The scene presented was unique, and in many respects a remarkable one.
Not the least striking feature was the character of the gathering.
Descendants of soldiers who fought with Brock were there, some of them
carrying the burden of years, some barely out of childhood's leash.
Others, and scarcely less interested in the proceedings, represented
loyal and patriotic societies, widely spread over the Province. The
Indian contingent from the Six Nations occupied a conspicuous place of
honour most worthily, their presence recalling the signal service
rendered by their brave forefathers at Queenston Heights and in the
campaign generally. The military detachments added colour to the
animated scene. The men of the Royal Canadian Regiment, of the
Governor-General's Body Guard, of the Forty-eighth Highlanders, the
Queen's Own, the Royal Grenadiers, the Mississauga Horse, the Ridley
College Cadets, and of other corps, were drawn up on the outside of the
crowd, and beyond them, on the escarpment, the St. Catharines' Battery,
Field Artillery, was stationed. Over all floated the Union Jack.
[Illustration: WREATH PLACED ON BROCK'S MONUMENT IN ST. PAUL'S
CATHEDRAL, LONDON, ENG. BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA.]
[Illustration: WREATH PLACED ON BROCK'S MONUMENT, QUEENSTON HEIGHTS, BY
THE IMPERIAL ORDER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE EMPIRE.]
[Illustration: BROCK CENTENARY CELEBRATION AT QUEENSTON HEIGHTS
Conferring tribal membership on Miss Helen M. Merrill, who on adoption
into the Oneida Nation received the name "Kah-ya-tonhs" (One who keeps
records).]
An incident of the gathering in which much interest was shown was the
unfurling of an old, historic Union Jack from the top of Brock's
Monument by Miss Helen M. Merrill, Secretary of the Committee. When the
first monument erected to Brock at Queenston was destroyed (17th April,
1840) a great indignation meeting was held on the Heights. Among those
present was a British sailor from one of the ships that conveyed the
Toronto people to the meeting. He had brought with him a Union Jack, and
climbing to the top of the broken shaft, waved it aloft, amid the cheers
of the assembled patriots. The flag was preserved, and Mr. Comer,
Kingston, Ont., readily loaned it for this special occasion.
Accompanying Miss Merrill to the top of the monument with the flag were
Misses Marjorie FitzGibbon and Laura Brodigan and Mr. Allen W. Johnson
(Six Nations).
Several relics of the War of 1812-14 were shown by their possessors, who
held them sacred, among them a Union Jack, carried by Chief Paudash
(Johnson) of the Mississauga Indians, from the Ontario Archives
Department; early sketches of the Queenston battlefield, and pictures of
officers who took part in the war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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