Cornwall - the place where Ontario began

CORNWALL may not first come to mind as "the place where Ontario began", but that's exactly what it is, says area historian Carol Goddard.
She says it all started on June 6, 1784 when a group of United Empire Loyalists, refugees from the American Revolution, landed on the waterfront in what's now known as Lamoureux Park, not far from where the Cornwall Community Museum now stands.

Museum curator Ian Bowering said Loyalist leader Sir John Johnson was related to Mohawk warrior and Six Nations land negotiator Chief Joseph Brant. The site of what became Cornwall was picked when the two men reached an agreement that the Mohawks wouldn't contest the choice.
"We wouldn't be here had the Mohawks said no," Bowering noted.

"Native Peoples, the French Canadians, African Canadians, Italians, Dutch, Poles, Irish, Scots, English, Americans, Germans, Chinese ... our first Jewish family settled here in 1792."

Goddard said many of Cornwall's founding families were members of the King's Royal Regiment of New York and the Highland Emigrant Regiment.
To reach the safety of British North America, they traveled through the wilderness by foot, cart and canoe. They arrived in what is now the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry -- including Cornwall -- after drawing lots for land grants provided by the Crown in return for loyal service.

The moment was captured in a watercolour by James Peachy -- now owned by the National Archives -- which depicts an encampment of Loyalists at what was then New Johnston. It shows what the riverbank looked like before it was backfilled as the site of the Civic Complex and a bandshell.

To mark the spot , the committee plans to build a memorial cairn, not just in honour of the Loyalists and Brant, but to recognize all of the city's 18th and 19th century founding peoples, Bowering said. The fieldstone cairn will stand up to seven feet tall and bear a plaque paying homage to the city's founders. It'll be modeled after a war memorial in Berwick.

Carol Goddard is a member of the 225th anniversary Committee of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Historical Society and past president of the regional United Empire Loyalist branch and a latter-day Loyalist who uses the letters "UE" behind her name (Unity of the Empire).