Beamsville, Ontario

Last updated

Beamsville
Unincorporated community
King Street, Beamsville, Ontario.jpg
King Street in Beamsville.
Canada Ontario location map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Beamsville
Canada location map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Beamsville
Coordinates: 43°09′57″N79°28′35″W / 43.16583°N 79.47639°W / 43.16583; -79.47639
CountryCanada
Province Ontario
Regional Municipality Niagara
Town Lincoln
Founded1788
Government
  Governing BodyTown of Lincoln Council
   MP Dean Allison  (CPC)
   MPP Sam Oosterhoff  (PC)
Area
[1]
  Total
9.19 km2 (3.55 sq mi)
Population
 (2021) [2]
  Total
13,323
  Density1,287.6/km2 (3,335/sq mi)
Time zone UTC−05:00 (EST)
  Summer (DST) UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Forward sortation area
L3J, L0R 1B0, L0R 2N0, L0R 3B0
Area code 905 / 289 / 365
Highways Ontario QEW crown.svg  Queen Elizabeth Way
NTS Map030M03
GNBC CodeFEGRM

Beamsville (2021 Urban area estimated population 13,323) [2] is a community that is part of the town of Lincoln, Ontario, Canada. It is located along the southern shore of Lake Ontario and lies within the fruit belt of the Niagara Peninsula. It contains century-old brick buildings, an old-fashioned downtown area with barbershops, women's dress shops, a bakery, a print shop, restaurants, banks and other businesses, and many orchards and vineyards.

Contents

Queen Elizabeth Way, the main road that connects Toronto and Buffalo, New York, has an interchange at Beamsville. Many tourists stop for something to eat at the many fast-food restaurants nearby.

Industry

Beamsville is in the heart of Ontario's wine country and contributes greatly to the wine industry in the Niagara Peninsula. Many wineries from the area have won top awards locally and internationally, including Grape King at the Niagara Grape & Wine Festival. [3]

Alanson Harris operated a foundry making farm tools that became farm implements maker Massey Harris.

History

Beamsville was named after Jacob Beam (1723-1812), a United Empire Loyalist. Both of his homes—the original one, on Thirty Mile Creek, and the one near downtown Beamsville—are still intact.

Jacob Beam (1723-1812), his wife Anna Catharine (Boughner) Beam (1737-1820) and their daughter Catharine (Beam) Merrell (1766-1842) and son-in-law Samuel Russell Merrell (1757-1835), emigrated to Canada from Hopewell, Sussex County, New Jersey in 1788, and founded Beamsville.

Royal Flying Corps Historical Plaque RFC Canada Beamsville Plaque.JPG
Royal Flying Corps Historical Plaque

By 1869, it was a village of 550 in the Township of Clinton, Lincoln County, on the Great Western Railway. [4]

In 1898, hockey players in Beamsville were the first to use a hockey net.

In 1917 the Royal Flying Corps established a School of Aerial Fighting on the farmland immediately east of Beamsville. It consisted of a camp, an airfield, and a gunnery range over Lake Ontario. Today an historical plaque at 4222 Sann Road marks the geographical centre of the 300-acre school property. [5] Adjacent to the plaque is an original hangar building. [6]

In 1970, the Town of Beamsville was amalgamated with Clinton Township and (half of) Louth Township to form the larger Town of Lincoln.

Education

Alfred Peckham orchards 1924 Alfred Peckham orchards02.jpg
Alfred Peckham orchards 1924

Beamsville has two secondary schools (grades 9–12) and three elementary schools (Kindergarten to Grade 8).

District School Board of Niagara

Beamsville used to have a public secondary school, Beamsville District Secondary School. Beamsville District Secondary School, on Central Avenue, was established in 1888 [7] and draws students from all over the Town of Lincoln. Its current principal is Mr. Miller, and the current student population is just over 400. [8]

There are two public elementary schools located in Beamsville, Senator Gibson Public School [9] and Jacob Beam Public School. [10]

Niagara Catholic District School Board

The Niagara Catholic District School Board has two elementary schools in Beamsville (St. Johns and St. Mark). St. Mark Catholic Elementary School was opened in 2001. It has undergone a large expansion in 2011, growing to 22 classrooms. The current enrollment at St. Mark is 541 students. St. Johns Catholic Elementary School was built in 1958 and the current enrollment is 346 students [11]

Private schools

Great Lakes Christian High School is a private, four-year coeducational day and boarding Christian high school affiliated with the Churches of Christ. [12]

People

Beamsville is home to numerous Dutch and United Empire Loyalist families, as evidenced by its large number of Dutch Reformed and Anglican churches.

William Fairbrother, inventor of the hockey net, lived in Beamsville. Bill Berg, formerly a hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs and now an National Hockey League (NHL) broadcaster, was born, and continues to make his home in Beamsville. Paul Laus, a former Florida Panthers defenceman, and Ryan Christie, who played seven games with the Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames, are also Beamsville natives.

Another Beamsville native, Tonya Verbeek, earned an Olympic silver medal in women's wrestling at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. She won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, and another silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.

Beamsville natives Ralph Reid and Lloyd Southward were Lancaster pilots during the Second World War and both received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

Another Beamsville native is former Canadian Football League (CFL) running back Andre Sadeghian, who was drafted in the third round of the 2007 CFL Draft by the BC Lions and played four seasons with the Lions, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Evelyn Dick, known for the murder of her estranged husband John Dick, was born and lived in this town.

Performance artist, writer and former sex worker Nina Arsenault grew up in a trailer park in Beamsville.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niagara Escarpment</span> Escarpment in Canada and the United States

The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States that starts from the south shore of Lake Ontario westward, circumscribes the top of the Great Lakes Basin running from New York through Ontario, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The escarpment is the cliff over which the Niagara River plunges at Niagara Falls, for which it is named.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belleville, Ontario</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Belleville is between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Its population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 55,071. It is the seat of Hastings County, but politically independent of it, and is the centre of the Bay of Quinte Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burlington, Ontario</span> City in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada

Burlington is a city and lower-tier municipality in Halton Region at the west end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Located approximately halfway between Toronto and Niagara Falls, it is part of the Greater Toronto Area and the Hamilton census metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orillia</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Orillia is a city in Ontario, Canada, about 30 km north-east of Barrie in Simcoe County. It is located at the confluence of Lake Couchiching and Lake Simcoe. Although it is geographically located within Simcoe County, the city is a single-tier municipality. It is part of the Huronia region of Central Ontario. The population in 2021 was 33,411.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Catharines</span> City in Ontario, Canada

St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2017, St. Catharines has an area of 96.13 square kilometres (37.12 sq mi) and 140,370 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, 51 kilometres (32 mi) south of Toronto across Lake Ontario, and is 19 kilometres (12 mi) inland from the international boundary with the United States along the Niagara River. It is the northern entrance of the Welland Canal. Residents of St. Catharines are known as St. Catharinites. St. Catharines carries the official nickname "The Garden City" due to its 1,000 acres (4 km2) of parks, gardens, and trails.

Grimsby is a town on Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Grimsby is at the eastern end of the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. It is named after the English fishing town of Grimsby in north-east Lincolnshire. The majority of residents reside in the area bounded by Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment, home to a section of the Bruce Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niagara-on-the-Lake</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the Niagara Region of Ontario and is the only town in Canada that has a lord mayor. It had a population of 19,088 as of the 2021 Canadian census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niagara Peninsula</span> Peninsula in Ontario, Canada

The Niagara Peninsula is an area of land lying between the southwestern shore of Lake Ontario and the northeastern shore of Lake Erie, in Ontario, Canada. Technically an isthmus rather than a peninsula, it stretches from the Niagara River in the east to Hamilton, Ontario, in the west. The peninsula is located in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario, and has a population of roughly 1,000,000 residents. The region directly across the Niagara River and Lake Erie in New York State is known as the Niagara Frontier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norfolk County, Ontario</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Norfolk County is a rural single-tier municipality on the north shore of Lake Erie in Southwestern Ontario, Canada with a 2023 population of 73,015. Despite its name, it is no longer a county by definition, as all municipal services are handled by a single level of government. The largest community in Norfolk County is Simcoe, whose 2021 population was 16,121. The other population centres are Port Dover, Delhi, Waterford and Port Rowan, and there are many smaller communities. For several years in the late 20th century, the county was merged with Haldimand County but the merged entity was dissolved in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dundas, Ontario</span> Community in Hamilton, Ontario

Dundas is a community and urban district in the city of Hamilton in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is nicknamed Valley Town because of its topographical location at the bottom of the Niagara Escarpment on the western edge of Lake Ontario. The population has been stable for decades at about 20,000, largely because it has not annexed rural land from the protected Dundas Valley Conservation Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tillsonburg</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Tillsonburg is a town in Oxford County, Ontario, Canada with a population of 18,615 located about 50 kilometres southeast of London, on Highway 3 at the junction of Highway 19.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln, Ontario</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Lincoln is a town on Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. The town's administrative and commercial centre is in the community of Beamsville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vintners Quality Alliance</span> Regulatory system for Canadian wines

Vintners Quality Alliance, or VQA, is a regulatory and appellation system which guarantees the high quality and authenticity of origin for Canadian wines made under that system in British Columbia and Ontario. It is similar to regulatory systems in France (AOC), Spain (DO), Italy (DOC), and Germany (QmP). The VQA system allows for sub-appellations, by which the grapes for wines are sourced from extremely specific geographical locations with different soil and climate. This is in accordance with the concept of terroir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vineland, Ontario</span> Unincorporated Community in Ontario, Canada

Vineland is an unincorporated community within the Town of Lincoln in Niagara Region. Located in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is bordered by the Twenty Mile Creek and Jordan to the east, Lake Ontario to the north, Beamsville to the west and Pelham to the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">District School Board of Niagara</span> Public school board district in Ontario, Canada

The District School Board of Niagara is a school board in the public school system of Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Niagara. Its head office is in St. Catharines. The DSBN operates schools in each of the twelve municipalities in the region. It employs close to 2,500 instructional staff to teach over 43,000 students in 97 elementary schools and 18 secondary schools. As of 2018, it was considered the top employer by number of employees in the Niagara Region. DSBN offers high school level courses online through Desire2Learn (D2L).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dysart et al</span> United township in Ontario, Canada

The United Townships of Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde, commonly known as the Municipality of Dysart et al, is a municipality in Haliburton County in Central Ontario, Canada. The original townships were of the Canadian Land and Emigration Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordan, Ontario</span> Unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada

Jordan is a community located on the eastern edge of the Town of Lincoln, in the Niagara Region. Jordan is bordered by the Twenty Mile Creek and Vineland to the west, Lake Ontario to the north, St. Catharines to the east, and Pelham to the south. Lying roughly 100 km from Toronto and 65 km from Buffalo by road, Jordan is located along a major transportation corridor between Canada and the United States. In January 2014, Jordan was brought to international attention when Al-Qaeda-directed terrorists were arrested for plotting to derail a passenger train traveling from Toronto to New York on a rail-bridge crossing the Jordan Harbour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario wine</span> Canadian wine produced in the province of Ontario

Ontario wine is Canadian wine produced in the province of Ontario. The province has three official wine-growing regions, the Niagara Peninsula, the north shore of Lake Erie, and Prince Edward County, although wineries also exist in other regions in Ontario. Approximately two-thirds of Canada's vineyard acreage is situated in Ontario, with over 150 vineyards spread across 6,900 hectares. As a result, the province is the country's largest producer of wine, accounting for 62 per cent of Canadian wine production, and 68 per cent of all Canadian wine exports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beamsville District Secondary School</span> Secondary school in Beamsville, Ontario, Canada

Beamsville District Secondary School was a secondary school in Beamsville, Ontario, Canada and was operated by the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grimsby Secondary School</span> Secondary school in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada

Grimsby Secondary School (GSS) was a secondary school in Grimsby, Ontario, Canada. Operated by the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN), it had a student body of approximately 700 year-to-year.

References

  1. "Census Profile, 2016 Census". Statistics Canada. November 29, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2022-02-09). "Profile table, Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population - Beamsville [Population centre], Ontario". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  3. Niagara Grape & Wine Festival
  4. The province of Ontario gazetteer and directory. H. McEvoy Editor and Compiler, Toronto : Robertson & Cook, Publishers, 1869
  5. Town of Lincoln (1991), Royal Flying Corp Historical Plaque, 4222 Saan Road, Beamsville.
  6. Chajkowsky, William E. (1979), Royal Flying Corps Borden To Texas To Beamsville, Cheltenham, Ontario, Boston Mills Press. ISBN   0-919822-23-1
  7. Niagara This Week–May 9, 2013
  8. Fraser Institute Report on Ontario Secondary School Performance–2014 Report
  9. Senator Gibson home page
  10. Jacob Beam home page
  11. St. Mark home page
  12. Great Lakes home page Archived February 20, 2014, at the Wayback Machine