts into the center of commerce in Upper Canada in fewer than twenty years was the result of numerous interacting factors unique to that specific place and time. Yet the resulting population density and administrative apparatus of Niagara ensured that the experiences of its inhabitants, similar in many ways to those living in smaller, more remote communities, would survive in written records, graphic depictions, and oral traditions. As an archivist for the historical society in Newark (or Niagara-on-the-Lake, as it is now called), Carnochan had access to many of these resources to help her represent the stories of her town and region, but like many early twentieth century historians, she did not attempt to understand, contextualize, or analyze the people and events about which she wrote. Even when examined more critically, however, Niagara remains an important focal point in exploring the experiences of women in Upper Canada, particularly those who endured the hardships of war, and improving our understanding of the women’s contribution to settlement in the province more broadly. Through the surviving materials that document the lives of Niagara’s inhabitants, it is possible not only to “reconstruct in the mind’s eye what Canada was like more than a century ago” but also to better understand and emphasize the importance of women in the success of the settlement, the survival of their communities during the war, and the regrowth of places devastated by war.121


  1. Carnochan, History of Niagara, v.↩︎

  2. Carnochan, History of Niagara, v-vi.↩︎

Unique yet Representative