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• Brock University
  Resolutions by the Allanburg Women's Institute and the Welland County Council resulted in the founding of the Niagara Peninsula Joint Committee on Higher Education in 1958. The work of this group led to the establishment, in 1962, of the Brock University Founders' Committee headed by Dr. Arthur A. Schmon, who announced the selection of the DeCew Falls site in 1963. The University, chartered by a provincial Act, March 1964, was named after Major-General Sir Isaac...

• Mack Centre of Nursing Education, The
  Dr. Theophilus Mack (1820-1881) emigrated from Dublin to Upper Canada with his family in 1832. He received his medical education at the Military Hospital at Amherstburg and at Geneva College, New York. Settling in St. Catharines in 1844, he was instrumental in founding the General and Marine Hospital in this city. In 1874, Dr. Mack, understanding the need for trained and disciplined nurses, established the St. Catharines Training School for Nurses. This school, using the...

• William Hamilton Merritt 1793-1862
  A pioneer in the field of transportation, Merritt was born in Bedford, New York and settled at Twelve Mile Creek (St. Catharines) with his Loyalist family in 1796. He served with the provincial cavalry during the War of 1812, then operated mercantile and milling enterprises here. Primarily responsible for the construction of the first Welland Canal (1824-33), Merritt worked tirelessly to promote this ambitious venture, both by raising funds and by enlisting government support. During...

• Ridley College
  One of Ontario's most prominent independent boarding schools, this college, named for a 16th-century Christian martyr, was opened in 1889. It was established by Anglican churchmen to provide boys with a sound preparatory education and to instill in them enduring moral and spiritual values. Initially housed in a converted sanatorium, Ridley expanded steadily, adding a junior school, reputedly the first of its kind in Canada, in 1899 and moving all facilities to this site by...

• Royal Canadian Henley Regatta, The
  The nearby waterway, a part of the first Welland Canal constructed in 1824-29, is the course used for the annual Royal Canadian Henley Regatta. Competitive rowing became popular in Canada during the 1860s and 1870s, and in 1880, the Canadian Association of Amateur Oarsmen was formed in Toronto. This body held an annual regatta for international oarsmen in various Canadian centres until, in 1903, Port Dalhousie was selected as the permanent site. This rowing event, inspired by the famous regatta held yearly at Henley-on-Thames in England, has become one of the largest in the world.

• Founding of St. Catharines, The
  Before this region was settled, several Indian trails intersected here at a ford in Twelve Mile Creek. They were improved by early settlers and a church was erected at the crossroads by 1798. A tavern soon followed and a settlement, known as St. Catharines or Shipman's Corners, developed. After the War of 1812, the community expanded largely through the efforts of William Hamilton Merritt. He was the chief promoter of the first Welland Canal, built...

• Louis Shickluna 1808-1880
  A prominent Canadian shipbuilder, Shickluna was born in Malta, where he worked before emigrating to North America. By 1835, he was engaged in ship construction at Youngstown, New York. Three years later, attracted by the traffic stimulated by the Welland Canal's completion in 1833, he purchased a shipyard on the Canal at St. Catharines. Shickluna steadily expanded his operations, which contributed significantly to the commercial prosperity of the region. Between 1838 and 1880 he directed...

• Harriet Ross Tubman c.1820-1913
  A legendary conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman became known as the "Moses" of her people. Tubman was born into slavery on a Maryland plantation and suffered brutal treatment from numerous owners before escaping in 1849. Over the next decade, she returned to the American South many times and led hundreds of freedom seekers north. When the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed slave owners to recapture runaways in the northern free states, Tubman...

• First Welland Canal 1824-1833, The
  Lock number 6 of the original Welland Canal lies in the adjacent watercourse about 700 feet south-west of here. This first or "wooden" canal, constructed 1824-33 by the Welland Canal Company, ran from Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario to Port Colborne on Lake Erie. William Hamilton Merritt was its chief promoter. With the opening of the canal as far as Port Robinson in 1829, lake boats reached Lake Erie via the Welland and Niagara Rivers...

• Colonel Graham Thomson Lyall, V.C. 1892-1941
  Graham Thomson Lyall emigrated from Britain in 1911, eventually settling in Niagara Falls where he worked for the Canadian Niagara Power Company. In 1914, at the start of the First World War, Lyall enlisted in the 19th "Lincoln" Regiment at St. Catharines. Later, he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and fought at the Somme in 1916, Arras and Ypres in 1917, and Amiens in 1918. On September 27 and October 1, 1918, Lyall led his...

• Reverend Anthony Burns 1834-1862, The
  Born a slave in Virginia, Burns escaped from servitude in 1854 and fled to Boston, where he was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Abolitionists came to his defence and serious riots ensued. This was the last trial of a fugitive slave in Massachusetts. Four months after his return to his owner in Virginia, he was sold to a North Carolina planter. However, in 1855, Burns was ransomed with money raised by the...

• Richard Pierpoint c. 1744 - c. 1838
  One of the first Black settlers in this region, Pierpoint was born in Senegal. At the age of about 16, he was imprisoned and shipped to America where he became the slave of a British officer. During the American Revolution, he enlisted in the British forces, thereby gaining his freedom, and served with Butler's Rangers. Disbanded at Niagara, "Captain Dick" settled near here. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, he joined the Coloured...

• Lance-Corporal Fred Fisher, V.C. 1894-1915
  Born at St. Catharines, August 3, 1894, Fred Fisher was a student at McGill University when World War I broke out. He enlisted in the 13th Battalion, First Division, Canadian Expeditionary Force, September 23, 1914. Fisher was awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in operations near St. Julien, April 23, 1915, during the second battle of Ypres, the first major engagement in which Canadian troops were involved. While under very heavy fire, he led his...