Historic Sites and Plaques
Preserving and honouring the structures and people who built Haldimand, our plaques and markers are located in public areas for viewing.
Some of our favourite historical hotspots include:
Points of Interest
Canfield Black Settlement Marker
This marker is in recognition of Canfield as a stop on the Underground Railroad and was also home to one of the first black settlements in Ontario. The first black settlers arrived in Canfield in 1837 after fleeing slavery and by 1851, there were 137 black residents identified in the North Cayuga census. Behind the numbers was a story of integration. In Canfield, black and white residents worked and worshipped side by side, and their children went to the same schools. Located in the North Cayuga Canfield Park.
Following the American Revolution Sir Frederick Haldimand, Governor-in-Chief of Canada, granted to the Six Nations of the Iroquois a tract of land extending for 10 km on both sides of the Grand River from its source to Lake Erie. This grant was made in recognition of their services as allies of the British Crown during the war and to recompense them for the loss of their former lands in northern New York State. In later years large areas of this tract, including a portion of the present counties of Haldimand, Brant, Waterloo, and Wellington were sold to white settlers. Located at the Cayuga Courthouse.
After receiving lands on the Grand River in 1784, the Six Nations Indians invited Captain Hendrix Nelles, A Loyalist from the Mohawk Valley, to settle there with five of his sons. He and Robert, the eldest, established farms in what is now Seneca Township and built houses in which they lived until Captain Nelle’s death in 1791 and Robert’s removal to Grimsby. The grants, confirmed in 1787, were later changed to 999-year leases and John Nelles leased 325 acres across the river. William Warner and Abraham Nelles received Crown patents in 1836 for the original “Nelles Tract” in Seneca granted to their father and brother in 1787. The “Nelles Settlement” contained about thirty families in 1828. Plaque is located at Hwy 0 (Nelles St/York Road) and Hwy 54 (Front St. S) in York, Ontario.
The Cairn, located in Port Maitland’s East Park, commemorates the Commercial Fishing Industry, the Port Maitland Feeder Canal and Lock, and the Grand River Naval Depot.
- Commercial Fishing Industry – Port Maitland was a major commercial fishing port from the mid-1800s until the late 1950s. Fishing took place in the Grand River and Lake Erie, netting abundant amounts of sturgeon, bass, herring, whitefish, pickerel, perch, and clams and became the home of one of the largest freshwater fishing fleets in the Americas.
- Port Maitland Feeder Canal & Lock – In 1845 the Feeder Canal was extended from Stromness to the nearby Port Maitland Lock, this allowed ships to navigate from both the Welland Canal and from Lake Erie to the Upper Grand River. Port Maitland was one of the finest harbours on the north shore of Lake Erie and many ships would seek refuge in the mouth of the Grand River to escape storms.
- Grand River Naval Depot – In 1815 a small detachment of the Royal Navy established the first base on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Grand River, which was to enforce the Rush-Bagot Treaty (1814) to protect Upper Canada from another invasion from the United States. The wharf and four buildings were washed away in a storm in 1927. The Naval Depot was officially closed in 1834.
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