Porter Adams and Grape-Growing in Niagara B.FH11

Looking back... with Alun Hughes PORTER ADAMS AND GRAPE-GROWING IN NIAGARA In my last article I examined the oft-repeated Prior to the War of 1812 the predominant crop claim that the father of Canadian winemaking is in the Niagara Peninsula was wheat, but the trend Johann Schiller, who is said to have established thereafter was towards diversification. One aspect of Canadas first commercial winery in 1811, using this was fruit-growing, which already had something wild grapes growing near his farm in Toronto of a history in the area. In 1793 Elizabeth Simcoe Township. It turns out that there is very little basis wrote from Navy Hall, We have 30 large May for this claim. As it happens, Schiller is not the only Duke Cherry trees behind the house & 3 standard pioneer celebrated in books and articles about Peach trees these had presumably been planted the Canadian grape and wine industry. Another is earlier by the military and by the turn of the 19th Porter Adams, who according to Percy Rowe in The century many farmers had established orchards. Wines of Canada, published in 1970, is honoured This is very evident from the 1812 war claims, where by grape-growers as the first person in Ontario to the destruction of orchards was a common systematically plant and cultivate vines. This, says complaint. In addition to his vines, Merritt lost 30 Rowe, was in Niagara Township in 1857. apple trees, 20 each of cherry and peach trees, plus apricot, plum and quince trees, while Kerr lost a If this seems rather late in the day, bear in mind large nursery of grafted and innoculated [sic] fruit that the Ontario grape and wine industry did not trees of all descriptions, among them 6 varieties of really get going until after mid-century. There were plums, 11 of peaches, and 12 of apples. no doubt Loyalist and other settlers who were making wine for domestic use, having acquired the Similar losses are recorded in other claims. Ralfe art back in the American colonies or in Europe Clench of Niagara sought compensation for 70 (indeed Schiller may have been one of them), and large healthy bearing [apple] trees, [of which] there were also those who cultivated grapes on a almost the whole were the best of grafted fruit, and small scale, but significant development did not there was not an apple tree among them [that was begin until the late 1850s. not] choice. People like Clench were clearly engaged in serious fruit-growing, but it was on a Grape- and Fruit-Growing before Adams small scale and probably intended mainly for local consumption. Though some may have shipped fruit Hard evidence of winemaking in Upper Canada to York, Kingston and elsewhere, the distance to and the first decade of Canada West is almost major centres of population, the rudimentary completely lacking, but there is definite proof of transportation facilities, and the fact that much grape-growing. Some of the first references, as business was still conducted by barter, hindered stated in my last article, appear in the damage claims serious commercial ventures. submitted by farmers and other landowners following the War of 1812. Thus Thomas Merritt of But fruit-growing continued to increase in Grantham claimed for the loss of grape vines, importance, and with it the cultivation of grapes. and Robert Kerr of Niagara sought compensation There are many indications of this, among them the for the destruction of four vineyards. While emergence of professional nurserymen such as neither states why he was growing grapes, the very William Custead, whose land in Toronto Township fact that they submitted claims indicates some lay just three miles east of what had been Johann measure of cultivation. Schillers homestead. In 1827 he published an 18- page catalogue featuring many types of fruit and Further evidence comes from Robert Gourlays ornamental trees, plus eight varieties of grape vines Statistical Account of Upper Canada, published in Early White, Boston Sweet Water, Blands 1822 and incorporating the results of a detailed Virginia, Isabella, Whites Sweet Water, Jersey, Black township questionnaire survey conducted in 1817. Frontenac and French Chocolate. To facilitate Question number 9 (out of a total of 31) asked ordering he engaged agents throughout Upper about the general character of the soil and Canada, including ones at Queenston and Niagara. surface, and one short sentence in the response In 1839 acquiring nursery stock locally became from Louth Township speaks volumes. It reads, even easier when Chauncey Beadle founded the St. Grapes have succeeded well in the Niagara Catharines Nursery; his first catalogue, dated 1841, District. The sentence comes just after a list of the featured grape vines selling for 25¢ each. various fruits grown in the township, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, cherries, The same period saw a number of important gooseberries, raspberries, and currants. The developments in the promotion of agriculture, juxtaposition of fruit and grapes is appropriate, for among them the establishment of markets (the very as grape-growing emerged during the first half of first at Niagara in 1817), fairs (including an annual the 19th century it was very much a part of the province-wide exhibition in 1846), periodicals (for developing fruit industry. example, The Canadian Agriculturist in 1849) and 8 societies (such as the Fruit Growers Association in In the instrument of sale dated May 31, 1883 1859). These provide a clear picture of the ever- Adams is identified as a yeoman from Louth increasing importance of fruit-growing (and with it Township, and the vendor as a group of six men grape cultivation), as evidenced by lectures delivered headed by Lucius Oille of St. Catharines. They had at society meetings, articles in newspapers and bought the land the previous year from the sons of magazines, and competitions at fairs and exhibitions. the late David Thorburn, who had owned the property since 1861, and before that it had belonged Porter Adams to Queenston merchant Job Chubbuck. (Rannie and others say that Adams obtained the land from his The fruit-growing industry received a major grandfather George, but they are incorrect.) boost in 1853-55 with the completion of the Great Line 9 l Western Railway from the Niagara River (at what l became Clifton) through Hamilton to Toronto and l LOT 42 l Windsor. This provided easier access to major l Concession 1 Road N l markets, and by the late 1850s a number of Niagara l ay l ilw l Peninsula farmers were growing fruit for sale. The Ra rio l nta l Concession 2 Road O l same decade also saw the start of commercial grape- nd LOT 43 e a l Eri l l To Queenston growing and winemaking, and this brings us to l To St. Davids l Queenston to Grimsby Road l Porter Adams. l l (York Road) l Niagara E sca LOT 44 rpm Percy Rowes claim that Adams (full name Elias ent Porter Adams) was the first to systematically plant 0200 metres 0200 yards Approximate Route and cultivate vines in Ontario is repeated in one of Original Railway form or another by other writers (though far fewer, Porter Adams land in Niagara Township in about 1900 it must be said, than espouse Johann Schiller as the father of winemaking). He is said to have set up his Porter Adams clearly did not establish a vineyard in 1857, on Spring Farm the former vineyard on this land in 1857, for he was much too Secord Farm roughly midway between St. Davids young at the time and he did not acquire the and Queenston. As has already been pointed out, property until 1883. Which invites the question, how many others had planted grapes before this, but the could such a misconception come about? Ironically key word here is systematically, suggesting that perhaps, it originates in one of the government his was a commercial operation. That, certainly, is publications mentioned by Rannie. There were two, what is implied, if not stated explicitly, in what others both issued as Ontario Department of Agriculture have written about Adams. Several add that by the research bulletins: The Grape Growing Industry in 1860s he was shipping grapes across Lake Ontario the Niagara Peninsula, by T.B. Revett, published in to the Toronto market. 1912, and The Grape in Ontario, by F.M. Clement, published in 1916. William Rannie devotes much space to Porter Adams in his 1978 book Wines of Ontario. While In a brief opening historical review, Revett granting that the claim made for Adams even appears in names several grape-growing pioneers from the government publications, he voices skepticism. This 1850s and 60s. The very first is Adams, of whom may be one of those things that everybody he says, About 1857 some grapes were planted on knows, he says, but there is a dearth of positive a farm belonging to Mr. Porter Adams, situated in substantiation. Rannie then raises an important Niagara Township. Four years later Clement question with the claim, which is that in 1857, when repeats the names, but what he says about Adams Adams is supposed to have planted his vineyard, he differs in one key respect, The first record of was only 13 years old! (Family genealogies suggest that planting that has been brought to the attention of the he was even younger just 11.) writers is that of the small area set out on the farm now owned by Mr. Porter Adams, at Queenston, in Further research brings up another major the Township of Niagara, in the year 1857. problem. According to registry office records Adams did not buy the land in question until almost The key difference is the phrase now owned.

Load more