The Spencer Creek and its many tributaries have dominated the history and settlement of West Flamborough Township since its earliest days. The creek provided not only the impetus for settlement, but the power which allowed the development throughout its course of every type of mill required by the early settlers, whether a small operation or an industrial complex like Crooks’ Hollow.
During the early years of European settlement along Spencer Creek, there are many records of the annual Spring floods and the enormous power the stream wielded. On 24 March 1851, The Dundas Warder reported “Water rushed over the lower dams, battering them with logs, ice and driftwood. Kerby’s flour mill was flooded, and his mill broke. Joseph Bullock lost 200 saw logs and Joseph Webster at the Falls also lost some logs”. In the twentieth century, the role of the creek has undergone dramatic changes and it now serves the communities along its course with some of the finest recreational sites within the Hamilton-Wentworth area.
The sources of the creek in the northern section of the township and neighbouring Beverly and Puslinch Townships are augmented downstream by several smaller tributaries whose headwaters are the large wetland complexes of Beverly Swamp, Hayesland Swamp and the Valens Reservoir. In the mid-watershed area, its waters flow south and then east to the Christie Conservation Area where, just prior to entering the Christie Reservoir, another large tributary joins the main stream. From here, the creek descends over the rim of the Niagara Escarpment at Webster’s Falls and flows into the Spencer Gorge below. Webster’s Falls is one of the finest examples of a waterfall within the Niagara Peninsula, the almost 68-foot vertical descent of the water is matched by the 78-foot wide crest, making it an example of a classical waterfall.
There are several stories associated with the falls which continue to be part of local folklore. One tells of the sad fate of an Indian princess and her lover that happened long before Europeans arrived in the area. The princess, daughter of the chieftain of the Attiwendarons, who lived with her father near present-day Westover, had been promised in marriage to a young chief of the Erie Nation. She however, had fallen in love with a high ranking Indian from the Seneca Nation, who had been injured during skirmishes against the Hurons and had been cared for at Westover. The girl’s father threatened to imprison her unless she agreed to marry the man chosen, so the legend has it that the young lovers, seeing the hopelessness of their situation, decided that life without each other was impossible. Locked in each other’s arms, they jumped over the precipice at the Falls to meet their death in the rock pool below. When the water level is high and the air is filled with a silvery mist from the full moon, legend has it that the princess and her lover can be seen to rise to the edge of the precipice, where they again pledge their endless love.
Between 1819 and 1822, the 200 acres of Lot 11, Concession 1, which included the area around the Falls, was acquired by Joseph Webster Sr., a half-pay British officer whose family began a long association with the history and industrial development of the site, and as a result, their name is forever associated with the waterfall. The family owned and operated the Ashbourne Roller Mills directly above the falls. This large-scale complex, begun in 1830, consisted of a dam, mill pond and milling complex of a grist mill for peas, barley, and oats and a distillery. It was enlarged two decades later to include a cooper shop for the production of flour barrels and another mill for the production of cotton batting. Above the main entrance to the mill was an enormous lintel with a carved sheaf of wheat and the inscription “Speed the Plough”.
The Webster family sold their interest in the mills in 1886, and the new owners, George H. Harper and William S. Merrill continued the operation under the name Glen Mills, until fire destroyed the buildings on 1 July 1989. Later that year, Harper and some friends organized the Dundas Electricity Company and signed an agreement with Mayor Henry Bertram of Dundas to manufacture hydro-electric power to light the town streets. The company used Webster’s mill pond as the source of their water and directed it, by means of a large iron pipe or penstock over the escarpment to the dynamo in a power house at the foot of Webster’s Falls. On 27 January 1899, the first electric lights in the Valley Town were switched on, but the euphoria of using the falls to produce this luxury was short-lived, for the buildings housing the machinery and the iron flume pipe were almost completely destroyed by another fire on 23 February 1901.
The Bank of Hamilton, which held several of George Harper’s mortgages, sold the Webster’s Falls property in 1917 to the Corporation of the Town of Dundas for use as a park. The property surrounding the falls was slowly transformed to make it an attractive site, but the economic conditions of the 1920s limited the scope of the work. The Dundas Parks Board removed the wooden dam of the Ashbourne Mills and extended the stone section in the form of a rustic bridge over the Spencer Creek. The death in 1931 of Lt.Colonel William Edward Sheridan Knowles, a former resident, Mayor and Chief Magistrate of Dundas, resulted in money becoming available. In the final codicil of his will, Knowles bequeathed the interest on his estate of approximately $197,000, for the “beautification of Sydenham Street” in Dundas “and the Webster’s Falls area”.
The codicil clearly expressed his feelings about the park, “…if a comprehensive plan of improvements were carried out, Webster’s Falls Park would be a property which would attract tourists from far and near, particularly if all cheap and tawdry places of amusement were forbidden”. The responsibility for carrying out the bequest was placed in the hands of five Dundas businessmen, known as the Knowles Bequest Board. No money was made available for any work in the park until 1938, as first the improvements to Sydenham Street were made and then the will was contested by Knowles’ daughter.
The first mention of a bridge being part of the park improvements occurs in the records of the June 1938 Board Meeting, under the chairmanship of H. Graham Bertram, President of Bertram’s Canada Tools Work in Dundas. In August, Mr. Bertram had discussions with R. K. Palmer of the Hamilton Bridge Company and with the County Engineer, Major Hugh Lumsden, about the proposed bridge. A request for preparation of formal drawings for submission to construction companies was made, and in September, the approximately $4,000 tender of contractor Ernie H. Greenwood of Dundas for a unique cobblestone bridge was accepted.
Local stone mason Arthur Edwards and his son, Bert, Fred Church and James Mason erected the bridge where the sluice gates of a former mill pond dam had been located, and students Walter Greenwood and Fred Baker were paid fifteen cents an hour to collect the required cobblestones from a farm in Aberfoyle. The work was completed by the middle of November and payment of all the accounts was finalized at the Board’s November meeting.
Over the years, the bridge has slowly deteriorated. Cracks in the concrete were filled and fallen stones replaced in August 1948, but several Spring floods during the 1950s and 1960s placed considerable stress upon the bridge. The Hamilton Region Conservation Authority’s flood control efforts, specifically the construction of the Christie Dam and Reservoir in 1971, lessened the power of the Spencer Creek and the threat of floods but in 1981 Hugh Walker, Chairman of the Knowles Board, expressed serious concerns about the deteriorated state of the bridge and its possible collapse. As a result of inflation, the amount of money generated in interest from the original will was insufficient for the necessary repairs, so it was eventually closed to public use in 1990 and slated for demolition by the Town of Dundas in August 1999.
News of the imminent loss of the bridge resulted in an overwhelming demonstration by the public, through newspaper articles and letters to The Hamilton Spectator about their feelings for the unique structure. Numerous people wrote and recalled family picnics, courting days and wedding pictures – one man wrote that “without the bridge, Webster’s Falls loses its soul”. During the summer, a massive campaign to raise the necessary funds to save the historic bridge was undertaken by the Optimist Club of Greensville and the Friends of the Webster’s Falls Bridge. In less than a year, the ‘Save the Bridge Campaign’ raised the necessary restoration funds of $325,000 and on Saturday, 1 July 2000, the official reopening ceremony of the Cobblestone Bridge was held with thousands in attendance – a true Millennium celebration.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 2004, 2023.
