Christine Whelan FEO, April 13, 2023, VOL. 4 ISSUE 17

Not About The War, About The People Who Lived Through The War

Author and local historian, June E. Chipp will be giving a presentation at the Fort Erie Public Library – Crystal Ridge Branch at 89 Ridge Road South on Wednesday, April 19 at 6:00 pm. Presented by the Bertie Historical Society in conjunction with the Public Library, June will be launching her latest book, Tragedy at Snake Hill: The War of 1812 in Fort Erie, a non-fiction publication about the War in Fort Erie, a result of three years of research and writing. Admission is free.

According to the Introduction to the book, June never initially intended to write a book about the War of 1812. However, when she started to research it, she discovered that some of the information that has come down to us through history is inaccurate, and some are virtually unknown. She decided, there is a story here that needs to be told.

“Some of it gives sort of a different picture of the history that has come down to us. I thought it really is worth writing about.”

After June had written one of her previous books about the Fenian Invasion, someone asked her, “Why would a lady have an interest in writing about war?” June says she doesn’t write about war, she writes about the people who lived through the war.

“When I started out, I was just going to focus on the one battle at Snake Hill, but I thought, no, I think I need to look at the whole overview of the three-year war but focusing on Fort Erie itself.

“And then I found this massive amount of information with all these documents. All the documents that were written by the officers of the war are all archived. They have been written about before. A lot of the information has come out, and some of it hasn’t. I went through it all, sorted it all out, then wove the story together.

“A lot of the information was written by our own historian, Ernest Cruikshank. He wrote 12 books about the war and he published the documents. There is so much information in them. I managed to pull out bits of information from them that were not so well known.” She also found memoirs that have been written by the participants in the war that shed a lot of information on it.

The Book

Tragedy At Snake Hill: The War of 1812 In Fort Erie tells a story June feels people will be interested in because when people think of the War of 1812, they think of the fort, having the idea that everything happened at the fort.

“But it didn’t,” the author shared, “It involved the whole area. They were running around the whole area. They were all the way out to Point Abino. They had dragoons and they were riding around, out by the lake at Point Abino, chasing down plunderers.” June said that when she tells people this, they are surprised.

“And the local farms were involved. They were being plundered by both the British and the Americans. They got plundered from all sides.

“The farmers got involved because they were very loyal and dutiful. There were two local militia captains who signed up right away. They were fighting in several of the fights.”

June added sadly, “Erie Beach and Waverly Woods were part of the battlefield.”

According to the book’s Introduction, “The immediate instigator for embarking on this book was a local issue concerning a proposed development on some land located near historic Fort Erie. Apart from ecological concerns and cultural heritage issues, the question arose – was this a battleground from the War of 1812, was this part of the battleground of Snake Hill?”

Going to the Scene of the War

June thinks it will be interesting for people to go to where Snake Hill was and match the locations with information, to look at the landmarks, just like in her Fenian book. All the landmarks were there and the reader could visualize what happened back then.

“There are also things you understand better when you’re there on the ground. I like to see it, not just in a book. I want to see it right there, on the ground so I can visualize how and where it happened. So, when I go over the ground, which I have done, I ask myself, how would this have happened and where would they have gone?”

The hill is gone, however, and it’s a challenge to visualize. “It’s all houses now.”

June included a lot of historical maps, as well as a couple of Google maps to bring it up to the current date.

Copies of the book will be available at the presentation. The book will also be sold at Lakeside Books and Art, downtown Ridgeway. You can order a copy online by going to June’s website: www.forteriehistory.com

Chipp’s other books, Duty and Honour and Shoot Out at the J.W. Lewis House, both about the Fenians, are available online. Her other two books, A Self-Guided History Tour of Greater Fort Erie (4th Edition) and Where The Wild Grape Grows are both unavailable right now. They sold out last summer.

The Bertie Historical Society meets every third Wednesday at the Crystal Ridge Library, always with an interesting speaker. Guests are always welcome. They are also looking for people interested in local history to join the club.