The Goderich Signal-Star, 1983-09-28, Page 53t for liberty in Upper Canada
Y FRANK JONES
TORONTO STAR
(Editor's Note: The following story. by rank Jones • in the
Toronto Star Dec. 2?, j981 describes Van Egmond history as
well as the current struggle to restore and revitalize the Van
Egmond house.)
He 'was a Dutch nobleman who fought with Napoleon at
Moscow and Waterloo; he was a visionary who almost
single-handedly opened up this corner of southwestern
Ontario, but he died in Toronto charged as a traitor for his role
in the 1837 Mackenzie rebellion.
Col. Anthony Van Egmond was a swashbuckling, eccentric
hero in the fight for liberty in Upper Canada. Yet efforts by
history Buffs to preserve and restore his son's home, Van
Egmond House, on the colonel's old estate are foundering
because, their chairman suspects, Van Egmond is still
regarded as a traitor in this part of the world.
Paul Carroll says the Van Egmond Foundation, of which he
is chairman,,is being forced to sell off a crucial three -acre site
linking the handsome Georgian Van Egmond House with the
graveyard where Col. Van Egmond is burl d. Although the site
has been identified as an important 19th &ntury archeological
site by University of Western Ontario experts and although it is
vital to the integrity of the restoration scheme, the land will be
subdivided for housing, he said.
Red tape and two years of bureaucratic delays by Queen's
Park while the foundation's interest charges at the bank
steadily mounted helped to created the crisis. Carroll said.
Now. he said some board members favor winding up the whole
project rather than going ahead with a scaled-down version.
• Col. Van Egmond would have sympathized: In his 10
dramatic years in Canada he, too, had his little run-ins with the
authorities.
Van Egmond came of noble stock and was born a count in
Holland in 1778. He followed his father into a military career,
and when Napoleon invaded Holland in 1794 he was
conscripted into the French army. In the next 20 years he saw
much action, reportedly took part in the retreat from Moscow
and only left for the New World after taking part in Napoleon's
final debacle at Waterloo.
He and, his wife, Susanna, and their children prospered for
eight years in Pennyslvania then, with a caravan of Dutch
settlers looking for new frontiers, set out for Upper Canada.
Making room for a poor family in the boat across the Niagara
River, the Van Egmonds left part of their extensive -baggage on
the U.S. side for collection later. The goods, including the only
two portraits in existence of Anthony and Susanna. were
stolen. •
Van Egmond, a tall, stooped figure who always wore a felt
hat because, it was rumoured, he had lost his ears to frostbite
in Russia, quickly contracted with the newly established
Canada Company to build about 35. miles (about 60 kilometres)
of road through the wild Huron Tract in return for 13,000 acres
and cash.
Within a year, with work gangs laboring through the winter
and sleeping in shacks 'built at intervals along the route,
the job was done, though an early traveller reported that here
and there giant elm trees, too large for easy felling, still stood
in the middle of the road (now Highway 9).
Van Egmond, meanwhile, built a combination inn and home
PAGE 13
near Seaforth and cleared 100 acres of land the first year. A
touching aceount survives of the little ceremony in August.
1829, attended by Canada Company officials. when Susanna
Van Egmondcut and bound the first sheaf of wheat ever grown
in the Huron Tract.
She handled the sickle with a practised touch, a horn of
whisky was served and the company adjourned to the Van
Egmond house for an ample dinner rounded off with a dessert
of red and black raspberries picked along the wooden snake.
Please turn to page 14
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