Buell, William Jr.

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Ian MacPherson, “BUELL, WILLIAM (1792-1862),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/buell_william_1792_1862_9E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Journalist and politician; b. 28 Feb. 1792 at Elizabethtown (Brockville), Upper Canada, eldest son of Martha Naughton and William Buell, the loyalist founder of Brockville; m. first, Mary-Ann Angelica Story, by whom he had three children, secondly, Deborah Dockstader, by whom he had four children, and thirdly, Catherine Dockstader; d. 29 April 1862 at Brockville.
    • He was decorated for participating in 1813 in the battle at Crysler’s Farm and in the attack on Ogdensburg, N.Y., led by “Red George” Macdonell.
    • Buell inherited 125 acres of prime land in the Brockville area, operated a book store in the town from at least 1830 until 1852, and was editor of the Brockville Recorder from 1823 to 1849. Under his editorship and with the aid of his brother, Andrew Norton Buell*, the Recorder became a prominent newspaper which supported reform causes and expounded the views of much of eastern Upper Canada. During the 1820s and early 1830s it particularly represented the interests of Brockville expansionists such as James Morris who were attempting to develop a system of canals on the St Lawrence River so that Brockville could compete with other commercial centres such as Kingston and York (Toronto).
    • Buell inherited from his father a long-standing local rivalry with the loyalist and Tory families of Solomon and Ephraim Jones and Levius Peters Sherwood. From 1801 until the 1860s the four families struggled for political supremacy in the Brockville area, and the Joneses and Sherwoods often joined forces to thwart the Buells. William Buell was a stable and effective leader whose ability frequently enabled his family and the Reform cause in Leeds to equal the Tory forces.
    • After the rebellion Buell started a long campaign to restore the Reform cause in the county. The Recorder increasingly voiced the attitudes of eastern Upper Canadian farmers, and Buell expounded on the need for agrarian reform, reduced government expenditures, regional improvements, and local control. His campaign was in part rewarded in 1848, when, though he lost his own bid for a seat in Brockville, his nephew, William Buell Richards, won easily in Leeds County. Richards and his brother, Albert Norton Richards, were to become important Reform politicians in the 1850s and 1860s.
  • Son of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=992
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/162233644/william-buell