On Common Ground. Richard D. Merritt
of Mr. President Russell,”[24] which apparently was quite widely distributed. After one year on the market the balance of the lease and the buildings thereon were conveniently taken over by the British Indian Department as a dwelling quarters for its officers at £900.[25]
Plan of the Premises of Mr. President Russell, artist Robert Pilkington, 1797, sketch (a 1915 copy of the original in Library and Archives Canada, NMC 0023040). On his fifty-acre leased property in the middle of the Fort George reserve, Russell erected a two-storey “commodious dwelling” with cellars, several outbuildings, plus an extensive garden. Courtesy of the Niagara Historical Society and Museum, #986.006.
The British Indian Department was created by the British government in the 1750s as the Crown’s military liaison with the Native tribes in North America (see chapter 7). It had initially been concerned with mobilizing His Majesty’s Indian Allies against the French during the Seven Years’ War. Subsequently during the American Revolutionary War, the Indian Department worked diligently to direct the First Nations against the rebelling colonists, especially along the western frontier. Even after the Revolution, the British maintained this “chain of friendship” with the Natives, keeping them “on side” leading up to the War of 1812 when His Majesty’s Indian Allies would play a pivotal role in several battles.[26]
With the Americans’ takeover of Forts Niagara, Detroit, and Michilimackinac in 1796 in accordance with Jay’s Treaty, the Indian Department was reorganized. It built new Council Houses at Fort George, Fort Malden on the Detroit River, and Fort St. Joseph in the northwest, each with its own officers, including a superintendant of Indian Affairs, a storekeeper/clerk, and interpreters. The timely availability of Russell’s house and fifty acres in the midst of the military reserve was a perfect fit for the needs of the Indian Department: the new Council House, storehouses, blacksmith, and other out-buildings on one side of the creek and the officers of the Department ensconced in the “Commodious Dwelling” on the other.
What a sharp contrast between the two households: from the hesitant yet arrogant bachelor-bureaucrat Peter Russell, his gossip-prone, haughty spinster half-sister, and the quiet, young but frail teenage Mary,[27] supported by a household of several slaves, replaced by the boisterous and lusty backwoodsmen employees of the Indian Department. No doubt the house was renovated to meet the needs of the Department. In addition to several bedrooms there would have been an office for the superintendant, a dining/meeting room, a kitchen in a separate building, and a large common room. There, whoever happened to be in town on Department business would probably gather around the fireplace, exchange news and gossip, recall exploits, and perhaps tell some very tall tales, all the while puffing on clay pipes and throwing back swigs of rum or brandy. Raucous games of cards, dice, checkers, or backgammon would have been other popular pastimes. The air would have been heavy with wood and tobacco smoke mixed with the smell of tallow candles and rancid body odours. The common room’s walls were probably decorated with maps and proclamations, prints and sketches, portraits of George III and other members of the Royal family, and many colourful and curious Native artifacts.
Effective December 25, 1797,[28] the following Indian Department officers were appointed at Fort George: William Claus, superintendant; Robert Kerr, surgeon; William Johnson Chew, storekeeper and clerk; Barnabas Cain, blacksmith; and George Cowan, David Price, John Norton, and Jean Baptiste Rousseaux as interpreters.[29] Although it is highly unlikely that all these men were assembled together at Niagara at one time, as a group they arguably represent the most colourful and remarkable collection of individuals ever to occupy the Commons or its perimeter.
William Claus
Born into a family of wealth and privilege in the Mohawk Valley, William Claus was a grandson of Sir William Johnson, the powerful Superintendant of Northern Indian Affairs. His father, Christian Daniel Claus, also held important positions in the Indian Department. William’s formal education was interrupted by the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. He enlisted as a volunteer in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York under the command of his uncle, Sir John Johnson. After the war, he obtained a lieutenancy in a regular British regiment, the 60th Foot, and made captain by 1795. Meanwhile Uncle John, who was now Superintendant General of Indian Affairs, anxiously sought a position for young William in the Department. With the death of John Butler in 1796, Claus was finally appointed deputy superintendant at Fort George and four years later named Deputy Superintendant General for Upper Canada — a post he held for the next twenty-six years.
William Claus (1765–1826), artist and medium of portrait, unknown. Claus was a grandson of Sir William Johnson, an army officer, office-holder, deputy superintendant of the British Indian Department for Upper Canada, builder of what became known as the Wilderness, and a horticulturalist. Courtesy of the Niagara Historical Society and Museum, #984.1.559
Although much of Claus’s official time in the service involved “the interminable tedium of Indian councils, gift giving and pledges of British friendship,”[30] Claus was confronted by several major challenges. Captain Joseph Brant, civil and war chief of the Six Nations, insisted the Natives of the Haldimand Tract of the Grand River had the right to sell off some of their lands. Claus, acting on behalf of the colonial government, countered that the Six Nations did not have free sovereignty of their land and hence could only sell their land back to the Crown.[31] Although a partial compromise was eventually found, the land ownership issue continues unresolved today.
With the increasing belligerence of the War-Hawks within the United States, Claus was kept busy trying to polish the chain of friendship with the Six Nations and Western Indian Allies in order to keep the Natives “on side.” Opposition to his influence within the Six Nations came from an unexpected source. Former employee and sometime fellow occupant in the Commodious House, interpreter John Norton, was persuaded by Joseph Brant to leave the service and move to the Grand Valley where he quickly became Brant’s confidant and eventual successor. During the War of 1812, impressed by Norton’s outstanding military acumen and leadership skills, the British Army generals deferred to Norton rather than Claus, and by early 1814, commander-in-chief Sir George Prevost proclaimed that Norton was to be the sole spokesman and dispenser of gifts to the Six Nations and Thames Natives until the end of the war.[32] Embarrassed and humiliated, Claus became consumed by jealousy and loathing of Norton’s influence, constantly trying to undermine Norton’s reputation. The intense rivalry between the two men only diminished after Norton was pensioned off and was succeeded by the young John Brant.
The post-war years were also characterized by a major shift in British colonial policy towards the Natives from one of “allies” to mere wards of the state — a transition supervised by Claus, but a role he played with efficiency and compassion. He was appointed to the prestigious Executive Council of the Province, named a Justice of the Peace, and he served as a school trustee and commissioner of customs.
Although he probably maintained an office in the officers’ quarters, it is unlikely that Claus ever intentionally slept over in the officers’ quarters; he had inherited his mother’s town lots[33] on the edge of the military reserve, where he raised a family. He and his wife, Catherine, kept careful notes of their gardening efforts which provide an interesting glimpse of horticultural practices in early Upper Canada.[34] He died in 1826 after a slow, agonizing battle with disfiguring lip cancer.
Doctor Robert Kerr
Robert Kerr was born circa 1755 in Scotland, and soon after his arrival in North America became a hospital mate in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York during the Revolutionary War. In 1788 he was appointed Surgeon to the British Indian Department, no doubt in part due to his fortuitous marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Johnson and the indomitable Molly Brant. Settling in Niagara the following year, he attended diligently to his duties with the Indian Department, but also served at times as surgeon to the various regiments garrisoned at Fort George. He also had a large private practice in town. In 1797 he and fellow physician James Muirhead advertised the availability of small pox inoculation for the townspeople, “the poor gratis”[35] — one of the