114 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



had been brought in from the back country for distances of from 300 

 to 1,500 miles. He speaks of having seen four vessels unloading at 

 once and 60 wagons loaded in a single day for the upper landing at 

 Chippawa Creek. He adds that the portage is a source of wealth 

 to the farmers of the vicinity, who receive one shilling and eight 

 pence (New York currency) per hundredweight for hauling from 20 

 to 30 hundredweight, and that they reload with furs to be carried 

 on to Fort Erie, and thence by vessel to Detroit and other places. 

 Robert Hamilton, the greatest merchant of this section, is mentioned 

 as a resident of Queenston, where he owned "a very fine house built 

 in the English style," together with a farm, a distillery, and a tan- 

 yard. At his death this merchant left an estate estimated at 200,000 

 pounds. Thomas Dickson was carrying on an extensive trade at 

 Queenston during a part of this period. A visitor who put up at 

 Fairbank's Tavern in 1800 was impressed by seeing 14 double teams 

 of oxen standing at the wharf, where peltries and bales lay waiting 

 to be loaded, and where three schooners were ready for fresh cargoes. 

 By 1807 there were 100 houses in Queenston, including six stores, 

 and the population numbered 300 at what was probably a low estimate.^ 



It was by way of Queenston that Methodism was introduced 

 into Upper Canada with the arrival of Major George Neale, who 

 crossed the river at this point in October, 1786. After taking up 

 an officer's portion of land the Major organized a class-meeting at the 

 home of Christian Warner near St. Davids. From this beginning 

 the Niagara Circuit, which embraced York and Long Point, developed 

 in 1795. The first circuit rider is said to have been Darius Dunham, 

 who was followed in 1799 by James Coleman and in 1800 by Michael 

 Coate and Joseph Sawyer. In the next year the first meeting-house 

 of the district was erected, being known as Warner's Church. ^ 



In January, 1797, an epidemic of smallpox broke out in Queenston 

 and toward the end of the month Doctors Robert Kerr and James 

 Muirhead came from Niagara to make inoculations, after which they 

 announced their desire to apply the same treatment in their own 

 community.^ 



THE LOYALISTS AT THE HEAD OF LAKE ONTARIO. 



Among all the Loyalist settlements in the Peninsula that which 

 was to attain the most remarkable development was not to be found 

 on the River Niagara, or along the shores of Lake Ontario, but at 

 the western end of this great inland sea. Already in 1781 refugees 



1 Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 26,49; No. 11, 35-38; Carnochan, Hist, of Niagara, 114. 



2 Carnochan, Hist, of Niagara, 163, 164. 

 2 Ibid., 234. 



