October 1814 Stories

First Edition Published May 21, 2016

Second Edition Published October 1, 2017

Third Edition Published October 2, 2020

Copyright by Fred Blair

 

Changes and Additions are in Blue Print.

 

October 1, 1814

 

At Presquile

 

            John Farmer had a boat captured by the Americans at Presquile Harbour on the north shore of Lake Ontario.  Elias Jones of Hamilton Township had purchased goods at Kingston and was shipping them west on that boat.  Among his lost goods were cotton, flaxen sheeting, flannel, shirting, muslin, cambric, satin, silk, diaper cloth, indigo, hose, gloves, tape, ribbon, pocket books, combs, razors, whip lashes, bonnet wire, buttons, scissors, knives, forks, spoons, latches, pewter tea pots, needles, salt peter, brushes, pipes, bonnets, children’s hats, fancy borders, shawls, and

 

A dozen pairs of men’s worsted hose at 24 shillings a dozen

1 dozen pair of women’s black cotton hose at 66 shillings

100 best quills at over 1 pound

2 dozen black lead pencils at 10 shillings a dozen

6 dozen iron tinned teaspoons at 4 shillings each

6 double bolted padlocks at 26 shillings each

6 claw hammers at 28 shillings each

3 pewter tea pots (3 pints) at 10 shillings each

100 gun flints at 6 shillings

A pair of shoe brushes at 3 shillings

A dozen cakes of blacking at 6 shillings

A child’s coloured wool hat at 10 shillings

A man’s wool hat #12 at 14 shillings

A dozen half pint tumblers at 12.5 shillings

An iron tea kettle at 25 shillings

A dozen green and blue edged table plates at 8.5 shillings

A keg sweet scented plug tobacco (70 pounds) at 2.75 shilling per pound

Jamaica Spirits at 11.5 shillings a gallon [1]

 



 

            In 1802, when he was about 33 years old, Elias Jones had opened the first store in Cobourg, Northumberland County.[2]  During the war he served as a major in the 1st Northumberland Militia. 

By 1812, Cobourg had two grain mills, a tannery, a saw mill, and a distillery.  The main roadway in the area was the Danforth Road which the British used to transport prisoners to Kingston with the help of the local militia.[3]

 

October 4, 1814

 

On Lake Erie

 

            John Richardson and his fellow exchange prisoners were picked up at Fort Stephenson in Michigan and taken by boat to Cleveland about the beginning of October.  They had been held there since August 29th waiting for a vessel to carry them home.

            On the lake, high winds upset the boat close to land but the men were able turn the boat upright and to wade with it to shore.  Clothing and blankets were soaked through and the men had to spend the night on the beach as no settlements were near.  One of the officers perished from his illness before dawn.  An American officer was later able to purchase “a few potatoes and a small quantity of rancid butter” but this did not appease their hunger.  The boat finally brought them to the beach below Cleveland where they consumed large quantities of peaches that were growing close to shore.

            The following morning, on this day, they sailed across to Long Point in Upper Canada.  The fever that John had acquired at Fort Stephenson in Michigan would drag on for another 5 months.  After it had passed, he joined the King’s Regiment in Montreal and sailed with them to England.  He would not return to Upper Canada until 1837.[4]

 

October 8, 1814

 

On the Niagara Frontier

 

            Bugler and Drummer John Bertrand of the Incorporated Militia was accidentally wounded by the discharge of a companion’s musket during the retreat from Fort Erie to Chippawa.  His right arm had to be amputated.  He received support from the Loyal and Patriotic Society and a pension after the war.[5] [6] [7]

 

October 10, 1814

 

            After the war, Adam Beam of Bertie Township made a war loss claim for the loss of his bridge across the Black Creek.  British General Dewaterfield had ordered the Glengarry Light Infantry to destroy the bridge so that the Americans could not use it to cross the creek.  They pulled part of it down and set fire to the remainder.  On October 15th the Americans arrived at his farm and took a large sheep, three skips of honey bees, a breeding mare, and a load of hay.[8]

 

October 14, 1814

 

            Stephen Skinner, of Crowland Township, was on picket guard with the mounted militia on the road at Cooksmills when the Americans were spotted advancing towards them.  Lieutenant Ozias Buchner, of the 3rd Lincoln Militia, ordered the militia men to dismount and engage the enemy on foot in the swamp.  Forced to retreat, Stephen discovered that his horse was too far down the road to retrieve before the enemy would be upon them and abandoned the horse as he fled.

            Amos Morris, of the same township, reported that a party of Americans came to his house after the Battle of Cook’s Mills and found Stephen’s mare loose in the laneway.  The Americans told him that the horse was needed to help carry off the wounded from the battle.[9]

 

October 17, 1814

 

            Richard Yokum, of Crowland Township, saw two of Noah Cook’s sons hiding 2 barrels of flour in the woods.  Noah and Calvin Cook had mills within a quarter mile of Richards home.  Richard was aware that the American army was approaching and thought that the Cook’s hiding place was a good one.  He took some of his own valuables and hid them there as well.  Two days later when he returned to the hiding place, he found that the secret cache had been discovered by the Americans and all the goods hidden there had been taken.[10]

            In 1799 a grist mill had been built on Lyon’s Creek by the Yokom family.  Just prior to the war, Calvin Cook had purchased that mill and also built a tannery, sawmill, and distillery.  The community became known as Cook’s Mills.[11]

 

October 18, 1814

 

            Having learned that an American force was advancing from Black Creek to Cook’s Mills, Gordon Drummond sent a detachment of British forces to intercept them at the mills before they could cross the Chippawa River.  He also issued orders to destroy Brown’s Bridge across the Chippawa to prevent the American’s crossing that river.  Alexander Brown, an ensign in the 2nd Lincoln Militia, had built the bridge and as well as his home on the opposite side of the Chippawa.  Although he would lose his bridge, his family and home would probably be kept out of harm’s way.  Fortunately, the American’s were stopped at Cook’s Mills before reaching the river and his bridge was not destroyed.[12]

 

October 19, 1814

The Battle of Cook’s Mills

 

            American pickets east of the mills were attacked by the Glengarry Light Infantry and the 82nd, 100th, and 104th Regiments.  The British held the high ground north of Lyons Creek with a field gun and rockets.  The Americans left the wooded ravine to the south and outflanked the British.  The British regiment was forced to retreat.  The American’s captured the mills and dumped the grain and flour there into the mill pond.  The British force had 19 casualties.[13] [14]

            What were the Glengarry Light Infantry losses?

            Noah and Calvin Cook claimed for the loss of 25 bushels of wheat and a barrel of flour, some of which was hidden in the woods 2 days before.  They also lost 7 hogs, a chopping axe, 2 pots, a big coat, part of a set of harness, and 24 panes of glass in a sash.[15]

 

October 21, 1814

 

            Captain William Elliott reported that Francis Crooks, a merchant in Grimsby Township, supplied 30 pair of shoes for the Western tribesmen.  The Reverend Reynolds paid him 11 shillings, 3 pence per pair.[16]

 

October 22, 1814

 

At Detroit

 

            The American Brigadier General Duncan McArthur left Detroit with 650 mounted riflemen and 70 Indigenous allies and led a stealthy attack on Upper Canada by going north of Lake St. Clair to Baldoon and then to the Thames River.

 

In Norfolk County

 

            Captain William Francis had been captured earlier in Woodhouse Township by American raiders and was taken to Buffalo with 6 of his cattle.  Some of these men were captured at the Battle of Nanticoke at John Dunham’s home and Francis captured Isaiah Brinks at Fort Erie.  Francis and his son Thomas testified against these men at the Ancaster Assizes in 1813.  On October 22nd, the Dickson gang, composed of friends and relatives of the men tried, came to William’s home and shot at him through his upstairs bedroom window.  A shot hit him in the head.  They then set the house and his buildings on fire and carried off what property they could transport.  William’s charred remains were buried near the house.  Thomas escaped the same fate because he was not at home at the time.

            William was a Loyalist who had settled in the township and a captain in the Norfolk Militia.  Francis was born about 1750 and the husband of Catherine Bowlby.[17]

            After the war, Thomas Francis made a war loss claim for 187 pounds and 12 shillings for his father’s lost property.  He received 127 pounds and 10 shillings.  The losses were itemized as:

 

3 oxen

1 cow

Household furniture

Provisions taken and destroyed

2 sheep

1 fuser

2 houses burnt

3000 feet of boards burnt[18]

 

In Dundas County

 

            Private John McK… of the Dundas Militia lost an eye in an accident and received a pension after the war because of the resulting disability.[19]  Who was he?

 

October 24, 1814

 

At York

 

            A Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery was held at York in the Home District by Justice Thomas Scott.  Thomas Dowland was found guilty of larceny and was sentenced to be imprisoned for 2 calendar months.

            Stephen Cody and Andrew Patterson were both found guilty of sedition and were sentenced to be imprisoned for one month, to pay a fine of 20 pounds, and to remain in prison until their fines were paid.

            Lewis Lyons was found guilty of stealing from the dwelling house of Harklan Lyons and was sentenced to be hanged until dead.[20]

 

            Lewis was the son of Harker/Harcar Lyons and Marcia Peer who arrived in Upper Canada from the United States sometime before 1794.  Both men served in the 2nd York Militia during the war, Harcar as a sergeant and Lewis as a private.[21]

 

            Lewis was held in prison in Burlington and made requests for a pardon in 1814 and 1815.  In January, 1815, Judge Thomas Scott reported that the Attorney General would initiate a pardon for Lewis.[22]

 

October 25, 1814

 

On the Niagara Frontier

 

            Captain Robert Land of the 5th Lincoln Militia was collecting supplies of flour and grain until December 24th.[23]

 

October 31, 1814

 

In Ancaster Township

 

            Benjamin Smith’s diary entries for this month were too faint to read.

 

Upper Canadian Service Deaths

 

Private Henry Bartholomew, 1st York, disease, October 14 or 20, 1814

Widow Catharine Bartholomew

Private William Clow, teamster, Leeds, illness, October 22, 1814

Widow Sophia Clow

Acting Sailing Master James Miller, Provincial Marine, illness while a prisoner of war,

October 9, 1814, widow Theates Miller

Private Benjamin Smith, Prince Edward, disease, October 31, 1814,

Orphaned children to Christiana Cummings, his widow who remarried [24] [25] [26]

 

Sources:


[1] Collections Canada, War of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1129, pages 548-569.

[2] Trees by Dan, http://www.treesbydan.com/p2539.htm, accessed March 14, 2015.

[3] The Early History of Cobourg, http://www.eagle.ca/westhistory/early_history_of_cobourg.htm, accessed March 14, 2015.

[4] Major John Richardson, Richardson’s War of 1812, edited by Alexander Casselman, Coles Publishing Company, Toronto, 1974, pages 291-293.

[5] Richard Feltoe, Redcoated Ploughboys:  The Volunteer Battalion of Incorporated Militia of Upper Canada, 1813-1815, Dundurn Press, 2012, page 396.

[8] Collections Canada, War of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1126, pages 216-219.

[9] Collections Canada, War of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1133, page 647.

[10] Collections Canada, War of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1131, page 636.

[11] Cook’s Mills, Welland, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooks_Mills,_Welland, accessed April 22, 2015.

[12] Geraldine R. (Brown) Wilson, More Than a Mere Matter of Marching, Ontario Genealogical Society, Niagara Peninsula Branch, 2013, pages 14-15.

[13] Cook’s Mills, Welland, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooks_Mills,_Welland, accessed April 22, 2015.

[14] Canada’s Military History, Facebook Group, July 12, 2019.

[15] Collections Canada, War of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1131, page 633.

[16] Collections Canada, War of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1134, page 808.

[17] Forces of Lord Selkirk Facebook Group, Oct. 22, 2018 posting.

[18] Collections Canada, War of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses, Microfilm t-1136, page 531.

[19] Pension Poster – Casualties, January 1, 1817, Nelles Family Fonds, Ref. Code F 542,

box MU 2192, Ontario Archives, Toronto.

[20] Linda Corupe, U.E., Upper Canada Justice, Early Assize Court Records of Ontario, Vol. 2, 1810-1818, transcribed and indexed 2008, pages 142-145.

[21] Lorine Schulze’s Peer family history, from correspondence in 2012-2013.

[22] Linda Corupe, U.E., Upper Canada Justice, Early Assize Court Records of Ontario, Vol. 2, 1810-1818, transcribed and indexed 2008, page 393.

[23] Collections Canada, War of 1812:  Upper Canada Returns, Norminal Rolls and Paylists, Microfilm t-10386, page 1087.

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