Many of these disbanded soldiers were from the Mohawk valley and Upper Hudson. The majority were from the old Johnston district, and not a few of Dutch origin. These honest and industrious settlers are represented to-day by wealthy and valuable citizens, whose names unmistakably indicate the stock from which they have descended.
This township was surveyed probably in 1784. It may be that a base line was run in the fall of 1783. By looking at the map of this township, it will be seen that the lots are marked, like those of Kingston, from west to east, showing that the base line was run along the whole length, and then subsequently the survey completed from the west.
In the early spring of 1784, came the soldier settlers; the 1st battalion, commonly called Jessup’s Corps, settled on the St. Lawrence, in Edwardsburgh and Augusta, while the second, or Rogers’ Corps, passed up to the Bay of Quinté. Respecting this regiment, the following will prove appropriate, from the pen of the historian of the County of Dundas. “At the close of the war, this regiment was stationed at the Isle aux Noix, a fortified frontier post at the northern extremity of Lake Champlain, which has been mentioned as an important fortress during the old French war. Here they passed a whole year, and were employed in adding to the already extensive fortifications of that island. While they remained there thus employed, two Government surveyors, named Steichmann and Tewit, were actively engaged surveying the County of Dundas, for their future occupation. Late in the autumn of 1783, the soldiers were joined by their wives and little ones, who had wandered the weary way afoot, to Whitehall, through swamps and forest, beset with difficulties, dangers, and privations, innumerable. The soldiers from Isle aux Noix met them there, with boats, and conveyed them the rest of their journey by water, through Lake Champlain. Imagination fails us when we attempt to form an idea of the emotions that filled their hearts, as families, that had formerly lived happily together, surrounded with peace and plenty, and had been separated by the rude hand of war, now met in each others embrace, in circumstances of abject poverty. A boisterous passage was before them in open boats, exposed to the rigors of the season—a dreary prospect of a coming winter, to be spent in pent up barracks, and a certainty, should they be spared, of undergoing a life-time of such hardship, toil, and privation, as are inseparable from the settlement of a new country. As soon as the journey was accomplished, the soldiers and their families, were embarked in boats, sent down the Richelieu to Sorel, thence to Montreal, and on to Cornwall, by the laborious and tedious route of the St. Lawrence. The difficulty of dragging their boats up the rapids of this river was very great; to us it is really quite inconceivable. Arrived at Cornwall, they found there the Government Land Agent, and forthwith proceeded to draw by lottery the lands that had been granted to them. On the 20th of June, 1784, the first settlers landed in the County of Dundas.”
Not unlikely some of the 2nd battalion were stationed at Carleton Island and Oswego, up to the time that settlement took place. We learn that Captain Crawford’s company at least was at the latter place in 1782. However, it seems clear that most of the battalion was in Lower Canada, and came up with the first battalion. The survey was not yet completed, and they pitched their tents along the shore, waiting until the work of drawing lots was accomplished. In the meantime, they passed their days as best they could; not knowing where their lot would be cast, they could not proceed with the clearing of land. The writer has been told by one who, passing up during this summer, saw the tents spread along the shore, upon whose brink the primeval forest yet stood in all its native beauty. Now, had they been stationed at Carleton Island or Oswego, it is not likely they would have thus come before they could enter upon their work of settling.
The camp tents in use by these disbanded veterans were the same they had occupied in their campaigning. How great the change to them. The alarm of the coming foe, the thought of approaching battle, the cannon’s roar, the rattle of small arms, no longer disturbed their dreams, nor sounded upon their ears. The battle cloud had passed away, leaving but a wreck of their worldly goods, and there was a great calm—the calm of the desert wilderness, unbroken even by the sound of the pioneer’s axe—the calm of a conscience quieted by the thought that all had been sacrificed in a righteous cause. They had met and conquered many a foe; but the fate of war had driven them to the desert wild, to encounter new fears, to fight the battle of the pioneer. How they succeeded; how glorious the victory, is written, not merely by our own feeble hand elsewhere—it is indelibly inscribed upon the pages of the townships, by the tillers of the soil.
In this township as well as elsewhere, the officers seem to have had the choice of lots upon the front, while the rank and file took possession of the rear lots. Among the officers who settled on the front of Ernesttown and Fredericksburgh, may be found the names of Lieut. Church, Lieut. Spencer, Capts. Crawford and Thompson, Ensign Fraser, Capt. Howard. According to John Collins Clark, son of Robert Clark, the first lots were taken up in the following order, commencing at the easternmost lot, No. 42:
Lot 42 was first occupied by David Purdy; Joshua Booth, Esq., married to a daughter of David Fraser, lived on Lot 40 or 41; Mr. Nicholas Lake, Lot 39, but soon left it; Lot 38 was settled by Capt. Wm. Johnson; William Fairfield, sen., Lot 37. He had twelve children, all of whom lived to marry. Daniel Rose commenced a settlement on Lot 30, but in a few years left, and removed to the third concession. Matthias Rose, sen., settled on Lot 35, he died in his 90th year. Lot 34 and east half of 33, were settled by Robert Clark, Esq. His wife was a Ketcham, they had five sons and a daughter; he died at the age of 80 years. His eldest son, Matthias, had twelve sons. West half of Lot 33 was occupied by John Longwell. The east half of Lot 32 was first owned by John Sayer; the west half by Simon Swarts. Lot 31 was school land, first occupied by Michael Phipps and William Sole. East half of Lot 29, owned by a German named Gedd, west half occupied by Daniel Fraser, Esq., though not the first settler on that lot. Sebastian Hogle, John Lake, and John Caldwell settled Lots 27 and 28, but soon removed back into the concessions. James Parrot, Esq., a half-pay officer, settled Lot 26; he afterward sold this lot to Adam Stanring, from the Mohawk River. The next settlers, continuing westward, were Jacob Miller, Frederick Baker, Wigant (Lutheran clergyman), John Mabee, Joseph Huff, a waggon maker, Adam Peat, a tailor, Nicholas Amey, Simon Snider, David Williams, generally called Sergeant Williams, a blacksmith, Joseph Losee, Lieut. John Dusenbury. Lieut. Best soon left, and Dusenbury died. Lot 19, has latterly been partially laid out into village lots, and a number of buildings erected. Lot 18 was a Government mill lot. It was leased for some years by Joshua Booth. From the number of mills subsequently erected on the stream, that empties here, it obtained the name of “Mill Creek.” Lot 17, settled by William Cottier which was afterward owned by A. D. Foward. There were several occupants of the next lot; and the next was settled by Brisco, and the next by Richard Robins. Then came one by John George. Lot 11, now a part of Bath, was owned by George McGinnis, a half-pay officer, who sold to Fairfield. No. 10, on which is situated most of the village of Bath, was occupied by John Davy. No. 9 was owned by James Johnson, father of the celebrated “Bill” Johnson, the traitor of 1812. The next was settled by Jeptha Hamley, Esq. Westward lived Matthias Rose, William Rose, Wilcox, Shibley, then Finkle, Brisco, Huffman, Pruyn, Williams, Church, &c. As a general thing, the sons of the first settlers, settled in the rear concessions. At the present time, says Clark, there are not more than 10 or 12 of the farms on the front owned by the descendants of the original settlers.
The township of Ernesttown contains 68,644 acres, all of which is excellent land with the least exception, so that the pioneers were not the losers in having this township allotted to them instead of Kingston. However, at that time the distance from Carleton Island and Cataraqui seemed considerable. The land being good, and the settlers industrious, as a general thing, the time was not long, when the township became the best cultivated, and most wealthy, not alone around the Bay of Quinté but in the whole of Western Canada. The richness of the soil, and lying more immediately at the mouth of the Bay, contributed to its prosperity, and a village before many years sprung up, which for a time rivalled even Kingston itself, in respect to rapid increase of inhabitants, the establishment of trade, building of ships, and from the presence of gentlemen of refinement and education, and in the foundation of a library and a seminary of higher education.
Gourlay says, in 1811, that “the settlers are most of them practical husbandmen. Their farms are well fenced, well tilled, and accommodated with barns.” There are now above 2,300 inhabitants, a greater number than are found in any other township in the Province. They have three houses of public worship, one Episcopalian, one Presbyterian, and one Methodist. In 1817, Ernesttown had “one parochial academy in the village, and thirteen common schools over the township.”
In some of the townships first surveyed, a plot was reserved at the front, and subsequently laid out into town lots. Such was the case in Ernesttown, seemingly. At all events a village sprung up at an early period, on the front of the tenth lot. It was for a long time known as the Village of Ernesttown; but in time, after the war of 1812, it acquired the name of Bath, probably after the beautiful English town of that name. The distance of Bath from Kingston is about eighteen miles, and the road leading thereto was one of the first constructed in Upper Canada, and the country there was regarded as the very centre of civilization in the Province. For a long time the main road between Kingston and York passed by Bath, even after it was no longer solely by the way of Prince Edward and the Carrying Place. A branch of the main road passed from this place to Napanee, and thence to Thurlow and Sidney. Bath was regarded as a city in embryo. Its progress was onward, until the war of 1812. Gourlay says of it in 1811, that “it promises to be a place of considerable business.” But the war dealt a serious blow to the place, from which it never recovered fully. The Kingston Gazette, of 1816, remarks, to the effect, that the village is emerging from its depression, and that it ought to be made a post town, and a port of entry. In the summer of this year Samuel Purdy started a public conveyance between Kingston and Bath. The following year the Steamer Frontenac and Charlotte were commenced here. In 1818 a bill was introduced into Parliament “to constitute the town of Bath—to provide for laying out and surveying town lots and streets, and a market-place therein, and regulating the police thereof.”