340 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



for its material, brick, when as yet all the surrounding habitations were of wood ; for its 

 tinned roof, its graceful porch, its careful and neat finish generally, was, for a long time, one 

 of the York lions. — Mr. Quetton St. George was a French royalist ofBcer, and a chevalier of the 

 order of St. Louis. With many other French gentlemen he emigrated to Canada at the era of 

 the Revolution. He was of the class of the noblesse, as all officers were required to be ; which 

 class, just before the Bevolution, included, it is said, 90,000 persons, all exempt from the 

 ordinary taxes of the country. The surname of St. George . was assumed by M. Quetton to 

 commemorate the fact that he first set foot on English ground on St. George's day. On 

 proceeding to Canada, he, in conjunction with Jean Louis, Vicomte de Chalus, and other 

 distinguished emigres, acquired a large estate in wild lands in the rough region north of York, 

 known as the " Oak Ridges." Finding it difficult, however, to turn such property speedily to 

 account, he had recourse to trade with the Indians and remote inhabitants. Numerous stations 

 with this object in view, were established by him in different parts of the country, before his 

 final settlement in York. One of these posts was at Orillia, on Lake Couchiching ; and in the 

 Niagara B'craM of August the 7th, 1802, we meet with the following advertisement: "New 

 Store at the House of the French General, between Niagara and Queenston. Messrs. Quetton 

 St. George and Co. acquaint the Public that they have lately arrived from New York with a 

 general assortment of Dry Goods and Groceries, which will be sold at the lowest price for ready 

 money ; for from the uncertainty of their residing any time in these parts, they cannot open 

 accounts with any person. Wni also be found at the same store a gaperal assortment of tools 

 for all mechanics. They have lilvewise well-made Trunks : also empty Barrels. Niagara, July 

 23." The copartnership implied was with M. de Farcy. The French General referred to was 

 the Comte de Puisaye. The house spoken of still exists, beautifully situated at a point on the 

 Niagara River where the carriage-road between Queenston and the town of Niagara approaches 

 the very brink of the lofty bank, whose precipitous side is even yet richly clothed with fine 

 forest trees, and where the noble stream below, closed in towards the south by the heights 

 above Lewiston and Queenston, possesses all the features of a picturesque inland lake. 

 Attached to the house in question is a curious old fire-proof structure of brick, quaintly 

 buttressed with stone : the walls are of a thickness of three or four feet ; and the interior is 

 beautifully vaulted and divided into two compartments having no communication with each 

 other : and above the whole is a long loft of wood, approached by steps on the outside. The 

 property here belonged for a time in later years to Shickluna, the shipbuilder of St. Catharines, 

 who happily did not disturb the interesting relic just described. The house itself was in some 

 respects modernized by him ; but, with its steep roof and three dormer windows, it stiU retains 

 much of its primitive character. — In 1805 we find Mr. St. George removed to York. The 

 copartnership with M. de Farcy is now dissolved. In successive numbers of the Gazette and 

 Oracle, issued in that and the following year, he advertises at great length. But on the 2&th 

 of September, 1806, he abruptly announces that he is not going to advertise anymore : he now 

 once for all, begs the public to examine his former advertisements, where they will find, he 

 says, an account ot the supply which he brings from New York every spring, a similar assort- 

 ment to which he intends always to have on hand: and N. B., he adds: Nearly the same 

 assortment may be found at Mr. Boiton's at Kingston, and at Mr. BoucherviUe's at Amherst- 

 burg, " who transact business for Mr. St. George." As we have, in the advertisements referred 

 to, a rather minute record of articles and things procurable and held likely to be wanted by 

 the founders of society in these parts, we wUl give, for the reader's entertainment, a selection 

 from several of them, adhering for the most part to the order m which the goods are therein 

 named. Prom time to time it is announced that there have "just arrived from New York," 

 ribbons, cotton goods, silk tassels, gown-trimmings, cotton binding, wire trimmings, silk 

 belting, fans, beaded buttons, block tin, glove ties, cotton bed-line, bed-lace, rollo-bands, 

 ostrich feathers, sUk lace, black veil lace, thread do., laces and edgings, fine black veils, white 

 do., fine silk mitts, love-handkerchiefs, Barcelona do., silk do., black crape, black mode, black 

 Belong, blue, white and yellow do., striped silk fbr gowns, Chambray muslins, printed dimity, 

 split-straw bonnets, Leghorn do., imperial chip do., best London Ladies' beaver bonnets, cotton 

 wire, Rutlandgauze, band boxes, cambrics, calicoes, Irish linens, callimancoes, jjlaiu muslins, 

 laced muslins, blue, black and yellow nankeens, jeans, fustians, long sUk gloves, velvet 

 ribbons, Russia sheetings, India satins, sUk and cotton umbrellas, parasols, white cottons, 



