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The Detroit Marine Historian Journal of Marine Historical Society of Detroit Volume 25, No. 3 13951 Faust, Detroit, Michigan 48223 November, 1971 Great Men o the Great Lakes Gog 8 William Hamilton Merritt o> B4althoush born a Yankee in Westchester County, N.Y., in 1793, at the tender age of 3, William Hamilton Merritt emi- to Canada with his Loyalist As a teen he worked ina store at Shipman's Corners, a small settlement which stood at the point where the road from Hamilton to Nia- gara crossed Twelve Mile Creek. When the War of 1812 broke out he joined the militia and was assigned toa unit guarding the frontier along the Niagara River. The story is told that while standing lonely tours of guard duty Merritt first dreamed of acanal that would bypass Niagara Falls. Late in the war Merritt was captured in the battle of lLundy's Lane and spent the last eight months of the war in a prisoner of war camp in Massachusetts. (Continued on Page 2)