The Rebellion breaks out—News of the Battle of Gallows Hill received in Galt with surprise—Public feeling in Dumfries—The Union Jack taken off Mr. Dickson’s house at night—The men of Dumfries called upon to muster—The bridge guarded by Galt Volunteers under Captain Rich— Men drilling for Duncombe’s Army near Ayr—Arrests made by Galt and Fergus Volunteers near the Blenheim line—A Wife worth having— Samuel Lountsaid to have been hidden near Galt—The Galt Volunteers at Navy Island—Restoration of peace and order.

Despairing of redress of the wrongs of the people of Upper Canada, either under the constitution or from the Imperial Government, Mackenzie, Bid well, Rolph, and other members of their party, came to the conclusion that there was no other resort left but armed resistance to the Government. With this object in view, preparations were quietly made in different parts of the Province during the fall of 1837. In December the rising took place, when between seven and eight hundred men, under William Lyon Mackenzie, assembled at Montgomery’s tavern, near Toronto. The battle of Montgomery’s farm, or Gallows Hill, as it was called, speedily followed, with the dispersion of the Insurrectionists, and the temporary overthrow of their party and the reforms which they sought. These events, known to history as Mackenzie’s Rebellion, threw the entire Province into the utinost excitement

News travelled slowly in those times, and the rebels had assembled before Toronto and been dispersed, before it was known in Galt. The intelligence was learned with surprise. Whilst many disapproved of the appeal to arms, much sympathy was felt for Mackenzie and the popular cause all through the settlement. This arose from no desire for separation from Great Britain, but because the redress of their political wrongs seemed impossible except by extreme measures. The redress of grievances, with Responsible Government under Great Britain, rather than Annexation to the United States, was undoubtedly the prevailing idea among the great majority of those disaffected.

How public feeling ran throughout Dumfries may be understood from- a circumstance which occurred at the time. The authorities under Sir Francis Bond Head, at Toronto, wrote to Mr. Shade to ascertain the feelings of the people, having the idea that, if friendly, it might be well to call out the local Militia and put arms in their hands. Shade is reported to have replied, in effect, “that the inhabitants were mostly Scotch, mostly quiet and inoffensive, but it would be better not to put arms in their hands!”

On the other hand, Sir Francis Bond Head, and what had become the side of law and order, were actively and zealously supported. Not only did the Tory party of the district manifest much zeal in support of the Government, but the great body of Reformers considered Mackenzie had gone too far in taking up arms, and generally disavowed the rising, although they sympathized with the man and the cause. Strong manifestations, and still stronger expressions, of loyalty to the Crown, were made by many in the township and village. Mr. William McColl, who was a teacher in Galt at the time, wrote a patriotic song on Mackenzie and “his rebel band,” which was sung frequently afterwards by Mr. Walter Gowinlock and himself in different parts of the settlement.

A little incident occurred during the fall of 183G, which, although really done for a lark, was long considered as possessing some political significance. For some little time before this, Mr. William Dickson, jr., had floated the Union jack from a flagstaff placed on his house on the hill-top, north of St. Andrew’s Church. Two or three young men, with a view to some local excitement and fun, determined to take it down. Proceeding thither one dark night, one of them crawled to the roof of the house, and took down the flag; but, in the act of doing so, aroused Mr. Dickson, who gave vigorous chase.

Being a swift runner, Mr. Dickson was rapidly gaining upon the person with the flag, when the latter, by a clever ruse, managed to escape. Calling out, “Now, boys, we’ve got the long-legged as if the whole thing was a plot to seize Mr. Dickson, that gentleman very naturally stopped, and retraced his steps to the house. The flag was mysteriously returned, so rumour says, but who took it down remains a secret locked in the bosoms of two or three persons to this day. Although merely a lark, it was set down for many a day as the result of disloyal tendencies on the part of some of Mackenzie’s sympathizers.

Instructions speedily came from Toronto to the magistrates of the district, to put a guard on Galt bridge, in order to intercept Mackenzie. Lount, or other leaders in the insurrection, on whose heads £1,000 and £500 respectively had been set. It was thought the two ringleaders mentioned had come in the direction of Galt. A small military company was formed, which was called the Galt Volunteers, of which Mr. Thomas Rich was Captain; M. B. Gordon, Lieutenant; and Thomas G. Chapman, Ensign. They guarded Galt bridge night and day, and for several weeks the place assumed quite a martial appearance.

As Dr. Duncombe endeavoured to raise an insurgent force on Oakland Plains, near to Brantford, after the battle of Montgomery’s Farm, the Government made efforts, for a time, to get as many of the provincial Militia under arms as possible. This was no easy job, as the great majority of the yeomanry had little affection for the Government, whilst military duty was not attractive even to the most extreme loyalists.

With this object in view, Messrs. Dickson and Shade publicly called upon the settlers of Dumfries to muster in Galt on a certain day. This order caused considerable consternation among their wives and families. An eyewitness relates how, in one house near Cedar Creek, on the muster day, he found the wives of nearly all the neighbours crying bitterly, under the fear that their husbands would be killed during the war, and themselves left desolate. The feeling of alarm and fear was wide-spread, but those settlers who came to the village were allowed to return to their homes the same night, much to their own gratification and that of their anxious families.

The only part of Dumfries in which companies were organized to assist the Rebellion, appears to have been in the neighbourhood of Smith’s Creek, near Mudge’s Mills, as the village of Ayr was then called. The place of meeting was McBain’s Mills (one mile beyond the village), and when the disaffected assembled, one morning in December, to proceed to join Dr. Duncombe’s army at Oakland Plains, such a mustering of old rusty rifles and melting of bullets were never previously witnessed, at least in that quiet neighbourhood. On this particular occasion, about thirty persons assembled, but other squads were to follow.

Shortly before starting, two men appeared on the hill above the mills, who seemed to be cautiously surveying the gathering. One report says these were Capt. Rich and Lieut. Gordon, who had been sent with the Galt Volunteers to make certain arrests in the neighbourhood, and that the crowd, on learning who they were, disappeared on the double quick. Another statement is, that the men proved to be two of Mackenzie’s comrades, who informed the incipient rebels of what had transpired since the defeat at Gallows Hill, and afterwards accompanied them to Oakland Plains. Which of these reports is most reliable, it is difficult at this late day to determine. But it is certain that in Dr. Duncombe’s army, when it dispersed at Scotland, on Col. McNabb (afterwards Sir Allan), having decided to advance from Brantford and attack it, there were not a few men who had gone from the neighbourhood of Smith’s Creek.

A company of volunteers was raised at Guelph and <one at Fergus during the excitement, and the latter, under Capt. Wilson, was ordered to Galt to assist in taking away arras and making some arrests in the neighbourhood of Mudge’s Mills. Five men, whose names were Hill, Webb, Kenny, Foster, and Church, were supposed to be the ringleaders in that locality, and the magistrates issued warrants for their arrest, and placed them in the hands of Capt. Rich and Capt. Wilson. The Galt volunteers went the direct road to Mudge’s Mills, and the Guelph company struck out towards the Blenheim line, as they were instructed to capture Hill, who lived in that township.

When arresting William Webb a funny incident occurred, which was often afterwards related at the expense of '‘Jamie” Fraser, of the British Hotel, one of the Galt volunteers. When they reached Webb’s house, several neighbours’ wives were assembled, talking over Rebellion matters, when private Henry McCrum was instructed to go to the barn and arrest Webb, whilst private Fraser was ordered to seize the wife of Kenny, one of the intended prisoners, lest she should manage to get to her husband’s clearance and enable him to escape.

When Fraser went to take her, Mrs Kenny took to flight, and Fraser after her. Down the path from the house they both ran, but being a young, lithe, active woman, and not burdened with the fashionable skirts worn by the ladies of the present day, she bounded the fence like a deer, which Fraser essaying, failed to do, and came to grief very badly. Before he got over, the pursued had got a good start through the new and unlogged chopping. Knowing the best track, which Fraser occasionally lost, and floundered into a brush-heap or marsh, she soon reached the bush and disappeared, and before Capt. Rich could reach Kenny’s place, the bird and his brave wife had flown, and escaped capture. “Jamie” didn’t hear the last of that chase for many a day!

When the volunteers returned to Galt they brought with them Horatio A. Hill, William Webb, and Alonzo Foster. They were examined in Galt before the Hon. Adam Ferguson, of Woodhill, and Absalom Shade, J. P., and sent to Hamilton for trial. At the March Assizes, 1838, no bill was found against Foster, and in October, Webb was found guilty, but was allowed his liberty on finding security to keep the peace for three years. Poor Hill was not so fortunate. He was sentenced to death, which was commuted to transportation for life, but his long confinement and hard sentence so told upon bis health that he died in prison.

Several arrests were talked of in Galt but none were actually made. One of the most fearless, as he was the most out-spoken denouncer of the doings of the Family Compact and Sir Francis Bond Head, was Mr. Burnett, and one evening in the Queen’s Arms, when strongly expressing his political opinions, it was proposed by one or two of the Loyalist party to arrest him, although he had done nothing but denounce wrongs which everyone now admits, and advocated nothing but what everyone now enjoys and Values. The strong political feelings of the locality being well known, the Tory party were generally anxious to avoid an extreme course, particularly as such conduct might, in the language of one still living, “explode a bomb-shell in their midst.” They were dissuaded by Dr. Miller and Mr. John Young, the latter of whom strongly expressed his dissent, from interfering with Mr. Burnett, and confined themselves to bitter strictures upon that gentleman and other leading local lights of the opposite party.

It is maintained by a militia officer still living, that Samuel Lount, for many years member for Simcoe, and Mackenzie’s chief lieutenant at Gallows Hill, was secreted for some days near Galt. It was suspected by the magistrates at the time, and the gentleman referred to always claims, that Lount could have been taken in or at least close to Galt, but that his arrest would have convicted others of high treason who had done nothing but harbour one who had been outlawed. A sharp look-out was kept, however.

Lount, who is said to have been part of the time in the then almost impenetrable swamp below the late Mr. Crombie’s house, was, one Sunday morning, moved on to a farm house near Glenmorris. A local magistrate being notified, is said to have entered the front door of the house as Lount went out of the back door. He was conveyed by a member of a well-known South Dumfries family to Waterford, where he lay concealed in the hay-mow of Grover’s Hotel, at the very time that Col. Wilson and men, of Simcoe, were on watch for him and others. It was amidst such hair-breadth escapes that Lount made his way to the Niagara frontier, where, within sight of the United States and safety, he was captured.

When Mackenzie established himself and the so-called Patriot Army on Navy Island, the Galt, Guelph, and Fergus volunteers went down to the Niagara frontier under command of Col. McNabb. Some of the Galt volunteers declined to go to the front, and the number which went was only about twenty men. They were conveyed down in farmers’ waggons, which were impressed for the service. It was deemed a curious circumstance that the Guelph company was commanded by Capt. Poor, and the Galt one by Capt. Rich; on the road down, and when before Nav}7, Island, this peculiarity in their captains’ names afforded the men of the two companies a ground for puns and jokes innumerable.

One day the volunteers saw poor Samuel Lount brought through Chippewa as a prisoner, he having just previously been captured. The day being gusty, his cap blew off into the river, when an old red nightcap was put upon his head to travel in ; whether intended or not, this was an indignity, but it was quite in harmony with the bitter state of feeling which prevailed at the time. On the 29th December was witnessed that terrific scene, the burning of the Caroline, and its wild plunge.over Niagara Falls :—

“On—wildly onward—sped the craft,
As she swiftly neared the verge;
And the demon guards of the black gulf laughed,
And chanted a hellish dirge;
And the booming waters roared anew,
A wail for the dead and dying crew.”

On the 13th January, Gen. Van Rensellaer, who was in command of the rebels on Navy Island, determined to evacuate it. This he did immediately, and shortly afterwards the Canadian force under Col. McNabb, was released from duty at that point, and the Galt volunteers were permitted to return home. Capt. Rich and his force were heartily welcomed on their return.

Although some movements were afterwards made on the Detroit frontier, chiefly by American sympathizers,, the evacuation of Navy Island, and the arrest of Mackenzie and Van Rensellaer for breach of the United States Neutrality Laws, practically terminated the Rebellion. Saving the trial of the insurgents, and the conviction of Lount and Matthews at Toronto, nothing further occurred to keep up the public excitement. Mr. Thomas Dalgliesh and others got up a largely signed petition in Dumfries, praying for the commutation of the death sentence on Lount and Matthews. It is believed that not less than 30,000 persons throughout Upper Canada petitioned Sir George Arthur—who had succeeded Sir Francis Bond Head—to temper justice with mercy. But all efforts were unavailing. The unfortunate men were hung in Toronto on the 12th April, 1838.

Before the spring of 1838 closed, matters had assumed much of their old, orderly appearance, and the eyes of the people were turned to the expected arrival of Lord Durham, who had been appointed High Commissioner by the Imperial Government, with full power to grant Responsible Government, and redress all the grievances which had been the cause of the late outbreak.

“But where’s the power Britannia’s rights
May tear or trample under;
Come if they dare, we’ll make them reel,
And feel Great Britain’s thunder.
She tam’d the power o’ proudest France,
And led Napoleon a dance,
When she that Emperor did subdue:
I wonder how that rebel crew
Dare clap their wings or craw, man.”

Chorus.