Terrorist Attacks on the Welland Canal.FH11
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Looking back... with Alun Hughes TERRORIST ATTACKS ON THE WELLAND CANAL At about sunset on April 21, 1900, the peace and regular troops. Not only was the political situation quiet of Thorold was shattered by a huge explosion, unstable, but industry, commerce and finance were a quickly followed by another. The blasts shook mess. Major changes were underway the houses nearby, broke windows over a wide area, and government had bought out the financially-strapped were heard as far away as Port Dalhousie. Terrorists Welland Canal Company, construction had begun on had dynamited Lock 24 of the Third Welland Canal. the Second Canal, and Upper and Lower Canada had just been united into the Province of Canada. The canal was a vital link in the Great LakesSt. Change brought uncertainty, and the terrorist attack Lawrence transportation system, and the aim of the at Allanburg did not help calm nerves. attack was to destroy that link. It became headline news across the country, and since then has become Dynamite Luke, 1900 firmly entrenched in local lore. This, however, was not the first terrorist attack on the canal, nor was it to If the perpetrators of the 1841 attack are be the last. unknown, there is no doubt about those responsible for the attack in 1900. The two culprits, John Nolin Rob Roy, 1841 and John Walsh, arrived in Thorold on April 21 by the evening train from Niagara Falls (the Buffalo The first attack took place 60 years earlier, on Express), each clutching a canvas-covered the First Welland Canal at Allanburg in the centre of telescope valise, a type of adjustable carrying case, Thorold Township. At about 11 p.m. on September containing dynamite. They alighted at the Thorold 9, 1841, a charge of gunpowder was exploded at the station of the St. Catharines and Niagara Central head of the upper of two locks in the village. One of Railway (later the NS&T), located at the head of the lock gates was completely destroyed, and a Front Street where the Thorold Community Credit disastrous flood was averted only when the sudden Union now stands. They then walked back along the rush of water caused the guard gate above the lock tracks that curved in a south-easterly direction to slam shut. A spare gate, stored nearby in case of towards Chapel Street, and crossed the Third Canal an accident, was quickly installed, and navigation by the bridge leading to Niagara Falls (just beyond resumed by noon the following day. A reward of the present-day Peter Street Bridge). £100 was offered for information leading to the arrest of the evil disposed persons responsible, but they were never identified, let alone caught. There was much speculation as to who they were, most of it easily dismissed as wild rumour. But three strangers had been seen in the area prior to the attack and the local consensus was that they had come from Buffalo. Only the previous year in April 1840, the monument to Isaac Brock on Queenston Heights had been badly damaged by gunpowder. Though nothing was ever proven, suspicion fell on Benjamin Lett, an Irish-born Canadian who as a Lock 24 looking north, with the bridge and road to Niagara member of Mackenzies Patriots had been Falls at bottom and the Constable home at top right conducting guerilla operations from the United States since 1838, gaining him the sobriquet The Lock 24 of the Third Canal was located just Rob Roy of Upper Canada. Though he was north of the bridge, east of Lock 7 on the present arrested by the American authorities on another canal. Nolin went to the head of the lock and Walsh matter after the Queenston incident, he escaped and to the foot. They lowered the valises by rope was still at large when the lock was bombed. Lett, or alongside the lock gates, ignited the fuses and ran others sympathetic to the rebel cause, may well have off towards Thorold Stone Road and Niagara Falls. been responsible for the Allanburg attack. Walshs dynamite exploded a few minutes after 7 oclock and Nolins a moment later. Whoever it was, the assault caused considerable anxiety in the Niagara Peninsula. The War of 1812 Fortunately for those who lived downstream, the was still in living memory, the Mackenzie Rebellion charges were placed at the gate hinges, not inside the of 1837 was barely over, and after the attack on V where the gates met, so the damage was relatively Brocks monument the frontier was patrolled by slight. Had the gates been destroyed the outcome 6 would have been very serious indeed, for upstream swarming with redcoats, rifles in hand and bayonets from Lock 24 was a mile-long reach containing an fixed, while other soldiers patrolled the aqueduct estimated 12 million cubic feet of water. While this nearby. The military continued to guard the canal would not have killed everyone in Merritton, as during the trial, often with humorous outcomes, as some alarmist reports claimed, it would certainly when the sojers at Port Robinson mistook a have resulted in loss of life and property, and would tramp and then a black dog for terrorists. have put the canal out of commission for some time. As it was, all that happened was that holes were blown in the gates, and the damage was easily repaired. The canal, which had been closed for the winter, opened on schedule. Euphemia Constable At first the authorities had no idea who the bombers were, except that they came from the United States. Speculation was rampant, and early suspicion fell on Buffalo grain handlers, who had Lock 24 showing water pouring through the head gate been engaged in a bitter dispute with their employer, the Conners Syndicate. The Syndicate was building The residents of Thorold soon realized what had grain elevators in Port Colborne and Montreal, happened, and Mayor James Wilson and Police which threatened to divert trade from Buffalo and Chief Adelbert Clark formed a posse to pursue the Erie Canal to the Welland Canal and the St. the dynamitards. It was split into three parties, Lawrence. Other theories suggested that the attack each taking a different route. The Mayor and Chief was the work of Boer sympathizers (the Boer War went down Thorold Stone Road by carriage, and was approaching a conclusion in South Africa), or soon caught up with the bombers, but instead of Irish nationalists, or some combination of the two. It apprehending them continued to Niagara Falls to was some time before the attack was shown warn the police. This was a wise move, for when conclusively to be an Irish-American plot. Nolin and Walsh were captured on Bridge Street they were carrying loaded revolvers. Very soon This followed ten days of investigation in the after another arrest was made of Karl Dullman, United States by Chief Inspector John Wilson who was staying at the Rosli Hotel nearby. Several Murray, arguably Ontarios leading detective of the witnesses had seen him with the others in Thorold day. He found that Nolin and Walsh were both Irish- and Niagara Falls in the week preceding the attack. born members of the Napper Tandy club of New York. This was a branch of Clan-na-Gael, the There was only one witness to the bombing successor organization to the Fenian Brotherhood, itself, 16-year-old Euphemia Constable, who lived which had been responsible for the Fenian raids in on Cemetery Road just north of Lock 24. She saw Niagara in 1866. However, Murray had no Nolin and Walsh lower the valises alongside the lock information about Dullman, the suspected gates, but was struck unconscious by the first blast. ringleader, but since Karl Dullman turned out to The following morning (a Sunday) she was the be an assumed name this was not surprising. centre of attention as she walked to St. Andrews Presbyterian Church escorted by a red-coated If the case against Nolin and Walsh was ironclad, militiaman, one of two who had guarded her home the evidence against Dullman was largely circumstantial, overnight. Euphemia was a prime witness, and there and his lawyer did his best to disassociate him from was concern that she might be abducted, especially the other two. But the effort failed, and on May 25 when rumour spread that four strange women had all the accused who had not testified on their been asking around town where she lived. own behalf but maintained a rigid silence in the face of over 50 witnesses were found guilty and The military was very much in evidence in the sentenced to life in prison. days following the attack. The 19th St. Catharines batallion of infantry was sent to guard Lock 25, and The verdict must have pleased John H. immediately became the centre of controversy when Thompson, proprietor of the Thorold Post, who had local MP William McCleary complained that they earlier described the trio in most unflattering terms. had to borrow ammunition from private sources! Dullman was fat, pockmarked, yellow looks like Soldiers ringed the jail in Niagara Falls where the the manager of a medicine wagon or a Sapho prisoners were first held, and at the preliminary burlesque. Walsh was smooth shaven, with big hearing on April 30 the court house in Welland was rabbit teeth; his mouth is always open, and he has a 7 hairless and vacant face would be called a At the Welland Canal they captured me, gossoon in his native land. Nolin was what My secrets I would not tell, biologists call a low-browed pug-ugly the type of The Orange warden cursed me hard man that cleans spittoons because he has not enough As I sang in my prison cell, enterprise to be a burglar.