HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1971-12-16, Page 13•
Second Section — SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16 1911 ?nes 9 - 16
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A rebel skirmisher, behind the rail fence at Montgomery's Tavern, fires at the advancing loyalist
. troops. The rebels in the middle distance included Colonel Van Egmond and other leaders of the rebellion.
On the hill are some of the 4,000 North Yorkers who watched the retreriactment of the 1837 battle.
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The Queen's York Rangers march up Yonge Street to confront
the Mackenzie rebels at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, as it was
re-enacted. Scene was a North York valley in Don Mills.
0 colonel Van Egmond and the Rebellion of 1837
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(By Lance Stuart)
North York, Saturday,
December 4th Colonel Anthony
Van Egmond, hero of Huron,
father of the Huron Tract and
builder of the Huron Road, strode
. again amongst William Lyon
Mackenzie's rebels today not far
from the site of an historic
battle 134 years' ago this Tuei-
day, December 7.
Van Egmond was brought back
to life with his friends and foes
of nineteenth-century Upper Can-
ada by a group of North York •
citizens who are building a 140-
acre park and historic site here
to honour the memory of the
. Patriots of 1837.
Appropriately enough, the
part of the fouftder of Egmond-
ville was played by a son of
Huron, Kenneth J. Larone. He
is the son of Elmer Larone,
town, and son-in-law of Mr. and
Mrs. Robert Spittal, town.
Larone is co-publisher and
executive editor of The North
York Mirror. Several o f his
executives are governors of the
foundation which staged the battle
re- enactm ent. •
The 1971 Colonel Van Egmond
wore a black semi-military suit
of the period, topped by the black
skullcap tradition says the Col-
onel always wore.
(The Colonel reportedly lost
his ears from frostbite on the
march to Moscow with Napoleon
Bonaparte, Emperor of the
French. There are no like-
nesses available of the Colonel,
but his costume today was thought
to be accurate for the period.)
The battle was watched by
James Doig, town, who Is a
member of the committee
which is today seeking to pre-
serve the Van Egmond home in
Egmondville as a public museum.
I The' 1837 battle of Montgom-
ery's Tavern was restaged by
the Moatfield Farm Foundation.
It has won federal, provincial
• and municipal grants for a plan
to turn 140-acres of North York
valley land into a borough park
and historic site.
More than 4,000 North' York-
ers watched the Queen's York
Rangers, Canada's oldest militia
regiment, play both loyalists and
rebels in the battle re-enactment.
Real muskets of the period crack-
led with blank charges.
The Upper Canada Rifles, a
Metro Toronto organization of
gun collectors, fired at the loy-
alist troops, marching on a life-
size facsimile of the historic,
tavern which was Mackenzie's
rebel headquarters in 1837.
Artillery of the period, man-
ned by experts from historic old
Fort York, booined with blank
charges.
The bat ended when the
loyalist troops overpowered the
rebels, William Lyon Mackenzie
and Colonel Van Egmond led
their supporters in flight and Sir
Francis Bond Head, then Lieut-
enant - Governor of Upper Can-
ada, played by local North York
MPP Dennis Timbrell, ordered
the troops to burn the tavern.
History records that the
Queen's York Rangers were on
the right flank at the original
battle. So they co-operated with
' the Moatfield Farm Foundation
in re-staging the battle.
Objective of the re-enactment
was to show North Yorkers the
potential of the 140-acre valley
land which will bedome a borough
park and historic site.
The historic site will be des-
igned to pay tribute to the Pat-
riots of the 183'7 Rebellion, many
of whom came from North York.
They lived in and around the
valley where the park will be
built.
The Moat-field Farm Foun-
dation was set up by a group of
local citizens to administer the
historic site. With financial
support from ,three levels of
government - their own munic-
ipality, the province of Ontario
and the federal government - a
design study is now underway
to cost the moving of several
historic buildings to . the site.
Among the buildings which
it ,1s hoped to acquire in due
course is the historic old frame
farmhouse owned by Joseph Shep-
pard, an early North York pion-
eer.
It was here that Colonel Van
Egmond was hiding after the
battle at Montgomery's when he
was discovered by loyalist
troops. The Colonel was taken
to Toronto Goal, where he died
of pneumonia before he could be
put on trial for treason.
The foundation has learned
of the plan to preserve the Van
Egmond house in Egmondville.
"We honour the Colonel as oqe
of the early Canadian patriots,"
a foundation spokesman told
The Expositor this' week. "His
role in the rebellion will be suit-
ably recorded at Moat-field Park.
But the real memorial to one of
the foinders of the Huron Tract
belongs where he lived - in Eg-
mondville.
"If we can be of assistance
'to the citizen's group in Huron
who want to preserve the manor
of Egmondville, we will be de-
lighted to do so," said the spokes-
man,
Colonel Anthony Van Egrrond played his historic role
in 'the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern when it was re-
enacted in a North York valley. The part of the Colonel
was played by Kenneth J. Larone, a native of Seaforth.
Staff photos by Ian/ Kelso and David Kopm an, courtesy of
The North York Mirror.
Montgomery's Tavern burns again in a North York Valley. At a re-enactment of the 1837 Battle of Mont-
gomery'S Tavern, Colonel Samuel Peters JarviS(left) commanding the Queen's York Rangers, and Sir
Francis Bond Head, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, look ,north after fleeing rebels. (In real
life, Jarvis is Maier Michael Stevenson, second-in-command of the 1971 Queen's York Rangers. Sir
Francis Bond Head was played by Alderman Dennis Timbrell, ne"wly-eledted M.P.P. for Don Mills, a
former Don Mills history teacher.)
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Loyal troops of the Queen's York Rangers (The 1st American Regiment) pull
down the inn-sign at Montgomery's Tavern after Sir Francis Bond tTead,
Lieutenant Governor of .Upper Canada, ordered it burned. The re-enactment of the
historic 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada took place early In December In a North
York valley.
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