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The Village in Niagara-on-the-Lake
The Detailed History
 

STREET NAMES HIGHLIGHT CANADA’S HISTORY

 

How our streets was named.  Our neighbourhood is surrounded by history. Every street bears a reminder of Canada’s roots.

 

Blackbird Street is named for Ottawa Chief Blackbird, whose Algonquian-speaking people were also known as the Odawa. They had suffered grievously in late 1812 at the hands of American troops, who in a long-forgotten atrocity, having killed a number of Odawa, then proceeded to cut the bodies up into little pieces. To add insult to injury, they also dug up graves and scattered the bones of the dead. As Blackbird later told an enquiry: “We thought white people were Christians. They ought to show us a better example.”

 

In July 1813, Chief Blackbird, with 150 warriors, joined the British army at Fort George at the mouth of the Niagara River. They ambushed an American patrol and during heavy fighting near Butler’s Farm, 22 US Infantry soldiers were killed and 12 taken prisoner by a force of Six Nations and Western warriors, led by Chiefs Norton and Blackbird. Lieutenant Joseph Eldridge was one of those killed and American witnesses claimed that he was murdered after being made prisoner.  At the enquiry, the Chief Blackbird continued: “The officer that we killed … fired and wounded one of our colour; another fired at him and killed him. We wished to take him prisoner, but the officer said: ‘God damn,’ and fired, when he was shot. This is all I have to say.”

 

Brock Street is named for Major General Sir Isaac Brock (October 6, 1769 – October 13, 1812). Coincidentally, he is an ancestor, through his younger brother, of one of Brock Street’s residents. About 4 am on October 13, 1812, as commander of the British Forces, he was awakened by the distant sound of cannon fire. He arose at once from his bunk in Fort George and rode quickly through drizzling rain to Queenston, where a force of American soldiers had managed to sneak across the Niagara River and take command of the heights. Rather than wait for reinforcements, he rallied what men he had. “Follow me boys,” he cried, and headed up the escarpment. A sniper fired a musket and Brock was killed instantly. He had been perhaps the most skilled soldier on the British side with many victories behind him. Later, the American force was routed, and Brock’s bravery ensured him a lasting place in our fledgling nation’s history.

 

Brock and his aide-de-camp Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell are both buried in the impressive Brock’s Monument in Queenston Heights Park.

 

Colonel Butler Crescent, which extends from Brock Street into the original Garrison Village, is named for Lieutenant Colonel John Butler (c. April 28, 1728 – May 12, 1796), an American-born official in the British Indian Department, who spoke several Iroquoian languages. During the Revolutionary War he was a Loyalist, who led his Butler’s Rangers in a number of attacks. In return for his services, he was given a land grant in Niagara-on-the-Lake and became a prominent landowner and official, helping to establish the Anglican Church in the area.

 

Colonel Butler is remembered in the restored Butler’s Barracks, and is buried in Butler’s Burial Ground, a delightful spot for a stroll at the end of the path that leads to Two Mile Creek. A bust and cairn on the site of his former homestead are located nearby on Balmoral Drive, where the Butler’s Farm battle was fought. The homestead was burned to the ground by retreating American troops and only recently rediscovered.

 

Colonel Cohoe Street is named for Lieutenant Colonel John Edward Cohoe (March 18, 1871- December 3, 1944), a veteran of World War I, who served in Canada and England in the 4th Infantry Brigade Headquarters. In civilian life he was a High Court Registrar and tax collector. He was an ancestor of The Village’s original developer’s wife, Jane Wright.

 

Cooley Lane is named for Chloe Cooley. She was an enslaved young black woman with a tragic story that had far reaching consequences. When slave owning Americans came to Upper Canada, having sided with the British during the Revolutionary War, they were allowed to bring their slaves with them. Between 500 and 700 enslaved people arrived in the locality, as the Loyalists were given land grants and encouraged to settle here. They joined a small population of Black Loyalists, African-Americans who had been freed for fighting on the British side. When rumours began swirling around that the government was going to free all slaves, owners panicked and started trying to sell off what they considered their “chattels.”

 

Chloe had been bought by Adam Vrooman, a white farmer and former sergeant with Butler's Rangers who fled to Canada from New York. He decided to sell her back into New York, beat her, tied her up and forced her into a small boat on March 14, 1793. Her anguished cries were heard by many witnesses, but Chloe disappeared and was never heard about again. Vrooman was charged with “disturbing the peace,” but the charges were eventually dropped. However, Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe was outraged by this and decided to create legislation to prohibit slavery. The incident was considered a catalyst in the passage of Canada's first and only anti-slavery legislation, which became law on July 9, 1793, 40 years before slavery was abolished in the rest of the British Empire.

 

Chloey Cooley is commemorated by a marker on the river side of the Niagara Parkway, about three kilometres north of York Road in Queenston, the presumed site of her abduction. A stamp in her honour was issued in January 2023.

 

Dietsch Park is named for the late Lord Mayor Michael Dietsch (February 2, 1942 – March 9, 2014), who was an enthusiastic supporter of The Village in the early days.

 

Elizabeth Street is named for developer John Hawley’s late wife, who was so instrumental in moving The Village concept forward, although she always said, with typical modesty, that it was really named after Queen Elizabeth II, whom she greatly admired. Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of the province’s first lieutenant governor, was another homonym. A memorial stone in Liz’s name was recently installed in the parkette at the end of the street.

 

Garrison Village Drive and Rampart Street are named for the neighbourhood’s military connections.

 

Jordan Street is named after the River Jordan, which appears many times in the Bible. It often refers to a freedom that comes after a long season of adversity and waiting, which The Village certainly went through. NOTL was the end of the Underground Railroad route to freedom for escaped enslaved peoples from the United States and the Niagara River was seen as crossing the Jordan. In this context, the waters of the Jordan represent freedom from oppression, breakthrough, and deliverance.

 

Kirby Street is named for William Kirby (October 13, 1817 – June 23, 1906), who was born in England and married and died in NOTL. He was at various times a tanner, journalist, teacher and civil servant. His family had been United Empire Loyalists, driven back to England by the Revolution, which informed his views on America for his whole life. He returned to the US but was disturbed by the effects of Fenian Raids and resolved “to go to Canada and aid in the defence of the Provinces.” He was a staunch supporter of the ruling government of Sir John A. Macdonald, which rewarded him with the lucrative position of collector of customs at Niagara. He later became a newspaper publisher, popular writer and poet. In his latter role, he was a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1882. According to his biography, he was “a Canadian nationalist with progressive ideas about the future of Canada as a bicultural, bilingual country whose heritage included that of both England and France, whose colonial past was heroic, and whose presence as a large dominion was full of promise.”

 

Macdonell Road is named for Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell of Greenfield (April 19, 1785 – October 14, 1812). One of The Village residents is a descendant. Macdonell was a Scot, brought to Upper Canada at the age of seven. Here, he studied law, was elected to the legislature and appointed Attorney-General at the time the War of 1812 broke out. Given the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, he became Secretary and Aide-de-Camp to General Brock. Shortly after Brock was killed at Queenston Heights, he led another attempt to roust the invaders, but was struck by an America musket ball and died the following day.

 

His body was eventually interred, along with Brock’s, in Brock’s Monument. Although there is no mention of him on the outside, there is a plaque on his tomb inside as well as on a cairn where the battle was fought. He is truly one of Canada’s forgotten heroes.

 

Moseby Street is named for Solomon Moseby who in 1837 escaped slavery in Kentucky and settled in Niagara. When his enslaver arrived with an arrest warrant and extradition papers, Moseby was detained in the local jail. Over 200 Black supporters camped outside the jail to protest. When the extradition order was approved, protestors attempted to obstruct his removal, and two of them were killed. However, this gave Moseby time to escape and he fled to England, returning many years later. For African Canadians, this was not just about justice for one man. If his enslaver could use trumped up charges to return him to slavery, they might all be vulnerable to extradition and re-enslavement. This incident helped to establish Canadian extradition and refugee policies that are still used today.

 

Norton Street is named for Mohawk Chief John Norton, who was actually born in Scotland to a Scottish mother and a Cherokee father, taken from North America by British soldiers. Norton enlisted with the army and was posted to Upper Canada in 1785, where he learned the Mohawk language and was adopted by Six Nations Chief Joseph Brant, giving him the status of a chief himself. With the outbreak of the War of 1812, Norton was made a Captain with the aim of recruiting indigenous troops. At the Battle of Queenston Heights, after General Brock and his aide-de-camp Colonel Macdonell were killed, and outnumbered 10 to one, Norton and about 80 Mohawk and Delaware warriors held the heights until reinforcements arrived. Promoted to the brevet rank of Major, Norton continued to support the British with further acts of bravery. His and his fellow warriors’ actions were finally recognized by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2012, with the creation of a special medal. “Canada’s Aboriginal People were, in every sense, key to the victory that firmly established Canada as a distinct country in North America,” the PM said.

 

Perez Road (where the last houses in The Village were completed) was named for the son of Judah, a figure in the Biblical Book of Genesis. Perez in Hebrew means “breach or burst forth” and is named after the narrative of his birth. He is an ancestor of King David and hence eventually, Jesus himself. Liz Hawley picked the name as it signalled the time when they were able to break free from the lawsuit that had delayed building The Village.

 

Samuel Street is named for an early Loyalist family, settled in the area.

 

(Street name information kindly supplied by John Hawley, with additional research by Nigel Napier-Andrews.)

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