Category Archives: Veteran

War of 1812 Veteran

George Crane
Flank Company
1st Regiment Middlesex Militia

George Crane was born in Scotland in 1771. In 1803, at 32 years of age, he was in Upper Canada after retiring from the British Army. By May 6, he was in York (now Toronto) when his path crossed with another ex-military, Thomas Talbot. Talbot had left England early in February with instructions from the Colonial Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor granting him 5,000 acres of land and permission to establish a settlement in the wilds of Upper Canada.

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Flank Company
1st Regiment Middlesex Militia

Henry Rammage
Royal Artillery

The 41st came to Canada in 1799, serving both Upper and Lower Canada prior to the war. They arrived on the western front, at Amherstburg, in 1805. By then, their reputation  as an effective fighting force had been well established. General Brock noted the men to be “fit and well informed” and mentioned their “high state of discipline.” When war broke out they had already spent thirteen years in North America and they were expecting to return home to Britain on a rotation transfer. Instead, the marching orders were altered; remain fast and defend the Motherland’s colony.
A small guard detachment stationed at Fort Malden fired the opening shots of the war, their target General Hull’s men at the River Canard bridge. The date was July 16, 1812. The heroic stand became a rallying cry as the Regiment stepped up its war rehearsal manoeuvers.

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Royal Artillery

Alexander Clark
Caldwell’s Rangers

Alexander Clark(e), was born in Brownstown, Michigan, on 10 May 1800.  Alexander’s father was Thomas Alexander Clark(e) who died c 1840 and his mother was Catherine Brown who died c 1802.

After Catherine’s death, Thomas married Catherine’s sister, Mary Brown (d 1863). Alexander’s family remained in Brownstown until he was four years old, when the Huron Indian chiefs in council granted his father a tract of land on the Canadian side, now known as the Clarke Grant and he and his parents moved there in 1804.

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William Hutchins
Flank Company
1st Regiment Essex Militia

William Hutchins I is my third great grandfather. He was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England in 1748. William connected with a Pennsylvania Quaker family, that of Ezekiel Dennis and Ann Heacock Dennis. This family pulled up roots in Rockhill, Pennsylvania and crossed the Niagara River at Fort Erie, in 1782.

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Flank Company
1st Regiment Essex Militia

William Park
2nd Regiment Norfolk Militia

Captain William Park served with the 2nd Regiment Norfolk Militia commanded by Major George Salmon.  On 13 Nov 1813 he attended a meeting at the home of William Dvokis [sp?] to organize a raid on marauders at Nanticoke and took part in the expedition against American banditti down the lake. (Source: PAC Microfilm #3173)

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2nd Regiment Norfolk Militia

Peter Young
Flank Company
1st Regiment Essex Militia

Peter Young Biography by Bill Young UE (3rd great grandson of Peter), October 2014

Young, Peter
Reverend Daniel MacLean of Grace United Church, Caledonia and Major Mark Douglas of the Essex and Kent Scottish regiment (This regiment had its beginnings with the 1st Essex Flank Company that Peter served with during the War of 1812.

Peter Young was born 1784 in Waterloo Ferry (Fort Erie) and died on 21 October 1846 in Seneca Township, Haldimand County, Ontario.  He was the second child of Daniel Young (1749 Canajoharie, New York, 09 May 1835 Barton twp. Ont.) and Elizabeth (Windecker) Young (1763 Schoharie, New York, 08 Mar 1830 Barton twp. Ont.).

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