Selkirk History
The Baldoon Settlement
The story behind the Selkirk history Faire In May of 1804 one hundred and two brave settlers left from Kirkcudbright, Scotland to cross the Atlantic. These families had all been evicted from their homes by their landlords so that the owners could turn the land into large sheep ranches for greater profit. These evictions were a part of a wide-spread scheme known as The Highland Clearances'.
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The settlers had been recruited for the venture by Thomas Douglas, the fifth Earl of Selkirk. His plan was to assist some of the evicted families to emigrate to Canada. Selkirk had established a settlement a year earlier in Belfast, Prince Edward island.
The settlers of 1804 arrived in Lachine, Lower Canada (now Quebec) on July 19th. They had suffered casualties on the crossing. A ten year old boy named Robert Buchanan had died on the transatlantic journey and another child was seriously ill by the time they arrived.
They journeyed inland aboard batteaux, which are long, flat bottomed river boats, and rowed up the St. Lawrence river, arriving in Kingston on August 5th.
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A common batteanx designed after the British Military pattern. It would have been about thirty feet long and six and a half feet wide, with a height of about three feet.
Boarding a merchant ship, they travelled further on to Queenston and then continued by land, using hand carts and wagons, to a point beyond Niagara Falls. Traveling in open boats down the Niagara River to Lake Erie they landed again at Amherstburg. The last part of the journey took them down the Chenal Ecarte to their final destination of Baldoon on September 5, 1804.
The settlement was named after one of Lord Selkirk's family estates in Scotland.
Most had agreed to work on Selkirk's farm for a number of years in return for their free passage to the site and other benefits. They would also receive fifty acre lots soon after their arrival. The settlers were challenged by remote, waterlogged and mosquito infested land. Many of them had become sick with malaria and sixteen of them had died by November. Five of the dead were the heads of families.
After the first few years of struggle, the settlement prospered until the War of 1812. Baldoon was raided at least once and most likely twice during the war, despite the fact that it's strategic value was limited.
During one raid, officers serving under General Hull of Detroit robbed the people of their stores and cattle and carried away hundreds of sheep. It is believed that Hull used the sheep for his own gain, and not for the benefit of his army. The estimated value of the stolen goods was about 1,000 Pounds Sterling in 1812 money.
Despite many hardships the settlers remained steadfast in their mission and eventually grew to prosper along the bunks of the river. Many had also migrated further inland and encouraged others from Scotland to join them in the New World.
By 1822, twenty-two families had moved to the forks of the Sydenham River, the site of present day Wallaceburg. Many of these were the from original fifteen families and their descendants. The town was named after Scotland's national hero, William Wallace.
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