The Committee

Meet the team working very hard to make 2024 unforgettable.

• Andrew Sloan

• Michelle Graham

• Kelly Shewan

• Jodi Burness

• Barb Kelly

• Dan Ross

• Chris Smith

• Amy Van de Klippe

The History of Port Stanley

What’s in a Name?

Port Stanley. Or Port, as her locals affectionately call her, has undergone many incarnations in her storied history. Prior to European contact, this area was the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, Attiwonderonk (Neutral) and Mississauga Nations for thousands of years. Even it’s current incarnation of picturesque fishing village with beautiful blue flag beaches is the end product of two centuries of change. After the creation of Upper Canada in 1791, 5000 acres along Lake Erie from Sandwich to Norwich was granted to Colonel Thomas Talbot, former secretary to Lieutenant General Simcoe, with the understanding he was to survey and settle it. The lands became known as the Talbot Settlement, with the area now known as Port Stanley then named the adjoining villages of Selbourne and Kettle Creek, respectively.

Some say the name Kettle Creek was derived from a particular cooking method employed by the Native Americans in the area who would fill depressions in the creek boulders with water and fire heated stones. The creek in turns has also been called the Kanagio by the Iroquois, the Akiksibi by the Ojibwas and the Riviere Tonti by the French. Prior to settlement, Europeans had been exploring and mapping the Great Lakes since the early 17th Century. The landing point of Kettle Creek was part of an important early route from Lake Erie to other inland waterways and therefore became a popular camping spot for a succession of explorers and other travellers. Adrian Jolliet, brother of explorer and cartographer Louis Jolliet, first landed at the mouth of Kettle Creek in 1669. It was from this point that the first descent of the Great Lakes was made by Europeans. Famously, General Isaac Brock also encamped his expeditionary forces here on 9th Aug 1812 on his way to take Fort Detroit from the Americans in the war of 1812. HistoricPlaces.ca - HistoricPlaces.ca

It wasn’t until after 1815, when Colonel Talbot hosted Lord Edward Stanley, 5th Earl of Derbyshire, that the settlement was re-named Port Stanley in honour of his visit. The then Lord Stanley, would go on to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1852, 1858 and 1866. In turn, his second son Frederick Arthur would go on to become Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. In Canada, Stanley fell in love with the Fledgling game of ice hockey and donated a trophy to be awarded to the winners of the Annual Dominion Hockey Challenge.

It was rumoured to be the fruit bowl from his wife’s dining room table and destined to become our nation’s beloved Stanley Cup, the most sought after and hardest won trophy among Professional Sports.

Settlement of Port Stanley began in earnest around the time the War of 1812 ended, when thousands of displaced Empire Loyalists flooded into the area then known as Kettle Creek in Canada West. Colonel John Bostwick, considered Port Stanley’s founding father and then a Captain in the 1st Norfolk Militia, was granted a patent to 600 acres at the mouth of Kettle Creek in 1804. In 1812 he erected one of the first homes in Port Stanley, building on the east side of the creek and planting an Orchard on the southwest side of Liberty Hill. The advantageous geographical location of the village at a river mouth on a lake also made the area a logical choice for settlement.

In the early part of its history, Port Stanley was governed by the District of London and the County of Middlesex, its efforts at self recognition hampered in part to its location within both the Townships of Southwold and Yarmouth and its association with the Village of Selbourne, with whom Port Stanley somewhat shared its northeastern borders. When Selbourne finally succumbed to flooding in 1855 and the London and Port Stanley Railway was completed in1856, the citizens of Port Stanley increased their pressure for incorporation and self-government. Finally, after decades of unresolved attempts, Port Stanley was legally set apart from the townships and incorporated as it’s own self governed entity on June 17 1874.

In 1875 the first reeve, Major John Ellison, was elected and the first Village Council met on January 20, 1875. Thus it was governed independently until January 1, 1998, when the Village of Port Stanley amalgamated with the Township of Yarmouth and Village of Belmont to form the Municipality of Central Elgin we are now a part of.

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