Never Town Chronicles - Sailing for the Devil's Horse Block: Schooner Days DCCCLXXXIV (884)

by C. H. J. Snider

"ALL ashore that stay ashore!

All Aboard that sail!

"At Governor Hunter's high command H.M. schooner Speedy sails immediately, to inaugurate the new capital of the new District of Newcastle with a murder trial and possible hanging.

"All ashore that stay ashore! All aboard that sail!

All A board! All Aboard!! All aboard for Never Town!!!"

The town crier of York U.C. would have so delivered himself on the sabbath evening of Oct. 7th, 1894, had he dared. He didn't like the hanging Governor and he didn't like the idea of the newfangled District of Newcastle having a "capital" to rival York.

There were then no waterfront reporters, but the "Upper Canada Gazette and American Oracle," then printed on Bay street a hundred yards south of the present Telegram offices, recalled those on board the peak of the Speed when she sailed as "about twenty."

These mentioned here make that tally complete. They give a cross-section, black, white, red, of society of the thirteen-year-old province of Upper Canada, when the capital, Toronto, then called York, had a total population of less than 400.

On the Speedy's quarterdeck, in his blue and white uniform, knee-breeches, cocked hat and large gilt buttons, all six seasons worn, was Lieut. Thomas Paxton, bullied by the Governor into taking the vessel out, although she was unseaworthy, and others had refused to do so. Paxton had a wife and seven children and needed the six shillings a day of a lieutenant commander.

Shackled in the lightless fore- peak of the 80-foot ship was he for whom this stately pageant of justice was being produced, the prisoner O-go-tong-nat, otherwise Ogetonicut, of the Chippewa Muskrats, accused of the slaying of a white man. Five sailors berthed in the forecastle abaft the bulkhead assured that he would not escape except through the waves that pounded the walls of his wooden cell, making unaccustomed noises at him like the roars and growls of unknown beasts.

Dining on capon in the captain's cabin, and served by his own liveried black man, was Mr. Justice Thomas Cochrane, Halifax born, 28 years of age and learned in the law whereof he was a well-deserving pillar. Son of the Honorable Thomas Cochrane, Speaker of the Nova Scotian House of Assembly, and with one sister married to Commodore Sir George Rupert, and one to Reverend Doctor Inglis, third bishop of Nova Scotia, he was as far up in Upper Canadian society as Ogetonicut, drink-crazed Indian, was down. He had been called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and become Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island and puisne Judge of the Court of King's Bench in Upper Canada, all in his twenties.

With the judge were two law-makers. One was Robert Isaac Dey Gray, member for Stormont and Russell, and Solicitor-General; pew-holder in St. James' Church in York, and slaveholder in the province. A humane master, he. His will not only manumitted his "faithful black woman servant Dorinda and her children," but set aside £1,200 to be invested for their maintenance, and left the "boys" Simon and John each 200 acres of land. Simon served him in his house on the northwest corner of York and Wellington sts., Toronto, which Chief Justice Draper later occupied and Simon was serving him here in the Speedy. John, the other "boy," lived at the Gray family home in Cornwall, U.C., until he was 105. He was a veteran of the American Revolution, and of the War of 1812, and could tell all about Governor Hunter and his gruffness, and the snuff that was always discoloring his ruffles. He died in 1871, full of years and anecdotes, the last survivor of the black chattels brought into the province when it began.

The other lawmaker was counsel supplied for the prisoner by the Crown, Angus McDonell, treasurer of the Upper Canada Law Society, member for Durham, Simcoe and East York, sometimes confused with his brother Alexander, member for Glengarry and Prescott and Sheriff of York.

Cabin passengers possibly too were "Mr. Anderson, a student at the law; " Indian interpreters from the Department, James Ruggles and George Cowan; John Fiske or Fishe, High Bailiff of York, and the rich York merchant, Jacob Herchmer, who bought ginseng at a shilling a pound, green, from farmers whose woodlots it overran, and sold it in China, dried, at its weight in silver. With him was his countryman Johann Stegmann, late lieutenant of the Hessian Regiment of Loosberg, and now one of His Majesty's surveyors. He had conducted the survey which proved the murder to have been committed within the jurisdiction of the new District of Newcastle.

George Cowan, nicknamed Constant, was reputed to have been a drummer boy in Braddocks disaster, and was taken prisoner by the French in the fighting before Fort Duquesne was taken from them in 1758. Thirty-five years later Sheriff McDonell, accompanying Simcoe to Machedash Bay, reported of Cowan: "He is much liked by the Indians and speaks much better French than English." He was the interpreter when the five Chippewa chiefs sold the Crown the site of Penetanguishene for £101 Quebec currency, and used their reindeer totem for signatures.

Since 1776 Cowan had had his own trading post at the mouth of the Coldwater river, based not upon Montreal but on Mackinac, and was one who believed that Coldwater "would soon become the most thriving place in Upper Canada and the centre for the provisions and transport trade for the fur countries."

With his six "Canadians" (Indian French) he cleared and worked 40 acres around his post. It had fallen into decay by 1816, but only last year we traced the foundations of the magazine and huts and their chimneys and the kerb of Constant's well, and found it full of water. The point on Matchedash Bay is called The Chimneys.

Rev. Robt. Dunn's name was not in the Gazette, even misspelled, so he did not travel deluxe. He had come from Scotland to Niagara in 1784, and irked Governor Simcoe by, rearing a church in Newark with the help of all denominations, while the official Church of England had to wait. He further flouted authority by performing services in contravention of the Marriage Act, which bore heavily upon non-conformists. Prosecuted, he resigned his clerical calling and went into trade, perhaps with the Indians. He may have been one of the witnesses, or may have been traveling to the projected capital for better fortune in pastures new. Perhaps he berthed with blacks, children and common clay.

Lieut. Paxton, commander of the Speedy, took what accommodation was left by his government guests snatching his rest in a chair. Such was often the lot of minor commanders in the Provincial Marine. His mate slept in the forecastle with the watch below.

Of the crew of the Speedy the only name known is that of John Cameron of Kingston, possibly this mate. He did not hold rank in the Provincial Marine, but he and his brother Allen served therein, according to a petition of their twice-widowed mother for relief. She and her first husband, James McNalledge of the 34th Regiment, were both taken prisoner at Saratoga, and the husband was later killed at Yorktown, Virginia, fighting under Lord Cornwallis. Her second husband Allen Cameron, was a quartermaster in the 1st battalion of the 60th Regiment at Kingston, Ont., which was the Speedy's base.

There were also on board, to quote the Gazette, "two children of parents whose indigent circumstances necessitated them to travel by land." Poor babes! And poor parents! With what feelings must they have awaited the Speedy that never came, when footsore and packgalled they reached the promised land where they hoped to make a home and mend their lot.

By land or by lake all these travelers were bound for a new city, the metropolis of hope. They thought it would be called New Castle. But they were wrong. For some it was the New Jerusalem. For some, the Other Place. The Devil's Horseblock lay between the Speedy and the city of their dreams.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Sir,—In your Schooner Days last week you made reference to a building put up more than a century ago at Presqu'ile Point for some government purpose. This brought to my mind a little matter which has been a bit of a puzzle to me.

In the course of a cruise down the lake many years ago, about 1907, we stopped for some time at the point, and in our rambles ashore we saw, or at least I have a very distinct recollection of having seen, an old log building in a rather dilapidated condition. It was I should say about 45 feet long, by about 30 in depth. Faced to the west and at this late date I would guess that it stood on the main north and south road and about one-eighth of a mile north of the pier.

The picture in my mind is very clear. There was a main door in the middle with two windows on either side, but both door and windows were then boarded up. The building stood back from the road about 20 feet and the ground was grown up to grass and weeds. The roof was fallen in in one place, and to keep people out there was a wire fence, also in poor condition.

The most outstanding feature was a small sign, black with white lettering, script, which stated that the Parliament of Upper Canada met there for a short session while on its way from (?) York to Kingston, and the date was very late in the 1700's, possibly 1793.

I have recently questioned people who are now familiar with the Point and they know nothing of this building. I contacted the Ontario Women's Historical Society and also drew a blank. Have you ever heard of such a building and incident, or is it imagination on my part? I have checked a number of history books, but find no reference to it.

If you can spare a moment for a short reply, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

—K. ROY EDWARDS,

292 Indian road.

DID PARLIAMENT PAUSE ON PRESQUISLE POINT?

Was this the building? The photograph was taken by the writer at Presquisle Point in 1938, the location being about as described in the adjoining hail.