My brief for these articles has been the
industrial history of Greenwich and Woolwich.
However this week I thought we could go to Canada - there has after all
been quite a bit about Canada and the US in the news and this is about how 230
years ago a Woolwich teenager went to Canada to build a fort using skills he had
learnt at home.
Yes, I’m back with George Landmann. I
said a couple of weeks ago that I would next do his education at the Royal
Military Academy and I intended then to skip the next forty or so years of his
life until we got to the Greenwich Railway. But reading his account of Canada I
thought it was interesting and strangely relevant to today. So, one day I will
come back to his time at the Royal Military Academy. After he graduated he got a commission in the
Royal Engineers and was posted to the West Country. His next posting was to Canada
- so off he went.
I expressed some doubt if my last
article if all of the stories in his ‘Adventures and Recollections’ are
actually true. I have realised that a lot of the stories about heavy drinking,
extraordinary people he meets etc, etc
are really just fluff and that we hear very little about what he was actually
doing. The British government obviously didn’t send him to Canada for fun and I’m
sure that the Royal Engineers hierarchy had a very clear view of what they
wanted him to do. However, in ‘Adventures and Recollections’ he tells a very
entertaining story of how he crossed the Atlantic, was received in Quebec, met
Prince Edward and how he went to New York. I think we don’t take it all too
seriously.
On 25th of April 1798 he
was told by Colonel Mann in Quebec that he is to go to the island of Saint
Joseph and execute the works necessary for a complete military post - a large
block house, a guardhouse, a powder magazine, a provision store, an Indian
department store, an Indian Council House, a baking house and a wharf for the
use of the shipping. There were no plans or descriptions of the buildings but off
he went to St. Joseph’s. He was just 18.
St.Joseph’s Island sits right on the
Canadian border on the banks of Lake Huron. The border snakes south down the
lake for nearly three hundred and fifty miles until it reaches Detroit - Detroit? Motown? No one ever told me it is almost in Canada – and
was only handed to the Americans in 1783 and the situation remained unstable.
I have been absolutely riveted reading
the history of the Canadian US border, about which I knew nothing. When
Landmann was sent to St.Joseph’s it was not long after the American War of
Independence. There were many groups of peoples in this part of what became Canada
and many of them didn’t like the Americans. The area had first been taken over
by the French and was important in the fur trade. By the 1790s it was a British Colony and there
were powerful groups of indigenous people. I would very much recommend a Canadian
Government report which I’m going to quote and it’s about the whole situation
at St Joseph’s when Landmann went there. (Elizabeth Vincent, Fort St. Joseph: A History. Parks Canada
1978)
For such an isolated spot there was a
lot going on St.Joseph’s Island. The fort was to be built following the
destruction by the Americans of another one elsewhere.
First of all George had to get to St Joseph’s Island which was
not easy. Obviously the country was very
wild and undeveloped but people knew what they
were doing and he opted to go to St Joseph’s by canoe. My original thought
of this was of a small vessel paddling away up the Ottawa River but in fact it
was more like big commercial public transport on which you bought seats. These canoes
were commercially owned and because the voyage took well over a week to get
from Montreal to Lake Huron they had to carry a lot of supplies and it had a
crew of ten. On the route up the River Ottawa there were fifty four places where
the canoe could not go. Everybody had to get out, unload all the supplies and
the crew had to carry the canoe up past the rapids, put it back in the water again, reload and
off they go. This obviously takes time
but they got there in the end.
When he arrived he met the officers of
a small garrison some three or four mile distant from St. Joseph’s. Having stayed a few days with them
he went off to the Island where he found his quarters in a hut which had been
built by his predecessor, Lieutenant Lacey, a year earlier. This was about 20
feet square and built of logs. It had no chimney but a space for a fireplace
and a hole in the roof. It had one window with oiled paper instead of glass and
he had a servant who slept in the same room. When his luggage arrived it
contained ‘a small but useful library’. Every morning the first thing he did
was ‘cut down trees and chop them up for firewood. Then he had his breakfast and
the rest of the time was exclusively devoted to ‘the works’. Sadly he tells us nothing more – and
certainly nothing about ‘the works’.
The land to be used for the fort
actually belonged to an indigenous group and purchase of it had not yet gone
through. In 1797 various government
officers held a conference with the Indian owners, who were happy to agree to
the sale. George records how a Government ship arrived loaded with goods which
were to be delivered in payment of the purchase – there were blankets, broad cloth,
guns, flints, powder, metals, some jewellery and rum – in all worth £5,000. A deed had been drawn up in parchment and
each of the Chiefs of the various tribes had to execute it with a signature - which
was normally that of an animal or a hieroglyphic.
Landmann himself also signed the deed. Then there were some refreshments
and the Indians provided an entertainment with dances - the Eagle Dance, the
Beaver Dance and the War Dance. There were also ’some extraordinary feats
requiring great muscular strength’. All of the dancers were in their native costume
and ‘painted in the most whimsical manner’.
Landmann says little more about his
work and time at St.Joseph’s. He says that he was called back to Quebec but
returned briefly some time later. We have
to go to Eizabeth Vincent’s 1978 report to see what happened from official
records. For instance he tells the story of how the ship he is on is beset by
storms, and the captain is too drunk to function. George says that he – with no
maritime experience – takes over command of the ship and saves everyone. Elizabeth Vincent looked at the ship’s log
and – well – no it wasn’t and no he didn’t.
After Landmann's departure from St.Joseph’s
work went on under one of the other officers. Soon many buildings were nearly
finished needing only floors and partitions. Landmann had taken a long time to
get back to Quebec and as he had not sent sufficient information a decision on
the site’s future had to be postponed. The eventual estimate included more fencing
and platforms for four six pounder guns – when the guns eventually turned up
they were the oldest from another fort and two of them were useless. Twelve
artificers arrived ‘with necessary supplies such as rum and bricks’.
Landmann spent the summer of 1799 at
St. Joseph Island, again returning to Quebec. Elizabeth Vincent concludes “Landmann's
work for the government did not give very great satisfaction ..... he lost a
great deal of time and money by sinking part of the wharf in the wrong direction
...... he relied heavily on his overseer, who was seldom sober..... the Commanding
Engineer at first planned to keep the young lieutenant at Quebec under his own
eye, but decided it might be safe to allow him to remain in Montreal where
there could be no danger of his doing anything materially wrong.” Oh dear!
What happened next? Work on the fort
was finished and what was essentially a small village grew up nearby. Various groups of soldiers came and went but
increasingly it was not seen as a strong point but as a place which could
reassure the local indigenous groups of British support against the Americans. There
was also interest in it as a fur trading base.
The history of the fort in this period is described in great detail in
the report.
In 1812 the United States declared war
on Britain. There were various actions
which involved the fort on St.Joseph’s Island and in 1814 an American military
party found the fort deserted and destroyed it.
There were various attempts to find a use for what remained or indeed
for something new, it all came to nothing.
In 1922 the site
came to the notice of the official ancient monuments organisation, and was
cleared and studied. Today it is a National
History Site managed by Parks Canada. Their web site says we can ... explore the ruins .... feel the war of 1812 which saw a powerful alliance between the British
and the First Nations People ... experience history through heritage
demonstrations ... watch for more than 200 species of birds, ... view authentic
artifacts from the old fort. https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/on/stjoseph
Else where on the island is a local
history museum. https://stjosephtownship.com/recreation-and-leisure/visiting-st-joseph-island/
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