Originally Published in Heritage Happenings, March 1992
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Last Heritage Paper described East Flamborough as it was remembered by visitors and early settlers during the first two decades of the nineteenth century. The township was virtually a wilderness, with only one small community beginning to develop around the junction of the Grindstone Creek and Dundas Street.

As the third decade of the century began, immigrants were slowly making their way into the township, usually stopping first in Hamilton until they purchased land. John Glasgow, an early settler on the fifth concession of East Flamborough, recalled some of the memories of the early years:

“We left Scotland in the month of May, in the year 1832, and reached Québec after an Atlantic passage of seven weeks and three days”.

At Québec, the immigrants landed and went their separate ways, but two families, the Littles and the Glasgows, and two brothers, George and Andrew Hall stayed together. After unpleasant experiences in Montréal where cholera had broken out, the party continued up the St. Lawrence by Durham boat and reached Hamilton. The three families located in Hamilton for a time, but again cholera appeared. Within the short time of a few weeks, a child, Bella Little died, then her recently married brother George, and finally Mr. Little. Unable to leave the town because of the danger of cholera, the families rented accommodation in Hamilton for the winter months.

In 1833, the group successfully negotiated the purchase of land in East Flamborough Township, and John Glasgow recalled:

“the three families purchased their several homes in the fifth concession of East Flamboro’, paying four dollars per acre. I am safe in saying it was a wilderness at that time, not one tree having been chopped down on either of the three places. Log houses were erected and occupied about Christmas. Out settlement was three miles from the nearest road. Mr. Hugh Creen” ………. “was our nearest neighbour. He had one small field cleared, that being the only land clearance on the east side of the Centre Road. Three small places were cleared on the west side by Messrs. Finley, Foster and Baker. There was no other settlement until Carlisle was reached, where a few acres were cleared. The next settlement was Guelph, where a few half pay military officers had settled.

Waterdown was three miles from our lot, and in order to get thither, we were forced to make a sleigh track through the woods” …… “until a temporary road was made passable for a yoke of oxen and sleigh.”

James Glasgow described the settlement of Waterdown during the early years of the 1830s as being composed of:

“a small hotel, a still smaller blacksmith shop owned by a person named Dunham, a shoemaker’s shop, and a small tannery to supply the cobbler with poorly tanned leather. This formed the bulk of the little village. There was also a small grist mill, which was of great benefit to the few inhabitants of Waterdown, as well as to the people living in the neighbourhood of Hamilton. Mr. Ebenezer Griffin was a justice of the peace, and kept the people in good humour dispensing justice when necessary” ………. “There were no stores of any kind nearer than Hamilton of Dundas, so we had to obtain our supplies in either of those two places, and after purchasing only what was absolutely necessary, we then, like beasts of burden, had to carry the whole supply on our backs to the settlement.”

Roads in the township were non-existent. Two extracts from John Glasgow’s reminiscences illustrate the difficulties faced by these first settlers. In November 1833, John Glasgow, accompanied by his friend, James Little, and two yoke of oxen hitched to a wooden-shod sleigh, set out for a trip to Dundas to collect beans and fodder to fatten the pigs that the families had purchased to see them through the winter months. There was no snow on the ground, but after a very short time, the oxen showed signs of fatigue from the effort of dragging the sleigh over the bare ground.

Mr. Glasgow recounts:

“Mr. Thomas Church, at that time living on Dundas street, quite near the boundary line between East and West Flamboro loaned us his wagon”.

and the trip was quickly completed. However by the time they had returned to Mr. Church’s home, it was dark, and they accepted the gentleman’s kind offer of hospitality for the night:

“Next morning we were called up long before daylight, and beheld the grandest and most soul-stirring scene that I ever saw or expect to see – meteors of shooting starts, darting by tens of thousands in every direction, until the morning sun eclipsed their never-to-be-forgotten brilliancy. We reached home that night with our small load, having spent two days on the trip.”

The long tiring trip to Dundas in 1833, was followed by a terrifying one undertaken by John Glasgow in the Spring of 1834. Travelling by foot, he went northwards to find a family by the name of Campbell who had settled on the thirteenth concession of the township. One member of the family was known to be a mason, and the chimney on the Glasgow’s house needed replacing due to the poor mortar that had been used in the late fall.

“I left home at 12 o’clock noon in order to find such a distinguished person as a stone mason. I found my way to Carlisle on the ninth concession very well, for the trees were blazed all the way, but from the ninth to the thirteenth concession I had no mark to guide me. I knew the direction from where I stood by the number of the lot, which I had previously learned, but how to go four or five miles through the woods and hit the right spot was rather a serious undertaking, there being but two acres slashed at that time.”

Mr. Glasgow found the Campbell family, persuaded the mason to undertake the work, and decided to return home the same day, even though he was advised that he would never find his way home, with night approaching.

However, I started on the return trip, but after proceeding a short distance I stood still for a short time and thought over what was best to be done. I reasoned within myself as to whether the course I was taking was correct. The best course would be to look neither to the right or left, but sight three trees in a straight line in front of me, and when I reached the first of the three to then sight another one. I adopted this plan, and when I came to a fallen tree, over which I had to go, I did not go around, but straight over, still keeping the trees in view.

Fortunately I came out right. It was a life and death struggle, and made me cautious in the extreme, for had I lost myself on that occasion, my chances for life would have been small. I reached home at 11:30 that night, and thankful for my escape, fully determined never to try such a foolish thing again at such a late hour in the day. I can scarcely conceive at this distant day how I got through, for I had often lost myself while near home and while not travelling one half the distance.

These three families who came to the fifth concession, East Flamborough Township in 1833 were typical of the pioneers who moved into the area during the next twenty years and slowly established themselves as prosperous farmers. Next paper, East Flamborough, twenty years after these settlers arrived.

© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1992, 2022.

Editor’s Note:

The meteors of shooting stars as described by Mr. Glasgow are believed to be the 1833 Leonid Meteor Storm. The Leonid Meteor Storm was seen across North America, east of the Rocky Mountains, in the night and early morning of November 12th and 13th, 1833. Those who were awake to witness the storm were in awe as between 50,000 and 150,000 meteors fell each hour.