Dear Editor:
I would very much like to correct some misinformation which is circulating about the founding of Fergus.
Ex-slave Captain Richard Pierpoint did not found Fergus. After unsuccessfully trying to get monies from the British government representative in Upper Canada, which would enable him to return to Africa to die, he and four ex-slaves who fought during the war of 1812 to 1814 were given land in what is today West Garafraxa. Their lands were just to the east of present day Gartshore Street.
Pierpoint and a young man by the name of “Deaf Moses” arrived on their land in the autumn of 1824 and over the next two years managed to clear the required five acres, build the required cabin and cleared the required road allowance. He and “Deaf Moses” then spent their time travelling to the Flesherton and Queens Bush areas of Upper Canada – and back to Niagara. Pierpoint was the Griot – the verbal history keeper for his people – so he had to travel to chat with a large number of ex-slaves who were “spread” throughout the area mentioned above.
When Adam Fergusson and James Webster arrived in October of 1833 they bought 7,400 acres of land from Robert Nichol, who was not an ex-slave! This land was just south – downriver from Pierpoint’s homestead, which by the way was called “High Falls”.
This 7,400 acres at no time was owned by Pierpoint or any ex slaves. This 7,400 acres was never called “High Falls”. James Webster and the other Scottish settlers had a good relationship with Pierpoint and “Deaf Moses”, to the point where after Richard Pierpoint died in 1838, “Deaf Moses” became a member of the Webster household, not as a servant but as a friend who needed a place to live. Webster’s children adored “Deaf Moses”.
It has been written that Richard Pierpoint was buried under a large elm or oak tree on his property in West Garafraxa. But, there is also information on file that he was in Niagara when he died and is buried in a cemetery in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
So to be absolutely on point and clear, regardless of what one might read and hear, Pierpoint never owned land and certainly did not own a log cabin in the new settlement of Fergus. The above information is backed up by documents and writings that date back to 1790 to 1840.
Pat Mattaini Mestern,
Fergus