Laura Secord
Laura Secord was a Canadian woman involved in the War of 1812. She is known for having walked out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American attack. Her contribution to the war was little known during her lifetime, but since her death she has been frequently honoured in Canada. Though Laura Secord had no relation to it, most Canadians associate her with the Laura Secord Chocolates company, named after her on the centennial of her walk.
Laura Secord's father, Thomas Ingersoll, lived in Massachusetts and fought on the side of the Patriots during the Revolutionary War. In 1795 he moved his family to the Niagara region of Upper Canada after he had applied for and received a land grant. Shortly after, Laura married Loyalist James Secord, who was later seriously wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights early in the War of 1812. While he was still recovering in 1813, the Americans invaded the Niagara Peninsula, including Queenston. During the occupation, Secord acquired information about a planned American attack, and stole away on the morning of 22 June to inform Lieutenant James FitzGibbon in the territory still controlled by the British. The information helped the British and their Mohawk allies repel the invading Americans at the Battle of Beaver Dams. Her effort was forgotten until 1860, when Edward, Prince of Wales, awarded the impoverished widow £100 for her service on his visit to Canada.
The story of Laura Secord has taken on mythic overtones in Canada. Her tale has been the subject of books, plays, and poetry, often with many embellishments. Since her death, Canada has bestowed honours on her, including schools named after her, monuments, a museum, a memorial stamp and coin, and a statue at the Valiants Memorial in the Canadian capital.
Personal history
Family history and early life
Laura's father, Thomas Ingersoll, married seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Dewey on 28 February 1775 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Their first child, Laura, was born there on 13 September 1775. Thomas, son of Jonathan Ingersoll, was born in 1749 in Westfield, Massachusetts. Elizabeth, daughter of Israel Dewey, was also born in Westfield. Thomas moved to Great Barrington in 1774, where he settled into a house on a small piece of land by the Housatonic River. Over the next several years, his success as a hatter allowed him to marry, increase his landholdings, and enlarge his house as his family grew. During the American Revolutionary War, Thomas spent much time away from home as a militia officer serving on the Patriot side. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Massachusetts militia in October 1777 and rose to the rank of captain. When the war was over, Thomas was appointed a magistrate upon his return to Great Barrington. Thomas helped suppress Shays' Rebellion in 1786, which earned him the rank of major.Elizabeth gave birth to three more girls: Elizabeth Franks on 17 October 1779; Mira in 1781; and Abigail in September 1783. Elizabeth Ingersoll died on 20 February 1784, and Abigail was given up for adoption to Elizabeth's sister Abigail and her husband Daniel Nash. Thomas remarried on 26 May 1785 to Mercy Smith, widow of Josiah Smith. Although Mercy was childless, she has been credited with teaching her stepdaughters to read and do needlework before her death from tuberculosis in 1789.
Thomas remarried four months after Mercy's death, on 20 September 1789, to Sarah "Sally" Backus, a widow with a daughter, Nancy. The couple had an additional four girls and three boys. The first boy, Charles Fortescue, was born on 27 September 1791. Charlotte and Appolonia "Appy" were the last members of this branch of the Ingersoll family to be born in Massachusetts.
In the years after the Revolutionary War, Laura's father witnessed and was offended by the continuing persecution of Loyalists in Massachusetts. Thomas realized that in the depressed economic conditions that followed the war, and with his own deep debts, he was unlikely to see his former prosperity again. In 1793, Thomas met in New York City with Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, who offered to show him the best land for settlement in Upper Canada, where the British Crown was encouraging development. He and four associates travelled to Upper Canada and petitioned Lieutenant Governor John Simcoe for a land grant. They received in the Thames River valley, and founded Oxford-on-the-Thames, on condition that they populate it with forty other families within seven years. After winding up his affairs in Great Barrington, Thomas and his family moved to Upper Canada in 1795.
Adulthood, marriage and children
Thomas Ingersoll supported his family in their early years in Upper Canada by running a tavern in Queenston while land was being cleared and roads built in the settlement. The family stayed in Queenston until a log cabin was completed on the settlement in 1796. After Governor Simcoe returned to England in 1796, opposition grew in Upper Canada to the "Late Loyalists", such as Thomas, who had come to Canada for the land grants. The grants were greatly reduced, and Thomas's contract was cancelled for not having all of its conditions fulfilled. Feeling cheated, in 1805 he moved the family to Credit River, close to York, where he successfully ran an inn until his 1812 death following a stroke. Sally continued to run it until her own death in 1833.Laura Ingersoll remained in Queenston when the family moved. She married merchant James Secord, likely in June 1797. James was the son of James Secord, a Loyalist who had served as a Lieutenant in the British Indian Department during the Revolutionary War. The couple lived in a house built in Niagara-on-the-Lake|, the first floor of which was a shop. Secord gave birth to her first child, Mary, in St. in 1799. Mary was followed by Charlotte, Harriet, Charles Badeau and Appolonia.
Battle of Queenston Heights
When the United States declared war against Britain in June 1812, James enlisted in the 1st Lincoln Regiment of Militia as a sergeant. He had previously been a captain in the 1st Lincoln but had resigned his commission before 1812. James was attached to Issac Swayze's troop of Provincial Royal Artillery Drivers, also known as the "Car Brigade." This militia unit was responsible for moving field guns and ammunition during military engagements.On October 13, 1812, the Americans crossed the Niagara River and landed near Queenston. Laura and her five children took shelter in a farmhouse about a mile inland, while James mustered with the militia. During the ensuing Battle of Queenston Heights, James was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the knee. When the guns fell silent, Laura returned to the village to discover that American soldiers had ransacked her house. She received word that James had been wounded and headed for the battlefield. With "the assistance of a gentleman" Laura brought James to their home and treated his injuries. Once James was well enough to be moved, Laura took her husband and children to St. Davids where they spent the winter living with James's relatives.
An early biographer of Laura Secord, Emma A. Currie, related a story, attributed to James and Laura's grandson, that Laura encountered three American soldiers intending to club her wounded husband to death with their muskets. An American officer, Captain John E. Wool, intervened, sent the three back across the river under guard, and ordered his men to carry James to his house in Queenston. This story has been dismissed by later biographers as the Americans had surrendered well before Laura arrived on the battlefield, while Captain Wool had been ordered back across the river hours earlier to have his wounds treated.
Secord's walk
On 27 May 1813, the American army launched an attack across the Niagara River, and captured Fort George. Queenston and the Niagara area fell to the Americans. Men of military age were sent as prisoners to the U.S., though the still-recuperating James Secord was not among them. That June, a number of U.S. soldiers were billeted at the Secords' home.On the evening of 21 June 1813, Laura Secord heard of plans for a surprise American attack on Lieutenant James FitzGibbon's British troops at Beaver Dams, which would have furthered American control in the Niagara Peninsula. It is unclear how she became aware of these plans. According to tradition she overheard a conversation among the billeted Americans as they ate dinner.
As her husband was still recovering from his October injuries, Secord set out early the next morning to warn the lieutenant. She reportedly walked from present-day Queenston through St., Homer, Shipman's Corners and Short Hills at the Niagara Escarpment before she arrived at the camp of allied Mohawk warriors, who led her the rest of the way to FitzGibbon's headquarters at the DeCew House. Based on her warning, a small British force and a larger contingent of Mohawk warriors were readied for the American attack. They defeated the Americans, most of whom were casualties or taken prisoner in the Battle of Beaver Dams on 24 June. No mention of Secord was made in reports that immediately followed the battle.
Post-war years
After the war, with the Secords' Queenston store in ruins, the family was impoverished. Only James's small war pension and the rent from 200 acres of land they had in Grantham Township supported them.The Secords' sixth child, Laura Anne, was born in October 1815, and their last child, Hannah, was born in 1817. The Secords' eldest daughter Mary wedded a doctor, William Trumball, on 18 April 1816. On 27 March 1817, Mary gave birth in Ireland to Elizabeth Trumball, the first of Laura and James's grandchildren. Mary had another daughter, also named Mary, in Jamaica. Following her husband's death, Mary returned to Queenston with her children in 1821.
The struggling James petitioned the government in 1827 for some sort of employment. Lieutenant-Governor Peregrine Maitland did not offer him a position, but offered something to Laura. He asked her to be in charge of the yet-to-be-completed Brock's Monument. At first, she turned it down, but then reluctantly accepted it. When Brock's Monument opened in 1831, Secord learned the new Lieutenant-Governor, John Colborne, intended to give the keys to the widow of a member of the monument committee who had died in an accident. On 17 July 1831, Secord petitioned Colborne to honour Maitland's promise, and included another certificate from FitzGibbon attesting her contribution to the war. She wrote that Colonel Thomas Clarke had been told by Maitland, "it was too late to think of Mrs. Nichol as I have pledged my word to Mrs. Secord that as soon as possible she should have the key." Despite her pleas, Secord did not receive the keys to the monument.
In 1828, the Secords' daughter, Appolonia, died at 18 of typhus, and James was appointed registrar of the Niagara Surrogate Court. He was promoted to judge in 1833, and his son Charles Badeau Secord took over the registrar position. Charles Badeau Secord's first son, Charles Forsyth Secord, was born 9 May 1833. His is the only line of Secords that survived into the 21st century.
James became a customs collector in 1835 at the port of Chippawa. The position came with a home in Chippawa, into which the family moved. Charles Badeau Secord took over the Queenston home. Daughter Laura Ann and her son moved into the home in 1837 following her husband's death.