Port Nelson

Port Nelson. . , The map below, dated July 16, 1792, shows the Gore District (now Halton) as Mississauga of the Credit land. In 1795, under Treaty 8, the British granted 3,450 acres-later the Brant Tract- to Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant for his Loyalist service in the American Revolutionary War. Brant settled there in 1802, but sold much of it to settlers. By 1806, remaining lands, including those ceded by the Mississaugas, became Port Nelson and Wellington Square- key shipping hubs for grain, lumber, and wheat. The area stretched 9 km. inland from Etobicoke Creek to Burlington Bay, including the Credit River, Twelve Mile Creek, and Sixteen Mile Creek, waterways used for thousands of years by Indigenous people. In 1873, the villages merged as Burlington, becoming a city in 1974. Today, Port Nelson Park is a vital historic landmark., Originally called the Halsted Inn (Elijah Halsted) and later the Temperance Inn (James Irving, owner). The Inn lodged the out-of-town farmers bringing their goods to Port Nelson docks., Now 2429 Lakeshore Road, Hugh Cotter, J.P. Wharfinger and William Douglass, were responsible for erecting this prominent building at Guelph Line south of Lakeshore Rd. that would become the General Store and Port Nelson Post Office. Cotter was Postmaster 1856 to 1872. George E. Brown and wife Wilhelmina McPherson owned and operated the General Store and Brown would be the last postmaster in 1930 at this location. Groceries, milk, coal and ice were delivered by horse drawn cart from Brown's to local residents and most had this location as their mailing address. The cottage behind the store would remain in the hands of Cotter descendants until both buildings were demolished in the late 1970s., Bricks at the base of this sign were salvaged from the building., The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was built in 1862 by Cotter and Douglass. It later became the Port Nelson Bible School under W.D. Flatt. This building is located at 262 Guelph Line., Alex LeClair was a renowned ship builder building several schooners which were launched at Port Nelson. The village offered back country farmers an outlet to ship their lumber and crops. During high season farm wagons would be lined up for miles on the planked Guelph Road. Lacking a lighthouse or clear inlet, two 100 foot pine trees served as markers for incoming schooners., The wooden wharf and storehouses were destroyed by a storm sometime in the early 1910s. The gravel beach, once the perfect spot for shipbuilding, was washed away.