Presented by Ted Rumble for the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum on February 14, 2024.
All right so we’re going to get started so good morning everyone my name is Amy clawen with the N the Link Museum and welcome to the next talk in our weekly virtual lecture series uh as always we’re recording today’s lecture so for some reason you um have to leave or get
Kicked out or you weren’t able to sign on uh you’ll get the recording after the session uh get it tomorrow and we’ll also be posting it on our YouTube channel and we’ll be sending it out to our weekly East as well so there’s lots of ways to watch this presentation
Afterwards and if you have any questions throughout the presentation or any comments uh feel free to use the chat box or the Q&A and uh I’ll F those to Ted at the end of the lecture and as usual if you’d like to support any of our programs here in the
Museum like our lecture series uh you can make a donation through the link that I will put in the chat box as well so today we have with us Ted Rumble uh to talk about some of the updates to the ordinance boundary Stones project that he’s been working on and some planned
Restorations to one of the stones this year um Ted’s a retired orthopedic surgeon who has a long-standing interest in history especially military history he’s a former board member of the museum and he runs our fnii program here um and he’s done extensive research on the original boundary Stones coordinat
Boundary Stones which can be found throughout town since his first presentation in 2020 on this subject he’s uncovered more bones um and brought their preservation uh to the attention of the town and a lot of people in the community so we’re happy to have you again Ted to talk about this project
Because there’s tons of interest in it and uh we’d like to hear your updates and what’s been going on and just unmute yourself thank you Amy you’re welcome ladies and Gentlemen by now many of you have heard of the ordinance boundary stones of nagron Lake which are unique
Historic artifacts in the old town I last presented the story of these stones to the museum in 2020 since then progress has been made towards the restoration and protection of these Stones today’s talk is mainly to bring people up to date for those who may not be familiar with
Them I would like to begin with a review of the story of the ordinance boundary stones and tell you about how they contributed to the development of our town this map of the town of Niagara as it was called then was published in 1823 eight years after the end of the war of
1812 when the Americans invaded the Niagara River is at the bottom left and Lake Ontario is at the bottom right the town of Niagara had already been laid out within what was called the town plot there were two Parcels of land reserved for the military in Blue on the
Left we have the Garrison military Reserve including Fort George we know this today as the commons and in green at the bottom we have the Miss sagua Reserve as it was called then which we know today as Queen Royal Park and the golf course it includes Fort Miss
Auua but note that the Miss auua Reserve does not include the entire Golf Course half of it is still in private hands and that half includes a critical length of Shoreline adjacent to Fort missua and facing the river and the American fort Niagara across the river which was seen as a
Threat on May 27th 1813 American soldiers came across the river and landed on our Shores occupied the town and Fort George and drove the British army out the Battle of Fort George was a humiliating defeat for the British and they wanted to control the entire shoreline to prevent another
American Landing they also wanted a minimum 800 yards clear Field of Fire for the cannons in Fort mississagua that Shoreline was owned by a wealthy businessman and investor named James Crooks a fascinating character in the early days of our town Mr Kooks was a canny Scott and a tough negotiator he
Demanded a huge concession of Crown Land on the Garrison Reserve consisting of two plots the upper yellow Square is today the block bounded by King pton Wellington and Castle Ray streets the Prince of Whales hotel and the Niger on the lake Museum are within this plot the lower yellow shape consists of
Lots adjacent to Fort George extending to the water where he wanted to put a Warf near today’s Navy Hall the earliest reference to the stones in this letter was written by ew dford the commanding officer of the British army Royal engineers in Canada this is the transcript dford considers it quote
Desirable for government to cause the necessary steps to be taken for making the exchange alluded to without delay unquote so authorizes the great swap with James Kooks he also orders the installation of quote regular boundary posts unquote to define the boundary of the military reserves this is the earliest reference
To the ordinance boundary Stones note the date at the top June 1823 over two centuries ago the boundary posts he’s referring to are called ordinance boundary Stones they are made of white Limestone from the Queenston Quarry which is still in operation today they are 9 in square about a foot
Above the ground with the initials Bo and an arrow engraved on the front Bo stands for the board of ordinance which was the custodian of military property of the British government from 1687 to 1855 it was the second biggest department of the British government after the treasury it was very
Powerful the arrow is the broad Arrow which was the symbol used by the board of ordinance to identify military property of the the British government there were severe penalties for anyone interfering with any property marked with the broad Arrow ordinance boundary Stones were placed around the perimeter of the four
Military properties to protect them from encroachment from the town this map of the town of Niagara was published by the board of ordinance in 185 3 it shows the military reserves in the town as well as the original location of the stones in Blue on the left is the
Garrison Reserve which we know is the commons today with Fort George at the bottom in green at the bottom right is the missua reserve including land received from James Crooks in the Great swap which we know as the golf course and queen’s Royal Park today Fort mragua is at the
Bottom back in the 1820s it was spelled Mrs sagua named after Miss sagua point which is why the reserve is properly called the Miss sagua Reserve today we spell it Miss Saga this is why the Street leading into the old town is named Miss agua Street the spelling on the sign is historically
Correct in his wonderful book on Common Ground Richard Merritt writes had it not been designated as a military reserve the crooks portion of the point would probably have been devel veloped and the unique and arguably most historic golf course in Canada would not exist today and that’s the main point isn’t it
The military reserves demarcated by the ordinance boundary Stones marked with the broad Arrow helped protect our green spaces from development as the town grew the Red Square here in Simco Park which was also military Land once the board of ordinance had seded land to the Anglican church and then to the Roman
Catholic church and finally to James Crooks it left Simco Park as an island of military property in the middle of the town the orange Square to the right is the host Hospital block which was the final military property obtained by the board of ordinance it is bounded by Queen Dorchester Johnson and Nassau
Streets so those are the four military properties in town ordinance boundary Stones were placed around the perimeter of all of them how many stones are there originally there were 37 today 19 can still be found in our town this is the most of any town in the
World the circles here represent the 37 ordinance boundary stones in town the circles in red are the 19 stones that can still be seen today the circles in blue are the stones that are missing or have sunken Underground I’d like to show you a few of these stones to give you a better
Understanding of what we’re talking about here at the bottom of this picture is ordinance boundary Stone 26 it is found at the inner corner of the Charles in property the Charles Inn can just be seen through the trees at the top this stone is best seen from the ninth T of
The golf course this is the best preserved Stone in town with the engraving and the beveling clearly seen and it’s at the right height above the ground this is boundary Stone 4 when they built the wall around the Rand estate they didn’t disturb the
Stone they built on top of it it took me a long time to find a stone in a stone wall can you see it it’s right here this Stone was placed in 1823 and the wall was built on top of it in the early 1900s there’s no engraving because we’re
Looking at the side of the stone but what’s going on here why does the wall extend beyond the stone which marks the boundary of military land this 1852 map of the Garrison Reserve or the commons explains how this came about if you look at the very top of the map you will
See the boundary as a solid line inside the boundary is a dotted line this was known as The Carriage track where Military Officers ERS would drive around the perimeter of the reserve top right here is John Street which ended at King Street The Carriage track became an extension of John Street
So Rand built his wall right down to John Street meaning he built on Military land and that’s why ordinance boundary Stone 4 is found in the Rand estate wall today this was contested by the federal government and an amicable settlement was reached in 1960 and that’s why John Street became
John Street West and the carriage track became John Street East in fact John Street at the bottom here is the only Street in the Heritage District that does not change its name when it crosses King Street Gage Street becomes Castle Ray Johnson becomes platov Queen becomes pikon predo becomes Byron and front becomes
Ricardo but I digressed at the bottom of this picture is boundary Stone 5 which is located near John Street close to the entrance to the Heritage Trail which was Railway land this Stone was placed here to Mark the boundary between the railway land and the Garrison Reserve which we know
As the commons today you can see the pillar and post in the distance this 1910 map shows the railway curving away from King Street ordinance boundary Stone five marks the boundary between the Garrison reserve and the land given to the Erie and Ontario Railway boundary St
31 is located across the street from the Prince of Wales Hotel at the entrance to Sinco Park which was also once military land on the left is a bench beside the bench is a stone the engraving can still be seen though the stone has sunk down quite
Far at the top left of this picture is Fort Niagara on the American side of the river on May 27th 1813 American soldiers from Fort Niagara launched the Battle of Fort George and captured Our Town once the British reoccupied the town they were determined to control the entire shoreline facing
Fort Niagara this is why boundary Stone 22 was placed here in 1823 it is in the bottom right of this this picture beside the golf cart path today it’s sunken halfway into the ground but the engraving can still be seen the hospital block is bounded by Queen Dorchester Johnson and Nassau
Streets at one time the town owned it and plann to build a hospital but they changed their minds the town want want to set up an outdoor Market behind the courthouse where the parking lot is today but that was military land so the town traded the hospital block to the
Board of ordinance in exchange for the half block behind the courthouse and that’s why the street behind the courthouse running from Balzac’s coffee to the angel Inn is called Market Street today in 1854 the Royal Engineers installed ordinance boundary stones on all four corners of the hospital Block in the
Bottom right on the corner of Queen and Nassau streets ordinance boundary Stone 36 can still be seen today it’s at the right height out of the ground and in very good shape it shows the white color of the original Limestone they will all look more like this once they are restored and
Cleaned I presented here only a brief synopsis of the story of the ordinance boundary Stones You may wish to watch my previous presentation which gives a more complete history of the stones and shows all the stones discovered to that point just go to YouTube and search on ordinance boundary Stone
And it will come up since my last presentation four years ago there have been several significant developments in the story of the ordinance boundary stones of Niagara on the Lake first three more stones have been dis discovered secondly the municipal Heritage committee became interested in the stones and then the Town Council
Supported restoration of the stones starting with OBS 32 as a pilot project so first I’d like to show you the three stones that have been found since I last presented to you we knew from the 1853 map that obs1 was located near the river bank
Which is the red circle on the left of the map we tramped up and down through the underbrush many times but but could never find it in 2022 Richard Lorac of the Lorac group surveyors found it about 6 in underground no wonder we couldn’t see it it’s amazing what professional surveyors
Can find it’s at the bottom of this picture with the walking path and the river in the distance this Stone marks the southern boundary of the Garrison Reserve or the commons today the Charles in was once called the lockart hotel its property was never part of the mragua reserve the golf
Course today which is why it had three boundary Stones around it boundary Stone 25 marks the boundary line at Sinco Street this picture shows the boundary line of the Charles in property on Simco Street the JD Barnes surveying company located Bounty Stone 25 which was also 6 in underground ordinance boundary Stone 34
At the corner of Dorchester and Johnson streets the top left here was a hard one to find we hunted around for years but never found it so one day I knocked on the homeowner’s door and he said I know where it is and there it was buried in his
Garden so now we found ordinance boundary stones on all four corners of the hospital block next members of the municipal Heritage committee took an interest and asked me to show them some of the Stone once they realized the historic importance of these Stones they passed a motion recommending to Town Council that
Restoration of the stones begins with a pilot project to fully restore boundary Stone 32 along with a commemorative plaque early this year the Town Council approved the motion from the municipal Heritage committee and committed funds for the restoration of of OBS 32 at the bottom of this picture is ordinance boundary Stone
32 it has sunk down almost flush with the ground King Street is on the upper right looking towards Queen Street it was a hard Stone to find as it was covered in mulch most of the Year this stone is on Town property and was selected by the municipal Heritage
Committee to be the first first stone restored it’s located in Semco park at the corner of King and Byron streets at the bottom right on the map the project plan for ordinance boundary Stone 32 is in three parts restoration protection and celebration Alex Topps is a landscape
Architect who lives in town who is volunteered to help with the restoration of the stones he did this drawing to explain how to reset the stones so they don’t sink again over the next 200 years restoration requires excavation of the stone preparation of the hole placing a preast concrete slab resetting the stone
At the correct height and back filling to keep it in place we are currently in discussions with a monument restoration experts who R routinely do this type of work in cemeteries protection of the stone involves installation of a metal barrier around it similar to this which will not
Only protect the Stone from future damage but will also frame it celebration of the story of the stones involves a commemorative plaque and a web page a commemorative plaque will be installed near OBS 32 explaining the historic significance of the military reserves in the development of our
Town on the right of this picture is the one ordinance boundary Stone found in London Ontario in p padil park for this one stone they erected a commemorative plaque similar to what we envision for OBS 32 in addition a small metal sign beside each Stone will identify which one it is
Similar to those used in a Botanical Garden a QR code will allow visitors to click with their cell phone and go straight to the Museum’s web page giving more detailed information you you can check it out today just go to nol museum.com Stones many people are contributing to
This project to restore the stones Shauna and Amy at the Museum have been very helpful with the research and the development of the web page suraia is the current Town Heritage planner who will will move this project forward Alex TOS is a landscape architect who lives in town he has
Volunteered to help plan the the resetting of the stones Richard larac is an Ontario land surveyor who also lives in town he has volunteered his time and expertise an ordinance boundary stone is a legal survey marker and cannot be disturbed except under supervision of an Ontario land surveyor Frank Ropo owns the Queenston
Quarry from which the original stones have come he has volunteered to make duplicate Stones identical to the originals from the same Quarry to replace missing Stones Cosmo candina is a professional photographer who has made highresolution photographs of all the stones found so far along with geotagging David Snellgrove is a member
Of the municipal Heritage committee who has helped move this project forward with the town we are also in discussions with a monument Restoration company and a custom welder to restore the stones and to make a barrier and commemorative plaque planned for this spring the experience gained in the restoration of ordinance boundary Stone
32 will inform the town with respect to the restoration of the remainder of the stones the town is planning work on two or three stones each year until they are all restored and protected the Ordnance boundary stones of nagar on the lake are unique and authentic historical artifact which
Explain how our town came to be the way it is today with beautiful green spaces in including Simco Park Queens Royal Park the golf course and the commons it’s time they were restored protected and celebrated we look forward to an exciting project to restore ordinance boundary Stone 32 this spring for the
Enjoyment and education of residents and visitors to our town for the next 200 years thank you all right thank you very much Ted we do have some questions here so Debbie sweetman’s uh asked were the stones that were found by the surveyors found incidentally to a survey
Or were the surveyors retained to help locate the stones so the stone that was found by the Lorac group uh was found because Richard Lorac went looking for it and he has access to surveyor notes and detailed information he was able to locate the stone even though it was underground
The uh ordinance boundary Stone 25 was found by the JD Barnes surveying company in the course of doing a survey of the golf course and um as to the stones that are underground do you think that we’ll be able to discover anymore in kind of future surveys or you know I think it’s
Possible we may find one or two more uh surveyors as we know uh have a an amazing ability to locate these Stones underground um you often wonder if ground penetrating penetrating radar might also find a couple of stones now some of them we know have been removed
But there may be one or two which are still underground um Gail bfield was just sharing that um she is related to James Crooks family so her sister-in-law uh Sue Crooks Benfield is a direct descendant and um she has some original Crooks stuff and they’ve also given uh
The museum some cks material like a teapot that was buried in 902 or in um Nag on the lake when the town was burnt um and so she’s just proud of her connection so she’s just sharing that and Gail your second question about the recording it will be made available so
You’ll receive that you can pass it along to your family um and Sandra Lawrence I wanted to know did you consult at all with Willow Bank about the restoration of the stones through any of this uh we have not um we have spoken to people who have
Served on the board of Willow Bank uh and who have expertise in restoration and cleaning of these Stones so there are people from Willow Bank who are involved um Linda Fritz wondered if you could give us a bit of info about the Queenston Stones so Queenston also had a military Reserve
With uh I believe 15 stones originally placed around it and these have been researched by Betsy Masson uh but only uh one two I think three of them have been found so far uh they don’t have the same story uh perhaps that the uh the stones have in
The old town because uh the town didn’t grow up around the military reserves in the same way it did in the old town uh Craig tman says uh he believes they might have at least one OBS in Grimsby on the west side of Kerman Avenue between Highway 8 and Livingston
Avenue is it worth expanding this work to other historic tans in that oh I think it’s worthwhile finding all the boundary Stones you can because they tell the story of how a place developed you know um and the boundary Stones were placed by the uh Royal Engineers around the world uh so there
Are many places that have one or two but there’s no place in the world that has 19 still in place um Gwen Lang is asking why the names change from east to west as you go up King Street so here’s the problem uh originally all the streets ended at King Street and
When you went the other side of King Street you were now on Military land so that meant that the uh properties were numbered starting from King Street uh out so Queen Street all the way along would be number one starting at King Street and they would number them from
There so if you extended Queen Street for example what are you going to do uh about the numbers you you can’t renumber all the houses the uh post office would freak out I’m sure um and if you call it Queen Street East and Queen Street West it’s a bit
Awkward I mean are you going West on Queen Street East you know so the simplest uh solution to that was to uh change the name of the street on the other side of King Street so that preserved the numbering of the streets in the old town that’s I like that answer there’s
There’s always that old folklore answer of um you weren’t supposed to cross the king so that is why and I’ve heard a lot of people say that but I like your answer better it makes more sense to me um steart Hall just mentioned there’s 17 stones in Queenston and four have
Been found and they’re they’re looking for more still so hopefully that project will also continue on um oh thank you Stuart I I there are four found I we’ one more since I last heard so I’ll look forward to seeing that yeah who was ever gathering information on the Queenston one let us
Know and uh we would love to hopefully do a future presentation on Queenston too oh and actually Betsy Masson has just said there’s actually 19 stones in Queenston okay and she says three have been found so we’ll let Stuart and Betsy duke it out as to how many found and how
Many there are but uh yeah it will be interesting to see how that project develops as as people find more of those stones hopefully um and Maria laws wanted to know uh if you think there might be boundary stones in St Catherine is there any military property um that
Would make sense for St Catherine uh not that I’m aware of no all right all right I think that’s it for our questions so if anybody else has any questions um feel free to forward them on and I can uh pass them along to
Ted for you um this is obviously a a you know ever expanding project that Ted has going on and always looking for more stones and more information and hopefully more restoration um after you finish the first one and at that pilot project hopefully more will continue
After that so um yeah feel free to send any more questions you guys might have or if you lot more information on the stones as Ted mentioned we do have uh information on the museum it’s under the research tab on our website atotal museum.com um tab I guess under research and all of
The pictures that Cosmo has taken are there information on the ordinance boundary Stones um on the what you know what important of ordinance is what broad arrow is so all that information and uh you can also find Ted’s first presentation on our YouTube channel as well so thanks again Ted for joining us
Today and thank you for every everyone for watching today our next presentation is February 21st at 11 o’clock and we have Josh P from The nagar Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center over in uh New York state who’s going to present the Borderland black agency and resistance between two Nations so
Hopefully you’ll join us next week and thank you again for joining us today have a happy valent Tides day everyone thanks Ted thank you Amy bye bye
