A Hub of Trade and Industry (Part 1)

Survey Map: Second Welland Canal at Port Robinson
(Brock University Archives)

Port Robinson, a small community west of Niagara Falls, owes its existence to the Welland Canal. When the First Welland Canal opened in 1829, boats were able to bypass Niagara Falls by sailing from Port Dalhousie on Lake Ontario to the Welland River, then down the Welland River to where it meets the Niagara River at Chippewa. Port Robinson, named after John Beverley Robinson, chief justice of Upper Canada, grew where the canal met the Welland River. In the years following the canal was extended to Lake Erie, but for many years Port Robinson was a hub of trade and industry.

John H. Thompson’s Jubilee History of Thorold Township and Town, published in 1898, describes Port Robinson during the 1840s:

A great deal of business was done there, for a large number of people were constantly coming and going, as this was the central point for travellers. A steamboat made daily trips between Buffalo and Port Robinson, carrying hundreds of passengers during the navigation season; a line of passenger packets plied daily during the open season between Port Robinson and Dunnville; a daily stage coach was laden with passengers on each trip to and from St. Catharines; and mail coaches cane to the village from Wellandport and way stations, and from St. Johns West and North Pelham. A four-horse stage coach also carried passengers and the mail between Port Robinson and Hamilton.

At its heyday in the mid 19th century, Port Robinson had a sawmill, carding mill, two grist mills, a shipyard and dry dock, four hotels, six saloons, several blacksmiths, numerous other shops and four churches. Two of the churches are still standing, however, all that remains of the Port Robinson Presbyterian Church are the concrete steps that once were the entrance to the church.

According the brass plaque mounted on the steps, the congregation was formed about 1825 and closed in 1947. The surrounding cemetery is thought to contain about 130 burials and is now in the care of the City of Thorold. For CanGenWeb's Cemetery Project I was able to find and photograph 75 gravestones, many of which lie flat on the ground and have become encroached with grass. The Ontario Genealogical Society transcription lists several additional gravestones that I was unable to locate.

The most frequent name found on the gravestones is Elliot. Andrew Elliot (1775-1857), his wives Jane Scott (1786-1819) and Ann Hume (1812-1892), and eight of his fifteen children are buried at Port Robinson, as well as several grandchildren.

Ten years before the opening of the canal, Andrew Elliot brought his family from Albany, New York to the Niagara Peninsula. Andrew was born in Hawick, Roxburgshire, Scotland about 1775 but had emigrated to the United States before 1790. His wife, Jane Scott, was also born in Hawick and had emigrated with her parents probably at the same time as Andrew. Andrew and Jane were married in 1803. Andrew was a sawyer who operated a sawmill in Albany. Why he decided to come to Upper Canada is not known.

Robert Elliot House

Andrew and Jane had eight children. Only the youngest, Robert, was born in Upper Canada. Robert became a merchant and owned a general store in Port Robinson. In 1845 he married Maria Darling. Maria died in 1849, shortly after the death of her two month old son Andrew. In 1851 Robert married Susan Caniff. The year after his second marriage he built a 2 1/2 story brick house which still stands and is a designated property. Robert was elected Reeve of Thorold Township in 1857 and was also a charter member of the Port Robinson Division of the Sons of Temperance.

His brother, James Elliot (1811-1879) was a sawmill foreman at Port Robinson, and later a farmer in Crowland Township. The Gazetteer and Business Directory of Lincoln and Welland Counties for 1879 records him at Lot 10 Concession 1 in Crowland, as does the 1862 Tremaine's Map of the Counties of Lincoln and Welland, Canada West. Another brother, Andrew Elliot (1817-1878), was a butcher in Port Robinson. In April of 1849 he and his wife Elizabeth Darby (1821-1889) lost three children, presumably to disease.

Their mother, Jane died in 1819 at the age of 33, shortly after her arrival in Upper Canada and the birth of Robert. Her gravestone is the oldest at Port Robinson Presbyterian. Many years later her husband Andrew remarried. Ann Hume was 28 years younger than Andrew. In fact she was younger than Andrew’s two oldest children.

Andrew Elliot 1775-1859

Andrew and Ann had seven children. Their names and dates of birth are recorded in a farm account book housed at the Brock University Library in St Catharines, part of the Andrew Elliot family Fonds. The youngest child, Jane, was born in 1851 when Andrew was 76 years old. The deaths of two of Andrew and Ann’s children are also recorded in the account book and their gravestones can be found at Port Robinson Presbyterian.

Andrew's death on 26 Jan 1857 was recorded in the account book and on his gravestone. Ann's funeral was recorded in the diary of Melvin Byron Misener on Monday, May 16, 1892: "We were at old Mrs. Elliot's funeral in forenoon." The diary also records the funerals of Robert in 1874, Andrew in 1878, and James in 1879.

Descendants of Andrew Elliot continued to live in the Port Robinson area into the 20th century, but with the completion of the Third Welland Canal in 1881, the importance of Port Robinson as a commercial centre quickly declined.