Women in Niagara

Women living in the Niagara District have a greater presence in print, government documents, and archival collections because they lived in the civic and commercial center of the province at a time when conflict between two nations was intensely focused on their communities. The rapid development of settlements in Niagara supported and improved the commercial viability of the region, which in turn increased the British government’s investment in its infrastructure and continued growth. As a result of the expanding population, greater commercial activity, concentration of government and military bureaucracies, and a three-year period of destructive violence, the Niagara District’s inhabitants became some of the most well-documented in the province. Some evidence of women’s lives and roles in the district before the war have survived in diaries of upper-class women who recorded their travels and activities, family papers, the few newspapers produced in the young province, and legal proceedings. Women’s experiences during and after the war are also well-documented due to their efforts seeking aid for their suffering and compensation for their losses. Many women’s stories were also passed down through oral traditions in their families and were later recorded in print. The kinds of documentation that survive in the Niagara District are not unique and similar examples can be found throughout Upper Canada. The sheer volume of materials and the depth of information about the inhabitants of Niagara, however, provide invaluable insight into the experiences of women in Upper Canada.

The early years of settlement in Niagara were documented in part by women traveling through the region or living there, even for a brief time. When Anne Powell visited Niagara in 1789 with her brother William on their way to Detroit, she made observations about her surroundings and experiences and later recorded her memories in a journal. She recalled meeting Catherine Hamilton, “an amiable sweet little woman” whom Powell regretted did not live at Detroit, across the river from Sandwich where her brother was taking a position as judge.⁹⁶ As the first and most successful merchant family in the region and frequent hosts to visitors in their substantial house on the escarpment at Queenston, the Hamiltons were commonly mentioned in many travelers’ accounts. Powell also commented on transportation by ship, horse, and cart, and described how goods unloaded at the base of the portage were “drawn up a steep Hill in a Cradle, a Machine I never saw before.”⁹⁷ Despite her short visit to Niagara, Powell’s recollection and documentation of her journey provide a glimpse into life in the region in the early years, and indicate that even in the 1780s, Niagara was becoming both waypoint and destination for travelers in the province.

The arrival of Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe in Newark, accompanying her husband John in his capacity as lieutenant governor, provides historians with an excellent source of information about the second phase of growth as the temporary capital of the province and about the activities of its inhabitants, particularly those in the upper echelons of frontier society. Simcoe was a prodigious diarist and artist, recording her experiences and observations in written word and depiction. Her descriptions of Newark and the Niagara District provide insight into the growing settlement and the struggles of the early settlers. Upon her arrival, she lamented “I sat by myself in a miserable, unfinished, damp room, looking on the lake, […] and not a cheerful thought passing through my mind.”⁹⁸ As the Simcoes arranged for their life in Newark, Simcoe grew more comfortable with the town, recording that she played whist, held dances, and dined frequently with other women of upper-class society such as Catherine Hamilton, Catherine McGill, Rachel Crookshank, Madelaine Richardson, and Anne Smith. Many of Simcoe’s observations about the region are focused on the activities of those in her immediate social circle, such as officers and their wives, dignitaries traveling through the area, and other government official. However, she also describes various types of buildings and construction projects, the flora and fauna she encountered, the difficulties of travel at different times of year, and other topics that shaped the lives of all inhabitants of Niagara.

The other particularly useful contribution Elizabeth Simcoe made to the documentation of Niagara were her drawings and paintings of landscapes, houses, forts, and other parts of life in the new settlement. The Archives of Ontario holds 359 artworks by Simcoe, some rough sketches in pencil or ink, others full scenes in watercolor. Her works are some of the only graphic representations of the early settlement in Niagara and often capture subjects that would otherwise be overlooked, such as bridges, mills, Fort Niagara, Navy Hall, ships, sleighs, barracks, and encampments. Her sketches of the house belonging to Christina and Gilbert Tice on the escarpment near the falls are most likely the only depictions of their home, which was one of the inns along the portage road.

Like artwork, which represents an artists’ impression of their surroundings, the oral histories and memoirs of Niagara’s inhabitants can contain useful insights into their lives but must also be evaluated with care. Stories written from memory or passed down to children and later recorded are subject to faulty recollection, intrusion from outside sources, and personal biases that all shape the final narrative. First-hand accounts from women who lived in Niagara, while rare, provide small glimpses of their lives during the early years of settlement and the war. Through her daughter, Elizabeth Quade’s memories of her childhood have been preserved at the local museum and contain her own accounts of familiar scenes. She lived with her family in the lighthouse at Mississauga Point, which the Americans recognized was valuable to both sides and spared during the burning of Newark. Quade recalled, “Many of the people of the town brought furniture and articles of value to our house while the town was burning till the house was full and we could take no more.”¹⁰⁰ She also mentions that on upon the declaration of war, “Some American officers over at Fort George left the King’s Wharf near there and parted with sincere regret.”¹⁰¹ This account seems likely, as it was also recounted in newspapers at the time.¹⁰² Quade also recounted that British commander Major-General Isaac Brock attended church with an American doctor just before the war and said upon their departure, “Good-Bye, when we meet again we shall be enemies.”¹⁰³ Elizabeth Quade’s recollections demonstrate the close relations between the British and American sides of the river and the subsequent rift caused by the war. Although stories of this kind are often collected through various means and printed much later, these contributions to the history of the town provide a personal perspective on some events and are occasionally the only record of other parts of life in the early years of Niagara.

The growth of settlements in Niagara also created a demand for the institutions that support society rather than industry or commerce directly, such as churches, newspapers, a library, and schools. Providing education was one of the acceptable community roles for women and was also formalized enough to produce some documentary evidence. In 1802, an advertisement by Mr. and Mrs. Tyler informed the public that they would soon be opening “a regular day School and night School” to teach “Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.” The Tylers also specified that “young ladies will be instructed in all that is necessary for persons of their sex to appear decently and be useful in the world, and of all that concerns housekeeping, either for those who wish to live in town or country.” The final lines in the notice also mentioned that Mrs. Tyler had been “bred in the line of mantua maker” and would “execute her work in the neatest manner” for “those who may honor her with their custom.”¹⁰⁴ The advertisement demonstrates many of the facets of women’s lives in Niagara and the ways in which men and women navigated social expectations and gendered expectations to survive. The Tyler’s focus on the proper behavior of young women and preparation for a life of housekeeping in any setting highlights that all women, regardless of their position in society or contribution to the larger community, were expected to keep an orderly house. Their provision of board for students and other people who needed healthy lodgings made use of their land and house to generate income. Finally, they mention Mrs. Tyler’s dressmaking skills, yet another socially acceptable way to bring in money. Combining teaching, boarding, and dressmaking to provide for themselves required the contribution of Mrs. Tyler’s education and skills, but also upheld the expectations of women’s responsibilities and passed them on to the next generation.

While some women’s experiences were documented through personal journals and correspondence, many more are represented in official records which resulted from the growth of a provincial bureaucracy centered in the town of Newark. Situated at the northern end of the Niagara River next to Fort George, Newark was the temporary capital of the province when Lieutenant Governor Simcoe chose it as the best place from which to govern. In September 1792, Simcoe convened the first provincial parliament, which he hoped would become a “beneficial Establishment to the Province.”¹⁰⁵ His ambitions for the province at that time outstripped the capacity of the settlements, as there were few buildings in the town suitable for the legislative session. Yet fewer than nine months later, the second session of parliament met in a new government house, “a large, handsome edifice of wood, containing the chambers of the Legislative Council and Assembly, with all the offices necessary for their use, and for the civil and executive officers of the Government.”¹⁰⁶ Although Simcoe would later move the capital to York (now Toronto) in 1796 to better protect it from the Americans, its short tenure as seat of government ensured that the town of Newark and the entire Niagara District, received an influx of officers, officials, lawyers, magistrates, doctors, merchants, and other professionals whose work generated documents that would survive and provide evidence of the region’s rapid growth and the lives of its inhabitants.