Sara Galbraith Calder 1846-1914

Sara Galbraith Calder 1846-1914. Victorian Dynamo. , This park, its grounds, residences and monuments, would not exist today were it not for the efforts of Sara Calder. Her unremitting struggle against considerable opposition, directly resulted in the acquisition and conservation of the Gage House and the construction of the battlefield monument that commands the site., In what has become known as The Second Battle of Stoney Creek, the granddaughter of original site occupant James Gage, waged a 20-year battle to see her vision of an imposing monument on an imposing site come to fruition. In 1889, the Wentworth Historical Society began actively campaigning for a monument to mark the Stoney Creek battlefield. The choice for a site however was split on gender lines, with Calder's Ladies Committee championing the hilltop site behind the Gage House and the largely male membership of the society backing Smith's Knoll, the current 1site of the Lion Monument., Calder's compelling nature - her watchword was "it can be done, it must be done, and it will be done" - led to the formation of the breakaway Women's Wentworth Historical Society in 1899. Its first move was to purchase the Gage homestead with Calder personally assuming the mortgage until it was paid by public subscription. In 1909, after two decades of wrangling with the Wentworth Historical Society over the site and the federal government over funding. Calder's vision won out. On the 100 anniversary of the 1813 battle, the 33-metre Gothic Revival tower was unveiled before a crowd of 15,000. The indomitable will of Sarp Calder had triumphed. She died within a year.