As the calendar year winds down, it’s membership time!
UELAC memberships expire at the end of the year. In order to gain all the great annual benefits of being a member, consider joining or renewing your membership now.
New this year: Memberships (new and renewals) can be done online, if you wish:
If you prefer the good old-fashioned way (sending your cheque to the branch treasurer), we can do that too!
All membership information is available on our website membership page.
St. Lawrence Branch members honoured our veterans this week by placing wreaths at ceremonies in Dixon’s Corners, Morrisburg, and Crysler’s Farm. Pictured below are members Mike Eamer and Ashley Harper following the ceremony at Crysler’s Farm. (Photo: Carol Goddard).
Our “United Empire Loyalist Burial Site” project has been featured in the latest edition of The Loyalist Gazette! The issue (autumn 2019) has just been released on the UELAC website (member-only section) and members will shortly receive their printed copies in the mail.
The article was written by our friend James Edgar, who describes his efforts in getting the project rolling. It’s a great read. As always, the magazine is a thing of beauty, artfully designed and professionally assembled.
A big thank-you to James, and the editors of The Loyalist Gazette, for promoting this important branch project.
Our annual autumn banquet, known as “charter night” in recognition of our UELAC branch charter, took place in Ingleside on October 5, 2019. We were blessed with a delicious roast beef dinner, and plenty of scrumptious home-made desserts, all prepared by the ladies of St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church, our hosts for the evening.
The speaker was UELAC St. Lawrence Branch executive member Stuart Manson. Supported by a slick PowerPoint presentation, he spoke about “Loyalist Cemeteries in Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry.” Stuart also gave a brief overview of the content and organization of our branch website, which he manages.
An important part of the meeting was the presentation of U.E. certificates to those who have successfully proven their descent from a Loyalist (pictured below). In 1789, Governor Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester) proclaimed that descendants of Loyalists, male or female, were entitled to use the post-nominal initials “U.E.” as a symbol of their families’ “great principle, the Unity of the Empire.”
Don’t forget that we have one more event in 2019: A public meeting at the Cornwall Community Museum on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 1:30 p.m.
St. Lawrence Branch is planning to publish a Loyalist recipe book! It will be filled with scrumptious recipes that we collect from our members, followers and friends.
Do you have an old recipe, perhaps handed down through the generations, that you’d like to share? We’d love to have a copy to include in the book. It could be one associated with the Loyalist experience, or one from early Upper Canada. In other words, we’re flexible!
You can send the recipe to us in any format you wish (for example, typed, scanned, or photographed). Please also include a little description of its history and origins.
Please email the recipes to Stuart Manson, who will forward it to the recipe book team:
Or you can send it by regular mail:
UELAC St. Lawrence Branch, P.O. Box 607, 3 Augusta Street, Morrisburg, Ontario, Canada, K0C 1X0
All the proceeds from the sale of the book will be put towards our branch operations. You’ll be helping our branch grow!
Trinity Anglican Church in Cornwall has invited UELAC members to its Sunday services on September 29, 2019, which will feature a presentation by Glenn Lockwood, the Diocesan Archivist. Anglican records, in particular those relating to our area, are rich with Loyalist history and genealogy.
Lockwood will speak at both the 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. services, but the full presentation will take place during the latter service. The church is located at 105 Second St. West, Cornwall, Ontario.
Our annual banquet, to be held at St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church, 15 Memorial Square, Ingleside, ON.
The featured speaker will be Stuart Manson, who will give a PowerPoint presentation on “Loyalist Cemeteries of SD&G.” Stuart will also offer a brief review of our content-rich website.
The cost is $20, payable at the door. Roast beef will be served. Please RSVP with Lorraine Reoch at fancylass@hotmail.ca.
Cornwall Community Museum, 160 Water St. West (in Lamoureux Park), Cornwall, ON.
Our late-autumn meeting will feature a presentation and tour by museum staff, which will focus on the Loyalist history of Cornwall and area. The museum is located in the former home of William Wood, who served the Crown as a member of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York.
There is no cost and the public is welcome!
After migrating from its original location, which was the home of the late Lynne Cook in Morrisburg, our Loyalist Resource Centre is now open for business within the walls of the new Dundas County Archives. The archives is situated in the heart of the bustling metropolis of Iroquois (5 College Street).
Opening hours for the Loyalist Resource Centre: Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m; Saturday 9:00 am to noon.
Lorraine Reoch, UELAC St. Lawrence Branch President and Genealogist, is available to help researchers with the UE certificate applications on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturday mornings, Larry Empey mans the battlements.
It’s always a good idea to touch base with us before a visit. Please do so by emailing Lorraine at fancylass@hotmail.ca.
Older issues of The Royal Yorker, the quarterly newsletter of the UELAC St. Lawrence Branch and laden with historical content, are now available to everyone here on our website. Check back again, as we’ll periodically make more issues available.
The current and more recent issues of The Royal Yorker are available only to our members, here.
Like what you see? Become a member of our branch to gain access to every issue, including the most recent one with timely news on upcoming events!
The UELAC St. Lawrence Branch has successfully unveiled the first two plaques of its “Loyalist Burial Site” project.
On the evening of June 11, in front of a nice crowd of roughly 35 people, the first plaque was unveiled at Trinity Anglican Church in downtown Cornwall, ON. The ceremony began with several prayers by Rev. Patrick Stephens. He also spoke of the importance of the Loyalists to the church, in particular this year, which represents the 235th anniversary of the community.
Following this were detailed historical remarks by Stuart Manson. He related biographical information about the confirmed Loyalists buried in the cemetery. He also expanded his observations to other interesting characters – those who also sacrificed greatly for their “King and Country” from later periods – who are also buried there.
It was a lovely late-spring evening, with sunshine and just enough of a breeze to keep away the mosquitos. The ceremony was followed by refreshments in the church, and lively conversations.
The next morning, a second plaque was unveiled at St. Andrew’s-Knox United Church in rural Bainsville, ON. This is an idyllic churchyard cemetery surrounded by farmer’s fields. We were again graced with pleasant weather, which has been a rarity in the spring of 2019. Approximately 20 participants were present.
Rev. John Noordhof spoke on behalf of the congregation. Then Stuart Manson described the importance of historical cemeteries, and related details of the life and family of Cato Prime, one of the Loyalists buried in the cemetery. Prime’s tombstone proudly declares him to be a “U.E. Loyalist.” He was a man of African descent, and a former slave in New York during the early part of the American Revolutionary War.
At this event, members of the Edgar family were present, including James Edgar of Melville Saskatchewan. The Edgar family contributed funds towards the first two plaques (Cornwall and Bainsville). They were also the driving force behind the project, which has become a long-term branch endeavour. James spoke about his Loyalist and other ancestors in the cemetery.
Most of the ceremony took place around the tombstones of Cato Prime and his wife Catherine Godet, located on the west side of the church. The plaque, however, is located near the entrance to the property, near the church sign. Bagpiper D.J. McDonald led the way down to the plaque, where the unveiling took place. This ceremony also featured a duck fly-past, which was the most difficult part of the event to organize, but it came together without a hitch.
We thank the congregations of Trinity Anglican Church and St. Andrew’s-Knox United Church for their essential participation in this project. We also thank “Signs by McDougall” and “Fence Depot” for their technical contributions. And finally, thanks to the Bainsville ducks.