By Doug Draper
She is a Canadian heroine whose actions during the War of 1812 helped drive back an invading American army.
One of the last photos of the first home of Laura Ingersoll Secord in Great Barrington, Massachusetts before it was torn down a century ago. Image courtest of members of Great Barrington Historical Society.
These days though, Laura Secord seems to be doing more to bring Canadians and Americans closer together as a delegation of officials and historians from Great Barrington, Massachusetts – a picturesque New England town nestled in the Berkshire Hills where she was born Laura Ingersoll in 1775 – meet with members of the Niagara-based ‘Friends of Laura Secord’ group at her Queenston, Ontario homestead this August 10.
The August 10 meeting at the Laura Secord homestead, preserved for posterity by the Niagara Parks Commission, is one more in a series of ongoing events marking the bicentennial of the War of 1812, a bloody conflict followed by two centuries of relative peace and friendship (save for the 1866 to 1871 Fenian raids) between the two countries. The Great Barrington delegation’s stop at the homestead is part of a journey to Ingersoll (a town east of London, Ontario) where on August 11 and 12, officials from the two towns are celebrating their respective councils’ approval of a twinning agreement.
Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Dave Eke (right) and Caroline McCormick, a direct descendent of Laura Seconrd (left), greet Ingersoll, Ontario Mayor Ted Comiskey (second from left) and another member of Ingersoll group during visit to Laura Secord Homestead in Queenston last year. Photo by Doug Draper
And once again, the spirit of Laura Secord will be part of those celebrations since it was her father, Thomas Ingersoll, who founded the Ontario town after moving Laura and the family from Great Barrington to what was then Upper Canada in 1795. Laura later married United Empire Loyalist James Secord and settled in Queenston where, in June of 1813, she made her 19-mile walk into history, through what was then was some pretty rough country to warn a British army commander stationed at the DeCew House (identified by some as the DeCou House) in Thorold that American invaders were coming.
This Niagara At Large reporter paid a short visit to Great Barrington last November, curious to learn to what extent Laura Secord is remembered there. Gary Leveille, a Great Barrington resident and member of the town’s historical society who is an enthusiastic student of early American-Canadian history, told me about a plaque the group had erected to her in 1997, on the property where the Ingersoll home where Laura spent her first years once stood.
Plaque honouring Laura Secord in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Click on the image to blow it up to full screen to read the inscription. Photo by Doug Draper
The home was razed more than a century ago and now a stately town library sits in its place. “Folks in Ontario expressed an interest in the old house and a local woman – presumably wealthy – planned to pay to have the house disassembled and shipped to Canada,” Leveille told me. “Sadly, she passed away before plans were completed and no money was ever allocated, so the house was torn down. Someone (possibly a former Great Barrington historian) scavenged a few small artifacts from the home, including early hand-wrought nails and wood,” Leveille added. “A few of the nails were saved in the new library’s files and the remainder was sent to Ontario (and) are now in the collection at the museum at Niagara-on-the-Lake.”
The plaque at the Great Barrington site reads, in part; that ‘Laura Ingersoll Secord (born in 1775 and deceased in 1868) was, while living in Queenston, Ontario, “alerted to an impending American attack at Beaver Dams. (In) June 1813 (she) undertook an arduous 19 mile journey through woods and swamp to warn British troops. Her tenacity and courage made her a heroine .”
An inscription like that in Massachusetts – a state where ‘the first shot was heard around the world’ between colonialists and British troops in what was unfolding in the very year first years Laura Secord was born as America’s war for independence – might have some residents in the Great Barrington area wondering why anyone who would wish to honour someone who would later do a Paul Revere-reversal and warn the British that the Americans were coming. Yet there was very little discussion or debate over the erection of the plaque, said Leveille, because, at the time, “very few people (outside historical society circles) were aware of Laura Secord.”
Painting of Laura Secord birthplace. Image courtesy of Great Barrington Historical Society
Levielle recalled one objector, a Second World War veteran who for some years following the dedication of the plaque, would place a cover over it on annual Veterans Days, claiming that she was a traitor. That kind of sentiment, to the extent it had any traction at all, has fortunately given way to a recognition of two neighbouring nations of how inter-connected their history and peoples are, he says.
Shortly after my stop in Great Barrington last fall, a delegation of Ingersoll and Oxford County officials stopped at the Laura Secord Homestead in Queenston before driving on to Great Barrington to celebrate that town’s 250thanniversary. They were greeted with welcoming posters stamped with Laura’s image.
Laura Secord Homestead in Queenston, Ontario. File photo by Doug Draper
The Great Barrington delegation stopping at the homestead this August 10 will be travelling on to Ingersoll with some rare artifacts for display, including a ship’s bell dating back to 1766 which regularly rang from the steeple of a church in the town when young Laura and her family were still living there. The delegation is also bringing some artifacts, including a silver tea set and blanket box that belonged to a pastor of one of the churches in Intergsoll, whose descendants found their way from Ontario to the Great Barrington area in the 1800s. These artifacts are being donated to the Ingersoll Museum.
The memory of Laura Secord will continue to be honoured as the War of 1812 Bicentennial commemorations unfold over the next two years. Those commemorations will include a special walk the Friends of Laura Secord, spearheaded by one of her direct Niagara descendants Caroline McCormick, are planning for June 22, 2013, 200 years to the day Laura made her trek, from the Queenston homestead to the DeCew House in in Thorold where she shared the news of an American attack with British commander James FitzGibbon.
To learn more about what the Friends of Laura Secord are calling this “walk into history” and how you can participate in it visit info@friendsoflaurasecord.com or email friendsoflaurasecord@hotmail.com.
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Niagara At Large 
Great article, and both properties have a similar essence – amazing…proud to be one of our heroine’s namesakes! I’ve had an encounter with someone who called our Laura a traitor. I asked him if he’d left his manners on the other side of the Niagara River!
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