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• William Buell, Sr. 1751-1832
  Renowned as the founder of Brockville, Buell was born in Hebron, Connecticut. Shortly after the outbreak of the American Revolution, he moved to Quebec where he joined the British forces and eventually served as a commissioned officer in the King's Rangers. In 1784, after his unit had been disbanded, he settled on a Crown grant here in the centre of present-day Brockville. One of the area's first permanent residents, Buell became an influential local citizen...

• Ogle Robert Gowan 1803-1876
  A prominent provincial politician, Gowan was born in County Wexford, Ireland. He came to Upper Canada in 1829 and immediately immersed himself in political affairs. Drawing upon his experience with the Irish Orange Order, Gowan established the Grand Orange Lodge of British North America in 1830 and, as the first Canadian grand master, ably guided the organization during its formative years. In 1836 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly, representing this area intermittently until...

• Johnstown District Court House and Gaol
  In 1808, the provincial government authorized the erection of a court house and gaol at Elizabethtown (Brockville) to serve the District of Johnstown created ten years earlier. By 1811, a brick structure had been built here on land donated by William Buell, the founder of Brockville. It was replaced in 1824 by a larger building which remained the judicial and administrative centre of the region until the present court house was completed in 1843. Prominently...

• Roebuck Indian Village Site
  Approximately 500 years ago, an Iroquoian agricultural community of about 1,600 persons occupied this site. Archaeological excavations suggest that approximately 40 communal longhouses, averaging nearly 100 feet in length, stood in this village, palisaded with a stout double stockade. The farmers on the site grew corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. A similar village, Hochelaga, on the present site of Montreal, was visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535. After this first contact with Europeans, these...

• Lyndhurst Bridge, The
  Reputedly the oldest bridge in existence in Ontario, this structure was built in 1856-57. It was designed by John Roddick, then an employee of a prominent local mill owner, and erected by contractors Miles Fulford and Simon Ransom. A fine example of masonry arch construction, the picturesque three-span bridge was built of local field stone, laid in random courses, and is unadorned except for the sandstone wall caps and arch surrounds. It is distinguished by...

• Lieutenant-Colonel John By, R.E.
  Born in London, England, about 1779, By graduated from the Royal Military academy, Woolwich, in 1799. He was attached to the Royal Engineers in Canada (1802-1811) and later served in the Peninsular War. By was sent to Canada in 1826 to superintend the construction of an Ottawa River - Lake Ontario waterway from "Bytown" (Ottawa) to Kingston. The 123-mile-long Rideau Canal, built as a military route and incorporating 47 locks, 16 lakes, two rivers, and...

• Admiral Sir Charles Edmund Kingsmill 1855-1935
  Admiral Sir Charles Edmund Kingsmill was the founder of the Canadian Navy. Born in Guelph, Ontario, he attended Upper Canada College and in 1869, entered the Royal Navy in Britain. In 1908, he returned to Canada to advise Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier on the creation of a Canadian navy. He served as the first director of the naval service from 1910-1920 and saw the new navy safely through a period of limited resources and...

• Chaffey's Mills
  Prominent early millers in Eastern Ontario, Benjamin and Samuel Chaffey were born in Somerset, England and came to Upper Canada in 1816. After settling briefly in Perth they moved to Elizabethtown (Brockville) where they operated mercantile and milling ventures. Encouraged by local residents to establish mills along the Rideau River, they chose this location in 1820. Samuel settled here soon after, effecting many improvements to the site. By 1827 an extensive complex including a distillery...

• "Pirate" Johnston 1782-1870
  At nearby Wellesley Island on the night of May 29-30, 1838, a band of Upper Canadian rebels and their American supporters burned the Canadian steamer "Sir Robert Peel." The attackers, about thirteen in number, were led by William "Bill" Johnston, a former Canadian who had fled to the U.S. during the War of 1812. He became a trader and smuggler and, in 1838, was appointed Commodore of the "Patriot" army. He participated in several attacks upon Canada during the Rebellion and subsequently settled in Clayton, New York, where he became keeper of a lighthouse.

• Abel Stevens
  Born at Quaker Hill, New York, about 1750, Stevens served as a British agent during the Revolutionary War despite being enrolled in the rebel militia. After the war, he lived in Vermont where, as an ardent Baptist, he became a deacon in 1786. Attracted by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe's offer of land in Upper Canada, he moved to the province and settled in this area in 1796. A vigorous colonizer, Stevens within two years of his arrival...

• Blockhouse Island
  On this island, formerly known as Hospital Island, stood the sheds erected to house emigrants who were victims of cholera in the great epidemic of 1832. Many persons died here, including Doctor Robert Gilmour a native of Scotland and president of the first Board of Health in Upper Canada, who was stricken while attending the sick. During the Rebellion of 1837-38, a blockhouse was erected here for the defence of Brockville. It was destroyed by fire in 1860.

• Blue Church, The
  On January 1, 1790, inhabitants of Augusta and Elizabethtown townships agreed to build a church here in the "burying yard" of the proposed town of "New Oswegatchie." Subscriptions were inadequate and nothing was built by 1804 when Barbara Heck, the founder of Methodism in Upper Canada, was buried here. In 1809, Anglicans of Augusta and Elizabethtown built a frame chapel, later called the "Blue Church," which served the parish until St. James, Maitland, was opened...

• Brockville Tunnel 1860, The
  Construction of Canada's first railway tunnel, which runs from this point for 1,730 feet in a northerly direction, began in September 1854. Designed to give the Brockville and Ottawa Railway access to the riverfront, it was opened on December 31, 1860. This railway, incorporated in 1853, ran from Brockville to Sand Point near Arnprior, with a branch line from Smiths Falls to Perth. Its first train left Brockville's Grand Trunk station on January 25, 1859...

• Brockville, Westport and Sault Ste. Marie Railway, The
  This railway received its charter in 1884, and on July 1, 1888, began service between Westport and Brockville, a distance of 45 miles. Lack of funds prevented the extension of this ambitious line toward its intended destination, Sault Ste. Marie, but it operated for 15 years. In 1903, unable to meet obligations incurred during construction, it was taken over by an American trust company and reorganized as the Brockville, Westport and North-Western Railway. That company...

• Bytown and Prescott Railway Company 1850, The
  This company, incorporated in 1850, built a railway from Prescott to Bytown (Ottawa) for the shipment of lumber and farm products to the markets of the northeastern United States and Montreal. Substantial funds were raised at Bytown, Prescott and other municipalities along the line. In 1851, Walter Shanly, Chief Engineer, started construction, and a train first ran from Prescott to Bytown on Christmas Day 1854. The railway, renamed the Ottawa and Prescott in 1855, was...

• Capture of Ogdensburg 1813, The
  On the morning of February 22, 1813, Lieutenant-Colonel "Reg George" MacDonell of the Glengarry Light Infantry set out from Prescott with a force of some 480 regulars and militia to capture the strong United States post at Ogdensburg. The attack was made in retaliation for the recent American raid on Brockville and was contrary to the orders of the commander-in-chief, Sir George Prevost. Advancing across the ice, MacDonell's force presented an easy target for the enemy artillery, but after a fierce battle of about two hours, the American garrison of some 500 men was routed and Ogdensburg fell.

• Christ Church
  Begun in 1831 and completed the following year, this frame church was designed in the Gothic revival style, customarily used in churches of that period. The Anglican congregation had been formed about 1822 in this part of Marlborough and Oxford Townships, where the earliest settlers on the Rideau had located. It was ministered to by the Reverend Robert Blakey, Rector of Prescott, until 1829 when the Reverend Henry Patton was appointed missionary to the region...

• Colonel Edward Jessup 1735-1816
  Born in Stamford, Connecticut, he forfeited 500,000 acres near Albany, New York, by taking up arms for the King on the outbreak of the American Revolution. He raised the Loyal (Jessup's) Rangers and served under Burgoyne. This corps was disbanded at the end of the war, its members settling in the present Leeds and Grenville Counties, and on the Bay of Quinte. In return for his services, Jessup received extensive lands from the Crown. In 1810, a townsite was surveyed on this grant, which he named after Robert Prescott, Governor-in-Chief of Canada, 1797-1807.

• Colonel Joel Stone 1749-1833
  Born in Guildford, Connecticut, Stone forfeited his extensive property there by serving with Loyalist militia during the American Revolution. He came to Canada in 1786 and in 1789 received 700 acres of land on the west bank of the Gananoque River, where he built a sawmill and grist-mill and established a mercantile business. Appointed a justice of the peace in 1800 and colonel of the 2nd Leeds Militia in 1809, he was in command when United States forces raided his village in September 1812. The settlement established by Stone formed the nucleus of the present town of Gananoque.

• Dr. Lorne Pierce 1890-1961
  Editor of The Ryerson Press 1920-1960, Pierce was born at Delta and devoted his life to the promotion of Canadian literature. He established scholarships at several Canadian universities and, in 1926, presented the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal for distinguished authorship by a Canadian. He edited the "Makers of Canadian Literature" and the "Ryerson Poetry Chap-books." His writings include: "An Outline of Canadian Literature" (1927); "A Canadian People" (1945); "A Canadian Nation" (1960)...

• Elizabeth Rabb Beatty 1856-1939
  One of the earliest Canadian female medical missionaries, Elizabeth Rabb Beatty was born near Caintown and moved to Lansdowne where she attended local schools. She taught in Leeds County before entering Queen's University, Kingston, to study medicine. Graduating in 1884, she was sent by the Presbyterian Women's Foreign Missionary Society to Indore, Central India. Two years later, she was joined by another medical missionary, Dr. Marion Oliver, with whom she co-operated in the opening of...

• Forsyth's Raid 1813
  On the night of February 5-6, 1813, Major Benjamin Forsyth of the United States Army, with a detachment of regulars and militia numbering about 200 men, crossed the frozen St. Lawrence River from Morristown, N.Y., and attacked Brockville. The village was garrisoned by a company of Leeds Militia who, taken by surprise, could offer no resistance. The invaders released prisoners from the jail, took a quantity of arms, horses and cattle, and carried off a number of residents. The resentment aroused by this raid led to the successful British attack on Ogdensburg, N.Y., February 22, 1813.

• Forwarding Trade at Prescott, The
  Before the completion of the canals between here and Montreal in 1847, Prescott was the eastern terminus of Great Lakes navigation. Established at the head of Galops Rapids in 1810, it soon became a centre for the forwarding, or shipping, trade and an important centre in Montreal's commercial system. One of the earliest forwarders at Prescott was Captain William Gilkison, who began operations on this property about 1811. As the population of Upper Canada increased...

• Founding of Burritt's Rapids, The
  In 1793, Stephen and Daniel Burritt, two brothers from Arlington, Vermont, settled in this vicinity. A bridge, sawmill and school were built here at "Daniel Burritt's Rapids" before 1826. In 1830, Henry Burritt, Daniel's nephew, began to develop his property on the Oxford side of the river. By 1831, a store, tavern and several houses were built and, on the Marlborough Township side, Christ Church was begun. A post office called "Burritt's Rapids" was opened...

• Founding of Cardinal, The
  The grist-mill built at Point Cardinal by Hugh Munro about 1796 fostered the development here of a small settlement. A sawmill and store were later erected and, in 1837, a post-office, "Edwardsburgh", was established. In 1858, attracted by abundant water power and the operation of the Galops shipping canal (1846) and the Grand Trunk Railway (1855), William T. Benson and Thomas Aspden founded the Canada Starch Works. Its prosperity stimulated the growth of Elgin, as...

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