The first settler to establish himself on the escarpment in East Flamborough Township was Alexander Brown. Born in the parish of Glencairn, Dumfrieshire, Scotland on 24 December 1776, he arrived in Canada in 1793 at the age of 17, accompanying his future brother-in-law James Grierson. Both were in the service of the Northwest Fur Company when they came to Canada and to the headquarters in Montréal.
Brown retired from the Northwest Fur Company in 1805 and moved to Upper Canada where he registered a Crown Patent for 800 acres of land that stretched northwards from Macassa Lake (Burlington Bay). The 800 acres of land lay east and west of a fast flowing creek that became known as the Grindstone Creek and which is today the present site of Waterdown. He first lived in a log cabin at the top of the Great Falls, and as the first white man in the area became known as “White Man of the Mountain” by the aboriginal peoples of the area.
He married Merren Grierson, also from Scotland, on 28 July 1806 at Wellington Square and later built a large frame house for his family further east of the original log cabin. He built the first sawmill on the Grindstone Creek as an incentive to early pioneers looking to settle in the area.
When the War of 1812 broke out, Brown served as a Captain of the Militia and rose in rank to Colonel while seeing service at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane. During the war, Indians invaded the Brown homestead and threatened the family, “taking every vestige of food”. About 1816, following his return to East Flamborough, Brown built a schoolhouse for his rapidly growing family and the other children of the area. This first school, a one-room building on the property of James Grierson, was one of the earliest schools in Upper Canada. Miss Mary Hopkins was hired as the teacher and reputedly stayed until 1823.
During the 1820’s Brown sold 400 acres of his Waterdown property to a young Smithville entrepreneur named Ebenezer Culver Griffin. Following the construction of the Burlington Beach Canal, c. 1823-1833, Col. Brown and his sons constructed a small wharf on the north shore of Burlington Bay to serve as a shipping point for the many products that were being produced in the rapidly developing village of Waterdown.
Known as Brown’s Wharf, it was located at the foot of the Indian trail that became the Waterdown Road. The wharf, which is now LaSalle Park in Aldershot, became its own settlement with at least a post office, a hotel and a bakery. The produce shipped from the wharf included twenty thousand barrels of apples per year, pearl and potash from Waterdown for manufacture of explosives in Europe and stone from a Waterdown quarry used in the construction of King’s College, Toronto. Ship masts from the massive trees of the area and thousands of 300 pound barrels of flour were also exported from Flamborough through Brown’s Wharf. Materials also entered the township through the wharf and were hauled up the escarpment at Waterdown Road by convoys of wagons. Overtime hauling work was paid by one bottle of whiskey per man.
Col. Brown died 9 August 1852 at his homestead. He entailed his farm of 400 acres to his grand-daughter and her female heirs. He was buried at Union Cemetery in Waterdown.
Col. Alexander Brown and his wife Merren Grierson are still well known to Waterdown residents. Two large tombstones commemorating the couple were discovered in 1978 on a residential construction site in Waterdown. They had probably been abandoned when a new monument had been placed in Union Cemetery to name family members and correct the spelling of Merren’s name. A year later the stones were mounted on an interior library wall and since then the mysterious ghost who haunts the elevator is said to be Merren’s spirit forever avenging the error in her name still visible on the old stone.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2001, 2023.
Editor’s Note (2021)
The Waterdown branch of the Hamilton Public Library officially closed November of 2015 in preparation for the opening of the new community complex opened in Waterdown. The 15,000 square foot facility includes the Waterdown branch of the Hamilton Public Library, a Senior Centre, the City’s Municipal Service Centre, Flamborough Archives, and Flamborough Information & Community Services, on the former site of the Municipal Office.
When plans were being drawn up for the new Waterdown Library on Dundas Street, there was never any hesitation—the Brown tombstones had to move with the Library. As the Flamborough Archives was being included as a partner in the building, it was felt that the best place for them to be housed was within the Archives.
The community of Waterdown has a connection to the tombstones and it was felt that the tombstones had to be preserved. Thanks to the determination of Councillor Judi Partridge, Hamilton Public Library Director Karen Anderson, and Facilities Supervisor Mike Sands, money and experts were found to move, restore and remount the tombstones. They look better than ever.
