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Our forefathers began their pioneer work in Norfolk early in the closing decade of last century. Previous to 1790 not a single forest tree, probably, had ever been felled by a permanent white settler. It may be asked, what of our county area during all the countless ages which preceded the coming of the old pioneers—this splendid area which now contains so many smiling farms and beautiful, comfortable homes? It is not the desire of the writer of this volume of pioneer sketches to encroach upon territory belonging to our future county historian; but before introducing the old pioneers it is but relevant to my work to give a brief digest of the little that is known of the country previous to their coming. This may have a tendency to create in the minds of our people a desire to know more, and instead of forestalling, it will strengthen the demand for a full and complete history of the county. Such histories have been perfected in other counties, and Norfolk, the elder sister of the counties that surround her, will surely fall in line.
The historical facts contained in the subjoined sketch were gleaned from the able contributions of James H. Coyne, C. O. Ermatinger, and K. W. McKay, in the publication of the Elgin Historical and Scientific Institute, entitled “Historical Sketches of the County of Elgin.” Up to within a little more than a century and a half of the time when Dr. Troyer erected his log cabin on the flats just east of Port Rowan, the district comprising the County of Norfolk and adjoining counties had never been traversed by a European—at least history is silent as to such visitation previous to the year 1626. At this time our county was a portion of the territory owned and occupied by a nation of aborigines known to the French as the “Neutrals.” The Neutral country included all of the western peninsula of Ontario lying beyond a line drawn from the west end of Lake Ontario to the mouth of the Maitland River. They were called Neutrals on account of the strict neutrality maintained during the wars between the Hurons and the Iroquois.
Champlain visited the Bruce Peninsula in 1616. In his description of this visit he states that the Neutrals were a powerful nation, holding a large extent of country and numbering 4,000 warriors. He says they lived two days southward and he had a great desire to go and see them, but was dissuaded from doing so by the Ottawas and other adjoining tribes. Good reasons were assigned for the admonition given, and Champlain concluded to forego the pleasure of visiting their country.
The European who first visited the Neutral country was a Recollet father named De Laroche-Daillon. He was accompanied by two Frenchmen—Grenolle and La Vallée, and on October 23rd, 1626, they arrived at one of the Neutral villages. They were hospitably entertained and amply supplied with venison, pumpkins and “neintahouy.” The surprise shown by the Indians clearly indicated that they had never before been visited by a Christian missionary. Daillon was kindly received, visited several of their villages and remained with them three months. They adopted him as a citizen and child of the country, and entrusted him to the care of their great chief, Souharissen. The Neutrals had twenty-eight villages, besides several small hamlets of seven or eight cabins built in different parts of the country as hunting, fishing, and farming stations. Souharissen was mighty in war, and the authority wielded by him had no parallel among the other tribes. War clubs and bows were the weapons used, and the Neutral warriors were adept in using them.
Father Daillon was very much pleased with the country. He declared it was the most beautiful of all the countries he had seen. He noted the abundance of deer, and the Indian mode of capturing them by driving them into gradually narrowing inclosures. He refers to moose, beaver, wild-cats, bustards, turkeys, cranes, etc., as being abundant, and remarks upon the squirrels as being larger than those of France. It was the winter season, and yet he describes the natives as being “entirely unclad” and lazy and immoral.
After Daillon’s visit the Neutrals were left to themselves for fourteen years, when two Jesuits—Breboeuf and Chaumonot—traversed their country. About this time crude maps of the Neutral country appeared showing several towns, none of which is shown as being within our county limits. The priests were instructed to establish a mission, and on November 6th 1640, they arrived at the Neutral village, which is supposed to have been located near the present site of Brantford. The missionaries wandered from village to village, and, owing to the circulation and malicious reports by the emissaries of neighboring tribes, they were subject to great hardships. They remained four months and visited eighteen villages, to each of which they gave a Christian name. Becoming disheartened, they determined to leave the country, but being caught in a heavy fall of snow at a village supposed to have been located near the present site of Woodstock, they lodged in the cabin of a squaw for twenty-five days.
The Neutrals were frequently at war with the Nation of Fire, whose dominions were to the west of the Detroit River. In 1643, about 2,000 Neutrals invaded their country, and, after killing a large number, carried off 800 captives. It is said that at this time the Nation of Fire was more numerous than the Neutrals, the Hurons and the Iroquois all combined, which speaks much for the fighting qualities of the Neutrals as displayed in this exploit. About the middle of the last century a fierce tribal war broke out, and when it subsided the Neutral nation was no more. The Iroquois turned their forces against them, and after destroying their frontier villages and capturing a large number of warriors, consternation and fear took possession of the remainder. They abandoned their homes, and the remnants of a once proud and powerful nation wandered away in different directions and were absorbed by distant tribes, thereby losing their identity forever.
After the expulsion of the Neutrals, what had been their country remained an unpeopled wilderness, being described in the French maps as “the Iroquois beaver ground.” To intercept this beaver traffic, the French built Forts at Detroit, Niagara and Toronto; but for nearly a century and a half no settlement was attempted on the north shore of Lake Erie. During this long solitude very little is recorded in history bearing on the area embraced in the County of Norfolk. Travellers coasted along the shore in canoes in passing between eastern points and the North-West, but they never landed except for shelter and repose. The usual route from Quebec to Lake Superior was by way of the Ottawa and French rivers, but in the autumn of 1699 Joliet made a return trip by way of the lower lakes, being the first Frenchman to descend Lake Erie. He left his canoe at the mouth of Kettle Creek, and crossed overland to Burlington Bay. About half-way between the Grand River and the bay he met La Salle and the Sulpician priests, Dollier de Casson and De Galinee. Joliet gave the priests a description of his route, and La Salle returned with him. The priests descended the Grand River to the lake, and then followed the shore to the mouth of Patterson’s Creek. Here, on the present site of Port Dover, the party, including seven men besides the two priests, remained five months and eleven days, being visited in their cabin by Iroquois beaver hunters. This was during the winter of 1669 and 1670, and on March 23rd, the day of their departure, they planted a cross with an inscription on it on the lake shore. They coasted up the lake, and before reaching the sand beach connecting Long Point with the mainland, had to pass two streams. To effect the first crossing they were obliged to ascend the stream four leagues before they found a suitable place to cross. This must have been Young’s Creek, which flows into the lake at Port Ryerse. Father Gallinee, no doubt, had reference to the French legal posting league which equalled 2.42 English miles, and if he correctly estimated the distance, they must have walked up the north bank of the creek a distance of more than nine and a half miles, which would take them above Charlotteville Centre. Young’s Creek must surely have been a mighty torrent on that March day more than two centuries gone by to make such an effort as this to cross it. What a precious bit of information it would be to know just where that crossing was made!
At Big Creek they were detained a whole day constructing a raft with which to cross, and were further delayed by a stormy north wind and a heavy fall of snow. After crossing they were compelled to wade girdle deep through mud and slush a distance of two hundred paces. When they arrived at the sandy ridge connecting the point with the mainland, they encamped near the sand-bar and waited for the canoes. It being Holy Week, the party remained in camp until April 8th, celebrating Easter together.
They proceeded as before, four in charge of the canoes and the other five on foot. They found Joliet’s canoe where he had left it, and on May 25th arrived at the Sault. Father Galinee gave a glowing description of the abundance of game and wild fruits seen opposite Long Point.
The party went into camp at the outlet of Lynn Valley about the middle of October, 1669. The following winter was mild and open. They came in advance of the first frosts and found the wild fruits of the forest at their best. Father Galinee describes the grapes as being as large and as sweet as the finest in France, and the wine made from them as being equal to vin de grave. He admired the walnuts, chestnuts, wild apples and plums. He found Norfolk bear-meat more palatable than the most “savory” pig-meat in France. He saw wandering herds of deer, and sometimes as many as two hundred were seen feeding together. To sum up, he calls the region “the terrestrial paradise of Canada.”
The results of this voyage stirred the French to renewed activity in establishing new trading posts and pushing trade generally; but although the north shore of Lake Erie became a trade thoroughfare, no trading post was established and no settlement attempted on our shore. A map of 1755 shows Patterson’s Creek and the River D’Oollier, while on other maps it is named the River of Wintering.
At the time of the conquest, in 1759, the Ojibways, or their kindred, the Mississaugas, were the sole occupants of western Ontario, except a small portion near Detroit; and it was the latter who ceded, in 1784, a large portion of the old territory of the Neutrals, including the area which subsequently became the County of Norfolk.
Charlevoix, the distinguished traveller, made a voyage up the lake in 1721 and he describes Big Creek and Long Point as follows: “The first of June being Whitsunday, after going up a pretty river almost an hour, which comes a great way and runs between two fine meadows, we made a portage about sixty paces to escape going around a point which advances fifteen leagues into the lake; they call it Long Point. It is very sandy and produces naturally many vines.”
By the Treaty of Paris, signed February 10th, 1763, Canada passed under British rule. In 1788, Quebec was divided into five districts, the most westerly being the District of Hesse, and the one adjoining it on the east was named the District of Nassau. A line running north from the extreme end of Long Point was designated the dividing line between the two districts. Norfolk, therefore, was in the District of Hesse. This was the first move made toward an organized system of judicial administration for Western Canada. A Court of Common Pleas was established at Detroit with the following justices: Duperon Baby, Alexander McKee and William Robertson. There were eight justices in the district Commission of the Peace. George McGregor was appointed Sheriff, and Thomas Smith, Esq., Clerk of the Peace. The magistrates chose a situation opposite Bois Blanc Island for a district town, and the district surveyor began the work of surveying the townships.
On June 16th, 1790, Patrick McNiff reported to the Commandant at Detroit the result of an exploration which he had been ordered to make of the lake shore from Long Point westward. The only passage in the report referring to our own shore is the following: “On the back of Long Point, very good land, not so hilly as what I have passed. Timber, bass, black walnut and hard maple, but marshy in front for twenty or thirty chains.” The report was unfavorable, and orders were given for a survey of townships on the Thames River instead of on the lake shore.
At this time a large number of U. E. Loyalists had settled in western Canada, and they were very much dissatisfied with the existing laws. This resulted in the organization of the new Province of Upper Canada in 1791. In July, 1792, Governor Simcoe divided the new province into nineteen counties, the sixteenth in the list being named the County of Norfolk. It was simply a section of unbroken wilderness stretching from the Grand River to the mouth of Catfish Creek. One hundred and twenty-two years before, Father Galinee pronounced it “the terrestrial paradise of Canada,” and forty-four years before Galinee visited our shore Father Daillon had declared the Neutral country, which included our county area, to be more beautiful than any other “of all these countries”; and yet, during all these years, no attempt was made by the French to establish a settlement on our shore. Indeed, when the County of Norfolk came into existence, in July, 1792, there is no evidence showing that a cabin had ever been erected within her present boundaries by a permanent settler. Shortly after this, however, our brave old Loyalist ancestors and other home-seekers began the work of laying Norfolk’s foundations. Succeeding sketches in this volume tell who these foundation builders were, where they came from, what manner of men they were, and much that is of interest concerning their descendants.