Part 17 (1/2)
Electrical traction was then in its infancy. No better evidence of this can be given than the fact that although the Canadian Electric Railway Company had ample surplus power in their development at the Horseshoe Falls, yet the electrical engineers of the day, reported that the cost of wiring and the loss in transmission of power for the only seven miles to Queenston, would be prohibitive to commercial economy. An additional equipment for development of electricity by steam was therefore installed on the river side at Queenston to help the power current from the Falls in operating the cars up the zig-zag to the top of the Queenston Heights.
This power house is shown in the view taken from the Heights and continued to be used until 1898, when the improvements in electrical transmission enabled it to be abandoned and full power brought from the company's water power house at the Falls.
The zig-zag series of curves by which the double track railway winds its way up the face of the Niagara escarpment from the dock to the summit at Brock's Monument is considered one of the achievements of Mr. Jennings, who was the engineer for the construction of this Canadian Power and Electrical R.R. Company, and had previously done some notable work for the Canadian Pacific Railway on the Fraser River and Rocky Mountain sections.
As the cars wind up and approach the summit, a splendid and far distant landscape is opened to the view, one which the Duke of Argyle considered to be one of the ”_worthy views of the world_.” Below are the terraces and color-chequered fields of the vineyards, the peach and fruit orchards of this ”Garden of Canada.” Through these variegated levels the Niagara River curves in its silvered sheen to Lake Ontario where the blue waters close in the far horizon.
From Queenston Heights this electric railway skirts the edges of the cliffs above the great gulf in the depths of which the Niagara rapids toss and foam, and then circling around the sullen swirlings of the fatal Whirlpool, lands the tourist within the spray of the great Cataract itself.
Our owners.h.i.+p of the dock and the waterfront at Queenston, purchased so many years before, now proved its foresight and facilitated the making of arrangements with the new Electric Railway for an interchange of business.
As a result it was now determined that a fourth steamer should be added to the Niagara River Line, and thus provision was made for the new connection and the increased business which would arise from its introduction.
This new connection apparently to the river was, after all, but the revival of the old _Portage Route_ on the Canadian side, which had so long existed between Chippawa and the head of navigation at this point, but not exactly on the same location and had pa.s.sed away upon the diversion of business to other routes.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The CHIPPEWA in Drydock at Kingston, Bow. (page 184)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: The CHIPPEWA in Drydock at Kingston, Stern.]
As the steamer lies at the Queenston Dock, the eye naturally sweeps upward over the cedar clad slopes of the Niagara escarpment toward the striking monument which crowns its heights. The reminiscences are those of martial strife, when on the 13th of October, 1812, contestants met in mortal conflict. In fancy we can see the foemen moving upon the slopes, the American forces gain the Heights, the heroic General Brock leads his men in bold attack to regain possession, and falls at their head mortally wounded.
Reinforcements under General Sheaffe come from the west along the summit of the cliffs, the contest is renewed; Indians are seen gleaming among the trees, they drive the invaders over the brink to fall into the rapids below, and at length the American forces with two Generals and seven hundred men lay down their arms and are taken prisoners. But there are other phases much more ancient of this head of navigation and its portages.
Under the hill there can be discerned beneath the shadow of the Height the old road leading up from the lower level of the dock to the upper level upon which, what is left of the Town of Queenston stands. It is marked and scarred with the ruts of many decades and full of memories. Upon these slopes the Indian made his way to the waterside at the Chippewa creek. Here came the trappers with their bales of furs brought down from the far North-West. Here came the _voyageur traders_ of France with beads and gew-gaws for barter with the Indians, and later the English with blankets and firearms.
In the earliest days two portages were available, one on each side of the river, but during the French period and for long, long after the one on the past side from Lewiston was mainly used, its terminus at Lake Erie being called _Pet.i.te Niagara_ as distinctive from the great _Fort Niagara_ at its lower end.
With the end of the war of the Revolution, Capt. Alexander Campbell of the 12th Regiment, was sent by Lord Dorchester to report on the portages. In reporting in 1794 he mentions that the American portage was at a steep bank just below the rapids, to the foot of which the batteaux were poled with difficulty and the contents raised by winch and hawser to the upper level some 60 feet above. On the Canadian side at Queenston the eddy was more favorable and there were, he said, four vessels waiting to be unloaded and sixty waggons working on the portage. In consideration of the expected transfer of Fort Niagara he thought it would be better to improve the mouth of the Chippewa Creek and adopt the all-Canadian side instead of sending up supplies on the Fort Niagara side to _Schlosser_ to be boated across to _Fort Erie_.
Mr. Robert Hamilton, afterwards Hon. Robert, sized up the situation and built a new dock and storehouse on what afterwards turned out to be Government property at the _Chippaway River_. He had early appreciated the value of the portage and had established a large transfer business across it. Becoming the chief personage of the neighborhood he had in 1789 changed the name of its northern terminus to _Queenston_ instead of the _West Landing_ by which it had previously been known.
With these increased facilities and to his own great profit he in time secured the bulk of the portage trade.
In 1800 John Maude mentions that three schooners and 14 teams were lying at the dock at Queenston on one day, and that from 50 to 60 teams a day pa.s.sed over the Portage, the rate for freight being 20 pence New York currency per hundred pounds between Queenston and Chippewa.
When the great _trek_ from Maine and Ma.s.sachusetts began to the Western States of Michigan and Illinois, this Queenston road was mostly taken by the wandering land seekers, it being adopted by them then as the short cut across the Peninsula to the Detroit River instead of the long detour along the south sh.o.r.es of Lake Erie, just as at present the Michigan Central, Wabash and Grand Trunk Railways cross from the Falls on this shortest route to the west.
The waggons with their horses, having come to Lewiston from Albany and Rochester by the Ridge Road, were placed upon the batteaux to cross the river, and although at first carried far down by the current on the eastern side were easily taken by the eddy up the west sh.o.r.e to the landing place at Queenston. Up this inclined road to the upper tier, in imagination one can see the lines of immigrants, with their teams and canvas topped wagons, in long extended line seeking the far West for their new homes and great adventures.
So great was the traffic in this direction that, in 1836 a ”horse boat” was employed on the ferry and the first Suspension Bridge at Queenston was promoted in 1839 to accommodate the movement from the East towards the West. At present except when a Niagara Navigation Co. steamer is alongside, all is so quiet it seems scarcely possible that this landing place could at one time have been the centre of such busy movement.
The re-opening revived also the memories of an oft told narrative of a little family, which years before had arrived over the portage route, at this same dock at Queenston, and made their first acquaintance with the Niagara River and its navigation.
Mr. Fred W. c.u.mberland, our late Director, and his wife had come to the opinion that the position which the held on the Engineering Staff, in Her Majesty's dockyard at Portsmouth, did not represent such a future as they would desire, and therefore they determined to emigrate to Canada. In the spring of 1847 they took pa.s.sage on a sailing s.h.i.+p, bringing with them their ten-months-old baby. After a voyage of six weeks they reached New York, from where they came by Hudson River steamer to Albany, where they spent the night. From here they came by steam railroad at the unexpected speed of ”twenty miles an hour.” And again, as was usual, for there were no night trains, broke their journey and stayed over night at Syracuse, 171 miles, where there was a fine large hotel, and the following day leaving 8.00 a.m., arrived at Buffalo at 9.00 p.m. Leaving Buffalo next morning they came by steamer down the Niagara River to Chippawa, where they took the ”horse railroad” for Queenston to join the steamer for Toronto.
The terminus at Queenston of the horse railroad was at the end of the ”stone road,” near the hotel above the road leading down to the steamer.
Just when arrived at this, the car went off the track, and while Mr.
c.u.mberland was endeavoring to extract their belongings, Mrs. c.u.mberland, the baby, and a young clergyman, the Rev. G. Salter, who had crossed the Atlantic on the same s.h.i.+p with them, were carried off on the steamer for Toronto, and the father was left behind. It was amusingly told, how, after they had landed at the foot of Church Street, and were walking up into the town, Mr. Salter, who had been consigned to an appointment under the Rev.
Dr. John Strachan, then Bishop of Toronto, wondered what his Bishop would say if he should chance to meet his new curate with another man's wife and carrying a baby as he entered his Diocese. The baby was Barlow c.u.mberland, who then made his first steamboating on the Niagara River, on which he was afterwards to be so actively engaged.