Read, John Landon

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Shirley C. Spragge, “READ, JOHN LANDON,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/read_john_landon_8E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Farmer, militiaman, merchant, justice of the peace, and office holder; b. c. 1787 in Township No.7 (Augusta, Ont.), son of Obediah Read and Lydia Landon; m. first c. 1812 Jennet Breakenridge (d. 1832), and they had four sons, including David Breakenridge Read, and four daughters; m. secondly 23 July 1835 Hannah Elizabeth Harper (d. 1836) of Ogdensburg, N.Y., and there were no children; m. thirdly 12 Sept. 1837 Ann Miller (d. 1845), with whom he had two children; d. 19 Feb. 1857 in Chatham, Upper Canada.
    • John Landon Read’s father and his grandfather, Moses, came from Connecticut and arrived in Upper Canada as unincorporated loyalists, who had not done military service. John grew up in a large family of nine children. He served in the War of 1812 and reputedly was present at the taking of Ogdensburg in February 1813. From that year to 1829 he lived on lot 36, concession 2, in Augusta, where he placed 40 acres under cultivation and prospered enough to live in a frame-house. By 1819 he had become a Methodist and had established a mercantile business at Maitland.
    • In 1830 he moved north with his growing family to Merrickville, a milling centre founded about 1800 on the Rideau River in Wolford Township. With the construction of the Rideau Canal (1826–32), opportunities for secondary services such as stores increased. Read quickly established himself as a merchant, supplying settlers not only in Wolford and adjoining Montague Township but also as far away as Perth. In 1836 he joined three other merchants in petitioning the government, on behalf of the village, for land on which a joint-stock company could erect more mills. This petition, which was eventually placed before Captain Daniel Bolton, the royal engineer in charge of the canal, might be read as the rising élite challenging the old.
    • Despite the failure of the rope manufactory, the brothers remained in business, operating a grist-mill at Mill Cove on Bedford Basin. Although he was neither successful nor prosperous, Temple Foster Piers is representative of the new class of manufacturers which appeared on the provincial scene early in the 19th century.
  • Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6903
  • Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/244735906/john-landon-read