



Produced by James Wright and the Online Distributed
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[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL BROCK.

(_From miniature painting by J. Hudson._)

Copyrighted in the U. S. A. and Canada.

--From Nursey's "Story of Isaac Brock" (Briggs).]




                           BROCK CENTENARY

                              1812-1912

                   ACCOUNT OF THE CELEBRATION AT
                    QUEENSTON HEIGHTS, ONTARIO,
                     ON THE 12th OCTOBER, 1912




                        ALEXANDER FRASER, LL.D.
                               Editor




                              TORONTO
             PRINTED AND PUBLISHED FOR THE COMMITTEE BY
                          WILLIAM BRIGGS
                                1913




                             DEDICATED

                                TO

                 THE DESCENDANTS OF THE DEFENDERS




                   Copyright, Canada, 1913, by
                         ALEXANDER FRASER




PREFATORY NOTE


The object of this publication is to preserve an account of the
Celebration, at Queenston Heights, of the Brock Centenary, in a more
convenient and permanent form than that afforded by the reports
(admirable as they are) in the local newspapers.

Celebrations were held in several places in Ontario, notably at St.
Thomas, where Dr. J. H. Coyne delivered a fervently patriotic address.
Had reports of these been available, extended reference would have been
gladly and properly accorded to them in this book. Considerable effort,
involving delay in publication, was made to secure the name of every
person who attended at Queenston Heights in a representative capacity,
and the list is probably complete.

For valuable assistance acknowledgment is due to Colonel Ryerson,
Chairman of the General and Executive Committees; to Miss Helen M.
Merrill, Honorary Secretary, and to Mr. Angus Claude Macdonell, K.C.,
M.P., Toronto. Also to Mr. Walter R. Nursey, for the use of the pictures
of General Brock, Col. Macdonell, and Brock's Monument, from his
interesting work: "The Story of Brock," in the Canadian Heroes Series;
and to the Ontario Archives, Toronto, for the use of the picture of the
first monument erected to Brock on Queenston Heights.

                                                 ALEXANDER FRASER.




[Illustration: From a Silhouette in possession of John Alexander
Macdonnell, K.C., Alexandria.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN MACDONELL.

Provincial Aide-de-Camp to Major-General Sir Isaac Brock; M.P. for
Glengarry; Attorney-General of Upper Canada.

--From Nursey's "Story of Isaac Brock" (Briggs).]




                                CONTENTS


                                                                  PAGE

Prefatory Note                                                       3

Introduction--J. Stewart Carstairs, B.A.                             9

Preliminary Steps                                                   21

General Committee Formed                                            25

Programme Adopted                                                   26

Reports of Committees                                               29

Celebrating the Day                                                 32

At Queenston Heights--
    Representatives Present                                         34
    Floral Decorations                                              40
    A Unique Scene                                                  42
    Historic Flags and Relics                                       43
    Letters of Regret for Absence                                   44

The Speeches--
    Colonel G. Sterling Ryerson                                     45
    Mr. Angus Claude Macdonell, M.P.                                50
    Hon. Dr. R. A. Pyne, M.P.P.                                     55
    Colonel George T. Denison                                       58
    Mr. J. A. Macdonell, K.C.                                       61
    Dr. James L. Hughes                                             67
    Chief A. G. Smith                                               71
    Warrior F. Onondeyoh Loft                                       74
    Mr. Charles R. McCullough                                       75

Appendix I.--Highland Heroes in the War of 1812-14
               --Dr. Alexander Fraser                               77

Appendix II.--Programme of Toronto Garrison Service
               in Massey Hall                                       82

Appendix III.--Indian Contributions to the Reconstruction
               of Brock's Monument                                  88

Appendix IV.--Meetings of the Executive Committee
               subsequent to the Celebration                        91

Appendix V.--Captain Joseph Birney                                  93




                          ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                  PAGE

Major-General Brock                                  _Frontispiece_

Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonell, Provincial Aide-de-Camp
    to Major-General Sir Isaac Brock                                 5

Executive Committee                                                 28

First Monument to General Brock at Queenston Heights                33

Brock's Monument                                                    34

Central section of a panoramic picture of the gathering at
    Queenston Heights                                               36

Floral Tribute placed on Cenotaph, where Brock fell, by the
    Guernsey Society, Toronto                                       38

Brock Centenary Celebration at Queenston Heights                    38

Memorial Wreaths placed on the Tombs, at Queenston Heights,
    of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, Kt., and Colonel John
    Macdonell, P.A.D.C., Attorney-General of Upper Canada           41

Wreath placed on Brock's Monument in St. Paul's Cathedral,
    London, Eng., by the Government of Canada                       42

Wreath placed on Brock's Monument, Queenston Heights, by
    the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire               42

Conferring Tribal Membership on Miss Helen M. Merrill               43

Six Nation Indians celebrating Brock's Centenary at Queenston
    Heights                                                         44

Colonel George Sterling Ryerson, Chairman of Committee              45

Angus Claude Macdonell, K.C., M.P., addressing the gathering        51

Hon. R. A. Pyne, M.D., M.P.P., Minister of Education of Ontario     58

James L. Hughes, LL.D., Chief Inspector of Schools, Toronto         58

Colonel George T. Denison, Toronto                                  58

J. A. Macdonell, K.C., Glengarry, addressing the gathering          61

Chief A. G. Smith, Six Nation Indians, Grand River Reserve          71

Captain Charles R. McCullough, Hamilton, Ont.                       71

Warrior F. Onondeyoh Loft, Six Nation Indians, Toronto              71

Members of Committee at Queenston Heights                           77

Group of Indians (Grand River Reserve) celebrating Brock's
    Centenary at Queenston Heights                                  88

Captain Joseph Birnie                                               93




INTRODUCTION

BROCK AND QUEENSTON

By John Stewart Carstairs, B.A., Toronto



Brock's fame and Brock's name will never die in our history. The past
one hundred years have settled that. And in this glory the craggy
heights of Queenston, where in their splendid mausoleum Brock and
Macdonell sleep side by side their last sleep, will always have its
share. Strangely enough, who ever associates Brock's name with Detroit?
Yet, here was a marvellous achievement: the left wing of the enemy's
army annihilated, its eloquent and grandiose leader captured and two
thousand five hundred men and abundant military stores, with the State
of Michigan thrown in!

But Britain in those days was so busy doing things that we a hundred
years later can scarcely realize them. However, so much of our historic
perspective has been settled during the past hundred years. Perhaps in
another hundred years, when other generations come together to
commemorate the efforts of these men that with Brock and Macdonell
strove to seek and find and do and not to yield, the skirmish at
Queenston may be viewed in a different light.

Perhaps then the British Constitution will have bridged the oceans and
the "Seven Seas"; perhaps then Canada will be more British than Britain
itself--the very core, the centre, the heart of the Empire in territory
and population, in wealth and in influence, in spirit and in vital
activities. Then Queenston Heights may be regarded not merely as a
victory that encouraged Canadians to fight for their homes but as a
far-reaching world-event.

The year of Queenston, let us remember, was the year of Salamanca and of
Moscow--the most glorious year in British military annals. But what has
Salamanca to do with Canada? Britain was fighting alone, not merely for
the freedom of Britons but for the freedom of Europe. Since 1688 she had
been for more than one-half of the one hundred and twenty-four years
actively in arms against France. Since 1793 there had been peace--and
only nominal peace--_against_ France for only the two years following
the Treaty of Amiens (1801). The generation approaching maturity in 1812
had been born and had grown up "in wars and rumours of wars." In this
struggle against France and later against Napoleon, the Motherland had
increased the National Debt by L500,000,000, or nearly twenty-five
hundred millions of dollars; she had spent every cent she could gather
and taxed her posterity to this extent. That is what Britain had done
for her children--and for the world at large!

But ever since Jefferson had purchased (1803) Louisiana from Napoleon
the United States had found she was less dependent on Britain.
Accordingly, Jefferson grew more and more unfriendly. And now in 1812,
the world campaign of Napoleon had spread to America. He had hoped for
this, but on different lines. He had planned for it, but those plans had
failed.

"The War of 1812-14," as we call it, was merely a phase, a section, of
the greatest struggle in the history of mankind--the struggle of Britain
against the aggrandisement and cheap ambition of Napoleon to become the
Dictator of Europe and the civilized world. Brock, though invited to
take a share in the long drawn out contest in Spain, decided--fortunately
for us--to remain in Canada.

The year 1812 was the climax of the war with Napoleon--the most
splendid, as we have said, of all years in British military annals.
Since 1808, the British forces had been striving to drive the French
from Spain. First under Sir John Moore, later under Wellington, inch by
inch, year by year, they had beaten them back toward the Pyrenees. Then
on July 22, 1812, just as Brock was struggling with all his difficulties
here in Canada, there came Wellington's first decisive victory at
Salamanca. The news reached Brock in October and a day or two before he
died he sent the tidings forward to Proctor--Proctor then struggling
with his Forty-first Regiment to do as much damage as he could to the
enemy hundreds of miles out from Windsor and Detroit, Proctor who was to
be eternally much abused for faults he never was guilty of, and to be
blamed for Tecumseh's death next year. With the news of Salamanca went
Brock's prophetic comment: "I think the game nearly up in Spain"; and
within a year the game, Napoleon's game, was up, not only in Spain but
in all Europe. Within a year Leipsic had been fought and won and
Napoleon was a wanderer on the face of the earth, to be gathered in and
lodged on Elba.

Meanwhile other great events were shaping. Just a month before
Salamanca--in fact, four days before the United States declared
war--Napoleon had set out on his fatal expedition against Russia. Two
days later he crossed the Niemen. More than a million Frenchmen were now
in arms in Europe; and Britain was the only active enemy in the field.

What wonder then that Brock, as the civil and military head of the
Government of Upper Canada, should view with extreme anxiety the
situation in the Province? He had been in Canada for ten years. He knew
that the Motherland could not furnish any more men. There were fifteen
hundred regular troops in Upper, and two thousand in Lower Canada. Forty
years before there had not been a single settlement in what is now
Ontario from the Detroit to the Ottawa, from Lake Ontario to Sault Ste.
Marie. Now there were seventy-five thousand inhabitants; and under a
wise Militia Act they had imposed yearly military service on themselves;
every male inhabitant had to furnish his own gun and appear on parade or
be heavily fined. Thus there was a volunteer force more or less trained
amounting to about ten thousand men--a militia that under Brock rendered
splendid service.

But arms were scarce and supplies had to be brought long distances. The
men at Queenston won their victory with guns that were captured two
months before at Detroit. Throughout the war, when our mills had been
burnt by a ruthless enemy that made war on women and children and old
men, supplies were brought up the toilsome course of the St. Lawrence in
Durham boats and _bateaux_. The devoted militia of the river counties
guarded the frontier, and only once did they lose a convoy, part of
which they afterwards recovered by a raid into the enemy's territory at
Waddington, N.Y.

In front of Brock was a nation of eight or nine millions, a nation that
believed they could "take the Canadas without soldiers;" as the United
States Secretary of War said--"we have only to send officers into the
Province and the people, disaffected towards their own Government, will
rally round our standard." Yet they placed, during the three years of
the