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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...

• 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.

• 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...

• 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.

• George Chaffey 1848-1932
  Born at Brockville, Canada West, Chaffey became a shipbuilder on the Great Lakes and the inventor of a new type of propeller. Subsequently, he went to California where, in partnership with his brother, he built a model irrigation project and founded the city of Ontario. At the request of Alfred Deakin, later Prime Minister of Australia, Chaffey went to that continent in 1886 where he began irrigated fruit production in the Murray Valley. By proving that irrigation was practical, Chaffey was largely responsible for the successful development of the fruit industry in Australia.

• Senator George T. Fulford 1852-1905
  Born and raised in Brockville, George Taylor Fulford apprenticed at his brother's drugstore and took charge of it himself at age 22. Five years later, he was elected to the first of 12 terms as alderman. Fulford entered the patent-medicine trade in 1886, and in 1890 acquired the rights to his most famous product, "Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People." His use of large-scale newspaper testimonial advertising helped expand his business internationally. His headquarters...

• James Morris 1798-1865
  A prominent Canadian politician, Morris was born in Paisley, Scotland. His family immigrated to Canada in 1801 and later settled in Elizabethtown (Brockville). He joined his brothers, Alexander and William, in business there, about 1820, and by 1836 had gained prominence in commercial and banking circles. Morris represented Leeds in the provincial legislature from 1837 until his appointment to the Legislative Council in 1844. Named first Canadian Postmaster-General in 1851, when responsibility for that service...