Butler’s Rangers Settle Canada
How British land grants brought pioneers to Niagara, Ontario.
Ontario's bountiful Niagara Peninsula was cleared and settled largely by United Empire Loyalists on land that had formerly belonged to First Nations residents.
Ontario’s bountiful Niagara Region is today a thriving tourism mecca known for its abundant peach orchards and vineyards. It was first cleared and farmed by Europeans in the early 1800s; however, it’s important to remember that Native Canadians, whether generously or unwillingly, ceded much of this land to assist the soldiers of Butler’s Rangers, whose lands in the Mohawk Valley were taken from them by war.
In 1781, a treaty was draw up to allow rangers and their families (later known as "United Empire Loyalists"), to settle temporarily on the west side of the Niagara River on Indian land. The British officers were eager to see the soldiers settled, not least because the establishment of farms meant that the British had less responsibility to feed this growing community. When Butler’s Rangers had first formed up in 1777, they had lived in barracks on the west side of the Niagara River, while serving in Fort Niagara on the east. But the Peace Treaty of 1783 drew an new international boundary line right down the middle of the river, so the rangers lost their former farms to the newly formed American territory.
By August of 1782, sixteen families (about 68 people) were settled along the west bank of the Niagara River, and Peter and James Secord (relatives of Canada’s War of 1812 heroine Laura Secord) had announced intentions to build a sawmill and gristmill at the site. By the following year the population had risen to 837, including more than 250 children, and Butler’s Rangers formally disbanded in June of 1784. The original expectation had apparently been that the land would revert to Indian ownership when the British won the war, but since the Americans were victorious, a new treaty was penned in 1784 and confirmed in 1792 to allow for settlement of three million acres stretching to the Thames River.
The soldiers of Butler’s Rangers received land grants of 200 to 1,000 acres each, according to rank. Their children were also entitled to land. Those who did not build a home within two years forfeited their grants, and land records suggest that some did so, but that others may have managed to sell or trade their plots to obtain more favourable sites. (Meanwhile, Iroquois residents of the Finger Lakes region of New York, who had also been displaced, were offered new territory at what is now Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario.)
When Rev. Robert Addison arrived at Niagara to serve as a minister to the area in the summer of 1792, there were about 800 families along the shore of Lake Ontario, on the west bank of the Niagara River to Fort Erie, and on the shore of Lake Erie as well. By this time, a few very small villages had sprung up, and water was being used to operate mills.
The lives of these pioneer settlers could not have been easy. J. Brierly’s history of nearby Elgin County, where many children of Butler’s Rangers ended up, states that "...(A)fter they had enough land cleared to grow a little wheat, they, perhaps, had to carry it to the mill fifty or sixty miles, or grind it in hollowed stumps, using rounded stones for stamping it flat. The majority, however, carried their sacks of wheat to mill, and the flour home again. The entire land was covered with forest, the foliage sometimes forming a complete arch, obscuring the sun’s rays for great distances, making it difficult to find their way. (...) In spring and summer the settlers worked what pieces of land they had cleared, sowing the seed in amongst stumps and logs, the harvest being cut with small, one-handed sickles, and bound in sheaves. The winter time was mostly given to chopping and clearing. (...) The prices of all goods were very high, tea for instance being $2 per pound. Sugar was also very dear, but not much of this was purchased, the maple affording a reasonable supply. For meat the deer and bear were hunted, these animals being very plentiful at that time. Wolves also roamed about in large numbers, making it very difficult to travel through the forest for long distances." A far cry from the easy life that Niagara residents now enjoy!
Sources:
- Butler’s Rangers, The Revolutionary Period by E.A. Cruikshank (Lundy’s Lane Historical Society, 1893)
- Early Settlers in Niagara (Ontario Genealogical Society)
- A Pioneer History: Elgin County by J. Brierly (1896, reprinted 1972)
- Rangers Choose Land to Settle in Canada - email from Maggie Parnell to the Niagara Historical Society (archives of the Niagara Historical Society Museum, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario
- Register of St. Paul’s Church at Fort Erie, 1836-1844, with introduction by E.A. Cruikshank (Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records, Vol. 27, 1931)
