William Sinclair, father of the present owner, settled here soon after the American war of 1812. Having just arrived from Scotland, he purchased the present property, composed of 140 acres, in the township of Nelson, from Chief Brant. It is situated in Brant’s Block, on east side of Brant Street, three miles from Burlington, a beautiful, thriving town on Lake Ontario, and two miles from Burlington Junction on 0. T. Railway, on nice plateau under the mountain.
The old homestead house, in which we are now living, is a one-storey stone building, built by my father, William Sinclair, in the year 1830, seventy-two years ago. It was all forest at that time, and full of wild animals. The deer frequently came and grazed in the pasture field with the cattle. Wolves were very troublesome, and the settlers had many narrow escapes. The Indians were quite numerous. One incident I remember my father telling was, in winter a party of Indians frequently came into the log house in the night, when the family were all in bed, to warm themselves by the old-fashioned fire-place. One evening they came as usual, but part of them were the worse of liquor. Through the night they demanded liquor of my father, and because he had none one of the party became angry, drew a long knife, and was going to take his life. Fortunately the others interfered and took the knife away from him.
Chief Brant was a frequent visitor. The table at which he dined a few days previous to his sailing for England is still in use in the homestead. On leaving, he invited my father to go home with him and see his outfit previous to his visit to the king.
DAVID SINCLAIR.