their military installations, such as Fort Henry and Murney Tower, into museums, allowing the uninitiated a glimpse of the glory days of the British Empire. Perhaps it is the sense of living history – evident in the fact that so many of the surnames of Kingston’s original citizens, like Grass and Richardson, still survive there today – that makes Kingston special.
Or perhaps it is the sense that Kingston has continued to build according to its own vision of its potential that has led it to prosper despite its misfortunes. The founding of Queen’s College (later Queen’s University) and the Royal Military College were decisions that have continued to profit the city in innumerable ways. The vision of the city council that built City Hall has finally been vindicated, as the structure is one of the most striking of its kind in the land. And, although the many penal institutions in the immediate vicinity lend Kingston a somewhat notorious air, there is no doubt that these facilities lend an aura of stability to the community.
Despite Kingston’s trials, the unmistakable vitality is still there. It’s there in the way those who were raised there and moved away long to return. It’s there in the passion with which those who come and stay speak of their adopted home. And it’s there in the sense of connectedness citizens feel with their past – and their future.
St. John’s Street, c. 1860s.
National Archives of Canada #PA-62177. Rifle Brigade collection.
King Street, c. 1860s.
National Archives of Canada #PA-62172. Rifle Brigade collection.
Residential District, c. 1860s.
National Archives of Canada #PA-119319.
Photographer: Sheldon and Davis.
The mouth of the Cataraqui River was originally chosen as the site of the new settlement of Cataraqui because of its fine harbour. French ships could pull into the estuary at the mouth of the river, protected from the fierce gales off Lake Ontario by the spit of land which curled around the bay.
This made Cataraqui a natural point at which the smaller bateaux and Durham boats needed to transport goods up the St. Lawrence could be offloaded onto larger sailing vessels for the voyage up the Great Lakes. The larger ships made good economic sense. The bigger the ship, the more furs that could be transported from the interior at the same time, decreasing transportation costs. Fort Frontenac was built to protect this new harbour from the competition: the British, and their Iroquois allies.
In 1758, Fort Frontenac was captured by British forces under the command of Colonel Bradstreet. This marked a decline in Cataraqui’s fortunes, as the major fur trade route was diverted south to the British-controlled Hudson River, instead of continuing to follow the French-dominated St. Lawrence route.
Another blow came during the Revolutionary War when Captain Twiss recommended in 1778 that the British Navy build a fort on the newly renamed Carleton Island instead of building at Cataraqui. Throughout the conflict, the new fort, Haldimand, took over the roles Cataraqui had played, both as a military centre and as a major shipping port.
For the duration of the war, only naval ships of the provincial marine were permitted on the lakes. After the war, the expected influx of settlers and supplies to the area created the need for the re-establishment of a commercial shipping industry at the head of the St. Lawrence River. Since Carleton Island was too small to handle the expansion, the old site at Cataraqui was pressed into service (Preston, 1954).
British Troops at Fort Henry, 1867.
National Archives of Canada #C-55511. E. Gary Carroll collection.
By the mid-1800s, the legislature of the United Province of Canada was deadlocked. Initially, Canada West and Canada East each sent forty-two representatives to the house and, under the double majority system then in use, legislation had to be approved by a majority of representatives from both jurisdictions (Bourrie, 1998). However, the anglophone population was divided along regional, religious, and political lines, while francophones enjoyed a solidarity born of a common language and culture. The anglophone vote was fractured among many parties, while francophones voted en masse with whatever party served them best. The result was that new governments were continually being formed, only to be defeated almost immediately, once after a tenure of only two days.
George Brown, responding to the inevitability of growth in Canada West outstripping that in Canada East, first proposed representation by population in 1853. Not surprisingly, francophones voted against the initiative, as an increase of representatives in Canada West would tip the balance of power against them.
By June 1864, the union had seen three separate governments come and go. The province was at a crossroads, and the solution which presented itself was confederation of the two Canadas with the rest of British North America. This move would, in one fell swoop, increase the anglophone population enough to overwhelm the francophone vote. Initial negotiations began in Charlottetown in September 1864, and, after three long years, Confederation was proclaimed Monday, July 1, 1867 (Waite, 1962).
Proclamation of Confederation, Market Square, July 1, 1867.
Queen’s University Archives #PG-K 142-1.
Brock Street, c. 1875.
National Archives of Canada #PA-103120.
Edward McCann collection.
Michael Grass was born in Strasbourg about 1732. Around his twentieth birthday, Grass left his homeland, possibly to avoid conscription by the French, who had controlled the area for almost three quarters of a century.
In September 1752, Grass found himself in Pennsylvania, where he worked as a saddler. Four years later he was captured by the French and imprisoned at Fort Frontenac until his escape several months later.
In August 1775, Grass was named a captain in the local militia, but he refused the commission. Two years later he was forced to seek asylum in New York, which was under the protection of the governor, Sir Guy Carleton. Numerous other Loyalists had also sought shelter there, and in order to ease the pressure of such an influx, Carleton decided to resettle the Loyalists along the banks of the St. Lawrence. Knowing Grass had spent some time at Cataraqui during his incarceration by the French, Carleton offered him a special commission to lead the Loyalists and establish a settlement in the area.
Captain Grass and his band of 983 settlers left New York in 1783 in about half a dozen ships, and arrived at Sorel, Quebec, in the early fall of the same year. The main party was quartered there, while an advance party continued up the St. Lawrence in bateaux to Cataraqui. After some initial surveying, Grass and the majority of his advance party retired to Sorel for the winter. Seventeen of the settlers elected to winter at Cataraqui.
The
