Leitch Receiving Vault

The Leitch receiving vault occupies a place east of the southeast end of Church Avenue and southeast of St. Andrew's Church, in Williamstown, Ontario.

DEDICATED IN LOVING MEMORY OF
THE HONOURABLE JAMES LEITCH
AND HIS WIFE
ELIZABETH STRICKLAND
BY THEIR DAUGHTERS
MARGUERITE C. FOWLER
TRESSA E. LEITCH
ERECTED 1964
AND THEIR SON JOHN S. LEITCH

James Leitch (June 2, 1850 — February 17, 1917) was born in Williamstown, Ontario. He received his early eduction at Williamstown and Cornwall Grammar Schools. He studied law in Cornwall and Toronto, was called to the bar of Ontario in 1876, and began practicing law in Cornwall. That same year he married Elizabeth Srickland. He was elected Reeve of Cornwall in 1884, and acclaimed Mayor of Cornwall in 1885 and 1886. He served as an Unattached Judge in the Superior Court of Ontario, in Toronto, from 1912 until his death in 1917. He is buried in the cemetery of St. Andrew's Church in Williamstown, Ontario.

John Johnson's Mills Plaque

In Williamstown, Ontario, a plaque commemorating John Johnson's mills stands on the east side of the Raisin River where John Street curves northward to follow the river's bank.

SIR JOHN JOHNSON'S MILLS

Son of the celebrated Indian superintendent, Sir William Johnson, Sir John was born in 1742 in New York's Mohawk Valley. During the American Revolution, his Loyalist sympathies brought him to Canada where he organized the King's Royal Regiment of New York. After the Revolution, he received extensive Crown-land grants in Glengarry County and elsewhere. He built a grist-mill and sawmill here on the Au Raisin River about 1790 and, on the bank opposite a manor-house. Appointed to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada in 1796, he died near Montreal in 1830.

Erected by the Ottawa Archaeological and Historic Sites Board.

Williamstown Fair

The Williamstown Fair comprises twelve acres of land dedicated to the fair on the north side of John Street bordered by Fairview Road and Bethune Street in Williamstown, Ontario.

WILLIAMSTOWN FAIR

Ontario's oldest continually operated agricultural fair received its patent on March 29, 1808, from Francis Gore, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. It is probably that, at first, the local farmers simply gathered on the village common or streets. However on June 25, 1814, Sir John Johnson, the founder of Williamstown, granted twelve acres for the express purpose of holding a fair and it has been held here annually ever since. Through the years this fair, like many others in the province, has raised our standards of agriculture by providing a centre for the display of superior farm products and livestock.

Archaeological and Historic Sites Board of Ontario

TO HONOUR THE PIONEERS OF
THIS COMMUNITY
AND ALL THOSE WHO DURING
THE PAST 150 YEARS
HAVE SERVED THE CAUSE OF
AGRICULTURE
HONOURABLE W. A. STEWART
MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE

ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
1812 — 1962
PRESENTED BY
ONTARIO DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE
IN RECOGNITION OF
150 YEARS SERVICE
SEPT. 12, 1962

ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
1814 - 1914
PRESENTED BY
ONTARIO DEPARTMENT of AGRICULTURE
IN RECOGNITION OF
ONE HUNDRED YEARS SERVICE
SEPTEMBER 1946

In Recognition of
Two Hundred Years of Service

ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
1812 - 2012

Presented by
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food
and Rural Affairs

Township of Charlottenburgh Plaque

A plaque commemorating the Township of Charlottenburgh stands north of John Street, east of Bethune Street, in Williamstown, Ontario.

TOWNSHIP OF CHARLOTTENBURGH

In 1784 the settlement of Royal Township no. 1, later named Charlottenbugh for Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, began with the arrival of followers of Sir John Johnson from the Mohawk Valley, many of whom had served in the King's Royal Regiment. These United Empire Loyalists were soon joined by Gaelic-speaking kinsmen from the Western Highlands of Scotland. In later years the community became a more diverse society wtih newcomers from both provinces and countries. The front of the Township on the north shore of the St. Lawrence extended from the mouth of the River aux Raisins to the Indian Lands on its western boundary. On January 1, 1998 Charlottenburgh united with the Village of Lancaster and the Township of Lancaster to form the Township of South Glengarry.

Duncan Cameron Plaque

In Williamstown, Ontario on the east side of Church Street in front of St. Andrew's church stands a plaque commemorating Duncan Cameron.

DUNCAN CAMERON

Born in Scotland about 1764 he settled with his parents in Schenectady, New York. His father served with a Loyalist regiment during the American Revolution, following which the family moved to Glengarry. In 1784 Duncan entered the North West Company where, as manager of its Red River Department, he endeavoured to persuade Lord Selkirk's settlers to abandon their lands. When Selkirk's forces attacked Fort Gibralter in 1816, Cameron was captured and taken to England. Released and compensated for false arrest, he returned to Williamstown in 1820. He died in 1848 and is buried here.

Erected by the Ontario Archeological and Historic Sites Board.

(He is buried in the grave yard that takes up the land surrounding St. Andrew's Church.)

Bethune-Thompson House

Bethune-Thompson House occupies an area of land south of John Street and east of the Raisin River in Williamstown, Ontario.

BETHUNE-THOMPSON HOUSE

Built by Loyalist settler Peter Ferguson in 1784, the original log cabin on this site is one fo the oldest surviving buildings in Ontario. The cabin walls were constructed using a French Canadian technique called poteaux sur sole where vertically placed, squared logs were held together by horizontal plates located along the top and bottom. The larger home adjoining it was built in 1804 by Reverend John Bethune (1751-1815), the first Presbyterian minister in Upper Canada. This home also incorporated a French Canadian construction technique, columbage pierroté, which used a timber frame filled with masonry rubble. The fireplace overmantle installed by Bethune is one of the few remaining in the province. In 1815 David Thompson (1770-1857) acquired the house and lived here until about 1836. Thompson was an explorer and cartographer who surveyed much of what is now western Canada and mapped out the Canada-United States border. The house presents a unique architectural and historical record of early Ontario.

Ontario Heritage Trust, and agency of the Government of Ontario

MAISON BETHUNE-THOMPSON

Construite par le colon loyalist Peter Ferguson en 1784, la cabane en bois équarri initialement installée sur ce site est l'un des plus anciens bâtiments conservés en Ontario. Les parois de la cabane furent construites selon une technique canadienne-française appelée poteaux sur sole, où des troncs équarris placés à la verticale sont fixés dans des rondins horizontauz situés en haut et en bas. La maison plus grande accolée à la cabane fut construite en 1804 par le révérend John Bethune (1751-1815), le 1er ministre presbytérien de la province du Haut-Canada. La construction de cette maison incorpora, elle aussi, une technique de construction canadienne-française, le colombage pierroté, à savoir une charpente en bois comblée par une maçonnerie en pierre brutes. Le fronton de la cheminée, installé par Bethune, est l'un des rares examplaires encore visible dans la province. En 1815, David Thompston (1770-1857) acheta la maison et y vécut jusqu'aux alentours de 1836. Thompson était un explorateur et un cartographe qui arpenta une grande partie de ce qui correspond aujourd'hui à l'Ouest canadien et participa au tracé de la frontière canado-américaine. La maison constitue un important témoignage architectural et historique du passé de la province de l'Ontario.

Fiducie du patrimoine ontarien, un organisme du gouvernement de l'Ontario

MAISON
BETHUNE - THOMPSON
HOUSE

circa 1804
A PROPERTY OF THE ONTARIO HERITAGE FOUNDATION

environ 1804
UNE PROPRIÉTÉ DE LA FONDATION DE PATRIMOINE ONTARIEN

BETHUNE-THOMPSON HOUSE

Historic construction techniques and classic design are combined in this early Ontario home. The vertical log south wing may date from the 1780s when Loyalist Peter Ferguson settled on the site. The central part was build ca. 1805 as a manse for Rev. John Bethune, the first Presbyterian Minister of Upper Canada and was later the residence of explorer David Thompson. Beneath the studdo of the main block, the timber frame has three walls infilled with rubble stone and a fourth with "stick and mud." The five-bay facase, formerly flanked by similar wings, expresses the British classical tradition.

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada
Government of Canada

MAISON BETHUNE-THOMPSTON

Cette maison allie à une composition classique les techniques de construction de jadis. L'aile sud, en poteaux sur sole, aurait été construite dans les années 1780, par le loyaliste Peter Ferguson. Bâtie vers 1805 pour John Bethune, le premier pasteru presbytérien du Haut-Canada, la partie centrale de la maision, en bois de charpente recouvert de crépi, comporte trois murs remplis de moellons bruts et un quatrième, de torchis. La maison fut également occupée par l'explorateur David Thompston. La façade à cinq baies, autrefois flanquée d'ailes symétriques, reflète la tradition classique britannique.

Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada

"The property on which the Bethune-Thompson House is located was originally granted to Peter Ferguson in 1784, a Scottish immigrant to the American Colonies who served in the King's Royal Regiment of New York. As a Loyalist settler to Charlottenburgh Township he settled on the west half of Lot 50, Concession 1 and built a log house. In 1804.

"Loyalist settler Reverend John Bethune (1751-1815) purchased the land from Ferguson and built a house, to which he later moved and attached the Ferguson log cabin to form a side wing of his house. Bethune was founder of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Williamstown and was the first Presbyterian minister in Upper Canada. He also founded congregations and preached at Cornwall, Lancaster, and Martintown. In 1815, just weeks after the death of Rev. Bethune, his wife Véronique (Wadden) Bethune, sold the house to David Thompson (1770-1857). Thompson, a retired North West Company partner mapped much of western Canada. He also worked for the Boundary Commission, mapping out the border between British North America and the United States. The Thompson family lived in the home from 1815 to about 1836, when the family incurred financial difficulties and left for Montreal.

"The property was sold to Farquar McLennan and his descendants lived in the house until 1937. In 1937, William Smart, the McLennan's farm manager, purchased the home and Mae Smart (daughter-in-law to William) sold the property to the Ontario Heritage Trust in 1977 to ensure the preservation of the property. The house underwent a major restoration in the mid 1980s.

"Archaeological excavations were conducted at Bethune-Thompson House in 1980, 1981 and 1993 and uncovered more then 36,000 artifacts. A number of mixing bowls, a pharmaceutical jar which dates from 1730-1830, a plate rim with a feather-edge decorative motif, attributed to the Wedgwood Factory, were all some of the items found on the property."

(From Statement of Significance, Canada's Historic Places.)

Bethune-Thompson House received recognition as a National Historic Site of Canada by the Government of Canada on October 10, 1966 and recognition as an Ontario Foundation Property by the Ontario Heritage Trust on June 6, 1977.