The Cemetery on the Nith: The Secords of Blenheim

Detail from the 1857 Tremaine Map of Oxford County

Among the 19th century inhabitants of Blenheim Township were Elijah Secord (1808-1899) and his younger half-brother, Levi Secord (1830-1875). On the 1857 Tremaine Map of Oxford County, Elijah is shown occupying 130 acres of Lot 5 Concession 5, while Levi is shown occupying the north half of Lot 8 Concession 5. Elijah, a Baptist, was buried at Riverside Cemetery close to the Nith River. Levi, however, was a Methodist and is buried at nearby Richwood United Church Cemetery.

Elijah and Levi’s father was Daniel Secord (1780-1837). It has been wrongly said the Daniel was the first white child born in what is now Ontario.¹ Elijah and Levi’s grandfather, John Secord (1757-1830), was a Loyalist who served in Butler’s Rangers during the Revolutionary War. He was present at the Battle of Okiskany in 1777, and the Battle of Wyoming in 1778. John was discharged from Butler’s Rangers on 7 Oct 1778 due to hearing loss, and is often referred to as “Deaf John.”

John was one of a group of discharged Rangers that established farms west of the Niagara River before the end of the war. This group included John’s father, John Secord (1725-1804), and his uncle, Peter Secord (1726-1818). A “List of Settlers at Niagara,” dated 1784, shows John Secord having cleared ten acres while his father had cleared 50. This suggests that John helped his father start his farm at Two Mile Creek before beginning clearing his own farm on the west bank of Three Mile Creek.

In 1792, father and son petitioned Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe to “relieve their minds from the anxiety they labour under, by confirming them title to the Lands they have so long occupied.” It was not until 1796, however, that title was received. John was granted a patent for 193½ acres “between the streams of the Three and Four Mile ponds” while his father was granted a patent for 286 acres of land “in the broken front” and “three chains from Lake Ontario.”

John repeatedly and successfully petitioned for additional land. In his 1798 petition, John argued, “that your Petitioner’s services and the trust reposed in him having been beyond the common duty of a Private...” entitled him to further grants. An attached certificate signed by several former officers of Butler’s Rangers attested that John, “in many instances behaved himself as a brave man.” Peter Russell, the Administrator of Upper Canada, recommended that additional land be granted “in consequence of the Petitioner’s loss of hearing in the service and the noted attainments of his father and himself.” Included in these grants were several hundred acres in Blenheim.

When his father died in 1804 at the age of 79, John took over the farm at Two Mile Creek. By 1813, a two story house, 60 feet by 32 feet, stood on the property surrounded by “200 acres of arable land divided in twenty two fields and an orchard containing 493 apple, peach and pear trees.”

Map of the mouth of the Niagara River dated 1815 showing Fort
Niagara and Fort George. Construction of Fort Mississauga began
in 1814 on the site of the Mississauga Point Lighthouse. John
Secord's farm is shown at lower left with the notation, "Sicords
burnt by the American Army Decr 1813." Digital map reproduction
provided by: Brock University Map, Data & GIS Library

The house, orchard, and adjoining farm buildings were destroyed during the War of 1812. In May 1813, about 4000 American soldiers landed west of Niagara² and crossed the Secord farm during the Battle of Fort George. When the Americans abandoned Fort George on 10 Dec 1813, they pillaged and burned the town of Niagara as well as some of the neighbouring farms. After the war John claimed £2222 in damages but was awarded £1578.

John died at Kingston in 1830. In his will he left his farm to his sons Cortland Secord and Abraham Secord.

Upper Canada Land Petition of
Daniel Secord dated 10 Jan 1803

Daniel became a merchant in St Davids, a village west of Queenston in the Niagara Peninsula. In January 1803, he successfully petitioned the government of Upper Canada for 200 acres as the son of a Loyalist. This may have been the property in Mosa Township, Middlesex County that Daniel later bequeathed to Levi in his will.

In 1806, Daniel married Rachel Springfield, and was commissioned an ensign in the 1st Regiment of Lincoln Militia. In 1809 his rank was recorded as Quarter Master, but he was listed as “unfit for duty.”

Pay records from the War of 1812 show that Daniel served continuously from 25 Mar 1813 to 27 May 1813. During this time 1st Lincoln was under canvas on the military reserve surrounding Fort George known as the Commons. During the Battle of Fort George on 27 May 1813, two companies of the 1st Lincoln participated in the unsuccessful attempt to hold back the American landing. The remainder of the regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William Claus (1765-1826), defended the fort.

As the Americans began to overrun Niagara, the British commander, Brigadier General John Vincent (1764-1848), ordered Claus to spike the cannons and evacuate the fort. When the retreating British forces reached Beaver Dams, Vincent instructed the militia to temporarily disband, and withdrew his regular forces to Burlington Heights.

Daniel next appears on the pay lists of the 1st Lincoln in June and July of 1814. In the summer of 1814 the Americans crossed the Niagara River at Buffalo on July 3rd and captured Fort Erie. Advancing north, they defeated the British at the Battle of Chippewa on July 5th and briefly occupied St. Davids and Queenston.

During this period, detachments of the 1st Lincoln conducted raids and ambushes against the Americans. Major Daniel McFarland of the United States 23rd Infantry wrote to his wife, "The whole population is against us, not a foraging party but is fired on and infrequently returns with missing numbers." In retaliation, on July 19th, a detachment of American militia looted and burned St Davids including the home of Daniel Secord.

Following the Battle of Lundy’s Lane on July 25th, the Americans withdrew to Fort Erie. In November they demolished the fort and retired back across the Niagara River.

Daniel’s claim for losses includes a detailed description of his house in St Davids. The 1½ story house measured 40 feet by 20 feet, had three fireplaces and an oven, six windows of 24 lights, eight additional windows, and an adjoining summer kitchen. Daniel claimed £607 pounds in damages and was awarded £458.

The Niagara Peninsula in 1815. Digital map reproduction
provided by: Brock University Map, Data & GIS Library

After the war, Daniel moved to Niagara and became an innkeeper. When his father died in 1830, Daniel inherited the two properties in Blenheim, but it was Elijah and Levi who first settled there. In his will, Daniel describes himself as a yeoman and bequeaths to his son, Daniel, land in Niagara Township that he had purchased from his brother Cortland. Daniel died in 1837.

Elijah was born in St Davids on 17 Dec 1808. His brother, John Wartman Secord, had been born the previous year in March, while a sister, Susan Maria Secord was born two years later.

Elijah’s mother, Rachel, died in December 1812 just after Elijah’s fourth birthday. His father, Daniel, remarried the following year. Elijah’s stepmother, Electy Page,³ the daughter of Elijah Page and Sybil Brooks, had been born in Cooperstown, Otsego, New York in 1796 and had emigrated with her parents to Upper Canada shortly before the War of 1812.

Elijah would have heard the cannon and musket fire from the Battle of Queenston Heights when British forces repulsed an American attack across the Niagara River on 13 Oct 1812. He may have witnessed the British forces retreating after the Battle of Fort George on 27 May 1813, and may have noticed the red glow in the sky from the burning of Niagara on 10 Dec 1813. And on 18 July 1814 he would have watched as his own home was burned by the Americans.

Elijah married twice. He married his first wife, Catherine Elizabeth Smith, on 29 Mar 1832. They had four children. The oldest, Sophia Electy Secord was baptized at Niagara on 25 Aug 1832. Catherine died sometime between the birth of her son, John Smith Secord, in 1838 and Elijah’s marriage to Jessie Taylor on 6 Apr 1846. Nineteen-year-old Jessie was the niece of Elijah's step-mother Electy Page. Jessie and Elijah had seven children beginning with Isabelle Electy Secord in 1847.

Elijah moved from Niagara to Blenheim soon after his second marriage. In the 1852 Census, Elijah is a farmer living in Blenheim with Jessie, three children from his first marriage, and three children from his second.

Elijah Secord's gravestone at
Riverside Cemetery, Blenheim, Oxford

Elijah died in Blenheim on 18 Mar 1899 at the age of 90. Jessie survived him by twelve years, dying at Blenheim at the home of her son-in-law Theo Parnell on 8 Feb 1912. Elijah’s youngest son, Richard, continued farming in Blenheim for a few years after Elijah’s death, but by 1908 has moved to Saltfleet Township. Another son, Elijah Secord (1848-1898), predeceased his father and was buried at Richwood.

Elijah’s half-brother, Levi Page Secord, was born about 1830 in Niagara Township. He was baptised along with two of his brothers on 13 Aug 1831. On 12 Nov 1850 he married Jane Laycock, daughter of Joseph H Laycock (1800-1872) and Eliza Earnshaw (1804-1872).

Levi and Jane were living in Blenheim Township at the time of the 1852 Census. By the 1861 Census they had two children: Charlotte, born in 1855 and Mary Edith, born in 1859. Ten years later the number of children had doubled. Hartley was born in 1862 while Charles was born in 1868. Gaps between the births suggests that they may have been other children who died young.

Also living with the family at the time of the 1871 Census was Levi's mother, Electy Page.

On 20 Oct 1871, Jennie Eliza Secord was born. Her mother, Jane, died five days later, likely due to complications from childbirth.

Levi Page Secord's gravestone at Richwood
United Church Cemetery, Blenheim, Oxford

Levi died of pneumonia four years after the death of his wife, leaving five orphaned children living with their grandmother. Charlotte was 19 at the time of her father's death while Jennie was only 3½. 

The four youngest children continued living with Electy until sometime after the 1881 Census. Electy died in St. Catharines in 1882.

Charlotte married Joseph Christopher Yates (1857-1919) in 1879, and moved to Michigan where she died in 1895.

According to their naturalization papers, Mary and Jennie emigrated to the United States in 1884. Neither sister married, and they lived together in Chicago until Mary's death in 1940. Jennie died in 1956. Both are buried with their parents in Richwood Cemetery in Blenheim Township.

Charles likely emigrated to the United States at the same time as his sisters. He married in 1893 and was living in Chicago in 1900. By 1910 he had moved to Louisville, Kentucky where he died in 1943.

Hartley’s fate is not known.

¹ A French agricultural settlement known as Petite Côte was established at the site of Windsor, Ontario in 1749. The earliest surviving register for the parish of L'Assomption de la Pointe-de-Montréal shows seven baptisms in 1761. A number of families had also lived at Fort Frontenac at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Fort Frontenac was built in 1673 by the French and was captured by the British in 1758 during the Seven Years War.

² Niagara, on the west side of the mouth of the Niagara River, was known as Newark between 1792 and 1798, and became Niagara-on-the-Lake about 1880.

³ Electy Page’s name is frequently recorded as Electa, however, her death certificate, gravestone, and Daniel Secord’s will record her name as Electy.

Sources:

Archives of Ontario. RG 22-155. Court of Probate estate files.

Archives of Ontario. RG 22-235. Lincoln County Surrogate Court estate files.

Cruickshank, Ernest. Battle of Fort George. Niagara Historical Society, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 1896.

Feltoe, Richard. The Pendulum of War: The Fight for Upper Canada, January-June 1813. Dundurn, Toronto, 2013.

Feltoe, Richard. The Flames of War: The Fight for Upper Canada, July-December 1813. Dundurn, Toronto, 2013.

Library and Archives Canada. RG 1 L 3. Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865.

Library and Archives Canada. RG 19 E5A. War of 1812: Board of Claims for Losses, 1813-1848.

Library and Archives Canada. RG 9 1B7. War of 1812: Upper Canada Returns, Nominal Rolls and Paylists.

Merritt, Richard D. On Common Ground: The Ongoing Story of the Commons in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Dundurn, Toronto, 2012.

Walker, Dorothy. A Village in the Shadows: The Remarkable Story of St Davids, Ontario. Friesen Press, Victoria, 2018.