Effingham | |
---|---|
Unincorporated community | |
Coordinates: 43°4′28″N79°18′26″W / 43.07444°N 79.30722°W | |
Country | Canada |
Province | Ontario |
Regional municipality | Niagara |
Town | Pelham |
Settled | 1809 |
Time zone | UTC-5 (EST) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
Forward sortation area | |
Area code(s) | 905 and 289 |
NTS Map | 030M03 |
GNBC Code | FBBVG |
Effingham is a hamlet on 12 Mile Creek, in the northern part of the Town of Pelham in Ontario, Canada. [1] Located on the Niagara Escarpment, it has few roads which wind through the Escarpment's forests.
Like the neighbouring community of St. Johns in Thorold, Effingham sits on the edge of Short Hills Provincial Park. The St. Johns Conservation Area, maintained by the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, is located nearby.
Effingham began as a small Quaker settlement early in Niagara's history. Situated in the Short Hills of Pelham, it owed its beginnings to David Secord, brother-in-law to Laura Secord, who had arrived shortly after 1783. As a Butler's Ranger, Secord was entitled to a land grant of 400 acres (1.6 km2). The patent issued on 8 July 1799. The tract was composed mainly of wooded hills divided by spring-fed streams. Secord harnessed the water power of the fast flowing streams to run a grist mill at what has since become the neighbouring hamlet of St. Johns, only the second mill to be built in Upper Canada.
Secord had cleared 10 acres (4 ha) and planted apple trees, which were already bearing fruit, when the Loyalist and Quaker Samuel Beckett arrived on the scene. Beckett was to be the forerunner of many Quakers who would settle in Pelham. Secord sold his entire grant to Beckett on 13 October 1809 for GBP£687/10s. Beckett proceeded to build a saw mill. Besides the grist mill, a woollen factory and fulling mill are recorded, and eventually the bustling milling centre became known as "Beckett's Mills". The original Beckett home is still in good condition, and its present owner is only its fourth since 1795.
The fast running streams of the Twelve Mile Creek system were a source of power and the soil was excellent for farming and growing wheat. The grist mills of Beckett's Mills and St. Johns served the farmers throughout the region. In 1850, Beckett's Mills was renamed "Effingham" and a post office was established. Effingham boasted a general store, post office, a Quaker church, a blacksmith shop and a carriage shop. In spite of exterior forces, such as the first Welland Canal and the railways by-passing St. Johns, Effingham was still able to be a busy milling community. By 1854, however, the effects of the second Welland canal, more railways and American imported wheat from Ohio forced the community to change to cash crops of fruit, vegetables and dairy products. Effingham slowly declined as a regional centre.
Today, the mills are gone. Fierce storms in 1935 washed out the mill dams and sent a flood of water through the valley, destroying many bridges. Of the many millponds where ducks and geese once paddled, only broken-down mill races are still to be found.
The poem "Effingham" by Brown from 1912 captures the spirit of the hamlet:
Low nestled in the Pelham Hills
Where angrily the Twelve Mile spills,
Her crystal flood o'er earth confine
Then rushes on as if on time:
And not unlike the sportive steed
It races down through vale and mead
Impatient in its onward flow
To swell Ontario's tide below.
Here let me rest, 'neath maple shade
Of charming bowers of nature made,
And whether I gaze on vine-clad hill
Or two-fold pond and rustic mill
In all around I find a scene
For artist's brush and poet's theme.
No crowded walk or busy street
But you stop and talk to whom you meet
On grass fringed path up to the store,
Or to the church with welcome door-
A spot where simple joys abound
And peace and plenty abound
Where life is real and not a sham,
Believe me, this is Effingham.
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.
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.
Welland is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. As of 2021, it had a population of 55,750.
Thorold is a city in Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. It is also the seat of the Regional Municipality of Niagara. The Welland Canal passes through the city, featuring lock 7 and the Twin Flight Locks.
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.
King's Highway 58, commonly referred to as Highway 58, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The route is divided into two segments with a combined length of 15.5 km (9.6 mi). The southern segment travels from Niagara Regional Road 3, formerly Highway 3, in Port Colborne, to the Highway 58A junction in the southern end of Welland, a distance of 7.2 km (4.5 mi). The northern segment begins at Highway 20 near Allanburg and travels north and west to a large junction with Highway 406 at the St. Catharines – Thorold boundary, a distance of 8.3 km (5.2 mi). An 18.1 km (11.2 mi) gap separates the two segments within Welland and Pelham. The entire route is located within the Regional Municipality of Niagara.
Chippawa is a community located within the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Pelham is a town located in the centre of Niagara Region in Ontario, Canada.
Fonthill is a community in the town of Pelham, Ontario, Canada. It has a few small industries, but is primarily a residential suburb with some fruit orchards and nature trails. As a bedroom community, most residents commute to Welland, St. Catharines and some as far as Buffalo, Hamilton and Toronto daily for work.
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Cooks Mills is a small community in the easternmost part of the city of Welland in Ontario, Canada. It was established, and is still centred, on a Welland River tributary called Lyons Creek. It is almost entirely a bedroom community, as there are few employers located in the area.
King's Highway 20, commonly referred to as Highway 20, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Presently, it is a short 1.9 km (1.2 mi) stub between Highway 58 and Niagara Regional Road 70 in the City of Thorold, but until 1997 it connected Hamilton to Niagara Falls, serving several towns atop the Niagara Escarpment en route.
Short Hills Provincial Park is a provincial park located in the centre of the Niagara Peninsula, bordering the city of St. Catharines and the town of Pelham in the Niagara Region in southern Ontario, Canada. It occupies an area of 660 hectares. It also borders the new vineyard sub-appellation called the Short Hills Bench.
St. Johns is an unincorporated rural community in Thorold, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada.
William Hamilton Merritt was a businessman and politician in the Niagara Peninsula of Upper Canada in the early 19th century. Although he was born in the United States, his family was Loyalist and eventually settled in Upper Canada. Merritt fought in the War of 1812, was captured by the invading American forces, and held as a prisoner of war. After the war, he returned to the Niagara region and began a career in business. He was one of the founders of the Welland Canal. He was a supporter of the Abolitionist cause to end slavery in the U.S., and of the settlement of escaped slaves in St. Catharines.
The Welland Canal has gone through many incarnations in its history. Today, five distinct canal-construction efforts are recognized. The retronym First Welland Canal is applied to the original canal, constructed from 1824 to 1829 and 1831 to 1833.
Twelve Mile Creek is a waterway located on the Niagara Peninsula in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. Its headwaters are located in the town of Pelham, encompassing some of the most unspoiled and natural areas of Niagara area. The creek's lower reaches flow through urban areas of Thorold and St. Catharines and has been heavily altered by human activity for almost two centuries. The creek was first known as "Ashquasing" by the Mississaugas Indigenous people, the name meaning "that which lies at the end" in the Anishinaabe language.
John DeCew (1766–1855), was a United Empire Loyalist, an early settler in the Niagara Peninsula of Upper Canada, a commissioned militia officer in the War of 1812, and a founding member of the Welland Canal Company.
Morningstar Mill is a 2.98-acre (1.21 ha) heritage site located in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. The site includes the Morningstar Mill, a sawmill, the home of the Morningstar family, a barn used for blacksmith demonstrations, and the Decew Falls gorge along the Niagara Escarpment. The site is operated by the volunteer group Friends of Morningstar Mill and owned by the City of St. Catharines. The gristmill was restored to working condition in 1992.
Laura Secord Legacy Trail is a 32-kilometer trail as a monument to Laura Secord's journey and legacy. It includes the Laura Secord Commemorative Walk that was established in 2013. Secord embarked on a journey in June 1813 during the War of 1812 from the Secord Homestead in Queenston, Niagara-on-the-Lake to deliver a message on 22 June 1813 to Lt. James FitzGibbon at the DeCew House in Thorold, Ontario.