Compiled by Fred Blair
Last Revised Apr. 8, 2019
In
Ontario, Canada, the War of 1812 is part of the grade 7 history
curriculum. The following reports of
young people’s experiences of the war may be of interest to those
students. Teachers can read more about
each event in the Stories book in the right-hand column.
Also note
that most school houses were impressed for the use of the military as barracks
and warehouses. Parents had to rely on
their own initiatives to educate their children. Sixteen-year old boys were required to muster
for militia duty.
May 26, 1813
Young
Elizabeth Henry recalled the American bombardment of the Town of Niagara.
May 27, 1813
Matthew
Woodruff, age 15, fired upon the invading American force near the Town of
Niagara.
June 3, 1813
Jacob
Cline, age 13, visited the American camp at the 40 Mile Creek.
June 4, 1813
Daniel
Barber, age 11, found himself with a herd of sheep in the middle of an
engagement between Indigenous warriors and American dragoons.
Jacob
Cline, age 13, witnessed the return of the dragoons to the American camp.
June 5, 1813
Daniel
Barber, age 11, warned his father of the American advance towards their home.
June 6, 1813
Elizabeth
Gage, age 8, recalled the American’s arrival at Stoney Creek where they
occupied her family’s farm. When the
British attacked during the night the children hid in the attic loft of their
house where they heard musket balls strike the walls. In the morning the children looked out upon
the battle ground.
John
Cleaver, age 12, was employed as a teamster during the British retreat and
helped clear the battlefield of bodies with his father’s wagon and team.
June 7, 1813
Jacob
Cline, age 13, witnessed the arrival of the retreating Americans at the 40 Mile
Creek.
June 20, 1813
Anna Gesso
carried a report on the movements of American indigenous warriors from the Town
of Niagara to British warriors at Beaver Dams.
She travelled there with her three children in an ox cart. Laura Secord made a similar journey three
days later.
June 21, 1813
Dr.
Kirby’s thirteen-year old son helped Lieutenant James Fitzgibbon capture two
Americans in an inn on Lundy’s Lane.
July 7, 1813
John Law,
age 13, joined an engagement between the Americans and Captain John Norton’s
Indigenous warriors and was rescued by his mother.
September 21, 1813
Abigail
Kyes, age 11, rode eight miles from her family’s farm to the nearest mill to
have grain ground.
December 10, 1813
Young
Elizabeth Henry helped her mother gather water to extinguish the fire at their
house, when the Americans burnt about 300 houses in the Town of Niagara.
July 25, 1814
Teenager Charles Willson was working at the tavern at the falls, managed by his mother. When he was 14, Americans used the tavern as
a hospital after the Battle of Lundy’s Lane.
September 9, 1814
One of
Elizabeth Rapelje’s daughters fought to stop an Indigenous warrior from
stealing one of the daughter’s dresses.
November 5, 1814
George
Nichols’ children were locked in his pigpen by American troopers who encamped beside
his house.
End
