Publisher's Synopsis
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada. The Detroit River is to the north of the city, which separates it from Detroit, Michigan. Windsor was settled by the French in 1749 as an agricultural settlement. In 1794, after the American Revolution, the settlement of "Sandwich" was founded. It was later renamed Windsor, after the town in Berkshire, England. On July 12, 1812, Brigadier-General William Hull, Commander of the North Western Army of the United States, landed with about 2,000 men near the site of the Hiram Walker main office building. He issued a proclamation stating that he came to liberate Canada from oppression. The British garrison at Amherstburg was too weak to oppose the invasion but later fought several skirmishes at the River Canard. On July 26, British reinforcements under Colonel Henry Procter arrived and on August 7-8, Hull withdrew to Detroit leaving a small garrison near Sandwich which retired on August 11 at the approach of Major-General Isaac Brock.Sandwich, Ford City and Walkerville were separate towns until 1935 when they were annexed by Windsor. They remain as historic neighborhoods of Windsor. Sandwich was established in 1817 as a French agricultural settlement; it was incorporated as a town in 1858.The Sandwich neighbourhood on Windsor's west side is home to some of the oldest buildings in the city, including Mackenzie Hall, originally built as the Essex County Courthouse in 1855. Today, this building functions as a community centre. The City of Windsor was the site of the Battle of Windsor during the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1838. It was also a part of the Patriot War later that year.The Underground Railroad is neither a railroad nor it is underground. It is the name of the network of people who hid and guided slaves and refugees as they followed the North Star to Canada to freedom. From 1440 to the late 1800s, millions of Black Africans were shipped under primitive conditions to the Americas to service the sugar plantation industry. Less than 15 million survived the middle passage and because of harsh living conditions and extreme cruelty in their new homeland, many more died from disease and exhaustion. The Underground Railroad movement originated in the southern United States and wound its way to the less restricted North and eventually stretched to Canada. Windsor is the headquarters of Hiram Walker & Sons Limited, now owned by Pernod Ricard. Its historic distillery was founded by Hiram Walker in 1858 in what was then Walkerville. During the 1920s alcohol prohibition was enforced in Michigan while alcohol was legal in Ontario. Rum-running in Windsor was a common practice during that time period.Hiram Walker was born in East Douglas, Massachusetts, and moved to Detroit in 1838. In 1847 at the age of 30, he married Mary Abigail Williams and they had 7 children, two daughters, Julia Elizabeth and Jennie Melissa, and five sons, Willis Ephraim, Edward Chandler, Franklin Hiram, Alfred (infant), and James Harrington. Edward Chandler, his second son, commissioned the development of Willistead Manor.He was an American entrepreneur and he purchased 460 acres of land across the Detroit River in the town of Sandwich, near Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In 1858 the flour mill and distillery were completed. The flour produced in his mill benefited the County of Essex's farming community with farmers from all around using the mill.
