Christine Whelan, FEO, February 6, 2025, VOL. 6 ISSUE 11

“Happy 175th Anniversary! In 1850, Bertie Township was incorporated.” This is how a post began on the Town of Fort Erie’s Facebook page at the beginning of the year.

Have you heard of Bertie Township? The long-time residents will say, of course! But they might say that is our past.

So then, why does it sometimes come up as if it still has life?

Some things are hard to let go.

But for the newer residents, this can be confusing. When I saw that we are celebrating the 175th anniversary of Bertie Township’s incorporation, I thought a little bit of history at this time can alleviate some confusion. There have been many changes over the years in Fort Erie that we can still hear whispers about, echoing from the past.

The evolution of the Niagara Region began in the late 1700s with two counties.

First, there was Lincoln County and Welland County.

Lincoln County was formed in 1792. For 53 years, what we now call the Niagara Region was Lincoln County. In 1845, the southern portion of the county was separated to form Welland County. This second county included eight townships: Bertie, Crowland, Humberstone, Pelham, Stamford, Thorold, Wainfleet, and Willoughby.

Bertie Township

In 1850, Bertie Township was incorporated, encompassing all lands between the Niagara River, Holloway Bay Road, Netherby Road and Lake Erie, measuring 38,390 acres.

According to the Town of Fort Erie’s Facebook post, “Prior to incorporation, it was settled by Indigenous people dating back 13,000 years, settled by Europeans in the late 1700s, and named Bertie Township by an Act of British Parliament in 1793. It was named after Willoughby Bertie, the fourth Earl of Abingdon.”

Over the years, several communities — Fort Erie, Bridgeburg, Crystal Beach and Amigari, for example — broke away from Bertie Township. Fort Erie was incorporated as a town in 1931 and amalgamated with Bridgeburg shortly after.

Bertie Township then represented the communities of Ridgeway, Stevensville, Point Abino, Snyder, Windmill Point, Erie Beach, Mulgrave, Ridgemount, and Shipyards. The Bertie Township Municipal Building, constructed in 1874, was located at 402 Ridge Road in Ridgeway.

Where was Crystal Beach? The village was considered a commercial core area of Fort Erie until 1970.

Amalgamation

In 1970, the provincial government consolidated the communities within and outside Bertie Township, including the then-town of Fort Erie, into the present Town of Fort Erie.

Or as some will now call it, the Greater Fort Erie area.

One of the most obvious pieces of evidence reflecting the combination of community was the more recent high school changes in 2017. What once was Fort Erie Secondary School, or FESS, is now, because it includes students who would have gone to the now closed Ridgeway-Crystal Beach High School, the newer Greater Fort Erie Secondary School, or GFESS, symbolized by the large, yellow ‘G’ in front of the high school on Garrison Road.

In 1970, Lincoln and Welland Counties also amalgamated to form the Regional Municipality of Niagara.

The main reason for the Fort Erie amalgamation was to unify all communities within Bertie Township under one municipal government. Crystal Beach was also included during this amalgamation.

So, does Bertie Township still exist? I hear this question asked once in a while. The answer is no. It was absorbed during the consolidation in 1970. However, this is the whisper of the past I was referring to. You can still find it in writing. You can still hear people referring to it.

After 1970, the former Bertie Township Municipal Building in Ridgeway became the Fort Erie Historical Museum, which remains the museum to this day.

Let’s go way back for more forgotten names.

Before Bertie, There Was Black Creek

When the township was first surveyed in 1789, it was named Quaker Township because there were so many Quaker settlers, otherwise called Society of Friends, in the area at the time. Amos Chapman completed the first map of the area in 1789. His map was entitled Quaker Township since the area was not officially named Bertie yet.

R.M. Disher published a small but information-packed book, “History of Ridgeway Memorial United Church and the Point Abino, Bertie, Ridgeway Community”, that reveals Ridgeway was known as another name around the turn of that century.

Disher claims that the land around the current stoplights in Ridgeway, where Ridge Road N and Dominion Road intersect, was once known as Black Creek.

The Quakers / Society of Friends held their monthly meetings in two locations in what is now the Niagara Region. The even months were held at the Pelham Meeting House and the odd months at the Black Creek Meeting House.

As Disher stated in his book, when we think of Black Creek now, we think of the community at the mouth of the creek, where it meets the Niagara River. However, he explained, “Records of the Friends leave little doubt that a meeting place was built on this property in 1805 – and this was the Black Creek Meeting House.” He referred to the property across Dominion Road from the Friends Burial Ground in Ridgeway.

He gives other references to reasons why it can be believed that Ridgeway, at one point, was considered Black Creek. A copy of Disher’s book can be found in the Fort Erie Library, Centennial Branch.

There is another lost town name.

Found in the Niagara Settlers Land Records, quoted from the Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Counties of Lincoln and Welland, Ont. Toronto: H.R. Page & Co., 1876, revealing a short-lived town called Victoria.

For a short period of time, before the area became Bridgeburg, taking in the railway lands along present Lewis Street and the business district along Jarvis and Dufferin Streets, it was a town called Victoria.

According to the quote, Victoria already had “good hotels, stores and neat cottages”. It continued, “Its proximity to Buffalo gives Victoria the advantage of the trade of that great and growing city and its surrounding towns. The founder and proprietor of the place, Mr. S. M. Jarvis, Barrister, Toronto, is devoting his time and means energetically to its development, and a prosperous future may be fairly predicted for it.”

When many have said that Fort Erie is rich in history, they aren’t kidding. I encourage all who are drawn to dig in, whether it be researching the Louis McDermott and Friends online database with the Fort Erie Library, connecting with local historians like Rick Doan and June Chipp, who love to tell stories from the past, perusing the displays and documents in the Fort Erie Historical Museum or sitting in the comfy area in the back of the Fort Erie Library where the local history in hardcopy lives, I promise you, you will find your discoveries intriguing, thought-provoking and often mind-blowing. Exploring Fort Erie’s history is a wonderful way to spend time during our Fort Erie winter days.