A Brief History of St. Catharines, Ontario

First settled by Loyalists Sergeant Jacob Dittrick and Private John Hainer of Butler's Rangers in the 1780s, St. Catharines started as the area where Dick's Creek met Twelve Mile Creek. This eventually became the centre of the town we know today. Originally, native trails were used as travel routes, resulting in the present day road pattern which radiates from the city's centre.

The Welland Canal was first constructed between 1824 and 1833, using Twelve Mile and Dick's Creeks behind what is now known as St. Paul Street. One of the canal's fathers, William Hamilton Merritt, worked tirelessly to promote the venture by raising both funds and government support. The canal he created established St. Catharines as Niagara Peninsula's hub of commerce and industry.

St. Catharines also marked the end of the Underground Railroad, where ex-slaves traveled up from America into the free lands of Canada. The British Methodist Episcopal Church and Salem Chapel, established in 1855 at the corner of Geneva and North streets, was the final terminus of the railroad, and the area became known to escaped slaves as a place of refuge and rest. William Merritt's hard work can also be seen here: It was he who granted the land to the congregation in the early 1840s.