Publisher's Synopsis
Ernestown represents thousands of years of human history. Canada's First Peoples traversed its shores shortly after the ending of the last ice age and, at the time of contact, the Iroquois of the south and the Ojibiway of the north found shelter and refuge in its bays, creeks, and inlets. In 1784, Ernestown was an original township created as a home for the United Empire Loyalists, in particular, Jessup's Loyal Rangers from northern New York State. Ernestown was the second of five townships west of Kingston that formed a cradle of civilization in the Bay of Quinte for the diverse refugees. Supplemented with further American immigration after the Revolutionary War, Ernestown drew its identity from its American heritage, the Reform movement, the evangelistic fervour of Methodism and its fierce sense of indpendence form centres of power in Upper Canada. By century's end, Ernestown was dominated by the Methodist Church like no other township in Ontario. In the twentieth century, Ernestown's primarily rural character was transformed by industrial development along its Lake Ontario shore and urban growth in Amherstview, its largest community, which was created 170 years after original Loyalist settlement.
