Captain Anderson, of Vittoria
One of the oldest and best known families of Norfolk is the Anderson family, of Vittoria. Captain Walter Anderson was one of the mudsills in our social foundation, and no name figures more prominently in the annals of old Charlotteville during the first half of the century than that of Anderson.
Walter Anderson was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was born in 1753, and came to America and settled in the colony of New Jersey just before the colonies threw off their allegiance to the English king. He remained loyal during the trouble of the Revolution, but what particular part he played in the drama does not appear.[1] At the close of the war a party of Loyalists took refuge in a New Jersey fort to escape the abuse that was heaped upon them by their victorious fellow-colonists, and Mr. Anderson was one of them. Being sorely pressed in their place of retreat, Mr. Anderson and a comrade managed to escape in the night, and wend their way into Pennsylvania. They were destitute of means, but had good constitutions, and were richly endowed with that native pluck which so signally distinguishes the sons of “Auld Scotia,” making them equal to any emergency in every civilized portion of the globe. Mr. Anderson was a strict Presbyterian, and a ready talker withal, and he proposed to his fellow refugee that they travel as missionaries—he as a preacher, and his friend as an elder. The scheme was adopted and proved highly successful. At one place in a back township they remained a whole week, holding meetings in a school-house and receiving material aid. Who but a Scotchman would have thought of this? They were thus enabled to avoid suspicion as to their being Loyalist refugees, and were housed and feted while making their way out of the country. They came to Upper Canada, and, after sending for his family, Mr. Anderson settled in the Niagara District on land which he drew as a U.E. Loyalist.[2]
In 1799 he came up to Long Point settlement with his family. His daughter, Rebecca, possessed a U.E. Loyalist right in her own name, and this she transferred to John McCall in consideration of his relinquishment of Lot 20, 4th concession of Charlotteville. The old Government deed for this Lot and Lot 12, in the 5th concession, has been preserved. It bears date May 17th, 1802, and is signed by Peter Hunter, Esq., “our Lieutenant-Governor of our said Province, and Lieutenant-General commanding our forces in our said Province of Upper Canada.”[3] Mr. Anderson was a stonemason by trade, and he was attracted to this lot by the plentiful supply of stone it contained.
During the first session of the first term of the Court of Quarter Sessions, held at the house of James Monroe, on the 8th day of April, 1800, Walter Anderson petitioned for a reduction of his statute labor, and the Court granted the petition, fixing his labor for that year at four days. He was a member of the grand jury at this term of Court, it being the first grand jury in the Court history of old London District.
As before stated, Captain Anderson was a staunch Presbyterian. He was very strict in his home government and very positive in his religious opinions. He donated two acres in the village of Vittoria for Presbyterian church purposes, but he did not live to see a church edifice erected thereon. This stalwart old pioneer died in 1818 from injuries received in falling from a roof while engaged in building a chimney, being in his 66th year. Mary, his wife, died in 1814, in her 57th year.[4]
Captain Walter Anderson had a brother, who settled in New York. William Anderson, a son of this brother was a shoe merchant in New York city, but nothing more is known of this branch of the family.
A number of Captain Anderson’s children died in early childhood. Those who grew up were five sons—Walter, John, Joseph, James and Henry; and two daughters—Rebecca and Elizabeth.
Col. Walter Anderson, eldest son of Walter, was one of the solid men of old Charlotteville in his day and generation. He was ever at the front in all matters pertaining to public affairs. He was straightforward, out-spoken and very positive in his manners, and was looked up to as a leading citizen. When the venerable Simpson McCall first began to show signs of budding into a political stump speaker, he made a speech at a town meeting—at least it was what Mr. McCall at that time thought was a speech. It happened a good many years ago, and Mr. McCall is not quite so positive now that it was really a speech, as he was the next morning after it was delivered. Well, on the following day he met Mr. Anderson on the hill above the village, and that dignitary accosted him with:
“Hello, you little rooster, when are you going to crow again?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied the rooster,” “I ‘spose at the next town meetin’.”
Col. Walter Anderson was a leading factor in the old Town Boards, filling various positions during the early stages of the development of our municipal system; and when the Talbot District Council was organized in 1842, he became one of the first members. During the rebellion he served as captain of a company of militia, and, subsequently, was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the Norfolk militia, succeeding Colonel Rapelje. Lot 21, adjoining the old homestead on the east, was a clergy reserve, and this lot was leased by Mr. Anderson.[5] He was a man of robust constitution, and kept up his horseback riding after he passed his 80th year. He died in 1869, having reached his 85th year. Colonel Anderson married Sarah McQueen, of Port Dover, who survived him ten years, having reached the ripe old age of ninety years. They left nine sons and daughters—Mary Ann, who married Jacob Wood; Amelia, who married James Stone, of Normandale;[6] Rebecca Ann, who married Hanford Oaks; James, who settled in Walsingham; John, who settled on the homestead;[7] Walter, who enlisted in the American civil war, taken prisoner at Vicksburg, and never heard of after; Henry, who settled in the States; Eliza, who married Dr. Dimon, of Port Rowan; and Sarah, who became the second wife of Dr. Dimon.
Joseph Anderson, second son of the original Walter, was a “church warden” in the days when township affairs were managed by the old “Town Commissioner” system. He married Sarah Spurgin, and settled near Normandale.[8] He had two sons—William and Walter; and five daughters—Nancy, Elizabeth, Amert K., Sarah and Mary Ann. Of this family—William married Julia Brown, and settled near Port Rowan; Walter married Mary Jane Thompson, and settled at Normandale; Nancy married Hugh Mabee, and settled at Port Rowan; Elizabeth married Isaac Franklin, and settled near Port Rowan; Amert K. married Oliver McCall, and settled finally at Port Rowan; Sarah Jane married Dr. Byron Franklin, of Port Rowan; and Mary Ann married John Fick, and settled in Walsingham.[9]
James Anderson, third son of the original Walter, died in 1808, at the age of seventeen.
John Anderson, fourth son of the original Walter, never married. He lived a bachelor’s life, and was credited with being an aider and abettor in a good many “larks” that broke the monotony of pioneer life in his day. He and his brother Henry built and operated the Anderson distilleries. The first was built on the lake shore above Normandale, and the second on the old homestead at Vittoria. John Anderson died in 1833.
Henry Anderson, fifth and youngest son of the original Walter, was a baby in the arms of his mother when the family came to Long Point. He was born into the world in time to secure a vested right to land as a son of a U.E. Loyalist, and when he grew up he drew a lot near Lynedoch. Henry also served as a District Councillor. He was a hard worker and a man of business. He built a grist-mill east of Vittoria, and he and his brother John operated a large distillery business. He died in 1873, in his 76th year, from injuries received in a road accident while returning from port Rowan, having gone to that village on a matter of business. He, like John, never married, the two brothers having lived at the old homestead with their sister Rebecca.
Rebecca Anderson, eldest daughter of the original Walter, came into possession of the old homestead by virtue of her father’s will. She never married. She was born in Niagara District in 1788,[10] and was eleven years old when the family came to Long Point. As before stated, it was through her U.E. Loyalist right that her father was enabled to secure a patent for the old homestead. She was thirty-one years old when she came into possession of the old home. She was her father’s favorite heir, and he willed the bulk of his property to her. But “Aunt Becky,” as she was familiarly called, did not fully avail herself of the advantage given her by her father’s will. She was generous and open-hearted, and the old homestead was ever a welcome home for her bachelor brothers, and her purse strings always hung loose when the cry of want was heard. She possessed an individuality peculiarly her own, and, probably, no woman of her time in the county possessed more striking characteristics than she. A good share of the village of Vittoria was built on her land, and this called for a considerable amount of business tact on her part, and brought her frequently before the public. In these matters she proved equal to every occasion, showing much business ability and executive force. She granted the school section in which she lived, a leasehold of a lot of land, to be held by the lessees in perpetuity for school purposes, in consideration of “one barley corn per year.” Of course, if the land be put to any other use it will revert to her heirs. “Old Aunt Becky” died in 1863, in her 76th year.
Elizabeth Anderson, youngest daughter of the original Walter, married John Graves Secord, son of Captain David Secord, the old U.E. Loyalist, who settled in an early day on Catfish Creek. John Graves drew land in the township of Lobo, and upon this land he and his young wife settled. Subsequently they came to live on the old Anderson homestead, but Mr. Secord finally went away. The issue of this marriage was two daughters—Mary Ann and Rebecca. The former became the wife of Henry Lamport, Esq., the old Vittoria merchant, now of Toronto; and the latter married David P. Clark. Mrs. Clark is the present owner of the fine old Anderson homestead, which has been in possession of the family for ninety-five years. Mrs. Lamport died in 1865, in her 38th year.
[1] In his Upper Canada Land Petition of February 19, 1807, Walter Anderson stated that he was a native of Scotland and came to America in 1776. He settled in the “Jersies” where he purchased 150 acres of land. In 1778, he joined His Majesty’s Standard and commanded the provincial artillery stationed in the Block House on the North River (Hudson River) in its memorable defence of 1779. Source: Upper Canada Land Petition “A” Bundle 8, Doc. No. 27.
[2] By this account, Owen suggests that Anderson came to Upper Canada at the end of the American Revolution. However, in 1783, Walter and his wife, Mary joined the Loyalist exodus of New York to Port Roseway, Nova Scotia. Anderson received a grant of 200 acres on the Jordan River in Shelburne County, recorded in Loyalists and Land Settlement in Nova Scotia, compiled by Marion Gilroy (Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS), Publication No. 4, p. 76. The couple returned to New York in 1785. The trip to Upper Canada described by Owen may have occurred in 1797, or perhaps wholly erroneous. On August 29, 1797, Walter Anderson filed a petition to the Executive Council of Upper Canada stating that he “just arrived in the Province with his wife and 6 children, 5 sons and 1 daughter.” Source: Upper Canada Land Petition “A” Bundle 3, Doc. No. 52. Walter did not settle in the Niagara District. In 1797, Acting Surveyor General David W. Smith reported that Anderson “drove his Cattle to Long Point and returned to take forward his wife and family… being desirous of settling near his former acquaintance.” Source: David W. Smith Papers OA MU2825-27, Box 3, Env. B-9.
[3] Captain Walter Anderson received a Loyalist Officer’s grant of 600 acres of land in Lot 20, Concession 4, Lot 12, Concession 5 and Lot 1, Concession 10, Charlotteville Twp., recorded in the Abstracts of Deeds Register. He made Lot 20 at present Vittoria his homestead. Anderson bequeathed this property to his daughter Rebecca in his will dated October 24, 1818 Source: London District Surrogate Registry, Doc. No. 72.
[4] The gravestones in Vittoria United Church Cemetery record that Walter Anderson “died on Nov. 30, 1818 in the 65th Yr of his age”, and that his wife Mary “died on April 15, 1814 in the 56 year of her age.”
[5] Walter Anderson Jr. made his home on Lot 16, Concession 3, Charlotteville Twp. west of Vittoria, where he was recorded in the 1841 Assessment and the 1852 Agricultural Census. Lot 21, Concession 4 mentioned by Owen as a Crown Lease was actually a lot granted by the Crown to Oliver Mabee.
[6] Amelia Anderson married on October 6, 1835, Joseph Stone (son of John and Nancy (Mabee) Stone), their nuptials recorded in the Upper Canada Marriage Bonds.
[7] John Anderson settled on Lot 21, Concession 5, Charlotteville Twp., recorded in the 1852 Agricultural Census. He later moved to Port Rowan, Walsingham Twp., recorded in the 1867 Gazetteer of Norfolk County.
[8] Joseph and Sarah (Spurgin) Anderson settled on the Spurgin homestead in Lot 11, Concession A, Charlotteville Twp. west of Normandale where they were recorded in the 1841 Assessment, the 1852 Agricultural Census, and the 1867 Gazetteer of Norfolk County.
[9] Mary Ann married in 1845 to Ephraim Fick, the marriage recorded in the Talbot District Marriage Register.
[10] Rebecca Anderson was born in New York, her father not having come to Upper Canada until 1797.