Merritt, William Hamilton

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: J. J. Talman, “MERRITT, WILLIAM HAMILTON (1793-1862),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/merritt_william_hamilton_1793_1862_9E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Soldier, merchant, promoter, and politician; b. 3 July 1793 at Bedford, Westchester County, N.Y., the son of Thomas Merritt and Mary Hamilton; d. 5 July 1862 at Cornwall, Canada West.
    • William Hamilton Merritt’s father had served under John Graves Simcoe in the Queen’s Rangers during the American revolution, and after living in Saint John, N.B., from 1783 to 1785, and in South Carolina, he had settled in New York State. In 1796 Thomas Merritt petitioned Simcoe for land in Upper Canada and in the same year settled at Twelve Mile Creek (St Catharines), where in 1803 he was appointed sheriff of Lincoln County. In 1806 his son William Hamilton attended a school run by Richard Cockrel at Ancaster and later at Niagara. Cockrel, a leading educator in Upper Canada and a land surveyor, taught Merritt mathematics and surveying. 
    • Merritt is best known for his part in the promotion of the Welland Canal, linking lakes Ontario and Erie. The idea likely grew out of the need for water to run his mills on Twelve Mile Creek; by constructing a feeder canal he hoped to obtain water from the Welland River and its source, Chippawa Creek, the summit of which was two miles from his mill site. His plan to build a canal to connect the Welland River with Twelve Mile Creek soon grew into a plan to link the two Great Lakes. The canal would improve the St Lawrence transportation system by providing a cheap and convenient means for the products of western Upper Canadian farms to bypass the Niagara Falls portage and to proceed to Montreal and Great Britain.
    • Today Merritt can be seen as one of the great figures in the history of Canadian transportation. But his large scheme for a system of canals linking the Great Lakes with the St Lawrence and the ocean, which finally came to fruition in 1849, was soon challenged by the new technology of railways. In 1853 the New York state legislature consolidated railways to connect New York with Buffalo and by early 1854 the Great Western Railway ran from the Niagara River Suspension Bridge to Windsor. Just as the Welland Canal had suffered from the earlier completion of the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes–St Lawrence canal system suffered from the competition of railways. Merritt’s vision of an eastern Canadian transportation system involving waterways and railways was logical, practical, and consistently pursued. Even if his canal system did not achieve the economic benefits to Canada expected by Merritt, his vision foreshadowed the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway in 1958.
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=5812
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29450304/william-hamilton-merritt