Old Fort on the Beach

David O'Reilly

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Dec 15, 2012
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#61
Fred Briggs
10-02-2005, 01:34 AM
"The errors in this thread have been piling up and compounding to the point where I feel I have to set the record straight. It's difficult to know where to start, so in the interest of clarity, I have decided to begin with the first posting in the thread and take them one at a time up to the most recent posting.
On the 1815 Saltfleet Map, scotto has stated The school house on Van Wagner's (now Baranga's) can be seen. The two-storey poured concrete Van Wagner's Beach schoolhouse with a basement wasn't built until 1905, and that building was modified several times before it was closed, and finally converted to Baranga's, and then there were more additions that brought it up to its present size. Prior to 1905, the previous schoolhouse at Van Wagner's Beach was a single storey frame building with one classroom and a separate room for the teacher. That was built around 1830 or 1840, so it would have been there (a little to the east of the later cement school) in 1875. However, it wouldn't be any larger than all the other buildings on Van Wagner's and Burlington Beach, which are represented by small black squares. Why it would be represented by such a large drawing, in a 3-dimensional side view, is a bit of a mystery."


Hi Fred, The thread 'Development of Hamilton Beach has been Rapid' is a 1915 news paper article, and is based on an interview with a Mr. Fletcher, who at the time of the interview, was 84 years old, and who had lived on the beach all of his life. This means that Mr. Fletcher was borne about 1831.

The news paper article states in part, "IN THE EARLY DAYS
"When Mr. Fletcher was a boy, the beach was one vast stretch of waste land, with only a house dotted here and there."

http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2240

So it isn't clear exactly what date is being refered to here. But lets say Mr. Fletcher was 10 years old at that time. Then we're looking at '1841'. So if there were that few houses on the beach at that point, would the population have been enough to worent the construction of a school?

And, this page indicates that in Ontario, before 1830, there were few permanent school buildings, or professional teachers. And that a school could only be built if there were enough children, and if the taxpayers agreed to cover the cost.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/schoolhouse/008003-1100-e.html

So if the beach had its own school building by 1830, or 1840, it must have been one of the first in Ontario.

And if it did have a school by 1840, I wonder if it was strictly the beach taxpayers that covered the cost of construction and operation, or if all of Saltfleet Township would have been involved.

In some places in Ontario before an actual school building was constructed, education was carried out right in side the teacher's house.
 

scotto

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#62
From the book, Pathway to Skyway;
The lumber boom in the 1860s did not come any too soon. The Crimean War had created an inflated demand for grain and flour but at its end in 1856, a depression set in which was heightened by a poor harvest in 1857. Thanks to lumber, times improved somewhat and the economy was steady until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Then again, businessmen retrenched, fearful of what war so close to home could do to this country.
At the beach, in the spring of 1862, a battery of six guns was installed by a government which had not forgotten the naval engagement of 1813. Soon, however, anxieties were calmed by orders for timber pouring into Canada from the northern States.
 

scotto

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#63
Sent in by David
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Burlington Blockhouses, 1814

Burlington Outlet: a two gun battery completed, a Blockhouse constructing under the direction of Lieut. Ingaurville.1

Burlington: This Post in my humble opinion is of the greatest importance to the operation in Upper Canada; . . . I consider it to be capable to being made defensible by a very insignificant force, or of containing in Security a considerable one; with the necessary Depot of Stores in general; here is a Magazine, two Blockhouses & extensive Commissariat Storehouses in good preservation when I visited the Post.2

Burlington Heights: A blockhouse was constructed, and some earth works were thrown up on the heights, during the war: abandoned and in ruins.3






http://parkscanadahistory.com/series/chs/23/chs23-1l.htm
 
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