Daniel Howe Elihu Bidwell Mr. Harnwood H. A. Delamatter David Tolman James Mallory Wm. Robinson John S. McDonald Mr. Macpherson Mr. Ephraim Webster and also the Lloyd family should be mentioned as one of the Lloyds participated in the 1812 affair. The name appears with some thirty or more in the Report of Militia Affairs for 1875, in which, among the long list of those survivors of the war of 1812 to 1815 still living, they are mentioned as entitled to the Government gratuity. From the blazing pine-knot torch and rush dip candle the schools are now lighted by the switch and magic button of electricity. The log cabins have made way for the substantial structures of brick or stone. The old schoolhouse has passed with some others into oblivion, and organized educational activities show three good schools for the common branches, and the High School-a splendidly equipped edifice-as the culmination of the united labours of the pioneers. Over the old camp site of Colonel Stone's first dwelling, where in 1792 his lonely fire sent out the only gleam from the north shore, the nights now reveal the glow of illuminant. Thus has the old rendezvous of the Indians been transformed: "The Garden of the Great Spirit," where the River Gananoque meets the St. Lawrence at the Thousand Isles. Here beauty abounds on every hand, on the broad bosom of one of the world's most mighty and glorious rivers. The River is a scene of grandeur, only the slow-moving current amidst beautiful isles, with here and there a white-winged yacht or swiftly-darting motor-boat-or at night with only the call of the lonely loon, as it patrols some little nook among the islands. But of the founder of Gananoque nothing is left to show where stood his halting place to the stranger. Of the great explorer and pioneer, Count de Frontenac, who halted at this place and noted the fact, nothing is here to keep the event in memory. What better for the Gateway of the Thousand Islands than a pair of pillars bearing plaque or tablet with suitable legends, which may set forth the facts concerning the two men who dared so many dangers "and camped at a point. above the river called the Onnondaqui." XV. BRITISH NAVAL OFFICERS OF A CENTURY AGO. BARRIE AND ITS STREETS-A HISTORY OF THEIR NAMES. BY LT.-COL. D. H. MACLAREN. (Sheriff, Simcoe County.) (A paper read before the Simcoe County Pioneer and Historical Society, April 28, 1908.) Earl Grey when Governor-General accomplished many good things for Canada, and took a foremost part in all schemes for the welfare of our country, among which the nationalizing of our great battlefields into public parks is worthy of special mention. And while we commend this project most heartily we should remember that the army did only one half the work of winning Canada and of holding it for Britain later on in the war of 1812. In each of these campaigns the army could have done little without the assistance of the navy, and yet we have no National Park in Canada laid out in honour of the senior branch of the service-as the Navy is-to remind our citizens of the debt we owe to those gallant sea-dogs. We are proud to say, however, that in the names of our town, its streets. and its surroundings, we have a memorial to the British Navy more noble, more beautiful and more lasting than any other could be. All these names are redolent with memories of gallant seamen and brave deeds of British sailors. "Admirals all, for England's sake Honour be yours, and fame. And honour as long as waves shall break "Admirals all, they said their say (The echoes are ringing still). But they left us a kingdom none can take, To be ruled by the rightful sons of Blake, Barrie, as first surveyed in 1833, was comprised within the area of Berczy Street on the East, Bayfield Street on the West and Grove Street on the North. At the same time as the town was laid out and designated Barrie, these streets received their names, being nearly all in honour of naval officers of the war of 1812-1814. From Berczy Street to Duckworth Street is the Berczy Survey; and from Duckworth Street to the eastern limits of the town, the great admirals of Britain are remembered in the streets of this portion of the present town. Before taking up the town itself we would say that Lake Simcoe, as The Gazeteer of 1799 informs us, was so named by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe in respect to his father, Captain John Simcoe of the Royal Navy, who died in the operations for the taking of Quebec in 1759. It was Captain Simcoe who piloted the British Fleet up the St. Lawrence River in this campaign. For a time Captain Simcoe had for lieutenant the great navigator, Captain Cook, and in his honour Governor Simcoe named the southern bay of our lake, Cook's Bay; and our own western bay was named Kempenfeldt in memory of the disastrous end of the Royal George, sinking in Portsmouth Harbour with Admiral Kempenfeldt, and nearly 800 officers and men. Barrie was so named in honour of Commodore Robert Barrie, R.N. who at that time occupied one of the highest offices in Canada, being Acting Commissioner of His Majesty's Navy on the Great Lakes from July, 1819, until its abandonment. Robert Barrie was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, in 1772. He was a nephew of Admiral Lord Gardner, Commander of the Channel Fleet, and entered the Royal Navy at an early age. He served as midshipman under Captain Vancouver in 1791, in his voyage of exploration and discovery on the Pacific Coast. In 1795 he was made lieutenant. In 1801 he was strongly recommended to the Admiralty for promotion on account of his gallant conduct in a fight with a French squadron "where though dangerously wounded he disdained to quit the deck." He received this promotion in 1804 when he was made Captain of the Brilliant-a ship of 24 guns. In 1806 he was promoted to the command of the Pomonea ship of 38 guns-a large vessel in those days. On 5th June, 1807, he valiantly attacked a French fleet with a convoy-in all seventeen vessels, and completely defeated them, sinking three men-of-war and capturing and bringing to England fourteen war vessels and store-ships, and doing this all with his one ship the Pomone, and her brave crew. For this feat he received great and well merited praise. He was sent next to join Lord Collingwood's fleet on the Mediterranean, where shortly afterwards he captured a French privateer commanded by De Boissi, Adjutant General of France. In 1809 he captured, unaided, a French man-of-war and five transports laden with provisions for the French army. In 1811 he captured without assistance a strong Corsican fort and three French men-of-war in the harbour. In the same year he captured a French war vessel upon which was Lucian Buonaparte with much booty plundered from every country in Europe upon it but Captain Barrie would not touch it nor allow his men to take it as booty. In 1813 Barrie was appointed to the command of H.M.S. Dragon and employed on the east coast of America until the end of the war of 1812-14. He blockaded the Chesapeake River and greatly assisted in the capture of Washington. During the remainder of the war he harassed the American commerce, and captured many of their war-vessels. At the conclusion of the war he left the Dragon, and in 1815 was decorated as a C.B. and in 1819 was appointed Commodore of His Majesty's Navy on the Great Lakes in Canada, with headquarters at Kingston, where for many years he was a notable figure. Commodore Barrie was Commodore Barrie was an open-hearted generous man, unflinchingly brave and kind to all who served under him, both officers and men, and was therefore beloved by all. Barrie's first visit to our town was before it had received its name, viz., in June, 1828, when he passed through on a journey from Toronto to Penetanguishene on a tour of inspection of the Naval Depots on the Great Lakes. Dunlop Street was so named in honour of Captain Robert Dunlop and such a seaman deserves such a worthy remembrance. Son of a Scotch laird, he entered the Royal Navy at thirteen years of age. He took part in ninetythree engagements and was over one hundred times under fire. At the siege of Fort Cornelcres he was dangerously wounded in three places and was carried through the breach into the fort on the boarding pikes of his sailors. During his first nine years' service in the navy he slept on shore only seven nights. Transferred for temporary service with the army, he was in charge of a naval battery at the siege of San Sebastian. He was recalled to the navy to command the Garonne and sent to cut out a flotilla of gun boats and store ships intended for the relief of Bayonne. He captured the whole flotilla, including Bonaparte's Imperial Barge. Half a hundred such gallant deeds could be told of him but it would make our article too long. Dunlop came with his vessel to Halifax in 1814. Soon after his arrival, the war was over and his ship was ordered home. He then retired upon half pay, and went to Edinburgh University to educate himself. He came to Canada in 1828, joining his brother Dr. William Dunlop ("Tiger Dunlop ") who was one of the leading men of western Ontario, and who (by the way) superintended for the Government the first cutting out the Penetanguishene Road from Kempenfeldt Bay to Penetanguishene in the winter of 1814-1815. Capt. Dunlop was the first member of parliament for the County of Huron, and continued so until his death. Collier Street recalls Sir George Collier, who, entering the navy in 1796, served under Lord Nelson until Trafalgar. He was sent to Canada in 1812 and commanded the Princess Charlotte, one of the largest man-of-war vessels on Lake Ontario in 1813 and 1814. He built a frigate for H.M. Navy at Penetanguishene, in 1814. Returning to England at the close of the war, he was made an Admiral in 1850. The next street north of Collier, running east and west, is Worsley, so named from Capt. Miller Worsley, R.N., who was chief in command on Lake Huron in 1814. He assisted in the defence of Fort Michilimackinac, and later with one vessel captured two U.S. war schooners, the Tigress and the Scorpion. In the official despatches he is praised for his ability and activity in this matter having first suggested the attack and carried it out with signal success,-Oct. 7, 1814. Capt. Archibald MacDonald saw many years' service under Collingwood before he was sent to Canada. He commanded H.M.S. Onondaga, which was wrecked in 1797. In the war of 1812-14, he commanded H.M.S. Moira. After him MacDonald Street is named, and his lieutenant, afterwards Commander, James, is commemorated in James Street. Taking next in order the streets running north from the Bay in the original survey of Barrie, commencing at the western boundary we have Bayfield Street, named after Admiral Bayfield, a native of Norfolk County, England, who served through the Napoleonic wars under Lord Collingwood, as lieutenant of his flagship, and afterward commanded a vessel on Lake Huron during the war of 1812-14. To this most efficient and distinguished officer the people of Canada are very deeply indebted, as he made the first hydrographic surveys of all our Great Lakes from the extreme western shore of Lake Super ior, to the outlet of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Straits of Belle Isle, around Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. In this stupendous work he had only one assistant and two to four labouring men and one or two small boats. He was a painstaking indefatigable worker, and the accuracy of his charts are still a wonder to all navigators and until a very few years ago they were the only ones in use on the Great Lakes. In this hydrographic work he was engaged from the close of the war in 1814 to 1856, when he retired after more than sixty years service in the Royal Navy. Clapperton Street is called so, for Commander Hugh Clapperton, R.N., who was lieutenant in Admiral Lord Cochrane's flagship, Asia. He commanded a gun boat on the Great Lakes in the war, 1812-14. He afterwards was one of the pioneer African explorers, dying in the centre of Africa upon his second expedition in 1827. Admiral W. F. Owen, and for whom Owen Street is named was a native of Nova Scotia and brother of the greater admiral Sir Edward Owen; he also fought under Admiral Lord Cochrane. He commanded a large vessel on the lakes during the war of 1812-14. In 1815 he made a partial hydrographical survey of Lake Ontario, in which he was assisted by Lieutenant Bayfield, who completed the work. In 1816 Captain Owen became Commodore of the Lakes, and remained such until succeeded by Commodore Barrie in 1819. Owen Sound is also named after Admiral Owen. Mulcaster Street recalls a name well known in the navy from 1790 to 1814, that of Capt. Sir W. H. Mulcaster, C.B. He served under that brave old sea dog, Admiral Jarvis, Earl of St. Vincent. In 1806, Captain Mulcaster with two vessels captured five Spanish men-of-war in Finisterre Bay. He did splendid service and was severely wounded at the capture of Cayenne in 1809. He captured seventeen American privateers in 1812-13. He commanded the Princess Charlotte, 42 guns, on Lake Ontario in 1814. In this year he was very dangerously wounded at the storming of Fort Oswego from which he never fully recovered. Poyntz Street commemorates Capt Newdigate Poyntz, who served under Lord Nelson through all the Napoleonic struggle, and later was sent to Canada in the war of 1812, during which he commanded a vessel, and in 1813-14 he was chief in command of the navy on Lake Huron. In the latter year he made the first hydrographical survey of Penetanguishene Harbour. Sampson Street is the next street east and parallel with Poyntz. This is named after Captain Sampson, R.N., who in the war of 1812-14 commanded H.M.S. Simcoe. In this vessel Captain Sampson brought from Niagara to Toronto the American prisoners taken at the battle of Queenston Heights, and at the same time brought to the citizens of Muddy York the first news of the great victory and of the death of Sir Isaac Brock. Berczy Street commemorates Wm. Berczy, a Prussian, who came to Toronto in 1794, and first cut out and opened up Yonge Street as far north as Gwilliamsbury as well as the road into Markham. His son Charles was afterwards the third Postmaster of Toronto, and owned the Berczy Block, Barrie. He named the streets therein after his wife and daughters. But Berczy had too many daughters for the number of streets in the block, so the last one was called Harriet and Melinda Street, after the remaining two of the family not already honoured. This street which runs north from Blake Street, was a short time ago renamed Dundonald Street in honour of Admiral Cochrane, |