STROBRIDGE (Strowbridge), JAMES GORDON, civil engineer and
contractor; b. 1788 in Solon, N.Y.; m. Nancy Mayberry, and they
had six sons and two daughters; d. 10 March 1833 in Hamilton,
Upper Canada. An engineer, James Gordon Strobridge moved from
the United States to Upper Canada in 1824 to become a contractor
on the Burlington Bay Canal. This project, authorized and
financed by the provincial government and under the supervision
of canal commissioners, was to create a cut across Burlington
Beach to provide the hinterland around Dundas with direct access
to Lake Ontario. Although only a third of a mile long, the canal
was to be of superior construction with piers on both Burlington
Bay (Hamilton Harbour) and Lake Ontario. Strobridge, in
partnership with Captain John McKeen, began work on the cut
during the summer of 1824. William Lyon Mackenzie* inspected
their progress and was dismayed to find the “Goths and Vandals”
despoiling the adjacent forests. In September Captain McKeen
contracted typhus and died, lea